The Fire and the Anvil

by Michael Galloway

  “You still there?” John said.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “Stay on the line. Please, stay with me until we get there.”

  “Okay.” A moment later the call dropped again.

  John tried multiple times to redial her number. Every time the call rolled over to her voicemail.

  As Captain and Dr. Ferganut climbed into John’s truck, John called out to them. “Shouldn’t we have something to stand guard in case the spiders come back?”

  “I’m already on it. Look back,” Dr. Ferganut replied.

  John turned around. There, just above the roof of the house, several dozen robotic bees hovered in formation.

  * * *

  John drove his truck north until he reached the back side of a traffic jam. Several columns of gray-white smoke corkscrewed their way into the sky less than a mile ahead of him. He swiftly pulled over to the shoulder of the road and caused Captain to drop his can of Dr. Pepper in the backseat.

  Dr. Ferganut leapt out of the passenger seat and flipped the lid off his cardboard box. He dipped his hand inside and scooped up a handful of bees. He lofted them into the air until they took flight on their own. He did this several more times until he emptied the box. Each handful of bees coalesced into a separate swarm. Each swarm gravitated towards one of the tiny black boxes that hovered on the edge of the incoming storm front. When he was satisfied the bees were on their way, he got back into the truck.

  The wind picked up and began to blow the gray-white smoke in their direction. The grass began to bend on the hills around them as raindrops speckled up the truck’s windshield. The traffic jam began to creep forward and so John pulled the truck back onto the highway. He prayed silently that the rain would douse the flames.

  A gleaming black Cadillac Escalade rolled through the smoke on the other side of the highway and gave John hope that the fire was getting extinguished up on the road ahead. It was soon followed by a rusted blue Toyota Camry with a missing headlight.

  John tried to call Madeline again but this time the call refused to go through. As he made his way toward the bank of smoke the rain and wind buffeted the truck like the interior of a car wash. Intermittent flashes of lightning jolted his nerves and out of the smoke one of the hovering black boxes spiraled down until it smashed into the road fifty feet in front of him.

  “One down and many more to go,” Dr. Ferganut said.

  In minutes John reached an ambulance, two police cruisers, and a small yellow fire truck parked along the shoulder of the highway. A police officer with a yellow rain slicker and an orange baton directed him to drive forward. As he passed through the remnants of the wall of fire, John could see the blackened remains of the grass smoldering on either side of the highway. In anxious anticipation he scanned the vehicles passing by on the other side of the road for Madeline.

  As time went on his breathing became shallow and his chest muscles tightened. “Come on Madeline. Where are you,” he said under his breath.

  “Is that her?” Captain said as he pointed to a car one hundred feet ahead. “I think that’s her.”

  “Where?”

  “Just up ahead.”

  As soon as he saw her canary-yellow Volkswagen Beetle he honked the horn several times. He rolled down his window and waved. She responded by holding her hand out her driver side window.

  He then did a u-turn and pulled up behind her vehicle. To his right another black box struggled to stay airborne under an onslaught of Dr. Ferganut’s robotic bees. It soon smashed into the side of a hill and the bees swarmed back toward the truck.

  Dr. Ferganut rolled down his window and held out his hand. The bees clustered around his hand and he brought them back into the truck. He deposited them into his cardboard box and rolled the window back up.

  Captain pressed himself against the back wall of the truck. “I still don’t trust those things.”

  Soon another black box wobbled and dipped as it faced an onslaught of robotic bees. This box bounced off the road in front of Madeline’s car and then tumbled into the ditch to her right.

  The entire way back to Dr. Ferganut’s house, John desperately wanted to call Madeline just to hear her voice. He also wanted to pull over and embrace her but instead decided to wait.

  * * *

  When they arrived at the house, John got his wish. He pulled up behind Madeline’s car in the driveway and rushed out to greet her. As soon as she emerged from her car, he hugged her tight in his arms and then kissed her on the lips for a full minute. “I couldn’t get through to your phone. Are you okay? Were your burned at all?” He looked her over and brushed back her brown shoulder length hair. He stared deep into her eyes and refused to look away.

