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- Herausgeber: Kevin Herrmann
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
Something strange is happening to Carter Fox during his first year of college. Paranormal visions of a floating black triangle haunt his dreams. The visions are intensifying, and a quirky pair of tech wizards may have the only clue as they investigate a mysterious alien signal. Together they uncover close encounters, suspicious figures, and a complex web of connection that is more fascinating and dangerous than they imagined.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
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Title Page
The Carter Project
▲▼▲
Kevin Herrmann
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 Kevin Herrmann
All rights reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the copyright holder.
Dedication
To Darcy
for wandering through the maze with me
To Joel, Brenda, & Webb
for the magnificent machines we built
THE CARTER PROJECT
Chapter 1
An icy sting pierced his head and paralyzed him with fear. His racing heart and rapid breathing amplified the terror. The unexpected blindness was made worse with the heightened sense that he was surrounded by silent observers.
A panel of light broke through the veil of darkness. A muffled, authoritative voice spoke instructions to the spectators.
Carter Fox was trapped in this shadowy prison. His face was pressed flat against one cheek, his arms numb from whatever bound him. He wanted to scream but had no control over his body. His will to cry out grew stronger with each attempt to wiggle loose from the bonds. The overwhelming pressure behind this psychosomatic dam finally burst as he overcame the restraints. His arms broke free and a guttural shriek escaped his throat.
This sudden outburst of waking from his nap attracted the attention of a few other students in the dim, auditorium-style classroom. After some snickering, they returned to madly typing on their laptops, or scratching ink in their notebooks as they followed the professor’s lecture.
The panel of light was a large projection screen up front that provided the primary illumination to the darkened room. A digital image of M.C. Escher’s Relativity artwork filled the screen. The labyrinthine maze of stairs and shifting perspectives had a nauseating effect on Carter’s groggy condition.
He awkwardly sank into his chair as his heart thumped with embarrassment. He wiped some drool from his chin and brushed against paper stuck to his cheek. He peeled it away and set it down. The professor droned on in his monotonous voice as Carter took quiet breaths to calm himself.
Then the noises started.
It began as a ripple of short buzzes at varied volumes. The clicking of keyboards around him melded together to sound like a train on a collision course with his brain. The professor was drowned out by a cacophony of stifled tones. A flurry of electronic sounds swirled between Carter’s ears.
He froze in his seat to avoid attracting attention. He kept his head still while his eyes darted around the room then locked onto the projection screen. The Escher image warped and distorted. Multiple colored wavelengths snaked across the whole display from edge to edge. Nobody else seemed to react to this.
An image rattled across Carter’s brain. He felt tiny particles scatter around his mind like shifting sand in a quake. A red afterimage of a triangular object burned through his vision and blocked his view. He lowered his gaze to his notebook. The triangle seemed to bleed onto the blank page. He waited for it to fade, but the retinal stain remained.
He grabbed his pen, then traced and scratched the image with crude, rapid strokes. The illusion faded from his view as he feverishly copied it to paper.
The glow in his eyes disappeared. His vision cleared. He slowly lowered his pen.
The page was blackened and dented with the violent sketch of a triangle. The center of the shape was untouched by Carter’s pen, which left a white clearing to shine through the black ink surrounding it.
The bizarre sounds went silent. Carter glanced up at the projection screen. There were no distortions or colored wavelengths anymore.
His heart slowed to a normal rhythm in deep, quiet breaths.
He looked at the image scrawled onto his notebook. The triangle screamed at him like a page ripped from a horror movie. He placed his hand on the paper. His palm and spread fingers obscured the sketch as if he was shielding his eyes from it, or holding it down to prevent it from flying away.
He felt apprehensive and cautious about the shape. Yet a nervous grin formed with the thought that crossed his mind.
It’s happening again.
