The Fellowship for Alien Detection (13 page)

Haley followed the Alto back toward the cars. In the light of his headlamp, she saw that the people were flickering more slowly, traces of color returning to their faces.

“You did something to me, didn't you?” she asked.

The Alto nodded. “A field disruptor. Behind your left ear. The Missing Time Field can be circumvented by stimulating the balance centers of the inner ear. It's actually the same area that they incapacitate with their mind control.”

“I probably don't know what you're talking about,” said Haley, still catching her breath, “but I'm guessing that I was about to experience this mind control that you're talking about if they had grabbed me.”

The Alto nodded. “After I gave you the balloon, I positioned myself for the shot from the top of the airplane tail. That's why you had to look toward the moon.”

In all the madness, Haley had forgotten that stinging sensation from right before the aliens had arrived. She instinctively reached toward the spot—

The Alto's hand shot out and caught hers. “
Not
now,” he warned. “If you removed that, you'd freeze up.”

They reached Haley's car. The Alto placed Liam back beside Dad. Their frozen faces both gazed up toward the sky expectantly, waiting for the show, having no idea what they'd just missed. Haley stared at them and started to cry. She thought of Liam jumping on the motel beds, his sweaty head asleep against her in the car, and felt horrible for ever being annoyed with him.

“It's okay, um . . . now,” said the Alto. He shrugged and shifted on his feet. “You . . .” Her crying seemed to make him feel awkward.

Haley wiped at her eyes. “So, what are you, some kind of mercenary?”

“I make myself available for certain special operations,” said the Alto. He slipped his thumb inside his clown shirt and produced a pair of silver dog tags. “I was in the military awhile back and . . .” He trailed off and glanced at the sky. It looked like he'd forgotten what he was going to say, or was maybe looking for something just out of sight above his eyebrows. “Other places since then . . .” he finished. “Anyway, the Kellers hired me earlier today. I had to wait for the money to be wired, and then I barely made it here in time.”

“Okay, well, thanks,” said Haley.

“I understand that they came after you because you found some connection . . .”

“Yeah.” Haley shrugged. “A pattern of towns being put into missing time so that something can be placed in mines underground. There's this orange light, people have had this dream where it gets lowered from the sky . . .”

“Falling from the stars,” said the Alto quietly.

“You know about that?” asked Haley.

“I—I'm familiar with it,” said the Alto. “It was part of the Kellers' briefing. But they didn't seem to understand why you were here in Memphis. You apparently said you were on your way home.”

“Yeah,” said Haley. “Well, I actually figured out where the next missing time event is going to happen: Fort Bluff, Arkansas, tonight. I was on my way to go and see it, and stopped here to delay our arrival until later in the evening, so we'd have a chance of seeing it.” Haley laughed darkly to herself. “I don't even know
how
I was going to pull that off. Maybe lie about an all-night ice-cream stand or something. I was working on it.”

“Do you still want to go?” said the Alto.

Haley looked at him. His gaze was inscrutable, leveled right at her. “What do you mean?”

“Do you still want to go to this town you were trying to get to?” said the Alto. “Because I can take you there.”

Haley considered this. She saw the Alto checking his watch again.

“We have to leave soon,” he said. “My car has special modifications to avoid being tracked, but it's still best if we leave before the MT Field ends and take advantage of the confusion it will create.”

Haley looked at her dad and brother. “Yeah but, what . . . are we all just going to pile in your car? How are we going to get them in there when they're frozen?”

The Alto shook his head. “Not them. Only you.”

“Wait, what?”

“It will compromise the mission to take your family along. I can't keep that many people safe. Too many variables. Besides, the aliens are after you, not your family.”

“They just tried to take Liam!” Haley shouted, feeling her motor ramping up again inside.

“That was only because they failed to get you. Grabbing your brother was the next logical move, improvised, I'm sure, but still sensible. They could hold him as ransom to get you.”

“Well, but won't they just try that again?”

The Alto shook his head. “We can leave your parents field disruptors, but also, this was a very risky operation for the aliens to attempt. They had the element of surprise. Next time, they won't, so they'll have to plan more carefully. And according to Ms. Keller, it sounds like you were probably keeping your parents in the dark about what was really going on anyway, which is why they hadn't turned the car around awhile ago.”

“Pretty much,” said Haley, feeling fresh guilt welling up with all the other feelings, like her mind was a crowded meeting hall.

“And that makes your parents less valuable, not worth the risk. Now, shall we?”

“I can't,” said Haley, more tears slipping down her cheeks. “This is crazy. I was almost just abducted. I . . .” She looked up into the still night. “That's it. We have to turn around and go home. Those were the orders I got, anyway. I should have just listened. I got us all in danger.”

The Alto reached over and patted her shoulder brusquely, a single time. “When you're on a mission, it is the hardest thing to turn back.”

Haley nodded. She couldn't believe how she'd acted, though. She'd ignored the dangers, so desperate to get her story. “Once this field fades,” she said resolutely, “I'll tell them everything. And we'll head home.”

Color was returning around them, clothes were brightening, lights warming. Haley found the Alto still staring at her. “What?”

“Well, unfortunately, going home will not be sufficient, at this point. As long as you know what you know, you're a threat to them. They'll come to finish the job.”

“Well, then I'll forget everything!” Haley shouted. “I'll burn my notes, smash my computer!”

