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The dark man was reading on his couch. It was his only standard contract, and did often. He was given a book about American history. He would read it and then give his opinion on the book. In the past there had been books that were pure fantasy. The Pilgrims didn’t land on Plymouth Rock because they wanted to live there, they were out of beer. The book in DM’s hands at the moment was about the start of unions on the railroads. It made him laugh. The unions on the railroads were almost as bad at the employers. If you didn’t do what they unions wanted you to do, they knew where you lived, and could hurt your dog, or worse.

It was three days since Rachel had come back to Chicago. They had spent two days together, some of it out of the bedroom. Now she needed to get back to work. It was after all a Monday. She went to the office where she worked, and DM settled back on his couch. While he was reading DM kept thinking about the ring he had for Rachel. Why he didn’t ask her to marry him was still on his mind.

A long time ago a friend had asked him why DM didn’t marry anyone he wanted, and then used his power to make that woman into what he wanted. The dark man’s response was simply marrying someone was not just about what he wanted, but about what they both wanted. It still bugged him.

The phone rang. DM picked it up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Dark this is JR.” The man on the other line said. “How are you doing?” He had a southern accent and a sour voice giving the impression he smoked too many cigarettes in his youth.

“I’m fine yourself?” DM said knowing what the man wanted.

“Well I’m a little short here. You know those carvings you made last Valentine’s Day?” JR asked.

“Sure how could I forget?” DM said pulling out a pad of paper and a pencil.

“Well I was hoping you could carve a few more for our booth this year.” JR said. He ran a booth at the Valentine’s Day charity run, walk, and festival. This was something DM had done for the past twelve years. He would make wood carvings of various love situations, complete with a cherub on most.

“You never did sell that highly accurate carving of a heart did you?” DM asked about a carving from three years back.

“Yes we did last year. Some medical student said he wanted it.” JR replied. “If it’s all the same to you I’d rather not have another one of those.”

“Okay what would you like?” DM asked and wrote down the order. It would only take a few days to carve them out. It was a reason to put in a video and sit on his couch. He could carve and watch TV at the same time. He said his farewells to the priest and checked his wood supply. He’d need to get more.

The day was dark and dreary. There were clouds so heavy they touched the top of the skyscrapers. It was so cold out that any standing water instantly became ice. People were wrapping their pipes to keep the cold water moving. Any boat that was in the water was now out to keep it from being ice locked. Plants outside were curling up for the long winter ahead, again, after a short blast of warmth. The dark man even had to turn on the heat.

Dark Mateus finished the chapter and then went out to his rental car. His regular car was being cleaned, at a hefty expense. His rental was a disgusting yellow two door compact GM joke of a car. He hated the color, the fact the cruse control wavered plus or minus five miles of where it was set, and the power steering was nonexistent no matter what the dealer said. He got in and started it grinding to life. He couldn’t wait to get his car back.

The lumber yard was deserted on the outside, but inside there were dozens of people ordering firewood. Predominantly placed in the middle of the store was a stand for pipe wraps, empty. A family with five little screaming kids fighting with plastic pipes was picking out pipes to replace broken ones. Another couple was picking out plastic shrink plastic window covers. The people of Chicago fell into winter, hard.

DM found some good white pine blocks with few knots, and had the store cut them to usable pieces for carving. This was a far cry from when DM had to chop down an entire tree himself, cut the wood to usable sizes, let it dry, and then creates what he wanted. Ever since the invention of the circular saw, and then the electric motor, carving had become a past time leisurely activity for the dark man. The other positive thing about carving was it took DM’s mind off the fact he hadn’t put his web-site back up, or even checked his e-mail.

DM had started planning out what he wanted to make the wood blocks into when his phone rang. “Hey Dark,” Rachel said through the phone.

“Hello love, how are you doing?” DM asked as he dropped onto his couch.

“I’ve had a very bad day.”

“Ah I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to make it better?”

“You could order out and put one of those violent video games in. I feel like killing something, and it’s still illegal to kill my boss.” Rachel said through clenched teeth.

“I’ll be waiting for you. I love you.” DM said.

“I love you too, Dark.” Rachel said cutting off the phone call.

Since DM had the phone in his hand he called Dave. “Hey pal.”

“Hey how’s it hanging?” Dave asked. He had just gotten off his shift at his convenience store.

“Not bad Rachel is coming over and we’re going to kill things, care to join us?” DM asked.

“You are bringing the food?” Dave asked.

“It is my home.” DM said.

“Then I’ll bring the beer for Rachel and myself, and you probably want a soda pop.” Dave said making the last two words sound disgusting.

“Would you really want me drunk?” DM asked. “I mean really I might say something like you are gay or you’re a transvestite. Now do you really want that?”

There was a brief pause before Dave smacked his lips, “Right soda pop for you while the rest of us are enjoying ourselves.”

“Bastard,” DM said with a smile.

“Back at you pal, see you soon.” Dave said cutting off the call.

For a Monday evening it was rather relaxing. The three of them were shooting away either at each other or next to each other on the large screen TV. The pizza got cold quick, and the drinks warmed up too soon. They laughed and were hit with pillows at times. It was very dark when they called it quits. Dave left first knowing that if nothing else Rachel wanted to be alone with the dark man.

“So do you want to stay?” DM asked.

“Yes.” Rachel said with her body up against his. Her arms were around him. She leaned down the foot to his lips and kissed him. “But I shouldn’t. If I do then I’ll miss work tomorrow.”

“Would that really be a bad thing?” DM asked.

“Unless you want to call my boss and make her less of an ass, then it would be a bad thing.” Rachel said.

DM ducked out of her arms and picked up his phone. “What’s her number?”

Rachel laughed. “I love you.” She looked into his dark eyes.

“You beat me to it. I love you.” DM said looking into her brown eyes.

“Now let me leave before I do something I’ll really enjoy, but will regret tomorrow morning.” Rachel said.

“I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.” DM said then realized what he said. “Well I could make you, but I won’t. I’d like to. Really I would love to make you go into my bedroom and not leave for a week.”

“You’re such a romantic.” Rachel said going to get her coat. DM helped her into it. She turned in her thick tan coat to look down at her love. He pulled up the zipper for her. She leaned down and gave him another kiss. “Sick!” Rachel gasps after putting her hands into her pockets. She pulled her hand out and it was covered in pizza sauce. “That little prick Dave put a slice of pizza into my pocket. That little piece of shit.” Rachel went to the sink and washed off her hand. She carefully extracted the food from her pocket.

“Remind me to kill that man.” DM said.

“Sorry he’ll be DOA by the time you get to him.” Rachel said tossing the food into the trash. “Where was I?”

“You were going to take off your coat and join me in my bed.” DM said hopeful.

“Sorry, I’ll call tomorrow.” Rachel let her self out and gave DM a wave at the doorway.

DM watched her leave and then went to the window and made sure she made it across the street safely. The lights in her apartment snapped on. She was at the window looking up and seeing DM at his window. She waved, and blew him a kiss. He acted like he caught it and put it to his lips. He did love her, so why didn’t he want to marry her?

The next morning DM was sitting at his computer. He was writing up his review of the book, and not giving it high marks. He wasn’t as bitter has he could have been. He also didn’t want to give the impression he knew more about what he was talking about than any other historian. He sent his report off to the publisher with a side note saying that the author must have done his research right off of the top of his head.

The dark man also sat looking at his web-site trying to decide if he wanted to put it back up. Centuries ago he saw humans fighting like the ocean and the sand. The ocean would wear away at the sand, but there was always more sand to be found. The ocean to DM was injustice and the sand were normal people without any power to fight the wearing away. He thought he could do something to fight injustice. That’s why he set up the web-site. He charged for his services, but that was only because he didn’t want to become swamped with people who didn’t suffer. If a person suffered enough to hire him, then they would find a way to get the money. Now it seemed that only the rich hired him, and only for their own petty reasons. Dark Mateus wanted a change.

DM sat in front of his computer so long his screen saver popped up. He looked at the small points of light zip past him. He was moving forward. After so many centuries he learned he was no leader, but he was a damn good soldier.

The satellite phone beeped. DM ran for it and tried to remember how to use the phone. Finally he pressed the right sequence of buttons and put the black plastic box to his head. “Hello,” DM said.

“About time,” Ethan said.

“Sorry General Sanders, I’m still getting use to this phone.” DM said remembering not to call him Ethan.

“Fine whatever; Frank finally finished his report on the Craig Kasson investigation. I can’t say I was surprised that you joined in the investigation, but I was surprised that you were so active with McKullen.” Ethan said.

“Why is that, sir?” DM asked.

“McKullen is usually a loan wolf. The fact that in his report he gives you a high ranking makes me think he likes you. McKullen doesn’t like anyone.” Ethan said.

DM thought for a moment. “Sir, was there a point to this call?”

“Yes, and I’m getting so old that I had to write it down. Are you doing anything for the rest of the week?”

“Well I do have a carving project I have to work on,” DM said.

“That’s not the correct answer, try again,” Ethan said with an air of command.

DM closed his eyes remembering his intelligence days. “No, sir I have nothing planned for the next few days.”

“Glad to hear it,” Ethan said sounding pleased. “Pack a bag for a few days. I’ll call tomorrow with the details. I decided I’ll be kind to you and let you have a night with that mega woman of yours.”

“You’re too kind sir,” DM said not enjoying his reference to Rachel.

“I know, but don’t tell anyone,” Ethan said. He ended the phone call with a sharp click in DM’s ear.

“Rachel will kill you,” Dave said behind the counter at his store.

“I know,” DM said with his head down. “How am I supposed to tell her ‘honey I’m going off for I have no idea how long’ and expect her not to put a knife into my heart?”

“Well make it early in the night so you’ll come back to life. I’d expect her to be so sorry she’ll fuck you all night long.” Dave said ringing up a sale of toilet paper to a young woman.

DM took a deep breath and asked the question on his mind. “Why are we friends again?”

“Because you need someone to tell you the honest truth about situations, and that would be me.” Dave said with a smile.

“And the slice of pizza in Rachel’s pocket last night was what?”

“A joke, but I’m guessing she didn’t see the humor in it,” Dave said.

“No, she didn’t, and neither did I,” DM said.

“I’ll apologize the next time I see her,” Dave said. “Do you have any idea where you’re going?”

“No clue.” DM said.

This was the same response when Rachel asked that night. “Well at least you didn’t kill me like Dave said you would,” DM said to Rachel over the dinner table. The remains of their dinner were on the plates.

“Don’t be so sure I won’t.” Rachel said. She wasn’t truly mad at the dark man, but she was putting on a real show of it. “The only reason why I will let you go is I know you’ll come back to me.”

“Sure and if I’m trapped in a block of ice and left in the frozen artic then when I eventually thaw out I’ll come back to you no matter how many gray hairs you have.” DM said as a joke. Rachel didn’t like the joke, and showed her lack of humor by chasing him with a knife.

They landed on the couch. The dark man had Rachel’s wrists and kept the knife well away from his body. Her struggling became less and lest, and her brown hair fell over her face, and down to his. It was like a dark tunnel of love between their faces. Rachel lowered her lips to his and they kissed. The knife forgotten so were their cloths. The neighbors across the street were given a good view of the stamina the two possessed and how sturdy the couch was.

While under a fleece blanket and DM trying to stay on the couch by sheer will Rachel kissed his face. “I’m going to miss you.”

DM took her hand in his, for if he went to the floor he was dragging her with him. “I’ll be thinking of you every minute of every day.”

“Will you call me?” Rachel asked.

“If I can I will. I’m sorry that I have to do this to you, but that’s the nature of the job.” DM said feeling guilty.

Rachel tried to turn away, and DM thought he was going over. “I know you’re doing something positive, even if I don’t know what. I just home you come back safe.”

The dark man smiled. “I’ll come back exactly the way I am.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. Rachel leaned down to kiss his hand, and that’s when the dark man fell over the side of the couch.

“Dark Mateus,” DM said into the satellite phone as soon as it beeped at nine in the morning.

“I thought I gave you the name John Doe?” Ethan said.

“Didn’t Frank’s report show John Doe is dead?” DM asked with a wide grin on his dark face.

Ethan paused, and that made DM wonder what he was doing. “Fine I’ll just have to change the name on the plane ticket. I need you to come here to DC, and then you’ll be on your way to Hong Kong.”

“Hong Kong?” DM asked reflexively.

“Yeah that’s where we’re sending you. I hope you packed for the weather there, because I have no idea what it’s like.” Ethan said. “I’m e-mailing you the details now, and the flight leaves in about three hours. You might want to take a book. It’s a long flight to China.” With that Ethan cut off the phone call.

DM swore and then repacked his bag quickly. Then he checked his e-mail and printed off what Ethan had sent him. He got into his rental car and drove off to the airport. To be honest the dark man was nervous about going to Hong Kong. This was the first case he had been on working for Ethan, and he wanted to do the best he could. Even the very sexy stewardess who took a shine to him could distract him from his fears.

When he landed at the airport and retrieved his bags he checked his instructions again. Someone was to be waiting for him. Indeed he was holding a huge book in his hands and constantly glancing up. The man was a young twenty years old with dark brown skin and dark brown eyes. His hair was a close cropped black mass that almost covered his head evenly. He was skinny to the point that he looked sick. He had on blue jeans and thick green sports coat on promoting the Greenbay Packers open to show a tee-shirt with the American flag on it. He seemed nervous as he held a book that had to be almost one thousand pages, and kept looking up. “Dark Mateus!” He called out to the dark man.

DM walked over to the young man. “You know my name?”

“Yeah, I’m Ben, Ethan sent me, and we’re going to Hong Kong.” The young man changed the accent in his voice from a normal Midwestern accent to a full British accent. He slammed the book closed with a loud boom that made several people jump at the similar sound to a gunshot.

“Is that your way to identify yourself?” DM asked as Ben took his bag.

“No I do that with my driver’s license.” Ben said back to a normal voice. “Or the birthmark on my ass, surprisingly it matches my normal skin color and most people have to get real close to see it. That wasn’t a good joke.”

“Oh dear God a comedian,” The dark man said realizing what Ben was like.

They were already at a red four door Dodge when Ben responded. “Hey! Don’t take God’s name in vain. Take it in an artery.” He nodded his head as he spoke.

“Are you okay?” DM asked concerned for the man’s welfare.

“No.” Bed said. He unlocked the car and got in. DM found his door also unlocked, and got in. “I had coffee while I was waiting for you. Caffeine is not the best for me. I have attention deficit disorder, undiagnosed of course, but I can usually focus. I can’t focus if I’ve had caffeine!” He yelled out the last sentence and stretched out the last word making it sound like a character from an old 1950’s movie. He even raised his hand and made it look like he was grabbing something from underneath.

DM was very worried about the man now. “Right, can we go see Ethan now?”

“Sure,” Ben said with a grin looking almost subdued.

As been drove out of the airport and pulled onto the street DM took a chance of talking with the strange man. “So we’re going to Hong Kong, why?”

“I don’t know if I can tell you?” Ben said making his hand shake so much they left the wheel and were shaking in the air.

“Both hands on the wheel boy!” DM yelled out. Ben’s hands snapped onto the wheel as if DM had used his power of persuasion. “Now either you can tell me or Ethan can. Ethan can be annoyed while giving a briefing or you can tell me now while you’re driving me. Think hard which would be better?”

