by P. B. Kerr
“Va bene,” he said. “It’s been good to be back in the living world after all these years. I’ve enjoyed it. But my work here is now complete. The message is delivered and the golden tablet of command is in your possession. It’s time for me to leave.”
Marco Polo might have been a terrible traveling companion but suddenly the prospect of going to China by herself seemed infinitely worse to Philippa. “Don’t go,” she said. “Not now. I’d have thought a trip to China would have appealed to you.”
“Once that was true,” said Marco. “But not anymore. Besides, I don’t think I could face a ten-hour flight to China. I don’t know how anyone could. Anyway, I’ve done what I promised the great Khan I would do. Now I just want to rest. I hope you enjoy China as much as I did.” He bent down and kissed Philippa on both cheeks, in the Latin way. “Arrivederci, cara mia.”
“But what will I tell Dr. Yes and those monks?” she asked. “They’ll wonder what’s happened to you.”
“No,” he said. “Not if you don’t want them to. You’ll find that people do exactly what you want, Philippa. So long as you are holding the golden tablet of command. Good luck, my child. You’re a remarkable little girl. Good luck and Godspeed.”
“But what’s going to happen to you?” she asked anxiously.
“What can happen to me that hasn’t happened already?” said Marco calmly. He sat down on the beach and then lay down and stared up at the sun as if it had been a hot summer’s day and he was a man without a care in the world.
“You can’t stay there,” said Philippa.
“I won’t be here for long,” said Marco. “I’m a Venetian, after all. The sea will come and get me.”
Philippa glanced around hardly knowing what to expect. And then she saw it. Out at sea. It was a large wave, perhaps five or six feet tall, rolling steadily toward the beach they were on, moving like a herd of drowning horses, as if it had some sort of titanic purpose.
“There’s a big wave coming this way,” she told him. “You’re going to get very wet if you don’t move.”
“Bene,” he sighed, and closed his eyes.
Instinctively, Philippa withdrew to the safety of the rock on top of the hermit’s cave and waited. For a moment it crossed her mind to use the golden tablet of command to make Marco leave the beach and accompany her to China. But somehow that hardly seemed fair. Besides, it was clear that he welcomed what was about to happen.
Seconds later, the big wave hit the beach with an enormous whiplashing roar, engulfing Marco and all the rocks and pools that surrounded him. And when the turbulent, leaden wave ebbed quietly away, the old explorer was gone without a trace. Philippa stood there for a long time looking out to sea, searching the undulating waves and the misty horizon for some last sign of him. But there was none and it was as if he had never been there, as if the sea had reclaimed him.
Philippa stood there for a long time, her face wet with sea spray and salty tears, unable to tell the taste of one from the other. Then she wiped her face and, with the golden tablet of command safely in her bag, she set off back across the island to the monastery.
If the golden tablet worked in the way Marco said it would, she thought she might be in China in less than twenty-four hours.
CHAPTER 27
THE MAGIC SQUARE
The Jonathan Tarot Magic Square (with simple, easy-to-learn instructions on how to whirl like a dervish) sold over one hundred million units in stores all over the world. It was the biggest-selling “toy” of all time. People not able to get to a store were able to download, from the Jonathan Tarot Web site, a design that they could draw on a floor. Anyone measuring the download design or the sheet of plastic (that was backed with adhesive so that it could stick to the floor) would have observed that the magic square was exactly 111 inches by 111. Few people, if any, guessed the true cosmic significance of these dimensions. And children everywhere — to say nothing of quite a few adults — made careful preparations to use the collective power of their own minds to “assist” Jonathan Tarot’s disappearance from the concrete roof of a New York parking lot, live on television.
Of course, the true purpose of the exercise was much more sinister. But this was only to be expected of someone like Iblis who was currently possessing the human body of Adam Apollonius. Sinister and a bit complicated.
As students of the djinn know well, there exists in the universe a balance of power between good luck and bad luck. This is called the Homeostasis. Sometimes there is more good luck and sometimes there is more bad luck, but mostly the Homeostasis prevails. Now the djinn have a natural ability to control luck. They can make it bad or they can make it good, depending on their natural inclination to grant wishes. But they are few in number — too few to radically affect the Homeostasis one way or the other.
The same is not true, however, of human beings. People have a much greater capacity to affect the Homeostasis than the djinn. This is because there are many more of them. Which is why human will — especially the will of children in whom the life force is very strong — is the most powerful force in the universe. Of course, in practice, this force never amounts to very much because, in the normal state of affairs, human beings think in very different ways and according to their individual interests, not as one unified will. At least, they had seldom acted as one unified will until Iblis hatched his horrible plot to bring about the opposite of the normal, chaotic state of human affairs and create the largest pattern of single will in the universe since the dawn of man. He even had a word for this: He called it the “Negentropy.” Television was ideal for his purpose, especially if there was just one TV show that everyone could focus on. Television is the one thing on planet Earth that has the potential to deliver a hundred million minds all thinking exactly the same thought at exactly the same time. Such a television show had never existed. Until now. Jonathan Tarot was Iblis’s master stroke, for his was the television show that it seemed everyone was going to watch at the same time, thanks to the miracle of satellites. It was the one television show that was going to make everyone think the one same thought at exactly the same moment.
