The most prominent sensation came from the white utility vehicle sprawled out in the field. He latched onto the vibration just long enough to catch a glimpse of a shiny, smooth, disk-shaped object suspended on three outstretched legs.
"You've got to be kidding me," he said.
Gunther stepped from behind the car and stood looking in the same direction. "What?"
"A saucer? Seriously?"
"What did you expect?"
Trey shook his head in disbelief.
Gunther looked him in the eyes. "Decided to join us?"
Trey puzzled over the statement. In the flurry of vibrations, he had inadvertently dropped his own cover. He turned away without responding.
Livy appeared from behind the car, escorted by her friendly neighborhood utility worker. Trey's matching crewman pulled him alongside them with a grip that was light but rigid as steel.
"Hey . . . uh . . ." Trey attempted a casual tone. "I couldn't talk you into letting us go, could I?"
His companion offered no reaction. He was wasting his breath.
Forced on toward the disguised spacecraft, Trey looked back over his shoulder. Gunther stood at the open trunk while another man lifted a black-suited body out of the car. Trey turned away quickly before identifying the lifeless face.
The group of four paused next to the massive utility vehicle. From close range it was evident that perspective was a key part of the illusion. The truck's oversize wheels stood as tall as Trey's head, and a man would have to be a giant to reach the first rung of the step-rail.
A high-pitch grinding noise buzzed from within the truck. Slowly, a large panel opened from its side like a drawbridge. Behind the door a completely black rectangular abyss welcomed them.
"I'm not going in there," said Trey.
The man looked at him with a slight smirk.
"Oh, so you aren't a complete stiff?"
The stiff looked ahead and began his walk up the platform, dragging Trey along with him.
Looking back over his shoulder, Trey watched Livy being pulled along in similar fashion. Even farther back, two men followed them, each with a dead man slung effortlessly over their shoulder.
Gunther was bent over, removing the license plate from Carl and Dale's car, cleaning up loose ends. It wouldn't take long for someone to find the abandoned car, left behind by a pair of escaped criminals who kidnapped two teens from a small town several counties away.
* * *
Inside the dark belly of the metal giant, a long curved hallway extended out in opposite directions, disappearing into shadowy darkness at both ends. Soft blue light radiated down from the smooth, arched ceiling, lit by a glowing pen-stripe that traced the route.
Metallic footfalls echoed through the chamber as Trey was forced down the left hallway. A second set of clanging footsteps followed along behind him. He turned to see Livy guided in the same direction.
He looked down at his escort's quiet feet; the bulky work boots met the floor silently with each heavy step. Sound was not the only thing missing from the picture.
"Hey," Trey offered. "Your boots should be muddy."
The man turned to him with a questioning glower.
"I'm just saying, it's muddy out, you might want to think about that next time."
The worker gazed down at his perfectly clean boots. In a flash, the utility crew persona vanished, leaving a thin, naked alien trooping along beside him.
"Me and my big mouth," Trey mumbled.
They halted in front of an arched doorway matching every other they had passed along the way. The smooth metal door slid quietly to the side, triggered by some unknown mechanism.
The alien's steel grip tugged Trey toward the brightly lit room and he fought against it while watching for Livy, hoping they wouldn't be separated.
His guard relented, moving aside to allow the other attendant to shove Livy inside ahead of them, and before she could steady from her stumble, Trey was forced in behind her.
The door sealed quickly and silently, leaving Trey and Livy alone in the cold, sterile room.
Trey's initial feeling of relief rapidly faded as he stared at a stainless-steel operating table in the center of the otherwise empty room. The smooth metal walls of the long narrow room were lined with a shallow steel countertop at the same height as the table. At the opposite end of the room, a narrow wall held another closed door. Every surface gleaned in clean, metallic silver.
"Did you smell that?" Livy asked.
Trey nodded, sniffing at the cool, dry air. The unsettling odor had faded moments after his first breaths in the spotless room. "I can't smell it now. I think it was . . . burnt . . ."
