Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear

by J. Joseph Wright

  His mind regained its sharpness and he studied the room, taking particular interest in searching for the exits, though there seemed to be no doors or windows. He convinced himself it must have been a trick of the light from the torches lining the carved rocks.

  “Nice touch with the torches,” his words reverberated throughout the cavernous space. “A little cryptic for my taste, but, hey, it works with the whole ‘dungeon’ theme.”

  He swished around in the waist-high water to examine the wall. Decorated with an engraved script, it rivaled even Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphs in grandeur. Savage was no archeologist, but he knew the world had never seen these carved shapes: animals, people and what appeared to be gods. He found them incredible. Ultimately though, the stone pictograms failed to hold his interest long.

  “You want to tell me where my clothes are? That suit’s Armani, you know! Hello? Anybody?”

  Silence. Only the gentle babbling of the super-heated liquid.

  He felt something rush past his leg. His sense of calm changed to panic. With all the bubbles, his own feet were hidden. It was a terrible feeling—wading, no visibility, and an unknown creature lurking below.

  He heard a disturbance behind him. When he saw it, he wished he hadn’t. He caught half a glimpse, enough to make out the contours of a black snake slipping under the waves. Not an ordinary snake, either, but a winged serpent swimming toward him, closing in for the death grip.

  He spun the other direction, kicking and flailing in a wild attempt to get out of the spa. A few steps from escape, he noticed something in front of him. Again, it was speedy. If he’d blinked he never would have seen it. His fear doubled when he realized the thing winding toward him was another dark, predatory serpent. Same as the first, it slid under, disappearing into the steamy drink.

  He tried to scream and managed a stilted gurgle while changing course, paddling away from danger. No matter how hard he thrust his arms or thrashed his legs, the water made it slow motion. The edge of the pool seemed too far. He’d never make it. Still, he wouldn’t give up.

  Something rough and unyielding circled him. It brushed against his thigh and a surge of terror raged through his nervous system. His flailing and kicking became even wilder, even more erratic.

  “HELP!”

  The only other occupants of the room, the stone pillars, merely watched with cool indifference.

  He felt a snake upon him, sensed its coldblooded stare, smelled its acidic breath. In a matter of seconds it would take him by the neck with its powerful jaws. Savage made one final, desperate reach for salvation.

  He crashed against something and lost all momentum, sending him into an even greater panic. For a millisecond he thought a snake had gotten in front of him. Slipping on the slick floor, he pushed backward and raised his hands to guard himself.

  Deep, resonant laughter filled the space, its hollow timbre thumping against Savage’s chest. Through his fingers, he allowed himself a tiny peek at the owner of the ominous outburst.

  “It’s you,” he blinked. Despite the torchlight, a shadowy mist enveloped the man in darkness. He knew who it was standing in the water with him, though. Finally he’d come face-to-face with his client, Davos Mann.

  “Did I scare you?” Davos had a dead tone.

  “Scare me?” he answered, still wary of the prowling, lethal reptiles. “You could’ve killed me!”

  “Relax, Savage,” Davos chuckled. “You’re fine. If I wanted to kill you—well, let’s not talk about that just yet. I wanted to give you a little demonstration, that’s all.”

  “Yeah,” he forced himself to snicker. “That was a good one. You really had me there.”

  Davos scowled. “You’ll witness worse if you don’t find that Tanakee.”

  “We’ll find it. But there are a couple things my engineers don’t fully understand. Exactly how do you plan on using the creatures?”

  “I’ve already told you,” Davos shot a glare that made Savage’s blood run cold, even in the hundred degree spa. “Once the processor is implanted into the Tanakee’s brain, it will allow me to tap into Eteea, the source of their powers. I’ll have access to the most potent force in the universe!”

  Savage stepped away. He tried to put his finger on what made Davos so frightening. He seemed taller than Savage had imagined, and scarier, if that was possible. Maybe it was the jet-black hair, pulled back in tight braids which swayed in some nonexistent breeze.

