Jett smirked, but nodded and together they moved to the front door. Beryl was worried they might have to break in, but the door was unlocked when Jett tried it. He pushed it and the hinges, shockingly, didn’t even squeal.
They walked carefully through what used to be the display area, filled with empty boxes and papers strewn on the floor as if the previous tenants had left in a hurry. They walked around the counter and crept through a swinging door into whatdidturn out to be the kitchen.
The déjà vu was unsettling. Once again, Jake was flat on his back and unconscious. Instead of a wooden diningroom table, he was strapped to a stainless-steel prep table. The rippling, wavy air at his side didn’t move. She wondered if the alien had his back to them.
The cube of lights was on the prep table beside Jake’s head. A wire trailed from it to behind Jake’s ear. She thought it was a different type of wire but it was attached to Jake in the same way as the other one.
To her right, Beryl saw Ian creep from a short hallway that must lead to the rear of the business. He stopped short of entering the kitchen, nodding at her once. He turned his attention to Jake and the almost invisible alien.
Then she heard a siren spinning up in the distance. Beryl wasn’t the only one startled by the sound. The undulating heatwave shifted and something grunted.
Beryl gave Jett a single nod. He got to work. She hoped they had enough time to do what needed to be done. She was surprised the alien hadn’t grabbed his ball and left the sandbox in a huff like last time. Perhaps he wasn’t finished doing whatever he intended to do. Perhaps they weren’t too late.
The siren was getting closer. Was it coming here? Surely there were not any security tripwires in this abandoned building.
“Ready,” Jett whispered.
“Strike now!” Beryl shouted.
Jett threw his missiles fast and hard, his arm rearing back and launching, over and over, striking the undulating heatwave with the small bundles they’d created at lunch. They struck the being’s head, neck, one shoulder, one forearm, one biceps, his belly, a few on his back and a couple on each thigh. And, as they planned, each packet stuck to the invisible being exactly where Jett hit his target.
Perfect. Her plan was working!
The being turned toward the brightly lit cube and Beryl thought he adjusted the buttons or the lights or maybe nothing.His movements were not completely clear even with the Operation Diabolical packets attached to his body, moving with him when he worked.
The wail of the siren was definitely headed here. Beryl hoped whoever showed up was not a human. If they were, they were not going to be allowed to remember this situation.
She glanced at Ian, who watched the scene with rapt attention. He’d definitely need a blast from a Defender. She made a mental note.
On the table, Jake groaned. His head lolled left, then right, as if he were in pain.
“Stop it!” Beryl shouted at the being. “Stop hurting him!”
Ian moved into the room. Before she could warn him away, he lifted his arms and pointed what looked like a weapon of some sort in the alien’s direction.
From somewhere at the front of the store, an official-sounding voice called out. Then there was the sound of running footsteps and the shaft of light from a flashlight shot into the kitchen area.
The being snatched the cube, tugged the cord from Jake’s head and turned toward Ian. Abruptly, it lunged at him. Ian cried out, clutching his chest. His weapon, whatever it was, fell to the floor as he staggered and fell, leaving the back hallway wide open for escape. The alien hesitated.
“Now?” Jett asked, excitedly.
“No. Wait until he gets outside.” Beryl moved to Jake’s side. He had stopped thrashing. She checked for a pulse—and could have fainted with relief. There it was, a strong one. Jake was alive. Unlike last time, however, he didn’t wake when the wire was removed. What had the being done to him?
“Beryl? Jett?” Sheriff Wyatt Campbell pushed through the swinging doors, flashlight in hand. “What are y’all doing in here?”
Beryl ignored the sheriff’s questions, watching as the alien, bundles stuck to his form, ran down the short hallway to the open back door. “Now! Do it now, Jett!”
Jett pulled the remote control they had fashioned out of his pocket and pushed the big green button in the center of it. From right outside the back door came an odd noise. She could have described it as the sound of a heavy cardboard paper tube, like the kind for wrapping paper, striking the top of a counter several times. Or possibly the sound of a bunch of water balloons bursting all at once. Or both.
Jett and Wyatt hurried to where Ian appeared to be out cold on the floor.
Wyatt felt for a pulse on Ian’s neck. “He’s alive.” He then moved quickly toward the back hallway. “What did you do? Did you just blow him up?”
“Of course not!” Beryl said. “We just made it more difficult for him to escape this time.”
Wyatt stopped at the open back door. “Great googly-moogly. Is that what I think it is?”
“That depends,” Jett said, sounding very proud of himself. “What do you think it is?”
