by Rae Knightly
The Sheriff pointed his Toyota back to the middle of the road, which wound steeply between the fir trees. Hao bent forward, taking in the massive form of the Kananaskis Mountain Range that reached for the sky like jagged knives, attracting black storm clouds to their peaks.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” he breathed.
* * *
A heavy silence hung in the pick-up. Laura had switched on the headlights again, but even so, she had a hard time making out the road before her. Large snowflakes hit the windshield. No sooner were they shoved aside by the wipers, than a dozen even bigger flakes replaced them.
“They weren’t fooled,” Ben said from the back. “They’re still after us. I think I saw the headlights.”
Laura tensed as she pressed on the speed pedal, excruciatingly aware that she was going too fast. The truck’s nose pointed upward as she weaved her way further and further up the mountain. The motor strained on the unfriendly path. After hairraising minutes, the pick-up began to level out again, indicating they were reaching the summit, which was squeezed between even higher black mountain peaks. Breathing a bit easier, she glanced at Mesmo, who was focused on the road ahead. “You don’t have to be here, you know?” she told him.
He met her eyes and his voice was firm. “I do.”
Laura bit her inner lip, relieved that he wasn’t abandoning them.
Just then the pick-up skidded. Laura steered the wheel sharply to the right, but she lost control of the vehicle. It slid for a heart-stopping moment. Then, there was a crunching sound and the truck jolted to a stop.
“What is it?” Ben asked fearfully.
Laura tried to reverse. The tires screeched in protest. “We’re stuck!” She opened the car door, inviting a biting cold inside. She stepped out and Mesmo came around to stand by her side. The front tire was buried in deep snow.
“Mom! They’re catching up!” Ben rushed up behind them.
Laura could hear the wailing police sirens approaching too fast for comfort. She whirled to face Mesmo. “Get us out of here! Release the tires!”
“There’s no time!” he yelled through the storm. “I sense Bordock nearby. The mountain is our best bet. Follow me!” He turned and stepped headfirst into the darkness away from the road.
“What?” Laura's voice rose in panic. “Are you crazy?”
“Mom, hurry!” Ben followed Mesmo.
“Ben!” Laura yelled as he disappeared into the flurry of snowflakes. “Come back! It’s too dangerous! Ben!”
She rushed into the deep snow after him, her breath coming in quick gasps. She hesitated, then backtracked and snatched one of the backpacks from the truck. She wanted to get the other one, but the police cars burst into view behind her. Laura dove after her son just as the first police car slid off the road and collided headlong with the pick-up. The others screeched to a stop just in time.
“Mom!” She heard Ben’s muffled shout in the swirling snow before her. Behind her, the lights of the police cars offered the only island of safety on the massive mountain.
“Laura Archer!” A man moved in front of the headlights of one of the police cars. She recognized Inspector Hao’s voice. “Don’t be foolish. You’re heading to your death.”
Laura kept on walking away from him, though at a slower pace. Her heart beat as fast as a hare’s as she realized he was telling the truth.
“Laura Archer! Think of your son’s safety!”
She sobbed and tripped into the snow. “Ben!” she shouted, searching the darkness.
“Over here!” His voice sounded far away.
Laura stood again and walked blindly into the storm.
* * *
“Let’s go!” Hao pressed his hand on the gun at his side as he made to follow Laura.
The Sheriff grabbed him by the arm. “That’s out of the question. Those fugitives have sealed their fate. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to risk my men’s lives as well.” He shot a glance at Hao. “Or do you want to reflect on that with your High Inspector.” The Sheriff didn’t wait for Hao to answer and gestured at his other men to get back in their cars. One of them panted up the road towards them. “I can’t find him!”
“Find who?” The Sheriff barked.
The officer pointed at Hao. “His colleague. I saw him run to the pick-up when we arrived, but now he’s not there anymore.”
Hao felt his blood boil all the way to his face. He turned to the darkness and bellowed. “CONNELLY!”
