Timeless gods the tenth.., p.12
Timeless Gods: The Tenth Jonathan Shade Novel, page 12
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We arrived in Tulsa around one in the afternoon on Saturday. Clara landed gently on the roof of our hotel. Kelly and I slid down her side and stretched. We each stroked Clara’s face and chin, thanking her. I wondered if anyone reported a dragon to the Tulsa Police Department, and if so, how long it took for the dispatcher to stop laughing. Yeah, I know, dispatchers are more professional than that, but don’t go shattering my daydreams.
“I need some sleep,” I said. “Clara, feel free to go get some food, water, whatever in the countryside around the lake we passed earlier, but if you can be back here by nightfall, that would be great.”
Clara gave me a nod and launched into the air, flapping her mighty wings. She wheeled around and pushed higher into the sky heading west.
“I don’t need to sleep,” Kelly said, “but I wouldn’t mind resting a bit.”
“We’ll meet up with the other Kelly and Thor first, then we can rest. But we do need to plan. My first stop, however, is my room because I need to piss like a Russian racehorse.”
“As opposed to a shire?”
“Shire horses are for hobbits,” I said.
Kelly rolled her eyes and shook her head. “In some ways you aren’t any different from my Jonathan.”
I liked the sound of my Jonathan. “That’s a good thing. Right?”
“I haven’t decided.”
***
We met up with the other Kelly and Thor in the hotel bar. I was a little surprised he was still there since Kelly wasn’t sleeping with him, but I wasn’t going to complain about it. In the early afternoon, the bar itself wasn’t open for business, but we could still seat ourselves around a table to talk. We stepped into the slightly darkened room. Thor sat with the other Kelly toward the back of the place. She had a plastic bottle of water in front of her on the table.
Thor did a double take when we stepped in. He slowly grinned and raised a single eyebrow. “Time for a T-god sandwich tonight,” he said.“Write that down.”
“Kelly Chan,” I said, “meet Kelly Chan.”
They wore nearly identical black pants, boots, and shirts. They studied one another for a moment, then nodded.
“Let me clean off a place for you to sit down,” Thor said as he ran a hand over his mustache and beard.
“I don’t swing that way,” I said and sat beside him so he wouldn’t hit on my newest Kelly.
“I almost called you once,” Kelly said to the new arrival.
“This is too much like looking in a mirror,” Kelly said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Your hair is a little different.”
“I think you’re both gorgeous,” Thor said, “and I think we should plan a wild and crazy adventure in my bed tonight.”
Both Kelly Chans looked at him. “No,” they said in unison. I realized I needed to think about them as Kelly One and Kelly Two. Kelly One was the Kelly I’d been with since coming back from the twenties, and Kelly Two was the Kelly I’d just met.
I shook my head. “Still no sign of Esther?” I asked.
“No,” Kelly said. “She does like to wander sometimes.”
“Yeah, but she normally checks in.”
“She’s a ghost. It’s not like she can be killed.”
“I know, but I’m still worried about her,” I said. “I wish we had a way to contact her.”
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Kelly said. “Now, how are we going to handle the Men of Anubis?”
“Did you check out the Center of the Universe?”
“It’s just a small area on a walkway not far from here.” She pulled out her cell phone and showed me a couple of pictures. “The sidewalk expands outward, and there’s a concrete circle in the middle of a bigger brick circle. If you stand in the main circle and talk, the sound is a bit distorted to those outside it. If you’re inside the circle, and you speak, your voice echoes back at you. Aside from giving us a bit of room to fight, it’s not really suited for our purposes.”
“I was hoping it would be a magical sound barrier, but it will have to do.”
“How are you going to make that work?”
“I could call my friend Amanda,” Kelly Two said. “She’s a witch, and she could magically enhance the circle to block sound.”
“Can she open a rift to get here quickly?” I asked.
“No. She’d have to catch a plane unless one of the wizards at DGI could help her.”
“I don’t trust anyone who works for DGI,” I said.
“Your sister works for them.”
“As I said, I don’t trust anyone who works for DGI.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“We’ll find a way to keep one of the Men of Anubis in the circle so they can’t communicate as well and if they try casting a verbal spell, it will bounce back at them. Then we’ll kill them or have Chronos open a rift to the void and we’ll cast them into it.”
“Do they cast verbal spells?” Thor asked.
“Sort of. They have a humming power with their voices and their weapons, but I don’t know if we can alter the frequency enough to matter,” I said. “But what choice do we have?”
“That’s not much of a plan,” Kelly One said. “I thought you said these guys control time.”
“To a degree, but they can’t go over the places they’ve been, so I think we can do it.”
“And if we can’t?” she asked.
“Then we die.”
“Then you die,” Thor said. “Should things not go the way we like, I’ll simply leave. I don’t fancy being trapped in the void for all eternity.”
“So you’re a fair weather fighter?” Kelly Two asked.
“I’ll show you some fair weather.”
“You show me anything, I’ll cut it off,” Kelly Two said.
“I like the way you think,” Kelly One said.
“All I know is that I’m with Jonathan,” Kelly Two said, and put a hand on my arm.
