Sun handed the boy a steaming mug. “It’s breakfast tea,” she said. “That’s what English people like, right?”
Andy raised an eyebrow at his wife. “Way to stereotype the guy, Sun.”
“Just shut up and drink your coffee. I’m Vietnamese; you think I don’t deserve to get to do the stereotyping once in a while?”
“Point taken.” Andy turned his attention back to the boy. “So, Jerry, are you visiting Comic Con with friends?”
He shook his head. “I’m here alone.”
Sun looked sad. “Alone? You came all the way from England on your own?”
“Nobody else would come. I only have one good friend and he…well, things are complicated between us right now. It’s a ball ache.”
“Nice expression,” said Sun. “Hope it’s not literal.”
“So where did you get the drugs from?” Andy asked.
“From Batman.”
“You got your drugs from Batman?”
“Some guy dressed as Batman.”
Andy was confused and couldn’t think what question to ask next. The conversation had taken a turn towards the surreal.
Sun placed a hand on Andy’s neck and pinched tenderly. “Honey, I think he’s telling you that he got the drugs from someone at the convention in a batman costume. They all dress up to go to these things.”
“Oh,” said Andy. “I understand…sort of.”
“I’ve never done drugs before,” said Jerry, a weariness creeping into his voice. “I just thought, what the hell, you only live once.”
“That life can be very short,” said Sun. “Especially if you throw it away by abusing your body. Believe me. Before I was a vet I was a doctor. I know what drugs can do to young people.”
Jerry nodded in silence. He seemed to have sobered up a little in the last few minutes. Perhaps the tea was doing its job.
Maybe tea is like medicine to the English.
Gee, now who’s the one stereotyping, Andy?
Jerry looked up at Sun suddenly, a smile stretching his face. “Hey, you said that you’re a vet?”
Sun shrugged. “Yes.”
“And you’re from Vietnam, right?”
Andy shook his head and glared at the boy. “
Don’t
.”
Jerry let out a bellow of a laugh. “That makes you a Vietnam…a Vietnam…” he caught his breath. “A Vietnam vet. Ha!”
The boy collapsed back in his chair, cackling like an idiot.
Sun rolled her eyes at Andy and said, “I don’t think the drugs have quite worn off yet.”
“No shit,” said Andy. “Get this guy some more tea.”
There was another knock at the door.
Sun stared at the door. “Who could that be?”
Andy rubbed at his forehead, felt an ache. “Somebody from the hotel? Come to investigate the commotion that our little half-baked friend has been causing?”
“Well, go tell them that we have it under control.”
“I’m not sure they’ll buy that. It stinks of weed in here.”
The door knocked again.
“Just open it and see who it is.”
Andy put his hands up. “Okay, okay. Wow, you didn’t take long with the wifely nagging.”
“Oi! Watch it, Mister.”
Andy strolled over to the door and thought about what he would say regarding the fact he was harbouring a kid high on a supply purchased from Batman.
Maybe it will be best not to go with the truth.
He opened the door.
The sudden punch in Andy’s guts started out like a wasp sting but quickly bloomed to a full-on shotgun blast. His nerve endings went berserk. His muscles seized up and cramped. He hit the floor like a tipped-over ironing board.
But it was Sun’s startled screams that really hurt him.
“Who the hell are you?” Sun demanded. She sounded tough but Andy knew her well enough to detect the twang of fear in her voice.
Andy managed to crane his neck and see what was happening. Two men in black overalls and aviator shades were aiming yellow tazer guns at his wife and ordering her to get down on her knees. Reluctantly she was doing as she was told.
“Cuff her,” said one man to the other.
Andy watched impotently as the two men accosted his wife and shoved her arms behind her back.
Andy tried to speak but could not.
Sun…hold on. I’m…here…
“Hey, get your hands off her, dude.” The English stoner leapt up out of his seat. “That’s not how you treat a lady. Especially one from Italy.”
Jerry barrelled into the nearest attacker who was trying to cuff Sun. He sent the man reeling backwards into the room’s wooden breakfast table where he quickly flipped over it headfirst.
Andy tried to get up off the floor, to help his wife, but his body was still locked in rigor. His bones felt like they were made from iron and his joints had rusted over.
