~~~
They didn’t travel far. Samuel backed the black car out of Josh’s driveway and then rolled slowly up the half-mile length of Wentworth Drive until it met with 17-mile road. He signaled left and turned on to the busy cross street, and then almost immediately signaled left again and entered the next subdivision. It was a much larger subdivision than Josh’s own area. Many locals felt it was basically the same neighborhood even though they didn’t have direct access to one another. But the new section was a much longer nearly two mile loop with cul-de-sac’s and short branches here and there all the way around to pack in nearly five times as many houses as on Josh’s street. It was beautiful in the spring because the trees made a full canopy covering most of the looping main road. But now, though it had slowed significantly since they’d left Josh’s school, the road was quickly beginning to get covered by snowfall, even after at least one plow had obviously gone through.
“So, tell me if I’m wrong, Josh. If I go all the way to the west end of this loop and then park on that last little branch of road there, we can cross the old hay field and get straight to the Rouge that way. I’m thinking that’s probably where you built your tree house you mentioned in your email?”
“Yeah?” Josh looked at him incredulously. “How did you know that?”
Samuel smiled a much more natural smile this time as he toddled around the neighborhood at twenty-two miles per hour, crunching the fresh snow. “Looking at the map there’s a small dam and a wide spot in the river. …It’s where I would have built one.”
“Yeah,” Josh nodded. “It’s in one clump of trees, with a gap through a field before the forest. In between is a really big spot in the river where the…”
“Turtles live?” Agent S concluded for him.
Both smiled at each other and Josh nodded.
Once at the small branch of road off the main loop, Agent Samuel parked the car and got out. Josh followed suit. They went around to the back where Samuel pulled out another back-pack sort of bag. It was not nearly as full as the one holding Josh’s clothes. The man held both out and asked Josh which he’d like to carry.
“I probably should carry my own,” he answered.
“Very good. Probably for the best I suppose, but let me know if it gets too heavy.”
In fact, the bag felt so light on Josh’s shoulders he wasn’t even sure there was anything in it once it was in place. It seemed curious but he didn’t think on it long. The agent was instructing him secretively again.
“I’m trusting you, mostly because I think you’re a smart kid. I don’t think you necessarily came to Agent Davison or the IPMA with your information because you knew what you were doing. But the fact that you haven’t just brushed off what you saw and that so far you’re willing to work with me says something about your character?”
“It does?” Josh cocked an eyebrow.
“So, I’m going to do something just now that might seem a bit…strange to you. Just know that it’s not really all that surprising. You know…if you think about all the secret tech our government must have and stuff now-a-days.”
“Oh?” Josh was intrigued but perplexed.
Then Agent Samuel pulled out a stone from his backpack. It seemed to be mostly a glossy black, like the obsidian his science teacher had once shown him, only it was rounded like a river rock and for a moment he thought he saw a flash of movement in it. Something amber swirled about as Samuel moved it about in his fingers a bit and then cupped it.
Extending his arm towards the car, Agent S seemed to transfix it with his eyes and after a few seconds the sedan seemed to waver out of existence. Then the man puffed out a breath of air. Apparently he’d been holding it while he did whatever he was doing with the stone.
“Whoa!” Josh said in a low tone. “That is awesome tech!”
“Yeah…” Samuel said, stowing the stone back in the backpack. “I guess you could say its tech.”
“Is it gone?” Josh turned again to the adult. “Or has it just disappeared?”
Agent S waved his hand at the space previously occupied by the car, as though a disappearing act were an every-day thing for him. Josh stepped towards the car with his hands outreached. When he bumped his knee solidly but still didn’t feel anything before his hands he figured he must have run into the trunk area instead of one of the doors. Sure enough as he planted his palms downwards he felt a flat piece of sheet metal beneath them.
“Wow! That is so cool! It’s like the paint must be re… Refracting? Is that what it’s doing? The paint is refracting the light around it? ‘Cuz that’s sure no video screen or anything. It’s solid car.”
“Well…Josh. I wouldn’t focus too much on how it’s done,” the agent was shouldering his backpack and turning towards the field just beyond the permanent metal barrier at the end of the short stab of street on which they’d parked. “It’s a fairly complicated thing to understand.”
“Uh-huh. Sure,” Josh replied, still trying to steal glimpses of empty space over his shoulder as he caught up with the grown-up.