“Wow,” he envisioned his verbal response in his mind grabbing the keys and he smiled, staring at the end physical result of what he had accomplished. He looked at Tina who had been staring at him with a pale complexion and wide eyes, as if she had seen a ghost.
“What the hell was that?” screamed Tina maniacally.
“I don’t know” replied James, “but I like it.” He glared at the keys and fiddled with them, trying each one into the locks on his shackles until the third one propped them open and set him free. He rose to his feet and found the first one opened the door to his cell and he let himself out. He sensed Tina moving about frantically.
“Oh my God, you’re freaking amazing. Hurry up and let me out.”
“I don’t think so, Tina.”
“What do you mean, James? You got to get me out of here.”
“Why?” Asked James. “Why should I do that? How do I know you don’t belong here? You said it yourself you are involved in crimes all the time and you do what you have to do.”
“Like you? We are more the same than you realize. We are old friends.”
“We haven’t talked since high school.” James looked at her impatiently.
“Come on, I know you feel it isn’t right to leave me here like this. What you have is a gift. I can help you. I know about things like that, history, metaphysics, science, and religious and cultural folklore. I know multiple languages too. We can be good friends, more, I’ll have sex with you…” she pleaded endlessly begging on her knees and trying to rise up against the bars before her but the weight of her chains combined with her own fears and anxiety kept her down to the ground.
“Now I know you’re desperate.” He began to walk past her cell.
“You need someone like me. I will be with you. I’ll fight by your side. I will help you understand who or what you are with your ability.”
”I can manage on my own.”
“But can you manage out there in a world that barely understands itself and won’t have tolerance for those who are different like this.” She spoke adamantly and crossed her arms as he looked curiously. “I know we can work together to unravel this mystery. Two heads are better than one and knowledge is the power. I have information that can help us understand it, please.”
“OK” he looked into her deep brown eyes and saw fear but also the sincerity and the words ran through her lips were as those in his head that he heard all his life but never heeded “knowledge is power”. Perhaps they did share a common destiny as the twinkle in her eye matched his. “Hurry up, we don’t have much time.” He tossed her the ring of keys and she smiled frantically searching for the one to unlock her bindings and then the jail cell door.
“Excellent” she smiled at the taste of freedom again.
“Let’s go, we’re not out of the woods yet.”
The two prisoners slowly made their way up the stairwell where voices could be heard of guards talking about a transfer to take place.
“These two in lower cell block D-F, Prescott and Timewalker, are going to be transferred to Ratzinger’s State Penitentiary tomorrow morning at 0800 hours.” An obese guard spoke with a mouthful of cheese puffs stuffing them into his mouth.
“Why tomorrow?” An upright guard asked.
“I don’t question orders and neither do you.”
“It just seems weird; there is no pre-scheduled order as usual.”
“I don’t care. Let’s get some more cheese puffs.”
The two guards wandered off down the hall laughing.
“Did you hear that? We haven’t been sentenced yet on our plea deals. The cases aren’t supposed to be over. Why are they transferring us?” James asked with a curious curled brow and a self-righteous grin.
“Beat’s me, let’s keep moving.” Tina replied.
The duo made their way up the stairs quietly creeping passed the many closed private offices until they heard voices through the slightly ajar office door of Judge Wilx’s Chambers.
“I don’t care what you say Mr. Jones this is highly irregular,” said Judge Farnsworth Wilx after dismissing his clerk into the next room leaving the judge with the district attorney Vladimir Jones.
“Judge, we have a limited time frame and window of opportunity in these two highly sensitive matters and we are facing political pressure from various sources.”
“Aside from being ex parte, this communication is improper and tantamount to misconduct.”
“Judge, I assure you that these matters are very important to my office. We need to have Prescott and Timewalker facing justice imminently to avoid a major political incident.”
“How is that so Mr. Jones?”
“The report on your desk speaks for itself. I cannot serve it on the defense without jeopardizing a very sensitive investigation of my office regarding these two prisoners.”
“It will be dealt with.” Judge Wilx nodded looking at the thick hundred pages on his desk, a symbol on the front cover he had not seen in years, but one he knew all too well from his glory days, a double curved upside down arch, the symbol of the Egyptian serpent god Apophis and the symbol of the Temporo Inc.’s secret label 12VM.
“Thank you, your honor.”
Tina and James looked at one another in the crunched crawl space in the stairwell near the open-door office they were peering into.
“I’m confused.” Tina whispered to her colleague. “Why are we so important?”
“I don’t know but I think we are going to find out soon enough,” added James.
They continued passed the door and hid in a nearby storeroom that was opened down the hall as they saw Mr. Jones leaving the judge’s chambers and walking out briskly passed them without noticing them.
“Whew, that was close,” said Tina.
They ran out and as they exited the main door at the end of the hall way, a large alarm sounded and a guard saw them and pointed to them, “freeze!”
“Oh crap, let’s get out of here.” James yelled leading them into a stairwell.
