No Future Christmas (11 page)

Shauna felt parched.
Her thigh quivered and moved closer to
Mike’s thigh, all on its own.
Her mouth opened and closed like a baby bird
waiting to be fed but no sound came out.
How could such a light stroke render
her speechless?
Make her body yearn?
She barely felt his touch, yet it seared
her to her soul.

And they were flying!
The wind under her craft, the
weightless feeling of being suspended by air, the sight of Mike’s hard,
chiseled jaw and determined tawny eyes combined with his sweet, musky scent
drove her insane.
She’d never felt so alive, so attracted to someone, so desperate.
The close quarters in the two-seat skycar didn’t help.
She coughed.
“Keep your
hands off me and on the controls.
This is life and death, Mike.
Flying can kill
you in a second.
You need to be aware of your surroundings at all times.”
There, that ought to dampen his raging desires, she thought.
But what about
hers?
Shauna shifted in her seat.

“All the more reason to take each moment as they come.”

Shauna groaned.
The man would find a way to turn the tables
and make flying a wildly sexing outing.

“Wanna join the mile high club with me?” Mike had a natural
ability with the skycar.
His hands were sure and steady on the controls.
The
little craft seemed to hum under his control.
It didn’t surprise Shauna that
he’d taken to flying with ease.

“No.
Besides, that was a myth from the twenty-first
century.”

“What?” Mike turned to face Shauna.
“Oh no, my beauty, it
wasn’t.
In the day of commercial jets, the biggest challenge was to make love
on an airplane full of passengers.
Most did it in the bathroom.
Some, right in
their seats under blankets.
I even heard that a few lucky airline workers did
it in the lower galley on the DC-10 airplane.
What I would have given to see
that,” Mike waggled his eyebrows.

The skycar flew straight and level.
“Make some right turns,
please.” She needed to change the subject.
The car smoothly eased to the right.
“Now left.” Each maneuver was executed with skill and grace.
“Okay, first
lesson over.
Let’s go home.”

“Don’t worry, my pretty.
One day we’ll join the mile high
club.
And I can promise you, it’ll be something you’ll never forget!”

Chapter Six

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do,” Shauna bit her lower
lip as she concentrated on the computer.
Her fingers flew over the keyboard.
“We’re going to check out a few more sites then take off for parts unknown.
Hopefully, we’ll know where the unknown is by the time we take off.”

Mike shook his head.
“I’m not sure if it’s good or bad but I
think I understood that sentence.
I’ll go and pack for the unknown.
Maybe we’ll
be able to use the cold weather clothing Winston gave us.”

“Uh huh.” Shauna hadn’t heard a word Mike said.
She didn’t
even know when he left the room.
“Come on…come on.
Show me where you’re hiding,
Mom and Dad.” She worked over the keyboard as she changed from site to site.
Anything that mentioned Subversives, SubCorp,
The Real Truth
or any
mention of discordant gatherings against the Fearsome Foursome might lead to
her parents.
She’d just left one site when a message flashed on her screen in
bright red letters.

GET OUT!
GET OUT!
THE GLOBAL GUARDIANS WILL PENETRATE
YOUR ISLAND IN THIRTY MINUTES.
M &D

“Oh my God.” Shauna jumped up from the computer.
“Mike!
Mike!
We need to leave.
Now!”

He came running down the hallway, bag in hand.
“What’s up?”

Shauna pointed to the screen on the computer, then raced out
of the room.
“I’m grabbing a few things, then we’re leaving.”

“Right behind you.” He turned to leave but then swiveled
back to the computer.
“Computer print out the last page, then delete.”

“Printing.
Job finished and deleted from computer.” Mike
grabbed the page from the printer slot in the computer and raced to the landing
pad for the skycar.

A cold nose nudged his hand.
Rover whined.
“You can’t go,
boy.
Stay here and protect the property.
We’ll come back to get you, I
promise.” Mike bent down and kissed the dog on his head then ran out of the
house.

Shauna was already inside the skycar warming up the tiny jet
engine.
The whine grew in pitch and intensity then steadied to a regular hum.
The passenger-side gull-wing door flew up and Mike entered, tossing his bag
into the back storage space.
Before the door had closed all the way, Shauna
taxied down the private runway.
The skycar gained speed and then shot into the
sky.

“Think we made it?” Mike asked as he looked at his watch.
For a minute he stared at it with unseeing eyes.

