by Ric Dawson
Why was there blood on the floor. My hands. My neck? My mind puzzled over it.
And when she passes, each one she
passes goes, ahhhh.
# # #
Mel
“Kane, let go!” Melissa yelled. Frantic, she tried to pull Kane’s head back and break the hold before he snapped Jim’s neck. It had happened so fast. Everything was fine then Kane had simply turned, grabbed Jim by surprise, and in seconds had him in a death hold. “Sven, help me!” she yelled and turned her head towards the big Swede. Sven had collapsed against the wall, eyes wide. Saliva dribbled over his lips and onto his chest. She glimpsed Lane as well.
Mel cursed. Lane was in a fetal position. Groaning. What had happened?
“Lane, Sven, please, I can’t stop him, Kane is killing Jim,” she screamed.
“Concentrate! Use your training,” Mel said out loud. Kane’s choke hold hadn’t wavered and she could hear Jim’s struggles weakening. She was losing him. Mel let go, then threw several kidney punches into Kane’s lower back. Nothing.
Her fist met clenched muscle. She knew she had strength, uncountable hours in the gym and training had honed her muscles into wiry cords.
“Breath, focus the strike.” She calmed her mind, with a focus driven by need. Then drove her knuckled fist hard and blew her breath out in a gush as she pushed past skin and extended the strike.
Her jab landed over Kane’s kidney, the impact causing the strained muscles of his back to quiver as he let out a grunt and fell back. Mel twirled fast and jammed her fingers into Kane’s armpit directly into clustered nerves. Kane’s grunt turned to outcry as his arm fell away from Jim’s throat. Jim stumbled forward, gasping and choking.
Kane slid down the wall as Melissa finished the spinning leg sweep.
# # #
Lane
Something wrenched painfully in my mind. The room, the people, everything, the whole image slid down like a picture falling off a wall and shattered on the floor.
The cell darkened and I felt a presence. Vast. A small circle on my chest glowed incandescent. The amulet was on fire and radiant like the sun. The radiance was spreading out from my chest to my arms and legs.
I remembered. The neutrinos affected by force of mind. A new force unknown to science. The ocean of light. Alive. An entity. Time was alive.
My thoughts flickered like a movie in slow motion, frame by frame. Memories of power. Breakthroughs. That’s how things evolved. Not smoothly or orderly, but with breakthroughs. The frames sped up. Digital space time, spheres, not smoothly connected, not analog. Frame rates. The heartbeat of God in the thought sea.
My brain had changed when I was under the portal learning machine. Thoughts were clearer, more empowered. My consciousness had aligned like a cluster of solar energy collectors.
I gathered the energy. The attacks on my psyche weakened. Yes! Reaching deep, directed, dire purpose, I could feel it building like a Jacobs ladder of arced lightning.
The dark trees smoked like in atomic blast movies. The intense light burned the bark. A blast of wind smashed into the forest. The trees turned to ash and were blown out. They left behind small rising hills, and spectral buildings near a pier.
The tar ball creatures sizzled and fell one by one from my astral body. Within moments the fear and terror were gone. The shield burst into its blue glow.
The building’s walls were transparent. I hovered above the floor of the cell. Mel and Sven were helping Kane and Jim stand. My shield extended around us all. Two rooms from our cell, two guards lounged in chairs. I could see our gear, weapons, and gadgets piled in a corner box. The bastards had retrieved everything from the sunken sub. One of the guards examined the BHL handguns.
“With any luck he’ll melt his companion.”
Beyond them, corridors led to offices in the building complex and then through doors to the outside. Outside, I saw a security garage. A white Toyota Land Cruiser and three golf carts were inside. The Land Cruiser was perfect.
Good selection
“Audam, you’re back!”
Yes.
“What happened?”
The Kaa’zak used a tunable astral nullifier and manipulated the AI portion of my thought matrix.
“How did we escape that?”
That’s a good question. Several parts of your brain have new connector neurons that have dimensional symmetry. I missed it before. Your projection power has been amplified. Do you feel different?
