Hidden Shifts Read online

  Hidden Shifts

  L. A. McGarvey

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2021 by L. A. McGarvey

  All rights reserved.

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

  Cover art by: https://selfpubbookcovers.com/Viergacht

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  HIDDEN SHIFTS

  First edition. February 21, 2022.

  Copyright © 2022 L. A. McGarvey.

  ISBN: 979-8201765309

  Written by L. A. McGarvey.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Prologue

  Buckley

  Byrant

  Buckley

  Dave

  Bryant

  Team

  Agent Homes

  Dave

  Storky

  Dave

  Storky

  Storky and Unster’s Phone Call

  Pier Goes Back to the Mall

  Agent Homes

  Buckley

  CSI

  Agent Orange

  Bryant

  Buckley

  Agents Jimini and McFled Interview Quill

  Buckley Watching Agent Quill’s Interview with Jimini

  Agent Buckley calls Dave

  Dappled Waters Wakes up in a Tank

  Bryant and Sergeant Sparkle get a Ride

  Jackson gets Interviewed

  Bryant and Sparkle at the Boarding House

  Braul Bumfinger’s Diary

  Storky and Techno-b-boy

  Sparkle Robs a Store

  Dave takes the Sub

  Sparkle meets a Woman

  After the Gas Station

  Bryant and Sparkle in Flattop

  Dappled Waters

  Dave Arrives at Buckley’s

  Bryant Checks in with B team

  Dappled Waters and Jonah Reunited

  Dave Talks to Harry

  Harry Reads Bumfinger’s Journal

  Jonah Shifts

  Bad Guys

  Techno-b-boy

  Agents Jimini and McFled Interview Commissioner Amanda Stone

  Agent Orange

  Quill

  Quill Escapes

  Mervert

  Agent Orange

  Agent Homes

  Quill Driving the Zamboni

  Pier Docklund

  Buckley Gets Messages

  Sasha

  Dave Talks about Vivian

  Quill arrives at the Hideout

  Buckley

  Agent Orange

  Sasha

  Dave Discovers Buckley’s Gone

  Agent Homes Calls the Transplant Queen

  Waving Fronds

  Buckley

  Quill Interrogates Jonah

  The Transplant Queen Gets Stuck

  Jonah

  Bryant Colours Sparkle’s Hair

  Clock Tower Park

  Queen gets Unstuck

  Agent Homes goes to Buckley’s

  Buckley Escapes Stone Country

  Sparkle Rents a Car

  Sparkle goes Shopping

  Dave gets to Waterfall

  Buckley at the Junkyard

  Junk Man

  Sparkle Goes to the Circus

  Quill

  Boo Boo’s Boutique for Men Calls the Police

  Buckley gets a Kitten

  Waving Fronds gets to Waterfall

  Quill Threatens Jonah

  Stuffed

  Sparkle Robs a Bank

  Veronica

  Dappled Waters Sings

  Veronica Gets Questioned

  Stella Calls the Cops

  Techno-b-boy and Storky Intercept the 911 call

  Team

  Quill leaves the Denture Museum

  Agent Homes calls the Queen Again

  Buckley finds Dappled Waters

  Agent Homes goes to the Sewage Treatment Plant

  Homes and Janice at Kitten Sweaters Industries

  Sparkle is Horrified

  Dave gets to Stodgy

  Veronica at the Grocery Store

  Police at the Store

  News About Dave

  Meeting with Director Orange

  Jimini Questions the Police

  Agents at the Truck Stop

  Buckley

  Stuffed Gator

  The Team finds Water

  More News About Dave

  Buckley gets to Giant Mountain Reserve

  Quill at the Top

  Buckley

  Quill

  Buckley’s Flashback

  Fire Truck at the Denture Museum

  Jonah

  Buckley Captured

  Jonah Sees his Dad

  Change Rendezvous

  Quill

  Buckley

  Jonah

  Trigger

  Quill

  Clone

  Jonah Runs

  Agent Homes and the Team get to the Mountain

  Buckley

  Recovering from the Backlash

  Quill

  Team

  Agent Orange

  Homes

  Janice

  Jonah

  Dave

  Storky and Techno-b-boy

  COMING SOON:RESCUE MISSION

  Prologue

  Sparkle

  Veronica

  Dave

  Unster

  Off-Duty Police Officer

  Also By L. A. McGarvey

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  Prologue

