Chapter Thirteen:
The Rage of Alarick Kay.
Tessa slipped into a pair of black jeans as silently as she could, careful not to wake either Lili or Zoe as they slept. She grabbed a sweatshirt and a notebook from her drawer, and then, after squeezing into a pair of tennis shoes, which she didn't bother to tie, tiptoed across the room to the door.
She closed it as silently as she could, and slipped her key back into her pocket, before moving quietly down the hall. At the end of it, Manny and Lester were waiting and looking impatient. (Or, Lester was looking impatient…Manny appeared to be reading a book.)
"Jeez, Tess, what took you so long? I thought Freaky girls like you didn't take FIVE hours to dress." Tessa gave him a cold look.
"That was ten minutes at the most! Your ADD just makes you impatient!"
Manny sighed, but remained silent otherwise as the other two argued down the hallway.
By eight o' clock the sun had come up over the horizon, and, along with its light touch; it was about fifty-three degrees out. It seemed like a good start to a day, which would most likely end with a five mile walk back from a bus station.
Out front a rather nice car sat by the curb, while inside a skinny young man predictably in his early twenties appeared to be messing something in the glove department when the three kids walked up. Manny opened the passenger side door and smiled faintly at his brother, who returned his smile while accidentally dumping out a load of folded up maps onto the floor.
"Hey Thoran." Manny said as he sat down in the passenger seat. Tessa and Lester slipped into the back, Tessa nodding to the older boy a little uncomfortably and Lester… did not appear to care at all.
"This is Tessa and Lester. I told you I'd be bringing someone on the phone the other day."
Thoran turned around and gave them both a bright smile.
"Like the circus, do you?" He said in a pleasant voice.
"Uh…" Said Tessa.
"Queer." Said Lester. (Though it didn't sound much like queer after being slightly broken up by both the feigned cough Lester gave, and the nudge in the ribs which Tessa induced…and then the further coughing which came from the fake coughing matched with the nudge in the ribs.)
"Sure." Tessa finished while Lester coughed and rubbed at his chest. Thoran gave them both a puzzled smile before turning back to the road and pulling away from the school.
XXX
Throughout most of the evening, Rafael did his act without paying much attention to what he was doing. They had emitted parts of the performance due to difficulties, including Raz's sudden infirmity and the Fat ladies increasingly paranoid state. (She had refused to see reason earlier in the morning, and simply would not emerge from her trailer.) Therefore, the only acrobatics Rafael did were the standard ones. (His most impressive one being cartwheels down the tight rope.
After his act ended, he slid down the ladder and headed for the mouth of the tent.
XXX
Pasco closed one eye and examined the small item he held in the palm of his right hand. Beside him, Boris was sharpening one of his knives and occasionally looking at an old pocket watch he kept in the mangled cream-colored coat he wore. They were both sitting outside Raf's trailer impatiently awaiting the end of the show.
"Hey, where's Jamie?" Boris asked, while shoving his watch back into his coat (With god knows what else.)
"He somewhere talking with mad man, I assume." Pasco said, as he weighed the tiny item he was holding in his hand. "Show end in forty minutes…stand behind trailer will you with big thing to hit on head. We wish to catch him off guard."
Boris scoffed as he stood up, his knife disappearing somewhere within his worn out clothes.
"How the hell much good will that do us if he's psychic?" Boris said as he grabbed a large plank that had been resting at his side.
"We shall see, my friend." Pasco said while he pulled out a cigarette and lit it, while holding the tiny explosive against the distant lights of the circus tent. "We shall see."
XXX
It was always crowded for an hour or two after the show was over as people went to their various parking spots (Which were along the field surrounding the area.) and clogged the roads for miles and hours at a time. Someone else may have waited until it grew quiet and there were not so many people around…but Jamie reasoned that when that happened it would be a lot more likely for the other performers to observe Rafael's disappearance. So he set out to have Rafael tucked a way, far before things grew quiet enough to notice minute details.
He stood outside Razputin's trailer smoking a cigarette. Unlike the other two men, he carried nothing. But he had a slight advantage to them. For one thing, he was in front of the right trailer. (Although how right, even he didn't know…but what I mean is that he deduced that Raf would head to his son's trailer before heading to his own.) For another, he didn't need weapons.
