Red Death

  #

  “We have only twenty four hours to put an end to their plans,” said Brant.

  The entire team sat around the conference table – Brant, Anna, Austin, the twins – Nicole and Eduard – and Greta.

  And Jim.

  “We’re not going to have time to wait around for 2022 to recruit Kane. It’s going to have to be an even fight – their seven against ours,” said Austin.

  “Nothing we can’t handle – in the past we were outnumbered, so this’ll be a nice change,” said Greta, a blond girl of about twenty five with a mild German accent.

  “So, you’ve battled these guys before?” asked Jim.

  “We’ve been fighting them – behind the scenes – for nearly a century now,” said Brant. He got a faraway look in his eye. “It was 1916 the first time. I’d been back twenty nine years and hadn’t aged a day. Then I ran into Zeb Johnson in New York. Or, perhaps he found me. Either way, he’d been back three years at that point, and had already discovered many of his new abilities. And he’d made his choice – to use them for personal gain.” Brant stood and started strolling around the conference table as he continued. “I tried to influence him – to get him to stop with his self-interest and use his power to better humanity. But he was stubborn. He got angry. We were at odds for years, then, in 1922, he sought out the next of us to return. He got to Victor Davidson before I could, and he turned him. After that, it was a race through the years to recruit each returning abductee to our respective side.”

  “And throughout it all,” added Eduard, “we fought them tooth and nail. If we had not been there to counter their plans, I shudder to think how things would’ve turned out – like World War Two, for instance.”

  “How do you know where to find us when we return?” asked Jim.

  “It was much harder at first,” said Brant. “Now, we have access to the most advanced computers and networked databases. The Red Death are well-equipped, too, but I think we finally have the edge.”

  “Well, what are they trying to do now?” asked Jim.

  “They’ve been engaging in a high-tech war lately – viruses and other intrusive attacks on high-level government infrastructures.”

  “I haven’t heard anything about that on the news,” said Jim.

  “You wouldn’t have. One thing you need to understand – you’ve just been brought into the waking world, Dr. O’Connell. This is the reality that no one else sees, but it’s more real than the one they do see. You can't rely on the media to alert you to reality, or the government to protect you from it.”

  “So, does one of you have some kind of super-ninja hacker skills or something? I mean, how are you going to deal with this computer threat?” asked Jim.

  “Yes, we do have – ‘ninja skills’ – when it comes to computers. Who do you think gave Steve Jobs and Bill Gates all their ideas?” Brant smirked ever so slightly. Jim had no doubt he wasn’t joking. “But the computer threat is not the issue here. Nicole has discovered that the cyber attacks are just a sideshow – a distraction from the Red Death’s true objective.”

  Nicole got the nod to continue. “I was at the White House last week in the press gaggle. After the news conference, I lingered around and listened through the walls.”

  “Listened through the walls?” Jim asked.

  “Yes – that is one of my talents. I can pick out a conversation through several walls – for several hundred meters.” She slipped off her red cardigan and hung it over the back of her chair. Underneath, she wore a white sleeveless blouse. “Anyway, I heard the president’s Chief of Staff – Charles Osborne – speaking with an aide. I realized later that the aide was Dana Reed.”

  “She’s Red Death,” said Anna.

  “And what is her special skill?” asked Jim.

  “Dana can walk into the Library of Congress and absorb the contents of all the books in under a minute,” said Brant. “Phenomenal data osmosis with full retention. Really incredible.”

  “Too bad she’s not working for us,” said Jim.

  “Dana is pulling some serious strings in D.C.,” continued Nicole. “She’s got Osborne and at least three other people close to the president working for her. Their plan is to get everybody focusing on a mass identity theft scheme – a plot to take control of the nation’s financial infrastructure. But what they’re really doing is preparing to poison the world’s water supply. They’ve developed an antitoxin, and intend to hold the world ransom. Not for money – for power and control.”

  “How are we supposed to stop them?” asked Jim.

  “We have a few advantages,” said Brant. “First, they don’t know that we know their plan. They’ll be looking for us to try to stop their cyber attack. But unlike the rest of the world, we know their true intentions.”

  “Second,” continued Austin, “we have you.”

  “Me?”

  Brant picked the thread back up. It was if this group was of one mind – which, in a way, they were. “Your capabilities are unique. And I’m not talking about the bowling.” He smirked again. “The Red Death won’t know what hit them.”