Near Death (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 1)

by Richard C Hale

  Jake was getting angry. He did not like the direction this conversation was taking.

  “I say we do need her here. She’s been nothing but beneficial since the day she arrived. Who suggested the sound anomaly was a kind of digital distortion which led to the discovery of the music in the NDE, along with the Life Review being cleared up by that discovery? She did. And last night, she made me realize that we had proven the existence of life after death with the recorded content of the Life Review. How can you say we don’t need her here?”

  “Did she tell you this before or after you took her clothes off?” Teri shouted.

  “Teri, that’s enough!”

  “No! I want to know. Did the little whore wait a whole day before seducing you, or was it a couple of hours? Because if I were to bet on it, I’d put money on an hour.”

  “Dammit! Shut up! How dare you insult her like that. You know nothing about her. You’ve had it in for her since the day she came to us for help. You just can’t stand to see me happy for a change.”

  “Are you sure she’s made you happy? Or were you just horny and now you’ve gotten a little release. Because I could’ve made you hap…” She stopped, catching herself.

  “Because you could’ve what?” Jake shouted. “You could’ve made me happy? Is that what you were going to say? Because I doubt it. You’re a bitter, moody, angry girl and frankly, I’m not interested.”

  Jake stopped. He knew he had gone too far and the look on Teri’s face told him so. She stared at him for a second, a look of such shock and pain, Jake immediately regretted what he said, and then a single tear tumbled down her cheek. She turned and stormed out of his office without another word.

  Maddy must have heard the whole exchange and as Teri swept passed her in a rush she said, “Teri, I…”

  Teri stopped and glared at Maddy. “You what? I don’t want to hear it. Just keep your mouth shut you little tramp!” And she grabbed her purse and left without another word.

  “Teri!” Jake yelled. “Wait!” But Teri was gone and the door closed with a hiss of empty air. “What have I done?”

  Maddy went to him and held him as the quiet enveloped them both.

  29

  January 15, 2010 11:30 a.m.

  Orange Park, Florida

  Jake tried Teri’s cell phone but she had either turned it off or was rejecting his calls. It went straight to voice mail.

  He left a message. “Teri, please call me back. I went too far and I’m sorry. We can work this out.”

  But the message felt insincere and empty to Jake. Losing her now was going to be a huge setback for the program and a huge setback in his life. Teri was too good a friend to lose like this. He hoped she would cool down and they could talk this out.

  “I’m so sorry, Jake,” Maddy said after he tried to call Teri. “I know this is my fault.”

  “No, Maddy. This was going to happen eventually anyway. I just wish it hadn’t happened now.”

  “She’s right. I feel like a tramp.” And her eyes welled up and she looked away.

  “Hey,” Jake said, coming to her, “she’s wrong. How can you think that anything we have shared is cheap or trashy? Do you really believe that?”

  “The way she puts it makes me feel cheap,” Maddy said, softly crying.

  “Have I made you feel that way?”

  She looked into his eyes and without hesitating shook her head and said, “No.”

  “You know the little rules we made up that we keep playing games with?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, that’s just what they are, games. It’s never been just physical for me. I feel something when I’m with you. Something I didn’t know how to feel anymore.” He reached out and held her face softly in his hands. “You bring me to a place I haven’t been to in a long time. A place I used to know so well, but in my pain I became disoriented and that place became something else, something dark and lonely. I was lost—lost and didn’t know it. I thought by holding on to Beth as tight as I could, I could hold on to that place and keep her alive in my heart. If getting to know you means letting go, then I can do that now. I have to do that, because now that I know you, I can’t go back to that dark and lonely place.”

  She reached up and touched his face and said, “Don’t go back. I need you here.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said, and kissed her.

  30

  January 15, 2010 11:30 a.m.

  Orange Park, Florida

  Teri turned her cell off and walked angrily to the coffee shop, ordered a double mocha frappuccino, and sat feeling sorry for herself for the next hour.

  The swiftness and intensity of the argument between Jake and herself had taken her by complete surprise and she was ashamed of how she had reacted. She kept going over and over in her mind how things had deteriorated to this point, and the only person that kept surfacing was Madison McClaughlin. The little bitch had practically ruined her life in a matter of days. Where had she come from? What the hell had happened?

