“Oh, this should be good then.” Sarcasm wasn’t the best of options, but I felt a bit worn down by now. He ignored it though and acted like I hadn’t said anything.
“We use a deception filter to blend in.”
The thoughts that ran through my head was best left where they were, but I can tell you that a certain type of anime did make a clear run through a few times. For the first time since we left Denny behind my mind was laser focused on one thing only. My thoughts must have been crystal clear because he blushed. He gave me a sly smile.
“So would that do it then Eliza? The real me is far more interesting than that.”
I was at a complete loss for words; I doubt a squeak could even filter through to an audible range. Forget cold showers, at this moment in time I needed a bath filled with ice cubes. Generally speaking, I was an open-minded person but certain types of consensual fantasies are impossibilities and the fun lay in that it could never be real.
But suddenly I was faced with the impossible - even more so than usual for me - and my mind was about to explode.
“Dude, I don’t even know where to start. So how about we just figure this out first. And then, maybe.”
I didn’t know what would follow the maybe, but I was way too eager to find out. I wasn’t naive enough to believe in a happily ever after but if I had an ever after I certainly could explore it.
He nodded and cleared his throat, we both needed some cooling down I thought. But we had about forty minutes left on the deadline and needed to sort things out faster.
“I have a spare on me just in case my primary fails. It happened once and luckily only one witness. I convinced him that he had a bad acid trip. The late seventies made things easier.”
I nodded my agreement; those were the years. But I thought that quite regularly, as of late. See, maudlin, it was such an easy trap.
Asher reached into his left jacket pocket and pulled out a tiny box; it looked more like a garage remote. It was disappointing really; my imagination wanted science fiction to be better at predicting what a technologically advanced species would use. But reality kept asserting itself, and the mundane held sway.
“Sorry to disappoint you, I did say we like to blend in.”
I had become an open freaking book, and this man hasn’t even known me for five hours. A sneaky tendril snaked its way throughout my thoughts, what would happen when he knew me for eternity?
Thirty-Seven
He put the deception filter on the table and took out his pocketknife. He removed the second paperback from the stack, Eat, Pray, Love in case you were wondering. After removing the weights, he opened the book at random.
With his knife, he roughly cut out the centers of a few pages and put the filter into the hollow he created. After he had removed a few more pages, he appeared satisfied with its placing. He put the weights underneath the filter and closed the book again.
I gasped; it was difficult not to when your eyes suddenly started seeing double. I reached out to touch what was suddenly the rift generator. But he deftly intercepted me and tucked the generator between the other two paperbacks.
The other two books vanished or became absorbed by the simulated generator; I was having difficulty figuring it out. I touched the edge of the generator and was shocked by how solid it felt. It was real; I could have sworn to it.
Asher took the packaging tape I brought earlier when he got the books and started taping it firmly around the generator. As he put the tape down on the generator, it disappeared and it looked like the piece coming away from it was attached to nothing.
“How can you tell where the books are?” I was in awe; this was incredible.
“Faith.” He smiled at me and looked back at the generator. “I know it is underneath all of this, but I can’t see it. But let’s keep track of it, I would hate to have to steal the real generator all over again.”
I nodded, “Ok, no playing shells with them then. Gotcha.”
Soon he was finished taping it up and loosely wrapped it in the bubble wrap. They would check, so there was no point in taping the wrap back up. Into the box and suddenly we were done and ready to rescue Denny.
“And plenty of time to spare,” He said with a smile.
I took one last look in the box, and my heart dropped, the acid pit in my stomach threatened to burn a hole straight through. The stress of the last two days was getting too much for me. What I saw in the box was a bunch of tightly taped together books and not a rift generator.
Asher looked in, and I saw my dismay reflected. He reached in quickly and smacked the top of the books hard. A flicker and the rift generator was back in place.
I noticed that the bottom of the bubble wrap was gone, no doubt absorbed into the illusion.
“Is that going to be a problem? If they don’t see the bubble wrap, surely they’re going to guess that it is a deception?”
“Yeah, they would. But I am hoping that Weeds won’t do the looking, which he'll assign to a lackey. And that the lackey is dumb enough not to notice.”
“That is a lot of hoping Asher.”
“No kidding, but we can knee cap whoever does notice. And run, really fast.”
With no response and no extra time left, we got the box and quickly walked to the garage. The SUV was still loaded and ready to go. I was slipping; I let Asher get behind the wheel.
He drove fast, and we got to the warehouse with ten minutes to spare. This time, he drove into the parking lot. The gates were wide open, and much to my relief stayed that way. If they closed the gates, we'd be screwed. And that despite what Weeds said, future business wasn’t on their minds at all.
A group of people stood at the front entrance; two men held Denny between them, and two stood behind them. The two behind him carried big guns, I couldn’t quite make out what they were but knew I would win a bet that they were set to automatic fire.
To the left of them stood a man in a suit, speaking into a mobile and waving his arms. Next to him another man stood, arms at his side. Calm and composed, he watched us and waited. Asher stopped in front of this group, I looked out my side and spotted a few other men in the shadows by the fence. I imagined there were guards behind the warehouse now too, and probably quite a few people got into trouble for not being back there earlier.
