by Brandt Legg
Back at Booker’s lake house we healed our ears and Amparo made a full recovery. Losing Baca was hard on me, but my thoughts were stolen by something much worse than death. Clastier and the Jadeo were now in the hands of Dunaway, which meant that Omnia might no longer be our biggest problem.
28
In the confusion of getting everyone healed and settled, it was several hours before I realized Linh was gone. Once I found her on the astral, she refused to talk to me.
Spencer and I sat on the deck watching the clouds over Klamath Lake. We’d been searching the astral for Clastier ever since we returned but both he and Dunaway had vanished.
“What is all of this for?” I asked in despair. “I mean, in the end, will any of it matter?”
“Haven’t you seen enough to answer that yourself?”
“That’s not what I mean. Enlightenment, the shift, awakening – whatever you call it – surely it’ll still come whether Omnia kills me or not.”
“Perhaps, but when?”
“With all the other dimensions, changes through Outviews, the parallels, I’m not sure what’s really happening half the time.”
“Nate, don’t you see? It’s all happening.”
“Even with all I’ve learned, I have a tough time understanding. How are we ever going to convey it to the masses?”
“That’s what the Movement is for,” he said, life sparkling in his turquoise eyes.
“What if the Movement fails?”
“What if it succeeds?”
“More than two years in and I still don’t know exactly what the Movement wants,” I said. “So tell me, what does the world look like if we win?”
“Let me ask you something first. Do you like the way things look now? The way we’re heading?”
“Of course not,” I said. “But that’s not enough. Revolutions always start with someone pointing out what’s wrong with the status quo. And too often the post-revolution world isn’t much better, sometimes even worse.”
“This is no ordinary revolution. This change cannot be reversed. Once awakened, a soul cannot deny what it knows. I’ve seen many people discover their soul, touch just a hint of its power, and become terrified.”
“I understand that.”
“Yes, you do, and you know what it almost did to you, what it did to Dustin? Most people cannot handle what it is to know their soul. It changes everything they’ve ever believed about the world. It’s a massive cover-up and we’re all complicit.”
“Yeah, but no one set out to disconnect us all.”
“Just because there is no one to blame doesn’t mean something didn’t go wrong.”
“We were talking about the Movement.”
“When people see a glimpse of their soul and then try to go back to being ‘normal,’ their life becomes more difficult. The soul, once awakened, cannot be denied.”
“So you’re saying that just showing people what is possible will –”
“The numbers will expand exponentially . . . then, the world will move closer to what it should be. There will no longer be crime or war. Hunger and poverty will vanish. Greed and corruption will fall away. It will be the end of division and hatred. Put simply, it will be the beginning of unity and love.”
“Can we get there?”
“We must.”
“It seems so far away.”
“But that’s the wonder and beauty of it . . . the future we are speaking of is right here, all around us, easily within our grasp. You have seen it because it is here. All we need to do is open our eyes.”
“So the Movement, the revolution, is about opening our eyes to our souls. That sounds simple but how does that get rid of Omnia and all the failed ways of the past?”
“It is simple because hatred and fear cannot exist where there is only love.”
We continued to sit, in silence, while I pondered his words, until Spencer excused himself. He was communicating with someone on the astral and although he could do this with many people at once, occasionally he required privacy. His secrets bothered me but not as much as they once had. It was often difficult; I trusted him.
I found Aunt Rose in the kitchen “sneaking” a piece of squash pie with almond topping. It was sweet enough to have been served in my parents’ dessert-famous restaurant without anyone missing the sugar. Could it have been almost seven years since Mom, Dad, Dustin and I all ate at the Station together? I missed them all . . . I missed my childhood.
“Well, you and pie in the same room is almost too much sweetness to bear,” Rose smiled as she swallowed a bite.
“Linh’s gone.”
“I know. What are you still doing here?”
“You mean I should go after her?”
“That’s why she left, so you’d chase her.”
“Seems like a game.”
“It’s not a game, Nate. She’s hurt.”
“She doesn’t understand.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. “And you do?”
“I’m just trying to keep her alive.”
“Nate, there’s a whole Movement that’s trying to keep you alive. You don’t always like it, do you?”
“That’s different.”
This time she raised both eyebrows. “Yes, I’m sure you think it is.”
I scowled.
“She’s with the Old Man.”
“I know.”
“Then what are you waiting for? Go bring her back. We don’t need any more distractions.”
Linh and the Old Man were in a hidden valley high in the mountains surrounding Crater Lake. They were carefully planting seeds from a large bag slung over their shoulders. The Old Man saw me as I came down from my Skyclimb but Linh didn’t. I watched for a while. The wind played with her long dark hair. Her face had a lovely concentrated look as she tilled the soft earth, then delicate fingers dropped seeds, covered them and lightly patted the dirt. When she glanced my way, I waved, but was ignored.
“What are you planting?” I asked.
