by RJ Johnson
“Look,” Emily said, exasperated, “I'm not easy to intimidate. If you wanted to kill me, you would have by now. Just…”
Suddenly a voice from the darkness interrupted her. “Do you know everything there is?”
Emily was confused for a moment. “Who are you?”
“Who are any of us?” Kline stepped out from behind the light. Emily squinted as Kline’s body blocked the four large klieg lights that had been shining down on her face. “Some like to say that we are all just a collection of self-aware, slow-moving particles of energy, all derived from the same primordial soup.”
“You sound like a Philosophy 101 student,” Emily quipped. “But I imagine you’re trying for the intimidation factor instead, aren’t you?”
Kline smiled; she was feisty.
“You like to think you are smart, don’t you, Ms. Harper?” Kline asked, amused. “You like to think there’s something stopping me from snapping your neck like a twig.”
Emily felt a sharp bolt of fear go through her body.
Kline sniffed, “Ahh, see, now there it is.”
Emily’s face hardened once again as she struggled to center herself. Breathe, Emily, she whispered.
“The thing is, Ms. Harper, that even with all your knowledge about mathematics, and science, and logic, you are still incredibly ignorant about how this world works.”
“I like to think I know a thing or two,” Emily snapped back.
“Oh.” Kline looked surprised. “You misunderstand my point, dear lady. You see, I’m not taking anything away from your degrees and knowledge. In fact, I find the pursuit of knowledge a most noble and endearing trait of the human race. After Newton published his Principia of Mathematics, he talked about how there was a whole undiscovered ocean of knowledge in front of him. That is what I refer to when I call you ‘ignorant,’ my dear lady. There is so much you don’t know, about me, your former fiancé, and all the possibilities in this grand universe of ours.”
“Then why go to all this trouble?” Emily asked, her voice low. “You show me a picture of my dead fiancé, tell me he’s still alive. He then shows up, trying to rescue me from some insane egomaniac I’ve never even heard of before today. You then kidnap me, along with my best friend who you stashed away somewhere, and bring us God knows where. I'll tell you this one more time: the Alex McCray I knew is dead and has been for six years. Whatever you want from me is from another life, one I haven’t thought about in a very long time,” Emily finished dramatically.
Kline looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, smiled in that half-smile way, and nodded, tilting his head towards Emily. “Well of course, you idiot, I know all that.”
Emily was taken aback.
“Well, good!” She snapped back and leaned to the side, offering her tied hands up to Kline, “Then how’s about you let Christina and I outta here, and we’ll forget this even happened.”
“Novel approach, Ms. Harper, but I’m afraid you serve a much larger purpose than that.”
“As what, bait?” Emily finally snapped. “I told you Alex is dead. You believed me!”
“I believed that you believed that Mr. McCray was dead,” Kline replied in a bored monotone. “You saw for yourself that he is not. Why do you think he let you believe he was dead all these years?”
“I don’t know. You’re wasting your time, you’re keeping me here against my will, and I want to go home!” Emily screamed the last part, her fiery temper finally on display.
Kline chuckled. “You are feisty, aren’t you?” He approached Emily, taking his PDA out of his pocket. He tapped on the screen for a few moments and then showed the screen to Emily.
Emily watched, tears welling up in her eyes as she watched Alex, her former fiancé, who had disappeared into the ether six years ago, fire an automatic assault rifle.
“That’s the footage taken from the Joshua Tree Sheriff’s station I showed you. Again, the proof is right there in front of your eyes. Alexander McCray may have been killed, but someone else rose from the ashes. Would you like to meet him?” Kline asked casually, watching Emily’s reaction.
He flipped his PDA back towards him as he typed on the pad. He held it in front of her eyes, which she shut.
“Look at him,” Kline snarled. “LOOK AT HIM!”
