by Brinda Berry
“Can I help? I feel kind of useless.”
“Look around upstairs but use this to touch anything. We’ll take it with us when we leave.” He tossed me a kitchen towel. “Look for names of people or places, something that could tell us where he has been or might be going.”
“Yeah, I can do that,” I said while turning to walk to the staircase. I flipped on the light and then frowned as I looked over my shoulder to see if he was watching. I hurriedly used the cloth to wipe the light switch I’d touched. This was going to be harder than I thought. I wanted my own pair of burglar gloves.
I walked up the staircase quickly before I could lose my nerve. Using the cloth, I switched on the light of the first bedroom I entered and saw race cars decorating the bedding, curtains, and walls. Bookshelves were filled with books and plastic dinosaurs. I had the strange feeling that someone was staring at me and turned to see a row of plastic trolls with bright orange hair on a shelf at eye level. I frowned. I hoped that Bleeker’s kids were OK.
I turned the light out using the cloth and went to the next room. Bingo. I had found the home office. The walls of the office were filled with framed certificates and pictures. I wondered if the certificates were legit or part of this nice picture that he painted for the world to see.
A noise caught my attention, and I stopped what I was doing. Holding my breath, I waited to hear it again. Then I heard the drawers downstairs opening and closing and realized that it must be Regulus in his search.
The desk looked remarkably similar to the one in his office on the campus. There were papers in several stacks that might seem organized to the owner but looked like a mess to me. I clumsily shuffled some papers around with my fingers enveloped in the flour sack material of the kitchen towel. Utility bill, credit card bills, and more bills. A metal letter opener with Mickey Mouse mounted at the top. I wondered if my dad paid these bills every month. I realized that I was ignorant about the running of a household.
I sat and opened the drawer to see the standard pens, paper clips, scissors, and some business cards. I grabbed the cards and shoved them in my jeans pocket.
“Hello. Finding anything interesting?”
In the doorway stood a petite blonde woman pointing a small handgun at me. I noticed the gun first and then her eyes. There was something disturbingly familiar about her. Maybe she worked at the university.
“Don’t do anything stupid. You’re a smart girl. I want you to stand up and move away from the desk.” She spoke the words with an air of confidence while motioning with her head. The gun never wavered.
Rising from the chair, I was startled by a crash sounding from downstairs. I heard Regulus cursing.
She didn’t take her eyes off me as she stepped into the hallway. “Gordon,” she yelled.
The house was so quiet that I could hear the downstairs clock ticking for a moment.
“Come and get him,” Regulus yelled in a strained voice.
Surprise registered on the woman’s face and she kept the gun on me while turning her head to look down the stairs. I grabbed the letter opener and tucked it horizontally into the waist of my jeans. Her eyes wandered across the printed words across my chest, “I See Stupid People” and her brow furrowed in a slightly disapproving look.
“You’re going to walk down those stairs. Slowly.” She motioned the gun toward the hallway.
How would this end? My mind was racing. But the fear I had felt earlier was gone, replaced by a determination that I had never experienced before. My mind was clear and certain. Not one sound, color, or thought distracted me as I allowed her to direct my movement down the stairs. One sure foot in front of the other, waiting for the opportunity.
At the bottom of the staircase, I looked into the kitchen to see Regulus standing and holding something pointed at a beefy man who must be Gordon.
Recognition must have been evident on my face before the words left my mouth. “You’re the creep from GameCon.”
The woman’s gun pressed lightly at the back of my head.
Regulus pushed the silver box against Gordon’s temple, the same device that he had used days ago against the Slips. Although I knew that the box could send an electrical shock through a person and disable him, there was something so much more menacing about the thought of a bullet through my brain.
“I’ll be sure that this melts his brain tissue. Let her go. It will be a trade.” Regulus never looked at me. He met the woman’s eyes with a commanding stare. When she didn’t respond, he said, “If we kill them both, it will leave you and me. I’m certain that one of us will die. Who do you think it will be?”
