She pushed his hand out of the way and sat up straight in the chair. “Who are you?” she asked.
“I'm Jared,” he said in a tired voice that sounded like he had been dragged out of bed. “Beth sent me to get you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Santa Command—Portal Room
December 25th
0225 hours
Phil stared at the portal with his arms folded across his chest and his face pinched into a frown.
Beth nudged her shoulder against his. “Didn't anyone ever tell you your face will freeze like that?”
He knew that she was only trying to get him to relax, but the way she said it, super fast, blending all the words together, only stressed him out more.
He glanced at the time on his phone. “Jared's been gone for five minutes. Shouldn't they be back now?” He was afraid that if Tracy stayed too long, she would run into something interesting. And by “interesting” he meant something Tracy shouldn’t be seeing at all.
Jared was different. When he went to live with Beth, she told him everything about Santa Command in order to gain his trust, but Jared didn't believe her. In fact, Phil and Beth had lied to him about why they needed him to go get Tracy, because for Jared, the lie was easier to believe than the truth. The kid had created his own reality about Santa Command, and no one could convince him otherwise. He would never tell anyone their secrets, because he thought he'd sound like an idiot.
Tracy, on the other hand, was dangerous. He could see that now. She didn't try to hack their main frame out of pure curiosity. She planned to tell someone. When she got back, Phil knew what he had to do. “Just wait a few more minutes,” Beth said. Again, it was like her voice was being played in fast forward.
“Why are you talking like that?” Now it wasn't just her voice. He sounded like a recording of Alvin and the Chipmunks. What was going on? It was like time itself were malfunctioning. That couldn't be happening. Could it?
He reached for his phone again, but before he could check it, the ground rumbled beneath them, and the room lurched. He grabbed hold of Beth's arm as the two of them stumbled.
“Whoa!” she said. “Was that an earthquake?”
“I don't think it—”
His statement got swallowed up by another shift that knocked both of them to their knees. When Phil looked up a second later, he wished it had been an earthquake.
The portal was gone. The connection was severed.
Did that mean…?
He punched in a number on his phone, which should have connected him to the command center in Virginia. It didn't ring or go to voice mail, and his fears were confirmed.
They'd been knocked out of time. Their entire sector, three states, thirty four million people, was disconnected from the rest of the world.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tracy
“To get me?” Tracy asked warily. “And where do you plan to take me?”
“Home,” Jared said.
“I get to go home? Just like that?”
He shrugged.
“But I thought they were going to take me—” Tracy bit off the word. What if this was just a trick to get her to come along quietly? Last she heard, they were taking her to Walt to wipe her mind. “I don't believe you.”
“Look, I don't care if you don't believe me,” Jared sounded bored, “but my aunt said to tell you that she'll protect you. I think they're gonna sneak you out or something.”
“Who's your aunt?”
“Beth.”
“Oh.” Tracy still wasn't sure she believed him, but she believed that Beth didn't want to hurt her. She had stood up for Tracy in the computer room. Besides, Tracy had to get out of the library. She didn't like the tingly feeling in her stomach, and she didn't like that she'd fallen asleep and almost forgotten her plans.
“All right,” she said to Jared. “Let's go.” At the first sign of a lie, she'd figure out a way to ditch him.
“Fine.” Jared walked to the door/mirror, but stopped right in front of it. It didn't have that yellow glow anymore.
Jared touched it, and…nothing happened. It didn't shiver or swirl or look anything like it did before. It was just a mirror, a lot like the one in Tracy's bathroom.
She watched Jared's reflection as he leaned in close and squinted, like he was trying to see through it to the other side. His face was round and scrunched up like a cartoon character. He tapped the mirror a couple more times, then he took a step back, crossed his arms across his chest, and frowned. “Huh.”
Tracy stepped up beside the mirror, put her fingers under one of the side edges, and lifted. Maybe a real mirror had slid into place, covering the doorway. When she peered behind the mirror, all she saw was a blank wall. She even slid her hand behind the mirror to feel the wall, thinking it could be another illusion. It wasn't. The wall was as solid as the mirror. That left her with only one logical conclusion.
She turned to Jared with her hands on her hips and a nasty look on her face. “What's going on here? This isn't the same room I went to sleep in. You must have carried me here while I was sleeping.” He was big enough.
Jared put his hands on his hips in a perfect imitation of her and snapped right back. “I didn't do anything. I came through that mirror, same as you. Maybe it broke when you looked at it.”
The insult made Tracy turn her back to him and huff. Clearly, this boy had no intention of helping her get home. “Fine. If you're going to be that way, I'll find my own way home.” She headed for the actual door, which was on the far side of the room, to the left of the fireplace.
Jared laughed as she opened the door. “Good luck with that.”
Tracy stepped through and gave him a snotty little wave.
