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Invasion

Page 10

by Jon S. Lewis


  : : CHAPTER 22 : :

  Grandpa McAlister owned a piece of property near the Superstition Mountains on the outskirts of town. It amounted to a little over ten acres of raw desert in the middle of nowhere. Outside of coyotes and wild hogs called javelina, nobody but Grandpa McAlister knew where it was.

  The only building on the property was an oversized tin shed, which Colt thought would be a perfect place to hide the ultralight. The only problem was that he’d need a ride home once he dropped it off, and it wasn’t like he could ask his grandpa.

  Danielle agreed to help, but given the circumstances, she wasn’t excited about driving out to the middle of the desert— especially at night. Still, it wasn’t like Colt could ride a flying motorcycle in the middle of the day, so they didn’t have much of a choice.

  “I can’t believe it was still there,” Colt said as they drove back toward town.

  “That makes two of us.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Sure.”

  “What do you think about Oz?”

  Danielle looked at Colt sideways. “He’s okay, I guess. Why? Did he ask about me?”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about,” Colt said. “I mean, it kind of seems like he’s keeping something from me, and I’m not sure what it is.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Beats me,” Colt said. “He knows something, though, and I have a feeling it’s important.”

  “About what?”

  “Everything that’s going on.”

  “So you think he’s in on it or something?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  Colt sighed as he looked at the gas gauge. “By the way, you’re almost on empty. I think there’s a gas station just off the next exit. Why don’t you pull over and I’ll fill it up.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “Come on, Dani. You’ve been my chauffeur ever since I got here. It’s the least I can do.”

  “When are you supposed to get your car?”

  “I’m not sure,” Colt said. “I was hoping to fly to San Diego over the weekend and drive it back, but my grandpa thinks we should wait.”

  “Why?”

  “You’d have to ask him.” Colt paused. “You know, maybe buying a motorcycle isn’t so crazy. I have enough money saved up. I could just tell Grandpa that I got a good deal on it. I wonder what kind of gas an armored ultralight would take. Jet fuel?”

  “Did you forget about the wings?”

  “Yeah, I guess that would be a problem.”

  “By the way,” Danielle said as she turned on her blinker to exit the highway, “I was looking at the Trident Biotech website today, and according to their latest press release, they just signed contracts with three different countries to provide RFID tags for their soldiers.”

  “What are those?”

  “You know, radio frequency identification tags. People use them to track things with radio waves. They’re going to embed them in the soldiers’ skin. That way all a doctor would have to do is scan the chip to access a soldier’s name and medical records.”

  “That’s freaky.”

  “China is even considering it. They have something like three and a half million active soldiers and another million on reserve.”

  “So you think Trident is going to try and turn the Chinese army into remote control slaves?”

  “Why not?”

  “How would they control that many people at the same time?”

  “They wouldn’t have to,” Danielle said. “All they’d need is to control a few key generals, and everyone else would fall in line. It’s brilliant, really.”

  “I didn’t think about that.”

  “That’s why you have me,” Danielle said as she pulled up to a gas pump. “Will you fill it up while I pay?”

  “Only if you take this,” Colt said, handing her some money.

  “I told you I don’t need it. My parents pay for gas.”

  “It doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t have to pay for me.”

  “Fine,” Danielle said. “It’s too late to argue. I just want to go home, take a bath, and go to bed.”

  “Will you get me a hot dog or something? I’m starving.”

  “From a gas station? Do you know how long those things have been sitting there?”

  “I forgot to eat dinner.”

  As Colt waited for Danielle to pay, he decided to wash her windshield. At the same time, a pickup truck pulled into the gas station with a barking dog in the back. Colt watched as the driver, a large man with a scraggly beard, parked by the air and water station. He turned off the engine and shut off his headlights, but he didn’t get out.

  Colt turned his attention to the windshield, scrubbing all the dead bugs that were cemented to the glass. When he finished with the squeegee, he glanced over at the truck to find the man staring at him.

  “I got you one of those disgusting hot dogs,” Danielle said as she walked back to the car. “I hope you like onions and jalapeños.”

  “Do I have a choice?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then onions and jalapeños it is.” Colt looked over Danielle’s shoulder. The truck was still there, but the man was gone.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Colt said.

  “I know you better than that.”

  “I’m jumpy, that’s all. I keep seeing red eyes everywhere I look. Just don’t tell anybody, okay?”

  “Fine, but I know what you mean,” Danielle said. “I was convinced that my chemistry teacher was trying to poison me during an experiment today.”

  Colt cracked the bottle of water that Danielle had given him and took a swig. “I’m going to use the rest room.”

  “Hurry up. I don’t like being out here in the middle of nowhere by myself.”

  “I’ll be back before the tank is full.”

  Colt wandered inside the gas station to get the key for the rest room. He glanced around for the man from the pickup but didn’t see him. Colt went back outside, where he followed the stench of rotting urine until he found the men’s room.

  After he unlocked the door, Colt pulled his collar over his nose to keep from gagging. The only light came from a flickering bulb that hung above a mirror and there was so much graffiti etched into the surface that Colt couldn’t see his reflection.

