The Dead Prince

by Alejandro Betancourt

  "Zack, you need to leave right now," Blake says urgently.

  "What's he talking about? I'm not leaving until I get answers."

  The Ucte sprints at Blake, who extends both arms and sends a wave of fire toward the attacker. The Ucte runs through the fire unharmed and punches Blake hard on the jaw, sending him to the ground.

  "Blake!" Zack shouts. He lashes out and lands a punch on the Ucte — and the impact fractures his hand. "What...? It's like you're made of steel!" Zack says, cradling his broken right hand in his left. He can feel the bones shift as his accelerated healing kicks in, powered into overdrive by the energy he's still retaining.

  "Yes, that's what humans tell me... but the fact is, they are just weak." The Ucte hardens his fist and smashes Zack in the jaw with a mighty punch that knocks him out cold.

  Meanwhile, Blake gets to his feet, slams his body against the Ucte, and pushes him toward the fire. The Ucte repeatedly bangs his arms against Blake's back, but in the flames Blake regains his strength and returns the punches. "You imbecile! You can't hurt me," the Ucte says with a laugh.

  Blake emits a continuous wave of fire that flows over the Ucte assassin's body. "Enough!" the Ucte bellows and delivers a punch that sends Blake smashing into a tree. He slides to the ground. Covered in blood and barely able move, he nonetheless blasts another wave of fire at the assassin. The Ucte walks through the flames until he stands over Blake. "You're as stupid as the humans."

  "Don't hold back!" Blake shouts suddenly.

  The Ucte seems briefly confused; then the steel-skinned man whirls around to counter a new attack. Zack, fully recovered, uses his speed to outmaneuver him and land numerous punches on his metallic tegument. At that point, the Ucte realizes just what Blake has accomplished: The Atiru's continuous, blast-furnace heat has caused his steel skin to soften. For the first time in years, he feels pain as Zack hits him in the face. The Ucte falls to one knee and wipes blood from his nose. "You're more powerful than you look, little prince, but it will take much more than that to bring me down."

  The Ucte bolts toward Zack, who, with years of experience from training with Dr. Buchanan and his father, is able to anticipate and counter each attack, until the Ucte is too exhausted to continue. "Where, oh where have you been hiding all this time, little dead prince?" the Ucte asks, holding his ribcage and breathing heavily.

  Zack ignores the attempt at misdirection and maintains his defensive stance; he refuses to be distracted. He can hear drones circling above, though, and realizes he doesn't have much time. He has to get Blake to safety. Sparks of electricity start forming around Zack's body as he absorbs more energy from the environment; the fires nearby die as he sucks in their pure energy, and the air turns cold enough to frost their breath and make the Ucte steam. The "dead" prince sends an intense power blast at the Ucte, who's too drained to cover his face and takes the blast full on. Zack appears through the mist an instant later, and in midair, lands a punch straight to the face of the Ucte that knocks him to the ground.

  ❖❖❖

  "Sir! We've lost all communications with our Cheetahs!" Agent Ginn reports.

  "Get me the sky drone feeds — we need to see and hear everything!" Helms commands.

  "Yes sir," Agent Ginn says, tapping at his keyboard.

  Meanwhile, Helms grabs his phone and connects with his agent on the ground. "Flacco, talk to me … what's the status out there?"

  "Sir, the only thing we can gather so far from the condition of Agent Donald's body is that he was shot at close range with a powerful incendiary device. His body sustained fourth-degree burns."

  "Anything on Agent Bradley?" Helms asks.

  "Nothing yet. Most of our men are helping the local authorities control the forest fire, which has spread quickly and violently. Another group is working on retrieving the processors and the AI motherboards from the damaged Cheetahs. We need more personnel on-site before this situation gets out of control — and we need to prepare a statement for public dissemination before people start panicking and rumors start circulating, sir."

