Stone Soldiers 1: Mythical (8 page)

CHAPTER NINE

The Mall’s food court was bustling with activity- most of it younger people in their teens and twenties.

Mark at first was amazed by the number of restaurants available. But the longer he stood there, it started to seem familiar. Not this particular food court, but the idea. His memory was indeed returning.

While Josie and Jimmy went off to get dinner, Mark purchased a newspaper and sat down to read it. The front page was filled with depressing news. A war in the middle east. Rampant crime. And the current President embroiled in some kind of scandal involving a mistress.

Not much different from a newspaper in 1962.

Across the food court, Jimmy and Josie balanced their trays carefully as they walked back to Mark. They had purchased a lot of food. Five orders of fries. Several burgers. Two orders of chicken strips and three chicken sandwiches. And three thirty-two ounce soft drinks.

“What if he doesn't like any of this?” Jimmy asked.

“He’s bound to like something,” Josie said.

“Did we get enough?”

Josie frowned at Jimmy. “You have seen him, right? I'm pretty sure he could eat all of this.”

The duo finally reached Mark’s table- a square plastic thing with two pairs of seats on either side of the table. Josie slid in next to Mark- much to Jimmy’s dismay. Jimmy glumly sat across from Josie.

Mark folded his paper and set it down on the table.

“Anything ring a bell?” Josie asked, setting a burger, a chicken sandwich and fries in front of Mark.

“Lots of them. But it's all still hazy,” Mark said, eyeing the food suspiciously.

Josie helped Jimmy set out the rest of the food. She gave herself a set of chicken strips while Jimmy opted for a burger.

Josie pushed the fries closer to Mark. “You've had french fries before, right?”

“Yes,” Mark said, frowning. “We had french fries in 1962. And hamburgers.”

Jimmy pushed an order of chicken strips in front of Mark. “You didn't have chicken nuggets. They came out in the eighties.”

Josie laughed as she chewed on a piece of chicken herself. “Jimmy is a fast-food historian... Among other things.”

Mark eyed the deep fried chunks in their small, paper container suspiciously. He poked at them with his finger. They looked like fried chicken. But with no bones. “I'm not really hungry. I'd just like some water.”

“I think you're in shock,” Josie said. “You know, waking up in the 21st century. You need to eat something.”

“We've established I've been here before,” Mark reminded her. “In the present.”

Josie ate a fry. “Yeah- but you don't remember. It's like you get to discover things all over again.”

“Like who tried to kill you,” Jimmy pointed out.

Josie frowned at Jimmy, and picked up Mark’s drink. She moved it toward his face, trying to get him to try it. “I got you a Coke. I know those were big back then.”

Mark reluctantly took the drink and gave it a sip. He immediately made a face at the taste. “This is
not
how I remember it tasting.”

“Right!” Jimmy said, snapping his fingers. “They used to put sugar in coke.”

Jimmy then started unwrapping his burger.

“What do they put in it now?” Mark asked, a little worried.

Jimmy was about to take a bite of his burger, but stopped. “Corn syrup- it's cheaper. Oh, and they've changed the formula a few times over the years.”

Mark set down the drink as Jimmy took a large bite out of his burger. Mark clasped his hands together and tucked his chin down.

Jimmy and Josie immediately stopped chewing their own food.

“What's wrong?” Jimmy asked around a mouthful of food.

Mark looked up, first at Josie and Jimmy, noticing they were already eating.

“People don't say a blessing anymore?” Mark asked, surprised.

Josie almost choked on her food. “Not at the Mall!”

Mark frowned, and looked back down. Closing his eyes, he mumbled a quick blessing to himself.

Jimmy and Josie looked at each other, completely baffled.

Mark finally picked up a chicken strip and tried it. It tasted like fried chicken. Sort of.

Josie finished a mouthful of food and took a drink. “So what
was
familiar in the paper?”

Mark finished his taste of the chicken. He picked up a napkin and wiped his mouth. “Something about the Vice President coming to Arizona rang a bell.”

“What? Why's the V-P coming here?” Josie asked.

Jimmy kept eating, wolfing down his burger, then starting on his fries.

“Taking his family on a vacation, apparently. To get away from some scandal,” Mark responded.

Jimmy gulped down his fries excitedly. “That scandal is something! I mean, you get re-elected, then everyone finds out you were cheating on your sick wife... The President is a terrible person.”

Josie rolled her eyes. Politics was one of Jimmy’s favorite subjects. It bored her to death.

“Oh, come on, Jimmy. All politicians do stuff like that,” she said. They’d sure had this conversation before.

Jimmy gave her a smug look. “I bet Ronald Reagan didn't.”

Mark was about to try a french fry and stopped. “Reagan?”

Even though he didn’t like Mark, Jimmy was more than happy to talk about politics. “Right! Ronald Reagan, the actor from California.. Get this- he was President back in the 1980s!

“Bet you didn’t see that coming in 1962.”

Mark thought for a moment. “I think I remember meeting him in the Oval Office once... in the 1980s.”

Jimmy was impressed.

“Great! See, your memories are coming back!” Josie said quickly, before Jimmy could bombard Mark with questions about the White House. She really needed to take him to Washington some time.

Mark knew there was something there- about the current Vice President. If only he could recall it. “Let
’s stick to more modern times for now.”

“Okay...” Josie shrugged.

Jimmy pouted and resumed eating his fries.

“What can you tell me about the VP?” Mark asked Jimmy. “Anything special about him?”

Josie answered. “Other than it looks like he’ll be President Hill in a few months?”

“Other than-” Mark started to say. He then seemed to drift off, looking past Josie at something.