CHAPTER 17
“Mark Cumberberry, CFO” so it read on the door in Temporo, Inc. headquarters in central Chronix Bay. Mark sat at his chair in the large architectural design of an office space, a wet bar on one end and a designer leather sofa with throw pillows and a mahogany shawl on the other, a gilded centerpiece chandelier hanging above, and an extended marble inlaid desk with gilded monuments and statuettes of ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Sumerian, and Central American religion and myth. Plants hung from every corner and sat on his desk, adorning the office as he was a fond lover of nature. A giant mirror occupied the full length of the side walls to his right. He sipped an entire glass of cabernet in a moments glance and then rose to his feet thinking of nothing better to do in the middle of the work day and approached the mirror.
He stared deep into it and into himself, his eyes widened and physically morphed growing into large ovals and his nose and mouth protruded outward growing larger and his face growing wider forming a hideous snout with fangs extending from there onward as if breaking free after ages of dormancy. A pair of horns grew from his head as long as scimitars and just as razor sharp, his tannish complexion pigmented to a light shade of brown and hair grew on top of his balding hairline to cover his entire head, wild and shaggily extending downward, down his back, his suit breaking as his muscles grew covered with hair and darkening in shade, small tendrils protruded from his back and extended outward like a metamorphosis of a larva from a cocoon and becoming a pair of gigantic bat wings flapping back so far they knocked over to the carpeted floor a pair of historical Chinese figurines on his desk. His legs grew in size as did his back and stature ripping the suit pants until they were mere shreds on the floor and his feet formed the shape of hooves crushing the alligator skin loafers he had on. His loins covered with brown thick shaggy fur further covering down arms to clawed rough fingers and hands and his legs, spine, groin, and chest, muscular physique to his upper body, neck, and face gritting fiercely with deter
mination and gladness over the transformation as if a true being freed from the prison of a form he did not relish, that of a mere human being as he was more than human, he was stronger, faster, smarter, more resilient, and ferocious. He was a beast and five points formed on his forehead. He relished himself in this true form of his. He stretched out his wings and muscular arms towards the various potted plants in the room. The plants began to move on their own as they recognized him communing with them. The plants began coming to him as if intelligently sensing his presence. He was in complete ecstasy as he was surrounded by the flowing vines of the plants growing around him. The plants and the beast communed enjoying one another’s presence. He peacefully embraced his plants enhancing his own pleasures and relishing the bond of life they shared. Together they were happy in the moment.
Then suddenly the door opened and entered a young blonde woman with a cup of coffee and she gasped when she saw him and dropped the cup spilling its contents onto the carpet as she ran out in pure fear screaming of terror.
“Oh my God, what is that???!!!” She ran out as Mark in his true form turned in a grit of disgust at the smell of a human woman interrupting his tranquility.
A few doors down the hall in the large corner office of Broad Staffnight, Liz passed back and forth in a frantic panic.
“Liz, tell me what’s wrong. You act like you’ve seen a ghost!” Said Broad Staffnight seated in his chair arching his fingers together towards his nose.
“I think so…It was a monster… like those mythical creatures, beasts, like the goat god Pan, it looked like a Satyr but different, more grotesque and all… I never saw anything so hideous in my life. I think it killed Mr. Cumberberry. I didn’t see him in the office.”
“Hmm” Broad thought for a moment, “that is interesting” treading off towards his window panoramic view of the city skyline while not completely absorbing her issue as if knowing more than she understood.
“Broad, you think I’m crazy don’t you?”
“Hmm”, Broad responded gazing into the panoramic view outside.
CHAPTER 18
The dim lighting in the halls outside the meeting room housed by the mighty Temporo, Inc. central tower echoed with the important conversations that had transpired within it permeating time itself. The building itself had been around for centuries but there were meetings here going back farther dealing with ancient rituals and human sacrifice. Broad Staffnight stood in the center of the conference room inside at the head of the table thinking of how his father and great, great, great grandfather before him once stood there and commanded others as he did. The room soon filled with an array of suited men and women in expensive attire and prepared to lead the directorate of the company he loved, and that has been a part of his family for so many generations before, into the new millennium and beyond.
“My friends” he spoke jovially to the group of proud business spectators. “We have an unprecedented opportunity to do something that has never been done before, a new venture will unfold, and a project of millions of years in the making and it will make shockwaves for generations to come.”
The meeting ended as usual with the words by Broad Staffnight
“Let’s work together to build more bridges of fortunes and excellence for us all.” However, for some the meeting was anything but usual as the project revealed to them offered both high expectation and utter despair.
“I don’t like this, Tom” said Maria Bella from the legal department to her accountant colleague Thomas Papaioannou. “Everything he said was either an outright fabrication or a perversion of impossible dreams.” Maria added as she gained an inquisitive look from her Mediterranean colleague.
“But we know this can be possible. Do you not know about the transition protocols that are being prepared?” Tom spoke in a deep seated Grecian accent.
