Chapter 2

Epilogue

"Ow!" Matt said, but only because he'd spent a brief eternity inside a wormhole waiting for it.

In actuality, the probe had materialized out of thin air a mere twenty centimeters from Professor Rachel's target. It hadn't burst out of the wormhole with a flash. It hadn't streaked through the earth's atmosphere like a meteor. It hadn't even hit the ground with a bone jarring thud, since those twenty centimeters were below the projected Point of Realization.

All in all, it had been a rather uneventful trip and Matt felt vaguely disappointed. Even the explosive bolts seemed intent on making very little fuss as they didn't really explode at all, but merely fizzled softly. A bit of acrid smoke made the boy's nose itch and he froze for a second, wondering if he would sneeze or not.

Matt carefully and slowly pushed on the probe's hatch which was hinged on the left side, much like a coffin might be, although he didn't like to think of it that way. What he did think about was being home. Earth! It's still here! He smiled at the clear blue sky and he could smell it. The dirt and the grass and the trees; everything he'd never noticed before filled his senses and Matt wondered for a second if his planet had really been destroyed or not. It seemed hard to believe now that he was back, but the necklace he wore around his neck, and especially the belly button crown Princess Wendy had given him, left little room for doubt.

"Green button," Matt whispered, looking at the sleeve of the stealth suit and there were two buttons, the other being red.

He pushed the green one and then his hand disappeared along with the rest of him. It took the boy a few seconds to get used to the idea of moving without seeing his body. It seemed a lot like being in the dark, except it wasn't, and right off the bat he banged his left knee on the side of the probe.

"Ow!" Matt grunted softly and then blinked as found himself less than ten feet behind a bush holding a rifle.

"Popeye-Three," the bush said softly. "On target."

Matt wasn't sure what that meant, but it probably had something to do with the alien spaceship parked on the well manicured lawn of the White House. The craft wasn't overly large and it wasn't a flying saucer either, it actually looked like a Ferrari made out smoked glass, gull-wing doors and all, except it could fly and hover and probably blow things up if it wanted to. What was really strange though, wasn't that the aliens had a thing for cool sports cars – who doesn't? – it was that Matt had watched the flying Ferrari take-off from the Disney World parking lot that very morning.

"Oh crap!" Matt breathed.

He was down there right now, in Florida checking out Janey while she giggled and smiled and waved at him. I'm in two places at once, the boy thought with a grin as he closed the probe hatch slowly.

Nobody had noticed anything, since the Secret Service hadn't expected someone to pop out of a wormhole and into the backyard. With the hatch shut it wasn't even visible to anyone not in a helicopter probably. At least, Matt hoped not, he just prayed that Jenny chick had been right about the Oval Office. The guy in the bush suit looked like he was ready to shoot the alien ambassador as soon as she stepped out of her ride and that would suck!

"That's an alien?" the bush whispered as Matt crept around it and he realized there were two men hiding there.

"Looks like my ex-wife," the one with binoculars said and the other man snorted.

"Only in your dreams. Jesus!" he sighed. "Look at those legs."

Some fifty meters away, the Secretary of State waited patiently with several other people as the alien made her way along a red carpet hastily unrolled in her honor. There wasn't a band or anything like that, but some guy kept taking photographs and Matt thought that had to be a good sign. They wouldn't whack a hot chick in front of a camera, would they? But he couldn't imagine anyone killing a woman like that anywhere. The ambassador was hot!

"Molly," Matt said to himself as he moved closer.

That stealth suit worked great too, he thought, but the boy really had no idea how effective the alien technology was. It not only bent light around him, but it also refracted x-rays, ultra-violet light, microwave radiation, and just about any other form of radiant energy a person might think of, including heat. It suppressed sound and even minimized the wearer's apparent mass. The boy didn't feel any lighter, but he could have walked across the Sahara Desert without leaving a single footprint to prove he'd been there. This came in very handy as Matt unwittingly passed several of the most advanced motion sensors ever developed without even realizing it. More importantly, the Secret Service didn't realize it either.

And the closer Matt got to the reception awaiting Molly, the more confident he grew. They really couldn't see him! He walked right past a tall black guy holding a walkie-talkie and the guy hadn't even blinked! Man! If he could take that stealth suit to school? The girls' locker room was the holy of holies and ... Earth girls? Matt rolled his eyes. Next year's Miss Universe contest was going to be a real heartbreaker for the human contestants!

"Madam Ambassador," the Secretary of State said with a nervous smile. "Welcome to, uh ... Earth. I'm Judith Hoskins, one of the President's advisors."

"It's nice to meet you," the alien returned the smile cheerfully. "I'm Molly."

Matt watched from less than twenty feet away as the two women shook hands and he'd already formed a plan.

"Molly?" Judy tilted her head, obviously looking for a last name, but the Ambassador only giggled.

"Just Molly," she said. "What a beautiful house! It's so white!"

"Uh ... Yes it is," the Secretary of State agreed cautiously. "If you'll come with me, the President is looking forward to meeting you."

"I'm sure he is," Molly said with a smile. "I hope it wasn't rude of me to drop in like this, but I was in the neighborhood..."

"Oh no!" Judy said quickly, smiling as if aliens landed in the rose garden all the time. "We were delighted to receive your message and I assure you, Ambassador, the United States is most eager to enjoy a lasting friendship with your, uh ... people."

Matt didn't bother listening to much more of the diplomatic small talk. He found it kind of like the stuff Mrs. Humbert liked to say to the couples visiting the orphanage where he'd grown up. Everyone had to be extra polite and smile a lot and say nice things. Matt didn't feel bad about having no family, but hearing the two women talk like that reminded him of the aliens and how they didn't have any orphans at all. It almost made him regret volunteering like he had, but on the other hand ... He was sneaking into the White House!

The hard part was not bumping into anyone as he slipped through open doors, danced around Secret Service guys, and generally tried to stay out of everyone else's way. Being just a teenager and hardly big for his age helped quite a bit too. The only scary part had been walking past a furry little dog, a brown one attached to a leash, who yelped with surprise when Matt accidentally stepped on its tail.

The boy felt sort of bad about that, but he hadn't hurt the dog anyway and even if he'd wanted to, Matt couldn't stop to apologize. Judy and Molly had turned a corner and Matt had to stay right behind them! In fact, he walked less than three feet behind the alien ambassador and less than five feet in front of the Secret Service agents following at a barely respectable distance. Ahead of them were several more agents and an assistant whose only job seemed to be telling people to get out of the way.