Chapter 2
Carter slung his backpack over his shoulders and walked briskly across campus toward the library. It was a familiar part of his routine so he knew it took about four minutes to get there on foot. A ringing sound continued in his ear after the odd occurrence in class. He rubbed his head through his messy hair but that didn’t offer much relief. His slender frame blended into the sea of college students traversing the wide open spaces between buildings as they skated by or drowned out the world with headphones. The commotion was a faded blur around Carter as he kept his eyes downward at the triangle sketch tightly gripped in his hand.
His body collided into the glass library doors.
He bounced backward and recovered his footing, confused and flustered at the sudden crash. He looked around at the nearby students who took notice but hardly cared. Even though he barely left his class across campus, he was already in front of the library. He checked his watch. Four minutes had passed.
Missing time. Again.
He pulled open the door and entered.
The lobby entrance was a three-story tower of mostly windows. A main stairway ascended the edge of this large foyer in a rectangular spiral to reach the higher floors.
The first floor was a busy hub of student activity. It boasted a large commons area loaded with computer stations and study desks, most of which were occupied for a majority of the day by revolving waves of undergraduates. Small rooms for private meetings surrounded the perimeter of the commons. Each private room had a large window to see inside and show if it was occupied. Passing by them revealed varied groups of two to four people talking about joint projects or writing on wall-mounted marker boards.
Carter walked through the commons toward the back where some student services were located. He approached the tutoring services counter and greeted the student currently on duty.
“Hello there, Brenda,” he said cheerily as he glanced at her name tag. “I need some help—”
“If you didn’t save a copy of the file, I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do.” Her tone was friendly, but it sounded like the fifth time she had said that today.
“What are we talking about?” asked Carter.
“Were you on one of the computers that shorted out?”
“Luckily no, I just got here.”
“Oh. We had another rolling blackout. A bunch of computers lost whatever file was open when it happened.”
“Glad to hear I’m not the only one who doesn’t get along with computers.”
“What can I help you with?”
“Is Tina available?”
“Let’s see… it looks like she has a tutoring appointment with Joel next.”
“What a coincidence, because I’m Joel,” said Carter. “Which room do I go to?”
“Nice try,” she smiled, “but he’s taller than you. It looks like he hasn’t shown up yet, so you can probably say hi. She should be wrapping up her current session in a minute.”
“Thanks.”
He walked back the way he came on the opposite side of the commons and scanned each of the private rooms. He stopped when he saw a familiar face through one of the windows.
Tina Daniels sat at a small table across from a student who was taking a practice test. She nonchalantly scribbled in a notebook. Her auburn hair was mostly pulled back in a clip, but she brushed some strands behind her ear.
Carter smirked and lightly tapped on the window. She looked up to deflect the interruption. When she saw it was him, she raised her finger as if saying to wait.
He pressed his triangle sketch flat against the window.
She gasped.
The student looked at her in confusion, then at Carter. Tina quickly apologized and said that time was almost up. Carter grabbed a seat nearby and waited.
Before long, the student exited the room. Carter entered and sat down across from Tina.
“You don’t look like a Joel,” she said sarcastically.
“I know, I’m not tall enough. Let’s pretend I’m him for now.”
“Got your ID?”
Carter held up the triangle sketch. Tina took a deep, quiet breath.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Abstract? Post-modernism? Impressionist? I’m fuzzy on my art theory.”
“When did you draw it?”
“Today.”
“Is that the only one?”
He pulled a folder from his backpack and emptied its contents onto the table. Each page was a variation of the triangle sketch. Tina stared at the mess of papers on the table. She swallowed hard.
“When did you start?”
“About a week and a half ago or so.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Wanted to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. But it’s still happening.”
“Have you… seen anything?”
“Just this. Almost every dream.”
“So… same as last year, then?”
“Maybe. It feels a little different this time.”
“How?”
“Now I can teleport.”
Tina choked back a small burst of laughter. “That’s a relief, now I know you’re not serious.”
“It’s either that or time travel, but difficult to say for certain.”
“Why are you still joking? I got it.”
“Oh, you think so?” said Carter in mock defiance. “Maybe you’ll take me seriously after you see this.”
