Sam
Sam clutched the pay phone, knuckles almost white. Al wasn't giving him any good news. "Okay, okay, well, Jake seems to be pretty good friend, is there any news on Marco when Jake disappears?"
Al nodded. "Yeah, it looks like Marco disappears too."
"What? Why didn't you tell me that before?"
Al shrugged. "We haven't been doing a lot of research on Marco, you know, what with him being missing and all."
Sam rubbed his forehead. "So, Jake and Marco both disappear at the same time? Are there any other notable disappearances around the same time?"
Al punched the handlink. "Yeah, actually there are. Two girls in the area go missing at the same time. Cassandra Jennings and Rachel Ber…Berenson."
"Berenson? Is she related to Jake?"
Al nodded, still looking at the handlink. "Cousins."
"I think I met them, Al. The girls, I mean. And Jake said there was some kind of meeting at Cassie's, I guess that's Cassandra. Do you have an address for her?"
"Lemme check, Sam. Yeah, here ya go." He recited the address. "What kind of meeting?"
Sam shook his head. "I don't know, he was really vague about it. Oh, hey can you look up a couple more names for me? I only have first names, but can you check if there's anyone at the school with these names?"
"Sure, Sam."
"Okay, first one is Tobias. According to Jake, he was looking for me, he was supposed to tell me about the meeting."
Al punched buttons. "Hmm, sorry, Sam, no one named Tobias at the school right now. There was a kid by that name enrolled last year."
"What happened? Did he disappear too?"
Al shook his head. "No, moved to New York."
"Oh, well I guess that's probably not him. Okay, how about Ax?"
"Ax? That's the kid's name?"
"According to Jake he called the meeting. I don't know if he goes to the school, though."
"Sorry, Sam, no one named Ax. Not that I'm surprised."
"Well, it was worth a try. Alright, I guess I'll go to this meeting and see what these kids are involved in. Maybe it'll help shed some light on this leap. You still have to get Marco back in the Waiting Room."
"Don't worry about that, Sam, we will. While I'm here, though, you wouldn't be able to shed any light on Ziggy's scanning systems malfunctioning would you? She was only able to get a partial lock on Marco's brain waves, and even once she got the lock, she couldn't pinpoint the right room."
"Hmm, it's possible someone in the complex has a similar wave makeup as Marco, and that's interfering."
"Oh, don't tell me that, Sam. I was hoping for something easy to fix. We'd have to let everyone out of the building just to verify that." Al waved a hand, dismissively, looking annoyed.
Sam shrugged. "Sorry, you asked."
"Not you, Sam," he said, looking distracted. "There's a fly in here going nuts." He swatted at the air again.
Sam couldn't help but chuckle. "Are you letting the place go to seed while I'm not there? We must have exterminators, right?"
"Being five floors underground is usually enough of a fly-deterrent. Anyway, I'll be back to check on you in a little while. You sure you'll be okay without me?"
"I've got this so far, Al. Just let me know if you get anymore information. And if you get Marco back, of course."
"Will do. Stay safe, Sam," he said before stepping through the Imaging Chamber door.
Standing on the front steps of the school, blinking in the afternoon sun while just-freed students streamed past him, Sam tried to determine his best course of action. He had Cassie's address, but no directions, and he still had no idea what to expect from this meeting. Going in blind probably wasn't the best idea, even if it was something totally innocent.
Looking around the schoolyard, he spotted Cassie across the way. He smiled at her, and started to walk over, but she just gave him another polite smile back and turned away, talking to a girl he didn't recognize.
Sam stopped walking. Maybe it was a different Cassie?
"Earth to Marco..." Jake's voice snapped Sam out of his thoughts, and he turned to see the boy standing next to him with a look of puzzled concern. "You okay?"
Sam gave him what he hoped was a reassuring grin. "Just enjoying the moment."
"Alright," Jake said, giving him a somewhat confused smile in return. "Think you can enjoy it on the way to Cassie's? If we don't get going soon we'll be late."
"Right," Sam said, hitching up his backpack and following Jake down the street. "You, uh, didn't get anymore info on why we're having this meeting, did you?"
Jake's smile reverted back to the grim look Sam had seen this morning. "No, I don't think even Tobias knows. We'll find out soon enough. So did you catch the game last night?"
The sudden topic change threw him for a moment. Sam didn't even know what sport they would be talking about. It was spring...baseball? "Uh, no, missed it."
"Really?" Jake asked looking honestly surprised.
Sam rolled his eyes. "Homework. I can't keep blowing it off." It was a shot in the dark but a likely one based on Marco's grades.
