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

That giant queen bee looked you dead in your face and shot off some stuff about its master. Now, do you have something you’d like to tell me?”
Dana threw both of her hands over the shoulders of Michael. “Dear, when I was a nursing student at NYU, just two weeks away from graduation, some of my classmates and myself decided to play a prank on the goofiest guy on campus. This prank was dreamed up by this really rich Jewish guy named Anthony Greenstein. Since we knew he’d been a virgin all his life, we had him believing we’d get him laid. We picked out this dump of a hotel in the South Bronx to play out our prank. Anthony paid for a mechanical sex doll and we put it in a bed, along with a whole buncha maggots. He came to the hotel and got the embarrassment of a lifetime.”
“What was your part in this prank?” Michael asked, intrigued by the story his wife walked him through.
“I supplied the maggots.”
“You did! As in, the little white insects?”
“Yes, I did. Then, I dumped more maggots on top of his head after he found out that the person in the bed was nothing but a mechanical sex doll.”
“Dana, how could you be so cruel?”
“Back then, I was young and dumb and full of myself. I was just having some fun.”
“Do tell, what was this guy’s name?”
“Stuart Duffelmeyer.”
“Jewish?”
“Duffelmeyer’s Jewish to the bone.”
“They’re God’s chosen people, Dana. You might’ve opened yourself up to negative energy. And that same negative energy, it could’ve transmitted over to our family.”
“Michael, you’re superstitious.”
“Do you know The Bible?”
“Yes, sort of.”
“Remember how God gave Adam dominion over the Earth? Remember how Adam named all the animals and was given dominion over them?”
“Sure, we learned all of that in church when I was growing up.”
“The giant queen bee, the rest of those other bees, maybe they’re some supernatural forces sent to our house as a warning.”
“That’s ludicrous.”
“Ludicrous enough to make you not apologize to this Stuart Duffelmeyer guy?”
Michael hinted around to Dana. She had little time to think about his suggestions. The power to break the devastation of the plague was in her hands.


