“There are cars,” Sheila said, twisting around in her seat. “But I don’t see anyone I recognize.”
The moment the words left Sheila’s lips, Eugene jammed on the brakes. The tiny four-cylinder rental car shuddered and jackknifed from side to side. Its tires screeched in protest against the pavement, as did the tires of the cars behind.
Eugene did not stop completely, but still the car behind thumped into them. But he had accomplished what he’d wanted to do. The three CDC cars had sped ahead before belatedly putting on their brakes. That gave Eugene the opportunity to turn left across traffic. Nancy screamed as she saw oncoming cars bearing down on her side of the vehicle.
Eugene stomped on the accelerator to avoid a collision and shot into the mouth of a narrow alley. It was filled with trash and several trash barrels. Its width was just adequate for the small car so that all the garbage, cardboard boxes, and barrels were met head on in a flurry of flying debris.
Nancy and Sheila hung on for dear life.
“My God, Eugene!” Nancy shouted as they hit a particularly large barrel that flipped up to bounce off the roof of the car. In the process it shattered the sun roof.
Eugene fought the steering wheel to keep the car going straight despite the rubbish and the containers. Still the car caromed repeatedly off the cement walls with an agonizing scraping sound akin to fingernails on a giant blackboard.
Toward the rear of the alley the way was clear, and Eugene hazarded a glance in the rearview mirror. To his horror he could see the front of the red car just entering the narrow byway.
“Eugene, look out!” Nancy cried, pointing ahead.
Eugene took his gaze away from the rearview mirror in time to see a cyclone fence rushing toward them. Deciding there was little choice, he yelled for the women to hold on and pushed the accelerator to the floor.
The tiny car gained speed. Both Eugene and Nancy were roughly thrown against their seat belts while Sheila bounced off the back of the front seat.
Despite trailing segments of the fence the tiny car sped out into a field churning up plumes of dust. It jackknifed several more times, but on each occasion Eugene was able to steer into the skid to keep the car from rolling over.
The vacant lot was about a hundred yards square and treeless. Ahead Eugene could see a rise stubbled with scraggly vegetation. Beyond the rise was a busy part of the city. Over the crest of the hill the tops of vehicles caught in stop-and-go traffic were visible.
With his mouth dry and forearms aching, Eugene cast another look behind. The red car was attempting to maneuver through the hole in the chain-link fence. The white car was immediately behind it.
Eugene’s hastily conceived plan was to rocket over the hill and melt into the traffic. But the terrain had other ideas. The earth was particularly soft, and as the small car’s front wheels hit the base of the hill, they dug in. The car spun to the left and lurched to a halt in a cloud of dust. All three of the occupants were severely jolted.
Eugene was the first to recover. He reached out to touch his wife. She responded as if waking from a bad dream. He turned to look at Sheila. She was dazed but okay.
Eugene undid his seat belt and got out on shaky legs and looked toward the chain-link fence. The red car was apparently hung up in the ragged opening: the sound of its tires spinning could be heard across the field.
“Come on!” Eugene called to the women. “We have a chance. Let’s get over this hill and melt into the city.”
The women emerged on the passenger side of the car. As they did so Eugene nervously glanced back at the red car in time to see the bearded man get out.
“Come on, hurry!” Eugene urged the women. Expecting the bearded man to come running in their direction, Eugene was surprised to see him retrieve something from the car. When he held it aloft, Eugene thought it suspiciously like the Tupperware container they’d brought with them to Atlanta.
Confused by this gesture, Eugene continued to watch while Nancy and Sheila helped each other up the hill. A few seconds later Eugene found himself staring at one of the black discs. To his utter shock it was hovering in midair right in front of his face.
“Come on, Eugene!” Nancy called from near the summit of the rise. “What are you waiting for?”
“It’s a black disc,” Eugene yelled back.
Eugene noticed that the disc was rotating rapidly. The individual bumps that lined the edge now appeared like a tiny ridge.
The black disc moved closer to Eugene. His skin tingled.
“Eugene!” Nancy called urgently.
Eugene took a step back but did not take his eyes off the disc in front of him, which was now turning red and radiating heat. Slipping off his jacket and rolling it, Eugene swatted at the disc in an attempt to knock it from the air. But it didn’t happen. Instead the disc burned a hole through the jacket so quickly, Eugene felt no resistance whatsoever. It had been like a knife through room-temperature butter.
“Eugene!” Nancy shouted. “Come on!”
As a physicist, Eugene was mystified, especially when a corona began to form around the disc and the color began to turn from red to white. The tingling sensation he felt on his skin increased.
The corona rapidly expanded into a glaring ball of light so bright that the image of the disc contained in it was no longer visible.
Nancy could now see what was occupying Eugene’s attention. She was about to call out to him again when she saw the bright ball of light suddenly expand to engulf her husband. Eugene’s instant scream was immediately choked off and replaced by a whooshing sound. This noise grew deafening, but only for an instant; then it was cut off with such suddenness that Nancy and Sheila felt a concussive force like a silent explosion.
Eugene was gone. The rental car was left as a curiously twisted hulk as if it had been melted and pulled toward the point where Eugene had been standing.
Nancy started to run back down the hill, but Sheila grabbed her.
“No!” Sheila yelled. “We can’t.” There was now another ball of light forming next to the wreck of the car.
“Eugene!” Nancy cried desperately. Tears had burst forth.
“He’s gone,” Sheila said. “We have to get out of here.”
The second ball of light was now expanding to envelop the car.
Sheila grabbed Nancy’s arm and pulled her off the top of the hill toward the busy city. Ahead of them was heavy traffic and, even better, thousands of pedestrians. Behind them they heard the strange whooshing sound again and another concussion.
“What on earth was that?” Nancy asked through tears.
“I believe they thought we were in the car,” Sheila said. “And if I had to guess, I’d say we just witnessed the creation of a couple of miniature black holes.”
“Why haven’t we heard from them?” Jonathan asked. He’d become progressively more worried as the day drew to a close. Now that it was dark, his concerns magnified. “I mean, it’s even later in Atlanta.”
Jonathan, Jesse, Cassy, and Pitt were in Jesse’s car cruising along Jonathan’s street. They’d passed his house several times already. Jesse was nervous about making this visit, but he’d relented when Jonathan insisted he needed some more clothes and his laptop. He also wanted to make sure his parents hadn’t called and left some kind of message on his computer.
“Your parents and Dr. Miller are probably terribly busy,” Cassy said. But her heart wasn’t in the explanation. She herself was worried.
“What do you think, Jesse?” Pitt asked as they came to Jonathan’s house for the third time. “Do you think it’s safe?”
“It looks clear to me,” Jesse said. “I don’t see anything that looks like a stakeout. All right, let’s do it, but we’ll make it fast.”