"Hello, Mrs. President," came a voice to her right. Linda whirled toward the sound. There stood a teenage girl with short red-blonde hair and a backpack. Behind her hovered a large black sphere that blocked the entire corridor.
15.24
Cole walked steadily along the tunnel of light, his companions in front of him. He needed to be able to see them, in order to hold them all together. And he couldn't talk much. But otherwise, the effort of maintaining and extending the tunnel had not surpassed him. He allowed the tunnel behind them, the part through which they had already walked, to fall away into nothingness as they passed. All that mattered was the tunnel ahead, and his friends, and the island shore he could now clearly see. Another fifty yards or so and he'd be on solid ground, though truth be told his tunnel felt more solid now than the ground appeared to be.
He knew they'd encounter soldiers on the island. And a fence. And some strange force field. But the storm had taken out their electricity, so the force field might be down, and the soldiers, thinking they had sunk his boat, might be huddling inside now, afraid of the storm.
Cole breathed steadily. He was not afraid. He knew who he was now. He knew where he'd come from. And he was learning just exactly what it was he could do. Soldiers? Tanks? Guns? Fences? Cole looked at his tunnel of light and smiled. He didn't think he'd have a problem with any of it.
15.25
"Who are you?" asked Linda. It was all she could think to say.
"Gabrielle Legrand," said Gabrielle with a smile. "I visited you in your Oval Office a few years ago. You returned Alley's scarf. You remember?"
"I heard what happened to your sister," said Linda. "I'm so sorry."
Gabrielle shrugged. The image of this moment had not included conversation, so she was uncertain of what to say.
Linda inspected Gabrielle from head to toe. "You've grown up," she said, warily. This was Guy Legrand's daughter. Which made her a member of The Families. MP Legrand had turned Linda over to Agent Rice, who'd then shot and killed Cole right before her eyes. He was not a nice man. "You have interesting friends, I see," said Linda, indicating the black sphere behind Gabrielle with a wave of her hand.
Gabrielle glanced at the sphere, then back at Linda. "It has been an interesting time, Cousin Linda," she said, stressing the distant family connection. "I've learned a great deal in the past few days."
Linda nodded. "Can I ask what you're doing here?"
Gabrielle's eyes went to the vial in Linda's hand, then back to Linda. "I believe you're supposed to give that to me," she said.
Linda clutched the vial tighter. She'd never felt so exposed, here in this hallway, alone, naked, her head and stomach still churning and pounding. She took a long breath, hoping to calm herself. "Supposed by whom?" she asked. She wrinkled her brow. "Do you know?"
An expression of uncertainty flitted across Gabrielle's face. "Do I need to?" she asked. "I mean... I was given this to do." She jutted out her chin. "A vision," she said.
"This is a cure," said Linda, finding a bit of her old power. "Did you know that?"
"A cure for what?" asked Gabrielle.
"A cure for the virus that your father and his people unleashed into the world," said Linda. "A virus meant to kill off most of the human race."
Gabrielle whirled around to look at the huge black sphere. All this time and she never really knew what it was she was supposed to do. She'd seen the moment, but she hadn't understood it. The President's mention of her father threw her off, and the idea that he was responsible for this virus! She thought of Arthur, back in Montreal, and of him dying with some disease her father had been involved with. Those monsters. But Zacharael! He'd shown her! She had to help. She had to help the living planet! How was she-
She thrust out her hand, grabbing for the vial. "Give it to me!" she said harshly.
Linda stepped back, twisting away before Gabrielle could grab the vial from her cold, stiff hands. "No," she said. "No. You didn't come here to stop me. You came here to help me."
"But how can I know?" cried Gabrielle. "How do we know what will help?"
"Ask him," said Linda. She gestured over Gabrielle's shoulders with her head. Gabrielle whirled. The huge black sphere was gone. In its place stood Zacharael. Linda took another step back, struck by how much this being looked like Agent Rice, yet sure that this was not him.
