The chamber was holding and Jake was thankful for that, but then another huge bolt of light struck the door and it flung open bringing with it more noise and now wind. He leaned into the torrent and watched in amazement as he could see hands reach from within the lighted portal and grasp Elise to raise her up. This was not some video generated by the system. He was seeing this through the chamber and could not believe it was happening.
Her body lifted from the chair and she was pulled into the portal without so much as a struggle. The sub-machine gun would not pass through and it fell to the floor where it lay just as the portal slammed shut and the lab grew silent again in the aftermath. Elise Boudreau was gone.
But they were not alone.
~ ~ ~
Even with the effects of the tranquilizer, Benjamin thrashed in the chair as the portal opened over him. He screamed a single word over and over again, yet Bart could not make it out. It sounded like a name, but one that was constructed of some foreign language he’d never heard. If he had to guess it sounded almost like “Octul, Octul.” The arms appeared over him and pulled him into the opening, his legs thrashing as they entered it last. The deafening roar of the musical notes broke as if a wave was crashing down upon him and then the portal clapped shut, ejecting Benjamin and Elise back into the chamber together.
It had worked and he couldn’t believe his eyes. He rushed to them and then stopped. He didn’t want to touch her as she struggled to breathe, the wind knocked from her when she crashed to the floor. Benjamin crawled to the wall and curled up in a ball, whimpering. The tranquilizer’s effects kicked in again and he was out in a few seconds.
Elise slowed her breathing and stared at him as if she hadn’t seen him in ages. She smiled weakly. “It worked,” she breathed.
The relief in his heart was overwhelming and even he couldn’t fathom the fear he had felt at the risk of losing her.
“He’s right,” she finally said. “It’s a lonely, barren, place at times and I felt like I stayed forever.”
“How did it happen?”
“I was pulled in as Benjamin was too. I could see the other opening as if at a great distance, but I knew what it was and I could faintly see his shape as he entered. We found each other and I guided him back, but it took so long. We walked and walked and walked in the nothingness, the only thing showing was the distant opening. Then, we saw him.”
“Miller?”
She nodded. “He was in there. He said he’d be back to see us and then he disappeared.”
~ ~ ~
Ginny guided the Chevelle through the neighborhood several times but the pulse was completely dispersed and the instruments registered nothing. Frustrated, they went to grab lunch. The only thing they had seen had been a gentlemen leaning into the open hood of his Mercedes. They had slowed but the reading did not change. They had lost it again.
Sitting in The Black Bear Bar and Grill having varmint stew and a dark beer imported from Germany, Ginny commented on what they had done wrong.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “There should be some residual after effects lingering for the equipment to pick up. We should be getting some kind of reading.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Lucky said, “and I wonder if they have it shielded somehow. The pulse itself would be too hard to conceal but the leftovers could be masked behind a barrier or shield. Maybe that’s why we haven’t been able to catch a break here except for the locals with their car and cell phone troubles.”
“And even that doesn’t seem to help except to confirm there is actually something going on. Everyone in town has got something wrong with a cell phone, car, or TV.”
He nodded and sipped the beer. The stew was actually good despite the name. It had come recommended by the waitress. Ginny’s phone rang and everybody in the bar looked at her. Lucky guessed hers was the only one in town working. They went back to their beers and meals after a few seconds. She held the phone up.
“Do you want to get this?” she asked.
“Nah,” he waved a hand at her and smiled. “He’s all yours.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and answered it on the fifth ring, just before it went to voice mail. “Hello,” she said. He watched her nod in response to a remark and then her eyes went to his in surprise. “Are you sure, sir? Of course. No, we weren’t able to isolate it, and Cardmen thinks it might be shielded.” She listened for a bit and then nodded again. “Uh huh. Okay. We’ll do that. No sir, just eating a little lunch.” A pause and she frowned. “We do need to eat, sir.” She sat up straight as Lucky heard the voice get louder in the earpiece. “Yes sir. We will. Yes.” And she hung up.
“Well?”
“They had an EMP in Florida.”
“What?”
“At the same time as ours.”
“In Florida? What the hell is going on?”
“That’s what he wants to know, but he let on like he knew something he wasn’t telling us. He didn’t seem all that concerned with the Florida one, but he definitely wants us to work harder to get to the bottom of our little problem.”
“He doesn’t want us to go to Florida, does he? I think it would be better down there.” He smiled at her, envisioning her in a bathing suit on the beach.
She read his mind and shook her head. “We’re not going to the beach, so don’t get any ideas.”
“The beach would be awesome.”
“Tell me about it. I’m freezing my ass off.”
“Don’t lose it all. Your cute appeal might suffer.”
She tossed a cracker at him.