  She wore an indigo sweatshirt with a hood and white pants that were smudged with dirt. Her open-toed shoes were caked with mud. “I’m fine. Shaken, but I’m okay.” She then turned her attention to her father.

  Dr. Ferganut hobbled his way out of the truck and carried his box of bees under his left arm. Captain soon followed. Several swarms of robotic bees droned high above until Dr. Ferganut extended his right hand into the air. The bees clustered around his hand until he shoved them into the box.

  Madeline paced reluctantly up to her father and Dr. Ferganut closed the gap. He set down his cardboard box and embraced her.

  “I missed you so much,” he said as he kissed her on the forehead.

  She did not put her arms around him at first. “I missed you too, Dad. Thanks for coming to get me.”

  “I’m always here for you,” he said as he peered over her shoulder at John and then looked down at the front lawn. Rain fell steadily now.

  Dr. Ferganut released Madeline and bent down to look at his front lawn. He pointed to a fist-sized hole with burnt grass around it. He took off his glasses and peered up toward the sky.

  John heard an erratic humming noise coming from just beyond the row of pines along the dirt road that ran in front of the house. He scanned the sky for signs of another flying black box and when he spotted it, he shouted, “Incoming!”

  Dr. Ferganut turned and saw it too. He grabbed his cardboard box of robotic bees and plunged his hand inside. With one swift motion he threw a handful of them at the drone.

  In seconds, the swarm pounced on the drone and jammed up its blades. It spun wildly out of control and crashed into the side of Dr. Ferganut’s truck.

  Dr. Ferganut walked over and retrieved the few bees that remained. He then grabbed the drone and disabled it with the heel of his boot. When its blades stopped spinning he carried it over to the others so they could examine it together.

  “If Captain hadn’t found those spiders, this whole place would be in flames,” Dr. Ferganut said. He handed the drone over to John.

  John turned the device over in his hands. It resembled a modified box-shaped quadcopter with a rotor in each corner. On the underside of the device was a small unfired rocket that had a piece of carbon nanotube thread hanging down in the back. “This would explain the arcs of lightning Madeline saw.”

  He passed the drone over to Captain to study. His stomach growled for the first time in hours as his nerves began to settle down. He scanned the neighborhood skies one last time before deciding to grab Madeline’s hand and head indoors.

  * * *

  In the evening, John slipped into the guest bedroom with Madeline. He sat down next to her on the bed and pulled out his laptop computer. He brought up his interview notes onscreen and handed the laptop over to Madeline to review. “Here’s what I got so far.” One part anxious and one part defiant, he hung on to her every word.

  She scanned each page methodically and intently studied his notes. She made no comment until she reached the end of the document. “I’m surprised he told you this much.”

  “What made you say that?” John said.

  “Did he talk about me? Or mom?”

  “I haven’t gotten to that yet. I figured if I made it this far, I’d see if he’ll open up about some
of the other things. We keep getting interrupted. Besides it’s just…awkward. With him being your dad and all.”

  Madeline stared at the bedroom window as if lost in thought.

  “Do you still think Dr. Minton is a phantom?” John said. He knew the question could theoretically wreck a tender moment but he could not help himself.

  “You asked me that before. I know he’s not.”

  “What? But all this time…”

  She put up a hand and stared into his eyes. “I saw him today. On the highway. He was wearing a black leather jacket, had a gray ponytail…” Her voice trailed off. She cleared her throat before she continued. “He had goggles on. And a bandana. He brought up Dad and he said, ‘His little bugs won’t save you from what’s to come.’”

  “Well he was wrong. Your dad’s little bugs stopped the lightning strikes,” John said firmly.

