by Alten-Steve
Hot, rancid breath comes at her in waves. The five o’clock shadow scratches at the inside of her unblemished thighs.
Lilith’s mind escapes inside the nexus as Quenton’s wet tongue once more violates her innocence.
Longboat Key, Florida
The president’s helicopter circles the compound twice before landing on the front lawn.
Dominique exits from the kitchen, waving at Ennis Chaney. She does not recognize the tall blond-haired Intelligence officer carrying an armful of presents.
Chaney greets her with a bear hug. ‘Dominique, you look better every time I see you.’
‘And you tell bigger lies.’
‘Where are the twins?’
‘Manny’s in the SOSUS lab. Jake’s swimming.’
‘Good. Let’s go someplace quiet where we can talk.’
Her heart jump-starts. ‘Talk? Why? What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing. Can’t I visit my two godsons without something being wrong?’
Unnerved, she leads the two men inside.
Jacob secures the rope around his waist, then loops the free end through the center of the forty-five-pound weight plate and ties it off. Satisfied, he picks up the iron plate and climbs down the steps of the swimming pool, wading deeper until the waterline is up to his neck.
The white-haired twin takes a deep breath, then lowers himself to the bottom.
The steel plate sinks, dragging him with it.
Hovering inches off the bottom, Jacob closes his eyes and relaxes, searching the dark recesses of his mind.
In due time he sees the pinpoint of light. His mind’s eye focuses upon it, making it grow.
The pain in his chest eases. Concentrating on the bright light, he allows his mind to slip inside its warm white haze.
Lilith, are you in here?
Chaney sits back in a padded lounge chair. He sips an iced tea, then stares out the bulletproof glass at the inviting waters of the Gulf of Mexico. ‘Always loved this view. Wait and see, one of these days I’m gonna retire and move to Florida.’
‘Sure you are,’ Dominique says. ‘So? Are you going to introduce me to your friend?’
‘Dominique Gabriel, this is Major Richard Phillips. Major Phillips is the director of Project TRINITY.’
The major attempts to disarm her with a friendly smile.
Dominique is immune. ‘What exactly is Project TRINITY, and what does it have to do with my kids? And don’t bullshit me. The staff does that enough.’
‘Okay, ma’am, straight and simple: TRINITY is a covert Intelligence program, its origins dating back to 1978 when it was called Project GRILLFLAME. The purpose of the program was, and is, to recruit, train, and utilize psychics for the gathering of Army intelligence.’
‘You’re telling me the United States government recruits psychics?’
‘Yes, ma’am. The DIA—the Defense Intelligence Agency—took over the project in the late 1980s, changing its name to STARGATE. The program was revamped and renamed TRINITY following the extraterrestrial interactions of 2012. I took over the project four years ago. My qualifications include sixteen years in STARGATE as a remote viewer.’
‘And what is a remote viewer?’
‘Remote viewing is a mental faculty that allows an individual to describe a target or event that is hidden from our normal senses by distance, shielding, or time. In essence, it’s the phenomenon of clairvoyance or telepathy.’
‘Sounds like hocus-pocus to me.’
‘A typical first reaction. The hypothesis behind the art is that all knowledge exists in a vacuum of pure energy. Remote viewers have the ability to tap into this realm. I can assure you from my own experiences at STARGATE that the phenomenon is quite real and governed by a well-structured scientific protocol.’
A chill runs down her spine as she recalls Evelyn Strongin’s words: ‘To understand inter-dimensional communication, you must first accept that we are surrounded by energy, and energy is everything, it is only our perception within the universe that changes.’
‘You’re here to recruit Jacob.’
‘Easy,’ Chaney says. ‘I merely wanted the major to meet both boys and evaluate them.’
‘Why? Why do they need to be evaluated? Why can’t you just let them be?’
‘Dom, a few days ago, Jacob sent Rabbi Steinberg to Washington to warn me of an assassination attempt.’
‘What?’
‘His information led to the arrest of one of Air Force One’s crewmen, a racist nutcase who would have blown up Air Force One and everyone on board.’
