Red: What do you do when the rules cannot help you? (Rule Number 3)

by Teya Tapler

  “Guys, guys, calm down.” Mary interjected standing between them. “It’s good that he had sent her the bracelet. Now you don’t have to worry about the arrival timing. You’ll know exactly where she is.”

  “What’s the bracelet serial number?” Peter asked.

  “10011133” Zander said and Peter punched in the numbers.

  Evan’s location shone on the holographic screen. The date was April 13th, 1974. At 10 am, 45 minutes after Emil’s departure from that location, she was in what Emil identified as her room in Mort’s New York apartment.

  Emil and Peter picked up a transcaster gun and disappeared in the blue haze.

  Chapter 15

  Zull Mort felt the sensation of his hands and feet waking up. Even though they were the furthest parts of his body they felt like belonging to it again. They felt warm. The time passed slowly until Mort felt his forearms and calves announcing their presence and feeling warm too. Even his thoughts have returned. They were not staying still anymore. They were chasing crazily inside his head. He had regained full consciousness.

  Mort tried lifting his eyelids. He was totally immobilized, spread like a starfish in a block of solid transparent material that was shaped like a huge hockey puck. Something around him was changing. The changes were coming slowly, but they were to his liking. Mort opened his eyes. He couldn’t move his head around, his neck was still too stiff held tight by the solid material. Mort moved his eyeballs from left to right and looked around. He was in the living room of their New York City apartment. The huge red leather sofas, the white-marbled floor, the gold-trimmed coffee table and light fixtures welcomed him home. The wind was chasing the clouds outside the big bay window and the sunspots on the floor in front of him were hiding ever so frequently. He couldn’t feel the cold floor under his bare feet and he was still restrained and couldn’t move at all but he was positive that was not a dream.

  He never dreamed even before being imprisoned. After they captured him and he was sentenced to an endless hibernation he was encased in the life supporting material that lowered his body functions and stopped the growth of his cells. It also removed the feeling of being alive, the feeling that he existed. The process had forced him into a hibernating state in a matter of seconds. He wasn’t sure how long he had been like that. He had no memories after the beginning of the process. It didn’t hurt. It felt like going to sleep after being too tired. He had simply succumbed to the sudden tiredness he felt and dozed off.

  Mort moved his eyes and looked around once more. On the wall next to him he noticed that Kevin was slowly recovering and coming out of the translucent hockey puck he had been encased in. His face was expressionless and he wasn’t moving. Kevin was standing in that weird posture with arms and legs spread like a starfish. When their eyes met Kevin blinked acknowledging his father’s gaze. Mort blinked back.

  No, Mort was not dreaming.

  “I suspect, it’ll take some time before your complete and full recovery.” Ranshen stood in front of Mort and smiled. “You seem so sparkling for someone who has been stuck in space for several seasons.”

  Mort tried to respond but the muscles of his face didn’t comply and his try to speak ended in a funny grimace.

  “I see, that the transparent material really stinks as it degrades,” Ranshen said mistaking Mort’s grimace for a reaction to the process. “Alex come here and help me transfer them on the sofas.”

  Mort saw Amanda’s brother come and stand at his other side. Then the image of the room shifted sideways as they carried him to the sofa. Then the room suddenly disappeared and Mort’s eyes faced the ceiling. Ranshen and Alex had removed the remaining transparent material from around Mort’s body and placed him on one of the sofas.

  Mort was still immobilized but now he could feel the presence of his whole body; all 240 pounds of muscle. He felt extra heavy and then the tingling began. His heart pumped blood inside him, revitalizing all organs, skin layers and cells, sending vital energy and oxygen to faraway places that have been left starving for the last three years. The tingling changed to a sharp itching then it started to sting before becoming more like an electric shock. Mort began convulsing instinctively.

  Kevin was on the other sofa not far from his father. For both of them the recovery process was proceeding as expected. Soon those two members the important 906 gang would be among their family again.