He hesitated.
"Hair," Livy finished.
"Uh-huh," he admitted, less repulsed by her answer.
He moved away from the door with a wary eye. Livy squeezed next to him, matching his motion. After several back-steps, he spun his head quickly toward the opposite door.
They stopped in the middle of the room and pressed back against the cold metal countertop, prepared for whom or what might enter either door.
"I can't believe this is happening," Livy muttered.
Trey acknowledged with a slow, unperceivable nod.
Their heads spun toward a sudden vibration emanating from the corner of the room. Livy pressed tighter against Trey as the alien vibration floated toward them.
Another vibration erupted nearby; so close to Livy that her body quivered against his. "Oohoohoo," she squealed with a shudder.
The vibration darted away and lingered in the corner momentarily before vanishing completely. A second later, both vibrations were gone.
The door they came in slid open. Trey and Livy stiffened, staring toward the dark opening.
Gunther stepped through the doorway, seemingly oblivious to their fears.
He stopped suddenly, staring curiously into Trey's wide eyes as the door closed behind him.
Shaking his balding head, he continued toward them. "Let me get those ropes off."
Gunther slid his hand-held device out of his slacks pocket. The matte black cross between a Tazer and a smartphone put Trey in mind of a giant beetle with a touchscreen on its back.
"Turn around," Gunther said, brushing at Trey's shoulder.
With his back to Gunther, a warm sensation grazed his skin and the ropes trickled loose from his wrists. It took restraint to keep from turning and ramming a fist down his captor's throat.
A drift of burnt fibers wafted under his nose; it was not the same scent he detected earlier.
Livy turned, volunteering her back, and Gunther slid the stubby claws of his beetle gizmo across her ropes, burning them in half with an invisible blade.
Trey rubbed the pink and nearly raw flesh of his wrists and Livy did the same.
The white lights lining the ceiling flickered in sync with a hollow thud that rumbled through the walls. A muffled whine wailed around them. It slowly increased in pitch until fading off to a quiet hum.
Gunther spread his feet slightly as if steadying for motion. Trey mirrored his move and clasped a protective grip around Livy's upper-arm. Her hand grasped his hip and her other clutched the rounded edge of the countertop.
The room lurched to the side and pushed up at Trey's feet like an elevator on steroids.
When their momentum caught up to their surroundings, the heavy weight dragging at Trey's stomach lightened with a nauseating flutter.
"Not bad," Gunther said, bouncing his thin eyebrows.
He looked down and kicked the pile of ropes off into the corner. "Try to relax. We won't be there for a few hours."
Flight
TREY STOOD BETWEEN Gunther and Livy within the cold, sterile room of the alien spacecraft.
He narrowed his eyes at Gunther. "And where exactly are they taking us?"
"Home, of course," Gunther spouted.
"Your home maybe. Not mine." He peered over his shoulder. "Not ours."
"Huh," the balding man grunte
d. "Like it or not, it is."
Trey shook his head vigorously.
"Oh? You think you have a place on Earth?" Gunther huffed in amusement. "Don't kid yourself."
He turned toward the door and stopped short. Arken's projection stood blocking the doorway with arms crossed over his silky white robe.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Arken asked.
Gunther straightened defiantly. "Yes! I've done my job." He tugged on his belt loops. "And if you would have done your job, we wouldn't be in this situation."
"Situation," Arken grumbled. "You have no idea."
"Don't be so certain."
"You surely know how this ends." Arken glanced toward Livy.
Trey lifted his arm around her shoulders and pulled her tightly into him. Livy's hand wrapped gently around his forearm.
"I'm not a fool," said Gunther. "But it's not my problem; it's yours."
Arken lowered his hands to his hips. "That's where you're wrong. You are a fool, and it certainly is your problem."
Gunther laughed heartily.
Arken's commanding blue eyes flared. "You won't find it so funny if you hear me out."
"Try me, brother."
