***
‘You saved my life,’ said Esteban.
‘We saved each other,’ replied Emmy. ‘It’s just a shame we couldn’t do the same for Jack and Jimmy.’
Esteban’s head dropped. He did not take failure well and to lose not one but two comrades was a particular blow.
‘Jimmy will find a way out and when he does I’ll make sure I’m there for him. This mission is not over yet and this time we will have the advantage. They won’t be able to trap us again.’
‘You think that was a trap?’
‘Of course, they knew we were coming,’ replied Esteban. ‘In fact, they lured us in. They knew that by shutting down our astral capability it would result in a manned retaliation. The whole thing was a set up to get hold of you.’
‘But they got Jimmy instead,’ said Emmy. ‘What will they do to him?’
‘That depends if they can figure out what he is. Knowing Jimmy, this shouldn’t take them long. The kid has no concept of deception.’
Emmy did not want to think about what kind of experiments a hostile force could subject Jimmy too. She did know, however, that human experimentation was not Charlie’s style. Neither was the attack at the base. Using an energy burst to block astral travellers was one thing, but using the technology to kill went against everything she and her former partner stood for.
‘Something isn’t right,’ she told Esteban. ‘Charlie would never have gone along with that attack on us. We have to allow for the possibility that he’s no longer overseeing the Chinese astral program. The question we need to ask ourselves is as to who will have replaced him.’
‘My guess is the military. Didn’t the same thing happen to your original project?’
‘It would have done had I not shut it down. Which, we absolutely must make sure to do again. This technology cannot become weaponised.’
‘I agree, but you have seen their defences. It would take a sizable force to get past those astral guards. Your EMP stunt caught them by surprise, but next time they’ll be expecting it.’
‘I know, but I already have another plan. It’s a long shot, but one of the monks here has offered to teach me meditation. I may be able to achieve an astral separation without technological help. That’s something our enemy will never expect.’
‘Maybe, but I fail to see how it will help us. The last time we approached that base as astral travellers they repelled us before we even knew what was happening.’
‘This time it’ll be different.’
She went on to tell him about the legends of the tulpa. He did not share in her optimism, but what other option did they have? Reluctantly, he agreed to give her plan a try.
***
Monitoring stations were set up at several locations. A military hospital, a civilian hospice and even a cemetery were all marked out as possible places for an interaction. Not having astral capability was a drawback, but it did not prevent the recording of observations. Dr Stark was hopeful and Colonel Rodman was sceptical, but both of them had an equal stake riding on the outcome.
The first night passed without incident. There were fluctuations in the energy signatures of those under surveillance, but no out of body experiences. No deaths. It was day two of the experiment that brought with it the most promising data. The patient was named Ethel Barlow. She was eighty six years old and suffering from chronic liver disease. The doctors had given her three months. She lasted five.
At the moment of her passing, a small energy signature was recorded emanating from her body. Not long after, a second, slightly weaker energy materialised several feet above her body. At the moment the two energies met, they vanished completely as if they had annihilated one another. It was the exact same outcome as the ill fated experiment in the base, but with one major difference. This time it had been expected.
The scenario was soon repeated when a second resident of the hospice followed Mrs Barlow. This time cancer was the cause. In both instances it took less than ten seconds for all evidence of either energy to vanish without trace. There was now a clear link between death and the appearance of the mysterious ‘alien’ energy signatures. The problem was in how this connection was interpreted.
‘Angels?’ asked Colonel Rodman. ‘You’re serious telling me that this is the best you can come up with? Angels.’
He threw Dr Stark’s report down onto his desk. After thirty years in the military the colonel had managed to hold onto his Christian beliefs. He had lost too many good men in the line of duty and he had to believe that their sacrifice would not be the end. That there was a higher purpose beyond the boundary of this life. Yet, when faced with the prospect of confronting the literal connotations of those beliefs, he found his faith beginning to waver.
‘We can change the name if it makes you uncomfortable,’ the scientist told him. ‘The semantics of it aren’t important. All that matters is finding out where those spirits are going to.’
‘Spirits? Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves here?’
‘Again, that is merely semantics. We can call it life-energy if you want.’
‘I think we’ll stick with unclassified energy source for now.’
‘Okay, all that matters is finding out where these unclassified energy sources are going. Imagine if we could trace them or even follow them.’
‘We don’t know that they went anywhere. All of the data shows that when the energies meet, they annihilate one another.’
‘That’s not possible, Colonel. It goes against the First Law of Thermodynamics. Energy cannot be destroyed and it did not change form – there were no fluctuations in light or temperature. It had to have simply moved. We think that when the energies converge it opens up a wormhole, which then collapses in on itself. Once they pass through, the passageway is sealed off, so to speak.’
The colonel suspected that he knew where the scientist was leading with this. Given the disastrous end to the original astral program at Jackson’s Hill, it was a path he was reluctant to take.
‘You want to try and force open the door, don’t you?’ the colonel said.
