by Brandt Legg
“I thought you knew,” he said.
“Knew what? Where are you from?” I asked. “What deal?”
“I’m from a parallel almost two years ahead,” Dustin-three said, “And, well, word is that Dunaway gave Omnia the Jadeo and Clastier for protection.”
“What? Protection? He’s fighting them,” I said.
“It doesn’t have to happen,” Spencer said.
“Omnia overwhelmed his people, caught him in another time or something, and he cut a deal to save himself,” Dustin-three said.
“We have to find him now,” I said, leaving the lake to retrieve my clothes. “Come on, Yangchen, Spencer, how do we find this guy?”
“The only way to track someone like Dunaway is to locate the Jadeo,” Yangchen reminded me. “I’ve been talking to Dustin about the list of the nine entrusted he gave your father from a future life. That’s why we have Dustin-three here.”
“But the names just came to me,” Dustin-three began. “A woman claiming to be Helen Hartman told me the names and said to tell them to my dad.”
“What did she look like?” I asked.
“It’s the strangest thing; I can’t recall anything about her.”
“Incredible!” I said. “Spencer, Travis Curry, Ripley Gaines and I were able to locate the Jadeo by combining our power. You, Dustin and I should be able to do the same.”
“I would imagine it’ll take more than three this time,” Spencer said. “Dunaway isn’t likely to leave himself open to that again.”
“Okay, but you just told us that Dunaway’s deal with Omnia doesn’t have to happen. What can we do?” I asked.
“Like Yangchen said, we use the Jadeo to find him fast, but we need help.”
“We need to keep Omnia busy,” I said. “Do we have any kind of organization left?”
“There are certain areas where the underground is flourishing: Taos, New Mexico, Asheville, North Carolina, Flagstaff, Arizona, parts of Colorado, Montana and Idaho.” Yangchen said. “But the numbers are small. In Taos, the solar village of Greater World has been occupied; the scrappy off-the-map community of shipping containers and old school buses, where we hid for a while, has actually been wiped off the map. Nelson County, Virginia is one of our secret strongholds. There was a big center in Sarasota, Florida and our presence is still good there.”
“We need to get messages out. Let’s make as much noise as we can to divert Omnia resources. Get in touch with Booker,” I said to Spencer. “Bring Travis Curry and Ripley Gaines here. We’ve got you and Dustin. That’s five of the nine. Let’s grab Dad and Lee Duncan from Pasius and that’ll make seven. Surely seven of the nine can find the Jadeo.”
“Your dad died in Pasius,” Linh said softly.
“I know . . . we’ll have to go earlier.”
“It’s a good plan,” Spencer said, “but it’ll take some time.”
“Then it’s good that time’s such a damn funny thing . . . and that it moves in reverse at Outin.”
65
Hard to say how long it took, but it didn’t matter; Dad, Lee, Travis, Ripley, Spencer, the original Dustin, and I sat around in a circle focusing on the Jadeo. Seeing my dad again brought on a new wave of guilt, but it also strengthened me. I could see his pride and approval in what I’d become. I’d made many mistakes, but they had forged me into a leader with a cause. Spencer and Yangchen were able to pull him from Outin where he was with Spencer after we all went to San Francisco in Pasius, so he knew me. He pulled me aside, “Nate, I see such courage and purpose in you, I’m overwhelmed.”
“Dad, something is going to happen once you go back to Pasius.”
“I know, Spencer told me. It’s okay, part of the destiny we can’t change, not your fault.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Do you understand? I didn’t die because of you.”
I closed my eyes tight to hold back tears. “You don’t have to go back.”
“I do. But you know it’s not the end.”
“I know.”
Yangchen was back in Pasius, the other two Dustins took Amber on a tour of the Windows in the Vines, Linh went to meditate at Clarity Lake, and Gale, who’d come with Ripley, was enjoying Floral and Dreams Lakes. It must have been hours before Spencer broke our silent session.
“It’s just out of my reach. Is anyone else getting any closer to it?”
“Same for me,” Travis said. “I can almost see it but it’s not quite there.”
“I don’t understand,” Ripley said, “Nate, Travis and I had a much easier time back on the island. Who the hell is this Dunaway?”
