by Gene Curtis
His back was still to the door when he heard it open and Brandy say, “Wow, you’ve got quite a crowd with you. I don’t know if we can seat all of you.”
Chenoa’s arms left him. She stepped aside and her sword was in her hand. Everyone at the table stood and drew swords, except for his dad who had a large handgun pointing at the people behind him. He turned and saw who he thought had to be Ruby with about a hundred people behind her, inside and out, all with swords drawn.
Mr. Diefenderfer said in a calm voice, “Miss Jones… you cannot win.”
“Old man, take a look. You’re outnumbered ten to one. It is you that cannot win. Just hand her over; she’ll come to no harm.”
Mr. Young said, “As if your word is trustworthy.”
Ruby shrugged, “Look at your situation: you’re too far from the window to remanifest, there’s no place to run, you’re vastly outnumbered and you have the chance to come out of this unscathed. Just hand her over.”
Mark said in a low voice, “Break for the stairs. That’s a defendable position.”
Mr. Young whispered back, “Not yet. We need to stall for a moment while reinforcements are summoned. LeOmi, move behind us, slowly.”
Paul appeared from the kitchen holding a large knife and went straight to the window. “What is a this? There will be no fighting in my cafe.” He brandished the knife over his head. “I have a called the polizia. They are coming. Now, get out a here!”
Ruby chuckled at him. “Police bleed the same as everyone else.” She turned her head back toward Mr. Diefenderfer. “Ten seconds... nine... eight—”
“Stairs! Now!” Mr. Diefenderfer stepped toward Ruby, sword raised for attack. Ruby engaged him.
Mark thought he might be the only one that noticed when Paul remanifested as all eyes were watching the fight between Mr. Diefenderfer and Ruby. After the exchange of only three blows Ruby yelled, “Attack!” She stepped back from Mr. Diefenderfer when her troops began moving forward.
His action against Ruby had bought them the precious seconds they needed to get to the stairs. Seven very loud shots sounded from right behind Mark as they backed up the steps. Each shot was accompanied by an exploding head. A large electrical discharge flashed and about a half dozen went down. Seven more shots sounded as Ruby’s troops funneled to the bottom of the stairs only to be halted by Mr. Diefenderfer’s and Mr. Young’s swords slicing as fast as a fan blade. He heard LeOmi’s voice from above, “No windows!”
She had evidently made it to the mezzanine level. He could have told her that there were no windows. If he could only get up there, he could make a window, posthaste. Seven more shots sounded. No bodies fell, but a moment later he felt small chunks of debris land on his head. He looked up and could see a tiny bit of sky through the ceiling. He heard his mother call from the top of the stairs, “LeOmi! Look up!”
Mr. Young yelled, “Nick, target the base of the stairs!”
An electrical discharge flashed and seven more shots fired. More than a dozen were hit. Before their bodies could fall Mr. Diefenderfer yelled, “Grab on!”
He heard his mother’s voice at the top of the stairs, “Grab on!”
Before he could turn around to look, everyone except him and Nick were gone. Mr. Young and Mr. Diefenderfer had been beyond his reach since Jamal, Cap’n Ben and James had been between him and them. Chenoa, Steve and Nick had been between him and Shirley. He asked Nick, “Why didn’t you grab on? You could reach.”
“And leave you here by yourself? No way, besides I’ve got this.” He aimed something that looked like a large, homemade ray gun and fired into the crowd trying to make their way past the bodies at the base of the stairs.
None of their attackers were in range for a sword strike so Mark took that moment to look out the window. From the high angle all he could see were legs and they were moving like there was a big fight going on outside. Someone below yelled, “They’re gone, except for two boys.”
Ruby’s voice answered, “Okay, grab your fallen comrades and let’s get out of here.”
Nick fired again and more fell.
The attackers were surprisingly quick at getting out. Nick only got off two more shots since the gun needed a few seconds to recharge each time. Legs outside began disappearing and then he could hear the police sirens approaching.
LeOmi appeared on the stairs behind Nick. She held her arms out to both boys and said, “Grab on.” Instantly they were back in the vacant lot.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Bookstore
Mark looked around to see where they were. “Why here and not The Seventh Mountain?”
LeOmi said, “You still need to check on that book and I need to check something out.”
Nick asked, “What do you need to check out? I thought you were going to wait to talk to Jacque.”
“I am, but Hannah, my Grand-Mère’s maid, might have left a clue for me. She used to do that. I have to check. I won’t take long, but I have to leave you here, and besides, you’ll be safe enough if I’m not around.”
Mark said, “But you won’t be safe. We should go with you.”
She shook her head, “I can do it a lot faster if I’m by myself.”
Nick grabbed her arm. “We’re not letting you go off by yourself. It’s too dangerous.”
A wave of anger washed over them. Mark said, “We’re not going to stop you, are we? Whether it’s here or at The Seventh Mountain?”
The anger subsided. “Listen, it’s something I have to do and I’m going to do it.”
Mark put his hand on Nick’s arm and he let her go. “Listen, before you go, I want you to promise me something.” He took her hands and looked her in the eyes. “Promise me you’ll come and spend some time with me and my family at our home?”
