Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Turmoil (41 page)

“Holy crap!” Matt stated.  He recovered quickly, then
noticed his friend rubbing her leg.  “You ok there?” he asked.

“I suppose I deserved to get injured from that,” she
admitted.  “Still, I think it was worth it.”

“You knew the risks, so I feel no sympathy for you,”
he replied, but did it with a smile.  “Want to see the upgrades I’ve done?” he
asked.

“Not really.  You know I think you’re an ok person and
all, but I draw the line at computers.”

“But these are going to be fast!  Look at the
benchmarks I’m running!” He was excited, but Jessie had no idea what that meant. 
She did know that he was good at what he did, and that he often worked on
several projects at the same time, much as he was doing now.  He had one PC
running, setting it up the way he wanted it, while at the same time he was
doing something with the guts of another one, and he seemed to always be able
to keep things straight.  He was an excellent multitasker, she had to admit.

“All I want to know,” she asked, “is can I surf the
net?”

“One day you will learn to think big!” 

Matt and Jessie were online in his room, reading
reviews of recent movie DVD releases, when Matt heard the doorbell ring
downstairs. 

“Girlfriend?” asked Jessie, and Matt just shook his
head.

“I don’t think we’re expecting company,” replied
Matt.  “Want to go snoop around and meddle in my parents’ business?”

“Sounds like fun to me!”

Matt and Jessie came down the stairs in time to see
his dad get to the front door.  He looked through the sidelite window along the
edge of the door, then opened it to greet whoever was there.

“Mr. Falken,” began the stranger in an oddly
unaccented and clipped voice.  “My name is Dare Turon.”  The man produced a
business card, which his father took and eyed warily.  Matt had never seen his
father act this way.  He seemed nervous, though he hid it well.  His dad didn’t
look like he feared the man, but it seemed like the guy definitely put him on
edge.  “I tried to reach you at you work regarding some business, but you were
not there and this is a very time sensitive matter.  May I come in?”

Matt stood there, unable to move.  Something very
interesting was going on, but for the life of him he couldn’t figure out what
it might be.  His dad was the most law-abiding person he knew, so he figured
his dad was probably not in trouble.  Matt hadn’t recently broken any laws he
was aware of, either.  What was this?

Matt’s dad nodded and gestured for the man to enter. 
Matt finally got a good look at him.  He was probably in his late twenties,
clean shaven and very fit, like he used to be in the military or something.  His
manner was very stiff and businesslike, not relaxed like it would be if they
were old friends or something like that.  His accent was odd; he spoke
precisely and with the very faintest tinge of what Matt thought of as a British
accent.  Warning bells were going off in Matt’s head.

Matt’s dad turned towards the kitchen.  “Kim, would
you come in here?  We have a guest.”

            That was when Matt’s dad finally noticed
him and Jessie.  “Hey guys,” he began, trying to act casual.  “Mr. Turon here
contacted me about something at work.  Could you two give us some privacy so we
can talk?”

“Sure,” Matt answered quickly.  “We’ll just go back
upstairs…”

“I meant real privacy.”  His dad walked over to the
base of the stairs where they had stopped and drew out his wallet.  Matt
noticed that Turon guy watching him and not his father.  Was this weirdo
interested in him as well as his dad?

“Here’s a few bucks to rent that movie you were
talking about.  Could I ask you to watch it at Jessie’s house?”    

It took Matt a second to look away from Mr. Turon and
at the money in his hand.  His dad had given him $40.  Now fireworks and red
flashing lights were going off along with those alarm bells in his head.  His
dad wasn’t exactly tight with money, but just handing him a wad of cash was not
normal, either.

“Please.”  His dad said earnestly, directly to him. 
Matt could do nothing else but nod silently and look at Jessie, who eyed the
back door.  They nodded and walked out quickly, not wanting to pass next to the
strange visitor and instead going out the back of the house.

 “Matt,” Jessie began slowly as they hit the sidewalk
and started towards her house.  “What in the heck was
that
?”

Matt shrugged.  “I wish I knew.  I’ve never heard of
that guy before, and I’ve never seen my dad act that way.”

“Are you in Witness Protection or something?” 

“I only wish our lives were that interesting,” he
replied.  “My parents are very boring people.  I have no idea what this is all
about.  But it makes me want to go all secret agent and start checking things
out.”

