by Peter Hartz
He looked up at the boy’s mother, whose protectiveness of her child overruled her fear of the unknown to reach out to the boy. His smile was somewhat goofy as he tried to be as non-threatening as possible.
“Your boy is very brave, good lady. As are you. What are your names? I am Karonashkk, chief guard to Queen Delara.”
“I’m William. This is my mom.” The boy spoke up before his mother could stop him, or get a word in first.
“William is a good name. It is good to meet you, William. And William’s mother, it is good to meet you as well.”
“Uuhh, yeah, thank you. It’s good to meet you as well. I’m Elizabeth.” The woman seemed unsure of what to do next, but William pressed on.
“Where did you come from? What are you?” William’s voice was filled with awe and curiosity.
“William! Don’t be rude!” She tried to shush him, but Karonashkk just laughed gently.
“I am not offended, dear lady. I am from the Elven City. I am a Minotaur. I serve the Queen as her chief bodyguard when she travels. When she is in her home, I am the keeper of her jails. I keep bad beings locked up so they cannot hurt good people.”
Geoff turned back to Delara and Mark with a smile on his face as the conversation between the boy, his mother and the Minotaur carried on. “What an amazing person. Still, I would hate to see what he could do with that hammer, should he become upset.” It was a pointed statement from the mayor, and Delara caught the undercurrent in it.
“I assure you, Karonashkk is not given to violence, or even bad manners. If he were, I would not rely upon him so. Ease your mind.” Delara stated lightly, but clearly.
“Forgive me. I have a responsibility to the safety of the public and the property of the city we are in.”
“I agree. We shall speak no more of such things, unless need arises.”
The improbable conversation between the elven queen and the human mayor continued for a few minutes, before the police chief intervened. “I regret to say this, Your Majesty, but this situation is causing problems for the people who own the stores and shops here in the mall. We have been keeping people away from you to protect both your party and the shoppers here, which is cutting into the business that these people depend on for their livelihood. Is it possible that we might postpone this or take it up somewhere else?”
The queen nodded. “We mustn’t harm others, and if my being here is causing harm, we must withdraw. Giltreas, will you please see that everyone that came with us is ready to return to either the throne room or David and Michelle’s company building?”
Giltreas nodded, and walked off to round everyone up. He told Karonashkk that they were intending to move back through the gate, and asked his red-skinned friend to help get everyone ready to go.
Karonashkk nodded seriously to his friend, and then reached out to William to clasp arms with the young boy, whose eyes got wide as he experienced the warrior’s greeting for the first time. Then Karonashkk did the same to Elizabeth, before standing up to his full height and looked around. His organized mind checked off everyone on the list, excluding Anaradelle who was obviously off on her own and capable of going anywhere and doing anything she wished, until he came to the two dwarves. They were nowhere to be seen.
A quick question to the elven guards came up empty as well. No one had any idea where they had gotten off to. Karonashkk reported this to Giltreas, who relayed it to Delara.
Geoff frowned as he and Mark heard that two non-humans were missing from the unusual group of non-humans. David and Allison heard the report as well, and started looking around. Allison turned to Mark and said, “Can your officers find them? They have no idea where they are, or what kind of trouble they might be able to get into. Here, this is my cell phone number,” she said, pulling out a crumpled business card from her pocket and handed it over. “I think we are going to have to leave without them if we can’t find them. I need to be notified as soon as you can make contact with them, and we will be back to pick them up.”
Mark nodded. “I have no idea what they look like, though. Do you have a picture or something?”
Allison smiled. “Or something. Give me a minute.” She dug into one of the small, square-shaped leather pouches that adorned her belt, and pulled out something. Then she held it in both hands, murmured some words, and a glowing image appeared above her hands at eye level.
Mark gasped as the illusion took shape. It was a realistic, three-dimensional representation of the heads and shoulders of two missing dwarves, and he nodded. Then he looked up as Allison spoke up.
“You got a smart phone? Take a picture before the spell wears off.”
Mark whipped out his phone and took several shots before the spell faded. Then he pulled Sergeant Bradenton over and showed him the images. “These two are missing from the group. We need to round them up carefully and gently. Remember they are not from around here, so be on your best behavior, as we have no idea how they are capable of responding. The queen and her main group here are graciously planning to leave right away. As soon as the two wayward ones are found, we need to call Allison’s cell number. I will send the pics to your phone, but spread the word quickly to your people. I don’t want them to come to any harm, or get in trouble.” He glanced at the perimeter and frowned.
“I don’t think we will be able to get these people to leave. If I am correct, inform your people and the guards that they will have to hold the perimeter. It shouldn’t be much longer before they leave, and that should diffuse the situation and give them nothing to be interested in.”
The queen made the decision to move back to the MDST building as soon as possible, and allow Allison to be the point of contact for the police when they found the two wayward dwarves. The police and security guards were now no longer trying to evacuate the food court area, and were forced to simply try to hold everyone back from the queen and her retinue. Some were calling for reinforcements, and more of both guards and officers were slowly trickling in from other parts of the mall to help contain the crowd and prevent them from intermingling with the
Giltreas called up a gate to the lobby back at the downtown MDST building after David called the security desk to warn them, and Delara turned to Geoff.
