Archer's Quest (12 page)

"Archer, we don't want to talk to that guy. Come on, let's go."

Archie frowned at him. "The gentleman clearly knows you. He is your elder! You would show him such disrespect?"

Kevin groaned. "Archer, you don't understand. I'll explain it to you, but please, let's keep going."

Archie crossed his arms stubbornly and didn't move.

By now the professor had pulled his car out of the line and off to the side of the street.

"Kevin!" he shouted. "Would you and your friend like a ride?"

Kevin smiled the fakest smile of his life. "No—no, thanks, we—we wouldn't want you to go out of your way. Thanks anyway!" He waved and started walking. "Come
on,
Archer," he muttered.

Mr. Lee got out of the car. "Kevin! Really, it wouldn't be any trouble."

Archie stared at Kevin sternly. "I will not walk until you have addressed this man properly," he growled.

"But, Archer!"

It was too late. Mr. Lee had crossed the street and was holding out his hand.

There was nothing else to do. Kevin shook the professor's hand for the third time that day.

Mr. Lee turned to Archie. "Hello," he said. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Professor Lee, a friend of
Kevin's family." He bowed the way Kevin's grandparents did.

Archie bowed back. "Greetings to you, Mr. Lee. I am most pleased to make the acquaintance of a friend of Keh-bin. I am Koh Chu—"

"Mr. Lee," Kevin broke in frantically, "this is my friend Archie—um, I mean Archi ... Archibald, and I call him Archer."

But the professor was too sharp. "Archibald," he said, looking thoughtful. "Would that be Archibald Koh? I thought I heard you say 'Koh.'"

"No, not
'Koh'—cold,
" Kevin babbled. "I think he was going to say it was
cold
today, isn't that right, Archer?" He looked desperately at Archie, sending thought waves as hard as he could:
Say yes, Archer—just go along with it, come on....

Archie stood very straight and said, "My name is Koh Chu-mong. However, as I am well known for my skill with a bow, I deemed it proper for my young friend here to call me 'Archer.'"

Hopeless! What an idiot!
Kevin wanted to stamp his foot and yell.

Meanwhile, Mr. Lee was staring at Archie with a strange look on his face. "Your fame with bow and arrow is indeed great," he said carefully. "I am sure your people are grateful for the use of your skill on their behalf."

Archie nodded gravely. "It has always been my honor to use the gifts I have been given in the name of my people," he said.

Mr. Lee didn't seem to know quite how to respond to this. He turned to Kevin. "May I speak with you for a moment?" Then he nodded at Archie. "Please excuse us."

Oh, no. Here it comes. How the heck am I going to explain all this to him?

Mr. Lee took Kevin by the arm and walked back toward his car. He began to speak in a low urgent voice.

"Young man, I haven't been entirely honest with you," he said. "You were acting a little strangely in my office, and you have that black eye. I thought perhaps you might be in some kind of trouble. So I followed you after you left."

I was right! He
was
following us!

Mr. Lee went on, "I saw you walking with this man, and I overheard you say that you were going to the zoo. I followed you as far as Westland House. You seemed all right then, and I decided to mind my own business and go back to my office. But your companion was so ... so strange, I couldn't stop thinking about him. I drove here to make sure you were okay."

Kevin tried a fake smile again. "Thanks, Mr. Lee. I'm fine. He's just—I mean, it's perfectly safe, you don't have to worry."

Mr. Lee drew a little closer. "I was there," he whispered. "I saw what he did with the tiger."

Kevin's mind went blank with shock while his stomach did flip-flops.

"I tried to find you afterward," Mr. Lee said. "I looked for you everywhere—I stayed at the zoo until closing time. It is sheer luck that I found you again."

Now the professor put his hand on Kevin's arm. Kevin wanted to jerk away, but held himself as still as he could.

"We are dealing with one of two possibilities here," the professor said. "It is clear from what this man says and does that he truly believes himself to be the great Chu-mong. If that is the case, he needs help. Professional help. I appreciate that you want to help him yourself, but really, if he is delusional, you could be putting yourself and others in danger. He shouldn't be wandering around like this. He should be in a place where he can get the kind of care he needs."

