First, his mother and Jim had been kidnapped. Then, there was a riddle that had led him to the junk yard. Now, there’s an auto-hound chasing him. It all reeked of the Padre. Ryan was certain that some left-over thugs from the Padre’s gang had finally tracked him down, and they wanted to exact revenge.
The corner wall of the facility was fast approaching, and Ryan didn’t hesitate. He took the turn wide and jumped up a meter, continuing to run on the wall, so he didn’t have to slow down. After ten meters parallel to the ground, he kicked off the wall and continued speeding through the junk yard on the dirt.
The ear piece in Ryan’s ear buzzed. “Holy shit, Da—, I mean Ryan!”
Lucy and Helen were back at her apartment, watching the action with a fancy drone in the sky.
Helen couldn’t contain herself. “I thought that thing was going to tear you apart. But you’re some kind of Olympian!”
Ryan tapped his ear piece. “See any way for me to deal with the metal mutt?”
Lucy chimed in, “Let me check.” She scanned ahead of where Ryan was running and then panned out. “Ah ha. There’s a tee-intersection coming up. Turn right.”
More artificial howling came from behind Ryan as he took this turn a little too fast, bumping into the wall of scrap. His speed was so great that the impact against the wall sent metal bits spewing all over the path and spun him around. But between Charlie and his mind firing on all cylinders, they were able to gather themselves while still maintaining most of their velocity and dodging the debris in their way.
“Damn. You all right?” Lucy said stoically.
Before Ryan could respond, Helen gushed, “You okay, honey?”
Ryan shook his head at her untimely affection and tapped his ear piece. “It was nothing.”
Lucy took back over. “Great. You’re coming to the center of the junk yard now. There’s an opening, and you’ll see a large gray crane.”
Sure enough, he saw it, and most importantly, he saw the giant magnet hanging from it. It was obvious what he needed to do. Heading that way, he hopped up onto the massive piece of equipment and sat in the control chair. He looked down to find buttons and joysticks that made absolutely no sense to him.
“How the hell do I turn this thing on?”
“Beats me.” Lucy sounded uncertain.
Helen was silently watching the drama play out, hoping like hell that Ryan would figure it out.
Ryan looked up to see the auto-hound appear from the corridor of metal, and he knew he only had seconds to figure out the machinery. Then, he felt the sinking feeling that rendered him paralyzed, and his mind instantly slipped back into Charlie’s brain and his eyes closed. When they opened, their white eye glowed brightly.
Charlie’s hands went to work manipulating the controls, making the crane rumble to life. He readied his finger to press the button to engage the magnet when he was startled by the electronic roar of the auto-hound and peered up. Shiny blades were coming directly for his head, and he blinked as his finger came down.
Helen turned away in horror.
A dull buzz echoed out of the junk yard, and a claw made contact with Charlie’s face. He winced as the cutting edge went a centimeter into his cheek, but he exhaled hard when he saw that the beast was pulled away through the air. It clanked against the magnet and snarled fiercely.
Lucy’s view was obscured by the top of the crane. “Shit! Ryan, are you okay?”
Helen gasped.
Charlie was still panting as a small stream of blood ran down his face. “I’m all right.” Then, he realized he had to push the button on the ear piece. “I’m all right, sweetie…Lucy.”
He heard Lucy squeal over the ear piece. “Dad? Is that you again?”
Helen sighed, happy that Ryan was okay. It was strange for her that Charlie had taken over.
“It’s me, honey.” Charlie wiped his face with his sleeve. “Where do I go next?”
There was a moment of silence. “Looks like you take the path to your left. You’ll come to a big clearing with another crane and some other equipment. There’s some people gathered there.”
Charlie wasted no time jumping down from the crane and resuming top speed. He came to the opening, then stopped. There were half a dozen people dressed in black. A couple of them appeared to be holding weapons. Then, Charlie’s eyes focused behind them. There was an industrial compactor. Stacy and Jim were tied to chairs in between the large, thick steel panels attached to massive hydraulics.
