by William Hawk
William felt himself tense up.
“And?”
“We hear Hunter’s voice inside the room. He’s having an argument with himself, muttering a lot. Then we hear him say, ‘No!’ Really strange and sharp, almost like a bark. His voice sounded warped.”
“Then what?”
Proof took a deep breath. “Well, the blue spirit moves into his room, through the door. I saw it happen. The we hear Hunter scream.”
William’s jaw dropped open. “This thing was hurting him?”
Proof shrugged. “I don’t know. But we hear him shout, ‘I don’t want it! I don’t want it! I don’t want it!’ That’s the truth.” He held up one hand like a solemn Boy Scout. “Next thing we know, he comes out of his room, furious, yelling at the top of his lungs in a language that nobody understands.”
“Oh my God.”
“We see him running, the blue spirit slowly following. He reaches the end of the corridor, where he can’t go any farther, and comes back to the galley. The blue spirit still right on him. I’m in the galley with the others, and he comes right up to me and says one word.”
“What was it?”
“Menoram.”
William thought about that. “He wanted to go back?”
Proof shrugged. “I thought so. I tried to calm him down. I tell him it’s going to take some time, and didn’t he want to think about this first. Because it’s a big decision. It means your spirit will never again be eligible for CA2 or CA3. He says, ‘Just start the Blaugrad Mechanism. And hurry.’”
The Blaugrad Mechanism. William whistled low to himself. He remembered hearing something about that during their orientation. It was the way by which a person could voluntarily pull himself or herself off the team. Proof said that nobody had ever tried to use it before.
“Keep in mind,” Proof said, “I’ve never started the Blaugrad Mechanism. It’s up to you know who.” He pointed at the ceiling, and William guessed that he meant the Ancient Engineer. “So I looked into his eyes to assess his emotional state. Guess what I saw?”
William thought about it. “Fear.”
Proof stood up, pointed at William. “You are good. That’s exactly what I saw.”
William managed a chuckle. “It wasn’t hard to guess. He’s like two different people. Part of him is afraid of his own antisocial personality.”
“Exactly. For a moment, though, I saw the self-aware Hunter, the empathetic one.” He paused. “That part of him has been getting smaller and smaller. And I think for a quick second, he knew where this road had been taking him.”
“So what finally happened?”
“With everyone standing around, I promise Hunter that I will go and start the Blaugrad Mechanism to return him to Menoram. He runs out of the galley. I stand up and go into the corridor, and I see him backed against the wall by the blue cloud. He’s screaming again, almost like a child having a temper tantrum, as the cloud envelops him. And then . . . he . . . ”
“He what?”
A look of shock passed across Proof’s face. “He just . . . vaporizes. I don’t know how to describe it.” He paused. “I’ve handled a lot of teams, but I’ve never seen an . . . intrusion . . . like this.”
William couldn’t believe his ears. “So you’re telling me Hunter just disappeared?”
Proof snapped his fingers. “Just like that. Then the blue cloud just vaporized too. Like it had achieved what it set out to do.”
Neither one spoke for a moment. William was fighting a thousand different thoughts and feelings. He swung his legs out of the bed and stood up, alongside Proof. “We need to find out what happened to him. Losing him could throw off the algorithms, and if that happens, then none of us will make CA3.”
“I don’t think you’ll be able to find out where he is,” said Proof.
“Why not?”
“This came from high up on the chain.”
“Who?”
“Use your imagination. My theory is that someone saw Hunter as a threat, not just to this team, but maybe to the world, or the universe. This was a targeted removal.”
“Almost like an execution,” William said to himself.
“In a sense, yes.” Proof slapped William across the back. “And a day later, you come back. Finally.”
“And here we are, at the end of the story.”
A mysterious smile came across Proof’s face. “No, this is not the end of the story.” He stood up, went to the door, and then paused. “Stay here tonight. Stay in the bed. Shana is concerned about possible side effects.”
“Okay.”
Proof looked at William for a bit longer than necessary, and then left the medical bay. William lay his head back on the pillow. Tonight he wouldn’t be going back to his room, or anywhere.
CHAPTER 29
HAT NIGHT, WILLIAM WAS TORTURED BY thoughts of one person.
Hunter.
He was just one of the five team members, but he’d occupied everybody’s thoughts from the first moment they got together. He had huge spirit, not in the generous sense, but in the powerful sense. After all, Hunter arrived on this team with a dark personality. Then it grew even darker, and on this last snap finally descended into full night. Now he’d been removed from the team by a mysterious blue entity that nobody had seen before.
A term came to William’s mind, the perfect term to describe somebody like him.
The Fallen One.
At the very least, Hunter was now spiritually frozen in place. He wouldn’t advance to CA3, wouldn’t fall to CA0. It wasn’t clear what would happen. What did you do with someone who showed so much promise, maybe even more than Grace? Did you abandon him?
They probably wouldn’t ever get an answer.
William flipped his pillow over, puffed it, pulled the blanket over his shoulder. The bay was totally dark now; he’d turned off the colors when he went to bed. He lay there, eyes open in the darkness.
