Chapter 9

What a fine kettle of fish.

I walked into the portal anticipating to be going back to Beth at Crossroads. It was quite a shock when it wasn’t Beth standing there but two thin men instead. One of them took a hold of Joan and held her as a human shield. Beth was nowhere to be seen, so I did what came natural from being on Chaos and went into attack mode.

It was a trait of the Heroes I had read about. When in mortal danger, they used their skills to bring the fight up close and personal. The closest I had come to doing that this mission was with the horses before we rescued Joan. In a moment I made the decision, and it came naturally to me. I hit the one who didn’t have Joan on his right shoulder, spinning him around to the left. I stepped behind him, throwing my arm around his neck, locking it in place with my other arm. The standard police chokehold was now firmly in place around his neck.

I pulled back and then raised my knee into his back, shifting his center of balance so he couldn’t try anything. He was shaking as I held his life in my grasp.

“I suggest you let her go,” I said.

“You will let him go, or I will kill this one called Joan.”

“Then it’s going to be just you and me fighting it out then. She knew she could die on Chaos.”

“Don’t you care about her?” the one I was holding managed to choke out.

“Oh, I care about her but if she has to die for me to kill the two of you then that is what has to happen.”

“Don’t kill us, John.”

“Who are you?”

“You would call us ambassadors for the Powers that Be.”

“The two of you are their ambassadors. I find that hard to believe.” I gave the one I was holding a squeeze and he chicken flapped his arms.

“Tell me when you’re ready to tell me the truth of who you are.” I had the chicken boy flap some more.

“All right, we are members of the Powers that Be, simply two of the many members of the same group.”

“I see. You’re coming here and attacking me is what then?”

“We didn’t come here to attack you...” the one I was holding managed whisper.

“Well taking Joan like you did is what triggered this response. I suggest you let her go and bring Beth out here also.”

“But you will kill him if I do.”

“I will kill him if you don’t.” I gave him another squeeze to emphasize my point and he responded with another chicken flap.

We were at the point of the Mexican standoff where they had to do or be done. They thought my time spent saving Joan would have given them some leverage over me. It had, but there was no way I was going to let them know that. I didn’t know if they could read my mind or not. So I just kept thinking of how I would break this one’s neck and then attack the other one.

I wasn’t getting any action so I tightened the grip on my choke. It’s all about the proper motivation they say, isn’t it.

“Okay, okay I’m letting her go. Caretaker Beth is in her room. She is sleeping; nothing has happened to her.”

“I don’t need to tell you what will happen to you if she has been hurt, do I?”

He croaked out, “She’s fine.”

Joan went to Beth and came back a few moments later.

“She is fine John. Just asleep, I woke her and she will be out here very soon.”

“Will you release him now?’

“I don’t think so. Until I am certain that you’re not going to attack, he stays right where he is.” I gave a little squeeze to get his arms flapping and keep the other one’s attention.

“You know my name. What are yours?”

“They would be unpronounceable in your language.”

“Then you’re Ted and this one is Jed,” I said.

“If you insist,” he replied with some disgust in his voice.

I gave a little squeeze and his arms moved. “I see you insist,” Ted said then.

“Why are you here and what do you want with me?”

“You’re attacking the rules and changing everything we have set up.”

“So?”

“We can’t have you doing that.” I gave Jed a little squeeze and he flapped his arms a couple of times.

“I didn’t write the rules. Nothing I have done is in violation of them.”

“You don’t understand! Everything you have done is a ripple on the pond of life and your changes are causing waves that we can’t control.”

“Who put you in control?”

“We put this together to benefit all parties involved and it has to operate a certain way under certain rules, or it will all fall apart.”

“Nothing I have done is against the rules.”

“You sent Samantha Caretaker back pregnant. That was against the rules.”

“No, it wasn’t against the rules. If it was I am certain that she could not have gotten pregnant.”

“But you don’t understand,” Jed croaked out.

Beth arrived then with Joan holding her up to support her. She was obviously still sleepy. “What did you do to her?” I gave Jed a sharp squeeze and his arms flopped again. That brought a look of anger to Ted’s face.

“She had a mild sedative. She will be fine in a few hours,” Ted replied.

“In a few minutes you are both going to be dead!” I spat back.

“Why?” Ted asked

“You came here, drugged Beth, accosted Joan and you have the balls to ask me why?”

“Okay, give her a restorative and it should reverse the affects of the drug.”

It appeared and Joan gave it to her. It took a few moments for her to drink it down and then for her to start to recover.

“Now what am I going to do with you two.”

