Uncle and Ants

by Marc Jedel

  My phone rang and I answered it quickly, hoping Raj had called me back.

  “Hello, this is Sergeant Mace Jackson.” His deep voice sounded different from before, not annoyed, perhaps even neutral.

  Instinctively, I ducked and looked around. No cops with drawn guns were visible. “Hi … What? … They called the police?” I couldn’t believe the DroneTech security had called the police that fast. And how had they reached the one cop with my number?

  “What are you talking about? Who called the police?” The familiar irritation returned to Mace’s voice as it rumbled across the line.

  I realized DroneTech couldn’t have reached him and I didn’t know why he’d called. “Wait. No, I’m sorry. What’s going on?”

  “Well, maybe you aren’t totally crazy after all.” Mace’s almost-apology sounded good to me. He continued, “I’m at your sister’s house right now. Someone broke into her house last night.”

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “What?” Burglars creeped me out even without my family involved. One moment you’re asleep and the next, they were standing over your bed with a knife in their hands …

  Mace broke my train of thought. “Her place got tossed. The thief, or thieves, were clearly looking for something. They didn’t take the TV and we don’t think they took any jewelry or other valuables. I’d like you to come over here to figure out if anything’s missing.”

  “Oh, my god. Okay. I’ll come over as soon as my ride shows up.” I reached up, trying to massage out the tension in my neck.

  “Ride?” Observant like most successful cops, Mace latched onto the unusual comment.

  “I don’t have a car. I’m an engineer for the Rover car service so I use our driverless car service to go everywhere.”

  “Interesting. I don’t know if I could give up my car. Doesn’t it get annoying to wait whenever you want to go somewhere?” Mace paused to consider this possibility.

  I ran my hand through my hair as I paced back and forth. “I save a ton of money. No car payments, no insurance, no gas. And normally we have enough cars floating around that I never wait more than a few minutes. But the service is down right now so I’m waiting for a taxi.”

  I wasn’t about to use one of our driverless car service competitors. But, we’d gotten sidetracked. This happened every time people found out that I don’t own a car. Many people in crowded cities managed without a car for part of the week and even more were considering it, but car-crazy Americans would take a lot longer to fully switch gears. Ha. Car joke. Hopefully, my job at Rover would last long enough for that to happen. It would help if I didn’t lose my job for not showing up during a crisis.

  Still discombobulated by the idea of giving up his car, Mace could only grunt.

  My mind spun. Drone, crash, murder. Drones were falling, an old woman got murdered in a hospital, bribes paid at Stanford, dead rats left by a car in a parking lot, and incredibly loud klaxons activated. They didn’t seem connected. What if they were? Mace needed to get moving on Laney’s case.

  Trying to pull his attention back to more important issues than driverless cars, I blurted out, “I’m worried that someone’s trying to kill Laney.”

  Nothing like the prospect of murder to catch the attention of a police officer. Mace woke from his reverie. “What?”

  Now I got annoyed. “Didn’t you even listen to my messages?” Not waiting for a response, I continued, “I don’t think the drone dropping on her was an accident. And remember that Laney’s hospital room didn’t have her name on the outside sign? Well, on Monday night, an old lady in the room with Laney’s name on it was murdered.”

  “I didn’t hear about a murder.” Jackson hadn’t listened to my messages. He didn’t treat prospective partners well. “Why would anyone want to kill your sister? What does she do again?”

  I clenched my fist and my voice rose along with my frustration. “She’s an HR consultant. It’s a totally boring job. I don’t know why anyone would want to hurt her.”

  My phone buzzed, breaking into my rant. Probably a good thing. I needed Jackson to focus on Laney’s attacker, not get angry and ignore me. The screen showed the other call was from the girls’ school. “I’m sorry. I need to put you on hold. My nieces’ school is calling.” I switched over without waiting for a reply.

  “Hello, Mr. Golden? This is the Discovery School.” Mrs. Quarles, the school secretary who had called me on Monday, sounded annoyed. I pictured her with a prim, disappointed scowl on the other end of the line.

  “Yes. Is everything ok?”

  “No, it is not.” Mrs. Quarles launched into a lecture. “You should know that all school absences need to be called in before noon or the student gets an unexcused absence on their record.”

  “What? Who’s absent from school? Skye and Megan both went to school today.” I did not need this extra aggravation today.

  “Megan is present today. Skye was marked absent in her class this morning. Rule 17 clearly states that if a student is sick or has a doctor’s appointment and does not attend school for any reason at all, including all religious or spiritual observations, you need to call before noon. We explained all this in the guidelines that we sent home on the first day of school.”

  “Okay, okay. But she should be at school. Where did she go?” Sweat broke out on my head as I started hyperventilating.

  Mrs. Quarles harrumphed. “Well then, that is definitely not an excused absence. Truancy is a serious situation. Skye will need to come to the office to meet with Principal McCarreon when she returns to school.”

  “We’ll deal with the principal later. Where is she?” I looked around the DroneTech driveway and parking lot. Skye wasn’t here either.

  Mrs. Quarles had a one-track mind. She continued with bruised indignation, “Well, she’s certainly not in her classroom or she would have been marked present, wouldn’t she? Did you see her walk into her classroom when you dropped her off this morning?”

  Oops. I couldn’t tell her that I let the girls go on their own to school in a driverless car. She’d probably make me go to the principal’s office too. But, that gave me an idea. “I’ve got to go so I can find her.”

  “Yes. I would think so. It is important that she not miss school. Be certain to sign the Unexcused Absence form and —”

  I hung up on her and called Raj again, hoping he would answer this time. He did.

  “Raj! Hi, it’s Marty. I’ve got an emergency.”

  “Yes. The Rover service is down. All the teams have gathered to fix the problem. We are needing you, but you are not here. Where are you?”

  “I don’t have time to explain. Could you please track my account to see where I went?”

  Raj called me out. “Why? Do you not know where you are?”

  “No, I know where I am. But, my niece, Skye, used my Rover account and I don’t know where she went.”

  “She is too young to be an authorized user.”

  He was right and I knew it. I begged. “I know, but I needed to get them to school and also go talk to someone about Laney. I sent the girls to school by themselves in a Rover car. Could you please check my account?”

  “Now I am understanding. I can’t right now as the system is down. I will look as soon as we get it working again. Oh, and the boss came to look for you.”

  “Thanks. I left the boss a voicemail that I went to a doctor’s appointment during lunch today. Please cover for me.”

  “Sure.”

  I switched back to Sergeant Jackson. The line was dead. I’d hung up on him by accident. I called him again.

  “Don’t hang up on me again. I’m too busy to hold for your nonsense,” answered Jackson, without even a greeting. I could feel his displeasure radiating through the phone. Although he might be my imaginary action movie star partner, politeness wasn’t his strong suit.

  “I’m sorry, but Laney’s daughter, Skye, is missing from school. They just called. I don’t know where she is. She should be at school with he
r younger sister, but she’s not there.” My heart raced as I paced along the sidewalk.

  “You’re sure it was the school that called you?” asked Jackson, skepticism tinging his words.

  I ran my hand through my hair again. “Yes. The school’s secretary called to lecture me for not notifying them of her absence on time. Do you think someone took her? Like whoever broke into Laney’s house?”

  Jackson had no problem believing that Mrs. Quarles called to yell at me. His voice changed in an instant to concern for Skye. “I don’t know. There are too many coincidences all at once. The girl’s missing, her mom’s in the hospital and someone broke into their house.”

  “You think I’m right?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far.” To Jackson, once a flake, always a flake. “But, I’m going to assign an officer to guard Laney’s hospital room and start an Amber Alert for your niece. There’s too much going on with that family right now.”

  I took a breath. At least Laney would be safe while the Amber Alert notified other police officers and citizens around the state to keep an eye out for Skye.