  “I also told him about Dr. Amalynth using a hammer of judgment and he said that he was the anvil.” She continued to stare into John’s eyes as if to study his reaction. “I saw Dad’s wireflies around him. He swatted them away, but then one landed on the hood of my car. Thanks for sending them.”

  “Your dad did that. Come to think of it, he did talk about you a little bit. He mentioned that you used to get excited by the bees he used to test in the yard.”

  “He remembered that?”

  John took the opportunity to hold her hand until a burst of laughter came from the other side of the house. He motioned toward the living room and they both rose up from the edge of the bed to investigate the commotion.

  In the living room, Captain held his hands in the air in mock shock. “Unbelievable.” He looked over at John. “He actually beat me.”

  Dr. Ferganut laughed it off. “I haven’t won a game of Stratego in years.”

  “You let him win, didn’t you?” John said to Captain. On the board, half of Captain’s army was wiped out while only a third of Dr. Ferganut’s remained.

  “I didn’t let him win,” Captain said. “Honest. He beat me for real. I taught him some strategies and then he used one of them against me. I didn’t see it coming.”

  Madeline peered wistfully at her father but kept her arms crossed. “Congratulations.”

  “Thanks,” Dr. Ferganut said as he cleared his blue pieces from the board.

  “Madeline says she met Dr. Minton out on the highway,” John said.

  “John and I are convinced we’ve seen him before,” Madeline said. “He talked about you. He told me, ‘His little bugs won’t save you from what’s to come.’”

  Dr. Ferganut froze and stared hard at the game board. “But they did. The little bugs. They downed his drones and the lightning stopped. And the rain put out the fire.” There was an air of superiority in his demeanor. He quickly resumed clearing the board of the blue pieces.

  “I think we should go looking for him. Before he pulls something else,” John insisted.

  “And capture his flag,” Captain joked. He held up his red flag piece for Madeline so she could understand.

  “What about your interview?” Madeline said with a puzzled look.

  “We’ll get it done,” Dr. Ferganut said with a wink. “But I don’t know if going after him is such a great idea. The risks are high and the Sand Hills area is enormous.”

  “And I don’t think you understand how trapped I felt out there today,” Madeline said to John. She began to pace around the room. “Like Dad said, the Sand Hills area is huge. Where would you even begin to look? Do you think he has some kind of hideout?” Sarcasm filled her voice.

  “I think John is on to something,” Captain said. “When we drove in we saw a cloud of bugs just over the hills and to the south of your dad’s house. The fire was south of here, too. Those things can’t have that great of range, can they Dr. Ferganut?”

  “No. It’s doubtful they can go long distances without a recharge. Especially if they use some of that energy to set fires,” Dr. Ferganut replied. By now he cleared all of his pieces off the board.

  Captain stood up from the wooden chair across from the couch. He stretched his arms and yawned.

  “Hang on. I have an idea,” John said. He jetted out to his truck, reached inside, and grabbed his ragged but beloved road atlas off the dashboard. He leafed through it until he found the Nebraska state map. He brought the atlas inside and slapped it down next to the Stratego board. He then took Captain’s place in the wooden chair.

  “What are you thinking?” Captain said.

  “Get me a pen,” John directed.

  Captain handed him a red marking pen and then stood next to him.

  “Here. Look at it this way.” John drew a mark on the map where they first spotted the flying firebugs. He then drew a jagged line where the tornadic storm exploded to the south of Dr. Ferganut’s house. He sketched another line where the wall of fire erupted earlier in the day. In between the lines he made a mark where Dr. Ferganut’s house was located.

  He leaned back in the chair far enough to make it creak and tapped the pen on his knee. “The way I see it, he’s somewhere between here and Valentine to the north. What’s the range on those firebugs?”

  Dr. Ferganut said, “Maybe five miles. Probably less than that.”

  John drew several red circles on the map, each with a radius of five miles. He drew one around where they first saw the flying firebugs, another around the storm that blew up to the south, and finally one around where the wall of fire crossed Highway 83. Oddly enough, the circle around the firebug sighting and the one around the tornadic storm were not very different from each other.

