by Greg Ballan
The gathering finally ended around two o'clock in the morning. Jeff had called several staff over for the celebration. Alissa had spun a fantastic fairy tale of hospital mix-ups with patient records to minimize Erik's hospitalization for the co-workers.
Nobody seemed to care or pay much attention though. They were all happy to have Erik back where he belonged. Shanda and Margaret spent a great deal of time together with Brianna and actively kept the young girl mute regarding her father's recent experiences.
Erik sat back and talked with everyone and enjoyed the evening. It had been a while since he felt like he belonged anywhere, but he finally realized home was this small little diner, his tiny apartment, and one-room office. Everything that he needed, he had had all along: Friends, family, and people who cared about him.
Erik occasionally glanced over to where Richard Pendelton sat, alone in a corner booth, looking as out of place as anyone possibly could. Erik had unfinished business with him, but that would be done later, at the time and place of his choosing. Pendelton had put his daughter at risk, and was willing to sacrifice her life to keep some corporate secrets. Erik would make Richard pay for that, and it was an account he would settle very soon.
* * *
Erik lay awake in his bed, staring out into the empty darkness. Erik and Shanda had conducted their own private celebration when they arrived at his apartment, normally he would relish the time sleeping in her arms, but he kept having images of those creatures flashing through his head. Erik realized if he was having trouble sleeping, his daughter must be quite uncomfortable in the darkness.
Erik leaned over and gently kissed Shanda who was in a deep sleep next to him. He put on a pair of sweat pants and left the bedroom. He walked into the small living room, his enhanced eyes piercing the veil of darkness. He quietly tiptoed over to his wall safe and opened it. As he opened the door, he was greeted by an almost welcoming purr of the Sentient Staff. He gently grasped the flowing living metal and felt its warmth against his palm. He studied the object carefully for a few moments, listening to the purrs and whines of the metal as he brushed the metallic surface with his fingertips.
"You and I have some things we need to accomplish," he whispered to the staff, suddenly feeling foolish for addressing the weapon. The staff, however, seemed to comprehend its new owner and hummed with an almost human anticipation.
Erik left his apartment and walked out into the night. He stared up at the stars, wondering if the light from one of them was also shining on some other sentient being somewhere in the vast universe. He took the staff and willed the weapon to elongate. The staff obliged, sighing with satisfaction at being activated. Erik closed his eyes, and pictured himself, as he was earlier, a great being of silver, with glowing blue fireballs for eyes. He felt a slight tingle throughout his body, and when he opened his eyes, he saw silvery metallic flesh once again replace his frail human skin. He looked up at the nearest tree and easily leapt the thirty feet up to the nearest large limb. He began to move, silently and swiftly, leaping from tree to tree, seemingly the only creature stirring at such a late hour.
* * *
Brianna Knight sat in bed with her covers tucked close around her. She was absently squeezing her father's dog tags. The young girl witnessed the demise of the creatures at the hands of her father, but for some reason still expected to see the inky black Seelak and its huge cat-like companion appear from the darkness to take her away again.
She looked over at her mother who was sleeping soundlessly in the chair in the corner of her room. The more she thought about it, the more agitated she became. After five minutes, she felt the overpowering urge to look out her bedroom window. She crept from her bed, and peered out from the locked bay window into the darkness of the night. It didn't take her long to spot the silver being crouched on one of the large limbs of the tree outside her window, guarding her house like some armored sentinel. The silver being looked over at her, and its fiery eyes – eyes that lit up the darkness – winked.
A voice sounded gently in her mind. Go to sleep, Munchkin. Nothing will bother you ever again.
Brianna smiled, her childlike fears whisked away at the sight of her father. "Goodnight, daddy," she whispered as she climbed back into bed.
Within seconds, her body yielded to the much-needed rest and peace of slumber. The Hybrid stood watch for several more minutes, and then leapt into a nearby tree. He had several other children to visit this night.
* * *
Lisa Reynolds sat in her hospital bed with her parents. She was on her third cup of hot cocoa, and getting no closer to falling asleep. She felt tired, but every time she closed her eyes, the nightmare would continue. Her mother was shedding tears as she held her daughter, and her father cursed at his inability to help his only child.
"Momma," she whispered, "there's a voice inside my head, calling my name. It's calling me over to the window."
"You're imagining things, honey," her mother whispered.
"Just like I imagined those creatures," Lisa replied as she broke from her mother and ran to the window. She gasped, then smiled with delight, whispering to a voice only she could hear.
Her parents looked at her, and then joined her at her hospital bedroom window. On the rooftop of the adjacent building was the same large silver being with glowing eyes that rescued her from her horrible ordeal, and gently carried her from the cavern into the woods. She remembered his gentle metallic arms as she faded in and out of consciousness, while he carried her from her dark prison.
Lisa took this opportunity to thank her chrome-plated knight, and giggled as he bowed flamboyantly then brought his staff up in a kind of salute. The two talked for several minutes, mystifying both parents.
"Goodbye, Mr. Knight," Lisa whispered.