He crossed the room like he was going to stop her. “Just see if you can find your way without—” His words cut off when Tracy shut the door in his face.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Tracy
Tracy stepped into a hallway that had no trace of the plain white walls and fluorescent lighting she had seen in the rest of Santa Command. It was dark and felt more like she was visiting someone's home. Candlelight from the wall sconces gave her enough light to see that the hallway seemed to go on forever. Every square inch of the walls was covered with framed photographs of children on Christmas morning: little girls with baby doll carriages, little boys dressed as cowboys, riding pretend ponies, wide eyed toddlers getting their first view of the presents Santa left, and much more. They were all black and white, some so old and faded, she could barely make out the details. But as she walked down the hall, the pictures grew more recent. She saw color photos of kids holding up big chunky video games like her parents played when they were little, then kids sorting through stacks of CDs, and most recently, kids absorbed in their iPhones and iPads.
She ran her finger across some of the photos, recognizing many of the toys that she had owned when she was smaller. Her finger stopped on one picture in particular. Tracy's mouth dried out as she gaped at the picture of her and Pim taken on the night before Pim's accident. It was Christmas Eve. The two girls had their arms around each other, and they were wearing the matching footie pajamas they had been given—red for Tracy, blue for Pim.
Tracy remembered the night vividly. They were both missing a couple of teeth, and the two of them sang All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth about a hundred times that day. After the accident, Tracy had visited Pim in the hospital and played that song for hours, over and over hoping her cousin would recognize it and talk, or blink, or do something. It never happened and when nighttime came, her parents made her go home. Tracy hadn't been able to listen to that song since without crying.
Tracy pulled her finger from the picture and wiped the tear from her cheek. That's why she had hopped in Santa's sleigh. That's why she needed him. How could she have forgotten such an important thing? And how had she even dreamed of going home without her evidence?
&nb
sp; She couldn't let Pim down. She had to win that prize money, and the Santa coat she was wearing wasn't going to be enough.
Tracy wiped one final tear from her cheek and straightened her shoulders. She was going to get the information she needed, and no one was going to stop her.
“Hello, there.”
The voice came from behind her. Tracy whirled around to see a tiny, gray-haired man standing there. He was chubby, wearing a navy blue vest, jacket and dress pants, and barely taller than Tracy herself.
“Where did you come from?” Tracy asked. There hadn't been any other doors in the hallway, except for the one she came through.
The man pointed to a door about two feet away.
Tracy blinked several times. “I didn't see that door before.”
“Sometimes,” he said gently, “things exist whether you see them or not. You were looking pretty intently at that picture. Do you want to tell me about it?”
“No.” What she wanted was to get moving, but she had to get around this guy first. “Who are you?”
“Hmm.” He scratched his stubbly chin while he thought about the answer. “I could tell you, but you wouldn't believe me, so I don't think I'll bother for now.”
“Try me. I doubt this night could get any weirder.”
The man smiled. A twinkle sat in the corner of his eye. “Oh, I assure you, it can. One person's weird is another person's calling.”
“Huh?” Tracy didn't have time for riddles. She glanced down the hall to see if she could find an end to it or another doorway.
“In a hurry, are you?”
“I suppose you're going to ask me to come with you? I'm tired of hearing that, so if you'll just let me go, I'll—”
“Go ahead.” He stretched his arm to point down the hallway. His door was gone, and once again, she saw nothing but pictures lining the walls.
A banging sound echoed from behind them, followed by a muffled voice shouting, “Hey! Hey, where did you go?” Tracy was pretty sure it was Jared, back in the library.
The man noticed it too and turned in that direction. “Well, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll go check on your friend. He seems worried.” And he walked away.
Tracy couldn't believe he was just going to leave her there. “Hey!”
The man kept walking toward Jared, but waggled his fingers over his shoulder. “Carry on. My house is yours.”
Tracy looked down the hallway to see if any more doors popped open. At that point she would have believed it, but nothing happened. If anything, the hall seemed to stretch longer, as if it really did go on forever.
She started walking away from the man. She ran her fingers around the pictures, looking for hidden seams in the walls. She knocked on random patches to see if she heard a hollow sound, like a room was on the other side. The less she found, the faster she walked. Nothing, nothing, and more nothing. Just thousands of pictures, with no end in sight. She ran, trying to find any way out, but when her breath gave out, she stopped and turned around. The man was no further away from her than he was before. She could still hear Jared hollering from the other side of the library door, and the man was still walking toward him. Tracy's shoulders slumped. Her options had run out. “Wait for me!” she called.
The man stopped, looked over his shoulder, and smiled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Tracy
“Help! Lemme out of here! Help!” Jared's muffled cries were emphasized by his fists pounding on the door. “Who locked the—”
The man turned the shiny brass knob, and when he opened the door, Jared fell through and spilled to the ground in front of Tracy's feet.
“– door?” Jared finished quietly. He stood up and brushed himself off, trying to restore whatever dignity he'd lost by falling. “Um, hey, Chris.”
“Jared.” Chris smiled like the two were old friends. “How is your aunt?”
“Good. She's good. Um, I was just…” He nodded toward Tracy.
“Ah, yes. You're here for Miss Tam?”
Miss Tam? Tracy hadn't told him her first name, much less her last. “Hey, how did you—?”
“How do we get back?” Jared seemed irritated, just like he had back in the library. Apparently, he had no other emotions. “The door is gone. Is that room on a turntable or something?”
“Hmm.” Chris pressed his lips into a fine line. “That's one explanation.”
Jared bounced back and forth from one foot to the other. He was so big, he should have looked clumsy, but it almost looked like he was dancing. “Can you turn the room back to where it was so we can get going?”
Chris stuck his head just inside the room, looked around, then came back out. “No.”
“No?” Jared whined. “Beth is gonna kill me if I don't bring her back.”
“The portal disconnected. It looks like tonight is turning out to be quite interesting.”
“Portal?” Tracy asked. “What are you talking about? We want the door.”
Chris patted her shoulder with a sad look on his face. “Don’t worry. You'll understand before the night is over.”
“But the door?” Jared asked.
“In time,” Chris said. With that, he turned on his heel and marched back down the hallway. After about five steps, he snapped his fingers and a door opened to his right side. He stepped through, then leaned his head back out to call out to Tracy and Jared. “Well, come on you two. The night is fading fast. We have lots to cover.” He let out a deep, rich laugh, then disappeared through the door.
Tracy and Jared looked at each other and shrugged. What else could they do but follow him?
***
They found themselves outside, standing in snow about six inches deep. Wind whipped through the surrounding forest. Both Tracy and Jared shivered, but he wasn't lucky enough to be wearing a Santa coat. All he had on was a sweatshirt and jeans. Tracy felt sorry for him as he scrubbed his sleeve across his watery eyes and wrapped his arms around his middle. Her sorrow was short-lived though as the snow began seeping in around the edges of her thin canvas sneakers. It took exactly five seconds for her feet to become frozen popsicles.
“Where are we?” Tracy quietly asked Jared while Chris marched on ahead of them.
“Same place you've been all night.” Jared kicked at a mound of snow. The powder flew through the air and blew back against Tracy's legs. “Nothing here is real. I'm sure there's a snow machine hidden somewhere and about a hundred mirrors.”
Tracy murmured her agreement while looking around to see if she could spot where any of them were hidden. She stuck her hand in her pocket to make sure the camera was still there.
Jared blew into his hands and rubbed them together. His skin had turned pink from the cold. “Why are you here anyway? My aunt called me in the middle of the night to come get you because she had to get back to her job. It's your fault we're stuck following him.”
Chris called to them without looking back. “My dear Jared, please don't blame Tracy for things you don't understand.”
Tracy and Jared exchanged a glance.
“How did he hear us?” Tracy silently mouthed the words.
Jared shrugged. Clearly, he was done speaking to her.
Chris turned around and waited until the two kids caught up. “You'll find I know a great many things that defy explanation. My wife is constantly baffled. She has a scientific mind like you, Tracy.”
Tracy smiled. It was something she was very proud of. But how did he know that?
He must have seen the question in her eyes, because he said, “My wife learned to believe, and one day, so will you.” He waggled his eyebrows, and the stars danced in his eyes. “Maybe even tonight.” He turned back around, and suddenly, the three of them were standing in front of a large, red barn that hadn't been there a moment ago. “Ah!” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together with excitement. “Here we are.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Tracy
; Chris cracked open the large barn door. It swung out over the snow, and the three of them stepped up into the barn. The inside was pitch black. Chris's footsteps echoed as he disappeared into the darkness.
Tracy hovered near the door. Jared leaned back against the wall with his arms folded. He looked comfortable, like he spent a lot of time in that position.
She wanted to ask him questions, like how he knew Chris and what the heck was going on, but she didn't feel like getting snapped at by him again. If he wasn't talking to her, then she wasn't talking to him.
“Don't worry, my friends.” Chris reappeared with a large candle and lit it with a match from inside his coat pocket. He held up the light near his face, but instead of looking freaky like most people did when they held a flashlight up under their chin, he looked kind. He smiled, and his cheeks showed off tiny dimples. “You'll understand soon enough. This way,” he said, as he headed into the barn's shadows.
Tracy followed first with Jared close behind her. If she had learned anything since meeting Chris, it was that she had to follow him or be left behind. And if she got left behind, she was lost. More importantly, she wanted to follow him. The more time she spent with the old man, the more she felt drawn to him, like she had a magnet inside of her pulling her to him. It made no sense, but things had stopped making sense the moment she crept out of her house and onto Santa's sleigh.
They passed several empty animal stalls. One had a worn out board hanging half way off the door. Tracy could just make out the letters “ond” engraved into it. She wondered what happened to Pond, the name she made up for him in her head. The barn smelled like a cold, icy night, with no hay or manure scents anywhere. Whatever happened to him, it was a long time ago.
Chris paid no attention to the stalls, instead heading toward a dark lump in the back of the barn. As they got closer, Tracy realized the lump was a burlap cloth, which covered something roughly the size of her dad's Toyota.
Tracy Tam: Santa Command Page 7
