The Braille Killer (An Alice Bergman Novel Book 1)

by Daniel Kuhnley

  I stand there, mouth agape. I’d expected a simple door with a stairwell, not some elaborately hidden dungeon. My pulse rises. What is he hiding down there that requires such secrecy?

  Rico places his hand on my shoulder and his eyebrows furrow. “This stays between us, hijita. Understand?”

  I nod, words still lost from my tongue. I’m certain I’ll never view Rico the same way again.

  He walks over to the stairway. “Follow me.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Rico and I begin our descent of the dark stairwell. A few steps down and the basement lights come alive, dispelling the darkness. I gasp, ill-prepared for the automatic lighting, but the light eases my tension. However, my heart still thumps like a rabbit’s.

  There are fifteen steps down to the basement floor. When we reach the bottom, the cabinets above slide back into place over the stairwell. I take a deep breath, but I can’t shake feeling trapped inside a dungeon with no escape.

  The single room basement is roughly an eighty-foot square, and its fourteen-foot ceiling is much higher than what I would’ve expected. Nine two-foot-square cinderblock support columns are evenly distributed throughout the room, supporting the foundation of the main structure above us.

  A ten-foot glass cube sits in the center of the room, demanding the attention of whoever enters the basement. It has captured mine, so I walk over to it. Its four sides, top, and bottom are solid glass and its corners are slightly rounded. I cannot find a single seam on its smooth surface. It’s a glass bubble.

  I look back over my shoulder at Rico. “What’s the purpose of this thing?”

  Rico rubs his hands together. “An invention of my own. Be patient and I’ll give you a demonstration of what it can do.”

  I pull myself away from the cube and snake my way through the room. Glass enclosures fill every void and give the room a Smithsonian Museum vibe. Each enclosure contains a single item and each item is like nothing I’ve ever laid my eyes upon.

  Headdresses of gold and precious stones. A pair of tan, leather gloves with matching belt and five throwing knives that dart back and forth within their enclosure. A recurve bow and arrows that are ancient, yet advanced with spring-loaded heads and titanium shafts. Iridescent shards of glass shimmer in the light. Their large, scaly shapes conjure dragons in my mind. The sheer number of items is mind-numbing.

  The content of another enclosure catches my eye and draws me toward it. A titanium war hammer with a long, black handle lies within its glass walls. One end of the hammer’s head is a long blade, razor-sharp and curved like a talon, and the other end is squared with nine pyramid-shaped spikes. I’m certain its weight would crush a person’s skull with a single blow. The flat side of the hammer’s head is stamped with a black sun, and golden, luminous letters run the length of the hammer’s handle, etched into it with machine precision. I’ve never seen a language like it, yet it’s familiar.

  Rico’s hand settles on my shoulder. “It’s called the Hammer of Light in our tongue. A beautiful, horrific weapon.”

  Rico’s secret vault of priceless artifacts. I fear I’ve never known the real Rico.

  I look up at him through blurry eyes, but it’s not the blurriness that leaves me full of wonder. Physically, he looks like the same Rico I’ve always known, right down to the shoulder-length silver hair, gold capped tooth on his lower right canine, and Jesus Freak tattooed hands. But he’s no longer the man I know, or at least not the one I thought I knew. There’s a mystery to his aura that I never saw before today.

  I turn away, wipe my eyes, and then continue to explore the room.

  Rico trails me. “All of these enclosures contain items that I’ve obtained or invented. You’ll find no match to any of them in this world.”

  I’m drawn to an enclosure in the far corner of the room and all the others fade from my memory like remnants of a fleeting dream. The enclosure contains a black-and-gold rod that’s about four-and-a-half feet long. Black leather strips are tied to its end through a small hole at its center. Its shape is reminiscent of a white cane. I press against the glass, my eyes begging for a closer look.

  “Is this what I think it is? A modified cane?” I look over at Rico.

  His eyes sparkle like black diamonds and his toe taps the floor to a beat only he hears. I’ve never seen him so excited about something. “This is my pride and my crowning achievement. I call it Aaron’s Staff.”