  The boy sat in the dark, sweltering attic, dust motes swirling in the moonbeams. He lit the candles arrayed in a circle around him. Arranging his gawky teenage body cross-legged in the centre, he opened the book his grandfather left with him years before.

  He sounded out the words in his head before trying to say them aloud. They were long, complicated, and foreign. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Not with this. He knew what he wanted to accomplish, but he wasn’t sure he was strong enough to do it.

  After speaking the words, he sat silently with his eyes closed, meditating as instructed. Tensely, he waited for something to happen. He could hear the flames sizzling on the candle wicks, and smell the burning wax. He felt the slight vibrations of the floorboards.

  The bullies from the orphanage were sneaking up the stairs behind him. His eyes snapped open.

  “Well, well, well, look at this, boys. It’s that loser, Cedric. You and your little Toadie enjoying some romantic time alone with your scented candles?”

  Gritting his teeth, he looked up at the bully, who had been making his life hell ever since he’d arrived at the orphanage a few years before.

  “You didn’t bring us your money today, Cedric.” The gang leader said threateningly.

  “I haven’t gotten paid yet,” Cedric said, getting to his feet.

  “You get paid every Friday. We know you’re good for the money.”

  “Spend it all on your scented candles?” One of the other boys asked him snidely, causing the rest of the boys to snigger.

  “They’re not scented candles,” Cedric said, fists clenched at his sides.

  One of the other boys had circled behind him, stepped through the candles, kicking him hard in the back. Cedric went sprawling on his face. His toad chirped in warning at them.

  The gang leader had his baseball bat with him, as he always did. “You know what happens when you don’t pay up. You remember, don’t you?”

  Remembering that beating vividly, Cedric pushed himself back up, wincing at the pain in his bac
k. He would have a giant bruise there tomorrow.

  “I told you, I didn’t get paid. I didn’t work last week, remember. How would I get paid when I don’t work? No one could drive me to the hospital, remember that?”

  “Then where did you go?”

  Cedric kept his mouth shut. The other two boys came up behind him, herding him closer to their leader.

  The bully cuffed the side of his head, “I said,” smack, “then,” smack, “where,” smack, “did you go?” Smack, smack, smack.

  “Just to the woods. To be alone.” He said, cowering, hating himself for telling them that much.

  “I think you should go to work from now on, don’t you? You owe us our money. For now, we’re going to take it out of your hide.” He pushed his ugly face nose to nose with Cedric. His garlic breath was tinged with the smell of rot from a bad tooth. “To help you remember your obligations.”

  Cedric turned away from the bully’s rotten breath, bracing himself for the beating he knew was coming. He hated this place. It hadn’t been the same since his best friend Tony got adopted. He couldn’t wait to get out of here. He was glad he had the job at the hospital. He’d been hiding money from the gang in a jar he kept buried in the woods. Soon, he would have enough money to escape this place. He’d long since given up hope his family was coming to get him out of here.

  The bully raised the baseball bat, preparing to hit him. Cedric, fed up, ducked as the bat swung at his head, then punched someone in the face. The pain nearly made him puke. He was sure he broke his hand.

  The other two boys jumped in, bearing him down to the floor from behind. Punching, slamming him with the bat, kicking him. He fought back this time. His toad hissed, spitting venom at one of the boys when he tried stomping him. He staggered back, screaming, clawing at his face.

  “Ahh! My eyes! It burns!”

