The Light, the Dark and the Ugly

by Bryan Cohen

  A grunt of assent went up throughout the room.

  "He tortured me half to death, and I don't even have half the claim you do." Natalie was pretty sure she was laying it on too thick, but nobody in the room seemed to notice. "There are few guarantees on this or any world, but I know for sure that if you never fight, there's no chance of freedom." Natalie felt like she was giving a halftime speech to the most captivated group of teammates she'd ever seen. They were eating out of the palm of her hand.

  "That's what this is all about. Freedom. Stopping the General and this ridiculous war. Well, I'm going to help you do that. And together, we'll all get what we deserve!"

  As the crowd around her cheered, Natalie hoped that none of them caught her double meaning. If she had her way, the rebels would be her ticket in before she split off and found a way to get back to Ted. She'd been right that there are few guarantees. Natalie just hoped she could ensure that she didn't become the suicide mission's first sacrifice.

  Chapter 39

  Dhiraj strained to keep his eyes open. For the last day and a half, he'd been poring over Victor's collection in an effort to make sense of it all. Most of it reeked of shoddily assembled UFO footage. Even though it was true, Victor had cobbled together the videos and articles in such a crazy way that it looked completely unbelievable. Dhiraj had made some headway in making everything a bit less nutty, but it felt like he was untangling the largest, oldest ball of string in the world. His neck and eyes ached, and the only thing that kept him from passing out right there was Jennifer scurrying around the room beside him.

  She was incredible. Dhiraj figured she had to be earning some kind of world speed-reading record at this point. She wore a determined look as she gobbled up hundreds of clippings and scribblings. She'd even spent half an hour with Victor to ensure she understood every letter of his indecipherable handwriting. Despite the fact that she'd found almost nothing useful in the last dozen hours, she was undeterred. He knew that nothing would get in the way of her revenge.

  It was the middle of the night when Jennifer roused Dhiraj from his hazy half-sleep. She was smiling, which in turn made him smile.

  She thrust a stapled pile of documents into Dhiraj's hands.

  He began to leaf through the pages. "What's this?"

  Her smile grew wider. "A timeline."

  Dhiraj shot awake. If they could reasonably show Adam's transformation into Kit Kable, that'd be more than enough for the media to pull at the threads.

  He shut his eyes tight and opened them to lift the haziness. The first file was from a suburban hospital nearby.

  "Tell me what I'm looking at."

  Jennifer scrolled her finger down the page. "Montoya Park Hospital. Meticulous with its records for the last 30 years. Except for one day exactly one week after the building crash."

  Dhiraj could already see holes in the story. Just because a day didn't have records didn't mean anything shady happened, but Jennifer's encouraging eyes told him to press forward.

  "Okay. Then what?"

  Jennifer flipped the page to what looked like an old lease agreement. "This is three days later. A Kit Kable rented a room for about a year in the next town over."

  Dhiraj felt the excitement growing within him. Maybe this would lead to something after all. "He was sloppy. Good news for us." He flipped to the next page. It looked like some kind of rejection letter. "Northwestern University law school?"

  Jennifer nodded. "As you know, Kable went to University of Pennsylvania Law School." She turned to the following page. "And those records say he never left Pennsylvania. But this Northwestern rejection was forwarded from a P.O. Box in Chicago."

  Dhiraj knocked his hand on the desk. "He wanted to be a good old boy in the state of whatever law school he could fake his way into. When he got into Penn, he pretended to be born and raised there."

  Jennifer made a motion with her hand. "Because…"

  Dhiraj licked his lips. "Because he knew he was gonna get into politics, run for office, and then go for the Presidency." He tossed the papers on the desk and reached for Jennifer's face.

  She leaned into him for the kiss. "It's pretty good, right?"

  Dhiraj laughed. "Pretty good? Even if they don't believe any of the Adam stuff, he still lied about what state he came from." He kissed her again, and the softness of her lips rejuvenated him. "You are the stuff of miracles."