“Are we sure he’s not the traitor?” Dad asked. “What if he’s already traded it to Omnia?”
“Or opened it,” Lee said.”
“I know it can change,” Dustin said, “But Dustin-three told us it happened a few months from now.”
“Your earlier attempt,” Spencer began, “tipped Dunaway to the fact that we could find him through the Jadeo. I’m not sure what measures he’s taken but he’s done something. We’ve all searched for the Jadeo countless times over the centuries and it’s never been this hard. He must have it in some kind of fog.”
“Dad, we’re not sure of anything about Dunaway. He’s one of my generation’s seven but we don’t believe he is one of the nine. He sincerely doesn’t seem to have a clue about what the Jadeo is.”
“But he knows it’s important to you, that you are desperate for its return, and he could have gotten information from Clastier.”
“Rose has been working with Clastier in another dimension,” Spencer said. “And while they have not had any luck finding Dunaway or the Jadeo, she is confident that they’ve been able to block Clastier’s memory of it for now.”
“There’s so much to understand,” I said.
“Don’t worry about it, Nate,” Dad said. “Pasius is an entire dimension devoted to studying what is possible, and we are just at the tip of the iceberg.”
“You’re way ahead of most,” Spencer added.
“Omnia seems way ahead of all of us,” I said.
“Their soul powers are awesome and so is Devin Moore’s lust for total power,” Spencer said. Earlier, he’d told everyone about Moore’s control over Omnia. The bigger concern now centered on a recent report that in the very near future, Moore would somehow learn of the Jadeo and obtain if from Dunaway. “Let’s get back to our search. I can’t even discuss the inconceivable consequences should Moore get the Jadeo.”
My frustration grew each time it felt like we were about to locate the Jadeo, only to have it slip farther away. As the skywaves turned orange, signaling Outin’s evening had arrived, Linh and Gale returned. I was about to suggest we give up, when Spencer called out. “There it is!”
We all saw it but couldn’t quite catch it. “It’s in a portal,” Lee said. “Damn clever. Dunaway has the Jadeo in a portal within a portal, no wonder it’s so hard to find.” In Pasius, Lee was a renowned professor of portals. “And do you notice, Dunaway isn’t there with it?”
“Neither is Clastier,” I said.
We all pulsed with energy from being together and so close to the Jadeo. Like a man lost in a desert for days, spotting a mirage, I could taste water, but could not reach it. The Jadeo faded and surfaced, teased and tortured. Finally, in the end we surrendered. Dunaway had it too well concealed. The only way to get it would be to find him.
“Meditate,” Linh said to me as the group broke up.
“You sound like Kyle. How did yours go?”
“Miraculous.”
Lee Duncan walked over and interrupted us. “Nate, I know of a way that you may be able to find Dunaway. There is a portal similar to Wizard Island, but instead of taking you anywhere you want to go, it will take you to anyone you want to see.”
“Wow.”
“Yes, its existence has not ever been verified but there are references to it in other portals.”
“What do you mean references?” Linh asked.
“Portal i
s a generic term. Wormholes, passages, dimensional doorways, time tunnels, they are essentially the same thing. But portals are more than links; they are each their own dimension. In fact some portals only link back to where they began.” He scratched his head as if this were an entirely new thought to him. “Anyway, the point . . . no, what was I saying?”
“References in other portals,” Linh said, smiling.
“Ah, yes, thank you. Well, most portals contain information. Perhaps all of them do; we just haven’t uncovered it in certain ones. Anyway, they record, for lack of a better word, each passing, meaning everything that has ever happened in a portal is recorded within it, but more than that, a trace of every other dimension that an entity using the portal has encountered is also left. This is how we have discovered so many portals.”
“They really are alive,” I said.
“Oh, yes. Wizard Island, as you might imagine, would require lifetimes to fully study. But back to my original reason for bringing this up. There have been several small traces of this portal in other portals. As if just one person had used it in the past few thousand years. But it’s hard to say for sure if it is real. There are so many variables with portals; extraordinary, really.”
“Where is it?”
“Taos, New Mexico.”
“A portal like this, in Taos of all places, how come you are only now bringing this up?”
