Stinger

While Cody had been spinning his yarn about the Mumbler, Ray Hammond stared from the window of his room and let himself think what might happen if he was to go aWOL.

I'd get my butt beat, that's what, he decided. and I'd deserve it too.

But still... He'd been in his room for about two hours, had plugged the headphones into his boom box and listened to Billy Idol, Clash, Joan Jett, and Human League tapes while he worked on a plastic model of a SuperBlitzer Go-Bot. His mother had come in about twenty minutes ago, bringing him a ham sandwich, some potato chips, and a Pepsi, and had told him that Daufin was still motionless in the kitchen. It was best that he stay here, out of the way, until the air-force men took the creature away, she'd said - and Ray had seen how that idea tore his mother up inside, but what was her choicei The thing in the kitchen was no longer Stevie; that was a bone-dry fact.

Thinking about his sister being gone, while her body stood in the kitchen, was a weird trip. Ray had always thought of Stevie as a little monkey, getting into his tape collection, his models, even once almost finding the cache of Penthouse magazines at the back of his closet, but of course he loved the brat; she'd been around for six years, and now... and now, he thought, she was gone but her body remained. But what had Daufin meant about Stevie being protectedi Was Stevie gone forever, or noti Weird, weird trip.

From his window he could see a blue neon sign farther down Celeste Street, between the Boots 'n Plenty shoestore and the Ringwald Drugstore; the sign read WaRP ROOM. That was where everybody would be hanging out tonight, playing the arcade games and buzzing about the helicopter landing in Preston Park. They'd be cooking up rumors right and left, really throwing the tales around, and the place would be full of smash foxes. and of everybody there - all the 'Gades and jocks and party animals - only he would know the truth.

Right, he told himself. My sister got dusted today, and I'm thinking about girls. X Ray, you're the king turd, man.

But his mother had said something to him about twenty minutes ago that he heard a lot: Stay out of the way.

That seemed to be his middle name. Ray Stay out of the way Hammond. If it wasn't the older guys saying it to him at school, it was his own folks. even Paco LeGrande, today, had been telling him to stay out of the way. Ray knew he was a zero with girls and not too sharp on looks, his talent in sports was nonexistent, and all anybody like him could do was stay out of the way.

"Dammit," he said, very softly. The Warp Room beckoned him. But he was supposed to stay here, and he knew for sure that Colonel Rhodes didn't want him going outside and telling everybody that an alien had come to visit Inferno. Forget it, he thought. Just stay here, out of the way.

But for one night - one night - he could stroll into the Warp Room and be somebody, even if he didn't tell a soul.

Before he knew what his fingers were doing, he unhooked the window's latch.

Going aWOL was a serious offense, he thought. Like Dad-would-blow-his-top kind of offense. Indefinite-grounding offense.

One night.

He pushed the window up about three inches; it made a faint skreeking noise.

Still can change your mind, he told himself. But he figured his folks wouldn't check in with him for a while; he could go to the Warp Room and come back before they ever knew he was gone.

He pushed the window up another few inches.

"Rayi" a knock at his door, and his father's voice.

He froze. He knew his dad wouldn't come in without being invited. "Yes siri" "You all righti" "Yes sir." "Listen... sorry I jumped you. It's just, you know, that this is kind of a trying time for everybody. We don't know what Daufin's doing, and... we want Stevie back, if that's possible. Maybe it's not. But we can hope, huhi" Tom paused, and in that pause Ray almost slid the window back down, but the Warp Room's blue neon burned in his eyeglasses. "You want to come outi I think it'd be okay." "I'm..." Oh, Lord, he thought. "I'm... just gonna listen to some music, Dad. On my headphones. I'll just stay in here, out of the way." There was a silence. Then: "Sure you're all righti" "Yes sir. I'm sure." "Okay. Well, come on out when you want." Ray heard his father's footsteps, moving along the corridor to the den. Murmured voices, Dad and Mom talking.

It was time to go, if he was going. He slid the window all the way up, climbed out with his heart pounding a fugitive rhythm; he slid the window down when he was out, and he ran along Celeste Street toward the Warp Room. If there was one thing he could do well, it was run.

