She said nothing.
‘Very well. You are not obliged to co-operate willingly, but you will co-operate.’ He then turned to two of his men. ‘Take them inside. Before we start the interrogations, I want to find out exactly what we are dealing with here. Once they are secure, I want you to make contact with units two and three then report back to me directly.’
The two soldiers offered the general a comically obedient salute and then dragged the women back inside the building where they were placed in separate rooms. Emmy had suspected this day would come, ever since her grandfather involved the military. She held little hope the outcome would be anything less than catastrophic.
***
Storm clouds gathered in the skies above Jackson’s Hill and by late afternoon it was beginning to get dark. The tarpaulin kept Jimmy hidden from view, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before he was found. He watched on in horror as people he had known his entire life were dragged from their homes and herded into the military trucks like cattle. Once full, these vehicles left the town to a destination he could only guess at. A small number of soldiers remained behind to patrol the streets.
As with the circumstances leading him to the temporary safety of the tarpaulin, Jimmy was blessed with another ghostly echo to guide him to safety. He waited until the coast was clear and then followed the vision through the alleyways of the town’s suburbs until he came to Armareth’s garage. There were rumours spreading about Davo during the previous few days and some people went as far as linking him to the Coppersmith killings. None of this seemed relevant anymore. For all Jimmy knew, the entire population of Jackson’s Hill was being taken away to be shot.
He found the garage unlocked and entered without caution. Sets of keys hung from a rack on the wall. Jimmy grabbed the first set that he saw and tried them in the ignition of a bike resting on the side. The engine instantly came to life. His vision had now dissipated, but it mattered not, as there was only one road for him to take and that was the road out of town.
It made no difference that he had never ridden a motorbike before. As soon as he placed his hands on the handlebars he knew exactly how to operate the vehicle. With his enhanced abilities he could learn quickly. He made it onto the highway without being followed and the road ahead was clear. Clear that is, until he reached the roadblock and by then there was no turning back.
***
Emmy sat curled up in the corner of the room, waiting. She did not want to risk laying on the bed for fear of falling asleep and losing track of time. Not that there was actually much chance of her resting anyway. If the Americans knew about the possibilities her machine opened up they would surely use it for evil. Not just for spying, but they could theoretically replace heads of governments with pawns of their choosing. Whatever happened, she had to stop the machine falling into their hands.
The general finally came for her flanked by two bodyguards. They were both now bereft of their radiation suits. She did not say anything, waiting instead for them to instigate the interrogation.
‘Dr Rayne,’ the general began. ‘I think you know why I am here. I received a call from Lieutenant Schwartzmann advising me of what happened to your grandfather. He was also concerned that Captain Peters had somehow become compromised. I asked him to attach surveillance devices to the phones. When I listened in on your call to Lucas stating that the lieutenant was dead, I had no choice but to send in a team to investigate. Then when I heard about this mania infecting the town, it raised the stakes considerably. The entire area has been placed under quarantine until we know what we are dealing with.’
She looked up at him, shaking her head.
‘If you know about the radiation, why aren’t you wearing those fancy suits of yours? Are you not afraid that you will become infected?’
‘Our intelligence tells us that this facility has no reported cases of infection. This has been confirmed by a blood analysis of you and your friend; Miss Skye.’
Emmy could not believe the man’s arrogance, his stupidity. She was not only a prisoner surrounded by a platoon of soldiers, but any one of those soldiers could lose their mind at any moment. Her situation was not improving.
‘So what is your plan?’ she asked.
‘I want to see if this mess you have created has been worth the cost. You are going to show me exactly what this facility is capable of.’
She did not bother to ask any more questions. Her every word and move would likely be analysed and she did not want to give her plans away. The moment they put her into the matchbox, she planned on revisiting her powers from the night of the fire, but this time making sure to cause an overload that would destroy the observatory and her machine with it.
More guards were waiting by either side of the laboratory door, with another four standing sentinel inside. All were armed with semi-automatic weapons. They were certainly taking no chances. She expected Charlie to be there; under duress, but the only lab coats she could see belonged to the military.
‘Do your men know what they are doing?’ she asked. ‘I want to know that I am in capable hands before subjecting myself to your control.’
‘I’m sure that under your guidance they will do fine,’ replied the general.
‘That’s not good enough. You see, once I start the projection I will no longer be able to communicate with anybody on this side. You will be able to follow my progress to some extent, but communication is impossible.’
‘That won’t be a problem. You will be able to give them full instruction. You’re much too valuable to use as a test subject – for the time being.’
‘So who will...?’
She realised what the general was planning. She took a deep breath and tried not to let her anxiety show. If she handled this situation correctly, she could turn it to her advantage. There was no guarantee that Lucy was completely safe from the radiation and putting her through an astral projection was the only way to be certain of her immunity.
