The Night Eye (2)

He was falling too fast to risk landing on the shore. He might survive the fall if he could hit the water and miss the black rocks. It all looked black from his vantage. The water was rising under him quickly and he sucked in a deep breath.

The tide was high. It was a mixed blessing. A high tide covered the some of the rocks, but a falling tide could sweep Adam into the sea.

He didn’t waste time calculating, but swam with all the energy he could muster. On the dark beach, Adam forced his shivering hands to explore his pockets. I must write down all I can remember. He found a leather-bound notebook, it pages sopping, a dull stub of pencil, and a heavy pair of eyeglasses. “Thank God,” he sighed.

2

THE VISIT TO MEDAMA LABS

Bernard Kezatz could enjoy the good fortune of others, especially a friend. He could still remember many dinners with the Medamas where they bragged on little Adam and his good marks in school.

Little Adam was Dr. Medama now. His plant, modestly called a lab, sat by a rail spur lined with dingier manufactories and warehouses. Kezatz had been out here a lot in his days as a beat cop and detective. Theft from the factories had been common during the war, when resources were scarce. Now things were more prosperous, and Medama was part of the reason. He scratched together a little money of his own and a lot of investor to buy a maker of telegraph and telephone equipment that was nearly done in by wartime shortages. He made production more efficient and put in a line of high-end optics that turned things around.

The Night Eye (1)

THE NIGHT EYE

1

ESCAPE AT THE KAWATANI BRIDGE

Adam Medama woke with a start in unnatural darkness. He was flooded with pain from the throbbing lump on his head to the burning stripe on his thigh. He reeked of smoke and the memory of flames drove him to push and kick against constraints until he was suddenly free under stars and a cold wind.

He had been loosely wrapped in a tarp. He was surrounded by rumbling slats, the bed of a truck. A cautious glance into the passenger compartment revealed two hulking silhoettes and the lights of the Kawatani Bridge ahead.

Adam pushed his aching brain to figure out what was happening. He once served on a commission to evaluate plans to harness the Kawatani River for power. He remember the grim joking of his father’s coworkers at the police department who called the bridge Lover’s Leap and the Bridge to Nowhere because—No.

He returned to the tarp a searched the edges with hurried fingers. Chords ringed the edge at intervals and at each corner. He quickly arranged them, pushing cold fingers to tie knots, before rolling himself back into the tarp.

The truck slowed to a stop. The driver and his companion worked quickly, not even stopping to shut their doors. There wouldn’t be much traffic on the bridge at this time of night, especially with what Adam knew must be happening elsewhere.

They worked with wordless coordination. Adam forced himself to be limp in their grasp. He was briefly very heavy in their arms, followed quickly by a instant of weightlessness. Now.

Thrusting out with every limb, he unfurled the tarp. The chords pulled him back painfully and burned against his wrists and hands. He forced himself to keep his grip and draw his elbows down. The tarp was too small to make an adequate parachute, but Adam trusted himself to the wind. Tides and rock made the mouth of the Kawatani River treacherous, but the wind that roared down the valley gave it its nasty reputation.

The Adventure of Jack and Stan (End)

Jack was stopped in his tracks by their stares. He looked back at his parent as they stood at the kitchen island, reaching across to hold hands and looking at him with flushed faces. “Um, hello.”

“Here comes the Hardy boy of Stoddard County,” said John.

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re in the paper,” said Michelle. “Come see.”

“At the rate you’re going, we’ll need a bigger scrapbook for all the articles.”

“It’s only a weekly paper,” answered Jack, “there can’t be that many articles.”

“You might inspire them to go twice a week. Beside, this isn’t the only paper to cover it. We may have to go get the Post-Dispatch.”

Michelle put an arm around her son and pulled him to her side. “You’ll give him a big head.”

“Not our humble boy.”

“I’m talking to Jack about you.”

John made a show of puffing out his chest. “Guard your eyes. I may just pop the buttons off of my shirt.”

“Oh, please. I have laundry to put away. I think you are preparing supper.”

“At your service.”

John watched his wife leave, and when his son reached the door, he said, “Wait, Jack.”

“Yeah.”

“Just how much did you know before you went out there? Did you go thinking you’d find that woman?”

“I didn’t really know anything. I just got lucky.”

“Janet says you left her house in a hurry that afternoon.”

“I might have been inspired by Stan to get out for a while. He sees things differently.”

“Uh-huh. Do you know what that woman was doing out there?”

“What do the papers say?”

“According to the papers, she says she went to explore the countryside, got lost and had an accident. Doesn’t it seem like she strayed pretty far from Sikeston just to go sightseeing?”

“I guess so. People do strange things. Maybe she didn’t realize how far she’d gone. Someone could get turned around if they didn’t know where they were going.”

“That’s plausible.”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“I guess it is.” John got up and went to the refrigerator to get food out for supper.

Jack waited for a few seconds. He turned to the door again.

“One more thing, Jack.”

“Yeah, Dad.”

“Try to be more careful.”

The Adventure of Jack and Stan (22)

“I may be very grumpy soon. Just hold on.”

Jack made his way down and over, one step at a time. He tested each step, sometimes on soil, sometimes on identifiable pieces of worn equipment, sometimes on crumbling sheets of rust. He steadied himself on the handle of an Esso gas can that was in surprisingly good shape. He slid on a painted metal sign advertising a closed seed distributor and found himself in pile of broken, brown bottles.

He reached his target and peered through the cracked window. A shadow rested its head on the steering wheel, held in place by a seat belt. Scattered papers formed a ghostly counter-form in the floor on the passenger side. He pulled the door and it groaned as it opened.

Donita Jackson didn’t look quite the same with a bruise across her forehead and her left eye swollen. Jack could see her stomach moving steadily, though she gave no other sign of breathing.

“Danny, go call an ambulance.”

**

Michelle Jones put her scissors down with a sigh. The article she clipped was still flat and crisp from a fresh newspaper, but she smooth it with her fingers anyway, being gentle so the ink wouldn’t smudge. “I suppose I’m going to be proud of this some day.”

John looked at his wife, took in her sloped shoulders and watery eyes. “You’re proud now. What is it your father always says?”

“He says, ‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?’ It’s from Isaiah.”

“It seems to me Jack is living by that.”

“I just wish he was more careful.”

“He seems plenty full of care to me.”

“This isn’t funny.”

“You’re right. He can be reckless sometimes. And the older he gets, the fewer the dangers from which we can protect him. But he’s okay, he’s healthy, he’s smart, he’s able, and he wants to do right. I can live with that.” John turned in unison with his wife as the back door opened.

The Adventure of Jack and Stan (21)

“I just want to go toward Sikeston, not all the way there. I bet someone in Idalia would let us use there phone. We can drive to the sheriff’s office in less than 15 minutes. Turn here and keep it slow.”

They turned down a road that made its long, windy way across the steep slope of a hill. Jack scanned the down-slope side as they descended into the darkening valley. The road widened in a spot wide enough for two cars to pass. “Stop here.”

“What is this?” asked Danny.

“It’s an old dump. I think people still dump out here once in a while.” A cone of junk projected into the forested valley. Cars, appliances, tires, things rusted beyond recognition, much partly buried in rotted leaves and soil eroded from higher up the hill, rested in uneasy quiet. “Look at that.”

“Look at what?”

Jack pointed. “That car, the brown Chrysler with the vinyl roof. It’s covered in dust.”

“So, it’s another filthy old car in a dump.”

“It’s not that old. And it’s not filthy, it’s dusty. Look at your truck.”

Danny looked over his shoulder, then back down at the heap spilling down the hill. “No way. Hey, what are you doing?”

Jack stepped off the road and slid, as much on his bottom as his feet, until he stopped against the dented side of a washer. A jagged, rusty line ran diagonally across its surface where the enamel was cracked. He stood on it and looked for something equally solid.

“Damn it, Jack, how are you getting out of there?”

“Do you have a rope?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll just have to tumble down to the bottom of the hill. If I’m still alive, I’ll follow the valley out to wherever it goes. I can’t be more than five or six miles from a house, assuming someone doesn’t shoot me for trespassing. Or you could go get some help.”

“I like you better when you’re grumpy. You don’t talk so much.”

The Spook Light (3)

“I think that is all, Dan. I’m ready to roll,” said the driver, Al Kaiser. They walked to the bus in step with each other like marching soldiers.

**

“Before we get off the bus, let me go over some things. First, as before, you should all have reservations through the tour. They’ll ask for an impression of your credit card to cover additional charges.

“We’ll be leaving at eight o’clock and it should be getting fairly dark when we get to where we’ll be looking for the spook light. We’re expecting clear skies tonight. As you can see, the moon is up now and it will set at about nine. You might want to bring a flashlight if you have one.

“You may want to bring a bottle of water, but don’t bring any food. It may seem like the middle of nowhere, but people live out there and they don’t like litter.

“Likewise, don’t trespass. We’ve arranged too view the lights from a particular property, but we’re not free to roam all over the landscape. The neighbors find a busload of strangers more disturbing than the spook light.

“I’ll present a brief lecture on the spook light on the trip out and answer you questions at the site. I’ll be in the lobby while you check in if you have immediate questions.

“It’s going to be a late night. I recommend you get a little rest before we need. Thanks. I’ll see you on the bus at eight.” Dan wrapped up his comments and the passengers stood up almost as a body. Some moaned and stretched. Some took to the aisle directly with thoughts of finding the restroom.

When Holly got off the bus, Dan signaled to her. “I thought we could pick up our conversation from earlier. There is a bar here that is always empty. You can tell me all about fifth grade. I think I might belong there.”

The Spook Light (2)

“This isn’t the classroom Daniel, and I’m much too young for adults to call me ‘Ms. Gibb.’ Whatever techniques of manipulation you know fifth graders know by instinct.”

