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Chapter 1

“Is it time?” came the smooth baritone voice questioningly from the corner. Left Eye heard sounds everyday, yet never had he heard one as pleasing as this. But it was probably only Mouth, they came into contact so little that Left eye wouldn’t know Him from Mouth. The voice came again, “He wants to know, is it time, and is he ready?” It was Mouth all right, no one else talked to Him but Mouth, though right eye once said he had seen their master.
“It is time, but few, I think, are ready.” It was hard for Left Eye to speak, he never did, but the prospect of happy news reaching Him, from Left Eye, was enough to allow his crackling guttural voice to get out. A door suddenly opened to his back left, and though the room was pitch black, Left Eye went MIA, to avoid detection.
It was a small, bent over figure standing in the door.
“I can still see you, my Left Eye, and silence from my Mouth.”
It was Him, Dear master. IT. WAS. HIM! Left Eye fell prostrate before him, for he was not worthy to look upon the master, nor should have Right Eye, the stupid bastard.
“You are right about Kerry Glare, it is time by my reasoning anyway, but he would probably never be ready. I have wondered, friends, is this not to late? We have already pushed the events forward to much, and he is next. Will he, do you think, have time to learn to defend himself against the world, and is he willing to change his definition of dead. No one can really know how events will turn out, except for me, in a small way, for I have the code. Mouth, I want him retrieved, I know that the Firewall units are looking to bring him down ASAP, they already have theirs, and they some how know about him. Which reminds me, send my left leg to see me, he has to pay for his treason. Let’s go.”
Left Eye had not taken in a word, but the Master was before him, and that was enough.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Karry Glare woke in a cold sweat, and trying to clear his head of sleep and those awful images. He went to look at the time but found, right in front of his face, his black cat hogging the other pillow, and obstructing his view of the nightstand. He pulled the pillow out from under his cat, and she jumped and hissed at him, but he just pushed her out of the way. Karry scooted over to look at his alarm clock. He put his face just inches from his digital alarm clock. What he saw made him groan, it said 12:17 p.m.
“Christ, it’s only noon.” He said in a tired whisper. He had gone to his bed only three or four hours ago, but he got up anyway. He might be tired, but he knew that sleep after one of these dreams was impossible. He thought he would shower first, to wash away his tiredness, as opposed to eating first.
He pulled his face away from the alarm clock and went to grab his bifocals on the nightstand and almost fumbled out of bed. He caught himself with one hand one the floor and almost knocked over his lamp. He caught the lamp but he hit something heavy and it fell of the nightstand, there was a small tinkle of glass.
“Ah, Frick!” He shouted at nobody, “Don’t be the glasses, don’t be the glasses…” He breathed deeply as he found what it was. His empty water glass was on the ground and as far as he could tell it was fine. Thank god, he thought. There they are. He thought, relived. He shuddered as he put them on, what if they had broken! Several thousand dollars down the drain if that happened.
He striped out of his PJ’s and walked to the bathroom, he turned on the bathroom light, because every window in the house had a heavy, lead like curtain over it, guaranteed to stop 100% of all the sunlight.
He couldn’t stop brooding on those damn dreams all through his shower, which was longer than usual. This was the third time this week and it was only Thursday. Last week he had two dreams and the week before that he had one every night, that was when they first started. Each dream has been different than the last, but seemed to be in the same… what? The same world? He couldn’t figure out what it meant. As he got out of the shower he thought he ought to check the expiration dates on his food; he hadn’t gone to the grocery store in at least two months. In fact, he thought, I haven’t left the house for anything but work in the longest time.
After he dressed he walked into his kitchen. Karry liked to think he was fairly clean, especially for being a bachelor two four years out of collage. Karry had a bachelor’s degree in law enforcement. He even graduated with honors. But the trash was piling up and he needed to do his laundry. He would soon need to line Lunars litter box with that degree.