‘I will do this for you, but I could use a little help. I take it that you are holding Dr Nguyen. He is free from the radiation like Lucy and I. It would make things a lot easier if he were here.’
‘I am afraid that is not possible. Dr Nguyen is otherwise engaged. He is helping us with our enquiries. A team is interviewing him as we speak.’
A shiver went up Emmy’s spine. She knew full well that interview was likely meant as a euphemism for torture. Her fear for her friend was compounded by an even greater concern that he would talk. These soldiers knew about the radiation (to an extent), but what if they also found out about the ghosts?
‘As soon as this is over, I want to see Charlie. He and I may be able to help with the radiation problem.’
‘I think that you have helped enough in that respect. Now show me what you can do.’
The general signalled for his guards to take her to the control station whilst Lucy was ignobly stripped to the waist and hooked up to the life support monitors before being ordered to lie on the slab.
‘What do I do?’ Lucy called out, anxiously.
‘Just relax,’ replied Emmy. ‘Whatever happens, just stay calm and concentrate on your breathing. The most likely outcome is that nothing will happen. These idiots do not understand the discipline it takes to operate this equipment.’
She set the machine to its lowest power setting and slowly brought Lucy out of her body by no more than a foot. The general shuffled impatiently beside her.
‘This is not good enough,’ he said. ‘I want to see more. Increase the power to maximum.’
Emmy refused to follow his order.
‘She is too inexperienced. Nobody can take that kind of pressure on their first go. This is all I can give you right now.’
The general smirked.
‘Do you take me for a fool? I know that you already tried this trick on Captain Peters. It did not work then and it will not work now.’
The general waved to one of the American scientists to come to the control stati
on. Once there, this unqualified scientist turned the output up to one hundred percent. Emmy was immediately filled with a sense of panic.
‘What are you doing?’ she shrieked. ‘That is too much, you have to lower it.’
The scientist looked to his superior for clarification, but the general shook his head.
‘As you were,’ he said. ‘I want to see what this abomination is capable of.’
Emmy looked at the monitors and saw that the girl was accelerating upwards at an incomprehensible speed. She had to widen the search parameters to their maximum setting in order to keep track of Lucy’s trajectory.
‘She’s moving too fast,’ Emmy said. ‘If she continues to accelerate at this speed we will lose her. With this kind of power, it will be difficult for her to find her way back. I’m going to try and bring her in manually.’
This time the general had no objections and the military scientist stepped back to let her do her job. She gradually lowered the power output down in increments of ten percent until it was finally at level 1. She then reversed the polarity of the projection filters in order to create a pull towards, rather than from the point of inception. Slowly, she could see Lucy begin to return to Earth.
‘I’ve managed to stabilise her trajectory. I’m bringing her back in toward the observatory. Once she wakes up, I want to take her place. I have built up countless hours of experience in an astral state. I can give you all the proof you need that this technology works. As you can see; you can learn nothing from using a civilian.’
‘Very well,’ agreed the general.
Emmy continued to manage her friend’s re-entry, when she noticed a second signature appear on the readout. She suspected it to be Lucy’s father, but she did not want the Americans to know about this. Luckily, the scientist next to her was more taken with watching the girl for signs that she was returning to consciousness than in checking the computer display. When the girl was within just feet of her body there was another brief power surge, then the monitors went blank.
‘What just happened?’ asked the general.
Emmy left her station and quickly ran towards the matchbox. Lucy was still unconscious.
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘She should be waking up.’
She called out for one of the military scientists to hit the abort button, but nothing happened.
‘I hope you are not playing a game with us, Dr Rayne,’ said the general.
‘I assure you that I would never jeopardise the life of anyone, let alone a friend. Did any of your men interfere with this equipment before I got here?’
‘Everything is as we found it. It seems to me that maybe our investment has been misplaced. I am shutting all live testing down indefinitely until I know exactly what is going on here. You will be allowed to carry on with the theoretical aspects of your research, but under strict supervision. Do you understand?’
‘Do I have a choice?’
‘I will take that as agreement.’
A soldier approached the general with urgency in his stride. He handed a mobile phone to his superior. Emmy sensed that the resulting conversation agitated the general. Once he finished the call, the general briefly conferred with another subordinate and soon all of the military personnel were moving with greater urgency.
‘What is happening?’ asked Emmy.
The general turned to her, but seemed distracted as if she was no longer worthy of his full attention.
‘Dr Nguyen has finally talked. It seems that the radiation problem is worse than we originally believed. He tells us that we are not safe here. You have one hour to gather together whatever you need. I’m placing this facility under quarantine. Once we leave, nobody gets in or out.’
‘What about Lucy?’
‘That no longer concerns you, Dr Rayne. I suggest you gather your things as you now have just fifty nine minutes. I have no desire in exposing myself or my men to any more of the poison this place has created.’
‘No, you have to tell me what you are going to do. Her consciousness is still out there somewhere. If you remove her from the machine it will kill her.’
