The Light Bringer's Way

by C. F. Fruzzetti

  I knew it was before Patrick answered because I saw three stars in a cluster and one had a halo of a dim red color. The “Red Controversy” was not controversial for me. I could see the red dwarf Sirius C with my own eyes.

  Chapter Twelve: Patrick

  Sirius was blinking unlike any other celestial body in the sky. The star twinkled its dazzling white flashes. It was easy to understand why it would be a point of fascination. “Yep. That’s it, Blair. Look for Orion’s belt, those three stars in a row, and follow the line downward to your left. That extremely bright star is Sirius A.” Patrick directed a pleased smile to Blair. His day was getting better and better now that he knew Blair had an interest in the stars. Patrick continued, “I was going to leave this part out because I sound like a total geek, but when I computed Sirius A and Sirius B elliptical orbit on my computer, it looked familiar. I realized where I had seen it when I was studying for my science test—it looked exactly like the spiraling DNA helix on the front cover of my biochemistry textbook.”

  At the mention of his biochemistry class, the word that popped into my head was not “geek” but “smart.” Something didn’t add up, though, because I didn’t recall seeing it on our class schedule. “Do they offer that class at Gramercy?”

  “No, I take it at George Mason University on Tuesday nights. Dr. West is a friend of the professor. He suggested it.” After he said it, Patrick’s eyes shifted to Blair. This was not news to Blair.

  “Hmmm. I’ll bite. OK, Patrick. How long have you known Dr. West?” I was a bit perplexed since there was relief in his eyes that I asked him. I got the sense this was a burden he wanted to unload. He stalled for a minute behind his smile, considering perhaps that he should have made it a bit more of a challenge to extract the information.

  “No fair. Did you go inside my head? I know you can do that.” Patrick tried unsuccessfully to make himself look less like an open book. Blair shook her head; she knew I never would have intruded inside his mind.

  “No, I did not go inside your head. Who knows what mess I would find in there?” I joked. “Let me tell it to you straight. You are not ready for any covert operations. The way you looked at Blair told me that you have known Dr. West for a while and you have told her about it. Your eyes were looking at her for support or questioning if she would rat you out if you decided not to tell me. I can answer that—Blair is someone you can count on for help and not to give away your secrets. She is someone you can trust. And, speaking of trust, I promise you; I will not cross over into your mind unless it is imperative to help you or our immediate situation. Sorting through someone’s mind is not that easy and sometimes a memory fragment can be misunderstood. Plus, there is sort of an unspoken code that it is just not respectful to intrude on others’ thoughts—especially if you can’t keep them out. Right, Reid?” I gave him a hard stare. He had crossed over into my mind and read my feelings through touch plenty of times before I agreed to go out on his boat. That is, until I learned how I could close my third eye.

  Regardless of my attempts to turn up the heat over his past actions, he did not seem to sweat it. “You did say unless it was imperative, right?” Reid zinged with a sly grin blazing up his face. “I had to be resourceful and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Let’s see, there was learning your class schedule, cutting through your soccer practice, going to your house when you were sick, and I THINK it was me who had a party so you would show up.”

  Patrick smiled and relaxed. He looked as if he was ready to watch an entertaining episode on television.

  “Sorry, Patrick,” I said. “I’m not going to tangle with Reid and forget about you and Dr. West.”

  Reid clamped a hand on Patrick’s shoulder. “She’s tenacious. Trust me, it’s best not to aggravate a panther.” Difficult as it was, I ignored Reid and kept looking at Patrick. He had something to tell me and I would not be distracted.

  Patrick shrugged. “I met Dr. West in his office because I’m one of his patients. Blair asked me this afternoon if I was the Patrick William Riordan on the Sunrise organizational chart. I told her that it was me, and, since I found out you had not read the entire Sunrise org chart, I asked her to let me tell you myself that I am pyrokinetic.”

  Patrick waited for a bigger reaction than me nodding my head. It occurred to me as he relaxed that he was anticipating me to ask him to light something on fire or ask him to prove it. I didn’t doubt him and was relieved he had a skill that could come in handy.

