The Return of the Watchers (Armageddon Rising Book 1)

by Denny Bennett

  “Yuki, is everything all right? You sounded upset on the phone and then you hung up on me,” he said. “Please come get me, help me!” she sobbed.

  “Okay, no problem, where are you?” he asked in a calm, soothing tone. “At a gas station called Marathon on Michigan Avenue. There is no other sign.” “That’s a pretty long road, can you narrow it down a bit for me?” he asked, trying not to upset her.

  “One second.” A group of people on the corner were holding signs and warming themselves over an oil drum that had a fire going. She darted over to get an answer.

  “Um, excuse me! Can you tell me what street this is?”

  They pointed out where she was and she thanked them with some money then gave the information to Dorian. “Please hurry, please!” she cried, sounding desperate. “I will, but you'd better wait in your car and lock the door. It's not safe to be out on the streets.”

  There were plenty of people milling about at this hour, trying to stay warm from the freezing cold, as the shelters for the homeless were filled beyond capacity. People huddled together on street corners, pacing back and forth, while holding signs that asked any passerby for assistance, whatever they could spare. As if their misery wasn't bad enough, they still had to contend with the thugs in the gangs and the thugs in blue. After twenty minutes had past, she heard Dorian’s familiar vintage Camaro rumbling down the road. He pulled alongside her car and got out to inspect it, thinking that she had been in an accident or something. Yuki rushed to his side, wrapped both arms around him and began crying, speaking in small bits of English and mostly Japanese between sobs. He patted her on the head as she rested it on his chest. She instantly felt better, in an almost supernatural way. “I have to use the restroom very much.” she said, looking up at him the way a child does when they have already had a small accident in their pants. “There’s a 24 hour pharmacy up the road. We’ll stop there.” As they made their way, Yuki started telling Dorian about her day, why she had to leave early, and everything that had happened, at lightning speed. “Okay, slow down for a minute. We’ll go in together, you take care of your business and we’ll continue this conversation when you get out,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot. Yuki was trembling from what appeared to be hunger, so he grabbed her a Snickers bar and some juice while she finished using the restroom.

  When she came back out Dorian was waiting for her at the front with bag in hand. “Let’s get you something to eat. You look famished,” he said, handing her the candy bar and the drink. Yuki loved chocolate so this was a gift from heaven. He opened the car door for her and she got inside. The seat made a creaking sound from the aged springs. The heater in the car gave out stale, lukewarm air that added to the unique scent of old car mixed with chocolate, cheap bathroom soap from the pharmacy, and oranges. Now that she felt safe, her energy returned to her with each passing moment. Looking over at him, she became mesmerized by his luminescent white hair and his unusual looking eyes. A small slit of eerie glowing light seemed to occasionally show itself around the bottom of his grey iris. She dismissed the phenomenon as a trick of the light and her fatigue. “It’s kind of late so there won’t be much that’s open right now. Are you okay with Mickey D’s?” She was still a bit hungry after the candy bar and could eat just about anything. “Hai,” she replied; then remembering to speak in English, “yes”. The road still had compacted snow from what had fallen earlier that day, and snow flurries were just starting up again. The consequences could result in her car being snowed in, or towed if she left it at the gas station. They got the fast food and she ate as he drove back to retrieve her car. She followed him to another gas station that was still open at that hour, filled up, and the two made their way to her home. It was now after midnight and even though he had an early morning lecture, he offered to stay and keep an eye on her. Not wanting to be a burden, she reassured him that everything was fine and that they would discuss the day’s events in detail later on.

  Three

  Dorian left Yuki's apartment feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. Yuki had spoken only briefly about what had been discussed in her meeting, but he knew it had involved him and his research at Primase. Various scenarios were running through his head concerning the questions she would undoubtedly have. The best course of action, he decided, would be to test the waters, see what she knew, and play his responses off of that. At least that way he wouldn’t have to divulge anything unnecessarily.