Jake nodded. "Tell me about it. Cassie said even Rachel's having some problems right now. I wouldn't recommend mentioning it to her though, she's a little touchy about it."
Sam couldn't think of anything to say to that. Rachel was a good student, then? Didn't sound like gang material...
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Hopefully he'd be getting answers soon. "So how was the game then?"
Marco
I officially had no idea what was going on. These guys had everything on us, names, addresses, and yet...I was the only one who had been captured so far?
Disappeared. Al had said the four of us, Jake, Cassie, Rachel and me, had disappeared. Or would disappear. With all the information they had on us, they had to be planning to kidnap the others. And we'd all disappear. Just a group of teenage runaways. Nothing particularly newsworthy.
I admit, I panicked. I was surprised Al didn't figure it out when he realized he was being stalked by a fly. I just had a sudden, urgent need to not be trapped in that tiny room.
If it was just a room. When he swatted me, for a split second I could have sworn I was back at school...
But that was the last thing I needed to worry about. The door to the room soon opened and I could make my escape. Where to was another question entirely.
Al had said the facility was five stories underground. I had no idea what floor the tiny room was on, and with fly eyes the elevator seemed to have way too many buttons. I needed to demorph anyway, I probably wasn't approaching the two hour limit yet, but without a watch I was going to err on the side of caution. I could demorph, get my bearings, and figure out the best way out of this joint.
I hopped out of the elevator on another random floor, this one looking even emptier than the last. There were a lot of offices, but most were dark and quiet. Even the hallway was only lit with emergency lighting. Was it the weekend or something? I didn't dwell on it long, the emptiness suited my needs just fine. I buzzed into the office at the end of the hall, this one looking somewhat larger than many of the others. It was dark, but I could make out a shape that looked like a desk, and flew under it to demorph. Empty or not, it was better not to demorph in full view of an open door.
The underside of the desk was smaller than it looked to a fly, and once I was human again I was twisted underneath it in a less than comfortable manner. Still, it was better than being a fly. Fortunately the white jumpsuit they had put me in was just tight enough to morph in. Running around a secret Yeerk complex naked would have been icing on the cake.
Holding my breath for a few seconds I listened for voices or footsteps, but there was nothing, just the sound of recycled air through a ventilation system. Al said they had teams sweeping the whole facility for me, but it seemed like they had done this floor already. Or maybe they hadn't gotten here yet. Either way, I had to be quick.
I pulled myself out from under the desk and looked around the office. The only light was from the hallway's emergency lighting filtering through the open door, but as far as I could tell it looked like a pretty standard office. Large, I guess, but I'm not really well-versed on office real estate appraisals. The desk I'd hid under was mostly bare, but I could tell it was a nice desk. Some type of fancy wood, mahogany maybe? A brass lamp sat on one corner and I tried the switch. It turned on, to my surprise, since I figured power had been cut to the whole floor. Although I still couldn't hear anyone, I crept over to the office door and closed it. No need for anyone to become curious about why there was a light on in the boss's office.
At least, I assumed it was the boss's office. Now with the light on, I could see a pretty nice chair sitting with the desk, and a matching mahogany bookshelf covering one wall. It was crammed with books, none of which looked smaller than the biology book that sadistic teacher makes us lug to class everyday. As bare as the desk was, the walls were just the opposite. There was a whiteboard on one that was filled with what I assumed were equations, but could just as easily been pictograms to my eyes. There were symbols and diagrams covering every inch of space, but mixed in was the occasional word in English, the odd letter or number that led me to believe the whiteboard had been filled by a human. The wall across from the whiteboard was filled with framed diplomas, at least a dozen of them.
And every single surface was dusty. The desk, the shelves, even the books looked like they hadn't been touched in months. Maybe years. I tried not to touch anything, as the last thing I needed was to leave evidence that I had been in here, especially if the military guys hadn't checked this floor yet.
I looked closer at the wall of degrees. I didn't read all of them, but I noticed more than one said 'Doctorate' and they all had the same name on them. Samuel Beckett. I was pretty sure I had never heard the name, but I was having trouble remembering my own name until a couple hours ago, so I wasn't sure how trustworthy I was.
A nameplate on the desk also read 'Dr. Samuel Beckett' so I figured this was probably his office. And he hadn't been here in awhile. A framed picture sat next to the nameplate, and I bent down to get a better look. The woman in the picture looked vaguely familiar, but the man hugging her looked even more familiar.
I stood up and looked back at the wall of diplomas, angling the desk lamp so I could see my reflection in the glass. It still wasn't mine. The guy looking back at me was the same guy in the picture. "Dr. Beckett, I presume?" I said to the empty office.