  Jennifer rolled her eyes. "And you need about 40 hours of sleep before you're allowed to talk again."

  He smirked. "Fair enough."

  Dhiraj started when he heard the sound of footsteps. Victor carried two mugs, and Dhiraj was grateful that Adam's former friend had stopped brandishing his weapon.

  Victor set the mugs down. "You guys seem happy. Did you make some progress?"

  Dhiraj walked to one of the mugs and took a big slurp. "Victor, I need a video camera and a mic."

  He nodded. "I've got an old camcorder in the garage."

  As he turned to go, Dhiraj put his hand on Victor's shoulder. "One more thing. Are there any late night Internet cafes around here?"

  It was just an hour before dawn when Victor dropped off Dhiraj and Jennifer at a 24-hour computer cafe about 40 minutes away from the rundown house. It took some convincing, but Victor let them take some of the documents so Dhiraj could scan them in. These files would pair well with the 10-minute documentary Dhiraj had assembled about the Kable timeline. Getting the video file into the right format to upload was a pain with Victor's ancient equipment, but now everything was set in the near-vacant cafe.

  Dhiraj could see the lack of sleep weighing on Jennifer now. She knew as well as he did that everything would change again as soon as he hit that send button.

  Jennifer yawned and covered her mouth. "You really think this is the right way to go?"

  Dhiraj couldn't help but let out a little yawn himself. "Kable's people won't be up for a few hours. If we send this now, the news networks will have the world whipped up into a frenzy before they have a chance to do damage control."

  Jennifer gave him a sidelong glance. "How are you going to make sure everybody sees it?"

  Dhiraj gave a cool nod. "Ted's email list has over two million subscribers. How much would you bet that at least half of them share this?"

  Jennifer laid her hand on his. "Who knew your marketing would save the world?"

  Dhiraj winked. "Me."

  Jennifer shook her head and rolled her chair back to her own computer. He'd already looked at the Facebook post she'd penned. She planned to put it up the moment after Dhiraj sent his email. It read as follows:

  "Being out on the road is hard. Especially when you're running from something you didn't even do. It'll all be over soon, but my father, Sheriff Michael Norris, won't be able to tell his story. He was killed by a man we think was commissioned by Senator Kit Kable. It's difficult to prove that, but that's not the point of this post.

  The point is that you never know when the last goodbye will be. Tell your friends and family you love them every day. It's advice I wish I'd taken before losing my dad."

  Jennifer leaned forward on her knuckles as she checked the post for the 20th time.

  Meanwhile, Dhiraj wrote an email for the Ted Finley LLC list. It included links to the video and the documents for all to download. Dhiraj scanned over the words one last time.

  "Dear Ted Heads,

  My apologies for the radio silence. We weren't going to poke our heads out unless we could clear our names, but instead, we're going to turn ourselves in. No, that doesn't mean we're guilty of the crimes we're accused of. It means we need to make some very important things very public.

  Senator Kit Kable is a liar and a murderer. This video and the enclosed documents prove the first. We'll leave it up to you, Internet, to prove the latter.

  The moment we release this info, we'll be apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security. Here's the address of the department office closest to our current location.

  To those of
you who've never wavered in your support of Ted Finley and all he stands for, we thank you. We hope to appeal these charges with Ted by our side in the near future. Until then, stay turned for our next up, up and away message.

  Sincerely,

  Dhiraj Patel & Jennifer Norris"

  Dhiraj sighed and ran his hands through his hair. After they were both happy enough with their messages, they clicked send at the very same time. In the next three minutes, they watched as the Internet blew up with activity. The first tweet by the official Twitter account of Free Ted Movement leader Detrick van Housen was shared thousands of times in a matter of seconds. Jennifer's post was trending on Facebook by the time the sirens blared in the parking lot.

  Dhiraj held out his hand. "Are you ready?"

  Jennifer took it. "I watched as many prison TV shows as I could in preparation."

  Dhiraj laughed as Agent Vott came storming in through the front door. He had a half dozen other agents in tow. There wasn't a trace of amusement on his face.

