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  “I’m getting awfully tired,” Mike said. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m young, strong, and virile. I’m a state wrestling champ. I can go on forever.”

  “Keeping this energy field going is sapping my strength.” Mike glanced at the back seat. “He hasn’t moaned since I started it and kept it going, and his breathing seems more regular. I can’t risk shutting it off.”

  As they approached the Halsted Street exit a mile from the junction where I57 and the Bishop Ford Expressway meet to form the Dan Ryan Expressway, three snowplows draped across two lanes in a line diagonal to the highway swept by. They threw up waves of slush and salt as they swooshed past. The windshield was inundated. Jack turned the wipers on high to clear the mess. As they swept back and forth, Mike saw a line of cars a few feet in front of them all with red lights on. The plows and cars were completely stopped. Jack slammed on the brakes. Because of the energy field, the pavement was dry under them. They and the cars behind them managed to avoid crashing.

  Cars following the plows weren’t so lucky. Two of them bashed into the rear of the plows. One began to slide toward Jack and Mike. Jack spun the wheel and dashed up the Halsted Street off ramp. He outpaced the energy field. The car began to slide forward. He jammed his foot on the anti-lock brakes. Mike was thankful he’d had them installed on the old car. Jack managed to stop the car inches short of the intersection, just before a large city dump truck fitted with a snowplow blade would have crushed them.

  CHAPTER TEN

  They sat at the intersection catching their breath.

  Jack asked, “Is this how things go when you’ve got an alien in the back seat?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Would the blue glow have protected us from the plow, like it did from my dad?”

  “I think it might have. I hope it would have. I’d rather not have to find out.”

  A car behind them honked. The light was green. Jack crossed Halsted and took the entrance ramp back onto the expressway. The accident, the cause for the stoppage, was under the overpass behind them. Even with the energy field working, how fast they could go was no longer in their control. Once they merged with the traffic from the Bishop Ford Expressway, they’d have to flow with it. For the millionth time it seemed to Mike, he looked back at Joe who had been silent a long time. He still breathed.

  “How do we get to his ship?” Jack asked.

  “I’m not sure I should bring you along.”

  “After a night like this, you’re not sure? I don’t understand the hesitation. I know he’s an alien. Taking me to his ship would be ultra-cool.”

  “I know how to call his ship to him,” Mike said. “I should be able to. The problem is, I don’t know how to get into the ship. We were still working on that. If I can’t revive him or he doesn’t come to on his own, I don’t know what to do. I know what’s on his ship can cure what ails him. I’ve seen it work.”

  “He could die?”

  “I hope not.”

  “Do you want me to drive us home instead?”

  “That won’t help.”

  “You need to make a choice, Uncle Mike.”

  “I know. Part of why I’m hesitating is because...” He thought several moments and decided to go with his gut instinct of always being honest with Jack. “And because, I’m afraid you might tell somebody what you know.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s not going to do any good to begin lying to you now,” Mike said.

  “Yeah. You know, I kept my mouth shut about my dad’s abuse for years. I think keeping quiet about this would be easier.”

  Mike looked from the communicator, to Joe, and back to Jack. “Go to the Belmont exit on Lake Shore Drive, but turn right, not left. If I can get this power thing to surge, maybe that will revive him.”

  Going through the Chicago expressways at the tail end of a blizzard was a nightmare. The normal thirty-minute trip to go from 95th Street on the Ryan, east onto the Stevenson, and up Lake Shore Drive to their exit took over two hours and thirty minutes. The turn to the right from the end of the off-ramp was blocked by six-foot drifts and oceans of unplowed snow. Even with the energy field their progress was tortuously slow.

  “Stop the car,” Mike said.

  “Now what?” Jack asked.

  “We leave the car right here. It’s not in the main traffic flow. They’ll think it’s simply abandoned because of the storm. We get out and walk to the shore carrying Joe. Power generation will make us a dry path. Even with the energy field, I doubt if the car would make it far once we got off the pavement.”

  Outside the snow still swirled in the building wind coming northeast off the lake. The last weather report they heard on the radio said the storm itself was abating, but with the wind howling off the lake, the shoreline and nearby areas could expect three to twelve more inches of lake-effect snow depending on when the wind stopped or shifted to a different direction. The blue glow enveloped them as they walked. The ground and all around them dried in just a few seconds.

  Again Mike put the alien over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Joe moaned a few times as he picked him up, but he did not reach consciousness. Mike concentrated on working the energy field.

  Jack asked, “Want me to help carry him?”

  “Thanks. I’m okay for now. It isn’t far.”

  They moved easily, creating a path that was pristine behind them for only a few moments before snow began to slide into the empty patches.

