Chapter Twenty Two

“So little death metal dude is an old buddy of yours? What just happened back there?”

Just when Lester was beginning to feel like he was building up a tolerance for bizarre encounters, stumbling upon Bronco was almost an overdose of weird. Lester had just cracked the lock on the door of the tree-topped bunker, but he was having trouble getting the image of the blood-encrusted Bronco out of his head. Had Lester known the part Bronco played in ending Harry’s emails, there most likely would have been much more than squirrel blood covering Bronco.

“Honestly, I’m pretty surprised myself. On our way to Kentucky, I ran into him in a restaurant bathroom.”

“There ain’t no way you could remember some guy from a public restroom unless you were doing more than pissing or shitting.”

“He is one of those characters you don’t forget. He made it a point to tell me directly how much he loved Metallica. When I saw him coming at us… well, you saw what happened.”

“I’m thinking that little buster’s skull would be cracked wide open right now if the mother of all coincidences hadn’t just occurred.”

Dave and Lester descended a flight of stairs down into what seemed to be an abandoned garrison. There were troop quarters and a central staging area, but no troops and no sign that any troops actually lived there at the moment. The area was minimally lit though, which seemed a little odd to Lester for an unoccupied section of an underground fortress. Energy conservation must not have been a high priority. Then Lester and Dave heard another set of footsteps.

Oxfords. Lester searched for some cover, but it was too late. A man in an English suit rounded the corner and spotted them immediately. Lester smiled at the man. Surprisingly, the man returned the smile and continued to walk towards the two disheveled hikers.

“Mr. Horton, Mr. Bussabarger, I’m so glad you found your way in. I apologize sincerely for the inconvenience. Our main entrance is a little off-limits at the moment. Of course, you understand.”

The man extended his hand to Lester and then to Dave who both instinctively shook it while giving each other sidelong glances—glances that translated into text message shorthand would read, “WTF?”

“You can call me Marv. I’ll be showing you to your rooms, and then we’ll be meeting with Dolph momentarily. Follow me, please.”

Marv knew exactly whom he was talking to. It was decided the pretense of mistaken identity would be adequate to lure the two guests into a false sense of confidence. They would be easier to manage. Bloodshed would be minimized.

---

In room 16, bloodshed was an understatement. Ivy stood in shock and nausea against the wall as Pam picked up the decapitated head of Anton and removed the hat he had been wearing. She carefully slipped off the mesh of wires that had encapsulated Anton’s crown since the trio’s disembarking the hydrofoil. The wiry device collapsed into a smaller form. Ivy had not noticed Anton was wearing anything under the hat. Pam looked to Ivy as the beastly body of Claude Bullock inched cautiously closer towards the smaller of the two women.

“Ivy. I’m going to throw this to you. Pull the two pointed ends apart and put this on your head with the pointier side in the front. Then run to me.”

“I’m going to puke.”

“This stops the puke.”

Pam threw the device at Ivy. It fell a few feet short, landing on the red-coated floor. Ivy struggled to reach for the device. The closer she moved to Pam’s glowing caduceus, the more her stomach moved up into her throat. A throbbing pain in her head began to increase as she felt the bond between Ru and herself begin to fray. With her head as far from the tip of her fingers as possible, Ivy screamed with one last reach to grasp the device. She began to pull the ball of wires apart frantically as the distance between her and Claude diminished. Blood dripped into her eyes as she placed the device on her head. Then Claude’s body slammed into the wall where Ivy had been standing, missing her by inches as she sprinted slipping and sliding towards Pam. Pam grabbed Ivy tight with one arm while she held the caduceus in front of them both like a shield.

“How is the possible? How can you hold such a thing?” Claude rumbled.

“Our souls are cloaked, demon. Now it is you who are trapped,” Pam proclaimed triumphantly.

“I’ll destroy you before you have a chance to complete your magic.”

“So be it. At least one of us will remain to carry out our mission. Who are you? Xerbil? Gno’orfz? You’ve defiled the human body you inhabit for naught.”

“You know those names. Yes, I’m certain we’ve met before.”

Claude’s tongue rapidly escaped his mouth to slurp up some of Anton’s blood covering his hand. Pam with Ivy began to move in Claude’s direction when the lights came on and a voice came from the door.

“I don’t know who you are or why Claude hasn’t killed you yet, but you better not make another fucking move.”

“Steven, my friend, you’re just in time. We seem to have some uninvited guests.”

The orderly stood at the door with a submachine gun trained on the two women. He tapped a button on his earpiece.

“We’re going to need the clean-up crew for room 16 again. Sorry, guys.”

The sight of blood had never bothered him before, yet the orderly was suddenly feeling the taste of his dinner and stomach acid bubbling up his esophagus.

Claude hissed, “Put away your silly magic wand, or Steven will shoot you down. Isn’t that right, Steven?”

Pam hurled the caduceus at the orderly, who was able to fire off a few rounds before saying goodbye to his Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Pam and Ivy ran towards the convulsing man to recover the wand. Ivy crumpled in pain at the doorway.

“Pam.”

Ivy held her shoulder. Pam moved Ivy’s sopping red hand to view the damage.

“High and outside. Looks like he got you right through the shoulder, kid.”

Claude hovered menacingly near the horizon of the caduceus’ sphere of influence while Pam ripped a couple shreds of the bottom part of her shirt to dress Ivy’s wound.

---

Trapped in the cocoon, Harry had nothing but time. After processing what he thought had happened, Harry decided to write it off as merely a dream at first—an intensely vivid and detailed dream. The joy of seeing his Nana and the pain of seeing her disappear was too overwhelming for Harry to deal with. But the typical distractions were no longer there for Harry in the cocoon. The only places he could go were deeper into his own mind. He began to methodically scour every detail about the red folder assignment that had led him to his current state. The Brother Dave videos popped up in his memory review. With all he had seen, Harry could now fully appreciate some of Dave’s words. Dave’s meditation lessons seemed apropos at the moment. Rather than letting go, Harry was to embrace every living thing around him at once. He was to try to connect to everything around him in some way—feel it, sense it, become it. This was counterintuitive to most teachings, but Harry continued. To Harry’s wonder, with his body in the cocoon, he was actually beginning to feel like he was touching the outside with his mind. He wasn’t just thinking about it; he felt as if he was somehow interacting with it-- recognizing it genuinely. There was Dolph. There was Angie. There was Bronco. There was Lester. There was Dave. He saw Dave’s friend Pam and the mystery girl from the pool and the internet video. There were beings of light and a shadow amongst them. Harry couldn’t control what happened outside, but he was so close to seeing it.

