Chapter Fourteen: The Mysterious Thief

Nearly a week went by, and nothing happened. The crew was getting restless. Rumors were going around that the mafia had faked the alleged thief and were pulling a scam where they were ripping themselves off. Cute idea, but I knew that couldn’t be the case. Then one night, it happened. At a quarter till midnight, the sound of machine gun fire rang out on the twelfth floor. Svetlana and I were on the eleventh. We rushed to the staircase when the power went out. When we got out of the stairwell, the light of the moon illuminated the edges of glass windows surrounding the flat. More gunshots erupted from the darkness. A shadowy figure leapt across the room about forty feet from us and tackled one of the mobsters. It stood back up, appearing to be a tall man wearing a trench coat and a wide brimmed hat.

Svetlana dove behind some furniture and opened up on him. I fired too, but from my standing position. I saw several of my shots impact the silhouette and for a second it looked like he was going down. But after a moment, the figure straightened up and like a bat out of hell, lunged toward me. Now in full view of the moonlight, I could see the man. He looked to be about my age. Clad in a white, almost medieval looking one piece robe with a sash around his waist. His hat was almost like that of a Quaker. He attacked, swiping left and right across my midsection with a long knife. I barely dodged each throw. I dropped my gun and before I could try and swing back at him, he delivered another swipe, tearing shirt and sleeve. My luck was running out. Space was becoming an issue, as my back was almost completely against the wall. Finally, I managed a ‘White Lightning’ punch to the side of his head. His neck buckled and the blade dropped out of his hand.

I looked over at Svetlana who was in shock and had been afraid to fire in fear of hitting me. The shine of his blade in the moonlight could be seen as it fell to the floor. Thinking the battle was over, I reached down for it. Almost as soon as I picked it up, the man sat straight up. I could see that I had broken his neck, but he reached up with both hands and corrected it. Without hesitation, I started swiping at him with his own knife. I must have connected seven or eight times. There was a lot of blood, but it didn’t stop him. He made it to his feet and grabbed me. He pulled the knife out of my hand and tossed me across the floor. Svetlana no longer held back and opened fire on him again. As I skid across the ground, I saw him take several of her shots but to no effect. He turned away from me and faced her. In one motion he threw his knife directly into her chest and she collapsed.

“Nooo!” I yelled, watching the fiend run over to her and pull the knife from her body.

I made it to my feet and went into full combat mode on him. Punches and kicks, all connecting but none of the damage slowed him down for long. He would just suck back in all of his wounds and carry on. Luckily for me, he didn’t try to fight me much longer. He cut my shoulder and sides a few times and then went running for the window on the other side of the room. He made a dive through the glass and landed on what looked like a flying carpet, straight out of a storybook, before soaring off into the night.

I didn’t have time to process what had happened. I was bleeding and Svetlana was badly injured. When I went to her, I discovered I was too late. She would not survive this mortal wound. The knife had torn through her esophagus, and she was both hemorrhaging blood from the cut and spitting it out from her mouth. She couldn’t speak. All she could utter before she died was the breathless phrase, “I’m so sorry.”

It was a mess when the sun came up. We found the bodies of six Russians in the building, not including Svetlana. I was the only survivor that faced the mystery man. The first to see the attacker and live. But I was hurt pretty badly too. Nothing I wouldn’t recover from, but I knew I didn’t stand a chance against this guy at this stage. I told the other Russian’s how the killer seemed to be able to regenerate from his wounds, nearly instantaneously. Svetlana’s boss was mortified. He asked me, “What can we do? Do you know a way to stop him?”

I told him, “No, but I know someone who does.”

When I returned from the future, I made a detour to Switzerland before going back to the United States and driving down to Florida. I never told anyone of this trip because I didn’t want any evidence of its occurrence to be known. The purpose of this trip was to secure hiding for the Sequence Bracer. They say a Swiss Bank can hide your wealth from anyone. For most people, that is Gold, or Silver, or just plain cash. But for me, my most prized possession was the Bracer. Not only because of sentiment but because I knew that it had to be hidden away in order to prevent more temporal calamities. It had the coordinates within it to travel to all the places I had been, potentially connecting to time lanes with other enemies in it. If it were in the wrong hands, it could become a pandora’s box.