He placed his hands flat on the table, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He concentrated deeply. Tina watched him in silence for a few seconds as his muscles tensed.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to the third floor,” he strained while holding his breath.
Carter hadn’t moved. Tina slowly glanced at her watch, then at him. She was unimpressed.
He opened one eye to peek around the room. Once he confirmed he was still present with Tina, he blew a frustrated sigh and relaxed his body.
“Back so soon?” she joked.
He puffed for air, closed his eyes, and repeated the same action as before. Tina gave him a few more seconds this time as he tightened his muscles and held his breath once more.
“Do you mind re-shelving some books for me while you’re up there?”
Carter released his tension and panted. “Okay, so I don’t know how it’s happening yet. But I’ll be in one spot, and then abracadabra, somewhere else.”
“I think you need to say that out loud during the trick for it to work.”
“Say it for me, maybe that will be more helpful than just making fun.”
“I’m never saying that.”
“Alright, make up your own thing then, like ‘good golly goldfish.’”
“Not getting better.”
“If it were just a trick, then I’d know how I got from one place to the other, but I don’t.”
Tina was silent for a moment, then dropped any sense of sarcasm. She leaned forward on the table and showed concern with a slight tremble in her voice. “Like you’re blacking out?”
“Maybe? No. I don’t think I’m explaining it right. It’s like I’ll be walking along and then—”
A panting student popped in at the doorway. “Hi! Sorry I’m late.”
Tina was slightly startled by the interruption. “Yes! Hi. Um. That’s okay. We—”
“You must be Joel,” Carter deadpanned. “Glad you could make it. What are we studying today?”
Joel looked puzzled as he glanced between the two of them.
“Uh… Shakespeare. You?”
“Communications.” Carter gathered his drawings into a messy stack. “You’ll be working with the best here. Thanks for your help, Tina. I feel smarter already. Pizza later? Great.”
Carter exited the room.
Joel stood there awkwardly. “I like pizza. Pizza’s cool.”
Tina sighed. “Let’s get started.”
Joel took a seat at the table and unloaded his backpack. Tina stared out the doorway at Carter as he ascended the main stairs. She barely whispered to herself.
“It’s happening again.”
Chapter 3
Carter reached the third floor of the library. It was as large as the first floor, but significantly less occupied. He often found himself alone up here, which he preferred. This level was populated by numerous sections and rows of bookshelves and some study desks. Only a single computer was present for the main purpose of locating books. The far wall was all windows from the floor to the high ceiling which allowed plenty of natural daylight to brighten the silence.
He walked straight from the stairs through a main center aisle flanked by rows of tall bookshelves. His eyes were fixed on the triangle sketches in his hand. He turned into a familiar aisle and dragged his fingers across the books as he passed. He stopped his finger against one thick volume with the large letters “UFO” spread across the spine. Carter extracted the book from its perch.
He headed toward the far edge of the third floor where an assortment of tables faced out against the windows and provided an excellent view of the campus. Carter liked this vantage point. He felt like a hermit on a mountain overseeing the world below. The college was his ant farm as he watched specks of students scurry about.
He sat down and spread out his papers on the tabletop. The messy pile of crude drawings and sketches consisted of variations of the triangle. He stared at this collection as if trying to find a pattern, but didn’t know what to look for.
He raised his eyes from the drawings and surveyed the expanse of the campus. Restless nights caught up to him and he drifted into a trance. His head nodded as he fought off sleep.
His vision blurred. Sparks of static crackled through his mind. The bright daylight washed over him. The library faded away.
He found himself standing on a rooftop at night.
A bright light from above encompassed him. He shielded his eyes to look up at the source, but it was as futile as trying to see the sun. It didn’t matter. He already knew what was there.
A large triangle silently hovered over him. Its underside was glowing. A prism of light beamed down and encased Carter in its glorious illumination.
He lowered his hands and looked down. He clenched his fists then stretched his fingers outward. Something about this dream felt more real than the others.
Then it got violent.
The brightness increased. His arms involuntarily stretched out as if they were tugged by an unseen force. Every muscle flexed.