  “Aaron’s Staff…” I stroke the glass with my fingers. “Can I try it out?”

  His foot taps faster and he strokes his chin. “Like many other items in this room, it has a mind of its own, so to speak. You’ll know if it’s right for you when you touch it.”

  I put my forehead against the glass and long for its touch. “This is exactly what I came here for, Rico. I don’t think I can leave here without it.”

  “We’ll see about that. Many have sought it out, but no one has laid claim on it.” He touches my shoulder. “Stand to the side and I’ll remove it from the case.”

  I take several steps sideways. “Is this far enough?”

  Rico looks over at me. “Perfect.”

  He reaches into his pocket and pulls out two clear, rubber gloves. He pulls them on, snaps the fingers into place, and then rolls up his left sleeve. A strange wristband wraps his wrist. It’s shiny and solid black and looks like a wristwatch but has no display. He presses his gloved right thumb on the wristband and holds it there for several seconds. Then, the wristband lights up with blue LEDs.

  I can’t help but move closer. My heart pounds and my pulse races with anticipation of what he’ll do next. He reaches into the enclosure—literally through the solid glass—and removes Aaron’s Staff from it. I blink several times, my brain unable to process what my eyes just witnessed.

  My hand crumples against the side of the glass enclosure when I try to stick my hand through it. I grunt and shake off the sting. “What the—”

  Rico chuckles. “Pretty darn cool isn’t it?”

  I rub the back of my hand and stare at the glass. “It’s like freaking magic. What is it?”

  He pushes his free hand right through the glass again. “It’s something I like to call nano-glass.”

  “I’ve heard some of the geeks at work talk about nanotech, but I’m not entirely sure what it is.” My stomach flutters, and my voice climbs a few octaves. “How does this stuff work?”

  He pulls his hand back out. “Grab hold of my hand.” I do, and I feel an electrical charge flow into me. It’s very subtle, but undeniable. “Now, take your other hand and touch the glass.”

  I reach out and touch the glass with my trembling fingers. It still feels solid.

  “Good, now push your fingers through it.”

  I apply more pressure to the glass and it stretches like rubber around my fingers. I push harder, and the glass gives way like a bursting bubble, but it doesn’t shatter. Instead, it curves around my fingers and then my hand as I push my hand farther inside the enclosure. I move my arm around and the hole follows it.

  I feel like a kid in the candy store with twenty bucks to spend. “Rico, this is amazing!”

  He smiles. “Let go of my arm.”

  My eyes bulge. “What? No! Why would I do that?”

  His eyebrows cave over the bridge of his nose. “Trust me, hijita. I would never ask you to do anything that would harm you.”

  A wave of chills and nausea sweeps through me and my stomach gurgles. You’re stronger than this, Alice. I exhale and release my death grip on his arm. The glass solidifies around my arm and traps it inside. I panic and latch onto Rico’s arm again. My arm flies from the enclosure and yanks my entire body backward with it. Rico full-on belly laughs.

  I slug his arm. “That’s not funny!”

  He points at the glass. The hole I put in it is knitting itself back together like water filling the bottom of a bucket. Within a few seconds the hole is completely repaired.

 
I step back, my arms akimbo. “Explain yourself, Rico. How does a priest turned vendor for the blind get into things like this?”

  “I wasn’t always a priest, hijita. Let’s leave it at that. One day I may tell you more, but this isn’t that day.”

  “Fine. Can you explain how the technology works?”

  “That I can do.” He holds up a finger. “Let me turn this thing off.” He presses his thumb against the wristband again and waits until its blue lights fade. “Perfect.”

  He touches the glass. “This nano-glass is a composite of silica sand and nanites. Nanites are tiny, two-state robots that can be controlled with current. Their two states are active and inactive.” He taps the glass. “Right now they are in an inactive or solid state. When current is applied to them, they switch to an active or fluid state.”

  My brain is already starting to hurt thinking about what he’s trying to explain. “How do they turn into a fluid if they’re tiny robots?”

  “Fluid, as in moveable with applied pressure, not as in liquid.”