At the Swiss Bank, I was assured that even though I wanted my identity to be anonymous, it was still possible for me to retrieve the device. All I had to do was submit to DNA testing and Biometric scanning. The device would be held in a locked box to which two keys would be required to open it. Each key was kept separate inside the bank and the box itself would be kept within a vault that featured state of the art security measures. If verifiable news of my death made its way to the ears of the bank manager, the contents of the box would be destroyed. If someone other than me attempted to access the vault, the contents would be moved to another location and the bank would try and contact me. If after one year no contact was made, the contents of the box would be destroyed.

Svetlana’s boss had me flown to Zurich immediately on his private jet. Once inside the bank it was clear that all the promises of security were true. Even though it had been just over a year since I had met with this very bank manager, he made me go through every step of the protocols. DNA match, retinal scan, fingerprints, and a questionnaire that was curated by me personally. Inside the vault, the two of us each took one of the keys and opened the lockbox. There it was, the Sequencer. A technological rabbit hole digger created jointly by someone I adored and someone I despised. It seemed like a lifetime since I’d held it after my escapades around Asia.

Immediately, I left the bank and swiftly fired up the display on the Sequencer. It didn’t take me long to find a nearby Dark Space underneath a walking bridge. At the stroke of a few keys, I had set my destination. Tet’s Kingdom, pre-Ice Age.

I came out of a Dark Space in the mountains not far from the one I had traveled through before. I made sure to set the Sequencer some time into the future from that point so that Tet wouldn’t be at death's door when we spoke. I was taking an awful big risk doing that because I had no idea how hostile he would be. Plus, he’d be fully recovered and possibly more powerful than ever. Though I was certainly tougher myself.

Once I trekked over a ridge on the side of the mountain, as far as the eye could see was a massive, ancient city with a palace at the center. Obviously this was Tet’s residence. The only way I could even get close to him without starting a fight would be to surrender to his guards.

Approaching the city’s walls, I was accosted by a small group of spear carrying guards, I simply shouted, “Anucktet! Anucktet!”

They were in a defensive stance and seemed perplexed at my complexion and attire.

Though I gathered that they realized I must be a peer of Tet’s, possibly even another ‘god’. Without much fuss, they took me into the palace to Tet’s throne room.

Inside there were many statues and tall vases. Water flowed from the ceiling into them and they poured over into a basin below. The ceilings were high and there were many colored drapes. Tet spared no expense for his luxurious life here in the ancient world. When he saw the guards bring me in he arose to his feet. He was garbed in blue and gold silks with a matching headdress and brown sandals. He had jewelry around his neck and on his fingers and a gold tube encapsulated his chin.

He stood for a moment and said, “You?! What brings you here?”

I paused and then said, “...I’m in need of your help.”

“Me? Help you? Bwahaha…” he laughed, “What makes you think I would or even could? You destroyed my Sequencer.”

“I don’t need you to come with me,” I elaborated, “I need your knowledge.”

Tet’s expression turned serious before he added, “I still don’t see why you think I would aid you in any way.”

“Because I let you live? I had no reason other than compassion to allow you to return to your fabricated life in the past. I gained tremendous life experience because of you, and you were broken, so I figured it would be the least thing I could do.”

Tet smiled a little bit and responded, “Alright. Let’s hear what you want first. Then I’ll decide if I’m to help you.”

He walked back over and sat on his throne.

“Okay,” I began, “In your alpha time lane’s history, you knew a lot about me. You said I was just entering my prime when I defeated you the first time, back in the tomb. You also told me that you neutralized a threat in my alpha time lane that killed me in yours. But I need to know something…”

“Yes?” He encouraged me.

“What can you tell me about the man in robes with the big hat that seems to be impervious to damage when I attack him?”

Tet smiled again and then burst into laughter, “Ha! Yes, so that's what you’re here for.

You want to know how to defeat him.”

“Who is he?” I asked sternly.

“He’s a peculiar adversary to be sure,” Tet explained, “he’s been around for a long time and gone by many names. St. Germain, John Dee, JC Brown…In Victorian London he was known as Spring-heeled Jack…but his original identity is most likely Percival, an 11th century crusader that discovered a magic chalice of which he thought was the Holy Grail. By drinking from this chalice, he was granted immortality.”

“Immortality? Then how come you never traveled back to get the chalice? Wouldn’t that have made your mission easier?” I questioned.

“Because there was a catch,” Tet continued, “His body needed to remain intact and though he would have powers of fast healing, if his body sustained enough damage, he would need to slumber in order to recover. At various times over the centuries, he would be injured to the point of requiring months and even years of rest to regenerate. This would require being well hidden from his enemies and a lot of luck in not being discovered. I was not willing to take on such a hell. Anyway, in my timeline, he must’ve awoken sometime in the mid-1990s and subsequently came into contact with you.”

