Caleb backed away, and found himself in a corner. “What are you?”
The Operator smiled a toothy grin. Reached down and picked up his hat, then reaffixed it on his head, slightly crooked. Took a step toward Caleb. “That’s top secret.”
“You shouldn’t be interfering.” Caleb had to try something. Had to stall, to give himself an opening to run, try to make it back to the portal, if it was even still up and running. How much time did he have to get back in and through?
There was a pause, just slightly. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know another like you. He helped us once…sort of.”
“Then he was a fool. We’re not all bound by idiocy. Some…” The eyes glazed over slightly as the smile widened. “Have broken free of any such limitations. We’ve found purpose, righted ourselves, grounded into one viewpoint and pursued a more righteous path.”
“Sounds like gibberish,” Caleb argued, stepping behind a chair, but working himself farther into the corner. Glancing around through his periphery, looking for a weapon of any kind. Wait, wasn’t the fireplace right there before? I could have used the poker…
“You know so little, for pretending to know and see so much.”
“Yeah I get that a lot.” Come to think of it, where was the dagger he just dropped?
The Operator glided over now, moving fast, on the opposite side of the chair. He could reach out now and catch Caleb’s throat, snap the neck in an instant. Instead he seemed to be unable to resist one last taunt.
“You and your group. Your father and grandfather…all those who could pierce the veil…you still don’t know why, or what it all means. Can’t see the elephant for all the parts you’ve been touching.”
Caleb shrugged. “Nope. And you lot are dreadfully possessive of these truths. Care to share before you murder me?”
The hat swiveled as he shook his head, and he let out a little laugh. “Oh you’ll find out, very very soon, in what will be a great shock, I’m sure.” He cocked his head and looked up, as if picturing the sight with enjoyment. “In a way, you’re lucky, where you’re going.”
“What are you, some wacky cultist with wackier afterlife beliefs?”
“Something like that,” came the reply as the grin vanished, replaced with dark intent. “Or just one with access to the truth.”
He was about to lunge when he paused, almost froze in mid air. A gagging, pained sound came from his throat — which bulged. His mouth opened wide — and a blast of violent bright light vomited out. Caleb had the impression that some golden snake had crawled inside the man’s stomach and now emerged, straightened and erect, protruding through the mouth, past the teeth and gums, shedding its skin and teeth as it emerged.
The operator’s eyes clouded over with disbelief and shock and tried to circle back in his head, tried to see who held the dagger with both hands, forcing it ever deeper, all the way until the hilt met the back of the bald skull.
The eyes faded, as did the energy to his legs, and the Operator crumpled to his knees. His body jittered, then started to break apart. Collapsing in bits under the clothes, contracting, shrinking, tightening. The head and the hands disintegrated in compartmentalized packets of light that whisked away into folds in space, as if something from another dimension were disassembling a robotic thing, separating it into the basic building pieces, and then vacuuming the debris all back.
Hundreds of flashes of light sparkled — outside and under the clothes, within the sleeves, under the pants and in the shoes — until even those fizzled out and there was nothing left but the black garments lying flat on the ground.
And Caleb stared at the boy standing in his place. The boy now looking at his hands, then up at Caleb — and the room, which suddenly shifted, vibrating slightly, then settling into a slightly different version of itself.
The fireplace was back, the pictures in different places, the window a bit brighter.
“I had to build a vision on top of a vision,” young Boris said in a far-off voice. “He was breaking down the first one. Just had to tweak it so he couldn’t see me, or the dagger he dropped — also apparently made of the same stuff he was. So I cut some corners.”
“Pretty damn good,” Caleb whispered, still keeping his eyes on the remnants of the man below him. “You did it.”
“I…” Boris rubbed his head. “I don’t remember who he was. But I know he didn’t come here to be nice.” Those big brown eyes looked up at Caleb, now with some confusion.
Caleb nodded. “It’s okay, it’s…expected. Are you all right?”
Boris stepped back. “I think so. I…” He looked toward the kitchen and the bright light from the morning sun. Heard his name called from somewhere out there, a playful tone from a young girl, and his lips turned into a smile. “I think I need to go now.”
Caleb took in a deep breath. “You do.”
“So do you,” Boris said, and it was his older voice again, breaking down at the end but still recognizable. “Hurry, it won’t wait for you.”
He headed toward the kitchen, stopping at the threshold to turn his head. “Good luck on the other side. I’m sorry, sorry for everything.”
And then he was gone into the sunlight.
Somewhere in that other room there was a click of a record player as a song ended and another record dropped into place. A sound of static, and then the familiar beats of a song.
Somewhere…beyond the Sea, somewhere…
Caleb paused for a moment, staring at the light. To the shimmering rectangular space altering the reality of one section of the hallway. It was fluttering, about to close, its energy expended.
They’re waiting for me.
And then he ran.
25
Diana had been crouched in the farthest corner from the door, out of the cone of light from the dim bulb overhead. As far as kidnappings go, she imagined this one wasn’t too bad. She had water and a sandwich; although it was turkey — not her thing. Didn’t they do their research and know she was a vegetarian?
How long had she been here? How long since the terrifying moment in the observatory, right after Nevin had left for a short break and she heard a sound, and then two armed men in suits were there on either side of her? Politely but urgently they whisked her away as if they were secret service agents after receiving a threat on her life.
No one spoke in the car for the four hour ride and no one said a word after dumping her in this room. Wherever the hell they were, a remote lighthouse on Long Island, they apparently had no immediate interest in her. Didn’t ask her one thing, despite her yelling herself hoarse about what she knew, about insisting she had information that needed to be heard. Even once in this room, she knew they would have cameras and microphones, and had to hear her.
But no one came.
Which meant she had only been abducted for one purpose.
I hate being used for insurance.
All her smarts and knowledge, and they thought she would just serve as a threat to use against Montross? She knew that had to be it. Don’t need to be psychic to figure that one out.
They were going to make him talk. Damn it. Should have hidden better.
She hugged her knees and shuddered, thinking of what was to come. In her mind, while not psychic, she quickly felt disassociated from her body and felt herself soaring now, flying high in a hand glider over the lush forests of Yellowstone, or better yet…where she had gone looking for her father, and had met Xavier, in the Grand Canyon. She could almost feel the heat and the dry air, the sun on her face, her climbing gear feeling so secure on her back like always as she swooped toward the river. And then a voice said: