by Amy Hopkins
“Where the hell else do you expect me to take you?” Crenel yelled, his anger finally getting the better of him. “Goddammit, Penny, this wasn’t funny. It’s an incredible waste of government resources, resources we could have been using to find Trevor.”
“What are you talking about?” Penny yelled back. “We followed the van to that compound and called you right away! Why aren’t you going there? Those are the guys that have Trevor, I swear!”
Crenel yanked on the steering wheel, cutting across a lane of traffic to turn the car around. The car lurched forward as he accelerated. “You wanna go there? We’ll go there. Have your damn laughs.”
Crenel took the same route Penny and Cisco had when following the mysterious white van that had picked up the arcade machine from Tony’s. They passed the emo skater kids and slowed to a halt some way down the road.
“What? I don’t get it.” Penny could feel the tremor in her voice as she clutched at the door handle. She yanked it back and stumbled out of the car. “Cisco? This can’t be happening.”
She faced a vast, empty lot. No concrete walls or metal gates, no big glass building, and sure as hell no guys with machine guns waiting for them. “This… This isn’t right! It was here. Minutes ago!”
“You expect me to believe that?” Crenel growled. He seemed less certain in the face of Penny’s reaction. “Listen, kid. I don’t care what you do on your time off, but you haven’t, you know…” He mimed a puff on an invisible cigarette.
Penny gave him a withering glare. “Fuck you. It was here.” She stared at the lot a moment longer, then rounded on the agent. “Goddammit! If you hadn’t told me not to stop and take pictures, I’d be able to prove it to you.”
“He said that?” Cisco asked.
“It was for your own safety!” Crenel huffed a breath then pulled out a cigarette. “I didn’t know you were just delusional.”
“There was a building here,” Cisco insisted. “And I can prove it.” He fumbled his phone out.
“You took pictures?” Penny breathed.
Cisco shrugged. “You didn’t tell me the old man said not to.”
For a change, Crenel ignored the “old man” jab. He snatched Cisco’s phone away from him and held it up. “This peak here is that old warehouse?” he asked.
Cisco squinted at the phone and nudged it to the left. “Yeah. There.” The glowing image on the screen lined up perfectly with the surrounding buildings. It was just the one in the middle that had…vanished.
“I must be losing my mind.” Penny pressed a hand to her head. “This… They made a whole building disappear?”
Crenel scowled at the vacant lot as if he could summon the compound back from force of will alone. “Impossible.”
“Agent Crenel, my best friend sprouts fur and four legs every full moon,” Cisco pointed out. “Missing buildings? Not so farfetched.”
Crenel grunted but didn’t respond.
Penny paced toward the lot. She stepped off the footpath, one hand out. She griped, searching for an invisible barrier.
“Don’t bother,” Crenel told her. “My people searched the lot top to bottom. No invisible walls, no secret underground passages. Whatever was here, it isn’t anymore.”
Penny persisted, reluctant to give in to the obvious fact that the building had indeed vanished. If it was ever even here to begin with. Below her feet, a thick layer of gravel was undisturbed.
“What if it was just an illusion?” Penny asked. “A hologram or something?”
Cisco hissed a breath through his teeth. “Nope. Remember the kid who threw a ball of paper at it? It bounced off.”
Penny remembered and took off jogging down the street, leaving Crenel and Cisco to scramble to keep up with her. She found the paper napkin, still lying in the gutter. She unwrapped it, hoping for some kind of clue.
“Ew.” Cisco sniffed it. “Oh, it’s only melted chocolate. Mmm, peanut butter cups.”
“This is real,” Penny protested. “And the van was, too.” She pointed back down the road. “I know that building was here. I saw those men walking around, Cisco. They had guns and cars and a big old building. You can’t convince me it was fake.”
“I’m not trying to,” Cisco told her. “Look, we’re dealing with myth and legend here. Anything is possible. For all we know, the whole place just folded up small enough to fit in a matchbox, and some guy walked away with it in his pocket.”
