The Intangibles

by Alexander Astremsky

  Here we go! Now he knew how Osiris dealt with his men so easily. There was another bracelet. And now it was clear where the Eraser had come from. Someone had penetrated the ship. Max, who else… Osiris couldn’t, thus it was Max, so Max was Osiris’s puppet? Damn you, brother! They were working together.

  Zet’s anger grew into rage.

  This should not have happened. How had he managed to get out of Veles? And even so, he shouldn’t have been in this body. Max… Somehow, he had found Max, and Max had materialized him.

  Zet was about to go berserk. He had just killed the physical body of his own brother with his own hands and thus made it possible for him to live on. Now he had no idea when, where, and who Osiris would be in the next minute! Besides, now, after dying, he didn’t have to wait to be born again, but could simply take over any adult body, for example if they were unconscious. Zet also could, but he really hoped he wouldn’t ever need to use this ability.

  He frantically put Osiris’s bracelet into his cloak, turned around, and hurriedly walked back.

  Nothing had changed in the room. Max was still sitting on the floor.

  In a rage, Zet walked up to him with his hand behind his back. “Get up!” he bellowed.

  Max slowly raised his head. Linda started, and Eddie cast a terrified look at Zet.

  “I said get up!” Zet repeated, this time not so loudly.

  Max complied.

  Zet had the Switch in his hand. Max stood transfixed: it was over.

  Zet was furious. “Who are you?” he collected himself, looking Max in the eye.

  Max looked at the enemy sullenly and didn’t answer.

  “You may remain silent. I know the answer anyway. Do you really think I will beg you? Your girlfriend will be here soon. She has such beautiful eyes…” Zet’s said in a low and suave voice. “I will take her eyes, and you’ll be watching, and then,” he hissed, “she won’t get out of here alive unless you do what I tell you.”

  Zet stepped away, took his cell phone from the cloak, dialed the number, and waited for the answer.

  * * *

  A local homeless person was walking along the highway and heard a melodic ringtone. He sped up and ran. The ringtone grew louder. Now he could hear that it was coming from the ditch beside the road. He ran further and shortly saw the owner of the phone.

  A big guy lay in the ditch, not moving. A hood covered half of his face, which was stained with blood. The rest of his body was covered with dark, loose clothes. The bum stuck his hand under them, fumbling for the insistently ringing phone. Eventually, his hand felt the cold, vibrating metal object and grabbed it.

  He picked it up and put the phone to his ear. “Yes?”

  “Where the hell are you?!” the voice snapped on the other end.

  He looked around in bewilderment. “On the road…”

  “Which road? Damn it! Adrian, is that you?” the voice insisted.

  “And who are you?” asked the bum.

  Zet was wound up. He looked at the screen of his phone. Yes, it was Adrian’s number. Then what on Earth is happening there? He put the phone to his ear again. “Who am I talking to?” He forced himself to sound composed.

  “I am… ehm… I was walking by. It looks like your friend is dead…”

  “What?” Zet’s face flushed with anger.

  “He’s lying by the road and… doesn’t seem to be breathing,” said the bum, kicking the body.

  Zet didn’t say a word and kept holding the phone by his ear.

  “Hello? Hello!” he heard the stranger’s voice on the other end. “May I keep the cell?”

  Zet hung up and put the phone away. His jaws clenched.

  “Assistant!” Zet yelled, casting a scorching look at Eddie.

  Eddie got up.

  “You’ll show me how this bloody thing works, won’t you?” He offered Eddie Osiris’s bracelet.

  “I’ll tell you everything! Everything I know! I’m all yours, till the end of time!” babbled Eddie, crawling to Zet on his knees.

  Suddenly it dawned on him. Of course! The bracelet in Zet’s possession belonged to Osiris. And it wasn’t locked.

  “I’ll show you,” Max forced himself to say it.

  Zet turned around.

  “Eddie doesn’t know how to operate it, he never used it. So I will show you.”

  “I know a lot! I’ll be useful!” shouted Eddie.

