Dread Read online

  Aslan says, “Your Yuri sounds like a good man to know.”

  “Friend of the family, Aslan. Like you,” I tell him.

  Aslan says, “Your eyes have stayed bright green since you heard about Malia. No more flames, but almost glowing.”

  Then I hear L’liana’s voice in my mind, *Jack, there are three tall guys walking toward the door. They have murder in mind. One in particular has a mind full of hate, wrath, and destruction. It’s hard to tell, but I think at least one of them is from Aslan’s memory.*

  I murmur to Eileen, “Weapons.”

  Eileen pulls my folded portfolio from her clutch, and I open it to pull out two collapsible police batons. I tell Aslan as I point to my chest, “Keep your eyes right here.”

  He looks up into my eyes, and I put a slight touch ‘influence’ into the command.

  I hear the door open. I hear a commanding voice call out in first Turkish, then Arabic, and finally a different voice calls out in German. The message is the same, “Everyone get up and leave.”

  Aslan looks up at that. I ask him, “Which one is in charge?”

  I look over my shoulder to assess them as Aslan replies. “The tall one with the long beard is a mouthpiece. I think the one in the back looking like a 1920s Hollywood actor is in charge.”

  I murmur to Eileen, “Taser the two lackey’s up front.” The three goons make their way towards our table.

  I stand and the mouthpiece launches towards me, “You! Don’t…” I blink behind his boss …”move?”

  Holding a folded baton in my fist, I punch the guy at the base of the skull, and he drops like a sack of bricks. I see Mouthpiece drop to the floor and twitch, so I put the other guy to sleep.

  I think, *Lili, let me know if you see any more of them.*

  *Of course, Beloved,* she responds.

  A guy in kitchen whites comes out of the kitchen. Aslan waves him over and whispers into his ear. I’m guessing that’s Kerem. I look for jewelry particular to the Dread Lord. All three have the communication bracelet variety like Prudence and Trevor had. I cut them all off.

  I ask, *Lili, anything special about these communication bracelets?*

  *They’re pretty safe,* she responds. *Cut them off and gather them in a plastic bag. You can hold them in your portfolio.*

  Kerem calls out something I don’t catch in Turkish. Four guys in kitchen whites join him in the dining room as well as the two male servers. He gives them directions that I translate to ‘take them out back and bind them.’ They drag all three of the intruders through the kitchen.

  Trina walks in and speaks to the Maitre ‘D. I hear her say with a reasonable accent, “Zum mitnehmen, bitte. Ich bin Frau Laughlin.” He holds up a finger and hurries back to the kitchen.

  I turn to Aslan, “I’d like to bring my wife in for the interrogation.”

  Aslan is shocked. “Are you not going to marry Eileen?”

  I look at him seriously. “I am, my friend.”

  Eileen chips in, “Aslan, I will not be Jack’s only wife. Yet I have no doubt that he will love me and cherish me as if I were his one and only. I know that because I have seen how he treats this wife, her name is Lili. I am already part of Jack’s family. It’s not a typical marriage, but it is beautiful and it works. I’m very happy to be accepted into it - especially after I chased Jack away. This is my chance at redemption.”

  The Maitre D' hustles out the kitchen door with a bag. I watch as he processes Trina’s payment, and she hustle’s out.

  I call, *Lili, I’m sorry to interrupt your dinner, but I need your help. Please join us inside.*

  *On my way, husband. Don’t worry. I won’t starve. I’ll eat when we’re done. Thanks for worrying about me, Beloved.*

  *Always, Lili. Always.*

  I tell Aslan, “She’s on her way.”

  L’liana send, *Jessie is going to be Trina’s back-up. She’s going to slip out as I come in.*

  About that time, the door opens, and my beautiful Elven wife walks in the door. She’s got a glamour running, which essentially just hides her ears. Apparently Trina got her a sweater at Marc O’Polo, because she has an olive sweater over her jumpsuit and under her blazer. She walks up kisses me and hugs Eileen with a kiss on the cheek.

  I introduce L’liana to Aslan. Then he leads us through the kitchen and out the back door. We exit the building into an alley. I see the three intruders all wrapped in duct tape around wrists, upper arms and chest, thighs, ankles, and mouths.

