OUT OF THE INVISIBLE

The clock ticked like a repetitious drum in the cramped cubicle belonging to museum security guard Chester Murrow. His eyes moved lazily back and forth between the glow of the perpetually switching monitor in front of him and the engrossing spy thriller propped on his lap. In between sips of overcreamed coffee, he flipped a page. The ticks were getting on to Chester’s nerves. If only I could… he thought, and then thought otherwise, as he, like he had many times before, resigned himself to the fact that the clock was the true measure of freedom in his job where he was assigned to do, basically, nothing…. Nothing but guard a few measly artifacts and jewels that were already heavily alarmed and which would draw out a SWAT team upon the slightest tickle of the bulletproof glass. He looked up at the ticking annoyance, and sighed. Three hours left.


He awoke from his reverie with a start. He had heard a faint clatter in the distance, down the hall. Probably a rodent, he thought, but knew he had to check anyway. He struggled to get up from his rolling office chair, nearly falling on his pudgy butt when it slid out from under him. Patting the weapon at his side, a trusty Beretta, and the nightstick on his other side, he trudged forward with a Mag lite into the blackness ahead.
Soon he saw the source of the noise, or at least the result – an umbrella rack near the door to the Rare Jewels collection was tipped over. He propped it back upright, and shone his flashlight in broad circles, hoping to catch the culprit in action. The critter couldn’t have gotten very far. He stepped slowly into the Jewels room, turned to the security access switch, and punched in a few numbers to temporarily deactivate the lasers that protected the amazing wealth within. He cast light on the tile floor, noting a few dust bunnies that the early evening janitors had missed – the miscreants – but little else. Resetting the security as he left the room, he glanced backward and felt reassured by the gleams and sparkles emanating from the display cases… all intact. Resigned to success, perhaps in at least scaring the nasty rodent back into the dirt hole it came from, he settled back down for his last three – he smiled – no, make that two and a half, hours.
Unseen, something watched Chester from the shadows, waiting for daylight and opening time. This something was carrying a small black bag with the real blue diamond in it, replaced in its case by a fragment of a blue glass vase he managed to find at an auction for a much, much cheaper price.
The shadow had made quite a hefty profit.. minus, of course, some scores he had to settle downtown.

The door leading to the dimly lit, highly air-conditioned office shuddered as someone entered the lobby outside. A thin, pale individual wearing bottle cap glasses waited for the expected buzz from the doorbell… and there it was, as harsh as ever. Pressing a button underneath the top drawer of his desk, he got the door to magnetically unlock. It opened, and closed, but it appeared that nobody had entered. Appeared, yes. But Sam Lockhart knew otherwise. Upon entrance, a visitor had to enter a narrow gateway ringed with cameras of different sizes and shapes and multiple flashing red LEDs. Sam switched on his computer monitor and typed a few commands. An image of the gateway popped up on the screen, a tall, stocky figure taking shape. Soon, computer processing power enhanced the image, and the face became recognizable. Satisfied, Sam pressed another switch on his desk, and the high voltage electrical field guarding the exit from the gateway switched off.
He cleared his throat and drawled into the loudspeaker, “Come on in, Josh.”
Infrared cameras trailed the Josh figure as he moved to a reception window. Sam moved over to the window. “So….” Sam asked, “Was it all it was cut out to be?”
A voice, seemingly out of the blue, replied, “Piece of cake. Though it’s hard to get used to, you know, figuring out how to grab stuff and maneuver, you know? I couldn’t see a dang thing I was doing.”
“You get used to it,” Sam replied.
“Yeah, well, the sooner I get back to the real world, the better. I never thought I would have ever said I was more impatient to get a stupid shot.” A black bag materialized out of thin air.
Sam glanced at the bag. “I see you got what you wanted,” he said, “You got the money?”
“Yeah,” Josh’s voice replied, “As soon as I cash this in, I can get you your ten grand.”
Sam scowled. “You obviously didn’t read the contract. We’re expecting more than that.”
“What do you mean? I signed for the ten thou deal.. one day of complete invisibility. What gives?”
Leaning forward toward the thick glass partition separating them, Sam replied, “You didn’t read the fine print. Let me refresh you.” He pulled out a legal size sheet of paper and slowly read from it. “It says here, ‘An additional sum may be incurred in the event the invisibility is used or involved, directly or indirectly, in the commission of a crime.’”
The voice heightened, obviously increasingly nervous. “A crime – how did – what-“
“What, you think I don’t read the papers? That’ll be fifty grand, in my hand, or no shot.”
“You – you – can’t do this! I need to be able to get the heck out of town. What about my girlfriend.. my –“
Sam smirked. “Dude, that’s not my problem. It’s in your hands now. Get me fifty grand, you get your shot. Until then, have a nice day.”
Panic. “But-“
The microblinds pulled down over the partition window and snapped shut. The invisible man banged and banged but came nowhere near even budging the reinforced glass.
“I’ll get you!” Josh-thing screamed. “I’ll find a way, trust me!” In seconds, the door leading back out to the lobby swung open and slammed shut, rustling the clipboard of papers hanging by the door.

Josh panicked. Without fifty thousand dollars, how was he even going to begin to cash in the jewel? He slumped against the concrete outer wall of the office building he had just stormed out of – confused, angry, and now alone. He had to get back in somehow and get to that weasel, find a way to make himself visible again.
Yes. He came to a realization.
Invisible. Unseen.
He would wait until dark, just as he had in the museum.

