Fiona frowned. “Not quite at this scale, but similar.”
Her phone rang.
“Hello?” She nodded every couple of seconds, then said, “Okay,” and hung up. She turned to Eric. “They’ll be here in two minutes. Check the backyard.”
He crossed over to the sliding glass door in the living room, and parted the floor-to-ceiling curtains a few inches in the middle. The Maker surrogates were still there but something seemed different.
He counted them then looked back at Fiona. “Four are missing. Including Peter.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“Should we check out front?”
Just then her cell phone beeped. She looked down at the text message on the screen.
“We’ll know soon enough. Time to go.”
FROM THE BOOK OF TROUBLE MAKERS
Complied by Colin and Carl Owens from family records and current research.
MAKER POSSESSION
• As first suggested by Robert Leatherwood, then confirmed by Jeremy Trouble’s encounter with the Maker Larkin, Makers are able to expand their population only by capturing and possessing the bodies of children, ages 11 to 15. How these children were chosen was a mystery until ten years ago. The only things known up to that point were that they recently performed an act of selflessness that brought attention to themselves, and were typical decent kids who cared about others in general.
Then, ten years ago, Jeremy Trouble, working with his brothers-in-law Colin and Carl Owens, stumbled upon an extremely rare marker that was present in the skin cells of every targeted child they were able to test. This marker, however, was not present in anyone who was not a target. So, while any child could possess the traits listed above, if they did not have the marker, the TMs would not be interested in them.
• The Maker Larkin confirmed that Makers are able to determine if someone is a candidate by a particular smell they give off, undetectable to the rest of us. The theory is that this marker and the smell are linked.
• Once a child is identified by Makers as a candidate for possession, it is not a simple matter of just taking over the child’s body. The Makers must then prepare the candidates by breaking down their will to the point where they will accept the possession without a struggle. Some of the ways they achieve this are by:
Upsetting the candidate’s normal life
Causing the candidate to experience a “streak of bad luck,” as several clients have called it
Making the candidate think they are losing their minds
And, finally, making the client so scared and depressed that they reach their lowest possible point of self- esteem and can see no light at the end of the tunnel. This is the point when the Makers strike.
• Methods for achieving these goals include:
Causing personal items to disappear
Creating friction between the candidate and family members and friends
Causing a close friend or family member to disappear in a way that only the candidate thinks is suspicious
Using time distortion to throw the candidate off balance
Surrogate intimidation.
• A few notes on surrogates based on information from the Maker Larkin and only partially confirmed by field observations:
Individuals who are bad by nature are the most commonly targeted to become surrogates because they are the easiest to control
Whereas one Maker can create and control up to three essentially bad surrogates at one time, it takes multiple Makers to create a surrogate out of one essentially decent person
Because Makers operate either individually or in groups of no more than three, the maximum surrogates possible is nine, a number that has been witnessed on several cases
For more on surrogates, consult the TFS Encyclopedia.
21
Fiona put her hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn it.
“What are you waiting for?” Eric asked.
Before she could answer, the quiet outside was suddenly broken by the sound of a car racing down the street then screeching to a stop just out front.
“That,” she said, pulling the door open.
At the curb, Mr. Trouble and Uncle Carl were climbing out of the sedan. Unfortunately, the four missing surrogates were standing between them and the front door.
“You guys ready?” Mr. Trouble shouted.
“We couldn’t wake Keira or Maggie,” Fiona called out. “One of you is going to have to help us carry them.”
“Don’t worry about the girls,” he said. “We’ll get them. Just concentrate on yourselves.”
Peter Garr took a step toward the car. “You need to leave.”
One of his buddies moved up behind him, while the other two started walking toward the house.
“Fiona?” Eric said. “Maybe we should shut the door.”
“It’s going to be fine,” she told him.
From Eric’s point of view, the way the situation looked at the moment wasn’t even close to fine.
“Hey, relax, buddy,” Mr. Trouble said to Peter. “No one wants any problems.”
“That’s right. No one does,” Peter said in full monotone. “Now leave.”
“You know what? Transmit this to your little Maker masters. Mr. Trouble’s in town, and Eric is one kid you’re not getting.”
Peter had been in the process of taking another step toward the car, but he froze for a moment, his foot in the air. When he started moving again, he took several rapid steps forward, moving to within fifteen feet of the car before stopping.
“
“You’ll excuse me if I don’t pull out my driver’s license to prove it, but yeah, I am.”
“You…are…too young.”
“And you have bad hair,” Mr. Trouble countered.
Eric jabbed Fiona with his elbow and nodded toward the two surrogates heading their way. Though they were not walking fast, they didn’t have far to go and would soon be there.
“I really think we should shut the door,” he said.
“Ronan,” Fiona yelled. “I know you like talking, but maybe not now.”
Mr. Troubled glanced over. “Ah, right.” He looked back at Peter. “Sorry, can’t engage in an insult war right now. I hope you understand.”
He took a step forward and raised his arm. Moonlight glinted off something that looked kind of like a gun, but not one Eric had ever seen before. There was a
The Peter surrogate must have seen it, too. He rolled to his left and ducked down. The object — a dart — sailed just a few inches above his back, then smacked into the upper left arm of the surrogate standing behind
