Meanwhile, back in Nashville, Tennessee, an older gentleman with a thick head of silvery hair, in remarkably good shape for his age, sat silently in a dim room. In front of him was an arc of video monitors – at least 50 – with live images of people and places around the globe. From Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, sleeping in his prison cell, to the currently dark and empty Oval Office at the White House, to anonymous warlords, to dingy warehouses, and on and on. Much of the footage would have been meaningless to the average observer. But this man was no average observer.
At the moment, his interest was focused on one particular display – one that showed a young man hunched over a lifeless werewolf outside a stone palace in Bhutan. He stared at the screen with a look that expressed both distress and peaceful recognition of a moment that would change the course of the world as we know it.
“Sonny,” the man spoke into the intercom beside his chair, “escort Jill and Frank into my study. I’ll be right there.”
“You got it, King,” came the prompt reply.
Back in the 1960s and 70s, “King” was the world’s foremost agent of justice. Most never knew, though. The United States government did. They quickly realized that he was uniquely equipped to tackle missions that they could not. Whereas the U.S. was weighed down by political responsibilities, King was stealth-like and unimpeded, so they made him an official ally in 1958. Aside from the U.S. government, King’s true identity was only known to his relatively small posse.
King’s entourage consisted of an inner circle known as the
Memphis Mafia, and an outer circle consisting of what Joe Public would call superheroes.
King called them his Special Forces. What made King’s campaign effective was
the fact that he never personally engaged in delivering justice to the
evildoers of the world. He monitored the global landscape and relayed action
plans to the Mafia, who then set the Forces in action.
Jill and Frank Feinstein were among the second and final
group of Special Forces to serve with King before his disappearance in 1977.
They joined him in 1971, only two years after discovering their “superhero”
powers. King heard about them and four of their friends and called them into
service, just as his first band of Forces was ending its 12-year term. After
King’s mysterious disappearance, the Mafia disbanded the Forces and everyone
went their separate ways. Jill and Frank made the decision to close the book on
that chapter of their lives and set out on a path of normalcy. They were
married in 1978 and traveled the world – for the first time in broad daylight –
before settling in
Now they found themselves sitting across the desk from King,
who still had the charisma and charm that they remembered and loved. As he
leaned toward them and rested his right forearm on the heavy mahogany desk,
they couldn’t help but notice the large ring on his finger – shiny gold,
studded with diamonds in the shape of the letters TCB and a fierce lightning
bolt. It was a familiar sight, causing their minds to instantly race back
almost 30 years, to when they had stowed their matching rings away in their
attic.
The TCB – “Taking Care of Business” – ring was the only thing that officially branded King’s network. King hadn’t been wearing that ring during the last few days they had been staying with him, so the fact that he now was made his next words come as no surprise.
“Jill, Frank,” King said in his low voice, “I hope you’ve enjoyed your vacation.”
Comments