The White Book

by George Shadow

  “Where’s my hazard suit?” Akron demanded soon after. “Just let me go, okay?”

  Kimberley and Jeremy exchanged glances. They were the only ones remaining in the decontamination compartment with the Kannibal. “One more question, Akron,” she began. “What do you know about the Sikama in the Slums?”

  “Is that a joke?” Akron wondered with a frown. “You had Sikama friends in there, Kimora. You even escaped with one and two kids.”

  “Your point being what exactly?”

  “That you know more about them than I’ll ever do? Actually, your Sikama friend had a falling out with Grubb, that’s why they say you fled with her and the two kids.”

  Kimberley nodded. She hated the fact that she’d found it so hard to use her alternate memory ever since she appeared in this time and place. Did she taste human flesh in there?

  “So, your name was Kimora in there?” Jeremy asked her.

  “What bothers me most is the nature of Mariah’s quarrel with this…this Grubb,” she said. “I wonder what caused it.”

  “Akron, ever heard of Ankh Sikama?” Jeremy asked the Kannibal, setting his gun to ‘stun.’

  “Ankh Sikama? Is that even a thing? Wait, what are you doing?”

  Chapter 36: Grubb

  “SHE lied to us,” Kimberley whined.

  “Did Akron say that?” Aiden asked her.

  “We’re not sure of that yet,” Jeremy said.

  “He implied that,” Kimberley said.

  “I doubt Akron had a good source for that information,” Jeremy said. “Remember he said you know more about the Sikama than he will ever do, Kim.”

  “Did he say that?” Aiden asked his fellow time-traveler.

  “Yes, he did.” Kimberley rolled her eyes. “Can’t this thing go any faster? So much for our trust in technology.”

  “We’ll get there soon enough,” Jeremy said.

  “Or tomorrow,” Kimberley grumbled. “Christ, how did I miss Mariah’s lies?”

  “We all missed her lies,” Aiden pointed out.

  “And why can’t I remember anything from the Slum?”

  “I still can’t do that,” Aiden pointed out. “I just hope Rachel has a different story to tell.”

  “I hope she’s alive and well,” Kimberley said. “If anything happens to her, that will be on me.”

  “Here we are,” Jeremy announced.

  The X5 hovered into the Genetix complex and stopped before the research institute’s expansive flight of entrance steps.

  “Holly!” Aiden remarked. “You guys seeing what I’m seeing?”

  “They were expecting us,” Jeremy said. “They just jammed our TelepathyG7.”

  Guard lines stretched out from both sides of the major doorway down to the foot of the institute’s front staircase. Professor Goldenberg, Mariah and Rachel stood before the establishment’s massive entrance atop the flight of stairs on which these guards had formed the parallel lines. The men brandished lazer rifles.

  “We can’t go out there with our weapons,” Jeremy noted.

  “What do we do now, Kim?” Aiden wondered aloud.

  “We’ll confront them with what we know,” Kimberley said, preparing to open the X5’s only door.

  “They won’t let us walk away with the book just like that, Kim,” Jeremy said. “You should know that by now.”

  “And I’m not gonna let Rachel suffer this alone,” Kimberley returned. “I’ve let her down so many times before and I’m not gonna do that anymore. Are you guys coming or not?”

  “Coming,” the other two chorused, grudgingly getting up from their comfortable seats.

  “Well, well, well,” Mariah began on seeing the trio emerging from the X5. “Welcome back, Kim. I hope I can persuade you to stay this time.”

  “You lied to us, Oxana.”

  “What?”

  “You lied to us,” Kimberley repeated, taking the steps two at a time.

  “No, I heard that the first time,” Mariah said. “You called me Oxana? Where did that come from?”

  “Forget it,” Kimberley said.

  “We met in Chernobyl, remember?” Aiden tried.

  “No, I don’t,” Mariah said, her face contorting in anger.

  “How dare you lie about that as well?” Kimberley asked her. “You told us about the First Theory in Pripyat and you led us to Kpakol as well. What are you now saying?” She turned to Rachel. “Mariah has been lying to us, Rachel. Kpakol was right about the black book.”

  Rachel seemed confused. “Kpakol was right?”

  “Kpakol was wrong, my dear,” Mariah countered. “The other book is still here with Man, and Ben will find it if it doesn’t find us.”

  “Exactly,” the professor supported, turning to Rachel. “Like I told you, my dear, they’ll try to confuse you and take the book. Of course, they won’t succeed, because they came late to this party.”

  “You old twisted man,” Jeremy whispered in anger. “You…” Kimberley stopped his forward steps with her right elbow and turned to Rachel. “What have you done, Rachel? Did they try to convince you to hand over the book?”

  “That’s the only way to help my people achieve their destiny, Kim,” Rachel said. “Father would understand.”

  “Your father will understand nothing, Rachel, if you do that,” Kimberley snapped. “What did they tell you? How did they convince you?”

  The little girl bowed her head. “I-I heard Aunt Mariah and Uncle Ben discussing our people’s future in Uncle Ben’s library. I left in anger because I thought that…that their plan was a selfish one. I now know the…the truth, Kim. They made me realize there was no other way.”

  “No other way to do what, Rachel?” Aiden demanded.

  “N-No other way to…to achieve our destiny,” Rachel stuttered.

  “And did they mention the ankh and cross factions of the Sikama in this story they told you, Rachel?” Jeremy asked.

  “That both sides started the Red War and destroyed Israel with the red bomb?” Rachel rapped out.

  Jeremy shook his head. “Wow,” he said. “And you believed them?”

  The little girl frowned. “No, I…”

  “Hearing that Mariah lied to us and that Mr. Hoyte was right, do you still believe them?” Kimberley asked.

  “No, I…”

  “And we were hoping you would remember any incident at the Slum,” Kimberley regretted.

  “No, I did not,” Rachel replied. “Look, Kim, they were planning to…”

  “You see, Sergeant Reyna,” Professor Goldenberg, a.k.a. Benjamin Haddad, cut in, “your little Bookbearer here has done us a favor by believing in us and doing something we never thought she would ever do.”

  Kimberley’s heart skipped. “Is this…”

  “Okay, okay,” Mariah began. “I lied to you guys about everything. Kpakol and Dave were right. The black book is no longer with Man.”

  “What?” Rachel began.

  “Oh, no,” Aiden let out.

  “Thought as much,” Kimberley said, raising both hands to the sky as she looked away.

  “Aunt Mariah, what’re you saying?” Rachel exclaimed.

  “What difference does it make now?” Mariah chuckled. “I also lied about there being a Cross Sikama and an Ankh Sikama. I just didn’t want any other Sikama to return the white book to my master, so I killed every competition.”

  Kimberley wanted to cry. “So, I was right about the Indians, Mariah?”

  Mariah looked away. “It’s a competition amongst us Sikama, Kim. The first to get to the finish line wins.”

  “And where is the finish line, Aunt Mariah?” Aiden asked her.

  The female Bookmaker lit up. “I just did one more thing to help me get closer to that line, Aiden dear,” she told him.

  “And what did you do?” the boy returned.

  “Just persuaded Rachel to voluntarily give the white book to Benjamin Haddad. That makes her lose her control of the Ice of Masada, if you must know,” Mariah repl
ied.

  “And has she done that?” Kimberley demanded. “I doubt she has done that. Let’s say you’re still trying to persuade her to do that.”

  Professor Goldenberg joined Mariah in the laughter that ensued.

  “If you can persuade her, Aunt Mariah, what will that do for you?” Aiden asked without confidence. “Just saying if you can persuade her, though I think you’ve already done...”

  “Having done exactly that, something has been pointed out to me,” Mariah interrupted, frowning.

  “And what is that?” Rachel wondered aloud. She hated the way Kimberley and Aiden kept staring at her.

  “That I don’t need you guys anymore?” Mariah said.

  “Well, even though that really hurts,” Kimberley began, “I think you’ve gone mad.”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Mariah snapped.

  “Take them away,” the professor ordered his personnel. “We don’t want to cause a scene in front of the complex, do we?”