His feet left the ground as he slowly levitated. Quick bolts of electric current fired from the craft to his head. His own screams terrified him. An invisible vice squeezed his skull. A head-splitting, high-pitched tone pierced his cranium and drowned out his cries.
A range of grunts and shrieks burst from Carter as he frantically awoke from sleep, nearly falling out of his chair. He looked around to gain his bearings.
Still in the library. His sketches were sprawled out in front of him. He breathed a deep sigh of relief, happy to be awake, safe, and solitary.
“They say we are not alone,” said a voice next to Carter. He jumped and almost fell out of his chair again.
There stood Mister Seifer, the head librarian. He was in his sixties and capped with silver hair. His slightly overweight frame sagged as if he were weighed down with all the wisdom he had accumulated over the years. His jovial behavior with students showed he was eager to share his knowledge with each new generation of young minds.
Mister Seifer tapped his cane against the table. He lifted the front cover of the UFO book and peered inside. Then he nonchalantly examined Carter’s spread of artistic creations as if they were a regular assortment of essays.
“It seems last year’s habits are coming back to haunt you,” he said.
Carter cleared his throat and tried to shake off the intense dream. “Some say that high school is the best years of our lives,” he jested. “Maybe I’m just trying to relive it.”
“You almost did when you nearly repeated senior year,” chuckled Seifer. “That’s what happens when you doodle instead of doing homework. I’d hate to see you risk a similar thing here.”
“Lucky me, my old tutor and I ended up at the same college, so if I really need it—”
“I thought Tina helped you bury this habit.”
“It’s not a habit, it’s a happening.”
“What?”
“Nothing. Do you still substitute teach there?”
“Not as much. Been working on some new programs here. Keeping my focus closer to home, you could say. Besides, there’s been significantly less interesting characters there since you graduated.”
“If this is what makes me interesting, then I should probably keep it up.”
Seifer leaned back against the table and rested both hands on his cane in front of him. His tone turned heartfelt.
“What’s really going on here, Carter?”
“I’m not sure,” he shrugged, “but I feel like something special is happening, and I don’t want to risk losing it this time.”
Seifer looked out at the campus and sighed.
“You have a world of opportunity where you can truly become something special. If you let yourself be dominated by this daydreaming again, that’s what you’ll risk losing.”
Carter looked down to the floor. “You don’t think this is real? Or worth following? You don’t think there’s something out there?”
Seifer glanced at the UFO book on the table. He spoke slowly.
“Once you go down that road, it’s difficult to turn back. A person can be curious, obsessive, or paranoid. I don’t recommend any of them. Instead of looking for something up there, I advise focusing on what you have down here. And that will make the mantra even more meaningful.”
“What mantra?”
“That we are not alone.”
Tina approached them.
“Hi, Mister Seifer,” she said. “Didn’t know you were up here. I’m all done for the day.”
“I was paying a visit to Carter at his usual spot.” He patted Carter on the shoulder, then grabbed the UFO book. “I’ll go ahead and shelve this for you. Have a good afternoon.”
Mister Seifer walked away with the book tucked under his arm. Carter noticed that he didn’t return it to the shelf, but took it with him toward the stairs.
“I see you actually made it to the third floor.” Tina bit her lip to hold back a smile. “Are we teleporting to get pizza, too?”
“I kinda… dozed off. Didn’t have time to practice. So it looks like you’ll have to drive.”
“Of course, we can’t both fit on your bike. What were you and Seifer talking about?”
“Reminiscing on old times, I guess.”
“Did he see your drawings?”
“Yeah. But thankfully he didn’t take and shred them this time.”
Chapter 4
“I declare this land successfully conquered.” Carter crumpled a napkin and dropped it onto an empty pizza tray. He and Tina were surrounded by the murmur of other conversations, faint pop music from overhead speakers, and the savory smell of pizza.
“You’re very proud of your gluttony,” joked Tina.
“You sound like you’re still hungry. Should I order another one?”
