My heart sank like a ship's anchor. Like a collapsing skyscraper. Time to give up, time to get up and move on.
And then, suddenly, I felt it. Something.
Like a tickle in the back of my mind. So faint it was barely there.
I focused on it, holding my breath. It was still so very faint, so very soft. It seemed to recede the harder I reached for it.
So then I stopped reaching, and it stopped receding. I backed away, and it moved closer. Still far away but close enough, just barely, for me to make it out.
The tiniest wisp of a presence. The hint of a mind, flickering like a distant star in the velvet night sky. The trace of a memory clinging to my fingertip like a dandelion puff, likely to be carried away by the wind at any moment.
And then there was a voice. Words in my mind, not my own. I could barely hear them through the whine of the device and the hum of my own power pouring out.
"...great danger..." Was that my own voice, filtered through a past life? It sounded familiar. "You are...great danger..."
As I strained to catch the words, I struggled to identify the voice. It was almost a whisper. "...go now...you must go..." I began to realize it wasn't my own. It didn't belong to my past self. "...a great war coming..."
I listened and strained and still wasn't sure. The voice was so faint. "...great evil..." Not my voice, but still familiar, at least I thought so. "...destroy you..."
Then, I heard another voice, loud and clear. "Gaia!" Ayan's voice, over the speaker. "I'm shutting it down! It's overloading!"
"No!" I said. "Not yet!" I tried desperately to hold on to my concentration, tried not to lose the thread.
But the voice was gone. I couldn't hear it anymore.
Talk to me, please! We're not finished! I reached out, trying to find it again. Fighting for one more word from beyond.
And then it was too late. The machine powered down around me.
"Damnit!" I thumped my fist against the inside of the bay. "Turn it back on! Do it now!"
"If I turn it back on, it'll melt down," said Ayan. "With you in it!"
I hit the bay and cursed again, furious. Ready to punch Ayan in the nose the second I got out. I'd been so close. I'd been talking to the other side. And he'd ruined it.
My blood was boiling as I started to slide out of the bay. The crystal bed of the device was so hot underneath me, it was burning my skin right through my clothes.
"Fuck." A cloud of rage settled around me as I emerged from the bay. It was the first time since arriving in Parapets that I'd actually gotten pissed about anything.
I sat up on the edge of the device, still feeling a little dizzy. Started to get up, then stayed where I was, hanging on with both hands as a sudden wave of nausea coursed through me. Felt like I might pass out, actually.
And then, suddenly, there it was. The voice.
Talking in my mind, as crystal clear as if the woman doing the talking were sitting right next to me. I heard every word, start to finish...and what's more, I recognized her. For the first time, I knew who was doing the talking.
It wasn't my past self at all. "You are in great danger. You must leave this place. Go now." But it was someone I'd known better than any past self. "A great war is coming, with you at the heart of it. A great evil wants to destroy you." It was someone who'd been closer to me than almost anyone else.
"The same great evil that killed me." It was my best friend. The one whose murder had led me here.
"Aggie?" My heart raced. Trembling, I looked all around for a trace of her, but of course there was none. She was speaking from the other side, through my mind. Somehow keeping up a connection even though the machine was shut off.
Getting as much of the message through to me as she could, which in this case meant two more words. "Beware Atlantis!"
And then she was gone. The voice fell silent.
"Aggie?" I called her name out loud. "Aggie!" Tears running down my face. Hoping, praying she'd come back. So many things I wanted to say to her.
"Who's Aggie?" Ayan shuffled across the lab, looking at me funny.
"Oh, God." I swiped at the tears with the back of my hand, and they just kept coming. This was it. She was gone for good this time and somehow I knew it.
"You got through, didn't you?" Ayan looked pleased with himself. "You talked to the person you were looking for."
"No." I took deep, shuddering breaths and got up. Stood there a moment, fighting to steady myself and hold off the nausea. "It was someone else."