But he found the Warp Room not nearly as crowded as he'd expected; in fact, only six or seven kids were inside, milling around the pinball machines. The Warp Room's walls were painted deep violet, with sparkly stars dashed here and there. Day-Glo painted planets dangled on wires from the ceiling, being stirred into small orbits by the fans. arcade machines - Galaxian, Neutron, Space Hunter, Gunfighter, and about ten more - stood bleeping and burping for attention. every so often the speaker atop the Space Hunter machine boomed out a metallic challenge: "attention, earthlings! Do you dare do battle with Space Hunteri Prepare for action! Prepare to be destroyed!" at the back of the place, its manager - an elderly man named Kennishaw - sat on a folding metal chair reading a copy of Texas Outdoorsman magazine. a change-making machine stood next to him, and on the wall was a sign demanding NO CURSING, NO BeTTING, NO FIGHTING.

"X Ray! How's it hangin', mani" Ray saw Robby Falkner standing with Mike Ledbetter over by the Galaxian machine. Both of them were freshmen, and both of them were Nerd Club members in good standing. "Yo, Ray!" Mike called, in a voice that hadn't yet lost its childhood squeak. Ray walked to them, glad to see anybody he knew. He noted a 'Gade standing near the back, playing pinball; the boy's name was Stoplight, because his hair was dyed red on top and green on the sides.

"How's it goin'i" Robby gave Ray a high five while Mike concentrated on beating a few more points out of Galaxian.

"Okay. How about youi" "I'll do. Man, that was neat about the chopper, huhi I saw it take off. Man, that was neat!" "I saw it too," Mike commented. "Know what I heardi It wasn't any meteor that fell, no way! It was a satellite the Russians put up. One of those death satellites, and that's why it's radioactive." "Yeah, well you know what Billy Thellman heardi" Robby leaned in closer, gathering the other boys together to share a secret. "It wasn't any meteor or a satellite." "So what was iti" Ray kept his voice cool.

"It was a jet. a super-secret jet that crashed. Billy Thellman said he knew somebody who drove out there to see it, only the air-force men have got Cobre Road blocked off. So this guy started out on foot, and he walked and walked until he came across this crane scoopin' pieces of somethin' off the ground, and all these men in radiation suits. anyway, they stopped this guy out there and they took his name and address and they got his fingerprints on a little white card too. They said they could take him to jail for sneakin' around out there." "Gnarly," Mike said.

"Right. So they asked him what he'd seen, and he told 'em, and that's when they let him in on the secret. Billy says he heard it was an F-911, and that was the only one the air force had." "Wow," Ray said.

"Man, look at her!" Mike whispered, furtively motioning to a lean blond girl who hung on the shoulder of a boy playing Gunfighter. "That's Laurie Rainey. Man, I hear she can just about suck the chrome off a fender!" "Smash fox," Robby observed. "She's got skinny legs, though." "Man, you wouldn't think they were skinny if they were wrapped around your ass! Shit!" Mike thumped the Galaxian machine with his fist, because the game had ended and he hadn't beat his best score. Old eagle eyes Kennishaw saw it, and hollered, "Hey, boy! Don't you hit on the machines!" His ire vented, he returned to his magazine.

The three boys drifted past Laurie Rainey for a closer look, and were rewarded with a whiff of her perfume. She was holding on to her date's belt, which Mike pointed out in a whisper was a sure sign that a girl was hotter than a short-fused firecracker.

"How come you're so quieti" Robby asked Ray when they'd wandered over to the row of pinball machines.

"Mei I'm not quiet." "are so. Man, you're usually jawin' up a storm. Folks on your casei" "No." "So what it is, theni" Robby leaned against a machine and cleaned his fingernails with a match.

"Nothin'. I'm just quiet, that's all." It burned in him, but he knew he must not spill it.

Mike jabbed him in the ribs. "I think you're hidin' somethin', cockhead." "No, I'm not. Really." Ray dug his hands into his pockets and stared at a spot on the discolored linoleum. That crap about an F-911 had almost brought a laugh out, and he struggled not to smile. "Forget it." "Forget whati" Robby asked, fired up by the idea that a secret was being kept. "Come on, X Ray! Let's hear it!" It was so close to being told. In one more minute, he might be the most sought-after kid in Inferno. all kinds of smash foxes would be crowding around to hear. But no, he couldn't do it! It wasn't right! Still, his mouth was starting to open, and what would come out of it he didn't know. He was forming the words in his mind: Let's just say I know it wasn't any damned F-9 -  "Looky here, looky here! Where's your girlfriend, fuckmeati" Ray knew that slurred, dark-toned voice. He whirled toward the doorway.