At that moment, following Marv through another section of the compound, Dave nudged Lester.

“Your friend is here,” Dave mumbled to Lester.

“How do you know this?”

“I don’t know. I just know he is here.”

“Is he okay?”

“If I’m sensing him, he must be alive.”

Marv stopped at a large door, turned, and looked at Lester.

“Mr. Horton, your suite. If you need anything, just pick up the phone and dial ‘zero’. I’ll be back around 9:30. Then we can meet Dolph.”

Lester could sense Marv was trying to separate them.

“If y’all don’t mind, I need to see where Busburger’s suite is. I need to go over some details with him before the meeting.”

“He’ll be four doors down from you in the jaguar room,” Marv said as he pointed down the hall.

“Heck, I’ll just come with you, so we can talk right away.”

Marv paused briefly and then smiled cordially.

“Of course, Mr. Horton.”

Lester wondered how much longer they would have to keep up the dissimulation and followed Marv and Dave down the hall. He figured it wouldn’t be long before the posse showed up. If they were going to take Dave, it would have to be by force.

“You know, Marv, I appreciate what you’re trying to do here, but I’ve already told myself about a dozen times that if and when we ever got to this place, it wasn’t going to be a sunny day at the beach. And here you are being so kind and so courteous. I really hate to waste any more of your time.”

A tiny bead of sweat trickled down from Marv’s brow.

“Maybe you really believe that I’m Mr. Horton and this is Mr. Busburger, but now I feel I have to let you know that we ain’t.”

“I’m sorry to have mistaken you. You really should have said something…”

“Marv, please, give it up. There are a couple reasons we’re here. One. We have reason to believe you have constructed some kind of portal to another world. We’d like to dismantle it. You’re fucking with something you don’t understand, and you’re going to bring misery to the entire planet. Two. You have my partner, and I want him back safe. Maybe you can be a dear and help us out with those two items.”

From behind and in front, bursting from the doors along the hallway, well-armed commandos rushed out to surround the men. Simultaneously, Lester put Marv in a chokehold.

“Lester Phfister. You really could have made this a more enjoyable stay for yourself and Mr. Bullock,” Marv choked out.

“Make a move, GI Joe’s, and he stops breathing.”

One of the masked gunmen spoke, “We have orders to take Mr. Bullock at any cost… Marv is expendable.”

Marv’s face became pallid and expressionless. Lester clenched his teeth for few seconds as he weighed his options. One group of gunmen moved to grab Dave from behind.

“Okay, okay, take us to your leader.”

Dave looked disappointingly at Lester. Lester stepped closer to one of the open doors. Just as the gunmen were about to reach Dave, Lester shoved Marv into the oncoming group. He grabbed Dave and pulled him through the open door and slammed it shut. The two men were trapped.

“They’re going to flash-bang us if we don’t think of something quick,” Lester muttered.

Dave and Lester spotted a heavy oak table. They strained to flip it on its end and wedged it against the door.

“Now what?”

Before them was a large window that looked upon the green waters of Lake Cumberland from below.

“Let’s make like Harry and vandalize.”

Lester recalled in Harry’s briefing how he cracked a window to cause a ruckus back in Montana. The two began to search for something to bash the window.

“Damn. It looks like they learned their lesson. There ain’t shit in here heavy enough to crack the glass except that table. And that thing is too big a bitch to use as a battering ram unless you’re Hercules,” Lester complained.

They could hear heavy banging on the door. The table wouldn’t hold forever.

“Lester, let them come. They won’t be able to use me now that Vros is with me. But I can get close to the portal.”

“That sounds fine for you, but what about Harry? Make sure he is all right, if you can. If they get in here, I’m as good as dead. I don’t have any special gifts I can use as leverage except for my charming personality.”

“I’ll see to his safety.”

Dave wrestled inside with Vros about Lester. Vros was willing to sacrifice Lester for the greater cause, but Dave felt a kinship with Lester after getting him this far. Lester couldn’t just be tossed aside after all they had been through.

“I’ll see to your safety as well.”

“Don’t worry about me, Dave. I’ve had a good run. After what I let happen to Tommy, I sort of feel I have it coming.”

The table splintered, and the gunmen stormed in to subdue both men quickly and effortlessly. Lester received a few unprovoked kicks to the ribs. As the men were dragged away, Marv stopped the group holding Lester.

“Keep Phfister alive for questioning. He may hold vital intelligence.”

---

A short while later in the portal room, a uniformed man approached a pacing Dolph Hauser with an update on the ongoing situations within the subterranean fortress. Dolph walked up to the cocoon, which was being prepared for one more entry into the portal, to speak to his unresponsive recalcitrant captive.

“Harry, you’re running out of time to make this work. I have another Bullock man, and let me tell you, the last Bullock responded very well to the process. I haven’t confirmed if he has made a meal of your lady friends yet, but it’s almost certain.”

Another man in a lab coat approached Dolph.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Sir. The woman is now an empty vessel waiting to be filled. We can make her believe anything.”

“God damn it! You’re pestering me with low priority minutiae. I’ll get to Angie when I can. Just keep her under. Oh, and if I find anyone has dipped his wick, I’ve got all your damn DNA on file. You will be castrated and fed your own damn nuts. Tell the genetics guys to start working on the Bullock woman already. We still need to create some viable eggs based on her DNA. We’re not going to be able to build an army without soldiers.”

Chapter Twenty One

Animal trainers and naturalists will tell you that animals only attack under four conditions. The first, and most obvious, is when they are attacked themselves. Nothing says defense like putting on a good offense, and if animals could talk that’s what they’d tell you. Second, whenever they are threatened in their lair, or something literally comes between them and their offspring, look out. Also, it is common for animals to attack when they are hungry and curious – and not always in that order. Ask a surfer who’s been grazed by a shark and they’ll tell you they didn’t taste right so the shark took a pass. The last situation, both Lester and Dave found themselves approaching – startling an animal, which attacks instinctively first until it can access the threat.

