AEGIS Tales 2, page 18
part #8 of Airship Daedalus Series
The pair of hidden witnesses made their way into the village to the totem where the man sagged inert. Bird cut his bindings and laid him on the ground where OotMa ministered to his grievous wounds.
“What did they want?” She asked. “Why did they come here and destroy our village and our people? What were they looking for?”
“Immortality, OotMa. The secret to everlasting life. They were looking for you, Timeless One.”
✽✽✽
One Week Later in New York City
The last man David Li expected-or wanted-to see standing in his Tribeca brownstone at seven a.m. was Joe Frankels. It was Frankels, the Shanghai bureau chief for AEGIS that had given him the assignment that put a Chinese tong on his tail which very nearly snuffed him out in San Francisco. And after the most recent bloody affair just blocks from his home that had killed an associate and netted him a new partner, Li was hoping for some ordinary gumshoe work that made a few quick bucks without risking going up in smoke or ending up in the East River wearing cement overshoes.
“Joe Frankels, as I barely live and breathe. What brings you to Gotham all the way from Shanghai?”
Frankels huffed. “I’ll give you the short version: Transferred to HQ, new chief of security. Pack a bag, we have a plane standing by and a training assignment that we think your special, uh, gifts, can benefit from.”
Not many knew of the psychic manipulations and ectoplasmic extension Li was capable of, and that was as he liked it. That the Allied Enterprise Group for International Security wanted to put him in a position where those capabilities were on full display was exactly the opposite of what he had in mind.
“Just like that? Pack a bag? Where, might I ask, am I going?” Li did not like the direction this conversation was taking.
“Seattle,” Joe replied. “I’m sorry David, I know you had asked to be put on the shelf for a while, but we need more help. Besides, there might be some first rate detective work for you as well. And you did say you wanted some help developing those talents of yours.”
Sigh...Frankels is no fool and he knows I can’t resist a front loaded compliment. Li briefly used his powers to reach out mentally, feeling the texture of the switch with his mind and started the coffee pot sitting near the sink with a loud click. May as well get a jolt of java before I go. “Let me call Betsy. She’ll need to take over the case load while I’m away.”
“Miss Schneider has been made aware. We have assigned someone to help her out and cover her six. You won’t have time for coffee,” Joe said, reaching over and turning off the pot. “We really do need to be on the way.”
“Bum’s rush is it? Okay then. Let me throw something together. How long am I going to be gone?”
“Not sure, David, but plan for a couple of weeks at least. You won’t need neckties or dress shoes, but warm socks and a good fedora to shed the rain would be a plus. And don’t forget your marbles.”
Li tossed together some items in a battered leather suitcase and placed a selection of steel ball bearings in three different pockets. His most recent experience suggested plain marbles just weren’t imbued with enough punch. In less than an hour he was airborne on the first leg of what would prove to be another exhausting relay cross-country to Seattle.
✽✽✽
Li had never been to the northwest corner of the U.S. except in transit and he turned up the collar of his trench coat against the biting wind and cold evening drizzle that greeted him. Several hundred miles north of New York’s latitude, Seattle was already nearly dark. The rendezvous point was the Freeman Hotel in what passed for a Chinatown in Seattle.
David stepped off the platform at King Street Station, and though he had managed to grab a nap during the journey he felt the need to stretch his legs. He used his special powers to mentally feel for the reassuring presence of the steelies in his jacket pocket. Something he could shoot like a bullet with his mind should the need arise. The East Yick building which housed the hotel was only a few blocks away in the International District so he consulted his street map and headed out. In the gloaming he barely noticed two men fall in behind him. Taking long, easy strides moving between the pools of dim amber streetlight in ten minutes flat, he hit the hotel and climbed to the second floor lobby.
His first thought was how much he looked forward to a decent night’s sleep. Then he saw the tall blond woman in the Astrum Argentum uniform and felt a needle plunge into his neck. His last thought was I am really sick of being knocked out from behind.
