by Ryan Krauter
They wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to see if anyone they knew was around, and if they were kids that the two of them would want to approach or avoid. Matt enjoyed harassing the guy at the cell phone store, and eventually they hit the food court for sodas and pretzels. Disappointed in the lack of high school aged kids around, they stopped by the restrooms before calling Jessie’s mom and heading outside to wait for their pick-up.
Matt was alone in the large men’s restroom, and quickly checked himself in the mirror. No food stuck in the teeth, still a bit dweebish looking. No changes there.
The door opened, and a severe looking man in a business suit that reminded Matt of Mr. Turon walked in. The man glanced at Matt and nodded as he walked by, heading towards the stalls. Matt forgot about him and decided it was time to finish his business. He heard the repeated sound of the stall doors slamming, and wondered what sort of process the strange man was going through back there. Was he inspecting each stall? Checking conditions against some sort of list? The thought of the weird guy holding a clipboard and inspecting the seat, toilet paper supply, and door locks made him chuckle, then he heard a sound behind him. The guy was standing right there, staring at Matt.
“Everything alright?” asked Matt sheepishly. He had gone from calm to scared in a heartbeat. He didn’t know what this guy was after, but everything about him screamed ‘danger’. The man was blocking Matt’s route to the door, and his fight or flight response was running in overdrive.
“You are Matt Falken,” the man stated.
“Oh, you’re looking for Matt!” he stammered quickly, and he figured, not very convincingly. “That’s not me. I know him; he’s outside in the food court. I could go get him for you…”
The man reached out towards Matt, who backed all the way up against the wall. Since he was wearing a simple t-shirt, the tiles felt cool on his bare arms, and a cold shiver ran right down his spine.
At that moment, Matt saw the bathroom door open again. He briefly saw out into the hallway that lead back to the food court. There was a man dressed just like this strange attacker sitting on the ground across the hall by a vending machine, and he looked like he wasn’t conscious.
And entering the room was Mr. Turon himself, dressed in business casual wear and carrying a shopping bag from one of the stores in the mall. The look on Matt’s face must have said it all, because Turon walked right up to Matt and the stranger, dropping the empty bag in the process.
The stranger turned to look at Turon and suddenly tensed. Turon lashed out with a closed fist, knuckles leading, at the man’s throat. The stranger fell in a heap on the ground, gagging and coughing uncontrollably.
Before Matt could do anything, Turon looked right at him. “Matt, you don’t know me and I doubt you have any reason to trust me. But your parents are here to pick you up. Go to the exit at the South end of the mall; they’re waiting there. Your dad will be driving The Rocket.”
That shocked Matt back to reality a bit. His dad was a car nut, and had always bought larger four-doors with V-8 engines. He tinkered and upgraded endlessly, and had made Matt refer to his latest car as The Rocket. The fact that Turon knew that must mean that his dad had told him so Matt would trust the man, right? Unless Turon somehow forced his dad to tell him that little tidbit. Matt didn’t know what to do, and he guessed Turon could see that.
“You are in danger, Matt. I will stay behind you, but you must go. Now.” Turon gently put his hand on Matt’s shoulder and gave him a push towards the men’s room door. “We don’t have much time. Take your friend with you- they shouldn’t know who she is, but since they’ve seen you together you can’t leave her here right now, either.”
What? Jessie was involved in this mess because of him? That was worse than anything.
In a daze, Matt exited the men’s room and turned down the hall to head back towards the food court. Jessie was standing there, a look of fear and uncertainty on her face that must have matched his own. She just caught a glimpse of Mr. Turon in the restroom as the door closed.
She pointed at the unconscious man on the floor and then looked back at the men’s room door. “Matt, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but I think my parents know. That Turon guy said to meet them at the South entrance.”
“The narrow, lightly traveled exit because there’s a delivery area right there?” she replied. “That would be a bad place to go if we were worried about people kidnapping us or otherwise doing us harm.”
Matt realized she was thinking more clearly than he was, and made a conscious effort to calm down and focus. “First, let’s get walking.” He grabbed her hand, and started down the hallway and into the mall, only briefly experiencing disappointment that holding her hand like this was done out of a sense of survival and not a more personal reason. “He knew my dad’s nickname for his car. He said my parents would be here to pick us up. My dad wouldn’t tell him the car’s name if he didn’t trust him. Heck, he hasn’t told anybody other than my mom and me that name.”
“And that’s good enough?” she replied.
Matt was about to try to respond when he looked behind him and saw yet another man dressed just like the first. The strange Mr. Turon was a ways back and angling across the mall towards a fourth disturbing, well dressed man.
Jessie followed Matt’s gaze and turned to him. “I am very close to panicking right now.”
Matt decided there was no point in false statements of bravery to her at this point. “Me too. I’m going to call my dad.”
As soon as he spoke, his phone rang, startling him and making him stumble a bit as he reached into his pocket. He looked at the ID and saw it was his mother’s number.
