Golden Throat (Cable Denning Mystery Series Book 1)

by James P. Alsphert

  The next thing I knew it was morning and a beautiful Asian female was looking down at me dressed only in her thin red-silk morning robe. “You dream of past and future because you are haunted, Cable. You cannot help the pathway of others. Be present.”

  I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes as I sat up on the sofa. “And good morning to you!” I muttered. “Hope you slept better than I did.”

  “I do not sleep. Not in the sense you do. I go away into a state of being elsewhere. Now I have come back for you. You must wash and dress. Today we will take a journey. Shall you be prepared?”

  “I don’t know. Depends on where we’re going and how long it takes to get there—and is it dangerous? Frankly, Lei-tao, I’m kinda tired of ‘dangerous’ for a while. Can we have ‘mysterious’ and maybe ‘fun’ for a change?”

  She laughed and took my hand to help me up. Her hands were ice cold, like a corpse down at the city morgue. I chuckled. “I hate to say this, but don’t you have any blood circulation? You feel like a tray of ice under a champagne bottle.”

  “I am sorry. It takes a little time for this body to warm once I have been away from it. As I said, during the night I go away. My body goes into a state of—of…there is a word for animals—”

  “—hibernation. I’d hate to be your husband. The poor guy’d freeze to death and they’d find him in the morning ready to float out to sea like an iceberg. If you ever have a lover, you’ve gotta do something about that, kid.”

  She giggled. “I love your humor, Cable. Laughter heals. I am glad you can take things so—so lightly when most humans would be falling apart at this time from all the pressure.”

  “Say, I’ve got to use your phone before we leave. I need to check in with Ravna. He’ll kill Adora if I don’t let him know I’m doing at least something about procuring the Fen de Fuqin.”

  “There are no phones here. When you come to meet me for our journey, Wong Lo San will take you to phone booth. He will also escort you to where I shall await you. I must go to prepare now.”

  She started to go. “Uh, you’re not leaving me with that goon downstairs?”

  “We must not be seen together. Dangerous for both of us. Wong Lo San is trustworthy.”

  “I don’t know, considering he was the guy who pulled out that hatchet head from under his sleeve last night and started chasing me around your lobby.”

  “Go now, Cable, get washed and dressed.” Then she walked away.

  Good ol’ Wong Lo San directed me to a phone booth and I called Dr. Penn and Ravna. I told Jedediah I was fine and on the trail of something big, including the precious capsule people were so willing to die for. When I talked to Ravna, I found him a bit irritated that my detail was so sketchy and that if by tomorrow I didn’t have the object in question in his sweaty little hand, he’d have Adora blown away with a few bullets in her lovely head. I came back that if he did that, he might never see the golden priceless again. He backed off and I assured him I was in negotiation with the honorable Lei-tao, the Red Dragon Lady herself. He was sufficiently impressed with that information, but what cinched it for him was my usage of the original name of the golden acorn, Fen de Fuqin. I promised him I’d call him by tomorrow evening because I was most likely taking a short trip with the beautiful Red Dragon Lady.

  Wong Lo San led me down Bush Street toward Stockton. “Lei-tao tells me you’re not such a bad sort, besides being a killer, murderer of men, women and children, enforcer of prostitution, gambling, drug addiction palaces and immigrant female slavery,” I poked at the man.

  “I hate man like you,” he stated with a toxic vehemence. “You also put curse on Red Dragon Lady. She is not same since you arrive. You corrupt her with erotic thoughts and behavior. She is pure—and must stay pure.”

  “You know, old boy, I think you’re jealous because she doesn’t want you in her bed. I mean, after all, who was it that spent the night in her quarters—huh? all night, laughing and drinking and making love—”

  “—stay quiet! You are insult to men! Beside, you lie. She cannot shape into your kind of woman. I am thankful for that. Say no thing more.”

  And so I didn’t. We got to the same old opium den I had first entered the day before. He guided me downstairs, past the hopeless men rotting away in their bunks, into the gambling hall with the richly dressed men and whores, and finally through a third door. But this one was painted a shiny black and had a lock that required a large, complicated key that the Hatchet Man withdrew from his robes and applied to the lock. Finally it opened. “You go. Wong Lo San hope he never seen you again.” Then he departed.