Ayan reached for my elbow. "Maybe I should call a medic."
"No thanks." I shook him off and headed for the door. "I'll be fine."
Ayan followed me. "Wait a minute, Gaia. I need to log your vital signs and debrief you."
"Do it tomorrow." I reached for the door.
"It'll be too late by then," said Ayan. "Kinda defeats the purpose of being a guinea pig."
"See you tomorrow," I said, and then I was out and the door closed behind me. Which was when the tears really cut loose.
*****
Chapter 49
Crying, dizzy, delirious, I stumbled out of the Great Hall. Pushed out onto the terrace, breathless and soaked in sweat.
Night had fallen since I'd last been outside. How long had I been in that lab, anyway? I'd completely lost track of time.
Friendly Parapeople were out for their evening strolls or jogs, and every one of them waved and smiled when they passed me. Smiled with a wince, I should say; I could tell they were wondering why I looked like shit. Like I'd just been through fucking hell in a bucket.
I had to get away from them. Get away from everyone and everything and sort this out.
Sucking in a deep breath, I wiped away the latest tears and steadied myself as best I could. Then marched across the terrace like I had somewhere important to be. Waving and smiling at everyone I passed, exchanging friendly greetings. Realizing for the first time I might be getting tired of my newfound celebrity.
I made a beeline for the far corner of the terrace, where the Parapets showplace ended and the woods began. I couldn't get there fast enough.
A young man and woman stopped me just short of the corner and tried to start a conversation. It took everything I had to politely sidestep with a lame-ass excuse instead of plowing right through them.
Finally, I made it. Vaulted over the low wall when no one was looking. Felt relief the instant my feet hit the dirt.
I sprinted off along the slope, the woods deepening around me as I ran. Putting as much distance as I could between me and Parapets. Between me and what had happened in the lab.
But it all caught up with me, of course. I remembered Aggie's voice in my mind, drifting in from the other side...then fading out forever. I remembered it as clearly as if I were hearing it anew, and that was enough. Enough to start me crying again.
I stopped in a clearing and collapsed in the dirt, letting it all go. Letting the swell of emotion rip through me.
It was a hell of a storm. I think it was all the worse because I'd been riding so high lately, feeling so good. I'd found so many answers at Parapets; I'd even dared to imagine I'd found a new home. A happy ending I hadn't known was possible for me. And now, if what Aggie had told me was true...
How many times had I thought in the back of my mind that something was wrong here? How many times had I thought Parapets was too good to be true, but then I'd killed every doubt because I'd wanted to believe so badly? Now here I was, with a warning from beyond the grave still ringing in my head. A warning from the one person I could never, ever not trust.
What was worse? My sadness at losing the illusion of paradise? My anger at falling for it in the first place? My shame at being angry with Aggie—poor, dead Aggie—for revealing the truth? Or my desperate, pathetic need to cling to the lie in the face of Aggie's warning?
Choking back the sobs, I sat back on my heels and wondered. What if Aggie's message had been some kind of hallucination? What if everything I'd heard ha
d been a figment of my imagination, a trick of my guilty subconscious?
It was possible, wasn't it? Maybe Ayan's machine was more about mind-fucks than channeling the dead. Maybe I could march right back there and return to my wonderful new life without missing a beat. Forget about Aggie and Briar and Duke and Cruel World and the Presence and my past lives and everything else. Stay in this place where people didn't take me for granted or keep secrets that could upend my world.
I nodded and pulled back my hair, fighting to believe in Parapets instead of Aggie. Fighting to hold on to my new life.
Which was when I heard the approaching footsteps.
Running feet, rustling through the brush. Heading toward me from the deeper woods, heading toward Parapets. Moving fast.
Too fast for me to get out of the way. I was still kneeling there when the footsteps crashed into the clearing. When the man they belonged to barreled out of the trees and thrashed to a stop right in front of me. Staring down at me in shock in the silver moonlight.