“You won’t risk her. You need her.” She hesitated like she was thinking it over. The metal of the gun barrel still pressed against my skull.
“Shoot her,” Gordon said calmly. A cloud of dark green menace clustered around his head much like a swarm of flies around a carcass.
I forced myself to ignore the vision. “This is like a Mexican standoff.”
Regulus stayed silent. He probably had no clue what that meant.
“I have a better idea,” the woman said. I wished she’d move the gun. It quivered slightly against my head, and I couldn’t tell if she was nervous or getting tired of holding her arm up.
Gordon darted back and, lightning-fast, knocked the silver box from Regulus’s hand. It flew through the air and landed ten feet away, sliding across the linoleum floor of the bright yellow kitchen.
I grabbed the letter opener from the waist of my jeans, bent, and stabbed backward. I was blindly hoping to hit something important. I must have succeeded because she screamed and the gun fell away from my head.
Regulus and Gordon were a frenzy of fists before falling to the floor, grappling. They reminded me of the school wrestling team. The woman grabbed the back of my hair. I looked over my shoulder and kicked back frantically. In a move I had seen performed, I then stopped, letting myself fall back against her as she pulled. The momentum of her pulling me landed her on the floor.
I caught myself at the last second and stayed upright. The letter opener was stuck in the woman’s thigh and blood poured from the wound. She jerked it out of her leg.
She had dropped the gun, and I grabbed it.
On the floor, Gordon had Regulus in a chokehold. I pointed the gun at Gordon and said, “Let him go. Now, creep.” I held the gun steadily with both hands.
When Gordon didn’t move, I released the safety, cocked the hammer, and pulled the trigger. A red circle appeared on his sleeve. I had shot him in the upper arm.
He screamed in shock and anger, letting Regulus go. I looked around to see if the woman was coming up behind me. She wasn’t. She was gone and the front door was open. Scurrying to his feet, Gordon ran to the side door and left without looking back.
“Please tell me that you’ve shot a gun before and that wasn’t luck,” Regulus managed to gasp.
I ran over to help him up. “Sure I have. All the time in Quest of Zion. And I’ve played lots of shooter games.”
His eyes widened and he shook his head in disbelief. “Let’s get out of here. You are not what you seem, Mia Taylor.”
“I do well under pressure.” I shrugged.
He led me to the door and looked at the blood on my jeans. “Are you hurt?”
“No, it’s her blood. The woman. Regulus…”
“Yes, something is wrong?”
“I recognize that woman. I’ve seen her picture before.” I walked out the door without looking at him. “Listen, this is one of those things I’m too tired to think or talk about, but you know that I don’t know my mother and she left us when I was a kid? Well, that was her. I think. I’ve seen pictures. I may have just met my mother.”
I looked at his face and could tell he wasn’t surprised.
Chapter 15
Secrets to Portal
“Look,” Regulus said, pointing up into the starry sky.
I leaned my head back to follow his gaze. “What? You gonna tell me t
he secrets of the universe?” My tone was forced at an attempt to sound light and mocking. I crossed my arms across my chest and tilted my head, waiting for his answer.
I didn’t know why Regulus had stopped the car at the end of the road leading to my house. We were parked directly beside the waiting booth.
“No, I’m going to tell you the secrets to the portals,” he answered matter-of-factly. He opened his door and stood. When I made no move, he leaned down and looked into the car. “Come on, I’m not going to kiss you again.” Then he added softly, “Not tonight.”
I could feel my cheeks heat at the thought. I hurriedly jumped out of the passenger seat. “No, I didn’t think that. At all.”
He walked to my waiting booth, ducked to fit under the low roof and sat. He patted the seat beside him. “Then sit with me. I’ll show you something.”
All I could hear was my own breathing in the still night. I felt absurdly obvious. I tried to inhale and exhale calmly. I asked, “What were you pointing at up there?”
“The moon. See how it’s a waxing crescent tonight?”
