by R J Johnson
“And I promise you: After I’m through, he will wish he’d never found that stone.”
Chapter Forty
Ododa didn’t want to return to their house, but Lwansa had mentioned that the only photo she had of her parents was still in their living room. He cursed the idea that sentimentality might get him killed, but it was the only photo; her parents had always been camera-shy, and they’d died in a nasty flu outbreak last year.
He crept slowly through the brush that surrounded his house and watched for any signs of life. He thought better of simply appearing within his living room should a trap be there waiting for him.
After watching the house for a few minutes, it was clear there was no one inside. He checked his wound and saw it was red, ugly and still bleeding. He winced as he pulled the haphazardly applied bandage and looked at the inflamed tissue. It didn’t look good. He swallowed.
With a flash, he appeared inside his living room and looked for the photo. It had a place of honor in the center of the living room wall, and was one of a very few things that had remained undisturbed there.
He took the photo off the wall and looked down at the handsome couple, who were clearly very much in love. He’ always tried to live up to that perfect example of marriage, and for the most part, he felt like he’d succeeded.
He hoped so, anyway.
Pain flashed up from his gut, from the wound, and he realized it was time to get out while he still could.
He was about to teleport himself back to Paris and to his family, ready to disappear with them once and for all, when he saw a white iPad, sitting there in the middle of the living room where he couldn’t miss it. He glanced at it, then looked back out the window.
Unable to help himself, he reached down and pressed the button activating the screen. In a horrifying live video, he saw his men attempting to swim inside the bottom of the copper pit, and above them, the two men who’d arrived just as he’d defeated Mbasi.
One of the men pointed to the camera. Ododa recognized him as the man who shot him.
“Mr. Kline, it appears our friend has found our message.”
“Excellent!” the tall thin man laughed. He stood and moved to the iPad, picking it up putting his face in full view of the camera.
“My understanding is that I’m speaking with Otienu Ododa, is that correct?”
Ododa stared at the screen for a moment before replying, “I am Ododa.”
“I was worried you wouldn’t see the message I left behind.”
“What do you want?” Ododa demanded, his voice shaking. He saw his men struggling in the water behind Kline. “What have you done?”
“Oh, this?” Kline aimed the camera towards the bottom of the rapidly filling pit, where his men struggled to swim and stay afloat. “This is simply what happens when people steal from me.”
“What did they steal?” Ododa asked desperately, “Whatever it is, I’ll make sure you’re repaid double! Just let them go!”
“Oh, they didn’t steal anything from me, Mr. Ododa,” Kline said maliciously. “You’re the one who’s taken my property. That stone you took is rightfully mine, and I want it back.”
Ododa felt for the stone in his pocket and looked at it. Kline saw it in the camera and nodded. “Ahh yes, there it is. Quite an interesting little bugger, isn’t it? I understand it allows you to appear and disappear at will?”
Ododa still didn’t know what to say. He only nodded, still staring at the screen.
“So you understand the power and what it could mean to the right person?” Kline asked, a glint in his eye. “I’m very happy to hear that. So often you have to repeat yourself to those who can’t follow along. I’m glad to see you’re one of the good ones.”
Ododa raised an eyebrow. “'One of the good ones?”
Kline looked taken aback for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed, “No, no, I meant no offense. I was merely calling you a kindred spirit.”
“You and I are nothing alike,” Ododa said through his teeth.
Kline chuckled again, “Well, I suppose not. But you understand what it is to control power. Not political, not religious, but real, true power. The kind the universe only grants to the special. That makes you a god in my eyes, which helps me understand you better.”
“There is only one God,” Ododa said firmly.
“Hardly the time to argue philosophy…” Kline said, waving to Ododa’s friends who were drowning behind him.
Ododa shook his head. “People like you don’t deserve power like this. I’d rather drop it in the middle of the ocean.”
“You’re too good for that,” Kline said, his voice velvety smooth. “If you did that, there’d be nothing to stop me from doing this sort of thing to people all over the valley. Perhaps we’ll eventually run into someone you DO care about!”
Kline snapped his fingers, and Tate moved to increase the flow of the water. Ododa could hear the screams of his men as they were flooded again with a fresh spray from several new pumps.
“No!” Ododa cried out. “Stop! The stone is yours, but I need assurances you’ll let them and me go once we’re through.”
Kline spread his arms, out with his palms facing Ododa, looking as innocent as possible. “But of course! I have no further use for this mine. In fact,” he leaned forward, “I’d be willing to sign everything over to you, if that’d make your decision easier…”
Ododa ignored the offer. He knew a Faustian deal when he heard one. His friends were what mattered, not the stone, not money, not even the mine.
“Whatever it takes to send you back to the hell you came from,” Ododa growled.
“Then you know where we are,” Kline said. He glanced back at the drowning men and women behind him, “but I’d recommend you use that nifty ability of yours before there’s no one left to rescue.”
Ododa dropped the iPad and slid his wife’s treasured photo into his right front jacket pocket. He disappeared and, for the first time in his life, went looking for trouble.
