Free AbductiCon by Alma Alexander Page B

never be recreated?”
    “Not to mention a year’s worth of accumulated presents for a generation of six–year–olds on Santa’s good kid list,” Xander said. “Say goodbye to Christmas…”
    “They’re going to be shooting at us?” one of the volunteers said, her voice skating on the raw edge of panic.
    “They’d be shooting at anybody,” Dave snapped. “Seriously, folks. This couldn’t have been done on the ground? You had to kidnap the whole damn hotel…?”
    “We needed… to be isolated… from outside contamination,” Boss said carefully. “For our investigations.”
    “I don’t know what you needed,” Dave said earnestly, “but your ‘investigations’ are likely to be rather more short–lived than you might want if you don’t get us the hell out of here. Somehow. I don’t think you ought to completely rely on how far that ritzy little invisibility cloak field of yours is going to work when it’s the DoD who’s looking…”
    “Just take us to the moon and back,” Xander said flippantly, trying to break the serious mood.
    “As you wish,” Boss said unexpectedly.
    “I think he was just joking,” Libby said in a small voice. “Really, he was.”
    “But it is a good idea. It would take precisely the time we need, and there would be no fallout to deal with on the ground right now,” Boss said. He lifted a hand and gestured to Zach, who – somewhat disconcertingly – responded by reaching up to take a rectangular tablet from his chest (which didn’t show any sign of any hardware being removed) and began to type on it.
    “ Xander ,” Andie Mae hissed, “if they don’t kill you I will – and if they do I’ll kill you again just to make sure… wait – just wait – what are you doing ? You can’t just take us on some hare–brained…”
    “Did you feel that?” Libby said. “I think – I felt – the world – something just shifted – ”
    “I think they just initiated the ‘getting us the hell out of here’ maneuver,” Xander said faintly.
    A girl by the name of Jessie Sellers, a grizzled con veteran at the tender age of 24 and this year the queen of the Green Room for the working pros, had leapt up from her perch on a computer screen, and raced to the sliding door – and now she yelped out something inarticulate that made everyone turn and look in that direction.
    “We’re flying !” she cried out, her face glued to the glass, one hand cupped over her forehead to cut the glare. “Wow! Freaky!”
    “Now look, I really have to protest,” Luke Barnes said weakly. “I don’t think our insurance… I don’t think they have insurance… the personal liability…”
    “Nobody will come to any harm,” Boss said. “You have my word.”
    Dave’s mouth worked. “Hey, nobody gave you permission – you really are abducting us against our will. And what if we can’t provide the information that you’re looking for, anyway? What if we are completely clueless? What if you came back fifty years too far and if it really was this world that spawned you, nobody who had a hand in it is even alive yet?”
    “Or remotely here ,” Libby added. “I mean, there’s millions of us. How can you possibly expect a gang of science fiction nerds – and a posse of furries who are here for their own reasons and wouldn’t know what to say to you if you went up to one of them and asked ‘Are you my mommy?’ – and that bunch of loaded dice down in the game room who probably haven’t even realized yet that they aren’t on their home planet any more – to come up with anything resembling an actual answer for you. And plus, we haven’t even heard the question yet…”
    “Then how do you know that you do not have the answer?” Boss said.
    “No, but really – these guys aren’t the only ones in the hotel right now, you do realize that,” Luke remonstrated. “A number of our current guests aren’t actually with the convention – they’ve got nothing to do with any of