“So, I defeated him? I discovered the location of his lair and destroyed him?” “You did,” Tet snickered.

“How long did it take me?” I asked cautiously.

“Four years…” Tet taunted, “...it took you four years, because every time you came into contact with him, he was just a little bit stronger, faster, and smarter than you. However, you were just resilient enough to stop him from killing you first. And you were able to cause him significant damage during each encounter, which would require him to slumber, thus prolonging the amount of time it took before facing him again.”

Well, this sucked. I now knew I was capable of beating this guy, but based on what Tet was telling me, it was going to take a while. So, I asked the most logical question next.

“So can you just tell me the location of his hideout so I can ambush him and not waste all that time?”

“I could,” Tet stated, “for a price.”

“No!” I lashed out with my hands up, prepared to walk out, “I’m not giving you a new Sequence Bracer.”

“Of course, you wouldn’t,” he interrupted, “that’s not what I’m asking.”

“Oh. Then what do you want?”

“I’ll tell you where to find Percival if you spend thirty minutes talking to my daughter.”

I thought for a moment. It’s clear what he was trying to do. He wanted me to be alone with Nefratara long enough for her to try and seduce me without interruption. They were still hung up on the fact that I rejected her in this timeline. I didn’t have the same feelings as the other me because we didn’t have the same history together. Besides, I wanted nothing to do with the vision of Tet’s Dynasty. But still, I knew I had to be careful. Because if I fell in love with her in another time lane, it would be possible for her to get to me in this one.

“Ten minutes,” I answered, “that’s all I’ve got time for.”

“Time?” he joked, “You’ve got all the time in the world. Stay for a month. You can fight

Percival anytime.”

“I’ll see Nefratara for ten minutes, Tet. I suggest you accept the counteroffer, because otherwise I can take on Percival on my own time knowing I’ll eventually beat him anyway,” I threatened.

“Alright, alright,” he capitulated, “I’ll have my guards take you to her chambers.”

I was then taken down a long corridor and up a flight of stone stairs. At the top of the steps was a door leading to a large room with about a dozen pillars and a gap between the ceiling and the walls, allowing for natural light to fill the room. At the far end of the room was Nefratara, sitting upon a cushioned loveseat with two servant girls attending to her. One was fanning her with a palm leaf and the other painting her nails.

Nefratara was clothed in a long white, form fitting gown with a blue sash. Her black hair was cut to neck length and was braided beneath a copper toned tiara. Unlike her father, gold and silver bracelets and a single green gemstone ring were the only jewelry she wore. She smiled big as I entered the room, seemingly unsurprised that I would have eventually traveled back in time to this place again. She immediately requested the guards and her servants to leave us. I stood in the center of the room before her as she casually half shimmied towards me. “Oh, Guy,” she said as she put her hands on my shoulders, “I knew you’d come to your senses and return to me.”

I titled my head back from her attempted embrace and blocked her with one hand while guiding her back with the other. She dropped her hands from my shoulders and to her sides but maintained her large smile, as well as eye contact.

I said, “Don’t do it Nefratara. Don’t disappoint yourself. You’re not the reason I’m here.” “Then why are you here?” she asked, doe eyed.

“I needed a favor from your father, and he agreed to help me if I came to speak with you. It’s not going to go the way you want it to so you should spend the little time I’m giving in a way that will at least satisfy your curiosity. Why don’t you ask me about the future or something?”

Her smile melted into a frown. She closed her eyes, put her hands behind her back and started to pace in front of me.

“We are the future, Guy. Don’t you understand that it is our destiny to rule the continuum together? Now, I know you’re busy at the moment being caught up in your heroic adventures, but I wanted to let you know that I’ve come to terms with that. In fact, I’ve decided to let you have your own intertemporal harem. I might even allow the little bitch from the future to be a part of it, provided I don’t have to see her.”

I interrupted her before she got too carried away, “Listen…you’re buying into your fathers delusions of grandeur if you really believe that. And you need to understand that I’m not the same as the Guy from the other timeline. I’m…I’m in love with Cinema, Nefratara. Not you.”

She looked absolutely crushed. But I must have looked equally distressed. Did I really mean what I had just said? I mean, of course I loved Cinema. I’m as much of a lover as I am a fighter. Despite rushing off into chaotic endeavors, I try to maintain goodwill and love to all people, even if I do shitty things sometimes. But Cinema was absolutely not equal. It’s not like I promised any of those other women that I’d come back. Cassandra, Lauren, Svetlana, and countless groupies…they were all either dead, dead to me, or merely a note in the story of just some guy that set off on a wild adventure. But Cinema was different.

