Lister Crowe Read online

  “She’s over here!” her brother shouted down the long tunnel to the waking world which Cassie had been listening at. After a quick approach of sneakers he was at her side which made her feel better. Her weakened state would not even allow her access to her twins mind so she could express her gratitude.

  “No don’t talk.” Alton pleaded with her as she began to convulse slightly, trying to croak out her thanks. Her transformation had drained her to a point near death and though she would recover she would never be the same. What she had known as two worlds had always been one and now Cassie understood her position in its eternal schizophrenia. Sunlight began to warm her face and a contented smile spread across it. Her last thoughts before she lost consciousness were of her cage and the retribution she swore she would bring down upon those who had kept her imprisoned.

  Chapter One

  Lister Crowe had never been considered a polite person though he was not unkind. He had a razor wit and tongue to match and used them both to great effect when need arose. It was a defense mechanism he had knowingly set up many years before to protect himself from bullies and those who tended to get too close. From time to time he felt bad for having unleashed it and Jackie Gables, a classmate, had not been one to deserve it. He had corrected his mistakes to his resonating coil and needed to get back home to test his hypothesis.

  As he was unhooking his equipment she had entered the lab without any thought as to his wants or needs in the moment and began to tell him the exciting news she had received. It was not as though Lister did not want her around. He did not want anyone around and it was a matter of his life’s work which would not be denied or delayed. She was excited about her new discoveries and wanted someone to share in her success. Lister was a person she had come to trust for some reason. He had tried more than a few times to be polite in his effort to leave the campus but she would have none of it, so he let her have it. His retort was something no one should say to a person in her field but he knew it would have the desired effect.

  He could still feel the weight of Jackie’s glare after he had so rudely dropped the figurative bomb in her lap devastating her feelings, which in his opinion, she wore too close to the surface anyway. Most of the time when he flayed someone with his comments they would get angry and stalk off, as was his intention. Jackie’s reaction made him feel instantly ashamed. She looked betrayed and astounded at the same time with a furrowed brow and wide eyes which was no easy task had one tried.

  “Asshole.” she barked, turned and stomped from the room trying to slam the door but resistance forced it to close slowly and smoothly, regardless of the intention of the operator.

  Her exit was what he had wanted and to that end his goal had been met but he knew she had spoken the truth. He was an asshole, a fact he did not deny and did not apologize for. Lister had decided a long time ago he did not want or need the baggage people carried along with them no matter how good their intentions and Jackie’s intentions had always seemed quite pure. He gathered up his work and put his items into his pack silently patting himself on the back for his unkind words which had achieved his aims.

  It was a cool and dark mid spring night in April as Lister approached his apartment building. It was a three story house which had been converted for multiple tenants and though it was old it was solid and kept in good shape by the owner which was a surprise given the state of the neighborhood.

  If onlookers had seen him they would have sworn he was up to no good as Lister had always worn clothes which made him look more a hoodlum than an engineer. It afforded him a certain respect from passers by on the street and elsewhere.

  He topped the staircase which led to the front door. The light from the street lamps was not bright and they emitted a constant buzz but they did illuminate the steps and the front of the house in a sickly white light dissuading some intruders Lister supposed. The building was fronted by a screened porch not belonging to any of the tenants individually. In the summer months, when his neighbors would use it, the racket aggravated him but he would never tell them. Doing so would mean he would have to speak to them which was not something he wished to do. On such occasions he would put on his headphones and listen to music or a lecture to block the voices and merrymaking, indeed their entire existence from his mind as he worked on his final project.

  The front hallway was wood paneled with an open entrance to the screened patio on one side and a staircase up, on the other. Two separate apartments were upstairs and though from time to time the tenants would be louder than Lister would have liked he knew it could always be worse. At least they did not have huge parties with drunken foolishness or hack and steal his wi-fi, which would be no easy task even for the most experienced hacker. Lister took his security very serious as did most people with a “master plan”.

  The hallway stretched fifteen feet along the main level. His door was on the right at the end. A bare bulb on the wall cast its meager light onto the scene and a would be intruder would be hard pressed to see past the yellow hue to his apartment door.

  Once inside Lister made sure to reengage the five locks which were all of the highest quality. He had insisted upon such measures from the landlord. He was even allowed to purchase and install the hardware himself. In Lister’s mind were the prying eyes of corporations and governments which would like nothing more than to co-opt his inventions for their own wants, needs and profits. Science was his muse and his one true love besides his adventure loving mother but what boy did not love his mother?

  The front door entered into the living room and he walked the few paces to the dining room. He removed his backpack and set it next to the overburdened and squat homemade table which served as his workbench. This was where he had worked for the three long years he had been attending Temple University and on it was the device he was sure was going to help him realize his dream. He was not one-hundred percent sure what it would do, which would give many inventors pause but Lister was not one of those. He was fearless in is quest for knowledge and understanding.

