by Mark Jeffrey
“Everything you’re saying is provably untrue,” Ian said, unable to contain himself any longer. “We’ve been to the Moon. We’ve sent probes to Mars. Bloody hell, we’ve sent probes outside of the Solar System. And we’ve seen the galaxy — even the whole universe — through the Hubble telescope. I’m telling you: there are planets, the world is not flat!”
But Max was unfazed. His mien was perfectly calm, like a shaman’s. Again, it startled Ian to see. Ian suspected now that he had an inkling of what such people as saints and shamans looked like once they had been through the crucible. They looked like this. They came out the other end profoundly altered, in way that could not really be described or analyzed, but only depicted in art. It was beyond words — or even Words.
Max smiled. “All of those arguments vanish when you realize the universe is mirror that reflects back to you whatever it is that you expect it to. All of that ‘proof’ you just cited is just that reflection.”
“But the bubble we’re in would have to be enormous!” Ian countered. “It would have to contain the entire observable universe!”
“No, it wouldn’t,” Max said. “It would just have to act like there was a universe out there that was that big. Space isn’t really a consideration here — I mean amount of space. Time is an illusion — as even Einstein once said. And time is space. So is space is merely an illusion as well.
“And think about this: we haven’t encountered alien life — well, other than Niburian life, which we now know is not actually ‘alien’ at all. So we have this whole big massive universe we think exists — and not a single visitor from another world. Not even a single alien signal detected! And the sun just happens to appear to be the same size as the moon when viewed from earth? Do you know what the odds of that are of that, by the way, given ‘modern science’ based explanations? Quite literally astronomical — no pun intended.
“So we peer into space with these giant telescopes. And guess what? We see what we collectively expect to see. Ian. Quantum mechanics. You’re always on about that, right? How even in Western science, we can’t get away from the idea that the physical universe has to be observed before it is real? You know that, you understand that. This is what I’m talking about.”
Ian ran his hands through his hair, exasperated.
“And after all this time, you really still believe there is some scientific explanation for Niburian tech? Nanoparticles, or whatever? Even that ring on your own finger that becomes a suit of armor that drinks blood. And what about stone ships — Sky Chambers — that fly how, because of jewels?”
Ian shook his head again. And then laughed. “You know … I know. You’re right. I should really, really know better by now. It’s just …”
“It’s just hard to let go,” Max said. “To let go of something you’ve believed your entire life.”
“Yeah,” Ian said.
“Yep,” Max replied.
“You said this is where Johnny Siren stepped through,” Casey said. “Is that why he lived so long?”
“Yes,” Max said. “Because he crossed over to the True Earth — with its different rate of time-flow, which is what injured him, by the way. He went from fast-time to slow-time too quickly — imagine stepping off a merry-go-round that’s spinning really fast. You’d get pretty banged up. It’s like that.
“But spending even a few moments in that slow-time … well, it slowed down Siren’s body clock. He attenuated partially to the True Earth. His body started adjusting … so when he returned to fast-time, his body was still full of slow-time, if you will. That let him live for hundreds of years instead of just decades.
“So Nibiru is what, then, exactly? This … this True Earth?” Ian asked.
“Sort of,” Max corrected. “Niburu is only one continent in that world. This Archway leads to a coastline on the eastern shore of the continent of Nibiru. It’s only one of hundreds of continents — possibly even thousands. Nobody knows for sure on the other side, the True Earth has not been fully explored yet.”
“Okay, I give up then,” Ian said. “I mean, it has to be true. Right? Well … at least the Bondman’s been defeated. The world is free.”
“No,” Max said. “The Bondsman’s been defeated, yes. But the system he set up around him, the infrastructure of wetiko, is still in place. Those Machines are still everywhere. The world is not free — not yet. It’s too easy for the Archons to just come up with some new scheme and glom on to the Bondsman’s infrastructure. All of that has an inertia all its own — it’s not about one individual or even mind-virus. If that infrastructure is left alone, it’ll keep doing damage, even without the Bondsman driving it forward. So that has to be dismantled. I need someone to tear it down.”
