Diamond Sky Trilogy Box Set: Books 1-3

by David Clarkson

  The music continued to throw treacle onto his thoughts. He was losing clarity and soon he would be nothing – returned to the useless shell that had imprisoned him during the latter years of his life. His new found power would be denied him. It would be lost.

  The music.

  He had to stop the music.

  He placed his fingers in his ears but to what purpose? The longer that idiot Lucas had him in his power, the sooner he would eventually succumb. He could not protect himself this way. His only option was to attack.

  But he was just a crippled old man.

  No! – He was so much more than that. He was anything that he wanted to be. His body was merely an outward projection of his own consciousness. It’s only limitations were the limitations of his mind. He was smarter than Lucas. If he was smarter than Lucas, it followed that he was also stronger than Lucas.

  Each time he could think of what he had to do, the music tore the thought from out of his grasp. It was nullifying his natural advantage. He had to free himself from that confounded song.

  The mechanism of his torture was out of reach, as was its architect. The only control he had was that which he commanded over his own senses.

  That was it.

  Lucas was attacking Fox’s senses. He was using the professor’s hearing to administer the torture. All Fox needed to do was to deny his foe that option. If he cut off his own ears, then the policeman’s music would no longer be able to dig its way into his subconscious. He clamped his fingers down onto his ears, then looking directly at Lucas, Fox tore them from the sides of his face.

  The artificial dreamscape they inhabited recreated everything as it would be on Earth. The wounds Fox inflicted on himself mirrored exactly how they would have reacted in a real life situation. He felt the warm flow of blood as it gushed over his shoulders and down his back.

  Pain, however, was optional. He had no need for it.

  Seeing that the tide was turning, Lucas reached for his gun.

  Another mistake!

  The policeman had no gun. It, just like everything else, was nothing but a well crafted illusion. Fox ignored the bullets, letting them pass through his body like he was not there, which effectively he was not. He then swept out his arm, turning the speakers to ash. These had been nothing but more figments of the imagination.

  ‘You almost had me,’ he told Lucas, regenerating both the missing appendages and his youthful body as he spoke. ‘For a moment there, I got distracted. But that’s all you really are, isn’t it? A distraction. The real prize is still waiting for me.’

  ‘She’ll beat you,’ said Lucas, throwing down his useless weapon. ‘She’s done it before.’

  Fox laughed.

  ‘Is that what you think? Take a look around. Try to imagine the infinite wonders that lie beyond the invisible walls of this prison. Emmy has given me the keys to the universe. When I see her next, she will help me to use them. Tell me, Lucas, what has Emmy ever given you?’

  ‘She has given me hope.’

  In an instant, Fox shifted to within just inches of his foe. He punched through Lucas’ chest and wrapped his fist around the policeman’s heart.

  ‘Then hope is what I shall take from you.’

  Chapter 45

  ‘You’re back early,’ said Marie. ‘Is something wrong?’

  Charlie slid out of the projection pod and then went straight to check on Emmy’s vital signs. She was stable. This meant Fox was yet to get to her. They still had time.

  ‘We’re aborting the mission,’ he told the tech. ‘I have a new job for you and we have to act quickly.’

  ‘What about Dr Rayne?’

  ‘She’s taking care of things at her end. It’s up to us to make sure she succeeds.’ He moved to the main console and started entering complex code. ‘I’m diverting as much power as possible to Emmy’s pod. I need you to call engineering and get them to provide us with a direct hook-up between the active pod and the site’s primary generators.’

  The tech hesitated. She was alarmed by her superior’s behaviour. She had grown fond of him during their prior months of working together. This was the first time she had seen him behave with such single-mindedness. She feared for his safety.

  ‘The equipment isn’t designed for that amount of power,’ she warned him. ‘Are you deliberately trying to blow this place up?’

  Charlie thought back to when he tried to dissuade Emmy from overloading the generators at Jackson’s Hill. Sometimes it is necessary to ignore the voice of reason.

