by Paul Rice
It was Ken who broke the silence. “No shit! But I thought George said it all started in ’79 or something?” He remembered how he had felt when George had told him, at the time it had shocked him to the core.
Mike replied. “Yeah he did, but it was another one of those little white lies he uses. He figured that telling us, on top of everything else we were going through, that we were also in a parallel future, may well have proved to be a step too far?” He looked at Ken with a small smile on his handsome features. Ken wasn’t as surprised as he might have been; in fact he wasn’t surprised at all.
No, the one thing this whole escapade had done was to remove any such feelings. Everything was open now, anything could happen, and just as he had realised when he first discovered the truth about the Ship, Ken was aware of one fact – what he thought he knew about everything was really only his perception of the truth. Everything was up for grabs in this game and reality most definitely depended on who you were, or who you thought you were…
Mike continued: “That’s the bottom dollar anyway, they used us to prevent something that was happening in the possible future, but what they didn’t know was how they would become so embroiled in the past, our present, so to speak?” He laughed and said, “Just slap me if I start losing you eh, Jane!” Accepting her smile as confirmation, he continued with the tale. “They used Red and they used us, too, that’s the reality, but they used us in a positive way. They knew he would initiate the device, but they were unsure as to how it would react because they hadn’t done any real time tests at that stage. So, they allowed him to carry out his little charade safe within the knowledge that whatever it was I possessed… the magic… would be able to stop the device?”
“They’re just a bit hard core aren’t they?” Ken knew it, but was still amazed by how ruthless George and his friends could be.
“Yeah for sure, hard core and then some, I guess!” Mike laughed and then asked them to accompany him into the dining room. Once there, he leaned across and touched some buttons on his strange laptop device. As the three of them watched, a small row of tiny lights flickered across the front of its slender form. Mike leaned forward, touched the case and ordered: “Screen display on, please.”
Jane nearly jumped out of her skin when, without a sound, and seemingly to come from nowhere, a tall screen suddenly rose above her dining room table. As it hung there with its shimmering form illuminating the room, she whispered: “Oh my God, how the hell does it do that?” Reaching forward, she touched the screen and then lurched as her hand passed straight through it. “Bloody hell!” she said and then hurriedly sat back down, looking at Ken with amazement in her eyes.
“Yeah, it takes a bit of getting used to, eh babe?” He said, and gently tousled her hair.
Jane replied, her voice somewhat unsteady. “Now that is the understatement of the year!” She made a twirling motion with her forefinger, pointing it at her own head to indicate the madness, which she was currently convinced that she had become afflicted with. All three of them laughed and then waited whilst Mike tapped some instructions into the device. With a liquid shimmer, the screen took them back into their recent future – in complete silence they sat and watched what had happened, or perhaps what was going to happen...
Chapter 6 - Red’s Last Dance
Right there, in front of their very eyes, was a picture of Ken as he had lain dying upon the desert floor. The rising Afghan dawn bathed the scene in red light; dark shadows spiked their way across the ground, and a small haze of dust still hung in the air in witness to the recent departure of their nemesis, Red. Ken was on his back in the dust with a pool of dark liquid, slowly spreading beneath his head. Jane shuddered and clenched his real hand as she watched the image in horrified fascination. The silence of the room clung to her and she couldn’t stop the feeling of sickness that flooded into her stomach. She wanted to jump up and dive into the screen. “Reach in there and drag him away, oh Kenny!” She held onto the sob as it tried to burst its way out of her soul.
The scene switched and they watched as Red roared across the shattered tarmac, his headlong rush towards the airbase saw no restraint, the huge Spear hurtled across the land at such a pace it seemed almost impossible that he wouldn’t have a mishap. Ken murmured: “Go on then, crash again you bastard!” He gritted his teeth and looked in anger from Jane to the screen and back again. She could almost see him wishing for the accident.
