Getting over the initial shock of "Nadine," which turned out to be a high-tech, super car that could fly, like something out of Meet the Robinsons, except styled like an Outie, was an interesting time.
The driving of the thing, for Aimé, was a complicated by the fact that he'd never driven a car in his life, never-mind a flying one. All this only added to his nerves and adrenaline, which left him laughing hysterically as he did spins and twirls in the sky, all on accident of course.
"God! Can you put this thing down?!" Calixte had been gripping the upholstery, looking generally pale.
By the time the agent got Aimé to give up the controls (he knew he should never have let the kid drive, he was as reckless as his cousin), they'd run out of gas and had to stop at a gas station, which surprised the locals, to say the least.
The kid was able to step coolly out of the vehicle to grab an energy bar from the station's store, coming down from his rush. The forty year old agent was another story, glaring at the young man's head, keeping himself upright by clinging to the car.
"Fucking, Bastard." He turned to the pump. "Fucking kid, gonna get himself-"
'Dans tout Paris, je m'abondonne
Et je m'envole, vole, vole, vole, vole--'
The agent's ringtone was cut short as he picked up, rolling his eyes. "Agent-"
"Roche, what are you doing taking Nadine out?! I don't remember giving you orders to take her out of testing!"
"Look, Sir," he took off his glasses, wiping his brow with the back of his hand, "I found the evidence we've been looking for. This kid--"
"I don't care about the kid -- or even the evidence! I just need your ass to get over to Marais!"
The blond's eyebrows went up at that. "What's happening in Marais?"
"There's been another incident. Perhaps it pertains to whatever evidence you've gotten from that kid."
Brown eyes checked to see if the kid was back yet. He could just make out his black beanie above the aisle's coming up to the till.
He turned back to the pump, voice low. "A boomerang?"
"Nothing's been confirmed," came after the pause.
His grip on the phone tightened. "But you think--"
"I don't know what I think, Agent. I just know you'll want to be there."
The audible disconnect that came, after the odd sentiment, left him staring perplexed at his cell.
"Hey, did you even fill her up yet?"
Calixte flinched at the intrusion, stashing his cell in his pocket,quickly busying himself with the pump. He could feel the worried gaze on his back, blue eyes full of concern, making him clear his throat. "Sorry. Got distracted..."
"Right," came the unbelieving response. The 'thump' of the kid's butt hitting the seat and the crinkling of a wrapper told him the kid was back in Nadine, lounging comfortably. "So, you gonna tell me what the big plan is with STAMA? The blanks?"
"STAMA," the agent began, "means Science Technological Agency Made Abroad. I'm with the branch located here in France." Nadine was full. "As for your 'blanks,' I guess will find out once we reach our next destination."(Which he would be driving them to.)
"And where's that?"
"Marais."
---
Aimé knew something was off as soon as he said, "Marais." He didn't know why. He didn't know what. He just had a feeling.
Obviously, they were heading there for a reason. Secret agents didn't just go out on joy rides, after all. There had to be a reason. Someone had to be in danger, and he knew quite a lot of someones in Marais.
The first someone coming to mind being his cousin.
The cousin he sent the email to. The email to fill in the blanks... the email...
All of his thoughts stopped.
That couldn't be it, could it?
'You've been dared.'
It was all done through the Internet.
"Holy Shit."
"You okay?" Calixte asked. They were nearing Marais, the lights of ambulances and police cars could be seen from their view point. They were still too far away to tell where exactly the incident took, or was taking, place, but all he could see his cousin's place: in his mind's eye, in the real world, in paranoia.
It sat there.
It became more apparent as they came closer.
The door was wide open.
They were wheeling someone out.
"It's Moïse." But it wasn't Aimé who said it.
He looked at the agent, who was now doing his damn best to park Nadine so they could both scramble out onto the scene, noticing, for the first time, the strong jaw line, the same same shade of blonde.
"You're related to him?"
Brown eyes bore into his blue. "Cousins." He must have finally seen the same, but different, things as the brunet because he asked, "You?"
"Cousins."
The screaming of their aunt broke them out of their odd revelation (being second cousins, who knew?) and they both broke out into a sprint, Calixte waving his badge around like a flag, warding off the other authorities on the scene. The older man went to sooth their family member and get some answers.
Aimé stopped, getting all the answers he needed upon seeing his cousin's glazed, empty, blue eyes.
'You've been dared.'
The blanks. The email. His email.
Those empty blue eyes. His eyes. Their eyes.
'You've been dared.'
He gulped in a big breath of air--
and screamed.
---
"It's no use," Calixte said solemnly. "He's gone." He knew the hand on the kid's shoulder, his family's shoulder, wasn't enough comfort -- that it could never be.
The wailing of his family was ringing in his ears, full of tears. "Shit..."
The agent's ringtone went off. He didn't answer it, letting it play through the drums and the voices of the choir that sounded the marching of an impending storm.
Over the countryside, a storm broke.
YOU ARE READING
Come Back!
Science Fiction'Dares' are serious business, at least, in Richard's mind. To cross them -- leave them unfulfilled -- is unforgivable. So what is a guy supposed to do if he's 'dared' to complete world domination? And what happens to those who's 'dares' are unfulfil...
