Page 3 of Vapor
He nods and starts walking the way the boys went. “The As aren’t, or they don’t remember. They’re the oldest. The others were on islands or sold. Their President, Alder, Badass and FBI went around the world and rescued them.”
I don’t think I should ask. We heard it was classified but I never heard about FBI in there. CIA gets into more shit but our Specter Teams were too hot and dangerous for them to infiltrate. We’d have erased them one by one and they know it. “How do you all fly?”
He gives a quick bark of laughter. “I wondered when you’d ask. The suits or flight gear is made by Copper, Stella and the Alpha-Bits. That’s ol’ ladies and the grown kids. Everyone I meet here is impressive.”
“Flight suits,” I say hoping he’ll explain that better.
His smile has my breath catching. “You’re a Night Stalker, you’ve seen flight suits. You have another symbol. Is it glow ink?” He doesn’t seem to care about classified but damn.
I point at his suit stalling for time. “Not like that.”
He nods, opening the door to an old-fashioned ice cream shop. “The other symbol?” The JAG isn’t letting this go.
The tiny boy waves. “Specter Team, classify. Bar line report not show job, Pres Alder say he get Marco on it read encrypt.” I’m glad they got redacted reports but still.
My feet stall. “No one should be reading those reports. Night Stalker has reports.” Oh my God. My eyes close. Anyone spreading classified can get scores of people killed by talking about them. This isn’t a movie, it’s real life, even if it looks like a set.
“Sit, we’ll clean this and forget about the other symbol. Night Stalkers are classified too, little Brothers. We’re all cleared to know that but this probably isn’t a place to talk about it.” Julius the JAG is cool.
I nod and sit, noticing we’re the only ones in here. This place is right out of the fifties. “I bet the Fonz would crash a sock hop this place hosts.”
They all look at me like I’m speaking Russian. I shrug and twist my arm so Anton and Aaron can clean up my scratch.
“What is Fonz? Same to Phone?” Brody is cute.
“No,theFonz is a character from TV. It was a show that played on repeat in a country I was based at. The show wasHappy Days. It’s old and set in the fifties like the shop here. The Fonz was the coolest guy on the show. I can’t tell you…” They start singing so I stop talking.
Julius the JAG laughs. “Don’t say the cool word or they’ll chant. It’s banned at the clubs.” The man is serious and the boys chant words that shouldn’t go together but it works.
When they finish, I do. “So, I don’t know much about the show but it played nonstop the whole time I was stationed there.” It was an island that black operatives worked off of. We did not mingle, train, or work with anyone on the island and had an aircraft carrier that held our choppers, drones and artillery. Looking at it now, it was odd but military all by itself is odd.
They all look at me again. I really need to stop talking. Since I’ve been home, I haven’t said much, but I haven’t seen anything that sparks my interest to talk about. Movie set town, smiling people, Julius the JAG, flight suits on kids, Badass Club members, CIA grown kids, all set a spark. The fact that it’s all been within the last ten minutes is just weird. Coincidence isn’t big with me but this is obviously not staged to entrap me.
“Most Bits don’t watch much TV. They lived in a lab or one room but here they’re free so they do things like help build flight suits, grow food, do IT for the Clubs and pretty much run everything in less time than I would.” Julius is a talker.
“You come to my park. We zorb, flight laser tag, water park, zorb waterfall I make to MC Colorado. Alpha-Bit baby help to us there,” Tiny Anton says with Brody nodding away.
“You have grown babies? What about the physically deformed?”
Aaron’s eyes snap to mine. “You learn intel classified?”
My head nods slowly. I feel like I’m answering a general. “Army collect enhanced experiments, gas in rooms we have feed. Pres Alder, VP Asa be mad we talk. Classified intel.”
Slowly, I nod again. “Understood.” I never want to see a feed like that and what the hell were they thinking? Gassed.
Julius the JAG’s eyes are wide. “You shouldn’t have said, Brother. You don’t have to answer, she’s not a member and that’s information I didn’t even get.”
Aaron rolls his little pink and brown eyes. I clench my jaw tight as Anton gives Julius the JAG a look.
Anton holds his tablet out. “Virginia Kwolek be Badass. Mom inventor, invent Kevlar. Boss Stella make her best friend. Boss Copper have more idea. Boss VA-Vapor Ops pilot, PA, Opsground tactical same classify to Pres Seamus, Pres Harky, MB. Discharge one month. Truck get fix shop run hot. I check truck plate.” The little shit knows everything including my call sign.
“How do you know all that?”
The tiny know-it-all rolls his eyes at me. “Alpha-Bit grown to work IT.”
That’s telling in just a few words. It gives the ‘here they’re free’ comment a weight I feel. “Understood.” I fall back on protocol to keep my emotions in check.
Julius sits by me as Aaron dons space age glasses. “Are you at the Veritable Club?”