"Mr. Lee, the thing is—" Kevin stopped, realizing that he'd started to speak before he had any idea what to say.

The professor continued as if Kevin hadn't spoken. "The other possibility..." He paused and shook his head. "I should not have used the word 'possibility' because it simply cannot be—it's impossible."

He was looking at Kevin awfully hard. He spoke
again, slowly. "Kevin. I saw that man use his bow and arrow in a way that, that couldn't be imagined. I saw him with the tiger. Impossible, yes." He paused as if he could barely bring himself to say what he was about to say. "But suppose ... just suppose that by some wild stretch of the imagination, it is indeed Chu-mong standing over there. Do you realize what an opportunity this would be?"

Mr. Lee's eyes glittered intently. "To interview him. To study and observe him. To learn about ancient Korea in a way never before experienced in history! The things we could learn—the questions he could answer..."

He paused for a moment, then blinked and shook his head. "But of course that's ridiculous. Just wishful thinking on my part. No, the man is obviously not well, and he needs medical help. Kevin, as his friend, you must convince him...."

Mr. Lee kept talking, but Kevin was in "ignore mode" now.
Maybe ... maybe the professor is right. Maybe Archie
is
just a lunatic who thinks he's an ancient Korean king. No other explanation really makes sense!

For a few moments that felt like an eternity, Kevin was so confused that he thought he might start to cry. He took a deep breath and tried to focus.

Come on. Get things in order here.

He's says he's Chu-mong, from
B.C.
Korea. That's impossible.

But after everything I've seen and heard today, I know it's true.

He's
not
a lunatic. But they'll treat him like one, and they might make him take drugs he doesn't need, and he'll probably end up in a hospital. Or an institution.

Kevin shuddered at the thought of Archie in one of those steel-sided hospital beds, probably with all sorts of wires and tubes connected to him and high-tech electronics everywhere.
He'd go nuts in there.

He's not a—a history project, either. Even if the professor does end up believing him—believing us—he'll treat Archie like some kind of museum exhibit. Archie would have to spend the rest of his life answering questions. He'd hate that. They'd watch over him so he wouldn't try to escape. He'd probably never get back to his people. And jeez, what would that do to Korean history—maybe something really terrible!

Mr. Lee's voice was still droning on."...he could end up hurting someone! Kevin, I know you are young, but you're old enough to understand this. You have to do the right thing!"

The right thing? What is the right thing?

He's just a guy who wants to be where he belongs.

And Kevin knew what he had to do.

He whirled around and darted back toward Archie.

"Archer! Run!" he yelled.

Archie reacted instantly. With Kevin a few steps behind, he ran halfway up the block and ducked behind a utility box, then reached out to grab Kevin's hand and yanked him down. Behind them, Mr. Lee was shouting, "Kevin! Come back!"

In the next second, Archie was nocking an arrow onto his bow.

"Archer! Don't shoot! Please, it's—it's okay. He's not really an enemy."

"But you ran from him. Is he not going to harm you?"

"No, no, it's not like that." Kevin inhaled and held his breath for a moment, trying to calm down. "You mustn't shoot at him because he—because he's old. And unarmed. It wouldn't be fair."

"My advantage may seem too great for an honorable battle," Archie replied, "but war is seldom a fair enterprise."

"Archer, please! This isn't war! It's just that he wants to talk to us right now, and it would be a—a very long conversation, and we don't really have time because we have to get to that tiger! That's why I ran away from him!"

Archie looked up at the sky. The fierce expression emptied out of his eyes and was replaced by concern. "The day's light is fading," he whispered. "The year of the Tiger is coming to a close." He lowered the bow.
"You are right, Young Friend. We have no time for a confrontation—we must go to the metal tiger!"

Together they peered around the side of the utility box.

Mr. Lee couldn't seem to decide what to do. He ran a few steps, stopped, turned back toward his car, then looked over his shoulder at them. Finally, he returned to his car and got in.

But he's going to drive this way, and then he'll catch us....
Sure enough, Kevin could see the left-turn signal light blinking on Mr. Lee's car.