“Well, I noticed one thing already.  His car was
parked on the street in front of your house.  It was a rental, but it was a big
car, too.  So he’s from out of town and has money.”

“How shifty of you to notice that.”

They had already passed Jessie’s house and were still
walking towards the movie rental kiosk at the grocery store down the block a
ways, but all thoughts of that sort of entertainment were forgotten.

“Let’s get some ice cream and see how many weird
stories we can come up with to explain this,” Jessie began.   “It’ll be fun,
and our English teacher would be proud of our creative exercise.”

“I don’t have any better ideas than that.  Let’s go
burn some of that bribe money my dad gave us, eh?”

When Matt returned to his house a few hours later, the
stranger was gone.  It was late, and his parents were sitting in the living
room with just a couple table lamps on.  Because of the time, Jessie had gone
home and let Matt walk the last couple blocks in silence.  The problem was, he
had been sort of distracted and at ease with the situation while he was with
Jessie.  Now, alone with his thoughts, he started to get worried again. 

“Hi,” he stated as he walked into the room and stood
near the couch.  “How’s it going?” he asked slowly, cautiously. 

“Fine, Matt, just fine,” replied his father.

“Mr. Turon just had a pitch to make to your dad,
that’s all,” added his mom. 

“So that’s your story?” Matt asked skeptically.

“Of course,” replied his dad.  “Would you like us to
make up something different?”

Matt knew something was up, but there was no way he
was going to get his parents to tell him, that much he was sure of.  He just
shook his head, bid them ‘goodnight’, and headed up to his room.  He finished
putting together the other computer he was working on without paying too much
attention to it.  He was much more interested in what sort of craziness his
parents were involved in.

Chapter 2

The next morning was uneventful.  No SWAT team in the
kitchen, no secret room in the basement that his parents were pulling bags of
cash out of.  They acted totally normal, which of course made Matt more
suspicious.  Still, they weren’t offering to talk about it, so he went on with
his day. 

That afternoon, he walked down to Jessie’s house.  Her
mom was going to drop them off at the mall for a while.  Jessie had gotten a
new cell phone a couple weeks ago, but the battery had died and they were going
to stop by the carrier’s store to get a replacement.  It was also an excuse to
burn up the rest of the money Matt’s dad gave him.  He had mentioned recently
to Jessie that he would need new gloves for the coming winter, and she claimed
to have found a pair that would be great for him.  Not a big fan of clothes
shopping, he figured it was still better to do it with his friend than have to
go with his mom.  Jessie also promised they’d have enough left over for a snack
at the food court.

They wandered aimlessly for a while, trying to see if
anyone they knew was around, and if they were kids that the two of them would want
to approach or avoid.  Matt enjoyed harassing the guy at the cell phone store,
and eventually they hit the food court for sodas and pretzels.  Disappointed in
the lack of high school aged kids around, they stopped by the restrooms before
calling Jessie’s mom and heading outside to wait for their pick-up.

Matt was alone in the large men’s restroom, and
quickly checked himself in the mirror.  No food stuck in the teeth, still a bit
dweebish looking.  No changes there.           

The door opened, and a severe looking man in a
business suit that reminded Matt of Mr. Turon walked in.  The man glanced at
Matt and nodded as he walked by, heading towards the stalls.  Matt forgot about
him and decided it was time to finish his business.  He heard the repeated
sound of the stall doors slamming, and wondered what sort of process the
strange man was going through back there.  Was he inspecting each stall? 
Checking conditions against some sort of list?  The thought of the weird guy
holding a clipboard and inspecting the seat, toilet paper supply, and door
locks made him chuckle, then he heard a sound behind him.  The guy was standing
right there, staring at Matt.

“Everything alright?” asked Matt sheepishly.  He had
gone from calm to scared in a heartbeat.  He didn’t know what this guy was
after, but everything about him screamed ‘danger’.  The man was blocking Matt’s
route to the door, and his fight or flight response was running in overdrive.

“You are Matt Falken,” the man stated.

“Oh, you’re looking for Matt!” he stammered quickly,
and he figured, not very convincingly.  “That’s not me.  I know him; he’s
outside in the food court.  I could go get him for you…”

The man reached out towards Matt, who backed all the
way up against the wall.  Since he was wearing a simple t-shirt, the tiles felt
cool on his bare arms, and a cold shiver ran right down his spine.