  The following morning Dorian got dressed and headed off to the University. He asked Engel to set up the power point presentation for the section he was lecturing on for an immunology class at the medical school. His concentration was not fully given to the lecture as his thoughts were drawn to the impending meeting with Yuki; undoubtedly, she was already in the lab.

  “That went well,” Engel said in a joking and sarcastic tone after the lecture. “I’ve got a lot on my mind today. Engel, do me a favor and take my 2:30 for me. It’s pretty straightforward; all the material is on the slides. You already know this like the back of your hand,” he said, looking tired. “No problem, Chief.” Engel was clearly happy to have an opportunity to get in his good graces. “Everything all right, Dr. Lystad? You seem a bit distracted.” “I’m fine; I just have a full plate today. I appreciate you helping me out. I’ll see you later on.” He took the shuttle bus back to the medical science building to finish his earlier conversation with Yuki. When he walked into the lab the familiar sounds of the equipment running filled the air, along with Kasia’s Polish music. He usually enjoyed the ambience; it would make him feel like he was somewhere else when he was having a stressful day. It wasn’t working today, however. “Yuki?” he quietly called while peering around the corner. Kasia was sitting at her desk, staring intently at her computer screen. “She got a package and went into the conference room down the hall; didn’t say much,” Kasia said, without looking away. Dorian felt troubled by this. “What package? Is she all right?” “Relax,” Kasia quipped, shifting her gaze to Yuki’s desk, where the remnants of a bubble packed envelope were sitting.

  “She’s fine; it was a memory chip with a movie on it. 'Something Street'.” Dorian went over to Yuki’s desk. The package had been sent from T.D. International corp. “Oh, before you go, don’t forget you have office hours at four,” Kasia reminded him. He pondered on whom the package might be from and headed to the conference room. Yuki was sitting alone with her laptop, watching an old movie titled “Wall Street”. “What’s going on?” he asked. “I don’t know. This was sent to the lab. For some reason it was addressed to me. I didn’t order any movie. There wasn’t an invoice, a note or anything in the package,” she replied, a slight worry in her tone. “I just started playing it. What does this mean?” “Why don’t we start from the beginning of yesterday,” Dorian said, closing the conference room door behind him. “Tell me what happened.”

  Yuki paused, gathering her thoughts and deciding what she wanted to say.

  “I was contacted by my father, who told to me to go to New York and meet with an investor who had some questions for me about your research. I did not give it much thought, as there is nothing top secret about what we do and little opportunity for profit, so I agreed to hear them out since they were offering payment just to listen.” Dorian’s face was expressionless; Yuki worried he might be upset with her. “When I arrived in New York, I met a man named Theodore Dantanian and his assistant, April.” “Theodore Dantanian”, Dorian thought. “Where have I heard that name before?” Yuki started to speak again and Dorian interrupted her with his epiphany. “Oh, right, the corporate tycoon investor; wait, that Theodore Dantanian?” he asked with a shocked expression. “Yes, at least that’s who he claimed to be. I do not think he was lying about his identity. At least, I know my father checked him out. He asked me if I knew about your research, and when I told him what we are working on he said that was not what he was referring to. Apparently he thinks you are conducting some kind of secret experiment. Crazy, right?
” she asked, half-joking and half-serious. “Damn,” he thought. He was in trouble; someone had found out and this wasn’t good. The need to trust someone was always there; for too long he had been carrying this burden. On the other hand, getting Yuki involved in something that could be dangerous, especially with a big player like Dantanian on the trail, was not what he had in mind. The prospect of an ugly future was beginning to take shape.