“Speak of the devil and he shall hear.” he said chuckling, as Lunars walked in the room. Lunars was a pitch-black cat. The way that she always treated the world with contempt never failed to amuse Karry. And at the moment Lunars was looking especially annoyed about being kicked off the bed so early, and offended at being awoken in such a rude fashion. “What’s your problem Cat?” Said Karry in a mock aggressive voice. Lunars tail shot strait up and she scampered away making a little yowling noise. A red circle caught his eyes on his calendar. “Ooh, crap. Fraghit is gonna kill me.”
It was Thursday, September 25. Kerry froze in terror as four things flashed through his mind, Thanksgiving, double shift, his new partner, and Fraghits inspection! And it was the latter that scared him the most. He started up in a frenzy, barely thinking. Kerry threw on his black trench coat and his black safari hat, pulled on his black leather gloves, grabbed his bifocals, and then his dark shades. Kerry had almost no skin showing. He snagged his keys and started ran out the door. He hit his foot on the doorframe on the way out and swore explosively. In the flustered hopping that followed, he dropped his sun block. As he bent down to pick it up again he slipped and almost landed on Lunars. He did , however, land on his sun block, causing dozens of blotches of sunscreen to spray all over the kitchen. Almost being landed on sent Lunars into a screaming fit, and causing several scratches to appear on Karry’s face. “SONOFA BITCH!” He screamed as his face started to bleed. The cuts were deep, and he could tell from the sting that he would have scars on his face for a long time to come.
Kerry looked at his watch; he had thirty-five minutes to make a one-hour trip. Suddenly, he was praising those dreams; if he hadn’t woken up when he had…
He had sprinted down the stairs and was fumbling with his bike key before he even heard his door slam. Finally he jumped on his all-terrain Mountain Bike. He was so flustered he didn’t even stop to notice the pain in his eyes as he entered the light, even through his dark glasses. As he biked up the busy street, he smiled at all the cars backed up for the length of the street, his panicked anxiety was finally starting to ease up. Bikes were definitely the way to go in New York. Thirty-four minutes, time to gun it. * * * * * * * * * * *

There he is, thought Karry. Captain Fraghit was a monster of a man. He stood 6’11” and weighed approximately 324 pounds, and Kerry often heard, from district rumors, that he had only 7% body fat. Definitely not someone to piss-off. He was Italian, with very dark slicked back hair. His face, normally indifferent and tan, was undoubtedly strained and red with barely contained rage. Karry shuddered at the thought of Captain Fraghit’s full wrath. The captain was turned; presumably talking to someone concealed behind his enormous body. Very careful now, he thought to himself. If he could just get to his desk…
“Hiya Karry, runnin' a little late today, ain’t ya?” It was Donald Rammet walking to his office.
“Shit,” he whispered to himself. He looked straight at Rammet, “You stupid Bas...”
“Glare.” Said a soft and disturbingly calm voice right behind him. Oh-o! Thought Karry. Oh God don’t let me turn around to a seven foot Italian that weighs 320 pounds of pure muscle. Not when I’m three minutes late to pick up a new partner on my double holiday shift. Oh please, oh please, oh please…
“You’re late. And you better have a damn good reason for being late, not only holiday double shift, but on the day that you gain an underling. What must he think of you, fresh out of the academy as he is?” Karry winced, and turned. Fraghit didn’t miss a beat.
Fraghit leaned down and put his face so close to his that their noses almost touched, “We will discus this on a later date.” He growled and stood straight, “Now then, Officer Karry Glare, meet your Greener.” Holy crap, thought Karry. If Captain Fraghit himself is introducing this greener… the kid must be going places. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who noticed, for the whole of the present police force was watching in stunned silence. Even, Karry noted, that pompous jackass Rammet was facing them with his hand still frozen on his office door handle. “This is Cadet James Longhorn.” Captain Fraghit said, side stepping to the left.
A very old habit of Karry’s was taking effect. He always sized up new acquaintances. Always. A habit born of necessity that he liked to think was a defensive mechanism.
