No Future Christmas (12 page)

The Guardian moved some objects around on the table in front
of him.
“Look at these items.
This old badge is in perfect condition.
And what
kind of watch is that, you can’t even read the face.
It’s not digital.
Was that
your great grandfather’s too?”

“Yeah.
Can I have that back?” Mike wanted to wipe his hand
over the tabletop and gather back his uniform items.
The Guardian, not much
more than twenty years old, looked as if he still didn’t shave.
He rubbed the
shiny gold badge as if it were magic.

“Sorry, can’t give them back, they’re evidence.” He picked
up the epaulets and turned them over.
“Feel that material.
I’ve never felt anything
like it before.”

“It’s called cotton.
Don’t you have cotton nowadays?” Mike
asked.

The kid stared at Mike, his mouth open.
“What kind of a
question is that?
You know we don’t have cotton.
That was banished from use
over seventy years ago.”

“Why would the government banish cotton?
It’s a very
comfortable material.”

“Where’d you say you were from?” The Guardian looked at Mike
with suspicion.
He glanced at some paperwork that he’d printed out of the
computer he’d carried into the interrogation room.

That was something else Mike would have loved to
investigate.
The computers of the future.
Small, not more than six inches in
size and those were the ones he’d seen as he’d been hauled past the reception
desk, down the supersonic elevator and through the offices to this holding
cell.
The others, like the one Shauna had, were even smaller.
No more than two
inches, they had those incredible features like holographic keyboards and
viewing screens.
Mike shifted in his metal chair.
The room was cold and drafty.

“I didn’t say where I was from.
You boys haven’t given me a
chance.
Can I see Ms.
Wentworth?
Is she okay?” He changed the subject on
purpose.
He didn’t want to tell this child-like Guardian where he was from.
He
couldn’t.

“Ms.
Wentworth is not your concern.”

“Oh, yes she is.” Mike rose from his chair but the Guardian
pointed a long, round tube at him.
A yellow ray shot out and hit Mike in his
chest.
“Oh, God,” he groaned sinking back to the chair.
“What was that?”

“What do you mean, ‘What was that’?
Everyone knows what a
taser is.
And keep in mind, that was on the low setting.
Anymore funny answers
and I’ll up the level.
You sure say the strangest things, Forrester.”

“Yeah, well, that’s me.
A strange kind of guy.” Mike
couldn’t budge his hands.
A burning feeling throbbed where the taser had hit
him.
He wanted to escape, leave.
For a moment he wanted to go home.
But he
needed Shauna more and his concern for her rose after the Guardian brushed off
his question about her.

Was she safe?
He hoped so.
He knew he had fallen in love
with her.
Mike had no idea how any kind of a relationship would resolve itself,
he wasn’t even sure how Shauna really felt about him.
He knew she was attracted
to him but would she want a more permanent relationship?
And how would it work?
Would he stay here, in her time with her?
Or would she come to his time, a
century past.
There didn’t seem to be any way to resolve this and right now
wasn’t the time.

“Hey, Forrester!” The Guardian kicked him in the shin.
“Pay
attention.
I’m talking to you.”

Mike jerked and sucked in a breath.
He moaned but didn’t
speak.
The Guardian must have steel-toed boots on.
He wondered if his shin was
cracked.

“I said… I asked you a question.”

“What was it?” Mike croaked.
He tried to will the pain away
but a sharp stabbing still shot through his shin.

“I asked where you hid the papers on Wentworth’s parents.”

“I never hid any papers.”

“Where were you going when you fled the Guardians?” The kid
walked around Mike and stood behind him.

“I don’t know.”

A shove from behind had Mike pitching forward and falling
off the chair.
Without his hands to brace himself, he hit his forehead on the
hard concrete floor.
Pain shot through him, yellow, green and red colors
swirled in front of his eyes, faded to gray then all went black.

* * * * *

“Where are your parents?” a Guardian asked.

“They’re dead.” Shauna sat quietly in her cold metal chair
with her wrists restrained in front of her.
She knew the Guardians liked their
suspects to squirm and fight and she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

“You got a message from them a month and a half ago.
I’m
sure you’ve had more from them since that time.” The Guardian was in his
forties, experienced and had the markings of a cruel person on his face.
A scar
slanted down his right cheek, his mouth had a natural tendency to turn down at
the corners.

“That scar could have been fixed.
No one nowadays has marks
on their skin.
Is yours a badge of honor?” Shauna knew she was baiting the man
but she wouldn’t show fear to him.
She hated the Guardians and this man was a
leader of them.

He kicked the chair out from under her.
Shauna fell to the
floor, bruising her hip in the process.
She rolled to her side then pushed up
with her elbows.
After getting to her knees, the Guardian yanked her head back
by her hair, causing her eyes to well with tears.

“Don’t be a smart ass, lady.
You know the kind of damage I
can do to you.
No one will ever know what happened to you or your unlucky
friend.”

“How is Mike?” Shauna was desperate for news of him.
She
hoped he hadn’t given away who he was.
First, no one would believe him.
Her job
was top secret.
Second, any policeman from an outside country or a private
island was thought of as inferior by the all-powerful Guardians.
The hatred
between the old-style officers and the new was legendary.

