“But you might want to get that mess cleaned up before someone else has a serious accident.” Daniel said sharply.
The youngster stopped and looked back at the pool of coffee on the floor causing other shoppers to detour around it. “Oh, right.”
Daniel’s words had the effect he was going for. The youngster’s attention was already off them and onto a problem he actually knew how to fix.
As soon as they had cleared the entrance to Starbucks, the three made a turn to the right and hurried back out into the main concourse of the overseas departure rotunda of the Los Angeles International Airport.
The young manager headed back inside, intent on getting the spill taken care of. He’d basically already forgotten the three people who’d just left.
Jennifer carefully sussed out the large rotunda and decided on the best spot for the trio to stop: a nearby corner away from the main flow of people. As soon as she could, she leaned John against the wall for support.
“John, can you try to explain what happened? What it was?” She felt terrible that she had to ask, but she knew that if they were going to be able to help, they’d have to understand at least something about what they were up against. Right now they were totally at a loss. “It might help us to somehow protect you from it.” She slipped an arm through his and warmly squeezed it tight. He had to feel they were there, that he wasn’t alone.
John didn’t relax, but he tried to put her at ease. “I ... I’m damned if I know, Jen. It came and went so quick … I …” The unnatural warning bells were ringing again, but he tried not to show how concerned he was that whatever it was hadn’t finished with him yet. “It was just one word, over and over. And a pain like nothing I can ever remember.”
“What word?” Jennifer asked.
Daniel wheeled about. His mouth was already forming the word, trying to stop him, when John spoke.
“Soon,” John said. “Just … soon.”
“Noooo!” Daniel blurted out, unable to stop his too late warning.
John barely had time to realize Daniel was trying to warn him. A raucous, insanely loud susurration, like the white noise on a TV set when final transmission ends, crashed into his brain. It blotted out every other conscious thought. Without even knowing he was doing it, John grabbed both ears in his hands and cried out in agonizing pain.
“Oh, my God!” Jennifer wailed as he stumbled blindly about. “It’s happening again!”
She reached out and grabbed John, pulling his head into her shoulder, both hugging him to her and muffling his cries, at least a little. “Daniel! Do something,” she begged, tears forming in her eyes.
But Daniel was already in motion. He’d dropped the shoulder bag he’d been carrying at Jennifer’s feet, reached for the nearest wall and placed both hands flatly against it.
After a few seconds he moved some distance away and as casually as possible, so as not to attract too much attention, repeated the action.
Jennifer had purposely placed them as far away from other departing passengers as she could, so John’s muffled cries wouldn’t be heard. But a heavyset lady with two small children seated at the end of the closest aisle to them had noticed. She heard John’s pitiful wailing and Jennifer’s attempt to soothe him. She looked their way more than once.
Daniel had disappeared into the other side of the rotunda, still ‘feeling’ the walls, when the lady nudged her husband – a tall, big man wearing a Stetson hat, jeans and cowboy boots – and motioned towards Jennifer and John. He appeared reluctant to get involved, but she persisted.
Finally, he slowly got to his feet and lumbered over. As he reached them, he smoothly whipped off his large-brimmed hat and held it in one hand. “I sure hope I’m not being presumptuous, here, little lady” he drawled, his accent about as wide as a Texan’s could be. “But my wife kind ‘a felt that y’all might need some help, here.” He stopped and waited, not sure what else to say.
Jennifer was again forced to put on her best smile, though she felt like crying. “That’s really kind of you. My husband has a very bad tooth, and it’s acting up again.” She gently patted the back of John’s head and tried to sound as positive as she could as she quickly added: “He’s already taken some medicine he has for it. We were warned it might take a bit of time before he feels the full effect, but I’m sure it will work soon.”
The tall Texan unconsciously pulled at the brim of his hat with his free hand. “Well, I’m no expert about those kinda things, Ma’am. But I seem to recollect hearing that flyin’ can make a toothache a whole heck of a lot worse than here on the ground.”
John moaned again and Jennifer did her best to end the conversation. “This medicine seemed to work before. I’m sure it will now. But thank you so much for your concern.” She smiled with all the warmth she could muster. “And please thank your wife for us.”
The big old Texan hesitated just a second. Then he pulled at the brim of his hat one last time. “Y’all are very welcome, Ma’am.” He returned the hat to his head as he made his way back to where his wife was waiting and explained to her what had happened.
Jennifer hoped that would keep them both happy – at least long enough for her and Daniel to figure out some way to help John.
Daniel hurried back into this section of the rotunda and headed straight for Jennifer and John. “I checked out everything I could, but I’m not getting anything but an uneasy feeling.”
John was lost. He couldn’t think. His eyes saw nothing. He wasn’t conscious of where he was. Every part of his being was drowning in a sea of noise. It wailed like an intense, insistent, hideously warped foghorn. His cries of pain were total reflex, not activated by conscious thought.
Jennifer couldn’t think straight. John’s purposely muffled whimpers tore at her heart like a knife. “We have to do something, Daniel,” she said through the tears that were flowing down her cheeks. “Nobody can take this much pain. It’ll kill him.”
“Jennifer!” Daniel said.