✽✽✽
“Wake up, mister!” Li tried to focus on the sound of the voice. Must be dreaming, he thought. Sounds like a kid.
“C’mon, mister, you gotta wake up!” David could feel his body being shaken. Gawd Li, do an assessment. What seems to be working? Tentatively he opened his eyes, only to blink back the glare of bright illumination emanating from what he judged to be the ceiling.
“Mr. Li, you must awaken yourself.”
He looked up to see a young boy and a woman leaning over him.
“Please, we will need to work together to escape.” The two helped him into a seated position on the floor while he tried to wave away the cobwebs clouding his brain.
He knew this feeling. It was the same drug Sheng had used on him at the Mind Mists club back home in New York. That fact alone was sobering and he went through a mental checklist.
“Help me up,” he asked the kid. On his feet the room seemed to careen as he steadied himself. “My name...wait, how do you know my name?”
“I am OotMa of the Makah. I am also called the Timeless One. I am the reason you are here. Well, not here exactly, but in Seattle. This is Bird Far Seeing. He is my vision quest.”
Vision quest? Timeless One? None of this made any sense to Li. She offered a brief explanation of her blindness and Bird’s role as her vision quest.
“Our village was destroyed, we escaped to Seattle and found AEGIS to ask for an investigation, but somehow Silver Star found us and now we are prisoners.”
“Fat lot of good I’m gonna be. I can’t even seem to protect myself.” David looked around. They were in a small room that was absolutely featureless save for a built in bench and table seemingly molded into the space. The light glowed from the ceiling but not from any fixture. The walls and floor were a seamless light gray. No visible door, no hint of a window. Not a single loose item with any mass or size at all. No overcoat, no bearings.
This is seriously not good. This room seems designed specifically to make my mental powers nearly useless. The Silver Star knew I was coming. “Why was I coming to see you? Why me and not someone else less likely to get clunked on the head?” If I get out of this alive Frankels is going to have a lot of explaining to do.
“I was told you have a special gift you wished to understand better. Perhaps you could show me this gift.”
“If you have a small object I can demonstrate the effect. It’s the only way I know of to ‘show’ it.”
Bird Far Seeing produced a piece of sheepskin from his pocket attached to which was a large fish hook. The guards had apparently neglected to search the kid. “Will this do?”
David reached out with his powers and gently separated the hook by moving aside with his mind all the hairs holding it in place then lifted it a foot above everyone and sent it in a circle around their heads, setting it back down on the pad. Then he oozed a tiny filament of ectoplasm from his finger which he directed through the eye of the hook, looping it into a knot. He used the result to cast the hook across the room, then drew his element back into himself depositing the hook once again onto the wool.
“I see,” OotMa said. “Very unusual. What do your powers tell you about this room?”
Li released his mind and began probing every joint and all of the walls. He could feel mechanisms that were likely some kind of door, but they were hopelessly complex. It would take hours to decipher and far more energy than he had, given the effects of the drugs that still lingered. There were seams at the walls and ceiling but rather than being components they seemed to be a single uniform material. Welded perhaps. He could discern nothing about the light source of the ceiling at all. The one other thing he noticed was that there seemed to be movement of some kind. And a faint humming sound when he fully opened his mind.
“My powers tell me we will have to wait for someone to open the door. Now, hows about you telling me a little something about your powers? And just how old can you be to be called the Timeless One? You look to be mid-thirties at the oldest. She made a brief explanation of her blindness and Bird Far Seeing’s role as her eyes.
“And you look like you need to sit down. Let me tell you my story...”
✽✽✽
Out of uniform Arngerd Janssen looked like the spawn of an ice goddess. Her golden locks cascaded beyond her shoulders. Her cerulean eyes glittered like sapphires set in pale, translucent skin above high cheekbones. Wearing a navy blue pullover sweater and sleek matching gabardine trousers she was a study in Nordic beauty and she used it to her advantage whenever it suited her. And it suited her now.