It was late in the day and the two had been following the natural slope of the hillside which led them away from the lake edge. Light was still available, though it was gradually slipping away. There was too much foliage, but there was a slightly defined trail, evidenced by the tread earth. If there was a way down to an entrance from the water, this was not it, or at least, not one that had been used for some time. Dave walked confidently amongst the flora of his youth, earning a scout badge from Lester for his ranger skills as he kept them away from skin-irritating plants and on easy to traverse ground. But it was Lester who noticed the faint streaks of heat exhaust in the not-to-distant skies, warping the tranquil blue with shimmers of distortion.

“We’ve got to be close,” he said, pointing to the spot just beyond the dense cluster of trees in their path. “If that’s not near a proper entrance, there’s got to a vent or duct we can get into. Just tell me there’s no anti-government folks living out here, because I’m gonna be pissed off if that’s some Unibomber cabin and not the location.”

Dave shook his head. “Nobody would come out here for that. Rain runoff down slope would flood it whenever a storm came through, and when they flooded the valley to make the lake, anything worth killing to eat was driven out. With the hills and tree cover, there’s not enough direct sunlight to even put solar panels to get any power, and even if somebody wanted to drag gasoline here for a generator (which is incredibly , we’d have heard it running. Anyone here would starve, drown or be at a disadvantage to survive too long.”

Lester hoped he was right, because he’d started thinking about all the ways to get around the obstacles…building a raised platform for a structure to be put on, using a hand-cranked battery, fishing or farming for food – it was pretty extreme, but Lester found he was becoming more analytical in the absence of Harry, who balanced Lester’s fiery enthusiasm with caution and questions.

Dave stopped abruptly and Lester almost bumped into him, not aware of why or what stopped Bullock in his tracks. Scanning the area, Lester nudged Dave’s arm.

“What is it?”

Dave replied in a softer voice, “Someone’s out here.”

“How do you know,” Lester whispered back.

“Look. At your two-o-clock. Those are clothes and shoes. Over by the tree.”

Sure enough, there was a pile of garments about 25 yards away.

Lester moved over towards a nearby tree and wrestled a bat-sized branch off, plucking a few chutes off to make the wood a weapon and not a leafy instrument. “Let’s go around and hopefully not attract attention.”

They moved slowly away from the clothes and towards the released heat, with Lester putting himself between the pile and Dave. As they came closer there were scattered carcasses of squirrels, first one, than a second, until there were maybe ten or so, torn in half or split open. And fresh. Dave was almost spitting distance from a small, bloodied naked man laying on his back when Lester grabbed his shirt and yanked him back. The two changed course not heading towards the clothing and away from the nude form. They were maybe all the way over to the clothing when a bird overhead squawked. And that was enough to wake the sleeping man.

The man’s eyes opened and saw the two cautiously moving nearby. In an instant he had flipped over and was running at them. Incredibly fast. Lester pushed Dave behind him as he drew the branch staff back to swing once the naked man was within range – and that was momentarily. It was almost involuntary, and instead of letting out a cry, somewhere in the subconscious of Dave Bullock’s mind, something was able to reference and sort through all the incredibly strange events of the last week plus and identified the dark, dirty naked berserker coming at them, and yelped one word.

“Metallica!”

If Dave had been a magician snapping his fingers, there would have been an audience volunteer suddenly coming out of a trance, no longer clucking like a chicken or hopping on one foot. Bronco skidded to a halt and looked at Dave and Lester confused. He understood Metallica. They were a band. A great band. The greatest band. Ever. Metallica was like the voice of God offering command over the horns of angels (not that Bronco thought in that context, but the equivalent concept to him). These strangers had roused him from his post meal-nap, which he needed after chasing down all the tasty snacks he plucked from the trees and shrubs.

Dave said it again, “Metallica. You like Metallica.”

He had to repeat it not only to try and force Bronco to understand he had made the briefest of connections to the memory when they had crossed in the diner bathroom. And also to convince himself that he actually remembered it too, as he had first blurted it out unaware of what he’d said.

“FUCK YEAH. METALLICA!” Bronco smiled, his lips stained with blood and bits of fur and meat still in his teeth.

It was ridiculous to see him here, but considering the oddity Dave asked anyway, “Do you know where the place is? We got lost.”

“HUNTER OF THE SHADOWS IS RISING, BRONCO.”

“Um, yeah. Can you show us the place?”

Bronco ran a short distance away and started pointing. Dave moved closer and saw what Bronco was gesturing at – a small concrete bunker recessed into the earth with several trees growing on the top. The trees had been carefully intertwined with painted tubes, carefully camouflaged in the trunks and branches to hide the exhaust from the underground.

“FACE THE THING THAT SHOULD NOT BE!”

Lester was dumbfounded. As he should be.

---

There was sobbing on the other side of the wall. It was faint, and she was doped up on serious tranquilizers, but Angie heard sobbing. She tried to open her eyes but they were heavy as boulders. She tried to move her arms and legs, but she didn’t even feel them. There were words gurgling in her throat, but Angie was not able to force them out. The sobbing was replaced by moaning, also faint but recognizable. It would rise and fall, carrying Angie’s consciousness like a piece of driftwood over a wave. She didn’t know how long she had heard it, just that she could. It gave the impression of floating, moving on that wave of sound, even though she felt nothing of her physical form. The disembodied moaning was haunting her like a ghost. It may have been her imagination, but sometimes Angie thought she heard the named “Claude”.

---

Dolph rapped on the outside of the cocoon with his palm. “Can he hear me at all in there,” he asked of the attending labcoats. They gathered together and conferred; the question seemed to create confusion among them and set them off on discussion. Soon there were a half dozen, some wildly waving papers and printouts, others trying to direct their colleagues towards different machines that would prove whatever point they had in mind. Dolph stood there perplexed. He grew impatient and decided to address Harry anyway, expecting that his words were none but his own.

“Harry, I hope you come out of there in one piece. You’re going to get broken, but if you come out, I expect you to be whole. I wish you wouldn’t fight so hard. You’re going to die in there if you go on like that, you know. And I don’t really want that. And I don’t think you want that either. If I thought I could motivate you to make the right choice I would. Really. But know that I’m planning for you to pull through this. I have plans for you. You really can have it all. Your whore girlfriend. Power. Control. All you need to do is listen to me and know that I’m giving you a gift. It’ll be the best thing ever that you never wanted. You’ll see I’m telling you the truth. The alternative is no better.