“The reason why we’re going to Hong Kong is because of a night clock.” Ben said saying the last two words like a little child and jutting his head forward.

“A Night Clock!” DM said in a gasp. This was totally unexpected.

“You’ve heard of one?” Ben asked.

“Not for over seven hundred years,” DM said. “You know what a night clock is?”

“Of course I do,” Ben said like it was dumb to think he didn’t. “Now if you asked me yesterday morning what a night clock was I would have thought you meant a luminescent clock. I have since found out that is incorrect. How do you know about a night clock?”

DM had to think back over the centuries. “I learned what a night clock was when I was just a little boy in Turkey. It is a magical tool of incredible power. Some times that power is good and often it is very bad. I mean world ending bad. There was a guy in my home city that had a night clock stored deep in a hole in his basement. As soon as the people learned that he had a night clock they dragged him out into the street and beat him to death. They destroyed the night clock so no one could have it. I haven’t even heard about one in existence since then. You’re telling me there might be a night clock out there in the world?”

“You make it sound like a bad thing.” Ben said.

“It is a bad thing!” DM yelled remembering all that the night clock could do.

“How bad could it be?” Ben asked.

“The way the thing works is like this.” DM said feeling like a teacher to an unruly child. “It looks like a sundial and you point the arm at a galaxy in the sky. The arm is actually two pieces, which have numerous holes in them, but only two matches up. You point the hole at a human and in time that person is has enough energy to have one of twenty-four things happen to him or her.”

Ben glanced over at DM with a little surprise in his eyes. “Please continue I find this fascinating.”

DM had to think back to when he was taught what they were. “Okay from what I remember there these were the things that will happen. Now mind you these are just what I was taught after supposedly all the night clocks in existence had been destroyed. A person can become immortal, grow to fifty feet tall, turn into a monster, have a furry penis, gills, will never need sleep, could see in the dark, and can turn into a flying creature.”

“Wow,” Ben said in awe.

“That’s not the half of it,” DM said. “If the person does not change in that way he or she can control fire, human’s minds, plants, the moon, lightning, wind, and earthquakes. They could also possibly make people explode, see into the future, recover from any injury instantly, possess a voice all humans on earth will hear, or go insane with the knowledge of everything in their mind.”

“Sweet Jesus,” Ben couldn’t keep his jaw from falling open. “Do I want to know what the last four are?”

DM shook his head trying not to think of how bad it could get. “These last four are the most dangerous because they can’t be controlled, and are the most deadly. From what I remember a person could possibly turned into what described a black hole, which would suck the entire earth in. Another possibility would be all the continuous land the person was standing on would instantly sink into the ocean, so all of Asia and Europe could possibly sink, or maybe just a small island. Also when the power finally reaches the point it does something the world could be plunged into one hundred months of total darkness, and that would kill just about all living things on the Earth. The last one doesn’t sound that bad, but it would wreak havoc with the migrating animals if the poles shift, so what was magnetic north would now be south, and vice versa.”

“Okay,” Ben said thinking about what DM had told him. “That’s a bad thing.”

“That’s why it is best any night clock found is immediately destroyed.” DM said. “So what do you know about a night clock?”

“A lot less than you do,” Ben said. “All I knew was it was some magical thing that looked like a sundial. I’d love to learn more, but we’re here.” He said with the sound of pride and an equal look on his face. They pulled up to the guard’s shack at the pentagon and were waved through. Ben ushered DM though all the security checked and down one of the long hallways.

“So this is what this place looks like from the inside,” DM said.

“Didn’t you see it when you were first here?” Ben asked.

“No,” DM said reluctantly. “Pierce McKullen got me here while I was unconscious. When I left Frank took me out the back door. I’ve never seen these long hallways.”

“Well this is a big building, and there are so many conveniences I’m still learning them all, and I’ve been here for three years,” Ben said doing a spin on one foot.

“How old are you?” DM asked.

“Twenty, I started right after I graduated from college, and teamed up with Ethan almost from the start. It’s a fun job if you don’t get killed, and like to investigate some damn weird stuff.” Ben said. He stopped at one door with OHS Div. 919 in white letters on a black background. It looked like such an unassuming door that it was hard to believe on the other side was so much power it could destroy the world, or save it.

Ben opened the door as he had hundreds of times before, without pause and walked in. The forty year old secretary behind the desk looked like a housewife. She whore thick glasses before her blue eyes. Her brown hair was puffed out making her face look small, before it descended to her shoulders. She had on a yellow blouse and her legs were hidden under the desk. She smiled as the pair walked in.

“Hello Debby,” Ben said to the woman. “Debby this is Dark Mateus, formerly John Doe.”

Debby extended her skinny hand with the veins and tendons sticking out through the thin skin. “Pleased to finally meet you Mr. Mateus,” Debby said with a pleasant smile, “to be honest I never liked Ethan’s choice of the name John Doe. It just sounded too obvious it was a fake. I have to say good job on the Kasson and Qi Soon cases.”

“Debby knows everything that goes on around here,” Ben said. “She’s good with the gossip too.” Ben said it in a Scottish accent.

“He gives me too much credit,” Debby said. “Ben, Ethan is waiting for you in his office.”

“Ah shit, this isn’t going to be pretty,” Ben said bracing himself for something unpleasant.

There were two doors in the outer office. One door was set in the wall behind Debby’s desk, and the other was set in the wall next to it. There were plastic plants in the corners, and aerial photographs of the pentagon, Washington monument, and the Whitehouse on the walls. Under the photographs were seven metal chairs with thin padding on the seats and backs.

Ben walked into the door set in the wall behind Debby’s desk. Debby watched him go in, and then turned with a smile to DM. “That boy really needs the fear of God put in him.”

“He is a strange boy,” DM agreed. He took one of the thin seats, and found he was more comfortable standing. “He seems a little unstable for an agent.”

“Oh Ben is a good agent, but not for undercover work,” Debby said. “Do you think you’d be good for undercover work?”

“I might be. I stick to the shadows a great deal, and don’t make waves too much.” DM thought about his time as a spy, but figured they already knew about that.

Debby slipped some papers into a folder. “I wouldn’t worry about any long term assignment right off. This thing in Hong Kong just sounds like investigate and report. You should be back in Rachel’s arms within the week.”

“You know about Rachel?” DM asked.

Debby smiled up at him. “Honey I know everything about everyone around here.”

The door to Ethan’s office opened, and a solid faced Ben came out. He didn’t look his jovial mood. “General Sanders would like to see you,” Ben jerked his thumb towards the office. Ben left the door opened and he went through the other door, and closed it behind him.

The dark man carefully walked into General Ethan Sanders’ office. The office was long and the back wall was completely windows and looked over a second floor, so it seemed like the office was floating. One wall was covered above by maps of the world, Europe, America, and Asia, and below by rows of low bookshelves full of black binders. The other wall had three tall file cabinets, two computers in power saver mode, and an open space directly behind Ethan’s desk. Ethan’s desk had a stack of black trays, the usual black phone with a row of buttons on the side, and a large desk calendar. There were two large well padded chairs directly before his desk. The office looked dark with the lights off and the only light coming in from the windows.

Ethan had on a dark blue suit and an even darker striped tie. He was standing at one of the maps looking at Asia with his hands behind his back. He looked like he could command a lion to sit up and beg for food. “Ah there you are please come in, and close the door behind you,” Ethan said in the shadows. DM did as he was told. Ethan walked around to the back of his desk and sat down. “I would like to say you have some balls butting your way into Frank’s investigation of that Kasson affair.”

Still standing DM knew better to answer, but did anyhow. “I feel differently, sir. I assisted Pierce McKullen who assisted Frank. In the end I believe that the fact I assisted we were able to apprehend the murderer quite quickly.”

Ethan looked at the dark man. Even sitting Ethan could make the dark man feel small. “Do you really believe that?”

“Yes, sir I do, and to be honest it was Pierce McKullen who invited me to join him,” DM said wanting to stand at attention.

Ethan considered the man. It was exactly like years ago, but his commanding officer wasn’t sucking on a cigar, “I’m going to drop it. You may sit.” DM sat down, but kept his back straight not touching the back of the chair. “Before I send you on your way to Hong Kong I have something I need you to do.” Ethan pulled out a file and put it on his desk.

“Are you familiar with Senator Hopewell?” Ethan asked.

“I have heard the name before,” DM said thinking and matching the name with a face. Senator Hopewell was one of the many senators who were on a short list of people possibly going for lifetime in the senate. He had made a seat for himself, and it was unlikely he’ll ever be voted out by his state.

“Well he’s not planning on voting the way we want,” Ethan said. He held up a black and white photograph of a teenage boy with long hair, and a crooked grin. “Just to put Hopewell in his place I want you to call up his boy, and make him do something disreputable. I don’t know like do a smash and grab someplace, or buy drugs from an undercover cop. We want something that will show Hopewell if he loves his boy he’ll do what we say.”

DM was shocked. In the short time he had known Ethan he felt the man was upstanding. Now he was asking him to not only destroy a young man’s future, and threaten a United States Senator. “Respectfully sir, I will have to decline that order.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed. In the dark light he looked like a raved animal. “I’m sorry I don’t think I heard that correctly. Try again.”

DM felt like standing at attention, so did so. “Sir, I can not follow through with such a request.”

Ethan looked at him. DM could picture him with a cigar in his mouth. “Would you care to elaborate on your insubordination?”

DM took a moment, as if to think, but in reality he didn’t need any time. “Sir, I have always believed in freedom. Influencing how a person, voted in by the people of his state, voting how he feels his people want, is against my moral statute. To be honest sir even if you drop me in concrete and dump me in the ocean will not change my views.”

Ethan looked at him for a long time. “As you were, and congratulations you passed the test.”

It took DM a moment to realize what Ethan had said. He relaxed a little, but DM still didn’t sit down. “Sir I don’t understand.”

“This was a test to see where your loyalties lie, and I’m glad to see it lies with freedom and not just me,” Ethan said sounding happy. “Will you sit down?” DM looked behind him to make sure the chair was still there. “Besides this isn’t even Hopewell’s kid. This is Robert, my own son, taken many years ago. Now onto the business at hand, Ben told me you know a great deal about a night clock. Do you know what one is made of?”

“Yes sir,” DM said. “The base is usually made of some kind of marble from what I remember. The top is made of electrum.”

“I should know what that electrum is, shouldn’t I,” Ethan said.

“It is a mixture of gold and sliver, sir,” DM said trying not to smile as his boss’s ignorance. “If I remember correctly there are words of some kind both on the base, and on the top.”

“How is it used?” Ethan asked.

“You point the needle at a galaxy, and line up two holes at where a person is likely to be. My some magic that was known only to the Arabs who originally made them, somehow the energy of the galaxy is focused at the point where the holes line up. From what I remember it takes a number of years of exposure for the power to work on the person.”

Ethan thought about that for a moment. “Okay I might as well tell you what’s going on. One of the traps we set out for people who want to sponsor terrorism is fake web-sites. If someone contributes to a web-site that says they will use the money to destroy America we track that person down. Recently an Italian artist sent a great deal of money. He shouldn’t have had that much money.”

Ethan paused to pull out a file. He held up a photograph of a short fat man. He had a mostly bald head and a slight hunch to his spine. He was chipping away at a large block of marble. “This little guy is now in custody of the United States government. The only thing he’s said is that someone from Hong Kong ordered twelve marble bases. He’s delivered ten so far. He said they all had the same engravings on them. The little man also said that on one of the photographs there was a note, in English, the words ‘Night Clock’ hand written.”

“I can’t believe there were photographs,” DM said amazed.

“Yeah we’re working on that angle,” Ethan said unhappy with his ignorance. “The only thing we couldn’t get out of him was the name of his client. He seems unusually loyal to the man. That’s something we’re also working on. What I want you and Ben to go to Hong Kong and find out what you can about anything unusual.”

DM stood up and saluted the General. He did it without thinking. His former military training kicked in. It felt good. “Sorry sir,” DM said realizing his salute was unnecessary.

“I’m just pleased you call me sir, most people around here call me Ethan to my face. I hate the name Ethan,” Ethan said it sounding unhappy. “Go down and meet with Ben, and he’ll take care of everything. Oh and hit the lights while you go out.”

DM went out turning on the lights while he went. DM smiled at Debby and then went through the only other door he had yet to go through in the outer office. The door led to a walkway open on the right and doors to windowless offices on the left. There were descending stairs. At the bottom of those stairs were desks in small three walled cubicles all facing the same direction, away from Ethan’s office. Half of them were occupied by people tapping away at computers on desks. Ben stood up in one and looked over the thin walls to see DM and waved him over.

“Good news I’ve got us rooms at the Excelsior hotel.” Ben said sounding happy.

“Is that a good thing?” DM asked.

“Hell yeah, the Excelsior is the best hotel in Hong Kong, that and it’s really close to a great restaurant,” Ben said. For as skinny as he was the talk of food seemed out of place. “I should tell you some of our policy about if something happens and you’re in a world of hurt. Head to the US embassy and identify yourself, and the fact you work for Ethan. Then you have to say ‘entrance is what I desire’ just like that.”

“Entrance is what I desire.” DM said repeating the line to taste it on his tongue.

“Right say that to the guards, don’t mix up the words, and you get VIP status,” Ben said staking up some papers.

“So when do we leave?” DM asked.

With as hyper active as Ben was seeing him sit down in a chair and not move for three hours seemed almost impossible to the dark man. The flight from Washington westward was long and boring, but Ben sat with the thick book in his lap, and didn’t move. He turned pages from Washington to St. Louis, and then onto LA.

From LA to Maui the dark man had to ask. “How can you do that?”

“If I knew what that was I would be able to answer in some other way than, because I’m just damn good,” Ben said looking over at his partner.

DM smiled internally at the weak joke. “I mean how can you act so wild at any other time but when you’re sitting there with a book?”

“It’s a good book.” Ben said. He lifted up the heavy book and showed the title ‘Applied Hydrodynamics’ in big white letters on a blue background over a picture of a large dam. “Also because I’ve learned how to focus my ADD so I can absorb easily just about anything I read. That could be why I’ve been clocked with a 150 IQ. I’m told that’s high.”

“Is that how Ethan got you?” DM asked.

“No he got me because I hacked into the computer system at the Pentagon and fooled around until I found his files. I was so interested that I sent him a résumé right after I finished college and amazingly he hired me.” Ben said starting to act hyper again.

“You started at age seventeen, so that means you’re parents had be consulted.” DM stated, but wanted an explanation too.

“Oh sure mom and Ethan really are good friends, amazingly. I mean my mom is a big Black Power person, and to be friends with Ethan boggles even my mind. To give you an idea how fanatical my mom is she gave me the name Benoffocoka thinking it sounds more African, but the sad thing is my last name is Gross.” Ben said.

DM did give a little laugh at not only Ben’s story, but the hand motions too. “Did your mother instill upon you the feeling of Black Power too?”

“Why?” Ben asked acting confused.

DM paused for a moment. “You’re black.”

“I am?” Ben said acting confused, but laying it on too thick. “Why didn’t someone tell me that? Everyone has been treating me equally and I had no idea. Do you see where I’m going with this?”