  “It felt awkward telling you right away. I wanted you to know me better so that you could see I had other skills aside from starting fires and controlling temperature. Sometimes, a label defines you and that is all people see. Blair told me you would understand because you had been trying to blend in your whole life,” Patrick quietly confessed.

  I gave Patrick a gentle smile. “That’s true. As Reid once said, a label can feel like wearing a target on your back. Everyone wants to be respected and valued for who they are and not lumped into a category of a single attribute. It goes against the high school mantra, though, so I get it why you were hesitant.” People were categorized and labeled the moment they walked through Gramercy’s doors and once they were sorted into one group it was hard to change the perception.

  Reid’s eyes were on me and, amazingly, he seemed to tip me into his mind. He was remembering when the magnets were sticking to him during the science unit experiment in elementary school. I saw as Patrick came over to Reid and told him not to feel bad, that he had accidentally burned down his own tree house and had to always keep a thermos of water with him so his hands didn’t get too hot. Reid then set me gently back into my own space. That was all he wanted me to know but it explained why they remained friends over the years despite going to different schools.

  Wow. It was startling to realize what Patrick could do and that Reid had learned a powerful new trick from Mr. Parks before the trip. It took a mighty mental muscle to be able to pull me into his mind the way he did.

  Reid blew on his knuckles, showing off and reminding me of the time I did the same to him. That was when I teased him that Blair and I were too fast to catch…only to find out he was recruited by the Navy SEALs for his swimming prowess. Nice. It was a perfectly placed double jab. Cranes could be so annoying.

  “Tell her what you can do, Patrick. I take it Blair has some idea.” Reid did not mean his comment in a romantic way but both of them turned a shade of magenta. Patrick recovered as Reid showed Patrick what he intended by rubbing his hands together.

  “Oh. That. I can speed up or slow down atoms, which means I can turn up the heat to the point of ignition or cool things off to extinguish flames. Like this.” He lowered his hand and reduced the sterno flame that we had used to heat our Spaghettios and then, as he raised his arm, the flame flared up again. “See?”

  “Hot stuff,” I kidded. Blair and Reid booed my word play. “OK. I meant to say, yes, I believe you are pyrokinetic. It had crossed my mind that Dr. West would not allow you to come on this trip unless you could hold your own so this does not come totally out of left field. I should have studied the org chart better and it is a lesson learned that I should not ignore information at hand.” I had relied on Blair’s photographic memory and I recognized it was an error not to force myself to memorize it as well. Doing something I did not enjoy was not a reason it should not be done. This was the discipline it took to be a leader and to be successful in life.

  “Yeah. I agree with what you said about Dr. West not letting anyone be here who is not able to both help you and take care of themselves. He is mega protective of you, Whitney. Not without good reason, but I have to say I’m a little hurt that you don’t think I was selected for this trip because of my killer Hacky Sack skills. This little foot bag helped me see the helix image through the constellation drawings. Without my trusty Hacky Sack, I wouldn’t have gone in the right direction so it counts for something…”

  “Patrick! You could be onto something. Hundreds of people have been in
that cave over the centuries and the missing link was that they left their Hacky Sack at home!” Reid quipped as he grabbed it from Patrick’s hand and soared it up to the sky. “Hacky Sack. You are my hero. Fly. Be Free.”

  I laughed aloud. It reminded me of Mork from Mork and Mindy trying to set eggs free and I realized Reid knew from my memories I thought that was funny. When we first met, he said he wanted to learn what made me laugh because he thought that explained what made me tick. I liked Mork because he was different and trying to fit in even though it was impossible. Maybe Reid was right and it did show a lot about me. I poked him and saw the glimmer of acknowledgment in his eye. He grabbed both of his earlobes the way Mork did when he said “Nanu-Nanu” in the television show opening, and I smiled.