Your friend is here and he brought me the son of Bullock, did you know? Of course not. You’re stuck in there, stubbornly trying to keep me from opening my beautiful portal and ushering a new age for man. But they’re here, and I’m going to kill your friend. Maybe, I’ll let you kill him…that would be rich, no? And apparently you boys have been flirting, because you’ve brought me some ladies I don’t recognize. But I will get acquainted with them soon. Would you like me to leave them to you as well? Don’t spend too long in there, Harry. We need you out here…”

From the group, a bespectacled older man tapped Dolph on his shoulder.

“Sir,” he said, “we believe that the subject inside can not hear what you are saying.”

Dolph turned to the nominated labcoat, whom he promptly pushed back towards the group by the face. The man tumbled back, and his group parted, literally not supporting their representative.

“I figured that out, no thanks to your keen insights. Never interrupt me while I’m monologuing. It’s a bad habit and, I’ll admit, cliché, but the next idiot who can’t give me a quick answer without consultation and then has the gall to break my speech, you’re going into Room 16.”

---

It was pure light shining in her eye. The left one. There was darkness, and then the white glare of light. It almost hurt, but it was just the capillaries in the eye reacting, adjusting and trying to cycle blood into the organ to focus. There had been so much darkness, the eyes had weakened without use, and even if the light was not being shined in her eye, Angie would still have trouble seeing. The eye was closed, and then the other was subjected to the same treatment. The darkness came again, but after a few moments there was a different kind of darkness. It felt like her eyes were open, but she still couldn’t see. At least that damn light wasn’t there. There was some pressure and then a spreading warmth in her eyes. They tingled from the saline-nutrient solution that was being administered, and then, total darkness. She noticed that there was no longer any crying or moaning.

---

The access hallway was lined with pipes and wires. There were no signs from the dock where they’d moored the hydrofoil, but Hrel was certain the deeper down they went into the facility, the more likely they were to find people that could reveal the whereabouts of Brother Dave or his family. Lackeys and footsoldiers could possibly lead them up the food chain, but better to stay hidden in the infrastructure until they found the a central hub or command point that would give them an accurate picture of what was there.

“I hope wandering around is going to help find us Brother Dave,” said Ivy. It wasn’t said directly to Pam, but she knew that it was more than Ivy just talking rhetorically. Ever since the boat, that docile little girl had started sounding off about their techniques. For someone who wanted to find Dave as bad as she did, Ivy was certainly not as dedicated to overcoming the obstacles to locate him as she was. Then again, Ivy wanted to probably hold hands and skip through fields with him, while Pam was looking to punish him for the pain he’d caused her. I’m helping you Hrel, she thought, but when this is done, Bullock is mine and you and your ilk better not get in my way.

Anton felt the tension between the women and tried to defuse it. “We’re not seeing anybody, so that means we’re probably in an area that’s off limits to most people, and that means we’re likely to get into some places where we’ll find good information. See…that’s what I’m talking about. He pointed at the elevator at the end of the corridor.

There was a small placard directory on the wall next to the call button. There were four levels but only two were marked – labs and engineering. The labs were the second to last level, above engineering, which was likely plant operations and physical power for the structure. The mysterious two top levels, though unmarked, had the same color background that said level one and level two.

“Let’s go purple,” Pam decided. “Labs have offices, computers – things we could look through.”

“You don’t want to start at the bottom,” challenged Ivy.

“If they had Dave here, would he be in someplace where engineers were or perhaps in a lab setting?”

“We’re still expecting that we’ll find him here.”

Pam definitely towered over Ivy, and her size was even more menacing when she got right up to Ivy. She looked down at the waif. “He’s here. I can feel him in here. Don’t question it…he is here.”

Ivy didn’t shrink away from Pam, but backed down as Ru reached out and gave Ivy a bath of relaxing endorphins. Yes, I can feel him too, said the voice to Ivy. “Fine, let’s just get him and get outta here. The further we go, the worse this feeling gets that there’s some bad shit around.”

Both Anton and Pam were shocked to hear their sweet companion actually swear. It was almost…charming.

They moved into the elevator and took it to the lab floor, holding their breath that the doors would open and there would not be a horde of people there staring confusedly at the oddly combined trio. Luckily, that was not the case, and they exited the elevators to a dimly lit foyer with corridors branching away from the center. There was a reception desk directly in front, like in a hospital, and on it was a monitor that showed several different hall lengths and doors. In one part of the split screen, there was a row of heavy metal doors that were numbered with large letters, which stood out because one was pulled open.

“Anybody believe that’s a sign,” asked Anton.

“Which way is it?”

Pam scanned the different directions and saw that to her left were labs, and the right halls were simply labeled “rooms”. “That way,” she said, leading them towards the open room.

“At least we know there’s one room we can get into easily,” quipped Anton.

They moved through the passageway and saw the rooms ascending. There was no light coming from under the doors of the rooms as they went past and no sound as well. They all had three foot tall numbers painted on the metal doors that appeared like they’d been taken from an aircraft carrier and transported there in a strange construction error. There was a bank ahead, but the rooms continued, and they reached the open door, which was slid to the side on the rails that were necessary to move such a massive bulkhead. Pam looked into the blackened room, and seeing nothing reached along the side of the wall, disappearing into the dark until she felt a switch. The lights in the room warmed up and soon the operating theater was in full view for the three of them. It was clean and reset, but there were several garbage-sized bags with the biohazard symbol on them looking rather full against one wall.

“Anything stand out here,” asked Pam.

“Let’s keep moving. Maybe there’s another open door. If there’s a surgical facility, then there have to be patient rooms.”

Anton added, “That sounds about right…”

As they moved on, none of the doors were ajar, but they grabbed the bars and gave them a tug to see if they would open. Pam gave a pull, and the sheet of metal gave slightly. Ivy and Anton stopped at their doors and came over to her.

“Let’s give this one a shot.”

Pam pulled it open a few feet and went in looking for a light source. Anton followed her in as did Ivy.

“I’m not finding anything here,” she said.

Ivy went to the other wall where a little light shown and started to feel around. “There’s nothing here either.”

Anton started back towards the door of Room 16 to pull it open further when it suddenly shut.

“What…?”