  ***

  “Welcome to the world of living,” Ranshen smiled and pushed the kettle towards Zull and Kevin. ”Finish your tea. You need at least 77 ounces of warm liquids before your digestive system is ready for anything else.”

  Zull and Kevin didn’t need a second invitation. With reasonable difficulties each poured from the reviving liquid in their huge mugs and started slowly sipping the refreshment. Their movements were clumsy and imprecise. When Mort stretched one hand toward the kettle it landed ten inches to the right. That aggravated him and he quickly pulled it back. Then he stretched both arms and moved his hands closer to each other until he grasped the kettle from two sides. Ranshen and Alex sat across the table looking at him with frozen, expressionless faces.

  The initial warmth that Zull and Kevin felt in their arms and legs had started to spread inside their bodies too. After a few hard to achieve swallows Zull was able to move his mouth. He grimaced from left to right stretching the opposite cheek with every movement. He then stretched his mouth in a wide smile showed all his teeth and then made a silly sour face like a little kid that is not going to eat his vegetables. Content that he was once again in control of his face Zull Mort tried to speak.

  “O-o-w” each sound came out prolonged as Mort stuttered thought the simple word.

  “We’ve our ways,” Ranshen guessed that Mort wanted to know how they had rescued him. “We had to sacrifice one of us. Ollie assisted us in the power outage. Then it became a simple logistics operation.” Ranshen smiled indicating that he wasn’t missing Oliver too much.

  “I-i-i” Mort struggled with the next word which Ranshen deciphered as “why”.

  “Both of you didn’t deserve to be there in the first place,” Ranshen spoke slowly with his hissing voice.” Especially now, when I have full control over the pearls. The society, of course, is striving to destroy them. They have never been supportive to our initiatives and if you remember, have sent many perils to us. Now, my brother, we have all the strong cards in our hands. I was personally tasked by the President to spearhead the committee for their destruction.” Ranshen laughed.

  Mort frowned. The temporary inability to speak was a bigger handicap than he could accept at the moment. He became angry and his face turned red. That increased the blood flow in the area and when he opened his mouth for a third time, the words flew out still slowly but in a smoother fashion.

  “The girl? Where’s the girl?” he asked.

  “This is an interesting sentence. You wake up after being forced to hibernate for three years and the first audible statement you say is ‘Where’s the gil?’ Come on Zull, aren’t you all smiles to see me?” Ranshen said.

  “Yes, you know.” Mort roared. ”I need this girl; I want to personally twist her tiny neck.”

  “You might have to take a number,” Alex said.

  “You too?” Kevin mooed the simple question at Alex.

  “You sure have seen her more than once,” Ranshen said and placed two pictures on the table. One was of the Shtuttgart family the day they discovered the fifth pearl, the other one was of Evan in the kitchen of that same apartment making a snack. She looked older on the second picture and her shorter hair was died red.

  “Lin, her name was Lin. She was the reader that worked as my assistant.” Mort said focused on the latter picture. “Damn Ranshen! Why did you have to send Ollie to tell me that we have to kill her and not trust Emil? Why didn’t you come yourself?”

  “Our lives would have been much simpler if our technology wasn’t that error prone,” Ranshen said. “The risk of stumbling into myself at that point
in time was much higher. I’m sure you wouldn’t have fancied going with a blast.”

  “Her real name is Evangeline Shtuttgart,” Alex said.

  “Evangeline Shtuttgart,” Mort slowly repeated that name. The consonants of the last name were still a mouthful for him. ”She was the daughter of that weird professor who discovered the pearls in the 21st century. And she was the one who-” he gently rubbed his left wrist as his eyes flared.

  “It seems that we have spotted another thing that unites us. We have a common adversary once more.” Ranshen said.

  “It may be more than just one,” Alex said looking at Kevin. “I heard that this Zander person was the reason for your latest problem, right?”

  “You have no idea,” Kevin’s speech was coming back.

  “I’d like to join and give you a hand.” Alex said.