And that’s when he saw it.
A figure.
In a chair on the other side of the room sat a shadowy man, his hands placed evenly upon his thighs. His face was indistinct, but he wore a gray wool suit.
William bolted up in his bed. “Who the heck are you?”
The figure turned his head slowly and regarded the human in the bed. William instinctively felt that he wasn’t an evil entity, or an icy entity, or a dead entity. But the man was definitely intelligent. William could feel it radiating from his presence.
Then, without warning, William knew who the entity was. He knew as surely as he knew his own name. And when the figure began to speak, William felt a thrill like he’d never known racing through every inch of his body.
“I’m the Ancient Engineer.”
The voice was measured, even and thoughtful. It was the voice of every teacher, every boss, every elected official, who had ever commanded respect. It was a deep voice, competent, thorough, compassionate and stern.
William scrambled to catch his breath and his wits. “I’m William.” He paused and then added. “Nice to meet you.”
He felt incredibly stupid the moment the words escaped his mouth. This was the most powerful spiritual entity in existence, and he’d just introduced himself as though they were cousins at a family reunion.
The Ancient Engineer looked lost in thought for a moment. His mouth opened and closed, as though he were trying to form words. Then he finally spoke.
“You know, there’s not many people I can talk to.”
William’s throat felt scratchy. “Yeah, uh, I bet.”
“After all, it’s hard to relate to me,” he said. “I run the algorithms that govern the universe.”
“You’re a powerful man.”
The Ancient Engineer sighed and rubbed his face. “Don’t I know it.”
“Don’t you want any help? Someone to back you up?”
“I used to, but not anymore.”
“What about Proof?”
“He’s good with the teams like yours. You know, h
is specialty is connecting with humans. He likes to focus his energies there.”
William didn’t know quite what to say next. The Ancient Engineer had appeared in his room and begun an impromptu counseling session. Now he was complaining about his position.
“So what brings you around?” asked William, trying to sound casual.
“Proof did,” he said. “He asked me several times for advice about what to do regarding one member of your team. I’ve been busy, though, so it just got away from me.”
“Which member was that?” William knew the answer but asked anyway.
The Ancient Engineer looked at him, his eyes deep and intelligent. “You, William.”
William felt his heart skip a beat. That wasn’t the answer he was expecting. Suddenly he felt defensive. “That’s ludicrous. Nobody looks at me as a problem. In fact, I’ve been the one trying to . . . ”
The Ancient Engineer hushed him by raising a single hand. “That’s not why he was talking to me about you.”
“Well, then why?”
“You seem to have attracted the attention of a certain spirit. Little Horn.”
William thought back to the odd creature in the snap, the one in ancient Persia or wherever, who shook the platform, killed Trina’s host, and then climbed up the wall.
“That thing was freaky,” he said.
His visitor smiled. “A nice way to put it. That freaky thing is also ancient.”
“As ancient as you?”
The engineer smiled. “I’m really not that ancient, William. But Little Horn is an outlier, an entity that has been around since almost the dawn of time. We used to work together, but he chose a different path. Now he has morphed into something almost unrecognizable and very dangerous.” He paused. “He’s a strange aberration.”
“Can he disrupt the system?”
The Ancient Engineer thought about that. “It’s fair to say that destruction of humanity is his main focus.”
“So what’s my role in this?”
The Ancient Engineer stretched his legs. “First, I need something to drink. You want to join me?”
“I’m not supposed to leave this bed,” said William.
The Ancient Engineer looked concerned, so William explained. “I was stuck in a tag-along for two days, and they’re concerned about the effect on me.”
The Ancient Engineer waved a hand over William, emitting a flash of light from his palm.
“You’re good now. Meet me in the galley.”
The Ancient Engineer literally disappeared. William sat for a minute, stunned, before getting out of the bed.
William walked down the corridor, filled with excitement. It was the middle of the night, and the other team members were asleep in their rooms. He heard Jeremy lightly snoring behind his door.
When William arrived at the galley, the Ancient Engineer was already sitting at the table. A single lamp glowed on the table, illuminating one side of his face, his shoulder, chest and arm. On the table were two glasses of clear liquid.
“You disappeared,” said William.
“Sorry,” he said, “it’s just how I travel. I forget that other people aren’t used to it.”
“I wish I had shortcuts through time and space,” muttered William, taking a seat.
“You will,” came the reply. “Proof said that you were highly gifted.”
“He’s exaggerating.”
“No, he’s not. I can tell you’re sensitive. You’ll find them, trust me. After all, I created them.” The Ancient Engineer used his thumb and index finger to indicate something small. “They’re like these little blips in the framework of your reality. Here’s an example. Have you ever been talking to someone and suddenly felt like you’ve had that exact conversation before, in that exact place, with the same person?”
“Deja vu,” said William. “It happens all the time.”
He brightened up. “I created that algorithm. Not everybody can access that.”
“So, it’s a glitch.”