The remaining attacker zeroed his tazer gun on Jerry and squeezed the trigger. Just as he fired off a pair of electric barbs, Sun pushed up off her knees and tackled the man from the side. Her arms were behind her back but the impressive strength in her calf muscles was enough to knock the wind right out of the guy.
“Yeah!” Jerry shouted. “Chun Lee that dickhead.”
Sun glared at Jerry. “Chun Lee is Chinese. I am
not
Chinese.”
“I know. You’re Italian.”
Sun growled and kicked out at the man she had just shoulder tackled. She caught him under the chin and sent him flopping onto the floor beside Andy.
Lights out, buddy. I should have warned you not to mess with my wife.
Andy felt some movement return to his legs and managed to roll over onto his side. The man who Jerry had knocked over the breakfast table had recovered and was now marching towards Sun.
Jerry stepped into the man’s path. “Dude, you need to go book your own room. This one’s taken.”
The man threw a right hook and knocked Jerry cold.
Which left the man was face to face with Sun.
Andy struggled to get to his feet. He couldn’t stand idly by while another man attacked his wife.
Who the hell are these guys, anyway?
“You come near me and you’re going to lose some teeth,” Sun threatened, holding up her fists to her attacker.
The man just laughed at her. He reached behind his back and pulled out a menacing blade as sharp as his crocodilian grin. “I only have to bring you in alive, sweetheart, not necessarily intact.”
The threat was all the incentive Andy needed to regain control of his body. He clambered to his feet and took a step forward, ready to tear the other man apart.
Before he had chance to move again, somebody from behind grabbed him and spun him around. Andy raised his fist, ready to throw his best attempt at a haymaker.
But he stopped himself mid-swing.
“Agent Smith?”
“Hello, Andy.” Agent Smith peered into the hotel room and made eye-contact with the man holding the knife. “Agent Crouch, I hope you’re about to peel an apple, because if you have any other intentions for that knife it’s going to end up somewhere very unpleasant.”
Agent Crouch deflated, a sheepish look on his face. He put the knife back in its sheath and left the room in a hurry.
Sun turned around and spotted Agent Smith in the doorway. “Oh no, what is he doing here?”
Agent Smith entered the room and closed the door behind him. He placed both palms out in front of him in a gesture of peace. “Surely you must have known that we’d be seeing each other again someday. What happened at Samhain wasn’t the end. In fact it was just the beginning.”
Andy sighed. “You should make a movie of the week with clichés like that. Where’s Agent Jones?”
Agent Smith shifted uncomfortably for a moment before answering. “He’s retired and living with Agent Phillips in Hawaii. I was the best man at their wedding.”
Andy nodded. “Nice. So why are you here? And why are men barging into my hotel room and attacking my wife? It’s our goddamn honeymoon.”
Agent Smith looked down at the unconscious man on the floor, the one who Sun had kicked in the face. “Your wife seems able to hold her own. As for why I am here. Why do you think?”
Andy shrugged. “I have no clue. Samhain is gone. You nuked it into ashes.”
“Unfortunately the same cannot be said of its former inhabitants, but that’s beside the point. I need to take you in with me, both of you. Your expertise are once again needed.”
Andy huffed. “How about no.”
“Not an option. You’re coming with me one way or another.”
Andy looked down at the unconscious man. “You already tried the hard way, so what are you going to do next? This time you don’t have anything to blackmail me with. My debts were wiped clean with the IRS.”
“I’m going to try the easy way, Andrew. I’m going to appeal to your better nature. Dr Belgium has asked us to come find you. He needs your help.”
Andy’s eyes narrowed.
Frank? What has he gotten involved with? When did I last speak to him? Six months ago? A year?
“Is Frank okay?” Sun moved up beside Andy.
Agent Smith averted his gaze so that it fell across his highly-polished Oxfords. “I think it would be best if you spoke to him yourself. All I can say is that he’s at one of our facilities and he needs you to join him. He would have contacted you himself but I’m afraid there’s no outgoing communications from where he is operating. He’s in trouble, Mr and Mrs Dennison, and he needs your help.”
Andy turned and looked at Sun. “This guy is full of it,” he said.