He counted off fifteen minutes in his head (A patient man is a dangerous man indeed.) and then removed the cigarette from his lips and threw it to the grass, where he stepped on it with a leather boot, which looked much too finely made to be bought with a circus performers wages.
Raf emerged from his son's trailer looking troubled. Jamie, who was leaning against the wooden wall, did not try to conceal himself. He smiled, and when the man caught him out of the corner of his eye and turned, he moved with quick precision.
Rafael opened his mouth to say something (Probably on the lines of 'what are you doing here?' or 'Can I help you?') that turned into a cry of surprise when Jamie launched himself forward. Being an acrobat, Rafael moved easily out of the man's range, unfortunately what he needed to be was a psychic (Which he was.) with a powerful intuition for a thing to come and a quick response to an assault. (Which he did have…to a degree.)
Unfortunately, when one factored in the misty yellowish question mark shaped grenade that Jamie was suddenly wielding and the fact that Rafael, had unfortunately retired much of his powers to his son a couple years before (Some of it had come back…but not in a powerful percentage.) The man was severely outmatched.
He was hit with the smoke from the confusion grenade and stumbled, raving about something in the language of a drunken man. Jamie removed the boot from his right foot, and before Rafael could regain his coherency hit him heavily between the eyes. The man fell on his back, unconscious.
"Useless idiots…didn't need them at all." Jamie whispered to himself as he grabbed the man by his arms and pulled him along the grass towards his trailer.
XXX
Raz groaned while opening his hazy emerald eyes. Around him was a thick fog and darkness. He frowned and sat up, feeling as though his brain were going to drip out of his ears like stew. He looked up and saw a gypsy caravan, and for a moment was extremely confused. Then, as he recalled previous events, the setting began to fall into place.
"Oh." He said dully as he stood up, wading in the river of fog around the entrance to his mind. By the door of the caravan an oatmeal was making a buzzing sound and looking at him expectantly. He turned around and looked off into the darkness before sighing to himself and placing a fist on his hip.
"Great, how do I get out of here?" He looked towards the entrance to the bigger part of his mind, once overtaken with static. Now it was just dark. He shrugged and moved towards it, deciding that it couldn't be much father from the solution then standing in the fog and doing nothing was.
Raz had never been inside his actual mind. He had been in Coach Oleanders mind, which he had thought had been his actual mind, and a sort of warped version of both mixed together…but he had never been inside his REAL psyche. He walked into the gypsy caravan, which, apparently led to a really LONG hallway and continued along in a dreary mood as he passed hundreds and hundreds of circus posters.
XXX
For a moment, as he opened his eyes, he saw the world through what appeared to be a fogged glass. It was the sort of effect one expected to see in a movie, through the perspective of someone who had just regained consciousness.
At first, there was an echo of indeterminable voices, all of which slowly grew in volume. Rafael felt that his limbs were bound, and something was wrapped around his forehead, which ached bitterly.
"I'm not saying you couldn't have, gentlemen. I'm just saying that, when dealing with a psychic, one needs to be more prepared. There was a chance he would have come to you as well."
"Would have come eventually!" Came a voice set in a deep Spanish accent. "After checking on son."
"We were ready." Another voice said. By the time Rafael regained his complete consciousness, he more or less guessed who the voices belonged to. Once he regained his vision, however, his suspicions were confirmed.
"Yes, yes and I'm sure you would have done fine but…" Jamie paused, and then grinned as his eyes fell on Rafael, who was giving him a bemused and slightly aggravated look. "Ah…your awake. Excellent."
Pasco and Boris turned towards Rafael as well, looking slightly less enthusiastic. (And in Pasco's case, a little wary.)
"You sure cap works, Jamie?" He whispered to the scarred man, who smiled.
"Of course. I imagine you wonder what you are doing here, Mr. Aquato."
Rafael looked from face to face for a moment before scowling.
"Being interrogated by three ex employees?"
Jamie gave him the sort of amused smile that illustrated that he really wasn't amused in the least.
"I would take this seriously, Rafael. You are in a lot deeper then you know."
"Is that so?" He said in feigned curiosity. "I don't suppose you'll tell me why."
Jamie grinned and approached the bound Rafael menacingly.
"I don't suppose the name Garret Munroe rings a bell?"
