Neophytes of the Stone

by C Lee Tocci

  He could make out vague outlines of desks and chairs and what possibly might be people, standing in the dark. He stepped back quickly when he caught a pair of cold grey eyes staring back at him.

  There were four bare cots lined up against one wall and an odd booth-like structure standing in the middle of the room. Todd shuffled over to it and opened the door. Inside he found a bare toilet and a small sink with a few towels and one plastic cup. He splashed water on his face before gulping handfuls of water. The water tasted stale and chemically, but he was so parched, he chugged it down.

  Todd glared at the glass wall as he carried a cup of water and some wet towels over to the others. He lifted Marla’s head and dribbled water into her mouth. She sputtered and opened her eyes, only to shut them again in pain.

  “I know,” Todd said as he dropped a wet towel on her face. “But shake it off. We’re in trouble.”

  He repeated this two more times, perhaps not as gentle with Jeff as he had been with Donny and Marla, and within minutes the four of them sat huddled together on the floor, whispering, and peeking at the glass wall.

  Jeff’s first waking action was to check his ring. He’d never mentioned it, but Todd had long since guessed that that was where his stone, Dave, was hidden. Evidently, Dave was still with him, but his handheld computer was missing. Jeff swore softly before sitting down in a fuming heap.

  “I’m blind,” fumed Jeff. “Without an internet connection, I have no idea what’s going on.”

  They’d explored the room but couldn’t find a door or any other opening; the air vents were too small to let even a small bird through. Todd searched for Keotak-se’s quaybo staff, but it wasn’t in their cell. He patted his leg where he hid the knife. Oddly, it was still there. Either they hadn’t noticed it, or they didn’t think the knife was much of a weapon.

  They sat without saying much; the invisible eyes on the other side of the glass wall made plotting out loud unwise and idle conversation uncomfortable.

  Some sound made them all turn towards the glass wall in time to see a single beam of light pour from the ceiling creating a pool of brightness on the floor. In the dimly lit shadows they saw the far wall covered with mechanisms and equipment. In front of the wall were a battery of desks with monitors and in front of the desks, stood half a dozen technicians.

  Todd scrambled to his feet and the rose as well, standing in a rough line, facing the pool of light.

  A polished and smiling man stepped into the circle of light, his teeth gleaming white, his blond hair coiffed and styled. The others seemed to fade even further back into his shade.

  “Welcome, my young guests!” The blond man beamed at them as his voice was broadcast through hidden speakers. “I cannot begin to tell you how impressed I am by your having bypassed my security and reached this far. I applaud you. My friend, Syxx, told me that you are very special children, and I can see he did not understate the matter.”

  At the mention of Syxx, the blond man gestured vaguely to his left and Todd’s eyes flew in that direction. The hazy silhouette of a tall bald man, dressed all in black, stepped further back into the shadow. Todd couldn’t make out his face, but he guessed from the way his body tensed that he wasn’t pleased at being pointed out. Todd felt ice in his chest as he looked at the human manifestation of the horrific demon that he had faced seven months ago on the cliff face of the Sienna Sentries.

  The blond man spoke again, and Todd warily pulled his attention away from Syxx. “Oh, but I am rude! Allow me to introduce myself. I am Duke Dauntry and I am delighted to be your host tonight.”

  Jeff let out a little snort but Todd ignored him.

  “WHERE’S LILIBIT?” Todd shouted, trying to be heard through the glass.

  The Duke winced. Evidently they could be heard quite well without yelling.

  “Ah!” said the Duke with a nod. “My darling Lilibit. I cannot begin tell you how pleased I am with my new daughter. Such a sweet and obedient little girl.”

  A sick feeling turned through Todd’s gut. The only way he could possibly imagine Lilibit acting “obedient” was if she were scared half to death. He took a half step forward but caught himself. With the glass barrier between them, there was nothing he could do to wipe the smirk off the Duke’s face.

