by Dan Alatorre
“They aren’t,” I said. “Findlay made sure of that.”
Barry cocked his head. “How do you know?”
Oops.
I collected myself. “I mean, he probably did. It makes sense, right? Who else would have a reason to cut all of our credits cards off right now? Or the ability? Findlay’s a hacker. He did it, I’m sure.”
Melissa glanced at the office. “Doesn’t matter. They take cash.”
Barry opened his mouth but nothing came out.
“What? We used to come here to party freshman year. After hours stuff.” She dug into her pocket. “Everybody ante up. How much money do we have?”
“I have a twenty.” Barry shrugged. “I left the rest on the table when we fled the damned pancake house.”
I dropped my cash into Melissa’s hand. “All I have is two dollars.”
Barry chuckled. “What the hell, Peeky? Two dollars?”
“That’s it. Rub it in, rich guy.”
Melissa stayed focused. “Okay, okay, I’ve got… forty-one dollars. That’ll be enough. Give it to me. I’ll go get a room.”
“Hold on.” Barry peered at the office window again. “Do you think they might identify you and call the cops?”
“Good question.” She sighed. “How did that waitress know? Do you think they’ve put our pictures out on the news now?”
“No. I think she just happened to know the descriptions. We’re wearing the same clothes. Peeky was fine until I showed up. Then she put it together. The news hasn’t even announced our names.”
I was curious about that. “Why do you suppose they haven’t done that yet?”
“Because they know who we are and where we live.” Barry gritted his teeth. “Fucking Findlay saw to that. They’re trying to keep a lid on things until they find us. After that, who knows?”
I squirmed in my seat at the mention of Findlay’s name again, then gritted my teeth and stared out the window.
“Anyway,” Melissa said. “We can get a room, get cleaned up a little, and get some rest. And we can stay under the radar as long as I get rid of this big yellow Hey They’re Right Here sign that I’m driving.” She tapped the steering wheel. “Then we can go get our time machine.”
Barry stuffed the last of the glove box contents into the back pack. “You know where it is?”
“The Sun Dome. I saw them dropping it off just before I found you guys.” Melissa opened the door.
“Uh…” Barry looked at me. “Should one of us come with you?”
She guided a strand of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Sure. Which one? The guy with the broken leg or the guy from India, both of whom were just spotted by a waitress as the guys on the news?”
The door shut as Barry opened his mouth to reply.
* * * * *
“Jim, what happened?”
Findlay was angry. Even though the campus cops were working for him, he could only push things so far. He kept his anger in check and leaned in to the speakerphone at the campus police station.
“What can I say?” Officer Bolton squinted at the oncoming traffic as he prepared to make a U-turn across the grassy interstate median. “They got away.”
“How is that even possible? You were right there. You dropped Peeky off at the pancake house. All you had to do was sit in the parking lot and wait for somebody to come pick him up.”
“And I did. But I didn’t know what kind of vehicle to watch for. All of a sudden the kid comes running out and jumps into a yellow truck, and they took off.”
“Was he alone?”
“Peeky ran out of the restaurant like his hair was on fire. He was following the other kid, Barry. I’m guessing the girl was driving the truck.”
Findlay pounded the desk. “Damn, we could have had both of them along with Peeky.”
“They peeled out of the parking lot and took off for the interstate,” Bolton said. “By the time I got my car turned around and out of the lot… they had a big lead. I couldn’t see through all the traffic whether they went north or south, so I guessed south. There’s nothing much north anyway.”
Captain Ferguson walked over to Findlay. “It doesn’t matter. With a decent head start, they were sure to get free and clear. There are too many exits around that part of the interstate. They could have lost three of our cars.”
Findlay rocked in the chair. “Okay, so we know they’re together and we know they’re on the run. They’re probably scared.” He eyed Ferguson. “What do people do in that kind of situation?”
“Head for home, or get out of Dodge,” said Bolton.
“Or counterattack.” Ferguson rubbed his chin. “Jim, you better stick with Findlay for now.”
