Shadow Born

by Jamie Sedgwick

  “So, about this surprise?” Gabriel reminded.

  “Oh yeah. Right here.” Pete opened a compartment on the NAV console and pulled out two objects that appeared to be sword handles. He handed them to Gabriel and Jodi. “Careful guys, don’t point those at me. See the button there on the guard? Its hidden so its kind of hard to see. Look for the outline… Yeah, push it.”

  Gabriel located his, and gave it a light touch. A segmented steel blade burst out of the handle. Suddenly it was a full-length sword. “Whoa! How did you do that?”

  Jodi’s blade popped out and she squealed with delight. “Awesome! Super-cool, Pete!”

  “It’s a combination of springs, magnets, and gears,” Pete said. “Actually it’s a pretty simple device. After all, it had to be durable enough for field use. Plus I didn’t want you to be relying on batteries…”

  “So we can actually fight with these?” Gabriel said.

  “Of course. The metal is impregnated with a microscopic layer of stabilized R9-11. It’s so thin you can’t see it, but it’ll do the job. You can fight humans and take on shadowkind, too.”

  “Thanks,” Gabriel said. “When did you make these?”

  “When you were flying back from Canada. Your story about using the swords gave me this idea. Now you have a multi-purpose weapon that you can always carry with you. If you get caught with it, nobody’s gonna arrest you for having a sword handle. It may be hard to explain, but it’s much better than a kid with a rocket launcher.”

  They thanked him again, and then Pete returned to the mansion. Five minutes later the engines were warm and the Albatross was ready for flight. “Ready?” said Jodi.

  “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter 37

  Mr. Oglesby dangled his pocket watch in front of Reeves face, and the agent’s eyes swung back and forth, following the movements. “Good, very good. I want you to visualize a stairway. You’re walking down the stairs, and it’s a long way to the bottom…”

  When it was over, Mr. Oglesby said it had been the easiest hypnosis session he’d ever had. It probably helped that Reeves was still under the influence of the sedatives Pete had given him. Because of this, Mr. Oglesby gave Reeves the hypnotic suggestion to sleep deeply for a few hours while the drugs wore off.

  “I still can’t believe he shot me,” Gabriel said as Jodi covered Reeves with a wool blanket.

  “Actually that’s not entirely bad,” said Mr. Oglesby.

  Gabriel stared, confounded. “That’s not BAD? He SHOT me!”

  Mr. Oglesby chuckled. “What I mean is, it’s not bad because he shot you with the wrong ammo. Do you think Reeves would ever use the wrong ammunition?”

  Gabriel thought about it and realized Mr. Oglesby was right. Reeves was not the kind of man to make a mistake like that. “I guess he was kind of confused.”

  “Maybe. On the other hand, maybe it means that the Shadowlords didn’t entirely break him. Maybe he gave in to them just enough to let them think they had.”

  “I guess they can’t really get control of you unless you let them,” Gabriel said. “They spent years trying to make me do stuff, but I wouldn’t.”

  “Interesting,” said Mr. Oglesby. “When things get back to usual, I have a friend who may want to interview you. His name is Phineas.”

  A bell sounded in Gabriel’s head. “Phineas Frump, the writer? The guy who wrote the Book of Shadows?”

  “The very same. I have a feeling that your experiences with Shadowlords would prove invaluable to his research.”

  “Well, all of this is fascinating,” said Jodi, “but I think I’d better get the plane off autopilot before we run into a mountain. You two have a nice chat.”

  As she left, Gabriel noticed Mr. Oglesby’s cane hanging from his seat, and he couldn’t help himself. He had to ask. “So what was that thing that you did in Canada? Are you a werewolf?”

  Mr. Oglesby looked him over for a few seconds, deciding what to say. “I suppose I should tell you the whole story. It only really makes sense that way…

  “It began in the winter of 1945, the year the war ended. I was seventeen years old. I’d already been fighting for two years, because I lied about my age to get into the English Army. I was traveling with an Allied caravan through the Black Forest, bringing much needed supplies to the troops. We didn’t know it yet, but Russia was about to take Berlin and we were only weeks away from victory. All we knew is that we had been struggling with severe casualties and depleted supplies for months, and the world was depending on us to get through.