Charlie didn’t wait for instruction. “Let them go.”
A deep voice bellowed from the side of the compactor. “Who the hell put you in charge?” An imposing specimen of a man dressed in black appeared.
Charlie scanned him up and down, and with Ryan’s help, they deduced that he had to be at least two-hundred centimeters tall. His combat shirt was shaped with layer upon layer of chiseled muscle. Charlie tilted his head when he saw that the man had a strange rifle hanging from his shoulder. Then, Charlie saw something else. The man was wearing a cross around his neck.
Unfazed by the muscle-bound freak, Charlie squared up and said, “If it’s me you want, let them go.”
The tall man grinned. “Where’s the fun in that? I want to see what you’re made of.” The man raised his hand to reveal that he was holding a yellow box with a green and a red button on it. He lifted his other hand and moved it toward the green button. “Team Six, teach this kid a lesson.” The tall man pressed the button, and a warning siren sounded throughout the junk yard. The steel plates of the compactor began closing in on Stacy and Jim.
“No!” Charlie exploded toward them, white eye blaring, and the six people in black came at him in waves. He glanced at their faces as they converged, feeling like he recognized them. Then, it became obvious when they began shouting mindist phrases like “Die mind scum!” and “Rot in Hell, you im-mind-grant trash!”
Ryan’s angry memory of them bubbled to the fore. The Bigoted assholes from the street fight!
It was even more fuel for Charlie to beat them senseless, but he knew he didn’t have much time, or Stacy and Jim would be crushed. He took aim at the tall man with the switch, trying to engage the others as little as possible.
The first henchmen approached Charlie with a right cross. Charlie ducked under without slowing down and delivered a powerful blow to the man’s ribs in passing, breaking them in three spots instantly. The man toppled over, whimpering.
The next man came at Charlie with a roundhouse kick headed for Charlie’s face. Charlie’s fist met the man’s foot mid-air, shattering all the bones up to the ankle and sending him down writhing in pain.
Charlie’s speed was still picking up as two other men swung fighting sticks. Charlie grabbed one of the sticks as he slid to the ground and impaled a man in the groin. He narrowly avoided the other man swinging for his head by harnessing the speed from his slide into a roll. Charlie popped up just in time to snatch the stick from that man and break it over his head, dropping him to the ground.
The last man approached with a katana, swinging it wildly. Charlie slid down to one knee as the man raised both his arms into the air to cut Charlie in half. Charlie came to a dusty stop as the man used all his might to come down on Charlie’s skull. The blade was about to split Charlie’s face in two when it stopped completely, just centimeters from making contact. The man grunted as he processed what had happened in front of him. Charlie had brought both hands together perfectly on the blade, and before the man could determine his next move, Charlie had already swept his feet out from under him, flipping his blade up. Charlie exploded into the air, grabbed the katana, and came down into the man’s shoulder, pinning him to the ground. The man screamed in agony.
Only a woman and the tall man were left.
“Watch that one coming at you,” Lucy warned. “She’s got something strange in her hands.”
&n
bsp; The woman had a plastic rifle identical to the one strapped to the man. She lifted and aimed at Charlie. The tall man shouted again. “It’s too bad I have to kill you just to get to Charlie. I wish you could be there when I break him. Terry, fire!”
Charlie’s mind was on the comment of the tall man, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the woman as she pointed the weapon at his face. Her finger on the trigger, she was about to squeeze when her steading hand suddenly grabbed her neck, the rifle dipped. She immediately went limp and fell, dropping the gun.
“What the hell?” The tall man looked around and scowled. “Who the hell shot Terry?”
Charlie didn’t have time to figure out what was happening. His mind had gravitated toward the fact that somehow the man in front of him was, in fact, the Padre. He felt equal parts rage and terror, and he could hear Ryan’s mind yelling in the background.
No! We killed him! He was shot and burned! How the hell is he alive?
Ryan and Charlie’s thoughts were interrupted by Jim’s scream. “Help! Ryan!”
The metal plates crept closer to them.