“You’re probably right.” She rubbed at her forehead. “But what if he’s not. Frank…”
Andy cursed under his breath and glared at Agent Smith. “This better be important or you’re paying for my honeymoon. Twice over.”
“Mr Dennison,” Agent Smith looked him square in the eye, “if you don’t help us, there won’t be any more honeymoons—for anyone.”
Before Andy and Sun even knew what was happening, they were being corralled into a helicopter idling on the hotel’s lawn. Several spectators, both hotel staff and guests, stood around gawping at the spectacle.
The Government obviously doesn’t do
clandestine
anymore.
As Andy and Sun strapped themselves into their seats, they saw someone being dragged across the lawn by two black-clad soldiers.
“What the hell?” Andy shook his head in confusion and leaned out the helicopter’s side-door. Agent Smith was standing nearby, writing something down on a clipboard. “Why are you bringing the English kid along?”
Agent Smith looked up from his clipboard. “I take it you mean, Jeremy Preston, currently wanted by the United Kingdom for major theft.”
Andy frowned. “Major theft. Kid doesn’t really seem the type to me. He’s a few a few brain cells short of being a master criminal.”
“Regardless, he’s seen too much. He’s coming.”
“Just let the kid go. He’s so whacked out on drugs that he won’t even remember once he sobers up. He’s just some troubled teenager trying to have a good time.”
Agent Smith shook his head slowly. “He’s coming. We’ll deal with him when we get to where we’re going. He’ll have to be deported back to the UK at the very least.”
Andy blew air into his cheeks and let it out. “Your call, but I think he’s going to end up being more trouble than he’s worth.”
“I can handle a delinquent, Mr Dennison. You just worry about Dr Belgium and how he needs your help.”
Andy sighed.
Five minutes later, a pale and unconscious Jerry was secured in a seat right beside Sun and Andy. The rotor blades started spinning. A feeling of weightlessness heralded the beginning of the flight and before long the chopper was a hundred feet above the ground, zipping away at eighty miles an hour. Andy watched the ground whiz by beneath them and accepted that his honeymoon was officially over.
“Don’t worry,” said Sun, obviously sensing his regret. “We never really were the relaxing type anyway. This is far more
us
.”
Andy laughed bitterly. “You think?”
Sun leaned up against him and rubbed his thigh. “Don’t worry. I’m still going to find some time to get you alone, my sexy man.”
Andy felt himself arouse at the suggestion, but found a frown fall upon his face. “Sun, I love you with all my soul, but I can’t help but worry that this isn’t going to end well. After last time…”
“Well, whatever happens, we’re married, we’re together. How bad can it be?”
Andy stared out of the window as the city of San Diego gave way to lonely countryside. Sagebrush and tumbleweeds dotted the landscape and the Laguna Mountains loomed in the distance.
“It could be as bad as last time,” Andy said. “That’s how bad it could be.”
“Nothing can be as bad as last time.”
Andy pressed his forehead against the window and closed his eyes. “We’ll see.”
• • •
The chopper followed along the coastline but headed inland after about two hours. Andy didn’t know this part of the country well enough, but he considered that they might be heading over palm valley towards Constitution 1857 National Park.
Last time it was the desert, this time it’s the wilderness. I don’t like where this is heading.
I don’t like where
we’re
heading…
The chopper began its descent and Agent Smith, sitting up front with the pilot, muttered something into the mic attached to his headset. Obviously somebody down below was expecting them.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” said Sun, peering out of the window at the thick tree canopy below.
Jerry snored loudly from where he was sprawled out on one of the seats.
“The Government likes its privacy,” Andy responded. “We already know that.”
“I’d just love to be taken to some air-conditioned office building for a change, you know? The whole black ops thing should have ended with the cold war.
“The cold war never ended, it just changed. Now instead of the Russians, it’s the US Government versus the people. The less we know the better, as far as they’re concerned.”
Sun sighed. “I wish I knew less than I did. The things you and I have seen…”
Andy stared out the window at the approaching treetops and thought about the events of the last few years. He thought about Race, Father Thrist, and Rabi Shotzen. He too, like his wife, wished he could erase certain knowledge, certain memories from his brain.