"Tell me what to do!" said Gabrielle to Zacharael. The Angel smiled sadly, looked up toward the sky as if in prayer, and then disappeared. Gabrielle gasped.
"We need to get out of here, Gabrielle," said Linda. "Will you help me?"
Gabrielle turned slowly back to Linda, shaking her head from side to side.
"I don't know what to do either," said Linda. "I don't know what will help. But I do know that we have to get out of here. That storm might flood these underground layers at any moment. And the soldiers will be back."
Gabrielle nodded, still stunned by Zacharael's refusal to help her. "Okay," she said at last. She pulled her backpack off her shoulder, unzipped it, and pulled out a large t-shirt and some underwear. "Here," she said, handing the clothes to Linda.
Linda smiled her thanks and took the clothes.
15.26
McAfee and Sparks took a Hummer down to the Ferry Landing. The wind lifted them up at one point, almost flipped them over, but then they righted themselves and continued on. When they got through the fence, they found other soldiers at their posts, struggling against gusts that threatened to carry them away, and watching as the white worm of light crawled slowly up the island.
The worm seemed impervious to both wind and rain, and cut across the land, through trees, across roads and lawns and right through the fence as if these obstacles were not even there. Inside, McAfee could see vague human shapes, gliding steadily and quickly southward, up the ridge of the island and toward the President's cottage. Already the tip of the tunnel had almost reached their watchtowers.
"You fired on it yet?" asked McAfee of the nearest shoulder. He had to get close and shout to be heard over the storm.
The soldier nodded. "No effect!" he shouted back.
McAfee turned and signaled Sparks. They got back into the Humvee. "This worm must have a mouth," said the Colonel. "Let's drive up to the end and see if there's an opening."
Sparks put the Humvee into gear and they headed back the way they'd come.
15.27
"Grab that cat!" said Linda to Gabrielle as they ran down the hallway. Gabrielle looked up to see a black cat with a white star on its chest sitting in the shadows near the stairwell door. She bent to pick it up, cradled it next to her stomach, and then pushed through the double doors. Linda followed. At the bottom of the stairs, Linda stopped and grabbed the railing, bending over to vomit onto the floor at her feet. Under the dim emergency lights, the vomit looked like an oil slick. "I can't..." said Linda, breathing heavily.
"We can," said Gabrielle, taking Linda's arm. She guided the sick President around the mess on the floor and up the stairs, moving slowly but steadily. The cat started squirming so she let it go and it ran up the steps ahead of them. This gave Gabrielle two hands with which to help the President. They made it to the landing, then the next floor, and then another floor, and another, resting often but never for long. The vial of cure was now safely stowed in Gabrielle's backpack.
At the top of the stairs they found the cat, sitting by the door, waiting for them. Gabrielle pushed the door open against the wind. The cat ran outside. The women followed the cat.
15.28
Walking felt far too slow. Cole raised his hands and pushed. At once he and his companions were lifted from the ground on ripples of light. Cole waved his hands again and sent them all gliding forward, faster and faster, across the island terrain, through the trees and over the rock outcroppings. Linda was here. He could feel her. And she needed his help.
Nothing was going to stop him.
15.29
Linda could barely move in the wind. Without Gabrielle's help
, she'd have already been blown out to sea. How the cat stayed on its feet Linda had no idea, but he seemed to manage. Cats had always been good on their feet, it seemed. And maybe the wind didn't blow so hard that close to the ground. The cat led them around the cottage and to a little trail that wound through the shrubs and roses. Gabrielle used her backpack to push away the thorns. The women slowly picked their way along the path.
15.30
Cole and the others were gathered at the mouth of the tunnel of light now. They'd come to a stop at the edge of the lawn. Before them stood two steel watchtowers. Part of him wanted to take the time to bring these towers down. Cole was that angry. But he knew that such actions would have to wait. The first order of business was to find Linda and get her to safety. The storm was surging now. No telling how high these waters would get.
