Identity - 2. Chapter 2

After circling the skies of Montreal for over two hours, their plane finally landed. Julianne and Kai quickly got off the plane once it reached the terminal. After spending several hours sitting in a confined space, they weren’t sad to finally leave.

Julianne and Kai waited in line at customs and presented their papers to the immigration officer, who examined them briefly and then allowed them to enter the country. Then the pair went to pick up their bags. As they emerged out of the secured zone they saw that there were literally hundreds of people outside waiting for their loved ones to arrive.

“The firm is supposed to send someone for us, so keep an eye out,” Julianne said.

Soon Kai spotted someone holding a little sign with his mom’s name written on it.

“There mom!” Kai said, pointing to the man holding the sign.

The man stepped toward them. “Julianne Johnson?” He asked.

“Exactly,” she said, nodding her head.

“I’m Mr. Schultz, and this is my son...Neils. We were waiting for you,” the man said pointing to a boy who arrived just as his name was said. Mr. Schultz continued. “How was your flight? Not too long, I hope?”

“It was good, thanks,” Julianne said.

Kai quickly took a particular interest in Neils, who was about 18 years old. The young teen was about the same height as him and had thick curly dark brown hair that fell down to his earlobes.

“Well, I’m guessing that you’re eager to move into your new condo. I think you’ve already seen it tho, right?” Mr. Schultz asked.

“Yes, although I’ve only seen it in pictures. But I’ve been told that it was really nice,” Julianne commented.

Mr. Schultz led the way for Julianne to the parking lot, even taking charge of pushing the baggage cart. Kai followed a few steps behind with Niels at his side.

“What’s your name?” Neils asked.

“Oh ya, I guess they were too busy to finish the introductions. I’m Kai,” he said chuckling.

“Right. You know what? I say we ditch our folks,” Neils declared.

Puzzled, Kai asked. “What do you mean?”

“Well, unless you’re too tired, or you really want to see your place right now, you could come with me and hang out. If you want to that is,” Neils said.

It wasn’t too a difficult choice for Kai. He just knew that he wanted to know more about Neils. He just couldn’t turn down an offer like that for fear it would never happen again.

“True, but we still have to stay with them, since your dad is our ride,” Kai said.

“Not exactly true,” Neils responded as he waved a set of car keys. “‘Though we do need to catch up with them and say that you’ll be going back with me. So, what do you say?”

Despite being a little tired, Kai didn’t realize that flying could make someone that sleepy, he quickly agreed to hang out with Neils. “Yeah, of course,” he said.

“Dad!” Neils called to his dad, making him and Julianne come to an halt. “Kai’s coming with me, alright?” he asked.

“Well, only if his mom says it’s okay,” Mr. Schultz declared and then looked to Julianne for an answer. Both Kai and Niels gave the pleading look that Kai often used on his mom, and Julianne certainly didn’t miss the hint. Besides, she was glad her son had made a new friend so quickly.

“Yes, just try not to get back too late, alright?” Julianne said.

“He’ll be home at a decent time, I promise,” Neils told her. “Come on Kai, my car’s at the other end.”

Niels and Kai were about to leave when Mr. Schultz stopped them. “Kai! Here, you’ll need these to get into your new condo,” he said as he handed Kai a brand new set of keys.

Once in the parking lot, Neils led the way to a grey Nissan versa “Here’s my ride,” he said as he pressed the remote and unlocked the doors. He then walked around and got in behind the wheel.

“It’s a nice car, is it yours?” Kai asked him after Neils started the engine.

“Yeah, my dad bought it for me when I turned eighteen,” Neils answered. “I originally wanted a nice Smart, but nope. Oh well, I’ll have to do with this one,” Neils said.

“A Smart?” Kai questioned.

“Ya, it’s one of those little two-seater passenger cars. It’s nice, made originally by Mercedes and Swatch. I think it’s supposed to come to the states this year,” Neils explained.

“Ah, okay. So, where do we go now?” Kai asked. He would have followed Neils no matter what, but he still wondered what Neils had in mind for them this evening.

“I thought we’d simply take a stroll downtown. If you like, maybe we’d go to the arcade and play some games, nothing too exhausting,” Neils answered.

Neils then started the car, drove off got onto the highway and headed toward downtown Montreal.

“So, do you speak any french?” Neils asked his passenger.

Kai, who of course knew that he had just arrived on the island of French in North-America, answered. “Well a few words here and there, I took a class once, but not really. You prolly do, right?”

For a moment, Neils thought he saw fear in his new acquaintance’s eyes and quickly reassured him. “I only know as much as the required classes teach us. Rest assured, despite everything you must have read or heard about Quebec, here, around Montreal, you can easily get by with speaking almost no french.”

