The Fellowship for Alien Detection (12 page)

There was something different about the sky, too. Wasn't there? It didn't look blue anymore, but more like gray . . . or, it was like it was getting gray, yes, that was it . . . right before her eyes—so hard to think, thoughts slowing— but yes, the sky was definitely losing its color. . . . And there was something else. A light. Growing. Above her. Neck straining to look up . . .

And that was when Haley saw the UFO.

Or at least something enormous and round—the belly of a helicopter?—hovering in the sky, pulsing with multicolored lights. Beautiful, strange lights, lowering toward her, and from its center, the brightest light of all, a searing white, flickering like a strobe.

Ppptht!

Haley felt a wicked sting in the back of her head, just below and behind her left ear. She winced and tried to grab at it but again the slow muscles and ow, it hurt so much, and now Haley was falling. She tumbled backward, landing so hard that it knocked the wind out of her. The back of her head thocked against the pavement.

The pain made her thoughts drift in the molasses. What was happening?

And there, floating above her in the air was her balloon. She'd let go of it when she'd fallen, but it hadn't floated away. It was just hovering there above her, the string dangling down, but it was still.

Everything still.

Where had the sound gone? Silence. The whole world was silent.

Now the balloon's color finally began to fade, the fiery orange draining, leaving a flat gray, just like the sky, just like everything, except for that brilliant white light overhead.

Haley couldn't tell what was happening, she didn't understand, she—

Yes . . . you . . . do. . . .
she thought with a desperate, hollowing certainty.
They're . . . here. . . .

There was a brilliant flash of white light, and Haley lost track of the world.

Memphis, TN, July 4, 9:26 p.m.

Sound returned first. Haley heard a voice.

“Well, that was easy.” The speaker was male, his voice low and calm.

Now a second voice, female and bored-sounding, replied: “It always is.”

“I know, but she's a sharp one. And this was risky. All these people.”

“Still human, though,” said the woman. “Once we leave and the lights start flashing, they won't know what happened. Besides, we couldn't wait any longer. She was headed to Insertion Point Beta Seven. And apparently Keller called in reinforcements.”

“That's right,” said the male. “I haven't seen anyone. You?”

“No.”

Haley opened her eyes. She was still on her back. Her balloon, fully black and white, hovered above her, hanging frozen. Beyond that, a brilliant, pure white light flickered like a movie projector from beneath the silent craft. Those voices nearby were absolutely the
only
sound in the world other than Haley's breathing. It was as if everything had been frozen, except for Haley. She realized it would probably be a good idea to be as still as possible. She turned her head ever so slightly. . . .

In front of the now completely colorless bathrooms stood two people, a man and a woman. The man wore a yellow polo shirt tucked into his shorts. The woman had straight blond hair and wore a sky blue sundress with white polka dots. Other than the fact that they were both oddly pale, no color in their skin whatsoever, the only weird thing about them was that they seemed to be wearing identical tiny black oval sunglasses. And Haley felt fairly sure that these were the same gogglelike sunglasses she'd seen on the figure in the mine.

But from this close she could also see another feature of these two that she had not noticed on the mine figure: there was something strange about their faces. The skin was too clean— lineless and smooth, expressionless:
like a mask
. Their arms and legs looked that way, too, like they'd been taken from a mannequin.

“By the way, One, I hate these outfits.”

“The Director says we need to blend in,” the female named One replied.

“The Director. That's such a
human
title.”

“For one with such concerns, Two,” One sounded annoyed, “you've certainly embraced their moodiness.”

“Please,” the man named Two said. “Let's just get this over with. I'd like to get back for the temporal loop reset. I have some experiments that need updating.”

The couple started toward Haley. “Poor girl,” said One. “She should be at home writing some silly blog or doing her summer reading.”

“Plenty of time for that,” Two agreed, “once we get her back to Juliette and get rid of her troublesome thoughts.”

It was all Haley could do to remain still, but they seemed to think she was frozen. If she waited for the right moment, she might be able to get away from them.
And go where?
There were no other sounds. It was like the world had ceased existing.

It has
, Haley thought to herself,
in a way
. Because she realized that this must be missing time. She was in it, right now. But . . . why wasn't it affecting her?

One spoke from right nearby. “Hmm . . .”

“What?”

“Is there some reason why she looks different?”

Haley heard a clicking sound, like buttons being pushed. “I'm reading the MT Field at full strength.”

“Strange,” said One. Haley heard the ruffle of her bending down—

And then she thrust herself into a roll across the gravel.

“What—”

Haley was up in a second, sprinting away. She glanced over her shoulder to see One jumping to her feet and Two racing after her.

Haley spun back around and finally began to take in the details of the world around her. There was no color left. Everything was black and white, and flickering in that strobe-like light from above. Every single person was frozen in place, some in midstride, others with mouths open in mid-conversation. A girl with a stream of water hanging between her water bottle and her lips; a small boy caught in the middle of a leap; a father with his finger raised, about to yell. All were still, silent, caught in missing time. All except for Haley, and she was being chased by . . . what? Steph's term flashed to mind:
agents
. What kind of agents? But she probably knew that, too.
Alien agents
.

“Stop right there!” Two shouted at her.

Haley raced ahead, weaving through the statues. In the eerie silence, there was only the slapping of her sneakers on the flickering pavement, her quick breaths, and a light static hum like she was near large power lines.

“Now would be a good time for the sedative!” One shouted behind her.

