205 lines
9.8 KiB
Plaintext
205 lines
9.8 KiB
Plaintext
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Underground eXperts United
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Presents...
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[ Castle Chronicles Chapter One ] [ By THE CHIEF ]
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____________________________________________________________________
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UNASSAILABLE EXPEDITIONS THROUGH A TORMENTED BASEMENT
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CHAPTER ONE
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Steve Castle took his hat from the shelf and paid the woman behind
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the counter. Ah, what an excellent lunch. French toast and a cup
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of coffee. That was a lunch for kings! He went out to the street
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and started to walk down Gainsbury Road that lead down to the docks.
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He was to meet a man who had vital information about the case he
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was working on. Castle called the case "The Man & No Man" for reasons
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he only knew himself. Apparently, a man had entered a shoe shop in
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Regent Street on November 6th. This may not seem very unusual, but
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in this case it was, because the man had, as said, entered the store,
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but never left it! His wife was hysterical first, then after the
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first year, she calmed down. Robin and James, his kids, didn't under-
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stand what had happened because they were only One and Three years
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old by the time of his disappearance.
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Now, 15 years later, Castles first breakthrough was about to happen.
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Warehouse 86, the man had said. Castle walked slowly in the warm
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spring sun, facing the breeze from the ocean with great pleasure.
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Aaaah, he filled his lungs with the salty air and got a bug with it.
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Ahum, splutt! Duh! was his reaction to this. Left, Left and then
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Right. Aha, Number 86! He entered the big warehouse. Pitch black!
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Castle lit his flashlight and started to search for the door the man
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had said he would be behind. Johnsson, Stevens, Bartholomo-Gainsville,
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Turner, Jones, Harry, Imbehindthisone! That's the one. He opened the
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door. If it is possible to describe something that's darker than
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pitch black, this was it. Behind the door, Castle could just make out
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the stairs leading downwards.
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With careful steps he started to descend. The moisten air met his
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face like a wall. When he examined it, he discovered that it in
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fact really Was a wall. With the nose bleeding, he ran into a man
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who was hiding in a trunk filled with used condoms.
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"Watch it buddy!", said the man. "This is My hiding-place. You just
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have to find one of your own." The man closed the trunk and continued
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to hide (or whatever he was doing in there, I let your imagination
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decide here, because there's a vast number of possibilities. No?
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Well, consider that he May be eating dinner, reading a good book or
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perhaps watching the late night game between Bruins and the Vikings.
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See? Now I can't spend more time on this because it has nothing to
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do with the story whatsoever!)
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Castle continued to search with his flashlight, only to find that
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there was nothing there. The basement was about 2x2 meters big,
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and the only thing down there was the trunk with the... Ah, it must
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be Him!, Castle thought out loud for himself. "Shhh!" said the man
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who had re-opened the trunk. "Do you think we're alone down here!?"
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Castle thought for a couple of seconds, and then decided that he
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couldn't come to another conclusion and said "I have personally
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searched the whole basement, and I can assure you that we are alone."
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The man crawled out of the trunk, covered with slime and something
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that looked like a half-eaten pizza. "Want a piece?" he asked
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brushing off the slime. "Yes, thanks!", Castle replied and started
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a process in his stomach that killed 137 million germs, but also
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created 137 new ones. The man whispered something in Castles ear
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that didn't make Castle very surprised. He walked the 22 cm to the
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trunk, knocked on the side and opened the lock, revealing a beautiful
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girl with only her underwear on. "Hi beauty", Castle greeted her.
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"Hello" she said, "You want to join us?". "Sure", Castle said, but
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remembered that he was on a case and turned down the offer with
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apologies.
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The man, introduced himself as Jerry Steinberg III, king of A-Shoes.
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Castle stretched out his hand, but drew it right back when he saw
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Steinberg's filled with cheese, pizza and a little stain of greebt-
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ofla-bahajmatal, a deadly Indian take-away. Jerry started to tell
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his tale.
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"16 years ago, I owned a store up on Regent Street. We had the best
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in leatherware. Jackets, trousers, gloves, but also Shoes."
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"Aha", Castle said. "Continue please."
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"Yes, as I said, we sold Shoes. Only the best of course!.. ehm,
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where was I, oh yes, Shoes. So we sold these Shoes. Everyone wanted
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them, and we sold about 300.000 pairs a week in the beginning.
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"A remarkable number indeed", Castle let out with admiration in his
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voice.
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"Oh but it wasn't that, no, not at all. After four weeks, a month,
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our production of these shoes had reached 4 million a day, and
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the sales didn't go down, so in the end we sold over 5 million a
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day, worldwide!"
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"Really interesting", Castle mumbled.
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"Oh but it wasn't that either, not in any way! No. When LIKE, our
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largest competitor introduced a new design, our sales went down like
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a banana split at a birthday-party for 8-year olds. We were finished.
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We were bankrupt. We had to close the shop and fire our staff.'
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"Uhuh..", "So is that what you wanted me to know?" Castle asked.
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"No, it wasn't that! You have to listen to me Castle! Listen good.
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When we moved out, another firm took over, and opened a shoe shop
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at the very same spot, but they also sold computer equipment!
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Joysticks, Harddrives, Printers and so on. One of their employees
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used to work for me. He was somewhat of a hacker you might say.
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Always hanging over the computer, running something they call a
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Bulletin Board System and writing long stories that were greatly
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appreciated around the world. A very fine man indeed. Oh, by the
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way, it's the very same person who is writing this story right now!"
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"Really? Well, it seems like he's doing a good job, doesn't it?"
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Castle said with a smile on his face.
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"Sure, everything he does usually Is good!"
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"So, what have all of this got to do with the man who disappeared
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in the shoe shop?" Castle asked.
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"The what?" Steinberg said with a surprised look on his face.
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"Listen, you called me and told me to meet you here because you
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had vital information about this case I'm working on. The Man
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who disappeared in a Shoe Store at Regent Street!".
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"Hey, I don't know anything about no man disappearing. Aren't you
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from Books International? I was told to meet someone here who would
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print my story!" Steinberg said with doubt in his voice.
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Suddenly a man jumped up from behind the trunk. He was about
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1.93 meters tall, not very thin, and had a large sombrero on his head.
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"Steve Castle?" the man said looking at Castle.
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"Eh, yes?" Castle replied, slightly chocked.
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"Good, I'm Howard Brown. I have some vital information regarding the
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case you're working on. I called you earlier today, remember?" the
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man said and reached out to shake hands.
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"But why didn't you show yourself earlier?!" Castle almost screamed
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to Brown.
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"Well, I enjoyed Mr. Steinberg's story quite a bit. You didn't want
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me to miss the end did you?!", Brown frowned.
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The last Steve Castle saw before he fainted was the beautiful girl
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crawling out of the box, completely naked but with a slice of pizza
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in one hand, offering it to Brown who said he would rather take her
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instead (and did so 2 seconds later).
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______________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
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Watch out for the next chapter of the Castle Chronicles!
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It will be Very revealing! In all directions!
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ONLY from The Underground eXperts United!
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(!) 1991 THE CHIEF & uXu Productions
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______________________________________________________________________
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______________________________________________________________________
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