“No. It’s a feature, not a bug. I add tiny variations on purpose.”
“Why?”
“Because predictability is stasis.” He paused and then added with a droll intonation, “And stasis is, like, really boring.”
“Proof said that you allow evil in the world because it helps us progress.”
The Ancient Engineer stretched his arms and looked at the far wall as though he’d just been asked a very difficult question. “No, I actually restrain myself. Good, evil, everything in between, it all serves a purpose. Someday that will change, but not yet.” He picked up his glass. “See, it’s like a beverage with just the right balance of flavors. I make the ingredient for the liquid. You all have free will to decide the amounts of the ingredients. Then you experience it in the container that I built.” He lifted the glass to William. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” said William, hoisting his glass. He swallowed the beverage. It really was the perfect balance of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and more.
“Wow,” he said. “What is it?”
“I found it in the refrigerator,” said the Ancient Engineer, laughing. “You’ll have to ask Shana. Proof tells me that she experiments with new beverages when she thinks nobody is looking.”
“It’s delicious.”
They continued drinking in silence. William was positive that this was the strangest encounter he’d ever had, and yet the Ancient Engineer was so personable, so humble, that he felt relaxed. His face was ordinary, unremarkable. His arms were of normal size, his hands too. Overall, he was screamingly average.
The Ancient Engineer noticed William studying him. “I’ve chosen this shape so that you can relate better to me,” he said. “I appeared as a baby walrus to the last team, and one of them tried to stab me.”
William felt his jaw fall open. The Ancient Engineer grinned. “That was a joke, William.”
“Oh.”
“But I have been a baby walrus. It’s really weird.”
William wasn’t expecting this, the designer of the universe to be so playful. And yet it made perfect sense. Whoever created the world had to have a good sense of humor.
“Can we get back to my role with Little Horn?” asked William.
The Ancient Engineer nodded, suddenly somber. “Of course. You’re anxious to get on with your mission.”
“My mission concerns Little Horn?”
“Well.”
“Wait,” said William, pushing back from the table. “I didn’t even know that I had a mission.”
“I might’ve said too much,” said the Ancient Engineer. “You don’t have a mission, at least not yet. What I meant to say was that Little Horn has found you and is tracking you, across tag-alongs. And to advance to CA3, you’ll have to deal with him.”
A note of panic crept into William’s voice. “How do I do that?”
“That’s the purpose of my visit.” The Ancient Engineer slid a bracelet across the table. It was black, made of a strange polymer, and it was ringed with marks that looked like hieroglyphics. “I would ask you to put this on.”
“What is it?”
He waved the question off. “I won’t explain now, but it is our ancient Word. Be sure that you wear this before you climb into your pod.”
William hesitantly picked up the bracelet and slipped it on his wrist. He immediately felt more attuned to his surroundings. Everything seemed sharper.
“Wow,” he said.
“It creates a heightened sense of awareness. Put it on before you get into the pod and you’ll have the same sensation in the snap.”
“Proof said we have only one tag-along left,” muttered William.
“Just one?”
“Yes.”
The Ancient Engineer nodded, thinking. “So you’re drawing near to the end of the process. Anyway, it’ll help. You’ll need it against Little Horn.”
William blanched. “Do I have to fight him?”
The Ancient Engineer
shook his head no. “For the simple reason that no man can defeat him, but you can resist him. This will help you do that when he comes after you.”
“Thank you,” said William, slipping off the bracelet. The world got a little duller. “Can I ask about Hunter?”
A brief spasm of pain flashed across the Ancient Engineer’s face. “What would you like to know?”
“Is he off the team?”
“Yes.”
“Where did he go?”
“I can’t reveal that.”
“What was the blue thing that they said came in here?”
The Ancient Engineer grinned. “That was a special thing I was playing around with a while ago. It was kind of a mistake, but I use it now and then for retrieval.”
“So will we see him again?”
“No, he’s gone.”
“He tried to kill me in the snap.”
The Ancient Engineer sighed. “Sometimes there are individuals who are gifted, but who lack the spiritual intuition to find good.”
“Is he one of those people?”
He seemed loath to say anything else, so William let it drop. Then the Ancient Engineer yawned. “Time doesn’t mean much to me, but still, it’s time for me to go.”
Scrambling for words, William said, “Well, thanks for dropping by.”
The Ancient Engineer nodded and then disappeared. A second later, William was alone in the galley, a bracelet in his hand and a sense that whatever was coming next, it wasn’t going to be easy.
CHAPTER 30
HE LAST DAY.
The four remaining members of the team; William, Grace, Jeremy and Trina sat at the breakfast table in the galley, slowly chewing. It was the morning of their final snap, and while it should’ve been a happy day, it wasn’t.
Hunter wasn’t the most popular member of the team. He wore everybody down with his insistent selfishness, his personality always balanced on the knife’s edge. But the hard fact remained that he’d been a part of the team, and his descent into betrayal and deceit had cast a dark cloud over what should’ve been a joyful moment.