by R J Johnson
As the workers left, he started surveying the site. A few minutes after everyone was clear, he watched Mbasi drive down into the pit in his truck. He’d thought about staying in there and waiting for the man, but he also thought a little demonstration of his power would be in order, should Mbasi think he could get away with kidnapping his family.
The truck came to a stop at the bottom, where Mbasi stepped out and lit a cigarette. Ododa closed his eyes and felt the familiar jerk as he teleported himself down into the middle of the pit, standing next to his former friend.
Mbasi looked up in surprise, then broke into a grin. “I do look forward to seeing how that works.”
“Carefully,” Ododa said, his eyes narrowing. “Where is my family?”
“Safe,” Mbasi said with a drag of his cigarette, “for now.”
He pulled out his iPad and showed Ododa video of his family tied up in a room not dissimilar to their bedroom at home. It was then that Ododa realized it was because it was exactly the same as their bedroom at home. He knew just where they were. The bastard had been arrogant enough to stash his twin daughters at the man’s own house. Apparently Mbasi didn’t care if he got caught.
“Before you think about flashing yourself to my home to try and save them, you should know I have three men with very itchy trigger fingers pointing guns at your children’s heads. Even if you did appear and manage to save one, the second would die quick as a bullet,” Mbasi said, sounding almost apologetic.
Ododa glared at him and said nothing.
“Give me the stone, and I swear to you, they will be set free.” Mbasi said, his face earnest. “I have no wish to harm them. I look on Charity and Innocence as my own.”
Ododa withdrew the stone from his pocket, glancing at Mbasi and the children on the iPad screen. He thought about what it would mean if he gave the stone to a man so ready to betray his friends and family.
Mbasi stepped forward, his eyes looking greedily on the stone. “Give it to me!” he demanded.
Ododa made his decision.
He offered the stone to Mbasi, his hand outstretched. Mbasi went to grasp it out of his hand.
And suddenly, they were floating 60,000 feet above sea level. Mbasi looked around and began to scream. Ododa winked at his number two, then let go of the man’s hand, still holding the stone tightly as they began their long plummet towards Earth.
Ododa disappeared back into the ether as Mbasi looked down on empty air. He screamed, as if that would help arrest his fall.
Meanwhile, Ododa appeared within Mbasi’s room right behind the spot where he figured the three men were standing. He was so quick, it didn’t even feel difficult.
From behind one, he whirled, tapping him on the shoulder and sending him up 20,000 feet to join Mbasi in his plummet to the ground. The second man yelled in surprise as he saw Ododa appear out of nowhere, and Ododa disappeared just as he snapped up his rifle and fired
Bullets spat out toward the man who was no longer there, then suddenly hit another man who was there: the second rifleman, who died before he’d even begun to register where he was.
Mbasi had warned them something strange might happen, and if it did, to immediately kill the hostages. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, the third man had forgotten his orders. Besides, no one had told him that anyone involved could teleport.
The third man looked to his left and right, suddenly found himself the only gunman in the room, looked back to his charges, found that they’d disappeared too, and wandered out of the house with a nervous expression. That expression went straight to panic as his two fellow gunmen splatted down on the ground in front of him. He looked all around, screamed and ran for his car.
Ododa reappeared in front of Lwansa, a twin in each arm. The kids both rushed forward to their mother. Lwansa clutched them tightly, stroking their heads, reassuring them that they were safe now.
“Are we safe?” Lwansa asked Ododa, a bit late. “I don’t…”
“We’re safe…” he said, hoping he sounded more convincing that he felt.
“You are my hero,” Lwansa said, her eyes shining brightly.
Ododa swallowed and thought about what it meant to be a hero. He sighed, feeling the weight of the killing in his heart, then made a decision.
He turned to his wife. “Stay here. I have to do something.”
“No!” Lwansa cried out, but it was too late; he had disappeared already.
For his part, Mbasi had passed out and woken up twice in his fall through the sky. He flipped end over end and vomited for the second time. He prayed that his death would be easier than the last five minutes had been. He’d never imagined it would take so long for a man to fall to his death from so high up.
It was torture, to say the least.
He looked down below and saw the ground rushing up towards him. At least it would be over soon.
Suddenly, he felt two arms grasping his, and then the fall was over.
He reappeared on solid earth, falling the last few feet much more softly than he should have. He grasped the dirt, weeds and plants around him, trying to see if they were real or if his mind was playing tricks. They were real. He could even taste them.
He looked up to see Ododa standing over him with a murderous scowl. . Scooting back in the dirt, Mbasi began to grovel.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was only…”
“I know what you were doing…” Ododa said calmly. He shook Mbasi off his pants leg and moved back.
He heard the squeal of tires in the dirt road above him. Glancing up, Ododa saw a Suburban making its way down the hill and into the pit. He stood. It looked like the home office was finally here. Good; he could turn Mbasi in for his betrayal and get the man sent to jail for kidnapping his family.
A man in torn clothes stepped out of the vehicle and turned to look at Mbasi and Ododa. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the two men, one sprawled out before the other.