"We have to get to the bridge, Archer." Kevin clenched his jaw in frustration. The Dorchester State campus was practically right across the highway from them, but they'd still have to go all the way down to the pedestrian bridge and back up the other side of the road. The professor could turn onto the highway and pull over ahead of them—he'd catch them for sure....

Kevin surveyed the highway. The traffic was still zooming along. Mr. Lee's car was third in line now, waiting to make the turn.

"It is like a river," Archie said, his eyes on the moving traffic, "a river of dragon-fire carts."

Maybe if we're really careful, we could sort of dodge between the cars. They're probably only going, like, fifty-five miles per hour.

Kevin shook his head angrily.
Yeah, right. No way we could make it across.

He looked back toward Mr. Lee's car—and saw the beginning of a miracle.

A huge tractor-trailer was barreling down the road. The light turned yellow, then red. The driver must have made up his mind at the last moment: There was a terrible squeal of straining brakes as the truck slowed dramatically.

Then the wheels of the trailer hit something in the road—an icy patch? a pothole, maybe?—and the whole truck lurched. It skidded and slewed around in front of the zoo road, crosswise to the highway traffic, blocking all four lanes.

More squealing sounds as frantic drivers slammed on their brakes to avoid hitting the truck. Kevin felt his whole body tense up, waiting for the inevitable crash. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. He watched as car after car screeched to a stop, almost like in a cartoon.

It was all over in just a few seconds.

No collision. Nobody hurt.

And for the moment, no traffic on the highway.

"Come!" Archie had already slung the bow back over his shoulder. They darted between the stopped cars. Kevin cast a look back at Mr. Lee, who was still stuck in his car on the zoo road. He wouldn't be able to move until the tractor-trailer had been cleared.

"HA!" Archie laughed, pointing.

Kevin looked, and saw what had made Archie laugh. The tractor-trailer was carrying a load of cars—Volkswagen Beetles, to be exact. Eight of them stacked in two layers—

"TURTLES!" Archie shouted in delight. "Once again, they come to my aid!"

Turtles?
Kevin looked again. Funny, he'd never thought about it, but VW Bugs
did
look kind of like turtles.

"Layer upon layer of them, just as before!" Archie said. "And are they turtles in spirit as well as shape?"

"In spirit..." Kevin hesitated.

"By which I mean, are they as fast as the other dragon-carts? Or do they move at a more stately pace, like true turtles?"

Kevin would have laughed except that he knew Archie wasn't being funny on purpose. "Um, well, they
can
go really slow if you want them to," he said.

Archie's grin had to be one of the widest Kevin had ever seen. "Well and good!" He chuckled, still staring at the truck with its load of Volkswagens.

Then Kevin gasped. Beyond the truck, on the zoo road, Mr. Lee had gotten out of his car again and was crossing the highway on foot, looking right at them.

"Archer! Come on, we have to hurry!"

They ran. Ahead were the pillars marking the university entrance and, beyond them, the bronze statue of the tiger.

As their feet pounded up the drive, Kevin made a promise to himself:
If this doesn't work—if the professor catches us—I'll stop running away. I'll talk to him, I'll talk to my parents, I'll tell them everything, I'll make them believe me somehow.... I just can't do this alone anymore.

Archie slowed to a walk a few yards away from the tiger. He reached into his quiver and pulled something out. Hurriedly, but still taking time for a quick bow, he held his hand toward Kevin.

"A token of gratitude," Archie said, "for your assistance."

It was the two halves of the broken arrow—the one Archie had used to get into the tiger enclosure. Kevin took the arrow and bowed back, knowing what it meant to Archie to part with one of his arrows, even a broken one.

"Thank you, Archer," Kevin said.

It didn't seem to be enough just to say thanks. He stammered, "I—I hope one day to be—to be worthy of such a gift."

"No, Friend," Archie said, "I would not have given it to you if you were not already worthy. Your hope must be to remain so."

Kevin nodded solemnly. He put the pieces of the arrow into his jacket pocket. Then he looked over his shoulder. He could see Mr. Lee coming up the road to the campus entrance. Not running—he was probably too old to do much running—but walking really fast.