Silent Jury
Issue #16
by Tom Zjaba

Chapter 20
Down Time

    Boarding the plane, Vanessa is amazed at it's size. She has never flown on a plane, only Greyhound bus or train. She has seen them fly overhead, but they do not look as large as when you are entering one. She is even more delighted when she finds out they are sitting in first class. While coach would have been fine for her, Robert has grown accustomed to a different lifestyle and the thought of flying anything but first class is unacceptable for him. He is not a snob by any means, but he knows the differences and since he has the money, he finds it is better to just pay it and enjoy himself. And he wants Vanessa to enjoy her first trip.

    As they settle into their seats, he gives her the window seat. He has been on enough plane trips that looking out the window is no longer a thrill. Plus, he brought his laptop and want to do some much needed work. He has not spent any time going over the empire his father left him. While he knows that his father has capable people running his businesses, he wants to make sure things are doing well. He plans on looking over the records and get a better idea of all that his father owned.

    The plane takes off into the sky. Robert quickly gives Vanessa some gum to chew. She smiles at him as she seductively puts the gum in her mouth. She then turns to him and says "Do you always fly first class?" He smiles and nods yes. "Have you ever flown with any of your old girlfriends?" Robert looks puzzled by the question. "Why do you ask?" She smiles and says "Just curious." He then reaches for his laptop and opens it. She quickly pushes it closed and looks at him. "You did not answer my question." He reopens it and responds "No comment." She laughs as she squeezes his arm. "So tell me, when you flew with these ladies, did you ever join the mile high club?" While he knows what she is talking about, he decides to play dumb. "The mile high club? Is that like the frequent flyer club?" She breaks out laughing. She then bends over and whispers in his ear what the mile high club is. He has a shocked look on his face as she tells him. "Are you insane? Of course I never did that." he says with utter shock on his face. "Well, maybe it is time you were initiated." she says as she smiles. "You want you and me to have sex in the bathroom of the plane?" She quickly puts her hand over his mouth and says "Why don't you just say it over the PA system." She then removes her hand from his mouth. He looks at her and says "While it sounds...ummm...wild and crazy, I really want our first time to be special. I don't want it to be in some dirty bathroom on a plane." She gets a "You are so sweet" look on her face as she grabs him and kisses him on the lips. He is stunned by the kiss but afterwards, he says "If you keep that up, I may drag you into that bathroom." She then kisses him again, daring him to do it. He tries to ignore her and get back to his laptop.

    After he finishes setting his tent and getting a fire going, Justin Rage begins reading the journal he found. The first part is mostly technical, where Dr. Moreau describes his experiments. He goes into great detail about every failure and especially his successes. He talks about leaving Europe and coming to this island. He goes into great detail about the experiments and when he started having a breakthrough. He writes with great passion about how he turned the corner and how he sped up evolution with the beasts. Justin cannot believe that he is reading this and wonders if it is real or some elaborate hoax. He is familiar with the movie that was based on the novel from H.G. Wells, but always figured it was just a story. He never believed that it was based on a real story. Maybe there was such a man named Dr. Moreau and maybe he did do experiments on animals, but it is doubtful that he created human like creatures. If it was true, then it would have been more than just a novel. But then he thinks about the footprints he saw and wonders. Maybe there is some truth to this. But as he looks at the book, he realizes that it was over a hundred years ago. Surely, the creatures would have died off. He did not remember any mention in the movie he saw of female animals. Except for the cat woman.

    Later that evening, as the flames from his campfire blaze brightly in the darkness of the night, Justin decides to begin cooking his food. He pulls out a can of soup, that he brought and pulls opens the lid. He then pours it contents into the pan he brought. Knowing that he would not be able to stop at the store and buy supplies, he packed a set of pots and pans to use. He also grabs out his oven mitt to hold the pot, knowing it will get hot quickly. While the soup is already cooked and he could eat it cold, it tastes better hot. As he heats up the soup, he thinks about the journal. His best guess is that some indigenous tribe knew of the beast men and incorporated them into their rituals. The footprints he saw were most likely some kind of elaborate costume, most likely used in some bizarre dancing ritual.