No matter. My feelings on that matter would have to be sorted out later. Right now, Percival. The image of his face in the moonlit suite back in Moscow while killing the Russians flashed in my mind. And poor Svetlana. We had our differences, but I had to avenge her. She helped make me who I am. My focus needed to be on one thing only. Defeating my new adversary.

“Guy,” Nefratara said somberly, “I know I can’t make you love me. But can I at least get you to accept a gift from me before you go?”

She then removed the protruding emerald ring from her finger and handed it to me.

“Please,” she offered, “take this ring with you and use it in a time of dire need. It was created by one of my father’s sorcerers who tried to emulate time travel with magic. If anything disastrous ever happens, bite the gemstone off and swallow the gel inside. It will allow you to reverse a single instance in time.”

I refrained from taking it momentarily from lack of trust. But then I saw in her eyes that she was incapable of doing anything that would cause me any harm.

“Thank you, Nefratara,” I said before leaving her chambers, “I’m so sorry things didn’t work out the way you had hoped they would.”

On my way back down to Tet’s court, I put the ring on my left hand and inverted the gemstone into my palm to not draw attention or interfere with my Chi attacks. I figured since I would be going into an unknown and rewriting history, I could use all the help I could get. Once I took Tet’s advice on dealing with Percival, he would no longer be able to help me, seeing as how the future history he knew of me would be altered.

As I reentered the throne room, Tet spoke before I could, “So you’ve rejected my daughter again. I thought as much. All the same, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

He seemed unfazed at my decision. For all he knew, there was some other timeline with a fantastical version of myself and Nefratara carrying out his legacy. Yet he would have to live with knowing that his daughter in this reality would not follow a similar path.

“Where is Percival’s lair?” I asked.

“Malta,” he replied, “In a secret cellar, known only by him and his loyal caretakers. I can draw you a map of its location however.”

“And how did I defeat him?” I added.

Tet smiled as he started to sketch on the parchment paper, “I’ll let you figure that part out yourself and let you get creative.”

“Horseshit!” I shouted, “You said you’d tell me how to beat him.”

“You already know how to beat him; you just have to figure it out. I’m saving you time by giving you an advantage over him,” Tet responded.

I wasn’t happy with Tet’s reasoning but I accepted it. He finished drawing the map and showed me how to get to Percival’s lair. He told me what he knew of the secret order of guardians that were devoted to his service. Said they could be dealt with swiftly if I could direct the Russians to get to them while Percival was away. Content with the knowledge I was given, I decided it was time for me to return to my Alpha point.

“Good luck Guy,” Tet said as I left, “goes without saying, but I…know, you’ll be successful. If you ever decide to change your mind about my offer, you’re welcome here anytime.”

I noticed Nefratara looking from around the corner of one of the pillars as Tet and his guards saw me off from his palace. On my way out, I simply uttered, “Thanks. But don’t count on

it.”

When I returned to the present, I gathered Svetlana’s boss and the other Russian mobsters and told them the identity of their thief and where we could find him. Needless to say, they wanted to swarm Malta and stomp him out. I suggested a more strategic approach. Sure, we could go in en-masse and set explosives, destroying his hideout when he returned. But what if we made a mistake? What if he learned of our plan? Or if he survived the explosion? Surely it would take him months or years to recover, and we’d be back at square one trying to find him in hiding, but without the advantage Tet’s knowledge had given us. We needed to do something that would sure fire catch him off guard and stop him.

We set up decoys all around Europe, giving the appearance that the Mafia was going back in business despite fear of his attacks. This was a game to him anyway and he couldn’t resist going after one or two of the decoys. Meanwhile, we sent spies to Malta that confirmed Tet’s information. Everything he said was true. What we found was that a secret order within the Knights of Malta was aiding Percival. Not only were they housing him, but he was using their information network to learn about the mob's doings. This only added to the vendetta between them.

Once we confirmed that Percival had left and was en-route to one of our decoys, we made our move. In under an hour, the Russians seized a dozen of his oath keepers and infiltrated his hideout. It was hidden in a corridor of brick catacombs beneath modern city structure. His room was ornately decorated with souvenirs from throughout the ages. He had a large oak bed with fine linens and relics lined the walls. We weren’t sure how long he’d be gone so we went to work quickly setting our trap.

