Spell, Crook and Handle Pt. 08

"Probably," I replied.

"Probably? Do you know how many guys I offered to let ass fuck me? Do you?"

"I have no idea," I said feeling the awkward growing by the second. "A dozen?"

"Fuck you Louis, there have only been eight," she snarled and I couldn't help but smile. "What the fuck are you smiling about?"

"I would have been number nine," I said and smiled wider. "My lucky number is nine."

"No shit," she said and actually cracked a grin. "I love a big fat cock up my ass, did you know that?"

"Are you on your meds Megan," I asked seeing how dilated her pupils were. "That explains your open frankness about your anal fixation."

She hissed and stalked off with a flourish of curses and rude gestures. I laughed and stood up as my ride arrived. I was smiling as I stepped out of the private psych ward. It had been home for a while but I missed the outside world way too much. The back door of the limo opened but I didn't recognize the leggy redhead inside. That is the moment I first laid eyes on Kat Shaw. Oh I had seen her on television with her famous brother Nick. Now here she was beckoning me into her limousine. The driver, a cute Asian gal, took my bags and put them into the trunk. I climbed in back with Kat and she smiled as the door closed behind me.

"Hello Louis," she said in greeting. "I am Kat Shaw and I have a job offer for you."

"Job offer," I said and she opened her left hand.

There hovering in the air above the palm of her hand was a strange device. It took me a few seconds to recognize it. I was about to comment when she made as if to throw the hologram at me. Instinctively I put my hand up and there was the device that Richard Sterling had dug up in Egypt. Kat smiled as I held up the image and examined it more carefully.

"What is going on?" I asked as I noticed the markings on the device.

"Nick wants you to try and translate the markings on the device." Kat said choosing her words carefully.

"Why me," I replied as I enlarged the hologram and recognized the markings now. I frowned when I looked back at the beautiful woman.

"He wants you as his resident expert," she said holding up an image she shouldn't even know existed.

"Stop the car, stop the FUCKING car," I roared seeing the image of the Black Cathedral I had created over the last year. The black dome in all its dark glory hung suspended in the air between us.

"Calm down Louis," Kat flinched as I lost my temper.

"Fuck you lady, stop the goddamn car or I will jump out." I growled as the vehicle came to a halt. I reached for the door handle when her hand gently touched mine.

"I know you're angry and you have every right to be. What Nick did was wrong, I won't argue that. He needs your help Louis. I am here to make a very generous offer. If you can decipher the artifact you can earn a twenty percent cut in all technologies that arise from that discovery."

"Twenty huh," I said sitting back and trying to let go of the sense of violation. "In writing..."

"Of course, I have all documents for you to sign and a nice signing bonus." Kat said a tentative smile on her lips.

"How the hell did your brother hack my A.I.?" I asked but it was Feng that replied.

"There is a backdoor access in all of the artificial personalities," Feng replied.

"I will have to decline," I said. "I can't have him waltzing in whenever it suits him."

"Wait, I can seal the breach," Kat offered. "Give me a second and I will fix it."

She called up her own A.I. and used it to close the hole in Feng's security. I had her run a diagnostic just to make sure. When I was assured that Feng couldn't be hacked I had her read over the documents Kat had sent to me for my signature. When they proved acceptable I signed them digitally and Kat forwarded them to her attorneys. The signing bonus ended up being eye drops that contained nanites allowing me to access Feng through an optical interface. It was the first of my improvements provided by Kat and Numenor Technology.

Kat drove me to the airport but instead of flying commercial there was a private jet parked outside. She must have been pretty damn confident that I would sign on. The limo was retrieved as Kat, her bodyguard Sora and I boarded the jet. I was climbing on board when I saw one of the engines. I stopped and stared at it in alarm.

"What's wrong Louis," Kat asked from within the jet.

"There is no turbine in that engine. Hell, there is nothing inside it at all. Are you sure this thing can fly?"

"Oh, that is Nick's latest addition to aviation," she said. "I don't know the details but it uses some form of induction to propel the plane forward. It removes the dangers of birds flying into moving parts."

"Brilliant," I said as I climbed aboard. "Are you going to Tokyo as well?"

"Of course, who do you think is funding this little dig of yours?" Kat replied with a genuine smile.

"I am sorry about screaming at you," I said breaking eye contact. "I lost my temper."

The door was closed once our luggage had been loaded aboard. A vibration could be felt as the engines fired up but there was little noise and that surprised me. After a short while I felt the force of acceleration as I was pushed back into my seat. The jet took the air without any difficulties and we were on our way to Japan. Kat, Sora and I chatted, napped and snacked during the long flight half way across the world. Conversations ran the gambit from the technology being used on the dig to brief snippets of life stories. While my life up until that fucking book had been discovered had been pretty damn mundane, Kat's had not. She had been on the run for as long as she could remember. That was until her mom met Nick's dad and a sense of security had descended. Nick had ensured that safety and they had at long last could quit looking over their shoulders.

I on the other hand had seen the embodiment of nightmares and somehow managed to keep my sanity. Well as far as I could tell, I felt relatively sane. Sure I still had nocturnal horrors visit me when I dreamed. Sure I had the memories of men eaten alive by Serpent Demons. But I kept it all to myself. Kat had asked where I had come up with the design for the dome and its intricate architecture and I dodged the complete truth with a partial one. I was hired to acquire something and I had run into the dome during that particular adventure. Vague, yes, but it also wasn't a lie, not really. I told her the location was a matter of customer discretion and I doubted they would even want to discuss the matter ever again. That seemed to placate her for now.

Seven hours later we landed on a private tarmac in Tokyo and I settled into a year of decryption and linguistics analysis. Five days a week I looked at images sent back by Numenor's deep sea drone, V.A.L.I.N. It was the world's only unmanned drone that had its own A.I. and was mostly autonomous. The reason for Valin and this dig was a small underwater earthquake that had struck the area a few months earlier. It hadn't done any real harm but when they sent down Valin it had found something. It was a structure that was built by some sort of intelligence and it was five miles down. Valin had only been on loan at that point. Now however, it was the work beast that dove every other day and bit by bit pieced together the series of structures surrounding the original discovered on that first day.

After three months Valin had found and scanned over thirty massive buildings that could just as easily fit in the New York skyline. The shortest structure was over ten stories tall while the tallest and most impressive was ten times that in height. The central pyramid was massive on anyone's scale and was still intact after god knows how long it had been down there. The bas reliefs and inscriptions were epic in design and mystery. I knew them as the builder runes while the others, including Richard Sterling, were stunned by their appearance. There was argument that this city was of non-human manufacture and it would remain a secret until such time as the 'Powers that Be' decide otherwise.

The pyramid was dedicated to a being known as Dagon. He was the eldest child of the Dreamer in the Depths, Great Cthulhu. It was by his will that the city had been constructed after the Great War with the First Ones. While his father had been imprisoned Dagon had been instructed to withdraw and create a citadel worthy of his father's eventual return. So at the northern edge of the Marianas Trench sat the sunken city of Dagon. In the crushing black depths sat an ever expanding series of buildings, tunnels and domes. All of which were not just intact but in near pristine condition. Valin was unable to detect anything other than marine life so far but I feared that sooner or later Dagon would show himself. When that happened everything would change.

It was during this time that I met and made long lasting friendships. The one person that surprised me most was Surisa Mee Chang. She was an outside contractor for any and all supplies that the group might need. Surisa earned a few nicknames over that year. My favorite was Little Moriarty, but there was also the Blue Eyed Thai and the Elegant Egotist. The last one I never told her to her face for fear of angering her. While she was a gorgeous woman with an amazing personality she was also very self-assured and not a little narcissistic. What do I mean by that? She always managed to make any conversation, situation or sexual act about her. Even when she was sucking me off it was all about her needs. Normally that would put me off but because it was her I let it slide.