But she’d turned to John, kissing the top of his head and murmuring softly to him.
“Jennifer!” His words were a whispered shout this time. “Listen to me. You can’t do this. You have to think straight, if we’re going to help him. There must be some way you can reach him, find out what’s happening in there. It’s the only chance we have.”
Daniel’s words finally reached her. She realized he was right. She had to forget John’s pain and think clearly. She straightened. The tears stopped. She reached into her inner self for the gifts she’d inherited. She touched that special strength that had been passed down to her from generations before.
“Daniel, I have an idea,” she finally said.
He momentarily smiled. The Jennifer he’d had to rely on before, in more weird situations than he cared to remember, was back.
“I’m holding him. We have a special connection.” The idea flowed out with no hesitation. “If you hold me, if the three of us huddled close, maybe you can get something that way.”
“Hell! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Jennifer reached out with her free arm and wrapped it around him. Daniel jammed his body next to hers and firmly grabbed the hand on his shoulder.
“Now concentrate on him,” he said.
It happened so quickly it caught Daniel completely by surprise. One second he was telling Jennifer to concentrate, the next, his head exploded with noise. He reeled back. If Jennifer hadn’t been holding him so tightly, he would have broken the connection without meaning to. Even so, it was hard not to end it.
Who in their right mind would choose to subject themselves to a noise so mind-shattering it threatened to destroy their sanity, maybe even kill them? But Daniel wasn’t any ordinary person, and he’d often been told that he was crazy for doing what he did. Even a number of his closest friends felt he was tempting fate, and that one day fate would make him pay the price. Whatever the truth might be in that speculation, right now Daniel was steeling himself. He was bringing to
bear a kind of concentration few people would ever understand. Slowly, painfully, he drew on the power that nature had given him from birth …
… and the situation began to change. It wasn’t as if the noise was gone, or even any less. But Daniel had somehow eased it aside, separated it from his mind, held it in abeyance.
Now Daniel sent out a feeler, mentally probing, searching for the source of the attack. As he did, he gently connected with Jennifer, made her privy to what he was now doing.
Something he’d felt before began to happen again. He still had no way of understanding what it was. A feeling of … of purity was as close as he could come. And with that feeling came a pristine light that somehow raced along the mental pathway he’d opened, seeking … seeking … and finally … finding.
In what seemed to him one single instant in time, Daniel experienced a wave of sensations: he felt a devastatingly confident evil, reminiscent of the darkness he faced when he touched John’s Journal in Malibu; he felt that evil’s shock when suddenly confronted with a power it could not understand; he felt confusion; he felt wounded pain; he felt the evil turn away as the blaring noise became a shriek; he heard that wounded shriek recede from him, race away; and he watched in awe as a silent explosion of White Light somehow purified everything.
And just like that it was over. The feeling of evil was … gone.
The shriek was gone. The noise was gone.
Daniel slowly relaxed and eased his mind back to its normal state of being. Jennifer gave a huge sigh, lifted her arm from around Daniel and quickly turned her attention to John.
The noise was gone for him as well. The pain had fallen away. Everything was a blazing white, so intense that nothing else seemed to exist. He floated in a timeless, formless state of euphoria … an overload of bliss. He never wanted it to end.
Jennifer stared at John, a worried frown suddenly obvious. He was still leaning against her, his head on her shoulder. And though he no longer whimpered in pain, she was nonetheless worried. He made no effort to straighten, to move at all. And most disturbing, her connection to him – that special something they’d shared since London – was non-existent. It was like he was there … but not there. His empty stare didn’t help. She shook him gently; he didn’t respond. She lifted his head from her shoulder; it fell back.
“Daniel, I’ve lost him,” Jennifer finally said, her anguish written clearly on her face.
“What?” Daniel was still getting himself together, and a touch confused. But one look at John was all the explanation he needed. “Call him, Jennifer. Call him back.” A surge of unusually clear intuition made him add: “And do it quickly, while he’s still within reach.”
A hint of something niggled at the edge of John’s perfect state. He tried to ignore it. He wanted to stay here forever. But the sensation became more insistent … then more so … and finally almost aggressive. John decided he’d have to take care of it, but he planned to do it quickly and then return to where he was. He tentatively reached out, one part of him holding onto this perfect place, the other attempting to stop whatever it was that was causing the confusion.
“John! John! JOHN!” Jennifer was holding his head in her hands, he eyes locked on his, calling him with every ounce of her being.
Jennifer’s words slammed at him. Before he could do anything, the euphoric warmth was gone. Cut away.
John opened his eyes. His cold hard stare reflected his intense sorrow at loosing what he had just left.
“Oh, God!” Jennifer was stunned. “What have I done?” Without warning she was unable to control her emotions. She involuntarily burst into tears.
A warning bell in his consciousness told John that he was responsible for her anguish. Somehow what he was doing was inadvertently causing her pain. That fact was all it took. In an instant, the wondrous state he’d never wanted to leave was behind him; his only thought now was to help Jennifer. He blinked, then blinked again and finally she came into focus. Her face was only inches from his, and she was crying.