At that moment, Matt saw the bathroom door open
again.  He briefly saw out into the hallway that lead back to the food court. 
There was a man dressed just like this strange attacker sitting on the ground
across the hall by a vending machine, and he looked like he wasn’t conscious.

And entering the room was Mr. Turon himself, dressed
in business casual wear and carrying a shopping bag from one of the stores in
the mall.  The look on Matt’s face must have said it all, because Turon walked
right up to Matt and the stranger, dropping the empty bag in the process.

The stranger turned to look at Turon and suddenly
tensed.  Turon lashed out with a closed fist, knuckles leading, at the man’s
throat.  The stranger fell in a heap on the ground, gagging and coughing
uncontrollably. 

Before Matt could do anything, Turon looked right at
him.  “Matt, you don’t know me and I doubt you have any reason to trust me. 
But your parents are here to pick you up.  Go to the exit at the South end of
the mall; they’re waiting there.  Your dad will be driving The Rocket.”

That shocked Matt back to reality a bit.  His dad was
a car nut, and had always bought larger four-doors with V-8 engines.  He tinkered
and upgraded endlessly, and had made Matt refer to his latest car as The
Rocket.  The fact that Turon knew that must mean that his dad had told him so
Matt would trust the man, right?  Unless Turon somehow forced his dad to tell
him that little tidbit.  Matt didn’t know what to do, and he guessed Turon
could see that.

“You are in danger, Matt.  I will stay behind you, but
you must go.  Now.”  Turon gently put his hand on Matt’s shoulder and gave him
a push towards the men’s room door.  “We don’t have much time.  Take your
friend with you- they shouldn’t know who she is, but since they’ve seen you
together you can’t leave her here right now, either.”

What?  Jessie was involved in this mess because of
him?  That was worse than anything.

In a daze, Matt exited the men’s room and turned down
the hall to head back towards the food court.  Jessie was standing there, a
look of fear and uncertainty on her face that must have matched his own.  She
just caught a glimpse of Mr. Turon in the restroom as the door closed.

She pointed at the unconscious man on the floor and
then looked back at the men’s room door.  “Matt, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know, but I think my parents know.  That
Turon guy said to meet them at the South entrance.”

“The narrow, lightly traveled exit because there’s a
delivery area right there?” she replied.  “That would be a bad place to go if
we were worried about people kidnapping us or otherwise doing us harm.”

Matt realized she was thinking more clearly than he
was, and made a conscious effort to calm down and focus.  “First, let’s get
walking.”  He grabbed her hand, and started down the hallway and into the mall,
only briefly experiencing disappointment that holding her hand like this was
done out of a sense of survival and not a more personal reason.  “He knew my
dad’s nickname for his car.  He said my parents would be here to pick us up. 
My dad wouldn’t tell him the car’s name if he didn’t trust him.  Heck, he
hasn’t told anybody other than my mom and me that name.”

“And that’s good enough?” she replied. 

Matt was about to try to respond when he looked behind
him and saw yet another man dressed just like the first.  The strange Mr. Turon
was a ways back and angling across the mall towards a fourth disturbing, well
dressed man. 

Jessie followed Matt’s gaze and turned to him.  “I am
very close to panicking right now.” 

Matt decided there was no point in false statements of
bravery to her at this point.  “Me too.  I’m going to call my dad.”

As soon as he spoke, his phone rang, startling him and
making him stumble a bit as he reached into his pocket.  He looked at the ID
and saw it was his mother’s number.

“Mom?” he asked, trying to keep the fear out of his
voice.  “That Turon guy is here at the mall and there are others too and…”

“I know,” she began, calm and collected.  “He told you
to head to the South exit, right?”

This was too much.  His mom knew all about this?  And
how could she be so businesslike and cool at a time like this?

“Mom, what’s going on?  This is seriously messed up.”

“I know.  Mr. Turon will watch your backs while you
head outside.  Your dad and I are going to pick you two up at the back exit. 
Hurry.  Can you do that?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he managed to reply.

As he hung up, he caught Jessie’s eye.  “My mom says
she’s waiting at the back exit.”

“Well, as long as we get to her before that guy
catches us, I’m onboard with that plan.”

They reached the door minutes later, at a pace
somewhere between speed walking and jogging.   They were both getting hot,
perspiration beading their foreheads as they suffered through a combination of
exercise and stress.  Finally, they burst out of the doors and into the small
courtyard.  It was narrow, with brick walls on each side.  After about thirty
feet, it opened up a bit and they practically jumped down a handful of steps to
parking lot level.  The area was larger now, with the wall on their right
heading off at a ninety degree angle and dotted with garage doors for
deliveries.  The other brick wall continued out towards the parking lot for another
fifty feet. 