  He finished quickly, but the water wouldn’t turn on. “Great,” he said to no one in particular. Then Van Cleve’s phone started to vibrate again. Colt pulled it out of his back pocket to find another text message: You can’t hide from us. We’re watching.

  Colt felt his mouth go dry as his heart started to pound. He stuffed the phone back into his pocket but when he opened the door, he found the man from the pickup standing there. The guy was over six feet tall with a wide belly and broad shoulders. According to the patch over the left breast pocket of his work shirt, his name was Jimbo, and Jimbo’s eyes were glowing red. He didn’t look overly friendly, either.

  “I guess you need the key,” Colt said, handing it over.

  The man didn’t move.

  “I’ll just leave it here.” Colt hung the key on the doorknob, but when he turned to leave, Jimbo grabbed him by the arm.

  “What are you doing?” Colt asked as he tried to break away.

  Jimbo was expressionless as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with blue liquid. Colt tried to pry the man’s fingers away, but he couldn’t. Panic set in. He shot both of his palms into Jimbo’s chest. The large man stumbled backward, but he didn’t let go.

  Once Jimbo regained his balance, he raised the syringe, ready to plunge it into Colt’s neck. He swung but Colt dodged to the side before bringing his shoulder into Jimbo’s sternum. Jimbo cocked his arm to bring the needle down on Colt once more, but Colt lifted his head to hit Jimbo in the jaw before bringing his elbow down on the man’s collarbone.

  Colt heard a sickening crac
k, but Jimbo didn’t react. His eyes continued to glow as he tried again to plunge the syringe into Colt’s neck. Colt sidestepped. Then he took the door handle and yanked, crushing Jimbo’s hand between the door and the jamb. Jimbo dropped the syringe, but he was still holding on to Colt’s arm.

  Without thinking, Colt brought his knee up into Jimbo’s kidney. Jimbo winced and let go, allowing Colt to pull away. He could see Jimbo’s keys hanging from a clip on his belt loop. Colt grabbed them and threw the keys over a wall and into the desert. Then he ran to Danielle’s car.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Just get in!”

  Danielle narrowed her eyes.

  “I’m serious.” Colt looked over his shoulder to see Jimbo coming toward them. He was limping, but he was moving fast enough.

  “What happened?” Danielle asked again.

  “Will you just get in the car?” Colt was agitated as he slid into the passenger’s seat, slammed the door shut, and locked it.

  Danielle fumbled for her keys.

  “Hurry up!”

  “I’m trying.” The keys slipped out of her hand and onto the floor just as Jimbo reached the car.

  “Are you kidding me?”

  “That’s not helping,” Danielle said with a shriek. She was bent down, her hands roving through the shadows as she looked for her keys.

  “Dani, look out!”

  Her window was open, and Jimbo reached inside to grab her. His chin was bleeding, and his right arm hung loosely at his side. Danielle screamed as the dog barked in the background.

  “Here,” Colt said. He found the key and slid it into the ignition. The engine roared to life. Danielle threw the car into drive and pressed down on the gas pedal. They shot toward the gas station with enough force that Jimbo had to let go.

  Danielle slammed on the brakes before the car rammed into the curb of the sidewalk. Then she threw the Thunderbird into reverse and hit the gas. She narrowly missed Jimbo before she hit the brakes again so she could put the car into drive. Smoke kicked out as the tires spun. The old Thunderbird roared as Danielle sped toward the exit.

  “Please tell me that didn’t just happen,” she said once they were safely on the highway. Colt could see that she was shaking.

  “Dani, I’m so sorry.”

  “How did they find you so fast?”

  “I don’t know.” Colt knew that he should tell her about the text messages, but he didn’t want to scare her any more than he had already. Besides, he wasn’t sure how they found the number. The best he could come up with was that they’d gotten it from Van Cleve’s phone.

  “We need your mom’s files,” Danielle said. “This has to end.”

  : : CHAPTER 23 : :

  Do you want to come in?” Colt asked. They had been sitting in Grandpa McAlister’s driveway for ten minutes, neither saying a word.

  Danielle exhaled. “I’ll be okay.”

  “Look, why don’t I drive home with you. You only live a couple blocks away, so I can just walk back.”

  “That’s sweet,” Danielle said, “but I’ll be fine.”

  “I wish I hadn’t dragged you into this.”

  “You didn’t drag me into anything,” Danielle said. “And as soon as we track those files down, we’re going to nail these guys.”

  “By the way, I left a voice mail with my mom’s editor this afternoon, but he hasn’t called back yet.”

  “A good reporter never leaves a voice mail,” Danielle said. “You need to keep calling until he answers his phone.”

  “I’ll try again in the morning.”

  “Good.”

  “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?”

  “Stop treating me like I’m helpless.”

  “Will you at least call me when you get home?”

  Danielle rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

  Colt hadn’t heard from his mom’s editor, Jonah White, and he wasn’t going to anytime soon. Jonah’s assistant told Colt that he was on vacation and wouldn’t be back until next week. At least, Colt thought, there hadn’t been any more threatening text messages or strangers with red eyes.