“Would you wish to come with us and continue our conversation? We will return you to here if you wish when we are done.”
Geoff thought about it for a moment, and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity wasn’t lost on him. “I need to take at least one officer with me. Where would we be going?”
Delara nodded. “We are going to the center of this city, where David’s business is located. No further, I promise. And your officer is welcome. I promise no harm will come to either of you.”
Geoff nodded, and turned to Mark. “Shall we?”
Mark nodded. He had good people here, and trusted them to resolve the situation and locate the two missing dwarves. He turned to Sergeant Bradenton and told him, “I will be reachable by cell or radio, if you need me. They will return me back immediately if I am needed. In the meantime, here are the keys to my cruiser, if you need them. I will be back to get them from you when we are done.”
“I need to be back in no more than an hour, though, and I know you do, too.”
Geoff nodded in reply. “Agreed.” He turned to Delara. “We are ready.”
As the last few members of the group trooped through the gate, William broke free from his mother again and bolted past Karonashkk (who was planning on being the last one through as a rear guard) to run through the gate as well, as his mother screamed in shock and fear.
Some in the crowd, who had become disappointed that the show would obviously be over soon, called out as the boy shot past everyone and leaped into the glowing thing and disappeared from view.
The Minotaur surged through the gate and caught up to the young boy, before picking him up gently but quickly and turned to go back through to the mall.
Elizabeth nearly sagged in relief as the huge red-skinned being
suddenly appeared, almost as quickly as he had left, back through the gate with the struggling boy in his arms. He set the boy down and held him at arm’s length as his mother came up and grabbed the boy by the arm. “What were you thinking?!?” She shrieked as she pulled him close to her.
“Mom! I was just - ” He tried to speak up, but she wasn’t having any of it.
“You could have been lost! I might never have seen you again! What were you thinking!?!” Her anger and fear coursed through her as tears threatened to break free.
Karonashkk spoke up calmly and quietly. “I would allow no harm to come to your beloved child. He is a normal, curious young boy who made a bad choice. William, you must not do such things to your mother. She cares greatly for you, and her life would be in ruin if anything happened to you. You must think of your mother before doing anything like that ever again.”
William looked up at his mother, and saw the pain and fear in her eyes as she glared down at him, and it made him feel awful. He couldn’t find the words to say, but instead reached out and wrapped his arms around his mother and held on tight, suddenly aware of just how foolish his act had been.
Elizabeth looked over her son’s head at the huge being that had brought her son back to her, and mouthed, “Thank you,” her arms still clasped tightly around her only child. Karonashkk merely nodded and smiled, then turned to walk through the gate as the sounds of the crowd being held back by the growing line of police officers and security guards got louder and more unruly. Then an abrupt silence covered the spectators as the Minotaur walked through the gate and it disappeared behind him as if it were never there.
Chapter 42
“Svetlana, we need to have a conversation.”
“What is it, Poppa?” Svetlana looked up from her book. Her mother had taken her younger brother shopping, and they were alone in their apartment.
Now Svetlana frowned as the serious look on her father’s face registered.
“Sveta, I have been told that there are people out there who know what you can do, and they want to gain control of you.”
Svetlana nodded. “I imagine both sides of the law want that. This is not unexpected. My teacher has prepared me for this.”
Borysko’s mouth dropped open. “You know? How do you know?”
“Poppa, I am certain that more than one person recorded what happened outside the police station in Tbilisi that day. Those recordings will find their way to people who have an interest in it.”
The calm voice of his daughter was... indescribably calm and serene. But before he could say anything, she spoke up again.
“No one will stop until I tell them to. I need to send a message. Here’s what I want to do.”
They argued about it for almost two hours before Borysko gave in. Svetlana answered every objection as best she could, and there really wasn’t any better, or even any at all, idea that he came up with. There was really no other option. It would take a few days to set up, or longer, but Svetlana was content to wait while preparations were made.
◆◆◆
“Mister President, we have a situation.”
“What sort of situation?” President Geoffrey Thomas Morrison had been sitting in the Oval Office, meeting with two U.S. Senators. Senator Malcom Kurtzman from South Dakota, the democratic Majority leader and ranking Democratic member of the U.S. Senate Judicial Committee, was sitting on the right end of the couch, with Senator Brendan Webster, the Republican Minority Leader and ranking Republican member of the Judicial Committee, sitting on the left in some sort of weird juxtaposition at odds with their political affiliation, They were there to discuss the current budgetary standoff with the President, when his chief of staff had opened the door and spoken into the room.
“Sir, there have been some incidents that we need to bring to your attention. The media team has assembled a briefing, and we can show it to you here in the Oval, if you prefer.”