I think I was as shocked as he was when I gaped up at him. When I realized I recognized him.
His stringy brown hair and olive drab khaki jacket were familiar. What really brought it home for me, though, was his big walrus mustache. I remembered him from Late Jim's diner. "Gut?"
"It's you!" Gut looked over his shoulder. "Run!"
"Why?" I got to my feet. "What's going on here?"
"They're coming!" Gut looked over his shoulder again. "They're after me!"
I looked where he was looking but saw no one. Heard nothing from that direction. "Who? Who's coming?"
"Security!" Gut was in a full-blown panic. "Damn crossbreeds!"
Gut tried to bolt, but I held on to his arm. "Why are you here, Gut? How did you get on the property?"
"I'm looking for my wife!" He tried to pull free. "Now let go of me!"
Suddenly, I did hear new sounds from the woods. More running footsteps, fast approaching. Two sets of them, blasting through the brush.
"It's them!" said Gut. "Run! We've got to run!"
I let go, and he took off through the woods. The new footsteps closed in, and I braced myself to meet them. I wasn't all that worried; I didn't think it would take much to put the fear in a guy like Gut. I figured the most I'd be doing when Security got there was talking them into going easy on their quarry.
This was why I wasn't properly ready when they hit the clearing. I stood there as the footsteps crashed toward me, and I watched their red laser sights flash through the woods. I saw hulking figures bounding between the trees, moonlight glinting off what I thought was body armor. And I waited and cleared my throat, convinced in the hope-against-hope part of my brain that I still had some kind of influence over the situation. That my dream world could still somehow be salvaged.
This is why I called out to them. "Hello? I'm Gaia Charmer. Solomon and Laurel's friend."
The two figures crashed to a stop in the shadowy brush without answering.
"Could I talk to you for a moment?" I said.
This time, they did answer. Their laser sights both swooped in to lock on the center of my chest.
*****
Chapter 50
Bullets hissed past overhead as I threw myself to the ground. For an instant, I wasn't sure if I'd been hit.
But I was fine. Fine as I could be when facing two armed guards who'd opened fire on me without saying a word.
The good news was, I was far from defenseless. As the shock of the first shots wore off, I gathered my resources and got ready to fight back. The power inside me had been depleted by Ayan's device, but I knew there was enough left to do what I needed to do.
The red laser sights found me again, and I rolled away from them fast. Bullets peppered the dusty ground and followed me, tracing my path.
As I kept rolling, I reached out with my mind, grabbing a snapshot of my surroundings. I snapped it on the move, so it wasn't a perfect picture, but I found what I was looking for. Weapons. The world was my armory.
I went for the closest ones first—a pile of rocks at two o'clock. Snagged them on the fly and whipped them at the guards. I knew I hit both dead-on at least once, good and hard. Heard the cracks of impact, felt the ricochets as the rocks bounced off.
But the guards kept shooting strong and steady. Kept pressing toward me without slowing. No change whatsoever.
Time to work smarter. Plunging my mind into the ground, I flash-read the tract between me and the guards. Felt the network of fissures and cracks, pinpointing every weak spot. Instantly plotted a roadmap to follow.
And then I stopped rolling and brought down my fist. Punched just the right spot and poured in a bolt of energy, precisely calibrated. The bolt rushed into the network of fractures, sizzling along the course I'd mapped, zigzagging right and left and left and right—then splitting in two. Each half peeling off through the maze in different directions, colliding with pulsing red stress points in the paths of the guards.
Suddenly, the earth cracked in two places, and both guards went down. Shooting as they fell.
Leaping to my feet, I charged the guards, picking up ammo with my mind on the way. Scooping up rocks the size of car tires from rockfalls on the mountainside, reeling them toward me. Grabbing smaller pieces closer at hand, too.
All I saw at first when I reached the guards were the two assault rifles swinging in my direction, laser sights dancing toward me. Slashing both hands through the air, I sent two of the smaller stones spinning like Frisbees, crashing against the rifles. Snapping both of them from the hands of the guards, casting them into the crackling brush.
