The Tesla Gate (30 page)

As luck would have it, we were now on the backside of the lunch hour so there were only a few people in line. They were scattered among the five lines that were open, so fortunately there was one completely devoid of patrons. As I walked up to place my order, a pimple-faced, redheaded teenager smiled broadly from behind a set of glasses that looked like a pair of Coke bottle bottoms. He didn't look at me judgmentally, but instead just happily took my order. I guess the young man was not a hypocrite, because his awkward appearance probably trumped my own.

I ordered my old standby, a Big Mac and chocolate shake; I didn't feel very hungry, but that was not the point. If I went to the table without an order it might draw attention. In the two minutes it took to get my food, I tried to discreetly look at the window where Seth and Patrick should be waiting. It was a good 30 yards away and I didn't see them, which caused me a twinge of worry, but that was also a good thing if they were following instructions, staying low and inconspicuous.

I set my gift store bag containing the batteries on my tray and casually walked toward the window where the boys should be waiting. I paused when I saw an attractive young woman sitting about ten feet away from the planned point of entry for the boys. She had a preschool age girl who was contentedly munching on fries as she examined her happy meal toy, which looked like a horse with a rainbow-colored mane. The woman was bottle feeding an infant while she took intermittent sips of her soft drink. I hoped they would get up and leave soon, because she had a clear line of sight to where the boys would be coming in. I slowly approached the table and sat down, peering carefully over the table as I sat. My heart both lifted and dropped at the same time. Seth was there waiting patiently, just as I had instructed. When he saw me through the glass his face lit up with excitement. The problem was that Patrick was nowhere to be seen.

Seth had been good and patient and followed my instructions, but when he saw me, caution fled his brain. I had not given him the signal or even had a chance to get the batteries out of their package and ready to hand off to him. He dropped his batteries on the concrete of the courtyard where they slowly started rolling toward the street. Seth dropped to his knees and slowly pushed his now luminescent body through the glass. A few moments later he was hunkered under the table with his hand outstretched for a battery refill.

I quickly tore at the package and popped it open, sending batteries scattering across the table and dropping with loud clicks into the floor. Seth scooped them up and stuffed them in his pocket. The silvery glow faded, restoring his flesher appearance. I started to breathe a sigh of relief as Seth climbed out from under the table and took a seat across from me. My breath was cut short when I looked at the woman. She was staring at us with a look of bewilderment frozen on her delicate features. The drizzle of sweat turned back into a downpour as my guts twisted with panic. She was going to scream or report us or something, and that would be the end—the end of our journey, and the end of my gift of borrowed time with my son.

CHAPTER 32

Journey's End

“Words have no power to impress the mind
without the exquisite horror of their reality.”

—Edgar Allan Poe

To my surprise, the woman did none of the above. She continued to look at me with the same expression for a few moments and then looked at Seth. He smiled at her with his infectious grin then reached over and took a sip of my milkshake. The only thought that penetrated my numb brain was that his casual sip would require squenching later. I also realized at that moment that I needed to perform my own brand of squenching as well. I had too much coffee before we left that morning. It's amazing what insignificant thoughts our brains sometimes highlight for us under extreme stress.

Her fear started to slowly melt from her face as a pleasant smile formed. The reaction by her daughter to Seth's sudden appearance helped her relax a little. The little girl had not seen Seth until he had been out from under the table for a few moments, but when she noticed him sitting there she crinkled her nose and protested.

“Eeeeeew, a boy,” she said as she turned in her seat to face away from Seth to where there was absolutely no chance that they could make accidental eye contact. The woman leaned over and whispered a few scolding words to the pretentious tot, then looked at me.

“Sorry,” she said in a whisper.

I smiled and lightly waved my hand to indicate no problem.

“Is he your son?”
she mouthed more than she spoke.

I nodded my head and smiled.

“He's a cutie,” she said, a little more audibly this time.

“Thank you,” I said, and then looked searchingly at her. Was she just trying to play it cool until she could blow the whistle on us?

