NINETEEN
It was a little after three in the morning when the six of them reached the doors to Evan and Valarie’s suite. For the second time David and Judy said good night and walked on down the hall. Major Hammons had just closed the door to the suite when he noticed that everybody had stopped. He looked past Evan and saw the three men sitting on one of the sofas in the suite, all dressed in dark conservative suits, and none of them were smiling. After a moment of staring at each other, the center man stood. He was tall, thin and had a red scar which ran along the bottom of his jaw. His dark eyes watched the four people standing by the door taking in every detail with a practiced gaze.
“Mr. Evan Cooper,” he said, addressing Evan directly. Major Hammons wondered how he knew which one of them was Evan. “A certain gentleman that I work for would like to have a word with you. If you wouldn’t mind coming with me now?”
“And if I would mind,” Evan said evenly as he took another few steps towards the bar, “do you plan to force me to accompany you in front of three witnesses?”
‘Certainly not sir,” and the man smiled. It was a thin evil smile. “But I would ask you to reconsider, for Mrs. Cooper’s sake.”
“What Mrs Cooper?” Evan asked angrily. He stopped at the bar. “I’m not married, so perhaps you have me confused with somebody else. We’re just going to have a night cap. Would any of you gentlemen care for a drink?”
“No thank you,” and the man motioned for his companions to stand up too. Everybody else followed Evan to the bar. The thin man did not like so much movement about the room without his control of the situation. “Sammy, the door,” he said curtly. “She said her name was Cindy Barker Cooper, your wife.”
Evan steeled himself mentally. He hoped he gave no visible sign of recognition to the name. Wondering how to get the men out of their suite. “She was my wife fourteen years ago. I haven’t seen her since the day she walked out of our marriage. You’re more than welcome to keep her. If this relates to her in any manner, you should take it up with her directly.”
Major Hammons was momentarily stunned by Evan’s audacity. Walking casually to the bar, offering drinks to the men. He knew the men were here explicitly for Evan. Now their exit was barred by Sammy at the door. Now Evan was acting as if they either didn’t exist or present a threat to everyone in the room, and hoped they would just go away. He was stunned again by the total lack of emotion that he had for his ex-wife, even if the divorce was less than acrimonious. From the way each of their jackets puckered under one armpit, he knew that all three were armed. He worried that he had no way to protect the ladies and himself.
“Valarie, what would you like a drink,” Evan asked?
“Mr. Cooper,” the thin man interrupted, “I must insist that you come with me,” and his voice was cold and hard.
“Or what?” and the tone of Evan’s voice matched the tone and inflection of the thin man. “You’ll start beating Cindy? Or maybe you’ll take your guns out and shoot one of my guests? No, I don’t think so. What I do think you’ll do is call to have Cindy brought back and then leave quietly.”
“We do have Mrs. Cooper,” he said menacingly.
“Give her my regards if you’re not going to be a gentleman and return her to where you found her.” Evan took a bottle down from the shelf behind the bar to pour himself a cognac. “Would anyone else like a drink?”
“I’ll have one of those,” Valarie said softly as she pointed to the drink Evan had just poured. Mentally she asked frantically, “What the hell are we going to do?”
Just relax, everything is going to be alright. They can not hurt any of us. Remember that you are perfectly safe, Evan told her. “Fran, what about you?” Evan asked. Then in her mind she heard, relax, everything is going to be alright.
“The same will be fine,” she stammered as she looked at Evan oddly. Major Hammons was no longer interested in that nightcap. Slowly inching his way back towards the front door of the suite. If he could get close enough he could overpower and disarm Sammy. He was three feet away from Sammy when Evan called attention to him to ask what he wanted to drink.
“Nothing, thank you,” he answered, upset. Sammy motioned him back towards the bar.
“Perhaps we should all join Mrs. Cooper and then go see our boss, so we can get on with our evening,” the man next to the thin man said. He was shorter than his companions and heavier, but the most notable feature were his coke bottom thick lenses to his glasses. He removed the pistol from under his jacket and banished it towards Evan. “If you don’t have any regards for your formed wife, and I can understand that, maybe you do for your girlfriend.”
“Put it away Tony,” the thin man said to re-establish his authority. “But I do think it’s time to leave to see the boss.”
“Then again, perhaps we should stay here,” Evan said as he walked around the bar to stand next to Valarie. He smiled as he extended the forefinger of the hand holding the snifter. Moving in an intricate pattern through the air he quietly said four ancient and archaic words behind the mouth of the snifter. A moment later they each took their weapons and threw them on the floor with expletives about how they had suddenly become hot and were burning their skin. “Sammy! Come away from the door and have a seat,” Evan said in a voice which demanded obedience.
Major Hammons watched disbelievingly. First their assailants threw their weapons to the floor with no apparent provocation. Then Sammy moved away from the door as if he was being pushed from behind the entire way back to the sofa. Somehow Evan was controlling all three of the men, and that was why he did not seem nervous. He controlled the situation, and not the thin man with the scar. It was in this instance that Major Gil Hammons realized the Air Force project could work. Their soldiers could be weapons themselves.
The thin man knew he was losing control and he had to do something, anything to regain his control. He launched himself across the low coffee table towards Evan. He was completely in the air when he felt his body shoot up rapidly to the fourteen feet high ceiling. He crashed into the ceiling causing his body to leave a visible dent and knocked the breath from his lungs. At the same time, the other two men sat down on the sofa.
“I demand that you let me down from here immediately,” the thin man wedged next to the ceiling said.
“I can’t get up from this sofa,” Sammy complained.
“You’re doing all of this through sheer will power?” Major Hammons asked incredulously.
Evan chose to ignore the Major’s question. Walking over to the sofa, he stood in front of Sammy who continued to struggle to move while growling at Evan. At the other end sat the man with the thick glasses. It was clear the man was terrified of Evan.
“Sammy, what is the man with the glasses called?” Evan asked.
“Ted Dujay, sir. The one by the ceiling is Richard or Richie Haskel.”
“Do you know where Cindy Barker Cooper is now?”
“Yes sir. She’s in the other tower with three more men.”
“Shut up Sammy. Keep it up and you’re going to be in huge trouble when I get down.”
“Stop with the threats Richie, or we’ll see how well you can float outside this window. Gil, do me a favor please and pick up everyone’s pistols.” Evan moved down the sofa to stand before Ted. He stared at him for a few moments then noticed a strange odor. A dark wet stain started to rapidly grow down Ted’s inseam on his right leg. It was clear he was terrified of Evan. “Ted, you can stand now. Please pick up the phone and call the other room. Tell them all to come over now. Can you do that for me please.”
“Yes sir.”
“Do anything other than what I told you and you get a free ride to the ground right through this window. Valarie please make certain he only says that it’s safe to bring Mrs. Cooper back.”
“Ted! You’re going to be in so much trouble if you make that call.” “That’s enough out of you Richie,” and he suddenly spun in the air so he was facing the ceiling and feeling more pressure on his body than he did before. “Your next step is to become one with the ceiling. You have no idea about the forces you are dealing with, and they are life altering. Right now I’m just pissed, you do not want to see me mad. Now do you want to say anything else?” Fear constricted his vocal cords, and Richie was silent.
Major Gil Hammons wanted to say something. Hundreds of questions were buzzing through his mind, but which should he ask first? He has watched a man spin around in the air and be held to the ceiling defying gravity. At the same time he is controlling two other people, and he was acting so natural about it. This was all supposed to be impossible, but he was watching it happen. Forcing himself to move and do something to help, he took the three automatic pistols and popped the clips out, placing them on the white marble bar. He checked the breech to make sure an additional bullet was not left in the weapon. Moving closer to Evan to find out how he could help, he felt palpable waves of heat emanating from Evan’s body. At the sound of Valarie’s voice he turned.
