Martians Abroad

“Wait, kid, say that again but slowly this time.”

I enunciated as clearly as I possibly could. “I’m Polly Newton, I’m with a group of students from Galileo Academy, and one of the other students has been kidnapped—”

The guy shook his head, still obviously confused. “Polly Newton. Where are you from?”

“I told you, the Galileo Academy—”

“I mean, you’re not from Earth, are you?”

I stared. It was my accent. He couldn’t understand my accent. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

Distraction arrived, and we all turned to look when Stanton walked into the lobby, followed by the rest of the Galileo group. The students clogged up behind her, because she stopped cold right inside the doorway, staring at the chaos. Her gaze went to me, and she didn’t seem surprised to find me in the middle of it all. The security guy sighed as if relieved that someone else in a uniform who appeared to have some authority had arrived to explain things.

“Newton?” she inquired, glancing distastefully at the sticky floor as she picked her way over to us.

“Is this one yours?” security guy said.

“What’s happened?”

“She activated the fire-alert system under false pretenses,” he said.

“It was the only way I could get anyone’s attention! Didn’t you see my message?”

“You were supposed to stay in your room,” Stanton said.

“But if I’d done that, no one would have seen George getting kidnapped!”

“And why do you think George has been kidnapped?”

“He’s not here, is he?” I pointed to the milling herd of students that George should have been a part of. “So where is he?”

“Nonsense, he was at the theater with the rest of us…” She studied her charges, pointing at each one as she counted, then counted again. No George, just like I’d been saying.

“Can’t you check the video footage?” I asked, getting desperate. The hotel lobby was probably ruined, soaking wet and stinking of soapy chemicals.

“Officer,” Stanton said to the security guy, “is the building clear? There’s no danger here?”

“We’re checking it out now, but I’m pretty sure there’s no fire.”

“Fine. Everyone, go to your rooms and stay there. Newton—you wait right here.” She waved everyone else to the lifts. Elzabeth and some of the others scrunched up their faces and made disgusted noises about the gunk getting all over their nice shoes.

Charles lingered. While Stanton was talking to security, he sidled up to me. I avoided meeting his gaze.

“What’s going on?”

“Somebody kidnapped George,” I muttered.

“For real?” he said. He didn’t seem shocked our doubtful—just confirming.

“Totally for real! There’s got to be security footage of it!”

“Do you know who did it?”

“The Terran Liberation Front? I don’t know! It was just two guys in coats with comm pieces hooked into their ears! They might

have had a gun.” I looked at him, narrowing my gaze. “Were you expecting something to happen?”

Not even a flinch. “Calm down. We’ll figure it out.”