When he got to the front door, he stopped for a moment. A sudden fear hit him. What if this was a dream? What if he was really lying dying in a burning army base that nobody even knew about? He knocked on the door. It opened.
At first he was greeted with astonished silence. The old lady facing him then began to speak in Cantonese, before remembering to switch to English.
‘Charles; is that really you?’ she asked.
‘Yes, grandma,’ he replied. ‘It is really me.’
She pulled him into the house and gave him a warm, loving hug that took away all of his pain and fear, returning him to the innocent child that he once was.
‘Oh, Charles,’ she said. ‘It is so good to see you again. I spoke to your father last night, but he did not spoil this wonderful surprise. Why did you not tell me that you were coming to Hong Kong?’
Charlie shrugged.
‘Believe me,’ he told her. ‘This is much more of a surprise to me than it is to you.’
Chapter 41
When waking from a deep sleep, there is a brief moment, lasting just seconds, where the world of dreams spills over into the world of the everyday. During this time, it can often be impossible to differentiate between that which is real and that which is not. As Emmy lay on her bed, she wondered if she was dreaming or even better; that the nightmare following her grandfather’s death was the dream and she had finally woken from the nightmare.
She got up and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes were a little puffy from sleep, but her face was clean. There were no cuts or bruises from the car accident, which she now had only a faint recollection of. Her body felt strong and fresh.
She quickly dressed and left her room. The corridors were immaculate, just as Pops always insisted they should be. Phantoms of soldiers taking over her home still lingered in the deeper recesses of her memory, but she paid them little heed.
When she got to the kitchen, she found a piece of paper taped onto the door. It was a message from Charlie. He had to leave suddenly. Something had come up with his family. Without going into too much detail, he simply explained that it was nothing serious, but that he needed to take a few days off work. She crumpled up the paper and threw it into the wastepaper basket before making herself a strong cup of coffee. As she drank, she felt some obscure thought, just at the back of her mind, struggling to find clarity. Was there something she was supposed to do on this morning?
Pops was not in his office and she was surprised to find him in the main laboratory. It was very rare to see him get involved with the practical side of the research, but with Charlie taking leave at such short notice this was only to be expected. After all, he could not let everybody have a holiday. Not when there was so much work to be done.
‘Good morning, Emmy,’ her grandfather said. ‘I took the liberty of starting without you. I hope you do not mind.’
‘Of course not,’ she replied. ‘You’re the boss.’
He was not normally so jovial, particularly in the morning. Mornings were normally when he was at his lowest ebb. She wondered what had brought on his good mood.
‘You’re probably wondering why I am so perky this morning,’ he said, as if having just read her thoughts.
‘It had occurred to me. I thought that with Charlie gone, it would slow us down. We won’t be able to make another journey until he is back. Normally such a setback would make you quite grumpy.’
‘Slow us down?’ he asked, puzzled. ‘Why ever would you think that, my dear? If anything, I intend to make a real push over the coming days. When Charlie returns, he is going to have a great deal of catching up to do.’
‘I don’t understand; don’t we need Charlie? He is the only one who can make the transition into an astral state.’
‘He will not be the only one for much longer. Today, you will take his place.’
‘Me; are you sure? I thought you didn’t want me taking any unnecessary risks.’
Her grandfather tilted his head around the side of the control station so that she could see him.
‘Who else is there to do this, my dear? Surely you do not expect me to go in his place. Admittedly, it is something that I have always wanted to do, but my fragile body could not survive the process. For me, such a journey would only be one way.’
She felt her stomach flutter. Not from the nerves generated by the task in front of her, but because her grandfather, the great Jackson Fox, was placing so much faith in her.
‘When do you want to do this?’ she asked.
‘As soon as you are ready,’ he replied.
She ran to the Acceleration Chamber.
‘I’m ready!’ she exclaimed, with joy.
Things were moving quickly; almost too quickly. This was definitely not like her grandfather, but the prospect of what faced her more than outweighed any concern she had. She hurriedly got ready and then sat down on the slab.
‘How do you want to do this?’ she asked. ‘With Charlie, we spent the first session with him staying on a short tether and merely trying to navigate the laboratory by recognising familiar objects in an astral state.’
‘You’re much more brilliant than Charlie,’ her grandfather replied. ‘There is no need for anything quite so basic. I want you to project yourself into the farthest place that you can imagine. I want you to push back the very boundaries of the universe.’
The flutter in her stomach increased. If this worked, it would take her far further than any human being or manmade object had ever travelled before. Before lying down, she glanced over to her grandfather for reassurance, but he was not there.
‘Pops?’
She got up and quickly looked from side to side, taking in the full expanse of the laboratory and still she could not see him. Then in the corner of her eye, she thought she saw somebody else. Somebody who should not have been there.
‘Lucas?’
‘Emmy, what’s wrong?’ asked her grandfather.