Right on schedule, the lanky Sam Lockhart trudged out the double doors leading to the office building, keys in hand. Looking both ways, he stepped out into the night, seemingly oblivious to Josh’s invisible figure coming up behind him with a shard of broken glass picked up from a nearby alley. Josh pounced. Both tumbled to the ground in a mass of dust, Sam appearing to struggle with himself and a solitary piece of sharpened glass. “What, what do you- you want?!” Sam screamed, as he found himself on the losing end of the battle, dagger pressed firmly against his neck.
“You know exactly what I want, idiot,” the invisible voice growled. “You’re going to make me visible again right now.”
“I – well – don’t hurt me, or else you’ll never be, uh, visible again,” Sam whimpered, caught in an invisible chokehold from an obviously larger, stronger man.
“Well I suppose that’s true,” the voice replied mockingly, “But then – you wouldn’t want to be in serious, chronic, bleeding pain for the rest of your miserable life, now would you?” The glass dug deeper into Sam’s neck, drawing blood. “Give me the shot or you’re in some serious pain, twerp.”
Sam suddenly managed to squirm away from Josh’s vicelike grip and stumbled to the ground, breathless. “Alright, alright,” he conceded. “I’ll take you up and give you the shot.”
He looked decidedly resigned as he walked slowly back to the building, through the double doors, and into the elevator. He pressed the button leading to the seventh floor.. the door closed, and after a few minutes, they were in front of the nondescript office once again. It was only by word of mouth and reputation that Sam turned his miraculous invention into a modern-day novelty, for pure profit. He had amassed many thousands of dollars sending the wonder of invisibility, not questioning the motives or ambitions of his clients… but they always managed to repay him kindly with gratitude. Until now.
He walked slowly through the lobby, slid a key card through the reader on the wall, and swung open the entry door after it clicked itself unlocked. The electrical field had also disengaged, and he walked straight through the gateway to the door leading to his office. Swiping his card through another reader, he walked the invisible Josh into the dim, chill, cramped space that was his laboratory.
Sam looked around. “Have a seat,” he muttered, pointing to a chair that vaguely resembled a dentist chair. He opened a small white cabinet, glancing to his side as indentations appeared on the chair, letting him know that Josh was now sitting down awaiting his injection.
He returned to the chair with a syringe and a small vial of brown liquid. He poked the needle into the vial, which sipped up the liquid into its barrel-like tube, tapped out the bubbles from the syringe, and stood over the reclining invisible man. From his right pocket he pulled out a pair of what looked like sunglasses.
“Here,” Sam said, “Please put these on. One side effect of rematerializing is that your eyes will become sensitive to any and all light for a few hours.”
The glasses popped from his grip and floated in midair above the headrest.
“Please put your arm on this brace.” Sam pointed to a circlet sticking out from the chair. “This is where I will make the injection.”
Raising the syringe, Sam bore downward on the arm brace, felt a little resistance, and pushed more firmly. A small sigh escaped the chair. A minute passed. Then Sam spoke.
“Josh, you can take a look now.”
Josh looked down over himself and grinned with satisfaction… at last, visible again! And nobody would ever suspect him in the biggest jewel heist in the state… no, certainly not if nobody saw anything. Slowly, though he was having trouble maintaining his balance, he lifted himself out of the chair. He turned to Sam, who, clad in a white lab coat, was grinning fearfully, and extended a hand out to him. Sam returned the handshake.
“Thanks, Doc,” Josh said, making his way toward the door. “You’ll get your ten grand in the morning.” And he walked out, whistling all the way to the elevators outside.
Sweaty and trembling, Sam stumbled out of his office, following the gleeful man at a distance. “Indeed I will,” he mumbled.

The open door, the fresh air, the freedom was the last thing he remembered before – PAIN. Intense, spiking, throbbing pain. First, in both arms, then spreading inward to the chest, convulsing, contracting, twisting his heart like a dishrag. Josh collapsed weakly to the pavement, very near to where he had stalked the good doctor just an hour earlier.
Bright lights, blinding, flashing – searing his brain, etching like fire, as he watched his limbs pulsate with untamed energy. What was happening.. what did the guy give him now? If he ever got through this, he would rip off the man’s skull and eat his brain… unnhh…
Light. Heat.
Black.

Waiting patiently inside the entryway, Sam casually walked outside. He was wearing glasses much like those he had given Josh. Ah, yes, those were very valuable, he thought, and gently lifted them off of his face. They were much more so, in fact, than the invisibility serum… one needed a way to see the invisible, just in case. And in this case, he simply didn’t want to waste any of the valuable serum, so the glasses bought some time for the fatal drug overdose to work. Ah, he noticed. Don’t want to forget the bag. He removed it from the dead man’s grasp. Humming to himself, he continued the much-delayed walk to his car, and the short ride home.

A teenager, bouncing a basketball on his way to the courts a couple blocks down, passed the dull gray building. He was making his way alongside the entry doors when he tripped on something and fell clumsily, sending his ball bouncing away into the hedges surrounding the building. He pushed himself up on his hands, trying to see what it was that tripped him. He saw nothing but a sharp piece of broken glass. Shrugging it off, he gathered himself, looked around to see if his aura of coolness was disrupted, and gathered his ball, double-timing it to the basketball court so he wouldn’t be the last one there.