Inside the cab of the vehicle, Red reached up, tapped the monitor twice and then shouted angrily at George’s image as it appeared upon the blue screen. He screamed at the old man. George did no more than look serenely back at the irate American, who was ranting like a maniac. “Yoo stoopid old muthfuka, I gon’ and done for yore boys, done them up real good too! The big wun… well he ain’t so big now, huh? Nosiree, not so big at all, he’s lying there with a goddamn hole in the back of his head. He ain’t so big at all now huh, Georgie boy?” Red laughed feverishly as he banged the steering wheel with his huge hands.
George’s metallic voice floated into the deafening silence of the dining room, they listened as it crackled over the Spears’ internal speaker: “What do you want, Red – haven’t you caused enough trouble already?” George sounded tired but somehow guarded.
Red giggled, his voice thick with malice: “You know what I want, and you know that if I don’t geddit it then there’s gonna be a whole heap o’ trouble!” He sneered confidently at the monitor.
George looked confused. “But you no longer have the Light Maker, Michael has stopped it, he gave his own life to heal the Stone. He and it are no more. Your threat of using it is no longer valid, why should we accommodate you?”
Red laughed up at his windshield. “Well, lemme just see now, my old friend. Just like yoo, I ain’t so honest, either. You never told them good ol’ boys I had been to the ship, did ya now? Yeah well, there ain’t any need to answer that one, now is there? What I didn’t tell yoo is that I know where the other Light Maker is, the wun yoo all don’t think that anybody knows about, yoo know George – the secret wun?” He roared with laughter.
George just about stopped himself from gasping with surprise; his anger and confusion were clearly visible on the monitor. “Who has the second device, I didn’t think it was functional, I mean, Jonathon, he… You have it… don’t you?” He looked visibly shocked.
Red roared with laughter once more. “Yeah, that’s about the sum o’ things old Georgie boy! I have it right here with me, I’ve had it for a while and if’n yoo all don’ bring me back up the pipe, then I guess ol’ MJDoublaya ain’t gonna save yore ass this time, now is he?” Once more he slapped the dashboard with glee.
Jane was surprised at the speed, with which George replied, there was no hesitation. “Yes… yes we can do that, Red. Please do not activate the second device, whatever you do, just keep it safe! We can talk once you are with us, all this can be sorted out amicably I believe?” As he spoke, the image on the screen showed him turn to one side, as if listening to someone out of shot. There was a barely perceptible nod of the grey head, and then he spoke again. “There is only one problem, Red, you must remain in the Spear and make sure that you have one of the suits on, a second crossing will be fatal should you use Shrink Down unprotected again. The device must of course be protected by the vehicle. Do you understand?” He leant forward, as if trying to peer into the jolting cab of the Spear.
Red grinned and said, “That’s OK with me partner, yoo all jus’ tell me where to be and I’ll get right to it, I ain’t got nothin’ else on my mind right now anyway. I’ll be a good boy jus’ as long as yoo don’t try fukin’ with me, is all. One tiny sniff o’ anythang funny and I will blow us all to kingdom come, yoo heah me?” He grinned maliciously as he fought the steering wheel, which bucked back from the violent jarring of the giant wheels beneath him.
George replied calmly: “Yes, that will be fine… I believe that we have an understanding now. If you would be so kind as to make your way to SD
House and wait at the entrance, we will then set the coordinates to bring you and the vehicle back to us, but as I have said: please ensure that you are wearing the suit, you will find it in the back of your Spear?”
Red laughed once more and said that he would: “See George there!” Then he pushed the throttle even further into the floor of the Spear. It almost appeared to be flying across the dust ridden road as it carried him to his new found destiny. The trees, the grass and the weeds, shrank back from its rushing bulk as it hurtled past them. Red’s maniac laughter filled the ears of the on looking trio.
Jane felt the hairs on her arms rise as the malevolence of the man transmitted itself through the airwaves. “What a pure bastard that man is!” She couldn’t help herself from whispering the words; her reaction caused Ken to grasp her tightly around the waist. His touch calmed her but she still had a jittery, butterfly, feeling in her chest. Red scared her, no two ways about it. Turning back to the screen, she was just in time to see his Spear entering the perimeter of the old airbase.
