Questions.
Questions.
Noble took a left. The streets were relatively barren at the moment. He looked up and saw a couple walking hand-in-hand across the street. There were restaurants and, down the road, a small grocery store. Everyone looked normal. They were all blissfully unaware that, just a hair's breadth away, was another world with people that may or may not have looked just like them. Perhaps there was a couple in that alternate dimension also walking-hand-in-hand. Maybe they were even the doppelgangers of the people he was looking at right now.
The mind boggled at the possibilities.
Noble could see the hotel up ahead. It was a tall one and he had lucked out and gotten a room near the top. He always liked being up high, able to look down on the world and see the people down there. When he was a kid and growing up in Chicago he loved to go downtown and to the observatories of the various buildings like the John Hancock or the Sears Tower. He loved flying places and got window seats and watched the cars become toy-sized and then smaller.
Now he felt small. Very, very small.
Noble reached the hotel minutes later. He reached into his pocket and fished out his key card. His nostrils filled with that familiar hotel-smell of cleaning products, the bodies of hundreds of guests over the years, and the dim scent of food from the hotel restaurant. There was also a bar off to the right, but Noble did not feel like drinking. His mind was filled with the thought of the king-sized bed upstairs.
Oh, and he was going to have to call his wife and Eveline.
Noble headed for the elevator, his head down, looking at his reflection in the shiny marble floor. He was little more than a shadow, which felt ironic to him right now. The elevator dinged and he stepped inside without noticing anything. He hit the floor he needed and the doors shushed closed, then he leaned back against the cool metal wall and closed his eyes while the floors dinged up and up.
"Noble, so glad to meet you."
Noble nearly jumped right out of his pants. He immediately went into a defensive crouch that was probably not a true maneuver for any martial arts, his hands out in front of him, his left hand in a karate-chop pose, his right lower and closer to his body with a closed fist. The voice was right to his left, in the corner of the elevator. He hadn't noticed anyone there when he got in, but these days he wasn't sure that people couldn't routinely just appear anywhere they wanted in any dimensions, consequences be damned.
It was Whitten. There was no mistaking him.
Although Noble had never seen the man, hadn't even been shown a photo, he knew right away. Whitten had this power about him that just wafted off of him and something in his eyes that made Noble’s stomach quiver. The man was just a hair taller than he was and his head was mostly bald, with the remaining hair around his head a dark brown. He wore the thin wire-framed glasses that made circles around his deep green eyes. He had a thin mustache across his upper lip and a pointed goatee off of his chin and wore a dark green three-piece suit, complete with a vest that bore a watch-chain. Although he could not see it, Noble would have bet anything the man still carried a pocket watch.
"Dr. Whitten," Noble said flatly, a statement, not a question.
"Ah, I am flattered to see that you know who I am," the man said. "I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to you. Years, in fact. I am guessing that much of your life is turned upside down right now. You did just leave a conversation with my old friend Dr. Shaw, correct?"
There seemed to be little gained by denying it. "Yes, what the fuck are you doing in this elevator and what the fuck do you want with me?"
A small, thin, smile crossed Whitten's face and he shook his head slightly, clucking his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Noble. Such language. Is that the same mouth you use to kiss your wife? The same one you plan on using to talk to your wife?"
Noble moved nearer to the man, both hands clenched into fists. As he got closer, some part of his brain registered the fact that the elevator was no longer moving, the floors no longer dinging. Whitten did not flinch nor move.
"Do not mention my wife," Noble said through clenched teeth.
"The lovely Olivia?" Whitten replied. "Oh, I know all about her. I know all about you, too. I know about you and Ms. Paulson and your attempts to save her."
Noble punched Whitten in his left eye. The older man gasped and cried out in pain and surprise. The little wire-framed glasses flew from his face and landed on the floor where they skittered like some horrific spider. Noble crushed them with his foot before Whitten could even register that they were gone. Whitten crumpled against the wall of the elevator and held his hand to his face.
His face changed.
The pleasant-looking professor with the odd taste in clothing was gone and something savage took its place. When Whitten raised his head Noble took a slight step back. The man's eyes were black, as black as the child-things he had seen at Eveline's home.
"You should not have done that, Noble," Whitten said. As he spoke, though, there were two voices. There was Whitten's regular voice, but there was also something deeper over that. Something truly savage and terrifying. "Who do you think you're fucking with here?"
Whitten moved suddenly and his movements were not that of a man hundreds of years old, but some jungle beast. In an instant he had a hand around Noble's throat and he was lifted off the ground and slammed into the wall, held at least a foot and a half off of the ground, the world around him moving in a rush. His air was gone and he kicked and grabbed at the wrist that held him. The hand around his throat was like iron.
"I am not here to recruit you," the Whitten-Void thing said. "You are no scientist. You are a stupid policeman and that is all you will ever be. I am here to tell you to run. I am here to give you forty-eight hours to get back to Illinois, get your wife and your dogs, and move the fuck away. Try to run. Get as far from Dash and Dr. Shaw as you can, Noble Randle. I am doing this because I am merciful. If you do not do this, I will visit Eveline Paulson first and she will vanish, becoming one with the blessed Void. I will then get your wife sometime when you are not home, perhaps while she's at the grocery store. I will then track down the rest of your family and all of your friends and colleagues. One-by-one they will vanish. Only when you are completely alone and broken will I find you and consider giving you the gift of the Void."
