“Either way, let’s go.” He started back for the Jeep. “Maybe we just try the brazen frontal assault and see what happens. Maybe the spear will protect us.”
Nina laughed. “What’s the quote? ‘Heaven looks after fools, drunks and the United States’?”
Caleb sighed. “At least with the Spear on our soil, it seems the latter’s been pretty much true. Not sure about fools and drunks, but I’m not seeing an alternative to a foolish act at this point. And besides, with this snowstorm, we might get close without attracting attention.”
Shrugging, Nina followed, then set a hand on his shoulder as he was about to get in. Caleb turned, surprised, about to shrug away to avoid any psychic intrusion her touch might elicit, but instead, he found she had other plans.
Her other hand, fast as a bullet, whipped around the back of his neck, and before he could struggle, she pulled his face close and locked her lips on his.
And as the storm seemed to take note and surge in their direction, the ferocity of the icy wind was dulled by the heat in her touch. Caleb moaned, his legs went weak and his mind evaporated into her insistent caress, supplying visions of complete clarity, plucked from a short distance away.
A face in the snowstorm, only a face as the body is covered in a gossamer gown the color of the snow. Her hair, untouched by the flakes, and her eyes: deep green, lush like a forest of sweet-smelling pine.
Lydia.
It’s like she’s watching, but there’s no hint of jealousy. Closer and closer she comes, and now her breath exudes crystalline steam, so close as her eyes melt with emotion, with a mix of pity and urgency, as she speaks.
“Let go, Caleb.”
The viewpoint shudders. Flickers, and Nina’s appearance superimposes over Lydia’s.
The response floats over the howling wind. “I can’t.”
“Let go, and forgive.”
“Forgive her? Never!”
A hand raises and soft, warm fingers touch his frozen cheek. “Not just her.”
Another shudder, Nina and Lydia joining, two sets of matching green eyes boring into his mind. “Forgive…”
“… myself?”
Lydia-Nina smile. Fingertips linger on his cheek, brush his lips… Eyes shine once more as they retreat… then are lost in the swirling, screaming storm.
And the kiss is broken.
Nina pulled away, fighting a look of shock and dismay. “What was that?”
But Caleb closed the gap, not thinking, reacting only on gut emotion. Forgive, forgive. Accept what’s been there all along.
He locked his numb hands around the back of Nina’s head, dropped one to her side, and pulled her close. Before she could react, other than to say “What the f—” , he pressed his lips hard against hers.
Their eyes closed, bodies pressed tight and suddenly becoming rigid, locked in an unbreakable embrace as the visions unraveled, then coagulated and shot through them both simultaneously:
An ancient battlefield, something out of an expensive CGI movie: war machines squaring off amid hundreds of thousands of foot soldiers. Cannons firing energy particle shells of some kind, ripping up the earth, decimating entire battalions. A purple-crimson sky, roiling with smoke scattered by brutal winds. Mushroom clouds appear painted on the horizon in a grotesque caricature of Armageddon.
On one of the futuristic tank-like vehicles: a man with a jackal-headed Egyptian-like helmet roars a battle cry and raises a long-handled weapon with a familiar spear point at its tip. A lance that dazzles with its own light, as if reflecting the brilliance of an unseen star. Lightning rips from its tip, scattering the enemy soldiers ahead, as they roar forward—
—toward a huge pyramid set amidst a burning jungle.
Caleb winced, tried to pull away, but now Nina was latched on tight, her mouth open, tongue entwined with his, two snakes hungrily devouring and sharing each other’s every thought.
The stars…
And the small green and blue neighbor, just clearing the eastern rim of this lunar landscape. Cratered, desolate. Except for a structure. A ziggurat shape, bordered with massive columns and an arched entrance. The hint of emerald stairs leading up into mystery. Somber Ibis-headed statues on either side, welcoming the elusive, non-corporeal visitors.
—who move forward, reverently bowing, then ascending.
At the stairs’ apex, a near-blinding light. Then, features that resolve into enormous shelves. Stacks upon stacks of metallic-looking scrolls with oddly-familiar symbols forming titles. Shelves that stretch on and on into the darkness.
All this fades as the light explodes, pinwheeling into kaleidoscopic swirls. And then they’re back on a snowy field. The white dims, forms appear: giant beams of metal on stands, like giant fans. Turning, aiming into the sky.
Exploding light, pinwheels.
And now, a red clay surface. A desert stretching, unbroken until a large cliff, and what appear to be a series of triangular structures aligned before it. The cliff shakes, shedding boulders and the dust from millennia. The pyramids tremble, then shatter like toy clay pieces. A side of the cliff collapses, turns this way, revealing a giant EYE, cracking, splitting, tumbling a mile down into a pile of rubble.
Another explosion of light and then a single chair appears. A machine. Wires and tubes and consoles hooked to it.
And three young boys stand before it. The youngest is hesitant, but he moves forward on trembling legs as if this is his destiny.
But the other takes a weapon from behind his back. A familiar ancient spear point. Raises it above the younger one’s head—
And then, finally, the vision ripped apart.
And Caleb pulled away from Nina.
The wind and the stinging snow slapped at their faces, but still the heat between them refused to waver.
“What the hell?” Nina shouted.
“I don’t know!” Caleb looked down and saw that their hands were still together, holding each other the way kids used to at a sixth grade dance.
“A library on the Moon? Some ancient battle with the Spear?” Nina tried to shake the images from her head. “And was that Isaac, with the spear?”
Caleb nodded grimly. “He was going to kill Alexander.”
Nina’s eyes darkened. “Then let’s stop him. The hell with the subtle plan. We go in fast and hard.”
Inside the Jeep, Caleb found himself in the passenger seat, trying to warm up as Nina started the engine. He thought of something. “That’s a good plan, but we can improve our odds a bit.”
“How?”
“Still got your untraceable satellite phone?”
“Yeah, back there. Next to the half-a-billion-year-old snow globe.”
Caleb turned and looked down, where they’d secured the ancient gift from Montross, the thing that had been obscuring their location from all psychics, his sister included. He reached back and picked up the phone.
“What are you thinking?” Nina asked as she revved the engine, then tore ahead.
“Thinking we could get Temple to supply a little distraction. Some air support, or at least a fly-by to distract them while we come in fast through the back door.”
Nina grinned at him, then licked her lips as if re-tasting him. “Good idea.”