While the Children Sleep - Short Story Collection (Complete)

A Night To Remember

Never before has a man paced around so much. Maybe there have been instances in the past that would call for such action, and maybe there has even been some great pacers before now, but at this moment those pacers were irrelevant. Why? Because at this moment a man was standing in the square of his fair city, pacing. Up and down. Left and right. There seemed to be no end to this man's worrisome movements as he fretted about the whereabouts of the person that was supposed to have been here fifteen stellar minutes ago.

The man sighs, wondering why today of all days that his friend had to be late. They were interstellar cops for crying out loud! The man continues his pacing before taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down. He was sure his partner had an excellent reason for being late on the day that they had such a crucial mission to do! You see this man works on Florian Gosemer, a popular alien tourist planet for humans. On most days you could spot him in his white and blue police uniform patrolling the city. Though it would be impossible to recognize him now because all officers are required to wear a complete face mask while on patrol. Not because it their lives were in danger if they didn't have the mask, but because his police chief thought it would go so well with the uniforms. And no matter how much anyone tries deny it, the truth is the mask really were a nice touch. The face mask also made the officers seem a little more...in charge? This could get really challenging to explain so before the man gives himself a headache thinking about how the mask effect everyone's interactions with them he goes back to something he never knew he was good at: pacing. And this officer will continue to pace for as long as-

"Frankie!" A familiar voice shouts out of the blue. Frankie turns towards the sound to see his best friend, and fellow officer, run up to him with a goofy grin on his face. Ah yes Travis was such an odd fellow at times. Often times he acts aloof to certain pieces of information when in reality he's fully aware of whatever could possibly be going on at that time.

"You're late!" Frankie shouts back feigning like he was upset, "We were supposed to go check out this planet's aquarium!" What Frankie just said was a bold face lie, but it didn't matter because no one around them would ever realize that. For today, and today only, the two officers had to play tourist in order to sneak around the city with ease because it's rather difficult to sneak around when someone is in full uniform. Fortunately the pair has been on this planet for so long that they could easily impersonate a tourist.

As of late the rise of terrorist like attacks has risen to a new height. It's a baffling case as the officers have no leads on who could be behind these attacks. At this point they're mainly going off of hunches and very questionable informants, meaning that every move they make has to be carefully calculated. The trail they're following is already cold like leftover food in the fridge. the last thing the officers could want is for the trail to get cold like outer space.

"I know and I'm terribly sorry!" Travis responds, his goofy grin disappearing from his face. His voice immediately drops to a whisper that only Frankie would be able to hear, "On the way here I spotted the alien that matched our description of the suspect so I trailed him. Only problem he managed to give me the slip."

"So he knows that you were trailing him?!" Frankie whispers back in alarm. If so, that would basically mean this entire operation was a bust!

Travis quickly shakes his head, "I may have stopped for some food along the way..."

Now it was Frankie's turn to shake his head. He doesn't bother whispering when he says, "Geez Travis you're a hot mess."

"I know I know." Travis was back at his usual speaking volume, "I promise I'll make it up by getting you an awesome souvenir from the gift shop. How's that sound?"

Frankie casually rubs his head as he thinks up a response. Granted how he responded was irrelevant since they weren't actually going to a real aquarium. This was just for the extreme off chance that a shady figure was listening in on their conversation. Highly unluckily, but then again they were dealing with terrorist and the police force wasn't making any bets. They had a duty to protect all the citizens of this fair city, so they'd rather be safe than sorry.