New York City is a lovely place to be in early August. People play hooky from work to stroll the
streets of Greenwich
Village or Brooklyn Heights.
They take impromptu picnics in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. Toss Frisbees in Manhattan’s Central Park. Take
in free concerts or matinée movies.
It’s not a time for the Voice of
Odin to be heard.
The Voice was heard exactly at 1:07 PM. And
while there were many different accounts of that day, one thing was agreed on:
the Voice was a musical, even magical sound, like a thousand crystal wind
chimes all being stirred at once by the same soft summer breeze. A sound that
hung in the air and cascaded like a veritable waterfall of harmonious
sound. A sound so fearfully deadly.
Later that day, the complete reports
of the effects of the Voice added up to three thousand cases of heart attacks,
eight thousand with permanent loss of hearing, and twelve thousand other cases
of injuries relating to those who had lost unconsciousness or had a seizure or…
something else. The ‘or’ cases
were quickly classified by the American Intelligence Machine, the National
Security Agency, and other alphabet soup agencies.
The Voice of Odin was heard again in
Hong Kong an hour after the New York attack.
Again, everybody remembered hearing that same sound of a thousand
crystal wind chimes, almost heartbreakingly beautiful in its simple
gloriousness.
And then twenty thousand glass
windows exploded into shards of deadly transparent razor sharp missiles that
killed over a thousand people and injured six thousand more.
But the Voice of Odin was not
through yet. In Hollywood, the famous actress Dixie Dunbar received
the Madeline Bouchard Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding 50-year
career in film and television. Still
gorgeous at the age of 73, with an outstanding figure and a pair of knockout
gray-green eyes that melted the hearts of men young enough to be her grandsons…
Dixie was giving her acceptance speech when that
same musical, thousand wind chime sound was heard in the Amphitheater located
in the Michael J. Fox Cultural Center. And
everybody who was there said the same thing: when the angelic wind chime sound
was heard, the gorgeous, beautiful Dixie Dunbar clutched her throat, then her
heart, and then dropped like the Titanic.
Of course, this being Hollywood, and
this being Dixie Dunbar, it was a while before it was realized that this was not
some publicity stunt or outré entertainment, but was, in fact, another attack
by the Voice of Odin.
***
An email was delivered to every
major news service some seven hours after Dixie Dunbar’s death. By then, the rumors flew fast and furious
over the airwaves and on the Internet.
The email soon put a name to the terror that threatened everyone:
“My name is Odin. Today you heard my Voice speak in three major
world cities. It will speak again. It will speak because you must be convinced
of the truth of what I can do. My Voice
will be heard every three days. After
you hear my Voice, I will make my wishes known.
If my wishes are not obeyed to the letter, my Voice will continue to be
heard. You have seen what my Voice can
do. If you choose not to obey me, it is
at your own peril, since the peoples of the world do not know where or whom it
will strike when I speak next.
“I understand that it will take time
for you to be convinced. I have that
time. I have waited long for my Voice to
be heard, and I have nothing but belief in the power of my Voice. Ignore me at your peril. Disregard me and the lives lost will be your
responsibility.
“To the peoples of the world; your
leaders will tell you that I am a madman, that what I have done today, I cannot
do again. Your leaders are self-serving
fools who care only for the security of their jobs, and nothing for you. Think of your wives, your husbands, your
parents, your children. They are the
ones who will suffer because your leaders decided your fate. I beg of you that you not leave the future of
your lives in their hands.
“I truly do not wish to create such
havoc and chaos. But there must be order
imposed on this tired world, and I will impose it at any cost. So I say this to the people of the world:
obey the Voice of Odin or make your peace with whatever god you worship.
“And do it right soon.”
***
The President of the United States sat in her Oval Office, mightily wishing
that she had stayed a senator from Hawaii.
Senators didn’t have to deal with madmen wielding technological terrors
that slew from a distance. Several men
sat across her large desk looking at her, each with laptops or thick folders in
their hands. They were the men she was
counting on to give her advice in this unthinkable hour of fear.
Doctor Michael Cadwallander was one
of her Science Advisors. He was also the
Director of Special Projects for the Henderson Institute of Alternative
Technologies, one of the leading scientific research firms in the world. Cadwallander was about five eight, with hair
and eyes the color of ashes.
The second man dressed in a steel
blue business suit and was furiously tapping on his laptop. Milo Dane, codenamed: ‘Wildcard’ was the head
of Omega Elite, the U.S. government’s ultimate ‘dirty tricks’
department. When the first attack had happened, Omega Elite’s members had been
put on alert. The problem was that they
had no target.
General Patrick Nathan Leary, head of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff quietly spoke into a cell phone. A muscular slab of a man: blocky, with a
square, honest face and the steely gaze of a born warrior.
The President spoke in a voice as
brittle and fragile as ice on the surface of a lake.
“I need answers from you,
gentlemen. What kind of weapon is this
and why don’t we have a defense against it?”
Cadwallander answered in a clear but
troubled voice. “Madame President, it’s
pretty clear that this Odin has somehow created an effective sonic weapon using
harmonic wave patterns based on molecular vibratory signature variances. As we’ve seen today, it’s very dangerous and
very effective. Various government
agencies and independent research facilities experimented with such devices,
but it was judged unfeasible and funding was cut from those experiments.”
Milo Dane nodded. “Our weapons research at the time was
concentrated into electronics and physical enhancements. Sonic research was something we just… well,
let slip.”
The President ran a short-nailed
finger through her coal black hair and leaned back in her chair. She crossed slim legs and said some very
un-lady-like words. “Do we have any
experts on this we can call in? Where’s
Kalaydjian Feros?”
“He and his team haven’t been seen
for two weeks. They went on a personal
mission to France and that’s the last anyone’s heard of
them,” Leary answered. “I’ve got friends
of ours over there looking for him.”
The President fixed a bilious eye on
Cadwallander. “And where’s your
boss? Where’s Henderson? His
brother Mongrel?”
Cadwallander shrugged. “I called him two hours ago and got his
personal assistant. She simply said the
both of them were unavailable.”
“Damn! What’s the point of me giving these people carte
blanche to run around doing what they want when I can’t find them when
they’re needed?”
“Madame President, I’ve got my
people putting together a file on Odin right now, but it’s pretty obvious to me
and to all of us that we’ve got to move and move damn fast,” Milo Dane said
quietly. “We’ve got three days before
Odin turns that thing loose against us again.”
Milo looked at Cadwallander. “You wanna help me out here?”
Cadwallander gave the other man a disdainful glare and turned his attention to the President. “The only advice I can give you is this; we have to find Odin and we have to find him fast. And for that, I suggest you talk to the one man who isn’t here. Talk to John Velvet. He knows people that he can put on this to find Odin. But whoever he puts on that job had better be damn good and damn fast because when Odin turns that Voice loose again there's no telling what will happen."
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