“Mom?” he asked, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. “That Turon guy is here at the mall and there are others too and…”
“I know,” she began, calm and collected. “He told you to head to the South exit, right?”
This was too much. His mom knew all about this? And how could she be so businesslike and cool at a time like this?
“Mom, what’s going on? This is seriously messed up.”
“I know. Mr. Turon will watch your backs while you head outside. Your dad and I are going to pick you two up at the back exit. Hurry. Can you do that?”
“Yeah, I guess,” he managed to reply.
As he hung up, he caught Jessie’s eye. “My mom says she’s waiting at the back exit.”
“Well, as long as we get to her before that guy catches us, I’m onboard with that plan.”
They reached the door minutes later, at a pace somewhere between speed walking and jogging. They were both getting hot, perspiration beading their foreheads as they suffered through a combination of exercise and stress. Finally, they burst out of the doors and into the small courtyard. It was narrow, with brick walls on each side. After about thirty feet, it opened up a bit and they practically jumped down a handful of steps to parking lot level. The area was larger now, with the wall on their right heading off at a ninety degree angle and dotted with garage doors for deliveries. The other brick wall continued out towards the parking lot for another fifty feet.
They stopped to look around , and Matt sheepishly realized he was still holding Jessie’s hand. He released his grip on her, and she seemed to first notice they had been holding hands to begin with. She flexed her fingers as they looked around. They heard the door to the mall open again, and their sense of dread went right back to maximum as one of the well dressed men came walking through at a brisk pace.
Then, as if out of thin air, his mom appeared behind him. He didn’t hear her coming, and she dashed right up to him, grabbed a fistful of his jacket at the back of the neck, and delivered a vicious jab to his right side, blasting him in the kidney. The man spasmed once, then toppled to the ground without a sound. She ran up to them and hugged them both.
“Are you ok?” she asked.
“Who are you?” Matt replied.
She was about to answer when he
heard a screeching of tires. Around the corner from the parking lot, past the brick wall and into the courtyard area in a smoky power drift, screamed his dad’s car, The Rocket. It was a brand new Dodge Charger, with the biggest V-8 you could order. His dad had once told Matt about his modifications to the engine, suspension, and tires, but Matt wasn’t real into that sort of thing and his eyes had glazed over as he’d thought of something else. Now he wished he’d paid attention.
The Charger came roaring down the parking lot, covering the short distance in an instant at alarming speed. Just when Matt started to think about jumping into the bushes, the front tires cranked, the back end started to swing around, and the car began a 180 degree spin. He heard his dad tap the gas halfway through the keep the tires spinning and back end swinging, the raspy exhaust echoing off the walls and making the car sound even louder than usual.
The car stopped, right rear door mere feet from where Matt stood. His mom opened the door and motioned to the kids. “Get in, quick. We’ll explain everything.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” Matt muttered as Jessie shoved him into the car and piled in after him. His mom jumped into the front passenger seat, and they left in a cloud of tire smoke.
On the short drive back to their neighborhood, Matt’s mom made two phone calls. One was to Jessie’s house, where she explained to Jessie’s parents that she had been in the neighborhood and had picked up the kids and was on the way to drop their daughter off. The second was to Mr. Turon, and though Matt couldn’t hear the other side of the call, he guessed that it was somewhat good news, as his mom seemed to relax just a tiny bit after she hung up.
She turned to the back seat and looked at the two of them intently. “Alright, I admit, that was a heck of a thing that just happened.”
Jessie, trying to be polite to her friend’s parents, stayed silent. Matt felt no such requirement.
“You think? A strange guy comes to our house, and the next day some whack jobs try to kidnap us at the mall?”
“I know this is a lot to take in, so I’ll break it into small parts, some of which are best kept within the family.” His mom looked at Jessie. “I’m sorry to have to be blunt, but there are a few things we need to tell Matt that you really shouldn’t hear.”
Jessie thought for a second, then responded. “I think I’d like you to tell me something about what just happened, Mrs. Falken. That was seriously scary.”
“Yes, I imagine it was.” She paused for a second, as if trying to decide what she could tell them. “Mr. Turon is in the private security business. He came to us with information about a possible threat to our family. We didn’t see how that could be, but agreed to let him observe for a while based on his credentials. Apparently, he was right. He was the one who called us when he noticed the men watching you at the mall.”
“Why would there be a threat to us?” Matt said. “What do we have that anyone could want?”
“That’s something we should discuss at home.”
They passed the rest of the drive in silence, and Matt spent the whole time thinking about how this could affect Jessie. As they pulled up to her house, he asked, “Mom, what about Jessie? Is she safe? Should we call the police?”
“She’s safe,” her dad finally spoke up. “They weren’t after her, they were after us. But to be safe, Mr. Turon’s associate will keep an eye on their house for a day or two. And no police. We will explain that at home as well.”
“So she’s supposed to go home and just act like nothing happened?” asked Matt, indicating Jessie where she sat next to him.