  "Dammit!" Helms shouts. He sees on the other monitors that practically the entire Port Jervis National Forest is engulfed in flames. He realizes that if the fire isn't promptly contained, it will be only a matter of time before people start speculating that it's associated in some way with the rash of wildfires that had, in the previous year, obliterated many communities in the eastern part of the country — or worse, that the uncontrollable wildfires of the West have arrived. "Replay all available video footage from the moment the Cheetahs entered the forest until we lost communication," Helms demands. He and the rest of the crew watch and rewatch the Cheetah feeds, to no avail. They're unable to get a clear visual of the individual who provoked the mayhem.

  ❖❖❖

  Zack's is now completely healed. As he and Blake make their way out of the forest, Zack keeps looking back at the devastation caused by the fire. He's still in a state of disbelief that Blake, one of his closest friends, is an alien — just like him.

  "Blake, I need answers," Zack demands when he can no longer contain himself.

  "Zack, I promise I'll answer any questions you might have once we get somewhere safe."

  "No! I want the truth and I want it now!" Zack yells as he begins to draw energy. The wind picks up, and the ground Zack stands upon starts to sink and crack.

  "Really, Zack?!" Blake exclaims in exasperation.

  Zack sends a power-blast toward Blake that knocks him down, and immediately regrets it. "Blake, I'm sorry! You okay?" Zack gasps as he hurries toward his friend to help him up.

  "I'm fine, my king," Blake says as he dusts himself off. "I guess I deserved that."

  "Wait, what?"

  Blake looks at him questioningly, eyebrows raised.

  "You called me your king," Zack says.

  "Yes, Zack, I did. Or should I say, 'Zec'? You're the reborn son of King Uphu and Queen Liaj, rightful heir to the Euperian throne."

  Zack stands there, speechless, trying to digest the ramifications of what he's just heard. Finally, he asks faintly, "How could that be possible...?"

  "To say that it's complicated would be an understatement," Blake notes with a crooked half-smile. "You've been hidden so well even you didn't know where you were. But you saving Amy that night... well, it was the right thing to do, but it exposed us to a bunch of people who've been looking for us for years, allies and enemies alike."

  Zack snaps out of his stupor, grabs Blake, and says, "Amy's in danger! We need to save her."

  Blake's expression twisted into a frown. "Why would Amy be in danger, Zack? You're the one they want."

  "No, Blake. They think Amy is the Euperian, not me. They've never been after me!"

  "Hah, that's the best news I've heard all day!" Blake says enthusiastically. "That means they know nothing!"

  "No, it's doesn't," Zack snaps. "She knows everything, Blake, way more than I do. She's been dreaming about our background for months. If they capture her, they'll learn everything about me, you, Olivia, our parents — and our lives will be in even more danger."

  Zack turns and starts hurrying downhill toward the city, leaving Blake behind. Blake wants to stop him, but he realizes it's a lost cause — if it's true that Amy knows Zack's real identity, he has no choice but to help him get to her before the Ucte do. He dashes after his king, the young man he's protected for years, and promises, "Look, Zack, I'll help you find Amy — but before we do, we need to secure your sister. If it's true Amy knows who both of you are, then Odilia's in danger too."

  Zack stops abruptly, feeling guilty for not having given Olivia's safety more thought. How can he think about just himself and Amy at a time like this? Getting back to the city can wait. He closes his eyes and plunges into deep mental concentration mode; he needs to contact his sister, no matter how much she hates having him read her mind.

  ❖❖❖

  At her best friend Kaylee's house, Olivia watches TV, horrified. Firefighters are
trying to control the forest fire, but it's raging out of control. She hears Kaylee's parents in the background, discuss the possibility of global warning finally reaching the East, when she suddenly detects her brother in her mind. "Zack," she says out loud, surprised that he would contact her like this.

  Kaylee turns around and sees Olivia sitting motionless on the couch. "Zack?"

  Thinking quickly, she blurts, "Oh, yes, sorry, I forgot to ask him to pick up something for Mom. I'll be right back," she says, getting up and walking toward the backyard. She steps outside, leans against the wall, and teleports her soul toward her brother.

  "Zack, what's up?" Olivia asks, now standing next to her brother in her ghostly form. She looks around and sees, a short distance away, the fire that has caused panic all over the city. Her spectral eyes widen.

  "Olivia, I can't explain everything right now, but are you with Dad and Mom?" Zack sounds desperate.

