“A bit more heads up next time, OK? Man, I’m going to be kicking myself for a long time that I didn’t get that video. Of course, I also didn’t want a bullet in my butt either. So what’s the story? Have they been after you for a while now? Is that why you’ve been on the run?”
“Pull over right there. I know these roads. I need to drive.”
“Buddy, this is a 2019 Porsche 911 Turbo. I’m not happy that it probably has a few dings on it—”
William leaned forward and pointed. “If you don’t pull over right now, I’m going to puke all over your back seat.”
“Jesus, fine! OK! Hold it in, Linda Blair.”
Taking a long deep breath as the Porsche came to a sudden stop, William looked down at the girl. “Are you OK?”
She just turned to him, her eyes wide. Is she in shock? Did I just see you do what I thought you did?
“We’ll get you someplace safe,” William said, opening the door. The girl made a small whining sound and clamored after him. “You’ve gotta sit back here. Put on your seatbelt.”
He stepped out as the driver hustled around the hood, pointing to the back seat. “We’ve got to ditch that kid and get to the airport pronto. I called the Cessna on the way here. I can get us out of here fast.”
William began to slide in the driver’s seat when he looked over the field, seeing the helicopter hovering over the section where the Jeep was stranded. He jumped in, his foot on the brake, throwing the gear into drive.
“Whoa, dude! Gotta wait till I’m in the car! You can adjust the seat, OK, looks like you’ve got that handled. I guess you think they’re still coming for you?”
The car tore down the road, William glancing in the rearview mirror.
“I’m guessing by your expression that even you don’t know exactly who they are, right? I knew it, I knew it, I knew that’s why you’ve been hiding. Am I right? It’s all real. It is all real! And I saw it! Why did I not get out my phone? Me, the king of phones, and I didn’t even think to whip it out—”
“Were you joking that you have a plane at the airport?”
I can lose you there. Leave the girl outside in a crowd.
“No joke. You know I’m good for it.”
William looked in the rearview mirror again, catching a glimpse of Lily’s worried face. “How would I know that?”
“Well, at least there’s one person in America who doesn’t know who I am, no thanks to the photographers at LAX. Quincy Martin, Mr. Chance. Hey, what we saw back there is just another example of what the government can do, am I right? If they can pull off Roswell, they can cover this up easy. So what the hell happened? Why did they shoot that lady? I saw them dragging those bodies. Damn! Hiding your shot-up Jeep will be harder though, especially if the newsies get video of it—”
The man spoke like a machine gun, becoming more animated by the second. Mom and Dad will hear about the Jeep. They’ll panic. So will Nanna. I have to find a way to tell them that I’m not hurt.
He swallowed the bile in his throat, thinking of the dead woman. She could have a family too—
“We’ve got to ditch that kid, whoever she is. Once we get to the airport, she’s out. I told my board I came here to make a business deal, but there’s a whole lot more I’ve been wanting to talk to you about. We shouldn’t be too far, right?” Quincy held up his phone to look at the map on the screen. “Yeah, yeah. Left here—whoa, son. Can’t off-road in a Porsche. Ok, then we take this to that crappy frontage road. Then interstate, then airport—”
“Call 911,” William ordered.
“Listen, think about that—”
“A woman was shot and killed back there, and we saw them drag her body into the fields. Call the police.”
“Hey. Don’t you get it? We need to get out of here. They will cover this up. They’ll come up with some kind of story that you shot up your own Jeep, and given my personal history, they’ll drag me into it, and how we staged it all for publicity. We’ll be discredited, just like your grandma was….”
William’s temples pounded. If my family is waiting outside the trailer, I can’t risk them being anywhere near this. So follow me all you want, you bastards. I’ll drop off this girl and this crackpot somewhere safe, and you can chase me to the ends of the earth. But stay away from my family.
He looked over his shoulder and, as if right on cue, saw a helicopter in the distance do a complete 180 and head in their direction. As it flew over the center of the field, another quickly rose from the cotton to hover and turn towards them as well.
“Don’t sweat that,” Quincy said. “It’s not like this is an LA car chase. I doubt those TV helicopters are broadcasting this live.”
William looked back and forth from the road to the black helicopters, vacant of any of the bright call letters he’d seen on media vehicles his entire life.
“I don’t think those are from television.”
“Aw, man, you’re right!” Quincy whipped out his phone, shifting his weight to extend his arm over Lily to the back window. “I’ve paid more money than I care to admit to try to prove they exist. And it’s happening right now! Smile boys!”
“Use the phone to call police, not to record video!”
“Screw that man. I came to make a deal. I never expected to get to see proof of the freakin’ Men in Black! But there they are! It’s still so dark everyone on the ground will think they’re just cops.”
They aren’t cops. Cops don’t kill federal agents. Cops don’t drag bodies into fields.
All his life he’d heard the whispers. Had he and his grandmother been brainwashed by crazy conspiracy theorists? Or had some shadow government, in the form of men in black suits, really had him all that time?
He took another hard right to speed down Ripper Road. As they drove, William could see the media trucks still camped out around the trailer. While most remained unmoving, a single set of headlights barreled away from the horde towards them. Had one of the photographers caught on to what had happened?
“Lily,” William said. “Just hang on. I need people to know what happened to the woman who brought you here. Can you get into my backpack and get out my phone?”
“Dude, think long and hard about that one,” Quincy warned, trying to focus his phone.
William heard Lily fumble with the backpack on the floor, and a small hand squeezed past Quincy’s considerable stomach to deliver the cheap phone. William whispered a quick thanks and held it up, only to realize it was dead.
He reached back and snatched the phone out of Quincy’s hand.
“Hey, man!”
William tried to navigate the complicated screen. He’d never seen anything like it. It looked more of a tablet, with 3-D apps and several buttons on the sides.
“Careful with that, it’s a prototype,” Quincy said. “And don’t lose my video!”
“I just need to know how to make a call.”
“The icon is right there—the blinking app of the voice box. You’re gonna regret that 911 call. There’s going to be a recording of your voice that’s broadcast on every TV station and website in the world.”
Let there be a damn record of what I saw.
William dialed the three digits and immediately got a busy signal. He tried again, with the same result.
“Am I dialing this right? It’s just busy.”
“That phone has the latest hologram software that’s not even available anywhere yet. So yeah, it can make a call.”
“It’s constantly busy.”
“Are we too deep in the sticks? We’re on a frontage road. It shouldn’t be a problem. Look, it has bars. Maybe it’s a sign….”
William dialed again and the busy sound responded. “How can that be? I can even make a call from my crap phone at my house.”