UNDERCOVER The Secret of Luck

by James Kipling

  “Looks like you have been awarded for your patience with a seriously huge task. Talk about good luck.” said Rod, calling for the bill.

  “I agree. Thanks for the fine breakfast. I do sense another busy day. I will be travelling a lot again, Rod.” said John, getting up from his chair. Rod did the same, and they both went out of the diner and into the road.

  “What do you mean, more travelling?” asked Rod, looking around for a cab for John.

  “Well, you know this as well as I do, Rod. I cannot work alone. I need to get my support team back. Sheila, the doctor guy, the information guy, and of course the weapons fellow. I have got to rehire them, even if it means this is a one-time case. I have already mailed all the possible expenses to my client and if I know her, she has already made the payments.” said John.

  A cab had been stopped by Rod. Rod waited for John to get into it. John got into the passenger seat, waved bye to his friend, and the cab drove away. He turned back to see that Rod was walking towards his car to head off in the opposite direction. John’s cab driver today looked like he had got out of college just a few months prior. He had an odd collection of music that was playing from his music station. John did not bother asking him to change it. The drive was bumpy enough, indicating the driver’s inexperience. The cab was fast, and before John could wonder what sort of a driver that cab was being driven by, he was already in front of his office building. John got out, paid the fare and a generous tip. John passed the lobby, got into the elevator, and went into his office.

  Upon reaching his office, he noticed that it was about 10 o’ clock. He emailed his client to brief her on the latest developments, and also to request an advance to proceed with in-depth investigation. He expected to hear back from his client before the evening. Once his client confirmed his email and initial milestone payment, he could get started.

  The next item on the agenda was to get back his team. Back when John Russo was busy and up to his neck with work, he had a full team working for him. First, there was his receptionist, who has always been his backbone. She did almost everything for him. She only needed to be told to do things once. Russo also had people with specific skills helping him.

  There was this retired military doctor, Rick Falk, who was his physician, available on call, around the clock. John rarely had a chance to use his services, but that could change. He needed to get him back on the payroll. Then, there was the weapons guy, John Trek, who was also a mechanic and a gadgetry person. He was the man John Russo turned to for everything from weapons to mobile phones. Lastly, there was Gerald Drake, an IT specialist and information broker. He was the best computer hacker that John Russo had ever met. He could be useful, too.

  Each and every one of them had helped John Russo at different times when he was busy with work, except for the doctor, who never had a chance to help him. Three months ago, John was forced to let go of Sheila. A month before he informed the rest that they probably would not see any business from him. Now, he wanted them all back. Would they still be free to work for him? Did he have to look for new talent? He did not know. Thankfully, at least now he would have the money. It was time to contact them to inform about his new case and see if they were still available.

  His first phone call was to his former assistant/receptionist. The phone rang a few times, and kept ringing some more. Eventually it reached Sheila’s answering machine. John left a message on the answering machine saying that it was urgent that she called him back as soon as possible. It was important that he sorted out everything with his faithful receptionist first. Once she was locked, she would arrange for meetings with all the other experts. John Russo would be the first to admit that he could not get anything done without her.

  Even as he pondered as to when Sheila might return his call, he settled onto his couch and started to doze off. Since John barely got any sleep at Nancy’s the previous night, it did not take long before he was fast asleep.

  ___________________________________________________________________________

  John opened his eyes and found himself back in the dungeon. The dungeon that he had been visiting every night for the last six months. The moment he realized where he was, he knew he was dreaming. Unconsciously, the John Russo in his dream, began to think instead of panic. He thought, since he was now working again, he should not be having this dream. It did not make much sense. Then again, no one had much control over the sort of thoughts the unconscious mind can have. John looked around the dungeon, and he felt that something was different. John tried to think of the last time he was in this dungeon.

  Previously, the dungeon was a dark place. John was very clear on the amount of light that was in the dungeon. Previously, the amount of light was zero. It was pitch dark. Today, something was different. The walls of the dungeon were giving out a dim light. John could see the dungeon a little more clearly now. He looked around the walls to see what was giving out the light. He could not find a single bulb anywhere. There did not seem to be any light source at all. That was when John realized that the source of the light was the wall material. There was something from within the walls that was emitting a faint light. Once the mystery of the light was solved in his head, he noticed something a bit unusual about the temperature in the dungeon.

  John noticed that the dungeon was not damp like all his previous “visits”. This time, it was at room temperature, similar to his office. The dim light from the walls seemed to be keeping the temperature same as his office. For once, John did not feel scared in the dungeon. Previously, John would be scared to death within seconds of waking up in the dungeon. Today, he wasn’t scared. If anything, he was curious. John, inside the dream, was curious about the dungeon which had remained invisible to him in all episodes of bad dreams.

