The Inner Movement

by Brandt Legg

  “There are two sides, Nate, and the truth often lies in the middle.”

  “No more violence.”

  He stopped walking and stared at me, almost pleadingly. “I cannot see a victory. Do you understand? Into ten thousand futures I have gazed, looking for a way without using violence, and there isn’t even a dream of it.”

  “The future changes every instant. You should keep looking,” I replied.

  “Nate, I’m against all forms of violence, but it’s a matter of trade-offs.”

  “I know. And I’m not saying there won’t be mistakes made. We can’t control everyone in the Movement. But I can lead by example and renounce violence. I need your help Spencer, please.”

  He gazed long into the heavens. “Let’s hope you’re right.”

  “The truth is in the stars,” I said, relieved.

  “Yes, it is.”

  The hugs and kisses I expected when we went inside turned out to be angry questions. “I’m sorry. Yangchen took me on a strange journey. I was remembering my life as Clastier, and suddenly he appeared with her.”

  “You’ve been gone for weeks. How did we know you weren’t dead?” Linh snapped.

  “Didn’t Spencer assure you I was alive?”

  “Even if we believed him, it could change in an instant. Half the world is hunting you,” Amber said.

  “Welcome back, Nate. I wasn’t worried about you at all.” Kyle winked.

  “There aren’t any phones in portals. It didn’t feel like more than a day to me. We wound up in this forest up in the mountains.”

  “Who?” Amber asked.

  “Yangchen, Clastier, me, and Tagu, who’s this really wise Indian who helped Clastier.”

  “Yangchen was in Clastier’s time? How did she get there?” Linh asked.

  “She went back in time... through Calyndra.”

  Spencer let out a deep audible sigh.

  Amber looked straight at me. “I knew it. Where is she? When can she take us?”

  “She said that once you return from Calyndra the entrance moves and is no longer visible to you. Like a one-time shot.”

  “And she used it to meet you and Clastier in the woods?” Spencer asked.

  “It was more than that. She saved Clastier.”

  “And indoctrinated you,” Spencer said quietly.

  “How did you get back?” Kyle asked.

  “It’s hard to explain—”

  Spencer interrupted. “He traveled through an Outview. We can all visit past lives, but to interact with them, to actually sit down and have a conversation with yourself in another life, you need to find a portal into that lifetime, and not just any portal will do. Did Yangchen show you one?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s a time-transcendence portal,” Spencer said.

  “Like Calyndra?” Amber asked.

  “Not really,” Spencer began. “Calyndra supposedly can take anyone back anywhere, and back again. I can’t imagine a more powerful portal. A time-transcendence portal is more like a chat room. You can sit around and talk to yourself. Nate could tell Clastier about the future, and Clastier could explain all kinds of stuff to Nate from that life. It’s new to both of them and only available to a shared soul.”

  “So, we still can’t get to Calyndra?” Linh asked.

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “But we know for sure it’s real. And we know someone who found it. Yangchen may not know just where it is now, but she knows how she found it and will help us,” Amber said.

  Spencer quietly left the building.

  51

  The next morning Yangchen returned. We pushed for details of Calyndra, but either she didn’t know or wasn’t willing to share much more than we already knew. The entrance to Calyndra was somewhere along the thirty-two mile Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail, which descends from the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Pacific Ocean through two California state parks, Castle Rock and Big Basin Redwoods.

  “I found it in Big Basin, but long ago it was in what is now Castle Rock State Park. Portals are not simply doorways... they are alive.” She emphasized the word “alive” as if it was filled with magic and adventure but stopped speaking when Spencer entered the Earthship. They made eye contact, definitely communicating, but I couldn’t catch it. “You need to leave now,” she said.

  “Leave?” Linh asked.

  Spencer nodded his agreement.

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “To find Calyndra,” Amber said.

  “That is up to you,” Yangchen began. “We know you’re concerned about your families, and the Movement may seem secondary, but on this Spencer and I agree: your interests in protecting your loved ones, and those of IM, are joined.”

  “It’s not just our families. We still need to prevent Amber and Linh from getting killed and stop the mall attack,” Kyle said.

  The reminder that time was running out for the girls tensed my jaw as I spoke. “Where are they safest?” I focused on Spencer.

  He hesitated too long then looked at Yangchen. “They’re safest on the move. No single place is better than another. As you’ve seen, even Outin can be breached.”

  “Then, where can we go?”

  “Nate, you cannot live in fear of death. As powerful as you are, no one can escape the end of the physical. Do not be attached to the body; it is not real inasmuch as it is not permanent. Your soul, their souls,” Yangchen swept her arm toward the girls, “continue... always.”

  “But... ” I began.

  “No, there is nothing else to consider. Amber and Linh will always be. The experience of them in this physical form is a gift... every moment a precious gift.”

  I was ready to argue and about to cry, but I knew she was right.

  “In order to project the Storch meeting online, you need to find Gibi... and Dustin,” Spencer said.

  “And searching for Calyndra is no easy task,” Yangchen added.