  Jackson collected the basic info about Skye and told me he would grab a picture of her right there from Laney’s house. Jackson hung up to start the process while I continued to panic and wait for my taxi.

  My phone rang again. I answered it, hoping it was Raj even though it wasn’t his phone.

  “Hello, is this Marty Golden?” asked an unfamiliar male voice.

  “Yes. I’m pretty busy right now.”

  “I’ve got your niece, Skye Tran, here with me,” said the voice.

  My heart rate spiked so high it almost pushed out through my chest. Oh, my god! Is this what a kidnapper sounds like? “Who is this? Is she ok?” I stammered.

  19

  Thursday Afternoon

  “She’s quite the special young lady,” said the voice.

  I fumbled with my phone, looking for some app to record the call. Why didn’t I have an app that could trace calls and send in a special police SWAT team?

  The voice continued, “I’m Dr. Nathan Mahowald. I’m a professor in the biology department at Santa Clara University.”

  Although still flummoxed, my heart rate slowed. I didn’t think normal kidnappers gave their full names or worked as a professor at a prestigious university. “Why do you have her? What’s she doing?”

  “Skye showed up a little while ago for an appointment she’d requested. I was startled when I saw how young she was. I told her that she needed to go to school,” said Dr. Mahowald.

  Now confused, I stopped pacing along the sidewalk. “Why did she meet with you?”

  “We’ve been corresponding for a while. She had questions about a project she’s doing on Dorymyrmex insanus.”

  “What?” I couldn’t help myself.

  “They’re commonly called crazy ants.”

  “You’re kidding?” With everything else going on, I couldn’t believe he was talking about ants.

  The professor continued, “Based on her questions and the depth of her research, I assumed she was in a community college or at least high school.”

  “That’s Skye for you. But it’s only a seventh-grade science fair project.” The DroneTech security guards might have seen the steam coming out of my ears. Skye hijacked Rover, put my career in jeopardy and interrupted the search for Laney’s attacker all for some crazy ants. It wasn’t the professor’s fault, but I was going insane.

  “You have a budding scientist on your hands.” Dr. Mahowald sounded impressed.

  If I don’t kill her first. “Could you put her on the phone?”

  Skye spoke with an unsteady voice. “Uncle Marty? I’m sorry I skipped school. Dr. Mahowald is like an expert on endangered ants. I couldn’t get the Rover car to respond. Mom was going to take me and I didn’t know what to do.” Skye started crying.

  I’d never known how to handle people when they cry. I took a deep breath and told her to stop. “Ok. Don’t cry. We’ll talk more later. I’ll take a taxi to come get you.”

  “Thanks.” She sniffed and, with her voice steadying, asked, “Could you not tell Mom about skipping?”

  “We’ll talk later,” I said, careful not to promise anything. At this point, I’d ground her myself. I gulped as I remembered the Amber Alert.

  “Skye, I’ve got to go. I’ll be there soon.” I hung up.

  I called Sergeant Jackson again.

  No greeting again. “Now what? Pretty busy here.”

  Although I could feel Jackson’s lack of love, I needed to give him the update. “Yes, sorry, it’s Marty again. I just heard from Skye. She’s okay after all.”

  “What?” Jackson’s voice raised from his normal low rumble. “I thought she was missing and you didn’t know what happened to her?” He didn’t sound pleased.

  I babbled, “It’s … um … because of her ants. I mean, her science fair.”

  “What?” Jackson’s voice grew more curt and annoyed. “I just put out an Amber Alert.”

  My nervousness increased. “Stupid science fair. I mean, she’s talking to a professor. And Rover’s not working.”

  “What? I started an Amber Alert because of ants? That’s crazy.” Jackson cursed.

  He had no idea. He intimidated me, even when I hadn’t done anything wrong. I’d hate to see his reaction if he knew about my fake IRS agent gambit. In a weak voice, I mumbled, “Good news is she’s okay after all.”