“That won't be enough,” said the Alto. “I don't think you fully realize what you've gotten yourself into here. You uncovered their pattern, and they noticed. If you come with me, I can help you complete your mission—”

“It's not my
mission
!” Haley shouted. “It was a story, and . . . it's over now.”

“No, it's not,” said the Alto. “That's what I'm saying. Like it or not, there are only two ways that this ends: Either they find you, or you find them. I can help you. I can protect you, and we can find out what's really going on—”

“But my family!” Haley shouted. “I can't leave them!” And as she shouted it, Haley was thinking, Wait, why was she even arguing about this? She wasn't really considering it, was she? That was crazy, and that instinct had nearly led to her getting abducted, her mind getting wiped. “I've been lying to them, I put us all in danger, I—”

The Alto checked his watch again and made a little sighing sound like he might be getting impatient, or bored. “Let me ask you something: How is your family going to feel if you're abducted and they never get to see you again? Because that is likely what's going to happen if you turn around. You're still a threat with what you know. That doesn't change just because you go home. You could still expose them.”

“So I'm supposed to just run off with you? Isn't that basically the same thing for my parents?”

The Alto frowned. He reached into his pocket and produced two small rectangles. He held them out: phones. “Look,” he said, stepping past her and slipping one into Allan's pocket. “Once we're safely out of sight, you can call them. These phones are shielded against the EMP effects that this Missing Time Field will cause. You can let them know you're safe, and we can give them instructions about how to meet up with us again.”

The Alto held out the phone. Haley took it in her hand. She gazed down at it, then back at Dad and Liam. At their faces warming . . . at the lightening world around her . . .

You wanted adventure
, said the doubt demon coldly.
You wanted to get out in that big world. Well, here we are. So now what?

“This is the only way you're going to solve the mystery,” said the Alto. “Hundreds of people are missing, many more than that are in danger, including you and your family now, and you have the keys to saving them.”

“Ugh!” Haley threw up her hands. “How do I even know you're telling the truth?”

“You don't, except that I am. These were Keller's instructions: Rescue you, then bring you along and proceed to intercept the other fellowship winner.”

Haley remembered the text Alex had sent her. Here was the assistance. . . . “Keller said there were new developments,” said Haley. “What are they?”

The Alto raised his hands as if to indicate their current predicament. “You becoming a target.”

“She wanted me to turn around and go home . . .” Haley repeated.

“Again, that was before you started attracting this kind of attention. Look,” the Alto said, sounding almost flustered. “We can call Keller, if you want, but we're running out of time.”

Haley tried to reconcile all this. “So now Keller wants you to take me with you to rescue the other winner.” Haley had forgotten about the second winner. That had been part of the announcement: two winners chosen. The other was from Seattle, or somewhere. “Why? Is she in trouble, too?”

“He, actually. And affirmative. He also has information that we need. So . . . ready?”

No
, Haley thought, she wasn't ready. Not at all.
You cannot do this
, she thought. As much as she hated to admit it, she was just a thirteen-year-old girl who still needed her parents. Look at how much trouble she'd caused trying to act on her own. Not to mention lying to them. To go on, to betray them further . . . how could she?

And yet, to continue the hunt . . . Haley felt that urge and hated it and yet there it was, that whirring inside. And really, was this insane, or was it yet another example of Scheduled Serendipity?

Because if the Alto was right, and by staying with her family she was leaving herself open to be attacked again, and taken. . . . Well, that result was even worse, wasn't it? She tried to imagine her family having to deal with that. They'd feel responsible. They'd never get over it. She thought of Steph and Suza's mom, rocking and mumbling. That woman would never be the same. . . .

Haley felt a hollow pit open up inside, an understanding, finally, far too late, of what she'd really done. Sure, leaving now was irresponsible, but was it any more so than lying to her parents again and again and putting them all in danger? She'd already hurt her parents without them even knowing it, deceiving them as she had, and while leaving them now was going to hurt them even more, it would hurt them less than if she was taken from them forever, without a reason or a phone call.

Haley glanced at the sky. Blues were returning. She saw a flicker of movement. Off in the distance, her lavender balloon was slowly rising into the night.

“Tick-tock,” said the Alto.

8.5 kilometers west of Fort Bluff, AR, July 4, 11:18 p.m.

“Night sun descending . . .”

“The sun comes home . . .”

There was a tiny whoomp of air, a little push of warm breath through the cool darkness. That was all.

Moments later the light appeared, high in the sky, at first seeming to be just a bright planet. But it moved, floating serenely earthward like an ember.

Haley sat on the roof of a long, black sedan. It was parked half off a narrow country road, with shallow ditches and then endless fields of some kind of grain on either side. The air was cool, damp, swirls of light fog mingling just above the fields. The roof of the car was slick with condensation. There was a gentle drone of crickets, an overtone of frogs. Everything was blue-black, except for fireflies here and there in the grass, the stars brilliant and white above, and of course the giant falling light.

“Your calculations were right on,” said the Alto. He sat beside her, arms around his bent legs. “See?” He held out his watch.

Haley saw that one dial was spinning normally, but the other had slowed to a near stop.

“Just over eight kilometers away from Fort Bluff, and we're right on the edge of it,” the Alto said.

She'd told him about her missing time radius theory on the drive. That push of air had been the MT Field establishing itself.

The orange ember grew and lowered. Haley felt mesmerized by it. When she blinked, it left little green dots in her vision.