“There’s no need to promote Black Power if you already are equal.” DM said.

“Close enough, now all I have to figure out is my sexual orientation,” Ben said and went back to his book.

“Excuse me?” DM asked trying to get Ben to talk.

Ben looked up as if waking from a daze. “What?”

“You sexual orientation is what?” The dark man asked.

“I’m still working on that,” Ben said as if it were nothing. “Have you ever looked at a woman and had a tingle down below?”

“Sure I do, all the time,” The dark man said.

“Well I don’t get that tingle,” Ben said. “Once I saw this guy who gave me the tingle down below. I took that for being homosexual. The thing is when I saw the guy again, with less clothing on, there wasn’t a tingle. I tried looking at pictures on the internet of both men and women, but I’ve not had that tingle since.”

“So you could be gay, but you don’t know,” DM said. He leaned back in his chair. So something about the man was explained.

“I’m young I might get it pegged down sooner later. So what’s your story?” Ben asked.

“I come back to life every time I am killed. I don’t age a day. I heal from every wound I get to the point I am in perfect health. I can control people’s minds with my voice. That’s about it.” DM said.

“I read that in your file, but it does sound cool,” Ben said sounding excited. “Make me do something.”

DM shook his head. It sounded like Bart, Pierce McKullen’s neighbor, with the sound of his request. That’s when DM decided on a little cruel joke, “Ben, sleep.”

Instantly Ben’s eyes closed and the book fell from his lap. His head fell to the back of the chair and a slight snore came from his mouth. He looked younger than his twenty years old. He looked like a little boy, or maybe it was just what DM had learned about him.

Hawaii was hot compared with the winter cold of Chicago or Washington, and instantly DM was covered in sweat. The lay over was two hours, and they had time to kill. There was a heart in the dark man’s chest that beat and it beat hard for Rachel, so he called her.

“Hey love,” DM said into the pay phone at the airport.

“Dark, oh it’s good to hear you.” Rachel said sounding like a love struck teenager.

“This isn’t a bad time is it?”

“It got me out of a very boring meeting, so this is a great time. I told them this was an emergency, so sounds like you’re dying,” Rachel said sounding like she was smiling.

“Yes I’m dying without you,” DM said. “I don’t think I’ve traveled this much in a decade. I don’t think I should tell you where I’m going. But it’s someplace overseas.”

“Well wherever you’re going pick me up a souvenir while you’re there,” Rachel said.

“Sure what size are you?” DM said knowing what she’s say.

“Dark, you know better than to ask a woman her size, age, or favorite candy. You have to learn that for yourself,” Rachel said.

“I know, but I love you despite that,” DM said into the phone. Ben came into view and waved him over. “Honey I have to go.”

“You just called,” Rachel said with a pout in her voice.

“I’m sorry I’m dying I have to go,” DM said. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Rachel cooed back.

The dark man hung up the phone and walked over to Ben. He was looking at something on his laptop computer. “Ethan just sent us some interesting information. The bases of the night clocks were sent to Sai Wan Ho, and that is really close to Lei Yue Mun.”

“Please tell me you can get a map on that thing?” DM said.

“No need I memorize the entire island. The bad thing is now we have to stay at the Grand Plaza Hotel. Ethan has already changed that for us. Isn’t he kind?” Ben said sarcastically.

“I take it that hotel isn’t as good as the Excelsior?” DM asked knowing the answer.

“Sure if you like McDonalds food,” Ben said displeased. “Come on we have to get onboard or we’ll miss our flight.”

The flight was uneventful, even if there was a spectacular lightning storm to the north. The plane touched down at the Hong Kong International Airport level five. Ben was a little glum getting some looks from people as he parted and they went down the very long walkway to the baggage reclaim carousels. A short stop at the money changers and they were on their way. They were heading out to where the car rental agencies were when they were spotted.

“I hope you will report back to General Ethan Sanders your flight was a good one,” Said a female leaning against the glass wall to the airport.

She wasn’t tall, but the way her body curved it gave the impression she was. Her long brownish black hair was tied back from her round face with narrow dark eyes. She had on a light jacket over a buttoned up flannel shirt. Her long legs were covered with tight blue jeans. She looked like any other person, if she hadn’t identified the two government agents.

“Shit,” Ben said under his breath and the two Americans turned to her. She couldn’t have been more than twenty years old, but she looked like a young college student.

DM looked her over and smiled, “Be nice to the woman, Ben, she has a gun.” She walked up to her and shook her hand. “I am Dark Mateus and you are?”

“Call me Lucy because it is too long to explain,” She said shaking her hand. “It’s nice to finally meet the man who took down Qi Soon.”

“I have fame now,” DM said letting go of her soft hand with the usual tough spots where she held her gun.

“He was an ass who was selling nuclear weapons that we knew the Korean government couldn’t afford. In a way the People’s Republic of China should thank you.” Lucy said smiling up at his dark eyes. She sighed like it was time to get down to business. “I’m guessing you’re here because of the odd events going on in the Sai Wan Ho district?”

Ben tried not to look surprised, but didn’t do a good job of it. “Um, yes that’s the main reason why we’re here.”

“Then the People’s Republic of China will accept you as observers of our operation.” Lucy smiled. This was the official way of saying the two countries were working together. “Do you have a car yet?”

“No not yet.” Ben said.

“Good we’ll take my car, and we can stop off at my apartment on the way. I can’t wait to get out of these pants.” Lucy said walking off.

“Would you like some help getting out of those pants?” DM offered with a thick layer of sexual overtones.

“The day I can’t dress myself is the day I better be wearing a diaper,” Lucy said with a laugh. She led the pair to a two thousand jet black VW beetle. She opened the rear for the luggage.

“I like the ride,” DM said noticing the shiny black paint and the dark interior. He wedged his case in with Ben’s

“Thanks I bought it with my own money. Get in this is going to be a long drive,” Lucy said. Ben was squeezed in back, and did mention the fact his bones didn’t bend. DM sat up front and got a good look at Lucy’s profile. She had high cheek bones, and a small nose. Her jaw was wide, which is what gave her a round face. What really struck him was how small she really was. She was the exact opposite of Rachel.

“So tell me why you’re in Hong Kong?” Lucy asked.

Ben was reluctant to answer, so the dark man did for him. “Have you ever heard of a night clock?”

“You mean a clock with a glowing display?” Lucy asked.

“That’s what I thought!” Ben pitched in.

The dark man explained everything. He told the story of how he learned what one was what it did, and how dangerous it was. He said how the choice of power was unpredictable. Then he got into how they knew where to look for one.

“Any other state secrets you want to tell her?” Ben asked.

“Oh come on, if she does work for the government then they have the right to know what’s going on in their province.” DM said.

“That and I grew up on Hong Kong Island.” Lucy said. “If you want some identification it is in my back pocket.”

“I’ll get it.” DM offered.

“Hey touch when I give permission,” Lucy said. She took one hand off the wheel and pulled out her wallet. She handed it to the dark man.

“She’s legit, and photographs very well,” DM said.

“Why thank you,” Lucy said appreciating the compliment. “My parents always wanted me to become a model and move to the US, but I never thought I was that pretty, and I never had a reason to.”

“Right you have McDonalds here,” Ben said sarcastically.

“What’s wrong with him?” Lucy asked.

“He likes his food,” DM responded.

“You could have fooled me,” Lucy said looking at him in the rearview mirror. Ben just pouted with his arms crossed high up on his chest.

DM cleared his throat. “So the reason why people call you ‘Lucy’ is what?” DM asked.

“Do you really want to hear that, it is quite boring?” Lucy asked and DM said he did. “Well my parents knew that Hong Kong was going to be given back to China when I was born, so they gave me the name Lu-Cy, and that became Lucy. That way I would fit in either in the English world or the Chinese world.”

“That’s not a bad story at all, and trust me I’ve heard bad ones,” DM said.

“I know after living over seven hundred and a quarter years I figure you’ve heard it all,” Lucy said making DM jump at the fact she knew how old he was.

“Is there anyone who hasn’t read my file?” The dark man asked to the low roof of the car.

“I have a question,” Ben asked leaning forward. “How did you know that we were coming into the airport at exactly that time, and who we were?”

“Your phones may be beyond our ability to listen in on, but your laptop computer’s transmission is easy to read,” Lucy said smiling at Ben in the back. “Don’t feel so bad we got the idea from the British.”

Ben went back to sulking. “Now I’m really going to get it from Ethan.”

“Just so we’re clear on this, we work together,” Lucy said serious. “What ever we know we share with you guys and whatever you know you share with us. Of course if you don’t believe me you can always have Voice here make me tell you everything.”

“Hey I’m hurt,” DM said, “I’m much more than a voice.”

Lucy glanced down between his legs. “Are you now?”

DM looked up from where Lucy was looking at with an air of dignity. “Honestly I don’t have a problem if you find out for yourself. Would you like me to pull it out?”

Lucy laughed at the sexual innuendos. “If you were driving I might consider it. Here’s my place.” They pulled down a street with a sign Tai Fung Ave. on the corner. It was a large apartment complex with outside entrances to apartments with small windows. It stretched up over ten stories tall.

Lucy parked and the two men followed. Lucy’s apartment was cozy with a large couch and one overstuffed chair facing a TV in the corner. The kitchen was next to the small living room without a divide of any kind between them. There was a door to the right that went into the bathroom. Squeezed between the bathroom, and the living room was a small bedroom. The most predominate thing in the entire place was a black exercise machine that used your own weight as resistance, positioned so the rider could see the TV while peddling.

“I’ll be right back.” Lucy said walking into the bedroom, and closing the door behind her.

Ben went for the refrigerator and found it barely stocked. “I guess she doesn’t eat much.”

“With that figure would you?” DM asked. He moved the exercise machine and it beeped.

Lucy came running out. She had on a one-piece tan undergarment and her flannel shirt. Her long hair fell down her back uninhibited, and she moved with a sexy grace few women posses. She was also angry. “You did not just touch that?”

“I’m sorry.” DM said quickly taking his hands away from the machine.

“I’ve been clocking how many times I do this thing, and I’m getting close to ten thousand, and I don’t want you screwing it up.” Lucy said putting her hands on the seat trying to indicate that is where it should remain.

“I apologize. I didn’t mean to screw up your counting,” DM said truly sorry.

Lucy smiled, “Ah you’re too cute to be mad at for long.” Giving the seat an extra thump she went back into the bedroom.

DM looked over at Ben and smiled at him. “She called me cute.”

Ben was leaning against the wall and replied unfazed. “You expect me to be jealous? I’m going to call Ethan and let him know we’ve been made,” Ben walked out of the apartment into the cool Hong Kong air.

Minutes later Lucy came out with a white blouse on and navy blue slacks. It did hide her figure well, but it also hid the bullet resistant vest she wore underneath. The vest was pressing in her breasts so she looked like she had a flat chest. Her long hair was pulled back in a bun and she looked so official.

“How do I look?” Lucy asked.

“I liked you better in the one piece,” DM said.

Lucy laughed. “Men, you’re all pigs.”

“I am not a pig,” The dark man said in his defense.

“I suppose you could make me believe that,” Lucy said looking him up and down. “I suppose you could also make me want to jump your bones.”

“My lady I would do no such thing, well I would, but not to you,” DM said acting like the gentleman he wasn’t.

“Oh?” Lucy walked up to him, close. She was so close to him the dark man could smell the fabric softener in her cloths, and the shampoo in her hair. “What would you make me do?” She asked in a deep husky sexy voice.

“I suppose I could make you kiss me,” DM said not shying away or thinking about Rachel.

“You mean like this?” Lucy said leaning forward with her lips headed for the dark man’s mouth. He didn’t retract, or fight the advances of the woman.

“I don’t mean to interrupt but, Dark we need to talk,” Ben said acting serious for once.

Lucy instantly composed herself, “Um, you two can talk in here, it’s secure, and I’ll wait outside.” She walked by Ben and didn’t even look back at the dark man.

Ben looked at the door closing with a curious glance, and then back to the dark man. “I think you want to hurt me now,” Ben said.

“No, it wasn’t like that,” DM said not sure what it was like. “So what did Ethan say?”

“He said that we were to work with them, but that the night clock is too dangerous for them to have. If we find any, we are to destroy them rather than let the Chinese government get their hands on even one,” Ben said.

“What about the US government?” DM asked.

“If we can get our hands on one, we should try to keep it, but otherwise destroy it.”

“The base is solid marble, how are we to destroy it?” DM asked quite curious.

“Don’t know, but that’s okay we’ll figure it out later,” Ben said sounding so sure of himself. “Shall we join your little lip locking friend?”

“Stop that,” The dark man said pointing at Ben who just grinned. They left the apartment to see Lucy revving up her engine. They got in and she was off even before they could put on their seatbelts. “So where are we headed?”

“We have a temporary base at the corner of Lei King Road and Tai Hong Street,” Lucy said dodging a cyclist. “It’s right across from a small park. It’s nice.” Lucy drove under a large highway and then came to a stop outside a large warehouse. “Here we are.”

“Here?” Ben asked. “This looks worse than my mother’s first house.”

“Just wait until we’re inside,” Lucy said with a knowing smirk. She opened the door with a key and let everyone in.

The warehouse was large, with two levels. The first level looked like a simple office place, but all the white cubicles were empty. Lucy walked to a stairwell and to the second floor. That is where the real work went on. Five people were tapping away at computers in one corner of the wide open floor with a low ceiling. Small rooms were off to the other corner. A third corner had a huge table with a map on it, and cork boards with pictures and newspaper clippings tacked up.

“Lucy it’s about time you got back,” A short man said as he came up to the trio as they entered. He had some hair on his head, but it was almost transparent. His round head somehow held the glasses on his face. He had narrow eyes, and a blunt nose. He talked with a high-pitched nasal voice.

“Sorry sir, traffic was a pain,” Lucy lied. “Gentlemen this is my boss, Joe.” There were greetings all around, but Joe didn’t seem happy.

“We’ve had a development.” Joe said going over to the cork board. “We had a sighting of a blue furry monster at Church Lane and Church Road.”

“I should report what our American counterparts have,” Lucy said and relayed everything that DM had told her. Joe sat down on the table, wrinkling the map, as he listened. Finally Lucy finished up all she knew. “So should we go check this out?” Lucy asked.

Right then the satellite phone on Ben’s hip beeped. “Excuse me,” Ben said taking out his phone. All eyes were on him while he talked. He came back to the group in seconds. “That was George,” Ben said in a British accent.

DM cocked an eyebrow, “And what did our dear friend George have to say?”

“I can and will hurt you,” Ben said with the British accent, and then changed back to his normal voice, “He also said our Italian friend finally said who he was selling the marble part of a night clock to. Some business man named Lai-Yee Tam. It sounds like a woman.”

“No it’s a man.” Lucy said. “He’s former big business man in Hong Kong, but then the China took control, and he lost just about everything.”

Joe was over with the people who were tapping away at the computers. In seconds he came back. “Okay Tam still has property on Aldrich Street, and that is real close to the Church Streets, so go check out the sighting of the furry thing, and then pay a visit to Tam’s property. Lucy you’ll need a gun.”

