The Gatekeeper's Sons

Chapter 20

Than and Tizze flew above hundreds of humans in an airport terminal in San Diego. Some sat at tables inside small cafes and sandwich shops. Others sat crammed together near gates. Still others walked quickly through the corridors dragging their bags on wheels behind them. The man they knew as Steve McAdams had short, blond hair and blue eyes and sat sharply dressed in a crisp white shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, black trousers, and shiny black shoes. He sat looking at a cell phone with another man, about the same age, mid-thirties, also sharply dressed but with dark, curly hair and glasses. Both men held their heads together looking at the phone and laughing.

"This should be fun," Tizzie said to Than as they landed before the men and made themselves visible.

Tizzie stood in her tight black leather pants and silver halter top and tall black boots. She spread out her arms and legs and closed her eyes and smiled. The men looked up at her and then looked at Than and then looked at each other, perplexed. Tizzie opened her eyes and smiled at the men as dozens of wolves appeared in the terminal around them.

The humans were shocked and stopped what they were doing and backed into areas away from the hounds, and as the hounds lifted their heads into the air and howled their loud, screeching, blood-curdling cries, the humans dropped whatever they were holding and cupped both hands to their ears.

The two men before Tizzie also dropped the phone and cupped their ears, tears streaming from their eyes.

"Hear me, Steve McAdams?" Tizzie said coolly, barely perceptible to Than over the howls of the hounds.

The flustered, frightened man nodded.

"Do you know this man, Kaveh Grahib?" She made an image appear in the air over her head, an image of him in his jail cell slumped on a cot, staring into space.

Steven McAdams shook his head.

Tizzie beckoned one of her hounds to her side and then he bared his fangs at the man as he uttered a threatening growl.

"Be truthful, Steven," Tizzie warned. "I do not like men who lie."

Steven McAdams looked at the growling hound and then back up at Tizzie, still cupping his ears and streaming tears. "I don't know him!" he shouted but could be heard by none save the two gods.

Tizzie lifted her arms higher in the air, and at once the howling stopped. The humans stared blankly as the wolves descended upon the humans in a rush and a flash, licking each one with a forgetting serum before vanishing into thin air. Than and Tizzie also vanished as Than heard her voice mutter with profound disappointment, "He's not the one."