Emily opened her eyes, afraid of what she would see. There, a man’s picture, the same man she fell in love with over ten years ago, was there again in front of her face. They were the same eyes that had looked deep into hers and promised a lifetime of love and devotion. It was the same crooked smile that Emily loved to mock Alex for, but secretly loved. It was the same freckles, dotted across his face that she always had to keep sunscreen lotion handy for.
It was Alex, and yet it wasn’t.
“His name is Jason McCray - not uncommon in the spy world to keep one or both of your names. Who would suspect a spy using his own name? He’s mostly worked in Afghanistan for the last six years, with the occasional forays into China and Russia. He did the kinds of things…well, the kinds of things you see in spy movies but never really believe actually happen. He was an assassin, and quite a good one, as I understand it.” Kline paused as he watched Emily meet her old lover anew.
“He left and became a spy?” Emily almost laughed, “You’re seriously trying to sell this?”
“‘Sell,’ nothing! I had to spend quite a lot of money to even get this information from a host of different governments!” Kline snapped. “Here’s reality as it stands, cold hard facts and truth, and yet, you still refuse to believe.”
Kline hurled the PDA away into the corner of the room. Emily winced at the crash, ducking the shrapnel that ricocheted around the room at incredible speeds.
“Frankly, it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. The fact is, men like him don’t let things like this go. He is coming for you, and because of that,” Kline smiled, “he will suffer.”
Kline turned on his heel and retreated out of the room, the gravel crunching as he walked away.
The four construction-style klieg lights went out. Emily screamed as she was left in the darkness once again.
Chapter Thirty-Five
The closer Red Howell got to Rupert Kline’s private trailer, the more nervous he became. His earlier humiliation still stung, but it was the least of his concerns. There were whispers, rumors flying around the work site about a fierce gun battle that had erupted only a few miles away. More rumors of bodies, murder, and now two women being held hostage on the premises. The object buried deep within the Mesa that his men had just found while drilling was the final straw. There was nothing, not even Kline’s brutish strength, that would keep Red and his men at this site a minute longer than was necessary. They had officially entered the Twilight Zone.
Red swore under his breath as he drew nearer to the boss’s domain. Yep, Red thought to himself as he withdrew a handkerchief from his jeans pocket to wipe the sweat off his brow, the sooner he was done with this job, the better it would be for all of them. The seven-figure bonus he would bring in would ensure he could take a long vacation on a white and sandy beach somewhere far away from this nightmarish humiliation.
Red raised his hand to knock when suddenly the door buzzed, indicating that the door had unlocked itself. Hesitating, he glanced up, seeing a video camera installed on the doorjamb above. Kline had seen him coming.
Shaking off the instinct to turn tail and run, Red reached for the doorknob and opened the door, stepping inside the luxurious trailer.
In the corner nearest the desk, a small Asian woman was locked in handcuffs to a metal chair. Her mouth was gagged with shiny duct tape. Her soulful black eyes pleaded with Red’s as he lowered his own to the ground. He only wanted to be gone with a check in his hand, and nuts to the rest of the lot. He swallowed his fear and looked up at Kline.
“Mr. Howell, I trust you have good news for me?” Kline asked without looking up.
Red swallowed. “Yeah, as a matter of fact – we got through the gas
pocket. I’ve never seen anything like it. We tried to go forward, but I’m afraid we can’t go any farther.”
Kline clucked his tongue, “Mr. Howell, you knew I needed you to…”
“I’m afraid you don’t understand, Mr. Kline,” Red interrupted Kline before he could get angry enough to repeat his earlier feat of strength. “We continued to drill like you ordered to, but we hit something at the end.” Red paused, uncertain how to put it. “And it’s... Well, here, take a look.”
Red took out his PDA and brought up the photos of what his team had drilled into. In front of the massive drilling machine was a solid wall of crystal. Undamaged by the heavy punishment inflicted by the drilling machine’s massive scrapers, the wall appeared uniform, with only the slight impression of an entrance.
Barely able to contain his excitement, Kline grabbed the PDA from the foreman.
“How many people have seen this?” Kline asked.