Joe led Lucy to the corner with the small rooms. Lucy waved the two Americans to follow too. Joe opened a door and inside were metal cabinets filled with rifles, hand guns, even half a dozen rocket launchers. While Joe and Lucy were looking at a cabinet full of semiautomatic hand guns Ben pulled out a black automatic hand gun, and handed it to DM. Ben took one out for his own protection and tucked it into his waist band.

Lucy and Joe turned around to see both men armed. “Where did you get those weapons?” Joe asked in a flat voice just so he can officially say he asked.

“Why we’ve had them the entire time,” Ben said in the same flat voice.

The dark man looked over at Lucy and said quietly to her, “See what you get for not giving me a strip search?”

Lucy smiled holding in her laughter. “I’ll have to do that next time,” Lucy said giving her hips a little sway so they bumped into DM.

“Okay cut it out you two,” Joe said. “Get going I want this situation resolved quickly. And if you two Americans get killed it’s not our fault.” Joe kept yelling out commands as the three walked down the stairs.

The store on the corner sold meat that looked like it was turning into jerky before their eyes. Dead chickens and pigs were hung upside-down, gutted, and had a coating of something clear and shiny on everything. The setting sun might have been beautiful if the disgusting smell of decaying meat from the stall didn’t spoil it. Lucy was talking to the small owner, who was giving DM and Ben unhappy looks.

“Okay he said that a blue furry monster was running from a big black van,” Lucy said when she got back to her car and the two men. “From what he remembers the van was chasing the monster west.”

“What’s west?” Ben asked.

Lucy could have simplified her explanation by saying, more of the same, but she was treating the pair like they were tourists. She really knew her stuff as they looked around for anything unusual. For more than an hour they couldn’t find anything in the half light, so they went to Aldrich Street. It was another warehouse that looked in disrepair.

“What do you suppose is in there?” Ben asked.

“Rats.” Lucy responded. “I hate rats.”

“I’ll take point then,” DM said. He knocked on the door to the warehouse. No response. He knocked again, and again no response.

“Let me try,” Ben said. He knocked with his foot right by where the door knob was, and the door swung inward from the force of his kick. “What do you know they opened the door for us?”

“This is a very strange man,” Lucy said to the dark man. He nodded his head in agreement.

DM walked in first, and could see nothing. Lucy pulled out a small flashlight and swept it around the empty warehouse. There was dirt everywhere, and nothing was clean. The sun was going down, so the darkness was almost complete except for where Lucy’s light shined.

Something moved in the corner making a metal piece fall to the floor. Everyone jumped in fright. Without thinking the dark man wrapped his arms around the small Chinese woman. Lucy calmed down almost instantly and shined her light up into the dark man’s face.

“You can let go now,” Lucy said looking up at DM.

“I don’t want to,” Dark Mateus said sounding like a little boy. Lucy smiled and shrugged him off.

“Are these prints?” Ben asked looking down at the dirt on the floor.

Lucy shined her light where Ben was pointing and a shiver went up her spine. There were four shoe prints of men running, and one other set of prints. It was like a wolf grew to human size and walked on two feet. The stride was huge and there were small scuff marks next to the prints. They were not human.

“That’s disturbing,” The dark man said.

“I’m more interested in who was chasing that creature,” Ben said.

Lucy said nothing and walked in the direction the prints went, and everyone followed her light. The prints went to a wall, but as the human prints peeled off about fifty feet from the wall, the beast’s prints went right up to the wall, and then stopped.

“It went through those windows,” DM said pointing to the windows twenty-five feet up on the wall of the warehouse.

“It jumped that high?” Lucy said in shock. “I think I’ve just found something that scares me more than rats.”

“Does anyone really want to go through that door?” Ben asked. DM did want to, and did go through the door. It wasn’t locked and they went into the cool night air. The alley was littered with old papers and bags of garbage that most were still closed. Lucy panned her light quickly around with her gun out ready to fire. She was scared, but ready for anything.

“What’s that?” DM asked looking at the wall of the warehouse. Lucy panned her light over to where he was looking and dark brown splash was clearly visible on the wall. “I think it is blood. The velocity of the spatter indicates medium impact and the descending angle and size of the droplets usually means a knife.”

There was a silent pause in the alley. No one spoke. The sounds from the street and nearby highway were the only sounds in the early night. “Well hell if no one else is going to say it I will.” Ben said. “Do you think it could have come from a claw?”

“That’s a possibility.” DM said quietly.

Lucy pulled out her cellular phone, “Joe, Lucy, I need someone with a camera down here at Tam’s Aldrich Street property. We found blood on the north side of the building, and we have some strange footprints inside. Right, I’ll check in later.” Lucy clicked off her phone.

“I want to see where those prints came from,” DM said.

“Why?” Ben asked.

“Think about it, if Tam is involved it is clearly not at this warehouse. So why do we find tracks inside?” DM asked.

“Right, back in with the rats,” Lucy said taking a deep breath and bracing herself.

“We can go in without you,” DM said. “You don’t have to go in with the rats.”

Lucy shot the dark man an angry look. “It’s my light, so I’m going in too. Besides stop treating me like a child. I may be terrified of rats, but I do have a gun.”

“I wish I had brought a flashlight,” Ben said and went back into the warehouse. Making sure they didn’t step in the prints the three tracked the prints. “I’ve been thinking this is a really bad monster movie. You know I’m the token black guy. Lucy is the hot babe. Dark is the guy who gets killed by the monster when it leaps out of the darkness.”

“Will you shut the fuck up!” DM yelled at Ben. “It’s bad enough we have only one light powered by two AA batteries to look around we don’t need your sick mind making us jumpy.”

“Too late,” Lucy said sounding timid.

“Over there,” Ben said pointing to a deep dark shadow. Lucy panned her light over and was amazed to see something that might have been a college student’s room. There was a thin mattress pad on the floor. Around were cans of soup and boxes of juices. A battery operated radio was in the corner. A small camping stove was pushed away from things that were flammable.

“If it wasn’t for the many beast like prints in the dirt I’d say that a squatter was living here,” Ben said.

“A beast who reads the daily news?” Lucy said lifting a nearby newspaper. “It’s today’s paper, so whoever it is they were up on the current news.”

“Interesting a beast who has the brains of a normal human being, this could get bad,” DM said.

“How do you figure?” Lucy asked.

DM looked at her, “Think of a person so different, and smart enough to know he’ll never be accepted in society, being hunted, and has nothing to loose.”

“That could get real bad,” Ben agreed.

“He had to have been here for a while,” Lucy observed.

“But why here?” DM asked himself.

No one spoke for a while. Then a van pulled up outside. Lucy went out and talked with the people. DM and Ben walked out after a fashion and joined them. The technicians took a photograph of their shoes. The technicians went into the warehouse leaving the three outside.

“So can I give you two a lift to your hotel?” Lucy asked.

“Considering you still have our luggage in your trunk, a lift would be delightful,” Ben said in a southern accent.

Lucy drove the two to the Hotel and even helped them check in since it was past the time for check in. She followed them up to their rooms and got their phone numbers. “Well as much fun as this is I’m hungry,” Ben said.

“There’s a McDonalds right next door,” Lucy noted.

“Don’t insult me,” Ben said acting offended. “I have finer tastes than eating at a fast food place. If you don’t mind I will go find a reputable eating establishment.” He went into his room and closed the door.

“I don’t think he’ll find it in there,” DM said to make Lucy laugh. It worked. “Well I don’t mind eating at a less than reputable eating establishment if the company is worth it.”

Lucy took the hint, “Why sir, are you asking me out on a date?”

“Unless you already have a date, then yes Lucy would you care to join me at the greasy spoon?” The dark man asked.

“Sure why not I’d love to have a rich American pay for my meals,” Lucy said jumping off the bed.

“I may be rich, but my adopted country is America,” DM said locking the door to his room.

“I wouldn’t mind being rich, but I do enjoy working. That and it gets me out of bed in the mornings,” Lucy said pressing for a descending elevator.

“Yeah I’m thinking of getting a full time job,” DM said. The elevator slowly went down.

“So what’s it like?” Lucy asked suddenly like her resistance finally broke and she asked a question she wanted to for a while.

“Please define ‘it’,” DM asked.

“When you control people with your voice, what’s it like?” Lucy asked.

“For me it’s like being a commander in a very loyal army,” DM said. The doors opened and the pair walked out. “To the person I control I’ve been told they think it’s like whatever I tell them is exactly what they would normally do. I even tell them to do something completely out of their nature, and they do it without thinking otherwise.”

Lucy said something she instantly realized was stupid, “Weird.”

Outside the hotel the air had turned cold. Night was fully upon them, and every light they could turn was glowing. The street lights glowed yellow making everything seem an off color. The glowing golden arches of the fast food restaurant seemed to emit a cleaner crisper light. The couple ordered and DM paid.

“I have a confession to make,” Lucy said. She was seated across from the dark man at one of the back tables well away from the few other customers. She had her salad and large diet drink. DM had his large burger and large fries, and large diet drink.

“Do I really want to hear this?” DM said more than asked.

Lucy cleared her throat, “I know more about you than I’ve let on before.”

She stopped talking. Why do people only give me half explanations the dark man asked himself? “Why do you mean you know more about me?”

Lucy took a sip of her drink before speaking. “This is embarrassing, but I learned about you about a year ago, and ever since then you’ve been my own little project. I’ve learned all about your past. It was more than just your file, but also some of your history with people. You claim to be evil, but deep down you do have a good heart.”

Lucy munched on some greens while DM thought about what she had said. “So the reason why you’ve been so friendly with me is, why?”

“It seems like I know you already, and from what I know, I like,” Lucy said.

DM took a large bite of his food while he thought about what Lucy had said. The dark man never had trouble getting women, but getting the right woman was difficult. It took him a long time to find Rachel after his last wife died. He was looking for a woman who was brave, but also sensitive, funny, but also serious at times. Lucy seemed to be such a woman, but they just met.

“If you know all about me you also know about Rachel. When I’m married I stick with her until the end, and don’t mess around,” DM said.

“You’re not married,” Lucy said quickly. “Besides you bought a ring for her, but never gave it to her when you had the chance.” She instantly regretted saying the words.

The dark man was angry. Before he could take his anger out on Lucy he checked himself. He wasn’t angry at Lucy, but at himself. He could have proposed to Rachel, but didn’t. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why. There was something about Rachel he loved, but made him hold back. Whatever that something was he couldn’t understand it. “I’m sorry,” DM said.

“For what?” Lucy asked concerned.

“I don’t know,” DM said feeling guilty. “I’ve had a very bad few weeks. My nice stable life has been turned upside-down. To be honest I sort of like it, but its not something I want to drag Rachel into. She likes the nice simple life, but if I do this spy stuff I’m not sure I can give her that kind of life.”

“Has anyone told you, you are such a sap?” Lucy asked.

“Yes, there have been a few,” DM admitted.

“Then there’s a good chance they were correct. What do you love about Rachel? That’s the real question.” Lucy said.

The two finished their meal in silence. Lucy kept thinking about DM. The dark man kept thinking about Rachel, and Lucy. The two were almost the exact opposite of each other. Lucy was adventurous. Rachel was calm. Lucy would pull out a gun and use it, even if it was on a rat. Rachel would pull out a brief and destroy someone’s life. Both women were attractive even if Lucy was about a foot and half shorter than Rachel.

“Care to invite me up?” Lucy asked after their meal.

DM didn’t want to just yet, “I thought it was customary to walk a woman back to her home.”

Lucy looked at him like he was dumb, “I have a car.”

“Then please let me take you home,” DM stood up.

“Like hell you’re going to drive my car,” Lucy said.

“The let me walk you to your door,” DM said as he opened the door for Lucy.

“Then how will you get back to your hotel?” Lucy asked.

“I’ll walk back, besides I need to think,” DM said trying not to think about his life just yet.

Lucy did invite the dark man in, but he declined saying that he wanted an early start. DM couldn’t figure out what was going on. Lucy was trying to seduce him. Ben was one of the biggest goofballs ever. They were chasing a monster that was in an abandoned warehouse.

DM stopped up short. He had an idea. The dark man ran back to Lucy’s place and knocked on the door. She didn’t respond. He pounded harder. He checked to make sure he had the right place, he did.

“Do you mind I just had my heart broken?” Lucy said opening the door without looking up. When she did see who it was she was speechless.

“I’m going to act like that was a joke because I just had an idea about catching this monster,” DM said serious.

Lucy wiped her eyes. She had on a large tee-shirt for sleeping, and her face was free of any makeup, but was still beautiful. Her hair was tossed about her head and was wild on her shoulders. She quickly composed herself, “So what’s your idea?”

“Why would a person hide out in an abandoned warehouse? I’m thinking it was because he might have used to work there,” DM said as a quick explanation.

It took Lucy a second to realize what the dark man meant, “So the person who was turned into a monster by the night clock might have worked for Tam at that warehouse.”

“Right so check employment records and cross reference with missing persons records,” DM said.

Lucy went to her phone and called out. DM sat down on the sofa and felt the jetlag fill his bones. He was tired, and drained, and he had more work to do the next day. He felt himself nodding off when Lucy joined him on the couch.

“I called and they’re going to have the information by morning,” Lucy said.

DM put his arm around her, and she rested her head on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to break your heart,” DM said.

“You didn’t, but I guess I was hoping for something that I didn’t get. I forget you don’t know me as well as I know you,” Lucy said feeling like a lonely little girl.

The dark man was trying to think of something to say. His thoughts were getting slower, and dimmer. Lucy’s warm body next to his was nice and comfortable. It was so comfortable that he didn’t realized that three hours had past, and there was a blanket over him, and Lucy was gone.

DM realized what had happened, he fell asleep and Lucy had put a blanket on him. The dark man struggled to his feet and looked around for the Chinese woman. She was asleep in her bed. She looked so lovely with her round face soft with sleep as she lay on her side.

Pierce McKullen had said there were three worlds; one of love, one of normalness, and one of the strange. He was wrong there were two the weird and the normal. Rachel was his love in the world of the normal. Lucy could be his love in the world of the strange. That is if he wanted her.

DM had lived long enough to know women could be hurt by the stupidest things, like leaving in the middle of the night. The dark man made himself comfortable on the couch and fell back asleep.

The dark man woke up to the smell of something cooking. He opened his eyes to see he was still in Lucy’s apartment. She was standing at the kitchen stove cooking up eggs. He sat up to the early morning light coming through the window over the kitchen. Lucy looked radiant in her white blouse and black pants. Her hair was pulled back into a long pony tail. She did look beautiful.

“Good morning,” DM said wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“Oh you’re awake,” Lucy jumped a little at the sound of his voice. “Sorry I was hoping you’d sleep a little longer. I was trying to make breakfast before you woke up.”

“That’s so nice of you,” He stood up slowly on feet that were still asleep. “I really need to visit your bathroom thou.”

“Go ahead these eggs won’t be ready for a while,” Lucy said checking the bottom of the eggs.

Her bathroom was a nice small room just wide enough for a bathtub with a shower. There was a fresh smell from the tray of dried twigs and berries sitting on the toilet. There was some dirt in the corners, but she did keep the place mostly clean. It made DM smile that a single woman would keep things clean like that.

“So tell me something, why don’t you have a man in your life?” DM asked after doing his business.

