by R J Johnson
Charles Halprin’s face was frozen in rage as he watched Kline snap his fingers and he was suddenly covered in his bodyguard’s blood as their bodies suddenly exploded as Kline used his power of telekinesis to explode.
“Incredible isn’t it?” Kline asked Charles who was still frozen in place. “It’s quickly becoming the favorite stone that I’ve collected so far, not that you ever can actually choose a favorite child of course.”
Kline casually waved his hand, and the enormous wardrobe holding the rest of the china jumped into mid-air and floated there as the expensive plate ware began falling out of the cabinet, crashing spectacularly to the ground. He made a fist and the wardrobe crushed itself into a millions pieces of lumber.
It clattered to the ground, nothing left of the intricately carved antique.
Charles couldn’t reply, he was still frozen in place by Kline’s hold on him with the stone of control. Kline smiled maliciously at the man who lay helpless in his invisible grip.
“It’s a shame your use to me will come to an end. You managed to somehow take the one person in the world I needed for my own purposes.”
Charles struggled against his bonds and Kline relaxed his fist.
“What are you talking about?” Charles managed to sputter out. “What… who…?”
“The hunt you idiot!” Kline hissed turning and walking toward the window to look out on the man’s expansive estate. “You took someone very dear to her. I need that man as bait.”
“The Swede?” Charles looked confused. “What possible value could that fool have for you?”
“The world loves a fool, don’t you know that by now Mr. Halprin?”
“He’s useless to you!” he coughed. “He has to be dead, likely done in by that flash flood that nearly got us.”
Kline frowned. This was unfortunate news, but not an altogether impossible problem to overcome.
“What happened?” Kline asked.
“There was a flash flood,” Charles managed, coughing through the tight squeeze of Kline’s stone. “We only barely made it out alive ourselves.”
“Flood?” Kline cocked his head, confused. “There was no rain.”
“That’s why it took us so off guard…” Charles managed. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen. This valley hasn’t had a flood in decades.”
“Is there a dam somewhere upstream? A reservoir perhaps?”
“No,” Charles said, “But it was as if the water was following us…”
Kline heard this and gave a start as his mind started racing. It couldn’t be possible, could it? He turned on his heel and began walking out of the dining room heading for the front door.
Charles struggled against his ineffable bonds and screamed at him, “Kline! Where are you going?
Kline peered out the window grumbling, he thought he’d heard something, but there was nothing out there. Was he going crazy?
“Kline!” Charles screamed desperately from the dining room. “Let me go!”
“Quiet you fool!” Kline yelled back at Charles. He peered out into the dark and used his stone of control to try and sense if there anyone was out there.
He gasped in surprise. It felt as if he’d grabbed ahold of a live wire. The woman he’d battled in Berlin was here! His surprise turned to rage, and he peered deeper into the pitch black trying to find the man who held the stone that was rightfully his.
Suddenly a huge boulder came crashing through the front door, slamming into Kline, throwing him through the rear wall of the dining room hallway.
Lorelei stepped into through the threshold and cast an eye looking for Charles Halprin. She spotted him floating in the dining room and quickly strode toward him.
“You!” Lorelei snarled. She drew back her hand and without even thinking about it, turned her fist into solid stone. She hit Charles Halprin as hard as she could, the sickening crunch of the man’s jawbone echoing through the dining room. Charles screamed out in pain as Lorelei looked at her hand in horror. She shook it, changing it back into flesh and bone.
Swallowing, she directed his anger back toward the man moaning in pain on the ground.
“You stole him from me…” Lorelei accused Halprin quietly. “You took my sweet, wonderful man from me and I plan on making you pay for it.”
Charles heaved a huge sigh of pain and shook his head, chuckling. He mumbled something through the pain. Lorelei slapped him, and pulled his face up. Charles winced in pain and laughed again, shaking his head.
“You’re too late…” he said, sounding as if his mouth was full of marbles. “He’s as dead as you are!”
When she was growing up, Lorelei had never understood what people meant when the said they saw they ‘saw red.’ Now, after hearing the billionaire Charles Halprin not only tell her that her husband was dead, but to do so while laughing? It was as if nothing else on the planet existed any longer other than the pure high octane rage flowing through her veins.
She held Charles, the rage shaking her arms uncontrollably. Halprin only laughed as his entire body began to petrify. Lorelei just stared at him, pure hate and disgust running through her veins. If what this man was saying was true, then she’d lost everything because of him.
And for that, he must die.
Charles looked down and saw what was happening to his body and soon, the laughter turned to screams as the stone continued to flow over his body and turn the once living flesh into cold dark granite.
The stone flowed up and over Charles’ face and soon, Lorelei was staring at a horrifying visage, stuck somewhere between a laugh and scream.
Lorelei let go of the gargoyle in shock, realizing what she’d done. She stumbled backward just in the nick of time as Kline’s fist swung past him and into the statue, crushing the billionaire’s petrified head into a thousand pieces.
Lorelei jumped back and looked at Kline in horror who stared back at her with interest.
“You have your revenge,” Kline said simply. “Give me the stone and you may go on your way.”
