Mage: Chapter 1
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Mage
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Chapter 1
A large modern full-service truck stop, located right next to the interstate exit, hundreds of trucks and trailers parked in the large lots surrounding the central building.
The main building is a combination convenience store, restaurant, auto/truck parts store, motel and bathhouse. I was looking for something in particular and I was killing time contemplating returning to my wife with a set of chrome reclining big titted women mounted on the mini-van.
Looking into the restaurant again, I spotted her. A college student, she was wearing a sweatshirt with the mascot of a local college. They had taken an innocuous mammal and tried to make it muscled and tough in support of their sports team. The deception was no more successful than the football plays they ran on any given Saturday.
I picked up the local paper and paid the cashier. I walked into the restaurant and waited for the hostess to seat me. Suddenly Ms Mascot spotted me, and called to me, gesturing for me to join her.
When I walked over and tossed my paper on her table and sat down, she made a moue and then she whispered: “Why did I do that? Why am I whispering? Who are YOU?”
“All good questions but I am hungry, I will answer after we order.”
After we ordered and the waitress left, I introduced myself: “I am Douglas Carlyle and you are Linda Christiansen.”
"Where do you know me from?"
"I never met you before today and I didn't know you before half an hour ago."
"What? That doesn't make any sense!"
"I won't keep you in suspense. I made you call to me and made you whisper so you wouldn't bring attention to us."
"And how exactly did you do that?"
“I could do this because I am a mind controller what some call a spark.”
"And what do you prefer to be called?"
"I prefer to be called Mage. My skill exceed mere mind control."
"That's a little egotistical, isn't it?"
I thought that she had recovered nicely from her earlier panic.
"When you know me better, you wouldn't think so."
"So why are you here?"
“Two days ago, I kissed my wife and left home, my purpose was to find a mind controller of immense power with apparently no control whatsoever. His emanations were so powerful that I felt it like distant thunder even sitting in my home hundreds of miles from here.
“It was as if the spark was attempting to read his newspaper by fireworks explosions. I am here to get the situation under some form of control before the authorities end up realizing the existence of mind control and ESP.”
“Control means what?”
“I don’t know, it may mean helping him to modulate his power and it may mean extreme prejudice, or something in between.”
“The authorities?”
“So far the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the alphabet soup of secret agencies who are not aware of ESP. Do you remember the movie Ghostbusters?”
"A little..."
"There is a scene with Bill Murray as a professor investigating ESP. He sets up an experiment with a pretty coed and a nerdy guy. The cute coed looks at her ESP cards and then the nerdy guy guesses the card. The experiment is that the nerdy guy is shocked for every wrong answer. Murray cranks up the voltage and all the while he flirts with the blonde. At a certain point, Murray has redlined the voltage and the nerd starts getting every card correct, 100 per cent, proof positive! But Murray is so busy trying to get laid he doesn't even notice. The CIA and NSA are Murray, they are so busy with sexy satellites and cool computers. They don’t see this at all."
"I read somewhere that the CIA experimented with LSD and peyote to try and delve into this exact area. That means they suspect something..."
A very bright girl, it is better to be lucky than smart!
“Luckily for my purposes, the lead scientists in the experiments found out some things that worked, told their bosses it was a miserable failure and then went off to live with their harems.”
"So, why are you after this person?"
"The problem is that this very high voltage spark shooting off his fireworks had the potential to get that government interest reignited. If somebody witnesses something and emails somebody about it, those organizations my stumble upon them. They monitor all communications. Or even worse, if it's a big event or something, some reporter may make it into a news item. So if they see a news report of weird happenings on the prairie. Any of that would be very bad.
“Make no mistake, if the CIA and Pentagon had credible evidence that mind controllers existed and could affect national security, they would bomb this state into radioactive glass, just to make sure they ‘GOT HIM’”
“No way. They wouldn't do that, would they?”
“Oh, yes. They would cover it by making it look like an accident or the act of a terrorist or a deranged person and they would court marshal someone and shoot him. Afterward, there would be quiet medal ceremonies and families would be comforted.
"We are playing for more than my inconvenience, if national security becomes involved we do not know what the outcome could be."
"So far you seem to have a handle on everything, so what do you need me for?"
“You are camouflage. You have local plates on your car and if questioned you have a credible history.”
"And what, am I supposed to drive you around looking for this rogue spark to show his face?"
"I can feel him, we don't need chance to stumble on him. We'll just find him."
"That still doesn't really explain why you need me. You were able to control my thoughts, so you should be able to take care of whoever needs to be taken care of..."
to be continued
