Mr. Hoyte inspected the chopper before tying a heavy stone to Carl Bain’s trunk using strong climbing rope he got from the helicopter’s cabin. He also tied the dead man’s legs to the left landing skid directly underneath the chopper’s front passenger seat and gave Kimberley a penknife. “Open your door and cut the ropes when we get to the ocean,” he told her.
The Portwood officer nodded and took the knife. She went back into the house, walked over to the main entrance and opened the door. Aiden and Rachel were hugging each other while sitting on the front steps. “You can come in now,” she told them.
“Gosh,” Aiden exclaimed. “It’s so cold out here.” He helped Rachel up the stairs and into the house.
“We’re leaving now,” Kimberley said, ushering the kids across the passage and out the door leading to the backyard.
“With the book?” Rachel asked.
“With a chopper stationed over there,” the older female replied, pointing at the H125 single engine helicopter. “We dump our friend’s body in the ocean, and then we fly towards the North Pole.”
“What for?” Aiden sounded perplexed.
“Um…so that we can try and retrieve the black book?” Kimberley said.
“How?”
“Jeremiah, a.k.a. Mr. Dave Hoyte here, says he has a theory that the North Pole is a gate to the spirit realm, because he could read all the hidden Hebrew words on his piece of paper whenever he is flying towards the pole.”
“Then we should go to the North Pole,” Aiden began.
“Uh, no need for that,” Mr. Hoyte said. “I think we could do what we need to do by simply flying towards the pole.”
“And how did you know that?” Rachel asked the tall glaciologist.
“I’m a scientist, remember?” David pointed out. “I hope we won’t be disappointed, though.” He entered the chopper. “All aboard now. Please put on your safety belts, as well as the headsets for communication.”
The traveling trio obeyed him. They also helped him close the chopper’s air-tight doors.
The Airbus H125 started up and lifted high into the air, the sound of its twirling rotors muffled inside its cabin. The aircraft started forward, its main rotors doing the heavy job. It was soon speeding over a vast wasteland of snow.
Kimberley looked down in awe at the white landscape spread as far as the eyes could see all around her. She saw slush coming down a slope and became curious. “What’s happening over there?” she asked the aircraft’s pilot, pointing down at the event.
“That’s melting snow,” David Hoyte replied, banking the vehicle for a better view.
“Okay, right.” Kimberley cared less.
“You know an ice sheet two miles thick covers most of this island?”
“Okay. Go on.”
“Well, we now know that due to global warming, the ice forming this sheet is melting at a rate we’ve never before witnessed,” the scientist continued. “Water from this melting ice drains into a large aquifer underneath the ice sheet.”
“I see,” a confused Kimberley said.
“Greenland’s ice sheet is shrinking owing to this melt, and it’s losing mass several times faster than it was just a few decades ago,” David continued. “Every year, the ice sheet loses some weight as ice flows from its middle through glaciers at its edges to spill into the ocean.”
Kimberley’s interest had peaked. “Go on,” she urged.
“Under the Greenland ice sheet lies what we call the bedrock,” Mr. Hoyte resumed. “A year ago, we used radar to image the hills, mountains, valleys and depressions on this bedrock that the ice floats over. We got to see channels the size of the Grand Canyon hidden under the ice sheet through this method, and we later discovered that these channels funnel ice and water off of Greenland and into the ocean. We also learnt that water can get to these channels through crevasses that open up from cracks on the surface of the ice sheet. These crevasses are expanded by water from the aquifer beneath the ice sheet till they get to the channels draining into the Arctic Ocean.”
“And how does all that science help our current predicament?” Rachel demanded. Aiden glared at her and she frowned. “What?”
“Nothing bad in getting to know Mr. Hoyte’s work, Rachel,” her traveling companion said. “He’s been good to us.”
“Aiden, I don’t trust him,” Rachel whispered.
“You forget you have a headset, Rachel,” Kimberley interrupted. “We can all hear you.”