The hand around Noble's throat disappeared and he crumpled to the floor against the wall of the elevator. He took great whooping gasps of air that rushed through a bruised and wrecked throat Colorful dots floated in front of his eyes and the world appeared to have narrowed down to a white dot surrounded by nothing but gray. He had been seconds away from passing out.
Whitten stepped back to his corner. When Noble finally had enough of himself under control to look at the man, still sitting on the floor, he saw that Whitten's eyes had turned back to their normal green. The man wiped his hands with a handkerchief and he reached into his pocket to remove a small device. He pointed it at the elevator door and pressed a button. The elevator moved again. He also reached into an inside coat pocket and removed another pair of wire-framed glasses, which he put on his face, a perfect match to the ones Noble had crushed. Finally, he reached into the vest pocket that had the chain and, sure enough, he pulled out a pocket watch which he flicked open and studied. The place on the left side of his face where Noble had punched him was already turning purple and swelling.
"It is just before nine," Whitten said as the elevator doors opened. "You have forty-eight hours. That's all the time you will be given. I suggest you use them"
Whitten stepped out of the elevator. Noble staggered to his feet and stepped out after him just as the doors closed behind him.
The hallway was empty.
***
Noble stood in the hall for several minutes, staring first one way and then the other. He kept expecting Whitten to reappear from somewhere, heading back to the elevator, or he thought he would hear the man's footsteps as he ran down the stairs. Nothing. There was the ice mak
er making its rattling noises like some wheezing pneumonia patient, and the soft hum of the lights, but nothing that would indicate anyone else was even alive on this floor. Then, one of the doors opened and a blond teenage girl came out carrying the ice bucket and walked past him. She gave him a worried look and hurried down the hall to the ice machine. The scuffle in the elevator had to have been loud enough to disturb the people inside their rooms. Before security was called and Noble was arrested, he decided to head to his room.
When he got to the door he had a moment of fear that Whitten or black-eyed children would be waiting for him inside his room. He hesitated, the keycard held just over the lock, for several moments, trying to listen to what was happening inside the room. There was no way to hear anything and the longer he stood there the more his mind made up sounds of footsteps, whispers and coughing. He finally swiped the card and entered the room.
It was completely dark inside. He had that moment of panic flood him again, sure that he had been sucked into the Void the moment he entered the room. He flung his left hand out against the all, brushed the light switch, and light filled the room.
It was empty.
The bed was made and there were mints on his pillow. His suitcase was where he had left it and the clothes he had hung up in the closet were still there. The room smelled like a hotel room. It was cool inside, the air conditioner running the way Noble liked. He closed the door behind him.
He kicked off his shoes and collapsed on the bed, pressing his hand to his chest and feeling his heart hammering beneath. Some part of his brain told him that he should remove the topmost bed cover, that there were all kinds of unspeakable things on that piece of fabric, but he chose to ignore it. He was special. That was what Shaw had told him. He was not going to die from catching some sort of disease left on a bed cover by a prior horny occupant.
He had to call his wife and he had to call Eveline. Who first?
Noble reached over and dialed his wife. Olivia would be up working late. It was still relatively early for her, really, back in Chicago. She picked up after the second ring. Almost immediately Noble knew that something was wrong.
"Hi," she said.
"Hey," Noble replied.
"How are you?"
"I'm fine, Olivia, I miss you. Are you OK?"
There was a pause. In the background he could hear the dogs walking around, their nails clicking on the floor. She must have been downstairs then, answering her phone in the kitchen perhaps.
"Well, I'm not sure," Olivia said.
Noble sat up on the bed, worried now. "What happened?"
"Well, remember when you were telling me to be careful about weird things happening?"
"Of course."
"Well, I could swear there's some guy outside, in the shadows, watching the house. I mean, I can't be sure, but I was just out walking the dogs and I swear I saw this shadow move behind one of the trees. And I -"
She was struggling, unsure of what to say next. When Noble closed his eyes he could see her almost perfectly, clutching the phone, eyes closed.
"Did you see red eyes?" Noble asked.
Olivia gasped. "Yes. Jesus, Noble, have you seen them, too? Do you know about this? What the fuck is going on?"
Noble let out a very long sigh and did his nervous habit of running his fingers through his hair. Was he going to tell her? More importantly, what was she willing to believe? Shaw and Dash has not given him explicit instructions not to tell her. They must have known that he was going to be tempted to do so. Maybe they figured that the truth was so outlandish that even if he told it to anyone, no one would believe it. Truth be told, despite all he had seen and all that had happened, he was still having trouble believing it all.
"Yes, babe, I've known about it, but not for long," Noble said. "Hon, I have some things to tell you. You'd better sit down and I don't think you'll believe any of if. Not sure I believe it, really, but it's what's been told to me and I am going to lay it all on you."
