Cry For Tomorrow (24 page)

I hesitated, not sure if my timing was right or not, but I finally decided that it didn’t matter, I needed a few answers from Ben and I needed them tonight.

“Ben, I don’t really know how to say this,” I tried to read the expression on his face but there just wasn’t enough light. “I know you’re not who or what you led us to believe, and I really need some kind of explanation if I’m going to keep this information to myself.” He was quiet for so long that I had just about decided that he wasn’t going to explain himself. “Okay, look I—”

“No, wait,” he took my hand and drew me back to my rock. “I
want
to explain, I just don’t know where to start.”

“How about telling me why you were following me today?” I suggested hesitantly. “I know that must have been you in the library, and you were at the old mansion where you gave us the swords, and then you were back at the apartments helping us to get out ahead of the agents. You’re obviously
not
an old man, which means you’re a morph, right?”

“Yes, you’re right, of course. In fact, I’m surprised that I managed to fool you all for so long.” His words came in hesitant, embarrassed gasps at first, but grew stronger and surer as he went on. “I was sent to watch over your buddy, Carl, and in the process encountered the rest of you.” He tried to make eye contact with me in the low light. “You had no idea that the son-of-a-bitch had a whole communications system set-up in one of the third-floor apartments of your building, now, did you?”

“You are kidding, right?” I suddenly felt sick. How could I have been such a fool? “You mean that everything Carl did or said had only one objective, and that was to gather information from us and transmit it back to the Company?”

“It would seem so.” He lowered his voice, trying to be gentle—he knew I’d cared about Carl. “The man had absolutely no conscience and sold everything he gleaned to the highest bidder. Most of his clandestine meetings were to pass the information on—others, like today’s meeting in the library were, well, they were for personal reasons as well, just like you thought.”

When I remained silent he went on, “I was trying to gather some info on that new contact of his when I witnessed that little fiasco in the library. From the way you were all behaving, I knew something besides this business with Carl was wrong. I wasn’t far behind you when you ran from the library. I saw that you were all headed for home as fast as you could go which was great, until I spotted that agent following you. That worried me.”

“I’d already picked up a message about the bus being down and I knew you’d all be on foot, but you’re pretty sharp kids. I knew you’d take the shortest way home. I’ve got several
safe-houses
throughout the city, which are located on the most convenient or shortest routes to the building—just in case I ever need one. You were all headed for the short-cut that would take you right past my favorite. So I took a little short-cut of my own and waited for you with some old friends. I was worried about the recent influx of phantoms along your route. The only way I could come up with to help without exposing myself was to, well, give you some kind of weapons that might increase your chances of getting there alive.” He chuckled. “Old Duke and Charley had the time of their lives helping me out. From there, I headed back to the apartments so I could get there ahead of you and scope out the place for trouble.”

“Did you know the Company was coming for us?” I asked curiously.

“No, I didn’t have time to hook up with my people before all hell broke loose. Fact is, if your friend Rainor hadn’t shown up when he did, we’d all have been in a heap of trouble.”

“So, you think Rainor is legitimate, then?”

“I really don’t know what’s going on here, but I do know how to read people and I think that Rainor’s intentions are honorable. I’m not so sure about the people he’s working for. What I do know is that this is the first chance I’ve had to get information directly from a reliable source. This man is very determined to convince you and your friends to go with him, and he’s headed directly to his home base.” He gave me a look of real concern. “I really do hate to involve you kids, but I’m afraid that this is the only way. Right now, I think the best thing is for us to go along with him and just wait and see what happens.”

I shivered— maybe from the cold, or maybe it was the anxiety of dealing with everything going on. Ben took my cold hands in his and helped me up from the rock again and as he did so, he managed to press my body against the front of his—he was
so
not an old man!

“Now, how about if you try to get a little rest?” he said as he reluctantly released me.

“In the morning, I’ll ‘fess up to my real nature and identity so that everyone has an explanation for my sudden
revival
and you won’t have to go around trying to protect my identity anymore. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds good to me. I hate secrets.
” I sighed in relief as I straightened my rumbled shirt. “Thanks,” I added before heading back to camp and the hammock waiting for me.