    Outside the camp, there is movement in the jungle. A group of shadows moves ever closer to the fire. Hidden in the darkness, the humanoids move towards the fire. It has been a long time since there was fire on the island and they are attracted to it like flies to a light. As they get closer, they smell the soup. The smell of clam chowder entices them and makes them come closer than they would ever dare. They do not know the taste of cooked food. They heard of it, but the ability to create fire was long lost. As they near the fire, Justin does not see them standing behind him. The sound of the fire, along with the insects and frogs of the night, masks the slight sounds made by the visitors. Out of the shadows, three creatures step out. Two of them look like humanoid bears. They are large like bears, but there is a human like look to them. Their faces, while being elongenated like a bear, has a human look to it. Their naked bodies are completely covered in fur. But they are completely bipedal with their short arms hanging to their sides. Next to them is a tiger-man. He looks more human than the bear-men, but the thick fur and broad stripes are unmistakably a tiger. As they look at the fire, one of the bear-men speaks out. "Fuh ood. Fuh ood." The voice is deep and strong, but the speech is very slow and does not come naturally. This sound Justin hears and he quickly turns to see the creatures around the fire. "What the hell?" he says as he jumps to his feet. The bear-man puts out his large paw and says "Fuh ood." Justin does not know what to do. Instinctively, he grabs a branch out of the fire that is burning and thrusts it at the bear-man. The intensity of the flame scares him and makes him stand back. Justin then rushes towards the other two, who also shy away from the flames. They can tell by the heat generated that it is dangerous. "Get out of here." he says as he keeps thrusting the fire at them. The tiger-man swipes his paw at it, trying to knock the flames from his hand. But all he ends up doing is burning his paw, which causes him to scream out in pain as he runs off into the darkness. The bear-men soon follow him into the darkness. Justin just stands there in shock. Any doubts he had about man-beasts has been quickly erased. He now knows they are very real and a threat to him. He spends the rest of the night looking over his shoulder in fear of a repeat visit. Every little sound alarms him. The night is both long and restless.

    Connie watches as a forklift lifts the huge crate out of the back of a plane and carries it out. She struggles to hold back the tears as she watches her friend being unloaded like common freight. As the forklift brings it out, the crate starts to move. At first the driver figures the freight inside was not packaged correctly and was shifting, but as he puts down the crate, it continues to move. He quickly backs up the forklift as he does not know what is inside. "What you have in there? A rhino?" Stunned, Connie cannot answer. All she can do is just shake her head no. She also watches as the crate is moving. She does not know what to do, so she just stands there and watches. The crate starts shaking even more, like something is trying to get out. Then without warning, the sides are knocked out and go flying, with wood splinters flying everywhere. Connie covers her eyes to keep from getting hit by a stray splinter of wood. As she opens her eyes, she sees The One, struggling to stand. The forklift driver stares in disbelief as he sees this large, metal man standing there. Connie, overcome with emotion, starts to cry as she runs over and gives him a big hug. "You're alive!" she yells out as she struggles to hug the metallic man. The One gently hugs her back.

    In an unnamed warehouse, a group of men sit around a table. They are some of the biggest names in the mob and they are waiting to hear from one man. There was an uneasy truce during Justin Rage's reign. His power and ruthlessness was enough to get these men to keep the peace. That and there was plenty of money for everyone under his reign. He saw a vision of getting all the various mobs to work together and pool their resources. But with Justin Rage gone, there is allot of interest in taking over his position. And in this room is a dozen men who want that position. But now it is up to Deacon to try and persuade these men to follow him.

    As they wait impatiently, smoke fills the room. Despite the many warnings, almost every one of these men are smokers. They chain-smoke one cigarette after another as they wait for the guest of honor. There is allot of rumbling as they talk amongst each other. Some of the discussions become heated as their is allot of bad blood in the room. Around the table, there are delegates from the Chinese, two different Italian, African American and Latin American mobs as well as the Russian mob. There are also four members of the four biggest gangs in the city. Each of these men control a very powerful organization and each feels they have a rightful claim to Justin Rage's position. As they argue, Deacon walks into the room with The Mob. He walks up to the table and sits down at the head of the table. The Mob stands behind him. "Gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice." He then looks around the table and is impressed that everyone who was sent an invitation actually came. "As you all have heard, Justin Rage has left our city." As he says this, there is some rumbling. While these men all respected and feared him, they did not like him. They were jealous of his position and wanted to see him fall. But none of them had the guts to make such a bold move. "In his wake, I am assuming his position." As he says this, the men all stand up and start screaming. "Why should we follow you?" the leader of one of the Italian mobs screams out. "We have as much right to this position as you do." one of the gang leaders screams out. Deacon waits a few seconds for them to get their screaming done. "We are in a time of crisis and we need leadership. The kind of leadership that only I can give." With that, the men scream even louder. Some even make threatening gestures. Deacon stands up and turns to The Mob and nods. Like magic, the Mob goes from one man to a hundred. The men all stop and watch as they see the room fill up with clones of the Mob. "Gentlemen, meet my right hand man, The Mob." Then in unison, all the Mob clones yell out "Hello!"