“Yes, my thoughts seem clearer, more defined.”
Hmmmm.
“Hmm? That’s it?”
I’m thinking. My power levels are low. The Kaa’zak drained my storage.
“Should I be worried?”
Probably.
“Welcome back. I think.”
Come on. You missed me, didn’t you?
“Well yeah, some.”
Drifting back to the cell, I stopped to look closely at the locking mechanism on the cell door.
“I think I can manipulate the lock mechanism to release the door.”
Of course you can, bro.
“Bro?”
Peace, brother, flower power!
“Audam?”
Yeah, bro?
“Never mind.”
I’ll keep an eye out for the fuzz. By the way, I accessed data from your long-term memory. Hope you don’t mind, bro.
“What sort of data?”
Just stuff, man, be cool, on the down low. About your parents mostly. Did you know they were hippies? That’s just psycooooo’delic man. But. There’s more. Oh yeah. Way more. Your mom …
“Can we get back to, oh you know … staying alive?”
Sure bro, every thing’s cool. We’ll skate out of here on a psilocybin dream, man, you watch.
Trying to focus on the lock, my astral sight turned the lock transparent. I could see right into it.
“Problem. It’s a keypad lock.”
Try ***00000099#*
“What?”
Try it on the keypad.
“Okay.”
I pushed with my mind on each of the keys Audam pointed out. I figured he was joking with me again, but no harm in trying it. With a soft click, the door swung open.
“You’ll have to tell me how that worked later.”
I got skills. Anytime, bro.
“Guys, I got the door open. Let’s get the hell out of here!” I yelled at the dazed team.
Jim was still rubbing his swollen neck, glaring at Kane while Melissa was talking Sven down. The big Swede looked shook up. We didn’t have time to waste.
“Let’s move it. We have four guards, armed, in an adjacent room. They have our gear. Any ideas how we will get by them?” I asked no one in particular but was looking right at Kane.
“Fire alarm,” Kane responded. Jim nodded. Everyone stood next to me.
I eased the door open and we slipped out of the cell. Six identical cell doors were in the room and one access door that was unlocked.
Glancing up at the ceiling, I saw some sprinklers. Slipping into the astral, I floated up, looking the sprinkler device over.
Look for a small glass ball.
“Okay, I see it.”
Use your mind to crush it, bro.
“Right.”
Seconds later, the small glass sphere shattered, releasing a spray of water from the sprinkler. A siren started up, and I could hear the clatter of doors opening as people rushed to safety.
The exit door swung wide and two guards rushed into the room with handguns drawn. Kane and Jim were on either side of the door. As the guards came in, Kane grappled the guard from behind, pulling him off his feet. Jim flat-kicked the knee of the second man, sending him falling. Jim’s upthrust knee then caught him halfway to the floor with a loud crunch. Kane had whipped the other guard around while he was off balance and sent his face into the cement wall. A few shattered noses later, both guards were out cold. Blood pooled under their broken faces as they lay on the ground.
/> We gathered our gear up quickly.
“Easy or real easy?” Kane asked Jim as he raised an eyebrow.
“Let’s try and sneak out first before we open fire,” Jim said. “We really don’t know what else they can throw at us.”
Kane, Mel, and Sven just nodded.
“How are you doing, big guy?” Melissa asked Sven, concern written on her face.
“Better, ya, guns and mayhem … cheer me up! Valhalla will have to wait!” Sven said, curling his lips into a feral smile and winking at her.
Melissa turned back to Jim. “He’s okay.”
We found a few techs securing equipment in a nearby lab. Waving our guns menacingly was all it took to acquire official lab coats and badges. The frightened techs were secured with duct tape and power cords.
We slipped into a crowd of workers. The long coats concealed our weapons.
Outside, workers milled around a parking area. The team followed me as I made a beeline for the garage on the other side of the buildings. We moved down the street and passed a few mildly curious techs. The garage door was open and without guards. I saw keys hanging on a wall rack. The Land Cruiser keys were clearly marked.
