Emanuel pressed a button on his desk and a minute later the doors swung open, allowing a woman with a black leather bag to enter the room.
" What's in the bag?" William asked nervously as a woman opened the bag and took out a large syringe. " Aren't you supposed to get parental consent before administering medical treatment?"
" This isn't medical." Emanuel told him. " Roll up your sleeve."
As overwhelming as the desire to flee from the needle was, William worried more that is family would suffer for it if he didn't do what was asked of him. It seemed to take forever as he rolled the sleeve of his T-shirt up to his collarbone. Or maybe he just wanted to take forever.
Before he quite knew it, the woman, a nurse maybe, was looming over him. William caught his lower lip in his teeth to keep from crying out as the sharp needle jabbed into his upper arm. He didn't want to look, but something made him. Instead of a clear liquid, like he thought most of his inoculations had been, the contents of the syringe were cloudy, rust colored. It took a lot to keep from shuddering.
Whatever it was, it seemed to burn as it coursed through his veins. Or maybe that was only his imagination. After an eternity, the woman withdrew the needle from his flesh, and began to pack the syringe away.
Once the woman left, Emanuel fixed his gaze on William. "Let's try the pencil again, shall we?"
It was on the tip of William's tongue refuse out-right, but the recent threat against his family still rang in his ears, so he reluctantly nodded.
He pasted a look that he hoped conveyed concentration onto his face and stared at the pencil. It was red, not yellow liked the ones he used in school, both schools actually. He didn't really miss his old school much, but he keenly wished he was in his new school right then. There were supposed to be a holiday party at the end of the day to kick off the beginning of winter break, and the rumor was that sixth grade was the last grade that allowed parties. He was also starting to make friends. Did the people at school wonder where he and his brothers and father were?
All of a sudden he felt the pencil.
It didn't feel exactly like when he touched the pencil with his hand, but there was a similarity there. Startled, his mind released it before he could make it move. Resisting the urge to look at Emanuel, he decided not to try to move it.
After a couple of minutes Emanuel sighed. "Perhaps it takes time. We'll try this again in a few hours."
"Can I go back to my family now? William asked quickly.
"No. You'll see them at meals, but you'll be in your own room tonight."
"I don't want my own room."
"That is irrelevant." Emanuel told him. "I have something to show you now."
Emanuel lead him down a long corridor, which had fewer doors then the hallway in the living quarters. Eventually came to a door with a stained- glass insert. It might have been the world's only stained-glass depiction of UFO. It seemed like the sort of thing that would have given him an interesting Father's Day gift idea if he'd seen it anywhere else.
Emanuel didn't even give the glass panel a glance as he pulled the door open. Instead, the man's eyes were focused on something inside the room. Once Emanuel was out of the way, William could see what was.
Close to William's height, it dominated the center of the room. The first comparison his mind grabbed onto was that it reminded him of a lighthouse, but he decided he didn't really though it didn't bear the superficial resemblance. It was a pillar, wide enough around that he thought his hands might not meet if he hugged it. Not that he had any desire to. There was something at the top, like a glass shade, but not glass, at least not glass from this planet. It was smooth and red, but it pulsed weakly, like ripples in a puddle of oil during a rain shower. There was something terribly repellent about it.
"The beacon." He acknowledged.
"Yes."
"How does it work?" William asked.
"I'm not sure." Emanuel admitted.
"You don't know?! How you expect me to turn it on, if you don't even know how it works?"
"You'll know." Emanuel's voice was confident.