THE ONE CALLED J

Chapter 36

Joshua was really angry, he had never encountered a long-range entourage before.  He hadn't even given a thought to how they could be but what was before him was terrifying.   Extremely weak offensive capabilities but a dangerous ability.

"Max and Henry," Joshua says, trying his best to keep his cool.  "How do you stop a long-range entourage?"

"By taking its owner out of the game," Max answers.  "A long-range entourage can switch its position with its owner when its ability is to be activated, the owner of the entourage could be anywhere in the world by now.  The range is nearly infinite."

"The owner is in Moscow," Joshua says.  "I am sure of it.  There are no signs of forced entry in this place.  This means whosoever the owner of the long-range entourage is, he's known around here.  If I am to take a guess, he even runs this place, Henry!" Joshua called as he turns at Hendrickson.  "How did you find out about here?"

"While Max and Dave were bringing you to big burgers," Hendrickson says.  "I found the flyer on the wall so I crammed the number."

"The dumbass must have posted the flyer," Joshua bit his lower lip.  "He must have been following us for a while."

Ivan could see all that was going on, he was capable of seeing through his entourage eyes.  He drank from a glass cup that was filled with red wine.  "Not a bad deduction," Ivan smiled.  "J is every bit as good as Terry claimed.  Once I had gotten to Moscow, I went to the base.   The strategic duo had gone off to find a kid, I had decided to use that as my opportunity hoping I would be able to take care of them before the strategist duo found them so I first got information from Terry, found them, and began to tail them for a while.  I heard them talking about Big Burgers eatery, and since I was versed with the road map of this city, I took a shortcut to a route that I knew most usually passed.  I posted the flyer there, I knew it was inevitable that they wouldn't see it, and once Hendrickson had spotted it," Ivan grinned maliciously.  "I knew it was only a while, I was shocked later on when I got wind of news that Andrey's dead body was found on the street from one of my staff, I knew Andrey and Boris were inseparable so for Andrey to be dead, Boris too was, he probably met his end in outer space,"

Ivan began cutting his steak, he took in a forkful as he continued thinking.  "Even with his intuition, there's still no way he can make it to where I am, I can easily override their bodies now that I have my print implanted on them."

Dave was breathing heavily as he knelt on the ground, his face was turned towards the ground and he was panting heavily.  His face was a palette of fear.

"It doesn't matter what he did," Hendrickson says in Joshua's direction.  "We have to find the long-range entourage, if we don't, we are going to die."

"Relax," Joshua grins at him.  "The J is with you, you can't die."

"Guys," Max has a terrified look on his face as he points at Hendrickson.  "Your print, it's glowing."

Hendrickson brought his palm to his face level, it was shining.  He knew he was scared not just about the question the entourage might ask but what the entourage might decide to take.

The entourage suddenly appeared in front of Hendrickson, it had an evil smile on its face.

"Max," Joshua says as he dashes towards his vehicle.  "The entourage is focused on Henry, we have to go now while it's distracted.  Bring Dave, he looks shaken up."

"Sure!" Max ran as fast as he could.

"Say this after me," the entourage begins.  "SILK! SILK!! SILK!!! SILK!!!!."

Hendrickson didn't want to repeat after the entourage but he found his lips moving of its own accord.  "SILK! SILK!! SILK!!! SILK!!!!."

"Now, what does a cow drink?"

"That's easy," Hendrickson thought to himself without thinking twice as he blurted out.  "Milk!"

"Wrong!" The entourage laughed evilly.

"But how," Hendrickson thought to himself as he staggered back before he pondered harder on the question.  "Cows just produce milk, it's water they drink.  Why the hell did I choose milk?"

Ivan laughed to himself as he drank from his glass cup.  "Classic human psyche, by forcing you to say the word silk three times, I was recalibrating your mental facilities to begin to think in a certain direction.  Once, you had heard cows and drink, all your brain did at the moment was try and link Silk to whatever was in common with cow and drink which was milk, that was why you failed.  Classic human psyche."

"I take your life force," the entourage said as it swiped his hand towards Hendrickson's face.  Hendrickson tried to move but he realized he couldn't, he was frozen to that spot.  The hand phased through, it was then that Hendrickson knew the definition of excruciating pain.   He screamed at the top of his lungs but the pain didn't stop.

Eventually, the palm passed through his head, Hendrickson fell to the ground, his body was pale, his skin had lost its color and it was swollen.

Max was yet to enter the car as he saw the sight before him, it looked exactly like the bodies he had seen inside, Joshua felt l sweat drip from his face as he looked at Dave who had finally regained his self.  "Bro," Joshua begins.  "We can't afford to fail any more questions.   The entourage took care of Henry in one fell swoop.  Until we find the dumbass who owns that entourage, we have to answer all the questions correctly."

Dave felt too weak to speak but he nodded his head in affirmation. 

"Good," Joshua mutters as he turns the key, igniting the engine.  It zoomed off leaving nothing but dust in its wake.

"J!" Max asks.  "Do you know where we are going to?"