Arken stared with disgust at the man's smug smile. Slowly, he took a step forward and leaned into Gunther's opposite ear.
He stepped back silently and waited for a reaction.
Gunther's head slowly waved from side-to-side. "You're lying."
Arken stood firm.
Gunther turned sharply to Livy and scanned her wildly with larger than ever eyes.
"How?" He spun back to Arken. "How do you know?"
Arken appeared uncomfortable. "I knew from the beginning. I wasn't happy about it either"
"Did Onna know?"
"Yes," Arken said. "It was her algorithm that did the pairing. When she told me she had been matched with you, I begged her to rearrange them." He took a deep breath. "She wouldn't consider it. It would have invalidated her work."
Livy's nails dug into Trey's arm, nearly drawing blood.
Gunther hung his head and slumped his thin, muscular shoulders.
Arken stepped toward him. "I know you once loved Onna as much as I do, and I thought that would convince you to save her little girl. But for God's sake, you can't be foolish enough to condemn your own daughter."
Gunther wobbled, unstable in his footing. His head tossed emphatically back and forth. "I . . . it's . . . there's nothing I can do."
He looked up at Arken. "You should have told me sooner. If I'd have known . . ."
Heat erupted from Trey's punctured skin as Livy's grip tightened.
Gunther turned his back and leaned with both hands onto the center table. With his pointy chin hanging to his chest, he spoke softly. "They know. It's too late."
His face lifted to Livy. Red lines etched through the whites of his huge eyes. Pools of wetness welled beneath them. "Forgive me," he said.
Turning quickly, he marched through Arken's projection. The metal door slid abruptly open, and he disappeared into the dark hallway.
Trey made a move toward the open door, but it slid closed before he had gone far. He continued on through Arken and waved his hands frantically in front of the sealed door, trying to activate a sensor.
"It's no use," Arken said from behind. "It's programmed to respond to crew only. Even if I were there with you, it wouldn't open for me either."
Trey pressed his palms against the smooth surface and tried uselessly to slide the door to the side.
"Even if you could force it open, there's no place to go."
"We have to do something," Trey said in frustration. "I should have fought back sooner."
Arken slid in front of him. "I'll do my best to protect you both when you get here."
Trey froze. "When we get there? Maybe you don't want us to escape. Maybe you're not even who you say you are."
"Trey, don't think that way. You're my son."
"No!" he demanded. "I'm not. That much I do know."
Arken nodded slowly. "I understand. But I assure you, I will do every--"
Without warning, Arken vanished. Seconds later, the lights flickered and the room rocked violently to the side, sending Trey and Livy sprawling to the hard, slick floor.
Trey's stomach lifted to his throat as everything fell out from under him. Uncomfortably light, Trey crawled toward Livy's outstretched hand while the floor beneath them plummeted.
As his fingers interlocked with hers, the room went pitch black.
In complete darkness, Trey's stomach lifted to his throat as the spaceship plunged like a bottomless rollercoaster. He could only wonder if they were crashing back to Earth or ripping through space in some interstellar wormhole.
He held Livy tightly in a huddled mass, nearly floating from the smooth metal floor. Her heart pounded against his chest, offsetting his own thumping beats.
A stomach-churning eternity passed amid the vibrating whir of the engine and the loud, hard thuds of stressed metal readjusting.
A light flickered on in the ceiling corner. In slow progression, each light illuminated in cycle around the room until the entire perimeter was relit.
The weightless void in his stomach gradually subsided, and the tremors rattling the floor eased to a gentle hum.
Livy's breathing commenced. Her chest pushed against him with each long inhale, and her hot breaths warmed his neck.
Trey spoke softly through his own gasps. "What . . . the hell . . . was that."
Livy's head shook slowly, still pressed against him.
The door behind them quietly slid open.
Trey didn't have the energy or heart to turn and face it.
Gunther's voice announced with unexpected urgency. "Come on, kids, get up. Let's go."
Trey forced his gaze toward Gunther standing in the doorway opposite the one they had entered.
