Ben Archer

by Rae Knightly

  Ben knelt by Mesmo’s side, calling his name, trying to help him regain full consciousness while the alien fought a mysterious, inward battle. It took him almost fifteen minutes to control whatever was happening to him and by the time he blinked his eyes open, his face was grey from the effort.

  Ben helped him sit and lean against the boxes. “Are you ok?” he asked, beside himself with worry.

  Mesmo nodded, wincing.

  “What happened?”

  Mesmo had to calm down his rasping breath before he was able to answer. “Spirit portal,” he managed to utter.

  Ben’s eyes fell automatically on his wrist. Then he remembered that the last one to have had the watch with the spirit portal was Mesmo. His mind raced as he realized he hadn’t seen it since Mesmo’s escape from Victor Hayward’s clutches. A sinking feeling filled his stomach. “I don’t have it anymore. Do you?”

  Mesmo shook his head. “No, but someone tried to impose its effect on me. They tried to force my spirit out of my body. I have never experienced anything so powerful! I barely resisted.”

  Ben and Mesmo’s eyes met. They already knew who it was.

  “Bordock!” Ben gasped.

  Mesmo nodded. “He is desperate. Not a single Toreq in their right mind would consider doing such a vile thing. Where I come from, forcefully separating a spirit from a physical body is punishable by death. The technology was banned eons ago. Only a handful of Toreq still master that technology.” He gritted his teeth. “It can only mean one thing. Bordock is backed by some powerful adversaries.”

  Ben shuddered at the idea that there could be other Bordocks out there pulling strings, giving the shapeshifter orders.

  Mesmo must have seen the fear in Ben’s eyes because he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You don’t need to worry yourself over that. This is a situation that is taking place on my planet. It does not involve you.”

  Ben nodded, feeling only slightly relieved.

  “But it also means I need to get home at all costs, to warn my people. Give me a moment to gather my strength,” Mesmo said. “Then we’re out of here.”

  Ben nodded again and turned to Bob who was sitting on a box with his face buried in his hands. His pale fingers rubbed at his hair as if the back-and-forth movement kept him from falling into insanity.

  “Bob?”

  The man stared at the ground. “I didn’t sign up for this,” Ben heard him say.

  “Are you ok?” Ben asked.

  His father did not respond.

  Ben sighed and turned away, but then he heard Bob say in a clear voice, “You were in the car.”

  Ben whirled.

  Bob hid his eyes in his hands so that Ben could only see his mouth and beard. “Back when you were a baby, and I crashed the car...” He lifted his ruffled head and stared at Ben. “…you were in the car with me,” he admitted.

  For a second, Ben felt the earth open under his feet, threatening to engulf him. He had to lean against a wall of boxes and slide down to a crouching position to steady himself.

  Bob’s head was in his hands again. “That’s why your mom never forgave me,” he said. “I…um…I was really proud of becoming a father. The rest of my friends were too young to be thinking about such things. One afternoon, they got together and insisted I come. So I took you with me to show you off. But I stayed a bit too long, and by the time we headed out again it was dark, and I wasn’t thinking straight. That’s when I crashed the car.”

  He stared at the floor. “I panicked. My adult life was just beginning, and I was about to lose everything. So I fled and…” His shoulders quaked. “…left you in the car.”

  Ben listened in disbelief. He considered the man who was sobbing freely before him, trying to process this information. After a while, he reached out and placed a reassuring hand on his dad’s leg.

  “I was young and stupid,” Bob whimpered. “I made a mistake.”

  Mesmo came up beside Ben. “We have to go,” he said softly but firmly.

  Ben forced himself to stand shakily.

  His father had his hands to his face again. “I can’t do this,” he said in a defeated voice.

  The boy regarded his father who had the same colour hair and eyes as him. A rebellious mesh stuck out at the back of the man’s head, just like Ben, and he knew there was an undeniable blood bond between them.

