The Falcon Prince

Chapter 27

Kristor shifted on the hard bench. They had forced him into the back of the hot stuffy van. An agent was in the back with him, the one called Jack. The guy looked nervous. Why, Kristor didn’t know.

Maybe because he was young and oozed inexperience. The older agent seemed to enjoy Jack’s discomfiture when he’d told Jack that he would be riding in the back with the prisoner.

Kristor glanced around, weighing his options. He could mentally unlock the restraints, but they had his hands bound behind his back. He had to be able to look at them to unlock them.

“So, where you from?” the young agent asked, trying for the voice of authority.

It came out more of a squeak. He might intimidate women and children, but not Kristor. He had a feeling the young agent knew that, too.

Was it a trick question? Was the young man only acting nervous? He studied him for a moment. Jack’s expression only showed curiosity.

“Not from here,” Kristor finally said.

“Yeah, I can’t really blame you for not talking.” He nodded his head toward the front of the van. The only thing separating them from the two men up front was a glass panel. “Adam can be an ass.”

“Adam?”

“He’s the lead agent. Been one for about twenty-five years. Gung-ho and all that. Agent Adam Richards.” He snickered. “He thinks you’re an alien from another planet. Can you believe the guy? I think he might be doing drugs on the side.”

“He told you he thinks I’m an alien?”

“Not in so many words, but on the way down here, he told us that was what our mission was about. To make sure you weren’t an alien. Crazy, I know.”

“Yeah, crazy.”

“So, what do you lift?”

Why did everyone wonder what he could lift? “Anything I want.” It seemed to satisfy the guys he’d played flag football with that day.

“Yeah, I kind of figured that. I’m not much for weights, but I’m a fast runner.”

And for the next hour, Agent Jack talked about running, working out, and what it meant to be an agent, and how proud his family was of him. Kristor had a feeling he could talk long enough that a prisoner would be willing to give away all his country’s secrets just so Jack would shut up.

Kristor’s eyes narrowed on the man sitting in the front seat as Jack droned on. The lead agent. Adam Richards knew Kristor was an alien. Kristor had seen it in the man’s eyes when he saw Kristor’s birthmark.

The other two thought their leader was a little crazy to think aliens might exist. He’d seen that in their body language, and the way they’d cast knowing looks at each other. But that knowledge would do Kristor no good. They obeyed their leader, and would follow his command. He respected them for that, but it didn’t help his situation.

With his wrists bound by metal shackles, it was too late for him to shift. His only hope was Rianna. But could she set him free before they found out the truth? She’d been more distraught than determined when they shoved him into the back of the van, and pulled away from her house.

There was always her father. He had come across as an intelligent man. She might be able to enlist her father’s help. He would know what to do. As they left town, Kristor knew it would be impossible if they didn’t know where he was being taken.

The glass that separated him from the front slid open and Adam shifted in his seat. His grin was mocking. “You two nice and cozy?”

“It’s hotter than Hades back here,” Jack said.

“Where are you taking me?” Kristor asked, before the other man could say anything to Jack.

Adam looked at him. “Somewhere we can question you properly. We don’t want any of those country yokels interfering with our interrogation.”

“You don’t have to scare him, Adam,” Jack said.

Adam glared at the other man. “Yeah, well we don’t know exactly what he is, now do we? I’ve been in this business a lot longer than you, boy, and I’ve seen things that would make you think twice about whether aliens exist or not.”

The man stiffened. “My name is Jack, not ‘boy,’ if you don’t mind.”

“Whatever.” Adam slid the glass closed and turned around in his seat, facing front again.

“Might as well make yourself comfortable. It’s going to be a long ride,” Jack said.

Kristor didn’t like the sound of that. There was no way Rianna would ever find him, even if she could help. His mission was in jeopardy of completely failing and his identity becoming known.

Or it could be worse. He’d heard of the secret testing they did. It was whispered throughout the galaxy that aliens from other planets had been captured and no one ever saw them again. He had thought the rumors false, a way to scare children into completing their daily tasks.

His mother had told him more than once that people from Earth would come get him if he didn’t clean his room. When he was young, he’d believed her but, of course, as he’d gotten older, he realized Earth wasn’t nearly as advanced as New Symtaria.

But now he began to wonder. Maybe Adam was the monster from his childhood after all.