by C.E. Martin
“Like being able to turn to stone?” Josie asked.
“That was a fortunate accident,” Kenslir answered. “And I don't do it on purpose.” In fact, Kenslir only turned to stone when he was severely injured or died. Then his other curse kicked in, restoring him, before his innate ability to resist magic restored him to flesh and blood. It was a complicated condition and the kids didn’t need to be confused by it now.
“How are you so strong?” Josie asked.
“Vitamins,” Kenslir said. Maybe one day he’d tell them more. They were proving to be very resourceful teens. And there were some openings in the team now.
“Let's get back to this dragon guy,” Jimmy said. He was sick of hearing Mark impress Josie. “How are you going to fight it without your team?”
“I've got you two,” Kenslir said.
“Us?!” Jimmy asked. What could they possibly do? Give the dragon indigestion?
“I can't trust anyone,” Kenslir explained. “Shapeshifter, remember? He could be anyone now.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Josie asked. She trusted Mark, but this sounded crazy.
“We don't even have any super powers!” Jimmy added.
“It's not always about having powers,” Kenslir said. “Anybody can be a hero.”
“Says the guy who can come back from the dead.” Jimmy said. “Pardon me for being skeptical, but maybe it's because I can't do that.”
“So now what?” Josie asked, ignoring Jimmy.
“It's still here. In Arizona.”
“How can you know that?” Jimmy asked. Kenslir couldn’t even remember most of his life. How could he know anything?
“The Vice President is still here,” Kenslir answered.
That made no sense to Josie. “Wouldn't they have called off his visit?”
“Politicians never listen to us.
“I wouldn't be surprised if his security detail wasn't even briefed on the potential threat.”
“That's just stupid. Of course they'd tell them,” Jimmy insisted.
“My team's operations are very classified.”
He was going to say more, but he was interrupted by a tone inside the truck’s cab. The OnStar-equipped mirror had activated itself.
“Colonel? Can you hear me?” It was Major Campbell again.
Kenslir looked around, trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. He made sure the truck’s radio was turned off.
“Is that your cellphone?” Kenslir asked Josie.
“No- they’re both in flight mode,” Josie answered. She pointed to the rearview mirror. “It's an OnStar system... Like a cell phone in your car. For emergencies.”
“Colonel- we need to work this out,” Campbell said.
“I'm listening,” Kenslir answered. He didn’t care for this modern era and radio phones were everywhere. Especially flying phones- whatever that meant.
“Look, I understand you're confused- your memory is partially gone...” Campbell said sympathetically.
“It's coming back,” Kenslir responded. He could almost remember what Campbell looked like. And that maybe they had been friends.
“Then you need to come in, sir. Re-assess.”
“We should have assessed better before the first attempt,” Kenslir said. He couldn’t believe he’d walked into such a mess. That was unlike him, and now four good soldiers and one important telepath were dead.
“Sir, how do you plan on stopping the shapeshifter now? Alone?” Campbell asked.
“I'm not alone. I have a new team. And a plan.”
“Sir, I don't think that's w-“ Campbell started to say.
Kenslir suddenly reached up and tore the rearview mirror free from the windshield. He then threw it out the open window beside him.
“Hey! That’s my mirror!” Jimmy said. First his girl, now his truck. Mark Kenslir was ruining his life.
“From this point on, we look forward,” Kenslir said, pointing to the road ahead.
“Uh, I appreciate the confidence you put in us,” Josie said. “But we are just a couple of kids. We just graduated high school a couple of weeks ago!”
Kenslir didn’t like involving the teens, but he had no choice. “It's seen me. It'll recognize me. I need the element of surprise- and that's where you come in.”
Jimmy almost fainted. “We're bait?”
“No- messengers. You won't be in any danger.”
“You want us to talk to that thing?!” Jimmy asked, surprised. “No way man! I mean, you're lucky to even be alive!”
That confirmed it for Jimmy- Kenslir was clearly out of his regenerated-mind.
“I've always been very lucky,” Kenslir said.