  ‘I have my sights set on a much bigger target, but if you’re scared this place will explode, then I suggest you give the call to start evacuating. It would be a pity if we lost all those we just rescued so soon.’

  ***

  ‘He’s coming,’ said Emmy. The panic in her voice then gave way to sombreness, ‘Lucas didn’t make it.’

  Jimmy did not question her. He knew she was using the tulpa as an advance scout. Making sure she remained one step ahead of her grandfather. It was and always had been her best defence.

  ‘I know a place where you can hide,’ he told her. ‘Take my hand.’

  At once they were transported from the mountain valleys of the Himalayas to the flat wasteland of the Australian outback. She recognised the rail crossing right away. A roadtrain was stalled, blocking the line, waiting for Esteban to clear the path.

  ‘How is this any better than where we were?’ she asked. ‘If anything, it’s more exposed. There are fewer places to hide.’

  ‘The train is coming,’ said Jimmy. ‘You need to be on it.’

  She allowed her mind to drift along the tracks until she came to the oncoming train. As her thoughts passed through the carriages she soon found the echo of her former self and merged with it, reliving those moments from the past.

  As the train made its way along the track, approaching the point where the crossing was, something was missing. Jimmy was no longer there. Neither was Esteban. She did not know how this could be possible and it raised a terrifying prospect – without Esteban, who was going to clear the track?

  ‘Emmy.’

  The voice was Lucy’s – the tulpa’s.

  Something was wrong. Emmy could still feel a connection with her secondary consciousness and it was far away, not on the train. The words were a part of the memory she was reliving. But how could that be? Neither Lucy nor the tulpa had been on the train.

  Relinquishing control and letting the oddly unfamiliar memory guide her, she got out of her seat and followed the tulpa down the carriage. When it reached one of the restrooms, it went inside. Emmy followed, and as soon as she was through the door, the tulpa grabbed hold of her, wrapping its arms tightly around her body.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ it said. ‘You’re going to be safe.’

  ‘Safe? Why wouldn’t I be..?’

  Her words were cut short as the train crashed headlong into the truck blocking the tracks, derailing and twisting it onto its side. As the carriages trailing behind jack-knifed, one was torn out of its coupling and corkscrewed wildly away from the tracks, pulverising the passengers inside like rats in a tumble dryer. Another was torn in two, spilling out body parts like sand from a fractured hour glass.

  When the carnage finally subsided, she was alone. The sole survivor.

  She climbed out of a shattered window and hoisted her body up onto the overturned carriage. As she surveyed the devastation around her, she realised where she was. In life, Jimmy had matured into a powerful psychic in the years after his escape from Jackson’s Hill. His visions had been one hundred percent accurate provided one condition – that Emmy was not involved in them.

  She had now found herself inside the echo of one of Jimmy’s failed visions. It was the after image of a parallel universe. A previously unrealised permutation of reality. It was the one place where her grandfather would never think to look for her. It was also a place that only she could go. Jimmy was now on his own.

  ***

  It was the
second time he had stolen from Lucas. The first time, he had taken the policeman’s body. This time, he had taken his soul. Fox had gained strength from the transaction. Even more than he had from the dozen zombified townspeople. He had also gained insight into what his enemies planned to do.

  His theories about what had created this afterlife were correct. He had never believed in God and always knew a more tangible intelligence was behind the prolonging of his existence. Such beauty, such brilliance could only be a product of science and science was what Jackson Fox did best. He knew precisely how to hack into the program that was powering this reality. His enemies had handed him the key on a platter; a pure uninfected spirit. Once he had Emmy, he would have true immortality.

  First, however, he had to deal with the rest of her pathetic protectors. The Johnson kid was a dimwit of the lowest order, but he was also held in high regard by Lucas. This made him a wildcard. At least finding him would not be difficult. All of the policeman’s innermost thoughts were now accessible at will. Fox only had to go to the first place that Lucas would have looked.