After several hours, we had everyone in their places and all we needed was for Percival to return and for me to confront him. If I could just survive against him and distract him long enough to spring the trap, we’d have him. If he just thought it was me there, he wouldn’t run unless I gained the upper hand in the battle, so the other men stayed well-hidden just outside of his quarters.

Finally, early in the morning before the sun came up, I heard him returning. I simply stood up in the middle of the room and waited for him to enter. When he did, he seemed overwhelmed with shock and didn’t even bother asking me any questions. He lunged into a furious attack after drawing his long knife. I braced for impact and avoided an initial stab wound. We tussled with each other for a few moments before each springing to one side of the room opposite of each other. I charged up and released a ‘White Lightning’ punch that made contact but did not down him. He retaliated with several quick flashes of his blade that cut me so cleanly across the chest I didn’t even feel pain, just gobs of blood in my hand as I grasped at it.

He stood down from his assault and said, “Did you really think you could come here alone and defeat me after our last encounter?”

“No, I didn’t,” I answered him as I started to catch my breath and hold my wound, “I knew that even if I came here with a dozen men I couldn’t. And if we got the upper hand, you’d just run off and regenerate. Then better prepare for us the next time.”

“Then why sacrifice yourself for those mobsters?” he asked, “What allegiance do you have to them?”

I smirked as I felt the room getting rapidly colder and I dropped to one knee and said, “I only have allegiance to myself.”

Looking stunned he asked, “Who the hell are you anyway?”

“Me? I’m just some Guy,” I said as I swept the floor with a ‘White Lightning’ kick that took him off his feet and broke his ankles.

He hit the floor, gasping for air. He lay about five feet from me. The room was getting even colder. I started crawling towards the foot of his bed and looked back at him and asked, “Is it just me? Or is it getting chilly here?”

He started to notice then that the room had reached far below freezing and would soon be at a subzero temperature. I saw him look up at the ventilation and realize he had been duped. The Russians were pumping in refrigerant! He began clawing towards the exit, but it was no use, they had barred the door on the outside. I, however, crawled the opposite direction and made my way under his bed. Underneath, I had hidden a thermal heated sleeping bag. Between that and the linens draped over the sides of the bed, I was snug as a bug in a rug. He, however, was slowly but surely freezing. Not thirty minutes after our fight began, frost was visible on the walls and floor. Icicles hung from the condensation dripping off the vents.

I could hear him mumbling in exasperations, “Nooo!!! How can this be?! I slew Jack the

Ripper! Rasputin! Bugsy Siegal! How could I be foiled by a nobody?!”

I wondered if he killed Paul Bunyan too.

When the door opened, a team of snow suited Russian’s poured in with guns drawn and found Percival frozen on the floor. Shortly behind them, a climate controlled coffin was brought in to store him in. Two men lit up heat producing flares and came to my aid. They put a jacket on me and walked me out of the room to a more comfortable environment.

When Svetlana’s boss arrived, he shook my hand and bowed to put my knuckles on his forehead. He made a phone call to have Robbie and Jess released and said that all the transgressions from the mafia against me would stop. I was more concerned about Percival.

I asked, “You know what to do with him right?”

“Of course,” he replied, “We’ll load him on the helicopter immediately and drop him in the nearest active volcano.”

I’m not sure how I defeated Percival in the other timeline, but that’s how we defeated him together here and now in this one.

Before I left, I surveyed the Russians looking at all the relics they found in the catacombs. Not only did they recover their previously stolen goods, but a whole new treasure trove had been open to them. Outside, I watched the helicopter fly off with Percival frozen on board. Rented trucks arrived at the entrance of the catacombs and the men began loading the artifacts. Svetlana’s boss approached me and I took the heavy coat off and handed it to him. He asked me if I would like to be his Lieutenant.

He stated, “I lost some good men to that fiend and with Svetlana gone as well, I could certainly use your services further.”

I politely declined and explained how that just wasn’t my style. But as I was explaining, I saw one of the men carrying a red rug with blue and gold trim towards one of the trucks. I asked him if I could keep that rug for myself. The boss said, “Sure! Keep anything you like.”

I retrieved the rug from the man and after holding it for a moment, I tossed it into the air. Sure enough, the rug straightened out flat and suspended in the air about four feet off the ground. It was the flying carpet I had seen Percival use to escape our fight in Moscow. The Russians looked on in awe as I tested to see if it supported weight with my hand before leaping aboard it from the ground. The sun had just come up and I wished them all well before ordering the rug to fly me off to a new adventure.