We got out of the car, Asher carrying the box. I stayed at his side but kept my eyes on Denny. He didn’t seem worse for wear; his shirt was a bit twisted, but I saw no blood anywhere. He nodded at me and attempted a small smile. Relief flooded me; he genuinely seemed to be okay.
“Mister Bain, nice of you to be early.”
“It is my pleasure Weeds; it seemed the only polite thing to do.”
“Thank you, now may we please have the generator back?”
Asher nodded and held the box out; I felt short of breath. Weeds would see the fake; the filter must have failed again. My brain was throwing out worse case scenarios and fallbacks.
But Weeds snapped his fingers and one of the men behind Denny moved forward and took the box from Asher. He peered in quickly and nodded to Weeds, who turned back to Asher with a smile.
“We appreciate your decision and hope to do business with you again in the future.” He turned to the two men holding Denny and nodded to them. They let Denny go, and I had to force myself to wait for him to join us. He stood next to me, and I barely heard Asher speak to Weeds.
“I hope we can have a good working relationship again Weeds. Your services are indispensable.”
Weeds nodded and turned away from us, dismissing us. The man on the phone, who I assumed was Mister Towell looked questioningly at Weeds who inclined his head briefly. Mister Towell turned to Asher and gave him a small wave.
Asher turned to me, and I saw the urgency in his eyes. I took Denny’s hand and propelled him to the car. He caught the hint and climbed in quickly behind the driver’s seat. I forced myself to walk slowly to the passenger side. It felt like it was a million miles away.
Finally in, Asher star
ted the car and moved off at a reasonable acceleration. I wanted to shout at him to speed up, to get out while we still can. A few seconds later he did, and I looked back to see Weeds shouting at the guards that appeared at the gates. A couple of shots pinged off the back of the SUV.
Thirty-Eight
“Floor it!”
Denny and I both yelled at Asher. It was unnecessary however as I was pushed back in my seat already by that time. His foot was flat on the floor; I didn’t know that the SUV was capable of speeding up that quickly or well.
But somehow he managed it. The guy holding the left gate made the mistake of thinking he could call Asher’s bluff. Unfortunately, for him, he went flying as we struck it at what had to be close to full speed.
His buddy on the other gate slowed down when he saw that. Or maybe it was the guys coming up fast behind us. Either way, it gave Asher the time to get through the gates and onto the road.
I scrambled in between the two front seats and joined Denny in the back. He looked over at me with a grin.
“So, did you bring some weapons with?”
“You know it,” I said.
He nodded and the grin widened, I was starting to worry about him. But there was time for that later. I leaned over the back seat and reached into the rear compartment. It was still our weapon selection from earlier; Asher had said no to the rocket launcher.
To Denny, I gave a couple of handguns and some spare clips. I dropped a couple of guns into Asher’s lap along with a few more clips. He shook his head but focused on driving.
“You never know, maybe you’ll get a chance to fire one or two,” I said before dropping back to Denny again.
“What, no grenade?” He asked.
“No Denny, none for you, this time,” I said with a stern expression.
He laughed and shrugged, the boy was becoming very nonchalant about danger. Of course, we’ve in so much shit lately that it was easy just to roll with it. I hoped; hopefully, it wasn’t related to PTSD. I looked carefully at him; I wished I could give him a proper once-over right away.
“I'm okay Eliza, I promise.” He patted my leg. “They punched me once, and I could tell they weren’t even really serious about it.”
I nodded; apparently I was an open book. Note to self, practice hiding expressions. I used to be good at that; no one knew what was going on in my head. But these two were practically reading my thoughts. I suspected Asher was, though.
A few bullets hit the windshield and brought me back to the situation at hand. I needed sleep, after all, this, just a day of glorious sleep without having to worry about anything.
Instead, I sat on my knees facing the back window and quickly rolled my window down. I kept my left arm and gun close to the outside of the SUV, and I aimed and returned fire. The last thing I needed was to wave my hand out there and get it hit by a crack shot.
At the speeds, we were going that wasn’t an issue, but everyone had talent. And for all I knew the guy returning my fire’s talent was hitting small targets at high speed. My bullets hit their vehicle and sparked off of the front windshield.
Denny assumed a similar position and fired out his side. A tad more recklessly than I would have liked, but he hit their vehicle more often than not. At least, Denny didn’t utter a “heehaw” while firing. And if he were, I couldn’t hear it; thankfully.
I brought my arm back in and grabbed my other handgun, I would reload after this salvo and hopefully in between Denny’s shots. He would probably run out a lot faster than me, but this was distraction and dissuasion.
We weren’t trying to kill them, but we did need to lose them. We were thrown around in the back a lot, so I had to assume Asher knew how to shake a chase. I was out again and dropped back in and grabbed the closest spare clip.
I reloaded and took a moment to look over at Asher; he appeared engrossed in the road.
“Can you shake them?” I yelled.
“Yes, just hold out a bit longer. We will lose them soon.”
