Gone for a Spin (The Two Moons of Rehnor, Book 16)

by J. Naomi Ay

  About this time, two men in park ranger uniforms had arrived, whereupon they quickly locked and sealed the shop's door, trapping the crazy, tablecloth-clad lady inside.

  "This building is quarantined," they announced. "Nobody goes in or out."

  "What?" Katie shrieked, spinning around. "For how long? I've got to get back to my family."

  "Sorry, Ma'am," a ranger replied. "We're going to have to burn this contaminated building down."

  "You're going to let me out first, aren't you?" She waved her gun in the air, threatening to blast the door open with her remaining two bullets.

  "Sorry," a ranger replied with a not-very-sorry shake of his head. "The virus has obviously gone to your brain. You'll have to die."

  "What?!?"

  Katie watched with horror as the storefront was quickly consumed with flames. All around her fire crawled like a poisonous snake.

  "Ha ha, Cassie," Luka laughed, as the temperature inside the building immediately rose, and smoke filled the aisles of packaged foods. "I'll be seeing you soon."

  "Come on, Etan," Zak hissed, pulling his brother's arm, even though the younger was busily texting on his cell. "We've got to get Grandpa Bud and Janet!"

  Chapter 21

  "Anybody home?" Janet knocked on the RV's door, interrupting what sounded like a party inside. Men and women were laughing, followed by a chair thumping against the floor. Although Janet couldn't hear exactly what was being said, the tone of their voices implied a scene that she didn’t want to imagine. "Forget it," she mumbled, turning away.

  However, just at the moment, it swung open widely, allowing Gabe to step onto the tiny porch.

  "Hello," he cried jubilantly, for Gabe had no other way of greeting. "Welcome Nurse Janet. It's a pleasure to see you again. I’m excited to know you better, as I've heard so many good things about you."

  "From who?" Janet asked, skeptically. Certainly, Katie would never have uttered a good word. Likewise, Janet had never conceived a pleasant thought for her former boss’s wife at any time in the last sixty or so years they had been acquainted.

  "It doesn't matter," Gabe replied. "In my job, which is Communications, I don't have to hear it from anyone in particular. Please come in and join us. Your arrival is very timely, but not unexpected. Would you care for a cup of tea? I believe we have both a cup and a little bag of leaves. I can put them together for you, although I don’t have any hot water to add to it. Would you like cold water in it?”

  “No thanks.” Janet nodded, and forced a smile, although it didn’t extend all the way up to her eyes.

  Gabe stepped back from the door, and waved his hand, encouraging the nurse to enter. She paused for a moment, as more laughter bubbled up from the camper’s little salon. Her gut told her to turn around, to head back to the lake where Bud was fishing, but there was a reason she had come, so she forced herself inside.

  There was also something about Gabe, despite his strangeness, which Janet found oddly attractive. He had a charm and an ethereal beauty that she recalled seeing in a man only once before. If Dr. Ron had been blonde, and occasionally smiled, he might have looked like Gabe. Or, rather, if Gabe had long black hair, flashing silver eyes, and a perpetual scowl, along with an upturned, arrogant expression of disdain permanently plastered on his face, he could have been mistaken for Ron's brother.

  “I've only got five minutes,” Janet announced, reluctantly peeling her eyes away from Gabe’s face. “Bud is waiting for me down on the dock."

  “No, he’s not. He’s busy fishing,” Gabe replied, shaking a finger in a knowing way. “He’ll be doing that all day, or until he’s caught his six fish limit. He’s in no hurry for you to join him, and neither are you, as you hate fishing, and always have. The idea of sitting on the dock all day in the rain and cold fills you with absolute dread.”

  “That’s not true,” Janet snapped, knowing full and well that Gabe was right.

  “Yes, it is. See, the thing is, I always know when someone tells a lie. That subtle difference in your voice, that tiny hesitation in your breath, a quick movement of your iris, speaks louder to me than words. You can’t pull a fast one on me. I’m Super-Communications Man. Right, boys?”

  “Right, Gabe,” Shika groaned. “Now, shut up. We’re trying to have a conversation here, and the ladies don’t like being interrupted.”