“What did you do?” Pam and Hrel sounded angry.

“I was going to open it for more light when it closed. I didn’t even touch it,” he said.

“Damn it,” Pam said, reaching into her pockets for the caduceus. It made a faint glow, washing Pam in a pastel blue.

Ivy suddenly felt sick to her stomach. “Turn that off,” she commanded.

“Steve? Is that you?” The voice was coming from across the room, maybe thirty feet or more from them.

Pam muttered, “Oh shit,” and killed the glow of the wand in her hand, but held it unsheathed.

They could feel a gust of air and then a loud, wet cough. There was a sound almost like a soda can being opened, and the air grew warm with mist. Something landed near Pam’s feet with the splat of a wet towel, and she didn’t want to turn the caduceus on, but Hrel made her, creating a fluorescent aura.

Anton’s face was in front of her. The rest of him was gone.

Pam shown the light across the floor, which was covered in crimson creating a puddle between her and Ivy, who was hugging the far wall and covered in a light spray of blood like Pam.

Claude Bullock did not venture anywhere near the field of the caduceus light, not because he knew what it was, but the daemon inside him feared it. “That wasn’t Steve,” he said. “He’s the only visitor I get. That, and my meals.”

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Chapter Twenty

Since his reunion with Dolph Hauser, Harry was learning a great deal about the man. After repeated beatings, the beaten man, if he can keep his senses, will pick up subtle revealing details about the man beating him. Dolph was very controlled and focused. He offered Harry a degree of respect by using his own bare hands. Dolph wasn’t about to leave Harry’s first phase of punishment to one of his unrefined lackeys. The blows were vicious and accurate to maximize pain to the recipient and mitigate possible damage to the dealer. To Harry it seemed each punch was a question Dolph was asking, “If the roles were reversed, Harry, could you match my talent? Could you beat me as well as I’m beating you now?” Harry wasn’t sure he could answer in the affirmative. Harry knew he would have a difficult time holding back from going over the edge as he had many times before. It was a fine art to beat a man to near unconsciousness. After the drugs and intermittent beatings, Harry could sense the end drawing near. There was nothing to say—nothing to divulge. He had nothing to bargain with.

Harry was surprised when Dolph walked into the room not with action but with words.

“You must be wondering why you’re still alive. ‘Why doesn’t he just get on with it and kill me already?’ Honestly, Harry, if you were anyone else, you would be dead as we speak. It would be long and agonizing; of course, you would have to suffer. But eventually, you would be dead.”

“Shucks, Dolph. You really know how to make a guy feel special.”

“That’s just it, Harry. You are special. Of all the people in the world with the gift (and there aren’t that many), you had to be one of them. With your association and our history of quid pro quo aggressions, I have been neglecting one of the most important aspects about you. . . You’re a human being. Here I am, trying to coax out of you intelligence about your association, from which you are, quite obviously now, far removed, and some loose end was preventing me from extinguishing you. Of course I’ve known all along what that loose end is, but I honestly believed I could milk details from you about the organization to which you belong. You’re a tough nut to crack, Harry. I often asked myself, ‘Am I like all those clichéd super villains who define themselves by the existence of their nemeses?’ I’ve killed men for much less than what you took from me.”

Harry began to wonder if Dolph was trying a new interrogation technique. He wondered if he should remain quiet or start telling lies.

“Harry, you’re not my nemesis. You’re the winner of a lottery of sorts. And you’re just a tool to me now. I couldn’t spring this on you all at once. I had to try to break you before allowing you to fulfill your destiny. Indeed, we’ve had our time. Bringing you in was easy. Holding on to you was the hard part. But here we are with all the pieces of the puzzle in place. You’ve had me so flustered, Harry, that I can’t believe how close I’ve come to killing you and squandering your precious DNA.”

Harry’s bewilderment persisted.

“Yes, it’s one of the things we do here. We look for patterns in DNA. We study genealogy. And you, Harry, have a very rare pattern. It happens to be exactly what we’re looking for.”

As he spoke, the amusement on Dolph’s face began to shine. He shook his head.

“Look at me. I’m still laughing about it. I let my emotions get the best of me. Such poor form. Of all the people, Harry. You. Goddamn James Bond.”

“What does my DNA have to do with anything? Don’t tell me I have an increased risk for prostate cancer or something.”

“I believe what you’re about to go through will be worse than death.”

With those words two men wheeled an odd cocoon-shaped capsule into the room. Harry was beginning to understand what Dolph had been alluding to.

---

Lester noticed a marked change in Dave’s outlook and demeanor since uniting with Vros. Dave had shed the ennui of the past few days for the mantle of urgent determination. Now it was Lester’s turn to be the voice of caution.

“I understand we have to shut this operation down, but the two of us alone can’t just mosey up to them and say, ‘Uh, hey, we’re here to destroy your dimensional portal.’ From what Harry said about the Montana place, they have a little more than a security guard with a walkie-talkie. Give me a little time to muster up some reinforcements, at least.”

“Lester, we don’t have the time. Something has already happened. We need to stop them immediately. Your friend seemed to manage on his own.”

“Harry is a tough cookie, but he also caught ‘em off guard. I don’t think we’ll have that luxury.”

“We’ll pose as clients.”

“I’m 100% positive, we’ve been made already. Unless you’ve got some convincing disguises…”

“Vros is getting impatient with you. It’s time to move.”

“Well, Vros ain’t driving my ass now, is he.”

“Then stay out of our way.”

“What? Are you going to leave me in the middle of the lake?”

“We’ll drop you off at the shore.”

Dave began to steer the boat towards the shore. For the past hour, the two had been scouring the shoreline for signs of an entrance to the subterranean lair. Lester recalled Harry’s descriptions but didn’t know how similar the two locations would be. He had wagered his chances of survival if they found the place to be zero or very close to it.

“Okay, Dave. I want to get these motherfuckers just as much as you now.”

“Are you going to help us?”

“I can’t believe I’m about to do this. You guys better let me visit heaven or whatever it is. I don’t want to say I did this for nothing. Besides. We all know you can’t handle yourself in a violent situation, Dave. Somebody’s got to be there to take care of your ass.”

Dave cracked a smile as Vros’ muscle memory continued to meld with his own.