  “Hm, the list is expanding,” Ranshen said. “Zull do you fancy adding anyone else? How about Emil?”

  “D’you know where he is?” Mort roared sounding like his normal self. “He stole my precious notebook. Then he was with that girl when Amanda died. If it wasn’t for him Alex, your beautiful sister would still be among us.”

  “As you can guess I do know where all the people from our list are and I’ll be more than ecstatic to escort you to them to settle your scores, after your essential activities performance improves, of course.” Ranshen said helping Kevin take a sip from his tea.

  Chapter 16

  From the upper level apartment Mort, Ranshen, Alex and Kevin listened to the conversation below. They had removed the floor covers exposing the construction material, then placed the super sensitive and powerful microphones directly on top of it. The device was capturing the otherwise inaudible sound waves and reproducing the conversation with slightly robotic voices. For checking the location of their targets the four 906 Inquisitors had placed wireless body heat sensors in all rooms and were compiling the data coming from the lower floor apartment with a separate computer displaying their targets across the apartment’s layout.

  The four men had surrounded the equipment, eyes fixed on the thermal dots moving around one of the rooms. They had lowered their breathing to hear all the details and nuances coming from the speaker. The conversation downstairs was getting more interesting. Ranshen frowned when Emil’s voice came to them.

  “Evan was Lin, Mort’s assistant. She was the one who helped me get in the group and later gave me his journal.”

  “We need to bring her back,” a second man said.

  “O-oh this is Zander,” Kevin grinned. ”I thought I would never see him again,”

  “Your revenge will be sweet, my son,” Mort said.

  “I’ll pull the transcast records. This way we’ll have the exact date, time and location of your departure and you won’t bump into yourself while going back there,” a third man said and they saw how one of the heat signals moved to the adjacent room.

  “The search in the digital archive’s done,” the third man spoke again.

  “How was she?” Zander asked.

  ”She was okay. She’s a brave girl.” Emil said, “You’ll have plenty of time to talk when we bring her back.”

  “I am coming with you,” Zander said.

  “No you are not. At least not yet,” Emil said. “You have to finish the recovery process. Mary will keep you company while Peter and I are out. We’ll be back soon.”

  The conversation continued then they heard Emil shouting at Zander about not following their rules before the indicators showed how the two of the thermal-markers disappeared and then the other two went in separate rooms.

  ***

  “This is our time,” Ranshen flashed his happy crocodile like smile.” Let’s go downstairs and show them our appreciation.”

  The four members of the 906 Inquisitors gang quickly packed the equipment and transcasted it away, then laser guns in hand sneaked out of the apartment and down the two flights of stairs. Mort pressed the doorbell when the other three hid outside of the eyehole’s viewing range.

  “Who is it?” the female voice they have been listening to asked approaching the door.

  “Pizza delivery,” Mort grinned to be more convincing.

  “What d’you have for us this time?” Mary opened the door looking down through her wallet.

  “A surpri-ise!” Ranshen came from behind Mort and pushed Mary inside. He put one hand on her throat and pinned her back at the wall as her hair spread around her face. Mary froze at the sight of stern steel-gray eyes and fire-red hair close to her face. She was petrified like the prey of a savage carnivore. She struggled for air under Ranshen‘s strong grip. He stood there enjoying her turmoil while the other three ran inside and started rummaging the place. From the corridor Mary could hear them toss equipment and furniture, break glasses and dishes, tear off the carpet and even remove with a lot of force, cursing and hard blows the kitchen cabinets and the bathroom fixtures. She heard them enter Zander’s room and start a fight while continuing to destroy the place.

  Mary tried not to show her fear but a few uncontrollable tears appeared at the corner of her eyes and ran down her face. Ranshen kept on pinning her with one hand at the wall high above the ground and gathered the tears with the fingers of his other hand. He brought them to his lips and tasted Mary’s fear with a long and content smile. Mary tried to look away but he pushed her face back towards his. She closed her eyes and tried to remember where she had seen him. That man in front of her looked so familiar but her fading consciousness was not able to fully recognize him. She fainted and her body softened under Ranshen’s grip. He removed his hand letting her drop on the floor, and headed to have fun with the rest of his gang.