Lucy looked up at him with a grin, “Who says I haven’t? I’m kidding. Really I haven’t found the right man because they always think I should stay home and make babies or keep house. I know it sounds old fashion, but it’s been that way my whole life. Even my parents expected me to stay home and make babies. I guess that’s why I went to college and took a job in the government, so I could prove everyone wrong.”

Lucy pulled two plates out of a cupboard and put them on the small table and slid two eggs on each plate. She opened the microwave and fished out two strips of bacon for each plate. A toaster was still humming away when Lucy offered the other chair to DM.

“Gosh this is nice,” DM said as an exaggerated compliment. “I’m usually the one who makes breakfast, and lunch, and for that matter dinner too.”

Lucy smiled at his confession, “Well like I said, my parents expected me to be a housewife, so they taught me to cook. To be honest this is the biggest meal I’ve ever made in the past three years. Every guy I’ve met always seems to think he has to take me somewhere for a meal. I like eating in my own home most nights.”

“I do too,” DM said digging into his eggs. He complimented her on her cooking skills, and mentioned the toast was burning. Lucy grabbed the toast before it was too burnt and tossed one piece on his plate and almost missed her own. They ate and chatted about her childhood. She grew up in a middle class home where her father ran a bicycle wheel factory. She said how she went to college starting out as a business major but switching to communications. Lucy told how she decided, even before graduation, to join the armed forces for China. Then she was transferred because she was so good at getting information.

“I should meet up with Ben,” DM said.

“And I hope to take a shower and get a change of cloths. Just toss the dishes into the sink I’ll wash them later,” Lucy said. She smiled at him as he sniffed under each arm. With her black jacket in hand the pair went to the hotel.

“It’s about time you showed up,” Ben said when Lucy opened the door to DM’s room. “Oh sorry,” Ben said seeing it was Lucy, “I thought Dark was back.”

“He is, but he’s in the shower right now,” Lucy said. As if on queue the shower started. “We were throwing around ideas back at my place.”

“I’m sure that’s all you were doing,” Ben said with hints he doubted that. He was in a cheep blue suit that looked flexible enough that he could run in.

“May I ask you something?” Lucy asked Ben.

“As long as it’s not state secrets go for it,” Ben said flopping on the still made bed.

“Do you think I’m pretty?” Lucy asked Ben. He laughed. “What’s so funny?” Lucy asked not getting the joke.

Ben calmed down enough to talk, “Lady I’m gay.”

“Oh,” Lucy realized the question was dumb to the man, “Well the real question I have is do you think I have a chance with Dark?”

“You mean getting in bed with him, sure,” Ben said with the shrugging of his shoulders. “To be honest I’m not the best person to ask.”

“I know, but the more I learn about the man the more I like him,” Lucy honestly told Ben. The shower turned off and in seconds DM came walking out with a towel around his waist. He looked at the two of them as he went to his suitcase and pulled out cloths and then without a word went back into the bathroom to change. As soon as the door was closed Lucy resumed her conversation with Ben. “Do you think he heard me?”

“No, but I’ll drop a few hints to him that he might want to take a chance with you,” Ben said.

“You don’t have to, but thanks,” Lucy said.

In a few minutes DM came out clean, shaved, and dressed in a black dress shirt with a black sweater over that, and black slacks. He pulled out black shoes from his bag and looked at the two conspirators. “You two have been talking about me haven’t you?” DM said knowing the answer.

“Of course we have,” Ben said jumping to his feet, “We’ve been discussing what you would look like naked.”

“You are seriously disturbing,” The dark man said getting his wallet and keys and tucking the gun behind his back. “Shall we go?”

“It’s about time you showed up,” Joe yelled more than said when the three came up the stairs. “We’ve been checking out who’s gone missing compared with who worked for Tam. About a dozen people have gone missing in the past month.”

“Is there a pattern?” Lucy asked.

“Sort of, we’ve been calling and most of the former employees who were out of work were called about a possible job opportunity. They went for the interview, and were never heard of again,” Joe said picking up a pile of papers.

“Where were they going?” Ben asked.

“They were told to go to an office on Ngoi Man Street. So far we haven’t found out who owns the property,” Joe said pulling out a paper and handing it to Lucy. “I want you to go there and look around.”

“We’re on it,” Lucy said. “Was there anything from the warehouse?”

“The blood you found was human, but I guess that doesn’t mean much. The other stuff in the warehouse is being checked, but nothing yet,” Joe said.

“Right, I’ll call if something comes up,” Lucy said.

Joe called out, “One more thing, don’t hesitate to use your gun. We were just given permission to shoot to kill if it comes to that.”

Lucy didn’t respond as the three of them went down to her car and got in. The sign on the street was printed up with the name Ngoi Man Street. The office was a simple three story white brick building. It looked like it could have been a dance studio or a nightclub. It looked so normal that it couldn’t be anything but an office for a normal business.

“So what do we do, just walk in and say we want to look under the floor boards?” Ben asked.

“Just let me do the talking,” Lucy said. He opened the door and instantly a smell hit them. It was a hot and wet mixture of smells that resulted in a sickening stank. It only took a moment to differentiate the smells to urine, feces, and human blood. All three people pulled out their guns.

“Let me go first,” DM said, “I can come back to life.” Lucy let him and his old military training kicked in.

A quick head check around the corner showed a bloodbath. The walls were coated with blood, and the bodies were everywhere. Desks were almost destroyed, and there were large dents in the gypsum walls from where human bodies were thrown. Plastic plants were coated with hot red blood from the bodies and body parts that were scattered about. Men had their heads hanging on their bodies by a thin flap of skin. Women were disemboweled with their insides tossed about. There was a bloody drag mark in the hallway from a woman who tried to crawl away from whatever was killing everyone.

Nothing moved, and the only sound was the sick plopping sound of blood still dripping from the bodies. DM carefully walked around the pools of blood, and making sure not to touch the bodies he walked down the walkway to the back of the building. The smell was horrendous making the dark man want to gag, but he fought that impulse and took another step forward. The back had a door leading out, but there wasn’t blood on the press bar, but there were bloody marks leading up to the second floor.

With his weapon out front the dark man carefully went up to the second floor. It was divided into two large rooms. The first room was untouched. A large table in the middle, with leather chairs around it. It looked like a normal board room.

Behind a divide the other room was a different story. A small man was laying naked on the board table there, dead. His hands and arms and feet and legs were cut off to the point he was little more than the torso of a man. Blood was all over the table and floor. This man was tortured to death. In the blood on the floor there were prints that were the same as the prints from the warehouse the night before. DM swallowed has he put his hand close to the man’s mouth.

“He’s still warm,” DM said to Lucy and Ben behind him. “Let’s get to the third floor?”

“Shit,” Ben said seeing the bloody dead man. “Why did the torture the guy?”

“Let’s secure this sight first,” Lucy said.

The dark man took point again as he went back to the stairs and carefully went up to the third floor. As soon as his eyes became level with the floor he knew he was in trouble. With the sunlight coming in through the windows the two figures were backlit, but he could see they were not human. They were tall, over eight feet tall, with huge heads, and long powerful arms. Their entire bodies were covered with long course hair. The only difference between the two were one was slightly larger than the other. They were leaning over file cabinets leaving through the papers. Two bodies were lying on the floor, with their throats slashed and blood still draining out of them.

“Freeze!” The dark man called out as he pointed his automatic gun at the monsters. They looked up to see him, and growled. Lucy and Ben also pointed their weapons at them. “Don’t move!”

The one monster turned to the other. They growled at each other as if communicating, and then turned back to the trio. As they growled and raised their long arms with huge claws on the ends, they slowly moved back to the windows. With one swift move they ran into the windows smashing through them.

The three detectives ran for the windows to look down. Even before they made it to the windows automatic gunfire erupted from the street. The sound echoed in the street as well as the inhuman growl that was cut off sharply. The three people looked down from the window at the shocking sight below.

The larger of the two monsters was just sinking to its knees in a bloody mass of blue fur. The smaller monster was already dead on the street with its arms splayed out. Two black vans with dark windows had half a dozen men around them with large automatic rifles still steaming from the hot metal they shot out.

“Shit,” Ben said and ran for the stairs.

Lucy pulled out her phone, “Joe, run these plates.”

The dark man didn’t stick around as he ran after the young black man. Those guys on the street had automatic rifles, and all they had were handheld automatic guns, without extra clips. The stairs flew past their feet as it was more of a controlled fall down to the first floor. Lacking the desire to be careful they went plowing through the bloody mess to the front door. Ben grabbed the front door and flung it open.

The men on the street were hovering over the blue and bloody red bodies of the monsters so they didn’t notice Ben until he yelled out. “Freeze!” This was not the best thing he could have said for the men with the automatic rifles pointed those rifles in Ben’s direction, and fired.

The bullets hit the cinderblock wall tossing up an enormous cloud of brick dust. The bullets ripped into the front door and into Ben’s right leg. The raw meat of his leg let the bullet pass through with little resistance save for the red splash that followed the bullet as it came out the other end. Instantly Ben realized he was in trouble as he collapsed to the ground just outside the doorway.

The dark man ducked low and grabbed the back of Ben’s cheep suit and dragged him into the building before more bullets could do more damage to him. His legs was bleeding like a fountain as blood came spurting out landing on the floor and his pants leg. There was so much blood already on the floor that Ben’s contribution was barely noticeable, but growing quickly.

Dark Mateus knew instantly what to do, stop the flow of blood. He had no time to worry about the squealing tires outside, his partner was more important, and DM had been a doctor long ago. He needed to put pressure on the wound, and a long strip of cloth would do, like Ben’s tie. DM hooked his finger under the tie to just pull it off, and off it came too easily. “A clip on?” Dark Mateus said looking down at his pale partner.

Ben gave a weak shrug but even that was hard for him. Lucy came down the stairs to see Ben on the ground. “Oh God,” She pulled out her phone again and called for an ambulance.

“Why aren’t you going after them?” Ben choked out.

DM had pulled off his coat and was wrapping it tightly around Ben’s leg. “Because I don’t want to have to face your mother telling her you died when I could have saved you.”

Ben tried to smile. “Hero complex,” He was able to say.

“Shut up and try to stay alive,” DM said pushing Ben’s head back to the floor.

“An ambulance is on its way,” Lucy said looking over Ben. They were blocking the door, so she couldn’t get out, only watch on as DM’s black coat became soaked with blood. The hours that ticked by in sixty seconds were filled with concern and dread for the fallen man. The ground under his leg was saturated with blood, and the carpet as soaking up the blood like a sponge.

The sound of a wail was so quiet at first that dogs would have had a hard time hearing it. It grew louder until it drowned out only the loudest of a person’s thoughts. The large truck had no problem finding the fallen, the blood was everywhere. Four uniformed emergency medical team members came to find the American on the ground with the immortal trying to keep him alive. They took over sliding their hands over DM’s slick with blood. Lucy went out and quickly conversed with the driver as they loaded Ben onto a stretcher and then into the back of the ambulance.

They shoved a wet-nap into DM’s bloody hands and they all piled into the truck like very poor clowns. The sound of the leaving ambulance was so deep and depressing that the dead would have hung their heads in sadness. The truck went out of sight, and then the sound was beyond hearing, and Ben was gone. The dark man had already given him up for dead. DM knew what having the femoral artery severed meant, death. Thankfully the condemned person just goes to sleep as their brain doesn’t have enough oxygenated blood reaching the gray matter.

The street was quiet now after so much turmoil in such a short time. There were blood pools in the street from the monsters, even if their bodies had disappeared. There was blood, both fresh and coagulating in the building. The side of the building showed two lines of bullets as they pelted the bricks and both would have crossed just where Ben had been.

“I want them dead,” Dark Mateus said with Lucy right next to him. “I don’t give a damn about the night clocks anymore. I do not want them to see another sunrise.”

Lucy didn’t say anything. This was a side of the dark man she hadn’t read about. He was mad, and when he was mad he could be violent in ways that a drunken man with a gun would seem like a fuzzy bunny in comparison. Lucy softy said, “Joe checked out the plates on those vans, they’re fake.”

DM didn’t say anything. He ripped open the wet-nap in his hands and smeared the blood around so his flesh looked raw. The dark man turned and walked back into the building, and proceeded up the stairs. Lucy could do nothing but follow almost scared of the man she thought she loved.

The dark man stooped and picked up papers next to the tortured man. DM flipped through them with a stone expression on his face. The dead man on the table still had the expression of terror on his still face, and Lucy had trouble looking at it, but the dark man knew that it was nothing compared to what he wanted to do to the men who shot Ben.

“Take a look at these,” DM said handing the papers to Lucy.

Lucy took them one at a time. They were blank pages with words written on them length wise in a dark red substance. It took a moment for Lucy to realize that it wasn’t ink the words were written in. The words were short sentences. ‘Where are our friends?’ ‘Where is the warehouse?’ ‘Do you want to die?’ ‘This is your last chance.’ ‘Say good-by to your arm.’ ‘Your leg is next to be cut off.’ As if the blood they were written in wasn’t bad enough, the words sent a chill down Lucy’s spine. The whole building was nothing more than a box of death.

“They couldn’t talk, or if they could it was only between each other,” DM said looking out the broken windows. “So they had to torture this man looking for some kind of warehouse presumably where their friends are. Obviously they didn’t get what they wanted from him, because they were looking through the file cabinets when we showed up.”

“So this warehouse could be in the files,” Lucy said going over to the still open cabinets.

The silence in which they worked was almost as oppressive as the smell. Sill they flipped through the files looking for property papers. Of course it was the very last drawer of the very last cabinet they found the papers. There were three warehouses, but only one was on the side of Hong Kong they were at, the Quarry Bay district on Sat Tsz Mui Road.

“Do you have any weapons in your car?” DM asked Lucy in his menacing voice.

“Yes, but shouldn’t we call for backup?” Lucy asked.

“I don’t need backup,” DM said through clenched teeth as he walked out to her car.

Lucy couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I will not stand for this!” Lucy yelled at DM. She was angry with both Ben for getting shot, and DM’s lack of emotion in his desire to kill. “I want these people brought to justice too! I will not let you go there and just start shooting. You may come back to life, but that doesn’t mean you have to die intentionally. This isn’t your own personal war. Hell you were just here to find the night clocks, now you want to start a war of one. I am going to call for back up and they will meet us there. If you have a problem with that stop me.”

Lucy slowly pulled out her cellular phone. DM looked into her eyes with his stone cold expression. His eyes never left hers as he opened the phone and called out. He said nothing as she told Joe to have a team ready for them at Sat Tsz Mui Road in an hour. When Lucy had shut her phone she looked up at him. His face softened and his eyes became less like glass and more like the organic orbs they were.

“Thank you,” DM said softly with emotion just under the surface of his words.

“You’re not alone in this,” Lucy said. “Come on we have to get going. The weapons are under the back seat.”

Lucy drove like a mad woman swerving around cars and going usually twice the speed she should have been. Horns blared at her, and she blared back with as much finesse as she could muster with a car horn. Her little black bug was fast as it maneuvered around cars like they were parked. She knew where she was going, and be damned anyone who got in her way.

“What’s your weapon of choice?” DM asked Lucy. He was leaning over the front seat with the back seat pulled up to show a large cash of weapons. He had already pulled out an automatic rifle for himself, with extra clips.