  "No, I'm at Kaylee's. Wait, is that Blake with you?"

  He ignores her question. "You're in danger, Olivia. You need to get to Mom and Dad and wait for me. We also need to find Amy — it's important. We need to leave town tonight."

  "Olivia, tell Jim to go to my cabin if we don't arrive by six o'clock," Blake tells her. He can't see her, but knows she's there. Astral projection has always been one of her prime powers, both in this life and the one before.

  She just stares at him as she says to her brother, "Zack, I'm feeling kinda scared here. I don't understand."

  "Olivia, it's going to be okay," Zack says. "Just warn Mom and Dad, get ready to leave town, and go to Blake's cabin if anything seems out of place. We need to find Amy and keep her safe. I'll contact you in a bit, I promise. I need you to be strong right now, okay?"

  As Olivia's concentration begins to fade, so does her spectre. "I'm on my way. Please be safe and hurry home."

  ❖❖❖

  Olivia arrives home and finds her parents in the kitchen listening to jazz on the home stereo system. When Jim sees his daughter's expression, he orders the house AI, "Jarvis, music off."

  "Princess, are you all right?" Isabella asks.

  "I don't know, Mom. I just spoke with Zack and Blake; they're near the forest fire. They said we need to leave town as soon as possible, because we're all in grave danger. That they'll be coming for us after they find Amy, but if they're not here by six, we need to go hide at Blake's cabin until they can meet us there. I'm scared."

  "Everything' s going to be fine, honey," Jim says soothingly, though he doubts that's true. "Did they explain why we're in danger?"

  "No, Zack just said we have to find Amy," Olivia replies, sighing. "I guess she ratted us out or something."

  Jim looks at Isabelle and nods. Flipping a light-switch on the kitchen wall, he opens the basement door and hurries down the stairs. Meanwhile, Isabelle tells Olivia to go upstairs and get ready to leave. She then instructs Jarvis to turn the music back on, and to raise the volume to its highest level.

  Jim takes a sledgehammer from the tool rack and starts pounding the pavement until a small section of the floor caves in. Jim drops the hammer, kneels, and removes chunks of concrete and dirt until he's able to retrieve a long, black duffle bag from a depression in the ground. He stands, places the bag on a work-table, and turns its combination lock until it opens. He unzips the bag, takes a deep breath, and takes out a shotgun, a .45 Desert Eagle IV pistol, and boxes of rounds for both.

  Both guns are antiques, but both will work just fine.

  Chapter 19

  Amy's exhausted from her brutal commute. With the roadblocks the police have set up in the aftermath of the forest fire, it's taken her forever to get home. She places her thumb on the scanner beside the front door and hangs her coat in the closet. She then walks to the kitchen — and someone grabs her from behind and locks her in a chokehold. The man jabs her arm with a needle, and she slumps to the floor. He pulls a badge from his back pocket and flashes it in front of Amy's face. "Amy Harper, I'm Special Agent Franklin with the U.N. Special Task Force. I apologize for this, but I promise you, you are in no danger."

  Amy falls forward and lies on the floor, unconscious, having barely registered what he's just said. He doesn't care. He cuffs her and rolls her onto her side in the recovery position, just in case she has a negative reaction to the sedative.

  With the kid out of the way, Franklin walks up the stairs to Amy's room and pulls out his phone. A click of a button connects him to Helms. "Sir, Amy Harper has been captured. Everything went as planned; you can send the rest of the team to the house."

  After his boss's curt acknowledgment, Agent Franklin hangs up, activates the phone's video camera, and starts sending images of Amy's room to HQ.

  ❖❖❖

  Amy comes to slumped over the dining room table. After a confused moment, she remembers a little of what happened earlier, and, opening her eyes, lifts her upper body from the table. That's a mistake; her head swims and she wants to puke. She especially wants to puke when she realizes her hands are cuffed behind her. She blinks rapidly to clear her vision, wondering what the heck is happening to her.

  A man in a suit sits in front of her. She looks around and realizes that she's not at her dining table after all. She's not even in her home. She's inside what seems to be an interrogation room like those she's seen on old cop dramas. That mirror across from her is no doubt a one-way window, hiding the coward who ordered her taken from her home.

