Touched by an Alien

the plane. Apparently I’m stuck in New York for the foreseeable future. Due to the terrorist attack you stopped they’ve shut down all air travel, in case it wasn’t a lone incident.”
    “Oh, are you kidding me? Hang on.” I covered the mouthpiece. “Hey, Christopher! My mother is stranded in New York because of the recent terrorist activity. Any chance in the world you can stop opening doors and, call me crazy, get this taken care of so people can return to their lives?”
    He spun around. “Look, you have no idea of what you’re dealing with,” he snarled. “It’s not that easy, and—”
    His father cut him off. “Enough.” He said it quietly, but White’s voice carried authority when he wanted it to. He walked back over to me. “Please tell your mother to gather her belongings, go to a taxi stand, and one of our people will pick her up.”
    “Oh, hell no. You are not kidnapping my mother.”
    White heaved a sigh. “If you want her home, we have to pick her up.”
    “Lots to do in New York. Why’s she in a rush?” Martini asked.
    “She likes sleeping in her own bed with her own husband. Why should I have my mother go with any of you?”
    “Safest place for her,” Reader said quietly. “Superbeings come in different varieties. We know we have some that are in control. If one of them makes the connection between your mother and you …” He let it hang, but I got the point.
    I went back to the phone. “Mom? Homeland Security’s going to pick you up.”
    “Why? Oh, God, things aren’t safe, are they?”
    “Well, let’s just say it’ll be safer for you to be with them.” I hoped. “Get your stuff, go to the nearest taxi stand, wait for a gray SUV or limo. Don’t get in unless the men are really drop-dead gorgeous.”
    There was a pregnant pause. “Come again?”
    “Work with me on this one. Just make sure they’re good-looking.”
    “There’s a whole lot you didn’t tell your father, isn’t there?”
    I remembered why I’d never bothered to learn to lie to my parents. My mother never, ever fell for it. “Yes, Mom, there is.”
    “Are you safe and will I be safe? And is your father safe?” I heard the worry, there more when she was asking about Dad than for me or her.
    “Dad’s fine,” I said, giving White a meaningful look. He nodded his head, and so did Gower. “They’re watching the house.” More nods. “But they’re not watching you, yet, so they want you under protection.” Nods again. “They’ll meet you at the taxi stand. Just remember, gray, not black, great looking, not average or ugly.”
    “Not really for us to say, but thanks,” Martini said quietly, with his usual grin.
    “Which taxi stand?” Mom asked. I heard her telling someone to let her have her checked bags.
    “It won’t matter, they’ll find you.”
    She groaned. “They won’t release my bags.”
    “They’re holding her bags,” I told White.
    His reaction wasn’t what I was expecting. He spun to Christopher. “Get her and her things, now!”
    Christopher nodded, and then he was gone. Literally. One second there, the next, empty air.
    My stomach clenched. “Uh, Mom? Stay around people, stay away from anyone acting weird, and someone’ll be there, really, really fast.”
    “Okay. Hmmm.”
    “What?”
    “You know, I think I just spotted weird. Kitten, I’m going to go. Hopefully your new friends will find me quickly.” With that, the phone went dead.
    I tried to calm my stomach, but it was hard. “My mom’s in trouble. Someone weird was there, I think they’re after her.”
    “We’ll take care of it,” White said.
    Martini put his arm around my shoulders. “It’ll be okay.”
    “How? And how the hell did Christopher just up and disappear?” I felt like crying, and that always made me mad. I pulled away from Martini, and I saw that two of the SUVs were gone.
    “We’re at the crash site,” Gower said. “It allows us to do certain things more … easily.”
    “What kinds of things? Time travel?”
    “Not in the conventional sense.” Gower sighed. “Look, try to calm down. I promise you your mother will be fine. And, yes, we have your father under protection now.”
    I was scared, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to help my mother in a dead panic. “What, I ask again, is going on?”

CHAPTER 7
    GOWER POINTED . “Look there.”
    I did. There was nothing, just flat earth with the occasional desert scrub brush on it, and I said as much.
    “No, there’s