“I ate enough for a normal person. You ate enough for three normal people.”
“As an act of pride for one of the greatest treasures this planet has to offer. Pizza will be our most valuable export to the galaxy someday.”
“If the best thing Earth has to offer is pizza, we’re doomed.”
“Name something better.”
“I don’t know. Water?”
“Nobody throws a water party.”
“Yeah? What do we know about parties?”
“They’re overrated. Probably. Unless there’s pizza.”
“Oh good. I feel better never getting invites now that I know they’re overrated.”
“We were just too cool for that.”
“Of course. I’m sure valedictorians are all known for being super cool.”
“I know at least one who is.”
Tina looked down at the table. She wasn’t sure if this is what blushing felt like. She wasn’t used to it. She looked back up and hoped it wasn’t noticeable.
“So what makes you super cool?” she asked.
“Being a planetary ambassador.”
“Who gave you that title?”
“It’s an honorary designation. Clearly I have the most documentation out of anyone we know.”
Tina paused for moment. “Documentation,” she considered. “You mean the same thing that any three-year-old could draw?”
“Hey, don’t mock those sketches. When they get displayed at the Smithsonian one day, you won’t be so quick to make fun.”
“And you’re sure you’re not just… imagining things?”
“I don’t think so,” said Carter with a serious tone. “I think I’m beginning to figure it out. It was never just doodles and daydreams. Especially after today. This was different. I think they’re being sent to me. Like a transmission.”
Tina put her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands, studying him. Carter couldn’t tell if she was anxious or embarrassed.
“A transmission,” she slowly repeated, “that’s making you draw things.”
“Now you’re catching on.”
“Okay then, where are they coming from? What do they mean?”
Carter shrugged. “Maybe they’re invitations. To a special party.”
“But… you only see them in your dreams. Nowhere else?”
“Just flashes in my head. I’ve never actually seen anything like that before.”
Tina sat back in her seat and uncomfortably looked away.
“I know you think this is insane,” he said, “but if I knew where they were coming from, wouldn’t I admit that? And I know this is what got my grades in a mess last year and maybe you’re worried that’ll happen again—”
“What made this one different?” she interrupted.
“What?”
“You said that especially today, this one was different. How?”
Carter held his breath, debating if he should mention the signals and sounds from today. Those had never happened before. Even thinking about it now, he wasn’t sure if he heard it again or was just replaying the sounds in his head. He sat back in his chair.
“Maybe you’re right,” he said. “Maybe this is a misfire in my brain and I’m going crazy.”
“Don’t say that. Ever,” she said. “You’re not crazy. You just… need someone to listen. Besides, if you’re crazy, I’m crazy.”
Carter chuckled. “So what makes you—”
The world froze around Carter.
Everything stopped. He saw Tina go still as a statue right in front of him. As he looked around, it was like the planet had been paused.
The whole pizza place blurred and vibrated, then dissolved into pixels. From the top down, it all disintegrated around him in digital blocks until everything was gone. Carter hopped out of his chair just as it crumbled and disappeared completely. The table was next. Even Tina melted and vanished.
When every last molecule had withered into dusty ground, Carter found himself alone, standing in the middle of a desert illuminated by the moon. Thousands of stars specked the black sky. Silhouettes of distant mountains surrounded the valley.
He repeatedly spun and looked in all directions. There was nothing for miles. He yelled out for Tina but made no sound.
There was a sting in his neck as if something pricked him. A light breeze turned into a strong wind. He looked up at the night sky and the countless stars.
A portion of the star canopy faded above him. It started from a central point and spread outward. The stars dissipated and left a gaping hole of black in the sky. An outline of hard edges appeared. The gap took shape and something materialized.
It was a triangle.
Carter turned to run until a powerful burst of light from above froze him in place. He struggled against it but he was locked in this familiar prism and slowly rose into the air.
Multicolored ribbons of light fired upward from the desert ground. Psychedelic wavelengths danced through the air like wiggling eels in the sea. A discord of reverberating, electronic wind chimes blasted in this kaleidoscopic rave. He fought to grab his skull when a spike of pain hit him.
