by Jamel Cato
“Is this the River of Time that Yefet told me about?”
“It’s a simplified visual representation of it.”
“Oh,” Xavier said with little concern. “I’ve been looking for you. Why did you go away?”
“Sometimes we have to do things we know will hurt the people we care about in order to avoid other things that will hurt them even more.”
Xavier thought it over. “That is a good explanation. I knew you would have a good explanation when I found you.”
“It’s actually a hollow platitude, but it’s all I’m allowed to say right now. One day I will tell you everything.”
“When?”
“When time is no longer an issue for either of us.”
“But we’re not in the water,” Xavier protested. “You can tell me now.”
“I wish I could. What I can tell you now is that I am so proud of the man you have become, the way you always put others before yourself.”
“Then I’m like you.”
“I have to go now, Son. I love you. Remember what I taught you about strength.”
Thaddeus got up and walked away, leaving footprints in the sand.
“You will see him again,” Yefet said from his right. She was sitting next to him in human form with her knees drawn in close to her body.
“What kinds of games did we play when we were small?”
Yefet smiled. “All kinds. Your favorite was one called Cobra Dance.”
“We played games with snakes?”
She laughed. “No. We would have the palace servants collect a big set of ostrich fans and organize them into two mazes set side-by-side. Then you and I would dance from one end to the other. The first person to make a feather move lost.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“It was, even though I knew I was not allowed to win no matter how well I danced.”
“Why?”
“Because you were Pharaoh’s firstborn son. Besting you at anything was strictly forbidden. The servants would blow on my feathers if I was beating you too badly.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do not be sorry because an empire prepared you to rule. And it was all for naught since Mother soon forbade the game because she said it was unseemly the way it made me move like a harlot.”
“What was our mother like?”
They talked for a long time. Yefet gave unrushed, detailed answers to all of Xavier’s many questions while the water serenely flowed by.
Eventually, she said, “You must go now, Little Brother.”
“But I like it here,” Xavier said. “I like talking to you.”
“I know, but it is time for you to be judged.”
“Will you come with me?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I have already been judged.”
“And?”
“There are no pages left in my story,” she said.
“Let’s play Cobra Dance.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “Be strong, my Pharaoh. Remember that we will always be the Sun and the Moon.”
She walked away in the opposite direction from the one Thaddeus had taken.
* * *
When Yefet was out of sight, the river disappeared. Xavier found himself in a sterile white room.
Lucifer stood before him reciting a list of all the wrongs he had committed in his life. The fallen angel closed his diatribe by pointing out that Xavier was only half human and therefore did not have a soul.
A mighty voice from behind Xavier asked, “Who speaks for this one?”
Pastor James York, standing tall on two strong legs, strode in front of Lucifer and said, “I do.”
The minister gave an accounting of Xavier’s faith and good deeds.
When the list was complete, York pointed a finger at Lucifer. “The father of lies says Xavier Osiris Hill is ineligible for forgiveness because he only has one human parent. I would like to remind him that there is someone else in this room who was born to only one human parent. The Serpent says the anubis does not have a soul. But if this is true, what is he here to collect?”
Satan, thinking of the offer that Baynin and Yefet had made him, smiled. “It’s funny you should ask, Pastor.”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
The angel marched across the plain as warriors from both sides scurried out of its path. Three fighter jets launched missiles at it. When the missiles contacted the angel’s body, they winked out of existence. The fearsome being waved a hand as if it were swatting a fly.
Every jet, helicopter and flying supernatural warrior between Mount Tamalu and the Sea of Galilee fell from the sky.
When it reached a point near the center of the plain, the angel stopped and examined the ground. In a booming voice, it said, “Dominion of the Earth belongs to humankind.”
Then it slammed the tip of its sword into the ground, shattering but not detonating the ecologically deadly quantum bomb that the United States had planned to trigger as a last resort.
An ethereal shockwave emanated out from the point of impact and crossed the entire world, neutralizing the magical contaminants that were poisoning humanity’s food and water supplies.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
In the war camp, Nefertiti looked down at Xavier’s body. “Did you stabilize him right away like we discussed?”