~ ~ ~
Jake went to the chamber door and stepped in. He could see a large man under the body mold, lying motionless. He wore a wife beater undershirt and his large arms were covered in a sheen of sweat. He stepped to the chair and touched the man’s skin. An electric tingle ran up his arm and a vision, intense, but brief, flashed into his head. It was not pleasant. Jake’s hand recoiled and the vision ceased. The man was now staring up at him, eyes wide open and a grotesquely misshapen face leering at him. He seemed to be smiling but Jake could not tell from all the mangled and scarred flesh that surrounded the right side of his mouth, working its way up under the hairline. It was as if his skin had been melted and reformed in the wrong places.
The man spoke. “Where the fuck am I?” His voice was deep and had a watery texture to it. It seemed to surprise him as he looked around the space, shocked at the sound of it. It also carried a slur from the deformation. He locked his eyes back onto Jake’s and repeated the question, grabbing Jake’s arm through his lab coat. “Where the fuck am I?”
“Encephalographic Systems Laboratory,” Jake said, as Bodey and Winslow approached the opening to the chamber cautiously. The man noticed them briefly but turned his attention back to Jake.
“Where?”
“Do you mean what city?” Jake asked.
“Yes, damn you! What fucking city?”
“Orange Park. A suburb of Jacksonville.”
“In Florida?”
Jake nodded his head and looked at Bodey who shrugged. Winslow moved a little closer, got a good look at his face, and gasped softly. The man didn’t seem to notice. Jake was beginning to think the man had no idea what he looked like. As if on cue, he let Jake’s arm go and reached up to his face. He touched the scarred skin there and his eyes grew wide in shock. He pushed the mold violently up out of the way and sat up quickly.
“Mirror!” he shouted. “Where’s a damn mirror!”
Jake pointed to the wall where a mirror was mounted at just the right angle so they could view parts of the body mold from the console area. The man stood and approached. As he saw his face a little whimper escaped his lips and then he was silent. It was as if he resigned himself to the fact he was hideous.
He whirled on the three of them and pointed. “Where’s the bitch?” Spittle flew out of a small hole in his cheek from some part of the reformation that had not closed completely.
�
�Who? Elise?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” he hissed. “Where is the whore?”
“I don’t know,” Jake said. “I was hoping you could tell me. I’m assuming she’s where you were, if I were to guess.”
He thought about this for a second, noticed the sub machine gun on the floor, and picked it up. “Car keys,” he said, extending his hand.
“What?” Jake asked.
“Car keys. Your car. Give me the keys.”
Jake dipped into his pocket and pulled the keys out, handing them to him.
“Which one it is?”
“The Ford,” Jake said.
The man pushed past them into the lab. He paused to look around and then headed for the door.
“Wait!” Jake shouted after him.
“No,” was all he said and was gone.
“Jake,” Bodey said, coming up to him and staring at the door as nothing but air remained of their disturbing guest. “What the hell is going on?”
“I wish I knew, my brother. I wish I knew.” Something occurred to him and he went rapidly to the console.
“Who was that guy?” Winslow asked. “And how did he get here?”
“This is all new to me guys,” Jake said as he punched up the replay Elise had given him on the thumb drive. He hadn’t really paid much attention to it as it played, but he felt like he needed to see it now. “Somehow, whoever got a hold of this technology seems to be using it for some kind of teleportation.”
“But teleporting what?” Bodey said and ran his hands through his hair.
“I don’t understand,” Winslow said and for the first time, her happy go lucky attitude was not showing. She looked terrified. Bodey went to her and tried to explain.
“Have you heard anything about what happened here six years ago?” he asked her. She looked to him and nodded her head slowly.
“Only a little bit here and there. Jake and Maddy say its top secret and won’t let me in on it.”
“Well, you’re in on it now,” he said.
“But what am I in on?” she pushed away from him and went to the console where Jake was pressing the play button. She reached to stop him. “Don’t do it again!” and she hit stop.
He took her hand softly and held it. “It will be all right,” he said. “It won’t happen again as long as no one is hooked up to ANDEE. We can watch replays safely.”
“Why does this happen? What was that opening and where did it lead to?”
“Our future,” Jake said, and smiled. “It’s where we progress to when we pass on. When we die.”
“What?”
He nodded and held her hand tighter because she was trying to pull away. “I know you don’t understand and it took a long time for me to see, but I have seen it and I know. There is life after death and this machine can see it.”
She paused, looking into his eyes and searching his soul for the truth. She must have seen something in there that convinced her because her face softened ever so slightly and then she looked away. “But if that’s the afterlife, why did she go into it and he came out?” She pointed to the door.
Jake stood up straight and let her hand go. “I don’t know,” he said. “It shouldn’t be able to happen but we just saw it with our own eyes. Something is wrong and the balance has been shifted allowing this anomaly to occur. This is what the dreams Maddy and I have been having are about.”
“Dreams again?” Bodey asked, surprised. “You didn’t tell me.”
Jake nodded but didn’t answer Bodey.
“With Beth?” Bodey asked.
“And Teri,” Jake said.
“You guys have lost me,” Winslow said, frustrated and looking exhausted. She sat in a chair and put her head in her hands. “There’s so much I don’t understand. How can this machine do this?”
