BOOK TWO

ONE LAST MISSION

(a book of action-adventure)

Chapter 1:

Sparring Partner

Marvelous sat on a counter in his kitchen with half a glass of orange juice and the remains of a second bowl of Frutty Blamm-O’s. It was a sunny day with a high chance of television, as Nathan avoided everything; and so, he poured himself a third bowl of Frutty Blamm-O’s just as the phone rang.

In an era of extremely lax communication, it was something of note whenever Nathan made an effort—such as answering the phone—but Marvelous was feeling a bit froggy with all that sugar pulsing through his arteries. With his mouth full of milk and cereal, he picked up the receiver, and chewed a salutation into the phone. “Helllooo!”

“That’s really nice, Nathan. What is that?” It was Brion Mindur, the mayor’s deputy and PR man, and one of the few people Nathan might label a friend.

“Breakfast,” Nathan quipped.

“And what are we eating this fine day?” Brion inquired.

“Sugar, preservatives, coloring, artificial flavor… Milk to wash it all down,” he stated, as he stared at the box right in front of him. “Not sugar,” he amended, “Corn syrup. High-fructose corn syrup…” He continued to study the ingredients, further down the list, between cornmeal and maltodextrin, he found sugar. “Hold on. We have plain old sugar too.”

“Sounds delicious,” Brion observed.

“All highly processed, purged of any inherent goodness.”

“Of course.”

“Fortified with twelve essential vitamins and minerals, including the recommended daily allowance of fluoride.”

“Reading right off the box, are we?” Brion queried.

“Mostly,” Nathan stated as he licked the remnants of his breakfast out of his teeth. “Four of the first five ingredients are different forms of sugar,” he noted, almost impressed.

“And four out of the first five are derived from corn,” Brion added.

Nathan shrugged. “So, you called for a reason?”

“We have a bit of a favor to ask,” Brion stated.

“Do ‘we’ now?” Nathan noted the royal ‘we’ in Brion’s comment.

“Most certainly do.”

“I have a fairly spotty record as far as civil service is concerned,” Nathan noted.

“True, we wouldn’t want a repeat of your last tryst with the public trust,” Brion replied.

Marvelous winced remembering the bloody mess that constituted the first and only emergency call he’d answered as a police officer. It was a bank robbery, and a downright bloody fiasco at that. Seven people died: four cops, one Olympic athlete turned robber, and two bystanders; a list Nathan escaped only because he was, well, Marvelous. Here’s how it happened:

As he approached the bank, the first officer to make the scene, he was hit by an armored truck. The driver stepped from the vehicle, assault weapon in hand, and put seven bullets through Nathan. Thank God for an extremely large and vicious caliber, as all seven bullets ripped completely through his body armor, and still had the velocity to carry clean through Nathan as well. He only knew the exact number of bullets from the holes in the front of his uniform. The back of his uniform… well… there was no more back to his uniform.

After getting shot, things got worse.

Angelica Scruples stood over Nathan, as a second police cruiser approached. She littered the car with bullets, killing both officers. The cruiser accelerated and veered the same direction Angelica attempted to dodge. The car just missed Nathan, but it slammed into Angelica, who died from blunt force trauma.

Psychoto, the mastermind behind the heist, escaped six million dollars richer, and immediately vowed vengeance for the death of his lover. He vowed not against the police, not the official government of Cityopolis, or even humanity in general; but against Nathan Marvelous alone.

After such a long and hard day, Nathan was interrogated, harassed and branded a coward by the commissioner, as he’d done absolutely nothing after he was shot. So many wounds had sapped his strength, and Nathan was found passed-out in the street where Angelica left him. He was reprimanded and stripped of his badge for his part in the events. Although it was little more than a public slap on the wrist, Nathan took the whole incident personally (but of course he took it personally! It happened to him, personally!).

The various media outlets spent months on the entire ordeal: investigating, polling, gathering opinion, and generally stirring the shit—as they do. The public furor was so loud that Marvelous spent most of his time shacked up in the guesthouse, for which very few people had a number.

The challenger in the mayoral race used the event to oust the incumbent, which led to the only positive thing to come out of the mess. The day of the Mayoral victory, Brion Mindur, the new mayor’s deputy and PR man, stopped by the mansion to extend the new mayor’s unofficial apology for involving Nathan in the mud-slinging. Nobody answered the door, but the fruit basket Brion left was much appreciated. Thanks to the administration of Harridge Wilborn, Nathan would eat pineapple and kiwi as the public outcry slowly faded to nothing.

“Is it time for the elections?” Marvelous asked, still wondering why Brion would call. “Are you looking for an endorsement?”

“That’s still a few years off, and besides, we’d rather win.”

“That hurts.”

“You’re not the media doll you once were, and you really don’t care anyway,” Brion noted.

Marvelous shrugged, “That’s what I tell myself—although I’m not always convinced. So what is it I can do for you? Not that I will...”

“A couple of friends are going to drop by. Nice people. Scientists, although I ask you not to hold that against them. I want you to hear them out.”

“When have I ever refused guests?”

“Officially? When have you ever received any?”

Nathan shrugged. “When are they coming by?”

The gate bell chimed.

“Oh, you’re good…” Nathan muttered.

“There’s no reason to make you wait. You will see them, won’t you?” Brion asked.

“I’ll even let them speak,” Marvelous stated.

“I’ll take it,” Brion replied. “I hope you find them entertaining.”

“Me too,” Marvelous hung up the phone. Brion Mindur wasn’t such a bad guy, and Nathan had to admit, he was happy to have something to do. He wondered if these scientists would say anything interesting, yet felt that might be an awful lot to ask. Whatever it was they wanted to say, they’d invariably strip it of excitement. That was the way of government, science, school, church—pretty much anything concerning more than half a dozen individuals, and certainly everything known to be ‘official’.

The chime sounded a second time as Nathan finished his orange juice, then stepped to the front and buzzed his guests through the front gate. All three protesters smiled and waved as William and Valerie pulled onto the grounds, which struck them both as rather strange, but wasn’t even close to the weirdest thing that happened to the astronomers that day.

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