Dragon Sword (10 page)

“
He’s loved that game for as long
as I can remember. His fingerprints are all over the paper. But
they’re old. He was little.” Sandusky paused, and his eyes wandered
over to the fire. “I don’t know if that’ll help you get a WOMPER
reading on him or not. But bring it back. Bring someone back. Bring
something.”

K’lion said we would. I’m not
versed much in their modern tongue, but I did learn “bye.” So
that’s what I said. And I kissed him on the cheek.

Sandusky of the Sands nodded, and
we went back into the ship, which had begun to hum
again.

I showed K’lion again what Gennt
had shown me: the scanning panel that allows new material to be
absorbed by the plasmechanical direction finder. It worked to take
me to K’lion. Now we would see if it worked to take us to
Eli.

Chapter Eleven

Eli: Sign Man

December 24, 1941 C.E.

“
I know you,” I say to Andrew
Jackson Williams.

He doesn’t seem one hundred percent
surprised. “Where are you from?” he asks.

“
Here and there,” I tell
him.

“
I moved to California from Vinita,
Oklahoma. To spread the good word. But you’re not from back home,
are you?”

“
Not that home. Not really.” How do
you tell someone you’ve met him, but
not yet
? The answer is,
you don’t. I’ve probably already said too much. “What’s the good
word?”

He taps his flyer. “The Nazis are
collecting power objects.” He motions over his shoulder. “And now
one has been taken from that museum. I wanted to keep a close
watch, but it’s already too late. And the exhibit hasn’t opened
yet. I believe they were after the sword.”

“
No, I saw it. It was a
fake.”

“
You were in there?” He seems
genuinely surprised.

“
Yeah. But they weren’t after the
sword. They took antlers.”

“
The White Stag’s
antlers!”

“
How do you know about all this
stuff?” I ask. Does he already know that in his future, he gets
caught in a rip in spacetime, and that Thirty and Mr. Howe and a
bunch of people from DARPA will be showing me his picture on the
news? “Have you ever heard of DARPA?”

“
DARPA,” he whispers. Then he pulls
me away from the police cars. “Is that the name of the
project?”

Just then, a few cabs roll up.
Either the cops have all their statements or people don’t care and
are going to leave anyway. One of the taxis pulls up near us, and a
young couple, both in fancy clothes, rushes over to it. Before the
man gets in the car, he scowls at us, then stuffs a dollar into my
hand. Then he turns to Andrew Jackson Williams. “Shame on you,
bringing your kid out here to beg with you on Christmas
Eve!”

With that, he slams the door.
They’re probably headed to DiMaggio’s Grotto, toward a nice big
plate of hot spaghetti with warm garlic toast. They should get some
chocolate rice milk to go with it, but I bet they won’t.

Has rice milk been invented
yet?

“
Seen any
po
tonight?” says
a voice from another cab.

“
Charlie!”

“
I heard on the radio there was
some trouble here. I came back to see if you were all right.” He
motions to the people waving down the other taxis. “Didn’t realize
it’d be so good for business. You need another ride, kid?” Then he
looks at Andrew Jackson. “Oh, did your dad come back?”

“
I’m not the boy’s father,” Andrew
Jackson corrects him, before I can. “But I can tell the child has
aptitude.”

“
He’s not my dad, Charlie. And
Margarite isn’t my teacher. She’s my mom. And I’m still looking for
her.”

Charlie looks like he has a bunch
more questions for me, but I guess he hears a lot of stories, so he
decides to leave mine alone for now. “Well, hop in. You won’t even
have to pay me any spooky money,” he says with a grin. “Where is
she?”

“
She might be back at the hotel by
now.”

“
Has your mother gone missing?”
Andrew Jackson asks. He seems suspicious. Not of me — but of the
simple fact she’s gone.

“
Not exactly,” I tell him. “Hey, I
can just call you A.J., right?”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Not just
aptitude, but perhaps the gift. How do you know that?”

“
You told —” I stop. “You look like
that could be your nickname.”

“
Strange things are afoot tonight.
But then, Christmas Eve is a night of heightened
expectation.”

“
Look, before we go,” I tell them,
“I should find a phone and see if my mom returned to the
Fairmont.”

There’s a slight pause as they wait
for me to go off and make my call. “Um, I might need somebody to
show me how to do it.” I guess I can use the five-dollar bill that
Caen gave me, if I can figure out how to slide it in. They don’t
have anything simple like vidphones or wallet cards.

“
You really are from out of town,”
Charlie says.

“
You don’t know the half of
it.”

“
We can just use my radio. I’ll ask
one of the cabbies there to check with the front desk. Get in.”
Charlie flings open the door for me, and I climb inside. “What’s
your mom’s full name again, kid? Something like French?”

“
Margarite Sands,” I tell him. “But
she might be going by Franchon.”

A.J. has been standing outside the
car, fidgeting with his sign. I think he was waiting to be invited
inside. But when he hears me, he starts pulling some other crumpled
paper from his pockets.

“
She’s not there,” Charlie tells
me, putting his radio microphone back. “Any other
ideas?”

“
Well, there’s this
fort…”

“
Fort Point,” A.J. croaks. His eyes
are on fire again behind those glasses. “Fort Point,” he
repeats.

“
Why do you say that?”

He slides into the cab and holds up
a paper so Charlie and I can see it. It’s just a printed list of
names. But it says
Samuel Gravlox Orchestra — Undercover
on
the top.

A few of the names are circled.
Including, halfway down, the name of Margarite Franchon. My
mom.

“
How did you get this?” I
ask.