  I walked through the black door and it shut behind me with a solid sound. I was thrust into a night of pitch-black nothingness. Then out of nowhere one candle was lit inside a small red lantern. I walked cautiously toward it. I didn’t suspect any treachery from Lei-tao, but you never know—life can be tricky. “Come, Cable,” a voice spoke from out of the darkness. “Come sit here, at the table.” I fumbled my way to a small black table where the red lantern sat.

  “Lei-tao—I—I can’t see you, but I know your voice. So, I’m sitting. Where are you?”

  “I am sitting in front of you but you will not see me.” I looked around. Now that my eyes adjusted to the light, there was another object on the table. It was a tall golden cup filled with red and gold liquid. “What in the hell is this stuff?”

  “It is I, Cable. I have become the essence form I am in the liquid universe. Drink me, and we will take our journey together.”

  “Gees, lady, I’d really like to trust you here—but you know, I’m just not used to drinking people down like that. How do I know it’s not poison and you’re zai jian to me? Are you sure this is the only way? I mean, I was thinking of a cable car ride or a short train ride or something—”

  “—you know some Chinese. Zai jian means good-bye—and we have barely said hello.”

  I looked around the room. Her voice was coming from everywhere at the same time. But I had to move on it. “I read it. So…where are we going, if I may be so bold as to at least ask that?”

  “To the Cave of the Seven Truths. It is my birthplace when I incarnate from the Lake of Lotus Pod. I have shown it to only one other earth soul. Will you drink now, please?”

  I took the golden chalice in hand and drank it all down without tasting it. What the hell, I thought, today was as good a day to die as any other. Interestingly, the stuff tasted sweet and warm on my lips and I began to feel euphoric. “Whoa! You taste pretty damn good to me, Lei-tao. Does the rest of you taste this good—I mean that with no offense, of course.”

  She didn’t answer, but the room began to spin and I was whirling up through the ceiling, higher and higher and watching my body sit there by the red lantern at the same time! I could feel a hand take mine. This time we both had the same temperature and floated faster and faster until all I could see were colors upon colors whirling through my consciousness. I was forced to close my eyes as things accelerated faster and faster. Somehow I wasn’t afraid and I don’t even think my heart rate increased.

  Next thing I knew, Lei-tao and I were standing in the middle of this magnificent multi-colored dome, towering maybe a hundred feet above us. But what was really weird was that the entire surroundings pulsed with golds, reds, greens, blues and indigos. “Welcome to my birth home, Cable,” Lei-tao said, looking at me with a smile. “Here I was born forever. Here is where the untouched Fen de Fuqin sat for thousands of your years. Then sorcerers who intended chaos and confusion upon your earth plane found a way to transport the Sacred Golden One to the world of men. There, the terrible Order of the Oculus Pyramis Mandatum got possession of it through an evil other-dimensional creature called Tsaga…you knew him in human form as Blinthe. He was to benefit greatly by turning the Fen de Fuqin over to the Order. The golden capsule contains a sacred, etched golden tablet copied from an ageless vibrational parchment. That is the key to the symbols on the outside.”

  I was using my natural det
ective sense. “So what’s the golden capsule say?”

  “Nothing visible to you, but it contains the Tone of Creation, the one sound the universe was made from. The terrible men of the Oculus Pyramis Mandatum were aided by this alien mischief-maker, named Tsaga, who could fly up to the beginning of the first sky. When he captured the Fen de Fuqin, he brought the knowledge of the Blue Light of Noda with him. This is how the golden capsule is read and magnified. It was what you beheld when Dr. Sandor showed it to you in his vault—where I reclaimed the precious one.”

  “That’s quite a lump of info to take in at one time,” I said, wholly perplexed and puzzled. “So you killed Matrangas and Jinx?”

  “I have told you I appear in many forms—and at all costs, must protect the Fen de Fuqin. That day I was a black dragon.”

