Chapter Twenty-Seven
Beryl reluctantly entered through the side door to the Big Bang Truck Stop’s basement facility, headed for Cam Grey’s security office, where the brig was located.
She trudged along, dreading her meeting with Diesel, Wyatt and Jake, whose name was apparently really something else. A name she would likely never learn.
She’d run into Diesel and Wyatt on her way to see Jake at the hospital. They’d invited her to the meeting, but couldn’t tell her what it was about where they might be overheard. She understood and promised to be there. But that was before she’d found out Jake didn’t know her.
She would have to get used to that. Or not.
Actually, she didn’t have to get used to anything. He didn’t remember her. That might stay true. She shouldn’t count on him getting any memories of her back.
She felt another stab of pain to her heart and trudged on.
After she’d left his room, weeping uncontrollably like a big crybaby, she got hold of herself, drove home and called Wyatt in the hope of finding out more information.
She wasn’t surprised when he told her he wasn’t at liberty to tell her much, but he did confirm that Ian and Jake Jones were not human, and he and Diesel didn’t know her erstwhile boyfriend’s real name.
“It’s possible it will come up at this afternoon’s meeting with Diesel, but I wouldn’t count on it,” Wyatt said.
“I’m sure there is a supersecret chain of command that will insist that he and Ian not be identified for any reason, no matter what.
You know how those clandestine groups can be about secrecy. ”
“Yeah. I get it. Thanks anyway,” she said.
Before she could hang up, he said, “Also, not to be a whiner, but I really wish you and Jett had that antidote for your sticky glitter bomb madness. I’m going to be shedding glitter every hour of every day from the back of my cruiser for the rest of my natural life.
Honestly, I expect there will be globs of glitter in my coffin when I’m laid to rest.”
Beryl said, “We did come up with an antidote, we just didn’t test it yet.”
Wyatt sounded hopeful for the first time during their conversation. “So, what are the odds that it might work?”
Beryl didn’t want to make any promises but she felt confident enough to say, “In theory, I’d say there’s a fifty-fifty chance it works.”
Wyatt groaned. “That’s better than nothing, I guess.”
“We were going to run our formula by Mica and Gage, but my brother said Gage is out of town for a while on vacation.”
“Well, the notion that more great scientific minds have yet to weigh in at least gives me hope. While my twin toddlers think the backseat of daddy’s squad car is awesome, I disagree.”
That made Beryl laugh. “I promise, I will do my utmost to figure out the antidote for our sticky glitter creation.”
“I would be so grateful.”
Beryl was dealing with her own share of glitter, and she hadn’t even touched the being they’d bombed.
When she’d showered the night before, quite a lot of glitter circled the drain.
A second shower had done nothing to improve the situation.
She’d resigned herself to shedding glitter until they perfected the antidote.
Those fifty-fifty odds she’d given Wyatt didn’t seem so great now.
Overhead, she could faintly hear the ’80s music the truck stop always played. It somehow made her a little less grumpy. The song—the Scorpions’ No One Like You, one of her favorites—soothed her broken spirit.
She made her way to Cam’s security office and saw that Diesel and Wyatt had beat her there. There was no sign of Jake or Ian.
“You ready?” Diesel asked. She nodded.
He opened the door that led to the brig, and her eyes landed on Jake and his friend, who stood right outside the glitter-bombed alien’s cell.
The creature, completely coated in glitter, sat on a bench. The evidence that at least something had gone right for her gave her mood another lift.
It must have spotted her, because Glitter Being stood up.
He was over six feet tall, but not by much, and humanoid.
He was also no longer invisible. His skin, what little of it she could see beneath the glitter, was the color of old gravestones.
It looked leathery, with markings like an intricate snakeskin.
He had a predator’s body, with a lean and muscular form. His face looked like that of an angry gargoyle carved from granite into a cruel, ready-for-battle countenance. His expression was set to furious.
She did not feel sorry for him one single bit. In fact, a sense of satisfaction warmed her.
