by Phoef Sutton
For instance, next to him was an enormous float, fully thirty-five feet in length, featuring an Art Deco–Futurama–style locomotive taking off from its track and soaring into the air. On its top was a throne for a celebrity to ride, and on the base of the float was the legend: California High-Speed Rail—The Future Is Now.
Even the nonexistent bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco had an advertisement here.
Crush remembered that Zerbe’s father had been spearheading that endless, mythical project that Angelenos had been reading about, and paying for, for years, but which never seemed to quite get started. If it involved graft, corruption, and wasteful spending in LA, Emil Zerbe was probably behind it. Now Noel was making a tribute to it in steel and roses. It was all too typical.
The policeman came out from under the arching neck of a dragon, looking around, not finding anything. A woman stepped out from behind a space station, calling out to the empty void, “Hey! The cops are here! You better come out!”
Crush had been right. It was Angela, Zerbe and Noel’s sister and, for a brief, uncomfortable time, Crush’s own stepsister. Her tawny hair still fell over her shoulders, damn it. From what he could see, her eyes were still that wicked, haunting green. Crush had seen her a few times over the past few years, but he always saw her through 2000 eyes and she always looked eighteen to him. And she always made him feel eighteen himself.
“Must have been a crank call,” the policeman said.
“Bullshit,” she said. “The door was opened. Somebody was here.”
The policeman shrugged. “There’s nobody here now.”
Crush stepped forward. “There’s me,” he said.
She looked over at him, sternly at first, then with a bright smile blossoming across her face. “Caleb Rush! What the hell are you doing here? Don’t tell me you’re taking up breaking and entering?” Her green eyes were still startling and her lips were still lush with that damn tilt to the left that always made him wonder.
“Just entering,” he replied. “You left the door open.”
“So you know this man?” the cop asked Angela.
“Yeah, I know him.”
“What’s he doing here?”
She squinted at him. “What are you doing here, Crush?”
“You first,” Crush said.
“Well, I got an anonymous call that there was a break-in here. So I called the police and we came out. We’ve been having problems with protestors.”
“Oh,” Crush said. “Same here.”
“You’re having problems with protestors?”
“No, I got a call about a break-in. Anonymously.”
“Why would they call you?” the cop asked.
“I’m in security.” Crush pulled out his wallet and handed over one of his old business cards from when he worked at Tigon Security.
The cop looked at it and was impressed. More impressed than Crush had expected, in fact.
“Sorry,” the policeman said, handing it back. “I didn’t know. Do you think it’s SAGMA?”
Crush had no idea what SAGMA was, but there were times when he’d learned to just not answer. Instead he looked the cop dead in the eye and asked, “What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” the cop said. “Probably?”
Crush smiled at the cop sagely. “Very good. Why don’t we leave it at that, Officer…?”
“Zelazny,” the cop said. “Should we search the place? They could have left a…device of some kind?” It shouldn’t have sounded like a question.
“We’ll take care of the search, Officer Zelazny. We have the equipment.”
The cop nodded. Then he looked around. “Where?”
“It’s on its way. I came on ahead.”
“As reconnaissance?”
“That’s right, as reconnaissance. We’ll take it from here.”
The cop looked uncertain. He turned to Angela. “Miss?”
“I think the Tigon boys can handle it from here.”
“All right then,” the cop said, kicking a loose pebble down the sewer grate. “I’ll say goodnight.”
Zelazny hurried off, glad to hand the matter over to someone else. Angela looked at Crush, amused. “I thought Tigon Security fired you?” she asked, once Zelazny had driven off in his patrol car.
“Let’s say we had a mutual parting of the ways. You hired them?”
“I remembered you said they were the best.”
“They are. Why do you need them?”
She shrugged. “Family business.”
“Your family owns this place, too?”
“Daddy bought it for Noel a couple of years ago. As a toy.”
“What’s SAGMA?”
“A bunch of crazies.” She sighed. “Society Against Genetically Modified Agriculture. One of Dad’s companies is Angel Foods.”
“The organic produce company?”
“Well, organic-ish. So we sell Genetically Modified food? People have been modifying food since the Stone Age. It doesn’t hurt anybody.”
“But the crazies don’t like it?”
“No, they insist that their food be ‘pure.’ Whatever that means. Why are you here, Caleb?”
“I’m looking for your brother.”
“Noel’s back at the house. We flipped a coin to see who would come out. I lost.”
So, Crush thought, she still lives with her brother. Did that mean they still lived at the house on the Arroyo. Crush hoped not. “Not that brother,” he said.
“Kendrick?” Kendrick was what the “K” in K.C. Zerbe stood for. Crush could never think of Zerbe as a “Kendrick.” “I thought he was with you.”
“He’s supposed to be.”
“Did he make a break for it? I was afraid he’d do that.”
Crush shook his head. “No. He was kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped? Seriously?”
“Not particularly seriously, but yes, he was kidnapped. I think they brought him here.”
“Why?”
“Because Noel arranged the kidnapping.”