Rafael was drawing a blank. He shrugged.
"Well…you can play dumb as much as you like…the result will be the same. Anyway, Garret is Dr. Alarick Kay's cousin. He was charged for murder, several cases of kidnap, stealing EXTREMELY valuable things from the government. He escaped from prison because the prison he was sent to, was owned by Dr. Kay…who needed him for a job."
Rafael watched him, wondering, to himself what the hell any of this had to do with him. He saw Jamie sigh, obviously not getting the reaction he desired.
"Garret was asked to kidnap a very valuable leader of a VERY valuable corporation. Alarick, who, besides owning his own prison, is extremely interested in the human mind and what makes it tick…and for years he's adopted…a hobby if you will. He creates things…destructive things for damaging certain areas of the mind. He's very fond of his hobby, Mr. Aquato."
"He sounds like a nut case." Rafael said passively. His headache was getting worse, and this, coupled with the fact of being bound up for whatever reason was beginning to seriously annoy him. Jamie smiled that dangerous smile again.
"Perhaps. That's what Mr. Zanotto thought too." This name hit home to Raf. He had heard THIS name. Truman Zanotto was the man in charge of the Psychonauts. He had never met him before…but he knew who he was through his son. His mind was working slowly because of the headache…but he became aware of a feeling that was creeping in.
Jamie seemed pleased at the hint of recognition.
"Yes…Truman Zanotto. He found out about Alarick's experiments and shut him down. He said they were… ' Far too dangerous,' the idiot seemed to think they were going to be used in some sort of…Psychic war device. As though…in all of his genius he had created a thing equivalent to the atom bomb!"
Raf frowned.
'Taking it a bit personally, aren't you?' He thought to himself, but kept his mouth closed. He smiled a little amusedly. Raz probably would have just let it slip out.
"So…completely offended! Alarick had Truman kidnapped…to see just how…destructive…his devices could be. But you know that…don't you." His usually passive face was contorted into something angry and dangerous.
"Pardon?" Raf said, realizing that Jamie's explanation had done nothing at all to enlighten him of why he was there.
"You ruined everything!" Jamie yelled suddenly. "Because of you, I have once again had to give up my dreams! Dreams and ideas that could have changed the WORLD! You ignorant fool! You Psychonauts couldn't even let me have my revenge!"
Several things hit home at once. The first however came in a maddening rush.
They want Raz, not me! Oh god.
He tried to not let this realization show, and rather, cleared his throat.
"Ah…that. So I guess I'm talking to Alarick Kay now, am I?" He said…aware that he would have to be very careful. He was very ignorant to the whole Psychonaut thing, and knew only the few things he knew from Raz. He had no recollection of these men.
Alarick pointed to Boris.
"Guard the door." He shouted. Boris, who was desperately confused, looked slightly relieved to be heading outside. "You…" Alarick pointed to Pasco. "Get my bag from the trunk over there."
The man who had, only moment before been called Jamie, spun around and gave Raf a thoroughly mad smile.
"If I cannot try my experiments on Truman himself, I will do the next best thing, and try them on the agent who thwarted my attempts at kidnapping and annihilating Truman Zanotto. And I wouldn't assume that you could try anything…clever, either. I designed that device on your head and so long as you're wearing it your psychic powers are useless."
To say he wasn't frightened wouldn't be entirely true. The thought of being experimented on with dangerous mind scrambling devices did not capture his fancy. However, at the moment he was thinking mainly of Raz, and how to save him.
"Out of curiosity…since I assume I'll be in a lot of agony in a few minutes. What have you done to my son?"
Alarick grinned.
"I sense your fear, Mr. Aquato. You need not pretend. But your worrying shall come later. I will not experiment on you here…but back where I have more…extensive resources. As for your son…not to worry…aside from being fatherless…he should wake up in twenty four hours…feeling just fine."
Raf smiled a little, but let it fade quickly.
That is all I needed. He thought as he lay back a little.
"Well…my head aches, so I'm going to rest my eyes." He said.
Now…lets see how well this blasted cap works.
XXX
Wow…I can see the end. I'll estimate another two, three…four chapters probably at the most and then this story should be over. (Course I could be wrong.) Thanx for the reviews my lovelies. Updates soon!