Master of Plagues by D. B. Reynolds (color ebook reader .txt) 📖

gotten up here,” Anthony sighed, jerking on the door to let them in.
The door swung open and the surprises were endless. Six more soldiers from the army of General Rahmaanteen showed up wearing security uniforms. They carried guns and flashlights and pepper spray. Rats wearing security uniforms? Anthony couldn’t find such a thing possible.
“Nooooooooooo!” Anthony cried out once more, covering his face in utter confusion.
“You call, Mr. Greenstein?” jokingly asked one of the rat soldiers.
One of the stronger soldiers pushed Anthony back inside. Sitting on top of two expensive copying machines were two other soliders. They pushed them down the hallway and ran head-on into Anthony. The copying machines were crashed and were no longer of use. Their fun still hadn’t ended. Anthony’s worst nightmare had played out before him. Two soldiers wearing the security uniforms took telephone cords and wrapped them tight around his legs. Another two dragged him from one end of the hallway to the next.
“How you feel, Anthony?” asked General Rahmaanteen, smiling down on Anthony.
Anthony huffed in anger as he clutched both fists. “I don’t know who you are, I don’t know where you came from, but I’ll get even with you for what you did to me and to my office.”
“Let’s not talk about getting even,” the general reminded Anthony. “Getting even shouldn’t register on any of your lists. You’ve stepped on a lot of toes and now you’re paying the price. Until you find it in your heart to ask for the forgiveness of those you’ve stepped on, then the fury of hell will follow you everywhere you go.”
“You don’t know nothing about me, pal.”
“Wrong, Anthony. I know a whole lot about you.”
Anthony snatched a pistol out of his desk that he used for target practice. Out of aggravation, he fired several shots at General Rahmaanteen. The bullets went through him like an invisible shield. Why, oh why, did he do such a bad thing? This angered the general to the boiling point. General Rahmaanteen jerked down his suit pants and underwear. He used his razor-like incisors to bite two large chunks out of his backside. Blood stained the edge of his mouth. The fleshy chunks were spit out across the room. Using the agility of his powerful tail, the general lashed him several times across his backside. Stuart couldn’t’ve been more correct. Their callous behavior at the motel room in the Bronx would come back and bite them in the backside.
“Awwwwwwwww!” Anthony wailed, extreme pain setting in.
“You were told that your evildoings would come back and bite you in the backside.”
The general swung his tail back and forth to lash the backside of Anthony several more times.
“Mmmmmmmmm!” Anthony yelled again, followed by more excruciating pain.
“My master has sent me to plague you.”
“Who is your master?”
“The secrets of the Universe will not permit me to reveal who my master is.”
Anthony couldn’t stand another second of humiliation. He slid his back against the wall and stepped away from General Rahmaanteen. In record time, he rushed to the elevator and jetted out of Greenstein Towers. Hysteria had gotten the best of him. Across the street, were parked two NYPD squad cars. They worked the night shift from the Midtown Manhattan precinct. Could they be of any help? Anthony hurried across the street. He bammed uncontrollably on the windows of the squad cars. The officers rolled the windows down and it wasn’t what Anthony expected. Two wrestler-sized rats in NYPD uniforms sat behind the wheel of two squad cars.
“Help me somebody!” Anthony moped, falling to his knees while feeling rather hopeless.
“Everything okay, Anthony?” asked the rat behind the wheel of the first squad car.
The rat behind the wheel of the second squad car asked, “Treating you okay up there in Greenstein Towers?”
“You rats are everywhere!” he vindicated. “Where does it end?”
Little did Anthony know that it’d never end until he apologized to Stuart Duffelmeyer. They’d played out their prank, now Stuart played out his plagues. One down. Seven more to go.


