Pop Travel (28 page)

Yes!
Hasan rejoiced at the sound. Keeping a straight face, he pretended nothing had happened, hoping Security hadn’t picked up on the sound. As he rose from the couch, he stretched and yawned. Then he went over and spoke to a camera.

“I’m going to sit in the stairwell. I hate being watched.” Hasan did this frequently when he wanted a break from his work and the constant supervision. The only cameras in the whole house were inside the lab. Hasan had demanded some privacy in his living space.

He opened the door and put a finger to his lips to keep Cooper and Geri quiet until he slipped out. When the door latched, he raised his hands.

“Welcome! My friends! You’ve come to save me, right?” He hugged them both.

“Save you?” Cooper asked, pulling back.

“Don’t you want to know who we are?” Geri asked.

“That’s not important now. Just get me out of here. We don’t have much time!” Hasan said and dashed to the bottom of the stairs.

“Wait! We aren’t here to rescue you. I came to talk to you about pop travel.” Cooper took hesitant steps after him.

“Why do you need to be rescued?” Geri asked.

“Look. I’ll explain everything when we are safely away from here. So if you want to talk to me, you’ll have to help me escape. I hope you have a getaway plan because Keener and Vincent are in your secret tunnel.”

Hasan and Geri both looked expectantly at Cooper.

“I’ve been winging it for days now. I’m open to suggestions. How about the back door?”

“It’s under surveillance. But it will have to do. We need to get to the transport house.” Hasan had a couple of ideas. Ever since the corporate jerks started putting extra pressure on him, he had been planning multiple ways to escape for the past year.

“What about the laser fencing?” Cooper asked.

“We can take a hovercart. It has a switch for the fence.”

“Okay. But no running off. I want to make sure we stay hidden for as long as possible,” Cooper said. “Let’s see what we have out here.”

He cracked open the door and looked through. Seeing no one, he motioned for Hasan and Geri to follow him. When they heard voices downstairs, they stopped at the landing and listened.

The two guards in the tunnel had emerged. The girl guard, Jackson, met them in the kitchen and listened to the men complain to her about the condition of their suits from having to squeeze through a tight section of the passage. They hadn’t seen anyone while they were down there.

Hasan followed Cooper and Geri the rest of the way down the stairs. After slipping into the parlor, across the hall from the dining room, they continued through the bathroom and into the back bedroom.

When they left the back bedroom, Hasan tugged on Cooper’s jacket sleeve and pointed to the back door.

Cooper gave him a stern look and waved them over to the sunroom.

Hasan didn’t care what the guards had to say, he wanted to get out of there.

“I know they came in here. Where are they?” Vincent said in a deep, booming voice.

Hasan silently laughed, holding his belly as he pictured the big gorilla in a muddy monkey suit with his scowling face, angry that he had to traipse through the dirt and come up empty-handed.
Ha!

“Paris, Sameel, and I checked every inch of this place twice. They went over to the security house to help monitor. Mrs. Rakhi and Hasan are secure upstairs. That’s all,” Jackson said firmly.

“Then they’re hiding, or they left through the back door before you came in,” Keener said. “They sure didn’t go back through that tunnel.”

“Sameel,” Jackson said in her headset, calling Security headquarters. “Have you guys seen anyone entering or exiting the house?”

After a pause, Jackson spoke again.

“Since there’s been no activity at the house besides us, coming and going, we should check the inside again.”

“I’ll take the lab,” said Vincent.

“I’ll check on Mrs. Rakhi and the second floor,” said Ms. Jackson.

“I’ve got this floor,” Keener added.

Hasan had heard enough.

“Time to blur!” Hasan bolted for the back door.

Cooper and Geri sprinted after him.

Hasan looked back to check on them and saw Cooper barricade the back door with a bench from the porch. With just enough light to see their way around the side of the house, Hasan hopped into a hovercart and took the driver seat. As soon as Cooper and Geri jumped in, Hasan floored it.

Heading for the transport house, they listened to the guards’ communications on the cart’s comlink.

“They just escaped out the back door! There’s three of them! And one is Hasan!” Sameel shouted, from headquarters.

“I’m right behind them,” Keener said.

“The back door is blocked,” Sameel added.

Hasan kept his eyes on the review mirror and watched Keener, Jackson, and Vincent sprint out from the front of the house and scramble after them in another cart. Then he saw a third cart join the chase.

“Who’s that guy?” asked Sameel over the comlink.

Everyone turned around to look.

“You don’t know?” a guard asked.

“Never saw him before. He’s not one of ours?” said another.

“No. We’ll worry about him later. Just don’t let him get in front of you,” Sameel said. Then he made a general announcement to Security. “All guards, listen up! Hasan is to be protected at all costs!”

Hasan smiled as he led the carts north of the infirmary, racing in a slow-speed chase.

“Halt the transports!” Ray shouted to Manny. Ray and his head of Security had their eyes glued to the monitors in the security house, feeling helpless as he watched his prize run away. Clutching his chest, Ray gave an
Ack!
or
Oh!
at every jolt in the action. He might just have a heart attack. With all his stress, he was long overdue for one.