  Lister removed his jacket and hung it on the only chair with a back which ringed the large, squat and sturdy table. The other chairs were stools without backs or padding and could not be called comfortable but then comfort was not an ally to science as Lister had found long ago. Through trial and error he had tried to meld comfort and productivity but it never worked out. His mind would wander and not hold rigid thought if his body were put at ease. He would never have found his muse without the practice of denial of comfort which reigned around his workbench.

  His most successful invention to date was a flash light which by coupling with sound waves, would produce a slight burning effect on a subjects skin. It was also intense in it’s illumination as well and with the two effects he was sure, had he wanted, could blind someone perhaps permanently. Though it would not ignite anything like paper or wood it had been the jumping off point for his studies in sonic technology when he was but a fourteen year old boy.

  He had also created a resonator with which he could reproduce various frequencies and by combining frequencies he could produce different vibrations and resonance. The device had been crucial in his work for frequency and vibration along with energy made up the universe as Nikola Tesla was famous for saying. Lister just hoped he would not share the fate of the great inventor, dying penniless in a dump though he had been one of the most intelligent and driven beings to have ever lived.

  On the table was a large five foot in diameter ring of copper wire, plastic and stainless steel with some rubber grommets spaced about at specific intervals. All of these components were mounted upon a thin graphene plate, the measurements of which were specific to his application. Along one side of the ring was an extra large capacitor pack of his own design which stored energy and was able to provide a punch to the electrical input which might just give him the end result he was hoping for. More than once he had popped the circuit breaker in his house and his clocks, spaced throughout, still flashed from the latest
incident.

  The night before he had made the necessary changes he hoped would get him some effect other than the usual cymatics. He had switched it on and adjusted the frequencies on the fly which was not the easiest of things to accomplish. He knew he needed a more precise way to achieve the modulation he was seeking but he had not yet taken the time to write the program for it. The capacitor made its usual low hum as electricity coursed through the system. Then he activated the speakers which were of his own design though he had not yet gotten a patent, Lister’s ever present paranoia prevented him from applying for one. The sound the device emitted could not be heard by his human neighbors but bothered the neighborhood dogs to no end as the differing pitches were too high and conversely too low for the human ear to perceive.

  As he worked at his keyboard striving for the desired range and intensity something had begun happening in the center of the ring. A shimmering of a sort Lister had not seen before piqued his interest and caused him to forget about the attention which needed to be paid to the controls. A pop accompanied by the lights immediately going out stated the obvious, he had blown the breaker again.

  The hum continued due to the excess energy the capacitor had stored and it was enough to keep the machine going for a minute. The sudden absence of the overhead lights caused his eyes to lose focus and he saw only inky black. Once his eyes began to adjust he saw a scintillating glow coming from a disturbance at the center of the circle. He found himself gazing at something he nor anyone had ever achieved before. It resembled a transparent glob of gel hanging in the center of the ring violating all physical laws. Then, all at once, the power depleted, the machine shut down. Darkness reigned and Lister was entombed in pitch black. He could smell the sharp scent of ozone and burnt electrical circuits coming from his speakers.

  He knew he was onto something but he would have to repair his speakers and not for the first time. Though he had not achieved what he wanted he was buoyed by the fact he had indeed accomplished something no one had before which was a win in his book.

  Sound had always been his discipline and though he had learned much over time, mostly through failure as is oftentimes the case, he sometimes felt as though he were no nearer his goal of harnessing sonic power. Most of the time he felt as though he were smashing his head into a wall made of unyielding relativity but he had never thought about quitting or doing anything else. He was a scientist and he was getting somewhere. Lister Crowe was more determined than ever.

  Around the perimeter of the circle were nine square receptacles which held the intensified single directional speakers or ISDS’s of his own design which had been giving him so much trouble as of late. He retrieved the newly repaired speakers from his backpack and set each of them on the table. He had them laid out in the specific order which was the product of trial and error but had produced the effects of the previous night. In the lab at school he had decided, even though he had made some progress, his design could use a few minor tweaks. He hoped they would be a step forward and not the other way around which was more often the case but he trusted his instincts even though they had failed him on many occasions. Failures were only so when one did not learn from them.

  After he had placed all of the ISDS’s into their respective terminals he turned his attention to his computer. The one thing he could not count on in the equation was the manual control mechanism he still had not automated but it was something he intended to rectify. Before, when he had not had any results, it was fine to manually adjust the frequencies but now he had something to show for his efforts and it was no longer good enough.

  After retrieving a soda from the fridge Lister sat in front of his computer which resided on a small table near the machine. He put his headphones on and started his work time playlist. It was the only playlist Lister had ever created. The real world soon faded as he slipped into the world of code. He was going to finish his project and he was not going to rest until he did.