“Find em?” Kane yelled from the Toyota.
“Yeah.” I tossed them to Kane, who jumped in the driver’s seat of the SUV and started the engine.
Kane eased the big vehicle out of the garage and smoothly accelerated away from the now crowded streets behind us. A few of the techs looked our way. The facility was not gated as we sped down a small street and up onto a two-lane highway heading for Tokyo. Road 286.
It was easy, too easy maybe. Something had raised the hairs on the back of my head as we came out of the garage. But there was no one in sight.
“We need local authority help,” I said.
“How?” Mel asked before the guys could respond.
“Let’s just call them,” Jim said.
“And say what exactly?” Mel asked.
That was the trick, all right. The difference between being branded a lunatic and legitimate.
“By the way, anyone speak Japanese?” I was unrealistically hopeful.
“We need to go to the U.S. Embassy first. That’s the only way to get a handle on this. We can’t just charge in without the sled,” Jim said.
“How about a U.S. Base? There are several in Japan,” Kane suggested.
“Yep, but how do we find one of them,” Jim said.
Kane merged into a new road, number 126, and followed signs that said Tokyo. Commercial trucks of various sizes clogged the road. Four white Land Cruisers flashed by going the other way. They were identical to the one we were in.
“Our luck just ran out,” Kane said.
I saw one slow down and pull off into a small grocery. The Land Cruiser spun around on the highway, shredded gravel, and headed back our way.
“He’s following,” I said.
“I see him,” Kane growled.
Jim turned to Sven and Mel in the backseat with me and nodded. “Do it.”
My eyes got bigger. “You’re starting a firefight on a public road?” I said.
Jim looked at me for a moment. “We’re exposed here, Lane. We need help and fast. This is their territory. We need to keep an edge or we will be in serious trouble. As in dead! Remember, these people nuked a major U.S. city. They don’t give a damn about collateral damage. They use psionics like they’ve trained with them all their lives. If they think we are a threat, they’ll blow us and everything within ten miles sky high. We probably are too late even now. We should have killed all four vehicles before they got by us.” Jim’s eyes were steely.
“I see your point. I can help, just give me a sec.”
Closing my eyes, I leaned back in the seat and slipped into the astral. It was strange at first; cars were driving through me as I floated a few feet above the roadbed. Then the Land Cruiser rushed up and through me. I willed myself to move at the same speed. It was crazy. There was no logic as to why or how. I sailed down the road inches from the back of the SUV. I didn’t stop to think about it. I moved up next to the driver’s window. I saw he wore dark camos and had the Wraith patch on his arm, a jagged “W” made of lightning bolts. I reached through the glass, then using the same technique that I had with the sprinkler, grabbed the steering wheel and spun it. The SUV turned sharply, tires screaming, then launched into the air and spun. It crashed into the road and tumbled. Civilian cars swerved to get out of the way of the vehicle. I spotted the gas tank and thought “ignite.” I had a pinching sensation inside my head. The gas tank exploded into a fireball as the rolling vehicle bounded off the road into a field while burning the whole way. I felt sick. Following the road we’d come up, I found each of the other vehicles and left them burning wrecks. Ten minutes later I was back in the SUV. My face was pale, and I couldn’t stop shaking.
“Take a few slow breaths,” Mel said. She got it too. I had just killed a bunch of people with my mind. I just nodded and tried to calm down.
“Kane. Look. Many of the signs have subtitles in English,” Mel said.
A small grocery was ahead and had English on the sign. Kane pulled into its small parking area.
“Sven, stay with Lane. Mel, Kane, and I will get directions.” Jim said.
“Food?” I asked.
“We’ll grab something, Lane.”
Fifteen minutes later, they came out smiling. Mel gave a thumbs up as they headed over to the SUV. My uneasiness had gotten worse. Something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Kane opened the driver’s side door and jumped in.