Charlie took aim at the Padre. There was an uncertainty in the Padre’s eyes that Charlie recalled from their encounter at the warehouse where he had socked the Padre.
The Padre dropped the compactor switch and grabbed the plastic gun from his shoulder strap. Charlie was closing in just as the Padre attempted to aim. Just before Charlie could knock the gun from the Padre’s hand, he heard the click of the trigger. Again, time slowed down as Charlie attempted to dodge the ammunition of the weapon, and he saw a red beam flickering in the dusty air, shooting just past his eye but failing to make contact. It would have undoubtedly shined right in his pupil had something not hit the gun just as the Padre began shooting. Charlie sighed in relief, seeing a tranquilizer dart hit the ground, realizing that was what had hit the gun and the woman before.
Charlie ripped the weapon from the Padre’s hands and swung it into his knee. The gun shattered into a million plastic shards, and the Padre seemed unfazed. The Padre put both his hands together and came down on Charlie’s spine, sending him to the ground with tingles shooting down his extremities. Charlie gasped, trying to stay focused. He peered up to see that the switch was just a meter from him on the ground.
His ear buzzed. “Ryan, no! I mean, Charlie! Get up!” Helen sounded terrified.
“Dad, no!” Lucy’s voice trembled.
“Ryan! Help! It’s going to crush us!” Dread filled Stacy’s voice and Charlie heard the chair wood moaning as the steel plates made contact with them. He shot a glance to see Stacy and Jim standing up in the chairs to make themselves thinner. The Padre had lifted his foot to crush Charlie’s skull, but Charlie instinctively rolled toward the switch. The Padre’s foot slammed into the ground with a thud.
Charlie grabbed the yellow box and fumbled it for a second before finding the red button. He pressed it hard and heard the compactor screech to a stop and begin to retract. Then, a searing pain shot through his ribs, and he flew a meter in the air and bounced on the ground. The Padre had punted Charlie, and the switch had fallen from his hand to the feet of the Padre. The Padre bent down, slowly, and grabbed the compactor control. He winked at Charlie and pressed the green button again.
The compactor roared to a stop and then began closing again.
“Ryan! Honey! Please!”
Charlie felt paralyzed with a combination of pain and fear, the latter erupting from his past. His whole life, he’d thought his biological parents had abandoned him. But after Ryan told him otherwise, he felt somehow responsible for being a helpless kid all those years. He found himself in a similar situation with Ryan’s mother and Jim. They were going to get crushed, and he felt powerless to stop it. He’d gotten his second chance at life, but it was turning out to be just as bad as the first. Charlie wished like hell that the hanging he’d attempted in his cell had taken. Hardly a moment passed after that morbid thought, and his mind began to sink back into his brain, and his white eye shined.
If Charlie wasn’t in control, he wanted to offer some words of encouragement. “You got this, Ryan. Get that tall bastard and save your mom!”
But when Charlie’s mind settled, he felt Ryan’s presence near his own, not in the fore. It was then that Ryan’s pilot analogy came full circle for both Ryan and Charlie. Military planes always had three people in the cockpit. A pilot, a co-pilot, and a navigator. The navigator would chart the course and make sure the pilots would never veer too far off. For better or worse, Alabaster was their navigator. Fright welled up in Charlie as they completed the transition.
Alabaster wasted no time leaping up and darting toward the Padre. He lowered his shoulder, and in spite of their size difference, exploded through the Padre’s hips and wrapped up his legs for a perfect form-tackle. The Padre’s head whipped back and slammed against the ground. He was dazed and fumbled the switch. Sitting on the Padre’s chest, Alabaster grabbed the yellow box, hit the red button, and proceeded to bludgeon the Padre’s face with it. He’d gotten in two good shots when the Padre went unconscious. Alabaster wound up for another one that would surely crack the Padre’s skull.
“Ryan! Stop!”
A familiar voice came from behind Alabaster. He turned and saw Junior standing in the opening by the scrap corridor. Junior had a sniper rifle aimed at him.