  Chapter Two

  Alton’s footfalls echoed from the marble floor through the finely decorated hall as he walked. His sister had summoned him as she had been known to do from time to time. Being twins of no small power she did not need to use conventional methods to call him, he knew instinctively when she required his presence. He was not sure exactly what she wanted but he was sure it was of high importance as she was not one to waste her time and he was not one to happily come when called.

  The walls were high and the molding was of the best quality as was all of the architecture in this, one of the oldest mansions in coastal New Jersey. The paintings on the wall depicted many different scenes of serenity painted by masters of their craft. Sculptures rested on pedestals spaced along the walls, some large, some smaller but all amazing in their depiction of various people and animals in action. They seemed almost to come to life as the sharp white moonlight came streaming in through the windows.

  The Tremont family had been one of the most revered in the country and, at one time, the world. Though they had become more reclusive after the patriarch and matriarch had passed, their great wealth had not diminished. Alton, at the age of twenty three knew where their money was and he did his best to feign interest when he met with the accountants but such earthly concerns had never been something which worried him. Their money had been made during the infancy of America and his families influence had stretched far and wide even into the political arena. His family was not known for philanthropy, indeed they were not known to the general public at all as was his fathers intention. Anonymity had it’s uses and in their family, secrecy was of utmost importance.

  The mansion and the accompanying grounds were quiet now but at one time it had been a bustle of activity during the day and at night. It was a place where the pillars of power had met and planned as they held control over the new nation. These were people who operated in the shadows for if their practices were known they would be pariah. Of course such a revelations would not be the end of the world for they could just fall off the radar and become specters of the past only to reinvent themselves and return like Christ from the grave.

  As he continued down the hall he could almost feel the presence of his father beside him. It was not an unpleasant feeling nor a new one. If ghosts roamed the halls his was the one to be most welcome.

  His parents shared a love which could only be described as everlasting. When his father had died in a freak accident it had not taken Alton’s mother long to follow suit for they were made for each other and one could not continue without the other. His father had been the most influential person in his life and most of what he did was to carry on his fathers legacy… to make him proud.

  At the end of the hall he opened the double doors leading to Cassie’s wing. The doors were quiet and made no sound as he swung them open. The same held true as he closed them. Light was never in need on this side of the estate. Whereas in the main hall moonlight entered through the windows, in here, his sisters domain, darkness reigned. As he walked dim motion sensing lights illuminated the floor allowing him to see where he was going then fading once he had passed.

  Whenever he came into this area he could feel the senses of his twin searching him out. It was her own little world within the real one. The decorations were the same here as in the other great halls of the house but without light they were little more than shadows cast in darkness and Alton had no idea their look nor did he really care.

  Alton and Cassie had been connected their entire life and were inseparable in spirit though they lived in opposite wings of the house. They had been born together and like their parents would probably die together. Alton could not imagine his life without her and it rarely crossed his mind but when he did have cause to think about it he would feel a grief so great the real loss would surely drive him mad.

  “Come in dear brother.” Cassie said as he approached the large, dark, solid wooden door. Had she spoken aloud or was her voice in his head?

  Alton turned the knob and entered. The interior was
completely dark though it was not just an absence of light but seemed like some otherworldly force was filling the space with a palpable darkness. Those in their employ did not enter this wing of the house and Cassie would never allow it. She rarely left her domain and when she did it was not for long, when she needed food it was brought by her most trusted servant, Tinker, who knew neither fear nor joy, love nor hate. He was Cassie’s minion and would do whatever she bade.

  He closed the door and carefully turned to sit in the chair set out just for him. A dim light came on which did not do much to illuminate the room but it did keep vertigo at bay. Tinker was present he knew but the dark hid him from view.

  “You have news?” Alton asked.

  “I do.” she paused and he listened to her breath. One thing about his twin he could do without was her melodrama but he also knew it was of no use to rush her. She would speak when she was ready and not a moment before..

  “The time has come dear brother. I have been witness to the beginning of the end.”

  Alton sat forward in the chair feeling his excitement rise as his heart began racing. He could also sense the change in Cassie’s breathing which said her excitement was rising as well. This was the time their parents had been waiting for but sadly, had not lived to see.

  “It’s close then?”

  “It is so close. I am within a moment of knowing the location.” Alton knew a moment to her was not a moment to regular people. It could be a second or it could be a thousand years and he did not have that long.

  “How long Cassie?” he asked, his voice not containing his excitement. As soon as he spoke the question he knew it was foolish. She had told him many times her sight did not work in such a way. She could not see the physical world, the world of men but she could see the universe in a much more profound way than any ever could. She did not answer the question but continued: