"Recall" - Part Three

 

Part Three

            God help any man that stood in Richter’s way, especially on Mars of all places. He just landed at the spaceport with his partner, Helm, and he was already in desperate need of a drink – maybe some time with his wife, who Cohaagen forced to act as Quaid’s wife for the mission. It was just one more reason to hate him.

            They met up with Everett, a military officer, at the immigration hall; the place was filled with passengers arriving from Earth, queued up in three long lines. Soldiers on a high state of alert stood guard with automatic rifles.

            “Mr. Cohaagen wants to see you right away,” Everett informed Richter.

            As if he didn’t have enough of a headache to deal with, Richter groaned and asked, “Any news of Quaid or those yahoos that were spotted with him?”

            “Not since you lost them,” Everett quipped with a sly smirk.

            “Watch your mouth, Captain,” Richter retorted, clearly in no mood for sarcasm.

            “Look at this!” Helm griped as they came upon yellow graffiti behind the immigration desks. Along the wall were spray-painted words that read, “ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF MARS!”

            “What’s this?” Richter regarded the graffiti with disdain.

            Everett shook his head. “One day, they’re worshipping Kuato; the next, whoever this Queen is.”

            “Two weeks!” Richter suddenly heard a woman at the immigration desk blurt out. He was nearly at the exit with Helm and Everett before he stopped to look at a family of people checking in at the desks – a tall fat lady, two children, and a couple (who were presumably the children’s parents). But it was the fat lady that caught Richter’s attention.

            She was having a fit, repeating “Two weeks” rapidly at first and then distorted, as if she were a robot.

            And that’s when Richter realized it: “Quaid! That’s Quaid!”

            “Where?” Everett turned and looked towards the crowd.

            “There! The woman!” Richter pointed. “Get him…her!”

            “Arrest that woman!” Everett ordered his men, marching back into the room with Richter and Helm, advancing on the frenzied fat lady. Her family proceeded past the desks in the confusion, intending on escaping while they could. Unfortunately, they were quickly detained by a few guards.

            The fat lady twisted her ear, shaking radically. Her face split down the middle, revealing not Douglas Quaid, but Gumball and Darwin Watterson – the former standing atop the latter, who stood on stilts to make their “fat lady” disguise even taller.

            Richter and his men were caught off-guard. “That’s not Quaid! It’s those mutant brats!”

            “Ya know, I’m getting real tired of being called that!” Gumball griped, holding the android head of their fat lady disguise. “Think fast!” He tossed it to a soldier near a window, and the soldier instinctively caught it. The head snapped back together and triggered an explosion that burst the window.

            This triggered an instant typhoon from the vacuum outside.

            Nearly everyone and everything that wasn’t bolted down would’ve been sucked out onto the suffocating surface of Mars had it not been for the immigration officer that activated the metal barriers, sealing everything off. With order restored to the spaceport, Richter gathered himself, only to discover that Gumball, Darwin, and that family they were with had disappeared.

            Successfully eluding Richter and his men, the Watterson brothers and the family boarded a Martian subway train out of the spaceport. Once aboard, the “family” shed their disguises – the couple was Al and Norah, and the children were holograms that camouflaged the appearances of Quaid and Cara.

            “Brilliant idea on the disguises, Al,” Cara praised.

            “Hey, I can’t take all the credit,” Al said. “While Shusett, O’Bannon, and Goldman wrote a good twist with Quaid as the fat lady, it only seemed logical to throw Richter off his scale by having it be Darwin and Gumball instead.”

            Quaid shook his head. “I still don’t understand what’s happening or who any of you people and these mutant kids are, but you’re the only things keeping me alive for now.”

            “If that’s a ‘Thank You,’ we’ll take it,” Gumball smirked. He then gazed around the subway car they were in, spotting reward posters for the Queen of Mars. There was no likeness for the wanted woman, though there was the outline of a drawing provided by a dependable source – one that Gumball recognized. “Hey, Darwin, doesn’t that shape remind you a lot of Anais?”

            Darwin glimpsed at the same poster that his brother did, analyzing the shape of the outline. “It really does look like Anais,” he observed with fascination. “But it can’t be, can it? She’s back home.”

            “You’re right,” Gumball waved it off. “This place’s got me thinking crazy.”

            While the boys ruminated on the wanted poster, Quaid looked out the window of the subway car, just as it came out of a dark tunnel and across the gorgeous red landscape of Mars. Its red hue flooded the car. In the distance, Quaid saw a massive mountain that resembled a pyramid.

            “Excuse me,” he addressed a burly, bearded gentleman beside him, nodding to the mountain. “What’s that?”

            “You mean the Pyramid Mine?” the man said. “I used to work there, ‘til they found that alien stuff inside.”

            “Well, that’s a rumor, isn’t it?” Quaid dismissed the idea.

            “Think so?” the miner contended with a scoff.

            Noticing his interest in the Pyramid Mine, Norah pointed out to Quaid, “You sound like you’ve seen it somewhere before? In a dream, perhaps?”