  “Hmmm…I see…so you weren’t kidding. You’ll have to forgive me, I’m—I’m, uh, just not used to this shape-changing thing.”

  “I understand. You are a three-dimensional creature.”

  “So what are the seven truths you spoke of?”

  It is the origin of my own being, not only what I was taught, but what I was in non-consciousness before awakening into form. She pointed to a rock in the ceiling of the cave. It lit up a deep red. “The vibration we are taught is ‘WE ARE POWERFUL AND MIGHTY SPIRITUAL BEINGS IN A PHYSICAL WORLD, AND WE LIVE WITH DIGNITY, DIRECTION AND PURPOSE.’ Next she pointed to another rock and it turned a lovely deep red-orange and glowed so brightly that it filled the room. “‘WE CHOSE TO COME HERE FOR SELF-BETTERMENT, AND FOR THE BETTERMENT OF OTHERS.’” Then she pointed to a rock far in the distance and yellow beamed out everywhere in the giant cavern. “‘WE WERE ALSO CHOSEN TO COME HERE. A LOVING FORCE TRUSTS AND BELIEVES IN US.’” Next, Lei-tao pointed to a rock well over to our right. A lovely green-yellow stood out. “‘WE POSSESS MANY GIFTS AND TALENTS.’” Then she pointed to another rock in the distance to the left. Suddenly the room filled with a warm, magical blue glow. “‘WE CHOSE TO BE HERE AT THIS TIME—NOW. WHEREVER WE ARE, WE ARE NOT LOST.’” At the next motion of her finger into the air, a beautiful blue-green began to emanate from this cavern of indescribable beauty. “‘WE EXISTED IN OTHER DIMENSIONS BEFORE, BEAUTIFUL, SAFE, ALL EMBRACING. WE ARE PRECIOUS THERE, EVEN NOW.’” Then her hand swept across the very heavens directly above us and the room filled with the most incredible light I had ever seen. The space between my eyebrows ached with a kind of joy I could never explain to myself, let alone anyone else. It was a purple, or indigo color of such magnificence and depth that I fell into it while I stood there with Lei-tao. “‘WE WILL RETURN TO OUR BEAUTIFUL DIMENSIONAL WORLD, AND LEAVE BEHIND THE UNIQUENESS OF OUR DIVINE MARK.’”

  Those messages issued by the colors from her lips resonated in me like a pinball hitting all the bumpers at the same time. My lights went on deep inside and I felt how shallow and limited we humans were who dwelled upon the earth. And wherever I was right now somehow amplified the best parts of me, made me see there is a limitless something in every one of us that lies there asleep at the very core of our being. I could never be that wise in the ordinary day-to-day existence—on patrol—with Mario Angelo and I taking a chronic shoplifter back to the station house for booking. That pedestrian world suddenly paled before this, the magnificent otherness I was also.

  Lei-tao took my hand and pulled my body into hers. “Now I can touch you, Cable. Now I know you have endured the vibrational test and the cave has not rejected you.” She hugged me amidst the warm splendor of the multi-colored cave. “Now…do you want to have some pleasure?”

  “Yep, that’s me. Mr. Pleasure…does this mean we—we, uh, get to explore each other in slightly more intimate ways?” I still had a hankering for this lovely, mysterious creature.

  “You might say that. But please remember, I already told you we cannot have the kind of physical intimacy you are used to.”

  “Yeah, you did. That part’s too bad. I was kinda hoping you’d give it a go. But you did explain it would mess up your vibration or something. So…uh, how we do this thing?”

  “We go to The Center of the Sun. We become wholly natural…naked. We kneel and face each other and by concentration, allow each and every cell in our bodies to come to life, to stimulate us until together we experience the Little Death. It is the way of the Tantra from what you know as ancient Sanskrit.”

  “But isn’t my body still back at the ol’ opium den?”

  “Yes. But you are here. And you bring with you the memory of your body. So it manifests. Whatever you can image, Cable, you can become.”

  “Easy for you to say. I’ve still got trouble shaving in the morning when I’ve got a hangover, no matter what I imagine in my head.”

  She ignored my ridiculousness. “Are you ready?”