“Tell me, Captain,” she purred. “How are our guests enjoying the vault?
“It’s hard to tell. They can’t see out, we can’t see in. The specifications were quite precise in that regard.” Percy Smythe was always slightly awkward around women, more so if they happened to be uncommonly attractive. Before swearing fealty to Alistair Crowley and Silver Star he had been a Royal Navy lifer, now he was captain of an airship of the line, the Nephthys, and taking orders from this woman half his age. He fingered his collar and continued. “We know Detective Li hasn’t attempted to escape or unlock the vault mechanism. Presumably they are waiting.”
“It’s been six hours, by now the effects of the drugs have worn off. How long until we reach the landing site?”
“Within minutes. That’s what I came to tell you. Despite the delay caused by the earlier headwinds and rain we’ll be moored and ready to begin well before dusk.”
“Excellent! Have them prepare the altar as soon as we are tied off. I will have Kurt bring the instruments.”
“Very well, Miss Janssen.”
“Smile, Captain. We are about to achieve literal immortality.” Smythe saluted perfunctorily and turned to leave thinking Immortality might be a curse, not a blessing.
✽✽✽
David Li had noticed the cessation of the slight hum and could no longer detect any motion. While some uncertainty existed he estimated that it probably meant the status quo was about to change.
“I think we’ve stopped.” He said. “Whatever they have planned for us is gonna happen soon.” No sooner had he spoken than an opening whispered into view. Beyond that stood half a dozen Silver Star agents wielding machine guns, clad in black uniforms but distorted by a shimmering glow surrounding each of them. Leading them was the Ice Goddess herself, wrapped in her own glowing aura.
“Mr. Li, as you can see, we are well prepared for you and your powers. It’s a pity, really. You could be so useful to us.”
Li’s mind raced. The auras seemed to be some mechanical version of the powers he had encountered in his previous tangle with the Golden Dragon Tong at the Mind Mists Club in New York. It wasn’t a pleasant memory. An associate had died and he had very nearly come to pushing up daisies himself. That Silver Star had obviously spent so much effort to thwart him in particular suggested they knew more about the role AEGIS had in mind for him than he did.
With the Ice Goddess leading the way Bird, OotMa and Li fell into step between the phalanx formed by the rest of the guards. Almost immediately it seemed to David as though their progress was just slightly off kilter. The guards were taking full strides, but they seemed slowed somehow, like trying to walk through water but not as pronounced. Every few steps he would have to half-step to keep the space the same. This seems odd, he thought, maybe it’s the effect of the force field.
Through the eyes of Bird Far Seeing the Timeless One was making her own assessment. Down the passageway they marched past armed guards blocking access hatches, each one focusing on the golden haired woman as they passed. OotMa sensed fear and occasionally lust but saw nothing likely to aid them.
As they reached the forward exit from the gondola where the gangway was open the group halted as the Captain stepped out to speak.
“Your orders, Ma’am?”
“When we are debarked take her up to five hundred feet and stand off another thousand. We’ll send up a flare when we are ready for recovery.”
“As you wish.” The captain retreated to the bridge
Well, at least that will change our odds from hopeless to just overwhelming, Li thought.
✽✽✽
Equipment, and what appeared to be an altar of some kind, had already been offloaded. Men in lab coats were striding purposefully about pointing and giving instructions to Silver Star technicians. A large generator had hawser-thick wires connected to five glistening metallic pyramidal objects, each about eight feet tall. Between them markings had been made creating a pentagram shape and inside the center of that stood the ceremonial table. Five tall slender metal poles, each placed corresponding to a point on the pentagram, held aloft a chromium sphere about a yard in diameter above the altar. The sphere and the pyramids were etched in figures and symbols. It all looked impressive to David. And dangerous.
“Well, Timeless One. We finally meet.” Janssen had a look of triumph in her eyes.
“You needn’t have destroyed the village,” OotMa replied. “That was cruel.” Let me see through each person’s eyes, Bird. But say nothing aloud.