  Aslan introduces us to Kerem in Turkish.

  I ask, “Kerem, do you have any earplugs or hearing protectors. I’d like to ensure these guys can’t hear what we discuss with the others.”

  He ponders for a moment. “No, Jack. But I have paraffin wax for sealing canning jars. That could make ear plugs easily enough.”

  I look at Eileen and she translates for me. She’s probably the best Turkish linguist I know. My Arabic is almost on par with her Turkish, but my Turkish is rudimentary at best.

  I nod, and Kerem trots off to get the wax. He’s back in a minute, and we fit ‘Movie Star’ and ‘Mouthpiece’ with earplugs.

  We start questioning the quiet guy. I start with smacking his face gently and asking in German, “Do you understand me?”

  “A little,” he says.

  I switch to Turkish, “How about now?”

  “Of course I speak civilized languages. You accent sucks, by the way,” he smirks.

  I smile, then I slap his face a little harder. I exert my will as I say in Turkish, “Listen and obey.” His eyes glass over. “You will answer all questions completely, regardless of who asks them. You will answer as completely as you are able and volunteer information that might be helpful to us. Convince me you understand.”

  He uses different words than I did, so I have to confirm with Eileen, Aslan, and Kerem. They all nod.

  I let Eileen ask the questions, and L’liana is monitoring his thoughts.

  Eileen starts, “Where is Malia Çakmak?”

  He says, “She is being held on a cargo barge in the Düsselfdorf-Hafen. The barge is called the ‘Lorelei Zwei.’ Slip 23.”

  Eileen asks, “How many guards are there, and where are they stationed?”

  He responds, “There are two people at the gangway and one inside watching over the girl.” He looks behind me, and his eyes pop open wide.

  I see sickly green, smoky, tendrils reaching past my left shoulder toward our interrogation subject and Eileen. L’liana gasps as I launch back towards my 7:30 direction, target ‘Mr. Moviestar,’ and hammer a fist towards his temple. He manages to effectively block my strike but the immediate kick to the inside of his leading left leg connects. The popping sound of the joint dislocating is enough to induce nausea. Apparently it’s also enough to stop the miasma from spewing from his mouth. I push him as he falls, so he lands face down. I land with a knee between his shoulder blades and grasp the back of his neck with my left hand.

  He reaches back to grab my hand, and I start to feel a burning sensation that rapidly gets more intense. I yank my hand back out of his grasp to find it looking like rare hamburger.

  I send to the artifacts, *Jacob! Full coverage!* The cord around my right hand rapidly expands into a gauntlet that covers the hand and half-way up my arm. Then I punch Mr. Moviestar at the base of the skull with my gauntleted fist. Twice. He’s out again for the moment.

  Eileen is gasping from the effects of the miasma this joker was generating. I call out, “Lili, if he moves, hit him with a taser.” Then I get off him and will my hand to heal. It’s difficult. Like a third degree burn. I think he was either cooking or burning my flesh off!

  I launch over to Eileen and wrap her in my arms as my hand starts to cross a threshold to rapidly heal. Then I assess the damage to Eileen. Her sinuses, throat, and lungs have a similar effect to my hand. Fortunately, using the vapors of what I’m calling his ‘miasma’ didn’t affect her as quickly. Unfortunately, some remains in her lungs and sinuses.
r />   I ‘remove’ the miasma with my will. Then I start with healing her lungs, then her throat, then her sinuses and nasal cavity, and finally her mouth.

  I kiss her lips gently. Stepping back and leaning down, I look into her eyes. “Are you okay, Love?”

  She gazes up at me with a look of horror in her eyes. “It felt like that shit was eating me alive. I rapidly lost all hope. I nearly forgot who I am.” Slowly her expression changes to anger followed shortly thereafter to what I always called her ‘patented someone is going to die look.’

  I tell her, “I gather from your expression, you’d like to solve the problem when the time comes.”

  She starts to agree, but she stops and looks at me pensively before answering. “I think I’ll stand here and watch. I think that in a way, he’s like you, Sara, and Selene.”

  I say seriously, “Oh! You do know her name. I thought you only knew her as the ‘cheerleader with big tits.’ I’m impressed, Leenie.”