‘My God …’
‘It’s no secret the twins are special. There’s no harm in seeing just how special.’
‘Ma’am, it’s very possible your boys possess the gift of psychotronic perception. If that’s true, then my department can help them realize this gift to its fullest.’
‘For what purpose? So they can spend the rest of their lives locked up in some windowless chamber, telling the CIA what the North Koreans are up to? No—I won’t have it.’
‘Dominique, open your eyes. There are groups out there—religious zealots, Mesoamerican fanatics—that may be planning an attack on your compound as we speak. If Jake or Manny could see them coming—’
‘God, I hate this, I am so tired … fine, just do it … do whatever the hell you have to do. Test them. Poke and prod them if you have to. Take more DNA samples, hell, put them in a goddam bottle—’
‘Dominique—’
‘My sons have become the world’s sideshow, Ennis, and it’s my fault. So just do whatever you have to do and get it over with!’
She storms off, leaving the two men alone.
Lilith?
Jacob? Two pinpoints of azure blue twinkle back at him from beyond the white haze. Where have you been? I call out for you every day.
It’s not always easy for me to enter. Evelyn says I have to get my adrenaline pumping in order to find my way in.
Who’s Evelyn?
Evelyn Strongin. You’d like her. She’s a psychiatrist, she had a near-death experience years ago. I want her to teach me how to communicate with my dead father.
When did your father die?
Long time ago. Before I was born.
My father’s in prison. He killed my mama when I was born.
Geez …
Jacob, when we’re together in the nexus, it feels like our souls are one.
He’s hurting you again, isn’t he?
Yes.
You should tell the cops.
I can’t.
Why not?
I just can’t.
He said he’d hurt you if you told, didn’t he?
If I tell, they’d take him away, then I’d really be all alone. Unless I can live with you? Can I?
No, Lilith. I wish you could, but it’s dangerous around here too.
Do you love me, Jacob?
Yes.
You wouldn’t ever hurt me, would you?
Why would I hurt you?
Just promise me you won’t.
I promise.
*
‘Jake?’
Dominique enters the pool area. Sees the figure lying motionless on the bottom.
‘Oh, shit—’ She dives in the pool. Swims to the bottom. Drags her son and the weight plate to the surface.
‘Jake! Jake, wake up!’
Jacob’s consciousness is hurled out of the white haze of the nexus into bright sunlight, his mind awhirl, fighting to catch up with what just happened.
‘… insane? Answer me?’
‘Huh?’
‘I said, are you insane? Are you trying to drown yourself?’
‘No. I was … I was just training.’
‘Don’t ever let me catch you doing this again? Do you understand?’
‘Yes, ma’am. You’ll never catch me again.’
‘Don’t sass me, young man. You know what I mean.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’
Dominique climbs out of the pool, the sudden ru
sh of adrenaline causing her muscles to quiver. ‘Get dressed. Your godfather flew in to see you.’
Dripping wet, she heads back to the house, her nerves shot.
The Faraday chamber, located in the basement floor of the Gabriel twins’ training facility, is a metallic enclosure, its wall-embedded circuitry designed to scramble all incoming electromagnetic signals. Soundproof and windowless, the chamber is painted in a neutral color, its softly diffused overhead light panels rigged to a voice-activated dimmer. Inside the room is a rectangular steel table, with two matching chairs positioned at either end. A video recorder and closed-circuit camera are positioned inconspicuously along the ceiling.
Jacob Gabriel sits at the far end of the table, facing the closed door. He doodles on a legal pad with a blue ink pen, waiting for the session to begin.
Chaney and Major Phillips watch him on a monitor from another room.
‘Okay, here’s the drill,’ Phillips says. ‘While I’m working with Jacob, you keep the other twin occupied in the SOSUS lab.’
‘You think these two can communicate telepathically to one another?’
‘It’s definitely possible. One thing I know from personal experience is that remote viewing across inter-dimensional lines is very frequency-oriented. Since tapping into wavelengths of a similar consciousness can affect the believability of the session—’
‘I understand.’