The new kid was a Caucasian male, slightly below average stature: about 5’7”, and Karry put him around 130 pounds. His hands were currently stuck rigidly to his side with that just out of the academy rigor. He had tan skin, jet-black hair and green eyes that seemed to be sizing him up. His eyes were moving up and down; they seemed questioning at first, because of his outfit. But he must have decided it was irrelevant, because he made no comment. Karry made sure the kid didn’t see his face.
“Nice to meet you Longhorn, I’m officer Glare. And for the next three years, I am your god.” The statement was a very old joke that higher end officers used when meeting their new greener. No one knew where or, more correctly, when it came from, but it was meant to be intimidating. Longhorn appeared to be anything but intimidated by this, however. In fact, he looked amused, but he remained silent.
“Well, that’s it, my duties done.” Karry almost jumped at Fraghit’s tone, it was jovial. “Now then, I have real work to do. So I am leaving now.” He walked to the door and turned, “Oh and Karry, I expect to hear from Gressin about how he and you had a good long talk on punctuality. As for the rest of you” He said, with a hard voice, looking around the room at all the spectators, “get back to work, or I’ll mandate a Work Ethics session with the district counselor.” And with that he was gone.
Karry was relived and stunned that Fraghit had given Gressin the duty of his punishment. That man was a total wuss. He was also very lazy. Even if he did call that meeting, Karry doubted he would get anything more than a slap on the wrist. And Fraghit knew it. In fact, Fraghit had actually threatened Gressin with his job if he didn’t grow a backbone. So why was he letting him get away with it?
As though he could read minds, Rammet was walking at his side, “I think he likes you Karry.”
“Shut up and leave me alone Rammet, I’ve got to show the Greener around.”
“You might find that difficult with him still in the entrance zone.” Rammet examined as he walked back towards his office.
Karry twisted around, you gotta be kiddin me, he thought as he saw Longhorn still in that ridged position Karry had left him in. Great he follows all the rules. Karry was not about to go all the way back there, so he just waved the greener over. It took a minute but Longhorn got the message and did a sort of half hearted hustle over to him.
“Yessir!” He said quickly. His voice was light, but very disciplined
“Cool your jets Longhorn, I’ve got to go to my cubical, which is on the other side of the building. So I’m going to give you the grand tour. And you don’t need to be up tight, just act casual.” Said Karry, still preventing eye contact, even with his dark glasses on.
“Right, sir.” Said Longhorn in a much more natural voice.
“And my name is Karry, please use it.”
“Right S…err Karry. My name is James.”
“Okay James, let’s go.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The tour took about 15 minutes, and nothing special happened, unless you count running into Rammet again. But he just smirked at James and pushed ahead. The halls were practically empty because it was Thanksgiving.
“Uh, why are we going to your office.” James ventured when they were about two cubicles away.
“I forgot to put on my sunscreen before I came to work.” He replied, not meeting James eyes.
James cocked his left eye brow, “That’s a little extreme, don’t you think? It is fall after all.”
“It’s not extreme at all, for me.” He said defiantly, blushing a little. James didn’t say anything, in fact, he seemed completely uninterested.
“Why are you still wearing all of that?” said a mocking voice that was not James, it was Rammet, back again. He was gesturing at his trench coat and hat. Karry was amazed at the guts this bastard had, and at all the buttons he could press at once. Why did he keep showing up? He was starting to get very annoyed with him.
“You know full well why I wear all of this, now go away.” Said Karry, not even trying to cover up the malice in his voice.
“Touchy, touchy.” Said Rammet mockingly. Kerry whipped off his glasses and turned to yell at Rammet.
“Goddamnit! Go away, Rammet!” But when Karry looked to glare at Rammet, he was gone, instead he found himself looking straight into James’ eyes with his dark shades off.
“Hot unholy hell.” Karry whispered, James Longhorn, was Fuytr.