9.3.2021
TROUBLE IN TOKYO:
After a night of drunken regrets, Doc Masterson is awoken by a distant but frantic knocking.
The next morning, I was awakened by a distant but frantic knocking, and somewhere underneath it, a woman pleading desperately. I must have made it from my closet to my bed the night before, because that’s where I was, feeling like hell. At first I considered that the knocking and pleading was for another tenant of the building. This dream was dispelled when the woman’s voice became more clear:
“Dr. Masterson! Dr. Masterson! Please, open up, I know you’re in there! Dr. Masterson!”
Yup. Probably for me. I crawled out of bed and set my feet down on the floor. It felt like someone was shooting ultra-lasers directly into my cerebral cortex. I have faced many supervillains, but this hangover was in a league by itself.
With astonishing effort, my body stood and made its way from my bedroom to the foyer of the apartment, where the knocking and pleading was almost apocalyptic in its desperation. Whoever it was, they had a big problem.
I looked through the peephole. The woman knocking was thin, angular, pale, with brown freckles and a restrained explosion of tight, curly reddish chestnut hair crowning her pretty head. She wore a coal gray suit and black glasses. “Dr. Masterson! Please!”
“Go away!” I said through the door.
She stopped knocking. “Dr. Masterson! Please, it’s urgent. My name is Susan Stein. I’m with the Apparatus. I work with Paul Drake. Please Dr. Masterson, it’s urgent, let me in.”
“I told Paul I would think about it.”
“I know, Dr. Masterson, but there’s been an occurrence!”
“An occurrence?”
“It’s an emergency!”
“What kind of emergency?”
“Trouble! In Tokyo! Some kind of extra dimensional ship has crashed into the middle of the Shibuya District!”
“Some sort of extra dimensional ship has crashed in the middle of Tokyo,” I repeated.
“Just turn on the news!” she shouted.
“It’s on the news?”
“Yes!”
“Okay,” I said. “Give me a half-hour to take a shower and get dressed. I’m a little hung-over.” I moved away from the door.
“Aren’t you going to let me in?”
“No.”
What she had said was impossible. But I turned on the TV and she was telling the truth. I’m sure you’ve seen the footage: the billowing, ceaseless smoke, the helicopters buzzing like gnats over the torn city, the shape of the ship, half-submerged in the ground, that COLOR. I only had to look at it for a second and I knew everything was wrong.
I jumped in the shower as quick as I could. Once I was dressed I stood hesitating in my bedroom wondering what I should take. It was an unanswerable question. I went back to the door.
“Okay, before I open up, I want to see your badge,” I said to Stein.
She sighed and dug through her pockets. She pulled out her badge and held it up to the peephole. Light stabbed out of it and into my brain like a fork. Apparatus tech – for God’s sake they never knew when to quit.
“Okay.” I opened the door.
She stuck out her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Save it,” I said. “Let’s go.”
Stein whisked me downstairs where a black SUV and a motorcycle escort awaited. The driver of the SUV (who looked like some sort of gigantic Nordic warrior) opened the back door for me, and Stein got in the front passenger seat. Then the Nord got into the driver’s seat and we were off.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Just ten blocks North of here. It’s the closest helipad we felt comfortable using.”
“Am I going to Tokyo?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Are you going to Tokyo?”
“No.
“When did this happen?”
“An hour ago.”
“Did the Apparatus know this was going to happen?”
She hesitated. “No.”
They hadn’t been expecting it. It was a total surprise to them. The Apparatus had failed, and what a failure! The real question was: What happened next?
I eyed my guide in the front seat warily. “So, Ms. Stein. Are you in this for the money? Or are you in it to save the world?”
“I’m not in it for the money, Dr. Masterson.”
I rapped my fingers against the window restlessly.
“So you’re not in it for the money. What are you in it for, then?”
“I’m just trying to do my part.”
“In what?”
“We are at war.”
“Oh? Against who?”
“Chaos. Entropy. Decay.”
“In us too, right?” I asked.
Stein did not reply. She stared out the window, angry. They had probably told her that I could be difficult, and she had probably told them she could handle it.
“What are you in it for?” she asked, suddenly melancholy.
“Me? I guess I’m like you. Just trying to do my part. That’s all any of us can do, right?” I felt sorry for her now. “Look, I don’t mean to come off as harsh, but I am who I am, you know? Surely the file on me said the same?”
“Your file is… incomplete.”
“I certainly hope so.” Something about her made me curious. I decided to plunge forward. “When did they recruit you?” I asked her.
“When I was in college.”
“How old were you?”
“20.”
“Who approached you?”
“Mr. Drake.”
Paul himself? What did that mean? This answer gave me pause, and I sat silent, calculating its value. Stein seized the opportunity to take the offensive.
“Just what exactly are you a doctor of?” she asked.
I smiled. “The impossible.”
The limo pulled up next to a building I assumed was our destination.
“We’re here,” Stein said. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to continue this conversation later, Dr. Masterson.”
“You’re not going up with me?”
“No. In five minutes you’re going to be on a helicopter. I did answer all of your questions truthfully, Dr. Masterson. I hope that helps.”
“I’m sure it will. So long, Ms. Stein.”
“So long.”
Once I was out of the car a team of bodyguards ushered me into the building and up the elevator to the roof. When the elevator opened we were standing eighty stories in the air. Wind crashed and swirled around us. A boldly angled yellow helicopter stood ready before me. Outside of it stood two pilots and a heavily made up teen girl in a pink trench coat and big hoop earrings. The girl couldn’t have been older than thirteen. Her golden hair blew in the wind.
“Hello, Dr. Masterson,” the girl said.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“I’m Isabel,” she replied, smiling.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 4
NEWSLETTER 9.3.2021Happy Friday, everyone. As I promised, since it’s Friday again, below are three new audio poems from my audio book version of my 2008 poetry collection, Evil Summer.
SkullDownloadWheel of Fire, Wheel of WaterDownloadThe Tyrant of Miles UnknownDownloadI hope you enjoy these. There are 19 poems in all, so this will take a couple weeks. I love making audio books though, so I’m trying to incorporate this more into my work. I’m in the planning stages of doing this for the He-Thing chapters.
Stories for September 3rd, 2021First of all, in Chapter 7 of Your Dream of Dark Angels, Luke confides in his favorite teacher, Dr. Hilarion, about this thoughts on Lord Rathway’s murder.
In Chapter 4 of The Black Sorcery of Yelena Bulgakova, we have some back story on Mishka’s past before he met Yelena.
There’s a new, self-contained, one-post story, entitled Machine Hero, that I promise is NOT about Tony Stark and Iron Man.
There are two new writers who have joined Literature Unbound on Medium: Hard Scum, from Arkansas (not his real name – he’s shy); and Leena Karakostas, from Pittsburgh (who is an even bigger recluse.) Be sure to give these magical people your attention:
Hard Scum has posted the first chapter in a story called Midnight Man: Darker Than the Darkness.
And Leena has presented the first chapter in her nostalgic 90s novel (with a healthy dose of a certain 19th century “Great Detective”, The Kalachthon.
And that’s it for today! Have a great weekend!
Matt
View at Medium.com