  The leader hit Cedric hard with the bat. The boy who got sprayed with venom tripped, falling, knocking the candles over as he rolled around on the floor, sending them flying. Ignoring the candles, the other boys tussled in a heap on the rough, dusty wooden floor, intent on beating Cedric into submission.

  Suddenly one boy let go of Cedric yelling, “Fire! Let’s get out of here.”

  With a final, vicious kick to Cedric’s gut, the bully said, “You better have my money tomorrow or you’re going to regret it.”

  Cedric lay on the floor, gasping before painfully getting to his feet as the gang fled down the stairs. He scooped up his toad. The entire attic was engulfed in flames now. They’d left him for dead.

  Keeping low to the floor, trying not to inhale too much of the smoke, he tried to reach the stairs. The entire floor was on fire now. There was an awful lot of old furniture and paper stored up here. The old adoption files made for interesting reading when he hid up here, but now, they were perfect fuel for a firestorm. His grandfather’s book was smouldering. He grabbed it, patting the cover, extinguishing a small flame.

  He stuffed the toad into his shirt, keeping him as safe from the flames as possible. With the route to the stairs blocked, he turned around and made his way to the window. He smashed it out. The flames raged when he let the fresh air in to feed them.

  He pulled the toad from his shirt, locking eyes with him. “I’m sorry. I’m going to have to throw you out the window. I’ll be right behind you, I promise.” He would’ve kissed the toad if it wasn’t instant death to do so.

  Reaching through the window, he tossed the toad to the ground. Over the noise of the flames, he couldn’t hear how he landed, or see where he went. He could see the other orphans being herded out of the orphanage by the caretaker and across the lawn to the edge of the wooded park on the other side of the street.

  One of the other children spotted him, pointed up to the window. “Look! Look, it’s Cedric! Mark, he’s trapped in the attic.”

  The housekeeper yelled, “Cedric! What are you doing in the attic? Try to get to the stairs! Get out of there!”

  He shouted down to him, “The stairs are on fire! I’m going to have to jump.”

  “We can get a ladder! Someone get a ladder!”

  “We don’t have time to wait for a ladder!”

  “Is the fire department on the way?”

  The other orphans were herded further away from the burning orphanage as the flames behind him grew. Cedric climbed out of the window, sitting on the sill for a moment. His ribs were in agony, blood dripped from his broken nose and split lip. The hand he’d punched the bully with was useless, and he stared down at the ground in dismay. It was an awfully long drop.

  “You can do it, Cedric!” One of the little kids shouted at him.

  Cedric could only use one hand. He stuffed the book into his shirt, tucking his injured hand in his waistband.

  His options were limited. He could either jump straight to the ground and hope the fall didn’t kill him, or he could try to make it to the lower roof, then down to the ground from there.

  The lower roof was at a strange angle from the window and it would be difficult, if not impossible, even if he was in prime condition, which certainly was not the case after the beating he’d just received. The heavy book would throw him off as well, but there was no way he would leave that behind. It was the only thing he had left from his family.

  He looked up again. He could see the bullies behind the rest of the orphans looking smug. The ringleader still had his baseball bat, smacking his hand with it, staring at Cedric through the light of the full moon, smiling. He looked down again. He couldn’t see any sign of his toad. He hoped he was okay.

  Standing up on the ledge, taking a deep breath, he calculated the distance. Steeling himself, he jumped towards the lower roof. Landing awkwardly, sliding off the steep pitch, he felt fingernails rip off. The blood made his hand slippery. Automatically, he used his broken hand, almost letting go anyway from the pain. Somehow, he got a handhold on the eaves trough. He dangled there precariously. The eavestrough groaned and shook, ripping away from the roof from his weight on it. There was an explosion from somewhere in the rear of the orphanage. He assumed it was from the propane tanks used for the stove and the furnace.

  “You’re going to have to jump, Cedric!”