“Trying to save the food supply,” the Old Man blasted. “Gonna take a long time before all seven billion people on this planet are breatharians. In the meantime, they’re gonna need food. Course some crazy corporations are trying to screw that up,” he ranted. “The arrogance of man astounds me. Why some folks think they know more about nature than nature knows about nature . . . these same jumbleheads stare into the night sky, behold billions of stars, know there are trillions more they can’t see, but they proclaim we’re all alone in the universe. Aren’t we just so damn lucky to have been born on the only place in all of existence that supports human life? Bah!”
“Omnia knows that whoever controls the food supply controls the people,” I said.
“These are original seeds, sown by the ancestors.” The Old Man held some out, as if he was showing me nuggets of gold. “They’ve been maintained and passed down. My people and other indigenous cultures are guarding them and planting them in protected areas around the planet. But Omnia . . .”
“I’m going to stop them.”
“It needs to be soon. The bees are disappearing; the GMO-corrupted seeds are cross-pollinating and contaminating the pure ones. They don’t know what their meddling will do. And it’ll be too late before they figure it out.”
“It’s on my list.”
“Big list. I believe in you, boy, you’ve come a long way. Now, see that you don’t forget about the girl . . . she’s important, too.” He winked at me.
Linh and I walked among the old trees. As always, they calmed me. “Linh, I’m sorry.”
“I’m glad you made it back.”
“We didn’t all make it.”
“I know. I saw.”
“What else do you see?”
She stared away. When she looked back her eyes were filled with tears. “I need to be able to believe what you say, Nate. All the time.”
“Linh, we rescued them. It had to be done that way.”
“Just because you know many things doesn’t
mean you know everything. I know things, too. You’re not alone in this.”
“It’s all so crazy, I feel like the whole world depends on me, and the future is –”
“I’ve seen things about the future . . . awful things.”
“Tell me.”
“No.” She recoiled. “There are some things about a person’s future they shouldn’t know.”
“About my death? I’m not afraid to die, Linh, you should know that. I’ve been through so many.”
“Not you.”
“What then? Yours . . . Amber’s?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Listen, Linh. You know the future is not set. Whatever you have seen can change. It might not even have been from this dimension.”
She was quiet for a minute and then changed the subject. “Do you miss your parents? Kyle?”
“Of course I do. Wandus tells me that missing someone is selfish. He says we must be grateful for each moment we share with someone and that once it has ended, we should only be filled with the joy of what it was.”
“Then I’m selfish because I miss Kyle so much.”
“But Kyle, my mom and dad, all still live in Outviews and other dimensions. And their souls never die.”
“So why did you cry over Baca and Crowd?”
“Because knowing and doing are two very different things and I’m still learning.”
She nodded.
“Come back with me, Linh. Please.”
“Do you promise not to shut me out anymore?”
“I promise.”
29
“Kirby, Amparo, Wandus, Rose, you and me . . . there are too many of us here in one place,” Spencer said. “Kirby, Amparo and Wandus will leave this morning.”
“To where?” I asked.
“Do you really want to know?”
I shook my head.
“Omnia is furious over our victory,” Spencer said. “But of course, the public doesn’t have a clue we freed the mystics. We need new recordings of you.”
“What good will they do? Omnia controls the media and has the Internet locked down. It’s been almost a year and a half since we managed to get our message out to a wide audience.”
“There is a way to project them in the sky. Similar to what we used to record the Storch meeting.”
“Incredible, and they can’t stop us?” I asked.
“There’s always a counter to everything, but it will likely take them a long time to figure it out.”
“The Storch meeting was a high-level government official trying to recruit me and his sweet quote about people being expendable was even more helpful to us than his admitting to Lightyear’s crimes. We need another scandalous scene like that. Let’s not waste the impact of broadcasting in the sky on some new-age talk. Let’s find Omnia’s leader and get some dirt.”
“One step at a time,” Spencer began, “If we track him down, there’d be many options. In the meantime, let’s concentrate on getting the Air-Projection set up first. To do that you’ll need to go back to Outin.”
“Are you serious?” I asked.
“Dustin is the only one who can teach you Air-Projection.”
“You don’t know how?” I looked at him puzzled.
“I’ve only just learned it’s possible. It’s not a technology that comes with a manual. This is an advanced energy technique that requires using forms from all five great soul powers.”
“But Dustin? Hard to believe he’s more advanced than you.”
“We each have our strengths,” Spencer said.
“Okay. I want to talk to Dustin anyway. Since he was also Storch, he’ll know where Trevor is being held.”
“Nate, I thought you were leaving that alone.”
“No, I’ve never stopped searching for Trevor. Ever since I saw the painting he gave me hanging in Storch’s office, I knew Dustin could help.”
“There is no trace of Trevor on the astral,” Spencer said.
“That doesn’t mean he’s dead. I have never felt his change.”
“Trevor is not a mystic. You cannot waste your time nor risk your life on one ordinary person no matter how good a friend, no matter how many lifetimes you shared.”
“I won’t let him waste away in another prison.”
“Do you know how many are in prison? Millions.”