“Why didn’t your boy Peeky just drop a dime and let us nab them all in the restaurant? I was sitting right there.”
Findlay stared at the speakerphone. “I don’t know. Maybe there wasn’t time.”
“Or maybe he didn’t really flip.”
“Maybe. I don’t know that either.” Findlay stopped rocking and sorted it all out. “This was always about the money for Peeky, so I doubt he’ll let that go. He’s put in a lot of work to get this far. Remember, he put on a good act, but he’s a money grubbing little shit underneath it all. So I don’t know what’s going on with him, but I do know this—they won’t leave town and they won’t go to their homes. They’re going to come for their machine.”
Ferguson sipped his coffee. “The best chance they’ll have to reacquire the machine is during the transfer.”
“Against armed military people? No way.” Findlay sat back in the chair and folded his arms.
“This isn’t a piece of weaponry. The transfer team won’t be armed. They’ll be a couple of regular guys with a truck.”
“What the fuck, Ferg! I was expecting like an army!”
“Nope.” He emptied his coffee cup with a gulp. “Just a couple of guys and a truck. That’s what they’re sending.”
* * * * *
The pimply faced guy sitting behind the registration counter ogled Melissa as she approached. The motel office had a large window, but it was like the drive through at the bank—a glass pane with a small opening and a metal pass-through drawer. After a certain hour, all transactions were done through the thick glass instead of in the lobby so the clerk didn’t get robbed. He lowered the volume on his small TV.
Melissa unfolded the bills in her hand. “I need to get a room for a night, please.”
“Just you, miss?” The clerk stood, looking her up and down.
“That's right. How much is it, please?”
“Well, have you heard about our USF ‘Free for a Flash’ program?”
She glared at him. “I have not.”
He smiled. “Yeah, well, you know the room is free… for a flash.”
Frowning, she narrowed her eyes. “I'm not flashing you.”
“Hey, then we might be all full for the night.” He sat back down. “I’m just sayin’. Sixty bucks is a lot of beer money.”
Melissa noticed the office TV switch over to a news update, featuring the three students who were allegedly on the run. She leaned into the window. “You mean, if I show you my breasts,” she pressed her t-shirt against the glass. “You’ll give me my room for free?”
Pimples licked his lips. “Normally I just knock off ten bucks for a flash. But for you, I’d go the whole way.” The TV update continued.
Melissa pointed. “And would that be a security camera right there?”
He glanced over his shoulder at the small camera on the office wall. “Uh…”
“It is, isn’t it? So after I get my little discount,” she wiggled against the glass, “I can become an internet sensation. How thoughtful.”
Pimples had no reply. The news update finished.
Melissa leaned back and folded her arms. “Does your boss know about your little scam?”
He winked. “Who do you think installed the camera? Hey, a discount’s a discount. Most co
llege girls are happy to get it. High schoolers, too.”
“You're disgusting.”
“I'm employee of the month, momma. The manager likes that I keep the rooms full. He doesn’t ask how I do it.”
“Terrific. Maybe I can name both of you in my harassment lawsuit. Meanwhile, before you sneak off to the back room to do something even more disgusting, do you think you can tell me the real price of a room?”
“Fifty five, plus tax.”
Barry appeared over Melissa’s shoulder. “Is there a problem?”
Pimples straightened up. “No problem, my man. I was just fixing the lady up with a room. Chill. You’ll be bumping and grinding in no time, stud.” He slid a key under the glass. “You two have a good time tonight.”
Melissa counted her change while Barry scowled at the clerk. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“He's just showing me that the employees at cheap motels are just as creepy as ever.”
“I see you brought your backpack, stud. Got all your flavored lubes? Your video cameras and shit? Yeehaw, cowboy. Ride that pony.”
“You’re lucky this is bulletproof glass, cowboy, or you’d be wearing your nose on the other side of your face right now.”
“I hear that shit every 20 minutes on a Friday night, pal.”