“Oh, yeah. My science project that I have been ignoring involved recording the moon phases and animals’ eating patterns…” I faded off to stop myself from ranting on about my school project. He was smiling at me. I felt sillier.
“What about it?” I asked.
“The portals move every moon phase. Some move more than others.”
I was shocked. “The one you came through. It’s still here, right?” I looked over in the general direction of where the portal had been ever since my knowledge of it.
“Actually, no. That’s what took Arizona so long. He had to travel to another portal location. One that had been mapped by the IIA.”
I nodded. “We don’t have one in Whispering Woods now?”
“I am positive that one still exists here. There has been a portal in your woods for as long as the IIA has been here. The IIA hasn’t mapped it yet. We will, but it takes a little time.”
“My woods. You mean our land?”
“This land near your home. Your portal has always been within a one mile radius of this location. Your waiting booth seems to be the epicenter of portal movement. You can find it.”
I saw that he was looking at me expectantly. Waiting for some sort of reaction.
“No, I don’t know why you think I can.” I shook my head to emphasize my statement. I was embarrassed, and my throat was tight. I wiggled on the hard seat. I looked back up at the crescent-shaped moon, trying to absorb what he was telling me.
“Yes, you can, but you don’t let yourself. You know that you feel the portal. You’ve denied your own nature. But your ability to feel and see what others can’t…it makes you special. It’s why the IIA has your genetic map on file. Your mother and brother are the same. It’s recorded. Remember how you felt like you could hear a humming near the portal? Think back. Close your eyes.” He brushed his fingertips lightly over my eyelids to close them. “What did you hear or feel or smell at the portal?”
He eased me back, and I felt the hardness of the waiting booth’s wall on my side. I kept my eyes shut, trying to concentrate on remembering the things he asked me. The memories came easier with my eyes shut. I wouldn’t have to look into his eyes.
“Um. OK. I don’t know. I can’t remember.” My eyes were shut so tightly that I could feel the tiny wrinkles at the corners.
“You’re trying too hard. You don’t have to try. This isn’t a pass or fail, a test of you. I think if you see that day in your mind, you’ll remember certain sensations that you felt at the head of the portal.”
I recalled the last time I went to the portal entrance with Regulus and Arizona. I was drawing a blank. I only remembered the thrill of riding on the motorcycle and hanging on to Regulus. I suddenly flashed back to an earlier time at the portal. It was the first time with Austin. I could see Biscuit in my mind’s eye, twirling and barking excitedly. “I felt a vibration. I was drawn to it, like maybe…a moth is drawn to a warm light bulb.” I opened my eyes and he was close, listening to every word. “That sounded stupid.”
“No…no. Never stupid.”
I waited for him to continue.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked.
“Kissing you again. Your eyes were closed, and it was very tempting. But I want you to trust me.”
I opened my lips to interrupt him but he pressed his fingers over my mouth to stop my words that would spill out any minute.
“I want you to trust me like I trust you. You saved me from death.”
Taking his hand away, I looked into his sincere blue eyes. “I think that’s an exaggeration. I just put some ice packs on you.”
“You protected me and sheltered me when I was vulnerable. You could have left me to be killed by the many who would do so. The IIA has many enemies.”
“I’m scared, Regulus. I’m terrified of being part of this. I don’t know why you have so much faith in me. I’m trying to trust you, but I need to know something. The truth. Do you and Arizona know where Pete is?”
He looked into my eyes, and I searched his face for any clue that I should doubt him.
“No, Mia, I don’t. I’m relieved that I don’t. I know that is not what you want to hear from me. You wish that I could give you the answers, but sometimes people don’t want the truth.”
I looked at him, glad that I could trust him, but I was heartbroken at the same time. He didn’t know Pete’s whereabouts.
My cell phone began to vibrate and play “Bad Boys.” Austin. How had he done that?
“Hey, where are you guys?” I asked him.
“Disposing of Bleeker’s evidence,” he answered. “I hope I wake up tomorrow and this was all a bad dream.”
