Alan Price and the Colossus of Rhodes (The Nephilim Chronicles) by Jonathan Yanez

black
duffle bag felt great. Thick stack after thick stack of the one hundred dollar
bills piled into his sack until it filled every inch. Alan fought against the
urge to count his money there and then. There will be plenty time for that
later , he told himself.
    Zipping the bag close took some
effort but with a few more grins and smiles Alan managed to secure his loot.
The table that once held the money was all but bare. Only a few lone bills
scattered across the steel frame.
    Alan couldn’t help himself as he
reached out and plucked the last stack of bills right from the bank manager’s
hand.
    “Sorry, I need this more than you.
The bank is insured; you’ll be fine when they look at the tapes and realize
it’s not your fault.”
    With that, Alan turned and ran out
of the building. The duffle bag bursting with money felt heavy. The fabric
strap dug into his shoulder making an uncomfortable indentation as Alan burst
out of the bank and across the street.
    Alan ripped off his mask and
stuffed it into his back pocket. He crouched behind the alley dumpster one more
time and stopped. Time unfroze as soon as he ceased moving. The cars on the
street continued on their way, the pedestrians on the sidewalk moved along at
normal speed and the flags flapped and slapped against themselves in the wind.
    The only thing that seemed out of
place in the following seconds were the shouts from the bank followed by the
vault’s alarm.

 
    Chapter 21
    Present Day
     
    “So,” Danielle said as she paused
to take a sip from her straw. The ice cubes and lone cheery swirled in her
Shirley Temple. “Are you going to try and let me explain, or are you going to
dash out of here and leave me with the bill?”
    Alan scanned the inside of the bar
one more time before he settled into the booth’s thick cushioned seat. “I’ll
stay. Start from the beginning.”
    Danielle smiled, “Okay, hear me
out. This is the truth. It’s going to sound crazy but I’ll be completely honest
with you.”
    Alan could feel his temper flare,
“Okay, yes, just get on with it.”
    Danielle took a long sip of her
drink either enjoying the spotlight or trying to mask her nervousness, Alan
couldn’t decide. “You’ve been given these powers, Alan. You aren’t a mutant;
you didn’t evolve; you’re not part of an experiment; your parents aren’t
members of an alien race.”
    Danielle paused to let the
information sink in. Alan’s mind was racing. If his mystery visitor was telling
the truth then all of his theories, all of his years of research of what he
could be were evaporating by the second. Then something Danielle said made him
stop mid-thought. “You said I’ve ‘been given these powers’. Powers? All I have
is one, speed.”
    “All you have is one power that you
know of,” Danielle corrected. “This is just the beginning.”
    Alan was quiet. Half of him wanted
to believe her. Above all else, over the last few years, he wanted answers. Now
that he had them, they seemed so hard to believe. “How?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “How did I get this—these—powers?”
    “The organization I work for gave
them to you. You were chosen.”
    Images of the CIA, the Illuminati;
and even aliens occupied Alan’s thoughts. Alan reached for the whiskey bottle
on the table and filled the silence with a long pour of the expensive liquor.
He brought the glass to his lips and drained the cup.
    “That’s not going to help.”
    Alan looked across with watering
eyes, “How do you know?”
    “Because I tried the same thing. I
tried to dull the truth, the sense of responsibility. Money, alcohol, drugs,
it’s all only temporary relief. Fun, I’ll give you that, but still only
temporary relief. You know what I mean; you’re going through that now.”
    Alan put his glass on the table and
defiantly poured himself another serving. He knew she was right. He had been at
the drinking game long enough now to know that the comfort alcohol brought was
only a brief rest from