Since we are talking about sex acts, Surisa is by far the most limber, bendable and flexible woman I have ever had the pleasure of fucking. She could fit under a desk, in the back seat of any car and lacked any hint of a gag reflex. Hell she put Chinese contortionists to shame. She was built like a gymnast, cursed like a sailor and fucked like the devil herself. I could also add that she could and did drink anyone under the table and if you were lucky she'd blow you while you were down there. I suspected that she wasn't entirely human after one of our all-nighters and she walked away unscathed. While the dark magic worked on her and I could feed from her. The next morning was as if she had only had a great time and was without hang over or impact from my diabolical hunger. She was a keeper.

Kat on the other hand was as subtle as Surisa was a force of nature. She seduced me in increments that only scientists use. I didn't realize how passionately I had fallen for her until she wanted me to know. The first time we made love was while we were walking in one of the many parks in Tokyo. I suspected something was up when Sora and Yuki, our bodyguards, fell back to within line of sight range. Kat led me to a nice quiet spot free of close circuit cameras, grabbed me and kissed me. What followed was volcanic and burned both of us. The sexual tension had been so high and so intense that a single kiss ignited a frenzy of undressing, fondling and body pounding volatility that left bite marks, scratches and a few claw marks on my back. I marked her in other ways that were deeper and not so easily seen. We did leave enough biological evidence for a crime scene though and that always made us giggle.

The third month was a turning point for me. I was putting in sixty hour work weeks and needed a break. I began taking my weekends and visiting monasteries and shrines all over the Tokyo area and those close enough to drive to. It was during one of my road trips that I met and made friends with Master Kenji. The mountain shrine that he maintained was small and out of the way but perfect for my needs. We struck up an understanding almost instantly. He was very accommodating about what he called my misfortune and I was equally accepting of the fact that he was a Tengu, a mountain spirit. There were tons of stories and myths describing the Tengu and most of them were dead wrong. While a few stories touch on the immortality and great power the Tengu possess they don't know why.

Tengu are beings native to the earth that arose prior to the birth of multicellular life. They are entities tied to certain areas and Kenji was born when the Japanese archipelago rose from the ocean floor. He had been here long before any plant or animal life arrived here and likely he would be here long after it was gone. Of all the life forms that have migrated to the islands he found man the most interesting and most destructive. He had chosen me as one of his students simply for the fact that he felt I really wasn't human. When I argued about that he explained his stance on that particular subject.

"Louis-san I don't want my words to hurt your feelings but I must explain myself. I have seen many gifted individuals over the years. Let us take your most remarkable talent, shape shifting, of all the beings I have seen that were gifted with that ability you are quite easily the most sublime master of that difficult art. I don't mean to cast a bad light on you in any way. You my friend are a very rare individual. While I have met a few souls more powerful in spell craft I firmly believe that you could overcome them in an all-out duel. You are a very resourceful mage and that is saying something."

"How am I doing as a martial art student," I asked and he smiled.

"Well, you have only been training for a short time. But you are showing a remarkable knack for picking up on the more difficult aspects of the art. I think in the end you will prove a formidable student."

"Thank you sensei," I replied bowing. "I will work hard to make you proud."

It was a few weeks later that I made my first big breakthrough in my translation work. I could read the characters easily enough thanks to my visit to the Dark Cathedral. But the runes on the relic made no sense and perhaps it had been because of the layout of the characters was different than what I had experienced before. It was Richard that had given me the clue I required. We had both been working on the runes from the underwater dig as well as the Egyptian artifact. The characters were obviously linked but the artifact was different.

"Louis, have you noticed that the characters from the structures are all linear in their layout? While those on the artifact are more like a hexagonal chemistry format, do you think the layout designates meaning?"

"So the linear layout is more mundane, everyday sort of use, while the artifact is more complex and requires a different design." I said and he nodded vigorously.

"Exactly, it is the same way we do it. If you dedicate a city anyone can read the inscription, your basic citizen if you will. But a device that produces power is dedicated knowledge and requires more education like a chemist or engineer. Function dictates form I guess, what do you think?"

"That is freaking brilliant," I said. "It makes sense. So we have to look at the characters as two different languages basically."

