The Man From Taured Read online

  "Yeah," Whitlock said. "We can do that. How does that sound, Mr. Duveen?"

  "I don't know," Duveen said. "I just want to go home. I want this nightmare to be over."

  "We're all tired, Mr. Duveen," West said. "We can't just let you go, though. However, we can put you up in the hotel and then talk about this tomorrow. It's the best we can do."

  "Fine," Duveen said, his voice barely audible and beyond exhaustion. "Fine. Whatever you think is best."

  The interview ended. West and Whitlock went out of the room and made their plans for the hotel room and guards. Duveen was left in the room. There were no more shadows and no more distortions.

  If there had ever been.

  "I need a vacation," Noble whispered.

  He looked down at his notepad. It was covered with lots of questions, but very few answers. Where the hell had that suggestion for the hotel come from? That was anything but standard procedure. Why hadn’t those two seasoned TSA pros called Homeland and arranged for some kind of locked cell for Mr. Duveen? It needn’t have been a cell with metal bars and an uncomfortable bed. They could have treated the man well, but also kept him under video surveillance the entire time.

  Noble sighed, stretched and stood up, his neck and shoulders cracked. He had more video he wanted to review. He found his watch, checked the time, and saw that it was already late. He had to talk to West tomorrow and he had to talk to the flight crew. Then, in two days, he had to fly to Washington, D.C., and meet up with the rest of the Homeland team.

  Noble sat back down and this time called up the CCTV footage from the hotel. He went right to the time when Duveen would have arrived. He saw the man enter the front door of the hotel and stand in front of the desk. Duveen accepted his key card with his head down and he kept it down as he walked to the elevators.

  Noble switched views and watched Duveen and two guards standing in the elevator. Duveen did not look up. His shoulders were slumped and he stared at his shoes or perhaps the floor of the elevator. The man was exhausted.

  The video switched again. This time the camera showed the hallway that Noble had walked down just that morning. Duveen and two guards walked slowly across the carpet and then Duveen used the keycard to open the room and disappear inside, the door closing behind him. The two guards took up positions on either side of the door. They did not sit down. They stood that way the entire night.

  The footage did not change. There were no distortions. No shadow people. Just two guards standing outside a hotel room for the entire night.

  The next morning, Charles Whitlock showed up at the hotel room. He appeared to speak to the guards for a short time. The guard he had spoken to just that morning knocked on the door. They all stood there and looked at each other. There was more knocking and Noble could see their mouths moving. Then one of the guards removed a keycard and all three of them entered the room, one guard hanging back near the open door, his back all that was visible to the camera.

  A moment passed.

  Then another.

  Charles Whitlock ran from the room. The guard that had gone in with him came out and spoke to the other one. Then both of them shrugged and vanished back into the room. A moment later Whitlock returned, this time with the hotel manager Wilson. They went back in. Moments later, they came back out again, in a rush.

  That was it. There was more footage that showed Whitlock running from the hotel, but there was no footage showing Francis Duveen leaving the room or the hotel from any door or any angle. All of the cameras had been working that night. No one had come out in disguise or trying to hide their face. It had been a weekday and there were no conventions or anything in town, so the hotel had been very, very quiet.

  Noble sighed. His eyes burned. His head was swimming with questions. His neck hurt. It was late and Olivia would be wondering where he was.

  Noble stood, shut off the monitors and stepped out into a darkened office. Pretty much everyone else had gone home. Noble yawned, locked up his office and headed through the rest of the maze of cubicles.

  Noble stepped into a white tiled hallway. The area was fairly well lit, but the building was old and there were plenty of shadows. Noble had his head down as he made sure that the office door was locked and then he checked his phone. Sure enough, Olivia had called him and texted him. He sent a quick text off to her that he was finally on his way home.

  Noble looked up and felt his blood freeze like ice in his veins.

  At the end of the hallway, past the elevators, two red eyes hovered in the air. They stared at him and as Noble stared back, the shadows around the eyes moved. A shape formed. Wide-brimmed hat, wide shoulders. A shadow that suddenly had a shape, but seemed to waver and change as if blowing in the wind.

  Noble walked forward slowly. He felt fear, but there didn't seem to be anything particularly threatening about this form. It just stood there.

  "Who are you?" Noble asked.

  The red eyes vanished for a moment, as if blinking. Then the shadow man moved forward, trying to come out from the shadows. However, as soon as light hit the shape, the form vanished. The red eyes hung there, in the middle of the air, attached to nothing, for a moment, and then even they were gone.

  Noble ran forward. "No! Wait! Who are you?"

  The end of the hallway was empty. Behind him, the elevator dinged. Noble ran his hands through his hair and backed away, fear creating a knot in his stomach.

  I'm losing my mind, Noble thought. I'm losing my fucking mind.

  He got into the elevator and got out of there as fast as he could.

  ***

  Noble drove home feeling sick. He ran his hand over his forehead and it came away slick with sweat. He had been working a lot lately. When was the last time he had a vacation? He couldn't even remember. It had been a long time since he and Olivia had been to PA to visit her grandmother. Maybe they needed to take a week off and head there soon. He needed a break.

  Noble decided on that drive home that he would do his interviews tomorrow and then head to D.C. to brief the team on everything that he had found. Then he would ask his supervisor for time off.

  He headed onto the toll way and drove through the darkness. It was another cloudless night and the moon was very bright. In the areas where there weren't any street lights, the pavement glowed from the brightness of the celestial orb. Noble thought he remembered Olivia saying something about this month having a Super Moon. He could not recall what that meant, exactly.

  Noble got into the right lane to make the turn off and head onto a different toll road and then the final stretch home. The turn off was a sharp banking curve and it was well lit. However, there were homes off to the right and the area was covered in trees. As he banked onto the ramp he thought he saw two red eyes glaring at him from within those trees.

  Noble blinked and turned his head. Whatever it was had vanished behind him. He turned back around and had to pull hard on the steering wheel to stay straight.

  Yeah, he thought, definitely time for a little R and R.

  He stayed in the far left lane for the rest of the ride home. He refused to gaze very long into any of the trees or shadows when he got off the toll way and made the rest of the ride home. He pulled into the driveway, kept his head down, got into his house and closed the door without looking into any shadows.

  The dogs attacked him the moment he got in and he sat down on the floor and played with them for a while. After a few minutes he felt more like himself and ascended the stairs to find Olivia sitting on the sofa. She smiled at him and the rest of his worries melted away.

  "How are you?" Olivia asked as Noble leaned in for a kiss. "You look exhausted."

  "I am," Noble said and he sat down on the sofa next to her. "In fact, I was thinking, on the drive home, maybe you and I should ask for some time off and go visit your grandmother. Maybe take a whole week off."

  "I don't know if I can do that right now," Olivia replied. "I have a big deadline at the end of the month."

  Noble
sighed and tipped his head back, closing his eyes. He was weary down to the bone. His wife worked as a technical writer for a technology company. She always had updates to make on complicated manuals and other highly complicated things he did not understand, but the good part was that she got to work from home most of the time. She was always on deadline, though, and that made travel plans difficult.

  "What's wrong?" Olivia asked.

  "Just a rough day," Noble said. "This case that I cannot talk about with you is making me loony. I've been working too hard lately and I think I need some time off."

  "Well, after this month I don't have a deadline for about three months," Olivia said, running her fingers gently through his hair. "We could make a trip then."

  Noble gave a tired smile. "That would be nice."

  He lay there for a moment and nearly fell asleep. Then he raised his head and looked at Olivia.

  "You haven't seen anything weird around here, have you?" Noble asked.

  Olivia frowned. "Weird how?"

  Noble shrugged. He had not planned on broaching this subject, but how did he ask her if she had seen shadow people or anything else weird?

  "I dunno," Noble lied. "Just anything weird. Strange people hanging around or something?"

  Olivia sat up straighter and slid closer to the edge of the sofa. Now her face bore a look of outright fear. "What do you mean people hanging around?" She asked. "What is this case that you're working on and is it dangerous for us?"

  "No, no," Noble said. "I shouldn't have brought it up. I thought I saw someone hanging out around the street light out there last night. That's all. Just out of the corner of my eye and when I looked it was gone. When the dogs started barking last night, I thought maybe I hadn't imagined it and that there might have been someone there. I just wanted to be sure."

  Noble had some skill at quickly crafting a web of bullshit. This was not one of his better ones and the look Olivia gave him assured him that she was not buying a single word.

  "No," Olivia said. "I haven't seen anything weird. Just our weird neighbor."

  A neighbor down the street had his home plastered with yellow NO TRESPASSING signs, which was hard since they all lived in town homes and on top of each other. He had shouted things at Noble while he was walking the dogs once. The guy also had a car covered in strange red and gray tape, as if the man were sending signals about his car in a language only he understood.

  "It was definitely not our crazy neighbor that I thought I saw out of the corner of my eye," Noble said. "I'm sure it was nothing. I was just tired. There is a lot about this case that is very weird and I think that's part of the problem. I spent the entire day today watching a tape from closed circuit cameras."

  Olivia made a sad face. "Sorry. You should probably just go to bed, hun."

  Noble leaned in and left a deep lingering kiss on Olivia's lips. Then he smiled at her, rubbed his nose against her's, and kissed her again. It was only a few moments later that the dogs decided that was enough attention focused on his wife and started inserting their snouts in between them. After a few more minutes playing with the dogs. Noble headed to bed.

  ***

  Noble slept and his dreams were troubled. He kept running down dark hallways and things were jumping out of the shadows, grabbing at him. These things had claws in addition to bright red eyes. He got the distinct impression, however, that these beings were grabbing at him because they wanted to tell him something, not because they meant him any harm.

  At the end of the hallway were three small children, two boys and a girl, each about eight-years-old. Noble thought maybe they were in trouble and he ran to them, meaning to pick them up and carry them out of the darkness and away from the reaching shadows. As he got near them, all three of the children raised their heads and stared at him.

  Noble skidded to a halt.

  They all had black eyes. Black eyes that somehow seemed alive, as if they were deep living pools and if Noble stared at them too long they would absorb his soul and he'd be lost forever.

