Chapter 51
By the time he boarded the bus for school, Mark felt exhausted. It had not taken him long to pull down the bed sheets and remake his bed, but he had been unable to go back to sleep. He had also had no luck in trying to remember the dream.
It was funny, really. He could replay every minute of every day if he so chose. He could read a book he had merely glanced at, even if that glance was a month ago. But the details of his dream whispered at the corners of his mind, only to dissipate like smoke in the wind when he focused on them.
Finally he had given up, pulled out his school books, and done all the assignments for the coming week. That, in itself, was a frightening thing.
Raul. There was something about that little creep that had his subconscious working overtime. It wasn’t that Heather seemed to be infatuated with him. Well, that might have something to do with Mark’s dislike of the guy, but it wasn’t enough to send him into the land of the walking dead.
No. Something else was going on with that dude, and Mark was determined to find out what it was.
The thought of Heather did little to brighten Mark’s mood. He glanced across the bus to the seat where she sat beside Jennifer, smiling and talking to his sister as she always did. She hadn’t been that talkative at the dance last night. Every time he had seen her, she had been draped around Raul out on the dance floor.
A vision of his fist smacking Raul hard enough to send him spinning across the dance floor brought a grim smile to Mark’s lips. Then he shook his head. What was wrong with him today? He didn’t normally take pleasure from imagining beating the crap out of his classmates. With effort he turned his thoughts to other things.
The cold fusion science project was coming along very well. They now had the tank built and were working on the construction of the radiation detection probe, which would also contain what Mark called the subspace tuning fork. In reality it was a doped quartz crystal, carefully mounted in a programmable oscillating circuit.
According to Heather, when in the presence of a small gamma flux, the thing would produce a subspace carrier wave that could be focused wherever they wanted. And that focused subspace signal would induce a real signal at the far end. If Heather’s calculations were correct, which they always were, it would let them put signals on any network in the world. But first, they had to get the damned thing finished.
Mark’s frustration had been building for weeks. There was so much to discover about the Second Ship that he wanted to spend most of his time there. But that wasn’t possible. He, Heather, and Jennifer had to be careful, so they rarely visited it.
Then there were their expanding new abilities. As much as Mark loved playing basketball, it practically made him sick to his stomach to have to hold back from what he could really do. Even his aikido practice wasn’t as good as it could be, mainly because he couldn’t take real classes. He had to rely on what he saw on videotape and read in books for his training. Frustrating.
In the meantime, the Rho Ship sat out there, probed and prodded by people under the domination of Doctor Stephenson, a man who was up to something that he was keeping from the US government. From what Mark had learned about the Rho Ship aliens, that could not be a good thing for this planet.
Flying blind. That was what the three of them had been doing for some time now. They hadn’t even checked if there were more QT recordings. And now this new fling Heather had going with Raul was taking more of her time. Christ. There was just too much important stuff happening for her to be getting involved with anyone right now, much less that dweeb.
Mark squeezed his right hand until his knuckles popped.
“It wasn’t me.” said a voice from across the aisle.
“What?” Mark asked, turning to look at the speaker.
Roger Frederick, a bookish sophomore stared across the aisle of the bus at Mark, his hands raised in mock defense. “Whoever did something to make you mad, it wasn’t me,” Roger said.
“What on Earth are you talking about?”
“Well, the way you were scowling and popping your knuckles, I figured you were about to start cracking heads.”
Mark laughed. “Just thinking about playing the Rockets tonight.”
Roger pretended to wipe his brow. “Good. I wouldn’t want to be them then.”
“Believe me, they won’t want to be themselves either, once we get done with them on the basketball court.”
“Aren’t the district playoffs starting soon?”
“Two weeks.”
“Great. I’m looking forward to watching you play.”
“Thanks.”
The conversation was interrupted by the bus coming to a stop in front of the school. Jennifer and Heather came up beside Mark as he stepped off the bus.
“What was all that about?” Jennifer asked. “I didn’t know you even knew Roger.”
“I don’t. He just started talking to me for some reason. I actually didn’t think the nerd knew what basketball was. Apparently he’s a fan, though.”
Heather patted him on the shoulder. “Wow. That must be exciting for you.”
“Very funny.”
“Oops, there’s Raul. I’ll see you guys in class.”
Mark watched her walk across the steps and take Raul’s hand. Raul’s eyes briefly met his own, and although it was probably only his imagination, it seemed to Mark that Raul had smirked.
“Hey,” said Jennifer, “you’re getting a little rough on pencils aren’t you?”
Mark didn’t remember having taken the pencil from the side of his backpack, but apparently he had been carrying it. Now half of it lay on the ground at his feet, the other half having been crushed into small pieces in his hand.
“Must have gotten a defective one,” said Mark. “I’ll grab another from my locker and meet you at class.”
The tension Mark felt failed to abate as the school day progressed, leaving him feeling as if he were strapped to a medieval rack, each turn of the crank stretching him closer and closer to a snapping point. People around him sensed it and gave him a wide birth. Even Jennifer did her best to stay clear.
As the bell announcing the end of the last class rang and Mark headed for the basketball team meeting, Heather came up to him in the hallway.
“Good luck in the game tonight, Mark. Not that you need it.” Heather smiled, completely unaware of his foul mood.
“I suppose you'll be watching with Raul tonight?” Mark didn’t know why he asked or even why he cared. But he did.
“No, I’ll be sitting with Jennifer. Raul runs a private Bible study a couple of nights a week for some of the kids. Tonight is one of those nights.”
Mark raised an eyebrow. “A private Bible study group?”
Heather nodded. “Raul’s family is very religious, and I guess his miraculous cancer recovery made him even more so. Not surprising considering all he’s been through.”
“If you say so.”
Heather’s eyes suddenly narrowed. “Are you angry with me?”
Mark bit his lip. “No. It’s not you. I just had a hard time sleeping last night so I’ve been grumpy today.”
Heather’s smile returned. “Okay.”
“Listen, I hate to run, but I can’t keep Coach waiting.”
“All right. I’ll be cheering tonight from our regular spot. See you after the game.”
With a wave of her hand, she disappeared into the crowd. For several seconds Mark stared after her, then turned on his heel and headed for the gym.
From the doorway of the biology classroom, Raul Rodriguez watched him go.