by C. S Luis
I wasn’t sure how dinner even registered in my mind after the experience with Project X in the hallway, but it seemed to be the most important thing in the world. Besides, someone needed to keep Joseph on track, and this evening was just what we needed to get in good with the faculty, especially considering the run-in with Mr. Peterson.
We came down the steps, grabbed Joseph’s briefcase, activated the remaining devices in the cafeteria, and we headed out to the parking lot.
14
Alien Visitor
Inside Mr. Peterson’s classroom, Tina sat up, looking straight ahead at Mr. Peterson, who was now sitting himself up straight, but with his eyes rolled to the back of his head. His head flopped back-and-forth as Tina began to giggle behind the palm of her hand.
At last, Mr. Peterson’s head fell forward and hit the desk hard. With that, he lifted his head and opened his mouth wide. A black vaporous cloud of smoke emerged from his mouth. The cloud floated over the desk; then, to the other end in front of the classroom.
Tina was overjoyed as the vapor formed a figure before the teacher’s collapsed form. She rose and kneeled before the figure. The clouded vapors formed the well-defined figure of a youthful, handsome man. He had matted dark locks of hair and a white complexion made more pale by the dark, scaly, leather uniform.
“It’s time to reveal myself to her,” the figure said. “It’s time I reunited with my wife.”
15
The Invitation
In the car I thought about what I had encountered. The name Pet-tricia kept popping into my mind. What could it mean? It was looking for someone, but who?
“So, are you going to tell me what the fuck happened upstairs, or do I have to continue guessing?” Joseph’s voice from the driver’s seat interrupted my thoughts.
I spun my head over at him as he drove us to the rental that would be our home for the next year, depending on Dr. Nicholson’s position.
“I saw it, Joseph.”
“Saw it? Saw what, kid? Be specific. What did you see?”
“Project X, the Et product. It attacked me in the hallway just before you got up there.”
“Impossible,” he said, “the detectors didn’t go off…”
“But they did. The watch, it was going off just as I got up there. I only went up there when they detected an energy surge.”
“Kid, you’re trying to tell me, you actually saw it—The alien product?”
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”
“So, what happened?”
“I don’t know. One minute, it was there; the next, it was gone.”
“Gone? Kid, I’m surprised your still alive! Are you sure it was the Et product?”
“I’m positive. Why is it so impossible to believe what I saw?” I demanded.
“Because Alien products don’t usually leave survivors…No one ever sees one and is left alive to talk about it. And since there hasn’t been one spotted in a long time, that’s why we all know better to avoid one. Unless we’re well prepared…”
“So, why are we on this thing?”
“Well, you’re the anomaly, you tell me. Dr. Nicholson knows you can do this. Besides, no human has lived to tell the tale. You’re a little different.”
I blinked at him. “What does that mean?”
He wrinkled his nose at me. “Look, kid, I’m just talking out of my ass again. I don’t know why it didn’t attack you. I’m just thinking, maybe it didn’t know what to make of you.”
I thought about that, recalling it saying the same thing to me. It didn’t know what I was. Joseph might be right about that.
“Remember Chicago? Before your first assignment?”
How could I forget? It was all the cadets talked about for months. It started as a rumor with one talking about it, bringing it back into the barracks, were it finally reached the other cadets and me. Everyone talked about how the men were torn apart by something super human. The squad was one of the best trained, not Venators but SEALS, still one of the best. I had only heard pieces of the story, passed on by others. The story kept changing. It scared the shit out of the cadets. Their fear was, if Venators couldn’t defeat the escapee, who or what could contain it? Nobody knew the real story. Nobody knew the truth.
“Yeah what about it?”
“A team was assigned to investigate an energy surge, in a deserted building. It was the first encounter with the product. It wiped out the entire team.” He glanced back at me.
“It’s the only of its kind that we know of. The Company had a failsafe mechanism, so no escapees could survive the outside elements beyond the facility.”
“But some did, Joseph. I’ve read all that before in my curriculum. It’s all in the files.”
“Yes, a few did. All the others died immediately after escape.”
I knew all that. It was our first lesson as cadets, the reason for being who we were.
“Well, I know what I saw, Joseph. It had to be it. It couldn’t be anything else.”
“Maybe you just think you saw it? There’s no way you would still be alive if it had been an Et,” Joseph said.
“Maybe we’re dealing with something else.” I didn’t want him to go in that direction, knowing about Claudia’s abilities.
“You remember Dr. Nicholson’s instructions to find the source, you know that’s our main objective…”
“Could he be the cause to the energy surges?” I tried to give him another option, anything that would keep him from looking in the most obvious direction.
“Maybe, but we can’t make speculations. Dr. Nicholson doesn’t dabble in assumptions or maybes. He wants concrete proof.”
The car came to a stop outside a fancy mansion. The lawn was well-maintained with well-trimmed hedges and decorative landscaping. Joseph drove into the long, narrow driveway and it opened the garage by remote.
“Fancy,” I managed to whisper. It looked like no one lived there, it was so fresh and new. Too clean and spotless.
“Only the best for dear, old dad. Your father is wealthy remember,” Joseph joked.