Kandahar airfield was new to her but she couldn’t help marvelling at the greenery of the place. Everywhere there was new growth – even the giant perimeter fences and concrete barriers were covered with creeping vines and the suchlike. Seeming to hear her thoughts, Ken said, “Jesus, look at the place, imagine what it must be like now?”
Mike’s reply was simple. “Don’t forget that this was in our past, although, it may well be from a future we haven’t been through yet?” Both his companions nodded. “It’s still pretty amazing though!” he said, and laughed. His short laugh was curtailed by the sight of the driver’s door on the Spear rising and permitting exit to the large American. Red climbed out and then stood and stamped some circulation back into his baseball boot clad feet; the size of which looked as though they belonged in some freakish clown show. Standing upright, he rotated his massive head and Jane could swear she heard the vertebrae crackle. Then, as calm as you like, he unzipped his Levis and stood with hands on hips whilst urinating onto the ground in front of him.
“This guy just doesn’t have a care in the world does he?” Jane felt the icy-cold anger begin to stir within her husband as he spoke. She squeezed his left hand tightly and he held onto her until the moment had passed. “I still owe that prick!” Ken hissed with rage and his words hung in the air as Red walked to the rear of the vehicle and ushered the tailgate upwards, reaching inside he pulled out the flight suit and proceeded to wriggle his large frame into the silver coloured garment. After a short struggle he managed to yank the zipper closed and then pulled the material tight around his thick neck. Shrugging himself into the suit, he made his way back to the driver’s door and swung his bulk back into the seat. Both the door and the tailgate closed, sealing him inside the impenetrable hulk of the Spear. Reaching under the seat, Red withdrew a small pebble. He grinned to himself and placed it upon the contoured surface of the passenger seat next to him. Leaning forward, he tapped the screen twice and then said to George, who had appeared in a blue shimmer: “Ready when yoo are George, ready when yoo are!”
George smiled and said, “Good, well let us begin then, shall we?” Leaning to one side he made a small movement with his right hand, whatever he touched caused a deep green light to suddenly course throughout the Spear; it looked almost as though it had been passed under a giant, supermarket checkout scanner. The green light passed straight through the vehicle and also straight through Red.
Jumping in surprise, he shouted out: “What in the fuk was that? That ain’t ever happened before!” He tried to turn, but the python-like seatbelts did their thing and he was clamped tightly into the bucket seat. Simultaneously, his flight suit suddenly began to glow a brilliant green, showering the inside of the vehicle with its iridescent rays. Red screamed and raised his hands to cover his eyes. “Goddamn you muthfuka! What in the hell are yoo doing? I told yoo not to mess with me!” He reached over and grabbed for the stone, pulling it towards himself the huge man fumbled with the stone, desperately trying to find the hidden switch that had initiated the previous Light Maker. The object remained sullen and did nothing more than remain as a stone, for in truth that is all it was, and all that it ever had been. Reality suddenly dawned upon Red – he howled with fury and hurled the stone at the windshield. It bounced gently back off the glass and landed in his lap, to lay there, cold and stonily bereft of any magic or hidden power. Red stared at the inert object and then started a violent struggle to get out of the seatbelts, but it was of no use, even his immense strength was to be of no avail and the belts simply tightened their grip sucking him further into the arms of the seat’s unfeeling caress. Eventually he was cocooned by them and could hardly breathe through their iron embrace. His breath rattled as he struggled to recoup the oxygen, which his tantrum had devoured.
George looked down at him from the screen. “Have you quite finished now, young man?” The old man’s rendition of a patronising Headmaster was so real that it made all three of the on-lookers laugh loudly.
“He’s a rum bugger is our George, isn’t he?” Jane couldn’t contain herself and laughed once more.
The two men joined her in the laughter. “Look at Red’s face now that he realises what’s going on, George has him just where he wants him!” Ken said, obviously in awe of the old man’s sleight of hand.