“You watch too many movies, kid.” Crenel finally lit his cigarette and drew on it deeply. He puffed out a cloud of smoke. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll put this place under surveillance for now.”
“So you believe us?” Penny asked. She held her breath while she waited for an answer.
Crenel grimaced. “Yeah. I guess I never really thought you’d pull a stunt like that.”
Penny socked him in the shoulder. “What the hell, dude!”
Crenel rubbed his arm and gave her a penitent wince. “I was pissed off. Trevor is still missing, and every damn time we get a lead, it vanishes into smoke and mirrors.”
“Lead?” Penny stepped closer, pinning the agent against the car. “What lead?”
Crenel crumbled. “Fine! We’ve had three teams working this case. Yours, and two of ours. One of the teams emailed the boss to say they’ve found the compound. They went radio silent for three days, then turned up at the airport, memories wiped. They didn’t remember a single damn thing about the mission they’d gone on.”
“The other?” Penny pressed.
“The other lost one man in a shootout, and one of the women got brainwashed by one of those damn arcade machines. It turned up in her house, according to her husband, and she hasn’t been the same since.” Crenel inhaled deeply on his cigarette again. “I know, I should have told you. I didn’t wanna scare you off. You’re our best chance, going by how badly the rest of them screwed up.”
“Crap on a cracker.” Penny rubbed her hands over her face. “You really think we can do better than seasoned agents?”
“Are you dumb enough to actually play one of those machines?” Crenel shot back. “Do you have Kevlar under that shirt?”
“No, and yes.” Penny lifted the edge of her t-shirt to reveal the armor beneath it. “But really. We don’t exactly have a ton of field experience here.”
“Which is why I had two backup teams, and yet this is the closest we’ve come to nailing these bastards down.” Crenel pointed to the car. “Come on. Let’s get you back to the Academy. We need a new plan.”
Chapter Twenty
After four hours of brainstorming, Crenel finally called a break. “We’re all tired and hungry, and to be honest, I’m getting pissed off.”
“Hungry is right.” Agent DeLouise had joined them in Crenel’s office at the Academy with a latte in one hand and a chicken sandwich in the other. She hadn’t made a fuss when Crenel plucked it out of her hands and ate it, but now she rubbed her stomach.
“It’s taco night in the dining hall,” Penny told her. “Cook should nearly have it ready.”
DeLouise shook her head. “I need to get back to the office.” She jabbed a finger at Crenel. “And you need to come with me. There’s no way they’re gonna believe this whole vanishing building schtick without a firsthand witness.”
“But I didn’t witness it,” Crenel pointed out.
DeLouise flicked a glance at Penny. “You really want to pit a student against that asshole Banks? He’ll tear her a new one.”
“I can take him,” Penny interjected immediately. “I know what we saw.”
“It’s fine.” Crenel grabbed his sunglasses and wallet off his desk. “I’ll go. Banks loves me.”
“Damn right he does.” DeLouise flashed Penny a grin before turning back to Crenel. “Once you get Banks off my ass, I can go hunt down that damn tooth fairy on the east side.”
“Tooth fairy?” Penny asked. It hadn’t come up in their weekly class briefing.
DeLouise rubbed a hand over her mouth absent
mindedly. “Yeah. She’s been breaking into houses at night and stealing kids’ teeth.”
“From under their pillows?” Penny asked, her stomach churning.
DeLouise shook her head.
“Spare me the details.” Penny stood. “If you don’t mind, I’m outta here. If I come up with anything I’ll let you know, Agent Crenel.”
“Sure, Penny.” Crenel touched her shoulder as she passed him. “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.”
Penny nodded briskly and walked out of the room, shoulders set and jaw clenched. She waited until she was around the corner to lean against a wall and let out a slow, shaky breath. Come on, Trevor, where are you?
She heard the agent’s door close as she set off toward the dining hall, unwilling to wait for the agents to catch up to her and offer more platitudes. So far, their best—their only plan—was to wait until the following Wednesday and hope the arcade machine would be picked up again.
“Fat chance,” Penny mumbled. Tony had already informed them that the replacement machine hadn’t turned up at its usual time.