“Has he said anything?” Diesel asked as they approached.
Ian shook his head. “He said he wasn’t going to talk until Beryl got here.”
That perked her up. “What? Why me?”
The deep, grating tone of the alien filled the room. “Because you did this to me!” He gestured at his body, where twinkling bits of glitter clung to every crevice and surface of his skin.
“And I’m not sorry,” she said.
“You will be,” the being threatened. “Just you wait and see.”
Jake slammed his hand against the door of the cell, getting the being’s—and everyone else’s—attention. “Do not threaten her!”
“Why?” the being said. “You don’t remember her.” His laugh was grating, sinister.
“Stop!” Diesel said. “Let’s start with something simple. How about you tell us your name and where you’re from.”
“I am called Vanthex. I am from Nyzar, a dark, hidden planet located in what you call the Tri-Spiral Galaxy.”
“Did you steal memories from Alphas on Earth, sell them and blab our most coveted and protected secret to an entire solar system?” Diesel asked.
Beryl guessed the simple questions were over and the problematic ones had begun.
Vanthex did not immediately answer. His cruel expression did not change much. It seemed like he was thinking through his answer before he said, “I do not know what the word ‘blab’ is. However, if it means speak, then yes, I did.”
Vanthex didn’t sound like he was sorry, either.
Diesel rolled his eyes and looked like he was trying to control his anger before he spoke again. “Then you have violated our laws. And since you are from the Tri-Spiral Galaxy, you will be held accountable on Alpha-Prime.”
The being seemed unconcerned.
“Why did you do it?” Jake asked.
Vanthex stared at him. “I was bored. I also wanted the financial credits it would bring me.
My people were once great warriors, but that was a millennium ago.
They found a semblance of peaceful coexistence and stopped warring.
Our pursuits are more intellectual now, yet videos of all varieties are consumed like sustenance.
There is always a steady market for new ones.
“I heard from a reliable source that a place called Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy was easy prey for video extraction.”
“But you don’t mean videos,” Jake said. “You mean memories.”
Vanthex nodded, though it was clear he thought they were the same thing. “Yes. I suppose so.”
“Of all the vast places on Earth, how did you manage to come to Alienn, Arkansas?” Diesel asked.
“My source explained the best way to travel to Earth was via a ship from Alpha-Prime. Using standard camouflage to hide my exterior from others, I was easily able to make my way to your planet and your town. It was the only place on Earth the ship traveled to.”
Diesel nodded. Everyone knew that was true.
“Once I got to your planet and your town of Alienn, I used my very unique apparatus to extract videos from various people. It was quite simple. No one seemed to notice. There was not an immediate outcry from the citizens, so I continued.”
“But not all of the people were unsuspecting, were they?” Jake asked.
“True. And by then I had realized that there were different types of people in the town. My apparatus catalogs the organic structure of each individual that it comes in contact with. That was how I discovered the difference between Alphas and Earthlings.
“By then I had already extracted the memory of one Alpha’s arrival on Earth and sold it. I did not realize the significance of that memory until Jake Jones hunted me down.”
“Interesting,” Jake said. “Because I no longer have that memory, do I?”
“No, you do not.” Vanthex smiled.
Well, Beryl thought it was a smile. His expression still looked evil, but he seemed rather pleased with himself.
“Imagine my surprise when you found me. After I subdued you, I used my apparatus to remove the memory of you finding me, only to realize that your entire memory bank was captured during the procedure.” Vanthex sounded annoyed, as though he were the one inconvenienced by Jake losing his memories.
“I didn’t understand why at the time, not until I analyzed your organic structure and discovered that you are not pure Alpha. Your bloodline contains a significant fraction from a species that resides on the Ossuary Valerian Space Station.
“And instead of staying unconscious when I extracted your memories, you revived enough to break through the bonds I’d secured.
You leapt off the table, yanked the cord from your head and ran.
After I chased you through the woods, eventually you slowed down.