“Jeff called the Pentagon. He gave them the heads up on our operation against Aogashima plus all the intel we had on Wraith. Communications are sporadic in the U.S. and Europe. Widespread panic and civil disorder are epidemic. Authorities can’t find the cause, but several major U.S. and European cities are under martial law,” Kane reported, frowning.
Kane had started the car and was easing out of the parking lot, looking all around.
“Stay frosty, folks. Choppers are inbound from Yokosuka Naval Base. That’s HQ for the U.S. Seventh Fleet. It’s payback time,” Kane said grimly.
“What happened to all the traffic?” Mel asked. She looked out the window. A sack of crackers and sodas were in her hand.
“Huh?” I looked out the window, and sure enough, not a single car was moving on the highway. Some had pulled off to the side and were parked with their engines running. Other cars veered off onto side streets or simply stopped in the middle of the road. I rolled the window down. A faint vibration in my eardrum caused my head to ache.
No birds in the sky, no honks, no sounds other than the wind. Nothing moved.
“Audam, anything in the astral? It’s getting weird out here.”
Groovy. You’re feeling long wave vibration, bro. Don’t get yer choners in a bunch. Reefer might make the ache go away.
“Reefer? Never mind.”
I popped the shield around us just in case. It cast a very faint glow in the bright sun.
“Guys?” Something was happening in the skies overhead.
“Check that out!” I pointed skyward. Jet contrails zigzagged around. Darting, twirling, and diving all over the place. “Are those explosions?” I said, pointing out the window at the smoke patches that bloomed around the aircraft.
“Dogfight,” Jim said.
“Looks like a small jet versus a larger jet.”
Then the shock waves rolled in. Thunder that echoed from exploding missiles mixed with the faint rattattat and boom of anti-aircraft guns. An image popped into my mind with a data stream.
Hey bro, those are F-35Cs with GAU-22 Gatling guns. They fire twenty-five millimeter rounds, each the length of your elbow to wrist, bro. The smaller jets are Mitsubishi F-3s, agile defense fighters.
A picture of the round and aircraft popped into my head.
“Audam, did you supply that detail about the gun and planes?”
Yes, bro,
thought you might like to know, so keep my head down.
The sky lit up even in broad daylight as lightning arched from below the horizon, just barely missing one of the dodging F-35Cs. The F-3s whipped around the larger jets like angry bees. Moments later the thunder reached us. The Battle for Tokyo was on.
“Audam, how many Kaa’zak are there?”
The Suul’jin scouts estimate less than thirty inside our sun’s sphere of influence.
“How many did we destroy in Colorado Springs?”
Seventeen Kaa’zak were deconstructed in the astral during the purging of Colorado Springs, bro.
“Will some or all that’s left be here?”
Some. Unlikely that all would be here.
“How about Ziir’jal?”
Suul’jin scouts believe only one of those entities exist in the sun’s sphere of influence.
“How many others are there?”
It is believed there are millions. But only a few at any particular inhabited solar system.
“If we attack them will more come?”
Only if Suul’jin forces engage them. They do not perceive feedstock, that is “humanity,” as a threat, my brother.
“Can either Kaa’zak or Ziir’jal directly affect or take over a human’s actions?”
Yes, bro. Keep as cool as you can. They have miles and miles of files, pretty files of your forefather’s fruit. And now to suit the great computer. Your magnetic ink.
“What are you babbling?”
Truth, my man. Truth. It riles them to believe you perceive the webs they weave.
I relayed the information to the team as we watched the air battle develop in the skies over Tokyo. Contrails had doubled as we watched and waited for the helicopter extraction. Lightning erupted from over the horizon every few seconds. Several planes had been struck but only one had fallen out of the sky. Green beams played over the skies as well now. They looked identical to the plasma weapons systems on the tanks in Siberia. The plasma toroids were too slow to hit the fast-moving planes. Anti-aircraft tracers rose up from the horizon behind them.
Kane finally stopped in a wide open spot of the four-lane toll road. Other vehicles were also parked, engines running as people stared straight ahead in the driver’s seat. It was beyond eerie.