Barrett Nesmith lived in a tiny apartment atop a scummy automotive shop. According the the faded letters above the front door it was simply called “Auto Shop”. A faded apostrophe above “Shop” was the only indication that it once had a longer name.
It didn’t look like it should even be open, but several cars were parked inside the closed doors. The windows were grimy, but Ian could see movement inside.
It’s a chop shop, he thought. He lives over a damn chop shop.
Peach and Alli were behind him, though Ian doubted the two women would do much to convince Barrett of anything. He seemed too hard nosed for that. It didn’t matter much. They needed to convince him to help. He was the only hope of getting to Marilyn and Cyrus.
Ian pushed through the front door. The desk inside was empty. He doubted they got many customers here, nor did they want them.
About a minute passed from the first jingle of the door opening to when someone walked in from the garage. He was a large man, at least six and a half feet and almost half as wide. He wiped grease and oil from his hands. He eyed Ian, Peach and Alli as he stepped behind the desk.
“What you want?”
“We’re looking for someone.”
“You cops?”
Ian glanced back at Peach and Alli. He turned back to the fat man. A badge stitched into the man’s stained shirt said his name was Marquis.
“Do we look like cops?”
Marquis shrugged. “I don’t know. I just supposed to ask when anyone has questions. Cops have to say they’re cops or they can’t arrest you.”
Ian was pretty sure that wasn’t true, but he wasn’t going to argue with the man.
“I’m looking for a man named Barrett Nesmith. I understand he lives here.”
Marquis said nothing. Instead he pulled out a pack of gum and slowly pulled out a stick. He inserted it into his mouth. “What you want, man?”
“I’ve been told that Barrett can help us.”
“Who told you that?”
Ian glanced back to Peach again, unsure of how to answer that one. Turning back to Marquis, he said, “Our source prefers not to be named. That’s how he does business and I’m not one to argue. He just said Barrett was the guy that can help with our business.”
Marquis chewed loudly on his gum. “Wait here.”
Marquis walked out of the room, back in to the garage. Ian turned to the others after he left. “Well, that went well, I think.”
“You’re doing fine,” Peach said. “Just stay calm and we will be all right.”
Ian took deep calming breaths. Peach and Alli said nothing as he did it. They seemed to know he needed to take the lead on this, but that didn’t make it any more comfortable for him. He wanted to hide again, to disappear from the world.
It seems to be my natural reaction to everything, he thought. But I’m not going to run anymore. I can’t. If I am this Leech monster, it’s time I find a way to redeem myself. If that means getting myself killed here, so be it.
Marquis re-entered the office from the garage. He still smacked at his gum loudly. “There’s a Subway a block down the street. Barrett will meet you there.”
“Down the street.”
“Did I stutter, kid?”
“No. Thanks.”
He turned and followed the girls out the door.
As they walked out on to the street, he glanced down towards the Subway. It was in much better shape than the shop but appeared deserted in the cold of early morning.
He looked to Peach and Alli. “What do you think?”
“It’s a trap,” Peach said.
“It sure seems like one,” Alli added. “We need to be careful.”
“Do we walk away? Try the garage again?”
Peach shook her head. “Let’s play this out. One way or another, Barrett will help us.”
They walked into the Subway in unison. Ian took the lead again, even though he really wished one of the girls would instead. He felt an odd sense of foreboding about the store and talk of traps had him on edge.
The counter was manned by one scrawny kid. He was of mixed heritage: his skin was a dark tan and his hair was a wild orange afro shoved under a visor.
“Can I help you?”
“We were supposed to meet someone here,” Ian said. He looked around the store, but the shop seemed empty.
The kid pointed towards the back of the store. “Barrett’s around back.”
“Why would he be in back?”
“You’d have to ask him, man. I just work here.”
Ian turned to the girls. It definitely felt like they were getting the run around now.
“Come on,” Alli said. “Let’s go outside.”
Ian was getting tired of the games. Something was wrong about this affair and he didn’t much like any of it. His fear was gone. Now he was just angry.
They exited out the front of the store and walked around the sandwich shop. The side of the building was a tiny alley between it and the Seven-Eleven next door. It wasn’t well lit, blocked from the still rising sun by the convenience store. Ian knew that if they were going to get jumped, this was the place. He braced himself for a fight.
He didn’t even see the man run towards him until it was too late. The blow caught him hard in the gut, lifted him up and off his feet. And then they weren’t in the alley anymore.
Wind blasted Ian in the face. The sun blazed hard down on him. Ian gasped for breath, but the air here was thin. He realized they were high over a city and it wasn’t River City.
He looked down across a massive sprawl of high rises everywhere. The skyrise was completely unrecognizable to Ian, but he knew it was nowhere in the United States.
“Where? What?”
“Shut the fuck up, man. I’ll ask the damn questions here. You dig?”
They were balanced high over the city on the edge of a skyscraper. Ian saw no way out but the way he came.
“I dig.”
Barrett Nesmith looked much like a picture. He was a large man with hard eyes and an array of gang tattoos. He held Ian tightly.
“You try anything, I teleport us both out there and then let you drop. It wouldn’t be the first time. Now tell me how you know about me.”
“It’s a long story.”
“It’s a long drop, kid.”
Ian quickly explained who he was, how he got the file and what he knew about the organization that created it. Barrett listened, but said nothing as Ian covered the fight to free Rosa and the subsequent uncovering of Barrett’s file on the hard disc.
Ian fell silent and met the other man’s eyes. “I know it sounds crazy, but—”
“I believe you.”
