After making a call to his people to set them off on Sammy's trail, Hughes rambled on about The Keepers and The Phloxans for hours without pause. The most captivating tale he told me was of a council ruling over all the projects The Keepers had undertaken in their quest to topple the would-be kings of the universe.
According to his account, Humans had been the golden children for quite some time. After some initial resistance to the technologies we received, someone flipped a switch on our advancement and things took off at a lightning pace. We sailed through ages that took other creatures thousands of years to navigate in the span on just centuries, compounding our own take on the concepts force-fed to us and expanding research beyond even what The Keepers had intended for us.
We were rouge scholars, really -- shedding light for ourselves on areas in which only shadows existed to those far more savvy than we were expected to be. Things like space flight weren't intended for us, yet... but our curiosity couldn't be restrained.
The Council had worried that our venturing into the beyond would draw the attention of The Phloxans prematurely, but we wouldn't take no for an answer... we were too adventurous; unrestrainable. Qualities such as those would've been invaluable in the battle to come, but it wasn't to be... The Phloxans pushed the button too early, throwing a massive wrench into the machine that was The Keeper's plan of action.
So here we were, facing down the inevitable end far ahead of schedule. The Council's garden had grown well, but the sky surrounding the green house was alight with the fires of war. The saplings within couldn't hope to survive when the serenity of their little world was breached by the coming storm.
It was all a little much, really... exhausting to process through my simple backwoods mind. Before picking up this load, the most complex concept I had pondered was what life must've been like for the title character in Skynyrd's Let Us Cry For The Bad Man. Now, I was at the heart of a conflict born of titans beyond my wildest dreams... at the helm of a great vessel that was sought after by dread-pirates more intently than The Spanish Armada at the height of the Old World's wealth.
We were cruising through Mobile, Alabama when his lecture finally trailed off, leaving our ears open to the baritone siege of Big Red's rumbling engine. It was after midnight... we hadn't made great time, between accidents and construction in our path. Each time we slowed or stopped at the behest of traffic, Hughes and I perked up in our seats. Relief swept over us time after time when we discovered that the delay was due to natural circumstances, as opposed to those manufactured by purple-eyed folks bent on stopping us.
A similar lull in our progress arose when I-10 dropped back down to two lanes just east of the city. Both of us were tired, perhaps our guards were down just a bit. Luckily, this wasn't an ambush anymore than the construction worker who had melted his shoe into a fresh asphalt patch back in Mississippi had been.
As result of our attempts to relax, we nearly jumped through the padded roof of my tractor when my cell phone let out a shrill chime. It had been putting on a strange light-show since it fried out before. I figured it was busted, but the fact that a call was coming in now proved that I had been mistaken.
I retrieved it from the cubby in my dash and looked at the display; I didn't recognize the number. Hughes made it clear that he had no clue either after I showed it to him, but he suggested that I should go ahead and answer. He asked me to put it on speaker so that he could hear whoever it was. I did so, pressing the answer button apprehensively.
"Hello?" I said inquisitively.
"Randy? Randy, is it really you?" The familiar voice of Misses Jan asked as though she wasn't sure.
"Misses Jan!" I replied, thrilled to hear her, but unsure about what could possibly be going on. She had been taken in to police custody when I had last spoken to her; I hadn't expected to talk to her again until this was all over with. "What's going on, woman, I thought you were in some serious trouble?"
"I was, sugar, I really was. The cops that arrested me -- they weren't --" She hesitated. "They weren't quite right... they locked me in this little room for hours, by myself -- still covered in Tina and Dan's blood! When someone finally came, he looked like some kind of monster! He said he was a detective -- but he had these strange eyes!"
"What did he say, Misses Jan? What did he want?"
"He asked me a bunch of questions about you -- about Sammy. I think you are the one is big trouble here, Randy -- he didn't seem interested in me or what happened at Tina's house."
"Did it sound like he knew where Sammy was? Do you think they have him?"
"They did have him!" She said strangely. "But I got him out of there!"
"What?" I exclaimed, endlessly relieved to hear that he was safe -- that he was alive.
"Daddy!" His little voice called from the background. He sounded scared... more so than I'd ever heard him.
When he was six, he had fallen and hit his head on a dresser while I was on the road. His mother told me he had a serious knot that swelled up and turned blue immediately. He was horrified then, and I could hear the terror in his tone as my ex was rushing him to the emergency room. The shaking in his voice now was far more stressed than it had been, even then.