“As I said, it may not exist. Even if it once did exist, portals can move or slip into another dimension and vanish forever. We don’t know where most of the portals are. Even in Pasius, it’s a very new science.”
“But even a chance that it’s real . . .” Linh said.
“I didn’t know until this morning that you were so desperate to find this person,” Lee said. “Really, although I do research for the Movement at Yangchen’s direction, I didn’t know Dunaway even existed before today.”
“Either way, I’m happy to have something to try. Please, tell me everything you know about it.”
As I told Spencer what I’d learned from Lee, Amber ran up. “Omnia is coming! We saw it in a Window. All of us, the same ones who are here now, were here, and they killed us all!”
“How much time is there?” Spencer asked.
“Impossible to say,” Dustin-two answered.
“I’m going to Taos,” I said.
“I’m going with you,” Amber said.
“I’m going with Spencer,” Linh said. Amber and I looked at her. Spencer seemed as surprised as we were. Yangchen would take care of getting Ripley, Gale and Travis back to where they would be safe. She said something about one of the parallels. Lee, Dustin-two and Dad were heading back to Pasius.
“I love you, Dad. I’ll see you again, and before again.”
“I’m counting on that.” He hugged me tight. “I love you. We’ve known each other many times, but it’s impossible for me to imagine loving you more than I do as my son.”
Linh and Amber embraced in a tearful exchange. Then Linh came and looked deep into my eyes. “Be strong, Nate. I’ll see you very soon.”
“Why aren’t you coming?”
“I have to convince Spencer I’m one of the good guys,” she said, smiling.
My-Dustin and Dustin-three were refusing to leave. “I’ve got places they’ll never find me. If they think taking Outin is going to be easy, they don’t know Dustin Ryder,” my-Dustin said.
“Ditto,” Dustin-three said.
All efforts by Spencer, Dad and me to talk him out of staying failed.
“Good luck, brother,” I said.
“Keep that luck, Nate. You’re going to need it. And you may have just enough.”
66
“There’s a portal over Taos Mountain that can take you to anyone alive,” I said.
“Which are we going to first?” Amber asked.
“There is no first. A person can enter it only once. I want to find Dunaway.”
“What about the leader of Omnia, Devin Moore? Or the Dark Mystic?”
“I figure the Dark Mystic will find me soon enough and I’m on a collision course with Devin Moore, but Dunaway has the Jadeo and Clastier.”
“And you want his help?”
“I need his help.”
“He doesn’t want to help you.”
“I can change his mind.”
“How?”
“I don’t know yet but I’m sure I can.”
The portal was more than two hundred feet above the mountain so Skyclimbing wasn’t an option. Fortunately, there were several hot air balloon excursion companies in Taos and one of them was operated by a member of the Movement.
We met Cedars, our pilot, at first light near the John Dunn Bridge. It was one of a few bridges that crossed the Rio Grande at the bottom of the gorge. Normally, they took tourists on a breathtaking ride through the seven hundred foot deep rip in the earth. We’d be in the gorge for the first part of our ride but then headed toward Taos Mountain. Balloons couldn’t really be steered, except by ascending or descending into air currents, but Cedars agreed to let me steer with Gogen.
“Depending on the wind, we’ll be over Taos Mountain in about thirty minutes,” he said.
Initially, we enjoyed the dramatic beauty of the sheer walls, huge blocks of brown and black lava stacked, carved and torn open, the land revealing a scar of the violent geological past. The river found the gorge and took advantage, spending the first portion of its 1800-mile run to the Gulf of Mexico protected by the deep walls. We floated up until we crested and could see the endless surrounding mesa and Taos Mountain in the distance. Amber spotted the Earthships as we dropped back into the gorge. There were two tanks and a dozen military trucks there.
Two more balloons had taken off behind us and a purple one was drifting menacingly close. A few small pieces of rock suddenly flew into the basket.
“What the hell?” Cedars said. “Where did that come from?”
More fragments zipped past.
“I think they’re throwing them,” Cedars said, motioning to the purple balloon. “That’s Bark’s outfit. He knows better than to be this close.” He leaned out of the basket. “Bark, clear off!”
More rocks.
“Damn it, if they puncture us . . .” Cedars adjusted the temperature to make the balloon climb higher.
