CARTER [P2C2] – The Custodian
The Chronicles of Samuel Carter – Part II: Chapter Two
This is Part Two of the Chronicles of Samuel Carter. If you haven’t read Part One, yet, please find the link below.
And now for the continuation…
Part II – Chapter Two: The Custodian
A high-pitched hum wormed its way into Samuel’s consciousness, planted itself there, spread, grew into a twisting torrent, washing away the last remnants of his involuntary slumber. He groaned, inhaling the damp odour of mould, machine oil and grease.
“Doctor Carter? Is that you?”
The words came to him over the rumbling of turbines. Samuel knew that voice. He tried to reply but found himself gagged, bound to a chair, cold, metallic, struggling against the rope, only to tighten it more. He opened his eyes, but all remained black.
“Mmmpf mmml mmmh.”
“Stop pulling ze rope. We are tied together—”
The grating noise of a rusty door, a shaft of light from above, a narrow stairwell along wet concrete walls, heavy footsteps, one, two, three distinct sets, echoing, drawing closer.
“Mmmh!”
“Shhh! Let me do ze talking.”
A cane came down hard on the floor before him, gargantuan black leather shoes, pinstripe pants, matching vest and Homburg hat. A puff of cigar smoke violated his nostrils. A pocked face, framed with a flecked beard, an enormous nose beset with glinting spectacles, and eyes, cold eyes, penetrating him in ways that made his skin crawl.
The turbines ceased, the noise ebbed, and only the low whine of generators remained, joined by the buzz of pale neon light.
“Welcome to Hellstone Lake, Doctor Carter,” the words dripped like fine wine.
“Erich?” the professor said, craning his head left and right.
“Silence! I will deal with you later, Verräter!”
“We are on ze same side, Erich. Don’t you see?”
“Mmmml?”
“You left, Thomas. Went to the enemy. You picked your side. I ought to thank you. Now, Doctor Carter will give us what we want and then…well, and then you die.” He took a long draw and blew a thick cloud into Samuel’s face.
“Aber nein, Erich. Listen. Doctor Carter has come to reverse ze damage. We must help him.”
“We don’t need him for that, only what’s inside of him.”
“MMMMPF!”
The man nodded to one of his companions. A woman wearing the same tailored suit stepped up to Samuel, syringe in hand, grabbed his head and injected him in the neck. The third man in black was watching with amusement, leaning against the wall, flicking a toothpick with his tongue. Erich waved his hand at the gag, and she removed it.
“You cannot do this, you cannot go around kidnapping peo…ple—what did you inject me with?” Samuel tried to swallow in a dry throat.
“A little concoction to relax your mind, Doctor Carter,” said the man, leaning over Samuel, checking the dilation of his pupils.
“My name is Erich von Göhrlichen, custodian of this sacred temple, sworn to protect it from this—” he pointed the cane at his chest. “Do you know what I speak of?”
“I…I—” Samuel’s mind expanded.
“Where is Jackie Rogers?”
“Jackie…she—she betrayed me, she’s—dead.”
“Tell me the incantation,” The man’s voice came to him from far away, his face a cloud of smoke, two hot coals for eyes, melting, flowing down into a pool of tar until there was nothing left.
He saw himself back in the chamber with Jackie. Back in Egypt, holding the Staff of Ra, intoning that incantation.
Talha Ka Ran Bara’da Kan.
The eyes, the eyes were glowing white, a burning gaze, fixed on him.
The room exploded with bright light, and he was at his mother’s funeral, standing at the grave, nervous, sad, forlorn, feeling watched. Watched by whom? Samuel wanted to warn, tell himself to stay put, but it was no use. The son who lost his mother fled as if chased by ghosts. It was then that he saw. Jackie. How? She was looking right at him.
Release the light, Sam. Find my brother. Find Adrian.
Her words echoed in his mind as his captor’s face spiralled into view, holding a hot cigar close to Samuel’s eye.
“Stop it, Erich. He doesn’t know anything. Beaumont kept him drugged. Your serum will make a mess of it. He could die,” Thomas said, yanking the rope.
“He will die anyway.”
“He has ten days. Beaumont gave him stabilising pills. There is still time.”
“You mean these?” Erich held up the pill box.
“Release the light,” Samuel stammered. He remembered. The chamber, the poison, everything. For the briefest of moments, his mind was one with what was inside him. A cosmic union, a sea of stars, birth of galaxies, a symphony of light and darkness, and he felt its unbridled rage, searing through him like lightning and with it came fear, fear of vanishing into that light, fear of what he would become, what he could do. He felt a prick at his neck, and the light shrank as the serum spread through his veins.
