by Steve Alten
‘There are six stages to remote viewing. We always begin with stage one. Do you know how telepathy works?’
‘One mind tunes to another.’
‘Correct. Remote viewing works the same way. Information, whether it’s in our past or future, is stored as energy in the psychic realm. To acquire bits of this information requires a clue or signal line. Your mind can be subconsciously tuned in to the meanings of these clue lines, or, in the case of you and your brother, your minds may be genetically enhanced to evoke, or call them up. Clues will come to you as sharp, rapid influxes of significance. Your preconscious nervous system will transmit these ideas through the muscles and nerves of your arm and hand and express them as marks on your paper. It’s very important that you not try to analyze these marks, just let them come. In the process, you might envision or remote-view different imaginary shapes for clues. When this happens, just tell me what you see. Again, don’t try to interpret anything. So? Sound like fun?’
The white-haired twin shrugs. ‘I can already do this.’
‘You can? Then this first coordinate should be easy for you.’
Phillips slides the first envelope in front of Jacob. ‘Interface with the object. Tell me what it is.’
The boy touches the envelope, then closes his azure-blue eyes. ‘This is too easy. It’s a beach, the beach in back of our compound.’
Phillips maintains his poker face, inside he is quite impressed. ‘Let’s try another.’ He skips the second envelope, jumping ahead to number three.
Jacob closes his eyes. ‘Man-made … bronze and steel … surrounded by water. I hear echoes of a city.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Statue of Liberty.’
Phillips says nothing, but his heart is pounding like a kettledrum.
‘Let’s try one more.’ He slides another envelope forward.
Jacob focuses inward.
A mountain … its volcanic peak rising higher …
The clue lines of Hawaii’s Diamond Head tighten in his mind—
—then suddenly evaporate, morphing into an ominous, alien world.
Crimson coals simmer along a subterranean ceiling, its embers refracting below along the molten surface of a silvery lake. Standing alone by the lake’s volcanic-sandy banks is a tree, like none he has ever seen. Wide as a silo, as white as the driven snow, its bare branches and alien bark drips a syrupy alabaster goo.
Situated within the ‘V’ of the great trunk is an object.
Jacob’s consciousness moves closer.
It is a human head, the severed neck melding into the tree’s ivory-colored ooze.
The eyes flash open, blazing a fiery azure blue.
Who’s out there? Whoever it is, stay away!
Ennis Chaney exits the elevator on the first floor, then turns left down the main corridor to the double doors marked: SOSUS LAB.
The underwater sound surveillance system, known as SOSUS, is a network of undersea microphones and cables originally configured by the United States Navy during the Cold War to spy on enemy submarines. As the military’s need for SOSUS began to dwindle, oceanographers successfully petitioned the Navy for access to the acoustic network. Using SOSUS, scientists could hear the infrasonic vibrations made by ice floes cracking, seabeds quaking, and underwater volcanoes erupting, sounds far below the range of human hearing.
Dominique’s adopted father, the late Isadore Axler, had been a marine biologist who had used his private SOSUS lab to study whale migration patterns in the Gulf of Mexico. In the winter of 2012, Isadore, using Michael Gabriel’s information about the Chicxulub Crater, had discovered strange acoustics originating from beneath the Gulf floor. His investigation of the site led to his death … and the eventual discovery of the remains of an alien transport ship, buried beneath the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico.
At Edith Axler’s request, President Chaney had arranged for a SOSUS relay station to be set up in the Gabriel compound. Manny loved working in the lab, and his grandmother, Edith, took great pleasure in teaching her husband’s namesake how to record and analyze the voiceprints of whales, identify their species, and even track particular cetaceans as they moved throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
The president enters the lab. Manny is seated in his favorite chair, his headphones on as he eavesdrops on the whales. ‘Wow … listen, Grandma, I think I found a blue!’
Edith checks the source strength of the whale song. ‘One hundred eighty-six decibels. It’s a blue, all right.’ She signals Chaney over. Hands him a set of headphones.
Low-frequency moans echo in his ears. ‘That’s, uh, interesting.’
The lab door bursts open, Major Phillips hurries inside. ‘Sorry, sir, but we’ve got a situation.’
Jacob Gabriel lies on the floor of the Faraday chamber, unconscious. The staff physician listens to his heart, while Ryan Beck and a nurse attempt to comfort the boy’s visibly upset mother.
‘What happened?’ Chaney rasps.
The major shrugs. ‘Honestly, sir, I don’t know. Jacob’s mind is incredibly focused, giving him direct access to the clue line, better than any viewer I’ve ever worked with. Everything was fine, then he just blacked out.’
Dominique pushes her way to the major, poking her index finger against his chest. ‘Whatever you did to him—’
‘Ma’am, I swear … it wasn’t me. Jacob’s doing this himself.’
‘Blood pressure’s good,’ the doctor calls out. ‘Pulse is strong, but very slow. He seems to be in some kind of transcendental state. Let’s everyone try to stay calm and give him a few minutes.’
Father?
Who’s out there?