"It's okay, Sammy, you know you're safe with your Auntie Jan!" She said to comfort him.
"I want my daddy!" He continued, sobbing a bit.
"What's going on?" I asked. "Did they hurt him?"
"He's just scared, Randy." She explained. "He doesn't know what's happening."
"What were they doing to him? How did you get him out of there?"
"They gave him to me... after I'd answered all of their questions, they said we were free to go."
"And he's okay? Did he see what happened to his mother and step-dad?"
"Yes!" Her voice changed, sympathy with his suffering showing through it. "I told him it wasn't his fault... that it was yours!"
"What?! Why would you tell him th--"
"It's all your fault, Randy!" She interrupted. "None of this would've had to happen if you would've just taken that load to Dallas!"
"Janet, what are you say--"
"And now you're gonna make me hurt my little angel! I don't want to do it to him, it will break my heart! But I'll have no choice if you don't turn around, Randy... turn around and take that load to Dallas now, before I have to kill Sammy!"
"Hang up!" Hughes ordered firmly. "Hang up, now!"
"Sammy?" I called out. "Sammy, are you okay?"
"He's fine, for now!" Janet barked. "But I'll do to him what I did to his mother -- what I did to those cops! I promise, I will."
"What's wrong with your eyes, Auntie Jan?" My boy asked her. "Why do they look like that?"
"It's not too late, Randy!" She advised. "Turn around -- before I have to do something that you'll regret for the rest of your life!"
Hughes snatched the phone from me, ending the call.
"What the fuck?" I shouted. "She's my friend! She has my son!"
"She's NOT your friend anymore, Randy!" He barked. "You heard the boy, she's one of them now!"
"She would never hurt him!" I insisted. "She loves him as much as I do! She's been there with him since he was born! Why did she say she would hurt him?"
"That woman is not the person you know! She'll do whatever it takes to make you do what she wants!"
"Then I have to do what she said!" I returned. "I have to turn around -- take this damned thing to Dallas, where they want it!"
"You can't do that!"
"Oh yes I can! And I will! If it means my son's life, nothing else matters! If these Phloxans want this thing, let them have it! Maybe they'll go take care of The Keepers and just leave us alone! Maybe the best thing for us to do is to take their side -- hope that we can work something out with them!"
"There's no working something out with these creatures, Randy! They only understand destruction! Slaughter! We can't give in to them! P
olyphemus must get to Cape Canaveral; no matter what the cost! If we don't stop The Phloxans, they'll destroy everything!"
"Yeah?" I snapped. "That sounds like your problem! They said they'd let me and Sammy live! That we wouldn't be hurt! I think I'm ready to take that deal, Mister Hughes! To hell with the rest of you! He is the only thing that I'm concerned with!"
"Think about this, Randy!" He commanded. "Give it some serious consideration! You're suggesting making a deal with the devil! That never turns out well, does it? Listen... The Phloxans don't do anything without thinking through all of the consequences. They know that you are linked to the Tal-Gashot... that if they hurt your son, you might be compelled to hurt yourself. That would spoil everything for them! They must be considering that angle too!"
"Maybe they don't want that thing! Maybe they decided that it would be better if it was just off the table all together! One less thing for them to worry about!"
"They need it, Randy! There are significant challenges ahead of them, things far more powerful than The Keepers awaiting them at the edges of the universe! That is just what we need to beat them! They're looking beyond us! We're just a speed bump! That means their guard is down, and we might just be able to sneak in a sucker punch that levels them once and for all! We must get Polyphemus to the launch pad! They're bluffing about hurting your boy, and we have to call them on it!"
As hard as it was to hear, I knew he was right. There was a lot at stake... more than I could imagine. Maybe this was that moment at which I had to look at the big picture instead of focusing on my little corner of the world. I wasn't willing to sacrifice the life of my son, even for those of every human being walking the face of the Earth... but maybe there was some way I could preserve all of them.
"I have to stop!" I said, wrestling the big wheel to cut through the creeping traffic.
I jumped onto the shoulder and rolled towards an exit nearby... there was a truck stop there; I could use a coffee and a piss break along with the time I needed to think. There was much to consider before I decided which way Big Red would be headed next...
Once I was parked, I jumped hastily out of the truck. I took my Marlboro's and lighter so that I could have a smoke break, alone. My door didn't close entirely when I stormed off towards the station, allowing me to overhear Hughes as he talked to someone on his own cell.
"This is Agent Hughes." He said somberly. "We may have a real problem here."
Chapter 21