“Getting your head blown off, your heart ripped out, then burned to a crisp doesn't sound lucky to me!” Jimmy said.
“My father was a Titanic survivor,” Kenslir began. “I was born on the vernal equinox- in a leap year. I had six older brothers, as did my father. And you kids stumbled across me in the desert with a cooler full of water.”
“How does that work again?” Josie asked. She’d seen it so many times now, Mark’s weird healing-from-water thing was starting to seem normal.
“It’s classified.”
“I still don't like being bait,” Jimmy said, crossing his arms over his chest. What was more disturbing was that Josie seemed to be going along with this crazy idea.
“Relax. You're just going to deliver a message to someone else,” Kenslir said. “They're going to be the bait.”
“Who?” Josie asked, surprised.
“The Secret Service. That's their job.”
***
On a long gravel road, in the middle of nowhere, in the desert country of Arizona, a small car raced along. The road carried the small car up and out of the desert, into the beginnings of Arizona’s coniferous forests.
The driver finally slowed the car to a stop and got out.
While he looked like Echo, the driver was in fact the shapeshifter. He was now wearing white Chef’s pants and shirt, with white shoes.
The shapeshifter walked to the rear of the small two-door, and opened the trunk. Inside was a body. An Asian chef. The shapeshifter had used his new-found telepathic powers to seize control of the Chef’s mind as he drove home from a resort not far from the mountain forests. A resort the Vice President was staying at.
The shapeshifter laughed to himself at the idea. Seize control of a politician- worse a politician who was merely the backup if the real nation’s leader were incapacitated? Preposterous.
These modern humans amused the shapeshifter. They imagined their young country to be so powerful in the current world. They didn’t know about power. Power was something you could hold in your hands. Something you could eat- right after you ripped it out of a man’s chest.
The shapeshifter started to go through the pockets of the deceased Chef. He quickly found what he was looking for- a security pass for the hotel. He’d need that to get in.
The shapeshifter had not come to Arizona to replace a petty bureaucrat. But once he had processed the idea from the mind of the telepath he’d devoured, he decided to give it a try. As a Vice President, maybe even a President, he would have access to all those other, wonderful humans with supernatural abilities living in this era.
And he would tear out their hearts and make their powers his own.
The shapeshifter slipped the ID card’s lanyard over his neck, and transformed into a duplicate of the Chef. An outward duplicate. Fueled once more by the life energy of so many humans, the shapeshifter could make a healthier, stronger body for the Chef than the mortal could ever achieved through natural means.
The shapeshifter picked up the body of the Chef from his trunk, careful not to spill any blood from the cavernous wound in the human’s chest. He could change his physical form, but clothes needed cleaning.
The shapeshifter carried the body off the road, and into the trees, looking for the perfect place
to hide it.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After several hours of driving, Kenslir, Josie and Jimmy reached their destination- not all that far from where they had started out. The Desert Oasis resort- a towering luxury hotel far removed from any city, overlooking a small lake and Arizona’s scenic painted desert.
Near the hotel there were a few buildings- a gas station, a small store, and a clothing shop. Just the beginnings of what might one day become a town, all laid out in a neat row across the narrow highway that ran past the hotel.
Jimmy’s truck was parked beside the gas station, with Mark and Josie patiently waiting inside it.
Jimmy finally came out of the bathroom and got back in the truck.
“Man, I didn't think I could hold that much longer,” Jimmy said. He noticed Josie had moved to the front seat, beside Mark.
“I shouldn’t have gotten so much to drink at that last drive thru...” Jimmy added.
Kenslir ignored the chatter. They were at their destination. “Now, you're both clear on this, right?”
Josie looked at Mark, then Jimmy. “Yes- go straight to the first suited agent we see and tell him there's a threat to the Vice President.”
“Why do we both have to go?” Jimmy asked. He then glanced over at Josie, and got embarrassed. Surely she didn’t think he meant she should go by herself?
“I mean, I could just do this myself,” Jimmy hastily added. “No need for Josie to be in any danger.”