  Zet smiled malevolently and offered Max Osiris’s Switch. “Well, now we’re talking business!”

  The screen went live when Max touched it. Closely supervised, Max was inputting the necessary settings.

  “And none of your games, you got it?” Zet warned him.

  “Touch it here.” Max offered the gadget to Zet.

  Zet suspiciously did.

  “Now only you can activate it. I will not be able to dematerialize you. This is the way it works. The Switch is synchronized with its owner, and only the owner can operate it. Now you’re the owner.”

  Zet’s eyes sparkled. He fastened the bracelet on his wrist and stroked it with contentment.

  “Now I’ll show you how it works,” said Max.

  Zet examined the touch screen of the long-awaited gadget. Shortly, all his plans would come into fruition.

  Suddenly, a quiet crack came from behind. The smile vanished from Zet’s face. For a moment, he let his guard down, and Linda took advantage of it: she got Stinger’s file from his jacket and her dagger from under her dress. Even though she tried to be as quiet as possible, Zet heard her.

  She threw both weapons simultaneously, one with each hand: the dagger at Zet and the file at Eddie.

  Had Zet turned around half a second later, he would have been dead at once. But he managed to dodge the dagger which only scratched his cheek. The file, however, entered Eddie’s throat up to the hilt. Eddie froze with his mouth open. His scream stayed in there forever.

  Linda adroitly made a side roll and grabbed a gun that was lying on the floor near one of the dead bodies.

  The last of Zet’s guards, Ray, aimed and squeezed off several shots at her, but they both missed their mark.

  Linda propped herself up on one knee and shot back. Ray clutched his chest and toppled over. A dark red pool grew under him on the floor.

  Zet was the next target. But he’d already aimed at her and she didn’t have the time to pull the trigger.

  The bullet pierced Linda’s chest. The gun slipped out of her weakened hands; she slowly dropped to the floor. Life quickly faded in her eyes. Soon her long eyelashes lowered too.

  Zet turned to Max. His cut cheek was bleeding, but he still sneered. “And now no one will interrupt us!” He burst into uncontrollable laughter. “Now you, bastard, will show me how to use this goddamn thing, or I will start slicing you up slowly and you will bleed, with squeal of pain, begging for mercy. But you won’t die. And then I’ll find your juicy girlfriend, and I will find her…” Zet growled. “And I will get the worst perverts to rape her in all the ways you can only imagine. And I do have a couple of such… sinners in mind.” Zet laughed again.

  “What’s your problem?” Max said calmly, and raised his hands as if he was soothing a violent patient. “I thought we had already reached an agreement.”

  Zet frowned, his face flushed, and he threw forward his hand with the bracelet.

  “Here,” Max pointed at one of the icons on the touch screen, “is the main start button.”

  And he proceeded to give Zet precise guidelines on how the Switch worked and its functions. He didn’t skip any detail.

  Zet calmed down a bit and hung onto Max’s words. He had an easy time understanding Max. The miracle of materializing could astonish only these Earth aborigines at the current stage of their technological development. For Zet, it was a thing of the past. He was amused with the ancient look of the gadget and puzzled by the fact that Max had been able to isolate the principles that were in the far future of this backward planet.

  “Okay, I got it.” Z
et jerked back his hand and got ready to activate the Switch. “Now I will run a little test, a practice run so to say. You stay here. I will be nearby. We’re not done yet.”

  Max nodded.

  “I shouldn’t forget about clothes, right? Okay.” Zet chuckled, touched the screen, and disappeared. He re-appeared almost instantly, a few feet away from Max. “Well, your thing works, scientist. Good job. Even though you’re not so cooperative, but it’s fine. You helped me a lot. You’ll come with me…” With a scowl, he fetched the Eraser from his cloak. “You don’t mind, do you? We’ll find your little angel, and it’s gonna be fine…”

  “Angels have two faces,” a woman’s voice came from behind.

  Everything happened in an instant. Max hit Zet’s hand holding the Eraser. It flew off toward the window. Zet tried to catch it but failed. He looked back and saw Athena in the center of the room with a gun aimed at his head.