“All done Evan, and he said exactly what you wanted. They should be here in five to ten minutes. You know all of the rest of the guys are going to be coming with Cindy.”
“We have to get out of here then, before we can’t,” Fran said in a near hysterical voice.
Everyone turned to look at Fran. The panic was clear on her face. Major Gil Hammons moved across the short distance back to her by the bar. She flung her arms around his neck and clung to him.
“You really should take her back to your room. This doesn’t concern you and I’ve got it under control. Fran needs to go before act two arrives.”
“I feel like I’m deserting you in the middle of real trouble.”
“As you can see, I have everything under control. I’m sure there won’t be any problems I can’t handle when the new guest arrives. Really, I insist. It’s late, we’ve been drinking. We all need some sleep.”
“Go ahead and leave Gil,” Valarie said. “Fran needs to get out of here before she has a complete breakdown.”
Reluctantly Major Hammons agreed, and took Fran back to their room in the other tower. As he left he told them that he would see them in the morning, for brunch? But if Evan needed anything before then to call him. With Fran and Major Hammons out of the way, Evan sat down on the sofa opposite Sammy and Ted. He regarded them with cold dispassionate eyes; snake eyes Ted would recount to his friends later. Why were they here and how had they found Cindy Baker?
Beautiful Cindy Baker, his high school love, and later his wife. She had deserted him because he was not exciting nor was he amusing enough to hold her interest. She was not going to be trapped like her mother in a life of sameness. Nothing they had done together, said to each other, or planned for their future together mattered in the end. In the morning she was at their apartment, in the afternoon when he returned from work she was gone. All that was left was a note and several pieces of clothing she no longer wanted. Briefly, Evan remembered the pain of being crushed by her words and actions. He spent eighteen months looking for her, so he could take her home and they’d be together again. He would have given her anything, done anything for her.
Finally David and Judy had convinced him to stop looking. She was done with Evan. Now Evan needed to be done with Cindy. It was over. For another year Evan mourned his loss by throwing himself into his studies. The search for real magic was all he had left in the world. Late at night, when sleep was elusive, he would wonder where Cindy was and how she was doing? Wondering if she found the excitement in her life that she had left to enjoy. It would have been easier if she had just died. Then it would be over with no questions or ambiguity. After four years he finally had his life back in order.
Now Cindy Barker had returned from the graveyard of his mind. She was living in Las Vegas. In just a few minutes, he would see her for the first time in fourteen years. He wondered if she still held his heart hostage? How had she wound up with these men? What did she want now that she found him? How did they know so much about his past? What did they want with him?
“Sammy?” Evan said softly. “How did you find Cindy Barker?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“We didn’t. She was in the bed in one of the bedrooms. She saw us and started screaming that we had better leave before her husband came back. We just assumed she was your wife and important to you.”
So she had found Evan, but why? How had she known that he was here in Las Vegas? At Caesar’s Palace? In the Imperial Suite? What did she want after all of these years? Granted they had not kept the low profile like the plan called them to do, but it was really only hotel employees who knew about the four of them. Yes, only hotel employees. She must work for Caesar’s Palace in some capacity. How hard would it be to find out how much money they’ve won? That is why she has returned to his life. Money, plain and simple. She wants some of his money. Magically, as if she has some sort of claim on it.
In the back of Evan’s mind, the small kernel of hope sprouted. A wish to be like they originally were together, and the sprout grew a few more leaves. Then he remembered that anniversary note and the sprout was frozen. As if it had been dropped into a vat of liquid nitrogen. All the feelings that she had once evoked in him were frozen solid. His love, longing, desire and passion still existed but buried under a glacier of ice; irretrievable.
Valarie watched Evan’s face as he sat in front of the two men, just staring into space. In the space of two minutes, his face had hardened, as if carved out of granite. The corners of his mouth drooped. His eyes were flat and hooded taking everything in, but not letting anything escape. Thinking about Cindy, Valarie asked mentally.
Yes.
How could she know you were in town and where you were staying?
She must work for Caesar’s Palace, and either saw us or heard about us is the only viable answer.
Do you know what she wants?
Money.
That simple?
Yeah, that simple, and if she has too, she’ll tolerate me tagging along. Are you alright?
I will be, very soon.
Do you want me to help with holding everybody in place?
No thanks, I’m good.
Any particular reason we’re keeping Richie on the ceiling? Evan turned to face Valarie, then smiled.
Not one. Slowly he returned Richie to the sofa with Sammy and Ted.
“So who wants to tell me why you are here and what is this all about?” The three men on the couch remained silent. “If I have to play forty questions to get all the information out of you, well, it’s not going to end pretty,” Evan growled at them. “Richie since you like the sound of your own voice, who’s your boss and why did he send after me?”
“I don’t remember his name, since I just started working for him.”
“Bull shit!,” Evan hissed as Richie started to inch towards the huge floor to ceiling window. His body scraped across the ceiling inch by inch. “I don’t have the time, nor the inclination to play your stupid games. You have until your head is an inch away from the window. Once I put you on the other side of the window, Sammy or Ted will tell me what I want to know.”
”Our boss is Max Kirkland. He basically controls drugs and human trafficking in the southwestern portion of the United States. He has politicians, police and other people on his payroll so nothing really touches him.”
“And just what does Mr. Kirkland think I can do for him? More importantly, what would be in it for me?”
Richie looked nervously at his hands as if trying to make up his mind. “Mr. Kirkland has a partner that I don’t think he likes anymore, that has some skills similar to yours.”
“How did Mr. Kirkland know about me?”
“Mr. McGuier, he came to Phoenix and handed Mr. Kirkland a black and white picture of you. He told Mr. Kirkland to find you fast. All he had was that you lived in Arizona and your picture. So it was a matter of giving one of our sheriffs your picture to run through the state drivers license to match your face. After two days, the Sheriff came up with you, Evan Cooper, 11464 Tanque Verde Road, Tucson, Arizona. We went to the complex and talked to the manager. He said your girlfriend told him you were going to Vegas and she had some important mail coming soon. Would he please collect it each day and place it in her apartment? So we just had to check high rollers at the various hotels. We started with the top five and you were in number three.”
Evan turned towards Valarie, shock clearly written on both of their faces.
Why, he mentally asked her.
I’m so sorry, Valarie said mentally to Evan. I knew the last paycheck would be coming from Polly Quakers while we would be gone. I needed the money, or so I thought. I had no idea that I would win three million dollars here in Vegas. I had no idea this would or even could happen.
An innocent request which had led to danger. He knew her actions were innocent, and had no idea that this could happen. Evan would not have thought that this could happen either, but now it had and they needed to deal with the consequences.
I’m sorry, Valarie told him again.
I know and it’ll be alright. Neither of us could have imagined such an innocent remark could cause trouble.
Silence filled the room as everyone waited for the questioning to continue.
“Who is this Mr. McGuier,” Evan asked.
“I don’t know,” Richie said “I’ve never seen him before, and I’ve been with Mr. Kirkland for seventeen years. The way that Mr.Kirkland defers to him, he has to be someone important. Maybe he is this mysterious partner that Mr. Kirkland doesn’t like any more.”
“Where does he come from?”
“I don’t know for sure, He flew in from New York, but I don’t think he lives there.”
“Why?”
“He said that the trip down to JFK took too long and was upsetting all his other plans."
I’ll bet that Mr. McGuier is the person trying to open the Dark Gate, Valarie told Evan with sudden clarity of the problem. If we could get to him now, we could stop him.
We’re not ready, Evan answered. But now he was thinking along those very lines. We can’t face him until we are ready, or the consequences could be fatal. There are still two weeks and we’ll find the right time to strike. At least now we know where he is for when we are ready.
What if he moves? He’s had trouble finding us because we’ve moved around. He could do the same to us.
We’ll have to just deal with that when and if it happens. I won’t commit us to a fruitless battle. The big question is how did he get my picture and not my name at the same time?
Ask Richie.
He wouldn’t know. I am positive this Mr. McGuier wouldn’t have even told Mr. Kirkland.
How would you do it? Find out where someone lives, or at least in the state, and then get a photo of the person?
It depends.
On what?
For one, whether that person was also a magician, or a normal person.
I think it’s fairly obvious that he’s a magician. Remember that they said you created a huge riff in the natural energy field and alerted other people to your presence. If he felt the riff, then wouldn’t he know that you were a magician. Who else can do what you can do?
There are others. We’re waiting for one to come here, but I think you’re right. Under that premise, he could get some information from Guardians of the Gates. If he can command a Gate that I’ve visited.
You’ve been to them all except Gates Five and Six, including the Dark Gate, and if he is working to open the Gate from this world, then he would have been able to Command that Guardian. He would know what I look like and my name at that Gate, but I never suspected that he could tell someone where I live.
Maybe he couldn’t tell where you were, but he could tell where the energy disturbance occurred.
Evan smiled at Valarie again, admiring how clearly she could sort through limited facts to make a useful conclusion. She would become a fine magician herself, given time. His thoughts were interrupted by the soft knocking on the suite doors. Silently, he told Valarie to stand behind him, and only after she was in position did he open the door.
Richie turned his head towards the door when he heard the knock. Now was his chance, maybe his only chance. He had to let his men know they were walking into a trap. If they knew, then they could help him and they could all get away. He saw the door opening by itself, while Evan stood between the second sofa and the coffee table. The next few moments were crucial to all of their freedom, and Richie would later say that time appeared to slow.
Cindy was pushed through the door alone and hard. She struck a marble end table next to where Ted was sitting.
Richie jumped up and shouted ‘IT’S A TRAP’ as he flung himself across the table to knock Evan to the floor as a distraction for the second time. He did not even clear the low white marble coffee table before he ran straight into what felt like a brick wall. Richie screamed in pain and fell back onto the tabletop unable to move his left arm and excruciating pain. Next came Danny and Frank, guns drawn. They stopped just inside the room, then they kept walking further into the room against their will. The guns in their hands became blistering hot, forcing them to drop them to the floor.
Last in was Jake. A human mountain of muscles and flesh, but not necessarily brains. He stopped just inside the door. He saw Danny and Frank running towards the two sofas and saw them drop their pistols. He saw Richie laying on the coffee table writhing in pain and yelling for him to shoot. Not knowing whom to shoot, Jake chose the only man he did not recognize. Two shots rang out and Evan’s hand jumped up.
For a brief moment, Evan lost control of all the men, as the bullets struck his hand and left side. Waves of heat were rolling off Evan as he exerted maximum force to hold all six men in place.
Cindy got to her feet and ran towards Evan. “You saved me, you saved me,” she repeated over and over again.
“Sit down and shut up,” Evan barked at Cindy. She sat immediately in a club chair by the sofas.
Six men from hotel security showed up at that moment. Chaos broke out as all six men tried to talk at once. Finally, Evan shouted, “Everyone shut up. No more talking unless you are asked a direct question, and then you must answer it absolutely honestly."
Silence filled the room as the head security man walked over to Evan.
“James Harcourt, Palace security. Can you please tell me what is going on Mr. Cooper.”
“Certainly, as far as I’ve been able to ascertain, these six men showed up while Valarie and I were at the Diana Ross show. When we got back to the room, after gambling some more and having a bite to eat, we found these three men waiting inside the suite. That’s breaking and entering. During their first search of the suite, they found this woman, who was wearing the jewelry and clothing belonging to my friend. That is grand theft. She was in my bed. Again breaking and entering. The door does not appear to be damaged, so on one or several of these people you should find a card key for the door. I want to speak to the Manager about this security breach ASAP. Those three men then left the room with that woman in tow. That’s kidnapping. Then they brought her back as a hostage to try and force me go see their boss. Then the big guy shot twice in my direction.”