“What?”
“They came after me two days ago. At first, I thought they were sent by the cops, but it turned out nobody knew nothing about me at police central. So that meant someone else knew who I was and where I was at. I needed to make sure you weren’t them. I’m still not sure you ain’t, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now. So what can you do?”
“I make illusions. I can disappear or change the world around you.” Ian looked down over the city. “I would rather not do it here.”
Barrett laughed. “Dubai isn’t so bad. Lots of money to be had here if you know where to look.”
“I wouldn’t know.”
“So why’d you come here, kid. Still worried these creeps will be after me?”
“Maybe,” Ian said. “But it turns out we need someone with your unique abilities. Two of our friends are in danger. They were kidnapped from the city by someone and transported halfway across the country. It seems you have the right skill set to help us.”
“You want me to transport you? Usually I charge a lot of money for my services.”
“I was hoping we could appeal to your good nature.”
Barrett laughed. “Kid, I have no good nature.”
“You got these powers. Don’t you ever think about using them for good?”
“I can break into any place in the entire world. Do you understand how much some folks will pay for that? I can go anywhere I want and no one can catch up to me. Why not live the good life then, am I right?”
Ian couldn’t really argue with Barrett’s logic but that didn’t mean he liked it much.
“Barrett, please, we need to—”
Barrett laughed. “Come on, Ian. I’ll help you if only to see if your story is true. But if I’m going to work with you, you need to work with me. And first thing’s first is it’s Smith, not Barrett. I ain’t no video game joke character. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Ian looked down at the great expanse of city below them. Dubai was impressive, but he would vastly prefer seeing it from a view other than this high up.
“Any chance we could get out of here now?”
Smith smiled. The teleporter grabbed Ian by the shoulders. Ian took a single breath before he suddenly disappeared from the tower. He got only a second of discomfort and a wave of nausea before he reappeared back in River City.
Peach and Alli ran towards them. Alli’s Sticky Gun was drawn and aimed right for Smith. “Drop him now or I will take you out!”
Ian pulled away from Smith and put himself between Alli and the teleporter. He threw his hands up, tried to wave Alli down.
“It’s okay! It’s okay! He’s going to help us!”
“He is?” Alli lowered the gun. “What did you say?”
“I just told him what happened.”
“That was all?”
“Yeah, that was all.”
Alli looked at Smith. She was still clearly suspicious. “Why would you help us?”
Smith shrugged. “It sounds interesting. And we share a similar history.”
“The organization came after Smith too,” Ian said. “He was able to teleport away though.”
“Smith?”
“That’s the name,” the teleporter said. “Keep’s me from being confused with any video game or Monkee.”
Alli shook her head. “You’re a thief. I don’t trust you. None of us should trust him. But he’s our only hope to find Marilyn.”
“And Cyrus,” Ian said.
Peach looked at the others. “I’m not getting out of this, am I?”
“We need you, Peach. I’m sorry.”
Peach nodded at Alli’s words, but Ian could tell she was still uneasy about all of this.
Smith looked around the street. He seemed wary to be outside. If he was still worried about the organization—or still suspected they were part of it—his wariness made sense.
“Let’s not waste any time,” Ian said. “We should go now.”
“Now?” Peach looked at all the others in turn. “Shouldn’t we give it a few minutes? Plan?”
Alli shook her head. “We need to find Marilyn. And we should avoid being out here too long. If this was those people again, we need to be wary of them coming at us. We need to take it to them first.”
Smith laughed.
“What is it?”
“You folks waste no time at all. I like that. It’s pretty awesome. Not something I’m used to in my line of work.”
“As a thief,” Alli said.
“You make it sound so crass, so commercial. My job is a work of art. Don’t ever think otherwise.”
“Let’s just get on with it,” Alli said.
“Your funeral.” Smith waved them all closer. “You all need to be in contact with me if you want to travel along. Get a tight grip on me, not just my clothes.”
With his sleeveless shirt, it wasn’t hard for both girls and Ian to get their hands on him. Ian took Smith’s left arm, Alli his right, Peach leaned in close and smiled at Smith as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Smith smiled back. “Everybody ready?”
“As ready as ever,” Peach said.
The street disappeared around them in a flash. Again, Ian felt his stomach start to churn. Teleportation wasn’t a pleasant experience, at least if you weren’t used to it.
A moment later they were in the middle of a barren plain. This looked nothing like Rhode Island. It didn’t look like much of anything actually. It was barren rock with only a few sprigs of grass anywhere in sight. The field went on for miles all around them, easily visible across the flatland. Ian saw nothing at all.
“I don’t understand,” Peach said as she released Smith. “This doesn’t look like Providence.”
“No, no, it doesn’t.” As the words left her lips, Alli drew her Sticky Gun again.
She pointed the gun at Smith. “Where did you take us? What’s your play?”
“I don’t get it,” Smith said. “I have a Providence teleportation point. I memorized it years ago. This—this isn’t it, that’s for sure.”
“It’s a trap,” Alli said. “You’re working for the people that took her!”
“I don’t need this,” Smith said. “You’re one crazy bitch and I’ve got enough of those in my life. I’m out.”
“Smith wait!”
Ian ran towards the teleporter, desperate to stop him from leaving.
He crashed into Smith. Both men tumbled to the ground in a heap.
“I thought you were teleporting away,” Ian said as he pulled away.
“So did I,” Smith said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I can’t teleport.”
Ian looked to the women. He could see they felt the same way he did. They were trapped and they had no idea where. Whatever this place was, they would have to find their own way out.
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