B. E. V. (16 page)

After we dumped everything, we poked around in the room for whatever else we could chuck. Kat yanked some boxes out of the way and exclaimed, "Hunter, over here, check this out."

"What?" I nudged away more of the boxes and peered over her shoulder. Propped up against the wall was a long bulldozer blade. Kat dragged the rest of the boxes and machine parts out of the way until the whole thing was exposed.

"Wonder what Doc is doing with this?"

"Do you think it goes on Bev somehow?" Kat asked.

"If it did," I said, thinking out loud, "we could use it to help move the rubble in town."

We rushed back to Doc and told him what we'd unearthed. For once, his lab was silent – the Dumaflickies he'd created sat lifeless.

"Why, yes, the piece you describe belongs to B.E.V." He barely gave us a glance as he gazed at his computer screen in fascination and scribbled on a piece of paper. "The government thought it would be a good idea if she cleaned up the wreckage she caused after a battle," he mumbled, still writing in frantic haste. "So I built a plow for her. I never tested it, though." He placed his pencil down and rubbed his eyes, taking full notice of us. "She refused to wear it, insisted the coating was the wrong color."

"We'll stick it on her for you," I replied. "Uh," I said to Kat, "How do we drag the plow out of there, it must weigh a ton."

We both stared back at Doctor Krumboton.

His pencil was working again. He sighed, pulled open a drawer of his desk, and withdrew two green cubes. "They are of a special magnetic composition I designed," he said, handing the pieces over, "sticks to anything. Place one on either end of the plow and depress this button." He showed us where. "Their anti-gravity devices; make whatever they are attached to weightless."

He read the disbelief in our faces. "Those Egyptians, they knew what they were doing when they built the pyramids."

We started to thank him. Doc raised his hand in dismissal. "Do not thank me, thank the Egyptians. Now, you are both nice children, and I would love to chat with you all day, but as you see," he gestured to his computer, "I am busy. Go – talk to Bev, she will appreciate it more than I would at the moment."

We walked back to Bev. Kat whispered to me, "Sometimes I think the doctor isn't all there in the head."

"Me too," I agreed, "but right now we've got bigger problems. How are we gonna convince Bev to wear this thing if Doctor Krumboton couldn't. You know she's not going to want to."

Kat paused, her eyebrows bending down in thought. "I have an idea," she said at last. She smirked at me. "It's what BFFs do."

With Doc's cubes, it didn't take long to haul the blade over to Bev. When we maneuvered it in front of her she yelled in dread, "Oh, no, not the veil!"

"What's the matter?" Kat said in mock innocence.

"It's the mask of
horror
! Ugly, funny, work clothes. You're going to dress me up and pretend I'm a plow horse. I'll be the old grey mare!"

"No, silly," Kat replied brightly. "This is a present for you."

"You're kidding –
for me?
But I thought –" She wiggled in excitement, "What is it?"

"A mask," Kat said, putting two fingers across her face. "We're going to a masquerade party tomorrow."

"A party? Really? I don't believe it."

"Really," I said, "and it's for you. Those men you met today are sorry for how they acted, and want to throw you a party to show they didn't mean what they did."

"Oh, put it on – put it on!" Bev pleaded. "Push it up against my front."

"You know how to wear it?" I asked as Kat and I manhandled the blade into place.

"Oh, yes, I never wear it because I thought –" Two slots on either side of her front slid open. "Slip 'er in. I want to see how I appear."

Before we went to sleep, I ran back into Doc's lab. "Hey, Doctor Krumboton, can we take these?" I held up the cubes.

Dancing motes of light from a halo-projector leaped in the air around his head, forming complex molecules, which undulated and weaved together. Doc leaned back in his chair, watching, with his pencil and paper in hand, sketching lines and nodding to himself.

"Oh, wow, Doc, what are you building?" He had swung back to his computer and typed furiously.

He jerked up from his worktable, unaware I entered his lab and watched him.

"Thinking, lad, thinking!" he roared. "When the thoughts emerge it is always best to go with them, you will never know when they answer again."

I remember the cubes I held. "Say, Doc, can we take these to town tomorrow. They would really help in the cleanup."

"I suppose so, but be careful," he warned. "Do not crush or break their casings. There is a lot of power stored inside. They will explode."