Kelly One stared at the touch for a moment, then turned to Thor. “Can you go fetch Chronos?”
“Now?”
“Not right now,” I said. “I need some sleep.”
“We’ll need to coordinate with him.”
Esther popped into sight above the table. She was semi-translucent, and therefore visible to all of us.
“Esther!” I said. “Where have you been?”
She pointed at a collar around her neck. It was a brown leather strip with glowing hieroglyphs. My stomach flipped.They’d gotten to her and it was my fault for making her feel unwelcome, for letting her go.
“I’m sorry, Jonathan,” she said. “They’re going to bump me off if you don’t bring them the vajra weapon and turn it over to them without a fight.”
“They can’t kill you,” I said. “You’re already dead.”
“Don’t be a sap. This collar will destroy me.”The lights on the collar flared brighter and Esther winced in pain.
Kelly Two reached out and tried to touch Esther, but her hand went right through her.
“The collar is a blend of magic and technology, isn’t it?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’m scared, but don’t give in to them.”
“Tell them we’ll meet them on the pedestrian bridge between West Archer Street and North Boston Avenue,” Kelly One said.
“But—”
“Just tell them.”
“We’re on our way,” I said. “We’re not going to let them hurt you.”
“Too late,” Esther said and popped away.
“So much for advance planning,” Kelly One said. “Where’s the dragon?”
“Clara flew off to get something to eat.”
“So we go as soon as the dragon returns,” Kelly One said.
“They’ll destroy Esther,” I said. I couldn’t let that happen. I considered all that Esther had done for me. She deserved better.
“If we go now, they’ll kill us all.”
“If they wanted to kill you all, you’d be dead already,” Thor said. “They sent the ghost here, so they clearly know where you are. I wonder why they didn’t just show up here to kill you. They’d have surprise on their side.”
“They don’t know where we are,” I said. “Esther can teleport directly to me no matter where I am, and that’s why they’re using her.”
“We need the dragon,” Kelly One said. “It can burn them up from a distance, right? Magic fire? Maybe you could hold one of them while the dragon flames them, and the fire wouldn’t harm you.”
I shook my head. “Clara’s fire isn’t magical. I’d be burned alive. And even if I didn’t die from that, the air around me would be heated up, and that would burn my lungs or keep me from breathing, so I doubt that’s the issue. We’re wasting time. I’ll get the weapon, and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
“I’ll check the roof,” Kelly Two said, “on the off-chance Clara is already back.”
“Cool.”
As she stood, the light from the lobby reflected off her earrings, and I realized that maybe, the Men of Anubis had been tracking us. I didn’t say anything about it because Kelly and Thor would tell me what a moron I was for keeping the jewelry. But I’d examined them and didn’t find any kind of tracker. It didn’t matter now. We had a mission, and by god, I was going to destroy those sons of bitches or die trying.
“Well,” Kelly One said, “at least we’ll have honorable deaths.”
“I believe I’ll head to Club Eternity for a drink first,” Thor said.
“Backing out on us?”
He laughed. “No. I’m going to fetch Chronos. I’ll see you at the Center of the Universe.” He twisted his bracelet and disappeared.
When I returned to the lobby with the vajra, Kelly Two gave me a smile. “Clara is back, so let’s go kill us some gods.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Center of the Universe didn’t impress me.
It was just a pedestrian bridge stretching over some railroad tracks. Off to one side, was a parking garage, and to the other were the buildings of downtown Tulsa. The BOK tower stood tall – well, comparatively speaking. It wasn’t really a skyscraper. After spending some time in Manhattan, it was harder to be impressed.
I carried the vajra weapon in my left hand. I had my Glock in my shoulder holster. The weather was warm, so I wore a light jacket simply to conceal the gun. I knew the gun was useless against the Men of Anubis, but I brought it along anyway. If I got chucked into the void, I could blow my brains out and end my suffering right then and there. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
The sidewalk led to the central area where the walkway fanned out to knee-high planters that circled around the expanse. In the center was a concrete circle surrounded by a bricked circle. The planters were filled with bushes, flowers, and a few small trees. According to the internet, some folks claimed the echoing microphone effect of the Center of the Universe was caused by the sound waves bouncing back from those raised walls.
I moved to the center of the concrete and said, “Welcome to the show.”
My voice came back at me amplified.
Kelly One and Two kept their distance. They each had swords tucked behind their backs, and they looked to be ready for action. Clara circled high overhead
A soft wind gusted, rippling through my jacket and messing up my hair. I took a deep breath. A mother and her eight-year-old daughter wandered along the sidewalk. I stepped out of the circle so the kid could have a go at it. She whooped and hollered and laughed as her voice bounced back.
“Don’t get carried away, Meghan,” her mother said. “There are other people here.”
“It’s all good,” I said. “Let her yell. She’s having fun.”
She smiled and nodded, but took her daughter’s hand. “We mustn’t be late. Your father is waiting.”
“But Mom,” Meghan said.
“Don’t ‘but Mom’ me,” she said and dragged her along the sidewalk.
I turned to Kelly Two. “Call them, I said. “Let’s get this over with.”