  He noticed that there wasn’t anything unusual about the dungeon. The walls were bare, and he could see a few holes. At the very top, there were a few dozen bats that were hanging upside down. After having surveyed the ceiling and observing nothing special about the walls, John’s focus turned to the floor. The floor was bare, just like the rest of the dungeon. John observed that his visibility got better the longer he stayed in the dungeon.

  John noticed that at the far edge of the dungeon, wedged against the corner, was a bed with a red mattress on it. If not for the bright light that was now glowing from the walls, John would have never seen it. John walked toward the bed with the red mattress. Even in a dream, the John in the dream was a natural when it came to observation. The bed in front of him seemed new, but somehow extremely old. It was as if the bed was from another century and somehow it had retained its brand new factor due to some magical affect. John thought that was odd, but then again, it was his subconscious manipulating the sequence of events.

  In only a few seconds, John realized that the bed wasn’t going to get him far in understanding the situation. John was about to go away from the bed and exit the room when he noticed something below the bed. At the far corner, which wasn’t receiving much light, there lay a rod-like object. John dropped flat on the ground, face down, and crawled under the bed towards the corner. He kept crawling until he reached the rod. It was still pretty dark in that corner. John felt the rod in his hand, and felt around it. It felt familiar. John crawled back and stood up. Standing now in better lighting conditions, he could see clearly what that rod thing was.

  It was a battery operated torch.

  John remembered all the other nightmares he had been having. He would find himself in the dungeon, and then he would walk along the walls and finally find that tunnel. In the tunnel, he would be chased down by crawlies, and then things just kept getting worse from there. Even night, John knew that the same nightmare would follow. Fortunately for him, there was something different about this vision. The dungeon wasn’t totally dark. He did not feel so scared. The walls of the dungeon were glowing, and now, for the first time ever, he had got his hands on a battery operated torc
h.

  The first thought that occurred to John was to turn it on. He flipped the switch and nothing really happened. He uncorked the back of torch and two dead batteries dropped into his palm.

  Just my luck. A torch that is useless because the battery is dead, said John to himself. He threw the batteries away and put the back of the torch in place. With nothing else to do in the dungeon, which was getting brighter by the minute, John decided to head out. John found the exit and walked through it. Previously, just like the dungeon, the pathway that went out of it used to be pretty dark. Today, the pathway was well lit. With curiosity and excitement, he stepped out of the dungeon and into the pathway. The pathway was about six feet wide and ten feet high.

  As John walked through the pathway, he noticed that the walls on either side were decorated with flares that were not lit. Still, the walls were gently glowing and the flares not burning wasn’t much of a problem for John. So far, it was quite alright. The pathway was a long walk. As John walked, he noticed that the pathway seemed to turn at an angle, not showing further than a few feet in front of him. It was oddly curved, and it was clearly weird. If John was not dreaming, he might have thought this was an indication that his mind was completely going mad. John was dreaming now, and the person in his dream was not capable of thinking out of his own dream limits.

  John kept walking along, wondering when he would find the entrance to the tunnel that would usually lead to a forest. He kept walking, and he must have walked ten more minutes when he noticed a closet. The closet was on the right side of the pathway. John realized that in the previous episodes of the nightmare, he would always have walked along the left side of the pathway. He wasn’t surprised that he missed that closet every time. Now that the pathway was lit, he was able to see it.

  John walked up to the closet, and it was unlocked. He opened it and found that all the compartments were completely empty. John was about to close the closet with disappointment, but he stopped. He thought about the way he found that torch with the dead batteries. He bent down and looked at the bottom compartment. At the far end corner, he found a box. That’s nice. He told himself, and grabbed the box and stepped away from the closet. John felt that something heavy was inside the box. He opened the box and he was shocked and surprised at the same time.

  The box had 4 batteries.

  John immediately realized what he was supposed to do. He quickly pulled out the torch from his pocket, unlocked the cork from the back, and pushed two batteries into the battery compartment. John kept the two spare batteries in his pocket and flicked the switch.

  The torch switched on!

  The light from the torch flooded the pathway like it was from heaven. John had used battery operated torches before. For some reason, the light from this torch was unusually bright. John pointed the torch around, focusing on different parts of the pathway. The light was bright, straight, and powerful. John directed the light to the farthest end of the pathway, and the light continued to be as powerful as it was at the nearest surface. This torch was special, but John for all reasoning and thinking, could not figure out why this was the case.

  With the torch in hand, John decided to enter the tunnel. The bright light with its never ending stream of powerful light was beaming ahead of him. John had an idea that made him feel a lot more confident about the crawlies which would start chasing him anytime soon. John had a theory about this torch and the batteries and the crawlies and what he was going to do to them. He ran through the pathway, looking for the tunnel entrance. Sure enough, after a few minutes of running, he found the tunnel entrance. He opened the hatch and crawled inside.