  The guards drew near. They seized Kimberley and her two companions.

  “What are you doing?” Rachel demanded, running down the steps to the Portwood sergeant as the professor’s employees seized the latter.

  “Seize the girl as well,” Benjamin Haddad said and the guards held Rachel.

  “You have no right, professor,” Jeremy said, pushing back the men trying to obey their employer.

  “I do, my dear,” Uncle Ben said, drawing close to the black man as his men pushed the bound fellow past the institute’s entrance. “Once the Kannibals invade the underground cities tonight, you’ll sing a different tune,” he whispered.

  Jeremy whistled. “Okay, now we’re in trouble.”

  “So, you know about that?” Kimberley cried.

  “I know about a lot of things, my dear,” the professor claimed.

  “Uncle Ben, you lied to me. How could you?” Rachel shouted as two guards shackled her hands like the others. “Give me back my book, you vile old man!”

  “Not happening, my dear,” Mariah said. “Besides, we technically never lied to you if you claim you never believed said lie.”

  Aiden stared at the Sikama. “Are you serious right now?”

  “You’ve always sounded funny in difficult situations, Mariah,” Kimberley told the female Bookmaker as guards tied her up. “Even when you were killing people.”

  “Thanks, Kim dear. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “Take that as a warning,” the female cop said before her captors marched her away with her friends.

  “Nothing here to see,” Mariah told some gawking institute workers. “They’re Kannibal spies and we will hand them over to the authorities.”

  “The Kannibals are coming for your lives!” Jeremy shouted. “You must flee now to the mountains and…”

  “Hey, keep quiet, okay?” Rewder snapped behind him.

  Mariah turned to the workers and shrugged her shoulders. “See what I mean?”

  “Take them to my lab,” Benjamin Haddad said as he walked behind the captives. “We all need to talk in private.”

  Rewder nodded. “Right away, sir.”

  “Rachel, do something,” Aiden urged the little girl. “You can still control the Ice of Masada, right?”

  “This situation means she is no longer protected by the Ice of Masada,” the professor said. “And that means she cannot control it anymore, because she gave me control of that powerful protection once she willingly handed me the book.”

  “I did not willingly give you the book, Uncle Ben,” Rachel negated. “You forced my hand.”

  “Does that matter anymore?” Mariah whined. “As long as you gave him the book, you cannot control your precious dome anymore, darling.”

  Rachel boiled. “Watch me!” She shut her eyes and held them in this position for awhile. Nothing happened and she opened them in dismay.

  Mariah shrugged her shoulders and smiled. “See what I mean?”

  The guards brought the captives into the professor’s laboratory with its long tables and tall stools.

  “Yes, they can sit down,” Professor Goldenberg announced, walking over to a glass panel on the wall. He pressed some buttons and a platform on which lay the white book slid out from the wall. The elderly Sikama took the mysterious volume and turned to his little audience. “I tried to convince Jehoash to destroy the books, but he refused.”

  “Not true, Uncle Ben,” Rachel said.

  “You still don’t believe that?” Mariah asked.

  “But I know it’s not true,” Rachel said. “Before he died, Father told me he wanted to destroy the books, but you convinced him not to do so since you wanted to use the books for your selfish goals.”

  Kimberley started. “Wow,” she whispered.

  “Did he say that, my dear?” The professor smiled at Rachel. His smile became a frown. “I’m not surprised he told you that,” he said, sitting down on a stool across the little girl’s position. “Your father was delusional. He had ideas of grandeur and couldn’t control his greed. He sabotaged our efforts by leading the Romans to the Mine and…”

  “That’s not true!” Rachel exploded.

  “You don’t know that, Rachel, because you were not there,” Mariah said. “You just can’t face the fact that your father lied to you.”

  “Is this really true?” Kimberley wondered.

  “No, it’s not true,” Rachel cried. “They’re just trying to tarnish my father’s image.”