  Or maybe it was his skin, so flawless it made Savage uncomfortable. Not one mark, wrinkle, old pimple from high school that went bad and left a scar—nothing. It didn’t feel right, though it might have been the work of a highly skilled, incredibly expensive surgeon. Davos had money, so it was plausible. The hair, too. That could have been the result of some eccentric stylist armed with the best product money can buy.

  Then, for the first time without the interference of electronic devices, he saw Davos’ true eye color. The vision terrified him. It wasn’t the color that so disconcerted Savage, but the complete lack of any hue in the first place. He thought he might have detected a slight hint of blue, then the lighting changed, the water shifted and reflected in another direction, and the illusion vanished. The dismaying oddity didn’t end there. In the center of those dull gray orbs, where normal, circular pupils should have been, were two dark, vertical folds, one on top of the other, similar to a lizard’s, yet much more complex.

  Either not noticing or not caring he was being studied, Davos proceeded with his inquisition.

  “Have you any news on the whereabouts of the Tanakee?”

  “Yes,” Savage averted his gaze to gather his thoughts. “We have some strong leads. My personal choice is the toy delivery to a Winmart in Willow. There was a report of an extraneous teddy bear in the shipment, and then today we intercepted a call from the store manager to the police regarding possible suspicious activity overnight.”

  “That’s it!” Davos raised his voice. “That’s where it’s hiding! You must move on that store!”

  “That’s the plan. We go in tonight to ransack the place. No stone unturned. People will think it’s a robbery, of course.”

  “You fool! You can’t pull a simple smash and grab! It’s way too risky!”

  “Do you have a better plan?” Savage knew he’d made a mistake the second the question left his lips.

  “Of course,” Davos answered. “We know where he is now, so set up surveillance and pin him in. Then insert some specialized teams, but only in the most delicate of undercover operations. No witnesses. Can you handle that? Or am I going to have to take this operation over myself?”

  “No, no, sir. I mean, yes. We’ll get your creature. Just give us a chance.”

  A sudden and vivid image of Savage’s own grotesque death flashed into his mind, showing him what would happen if he failed. He’d heard of nonperformance penalties. Never fatal ones, though. Yet Davos expressed no reluctance to fulfill his pernicious duty when it came to upholding bargains.

  Laughter echoed off the stone walls again, startling Savage from Davos’ psychic grip. He searched the pool and found he was alone in the hot water once more.

  “Hey! Don’t leave! How do I get out of this place? And what about my suit!”

  The temperature went up until churning and bubbling became a rolling boil. He hurried toward the nearest edge, each step less comfortable than the previous. The floor was an inferno, and touching it meant an instant third-degree burn.

  He felt something on his wrist and became terrified the serpents might have made their return. What he saw, though, was worse. Bobbing and rolling to reveal its sunken eye sockets and eternal toothy grin, it was no doubt a human skull.

  He cringed, fighting to keep from ejecting the contents of his stomach. A load of vomit wouldn’t have spoiled the nasty brew, anyway. Pallid chunks of some unknown origin abounded, ranging from pea to fist-sized. Something big hit his back. Hidden in the steam, the object was buoyant enough to hover an inch below the surfa
ce, affording Savage a fleeting image. Then the roiling water pushed it up and he saw the whole outline, confirming its ghoulish identification—a headless, legless, armless human torso. He felt his stomach’s wild objections yet again, though he was in too much of a hurry to give in to its demands. No way would he stay another second in that water along with a bunch of sliced up body parts, the ingredients of a grisly gruel.

  The floor had become a slimy mess, making each step a struggle. After a couple more paces, he felt the flesh on the souls of his feet loosen and peel off in layers. He collapsed, sinking into the carnal soup, clutching at whatever he thought would hold his mouth above the surface. He felt a thigh, a forearm, another skull.

  One last surge of adrenalin allowed him to push off with his shredded feet, forcing his lips above the waterline.

  “Aaaaaahhhhhh!”

  He allowed all his fears, all his pain, everything remaining of his pathetic existence to come out in that last primal scream.

  BUZZ!

  “Mr. Savage? Are you all right?”

