With Denise driving her Kia, they made the thirty-mile drive over the Texas state line in less than twenty minutes and soon parked at the massive outlet mall off Transmountain Road. At least the tension between Rayne and Dew had simmered down.
Rita apparently knew her way around the outlet mall. With her help, Denise found the Banana Republic knockoff with a clearance sale and bought some exploring clothes—some kind of breathable khaki that would move well in the heat. She even found a nice hat to protect her from the sun.
“You look like a sexy Indiana Jones,” the young clerk said. She looked like she had come back from a cocktail party on the Nile.
“I can live with that,” Denise said.
“My little cousin is all grown up and ready to go on a safari date,” Dew said.
“I feel like Indiana Jones herself,” Denise said. “He found the grail in one of his movies, right?”
“Do you want to wear them out?” the clerk asked. “You looked great.”
Denise felt empowered, all her workouts in the motel rooms had paid off. In this breathable khaki, she could conquer any temple, from reform to orthodox.
Rita found the same outfit in her sizes. “I’m like your Mini-me, Auntie Denise,” Rita said. “Except that I’m taller.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Denise said.
“I can put your old clothes in a bag,” the clerk said. “I’ll meet you up front.”
Still in the exploring outfit up front, Denise was about to use her remaining credit card and pray that it went through. Luckily, the clerk told them that they could get twenty-five percent off if they opened a store credit card and would be billed later.
“No payments for sixty days,” the clerk said. Meanwhile, Rayne was fiddling with her own wallet, frowning. Rita was still in her matching outfit. Rayne was supposedly a private investigator, but Denise was her only client and Denise hadn’t paid her yet. Denise figured that Big Red probably monitored every purchase Rayne made.
“Don’t worry, Rayne, I’ve got Rita’s stuff,” Denise opened the account. Hopefully, she’d be in a position to pay the bill in full when it came due.
“Thanks, Auntie Denise.”
“Thank you, Denise,” Rayne said.
As they walked back to the car, Denise felt a spark, and the hairs on the back of her neck literally stood up. It wasn’t a sensing of danger; it was something else. She was close to the location of where something important in her life had happened. It took her a moment to realize what it was.
She smiled when she checked her watch. “We have a little extra time. I want to see something.”
The passengers were surprised to see Denise take charge like that and said nothing. Rita was smiling.
Denise took the Kia back onto I-10, but drove in the opposite direction, a few miles south into the heart of El Paso and exited downtown. “Where are we going, Auntie Denise?” Rita asked.
“I want to see where I was born,” Denise said. “Where this whole Denny and Denise saga began.”
She could see signs directing them to Juarez but knew if she hit Mexico she’d gone too far. She tried to rely on her memories from Nastia’s dream for directions. After a few wrong turns, she neared the spot but found that the one-way street to her birthplace was blocked because of new construction. She had to pull over for an ambulance and wondered if it was headed for the birth of another pair of twins.
“Do you know where you’re going, Auntie Denise?”
“I think it’s over there on the other side of that construction,” Denise said.
“You can’t get there from here,” Rayne said.
“Maybe you should just let it go,” Dew added.
“Let it go?” Rita belted out the song, “Let it go,” from Frozen. The three of them joined in, Dew surprising with a nice Falsetto. Hikaru called as the women had launched into a reprise, Denise put him on speaker, and he harmonized with an impressive baritone.
“Team Turquoise!” They all said after reminding the world that the cold never bothered them anyway per the song.
“I love you guys,” Denise said.
“We love you, Denise,” they all said at the same time. Denise wiped away a tear.
“I hope we can do this again,” Hikaru said. “Just letting you know that I’m ready for you guys when you get here.”
He hung up. Denise smiled.
“Am I officially part of Team Turquoise, Auntie Denise?” Rita asked.
“You are now, Rita,” Denise said.
Even Dew was smiling, and she gave Rayne a friendly poke on the shoulder. “That was fun,” Dew said to Rayne. “We used to sing together in practice, I missed that.”
“Missed that too. We’re cool?” Rayne asked her.
“Cool,” Dew replied. “So, have you let it go, Denise?”
“For the moment.” She was at peace. She was with her friends and it felt great. Let it go had become let it went. Her pain was in the past now, just a few blocks from her birthplace. Denise wondered how long it would last.
It didn’t even last till she made it to the freeway. There was more construction and she was almost grazed by some truckers at the feeder road. It was only one lane northbound on the interstate toward New Mexico. It didn’t take a psychic to figure that the van ahead of them that was going under the speed limit probably held contraband, people or both.
So much for letting it go.
Rayne frowned while looking at her phone. “We got to get back, my mother the colonel got out early after all and is already waiting to pick up Rita. Apparently, the missile situation cleared up and the caboose has arrived at the spaceport. The campaign ad is ready to shoot to make up for lost time and they’re waiting for Rita.”
The construction ended; Denise now had the Kia break the speed of sound. They arrived at Dew’s in a matter of minutes. Petro and the posse had been out in full force, an early morning party in the parking lot. This one involved deck chairs and a keg that poured out pink beer. Unfortunately, the party was coming to an abrupt end.