  The Duke smiled as if he knew exactly what was going through Todd’s head. “It really is very nice of you to visit. And perhaps helpful too. Your presence might provide some additional motivation when it’s time for my darling Lilibit to do her chores.” He chuckled as if that was the punchline to an inside joke. “Well, do make yourself comfortable. We can chat in the morning.”

  The light above his head dimmed out and the room on the other side darkened and disappeared.

  After a moment, the other three settled back down to sit on the floor but Todd kept standing, glaring at the darkened glass.

  “Give it up, Todd.” Jeff reached up to tug on Todd’s arm. “I doubt you’re spooking them.”

  Todd shrugged off Jeff’s arm and headed for the glass wall. Cupping his hands again, he peered into the shadows. The silhouettes still stood there, hardly moving. Todd ran his fingers along the glass, looking for an entryway. It had to be somewhere; the other three walls looked impassable. He found a thin seam that ran up and down. A similar crack, six feet to the left, made Todd think that this must be the door. Peering through the wall here, he could make out three more glass walls that made another chamber, a security foyer with a more traditional glass entry door. Even if he got through this hidden door, he’d still have to get through the second door and the guards would no doubt react before he’d made it more than a couple of steps.

  He punched the wall in frustration, hurting only his own knuckles, before stomping back to others. He dropped to the floor, his legs folded beneath him.

  They turned toward the wall again when the sound of the spotlight whirred again, but didn’t bother to stand. A different man stepped into the spotlight, Jeff’s little computer in his hand.

  The man seemed so ordinary compared to the others they’d seen. He was skinny and average height with reddish brown curly hair. His eyes were small and he had a weak chin. He looked dwarfed by the silhouettes of the guards in the shadows.

  Jeff shifted his weight, striking a more relaxed pose, but Todd could feel his tension as he stared at the man who handled his computer so carelessly.

  “So much potential,” the man said, tapping the computer against his palm. “That’s what they always said about you. If you’d only apply yourself, you had so much potential.”

  Marla shot a puzzled look over to Todd, but he had no idea what the man was talking about either.

  “The I.T. Department took a look at the browsing history of this little toy,” the man continued, tapping the computer. “They can’t figure out how you bypassed all their security so flawlessly. They’re not just impressed. They’re terrified.”

  It took Todd a moment, but he figured that the man was talking to Jeff. Jeff, however, just stared back blankly like he was just watching a commercial, waiting for the show to start.

  “That’s quite the skill set you’ve picked up, but then, you always were ahead of the curve.” The man paused, waiting for a response, but Jeff still didn’t react. “And now you’ve connected with a lot of powerful friends. Yes, I have to admit, you’ve done very well. You should thank me.”

  Jeff finally spoke, the blankness on his face, at odds with the anger in his voice. “You dumped me into Juvenile Detention and then told my friends I’d died in a freak surfing accident.”

  The man shrugged. “Yes, but see how well it’s all turned out?”

  “You wrote me off.” Jeff’s voice broke and his shoulders shook. “You never once called or visited. Either one of you!”

  “Jeffrey, a son is supposed to be an asset. You were a liability.” The man said this as if he were explaining the ingredients in ice cream. “You do understand, don’t you?”

  “Oh, I understand, all right.”


  “Your father?” Todd found his voice. “Your father works for Endrune?”

  “Chief Financial Officer,” Jeff said with disgust.

  “And Senior Vice President of Finance,” Jeff’s father added proudly.

  “Yeah,” added Jeff. “And member of the Executive Committee of Groveling and Butt Licking.”

  “It’s a job,” said Jeff’s father, rather proudly. “You children may call me Uncle Barry. It’s what all Jeff’s friends call me.”

  “Yeah, but what should I call you?” asked Todd.

  Jeff let out a reluctant snort and punched Todd’s arm.

  “Mr. Terrance?” Todd rose to his feet. There was no way he was going to call him Uncle anything. “Where’s Lilibit?”

  “Now there’s an amazing child! Do you know that in a matter of hours, she got almost three hundred dead oil derricks gushing crude at record levels. The Duke is very pleased with her.”

  “Where is she now?” The question stuttered in Todd’s throat.