  The elder prince was lying across the sofa, his bare feet dangling over the end, while Arsan and Rent sprawled upon the floor. Overhead, displayed on a vid, two women were basking in naked glory, while one of them was asking Rent about his credit card.

  “What is going on here?” Janet roared, waving her fist at Arsan. “That boy is too young to be watching those girls. He’s just a teen.”

  “You have no idea how old he really is,” Gabe chuckled. “But, our guest brings up an important point, primarily that we ought to be doing something else.”

  “Such as?” Shika asked, while one of the ladies on the screen got up and left, apparently dissatisfied with Rent’s inability to pay. However, this prompted a series of hoots and hollers from the men in the RV, until the screen went black, indicating the program had ended.

  “You make me sick,” Janet hissed. “And, so does this pig sty you call a camper.”

  “That’s just what Grandma Katie said,” Arsan replied.

  “We’re supposed to be coming up with an antidote for the virus,” Rent reminded everyone, rising to his feet to shut off the darkened vid.

  “I don’t know about you, bro, but virology is not my thing.” Shika begrudgingly put his feet down on the floor, and scratched at his unshaven chin. “When is Mom going to get back with my pack of cigs?”

  “It’s alright, Steve,” Rent insisted. “We’ll figure something out to save the Earth, after which you can smoke as many as your lungs will take.” Then, he swept all the cracker crumbs off the tiny dinette table onto the already filthy floor. Offering one of the bistro chairs to Janet, he asked, “What do you know about this Robolo virus?”

  “Not much,” she replied, hesitantly taking a seat. “But, I figure you and I are here for the exact same reason.”

  “What would that be?” Gabe asked.

  “To cure it,” Janet snapped. “Isn’t that obvious? Like Rent said, to save the Earth.”

  “I don’t know,” Shika replied. “I agree it’s more than a coincidence that we ended up in the same place, and probably, you’re right, it’s our job to rescue mankind. However, none of us are doctors, so I’m not sure what we can do.”

  “There’s Arsan.” Rent pointed at the boy still lying on the floor.

  “Well…” Arsan began. “It’s not really like that. I’m…”

  “Right. Right. Thinking is not your thing. That’s another department, and you can only cure one at a time.”

  “Come on, Steve. Don’t be so mean,” Rent continued. “Let’s go over what we know. It’s viral and it’s passed from person to person. Who doesn’t get it?”

  “Us,” Gabe said. “But, we’re not people, so we don’t count.”

  “What are you?” Janet asked.

  “We’re…”

  Gabe was about to say exactly what he was, when a jarring sound interrupted from the overhead vid.

  “It’s Ivanka and Yulya again!” Arsan cried, jumping to his feet, and quickly answering the console. Unfortunately, instead of the lovely girls, the image was that of an old Rehnorian man sitting at desk outside the Emperor’s office.

  “Kinar?” Shika gasped. “How did you find us? Who gave you our number?”

  “I don’t know,” the Emperor’s secretary replied. “It was on my calendar this morning.”

  “We didn’t call you,” Rent replied. “Aren’t you in prison with Taner?”

  “Not anymore, unless you count this office. It’s good to speak to you anyway. Have you located your mother, by chance?”

  “Well, yes,” Shika began, glaring at Gabe. “Communications, right?”

  Gabe shrugged. “
Have you got any news for us about this virus?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact. SdK has developed an antidote and are in the process of rolling it out. I have a notation here to inform you that SdK will provide the serum to the Global Health Service there. It turned out to be a rather simple recipe, or so I’ve been told.”

  “Does this mean we have to return to Rehnor now?” Rent glanced fearfully at his brother.

  “Is there a chance the old man is going to kill us?” Shika asked.

  “I suppose he won’t if your mother comes back with you,” Kinar replied. “Although, I can’t guarantee anything he might or might not do. However, he’s left the premises again, and no one has seen him for quite some time. Perhaps, we shall get lucky, and discover that Robolo has already melted him into puddle of liquid waste.”

  “It hasn’t.” Gabe shook his head, and winked at Shika. “But, I think you’re safe from his wrath this time around.”

  “How do you know?” Rent asked.

  “Well, I…” Gabe was about to say, when he was interrupted by a loud knocking on the RV’s door.