And having done all that, what then?
To say that the Homeostasis would be affected radically by Negentropy and that bad luck would dominate the universe hardly begins to describe the terrible result Iblis had planned. The true horror of what would follow was a word that is only ever whispered by good djinn. It was a sort of curse that exploits the natural tendency among humankind to wish for good things to happen, and then creates its exact opposite. Thus, a man wishing for black would end up with white; wishing for light would bring only dark. This was what Iblis planned. Of course, the djinn had a word for this, too. The djinn have a word for everything. They call this state of affairs, in which the natural order of the universe would be turned upside down, a state of “Enantodromia.”
Big words. With even bigger consequences. For everyone in the world.
All of this was going to be brought about through the mathematical power of the magic square and the dance of the whirling dervishes. And, of course, Jonathan Tarot.
On the night that Jonathan Tarot’s live TV special entitled “The Disappearing Dervish” was to be screened, people left school or work early, to make sure they were home in time to see the show. They drew or unfolded their Jonathan Tarot Magic Squares in front of their television sets, and sat on the number four, which, of course, is also the Chinese word for “death,” and waited.
In the hour of the broadcast, cinemas, theaters, and restaurants in cities all over the world remained empty as people stayed at home to watch their TVs and to participate in what was billed as “the largest feat of mind over matter of all time.” Television audiences were projected to be bigger than the audiences for the Olympic Games, the Superbowl, and the F.A. Cup Final, put together.
Most adults remained skeptical and thought that the whole thing was a trick. No one could just disappear into thin air. It was an illusion. A feat of prestidi
gitation. It would probably be a good one, it had to be admitted, if Jonathan Tarot’s previous feats were anything to go by. But just a trick, nonetheless. That was what adults said.
It goes without saying, of course, that becoming a grownup is largely about losing the capacity to believe in anything very much. Only children had the capacity to really believe in the possibility of what was going to happen, in the same way that they believe in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Only children believed that it might actually be possible to focus their thoughts simultaneously on just one thing and thereby help Jonathan disappear from a Manhattan rooftop. Children all over the world believed in Jonathan Tarot. That was what Iblis was counting on.
As the show went on air, the atmosphere was electric. At seven o’clock, Jonathan Tarot went on a Manhattan rooftop and stood inside a giant magic square, just like Adam Apollonius had told him to do. Several helicopters circled overhead to film the event but also to prove there was going to be no trickery from above. A construction worker drilled at the number four on which Jonathan was planning to stand in order to prove that the roof was solid. An invited audience of movie stars and celebrities sat in a circle around the square to make sure there were no props to assist Jonathan’s disappearance.
Just about the only celebrity who was not there was Adam Apollonius. Unknown to Jonathan, Apollonius was already on his way to Xian in China, so that he could mastermind the next stage of the Ifrits’ evil plan.
Then, at precisely eight P.M. Eastern time, Jonathan, wearing his lightest, shiniest Elvis outfit, addressed a camera that was beaming his handsome, glamorous image to millions of kids.
“Hi, everyone, and welcome to my TV special,” said Jonathan. “And what a special it’s going to be. Someone once said that with enough faith you can move mountains. Let’s hope so. Because tonight I’m going to show the world something never before seen on live television. I’m going to show that with enough faith — your faith in me — something can disappear into thin air.
“This is not a trick. This is not an illusion. There are no boxes or silk bags for me to hide in. There are no trapdoors. As you’ve seen, this rooftop is solid concrete. There are no mirrors to deceive the eye. No giant turntables to move things around. There are no aerial wires to lift me up. In fact, there are no props at all. Instead, there are powerful floodlights so that you can see everything in the sharpest detail. Everything you see and then don’t see will be the real thing. Not an illusion in the normal sense of that word. The only thing I have to help me tonight is this Chinese magic square and the collective power of your own minds to harness its mathematical power and provide me with the energy needed to perform this disappearance. That’s all. And to everyone who says it can’t be done, I say, watch this space. This space, right here.”
Jonathan grinned and pointed at the magic square under his feet.
“The ancient dervishes believed that turning the body quickly in a circle was the way to achieve enlightenment. That it would open the door to enable the body to receive a certain kind of energy. The word ‘dervish’ actually means ‘doorway.’ With your help, boys and girls, it’s a doorway that I intend to open tonight. The energy of your thoughts will enable me to spin faster. The power of your thoughts will enter my upward extended right hand and then leave my lower left hand to enter this rooftop. And while I am spinning, I will disappear through that doorway into another world.”
As far as Jonathan Tarot was concerned, all of this was complete nonsense. As he was a djinn, his disappearance was guaranteed. He tried to keep the sneer out of his voice and to conceal the contempt he felt for his young audience. But he considered nearly all of what he was saying to be laughable and nothing more than hype thought up by Adam Apollonius to help generate the largest television audience ever and to make lots of money for Adam Apollonius and to make him, Jonathan Tarot, the most famous man in the world. Bigger than John Lennon and Elvis and Houdini and all the rest of them put together. At least that’s what he thought.