“Are you Otienu Ododa?” the man called out.
“I am,” Ododa said, stepping forward and offering a hand to the man. “Do you have a radio? We need to call the police. This man tried to kill me and kidnap my children.”
Ignoring Ododa’s hand, the man in torn clothes looked back at the other man now stepping out to join him. This man was tall and clean, with a beard outlining his jaw. Ododa glanced down at the ring on his finger, and his eyes went wide.
The tall man must have noticed his reaction, because his next words were, “Tate! Take him!”
The man in torn clothes drew a gun and aimed it at Ododa’s chest. “Don’t move!”
Ododa gauged his chances and decided escape was a better option. Tate read his intentions and took his shot, just as Ododa disappeared into the ether and away from the confrontation.
“Goddammit!” Tate roared! “Every time!”
Kline stepped forward towards the spot where Ododa had disappeared, a smile on his face. He crouched and rubbed two fingers together, blood evident between them. He looked up at Tate.
“Rest easy, Mr. Tate,” Kline said. “I’m not sure anyone else would’ve been able to hit him.”
“I missed him,” Tate growled.
“No, you wounded him,” Kline said. He stood and turned towards Mbasi, who had run off to cower behind some rocks once the shooting had started. “Wounded prey tends to make mistakes.”
Kline looked down in kindness at Mbasi, who now poked his head out above his cover.
“Besides, I think we have exactly what we need in order to find him,” Kline said maliciously.
Mbasi whimpered as the billionaire approached him.
Chapter Thirty
They returned to their hotel room to see Christina laid out, watching TV, surrounded by a bounty of food. She glanced up at them, then turned back to the TV screen.
“You guys almost got famous,” she said dryly.
“Did they show our faces on TV?” Alex asked, panicked. That was the last thing he needed. He needed to think about that.
He might be a ghost, but if he was dumb enough to get his face on national news, Ash would be smart enough to see it.
“No, they only saw part of what happened,” Christina said, sitting up and muting the TV. “They pulled back, and no one was left near the bank; the police had everyone evacuated long before you got there.”
Alex was relieved, but that still left the matter of Emily and her fiancé holding a stone. She was over by the minibar, filling a glass with a shaky hand before taking a drink.
He looked at her, hoping she really was okay. He was wrong to explode at her for being engaged. Was it really his business anyway?
“I think we need to start comparing notes on what’s happening now instead of what happened in the past,” Scott said slowly, looking at the both of them.
Emily finished her whiskey and looked back at them with a nod. “You’re right.” She strode back towards the couch and sat down, looking up at Alex and Scott expectantly.
“Well?” Emily asked, crossing her legs and doing her best to look professional.
Alex cleared his throat and shook his head. “You don’t want…”
“Look,” Emily said, her voice still wobbly, “I know I should be falling apart right now, but that won’t help anything. The faster I’m able to help you figure out what the hell is going on with these stones, the faster we’ll be able to save Max…”
Alex looked at her, still worried. She shook her head.
“Goddammit Alex, I’m not some delicate flower. For once in your life, treat me like an adult.”
Alex swallowed and nodded, making his decision.
“I uhh… I don’t know where to begin,” he said.
“Start with what you learned from that other woman who held a stone,” Emily instructed. She moved over to the phone and grabbed the pad and a pen, ready to take notes.
Alex and Scott exchanged glances. He shrugged and began to recount what Siobhan had told them about the stones, where hers had come from and about the Old Man in the cave. Emily’s brow furrowed when he told them of what Siobhan had described about the massive beam of energy and the brown clouds it caused when it hit Earth.
“A GRB?” Christina asked Emily. The two looked at each other.
“Has to be,” Emily said. She moved to her laptop, and Christina followed her. She opened up a search engine and she looked over her shoulder as Emily typed quickly.
“The problem is, from where?” Christina asked Emily. “All the stars there are way too far away to do any real damage to us. None of them…”
“I think it’s time we expand our minds to the idea that we were both right to get into this business,” Emily said excitedly. “What if…”
She sat back and looked at her friend. “What if the aliens who built these…” she waved her hands towards Alex, “…stones or whatever also have the technology to build a Dyson’s sphere?”
Christina’s eyes lit up. “A genuine Type I civilization…” She whistled in amazement. “That would be…”
“Completely inexplicable to the only guy in the room without a Master’s degree…” Alex interjected. “What are you two talking about?”
“Gamma ray bursts,” Scott translated for him. “That’s what she does up at the Allan Telescope Array. It’s more than just listening for ET phoning home; it’s radio astronomy too.”
“Forgive my ignorance,” Alex continued, hoping that someone would explain what everyone else in the room seemed to understand, “but what are Gamma ray bursts?”
“What I should have thought of when Siobhan told us that story,” Scott confessed. “But I was always more of a practical engineering kind of guy.”
“What are they?” Alex asked again, frustrated. “And for that matter, what the hell are Dyson’s spheres? Is that like the vacuum or something?”
