No Future Christmas (2 page)

“Mr.
Forrester is from another country.
He’s a police officer
and not affiliated with the Guardians.
No need to worry, Maxine.
You’re safe.”

Mike saw relief slacken the woman’s features and heard her
sigh.
“Well, if you’re all right, I’ll go back to my desk now.”

“I’m fine, Maxine and thank you.” Shauna ushered out the
woman and turned to Mike.
“Don’t ever do that again.”

Mike grinned.
“What?
Kiss you?
Lady, that was the most
fantastic kiss I’ve ever had.
I don’t know about you but I want to do it again.
Now.”

Shauna placed the desk between them.
“Sit down Mr.
Forrester.
I need to finish explaining some things about today’s world to you.
First, you might want to take off any identifying marks that make you look like
a police officer.
In today’s world they’re not thought of highly.
Actually,
they’re feared beyond anything else in the world.”

Mike could see she meant it.
He had forgotten he still wore
his uniform.
He’d finished his all-night shift and decided to pick up Scott’s
Christmas present on his way home.
Luckily for him the stores opened early and
stayed open late to accommodate the last minute shoppers.
He stripped off his
name tag, badge, anything that looked military and placed the items on Shauna’s
desk.
Then he unbuttoned his collar and pulled out his shirt tails.
“Better?”

“Much.
People are allowed to carry concealed weapons but no
one has seen a pistol like that in a century.
You might want to hide it under
your shirt.”

Mike complied and stuffed his pistol into his waistband.
“Okay, tell me what’s wrong with this world.” He sat on the corner of Shauna’s
desk on the side nearest to her chair.
He leaned forward giving her all of his
attention.

“Do you always sit so close to people?
It’s unsettling.”
Shauna shifted in her chair and leaned back as far as she could go.

Mike smiled.
He felt a little predatory toward this woman
but didn’t understand why.
“No.
Only you.” He reached out and touched Shauna’s
short, straight, spiky blonde hair.
“Soft.”

She pulled back but not before Mike saw her chest rise and
fall from his nearness.
“The Global Guardians are supposedly the protectors of
our society.
The world’s society.
Well, most of the world.
There are a few
smaller countries that still rely on their own police forces.
They’re
considered backward but I don’t think they are.
I think they have it better
than we do but no matter.” She rose to pace between the desk and the window.
She stopped, stared at the flying cars shooting by and turned back to him.
“They’re really more like storm troopers from the old
Star Wars
movie or
Gestapo from the ancient World War II days.

“In this century we have no government.
Four corporations
run the world.
Four corrupt CEOs.
The world is run by the communications
corporation I work for, a healthcare corporation that everyone is covered
under, one energy corporation and the Global Guardian Corporation.
I don’t know
why they’re called a corporation, because they’re really a military
organization but no one asked me for my opinion.”

“What happened to the politicians?” Mike asked.

“They were all voted out of office in the late twenty-first
century.”

“Every single one of them?” Mike couldn’t believe it.

“Every single one of them.
The world rebelled against them
after the failed war in the Middle East.
There had been too much bloodshed, too
much misery, too many mistakes.”

“So now there’s one police force for most of the world,”
Mike said.
“Isn’t that a monopoly?”

“The laws are different now.
The bigger the better.”

Mike thought about it and knew he didn’t like it.
“Why are
people terrified of these Global Guardians?”

“Because they enter our homes in the small hours of the
night and take away our loved ones.”

Mike’s head snapped up at tone of Shauna’s voice.
“Did that
happen to you?”

There was a knock on the door.
“Come in, Maxine.
She’s my
assistant.”

The woman had an odd look on her face.
“A message just came
for you on the computer.”

“Who’s it from?”

“Your parents,” Maxine said.

* * * * *

Shauna gasped and clutched her chest.
Mike saw the blood
rush from her face, leaving her chalky.
She sank into her chair.
“Impossible,”
she whispered.

Maxine handed the printout to Shauna, gave her a queer look
and left.
Shauna stared at the paper but Mike didn’t think she saw it.
He
walked around the desk took the slip of paper out of her hand and read it out
loud.

“We arnt ded.
We lv u.
Tkn by GG, ecpd, hdng.
2 clse.
No 2
mch.
Lk 4 r msg in hdng plc.
Only u wd no.
B sf, MD.”

“Is it some kind of code?” Mike asked.

Shauna didn’t respond.

“Shauna, what does it say?” Mike shook her to bring her out
of her stupor.

“What?
Oh.
It’s text script, texting, you know, like from
cell phone to cell phone.
It’s considered an old language.
It says, ‘We aren’t
dead.
We love you.
Taken by GG—that’s the Global Guardians—escaped, hiding.
Got
too close.
Know too much.
Look for our message in hiding place only you would
know.
Be safe.
Mom and Dad’.” She stared into space, a tear trickling down her
cheek.
“I thought they were dead.
I grieved.
I didn’t get to say goodbye or
tell them I love them.”

The sorrow Mike heard lanced his heart.
He pulled her up
from her chair and wrapped her in his arms.
“It’s okay.
Go ahead and cry.
We’ll
find your parents.” Mike pulled Shauna close to him and wrapped his arms around
her.
He marveled that she felt so right, fitted so well, as he soothed and
murmured to her.
This wasn’t the time to think about himself, it was time for
her to heal and regroup.