  Linh was still processing Yangchen’s statement that seemed to mean we would probably not be able to keep them alive for much longer. Her voice, shaky, “You tell us how to get our families safe.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Spencer began.

  “Damn it,” her voice stronger, “make it simple.”

  “There is always a way,” Kyle added, angrily.

  “It may not be your priority, but it is ours,” I said, looking from Linh and Kyle to Amber. They all nodded.

  Spencer sighed, which made Yangchen giggle. “Trust the universe, Spencer,” she said. “You can’t just trust the universe when it’s convenient.”

  “I want your families to be okay, but it’s really all the same. In order to get the government to release them, you need to meet people, use the Movement, and prove you’re all innocent. You can try to go back in time and flip things around, but that’s tricky business. Or you can get what you want by destroying Lightyear,” Spencer said.

  “Go see Gibi, then find Dustin. When you return, we’ll broadcast the Storch meeting and release your videos and Lee’s documents. Lightyear will be finished, and your parents will be released,” Yangchen said.

  “And all of us will be able to resume our lives, right?”

  “Nate, remember our deal? I can issue no guarantees about the future. A man, taking a wrong turn on some back street in Istanbul, just changed the future for all of us. And now a young woman in Montreal, who lost her house keys, changed it all again,” Spencer said.

  “Whatever. Let’s go find Gibi and Dustin; they’re both crazy, but they’ll probably make more sense than you do.” I shook my head.

  I said goodbye to my students; they’d made considerable progress and would continue to work in my absence. Yangchen was staying behind with Tiller to work with them and another group expected soon. “Will I see you again?” I asked her while we walked alone on the mesa.

  “I expect so. Taos has a way of bringing people back. And if not, I’ll see you on the astral.”

  “Wh
at about saving Linh and Amber?”

  “I thought we settled that?”

  “No, you and Spencer may think you settled it, but I’m not accepting your answer.”

  “Nate, dear one, suffering comes from attachment. Let go.”

  “I can’t. There must be a way to save them.”

  “Only by letting go can you find clarity. If there is a way, you will be unable to see it in your suffering.” She hugged me. “Now, let go.”

  “What am I doing here?”

  “Same thing you’ve been doing your whole life, preparing for a battle. It’s just more intense right now.”

  “I feel like I’m heading off to war.”

  “You are, Nate, but remember it can be a peaceful war.”

  52

  We were surprised when Spencer told us we were actually traveling to the redwoods by car, twenty-four hours of driving. “Isn’t it risky?”

  “Risk is impossible to avoid right now. We need to see some people along the way.” Then he asked me telepathically if I had the Jadeo. I answered yes the same way and wondered why he wanted to know. His reply was strong and clear. Nothing is more important.

  Kyle rode up front with Spencer for the first part of the trip. I sat between the girls in back. Amber was explaining more about Calyndra to Linh and me while Spencer and Kyle talked about the physics, or lack thereof, in portals. I could follow both conversations at once and knew Spencer could too. “Calyndra is different from typical portals, according to Yangchen. It will only open to you when you’re ready. They’re part of the collective consciousness, and they know everything that is happening at every moment,” Amber said.

  “We all do, but we’re so messed up with fears and attachments that it gets buried,” I said.

  “We can find it, Nate,” Amber said.

  “Our best chance is Gibi and Dustin. We’re going with that first,” Linh said, looking out the window.

  “It’s sort of like a back door to parallel universes that are really just a millimeter away from us all the time,” Spencer said to Kyle.

  After six hours of driving, we reached Moab, Utah. Spencer took a series of turns to increasingly smaller roads. The red dirt and smooth rocks gave way to a forested area, then three security gates requiring key codes and security cameras. Eventually we came to an incredible home that we all assumed belonged to Booker.

  “Booker’s not IM’s only wealthy supporter,” Spencer said.

  Instead of going into the house, he led us to a garden shed nestled in a stand of pines. Inside, he touched a button concealed in the ceiling and an old lawnmower raised and swiveled, revealing a ladder. One by one we descended into a lit tunnel approximately three feet wide by seven feet tall. At its end, some sixty feet away, there was a steel door. Spencer caught up and squeezed past us to enter a code. Through the door, a wide staircase was revealed which opened into a room the size of our high school gymnasium with a dozen hallways leading out at various points.

  “What is this place?” Kyle asked.

  “This is an IM center,” Spencer said.

  “IM’s headquarters?” I asked.

  “No, just a center. There are at least fifteen in this country, another thirty worldwide.”

  “All like this?” Linh asked. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Some bigger, some smaller,” Spencer replied. “Moab isn’t exactly a major city, but most of the other centers are even more remote and far more transitory. This one was blasted out of the limestone cliffs and is like a fortress.”

  “What do they do at these centers?”

  “Training, teaching, monitoring, all manner of things.”

  “Does Lightyear know about the centers?” I asked.

  “Until recently we didn’t think so, but in the past few months several of our less secure sites have been raided. We’re still trying to figure out how they’re locating them.”

  “Did the raids start after Lightyear discovered me?”