  After only a few feet, Mike couldn’t see any of the cars on Lake Shore Drive or the exit. He doubted if their energy field could be seen. At this point, while he cared if people noticed the glow and followed them, he was more concerned with getting to the ship.

  At the tip of the Belmont Rocks, they stopped. Mike took great care as he set Joe down inside the energy field. He reached under one of the rocks that leaned out over the lake. He pulled up a transportation device, translucent and thin as a layer of skin, and about the same diameter as an inner tube.

  “What’s that?” Jack asked.

  “Transportation.”

  Mike placed it on the ground. He drew a deep breath, shut his eyes for a moment, and ran his fingers over the communicator. He opened his eyes and there was a blue flash that wavered for a moment then turned into a blue tower of pulsing light six feet across. Mike smiled. Jack gaped.

  “What’d you do different?” Jack asked.

  “I believed in myself, and I was desperate, and I was lucky, and just maybe I’m getting the hang of this.”

  Jack asked, “Do I clap my hands to keep a fairy alive?”

  “I’m awfully fond of you, Jack, but don’t press your luck.”

  “I thought it was funny,” Joe said.

  They both turned to look at him.

  “You’re better,” Mike said.

  “Your energy field combined with the power of the transportation device is blocking all the emanations from the probe.” He stood up. He staggered and leaned against Mike. “Being this close to the ship and within the transportation circle’s aura enhances the effect. Plus, once your emanation grew, it revived me some, as well as protecting me. I’m not cured, but we’ve got a window of opportunity so I can get to my ship.”

  “Why didn’t we just make the energy field bigger and more protective when it first started?” Mike asked.

  “I told you. It’s not just the field. It’s the nearness to my ship, the transportation device.”

  “Can I come?” Jack asked.

  “Of course,” Joe said, “and you’ll find a kind of magic that supersedes the simultaneous clapping of every hand on Earth.”

  “I’m going to see cool technology,” Jack said.

  “The most advanced at this end of the galaxy,” Joe said.

  Joe took the transportation device and, taking care to stay within the energy field, moved to the edge of the roiling lake water. He placed the disk on the water. The waves under the pounding of the northeast wind roared and foamed a
gainst the rocks. Spray from the crashing waves spewed ten feet above them. The device was designed to compensate for their combined weight, as well as the pitch and roll caused by the wind, waves, and snow. As soon as Mike and Joe stepped onto the disk, the energy field turned deeper blue. All snow and wind stopped at the edge of the field.

  “How’d you do that?” Mike asked.

  “Give me your communicator.” Joe showed him the sequence. Mike did it three or four times until he mastered it. The glow spread twenty feet in every direction. Joe turned back to Jack, smiled, and said, “Climb aboard.”

  Jack looked at Mike who nodded. The teenager gazed at the waves as the circle of transparent material kept them safe. “It can take my weight, too?” Jack asked.

  Joe said, “It could take the weight of a herd of elephants, although it would be a trifle crowded. This thing has navigated the tidal waves of Narcus II and the lava surges of Ragnen X. It’ll be fine. You’ll be fine.”

  Jack nodded. With a few tentative steps, he moved aboard the disk.

  For the three of them it was the same as if they stood on solid rock.

  “How does it work?” Jack asked.

  “I have no idea,” Joe said. “I just know how to make it go.”

  Jack pointed out toward the waves. “We’re going out into that?”

  “You want to see technology, you’ve got to take a chance,” Joe said.

  Mike added, “And it’s perfectly safe.”

  “Good to know.”

  Mike knew Jack as a risk taker. That and his trust for his uncle and Joe overcame any fears the kid might have.

  The disk moved out among the waves. Mike looked back at the shore. A figure in a black-leather jacket stood at the water’s edge.

  Mike recognized him, pointed, and said, “It’s Kazakel.”

  Jack whirled, shook an angry fist, added an upright middle finger, and bellowed, “Go to hell you son of a bitch.” Jack’s movements would have upset any small boat, but the alien’s transport adjusted for his violent movements.

  Jack’s dad stared out at them but did not move or call out. The three of them continued to float out onto the lake. The figure on the shore faded from sight.

  “He knows we’re with you,” Mike said. “He knows something unworldly is going on.”

  “Can’t be helped right now,” Joe said.

  “I hate him,” Jack said. He breathed hard for several minutes. While Joe leaned close on one side, Mike put his other arm around his nephew’s shoulder.

  The journey through the storm distracted him from his emotions. The ride was spectacular. Mike knew how Jack loved fast roller coasters equal to the amount Mike hated them, which was a very great deal.

  “How did he follow us?” Joe asked during a lull in the noise from the storm.

  Mike said, “He was there when we left the hotel, and he was at the off ramp where the cop was a creep.”

  Joe said, “I missed the action at the off ramp.”

  Mike gave him a brief sketch. After he was done, Jack’s voice thrummed with emotion. “No one could hate someone more than I do him.”