“Ah cool,” Kai said.

“In fact, don’t be surprised if downtown, you hear as much English as you do French,” Neils added.

“That’s good to know,” Kai responded.

The pair listened to music streaming from Neils’ iPod to the car stereo as they made their way toward the city. As they got closer, Kai saw Montreal’s breathtaking skyline full of flickering lights. He quickly noticed that there was a rotating light coming from one of the skyscrapers.

“What’s that rotating light over there?” Kai asked.

At first, Neils didn’t understand the question, since he had become used to all the lights in Montreal’s sky. He soon realized what Kai was talking about.

“Oh that, that’s the rotating beacon from the roof of the Place Ville-Marie. I don’t think it serves any purpose other than making the building stand out even more,” Neils answered.

“Even more?” Kai inquired.

“Well just the form of the building itself, it’s a cruciform, makes it stand out. It’s also the heart of the underground city. Finally, well, that’s where your mom will be working,” Neils explained.

“Oh! that’s always good to know,” Kai exclaimed.

“Damn it!” Neils suddenly muttered under his breath.

Coming out of nowhere, Kai naturally wondered what had happened. “What’s wrong?” he inquired.

“I missed the exit, bah, I’ll have to take the next one, I just won’t arrive directly downtown,” Neils said.

One of the first things Kai noticed when they got off the highway was the numerous rainbow flags that hung on the buildings around them.

Neils sensed that Kai had tensed up and decided that it was time to reassure him. “We’ve arrived in the heart of the Village, the center of gay life here in Montreal. Don’t worry, I wasn’t planning on bringing you here tonight,” he said, then added with a sly smile, “at least not just yet.”

Neils quickly cursed himself for adding that last part as he saw that it didn’t ease Kai’s tension. “That was a joke, you know that, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Kai said as he tried to smile back at Neils. “And I might take you up on that offer eventually.”

After driving around looking for a place to park, Neils found a spot right by where he wanted to go. They walked around before going into an arcade on Ste. Catherine street. While talking, both of them learned a lot about each other and by the end of the evening, it was almost as if they had known each other for ages.

“And that’s how it should be done!” Kai gloated to his new friend as he beat him at the game once again.

“How did you do it? Are you sure your the first time going to an arcade?” Neils asked.

“Well, at that game yes. I’m just good at figuring out that kind of stuff I guess,” Kai answered.

Kai didn’t tell the whole truth. In reality, he always had the ability to learn and understand games really quickly. He only had to try something once to know how’s it done and the next time he was able to beat the top score of any game.

“Hey, I think I’m gonna call it a night, I’m getting kinda beat. Can you drop me off at my place?” Kai asked.

Disappointed that he’d have to end the good time he thought they were having, Neils agreed. “Yeah, of course, lets get back to the car and then go to your condo.”

The both of them made their way back to the car, and just as quickly, they were off. Neils deftly drove around jaywalkers and avoided numerous one way streets that would take him in the wrong direction. He finally turned left on De Maisonneuve street from Peel street and then drove until he found the one way street toward the west that led to Kai’s condo.

Finally, they arrived. Neils turned into the entrance of a two identical tower condo complex, each building over 20 stories tall. Kai was getting ready to get out of the car, figuring that this was his stop when the garage door opened in front of the car. Neils drove inside and found his designated parking spot.

“I thought you were dropping me at my place?” Kai inquired as Neils got out of the car and went to retrieve Kai’s luggage in the trunk.

“Ya, of course, that’s what I’m doing!” Neils responded.

Kai wasn’t exactly following and it must have showed because Neils felt the need to explain himself some more. “I shoulda told you, we’re neighbors, or almost. Your mom’s condo is on the the 23rd floor on the east tower, I live on the same floor, but on the west tower.”

“Ahhh, geez, sorry, I guess I’m way too tired,” Kai said with a laugh.

“Nah, it’s alright, I shoulda told you before, and it’s understandable, you had a long day.”

The both of them went to the elevator and got off on the 23rd floor. Neils followed Kai all the way to his front door.

“You know, you didn’t have to come up with me all the way to the door, I wouldn’t have gotten lost,” Kai said.

“Hey, I told your mum that I’d bring you back in one piece and I did. So sue me,” Neils teased.

“Yeah, well thanks. I mean for everything, I had a great time. We really should hang out some more tomorrow, or whenever,” Kai said, secretly hoping that Neils would be eager to spend more time with him since he was thus far his only friend in Montreal and a cute friend at that.

“Yeah, for sure. I’ll drop by tomorrow. If you need me I’m in 23-K.”

**

The neighborhood was no longer calm. There were no kids playing on the street. Instead, unmarked cars flooded the area.

