“Didn’t you get what you need already? You sent that courier away with our findings. What else do we have to do?”
Victoria sighed. Pulled up a chair and sat in their midst. No rulebook here, not sure how to go from this point and keep them here. Best, like ma always said, be honest if nothing else. So that’s what I’ve got. “I want to thank you all. Thank you for following and listening and working with me. I…actually don’t know how to thank you all.”
“Besides pizza,” someone said.
“Not that we’re not grateful.”
“I can’t pay you, and I can only promise that after this success here, if it works and is what they needed, I can’t see how you’re not all members of the Initiative now.”
“If it’s even left in one piece.”
Victoria pressed on. “I admit, it’s not looking good. But this is something bigger than us, bigger than maybe anything up to this point. I don’t know everything, but I know we are all in trouble. Not just us meaning psychics. It’s not an us versus them thing, despite how it looks. Anything we can do here is going to help, maybe save more than just our own lives and theirs.”
After a silence, Curt said, “We’ve been doing what we can.”
“But I’ve only given you specific targets. Maybe if we cast a wider net, there’s something else we could catch, and it just might be what we need.”
“But we’re supposed to be specific.”
“Yeah, otherwise we get crap, useless or misleading visions.”
Victoria rubbed her temples. This was getting out of hand again, and honestly she couldn’t blame them. They were tired, scared. Missing their families. Of course they were worried, but she had to press on.
“Why don’t you try for once?” Curt said. “We’ve been through enough, I would say.”
Others nodded, some with exhausted looks, others a little ashamed to admit it.
“You’re right,” Victoria said after a moment. “I’ve been so focused trying to do what Phoebe Crowe asked of me, namely getting all of you to work together, to recognize your potential — which you did so well by the way — that I never stepped in myself.”
She sighed, aware they were all looking at her. A little awkwardly maybe, but it didn’t matter. She knew what she had to do.
“Listen, I’ve never been that great around people.”
Someone coughed. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“Thanks. But really, it goes further. This…what Phoebe asked me to do, was way out of my comfort zone, but I know desperate times and all. Remote viewing though, it was something that just came to me out of loneliness. Sitting up in my room or hanging on the tire swing out back for hours. Allergic, I couldn’t even have pets to play with, so I used my mind, my imagination. Started believing I could see things, spy on other families, other kids, see what they were doing. Maybe peek around the side of the earth and look at exotic countries and places I’d never get to visit.”
Marla interrupted. “So you’re saying it’s the same as when I pee. I can’t do it if other people are around?”
That got some laughs. Even from Victoria as she stood up. “Yeah, kind of like. Listen, you’re all free to go. Or stay. I’m going to go upstairs. Light a candle in the church, and do what you asked. Going to set my mind free, relax and let go. Maybe it’ll work, maybe not. Maybe you’ll still be here when I’m done and we can go forward together. Maybe not. Either way, you know where I’ll be the next couple hours.”
She got up. “Good luck, and stay safe.”
Making her way upstairs she tried to quickly clear her mind of what was happening back there, or wondering how they took her last speech. Wasn’t much in the way of motivational, but what the hell, it was worth a shot. She thought she didn’t do so bad, after all. First day as a leader, and she hadn’t lost anyone yet.
They’d accomplished their main mission, she recollected as she entered the sacristy. Saw the candles already lit and the statue of Jesus flickering in the soft red light. Chose a seat and made a Sign of the Cross. Pressed her head against the pew in front of her and then opened her eyes, sat back and focused on the shadows. Took in the quiet, the total calm, and shut out everything else.
For a moment, she was back in her room twenty years ago, with just a closet light on during a rainy, humid Sunday. Her mind a blank, and now…
Stirrings of something flickering on the wall above the shadows. Darkness bleeding down, covering all, wiping it clean. A dark canvas on which to paint something new.
All dark.
Her eyes, unblinking, glanced back and forth at the darkness, and she trembled, knowing it was coming. She was accessing the ‘other sight’, and just now needed a guide, a pointer.
Where to look?
Her mind was so blank it had no direction. Swimming around in the black ether, it roamed until it caught hold of something — just a snippet of recent memory, of the previous objective: the fabled artifact in some half-submerged ruined city. The green tablet of power.
They knew where it was, but not really where it was. The city indicated was large, spread out over many acres, and nowhere near fully explored, with areas so inaccessible. Possibilities were so numerous, the Morpheus team would have its work cut out, and even then…weren’t these things supposedly guarded by wicked traps and complicated puzzles, or worse?
Had to be, if it was still there after all this time.
See it, she willed from somewhere floating around in her mind. Where is it…?
Colors began to swirl on the dark canvas. Tendrils of blue, mixed with yellows and greens, spilling out into intricate patterns and recognizable shapes…
Only to be smeared away by the darkness, then replaced by other images painted with an unseen hand in rapid, beautifully executed strokes.
A stone gateway, followed by a wall… Underwater?
A stretch of megalithic blocks, broken in places, pieces of a wall…
Down to a rocky crevasse and a narrow path, murky in the watery gloom, covered with shells…
…to a flat plateau, smooth like the top of a structure of some importance. Octagonal in shape, with a circular opening directly in its center. A pit…
And the final image — plunging into it, bubbles rushing up as the view descended deeper and deeper and…
The lights came on, banishing the blackness, the shadow and the images.
Victoria snapped her head around.
The pastor stood at the back of the church, looking solemn. “I’m sorry my dear, to interrupt your prayers.” He raised a hand, and in it — a folded piece of paper.
“It’s okay, I was…almost done. What’s that?”
He approached slowly, head down. “My private number I give out to very few, so I was surprised when I got this text. I..don’t know who it is, and I don’t know if it means they’ve found us, or if this is one of your…friends.”
Victoria scratched at the back of her neck. “What does it say?” And who could it be from?
He handed her the note, then backed away. “I have no idea what this means, if it’s code for something or what. But I hope you do.”
Victoria frowned, immediately suspecting a trick.
“The message told me to just write it down and give it to you.”
“Okay…” Victoria unfolded it.
“And say it was urgent. I texted back, even called the number — but no response.”
She held up the note to read it.
“Or maybe it’s a joke, if not some code. Especially since the name he gave me…the man’s been dead for decades, as far as I know.”