Sasha and Ian and Casey looked shocked as he said this — for Max was clearly looking pointedly at the three of them.
“Us?” Casey said. “You want us to do it? How?”
Max smiled. “Well, the Archons gave us one advantage they didn’t mean to.” He held up the Bondsman’s golden mask and grinned. “Nobody knows what the Bondsman looks like. And Sasha here has actually been the Bondsman once. That means her genetics will be accepted by any of the Bondsman’s security measures as genuine.”
Sasha gaped as she realized what Max was suggesting. He handed her the mask.
“Congratulations, Sasha. You are now the Bondsman. You are now the Emperor of the World,” Max said, handing he the Bondsman mask. “And you, Ian, are her personal bodyguard.”
Ian nodded his head vigorously. “Oh, you don’t have to tell me that twice.”
“Sash. You’ll have to go slow at first,” Max said. “In order for the ruse to work, you can’t just suddenly start acting completely different from the actual Bondsman. I don’t mean you have to be cruel. Just don’t be … overtly nice. Not at first. You’ll have to pull the world with you, change the way everyone thinks slowly. But you can do it. I know you can. Especially with Ian’s help. And Casey’s.”
“And mine!” Maurice said enthusiastically.
“Yes, definitely with Maurice’s,” Max laughed. “And Sasha, you can start with Fell Simon. He’s wandering around with his men to the north. Put on the mask and start ordering him around. He won’t question you. Ninti, you’ll have to help her fabricate some Bondsmanish clothes: I don’t think a Starland High hoodie is going to quite cut it.”
“Consider it done,” Ninti sniffed as if such a request were beneath her conjuring abilities.
“And you should look up Ulrich,” Max said. “He’s a good man. Eventually, you’ll have to get rid of Fell Simon — that guy drinks puppy blood for breakfast. Ulrich will help you do that — and then he can become your new first in command.”
“I will,” Sasha said, staring at the golden mask in awe.
“Ninti. You’re a healer by nature. This world needs healing. You and Logan White-Cloud can do a lot on the subtle level to push the world back to where it’s supposed to be, to combat the wetiko on a spiritual level. The physical stuff — the Machines, the Bondsman statues, all that — Ian, Cody, Casey, Maurice — you’re on that. Rip all that down.
“And Ian — go find the Planet Furious kids. Bring them in, protect them. And help them! We need them to make music that makes people happy again — erase the nonsense the Bondsman put out there. Get it on the radio, the television. Broadcasting that out to the world’s psyche will do a lot of good right there.”
“But what about you?” Casey said, leaving Cody’s side and approaching Max. “What are you going to do now?”
Max head-nodded at Jane Willow. “Well. We have work to do also, Jane and I. The timeline here is still not set right. Sure, we prevailed against the Bondsman. And I have no doubt you’ll all get your jobs done and rip down all the garbage the Bondsman managed to create here. But the original timeline has to be restored at some point. And I don’t know how to do that yet.
“I can’t recreate the Pyramid of the Arches. And even if I could, I don’t know how to mak
e it so that the ‘tyranny of the page is absolute’ once again. That basic structure of reality has been weakened: time can be altered still. So I have to fix that, I have to make it so that time inviolable, make it whole again and seal it off so the Archons can’t take advantage of it again.
“That means I have to go to Nibiru. I have to find Niburians who know the kinds of things Enki knew. Jane Willow’s coming with with me. We’ll go looking for Anu or Enlil — or anyone else we can make friends with.”
That threw a strange existential fright into Casey. Max was actually going to go seek out people who only existed in myth in her mind.
“You be careful,” Casey said. “That Enlil … I don’t like the stories I’ve heard about him.”
Max nodded, “I will.” And then Max gave her a long hug goodbye. Then, he did the same with Sasha. And finally, he shook hands with Ian — before bringing it for a hug with him as well.
Then he nodded to Cody Chance. “Take care of her,” Cody nodded back. “You too,” Max said to Logan White-Cloud. “Both of them. All three of them, actually.” Logan simply grunted in reply.
Together, Max Quick and Jane Willow stepped over the threshold of the Arch and into the strange other-world of Nibiru.
THE END
HERE ENDS MAX QUICK: THE BANE OF THE BONDSMAN
THE CONCLUSION OF THE MAX QUICK TRILOGY
About the Author:
http://markjeffrey.net Twitter: @markjeffrey
Mark Jeffrey is a serial technology entrepreneur and author. He has co-founded four internet companies and written five novels. His other novels include MAX QUICK: THE POCKET AND THE PENDANT (Harper Collins, 2011), MAX QUICK: THE TWO TRAVELERS (2012), AGE OF AETHER (2012) and ARMAND PTOLEMY AND THE GOLDEN ALEPH (2011).
Most recently, Mark co-founded web television network ThisWeekIn.com with Jason Calacanis and comedian / actor Kevin Pollak. Investors included Sky Dayton, Matt Coffin and Jarl Mohn (founder of E! and Liberty Digital). Mark served as CEO from its inception in Jan 2010 until May 2011.
From 2007 to 2010, Mark was the founding CTO of Mahalo.com, Inc., a human-powered search and learning site backed by Sequoia Capital, CBS, News Corp, Elon Musk and others. Prior to this, Jeffrey co-founded a business social networking company ZeroDegrees, Inc. in 2002 and sold it to IAC/InteractiveCorp in 2004 with more than one million registered users.
His first company, The Palace, Inc., was backed by Time Warner, Intel and Softbank and sold to Communities.com in 1998. The Palace was a popular avatar virtual world environment which had 10 million users at its peak. He was also the co-founder and CEO of SuperSig, Inc. in 1999, which focused on app-like functionality embedded in email.
His first novel, MAX QUICK: THE POCKET AND THE PENDANT, was published in hardcover and ebook by HarperCollins in May, 2011. The book was initially podcast as a series of episodic mp3's and received over 2.5 million downloads.
Mark Jeffrey holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire.
AFTERWORD:
This is Mark Jeffrey, author of the Max Quick Trilogy here.
It’s Tuesday, June 25, 2013 as write this … and I’ve just finished writing the last word of MAX QUICK: THE BANE OF THE BONDSMAN and I can now say with a straight face that what I’ve written is now in fact a trilogy, which makes me quite happy.
I may write more Max Quick books … or I may not. I haven’t decided yet. I never write them unless I’m sure it’s something different from the previous books — and it’s interesting enough that I’d want to read it myself. However, you’ll notice I left the door slightly open for more, so you never know … :)
If you are a member of Goodreads.com, reviews are what we authors live and breathe by — it’s how new readers discover the books, so please, if you enjoyed it do give it a review or at least a starred rating. Every bit actually helps a very lot and is appreciated. The same goes for Amazon.com or whatever book retailer site you might prefer.
Of course, my main author site (which lists my other novels as well) is here: http://markjeffrey.net. My Twitter handle is @markjeffrey. And there is also a Max Quick Facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/maxquickseries I frequently post all kinds of things there, so I invite you to join.
I’ve also created a couple of online assets to go along with the books over the years, so I thought I’d share them below.
You can hear the song MODERN LAMENT by Planet Furious (the one mentioned in this book) here: http://soundcloud.com/markjeffrey/modern-lament. You can also purchase it on iTunes for 99 cents!
Here is a Glossi of all the reviews and endorsements of the series:
http://glossi.com/markjeffrey/14013-max-quick-the-reviews
And a rich media version of the first chapter of Max Quick: The Pocket and the Pendant:
http://glossi.com/markjeffrey/1295-max-quick-the-pocket-and-the-pendant
And finally — thank YOU for going on the ride with me. Writing these books has been a true pleasure for me, and I have loved all the emails and comments and tweets and reviews from all of you over the years. Whether you discovered Max Quick: The Pocket and the Pendant as a ‘podiobook’ back in 2005 … or first read the Harper Collins version published in 2011 … I’m really glad you were entertained enough to keep going and got all the way to the end: I can’t express my gratitude enough!
— Mark Jeffrey