LeOmi was good at hiding her emotions, but his request had evidently taken her by surprise. He felt a momentary bit of fear. She pulled her hands away. “Why on Earth would I do that?”
“Well, first, I know if you promise something that you’ll do it. Second, I think you need to spend some time with a normal family, just to see what it’s like. Third, you can remanifest, I can’t. You’ll be able to leave whenever you like.”
She smiled, “I see through what you’re doing. You think if I make a promise like that, I’ll think twice about taking chances. No deal, but I will promise to come back and get you in fifteen minutes, thirty at the outside. How’s that?”
Mark extended his hand. “Sounds like a plan.” They shook.
As soon as their hands separated, LeOmi disappeared. Mark and Nick began walking down the block. Behind them, the police had the street blocked off and a crowd was forming in front of the cafe. Several people hurriedly passed them heading to see what they could see. One lady asked as she half jogged passed them, “Aren’t you going to see where the riot happened?”
“Riot?” The boys asked in unison.
She called back as she kept moving, “Several people killed!”
He supposed it could have been described as a riot, but a riot was a mob out of control. Ruby’s army was anything but out of control. Anyway, this many people on the street meant that churches had obviously finished up and that happened around noon. The bookstore should be open now, only it wasn’t.
Mark knocked on the door and waited. No answer.
Nick took out his tablet and checked the time. “Twelve fifteen.”
Mark remembered how he had moved the rock in his first remanifesting class. He closed his eyes and slipped into Spirit Sight, his spirit passed through the door, unlocked it and they entered.
“Hello,” Mark called. There was no answer.
Nick said, “Where are all the books?”
The three walls of bookshelves were completely empty and there was the smell of blood in the air. They found the source of the smell in the back room. Mr. Rutherford was lying on the floor in a large pool of blood and with a gaping wound in his neck. He wasn’t breathing.
Nick said, “We should
call the police.”
Mark picked up the phone and dialed.
“Halifax Emergency Services, what’s the nature of your emergency?”
“I’d like to report a murder.”
“You seem rather calm about it.”
“Well, I can scream frantically if you like.”
“That’s okay. What’s your location?”
“I’m in the bookstore in South Boston. It looks like someone has cut Mr. Rutherford’s throat.”
“What makes you believe that?”
“He’s lying in a pool of blood and there’s a big hole in his neck. He’s not breathing either.”
“What’s your name?”
“Mark.”
“How do you know it’s Mr. Rutherford, Mark?”
“I’ve met him before.”
“You met him before, where?”
“Are you going to send somebody or not?”
“They’re on their way. Where’d you meet Mr. Rutherford?”
Mark realized the dispatcher was trying to keep him on the phone now, until the police got there. He had no interest in talking to a seemingly disinterested dispatcher. “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere.” He hung up the phone.
He said to Nick, “They’re on their way.”
A couple of minutes later the shop’s front door slammed open and two uniformed police officers stormed in looking over the sights of their side arms. When they spotted them peering around the edge of the door both cops screamed, “Freeze! Hands up where we can see them!”
The lady officer covered them with her pistol while the male officer approached. They both seemed a bit more nervous than they should have been. The male officer slammed them both up against the wall and frisked them both roughly. He called back to his partner, “No swords, no weapons!”
That explained it. Brandy must have already told them what she saw. That plus all the blood and brains all over the floor of the cafe had them shaken and stirred.
The male cop asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Just dropped by to get a book autographed.” He pointed toward the door to the back room.
The male cop pushed him tight against the wall. “Keep your hands up where I can see them!”
“Calm down mister. We’re not the bad guys here. I was just pointing to the book I brought in to get signed. It’s on the desk next to the phone. Mr. Rutherford is on the floor in there.”
“Ralph, lighten up,” the lady cop said. “They’re just kids.”
“They sure fit the description that waitress gave.”
“What, blond headed teenager wearing jeans and a blue jacket with a dark headed teenager wearing jeans and a blue jacket? What’re the odds of finding two teenagers that fit that description? We could have gone to the shopping center and found fifty. Besides, she said they were victims defending themselves against a mob. Come on Ralph; she said they had swords and a death ray... for crying out loud, a death ray? Think she might have been smoking something?”
“You saw all that blood. Must’ve been two dozen people killed there!”
Mark didn’t guard his thoughts, Sounds like they were filming a part of a movie there. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life.
The male cop reiterated Mark’s thoughts, “Filming a movie, it has to be. This kind of stuff doesn’t happen in real life. Is Jackson back in town? This seems like something he’d do: film a movie without getting the proper permits.”
The lady cop said, “That makes more sense than anything I’ve heard so far.” She holstered her weapon.
The male cop said, “Okay, you can turn around and put your hands down. Tell me what happened.”
Mark said, “Mr. Rutherford is dead and it’s not part of any movie.”
Nick pointed to the empty bookshelves, “Books are gone, too.”
