The Children Who Time Lost (32 page)

I looked toward the entrance. I didn’t see any sign of Michael. “Coffee, please. White, with one sugar.”

“Coming right up.”

I nodded and smiled. The café grew busier as I waited. At almost one-thirty, there was still no sign of Michael. But then I saw him step out of a cab across the street.
At least he ditched the limo.
He straightened his black suit and crossed the street. He noticed me just before he pushed the door open. I smiled, but he acted like he didn’t know me. I understood what he was doing.

I turned and faced the counter. I smelled his aftershave when he sat in the chair beside mine.

“Coffee, please. Black,” he said to the waitress.

I didn’t speak. For all I knew, people were watching us, which was probably why he hadn’t acknowledged me. After his coffee came, I heard him sip it. Then I felt his eyes watching me.

“So, what do you think of this place?”

I glanced right and caught the gaze of his deep blue eyes. “It’s nice.”

He smiled. “Sorry I was late. I couldn’t tell whether I had a tail or not, so I just drove around for a while, changing cabs as many times as I could.”

I nodded. “So what do we do now?”

He leaned closer to me. “First we wait a few days for things to calm down, and then we go to where the meteor hit. Afterward, I’ll call some of my contacts and see what I can find out.”

“No. No outsiders. We can’t trust anyone.”

He shook his head in frustration. “Alone, I can’t do that much to help you. If we’re going to find your son, first we need to find out what these aliens are up to, and for that we’ll need access to my resources.”

I faced the counter and stretched my neck back, but I saw something out of place. A man by the door was watching us and doing a bad job of hiding it. He had a short brown jacket and scruffy hair. His beard looked like it hadn’t been shaved in weeks.

“So what do you think?” Michael said.

I looked at him, bewildered. “Huh?”

“About getting some of my people on the case?”

I nodded. “Whatever.”

He frowned. “Whatever? What’s with the attitude?”

“I think you were followed,” I said.

He shifted in his seat.

“Don’t turn around,” I said. He stopped moving.

“By the door, a man in a brown jacket. He keeps looking over here.” I guessed they were there for me, maybe working for Lorenzo. But that meant they knew I was working with Michael.

Michael got up and walked toward the bathroom. The man watched Michael every step of the way, but Michael didn’t acknowledge him. I’d hoped they knew each other, but they obviously didn’t. After Michael disappeared from view, I stared at the TV but occasionally glanced at the man. He wasn’t looking at me but down the corridor leading to the bathroom.
Oh my God. He might actually be here for Michael.

I stood and walked toward the bathroom. The man turned and stared at me. I gave him a thin smile and kept walking down the corridor. Then I waited outside the restrooms. I didn’t hear any footsteps behind me. I pushed the men’s room door open and met the confused eyes of a young black man in his twenties, washing his hands.

“Hi,” I said in a high-pitched voice.

The man scurried out and shut the door. I looked toward the stall. All were open except one in the middle. “Michael?”

I heard movement. “Rachel?”

“Yes.”

The door opened and Michael stepped out. “What’re you doing in here?”

“I think that man’s after you. After you left, he didn’t look at me. He just stared down the corridor.”

Michael paced around the toilet.

“Do you know him?” I said.

“I’ve never seen him in my life.”

“Okay, but we can’t stay. If he’s one of the aliens or working with them, the rest won’t be far behind.”

“Okay, let’s go.”

He walked out and I followed. I stared at the floor until we reached the door. The man had his hand in his right jacket pocket. I shuddered when I saw a bulge.

“I think he’s got a gun,” I said to Michael.

He didn’t answer but kept walking. We walked up the street in silence. I looked back and the man was following us. I prodded Michael. “He’s coming.”

Michael looked back for a second. “We’ve got to keep going.”

“Where’s your driver?”

“I shook him, too.”

I started to panic. We were unprotected and no one knew where Michael was.
This isn’t good
.

Michael took an abrupt left onto South Hope Street. I walked alongside him. We took a right onto West Eight Street a few minutes later, and I saw the man jogging after us. I squeezed Michael’s hand.

“I know, I know. Just keep going.”

We continued on but didn’t run. I kept looking back. The man drew closer. We took another right, and just then Michael ran down an alley to our left. I struggled to keep up but pushed myself as hard as I could.