He was back behind the control desk in the same spot where she thought she had seen her policeman friend.
‘Nothing,’ she replied. ‘I must have imagined it.’
She turned to go back to the matchbox when a highly irregular thought popped into her head. Her grandfather was sitting in his wheelchair behind the control desk. Without Charlie to help him up the steps, he would have needed some sort of ramp in place, but there was none.
‘Emmy, what is wrong – why have you stopped?’
‘Your chair – how did you get it up the steps?’
‘I don’t know what you mean. Everything is fine; you should get back into position.’
‘No, everything is not fine. I want to know how you got your chair up those steps.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ protested her grandfather. ‘It is just nerves; that is all. You are understandably scared and it is causing you to procrastinate. It is best if you forget about me and concentrate on what you need to do.’
‘Something is wrong; why are you trying to rush me.’
When she got to the desk, she quickly looked around to see if anything else was out place. It all seemed as it should be until she glanced down at the floor. She did not realise how close she had been standing to her grandfather and could see that the right wheel of his motorized wheelchair was on top of her left foot, yet she felt no pressure from it whatsoever. She took a step back and saw her foot pass through the components of the wheel as if it were made of nothing but air.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
Her head was beginning to spin, but not from dizziness. It was like an invisible force had its hands on her cheeks and was shaking her. As she moved further away, she glanced down at her arms and saw that they were scratched and dirty.
‘What’s happening to me?’
She fell back and landed hard on the floor, drawing her awareness to yet more bruises, running across her behind and down the back of her legs.
Emmy, stay calm. You have to get back in the machine. Everything is going to
be okay.
The voice was her grandfather’s, but rather than issuing forth from his mouth, it had originated inside her own head. As the pain in her body increased, random images began to appear in her mind. The images were not pleasant and they contained death. She saw the bodies of Bradley, Mike, Sammy and finally that of her grandfather.
‘You’re dead,’ she told him. ‘I remember now. You died, but then you came back. Lucas; you killed Lucas.’
Realising what danger she was in, she scrambled to her feet and made a break for the door. He had hold of her before she was even half way. Knowing that it was pointless to struggle, she offered little resistance. The body of the old and crippled man that her grandfather was had been replaced by that which formerly belonged to Lucas. The spirit lurking behind the eyes was unquestionably that of her grandfather, though.
‘Why?’ she asked.
‘I’m dying,’ he told her. ‘As it was with Mike, this body is rejecting me. I can sustain it for brief periods by stealing the energy of others, but it is only a temporary measure. The body knows when the spirit does not belong.’
‘Those images that I saw - the things that were not real. How did you do that?’
‘There are a great many things I am able to do that I myself never thought possible before today. Allow me to demonstrate.’
He released her from his grip and took a step backwards. She had no interest in witnessing more of his parlour tricks and made another break for the door. As soon as she turned, she saw him again. Except, this time he was standing the other side of her, blocking the way ahead.
‘How did you do that?’
He shrugged.
‘I’m not sure myself. The first time was a fluke; a reflex action to get me away from your bastard father. It almost killed me, but my survival instincts are stronger than most. Just seconds from dying, I found that I could absorb the energy from other living creatures. I used this power to emancipate the town from its military occupation. I have fed on the spirits of a hundred men, but still it is not enough.’
Emmy had no love for the soldiers or even the residents of Jackson’s Hill, but she could never condone murder.
‘Did you leave any alive?’
‘There are always some that get away. Surely you cannot judge me after what you did to the town. They are all nothing but vegetables strapped to hospital beds. That sort of a life is worse than death – believe me, I know.’
‘So you did not harm them?’
‘It matters little. Like I said, their lives have become worthless.’
She forced herself to ask the question that she most feared the answer to.
‘What about Charlie?’
‘Charlie is just fine. In fact, he is better than fine. I took him home. He’s with his family now.’
‘Melbourne?’
Fox laughed.
‘Hong Kong. Teleportation is not easy and with a passenger too - that little trip took a lot out of me. Which is why we need to work quickly.
‘You’re crazy.’
‘Maybe, but is it not better to be crazy than nothing at all?’
‘You don’t have to be either. Don’t you see what we have found here? Death is not the end. You do not have to be afraid of letting go.’
‘To do what?’ he bit back. ‘Spend an eternity floating in the void of space? I have spent the last twenty years of my life in a useless body, with only my thoughts to sustain me. Do you really expect me to view spending eternity as a disembodied conscience a reward for my suffering?’
‘Neither of us knows what is out there. On my travels, I have seen people cross over. They do not go alone. Spirits come for them and take them to the other side. Once they get there, anything could happen. You just have to take the chance.’
‘Don’t play me for a fool. Anyway, if what you say is true – why did nobody come for me? Can’t you see? I have to stay here. This town needs me.’
For a second, Emmy could see not her grandfather, but Lucas talking. The policeman had gone, but his memories remained, inscribed forever in the archives of his mind.