In a flash, the world turned to pixels again and collapsed on itself. Carter dropped to hard ground. He rolled onto his side and coughed continuously. Breathless and dizzy, he got up to his feet and looked around.
The desert was gone. He was on a flat rooftop. The night sky here had considerably less stars. The smell of pizza wafted from nearby ventilation shafts. Carter clutched his chest and caught his breath.
“Carter?!”
He jumped at the sound of his name. He turned to see Tina standing near a maintenance ladder built into the edge of the roof. Her eyes and mouth were wide open.
Carter shrugged.
“Abracadabra?”
She remained stunned for a moment, but finally spoke.
“Good golly goldfish.”
Chapter 5
It wasn’t teleportation or time travel.
Carter sat in his usual spot on the third floor of the library. Some of his triangle drawings were spread out in front of him, joined by a few new additions to the collection — sketches of various squiggly lines which represented the wavelengths he had seen flashing through the desert hallucination. He drew them today while recollecting last night’s experience.
Sleepwalking was the only way to describe what happened at the pizza place, according to Tina. She explained that he had stopped talking mid-sentence, then nonchalantly and stiffly got up from his seat and walked outside.
She had followed him as he marched around to a back alley, unresponsive to her calling out to him. He had climbed up a ladder attached to the outside of the building, and she hesitantly pursued. Once she had gotten to the roof, she saw him standing in the center, staring up at the night sky. He then spread his arms out and tensed up, then grabbed his head as if undergoing some silent torture. Then it all stopped when Carter had dropped to the ground.
Carter described to her everything he had seen. Tina aggressively pressed him for more information, as if he might be hiding something from her. Though he had no explanation, he understood her stress at witnessing his odd behavior. At least there was some relief in being able to share this with someone.
He leaned back in his chair and stared out the large windows at the swarm of daytime campus activity below. Anyone walking by him in the library might have thought he was in a trance, but he was alone up here again, which is how he liked it.
Sleepwalking didn’t feel like an adequate diagnosis, especially since it had happened so abruptly while he was awake. But it was the only way to describe the missing time he had been experiencing. It made sense when paired with the restless nights where he was almost certain he had slept, but found himself exhausted in the mornings and throughout the day. That still didn’t explain the visions.
Staring out the window, Carter’s trance had his mind spinning like a hamster wheel, trying to brainstorm other possibilities. He felt helpless. This had been thrilling at first, but it was getting more intense. Now that someone else had seen what was happening to him, he didn’t know what to do about it.
Carter lost track of time while zoning out in the library. He had skipped his classes. The trance had his mind drifting toward sleep as his head nodded and bounced repeatedly to fight it off.
With each drooping head nod, the eerie signal noise from the desert came back and startled him. It was a scratchy, static sound with an electronic blip or two mixed in. He heard it as he drifted, and his conscious decision to pay attention to it caused him to wake again, thereby losing the sound. It was an agonizing cycle.
He heard a whisper of his name. He stood up and looked around the library. He must have gotten up too fast because he felt a slight dizziness and his stance faltered. A purplish blur fogged his vision. He steadied himself with his chair until the daze subsided.
Though his vision was fuzzy, he wandered through some aisles to walk it off. The blur remained in his eyes and he continued meandering as if following it. He heard more whispers and glanced between shelves as if the sound were hiding around some corner, but nobody was there. He no longer felt alone, but his examination of the aisles confirmed otherwise. The sleeplessness was taking its toll.
The whisper sound turned into a quick buzz. He found himself near the single computer on this floor. The screen flickered, then shorted out. He looked up and realized that the ceiling lights were off. It wasn’t noticeable at first because so much daylight came through the windows, but the power seemed to be out. He wondered if the entire library had another one of those outages.
Carter heard footsteps coming up the main stairway. He thought it might be a maintenance worker, but the person who emerged looked nothing like a qualified technician. It was another student about his own age. He had earbuds and wore large, reflective goggles strapped around his forehead. He awkwardly wore a backpack in front of his torso instead of on his back.