  "Can you help us?" The three children asked in unison. "We're lost. Can you help us?"

  Noble fell over backwards and tried to scramble away from these three nightmares. Somehow the reaching shadows and red eyes were better than these three soulless, eyeless children. And the children reached for him, their hands extended, the fingers bent into claws, walking toward him.

  "Help us!" They said in voices that were devoid of life, like listening to some artificial intelligence doing an approximation of what a human voice should sound like.

  Noble opened his mouth and screamed.

  ***

  Noble's eyes shot open. The room was so dark he had a moment when he thought he might have been back in that dark hallway. Then the ceiling came into focus above the bed turning slowly. He shifted his body and Cookie made a soft whining noise and then adjusted herself. Henry raised his head and looked at him, sniffing the air. Olivia slept peacefully beside him. Everything was right where it was supposed to be. That should have comforted him, but it didn’t.

  Noble rubbed his eyes. He looked at his cell phone and saw that it was just after three in the morning. His bladder was full and he was thirsty.

  He slowly removed himself from his wife and dogs and shuffled into the bathroom. Cookie and Henry followed close behind since they always found his bathroom activities particularly fascinating. When he was done, he shuffled down the stairs. Cookie and Henry followed as well, running around his legs excitedly since this was not a normal thing and anything out of the ordinary might result in food or treats.

  At the bottom of the stairs, he hooked a right, with his eyes half-closed and stepped into the kitchen. Behind him all three dogs were now running around and sniffing the ground, one of them drinking loudly from the bowl of water. Noble opened the fridge and removed the pitcher of water. He took a long drink and watched the dogs before closing the door.

  LISTEN TO HIM.

  It was on the fridge again.

  Noble frowned. Then he cocked his head to the side and re-read the message.

  He reached out and rearranged the letters again. Nope, he thought. Nope, nope, nope. This was not happening. He could not imagine that Olivia had left that message. She would have no reason to and there was no "him" that Olivia would want him to listen to.

  Goosebumps ran up and down Noble's arms and legs. His entire body felt cold.

  Noble returned the pitcher of water to the fridge and closed the door. He studied the magnetic letters a bit more. There were no other messages.

  He turned and saw all three dogs standing there, tails wagging, heads cocked to the side. Noble smiled and reached into the treat jar and distributed appropriately.

  Now that the dogs were happy, he felt that he had to make himself feel better. Exactly how he was going to do that, he did not know. His bed had never seemed more attractive and he decided that more sleep would be a good idea.

  Noble walked back up the stairs with his four-legged posse behind him. He shambled down the hall and climbed back into bed, the dogs following. He laid his head back and stared at the ceiling fan, Cookie curling up beside him and licking his face.

  Who was he supposed to listen to? Who was sending him a message? Who were these shadow people? Were they watching him right now? What had happened to Francis Duveen? How was he connected?

  All those questions ran around and around his head.

  Despite these troubling queries that currently had no answers, at some point he finally fell asleep.

  Chapter Four

  Noble awoke the next morning feeling rough. It was a chore to get through his morning routine of walking the dogs and taking a shower. He wanted more than anything to call in sick and stay home in bed, but that was not possible, he had to knuckle down and get this day done and over with and then get to Washington.

  He ate his breakfast with heavy-lidded eyes and drank two cups of coffee before he got to his car. Before he left the house he kissed Olivia, said
good-bye to the dogs and was soon on the road. Thankfully, he did not get into an accident on the way. His head was filled with questions and he was reviewing his schedule in his head for the rest of the day. He had several more interviews with people associated with the flight and most of them were scheduled for today. He also needed to talk to Heath Matthew, the guy who was an expert in faking videos.

  Ugh, he thought, the last thing I need is a trip to Washington, D.C. He needed a vacation. Things were turning weird and Noble was worried he was losing his mind.

  Noble pulled into the parking lot and was in his office minutes later. He sat down in his chair, leaned back and rubbed his eyes. He needed coffee, but just as he was getting up, Denise Kellner entered the room. Noble did not have an assistant, but there were several admins that worked for agents like Noble and Denise was one of the best because she had been here the longest.

  "Hey, Noble," Denise said. "Geez, you look rough."

  "Thanks, Denise, your encouragement is always key to me getting my job done," Noble replied. "What's up?"

  Denise handed over a Post-it note. "A guy from MIT, Dr. Lance Shaw, called. He says he has key information about Flight-190 and the man who vanished. He says you need to get in touch with him right away. Urgent stuff."

  He looked at the note. Nothing much there. Cases, even the ones they tried to keep secret, always got out and you got calls from cranks. This had that feel even with just those few words.

  "Who is he?" Noble asked.

  "Some doctor from MIT," Denise repeated. "I already ran the background stuff on him. He's legit. He's been with MIT for fifteen years and is tenured and everything."

  "How could he have information about Flight-190?" Noble asked.

  "He didn't want to say, but he says he can help explain what happened," Denise said.

  "How on earth would he know?" Noble asked. He felt something inside him start to clench. If some professor at MIT knew about this case that meant that things were leaking and if things were leaking, there would be problems for the case. "Jesus, someone's been talking, Denise. What the fuck?"