  “Oh, she’s upstairs, safe in bed. She’s got a busy day tomorrow. The Duke has big plans for her.”

  Todd was torn between disgust and dread but at least he knew where she was. And now he guessed that they were on either the third or fourth floor. He couldn’t see any way out of this cell unless they waited for Ulex. He wondered how long it would take Ulex to take Keotak-se back to Kiva and then turn around and come back to Commerce City. It was over five hundred miles each way and it would probably take him another full day to make the round trip. Todd didn’t want to have to wait that long to make his next move.

  “Jeffrey!” Mr. Terrance dropped his voice and stepped closer to the glass, as if that might prevent the shadows in the background from hearing. “The Duke has seen what you can do. He wants you on the team.”

  “Team Endrune.” Jeff couldn’t have been less excited and still be awake. “Woo hoo.”

  “Jeffrey!” Mr. Terrance spoke in a frantic whisper. “Just think, with your skills and my brains, there’s no telling how far we might go. We’ll work together. We’ll---”

  Jeff had turned away, so he didn’t see the arm that appeared out of the gloom and land on his father’s shoulder. A hand that cut off his words in mid-syllable. The Duke stepped into the pool of white, his trademark smile exaggerated by the harsh shadows cast by the overhead light.

  “I’ll take it from here, Barry.”

  “But---”

  “You can wait downstairs.”

  Mr. Terrance didn’t argue but shot one desperate look at Jeff before nodding and walking out of the spotlight. Off to one side of the room, a crack of light appeared and widened into an elevator. Mr. Terrance stepped in and turned, shooting one last panicked glare before the door closed on him.

  The Duke wasn’t facing the elevator; nonetheless, he seemed to know when it had closed. He flashed a warm smile at Jeff.

  “Your father has a very high opinion of your talents, Jeffrey.”

  Jeff watched him but said nothing.

  “Almost as high an opinion as he has of his own abilities.”

  Again, nothing from Jeff.

  “In this instance, however, he’s only half right. I will admit that, in the past, he’s had a certain value to the company, mostly in his willingness to re-package the most blatant lies into looking like viable truths, but lately, he’s lost his edge. It takes a certain amount of imagination to be able to concoct convincing financial statements, and in the past year or two, your father’s work has been a little mundane.”

  “Nothing like a few exotic untruths to add a little spice to the annual report.” Jeff muttered.

  “Precisely!” The Duke sounded delighted, but then his face dropped into the perfect image of sincere sympathy. “You know, I never did agree with your father’s decision about you. I argued with him for hours, but those kinds of decisions are a parent’s prerogative.”

  It looked like Jeff was on the edge of losing his aloofness. His jaw tightened as he turned away.

  “I want to make it up to you. And I think that I have the perfect plan. A boy should be with his father, so why don’t you join us and work for Endrune.”

  Jeff turned back to stare at the man beyond in the glass wall, a calculating look in his eye. “I won’t be his puppet.”

  “How about his boss?” offered the Duke with a wink. When Jeff didn’t answer, the Duke continued. “Just think! He’ll be at your beck and call. I’ll make him your personal assistant. If you want to play baseball, you can just order him to play with you. If you want to take a vacation with your family, you can just push a button and it will all be arranged. Anything you want, all you have to do is ask your father and it will be his job to do it. And we both know that he’ll do it. That there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to keep his job.”

  Speechless, Todd and Marla stared at Jeff, but if Jeff felt their eyes on him, he didn’t show it.

  “What do you say?” The Duke’s voice throbbed with warmth. “Are you ready to join Team Endrune?”

  Jeff sat for a moment before rising to his feet.

  “Jeff!” Todd grabbed Jeff’s arm and gripped it hard. “No!”

  “I’ll be back,” said Jeff, shrugging off Todd’s hand. “I’m just going to check it out.”

  The glass wall slid apart at the spot where Todd had found the hidden seams. Jeff stepped through it into the small foyer beyond. Todd ran after him, but as soon he crossed through the opening, a small dot of red light flared on his chest. It was followed almost immediately by an electric flare that knocked him backwards into the holding cell. Sprawled on the floor, he looked up in time to see the door close between him and Jeff. Then the far door opened and the Duke stepped forward. Placing his hand on Jeff’s shoulder, he led him out of the foyer and into the darkness beyond.