“Perhaps, but I like the theater of it. Must set an example to establish my authority.”
“To whom? My people offered no threat.”
“Oh the demonstration wasn’t for your village. It was for mine.” She gestured to the workers and armed guards, then remembering her captive was blind dropped her arm to her side in irritation. “It never hurts to remind staff that failure will not be tolerated.”
“And who will not tolerate your failure? Alistair Crowley?”
The Ice Queen leaned in close to OotMa’s face and growled sotto voce “When I am finished here Crowley will answer to me.”
“What do you believe you will gain with your cruelty?”
“Why I am surprised,” Janssen replied, “haven’t you heard? You’re the guest of honor. I mean to take your longevity from you and give it to myself. I’m looking forward to living forever.”
“I think you will not find the face of eternity to your liking.”
Bird Far Seeing had been systematically giving his mentor a look through the eyes of every technician and guard, and with her prodding had lingered over the control station near the generator and the inscriptions on the objects forming the enclosed area.
Meanwhile, David Li, content to be ignored for the moment, had been doing his own mental reconnaissance, probing for weaknesses in the shielded guards and the surroundings as far as his powers could reach. So far he had found none, which was worrisome to say the least.
As they were prodded forward a light mist began to envelop the group and the last feeble light of the day disappeared, leaving the assembly in the harsh glare of electric arc lights run by a noisy generator set up some distance from the perimeter.
One of the lab coated men detached himself from his group and approached Janssen. “Everything is in order and ready to begin the trial run,” he announced.
“Splendid, Kurt. Proceed as planned.”
“Jawol sofort, mein Priesterin der Dunkelheit.” The man hurried back to his station and made a signal which apparently meant ‘let’s go’ as everyone began assuming positions around the varied equipment.
“You see,” Janssen intoned, “my demonstration in your useless village has had the desired effect. They immediately obey their Priestess of Darkness.”
“Fear is a poor substitute for loyalty. It has no endurance in the long race and no power when its weakness is exposed.” OotMa’s exploration of the markings on the equipment through Bird Far Seeing seemed familiar, but from a time so long ago its clarity was shrouded even from her.
The Ice Goddess sneered her irritation but said nothing. Presently an oblong box was opened and two technicians struggled awkwardly to extract a limp body from its confines and carry it over to the altar. David Li was startled to see it was a young woman, completely naked. Once upon the pedestal they draped her with a cloth covered with more hieroglyphics and attached electrodes to her feet, hands, and head. He tried extending his powers to test the bonds but they were too far away for his efforts. At least she’s unconscious for this. Or dead.
From behind a low control station shielded with thick glass Kurt turned a dial to its midpoint. In the distance the generator responded with a mechanical groan and higher engine revs to meet the increased demand for current. The outer perimeter pyramids began to glow, their markings changing from a metallic tone to an ominous carmine red hue. He turned the control knob to seventy-five percent. There was no apparent effect.
Then suddenly a brilliant flash of light turned night into daylight as a streak of energy coursed from the globe into the inert figure on the table. Nearly instantly the altar was empty. No naked woman, no cloak, no scorch marks of any kind. OotMa focused her mind on the dials Kurt was looking at. The control dial was reset to zero, but another was steady at thirty percent. It was marked ‘KONDENSATOR’. Kurt searched out Janssen’s eyes and gave her a big smile and a thumbs up indication. A broad smile of triumph broke across her face.
“It works,” she crowed. “I’ve no need for Crowley’s demons. I’ll have immortality! Prepare the boy!”
Two guards crossed over and seized Bird Far Seeing dragging him toward the altar, removing his clothes from his body as they went.
Do not resist these men. I will protect you. Do not be afraid.
No, OotMa, I am not afraid.
The Timeless One gently entered David Li’s mind. Trying not to startle him, she whispered into his consciousness: The moment is nearing when you must release your mind and your powers to me, David.