  “Yes.” Then he changed the subject. “It’s not safe to travel any farther. We’ll have to wait until something changes.” As usual he was vague. I was about to push for more details when a group of twenty people entered from one of the halls. For the next three days I worked on training them while Spencer decided if it was safe to continue to the redwoods. The center was extensive; almost sixty people lived there at any given time, meditating, training in soul-powers, and studying. There was also a group who worked on computers and only spoke to Spencer while I was busy with the others.

  On the fourth day, Spencer interrupted a session on Gogen with grave news. “The FBI has penetrated the first gate.”

  53

  In the frantic minutes that followed, we learned that more than thirty FBI, ATF and DHS agents, plus local law enforcement, were taking part. Spencer believed the raid was unrelated to my presence simply because no helicopters or military seemed involved. The three routes out of the cave, including the garden shed, became filled with IMers. Once outside, groups scattered, but escape was going to be difficult because the only road was now blocked. By the time the feds made it through the third gate, we were scurrying down an old wash into a shallow canyon, about a quarter mile south of the cliff. Four students ran with us; the others mostly headed up the cliff trail or escaped into the trees. I thought we were in good shape until Spencer yelled, “We’ve got to get out of the wash, now. Skyclimb through the canyon. There’s a portal in the hills on the other side.”

  “Amber can’t Skyclimb,” I yelled back, as we all ran faster.

  Flashing red and blue lights broke through the dimming light of the setting sun. “Go Nate! Get out of here!”

  “Amber,” I shouted.

  A stern voice crackled through a speaker, “Halt! Drop to the ground with your hands clasped behind your heads or we will fire.”

  “Nate, Skyclimb, now!” Amber screamed. Kyle and Linh pulled at me, and we flew up into the canyon, hitting different boulders and trees as we went. But by the time we reached the hills, Kyle wasn’t with us. We stopped high in a ponderosa pine and saw him heading back toward the wash.

  “What the hell is he doing?” I asked.

  “We can’t wait,” Linh said.

  “Splitting up is not a good idea,” I said.

  “We won’t be able to help anyone if we get killed or captured, especially them,” How much she’d matured in the past months. Linh was the toughest among us; no one would ever have predicted that. “Spencer will take care of them,” she added.

  “How? They’re probably already in custody. Why did Kyle go back?”

  We Skyclimbed a few hundred yards back, trying to follow him, but we had to retreat as more agents entered the canyon.

  “The light will soon be gone. Let’s find that portal,” Linh said, taking my hand.

  It ended up being a very obvious one. If not for its remoteness, and being twelve feet in the air next to an inaccessible rock outcropping, anyone could have seen it. We dove in, unsure where it would take us. Linh’s first portal experience turned out to be a rough ride—spiraling light and extreme cold temperatures, combined with a rushing noise that made it impossible to hear each other. Linh clung to me. We were in the portal for maybe ten minutes, but when we found ourselves dumped into deep snow next to a frozen waterfall, it was night. Without speaking, we made Lusans to keep warm.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, as we knelt huddled around several Lusans.

  “No.” She pushed her way into my arms and kissed me, reckless and wild. “No.”

  I held her tight. “Me neither.”

  “Where are we?”

  “I’m not sure, but that sound in the portal was exactly the same thing I heard when we first got to Crater Lake.”

  “What on earth are you doing back here?” The Old Man of the Lake appeared from a curtain of pines. “Disturbing me at this crazy hour, and here you are all cuddled up like bunnies, bah.”

  “It’s freezing. We’re just trying to keep warm,” Linh said.
>
  “Course it’s cold. It’s January at seven thousand feet.” The Old Man coughed a laugh.

  “We need to get to the redwoods.”

  “Gibi?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Better get you over to Wizard Island portal before you freeze to death.”

  We followed silently through the woods. It took considerable effort to Skyclimb above the snow, while trying to avoid slamming into trees and losing sight of the Old Man. Once we reached the cliff and made it down to the shore, he offered to shapeshift into the floating log and carry Linh across. I was now able to run alongside him, over the water.

  Ten very cold minutes later we looked down into the portal. “You’ve learned much, boy. And you’re still alive. You make an Old Man very happy.”

  “Good to see you again, too,” I said, surprising him with a hug.

  “Still got that chip-stone I gave you?”

  “Sure do. Why, what is it?”

  “It might be useful some time, or it might just remind you of an Old Man.”

  Linh hugged him too.

  “You two get out of here. All this affection is bothering me.”

  We jumped and almost instantly landed in snow again; this time it was only a couple of inches. Linh made Lusans while I tried to find Amber and Kyle on the astral. No connection with Amber, but Kyle came through quickly.

  “What happened?” I asked. “Are you okay?”

  “I had to go back. As we were Skyclimbing out of there, I remembered he only considers you and him important to the Movement. So I knew he’d disappear and Amber would be alone. When I got back there, all that remained were two burning police cars and swarming cops.”

  “No sign of Amber and Spencer?”

  “Nothing. And it was too dangerous to look further, so I backtracked toward you guys, but the canyon was filling with agents. I Skyclimbed around the other end. I’ve been dodging patrols for hours. I guess they figured out how important this place was once the cave blew up.”