“Jen!” What is it? What did I do?” He straightened, pulled her into his arms and held her close. “What did I do?”
Jennifer’s tears turned from pain to joy. “Nothing! Nothing! I am fine. I am okay.” And she was. That special connection with him was back. They were okay – for now, at least.
Daniel stared at the pair of them, holding each other tightly. “It’s all good,” he whispered, as much to himself as the couple. “It’s all good.”
They were both right. The crazed attack was over. They had worked smoothly as a team and were able to prevail, at least for now. But he couldn’t help wondering about John Jones. At their first meeting he had totally underestimated him, even called him a Neanderthal. He knew that had been only in jest. And though Jennifer had assured him that John was special, the fact that he had not been able to read him was little more than an annoying anomaly to him. It hadn’t convinced him of much more.
The trio got their things together and made their way into the other side of the rotunda where their departure gate was located. Daniel was very quiet; particularly so, for him.
“A penny for your thoughts,” Jennifer asked, noticing Daniel’s unusually pensive mood. She tried to make her question sound as light as possible, but she was unable to totally hide her concern after what they’d just been through.
“Oh, nothing,” Daniel said, “Just tired.” And he was. But he was also deep in thought. The thing that attacked him in Malibu was obviously something John had faced before, not a small feat by any means. And somehow, though he wasn’t able to stop it or even drive it off, John had survived this latest attack; an attack that could have killed him, or at the very least irreparably damaged his mind. And then there was that stare, or whatever the hell it was. The thought, “if looks could kill” sprung to mind. Daniel had worked with Jennifer before. He knew the kind of inner strength she possessed. Yet John was able to turn her into a blubbering female with just a stare. I think I will have to adjust my early assumptions about him, Daniel thought as they reached a row of aisles in front of the departure gate and all sat down. And maybe quite a lot.
John sat between Jennifer and Daniel in a small group of seats facing Departure Gate 32B. He tried to hold onto the astonishing feelings of warmth, peace and safety he’d experienced in that totally isolated cocoon, that special place where he floated for a time after Jennifer and Daniel had somehow driven off whatever attacked him. But the best he could do was a vague, rapidly fading memory. He wanted to try and explain how it felt to Jennifer and Daniel, but there were no words. Best to not talk about it all, he thought.
The overhead loudspeaker announced the loading of their flight to London, and the trio gathered up their things. John grabbed his briefcase and attached it to his wheeled carry-on bag. As they moved towards Gate 32B, he considered whether or not to mention something else that had been niggling at his thoughts since the attack; and again decided it was best not to talk about it. But as the word “soon” leapt into his mind in the coffee shop, he thought he heard an accompanying echo. It was frail; it had lasted only a second, and he couldn’t be sure. But something about the voice made him think of one person – someone he had been trying to forget for close to two years.
It made him think of Brendan Babbitt.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
John felt a strange uneasiness as they made their way down the Jetway and boarded the British Overseas Airways 747. He couldn’t help remembering his last flight back from London, though it was going on two years ago now. For almost the entire first hour of this flight he was on pins and needles, not able to relax. Jennifer sensed his trepidation and tried her best to keep him occupied with mundane conversation. It didn’t really help much, but John realized what she was trying to do and played along.
But now it had been over three hours. He’d had two coffees and a meal and he finally felt comfortable enough to lean back in the spacious first class seat and try to settle down.
He looked over at Jennifer in the seat next to him and smiled. She was sleeping soundly, seemingly completely calm, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He watched her comfortable rhythmic breathing and found himself synchronizing with her. Her breaths were slow, steady; each breathe-in smooth, each breathe-out soft and punctual.
Slow, steady, each breathe-in smooth…
…each breathe-out soft and punctual…
…each breathe-in smooth…
…each breathe-out soft…steady…soft…steady…
It felt good to relax…to let go.
He was walking down a dark, murky passageway. The walls were lost in shadow. He couldn’t see the roof overhead, if there even was one. He had no idea where he was going, or why; but he was driven to continue striding forward toward a faint dot of light somewhere off in front of him. He should have wondered where he was, why he was there and where he was going; but he didn’t. Instead he hurried on,
It seemed like forever before the dot of light suddenly grew larger and he walked out of the darkness into a strange shimmering world. Everything was ghostly, as if from another plane: inter-dimensional, like something from a science fiction movie. He stared in every direction, his eyes continually shifting focus, attempting to make some sense out of what appeared totally nonsensical.
And there, just like that, he spotted something different – different even in a world as mad as this. A circular section of far wall, while still glittering and ghostly, irised slowly open like the shutter on a camera lens. John could see through it. It was like peering through a glittering veil, except he couldn’t really say what it was he was looking at. There appeared to be flying creatures slowly circling in the air – grotesque, misshapen, oversized tadpoles was the closest he could come to describing them. Below them, objects like doors, windows, chairs, walls and light fixtures shifted shape and then size, at once small, twisted and distorted, then drifting larger, and once again returning to small. Nothing ever stayed in a final form long enough for him to come even close to figuring out what it was he was looking at ... and just as he began to understand, it would change again. The entire scene would dissolve and he would be looking at something altogether different, but every bit as hard to identify.
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