  “Nazis ambushed us in the forest, discharging several bombs they’d buried in the snow. I was one of the lucky few who survived the initial attack. The truck I was riding in overturned and caught fire. I managed to get free of the wreckage, but I had a broken leg. I started crawling into the woods looking for shelter. A bullet struck me in the back, right between my ribs, and I was sure that was the end of me. I remember the sounds of machine gun fire and screams as I lost consciousness.

  “I woke to the smell of venison stew. I was in bed, in a small cottage. An old German man had found me on the side of the road and brought me to his home. He said something in German that I didn’t understand, and he fed me. I was starved. I had been unconscious for days. I devoured the food. When I looked up to ask for more, he was gone. I never saw him again. The only thing he left was that cane, which was hanging at the foot of the bed.

  “I spent a few days there, getting back to health. Winter was over by then and most of the snow had melted. I started taking short walks in the woods, trying to build my strength up. It was out there under the trees, that I first realized something had changed. I found that I could smell the woodland creatures before I could see them. I knew where a rabbit or squirrel was hiding, even if I hadn’t seen it. I could track animals by their scent. And then the full moon came.”

  “And you turned into a wolf?” Gabriel said.

  “Yes, though I didn’t know it at the time. I woke up in the woods, lying next to a deer carcass. I had killed it, and eaten a good portion of the beast.”

  “Gross.”

  “You have no idea. But believe it or not, I got used to it.”

  “So what does it have to do with the cane? Is it possessed or something?”

  “I wouldn’t say that. My suspicion is that the cane carries the curse, and that whoever takes it, inherits the curse. There’s no doubt in my mind that the old man gave it to me to save my life. If it hadn’t been for the transformation, I’m certain my wounds would have killed me. Perhaps he was ready to pass it on anyway. The years do begin to wear you down.”

  “After you realized what had happened, what did you do then?”

  “I got on with my life. I reported to the army and found out they’d believed I was dead. Of course, by that time, the war was over and they sent me on my way with an honorable discharge. I returned to England and became a dockworker, loading freight on ships bound to the U.S. It was during that time, that I discovered the Shadow.”

  “What happened?”

  “Well, I spent a lot of time wandering the streets of London during those days. I had a nose for trouble, as it were, and I was pretty good at finding people in need and helping them.”

  “You mean as a wolf?”

  “At times. I learned that with discipline I could change at will, or partially change. Believe me, a man with a wolf’s head is more than enough to scare a couple thugs out of an alley. But that’s beside the point. You see, because I walked around the city so much, I became very familiar with its smells. I found that different areas of town smelled differently. Not only that, but each family had their own smell. It is the combination of the individuals, the types of foods they eat, and the clothes they wear. It was quite intoxicating, learning to use my new powers. But then, one day, I smelled something wrong. It was something that should not have been, something not from our world.”

  “A shadow creature?”

  “Technically, it was a shadowfri
end. He had the taint of the creatures all over him. I followed him to the law firm where he worked and discovered a lair. The wolf took control of me. I couldn’t help it. The scent of the Shadow drove the wolf mad. When I woke, they were all dead, and I was terrified. I packed my meager belongings and caught a boat to America, thinking I would put it all behind me. I was wrong. The Shadow was everywhere, even in those days.”

  Gabriel thought about everything he’d heard. He tried to picture Mr. Oglesby as a teenager, and a thought occurred to him. He’d said he was seventeen when he found the cane, in 1945. “You’re over eighty years old?” Gabriel realized.

  Oglesby chuckled. “It doesn’t seem possible does it?”

  “So are you immortal?”

  “Oh, goodness no. As you can see, I have clearly aged from the seventeen-year-old boy who found the cane. But I do seem to age more slowly. Most people presume I’m in my early sixties, or even late fifties. At this rate, I may very well make it past one hundred.”