---

Pam and Hrel were much further along in the process of symbiosis. After witnessing firsthand the power of Hrel’s ingenuity, her respect for the angel was growing. The two thugs the trio was following, whose lives were forever changed by the uncapped aura of the caduceus, drove to a mooring in one of the northwestern fingers of Lake Cumberland. A sleek hydrofoil rested in the water. The three left the dazed two in their car and boarded.

“Pam, this thing is submersible. The GPS unit has key waypoints saved. What should we do with those two?” Anton nodded his head in the direction of the two thugs.

“Grab them. We’ll probably need them.”

Ivy had been curious about what Pam had done to the two back at the Bullock house. As Anton alighted the boat, Ivy questioned Pam.

“What exactly happened back there? What did you do to them to make them so docile?”

“I really didn’t do much. This little thing a friend of mine cooked up did most of the heavy lifting.” Pam waved the covered caduceus around.

“What the heck is it? Like a taser gun or something?”

“The way my friend explained it to me, it’s a concentrated ball of dark energy. It’s like a mini-black hole. It does some serious shit to your brain waves.”

“So it’s a weapon.”

“It could be. It could be a lot of things.”

“It sounds like something we shouldn’t be using on people.”

“Ivy, give me break. These guys are pawns. They’re going to live to crap another day.”

“They’re still people. I don’t think it’s right.”

“If you want to start calling the shots, be my guest.”

Ru and Hrel could not talk openly. Neither had control of its host, and by their generally loving nature, they refused to pursue the option. But internal dialogs were brewing. Hearing Pam’s description of the device through Ivy’s ears, Ru could tell a forbidden tool was being employed. Could Ru speak face-to-face with Hrel, the conversation would have been similar to the one Pam and Ivy just had. The caduceus was born out of a demonic instrument—an instrument once used to mark demon territory. That an angel had reverse-engineered and created its own was a debasement in Ru’s mind. To Hrel, it was necessary to fight fire with the proverbial fire.

---

Inside the cocoon, Harry found a not entirely uncomfortable place to rest. Great care was taken in designing a seat that evenly supported every square inch of the body it came in contact with. The sensation was as close to floating in liquid as a seat could achieve. This more than made up for the claustrophobia-inducing nature of the cocoon. Harry would be relaxed for whatever was to come. At least it was a welcome respite from Dolph’s fist.

The metallic cocoon was slowly lowered from a protruding bubble of a room into a pool of water to be grasped by a large robotic arm. The arm slowly moved the cocoon precisely into position amidst an intricate tangle of silicon fiber and advanced circuitry. The arm then released its grip and returned to its original position. Harry was nearly asleep by the end of the process. The lights in the bubble room dimmed, and nearly all energy for the submerged facility was focused to the portal. The coils began to heat up boiling the surrounding water away and drawing up the cooler water from below. Then the dream began for Harry. It seemed like a dream, but somehow it was much more. Harry could never remember being as lucid before as he was just then.

It was as if he himself were floating deep within the lake without drowning, surrounded by a dazzling aurora. A voice that sounded exactly like his own began to speak to him. Harry couldn’t be sure if it was himself or someone else talking. When it came to internal conversations, Harry had always controlled both sides. In this case, the origin of one side was uncertain.

“Haven’t you always wanted to just take control of a situation and get people to do exactly what you need them to do for the situation to turn out just the way you want it to? I mean, you’ve done that kind of thing before, right?”

“What are you talking about? Why am I not thinking this up?”

“I’m asking the questions, Harry?”

“Yeah, but you’re me, right?”

“Come on. Haven’t you ever wanted to run the show? I mean the whole show.”

“I do what I have to in order to get the job done.”

“Yeah, but someone is telling you what to do. Don’t you want to make the decisions? Don’t you want to be the guy in charge sometimes?”

“I think my job allows me plenty of opportunities to create and improvise. Everyone has to answer to someone to certain degree or another.”

“Harry, this isn’t a job interview. I’m telling you I can make it happen for you.”

“You? You mean me?”

“I mean us, Harry. Wouldn’t you like to knock out Dolph, take over his operation, and turn it into something positive? We could really make a change. All those people that listen to really shitty pop music—we could outlaw it. We could kill off the bastards making those abominable sounds.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I hate shitty music, but we can’t just start killing people for creating it.”

“Okay, bad example. Come on, Harry. Let’s change the world for the better. You just gotta let me in.”

“What do you have to bring to the table? How can you make any difference?”

“Well, I have power. Watch this.”

Harry felt a pain in his head like his skull was being compressed to a smaller volume. It was excruciating.

“Pretty awesome, huh. I can sit here all day doing this if you like.”

“Stop it now!” Harry screamed.

The pain left immediately.

“So we have a deal, eh? We’re a team, right, buddy?”

“I don’t know who you are, but I would never intentionally give myself a headache. You’re definitely not the kind of guy I want on my team.”

“Think about what you’re saying, Harry. Think about what I just did to you. You sure you don’t want to reconsider? I’m telling you, we could have a lot of fun. Don’t you want that kind of power?”

“You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m not a psychopath. I don’t deal with psychopaths. I eliminate them.”

“Good luck, buddy.”

The pain returned to a much greater extent. The pain reached to every extremity of Harry’s body. Harry wanted to die to end it all. He just couldn’t figure out how to off himself in his current state.

A scientist at a control panel in the bubble room looked back at Dolph with a helpless look.

“What? What’s going on?” Dolph was becoming impatient.

“I. I don’t know why it’s taking so long. The last one went by much faster. His vitals are tacking.”

“Keep him in there. It’s going to take, or he’s going to die in the process.”

“Sir, his value...”

“Just keep it going, goddamnit!”

“Yes, sir.”

The torture Harry was enduing now dwarfed the beatings he suffered from Dolph. And then the pain stopped. Harry felt vibrant and euphoric in comparison to the previous sensation.

“So, Harry, what do you think? Are we partners?”

“Fuck off!”

The pain kicked in again.

“I can make it stop, Harry. You just gotta let me.”

Suddenly, after what felt like being sucked through the mesh of the cocoon in all directions, Harry found himself staring directly into the face of a dark wraith of a figure. The figure seemed confused somehow, its attention diverted from Harry. Harry looked around to see a spectacular battle in progress between other wraith-like figures and beings of light. A ball of light rushed towards Harry and slammed into the dark figure before him. This light was different from the other lights. It was dimmer—more earthly. Harry felt genuine warmth from the glow of the light. The light moved closer to Harry, and he began to make out unquestionable yet ethereal distinguishing features from the glow.