  She responds by crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out at me. “I said ‘melons for boobs.’ Quote me correctly, Jack.”

  I chuckle, “Yes, ma’am.” I hear an electronic sizzle and a scream. We both turn in time to see L’liana removing the taser prongs from the inside of the guy’s thigh.

  Jessica blinks in ten feet on the other side of the guy. Her balaclava is off, but she doesn’t have a glamour up. She dumps Mr. Mouthpiece at her feet. She asks, “Everyone, okay?”

  “So far, sweetie,” I answer. “Where’d you find him?”

  “Trina and I were eating some of that delicious food, when numb nuts here came running around the corner towards the subway stop. I blinked over and gave him a love tap with the taser. Then I figured you might want him back. Easy-peasey. I’m going to go finish my lovely food if that’s okay, Boyfriend.”

  I chuckle, “Sure, girlfriend. Just be careful. You’re important to me.” She blinks out and I notice that Kerem is on the ground. He’s farther along than Eileen was, but with some focus I’m able to get him healed and conscious. I help him to his feet.

  “Danke, Jack,” he tells me once he’s steady on his feet.

  “Nichts zu danken,” I respond. “Kerem, if I can’t help a friend in need, I don’t deserve the good fortune I’ve had. Really, there is no reason to thank me.”

  Kerem says, “I was dying, Jack.”

  I nod, “Yes, you were. We are all dying every day, but you were definitely racing to the finish line. Let’s focus on living every day, neh?”

  Kerem chuckles gently, “Ruhrpott? I didn’t expect to hear that dialect out of your mouth. Next you’ll claim to be a Schalke 04 fan.”

  “No way,” I gasp. “I’m a Borussia Dortmund guy to the core!”

  He laughs at that.

  Eileen and Aslan are talking quietly as he pulls out his phone. Aslan steps away to make a call. Kerem sticks his head in the door of the restaurant and rapid fires off a command in Turkish that I once again don’t catch.

  I walk over to Mr. Moviestar’s prone body. I kick his legs open wide, and then I unload a kick into his balls. He squeals as loudly and shrilly as you might imagine. I grab him by the scruff of his jacket and drag him to the garbage dumpster and lean him against it. I squat down in front of him.

  I hold out my hand to L’liana, and she hands me the taser. She says, “Still has one shot and over 400 jolts left.” I stick it in the back of my belt. We use the Taser X2 Professional Series weapon because it gives you two shots without reloading, plus you can use it as a contact stun weapon without expending your ranged weapons. L’liana just informed me I have one ranged shot if I need it.

  Eventually he gasps out. “I will strip the flesh from your bones, infidel. You have no idea who you are messing with.”

  Without rising, I slap him hard. One of the advantages of squatting like this is I can still use my legs for leverage. His face bounces off the dumpster and recoils nearly 180 degrees before he brings it back to center. When he raises his eyes, I dump the full power of the Summer Court into him while he’s still shocked. “Listen and obey,” I say in Arabic. I feel him trying to shake it off, but I have him for the moment. “You will refrain from using your powers for now, because you don’t need them. You want to tell me everything to show me how superior you are. Speak English. What is your name?”

  He doesn’t have the glazed look the influence ability sometimes creates on its subjects. I have a suspicion that Eileen is correct - he’s one of my race. I hope the instructions I gave him play to his pride enough to make him want to do it.

  He glares at me for a moment before speaking. “I am Hakim bin Farouk Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. I am the fourth son of Farouk bin Jaber Al-Sabah.”

  I think to myself *Kuwaiti royal family? Interesting. I think ‘Bin Jaber’ means he’s well over a hundred years old.*

  He continues, “I will soon be my father’s successor. My powers are growing rapidly, and he gives me all the important assignments. Then you all will truly know dread!”

  “Yes, I reckon so,” I respond. “I’ve met your father, and he is a top-grade asshole. Sounds like you aspire to be an even bigger asshole.”

  “We will clear your kind from the gene pool! You are an abomination!” he shouts.

  I slap him again hard and push more ‘influence’ into him to reinforce my commands.

  He stutters, “H-h-h-how can you do that?” Then he rolls to the side and kicks toward my head. I get an arm up, but the kick rocks my world.