“I wish it could be, but I keep waking up and it’s real,” I said into the phone, and Regulus raised an eyebrow.
“We went by my house to get a shovel. I had to park a mile away so my parents wouldn’t hear the engine. This stuff always looks easier in the movies.”
“Where are you now?”
“Arizona knows of some place, actually on your land, called Potter’s Field. Do you know what he’s talking about?”
“No.”
“Give the phone to Regulus. Arizona wants to talk to him. We need to let the professionals coordinate.” He sounded snarky.
I handed my phone to Regulus and listened as he gave one word answers that left me clueless. When he finished the call, I was ready for some answers. “What’s Potter’s Field?”
“A place we’ve used for emergencies. I’ll show you. We can get fairly close in the car.” He took my hand and led me back to the car. Again, he automatically went to the driver’s side and at my look of exasperation, shrugged and grinned as if he couldn’t help it.
Regulus reversed the car and returned to the highway leading toward Whispering Woods. Even though the sky was filled with stars, the night was dark without the artificial lights you find in civilization. The trees grew in solid walls along the sides of the road. Regulus turned the car onto a side road that was virtually invisible. The headlights cast an ethereal glow a few feet in front of us as we bumped along. The car dipped occasionally into potholes in the rarely traveled dirt road. An armadillo lumbered across the road, and Regulus slowed as it crossed.
A half mile later, Regulus pulled over and stopped. “We have to wait now. Arizona will retrieve us.”
As if on cue, the Jeep arrived. Regulus and I slid into the back seat. I sat behind Austin and his silence told me how his night was going. Arizona was back to his cheery self, all smiles. I wished Austin would say something…anything.
“I’m grossed out sitting on this seat and realizing that dead people were here earlier tonight. What happened to your cargo?” I couldn’t help myself from asking.
“Deposited already. Actually, we’ve dug up a grave we’re using,” Arizona said it nonchalantly. The glow of the Jeep’s dashboard cast some light in the darkness. I studied the
back of Austin’s head, trying to read his body language. Austin looked into the rearview mirror and made brief eye contact with me before concentrating on the road ahead.
“Not following what you’re saying. If you’ve dug a hole in the ground to bury that poor woman and her baby, it won’t work. Animals dig stuff up out here, Arizona. And it will be discovered by the police, and… Don’t you watch CSI and television?”
“No,” Regulus and Arizona said in unison.
Austin broke his silence. “We dug up an old grave, Mia. It’s in a casket with another body.” He said the words so low that I barely heard him.
“No, no, no.” I started freaking out. “I don’t know what you mean that you dug up somebody. You can’t do that. Why is there a grave out here?” Nausea rolled over me and my face was going tingly. I curled into myself and scrubbed at my cheeks with my fists.
Regulus scooted over in the back seat until his leg touched mine. “You have to know about this place. There can’t be any secrets in this. You may need to bring a body here sometime. Under different circumstances, it could be my body that you would dispose of.” When I didn’t answer, he put his hand on my knee and squeezed in reassurance.
Austin stopped the Jeep in the middle of the dirt road and turned to the back seat. “She’s fine. Just let her get used to the idea for a minute.” He stared at Regulus’s hand on my knee.
We sat in silence. The Jeep idled and I sucked in deep gulps of air. All three sat looking at me while I sat and tried to breathe.
“OK, OK. Everybody quit staring. I need to move. This is making me crazy, sitting here like you’re waiting for me to pass out,” I said.
“Come then. Let’s take her to this place,” Regulus said more to Austin than to me.
We drove off road for a couple of miles before Austin stopped. Stepping out of the Jeep and into waist-high weeds, I followed as they walked ahead, walking along a path known only to Regulus and Arizona. Austin and I had ridden four-wheelers across most of my land, but I didn’t recognize this area. Here, it was too overgrown to easily ride the ATVs. Tree branches hung low and I often had to duck. We walked for another half mile, and I fervently wished for a flashlight.
