“I don’t know. I’m not much into politics.”
“Think about it, Franklin. Even you wouldn’t be that vague. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I don’t know if I like the guy much.”
“I don’t know much myself. How long have we known him?”
“Well, I’m all for keeping our eyes open. You never know.”
“I’m all for finishing this breakfast and getting out of the house for a bit. Where we going?”
“Wanna shoot some hoops?”
“Sounds good to me.”
A couple minutes later Kendra made a right turn on McMillan and headed east toward the highway.
“Whoa, get a load of that car,” Franklin said, pointing to the car ahead of them in traffic.
“What about it? Can’t be the first time you’ve seen a Prius.”
“Look closer. See the logo on the back?”
“Yeah…wait a sec…a Prius with a Honda logo? Who would do that?”
“Don’t know. Doesn’t seem right. Light’s red. Think you can pull up next to him?”
“I don’t know, Frank, it’s probably nothing.”
“I’m not so sure. Back of his head looks familiar.”
Kendra pulled up next to the Prius at the red light and stole a quick glance.
“It’s Mike.”
“You think he saw us?”
“Don’t know. He didn’t show it, if he did.”
“Man, I’d love to follow him, see what he’s up to, but…”
“Could be dangerous.”
“Be a good way to prove your intuition.”
“Maybe…I’ll stay a couple cars back, like they do in the movies.”
“Sounds good.”
The Prius passed the ramp for the highway and kept going, eventually turning right on Victory Parkway.
“Where you think he’s heading?” Franklin asked.
“Could be any part of town, heading this way.”
Kendra turned the wheel to make the right turn, but nothing happened. Instead of turning right, the car lifted off the ground and rose into the sky.
“Hey, what gives? I thought you said Walter was at the police station.”
Franklin dialed a number on his cell.
“Hey kid, what’s up?” Walter said a moment later.
“Hey Gramps, whatcha up to right now.”
“Still at the police station having a talk with Officer-”
“Still at the police station? You sure?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“We’re up, that’s what. Car’s flying. Thought it was you for a sec.”
“Where are you?”
“Walnut Hills. Or we were. We’re moving kind of fast and I can’t see a darn thing out the window.”
Walter disappeared so fast all Larry Wilkins could do was shake his head and pick his phone up from the floor.
The car descended as fast as it took off and before Franklin and Kendra could get their wits about them, they were inside a warehouse. Two men moved to either side of the car with drawn assault rifles and awaited instructions.
“Put them in my office for now, until I decide what to do with them,” Cat Mixon said to the men.
“Come on you two,” one of the men said, “Don’t cause any trouble now.”
“Where are you taking us?” Kendra asked, “and where are we?”
“You’re in no position to ask questions. You’re at the boss’s office, and that’s all you need to know.”
“It’s your fault,” Kendra said a moment later when they were locked in the room.
“She might have nabbed us, anyway.”
“Maybe, but if we hadn’t been following Mike.”
“Either way, we’re here now. Might as well keep our eyes open.”
“Or our ears,” Kendra said, picking something up from the top of a filing cabinet.
“Whatcha got there?”
“Don’t know. Look at them. Some kind of ear buds, but nothing like I’ve ever seen before.” She handed them to Franklin.
“Weird. Something high tech. I’m gonna try ‘em out.”
He put them in his ears and then took them back out.
“Not hearing anything. Wonder what they’re for.”
“Hey, look out there. Is that Mike?”
“Yeah, looks like it.”
Outside Cat’s office, they could see Mike and another man they had never seen before, and they were deep in conversation. They could also hear them speaking, but could understand nothing of what was being said.
“Wonder what they’re speaking,” Franklin said.
“Their own language,” Kendra replied, “their alien language.”
Franklin took another look at the ear buds and a realization hit him. He put them back in his ears and all of a sudden Mike and his friend were speaking English, clear as a bell. He took them out, and the language was gibberish.
“Whoa, put these in,” he said, handing them to Kendra.
“That is cool,” she said a minute later.
“You gonna give ‘em back?”
“Hold on a sec. You should hear what they’re saying.”
“What are they saying?”
“You got your phone on you?”
“Yeah, still in my pocket,” he said, pulling his phone out, “but no signal in here.”
“Their voices are carrying this far. Can you record them?”
“Sure, guess I don’t need a signal for that.”
20
The two men spoke for five more minutes and then walked toward the other end of the warehouse. When their voices were no longer reaching them, Franklin stopped recording and put his phone back in his pocket.
“Man, we have to get the news to Walter,” Kendra said, “This is some serious stuff.”
“First thing is getting out of this room. I don’t figure Walter knows where we are, and without a signal, we got no way of telling him.”
“How do you figure we’re gonna get out of this room?”
“That’s the easy part. I just need tools.”
“What kind of tools?”
“Couple long thin pieces of metal should do. Let’s see what we can find.”
Franklin began going through the filing cabinets and Kendra searched the desk drawers. Both turned up empty, but a minute later, Kendra came from a small wardrobe in the corner of the room and approached Franklin with a triumphant smile on her face.
“Will these do?” she asked, holding up two hair pins.
“Those should do nicely.”
“What are you going to do with those?”
“Something I learned on the streets. Never thought it would come in handy like this.”
Franklin took the pins and started to bend