Penny bypassed the dining hall and headed for the dorms. She was so buried in her thoughts she didn’t see the girl coming from the other direction. Penny and Jessie plowed into each other.
“Oh, hell. Sorry, mate!” Penny grabbed Jessie’s arm to steady her as the girl clutched the fat leather book she had almost dropped.
“No problem!” Jessie gave her a cheerful grin. She darted off but not before leaning into Penny for an awkward moment.
Penny watched her go, then slipped a hand into her pocket where Jessie had pressed against her. A tightly folded note brushed her fingers. “You sly thing.”
Worried about the secrecy Jessie had employed to pass it on, Penny waited until she was in her room to open it.
Space Buster app is recording your calls and location, delete it. Also, your room is bugged. New machine at the Twisted Monkey biker bar, data pickup sometime tonight. Be careful.
Penny shot a quick glance at her watch. “I’ve got some time.” Then she looked at her phone. “And what the hell?”
Penny opened the app menu and scrolled through. Sure enough, a tiny icon for ‘Space Busters’ sat nestled between Settings and Spotify. Penny held down the icon and slid it over to the delete option, then restarted her phone. Good, it’s still gone.
Penny sank onto her bed, then stood as a spike heel stabbed her thigh. “Amelia! Dammit, this room was spotless a few days ago!”
Clothes were strewn across the room, and an empty suitcase sat ajar at the foot of Amelia’s bed. An open bedside drawer was full of makeup, and the wardrobe had a pile of shoes in front of it.
Penny called for Boots. The room was silent. “Guess you don’t like the mess either,” Penny muttered as she searched for the supposed bug.
She found one under her bedside table, crushed it under her heel, and kept looking. She turned up four, by which point she was certain she had searched every square inch of the room. And I still don’t trust that I got them all.
Resolving to have Crenel ask a team to do a sweep, Penny headed back into the hallway and locked her room behind her. Amelia was nowhere to be seen, so she made for Crenel’s office. It was empty, the agents having already left to face the music from their superior.
“Guess we’re on our own, then.” She didn’t want to consider the fact that she might not find any of her friends in time to intercept the arcade machine, that she might be on her own. “Professor Steele!” Penny called down the hall, spying the familiar face just before the professor disappeared around a corner.
The professor froze, clutching her tattered briefcase. “What?”
“Have you seen Cisco? Or Amelia and Red?”
Steele hesitated, then gave a jerky shake of her head. “I haven’t seen the FBI agent, and I don’t know who those other people are. I have to go.”
“Where?” The question popped out before Penny could consider whether it was appropriate.
“None of your business.” Steele swallowed, then spoke again. “I have to return home. It’s a family matter. Class this week is canceled.”
She darted away, leaving Penny alone in the hallway. “That was just plain weird.” Still, she didn’t have time to worry about it.
In the short time since she had passed the dining hall, it had begun to fill with students eager for taco night. Heart thumping, Penny scanned the room.
“Cisco!” She waved a hand to catch his attention and gestured frantically for him to come over. When he was close enough, she leaned up to whisper loudly in his ear. “We have to go. I have a lead.”
Cisco immediately went for his phone but Penny grabbed it, shaking her head wildly. “We were hacked. We can’t call anyone until we check their phones.” Sure enough, the Space Busters icon appeared on Cisco’s phone as well. Penny deleted it. “That should fix it, I hope. Do you know where Amelia and Red are?”
Cisco shook his head. “Date night, I think.”
“That explains the mess.” Amelia had a habit of digging through her wardrobe like a drunk archaeologist in an Egyptian sandpit when she needed a date-night dress. “We’ll have to go without them. Do you know where the Twisted Monkey is?”
Cisco coughed. “The Twisted… Are you sure?”
Penny passed him Jessie’s crumpled note. “I trust my source.”
“Oh. Right.” With a weak smile, Cisco nodded toward the door. “Let’s go, then. To the biker bar...”