I didn’t bother responding but pushed my arm out again, only to yank it back in again as a couple of bullets hit my side of the car. It wasn’t the crack shot that I had feared, but Asher was choosing that exact moment to take a corner.
The next thing Denny tumbled all over me as Asher took another turn. By the time we were both upright again, he was slowing down. I turned to him ready to yell but saw his smug grin and instead punched him in the arm.
He took on an injured look and rubbed his arm, even though I didn’t believe it had hurt.
“Why did you do that? I thought you’d be happy we lost them.”
“For throwing Denny and me around so much that we could have shot each other, you could have warned us.”
A stunned silence fell and filled the car for a moment. Denny reached over and held out his right hand, after a moment Asher took hold of it, and they shook hands. I sat gob smacked.
“Thanks for coming back. Ignore her, she just doesn’t know how to show gratitude.” Denny said with a laugh.
He promptly ducked in anticipation of my punch. He was wrong, though, my arms were around him sure, but to hold him tightly. His grunt of surprise followed after a moment with a hug of his own.
Asher cleared his throat, and I let Denny go, I was tearing up a bit and needed a moment to gather my composure. I turned away from the boys and picked up all the clips and handguns, at least, I wouldn’t have to meet their gaze.
I was in the rear compartment, trying to quell my tears when I felt the car start up again.
“Did we succeed at least?” I heard Denny ask.
I didn’t hear the response; I was too busy being happy that my little family was safe. Fuck, I just became a mom were my thought as Asher pulled away.
Thirty-Nine
I had no idea where we were; the shots had come hard and fast, and I had to give Asher credit for choosing the best route for escape.
It was still my city, but I had to reassess my knowledge of its streets. I spent a lot of time skulking about it; it was a disgrace that I didn’t know its topography better.
In truth I knew the streets well, I didn’t know all the alleyways as well. Asher, on the other hand, seemed to be comfortable in these dark back ways. How many of his tasks involved driving around in the dark secret ways of the city?
I was content to sit quietly and bask in the knowledge that we had a rift generator and that no one had died. Unless we somehow managed to get a shot into the other guys’ vehicle. The likelihood of that was small, however.
“Now what?” Denny asked as we pulled into the garage.
I was walking around the SUV; it looked surprisingly good for just having come through a shooting car chase. It had seen better days now, like its sibling. But I wouldn’t have to junk it I thought.
“Now, we figure out how to use the rift generator and learn some botany skills,” I said and turned to him.
He nodded and walked to the stairs to the side warehouse entrance. Asher was strolling behind us, in no apparent rush. I would love a long hot shower before we did anything else, maybe even a shot of something strong.
But my wits would be dulled, and I fully intended to learn how to work the rift generator. My reliance on this alien had become too intense, too quickly.
Once inside, Denny went to the kitchen and got some tumblers. My stash of booze was close by, and he nabbed a bottle of Scotch. He poured for all of us without asking; the boys probably needed something as much as I did.
I knew the logic, but I picked up my tumbler regardless; celebration and salve, all in one crystal glass. The boys raised their glasses, and we clinked, I closed my eyes and brought the glass to my lips.
Quick thanks to whoever might be listening and I poured the whiskey into my mouth. A pleasant burn filled my mouth, and I swallowed before pleasant turned to pain. It burned its way down to my stomach and settled warmly in my belly.
I didn't want to open my eyes and return to reality. The reality was overrated and was
hurting my brain. Denny took the glass from my hand, and I opened my eyes. The room was far too bright, and the small sigh in my chest threatened to escape.
Asher was already at the dining room table messing with the rift generator. I forced the sigh down and walked over to him. He looked up at me and smiled, a welcoming and warm smile. Much as the whiskey had it held a burn.
It had a promise of so much more than I was capable of giving. A thought I had kept hidden in my heart for years surfaced. Perhaps it was my fault, all those years ago that my husband cheated on me. That, in fact, I had pushed him into the arms of another woman.
I pushed that down as well and instead of returning his smile and ignoring his questioning look I looked at the rift generator in his hands.
“How do we go about setting it up?” I asked.
“We need to get the app booted up and then configure the size of the opening we’ll need. After that, I will go into the basement and set it all up, after which I will activate it.”
“Okay, show me how the app works. Can you push it to my mobile?”
“Yeah, I can. But once we have set the size we want I don’t think we’ll need to use the app again.”
“It doesn’t matter; I need to know how this works. In case something goes wrong, and you’re not available to help.” I said.
“I will always be available to help you, Eliza,” He murmured.
I shook my head and moved away from him a bit. Ostensibly it was to get to my mobile but mostly to make some space between us. I didn't want to hear that; I was too tired to deal with any more of this thing between us.
He let me go and waited for me to come back with my mobile. We moved through the motions, pushing the app to my device and checking the installation.
After that, I put mine aside, and we stood uncomfortably close together over his mobile. He scrolled through the settings and brought up the ‘configuration’ menu.”
“Wait a moment please, let me get some paper and write this all down.”
Shi: A Dark Adventure into Living Forever Page 14