“Five, including myself,” Red nervously replied. “We wouldn’t dare say a word, of course…”
Kline turned, his face masking his worry. “Well, of course not. You’re valuable members of my team. I know things get a little tight around here. But business is a pressure cooker, is it not?” Kline laughed heartily and slapped Red on the back. “Am I right?”
Red chuckled, more out of nervousness than any real sense of Kline’s humor. “I suppose.”
“Excellent, excellent,” Kline purred. He rose from the desk and raised his arm, showing Red out.
Red hesitated for only a moment; if he was going to say something, the time was now. “Mr. Kline, I believe it’s best that you and I part company now.”
Kline turned to Red, somewhat forcefully, and smiled broadly. “You know,” Kline said quietly, “I believe you’re right.”
Red panicked. Something warm began trickling down his leg. Not again, he screamed in his head, not again, I can’t…
“Mr. Howell, are you all right?” Kline asked, his face a mask of concern.
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Red replied. “It’s the desert heat. It gets to ya, you know?”
“Come outside with me,” Kline instructed, grabbing his jacket. “I want you to show me what you found. We’ll talk about your bonus on the way down.”
Red sighed in relief. He was going to be OK. He stepped out of the trailer, nearly bumping into Kline. Kline had stopped and was looking up at the starry night sky.
“Beautiful, aren’t they, Mr. Howell?” Kline said wistfully. “You ever think there’s anyone else out there?”
Red didn’t reply. Kline looked down next to him. “Well, Mr. Howell? Do you believe there’s someone out there looking down on us?”
Remembering Kline’s earlier mode of questioning, Red knew he couldn’t keep silent. He had to give an answer, right or wrong. Kline seemed to respect honesty, so he’d stick with that. “No,” Red replied.
“Really?” Kline looked surprised. “You think, in a galaxy made for life, that with billions upon billions of stars, with billions upon billions of galaxies, you think you’re so lucky that you alone are allowed to experience the universe in this form?”
“Just haven’t seen any evidence, yet.” Red replied, shamefully. “I guess that’s what it comes down to, ain’t it? Stuff you can see with your own two eyes.”
“Proof is only an agreed-upon set of facts, is it not, Mr. Howell?”
Red nodded. Kline didn’t say a word, only stared up at the stars.
For a moment, Red didn’t say anything. He cleared his throat. “The crystal?”
“Yes, of course,” Kline said, his gaze returning to the mountain ahead of him. “Lead the way, Mr. Howell.”
The jagged scar that Red Howell’s drilling team had ripped into the Joshua Tree Mesa was beginning to taper closed, as the massive tons of rock and earth began to settle, constricting the tunnel entrance. The drilling machine was being backed out of the tunnel now, and parked away from the entrance. It was no longer needed, now that they couldn’t move any further into the Mesa.
“Watch your head here,” Red said, handing Kline a helmet as they neared the entrance. “The rock bed above us is settling.”
“It’s not stable?” Kline asked, somewhat worried. Not that he was worried for his own safety, but for the sake of his prize at the end of the tunnel. If the entrance were to collapse, Kline was unsure that even his incredible strength would be of much help.
Red glanced at Kline. “You wanted speed. I delivered. You might have two hours before the whole thing comes down around your ears, so I suggest whatever it is you’re after down here, you get it fast.”
Kline grimaced slightly. It was a short timeline, but still doable. Red and Kline approached the end of the tunnel, and for the first time, Kline looked at the magnificent crystal wall.
It stood monolithic, imposing against the two men. It was a perfectly square outline of beautiful white crystal. In the middle, a slight indentation formed a rectangle impression, a perfectly suited entrance for whoever needed to get in. There was no handle or discernible way to open the door, however; unfortunately, the lines remained frustratingly smooth.
Kline approached the door reverently. The stone in his ring began to pulsate with energy as he drew nearer to the crystal. Reaching out, Kline touched the crystal, feeling it lightly with his hands. He closed his eyes as he felt the energy flow down his arm and travel to the stone in his finger. It was intoxicating, Kline decided. He could feel the power from the second stone, only a few feet away, locked behind a few feet of crystal.