“We can’t do that, sir. There are too many people trying to leave. We would have a riot on our hands if we delayed them any further. We barely have the crowd under control as it is,” said Manny.

“Sir. Don’t worry. We can get him. Even if he pops, we can trace him,” a tech added.

Ray looked down and shook his head.
This can’t be happening.

“Do you know who that guy is?” Hasan asked.

“Beats me,” Cooper said.

Squinting at the mysterious guy in the third hovercart, Geri took her time answering.

“I have no idea.”

Cooper eyed her for a second. She gave a weak smile and turned away. His internal lie detector went off, and he pocketed the information to ask her about it later.

As they zipped past the infirmary, several androids rushed toward them. When the cart approached the laser fence, Hasan turned it off. As soon as they were past, he flipped it back on, sizzling the extremities of a couple of the droids.

Cooper looked back to see how the other carts were doing. The third cart was inches from the guards, who blinked off the fence to get through and turned it back on quickly. Knowing he wouldn’t make it through, the mysterious guy jumped out of his cart and rolled into some bushes. The cart kept moving and the top got cut off.

Geri gasped, then gave a relieved sigh. Cooper looked at her again with his eyebrows furrowed. Meeting his gaze, she shrugged.

When they reached the transport house, Hasan shouted.

“Jump!”

They all jumped off the cart and it crashed into a tree.

Cooper and Geri dashed after Hasan to the back door of the transport house. Hasan punched in a code and they entered an Employees Only hallway. Down the hall, two security guards came around a corner and intercepted them. Cooper surprised the guards with some rusty, yet effective, karate moves, just enough to disorient them. Hasan raced down the hall with Cooper and Geri close behind.

Exiting through another door, they crashed into the large, domed waiting room. Guests congested in every nook and cranny, anxious to be transported home. With Hasan in the lead, the three of them blended into the masses, wedging their way through the crowd toward the entrance to the transport platforms. Flying around the frantic crowd, rumors about what might have caused the party to end so abruptly ranged from a bomb threat to World War III. The hysteria was contagious, with everyone acting as if the place were on fire, pushing and shouting, desperate to escape.

When guests recognized the Creator, they squeezed out a path for him, then zip-locked back together after the three of them passed. Trying to force their way through, the guards could not reach the three escapees. The masses resisted the guards’ pressure. The androids had better luck. No one wanted to mess with them and cleared small spaces to avoid touching them.

As the androids closed in, Cooper, Geri, and Hasan arrived at the door for transport departures. Standing firm, two guards barred their way, ready and waiting for them, armed with Taser guns. Before Cooper had a chance to challenge them, Geri took the comb out of her hair and stabbed one of them in the chest with it. He dropped. And for no apparent reason, so did the other one.
What?

Cooper didn’t stick around to figure out what happened as three droids broke through the swarm of people. Grabbing one guard’s hand, Cooper placed it on the scanner and cracked open the door. He lifted Geri as she plucked the comb out of the guard’s chest, and shoved her through, then Hasan.

Before Cooper could follow, an android grabbed his arm. Wrenching his arm back and forth in the vise grip of the droid, Cooper squeezed into the doorway. The eager crowd washed over them, crashing on the door like a tidal wave. Cooper made it through with the droid’s arm still attached, broken off by the force of the masses shutting the door.

Leading the way, Hasan found the closest transport platform.

Two more guards appeared from around the corner.

I’m getting tired of these guys!

They looked smug, stopping in front of the door with their arms crossed.

“Where do you think you’re going?” one of them asked.

The other reached out to grab Cooper, but he ducked and gave him a hand stab to the abdomen.

Geri kneed the other one and jabbed her sharp bracelet into his leg, taking him down.

Slamming open the door, Hasan charged in. Geri and Cooper followed.

As Hasan rushed through the pre-pop medscan area, he startled guests preparing for a quick pop home. The trio barged into the platform room. Hasan headed straight over to the tech station, as Cooper fortified the door with a couple of chairs.

The tech had just sent a group off and begun preparations for the next. The guy backed away for Hasan, who punched in a destination code.

“Get in a dock!” he yelled at Cooper and Geri.

They jumped in.

Hasan hopped into a dock as well.

Guards shouted and banged at the door.

“Give us the shots!” Hasan commanded the anesthesiologist.

He nodded and gave them each the sedative.

Hasan directed Geri and Cooper in a surprisingly calm and level voice.

“Now, try to slow your breathing. Relax and be as still as possible.”

Then he turned to the tech.

“Do it,” Hasan ordered. His personality had transformed back into the Creator. People were awed by him and obeyed.

“What about the destination? They’ll track you. And you won’t be expected. What about overlap?”

The guards hollered and clamored outside.

The frightened tech looked at the door and hesitated.

“You have to help me!
Do the transmission!
I know what I’m doing. Dooo the transmissssssionnn…”