The Intangibles

by Alexander Astremsky

  Max walked up to a clay statue of a girl. It was about one three feet tall. It stood on the floor by a mini-fountain that looked like a volcano spraying water instead of lava. He wanted to reach out and touch the statue, but remembered that it wasn’t possible; for now, he was able to look only.

  His thoughts were interrupted by voices from the opposite side of the house. Max passed through several walls and entered a small, odd room that looked like a shooting range. There were several bullseye targets on the back wall.

  The range was its own world. A dozen body-shaped shooting targets in different stances were situated in the middle of the room. Between the dummy men there were stuffed predators, which looked very real.

  Max looked at the people whose voices had brought him to this odd room. Linda, Stinger and Eddie stood beside the long table, on which there were…

  Max recognized these things. Shurikens, or ninja throwing stars. Thin and sharp and deadly. There were dozens of them here.

  Many years ago, he’d tried to take a six-month course in ninja art and had survived only one month of it. Their craftsmanship mainly depended on sudden appearing and disappearing, and at this, ninja were among the best of the best.

  Well, now Max definitely bested them all. But then, that had been the exact appeal of the course: to find out how they did their disappearing and what techniques they used. Two weeks later he’d seen that the modern “teachers” actually knew nothing about how it was really done. Apparently, the ancient techniques had been lost forever.

  Max couldn’t believe that all ninjas did was skillfully hide behind some tree in some hoodie that allegedly cloaked them from the enemy. No, they had definitely mastered some very advanced knowledge and skills.

  A five-point star sank with a thump into the temple of one of the dummies in a sheriff’s uniform, drawing Max’s attention. Such a shot would have instantly killed anyone, had they been in the dummy’s place.

  Linda rubbed her hands. Stinger fetched his file and started to polish his nails.

  Eddie stood sadly beside Linda.

  “Bring me that sharp doo-dah,” she ordered Eddie, and nodded at the dummy.

  “Let me go please…” Eddie pleaded. He grabbed the wooden bar next to him and didn’t move.

  “No way!” Stringer interjected. “Now you’re our assistant, and we have a lot of work ahead of us.” He glanced at Eddie and winked at Linda. “Am I right, darling?”

  Linda smiled and nodded back.

  “Bring her what she asks, don’t be afraid… And don’t make her ask twice,” said Stinger, pushing Eddie toward the dummies.

  Linda reached for another shuriken.

  Eddie walked around the bar and, nervously looking back, made for the sheriff bristling with the shurikens.

  Some sport they have!, thought Max, moving to the other end of the room, which offered a better view. He walked past Eddie who wheezed, trying to release the shuriken from the dummy, anxiously looking back at his tormentors.

  When Max walked past the stuffed panther, he stopped. The gracefulness of the animal was well expressed through minute details of the skin and muscles and the yellow eyes.

  “Freeze, dude!” Linda was looking right at Max.

  He stood still, looked at Linda, and then at his hands. They can’t see them. She was speaking to Eddie.

  Linda made a quick, almost invisible movement and the shuriken propelled through Max’s left eye. Not a pleasant feeling, even while intangible. He stepped aside and kept on watching, this time from behind Stinger and Linda.

  Eddie was still trying to pull the first shuriken out when another one hurtled by his ear and sank right beside the first one. Eddie gave a start and went pale. Beads of sweat appeared on his temples.

  “Hurry up, man! You’re slowing us down,” Stinger urged Eddie, putting his file into the pocket and sinking into a wide armchair beside Linda. He touched her rear, moved down to her knees, then back up before giving her a light spank.

  By then, she already had another shuriken in hand and was lightly tapping it against the table.

  “Your life depends on your speed,” she whispered, and flung it at the sheriff.

  The temple of the dummy now had three shurikens next to each other.

  Eddie shrank his head into his shoulders but stubbornly kept trying to pull the star from the sheriff’s wooden head.

  “Damn! Ouch!” He hollered and jerked his hand, sending several blood drops onto the wall.