This time he smiled with his teeth and turned toward her. “It’s a habit from many interviews. Mirroring usually puts people at ease, gives them a sense of rapport with you. When people are faced with a paranormal researcher asking questions about unusual things they have seen but can’t explain, they get nervous and tight-lipped. I try to relax them.”

“You are a tricky devil, Dr. Dan.”

“I’m a cinch compared to a roomful of fifth graders. Then again, all my teachers were frumpy old women—nothing like you. You might have inspired different ideas.”

“I’m sure you’re full of ideas. I’ll be in frumpy teacher attire tonight. It’s all I have left with me and you can see I’ve spilled gravy on this halter you so admire.”

Dan took a moment to inspect the gravy stain. “Too bad. I suppose such accidents can happen in a place where they throw rolls at you. I think our hotel in Joplin will have a laundry. Maybe you can wash something before we see the lights tonight.”

“I might get up early tomorrow if I want to wash something. I don’t want to miss a thing tonight.” Holly Gibb said this with what Dan took to be mischievous zeal.

He had been hoping to see more of that mischievous zeal, but the summering teacher was wary. She always cooled just as the flirtation began to warm. Now she got up to join the other tour guests who were trickling out of the restaurant after paying their bills and using the restroom. “I’ll see you on the bus,” she said.

Dan watched her go. Her gravy-stained halter was white; it nicely framed her tanned back. She had an athletic build like a runner and very muscular arms and shoulders for a woman.

Leviathan (1)

LEVIATHAN

by

Edward Bradford

I entered my office at 0820 hours and headed straight up the stairs to the studio apartment above it. I was ready for sleep.

My computer greeted me in a flat, feminine voice. “Good morning, Mr. Czujinko. You have six messages.” I only half listened until it said, “Ronald Keaton, Nippon Pacific Insurance.” I told the computer to call Keaton and started the coffee maker.

“Hello, Czu. No video today?”

“You know us freelance types, Keaton, always working in our pajamas.”

“Let me play show and tell. I feel more dramatic that way.”

I filled my biggest mug with coffee and walked back down to the office. The main screen showed a young redhead. She was pretty and had a nice figure squeezed into a wet suit. She stood on the deck of a boat. The background bobbed and swayed, but she was as still as a statue. I felt dizzy. “Okay, Keaton, shoot.”

“Those aren’t pajamas, but they do look slept in. Gee, Czu, are you alright?”

“Tell me about the girl.”

“This is R. Ada Watanabe.”

“What’s the ‘R’ for?”

“Robot.”

R. Ada Watanabe had been missing for a week. Her owner and builder, Dr. Kevin Watanabe, had been killed a week early in a factory robbery. The robbers were after high grade materials that had not yet been made into traceable products. Tokyo police and other Japanese officials did not believe the incidents were related. The first was a robbery gone badly. The second was probably case of industrial espionage.

A RFID chip in the robot was detected by customs agents at the port of San Francisco. It disappeared again before they could find it.

I asked, “Why don’t you just let the officials handle this?”

“We would like to see it retrieved as quickly as possible. It represents a great deal of intellectual property. We’d hate to see it fall into the wrong hands and damage the value of the Watanabe estate. If you agree I’ll, send a contract with your usual terms.”

The Spook Light (1)

THE SPOOK LIGHT

by

Edward Bradford

Holly Gibb was a people watcher. She watched the titular Dr. Daniel Davis, guide for the Midwest Mystery Tours and senior investigator for the Midwest Institute of Paranormal Studies.

Dr. Dan, as some of Holly’s fellow tourist had taken to calling him, was blonde, lean and a little taller than average. He was handsome after the ruddy fashion of a cowboy, but she thought that might be a fancy brought to her mind by proximity to the Oklahoma border. He wore khaki pants and a white shirt. In spite of the dusty August wind, he wore an ecru blazer with white plastic buttons. It was unlined and loosely structured.

He was talking to Johnny Haus, young man who seemed to always where a faded black tee shirt. He was the only one on the tour who showed open skepticism and he kept his arms crossed to show it. Holly watched Dr. Dan cross his arm and stand stiffly; she thought he was ready to go toe-to-tow with the doubter. Soon, the guide relaxed his stance and Johnny followed. Dan let his arms drop to his side, and soon all arms were dropped. Soon the doctor was patting the somewhat younger man on the shoulder. Johnny dropped his gaze for a moment as he gestured with open arms, palms up, and said goodbye.

Now it was Holly’s turn to be watched. Dan walked into the shade of the long porch fronting the Lambert’s restaurant. He sat in a rocker next to her, crossed his legs, knees together, and folded his hands on his lap.

“Are you mirroring me like you did Johnny?” She asked.

Dan smiled with his lips pressed together before he answered. “I just needed to get out of the sun. I hope it will be cooler when we see the lights tonight, Ms. Gibb.”