Master of Plagues, D. B. Reynolds [best books to read fiction .txt] 📗

you’re a living example, or rather a dead example, that some guys are just luckier than others.”
“Sorry, but we’ve gotta get in here to find our seats.”
“Sure, just enjoy yourself this evening.”
“I plan to.”
Stuart had forgotten how he possessed powers that were beyond the Earth. He could he see things others weren’t allowed to see? Even when it came to connections with the spirit world, not much went past his plain sight view.
He went up to one of the front desk clerks and asked, “Miss, I’ve got one of the craziest questions that anyone’s ever asked you.”
“What might that be, sir?”
“Were the Academy Awards hosted here at this hotel?”
“I see you’ve done your homework. In fact, the Academy Awards were hosted here all during the 1930s and 1940s.”
“Bet those Hollywood people had a grand time here at the Biltmore.”
“Sure they did.”
Stuart stepped away from the desk. Unanticipatedly, a U.S. President and British Prime Minister passed him by with an entourage of top securitymen. History went right by him in the spirit realm. He arrived at Venice Beach during the hours of the setting sun. Right before him was the sign which read: “Venice Beach, California: Another Day in Paradise”. The warmth of the setting sun and breaking waves from the Southern California coastline brought out thousands to go up and down the Venice boardwalk. Egos of disproportionate measures lingered in the atmosphere. Stuart could tell he walked in the midst of men and women who challenged one another’s status. In Los Angeles, if you had wealth and power, you had everything.
The shopping, dining, sports, recreation and entertainment, attracted visitors from every corner of the world. Stuart took his own stroll past the basketball, beach volleyball, handball, and paddle tennis courts. Coming upon the section known as “Muscle Beach”, he overheard some elite bodybuilder claim to accept the challenge of bench pressing a thousand pounds. A half-ton? Was this guy crazy? Crowds of people stood around to see if this man with big muscles could really bench press a thousand pounds.
He took the deepest, most important breath of his life. His fingers gripped the weight bar. One more deep breath and he was ready for the challenge. Using extraordinary strength, he lifted the weight bar and lowered the weights to his chest. Trying to lift the thousand pounds back into the air left him gasping for breath.
The steel bar pressed forcibly into his chest. He couldn’t breathe at all. Spotters tried lifting the weights off him. Not even their muscle-bound strength could help him. Spectators rushed over to help. Collectively, even their assistance was useless. The bodybuilder desperately gasped for breath. His face turned bluish from the lack of oxygen. A case of hysteria broke out amongst the crowd. Stuart looked over and saw they needed help.
He moved everyone aside as he picked up the solid ton of steel weights. Gently, he sat the weights on the ground with just one hand. Bystanders were in complete awe. Stuart only weighed a buck and forty-something pounds. How could a man of his height and weight lift up a ton with one hand with such ease?
“How in God’s name did you do that?” asked the trained bodybuilder, still gasping hard for breath.
“Ummmmm, it’s no big deal,” Stuart said with modesty, having taking center stage at Venice Beach.
“No big deal! You just lifted up a thousand pounds with one hand.”
“The important thing is that you’re okay.”
“You definitely saved my life and I thank you for it.”
“Next time, don’t stretch beyond your limits when it comes to lifting weights.”
“Six-hundred pounds should’ve been my limit. This incident showed me that showing off can get you killed.”
“Yes sir, my friend. It’s good to entertain people, but don’t lose your life in the process.”
“Thanks so much, buddy.”
The bodybuilder pulled Stuart closer to shake his hand while giving him a tight bearhug. The crowd clapped to show their gratitude for his act of bravery. People dispersed to other areas of Venice Beach while Stuart continued on his journey. Being somewhat of a new hero, women in bikinis and tight, hip-hugging shorts followed him along the boardwalk. The female species knew something was special about him. Not until a man gained some level of fame did the women started showing up. He ignored them to concentrate on another of his specific missions.
A layer of darkness now dominated the Los Angeles skies. Time for business once again.
The one-time packed Venice Beach converted to a crowd numbering less than twenty. Stuart looked down at his watch and it was twenty minutes past midnight according to Pacific Standard Time. Strong waves from the Mighty Pacific pounded up towards the shores. The nighttime breeze whistled off the waves and sung a strange tune in Stuart’s ears. The big ferris wheel over at The Santa Monica Pier lit up as it spun around. Most residents around Venice Beach had retired for the evening. Very little sources of light was seen around the boardwalk. All the shops and restaurants had closed.