Melissa put a hand on Barry’s side. “Stop. We’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves, remember?”
“She’s got the key, stud.” Pimples winked. “Go have fun, you two.”
As they headed to the room, I ran to catch up.
Pimples loved that. “One more? Oh hell yeah, baby. Sweet thang got a three way going for her tonight. Booyah!” He pressed his face against the glass as we rounded the corner. “I knew you was a freak baby! Maybe I should come visit on my break.”
Once inside the room, Melissa collapsed on the bed. “It’s only a matter of time before our pictures appear on those news updates and that creep at the front desk figures out who we are.”
I sat on the edge near her feet, but from the expression on his face, the wheels were already going a hundred miles an hour inside Barry’s head. He shut the curtains.
“He may figure it out anyway. The waitress did.” Barry leaned the crutches against the wall and lowered himself onto the bed, rubbing his eyes. “Let’s focus. They have the time machine at the basketball stadium, the Sun Dome. The question is, how do we get it?”
“We’re stealing it, right?” I said. “Isn’t that the idea? I'm not sure how, though. The cops watching it have guns.”
“Yeah, yeah. But let’s break down the problem. They've got our machine inside of a big stadium. We need to get it out. The only things preventing us from doing that are really just a few small obstacles…”
Melissa raised her head off the pillow. “Those obstacles are called guns.”
“Yeah, yeah, guns.” Barry bit his fingernail. “That's one challenge, but there are locked doors, too, and locked gates. Then, the actual guards. And they could call for backup over the radio, too.” He stared at the window. “The trick is, since we can't afford to confront them, how do we get them to abandon the machine?”
I put my hands on my knees. “I don't think they’re going to just walk away from it for a coffee break, if that’s what you’re hoping.”
“We have to make them want to leave it. Then we could almost stroll in and take it. Like, if they thought it was radioactive or something.”
Melissa groaned. “Come on. Tomorrow that machine goes into military hands and we never see it again. Be realistic. You’re talking crazy.”
“I know.” Barry turned to her. “But that’s kind of the same approach Findlay used on me. He got me to give up the machine at my apartment by setting fire to the place. He smoked me out.”
Melissa sat up. “We are not setting fire to the Sun Dome.”
“No, no. We don't have the resources to burn it…”
“Besides, it’s concrete.” I said. “I’m not sure it would even burn.”
Barry put his elbows on his knees, rubbing his face and letting out a big sigh. Then his head snapped up. “Hey, did you guys know that the big canvas roof on the Sun Dome collapsed once?”
“No.”
He chuckled. “I used to think it was an old wives’ tale. Our freshman year, they told us that whopper to keep us from climbing up there. You know—scare us into thinking it could collapse if a bunch of us walked on it. So, of course, we all had to go try it, right?”
Blank stares.
Barry blinked. “Neither one of you ever walked on the Sun Dome roof?” He shook his head. “It’s hard to believe we attend the same school.”
“Why is that such a thing with everybody?” Melissa shoved Barry. “What about it?”
He shifted on the bed, carefully stretching out his sore leg. “Well, the thing about the Sun Dome is, they put up the big concrete walls, but the roof is just canvas. It’s held up by air pressure.”
“Right.” Melissa pushed up on her elbows. “That's why when you go through the revolving doors you get that big wind rush.”
Barry nodded. “That’s right. And almost every door into the stadium is a rotating door, so you can’t accidentally leave one open. It maintains the pressure.”
“I wouldn’t know.” I folded my arms. “I never went to a basketball game.”
A big grin stretched across Barry’s face. “Something like twenty years ago, the power went out, and the fans that pump the air in stopped working. There was a cleaning crew inside at the time. They said it was scarier than an earthquake. The big canvas roof started sagging right away and the support frame was groaning. All the big stadium lights were breaking off and falling to the ground, exploding like missiles. It scared the hell out of them.”
I shrugged. “How does that help us?”