When we reached the middle of the alley, Michael turned and faced me. “Wait here and don’t move. Let him come to you.”

He backed into a shaded area and stopped by a large door. He pointed down the path the man would come from and tightened his face. I saw the man approaching. He stopped when he met my gaze and took slow steps forward. My legs quivered. I wanted to look at Michael, but doing so would have given away his position. The man continued toward me, and he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pistol. I shuddered when he pointed it at me.

When he reached me, his eyes were filled with anger and hate. “Where is he?” he demanded.

I just gave him a blank stare. He moved closer and raised the gun toward my head. “Michael Galloway—where is he?”

“I … I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie to me, lady, or I swear—”

“Put the gun down,” Michael said from the shadows. Then I heard him cock a gun.

The man grimaced and grunted.

“I said put it down.” Michael stood beside me, his gun trained on the man. He held his hand out, and the man put his gun in it.

Michael kept the gun pointed at the man while he studied him. He had a hard face to go with his thick beard, with bags under his eyes. His clothes were ragged but looked like they had once been of the highest quality. Either way, he didn’t look like any of the others who had been hunting us.

“Who are you?” Michael asked.

The man just stared at him.

Michael scowled and extended the gun. “I asked you a question.”

“Doug,” the man said in a deep voice. “Doug Pratt.”

“Why are you after me?”

Doug scowled at Michael but didn’t answer. Michael took a step forward and put the gun to his temple. “I’ll ask you again. Why are you after me?”

“You’d better kill me,” Doug said, “or I’ll kill you if I get another chance.”

“But why?” I asked.

Doug faced the ground. “That’s my business.” He gave Michael another steely stare. “You destroyed my life. I lost my wife because of you, and with the things you’re going to do, I can’t let you live, so you’d better kill me.”

Michael looked at him, bemused, and so did I.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What did he do?”

Doug looked at the ground again and shut his eyes for a moment. I took a step toward him, but Michael held me back. Doug opened his eyes and looked at us. “I’m not from here. I’m from the future. The year 2022.”

I frowned at Doug and scratched my head. Michael paced around Doug and me, clearly unsure of what to say.

“I know it sounds crazy, but—”

“No, it’s not,” I said. “I’m from the future, too.”

Doug thrust his head forward and struggled to speak. “You’re from the future. What year?”

“2043.”

He looked at me in astonishment, but then his face hardened. “Of course—it’s started. You’re one of them, which is why you’re with him.”

One of them? Does he know?
“One of who?”

“You’re a Shrinik.”

“A what?”

He laughed. “You know what I’m talking about.”

I gave him a blank stare.

“Humans who mutate into giant creatures with faces like lizards. You know!”

My heart almost stopped. Someone else knew the secret. But actually, this was something more. He had a name for them. I was just about to speak when we heard police sirens behind us. Michael put both guns away and turned around. Two officers walked down the alley to meet us. I just hoped Doug wouldn’t cause a scene.

“Hello, officers,” Michael said. “Anything the matter?”

The taller of the two officers walked ahead of the other one. “We’ve had a call about suspicious behavior here. Can you tell me what you’re all doing here?”

“I’m just having a conversation with some friends,” Michael said.

The other officer sniggered. “Friends, you say. Odd place for a chitchat.”

“I don’t like your tone, officer. I’ve told you there’s nothing going on here.”

The officer walked up to Michael and grabbed him by the collar. “So you want to give me attitude, mister? How about we see how much attitude you have left when I take you down to the station.”

I backed away. Doug did the same.

“You’re making a very big mistake, officers,” Michael said.

The man went through Michael’s back pocket and pulled a wallet out. “Oh, yeah? And why is that the—” He looked at Michael’s face and then back at his driver’s license. “Mr. Galloway?”

Michael stared at him with stone eyes. The taller officer took the wallet and looked at it, too. Then he passed it back to Michael. “I’m sorry, sir. We didn’t know.”

Michael glared at them. “That’s fine. Now, can we go?”

“Of course, sir,” the taller officer said.

Michael nodded at Doug and me. I’d known he had influence, but I didn’t know it extended to law enforcement. We walked down the alley and waited for the officers to drive away. When they did, Michael grabbed Doug’s shoulder angrily, but I grabbed Michael’s other arm and shook my head, and he released Doug.