Kenslir frowned. “You won't be in any danger. As soon as you deliver your message, they're going to spirit you away somewhere safe where they can start questioning you.
“It'll be the safest place to be when it hits the fan.”
“And you can't do this yourself because...?” Jimmy asked.
“Because he can't be read by a telepath, Jimmy,” Josie said. “They won't know he's telling the truth. He explained that.”
Josie briefly wondered if Jimmy hadn’t been listening- or if that telepathic takeover of his mind could have resulted in brain damage.
“Right...” Jimmy said, nodding his head slowly. Did that mean that if someone was lying, the Secret Service would just ignore them?
“Kid, I wouldn't send you in there if I thought you'd be in any danger,” Kenslir said. “As soon as they start scrambling, the shapeshifter will head out of there. That's how I'll find him. I’ll be outside, waiting.”
Jimmy thought about the plan for a moment. “Are you sure we aren't bait?”
Kenslir sighed. “Jimmy, you aren't in any danger,” he said. “I promise.”
***
In the kitchen of the Desert Oasis, the chefs were all working hard, preparing meals not just for the Vice President, his family and support staff, but for all the guests at the hotel.
On particular Chef worked harder than the others. He was an Asian man, in his forties, with thinning hair and a serious face. Or at least, he had been. Before the shapeshifter tore out his heart and assumed his identity.
The shapeshifter was hard at work, slicing chicken for a particular dish. He was confused by the concept of the modern chef, and still wasn’t quite able to wrap his head around the years of experience the slain chef had. But then, his food didn’t require any more preparation then tearing it out of someone’s chest.
Out of the corner of his eye, the shapeshifter noticed a Secret Service agent walking around the kitchen area. The agent was glancing at badges, making sure all the Chefs and cooks were authorized to be there.
Agent Williams came up to the shapeshifter. He glanced at the badge, then the face. Everything matched. He nodded toward the shapeshifter and moved on. Agent Williams quickly finished his sweep of the kitchen and exited through a rear door. Being in the kitchen was making him hungry.
The shapeshifter set down his knife, and his sliced chicken. He walked over to the same exit and left the room.
***
Jimmy and Josie walked into the hotel’s lobby and immediately felt out of place.
The lobby was lined with expensive marble floors, and rich, wood-paneled walls. Expensive furniture was everywhere and the lobby just exuded an expensiveness. Even the various reporters and photographers seemed dressed as though they were going to a country club.
Josie was still in her short shorts, her t-shirt and sandals. Jimmy’s gray shirt was rumpled and sweaty. His khaki pants were severely wrinkled. They both could use a shower.
The teens stopped and looked around for a Secret Service agent. The wall of the lobby to their right was all check-in desk and employee-only doors. It extended all the way to the back of the hotel, where large windows looked out over a large swimming pool and deck area. The wall to their left was broken up by a small café and elevators.
By the elevators, they spied who they were looking for- two somber men in matching dark suits, guarding one of three elevators.
Josie elbowed Jimmy, then pointed toward the elevators.
“That’s got to be them,” she said. “C’mon.”
Josie wasted no time, and set off directly for the agents. She trusted Mark, and if he said to go straight over, then straight over she’d go.
Jimmy rushed to keep up with his long-legged friend.
At the elevator Special Agent Ehrer and Franks stood quietly, watching over the lobby and making sure no one boarded the elevator reserved for the V-P and his family. Ehrer noticed the quick-walking Josie first. And her nervous companion, Jimmy.
Ehrer looked over to his partner, Franks. He too had noticed the approaching teens. The agents exchanged nods.
Franks stepped out a pace as Josie got near. He held up his hands for her to stop.
“I'm sorry, this elevator is not available,” Franks said.
Josie bit her lower lip for a moment. “The Vice President is in danger!” she finally blurted out.
Franks and Ehrer immediately bristled at the statement. Their eyes looked around quickly, searching for any threat. Ehrer immediately lifted his left hand up so he could speak into a microphone.