“Can it wait? I am meeting with these two fine gentlemen at the moment.” He smiled at the two senators, who smiled back, before turning back to his trusted associate.
“Sir, I don’t believe so. I think they will want to see this as well.”
Nearly an hour later, the President was at a loss for words, having seen the footage from Minnesota of a teenage boy named Daniel resurrecting a college girl, the footage of the unicorn from some unknown location in the country, the entire Sanderson prison footage, which made everyone in the room wince at several points, which came before the footage of Congresswoman Smithson implicating herself as one of the heads of a conspiracy to kidnap and murder the owners of a privately held high-tech corporation in Minneapolis. That was followed by several video clips of a being calling herself the Goddess Anaradelle, which triggered memories of her voice in their minds making some impossible statements.
Finally was the footage from the Mall of America of the exotic woman calling herself the Elven Queen. There were almost a dozen clear, high-definition videos of her in all her glory, including some close-up footage, that had to have been taken with a very good high-definition camcorder with an excellent zoom lens, that was able to show that the green-skinned woman with the pointed ears was not wearing makeup. It was clearly obvious that she really was not human from the footage available to them.
“Man, what is in the water up in Minnesota? Have we been able to confirm any of what we just saw? I don’t know where to begin. Let’s see, the most immediate thing I am concerned with is Congresswoman Smithson. What do we know about that?”
“We don’t have any idea where she is at the moment, or who recorded or uploaded the video. The techs at the FBI, the CIA, and those guys at the NSA are all looking into the video, and the FBI is searching for Smithson, to get her side of the situation. NBC News had an expert in special effects on the news this evening that swears that footage would be all but impossible to fake. We have researched the Wilhelm people and have been unable to find any trace of Michelle Wilhelm and Allison Wilhelm; that’s the sister and the wife, respectively.”
Senator Kurtzman shook his head. “I can’t believe that any member of congress would be stupid enough to talk about their involvement in a plot like that, and with three people in the room holding video cameras. Wow.”
“I have to reevaluate my opinion of my colleague in the House, I am afraid. I knew she was ambitious and single-minded, but this is... beyond the pale, should the situation show itself to be as she has said.” Senator Webster shook his head as the President nodded. The Republican was laying the groundwork to hedge his bets and distance himself and his party from a rogue member that seemed to be intent on crashing and burning in a singularly spectacular fashion. Not that Kurtzman would have been saying anything fundamentally different were the roles reversed. That was how the game was played.
President Morrison nodded. “This cannot be about containment, because the footage is out on the Internet already. We need to determine what happened in that situation before we have angry mobs storming D.C. We need to get out in front of that, and deal with her directly. With the public’s perception of the government as low as it could possibly be because of the entire NSA contractor situation, this is the biggest threat we could have to our democracy right now.”
The senators nodded. While they were in creatures of partisan politics, and old hands at the inter-party warfare that was the accepted norm in congress, they both saw the need to preserve the functionality of the government, for obvious reasons.
Just then the door to the Oval Office opened and the head of the FBI hurried in, followed by the Attorney General.
Eric Glickh, the current Attorney General, spoke first. “Good day, Mister President. Your chief of staff told us you were here. I hope you don’t mind the intrusion?”
“No, Eric, of course not. You definitely would have been called if you didn’t show up. It looks like we are facing a number of situations here that I need to get up to speed on. Have a seat. We were just discussing the Congresswoman Smithson situation
. What do either of you know about it?”
Both men found their seats after shaking hands with the two Senators in the room. Then the head of the FBI spoke up.
“To be honest, very little,” Harald Kirkpatrick said. “I was notified about the video about ten minutes into the newscast, and I immediately set a team up to locate and interview her. We have to assume that the video is legitimate.
“My analysts tell me the same thing that was said on NBC, that the video would be very difficult to fake. The strange thing is, why would she be so forthcoming in the first place? That is the question I have been asking myself and my entire staff since I saw it. No one is coming up with any answers on that one, so far.
“We also have a team trying to locate Michelle Wilhelm, David Wilhelm, and Allison Wilhelm, although I understand David Wilhelm surfaced at the Mall of America yesterday morning in that incident, or incidents, I should say.”
“Why do you say multiple incidents?”
“Well, the videos we are seeing seem to indicate that there are two separate beings we need to focus on.
“First, the Elven Queen and her party. We have a number of very good videos of her and her party. While it might be possible, no matter how difficult, to fake up her appearance, that Minotaur with her would be impossible to fake. We don’t know of any people living right now of that height that would be able to fit inside a costume and makeup.
“The tallest known man in the world right now is Sultan Kösen of Turkey, and according to immigration records, he is not in the country at the moment. I don’t think he has ever been in the U.S. None of the other men known to be alive today that might be able to fit into a costume like that are on U.S. soil, either. Besides, the videos we have seen show that the facial features of that… being… are fully articulate in a way that is impossible to fake outside of Hollywood special effects in a movie. The queen herself is also covered in lots of different clips that have all appeared on virtually every social media and video sharing website.