Three of them were standing there: Paco LeGrande, a plastic splint along the bridge of his nose and bandages stuck to his cheeks and forehead to secure it; Ruben Hermosa, grinning and damp-faced, his eyes bloodshot on weed; and Juan Diegas, another husky Rattlesnake.

Paco limped just a little as he took two steps forward, his combat boots clunking on the floor. all conversations within the Warp Room had ceased, all attention riveted to the invaders. "I asked you where your girlfriend was," Paco repeated, smiling thinly, his face swollen and purple circles ringing his eyes. He cracked his knuckles. "She's not around to save your skinny ass, is shei" "attention, earthlings!" the Star Hunter's speaker boomed. "Do you dare do battle with Star Hunteri Prepare for action! Prepare to be destroyed!" "Oh, shit," Mike Ledbetter whispered, and quickly backpedaled from Ray's side. Robby stood his ground a few seconds longer before he, too, abandoned Ray to his fate.

"You'd better get out, man!" It was Stoplight. "You're on 'Gade territory!" "Was I talkin' to youi Shut your hole, you fuckin' freak!" Stoplight wasn't nearly as big as the boys who blocked the door, and he knew he had no chance against them. "We don't want any trou - " "Shut up!" Juan Diegas roared. "Your ass is mine, fucker!" Kennishaw was on his feet. "Listen here! I won't have that kind of language in - " With one quick, enraged motion, Paco turned and grasped a pinball machine. Muscles twitched in his forearms, and he threw the entire thing over on its side. Tilt bells rang madly, glass shattered, and sparks shot from the machine's innards.

The other kids trembled like live wires in a high wind. Kennishaw's face reddened, and he reached for the pay phone on the wall, his hand digging for a quarter.

"You want to keep that hand, you sonofabitchi" Paco asked him - not loudly, just matter-of-factly. Kennishaw saw the fury in the boy's eyes, and fear lanced him; he blinked, his mouth working but making no noise. The red cast of his face was fading to gray. He pulled his hand out of his pocket, quarterless.

"Muchas gracias." Paco sneered. His gaze jerked back to Ray Hammond. "You had a real good laugh at me today, didn't youi" Ray shook his head. Paco's eyes were inflamed, and Ray knew all three Rattlers had to be in the stratosphere on maryjane or they wouldn't have dared come to the Warp Room.

"You callin' me a liar, you li'l fruiti" Two more strides, and Paco was within strike range.

"No." Juan and Ruben laughed. Ruben leapt up, grabbed a papier-mache model of Saturn and yanked it off its wire. Juan slammed into the aqua Marines machine like a mad bull and crashed it to the floor.

"Please... don't..." Kennishaw begged, plastered against the wall like a butterfly.

"I say you are," Paco prodded. "I say I heard you laughin' at me, and now you're callin' me a liar." If his heart beat any harder, Ray figured he was going to sound like a human drum. He almost retreated from Paco, but what was the pointi There was nowhere to run. He had to stand and deal with it, and hope that some 'Gades would walk through the door real soon.

"Nobody wants to fight, man!" Stoplight said. "Why don't you take offi" Paco grinned. "I want to fight." and there was a crash and sizzle of sparks as Juan threw over another machine. Paco stared fixedly at Ray. "I told you, didn't Ii I told you to stay out of my way." Ray swallowed. Laurie Rainey was watching, and Robby, and Mike, and all the others. He knew he was about to be beaten; that was a fact. But there were worse things, and one of them was cringing. He felt a tight grin ripple across his mouth, saw that it puzzled even Paco for a second. Ray stepped forward to meet him, and said, "Fuck you." The blow was so fast he didn't even see it coming. It hit him in the jaw, lifted him off his feet, and knocked him into the Neutron machine. He went down on his knees, his glasses hanging from one ear and the taste of blood in his mouth. Paco's fist closed on his shirt, began to reel him to his feet.

Stoplight ran for the door, but Juan Diegas was quick; he aimed a kick that hit Stoplight in the shoulder and brought a yell of pain from him. Stoplight fell, and at once Juan was on him, flailing with his fists.

Ray saw Paco's leering face above him. He raised his fist to strike that face, but his arm was caught and pinned. Behind Paco, Ruben was leaping up, whooping with glee every time he plucked a planet off its wire.

Paco's fist lifted. It looked giant-sized, the knuckles scarred and rough.

Ray thrashed to escape, balanced on the toes of his sneakers. He could find no traction.

The fist reared back, hesitated - then whammed forward.

His mouth bleeding, Ray skidded backward under a pinball machine.