“Working on it!” Two replied. He sounded close.

Haley hurdled a frozen dog. Something whizzed by her head. A dart with bright red feathers hit the black-and-white shoulder of a frozen man beside her.

“Rats!” Two called.

Haley dropped to her hands and knees, scurrying in between a thick crowd of bikers who were clustered around a motorcycle.

“I've lost visual!”

I was supposed to be frozen, too
, Haley thought as she lurched back to her feet. So why wasn't she?

Ffftwwp!

Another dart just missed, striking a girl beside Haley right in the brim of her baseball cap.

“Almost!” Two shouted from somewhere way too close.

“Come on!” One shouted.

Haley risked a glance over her shoulder and saw that One had jumped up onto the karaoke stage, her hair and dress an explosion of color among a frozen accordion band of Elvis impersonators. She spied Haley and pointed. “Over there!”

Haley raced on, her heart slamming against her ribs. Her lungs were starting to hurt.
At least
, she thought,
this pretty much proves my whole aliens theory
. . . . It would make a heck of a story, but if they caught her, it seemed certain that she'd never get to write it.
No
, she thought fiercely,
they are not taking my memories!

Haley dropped down once more, sliding on her belly under a huge pickup truck. She jumped up and ran—

“Gotcha.” Two appeared right in front of her. Haley crashed into him, and his cold hands gripped her shoulders. “You're quick,” he said mildly, “but after this—” He grabbed Haley by the hair and held her at arm's length.

“Let go of me!” Haley shrieked.

“Relax, this is going to make you a happy camper,” said Two. He raised his free hand, palm facing Haley. A disc of neon orange light began to glow around it.

“No!” Haley screamed. She thrashed against his grip, but it was no use.

“I almost wish you'd come to understand what you are onto, but this is much easier,” Two said matter-of-factly. “A few minutes from now, you won't remember a thing.”

His smooth, pale face leaned closer to her, lit in orange. In the tiny oval reflections of his sunglasses, Haley saw her own eyes, her own tears. She realized that even this was something she would never remember again—

And then an even thicker, faster arm wrapped around Two's neck. The arm wore a fluffy, white shirt with purple polka dots, a white glove on its hand. Two gasped, his face turning purple. He let go of Haley, and the orange light ceased.

The face of the green-haired clown appeared over Two's shoulder. A smear of white makeup had been wiped off his face, revealing his olive-colored skin. Despite the considerable force he was putting into squeezing Two, he looked down at Haley calmly. “Just a moment,” he said. Haley was surprised by his voice. He sounded more refined than Haley had expected from an enormous clown skilled at hand-to-hand combat.

The clown produced a stainless-steel syringe. He jabbed the long needle into Two's ear.

“Erk!” Two stopped struggling, his expression unchanged, and slumped over. The clown dropped him to the ground.

“Who are you?” Haley asked, her voice still shaking. “What's—”

The clown's hand shot out, covering her mouth. “Wait.” He cocked his head. His hand dropped and clamped around her wrist. “My name is the Alto. The Keller Foundation hired me to get you out of here. You can trust me,” he said, and dragged her into the crowd.

“Hey!” Haley struggled to keep her feet moving, following the giant man as he weaved deftly between the human statues. He reached the line of cars and leaped up onto a hood. Haley jumped, pulled off balance by his arm. Her shin slammed the headlight. She dragged herself up beside him. “What are you—” she began, but the clown was simply pointing ahead, and when Haley looked, her voice died in her throat.

Four cars down was her own. There was her dad, sitting frozen, midway through biting his corn dog. And . . . he was alone.

“Liam,” Haley whispered.

“There.” The Alto pointed into the crowd. “We have to hurry.” He vaulted off the hood. Haley couldn't see anything other than frozen people, but she slid down and raced after him. Liam. Just like Suza . . .

She bumped into the Alto's back and spun around beside him. They had reached the karaoke stage. One stood onstage. She gazed at them, expressionless. Liam was sideways in her arms, frozen in a sitting position, flickering black and white, corn dog still in his hand.

A spear of orange light shot down from above, enveloping them.

“No!” Haley shouted. She started toward them.

The Alto threw an arm in her way. His other arm whipped forward, and something yellow flashed through the air.

“Gulp-tch!” A bright yellow ball slammed into One's throat. She contorted, stumbled backward, and crashed to the ground with Liam on top of her.

The Alto rocketed forward and lunged onto the stage. Haley hauled herself up after him. He grabbed Liam, yanking him out of the orange light. One shimmered and disappeared. The light winked out.

Something hummed deeply, making Haley's teeth vibrate. She looked up to see the UFO lifting into the sky, shrinking and darting off into the night. The parking lot was plunged into darkness.

The Alto flicked on a headlamp flashlight. He held Liam in his arms.

Haley just stared at her frozen brother.

“I'm sorry,” said the Alto. “He'll be okay.” The Alto pushed back his fluffy white sleeve to reveal an enormous wristwatch. It had two sets of hands on the same face. “Given my intervention,” he continued, “they've cut the MT Field short, but it still takes eight minutes to cycle down. That should give us just enough time.” He turned, still holding Liam, and hopped down off the stage.

“Wait, just wait!” Haley shouted. The Alto turned back to her, frowning. “What is going on? Who were those people?”

“You mean
what
were they,” said the Alto. “And I think you know. This way. We have to put your brother back before the Missing Time Field wears off. That will minimize his disorientation. I can explain more later.”