“Si,” Enieda said.
“Thank you,” Nefertiti said. Then she knelt and put the fruit from the Tree of Life in Xavier’s mouth.
In a few moments, he began breathing normally.
“Let your words form the question your eyes are asking, Little One,” she said to Enieda.
Enieda broke eye contact. “Could you not have saved Yefet as you have saved this one?”
“Before I went to the plateau to face Soul Bringer,” Nefertiti said, “I visited Yefet in the war camp and offered her a fruit from the Tree of Health. She refused it.”
“Why would she do such a thing?”
“She knew that her story was coming to an end. She asked me to give it to someone else.”
Enieda gestured at Xavier. “She wanted you to give it to this one.”
“She asked me to give it to you to express her gratitude for honoring our arrangement.”
“Me?”
Nefertiti curled her index finger. A small sapling heavy with dark fruit sprouted from the ground. “Plant this tree in the soil of your village. Every female who eats of its fruit shall bear pups who are awakened from birth.”
Enieda was too overjoyed to speak.
“She also asked me to tell you that perhaps it is time for the ladies to have a watasi or two,” Nefertiti added.
CHAPTER EIGHTY
Somewhere in the Mountains of Nepal
When Baynin saw the angel leave its post, he knew the clone of himself he had sent to Ajirastan had performed its duty.
It had taken more than a century to train the clone to precisely duplicate his mannerisms and aura. The result of this work had been so convincing that Enieda could never tell which of the two she was conversing with. Not even Lucifer had realized he was burning a copy of his rival.
The only complication that had arisen in the execution of Baynin’s plan was the one that could never be accounted for. His clone had fallen in love with Yefet. He had attempted to douse that fire by sending her to mate with Tu’Lok. When even this had not been enough, he took the clone to the River of Time to show it that Yefet’s story was unchangeably coming to an end. The resentment it had shown him after this made him wonder if it had ceased being a clone and become a person in its own right. But the answer was moot since the angel’s flaming sword would bring an end to it in either case.
He left these thoughts behind when he stepped through the unguarded portal to return home.
* * *
Washington, DC
Michelle warily crept down the alley leading to the waypoint that would transport her to Ajirastan.
“I wouldn’t
go there if I were you,” Carlos said, stepping out from a recessed doorway across from her.
“Why not?” she asked, moving away from him. She’d had a feeling he would show up.
“Because the battle is over. We won.”
“We as in humanity or we as in whatever you really are?”
He smiled. “Xavier made it out. I can take you to their bunker in the Poconos. He’ll make his way there soon.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’ve never lied to you and I never will.”
“What’s going to happen now? There are like a million people who know we exist.”
“Not quite. The light fixtures in the troop barracks in Kiryat Shmona are being replaced with octo bulbs as we speak. Same for Cheyenne Mountain and their counterparts in the other Coalition countries.”
“How do you know that? I thought they fired you.”
“My sources don’t really care what my business card says.”
“What sources would those be?”
“Maybe you should ask Proto to take a guess or three.”
“I’m going to go with the guy who writes the questions for Jeopardy,” Proto said from Michelle’s pocket. “He knows everything. If it’s not him, it’s the Illuminati. Or Taylor Swift.”
She narrowed her eyes at Carlos. “Why did you come to Saint Lucia to be a part of my life?”
“I gave my word I would.”
“To whom? And remember you said you would never lie to me.”
CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
Denali, Alaska, Two Weeks Later
Nefertiti and all the avatars of the Earth’s elementals stood on a remote plateau of Mount McKinley.
Gaia stepped through a glowing portal with a wide smile on her face. “That was a wonderful vacation!”
Nefertiti handed her a translucent orb that was like a miniature version of the planet. “Welcome back.”
“Thank you for keeping an eye on things,” Mother Nature said. “Did anything exciting happen while I was gone?”
“I ran into my ex.”
“How is Baynin?”
“Hardheaded.”
They laughed.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO
Mullica Hill, New Jersey
Xavier commanded the principality of the Lenape Valley to turn the locks on the front door of the mansion into dust. He pushed through the doors with his elbow and entered an elegantly decorated foyer with a teak flower table set before a dual staircase.