  John started crawling up the tunnel. Unlike the previous nightmares, he did not bother looking back after every few feet to see if he was being followed. He knew that he would know when the crawlies started coming after him. John continued to crawl through the tunnel, which was just big enough to allow him to do that with ease. John kept on crawling, and then he saw it, the light at the end of the tunnel was now visible. John knew that his tunnel journey was coming to an end. John’s legs were getting a little tired, but he kept on crawling. He had crawled a little further ahead, and then he heard it. There were metal noises coming from behind, as if hundreds of feet were suddenly walking through the tunnel. John stopped crawling and turned back.

  There was sufficient light coming in through the tunnel opening for John to see behind him, and it looked like a scene straight out of a horror movie. At a distance of about a hundred feet, John saw the crawlies charging towards him. Perhaps it was the effect of everything that was happening differently in this nightmare, the crawlies looked uglier than ever. Their eyes were glowing read, brighter than any other night. Their limbs seemed longer than ever. The skin was scalier and the nails were protruding like leaf-less tree branches. They were also making loud screeching noises. If not for anything else, they seemed to have been greatly angered. Even angrier than any other day.

  John continued to crawl forward, minding the distance between the crawlies and himself. Unlike other days, John wasn’t really panicking. He was confident of his plan, a direct result of the torch and the batteries he found earlier. John kept crawling, and the crawlies kept getting closer behind. John’s heart was racing and becoming faster with each movement he made toward the end of the tunnel. The light at the end of the tunnel was getting closer, and it was getting brighter. John continued to crawl upwards and the crawlies kept getting closer to him. The tunnel exit was still a distance away, and John stopped. He turned around and pulled out his torch and held it in his hand, firm and steady. The crawlies were right in front of him, and any second now, they would be within arm’s reach. John waited. Seconds went by, and the sound of him breathing hard and the scary noises of the crawlies were all that filled the tunnel.

  Two seconds later, the crawlies were on him, and John pressed the switch button on the torch! Bright light streamed out of the business end of the torch, streaming through the length of the tunnel that John had just traversed. The light seemed to cut through the slimy bodies of the crawlies like a knife would go through butter. As the light struck through their bodies, the crawlies screamed. This wasn’t a scream of terror, but that of fear. For the first time in a long time, it wasn’t John who was screaming, but the crawlies. They were screaming in pain.

  John kept moving the torch and focusing its light on the many burning slimy bodies of the crawlies. The screaming kept getting louder and louder and the burning bodies were turning into ash. The ash kept dropping onto the floor of the tunnel and then, finally, the tunnel was empty. All that was left was the dust that was formerly the crawlies. With the task done, for now, John turned off the torch.

  John turned around and decided to crawl toward the exit of the tunnel from where the light was still beaming through. John had reached the exit now and climbed down. The solitary light, which was actually a street lamp still burning. John stood there, looking up at the light and dusting off his clothes. He looked around and found himself in familiar surroundings - the dark forest. John saw that the stream was flowing peacefully, just like every other episode of nightmare he had had. The sky was still filled with stars, and there was no moon to be seen.

  Previously, John would begin to walk up the trail above the big rock. He would probably run into a man on a horse, both of which seemed to be made of light. John decided to resign to destiny and climbed up the rock and found the trail that he would always take. He had only taken a few steps when he heard a scream that pierced through the quiet night. The sound came from behind him, and he turned to look at its source. It was all quiet again, as the scream had vanished as quickly as it had come. John started walking through the woods, in the general direction he thought the scream came from. The scream seemed vaguely familiar, but he could not decide who the voice belonged to. All John knew was that he had heard the voice somewhere before.

  He must have walked for a few minutes when he h
eard the scream again. John had assumed correctly, and he was walking in the right direction. The scream seemed louder this time, and John turned a little to his left and using the knowledge of the scream, observed a vague outline of a broken down cottage. He broke into a run and kept running till that cottage was more visible. A few more minutes of running, and John was standing right in front of the cottage. The cottage had a few windows on every side of its walls, and the one at the very top had a light burning. Bushes had overgrown much of the cottage, and there were tall, thin trees all around the cottage, some touching the highest window.. Even as John looked at the single window with the light burning, the light flicked off and all went dark. At that exact moment, a woman screamed from within. The light came back a few seconds later, and the screaming stopped.

  Without thinking too much about it, John made up his mind to help this woman, whoever she was. He grabbed on a tall thin tree that reached the window and started climbing. John was already tired, but the thought of a woman in trouble gave him strength. He climbed fast, all the time keeping his eye on the window. The light continued to burn and he was at the window ledge. He peered inside and found a study room; it had a table lamp burning. He maneuvered himself from the tree into the room and started looking around. At the far corner, next to another lit study lamp, was a woman.

  Seeing a man step in, the lady came a little forward from the darkness, and her face was now visible. She looked just like Ms. Luck. John was surprised.

  What is she doing in my nightmare? John thought to himself.