“Oh, no. The other lost memory was one from Alpha-Prime. It happened to a friend of my dad’s, Mr. Binger. They play chess sometimes in the park, when the weather is nice but not too hot, you know?
“Anyway, Mr. Binger’s memory was from when he was a really young, like a little kid. On a dare, he rode quite a ways across the hottest part of the Outer Rim Desert strapped to a sand-claw beast! Can you believe it? I mean, talk about crazy, right?”
Darkfall had to agree. “Definitely, crazy.”
“Mr. Binger used to tell anyone who would listen that it was the wildest ride he’d ever taken. And the most dangerous. Old Mr. Binger used to tell that story every time we saw him in the park for literally years, with absolute glee. Then one day he didn’t mention it and when we asked him about his wild ride on a sand-claw beast, he said he didn’t remember ever doing something so foolish. Course, there weren’t any pictures of it because it was probably illegal even then, but he had absolutely no memory of it at all. Bam. Blip. It was gone.” Edgar Jr. snapped his fingers in the air three times to illustrate his point.
Darkfall got it. An alien being was loose on Earth, stealing memories to sell. Likely that was what Luca had figured out, to his detriment. And when he attempted to capture the culprit and bring that being to justice on Alpha-Prime, Luca became a victim himself. Instead of losing just one memory, his entire past was erased as if it never existed.
Darkfall was determined to do all he could to get Luca’s memories back.
Edgar Jr. said, “You know, someone called the house here a couple, three weeks ago or so and asked about my father losing his memory.” He looked up in the air as if searching for something. “I think his name was Johns or maybe Jones, something like that. Not sure. Anyway, he said he was looking into the case as well. Do you know him?”
Darkfall didn’t confirm or deny knowing any Johns or Jones. He simply smiled, offered his hand, thanked the Smithers men for their cooperation and headed back to The Event Horizon Inn to plan his next move.
Jake and Beryl met up at his shop after work to go out and catch a late dinner. Since he was snatched on his way to the Cosmos Café, he figured tonight was the perfect time to experience a quirky, interesting and very fun restaurant.
Instead of having a big dinner, they both opted for coffee and dessert. Jake ordered a large container of the best chili in the galaxy to go. Maxwell the Martian certainly couldn’t be wrong about how good the chili was in this establishment.
Beryl told him he was in for a treat. “I recommend sprinkling cheese on top and crushing up some soda crackers to stir in. But that’s just me.” Luckily, his order came with soda crackers, because he had no idea what those were.
Their waitress turned out to be Beryl’s aunt, Dixie. She was what folks in town called a hoot. Jake thought she was hilarious.
Aunt Dixie told Beryl, “I like this one, Beryl. You should keep him.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Beryl had driven them to the diner because she couldn’t let go of her worry for him and Jake was fine with that. On their way out to her car, he told her she was a beautiful chauffeur. She told him he was still a charmer.
At his place, Jake held the door for Beryl, who insisted on carrying his to-go bag of chili and soda crackers straight to the kitchen to put it in the refrigerator for him.
Jake was closing the front door and locking it when Beryl made a funny noise and said, “Why is your bedroom door shut?”
“It’s not closed,” he said, turning to see for himself that, holy cow, it was. Why was his bedroom door shut? Oh, no.
“Ouch!”
Jake whirled at Beryl’s cry in time to see her slowly crumple to the floor. His to-go chili, the best in the galaxy, slipped from her fingers, landing on the floor beside her.
“Beryl?” Jake took a step in her direction—and saw the air next to her roll like a heatwave at the peak of summer. Something hit his chest, stinging and painful, just like when the faceless kidnapper had snatched him off the street and stuffed him in the trunk of a car.
Jake immediately felt dizzy. As his limbs lost function, he slumped to the floor. His gaze stayed fixed on Beryl, eyes closed, sprawled on the floor beside the dining room table.
Was she breathing?Please breathe, Beryl, he thought over and over.
He tried to focus. He couldn’t tell if she was out cold—or worse. The mere notion of Beryl being hurt made him frantic.
Jake felt completely powerless and that seemed like such a foreign feeling to part of him that his fear shifted to fury.
A rage the likes of which he didn’t think he’d ever felt roiled through him at seeing Beryl motionless, helpless, unconscious or worse, and knowing he couldn’t help her.
Jake clutched his red-hot anger like a banner flying free on its way into battle. If even one hair on her head was harmed because of this predator, then in either this life or the next, he would avenge her.
Whatever it took.
Chapter Twenty-Five