  “Oh, okay. I think I understand. And the current?”

  “Extremely low-voltage electricity. Like a battery.”

  Suddenly I remember the staff he’s holding, and the nano-glass seems trivial. “I think I got it. Can we move on to that staff of yours?”

  He eyes the staff in his left hand and then me. “How risk averse are you?”

  I shrug. “Depends on what we’re talking about.”

  He holds the staff up. “The gloves I’m wearing protect me from its power. If I were to touch it with my bare hands it would throw me across the room. It’s not designed for me.”

  I swallow hard. “What are you saying? It’ll do that to me as well?”

  His bushy eyebrows rise, and he shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. There’s only one way to tell without it hurting you too severely. Are you willing to risk it?”

  Is this really what I came here for? A cane that’ll throw me across the room? I don’t even know what it’s supposed to do. But it’s so sleek and beautiful. How can I resist it?

  I dig deep and conjure courage and strength I didn’t know I possessed. “Yes.”

  He sucks on his lower lip and then smacks his lips together. “Perfect. Let’s move over to the cube in the center of the room.”

  We walk over to the cube. “I’m guessing that this cube works just like the nano-glass enclosure?”

  “Precisely. Let me turn on my wristband again and we’ll step inside the cube.” A few moments later his wristband is glowing blue again.

  My throat tightens, and my lungs seize. My voice rasps from my lips. “How will we breathe in there?”

  He takes my hand and squeezes it. “Relax, hijita. The nano-glass composite isn’t solid, so oxygen can pass right through it.”

  I nod, but I still can’t breathe. He steps through the glass and into the cube and pulls me inside with him. He lets go of my hand and lays Aaron’s Staff down.

  He takes my hand again. “You’re turning red. You need to breathe.”

  I exhale, forgetting I’d stopped breathing. I take another deep breath and exhale again. My pulse slows and the thrum in my ears dies down. I hear myself say, “I think I’m ready.”

  Am I?

  Rico lets go of my hand and steps outside of the cube. I push against the glass and it’s solid.

  “Now what?”

  Rico slides his thumb across the wristband and the blue lights turn green. He places his palms on the glass. A subtle vibration works its way into my bones and then ceases. I push against the glass again and it bends outward like elastic.

  Rico smiles at me. “If the staff rejects you, you’ll be thrown across the cube. However, the cube is strong enough and thick enough to absorb the impact. I won’t lie though. You’ll feel it for several days afterward. Think of it like a fifteen-mile-per-hour collision. Hard, but not bone shattering.”

  “Okay. I think I can handle that.”

  “Then go ahead and pick up the staff.”

  I bend down and stare at the staff for a solid minute. Rico says nothing. He’s far more patient than I am. I take five quick, successive breaths and grab the staff by its handle. Lightning rips into my flesh. I scream and drop the staff, but it doesn’t throw me across the cube. I look at my arm, expecting to see plumes of smoke rising from singed hairs, but I find no visible damage.

  “Again,” says Rico. “You’ve made it farther than anyone before you.”

  Easy for him to say. I feel like a snake charmer in training, already bitten by the snake and awaiting death to set in. I also wonder how many others have tried before me. I guess it doesn’t matter.

  I gather my courage once more and pick up the staff again. This time I hold fast to it and ride out the initial barrage of chain lightning that courses through my body. It’s hot, just like what I felt when I touched the mirror in storage unit 109. It speaks to me on a level that transcends language and harkens back to an awakened memory of a life I never lived. We are two shards of a severed soul. Reunited. Made whole.

  Like a samurai sword, I twist and jab and parry and stab the air with it. It has perfect balance. I move in circles, dancing in cadence with my heartbeat. I’m uncertain if I lead it or if it leads me, but it doesn’t matter. We are one. A pairing of two broken things now made whole together.

  I come full stop in front of Rico, staff held above my shoulder and ready to strike. His eyes are wide with wonder and fear. I imagine mine look like those of a tiger stalking its prey. I lower the staff. It’s the perfect height for me as a cane. We were truly made for each other.