Jacob looks up as the major enters the antiseptic room and shuts the door. ‘Hi, Jacob. My name is Major Phillips. I’m the guy the president told you about.’
‘You’re here to test me?’
‘You say it as if it’s a bad thing. Actually, remote viewing is a lot of fun. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for a long time.’
‘My first time was an accident.’
‘Which means you should respond very well to formalized training.’
‘What do I have to do?’
‘For one thing, relax. Your mom tells me you practice yoga. Focus on your breathing. Let your thoughts go blank. Computer, dim lights 60 percent.’
The room darkens.
‘Jake, I want you to turn to a clean sheet of paper. Write your name and the date in the upper right-hand corner.’ Major Phillips reaches into his breast pocket and removes six double-wrapped, opaque envelopes. Inside each is a folded piece of paper, with words written in ink.
‘There are six stages to remote viewing. We always begin with stage one. Do you know how telepathy works?’
‘One mind tunes to another.’
‘Correct. Remote viewing works the same way. Information, whether it’s in our past or future, is stored as energy in the psychic realm. To acquire bits of this information requires a clue or signal line. Your mind can be subconsciously tuned in to the meanings of these clue lines, or, in the case of you and your brother, your minds may be genetically enhanced to evoke, or call them up. Clues will come to you as sharp, rapid influxes of significance. Your preconscious nervous system will transmit these ideas through the muscles and nerves of your arm and hand and express them as marks on your paper. It’s very important that you not try to analyze these marks, just let them come. In the process, you might envision or remote-view different imaginary shapes for clues. When this happens, just tell me what you see. Again, don’t try to interpret anything. So? Sound like fun?’
The white-haired twin shrugs. ‘I can already do this.’
‘You can? Then this first coordinate should be easy for you.’
Phillips slides the first envelope in front of Jacob. ‘Interface with the object. Tell me what it is.’
The boy touches the envelope, then closes his azure-blue eyes. ‘This is too easy. It’s a beach, the beach in back of our compound.’
Phillips maintains his poker face, inside he is quite impressed. ‘Let’s try another.’ He skips the second envelope, jumping ahead to number three.
Jacob closes his eyes. ‘Man-made … bronze and steel … surrounded by water. I hear echoes of a city.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Statue of Liberty.’
Phillips says nothing, but his heart is pounding like a kettledrum.
‘Let’s try one more.’ He slides another envelope forward.
Jacob focuses inward.
A mountain … its volcanic peak rising higher …
The clue lines of Hawaii’s Diamond Head tighten in his mind—
—then suddenly evaporate, morphing into an ominous, alien world.
Crimson coals simmer along a subterranean ceiling, its embers refracting below along the molten surface of a silvery lake. Standing alone by the lake’s volcanic-sandy banks is a tree, like none he has ever seen. Wide as a silo, as white as the driven snow, its bare branches and alien bark drips a syrupy alabaster goo.
Situated within the ‘V’ of the great trunk is an object.
Jacob’s consciousness moves closer.
It is a human head, the severed neck melding into the tree’s ivory-colored ooze.
The eyes flash open, blazing a fiery azure blue.
Who’s out there? Whoever it is, stay away!
Ennis Chaney exits the elevator on the first floor, then turns left down the main corridor to the double doors marked: SOSUS LAB.
The underwater sound surveillance system, known as SOSUS, is a network of undersea microphones and cables originally configured by the United States Navy during the Cold War to spy on enemy submarines. As the military’s need for SOSUS began to dwindle, oceanographers successfully petitioned the Navy for access to the acoustic network. Using SOSUS, scientists could hear the infrasonic vibrations made by ice floes cracking, seabeds quaking, and underwater volcanoes erupting, sounds far below the range of human hearing.