"I just wish we could break the code on these simpler characters," he said frowning.

"I think I might have one of them," I said. "It is a name. Now don't quote me on this but I think this character might translate as Dagon."

I pointed to the most common and recurring symbol in the city. I watched his reaction and he stared at the character and his eyes went wide. He squealed like a little girl and clapped his hands together. He touched the rune to isolate it and dragged the hologram to its own display. He traced a part of the character and dragged it to the side. Richard traced a second part of the original rune and dragged that to the other side and we were left with three characters now. He reordered the characters and I could read them but didn't know their origin. Richard was ranting now and stopped and caught his breath and his thoughts.

"This first character is Sumerian and is the sound Dah pronounced like the word day. The second is also Sumerian and is a hard G and the last is Etruscan and yes you guessed it, the 'on' sound. You were right. It is the name for the god Dagon. He shows up in a few different ancient cultures. Some he is tied to the earth while the older myths link him to fertility and the sea."

He began talking to his A.I. and ordering a new look at the characters by scanning for simpler characters hidden within the runes. Richard got up and headed for the break room. I followed him as he started a new pot of coffee. He was bouncing off the walls. This got some attention mainly Surisa and Magnus. They were just coming out of one of the restrooms. Magnus looked fine but Surisa looked a little ruffled around the edges. I smiled and kept my silence. Richard was too excited to notice and I let it lie.

"Richard," Magnus called out. "You look like you're in a good mood."

"He did it," Richard replied hopping in place. "Louis did it. We have a name."

"Well don't keep us in the dark," Surisa purred as she ran a hand through her long dark mane.

"Dagon, the city has to be dedicated to the sea god Dagon." Richard blurted out.

"But who built it I wonder," Magnus, the engineer, pondered as he stroked his beard. "How the hell did it end up here?"

"Maybe it was built here," Surisa said speaking my own thoughts.

"Nonsense, you are talking about a simplistic people constructing an entire city five miles down. It is not possible." Magnus grumbled.

"How do you explain the spatial anomalies," Richard asked. "The photos show one thing and yet the scans show a completely different ... geometry."

Magnus stalked off and I glanced at Surisa and she smiled. I wondered how difficult their love play must have been since she barely broke five feet and Magnus was a full head taller than I was. I was about to ask her about Magnus when her phone rang and she walked off as she answered it. Richard poured two cups of coffee and he went straight back to his desk to work on his new theory, correction our new theory.

"LOUIS," Richard hollered from his desk as I took my first sip of coffee.

I managed to keep from spilling my drink as I hurriedly walked over and looked at his display. The words were in the incorrect order but their meaning was perfectly clear.

'City... declaration... Da-g-on... Son... Dreamer... Kuh-Thool-Hu...'

"See, you were right," he said bouncing in his chair.

"No, you figured this out Richard. This is all yours and you deserve it." I told him.

"What the hell is all the commotion," Tetsuo asked as he walked in and saw the display and Richard's smiling face. "You cracked it?"

"We cracked it," Richard said as he began explaining the break through.

Tetsuo smiled and raced upstairs to tell the higher ups. Soon computer resources were reallocated for the translation process. Before the hour was up we had five A.I.'s working full time on that exclusively. They began by scanning the text and inserting words they had already completed and then worked on the rest. When they deciphered a word it was added to the pool and the others would add it to the ever growing body of understanding. It would take a few hours so I decided to take a break and get some fresh air. They would have the full text and they would discover the truth. Whether they accepted it or not was another matter entirely.

It was midafternoon and the sun was nearing the horizon. I had just sat down on the front steps of the university when I spotted a familiar face. She waved as she approached. There was another woman with her and it was either her sister or another female relative. The family resemblance was very strong between the two of them.

"Hello Midori," I said in greeting.

"Louis-san," she replied. "Oh, this is my sister Nao. I told her all about you."

"Not everything I hope," I said and we all laughed. I shook hands with her sister and she blushed. Maybe she had told her everything. "Your husband is going to be late tonight. We made a major breakthrough."