  Patrick and Blair were not the first ones in the cave. They must have done something unique to find those manuscripts. I had to give them credit for that. “Patrick, it does not matter how you did it but that you found it. True, I would not have expected a Hacky Sack to be our greatest asset; however, I like to keep an open mind. Being resourceful is a survival skill just like Blair’s astronomy skills. She is the one who can navigate by them at night. I know only the bare minimum: Polaris, Orion, the Big Dipper, and Cassiopeia.”

  “Cassiopeia? Really? That’s not one of people’s usual top tier,” Patrick commented.

  “Yeah, well. My dad hates that I don’t wear a watch. Cassiopeia’s second brightest star acts like a clock hand moving around Polaris. When it is directly at Polaris’ zenith, it is celestial midnight. Part of my relentless field training, you know, in case I’m ever lost on New Year’s Eve. But now I can add Sirius to my constellation list. It is certainly easy to pick out. If you were able to see this white spark with the red halo in ancient times, I would say it would be obvious why you thought Sirius was special. And why you would realize you were seeing something others were not if they told you that was only a white speck in the sky.” I looked back up at Sirius to make sure it was not an optical illusion. It was as stunning as the first time I noticed it.

  Reid crossed over into my mind to see what I saw. His eyes widened in wordless exclamation. “That’s not what I see, Whit. Sirius is a nice-looking star from my perspective but what you see is amazing. Is your vision of it different because of Marlin Steele’s pure energy?”

  “Time out,” Blair interrupted, making a T out of her hands. “Can we get on the same page as you guys? Whitney, can you see the red star as in the star that caused the Red Controversy?”

  “It seems that way. When Reid and I were in Chernobyl, we destroyed a vial that contained pure energy and when it disintegrated, it did not go directly into the atmosphere as expected. The pure energy came from a man named Marlin Steele; he was originally from the Dogon tribe and was a precognitive with incredible eyesight. He was also the man behind the design of the pure energy extractor and that’s why he felt it should be tested on him first. The extraction worked but it killed Marlin Steele in the process. His pure energy diffused through me on its way to the atmosphere and it changed my eyes.”

  “Yow-za. So you have absorbed his Dogon eyesight and can use it?” Patrick said, full of awe.

  “Yes. I wish they were sunglasses so I could share them with you. The best I can do is draw a picture of what it looks like in the sky.”

  I grabbed my fork and sketched it onto the hard mud clay that covered the top of the roof.

  “That looks exactly like one of the drawings we saw in the cave,” Blair said. “How soon until dawn? We’ve got to get back there.”

  Patrick looked up at the constellation Cassiopeia. “According to Whitney’s celestial clock we have at least nine hours but it must be the middle of the night at home. I am beat. Do you think we will have trouble getting up tomorrow?”

  Blair and Reid looked at me and waited for me to answer. “No. We will be ready to go at first light. I will be up at dawn.”

  Chapter Thirteen: Blair

  It was at least half an hour before sunrise when the vision jostled me awake. Wedged in between Reid and Blair, I had slept soundly and it was with groggy regret I found Vlad Dune’s face drifting into the forefront of my mind. I wanted to go back to sleep but the vision would not be ignored. Irritated, I concentrated on the image and groggily groused that a face is not much of a lead.

  The sync between the vision and myself was strong; it had to be to get through the magnetic buffer of Reid, and I could tell it was trying to communicate with me. The vision became clearer and I could see Vlad’s face in minute detail. He looked younger and thinner than the last time I saw him. His eyes darted back and forth. They were desperate and searching—looking for something. I had the uneasy feeling he was looking for us. Specifically, me.

  My heart sank, as I understood Vlad was the message and that was the extent of it. He was looking for me and he looked like he wanted me to help him. I did not know where Vlad was located or how to find him. The words on Reid’s sundial, tempus ad lucem ducit veritatem, ran through my head, reminding me that “time brings truth to light” and that having information did not mean you had to act on it.

  Sirius, the eastern star, barely remained in the fading night sky, blinking like a hypnotic beacon near the horizon. The same distinct shade of red pulsed from a high peak in the distance. That was interesting, I thought as the scarlet blush of the cliffs turned into a barely perceptible rose glow. I had seen the unusual shade before when we were generating a cinnabar shield. This “red shield” was a life force energy and a center of chi. It seemed beyond coincidence it was coming from the top peak of the astronomer’s observatory.

