Helms looks at the screen for about a minute. "Even more interesting," he murmurs, before returning the tablet to Agent Franklin. He leaves the observation room, and turns left to the door of the interrogation room. It's locked, of course, but reads his identity as he touches it and clicks open. He opens the door and walks into the room. Agent Madison, who is conducting the interrogation of Amy, is taken by surprise. "Agent Madison, could I have a moment with Ms. Harper alone?" Helms asks gently.
Without a word, Madison stands and walks out. After the door clicks shut behind him, Helms presses some buttons on the wall that turn off the cameras and the sound. He sits in the chair in front of Amy that was recently vacated by Madison, and just stares at her for a moment. She stares back at him. She believes she's seen him before somewhere, but can't remember when or where.
"Hello, Amy," Helms finally says. "Let me start by saying that I know you are not an Euperian. What I also know, however, is that you know a couple of Euperians I would like to chat with." He picks up a drawing of Zec and Odilia, the two alien kids from her dream. "As a matter of fact, these are the two I'm talking about."
"I drew those from a picture my teacher showed in class," Amy declares.
Helms smiles and says nothing. He leans back on the chair. "I knew your mother. You have her eyes, and she would be proud of you for sticking up for a Azhalian."
"How did you know my Mom?" Amy asks with a puzzled expression on her face.
"We went to college together. In fact, I saw in your file that your family physician is the famous Doctor Buchanan. The three of us were inseparable during our college days."
"Dad never mentioned you before."
"That could be because back then, I went by my middle name." Helms smiles, then gets up and presses the intercom button. "Agents Franklin and Madison, please take Amy home before her dad returns from his trip." Helms then signals Amy to stand up.
Agents Franklin and Madison walk into the room. "Sir, are you sure about this?" Madison asks in a low voice.
"Yes, I am," Helms replies calmly.
❖❖❖
Amy looks out the window in the rear driver's side seat of the government car. There's a grill separating the front of the cab from the back, just like in a police car. She can hear Agent Madison in the driver's seat, telling Agent Franklin how something's not adding up.
Franklin doesn't have time to respond. He just shrieks as a truck slams against his side of the car and it rolls over like an overturned turtle, equally as helpless. It's over before she realizes it's happened.
Upside-down, Amy can hear Madison yelling for her to respond she's okay.
"I think I'm okay," Amy calls to him.
"Good. Stay there until I can get you out safely." She watches, wide-eyed, as Madison unbuckles his seat belt and lowers himself to the ceiling of the car, which is now firmly on the ground. Agent Franklin is hanging unmoving in his harness, a pool of blood spreading on the car's inverted ceiling. Madison puts two fingers to his colleague's neck; when he curses, Amy knows that Franklin is dead. Pistol in hand, Agent Madison commando-crawls out the shattered window — and immediately falls dead as gunshots sound.
Frantic, Amy unbuckles herself and lands face-first on the car's ceiling, barely saving her nose by taking most of the force on her right arm. Forearm aching, she crawls toward the glassless window and squirms her way out. Once free of the car, she starts limping away, screaming for help.
Seconds later, she feels a sharp pain in her lower back, and she collapses.
Chapter 20
Zack finally makes it home. He knows he has to be quick in getting his parents and sister out of there; Blake stays outside to keep an eye on things. As soon as Olivia sees Zack, she rushes to him and gives him a big hug. Zack looks at his parents and can't avoid feeling a bit sad for them; they seem so vulnerable now that he knows the truth.
"Are you okay? What's going on?" Jim demands.
"Well... it seems that Olivia and I are the heirs to the Euperian throne, somehow. But I have a feeling you and Mom probably already knew that."
Jim looks at his son and then turns to look at Isabella, who stands motionless, a troubled expression on her face.
"What the... what are you saying?" Olivia asks her brother.
"Your biological father and mother are King Uphu and Queen Liaj," Isabella says in a rush. "But you're our children, too. We were entrusted to take care of you, and we love you as if you were born to us."
Just then, Zack's phone starts to beep. He looks at his watch and then at his parents and Olivia. "We have to leave, now!"
Olivia jumps when the doorbell rings. This is followed by hard, frantic banging on the door. Zack is scared frozen, but Jim loads his pistol and points it at the door.
"Zack, open the door!" It's Blake. Before Zack can react, Blake blasts down the door. "We need to leave right now!" he shouts to the astonished family inside.
Blake hustles them out of the house, and they jump into the car. Zack gets into the driver's seat; Jim and his wife and daughter sit in the back. Blake approaches the car from the front passenger side and throws in a tracking device, before telling Zack to drive north to their fishing hole. He'll follow if he can.
Zack presses on the accelerator, and the car's tires scream to life just as a UNSTF van full of agents veers in and blocks their path. Blake jumps over their car, to the astonishment of Jim and his Isabella, and force-blasts the van, the burst of