  "You two have certainly been busy, haven't you?"

  Chapter 40

  Ted expected plenty of magical and impressive things when he found himself in a completely new world. What he didn't expect was another freakin' meeting. A secret underground chamber beneath a dusty dark soul village replaced the stuffy DHS offices. Instead of Vott reading back the minutes, General Gan and Commander Ferrick argued back and forth. While their shouting match was a lot more animated than the DHS snoozers, Ted wished things were much less heated.

  Gan and Ferrick traded barbs about war-related conflicts Ted had never heard of. From the apologetic look that Razellia gave Ted, the battles they discussed were likely long forgotten by most.

  Ferrick paced back and forth in front of the room. "You want to make us into a village of traitors. But we'd be heroes if we presented the light soul general's head on a pike."

  Razellia cleared her throat. "Ferrick, you agreed to be civil."

  He smacked his hand on the rock wall behind him. "And I'm regretting that agreement more with every passing second."

  Ted glanced over to his other side. Travis looked as lost as he did, but Erica and Reena appeared hopeful.

  Gan grumbled from his chair. "Just try to get my head off my shoulders. Many have died in the attempt."

  Ferrick's nostrils flared. "Is that a threat?"

  Gan stood up quickly. "No more than suggesting my execution is!"

  Reena hopped up and stood between the two men. "Boys. We agreed to talk. Not to bicker like children."

  Ted watched as both men folded their arms and turned away in unison. He would've laughed if Erica hadn't given him a look to remain silent.

  Razellia stood. "Ferrick, your daughter is the same age as Vella, right?"

  Ferrick nodded as if he knew where this was going.

  "Ted and Natalie are the only people, dark soul, light soul or otherwise, who've tried to protect our daughters. We need to help. It's the only way."

  A vein began to show on Ferrick's forehead. "The General would torch this village to the ground if he found out."

  Razellia put up her hand. "The raiders would've done that anyway if Ted and Natalie hadn't saved us."

  Ferrick mumbled something too low for anyone to hear. He focused his attention on Gan. "If we help you, we'll be putting every man, woman and child in this village at risk. There will be no sympathy if we're found out. Everyone will be killed."

  Gan's hard demeanor began to soften. He nodded. "We'll do everything in our power to keep you from being discovered."

  Ted knew the general's tone was genuine, but he still had to wonder if the words were truthful.

  Ferrick looked at Ted before his eyes settled on Razellia with a sigh. "I need your word that you'll only fight other dark souls in self-defense."

  Gan was about to rise in his chair again, but Reena stopped him with a swift chop.

  She smiled. "Of course."

  Ferrick took four long steps toward the light soul general. He extended his hand. "Then we agree to help in any way we can."

  Gan looked surprised, but as a man of honor, he reached out his hand as well and shook it heartily. "Thank you."

  While Gan and Reena went back to the ship to prepare, the others visited Razellia's for dinner. The second that Ted went through the door, Vella nearly knocked him over backwards with her affection.

  She squealed with glee. "It's been terrible without you here."

  Just hearing her voice again made Ted feel warm. He took a long look at her. "Terrible? I don't believe that."

  "Okay. Maybe not terrible. But definitely less fun."

  Ted introduced Erica and Travis to Razellia's daughter. Vella's jaw dropped when she saw Erica. "You're so pretty! Are you a princess?"

  Erica took the girl's hand. "I'm not, but that's so nice of you to say."

  When Vella looked at Travis, she had a giggle fit. "I think I know who you are."

  Travis crouched down. "You do?"

  Vella giggled again. "Yeah. You're the big, dumb idiot, right?"

  Before Travis could respond, Vella ran away from the room, leaving a trail of giggles behind her.

  He gave Ted a dirty look. "What's that all about?"

  Ted shrugged. "Kids say the darndest things."

  The dinner conversation had far less name calling, though Razellia peppered Travis with dozens of questions about his relationship with Natalie.

  "When did you know you were in love with her?"