Petro had finally met his match. The colonel interrogating the gang, as if reviewing the plebes at the Air Force Academy. Petro had no powers over Big Red, and his party crew actually dispersed, for perhaps the first time in recorded history. So much for we’re not going anywhere.
The party over, the colonel turned to her granddaughter who was cowering in the back seat. “Rita, get in my car this instant. That’s an order!”
“Yes, sir!” Rita said and even saluted before she hurried into the official campaign vehicle, a Jeep. Without another word, they sped away.
“I only saw the colonel when she came to pick you up from practice,” Denise said. “And even then, she intimidated the hell out of me. I always thought she was going to make me do KP or whatever they call cleaning the toilet with a toothbrush.”
“Me too,” Dew said.
“Think how I feel,” Rayne replied. “Are you sure you ladies still want to go through with this?”
Denise didn’t hesitate. “This is about my brother; I need your help. I’m almost tempted to come myself.”
“No, you’re going on your date today,” Rayne said. “Dew and I can handle the base.”
“I’ll drive,” Dew offered. Rayne was skeptical until she saw that the Mercedes had been washed for a change. The interior smelled of lemons.
“I hope Hikaru can take me back here,” Denise said.
“Hopefully he does it tomorrow,” Dew said.
Rayne nodded. “Be careful or you’ll have a Rita of your own.”
Dew drove her Mercedes quickly, and the car maneuvered through traffic like a race car. Rayne clenched her fists. “You drive like a maniac. Denise at least had control.”
“Jealous much?” Dew asked.
Denise frowned. “Hikaru texted again,” she said. “No need
to rush. There’s more testing on the other side of the pass.”
“What’s up with all the missile testing these days?” Dew asked.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Rayne asked.
“They won’t let us through if it’s not safe, right?” Denise asked.
Sure enough, they had to stop on the top of San Augustine Pass—at the rest stop off the highway—and wait for the missile test or tests to be finished. Nothing was happening down in the valley below at any of the various launch sites. Was it a stealth launch or something?
“It’s going to be another half-hour,” an MP announced via loudspeaker to the line of cars.
Waiting there in the San Augustin Pass parking lot, they grew more uneasy by the minute, especially when the MPs kept frowning.
“Why are you so nervous, Rayne?” Denise asked. “Is it going back to a base that triggers something?”
“Not just me, I’m scared that Rita will do something stupid in front of Big Red,” Rayne said. “I’m terrified of my mother, but Rita has no fear.”
“That’s a good thing,” Denise said. “If I had a daughter, I’d hope she’d be like Rita.”
“Be careful tonight or you might have a daughter of your own someday,” Dew said. “We’ll be fine on base.”
“I’ll be fine if Dew over here doesn’t act up,” Rayne said. “They got rules on base.”
“Aye aye, captain,” Dew said mockingly.
Even with the air-conditioning it was getting stuffy in the car. Rayne and Dew were giving each other dirty looks, their temporary truce about to explode.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the valley and echoed off the Organ Mountains. An officer’s radio announced a successful launch and ummm… landing down at the missile range.
“All clear!” A burly military policeman indicated that they were free to go down the hill to the range. Dew gunned the Mercedes downhill.
When they finally arrived at the Syrinx gate a few miles down the road, it was late afternoon and the dry heat was straining the car’s air-conditioning. Dew slowed to a stop at the check point station. They were met by an even burlier MP.
The guard scanned every inch of the Mercedes with some kind of wand that glowed suspiciously when it neared Dew.
The MP finally lifted up the wand, checked with someone inside and then came out again, nodding.
“You guys can park by the hangar,” the MP said.
Beyond the gate, the Syrinx facility was Spartan. It contained a small hangar building, a heliport with a shiny black helicopter and a radio telescope that looked like it could pick up signals from Saturn’s TV. This site did no actual missile launches, just some kind of monitoring.
“They could fit a flying saucer in there,” Dew said, pointing to the big hangar. It opened, and they all stepped back expecting a saucer or two to fly out and greet them.
Thankfully, only Hikaru emerged. He was back in black, even in the heat, with his usual cycling jersey top. He was flanked by a uniformed airman and the large bodyguard, Brutus, who’d been with him in the van. He smiled at Denise’s new look.
“Ladies, so good to see you,” he said.
He looked at Rayne, whose brightly colored shirt stood out in the military desert drab. “That is one red shirt, Rayne,” Hikaru said. “You know the significance of red shirts in the original Star Trek?”
“Isn’t a ‘red shirt’ like the expendable character that’s going to die?” Dew asked.
Suddenly self-conscious, Rayne played with the red fabric of her shirt. “I just like the color, in spite of my mom.”
Inside, the hangar was indeed big enough to hold a flying saucer. A female soldier now approached the party. Hikaru introduced her to them. “Sergeant Malvolio will be your liaison.”
Denise realized her mistake in drafting the subpoena. She had confused the Spanish name of Maldonado with the Italian name of Malvolio. Did Malvolio know about the mistake? She sure acted like it.
“Who are Rayne and Dew?” Malvolio asked. “Rayne has the clearance and Dew is the designee. That makes Rayne the leader today.”
