Pursued

by Gary Urey

  “I’ve kept the photo on my phone for a long time,” Megan said.

  “How…what…why,” Daisha stuttered, not quite believing that Megan, a living, breathing connection to her old life, was actually standing here.

  “When I figured out what the Doctor did to your mom and dad,” Megan told her, “I put on a disguise, invented a whole new persona, and infiltrated their operation.”

  “You can explain this later,” Jag interrupted. “We must go to the Palm Leaf Library. Soldiers are looking for us.”

  With a touch of Jag’s palm against the carving of Garuda, the library door creaked open and the group rushed inside. Daisha expected to see Larraj floating in midair, but the Nadi reader was nowhere in sight.

  “Where’s Larraj?” Axel asked. “And what happened to all the shelves full of bundled palm leaves?”

  “Gone,” Jag said. “He and several of the Sun Temple dancers removed every palm leaf prophecy for safekeeping and fled to the countryside. We are the only ones left.”

  “What are we supposed to do now?” Daisha asked.

  “Fulfill the destiny of your palm leaf,” Jag said.

  Daisha paced back and forth, chewing on her thumbnail, deep in thought. “Larraj’s reading of our palm leaves is starting to make sense,” she said. “The Doctor is obviously the red shadow, and Megan is the cloud that breaks away from his thunderstorm to help us.”

  “Who is this Larraj person, and how am I a cloud that breaks away from a thunderstorm?” Megan asked.

  Jag told Megan about the Nadi reader. He explained the prophecies written on palm leaves. How the seven sages saw through time and space into the lives of future generations and about their first foretelling written specifically for Daisha and Axel thousands of years ago.

  “The ancient sages even predicted how we must demagnetize the X-Point to defeat the shadow,” Axel said.

  “The last line of the prophecy says that to accomplish this, a boy with hair like a muddy river must die yet still live,” Daisha said. “That muddy-haired boy is obviously Axel.”

  “I don’t know about any prophecy,” Megan said. “But those ancient gods, or whatever they were, hit it right on the nose about demagnetizing the X-Point. Without a permanent electron diffusion region, the Doctor can’t go through with his plans.”

  “Then we have to figure out a way to ruin his coming-out party,” Axel said.

  Megan grabbed a stool from the corner of the room and sat down. “I’ve spent enough time with the Doctor and Pinchole to know what’s going to happen here. Any moment now, Pinchole is going to power up those four extremely powerful satellite dishes and send a signal to the space magnets orbiting the globe. When the magnets capture enough electrons floating in the solar wind, SW techs will transfer them to Earth with lasers. The nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer and thermoelectric converters in the courtyard will funnel that energy directly through the X-Point.”

  She gave Jag a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, but this beautiful place will be the first casualty inflicted by the Doctor Lennon Hatch Geographical Transportation Company. The massive amount of solar energy will turn the stone to dust in short order.”

  “How are we supposed to demagnetize this sucker?” Axel asked.

  “I have no idea,” Megan said. “I don’t think anyone does.”

  Daisha suddenly had a flash of insight that nearly knocked her over. Her mind swam back to their meeting with Larraj, his words burning in her memory like bare feet on scorching asphalt.

  “I think I know how to destroy the X-Point!” Daisha blurted out. “The boy with hair like a muddy river must die yet still live!”

  “Daisha, you better start making sense,” Axel said. “The Doctor’s about to blow up the temple. We’re running out of time.”

  “Larraj told us that by demagnetizing the temple, we free its soul so the divine energy may return to Swarga—Heaven. Remember?”

  Axel stared at her blankly, still not understanding.

  Daisha grabbed him by the shoulders. “Don’t you get it? You need to go through the X-Point with the GeoPort. That’s the only way to demagnetize it!”

  Axel shook his head. “Like a human sacrifice? Give me a break. I’m not some young maiden a Mayan priest is about to toss off a cliff to appease the gods.”

  “This has nothing to do with religious superstition,” Megan said. “Daisha is talking about pure, hard-core science. Actually, it makes perfect sense.”

