Serial Designation

Chapter 8

Eve shifted her weight nervously. "Uuum. So! What, uh. What are we cooking for dinner?" It was obvious she was trying to take our minds off the scary thought of what could happen to Carl, but it wasn't really working. I don't even know why I feel so attached to Carl, it's like the feeling you get after meeting a puppy for the first time.

After another few moments of silence, Carl looked like he was gonna say something, but then refrained, twice.

Nix saw. "What's up?" she said to him.

Carl looked hesitant. "What if... what if I hide?"

"What do you mean?" Eve asked.

"It'd be very hard to conceal you," I say. "What with how tall you are."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Carl said. "Anyway, normal hiding isn't what I meant. I can camouflage, meaning—"

"You can look like your surroundings," I finish. Nix, Eve and I exchanged knowing glances.

"Well, yes," Carl said.

"Is there a limit?" Eve asked.

"Not really, except for the fact that I can't make a lot of contact with anything. It's hard to explain, it makes the camo... reflect instead of copy? And that would look weird."

I thought about it for a moment. "What story do we tell Sophia and Derek?"

"Well, they certainly were intimidating," Eve says, "despite... childish behavior from Derek." Nix and I giggled. Mom smiled. "We could tell them that Carl got frightened and ran off."

"Good plan," Nix says.

"I have a question," Carl says. "What if they have something like, I don't know, the cat. They could have a sensor thingy."

"Solved." Radar speaks; I'd forgotten he was still here. "Directive EMP. Disable their electronics without harm to anything else."

"Oh, thanks, cat!" Carl says.

"It's Radar, peasant."

"Oh..."

Just then, there was a bang on the door. "FBI, OPEN UP!!" called Derek's voice.

"WE AIN'T THE FBI, MORON! Get back!" Sophia reprimanded.

"How did they get here so fast?" Eve frets.

"Carl, hide!!" I hiss at him.

Immediately, it was like Carl melted from existence. "How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked, invisible.

"Uuuh—"

"Good."

There was a knock on the door again.

"Malt family, this is Sophia and Derek from the DNA, we spoke over the phone. Open the door."

Mom made sure everything was good by getting a confirmed thumbs-up from Nix and I.

Eve nudged us and gestured at us to act worried by pouting and pointing at her own face.

Mom ruffled her hair a bit, and opened the door. "Hi..." she said, her voice saddened convincingly.

"May we come in?" Sophia asked.

"Of course," Mom let the two agents in, and then closed the door, discreetly locking it.

"Nice, place," Sophia.

"Nice place to hide someone," Derek scowled.

"Hey—" Sophia started to reproach Derek, but then stopped. "Actually, yeah. Where's the Designation?"

"He..." Mom sighed. "He ran."

Sophia whipped her head to face Mom. "What? It ran, why?"

"You must have frightened him. He was scared you'd take him away anyway." Eve fretted with her sweater sleeves.

Sophia scanned the living room, then went into the kitchen, then down the hall to all of the other rooms. Derek watched us like a hawk until she came back.

"They must be right, it musta split."

"He," I say, slightly waspish.

Sophia looked at me. "Excuse me?"

I stutter. "I-it... the Designation... it's a he."

Sophia bent over to make eye contact with me, like a cat peering through a mousehole. "And why," she said, giving me a face full of not-unpleasant coffee breath, "would you think so?"

"Well, did you see him?" Nix says. "He looks like a homeless emo boy. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck..."

"It's still not a human being. It's a killer machine that needs to be dealt with."

"Didn't seem very killer over the video call, though, did he?" I challenged. Sophia gave me a look that would have shriveled anyone else, but I just glared right back until Eve pulled me away from Sophia's menacing glower.

"Coulda been fake. He could have been acting to get to you, as he evidently did," Sophia said. Derek nodded in agreement.

The lamp next to where Carl was hiding shifted a bit, and it looked like part of a mirror reflecting the lamp flashed into existence for a split second. Sophia looked over at the place, and I sensed, although he was invisible, she was looking right at Carl.

"Sorry to startle," Radar stalked out from behind the stand where the lamp was sitting. "Thought I saw a mouse."

Sophia looked at him, then the lamp. She grunted and then led Derek to the door, which Mom secretly unlocked before they left.

"Be careful," Sophia said, pulling her sunglasses down enough to glance at all of us with bright hazel eyes. Then she stalked out the door, Derek following; he made an "I'm watching you" gesture and left.

Carl waited until we heard the rev of their Pod leaving to show himself, a sad look on his face. Nix wrenched open the door, and, carrying her sledgehammer, marched over to our mailbox and hit a small black object attached to its wooden post, baseball-style. She picked it up

off the ground, and came back in, huffing, throwing it onto the living room table. Eve picked it up and examined it in all it's smashed glory.

"Yep. Camera, all right," she said.

Carl looks sad. "Do you guys... think I'm a monster?"

Everyone started saying stuff simultaneously, but Carl caught every word of what we were saying, and smiled.

After Mom finished making dinner and we all ate (except Carl and Radar, both of whom sat on the couch playing chess), we headed for bed. My night was a little sleepless, because I was worried that Sophia and Derek might come back.

It's okay, I thought. We have a badass cat, it'll be fine.