“Would you stay in a building if the roof was collapsing? If all the lights were falling down around you? The scoreboard, the concert speakers?”
“Why is this better than burning it?”
“Honestly, it’s simpler.” He rubbed his knees. “If we were to stop the fans, or put some big holes in the roof, that’s it. It would collapse.”
“Wow.” The idea of a stadium collapsing while things crashed to the ground inside… it amazed me. “And when the fans come back on, it’ll just blow itself back up?”
“Oh, God no. Last time, it was completely destroyed. That much canvas weighs tons. It caused all kinds of damage.”
“How do you know it would even work?” Melissa asked.
“It’ll work.” Barry stretched his leg out again. “If we cut enough holes.”
Melissa frowned. “But still we have to cut the power?”
“No. We don’t need the whole roof to collapse. We need it to start to collapse. That’ll be enough to scare those guys out of the building long enough for us to come in.”
I grabbed my head. “All that stuff will fall on us!”
“We’ll be inside the truck.” Barry waved a hand. “And we’ll be coming in quick and leaving even quicker.”
Melissa nodded. “After we grab back our time machine.”
“Can you imagine?” Barry chuckled. “You’re a campus cop who got stuck watching this stupid machine all night, and all of a sudden the stadium roof is collapsing and lights are exploding all over the place?”
I smirked. “That would make me leave.”
Barry pointed at me. “And you probably wouldn’t stop to pick up a time machine on the way out the door, either, would you?”
“So then…” I shrugged. “We just drive in and take it?”
“Well…” Barry rubbed his chin. “We’ll have to pick a couple of locks along the way. Then we sit in the truck and wait for all hell to break loose.”
Melissa peered up at Barry. “This seems awfully elaborate, Wile E. Coyote.”
“I’d agree, if it hadn’t already happened before. And a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow, right?”
&nb
sp; I was nervous. “How long would it take?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Melissa stood up. “We have all night, no tomorrow, and no plan B.” She put her hands on her hips. “Let’s go for it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“ ‘A couple of guys and a truck.’ That’s what they’re sending?” Findlay pounded the table. “Jesus, why don’t we just give them the damn time machine?”
“Well.” Ferguson cracked his knuckles, taking care to ensure that each joint popped before flexing his large hands. “Your buddies—they don’t know that. They don’t know if the Air Force is sending F-16s.”
Findlay wasn’t listening. He was lost in thought from hearing his own words as he’d said them out loud to the captain.
* * * * *
I took a deep breath. “So those very brave campus police officers with the guns are going to run for their lives? Then we just run in and scoop up our machine?”
“Yep,” Barry said. “Besides, they won’t have a reason to shoot at us. Who shoots at a collapsing roof?”
I pointed to his cast. “Who’s us, gimpy? You aren’t running anywhere. Or climbing up a roof to cut any canvas, for that matter.”
Melissa gathered her hair into a pony tail and slipped a rubber band around it. “Nope. I guess we’ll have to do that part, Peeky.”
My stomach knotted. This was a fine line for me to be walking, but what choice did I have except to play along? “Well, you know what they say.” I shrugged. “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Unless it lands you in jail.”
“I have news for you, Peeky.” Barry looked at the window again. “Getting that time machine back is the only thing keeping us out of jail right now. That puts us back in the driver’s seat.”
Melissa folded her arms. “What do we need?”
“A knife, for the roof. Something to pick the lock on the generator fence. Flashlights, maybe.”
“A getaway vehicle would be nice,” I said.
She waved her hand. “We can still use the truck. We were gonna ditch it anyway. We’ll just use it to grab the machine back first.”
“Peeky’s right. It would be better if we had a different vehicle.”
“Look,” Melissa said. “We go with what we have. I’ll drive us over near the Sun Dome, but not so close that anybody will see us. I’ll park behind the tree line to the soccer field. Peeky and I will sneak out. Barry, you stay with the truck. When we give you a signal, you bring the truck over and we’ll put the time machine in it.”