“You could start by letting him go,” Ted answered. Jed was shaking his head up and down agreeing.

“I would consider that but by your actions here, I don’t trust you, Powers that Be or not.”

“I give you my word that we will do nothing if you release him.”

“Not good enough. Doing nothing does not stop you from having others do your dirty work.”

“What can we do to satisfy you?”

“I’m afraid I will just have to kill the two of you and then deal with the next ones that come this way.”

I gave him another squeeze his arms flopped and he passed out. As he was hitting the deck Ted’s eyes went wide and I was on him a moment later. I had my hand around his neck before he had a chance to react.

“You killed him,” he tried to scream.

“No, if his anatomy is like that of a human I simply stopped the flow of blood to his brain. He will wake up with a headache but he will be alive. I don’t know if you will be, though.”

Beth had recovered and saw me with my hands around the throat of the one called Ted, and Jed lying, for all she knew, dead on the floor. “Stop John, don’t kill him,” she pleaded.

“I have killed for less on Chaos.”

“I know John,” Beth was at my side. “Your working around the rules has created huge problems for them, and they wanted to talk to you about it is all.”

“They have a funny way of wanting to talk. Drugging you and taking Joan when we came through the portal.”

“Let him go, John. Their rules don’t allow for anything but paper to be brought here after the living space is completed.”

“That doesn’t mean they didn’t stash some weapon here before.”

“Wouldn’t they have had it out and ready to use if they did?”

There was logic to that statement. I mused on that for a moment and realized the truth in what she was suggesting.

“You owe her your life, Ted. Never forget that.” I let my hands drop back down.

“Thank you for releasing me,” he said.

“Don’t thank me, thank Beth. She is the only reason you’re both still alive. And to think you drugged her.”

“I’m sorry about that. We didn’t know what to expect when you returned.”

“Attacking a Hero and his Damsel was the best idea you could come up with?” Joan said from behind me.

Jed made a moaning sound then.

“We didn’t mean to have that interpreted as us attacking you. We simply wanted to get Joan out of the way so we could talk with you.”

“Okay, you’re not a fighter and you made a mistake. I think you now understand what I am capable of even if you haven’t seen it before.”

“Yes I understand. It is what you would call poetic justice that Jed got what he did since Jed thought up the plan.”

The women turned around to help Jed. I stayed where I was and faced Ted the entire time.

“I am not going to attack you, John,” Ted said.

“I don’t think you are either but I am not going to give you a chance anyway.”

“I understand, can we go to the couch and sit down? When Jed recovers we need to speak with you.”

“That works for me. Do the restoratives work on you also?

“Yes, they do.”

“Then I suggest you give him one because he is not going to be feeling very well once he comes to.”

So they got him to the couch and Beth got a restorative into Jed. It took a few minutes before he was back to whatever old self he had been before I put him down.

“Why did you do that?” he finally asked.

“You attacked me. It is the last response a Hero takes when he is out of choices.”

Ted snickered at that.

“What’s so funny?”

“They took you for all brains and no brawn.”

“Who took me?”

“The others of our group. It seems their opinion of you is that you’re not the most physical of Heroes we have watched. One of the brightest yes, but you don’t use brute force to conquer those who attack you.”

“I take it Jed is one of those who thinks that?”

“I was. I was mistaken in my analysis, much to the delight of Ted.”

“Do you mind if I have a restorative John? My neck hurts where you had your hands wrapped around it,” Ted asked.

I looked at Beth and she had one in her hand a moment later and gave it to Ted.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said as she took the vial back with her.

“So you said something about a problem?”

“Yes. It has become obvious that we didn’t structure the rules in an airtight manner I think you would call it.”

“You mean that you never thought a lawyer would look for the loopholes.”

“Exactly,” Jed said.

“And this is causing you problems?”

“Well, you sent Samantha Caretaker back to Cassandra pregnant, after the rules said she gave up that right by being a caretaker. It has caused others to examine the rules and now they are being challenged.”

“Challenged how?”

Beth broke in then. “Every woman who has been a caretaker wants to have a baby now.”

“And you know this because... ?”

“We have had some new Caretakers come to be with their Heroes and we talk about what is happening on Cassandra when they do.”

“So you’re in the middle of a riot then?”

“It is not a full fledged riot yet. But there are rumors of the women not wanting to be Caretakers if they have to give up having a baby since the rules allow for it now.”

“That was a harsh rule.”

“It was designed so the Hero did not suffer when his days of being the Hero were done. We understand the relationship that a Hero and Caretaker would develop and the original thoughts were to avoid that pain for them.”