  “That’s amazing,” Gabriel said. His eyes were wide as he listened to the incredible story. “So the full moon really makes you change?”

  “Not anymore. When I was a young wolf, with less control over myself, it happened every time. You see, I didn’t have the advantage of having a mentor. I had to figure everything out the hard way. Unfortunately, people died because of that. I don’t believe I ever killed any innocents -I’m sure they were all shadowfriends, thieves, or murderers. That sort of people have something different about them, something evil, and the wolf can sense this. The wolf hates evil.”

  Gabriel thought about it a while, absorbing the whole story. Then he realized that Jodi and Pete knew nothing about any of this. He wondered if anyone else knew. “Does D.A.S. know about you?”

  “D.A.S. the organization does not, however, Reeves and Julia have known ever since I met them.”

  “When was that?”

  “In the nineteen-seventies. They were both young then, finding their places in the world. I met Reeves first. He joined the military at the tail end of the Vietnam War. There was a lot of restructuring going on in those days, and they found use for a man with Reeves’ unique skills. He was drafted into a special unit called “Operation Red Dress.” They specialized in removing certain political targets, generally those who were engaging in different forms of genocide or terrorism.

  “It was while Reeves was doing this that he learned about the Shadow. If you get close to any mad dictators, you’ll understand. The Shadow’s influence can be subtle, but in many cases, it’s not. When Reeves realized that shadowkind existed, he contacted his old friend Phineas Frump.

  “Phineas is one of the smartest men you’ll ever meet. He helped design most of the equipment we use to fight the Shadow. He’s the one who’s responsible for re-discovering R-9, and for getting our hands on it. Phineas also recruited someone, a wealthy adventurer by the name of Alfred Winschfield. Alfred had a strong sense of right and wrong, so it wasn’t hard to get him on board. And he had very deep pockets. His father was a wealthy immigrant who started one of the first New York publishing houses. That was most helpful in the early days of D.A.S.”

  “So how did they meet you?” Gabriel said.

  “Well, with Reeves on the case, it was just a matter of time. I was hunting shadowkind, and so was he. We shared a mutual target, an ambassador from a nation that I won’t mention, except to say that they weren’t one of our allies in those days. It was a messy crime scene, with a U.S. assassin and a werewolf trying to take out one target. But needless to say, we worked things out.”

  “And Julia? How did you meet her?”

  “That was about a year later. Reeves and I were chasing down a lead in New York City. Our informant told us that the target was going to a Broadway show, so we made sure to be there. The shadowfriend didn’t show, but Julia did. She was an up and coming star. If she hadn’t met Alfred, she probably would have been famous.

  “When Alfred saw her up on the stage, he forgot everything else. He courted her for weeks, bringing her extravagant gifts and taking her to the finest restaurants. He begged her to come to California with him, but at first, she refused. It was only after she learned what he really was that she agreed to marry him. You see, Julia wasn’t about to marry a man just because he was good-looking or rich. But when she found out that he was a man with a purpose, a man trying to save the world, she couldn’t say no. She fell in love with him. Then, at the turn of the century, Alfred went missing in South Africa. They spent two years looking for him before Julia would accept that he was dead. It crushed her, but she’s a strong woman.

  “At that point, she decided that she needed to keep supporting D.A.S. It became her life. She divided her inheritance up, using a portion to maintain our D.A.S. operations, and the rest to support numerous charities. She manages a wide variety of stocks and business holdings to maintain a flow of income. To this day, her only regret is that she never had children. That’s why she gives so much money to organizations that help orphans and impoverished children.”

  Gabriel settled back into his seat, his mind whirring with visions of what it must have been like in those days. Reeves had been an assassin. That explained a lot. And then there was the part about Julia. She’d given up a promising career as an actress to marry a man who fought the Shadow. A man who died. Flannigan’s story explained a lot about her, especially the part about how she’d always wanted to have a family. No wonder she had been so accepting of Gabriel. No wonder the shadowfriends had sent him as an assassin. They knew she wouldn’t turn him away.