She sat down at the foot of the dragon. “Oh, my fucking family,” she sighed. She was wearing black jeans and a designer T-shirt that she must have just thrown on when she got the call. She hadn’t had time to brush her hair or put on any makeup. She looked beautiful when she wasn’t even trying. “Just when I think they’re crazy as they can be, they get crazier.”
“You’ve been pretty crazy in your day.”
“That just proves my point.” She ran her fingers through her hair. “Do you really think Noel is behind this?”
“Evidence seems to point in that direction. Do you think it’s possible?”
“Noel is capable of almost anything.” She looked around. “So you think Kendrick is here someplace?”
“He’s either hiding here or Noel already picked him up.”
“Or?”
“Who said there was another ‘or’?”
“There’s always another ‘or,’ Crush. You know that.”
They heard the tires of a car rolling in on the asphalt out front. There was no sound of an engine purring, so they knew it must be an electric vehicle. Looking out through the elephant doors, they could see a dark blue Tesla, powering down. The gull wing doors rose and a man got out. The man was K.C. Zerbe.
Except he wasn’t. He wasn’t dressed in Zerbe’s usual uniform of superhero T-shirt and jeans. This Zerbe wore a russet-colored Henley shirt and an unstructured linen sports coat that had been washed within an inch of its life over a pair of green cargo pants, the kind with lots of pockets, all of which were full of unidentified objects. He looked just like K.C., but something about the way he carried himself made him look older. As if maybe he had taken on some actual responsibility. As if he had grown up and didn’t like it. The man walked across the asphalt, looking around, as if he expected to see something and was disappointed that it wasn’t there.
Angela stepped out of the warehouse and greeted him. “What are you doing here? I thou
ght I won the toss?”
This Zerbe was Noel, K.C.’s older brother by five minutes. “Where are the police?”
Crush stepped out of the warehouse. “They left.”
Noel hadn’t seen Crush in years. He looked at him in mild surprise. “Caleb Rush. It’s you.”
“It is,” Crush replied.
Those pleasantries taken care of, Noel looked around him. He seemed to choose his words very carefully. “They didn’t find anything?”
“No,” Angela said.
“What did you think they’d find?” Crush asked.
“Just…something. Somebody called about something, didn’t they?”
“Yes, let’s go over that call,” Crush said. “They called the house, right? Who answered?”
“I did,” Angela said.
“And the call was blocked?”
“Yeah, there was no incoming number on my phone.”
“Your phone? I thought you got the call at the house.”
“I did,” she said. “I was at home. What, do you think they called the landline? Like they were selling solar panels? Nobody uses the landline, Crush.”
“All right then, you got a blocked call. Where were you?”
“Asleep. It was almost five in the morning.”
“But your phone was on?”
“Well, sure. Don’t you leave yours on?”
“I don’t turn mine on unless I’m at work.”
“What if you miss an important call?”
“If it’s important, they’ll call back. So, the phone rang. You picked it up. The incoming number was blocked. Why did you answer it?”
“The most important people have blocked numbers, don’t you know that? Also, Noel told me to.”
“Wait, what was Noel doing in your bedroom at five in the morning?”
“Just basking in the postcoital afterglow,” she said sarcastically. “No, stupid. I didn’t say I was in my bedroom, did I? We fell asleep in the den, watching Interstellar on HBO. Man, that movie makes no sense.”
“I didn’t see it. Go on.”
“Anyway, I got the call and I wasn’t going to answer it, but Noel said….”
Crush looked at Noel. “You told her to answer it?”
Noel looked wildly guilty. “Yes, I told her to answer it. Why wouldn’t I tell her to answer it? What are you getting at?”
“We’re not getting at anything,” Angela said.
“Oh, we’re getting at something,” Crush said. “What did you expect to find when you got here? Did you expect the cops to have K.C. under arrest? Did you think they’d be carting him away?”
“No! Why are you saying that? Why would I want that?”
“I have no fucking idea.”
Noel looked around, confused. “But nothing is here? Something must be here,” he said, walking toward the warehouse.
Crush walked alongside him. “He’s not here.”
“Who’s not here? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Noel was a very bad liar. He stepped inside and looked around the vast warehouse. “But something must be here….”
“What must be here?”
He wandered among the floats, searching. “Something. You’re sure the police didn’t find anything?”
“They didn’t find anything.”
“They must have!” He was starting to sound a little desperate.
“They didn’t.”
“But that’s not right. They must have found something!” Noel had a way of getting stuck on an idea. Crush remembered how, in high school, he’d stayed in his room for a month, trying to make a miniature solar-powered aircraft to fly over the Arroyo and take pictures. A drone before drones, Crush now realized. Noel was always years ahead of his time but three steps behind everyone else in the room. “He must be here!” Noel said, in anguish.
“K.C. isn’t here,” Crush told him. “The police didn’t find him. We didn’t find him.”
“But what if he’s hiding?” With that, Noel gave up the pretense that he didn’t know what was going on.
“Why would he be hiding from us?” Angela asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t know it’s us.” Noel called out. “K.C.! It’s okay! It’s Noel. And Angela! And Caleb! It’s okay! You can come out now!”