  “I’m not too crazy about going to the center of the Sun part. Won’t we be burnt to a crisp within a wink of an eye?”

  “It is symbolic, Cable, for walking into the Room of Impossible Light.”

  “Oh, that’s even more exciting.” I took a deep breath, wishing I could have my last cigarette before taking what might be my last walk with this babe—or anyone! “Alright…lead the way, doll.”

  She took my hand and it felt good. In that second I trusted her and realized she would guide us to new places that I must be willing to explore. Or else I would end my life like any other bloke, stiffened to hardness by a constrained world of emptiness, longing and concealed desperation.

  We walked to the very middle of the glowing Cave of the Seven Truths. There the Red Dragon Lady began to turn gold before my eyes. It was a warm, heated gold and it spread from her to my body until both of us were glowing like golden iridescent candles against a sky of endless beauty. She let go of my hand and sank to her knees. I did the same, sitting on my knees about three feet from her. “Close your eyes, Cable, think of me, think of desiring every bit of me, all of my female self, all of my mind, all of my spirit—think of combining with me into complete Oneness. Feel the connection…we are never separated…now rejoin in consciousness with me…bring me to the little death as I do the same for you.”

  To this day I can’t completely explain it. But whatever happened in that Cave of the Seven Truths that day, changed me forever in ways I may never know, given the stupid default systems humans are made up of. First I could feel my feet begin to warm. I concentrated on Lei-tao’s feet, for I felt her thoughts were directed to me by a ritual pattern of some sort. Then I could feel my lower legs and knees come to life and it made me take deep breaths. Soon my upper legs were filled with the energy and when it hit my genitals it felt like someone had just rung the bell at a carnival sideshow. I could hear Lei-tao begin to moan and I knew I was getting pretty good at this focus thing. With my eyes still closed, I imagined her beautiful dark mound lighting up, swelling, pulsing, the electricity shooting through us both as my own genitals took on a powerful jolt and my manhood came to spectacular attention as my balls tightened. By the time the energy had moved up past our stomachs, I, too, began to moan without being quite able to control it. When my focus hit her wonderful, young and firm breasts, I was breathing in and out like a wolf in heat and I was tempted to open my eyes and watch those lovely little nipples stiffen and stick out like bright-pink ornaments hung on the morning Christmas tree. When this mystery woman and I reached the throat and head places, we broke loose with cries of ecstasy and the sounds seemed to echo into forever and out to every space in the cosmos, yet never left our presence. Not before or since in my life, had I experienced such ecstasy.

  Then the golden light that filled us dissipated and I instinctively inched toward Lei-tao as she fell into my arms. Our bodies were dripping wet with perspiration but our minds were alert and euphoric. “Thank you, Cable! She said breathlessly. “I knew you could do this with me—I just knew.”

  “And thank you, babe. I think you just spoiled me for a human existence, though. How can I ever have a mortal woman again?”

  “You will. I
n the human condition, you will forget. And you will live on without me, as I must live on without you. What has been added is that you will pass some of this golden walk to the Center of the Sun onto others that they might be lighted by your presence. This is how we silently grow and learn from others. This is my gift to you, Cable.”

  I woke up on the floor of that dark room with the little table and the single red lantern. “Lei-tao?” I called. “Lei-tao?” I felt my body. It was still intact and nothing hurt. “Are you here?”

  “Yes, Cable. But the cup is tipped and you must right it so I can re-form into it and regain my physical self.”

  I saw the goblet next to me on the floor. I got up and placed it on the table by the glowing red lantern and sat. “Okay. Shoot…” I couldn’t believe it as the bottom of the chalice began to fill again with the bright red and gold liquid. Soon it rose like a mist up out of the container and spread around the room like a beautiful fog. Then Lei-tao’s complete woman’s body formed out of that fog and she stood before me…perfectly wonderful…perfectly naked. “Happy to see you again, fellow traveler. Do…do you, uh, need to put some clothes on? Now that I’ve experienced the you in you I think my human man’s desire is tweaked. But what an adventure, toots! How am I gonna ever top this one?”