“I like the pump shotgun myself,” Lucy said bracing herself as she moved around a large truck by going into the oncoming traffic.

The dark man pulled out the pistol handle shotgun and a box of shells. He was loading the shotgun as Lucy was swiftly flying down King’s Road past Braemar Hill. The shotgun held six shells, and DM fit more in the holster on the side of the gun to hold six more. The pair was ready to kill.

The warehouse was less a big box and more four walls with a retractable roof. The roof would pull back in pieces with one piece fitting under the one before. In the sunlight of the late morning the roof was fully extended over the thin metal walls making it look like any other building in the area. There were high small windows in the walls, but even these had thick metal bars over them. The doors were reinforced metal with solid metal frames. There was a smaller building attached to the warehouse that looked like a place of business with its brick exterior and conservative décor compared to the warehouse.

The two agents sat in the car, with the engine off looking at the building. Neither spoke as their private thoughts ran through their heads. The dark man kept thinking about Ben dying in an operating table as he was loosing more blood than the doctors were putting in. Lucy kept thinking that as much as DM wanted to go gung-ho into the warehouse and shoot anyone breathing, she had been able to stop him.

Almost in silence three large black and green vans pulled up behind Lucy’s beetle. Two dozen men calmly exited the vans covered in body armor, helmets, goggles, and holding large rifles. Each man looked ready to do his duty, and for some reason that made DM feel better.

Lucy got out of her car and briefed the men on what to do. A few were to follow them in and the rest were to surround the building and wait for her signal. When she said so they were to storm the place, and if anyone didn’t comply with their orders they were to shoot to kill no matter what the thing looked like. She didn’t tell them that there be monsters in the building, but she hoped she didn’t have to.

“Are you ready to go?” Lucy asked the dark man after the teams split up and went around the building.

“I think we should go in through that smaller building first,” DM said indicating the attached building.

“I agree, and I think we should scope out the inside to see what we’re dealing with first, and then decide the next move,” Lucy said scanning the area.

“Right, I’ll take point,” DM said.

“Hold on!” Lucy grabbed his arm to stop him. He looked down at her eyes. She was still beautiful in the sunlight. Her face had a glow that few women could match. He could see why her parents wanted her to be a model. “Can I trust you to not go in there and start killing people?”

“Yes.”

“Can I believe you?”

DM smiled for the first time since Ben was shot. “I could make you believe me, but I’d rather prove it to you.” He strode off to the small building next to the warehouse with his rifle on his shoulder.

The pair was worked well together. Lucy went to one side of the door and DM to the other while some of the other men in body armor hung back with their own weapons trained on the door. DM counted seconds down on his hand to show the rest when he would go. He opened the door with his gun out first he pointed it a lone elderly secretary seated behind a metal desk looking very startled. DM used his power on her so she would remain silent. He grabbed her thin arm and pulled her to her feet and pushed her out the door he had just entered.

Quickly they scanned the rest of the small office, but no one was around. Then there was the door to the warehouse. Lucy was about to open it for DM when he put a hand out to stop her.

“What?” Lucy asked in a whisper.

DM pointed up to the top of the door. In the corner painted the same color as the door was a magnetic door alarm. It was the kind used in small businesses that relied on a magnet being close to a sensor, and if the magnet left the field of the sensor a bell would sound, or in this case an alarm would go off.

A young man with a thin hollow face and far less body armor came wiggling his way up. He swung off a backpack and pulled out a paper thin magnet and double side tape. With a bit of maneuvering he was able to stick the thin magnet right on the sensor so when the door opened no one would know.

No one did know the door was opened because the alarm did not sound. They did know the door opened because they were standing just on the other side of the door. “One of them is still out there,” A male voice was heard saying as the door was eased open.

Another voice said, “Why is the door opening without the buzzer going off?”

Even with four guns pointed at the eight men and the word “FREEZE” was shouted out they men still scattered. The warehouse was vast illuminated by artificial light along the edges where the roof met the walls. The corner near the door was a living area with tables, couches, overstuffed chairs, a small refrigerator, and television. In one corner was seated and bound a woman tied to a chair with all around her ten night clocks pointed up at the roof with their energy focused on her. The far end is what was truly disturbing. Chained to the concrete floor with inch wide chains was an enormous fifty foot woman. She had black hair cut short compared to her body, her mouth was covered with some large cloth dripping with saliva, her wrists and ankles were bloody from rubbing against the chains, and the most disturbing was she didn’t have a stitch of clothing on except for the gag. Behind the naked woman were two makeshift cages with five beings sitting or leaning against the cages. Some beings were the blue furred monsters, but some looked like ordinary people.

The gunfire erupted instantly, and three people in the warehouse went down leaving five to dash off in different directions. DM and Lucy were about to run out and confront them when the first shot was fired back. More automatic gunfire pinged off the metal walls of the warehouse and drove the dark man and the government agent back. It was a stand off.

“Oh God,” Lucy was saying as they were trying not to get shot, but also trying to shoot the men in the warehouse. “You got any ideas?” Lucy asked.

“Of course I do,” DM said with a smile. He was about to use his power on the men in the warehouse, hoping they all understood English, when a loud roar echoed through the warehouse. The sounds of chains being undone with the clinking metal sound could be heard, and a woman yelling something unrecognizable.

The first man went flying through the air and was visible from the door way where DM and Lucy were. His entrails were trailing behind him as he was still arcing up. More roaring could be heard and guns went off as the sounds of chains were whipped around something soft and then a loud thud against a metal wall ended the gunfire. The fifty foot woman came into view from the doorway as she picked up the couch and threw it at something out of view. Three blue furry monsters moved like monkeys on all fours as they moved at incredible speed around the tall woman with wild roars coming from their fanged mouths.

The gunfire stopped, the roaring stopped, and the sounds of chains stopped. DM and Lucy carefully put their heads out to see the warehouse. One normal looking human was over at the bound woman untying her. There was one monster on the ground not moving and its blue fur was matted with red blood. The tall naked woman was bleeding from multiple comparatively small points on her body. Three blue furred monsters were gathering up the dead men and stacking them in a pile.

“Okay no one move!” Lucy called out as everyone rushed into the warehouse. One of the monsters growled, but the other two growled at him, turning his growl into a low rumble.

“Please tell me you’re the police?” One of the normal looking human men asked.

“Oh thank God,” The tall woman said just before she fell over onto the ground with a quaking thud.

The bodies were taken away by ambulances. The fifty foot woman was severely dehydrated, so she was sipping water from a garden hose while she tried to hide her private parts. The entire warehouse was secure, but the danger was over.

While Lucy and DM were talking about what to do next the man who first spoke to them came forward. “I believe I’m the best person to say what happened here.” He explained. He had thin cheeks, and had once been obese as his flush hung off him like loose leather.

“Why is that?” DM asked him.

“I’ve been with this from the beginning,” The man explained, “I was the one who translated the scroll.”

They took the man into the adjoining office and sat him down. With a can of soda-pop in his hand and a heavy blanket over him he explained. “My name is Marten Chen and I grew up and went to college here in Hong Kong studying ancient Arabic. When there was an advertisement in the newspaper for a job for someone who knew ancient Arabic I applied and got the job.”

“When was this?” Lucy asked.

“I think it was over a year ago,” Marten said a little unsure and looking pained. “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a scroll talking about a night clock. I’d only heard about vague references to such a thing and here was a scroll talking about how to make one. There were drawings of what one was to look like and even the top. That’s when I learned that Lai-Yee Tam had used those drawing to try and make a night clock, but it didn’t work, so he was hoping something in the translation would help.”

“What did his original night clocks look like?” DM asked.

“They were made of wood with a copper top,” Marten said making it sound like it was a stupid idea. “They didn’t work because according to the scroll they top had to be a mixture of silver and gold, and the base made of marble. When I finished translating the scroll he put a gun to my head and pushed me into one of those cages back there. That’s where I’ve been for an entire year.” Marten seemed like he wanted to cry.

“Why were there so many night clocks made?” DM asked knowing the answer.

Marten looked up at him directly in the eyes. “According to the scroll night clocks usually take a year to build up enough charge to saturate the person, and then they needed to be struck by lightning for anything to really happen. Tam figured with more night clocks pointed at a person and then shocking that person with a stun gun it would decrease the time needed. He was right.”

“Who was his first test subject?” Lucy asked.

“Me,” Marten hung his head low. He stood up and from behind the long blanket he opened his pants to show his penis was covered with short fine black hair. “I was tied to that chair out there with three night clocks pointed at me for over two weeks, and then he hit me with a cattle prod, and when I woke up my penis was covered with fur.” Marten covered himself up again.

“It only took two weeks?” DM asked a little surprised.

“I counted the number of times the roof was opened and I’m rather sure I counted eighteen times,” Marten said giving the dark man a look that they understood each other. “After Tam realized that the night clocks worked he started to round up other people. He was hoping for someone who could know everything, or control people’s minds. I heard him say when someone had that power he would use the night clock on himself. More night clocks were delivered and the time needed to change them was cut down to only three days.”

“Didn’t the scroll say what kind of dangers there were with using the night clock?” DM asked.

“Sure, but according to what I overheard Tam didn’t have anything else left to loose. It really picked up after Tam realized that by pointed the night clocks at certain galaxies he could make different powers. The reason why there are so many blue boys out there is because after me someone accidentally moved one of the night clocks, and no one noticed.”

“Do you know why some of the blue furry monsters were let out?” Lucy asked.

“They weren’t let out, and don’t call them monsters,” Marten was almost angry and yelling at Lucy, but he calmed down. “I’m sorry its just they still have their minds, but they can’t speak anymore, and I’ve become friends with them. Six of them were being transported someplace so they could be killed and disposed of. I heard they killed their guards and escaped while they were enroot. The last I heard five were killed, but one is still out there someplace.”

“Do you have any idea why they wouldn’t know where this warehouse is?” Lucy asked.

Marten looked confused by the question for a moment. “Oh that yeah I was told by my fellow prisoners they went to an office to see about work, and were drugged or knocked out somehow, and woke up in the warehouse. When the six were taken away the van didn’t have any windows except in the front and it was pulled into the warehouse so we didn’t get to see outside. I haven’t seen a sunrise or sunset in almost a year.”

“I’m going to go talk with my boss to see what he wants done,” Lucy said leaving DM with Marten.

The two men were silent for a while. Marten spoke first, “I suppose I should have said something to her, but I was worried she might want to check.”

DM looked over at him with a cocked eyebrow, “What’s that?”

Marten gave a sheepish grin, “The fur on my penis could make any woman horny with just a touch. When I was stuck in that cage they brought in a woman. The first time she touched my penis we had sex for hours. I was a virgin before all this, so I thought it was great. Even when she didn’t want to have sex, and I mean violently apposed, all I had to do was brush the fur against her skin and she couldn’t help herself from riding me. What’s more it works on every woman I’ve tried it on. I wonder if I could sell the hair, it just grows back anyhow. I know because once I pulled out each and every hair, but in a week it was all back again, and the loose hairs still made the women hot and horny after they stepped on them.”

DM smiled at the man, “I guess it’s a good thing Tam never learned about that ability, or he might have given up, and we would never have found you.”

Lucy came back and pulled DM to the side. “I just talked with Joe, and he’s bringing some special people by to take care of the prisoners.”

“Good, watch this guy I’m going to call Ethan and let him know what’s going on,” DM said. “Oh and by the way don’t let this guy touch you with his furry penis or any loose hairs.” Lucy gave him a curious look, but DM said he’d explain later.

“General Sanders’ office,” Debby said in Washington being transmitted through the air to the satellite phone in the dark man’s hand.

“Hello Debby this is Dark Mateus, may I please speak with General Sanders?” DM asked.

“Oh sure honey let me patch you through,” Debby said.

“Sanders,” Ethan said in a gruff voice.

“Sir this is Dark Mateus I have a report to make about the night clock situation,” DM said. He proceeded to tell Ethan everything that happened including not sleeping in his motel room, and loosing his jacket to Ben’s blood. Ethan didn’t say anything, but his grunts of disapproval or approval let DM know he was still on line and listening.

“A furry penis that makes women horny, now there’s something out of the Twilit Zone,” Ethan said almost finding it funny. “Okay I’ll talk with the boys in China and let you know what to do. For now don’t let those night clocks out of your sight.”

“Yes sir,” DM said and they ended the call. He came back to Lucy, happy to see she had not touched any of Marten’s penis hairs, and let her know what he was told. She said that was basically what her government told her. They asked Marten where the wooden night clocks were, and he said he didn’t know. Still with the fact there were wooden night clocks that explained where the photograph came from. The scroll itself was in a lock drawer there in the office. With the twist of a screwdriver Lucy found it still there, still in a wooden box.

It was late afternoon before windowless vans transported the captives a secure area where they would be interrogated and then it would be decided what to do with them. DM and Lucy, still keeping an eye on the night clocks, checked out the cages. It seems that the solid metal cages only had one flaw, the claws of the monsters could just reach the pins on the hinges and that’s how they escaped.

There was a door down near the end of the warehouse and when DM opened it he was in for a shock. “I just found the wooden basses,” DM called over his shoulder.

Lucy joined him to look in the dark room. There thrown in the corner were the dozen wooden pedestals to the defunct night clocks. “Where are the tops?” Lucy asked. There was no answer to that question for the supposed copper tops to the clocks were no where to be found.

Just then at exactly the same time the phones on both in Lucy’s pocket and on the dark man’s hip chimed. DM looked over at Lucy and gave her a grin. “I think they came to an agreement,” The dark man said to Lucy’s lovely face.

“I hope it doesn’t involve me shooting you,” Lucy said with a grin on her face.

“Hello,” DM said into his phone.

“Dark this is General Sanders the Chinese government and the US government have come to an agreement. We will destroy the night clocks, but not before a third party will get pictures of the working night clocks,” Ethan said.

“Okay who will be taking these pictures?” DM asked.

“Representatives from the British government with come by in the morning to take pictures, and he’ll also take possession of the scroll,” Ethan said.

“Right how will the night clocks be destroyed?” DM asked.

“We decided that having the tops pried off and melted down, and the bases crushed in a large hydraulic press to turn the marble to dust is the only sure fire way to destroy the existing night clocks,” Ethan said.

“Okay got it. Oh we also found the wooden bases of the night clocks that didn’t work. Do you have any idea what we should do with them?” Dark Mateus asked.

“Set fire to them and roast some marshmallows,” Ethan said.

“Yes sir,” DM said with a smile. Ethan wasn’t as big of a jerk as he could be.

“On a sober note I want you to go find Ben, he’s more important than securing the night clocks,” Ethan said.

“Yes sir I’ll find him,” DM said not wanting to find Ben’s lifeless body.

“Call me if you need anything I’ll be here in the office. I didn’t get to go home last night, why go home now?” Ethan said sounding unhappy.

“Thank you for your help sir,” DM said.

“That’s what being the boss means. Oh one more thing, don’t tell anyone about this little mission,” Ethan said and turned off his phone.

The dark man found Lucy watching the sun set. She looked happy with a smile on her face. He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. She leaned against him and a pleased smile crossed her face as she closed her eyes. Her face was glowing with the setting sunlight on it. Even with all the activity she still smelled nice.

