The Wisdom Blues

By James Matt Cox

Rebellion in Wisdom! The near-disaster in Phoenix spawned far-reaching consequences. Now Jason Taggart and his special group of fellow students know how bad the world really is. They're aware of the choices they must make in the next few years but as yet that is still in the future. Their present is still upon them and resentment festers among them. The over-arching Brolly Corporation is using them for social experimentation while trying to keep them dutifully in line.
Now pushed over the top by a classic TV series, the students of Wisdom have finally had enough. Led by Jason they hand the company an ultimatum: fix things or else. Fearful of losing their greatest weapon in the battle for humanity, the company agrees.
Meanwhile, in the city of Portland, evil bubbles and brews. A minor earthquake breached the prison holding an ancient entity of evil and destruction. The creature itself cannot escape but it can and does begin to exert its influence through the small crack of opportunity. Unknowingly, a pair of detectives track the series of bizarre murders leading to more danger than they really want to find.
Things come to a head when the students receive a well-earned vacation they decide to spend in Portland. Fueled by a campaign visit from the Vice President, riots bloom. The rioters themselves are little more than combat-zombies with aggression powered by tainted drugs courtesy of the foul spirit that desires nothing more than escape, death and destruction. The only thing standing between disaster and salvation is the Children of Wisdom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Matt Cox
• Release date: Sep 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005108632

James Matt Cox

James Matthew Cox Jr. was born in Texarkana Arkansas and he lives there today. His parents encouraged him to read and to enjoy it at a very early age. His father made certain he gained an appreciation for science fiction. His childhood heroes had names like Asimov, Bradbury and E. E. Smith. After graduating high school he earned a Bachelor's degree in computer science and a Master's degree in mathematics. He worked 25+ years as a math/CSCI instructor and recently added 'Open-Source Java Developer' to his resume. During all those years he continued to enjoy science fiction, both reading and writing, and finally decided to DO something about it.

Book preview

The Wisdom Blues

by James Matt Cox

The story presented here is fiction.

Any similarity to any person, group or entity living, dead or virtual is purely coincidental.

Version Code: 210831

Copyright (c) 2021 by James M. Cox Jr.

Smashwords Edition

Cover Art by: www.viladesign.net

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Books by James Matt Cox

A Pattern of Details

The Dungeon Crawl Unlimited fantasy RPG system

Open Source Tools for Independent Authors

Vortex Portal

----------

The Children of Wisdom

The Dawn of Wisdom; Beyond Wisdom; Flashes of Wisdom

The Wisdom Blues

----------

Books in the Stone Blade series:

Stone Blade; Double Bait

The Radical Factor; The Burning Crown

Expedient Measures; Lethal Max

The Border Incident; The Blatant Prey

----------

The Moons of Epigaea

Sage's Moon; Reaper's Moon; Hallow's Moon; Planter's Moon

This book is dedicated to Mark Lucas:

Master of The Way and the Adventures.

- - - - -

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

-The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

Chapter 0. Prologue

Warning: This book contains material that may not be suitable for younger readers.

The Chief sat back and scanned the reports on his tablet. They were all uniformly favorable with one exception. It appeared uniformly as well, worse in some cases than others. The potential consequences ranged from choosing Support over any field department to complete loss of the student. The organization could live with the former since the agent could always transfer later. The latter possibility, not acceptable. They needed to avoid that at all cost, not just because of the loss to the organization but for the individuals themselves.

He had an action plan on a second tablet. It combined several training exercises wrapped in a totally unique format. Director Andrews and her Planning department worked long hours on it. He saw Donnahue's hand heavy in it as well. The Colonel headed the Protection department and he had determined not to lose a single student.

Fletcher from Technology also helped but he knew within very small tolerances who'd end up in his ranks. He always did. Sometimes a graduating recruit surprised him but rarely at best. The plan contained one element on which all three heads agreed. The Chief had no idea who suggested it nor would he try to find out. Donnahue would claim it, Andrews would support it, Fletch would provide evidence as to why it would work and none of it mattered anyway.