  Jimmy missed his mother. In his final weeks on Earth he had kept a vigil at her bedside in the hope that one day she would wake up and be free of the terrible radiation that had taken her from him. When he crossed over to the artificial dream world of the alien star, though they were reunited, he still felt like he was on the outside praying that one day she would wake up. This second chance at life was a cruel illusion, which denied him all hope of a future.

  Mrs Johnson was now fully conscious and being cared for in a secret research facility in South Australia. Her separation from her son was now permanent. Jimmy’s only connection to her was through the memories they had shared in life. His favourite recollection was from a time in his childhood when he had contracted a tummy bug, which kept him out of school for a week. His mother had never been more considerate and attentive to him as she had during those precious few days. So pampered and content was young Jimmy that he had forgotten all about his ailments.

  Fox entered the living room to find the boy watching television whilst his mother prepared dinner in the kitchen. She was just a recreation from the boy’s memory and would not be aware of the events that were about to take place in the next room. Screaming was not going to create a problem.

  ‘Where is she?’ asked Fox.

  Jimmy jerked his head, startled by the unexpected presence in the room.

  ‘Do you mean Mom?’ he replied. ‘She’s in the kitchen.’

  ‘Nice try, boy, but if you weren’t conscious to where you really are then you wouldn’t be able to see me. We cannot interact with memories, only consciousness.’

  Jimmy shook his head, a blank expression on his face.

  ‘Lucas is gone,’ Fox continued. ‘I’m not going to give you a choice in what follows next. I shall only warn you that if you resist, it will become a lot more painful – for you.’

  ‘MOM!’ screamed Jimmy, but she did not come.

  Fox lurched forward and grabbed hold of the boy. He placed a hand over Jimmy’s mouth, not to prevent his cries from attracting help as this was impossible, but because he simply did not wish to tolerate the shrill racket produced.

  ‘Painful it is,’ said Fox.

  With one hand still muffling the kid’s screams, he pushed the other hand through Jimmy’s back, searching for his centre, and wrapping his fingers around the heart when he found it. He could absorb all of Jimmy’s energy in a moment, but he hesitated. Something about the scene bothered him. The kid did not struggle as an adult would. There was no fight in him at all, just pure inexplicable terror.

  Fox threw the kid down onto the couch.

  ‘Who are you?’ the boy asked, calmly, as if he had only just become aware of Fox’s presence.

  ‘Where is she?’ Fox replied, deliberately repeating his earlier question.

  ‘Do you mean Mom?’ replied Jimmy. ‘She’s in the kitchen.’

  ‘This isn’t possible,’ said Fox, but he was already fearing the worst.

  ‘MOM!’ screamed Jimmy.

  As the boy cried in vain for help, Fox turned his attention to the television Jimmy had been watching. It was showing The Lion King. As the animated animals frolicked on screen, he listened to the song that played over the top of them – The Circle of Life.

  ‘You little shit,’ said Fox.

  This was nothing but one of Lucas’ hypnosis loops. It was the final solution to the monotony of eternal life. It erased all memories of what occurred following death and even much of life, placing the subject in a perpetual time circle, reliving the same period of their life for all eternity as if it were for the first time.

  Fox grabbed Jimmy and this time he did not hesitate in draining every last trace of the boy’s existence, absorbing it into his own. And as he had feared, the boy did not even know who Emmy Rayne was never mind where he had helped her to hide. If Fox was going to find his granddaughter, he would have to do it the hard way.

  ***

  Emmy knew that she was now alone. Although her connection to the tulpa was less pronounced in the world of Jimmy’s vision, she could still communicate with it. It told her of Jimmy’s demise at the hands of her grandfather. Her only consolation was that if her plan came to fruition, her two friends would be the last of his victims.