CHAPTER—38

BIRTH OF THE BAT BATTALION

Stuart filled out some paperwork and drove off in a brand new Nissan Versa from Enterprise Rent-A-Car over on Wisconsin Avenue. The compact car had the features most useful to him. The automatic transmission, air conditioning, power doors and windows, and cd player, were convenient for his distant travel. Flashing his platinum Master Card sure brought a spark to every clerk’s eyes inside the rent-a-car dealership.
Happy and fulfilled were the exact moods Stuart relished. Frequent spiritual visits from Rabbi Irwin Wedemeyer and unexpected phone calls from Laura Rivenburg delighted him every time. Having people to check on him gave him a sense of importance. After several short minutes of travel from Milwaukee, Stuart ended up in the very small city of Mayville, Wisconsin. It was a growing city of a little more than five thousand residents.
Rock River graced through a long stretch of the quiet community. The river flowed at the outskirts of town and around schools and businesses. Stuart felt the comforting essence of the welcoming community of safe neighborhoods and affordable housing. Driving down Kekoskee Street, he passed several medical and learning facilities. He cruised modestly down Breckenridge and Buchanan Streets for sightseeing purposes. A drive of several more miles ended him up near a farm in a town called Herman. The map didn’t quite get him to his desired location.
A farmer wearing dark blue overalls and a large straw hat came upon the road where Stuart had parked. “Young man, are you lost?”
Stuart folded up the map and greeted the farmer with a welcoming smile. “Sir, I believe that I just left Mayville. What section of town am I now in?”
“You’re in Herman,” the farmer directed him. “Where bouts you hunting for, son?”
“Actually, I’m looking for the Neda Mines.”
“The Neda Mines are here in Eastern Dodge County. They’re about a few yards over yonder.”
“I’m trying to follow this map, but somehow I ended up getting lost.”
The farmer gave Stuart the most inquisitive stare. “Young man, those mines been closed since the better part of the early nineteen hundreds.”
“Really?”
“Ain’t nothing inside those mines but a buncha brown bats.”
“Didn’t know that,” Stuart fabricated, hiding the truth from the old farmer.
“Watch yourself, young man. Cause the Natural Resources Board been keeping an eye on those old mines. They don’t want nobody bothering any of those bats since they’ve been dying from that white-nose syndrome crap.”
Stuart cranked up his car and bowed to the farmer. “Sir, thank you for your directions.”
Stuart drove off, and within a short distance, he discovered the Neda Mine Bat Sanctuary there in Dodge County. The old abandoned iron mine was one of three largest bat hibernation sites in North America. Stuart parked and went up to the dark entrance to the mine. Little did he know that decaying rock and limestone made it dangerous to travel inside. Biologists and cavers and environmental engineers had grown afraid to travel into the mines. Such professionals feared how they’d never be heard from again.
Stuart took his first few steps inside the dilapidated mine. Instantly, he lost a small portion of air flow. A few more steps and he entered almost complete darkness. The airflow became less while temperatures dropped to cooler degrees. Stuart traveled just over a mile into the Neda Mine and stopped for rest.
He felt his way through most of the journey. Thousands-upon-thousands of big brown bats were lined along the ceiling and walls of the mine. Many returned to their sanctum after going out on another one of their insect-hunting missions.
The evening meal for most of the bats were beetles, moths, crickets, and mosquitoes. During his veterinarian studies at NYU, Stuart learned how bats were beneficial to farmers and their crops. Farmers were grateful to bats for devouring the insect pests that plagued their crops like peaches and bananas and mangoes.
Nesting in huge colonies, the brown bats echoed much squealing noises throughout the mine. Stuart traveled another half-mile and found a comfortable spot. He lifted the magical talisman from under the thick khaki shirt. Though he was already in near complete darkness, he closed his eyes and pressed both thumbs and index fingers down onto the Hebrew lettering. Seconds was all it took for the thick blackness inside the mines to be erased by supreme cosmic light. Every inch of space burst into a fiery summit of light.
The ground underneath the mines shook with beastly force. Strong winds blew in from the hollow openings. Stuart looked all around the ceiling and walls of the stretched mine. Over five-hundred thousand bats from a four-state region, all lined up along a four mile stretch of tunnels, flew wildly and were within close proximity to Stuart. A half-million little and big brown bats, red and Hoary bats, and silver-haired and Northern long-eared bats, claimed the Neda Mines as their domain.
They all gathered as close to Stuart as space allowed. The bats that were no bigger than human hands expanded to sizes of fully-grown human beings. One could imagine them growing the size of twenty eagles. It’s the exact size the largest bat had grown to. This one flew circles around Stuart at speeds of seventy miles per hour. The leader of the entire colony utilized its power of echolocation to pick up scents and wavelengths coming from Stuart.
The elongated arms and fingers from his massive wingspan caused the other bats to move aside. The claws from the hind feet curled with aggressive motion. The poor visual acuity of its eyes stared valiantly into the eyes of Stuart. Pulses and echoes of frequency coming from the colossal bat were picked up by Stuart. Strong telepathic messages were exchanged between them. These were the monumental periods that were to be cherished. Yet another creature from Earth would join Stuart’s family.
The limited airflow deep inside the mines never bothered anyone. He clamped opposite sides of the giant bat’s head. “From this day forward, you will be addressed as Captain Zamir. The Hebrew name ‘Zamir’ means a nightingale bird of song or to sing. Your Universal powers will be that of a bird with a song in its mouth to help many Earthly souls.
Captain Zamir felt a tingle go up his vertebrae.
Stuart patted his newly-appointed creature on the top of his head.
“Captain Zamir, your powers have been fully-activated. Welcome to the phenomenally sensationalistic family of Stuart Irwin Duffelmeyer.”
The great concentration of the light led Stuart right out of the once dark iron mine. He got inside the rent-a-car and drove off.


CHAPTER—39

WORLD CLASS WRECKING WINDS

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals granted David Nguyen at least two weeks to recover from injuries he’d suffered inside his judge’s chambers. There to pamper him during his most stressful times was his loving and caring wife, Verna McReynolds-Nguyen. The couple enjoyed some peace and quietness after their son and daughter were taken away for the weekend by their relatives.
Doctors prescribed him pain medication and suggested he’d stay off his feet for a few days. David and Verna relaxed in the comforts of their estate in the quiet Chicago suburb of Burr Ridge. Verna made sure her husband took his medication on time and checked his temperature and blood pressure at least twice a day. She sort of served in the capacity of being his private duty nurse.
Their love for music had them relaxing to soft tunes. An evening of romance would’ve been great, only if David didn’t suffer injuries from the unexpected tornado.
David took the soft hand of Verna and they interlocked fingers. “Verna, honey, there’s something that I have to tell you.”
Verna worked up one of those worried looks. “Don’t lower the boom on me. You’re not having an affair, are you?”