I stared at what I was holding. "Big explosion?"

"Very big. Be careful." He eyes grew wide and he said to himself, "Yes, if they were handled in the wrong manner they would cause extreme devastation."

Doctor Krumboton leaped back to his paper and computer and began changing calculations furiously, my presence forgotten. The projection floating around his head changed color and shape, danced faster, and expanded to fill half the room.

I stood watching him for a moment longer, and when he said nothing else, I tramped back to Bev holding the cubes as if they were two dead mice.

All the way to the town the next day we heard, "PARTY! PARTY! PARTY!"

"Bev, cut it out, will ya?" I complained after having listened all night, and all morning, to her racket. Kat and I abandoned trying to eat breakfast, keeping our fingers in our ears to drown out her singing.

"What, okay." Silence – then, "Party! Par —"

Kat and I spent the balance of the trip with pillows wrapped around our heads hoping for the best.

Bev was still chanting as we drove up to the city wall.

"How come no one else is in costume?" Bev ask, as the refugees outside scattered.

"Uh," I shot a sideways glance at Kat. "This is a private party," I said, trying to think up an explanation.

"Yeah, the real fun is inside," Kat put in. "You're a VIP you know. We couldn't invite everyone."

Bev was silent as she pondered this. "Oh, I see," she said at last. "These are the little people – my adoring public." She emitted a modest coughing noise. "I guess I must return later and make an appearance to keep them happy? Shake a few hands, slap a few backs, right?"

"Sure, Bev," I agreed, "but first let's go inside for the real bash."

We pulled up to the gate and stepped outside. The guards, who'd watched us approach in apprehension, fanned out with guns leveled. Kat and I sauntered over with hands up and they relaxed.

"Kat Brennan, Hunter Greene, are you alone?" one of the guards called out.

"Yeah, we're here to help," I shouted.

"Party, party, party."

"What's this thing babbling about?" He gestured with his gun. "I swear it's alive."

"Oh, nah," Kat said, "We're playing music." We dropped our hands. "Let our dads know we're here, okay?"

The guards nodded and threw open the gates.

"Thanks." We drove in and I said to Bev, "Are you ready to party?"

"Yeah, where is it? I don't see any balloons."

"Balloons come later," I said. A tractor passed us hauling a boulder. "First come games." I pointed. "You see Old Macdonald there? Whoever moves the most wins."

"Really?" She said, dubious. "Is it a fun game? Who else is playing?"

"Why, you and the tractor, silly," Kat exclaimed, "I mean, it is
your
party. Let's line up and get started with the race."

"Oh, okay. Yeah, this is going to be fun!"

"Ready, Bev?" Kat said, excited. "You can do it – ready? Set? GO!"

We guided Bev down the street. She lowered her blade and scooped up part of a roof, racing the tractor as the machine hauled stone to the wall.

Woman and children filed out of the shattered buildings to watch as Bev rumbled along. Soon she drew a crowd lining the road, cheering for her every time she cleared a path through the clogged side streets.

"I'm winning," Bev boasted as she passed the tractor for the tenth time.

"GO – GO – GO!" Kat and I chanted.

By the end of the day, Bev lugged more debris than the town managed to move in a month, and the streets were clear. Bev complained once, "Parties are a lot of work, aren't they?"

"Oh, wait, there's a lot more fun coming," Kat replied.

As it grew dark, we all assembled at the high school for a victory celebration. Some of the town women constructed a party hat for Bev. Kat placed the bonnet on her, tacking it down with double-backed ever-stick tape she discovered in a drugstore.

People wandered around, thanking us and patting Bev on her sides. She kept purring, "Oh, it was nothing –
really
."

Hank had hooked back up with Sonia. They strolled over, arms glued around each other. I whispered to Kat, "Uh, oh. Here comes squirrely and squirrelier. I hope we're not in for it."

"Your crazy machine did some job," Hank said, grinning, a sneer creeping into his voice. "Did you promise her a quart of oil?"

"Yeah," Sonia scoffed, as she examined Bev's paint job. "Who thought up those colors? This thing reminds me of a candy cane on drugs."

"Bev wanted this paint job," Kat leaped up and patted Bev's side, "and she's pretty, aren't you, honey?"

