The Time Stone (10 page)

James nodded after thinking of it for
a moment and realizing she was right, someone was trying to set
them up and he had to figure out why and Tina was the only friend
he had right now who he could trust so whether he liked it or not
they were stuck together. He smiled reluctantly and grimaced hiding
a tone of intrepidity in his demeanor.

Then two men began a drunken hoarse
conversation nearby which soon escalated into a violent encounter.
“What do you mean by that?” The larger man shoved the shorter man
who regained his composure and lunged into his taller adversary
pounding into his chest striking him with all the vigor he could
find and knocking him onto the floor. The crowd begins to transform
into a frantic whirl of chains and leather as the two fighting
became several snarling at one another ensnaring their various
items like clubs, brass knuckles, or whatever loose item could be
used as a weapon, pool cues, broken beer bottles, or the spikes on
their jackets, pulling of long goatees and pounding one another’s
chests with fists prior to blocking blows on the nearest neighbor.
They tossed one another in and out into the pavement outside and
onto the wooden tables and chairs being used both as landing pads
and weapons picked up to strike whoever was around. James and Tina
ducked under the other side of the bar with the
bartender.

“
What’s going on?” James
asked.

The bartender explained coughing, “the
Satan’s Warriors could get pretty defensive in their home turf.
Their boss owns this here bar. They generally abhor violence except
when their turf is threatened.”

“
Whose there boss?” Tina
asked.

“
That big guy right
there.” He pointed to a large man with a leather jacket, long red
hair and beard tied in knots and a tattoo across the side of his
face that read “
Hell’s a
Pleasure
.”

James said jokingly, “one of the most
common phrases In the English language.” “Can you be more
specific?” He asked jokingly.

The bartender looked at them with a
straight face, gave a quick reply of “no”, and he crawled off to
the phone and started to dial three numbers and spoke.

“
He’s calling the cops,”
Tina said worried.

“
Good” mentioned
James.

“
Not good, we’re wanted
fugitives remember. We gotta get out of here.” Tina stated and then
noticed a man in a black three piece suit at the end of the bar who
didn’t seem to be there before. He seemed oddly out of
place.

“
Tina, we really need to
think of a plan. What are we gonna do now? Tina… what is it?” James
stopped his words dead in his tracks as he saw blanks in Tina’s
face as she saw the man in the black suit. “Tina, you look as if
you’ve seen a ghost.”

“
Maybe,” she ducked down
and held a still gaze at the man at the end of the bar where James
also turned his head towards and saw the man in the black suit
there as if the fight around them didn’t bother him. He was calm,
cool, and collected dressed like a butler or gentleman of the old
nineteenth century with a tan complexion and had modern shades and
a bowler hat. The man in the black suit muttered something to the
bartender. The man had a pale complexion and small round beady
brown eyes that appeared to burn a hole in whatever he kept a quick
gaze on, fixed at the end of the bar he had a mechanical movement
that seemed almost artificial and mundane. His black suit was old
fashioned.

James asked Tina beside him under the
counter “do you know that man?”

“
I think so” replied Tina.
“He looks like my father, but it can’t be…” she thought back to her
childhood over two decades ago, “but how I don’t know.” They saw
the man in the black suit now wearing a pair of sunglasses indoors
and taking small sips from his glass of whiskey and then turned his
head slightly with an almost robotic jerk and he removed his
sunglasses revealing again his small brown beady eyes that bore
into them like the fire of hell.

James turned away, “oh my we should go
now.” James started to rise when the bartender
approached.

“
The cops are on their
way. You guys still got to pay for that whiskey before you
go.”

“
Huh?” James and Tina
looked at one another as they rose.

“
That’ll be $12.50 to
settle up the tab.” The bartender spoke loud in the midst of the
bar fight.

“
Oh uh.” James looked at
Tina with a curious gaze.

“
Yeah well, we need a more
extended tab. We’re a little short of funds right now.” She
added.

“
No that’s unacceptable.
You’ll answer when the cops show.” He backed off. “We’ll see what
you say when the cops come.”

Meanwhile the fight in the background
has settled some and calmness of the rowdy tranquility that became
an apparent permanence. The bikers were used to the occasional
fight and settled back into their routine of regular drinking. Four
burley sized bikers with the same fiery emblem on their jackets and
spikes on their shoulders, representatives of the group known as
the Satan’s Warriors who had been fighting recently then broke up
their own fight and now had gotten behind the pair of homeless
citizens. They turned and looked behind them at the slight
intimidation they were facing and then at one another.

“
We don’t want any
trouble.” James protested.

“
Well, you got trouble
now. We don’t take kindly to dead beaters around here. One way or
another you will pay your way, now!” Said the apparent leader of
the group, a biker with a head full of long fiery red hair and a
long goatee who smirked and growled as he whistled for two of his
disciples who rose up behind them and grabbed James and Tina from
behind and lifted them as they struggled and kicked back forcing
themselves free of the grip. They found themselves surrounded by
Satan’s Warriors and other patrons hopping up to the sounds of the
disturbance.

“
I don’t suppose you have
any magic tricks to get us out of this one,” screamed
Tina.

