Star Runners 2: Revelation Protocol (10 page)

Lights flickered on from the houses lining the street. If they were going to leave unnoticed, they had better do it soon.  

Sharkey appeared from behind the shrouded car carrying an assault rifle. He focused on the other side of the street. He kept the car between him and the woods as he turned around.

“Come on, Lieutenant!”

Austin heard two more invisible shots sizzle overhead, smashing into Kadyn’s house. Sharkey returned fire, his silenced machine gun thumping through the early morning suburban world. The spent shells hit the ground.

An invisible laser bolt smashed into Sharkey’s shoulder. A flurry of sparks showered down as he grunted. He rose over the shrouded car and fired. 

Austin gripped Kadyn’s hand. “Can you run?”

“What the hell is going on?” she asked.

“You have to trust me!” Austin yelled. “Come on!”

She stared at him, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. She nodded quickly. He gripped her sweaty hand and yanked her to her feet.

The woods across the street erupted in faint flashes of light as if even the trees opened fire. Sparks flashed like lightning. Most of the invisible bolts crashed into the front of Kadyn’s house, breaking glass and igniting the roof. Sharkey fired until the gun ran out. He ducked behind the car, reloaded, and rose in one fluid motion.

Austin reached Sharkey and felt for the rear door. His fingers fell on the handle, and he pulled back. A bolt buzzed by his ear. With his eyes wide and his ears ringing, he blindly fired his pistol twice in the direction of his attacker. The bullets hit a tree, bark flying off the trunk.

“What is this?” Kadyn shrieked.

“It’s just a car. Quick—get in!”

He grabbed her shoulder and guided her into the shrouded vehicle. As she climbed into the car, a shadow appeared behind a tree across the street. He emptied the clip. Bullets smashed into the tree. It was too dark to see if he’d hit anything. He knelt down.

“I’m out. You okay?” Austin asked Sharkey, keeping low behind the car.

“Just a scratch. Get in!”

Austin slipped into the back of the car with Kadyn and his Mom. Sharkey, still gripping his blackened and burned shoulder as he crouched over the steering wheel, closed the door and sped away from the scene.

With his pistol still in hand, Austin turned around to look out the back window. The front of Kadyn’s house burned in the darkness, illuminating the rest of the street in an orange light. Neighbors opened their front doors and stood in the grass, all of them looking at Kadyn’s burning house.

No one followed the car. Well, no one he could see.

“Can they track a shroud?” Austin asked, still focused on their rear.

“It’s possible,” Sharkey grumbled. “We need to get as far away from here as we can.”

“What was that?” he asked. “I’ve never seen a gun like that before.”

“A masker,” Sharkey said through clenched teeth. “It’s like a silencer for a projectile weapon, but it fires the laser without the tracer. Very professional.”

Austin turned around and leaned into his seat. “Oh, that’s just great.”

Kadyn shivered, her pink pajamas wet from the crawl through the grass. She folded her arms in front of her chest.

“Here.” Austin pulled off his Tizona jacket and draped it around her. “This should help. You are in shock.”

She glared at him.

“Ma’am,” Sharkey said with a nod. “The authorities are on their way. We made such a scene back there that our attackers won’t bother your family any more tonight.”

“My attackers?” she breathed before turning to Austin. “Please, I beg you, tell me what is going on.”

Austin sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“Please.”

He paused. After countless hours in classrooms learning how to never speak about his life on Tarton’s Junction or the Legion, they never prepared him for this. The lessons only covered how to deceive, how to cover it up.

“I would like to know, too,” Mom said.

Austin looked at his Mom. “Thank, God. Are you okay?”

“I have a pounding migraine, but it’s getting better. Your friend’s driving certainly hasn’t helped.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Sharkey said, whipping the car around a corner as he drove into the darkness.

Mom’s jaw dropped. “Wait a minute. I know you. You’re from Austin’s school, aren’t you?”

“Lieutenant,” Sharkey said, his voice grim, “it’s time to invoke Revelation Protocol.”

“Yes, sir.” Austin took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to say this to you both, but my school, well, uh, this is harder than I thought it would be.”

“Say what, honey?” Mom leaned forward slightly. “Please, tell us what’s going on. Are you in danger?”

“Yes,” he said, nodding. “We all are.”

“What?” Kadyn said, her face crumpling as she tried to repress sobbing. She put her hands in front of her mouth.

Mom draped her arm around Kadyn’s shoulder. “It’s okay, honey.”

Austin stared at his friend, seeing the pain in her face. She shouldn’t have had to see this tonight. She shouldn’t have had to see her house burning, feel the worry for her parents. He thought back to Jonathan Nubern in the swamp shack before they took the tube transport to California. Nubern said nothing would ever be the same once they passed through the doors. Austin had heard the words, but the statement fell hollow on his ears until now. After tonight, Mom and Kadyn could never go back.

A shiver shot through his body as a droplet of sweat trickled down his back.

“Okay, look. This is not going to be easy to hear. My school is an academy for the Galactic Legion. Earth is a part of it. I was recruited to pilot fighters for the Legion. I have been trained and have become a Star Runner.”

Kadyn slapped her hands on her knees. “Oh, come on! Is this part of that stupid game you and Josh used to play?”

“No, well, sort of. I—“

“Stop it!” She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “My house is on fire, Austin! My parents might be dead! This is not a game!”

Austin put the pistol in his jacket pocket. “I know this is not a game, but you need to get a hold of yourself. What I’m telling you is true.”

“So you fly spaceships now?” Kadyn shook her head. “Am I really supposed to believe this? And you’re saying this to your Mom? Why am I involved, huh? Who attacked my house?”

Austin shook his head. “We don’t know. We found out both of you were in danger, so here we are. If this hadn’t happened, you would never have found out any of this.”