  His assistant’s voice plucked him from that sickening cauldron and deposited him firmly into the real world, back in his office. A cursory scan of his body revealed all was well—nothing burned, no dangling flaps of skin and, best of all, he had his silk suit on again.

  BUZZ!

  “Mr. Savage?”

  “Yes, Rebecca. I’m fine. Just fine.”

  “Okay, because I thought I heard someone screaming in there.”

  “No, that was just me. I, uh…I was lifting weights. Tough workout today.”

  “Oh. Okay. Just checking.”

  “Hey, Rebecca?”

  “Yes, Mr. Savage.”

  He reached and felt his hair, stunned to find it wet. “Clear my schedule. I’m going on a little stakeout.”

  TEN

  A FAMILIAR NOISE STOLE TAKOTA from his slumber. He stretched his arms, trying to push away the fatigue. That dark little corner of the store didn’t see many people, still he’d felt the need to play the dead game all evening, an exhausting prospect when combined with the day-long stint he had to endure in Jack’s backpack while the boy was at school. It didn’t help, either, when that dog took him for an unexpected ride. Harley got what he had coming, though. What was that pooch thinking, anyway, attacking a Tanakee?

  Takota sat in the Lost and Found, giggling at the foolish hound, though at the time it wasn’t so funny.

  Then a voice pulled him from his thoughts.

  “He’s over here. I can hear him—smell him, too,” Takota recognized Pud’s playful tone.

  Sniff! Sniff!

  The exaggerated sound dominated the silence, and was getting closer.

  Sniff, Sniff, Sniiiiiiffff!

  Pud’s stubby, orangish snout poked from the other side of the counter and inhaled a couple more times. Then he took a step forward, locked onto Takota and smiled with his mouth wide.

  “Yep,” he announced. “Told ya’ I smelled him!”

  “Thank Eteea,” Enola stepped past him. “We’d feared the worst when that child took you.”

  “He actually got away,” Cheyton poked between Pud and Enola. “Unbelievable.”

  “Is he alive? Is he okay?” Ayita shoved through. “We heard something about a dog. Did it hurt you, are you all right?”

  She hopped up to examine him, moving aside shaggy tufts of fur to search for wounds. Amused, Takota allowed her doting.

  “Hey,” Pud exclaimed. “I thought you couldn’t stand him.”

  Takota glared at him.

  “I can’t,” Ayita lifted her arms with her palms facing everyone. She squinted at Takota and leapt to the floor. “I was just worried he might have rabies. We don’t want rabies in here, do we?”

  “Or some other disease,” Cheyton added. “Good thinking.”

  “Nonsense,” Enola jumped to the shelf alongside Takota. “He doesn’t have rabies. Do you, dear?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so.”

  “He doesn’t even know!” Ayita complained.

  “What!” Pud sprang up to join them. “How can you not know if you have rabies? Are you feverish?”

  “No,” answered Takota.

  “Are you restless?”

  “No.”

  “Excitable?”

  “No.”

  “Aggressive?”

  “No.”

  “Any sudden mood changes?”

  “No.”

  “Excessive drooling?”

  Takota sneered. “No!”

  “Okay, okay. That’s enough,” Enola scolded.

  “You’re right!” Pud bounced to the floor. “Enough of this! We’ve been cooped up all day! Time for some FUN!”

  He danced clumsily past his friends and did an awkward twirl when he got to the middle of the walkway, casting a glance to the group.

  “Who’s with me, huh? Hey! Who’s up for a bike race? I’m starting without you!” he hurried down the aisle.

  “Oh, no you don’t!” Ayita charged after him.

  “Hey! You’re not cheating this time!” Enola gave chase. She motioned to Takota and Cheyton to follow while she scampered out of sight behind Ayita and Pud.

  “What are they doing?” Takota stood and stretched his legs.

  “Burning some bottled-up energy,” Cheyton began to follow his friends. “We do this almost every night. The competition keeps us sharp.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Takota stepped off the shelf and caught up to him. “What about this morning?”

  “What about this morning?”