“What’s wrong with you?” Shauna asked.
“Why are you looking
at your watch like that?”

“It’s my twenty-first century watch.
I’m shocked it’s been
working properly.
I think this is the first time I’ve looked at it since I
traveled here with you.”

“Why wouldn’t it work?” Shauna circled the island.
“I don’t
see any green and whites.” She flew north toward the mainland.
“Skycar heading
6502, altitude thirty-three thousand feet.”

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t fit this time and place.”
Mike shook his head, baffled as he studied the silver and dark face of the
Rolex he’d splurged on the year before.
“So, if the Guardians aren’t following
us, then we made it out in time, right?”

“I hope so.
I also hope this rented skycar doesn’t have a
working GPS system.
We’ll find out soon enough.”

“I had the computer print the message then delete it.
You
okay with that?” Mike leaned back into the seat and glanced at Shauna.

“Perfect.
Thank you.
I didn’t think to do that.
When a
modern day computer deletes something from its data bank, it’s permanently
gone.
The computer manufacturers made that feature to prevent identity theft
years ago.

“We have to be careful when deleting items.
Most people
don’t delete for fear they’ll lose something important.” Shauna scanned the sky
for flashing red and blue lasers.
The Global Guardians still used the
intimidating red and blue colors from old police cars to pull over skycars and
ground them.
But now they were laser beams and instead of ancient bull horns, they
used internal speakers to tell you when to pull over and hover or land.

“So, somehow, your Mom and Dad were tracking your progress
on your search for them.
Why didn’t they just tell you where they are?
Isn’t
there some way to get an encrypted message to you?” Mike asked.

“Yes, we can encrypt messages nowadays.
But Mom and Dad may
be using someone else’s computer, or maybe they went to a World Starbucks to
use their computers.
If they did that the computer would have a tracer on it
but it would only tell the Guardians what time that the person was at that
specific Starbucks.
Maybe they modified a computer illegally and it doesn’t
have a tracking device on it.” Shauna stared at the clouds that hung below her.
She flew through crystal clear blue skies.
The downy white clouds dotted her
way like an arrow pointing toward the unknown.

They had been flying for twenty minutes and were nearing the
mainland when the internal speaker blared, “Skycar 54098, pull over and hover!”
Red and blue lasers swirled over the car, blurring the sky in front of them.

“Not on your life, buddy,” Shauna muttered.
“Hold on.”

Mike tightened his harness but Shauna had already floored
the vehicle and it banked sharply to the left.
Another skycar in the lane next
to them dived down to avoid a collision and honked his screech horn at her.

“Sorry.” She waved to the man who flipped her the bird.
“Fine, don’t accept an apology.” They descended to thirty-one thousand feet and
flew a zigzag course to avoid the red and blue lasers.

Mike scanned his rearview monitor to see where the Guardians
were.
“They’re gaining.” He searched the interior of the craft.

“What are you looking for?” Shauna studied the lane patterns
and the traffic to plan her next move.

“My weapon.” He loosened his harness, stretched over the
seatback and rummaged in his bag.
With a flourish he pulled out his pistol from
2004.
“Good.
I feel better now that I’m armed.”

“Oh, that’ll do you a lot of good.
The tasers the Guardians
carry are fast and lethal.
Your little six-shooter will puncture our skycar
causing a rapid decompression.
Want to go through that?
Also, your bullets
won’t hit their skycar.
They have protective shields on them.”

“Oh.” Mike stared forlornly at his pistol and stroked his
hand along the barrel.
“Well, maybe this baby will come in handy when we’re on
the ground.”

“This is your final warning, Skycar 54098.
Pull over and
hover, or we’ll shoot you down.”

“They wouldn’t,” Mike stated.

“Oh, they would.
Let’s give them a run for their money.” The
craft pitched forward into another descent but suddenly shot up and to the
right.
Skycars scattered across the sky.
Screech horns hollered throughout the
lanes.

Sharp white lasers covered the area they’d just been in.
Shauna flew the vehicle like a pro.
She did one-half Cuban eights and reverse
Cuban eights, then she did a Hammerhead stall.
“Follow that, creeps.”

They were now at a lower altitude than the Guardians and
following their green and white skycar.
The maneuvers caused a couple of
accidents and red medical skycars with a white Red Cross-type symbol flew up to
rescue the flyers.

“Do you have a destination in mind?” Mike croaked.

