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A while back I wrote a short novelette. It took me a very long time to write it, but I have written almost as much on this squeal in the last year as I wrote entirely for "Hole in a Field". To show that I have been doing something with the little mystery I created I present you with a sample chapter for what will become "Foresight" (Ironic).
The last preview was of Chapter 9 and is linked here.
Chapter 19: Down to Business
"Sir?"
came the secretary's voice from a cracked door.
The Man in
the Suit was looking at the digital pictures of what had been found in the hole
in the field. A black pillar or stele covered
in arcane writing. It was vantablack
and seemed to be emitting some kind of signal.
Four of the five people who had been investigating it had died, and the
bodies of random people had been found in the underground chamber. Was this what the Cloak had warned him about?
"Yes?"
asked the Man in the Suit.
"I
know it doesn't seem important," she said.
"But I wasn't able to cancel the meeting you had set up for this
morning."
"Which
meeting would that be?" he asked staring into the black on his monitor.
"It's
with the TV producers about the show," she said sheepishly.
His chin
dropped to his chest and he buried his face in his hands, "okay."
"What?"
"I
said OKAY!" he yelled. Followed
immediately by, "Sorry. Sorry. I'll do the meeting. Sorry to yell."
"It's
okay," she said. As the door nearly
shut she said, "I heard what happened."
Part of his
job was the management of the image of the White Hats. The organization was still seen as a group of
weirdoes by the public, and those were the few who knew they existed. As funded and official as they were, they
were at best seen as cryptic specialists in investigative work, unable to get
the funding necessary to be proactive in research and development constantly
taking work outside of the stated mission of the group.
The obscure
hipster mystic image suited the founders of the group just fine, they had
started it as graduate students and had spun it into an online community, that
was all the fame they ever wanted and they liked doing the work. But for the financiers, the management that
knew how important the work they were doing really is, they needed the public
to want the help, they needed the public to offer to help them, they needed
more money, more applicants, more trust.
They needed a TV show.
"Well
if it isn't the notorious Man in the Suit," said the gleaming white smile
that walked as a man, Tyler.
"Such
poise," said bombshell in a pantsuit, Judy. "I could sell a horror anthology series
with you as the Rod Sterling in an instant."
Why did
everyone always reference the Twilight Zone?
Thought the man in the suit.
"Tyler, Judy, we have spoken in email, good to finally meet
you."
"Ooh,"
said Tyler. "Do you hear that voice
Jude? Sounds like Morgan Freeman."
"I was
thinking Yul Brynner," said Judy.
"You
are right, that is the voice of a pharaoh," said Tyler, sitting down
first. "Have you ever considered
voice over work?"
"No,"
he said. "I've never managed to get
out of management fields."
"The
world of movie trailers weeps for their loss," said Judy taking a seat.
"We
wanted to alk to you about what we see the show being," said Tyler.
"So
you have agreed to a show," said the Man in the Suit.
"Tentatively,"
said Judy. "You have enough
material to fill three shows, case files for a police procedural, enough
history to fill a history channel hidden mysteries series, and enough
investigators to run a Cops style reality show."
"So
you want three shows?"
"Not
so fast," said Tyler. "We are
just worried that horror fantasy entertainment is getting played out. We have shows that are deep into horror, we
have shows that are deep into alternate history."
"History."
"What?"
asked Tyler.
"You
said 'alternate history'," said the Man in the Suit. "It isn't alternate anything. It happened, people just don't want to admit
that."
"You
say that with such conviction," said Judy, smiling and fluttering her eyes
a bit. "Makes a believer out of
me."
"Thank
you."
"Point
is," continued Tyler, his smile having never left his face, though his eyes
weren't smiling completely. It was a
forced smile, he hated being here and hated the show ideas, he thought the
whole thing was a farce, like every hack script with the words 'based on true
events' written on the cover. "The
point I am trying to make is that you need a hook that sets yourself apart from
those and I think we have the idea.
"It's
actually brilliant," said Judy, her smile was legitimate, she probably
talked Tyler into coming, probably threw this idea at him to keep the project
alive. She was flirting with him.
"We
want the characters to be really relatable," said Tyler. "But funny. We were thinking a comedy like 'Seinfeld' but
instead of comedians they are researchers.
The core of the show is actually the dialogue between the characters and
them being in the various restaurants and hotels, but with the work they do
being the background."
"Stop
a second," said the Man in the Suit.
"I had four people die in the last 24 hours."
Tyler and
Judy went pale, Judy's mouth dropped open and Tyler's forced grin broke.
"I
know you have to worry about media markets," he said. "I know that things are about
selling. But the reason we want the show
is because we want people to know that what we do is dangerous, and the things
in the dark are real, and they are here."
There was a
shimmer in the room, just for an instant, and Judy started shrieking. No, wait, Tyler was shrieking. Judy was shivering and remaining motionless. The room was covered in tiny wolf and daddy
long leg spiders.
"I'm
sorry," said the Man in the Suit.
"I think I have another appointment that takes precedence."
"I can
come back," said the Cloak stepping out of his door that had materialized
in the office.
"I was
talking to them," he said.
"Judy, Tyler, it was good talking to you, but my friend has
something important to tell me I am sure, he never shows up for any other
reason."
"My
apologies," said the Cloak, as Tyler ran shrieking out of the office,
nearly going thru the Cloak's door into the place of harsh yellow light and
discordant clicking.
"It
was a good meeting I think," said Judy standing in the most rigid way
possible, she had a card. "Here is
my personal number if you want to get together later and talk. I never got your name."
"No
one has heard his name in a long time Madam," said the Cloak.
"I'll
call you, Judy," he said, taking the card.
"I know it is a lot to ask, but I am going to need your help, I
don't believe Tyler is going to have a lot of faith in the show."
She smiled
for a half second, before a spider crawled on her face causing her to cringe,
and close her mouth and eyes.
"Shall
I fetch my creature to dispose of the little pests?" asked the Cloak.
"Judy,
we're going to get something to get rid of the bugs, going to need you to keep
your eyes closed for a couple minutes," he said. "Trade secret, has to be
protected."