DM was running his thumbs along her shoulders smoothing out her muscles. It wasn’t quite a massage, but he knew it felt good, “I hate to do this to you.”

“Why it feels good,” Lucy said with her eyes still closed.

“Thanks but I need to find Ben,” DM said.

“He’s at the hospital. I’ll drive as soon as you stop doing that in an hour,” Lucy said.

The hospital looked much like any other, tall and wide with many windows in the exterior walls. The inside was white everywhere it could be, and the smell was an overpowering disinfectant smell. Lucy took point and made a beeline for the front desk. DM hung back not wanting to hear that the surgery was a success, but the patient died.

“Are you coming?” Lucy asked the dark man as she started walking off.

“Sorry,” DM said as he caught up.

The pair went to the elevator and got in. DM noticed something, every morgue he had ever known was in the basement, but they were going up. He looked over at Lucy, but she didn’t look at him, so he couldn’t see her face to read her expression. Lucy exited the elevator quickly and walked down the hallway quickly. Even before DM could catch up to her she turned into one of the rooms.

On the medical bed was the sleeping and still form of Ben. His leg was one enormous wad of medical tape. He looked so pale that his dark skin looked like meatpacking paper. Monitors were steadily reading off how much life he still had in him. His pressure was lower than normal, his pulse was slow but steady, and except for his brainwaves going off the chart in places he was fine.

“He’s alive?” DM said almost in shock.

“Yeah I almost wrote him off too. It’s a good thing I’m not a doctor,” Lucy said not taking her eyes off Ben’s face.

“That’s why we get paid the big bucks,” A female doctor said coming into the room just then. The only way to tell she was a doctor was the long white smock she had on and the stethoscope around her neck. Her black hair was pulled back away from her heavily lined face. She was so small too it was hard to believe she performed surgery since she wasn’t even five feet tall.

“He’ll be okay?” DM asked.

“Oh sure he’ll be fine, but the loss of blood was a shock to his system. He needs to stay here for maybe three or four more days. I know he’s an American so if he wants to get back to there make him wait a week. We don’t want his blood pressure to get to high it bursts the stitches,” The doctor said.

“He didn’t suffer from any brain damage did he?” Lucy asked showing her limited knowledge of medicine.

“With those brain waves, are you serious?” The doctor asked jerking her thumb at the monitors. She realized that was unprofessional so she composed herself, “We’re fairly certain that he didn’t suffer any brain damage. There will have to be tests later if you’d like, but otherwise he’ll be fine. Now get out of here so he can rest.”

DM wanted to protest that they didn’t wake him, and had no intention of waking him, but stopped before making an ass of himself. Lucy took him out of the hospital and to a small side restaurant where over sandwiches and less than intoxicating drinks they talked about the day.

“I’m never going to see another monster movie again,” Lucy said.

“I feel sorry for that large woman. I mean really what kind of a life she can lead now,” DM said.

“That and what kinds of fashion sense can her possibly have now?” Lucy asked out loud. It was a joke from a woman for a woman, so DM only smiled politely.

“Ben has to stay in the hospital, and that will keep me in Hong Kong for a week.” DM said looking into Lucy’s eyes. She looked away to take a bite of her egg and cheese sandwich. “I don’t suppose you have a few days of vacation coming to you?” DM asked shyly.

Lucy grinned, “Why Mr. Mateus are you trying to tell me you would like to spend some time with me?”

“Yes my lovely lady I would,” DM said with a smile.

The sound of the hydraulic press screaming made the early morning sunrise seem out of place. The junkyard was littered with old crushed cars, cars that were going to be crushed, or parts of cars from being crushed. DM was standing next to the once painted orange car crusher in his typical black clothing. Lucy was next to him in a tee-shirt, blue hooded sweatshirt, and loose blue jeans.

“If that Brit does not get here soon I’m going to crush these things without him,” DM said on the back of the van with all the night clocks inside.

“How do you know it is a ‘he’?” Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.

“How do you know it is not?” DM inquired just to be difficult.

Just then a very small compact car painted white rolled up. “Hello you must be the people I’m supposed to meet,” A small British man said pulling himself from the car. DM flashed Lucy a grin to say he was right and she gave him a sidelong cross look. The British man was small and had a large gut. He had on a cheap blazer and cheaper shirt, and a pair of pants that were far from new. He didn’t have much hair on his head, but the nearly transparent strands were long.

Lucy called for identification and the man and he showed it to them. Then he had the gull to demand for DM to pull down one of the night clocks so he could photograph it. Other than the night clock having a top made of a mixture of gold and silver, both heave, the base was solid marble and it weighted over half a ton. Thankfully the stone is also very resilient so when DM dropped it from the van it didn’t brake.

After the British agent photographed the night clock from not only every angle but then he insisted on taking snap shots from just about every light too. Then after handing over the scroll DM could help but say there was a curse on the scroll that would make a man’s dick fall off and a woman grow a penis. The British agent drove off with fear in his eyes.

“You’re evil,” Lucy said pulling a crow bar from the back of the van.

“Now you’re catching on,” DM said as he got his own crow bar. “That and my warning will keep him from looking at it. He knows something strange went on here, so there’s a good chance no one will look at it.”

“This is how some of the ancient magic gets started, on a rumor,” Lucy sad prying the crow bar between the marble base and the electrum top.

“I wish that were true in some cases,” DM said thinking of his own powers.

The hydraulic press screeched as it pressed down even before it made it to the marble bases. At first there was only a crack in the one, and then another crumbled to large chunks. One stubborn night clock exploded into dust and small sharp shards of stone. When the hydraulic press was as far as the back pressure would allow it was raised up. The dark man and Lucy went forward with push brooms and made a pile of the fist size stones, and the press did its job again.

They took out the wood night clocks, and sprayed gasoline on them. With the toss of a match they burst into black smoke. It took a long while for the wood to catch, and then to start to really burn. The wood did not burn well, and they stood around for along time poking at the glowing ambers until the fake night clocks were nothing more than ashes.

After the marble dust and ashes were spread around, and the sand was scattered around the junkyard they took their leave. The biggest piece, no larger than a man’s thumb, Lucy kept for memories. The two, dirty with the white marble dust and smoke, went to the hospital to see Ben.

“The food here is worse than anything my aunt ever cooked in her life,” Ben said in his bed. He had most of his color back, and his eyes were again sharp and quick. “I mean really what kind of crap are these raw vegetables? The person who serves raw vegetables is just too lazy to cook them.” His arms were crossed on his chest and he looked unhappy about just about everything.

“So you’re feeling better?” Dark Mateus said standing over him as he was forced to lie in the bed.

“I was feeling fine as soon as I woke up,” Ben said still pouting. “The only thing I feel uncomfortable about is the catheter.” Lucy and DM both looked over the side of the bed, and there was a bag half full of yellow bodily fluid. They quickly stood up when they realized Ben had fallen silent. Ben looked at the two of them with accusing eyes. “Did you tell the doctors to put the straps on the bed?”

The two standing people looked confused. “You mean the straps they use on wild patients?” Lucy asked leaning over to look at them.

“Yes,” Ben hissed through his teeth. “They put the on the bed this morning, and said if I tried to get out of bed they would be used on me.”

“Don’t look at us,” Lucy said trying to give an innocent grin.

Ben was not amused and kept his arms crossed. “Ethan,” He said the one word with a bitter salt on his tongue. “Oh well I’ll talk to him later. Dark could you please swing by my motel room and pick up my suit case? It has my books in it, and I need something to entertain me.”

“Not a problem, but you should be resting,” DM said to his partner.

“I am resting. They won’t let me do anything else but rest,” Ben said. Then in a lower tone Ben admitted a truth he didn’t want to. “My leg does hurt.”

DM patted Ben on the shoulder. “Get some rest my friend. I’ll get you your books.”

“Thanks,” Ben said sounding like a little boy. “Now get out of here you two, go have sex or something.” Ben remembered Lucy’s desire for the dark man, and wanted to help her out.

“I like his thinking,” Lucy said as she walked out of the room with the dark man at her side.

“Why don’t we have a date first?” DM suggested.

“Okay there’s a movie theater not too far away, we can walk,” Lucy said putting her arm through his. They watched the movie and DM did put his arm around Lucy, and she snuggled up against him. He took her to a restaurant where they were served while being seating with menus in hand. That night when DM took Lucy to her apartment, he declined her offer to enter. He knew that if he had stepped over that threshold he would proceed also to cross into the bedroom. The dark man held back unsure of his own feelings.

The next day Lucy picked DM up and they went to her office where they filled their reports. Lucy sat before a computer typing away at what happened. The dark man was on the phone talking with Ethan as his words were turned into printed text by a computer. DM had made his report so long that the battery light on his phone started to blink. It wasn’t long until the phone all but died, and he had to plug it into an outlet and power it up again. Finally when the sun was going down everything was reported. Most of the evidence was covered up. No one would ever find evidence of any kind of night clock anywhere other than in pictures and a scroll found only with the British government.

As was promised Lucy and DM took Ben’s suit case to him in the hospital. The young man looked more eager to move about in the evening than he had the day before. He kept saying that they had better be there when he was discharged the next day. The doctors on the other hand expressed doubts as to possibility Ben would be discharged the next day. The doctors also said that if he was permitted to leave he was not to fly back to the United States for at least two weeks. The doctors weren’t looking at Ben when they said this, but Lucy and DM were and Ben’s wide grin at this spoke of deviousness. He was up to something.

“Would you like to come in?” Lucy asked Dark Mateus on her doorstep.

DM paused at that. It was a long walk back to the motel and the night was very cold. Lucy looked so beautiful in her tight tan striped blouse and baggy brown pants that shaped her buttocks well. DM had been with her for days, and had yet to tire of her. She was fun and serious and never tired of life. Could the dark man take a chance with her and find pleasure in it. Then the thought of life was more than about pleasure. Still the pain of life could only be balanced with pleasure.

“Dark,” Lucy said trying to get in his eye line. “I’m going to close this door now because it’s cold out. You can either be inside or out, your choice.”

To take a step or not to take a step filled the dark man’s mind. What wasn’t in DM’s mind was Rachel. That was most likely why he took a step forward. “Thank you it was cold out.”

“Tell me about it, I don’t know about you, but all I want is a hot meal and a warm bed.” Lucy said trying to not lay on her desire for the dark man too thick.

“I am a good cook. Let’s see what we have to work with.” DM said going over to the freezer. There wasn’t much to work with. What vegetables there were happened to be frozen. The meat had freezer burn on just about all of it. The milk was too old to be used. The eggs were the only things fresh. “Right, let me see what I can do.”

The meal used just about every cooking utensil Lucy had. The spices were limited to peeper and salt, but DM made use of them. The smells were so thick Lucy even opened the small window over the kitchen sink to let in some fresh air. In the end the dark man had made a three course meal with so many pots and pans on the small table that there was little room for the two plates. There was no place for the silverware on the table so the forks and knives were put on the plates. The talk was about the dirty dishes to be washed and how much fun it was to cook in one’s own home.

DM washed, and Lucy dried and put away the dishes. She kept up a steady talk of how she got all of her cooking equipment from relatives expecting her to be a housewife. Finally with wrinkled fingers and the smell of soap covering up most of the smell of cooked food the two dropped onto the couch.

“Tell me a story,” Lucy asked in a lazy voice. DM put his arm around her and her head on his shoulder.

“What kind would you like?” DM asked.

“A funny story, make it a true one too,” Lucy asked in a quiet voice.

“Okay,” DM thought about his history and picked one he like the most. “In 1869 I was the coroner of a Western town. In truth I was as much the veterinarian as the coroner, but I was elected to the position. One day I was sitting on the porch reading Charles Darwin’s book Origin of Species. At that time evolution was a dangerous idea, and anyone who prayed was supposed to be apposed to it. I had finally got my hands on a copy of that blue book, and I was the first one in town to read it.

“Well the preacher’s wife stopped up short in front of me to see what I was reading. She was hooting and yelling telling me the book was evil and that Darwin was the devil in human form. She kept telling me that the book was a travesty against God. I laughed at her and said, ‘You’re just mad Darwin figured out how God did it.’ That was the wrong thing to say because she had a cast iron skillet and swung it against my head.”

Lucy laughed at that picturing the image in her mind, “Then what happened?”

DM couldn’t help but smile as he remembered back all those years, “I woke up from being dead for five hours. Leaning over me was my assistant holding a pen and death certificate asking me to sign it to make my death legal.”

Lucy couldn’t stop laughing at this, “He asked you to sign your own death certificate?”

“It was a she, and yes she did,” DM said. “She held up my book and there was a large red stain on it from my head. The preacher’s wife was apologizing telling me she was so sorry. She even wanted to take me to church, which was just as bad since I was Catholic.”

Lucy was laughing so much her tears were rolling down her eyes, “So what happened to your assistant?”

This sobered DM up to the point his smile vanished. Lucy realized she asked something she shouldn’t have. “I was with her to the end. I took her with me to Chicago when the Pickerington detective agency hired me. We were as much husband and wife as two people could get. You see she was Native American, and there were unwritten laws back then that any native could not marry a good English man.”

“You weren’t English, thou,” Lucy pointed out.

DM smile at this naïve response, “No, and that’s why even with the unwritten law I loved Genie all the same. I learned long ago that it doesn’t matter what a person looks like. All that matters is if there is love between two people.”

He looked down into Lucy’s eyes and she looked up into his. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers. All the pent up emotion Lucy felt for the dark man was released, but not in a flood, but in a slow trickle that became a steady flow. They kissed for a long time on the couch. The warmth they felt had nothing to do with the heat from the apartment.

“Do you?” The dark man asked Lucy.

“I do?” Lucy said standing and leading him into the bedroom.

Sitting on the bed the two lovers kiss. DM slipped his fingers under the buttons of her blouse making the buttons come free of the fabric to show a white brazier underneath. He kissed her smooth collar bone and tender flesh below her neck and then back up to her neck. Lucy tilted back her head and let the pleasure of his lips fill her mind and body.

“Go ahead and take control,” Lucy moaned out. DM stopped his kissing and looked up at her. When she realized he had stopped she put her hands around his head and lifted him up to eye-level. “Go on and use your power on me,” Lucy said serious. DM was about to speak in protest but Lucy spoke first, “Haven’t you heard ‘never look gift horses in the mouth.’ Go ahead and do whatever you want with me. I trust you.”

The dark man smiled a smile of love and happiness that only a man could feel for a woman. “Okay, freeze,” DM said and instantly Lucy stopped moving. Her smile froze on her face, but her eyes were shining in the dim light from the lone window. She was enjoying this too.

The dark man kissed Lucy on the lips tenderly. He moved down and nibbled on her earlobe. Inwardly Lucy shuddered with pleasure at feeling his hot breath and cool tongue. He slid off her blouse and he moved her arms so it could come off without tearing. She froze in whatever place the dark man had moved her to. He kissed down her spine to where it disappeared to her pants. Lucy was glowing inside at the warmth from only being kissed. Never before had she felt such pleasure from just being kissed, but this was from a man she loved.

