Blake and the Veil of Time
1
Thomas Chantry dreamed the vivid dream of a real event and not the fuzzy gauze of fantasy.
He walked a strange street, along a waterfront that was different from what he was used to in Chicago.
He looked towards the skyline near the center of the city. Maybe he would find answers there.
Chantry proceeded towards downtown in the rapid scene changing that dreams allowed. He stood in front of the City Hall.
Church Hill.
He was standing in front of the Church Hill City Hall.
He glanced to his left. As he looked in that direction, a bright column of red light leaped into the sky.
Hot wind played across Chantry's face, as he watched the column expand through the city in material eating dome. It cut its way across town, devouring everything in its path.
Thomas ran from it, as it approached City Hall in its slow way.
If you died in your dreams, you died for real.
Thomas ran. He stayed just ahead of the monstrosity, but could not pull ahead in the race.
He saw the waterfront ahead. He ran to the end of a dock and threw himself in the water. He dove to the bottom and began swimming out to sea.
Thomas Chantry swam as deep as he could. Everywhere he looked strange fish swam with him. Above him, the ocean steadily vanished in the white blankness he had witnessed taking shape.
Thomas found himself being pulled up in the expanding wall of white. He could almost hear the fish scream as their smaller bodies were vacuumed into oblivion.
Thomas felt his foot start to vanish when everything began to fuzz and wobble.
Chantry sat up in bed, sweat roiling from his brow. He grabbed a notebook from a table beside his bed, switching on a lamp.
He wrote Church Hill on the top page.
2
Adam Blake stood in the middle of the wrecked laboratory. His metallic green eyes surveyed the scene as calmly as a man studying a passing cloud.
"The only thing taken, Mr. Blake, was a new application of a confiscated weapon of Alan Arthur," said Dr. Ray Macross. His hands worked themselves against each other as he spoke.
"What about the original weapon?," Blake asked.
"The Cutter Bay police have it in their evidence vault," said Dr. Macross. "We were only allowed a small period to examine, and then blueprint, the thing before it had to be returned to the impound."
"How did you get access to it?," asked Blake.
"The device was to be examined with the results to be turned over to the Military."
Blake nodded.
Blake silently walked around the room. The Church Hill Police Department Forensics team had already come and gone, as well as the FBI. Now it was his turn to sift what evidence he could.
Blake's careful search did not turn up anything new that wasn't in the police reports already. The scene itself had been gone over and the technicians' handiwork remained everywhere to cloud the waters.
He gave up, deciding to try a new tack on the problem.
His first goal was to get a look at the original device in the Cutter Bay impound. That would tell him what to look for that the doctors could not due to the security nature of the reverse engineering.
It was a game of catch up, and he was last out of the gate.
Blake told Dr. Macross he would be in touch before he left the building. He wondered how much time he had before the thief used the beam weapon.
Not much, he decided as he headed for home.
3
Thomas Chantry packed a bag of clothes for his trip to Church Hill from Chicago. He had money from a career of painting his vivid dreams on canvas, so a train ticket was easily gotten.
Chantry arrived at the station with time to spare. He wandered the place aimlessly until his train pulled in with a huff of steam on the track. He waited for the other passengers to board before he walked to the ladder with his carryon.
He found the state room he had purchased. He placed his bag in the small closet, and sat down on the seat which doubled as a bed. He stared out of the window as the train made the last call whistle for any last minute arrival to get aboard and find their berths for the long trip.
The train surged forward with a rattle of effort. Minutes later, Chantry was watching his home recede to a point, and then finally vanish in a single moment of clarity.
4
Adam Blake assembled the equipment he felt he needed for the task. A call to Cutter Bay had netted him a flat "No," to a request to view the evidence. He decided to get a look anyway.
He typed in commands to the keyboard he had hooked up to a television in his lab. Pictures filled the screen with a swiftness a normal human would not be able to follow. Blake simply wrote several notes to himself on a piece of paper.
Blake donned a set of black fatigues, beret, equipment vest, and utility belt. He pulled on a long coat to hide everything, then he called a cab to take him to the airport.
He had a private hangar at the airport for a case like this. Even though Cap Carrington was his pilot, Blake was an expert in that line of endeavor also.
Blake pre-walked his plane before boarding and getting permission to take off. Once he had cleared the runway, he set course for Cutter Bay. The powerful jets built into the wings of the aircraft allowed him to reach his destination faster than any other plane in the air.
Blake landed at Cutter Bay International, and used another private hangar to shelter the plane while he went about his business. He made sure to refuel the plane before he set about the next part of his plan.
A cab ride took the adventurer downtown. He stepped into a building and made his way to the roof. Below his new vantage point was the Cutter Bay Police Department HQ.