  But Robert Manfield was also numbed by fear, and, although that was a trait Ben knew his mother did not have, he could understand it. How many times had Bordock not had the same effect on him? The difference here was that his dad had a choice to be part of the story or not. And clearly, he wanted no part of it. Because, whereas Bordock had no interest in his dad, Ben could not say the same. Had Ben been in his dad’s position, he didn’t think he would have felt up to the task of facing Bordock, either. Few, if any, would accept such a risk. And so, Ben understood.

  “Dad,” Ben said.

  Bob lifted his head.

  “I forgive you.”

  I forgive you for the accident. I forgive you for being too afraid to protect me.

  He swallowed a sob.

  I forgive you for not wanting to be my dad.

  Bob’s eyes lit with an inner acceptance of his own weakness. “Then, you are a better man than I ever will be,” he said.

  Mesmo placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Benjamin,” he urged. “We can’t delay any further.”

  Ben nodded, reluctant to let go of his father’s eyes. “Goodbye, Dad,” he whispered as he backed away, but the man had retracted into a shell again.

  Boy and alien slipped out of the warehouse, leaving Robert Manfield behind. They sprinted to the end of the back alley, then crouched at the corner to inspect the busy street before them, scanning for police cars.

  Ben wiped away the tears that rolled down his cheeks, focusing ahead. He realized they were opposite Berczy Park with its Dog Fountain and wondered if they could make it across without being too obvious.

  “Benjamin,” Mesmo said, pulling the boy out of his thoughts. Mesmo was observing him curiously.

  “What?” he said, sniffing.

  “Why did you forgive him?”

  Ben stared at the ground, considering the question, trying to ignore a great emptiness inside, but although it hurt, he knew he had done the right thing. He stared at Mesmo and replied, “He made some wrong choices. But at least he tried, and that’s good enough for me.” He leaned forward again, studying their options, but Mesmo continued to stare at the boy.

  Realizing this, Ben frowned. “What is it?”

  Mesmo seemed lost in an inner conversation as if he were trying to make up his mind about something. Then he sighed and said, “I think I am beginning to understand something about humans that I didn’t understand before.”

  Ben waited for him to explain himself, but instead, Mesmo said, “You make things very difficult for me, Benjamin Archer.”

  Ben snorted. “Look who’s talking!”

  They glanced at each other and grinned.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Resistance

  Chaos ensued in front of Bob’s apartment.

  Laura rushed to the scene, her heart thumping, her raincoat flowing behind her as she ran. Police cars halted traffic and surrounded the building entrance. Officers scrambled in and out of the lobby, ambulances whirled to a stop, and first aid crew hurried to check on possible injured people who had been unfortunate enough to find themselves under the rain of falling glass.

  Laura came to a stop on the other side of the street, desperately trying to figure out what had happened, praying that Ben was not among the wounded.

  Then a group of police officers detached themselves from the centre of the commotion and darted down the sidewalk, while a couple of police cars screeched to life, heading the same way. Their sirens wailed down the street.

  Laura grasped her handbag tightly. She plunged into the street, oblivious to oncoming traffic, and followed the law enforcement as fast as she
could.

  ***

  Ben checked the street one more time. “What do you think?” he said.

  “We need to keep moving,” Mesmo replied.

  “There’s a bus stop on the other side of the plaza,” Ben noted. “We might get lucky. Or we’ll come across a taxi.”

  Mesmo nodded. “Let’s go.”

  They emerged from their hiding spot in the alley and sprinted across the street, forcing a couple of cars to hit their brakes.

  They were barely across when the sound of a siren made Ben’s blood go cold. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a civilian car bump to a stop on the Berczy Park sidewalk behind him. Two men with bulletproof vests materialized out of the car, one of them barking into a speaker microphone.

  “Run!” Mesmo ordered, grabbing him by the back of his shirt collar, almost lifting him up in his hurry to get them going.

  Pedestrians froze and looked on in surprise; mothers grabbed their children from the edge of the Dog Fountain and hurried away, while, already, the sound of new sirens approached.