“Of course but it doesn’t appear to be tenable.”
“I believe it is perfectly within our means. We just have to keep our wits about it.”
“Let’s hope you’re right or this whole thing will literally make shockwaves but not in the way he’s hoping.” She gestured to Broad who was standing a few meters away engulfed in his conversation with Mark Cumberberry who had been immersed in another conversation of his own.
“Mark, Elizabeth saw you.” He spoke to his mentor and colleague now back in human form.
“I know,” he smiled sipping his glass of wine, a special unique brand of cabernet.
“You also know that our best kept secret must never be revealed to the public.”
“I will handle her!”
“No, I will handle her. We don’t need any more of your way of handling people.” Broad grimaced and began to walk away angrily and then stopped. “I had to tell her the truth. You are fortunate she is one of us.”
“I have issues on you too, my apprentice. You will have to answer one way or another at the ‘real’ board meeting soon” said Mark as he sipped his cabernet.
“Well we will have to see when the mission is complete before we jump to any hasty conclusions.” Broad commanded with a threatening tone.
“Is that why I was only recently awakened, to act as cannon fodder for this merciless mission?” Mark asked curiously. “I sure as hell am not much in accounting matters.”
“No we are all equally valuable to the cause” said Broad “but we need to remember who has priority on the mission.”
“So be it… then see you when we search for the artifact of legend. It is upon us, you know. You will soon have your orders to assemble your team, Broad as you desire most.”
“In that I can count on your support then I know but I am pulling some strings on the others, especially to keep the teleported mishap a complete cover-up. No one is to know the truth.” Said Broad as Mark nodded gently.
“We have no choice” Mark uttered empathetically.
“Hmm” Broad turned smirking slightly and walked away.
“Time is on my side” Mark whispered to himself.
CHAPTER 19
“This is reporter Sylvia Armstrong reporting for Channel Nine news, Chronix Bay. The hustle and bustle of the downtown streets continue to lay filled with protesters standing tall amidst one of the worst economic climates in US history, rampant lawlessness, unemployment, extreme homelessness, rock-bottom housing prices, and shortages of basic necessities like food, water, and gasoline, contamination and recalls continue but amongst the worst are what has been coined as the ‘law graduate job deflation and bust’ where many young lawyers and seasoned, new and old, are continuously struggling to make ends meet in a bottoms up economy. Those without jobs are quickly turning in their law books for aprons at the local coffee shops for the chance to earn even a meager income. ‘From Barrister to Barista,’ says one recent law graduate, Marina Gomez.
“I am open-minded but I can’t pay back two hundred thousand dollars in student loans on minimum wage, unemployment, or food stamps. I like many others of my brothers and sisters need jobs and good ones and we cannot imagine a worse time now. We are not peons or slaves and not illegal workers but we are people who deserve respect and need truly gainful employment. There is nothing wrong with fighting now for what is ours.” She marched on with others holding signs in a circular picketing line chanting out loud at the top of their lungs, “employment now!”
“There you have it folks, the new movement for a new era.” The television set fizzled off as the obese prison guard stuffed cheese puffs into his mouth repeatedly with a redundant snort.
CHAPTER 20
Several meters from the guard’s office with chaotically strewn files and junk food wrappers, James and Tina sought to escape their confinement.
“There has got to be a better way!” Thought James thinking of his youth listening to the Rolling Stones as he and Tina ran up the stairwell curving to each floor circling frantic to get out to freedom.
“How many levels are in this building?” Tina asked rhetorically as she fought to catch her breath.
“Almost there”, James answered her hypothesizing with a grinning grit of determination. They turned the bend into the main landing of the ground floor and approached a metal door with the number one on it.
“Thank God,” cried Tina in a joyous voice.
“Wait!!!”James grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down to a crevice underneath the stairs and rolled on the ground besides her crouching down.
“What the..?”
“Quiet!” He held his finger over her lip as the metal door swung open and a moment later, two uniformed officers entered the stairwell.
“We got a level 31 on system wide. That means no one leaves the building, no exceptions until command says otherwise.” The two officers headed up stairs.
“It’s gonna be one of those days.” They continued their conversation changing the subject as to who would beat the Chronix Bay Pirates in the next baseball game until they were out of hearing range.
“They’re gone.” Tina whispered.
“I can still hear them,” said James.
“Huh?” Uttered a confused Tina, “who are you, Bionic Man?” She asked as customary as it can be and jumped out of the crevice to her feet. “Come on, we don’t have much time.”
James crawled out of the crevice slowly following her thinking silently then spoke slowly. “You heard what they said,” said James. “We won’t be able to leave the building. No one can.”
“So we improvise and find another way out of here.” Tina smiled.
Then suddenly the metal door began to open slightly. “Oh crap!!!” James uttered as he moved his arm up to the door with a quick gesture and the door shut closed.
The Time Stone Page 5