‘You are not thinking straight,’ she told him. ‘Your mind and body are not melded. Being in that body is inducing a state of psychosis. You have to give it up.’
‘I intend to,’ he replied. ‘Like I already told you; it is rejecting me. My spirit can only stay tethered to this world if it is bound to its own flesh and blood.’
Emmy saw only cold determination in his eyes.
‘In that case, there is no way for you to return. Your body is long beyond habitation. Besides, even if you could go back, you would still be confined to a wheelchair.’
‘That is not what I had in mind. I will say it again; I need only my own flesh and blood to make the transition permanent.’
Emmy looked at her bruised and cut arms. They were smeared with blood. They were smeared with the blood composed of DNA passed down from her parents and her parents’ parents before them. It was the same blood that had once flowed through the veins of Jackson Fox.
‘You manipulated my thoughts,’ she said. ‘You put images in my mind to make me climb into the matchbox so that you could steal my body.’
‘This time, I will just have to use plain old brute force.’
Before she could attempt to run, her grandfather had second guessed her. In an instant, his position changed from standing by the doorway, to being directly upon her. He had teleported again.
He dragged her by her hair across the cold floor of the laboratory and towards the machine. When he got there, he lifted her up and threw her down onto the slab.
‘Please,’ she said, but was unable to find the strength for any more words.
‘The more you resist, the more painful this will be. Just follow your own advice, Emmy, and let go.’
‘Nooo!’ she screamed.
Using every iota of energy at her disposal, she hit him hard across his face and jumped down from the slab. He grabbed onto her shoulder and began pulling her back, but stopped when an explosion echoed out from elsewhere in the compound. The blast was followed by a loud rumbling making its way along the corridor towards the laboratory. They both looked to the door; she with hope and he with anger.
The khaki fatigues that she was expecting did not emerge. Instead, she saw only fur burst forth from the door. It was a mob of kangaroos. Probably the same ones that Lucas had wanted her to see. Was Mother Nature fighting back?
Instinct had brought these animals to the lab and at once they focussed their aggression on the professor. She half expected him to use his pseudo magic on them, but he did not. His showing off in front of her by teleporting had weakened him. If he attempted such a feat again, it would probably kill him. He had to fight them off the old fashioned way.
When he disabled Lucas in order to steal the policeman’s body, he acquired a belt bearing an empty pistol holder and nightstick. As the first of the beasts lurched towards him, he grabbed the nightstick and brought it crashing against the animals face, sending it careening into a wall.
Two animals remained. One was holding back, reluctant to make a move, whilst the other leapt at Fox. This one had learned from its predecessor and instinctively twisted its body, managing to come down on top of the professor, but he was not beaten yet. He rolled away before it could strike him again. He then turned around and using the nightstick, he pinned the animal to the floor by its neck. He could have killed it, but instead he placed his hand over its face. He was going to drain its life force to make himself stronger.
Emmy could not allow this to happen. If her grandfather replenished his energy, he would become unstoppable and she would be doomed. She grabbed hold of a small fire extinguisher and ran towards him, prepared to deliver a fatal blow if needed. He saw her coming and instinctively pushed his hand out to stop her. As his palm was thrust onto her chest she felt a sudden shock, like electricity searing through her body. The energy that he pulled out of the animal was transferred to her, but it did not make her
stronger. She was not an undead psychopath driven crazy by radiation – she was simply human. The energy overwhelmed her and she staggered backwards then fell to the floor.
Fox continued to take what was left of the animal’s life force for himself and then finished it off with a blow to its head. Emmy stood up, but as she did so the room shifted to a completely different perspective. All of the colours disappeared and it felt like somebody had turned on a dozen lights in the dark.
It was an astral view.
Her physical body lay at her feet, glowing dimmer than the other beings in the room. There was no cord connecting it to her spirit.
She was dead.
Without a connection to the flesh, she no longer felt such heightened emotions. More concentrations of energy appeared around her. Like her, these were not part of the material world. The formless shapes soon remoulded themselves into something more recognisable. It was Davo, Sammy and Lucas. They had come for her.
Fox had not yet noticed what he had done. He still had one more animal to deal with and this one was keeping its distance, reluctant to engage him. Free from the clutter of the living mind, Emmy knew immediately what she had to do. The other spirits would have to wait.
She willed her being towards her grandfather and as soon as she felt her energy intermingle with his, she pushed them both forwards and then upwards, tearing him from the physical flesh and carrying his life force into the far reaches of outer space.
‘What are you doing?’
She ignored his question and began to concentrate on opening up the portal that she had seen that time in the field with Lucy’s dead father. They were a long way from the reaches of the radiation and she soon felt the irresistible pull from before.
‘I’m sending you where you belong.’
She could feel that the opening was close and that they would soon pass through it. After all of the violence and all of the pain, she was about to find peace.
Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 34