“Should we wait for you, Denise?” Dew asked, before following inside.
Denise wasn’t sure, but Hikaru put his arm on her shoulder.
“I can take her back to Cruces or even Lordsburg,” Hikaru said to Dew. He pointed outside to the helicopter. “We’re good to go.”
“You can take me anywhere,” Denise said. “Well, kinda anywhere.”
Chapter 40
The door to the file room closed after Dew and Rayne, and now the hangar was empty. Hikaru took Denise out to the shiny black helicopter. The helicopter had the corporate insignia for Cygnus Moon, as opposed to a military logo. She hoped that was a good thing.
He pointed. “Ready to ride?” Sure enough, two bicycles sat in storage in the back. His pilot was Brutus, the man she’d met before. Brutus was already inside the helicopter, strapped in and ready for takeoff.
They fastened their seatbelts. The helicopter ascended quickly, too quickly. Denise cramped up from g-force. Once they were safely above the vast desert, the helicopter leveled off and Denise took in the view. Her cramps magically vanished.
“Brutus is used to flying paratroopers around Afghanistan,” Hikaru said. “He’s not used to taking it easy”
The ride now smooth, Hikaru pointed out various launch sites on the missile range. Thankfully, no missiles were launching this minute.
Hikaru directed Brutus to take them north. Denise started enjoying herself. Soon the white sands of the national park gave way to harsh tan desert and then the earth beneath them became a field of black rock.
“Is that the Trinity site?” Denise asked.
“No, that’s the Valley of Fires,” Hikaru said. “It’s a national recreation area, whatever that mean as it isn’t national and there’s not much recreation. That’s dried lava that is thousands of years old. The Trinity Site is like forty miles east of here and not worth the trip. It’s just a pile of rocks in the desert with some broken radioactive glass pebbles.”
Hikaru nodded at Brutus, who changed course. “Where to next?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” he responded.
The helicopter now headed northeast. The white pyramid of Sierra Blanca was to her right. The sierra was still blanca from a recent freak snow despite it being summer in the desert. On the other side of the forested hills, she could see Roswell in the plains and Alamogordo to the south.
Her stomach calmed, her pulse lowered. She felt safe with Hikaru.
Above an unremarkable patch of hilly desert, Brutus nodded at Hikaru. “This must be the place,” Hikaru said.
They landed on a makeshift landing site, an intersection of some dirt roads that had been leveled off and widened for the occasional helicopter. Once the rotors had stopped, she noticed that they weren’t alone. Some people trudged around with metal detectors. The people didn’t give the helicopter a second thought.
“Now what?” Denise asked.
“We’re going to have a picnic,” he said.
“Why here?” Denise asked.
“Guess?”
Before she could guess, Brutus opened a lock box in the back of the helicopter and produced a picnic basket. Denise noticed a second basket waiting. Was Hikaru planning another picnic for later tonight? He then produced some folding directors’ chairs and placed them on some level ground in the middle of the dirt road.
“Do you know where we are?” Hikaru asked her. “This is one of the most famous places in New Mexico, one of the most famous places on Planet Earth. Maybe the most famous place in the solar system.”
She did the math. They were eighty miles from Roswell. “The Roswell site?”
“You got it. Even though we’re eighty miles from Roswell. The truth is in here or at here. Kinda.”
&nbs
p; “So, what’s the truth about what really happened here?” Denise asked.
“They don’t tell me. It’s still classified.”
“In any event, I’m starving. It’s like three o’clock. Let’s eat before the aliens come back. What do you have in there?”
“I heard you like Shiprock Wok, and, well, they cater,” Hikaru said.
Denise didn’t know if there was another branch on base, or if he had the meal flown in by rocket ship, because the food was still warm. They had a delicious lunch of Korean bibimbap with New Mexico chorizo.
“Amazing,” she said.
After lunch, they wandered around the barren site, and the conversation shifted to fictional aliens and the debate of Star Wars versus Star Trek. “I’m Star Wars, because of the force, I guess,” she said. “And Baby Yoda in The Mandalorian.”
“I’m Star Trek, because I was named after Sulu of course. John Cho played him in the reboot.”
“I love John Cho,” she said.
“He was in the teen comedy American Pie,” Hikaru added. “But he was just like the token Asian. And he was Harold in Harold and Kumar.”
“I liked him best as the bad boy in Better Luck Tomorrow. An old film and he was like my age then.”
“I’m not a bad boy, that’s for sure, but I play one at work.”
She wasn’t sure how to take that. “Now what?”
“Ready to explore?” After taking off his blazer, he pulled down his pants. Before Denise could say anything, she realized he was wearing cycling shorts under his pants. Seeing her expression, he said, “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t take my pants off in front of you unless I have something underneath.”
Her safari outfit really was able to move in the heat, and her sweat melted away without the humidity. They did a few laps around the crash site on the mountain bikes. Hikaru went slow for her, and soon even their breathing was in sync. Denise tried to use her spark on the site itself, but any evidence of aliens was long gone. Something had happened here. The government was hiding something, but she would never know the truth.
The Shakespeare Incident Page 23