Jake sat next to her. “It needs a little help,” he said. “The machine can’t manifest the opening on its own. Someone who’s had a Near Death Experience needs to be hooked up as the catalyst. The trigger. It’s as if they can boost the amplification of the experience through ANDEE and make it happen again.”
“I thought Near Death Experiences were just a joke. The mind playing tricks on itself in the throes of death,” she said.
“A lot of evidence was pointing to that, but as you can see, it was wrong. There is life after death and we will all experience it one way or another.”
She nodded and stood again. She looked at Bodey as if seeing him again for the first time and went to him. “Thank you for holding me,” she said, and wrapped her arms around him again. He smiled at Jake and held her tight.
“No problem,” he said. “I needed to be held myself.”
She laughed slightly at this and then let him go. “So, what now?”
“We find out just what the hell they did to make this happen,” Jake said and hit play on the console. What came up surprised him.
“I’ll be damned,” he said, and sat in the chair.
Winslow walked over and watched for a bit. “Benjamin Tolaver,” she said. “What the hell?”
They watched Benjamin’s Near Death Experience play out in full and none of them spoke as the scene unfolded in all of its violence and glory. It ended and Jake turned in his chair. “Benjamin’s the key,” he whispered.
“What?” Bodey said.
Jake looked up, jolted from his thoughts and said, “Maddy and I had the dreams. Beth told us something was out of balance again and Benjamin’s the key. Apparently, Elise is using Benjamin in another system and they discovered some new anomaly that will occur with the opening. What they’ve done I can only guess at, as this replay explains only who was hooked up to their system.”
“Who is Benjamin Tolaver?” Bodey asked.
“He’s a killer who’s responsible for the bludgeoning deaths of a number of local women. We saw it on ANDEE but the legal system can’t use it as evidence and they do not possess enough to convict him so they let him go. Elise must have found him and used him in her machine.”
“Great,” Bodey said. “A psychopath exposed to ANDEE. We’ve seen this before.”
“I need to call Maddy,” Jake said and picked up the phone.
Chapter 23
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Lucky and Ginny drove around the rest of the afternoon, but the activity did not surface again. They were striking out. They headed back to the hotel and sat in front of the TV with the monitoring equipment on to alert them if anything happened. Smith had called again and was discouraged at their progress, but did not get angry. He told them to keep at it and he hoped to have an update on the Florida situation tomorrow. It may even prove helpful to them in Jackson Hole.
Lucky hoped so. It was great being here with Ginny but he was tired of the senseless driving in circles. People were starting to recognize the Chevelle and would give them second looks whenever they would drive by. It was only a matter of time before local law enforcement would start getting complaints and then they would have to explain themselves and possibly get Smith involved to clean things up. Lucky wasn’t worried about being kept from their jobs, he just didn’t want to be hassled in any way by the local cops.
“I want a beer,” Ginny suddenly said and stood up. “Do you want one?”
“Sure,” he said. “Do you think we should?”
“It sure beats the hell out of watching Gilligan’s Island re-runs. I’ll run to the store while you stay here with the equipment.”
“You want me to go?” he asked, getting up.
“No, I want to stretch my legs. I’ll be back in a few.” She grabbed her coat and shrugged it on.
“Stay warm,” he said.
“Thanks,” she smirked, and opened the door. A blast of frigid air greeted her and she turned. “On second thought…”
“Oh no. You said you were going.” But he smiled.
“I’ll be back,” and she shut the door.
Twenty minutes of the Skipper whacking Gilligan with his hat and she was back, rushing in with b
eer and some snacks. He helped her with the stuff and then opened a beer and handed it to her. “Thanks,” she said and sipped on the cold beverage. He grabbed another and popped the top, flopping back onto his bed.
“Where did you have to go?” He asked.
“Little convenience mart up the street,” she said. “A local cowboy hit on me while I was in there and I had to flirt with him a bit.”
“If you want to go out and have some fun, I can stay and watch the stuff,” he offered with little enthusiasm.
“What? And leave you here to pout?”
“I don’t pout.”
“You seem pouty right now.”
“Over you and some hick guy with a hat?”
She smiled and drank her beer. “See. You seem a little tense.”
He ignored her for a minute and chugged his whole can of beer. “It’s because I’m going crazy in this hick place. I need about four more of these to relax.” He got up and grabbed another. “You want another one?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t finished this one yet.”
He tossed one her way anyway and she scrambled to catch it without spilling the one she was holding. She didn’t succeed and the first beer dropped out of her hands and spilled all over the bed. “Hey!”
He was laughing so hard his own beer was sloshing out of his can and then she grinned at him, picking up a pillow and chucking it at him as hard as she could. It connected and he played along, overreacting by flopping backwards to the floor and spilling his beer all over himself. She was up and on top of him in a flash.
“I said I hadn’t finished this one yet,” but she was smiling as she pinned him to the ground. His beer continued to run out onto the carpet behind his head and was now soaking his hair.
Near Sighted (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 2) Page 12