The chief keyed a sequence on his tablet. His three subordinates appeared on the wallscreen.

You know why I called, he said.

All three nodded.

Have you contacted the parents?

Of course, said Andrews. All of them saw the need. Some of them were curious about it. A couple wondered why we didn't try it before.

Do they understand the potential consequences?

Yep, said Donnahue. They don't particularly like 'em but the alternative's worse. They understand that too.

You have a lot of contingencies planned, said the Chief.

You have to look a who we're dealing with, said Andrews. All of us felt justified.

The Chief nodded. I just wonder if it's enough. I think it should be increased.

That surprised Donnahue and Andrews both.

You got it, Chief.

Donnahue spoke first with Andrews quick to agree. By his smug smile Fletcher had at least five dollars riding on that possibility. The Chief considered asking informally but it really didn't matter. With all of them this much in accord the mission simply would not fail.

***

Sean Ross walked into his house, hung his hat on the rack and his coat beneath it.

Hey, Dad, called his daughter Diana. Is that you?

Yeah, Bunny.

When he opened the door from the back porch to the kitchen the smell of food filled his nose.

Hey, honey. I just put dinner on the table.

Sean gave his girlfriend Adaline a long hug and kiss. Smells wonderful, babe. Man am I glad to be home.

Rough day?

Oh yeah. Idiot campers, lost hikers and a bear scare. I love my job.

You know you do. Adaline started heaping his plate. Chicken spaghetti, broccoli and sweet potatoes. When you didn't call this afternoon I figured you were busy.

Did you feel the earthquake, Dad? asked Diana. Mr. Jones said we had one today.

Oh yeah. They felt it and measured it at the station. Three-eight estimated at the epicenter. We think that's what scared the bears down.

Oh honey, said Adaline. How bad was it?

Not. We had a group of Trump Scout kids close to the old trail. They were looking for arrowheads and they found bears. They knew what to do but their chaperones didn't.

Was anybody hurt?

Naw. Well, one of the dads smashed his finger closing a car door. The bears followed the river down and the last we saw was their tails heading into the deep woods. I got some good video, Bunny, if you want to take it to class.

Chapter 1. Nightmares

The room went totally silent. The light showed it in every detail. First the wind hit one wall then it moved to another. Then came the silence.

Jason Taggart gripped his twelve gauge a little tighter, every sense alert. Beside him Miriam Tate tried to cover the areas he couldn't see. They had custom loads with crushed pork bones and salt added to the steel buckshot.

Suddenly the windows exploded inward. Glass shards flew with the force of shrapnel but missed Jason and Miriam. The blurred thing messed with Jason's brain but his body knew how to react. The shotgun kicked as he fired. Dhegdeer filled his head with an inhuman shriek as she spun in to attack him.

The steel, salt and bone blasts slowed her but didn't stop her. With the unearthly scream still shredding his brain Jason fired as fast as he could.

The shotgun clicked empty. Dhegdeer struck. Pain ripped through his belly and the last thing he saw was the unholy spirit reaching for Miriam.

Jason sat upright in his bed with a half-bellow half-scream. His heart raced and adrenaline flooded his body. His hand grasped for a second shotgun only to collide painfully with the wall.

Slowly the room blurred into focus. His room. His room at the school dorm.

His mind spun for a moment as it tried to focus on the Rolling Stones poster that should be there. No. He took that down. Now he had a big picture of Ellen. She wanted one of the two of them but he wanted to wake up to her only. She didn't really like the picture he chose but, after all, it was his room. It wasn't like she didn't plaster her walls with every picture she had of him, the both of them together or any other pic with him in it. She even had one of him and Darla.

Morning sucks big dicks. The horrible nightmares end. Horrible day starts.

That's grim, Jase, he told himself. Just keep going. It won't be long now.