  “Hey, assistant, are you certain that Max didn’t stash another miraculous thingamabob somewhere? What if he’s standing right here and listening to me, huh?”

  Stinger entered the floor with the dummies.

  Eddie was all too absorbed with the injury to hear him. He stared in desperation at the shuriken with which he had cut his fingers. Even though blood was dripping on the hardwood oak floor, he kept trying, and eventually managed to pull the shuriken out.

  “No! No!” Eddie was almost crying. “I promise, we did all the testing together. And we have only one lab and only one sample!”

  “Together, huh? Well, maybe you can create an invisible body by yourself? Or at least something that lets one see it? Huh? I can’t believe you’re so dumb!” Stinger went on.

  “I promise, I don’t know all his formulas or the principles of the Switch. He never told me the important stuff. I don’t know, I swear, I don’t know… I’m only an assistant…”

  Linda entered the floor. She dexterously fiddled with the four-ended shuriken.

  “Only an assistant, huh? Then what use are you to us?”

  Stinger shrugged and looked at Linda with a question in his eyes. She mounted a cougar dummy and stretched on its back.

  “I start to doubt our friendship,” said Stinger. “’Cause your friend easily could stand right here and you’d have no means to know or prevent it… It’s hard to see whose side you’re on.”

  “Perhaps you’re no friend of ours.” Linda squinted and aimed her shuriken at Eddie.

  He shrank and winced. Linda fixed her hair with the shuriken and lowered her hand.

  “Now tell me, when the body becomes intangible, it can pass through barriers other than walls too, right? Perhaps it can even fall down through the floor or fly?” asked Stinger.

  “Nah… that doesn’t happen.” Eddie barely forced a smile, as if the stupidity of Stinger’s question amused him. “This is beyond our ability… Max said you couldn’t do that.”

  “It doesn’t make sense, though. Walls yes, floor no,” remarked Linda, sitting on the back of the cougar and fiddling with the shuriken.

  “Right, it doesn’t,” agreed Stinger. “I don’t like the train of your thought, assistant. You must be withholding something. Linda, keep going! You look gorgeous with these starlets!” Stinger sank into the armchair again and gazed at her.

  “Hey! Don’t! Max… he doesn’t fully understand the thing either. He got his father’s records, but he hasn’t quite figured out everything yet.”

  “Linda, shoot!” ordered Stinger.

  Eddie froze, his forehead went sweaty. “I remembered! Damn it! I know! I know how to see an intangible body! The glasses! I had them… wait…” Eddie fumbled in the pocket of his jacket and fetched the glasses, which looked completely normal. Linda and Stinger watched his frantic movements.

  “Put these on and you can see an intangible body!” Eddie shook the glasses in front of him in excitement.

  Max backed to the wall. How could he have forgotten about the other pair? This was a big mistake. He’d given them to Eddie recently and should have taken them back.

  Stinger and Linda exchanged looks.

  “And why do you say it just now? You withheld this fascinating gimmick from me?” asked Stinger.

  “No! No!” shouted Eddie and ceased smiling. “I just forgot about it! I swear! They were in my pocket all the time, I didn’t think about it. I don’t even need them! Max wears them day and night, looking for his Dad…” Eddie snee
red and jumped toward Stinger, subserviently offering him the glasses. “Here.”

  Stinger took the glasses and moved them to his face.

  Max, who stood right in front of him, briskly backed off.

  Stinger put the glasses on.

  CHAPTER 9

  Osiris

  Athena was in the driver’s seat when Max suddenly materialized beside her. Gloomy and preoccupied, he didn’t even look in her direction.

  “That was quick,” she said.

  Max sighed hopelessly. “They’ve got the glasses now.”

  “Shoot! How?”

  “Eddie. He told them about me and our research… And now he’s given them the glasses.”

  Athena sighed, and Max clenched his fists.

  “And that thug doesn’t seem to part with his file, round the clock.”