  “Janet!” It was Etan yelling at the top of his lungs, while Zak had raced down to the dock to fetch his grandfather. “Come quickly! There’s an emergency at the store.”

  “Etan, calm down,” Janet cried, reaching for the boy. “Tell me without yelling, and take a breath before you pass out.”

  “There’s a fire,” the boy began, but was interrupted by the roar of an approaching spaceplane overhead.

  Everyone ran outside to stare at the SdK cruiser preparing to land in the adjacent clearing.

  “That’s one of ours,” Shika breathed, grabbing his brother’s arm, before tearing across the woodland in his bare feet.

  “Do you think it’s him?” Rent gasped, fearing the worst, and inclined to run the other direction.

  The plane bounced hard, and broke first one strut, and then another, before smashing onto the ground.

  "Kari-fa!" Shika swore, and dove into the mess, seizing the cockpit door and trying to pull it open. "Help me, Rent, before it explodes!"

  "Explodes? Shouldn't we get out of here, just in case it does?"

  "There are people inside, you idiot. Help me! We've got to rescue them." Shika yanked and pulled on the sealed door to no avail.

  Rent, however, recalled something he had once seen on an engineering design, for a revised version of this model 838. On the left, near the lower seal, there was a latch which could be pulled in the event the door's hinge mechanically failed.

  "Pull that," he told his brother who was sweating hard.

  "What?"

  "This."

  Rent pulled the latch himself, which immediately released a gust of stale cabin air, followed by the door nearly falling into his lap.

  "Are you okay in here?" Shika yelled, rushing past Rent.

  “Shika, is that you?” A voice called, from somewhere inside. “It’s you, dude! Oh, hey, Rent. Good job, Sara. You directed us to exactly the right place. Pym managed to land us, and we're all still alive. What do you know?"

  "I've been on better flights," Shelly snapped. "When I didn't fear for my life."

  "I haven't," Sara said. "I always crash."

  "Jim?" Shika gasped. "Sara! Joanne?"

  "Come on, guys," Rent advised. "Let's get off before you blow up like Steve said."

  Seconds later, everyone was off the plane, when the engines started smoking, and emitting a foul smell reminiscent of burnt rubber. Although they were buried in wet grass and mud, fuel was leaking all around, and a crackling sound indicative of a small fire could be heard.

  “Rory!” Joanne shrieked, as Shika tried to pull her away. ‘My baby! He’s in the pod on the other side.”

  “Aw, crap,” Shika swore, but ran around the remains of the plane, to discover Rory trapped in the escape pod. “Rent, help me!”

  Despite the risk of being consumed by the ever-growing flames, Rent and Shika fought with the escape pod’s hatch, which was firmly stuck.

  “Try this,” Bud suggested, producing a crowbar from his old truck, which the men used to lever the escape pod’s door half way open.

  “Rory!” Joanne screamed again, for her boy was lying face down upon the console, a rivulet of dark, green blood dribbling down his face.

  “Come on, dude!”

  Shika crawled through the narrow opening to rescue the boy despite the flames which were now licking at the pod’s edges. Hefting the child over his shoulder, Shika handed him to Rent, before clambering back outside himself.

  As quickly as they could, the princes ran toward the Winnebago where a frantic Joanne was waiting for her son. The spaceplane exploded moments later, filling the sky with thick dark ash, and briefly heating up the forest several hundred degrees.

  Fortunately, at this point, everyone was far enough away to avoid being roasted like marshmallows over a campfire. Shika had taken Rory inside the RV, and laid him upon a bed, while ordering Rent to seek out Arsan, just in case.

  “Bye Dad,” Rory murmured, coming to his senses, and rubbing at the large spinach-colored bump in the center of his forehead. “Oh hey, Steve. You managed to save me again. Lucky, you are always around when I need you most.”

  “Yeah, little dude,” Shika replied. “Quit getting yourself almost killed.”

  Outside, next to the fire pit, and beneath the canopy, introductions were made and a reunion of sorts was had.

  “I missed you, Daddy," Sara cried, throwing herself in Shika's arms, who had left Rory to the ministrations of his mother.