“Not yet, dear Doctor. Not yet.” Erich grinned, putting the cigar back in his mouth.
He woke to the scent of pretzels. Disoriented, he thought he was back at the airport when the ropes around his ankles yanked him into the present.
“I’m hungry,” Samuel muttered.
In the corner, the two guards sat at a small table, chatting in German, laughing, snacking on pretzels and drinking beer. This was a different room, smaller. The air was earthy and stale.
“Hey.”
The guards ignored him.
“They moved us while you were out,” said Thomas, fiddling with the buttons on his jacket.
“I really could use that pretzel now.”
“Hold out a little longer, my friend. I will get us out of here.”
“What’s that noise?”
“Ah, ze magnetic shield. We are deep under ze Hellstone Lake. Can you not feel it? The X-Point?”
“That’s where I am supposed to go.”
“Ja, but not yet. We need ze pills. Ach, that blasted snowstorm—Erich is wrong, I’m no traitor.”
“So, you don’t work for Beaumont?”
“I do—it’s complicated. I promise you, I will get you out.”
“Like you promised me that Brezn?”
“Ruhe! No talking,” barked the guard.
Thomas craned his neck to check the two guards while turning his buttons.
“I will get you as many Brezn as you can eat. Promise. You must trust me. Beaumont does not know everything, you see, neither does Erich. I can help you.”
“Because you know everything?”
“Of course not. I know enough, and this is only ze first step, not only to save you but everyone who has vanished, ja, I know about that. We are missing a piece of the puzzle. Another X-Point.”
“You mean…”
“There are many, at least a dozen, if not more, no one knows for sure. They are all connected, and no one could figure out how. Not until…”
“I used the staff.”
“Exactly.”
“So, why do you need me? Beaumont has the staff.”
“Ach, der staff is useless now. Ze energy—” Thomas made a swooshing sound towards him.
“Went into me.”
“Ja. Und now everyone wants to get that energy. Control ze gates.”
“I said QUIET!” The guard threw a piece of pastry at them.
Thomas turned the buttons on his tweed jacket some more, a soft click followed by a hiss and the rope was cut.
“Laser buttons,” Thomas whispered, cutting Samuel free.
“Who are you?”
“A professor of Egyptology, like you,” Thomas winked.
“I must have missed the button brief—”
“Ready?”
“Hold on—”
Thomas screamed in panic. Smoke came from his tweed jacket, little flames licked at the fabric. The guards ran over shouting, opening the cell, and before Samuel knew it, Thomas had knocked them out.
“Your jacket…”
“Harmless but effective.” He patted out the remaining flames.
“Are they—”
“Ausser Betrieb. Temporarily.” Thomas took the keys and went to the door when they heard someone clapping. The sound came from the speakers on the wall.
“Bravo, Thomas. Bravo. Do you really think I’m that stupid?” Erich’s voice was like acid.
“Erich…”
“Don’t you Erich me. I trusted you. I didn’t want to believe it. You broke my heart.”
“You have to let us go, Erich. Doctor Carter—he’s not ready. He needs ze pills. If you force this now, you will doom us all.”
“The pills? You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Tic-Tacs. That’s all they are. Mints. A placebo. Beaumont lied. They don’t suppress anything. It’s all in his head.”
Samuel stared at the speaker. That simmering feeling of rage resurfaced, his vision blurred, his eyes bristled, turned white, they burned, he screamed.
When he came to, the cell lay in ruins, walls blackened, cracked concrete, his eyes felt numb, and everything was blurry. He tried to get up, fell back down, looked around him and saw the Professor on the ground behind him.
“Professor?”
Thomas moaned. Samuel crawled to him and helped him to sit up.
“Are you hurt?”
Thomas coughed and patted the dust from his jacket. “I’m fine. Sturdy tweed,” he said with a weak smile.
“What happened?”
They helped each other up and Thomas looked at him. Samuel could see the fear in the man’s eyes.
“You happened.”
Samuel Carter – Adventure Series
Why hasn’t Hasbro called, yet? 😅
TFTD Community
Thank you for reading, and to all new subscribers, welcome and thank you for joining! Please leave a comment and say Hi in the chat or on Discord, or drop me a line via email. I am always happy to hear from you.
If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so that more people can discover it on Substack. 🙏
Wonderful writing, great dialogue and an intriguing story laden with puzzles for our intrepid explorer to solve. It’s all here. However, all I could think of when I got to the end was, “He’s got his own action figure??!!” 😆
Ahh, excellent, it continues. I really liked learning things here from Samuel's perspective. The reader gets the information as Samuel is doing so. Works really well.
“I must have missed the button brief—” really tickled me. You've captured that sense of Bond-like off-the-cuff humour here 😄