  Zet’s eyes flared with rage. He raised his hand with the bracelet. “And the Master has none,” he growled into her face and vanished.

  Athena stood rooted to the floor and stared at Max across the room. He rushed toward her.

  “Athena! Darling! You’re here!” He kissed her on the forehead, cheeks, hair.

  “He… He will come back now,” she forced out words.

  “No, he won’t come back,” said Max.

  * * *

  “Where’s the antidote? Did they give it to you?” Athena asked with a shaking voice.

  Exhaustion and anxiety caught up to her. Max shook his head.

  “Where is it?” Athena asked.

  Max pointed at Eddie’s body.

  Athena got to it and pulled out the file from the blood-stained flesh.

  She wiped the blood with Eddie’s clothes, felt a small button, and pressed it. A thin blade popped out. She pressed it again, and the blade popped back in. Athena examined the fine artifact with engraved letters on it. She stroked them, and as she touched one of the letters, a thin needle appeared from the other end. Athena’s heart skipped a beat.

  “It works!” Max said as he watched Athena’s actions.

  “Yes, but we don’t know whether it’s the poison or the antidote.” Athena touched the same letter again and the needle moved back in. She touched another letter, and a smaller needle appeared.

  “Damn it,” shouted Max. “So, which one is the antidote?”

  “I don’t know,” answered Athena.

  She touched other letters, but no more needles popped out. Only two letters appeared to be the buttons. The needles only differed in length.

  “Let’s try,” Max suggested and took the file.

  “Are you crazy? We can’t risk it like that!”

  They both looked at Stinger and Linda. Their bodies lay on the floor with no signs of life.

  “Are they dead?” asked Athena.

  Max nodded.

  “For how long?”

  “He was killed a while ago, she was shot just before you arrived.”

  Athena’s eyes gleamed, and she quickly approached Linda’s body while getting out a familiar object from her pocket. Yes, that very device with the nanocells, which Max had once dubbed ‘the Lizard Tail’. With no hesitation, she injected it into Linda’s neck.

  “Perhaps it’s not too late yet,” said Athena with hope.

  “You think she’ll help?”

  Athena nodded.

  “They just tried to kill me! They threatened me!”

  “Linda must know about the antidote…”

  Max didn’t answer. He leapt to Athena, as if he had remembered something, and snatched the Lizard Tail from her hand.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Athena watched him rush toward the exit.

  “Osiris!” Max shouted as he approached the door and stopped in his tracks.

  There stood Osiris, safe and sound. “Where is Zet?” he asked.

  Max stepped aside. “He… will not come back. We’re safe. But how are you…” Max’s eyes grew round.

  “Athena helped me out just in time,” said Osiris.

  At this moment, Linda made a quiet groan, and several seizures shook her body. She opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, then put her hand on the chest where a moment ago there was a huge wound. She looked down and suddenly sat up.

  As she looked up at her rescuer, her eyes filled with sickened horror. She was dying and probably had already reached the end of the tunnel, and now… Her wound had closed and she was alive. Wasn’t that a miracle?

  “Now it is your turn to help us,” said Athena.

  Linda got up and scanned the people in the room.

  “I need the antidote,” said Max, walking up to her.

  Linda rushed toward the door.

  Athena tried to block her but had no chance. The resurrected Linda slipped out of the room.

  “Wait!” Athena shouted and ran after her.

  Linda didn’t respond.

  Athena, Max and Osiris rushed outside, only to see the dimly lit lawn and walkway. No sign of Linda.

  “I don’t know which needle is poison,” said Max as they walked back. “The only difference is the length.”

  “Do you remember which needle it was when he injected the paralyzer?” asked Osiris.

  “Of course not,” Max answered quietly.

  “We can’t risk it. The nanocells have only slowed down the paralyzer, but it is still in your body, all of it. If we inject the poison, you will OD and die.”

  As they walked into the living room, some vague pictures rushed through her mind. She closed her eyes and saw Max’s face. He was looking down. Athena tried to concentrate, but Max’s face had gone into the darkness. Images began to ripple, and she felt her legs go weak, not obeying her.

  No, not now. She needed to concentrate, no matter what. Athena was angry at her inability to control her visions. She closed her eyes again and made another attempt to recreate the picture she’d seen moments ago.

  Max’s face again. Looking downward. What was there? Darkness moved away, and new images appeared. Osiris holding Stinger’s file with the needle. Max looking at the longer needle sinking into the vein on his arm. His neck strained hard. Osiris concentrated…

  Darkness again, and the image vanished. Athena clenched her fists, focused again, and suddenly saw a night sky with stars in it and the lawn in front of the house, dimly lit with street lights. She recognized this lawn. She had just been there chasing Linda, but now there was someone else. Three people were crossing it: Osiris, Max, and herself. She clearly saw it. And no blurring, a very clear and sharp picture. The three of them were walking away from the house and talking animatedly.

  Athena opened her eyes, beaming. “We will make it.”

  The men looked at her. Osiris’s face softened when he saw Athena smile.

  “Now I recognize you,” he said.

  “We will make it,” she repeated and approached them. “Inject it. The longer needle.”

  “But…” Max looked at her in confusion. “How do we…”

  “Just do it,” she told Osiris.

  He nodded.

  Max was breathing hard, watching his elbow. The long needle slowly plunged into his vein. He almost felt no pain. Anxiety overrode the pain and the unpleasant sensation of the injection itself.

  Everything stopped for a few moments. Max was afraid to move. Athena, totally certain a minute ago, was anxious too. Osiris was also strained, but didn’t show it.

  Eventually Max moved.

  “I’ve never played Russian roulette before.” He sighed in relief.

  “And this is not a game either.” Osiris winked at Athena.

  She nodded, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed.

  “Well, well,” Max hugged her. “Looks like we made it, just like you said.”

  “Yes, we did.” She looked at Max.

  “We need to finish something,” said Osiris looking around. “We need to dematerialize all these bodies.”

  “Why?”
Max asked.

  “There is evidence of many crimes here. We can’t have the police on our back. Where’s the Eraser?”

  “Should be here somewhere.” Max walked to the window. He squatted and examined the floor. Soon enough, he found the Eraser right by the window. Max picked it up and offered it to Osiris.

  “You finish it,” he said, walking back to Athena.

  “Tell me what happened to Zet,” said Osiris.

  “I set the Switch to emergency lock. I told you about this, remember?”

  Osiris frowned. “Didn’t we agree to not do so?”

  “But he won’t come back! That’s it! We’re safe,” Max repeated.

  “Well,” Osiris replied. “You’re mistaken, my friend.”

  “How so?”

  “You’re mistaken if you think he won’t come back. And you’re mistaken even more if you think we’re safe.”

  “Why?”

  “Because now he will take a new body, and he may become anyone anywhere. And we have no means to prevent it.”

  To be continued…

  Soon on Amazon

  THE IMMORTALS

  Book Two

  The Intangible World Series

  by Alex and Kris Astremsky

  CHAPTER 1

  The Strange Passenger

  A strong medical smell assaulted his senses. His heart pumped in his chest like a hunted beast. With the chilled air and a light numbness in his limbs, his waking up was not pleasant, to put it mildly.

  He forced himself to open his eyes. Light was peeking through the blinds and softly filled the room. The bed and IV stand to the left made the room slightly resemble a hospital ward, but everything else— the posh, ivory-colored armchair with cushions, the books on the bedside-table, and the orchids in the window— created a rather homey environment.

  Deep breath caused pain in his lungs and he drowned in a coughing fit. His whole body shivered and prickled. He cautiously moved his fingers and toes. The numbness was receding and he was starting to feel responsive again.

  He slowly sat up and felt a light dizziness, which was gone in a few seconds. It was replaced with pain in his left arm near the inside of the elbow where the IV tube was attached. He slowly removed the needle. Several beads of blood dripped onto the snow-white bedsheet. However, he didn’t pay much attention to it. He wiped the blood from his arm with the bedsheet, got up and headed toward the door.