It’s Jacob. Your son.
Foul beast, go away! Think you can fool me with your—
Father, please, it’s really me. It’s Jacob. Jacob Gabriel. Father—
Jacob? Jacob, is that really you? I’ve dreamed of you, son, but … but is this real? Is it really happening?
I’ve dreamed of it, too. And it’s happening, Father, it’s real.
But how? How is it we can communicate?
Thoughts are energy. We’re both Hunahpu. We share similar frequencies. Father, where are you?
I don’t know. I’m not even sure I exist. I have no physical form, but somehow I can think, and I can feel emotions. It’s as if I exist in a vacuum of energy, only I can’t escape.
Something’s out there, isn’t it? Something’s frightening you. It’s as if I can taste your fear. Father, what is it?
It’s the Abomination … I can feel its presence. It’s like ice, hovering in the periphery. It circles me like the shadow of death, always waiting for me to drop my defenses.
But what is it?
A presence of pure evil. It wants to feast on my soul.
Tell me what to do! How can I help?
You have helped, son, more than you’ll ever know. I’ve been so lost, drowning in loneliness and despair. Your thought energy … it’s like a lighthouse beacon to my soul. You’ve strengthened me, you’ve given me hope. I know now that I haven’t been abandoned, that I’m not alone. You’ve given me a newfound sense of being.
Father, there’s so much I need to ask you. The Mayan Creation Myth … is it true? Am I really the son of One Hunahpu? Is it really possible for me and my brother to travel to Xibalba? Can you be … resurrected?
There’s no easy answer to that. There’s so much I need to tell you, and I want to, I have to, but it’s dangerous. The effort to communicate weakens me, and the Abomination hovers … waiting for me to lower my guard. Still, I must try, there’s so much at stake. Jacob, how old are you now?
Seven.
My God …
Father?
Wherever I am, it’s impervious to time. You say you’re seven?
Yes.
My own journey … it also began when I was seven. In fact, it was at seven that I first encountered evil.
Teach me, please! Tell me how it began for you.
I‘ll try.
The memories … they’re very powerful, so vivid. I can still recall inhaling the scent of the rain forest, registering its heaviness in my lungs. I can hear its nocturnal symphony playing in my ears. And the Peruvian desert … as I recall the desolation of that awful Nazca plateau, I can almost feel the blood pooling in my extremities as the afternoon heat baked my skin in its searing embrace.
That was my childhood, Jacob, an existence spent in Mesoamerican jungles and on the harsh plateau of Nazca. My parents, Julius and Maria, your paternal grandparents, they had been archaeology students who had first met at Cambridge. Their love blossomed on their own journey as they set out to resolve the mystery of the Mayan calendar and its two thousand-year-old doomsday prophecy. Me? I was the result of their fateful union, born, like you, as destiny’s victim.
I don’t feel like a victim. Most of the time I feel like Superman.
Careful, son. Even Superman has his kryptonite. Although my Hunahpu genes were not as developed as yours must be, I also felt superior. By the age of seven I had grown into quite the brat, rebelling against everything my parents were attempting to teach me.
You said you encountered evil?
Yes. At the time we were living in a one-room, stucco dwelling in Pistè, a tiny village outside of Chichén Itzá. I remember the day it happened, a typical morning in the Gabriel clan. Julius had just grounded me for swapping a pair of his best binoculars for a baseball glove and ball, and I was furious, stomping and cussing up a storm. The moment my parents left for the ruins, I packed a small bag, my passport, and a few pesos borrowed from my mother’s purse—and I headed out to begin my life anew.
You ran away?
I had to. I felt boxed in, unable to cope, unable to just be myself. But I had a plan. Merida and its airport were seventy-five miles to the west. Somehow I would stow away on board a plane bound for America. Even though I was only seven, I had already aced my high-school equivalency test and was being recruited by several universities. If I could just get to the States, I knew I could survive.
Guess I’d been walking less than an hour when a taxi pulled off the road. I immediately recognized the driver—T’quan Lwin Canul—a middle-aged local of pure Mayan descent. He had a large nose and dark eyes, and wore his black, oily hair long and braided. Tattoos ran up and down his body, and jewelry pierced his ears and heavy brows. More bizarre was his tongue, the tip of which had been sliced down the middle and forcibly separated over time so that the last two inches were forked, resembling that of a viper.
The ‘serpent’s tongue’ gave T’quan a heavy lisp. He leaned out his open window at me, and hissed, ‘Going somewhere, mas’sa?’
‘Off to see a distant cousin,’ I lied. ‘What would it cost me to get a ride to Merida?’
T’quan gave me a price, then mentioned he needed some assistance cutting down a tree. We struck a deal. If I helped him, he would have me in Merida by nightfall.
And you believed him?
I was naive, and the truth is disguised by what we want to hear. Before I knew it, we were bouncing along a dirt path, cutting through dense jungle. Eventually we came to a small clearing and T’quan’s hut, which sat adjacent to a freshwater sinkhole.