George continued in a similar vein. “Now you listen to me, Dwayne Tolder, and make sure you listen really carefully as these are the last words that you will ever hear. I speak to you on behalf of the entire population of this tiny Universe, the one you would so casually dispense with. I speak to you on behalf of all the over watching worlds and on behalf of the ancient ones, whose skill and dedication made this possible!” He paused, breathed deeply, and then continued: “I also speak to you on behalf of Mister Wilson and most of all… I speak to you on behalf of my friend, Jonathon!” His voice quivered with anger as he spoke of his dear dead friend.
Red smashed his forehead onto the steering wheel and then uttered a strangled scream of rage as a thick rivulet of blood ran into his left eye. His lips spat blood and hatred. “Garrghh… fuk yoo, yoo stoopid old basstiidd, fuk yoo…!” He shook his head back and forth so violently that for one second Jane thought that perhaps he was having some kind of fit.
Red’s tormentor never batted an eyelid. “Yes, yes, I know that you are angry, and it is understandable, but so are we, Mister Tolder, we are very angry indeed!” George smiled menacingly. “We are angry that someone such as yourself, someone who is so selfish, so mean, self-centred and uncaring as you are, would even contemplate trying to outwit us!” He leant forward, once again the icy blue fire leapt from his eyes and his gaze seemed to illuminate the interior of the Spear.
Seeing that gaze seemed to deflate Red, he shrank back into the seat, then lowered his huge head and clasped it in his hands. The wiry ginger hairs on the backs of those huge hands glistened in the blue light of the monitor. Red raised his head and let it flop back onto the headrest behind him, the blood that ran down his face was smudged into a large red tick mark below his left eye. He looked at the monitor and uttered his penultimate sentence: “Fuk all o’ ya!” He whispered, then sat back and closed his eyes.
George’s acidic words knifed into the cab: “Actually, it will be you who gets ‘fucked’ old chap. Yes, ‘fucked’ indeed!” The pause before the old man’s next sentence seemed to be interminable. Eventually he continued, “You see, we thought you may well be up to no good from the very beginning, but we played along in the vain hope that some goodness may be forthcoming from you and your masters. It was never an option really, was it – you were all far too greedy, but we know that now, don’t we?” He went on to explain how they had let Red think he had a second device, how they had tricked him with electronic wizardry and made the second stone appear as though it was a real Rip Fixer. It was just a game to them and they had never imagined Red would do what he had done. George said that Red had never been to the ship, any ship in fact,
it was another piece of holographic imagery, merely a little trick they had played on him. He had never even left the surface of the planet. The brutal slaying of Jonathon and Mr Wilson, and the unexpected stealing of the real Light Maker had caught them by surprise. Luckily, Michael and Kenneth were at hand, and even though they were both killed, they had been used to provoke Red into initiating the device, a device that had been merely a prototype. “We needed to get it out of your hands, needed you to set it off. That was never going to be a problem as Michael was always going to be able to heal it. We just wanted you away from the stone, far away from it. You see, we need you to initiate the real Rip Fixer. And, well here you are my dear boy, here you are indeed!” George smiled disarmingly at his captive. Red said nothing; there was a sullen look upon his face, the trickle of blood had coagulated on his cheek and he sat with his eyes shut and fists rhythmically clenching and unclenching.
George said, “So you see, Red… I’m afraid to say that you are the Rip Fixer and the Spear, in which you are currently residing, is the device! The suit you are wearing is the initiator and together they combine to make the most fearsome weapon that has ever been known to anyone in either the past or the present and, in all honesty, probably the future?” He raised his eyebrows questioningly but only received a low moan in reply from the captive giant. When George spoke again it was as though he became a Judge, one who had donned a black cap and was delivering his final sentence. “So, we are going to bring you back, but your final destination will not be within the luxurious surroundings of the Angelica Star. No, you will have a far more illustrious final abode – we are transferring you straight into the centre of the Rip, and upon entering its black heart, you will be detonated!” George paused and then continued with Red’s bad news. “Your final act will be one that saves billions of life forms and puts the whole jigsaw puzzle back into some form of order. Rather fitting don’t you think? I do believe that if you did have a God, then he, or she, may well take this generous gesture into account before deciding upon your eternal fate, my friend.” He gazed unblinkingly into the cab of the Spear.