The Twisted Monkey sat between a laundromat and a tattoo parlor. The signage for the tiny complex was worn and rusted, and the yellow light bulbs that lit the entrance to the bar buzzed when they flickered to life as Penny and Cisco approached. Above the door, a faded sign sporting a stylized monkey image tickled Penny’s memory, but she was unable to place it.
Inside, the smell of stale beer and old cigarette smoke stung Penny’s nose. She tried not to let it show, unwilling to display even a hint of weakness in front of the burly, bearded man at the bar, or the three guys in leather jackets in front of him.
“Look, boys.” The bartender dropped a dirty cloth on the bar and gave a leering, gap-toothed grin. “We’ve got tourists.”
The three patrons swiveled around to look at the newcomers. Penny resisted the urge to squirm under their scrutiny.
“Hi!” She gave a quick wave with the tips of her fingers. “We were just, um, in the area. Thought we’d drop by and grab a—”
“Members only.” The bartender jerked his chin at the door.
“Wait on, Gus.” One man stood and sauntered closer to Penny and Cisco. He leaned down until his face was only inches from Penny’s. The cloying smell of sweat and rum made her stomach roil. Then, he grinned. “Hey! I know you.”
“You… do?” Penny stared back, unable to dredge up any memory of the man.
“Yeah. You were at that meeting with all the weirdos, right?” The man pointed at Penny, turning to his friends. “I saw her when I dropped Howler off.”
A rush of relief flooded Penny as she realized why the monkey image out front had twigged her brain. “You’re friends with Howler?” The Mayan Monkey God had only been into Paddy’s a few times, but she knew he was one of the key players in the alliance.
The atmosphere suddenly eased, and Gus grabbed two glass steins and thumped them onto the counter. “What’ll it be, ladies?”
Cisco coughed a rough laugh. “Thanks, but we’re here on business.”
“Oh?” Gus stepped back, suddenly guarded again. “Howler only does business by appointment.”
Penny shook her head. “Not with him. We’re here for that.” She pointed at a dark corner of the bar where an arcade machine was nestled in the shadows.
“What’s that?” One of the men squinted, then brightened. “Hey! When did we get pinball?”
He stood, but Penny jumped forward. “Mate, you do not want to play that.”
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked, scowling at Penny. She met his narrowed eyes with
confidence. “And why the hell not?”
“Because it’s a government conspiracy.” That shut the man down. He sat back on his barstool with a thump. “Not a real one. The men who put it here are Mythers. They’ve been kidnapping players and wiping their minds.”
“Not much to wipe there,” the bartender cackled.
“Hey, fuck you, Gus.”
The bartender pulled his lips back in a chuckle. “Blow me, Charlie.” He shoved a fresh drink at the man, then looked back at Penny. “What’s the story, then? You here to brainwash us?”
“We want to find the people behind this,” Penny explained. “They took our friend.”
“I can’t help.” Gus shrugged, though he looked upset that he couldn’t help. “They didn’t exactly give me a shipping address.”
“It’s okay.” Penny motioned toward a seat in the corner. “Mind if we hang around for a while? My intel says it’s being picked up tonight.”
Gus pursed his lips. “I’ll have to check with Howler. He’s in charge when the boss is out.” He tossed the rag down and left, vanishing behind an oaken office door.
Cisco gave Penny a nervous glance.
Gus re-appeared with a grin and motioned for them to accompany him into the office. “Howler says it’s fine. You can hang around in his room while you wait. You can see everything from there.”
Cisco trailed behind Penny, and she reached an arm back to clasp his hand. They passed the three drinking bikers and stepped into the office.
A steel desk in one corner propped up a cluster of small TV screens, each showing a different view of the bar and its surroundings. In the other corner, a large simian creature reclined in an armchair, a whittling knife in one hand and a block of wood in the other.
“Hey, Howler.” Penny greeted the monkey god, not expecting a response. The Myther had been solemn and non-communicative the few times she’d seen him at Paddy’s, though the leprechaun had assured her it was simply his personality.
To Penny’s surprise, Howler looked up and gave her a wide, toothy grin. He pointed to one of the screens, and Penny saw it was the one that showed the arcade machine. She leaned closer.