  As the final bell rang on Friday afternoon, Colt rushed to his locker to grab the books he’d need for his homework assignments over the weekend. Then he met up with Danielle so she could give him a ride back to Grandpa McAlister’s house.

  “You realize everyone on campus is starting to think you’re a couple,” Oz said from his Jeep.

  “Are you jealous?” Danielle asked.

  “That’s not my style,” Oz said before reaching over to open his passenger door. “Hop in.”

  “We have things to do.”

  “Come on,” Oz said. “I have a special treat for McAlister. He’s going to love it.”

  Danielle looked to Colt. “It’s up to you.”

  “Only if you come with us.”

  Danielle puffed her cheeks before she exhaled. “I want to finish my homework so I have the weekend free and clear.”

  “We won’t be gone long. I promise,” Oz said.

  “Fine,” Danielle said, and threw her backpack at Oz. Then she opened the back door and hopped in, leaving the front seat for Colt. “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “You aren’t going to make me ruin the surprise, are you?” Oz said as Colt climbed in.

  “Let’s just get this over with.”

  It wasn’t long before they turned into the parking lot of a tired strip mall that was in need of a face-lift. Many of the storefronts were empty. Signs hung in the windows noting that space was available, and from the looks of the neighborhood they were going to stay available for a long time to come.

  “I don’t get it,” Danielle said as she looked around. Outside of some fast food restaurants, a sandwich shop, and a pizza place with a bunch of old carnival rides inside, there wasn’t much else.

  “You see, don’t you, McAlister?”

  There, near the end of the lonely row where it shared a wall with a check cashing business, was a small shop with a sign overhead reading GREG’S COMICS.

  Colt perked up. “I haven’t been to a comic book shop in months.”

  Danielle rolled her eyes. “This was your big surprise?”

  “Don’t be so quick to judge,” Oz said. He pulled the parking brake before getting out of the Jeep. “This place has the best selection in the entire state . . . maybe even west of the Mississippi.”

  With the exception of a bearded man behind the counter who was eating Thai food out of a Styrofoam carton, the store was empty. It wasn’t a big space, but it had everything a collector would want. There were vintage toys in glass display cases, unopened action figures pinned to the wall, and row after row of long white boxes stuffed with comic books.

  “I used to come here when I was a kid,” Oz said. “I’d sit on the floor rummaging through the fifty-cent boxes for hours while I daydreamed about saving the world.”

  “That sounds familiar,” Danielle said. “Colt used to run around in a ski mask with swimming goggles, pretending he was the Phantom Flyer. It didn’t matter if it was a hundred and ten degrees outside, he was determined to defeat evil.”

  “Which reminds me,” Oz said. “Hey, Howard, do you have that box you told me about?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.” Howard wiped his beard with a napkin before disappearing into the back room. It wasn’t long before he returned with a short box filled with comic books in plastic sheaths. “It’s strange, but there’s been a resurgence with the Phantom Flyer lately. It must be all that garbage in the news about an alien invasion.”

  “What, you don’t believe in aliens?” Oz asked.

  “Are you serious?”

  “I don’t know—a lot of weird stuff has been happening. What do you think about those lights over South Mountain?”

  “It’s probably the military jerking us around like they always do.” Howard set the box down in front of Oz and Colt.

  “Thanks,” Oz said. Then he angled the box so Colt could
thumb through the contents. “Go ahead.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Colt said as he looked at the first cover. “Freedom Comics number 32? That’s the first appearance of the Phantom Flyer.”

  “I told you Howard has everything.”

  “Wait a minute. Isn’t this place called Greg’s Comics?” Danielle asked.

  “It’s a long story,” Oz said.

  “This had to come out in what? The 1940s?” Colt said.

  “December 1942,” Howard said. “That issue in your hands is cherry too. You won’t find many like it anymore.”

  Colt held the comic book with reverence, drinking in every detail before he carefully placed it back in the box.

  “The issue was so popular that the publisher decided to give the Phantom Flyer his own title,” Howard said.

  “Phantom Flyer and the Agents of CHAOS,” Colt said. The next one that he pulled out was the first issue. The cover showed the Phantom Flyer bursting into the sky with his signature jet pack. He was holding an American flag that streamed in the wind as dozens of Nazi soldiers lay unconscious on the ground below. The caption read I Will Fear No Evil.

  Colt was too entranced to notice a man with short-cropped hair walk into the store. He was wearing baggy jeans and a shirt that read MY OTHER CAR IS THE MILLENNIUM FALCON.

  “Hey, Robert,” Oz said as the man took off his backpack and set it behind the counter.

  Robert offered a friendly wave. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

  “School’s been killing me,” Oz said with a shrug. “I should start making it back in on Wednesdays, though. How full is my box?”

  “Let’s take a look,” Robert said. He turned to a row of boxes that held all the subscriptions and pulled out a thick stack of comic books to hand to Oz. “Here you go.”

  “Nice.”

  “I have to run some errands,” Howard said. “Just give that box to Robert when you’re done. I don’t let just anyone see the good stuff.”

  : : CHAPTER 24 : :

 

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