Blackstone

A Meeting in London

I blinked, shook my head and looked around. What had just happened? It didn't seem like anything at all.

            Outside the beamship's windows, thick clouds flew by like dark apparitions.

            Suddenly, lights blazed below us and I made out the familiar landmarks of London, England: Big Ben, London Bridge, and the rolling Thames snaked by underneath us.

            David pressed a button on the dashboard and turned to look back at me. "How do you feel?" he asked.

            I did a physical inventory. I didn't feel nauseous or lighthearted. "I'm fine. Don't you think you should be flying the, whatever you call this thing?"

            "Don't worry. Cassie will take us in from here. Nicole, check her out," David said.

            Nicole brought her Razor Phone up. A brilliant, blue light shot out from it and enveloped me, sweeping up and down from head to toe. Nicole looked at the readings.

            "All readouts and life signs are in the green. Pretty remarkable for a first jump, worm," she said with a grudging hint of respect.

            "Thanks," I said.

            David swooped the beamship down into a brightly lit area of the city. I looked out the window and saw fashionably dressed young people parading around fancy restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Energy thrummed and filled the air. This was obviously the party district of the city.

            David landed the beam ship in a back alley and disengaged the cloaking device. With a shimmer of energy, the beamship solidified in the dark alley.

            "Wait," I said, pointing to David and Nicole's black jumpsuits, "You're going clubbing in those outfits. Don't you think you'll look a little out of place?"

            Nicole smiled and waved for her phone, "Relax, worm." The phone zipped up in front of her and a holographic display of a dozen different outfits popped up. Nicole selected an outfit – a killer red dress with tall stilettos. A red orange beam shot out of her phone and a few seconds later, Nicole was dressed in her outfit with perfect hair and makeup. She looked back at me and grinned, blue eyes flashing from under dark eyeliner.

            Beside her, David selected a sleek looking suit from his phone display and a second later, he was looking like a cover model from a men's magazine. "All right, let's go," he said.

            We walked out of the alley. I turned and looked back at the expensive looking car sitting there totally exposed in the dingy alley. "Aren't you all worried about the car... uh, beamship, whatever you call it," I said.

            "Cassie can take care of herself," said David.

            We turned the corner and ran smack into a throng of people waiting in a long line that stretched all the way up the block. Up ahead, a nightclub thumped a loud bass beat out into the night. A large spectacular neon sign proclaimed in great red letters – JURRASIC.

            I struggled to keep up with David and Nicole and cursed myself for wearing high heels. I'd worn heels twice. Both times at school dances and I'd never really gotten the hang of it. I couldn't get over how David and Nicole seemed perfectly at ease in the fashionable crowd despite everyone being much older than them. I'd noticed something about them both, despite being just a few years older than me, they carried themselves with effortless confidence and self assurance. It was like they were royalty walking among commoners. On Nicole, it came across as sheer arrogance but with David it was different. He treated everyone as an equal, like a benevolent ruler who loved his subjects.