Carter remained unseen off to the side. He instinctively ducked down by the computer to stay out of sight, though he couldn’t explain to himself why.
The student smiled at the sight of the powered-off lights in the ceiling. He pulled the goggles down over his eyes. He spoke into the small built-in microphone on the wire of his earbuds.
“Mango to Foxtrot,” he whispered dramatically, “Operation Dishwasher is a go.”
Mango pressed his back against the end of a bookshelf. He quickly peeked around it to look down the aisle before ducking back, then darted across to the next shelf and hid against that one. He imitated some kind of spy theme music with his mouth. He repeatedly crouched low and performed clumsy combat rolls between shelves, which seemed to be the silly justification for wearing a backpack over his front. He continued with his own underscore of danger music during this wacky, tactical insanity, until he finally stopped and hunkered down in one spot.
“Mango to Foxtrot. No guys or gals. All clear.”
Moments later, Carter heard more steps coming up the stairs. Foxtrot emerged and strode past the aisles on a direct path. She was petite and had a braided pony tail of sandy blond hair that hung over the front of one shoulder. She wore thin-framed glasses, earbuds, and a backpack as properly intended. She casually scanned the area while keeping her stride.
Carter carefully moved to follow them through the room but stayed hidden. He could see Mango hiding in an aisle out of her sight. Foxtrot marched toward a metal door on the outer edge of this floor. She leaned her back against it, crossed her arms, and shook her head.
Mango was still sitting low in an aisle. He was so focused on staying hidden that he hadn’t seen her.
“Mango to Foxtrot, I have no visual on you. Proceed to rendezvous.”
He half-completed another side roll out of the aisle, then darted between bookshelves on his gallivanting path toward the door. As he rolled around the shelf closest to the door, he rose up to his feet and jumped with surprise when he saw Foxtrot already standing there. He spoke directly into his earbud mic again.
“Mango to Foxtrot, I have visual on you. Commence with—”
Foxtrot tugged down on his wires which yanked his earbuds out.
“Ow! Hey!” he said, rubbing his ears. He lifted up his goggles. “It’s like you’re not having any fun.”
She smiled and turned her attention to the handle on the metal door. After a second of fiddling with it using some tool, she opened it and walked through. Mango followed right after.
Carter emerged from his hiding spot and sprinted to the door. He barely stopped it from closing. The words ROOFTOP ACCESS were written on it.
An echo of footsteps came from within. He peeked inside and saw an enclosed, concrete stairwell. The duo was out of sight one level up. The sound of another door opening came from above, which brought a wash of sunlight into the stairwell.
Carter quietly ascended the stairs to a landing and rounded the corner. At the next level up, he saw a door that was left ajar. He crept up the stairs and entered through it into blinding daylight.
Chapter 6
Carter stood on the rooftop of the library. He paused with a shudder of discomfort as the visions replayed in his head. He looked up to see blue sky, puffy clouds, and the bright afternoon sun. There was no triangle above him, nor a paralyzing beam. He exhaled and grounded himself back in reality.
He scanned the rooftop. It was dotted with air conditioning machines and ventilation shafts. The surrounding perimeter had a four-foot high solid wall. The most prominent feature of the roof was a huge, old satellite dish, which looked like a mesh bowl with a large rod extending from its center.
Mango and Foxtrot tinkered with equipment under the dish. They pulled tools and wires from their backpacks. A nearby control box was open and they adjusted or replaced its parts. Mango jumped up into the mesh dish and reached for the long rod that protruded from the center. He made more adjustments to additional pieces of equipment that had been integrated into this obsolete mechanical dinosaur. The two worked together with synchronization and speed. This was clearly not the first time they had been up here.
Carter walked closer and stopped a few yards away.
“Is this for a school project,” he jested, “or are we getting 500 channels on every TV now?”
They jumped as if they had been caught stealing from the cookie jar.