It was then I stopped cold in my tracks. It was then I got my first clear look at my attackers, unobstructed by shadows, trees, or brush.
They were massive. Sheathed with gleaming armor, swollen with muscle. Only the muscle wasn't all muscle, and the armor wasn't armor at all.
As they struggled to drag themselves out of the crevices in which they'd fallen, the moonlight revealed their true natures. Their faces were split down the middle, half human, half stone. Their bodies were also split, but not so neatly; almost every part from the neck down was striped with a mix of flesh and stone. Only their hands were all one thing, one hundred percent granite-like rock.
Grazing them with my mind, I sensed the truth of what I saw. They didn't just look like amalgamations of men and rock. Gut had been right on the money when he'd called them crossbreeds.
It was then I realized my Parapets fantasy was officially over. Because I knew these two murderous creatures had been made there. Coming across them in the woods so close to Parapets, the mad science and magic capital of West Virginia, could not have been a coincidence.
So Aggie, or my subconscious, or whatever had spoken through Ayan's device, had been right about the danger. Right about the coming great war and the great evil that wanted to destroy me, too?
Just as I had that thought, one of the Crossbreeds managed to roll himself out of his trough and grabbed his rifle. Suddenly, the laser sight flashed through the air and landed on my belly.
Which was exactly when those rocks the size of car tires flew in from the rockfall. With a flick of my fingers, one smashed into the Crossbreed from behind, pitching him forward. He cranked off two shots right into the ground, then collapsed on top of his gun. I dropped the tire-sized rock on top of both of them.
While I was paying attention to the shooter, though, the other Crossbreed managed to free himself. When I turned, expecting to see him still stuck in his crevice, his monstrous arms suddenly locked around me from behind.
The Crossbreed's arms tightened around me like iron bands, squeezing the breath right out of my lungs. Scattering my concentration like flour in the wind, making me lose my grip on the incoming rocks. They all dropped around me at once, leaving me with no ammo in play.
The arms continued to tighten, and I became lightheaded. Sparks danced in my field of vision. I thrashed and kicked, but it did no good.
I cast a
round me for a weapon, but I couldn't seem to hold on to anything from a distance. Like trying to play checkers with boxing gloves on. I was fading fast.
Then, I realized there was ammo closer at hand. Ammo I was already in contact with.
I jammed my fingers against the veins of solid stone wound through his tree trunk legs. Poured in streams of power, felt the earth in him respond. Made it dance to my tune.
Both legs went out from under him at once. He toppled backward, taking me with him. Then, I really poured it on, penetrating the rest of his rocky half with a cascade of power. Short-circuiting every motor control in his blended body and hoping it made him let go instead of convulsively squishing me to a pulp against him.
He let go. Gasping for air, I sprang off him so fast, I fell. Went down on one knee and stayed there a moment till I caught my breath.
When I'd pulled myself together, I got to my feet. Turned to contemplate the beaten Crossbreeds twitching in the moonlight. Wondering how and why a seemingly benevolent group like Groundswell would create such monstrosities.
I searched their faces for some kind of clue, and that was when it hit me. I stepped closer to the one trapped under the rock, taking another look. Unable to believe what I'd seen. And then I stumbled back away from him, clamping my hands over my mouth.
Because I recognized him. The part of him that was still human. The side of his face glowing in the silver moonlight.
It was him. It was Mahoney Wells.
*****
Chapter 51
I fell back against a tree and stood there, shivering. I couldn't take my eyes off the thing that had once been Mahoney. Couldn't wrap my head around the nightmare in the moonlight.
His body had been turned into a giant patchwork obscenity, pumped up and laced with stone. He'd been brainwashed, reduced to a lumbering brute. His memory of me had been wiped or suppressed to the point of not caring if he killed me. Was any part of him still alive in there at all?
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