CHAPTER TWO—21ST CENTURY

 

I woke up with a start. It sounded like someone was ringing one of those hand-held bells teachers used to use to bring their kids back from recess.   I shook my head to clear my alcohol-induced funk. The bell rang again. My mouth tasted like I’d been grazing in a dumpster and my head was pounding. The last thing I remember was reading some article on a newly discovered set of ruins in Turkey while drinking a tall glass of Dewar’s scotch. How long ago was that? I squinted in a feeble attempt to focus in a totally black apartment I reached over and knocked over my reading lamp trying to find the light switch. Son of a… The bell rang again.

“All right, all right, I’m coming,” I yelled in the direction of the door.

I made it to the door, by memory, and peeked through the peephole where I saw a stork of a man, tall, lean, with arms that I swear touched the ground, and a long face to go with it. The chauffeur’s uniform added to the caricature, bus driver’s hat, and all.  Not believing what I was seeing I stepped back from the door, rubbed my eyes, and squinted back into the peephole. Nothing about the stork had changed. “Who is it,” I asked. After all, one can never be too cautious nowadays.

“I have a message for Professor Franklin Jason,” came the reply with what was unmistakably an English accent. Professor FRANKLIN Jason, a bit formal I thought.

“Yeah, who’s it from,” I shot back?

“Doctor Nicholas Staan of Abaddon Research. The stork straightened a bit as he made the announcement. Either proud of his employer, his company, or both I noted. “Now please sir may I deliver the message?”

Doctor Nicholas Staan and Abaddon Research didn’t ring any bells at first, but what the heck. His announcement was loud enough for half of the complex to hear. “Sure, no problem,” I told him as I unlocked the deadbolt and opened the door. I took a good look to size him up as then motioned him in. He didn’t say a word as he handed me what appeared to be a formal invitation. How odd, I thought looking at the parchment letter sealed with a wax seal, who uses parchment and sealing wax these days?

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Buck knife, opened the blade, and slid it between the wax and the parchment breaking the seal. The message read:

Dear Professor Jason, I have need of a man of your talents on an extremely special project. I would like to invite you to my research facility outside of Tucson, Arizona for the next two days to discuss the matter. For your trouble, I will provide your transportation, meals, and accommodations. I will also provide you with a five-thousand-dollar retainer just for you to hear what I have to say. I have sent my man Nigel to escort you. If your answer is yes, I have instructed him to give you twenty-five hundred dollars, in cash as an advance. If your answer is no, I apologize for disturbing you.

The invitation was signed, Sincerely, Doctor Nicholas Staan, MD, PhD.

Doctor Nicholas Staan, I thought, Nicholas Staan, I should know that name. I seemed to recall hearing it, but my head was pounding, and I was still feeling the effects of my scotch dinner. I couldn’t quite put my finger on where I’d heard it. Looking up at Nigel I asked, “Can you tell me what this is all about”?

“I’m sorry sir I have only been instructed to bring you this message and escort you to Abaddon if you decide to take up the doctor’s offer.”

OK, so it looked like I wasn’t going to get far with ole Nigel. Hmm, five thousand dollars isn’t a bad sum of money for two days. Especially since my pay was down a bit since taking my sabbatical from the university. An extra five grand would come in handy. Besides, there wasn’t a whole lot going on in my life right then. I wondered what talents Staan had in mind?

“All right Nige, you don’t mind if I call you Nige, do you?  Have a seat while I pack a bag and make some arrangements.”

“That is fine sir I shall just wait here.”

Nicholas Staan, I KNOW I should recognize that name, I thought.

I walked into the kitchen and picked up my smartphone and called my sister. She answered my call with her typically cheerful, “Hello this is Lynn,” on the first ring.

“Lynn it’s Frank, hey I’ve got a favor to ask. Something’s come up and I need to go out of town for a couple of days. Can you drop by and pick up my mail and stack my newspapers on the dining room table while I’m away?”

“No problem Frank, I can drop by after school, how long will you be gone”?

“Just a couple days. I’m running down to Tucson to meet with a Doctor Nicholas Staan. He has a proposition…”

“Doctor Nicholas Staan the billionaire?” Lynn interrupted. “The guy who invented Esteghlal”?

“That’s where I know him from!” I came back. “I couldn’t remember where I’d heard the name. Of course, he owns Luminos Pharmaceutical Company.”

“Well, I’m impressed, little brother, but what does a pharmaceutical magnate want with a college professor? Especially one whose specialty is the Middle East and early religions” Lynn asked?

“To tell you the truth I have no idea, in fact until just now I couldn’t remember who he was, but he’s offered me five thousand dollars just to spend the next two days with him, so I figured I’d go off to Tucson.”

“Five thousand for two days, don’t let it go to your head,” she chuckled. Then she got serious for a moment. “Wait a minute, you were willing to go with some guy you didn’t know just for a few bucks?”

“Now, Sis, first it wasn’t just a few bucks, it was five thousand for two days. Second, I think I can take care of myself and besides, that’s why I called and told you where I was going. If anything happened, you’d have information to give to the police.”

She let all that sink in for a moment and I could tell she was still a bit upset, “Well, have a great time and let me hear all about it when you get back. Oh, and you can take the family out to dinner with all that new loot you’ll have.”

“I will, I promise. Thanks for doing this, Sis. Love to Kevin and the boys.” I said hanging up the phone.

Doctor Nicholas Staan the billionaire, I thought as I grabbed my gym bag out of the closet. All I’d need for two days would be a change of clothes and my shaving kit. I’m a very light traveler, something I picked up in Special Forces in the Army. This could be a really interesting trip.

I peeked around the corner to see what Nigel was up to. I kind of half expected him to be rifling through my apartment, but he disappointed me. There he was standing in front of the door like a palace guard. I walked over to my nightstand and pulled out my Ruger LCP pistol, pulled back slightly on the slide to confirm a round was in the chamber. Satisfied, eased the loaded weapon into the concealed carry holster on my right waistband. I grabbed the ammo pouch out of the drawer and placed it on my left hip. I threw on a clean T-shirt, a button-down shirt, then jumped into my hiking boots. Now I was ready to go meet Mr. Staan, billionaire.

“All set Nigel”? I asked walking back into the living room.

“As you wish, sir,” was his reply.

“Alright then let’s make like a tree and hit the road.” I joked. By the look on his face, he was totally confused. Oh well, the British have their own odd sense of humor.

I signaled for Nigel to go first and once outside, I locked and bolted the door then walked down the steps to the covered parking. There waiting for us was a limousine with another man standing beside it. The limo driver opened the back door and Nigel motioned me into the back. Closing the door behind me Nigel climbed into the passenger seat upfront.

The limo driver sat down behind the wheel and without a word from him or Nigel he pulled out and drove East toward Henderson Sky Harbor Airport. Nigel then turned around and held out an envelope. “I had been instructed to give you this envelope once we departed your apartment,” he said.

I opened the envelope and pulled out twenty-five one-hundred-dollar bills. At least Staan is a man of his word, I thought throwing the envelope into my gym bag.

I watched the town pass by the window, as usual, the lights of Las Vegas were in their full glory. I couldn’t help but wonder what Doctor Staan needed from me. What was this Abaddon Research Nigel had mentioned? And why didn’t he mention Staan’s pharmaceutical company? My thoughts began to slip into the past as I began to doze off.

© Keith Shafer 2003

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Filed under: Crossroad In Time

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