“Why did you call those things Shriniks?” I said.

He laughed. “You can stop pretending. You think I believe that neither of you knows what I’m talking about?”

Michael pushed Doug against a wall. “You’re going to tell me everything. What you think I’ve done and why you’re here.”

“You don’t even know yet, do you?”

Michael shook his head.

“You’ve already done it, but things are about to get worse, which is why I have to kill you.”

“I’ve got the gun.”

“Then you’d better use it.”

“Enough,” I shouted. I saw people at the end of the alley stop and stare. I lowered my voice. “Look, you mentioned before about losing your wife because of Michael. Why not start with that? What did you mean?”

Michael released Doug and backed away, his gun still raised. Doug looked at me and relaxed again. “If you’re really from the future, you know all about the infertility problem, right?”

“Yes, I do.” I nodded at Michael. “I’ve told him all about it as well.”

“Well, my wife was one of the first winners of the Lotto. She went to collect our baby but never returned.”

I frowned at him for a moment, and then it hit me. Of course—that was why the year 2022 sounded so familiar. It was the year the Lotto winners and their children never came back. “No way. Your wife was one of the winners of the children who time lost.”

He nodded. “I’d always thought she was dead, but someone came to see me two days ago. He told me things.”

Michael lowered his gun. “About what?”

“The aliens you obviously know about. They’re a race called Shriniks from the planet Adononis.”

Neither Michael nor I spoke. If I hadn’t seen the aliens for myself, I probably would have laughed at him.

“I know,” Doug said. “Crazy, right?” He cleared his throat. “They look human, just like you and me, but they also mutate into giant green creatures.”

“Whenever they want?” I said.

“Yes,” Doug said. “But they also change whenever they have sex or go to the bathroom.” He laughed. “Don’t ask me why. It’s just a Shrinik thing, I guess.”

I already knew about the bathroom thing, but I felt sick to the bone, thinking of those hideous things having sex.

Michael coughed and scratched his head. “So what exactly did this guy who helped you say?” he said. “What are these Shriniks planning?”

Doug shrugged. “He wasn’t completely sure, but it’s something big.”

“He wasn’t completely sure?” Michael said. “That doesn’t really help, does it?”

Doug took a step forward but stopped when Michael held the gun up. He backed away and raised his hands. “Look. All I know is that I thought my wife was dead when she never returned to 2022, but he told me that she didn’t die. Instead, she was sent here to 2013 with all the other winners. They just wanted to get the children here.”

“What?” I said. “You mean they’re still alive?” I paused and bit my bottom lip. “But why? What do they want with our babies?”

He half-smiled at me. “Don’t you get it yet?”

I said nothing.

“Not all of the babies sent back were human.”

I chewed my fingernails and backed away, shaking my head. No. That couldn’t be right. Dylan wasn’t a Shrinik or whatever these things were. I’d held him in my arms. I saw his smile. It was real. The emotions I felt were real. He was human. He was my son. “You’re lying. I don’t believe you.”

“Why would I lie?”

“But my… my son isn’t a Shrinik.”

Doug frowned. “Your son? Why would your … My god. You won the Lotto, too. But why are you here? How did you find out about them?”

“They took her son,” Michael said. “She heard them say that they were bringing him here to 2013.”

“Why?”

“Because they thought I found out about them,” I said. “They came for my whole family, but I escaped. I’m just here to get my son back.”

Doug scratched his head. “Look, lady, I don’t know about your son. All I know is what the guy told me.”

“Which was what?” Michael said.

“Well, he said that of
all
the children sent back in the Lotto, one in five were Shriniks. But he thinks that all the children sent back with my wife to 2022 were Shriniks. They were doing some sort of experiment to acclimatize their younger species to our climate.”

I gasped. “Oh my God.” I paused to consider my words. “Don’t you see? Dylan might be wherever they are.” I looked at Michael. “We have to find them.” I grimaced. Dylan’s being with them would mean he was a Shrinik. But he wasn’t. Maybe Doug’s contact was wrong. Maybe the children who time lost were human. Maybe they’d been kidnapped, too.