"You're scaring me," Olivia said.
"Well, it's about to go from scary to weird and scary," Noble said.
And so he started telling her his story.
***
"That is the biggest load of horseshit I have ever heard," Olivia said about an hour later when Noble finally finished. As soon as she said it, despite the horror of everything, Noble couldn’t help but smile and he suppressed a laugh.
Olivia had sat in almost total silence the entire time Noble was talking. She had made noises to let him know that she was still there and, at one point, the dogs had erupted in barking and she had shushed them. However, she had let him talk and talk until he couldn't think of another thing so say. Then they had sat in silence for several moments, as she tried to find a way speak, before finally making her declaration.
"I said the same thing," Noble replied. "But the evidence is mounting that there is truth behind it all. Like my run-in with Whitten in the elevator at the hotel telling me that I had forty-eight hours to get you out of town or he and Void were going to get you."
"Jesus," Olivia whispered. "What are you going to do?"
"I have to find out more, Olivia," Noble replied, unsure of what his answer was going to be until the words flew out of his mouth. "I have to go with Shaw and find out if any of this is true."
"What about me?" Olivia asked.
Noble sighed and he tried to speak, but found that he could not get the words out. "There are members of IDEA that are watching you. Plus, I trust you, Olivia. You aren't going to let any black-eyed children into the house, right?"
"Of course not, but it sounds like this Whitten guy is more than just a man," Olivia replied. "If he can hold you up with one hand against an elevator wall and then vanish in a hotel, what else can he do? What is he?"
"I don't know, but that's something I also need to find out," Noble said. "I have to do this."
"I'm your family, Noble. So are the dogs. Family should always come first."
"But if I can stop this whole thing, I can protect you and my family," Noble said. "Once they go after you, what's to stop them from going after my parents or my brother or my niece and nephew?"
"I understand," Olivia replied, sounding tired, sounding resigned. "What am I going to do if something happens to you? If you just vanish, how will I know? This is dangerous, Noble."
"I'll make sure that Dr. Shaw, or Dash, or someone tells you what happened to me," he said, feeling the full weight of his fear about this endeavor. "But nothing is going to happen to me."
"Then you'd better get tough," Olivia said. "The next time you see Whitten, just beat the shit out of him or shoot him or something. They're playing ruthless, and you have to play ruthless. Got me?"
"Yeah," Noble said. "I get you. I love you, Olivia."
"I love you, too," Olivia replied.
There seemed like more that needed to be said, but neither of them could figure out what it was. Noble said good-bye and when he hung up he was afraid that it was the last time he was going to talk to his wife. He pushed that thought away, but it lurked in the back of his mind, the shadows of his mind, like the shadow men.
Noble dialed Eveline's phone number. It took several rings, but Eveline answered. She sounded tired and she sounded scared.
"I was beginning to think you weren't going to call, Noble," she said. "I was terrified something had happened to you."
"A lot has happened to me, Eveline," Noble replied. "How have you been doing?"
"I've been terrified," Eveline said. "I left work early today. I haven't seen any more of those creepy-ass children around, but I swear I keep seeing things in the shadows. Things that look like men."
It was the same story, wasn't it? Each person that had the misfortune of seeing the man from Taured that day was going to be seeing the same things. They were going to see shadow men and then the black-eyed children would come.
"Well, sit back," Noble thought, feeling exhausted from already telling this tale, but thinking that Evelin
e needed to know it as well as his wife. "I have a lot to tell you and a lot of it is going to make zero sense."
"Well, so far my life hasn't made much sense and I don't think yours has, either," she stated with a nervous laugh. "Lay it on me."
So, for the second time that night, he did.
***
It was another hour and Noble's throat was so dry that swallowing hurt. He got up to get a glass of water with the phone still stuck to his ear. He was waiting for Eveline to tell him that it was the biggest load of horseshit she had ever heard. Instead, there was just quiet from the other end, a quiet broken by the sound of a television in the background.
"Wow," Eveline said. "That is some story."
"Do you think it sounds like horseshit?"
"No," Eveline replied, much to Noble's surprise. "Like I told you, with the crazy shit I've seen lately, why would the fact that you can find and heal rifts somehow be any stranger?"
"I guess I hadn't thought of it that way," Noble replied, taking a large and long drink from the sink in the bathroom. He refilled the glass and drank another.
"So, am I just supposed to stay at this hotel until you get this guy, or what?" Eveline asked.
"I don't know," Noble said, licking his lips and thinking about refilling the glass for a third time. "The amount of shit that I don't know is enough to fill the Grand Canyon to the top."
"Yeah, I feel you there," Eveline replied. "I am so tired right now. I think I need to go to sleep. Tomorrow, though, I need to figure out what I'm going to do. I can’t just stay here indefinitely."
"Do you have any relatives that you can go stay with or something?"
"I have a sister who lives in Milwaukee," Eveline said. "I haven't seen her for a long time. Maybe it's time to use up some vacation time and go see her. What do you think?"
The Man From Taured Page 19