  I roll to my feet as he stands. He starts doing some flashy flying spin kicks to close the distance. I gotta admit the kid is fast. He’s gotta be strong to get that high off the ground, too. Fortunately for me, I’ve played this game before. Also, I don’t have any qualms about cheating.

  He’s only about six feet away as he launches his third flying, spinning, hooking kick. I duck and launch under him and snag the kicking leg with my left hand as my right brings the taser around and jolts his family jewels. This guy is going to be impotent by the time I’m done with him. It’s probably for the best.

  The guy is good! He gets a foot under him as he lands despite having his balls on fire. I pivot in place and sweep the foot out with a reverse bow maneuver. He face plants, but tries to push up off the ground anyway. I tuck the taser back into my belt.

  Since I’m still holding onto his right pant leg, I grab the heel with my right hand and the toe of his shoe with my left. Once I have his foot secure, I turn it slightly clockwise and hold it against my torso. Then I get diabolical.

  Imagine a clock where my face is always pointing towards 12:00. I step through with my left foot over his right leg towards my 2:30. Then I step with my right foot towards my new 2:30, and there is a loud pop out of his knee and a scream from his mouth. I start to use the circle walk that Taiji and Pagua practitioners know so well to line up my 12:00 towards his head. At this point, I figure he’s too distracted to do anything to combat my abilities, so I tell the tissues in his knee to separate as I step on his sacrum. Then I step between his shoulders and off his body towards my 10:30, bringing his severed lower leg with me.

  I turn to face him. His mouth is making motions like a guppy trying to eat. I squat down in front of him again and lay the bloody stump down pointing towards his face.

  “Hakim, tell me where I can find your father.”

  “Don’t worry, infidel. I will give him your head when he returns home,” he gasps.

  “Jack…” I look up at L’liana. She’s pointing at his stump. The miasma is flowing out of his leg in streams. It looks like it’s trying to form a leg.

  I squat down in front of my victim but ask L’liana, “Is it just me, or does that look like some kind of nano-tech construct? Maybe I’ve seen too much sci-fi.”

  She shakes her head, “Nope. I think you’re right. Taser.” She holds out her hand. I pull it and toss it to her. She tucks it under her arm before pulling something that looks like a metallic test tube. She squats next to the miasmatic leg that is
trying to grow. Then she shocks it three times with the Taser. Hakim jumps each time. Then L’liana tucks the taser back under her arm and scrapes some of the ‘miasma matter’ into the test tube and plugs it. She secures that in her clutch.

  The new leg that was growing now lies like a pile of dust, but a new one starts shortly thereafter. I watch what Hakim’s brain is doing. His frontal cortex is still working, so he’s trying to think of a way out of this. But his limbic system is going crazy. Apparently the miasma for healing is controlled there. Based on how he used it earlier on Eileen, Kerem, myself, and his guys, I surmise he can use it as a weapon, too. That means conscious control.

  I call out, “Eileen, if you cough anything out of your lungs or blow anything out of your nose, give samples of it to Lili, too. I would like to know if the destructive miasma is different from the healing one. You and Kerem are most likely to have some in you still.”

  “Okay, Jack. So far, nothing,” she responds.

  L’liana says, “I suspect you ‘removed’ the ‘miasma,’ as you called it first before healing. There’s probably nothing left.

  I keep watching his brain. It seems to dim over time.

  “Lili, shock the regrowing leg again.”

  She does until it’s all laying there as a powder. The activity in Hakim’s limbic center is diminishing slowly - like he’s running out of energy.

  L’liana says, “I have his home address. It’s the Kuwaiti Tower Hotel in Kuwait City. His father rules from the top four floors. I got images of semitic-looking people that were very pretty. I’m guessing Sidhe. I also got an image of some rustic, nomadic-looking gents held in glass tubes. Robes and all that.”

  I hear a gasp behind me to the right. I see Zandra standing there.

  Zandra asks, “How many?” She’s got a beautiful alto voice.

  L’liana replies, “It looked like three, but I got the impression there were ranks of tubes behind them.” Then she looks back to me. “I also learned his father is in eastern Turkey right now. If I understood correctly, he's looking for more of the nomads and dragons.”

  Hakim whimpers as I stand up and step away from him. I ask, “Dragons?”