“Let’s get your mom and Jim and get the hell out of here before reinforcements come.”
Alabaster shook his head and attempted to follow through with the Padre’s death blow. He felt a pin prick in his neck and fell to the side, slipping into unconsciousness.
Alabaster sank down into Charlie’s brain. He went deeper and deeper and, after what seemed like an eternity, could hear Charlie and Ryan having a heated discussion.
“You’re just mad he did what you couldn’t,” Ryan lashed out.
Charlie scoffed, “I’m glad he stopped the Padre. But the moment he took over, your essence got weaker. That has to mean something.”
Ryan wouldn’t have it. “He saved my mother. That’s all that matters.”
“That’s what he wants you to think,” Charlie persisted. “He’ll want this body for himself, and I think he needs you on his side to do that.”
Ryan scowled. “He’s kept you safe all these years. How can you be so ungrateful after finally realizing that?”
“I’ve always known he was there.” Charlie sighed. “I kept him at bay, so he didn’t get any more power over me than he already had.”
Alabaster appeared next to Ryan. “Is Charlie giving you trouble, Ryan?”
Ryan turned to him. “No. We just don’t see eye to eye on something.”
“That’s good. I’d hate for there to be conflict in here. I don’t think that will end well for us.”
Their conversation was interrupted by someone else’s voice.
“Ryan…Charlie…”
Chapter 24:
Return of the King
“Ryan…Charlie…” Junior tapped their cheek, trying to wake one of them up. “Hello? Whoever you are?”
Ryan surfaced into the fore and jerked into consciousness. “Junior, what happened with Mom and Jim?” He sat up on the couch in Junior’s office.
Helen and Lucy, who had been standing over him, took a step back to give him some air.
Junior nodded. “I had a friend take them out of town to a safe place. I’ll make sure Stacy can contact you in a couple days after things have died down.”
Ryan took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
Helen sat down next to Ryan and gave him the biggest hug. “I was worried at first. Then, I saw from the drone how fast you moved and how hard you hit. Damn, those guys had no clue who they were messing with.”
Ryan’s brow went up as he disengaged from Helen. “How the hell did you even know I was there, Junior?”
Junior held
up the dupe of Ryan’s phone and frowned. “Some precincts dupe the phones of political suspects. Fighting PMU last week made you just that to East Twelfth.” Junior realized the error he’d just made, and he looked up at Helen.
Ryan rubbed his face and waved him off. “It’s okay. She knows.”
“Knows he can be a jerk,” Helen snapped.
Ryan snickered and looked away.
Junior smiled and then frowned again. “Anyway, sorry. I took the dupe, certain you may need my help again someday.”
Ryan sighed. “No, I can’t thank you enough. I have no idea what those weapons were, but I’m glad they never hit me.”
Junior looked at Lucy, then Helen. “Indeed. So, your friends have brought me up to speed. I know Charlie Rios is”—he pointed to Ryan’s head—“in there somewhere. You seem to be handling that well.” He sighed. “But do you have any idea why those people kidnapped your mother?”
Ryan nodded and frowned. “The tall man. You probably should have let…me kill him.”
“No, Ryan,” Junior pleaded. “I told you that I won’t commit crimes for you. I was even iffy about using the tranquilizer. Regardless, I also won’t sit back and let you commit crimes in front of me. Those scumbags aren’t worth going to prison.”
“You don’t understand.” Ryan quivered. “I have a strange feeling that he’s somehow your father.”
Junior’s eyes widened. His jaw dropped. “No way.” He took a step back. “I put three bullets in him and the building crumbled around him.”
Helen leaned in and whispered, “The Padre is…alive?”
Ryan nodded to Helen, and then turned to Junior. “His hate for Charlie and me was obvious. He spoke like your father. He even had a cross around his neck.”
Victoria’s words from long ago echoed in Junior’s mind. “…don’t believe he’s dead unless he dies in front of your eyes.” He shook his head. “What did this man say to you to make you think he was my father?”
Between Two Minds: Revelation Page 39