  Gabriel drifted off to sleep with these thoughts rattling through his brain, and guilt gnawing at his insides.

  Chapter 38

  Hours later, the sound of voices roused him and Gabriel opened his eyes to find Reeves standing in the cockpit doorway. He was telling Jodi to get some sleep, but she seemed reluctant. “You’ve been through a lot Reeves, you should be resting,” she said.

  “Reeves!” Gabriel jumped up and went to greet him. Reeves shook his hand with a steel grip. Apparently, the experience hadn’t taken too much out of him.

  “Good to see you, kiddo,” Reeves said, patting him on the back. “Haven’t been making too much trouble while I was out of it, I hope.”

  “Of course he has,” said Jodi. Gabriel shot her a dirty look.

  “I’m sorry things got so messed up,” Gabriel said.

  “Things went bad, I can’t argue that,” said Reeves, “but its not your fault. Somehow, they got the drop on us. It just goes to show, if you get too confident, you’re bound to get put in your place sooner or later.”

  “Actually…” Jodi said. “There are a few things I need to tell you.” She proceeded to describe the situation with her mother, about how the shadowfriends had tricked her, and about how she’d disarmed the security system. “That’s not what they told me would happen,” she said. “I thought they were just going to take the hard drives. Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”

  Reeves thought about it for a moment. “The fault is partly my own,” he said, “because I should have been training you to look out for that sort of thing. The Shadow can be quite devious, and I should have been more conscious of the dangers. That being said, you made a big mistake Jodi. Shadowfriends are bad people. They are not to be trusted under any circumstance. They have no morals or ethics, and they don’t care about anyone but themselves. They don’t believe in good or bad the way that we do. If you make a deal with a person like that, you’ve got no one to blame but yourself.”

  “I know,” Jodi said. “I understand that now.”

  “Good. Take care to remember it. And next time you’re not certain about what you should do, get some advice. All of us at D.A.S. are a team, any one of us would have been willing to help you, regardless of the problem. Don’t try to take on something like that by yourself. If you’d asked someone for help, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

  “I understand,” Jodi said. She looked like
she wanted to crawl under a seat. “I promise, I’ll never do anything like that again.”

  Reeves gave her a warm smile. “We all make mistakes; it’s one of the ways we learn. You’ve already taken responsibility for your mistake, which is usually the hardest part. Now you’re taking action to correct the mistake. In my mind, that’s the end of it. Now go get some sleep.”

  Jodi looked like a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders. A smile crept over her face and she gave Reeves a huge hug. “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Forget it, kiddo. I’ve done worse. Gabriel, wanna be my copilot for a few hours?”

  “Sure.”

  During the flight, Reeves and Gabriel filled each other in on the missing details of their adventures. Reeves recounted his story of having the dragon knock him from the plane. It caught him in mid-air as he plummeted towards the ocean. “I was sure I was dead,” he said. “I hadn’t even grabbed a parachute. How’s that for stupid? Next thing I know, the dragon swoops out of the clouds and grabs me, literally seconds before I hit the water. It dropped me on the deck of a luxury yacht owned by the Shadow.

  “The shadowfriends loosened me up with batons and brass knuckles for a while, but I gave ‘em a run for their money,” he laughed. “Their dentist is gonna be busy.” After several hours of being beaten, a Shadowlord went to work on him, and Reeves didn’t remember any more.

  Gabriel started his story at the same place. He described how they’d managed to kill the dragon and then land on the lakebed. Then he detailed the attack on D.A.S., and the Canada trip where everything fell apart.

  “Julia shouldn’t have done that,” Reeves said. “D.A.S. Canada hasn’t been anything but a fraternity house for years. The original agent retired and left the place in the charge of his ‘protégé’, which is business-speak for nephew. The shadowfriends probably walked in there and cleaned house without even drawing a weapon.