“We’re just saying let us get home first before anybody goes and does anything that attracts attention,” replied his mom.
Matt looked at his friend, a look of worry on his face. If anything happened to her because of whatever his parents were involved in, he wasn’t sure what he’d do, but he wasn’t able to wrap his brain around the concept, either. She didn’t deserve to be in danger because of him.
“I’ll go, it’s all right, Matt,” said Jessie, displaying a calm he himself didn’t feel. “I’m not sure what’s happening here either, but I want to know it’s over. I’m not sure if I should feel concerned for you or angry that we had to outrun a band of kidnappers. And if I get worried something’s going on, I’m going to tell my parents and the police. Matt,” she added as she got out. “Call me tonight.” She shut the door and walked quickly up to her front door without looking back.
“Oh well, that’s just awesome,” Matt said so his parents could hear. “Not like I have a lot of friends, and you just scared one of them off, probably for good.”
“This isn’t just about us, Matt,” his father said as he pulled out onto the street again. “It concerns our whole family.”
Chapter 3
When they arrived home, his parents told him to wait in the living room while they took care of a few things. He had no idea what that meant, and he didn’t really care too much about it at the moment. He tried to take stock of his crumbling life. His parents were some sort of fugitives or something, people were after him, and he’d probably alienated his best friend. Might as well move to another country and start his life over. He heard good things about New Zealand- maybe he could try there.
At least he could call Jessie like she’d asked. He dialed her number on his phone and waited for her to pick up. It rang three, four, five times. He supposed he’d deserve to get sent to voicemail if that happened. Finally, he heard her voice.
“Matt,” she began flatly. “You ok?”
Me? He thought? She should be worrying about herself, not me. “Yeah, I’m fine. My parents told me to wait downstairs while they somehow come up with a way to explain all this.”
“Good luck with that.”
He was about to make a smart reply when his dad walked into the room carrying what looked like a pair of handguns. Something was different, though. They were shiny, and the end of the barrel looked too small for an actual bullet to pass through. Then his mom walked in carrying a tablet PC he’d never seen before. Hovering above the screen, though, was a holographic display of what looked like a galaxy, complete with animated motion and flaring stars.
“Blehhhh,” was all he managed to say.
“What was that?” Jessie asked over the phone.
His mom motioned to the phone and mouthed the phrase ‘hang up’. He nodded and let his arm, phone in hand, drop to his side on the couch next to him.
“We’re sorry to drop this on you this way,” his dad began while his mom tapped something onto the surface of the tablet PC, “but there are a few things you need to know. Those guys at the mall today were here for you, Matt, and we’re going to tell you why.”
Matt struggled for words, finding none. What were his parents talking about? He’d always complained his life was a bit too boring, but every kid his age said that. Nobody really wanted something crazy like this to happen. Maybe it was some sort of weird joke or life lesson they were trying to teach him. For all the talk about how he wanted to be treated like an adult, how he himself felt like he was ready for the responsibility and authority that came with making those grown up decisions, right now he wanted nothing more than to be a kid. Just go upstairs, play some video games, and worry about something simple, like how he was going to con his parents into letting him have more than one soda tonight. It struck him that he really was not ready for this, whatever this actually was. He swallowed twice, then tried to put a sentence together that would make sense.
“Dad, what are those?” he pointed to the weapons his dad held.
“Ah, these are for self defense.” He dad looked at him, but Matt just stared back, willing his dad to continue. “They fire a charged packet of magnetically contained energy, which…”
“They’re blasters, Matt,” his mom said as she walked over to stand next to his dad.
This time, the idea was so crazy he was actually able to come up with a sarcastic comment. “Yeah, that makes sense, because we live in a science f
iction movie, and they have those there.”
“They have a stun setting…” his dad added quietly.
“Matt, what if I told you we weren’t from anywhere near here?” his mom asked.
“What, like Canada?”
“No, I mean farther.” A long pause. “A different planet.”
Matt licked his lips and stared at them. They had obviously gone completely stark raving insane. His parents were going to be committed to an asylum, and he had nobody to live with. He looked at them, his mouth hanging open, unable to come up with anything to say. How in the heck did you respond to something like that?
“You’re going to need to say that again.”
“Our family is from another planet,” his mom said gently.
“Ok, I’ll play along, I guess,” Matt said, stunned. He had no idea where this was going, but they were serious and apparently not going to let this drop, so he guessed he’d have to see it through in order to get to the punchline. “How did that happen?”
“It was an experiment,” his dad said, and gestured to the tablet PC his mom had set on the end table next to the couch. “Maybe a quick history lesson would help.”
His mom tapped the screen twice, and the small hologram increased in size until it took up most of the living room. The galaxy still rotated, stars still twinkled, and he absently reached out to touch one of the tiny stars. The hologram changed, and it zoomed in until that star was about the size of a golf ball, and it now showed planets orbiting it. The zoom effect gave him a touch of vertigo, and he closed his eyes for a second to collect himself.