Emerald Sky

by David Clarkson

  ‘I think that’s up to your psychic friend.’

  The two pairs landed on an open plain at the entrance to a valley nestled amongst the spot where two mountains converged. Once they had unclasped their tandem passengers the two soldiers withdrew their firearms and adopted a defensive posture. They then performed a quick recon of the immediate surrounds before concluding that there was no imminent threat.

  It was the first time Emmy had experienced sub zero temperatures, but the initial shock of the cold did not last long. Her clothing was well insulated and she had so much to distract her. Back home, much of the land was flat and featureless, especially around Jackson’s Hill. Here it was of a scale she could barely comprehend. The mountains shrunk her down to the size of a termite. Not since she had projected her consciousness into far flung corners of outer space had she felt so lost and isolated.

  ‘So where are we?’ she asked.

  She was sitting on the frozen ground with her head craned upwards, still trying to fathom the massiveness of the mountain range.

  ‘Co-ordinates are irrelevant,’ Esteban replied. ‘We don’t need a map. That’s our compass right there.’

  He pointed toward Jimmy who seemed a lot less awestruck than Emmy. Unbeknownst to the others, he had kept his eyes closed during the whole jump.

  Just in case.

  Since sharing his fears with Emmy he had continued to ponder his own mortality and had concluded that when the time did come, he would rather not see it beforehand.

  ‘So where to, Jimmy?’ asked Emmy. ‘Esteban tells me you’re in charge.’

  The young psychic glanced around as if he was searching for something specific. After two visual passes he walked up the valley towards the base of the mountains. The other three followed, each keeping their distance. They did not want to get too close whilst he was using his unique gift.

  ***

  The colonel was relieved when he received news of the team’s safe landing. Success depended almost entirely on having the element of surprise. If the Chinese knew what was coming then his men would not stand a chance. So far as he was aware, the plane had made it in and out without detection.

  He was taking a major risk with this mission. Arguably the biggest of his career. The target base being situated in Tibet rather than the Chinese Motherland did little to ease his concern. The slightest mistake could be misconstrued as an act of war.

  ‘What have you got to report?’ he asked Dr Stark, who was seated opposite at his desk.

  ‘No further breaches,’ the scientist replied. ‘We’re monitoring every square inch of this facility around the clock. Nothing can get past that level of surveillance.’

  ‘What about a ghost?’

  She did not flinch upon hearing the term.

  ‘Not even that. We are talking about state of the art technology. Things even Dr Rayne doesn’t know about. Oh, and for the record, Colonel, they’re not ghosts. We prefer to use the term traveller.’

  ‘Some rich kid puts off going to Harvard in order to waste Mom and Dad’s cash on finding themselves in Cambodia is a traveller. What we got here may not be some undead phantom, but they’re just as dangerous. We cannot afford to wait for them to come to us. It’s time we took control of the game. Should Dr Rayne fail, we need to find a way to take these spooks out ourselves.’

  ‘What do you propose?’

  ‘Simple – a trap. The last breach happened in the medical bay when that Johnson kid turned off his mother’s life support. They may have been trying to hijack her body. Been done before, it’s all in the report on Jackson Fox. If we want to smoke these bastards out, we have to offer them some form of bait. You are to turn off life support to one of the coma patients.’

  The scientist swallowed hard. She knew that if she wanted to remain on the project she would have to bypass more than a few ethical principles, but she had never committed murder, which essentially the colonel was now asking her to do. She had to make a choice. It did not take her long to reach a conclusion.

  ‘When shall I initiate the plan?’

  He checked his watch.

  ‘Thirty six hours from now. The team should be in position by then. If we attack them on two fronts simultaneously the Chinese will never know what has hit them.’

  ‘Very good, Colonel. Consider it done.’

  As Dr Stark left the colonel’s office, she felt a great deal more confident about her position than when she had entered it. She now had the opportunity to prove she was better than Dr Rayne. And if Constance was really lucky, her rival would not be returning from her mission at all.

  ***

  The trail Jimmy used to guide his friends came to an abrupt end at a barrier of what appeared to be solid rock. This natural blockade extended for as far as could be seen in all directions. There did not appear to be any way around and trying to scale the mountain without the requisite safety equipment would be suicide. If they even attempted it the only help Jimmy would be able to offer would be a few seconds advance notice on each of their impending deaths.

  With less experience of the young Australian’s gifts, Jack assumed Jimmy had gotten it wrong this time. Emmy and Esteban both knew better.

  ‘Talk to us,’ said Esteban. ‘Which way do you see us going?’

  ‘Straight ahead,’ Jimmy replied. ‘We pass through the rock just there.’

  He pointed towards a shadowy part of the rock face, which was untouched by snow.

  ‘This is crazy,’ said Jack. ‘It’s a dead end. There’s no way through.’

  Esteban ignored him. Instead, he spread his arm, indicating for Jimmy to show him the way, whilst Jack shook his head in frustration. Undeterred, Jimmy walked on and into the shadows. And then...disappeared!

  ‘That’s impossible,’ said Jack.