We’d discussed this on the way over, so she touched the earring and opened a channel. “Olly olly oxen free,” she said. Then she took the earring out, dropped it on the ground and stomped on it.
The wind gusted again. Traffic noise sounded in the distance.
“Jonathan,” Kelly One said.
I glanced over at her and she nodded toward the parking garage.
Two shirtless men in kilts stood on the edge of the roof of the garage. They wore jackal masks. Esther floated above them, unmoving. One of the men carried a crook, the other a flail. Both looked like they could have battled Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Conan movie.
They stepped off the building in unison and walked across the air down to where we waited, but they remained positioned in the air and out of reach.
One of the men said something, but it sounded like gibberish.
“A gerbil says what?” I said.
The man touched the side of his jackal mask, nodded, then spoke again, this time in English. “I am Amenken.”
“Good for you,” I said.
“This is my son, Mahu.”
“Gesundheit,” I said. “Come on down here and take what you’ve got coming.”
“Hand over the vajra weapon, and we shall release your ghost friend.”
I smiled at him, and adjusted my grip on the weapon. It hummed in my hand, spikes out, ready for deployment. “What happens then?” I asked.
Amenken turned his jackal mask toward the two Kelly Chans. He pointed toward Kelly Two. “I believe those belong to us,” he said and made a come hither motion with his fingers. The time loop earrings popped out of Kelly’s earlobes and shot through the air to Amenken’s hand. “Time is our domain, not yours.”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying,” Kelly Two said.
“We do not blame you. In fact, we will allow you to leave here alive and return to your life.”
“What about them?” Kelly Two asked nodding to Kelly and then to me.
“They will come with us because they do not belong here.”
“You tried to kill me once,” I said.
The sound of dragon wings flapping drifted downward, but the Men of Anubis glanced up and saw nothing because she was above the clouds. They might have taken our chance for a do-over with the time loop earring, but we still had a dragon.
“We are impressed that you survived, Jonathan Shade. Your name is writ large in the Halls of Amenti.”
“Does it say, ‘For a good time call’?”
Head tilt from Amenken. “I do not understand why you jest.”
“Of course you don’t. Are you cowards going to come down here and fight or are you only here to taunt us?”
“We should kill him now, father,” Mahu said.
“I want the vajra, and I want him to kneel before us.”
I grinned. “Mahu. Sounds like a variety of fish to me. Let me clue you in on something, you ignorant piece of camel shit. You guys have already tried to kill me. Your brother, Kermit, tried to best me as well. Look where it got him.”
“Khemet.”
“Khemet, Kermit, same thing. He’s dead as a frog in a blender now.”
“Father?”
Amenken motioned for him to be quiet. “No mortal has ever defied us the way you have, Jonathan Shade. No mortal has ever bested us either.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “I’m a pain in the ass. Come down here and face me, you cowardly prick. I’m tired of your bluster.”
Amenken shrugged. “We have studied you. There’s absolutely nothing you can do to harm us, and I want to crush your skull with my bare hands for what you did to my son.”
My eyes swept the area behind them. Where the hell was Thor? He was supposed to bring Chronos. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stall.
“Maybe I should just blast you with the vajra.”
“Feel free,” Amenken said. “The crook will protect me. One more thing you should note. At its current setting, the vajra blast will be wider than you think and you’ll vaporize at least one of your allies before the crook absorbs the energy.”
“Then we’re at an impasse.”
“Incorrect,” Amenken said. “Give us the weapon.”
“You’re welcome to try and take it from me,” I said.
Amenken laughed. “Fool, I can destroy you from here.” He aimed the crook at me.
“But before you waste your time trying that,” I said with a smile and confidence I didn’t really feel, “let me tell you how this is going to go down.”
I moved sideways to stand in the center of the concrete circle.
“I’m listening,” Amenken said. Lights danced around the hieroglyphs of his crook. He was ready, but he was also cautious. I’d survived their attempt to kill me before, and I’d bested his son in single combat. He wasn’t taking any chances.
“First,” I said, “you’re going to let Esther go. She’s a ghost and can’t influence anything here.”
“She is not a mere ghost. She can attain physical form.”
“But she can’t change time.”
“She does not belong here.”
I raised the vajra, but didn’t aim it at Amenken just yet. I made a show of twisting it up a few more notches. The spikes at this level turned inward, which would give it a more focused beam. He didn’t react, so I suspected the crook could absorb that power level too. “None of us belong here, jackass. I don’t, she doesn’t, Kelly doesn’t, and you and your steroid addicted son don’t either.”
“Let me slay him,” Mahu said.
“Patience, my son,” Amenken said. “This one amuses me. He stalls for time, which is ironic as we are untouched by time. He believes he stands a chance against us when we have ruled across millennia. We are beyond their reach. It costs us nothing to let him play his game.”
“Could cost you your life, buddy boy,” I said.
Amenken laughed.
“Kermit laughed, too,” I said.
“Khemet.”
Still no sign of Thor. My heart hammered my chest, threatening to break free like an alien from John Hurt’s chest. But I remained still and outwardly calm. “Tomato, tomahto,” I said.