  He shaded the intersection of the three circles with the red pen. “I think we should start in this area. Drive down all the roads. See if we find anything suspicious.”

  Captain’s eyes widened. “John! Your precious atlas! It’s ruined!”

  John shrugged his shoulders. He knew he needed a new one anyway and eventually, at one of his many gas station stops during his travels, he would find the right replacement. He set the pen down and looked on at the Stratego board. He gazed at Dr. Ferganut and then at the remaining red pieces on the board.

  “I don’t think it’s safe to track him down, John,” Dr. Ferganut said. “You’ve already seen what he’s capable of. What makes you think he won’t escalate this if he’s cornered?”

  “I can drive fast. Plus Captain Avalanche here can get us out of anything. Right, Captain?”

  “Uh…right, right.” There was hesitation in Captain’s voice.

  “Oh, come on,” John said. “It’s a lot harder to get away from a twister that’s changing speed than a few sparks in the woods. We’ve got to end this.”

  “We’ve?” Madeline said. “Are you serious, John? I could have been killed out there today. If he sets enough fires there won’t be any escape routes.”

  Dr. Ferganut seemed to ponder the debate a moment before commenting again. “On the other hand, it’s the last thing he expects me to do. I’ve been playing defense so long I’ve forgotten how to take it to the enemy. Captain reminded me of that tonight.”

  John leaned forward and began to populate the Stratego board with more red pieces. “So does that mean you’re up for one more game?”

  Chapter Nine

  John, Captain, and Madeline left the house at nine the next morning, hoping to find Dr. Minton’s location before anything else burned to the ground. Captain and Madeline piled into John’s truck while John discussed some last minute preparations with Dr. Ferganut on the doorstep.

  “If I were you, I’d stay on the main roads,” Dr. Ferganut said. “The cell phone reception in some areas can get pretty spotty.”

  “I’m not worried,” John said calmly. “There’s three of us and one of him.”

  “Here, before you go. Let me give you these.” Dr. Ferganut ducked back inside and returned with two tan cardboard boxes. “You might need them.”

  John peeked inside the boxes. In the first box were two wireflies and in the other box
were several silver centipedes. “What are we going to do with the centipedes?”

  “They’re for the bombs. In case you come across any.”

  “Bombs?” John’s voice was incredulous.

  “I wouldn’t put it past him to rig up a few devices around a hideout. If you ever find such a thing.”

  John put the lids back on the boxes and headed to his truck. “How many of these do you have?”

  “Enough.”

  John felt a wave of guilt wash over him. He held the boxes tight under his arm. “I don’t know. I don’t feel right about taking these. Especially if they get blown up by bombs.”

  “Well, if you think you’ve found the place don’t go near it until you deploy the centipedes. I put some directions on a piece of paper in the box. Oh, and here. You’ll need this too.” He handed John a slender black laptop computer. “To direct them.”

  “Aren’t you coming with?”

  “I think I should stay back. To guard the home front and all that.” There was a solemn look in Dr. Ferganut’s eyes as if he really did want to drive with them. “Be careful, John. I can’t say that enough.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll bring back all your devices. Unused, of course.” John sighed as he took the laptop. He climbed into his truck and set the boxes and the laptop computer in between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat. He glanced over at Madeline and stared into her eyes for what seemed like ten minutes. Was he doing the right thing? Was he putting all of their lives in jeopardy by trying to track down a man he had only seen once in person? He could see the hesitation and subtle fear in her eyes and it rattled him to the core.

  Captain gave him a thumbs-up signal from the backseat. “So do you think his flag is red or blue?”

  * * *

  The first target to investigate was a few miles north of Dr. Ferganut’s house. As soon as they passed through the burned out grassy areas from the previous day’s fire, he directed Madeline to pull out his binoculars from the glove compartment. “Start checking the hills. Let me know if you see anything suspicious.”