The silver being turned and leapt from the rooftop into a nearby tree, and the Reynolds family watched with fascination as he vanished into the dark night.
Andrea Reynolds looked at her daughter carefully, the terror seemed to have vanished from her face. She actually was laughing as she made her way back to her bed. "What did it say to you, dear, what did you say to it?"
"He came by to check up on me, to make sure I would be all right. He said he knew that I was probably still scared. He said his daughter was."
"His daughter?" Andrea asked, shocked. "Child, do you actually know who that was?"
"Yes," Lisa answered. "His name is Erik, Erik Knight. He's the one who came and got all of us yesterday. His daughter goes to school with me."
Lisa's parents looked at each other in total disbelief, staring out at the window, and then back at their daughter.
* * *
Richard Pendelton sat behind his desk, draining his second bottle of scotch. He glared up at the fancy gold inlaid clock upon his wall: 3:45 a.m.
He should be tired, yet somehow, he felt an unusual exhilaration. His men pulled it off. They successfully covered their tracks pertaining to the Hopedale mining operation. The cost had been high, but his stepdaughter was home, safe, rescued by her father. That, too, was unexpected. Erik Knight had survived, somehow transformed into some type of inhuman super being.
Pendelton knew, deep down, from their brief eye contact at Madame's, that Knight knew he was responsible for the tragic incidents of the past several days. To Richard's advantage, all of the potential evidence had been obliterated, or buried beneath thousands of tons of rock and earth, never to be uncovered again. The only evidence that Knight had was anecdotal, nothing concrete that his lawyers couldn't shred in a court of law. He knew, however, that Knight was far from stupid, and that the man was a vengeful sort. Knight would be coming for him. It wasn't so much a matter of if in Pendelton's mind, as a matter of when.
But that was another worry for another time. It was somehow comforting to have Knight still alive, a foil in which to continually match his wits and skill against. It had been almost too easy to destroy the man years ago. It would be far more challenging to accomplish the same task
again. For Erik Knight was the ultimate loose end, and Richard Pendelton hated loose ends.
Richard received several calls from his associates regarding his company's current position throughout the early morning. All outstanding loose ends had been cut and any potential liabilities removed.
He finished off the dregs of his last glass of scotch and swirled the ice cubes around the glass. "To success," he whispered as he drained the last bit of liquid and crushed the liquor-soaked ice cubes with his teeth. And to getting away with murder, he added in his thoughts as he swallowed the crushed ice.
Epilogue
Six weeks passed since the dramatic climax of events in the sleepy suburb of Hopedale.
The military had done an excellent job of squelching any further outside media regarding the unorthodox occurrences. All photographs of the Esper-Human hybrid and Seelak encounter were confiscated for official government security reasons, leaving behind several furious press photographers and reporters. There were several small carefully planted stories pertaining to the incidents in the larger metropolitan papers such as the Boston Globe, but each story related the events and occurrences in humanistic terms, ignoring the actual facts.
People who actually witnessed the encounter rarely spoke of it. The parents of the children who were abducted were paid substantial amounts of cash from the government to say nothing. The Reynolds, who had no need of money, were compensated with lucrative government contracts to the family's business enterprises. The Pendeltons also benefited greatly by saying nothing more of their daughter's abduction. Two of the families had placed their homes on the market with the intentions of moving as far away from Hopedale as possible and starting over again with their new federally funded nest egg.
Erik Knight continued his small agency, operating out of Madame's Restaurant, and continued to fret over his finances. His relationship with Shanda intensified. An inseparable bond formed between the two, which Erik planned to cement with a diamond.
He occasionally felt the irresistible urge to head up into the mountain, where he would vanish for several days at a time in the woodlands with little notice. Erik liked becoming the Hybrid, and enjoyed leaping from tree to tree like a jungle animal. He could move through the forest like a phantom, unseen and unheard, unfettered by darkness or any other limitation that would beset a normal man. These private times allowed him to further explore his talents and abilities. To Erik, these times were as close to ultimate freedom as he could experience. As the Hybrid, he could sense the very essence of every living thing around him from the largest deer to the smallest fly. It gave him a new appreciation for wildlife and the wonders of nature.
It was at the end of one of Erik's forays into the mountain that he spotted Martin Denton's SUV parked outside Madame's. Erik walked into the restaurant quickly and was intercepted immediately by Alissa. The young waitress gestured to him as she walked toward him.
"Mr. Denton has been here for you for the past three days. I told him I would have you contact him upon your return, but he didn't want to wait," she whispered to him as he headed toward his office. "I keep telling you, Shanda keeps telling you, and Jeff has told you: When you get the urge to commune with nature, please bring along your cell phone so we can reach you in case of emergencies. Or," the waitress continued, "times like this when you have important people who need to contact you."
Erik looked down at the small woman and smiled brightly. "Yes, Mother." He opened the door to his office.
Denton was sitting on Erik's couch, examining a framed picture of Erik, Shanda, and Brianna. The attorney looked up, startled, and stood, quickly placing the frame back on the table.
"I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to show up here again." Denton extended his hand toward Erik.