  “What else did he say?” he asked, avoiding her question entirely. She looked at him as if she didn’t believe what she was about to say. “He told me about a blood sample that was stolen from you at Primase and said that it had unusual properties; impervious to every kind of pathogen, cells that had an unusual chromosome arrangement, immortal, fire resistant. You get the picture, crazy talk. He told me that he had already contacted you for a deal, but you turned him down, so, he offered me a lot of money to spy on you and give him whatever data you had or a sample of this super blood.” Dorian sensed she was skeptical so he played into it. “Yuki, yes, I was contacted by an individual from a company called Hermoni, but they wanted me to head their research department at one of their subsidiary biotech firms, looking into senescence or something like that. I told them I wasn’t interested. I did have quite a few mutated blood samples at Primase that I was using for my cancer research, but if I had something on that level of significance I would be researching it myself,” he replied, evading the truth without directly lying to her. Yuki smiled and laughed. “For a while there I was thinking there was this great conspiracy going on, what with the offer from Dantanian, the strange van following me, and then this package. It is funny how the mind plays tricks on you,” she said in a relieved voice. “So what did you tell him?” he asked. “You really need to ask? I’m hurt,” she replied with a pouty face. “Okay, okay,” he said, smiling with his hands up. “You going to watch the rest of that or are we going to get some work done?” The movie was playing with the volume muted. “I didn’t know what it was. I am done here.” She folded her laptop and followed Dorian out of the conference room.

  As she made her way back, some doubts still plagued her. She wondered to herself why Dorian feigned ignorance about Dantanian since she had been told by Dantanian himself that he had contacted Dorian already.

  Not falling for his ruse, she decided to quietly, indiscriminately, and carefully observe Dorian for herself; not to report back to Dantanian, but rather to ease the lingering questions that remained. Back at the lab, several undergraduate students were working under the direction of Engel, who was sitting on a stool looking over some papers. Yuki went to her desk to clean up and took the movie out of her computer, returning it to its case. Dorian shut himself in his office on the opposite side of the hallway and heaved a sigh of relief. Reaching into his bottom desk drawer, he took out a bottle of 100 proof whiskey and filled a small Styrofoam coffee cup (that had a bit of old coffee in it) halfway with the rotgut. His body processed alcohol so quickly that he was unable to get drunk, but the really cheap stuff at least made him feel warm inside as it went down. Putting his hands over his face he smooshed his cheeks in a circular motion as if to remind himself he still had his job to do. Four o’clock was approaching and he had office hours for one hour, data to go over, payroll for the three TA’s and journals to read. Grabbing his phone, he paged Engel to bring the invoice calculations that Engel was boasting about earlier to Dorian's office. “I’ll be there in a minute,” Engel shouted through the hallway.

  “Does anyone want this? I’m not sure how to return it.” Yuki asked, holding up the movie that had been mistakenly sent to her. “You’re giving away of one of the greatest movies of all time!” Engel announced with astonishment and mock interest, prompting Kasia to roll her eyes. “You sure you don’t want this? Gordon Gekko, the Darth Vader of investing, master market manipulator slash destroyer of companies and all around greedy bastard?” he declared, followed by him quoting lines from the movie. “Thanks for spoiling it for me, loser! I was going to take it,” Kasia snapped, even though she had no actual desire to have the movie; her primary objective was simply irritating him. “How does a drunk, surfer rock, poser, wannabe researcher know so much about this stuff anyway? Isn’t this about the establishment and all that?” “Let's just say I used to day trade for a bit, so I know a thing or two about it,” he replied, not convincing the others within earshot. Yuki froze for a second. A chill went down her spine and her heart began pounding in her chest.

  “Engel, tell me, what happens in this movie?” she asked in a worried voice. “I’d be delighted to tell you all about it. Pull up a chair,” he said, the others in the room chuckling amongst themselves. “Well, it starts with-”

  “Just the short version, the main plot points,” Yuki interrupted. Engel was taken aback. “Ok, ok, sheesh, what’s the hurry? Basically this billionaire investor would use dirty tricks to make money, like having insider information to make stock trades, or he would buy up companies and then strip the assets and raid the pension funds- pretty much obliterate the company to gut it for money. There was this younger associate he hired-.”