“No need to worry, Rachel,” Dave Hoyte said. “I’ll leave you guys if this experiment fails, so you can trust me.” The chopper flew over a clear blue lake.
“And what about the science you’ve been talking about?” the little girl asked him. “How is that relevant to our unique situation here?”
“It’s not important to you,” Mr. Hoyte agreed. “I’m just passing time by telling you what I do. We still have like an hour of flying, so in that context, telling you about my work becomes relevant.”
Rachel said nothing.
“And if you haven’t noticed, Rachel, the book has been showing us a pattern in the places we’ve been to,” Kimberley pointed out. “Man-made environmental disasters, wars and impending nuclear doom. What Mr. Hoyte has been telling us is a man-made environmental disaster.”
“That pattern you talk of is a coincidence,” Rachel said. “I think.”
“Then that’s a mysterious coincidence,” Aiden exclaimed. “We just can’t ignore the coincidence. The book is trying to tell us something by laying out this pattern.”
“Whatever,” Rachel dismissed.
“You see that lake down below?” Mr. Hoyte resumed. “It was formed as a result of warm air melting the surface of the ice sheet. Its presence, though, is causing more ice to melt since it absorbs most of the warmth from the Sun, unlike the ice sheet, which reflects most of this warmth from its white surface.”
“You said the ice sheet is shrinking,” Kimberley began. “Is the surface melt the only action causing this reduction in size?”
“In this part of the ocean, water at the surface tends to be chilly and fresh. However, if you dived down a few hundred feet, you could hit part of the Gulf Stream current, which is a warm, salty layer coming straight from the tropics with the warmth of the equatorial sun in its watery bonds,” Mr. Hoyte said. “This means that the Ocean is also contributing to the shrinking of the ice sheet from underneath it.”
“What good will this scientific knowledge do for the world, Mr. Hoyte?” Aiden asked.
“Well, the ocean soaks up the excess heat already trapped in the atmosphere by human-caused climate change,” Dave said, banking again. “Over time, there will likely be more and more warm water available to melt ice. And you must know that right now, melt from this island’s ice sheet is the single largest contributor to sea level rise worldwide.”
“Sea level rise,” Kimberley noted. “That means coastal towns and cities across the world are in danger of flooding and submersion, right?”
“Exactly, dear. Unless we stop the human activities that assist global warming and climate change, our coastal cities and facilities will always be in danger of this disastrous consequence decades from now. It can only get worse if we don’t act.”
“And blah blah blah,” Rachel said.
“Someone is very rude today,” Kimberley noted.
“Whatever,” Rachel said. “Let’s focus on our mission?”
“Could you loosen up already?” Aiden began.
“How did you come to know about the Booklords fearing the ankh?” Rachel asked the pilot, ignoring the last speaker.
“At the Mine, dear. We knew about the symbols at the Mine, but we couldn’t wait for the Romans to come so we planned our escape as soon as we could.”
“There,” Kimberley cut in, pointing. “We’re at the coast.”
“Just open the door when we get to the ocean,” Dave said. “I’ll do the rest.”
Kimberley turned on her seat and made sure that A
iden and Rachel were adequately buckled to their seats. She opened her door and went to work on the rope holding Carl Bain’s dining-cloth-wrapped body to the chopper’s left landing skid.
The human minion’s body fell and splashed into the ocean moments later.
“Done,” Kimberley told the pilot, who nodded and banked sharply to the right as he turned back to land.
The helicopter touched down in no time.
“Okay, people, time to test out my theory,” Mr. Hoyte said, shutting down the chopper. “Give me the book, Rachel.”
“No way,” Rachel said. “I can test your theory from here.”
Dave Hoyte brought out his gun and Kimberley remembered she had one as well. She couldn’t find it on her person.
“Don’t bother looking for it, dear,” Mr. Hoyte said. “I made sure you didn’t come along with it.” He aimed the firearm at her chest.