  She's been kidnapped, though she's sure the drone across from her would say she's been "detained" or "taken into custody."

  Now that she's obviously awake, he goes right into it, like some kind of soulless robot. "Hello, Amy Harper," the man says, and opens a white folder. He takes out some drawings and places them in front of her. "You have artistic talent, Ms. Harper. Who are you in this picture?" The man points to one of the pictures she drew of the alien kids she saw in her dreams.

  "I don't know what you're talking about," Amy says. "I made those drawings for a science project at school. I want to call my father. You had no right to kidnap me."

  ❖❖❖

  As Director Helms observes the interrogation from behind a one-way glass, Agent Franklin walks into the room and hands Agent Helms a tablet. "Sir, here are the DNA testing results for the girl. We've identified an unknown strain in her DNA, but every other result comes back as fully human."

  "Interesting," Helms says. "And her medical files?"

  Agent Franklin tabs the tablet's screen and brings Amy's medical files into view.

  Helms looks at the screen for about a minute. "Even more interesting," he murmurs, before returning the tablet to Agent Franklin. He leaves the observation room, and turns left to the door of the interrogation room. It's locked, of course, but reads his identity as he touches it and clicks open. He opens the door and walks into the room. Agent Madison, who is conducting the interrogation of Amy, is taken by surprise. "Agent Madison, could I have a moment with Ms. Harper alone?" Helms asks gently.

  Without a word, Madison stands and walks out. After the door clicks shut behind him, Helms presses some buttons on the wall that turn off the cameras and the sound. He sits in the chair in front of Amy that was recently vacated by Madison, and just stares at her for a moment. She stares back at him. She believes she's seen him before somewhere, but can't remember when or where.

  "Hello, Amy," Helms finally says. "Let me start by saying that I know you are not an Euperian. What I also know, however, is that you know a couple of Euperians I would like to chat with." He picks up a drawing of Zec and Odilia, the two alien kids from her dream. "As a matter of fact, these are the two I'm talking about."

  "I drew those from a picture my teacher showed in class," Amy declares.

  Helms smiles and says nothing. He leans back on the chair. "I knew your mother. You have her eyes, and she would be proud of you for sticking up for a Azhalian."

  "How did you know my Mom?" Amy asks with a puzzled expression on her face.

  "
We went to college together. In fact, I saw in your file that your family physician is the famous Doctor Buchanan. The three of us were inseparable during our college days."

  "Dad never mentioned you before."

  "That could be because back then, I went by my middle name." Helms smiles, then gets up and presses the intercom button. "Agents Franklin and Madison, please take Amy home before her dad returns from his trip." Helms then signals Amy to stand up.

  Agents Franklin and Madison walk into the room. "Sir, are you sure about this?" Madison asks in a low voice.

  "Yes, I am," Helms replies calmly.

  ❖❖❖

  Amy looks out the window in the rear driver's side seat of the government car. There's a grill separating the front of the cab from the back, just like in a police car. She can hear Agent Madison in the driver's seat, telling Agent Franklin how something's not adding up.

  Franklin doesn't have time to respond. He just shrieks as a truck slams against his side of the car and it rolls over like an overturned turtle, equally as helpless. It's over before she realizes it's happened.

  Upside-down, Amy can hear Madison yelling for her to respond she's okay.

  "I think I'm okay," Amy calls to him.

  "Good. Stay there until I can get you out safely." She watches, wide-eyed, as Madison unbuckles his seat belt and lowers himself to the ceiling of the car, which is now firmly on the ground. Agent Franklin is hanging unmoving in his harness, a pool of blood spreading on the car's inverted ceiling. Madison puts two fingers to his colleague's neck; when he curses, Amy knows that Franklin is dead. Pistol in hand, Agent Madison commando-crawls out the shattered window — and immediately falls dead as gunshots sound.

  Frantic, Amy unbuckles herself and lands face-first on the car's ceiling, barely saving her nose by taking most of the force on her right arm. Forearm aching, she crawls toward the glassless window and squirms her way out. Once free of the car, she starts limping away, screaming for help.