Dominique’s adopted father, the late Isadore Axler, had been a marine biologist who had used his private SOSUS lab to study whale migration patterns in the Gulf of Mexico. In the winter of 2012, Isadore, using Michael Gabriel’s information about the Chicxulub Crater, had discovered strange acoustics originating from beneath the Gulf floor. His investigation of the site led to his death … and the eventual discovery of the remains of an alien transport ship, buried beneath the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico.
At Edith Axler’s request, President Chaney had arranged for a SOSUS relay station to be set up in the Gabriel compound. Manny loved working in the lab, and his grandmother, Edith, took great pleasure in teaching her husband’s namesake how to record and analyze the voiceprints of whales, identify their species, and even track particular cetaceans as they moved throughout the Gulf of Mexico.
The president enters the lab. Manny is seated in his favorite chair, his headphones on as he eavesdrops on the whales. ‘Wow … listen, Grandma, I think I found a blue!’
Edith checks the source strength of the whale song. ‘One hundred eighty-six decibels. It’s a blue, all right.’ She signals Chaney over. Hands him a set of headphones.
Low-frequency moans echo in his ears. ‘That’s, uh, interesting.’
The lab door bursts open, Major Phillips hurries inside. ‘Sorry, sir, but we’ve got a situation.’
Jacob Gabriel lies on the floor of the Faraday chamber, unconscious. The staff physician listens to his heart, while Ryan Beck and a nurse attempt to comfort the boy’s visibly upset mother.
‘What happened?’ Chaney rasps.
The major shrugs. ‘Honestly, sir, I don’t know. Jacob’s mind is incredibly focused, giving him direct access to the clue line, better than any viewer I’ve ever worked with. Everything was fine, then he just blacked out.’
Dominique pushes her way to the major, poking her index finger against his chest. ‘Whatever you did to him—’
‘Ma’am, I swear … it wasn’t me. Jacob’s doing this himself.’
‘Blood pressure’s good,’ the doctor calls out. ‘Pulse is strong, but very slow. He seems to be in some kind of transcendental state. Let’s everyone try to stay calm and give him a few minutes.’
Father?
&n
bsp; Who’s out there?
It’s Jacob. Your son.
Foul beast, go away! Think you can fool me with your—
Father, please, it’s really me. It’s Jacob. Jacob Gabriel. Father—
Jacob? Jacob, is that really you? I’ve dreamed of you, son, but … but is this real? Is it really happening?
I’ve dreamed of it, too. And it’s happening, Father, it’s real.
But how? How is it we can communicate?
Thoughts are energy. We’re both Hunahpu. We share similar frequencies. Father, where are you?
I don’t know. I’m not even sure I exist. I have no physical form, but somehow I can think, and I can feel emotions. It’s as if I exist in a vacuum of energy, only I can’t escape.
Something’s out there, isn’t it? Something’s frightening you. It’s as if I can taste your fear. Father, what is it?
It’s the Abomination … I can feel its presence. It’s like ice, hovering in the periphery. It circles me like the shadow of death, always waiting for me to drop my defenses.
But what is it?
A presence of pure evil. It wants to feast on my soul.
Tell me what to do! How can I help?
You have helped, son, more than you’ll ever know. I’ve been so lost, drowning in loneliness and despair. Your thought energy … it’s like a lighthouse beacon to my soul. You’ve strengthened me, you’ve given me hope. I know now that I haven’t been abandoned, that I’m not alone. You’ve given me a newfound sense of being.
Father, there’s so much I need to ask you. The Mayan Creation Myth … is it true? Am I really the son of One Hunahpu? Is it really possible for me and my brother to travel to Xibalba? Can you be … resurrected?
There’s no easy answer to that. There’s so much I need to tell you, and I want to, I have to, but it’s dangerous. The effort to communicate weakens me, and the Abomination hovers … waiting for me to lower my guard. Still, I must try, there’s so much at stake. Jacob, how old are you now?
Seven.
My God …
Father?
Wherever I am, it’s impervious to time. You say you’re seven?
Yes.
My own journey … it also began when I was seven. In fact, it was at seven that I first encountered evil.
Teach me, please! Tell me how it began for you.