She gave me an understanding smile and leaned toward me as much as the infant in her arms would allow.

“My husband died last week. I am here to talk to our Congressman about what is going on. It is very unfair.” A pair of tears slid off her cheeks and splashed delicately on the side of the baby bottle.

“The military took him?”

“Yes, based on that stupid Executive Order,” she said between sniffles. “Members in Congress are fighting it but I don't know if it will do much good. Too many people believe what they are being told. Aaron was …
is
a good man. He is not a threat to anyone.” She looked at Seth and then back to me, tapping the skin on her forearm.

“How?” she asked.

I held up the torn battery package and then placed it in my burger bag.

She gaped at me incredulously for a minute then her lip started to quiver. She bit her lip and mumbled in a distant voice.

“That easy. If only I had known, Aaron might still be with us.”

I looked at her sympathetically. I could definitely understand her pain. But while I felt sorry for her, I also had my own problems to consider. Seth and I were finally here, but I knew we needed to move because I didn't know if the batteries would last forever or just a few hours. We needed to take our tour and get back to safety as soon as possible. I also had another issue to worry about: where was Patrick?

“Mrs.…?” I asked.

She smiled sheepishly.

“Cower,” she said. “Andrea Cower.”

“Mrs. Cower, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Thomas Pendleton.”

She nodded her head and smiled.

“Seth and I really need to get going, we came a long way to get here, and I'm afraid we may not have a lot of time. It was a pleasure to meet you, and I wish you luck with your Congressman. Hopefully, this will get better soon.” I didn't really believe the latter, not after everything I had seen, but one must always have hope.

She smiled and extended her baby-free hand. I took it and shook.

“Good luck to you, Mr. Pendleton. Please stay safe and protect your boy,” she said.

I nodded and took Seth by the hand and led him toward the door leading back into the museum. When we were out of sight of Mrs. Cower and her small family, I picked out a secluded, vacant table and led Seth there and we sat down across from each other.

“Seth, where is Patrick?” I asked.

He shrugged.

“He said he was bored and was going to go back home.” He frowned. “He said he didn't want to look at a bunch of stupid old airplanes.”

“What did you tell him, Seth?”

“I said they had rockets and spaceships, too.”

“No, what did you tell him when he said he was going home?”

He shrugged and said, “I told him he was being stupid and that we would have fun without him.”

I winced as Seth spoke the words. I knew Patrick was feeling left out and was desperate for my attention since he had no parents, at least none that we knew of. I had intended on trying to make it up to him once we were in the museum, but now that was not to be. I felt sorry for the little guy, I truly did. I hoped he made it back to Mr. Guffey's safely, and I probably should go after him, but I couldn't put Seth at risk to do that. Patrick knew where to go for safety and Seth and I were finally here. Maybe it was selfish, but I wasn't going to let a kid I barely knew upset that. The problem was that I did feel responsible and I did feel guilty. Like it or not, it was going to affect my mood the rest of the day.

“Okay.” I stood up. “Let's go have fun,” I said as I took Seth by the hand.

We walked into the museum hand in hand with little notice from the security personnel. I guess I looked a little more normal with a happy and excited kid in tow. Seth happily skipped inside and made a beeline for the first exhibit we saw, a large-scale replica of Skylab. Once he had perused the inner rooms of the large simulation, I strongly urged that we should take a restroom break. As I mentioned earlier, I had drank too much coffee that morning and now my bladder seemed to be stretched to its limit. The cold air in the museum didn't help matters, either. I also knew that in the course of my conversation with Mrs. Cower, Seth had taken several more sips of my chocolate shake. I guided Seth into a stall where he could squench privately while I took care of my business.

We had the best time over the next hour. We decided to go upstairs first and then work our way down. Seth was as bright-eyed and happy as I had seen him in a long time. As I watched him go from exhibit to exhibit with sheer joy and ecstasy etched in his small face, my eyes welled up with tears of regret. Why had I put this off for so long? He was not just excited about seeing the cool airplanes and space stuff; his occasional looks of glowing admiration were all the confirmation I needed that he was happy to be here with me. He was happy to be here with his daddy.