“Yeah,” I muttered. My father…Who was this faceless man? Why did it even matter? I would probably never meet him, or have the need for him. He would simply be the name on a piece of paper to give life to a false profile.
The rental Dr. Nicholson had secured for us was a furnished, large, two-story, four-bedroom home in the River Oaks area, just a short drive from downtown Houston and the infamous Montrose area, a hip and popular location filled with culture and mischief. Joseph liked the area; it had character, he said. Whatever that meant. There was a Starbucks at almost every corner. That sort of thing wasn’t normal.
Joseph was impressed by the house, when he came in he took a moment to look around and admire the décor and modern appliances.
I ran passed him to the second floor, took the first room in the place, and found the bathroom. I heard Joseph call after me. I answered, “Getting ready.” I wasn’t even sure if he heard me as I swung open the closet door and found a wardrobe of clothing fitting for a young teenage boy. It seemed that part had been taken care of. This was my room, it had all the markings of a rich, spoiled kid who was the apple of his father’s eye.
The walls were decorated with athletic posters, featuring some of the hottest players in the NFL and NBA. Against one wall was a fully-loaded entertainment center. I had my own flat screen tv, Xbox, and PS4. Apparently, daddy spared no expense for his only son, but what exactly did Dr. Nicholson expect me to be doing? I wasn’t here to entertain friends; I had no need for what amounted to a waste of The Company’s money.
I moved over to the mahogany dresser. Pictures were lined up along the top of the dresser. There was one with my ‘grandmother.’ I recognized her from the pictures Joseph had in his office. There was another picture with a woman who looked to be in her forties. She was a beautiful woman and shared some physical similarities to me. It was obvious she was meant to be my mother. I didn’t remember taking a picture with the woman, b
ut everything was photoshopped together, anyway. There was no need to have me pose with different models, when they could merely cut and paste and a later date? It looked like everyone was showcased here except my father. One would think as the owner of the house, he’d want pictures somewhere of him and his son, but apparently not.
Joseph appeared by the doorway. He was eating a sandwich. There was food in the house, and wouldn’t you know it, Joseph had found it.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Eating. What does it look like?” he answered my question with one of his own as he took a huge bite of what appeared to be a sandwich made entirely out of ham.
“We have dinner plans.” I groaned and grabbed the sandwich out of his hand and placed it in the wastebasket. He looked disappointed, but refrained from arguing with me. Mayo stained the side of his lip. He licked it off.
I moved over to the bathroom after grabbing a few items from the top drawer, where I found undergarments and socks and a variety of items I would need for my long stay here as son to a wealthy man.
He didn’t move looking down at the trash bin.
I looked back before I entered the bathroom.
“Joseph? What are you doing we have a dinner to go to.” I waved him away. “Get ready.”
After a moment, he dragged himself out the door and disappeared. I quickly cleaned myself up, brushed my teeth, combed my hair, and picked one of the several fragrances set on the counter of the bathroom. The room was so white it reminded me of Dr. Nicholson’s lab.
I dabbed a bit of the cologne labeled Code by Dior on. I wasn’t much for wearing cologne but for the job it was required. A teenage boy in high school liked to smell good for the girls. It was Joseph’s job to know these things.
I got dressed in a sporty jacket, a pair of dark slacks and a blue silk shirt. I was ready within minutes. I was excited about my first dinner invitation. I wanted to talk to Claudia. I wanted to convince her I wasn’t going to hurt her. I wanted her to trust me.
Brushing my hair, I thought again of Project X, maybe the best clue was in his words. The name Patricia, that had sounded more like Pet-tricia. Find her and get to him? Was that the answer?
I looked into the mirror and brushed back a few strands of my hair. I have a date, I said to the handsome teen boy in the mirror with the bright green eyes. Not bad, I thought. I liked the jacket, but I wondered if it was too much.
When I came down Joseph was looking in the refrigerator again.
“I said we have dinner. Can’t you wait?” I asked.
He turned catching sight of me by the counter looking into the massive kitchen. The appliances were all new, stainless steel. The floor was marble, none of that cheap stuff. There were apples, fruit bowls, and flower décor throughout the home. The furniture was all leather in an off-white as well; the curtains were cream. There was also a pool in the exterior part of the house I could see through the large glass windows.
“Well, well, well… Looking sharp.”
I rolled my eyes at him.
“That reminds me we have something to discuss.”
“What?” I asked. Why did I feel this was something I wasn’t going to like?
“Any luck on the girl status? What’s her name- Rachel? Your new girlfriend,” he boldly said.
“What?”
“It has to complete the look. You’ve always had a girlfriend in your previous missions, right?”
I wrinkled my lip in response.
“Seriously you want to talk about that now? Can’t it wait?”
“Fine, but we need to discuss it.”
“Sure.” I uttered, grabbing my keys from the table near the entrance.
“But she’s not my girlfriend,” I boldly said.
“Sure,” he whispered. “Whatever you say.”
“You’re not driving.” He put out his hand and I handed him my keys.
“It’ll look better if I drive us there. It’s a dinner, Nephew,” he said. “You’ll survive another day without your car.”
“Fine,” I whispered. We both moved to the garage door and we were on our way.
