The Anachronite
Phase five
Morley stood alone in the darkened house. A dim light crept in through the open front door and tinted the hall in front of him a pallid blue. The sound picked up again. Somewhere in the house a drawer slammed and footsteps echoed away into silence. Morely scarcely moved. He had been here before. A thick premonition swirled in his head that these sounds were dangerous. The creak of old door hinges sounded down the hall and Morley was wracked by a sudden convulsion that was the heavy pounding of his heart. A shuffle. More drawers. He knew what was happening but was frozen in place by a paradox of his mind.
The sounds were drowned by the shrill note of a girl's scream that shot like lightning through Morley's ears.
"Camina!" he yelled.
All at once the house flew into motion around him. The hallway shot past his eyes in a startling blur of shadows. All around him, walls appeared and vanished with such speed that the chaos overwhelmed him. Morley collided with a wall and spun as another passageway opened in front of him. He was lost but rushed ahead in a panic, calling his daughter's name.
The hallway twisted furiously as Morley sped through a maze of corridors. The sound of shattering glass resounded in the house and all was still. Breathing heavily, Morley stood alone facing a door. Small crayon sketches fluttered on its surface in an unfelt breeze. Slowly, Morley pressed against the door and swung it open.
A blackness as deep and cold as the ocean reached out to him. The expanse was endless. Morley lingered at the threshold, choked by the grip of despair. In the distance, he heard Cami's small voice calling for him but his own voice failed him. The air left his lungs in a ragged gasp as he stepped into the void and fell through infinity.
Sitting up in bed, the overhead lights burned Morley's eyes. The smell of old newspapers and mildew filled the cramped attic space where his old case files lay in neat stacks, interspersed with boxes of electronics and network consoles. Rubbing his eyes, Morley struggled against the demons of his dreams, but peace wouldn't come this time. Disorien-ted, he reached for his clock and pressed the date button. Disbelieving, he grabbed for his data bracer and checked the network time. It was the same.
Two months had passed since he and Bryan had confronted the walkers at Seer. Two months ago, Morley saw the beginning of Seer's demise. What had he been doing since then?
A noise from the corner pulled him from speculation. Somebody had been watching him sleep. Darting from the bed, Morely toppled a stack of papers, darting from bed to confront the intruder. His bare feet slapped sharply on the cold floorboards as he threw back a hanging drape and found the corner empty.
He approached the area cautiously. A pen holder lay spilled on his desk. The shutters issued a metallic groan as Morley pushed them out and flooded the room with sunlight. A pair of dusty boot prints marked the floor where someone had just stood.
Morley turned quickly from the scene and grabbed for his jacket. He was being played with. Urgency overtook him as he skipped down stairs to the ground level. It was uncertain how much time he'd have left, but if he was going to do anything in that time, he would have to do it now.
Fred Gambit threw the phone down and shot out of his chair as Morley tapped on the doorframe. All color left his face and he stared with full eyes at the apparition in front of him.
"Sir!" he gaped. "What's going on?" Morley entered and tossed a file folder on Fred's desk. "This is a request to reinterrogate Jennifer Gehen. Get on this now."
"But Morley -- sir -- you're dead. You were in the Seer builing when it exploded two months ago!" "It looks to me like I wasn't," Morley growled, impatiently. "There was a chrono walker at the scene that I need more information about."
Fred opened his mouth, not understanding. "But with the Seer database gone, there's no way to track these things anymore. Half the force has already quit. Can't you see, it's ..."
Morley pounded a fist on Fred's computer screen and the picture jumped. "The Hunters are NOT blind, dammit!" he roared. "We're doing this the old-fashioned way. Everything you need is in this folder and on the other end of that telephone line. GET ON IT! This is a top priority murder investigation."
"Whose murder?"
Morley paused and a smile touched the corners of his mouth. "Mine."
For previous installations of "The Anachronite," visit: http://homepage.mac.com/soupy/anachronite.html
Illustration by C.T. Zappe