"Come on, come on," Gunther shouted, waving them toward him. "I'm trying to save your lives."
Livy spun away from Trey and stared on bent knees toward her real father.
"Sorry about the rough ride," Gunther said. "Everything is on manual override."
He outstretched his hand and nodded over his shoulder.
Livy sprang to her feet, and Trey rose behind her onto weak, shaky legs.
Gunther took Livy's hand and directed her through the doorway with his back pressed against the doorframe. When Livy and Trey were both past him, he stepped away and the door snapped closed behind him.
Around the interior chamber, dozens of matching closed doors encircled them.
On the far perimeter, a massive articulating arm with two claw-like pinchers rested dormant, retracted like a sleeping bat. When Gunther started toward it, Trey grabbed the back of Livy's shirt and pulled her toward him.
A few steps from the beastly machine, Gunther stopped and reached for a large lever high on the wall above him. Trey stepped in front of Livy and pushed her backward, putting distance between them and Gunther.
The small balding man pulled hard on the lever, quivering the muscles in his back. When the lever reached the floor, a whistle of air burst into the chamber.
In the center of the slightly convex floor, an iris hatch spiraled opened to a dark hole a few inches wide in its center.
Gunther pushed the lever up with noticeable effort, then lunged off his feet and wrenched it down once again.
The irises slowly shifted, opening the dark hole a few more inches. The whistling air distorted to a howl.
Steadily, Gunther pumped the handle until the blackness had increased to a vast gaping hole. He rushed to its edge and stared down into the blackness; his short hair and pleated black slacks flapped wildly in the wind.
"Come on," he shouted, waving them toward him.
Trey and Livy cautiously stepped toward the opening in the ship. Motion stirred beneath it. Trey's mind dizzied as he recognized the dark outline of treetops passing by slowly beneath them.
"You're gonna have to ju
mp!" Gunther shouted over the rushing air.
Trey violently shook his head. "You're crazy!"
Gunther returned an aggravated frown. Shaking his head, he marched toward them. "I don't have time to baby you."
He grabbed Livy's arm. In a dazed stupor, she offered no resistance.
Trey grabbed her other arm and pulled against Gunther's drag toward the opening. Gunther's other hand wrapped around her wrist, and he jerked hard. Livy slipped through Trey's fingers, and the sudden loss of resistance sent Gunther and Livy stumbling toward the opening. Gunther danced onto his toes, regaining his balance just at its edge.
He took one quick look into the darkness below, grabbed Livy's shirt at the shoulder, and yanked her off her feet into the murky depths.
Trey froze momentarily, then rushed forward, ready to leap after her. Gunther threw his hands into Trey's chest, forcing him back. "Hold on, hold on!"
Trey swung his fist at Gunther's head. The spry old man ducked away and shoved Trey backward in one quick motion. Trey lowered his shoulder to charge, but when Gunther's hand slipped into his pocket, Trey froze in place.
Gunther's fingers slid out of his pocket pinching a small stone transmitter rather than his weapon. "You have to take this with you!"
Gunther looked nervously below. "Now hurry! Here, take it. Take it!"
Trey snapped the outstretched stone between his fingers.
Without looking down, he stepped off the edge into darkness and certain death.
Erased
PLUMMETING FEET-FIRST from the sky, Trey watched the dark open field race toward him. A blur of other sights fought for his attention, Livy lying sprawled out in the grass, a wooden fence just outside his impact zone.
His feet thumped the mushy, wet ground, and his legs buckled, driving his knees into the soggy mud. With arms flailing forward, he face-planted the wet grass and slid on his belly for several feet.
The unforgiving ground jarred his entire body to the core, but he was alive and, as far as he could tell, unbroken.
He raised his stinging face to see a twisting column of dark-gray dust tearing away from him through the field. The tornado was only a projection, but the wind gust blasting through his hair and tousling the nearby crops was real.
Misplaced Trilogy Page 12