Jason was sixteen, soon to be seventeen. He supposed if he made a big enough fuss his parents would emancipate him and turn him loose into the world. If they didn't want to do that he still had options. He didn't want to make that fuss or take those options, though. He had his life planned out now. Past this year or maybe next year nothing mattered.

He didn't want to disappoint his friends but they knew. Some of them accepted it. A few of those were glad for it. Not for him, he thought, but for the fact he'd be gone. The rest of them either denied it or refused to accept it.

Ellen. She loved him and he loved her. Intensely. She had her life planned too. She also had one huge, impending doom she refused to admit. She assumed she'd reconcile it when the time came. She was Wisdom's star at the moment. She and Tonya Jax, the older recruit paired with her, scored the highest on their last assignment. Jason and his recruit Miriam didn't even come close to the top but they ended their assignment rather badly.

Wisdom. The small Arizona town Jason called home all his life. Up until his fourteenth year Jason associated it with everything good in life. Now he knew better. He and his classmates would have found out at eighteen, like the ones still working in ignorance, but for a bunch of ruthless gangsters and the vampire controlling them.

Since that fateful day Jason and the ones with him started learning the true history of humanity and the planet on which it lived. And the stars beyond it. In simple truth humanity faced extinction or enslavement on a daily basis. All the horrible, slavering, mind-bending, cruel, vicious and hungry monsters of legend and myth existed as did more besides. All of them sought to subvert human beings to their own ends.

Humankind, however, was not without defense. A few lone individuals found the courage and the ability to fight off the monsters. As civilization grew and the threats with it so did those few able to fight them. Thus was born the hyper-secret organization whose name few truly knew.

Over a century earlier, in 1937, the American government formed Project Levy. Though laughably funded, given little credibility and canceled before 1940 that sad attempt brought together the visionary men and women who organized the true project. After losing funding they gathered secretly and organized themselves loosely. Then they pooled their resources to fight mankind's most urgent battle.

As the twenty-first century passed its youth the organization spawned from Project Levy struggled to accomplish its mission. Funding and resources it had in abundance but its most critical need, men and women to carry on the fight, it lacked acutely.

Thus the town of Wisdom came into existence. Born of desperation, the Wisdom Project would either meet mankind's need or doom it. With the mysterious Brolly company's establishment the town of Wisdom grew to support it. Except that wasn't the way things happened.

Agent parents, agent teachers and agent residents created the town under Brolly's auspices. The children of Wisdom, Jason and his peers, made up the town's real treasure. From the time they entered kindergarten to their high school graduation the children labored to higher physical, mental and emotional standards and expectations than people outside thought possible. At age eighteen they had the choice to continue their training and join the fight or to make their own way in the world.

The fight. And the company. Jason knew the former all too well and had little trust for the latter.

In Phoenix the company had no choice. Had they not acted and revealed the truth, the President's daughter would have fallen under the vampire's thrall. The years after that, not as much. After Phoenix the company sent selected students away from Wisdom to measure how they would interact with their peers.

In Hawthorne California Jason came across a cabal of high school students who summoned a huldra hunlef, a bloodthirsty Fey they couldn't control, to wreak havoc upon the innocent populace. Five students died because Jason wasn't good enough to save them. Five friends and dozens of others lost their lives. All those deaths weighed on Jason's soul.

Then came Detroit. In the same assignment that catapulted Ellen to top place Jason and Miriam faced Dhegdeer, a night-hunting female demon summoned to rid the city of those her summoners deemed undesirable. Infidels. Jason and Miriam defeated her, barely, but in doing so failed at the one thing any agent would consider elementary. Once they realized the creature was far outside the bounds of the test they didn't contact the agency and ask for help.

The Chief of Command himself, the topmost man in the entire organization, gave Jason and Miriam his personal congratulations. Their action, he said, saved countless lives both in Detroit and the world at large.

All of that paled to nothing against the lives that success cost.