The old man led me inside and offered me a drink. I watched as he dipped his cup into a wooden barrel, the scent of the fermented ceremonial drink known as pulque drifting up at me. ‘No, thank you,’ I said. ‘Where is the tree?’
‘Forget the tree,’ he said, ‘I require help with a ritual. Tell me, mas’sa, have you ever heard the story of Tezcaplipoca?’
‘You mean Tezcatilpoca,’ I corrected, as if I knew everything about the ancient ones.
‘That is Aztec pronunciation,’ he said. ‘To the Nahuas, he was Tezcaplipoca, god of the night, god of evil, a creature of black magic.’ As he spoke, T’quan opened a container of what appeared to be scarlet dye and proceeded to paint a stripe across the bridge of his beaked nose. ‘Tezcaplipoca was the mirror that smoked. It was his presence that drove Kukulcán from Chichén Itzá. He was our greatest and most feared god.’
T’quan told me his Nahua ancestors had lived in this same jungle a thousand years ago. While Kukulcán built temples, T’quan’s clan followed Tezcaplipoca—god of conflict and turmoil, god of power.
The old man removed his tee shirt, revealing a bony, dark-skinned canvas of chest, covered in tattoos. Draping a black cape around his shoulders, he led me back outside to the sinkhole, the very cenote T’quan’s ancestors had used to worship Tezcaplipoca.
I looked out over the edge. The drop was more than thirty feet, and the well’s stagnant olive waters were dark and foreboding. And that, Jacob, is when I finally realized what T’quan meant to do—he meant to sacrifice me to Tezcaplipoca, just as his ancestors had done a thousand years before.
I turned to run, but the wiry old man was too quick. He grabbed me by the arm and pushed me to the ground, pressing his heavy boot to my chest. From a sheath on his belt he removed a ceremonial obsidian dagger. As I screamed, struggling in vain along the edge of the sinkhole, he rolled his eyes to the heavens and began chanting.
What did you do?
At first I panicked, but as the adrenaline flowed, a strange sensation gripped my soul, and a tiny voice in my mind guided my consciousness into a harbor of utter calm. I stopped struggling and allowed my mind to slip inside.
The nexus?
Yes. I remember looking at the trees, which seemed to be getting brighter, the leaves no longer moving with the breeze. Shadowed objects became clear in my vision, while the old man’s words seemed to mute into distant echoes. I could hear my heart pumping blood—a slow, drawn-out slurp. I could feel my muscles growing stronger, as if adrenaline was coursing through every vessel in my body. The weight of the old man’s boot seemed to lessen upon my chest and I knew that if I tried, I could fling it aside … which is what I did.
In one motion, I was back on my feet, pushing through invisible waves of resistance, as if the air itself had become gelid. T’quan barely seemed to react. I followed his eyes as they slowly drifted down to me, his pierced brows raising in disbelief. Quickly, I dashed behind him, then, with all my might, I kicked the old Mayan in the small of his bony back.
It must have been a mighty blow through that thickened air, for he flew forward in slow motion, rising as if gravity had abandoned him. And then he fell, his limbs flapping uselessly as his body dropped silently into the waters below.
Serves him right. What happened then?
A burning sensation ravaged my gut. I fell to my knees and shook my head violently—and the sounds of the woods returned. For several moments, I lay on the ground, my muscles drenched in lactic acid, twitching in recovery until splashing sounds drew me to the edge of the hole.
The old man was struggling to stay afloat, his gaunt figure hopelessly entangled in his soaked cloth cape.
I stood and watched my would-be killer … watched as he sank beneath the surface. When the air bubbles ceased, I climbed in his taxi and drove out of the jungle, back to Pistè.
I had never driven a car before. I could barely reach the pedals, yet it seemed perfectly natural. An hour later, I returned to the old man’s home with my parents and the police, who dredged T’quan’s corpse from the sinkhole’s muddy bottom—along with the remains of no less than a dozen other children the old man had murdered over the years.
That was my first encounter with evil and the powers that we possess, Jacob, but it wouldn’t be my last.
I need to know more about evil. Where does it come from? How did it start?
That, my son, is a question your grandfather, Julius, pondered until his dying day. Is evil something genetically programmed into our species, or is it a learned behavior? Is it spiritual in nature, perhaps the Yin to the soul’s Yang. Or is it a disease that infects the mind? T’quan had a look in his eyes when he came after me, one that I’ll never forget. It was as if the old man’s soul had vacated the body and separated itself from the collective warmth
of our species. Julius called the man a godless reptile, and for a long time I agreed with him, until the night I witnessed my own father straddling my mother’s body, suffocating her with a pillow.
Julius murdered Grandma?
He claimed it was euthanasia, but in the eyes of a twelve-year-old, it was murder. Looking back on it now, I realize just how much Julius loved my mother, how hard it was to do what he did. She was in so much pain from the cancer, she begged him for mercy, and he gave it to her. At the same time, I also realize how evil is created, because from that moment on, I hated Julius for what he had done, and I allowed my anger to fester, until it finally exploded backstage as I held my dead father in my arms and went after Pierre Borgia.