“
I think she could be in great
danger. Is she at the fort tonight?”

“
She wouldn’t tell me where she was
going.”

A.J. turns to Charlie. “Can you get
us to Fort Point?”

Charlie shakes his head. “It’s
behind the base. Whole area’s been restricted for
months.”

A.J. nods. “Actually, I misspoke.
Can you get us to the Golden Gate Bridge?”

“
Sure. But why?”

“
There’s a way down to the fort.
It’s dangerous, but I think we need to risk it. We need to warn the
people there. We need to warn this boy’s mother.”

“
Warn her of what?”

Before he can answer, the cop that
Joe DiMaggio was talking to walks up and leans in the window. A.J.
is so startled it looks like he might shoot off the seat and hit
the cab’s roof.

“
Hey, kid.” The cop gives both
Charlie and A.J. the once-over. “You okay? DiMaggio wanted me to
look after you.”

“
I’m fine, officer. In fact we’re
going to…DiMaggio’s Grotto! To get some pasta.” It’s my stomach
talking, but it sounds reasonable enough.

“
Well, all right, kid. If you’re
sure.” He looks at A.J., then back at me. “He going with
you?”

“
Yup. Family friend. Merry
Christmas!” I wave as Charlie puts the cab in gear and pulls away
before the officer can think of any more questions.

We drive through the park and come
out in one of the neighborhoods, with its square blocks and
pressed-together houses. But the streets are empty, and for a
moment it feels like we could be the only three people in the
world.

I turn back to A.J. and repeat my
earlier question. “Warn my mom about what?”

He’s leaning back against the seat,
his eyes closed, as if what he knows is already pressing down on
him. “She and everyone else on her secret project are about to be
betrayed.”

It feels like one of the longest
cab rides of my life. Of course, it’s only about the second cab
ride of my life.

Charlie knows something serious is
happening, but he’s trying to make small talk, mostly for my
benefit, I think, since he’s figured out my mom’s in
danger.

“
I really like all that crazy stuff
you were saying about them Barnies,” he says.

“
Barnstormers,” I tell
him.

“
I mean, the whole idea of monsters
playing sports. It’s great! Like we coulda had the
po
out
there on Maui, playing the Seals! People woulda paid high money for
that! But”— and here he seems to pick his words a little more
carefully —“nobody’s really making a game like that, are
they?”

“
Not yet,” I admit. A.J. gives me a
funny look.

“’
Cause I been writin’ ideas down,
if you don’t mind.” He holds up a pad of paper. “I mean, I don’t
want to be drivin’ a cab forever. Gotta miss my family like this on
Christmas Eve and stuff!”

I want to find out more from A.J.
Williams about why my mom is in danger and how he could know any of
that, but he’s trying to be all hush-hush, like saying anything
else in front of Charlie could be dangerous.

I’m getting more worried, getting
that knot-in-my-stomach feeling, so to take my mind off it, I
follow Charlie’s lead and talk about Barnstormers, and I really
start to wonder whether he could invent the game before the company
that’s supposed to does.

I know that Barnstormers really
was
a kind of board game at first — way, way back, before my
parents were born and before there was a Comnet. And the company
that makes it is…

Dang Good Games.

Dang!

If I had enough room right now, I’d
fall out of my seat.

“
You could be the future!” I blurt
out. A.J. almost bounces off his seat again.

“
Who could be the future,
son?”

I’m excited, but I still don’t want
to alarm anybody. “Any of us. Any of us could be.”

“
Any of us
could
be the
future. But none of us knows what that future is.” A.J. gives me
another of his looks. “But some people are trying to find
out.”

“
Who?
” I wish he’d just come
out and say what he knows. But maybe he doesn’t want to alarm
me
. Still, we’re talking about finding my mom. “What do you
mean? Look, you better tell me how you got that piece of paper with
my mother’s name on it —”

The cab screeches to a
halt.

I don’t know exactly where we are,
but looking through the cab window, I can see the towers of the
Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. But there’s a roadblock, like a
storm has come through: a fallen tree lies across the pavement,
along with several boulders. We’re not going to be driving over
that bridge anytime soon.

A.J. is the first one to open a
door and step outside.

“
What’s happening?” I
ask.

“
Part one: They got the antlers.
Part two: They don’t want anyone else to get ’em.”

“
What do you mean?”

“
I mean, this isn’t an accident.
Everyone’s makin’ their moves tonight. If you want to get to your
mama, we better start walkin’.”

“
I need you to tell me what you
know.”

“
I will,” he said. “While we move
out.”

I feel a little better to see that
Charlie is right behind us. His coat is pulled tight around him,
and he’s shaking his head and muttering about all the crazy
po
.

Chapter Twelve

Thea: Peenemünde

Early 1940s C.E.

The ship didn’t take us to Eli. At
least, I hope he was never there.

I’m trying to record the experience
now, as we head back through the Fifth Dimension in search of our
friend, but I never know how long the journey will take.

After parting from Eli’s father, we
returned to the void, and coming out, landed with a
thud.

The ship’s door opened, and
blisteringly cold winds rushed in. After a little hesitation,
K’lion and I stepped into a land of ice.

There was no city there. There was
nothing.

We were at the top of the world, it
seemed, a place we could only speculate about back in
Alexandria.

But it was real enough.

I gathered my
sklaan
around
me. It helped warm me a little, though my teeth chattered. K’lion
seemed only slightly better protected against the elements. His
hide was turning a deep gray.

The chill made it all the more
startling when we saw a group of six approaching us on the ice, all
of them in rags and nearly barefoot.