    As the plane lands in Hawaii, Vanessa's face is plastered to the plane window. She still cannot believe that they are landing in Hawaii. Being from the Midwest, her only exposure to Hawaii was the typical Hawaiian vacation episode on most television sitcoms. As the plane comes to a halt, she turns to Robert and asked "Do they really give you a lei like on television?" He laughs at her question and responds "Just wait and see." She hits him on the arm. "You are such a tease. Wait till later, I will get you back."

    Walking off the plane, Vanessa's eyes light up as she sees the women with the leis waiting for them. She walks up and the lady says "Welcome to Hawaii" and puts a lei around her neck. She smiles as she looks at it. Robert laughs as he has been through this numerous times and it is no big deal for him. But her excitement is contagious and he finds that he cannot help but smile too.

    Gadget and Mr. Smith are busy working on the armor designs. They are working on making the armor stronger, more flexible and lighter. While it sounds overly ambitious, Mr. Smith has some ideas that can make it a reality. He has been studying some of the designs of the armor and has found some areas that can be improved. As they pore over the blueprints, they hear a sound. They are not sure what it is, but it sounds like a small explosion. It came from a different room in their headquarters, one that should be empty. Not sure what it is, they look to each other for answers. When they cannot explain it, Gadget opens a drawer on the desk they are working on and pulls out two guns. He hands one to Mr. Smith and says "Better to be safe than sorry." They both walk slowly out of the room and towards the sound. As they come around a corner, they see a man standing in the distance. It is dark and they cannot make out who it is. "Who's there? How did you get in here?" Gadget says as he points the gun at the man. The man turns around and lifts up his hand. As he does, his hand glows brightly. This illuminates the room and they who the mysterious intruder is. It is Doctor Warlock and he has a smile on his face. "Just came to see who was occupying my old hideout." Gadget then shoots the gun at him as he waves his hand, which makes the bullets fall to the ground. He then does a spell which sends a giant hand that grabs the two men and holds them tight. "This should hold you while I see what you did with the place." He then walks past them as they struggle to free themselves from the giant hand. He walks over and looks at the blueprints. "So very interesting. The Silent Jury is using my hideout for their headquarters." Gadget continues to struggle as he yells out "We are just some scientists. We know nothing of the Silent Jury." Doctor Warlock turns around and says "You can stop with the lies." He then chants a truth spell and places it on Gadget. "Now tell me again, is the Silent Jury using my hideout." Inside, Gadget screams out no and struggles to fight the spell. But his mouth blurts out "Yes." Doctor Warlock smiles as he says "That's better. What has become of Daniel?" Gadget fights to keep from talking, but he finds that he cannot stop. But before he can answer, Mr. Smith yells out "Don't tell him anything." Doctor Warlock laughs as he throws a spell on Mr. Smith that seals his mouth shut. "This should keep you quiet. Now tell me what has become of Daniel?" Gadget blurts out "He went back to his dimension. All of the wizards are gone." He smiles at the news. "Great! That makes me the most powerful man on the planet." He then walks over to the room where Gadget and Mr. Smith was working and looks at the blueprints on the table. He motions for the hand that is holding them to come over. The large hand floats into the room as he looks at the plans. "Technology sure has come a long way since I was last here." He then looks up at Gadget and asks "So where is your beloved Silent Jury now?" He struggles but as before, he is forced to talk. Robert and Vanessa are on vacation in Hawaii and Connie and Charlie went back to Japan." He grabs the blueprints for the armor and he rolls them up. "And how long are they on vacation?" Gadget unwillingly shouts "Two weeks." Doctor Warlock walks up to him and asks "And when are Charlie and his brat coming back?" Gadget lowers his head and says "I do not know." He laughs out loud as he says "Is the Silent Jury breaking up? How sad." He then waves his hand and sparks fly from it. The sparks turn into hands that go down both Gadget's and Mr. Smith's throat and chokes them. They gag like they are drowning on sea water, but after a few seconds, the smoke hand comes out and they stop gagging. "This silence spell should keep you from calling for help." He then motions for the hand to take them away "I will have you locked up in my dungeon until I have further need of your services." The hand then takes them away as he laughs out loud, watching the two men helplessly being taken away.

Silent Jury © 2006-2008 Tom Zjaba