“H-hey kid,” said Mango as he feigned an authoritative voice. “What are you doing up here, it’s not safe!”
“Kid?” said Carter. “We’re probably the same age. What are you doing up here?”
“We’re from the… satellite repair and fixing commission… board. Of operators.” He put his hands on his hips and tried to look official, but he looked more like a child doing a superhero pose. Foxtrot stood still and silent.
“Cool,” said Carter. “Is that who trained you to do combat rolls and hum your own spy music?”
Foxtrot put her palm to her face in embarrassment. Mango dropped the act and gathered their equipment.
“Look, man, we’re just doing some quick repairs up here for an experiment. It’s a lab thing… for extra credit. Yeah. So, no big deal. You might as well forget you saw us. Cool? We’ll just mosey along and bid each other adieu.”
They quickly headed to the stairwell door. Carter asked more questions as he followed them down but they weren’t responding. They all entered the third level of the library. As soon as that door latched behind them, they stopped in place. Mango looked up and noticed the lights.
“Power’s back on early. We’ll have to scrub the camera feeds anyway. Looks like we’re skipping class again.”
Foxtrot nodded, then frantically pointed in the direction of the main stairway. They heard voices and footsteps approaching.
“Look busy!” commanded Mango. Foxtrot scrambled into an aisle and grabbed a random book that she promptly pretended to skim through. Mango dashed over to the table next to Carter’s stuff. He pulled some notebooks out of his backpack and startled scribbling.
Carter walked toward his table and leaned against it. As he faced the main stairs, he saw Mister Seifer and a maintenance worker arrive. They were talking about the power outage. The worker split off toward the rooftop access door. Mister Seifer saw Carter and walked over to him. Carter tried not to look too obvious as he covered up his sketches.
“Hello, Carter. Another one of those rolling blackouts, it seems.”
“Yeah, just for a bit. Didn’t make much difference with the windows up here.”
“That’s good. We’re just checking on some security things.”
Carter looked up to the ceiling. For the first time, he noticed some small, black domes spread around.
“Never actually noticed the cameras before. Are they necessary?”
“Can’t be too careful these days. Gotta keep eyes on everything.”
The maintenance worker returned and confirmed that the electronic door lock for the roof was secure. Mister Seifer said goodbye to Carter, then he and the maintenance worker headed toward the main stairs. Foxtrot peeked out from her aisle to watch them leave. Mango looked over his shoulder to do the same.
“Coast is clear,” assured Carter. Mango exhaled and gathered his things.
“Nice meeting you,” he said. “You’ll be an honorary footnote in my mission briefing.” He slung his backpack on his shoulder, but stopped when his eye caught some of Carter’s drawings still visible on the table. Foxtrot joined him and sharply inhaled when she saw the sketches.
“What are these?” asked Mango.
“Oh, they’re just… drawings of stuff. Nothing important.”
“Try again. What are these?”
“I, uh…” Carter stammered. “They’re just… dreams I have. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”
Mango and Foxtrot looked at each other. He grinned at Carter.
“Have you seen the signal?”
Chapter 7
Carter accepted the invitation to follow the duo home without hesitation. He considered asking Tina to join him, but at a glance she wasn’t around the tutoring center, so he figured she was in class or otherwise busy. He unlocked his bike from a rack and walked with it alongside the curious pair. They lived within walking distance across a sprawling park between the college and their neighborhood. Carter had mindlessly cut through the park often on its bike path, but today’s traversal proved to be memorable.
Their names were Mondo and Fizzy. Carter didn’t believe those were their real names, but he opted not to question it. If they called themselves Mango and Foxtrot in the library, then that meant they were using code names to hide their code names, and Carter knew trying to unravel that any further would likely be futile.
Mondo and Fizzy started at the college last semester in the fall, same as Carter and Tina. They grew up as army brats, and their respective set of parents had served together as bridge builders in foreign countries. Fizzy’s parents tragically passed away in active duty, and she was adopted into Mondo’s family during middle school.