  A loud, skull-splitting shriek of electrical feedback filled the library. Daisha, Axel, Jag, and Megan covered their ears and winced in pain. A moment later, the feedback was gone, but the walls inside the library still shook.

  “What’s going on?” Jag asked.

  “The satellite dishes are firing,” Megan said. “They’ll take at least thirty minutes to warm up. That’s how long we have until the Doctor destroys the Sun Temple and has the power supply for a global geographical transportation system.”

  “Tell me more,” Axel pressed. “I still don’t get it.”

  “The X-Point’s massive amount of energy gives us the ability to dematerialize the elemental composition of the human body to a stream of charged particles. We then use the GeoPort to reconstitute those particles back to human form. We need to do the exact opposite to demagnetize the X-Point.”

  “So what you’re saying is instead of the solar wind surging toward me and my GeoPort via an X-Point and allowing me to transfer to any latitudinal and longitudinal point on Earth, I need to go directly through the X-Point with my GeoPort and meet the solar wind head on.”

  Megan nodded. “Yes. And the GeoPort must be set directly to the sun.”

  “What are the coordinates for the sun?” Daisha asked.

  “Latitude and longitude don’t exist in space,” Megan explained. “Scientists measure the sun in angles. As in which direction and how high the sun is at any time of day.” She pulled out her iPhone. “I have an app that measures the solar position from any place on the planet. From where we stand, the sun’s declination in degrees is 21.52. Its solar azimuth is 75.3. The solar elevation is 78.14, and the zenith angle is 0.9786. Those are the numbers you must enter to demagnetize the X-Point.”

  “It doesn’t have to be Axel,” Daisha protested.

  “Yes, it does,” Axel said. “The prophecy says it must be me.”

  “I don’t care what some Nadi reader or the seven sages had to say! I’m not going to let you die!”

  “I’m tired of running from this maniac! Either he ends or I end.”

  There was another screech of eardrum-rupturing feedback followed by stronger tremors. A small crack fissured up one of the library’s walls. Dust from crumbling stone rained down in their eyes.

  Jag grabbed Daisha’s trembling hands. “You must not take the prophecy too literally,” he said. “Have you heard the parable of the caged eagle?”

  Daisha shook her head, wiping away tears.

  “A long time ago there was a man who captured a sea eagle and put it in a cage.”

  “Was it a sea eagle like Garuda?” Daisha asked.

  Jag nodded. “The sea eagle longed to fly, fish, and be free. The bird also had a mate that he missed desperately. After many months of captivity, the bird became so depressed and lonely he wanted to die. One day the man returned home from work and found the bird lying motionless on the floor of the cage, apparently dead. Saddened, the man tossed the bird outside on a trash heap. To the man’s astonishment, the sea eagle suddenly sprang to life, spread its wings, and flew back to his mate. You see, to attain freedom the bird had to die while still live.”

  Axel took out his GeoPort and punched in 21.52, 75.3, 78.14, 0.9786. “Let’s get moving,” he said. “If we all want to live, then it’s time for me to spread my wings and die.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  DOCTOR STAIN

  Pinchole handed the Doctor a hard hat, safety glasses, and a pair of earmuff-style hearing protectors. “You better put these on
, especially the ear protection,” he advised. “When the satellites power up, there will be several rounds of extremely loud feedback that would put any heavy-metal rock band to shame.”

  The Doctor slipped everything on as Pinchole signaled to one of the SW techs. With the click of a mouse, the four massive satellite dishes rumbled to life. The ground trembled under their feet. Streams of visible, neon-green electromagnetic waves appeared to fire from the center of the dishes into the atmosphere.

  “The dishes are drawing in the cyclotron and magnetohydrodynamic waves that our space magnets have captured from the solar wind,” Pinchole explained. “That immense energy source is the fuel that will power your geographical transportation company.”

  “Fascinating,” the Doctor muttered.

  “This is nothing. Just wait and see what happens next. You’re going to witness an amazing light show. The spectacle will make the aurora borealis look about as impressive as a lit cigarette in a dark alley.”

  “The natives will fall to their knees in prayer, thinking the world is about to end.”