“You son of a…”
“You were right not to trust me, Rachel,” Mr. Hoyte chuckled, ignoring the Portwood police officer. “I had always wanted to lay my hands on any of the two great books and this opportunity will never come again in a million years! Or, shall we say, a million lifetimes?”
“So, your theory was all made up?” Aiden asked him. “There’s no chance of finding the black book here?”
“Everything I told you was made up, except the hidden Hebrew words being completely visible only when the two books were in the hands of men.”
“C-Can’t we work something out?” Kimberley tried. “Can’t we agree on a way forward we can all benefit from?”
“Really, you sound pathetic,” Mr. Hoyte said. “But not to worry.” He turned to Rachel. “I simply want to continue the good work you guys started.”
“And what’s that?” the little girl asked, tightly hugging the white book.
“I’ll look for the black book and initiate the ritual while you guys die here since, frankly speaking, you don’t have anywhere to go from here.”
“And what will you gain by doing just that?” Aiden demanded.
“Power, my dear,” Jeremiah, a.k.a. Mr. Hoyte, replied. “The power to choose my destiny.”
Rachel’s hug tightened around the mysterious volume. “Not gonna happen,” she said. “You’ll have to kill us first.”
“Very well then.” Mr. Hoyte cocked his gun and pressed it into Kimberley’s navel.
“No, please don’t,” Rachel surrendered, handing over the book.
Kimberley was touched.
“Good,” Mr. Hoyte said. “I knew you would come round. Now open the doors and get out.”
Nobody obeyed him.
The glaciologist chuckled again. “God, I wish you guys could look at your faces in a mirror right now.”
Kimberley pushed away the Bookmaker’s gun with her right hand and his shot shattered the helicopter’s windscreen. She held up his right hand with both hands as he struggled to bring back his firearm and he dropped the white book before punching her repeatedly with his freed left hand.
Rachel grabbed the book.
David Hoyte let out another shot that smashed the window beside the police sergeant.
“Now, Rachel!” Kimberley shouted, struggling to immobilize the glaciologist’s right hand. She put her shoulder on his face to obstruct his view and make it harder for him to punch her. He grabbed her hair and pulled her head backward. “Now, Rachel!”
“I don’t know where to touch you, Kim!” Aiden cried as he held Rachel’s left hand.
“Not her gloves!” Kimberley pointed out. “You’re both wearing gloves!”
“Oh,” Rachel realized, flipping open the book. Aiden hastily pulled off her left glove.
Dave Hoyte tried to bang Kimberley’s head on the chopper’s dashboard. She resisted the push. “Touch my waist!” she shouted at Aiden, who pulled off his second glove and pushed away her shirt to touch her right flank.
David Hoyte found himself alone in the Airbus H125 and angrily fired several rounds at its shattered windscreen.
* * *
Deep inside the Arctic Ocean, human hands tore out of a dining cloth wrapped around their male owner’s body as it sank. These appendages untied the heavy stone dragging this man to the bottom of the ocean and the fellow freed himself from the dining cloth before swimming back up to the ocean’s surface. Four bullets fell off his body as he swam. Two from his chest and two from his forehead.
He barely noticed, because vengeance ruled his heart.
Chapter 28: India
KIMBERLEY appeared in a train coach without the kids. She coughed twice and took in a deep breath. So it worked? They’d all been in the chopper before she found herself in that closed coach. What must have caused her separation from the children? Perhaps Aiden’s touch had almost disengaged prior to the space-time travel. Perhaps not.
She coughed again.
“Ticket, please,” a staunch railway worker said at the compartment’s door.
“I….” Kimberley fumbled around as if she knew where she kept her ticket. “I-I can’t find it,” she confessed. “It must have fallen off somewhere or something.”
“Then you must fall off the train with it,” the man returned, glaring at her. “Who are you and where are you going?”
“Well…um…my name is Everly,” Kimberley said. “I’m on tour for a New Delhi picture book I’m working on.” Somehow, she knew she was telling the truth. She realized she had on a nice red pantsuit.
“Can I see your passport, please?” the cold man demanded.