Josie and Jimmy turned and looked across the food court, wondering what Mark was gazing at. It was a dragon. A plastic dragon, hanging over the cash register of a Chinese takeout place on the food court. Glowing red, with yellow eyes.

Something about it was so very familiar to Mark. If only... The memories came flooding back. Mark’s face suddenly became very serious. He was wasting time sitting here in a mall.

Jimmy felt a little chill go up his spine. Mark’s normally pleasant, laid back eyes seemed angry now. Like he wanted to kill someone. It frightened Jimmy.

“What?” Jimmy asked. He wasn’t sure he wanted the answer.

Mark shifted his gaze back to Jimmy then Josie. He rubbed his eyes briefly as if he had a headache. His angry glare was gone, without Josie ever having noticed it.

“What is it? You okay?” she asked, putting a hand on Mark’s shoulder in concern.

“Had a flash,” Mark said, sitting up straight. He suddenly seemed older, stiffer. “My memory’s coming back.

“I remember why I was in Arizona.”

Josie rubbed Mark on the back, between the shoulder blades. “That’s great!”

Jimmy wasn’t sure which bothered him more- Mark’s
scary going-to-kill-you look or Josie rubbing all over him. Before Jimmy could decide, he felt a buzzing in his pocket. His phone was ringing.

Jimmy reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPhone. An incoming call from an unknown party.

“Hello?” Jimmy said after he put the phone to his ear.

“Uh, yes,” Jimmy said into the phone. “He is.”

Perplexed, Jimmy extended the phone to Mark. “It's for you...?”

Mark raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Pardon?”

Jimmy laughed nervously. “It's some guy. He says he needs to talk to you- the big guy with the flattop."

Mark looked at the slim cell phone, wondering how it worked.

Josie grabbed the phone and switched it to speaker mode, then laid it on the table.

“Hello?” A voice on the other end said. “Antaean, are you there?”

Josie looked to Mark, mouthing the word
An-tay-ann
questioningly.

Mark shrugged. The word did sound familiar. Very familiar. In fact, he was sure he’d heard it countless times. It suddenly came back to him.
He
was Antaean. It was his call sign.

“Yes, I'm here. Who is this?”

“This is Major Campbell....” the voice said. “Are we on speaker phone?”

Mark nodded his head affirmatively, “If that's what this is called- then yes.”

“I think we need to talk in private, sir.”

“You can talk in front of my friends,” Mark said. “Besides, I don't really know how this phone of
theirs works.”

“I don't think they have clearance for this, Colonel,” Major Campbell said in frustration.

Mark was surprised, and looked at Jimmy and Josie. “I’ve been promoted.”

“Sir, I have to insist-” Campbell started to say.

Mark cut him off. “Okay, so I'm a Colonel and you're a Major. So I guess I can ORDER you to start talking, right?”

“Uh, well, technically,” Campbell said, not sure how to take that. “What is your mission status, Colonel?”

“Confused.”

There was a long pause on the other end while Campbell tried to pick his words.

“I think you need to come in, Colonel,” Campbell finally suggested.

“To where?” Mark asked. He dimly remembered being a Colonel, but not getting promoted. He remembered his call sign, but not really
when
he got it. The past week was coming back, but there was still a large gap from 1962 to then.

“HQ. We need to debrief you,” Campbell explained.

“What if I want answers first?” Mark asked.

“I can't do that over an unsecured line, sir. And not in front of civilians.”

“And why I should you trust you?” Mark asked.

“Sir, time is critical in this matter,” Campbell said. “You've got to come in.”

Mark did not like not getting answers when he asked for them. “I haven't
got
to do anything.”

“Sir, let's not let this get out of hand,” Campbell pleaded. “There are a lot of innocent civilians there- including your companions.”

Mark had heard enough. He turned to Josie. “How do you hang this up?”

Josie grabbed the phone and ended the call. “What is it?” she asked Mark, handing the phone back to Jimmy.

Mark was definitely in a different mood. It reminded Josie of right before he’d kicked the redneck through the window back at that gas station. He just gave off a don’t-mess-with-me vibe.

Mark sipped his drink, staring straight ahead, past Jimmy, seemingly at nothing.

“Stay calm,” Mark said. He set his drink down slowly.

Mark’s eyes glanced at Josie quickly, then went straight back ahead. “We're surrounded. I can handle it.”

Jimmy turned his head around, looking quickly one way then the other. Josie was more calm, but also looked around. For the first time, she noticed at least a dozen men in dark suits, scattered around the food court at tables, watching them.

“What's going on?” Josie asked.

Mark looked over at her slowly. “They must want me to come in, really, really bad.”

“So why don't you, already?” Jimmy asked. He was scared, and it showed.

Before Mark could answer, Jimmy suddenly jerked in his seat. He sat up straight, back stiff. His eyes rolled up in his head. Then, just as quickly as it happened, Jimmy relaxed. His eyes normal again, he looked calmly at Mark. There was no trace of fear in his face or voice.

“Colonel, may we speak in private?” Jimmy said precisely. He was speaking differently, as if he were another person, but with Jimmy’s voice.

Josie didn’t like it. “Wha-?”

It was Mark’s turn to put a hand on Josie’s shoulder, to calm her. “Telepath,” he explained.

“Right?” he asked Jimmy.

“Yes, sir,” Jimmy answered. “Have the girl go with our men, please.”

Mark was angry. This was absolutely against protocol. “I don't think so.

“Isn't it still illegal to do this- take over someone's mind like that?”

Jimmy seemed confused for a moment. “I don't know what you mean...”

“I was there when the Yalu Accord was signed,” Mark said. “It's against the Geneva Convention to take over a noncombatant's mind against their will.”