Chapter 28
I WAS USED to being a bad guy to the bad guys, but not a bad guy to the good guys. This was a little too much to absorb.
“Okay, everybody,” I said. “Answer me this: If Number 2 is an intergalactic slaver, why does he want me more than any other creature currently residing on planet Earth?”
“Easy,” said Joe. “You’d be the most awesome slave ever! You could build the pharaoh his pyramids in a heartbeat, just by thinking about them.”
“Maybe…”
Once again, all the TV screens were filled with images of citizens fleeing their homes for the so-called safety of the subway tunnels.
“Well, Dad,” said Mel, “guess you, me, and Agent Williams are the only humans not doing what our president just told us to do.”
Agent Judge shook his head. “This isn’t the America I remember.”
“These colors don’t run,” mumbled Agent Williams, sitting behind the steering wheel.
I turned to my four friends. “Guys, take five.”
“What?” said Dana. “You’re not sending us away again, are you?”
“These colors don’t run, either,” said Willy, slapping his hand over his heart.
“I know, Willy. But I need some time to focus. And to run a quick errand.”
I blinked and my four best friends in the universe disappeared.
“It’s a lot easier to concentrate,” I explained, “when I don’t have to simultaneously imagineer their existence.”
“Of course,” said Mel.
“Wait here, you guys,” I said as I yanked open a side door. “I’ll just be a second.”
“Where are you going?” asked Agent Judge, his voice full of fatherly concern.
“To run that errand and, hopefully, find the America we all remember.” I head-gestured toward the wreckage of what had once been the nation’s temple of freedom.
“Out there?” said Mel.
“Yeah. The rotunda of the National Archives Building. That’s where they kept the original, signed copies of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I need to go grab all three because, if you ask me, this country’s leaders need to reread its charters of freedom!”