Invasion

by Jon S. Lewis

  : : CHAPTER 30 : :

  At the mention of his mom, Colt felt as though someone had reached through his chest and grabbed his heart. The world was a tolerable place to live as long as he didn’t think about his parents, but the second either one of them came up— whether in casual conversation or in someone’s well-intentioned but depressing condolences—Colt plummeted right back into a state of depression.

  His eyes fell to the worn carpet. He sighed. “When?”

  Agent Richmond studied Colt for a moment. His face had turned to something that almost showed warmth, but the kindness didn’t last. “It happened this afternoon. You don’t know anything about that?”

  “No, sir.”

  “If you know something, son, this would be a good time to share it with me. You’re already in a bit of pickle.”

  Colt shook his head.

  Agent Richmond paused as though he was giving Colt time to reconsider.

  “I think we can move on with questions now,” Grandpa McAlister said.

  Colt looked up in time to see Agent Richmond clench his jaw. His eyes narrowed, if only for a moment, but he didn’t push the issue. The agent led him through a series of questions about his ordeal with Albert Van Cleve, followed by everything that had happened since. At times he would go back and ask for more details. Then he would skip ahead to the end, only to swing back somewhere in the middle.

  Colt found Agent Richmond’s ever-present smile distracting. Though the words the agent spoke were often kind, Colt found them to be insincere.

  While Agent Richmond did most of the talking, Agent D3X simply stood there like some kind of industrial floor lamp, its single eye pulsing as though it were breathing.

  “Tell me something,” Agent Richmond said toward the end. “You claim that your backpack never left your sight, yet someone managed to unzip one of the compartments, plant an untraceable phone inside, and then zip it back up—all without your seeing a thing. How do you explain that?”

  Colt looked to his grandfather, who simply nodded. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure.”

  “I see,” the agent said. “That same night you voluntarily got into a car without asking where they were taking you. Now don’t you think that seems a bit . . . oh, I don’t know. Let’s call it daring?”

  “I suppose so,” Colt said, “but I wanted to find out what happened to my parents.”

  “And you’d never met Albert Van Cleve before?”

  Colt shook his head.

  “Had you read any articles about him? Seen him on television?”

  “If I did, I don’t remember,” Colt said.

  “And you have no idea where he is now?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You know, I find it interesting that you’d never seen anything like a winged motorcycle before, and yet you were able to hop right on and fly away with not one but two Trident assassins shooting at you.”

  “Yes, sir,” Colt said. “I can’t explain how I did it. It just kind of happened.”

  “Seems that way, doesn’t it?”

  “Well, to be honest, I guess I’ve seen them in comic books.”

  Agent Richmond laughed. “Yes, indeed. Those crazy comic books.”

  “Is there anything else, Agent Richmond?” Grandpa McAlister asked as he stood up.

  “Well, Colonel, I was thinking. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to try and record a bit of your grandson’s memories. I need to get a good look at this Albert Van Cleve to make sure Colt was talking to the real deal.”

  Colt watched his grandfather’s eyes narrow for a moment.

  “I suppose that would be all right,” Grandpa said, though Colt wasn’t quite certain what the man meant by recording memories. “But only from the phone call moving forward. I think anything else would be a bit premature at this point.”

  “That’s sounds fair,” Agent Richmond said. He rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get started, shall we? Agent D3X, I believe it’s your turn.”

  As the robot approached, Colt looked at it with wide eyes. He tried to reassure himself that his grandfather would never let Agent Richmond do anything that would harm him.

  “Now just sit still, son,” Agent Richmond said. “You’re going to feel a little tingle, that’s all. This won’t take but a minute.”

  Colt watched as a pair of plates in the center of the robot’s chest opened up like curtains on a stage. Inside was a screen that flared to life. At the same time, six long tentacles shot out from behind D3X’s back. They slithered into place, and Colt could see tiny suction cups on their ends. Then, in perfect synchronicity, the arms struck. Colt didn’t have time to duck out of the way, and the suction cups locked on to his forehead, temples, and the base of his skull.