“Oh, Harry, you shouldn’t be here,” the glow spoke.

It was his grandmother’s voice. Imogen Turquoise, a recent ascendant, had volunteered to take part in the assault. Her earthly connections were slowly fading, but Harry remained on her mind. She knew how important her grandson would be to the enemy, and she wanted to see personally to the dismantling of all possible portals accessible by the Kra’agnuk. Her outfit had stumbled upon a jump in progress.

“Nana, is that you? What’s going on?”

“Harry, go back. Try to escape from whatever device contains you. I will try to bar the entrance into your soul.”

“But Nana…”

“There’s no time to talk, Harry, please. Do what Nana tells you.”

She had used that same tone she always used with Harry when she wanted him to take her seriously. Harry slowly felt himself reversing course moving away from the battle of shadow and light. He could see his nana standing her ground as wave after wave of shadows attempted to breach the wall she had created with her comrades. Then Harry saw the number of shadows increase as they began to envelope and eclipse her glorious light. Then Harry could see her light no more.

“NO!” he screamed with the pain of losing her all over again.

Harry tried to move back towards the battle when he felt a jarring and painful tug. He was back in the dark cocoon alone.

Chapter Nineteen

“You know Marv, it’s the little things in life that really make it worth living.”

Marv barely heard Dolph from the shower, but loudly affirmed the observation, making sure his response was clearer than the statement. They were in one of the “Clouds”, the penthouse-range suites with amenities for the more luxurious and decadent patron. Given the need to rebuild in Missoula, Dolph had looked into upgrading some of the features, which naturally lead him to rolling those changes out elsewhere in his domain. The first batch of fixtures was being installed there in Somerset while Missoula waited for construction to reach that point.

The Eihermann Euro-Flo shower head, while less expensive than some of the better marketed brands getting their spreads in Metropolitan Home or Architectural Digest, had just as wide a range of settings and speeds. Dolph changed the spray from the large pulse burst (a favorite of the females) to the full head flow, and was entranced by the 68 individual precision micro-heads that formed the ring of slender streams hitting him in the chest with hot water. One stream in the cluster was misfiring, sending a jet of water across the center and through the perfectly precise pattern. It corrected momentarily and then skewed. The beam of water poured from the opening flatly, adding some additional water to the adjacent stream, and when emitting enough, made the single, defiant arc.

It was fascinating to Dolph, watching the nozzle with it’s flaw, the symmetry ruined by the misbehaving stream. Perhaps the machinist’s lathe had started up around that point, not fully widening the space for the correct pressure to build because it wasn’t completely engaged. Or the water had some impurity, building up the smallest of mineral clusters in the exact spot that would cause the jet to come out different from the engineered design. Dolph was also keenly aware of the small details, the minutiae and slight deviation that, if not recognized would subtly cause a thing to be wrong. Like making calculations in feet and not meters as the Martian Lander programmers discovered trying to land their probe. Or Napoleon campaigning in the Russian winter. Being detail-oriented and detail-appreciative were difficult partners as over-scrutinizing one could ruin the other. Dolph turned off the shower and stood in the glass enclosure for a few moments in the evaporating steam vapor.

“Marv, make a note that this shower fixture is a little faulty and have a maintenance crew swap it out after housekeeping comes through.”

Stepping out of the shower, Dolph wrapped himself in the Egyptian linens that guests were given, patting himself dry enough to benefit from the arc of air jets that whisked any excess moisture off with warm gusts. As Dolph admired his nude physique in the mirror, Marv keyed orders into his mobile device. For his age, Dolph was in very good shape, but was nursing a sore wrist and hand from punching Harry. He slipped on his track suit and gave the tender joints a rub. “I’m going back to my office to change Marv. Let Bronco know I’ll be ready to see him in a half hour, and make sure that nobody in the employee lounge tries to change the channel if he’s watching television.

---

Bronco’s legendary disregard for human life and violent outbursts was well known by the staff. He generally ignored the others when he was seeing the great man. Sometimes, other lesser men would come speak to him first, or be the only one Bronco would interact with, but the great man understood Bronco and was preferable to anyone else. Time was not important to Bronco, and like an animal, he slept when he was tired, hunted and ate when hungry, and adapted to his environment as he moved along and traveled. It had been a day since he’d brought his quarry to the great man, who was obviously pleased that Bronco had been successful.

Normally, Bronco would not have enjoyed spending time cooped up indoors, as the great man’s lodge was not to his suiting, but he had been introduced to a program called Megaplex Hearts and was not so much a fan as he was a student of it. Some of the custodial staff were watching and Bronco observed their reactions; laughter, tears, concern – all from the same program. Bronco wasn’t familiar with the characters’ names, but he knew who worked in which shop in the Megaplex mall, and which relationships were going on. It was a reversal on the typical anthropological study, and the primitive was learning about how advanced cultures interacted, even though the serial was hardly accurate to reality (and not that Bronco cared or realized the difference).

One time when Bronco was in Somerset, he had bought back a dealer who’d figured there was more than enough money to go around and that a system of signals wouldn’t be detected between him and one of the clients. After only two days on the run and $435,000 of stolen money, Bronco succeeded in reclaiming what belonged to the great man. He had just arrived and saw Megaplex Hearts was on, which happened to be at the same time as a baseball game. The man was lucky and only lost two fingers, one of which was reattached with limited function. Whenever they would see Bronco arrive, the staff would try to avoid the employee area, and at the very least not even think about changing the program on Bronco.

Marv found Bronco taking in an episode of the show which he’d already seen – where Murdock, the electrician, was secretly installing his own video cameras in the Megaplex because he believed the security team was going to blackmail the shop owners into paying them on top of their rent to the complex owner. Murdock was in love with Jinny, a student that worked in the food court who was assaulted in the parking lot one night by none other than the twin brother of the head of security, and was in the air ducts setting up his surveillance equipment when he was on the verge of getting caught when the duct collapsed under his weight. Bronco was totally transfixed by the scene, and Marv waited until the commercial before even alerting Bronco to his presence, which was unnecessary since Bronco smelled him from the moment he’d arrived. This lesser man whom he recognized asked Bronco to come with him when he was ready to see the great man, and while excited about Murdock, Bronco wanted to see the great man in his chambers.