"Cole?" asked Stan, turning to face him. "You okay?"
Cole smiled warmly. "I'm good, Stan," he said. He turned to look at the cottage in time to see a young woman disappear into the bushes by the cottage's back wall. There seemed to be somebody else in front of her. He looked at his companions and gave a nod. "Let's go," he said.
15.31
"You see where they're headed?" said McAfee.
Sparks nodded.
"Swing up through to the landing pad and come down the back drive. We'll sneak up from the other side."
"Okay, Colonel," said Sparks. He hit the accelerator.
15.32
The cat went first, then Linda, with Gabrielle following right behind. The path had taken them over paving stones and then grass and had then plunged into a stand of trees. The leafless branches were flapping in the gale but the trunks felt stable and the wind near the ground was not so bad. They crossed a slight gully and the path got steeper and more rocky. Linda was hardly able to keep going so they rested for a minute. Then Gabrielle took the President's arm and they climbed the slope side by side.
At the top they found a wide, flat plateau, paved with concrete. Some sort of landing pad for helicopters, thought Linda. The cat sat in the center, looking up to the ceiling of clouds. His fur was flattened in the hurricane-force winds, but the cat himself, solid and steady, did not seem perturbed, as if no amount of wind could tear him from the Earth. Linda stumbled forward, falling to her hands and bare knees when a blast of wind caught her. Her t-shirt flapped and pulled. Gabrielle got down on her knees as well and crawled to the President's side. "Why are we following this cat?" shouted the girl into Linda's ear.
Linda turned her head to catch Gabrielle's eyes and smiled grimly. "I have no idea!" she said.
Then the Humvee squealed to a stop at the edge of the pad.
15.33
"You've gotta be shittin' me," said McAfee from the passenger seat as they neared the landing pad. In front of them was his stupid cat, some girl he'd never seen before, and a woman who was supposed to have been dead. Sparks hit the brakes and brought them to a quick stop. He stared through the windshield with one eyebrow raised, but didn't say a word.
McAfee pushed his door open against the wind. A gust caught it and slammed it back, smashing it against his foot. "Goddammit!" he screamed, pushing the door open again. He slid down to the ground, grimacing as he landed on the newly crushed foot, and quickly stepped to the side before the wind could slam his door again. He looked at Linda. "What the hell is going on here?" he shouted. He knew that his question was small and silly in light of the situation in front of him, but he did not have extra RAM with which to compose a more thoughtful demand. He'd stood there and watched the doctor kill this woman. He'd seen her lying there, cold and blue and gray. He'd smelled her rotting flesh. So how the hell could she be up and walking around in this storm? And who the hell was this kid she was with?
He took a step forward, winced at the pain, and took another step. None of it made any sense. Linda Travis alive again? Some new person on the island? His cat sitting unruffled in the same goddamn wind that had just slammed the door on his foot? In the face of such impossible things, Colonel Aidan McAfee did what his training had taught him to do: he unsnapped the leather holster on his belt and drew his revolver.
The President of the United States, now dressed in a black thong and a wet Miley Cyrus t-shirt, rose up on her knees and looked at him. She opened her mouth, shouted something to him, but the wind snatched her words away before they could reach his ears. McAfee took another step forward. The cat was in the middle of the landing pad, glancing now and then at the storm clouds overhead. The women were near the edge. He decided to get his cat first, then deal with the women. The cat made a bit more sense to him, and he really needed something that made sense right now. Holding the revolver aimed vaguely at the President, he limped out to the pad's center and knelt down to pick up his cat. Nicky, for once not resisting, allowed himself to be picked up.
McAfee turned toward the women. His jaw dropped. Coming up the hill behind them was that damned white worm thing, with the First Gentleman himself standing in the mouth of it like something out of a Dune novel.