We were just about to leave an exhibit containing moon rocks and meteorites when we heard a loud commotion downstairs. The continuous droning noise of a buzzer echoed through the museum. I peered over the railing overlooking the downstairs where we had an unobstructed view of the front door. My suspicion was confirmed when I saw the red light on top of one of the walk through metal detectors, someone had set it off. My first thought was that someone must have forgotten their Coke money or their keys, or perhaps it was a smoker who had forgotten and left his lighter in his pocket. Those theories were quickly dashed when I saw a group of no less than six security guards sprinting madly in our direction from below.

My heart jumped into my throat because I had the disturbing notion that they were coming for us, but if that were the case, why was the metal detector going off? That idea was replaced with a cold hard truth as I looked below me and saw the subject of their pursuit. My heart sank down from my throat and slid into my gut like a block of ice. Fear and regret filled me like a poison when the certainty of what was happening had sunk in. The guards were pursuing Patrick, who had evidentially bolted through the metal detector. My first thought was to hide, but that thought had come too late because Patrick had spotted me and was heading for the stairs.

I took Seth by the hand and started to walk toward the stairs on the opposite side of the museum, but it was no use because everyone in the museum had stopped to look as I heard Patrick pointing in my direction and yelling.

“Daddy, wait!” he screamed frantically as he bounded up the stairs.

I found that we had but one option. Running away would not be effective because I was reasonably certain we would have been stopped and questioned before we made it out of the museum. No, with attention now focused in our direction, plus a crazed Impal kid bearing down on us, we had no choice but to stay put and hope for the best. Hope was not on our side today.

The logic of children has always escaped my comprehension, possibly because there is rarely any actual logic to it, only a kid's view of how the world operates. What they desperately want to be the truth often becomes logical facts in their minds. I understood what Patrick was trying to accomplish, as horrible as it may be, but that didn't make the situation any better. I was filled with a bizarre mix of shock, rage, terror, and pity that had me frozen in place, unable to react, unable to stop it.

When Patrick reached us, he turned on Seth with venomous fury, knocking him to the ground.

“Get away from him, Impal!” Patrick shouted.

I started to move toward them, but it was too late. Patrick had voided Seth's pocket of the batteries and they went rolling across the floor and under the railing, dropping with loud metallic clangs as they hit an airplane a couple of stories below.

Patrick sat up triumphantly and turned to look at me with a huge smile as if seeking approval and praise for what he had just done. I felt like I was moving in slow motion as I fell to my knees and clambered toward them. Patrick's full attention was now fixed on me as his smile grew bigger, splitting his freckled face from ear to ear. His attention diverted, he did not notice Seth's shimmering hand moving toward his pocket until it was too late. Seth scooped the batteries out of Patrick's pocket and, in one fluid motion, flung them past the railing, pelting the same airplane again.

Patrick turned on Seth furiously and they both started to roll about like a large glowing ball as they scuffled. I moved to break them up but just as I grabbed Seth's arm, I felt two pairs of strong hands grab me by each arm and pull me backward. I landed squarely on my back, expelling every ounce of air from my lungs. As I gasped and tried to roll myself over to get up, I heard a sound that filled me with terror, the loud clanking of iron.

I pushed myself up, still sucking desperately for a breath, but in some ways I wish I hadn't. I saw the sight that had filled my nightmares ever since I saw that first Impal girl in the Army truck. Patrick and Seth had iron collars around their necks and were being pulled rudely to their feet. Patrick looked stunned while Seth wailed inconsolably; silvery tears disappeared through the carpet just in front of his Spiderman tennis shoes. What the hell had I done?

With every ounce of strength I had left, I lunged forward trying to take Seth in my arms, trying to hug him, to console him, to tell him everything would be okay, that Daddy would make it better, to tell him that I love him … but that was not to be. Before I could scarcely move I felt a blinding white pain on the back of my head, and everything went black.

Seth was left alone.