The only trick was getting in to retrieve the second stone. He pushed, feeling the structure with his fingertips. He was unable to penetrate inside. His ring, glowing brighter than he'd ever seen it, was keeping him from stepping inside the crystal. He pushed harder and harder, and yet the field being created by his ring was preventing him from getting any closer into the crystal door.
“Did you try and cut into it?” Kline asked still examining the flawless crystal in front of him.
“Yeah, we threw everything we got at it. Nothing opened it.” Red replied nervously. “Look, we’re going into triple overtime here, and I think my guys really need to get home.”
Kline waved Red off. There were more important things at hand than bureaucratic nonsense. “Charge me whatever you like. Just get me into this crystal.”
“That’s not really the point.” Red said, nervously. “We were hired to get you into a specific set of coordinates within the mountain and I delivered. As far as I'm concerned, our contract is over and completed. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could cut into it anyway.”
Kline edged his glance away from the crystal wall for the first time, and fixed his intense stare on Red. “What is your point, Mr. Howell?”
“We can’t get in there.” Red said simply. “Whatever that crystal is, it’s not natural. The laser cutter I brought with me should have sliced through anything formed here on Earth like a knife through warm butter. But this…” Red shrugged. “We got nothing for this.”
“What about explosives, then?” Kline intoned. “I refuse to believe…”
“Sir,” Red said forcefully, “this is something you need a key for. There’s not enough huff or puff in this world, short of a nuclear explosion, that’s gonna break down that door. You need to consider something else.”
Kline sighed. His foreman was right. His gut told him there was only one way into the crystal chamber. Throughout his life, he had made a good living listening to his instincts, and he wasn’t about to stop now. He grabbed his radio off his belt and opened a channel.
“Mr. Tate, bring our two guests into the borehole. I have something I want to show them.”
Kline put away his radio. Turning to Red, he said, “You’re dismissed.”
Red could hardly believe his luck. For the last few hours, he was sure the man would kill him for some imagined slight. Now that he was getting out, Red wasn’t planning on looking back.
“Thank you, Mr. K
line. Please let me know if my company can be of any further assistance to you in the future. I’ll send you the bill.” He motioned to his men, who began packing up. Red decided to let them take care of the small stuff. He needed a drink, and they could meet him later.
Red turned and began to walk out of the mine. When he reached the entrance, he stopped, as he looked up again at the stars above him, and thought for just a second, What if? Grunting, he removed his flashlight from his belt and flipped it on. It was still twilight out, but getting down the Mesa without one would be murder.
Suddenly, something flew past his head at an incredible speed. It flapped and howled mournfully as it passed overhead. Red, shocked, shined his flashlight all about.
“Hello?” Red called out uneasily into the desert air. Nothing answered back. In fact, Red began to realize, the usual sound of his men talking and joking around as they cleaned was missing.
Again, something shot over Red Howell’s head and landed several hundred feet away.
Red turned and found the source of the mysterious noises. Rupert Kline was walking out of the mineshaft, carrying two of Red’s now-dead employees by their belts. Smirking as he ignored Red, he took the man in his right hand and began spinning him about in great revolutions. Released at the pinnacle of the spin, the lifeless body of Red’s former drill man flew silently through the cold desert air, a nightmarish glider that landed deep in the desert.
“Oh, you look worried, Mr. Howell.” Kline said cheerfully. “The bright side is, you managed to find something for me that I’ve been seeking for over the last fifty years. So, thank you for that!” Kline began rotating the man in his left arm, gathering momentum to discard the last lifeless body from his digging crew. “Second, you and your cohorts will be providing a much-needed link in the circle of life. Without you, the predators and scavengers would go hungry.” Kline released the man, using his right hand to see how far he threw him. “I’m afraid you’ve seen a bit too much by this point. However, since I do appreciate all your help….”
