Malik’s shirt was sweaty, and his legs were burning, but he wasn’t leaving that dance floor if Magaly was out there. Every time Magaly danced close enough to brush up against him, he thought, This is the most fantastic night of my life. They had switched to soda water a long time ago in anticipation of needing to drive at the end of the night. Malik hadn’t expected to feel this comfortable with her. It was as if they had their own rhythm. The night couldn’t have been going any better when the music stopped abruptly, and the DJ spoke.
“Attention, everyone, we apologize for the inconvenience, but please put your masks on and move toward the emergency exit.”
“Wonder what’s going on?” Magaly said. The bright lights came on, and Malik knew that something serious had happened. He scanned the bar with the light now exposing all the dinginess the darkness had been hiding.
Ronnie was out of breath when he got to them. “You’ve got to go, bro.” He held up his phone. “There’s a photo of you posted on the contact tracer site. It’s saying that you may have some mutated strain of the virus.”
“What?” Malik was stunned. This can’t be right. “Magaly, does your app say the same thing?”
“I don’t have the app,” she said.
Malik stared at Ronnie’s phone, trying to process what he was seeing. “How—” he started to say until he felt Magaly tugging on his shirt.
He looked up to see several people looking from their phones to him and whispering to each other with panicked expressions. Malik noticed someone move toward him and stop at a distance. It was the man in the blazer from the bar, who was now standing between Malik and the exit. Malik’s instincts kicked in, evaluating exit options. Malik scoped the main entrance and saw Biotech tracers marching down the ramp. His heart was pounding as he contemplated what to do. In a room of commotion, a very still person caught his attention.
There was a woman behind the bar with curly, light brown hair and green eyes who was looking directly at Malik. He recognized her from somewhere, but he didn’t have time to think from where. The woman turned, while holding Malik’s gaze, and disappeared behind a wall on the other side of the bar. Malik grabbed Magaly’s hand. “C’mon, I think there’s another way.”
Malik ran behind the bar in pursuit of the curly-haired woman. Once behind the bar, they went down a hallway filled with liquor cases. They passed by an office, a kitchen, and a walk-in freezer. Malik paused. “What next?” he whispered. Then he heard what sounded like the hinge of a door. They followed the sound, and Malik was about to push the door open when Magaly stopped him. She stepped in front of him and opened the door, just enough to stick half of her body out. She’s protecting me. Malik felt his chest tighten. After looking around, she said, “Okay, we can go now.”
They hurried across the parking lot where Malik’s car was parked, both looking back toward the club. Malik looked forward just in time to avoid colliding with a homeless woman pushing a shopping cart. “I’m so sorry,” Malik said quickly as he danced around the woman. That was when he caught sight of his car, which was surrounded by a Confidence Biotech vehicle and two tracers.
“What do we do now?” Magaly whispered.
“I—I’m not sure.”
“Stop right there,” one of the men shouted and walked in their direction, and Malik’s body locked up. “What are you doing back there? Come here, and let me scan your ID.”
It was too dark, and the Biotech tracer was too far away to recognize Malik’s face. As the Biotech tracer approached him, Malik saw the other one walking closer as well.
Magaly stepped forward, got out her phone, and pulled up her ID code. The man scanned it, never taking his eyes off Malik. “You’re all clear. Now yours.” The Biotech tracer continued slowly toward him. Malik could see the green scan bar on the screen of the Biotech tracer’s mobile scanner.
Malik’s hands shook as he tried to pull his phone out of his pocket. His lucky pen wasn’t living up to its name, as his phone kept getting caught on it. Malik pulled the pen out of his pocket, making room to grab his phone. As Malik went to put the pen back in his pocket, the Biotech tracer lunged forward, reaching for Malik’s hand that held the pen, and shouted, “I’ve got it!”
Everything happened quickly, but the next thing Malik knew, he was face down on the ground. The Biotech tracer had his knee in Malik’s back, one hand holding Malik’s arm out, while he used the other to try to pry the pen out of Malik’s hand.
“Get off him!” Magaly screamed.
Malik didn’t know why, but he knew he couldn’t let the pen go. He clenched his fist harder.
As the contact tracer tried to wrestle the pen away, he said, “Just give it up, kid, and this will all go away.” His partner was on the radio saying, “Target acquired.”
Malik clenched his eyes tightly, hoping this was all just a bad dream. All he wanted was to open his eyes, wake up in his bed, and go spend time under his trees.
“Get off him!” Magaly screamed again. “You have no right!”
Magaly’s screams brought Malik back to the moment, which, sadly, was no nightmare. The man’s knee was heavy on his back. Malik tried hard not to inhale the fumes from the tar and oil that covered the asphalt parking lot.
Out of nowhere, a dark shadow entered his view. He watched as it ran down the street. The speed and stature reminded Malik of an Olympic sprinter or a gazelle trapped in a sprinter’s body. At the same time, the tracer’s radio static got incredibly loud, forcing him to adjust it, which took a little pressure off Malik’s back.
Malik heard a voice on the radio say, “I repeat, we lost the target. He got away. He’s heading toward Freedom Parkway.”
“What the—” the contact tracers started to say, and then Malik felt an intense burst of wind. The weight lifted off of his back, and Magaly was by his side in an instant, helping him stand up. They looked around to find both tracers lying on the ground several yards away.
Now on his feet, Malik asked Magaly, “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she stared at the men. “He just flew off you.”
A woman’s voice came from behind them. “Our distraction won’t last long.” It was the curly-haired woman from Malik’s dreams. She knelt, picked something up from the ground, and handed it to Malik. It was his pen.
“You’re,” Malik hesitated before saying, “Evelyn.”
Evelyn nodded, but kept her serious tone. “You’ve got to go.” She looked past them, and Malik followed her gaze to the two men getting up. “I’ll take care of them.” Evelyn nodded her head in a single quick motion up to the sky. As she did, two large chunks of asphalt rose out of the parking lot. Then with a wave of her hand, they crashed against the helmets of the contact tracers, knocking them both back to the ground.
“Now go!” she shouted.
Malik and Magaly did as she said. After getting enough distance from the scene, they transitioned from a run to an up-tempo walk.
“Who was that?” Magaly asked.
“I don’t know,” Malik said.
“How do you know her name then?”
“She’s been in my dreams.”
Magaly shook her head. “I don’t understand, but I guess now’s not the time. We need to figure out where we are going.”
“We’re in the Highlands, right? Dr. Patel lives in Morningside. His house is a couple of miles away; we can go there until we can figure out what to do next.”