* * *
“Mesmo! Wait up!” Ben shouted as the alien strode effortlessly in the snow. Ben stumbled after him to try and stay in the protective bubble the alien was emitting around him to keep the snowstorm at bay. “Not so fast! I can’t see Mom.”
They stopped and searched the way they had come. Ben tucked a shivering Tike inside his jacket.
They saw powerful searchlights on top of the police cars sweeping the area, but they did not quite reach far enough to catch the fugitives.
“Where is she? She was right behind us,” Ben said worriedly. Then, the light briefly caught Laura’s shape as she stumbled on with a large backpack. She was heading away from them.
“Where is she going?” Ben frowned, then his voice stuck in his throat as a dark shape loomed before her in the passing searchlight.
* * *
“Ben? Where are you?” Laura shouted as she raised her arm to protect her eyes from the swirling snowflakes.
“Over here!” Ben said right before her.
She let out a breath of relief and stepped forward, only to stagger headfirst into a bald man.
She opened her mouth to scream, but he clamped a steel hand over her mouth and pulled her down in the snow, just as a beam of light swept over them.
“Hi, Mommy,” Connelly sneered with Ben’s voice. She saw Connelly’s eyes switch from green to honey-brown.
She struggled to escape from his grip, but instead, she felt something cold clasp onto her wrist, and before she knew it, they were connected to each other with handcuffs.
They heard Hao shout from the road, “Connelly! Get back here!” Several flashlights pierced the flurry of falling snow as the officers called for the missing agent.
“Let’s go!” Connelly growled, picking up Laura’s backpack and heaving it onto his shoulder. The Shapeshifter pulled at the cuffs, making Laura lurch after him.
“No, wait!” she yelled, but he held her with an iron grasp, pulling her further away from the road. “Ben!” she gasped. “You can’t leave him! He has no protection! He won’t survive on his own!” She turned her head and shouted, “Ben!”
“Good idea,” Connelly jeered. “Call him. Let’s have him join our little party.”
Laura's eyes widened and she fell silent instantly.
Catching her look of fear, Connelly chuckled, sending a chill up-and-down her spine.
* * *
“Mom!” Ben yelled, panic surging through his body when he realized what was happening. He dropped Tike and heaved himself up a snowy ledge to rush to his mother’s aid. Instead, his feet slipped beneath him, and he skidded several feet down. Tike bumped into his head as he collided with a tree. He blinked the stars from his eyes and got up immediately, then realized that Mesmo was a little way up with his hands placed in the snow. He had turned the slope into ice.
“What are you doing?” Ben yelled furiously, trying to get up but sliding back every time. “Bordock’s got my mom! We have to save her!”
Mesmo reached him with a couple of strides and stared at him intensely. “No! That’s exactly what Bordock wants. If you go after him, that will be the end of us.”
“But my mom!” Ben shook all over.
“Calm down!” Mesmo urged.
“Calm down?” Ben howled. He threw himself at the alien, only to land headfirst in the snow. “Let me go! Let me help her!” he yelled, punching at the air where Mesmo stood. It was useless, of course. Ben gasped for air and let himself drop to the ground.
“We’ll save h
er,” Mesmo said sternly. “But not now. Not like this. We have to get you as far away as possible from the police, find cover, and wait out the storm.”
Ben’s cheeks were wet with tears. “No!” He felt like a small child who would not listen to reason.
Mesmo crouched beside him. “You must!”
Ben stared at the alien, his mind whirling. His heart couldn’t bear to think of his mother spending another minute with Bordock, but his mind knew it was inevitable, for now.
He glared bitterly at Mesmo, then picked up Tike, tucked him back into his jacket, and stepped into the darkness.
CHAPTER 18 Acceptance
Even Mesmo’s skill was not enough to keep Ben safe from the blizzard. Night had fallen, making it impossible to see far ahead. Mesmo cleared a path before Ben and kept him dry, but even so, the danger that they could be walking beside a precipice without even knowing it became too much of a risk.
