Chapter 1

Mike Radford stood on the porch listening to the screams coming from inside the house. It sounded to him like the woman was being tortured. After growing up and watching his mother getting beaten by his step-father, there was nothing that made him angrier than a man mistreating a woman. He was all for bursting through the door and throwing the perp through the window after pounding on him for a bit.

Jim Daniels held him back and said, “We do this by the book.”

“It sounds like he’s killing her,” Mike said with a frown.

There were times when he hated his job. The worst times were when he knew someone was doing something bad to someone else and he had to follow procedure.

Suddenly the screams cut off. Jim Daniels knocked on the door. He looked over at his partner and asked, “What do you think?”

“I would say that we have probable cause. Let’s break it down,” Bob Brown answered worried by the sudden absence of screams. He feared that they had waited too long. He pointed at Mike with his thumb and said, “Let Mr. Bad Ass break it down.”

Mike rolled his eyes half tempted to show them what he could do to a simple wooden door. He was about to kick the door down when it opened. A young man, wearing a bathrobe and looking a little disheveled, stared at them.

Jim said, “We had a call that someone was being killed over here.”

“Huh?”

“We heard some screams. Would you mind moving out of the way?” Bob said.

“Screams?” the young man asked. He shook his head and said, “That was my girlfriend.”

“We had a call that a woman was screaming that you were going to kill her. We have to check it out,” Bob said.

Tired of waiting, Mike pushed his way into the house and looked around. Bob entered the house with him.

The young man shouted, “Cynthia! Cover yourself. We have company!”

Mike walked to a door and looked through it while Jim questioned the suspect. The door led to a dining room. The high quality furniture seemed a little out of place considering the kind of call. Usually, houses weren’t neat and tidy like this. He could see a kitchen on the other side of the room. He stuck his head in and noticed that there weren’t any dirty dishes. On a call of spousal abuse, a clean house like this usually meant a controlling husband who punished the woman for the least little mess. He didn’t like it.

Seeing that there was nothing out of place in the kitchen, Mike turned back to the main room in time to see Bob heading down the hallway. He was tempted to follow him, but there was another door leading from the living room. He headed towards it.

As he passed by the suspect, the young man asked, “What kind of ring is that?”

Mike frowned at the question. He didn’t like to talk about the sapphire ring. It had been given to him by a woman in Lebanon. She had been found dead two days later and he was pretty sure that it was because someone had seen her talking to him. Others claimed that it was a warning against the local Christian community since the woman was a Christian missionary from France. That had been back in 1988; a small piece of ancient history that still stung like it was yesterday.

He went into the room and saw that it was a study. He opened the closet door hoping that he wouldn’t find a body stuffed in it. He was very surprised to find that it was completely empty. He frowned. Never in his life had he ever come across a completely empty closet in a house that had been occupied for any length of time. Wondering if it hid something, he stepped in.

The closet disappeared to be replaced by a plain white room. His hand went down to his holster. There was nothing there. He looked down and found that every piece of metal was gone except for the ring on hand and the fillings in his teeth. As an afterthought, he was glad the zipper in his pants was plastic.

Puzzled by the fact that he had been completely disarmed without knowing it, he said, “What the hell?”

He took a deep breath to calm down. He flexed his muscles in preparation for a fight. He didn’t have any idea what had happened, but he wasn’t going to let someone take him unprepared. He walked around the small room looking for some way out.

Ten minutes passed before there was a small noise behind him. He spun around and found a door swinging open. Cautiously, he approached the door and looked through it. An attractive elderly woman was seated on a white sofa watching him.

Stepping through the door, he asked, “Ma’am, are you being held here against your will?”

“Excuse me?” the woman replied looking at him with a confused expression on her face.

“Are you being held here against your will?” Mike asked looking around the room.

He wondered how the kid had managed to hide this room within that house. It had to be an underground structure, but he couldn’t figure out how he made the move into it and how his weapons had been removed.

The woman laughed at the unexpected question and answered, “No. I work here. I’m Elizabeth Hero Greeter.”

“You work here?” Mike asked confused by her answer.

“Yes. I’m Elizabeth Hero Greeter. My job is to greet new heroes and to help them select their caretaker,” she answered thinking that he should have expected to meet her here.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Mike said.