  “You’re doing fine,” Agent Richmond encouraged.

  Colt didn’t feel like he was doing fine. What he felt was a wave of panic as six needles inside those cups pierced his flesh simultaneously. His eyes darted as he looked for his grandpa to intervene, but Grandpa stood there with his hands in his pockets. Colt felt his eyes roll back and start to twitch.

  He watched as his memories flashed in front of him. They were so fast that they barely registered, but he saw images of himself flying through the sky on the winged motorcycle, of Jimbo attacking him with the syringe, of Danielle crying when she told him that her computer had been stolen. There were even snippets of Colt smiling at Lily, which made Colt feel violated.

  “That’s it,” Agent Richmond said.

  Colt shook his head to clear his vision. The first thing he saw were the tentacles wrapping back around Agent DX3 before they disappeared. The robot’s chest closed back up as Agent Richmond stood. “I believe we’re done for the night.”

  “Wait a minute . . . what about Dani?” Colt asked. He followed the agent to the door.

  “Oh, don’t you worry about her,” Agent Richmond said. “We have someone looking after that pretty little girlfriend of yours.”

  “She’s just a friend.”

  “That’s what they all say, son.” Agent Richmond placed a firm hand on Colt’s shoulder. “Now if there’s anything you need, you just let me know.”

  He pulled a business card out of his inside breast pocket and turned to Grandpa McAlister. “We’ll be in touch as soon as we find out anything,” he said. “In the meantime, we’ll have some agents in the area. The school is pretty well covered, but I might stop by tomorrow to make sure everything is secure.”

  “I’d appreciate that,” Grandpa said.

  : : CHAPTER 31 : :

  Colt wasn’t sure which was more frightening: biochips that could turn everyday people into assassins at the flip of a switch, or robots that could record your memories to play them back at will.

  Without realizing it, his fingers kept finding their way to the spots where the robot’s tentacles had interfaced with his skin. Colt was certain that he would find some kind of coaxial cable outlet, but no matter how many times he tried, he couldn’t find anything.

  That night he lay in bed reading more of his father’s Phantom Flyer comic books. He was hoping to find an issue with D3X, but he couldn’t. Instead, the Agents of CHAOS battled shape-shifting Thule, and there was a strange adventure where the Phantom Flyer was stranded in a parallel world fighting an evil version of himself.

  Eventually Colt drifted to sleep, where he was haunted by dreams of D3X chasing him through rain-slicked streets in the middle of the night. The robot’s arms danced like cobras before lashing out, and each time they would narrowly miss him. The next morning Colt woke up sprawled out on the floor. His bed was torn apart, and there were comic books everywhere.

  On the way to school, he told Danielle about Agent Richmond and the robot. Her biggest concern was whether or not D3X got any close-ups of her when her makeup was smudged.

  “Seriously?” Colt said. “I didn’t think that you cared about stuff like that.”

  Danielle shrugged. “I usually don’t, but . . . oh, never mind.”r />
  “Did you see any guys in suits hanging out around your house last night?”

  “No,” Danielle said. “Do you think they’re going to interview me too?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this from my parents.”

  “I think my grandpa is going to take care of that,” Colt said. Then he told Oz as much as he could before first period started.

  “Richmond? I’m impressed,” Oz said. “They only involve him on the big cases.”

  “Have you ever had a robot record your memories?” Colt asked.

  “Nah,” Oz said. “Not yet anyway. They usually save that for the courtroom. Not that they think you’re a criminal or anything.”

  “You should have seen the way that Agent Richmond was looking at me,” Colt said. “I mean, he asked me if I was going to sell Van Cleve’s motorcycle. It’s not like I’d be able to stick it in front of the house with a for sale sign. Give me a break.”

  “I might have been interested.”

  “Maybe I’ll let you take it for a ride.”

  “He let you keep it?”

