by West, Shay
“One of these days I’ll beat you.”
“Not likely. How are our two visitors?”
“Fine. Full of breakfast and coffee. I showed them how to work the TV remote, so that should keep them busy until I get back home.”
“Oh, God, Eli you didn’t!”
“What the heck else was I supposed to do? They can’t read, so giving them a book was out of the question.”
“Anything would be better than giving them the remote. Can you imagine what they’ll think of us when they get a load of our entertainment?” She groaned.
“Fine, tomorrow you can come up with their itinerary,” he said.
“I might just do that. Anyway, get your ass in here.” She hung up.
Eli tossed his phone on the seat and turned on the radio. He bobbed his head to the hip-hop song. He didn’t know the lyrics, but the tune was catchy. God, I need to get out more.
Eli hit the steering wheel and kicked himself for not paying closer attention to the time when he left the house; he was sitting smack dab in the middle of rush hour traffic. The extra time spent barely crawling along left him with plenty of time to think. He still didn’t know what to do about Tani and Keena or how to shut down the gateways without putting them in danger of losing their lives. Much as he wanted to see justice served, he didn’t want to see the pair die. Tani and Keena had risked their own lives to come here and speak the truth about the murders.
That’s gotta count for something, right?
Eli found Ava sitting at her desk pounding away at the keyboard.
“There’s been another murder in Cincinnati.”
“Just the news I didn’t want to hear,” he said as he sat down.
He sifted through the stack of papers on his desk, heart sinking as he gazed at the face of the young woman who had been killed. After this many murders he should be better able to handle it, but every time he saw another bloody face and ruined body, his stomach turned.
“The captain is flipping out. He wants us to lean hard on Tani and Keena and get them to turn on the others and tell us where their compound is,” Ava said.
Eli rubbed his eyes, suddenly exhausted. “Well, we can just march right into Platt’s office and tell him we know who did it. It was Master Kelhar from another world with a gateway.”
“Very funny.”
“You got any bright ideas?” he asked.
Eli and Ava spent the rest of the day talking to the FBI, getting the details about the Cincinnati case, and adding the information to the white board wall.
“No evidence from this killing,” Ava said.
“Even if we did, it wouldn’t make any sense,” Eli said as he moved closer to the white board. He opened his mouth, but closed it with a snap.
“What?” Ava asked.
“What what?”
“You acted like you were going to say something, then changed your mind.”
“I just had an idea, is all.”
“And that idea would be?” she coaxed.
Eli hesitated.
“With all we’ve been through, you seriously think you can’t tell me?”
“I just thought that maybe we should bring the captain in on it. Maybe even the FBI. I hate knowing the truth and having to keep quiet about it.”
“We can’t tell them. The last thing we need are a bunch of trigger-happy fools with the ability to travel to another world.”
“I know, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you the idea. But it doesn’t feel right to keep this information from the captain.”
“The captain would lock us up in the loony bin.”
“Not if we had Tani and Keena open a gateway,” Eli said.
“I suppose that would convince him.”
“Maybe we should wait a few days before we bring the captain into it. Talk more with Tani and Keena, find out more about how those gateways work. Maybe we can find a way to stop Master Kelhar; and no one else even has to know about the other world,” Eli said.
“Sounds good to me. I’d rather keep this a secret if we can,” Ava said.
“Want to come by again after work? I can grill up some burgers or something.”
“Sure. So fill me in on what I missed last night,” she said.
“Over lunch. I’m starved,” Eli said.
They walked across the street to a little diner. It wasn’t Eli’s favorite, but he didn’t feel like walking very far. While they waited for their order, Eli told her about the discovery of the gateway machinery and Master Kelhar’s misguided idea of what the gateways were supposed to be used for, making sure to keep his voice low so the others nearby couldn’t overhear.
“Maybe he really had some sort of vision,” Ava said before she took a huge bite of her club sandwich.
“If he did, I doubt it was from a benevolent god. More like from a devil. Or he was eating some herbs that made him go nuts.”
She shrugged. “You could be right. It’s not the first time some wack job made a lot of people think he was speaking for the divine.”
The more Eli thought about it, the more sense it made. The guy had to be completely off his rocker. Normal, sane people didn’t come to other worlds and kill others to steal their organs.
“If they would just take the organs from their own people, they wouldn’t need to come here for them,” Ava said.
“Tani and Keena are more horrified of cutting up a dead body than they are of killing someone for the organs they need.”
“That’s messed up.”
Eli didn’t argue. He finished the last bite of his French dip and soaked his fries in the remaining au jus.
On the way back to the station, Ava made him stop at a gas station. She went to a rack of cheap sunglasses and picked out a couple of pairs.
“Figured Tani and Keena would like them.”
He’d almost forgotten their fascination with the sunglasses he and Ava wore. Everything fascinates them.
The afternoon passed quickly. Eli kept his eye on the clock, eager to get back to his house. He hated leaving Tani and Keena alone for this amount of time. There was no end of trouble they could get into.