  “You forget your father was dear to me, Rachel, and I cannot lie against him,” Professor Goldenberg said. “However, I had to spill this now because you think your father never did anything wrong as a Sicarii Kabbalah Masada. Wrong, my dear. Turns out he was actually the one who led the Romans to us back at the Mine.”

  “Satan was about to reveal more steps for the ritual to us when the Booklords attacked the Mine the same time that Emperor Constantine’s army broke into the old quarry, my dear,” Mariah continued. “Your father made us believe that he just had time to send you, his only child, into the future with the white book, while the Romans captured him and his wife and the remaining Sikama members along with the black book.”

  “So, how did you find out the truth about this?” Kimberley asked her. “What gave him away?”

  Mariah smiled. “Jeremiah Evra.”

  “Mr. David Hoyte?” Aiden began. “Knew I’ve heard that name before.”

  “And what about him?” Jeremy wondered.

  “Evra was a parchment specialist who discovered a page had been torn off from the black book and suspected that Jehoash had done this in order to save the servants of the Sikama from the impending Roman onslaught,” Benjamin Haddad said. “You see, my friend, Jehoash, hated slavery and maltreatment, hence he wanted to save the servants from the military doom he had set into motion for his colleagues.”

  “We know he secretly approved of the emperor’s edicts proclaiming that Jews should never own Christian slaves before this incident,” Mariah quipped. “So, he hated the fact that there were slaves in the Mine.”

  “And is that a bad thing?” Jeremy asked. “No one should be allowed to own slaves, right?”

  “Sure,” Aiden agreed and Benjamin Haddad glared at him.

  “As I was saying,” the elderly Sikama continued, turning to Rachel, “Jeremiah discovered this torn off page and brought the matter to the Inner Circle, where Jehoash, your father, was implicated.”

  “This forced Jehoash to reveal the Roman plot to invade the Mine,” Mariah added. “The traitor could not explain why he just wanted the slaves to escape and finally decided to help the twelve Bookmakers who wanted to do so as well with a page from the white book.”

  “Father was not a traitor,” Rachel cried.

  “Of course, he was!” Ben Haddad said. “He destroyed our plans and caused so many deaths.”

  “You’re not so different.”

  “What did you say?”

  “You’re not so different,” Aiden repeated. “I me
an, you’ve tied us up, taken the white book for selfish reasons, and plan on inviting a bunch of cannibals into the cities protecting your people. That definitely looks like what a traitor would do.”

  “My intentions are good, even if you think they are selfish as well,” Goldenberg chuckled. “I tied you up so that you’ll not meddle with my plans, took the white book so that I can put it into better use. More so, underground cities are running out of food all over the world, and my research has failed to improve our crop yield in this toxic atmosphere we live in, so commercializing the most abundant form of meat on Earth at the moment is a smart thing to do.”

  “You’re mad,” Kimberley said.

  “What do you want to do with the white book?” Aiden asked the professor. “Leave this time and place with all its misery, right?”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere with it,” the man replied with a smile. “I am a leader here. I have wealth surpassing any other person in the cities, and I intend removing every leader in all the underground cities using the white book. This action will make me the only leader there is without firing a single shot, okay?”

  “That’s sick,” Jeremy said. “You’re a psycho!”

  “I will turn some of the cities I conquer into human settlement farms,” Benjamin Haddad continued, ignoring the Resilience citizen.

  “You’ll do this at a time when the world’s population is dwindling?” Kimberley wondered.

  “That’s why the white book will become a transportation tool for the animals I’ll bring in from other times and places,” Benjamin Haddad said.

  “Real animals?” Aiden asked.

  “We’re all animals, aren’t we?”

  “Wow,” Jeremy said. “Deranged doesn’t even come close.”

  “Young man, I feel like cutting off your tongue right now,” Benjamin Haddad snapped.

  “He’s not worth it, Master,” Mariah said.

  “Master?” Kimberley began. “And when did that happen?”

  The professor chuckled. “Come, sergeant, you know she was my protégé back at the Mine.”

  “So I heard,” Kimberley said. “Was she also more than that?”

  Mariah slapped the other woman hard across the face. “Don’t take that personal, Kim,” she giggled.