  Colt’s eyes shot wide. “Wait . . . they know where it’s at! Do you think they’re going to take it?”

  Oz shrugged. “I doubt it. People don’t mess with your grandpa. Besides, Richmond isn’t going to break into his storage facility for something like that. It’s just an ultralight.”

  Not to Colt it wasn’t. It was an amazing piece of technology straight from the future. Then again, compared to D3X, maybe it wasn’t such a big deal. “I’m curious,” he said. “Agent Richmond told me that they already have people watching our campus. Did you know about that?”

  “They’re all over the place.”

  “Wait, are you saying that some of the teachers are CHAOS agents?”

  “I can’t confirm or deny it,” Oz said, but his head was nodding dramatically.

  “Who?”

  Oz pointed his eyes to Mr. Pfeffer, who was trying to pull the wedgie out of his backside with one hand while sipping coffee from the cup in his other.

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I’m telling you, they’re in deep cover,” Oz said. “You wouldn’t be able to pick them out if you tried.”

  “Ms. Skoglund?”

  Oz raised his finger to his lips before looking to the left and then the right.

  “Who else?”

  “Let it go.”

  “Fine,” Colt said. “But why our school?”

  “My dad thinks people have a bounty on my head.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “It makes sense,” Oz said after a shrug. “I mean, my dad’s the head of an agency that deals with the underbelly of at least a dozen worlds. If the bad guys can’t get to him, they’re going to try and hit the people next to him.”

  “Have you ever been attacked?”

  “Not yet, but I’m hoping somebody will try one of these days. Why do you think I train so hard? I always have to be ready.”

  Apparently the CHAOS agents assigned to protect him were doing their job, even though Colt had no idea who they were or where they were hiding. The rest of the week was surprisingly uneventful. Nobody tried to run Colt off the road, he wasn’t shot at, and there were no more cryptic messages or memory extractions.

  Mr. Pfeffer even approved Colt’s proposal for his World War II essay. He wanted to write about propaganda, focusing on the Phantom Flyer in particular. Apparently Mr. Pfeffer was an avid fan.

  Lily hadn’t been in class for the last few days, which made the lectures even more unbearable than usual. Colt was relieved when Mr. Pfeffer decided to show a documentary about aerial combat during the War. As soon as the lights were shut off, Colt placed his elbows on the desk so he could rest his head in his hands. Then he fell asleep.

  He was startled awake when the door opened in the middle of the movie, and Lily walked to the front of the room to hand Mr. Pfeffer a pass. The teacher pulled out a penlight to examine the authenticity of the signature, then directed her to take her seat.

  “Did you miss me?” Lily whispered.

  “I didn’t even know you were gone,” Colt said.

  “That’s enough chatter,” Mr. Pfeffer said. His penlight was shining on Colt’s face.

  “Sorry,” Colt mumbled.

  After the movie Mr. Pfeffer turned on the lights. “Now then, it looks like we have a little extra time,” he said. “Why don’t we gauge how much those little minds of yours soaked in today. Please take out a pencil and a sheet of paper.”

  There was a collective moan. Oz raised his hand.

  “Yes, Master Romero?”

  “I was just thinking, are you still part of that UFO club?”

  There was snickering.

  Mr. Pfeffer frowned. “Are you mocking me?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that,” Oz said.

  “Then why do you ask?”

  “You know how there were rumors about the Nazis working with aliens from outer space?”

  “Yes, I’m familiar with the theory. They were called gray aliens.”

  “Well, I was wondering if you thought all these UFO sightings had anything to do with that.”

  Mr. Pfeffer scanned the room. His eyes were narrowed and his lips were pursed. “It’s interesting you should mention it,” he said after a long pause. “I was conversing with some friends about this very topic last night.”

  “Imagine the odds.”

  There was more snickering, though it was stifled.