  ***

  After Emil and Peter transcasted, Zander went back to his room and took a painkiller. His muscles had recovered nicely but his back was still hurting him, especially when sitting or standing up for too long. He lied on the floating bed and soon fell asleep controlled by the medication. It was a dreamless sleep that was going to help him pass the time until the return of his friends.

  Zander didn’t remember how long he had been sleeping when a rude pull on his feet woke him up. He was still half asleep, his mind in the zone between dreams and reality, when he found himself being dragged off the bed by someone with ginger hair. Still under the influence of the painkiller Zander rubbed his eyes when his back and head hit the floor almost simultaneously. The injury reminded him of its presence and the sharp pain cleared his vision. That somebody was Zull Mort. Someone Zander thought was in prison and was going to remain there forever.

  Zander tried to get up, a kick in his stomach made him curl on the floor.

  “Don’t be so gentle Kevin,” Mort said.

  “You mean like this?” Zander heard Kevin’s voice and another; a much harder kick met his ribs.

  “That’s right, like this,” Mort said and kicked Zander as well.

  A loud sound coming from the kitchen made them step aside. The shockwave from falling objects sent tremors thought the room. It gave Zander enough time to stand up and surprise Kevin from behind. He took a firm grip of Kevin’s head with two hands threatening to break his neck if Mort did not retreat. Zander looked around for something he could use as a weapon or for Mary to help him. She was not strong enough to face either of his opponents but her ingenuity was something that shouldn’t be underestimated. Zander’s eyes searched in vain the room and the other areas visible through the open door. She had probably hidden out of sight.

  The noise in the kitchen subsided and Mort turned back, the laser gun in his hand pointed towards Zander.

  “Let him go. Don’t you see that you’re outnumbered?” Mort said.

  “Drop the gun or I’ll break his neck!” Zander dragged Kevin as a human shield toward the door.

  “I’m not so sure,” the wall behind Zander demolished and the owner of the unknown voice grabbed Zander and tossed him around like a ragged doll. Zander had to let Kevin go and start fighting the newc
omer. Slightly taller and definitely stronger than the still tired Zander the man had a lot of advantages. The two of them hit the remaining wall together then beating each other furiously rolled on the floor and continued their fight.

  “Zull, Kevin, take her and come with me,” Ranshen called from the corridor. “The charges are all set and Alex doesn’t need our assistance.”

  The three men carried Mary away as Alex and Zander continued pounding each other, trashing the remainder of the apartment as the fight continued.

  Alex was happy that he finally got a grip of Zander, the person who had messed up Evan’s mind and had made his assignment far more difficult. Because of Zander instead for a few days that assignment in the 21st century had lasted over five years. Alex had to learn so many useless things related to the old fashioned and powerless 21st century computers, related to the way the large data sets were handled at that time and related to the way people treated each other and behaved in public that he considered Zander personally liable for all the time and energy he had wasted there. Alex was hitting Zander harder and harder, many times not even aiming as long as he was positive that the blow would reach Zander’s body.

  Zander defended himself as much as possible. After being pulled from the bed, pressed at the wall and then rolled over the concrete debris on the floor his back was starting to protest reminding him that he shouldn’t do that. As the fight progressed the words of the doctor that he has to take care of himself now or he might not be able to walk were sounding louder and louder in his mind.

  He stepped back to avoid a hit and his foot slipped. He knelt to prevent twisting his ankle when Alex jumped at him, pushed him to the floor and started punching him with both hands. Zander defended himself with one hand and used his other hand to search the floor for something he could use. There wasn’t anything. They were on an area with no debris or pieces of furniture. Then Zander saw the end of a transcaster gun in Alex’s pocket, pulled the weapon out and pointed the gun towards Alex.