‘Then she stays, but you are coming with us.’
He turned away from her abruptly and Emmy was escorted out of the laboratory by a guard. She was allowed into her room in order to grab her laptop and a few other essentials. The guard did not follow her inside so she took advantage of the respite by logging on to her system in order to delete as much as she could without it being noticed. After powering the device up, she saw a notification that she had new mail in her inbox.
There were two messages; both from Lucas. She opened the first.
Em,
Take a look at the video and let me know what you think.
I know that it looks crazy, but believe me that it is 100% real.
Lucas.
There was no attachment with the message. She closed the window and then double clicked on the second message.
Em,
Sorry, I forgot the attachment. You know me and computers.
This time I have gotten Val to help me so it should have worked.
Let me know what you think.
Lucas.
She double clicked on the paperclip icon to open the attachment. The screen filled with a grainy video image of Lucas getting out of his police car. He looked agitated by something just off screen. A of couple seconds into the video, she could see that the cause of his annoyance was a stray chicken that had wandered into the road. She managed to suppress her tears at seeing her late friend, but she could not contain a giggle when he comically tried to pick up the bird. She wondered why on Earth he had sent this to her.
Then she was forced to do a double take, as the chicken seemed to just vanish into nowhere.
What is this?
She played the video back again, but this time she paused it just before the bird vanished, and advanced the rest of the footage by a single frame at a time. Somewhere between consecutive frames it just disappeared from where it had been, reappearing at the top of the screen, which would have equated to at least ten feet behind Lucas.
It had not vanished, it had teleported.
‘Is everything okay in there?’ the guard asked from outside.
‘It’s fine,’ she lied. ‘I’ll be right out; I’ve got what I need.’
The truth was that she was anything but fine. The video was remarkable, but the occurrence it documented was not necessarily unique. Just hours earlier she had witnessed the body of Lucas himself disappear before her very eyes. At the time, she thought it had simply dematerialised, but she was no longer certain of this. A terrifying thought occurred to her.
***
The soldier raised his arm, indicating for Jimmy to stop immediately, but the young escapee was already committed to his trajectory. There was a small break in the barricade, no wider than a foot in width. This was what he aimed for. The guards, meanwhile, were aiming their sights on him. He did not hear the weapons discharge, he saw only the recoil and sensed the bullets racing toward him faster than the speed of sound.
Allowing for pure instinct to take over his actions, he eased his grip on the handlebars and felt the bike swerve and sway wildly, seemingly of its own accord. The air felt hot against the side of his face as the bullets passed him by, missing their target by just millimetres. The world was in slow motion, but just as abruptly as the sensation had begun, everything returned to its usual pace and he found himself beyond the barricade, which faded away to nothingness in his rear view mirror.
He had a clear stretch of highway ahead of him, surrounded on both sides by an endless expanse of nothingness. It would soon be nightfall and with the combined arsenal of darkness and his psychic early warning system, he knew it would not be difficult to remain hidden. The soldiers may have taken his town, but Jimmy, at least, was free.
Chapter 39
Jackson Fox opened his eyes. Actually, he opened Lucas’ eyes, but the distinction no longer mattered. The policeman
was gone - he remained.
There was a breeze against his skin. The sky was black and he had no idea how much time had passed. The last thing he remembered was being handcuffed to that Aboriginal oaf and then the irresistible pull of a brilliant light.
Was this some sort of afterlife?
He looked down at the body that he occupied. He was still wearing the police uniform. It was dirty and torn. Air still filled his lungs. To his left was water. In the distance, he could see the familiar lights of home.
He attempted to get to his feet, but his body was weak. As weak as the captain’s had been in the end. Soon it would be of no use to him. For a moment, he just lay there. It was finally over. He was finally beaten. He closed his eyes and allowed his muscles to relax. Maybe he would have peace, after all.
Then he sensed a change inside him; a growing awareness with his surroundings. The radiation was still strong and it gave him hope. He had wondered if his and Emmy’s machine would have wiped Lucas’ body clear of the infection, but this body now belonged to him and he was a dead man. The normal rules no longer applied.
He increased his concentration until he had full control over his thoughts and his enhanced senses. The fact that the humble townsfolk could not cope with such power and he could, provided him with a sense of superiority, which strengthened his resolve. There was no way he was going to give in after achieving so much. He had come too far. He had become a God.
It did not take long for him to figure out how he had arrived at his current surrounds. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of quantum mechanics was aware that particles possessed the ability to spontaneously alter their location, although never on such a massive scale as for it to happen to a complete physical entity. In the lab it had only been witnessed with single particles and even then the energy required for the exchange was considerable. Too much power, in fact. To achieve the teleportation the particles had to “borrow” extra energy from somewhere. It was a debt that always had to be repaid. After shifting, the particles would have an extremely limited lifespan.
Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 32