  The memory in which she was hiding did not progress much further than the train crash before looping back to the beginning. Only the portion of it that Jimmy had witnessed was recreated.

  There were more agreeable ways to pass the time than experiencing a train crash over and over again, but she did not want to expose her presence too early. She needed to give Charlie more time. Only when he was ready would she be able to make her move.

  Chapter 46

  ‘We’ll be ready in thirty minutes,’ said Marie.

  This was far from ideal. Charlie was acutely aware of the time dilation Emmy would be experiencing, where even given the slowdown effect of her cord, minutes could pass as hours. He had to hope that she was able to outfox the professor for this long. With little that he could do to speed things up, he left the lab and paid a visit to the infirmary. He wanted to know if the risk had been worth it.

  Most of the patients were sleeping. Despite the radiation induced visions no longer posing a problem, the mere fact of returning from a three year coma was sufficient to cause panic. Not a single one of them remembered anything leading up to the fall of the town or their experiences since. Those who were having the most trouble processing the facts had been given sedatives. If not for the added colour in their cheeks they would have looked no different to how they had before the rescue.

  He walked among the rows of beds and exchanged the occasional words of encouragement with the more lucid patients. Some thanked him despite not being entirely sure what they were thanking him for. Others enquired about the friends and loved ones who had not made it. When he exited onto the corridor he came across a woman waiting in a chair. Although he had not known her in life, he had become familiar with her identity as a patient.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Johnson. I hope you’re adjusting well to your new surroundings. If you need anything at all, you only have to ask.’

  She looked up at him and he could tell instantly that she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy from the cruel sting of grief.

  ‘My son isn’t here,’ she said. ‘I’ve asked the doctors and the nurses, but nobody will tell me where he is. I’m worried something terrible has happened.’

  Charlie took a seat next to the woman. He could see the sorrow in her eyes and knew that he was partly responsible for this.

  ‘Jimmy did not make it,’ he said, making sure to keep his tone as calm and reassuring as he could. ‘He gave his life helping others. If not for your son none of the people in that hospital ward would be alive today. You should be very proud.’

  She did not answer. The despair of losing her only child was too much to take in. Charlie remained with her, offering silent
comfort, for another ten minutes before returning to the lab. When he arrived the equipment was almost ready. They were just five minutes away from providing Emmy with the boost she needed to send the star into supernova and destroy Fox once and for all.

  ‘I’ll send a signal,’ he told Marie. ‘Let her know it’s coming. Give her one last chance to pull out.’

  The tech was trembling. Charlie placed one of his arms around her.

  ‘Everything is going to work out,’ he told her. ‘Emmy will come good. She always does.’

  ‘It’s not Dr Rayne that I’m worried about,’ replied Marie. ‘I’m frightened of losing you, Charlie. What if she fails – are you going to sacrifice yourself too?’

  Charlie pulled her closer to him.

  ‘It won’t come to that – I promise. I’ve got too much here to live for.’

  They looked into one another’s eyes, but said no more. That could wait until later.

  ***

  Emmy felt the jolt surge through her ethereal form, sending out shockwaves like tiny daggers of electricity. She recognised this as the five minute warning. Five minutes for Charlie, perhaps a little longer for her depending on the rate of dilation. It was time for her to act.

  Finding him was easy. Navigating the dream world from the outside was a lot simpler than it was for those within. She needed only to find an instance of her grandfather in her memory and she could trace it all the way to his active consciousness. She came across him searching for her in the archives of her Alex Rose, schoolteacher on the run, days.

  ‘Hello, Pops.’

  ‘I believe the last time we met I asked you to address me as sir.’

  She looked him up and down, memorising every contour of his being, carefully weighing up her foe. His youthful appearance had served to intimidate his earlier victims, but Emmy welcomed it. It provided her with an emotional and an intellectual detachment. This was not the grandfather she had known and once loved. He was now a stranger to her. Nothing more than another faceless monster to be slain.