You collapsed on a road. Before I could pick you up, that van full of young humans arrived. I narrowly avoided being crushed!
“If I could have, I would have completed the ritual and returned your memories.”
“Liar,” Jake said.
“I do not lie! That is all I have been trying to do since you lost your memories. It is not my fault that I didn’t know you are not pure Alpha. I don’t know what you have to complain about. After a monumental effort on my part, I finally succeeded in returning your memories.”
Beryl started talking before she even realized she planned to. “But you didn’t return his memories, or at least not all of them, did you.”
Vanthex’s evil smile appeared again. “You are correct. I withheld several weeks’ worth of memory, starting with right before Jake Jones found me.”
“How did Jake find you?” Ian asked.
Vanthex kept his silence. Beryl thought he probably didn’t want to reveal what he must consider a big mistake.
Finally, he said, “I had gone back to Edgar Smithers to extract another memory but Jake was there. Somehow, he saw me and chased after me. It was later I learned that I had brushed up against something called wet paint.”
“How did everyone in town not see the big flashing cube you carried around for the extraction?” Beryl asked.
“I had a portable unit with built-in camouflage capabilities, but it was lost when Jake chased me. After that, I had to employ the larger base apparatus.”
“Why didn’t you give me all my memories back when you could?” Jake asked.
“If you want to know that, you’ll need to agree to a bargain.” Vanthex looked at Jake when he said it.
“A bargain?” Diesel said. “What kind of bargain?”
“In exchange for the return of all of Jake Jones’s memories, including our initial encounter, along with my gift to you of the unique mechanism that I’ve used to extract those memories, I demand two things.”
Diesel nodded at him to continue.
“First, I wish to be released and sent back to my own planet, where I vow never to violate this planet’s atmosphere ever again.”
Diesel’s eyes narrowed. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up on that score, but what’s your second demand?”
“Second, I demand that this dusty twinkling coating be removed from my person. It’s humiliating! I am a warrior from a long line of warriors stretching back more than a millennium. We are a predator species. And now my flesh twinkles like colored stars in the sky. It is not to be borne.”
“Too bad,” Beryl said. “The dusty twinkling coating is permanent, and I wouldn’t give you the antidote even if I had it, which I don’t.”
She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Jett walk in.
“What are you doing here?” Beryl asked.
Jett shrugged. “I got a call to come in and talk about the sticky glitter bomb we created, along with our possible antidote.”
“The antidote!” Vanthex shouted. “I knew it. I want it now!”
Diesel said, “Slow your roll, Vanthex. We have not agreed to your bargain.”
“But you will. Because not only do I have the rest of Jake’s memories, I know a secret that I discovered quite by accident.”
“What secret?” Jake asked.
“If I tell you, I lose my bargaining chip. Foolish man.”
“Then give us a hint.”
Vanthex pointed to Ian. “This man is not who he pretends to be.”
Ian chortled. “That is not a secret, given my line of work.” He and Jake smirked at each other and shook their heads.
“You are not the biological heir to the Montero birthright,” Vanthex said angrily. He promptly said something in an unfamiliar language that Beryl guessed was a swear word of some kind for giving away part of his bargaining chip.
Ian moved closer to the cell and said in a low, tight voice, “How can you possibly know that name?”
“I took a sample from you and ran it through my apparatus right before that obscene action was taken against my person. Clearly, there are many things that you do not know about yourself, but I do. And I will tell you, if my demands are met.” Vanthex sat back down on the bench in his cell, arms crossed, lips pressed tight to let them know he was no longer feeling cooperative or chatty.
Beryl watched as Ian processed what Vanthex had told him. She didn’t really understand what was going on, but Jake looked stunned. Must be some secret.
Diesel said, “Let’s adjourn to my office and have a conversation, shall we?”
Everyone filed out of the brig, leaving Mr. Sparkly Pants pouting in his jail cell.
Beryl thought, Good riddance! I hope you twinkle in shame for the rest of your days.