“We need to make a stop,” I said from the passenger seat.
“What are we getting?” Joseph asked as he pulled off the street to the nearest express store.
“We can’t go in without a bottle of wine,” I said. That was part of the curriculum when training undercover.
“Wine?” he furrowed his brow.
“Haven’t you been to a dinner before, Joseph?” I asked as he pulled into a parking space.
“It’s been a while,” he admitted.
I opened the door. Joseph grabbed my arm and pulled me back in.
“Where are you going?”
“To get the wine?”
“How?”
It took a while until I realized what he meant. I slammed the door, dropping on the seat of his car.
Joseph grinned. “I’ll be back, hot shot.” he said. He left the engine of the Mercedes on.
Of course, I couldn’t get the wine, I was under age. I had a license to kill but no license to drink. In what world did that make sense? Not that it had ever stopped me when out with the older soldiers. They always allowed me a drink. I’ll admit, I didn’t like the stuff at all.
After picking a bottle of wine, Joseph drove up the street and found the house easily. The neighborhood was very nice and family-friendly. A good place to raise a family. People were out walking their dogs in the early hours of the evening. They looked peaceful. A couple strolled down the sidewalk holding hands and walking their German Shepherd. Their kids were not far behind, playing and following their parents. It was a family outing, I assumed.
I looked over at the house. It was a modest two-story house with a well-kept lawn and large bushes at each side of the steps leading to the doorway. There was no white picket-fence, just a nice little trail leading to the front door.
Joseph was still complaining about the sandwich that got away- the one that I had tossed into the waste basket. He stopped the car and parked on the side of the street.
“I could have eaten that sandwich and had room for dinner, you know. You didn’t have to toss it out. It was only one sandwich.”
“Joseph, seriously?” I glared back at him holding the bottle of wine in my hand.
He shut off the engine as I looked over at the house from the street. It was a quite nice little neighborhood. I don’t know if I could manage a simple little life such as this.
I looked back at Joseph, handing him the bottle, “I think you should take this,” I said.
“Right,” he agreed. “Well, shall we?”
Immediately, I was keen to her presence and looked up at the window, seeing her slender frame peek out. Her room faced the front of the house. I turned the dial of the watch and set to resist, and just like that, I felt a tug and pull but it was the only thing I felt. I silenced the activation part, so it wouldn’t alert or go off. I opened the door and got out.
Joseph jumped out of the car taking the bottle of red wine, looking over his jacket for any noticeable flaws. He came around the other end of the car, as I began to walk the trail and up the steps.
There were plots of beautiful daisies decorating the windows; the house was painted in a pastel green with white trimmings. The large windows had no curtains that I could see, wooden white blinds covered half of the glass that would allow sunlight in. It was a beautiful house.
I stood to the far right of Joseph trying to think of how I would approach her without scaring her away. I couldn’t come up with a single scenario my past did terrify her, that my job wouldn’t cause her to keep her distance.
Control yourself, John, I whispered, be on your best behavior.
“God, I’m hungry,” Joseph said as he pushed the doorbell.
I glared over at him.
He glanced back at me. “What?” he asked.
“Seriously?” He was holding tightly to the bottle, squeezing it. It looked like
he was nervous, but what he was doing was anticipating the moment. Just like me, it was like an adrenaline drive to pretend to be someone else. Call it our game.
“Yes, seriously you took my sandwich,” Joseph griped.
I sighed, rolling back my eyes.
A few seconds passed, and Joseph rang the doorbell again. I felt the mental tug before Joseph spoke again.
“Ah, there she is? Look alive, Nephew.” Joseph waved to her through the thick glass of the front door window.
“I think she saw me? At least I hope she has. Oh, wait; here she comes.” He smiled. “She doesn’t look happy.” He laughed lightly.
I furrowed my brows. “Well, what do you expect, Joseph? There’s an over grown child waving at her through the front door. We’ll be lucky if she lets us in.”
“Shut up, smartass,” he said.
The door opened, and Claudia stood there. Her dark brown eyes stared over at Joseph. She still hadn’t seen me. A sensation raced against my chest as her eyes landed on me; she gasped. Was she surprised?
The pulling was there again. I was enjoying this struggle. I didn’t look up right away, staring at my dress shoes, instead.
“Hello, Miss Belle. How are you?” Joseph was the first one to say anything to her. He was still holding tightly onto the bottle.
I had a feeling she was sensing the difference in me. I was ready for her this evening. She looked surprised when I managed to turn my eyes up to meet hers.
“Sorry for being a little late,” Joseph politely said.
She forced a smile on to her face. I nearly laughed. Had anyone else ever found Joseph a little annoying? He grows on you, I wanted to tell her, but now was not the time.
“And I brought some red wine. I hope it’s appropriate for the dinner.”
“She doesn’t drink, Joseph. How would she know about wine and food?” I glanced over at her, the tug was there again. I knew she had felt the control, I wasn’t the same person she had met a few hours earlier. I think that caught her off guard because she kept pulling at me. The watch hands kept moving rapidly; I was afraid Joseph would see it. I hid my wrist back, as again the hands moved back and forth then settled upon her. They had detected the energies.