5
It took the train a day of travel to reach Church Hill from Chicago. In that time, Thomas Chantry slept and dreamed vividly.
He walked the streets of Church Hill quietly. People were everywhere. He could see the end of the street among the rows of buildings. As he watched, the outward shell of one collapsed inward. That killing glow began to eat the pavement again.
Chantry ran the other way.
He noted the street as he passed. Now he knew where the disaster would unfold. All he had to do was find the specific place before any of this happened.
First he had to wake up.
That hideous glow devoured the scenery at an amazing rate. He had to escape it somehow.
A whistle penetrated his dream. It sounded again. Chantry sat up, listening to the call for Church Hill. He had slept the night, and gained a piece of information.
He straightened his clothes and cleaned up before heading for the steps leading off the car. He waited impatiently for the train to come to a halt, aware of the passage of time.
6
Adam Blake pulled a small launcher from his utility belt. He loaded a spike attached to a cord in one end of the launcher. He took careful aim at the building across the street. A thumb press sent the spike on its way, trailing the rope behind like a long tail. The spike dug in the roof top deeply. Blake secured the other end to a piece of air conditioning.
The adventurer placed the launcher across the cord and grasped it in both hands. He slid across the open space, stepping up to secure a foot hold on the police headquarters roof.
Blake walked across the roof, silent on the graveled surface. He pulled a lock pick and opened the access door with a minimum effort.
He stepped inside, letting the door shut behind him.
Blake cautiously made his way to the evidence room. The corridors were mostly deserted as detectives and patrolmen went about their business of keeping order.
The evidence vault was the first and most serious obstacle to his goal.
First a man was on guard at a desk. The guard was protected by a fence with a slot for small items. A padlocked door stood on one side for larger items.
Then a man was checking things in and running an inventory among a set of shelves behind the fence.
Blake did not see anything like a camera, or an alarm. He knew the officer probably had some type of panic button under the check-in desk.
This was Cutter Bay after all.
Blake pulled out a dart from his vest. He dipped it in a vial of clear liquid.
Blake took careful aim and let the dart fly. The projectile flew through a space in the fence and stabbed the policeman in the neck. The man collapsed on the top of his desk without a sound.
Blake rushed forward and picked the padlock before the other man could approach the front of the evidence room. He slipped inside silently.
Another dart rendered that man asleep.
Blake checked the log book and found several devices that had been confiscated from Alan Arthur. He took out his black scanner and inserted the green card in its side. He checked each device into the box.
Satisfied he put the scanner away, and left the vault as silently as a ghost.
Blake retraced his steps out of the police building. He exited through the roof access. He pulled the piton out of the roof with one swift yank. A simple swing on the line to cross the street and he was maneuvering around the building to a fire escape. He descended to the street easily.
A cab took him back to his jet at the airport. He got clearance and headed back to Church Hill.
Blake thought about the readings from the inventions created by Arthur. He knew the designs were advanced, but to actually see one was like looking at a piece of the future.
A future that he would have to insure from whomever stole the copy from Macross.
7
Thomas Chantry stood in the middle of downtown Church Hill. He had taken an hour to secure lodging and store his bag for the duration of his visit.
He walked in the direction of the holocaust. Things impinged on his eyes, but he ignored them. He had time, but it was running out.
He turned onto the street he had dreamed of on the train. He walked west, toward the building he had seen in his dreams. He knew it was ahead, veiled by the larger stores and offices.
He paused at a corner, before crossing with the light. An image imposed itself over the scene. He saw the light appear and sweep outward again. It reached him and passed.
It left behind the source in plain sight.
Thomas smiled.
8
Adam Blake drove from his private garage one handed. The black box beeped in the other. A small arrow pointed into the city.
He followed the arrow, easily cutting through the afternoon traffic. He wondered about several things he had thought of as he had flown from Cutter Bay.
Uppermost in his mind was Dr. Macross. A stray thought had entered his brain and he wished had more time to pursue the suspicion.
Something was off about this task.
He saw that the arrow led him west of the central part of the city. He followed it until it pointed at one building in particular. He drove pass and found a place to park.
9
Thomas Chantry examined the building from his dreams. The only places that looked a likely place to enter was any of the windows that adjoined a thin fire escape running down the side of the building.
Thomas walked into the alley, trying to figure out how to get the fire escape to get to the pavement. He finally decided to roll the dumpster over, and used that as a stepladder to grab the bottom rung of the ladder. It creaked downwards, as he put his weight on the steel.
Chantry waited until the ladder had quit moving before climbing up to the first landing. He began checking windows for a way into the building without breaking anything.