  “How can you stand there and say that? You saw it yourself. We almost got caught.”

  “Those kinds of things have happened before,” Cheyton waved. “It’s not a problem.”

  Takota argued. “I think it’s a big problem. So many things could’ve gone wrong. We’re lucky that boy wasn’t hurt. Staying here is too dangerous.”

  “Listen,” Cheyton said firmly. “We’ve been living here for ten months and everything was fine before you showed up. Yeah, we’ve had the occasional Code Red, but never anything serious. So if you ask me, the only dangerous thing around here is you.”

  Takota let his eyes drift to his feet. He wanted to tell Cheyton about Savage, but didn’t have the guts. What if he blamed Takota for that, too?

  “What was that move you pulled this morning, anyway?” Cheyton reached the end of the aisle.

  “What move?” Takota pouted.

  “Don’t, ‘what move,’ me. This morning you got to that boy faster than anything I’ve ever seen. That was Eteea, wasn’t it? You used Eteea. How’d you do it?”

  “I-I don’t know,” Takota glanced up to find suspicion on Cheyton’s face. “I’ve never experienced anything like it. I don’t know what it was.”

  Cheyton stared down the corridor of packages, boxes and cans. “It was Eteea, and it was some advanced stuff, too. So, either you’re a master and you’re not telling me everything, or somehow you got lucky and have a special gift. In that case, it would make two of us.”

  “You?”

  “Not me. Ayita. She’s the gifted one. She has all kinds of surprises up her sleeves. You’ll see.”

  “Oh. Ayita,” Takota rolled his eyes. “Great. What’s she got against me, anyway?”

  “Don’t let her temper fool you. She’s just been having troubles with her visions lately. She’s not that bad once you get to know her,” Cheyton nudged him. “Now come on. Let’s see how you do on a bicycle!”

  ELEVEN

  “JACK! AMELIA’S HERE!”

  Lily’s voice had a way of grating on Jack’s nerves, particularly when he was working. It didn’t matter what he was working on, either. She always found a way to get under his skin.

  “Amelia’s here!” she bounced on one leg toward his door, a purple knit shrug clinging to her shoulders.

  “I heard you the first time,” he smoldered. “And stop doing that. Stop standing there in the hall, yelling at me.”

&n
bsp; “I just wanted to see what you were up to, that’s all! Whatcha doin’!” she raised her voice as loud as possible without getting their mom involved.

  “Mom!”

  “Lily, stop it!” Liz scolded from somewhere downstairs, probably the kitchen. Jack smelled tacos. “Your brother has company, so be polite!”

  “Hi, Jack,” Amelia peeked in, her shoulder length, dark tresses tucked behind a flowery band.

  “I am an enchanted door,” Lily used a monotone voice. “To enter the bedroom you must say the magic password.”

  “Uh, please?” Amelia smiled.

  “That is not the magic password,” the blonde, curly-haired girl kept up her emotionless tenor.

  “Um, I don’t know, then. How about open sesame?”

  “That is not the…”

  “MOM!”

  “That’s the magic password!” she scampered downstairs.

  “Right now I’m glad I’m an only child,” Amelia shook her head.

  “Believe me, sometimes I wish I was,” Jack hit the escape button and the celestial charts on his computer screen collapsed.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “That? Just some data for the Holoversarium. That supervoid, or whatever it was you found yesterday, is intriguing. I’m trying to find out more about it.”

  “Jack James, you sure have some interesting hobbies,” she smiled.

  He chuckled. “Hey. My life’s not all about weird little creatures pretending to be teddy bears.”

  “Um, since you brought that up,” she sounded hesitant. “I hope you don’t mind, but I did a little digging, and you might be interested in what I found.”

  She slipped the memory card out of her phone, inserted it into a port on Jack’s computer, and clicked the mouse, opening a folder with pictures, data and video files.

  “I had no idea where to start. We don’t know what it’s called. We don’t even know if it’s ever been documented. So I thought about it. This might sound crazy, but you know what I think it might be? A Bigfoot. It looks like a baby Bigfoot, doesn’t it?”