  “He is evil incarnate,” Joe said. He looked up from tapping on the front of his communicator. “I’ve seen and read about evil people in this galaxy that would make ten raving Hitlers look tame. Your father would be among the worst.”

  After about fifteen minutes, Joe had ceased to lean on Mike. Moments later the flotation device slowed, then stopped. They were surrounded by swirling white and far beyond the breakwaters around Chicago, so the waves were mammoth. For a moment Mike felt as if he might lose his sense of equilibrium. He swayed a moment and only righted himself by an effort of will. The energy field blossomed to a tower of blue.

  Moments later the water around them began to bubble and froth. Then the platinum, pewter, metallic rim of the alien’s ship appeared on the surface. When the waves around it stopped foaming, a portal swung open. First Mike, then Jack, and finally Joe stepped aboard. Joe grabbed the transportation disk, and whisked it into the ship. Then he pressed the face of his communicator, and the portal swung shut.

  “Cool,” Jack said.

  Joe held Mike’s hand as they walked to the medical chamber. When they arrived, Mike said, “He’s going to get naked.”

  “Yuck, a naked adult. I’ll wait outside.”

  “I’ll join you in a minute,” Mike said. Joe stood in the recovery circle, which began to glow. Mike helped the alien off with his clothes. “Can I leave you to this?” Mike asked.

  “I’m feeling better already. This will take a little while. Why don’t you take the kid on a tour of the ship?”

  So Mike did.

  Half way through the tour Jack said, “How come this thing hasn’t been discovered by Earth radar?”

  “He keeps it buried under the bottom of the lake and only brings it up when absolutely necessary. He’s got a sort of cloaking device that can obstruct Earth radar.”

  “Under the bottom?”

  “That’s what he says and I believe him.”

  “We’re under right now?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Wow.”

  After half an hour’s close inspection, they ended up in the control room. Jack seemed to be most awed by it. “All those little black dots,” he commented. They were standing in front of the twelve-foot console from which Joe ran the ship. Thousands of Braille-like dots were on shelves three-feet deep, angled at thirty degrees.

  “Do all these do something?” Jack asked.

  “I’ve seen him move his hands over those with immense speed.”

  “What happens if I touch something?”

  “I don’t know,” Mike said. “Touch the wrong thing and maybe half the solar system will explode.”

  “Try it,” Joe’s voice said from behind them. They turned and looked. He was fully dressed, and no longer pale or sickly looking.

  “You’re cured?” Mike asked.

  “I’m better.” Joe hurried to him. They embraced.

  “Can I really touch stuff?” Jack asked. He sounded more awed than a kid in a gigantic toy store.

  “You really can,” Joe said. He kept his arm around Mike. “You couldn’t hurt anything. As I keep telling your uncle, the ship is tied to the physiology of someone from my planet, and many of the instruments are linked to my implants and mental capacity. Sort of as if you could plug the neurons in your brain into a USB port. You can’t harm anything.”

  “Why not?” Jack asked. He sounded disappointed.

  “Picture a thousand of the most complex video games tied together that are interwoven each to each but geared to your own individual touch and feel.”

  “And it’s only geared to your physiology?” Jack asked.

  “The basics most pilots on my planet could do. However, the ship shuts down if someone not trained or improperly implanted or with the wrong physiology tries to run it. I’ve tried altering it to gear it to Mike with only a limited amount of success.”

  Mike said, “I’m nowhere near ready to run this ship.”

  “I’d love to run it,” Jack said.

  “I don’t have time to teach you now, but how would you like to go for a spin around the solar system? Mike’s already been.”

  “It’s stunningly beautiful,” Mike said. “Remember when we were in the desert last summer, away from cities, late at night with all the stars above us? That’s the closest thing I can think of on Earth I can compare the view to. Only multiply it a thousand fold. It is beyond fabulous.”

  “Let’s go,” Jack said.

  “We’ve got time for this?” Mike asked.

  “The storm is perfect cover for a take-off and return, and I’ve got to retrieve that damn probe. It’s not safe to leave it up there. I need to disable it, disarm it, experiment on it, maybe destroy it, learn from it, neutralize it, and try to use it in some way to keep my planet from becoming too interested in me on Earth. Certainly, we’ve got to do something before they send someone to get us.
”

  Jack asked, “You can do all that stuff you said?”

  Joe smiled. “Probably not, but I’ve got to try. I love your uncle, and I want to stay with him forever.” He kissed Mike.

  Jack said, “I want to be in love like you guys are someday.”

  “It’ll happen,” Mike said.

  Joe stepped to the controls. “Now, gentlemen, watch what the magic of science can do for you.” While Joe’s hands swept over a myriad of controls, they felt no movement whatsoever.