  He tried to pull himself up onto the lower roof, but he didn’t have the strength to do it. The old book in his shirt didn’t help either. It kept catching on the edge of the roof, making it impossible to pull himself up. He looked down at the ground, hand throbbing. He got his legs around the eaves trough’s downspout. It pulled away from the house, getting him closer to the ground.

  “You can do it, Cedric!” One of the little kids shouted up at him.

  Cedric let go of the eaves trough, allowing himself to fall to the ground. The burning building collapsed in a fireball behind him.

  Buckley

  “Agent McFled, you need to put Bubbles down so he can do his job.” Agent Jimini said to his junior Zombie Horde Prevention Task Force partner.

  Agent Ned McFled set the Jackalope on the ground, complaining, “He isn’t picking up anything.”

  “Doesn’t mean anything, really,” said Agent Homes. “Techno-b-boy said he fed him right before we took him out. Sometimes, when he’s not hungry, he doesn’t hunt zombies. We’ve been here for over an hour and haven’t found anything. Think it’s time to pack it up, Agent Buckley?”

  “I’m not finding anything either.” He said, coming back to the group. “I agree with Agent Homes. I don’t think there was ever a zombie here. Seems this was just a hoax call.”

  “Alright then, everybody load up.” Agent Homes said, taking her night-vision goggles off.

  The team started gathering their equipment, loading it into various vehicles parked close by.

  Fwoop!

  “Ahh!” Agent Buckley cried out as he was thrown to the ground. Everyone was instantly on high alert.

  “What just happened?” Agent Janice Bowers asked.

  “Buckley’s been shot!” Agent Jimini said.

&nb
sp; “With an arrow, I think.” Agent McFled said.

  “Buckley doesn’t look so good.” Agent Docklund said, hooking an arm under Buckley’s good one, pulling him out of the line of fire behind a tank.

  “It is an arrow.” He said, “Looks like it’s silver. Weird.”

  “Silver?” Buckley panted, holding onto his arm. “That explains a lot.”

  “Explains what?” Agent Docklund asked.

  “Why I feel like I’m being poisoned.”

  “You sure it’s not just a poisoned arrow?”

  “If it’s silver, that’s poison enough for someone like me.” Buckley gritted his teeth and hissed, shifting his weight trying to ease the pain.

  The team gathered around him defensively, searching for danger.

  “Did anybody see where that arrow came from?” Agent Homes asked as she peered cautiously around the tank. She’d put her night vision goggles back on.

  Ned pointed to a tall office building across the street from the mall. “I think from over there. From the roof.”

  “All right, Agent McFled, you and Agent Jimini, go check it out. Take Bubbles. We have to get Buckley back to Headquarters to get him taken care of.”

  Buckley shook his head. “No. You don’t understand. You need to take me to Harry Porter’s. Now.” He was wheezing, he’d lost all feeling in the injured arm. He struggled to sit up. His face was pale. Sweat streamed down his face and soaked through his uniform.

  “What are you talking about?” Agent Homes asked. “We need to get you back to the Task Force HQ Medical Bay. That arrow needs to come out. Especially if it’s poisoned. We’ll need to find the antidote. The sooner Tammy from Toxicology gets a sample, the better.”

  Agent Janice Bowers returned with the first-aid kit she’d retrieved from a tank. “I can do it.” She volunteered. “I have removed arrows before.”

  “No. You’re not listening. This is silver. I need to go to Harry Porter’s, the priest of the Arcane Arts. The sooner the better.” Agent Buckley groaned again and fell over on his side.

  “Why?” Agent Docklund asked. “He’s a bit dodgy, isn’t he? Don’t think I’d trust him to do surgery on me.”

  Agent Buckley looked pained. It wasn’t just from the effects of the arrow. Harry Porter was odd, but he wasn’t dodgy. He didn’t like people saying disparaging things about his friends.

  “Yeah.” Agent Homes said. “What’s up?”