  He stopped in the middle of his sentence when Yuki got up from her chair and ran out of the building, trying to get reception so she could call her father. She let it ring until his voicemail came on, then left a frantic message. Immediately after, she attempted to reach her sister but there was no answer from her either. Her heart still racing, she ran upstairs to get to her computer and went to the web site for the Tokyo stock exchange, entering the ticker symbol for her family’s company. Sukekuni Corp. was up a considerable amount. She pored over the news headlines. “Hermoni Corporation gains controlling stake in Sukekuni Company.” Another read, “Hermoni positions itself as a global leader in healthcare.” She felt ashamed at the loss of her family legacy. Tears welled up and began trickling down her cheeks, and she regretted getting involved with the scoundrel who had done this. This wasn’t an accident; TD International on the package she received was Theodore Dantanian’s company, it had to be. It was a message being sent to her. Play ball or face the consequences. Her sister sent a text message: “Mt. Fuji went off for the family today. Father is in the hospital, he had heart attack, mother is fine. Will call when I know more. Luv Aki.” Yuki started to come unglued. She went back outside and grabbed some snow on the ground and rubbed her face in it so she could feel something to take away the pain in her heart.

  “What the hell is going on with Yuki? One minute she’s asking who wants the movie, the next she's running around hysterically crying and whatnot. I don’t understand women at all,” Engel said in a dazed voice. “And you never will,” Kasia retorted with mock condescension. Engel walked over to Dorian’s office to give him the invoice numbers. He handed Dorian the paper, and whispered that Yuki was crying about something. “Give me a moment, I apologize,” Dorian said to the student who was in the office with him. He went out into the hallway where Engel was waiting. “What’s this about?” he asked, hoping it had nothing to do with the events of yesterday. “Beats me,” Engel replied. “One minute I was giving Yuki a synopsis of a movie, and the next minute she was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.” Dorian peeked his head into the lab. “Yuki?” he sheepishly called out. “I think she’s outside; her coat and purse are still here. She's probably trying to make a call. She was really upset about something,” Kasia replied, while staring at her screen.

  The other students in the lab were quiet, murmuring to each other about the commotion they had just witnessed. Dorian went back into his office. “I apologize; we seem to be having a small crisis of some sort. I’m going to have to cut this short for today, but I’ll have office hours again on Friday. Don’t worry about your test grade. The final will be curved, so just make sure you go over what we talked about.” His student packed her books in her bag and gave him a dreamy smile. As soon as she had left he locked his office and went down the stairs to go outside, where he saw Yuki sitting on the steps of the building. Her ha
nds were red, her face strewn with tears, and she was trembling amidst sobs. “Yuki,” Dorian said softly. “Let’s get you inside.” He gently put one hand under her elbow and the other around her waist, and the two of them walked into the building. They went into the conference room, where she sat down and Dorian motioned he would be right back. A moment later he returned with a cup of hot chocolate and a paper towel. After handing them over, he waited a few minutes until she was composed rather than peppering her with questions.

  “My family lost our company today and my father had a heart attack. I have to return to Japan,” she said, amidst a renewed crying spell. “I’m so sorry, Yuki. I hope your father is okay. Is there anything I can do for you?” “Help me get to the airport. I need to book a flight.” She slowly got up, dried her face and blew her nose. There were several student onlookers rubbernecking as she made her way into the lab. “Yuki, can I help you with anything?” Kasia asked solemnly. Knowing that she was bound to ask, Yuki decided it was best to just come out and tell her. “My father had a heart attack. I will be going back to Japan for now.” The news shocked everyone within earshot. Yuki conducted the bulk of the main research in the lab; her shoes would be difficult to fill. By some miracle Yuki managed to find a flight that was leaving close to three hours from her present time. It cost a small fortune, but no price was too high for her family. Dorian got his coat and the two walked outside to the bus stop. He followed Yuki back to her apartment and waited outside while she packed. An empty feeling washed over him with the knowledge that she was possibly leaving for good, or at least for a long time, along with a sadness for the pain she was burdened with. They didn’t say much to each other on the way to the airport; he didn’t want to add to her troubles. “I will see you again, won’t I?” he asked softly. She put her head on his arm as he drove. “Of course you will.” They continued their conversation in Japanese for the remainder of the journey. Over the past several years he had gone so far as pretending to learn her native language in order to make her feel special despite the fact that he was already quite fluent.