The twins! Alaska, the journey beyond the veil, the punching through reality to the information hub, or whatever the hell that was.
He shook his head, and again looked at the screen, where they were displaying the White House on a split screen with a scene from the streets of Paris. Crowds in both views, and another voice, this time shaky and slow, as if drugged.
“…awaiting word from the President, or his aides if he’s not yet able to speak. We are hearing indications that there are some who are fighting off these symptoms through use of meditation, yoga and in some cases, medicine. Although we are not encouraging the use of drugs or alcohol, apparently many are finding solace in the blurring of consciousness, or sleep…”
Orlando muted the channel. Pulled up a chair. He had to sit, focus and meditate. Wished he had a pad of paper or his trusty graphics tablet. First though, he scanned for a communications system. A phone, anything. Found the monitor showing the hallway outside, thinking, I should have checked for the dead guy’s cell phone.
Then he saw the laptop right here, already opened and logged in.
Google phone time…
Found an outside site, remembered her cell number despite it only being on his contact/speed dial list, and phoned a friend. He hoped she’d pick up, even not recognizing the number — which she never did. It took almost a half a minute to connect, and he was surprised finally when it did.
Phoebe answered on the second ring.
“Who’s this?” Her voice, frazzled, weary and cautious.
“Honey, it’s me.”
“Oh, thank God! Do you know where you are? I’ve been remote-searching, but all I get is a view of an airport hangar, and a field and clouds and snow. I have an idea, I know it’s familiar…”
“Well, I’m in some kind of facility. Maybe underground. No windows, nothing, but…”
Xavier’s voice cracked through, and he knew was on speakerphone. “Have him look for a code number on any installation files, there’s usually something…”
“I’ll find it,” Orlando said, nodding and looking around. “All I know is some weird shit going on here, like Stranger Things experiments, but even worse.”
“Well, you’re not at the Montauk Facility,” Phoebe offered. “Cuz we just… ah… blew that up, and you’d be nuclear-fried toast right now.”
“Oh. So…” He checked the news screen again, and again — scenes of chaos coming in on smart phones and YouTube and other feeds, from all over the world. And then, a night scene where someone filmed a strange glowing light flickering in the sky like a scattered aurora.
Orlando received a flash, an insight to a question his mind just asked:
Caleb seated in a familiar exotic chair. A green tablet in its favored slot, and energy pours out from him, from the chair, and then — from monuments and exotic ancient locations around the world, pooling up against an invisible spherical barrier in the atmosphere where it forms a sort of…
“Shield?”
A sputtering silence, and then: “Yes, can you sense it?”
“Something, yeah. What the hell? Did that — was that what caused all this? Everyone’s gone gonzo-psychic? I’m watching the news.”
“Yeah.” Caleb’s voice, in a familiar tone of stunned guilt. He’s heard it before. Gone was the confidence of late. He’s been knocked down to the bottom rung, Orlando thought, starting again as if before the door to the Pharos for the first time.
This was his fault. Tricked, duped by…
It didn’t matter. Custodian, rival psychic, government spook. It was all the same.
Them and Us.
“Listen,” Phoebe called, her voice panicking. “We’re trying to fix things here, and there’s a way, we’re sure of it, but first. The twins, I can’t sense them!”
Orlando sat and leaned forward, hunched over the keyboard; he closed his eyes, trying to see his little boy and girl again. The cabin, the aurora…
“They’re alone,” he whispered. “I was with them.”
“You were?”
“In… a way. I can’t quite explain it. Wouldn’t believe me, but I was there. Astrally. Almost like what Xavier has done before.”
“Projection?” He asked.
“More than that.” Custodian, he wanted to say but didn’t want to open that can of quantum worm food just yet.
“We have to get to them!”
“I could, if I can get the hell out of here. And if there are planes up there, as you say…”
“You focus on escaping,” she ordered. “I’ll get to them. We’re here with Edgerrin. He’s got some pilots that aren’t so… affected. I’ll go.”
“Outside of Nome, Alaska. A cabin, remote, in a valley, with a…” He tried to picture it again. “Long winding road along the way to it, a cliffside where several army Humvees went over…”
“That should be enough for us to RV it. Trust me, hon, I’ll get to them. You stay safe.”
“And dear, something I need to tell you about our kids.” He took a breath, and again relived a glimpse of their golden-hued, data-centric forms in the Beyond-realm, among all those quantum bits of pure energy-information. “They’re special. I know all parents like to think that, but these kids? Holy shit, what they can do! What they know right now… They may be the key to saving this cluster-F from getting even worse.”
He checked the screen.
“If that’s even possible. Oh, and Caleb?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
“While I was… projecting, I found myself… well, shit you won’t believe it. Akashic Record much?”
“You did what?”
“Yeah, I was there, at the Library of all Libraries. And man, anything and everything. Holographic card catalog system of the Gods is all I can say, I was right there before these yahoos reeled me back in and—”
But that’s when, looking at the monitor, which turned to a darkened night sky scene, Orlando saw the reflection in the glass:
His, and another’s.
The connection terminated as the laptop went flying across the room and shattered.
Orlando screamed.
The door behind him hadn’t closed fast enough, and the occupant of that first experimentation cell had freed herself and now stood, red crayon makeup and all, a horrifying joker-like smile under crazed, wildly excited eyes.
Right behind him.
10
As the dawn spread and the shadows of the massive walls and inner constructs retreated, Nina took the measure of the situation.
Three kids, one of them her own, but all of them under her care and never had she felt so vulnerable. So responsible. Recklessness was never a tool in her arsenal, but up until now she would take chances, act impulsively and occasionally throw caution to the wind on her missions of stealth, murder or espionage. She knew she could take care of herself in any situation, if she had it all planned out. Especially if she had the added cheat of some psychic help scouting out the outcome in advance.
But her current predicament as caretaker for the youth was uncharted territory; the fact that their mission might well decide the fate of the world had her all but paralyzed. She had her doubts about this objective from the get-go, and splitting up the team was never a clever idea when faced with adversaries like Custodians or psychics that could send out false images.
Having Aria here was a small comfort at least; Nina had hoped that her ability to shield their location from other psychics using her ‘Blue Screen’ of safety or whatever it was, would be enough, but something told her that their enemies had other means of tracking them. Maybe Nina hadn’t been as careful with the travel arrangements, using Xavier’s old network of pilots and bribed officials. Their enemies were omnipresent, and Xavier’s connections had obviously diminished with the psychic purge and his incarceration.