The Summer I Really Didn't Kidnap Lance Hardwood || ONC2024

Take 23 - AI AWOL and OMG Meet the Folks

There was a persistent knock on our door, at the same time the wake-up call rang at 6 a.m. I had a terrible crick in my neck from the position I'd slept in, but waking up with Derek's face in my lap was a great image to start the day with.

"You get the door, I'll get the phone," I said to him. That was my first mistake of the day. Derek threw on a robe.

"Hello?"

A nervous, strained voice said, "Mr. Fisk, there seems to have been an incident involving your car. Please come to the front desk at your earliest possible convenience. Preferably sooner than later. The police have some questions they'd like to ask you." And they hung up.

"You're not Lance!" my mother was saying. "Where's Lance?"

"Bonita, darling, give the nice young man a chance to introduce himself." My father stepped into the room and gave me one of his better hugs.

I finished belting the remaining robe just before she came gliding into the room. Have you ever seen someone glide in high heels? It's remarkable. "This isn't Lance, dear. He looks nothing at all like the Disney kid."

"No, Mom, this is Derek Steele, a USMC Rescue Ops..."

"I know who he is, but not what he looks like. Always nice to meet one of Derek's new friends," she said breathlessly.

"He's my boyfriend." Best make things perfectly clear. I glanced at Derek, who winked at me.

"Honestly, Pookie, it was so much easier when you were miserably single. Now I can't keep up! Stop it with the long face, I'm just kidding. What happened to Lance...'

"Bonita!" my Dad said, rather sharply. "To the point, my dear."

"Right! We're here for the car."

I took a deep breath. "Mom, I..."

"I know, I know that you've grown attached to it. Everyone in the project adores James, but it's very, very important that we return him to the lab."

"Why?" asked Derek, surprising all of us.

"An important checkup," answered my Dad. He hadn't hesitated one second when giving that reply.

Derek walked over to him. My Dad stands 5 feet 8 inches in shoes. Derek, at 6 feet, looked down at him. Not menacingly, just with a tiny bit of intimidation. "Derek, no." I couldn't help it - the words came of their own volition.

"A mechanical checkup, or a medical one? Or both?" Derek's cold tone vanished, to be replaced by sadness. "And you might as well admit that you both know who Luke Stoneridge was. He's dead, but he isn't. Somehow, he's James. And you're both operatives, aren't you? I can tell. How you've managed to keep Pete in the dark means you're among the best in the world."

Suddenly I could not stop laughing. Derek was serious. My parents, government operatives? Spies? Secret Agents? "You can't be serious?"

"Derek is right. Your mother is CIA. I used to be, until Trump came into power, and I returned to Great Britain's MI6. And I stayed. We'll discuss this later. Right now, we need your car."

They waited outside while we quickly changed into real clothes. I was in shock from finding out what my parents really did for a living. Wouldn't you be? We found them waiting with Nina and Scarlet, chatting away. Nina and my mother were complimenting each other on their outfits, and Dad was discussing quick-change disguises with Scarlet.

On ground level, I found two officers waiting for me. It seems both the car and the guards were missing, and there were bloodstains all over the garage floor. My parents exchanged harsh words and were made privy to all my San Fran escapades. They looked at me with a renewed sense of pride. At least, I think it was pride. It could have been judgement. Or anger. Derek nodded his head to the right.

The way to the stairs leading to the garage was clear. Nina was nowhere in sight, and Scarlett's head was poking out, her left arm madly signaling us. I checked that My parents and the SFPD were engrossed in conversation, and strolled – swiftly – over to the stairs, where I got a yank from Scarlett.

There was a section that had been yellow taped off, but no officers were in sight. No bodies, either. Which was troublesome. There was also blood. No minor scratches produced that volume of blood. "Why are we here?" Scarlett asked. "What are we looking for?"

"Anything," Derek said. "Anything at all. Something that fell, or dropped, left behind. And be quick. Cutting through red tape takes time, but they'll notice our absence soon enough." We shuffled our feet, we dusted walls with our hands, looked on the floors in a four-car radius. Then I remembered how, back in my jewelry-crafting days – a hobby I gave up on - I'd find tiny heishi beads that had rolled onto the floor. I placed the side of my head flat on the floor and closed my upper eye.

There, barely 1/8 of an inch thick and lying in the middle of a large blood stain, was an almost invisible 1-inch square, right where James had been parked. I removed my shoe and walked into the stain wearing socks. I peeled the square off, used the socks to cover the now-grey square, then wadded them up, putting one into each pants pocket. I put my shoes back on and had no sooner placed the metal square in my shirt pocket when my parents appeared.

"They had one task," my mother was saying, "and they couldn't even get that right!"

"Those men are probably dead or dying, Bonnie. Show some respect, please."

She sighed. "Show me our three trillion dollar morphing meteorite metal vehicle powered by the most unbelievable biotech AI breakthrough and I'll show them all the respect in the world!" She turned to me.

"Pookie, somehow you have fallen in with the wrong crowd. All charges against you, and your friends, will be erased."

"You mean 'dropped,' don't you?" Scarlet asked.

"She means 'erased', Miss Fever," my father clarified, "As in they never happened."

My Father approached me. He looked...different. More in control. A good match for my mother's fiery spirit. He placed his hand on my shoulder. "You found something, didn't you?" he whispered, and walked me a bit away from the group. "I know what it is. It's a cover that fits over a computer chip. James had instructions to detach and drop it, if he should ever be hijacked. Or should I say, Luke had instructions."

"How..." I began.

"That's a story for another day, son. That metal is what keeps him alive. It wraps around the chip that contains an exact biotech duplicate of his 3-D brain's neuron pathways. It's extraterrestrial in origin. Without this, James has maybe 5 hours before that human spark dies. But in 3 hours, that car he's in will stop working. That's your chance to take it back. I've got a car standing by, with another, armed unit ready to assist."

"Dad, what does Mom..."

"Mom doesn't know. Or if she does, she approves. Here's a tracking device for James. Before you ask, he knew it was there. He just couldn't tell you... Now, take your team and get going. I love you, son. And Derek's a good catch. He'll watch your back."

"We watch each other's backs," I said proudly. "Okay, y'all. Let's go!" I waved at Team Pete and made for the stairs. They followed, as I'd hoped they would. I heard my mother yell.

"Be careful, Pookie! You're in over your head, here!"

I had to yell back, "If you don't try to beat the odds, you never will!"