Talia Wells was waiting there for him with her hallmark double-dimpled smile. “Hi Mr. X,” she said, barely able to contain her excitement over the sweet treat she was anticipating receiving.
He looked down at her. “Switch to data mode.”
Talia’s head tilted twenty degrees. In a mature feminine voice, she said, “Awaiting query.”
Xavier left her standing there and headed down a long hall.
The door to the office was open. He stepped in to find Caden’s body sprawled on the floor, a pool of dried blood encircling its head. The genius’s own pistol was dangling from his dead fingers.
Anna was weeping over the corpse. Without the false glitches she had fabricated for his benefit when they met, she appeared, sounded and smelled indistinguishable from a biological woman.
“This is your doing,” she sobbed. “You made him do this. He didn’t know they would build combat units. He didn’t know!”
Xavier turned and walked away.
“I’ll make you pay for this!” she screamed at his back.
CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE
Oxford, Maryland
The Coast Guard cutter dwarfed Carlos’s houseboat.
“What about Landon?” Carlos asked Elaine Waldren.
“Missing and assumed dead.”
“And all of Rahn’s supporters on the fourth floor?”
“Transferred out.”
“What about the President?”
“He was so happy to get off that damn plane he agreed to my plan to have the DSO Director report to the Senate Oversight Committee even before his convoy pulled off the tarmac.”
“You met him on the tarmac?”
“My Daddy, rest his soul, told me that opportunity is like a buttermilk biscuit. It’s best if you grab it when it’s hot.”
“Is this the same Daddy who drove all the mom and pop retailers out of business with a nationwide chain of superstores?”
“So I will see you in the office on Monday?”
* * *
Just before she stepped onto the ladder leading up to the Coast Guard vessel, Elaine paused and turned back. “You know it’s the darndest thing, Carlos. Right before Director Rahn went through that unfortunate messiness with his wife and daughter, he came to my office with a whole three-ring binder full of timestamped photos of you in two places almost at the same time. Now I told him that my eyes aren’t as good as they were back when I was the belle of the ball, but all I saw in those photos was a reason to check the clocks on those cameras. He covered my desk with what he believed was irrefutable evidence proving you were a Knight of Mercy. I want you to know that I set him straight. I said, ‘Director Rahn, read my lips: The Carlos that I know is not a green dot.’”
Carlos smiled, wondering how much he would clear from selling his houseboat.
EPILOGUE
Washington, DC
Rapova clicked on the coffee maker and tied an apron around the waist of her maid’s uniform. Just the thought of all the chores she had to complete before Stefan rose for the evening made her arthritic joints ache.
She hobbled over to the counter and began unloading the dishwasher.
Behind her, Xavier stepped out from an alcove next to the cupboard. “Hello Mother.”
She turned and smiled. Shimmering bands of light began swirling around her body. In a few moments, she had transformed into the beautiful young woman that was her natural state.
“Hello Nehi,” Nefertiti said. “It is good to see you, my beloved.”
The hands on the wall clock behind Xavier began turning so fast they blurred.
“I have so many questions,” he said.
She opened her left palm. The tiny truth vine that he had hidden in his pocket burst through the fabric of his jeans as a thick green tendril that grew across the room and delicately curled around her hand and wrist. “You have my word that I shall answer all of them,” she said. “But at the moment, there is an angry female AI headed toward the surprise birthday party that Isabella has organized for you at her new home.”
He rushed out the door.
———————
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POSTSCRIPT
While conducting research for this novel, I discovered two curious things about the historical figure commonly known as Queen Nefertiti. First, no one seems to know where she came from. There are no records documenting her birth, family or life prior to her remarkable appearance on the Egyptian political stage. Second, and stranger still, no one seems to know what happened to her. No tomb or mummy has ever been found.
It’s almost as if she appeared out of the blue, reshaped an entire civilization and then disappeared back into the Ether. That strikes me as a quintessential case of reality being stranger than fiction.
Nefertiti if you’re reading this, I hope you enjoyed the story.
Jamel Cato
2018
Earth