Lorelei glanced down at the stone in her hand, and back at the remaining pieces of the stone statue she’d turned Charles Halprin into.
“No,” she said simply.
Kline looked at her in surprise, “I’m willing to let you go and live your life in peace. Do you not understand the gift I’m giving you?”
“What assurances do I have that you’d actually let me go?” Lorelei asked, raising her head to look into Kline’s eyes. “What I’ve seen of you so far doesn’t lead me to believe you’re the man I should hand this one over to.”
“Come now,” Kline’s voice became low and dangerous, and he stepped forward, “you must realize you have no chance to stand against me?”
She looked away to the door, weighing her chances of escape. She made a decision and grinned.
Thrusting her palm out, a hailstorm of sharp stalactite-like rocks appeared out of thin air, and rocketed their way towards Kline’s chest.
Kline roared in surprise when the stones embedded themselves in his body. He stumbled, back, and cried out in pain as the relentless hail, sharper than knives embedded themselves within his arm, chest and body. The stone of strength had helped him develop a skin that was nearly bulletproof, but at the velocity these tiny pieces of stone were flying at, they had shredded his arm into ribbons.
Kline spat at Lorelei and disappeared. She whirled, looking for the man just as he reappeared behind her, hoping to take Lorelei by surprise.
But before he had the chance, a gush of water flowed through the kitchen, knocking him off his feet.
Lorelei and Kline went down in a rush of water as Lorelei desperately tried to grasp the man attacking her, intending to turn Kline into a pillar of stone the same way she’d done with Halprin.
Unfortunately, this man was proving to be more slippery than the deranged hunter.
Kline felt his head go underwater and he shook in rage. He attempted to teleport away from the raging waters, but he found it impos
sible to concentrate on where he wanted to go. Lacking a destination, his stone flashed weakly and his body phased in and out of reality as Lorelei attempted to grasp onto him.
They rode the raging river through the house and out onto the huge front lawn that stretched out three football fields in length. The white churning water spread out over the long walk up to the front door and Johan found himself lodged against one of the Greek columns holding up the mansion’s front.
Kline spayed out over the lawn, looked up exhausted at the figure outlined in the doorway by the light within the mansion.
Johan, his wet blond hair, plastered against his skull, was standing in the doorway looking down on Kline. Johan spotted Lorelei sitting in a pile of debris from the deluge, her beautiful face, twisted in determination while she too watched the billionaire floundering in the deep pools of water still scattered around the lawn. She turned and spotted her husband standing at the top of the stairway.
“Lorelei…” Johan gasped. He ran down the stairs and gathered her up in his arms, clutching her tighter than he’d ever held her before. She leaned into his hug, enjoying the feel of his six foot frame pressed against her. They’d been away from each other for so long, she’d forgotten how much comfort she’d taken when clutched in his arms.
It was the feeling of home.
“I’m all right…” she whispered into his chest drawing him close in. She’d never felt so happy in her life. Everything in the world was right again.
“It is with some regret…” Kline said panting, “That I must end this. You’ve been quite the challenge, but it’s time for me to take what’s rightfully mine.”
Johan pushed Lorelei behind him, stepping in front of his wife protectively. “You’ve lost! Go back to whatever hell you came from!”
“Not until I claim what’s mine!” Kline raised his hands.
That’s when Johan experienced the worst headache he’d ever felt. It was as if his entire body was threatening to explode. He screamed in pain and looked over at Lorelei. She too was writhing in midair, screaming in pain as Kline manipulated their bodies using the stone of control.
They looked at each other and reached out to one another. Johan saw his wife’s tired face, tears streaming down as they reached for each other. He looked at her face and remembered the first time he’d ever laid eyes on her. She had been so beautiful then. He’d never seen anyone quite like her before.
And he wasn’t about to give that up.
He strained his arm, reaching for her. He wanted to feel her touch one last time, but Kline’s stone was keeping them apart, like so much of their relationship had been. That’s when he understood. They’d been so close, that any distance between them was irrelevant.
Love was what kept them together for so long and it was their love that would save them. He stretched out, praying he could feel her touch one last time.
Their fingertips barely touched and a flash of light came from both their stones. The energy combined into a powerful shield that cut them off from Kline’s onslaught with his stone of control.
They fell to the ground as gravity reclaimed them. Looking at each other in surprise, Lorelei noticed the stone Johan was clutching. It was the twin to her own. Kline looked down in frustration at the stone of control he was holding every time he thought he had this blasted thing figured out, someone went and surprised him.
For his part, Johan wasn’t going to waste the opportunity to get away. He moved over to his wife and pulled her upright, “Lori, we must run!”
Lorelei turned and faced Kline, her face screwed in concentration. A hail of stones flew out in front of her, heading directly for Kline. The billionaire could only watch as several hundred granite rocks blasted him back across the lawn.
Johan, taken aback by his wife’s sudden power, sat up and moved closer to her, watching her work her magic.
Once Kline had been thrown clear of them, front porch, she turned to him, her enormous green eyes looking worried, “You were saying something about running?”
“That was…” Johan began.
