“I’m not calling the police.” She snatched her hand away from his light grasp, repositioning the phone at her ear. “Yet.”
“Who are you calling?” he asked at the same time she asked, “Why can’t we call the police?”
When a voice said her name into the phone, she turned away from Ian to speak. “Hey. I know this is your day off and everything, but we need to activate Operation Diabolical. Now.”
“Excellent.” Jett sounded delighted. “I’m ready. Where are we going?”
“The thing is, I need you to tell me.” Beryl closed her eyes, hoping against hope that she wasn’t too late.
“What do you mean? How can I tell you?”
Beryl cleared her throat. “I know I told you to remove the tracker from Jake’s jacket, but I’m hoping that you didn’t listen to me, like you never listen to me or ever do what I tell you to do in a timely manner. So, Jett, please tell me you did not remove it.”
Jett sounded contrite and pleased. “You know, I meant to, Beryl. I just had not gotten around to it yet, I promise. If he’s wearing that jacket, I can track him.”
“Good. The last time I saw him, he was wearing it. I need you to find him for me as fast as you can. Somebody knocked me out and I’ve lost an hour already. I’m worried we might be too late.”
Jett’s voice turned deadly serious. “Someone knocked you out? What happened?”
Beryl shook her head, though she knew he couldn’t see her. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll explain later. We need to find Jakenow.”
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll put you on speaker and get the app up on my phone.” After some muffled sounds, Jett said, “That’s weird. His jacket’s at some place called Krab’s Cookie Palace on the outskirts of town, like two miles past the Big BangTruck Stop on Highway 88, just inside the town line for Skeeter Bite.”
“Krab’s Cookie Palace? That place closed down before we moved to Alienn, not surprisingly.”
“Well, that’s where the tracker is. I hope that’s also where Jake is,” Jett said.
“Tell whoever you’re talking to that we will meet him there,” Ian said in an overloud tone as he moved toward the front door.
Beryl started to repeat it but Jett said, “I heard. I’ll see you in ten minutes.”
Beryl followed Ian as best she could.Wake up, limbs, and work!Ian noticed her slow progress and doubled back to guide her out of the house and to the driveway.
“I think you should drive,” she said.
Without comment, he put her in the passenger side of a nondescript sedan, much like the one Jake had been whisked away in by the invisible alien.
Ian didn’t seem like the type to make small talk in a good situation let alone the bad one they were in right now. Beryl spent most of the drive quietly hoping they weren’t too late and that they got there in time to save Jake. She tried not to imagine what the invisible alien might be doing to him.
They drove in silence all the way to the now defunct Krab’s Cookie Palace. It was no surprise to her that the out-of-the-way business had shut down. Surrounded by forest, there was nothing to draw customers in. On top of that, they’d ignored the advertising gold of the town’s riff on outer space in choosing their name, Krab’s Cookie Palace. Besides, who would want to eat a seafood cookie? Ick.
Ian did not drive like an old man, and they made it to their destination in less than ten minutes. Jett was waiting in the parking lot, the back hatch of his SUV wide open as he pulledout the bag they had put together after work in preparation for Operation Diabolical. It was Beryl’s solution to an invisible enemy.
Through the storefront’s main window, which was half covered with sheets of tattered, drooping, yellowed newspaper, they could see a faint glow coming from somewhere inside.
“If the front was the store, then it would follow that the kitchen is in the back, right?” Beryl said in a loud whisper.
Both Jett and Ian nodded. In the moment, which was really not the perfect time, Beryl realized that the two of them standing side by side could be brothers. Easily.
She shook the thought off and got back to the business at hand.
“I think that’s where he will be.” She turned to Jett. “You and I should go through the front and Ian should come through the back. Let’s just hope there are no more exits that our bad guy can escape through.”
They both nodded in eerie unison and Ian disappeared silently around the side of the building.
“Whoisthat guy?” Jett asked her.
“I don’t really know. My guess is he’s a friend of Jake’s from before he lost his memory. Let’s talk about it later, okay?”