  Pinchole laughed. “The world is about to change for them and the rest of humanity. We are ushering in the dawn of a new age.”

  “GTA—the Geographical Transportation Age,” the Doctor said, and then let the hugeness of the moment wash over him. His name would go down with Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Edison, the Wright Brothers, Benjamin Franklin, Grace Hopper, and Alexander Graham Bell as one of the greatest inventors of all time. His wealth and power would make Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Dell, Sandy Weill, and other business titans look like roadside beggars. Doctor Lennon Hatch would live forever in the annals of time as the man who owned the world.

  Axel Jack flashed in his mind. He hated the kid but had to respect the boy’s intelligence and tenacity. After all, breaking out of the locked room and stealing back the GeoPort had taken great ingenuity and guts.

  “Where do you think they are now?” the Doctor asked Pinchole over the squeals of feedback.

  “If you’re talking about Axel and Daisha, I have no idea. When we discovered the permanent X-Point, I lost all interest in their whereabouts.”

  “But they still have the two GeoPorts.”

  “It doesn’t matter. In a few minutes, those GeoPorts will be about as obsolete as a travel agent.”

  The air around the temple grew heavy with static electricity, making the Doctor’s hair stand on end and the red birthmark on his face pulse with heat. He watched with astonishment as the clouds parted and brilliant streaks of fluorescent green, pink, and scarlet light flashed across the sky. The satellite dishes revved harder, greedily sucking in solar waves while the diamond-lined cables gobbled the energy.

  “Keep your eye on the temple’s crown!” Pinchole shouted with delight. “Any moment there will be a surge of solar energy shooting right down in the center. That’s the mother lode, a cosmological zenith that will make the whole world shudder.”

  A loud, deafening thunderclap exploded above their heads. The local soldiers who had been guarding the gates dropped their guns and fled in terror. A dazzling, angelic beam of white light exploded from the heavens directly onto the center of temple.

  “Spectacular!” the Doctor gasped.

  The temple’s delicate and ancient stone, exquisitely carved by thousands of artisans over a dozen years, quaked under the intense energy. Fissures wormed their way around the foundation. Huge statues of horses, elephants, and lions toppled under the barrage of solar pressure.

  “Everyone make sure your hard hats and safety glasses are on!” Pinchole hollered. “The temple is getting ready to implode!”

  The Doctor winced in anticipation of what was about to come. Something strange flashed in the corner of his eye. He squinted through the smoke and blinding light and witnessed one of the statues fly open. A Caucasian boy with long, curly brown hair rushed from the opening and sprinted toward the center of the temple, straight at the massive beam of light.

  “It’s…it’s…” Pinchole blurted out, but the Doctor finished his sentence.

  “Axel Jack! What the hell is he doing?”

  “I don’t know,” Pinchole said. “But he’s a dead piece of meat if he reaches the light. The intense magnetism will suck him into space.”

  “Then let him die,” the Doctor said and then saw two other people rush from the statue.

  “Wow!” Pinchole exclaimed. “That’s Daisha! But who’s the Indian woman chasing after her?”

  The woman was wearing an aqua-blue sari. As she ran, the matching scarf covering her head blew off to reveal spiky blue hair.

  “Shoot them!” the Doctor ordered.

  “No guns,” Pinchole retorted. “The magnetohydro-dynamic waves could turn those ricocheting bullets into mini nuclear bombs and kill us all.”

  Rage washed across the Doctor’s enflamed face. He balled his fist and punched Pinchole square in the mouth. The director of Satellite Warp science clutched his jaw and crumpled to his knees.

  “You three!” the Doctor ordered, pointing toward his security team. “Shoot them! Now!”

  The men wearing black suit jackets and white shirts didn’t budge. They just stood there, confused by whom they should listen to, their boss or Pinchole.

  “Then I’ll kill them myself!” the Doctor screamed. He grabbed a gun from one of his men, whipped off his hearing protectors, and charged into the courtyard.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  AXEL

  Axel felt like he was in the middle of a war zone. The earth trembled, thick electrical smoke filled his lungs, and a blinding beam of light poured from the sky directly into the heart of the temple. The intense, beautiful radiance was his final destination. Where he would destroy the X-Point and stop the Doctor in his tracks.