“Sid Jones sent you here, didn’t he?” Elizabeth asked with a frown. The information available to her said that he had come through the portal at Sid’s home. The signature of the sapphire had identified that it wasn’t Sid so it had to be a new hero.

“Who is that?” Mike asked.

“You came here through his portal,” Elizabeth answered wondering why the man didn’t know who Sid was.

“I’m here investigating a crime, Ma’am,” Mike said trying to get the conversation back on topic.

“Did something happen to Sid?” Elizabeth asked suddenly concerned. There was still no news about having captured the man who had started the slave wars.

“We heard a woman screaming in the house. There was a report that someone was killing her,” Mike answered.

“Oh,” Elizabeth said relaxing. She shook her head and said, “That was probably Cynthia. Everyone on Cassandra is talking about what a screamer she is.”

“Huh?”

“She’s a screamer,” Elizabeth said.

She felt that it was a good sign when a woman really let a man know how much he pleased her. It was even better when it was unintended rather than exaggerated.

“I don’t understand,” Mike said looking at Elizabeth somewhat confused.

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment realizing that the discussion was going nowhere fast. It was time for her to do her job and explain the situation.

Finally, she said, “Would you like to take a seat? I’ll explain the best that I can.”

“Thank you,” Mike said walking over to the chair across the coffee table from her. The featureless white room was getting on his nerves.

As Mike sat down, Elizabeth asked, “Would you care for some coffee?”

“No thank you,” Mike said.

Elizabeth asked, “Are you sure? It is no trouble.”

“Okay,” Mike said feeling a little like Alice at the tea party. Nothing that had happened since stepping into the closet made sense.

“Do you like cream and sugar?” she asked.

“A little sugar,” Mike answered wondering what was going on.

Elizabeth looked up at the ceiling and said, “A coffee with a little sugar, please.”

Mike jumped when a cup of coffee appeared on the table in front of him.

Startled, he asked, “What? How?”

“Please, try it. If it isn’t sweet enough, let me know,” Elizabeth said gesturing to the cup.

Thinking it was an illusion, Mike reached out to pick up the cup. He was surprised to find that it was real. He took a sip and said, “It is fine.”

“Let me start at the beginning by welcoming you to the planet Crossroads. To tell the truth, I’m not even sure where it is situated with respect to Earth. You came here by going through the portal located in Sid Jones’ house. The sapphire ring on your hand triggered the portal,” Elizabeth said.

“I’m on a different planet. Okay,” Mike said nodding his head. He didn’t believe it for a minute.

“Crossroads connects three planets — Earth, Cassandra, and Chaos. Earth provides Heroes. Cassandra provides Damsels. You might say that Chaos provides adventures. The Damsels go to Chaos. When they get in trouble, a Hero is sent to rescue her,” Elizabeth said giving the most succinct description of the situation as possible.

“Okay,” Mike said thinking that he would play along with her fantasy. She must have been locked in this basement for years to come up with such an insane story like that.

“Once a Hero rescues the Damsel, they return here where she rewards him,” Elizabeth explained.

“With a kiss, I assume,” Mike said. He was familiar with fairy tales. He took a sip of the coffee to keep the smirk on his face hidden. It wasn’t a good idea to upset an insane person.

“Oh no. They have sex,” Elizabeth said laughing at the idea of rewarding a hero with a simple kiss.

“So what you’re saying is that I’ve been brought here to rescue a damsel, bring her back here, and then have sex with her. Have I got that right?” Mike asked.

“Yes,” Elizabeth answered frowning at how he had phrased it. She realized that he didn’t believe her.

“I’m supposed to be happy about that?” Mike asked.

“You should feel honored. The portal would not have allowed you here if you didn’t have the character of a hero,” Elizabeth said.

“So when do I head off to rescue this damsel?” Mike asked thinking this was really a complex fantasy on the part of the old woman.

Elizabeth answered, “First you have to select your caretaker.”

“You mean my jailer?”

“No, she’s not your jailer. She’s your caretaker. It is her job to take care of all of your needs while you are here on Crossroads. She will help you plan your adventures in Chaos,” Elizabeth answered.