Dead Man's Hand (28 page)

I spun around and smiled
as I replied, “What and miss all the fun?”

With a hearty laugh
Alexis rolled his eyes as he spoke. “If this plan of yours is what you consider
fun, then you have some very serious problems, Francis.”

“That may be so, but it
doesn’t change my mind.”  I patted the log under me and asked, “Will this
one do or should I go find another?”

Alexis spent a few
moments studying the length that I had appropriated and finally said, “No, I
don’t think you’ll have to go cut another one down.  This one should be
more than sufficient for our purposes.”

“Good, then you can help
me carry it back through your portal.”  I said as I stood up.

“I’d rather not drag that
through my home.”  Alexis said before he knelt down to place his hands
upon the tree.  “Now listen very carefully, Francis.  Normally I
wouldn’t even begin to teach you this technique for a few years but necessity
being what it is you’re going to have to be a very apt student.”

“I’m all ears.” 

“Okay, the first step is
pretty much what you’ve come to expect.  You need to gather all the warmth
that you’re going to give me.  Once you have that, you’re going to place
your hand somewhere on my exposed skin, like the back of my neck for
instance.  That should be pretty simple for you, so why don’t you get
started.”

Without a word I did as I
was instructed and gathered all the body heat I could spare. Then I decided to
pull just a tad more, but not too much.  Once that was ready I moved
around the fallen tree and placed my right hand on Alexis’ neck and waited for
the next step.

“Okay now that you have
the heat readied, you need to focus your mind on the part of your hand that is
touching my skin.  What you’re going to do is mentally picture a tunnel
leaving your hand and entering my neck.  Then you’ll force the gathered
heat into that, but be sure to do it slowly.  I cannot stress that enough,
you have to slowly force the heat out.  If you do it too fast what you’ll
get is a nice fireball instead of the transfer we’re trying to create.”

Understanding dawned and
I began forcing the heat into him.  “Is that what you had in mind? 
Nothing’s happening.”

“You’re doing it right
and you’re doing well for a first attempt.  Good, you’ll know it’s working
when the heat you’ve gathered suddenly begins to drain from you.  Don’t
fight the swiftness of the transfer, instead, just allow it to happen or you’ll
just waste part of the heat you’re trying to transfer.”

“But
you said I have to push it out slowly.”

“Yes
you have to push it out slowly at first but once it begins to flow faster, let
it flow.”

I
closed my eyes and began to focus on the mental connection between us.  It
took all of my concentration but the heat began to flow
and he was right, it began to flood out of me.  I must have gathered more
heat than I realized because as the heat was rushing out I fell to my
knees.  Somehow my hand remained in contact with Alexis’ neck despite the
odd angle.  The tunnel must have been a little more real than I thought.

When my vision went black I knew I had transferred just a little
too much heat.  When I finally regained consciousness I awoke to find
myself not in the swamp but rather back in Alexis’ home.  Looking around
the room I found Alexis huddling next to two bodies, one of which must have
been the transformed log.  He must have made a couple of trips back and
forth. 
“Alexis, what happened to me?”

“You
prepared too much heat,” Alexis replied without looking around.  “Be more
careful in the future.  But fortunately I’m pretty sure I was able to make
that forgery permanent.”

“Wait,
that wasn’t part of the plan.  How is that going to hold up in court?”

With
a patient smile Alexis glanced up at me as he answered.  “In my youth I
was a very talented doctor, and as such, quite the student of anatomy. 
With the power you transferred to me I was able to make an anatomically perfect
copy of you.  Your own mother wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”

“So
that log is now a clone of me?”  I was absolutely floored by Alexis’
little revelation.

“Yes.
 But like I said, the next time you transfer heat to someone be more
careful, you almost died.”

Confused
I shook my head and asked, “I don’t remember gathering that much energy from my
body.  I only gathered what I thought I could spare.  How did I end
up passing more?”

With
a shrug Alexis turned around as he started answering my question.  “Don’t
worry about that, most people over transfer their first time or two.”

“What?!” 
I exclaimed.

“Most
people forget about the heat required to power the transference, but you gave
me more than that anyway.  Like I said, we now have a nice permanent copy
of your body.” Smiling, he paused and looked down at me. “It’s an honest
mistake that has gotten some young forgers killed before.  Fortunately for
you I didn’t pass out from my forgery, though, to be honest, it was a close
call.”

“You
nearly passed out?”  I asked with rising alarm.

With
a small chuckle Alexis explained, “Yes. This was the most dangerous part of
your plan.  I shouldn’t have to tell you what would have happened to both
of us had I passed out.”  I forced a lump the size of a watermelon down my
throat and simply nodded my understanding of what could have happened.

When
he saw the fear in my eyes, he finished his thought.  “But I didn’t pass
out.  In fact not only did I manage to get us back inside my house I also
managed to warm us back up safely.”

 “So
now what?”

Alexis
smiled and mockingly replied.  “Now to follow your plan, we quickly and
roughly prep the room for my, or rather for Dempsey’s, grand entrance.”

“Let’s
get started then.”  I replied with a smile of my own.

“Are
you recovered enough to help?”  Alexis asked, genuine concern in his
voice.

With
his mention of recovery I unconsciously hugged myself and began rubbing out a
phantom chill.  I forced my hands back to my lap and stood as I said, “I
think I can help you stage the room.  Besides, it’s not like I need to do
any more forging.  At least not right now.”

“Fair
point.”  He stretched his arm down to indicate the body lying on his
couch.  “Then help me pick you up and drag you over in front of the
fireplace.”  I had known that the body we were going to make was supposed
to be a doppelganger of myself.  But now that it actually lay there,
lifeless on Alexis’ couch, I was taken aback.  “Francis, you all right?”

It
took me a moment to collect myself and another second before I could to trust
my voice enough to speak.  “No, I’m okay.  It’s just an odd feeling
seeing your own corpse lying on a couch.”

“I
can only imagine your discomfort.”  Came the slightly testy response.

I
dismissed Alexis’ annoyance and started to lift my motionless duplicate off the
couch.  With a sharp glance I politely asked, “Were you going to help me
Alexis?”  We wordlessly maneuvered my corpse into its final resting
place.  Then we moved on to prepping Dempsey, who was now fully dressed in
a suit.  Alexis must have made his first trip back to Dempsey’s home while
I was chopping down the tree, that or he could have done it while I was
unconscious.”

I
quickly shifted my gaze over to Alexis and asked, “By the way, how long was I
unconscious?”

“It
took you long enough to ask about that?”

“Yeah,
well I have, now how long I was out of it?”  I asked, my voice tinged with
irritation.

Shaking
his finger at me Alexis scolded me, “Don’t take that tone with me young
man.  You’re here at my sufferance don’t try my patience with comments or
a tone like that.”

Abashed,
I looked down before replying, “Sorry.”

“Do
you see that open door behind your corpse?”  I nodded and waited for
Alexis to continue.  “Once I get back you’re going to have to go into that
closet and close the door.”

“Won’t
the cops try and look inside?” 

“No,
they won’, because they won’t see a closet door. Everyone but me will see just
a stretch of wall.  From the other side of the door you’ll be able to
clearly see into this room just as if it were glass.  But, once you enter
that closet you have to stay there until I let you back out, if anyone were to
see you then our illusion would be pointless and all this hard work for
naught.”

“Got
it. Keep my head down and stay out of sight.”  Looking away from Alexis I
muttered, “I can manage that.”

Sensing
my misgivings at placing all the risk upon Alexis, he reached for my arm. 
“Francis, this is a good plan.  It takes you out from under the eyes of
the Dempsey’s goons, not to mention places their boss in jail.”

Alexis
waited until I looked up to meet his eyes before continuing.  “Yes I am
taking a remarkable risk to myself.  But that’s part of what I do. 
There is no reason to fear for my life because nothing will happen.  I’m
in no danger of dying.  If Dempsey manages to actually pull the trigger on
his own to try and take me with him, he’ll miss.  Trust me.”

The
words did nothing to help ease my guilt even the smallest bit.  I was fine
taking risks with my plans, always have been.  But I was never comfortable
with others shouldering those risks for me.  Even when there was no other
choice, like now.  I would just have to hope Alexis was right. 
“Either way we should position Dempsey so you can get started.”

With
a half-hearted smile he said.  “Sounds good to me.”  With that, we
positioned Dempsey he was pointing his gun right at my double’s chest. 
“This should be as good as we’re going to get.  Just hold the fort until
we get back.”  Alexis finished with a broad smile across his face.

Alexis
walked towards his front door.  He quickly laid a hand on the frame and,
without breaking stride, he walked through a portal straight into Dempsey’s
bedroom.  Now I just had to wait for Alexis to run a car through his own
front door.  I’m sure that wasn’t going to be easy for him to do. 
While I waited I tried making a few more air marbles.  I was determined to
become well-versed in forging air.

The
process was getting easier.  I made and then unmade that one marble over
and over again, until I no longer had to think about the strange new
procedure.  Of course then I got a little too cocky and had to completely
walk through the new steps in order to make a quarter sized marble in my hand.

Just
as I was finished unmaking the marble I heard a loud crash.  That would be
Alexis returning home, rather that would be him ramming into his home. 
After some sounds of falling debris I clearly heard a car door open, that was
my cue to stand up and get ready to assist Alexis before hiding myself away in
his invisible closet.  Before I could do much more I saw Alexis walk into
the room wearing his illusion of Dempsey.

“If
I didn’t know that was you Alexis I would have had a heart attack.”

“What
makes you think I’m Alexis?”

The
smile that had been on my lips quickly disappeared to be replaced by a look of
shock and horror.  I took a slight step backwards as Alexis’ laugh rang
out, “I’m sorry, Francis I couldn’t resist.  Hey, you walked into this
house with the intention of killing me.  I should be allowed to have some
fun with you, isn’t that fair?  Now I don’t need any help for this so into
the closet with you.”

“Are
you sure?”  I asked hoping that there would be something for me to do
besides more waiting.

“I’m
sure, Francis.  Now get in!”  Alexis commanded as he forced the gun
in Dempsey’s hand to fire twice into my doppelganger.  The body instantly
slumped to the floor.  If anyone were to enter they would believe that
Dempsey shot and killed me.  I rushed into the closet and closed the door.

Once
I heard the click I turned back only to find that there was no handle on this
side of the closet.  Well I guess we didn’t have to worry about my leaving
the closet anytime soon.  The closet must have been soundproofed because I
saw Alexis grasping his arm in pain and Dempsey was coming to.  It was surreal
to look through the transparent cabinet door and see my lifeless corpse and
Alexis lying right at Dempsey’s feet.  I was dimly aware of the police
sirens blaring.  Wait a second, how was it I could hear the sirens but not
the gun shot?  I was going to have to remember to ask Alexis about that
when this was all said and done.

For
now I just had to wait for the cops to show up and arrest Dempsey, hopefully,
before Dempsey had the chance to force Alexis into sharing the fate of my
double.  At least there would be nothing to hinder their entering the
house, not with the giant hole in Alexis’ front door. Provided everything went
according to the plan it was going to cost Alexis a great deal of money to
repair the damage. 
What is keeping the police?

As I looked away from the
wounds on my double and towards Alexis’ injured body, I sought out Dempsey’s
face.  And when I found it I saw something ripple across Dempsey’s
normally stone-like face. 
Is that excitement?
  If it was, it
only proved that the man was demented.  I watched as Dempsey look down at
the gun in his hand, he was no doubt looking for whatever comfort he could
find.  And as if to answer one of my questions another explosion erupted
from the barrel of that gun.  As I blinked Alexis must have fallen to the
floor, because he was there, grasping his now bleeding arm.  And that shot
answered the other question I had, Dempsey must really be enjoying himself to
have shot Alexis in the arm. 
Where are the cops?  They aren’t
going to make it.