  ‘Not impossible,’ replied Esteban, ‘just very difficult to see. This could be our way through. Come on, and light a torch. Jimmy may not be under any risk of getting lost, but we are.’

  The first hundred metres of the tunnel was tough going. Even the soldiers found it difficult. The passage was narrow and the path slippery underfoot. Sharp protrusions of rock jutted out from the ceiling, sometimes leaving less than three feet of clearance underneath. Jimmy traced a perfect route through and the others were careful to follow his movements exactly. When their guide came to a large wooden door he was stopped in his tracks.

  ‘It’s locked,’ he told the others, without even trying the handle.

  ‘That’s not a problem,’ replied Esteban.

  He nodded to Jack, giving an unspoken order, to which the sergeant responded by attaching a small amount of plastic explosive around the lock. A wire was then inserted, which was unravelled to a distance of roughly ten metres.

  ‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ Emmy warned them. ‘It wouldn’t take much to bring the whole mountain down on top of us.’

  ‘In that case, maybe you should do the honours,’ Jack replied, passing her the handheld detonation unit.

  She looked to Jimmy as she took possession of the device. Her friend gave nothing away. So far as his visions were concerned, no sign was a good sign.

  Reluctantly, she pressed the button.

  What followed was not the loud bang she had been expecting but more of a dull thump. A small amount of smoke floated up from the lock like it would from an extinguished candle.

  ‘Did it work?’ she asked.

  ‘Be our guest,’ replied Esteban, sweeping his arm toward the door.

  Emmy handed the detonator back to Jack and then walked past Jimmy to the door. She could see no damage other than a slightly charred mark around where the explosive had been. When she placed her hands against it, the door gave way to only a slight push and opened into a large chamber.

  Unlike the passageway that led to it, this room had smooth walls, which had been carefully hand carved out of the rock. The air within was much drier and carried the faint odour of incense. As Emmy arced her torch beam in front of her, it pi
cked out statues of brass and gold, ornate tapestries and intricately painted works of art with the stone walls themselves as their canvass.

  ‘Guys, you better check this out,’ she said. ‘It appears to be some sort of a temple.’

  ‘We’re on track,’ said Esteban. ‘If our intel is correct, these tunnels should extend right through the mountain.’

  ‘You knew about this?’

  ‘To an extent – yes. We knew that Tibetan monks used tunnels during the Chinese invasion, but they had never been found. Of course, nobody who was looking for them had Jimmy. He was the one who guided my chute, bringing us so close to the entrance.’

  ‘He’s not guiding us at all, you are. You manipulate Jimmy like he’s some sort of divining rod. If you make a mistake the repercussions will be serious. I hope you know what you’re doing.’

  ‘We’ll find out soon enough. In the meantime, this is a good place to make camp for the night. Your friend Charlie will never be able to find us beneath all this rock.’

  ‘You’re the boss.’

  She dropped her bag and then left to check out the rest of the chamber in greater detail whilst the soldiers set up some lamps and prepared their rations for consumption.

  Once she had established the layout of the room, Emmy turned her attention to the treasures within. The art and ornamentation was clearly Buddhist in style and design, but it was the subject matter of one painting in particular that intrigued her.

  ‘Esteban, come take a look at this,’ she called out.

  The soldier quickly made his way to her side. She had already taken a camera from her pack and was capturing images of something on the wall when he caught up with her. A shudder reverberated up his spine when he saw what it was.

  ‘What is that?’ he asked. ‘It looks eerily familiar.’

  ‘A little too familiar, don’t you think?’ replied Emmy.

  The picture depicted a monk in a posture adopted for meditation. A line was drawn from his centre (heart), which then connected with a second being. This second figure was less detailed and could be seen engaging in various activities. In one depiction it appeared to pass through rock and in another it stood watchful over the temple like an all seeing eye. Each time the being was linked to the resting monk by the same cord. The images clearly alluded to astral travel, but some of the pictures in the sequence did not fit. The astral being could at one point be seen using tools and in another diagram it was actively repelling an advancing army.

  ‘It looks like somebody beat you to the punch,’ said Esteban. ‘Didn’t you check to see if anybody else held a patent before building your machine?’

  ‘Very funny, this is nothing more than superstition. Religious hokum. They couldn’t actually do any of those things.’

  ‘So why bring it to my attention?’

  She paused for a moment.

  ‘Is the food ready yet?’ she asked.

  ‘Don’t change the subject. Answer my question. Something about those pictures has gotten you a little spooked. I can read it in your posture. You may as well tell me what it is.’

  ‘First we eat, then we sleep, and then we shut down the Chinese base of operations. After that, I may consider holding a Q & A.’

  He decided not to press the matter and did as she requested of him. They still had a long way to go and it was imperative that they rested well. The only certainty about the task ahead was that it would be tough. Just how tough was a question not even Jimmy would be able to answer.

  Chapter 25

  The others had left. She could not recall why or even when they had deserted her. All she knew was that she was now alone. Not that it really mattered anymore. The mission no longer seemed to be a priority. Her thoughts had swirled into one big, unintelligible maelstrom of insignificance.