"I am trying to think," Joshua answers him.  For the first time since Joshua could remember, his face was tense.  "Max," Joshua says after a while, he makes a sharp turn as he makes an intersection to another road.  "You are the one Dave is depending on, I know you don't like me much but I know you care about Dave, I have a feeling I won't be able to make it but you can.  The ball is in your court since you are the only one without the paw print."

Max was about to respond but the entourage suddenly materialized in front of Joshua.  Part of its body was partially immersed in the vehicle, it had an evil smile on its face as he looked at Joshua.  Joshua gritted his lower lip as he returned an even crueler smile to the entourage.

"J is a bit of a crafty one," Ivan grins as he sips from his glass cup.  "He knows a lot about theoretical physics and I am guessing he's quite versed with biology.  He took his time learning that information because he felt it would be useful for him.  No human has all knowledge, the things we don't know are more than things that we know even amongst all that's provided for us to learn from, I will ask him a question nearly everyone including him deems useless."

"Are you just going to look at me and smile all day like a sixty-year-old virgin whose only p***y that he has ever seen is the one he sees when he looks in the mirror or are you going to ask me a question I am pretty sure kindergarten me would be able to answer easily?"

"What's the square root of 7 correct to eight-hundred decimal places?" The entourage asks with an evil grin.  Max who was in the back seat was scared, he thought there was no way Joshua would get this question, Dave had an indifferent look on his face.

Ivan smiled maliciously to himself, no one on earth could calculate that and even if J somehow did the impossible and knew the answer, there was no way he could say it within the allocated time.

"The square root of 7 correct to eight-hundred decimal places," Joshua had his most haughty smile on.  "Is an irrational number."

Ivan was bewildered as he spat out the wine he was drinking, that wasn't the answer he was expecting but it was correct.  "Who the hell is he? The conventional human would have already been tensed and would begin trying to find the exact value of the question he asked, this was impossible."

"You thought that question was gonna be impossible for me to answer," Joshua grinned even more maliciously as he looked at his arm, the glow on the paw print had vanished.  "But I showed you once again.  Impossibility used to be a thing until I, the J came along."

The entourage vanished after Joshua has spoken, it was the custom of Ivan's entourage to disappear for a period of at least, five seconds after it asked a question before it can ask another one.

Max couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief, he was glad Joshua was able to answer the question but Joshua knew it wasn't over.

"From the way this entourage is acting," Joshua says as he kept driving.  "It's obvious it's being directly controlled by its user and somehow, the user can observe us through the eyes of his entourage but it should only be limited to those with its prints implanted on them, I have an idea."

Joshua ends as he parked the car.  "Max, get out."

"What do you mean?"

"Trust me," Joshua says.  "Get out!"

Max grudgingly opens the door as he got down.  "Max, no one can completely hide their true nature.  When you see a rich man, you'd know from his habits and where you see a poor man, you'd also know from his."

Max didn't understand what Joshua was talking about, he was about to press on further but Joshua drove away.

"What did you do that for?" Dave asks.

"I am taking the advantage," Joshua answers him as he turns around another corner.  "The user of that entourage can see us and when we are in confrontation with it.  We are unable to do anything but answer its question.  Despite all that, it has a shortcoming."

"What?" Dave asks.

"It can't monitor those it hasn't imprinted on, that's why even if we were about to come to his location, he would spot us coming from a mile away, our only hope is Max, he's the only one who can help us since he wasn't imprinted."

"J," Dave says, he had a worried look on his face.  "I thought I was going to be the next."

"What do you mean?" Joshua asks.

"Your print," Dave points to Joshua's arm.  "It's glowing."

"f**k," Joshua curses.  "That dumbass, can't say I didn't expect it.  Though, I know the next question he's gonna ask."

"What is it?"

"He's gonna ask me for the exact value of the square root of 7 in eight- hundred decimal places."

"Classic human psyche," Dave smiles at him.  "His ego would be hurt that he thought you were going to fail and you disappointed him, now he would be so angry that he would be unable to think of another question so he would ask you the same question but in a more specific manner."

"Bingo," Joshua smiles.  The entourage suddenly materializes before him, it had an annoyed look on its face.

"You are the first person who has been able to answer any of my questions," the entourage begins.  "But it ends at just one, you won't be able to answer another."

"You think you are saying words but all I hear is the yapping and cries of a pained b***h," Joshua had an evil smile on his face.  "Are you going to ask the question or will you keep saying irrelevant s**t no one gives a s**t about?"

"Alright then," the entourage was getting even angrier.  "Give me the exact value of the square root of seven."

"It's exactly as Joshua predicted," Dave thought to himself.  "But how is Joshua going to answer?"

"Your intelligence don't differ much from an i***t," Joshua grins.  "I am not surprised, you are a dumbass," Joshua ends bitterly as he removes his phone from his pocket and stretched it for the entourage to see.   Joshua while driving earlier had used his other arm to switch on his phone which was located in his pocket, looked for the safari app, clicked it, and typed "Value of √7 correct to 800 d.p"

It had brought the result out and Joshua had just waited for the entourage to come again.    "You are such a retard, aren't you?  You didn't ask for me to say the exact value, you just said I should give you the exact value meaning I could use whatever other means that was at my disposal.  You might say I am playing on your intelligence but that would mean I was falsely implying that you had one, to begin with."