“Spencer, it was Dachau . . .”
“Dachau is not the worst humanity has to offer.”
“I don’t recall seeing you there.” My voice rose. “You can’t say, unless you were there.”
Spencer closed his eyes and sighed. “There are too many distractions. You’ve never understood that this is about much more than one life, the lives of a few friends . . . this is everyone’s lives at stake.”
I took a deep breath. “I need to help the people who have helped me, who have loved me. If I don’t do that, then I can’t be expected to lead. I’m haunted by enough demons. Let me quiet the ones I still can.”
“You could die. Do you think I say these things to frighten you? Look how close we came to dying during our first two attempts at rescuing the mystics. Even our last effort nearly ended in disaster, and we had inside help. Do I need to mention the time when you went to help your friends at the Shakespeare Theatre in Ashland; trying to save Dustin from Fitts; Hawaii, Prague, the Outin incident? Do you think death can’t find you?”
“I don’t have to worry about my dying, you worry enough about it.”
Linh walked in. “What’s going on?”
“Now our B-movie hero wants to rescue Trevor,” Spencer said, hoping to enlist Linh as an ally to his cause.
“I’m coming with you,” Linh said.
“I’m counting on it,” I said.
“Argh.” Spencer threw his hands up, exasperated.
“I’m sorry, Spencer. You can’t control me anymore.”
“I never could,” Spencer brushed a hand through his hair. “If you insist on this, do it from Outin, it’s your best chance.”
“Thanks.” I smiled. “Do you at least see that this is about loyalty? Fighting the betrayals will never stop the betrayals. Embracing loyalty is the only way.”
“Your loyalty should be to the Movement.”
“They aren’t mutually exclusive. Do you know how you’re always telling me to trust the universe? And that you can’t just trust the universe when it’s convenient?”
“Yes.”
“Well now I’m telling that to you.”
Rose helped Linh and me prepare for the trip to Outin. “I think I’ll come along,” she said. “At least far enough to see Dustin.” Spencer left at the same time but promised to be back at the lake house before us. It would turn out to be his first broken promise.
30
Omnia continued to search aggressively for an entrance to Outin. Mt. Shasta had become a giant military base, so entering from there would be too dangerous. Linh had the idea for us to return to Pasius, the peaceful dimension where we’d found my parents still alive, and go to Outin from there: Mt. Shasta in that dimension was still a peaceful sanctuary.
As we took our first steps on the starry ground of Outin, both Dustin-two and the one from our world materialized before us.
“Whoa, how did you do that?” I asked.
“Outin is like a microcosm of the universe. There’s this basket-weave-pattern of wormholes across the whole dimension,” Dustin-two answered.
“And you know where they all are?”
“We’ve found a bunch of them but Outin is like forever big. I’m not sure we’ll ever find the end.”
“If it has an end,” my-Dustin added.
“How’d you know we were here?” Linh asked.
“Oh, you won’t believe it!” Dustin-two said. “We have this viewing power that lets us see everywhere we’ve ever been, even after we’re not there anymore.”
“What?” I asked.
“It’s as if we had a video camera mounted on our heads ever since we
were born and all we have to do is think of a place we’ve been and it’ll show it again,” Dustin-two said, waving his hands around. “But what’s really cool is we can look at all those places in the current time, too.”
“It’s part of Foush, but it takes an inordinate amount of energy so I only keep it open to the entrance,” my-Dustin answered.
“Incredible. Does it work in the regular world?”
“I don’t know but we’ve been to Pasius twice and couldn’t do it,” my-Dustin said. “It’s like Pasius and especially our world have heavier atmospheres or something. You know, Outin is so pure.”
“Speaking of Pasius, why haven’t you sealed the entrance from there like we did to the one from our dimension?” I asked.
“They don’t know it’s here. No one’s coming from there.”
“They will. Omnia’s been to Pasius. They killed Kyle and . . . they killed Dad.” I looked at Dustin-two. “I’m sorry.”
He zoned out and stared far away. It was a look I knew well from my-Dustin. Then he vanished into an Outin wormhole.
“I didn’t mean to just blurt it out like that.”
“He’ll be okay,” my-Dustin said.
“Where do you think he went?”
“Probably the Vines; he’s addicted to the Windows.”
“What about you?” Linh asked.
“Me too.” He smiled at her, his first since we’d arrived. “So Omnia’s invading other dimensions now, even a peaceful one like Pasius. Is that why you’re here visiting your exiled criminal ex-brother?”
“You decided to stay here. No one forced you.”
“It was only a matter of time before you found out about Storch. You might have killed me and God knows we don’t need anymore of that kind of karma between us.”
“Well, I know who you are, and you’re still free and alive, so why do you stay?”
“Only way I’m ever leaving Outin is dead. This place was made for me . . . or vice versa.”
“But you went to Pasius,” Linh said.
“And you showed up in Russia in 1912,” I said.
“A man’s gotta travel every now and then.” He winked at me. “It’s a big world full of time and troubles.”