“Nate, Look! It’s Clastier!” Amber yelled.
I spun around and saw Clastier in the basket of the purple balloon and right next to him Dunaway stood smiling.
“Nate,” Dunaway yelled. “Let’s see who can pop whose balloon first.” He sent a big jagged rock zinging toward us. I intercepted it with Gogen and forced it down into the gorge. We both knew I couldn’t crash his balloon with an innocent pilot and Clastier aboard.
“Who is that maniac?” Cedars asked.
Another bigger rock came at us.
“Nate, look out!” Amber screamed. At the same time, two more rocks rained in from the other side. I broke them up just in time.
“Dunaway, stop,” I yelled. “It’s going to take both of us to stop Omnia.”
“That guy’s on our side?” Cedars asked.
“Just get us out of the gorge,” I snapped.
“I’ve been trying, but I can’t get any lift!”
“Nate, I don’t need your help with Omnia. Don’t need your past, don’t want your future, your death is all I ask!” Dunaway sang. A shower of rocks poured down on us.
“He’s pulling us down!” Cedars yelled.
I fought off the rocks with a weather dome.
“If you kill me, you lose your powers!” I shouted. Had he forgotten one of the seven can’t kill another one of the seven?
“Oh, Nate, I’m not going to kill you. You’re going to die trying to save Amber.”
“This might buy us some time,” I whispered to Amber. I leapt from the basket and Skyclimbed up the side of his purple balloon. As expected, Dunaway joined me. We danced on the top of the balloon floating six hundred feet above the rapids. At the same
time, I used Gogen to push our balloon further ahead.
“Nate, save your girlfriend . . . jump,” Dunaway taunted.
“No one is going to die here today. IM and IF, you and I, we all want Omnia stopped. Let’s do that together and once we’ve won, you and I can argue about the best way to move forward.”
“I think you’ve suffered brain damage in one of your near death experiences.” He laughed. “Why is it you keep nearly dying, when I’ve hardly had a scratch? Because my methods are superior to yours . . . Of course, I’m smarter than you, too, but that goes without saying.”
“I’m still alive.”
“For the moment. In fact, you did die once, didn’t you? I think that makes you some kind of ‘living-dead.’ I think I’ll call you Zombie from now on.”
“What is your problem? Why are you so angry?”
“Easy answers . . . you, Zombie, are my problem and you make me very angry because instead of kicking Omnia’s ass, I have to deal with you.”
He Skyclimbed down and jumped across to my balloon. It zoomed forward, too far for me to catch in a Skyclimb. I tried to pull it back but his Gogen, or whatever he was using, was stronger. I dropped in on Clastier.
“Nate, you must stop him,” Clastier began. “He is reckless and powerful, not a good combination.”
“I’m trying.”
“You are not. You are trying to convince him to join your cause. Dunaway will not listen to reason. Your only chance is to overpower him. Show him you are stronger.”
“Am I?”
“Strength is not about how much power you have. It is about how you use the power you have.”
Gogen pushed the two balloons zooming through the narrow gorge at a dizzying speed, still too far apart for Skyclimbing. I reached Amber on the astral.
“I’m scared,” she said. “Dunaway keeps telling me that I’m too pretty to die.”
“The bridge is just ahead. I think I can get you out.”
“What about Clastier?”
“I don’t think they’ll be time for both.”
“He’s more important.”
“No one is more important.”
The steel bridge spans more than 1200 feet across the canyon, which narrows like a funnel as it drops 600 feet to the river. The balloons were going to travel under it. There would be one chance to get Amber out. Using Gogen, I brought two large slabs of rock spinning out into the air between the balloons and Skyclimbed across them to Cedars’ balloon. Dunaway had Amber pinned to the floor of the basket and chased me up the side of the balloon. We reached the top at the same time. I leaped to the crisscrossing steel cantilever truss that supported the road above, running and leaping from beam to beam while Amber’s balloon passed under us. I Atomized up through the pavement onto the roadway. A truck sailed into me before I completely rematerialized; the force of the collision threw me out the backside and into one of the low steel railings. No permanent damage. Dunaway had gotten out of the balloon and ran toward me as I regained my feet.