  She left the chamber and walked along the tunnel. There was light up ahead and so long as she traced one of her hands along the wall she could find her way in the darkness. When she arrived at the opening it brought with it an unexpected burst of heat along with the light. Raising her arm to shield her eyes from the brightness, she stepped through the opening and back into...

  ...a desert!

  Was she home or at the very least, somewhere close to home? The horizon was entirely flat. Rust from the iron rich landscape coated the ground under her feet. The sky was a clear blue with not even the slightest hint of a cloud in evidence.

  And there was the sun.

  Its radioactive furnace heated the air around her to temperatures approaching forty degrees Celsius. She slowly rotated her body three hundred and sixty degrees in order to survey the full landscape. It was a never changing panorama. Perfectly level and neatly split in two; blue at the top and red at the bottom. There was no mistaking it. She was definitely back in Australia.

  ‘We don’t have long.’

  The voice was familiar, but she was unable to trace its origin. Taking a step backwards and spinning around, she could see she was alone.

  ‘This way. You have to hurry.’

  Again the origin of the voice was impossible to peg down. This time, however, she turned to find that her surroundings had changed once more. A building had materialised as if from nowhere. It was a small structure, little more than a shack, sitting incongruously amidst what was otherwise a desert. This had to be where the voice had come from and she had an idea to whom it belonged.

  The entrance to the building was not locked and she slowly pushed open the door.

  ‘Lucy?’

  She spoke softly for fear of disturbing the resident should it not be her former lover. A sense of foreboding was gestating in the pit of her stomach. It reminded her never to take anything for granted.

  As she passed over the threshold she realised she had been wise to be cautious. It was not Lucy that she encountered inside.

  Not even close.

  ‘You seem disappointed, child, were you expecting somebody else?’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ replied Emmy. ‘You’re dead. I made sure of it.’

  ‘We are all dead – relatively speaking, of course. Must I explain the semantics of time?’

  ‘No, you don’t have to explain anything. I just want you to go. Go back to whatever Hell you have escaped from.’

  He was seated in his wheelchair, but there was something not quite right. He did not appear as frail and vulnerable as he had in life. Instead, he gave off an air of restrained power. It was she who now felt helpless.

  She glanced to the door, weighing up the time it would take for her to escape. As if intuitively aware of what she was thinking, her grandfather did what he never could in life; he stood, and in doing so his entire appearance altered.

  Gone was the old man and in his place was the body of Emmy’s former best and most trusted friend, Lucas Black.

  ‘Don’t,’ she said. ‘You have no right.’

  ‘I have every right,’ he replied, bitterness coating his words. ‘You must accept that we are the same, you and I. The same blood flows through our veins.’

  As he spoke, his physiognomy altered once more. This time the face staring back at her was her face. It was like looking at a reflection.

  She took a step backwards.

  ‘Does this make you uncomfortable?’ he asked.

  ‘Just stop!’ she shouted. ‘I’m nothing like you. You killed people. I could never do that. Do you understand? Never!’

  He smiled, cruelly.

  ‘You cannot stop me. I am a part of you. I will always be a part of you.’

  She turned to go for the door, but it was no longer there. The small wooden shack had now become a fully enclosed tomb with no way out.

  She spun back around to see that her grandfather, still in her form, had begun to glow like there was a fire burning inside of him. Then his face - her face, it began to crack like the surface was composed of molten rock.

  He opened his mouth as if to scream, but all that came out was light. This radioactive glow was now being expelled from
every aperture of his being. He had become a human disco ball. Before Emmy could even begin to make sense of it all, there was an explosion of pure atomic energy bursting outwards from the being once known as Jackson Fox. She felt an intense blast of heat and the last thing she saw was her own hand dissolve as she tried to use it to shield her face from the oncoming fireball.

  ‘Emmy, are you okay?’

  Her vision was groggy and she struggled to make out the shadow looming over her. The air was now cold and damp. There was no cabin, no Jackson Fox and no explosion. There never had been. She was still in the mountain tunnels.

  ‘What happened?’ she asked.

  ‘You were having a nightmare,’ replied Esteban. ‘I heard you whimper in your sleep and then you cried out.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘I am not one to lie. Tell me, what troubles you?’

  She looked around. Jimmy was watching, waiting for her answer as intently as Esteban, but Jack was paying her no attention at all. Instead, he was focused on keeping sentry, making sure there were no others in the tunnel with them.

  ‘It’s not important,’ she told them. ‘It was just a dream.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘I’m positive. It’s probably just the claustrophobic atmosphere in here playing havoc with my subconscious. We should get moving as soon as possible. It’s not good to be spending so much time underground.’

  ‘Relax, we’re safe here. This mountain could shield us from a nuclear blast.’

  A chill ran up her spine.

  Did he know what she had just dreamt?

  Of course he did not. That would be crazy. A person could be driven insane by reading too much into such things. She needed to clear her head and the best way to do that was to focus on the mission at hand.

  ‘Do we know how long it will take us to navigate the tunnels?’

  ‘It’s hard to estimate. Jimmy will find the optimum path, but it’ll still take the best part of a day.’

  ‘In that case, we should get moving right away.’

  ‘You’re the boss,’ said Esteban.