  Jackson continued, “I’ve got to stop it before it goes state-wide. I’ll keep the officer on Laney’s hospital floor until we can figure out what’s going on. But, Golden, get your act together. Let me know right away if anything was taken from Ms. Tran’s house.”

  Yes, sir! I’d better get my act together before Sergeant Jackson got it together for me.

  As Jackson hung up, Raj finally called me back. “Hello, Marty. Rover is now working again. I tracked your account. You had a car that went to DroneTech and another that went to Santa Clara University. Why are you at DroneTech? Is it true you are interviewing for another job? You told us that you are not.”

  “No, no, no. I had lunch there with a friend I used to work with before Rover. Well, he was a friend until security threw me out. Did you know they have flying hammocks in a lab here?” I was still flustered by Jackson.

  “Is your niece ok?” A smart man, Raj ignored me when I got too crazy.

  “Never mind. Yes, I just heard from her. She’s safe. It was a wild goose chase after all.”

  I’d managed to puzzle Raj more than usual.

  “She went to chase geese? I do not think our Rover car would be good at chasing geese. Do not tell marketing. I do not think they need more ideas.”

  “No, Skye’s fine. She went to go talk to a professor. I’m going to go get her.”

  As we hung up, my taxi arrived. I stepped inside and told the driver to take me to Santa Clara University. I leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes. My heart still raced. Who needed exercise when you could get your blood pumping merely by hanging out with Laney and her daughters?

  I found Skye waiting in the biology professor’s office at Santa Clara University. When I walked in, she hugged me. I paused to enjoy the moment instead of yelling at her right away. We thanked the professor and left. With Rover working again, I requested a car.

  While we waited for it to arrive, I turned to Skye. “What were you thinking? You’re only in seventh grade. It’s not okay to skip school and bother a college professor for a mere middle school science fair project.”

  Skye didn’t agree with my assessment of her project’s lack of importance. “But Dr. Mahowald is an expert in ants and his name kept coming up during my research. He studies the effects of drought and agriculture on ant behavior. I sent him an email with some questions. He answered and I sent him some more questions. He offered to meet to talk more. I had to go.”

  “School is more important than a science fair project.” I adjusted as I noticed her reaction. “It’s great y
ou did all that research, but you didn’t ask me for permission.”

  “Mom was going to take me, except she’s in the hospital. I didn’t think you’d take me and the only time he could meet was at lunch.”

  Although I respected her philosophy of begging forgiveness rather than asking permission, I needed Laney back, safe and sound. It was her job to manage the chaos that came with Skye and Megan, not mine. I had to figure out what was going on.

  Skye’s contrite attitude lasted approximately ten seconds before she got excited again. “You wouldn’t believe what we talked about while we waited for you to come get me.”

  From there on, I didn’t understand her rapid-fire, science-geek speech. Although her passion impressed me, it didn’t diminish my annoyance that she had gone without permission. Did I need to discipline her? An uncle can’t punish his niece and still remain the cool uncle. Was I even considered the cool uncle? As Laney’s only brother, I had limited competition for the title. In the meantime, I needed to get to her house. Later, I’d have to ponder what to tell Laney about today. Weighing my potential cool factor versus getting in trouble if Laney found out would take some consideration. I’d deal with it after she was safe.

  Skye interrupted herself when she noticed that the Rover car approached her school. “Wait, you’re not taking me back to school today, are you?” She had a panicked look on her face.

  “Why?”

  She hadn’t looked this scared when I arrived at the university to pick her up. “If I have to go back to school in the middle of the day, then I’ll have to talk to Mrs. Quarles.”

  I remembered my own challenging conversation with her earlier. She’d seemed less concerned about Skye’s whereabouts than whether she had an accurate attendance report.

  “Yeah. You’re not going to make me talk to her, are you?” Skye’s eyes nearly bugged out and her face grew pale.

  “No, that’s okay. I figured I’d pick up Megan a little early today and then I don’t have to go back to pick her up again later.”

  Skye breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Good luck with that, Uncle Marty.” Her anxiety dispelled, she picked up her phone and ignored me.