15.34
Cole had known even before he got to the cottage that Linda wasn't inside. That had been her, running through the bushes. He could feel her presence, though how that was possible he did not know. So he followed them. He guided the tunnel of light across the paving stones, across the lawn, into the trees and through them, following the little path as it crossed a small gully and turned sharply upward. He stood at the tunnel's mouth now, eager, full of anticipation and power and confidence. His crew stood around him as the tunnel moved them along.
He stopped at the top. There was Linda, as he'd known she would be. She was dressed in a soaking wet white t-shirt that clung to her back. She was on her knees. And beside her was a young woman with a backpack. Beyond them stood a soldier with a cat in one hand and a revolver in the other. Off to the left was a Humvee, beside which stood another soldier, this one younger. The soldier with the cat was aiming his gun at Linda. The young soldier looked on in confusion. Linda had her back to Cole, and was shouting at the older soldier.
Cole let the tunnel of light fall away around him. He no longer needed it. He stepped forward, catching the eye of the soldier with the gun. "You stop right there!" the soldier shouted. He pointed the gun back and forth, from Cole to Linda and back again. Cole stopped. He did not feel afraid of this man or his gun. He had caught bullets with his bare hands. This man could not harm him.
But he could harm Linda, if he caught Cole off guard. Cole was too far away to catch a bullet aimed at his wife. And if he tried to shoot the man with a bolt of light, the soldier might get a shot off before the light hit him. Cole might be able to stop a bullet with the light from his hands, but he did not want to put that to the test.
The cat in the soldier's arm looked up once again, then clawed its way out of the soldier's hands and leapt to the ground, running toward the women. So quickly it seemed almost instantaneous, a wok dropped out of the sky and landed in the center of the pad. Whether the soldier with the gun was disintegrated or just crushed flat, Cole could not tell.
The young soldier fumbled for his own revolver as he stepped forward. Cole did not hesitate. He lashed out with his left hand, sending a shard of pure white light to knock the gun from the soldier's hand. The soldier stopped, stunned, and examined his hand for damage.
A door melted in the side of the wok.
Out stepped Mary.
15.35
Something had happened, but Mary could not say what it was. She'd crawled into that wok in the garage and had finally made it into the Astral. She'd sensed the kids' patterns, only to then have them disappear from her awareness. Another wok had appeared before her from out of nowhere. Then things got weird.
It felt like she'd fallen asleep. She’d dreamt of the time long ago when Spud had appeared during one of her father's beatings. The time she'd broken out of their paralyzing fog and demanded that she and her brother be allowed to go with them. It was the defining event of her life. It had
saved them both. The dream seemed to go on forever, as if it had scrolled through her entire life. Then she'd awakened to find herself back in the physical band. She was back in the wok she'd found in the garage, and hovering over Augusta.
She considered venturing back into the Astral, but decided against it. It had been so difficult, before, and she'd been unable to find anyone. So she found the helmet and put it on and formed a psychic bond with the ship and asked it to take her to Squirrel Island. Keeley was there. Linda was there. The kids might be there. Mary needed to be there as well. She asked the wok to approach the island cautiously, since she did not really know what to expect, or whom she would encounter. The wok complied.
When she descended through the storm clouds enough to see Cole and Stan and Sten and some others being held at gunpoint, her course of action became clear. However it was that Mr. Phelps had ended up on Squirrel Island in a uniform with a gun pointed at her friends, he now had to go. Mary asked the ship to make him go away.
The wok complied again.
15.36
"Mary?" said Lieutenant Danny Sparks. He glanced down at his pistol on the ground, then at Cole and the others at the edge of the pad. He stepped closer to the wok, holding his hat against the wind and rain.
"Danny!" said Mary, smiling. Shielding her face against the gusts and rain with a raised arm, she ran down the ramp and hugged her little brother in his soaked uniform. "I haven't seen you since before the Grid!" she shouted into his ear.
Rumi's Field (None So Blind Book 2) Page 56