Dark Mateus unhooked the bra with only a small amount of difficulty. He had to move her arms out front to slip off the white bands of cloth. Her breasts were like two halves of the same softball, and they were soft under DM’s kisses until the tips became hard. He kissed between her breasts and he licked her nipples making her involuntarily shiver in pleasure. She may have been frozen, but even some things were beyond her control.

DM moved Lucy down so she was on her back upon the bed. He moved her arms so they rested flat on the bed. He had to straddle Lucy for this and she could see he was as excited as she was. He straightened her legs and pulled off her shoes. He massaged her feet tickling her, but she did not laugh as she could not move, but she liked his fingers making her feet feel like dough. When he released her feet he moved up to her waist and opened the buttons on her pants. He slid off her pants to show white panties covering her sex. Out from under her butt the pants came smoothly. Lucy could feel this and was hoping that it would be everything she would imagine. She liked how she didn’t have to worry about doing the wrong thing, all she had to do was obey, and DM would make that happen. After all he had lived long enough to realize that she should enjoy this as much had he would, and was trying to make that happen.

He kissed her legs up and down the skin covered defined muscles. She had shaved her legs that morning so they were smooth as the dark man’s lips as they touched and gently sucked. When he had kissed just about every inch of her flesh, and she thought the foreplay was over he removed her white panties with his teeth. The hot air from his nose moved the black hairs of her trimmed bush. This was the only part of her that moved without the dark man touching it, and it sent rivulets of pleasure travel up Lucy’s body to her brain. She wanted him in her at that instant, but he held back and did something even better.

The dark man’s head seemed to fit between her legs well after he had parted them a bit. His wet tongue licked up and down her soft vagina and wiggled into the soft folds. The lightning bolts of pleasure made Lucy think that her pussy and brain were two of the same as she felt without fingers DM’s ruff tongue enter her and retract. He moved his tongue up and down her slit making it wet and more than willing.

Dark Mateus moved up onto the bed and put his hands on her breasts making them into his own squeeze toys. He pinched her nipples making them seem independent of her breasts. Those two mounds were like pleasure zones that the dark man knew would bring Lucy close to the brink. What would put her over the edge was what DM did next. He quickly removed his pants and kicked off his shoes before his long hard dick went into Lucy’s well lubricated pussy.

Lucy gasped as she felt him enter her. The pressure and heat as he filled her with his meat made her desire more and knew it would come. He was playing with her breasts again. His strong hands were moving her breasts making them filled with energy and pleasure. She had had an orgasm before, but not by any man, and this was ten times better than any vibrating metal rod could.

“When I cum you’ll have a huge orgasm and be able to move again,” DM said using his powers on the motionless woman. She heard, and understood each word through the cloud of pleasure from him. He was still massaging one of her breasts with one hand, and with the other he was rubbing the area right over her pussy pressing down onto his own dick. His long rod was sliding in and out creating heat with friction and blood flow to the thin skin. Lucy had no question if he could bring her to orgasm, but if she would have one before he himself came.

His first spray of hot cream inside her was at first incomprehensively a flow of pleasure into Lucy. In that split second between sprays of semen Lucy realized that he had cum, and that she too must follow suit, willingly. To Lucy she no longer had any internal organs. Her heart, spleen, and brain were gone, but she was now a flesh bag of electric pleasure that withered and bucked inside her.

The Chinese woman finally had enough pause to breath, but it was a pant like a dog. Her body was still glowing and contracting, but it was becoming less. The world was finally coming back to her as she felt hands on her breasts, and then realized they were her own. With her pussy still making weak contractions she started to laugh. She rolled on her bed trying to free herself from the feeling of pleasure she enjoyed, but wanted her body back.

“Enjoy yourself?” The dark man asked with a smile on his face. He was still at the foot of her bed, and his manhood was still out, but started to droop.

Lucy laughed a nasal sound as she felt between her legs, and found her belly also wet. “That was great,” She said with enjoyment almost dripping off her tongue.

“I could tell by the scream,” DM said.

“I did not scream!” Lucy cried at him louder than she had intended.

“You believe you screamed long and loud,” DM said to Lucy using his power.

“I screamed,” Lucy said then realized what DM did. “Hey you made me believe I screamed.”

“Lucy you believe you screamed without me telling you, you screamed,” DM said with his power.

“Okay so maybe I did scream, but that was great,” Lucy said believing each word.

“It gets even better; you want to give me a blow job,” DM said using his power. Then realizing his past mistake he added more. “You believe you want to do with and will forget I told you to do this.”

Lucy licked her lips. “I should thank you for such a great orgasm,” She said in a husky hot voice as she crawled to him. “I think I know how.” She lowered her head onto his dick and kissed it gently.

It was the dark man’s turn to lie on the bed with his legs spread. Her long hair fell over her head, and she had to brush it away, and out of her mouth. Her naked body glistened with sweat as she stood between DM’s legs leaning over. Her spine poked at the skin making a ridge of rises. A large defined scar on the back of her upper right leg stood out like a tree in the middle of a field.

Lucy didn’t like the taste of the salt mixed in with the taste of dinner, but the feel could not be bested. He was getting hard in her mouth, making her open wider and wider. She let her teeth scrape the skin just to make him moan a little. While she sucked with her lips Lucy played with his hole with her tongue. She sucked and bobbed her head up and down. With her one hand occupied holding back her hair, her other hand was playing with his balls making them dance over her fingers.

Even before he said anything she knew what was coming. “I’m going to cum!” DM called out into the air. Lucy knew this for she tasted the pre-cum rising at the tip of his rod. Still she didn’t like the taste, but she enjoyed the feeling. The warmth, and creamy stickiness made her want more, and she knew it would come. DM’s rod was getting hotter and hotter in her mouth, and she felt with her fingers his stem contract.

Something clicked in her mind and she remembered what DM had said before. “When I cum, you’ll have a huge orgasm.” His seed filled her mouth as her legs quivered under her. She couldn’t stand up anymore and with a cry she fell forward onto the dark man. His seed shot all over her body. Lucy’s mouth fell open and the seed in her mouth spilled all over DM’s chest. She body shook with the peak of ecstasy all on top of the dark man.

“I screamed didn’t I?” Lucy said when she could control herself.

“Did you? I didn’t notice,” DM lied.

“Thank you,” Lucy said. She nuzzled up against him.

“You want to quit now?” DM asked.

Lucy laughed at the question, “I think I’m spent.”

“That’s not true,” DM said touching her skin and feeling its smoothness, “I could make it so you think you’re well rested and ready to go again.”

“Oh please, you could make me think that my gun was the best lover in the world while I pump hot lead into my body,” Lucy said. “I’m glad you’re not that evil.”

“No but I am dirty. Would you care if I took a shower to wash up?” DM asked.

“You’re not leaving are you?” Lucy asked slightly scared that he said he would.

“No, I’d love to sleep with you, but unless you want to sleep in a wet bed I would suggest while I take a shower you change the sheets. Then you take a shower and I’ll be asleep before you get back,” DM said.

Lucy grabbed her pillow and gave him a playful hit with the puffy bag. “Fine, go take your shower, but if I’m asleep when you get back don’t wake me,” Lucy said to get him back.

DM did take a shower, and dried off, but didn’t bother with wrapping a towel around his waste. The apartment was cooler than the dark man would have liked, but he knew he was going to get into a warm bed. Lucy was just tucking in the corners of the sheets when he walked in. She grinned at him when she saw what the cool air had done to his manhood. To his credit DM was still awake when Lucy came back from the shower, but not for long. With the little woman in his arms the dark man fell right to sleep. Lucy felt his breathing slow, and then she too felt the warmth and the darkness fill her mind as she went blissfully to sleep.

“How did you get that scar on your leg?” DM asked Lucy in the morning sunlight.

Lucy had her head on his chest listening to his heart beat. “It was my first case,” Lucy said quietly with the air of remembrance. “There was a report of missing animals and then a child went missing. We eventually found an acid spitting snake like creature. It got my leg with its acid when it was aiming for my entire body. I put eight slugs in its head. That damn snake.”

It was Dark Mateus who laughed then, “But you’re not bitter about it.”

“No, but I would have loved to learn where the thing came from,” Lucy said thinking of the one unanswered question. She was silent for a long time. “You know you’re my first.”

“Oh?” DM was surprised by this.

“Not to say I’ve never had an orgasm before, but I’d never found a man who I found interesting enough to have sex with,” Lucy said looking up at him with a smile on her face. “I find you very interesting.” The dark man didn’t and couldn’t say anything that could match the love in her voice, so he leaned down and kissed her on her forehead.

“I am so ready to get out of here,” Ben said dressed in his old cloths. His leg was in a brace so he couldn’t move it. He adjusted the wooden crutches so they were more comfortable for him.

“So you’re going to hang out at a motel or something for the next few days, right?” DM asked.

“Hell no!” Ben yelled. “I’m going back to the States.”

“You’re not permitted to go back to the US,” Lucy protested.

“No, I’m not permitted to fly,” Ben corrected Lucy. “I can take a boat back.”

“You’re taking a boat back?” DM asked.

“There is a cruse liner going all the way to San Francisco, and then from there I’m taking a train cross country back to Washington. By the time I’m there I should be permitted to fly again,” Ben said checking how the crutches fit him.

“Does Ethan know about this?” Dm asked.

“Sure he does, but in his view I’m on sick leave, so whenever I get back to DC I’ll be back to work. The boat leaves in four hours, and that should give me enough time to check out the bookstore I heard about around the block, and then you can take me to the dock,” Ben said so sure of himself.

“There’s no way I’m going to get out of this am I?” Lucy said looking at DM.

“Doesn’t sound like it,” DM replied to his lover.

“Um, Lucy could I talk with Dark alone for a minute?” Ben asked.

Lucy had a concerned look on her face but she slowly walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. DM looked over at Ben who kept his head down. “Okay what did you want to talk to me about?” DM asked his partner.

“You remember how we talked about tingles before?” Ben asked referring to sexual preferences.

“Yes I remember,” DM said still not grasping what Ben was talking about.

“Well I felt another tingle yesterday when I was being given a sponge bath,” Ben said leaving something out. This wasn’t a surprise to the dark man but waited until Ben continued. “It was a woman giving me the bath.”

“Oh,” the dark man said realizing that Ben’s feeling he was gay was in question.

Ben looked up at the dark man with the eyes of a scared little child. “Dark, I want you to use your power on me. I want you to make me only desire women.”

“Are you sure?” DM asked to make it clear to himself what Ben wanted.

“Yes I am sure. I don’t want to question my sexuality again,” Ben said serious.

“Okay, Ben you no longer desire men sexually, but you do desire women sexually,” DM spoke. Ben looked released from some great weight, but he wouldn’t be if he knew that the dark man had not used his powers. DM knew that Ben only needed to feel better about his own sexuality, not be forced into it.

“Thank you so much,” Ben said relieved.

The large cruse line slowly drifted away and there at the bow of the he was screaming about being the king of the world. Some people were shooting off party favors. As much as Ben wanted to stop off and get the stuff needed to make explosives so he could really make a party favor large enough to sink the boat they were late. The seven large thick text books, all on science, were enough to see Ben to the other side of the world. He promised.

“So when does your plane leave?” Lucy asked back at the car.

“In three hours,” DM said.

“Well that’s enough time for a quickie,” Lucy said knowing it wouldn’t happen. She then flashed DM a smile of humor. “Kidding, I’m kidding.”

“I know, but in truth I don’t want to go,” DM said with a sad smile

“You have to,” Lucy said sadly.

The dark man took the small woman in his arms. “I’ll call you when I get back to the US,” DM said serious.

“You’d better, or I might just have to go to Chicago to check on you,” Lucy said pressing herself tightly against the dark man.

“Oh darn I think I’ll have to flush your phone number down the toilet on the plane,” DM said. Lucy gave him a playful punch to his ribs.

The plane touch down in Chicago was delayed for three hours while plows cleared the runway of snow. Still it was not an easy landing while the snow was still falling. By the time the plane made it to the terminal the plows were going across the runways again. The dark man took a deep breath of the cold night air. It was winter in Chicago and it would snow.

DM slowly drove through the snow on the nearly deserted dark streets making it a slow go to his home in the ugly yellow car. He wasn’t in any big hurry to reach his apartment. His apartment may have his bed, his books, his wood working equipment, his electronics, his photography equipment, and his cooking tools, but it also had Rachel. Would he really be able to keep Lucy a secret from Rachel, did he want to?

When he rounded the corner to where his apartment was the dark man took his foot off the accelerator and his car rolled to a stop. He couldn’t believe his eyes as he looked up at his apartment on the forth story of the apartment building, or what was his apartment. The brick walls were scorched black. The windows were gone. There were sawhorses along the street where a dumpster filled with blackened and charged wreckage.

The dark man exited his car ignoring the chiming from inside telling him his key was still in the ignition. He looked up at his home of over one hundred years now destroyed by fire. What could have happened?

“Dark!” Rachel called coming out of her apartment just struggling on her coat.

“Rachel, what happened?” DM asked in shock.

“Oh Dark I’m so sorry,” Rachel said panting out of breath. Just then a car pulled up behind DM’s still car, and honked its horn. “Maybe you should get your car off the street, and then come to my place and I’ll tell you what happened,” Rachel said.

DM parked and then was back in Rachel’s apartment in less than five minutes. “So tell me what happened,” DM said even before he had his coat off, “Oh before that.” He gave Rachel a large hug and then had to reach up to kiss her.

“I missed that,” Rachel said when she drew back from the kiss. She sat him down on her couch. “Dark, there was a fire in old man Smith’s apartment just below yours. He died, Dark. He lit up a cigarette and fell asleep in his bed. The fire destroyed his apartment, your place, and the one below. The landlord is rebuilding the apartments, but it will be a month before they are ready.”

“Damn old man Smith is dead?” Dark said in shock. “I thought he had quit smoking months ago. What a dumb way to die.”

“I know,” Rachel said thinking about the man, “I can’t count how many times he would see the sign in my window telling you I love you, and he would call up saying he’d take a chance with a younger woman. He was such a, well not nice old man, but he was enjoyable.”

“I’m homeless too,” DM said feeling sorry.

“Hello I’m right here,” Rachel said feeling ignored. “You’ve spend enough nights here you might as well stay here until your place is rebuilt.”

That pang of guilt filled DM. He didn’t just want to live with Rachel. He had wanted to marry her. Now with Lucy, did he really want to live two lives where one was with Rachel, and one with Lucy? The dark man didn’t really want to take a chance risking either woman, but in truth if he didn’t keep one he might just loose both. These thoughts filled his mind while he lay in bed next to Rachel.

“So where did you go?” Rachel asked next to him in bed. She wasn’t asleep even though it was well past three in the morning.

“I can’t tell you,” DM said feeling even guiltier.

“Why not?” Rachel asked sounding hurt.

“It’s the nature of the job. I can’t tell you what happened or even where I went.” DM said.

“But why?” Rachel whined.

DM was getting mad with the interrogation, “Lady, I’d really appreciate it if you would stop asking questions about thing I can not talk about.” There were undertones of what he would do to her if she didn’t stop nagging.

Rachel lay back on the large bed looking up at the ceiling. Then she turned her back on DM. Of all the things she could have done to reject him, turning her back was the worse. He felt it. She was very mad at him, and forgiveness would be tough.

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