  Ben and Mesmo were halfway across the plaza when a helicopter shot over their heads. People shouted and rushed for safety.

  “Hold it!” one of the police officers yelled from the civilian car behind them.

  “Mesmo!” Ben sobbed, unable to keep up with the alien’s long strides. His vision went blurry, and he wiped at his eyes in a hurry. But the edge of his eyesight kept on darkening.

  What’s wrong with me?

  “Mesmo!” he called again, his voice sounding far away as if he were crumbling into himself. He couldn’t focus or feel the movement of his legs.

  Mesmo turned to face him, and Ben vaguely registered the alien’s eyes widening in shock. “Benjamin!” he yelled. “Resist!”

  Resist what?

  That was his last thought before Mesmo’s face turned into the granite mosaic paving below him. He did not feel the pain as he hit the ground, however, because already his spirit was plunging through a tunnel of darkness.

  ***

  From the opposite side of the street, Laura came to a stop as she watched Ben tumble to the ground. “No!” she yelled in anguish.

  Half a dozen police cars rushed to the scene, cutting her off. Two army trucks followed, spewing out a frightening amount of soldiers, armed to the teeth.

  Mesmo stood between Ben and the fountain, frozen in indecision. The soldiers rushed to take position around him, while terrified civilians scrambled in all directions.

  Laura looked on in trepidation as the alien hesitated between Ben and his narrowing chance of escape. “Don’t leave him!” she begged silently.

  Mesmo turned his back on Ben and raced away.

  “No!” she breathed, fighting a sudden onset of nausea.

  There were yells from the soldiers, who took position to shoot.

  In a couple of swift strides, Mesmo’s long legs brought him to the fountain. Without pausing, he plunged his glowing hands into the water, and before Laura could open her mouth, a sphere of blue power erupted around the alien, expanding faster than sound towards the soldiers. It was instantly followed by a deafening blast as sound caught up with the expulsed air and an exploding cloud of mist swept across the plaza, knocking over everyone in its path.

  Laura toppled as the mixture of air and water shoved her forcefully onto the sidewalk. Shop windows rattled. People lay on the ground, stunned.

  Laura picked herself up in a hurry, her head swimming dizzily.

  A thick mist emanated from the fountain. The soldiers, who had been hit the hardest, came to their senses and struggled to find their bearings. An eerie silence–only covered by the ringing in Laura’s ears and the muffled sound of a helicopter–maintained everyone in a daze.

  Then people began to scream. They scrambled to their feet, knocking each other over in their haste to escape.

  Laura watched dazedly through the running crowds as the mist around the fountain thinned, and Mesmo’s outline appeared in its centre. The alien carried Ben in his arms.

  ***

  Ben gasped.

  He felt as though he had just tumbled down a hill in total darkness and had landed at the bottom, bruised and battered. He figured he must have hit the ground pretty hard and expected pain to engulf him any minute. But the pain didn’t come.

  Instead, he became aware of muffled silence, cut by screams somewhere far away. He struggled to make sense of sound. His vision focused and he found himself surrounded by metal walls that belonged to the inside of a van. A small window near the front gave out to an empty driver’s seat.

  The last thing he remembered was landing face-first on the granite paving. Now, he was in a standing position, inside an unknown vehicle.

  How can that be?

  He wanted to approach two small, dirt-covered windows on the side of the van but found he couldn’t move.

  He glanced at his feet and hands fearfully. There was nothing wrong with them. Yet, when he tried to move, there was a resistance. He pressed against the air, and an invisible barrier restrained him with force.

  Something shone below him. He strained his neck to make out what it was. Blue beams emanated from four hand-sized, black boxes placed in a square formation under his feet. They seemed to determine the limit of his movements.

  As if he were stuck in a narrow shaft, Ben managed to bend his knees, grunting as he reached for one of the boxes. He curled his fingers around the object, but his hand passed right through it. Denial seeped into his mind. “No, no, no, no, no.” He clung to the word like a life-saving vest.