Dusty’s persistent snarls of warning jerked me from the shallow sleep I’d finally fallen into.

“Easy, girl,” whispered Jennie from the other side of the tent.

“What in the world are they?” gasped Kelly. “Are they dangerous?”

“I don’t know, but I really don’t think I want to find out,” I answered as I reached for the dog’s collar to keep her for lunging for the small invader as it hopped within reach. Totally unafraid of us and the dog, it sat back on its hunches and wiggled long fuzzy ears at us. It might even have been cute, except for the two-inch long fangs at each side of its mouth and the sharp claws adorning the tiny paws. The creature had a leathery purple hide that sparkled with chips of light from the sprinkling of gem-like warts that covered its body.

“Don’t be afraid. It’s okay, girls,” assured Rainor’s whispered voice. “We call them sparkles, and they’re harmless.” He laughed softly when one of them pounced on a large bug scuttling across the ground between the hammocks. “Mostly, they eat insects and fruit—and suffer from an extreme case of curiosity. They’re as common on this world as squirrels on yours, and it’s not unknown for them to come snooping around a camp looking for handouts.”

Rainor took a step under the tent, as if intending to shoo the sparkles—and was pushed aside by the arrival of a creature the size of a St. Bernard. There was a
slurp
and its long tongue snaked out and snagged the nearest sparkle. It gulped and swallowed.

“
Ripppttt! Rippitt!”
the creature declared loudly as it innocently fluttered the long eye-lashes covering its huge, bulbous eyes at us expectantly.

“Ohh!
That was
sooo
disgusting!” wailed Kelly.

I felt my own stomach do a flip-flop, but then everything had to eat
something
.

“What
is
that thing?” I demanded of Rainor. “And tell me it does
not
eat people—or dogs!”
I pulled Dusty closer to me to keep her away from the new arrival.

“Good girl,” I reassured the dog. “Stay here.”

“Oh, I think we’re pretty safe.” Rainor laughed as he patted the large green and white spotted creature on the head. “They’re called froggs and they’re actually fairly intelligent, maybe on the level of your dog. Unfortunately, they do have a special appetite for the sparkles when they can catch one, but mostly they eat fish and bugs. Some folks let them stay around their homes or farms as pets and to keep some of the varmints down.” The frogg leaned close to Rainor and nudged his leg as if he knew him. “This one has been hanging around my camp for several months now.” He reached down and scratched its ugly head between the big eyes. “I named him Ralph.”

“Ralph?” laughed Kelly.

“Sure, why not?” Rainor grinned at her.

“Okay, Ralph it is,” I grinned back as I released the dog to investigate. Straightening up, I stretched and wandered from under the tent to study the pale golden sky overhead and the thick haze of clouds tumbling along ahead of a gentle breeze.

“Seeing as everyone is awake now, I guess we better get things together and get moving.” I carried my pack to a large rock at the edge of last night’s bonfire and began rummaging through it for the various toiletries I needed to make myself ready for the day.

“You’ll find a small stream and some privacy over behind that pair of boulders,” Rainor called as he began adding fuel to the coals in the fire-pit.

“Thanks.” I let my eyes wander across the camp, making brief eye-contact with Ben before following Kelly and Jennie to the sandy path Rainor had indicated. Behind me I heard the rattle of tarps and equipment as the men began breaking camp.

We returned a short while later to find a breakfast of hot coffee and the ever-present food bars waiting for us. The warmer temperatures of under-world had inspired us to change from our heavy, long-sleeved shirts to T-shirts and pack away our jackets, but we had nothing to replace the jeans. We hadn’t expected a sudden change in climate when we’d originally packed our bags.

“We’ll need to hit the trail as soon as possible if we’re going to reach White Rock City before dark,” Rainor declared before swallowing the last bite of the food bar he was chewing on.

