Evelyn stands. Crosses the room. Opens a desk drawer and returns with a color photograph. ‘Maria and I were inseparable as children, born only thirteen months apart. The two of us attended Cambridge together. I’ll never forget the night she told me she was going off on some Mayan expedition with Julius and that jerk, Pierre Borgia. The news just about broke my heart.’
Dominique stares at the photo of the two sisters, taken while they were in England. ‘Your eyes? In this photo they’re black, like your sister’s.’
‘Yes. They changed after the accident. In fact, it wasn’t until after the lightning strike that I became a necromancer.’
‘You said earlier you’ve been in touch with your sister.’
‘She’s been my spiritual companion, my guide into the higher dimensions, the higher states of consciousness. The higher states are the forces of God’s light, the forces of good. The higher our own frequencies of good, the easier it is for us to attune to their light.’
‘Are there forces of evil?’
Evelyn pauses, choosing her words carefully. ‘By creating a world of free will, God allowed for the forces of both good and evil, light and dark. These “lesser lights” as I call them, fall into several different categories. Ghosts are the deceased who remain too confused to move into the light. Sometimes our negative thoughts or ignorance invites them into our lives. Ouija boards, for instance, set us up for ghostly pranks. By praying for these confused entities, we can help them realize the reality of their situation and guide them into the light.
‘More dangerous are poltergeists. Poltergeists have their own agenda. They are dark and evil and believe they can use their knowledge of the universe to manipulate our world. Poltergeists are the false prophets the Bible warns us about. They will entice us with their knowledge, but are not to be trusted. They can cause us great harm.
‘The purer sources of light bring us closest to God. These are the spirits. Spirits are our friends. They never judge or manipulate us, they are here only to help us see the truth. Angels are the brightest lights in the spiritual world, the messengers of God’s essence. They are always available to help, but it is up to us to ask for their assistance. Among the angels are the cherubim, seraphim, guardian angels, and archangels.’
‘And you can see them? You can see your sister?’
‘No, but I can feel her presence when we communicate.’
‘And she’s told you about Mick?’
Evelyn nods. ‘Take my hands in yours and close your eyes. Quiet your mind. Breathe in through your nose as slowly and deeply as you can, then gently out through your mouth. Focus on your feelings for Michael. Extinguish your sadness and feel him in your heart. Center yourself upon your love for him.’
Dominique breathes. She thinks of Mick and how much she misses him.
Evelyn registers Dominique’s increased energy flow as she meditates. She centers herself, moving deeper into her own meditation.
In due course she speaks: ‘Dear Lord, hold us in Your loving light. Allow Your angels to guide us, so that our experiences may be for the highest good. We thank You for all You have done, and ask You now to reveal our dearly departed, Maria Rosen-Gabriel, to us.’
A long pause, then Evelyn speaks again, this time in a higher, raspy voice not her own.
‘My son has not passed into the spiritual realm. Michael has imprisoned himself in purgatory.’
Dominique’s eyes flash open. ‘My God… Mick’s in Hell?’
‘There is no Hell. Michael’s soul is shackled with anger-an anger that comes from a life devoid of love. He was asked to make a great sacrifice. Now he loathes the decision and curses his existence, marooned on an island of space-time surrounded by an ocean of evil.‘
‘Is… is he safe?’
‘He is in great danger. A powerful poltergeist tortures him and the Nephilim -a population of lost souls. Michael’s internal rage blinds him, preventing him from defeating the poltergeist, and yet he feels compelled to remain, for it is his heavenly light that comforts the Fallen Ones. All are trapped in an equilibrium of existence, a higher temporal plane, what you would call Hell. It is Michael’s presence within this existence that has created a third-dimensional loop of space-time. The loop must be broken to save Michael, the souls of the Fallen, and humanity.’
Dominique’s fingers ache within Evelyn’s steely grip as she stares at the tears streaming down the old woman’s cheeks. ‘Maria… will I ever see him again?’
‘The Creation Story foretold in the Mayan Popol Vuh rewrites itself. The final battle will again be waged. The journey of good and evil begins anew with the rebirth of your sons. It is your role to prepare them for a battle that was waged and lost eons ago. If they are successful, then Michael will be resurrected. If they fail, then humanity is lost.
‘But beware, for another shall be born on the day of the twins’ birth. Negative energy shall flow to this child, tainting its soul while strengthening its spirit. It is this abomination that imprisons my son and disrupts the space-time continuum. It is this unholiest of unholies that tortures the Nephilim, feeding off their life force.
‘Guard against the Abomination, Dominique. Do not allow it to spawn.’
3
Ennis Chaney, the second appointed vice president in history to ascend to the highest office in the land, enters the Oval Office, feeling all his sixty-seven years. African-American, with deeply set owlish eyes, the former Senator from Pennsylvania has been commander in chief forty-two tumultuous days, ever since his predecessor, Mark Maller, took his own life in an attempt to stave off a global nuclear holocaust.
Since then, every dawn has been a blessing, every day twenty-four hours in hell.
Chaney barely has time to make his way behind his desk when his chief of staff, Katherine Gleason, buzzes him on the intercom. ‘Jesus, Kathy, at least give me a chance to sit down.’
‘Sorry, sir. Your seven o’clock appointment is here.’
‘Fine, send them in, and get me some of those chocolate chip cookies I had yesterday at the G-9 meeting. The wife says I’m gaining weight, but I’d don’t care, I need the caffeine.’
‘Yes, sir.’
A moment later, Kathy opens the outer office door, escorting two men inside. The first is Chaney’s friend, Marvin Teperman, a short Canadian exobiologist with a pencil-thin mustache and an annoyingly warm smile. The second man is all business, a gray-haired colonel in full-dress uniform. Chaney notices a slight hitch in the man’s step. An attache case is handcuffed to his left wrist.
Marvin beams his usual smile. ‘Morning, Mr. President. Great day to be alive, eh? Allow me to present Colonel Jack McClellan, United States Air Force.’
‘Colonel.’ Chaney motions to McClellan’s leg. ‘Old war injury?’
‘Prosthetic. Damn diabetes.’
‘Tough break.’ For a fleeting moment, Chaney feels guilty about ordering the cookies. ‘Have a seat. You’ll forgive me, Colonel, but this is my first MAJESTIC-12 briefing. Maybe you could sort of bring me up to speed? I was never big on those X-Files shows.’
The colonel shrugs off the insult. ‘Sir, Operation MAJESTIC-12 was established on September 24, 1947, by special classified presidential order following the recovery of airborne objects that fell over Roswell, New Mexico, between July 4 and July 6 of that same year.’
‘By fallen airborne objects, you mean UFOs?’
‘Yes, sir, and Hollywood aside, I can assure you that this was no special effect. Technically speaking, our unit originated in 1941 with a UFO retrieval case that took place in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It wasn’t until ’47 that Truman officially funded the organization. Over the years, MAJESTIC-12 has utilized the services of some of the most brilliant minds in the world, including Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. Even after all these years, it remains our government’s most supersecret program.’