CHAPTER—15

LONE STAR LOCATION

The subtropical humid climate in Dallas, Texas reached a scorching summertime high of 115 degrees. Warm and dry winds from the north and west instigated heat indexes to temperatures which had Dallas residents cranking up their air conditioners. Stuart arrived in Dallas on Delta Airlines at about 2:35 p.m., Central Standard Time. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had passengers jam packed from one end of the airport spectrum to the other.
The second Stuart stepped outside, the humid temperatures caused him to break into a sweat. Wet rings had his printed Hawaiian shirt sticking to his back and chest. He noticed one big difference between New York and Dallas. The people in Dallas were much friendlier than the mean ones he’d dealt with back home. Service with a smile came natural to the native Texans.
After renting a car from one of the airport dealers, he drove straight to his downtown hotel. There sat yet another piece of beautiful architecture in downtown Dallas. The Hyatt Regency Hotel bolstered fifty stories of majestically-constructed concrete and steel and glass. The Dallas skyline found esteemed company in the sky. Stuart received royal treatment from the clerks at the front desk upon being handed back his credit card and room key. For a hefty price, he deserved such royal treatment. Five-hundred dollars a night’s worth.
The elevator let him off on the twentieth floor. The carpet he walked across sunk deep into the soles of his brown leather sandals. He slid the plastic card down into the slot and the green sensor flashed. The door appeared to have opened on its own. Stuart came into the room and the feeling of stepping into a king’s palace overtook him. Everything to make his stay comfortable were at his disposal. A sixty-inch flatscreen was bolted inside of a polished oakwood entertainment center. Cable television and pay-per view automatically were programmed for the flatscreen.
A clock radio along with an iron and an ironing board sat on the bedside table and over in the corner. A coffeemaker with a packet of instant coffee were provided for his early morning awakenings. Stuart went into the bathroom and knew how the five-hundred dollars a night might’ve been worth it.
Two thirsty, pure white terry towel robes, a hairdryer, combs and brushes, bowls of fresh fruit potpourri, scented soaps, shower gels and colognes, were all supplied for his hygiene and grooming needs. A miniature refrigerator already filled with bottle water and perishable snacks sat adjacent to the entertainment center. The Hyatt Regency became his home away from home.
Stuart started to unpack. Suddenly, his cell phone rung from the pocket of his cargo shorts. “This is Stuart. What can I do for you?”
“Stuart, this is your dad,” Harry Duffelmeyer announced through his own cell phone.
“Dad, how are you and mom doing?”
“Fine, son, doing just fine. How are you coming along?”
“Doing just great here in Dallas.”
“Dallas?” Harry questioned . “What’re you doing down there?”
“Needed a break from New York.”
“Your mother and I retired here in Florida for a permanent break from New York. Listen, I just wanted to tell you thanks for dropping off those documents to Sebastian Plettenberg.”
“You’re welcome, dad.”
“Son, did you hear about what happened in the Belvedere condo complex?”
“Where I dropped off the papers to Mr. Plettenberg?”
“Yes, the same building where Sebastian lives.”
“What happened, dad?”
“A group of six men were going to gang rape a ten year old Russian girl,” Harry mentioned to his son, doses of sadness in his speech. “These same perverts claim that a buncha man-sized rats stopped them from carrying out their plans. They said that these giant rats could talk plain English, and then roughed them up like a buncha steroid-pumped wrestlers.”
If only Harry could see the flaring smile on Stuart’s face. “Dad, I didn’t hear anything about that.”
“I’d like to know, what is this world coming to? Why would a group of six grown men want to violate a ten year old girl like that?”
Stuart snorted from a slight tinge of anger. “Thank God they didn’t follow through.”
“Were you in the building at the time when this took place?”
“No, dad, I wasn’t.”
Stuart took a moment to recognize the good deed he’d done.
Harry had no clue, but his son, with powers invested in him through the Universe, was mainly responsible in keeping the ten year old Russian girl from being taken advantage of.
“Son, how’re the pet shops and animal clinics coming along?”
“Fine as expected.”
“All of them?”
“Yes, sir. Greenwich Village Veterinary Clinic, Chelsea Animal Hospital, Manhattan Animal Specialists, Pet World and the all the others, they’re doing real good.”
“Showing any significant profit margins?”
“Great profit margins, dad. In fact, my customer clientele base keeps on growing. New Yorkers never stop having sick animals and needing pet supplies.”
“Question, Stuart. Who’re running the pet shops and animal clinics while you’re in Dallas?”
“Close friends that I trust.”
“Do you really and truly trust them?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Are you sure, son?”
“They wouldn’t be working for me if I didn’t.”
“You can never be too careful.”
“You and mom instilled that in me all my life. Look dad, let me get showered and dressed so I can get out and see the city. Give my love to mom, and I’ll talk to you guys soon.”
“Whatever you do, son, just be careful. Always be aware of your surroundings. We’ll talk to you soon.”
“Bye.”
Stuart hung up the cell phone and prepared for a hot relaxing shower.


CHAPTER—16

VISIT WITH THE COLONY

The Dallas skyline containing buildings over