***

Hey, baby. You're off your game today.

Ellen Owens, the true love of Jason's life, jogged ahead of him. Normally he wouldn't allow it but somehow it just didn't matter. He increased his pace, she increased hers and he sped up to match her again. Even though the morning run didn't have any particular weight accorded it no one wanted to finish last.

Lots of stuff on my mind, said Jason.

I hope it's about me, she said. Were you watching my ass again?

Yeah. You know it.

Saying that still made Jason blush but at least he got the words out this time. Ellen giggled and gave her butt an extra shake. He didn't know how she did that. Every time he tried he stumbled and lost pace.

Logan Junior Jr., Drew Barnes and Chris Parker jogged in front. Their recruits Gretta Walden, Craig Miles and Samantha Rogers kept pace between their group and Jason. Darla Jansen tried to keep pace but her recruit, Bill Eckert, struggled to maintain his. Before Phoenix Jason worked hard to attract Darla's favor. She gave him his first kiss in the back of an armored van surrounded by applauding agents.

Before he left for Hawthorne Jason and Darla knew how many kids they'd have and where they would take their honeymoon. Hawthorne cost him that too. At least now they were back to being friends. Seeing her with Logan still hurt but it faded to more of a dull ache.

The flashing beacon that marked their turnaround point came into view. Chris slapped the top as he jogged around it. He always did it. No one knew why including Chris himself but his antics in doing so often elicited a giggle from Ellen. This time he jumped up and hit it before he landed, turned around and flipped it off on his way back. Ellen giggled.

One of these days he's gonna trip and fall flat on his ass, said Ellen. I hope someone's filming it when he does.

Jason forbore response. When he passed the marker he slowed, turned tight inside and ended up ahead of Ellen.

I see. So that's how it is. You're gonna let me look at your ass a while. She didn't bother speaking softly at all. That's okay. I love every square inch of it.

Drew snorted out a giggle and Chris duffed a step. Jason rolled his eyes and blushed again. Then Ellen grabbed his butt, he stumbled and she sped up.

Love you, baby, she said as she pulled ahead.

Love you too.

Aww, get a room you two. Jason's best friend Leon Reed jogged not far behind alongside his girlfriend Lois Roberts.

Make sure the lobby has a public bathroom.

Phillip Brock, the recruit teamed with Lois, kept pace with her and Leo easily. After enlisting in the Marines just out of high school he served one tour in Afghanistan then transferred to Japan. An encounter with a joro-gumo left him with questions he couldn't answer. The spider-creature had him wrapped up and ready to eat when the Technology agent tracking it showed up, killed it and gave Brock a card.

Shut up, Biff, said Miriam.

After humiliating Brock at kendo Lois gave him the name and it stuck. Now he wore it with pride. He also never let pass the chance to remind Miriam of the time she used the men's room to disguise herself and Jason.

I wish I'd been there, said Ellen.

I wish I hadn't, replied Jason.

The morning sky slowly turned to gray as the group reached the school. The heavy clouds promised a miserable day as winter tried hard to stay past its time. Coach McDonald and his assistant Vaelhatt waited. The students and recruits knew going out they'd face an obstacle course on their return and the brutal McDonald didn't let them down. As each person jogged to a halt one of the coaches called out a number. This time the course had eight entrances spaced around its perimeter. Jason received number five.

In addition to military and cross-fit apparatus the course had skill stations. Fencing, kendo, archery, martial arts and firearms, every person had to pass every station. Jason caught a few moments of rest with a quick victory at kendo. He was Fred Xiang's second match so Fred had to leave. After thirty seconds Lois dropped off the ring swing and stepped up.

***

They need a coffee station in that damned obstacle course.

Tonya Jax, Ellen's recruit, sat down with her third cup and lit a cigarette.

I agree, said Brock.

Jason agreed too but chose not to speak with his mouth full. All of them sat in the cafeteria in the recruits' wing. Two weeks after the