“
Yeah, just fight.” James
grabbed a chair and struck it to the chest of one of the Satan’s
Warriors that stood before him almost twice his size both length
and width combined. Then another romp and melee ensured where James
and Tina fought against their sudden captors resiliently resisting
the kicks and blows from their opponents as best they could and
struggling to strike back. James received two knocks in the face
and stumbled up striking back using more wooden broken parts from
the bar stools and table legs. “Damn, there’s more wood here than
the deck of the Titanic,” yelled James sarcastically as the various
wooden items were being flown around the bar. Tina overturned a
table as groups of Satan’s Warriors approached to bum rush her and
another tried to grab her from behind. James reached out to grab
them. The man in the black suit sat calm and observed with an
almost sense of pride in watching the biker. But both James and
Tina were suddenly grabbed and held again by two Satan’s Warriors
who prepared to toss them out onto the street. The remaining
Satan’s Warriors approached them vigilantly to defend their turf
even against the two cocky street smart young people who were
apparently more trouble than their purchase was worth. They still
furiously kicked and they broke free after fighting for release but
were easily caught again.

“
Get rid of them,” said
the bartender “their more trouble than their worth.” They were
tossed out fighting till the bitter end but helplessly outmatched.
“The cops are on their way anyway.”

The duo resisted their captors as they
broke free again and made it to the door and were almost free. The
duo attempted to run out of the door. Tina took one last glance at
the end of the bar where the man in the black suit sat as they
raced out the door to find out that the man was gone and no longer
there. James and Tina continued to fight on their way out as a pile
of buckets and wooden broom sticks from the cleaning closet near
the exit revealed themselves when a Satan’s Warrior fell back onto
the door.

“
Now that’s what I call
not coming out of the closet,” yelled James.

“
We better go.” Tina
screamed watching other Satan’s Warriors form a battalion to march
toward them to kick them out of the bar for good so they ran out of
the bar and saw a set of motorcycles, one with the keys in the
ignition.

“
Oh my God, can you drive
one of these things?” asked James.

“
Well, how hard can it
be?” She got on and started it. “Get on” she yelled.

“
Right” James added as he
mounted the motorcycle behind Tina and saw the bikers come pile out
and panicked so he pressed tight against her and she yelled, “hold
on tight, but not that tight” as they rode off and let a cloud of
exhaust zoom out of the tailpipe and the bike wiggled along the
dirt road due to the sudden movement so the other bikes, in a
sudden domino effect, fell on top of each other. There was a
thunderous noise and the duo was long gone from the bar. The
Satan’s Warriors arrived to see their damaged bikes.

“
Damn it!” yelled the
leader of the Satan’s Warriors leading his pack out of the bar in
time to see the duo ride off into the distance leaving the mess of
many damaged motorcycles behind.

Tina and James rode off into the wind
thanks to Tina’s professional biking skills having seen it done
thousands of times.

James smiled. “You have done this
before,” he spoke proudly in a frightened but relieved
tone.

“
Once or twice” replied
Tina.

“
Wow” remarked
James.

“
I told you, I grew up
with roughens.” She smiled.

James eyes bugged out as he held on
tight to her waist during the looming journey on the back road
towards the city limits of Chronix Bay as they passed a sign
indicating that it was just thirty-five miles away.

CHAPTER 24

In the tall obelisks centered in the
heart of Chronix Bay, modern day technological and architectural
marvels of urban city planning in the midst of quaint
semi-suburbia, the joint towers, conjoined together in the center
and stretching into the sky above the meager underpinnings of
residences and commercial districts that lay at the center of town.
In the twentieth floor about two thirds of the way up in the
northeast tower, the lights remain on in the midst of darkness
during the longest night in the summer solstice. In the large
conference room, a marble inlaid table rested at the center over
Persian rugs, wooden and gold and silver decorated coverings and a
large crystal chandelier rested overhead, the table rested with
gilded water goblets and pitchers and leather pad folios and silver
pens shining in the well lit room, and a large monitor on the far
end covered with a Oakwood credenza.

The meeting delegates began to pour in
between five individuals and within seconds the monitor flickered
on with lights. There was also a dark figure in the center who wore
a dark suit and whose face remained obstructed in the darkness
appeared. Complete silence manifested itself in the meeting room as
the five individuals sat at their seats. Broad Staffnight started
the meeting.

“
Good evening, my fellow
Temporo Inc. board members. We are here for a very important
meeting. We have just enough for a quorum and we need to vote on a
serious matter tonight that holds no bounds. We are aware of the
mysterious happenings in town, people vanishing and deaths of
unexplained occurrences. We must now strike to seek our destiny and
make a true impact on the events to come. It is with this reasoning
that we decide to enter into a new endeavor….”

“
And what is that going to
cost us?” Spoke Elizabeth Peters, his secretary and mentee who grew
accustomed to questioning him at every turn and offering
critique.

“
Liz, my pupil, how quick
you forget that we will always have our expenses and risks but that
is why we are here and there is no greater price to pay than that
if we do nothing. Mr. Brent Hightower, Chief of Police is here for
security”, he beckons to a tall slender man with a slightly
muscular built and whimsical mustache depicting his Irish-American
heritage mixed with his central African roots and constable attire
depicting his high rank as a civil servant. “He has so gratefully
chosen to protect us on our extremely dangerous missions not only
as a member of our board but as sergeant at arms for our new
assignments. Also, we have Mark Cumberberry, our CFO who is well
versed in cryptic archeology and mystic studies who will prove
invaluable on our missions.”

“
You mean the project is
true? We are going to…” Elizabeth started but was interrupted by
her boss and mentor.

“
Yes my dear, we are going
after the scourge of legend, the mythic artifact of the eons. That
is the famous artifact that was wrongfully stolen from us, ‘the eye
of the gods’.”

“
Why?”

“
Because …” he stood
shocked that she would ask, “we are faced with a serious dilemma
and that only way is to answer it and recognize our chances, save
our future, are to know the past and that which binds
it.”

“
I see.”