The Storm Spirits
Chapter Eleven

“Do? I didn’t do anything!” he exclaimed, clearly confused.

The kid shoved his hair out of his face, and I saw anger written into his features. “Oh, yeah? Then why have the rest of us been arrested?” He jabbed a finger in my direction. “You told her, didn’t you?”

“Told me what?” I asked, standing up.

“I didn’t!” Zack yelled, ignoring me. “For the umpteenth time, I didn’t tell her!”

“Didn’t tell me what?” I demanded, but I was ignored again.

“If you’re lying …”

“I’m not!”

“What is going on?” I burst out, finally getting their attention. By that time, we’d drawn the attention of all the customers in the shop, but neither man seemed to care. I glanced around self-consciously. “Guys, let’s take this outside, OK?”

The new kid shook his head. “That’s the problem.”

Police suddenly burst into the coffee shop, pointing guns and tasers as us. “On your knees with your hands above your head!” one shouted. Both men glanced at each other, then complied. I started to, but one of the officers stopped me. “No need, ma’am, we know you’re not one of them.”

I watched as they handcuffed Zack and his friend and led them out of the shop. The place had gone dead quiet as soon as the police had come in and it remained that way. I tapped the nearest officer on the shoulder. “Excuse me. Can you tell me what’s going on?”

The officer turned to me, pulling his gun away as he did so. “Who are you, ma’am? How do you know these two?”

I swallowed hard. “Um …”

“It’s all right, you’re not in trouble. I just need to know how you know them.” He was very gentle, and it sort of put me at ease.

“Well … Zack ran into me the first day I was here, then he asked me out, and I’ve been seeing him every day. What’s going on? What’s he done?”

The officer had been writing down my words. “Ma’am, I’m going to need you to come down to the station with me and make a statement.”

I blinked. “Oh … OK.” He guided me out of the building and down to where several police cars were waiting. I saw Zack in one of them and gave him a questioning look; he turned away, almost as if he was ashamed. The officer opened the door of one of the cars, and I got in. It was a very short drive to the station, and they made me wait until Zack and his friend were out and inside before they let me get out of the car.

Once inside, they ushered me right to the chief’s office. She stood up when I entered and held out her hand to me. “Chief Dwyer; good to meet you.” The officer who had escorted me shut the door behind us and stationed himself behind me.

I shook her hand. “Charlotte Tyke.”

She motioned for me to sit down; I did. “Can you give me some information about yourself?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Where do you live? How old are you? If you’re here on vacation, then where are you staying? Who are you with? Who else knows?”

“I’m twenty-one, and I’m on vacation here with my Nana.” A pen scratched softly on the notebook sitting on the desk. “We’re staying in the second floor of the blue beach-front home on Second Street … I can’t remember the address. I’m from around Philadelphia, and I go to a community college in my hometown. What do you mean, who else knows?”

She didn’t answer my question. “They told me over the radio that you’ve been dating one of the aliens?”

I gave her a funny look as I shifted in my seat. “Aliens? What aliens?”

“The man you’ve been seeing is an alien; didn’t he tell you?” Chief Dwyer sat down behind her desk. She put her elbows up on top of her desk and looked at me curiously.

I shook my head. “No … Zack’s an alien? Are you messing with me?”

The chief shook her head back. “No, I’m afraid not. The FBI has been tracking them ever since NASA picked them up coming into our solar system. We were just unfortunate that they landed here.”

I sat back, stunned. “No … that’s not possible … aliens … they aren’t real. Are they?”

“They are.” Putting my hands up, I held my head. “Charlotte, I need you to tell me something. How involved were you two?”

I looked up. “Involved?” She nodded. “Involved? Like …”

“Like how close did you get?”

I stared at her. “If you’re thinking … no! No, we didn’t even kiss! I barely know him! All we did was go to the beach, get supper, play mini-golf, and get coffee! That’s all!” I rubbed my temples. “It was just supposed to be a week-long summer fling, just something fun until Nana and I got back home.”

She nodded again. “Good. I don’t like prying into stuff like that, but in this case, your safety comes first.”

“I need to call Nana,” I mumbled, slumping over and letting my head drop with a small thud onto the desk in front of me. “Ow.”

“We’ll contact her for you in a little bit. Right now, I need to get more information. What’s your Nana’s name and phone number?”

“Right.” I sighed and sat up. “Her name is Cleo Tyke.” The chief wrote down what I was saying, and I gave her Nana’s phone number. “I just met Zack randomly on the beach one day.” My hands were anxiously playing Thumb War in my lap. “I don’t even know if anything he told me is true, since it now appears that he’s an alien!” I ran a hand through my hair. “I wish I could talk to him now and get some straight answers!”

Chief Dwyer rubbed her chin. “He trusts you, right?”

“I mean, I think he has an insane crush on me. So that probably means he trusts me, I don’t know.”

“Let’s use that.” She looked me in the eye. “Would you agree to be in the same room as him and ask him some questions? You’d be wearing a mic, and we’d be talking to you through and earpiece. It’d be a great help to us, because we haven’t had a lot of luck yet. Granted we’ve only been trying for about ten minutes, but it would help us out greatly if you would do this.”

I thought for a minute, then nodded slowly. “Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do it. I’d like some straight answers myself.”

Chief Dwyer stood up. “Officer Holland, put the prisoner-” She stopped and glanced down at me. “Which one is he?”

“Zack.”

“Put Zack in the interrogation room. Then get Miss Tyke a mic and earpiece and send her in.” The officer nodded and left the room quickly. “We’ll be prompting you if you run out of questions to ask him yourself, and we’ll also have the room surrounded so that we can get to you quickly in the event that he attacks you. Do you think he will?” She peered at me closely.

I rose. “Something tells me he wouldn’t, but I guess I can’t really count on my feelings at this point. Would your weapons even work on an alien?”

She shrugged. “We don’t know, but we can sure try.” She motioned for me to follow her out, and I did. We walked down some halls to a small room with a mirrored window. I looked in and saw Zack, handcuffed to the table and staring at his hands. “He can’t see you, don’t worry.”

I nodded. “I know.” Someone came over and helped me put on the mic and earpiece that Chief Dwyer had said I’d be wearing. Officers gathered in the hallways around us as Officer Holland opened the door to the room. I took a deep breath and went in.