“That sounds good to me, but,” drawled Ben. He took another swallow of his coffee before finishing his sentence, “it seems that I owe you all an explanation.” He proceeded to relate pretty much the same tale as he’d told me the night before, except for his opinions and insight into Rainor’s mission.

“So what you’re telling us is that you were tracking Carl all this time, trying to get a lead on his connections?” asked Jake incredulously.

“And this
old man
thing is a disguise and you are really how old?” Jennie looked at him like he’d just grown a second head.

“Well, let me answer the best I can. Yes, we did
acquire
a couple of Carl’s contacts and even gained some valuable information from them, and, twenty-four.” He grinned at us. “I’m twenty-four years old and, as Halie surmised, I’m a morph and able to change my appearance at will. However, the process is not instantaneous and it will take me a few days to regain my original good looks.”

There were several snickers but they quickly faded as we each considered all the implications of what Ben had just revealed.

“Okay, I have a couple of questions for you.” Rainor broke the awkward silence, his brow creased in a deep frown. “I would like to have a little better understanding of why you’ve chosen to come on this mission with us. Do you intend to sabotage it, or are you truly along for the sake of gathering legitimate information?”

Ben’s face got a very stern, serious look to it and he studied the Tereus agent for a long moment before replying. “It is crucial to the well-being of the population of both Tereus and Earth that I discover a course which will allow both worlds to continue to exist with the best possible quality of life for all.”

“I agree.” Rainor slipped his arms into the straps of his pack and turned in the direction of the path. “I think it’s time we got moving.” Taking hold of a second pack he had filled with supplies, he tossed it at the frogg. “Here Ralph, make yourself useful.”

I heard several surprised intakes of breath as the pack flew through the air toward the over-sized frog’s head. But instead of being struck by the heavy missile, Ralph’s big mouth popped open and he
gulped
, swallowing the pack.

“
Rrrippittt!”
he exclaimed as he hopped onto the trail behind Rainor.

“Why did you do that?” Kelly managed to get past her surprise.

Rainor laughed. “Sorry, I should have warned you. Froggs are frequently used to carry parcels and can even be instructed to a certain degree. They can be kind of handy when you need some extra supplies toted.”

We all cast doubtful looks his way but kept our comments to ourselves as we started moving along the trail.

Much to Kelly’s delight, the tide was out. Darting from one shallow puddle of seawater to the next, she began collecting handfuls of the colorful seashells scattered about in the wet sand.

I was relieved when the small inlet that had hosted the lovesick sea serpents the night before proved to be a mere trickle this morning and easily waded through. The gentle breeze, the calls of seabirds and the exotic beauty of the scenery surrounding us on all sides added to the ambiance of the day.

Deciding not to let my sister have all the fun, I rolled the legs of my jeans up in a vain attempt to keep them dry and waded into the shallow water. It was fun to feel the soft sand between my toes and the cool water lapping over my feet. The beach was covered in fine, silvery sand and it was easy enough to make our way around the clusters of rocks thrusting through the sand at irregular intervals.

The landward side of our trail continued to be strewn with mounds of the large purple boulders and small clumps of black-trunked, sharp-angled trees that were scattered between the mounds.

Noisy black and white sea gulls ignored the trail of people and went about their business of darting around from beach to ocean in their never-ending search for food. I couldn’t help laughing at some odd little birds that kept bobbing into sight. Flitting from the cover of the brush under the trees, they chattered to each other as they darted between the clusters of rocks, and I was seriously relieved that we hadn’t encountered any large animals or phantoms all morning.

“Hey, this is as much fun as a day at the beach at home,” laughed Kelly as she splashed to my side. “In fact, it’s better, ‘cause there are no other people to spoil all the fun.”

“Kelly’s right, I could get used to this,” agreed Jennie. “Now if there was just a little more sunlight, I could work on my tan.” She pulled the ends of her shirt up and tied it halter-style. “Sure is getting warm, though. Wish we’d known we were headed this way when we left the apartments, we could have brought clothes that were a little cooler.”

“How far do you think we’ve come?” asked Kelly. “Do you have any idea where he’s taking us?”