Kadyn shook her head and glared out the window. “I can’t believe you’ve done this to me.”

Austin opened his mouth to speak. He wanted to console her, make everything okay, but Mom shook her head slightly. He nodded and sighed.

They sat in silence. Minutes passed. Streetlights flickered across the backseat. Austin glanced behind them several times, but saw nothing following them. 

Austin gripped his mother’s hand and looked at both of them. “I’m so glad you both are okay.”

She placed her hand over his and nodded. “My head’s still pounding.”

“Carbon monoxide poisoning. You could have died.”

She sighed. “You saved me.”

The car snapped around a corner, speeding down an on-ramp leading to an empty four-lane highway.

“Where are we going?” Austin asked, leaning forward.

“We have a meeting in three hours,” Sharkey said, his eyes focused on the highway. “We will report to the EIF agent at the outlet mall and get our orders. I think the worst is behind us.”

“I hate when people say that.” Austin rested his arm on the back of the passenger seat and stared at the burn marks on Sharkey’s shoulder. “You going to be okay, Chief?”

Sharkey snorted. “Yeah. Amazingly.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because I should be dead.”

Austin thought about Sharkey being killed in front of Kadyn’s house. “What would I have done?”

“If I didn’t make it?” Sharkey shrugged. “Contact Base Prime. They would have sent a unit to evacuate you all if you were still around to be evacuated that is. I wouldn’t think too much about these things.” He glanced at his watch. “Sun will be up in a couple hours. We should make it by then.”

*****

Sharkey pulled into the outlet mall parking lot. The rolling mountains of North Georgia stretched across the horizon. Shoppers carried bags of different colors while they laughed and walked together. As Sharkey took his second lap around the collection of stores, Austin wished he were one of the shoppers instead.

Earlier, two fire engines, their bright red and white lights flashing across the darkness of the early morning streets, rushed in the opposite direction. Austin knew they were headed to Kadyn’s house. His stomach twisted at the sight. 

Once they had driven thirty minutes away from the scene, Sharkey had shut off the shroud. Kadyn and Mom had sat in silence for the past two hours. For a while, Austin thought Kadyn had finally fallen asleep. Instead, she leaned against the car door and stared out the window without saying a word. Mom tilted her head back and closed her eyes, probably trying to fight the headache.

Austin fought a sudden wave of fatigue. He needed coffee. After hearing laser bolts whiz by his head for the first time, the rush of adrenaline had faded in the boring drive north of Atlanta.

“I’m going to stop up here in front of this nature store,” Sharkey said, his voice rattling as he winced. “You need to get out and go buy a bag of bird seed.”

Austin stared at him. “What?”

“Just do it,” he said with a grimace. “Then walk to the food court and sit in front of the carousel.”

“And do what, feed the pigeons?” Austin shook his head. “I thought we would get Mom and Kadyn to a safe house and away from danger.”

“That’s why we’re here. Just do as I say, Lieutenant. These are the orders Colonel Pierce had given me before you arrived at Tizona. These orders come straight from command.” Sharkey looked at him through the rearview mirror and held up a roll of money. “You’ll need this money. Leave the gun.”

Austin grabbed the roll of cash. “What if they are here tracking us?”

Sharkey shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. Stay public. Stay in the open. You’ll be fine. We have people here.”

“What people?”

Sharkey sighed. “Just do as I say. You’ll be fine.”

Austin glanced at Sharkey’s cauterized wound. “Sorry, chief. I’ll hurry.”

Austin sighed, remembering his training. He slipped the gun out of his jacket pocket and placed it on his mother’s lap.

He glanced at Mom. “I’ll be right back.”

She smiled, her eyes watering. “Be careful.”

Sharkey stopped the car in front of the nature store, and Austin stepped out. He zipped up his jacket and strolled as casually as possible toward the store. A teenage girl wearing a bright yellow backpack smiled at him as he walked by. Austin glanced over his shoulder as she passed. Sharkey drove the sedan back into the sea of vehicles as if he searched for a parking place.

Austin pulled back the glass door, heard the bell jingle against the metal frame. Inside the store, a middle-aged woman smiled from behind the counter.

“Welcome,” she said. “Let me know if I can help.”

Austin nodded and pretended to look around. Birdhouses and wind chimes filled the aisles. A strong smell of incense hovered over the entire store. He glanced at the yard games, wondering if he would ever get to play badminton again. One of Dad’s favorite games.

He shook his head and wandered back to the stacks of birdseed. Seeing only the massive bags that had to be twenty or thirty pounds, he frowned.

“That’s really good seed,” the woman said.

He turned back to her. “Got anything smaller? I don’t think I have that many birds.”

“That’s all we have,” she said with a smile. “It’ll keep the birds coming back to your house all winter long.” 

“Well, I guess I have to buy it then.”

Swinging the large sack over his shoulder, he strolled up to the counter.

The woman eyed him. “Do I know you?”

Austin placed the bag on the table and froze. “Me?”

“Have we met before?”

His pulse raced. He frowned. Is this one of the “people” Sharkey had mentioned? What if this was one of the contacts he was supposed to talk with?

“I don’t know.” Austin lowered his gaze. “Have we met before?”

“I can’t remember.” She shrugged. “Maybe you just look like somebody I know.”

Austin leaned closer. “Do you really think I need this much bird seed?” he whispered.

She smiled. “I don’t know. I just work here.”

“So you think I need the bird seed? Or can I just get what I came for?”

“What?” She laughed. “You have a rough night or something?”

Austin felt the blood rush to his face. “Just here for the bird seed. I’m sorry, ma’am. Have a nice day.”

He hurried out into the crowd, trying not to turn back and look at the lady who laughed as he left the store. What was he thinking?