Mike knew when the tears stopped.
He heard her inhale
deeply, felt her straighten her spine and square her shoulders.
She stepped out
of his arms and once again Mike felt a sudden sense of loss.
Shauna opened her
mouth to say something when Maxine burst into the cubicle.

“Get out.
The Guardians are on their way.
They must have
monitored the computer.”

Shauna grabbed her time travel device.
She stuffed the note
in her pocket and raced out of the cubicle.
Mike was right behind her after he
grabbed his uniform items off Shauna’s desk.
They ran to the bank of elevators.
Mike saw the flashing numbers blur as one of the elevators flew up to their
floor.
The doors opened and Shauna shoved Mike inside.
She pressed a series of
numbers and the supersonic elevator fell so fast Mike felt his feet come off
the floor.
He grabbed a handhold just before his head hit the ceiling.
It felt
like his stomach reached his mouth and this time he did throw up.
With no time
to be embarrassed, Mike felt himself pulled out of the elevator the minute the
doors opened.
Wiping his arm across his mouth, Mike ran after Shauna.
She
grabbed a floating scooter with two seats on it and yelled, “Get on.
Hurry!”

Mike jumped on the back of the futuristic scooter—it looked
like a cross between a motorized bicycle and a kid’s scooter—and they shot down
the street.
Hovering no more than three feet above the ground they flew along
the narrow corridors squeezing in and out between other scooters.
Shauna cut
corners at a sharp angle and twice Mike almost fell off.
The wind blew in his
face causing his eyes to tear.
A man on a scooter flipped them off when Shauna
cut in front of him.

After a harrowing ride Shauna turned down another identical
street with identical buildings and settled the hover scooter on the ground.
She picked up the lightweight vehicle and carried it through the front door.
As
she pushed the button to the elevator Mike said, “If this thing is supersonic,
I’ll pass.
I need to rest after the last ride.” She grabbed his arm, dragged
him inside the elevator and jabbed her finger on the button for the twentieth
floor.

“It’s not supersonic.
It’s just a regular elevator in a
residential building.
Only the commercial buildings owned by the Fearsome
Foursome have supersonic elevators.”

“The Fearsome Foursome?” Mike asked.

“It’s the name we call the four CEOs.” The elevator rose and
the doors opened but this time they sounded like regular, twenty-first century
doors.
Shauna strode out carrying the scooter and headed down a long hallway.
About half way down she clicked a remote device and the door opened.
“Welcome
to my home.
Don’t get used to it, we won’t be here long.
I’m sure the Guardians
are already on their way.”

“Then why did we come here?” Mike looked around the one room
apartment.
A studio.
He saw a couch that probably turned into a bed, a small
kitchenette, one table and two chairs, made out of some kind of plastic and a
wall of electronics.
A television screen took up most of the wall but was
surrounded by niches with other devices stuffed inside them.

“You have one minute to take a shower and clean up.” She
pointed to a closed door.
“I’ll put some clothes just inside the door.
Hurry.”

Mike rushed into the bathroom and turned on the faucet.
It
seemed the future hadn’t figured out a better system, or maybe Shauna’s
building was old-fashioned.
He tore off his uniform and jumped into the
steaming shower.
He scrubbed himself clean and stepped out just as Shauna came
in to put some clothes on the closed toilet.

Desire filled her face and she licked her plump lips again.
He hardened right in front of her, then grabbed a towel to cover himself.

“Get dressed.
We’re out of time,” Shauna said.

Her eyes had been riveted to Mike’s hardness and he felt
himself blush for the first time ever.
“Fool, idiot, letch,” he muttered as he
pulled on the clothes.
Jeans, shirt, sweater, socks and work boots that fit
pretty well were donned in less than a minute.
Mike ran out of the bathroom
praying his body would settle down.
“I’m ready.”

“So I saw.
It doesn’t take much to arouse you, does it?”
Shauna didn’t wait for an answer.

“Give me a break, will you?” Mike complained as he followed
her.
“There’s something between us, you feel it too.”

She didn’t answer.
Shauna left the scooter in the apartment
as they took the elevator to the basement where she pointed another black
device at a flying car and the doors opened up, in a gull-wing configuration.
“Get in.”

Mike climbed in.
The vehicle was spacious inside and his
six-foot-two frame fit with room to spare.
“Where are we—”

The flying car shot out of the garage like a rock out of a
slingshot.
Mike’s head snapped back and hit a headrest, then snapped forward.
“Damn it.
Now I’ve got whiplash.”

“You’ll get used to the speed of things here.
If you need to
you can wrap that thong around your head.
It’ll keep you attached to the
headrest behind you.”

“No way.
I’m not strapping my head to the seat.
If you drove
better I wouldn’t have a stiff neck.”

Shauna punched a button and the car sped forward.
They
climbed over the tops of the buildings and she made a sweeping left turn.
“Quit
griping.
I need to think for a minute.”

“I see women drivers haven’t changed much in over one
hundred years,” Mike muttered.

“Watch it.
You’re treading on thin ice here, Forrester.
I
could eject you and you’d be very sorry for that remark.”