“Just the tip of the iceberg,” she said, pulling him in closely to her. She concentrated on her stone and the ground beneath them opened up. They melted into the solid earth, escaping from the mad man trying to kill them.
Chapter Fifty-Five
They waited on Alcatraz for what seemed like an eternity. Even after all his time in Afghanistan, waiting for days on end for targets that might never appear, nothing he’d experienced in his life felt as long as the last six hours had for Alex. He kept to himself, sitting on the tall concrete bleachers that inmates once used decades before he was here.
He sat and stared at the San Francisco skyline and wondered about how often the prisoners who sat here once upon a time thought about the freedoms enjoyed by those just a few short miles across the cold bay water. Seeing such symbols of prosperity and freedom day in and day out without any hope of ever going there in person likely broke more than a few men who stayed here once upon a time, Alex thought to himself.
For his part, Scott had been moving around unobtrusively through the tourist attraction. He mingled with the crowd of people trying to catch a glimpse of the cells that once held infamous criminals like Al Capone and Bugsy Siegel.
Scott walked up the concrete steps holding a hot dog and sports drink for both of them.
“Got you something,” Scott said holding out a hot dog.
“How’d you pay for it?” Alex asked, worried. With his face all over the news, they’d be tracking everyone he’d associated with over the last few days.
“Cash. I still have that ten thou you tossed me the other day,” Scott said, his eyes darting off.
Alex looked at his friend surprised, an eyebrow raised.
Scott shrugged, “That was the government’s money right? I see it as an early tax refund.”
Alex smiled weakly and they sat in silence, eating their food and watching the white caps on the bay.
“How much longer you figure?” Scott asked after wolfing down half his food.
“Flight tracker says her flight landed an hour ago. Depending on traffic and the ferry, should be anytime now.”
Scott acknowledged this by finishing off his hot dog. He crumped up the wrapper and put it in his jacket pocket. He looked around the courtyard, and frowned. Something was wrong, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“What is it?” Alex asked his friend. He’d been so preoccupied with his conversation with Emily, he hadn’t thought about how his friend must feel. Murder changed a person, even if Scott didn’t think so, Alex was ready to help his friend get through it.
Scott hesitated, looking around the courtyard, suspicious. “I… I don’t…” he shook his head. “It’s nothing.”
“You’re gonna have to talk about what happened eventually you know…” Alex chided his friend. “You keep that shit bottled up, it’ll eat you alive.” He looked sad for a moment. “Believe me, I speak from experience.”
Scott looked up and sighed, shaking his head. “No, it’s not that,” he pointed at the tourist standing unobtrusively on the side of the courtyard by the door speaking with a pair of security guards. “That guy doesn’t look out of place to you?”
Alex squinted, and looked closer at the man standing next to the entrance into the courtyard. “Not that I can see, why?”
“Because there’s a guy wearing the exact same outfit up on the other entrance to the courtyard.” Scott pointed up to the entrance up on the hill above them.
Alex whipped his head back toward the man Scott was pointing to. He was right, the second man standing up on top of the hill was wearing the same brown khakis, short sleeved button shirt with a black tie. Both men were also wearing cheap black framed glasses that looked like they were on loan from the Blues Brothers.
“Get up, and get up slowly and start making your way back to the ferry landing…” Alex said in a low voice. “We’re getting out of here.”
&nb
sp; His phone buzzed, and he looked down to see Emily’s face appear on the screen. He grimaced. Dammit, why now?
“Best laid plans…” Alex said quietly.
He leaned in and whispered into Scott’s ear. Scott looked over at him in shock.
“You sure?” Scott asked, surprised.
Alex nodded. He clasped his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “We’ll be fine. Just get back to the rally point as soon as you can.”
“I…” Scott was at a loss for words. “Thank you Alex.”
“Don’t thank me,” Alex warned, drawing himself up. “Just get back to the City as soon as you can.”
Scott moved quickly, disappearing within the crowd. As his friend moved away, Alex took a moment to look at the message he’d gotten from Emily.
In the main foyer. Where are you?
He hesitated looking around him. This would have to do. He typed a response back to her.
In the courtyard. Look for the guy wearing a dark brown hat, aviator glasses and a thick beard.
The response was brief, but it came back within seconds.
K – Be right out.
He took one last look around at the courtyard, making sure to keep an eye on the pair of men who were still chatting up the Alcatraz museum docents stationed at the respective entrances.
Alex shaded his eyes and he saw her appear at the entrance. She looked incredible. Her jet black hair was complimented by the black pea coat with large buttons she wore along with the tight blue jeans and form fitting top. Her hair danced in the stiff breeze blowing off the bay and for a moment, he fell in love with Emily all over again.
He rose a hand, signaling to her. She turned and spotted him, and her face fell. He couldn’t quite describe the look she had, but it was something between disappointment and fright.
Confused, he began moving toward Emily to see what was wrong.
And that’s when everything went wrong.
Suddenly, the entire courtyard wasn’t filled with tourists, but rather dozens of plain clothes wearing police and FBI agents all of whom were pointing their weapons at Alex. They swarmed in from every entrance to the courtyard, intending to overwhelm Alex by force.