  I slipped through the mosquito netting Blair had cocooned around the four of us. My eyes performed a quick security check; nothing appeared out of place. I ticked through all our areas of vulnerability. There were no other rooftops close to ours, and the bar on the gate was down with our guards on the outer wall. An alarm triggered in my brain. That was an assumption and not verifiable. The guards were unaccounted for until we opened the gate and, if they were not there, we did not know who would be waiting. Mr. Parks taught me to make my choices based on what felt right in the moment. For some reason, I did not believe Tiembo was outside and I wanted us to find a new exit that would not be so noticeable.

  I sensed Reid in my mind trying to figure out what was going on and why I was up and patrolling the roof so early. I showed him my thoughts on Tiembo. He was going to have to trust me and not protest I was overreacting. As he saw my request to go off the roof before first light and head for the cave, he nodded and gave me a small salute. For the first time, I was glad I was field leader. He was not going to question my authority or my choices—even when I couldn’t rationally explain myself. Reid picked up some of the backpacks and brought them to the wall we would rappel down into the small alley below.

  Relieved, I went to Blair’s bag, pulled out the climbing ropes I had seen earlier, and started to tie the lines around the house supports. Reid woke up Blair and Patrick and quietly briefed them about what was happening.

  Blair set to work to buy us time from the guards and the villagers by using her air mattress and travel pillow as stuffing for the sleeping bags we would leave behind. Copying her hero, Ferris Bueller, she made it seem like the mattress was a mass of bodies sleeping under the sleeping bags. The thick, opaque mosquito netting around the jumble of sleeping bags helped with the illusion.

  Reid went down the rope and we lowered the packs to him. One by one, we landed into the sandy narrow street and I noticed our tracks. All four of us would leave quite an obvious trail.

  I pointed to them, visually explaining my concern. Reid nodded and motioned to Blair and me to wait there. He started walking backward to the start of the alley to leave a set of tracks that would look like someone had turned off the busy main village street. Patrick did the same. Then they retraced their steps back to where we were standing.

  Reid flipped his pack around to the front and pointed to the end of the r
oad that led in the direction to the astronomer’s observatory and the cave. It was flat and open and the ground there looked like baked concrete. Once we reached the open area, there was less deep sand and our tracks would be more difficult to find. It was a short distance and our best option, so I agreed with a nod of my head and strapped on my pack. Reid bent down and I climbed onto his back.

  A red mark caught my eye. Reid’s hair was caught in his baseball hat strap and his Poseidon Program tattoo of an eagle clutching the trident and pistol had the same faint red glow as the Sirius star and the area of the cave I saw this morning. I remembered Reid had said it was an identifier. I thought he had meant by the military. Now, I was wondering who else could identify him.

  Reid was not moving and I noticed he was waiting for Blair to get on Patrick’s back. She was frozen, petrified to make such a bold move even though Patrick had his hands on his knees so she could get on his back. I realized she needed a push so I made it a nonnegotiable directive. I pointed to her and then to Patrick and tapped my wrist, telling her we needed to move. Patrick leaned his head toward the end of the road like he was ready to go and she complied.

  The guys tried to walk in existing tracks down the alley. The dryness of the sand would work in our favor because scent tracking required moisture. That’s also why none of us smelled from the heat—sweat did not linger long enough on our skin to stink.

  After we reached the clearing, Reid headed for a lone baobab tree. The desert tree looked like it was planted upside down with roots sticking up in the air. There were no lush green leaves like we were used to back home and its silhouette was stark and eerie.

  “Here we are. This is the local McDonald’s. Who wants a monkey-bread fruit happy meal?” Reid asked as we walked under the tree. I jumped off and saw his face was red from carrying the weight. I pulled out my water bottle and handed it to him. He took it but added, “It wasn’t THAT heavy, Whit. It’s this heat. It is stifling. I will be glad to leave the desert.”