After he finished the endless pile of paperwork pertaining to the enormous case, he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and headed to the elevator.
“Ava, I’ll meet you at my place. I gotta hit the store on the way home,” he called out over his shoulder.
“Want me to bring anything?”
“Grab some beer!”
He stopped at Mrs. Hinsung’s store on the way home, dodging questions about Ava while he paid for his groceries.
“Ava and I are just partners, Mrs. Hinsung. It’s against policy for us to see each other, even if we wanted to,” he explained.
“You been alone too long,” she said, giving him a motherly frown.
“I like alone. Good-bye, Mrs. Hinsung.”
Tani and Keena were sitting on the couch watching Independence Day on TV. They were riveted to the screen, and jumped when the alien shoved Brent Spiner against the glass of the operating room.
“If you watch too much of that, it will rot your brain,” he said as he walked by.
Tani stood and approached. “Is this based on real events?”
Eli guffawed. “No, it’s a movie. Make-believe.”
Tani nodded. “Like a play?”
“I suppose it is, yeah. Never thought about it like that.”
Eli grabbed the fixings for dinner out of the bags and placed them on the counter.
“Can we help?” Tani asked.
“I think I can handle it.”
“Please, if we are to live here, we need to learn everything we can so we can fit in,” Tani said.
Eli stopped and looked at Tani. “What do you mean, live here?”
Tani looked genuinely confused. “Since we can’t return home, we have no other choice than to stay here on this world.”
Eli scratched his head. How do I put this? “Tani, I didn’t know you and Keena thou
ght you could stay here. Look, it’s not that simple.”
He felt wretched at the look of fright on Tani’s face. Keena joined them in the kitchen, grabbing Tani’s hand.
“You can’t just come here to live. You need a social security number, birth certificates, all sorts of things that you just don’t have. If you get caught without that stuff you will end up in jail.”
“But we can’t return home, don’t you understand that? This is the only place for us,” Tani said, his voice starting to crack.
“Why don’t we talk more when Ava gets here? Maybe she can think of something.”
He felt like a schmuck at the hope that blossomed in their eyes. He knew damn good and well Ava wouldn’t be able to come up with anything either. With no documentation of any kind to say they even existed, they would never be able to stay. If they did they’d be homeless, unable to get jobs, rent a place. The thought of them living like that made Eli’s stomach turn.
As he got dinner ready, he watched Tani and Keena on the couch. They sat close together, their heads touching. They talked in whispers; Eli couldn’t hear what they were saying.
Ava arrived with the beer, something Eli needed at that moment.
“What’s going on?” Ava asked, obviously sensing the tension.
“Tani and Keena brought up the possibility of staying here. Permanently,” Eli said.
“How do you feel about permanent house guests?” she asked with a smirk.
“No, not here here,” he said indicating his house, “but here in the US.”
Ava’s mouth formed an “O” and she winced. “I see.”
“You don’t think it’s a good idea either,” Tani accused.
“It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good idea; it’s that it’s not possible. You don’t have the proper documentation,” she said.
“Can’t you find some? Or make it? Your people can do so many wondrous things. You have people traveling the universe and meeting aliens, why can’t you get us the materials we need to be able to stay here?” Tani asked.
“Eli, what’s he talking about ships and aliens?” Ava asked.
“Obviously something they saw on TV today,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Unless you have proper documentation, you just can’t stay here. You would end up in jail or on the streets, with no way to buy food or—”
“But we have coin, lots of it.”
“But it’s not the same thing as the money we use here,” Eli explained.
“Can’t we trade our coin for some of what you use?” he asked desperately.
“Possibly, but not enough to live on your entire lives.”
“Why can’t we just go find a small plot of land and build a house? We won’t bother anyone and I swear we won’t kill anyone.”
Eli looked at Ava helplessly. I wish our world was as simple as that.
“Why don’t we go out on the patio while Eli gets dinner ready? Do you two want a beer?” she asked as they passed by the fridge.
“If it is like coffee, it must be good,” Tani said.
“It’s better than coffee, trust me.”
Eli watched as they walked outside, hoping she could explain things a little better so the two would understand. He felt awful, like he’d just broken it to them that there’s no such thing as Santa. They don’t even know who he is.
Eli mixed the ground beef with a packet of onion soup mix and shaped chunks of it into patties. He turned on the oven for the fries and chopped the salad. When the oven was warm, he went outside to turn on the grill.
Ava was showing them her driver’s license and explaining to them about birth certificates and social security numbers. Tani and Keena nodded, both looking dejected.
We’ve gotta find some way to help them.
Talk turned to more mundane things, mostly Ava trying to explain that most of what they saw that day on TV probably wasn’t real. He shook his head at the indignation in her voice when Tani and Keena couldn’t stop asking about the Kardashians and other reality TV shows.