  Unable to fight the horrible, sinking feeling that threatened to engulf him, he stood and stretched his neck to glance out the small windows.

  Sounds of screams and running people surrounded the van. He could hear a helicopter hovering overhead. Soldiers gathered before a strange mist which hung to the ground across the street. From it, Ben watched Mesmo emerge, carrying a limp body in his arms.

  His body.

  “No, no, no, no, no,” he repeated. “Mesmo!” He punched at the air that held him prisoner, calling the alien’s name desperately. Feeling dizzy with despair, he shut his eyes and puffed his cheeks several times, willing himself to calm down.

  Break the connection!

  That’s what he needed to do.

  Take control of your thoughts and break the connection with the spirit portal.

  He forced his mind to go blank and willed his spirit back to his body. Instead, a powerful whirlpool of magnetic energy grabbed at him from all sides. He wanted to scream. It was as if he had been swallowed by suffocating quicksand. He didn’t know which way was up or down as his spirit stretched in a tug-of-war between his body and the alien trap. Fighting devastating panic, he stopped struggling and let his mind drift. Like a piece of metal drawn to a magnet, his spirit got sucked back into the van.

  “Let me out! Help!” he yelled.

  Outside the van, chaos drowned his voice.

  More police cars arrived at the scene. Ben watched in dismay as his lifeless body was placed on a stretcher and rolled into one of the army trucks. Mesmo was handcuffed and taken into another truck.

  The door on the driver’s side opened suddenly, and the van dipped as someone took place in the front seat.

  Ben turned in a hurry.

  A bald head appeared through the window. “Well, well,” Connelly smirked, peeking at him. “I’ve caught a little mouse.” He lifted his arm and tapped on the silver watch that contained the spirit portal. It was safely attached to his wrist. The blue beams below Ben glowed at its proximity.

  Ben’s voice died in his throat.

  Connelly seemed amused. “Don’t you just wish I had trapped Mesmo instead of you? His spirit turned out to be too strong, though, and it slipped through my fingers. But then, it occurred to me. Toreq blood now runs through your veins. So, I reactivated my devices and tried again.” Connelly clicked his tongue. “I guess my idea paid off.”

  He turned to face the
front, then hesitated and looked back at Ben again, a frown creasing his forehead. “What I didn’t expect was that Mesmo stayed to save you.” He shook his head, chuckling. “Or, at least, he made a flimsy attempt to.” He raised an eyebrow at Ben’s silence. “Lost your voice, little mouse?” He leaned forward and turned on the ignition. The motor roared to life. “Maybe you’ll find it again, in the end.”

  ***

  Laura ran down the sidewalk, bumping into fleeing civilians, trying to approach the group of soldiers who were taking Ben and Mesmo away, while remaining at a safe distance on the opposite side of the street.

  A van took off in a cloud of smoke before her, so she stepped onto the parking spot it had left unoccupied. Never once did she take her eyes off Ben’s limp body until the back doors of the military truck shut with a clatter, locking him in. The truck sped off without delay, guided by a police car that opened up the way before it with sirens wailing.

  “Ben!” she whispered, weak with worry.

  The truck that held Mesmo followed closely behind the first one, and in no time the convoy made their way down central Toronto.

  Someone yelled nearby, startling her. A man rushed by, while other people stopped and pointed, commenting loudly. Instead of running away from Berczy Park, she suddenly found civilians heading towards it.

  She followed the pointed fingers, and her mouth fell open.

  Now that the mist had gone, Dog Fountain was once more visible in the middle of the plaza. Emerging from its top, a thick column of frozen water sparkled in the afternoon sun. The size of it, in itself, was remarkable, but what caught Laura off guard was the shape the icy cylinder had been twisted into. It was a symbol, and the symbol resembled that of a treble clef–just like the one she had strung around her neck.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The Interrogation