"Sorry about that, Martin, I wasn't expecting anybody this week," Erik apologized as he shook the man's outstretched hand.
"My boy, you need a pager, or a cell phone, or something," Denton added as Alissa cleared her throat and elbowed Erik in the side.
"So I've been told," Erik answered, looking at Alissa. "Repeatedly," he added, watching Alissa leave with a self-satisfied smirk.
Martin sat back down on the couch, and Erik sat at his desk. He looked over at the large man who always accompanied the older man and nodded slightly. The suit returned the gesture. The three men sat in silence for nearly sixty seconds.
"Erik, I'm going to get right to the point," Denton began.
"Please do."
Denton smiled. "You've been a consultant for our company for quite a while now, and have established an excellent reputation within the firm."
"Thank you," Erik replied, wondering where this was going.
"Our firm is looking to branch out, get into smaller markets, establish a more personal relationship with small clients. Only our operatives and agents aren't equipped to deal with the kind of cases that come up in this type of market. We're used to corporate investigations, political corruption, and cases of that nature. We want to broaden our base, so to speak, but don't have the in-house capability," the elder man stated.
"Are you trying to recruit me, Martin?"
"In a way," the older man answered. "Before you answer, please hear what I have to say."
"Please," Erik replied, gesturing for the man to continue.
"Let me start by saying that the firm knows you've undergone … how shall I phrase it, a change?" he stated delicately.
Denton reached inside his black attaché case and produced a sealed envelope. He tossed the envelope toward Erik who opened it carefully. The envelope contained a series of nine by fourteen photographs. They were pictures of Erik as the Hybrid. Erik studied the pictures carefully. They were various snap shots of his final confrontation. It was unnerving to see himself that way in photographs, and it reminded him that beneath his human-looking appearance, he was a being very alien to those people around him.
He looked over at Denton, his eyes desperate. "And what makes you think this is me?" Erik challenged.
"Keep going," the older man urged.
Erik came to the final three pictures that clearly showed the silvery being reverting back to its human form, his particular human form. Erik was impressed. Denton's law firm must be very powerful and influential to be able to keep these from the military and the government.
"I suppose you're not going to tell me how you got these," he said, chagrined as he placed the pictures back in the envelope and placed them on his desk.
"That would be betraying a confidence," Denton answered.
"Are you going to try to blackmail me with these? Is that why you're here?" Erik said forcefully as he stood up from his chair.
"No! My young friend, please sit down, nothing like that. I just want to be completely open with you, lay out all the cards on the table. The firm knows what you are, and I'm sure you've already guessed we're more than a law firm, but that's a discussion for later. We've discussed recruiting you before, but I've always advised against it. You're most effective as a rogue, and frankly, you wouldn't fit into the corporate structure of the firm."
"Thanks," Erik remarked dryly.
"I'm telling you nothing that you don't already know, young man," Denton responded. "But, there are things that you don't know, such as even now, there are several organizations within the government and military that have taken great interest in you."
"I've expected as much," Erik replied. "I didn't think they would just go away. But," he added, "I'm more than able to take care of myself. I have capabilities the military or government haven't seen, that your firm hasn't seen. I'll make them sorry if they come after me," Erik added in a deadly voice of steel.
"Which is exactly why they won't come after you," Denton responded. "They'll come after your pretty little girlfriend, they'll come at you from your daughter, they'll come at you from your friends, they'll come at you from your business, attacking everything that you care about, never confronting you directly, but always there in the
shadows," the old man replied. "As strong and as powerful as we suspect you've become, you can't be in two or three places at once, can you?" Denton asked gently.
Erik sighed heavily. He hadn't anticipated having to protect those around him, only himself. Suddenly, he felt very stupid and very foolish. That feeling of helplessness began to settle in the pit of his stomach, the feeling that he detested most of all. He felt his eyes burning, and he glanced down at his hands, which were resting in his lap. The skin began to change hue. He felt his muscle tissue contract as the adrenaline in his body reacted with his genetically enhanced DNA.
"No," Erik answered with a savage hiss that made the older man shudder. "I can't be in two places. But if they hurt my daughter, or anyone close to me, I'll make the Seelak problem seem like a kindergarten picnic. I have the ability to wreak more havoc than just stirring up a small town." He looked up at the older man.
Two fiery aqua embers replaced Erik's blue eyes. His body seemed to swell as he raised a metallic fist. He grabbed two three-inch thick telephone books from his shelf and effortlessly tore the volumes in half with his bare hands. The act of aggression seemed to calm him and he felt the mutation lose its hold upon him. He looked down at his hands. They were flesh colored again, and the mild burning sensation that marked his transformation ceased.
He looked over at Denton. The old man was nervous, seeing pictures of a transformation and actually observing the phenomenon were very different. "I'm sorry, Martin, sometimes when I get aggravated, it begins to happen without my control. I didn't think about the others, I didn't think they'd be affected by this so soon. I figured I'd have enough time to sort through all the complications and work it all out beforehand," he looked at the older man. "That was pretty stupid of me."