“Those dumb shows aren’t reality anything. They are a bunch of crap that will drop your IQ by a hundred points each minute,” Ava said earnestly.
“What’s an IQ?” Tani asked.
Eli laughed.
After dinner, the group moved into the house, as the weather was starting to take a turn for the worse. Dark purple clouds moved overhead and the ominous sounds of thunder rolled in. The first fat raindrops struck the glass patio table as Eli brought the last of the condiments in the house.
Keena jumped at a loud crack of thunder.
“Do they not have thunder where you come from?” Ava asked.
“Yes, but the last storm we were in nearly destroyed Tani’s home.”
“My family lives on the coast of the sea, and the storms there can be very dangerous. We have a cellar that protects the family, and that’s what’s important,” Tani said.
“We have weather like that here. Hurricanes by the sea and tornadoes on land. They can destroy entire towns in a matter of minutes,” Ava said, her eyes growing sad.
“What is it?” Eli asked.
Ava gave a small smile. “Just lost in old memories. My aunt, uncle, and cousins were killed in a tornado a few years ago. We were really close.”
“I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”
“It’s okay.”
Eli turned to Tani and Keena. “I’m curious about how those stones work to open the gateways. Can you explain it to me?”
Tani shook his head. “I only know that they must be placed in a particular order and the gateway opens.”
“So those have to be some sort of magic, I take it? I doubt there are little steam engines hidden inside.”
“Master Kelhar had the mages create them.”
“Doesn’t it bother you to be using technology without the slightest idea as to how it works?”
“There are a lot of things I don’t know. I don’t know how to build a steam engine or airship, but I can ride in them. I’ve even driven a steam engine for a little bit. I can do all that without knowing how they are built.”
Eli nodded grudgingly. “I see your point. But the thing is, someone on your world knows how those things work and how to build more, am I right?”
Tani nodded.
“Okay, so who on your world besides Master Kelhar knows about the stones and the machines that run the gateways?”
“Master Kelhar is the only one with any real understanding. No one else has access to the original scrolls or the books that have been copied.”
“Doesn’t that strike you as odd? One man having so much power?”
“Not really. Like I said earlier, the monastery has always had power.”
“But now most of that is in Kelhar’s hands, is it not?”
Tani shrugged. “I suppose so, yes.”
“What would happen if someone took that power away?” Eli asked.
Tani looked horrified. “No one would dare go against the monastery...”
Eli raised an eyebrow as Tani trailed off. “Someone has already gone against the monastery. What more can they do to you?”
“What can we do? We don’t have power or weapons or influence,” Tani said as he looked at Keena.
“I don’t know yet, but I’m sure we can find a way,” Eli said.
CHAPTER 33
“DO YOU SEE these markings? These stand for the five elements: fire, water, earth, air, and spirit,” Keena explained.
Eli picked up one of the stones from the table and examined it. He could see that each of the five had different symbols on it. The one Ava found was this one here.
“What is this one?” Eli asked.
“That one is fire.”
“It’s the same as the one we found on one of the crime scenes,” Ava said.
Keena’s cheeks turned red. “I dropped one of the stones just before going through the gateway.”
“I imagine Master Kelhar wasn’t very happy about that,” Eli
said.
She shook her head.
“So you just place these in a circle and that’s it? A gateway opens?” Eli asked.
“You have to put them in a specific order around the circle, but yes, that’s all there is to it,” Keena said.
“Could I use them, or is it something only someone from your world can do?”
“I think anyone can do it. The stones do the creating, not the person who places them.”
Eli glanced at the clock and he groaned. It was past eleven at night. I need some sleep. “I think it’s time to call it a night.”
“I agree. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Ava grabbed her things from the side of the couch and left, closing the door softly behind her.
“Can I ask you something?” Tani asked timidly.
“Of course, you can ask me anything.”
“What will happen to Satrick?”
I’d forgotten about him. “I take it you want me to be honest with you?”
“Of course.”
“He will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. The evidence we have is circumstantial, but it’s enough to put him behind bars.”
“And you can’t get him out like you did us?”
Eli shook his head. “A different agency has him.”
“The Feds, I remember now,” Tani said.
“They have him on video with two victims. Since we can’t explain how he was in two places at once, the Feds won’t seek the death penalty. But they can certainly keep him in jail for the rest of his life.”
“I see.”
“Look, Tani, you have to see this from our perspective. What would happen to Ava or me if we were to come to your world and hurt someone, kill them?”
“If the Enforcers caught you, you would likely be taken to the stockades, taken before a tribunal, and sentenced to die by hanging.”
“Wait, they hang people on your world?” Eli asked, putting his hand to his neck.
“The commoners. If you are royalty, they chop off your head.”
Eli shook his head, trying to imagine what it would be like to kneel down, just waiting for the blade to come slamming down on the back of your neck, severing your head from your body as blood poured from your still-twitching corpse.
“Well, even if Satrick were to get the death penalty, he wouldn’t be killed in that fashion, I can guarantee it.”