They had arrived in Dolph’s office, where he was dressed in more formal business attire.

“Ah, Bronco…once again, you have done what nobody else could, and brought back my two runaway children. They will be punished for sure, but you, you I will handsomely reward for taking care of this.”

Dolph took a stack of bills out from a drawer and put them side by side on his desk. Bronco was unmoved by the large sum of money. A small envelope was placed neatly on top. “Open it,” Dolph prodded him.

Bronco stepped up and followed the great man’s instructions. Inside was a ticket.

“NO FUCKING WAY, BRONCO!”

Apparently, even an animal could have a child’s excitement.

“That’s for the first Metallica show in almost a decade where they’re playing with a full symphony orchestra.”

“METAL MILITIA, MAN. ALRIGHT!”

“Before you go Bronco, I want you to stay around here for a few more days. Do you see on the monitor?” Dolph pointed at the dinghy on the lake with two people in it. “They are associates of the two you brought to me, and I expect they will find us soon.”

“I HUNT, THEREFORE I AM,” Bronco replied.

“No, you need not bring them to me. But if they try to leave with their friends, I will need you again.”

“YEAH, BRONCO!”

Dolph addressed Marv, “Give Bronco the supplies he requires so he is comfortable while he’s here.” Marv gestured for Bronco to leave, and he scooped up the money, handing to the savage, who refused to carry it. Bronco made his way out staring transfixed at the ticket. Marv turned back to his boss and spoke from the door.

“Where should we put him? It’s best if we keep him away from staff and especially clients.”

“He’ll want to stay outside. Outdoors. You can’t cage an animal like that. You have to let it run free…with a very long leash.”

---

Harry had been in and out of consciousness and was having a hard time focusing on his surroundings. But he recognized the voice addressing him.

“That’s Narcobarbital you’re feeling the effects of Mr. Turquoise. We would have preferred Propallylonal, but that’s just too hard to come by these days. It’s a barbiturate, and it’s still used in veterinary medicine as a surgical anesthetic. What you’re not feeling is the sodium thiopental we administered to loosen your tongue, and which I am not pleased with the results. I’m sorry I had to hit you as well. You were not being cooperative and a little fist music didn’t get you singing.”

Harry opened his eyes but had to squint under the glare of the surgical lights. He was in an infirmary, strapped into a wheelchair.

“Fuck you Dolph.”

“I wish we had a little more cooperation from your girlfriend, but she’s been quiet as a mouse since you got here.”

“Where is she, you prick?” Harry struggled to get up but had restraints on his ankles as well.

“She’s over there, Harry,” Dolph said, and over his shoulder there she was. “Angie has a broken vertebrae that we’re working on fusing so that she’s able to walk. How many women do you know who come back from being dead to the world, only to nearly drown and later be thrown from a bus? Quite impressive.”

“Listen you crazy son of a bitch, what you’re doing is opening the door to death and destruction. You want to be lord of the whores and the high roller’s patron saint, but you don’t have any idea of what you’re going to loose on this world.”

“On the contrary. I’m quite aware what’s knocking on the door. And if you’re not nice, you may get to see it first hand. Here. So why don’t you just let me know who else knows about my operations and, if I don’t kill you, I promise to only make your life a living nightmare and not utter hell. You won’t get a better deal, or a second one at that.”

Harry was silent and defiant. He was alive as long as Dolph was unsure what forces were marshaling against him, and while Dolph had no compunction about killing, the combination of paranoia and fear were going to have to work for Harry. Angie looked like she was sleeping peacefully, and then Harry remembered the bus crash and what happened to them.

“I’m not making any deals with you or saying anything until I’m certain Angie’s okay.”

“No, my friend. You’re not doing anything unless I tell you to do it. You better prove you have some value to me Harry. Her I can recondition. It was easy when we found her in Missoula, and we’ll do it again. But you’re going to be dead weight around here very soon. How dead is up to you.”

Marv came in and motioned to Dolph, who shut off the lamp that was shining on Harry, leaving the room darkened save the glow of monitors and medical machinery.

“What is it, Marv?”

“Well, sir, the Bullock boy and the other agent have moored on the far side of the lake and are heading in the direction of the northwest entrance. What do you suggest?”

“Let them come. If they can find us, let’s see if they can make their way in. I don’t care what they do to the agent, but the son is to be kept alive. He’s going to want to see his father and I hate to get in the way of family reunions.”

“Yes sir. And sir…it’s Bronco,” Marv said concerned.

“What about him?”

“He’s decided to make a camp out in the foothills. I saw him dig a hole and then shit in it.”

“Yes, that sounds about right. As long as we don’t bring any of our personnel or clients through there, it will be fine. Bronco will not bother anyone as long as he’s not bothered. But be ready to call upon him. These times are quickening.”

---

Their car pulled up in front of the Bullock residence, but Pam felt less like a journey had been completed. Ivy was still sleeping in the backseat, and Anton looked over to Pam for instruction.

“Looks like no one is home,” he said unimpressed.

“No, no one is. Not that we’re looking for.” Pam got out and went up to the front door, and stood there, arms crossed. After a minute, a SUV pulled up, and two men came out, heading towards where Pam stood. Anton started to get out of the car, but Pam made a gesture to stay.

“We’re looking for David Bullock,” Pam said to the two men. “Know where he might be?”

The younger of the two went to grab her, but Pam kicked him hard in the groin, dropping him to the ground. The other, a much older fellow pulled out a telescoping baton and advanced slowly. Pam reached into her pocket and pulled out a small wand.

“Yours is bigger than mine, but I think you’ll find I’m far more powerful than whatever you’ve got,” she said. He swung it at her and she dodged to the side, opening a spot where he was not protecting himself for Pam to thrust the caduceus into his ribs. She held it in front of his face, and it gave an electric blue glow. “If you don’t know where he is, what about his family?” Pam took the wand over to the fallen young man and put it in front of him. “Whoever sent you, take us to them.” Without protest, the men got up and hobbled back to their ride.

“We follow them,” Pam said to Anton. She looked at the wand before concealing it, and Hrel was impressed at his own abilities to recreate the agent’s tool. “We follow them and then we’ll start to get some answers.”