“We had dozens of calls about shots being fired,” Mr. Harcourt acknowledged.
“What more do you need to know to remove all seven of them from the suite and have them arrested? By the way Cindy, where are your real clothes?”
“In that bathroom,” and she indicated the bathroom in Valarie’s bedroom.
“Go take off what you’ve stolen and get dressed. You have four minutes or I’ll pull you out of there and you can go be booked however you’re dressed,” Evan said angrily.
“Don’t you have any compassion for your wife?” Cindy asked tenderly.
Evan gave a harsh laugh, “You stopped being my wife when you walked out on our anniversary fourteen years ago.”
“I was dying and I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You could have talked to me, but instead you chose to quit. You walked away. Two years later I chose to quit too. Now a dozen more years have passed, and you act like it was just a little thing. Sorry, but I don’t find it a small thing that you can just waltz back into my life, especially since I’ve won close to eighty million dollars. Now, you’ll never see so much as a dollar.”
“You were never mean, Evan,” Cindy said softly as she rose to go change.
“And who do I have to thank for how I am now? Four minutes, starting now.”
“I’m afraid I’ll have to take the lingerie and the jewelry with me for booking purposes.” James Harcourt said.
Soon a string of LVPD officers accompanied everyone out of the suite.
“It’s been a long night,” Evan said to James Harcourt. “I’m going to bed, and will speak with the manager in the morning,” Evan looked at his new gold watch, 4:54 a.m.. “Or when I get up for the day.”
“Sir you can’t hold him responsible for men who want to kidnap you.”
“I certainly can. I expect any room that I rent from this establishment to be secure and not to open to anyone that wants to walk in, for whatever reason. I’m certain my attorney would have a field day with this case. Now get out, I'm exhausted.”
With the departure of the last person and the close of the suite door, Valarie ran to Evan.
“Do you need to recharge?” she asked, concerned.
“Thanks,” and Evan smiled for the first time since their return, “But I’m going to be alright.” He removed his jacket, placing it on the back of one of the bar stools. The hole in the folds of the shirt became visible while tugging on the shirt to pull it up from his pants. A quarter size red welt appeared just below his ribs on the left side.
“So you’re bulletproof now?” Valarie asked, astonished.
“Hardly, but you felt the heat my body was producing while I was holding those men. It sorts of generates a protective energy field around me."
“We still don’t know who this mysterious man is and how to contact him.”
“Yes we do. While we were waiting I took the time to explore each of their minds. His name is Kirkland, Max Kirkland. His telephone number is six-o-two, four-six-nine, three-three-o-one.”
Evan dialed the phone. The fact that it was after five in the morning never crossed his mind. After the seventh ring a gruff gravely voice answered.
“Mr. Kirkland… No I don’t, nor do I care what time it is. Tell him it’s Evan Cooper calling… Evan Cooper, who is this?... Richie, Ted and Sammy we're all too happy to tell me your number… No you can’t… You might try the LVPD booked for breaking and entering and kidnapping for starters… Of course I’m going to press charges… No, I don’t want to. What you need to do now is tell me why you want me to come to you so badly… Well you’ll just have to do a good job, or I’m hanging up and now that I know you’re looking for me, you’ll never see me again… Well you’ll just have to convince me of the danger… Why does he want to kill me?... Well why do you want to kill me for him?... Then why should I meet you?... If you’re willing to screw your current partner, why should I not think you try to screw me too… Okay, in three days be at Hoover Dam, two o’clock at the west end… Well try, because that is the only time I’ll see you… No, I doubt very seriously that you or anything in this world will be able to find me again… I would have seen which one could fly from my fifty-second floor window… Ask them when and if you see them again… And tell them that if I ever see any of them again, I will be the last thing they ever see… Three days Kirkland, or forget it.”
“Well?” Valarie asked.
“Well it seems this McGuire guy wants us dead, and Kirkland is supposed to make it happen.”
“And we’re going to meet him in three days?”