They stopped to look around , and Matt sheepishly
realized he was still holding Jessie’s hand.  He released his grip on her, and
she seemed to first notice they had been holding hands to begin with.  She
flexed her fingers as they looked around.  They heard the door to the mall open
again, and their sense of dread went right back to maximum as one of the well
dressed men came walking through at a brisk pace. 

Then, as if out of thin air, his mom appeared behind
him.  He didn’t hear her coming, and she dashed right up to him, grabbed a
fistful of his jacket at the back of the neck, and delivered a vicious jab to
his right side, blasting him in the kidney.  The man spasmed once, then toppled
to the ground without a sound.  She ran up to them and hugged them both.

“Are you ok?”  she asked.

“Who are you?”  Matt replied. 

She was about to answer when he heard a screeching of
tires.  Around the corner from the parking lot, past the brick wall and into
the courtyard area in a smoky power drift, screamed his dad’s car, The Rocket. 
It was a brand new Dodge Charger, with the biggest V-8 you could order.  His
dad had once told Matt about his modifications to the engine, suspension, and
tires, but Matt wasn’t real into that sort of thing and his eyes had glazed
over as he’d thought of something else.  Now he wished he’d paid attention. 

The Charger came roaring down the parking lot,
covering the short distance in an instant at alarming speed.  Just when Matt
started to think about jumping into the bushes, the front tires cranked, the
back end started to swing around, and the car began a 180 degree spin.  He
heard his dad tap the gas halfway through the keep the tires spinning and back
end swinging, the raspy exhaust echoing off the walls and making the car sound
even louder than usual.

The car stopped, right rear door mere feet from where
Matt stood.  His mom opened the door and motioned to the kids.  “Get in,
quick.  We’ll explain everything.”

“Somehow I doubt that,” Matt muttered as Jessie shoved
him into the car and piled in after him.  His mom jumped into the front
passenger seat, and they left in a cloud of tire smoke.

On the short drive back to their neighborhood, Matt’s
mom made two phone calls.  One was to Jessie’s house, where she explained to
Jessie’s parents that she had been in the neighborhood and had picked up the
kids and was on the way to drop their daughter off.  The second was to Mr.
Turon, and though Matt couldn’t hear the other side of the call, he guessed
that it was somewhat good news, as his mom seemed to relax just a tiny bit
after she hung up.

She turned to the back seat and looked at the two of
them intently.  “Alright, I admit, that was a heck of a thing that just
happened.”

Jessie, trying to be polite to her friend’s parents, stayed
silent.  Matt felt no such requirement.

“You think?  A strange guy comes to our house, and the
next day some whack jobs try to kidnap us at the mall?”

“I know this is a lot to take in, so I’ll break it
into small parts, some of which are best kept within the family.”  His mom
looked at Jessie.  “I’m sorry to have to be blunt, but there are a few things
we need to tell Matt that you really shouldn’t hear.”

Jessie thought for a second, then responded.  “I think
I’d like you to tell me
something
about what just happened, Mrs.
Falken.  That was seriously scary.”

“Yes, I imagine it was.” She paused for a second, as
if trying to decide what she could tell them.  “Mr. Turon is in the private
security business.  He came to us with information about a possible threat to
our family.  We didn’t see how that could be, but agreed to let him observe for
a while based on his credentials.  Apparently, he was right.  He was the one
who called us when he noticed the men watching you at the mall.”

“Why would there be a threat to us?”  Matt said. 
“What do we have that anyone could want?”

“That’s something we should discuss at home.”

They passed the rest of the drive in silence, and Matt
spent the whole time thinking about how this could affect Jessie.  As they
pulled up to her house, he asked, “Mom, what about Jessie?  Is she safe? 
Should we call the police?”

“She’s safe,” her dad finally spoke up.  “They weren’t
after her, they were after us.  But to be safe, Mr. Turon’s associate will keep
an eye on their house for a day or two.  And no police.  We will explain that
at home as well.”

“So she’s supposed to go home and just act like
nothing happened?” asked Matt, indicating Jessie where she sat next to him.

“We’re just saying let us get home first before
anybody goes and does anything that attracts attention,” replied his mom.