Page 2 of Vapor (BSC #32)
“Miss, I help to you. Aaron stop Anton.”
“Are you okay? Anton flew by us but he’s usually careful. That’s who hit you.” A man floats down like whatever hit me opened a door to the Men in Black movie set.
I look above the guy’s head but don’t see rope.
I close my eyes, take a deep breath and reopen to the guy in the same style navy blue uniform, the platinum blond kid in the same clothes but his little suit really is black and neither has a chute, ropes or platform anywhere around them.
“Cool outfits but you can’t all be police. Is this a movie set?”
The kid looks at the guy and shrugs - at the guy.
“We’re Badass and all have similar uniforms that we call gear.
A set would explain a lot but no, the town was almost a ghost town until the Veritable Club moved here.
Badass is crazy so they rebuilt the town into usable space.
The old parts are a tourist attraction and new is enjoyable with AC, water, electric and food that’s edible. ”
He makes me laugh and I take his outstretched hand. “Thanks. That’s a great way to reuse what’s here and show the history of small-town life.”
The kid gets my chips and water from the road. We all turn as two kids float toward us fast.
“Boss Julius, Miss, Anton fall, we fix pack.” The brown-haired boy says.
I bend to the kids. “You must be Anton.” This kid is like five and looks terrified.
“Sorry. I can help. I hurt you?” They talk in a weird way.
“No, I’m okay.”
The dark-haired boy lifts my arm and pushes my sleeve up high enough to show my tattoo. “Blood. You hurt.”
I twist my arm and see I am bleeding. This place has me off, I felt my elbow connect to the cement but didn’t think much of it. “It’s superficial.”
“You Night Stalker.” The tiny boy cannot be five.
How would he know what the ink represents? Shit. “Is your dad military?”
The guy gets a hurt look to his eyes that wince at me.
“They were grown by the CIA. I was a JAG based in DC. Badass is loaded with military from every branch and the Alpha-Bits have a bunch of brothers that were all named Ford and were programmed for IT with medic training like elite military. Here they’re free to work how they want.
I’m trained too but they’ll want to help. ”
Weird but I nod. I knew about Badass, but I never met club members. “Okay and thanks. I need a bandaid, my truck is behind the livery getting serviced, I have a first aid kit in it.”
“Ice cream shop. Medic box, Boss Julius.” The dark-haired boy runs and the two smaller albinos follow.
I look at the JAG named Julius who isn’t reacting to anything like it’s weird. “Grown by CIA, the island kids?”
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, the Fonz is a character from TV. It was a show that played on repeat in a country I was based at. The show was Happy 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, Ops ground 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?”
“Boss VA Vapor no Badass app.” Aaron has information scrolling the air in front of him too fast for me to read. They definitely are IT. “No Sheriff, no MC Affiliate Club.” The boy is thorough.
“I’m on my way to a job interview. My old team has been out for a few months and are gathering at a ranch in the mountains now that I’m home.” I wince because it’s not really an interview.
Julius looks let down by that. “Here?”
I nod. “About thirty miles away.”
“It’s not the Champion land, is it?”
“No, but I’ve heard the Champion name from Jones. The county Sheriff was a friend of his dad or something. They traded cattle and hands.” The news causes his body to relax.
“Boss Julius, we get food.”
Julius nods, standing. “Yeah. Virginia, I hope you’ll come back. We can show you the Club.” He remembered my name.
I nod. “My truck should be done. I can give you all a ride back.”
Anton shows me his phone. They’re done patching me up and look bored. “Boss Bishop here. He follow Alpha-Bits to Club fifteen minute.”
Julius laughs. “I’ll catch a ride, thanks for the lesson, Aaron, Brody.”
The boys ‘roger’ and run. Julius the JAG shakes his head. “We call it the messenger run. All the Alpha-Bits do it.”
I like the little tidbits of information he gives.
“Julius the JAG, I was ROTC then enlisted. I've lived out of the country my entire adult life and didn’t recognize what I came back to. For the first time in almost a month, I found a place that isn’t pissed I’m breathing their air and the people are friendly enough to talk to me like I’m worth the energy.
I’m hungry for more than chips and have questions, you seem to have answers. ”
He smiles before I even ask. “Come have dinner with me so I can ask questions about your mom, the inventor of Kevlar.”
I’m up and so glad I stopped in the weird old-new town.