Travis’s car arrived in front of the house. Freshly arrived from his rushed flight to Denver, Travis wasn’t exactly thrilled by the turn of events that led him here and prematurely ended his day off.It was one of those moments where he just knew that he’d be cranky and he wished he could wear a ‘don’t test my patience’ sign to warn others.

At least, if it’s of any comfort, he knew he wasn’t the only one whose plans for the day had been ruined as Mr Thorpe and agent Becker had joined him on the private flight and were now following their boss into the house.

As agent Becker went to retrieve the latest debriefing, Travis didn’t even stop to have his presence acknowledged by the team already in place and began to examine the house.

Travis walked upstairs into what he rightfully thought had been Kai’s room a few hours earlier. The kid’s bedroom wasn’t different from any other ordinary teenager’s, except that it was now empty. As he finished inspecting the room, he opened the closet. At the first glance inside, as he had expected, he saw nothing, no clothes hanging at all. But, as he was about to close the door shut, his eyes fixed onto the lower corner where the was a pile of small boxes stuffed inside a large box as well as a torn poster, which particularly caught his attention.

Travis looked at the poster and he saw something unusual scribbled on it. He was about to pick it up when Jordan Becker found him.

“Well, I’ve talked with the field team and they confirmed after having gone through all the rooms one by one that all the prints that they found where either Kai’s or his mom’s, which gives us nothing,” Jordan informed him.

“Have we finally got a hold of her boss?” Travis asked.

“Not yet, but we have talked with some of her coworkers. That led us to another dead end. It seems she quit a few weeks ago when some firm gave her a job offer in another town that she just couldn’t refuse,” Becker replied.

“Well, just find where she went,” Travis said.

“They apparently have, it’s just not that easy. There’s no immediate sign of her or Kai. We’re looking into passport activities but, we’re getting stonewalled, so it will take a little more time,” Becker said.

“In the meantime come and take a look at this here,” Travis said pointing at the poster he had noticed moment earlier.

Becker crouched and read the handwriting out loud “AC1072 YUL” before shouting “what does that mean? It could mean anything, an ID number, a password or nothing at all.”

“Or everything, we need to get on it now,” Travis said decisively.

Becker and Travis went downstairs and walked into the living room where the field team had set up a mobile workplace.

“AC1072, find me what that means!” Travis said as he entered the room.

Quickly and without questioning they started typing into their databases and searched for any mention of the code. They found the answer quicker than they realized once one of the men typed the phrase into Google.

“It’s the number of a flight!” one of the field unit guys rapidly said.

Travis came behind him to look at his screen. “Don’t tell me, the flight leaves from Denver?” he said.

Agent Becker linked everything together before the field agent could “Yes. It goes to Montreal! YUL is the IATA code for the Montreal airport.”

“Find me who we have that’s close to Montreal,” Travis said in the direction of his chief of staff, who was holding a phone to his ear.

“Right away, sir,” Mr. Thorpe answered him back. “But I think you should take this, I’ve got Mrs Johnson’s ex boss on the line”.

Travis acknowledged the information and took the cell out of the hands of his chief of staff.

“Hello, I’m Mr. Travis, I’m working for the US census bureau, and I’m trying to find Mrs. Julianne Johnson. We’ve already found out that she’s not working for you anymore, but I was wondering if she mentioned to you where she was going next,” Travis explained.

They had to wait a short moment to get information that could shorten their hunt. “I woulda thought that with all the money we give to our government that you’d at least be able to talk one to another. I’ve already told you guys, you already questioned me about her this morning,” the man said.

Quickly, a red alert went off in Travis head. He snapped his fingers to get the attention of everyone in the room. “What do you mean we’ve already questioned you?”

“Well, this morning a guy saying that he was from the census bureau called and asked the same questions,” the man said.

“Oh I’m sorry, I’m taking up where my coworker left off and I guess he didn’t file the report correctly. May I ask you what you told him?” Travis quickly invented a cover story and knew that if there were others looking for Mrs. Johnson, he’d better know as much as the competition.

“Well, I can’t really help you there. All I know is that she gave me her two weeks notice and said she had accepted a job that some Canadian firm had offered her, a job she couldn’t refuse,” the guy said.

“A Canadian firm?” Travis asked again, hoping for some more information to go on in order to find the woman and her teenage son.

“Ya, some firm in Montreal,” the guy replied.

“Well, alright thank you for your help,” Travis said before hanging up.

If talking with Julianne’s old boss wasn’t of any help at all in their effort to track her down, it did however inform them that they indeed had some competition and that Kai was in danger out in the open without protection.

“We got a problem!” Travis said after he hung up. “Get me a plane, we’re going to Montreal, we’re in a race and we’re a day behind.”