10
Adam Blake blended into the afternoon walkers on the street. He spotted a lone figure climbing up the fire escape. The black box in his hand showed location markers for electronic equipment as he considered options.
He decided on a direct approach as the unknown man reached the roof of the building and climbed out of sight.
He walked to the front door of the target building. A slap of his hand snapped the three deadbolts on the door. He placed the box in his utility belt, still active.
He might need it later.
Blake stepped in a foyer on the ground floor. His quarry was above, but its guardians were rushing him with hastily grabbed tools.
Blake made for the staircase as the guards formed a blockade. His hands seemed to flicker in the low light of the hall. Four cracks were followed by four men sleeping on the floor.
The fifth man paused at the unexpected speed of the intruder. Unfortunately he paused on the stairs. Another crack sent him to the bottom of the stairs as Blake proceeded mechanically graceful forward.
11
Thomas Chantry paused to listen. It sounded like gunshots below. He put that out of his head. His instinct led him now. Sudden sounds would not sway him from his task, now that he was in place to carry it out.
To do otherwise would be to never sleep again as long as he lived.
Chantry went to the door that called to him the most and tried it. He was not surprised to find it was unlocked, as if waiting for him to come along and open it.
He stepped inside and paused. A mask had fell over his vision, overlapping the future with the present.
He watched as the machinery overloaded and triggered the event that destroyed Church Hill from this new perspective.
Then he moved forward to stop it from happening.
12
Adam Blake went up the stairs until he reached the greatest power display picked up by his sensor from below. He paused as he saw that the man from the alley was powering it down.
"What are you doing to my machine?," said an angry voice, preceding an angry Dr. Macross into view.
"You're machine is going to destroy the city if you use it," said the stranger. "It can't be used the way it is now."
Blake pulled the sensor from his belt. He had to agree with the stranger. If the machine was allowed to test fire in any way, disaster would follow.
He disconnected the card form the box and stored them in his belt. He pulled a small steel ball from its compartment. He gauged the distance and angle. Then he threw in a flickering motion of his hand and arm.
Dr. Macross held an energy weapon in his hands pointed at Thomas Chantry. The steel ball hit the top of the weapon with a ripping crash. It ricocheted from the ruined rifle into the massive version of Arthur's device. A sparkling cascade roared out as Chantry dove for cover as if he expected it. Dr. Macross was caught in the stream of energy as it turned to a column of heated light.
He vanished in a puff of flame and sprayed ash.
"I think we have a problem," Chantry said as he picked himself up away from the burning plasma.
"It is a meltdown," said Adam Blake, as he pulled a tool kit from his vest. "We are going to have to pull the plug as fast as we can."
Thomas Chantry looked around. He spotted a generator on the other side of bright artificial lightning that was eating the wall.
Luckily it would have to cut through the interior walls, and then the outer wall before becoming a danger to anyone else.
"I see a generator on the other side of the room," said Thomas. He wanted to add "Lucas" to his sentence but didn't.
"Shut it off," Blake said, as he removed several panels from the casing of the machine. He examined what he could see with as much hurry as a doctor getting ready to operate on patient near death.
Chantry frowned as he considered the request. He lay on the floor and a piece from the wrecked rifle. The beam didn't arc to the floor like he thought.
He didn't want to be cooked to a crisp like the man who had threatened him. He pulled himself to the other side of the room. A simple button push cut off the generator.
Blake looked at the gauge on the front of the device. He cut a nest of wires apart with a wirecutter from his kit. He regarded the gauge emotionlessly as it said his and Chantry's efforts had destroyed the machine's ability to take in energy.
Now to discharge the remaining energy into the air harmlessly.
Blake slapped a block of plastic material on the dying weapon. He inserted a cap and pressed the button as Chantry crawled back under the stream. The two men made their way downstairs in a rush, dragging the five accomplices with them as they went.
Chantry watched the building destroy itself twice with the satisfaction of a job well done.
epilogue
Thomas Chantry returned to Chicago. In the comfort of his own bedroom, he dreamed.
He stood in a room, peering at a grid of hexagons with a podium in front of it. Various colored lights covered the surface of the podium.
Adam Blake entered the room, as a knight...as a swordsman...as a cowboy...as a soldier...as a man in a black suit. He stood on the grid with same calm expression in every case.
"Ready?" said another man, entering the room. He went to the podium.
"Energize," said Blake.
The newcomer slid his fingers across the lights on the podium. The grid lit up. Blake disappeared in a sparkling cloud of particles.
Chantry shifted in his sleep, fell into another place. He forgot the insight he gained even as he heard names sounding a roll call.
Then he dreamed of other things.