  “I missed you, too, sweetie,” Shika said, although, he had almost forgotten that his daughter existed. This had been a recurring problem for him ever since Sara had come into his life. At this moment, however, Shika resolved never to forget about her again, or any of the others who remained in his tiny family.

  Shelly and Janet were hugging as well, for they were both friends, and co-workers from years before.

  “There is no coincidence in this,” Janet declared.

  “Not at all,” Shelly agreed. “You know who is behind this, I'm willing to bet. One of these days, I’m seriously going to take my baseball bat to that man.”

  A moment later, Joanne stepped from the camper, and ran to Shika.

  “Oh Steve," she wept, throwing her arms around her ex-husband. “I thought we were all going to die. I was closing my eyes, and the next thing I knew, you were standing there."

  "Like a bad dream?" Shika asked, surprised, but not unhappily by her display of affection.

  "Yeah. Like a nightmare." She kissed his lips. "The worst kind, where you wake up screaming, and your heart pounding in double time. Thanks for saving, Rory. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She glanced at Jim, who shrugged, and wandered over to check on Pym.

  Jullee was standing with Pym in the wet grass, and smiling awkwardly, as she didn't know anyone well enough to hug or kiss.

  “Hey,” Rent called, approaching from the woodlands. “Have you seen Arsan, by chance? He’s about this high, with curly, black hair.”

  Jullee shook her head and scrunched up her face.

  “Sorry,” she muttered. “I hope he wasn’t inside the plane.”

  “No,” Rent scoffed. “He was here with us. Hey! Don’t you work at the estate in Takira-hahr? I think I saw you in the cafeteria once or twice. You were always sitting by the salad bar, behind that section of fresh fruit.”

  “Yes, that was me.” Jullee blushed and held out her hand. Then, she remembered Rent was a prince, and quickly forced her legs into a curtsey.

  “Aw, forget that.” Rent blushed as well. “Welcome to Idaho, Planet Earth. What are you doing here anyway?”

  “I’m not sure,” Jullee whispered. “Actually, I have no clue.”

  “So which one of you is Thunk?” Sara asked, surveying the young people standing around, narrowly eyeing each other with shades of teenage suspicion. Carolie stared at Zak and Etan, who just as icily stared right bac
k.

  “Who?” Zak asked.

  “Me,” Etan declared, blushing brightly as he held out his hand to Princess Sara. “Thunk at your service and command, my lady.”

  Then, he attempted a courtly bow, which he had practiced many times in a quiet corner of the woods. Etan would have executed it perfectly, except for his brother misinterpreting his action, for Zak figured Etan’s leg was starting a tremor.

  “Hold on,” Zak cried, reaching for his brother’s arm, and attempting to pull him upright at the same moment Etan was heading down. The two of them ended up on the ground with Etan cursing at his brother for ruining the show. This further escalated into a wrestling match of sorts.

  “Boys!” Bud shouted, leaning down to pull them apart, while the two of them struck each other with hands and fists.

  As the boys were separated, and returned to their feet, and further commanded to apologize to the crowd, Carolie looked around for her own missing boyfriend.

  “Where’s Arsan?” she asked Shika. “Isn’t he here with you?”

  “Rent?” Shika nodded, toward his brother. “Did you find the dude?”

  Rent was too busy chatting up Jullee, to inform his brother that Arsan was not around.

  “I’ll go check the camper,” Carolie decided, opening the Winnebago’s door.

  After a minute, both she and Rory returned outside.

  “Are you feeling better, honey?” Joanne asked.

  “Yeah,” Rory replied. “But, Arsan’s not in there.”

  “Arsan’s not anywhere,” Carolie told Shika from the tiny landing.

  "That's odd. He was there when your spaceplane flew overhead. Is Gabe around?"

  "Who? Nobody is home, but me," Rory said.

  "Where's Katie?" Janet asked.

  "She went to the store," Rent replied.

  “Oh no!" Zak let out a scream. "I forget to tell you. There’s a fire at the shop, and the weird lady was locked inside!”

  “What lady?” Shelly asked.

  “The queen one,” Etan said. “The one who fixed my battery, and is One of Them.”

  This prompted Shika, Rent and Jim to break into a run, not stopping until they arrived in town to discover the Bait & Beer store was now a pile of smoldering ashes.