"I'm the prettiest one at this party," Bev whispered back to us, as Hank and Sonja strolled around her laughing, "but don't tell this slut, okay? I don't want to upset her."

"You know," I said to Kat, "I don't think she's a good influence on him. When he's alone, Hank's not a bad guy."

"He's trying to impress her," Kat guessed. "Let her know how rolly he is, maybe they're trying to impress each other."

Pop and Mr. Brennan arrived from the power station and hurried over. "You three did a fabulous job today," Mr. Brennan said, sitting. "I didn't think we would have those streets cleared in a year."

"We all gotta help, right?" I showed Pop the cubes. "I wanted to use these too, but I'm kind'a afraid." I stuck one on the rock we sat on and picked the whole thing up.

Pop stared, first at the boulder, and then at me in surprise. "How did you do –?"

"It's the cube," I said. "Doc lent it to us." I lowered the boulder, peeled of the cube, and handed the gadget to him.

He rotated the tiny block around, examining the device from all sides. "I would want to take this apart and see how it works if you do not mind," he said, handing the device back.

"We have a problem," I admitted. "Doc said the cube would explode if anyone messed around with it."

"Hmm . . . better return it to him. We could use this gadget, but we do not need any unexpected explosions around here. I'd want to talk to this Doctor Krumboton one day, though."

Kat asked her dad, "How's the rest of the repairs going?"

Mr. Brennan let out a groan and shook his head. "We have the sewer system working again."

"Oh, Yeah?" Kat said. "Great. What was the matter?"

"Uh –" He glanced at Pop.

"It was clogged with bodies, Kat. We had to pull them out, one by one, and bury each."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She was quiet for a moment and then asked, "Do you know who they were?"

"No, at least not personally," her father replied. "They were part of the Mormon congregation, must have hid in the sewers to escape the attack and drown."

"I hope all this work we are doing doesn't go for nothing," Pop continued with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Everything has to be fixed to get back to normal, right?" We couldn't leave the town in the mess it was in.

"Mr. Greene, do you mean you believe Morgan will attack again one day?" Kat asked, worry in her voice. She fidgeted on her rock. "I wouldn't think he'd return for years. There's not much left here for him."

Pop picked up a stick and drew three circles in the dirt. "He may be back sooner, Kat. After you left yesterday, a bunch of us got to talking. Morgan attacked us here –" he tapped the middle circle "—you rescued Mr. Brennen here." He poked the circle to the right. "Afterward you came and freed me at Morgan City." He stabbed the last circle. "Both men saved from the same town within three months of each other with us in the middle. Sooner or later, someone will add two and two together and arrive at Paradise Cove."

Pop jabbed the stick at Bev. "What is worse, you used this machine."

"Well, I never –
machine?
"

Pop called out, "Sorry, Bev," when he heard the rumble. He continued with a chuckle, "High-Tec equipment which Morgan would love to place his hands on. We figure, there is a good chance he will attack again searching for her."

My jaw dropped. "I never realized," I said. What a jerk I'd been. "I'm sorry."

Kat's eyes widened with worry and her lips trembled. "You mean they'll come back and invade after all we've been through?"

"You do not have to be sorry, Hunter," Mr. Brennan said, rubbing his chin with a smile. "If it was not for you and your crazy machine, your dad and I would be Morgan's zombies." He said to Kat, "We aren't sure, Kat, but it's something we have to think about."

Their theory sorta put a damper on the rest of the night. Kat sat with her face in her hands, and I kept thinking about Morgan and his soldiers marching on the town with Grey spaceships flying overhead.

The townspeople decided to have a bonfire and raced around gathering anything still burnable. Kat and I watched, but pretty well ignored everyone and everything else. After a while, Kat said to me, "Let's get back to the lab, I need to leave. It's getting late."

"Are you feeling alright?" Her hand had mottled her checks from clutching her face so tight.

"Yeah, sure," she replied with a tired sigh. "I just want to go."

"Uh, okay, I'll tell Pop."

I found him standing around with a group of other men by the barn fire, talking. "We gotta leave Pop, we'll be back tomorrow."

Surprise passed over his face. "I thought you and Kat were staying here tonight."

"No. I think Kat doesn't feel good, she wants to take Bev back to the lab."