  As he moved closer, the light’s magnetic property yanked at him. The round metal buttons on his jacket ripped from their stitches and disappeared into the light. His GeoPort, made from many metal parts, pulled from his right hand. He quickly secured the device with both hands and checked the declination coordinates.

  21.52, 75.3, 78.14, 0.9786

  If Megan was correct, he would fly through the Warp on the solar wind directly into the heart of the sun.

  “Axel!” a voice cried out. “Stop!”

  He turned and saw Daisha race out of the palm leaf library. Not far behind was Megan, chasing after her in bare feet and stumbling in the sari.

  “Go back!” Axel shouted. “You’re not going to stop me!”

  “Please…” Daisha started to say, but the rest of her words were lost under another round of ear-piercing feedback.

  Axel turned away and bounded up the stone steps two at a time. His sneaker caught on a crack and he stumbled hard against the vibrating stone. His GeoPort fell from his hands. He attempted to pick it up, but the light quickly snatched the device with its magnetic pull and tugged it just out of reach. The energy then reached its greedy claws into Axel, flipping him backward and dragging him feet first toward its illuminated, hungry mouth.

  Two sets of strong fingers snatched his hair, wrenching him hard in the opposite direction.

  “Ouch!” Axel squealed.

  “Hold on!” Daisha’s voice wailed, gripping Axel’s scalp with all her might. “I’ve got you!” She grabbed his hair and braced her feet against a step to clamp herself in place.

  “Let go of me!” he pleaded. “This is the only way to destroy the Doctor! Go back to Jag before this thing sucks you up too.”

  “You’re not going to destroy anything without a GeoPort. Look.”

  Axel peered over his shoulder and watched his GeoPort scamper farther from his reach. Just then, the arm of a statue crashed to the ground and shattered into pieces, but its large stone hand remained intact and wedged neatly between the toes of an enormous carved elephant. The GeoPort lodged perfectly in the statue’s palm, temporarily halting its advancement to the light.

  “Let me go,” Axel said. “I think
I can reach the GeoPort.”

  “No,” Daisha fired back. “We’ve lost each other before, and I won’t let it happen again.”

  A woman’s scream echoed from behind them. Axel looked back and saw Megan and the Doctor. They were wrestling on the ground. Megan was desperately trying to stop him, but the Doctor was too strong. He flung her aside and aimed a gun at her. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the magnetic suction ripped the gun from the Doctor’s hand and sent it flying away.

  Axel felt himself lurch forward. Daisha’s feet had given way, and now the powerful magnetic force was dragging both of them closer to the light. Pieces of the temple rained down on them. Axel frantically grabbed a large chunk of stone to stop their progress. He saw that the GeoPort was now within arm’s reach. The device was vibrating in the statue’s hand. As he reached out for it, a sharp pain sliced through his right hamstring.

  “Ahhh!” Axel groaned and then looked over his shoulder. Blood gushed from his leg where the Doctor had plunged a pocketknife into his flesh.

  “You’re dead!” the Doctor roared at Axel.

  Daisha, who was still holding on desperately, contorted her body and kneed the Doctor in the nose. Blood gushed from the man’s nostrils, the color mixing perfectly with the large port-wine birthmark on the side of his face.

  The Doctor shoved her hard. She lost her grip on Axel’s legs and fell aside, clutching the fallen head of a lion statue to keep from slipping away. The Doctor leaped onto Axel. He clamped his good hand around Axel’s throat, squeezing with all his might, and used the hard cast on his other hand to deliver a series of skull-thumping blows.

  “I’ve got you now!” the Doctor snarled. “I killed your father, destroyed his good name, and stole his life’s work. Now I’m going to crush his only son!”

  The Doctor clamped down harder, his thumb jamming into Axel’s trachea like a sharp spike. Axel’s eyes bugged out. Stars danced in front of his face. He was choking to death. He saw Daisha leap into action. She rolled past him like a tumbleweed, snatched the GeoPort from the statue’s hand, and swirled off toward the light.