“That's nothing to kid about, Miss,” Franks said at last. He wondered if the dirty teenagers were trying to be funny or stupid. Or both.
“She's not kidding, she-” Jimmy started to say.
Jimmy again went rigid, his eyes glazing over as a telepath took hold of his mind. But as quickly as he was seized, Jimmy was released, his body relaxing to the point he almost fell over.
Josie was staring at Jimmy, wondering how many of these telepathic takeovers he could take.
Ehrer looked over to his partner, and nodded his head in the affirmative. He had just been advised via his radio earpiece that Jimmy had checked out by the Secret Service telepath hidden in the lobby.
“Confirmed- they're telling the truth,” Ehrer said. Even he didn’t know what the Service’s telepath looked like.
Ehrer and Franks suddenly stepped forward and grabbed the teens by the arms- Franks grabbing Josie, Ehrer grabbing Jimmy.
“Miss, you need to come with us,” Franks said, leading Josie toward the elevator.
Jimmy’s arm hurt from the pressure Ehrer was applying. “Ow!” he said.
He looked down at his arm, where Ehrer had an iron grip on him. “That hurts!” Jimmy said.
Jimmy looked over at Josie. “He specifically said we wouldn't get hurt!”
Special Agent Franks reached out and pressed the call button for the elevator. In his ear, his superior was talking over the radio, telling him to take the two teens directly to the holding area in the basement.
“We're going to go have a talk, kids,” Franks said.
“We know,” Josie said.
After several uncomfortable seconds, the elevator arrived and the doors opened. Another Agent was inside the elevator. Agent Williams.
Special Agent Franks moved Josie inside the elevator, stepping to the side to make room for Ehrer and Jimmy. They too stepped in quickly.
“Basement,” Franks said tersely.
&
nbsp; “Yes, sir,” Agent Williams said. He seemed puzzled.
The elevator doors closed and the elevator began to descend.
Across the lobby, seated by the front doors, Kenslir put down a magazine he had been holding up, pretending to read. He had followed Jimmy and Josie inside, and watched over them. So far, everything was proceeding to plan. The two teens were safe now.
Beside the elevator, a stairwell door opened and three more suited agents burst out. They fanned out, looking around the lobby. It was only a matter of time until they flushed out the shapeshifter. Kenslir didn’t expect the shapeshifter to run, he expected him to fight.
The lead agent pointed for his companions to go either way, one toward the lobby, one toward the pool area behind the hotel.
C’mon, show yourself, Kenslir thought to himself. He was ready for a rematch.
* * *
In the descending elevator, Jimmy looked over at Ehrer and glared at him. “Dude! Do you have to squeeze my arm so hard?”
“When you threaten the Vice President, yes,” Ehrer answered, tightening his grip.
Jimmy winced at the pain. “Threat-? We didn't threaten him!”
Agent Williams suddenly looked alarmed. He looked back and forth between Josie and Jimmy.
“You'll have plenty of time to talk later, k-“ Franks started to say. He was interrupted by a hand exploding out of his chest, under his sternum. Agent Williams’ hand. The agent, or rather, the shapeshifter, had just punched through Franks’ back, severing his spinal column.
“What the f-” Ehrer tried to say- blood had sprayed out everywhere in the elevator, including all over Ehrer and Josie. Ehrer was unable to finish his sentence, as the shapeshifter suddenly punched through his face, obliterating his nose and eyes, and reaching into his brain cavity.
Jimmy began to scream, and pressed back against the corner of the elevator, Ehrer’s hand still reflexively gripped his arm. “It's him! It's the shapeshifter!”
The shapeshifter pulled his arms free of the dead Secret Service agents and let their bodies slump to the floor of the elevator. He briefly shook blood, brains and gore from his hands. He thought to himself he really should have left the Secret Service radio he took from Williams’ corpse turned on.
Josie, meanwhile, had backed away from the shapeshifter, her back pressed against the elevator doors. She felt paralyzing fear and kept looking back and forth from the dead agents to the shapeshifter.