  The elevator door opened again, this time Jeff and the Duke stepped into it, accompanied by the tall bald man dressed all in black. Todd stared at the man and knew him for Syxx, the demon in human form. Syxx’s dead black eyes stared back at him until they disappeared behind the closing door.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Turncoat

  Lilibit sat huddled in a corner of the pink bed, her arms wrapped around her shins. Her fingers ached from grasping Ewa-Kwan so tightly. She pressed it against her cheek, and tried to believe the stone as it buzzed reassuringly. She was in trouble and she had no one but herself to blame. If she hadn’t disobeyed and snuck out of Kiva, she wouldn’t be trapped here now.

  She couldn’t sleep; she wasn’t even going to try. Her head ached from trying to think of a way out of this mess, but the best she could come up with was to wait until they took her out again and then look for an opportunity to run for it. There hadn’t been a chance that day; the only time she’d been out of her room, Syxx had stayed by her side. He frightened her so badly, she didn’t dare do anything except what she was told.

  There was no sound in the room except her own breathing, but something, maybe the faint smell of something rotten, made her think that she wasn’t alone. She pulled back the pink drapes that surrounded her bed.

  Syxx stood at the foot of her bed, staring at her, unmoving. Choking back a scream, she back-crawled up to the headboard, grabbed a pillow and clutched it against her chest.

  Syxx’s face was as still as death. “Get up.”

  He took one step back from the bed and waited. Lilibit bit the pillow, but other than that, she didn’t move.

  “Now.” Syxx hissed.

  Trembling, she dropped the pillow and scrambled off the bed, keeping as far away from the demon as she could. Ewa-Kwan flared hot in her palm, but the heat wasn’t painful; if anything, it was comforting.

  Syxx walked to a television monitor mounted on the wall. Lifting a remote from a shelf filled with pink dolls, he pointed it at the monitor. A faint click and the screen lit up, but no sound came out. The screen showed a grey office with a group of people clustered around the desk, staring at a computer monitor.


  “Jeff!” Lilibit whispered as she recognized the person sitting at the desk.

  Jeff paused for a half a moment, almost as if he’d heard something, but then went back to typing. There was no sound, but she could see him speaking to the Duke and two other men who hovered over him. He didn’t look scared; in fact he was smirking.

  Syxx was smirking too. Pointing the remote again, he clicked and with a soft hiss, the sound came on.

  “Piece of cake,” Jeff was saying. “All I have to do is go in and tweak their data base. It’ll make it look like their reserves are about twenty percent less than they really are.”

  A skinny man with reddish brown hair rubbed his sweaty hands together nervously. “But it’ll show up in a physical check of their inventory.”

  “They only inventory once a year and they just finished it three months ago. It’ll be another eight months before they look at it again.” Jeff leaned back and looked up at the Duke with a smile. “Once data’s been certified, no one double-checks it.”

  “Excellent!” The Duke was delighted. “How long before they detect ‘the shortage?’”

  “The market should react within twenty four hours.” Jeff bent back to the screen. “I’ll hack into two or three other municipal utilities and do the same thing. While I’m in there, I’ll tweak their consumption projections so that it looks like they’ll need more than they actually do. By the end of the week, the market should be in panic. They’ll be willing to pay about eight times more for their energy needs. And it should take a nearly a year before they figure it out.”

  “We’ll make billions!” The Duke’s eyes were glassy with greed. “You’re brilliant.”

  “Yes, I am,” said Jeff as if it were obvious. “Now, can I see Lil…”

  The monitor turned off abruptly.

  At first, Lilibit had felt relieved to see one of her friends so close, but then she realized that now Jeff was in as much trouble as she was, only he might not even know it. How close was he? Was he in this building? How did he get here? Were the others here too? Her relief quickly faded back to fear. Now there were at least two of them in trouble and possibly more. And it was all her fault.