‘Is that so bad?’ replied the scientist. ‘Think of the possibilities.’
‘I am all too aware of the possibilities,’ replied the colonel. ‘That is what frightens me. Doors swing both ways. Until we know what we are dealing with, I cannot risk exposing us in any way. Who knows what could come through? What if Jackson Fox was to return?’
‘I understand, Colonel, but we have to consider...’
‘No buts,’ interrupted the colonel. ‘Your orders remain unchanged. You are to monitor only, until further notice. We are still awaiting contact with the team in Tibet. Right now, the Chinese are a much more pressing concern.’
***
Esteban had recovered sufficiently enough to leave his bed. He was still sceptical of Emmy’s plan, but that did not deter him from going along with it. He even offered to act as a guinea pig. If Emmy was to achieve an astral separation, she would attempt to interact with his physical energy in order to prove her success.
In the projection chamber she could fall into a trance-like state in just seconds. Without the aid of technology it took her a little longer. She did not, however, feel the familiar rush of separation. Instead, she felt as if the world had been put on pause. Her physical senses deserted her. Sound, temperature, smell – she detected none. She was aware only of herself.
She reached out, trying to feel the room with her mind, but there was nothing. Only stillness. She concentrated more intensely, but no matter how hard she tried, no dormant sense was activated. Being the person she was meant that she would not give up easily. She continued to recite an inner mantra in the hope it would take her to where she longed to be.
Chapter 31
Charlie had taken up yoga and meditation at the same time he began working with Emmy in Jackson’s Hill. Having been born and raised in the city of Melbourne, he had never been able to fully embrace country living. It was too slow, too mundane to excite h
is curiosity. Rather than mix and socialise with the inhabitants of his new home, he had spent most of his time in solitude, which had given him the time and the space to hone his skills.
Since his imprisonment he had been meditating more and more. The general had provided him with nothing to distract him. He had no books, no music and no visitors. All he had was the comfort of his imagination. Not that his imagination had been taking him very far of late. With his freedom taken away, he preferred to escape his thoughts rather than indulge them.
‘That won’t work,’ said the girl who should not have been there.
Charlie opened his eyes, breaking away from his trance. She looked exactly the same as she had done on their previous encounter. In fact, she looked exactly the same as she had done on their first ever meeting. Her face had not aged one bit. Her trim figure had gained not one ounce of weight. It was as if she had time travelled from three years earlier to be there with him in that cell.
‘It was working just fine until you got here,’ he told her. ‘I was in a state of perfect harmony before you interrupted me.’
In the time since her last visit he had thought a lot about how she was able to come to him like this. His first thought had been that it was a trick orchestrated by General Tao. He soon ruled this possibility out, however. The general was not clever enough to pull off so convincing an illusion and more importantly, he did not know of Lucy.
‘Don’t you want me here?’ she asked.
‘Well, that depends on what you can do for me,’ he replied. ‘The last time you came you said you’d be able to get me out. Can you still do that?’
She twisted her face.
‘Are you serious? I thought you were joking. I mean, why’d you need me to help you leave here? Surely you can come and go at any time.’
She seemed sincere. Her eyes were difficult to read as if she was not quite in the moment, but in a distant faraway place, which if his theory was correct – she was. There was only one way he could be sure.
‘How did we meet?’ he asked.
‘My car broke down, stranding me in Jackson’s Hill. I was forced to stay at the observatory after witnessing a murder. You were there with Emmy. Emmy loves me.’
‘I’m sure she does. How much do you remember about me?’
‘Not much, we hardly knew each other.’
‘Let’s put that to the test, shall we. How old am I?’
‘Thirty three.’
‘What is my mother’s name?’
‘Cyndi; she spells it funny – like the singer.’
‘How old was I when I lost my virginity?’
‘Nineteen. It was with your cousin. She took pity on you for going your entire freshman year at uni without getting laid.’
‘She is not my cousin. Her mother married my uncle so we aren’t blood relations. Anyway, that is beside the point. What matters is that I only told that story to one person. How did you find out about it?’
She shrugged. Now he was getting somewhere. It was time to alter his line of questioning.
‘How did you get into my cell?’ he asked.
This time she rolled her eyes to show her amusement at the absurdity of his question.
‘I came in through the door, silly. How else would I be here?’
He glanced over her shoulder. The cell door was firmly closed, and, he assumed, securely locked. It was his guess that she had simply materialised just before interrupting his trance.
‘Can you show me?’ he asked.
‘Sure, but I don’t see what the big deal is.’
The door was fixed to a sliding hinge and bolted from the outside. The lock could not be operated from within the cell. Lucy gripped the handle and pulled. Nothing happened. She looked back at Charlie with no attempt to mask her frustration.
‘It sometimes does that,’ he told her. ‘The hinge is a little stiff. You need to give it a sharp tug. Try pulling on it as hard as you can.’
This time the door did move. Lucy looked to have made very little effort, but she managed to rip the lock from its mooring. In doing so, she also tripped an alarm.