  Rico clears his throat. “Now, would you like to know what else it can do?”

  I look at the staff. It’s perfect as is. What more would I need? Then again, maybe it’s something I don’t even know I need yet. “Yes,” I purr.

  He points at the staff with his head. “There’s a recessed button on top of the handle. Press it.”

  I find the button and press it. The staff turns from a rigid cane to a flowing whip. I turn and quickly strike the air with it. The air cracks. I do it several more times, enamored by the feel and sound of it. How I’ve lived my entire life without this weapon is beyond me. Blind or not, it won’t leave my side again.

  I pant with excitement. “Is there more?”

  He nods. “Turn the top of the handle ninety degrees counterclockwise.”

  I do and the entire length of it glows blue and crackles like ice cubes when you pour warm liquid on them. Again I turn and whip the air. Not only does the air crack this time but it ignites with blue electrical sparks. It leaves me breathless with each crack, and somehow weaker.

  “Think of that like a stun gun, but twice as powerful.”

  I whip the air several more times, but then my legs give out and I collapse. Like a flash of light, my joy is surpassed with fear. “Rico, what’s happening to me? I can’t feel my legs.”

  “Don’t worry, hijita. You will regain your strength. What I failed to mention is that the energy it uses for the charge comes from you. Every time you crack that whip it zaps more of your energy. Use it wisely and sparingly.”

  I turn my head and look up at Rico. It’s about all the energy I have left. “Did you fail to mention it on purpose?”

  He nods, but he isn’t smiling. “I wanted you to experience what it feels like and to know your limits before you went out into the world and discovered it at an inopportune moment.”

  My body feels akin to a puddle of mud. “Mission accomplished. Now what?”

  Rico removes his hands from the cube wall. “I’ll be right back. I’ve got a little something that will give you a boost, but it’s a highly addictive substance. Don’t even ask me if you can take any with you. The answer will be no. I only keep it on hand for times like this.”

  I suck a string of drool back in my mouth. “Well. Not going anywhere. Take your time.” I can barely get words out between breaths. “Might ch
eck on Veronica. Probably wondering. What’s taking so long. Might be panicking. If she’s snooped around. And didn’t find us.”

  “I’m not headed up there, but I’m certain that she and Guenter are doing just fine.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Let’s just say that the time we spend down here has no consequence on the time they spend up there.”

  I’m so worn out that my mind can’t wrap itself around what he’s saying. “Tell me later. Rico.”

  He nods and disappears from view. I hear him rummage through some drawers, curse under his breath, and rummage some more. I lie here, my mind fractured between wanting to know the truth about Rico and fearing what that truth might reveal about him and me both. The nanotech line he fed me doesn’t sit well with me but what do I know? Certainly nothing about that.

  I will come back and demand the truth from him one day, but with everything going on in my life I don’t think I could handle it right now. I’m struggling to keep my head above the water as is. Bringing Veronica into my circle of one scares the living crap out of me. I can’t stomach the thought of losing her friendship, but I can’t move forward on my own either.

  Rico returns and walks right through the sheet of nano-glass. He kneels next to me and shoves a small, white square into my mouth. Its texture and consistency are like rice candy, but it tastes like a turd. I gag several times and fight the urge to spit it up but finally get the entire thing down. Had it been any larger I would have balked. I rake my tongue against the bottoms of my upper teeth, but the taste lingers like a rank fart.

  When I can finally speak without gagging, I do. “What the hell was that?”

  Rico stands and backs away from me, clear outside the cube. “Five… Four… Three… Two… One…”

  Tremors quake my entire body and my veins explode with fire. My mind races and I can’t keep up with all the thoughts bombarding me from more directions than I can count. I’m up on my feet in the blink of an eye and dancing around like I’ve got fire ants in my pants. Another second, and the feeling subsides but now I’ve got enough energy that I could run several marathons back-to-back without breaking a sweat. I bounce off the cube walls like I’m a living ball in the game Pong! I can’t stop myself and I don’t want to because I might explode like the cap off a bottle of shaken cola.