Finally, Mesmo stopped before a cluster of rocks and trees. He placed his hands in the snow and swiftly melted a hole into the ground. Ben watched him disappear into the makeshift cave until he reappeared and nodded for the boy to enter. Ben bent through the doorway and found himself in a large, dry igloo below the snow.
“Take off your jacket and snow boots so I can dry them,” Mesmo ordered.
Ben did so numbly. He shivered uncontrollably, but not from the cold. He was in shock about what had happened, and he could not shake the image of his mother trudging through the blizzard at Bordock’s mercy.
“Here.” He heard Mesmo’s voice in the dark and saw the alien’s hand emit a blue light above the jacket. “You can lie down on it. You should be warm enough.”
Ben sat and watched as Mesmo sealed off the doorway, leaving them in silence. He wrapped his arms around his legs and tried to calm his breathing.
“Don’t worry.” Mesmo’s voice said through the dark. “Bordock may be evil, but he is also smart. He won’t let anything happen to your mother. There is nothing more we can do but wait for the storm to blow over. He knows we will try to get off the mountain and will follow us.”
“I’m not getting off the mountain,” Ben interrupted. “Not without Mom.”
“You’re not thinking straight,” Mesmo responded. “As soon as the weather clears, the police will swarm the area. And you may not have noticed yet, but you have no food.”
Ben's stomach growled at the word and he squeezed his knees tighter.
“Try and get some rest,” Mesmo said quietly. “I’ll keep watch.”
Ben lay down reluctantly, holding on to Tike’s warm body as the dog snuggled up to him.
A thousand images flipped through his mind and he clung to one of Kimi’s smiling face. He pulled out the dreamcatcher she had given him and felt the soft web of strings under his fingertips. Being born with two cultures is a gift, not a burden. For some reason, her words echoed in his mind. She had lashed out at being half First Nation but then had come to realize her difference was her strength, not her weakness. The idea wouldn’t let Ben go. He twisted uncomfortably on the snowy bed Mesmo had made him, knowing, somehow, that those words applied to him, too. Acceptance was inevitable and part of him longed to embrace it, to feel confident and steadfast in his new identity, the way he had witnessed Kimi’s transformation.
But the sickness?
He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. There was no time to think about that.
“Mesmo?” Ben’s voice pierced the darkness.
“Yes?”
“I want you to teach me about the skill.”
There was a long pause, then Mesmo said, “Are you sure?”
Ben sighed in resignation. “Yes.” He felt Mesmo approach.
“Why this change of heart?”
Ben stared at the invisible ceiling. “Because it could save Mom,” he said.
* * *
Laura woke to clanging sounds. She opened her eyes in a hurry and found the Shapeshifter sitting on a rock opposite her, rummaging through her backpack. He fished out a can of ravioli, a swiss knife, and a plastic spoon. With little effort, he unscrewed the top and began gobbling up the cold contents.
Laura couldn’t help staring at the alien, for the bald man named Connelly who had caught her the night before, was no longer there. In his place sat Bordock: a man of muscular build, shorter than Mesmo, though with the same olive-coloured skin and white hair, which spiked out of his head like hedgehog quills.
He must have felt her gaze because he turned her way. She caught her breath and closed her eyes, but he wasn’t fooled.
“Wakey, wakey,” he said. “Time to get up. We have a long day ahead.”
Laura gave up pretending to sleep and struggled to sit, remembering that her hands were cuffed together before her. How convenient that he’s a police officer, she seethed silently.
She looked out of their rudimentary shelter, which Bordock had found below some jutting rocks the night before. It had been enough to prevent snow from swirling inside and he had even managed to light a small fire. Still, the night had been long and cold, and by the headache that hammered in the back of her head, Laura guessed she hadn’t slept much.
“It’s still snowing,” she pointed out.
“Yes, but it is also daytime. Which means it’s time to go.”
“Go where?”
“Down the mountain, of course,” Bordock said, munching. Laura tried to ignore her grumbling stomach. Bordock dug into the can of ravioli and said with a full mouth, “We have to get there before they do. We’re the welcoming team, see?” He waved an empty spoon at her.