Charlie did not plan on still being there when the guards arrived. He grabbed Lucy by the hand in order to pull her along the corridor, but as soon as they touched he recoiled and withdrew his hand. Her skin did not feel right. It was neither warm nor cold, neither rough nor smooth. It was like nothing he had felt before.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, suspicion drawing a line across her brow.
Having witnessed what light work she had made of the door, he did not wish to risk angering her.
‘Everything’s fine,’ he assured her. ‘Follow me. We have to get out of here.’
Charlie had never been to the detention level before, but he knew the layout regardless. He had never fully trusted the general and had hacked into the blueprints for the facility shortly after he started working there just in case such an eventuality should ever arise. There was a service elevator at one end of the corridor, but first he had to get past a manned booth. With the alarm already sounding, the guard would be expecting him. They would not, however, be expecting Lucy.
‘Stop!’
The guard had a rifle and he levelled his sight directly at Charlie’s heart. The scientist froze. It was not the first time he had a gun pointed at him, but it was not for himself that he feared. Back in Jackson’s Hill he had seen how ineffective guns were against certain forces and he wondered if the entity standing at his side could possess the same devastating power that his former mentor had.
‘Why does he have a gun?’ Lucy asked. ‘We mean him no harm.’
The guard switched his gun to the girl and then back to Charlie. He was growing agitated. To make matters worse, a security camera mounted in the recess between the wall and the ceiling whirred into life. It tracked the prisoner’s movements. Charlie knew the girl’s presence would raise questions and the general was unlikely to wait for the answers.
Sure enough, just seconds after the camera had come into action the guard placed a hand to his ear as instructions were given over his earpiece.
‘Don’t listen to them,’ Charlie said. ‘The general is out of control. He is no longer following directives. You have to let us pass.’
‘Who is she?’ the guard responded, speaking English for the benefit of his prisoners.
‘She?’ said Lucy, contempt dripping from her tongue. ‘I have a name.’
Charlie recognised the tone in her voice all too well and it did not belong to the girl whose car had broken down, forcing her to take a detour in Jackson’s Hill all those years ago. The last time he had heard that tone it had resulted in the local pub almost being destroyed in a fire and an entire town going without power for a day.
‘Emmy, relax – I have this under control,’ he told her.
‘Emmy? EMMY?’ the anger in the woman’s voice rising.
In the background, Charlie heard further orders come through the guard’s earpiece. He had blown it. The camera was recording sound as well as images. He did not have to think too hard to guess what the guard’s new orders would be.
‘Hold your fire, please!’ he shouted, but the guard was not listening.
The rifle was semi-automatic and the shots were released in one short burst. Charlie immediately dropped down to the floor and covered his ears. He was trying to shield himself from the sound of the bullets, but the action proved to be most fortuitous. The girl’s response to the attack was immediate. Her screams made the overhead lighting flicker before sending what appeared to be some sort of mini sonic boom into the path of the guard.
The impact caught the guard square in his chest, lifting him off his feet and carrying him backwards until he impacted against the door of the sentry booth. He made no attempt to get back to his feet afterwards. It did not take long for Charlie’s humanitarian instincts to take over. The scientist could not stand aside whilst another person suffered. If he was able to help in any way, he would.
He b
riefly forgot about Lucy or at least he forgot about the thing that had taken on Lucy’s form. The guard was unconscious. It only took him a few seconds to find a pulse and he was confident that the guard would recover in due course. There was not enough time to wait around and make sure though. The controls to the lift were in the sentry booth and he quickly got to work trying to undo the lockdown brought about by the sounding of the alarm.
All of the pass codes throughout the base were changed at regular intervals, but he was able to crack the encryption with ease. He and Emmy used to set each other code breaking tasks to while away the time back when they were lab partners. She was always the best at it, but he picked up a lot in the process. There was, however, a problem with this particular encryption. It was in two stages. He had overridden the first, but the second could only be accessed from a second terminal at the top of the lift shaft.
‘There’s a problem,’ he said. ‘I may not be able to get us out. Is there anything you can do that I can’t?’
Silence.
He looked up and the corridor was empty save for the unconscious guard. Just as spontaneously as she had arrived, she had now vanished, taking with her his last chance to get out of there.
Or had she?
The light above the door to the lift changed from red to green and the door rolled open to reveal a waiting elevator. Another light blinked on the console. It was for the internal intercom system. He flicked the switch.
‘Get in,’ the voice said. ‘I’ve taken care of things up here.'
He did as instructed. Within moments the door reopened onto the main compound. She was waiting for him with two more unconscious guards at her feet.
‘They were bad people, right?’ she asked.
Her doubt made him nervous. It suggested her moral compass was not correctly polarised. She was unpredictable and therefore extremely dangerous. They were still a long way from freedom.
‘They were simply doing their job,’ he told her. ‘Any threat they may pose is relative to that which we pose to them. I’d prefer it if you didn’t harm them.’
Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 53