“However, it’s also possible,” continued Jonathan Tarot, “that tonight we may go even further than just my own disappearance. If, as I expect, I do step through that doorway into another world, I want you all to follow my example and try it for yourself. Using the power of the magic square, I want you all to spin like a dervish on the number four. Perhaps you, too, will disappear just like me. Let’s hope so. Right now, however, all I want you to do is to sit there and watch me spinning and, using the power of your collective thoughts, will me into a state of nothingness.”
Jonathan clapped his heavily ringed hands and stepped onto the number four. “All right. Let’s do it.”
He waved at the band — a Turkish band — that played a subtle, hypnotic, gyrating music that was designed to help build an atmosphere. That had been Adam Apollonius’s idea, too. Hypnosis was an important part of his plan for the mass television audience. Naturally, Jonathan didn’t need it. He didn’t need anything except djinn power.
Jonathan walked a turn to his right several times, with arms raised and arms down, the way he had seen the dervishes do it in the film Apollonius had shown him. They always began with a turn to the right. Adam Apollonius had been quite insistent about that. Then he dropped his head onto his chest, looked at the floor, then at the sky. And only after seven complete turns did he switch arm positions and begin turning to the left, counterclockwise. Counterclockwise is always the direction evil travels in most comfortably.
As Jonathan Tarot turned and whirled, millions of children concentrated on making him disappear with all the life force at their command. Gradually, he started to turn faster in time to the music, and the invited celebrity audience clapped or rattled their expensive jewelry. Two minutes passed. Then three. There was no doubting Jonathan Tarot’s showmanship. Or his speed in the turns. He was like a spinning top. This was quite a show. Even the skeptics held their breath.
After a while, to everyone who was watching on the roof or on television, it seemed that Jonathan’s body began to blur and then to leave a slight trail of smoke, as if the speed of his turns was generating heat. Heat was part of it, certainly. Djinn are made of fire, after all, and when a transubstantiation takes place, it’s fire that turns a body into smoke.
The rooftop audience gasped. Some of them stood up so that they could see better. Others, distrusting the evidence of their own eyes, took out glasses and put them on. The blur became less humanly shaped, more like a cloud. Some began to shout their amazement and approval in that whoop-whooping way Americans have when they express loud enthusiasm for something. One or two whistled. Others began to applaud vigorously. And quite a few cheered. For it was plain to see — or not to see, depending on how you looked at it — that Jonathan Tarot had indeed disappeared in a puff of moving and then rapidly dispersing smoke.
Millions watching at home felt their jaws drop and their eyes pop out of their heads. The same series of thoughts dominated young minds everywhere. He’s gone. He’s disappeared. We did that. We made someone disappear into thin air.
And, If he did it, then, perhaps, we can disappear, too.
So they stood up. Millions of children. All over the world. They stood up and danced a solitary dervish dance in an ever decreasing circle. Spinning until they became dizzy, and yet dancing on and on. And because they were all doing it at the same time with the same half-baked thought in their dizzy, half-conscious minds, the gravitational pull of the dance became stronger, the turn became molecular and galactic and a spiritual remembering of the power at the heart of the universe, and the effect Iblis had predicted, happened.
They disappeared.
But it was not their bodies that disappeared. Iblis had no use for those. There’s no power at all to be gained from the puny body of a child. But the strong spirit of a child was a different story. These were what the Ifrit was after. And it was these, the spirits of children — millions of them — that slipped and fell unseen, through the dervish doorway made possible by Dybbuk’s wh
irling example and the mathematics that are contained in the Chinese magic square, into the world that lies alongside the physical world: the spirit world.
Now normally, as you might expect, the spirit world is a very crowded place. Naturally, it is full of ghosts. It has been estimated by a scientist and mathematician called Keyfitz that the number of people who have ever lived upon the Earth is ninety-six billion. And, but for the actions of the warrior devils, this is the number of ghosts that would usually have been abroad in the spirit world. They would certainly have impeded the progress of the spirit children to the place Iblis had prepared for them. This was why he had done what he had done. For he had no use, either, for those in whom the life force had already been extinguished.
“Genocide” is a word that only relates to the extermination of living peoples. And there is no actual word for the extermination of dead ones. If it is not a contradiction in words, Iblis and his sons had made an industrially efficient job of exterminating billions of ghosts and spirits. Using the warrior devils and the tiny amount of djinn spit contained in the terra-cotta that made them, Iblis had managed to send thousands of them into the spirit world where some ninety billion human souls had been absorbed. This left only six billion souls left in the world of spirit and therefore plenty of room to move the souls of millions of children efficiently and unimpeded through the spirit world to Xian.
The same swift, irresistible, and magnetic-like force that Faustina had experienced in the spirit world some months before and that dragged her all the way to Xian in China now did exactly the same thing to the spirits of millions of living children. Swept along by an invisible tsunami, the terror of the children cannot be underestimated and did not stop until they reached the source of the force, which was a huge pyramid that lay at the heart of the devil emperor Qin’s hidden mausoleum. For it was there that Iblis planned to store their spirits and the energy they contained for the next stage in his plan.