“Gamma ray bursts can really fuck our shit up is what they are,” Christina explained, looking excited for a chance to strut her stuff. “A sun like ours will go supernova in a few billion years. Big stars, on the other hand, and I’m talking about stars that make ours look miniscule in comparison, blow up in gigantic ‘holy shitballs’-type explosions that we call Gamma Ray bursts.”
“Okay,” Alex said, still not really getting it, “but what does this have to do with a Dyson’s sphere?”
“The reason why we never knew we had a loaded gun staring down at us. A Dyson’s sphere is a huge mega structure that can completely cover – and contains – a star,” Emily said in wonder. She leaned back, and Alex could almost hear her imagining it. “Whatever civilization built something like that would have the ability to use every bit of energy that their home star puts out.”
“But if it goes supernova, that’s game over for the civilization?” Alex questioned.
“And apparently us, if your Irish friend is to be believed,” Christina said.
“No reason to think she was lying…” Alex said. Scott nodded to confirm his friend’s assertion.
“Okay, now that we’ve got one idea of where these stones came from,” Alex said, “Let’s begin with the other half of the conversation.”
“Where did Max get his stone from?” Emily asked, her face again looking worried.
Alex nodded. “You mentioned he was on an expedition?”
“In Peru,” Emily confirmed. “He was looking for the remnants of an ancient civilization that disappeared. A lost city of gold believe it or not.”
“El Dorado?” Alex said, cocking his head. He allowed himself a moment to feel slightly superior to a man who based his career on cartoons.
“El Dorado was based on a real lost city,” Emily insisted. “Paititi was thought to be in Southern Peru or Brazil. No one really knew. Max thought we could use satellite radar to look underneath the jungle that might’ve reclaimed the city and hidden it from view. He thought he found something and he convinced the university to send him down there with a group of students four months ago.”
Scott took his laptop back from Christina and googled “Paititi.” He read the screen for a moment and snapped his fingers.
“Look at this: Paititi was said to have had a miracle performed by a group of baptized Indians.” Scott looked up at Alex. “I’m betting whatever ‘miracle’ it was had something to do with that stone he found.”
Alex absorbed the new information. Things were beginning to make sense, but there were still a lot of questions to answer. Like the fact that the stones apparently drove people like Kline and Collier insane.
And if that was true, what did that mean for him?
“Alex,” Scott said with a serious expression, “I’ve met Max, I’ve hung out with him. Whoever was robbing the bank was not the man I met.”
“Or the man I agreed to marry,” Emily said. “He was…” She stopped and corrected herself. “…He IS a good man, I know it. Whatever’s he’s done, it has to be because of that stupid stone!”
Alex forced his worries away and again concentrated on the matter at hand. They needed to find Max before it was too late.
“Where does he go in San Diego, Emily?” Alex asked. “What’s his safe spot?”
Emily thought for a minute and nodded. Before she’d even answered, Alex stood, grabbing his backpack and heading for the door.
Scott stood to follow as well, but he looked back at Christina first.
“Are you coming?”
Christina thought for a minute, looking at Emily and Scott, who were still alive and kicking even after confronting impossibly dangerous situations. Why wouldn’t she stand the same chance? After all, Alex had a healing stone, didn’t he?
“Why not?” she asked.
Christina rose out of her chair and joined her new friends in the elevator.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ododa stumbled through the forest towards the place where he had left his family behind. His wife and children found him there, crouched and bleeding badly from his stomach.
“Daddy!” his littlest screamed. She rushed towards him for a hug as he
sat there panting. She collided with his knee and he nearly fell on top of her.
“We have to go,” Ododa gasped, holding his side and hoping the wound would stop bleeding. He raised his hands to check, but the blood showed no signs of stopping. Hoping he could hide the extent of his injury, he stood, wobbling on his legs.
Lwansa rushed forward to meet him and support his shoulder. He used her to stand up tall, then started limping down the dusty road.
“Where do we go?” Lwansa asked, her eyes wide. He looked at her and made a decision.
“Where we belonged this whole time,” he whispered. He spread his arms wide, enclosing his family within a broad hug and holding them close together.
“Come close,” he said, his voice trembling. They obeyed and crowded in closer to him. He felt their tiny arms surround his whole body. In spite of his pain, he allowed himself a moment to enjoy the feeling.
He’d never take that feeling for granted again.
In a flash, they arrived again at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Lwansa looked up and around, her eyes wide, not understanding.
“Wait here,” Ododa ordered. He closed his eyes and concentrated.
In a flash, Ododa appeared inside a bank vault surrounded by cash – euros, by the look of them. He didn’t care which bank the stone had brought him to. It understood what he needed and had taken him as close as it could to what he imagined.
He took out the stone and looked at it in wonder. He thought, not for the first time, that his world was not through being rocked.
Turning around, he looked for a bag. He found several clear plastic ones used to transfer money between banks. Hesitating only a moment, he grabbed them and started stuffing them as full as he could. In the process, he noticed a larger pile of bearer bonds sitting there next to him. He looked them over and nodded, snatching up as many of them as he could hold under his arm.
He heard voices coming down the corridor and hurried to finish.