“You don’t have to sound so grumpy.” Shauna looked at Mike
and saw a green tinge to his face.
“Oh.
Sorry.
I’ll level out and let your
stomach settle.
Reach in the glove box.
There’s a package of anti-nausea pills.
They’ll help.”

“Thanks.” Mike fumbled in the glove box and found a smashed
box of pills.
“How’d you know they were here?”

“They’re required to be in every rental skycar in the world.
Those look a little stale but they should work.”

Mike popped the pills and washed it down with warm funny
water.
He felt the boost he always got and his stomach settled immediately.
“Great, thanks.
They sure work fast.”

“The twenty-second century aims to please.” Shauna glanced
at the screen that showed the rear view of the skycar.
“Except the Global
Guardians.
They only aim to arrest.
Diving.” The skycar pitched forward and
dropped fifteen thousand feet.

Mike pushed his hands forward to balance on the dashboard
but the harness snapped him back to the seatback.
“Goddamnit!
Now I’ve got
whiplash again.” He rubbed his neck.

“Better that than a jail cell.” They flew forward at sixteen
thousand feet.
“If we can just make it over those mountains, I think I can
ditch this buggy and we can hide.” She aimed the skycar at a dip between two
mountains.
“Come on…come on.”

The white laser hit the back windshield and it exploded.
Tiny shards of shrapnel covered the interior of the skycar.
Cold wind rushed
through the interior.
Luckily, they were at a low altitude and didn’t have a
rapid decompression.
Bright yellow oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and they
grabbed them.
A soothing mechanical woman’s voice said, “Oxygen required, take
mask, place over nose and mouth.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Shauna said as she grabbed the mask.
She
dipped the craft to a lower altitude where they didn’t have to breathe the
forced air.
She needed all the visibility she could get and the mask covered
too much of her face.

“Ten thousand feet,” the voice said.
“Oxygen off.” The masks
disappeared back into the ceiling.

“Good, now I can see again.” Shauna turned the skycar west
and they ran for a different hollow between the mountains.

Mike checked the rearview screen and said, “They’re right on
our tai—” A boom sounded and the skycar’s jet engine wound down.
“Shit.
We’re
hit.
They’ve forced us to land.” Mike tucked his revolver in his waistband and
grabbed all the rounds he’d brought with him from the twenty-first century.
“We’ll make it, Shauna.
I have faith.” He reached over to stroke her hand.
Shauna landed the skycar.

“Our prisons aren’t nice, Mike.” She shut down the broken
engine and turned to Mike.
“You didn’t need to be in this position.
I’m proud
of you.
You’ve taken this jump in time well, adapted and now you’re going to be
arrested, all because of me.” She leaned forward, kissed Mike then whispered,
“No one’s ever done anything like that for me before.
Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, love.
I’d do it again just to keep you
near.” He stroked her lips.

Desire flooded through Shauna.
She wet her lips leaving a
shiny wetness in its place.
Mike groaned.
“Don’t do that.
Not now.”

“Skycar 54098 passengers.
You’re under arrest for fleeing
from the Global Guardians.
Come out of the car with your hands clasped behind
your heads.”

They climbed out of the skycar.
Mike went first, then Shauna
followed.
“Just know that I’d do anything for you.
This isn’t how I’d planned
to spend the day with you today.” He gave her a cocky grin but his eyes were
serious.

The Global Guardians hauled them apart.
“Mike!
I’m sorry.”
Shauna struggled with the man who slapped a clear plastic restraint over her
wrists.
“Let me go, you big creep.
I’ve surrendered, for God’s sake.”

“It’s okay Shauna.
Really.” The Guardian shoved Mike
forward.
“Hey, I’m going already.” The plastic restraints automatically clicked
over Mike’s wrists and settled into a position that was firm but not too tight.

* * * * *

“Where’d you get this ancient weapon, Mr.
Forrester?” the
Global Guardian asked.
He turned the gun over in his hand, a look of awe on his
face.
“Did you steal it from the Smithsonian?”

Mike heaved a sigh.
“No, I didn’t steal it.
It was…my…my
great grandfather’s.” He sat slumped in a chair in an interrogation room off a
corridor in the basement of Global Guardian headquarters in New York City.
His
hands were cuffed in front of him.
If it hadn’t been so serious, Mike would
have loved checking out the futuristic restraint devices.
The three-inch wide
cuffs were shaped like an S where one side faced up and the other down.
There
wasn’t any play between the two parts so his hands were locked very close
together with no room for movement.