Torture was accepted in this time.
And it’d been perfected
enough that now there was no way to avoid spilling your guts when they
administered one of their drugs.
Also, there was no residual left in the body
to be traced.
So the Guardians could lie and tell the public they didn’t
torture and drug their captives.
Of course, they weren’t called captives
either, they were “guests”.
Shauna snorted.

“What’s wrong with you?” The Guardian shoved her back in the
chair by the collar of her shirt.
She choked from the force of the tightened
collar.
“Ready to talk?
If not, I’m about to offer you some ‘talking juice’.
Those that’ve accepted it have sung its praises.”

Like anyone would accept truth serum.
“I’m sure they have.
Has anyone been on key?”

The Guardian growled.
“You don’t want to piss me off and I’m
this close to injecting you.” He held his fingers an inch apart.
“You are not
going to like it.”

“Oh, I get it,” Shauna said.
“You can’t give me your serum.
You’re under orders to get any information I have about my parents without
using drugs.
Well, it won’t happen.” She glared at the ugly man.

He stepped up to Shauna and pointed his finger at her.
Then
he pounded the tip of her nose with a thick, sausage-like digit.
“You have one
day to give me what I want, then I do things my way.
You will regret this bout
of defiance.”

Pain radiated through her nose.
Her eyes watered and she
sucked in a breath.
She was sure she would regret her defiance.
But she refused
to let this man see her fear.
Shauna stared him right in his cold, bloodshot
blue eyes.
Her lips formed a straight line.

“Have it your way, lady.” The Guardian swiveled and stormed
out of the room.

* * * * *

The bright red uniform of the medic hurt Mike’s eyes and
brought pain to his head.
The young man held a pink light to his eyes while he
probed his forehead.

“Ouch!
Do you have to press so hard?” Mike said.

“Sorry, sir.
Hold on a minute.” He turned and rummaged
through his medical bag.
Although it wasn’t made of leather like doctors’ bags
in his day.
It was made of some clear plastic and had compartments that slid
out when the Guardian touched the front of them.
He grabbed a gun-like device.
“Here.
This’ll make you feel better.”

“I don’t want—” The medic shot Mike on his arm with a puff
of air.
It didn’t hurt but he immediately felt a soothing feeling, a relaxing
of his muscles.
The pain in his forehead disappeared and he felt slightly
happy.
“Wow.
What type of magic is this?
I feel great!”

The medic stared at Mike for a minute.
“Why would you ask that?
Everyone knows about Pain Away.
It’s been around for almost a hundred years.”

Mike saw the man’s forehead wrinkle.
He was just a kid,
probably not more than nineteen.
“Say, where’d you get your training?”

The kid stared at him.
“What’s the matter with you?
You act
as if you’re not from this planet.
Anyone who wants to can sign up for medical
training in school.
After I graduated and joined the Guardians they gave me
advanced courses.
But that’s common knowledge.
Where’d you say you were from?”

Uh-oh.
Mike laughed.
This miracle puff was really fantastic.
“Just pulling your chain.”

“What?
What’s that mean?”

“Never mind.” Mike knew he’d better shut up or he’d get
himself in more trouble.

The medic stood up and now the shocking color of his uniform
didn’t bother Mike’s eyes.
“You’ll survive.” He turned and saw the items on the
table.
“Wow, look at these ancient police officer emblems.
Those yours?”

Is this some kind of a test?
The happy serum was thrumming
through his body and he didn’t have a care in the world.
Yet a deep instinct
told him to be careful.
“You interested in old police artifacts?”

“I sure am.
I come from a long line of Guardians.
I know our
history.” The kid ran his hand over Mike’s shiny gold badge.
He fingered the
epaulettes and reverently picked up the pin that said five years of service on
it.
“These are museum quality items.
Look at this watch.
How’d people read
them?” The kid stroked the band on the Rolex.

“Don’t know.” Mike decided noncommittal was the way to go.

“I wonder what it was like back then, in the Old West days.
I’m sure the stories of bank robbers and home invasions were exaggerated.”

“Look, I can get you tons of information about that time
period.
I have a…er…friend who has researched it.”

“Really?
I’d love that.”

“Rick, you done in there?” A gruff voice sounded over a
hidden speaker in the cell.

“Yeah, yeah.
The guest’ll live.
Hold on a minute.” Rick left
his medical bag of tricks on the table and walked out of the room.

The door didn’t close all the way and a sliver of yellow
light shone through the crack.
Feeling no pain and no fear, Mike went to
investigate.
The door opened silently into the pocket in the wall as he
approached.
Mike grabbed his gun and shoved it into his waistband.
He swiped
his badge, insignia, service pin, epaulettes and watch, stuffed them in his
pocket and walked out of the cell.

The hallways were silent and empty.
He glanced in the window
of each cell, realizing they were two-way windows.
A few doors down he found
Shauna, sitting in a chair with a thunderous look on her face.
No one was in
the room.