Kimberley coughed again. “Of course,” she said, reaching out for a handbag lying on the seat opposite her. She coughed again.
“You have been coughing?” the ticket man asked her and she nodded.
“It’s dry. Started yesterday, and I think it’s this dusty place.”
“No wonder,” the Indian said in Hindi, hastily pulling out a face mask from his right trouser pocket and putting it on.
“No wonder what?” Kimberley asked him as she handed over her passport and ticket.
“No wonder you’re alone in this carriage,” the man said in the same language. “You can speak my language?”
“Is that a problem?” Kimberley asked him.
“No, miss,” the railway officer said. “Your coughing is the problem.”
“How?”
“Your fellow travelers abandoned the coach because you were coughing, miss,” the man explained. “They think you have the virus.”
* * *
Carl Bain got to the top of the coastal mountain and stared at the helicopter perched there. The man railing inside the chopper made him curious. He appeared near the aircraft.
David Hoyte scampered out of the Airbus H125, trying to make sense of what he just saw. Of course, the Booklords were now on to him, no thanks to his little escapade with the three Bookbearers who just outwitted him. The man now in the chopper should be lying at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean right that minute. No scientific breakthrough could explain the unbelievable appearance of this man in that helicopter.
He pulled his pistol and heard a disheartening click when he tried to shoot. He’d expended all his bullets in his rage.
“What a shame they finally left you,” someone said near him, and he spun round to see the man who appeared in the helicopter’s cabin standing behind him with an expressionless face. “Those three cannot be trusted, you know.”
“W-Who are you?” Mr. Hoyte demanded, slowly drawing backward.
“Y-You can’t be serious, right?” Carl Bain mocked the petrified man. “You killed me a few hours ago and you can’t even remember me?”
David Hoyte searched through his pockets for something
“You left it back at the house,” Carl Bain said. “If you were with it, my powers won’t work.”
The glaciologist sprawled on the ground before the human minion. “Spare my life, please. Don’t kill me, Master.”
Carl Bain’s demon lords appeared around him and the prostrating Bookm
aker.
“Please, don’t kill me,” the pleading man cried as he looked around him.
“They say they left you alone on this remote island after you agreed not to interfere in this matter anymore,” Carl Bain said. “You just broke that agreement.”
“Those kids caused all this,” Dave complained. “They made me dream of the outside world again!”
Carl Bain smiled. “Actions have consequences,” he said. “Now, you’ve paid the price with your life.”
The human minion disappeared with his demonic superiors, leaving behind a dead glaciologist.
On to the matter at hand.
* * *
Kimberley couldn’t stop staring at the man. “Which virus?” she finally asked him.
“You don’t know about it?”
“Oh, no – no,” Kimberley realized. “I only have common cold. The dry cough is just that…dry cough…no other symptoms.”
“We will drop you off at the next station, Miss Everly,” the Indian officer told her while returning her passport and ticket. “You can look for a test center from there.”
“But…”
“No need to argue about this, Miss Everly. I believe this decision is in your best interest.”
Kimberley nodded hesitantly. She stood up as the railway ticket officer’s footsteps receded from her compartment’s door. Of course, she could start planning her next move after leaving the train. Having the virus could also help her evade Carl Bain and his demonic masters in the long run.
Kimberley could recall she was in India if her alternate memory served her correctly. Central Delhi, to be precise. Odd that the book had transported her to India. She wondered why the mystic volume had deemed it necessary to bring only her to the ancient city. What was happening to Aiden and Rachel at that very moment? What would happen to her in India’s capital? She couldn’t wait to leave the train.
Mariah had said she knew that humans were still in custody of the black book because the Bookmakers could still see some hidden Hebrew words on the white book. Mr. David Hoyte had said he knew that the black book had left Man’s world because the Bookmakers could not see some of the hidden Hebrew writing on the white book. Both Bookmakers deferred in their interpretation of what to see on any of the two books before either book could be assumed present or absent on Earth. Which Bookmaker was right?
The White Book Page 33