            Quaid shot her a wary look. “Yes. How did you know?”

            Norah playfully shrugged. “Lucky guess.”

            From the corner of her left eye, she sensed Al palming his face. “I see what you did there,” he whispered to her. “It’s cute, but not funny.”

            His reprimanding attitude baffled Norah. “It’s not like I’m breaking protocol. I’m just having a little fun. Besides, in the movie, he did see the mountain in his dream.”

            “Yeah, but no one except for him knew that,” Al clarified. “It all feels like a movie from an outsider’s perspective, but when you’re in the thick of it, it’s real. Didn’t you learn anything from that other Schwarzenegger flick about fiction intertwining with reality?”

            “You mean Last Action Hero?” Norah deduced. “I could never finish that one.”

            Al moaned. “Cara, back me up here.”

            Standing on the other side of Norah, Cara told her, “Al’s right. The Infinite DC is like a glass house – throw enough stones and one will eventually strike, shattering the whole thing.”

            Norah found the metaphor to be chillingly convincing. “Well, when you put it that way, I’ll try to be more careful,” she assured. Turning back to Al, she inquired of her mentor, “You’re probably gonna deduct me for that one, eh?”

            “Nah,” Al excused. “Like I once told you, the Infinite DC is out of Protectorate jurisdiction. Now, if we were Spartan officers, then I’d deduct you.”

            “Spartans?” Norah frowned. “Who’re they?”

            “Again, out of our jurisdiction, as well as heavily classified.”

            Arriving at a transportation hub, a broad underground plaza hewn from solid rock, Quaid separated from the group and left for the Hilton. Cara and the others were approached by an amiable black hustler in his early-thirties with jagged, discolored teeth – two of which were gold, one with a crescent moon design, and the other with a star. “Hey, good folks,” he said. “How ‘bout a cab ride?”

            Norah knew of this particular cabbie and his shady role. “No thanks, Benny.”

            Benny was taken aback by her knowledge of him. “Yo, how you know my name? Have we met somewhere before?”

            Norah’s hand went to her mouth in embarrassment – she did it again.

            Luckily, Al stepped in and covered, “You came to us before, remember? Something about kids to feed.”

            Benny was quick to convince. “Ya dang right I do. Now how ‘bout a ride?”

            “There’s a perfectly good one right over here, sir,” Cara indicated the first taxi in line. “But thanks anyway.” She, Al, Norah, and the Watterson brothers started to make their way for the cab, until it suddenly exploded – a bomb that was remotely set off. The explosion destroyed the upper level of the mine, shattering windows and triggering alarms.

            “What the what is going on?!” Gumball shrilled.

            “Welcome to Mars,” Benny told him.

            Suddenly, soldiers dashed from all directions, engaging in a shootout with rebel guerrillas. “I forgot about the rebels,” Al shouted.

            “They’re trying to shut down the mines,” Benny said. “C’mon! Follow me!”

            He led them to his tiny cab, swinging open the gull-wing door. It barely fit all five of them, yet they somehow managed in the cramped space. Benny quickly pulled into traffic, driving through a narrow tube.

            “So, where to?” he asked his passengers.

            Cara shrugged. “Dunno. It’s our first time on Mars.”

            “Tourists, huh?” Benny cackled. “Don’t worry. I know the best place.”

            The cab emerged into a plaza, immersed in red light. Various tunnels led into different sectors and mines. Benny’s cab zigged into a tunnel marked “Sector G/Venusville.” It emerged into a bustling adult entertainment district, filled with bars, brothels, cafes, strip joints, t-shirt shops, cheap hotels, and psychic parlors.

            “Are you serious?!” Cara flared at Benny. “We have children with us!”

            Benny half-turned, seeing how she gestured to Gumball and Darwin. “Oh, them? Hey, I thought they were a couple of mutant midgets. My bad. But, since we’re already here…” Benny parked his cab by a pedestrian alley, which was too narrow for cars. As everyone piled out, Benny admitted, “Let’s be honest – this is the perfect place for your little friends. Mutants of all walks of life hang here.” He then said of Cara and Norah, “And you chicks could make some fast cash.”

            “Excuse me?!” Both Cara and Norah scowled, clearly offended by his remark.

            Just as Benny made this point, they were suddenly approached by an aggressive-looking man with an eyepatch, holding them at gunpoint. He tossed some red Martian bills at Benny and said in a raspy voice, “Thank you for your service.”

            Benny giggled as he gleefully picked up some of his payment off the ground. “Naw, thank you!” He then got back into his cab and drove away.

            As he departed, Cara shook her head. “Unbelievable,” she grunted. “The whole thing was one big setup for a robbery.”

            “Not a robbery,” the eyepatch man rasped. “A meeting…with the Queen of Mars.”

            Norah squinted at the man with recognition. “Wait a minute. Aren’t you Snake Plissken?”

            “Call me ‘Snake’.”