Laura glared at him. “You won’t get away with this. Mesmo will crush you.”
Bordock burst out laughing. Laura felt fire rise to her cheeks. “Poor little Earthling. Still thinks the friendly alien will save her.” Using his tongue, he cleaned out the piece of meat stuck in his teeth, then threw the can at her. It cluttered to the ground. The spoon fell out and ravioli spilled everywhere. Laura picked it up in disgust and stared at the few remaining pasta cushions that plastered the very bottom of the can.
The alien pointed his index finger at her. “Let’s get one thing straight. That Toreq scum doesn’t care about you. All he cares about is the translation skill. Get this through your little brain. It’s not your son he’s protecting. It’s the skill!”
Laura choked on the ravioli she had managed to extract from the can with her fingers.
Bordock stared at her in amazement. “Don’t you realize that yet? Do you really think he’s out there looking for you? He doesn’t care where you are. He doesn’t care whether you’re alive or dead. Right now, all he’s interested in is escaping these mountains with your son as fast as he can.”
Laura’s appetite was gone. She dropped the can to the ground. “You're lying,” she said with an effort.
Bordock shrugged. He bent to gather their things and shove them into the backpack. “I know the Toreq better than you do. Trust me when I tell you, it’s the skill he wants.”
“…and you don’t?” Laura said in a low voice, launching an accusing glare his way. To her horror, he turned slowly and smirked.
“Yes, all right,” he admitted, plopping down on the rock again. “I can’t deny the translation skill would be a valuable asset to my collection. But at least I’m honest about it.”
Laura shuddered, thinking of Mesmo’s wife. “That’s where you and Mesmo differ. He would never forcefully take someone’s skill from them.”
The corner of Bordock’s mouth lifted in half a smile. “Ah, I see Mesmo has told you how I became a Shapeshifter.”
Laura watched him heave the backpack onto his shoulders. Her heart sank as she realized he knew very well she couldn’t survive on her own without it.
“What can I say?” he said as he fished out a tiny key from his pocket. “War comes fraught with sacrifices.”
“What war?” she chided. “The War of the Kins happened millennia ago. And you lost. He told me so.”
&n
bsp; A funny smile crept into Bordock’s face, one she did not like at all.
“Strange…” he said thoughtfully, releasing one of her hands, then attaching the empty cuff to his own wrist. “…strange that he should open up to you, yet tell you only half the story…” he trailed off.
“What story?”
The weird smile crept on to his face again. He shook his head. “No,” he said as if speaking to himself. “No. It would be a lot more fun to watch him tell you.”
He turned and pulled her away from their rocky shelter.
“Tell me what?” she insisted.
“Enough!” he snapped, making her cringe. She did not like the way his eyes had hardened. “If you want to see your son again before Mesmo takes him away, you’ll want to get down this mountain as soon as possible.”
Laura struggled behind him with the faintest glimmer of hope blossoming in her mind. From Bordock’s last phrase, she gathered that he was not aware of Mesmo’s current condition. Mesmo was reduced to a mere apparition. He could not physically force Ben to go anywhere.
* * *
Ben woke to a ray of light that shone in his left eye. He blinked and gathered his bearings, then remembered where he was.
Faint daylight seeped through cracks in the makeshift igloo. Tike scratched at its snowy surface, making some of it crumble. The terrier trotted back to the boy to check that Ben was satisfied with him.
Ben stared at his dog as if seeing him for the first time.
Can you hear me?
The blood rushed to his ears as soon as he directed the question at Tike with his mind. The dog wagged his tail vigorously.
Of course, I can! What took you so long?
Ben shrank back into the snowy wall. He willed himself not to think anything for a moment, but the connection was crystal-clear in his mind. The part of him that was Tike, was overly thrilled and happy, while the part of his brain that was still his own was more cautious. An image of blue filaments flashed through his mind, but he pushed it away before he could panic. There was no time to think about that. He had to master the skill if he was going to help his mother—even if it meant losing himself to it.