It took a half an hour for the detective to get there and release them.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Where’s LeOmi
One block up the street from the bookstore was The Purveyor’s Place, a little shop that sold nostalgic memorabilia from eras long past. There was a locked display case with comic books from the 1930s and 1940s, freestanding shelves with whatnots, gizmos, books and dinnerware crowded together with barely enough room to walk between. The walls were adorned with posters and playbills ranging from the 1920s through the 1950s. There was even a working nickelodeon and a really old soda machine, fully stocked. The sodas cost a nickel, a promotional item geared to getting people into the shop according to Zeke, the proprietor.
Mark bought two sodas and handed one to Nick who was looking at the comic books. Nick pointed to Batman #1. “Batman and the Green Hornet are the only superheroes that could have been based on reality.”
“What about the legendary warriors of Japan and China?”
“No one ever made a comic book about them.”
“Come on, let’s go outside.”
Mark pointed up the street where the police had it cordoned off and then back toward the bookstore. “They’ve got to be connected. Why do you think Ruby’s group killed Mr. Rutherford?”
“It seems obvious that they didn’t want us to find out what he knows. He probably knew something that would help us. You think there might be more to the sunstone than we realize?”
Mark wished he could tell Nick what he knew about the sunstone, but he’d given his word to keep it secret. Which was more important, keeping your word when you could or doing what you thought was right at the time? He decided to keep his promise. “LeOmi isn’t back yet.”
“I noticed. She has to be in trouble. What are we going to do about it?”
“I can’t remanifest. You can’t remanifest. We can’t call The Seventh Mountain.”
“Maybe we can call. Use Spirit Sight to see what’s going on there. Maybe you’ll find someone using Spirit Sight there.”
Mark sat on the sidewalk with his back against the wall and Nick joined him. As soon as he went into Spirit Sight he saw Shirley’s spirit standing beside him. “Mom?”
“Just keeping an eye on you. We decided to leave you and Nick here to see if you could discover anything.”
“Where’s LeOmi?”
“New Orleans. Bekka is watching her. She didn’t find anything that Hannah might have left. She’s back at the ranch trying to get a hold of Jacque, last I heard.”
“Everyone else okay?”
“Mr. Diefenderfer and Mr. Young are recuperating in the healing ward. Maode Maharaw takes a lot out of you as you know. They should be fine in a couple more hours. Everyone else is all right.”
“Why are they letting LeOmi be by herself?”
“Bekka is with her and she can remanifest. She’ll be okay. We’ve got a team ready to respond at a moment’s notice if anything happens.”
“They will try again.”
“We’re prepared, don’t worry.”
“What are we supposed to do, just hang out?”
“Just be yourself.”
“I’m going to see LeOmi. Will you stay here with Nick?”
“Don’t be long.”
Mark closed his eyes and visualized Henry’s ranch, concentrating on the sign over the door and he was there. No one was in the barn. No one was in the house. He finally found LeOmi and Mike in an outbuilding, a workshop of sorts. Mike was showing her around where he believed Henry had worked on the wheel. Bekka’s spirit was there too.
“Oh, hi Mark. What brings you here?”
“Just checking on LeOmi. She promised to come back within a half an hour.”
“That’s my fault. I told her you’d be notified she was delayed. Didn’t your mother tell you?”
“She did, but LeOmi doesn’t break promises. I had to check for myself.”
“She’s fine.”
“You’re going to stay with her?”
“If not me, someone else will be with her until she’s back at the mountain.”
He nodded. “See you later.” He closed
his eyes and forced his mind to wake.
When he opened his eyes Nick said, “That was quick. What’d you find out?”
“We’re bait, you, me and LeOmi. They’ve got people watching us. Bekka is with LeOmi right now, back at Henry’s ranch. My mom is with us.”
“Okay, so what’s next?”
Mark had an idea. He held the book up for Nick to see. “This drawing, it’s not the standard picture of a Mayan calendar you usually see. It’s a drawing of the real sunstone.”
“I know that. What’s your point?”
“Where’d he get it?”
“You can’t ask him, he’s dead.”
“His wife might know.”
Nick’s eyes lit up and he smiled. “And they say I’m the genius.”
“Let me check to see if she’s there yet.” He closed his eyes and opened them a minute later. “Looks like we’re going to have to wait a bit. She’s not here yet. Want another soda?”
“What makes you think she’ll be here and not at home?”
“This is a small town; news travels fast.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mrs. Rutherford
It was just under an hour before Mrs. Rutherford arrived. The car she was in stopped in the street right in front of the bookstore since all the parking spaces were filled with police cars. The small crowd in front of the shop parted to let the large lady through while gentle hands touched her shoulders and back as she passed. The police guard wouldn’t let her in and led her back to the waiting car. After a minute, the car drove off and Mark followed using Spirit Sight. When he realized where she was going he said, “She’s around back, there’s a basement door. Let’s go.”
They jogged through the alley and then toward the basement door where Mrs. Rutherford was just inserting the key into the lock. There was another younger lady with her. Mark called, “Mrs. Rutherford, hold on a second, please.”
The ladies looked over their shoulders at Mark and Nick running toward them and Mrs. Rutherford hastened with opening the lock. She looked frightened.