No answer came from the dragons or dinosaurs or ocean liners. Noel looked bereft. “But…I don’t understand. I arranged everything.”
“You did, huh?” Crush said. “Why don’t you call Donny and ask him what went wrong?”
Noel shook his head, dismissive. “Donny’s an idiot. I should call Jack.” He pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket, punched in a number, and after a minute he started to speak. “Jack. Zerbe here. What went wrong?”
Noel was silent while Jack explained. Angela stood by Crush’s side, silently judgmental.
“I don’t know if I believe you, Jack,” Noel said after a few moments. “I don’t know if you’ve behaved ethically. I don’t think you’ve earned your money. Do you understand? Hello…hello….” Noel looked at Crush and Angela, affronted. “He hung up on me. That’s no way to do business.”
“You should give him a bad Yelp review under ‘Kidnappers,’” Angela said.
“I wish I could.”
“What did he say?” Crush asked.
“He said he dropped K.C. off here, as according to plan. Of course, I don’t know if he’s telling the truth. I’m afraid I didn’t vet him very well.”
“Live and learn,” Crush said. “Why don’t you tell us all about it, Noel? Why did you think kidnapping K.C. was a good idea?”
Noel paced back and forth in front of the bullet train float. “It’s hard to make an outsider understand. There’s so much to explain.”
“Try,” Crush said.
“Suffice it to say that I, and my entire family, are in grave danger.”
“Noel…” Angela started to interrupt.
“Let him finish,” Crush said.
“I know you don’t believe me, Angela. I know everybody thinks I’m crazy. That’s how I know they’ll win. They convince the world that the ones who know about them are crazy.”
So Noel hadn’t left his paranoia behind. “Who are ‘they’?” Crush asked. “SAGMA?”
“Oh, please,” Noel said, rolling his eyes. “SAGMA doesn’t have a clue as to what’s really going on. They’re nothing but pawns in the game. Like everybody else.”
“So you’re a pawn in the game?”
“No. I’ve been enlightened. That’s why I’m dangerous to them. That’s why they have to destroy me.”
“But I’m a pawn?”
Noel nodded sadly. “Yes.”
“I don’t feel like a pawn,” Crush said.
“If you’re not actively fighting them, you’re playing into their hands.”
“I see. And what is their goal, exactly?”
“Oh, God,” Noel shook his head sadly. Noel spent a lot of time shaking his head. “Don’t you see? The mere fact that you ask that question, in that mocking tone? It means they’ve already won.”
“I didn’t mean to mock. I’m trying to understand. What are they after?”
Noel shook his head again, as if helpless in the face of such massive ignorance. “The world.”
“They want to take over the world?” Crush asked, and though he tried his utmost not to, he sounded like The Brain talking to Pinky in the old cartoon.
“They want to change it. To bend it to their will. Oh, God, it’s like talking to someone in a different language.” Noel was literally pulling his hair. “Let’s just say someone is trying to destroy me. And my whole family. And I’m desperately trying to keep them safe. That includes you, Angela. I’m afraid it even includes you now, Caleb.”
Crush thought it was nice to be included in the family. “How does kidnapping K.C. keep him safe?”
Noel smiled. “He was the easiest one to protect. Everybody else is out in the world, where anything can happen. But with K.C., all I had
to do was make him break his probation and then I’d know he’d be in prison, safe. Where they couldn’t get at him.”
“So you arranged for him to be kidnapped and dropped off here? Then you arranged for an anonymous call to bring the police here and find him? So they’d arrest him?”
“Yes, isn’t that simple but brilliant?”
Crush was silent for a moment. “Let me get this straight. This Great Whatever, they can reach out to anyone, at any time, in any place? They are everywhere, am I right?”
“Absolutely,” Noel said, “at least you understand that much.”
“Then why can’t they reach out to K.C. in prison?”
Noel looked as if he’d swallowed a brick. “I hadn’t thought of that. Oh, my God. He’d be trapped. They could do whatever they wanted to him.”
“Fortunately, it hasn’t come to that. He hasn’t been arrested.”
“But where is he?” Angela asked. “That’s the first order of business, isn’t it?”
“Not the first,” said Crush, looking at his watch. It was 6:14. He pulled out his cell phone and pressed a speed-dial number. “Gail,” he said when she answered, “it’s all right. We found him.”
Angela looked at Crush in mild surprise.
“Thank God,” Gail said on the other end of the line. “Where was he?”
“It’s a long story. But you don’t have to call the police, understand? Just keep walking that ankle monitor around. I’ll bring him back this afternoon.”
“This afternoon? Why?”
“We have to take care of a few things. I’ll explain when we get back.”
“That won’t be soon enough. Frida just called.” Frida Morales was Zerbe’s probation officer. “She said his monitor went out of bounds last night. She wanted to talk to him.”
This was bad news. But Gail had always taught him that, during a match, it was a waste of time to resist an attack. The thing to do was to react to it. “Okay. What did you do?”
“I told her he was asleep. She said fine, she’d call back.”