Chapter Forty-One
Collier stumbled through the backyard and tripped over a plastic princess castle. He swore and blew it up with a wave of his hand, melting the plastic castle into a twisted nightmare. Rubbing his face, he tried to will the migraine away.
He sat down in the miniature chairs that came with the toy set, trying to catch his breath and gather his thoughts. One thought in particular echoed through his head, as it had since he’d started running:
Emily had betrayed him.
Whoever that man was apparently had a stone of his own. He took his out of his pocket and felt the power course through him. Grasping it, he closed his eyes and pictured its color and texture in his head.
Suddenly, he found himself transported to his burned-out living room, where he saw Emily and her new friends crowded around the strange truck she had arrived in. His eyes went wide. He dropped the stone, and the images vanished at once.
He reached out to the stone again and chuckled as he realized what he saw. The stone didn’t just grant him the ability to control and generate fire at will, he was able to…well, he wasn’t quite sure how to describe it other than to say he could project his consciousness to the nearest stone to him.
He beat his fists against his head as he was reminded of the image of Emily and this new man next to her. She had been cagey about her past, but she had mentioned a boyfriend in college who matched the man’s description. It wasn’t a stretch to assume that she was back with him, after pining over him for all that time.
Collier had met her at an astrobiology conference. Everything about her had enchanted him. She’d rebuffed his initial advances, but eventually fallen for his charm and charisma once he had taken her off guard at the hotel bar that night.
Their courtship had been a long one, and she had refused his offers of marriage more than once. However, before leaving for Peru, he’d told her that he was through waiting and if she wanted to make something of their relationship, they’d get married when he got b
ack.
She’d said yes.
And now she’d betrayed every promise.
Collier screamed in frustration as he thought of the money from the reserve still sitting on the table. The man hadn’t just stolen the love of his life away from him; he had also stolen the millions he had earned that very day with his daring robbery.
He stood and paced back and forth in the small backyard, trying to think of a plan.
Hoping pain would help jar an idea loose, he pounded his head with his fists, but nothing came to mind. Robbing another bank was possible, but it was late at night, and the National Guard was already being after him, never mind the military-like precautions SWAT teams would take with everything he did from now on.
A small blonde child entered the yard, holding a blanket and teddy bear, looking up at Collier with wide blue eyes.
He looked at her, and she whimpered in fear. She screamed and ran back into the house as he followed her.
A man stood up from the couch and grabbed a nearby sword off the wall, one Collier presumed he’d bought in case of zombie apocalypse. Collier let him take one swipe, which he dodged easily, then set the man on fire with a wave of his hand.
The wife screamed and moved quickly to intercept her daughter, protecting her from the invading man. Her husband fell to the ground, thrashing and rolling.
Finally he came to a rest as the flames died down. The wife looked up at Collier in terror.
“Take whatever you want, please!”
Collier looked around at the dumpy house full of middle-class luxury items. The widescreen TV was nice, but hardly practical if he wanted enough money to buy his own island with.
“Please, whatever you do, don’t take my daughter!”
Collier felt his mouth go sour at that. She thought he was there to kidnap her kid? He almost laughed at the sheer lunacy of the idea. What possible ransom could he reasonably expect to get with that little one?
He cocked his head as the beginnings of an idea began to overtake him. Kidnapping a child was a bad idea - no money in that.
No, he needed something bigger. Something he could take control of with his stone.
He glanced out the bayside windows, down at the 5 Freeway below and the snaking concrete ribbon that led up towards LA. It was then that he came up with his most brilliant plan yet.
He looked at the cowering wife. “Keys.”
She raised a shaking hand and pointed to the kitchen counter. He snatched them up and left through the kitchen door into the garage, where an aging minivan sat in the middle of the chaos created by two small children.
Collier looked at the stick figure bumper stickers on the rear of the van and decided to make some adjustments. Satisfied with his work, he stepped back and appreciated the view of the stick figures that were now unhappily roasting over a fire.
He got into the minivan, started it up and opened the garage door. It was early yet, but he had a feeling that his dreams of money and recognition were finally about to come true.
He smiled as he put the car in gear and moved down the driveway, knowing that whatever happened next, no one, not even Emily or her ex-fiancé, could stop him now.
Chapter Forty-Two
Ododa approached the copper mine carefully, knowing they’d be watching for him on the sites’ many security cameras. He had insisted on those new security measures himself, to help deter any thieves.
His foresight had seemed brilliant at the time, but now, it was an annoying reminder of his thorough nature.
From where he crouched, he could see his friends swimming frantically in the pit full of water. Apparently the monster Kline had taken the heavy chain link fence that normally surrounded the mine and used it as a way to trap his friends.
They didn’t have much time left, either. The two men who demanded the stone were sitting above his friends on the road up top (one of the few remaining after the landslide), standing next to a series of active pumps. Next to the pumps, the stouter bald man was rigging up explosives in the road, clearly designed to collapse the whole side of the mountain on top of his men.
There would be no survivors.