  Erica cooed and Ted felt his face turn a little pink. He hoped that Erica's attention on Travis would keep her from noticing.

  Travis looked up for a second, then back toward Razellia. "It was one day in school. Usually we met after third period and I walked her to class." A wistful look came over his face. "There was this one day she couldn't make it. I felt really strange walking to class alone. Like I was missing a part of me." He looked straight ahead at Razellia. "I think that's when I knew."

  Ted's emotions began to churn. It was a mix of happiness for Travis and regret for himself. He took a few bites of food and thought about his time with Natalie, both before the breakup and after the portal. He wanted her to be happy, but a part of him also wanted her back in his arms. But Ted knew that he loved Erica, too. The swirling of thoughts and feelings made Ted miss Razellia's question.

  Erica nudged him.

  "Hmm?"

  Erica put her arm around his shoulder. "Razellia asked us what we plan on doing together when we get back to Earth."

  Ted put down his utensil. "You mean before or after we take down the evil Presidential candidate?"

  Razellia smiled. "After."

  Ted looked straight into Erica's eyes. He'd been living so moment-to-moment, he wasn't sure what they'd do. Could they possibly go back to holding hands in the hallway and taking another semester of high school classes together? Would they go around fighting crime and spending their nights in hotel rooms? Ted wasn't sure why, but he couldn't see either of those futures for them.

  He'd paused far too long, and let the answer slip out of him. "A date."

  Erica pulled him closer. "How specific and romantic."

  Ted took in Erica's smell. It gave him a nervous happy feeling. "Fine. How about a picnic lunch, a movie, and then a long, scenic drive?"

  Ted lost himself in Erica's smile.

  "I think that sounds great."

  Travis was chasing Vella around the house when Ted listened in on a conversation between Erica and Razellia. They were washing the plates and chatting about him.

  "I think he's on pace to be a good man."

  Erica nodded. "I know."

  Ted felt tiny hands grab around his leg as Vella let out an echo of a giggle. Erica and Razellia turned around and the jig was up. Before Erica could fully cast her disapproving glance on him, Ted lifted up Vella and carried her into the other room.

  After saying a proper set of goodbyes to Razellia and Vella, the rest of the gang hopped on their aircraft and
flew undetected toward the dark soul capital. They'd borrowed several townspeople and a dozen or so robes to blend in with the crowd. If everything went as planned, they'd fall right into line with the pilgrimage as they walked into the city. If not, then they'd be killed before they passed beyond the walls.

  Erica walked up with Reena, Gan and Ferrick, as Travis and Ted brought up the rear. The outer walls of the dark soul city looked black from years of smoke and neglect. While the previous attack had caused some damage within the city, the outer walls remained completely intact. As Gan and Reena had said, the gates leading into the city were wide open as a stream of hundreds of pilgrims walked through to pay their respects to the General.

  Ted scratched at his side to get at an itch beneath the brown robe. "I guess they weren't really thinking of comfort when they made these things."

  Travis smirked. "I'll take a robe over a sweaty practice jersey any day." He gave Ted a probing look. "You forgive Erica yet?"

  Ted almost stumbled in his robe. "What?"

  "She told me you were mad that she kept some things from you."

  Ted looked up from his hood as the city came further into view. It appeared much bigger than when he'd last entered it from above. "I guess."

  Travis took in the answer and the city. "I guess? If you don't, I think you're the big, dumb idiot."

  As they got closer to the gates, the pace picked up. At this rate, they'd be inside in under a minute. If they didn't get stopped.

  Ted's nervousness came from two fronts. "You don't know what it's like to be lied to like this."

  Travis nodded. "Maybe not, but I've been on the other side. Natalie forgave me for all sorts of stuff. I shot her with a rubber bullet. In the back."

  Ted raised his eyebrows. "How could I forget?"

  The line continued to move closer and closer to the city. The gates were huge and golden. "I'm just saying that being forgiven is a beautiful thing. It makes you appreciate someone that much more. I'm sure that giving that to Erica would be healthy for both of you."