  “Indeed,” Mr. Pfeffer said. “All I know is that this universe is a vast place, and I would imagine there are life forms on other planets. Did Hitler ally himself with extraterrestrials? Perhaps. Are they back to finish what they started? I believe it’s a possibility.”

  “Are you serious?” a girl asked from the back of the room.

  Mr. Pfeffer blushed. “I simply said it’s a possibility. I didn’t state that it was a fact.”

  “What about those lights over South Mountain?” Oz asked. “Didn’t they show up again last night?”

  “It was three o’clock this morning, to be precise,” Mr. Pfeffer said. “As to what they are, I’m not sure. I can tell you this, though. They aren’t weather balloons, and there is no manmade aircraft that can hover in place like that. So if it’s not a UFO, I’m not sure what it is.”

  “What if it was those gray aliens?” Oz asked.

  The bell rang, ending the conversation and any chance of a quiz.

  Colt stuffed his book into his backpack and rushed to catch up with Lily. “So where were you?”

  “I thought you didn’t notice that I was gone.”

  “Maybe I noticed a little,” Colt said.

  “I was out hunting aliens with Mr. Pfeffer.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Lily rolled her eyes. “You don’t believe in that stuff, do you? I mean, life on other planets and all that nonsense?”

  “Who knows?” Colt said with a shrug. “As far as we know, Mr. Pfeffer could be an alien. He kind of looks like one.”

  Lily laughed.

  “Since I’m pretty sure you don’t hang out with Mr. Pfeffer all that much, where were you?”

  “At a recording studio.”

  “I’m impressed.”

  “It wasn’t a big deal,” Lily said. “I’m supposed to fly out to Nashville in a couple of weeks, and my dad thought that I should bring some of my new songs.”

  “Nashville? That sounds like a big deal to me.”

  “We’ll see,” Lily said.

  “Got any big plans this weekend?” Colt cringed as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He didn’t want Lily to think he was about to ask her out. “I mean, besides the alien hunting.”

  “As a matter of fact, I do,” she said. “I’m having a few people over on Saturday night. I’d love it if you and Danielle would stop by. Oz will be there.”

  Colt hadn’t been expecting that. “Um, yeah . . . I think I
can make it,” he said. He was trying not to sound too enthusiastic.

  Lily looked at him sideways. “So is that a yes?”

  “Sure. I’ll be there.”

  “Don’t forget to tell Danielle,” Lily said before one of her friends walked over to drag her away.

  : : CHAPTER 32 : :

  Does the name Jimbo Tompkins mean anything to you?” Danielle asked at lunch the next day.

  “Not me,” Oz said with a mouth full of food.

  “Should it?” Colt asked.

  “He tried to stick you with a syringe full of bubbling blue liquid a couple of days ago.”

  “How did you find his last name?”

  “I called the gas station and asked if they had anyone named Jimbo working there, but they didn’t. So I checked their credit card transactions.”

  “You did what?”

  “A friend of mine has access to the credit card verification company’s database. He kind of owed me a favor.”

  “Isn’t that illegal?”

  “So is turning people into killing machines with biochips,” Danielle said. “Anyway, I ran a background check. Jimbo is forty-two years old and he owns a small auto body shop in downtown Chandler. He also has a criminal record.”

  “You got all that from a credit card transaction?” Oz asked.

  Danielle rolled her eyes. “No, that’s how I got his name,” she said. “I got the information by doing some research.”

  “Oh.”

  “Jimbo was convicted of marijuana possession with the intent to distribute,” Danielle said. “There were also a couple of domestic violence charges. Apparently he’s a heavy drinker, and he gets violent when he’s drunk.”

  “Maybe he was drinking the other day,” Colt said.

  “I don’t think so,” Danielle said. “A few years ago Jimbo started to notice tremors in his hands, and as it got worse, he started to drink more.”

  “So he was self-medicating,” Oz said.

  “That’s my guess,” Danielle said. “Anyway, he took part in a clinical trial run by Trident Biotech. They implanted a next-generation biochip to control his Parkinson’s.”