  Max was looking in vain for a solution, trying to cope with his exhaustion, which increased every minute. On top of that, his right hand was getting number.

  “Max, when you left, I saw the same guy as yesterday in the lab again. I was scared!”

  Max gazed upon her skeptically.

  He fetched the glasses, put them on, and saw the street, houses, people, all bluish. Nothing special.

  He looked at Athena and noticed from the corner of his eye a motion in the back seat. He quickly turned around and halted. An odd passenger sat there. With the same bluish outline, it was possible to examine him. A man in a cloak stared at Max, relaxed. His eyes sparkled like two fireflies.

  “Holy crap!”

  “What?” screamed Athena.

  “This isn’t happening…” whispered Max.

  Athena fetched another pair of the glasses, put them on, and froze. “Wh… who is that?” she stammered.

  “He says he came to help us,” said Max, still gazing at the intangible stranger.

  “Can you hear him? He’s saying something?”

  “I lip read.”

  Athena looked closer. The stranger was saying something, or, rather, his lips were moving.

  Max turned to Athena. “Let’s go!” he said resolutely.

  * * *

  The three of them arrived at Max’s place around 10 a.m.

  Athena entered the office and turned around to look at the stranger. She could see he was handsome. He stood with a straight stance, somewhat majestic even. When he looked right at her, she felt uneasy and turned away.

  Max and Athena sat in the armchairs, and the intangible stranger stood opposite them. For some time, they remained silent, studying each other. Then the visitor moved his lips to say something.

  Max peered at his mouth, trying to catch every word.

  “He wants me to materialize him, and says that we’re in danger.”

  Athena didn’t move and almost didn’t breathe. She felt she was dreaming and wanted to pinch herself to wake up. She used to do so when she was a child, when she was scared. Now she was an adult and realized it was very childish, but she still pinched herself on the arm. “What kind of danger?” she asked.

  The stranger continued his silent talk.

  “You understand it well yourselves,” Max was lip reading. “I come in peace and only to help you.”

  “Do you know about the stolen bracelet?” asked Athena.

  He nodded.

  “This and a lot more that you do not know,” articulated Max.

  “What does that mean?” asked Athena.

  “Okay, first things first. Let’s materialize him,” said Max, standing up.

  In a few minutes, they were in the lab, and the visitor was observing Max set up the bracelet.

  “Stand here,” Max said, pointing in front of him. “The Switch wave will be directed at this spot.”

  The stranger moved and halted.

  The bracelet emitted a barely noticeable bluish ray, and Max directed it at the man. Having hit the intangible body, the ray widened and merged with the stranger’s outline.

  A few moments later, a man of around fifty appeared in front of Max and Athena. He was wearing a baggy robe. It was the same man, but now he wasn’t glowing blue and was totally tangible.

  Suddenly, he tottered and fell to the floor. Athena and Max leaned over him. Max took his hand to feel his pulse.

  “I… I seem to have forgotten what it’s like to have a body…” whispered the man. He closed and opened his eyes.

  He looked around as if he were lost, tried to say something, and fainted.

  “Looks like he hasn’t stood on his real feet for a while,” said Max.

  “I’ll bring a pillow and a blanket,” Athena told him.

  “Yes, please.”

  She came back a few minutes later. They put the blanket on the floor near their prone guest and moved his body onto it. Athena delicately put the pillow under his head.

  “I thought a body could remain in the intangible state for a few decades, but…” Max paused to think, “it looks like I was wrong.”

  “He looks different,” said Athena. “As if he is from another world. But he speaks our language, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes, he does… I don’t know… I can’t help but think I’m about to wake up…”

  * * *

  Athena was cooking dinner when she heard Max’s voice from downstairs, calling her. She went to the lab in a hurry. Max hadn’t left the whole time.

  The man had been unconscious for about an hour. He was now sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, looking around dully.

  “Are you okay?” asked Max.

  “My lengthy imprisonment is over!” He smiled as he looked at his arms and legs. “And it seems I held up just fine.”

  “What’s your name?” asked Athena.

  “My name is Osiris. And I’m extremely grateful for your help.”

  “Nice to meet you. You must be hungry?” said Athena.

  “I am indeed! My body craves some food.”

  Osiris tried to sit up carefully, leaning against the floor. Max and Athena helped him.

  They went to the kitchen and sat at the table.

  “Salad? Pasta?” offered Athena.

  “I shall take anything you offer, sweetheart. I’m certain any dish will amaze me.”

  Athena looked at Osiris with some surprise. Questions swarmed in her head, but she couldn’t make up her mind whether to ask them. For some reason, she felt uneasy under his piercing eyes. She had a feeling that he was penetrating her thoughts.

  She put the plate of pasta in front of Osiris and sat at the table.

  “Where are you from?” asked Max.

  “I came from far away,” answered Osiris matter-of-factly, devouring the food.

  Max’s hand holding the spoon halted on the way to his mouth.

  “Meaning?”

  “I’m an emissary from a lost civilization.”

  For a little while, the only sound that broke the silence was the fork knocking on the plate and the sounds of Osiris eating. Max lowered his spoon.

  “What are you talking about? Which civilization?”

  “You know nothing about it, it is very long gone.”

  “So how old are you?” Max continued, looking at Osiris with suspicion.

  “About twelve thousand…” Osiris answered and kept on eating. “Though I look much younger, don’t I?” He smiled widely.

  Several wrinkles had appeared on his face. His young look and lively eyes could confuse anyone and made it impossible to figure out the age of his body.

  Max remained serious, but Athena eventually resolved to ask.

  “Please excuse me—”

  “I understand, it’s hard to believe…” interjected Osiris, “But just wait. You’ll see for yourself soon.”

  His subtle smile caused Athena to look away.

  “And did they speak English in your civilization?” asked Max, who was quite calm, unlike Athena.

  “Of course not,” answered Osiris. “You see, my friend, with such an abundance of free time, the language is not really a problem,
it happens all by itself… It tastes really good, this pasta, I ought to say.”

  “Okay, assuming this is all true,” Max continued, “please tell me something: you came here and said that we’re in danger and you were going to help us, right?”

  Osiris nodded.

  “We do need help and there is a danger…” Max clenched his fists. “So, I would like to understand who you are and how exactly you plan to help us out. And how on Earth did you know that the Switch was stolen?”

  Now Athena decided to interrupt. “And would you please also explain why we should believe what you say?”

  “You shouldn’t.” Osiris turned to Athena, and now he was not smiling. “I suggest you verify. Verify and then believe. Deal?”

  The certainty with which he spoke left no chance to doubt his words. They both nodded.

  “Thank you for the food, sweetheart,” said Osiris, and pushed away his plate. “Now, let’s go down to your lab and I will show you something, and then tell you how I plan to help. Does that work for you?”

  “Yes, that’s fine,” said Max and stood up.

  So did Athena. At this instant, Max tottered, and he leaned against the table.

  Athena reached out to him. “Are you okay?”

  “My feet again. Weakness. No, darling, I’ll be fine.”

  “We ought to hurry,” said Osiris.

  Soon they were going down to the lab.

  “Twelve thousand years ago, civilization was almost terminated by a powerful wave of dematerialization, which moved across the globe,” began Osiris.

  “Wave of dematerialization?” Max’s eyes became round.

  “A phenomenon which swept the entire civilization off the face of the Earth. They called it The Energy Flood. Have you heard of this?”

  “I don’t think so. Does it have anything to do with the Flood as known in religion?”

  “Not really. What you ultimately should know is that it all started as harmlessly as now.”

  “Harmlessly?” wondered Athena. “What do you mean?”

  “Now you think of a couple of people who became hostages of circumstance, in other words, yourselves. And I can understand that,” answered Osiris. “But I am talking about the entire planet turning into a barren desert within a few hours. A desert with restless ghosts tearing about hopelessly… It is hard to describe the ramifications of this.”