Things were at the point Stuart wanted them. He brought the magical talisman out of his Old Navy shorts and held it up to the nighttime skies. Concentrating at astute levels, he felt around the edges and ridges of the powerful Hebrew letters. Once again, the powers of the Universe were activated on his behalf. The Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies spun at millions of revolutions per seconds. Charged cosmic powers clustered all the stars together throughout the dark Los Angeles skies. The stars and crescent waxed moon moved aside to make room for the Heavens to open up the skies.
Through the wide opening, there came many balls of cosmic fire. Half of the Pacific’s one-hundred and seventy-million square kilometers supernaturally split open. Winds blew in excess of a hundred miles an hour. Stuart was lifted off the sandy beaches of Venice and high into the sky. A force within the thick hydrosphere of the Pacific pulled him under the massive body of water. Traveling at supersonic speeds, he found himself nearly 36,000 feet below the surface.
The Marina Trench was the exact location that the cosmic forces navigated Stuart to. Once on the very bottom of the Pacific Ocean floor, not even the standard atmospheric power exerted enough pressure to bother Stuart. Emerging from the sediments of the ocean floor’s mud, sand, lava came a great white shark. The great white flashed long rows of razor-sharp teeth.
Both of the shark’s eyes glowed with a strong fluorescent blue. Other sharks sliced through the canyon-like trenches of the ocean’s floor. Whale sharks, angel sharks, hammerhead sharks, and tiger sharks, they all swam at unbelievable speeds from other ocean bodies. Stuart didn’t need a single bit of oxygen to breathe the five miles below the ocean’s surface. Universal powers provided him with all the air he needed. A beaming light from the Heavenly bodies penetrated through miles of water to provide vision for the consecrating ritual.
The fluorescent blue light mixed in with the cosmic light from above. Stuart and the great white shark sent telepathic messages back and forth. They studied one another for a moment. The great white swam around him in circles while other sharks followed. This was no sign of an attack. A mere pre-requisite initiation would get underway. Other ocean creatures scattered to various parts of the Pacific. The great white’s eyes appeared as flashing blue laser beams. Telepathic messages were still being sent into the highly-developed brain of the shark.
Vibrations moved up and down its long vertebrae. Stuart relayed silent messages to the brain’s area centrally-located between the eye sockets. The great white processed the information like a super computer. All the sharks present knew that Stuart was ordained with inexplicable powers. Before long, sharks numbering in the hundreds filled space around The Marina Trench.
Stuart would speak the first words. “Do you know who I am?”
“From deep within the ocean’s depths, you have been sent to become by master,” answered the great white shark.
“With us being deep under the ocean’s surface, do you know that you are to obey my every command?”
“Yes, master.”
“Do you also know that my special powers have been granted by The One Most High?”
“Yes, I know, master.”
“When you are summoned, you are to come upon my direct command. Do you understand?”
“Yes, master.”
“When I give you an order, you are expected to carry out that order to the best of your ability. Am I understood?”
“You are fully understood, master.”
“For all intent and purposes, when you are directed to discipline someone, you cannot terminate their lives. Understood?”
“Understood, master.”
“I must obey The One Most High. You are to obey me. By powers invested through me into you, it is hereby ordained that you will serve me.”
“Master, only you will I serve.”
The great white shark bowed down in consummate servitude.
Stuart spoke to the multitude of other sharks. “As with your leader, you shall also yield to my every command. You are to appear when you are summoned. Am I understood?”
Every shark present shook the tips of their pointed noses and bowed down in servitude.
“Your powers will stretch far beyond the great masses of water on this Earth. Greatness will follow in your wake. Planet Earth will submit to your immense powers. Am I clear?”
“You are clear, master.”
“The One Most High has allowed you to take part in something divine. Are you ready for divine greatness?”
“Yes, master.”
Towering waves pounded throughout the surface of the Pacific.
Stuart moved and created enough motion to float over by the leader of the school of sharks. He placed both overlapped hands at the center of the great white’s head. “From this day forward, you have been ordained with the name Mowab, which means water or seed in Hebrew. In the Holy Bible, Mowab was a son of Lot.”
“Master, it is official that you’ve given me the name Mowab.”
“For the rest of the