Ododa gulped and stood quickly, then immediately suffered a head rush. He grasped a nearby tree for balance and took several deep breaths to steady himself. He needed to be completely in control if he was to survive this.
He looked at his wound and winced. It was getting worse. No matter; he didn’t need much more than a few more minutes if his plan was going to work.
He crept through the brush, closed his eyes, and appeared in between Kline and Tate on the roadway.
Tate saw the six foot four imposing black man appear beside him and whirled around in surprise.
“Mr. Ododa!” Kline said, standing up from the metal chair. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
“Stop the pumps,” Ododa ordered, never taking his eyes off of Kline.
Kline waved his hand, and Tate pushed a button on his iPad. The pumps began to whine as the engines driving them slowed and turned off. The water gushing out of the hoses slowed to a few small drips.
Kline turned back to Ododa. “Satisfied?”
“Now the explosives,” Ododa said. He wouldn’t be assuaged so easily.
Kline’s face hardened and he stepped forward. “Insurance isn’t something you give up so easily.”
“Agreed,” Ododa said, and he disappeared in a flash. He reappeared behind Tate and grabbed the man by his shoulder, disappearing again into the ether before he had a chance to shout a warning to Kline.
Ododa and Tate appeared at eighty thousand feet, holding still in the air for a split second before gravity began to reclaim them.
“Don’t worry,” Ododa said as Tate began to freefall, “if your boss corporates, I’ll be back for you.” Ododa disappeared in a flash, leaving Tate to scream, hyperventilate, pass out and plummet in silence.
Ododa reappeared on the dirt road in front of Kline.
“I just dropped your man from eighty thousand feet!” Ododa shouted. “He has about three minutes to live unless you disarm those explosives!”
Kline looked at Ododa with a newfound respect in his eyes, but didn’t move a muscle.
“Do you want to join him? Eighty…well, sixty thousand feet in the air now, without a parachute, like your friend? Disarm the explosives!” Ododa shouted over the still-whining pumps.
Kline shook his head, smiled, and withdrew a second stone, which he pointed it at him.
Ododa felt a green haze come over him. He felt himself starting to move forward, step by involuntary step, as Kline held up his other stone. What was happening to him?
He stepped forward again, feeling the nightmare of losing control. He strained and resisted with every fiber of his being, but it was no use. His body no longer took orders from the home office.
He shut his eyes – and felt the stone release him. Ododa fell to the ground, gasping, and looked up at a shocked Kline, who then glared at his stone like he wanted a refund.
Kline may not have understood what just happened, but Ododa did.
His wife always called his eyes a “window to his soul,” and he understood the expression far better now. The stone controlled him so long as he was observing it. Not wanting to wait for Kline to figure that out, he decided to take the opportunity and help his men escape.
He vanished from Kline’s sight, then began to pop in and out all around the pit, taking each of his friends up past the edge of the pit and out of danger.
Spotting him down below, Kline shoved the stone back in his pocket, then whipped out his smartphone and pressed a button.
The explosives lining the copper mine began to explode one by one. Hundreds of pounds of TNT were wired to the interior of the artificial valley, and their blasts sent thousands of tons of rock, shale and ore tumbling down the sides of the mountain.
His face illuminated by the fiery blaze, Kline looked down at the only spot where Ododa would next appear – beside t
he last struggling worker – and sprang into the air, leaping straight down toward him.
Ododa reappeared and grabbed that last man, just as Kline landed on his back.
The three of them disappeared and reappeared again at the top of the mine as the explosions began to rock the entire camp. Whoever had installed the explosives on the road had failed to understand what the instability would do to the whole site. Chunks of the camp crumbled into the copper mine as the roads and supports, which had kept the mine accident free for so long, buckled under the shift in weight.
Kline lifted Ododa up by his belt as if grasping a briefcase and threw him across the camp. Ododa sailed toward a tree trunk at breakneck speed, but curled up in a ball and disappeared seconds before impact.
He reappeared right behind Kline ready to give him a flying lesson, but he was too slow. Kline ducked under Ododa’s hand and used his left fist to punch clean through the man’s sternum.
Ododa flew across the camp and landed in a crumpled heap of broken bones and blood.
He looked up at Kline who was slowly approaching him and spat out a bloody wedge of phlegm. He looked down at the mortal wound in his chest and coughed, blood flooding out of his mouth. He struggled with his arm and withdrew the photo he’d been sent to retrieve. He thought of where she might be, and he knew no matter what was about to happen, she and his children would be safe. They’d be able to create whatever lives they wanted for themselves.
The last thing he saw was the photo disappear from view.
Kline’s boot stepped down painfully on his hand, breaking the bones with a solid crunch. Unable to keep his grip on the stone, he released it and died as noble of a death as he could have wanted.
Kline leaned down over the man in triumph and picked up the yellow stone. He felt a thrill unlike anything else he’d ever experienced before in his life – better than even his triumph at Joshua Tree. Alex McCray and his people had spoiled that little party of his, but with three stones, he would be unstoppable.
A scream from up above interrupted his revelry. Kline rolled his eyes, clutched the new stone and disappeared.