  Teri knew Jake cared about her. They had been friends so long and she had been the only one to help him when Beth died. She just didn’t know if Jake felt the same for her as she did for him. She had kept those feelings buried deep inside for a long time in fear of him rejecting her. She had waited for Jake to come around. Waited for him to acknowledge her. But she had apparently waited too long and now Jake had found someone else.

  Her pain was intense, and the thought of being completely without him put her in a panic. As she imagined going through her life, every day, without Jake, her breath came in short gasps and she found she was breaking out in a cold sweat.

  The waitress came over and asked her if everything was ok. She got control of herself and nodded. She would have to swallow her pride and go back. Teri didn’t know how she was going to do this, but she knew she must.

  She turned her cell phone back on and tried to steel herself for what she would have to do. She saw she had five messages and as she listened to Jake’s repeated pleas to come back and talk, she felt a little better. Maybe he had seen the little whore for what she was and kicked her to the curb.

  She had a vision of herself walking back into the lab, Jake rushing to her apologizing and taking her into his strong arms, promising to love her always. A fantasy she knew, but it seemed to give her a little comfort.

  She paid her tab and began walking back to the lab and Jake, her fantasy replaying in her mind as she walked.

  31

  January 15, 2010 1:00 p.m.

  Orange Park, Florida

  Jake was getting worried.

  He had tried Teri’s cell numerous times over the last hour and still nothing. He was about to call again when Teri walked back into the lab.

  Jake hurried over to her and said, “Teri, I’m sorry. I never should have said those things and I want you to know I didn’t mean them.”

  “I know. Me too. I feel like an idiot. You guys probably think I’m insane. I would if I were in your shoes.”

  “I don’t want us to ever get that angry at each other again,” Jake said, smiling. “Do you think we can get past this?”

  “I’m already over it. No more personal attacks from me, I promise.”

  Jake smiled and gave her a hug. “Thanks, Teri. It’s very important to me for you to be here.”

  Teri turned to Maddy and said, “I’m sorry I said those things to you. You didn’t deserve that.”

  “It’s ok, Teri. We’re good.”

  Jake could tell Maddy was still upset, but he didn’t know what to say, so he let it go.

  Even though Teri had seemed sincere enough, he was worried the problem would rear its ugly head again, probably sooner rather than later. This whole situation seemed vaguely familiar and now that he knew Teri’s feelings, memories came flooding back. Teri had gotten mad at him about Beth as well and made up some crazy story about how she was not the right girl for him and everything had happened too fast with her. He was an idiot for no
t seeing it. Too late now, he’d just have to try and keep things calm.

  “Well, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get back to work,” he said.

  * * *

  Jake and Teri began going through Sara’s NDE again with the new software patch running.

  Jake showed Teri the disc Bodey gave him and explained it needed to be in the drive for the software to function. The patch worked flawlessly and Sara’s NDE was clear and glitch free. He liked what he was seeing and hearing.

  “Let’s look at Rachael Swanson’s recordings,” Teri said. “Hopefully they’ll be as clear.”

  They punched up the file for Rachael’s NDE and began playing it back. Where the distorted sound was supposed to start, a new musical chord played through the speakers instead.

  “Wow!” Teri said. “That’s really beautiful.”

  Jake nodded and said, “It’s different though. The chord must have different notes.”

  Maddy came over and said, “That music is definitely different than my mom’s. It’s still beautiful, just different.”

  “Do you think everybody’s chord is different?” Jake asked.

  “There is only one way to find out,” Teri said, and punched up another file.

  It was an older one they hadn’t looked at in a while. The musical chord was different for that one also. Jake wanted to be sure there wasn’t a glitch in the new patch so he called Bodey in Chicago and told him what was going on.

  “So, the music is different?” Bodey asked.

  “Yes, each person’s NDE appears to have a different sounding chord. The notes that make up the chord must be different.”

  “Have you looked at them through the tonal analyzer?”

  “No, I didn’t think of that.”

  “Do it and e-mail the file right now.”

  Jake loaded the files into the analyzer and then made a copy of the results and e-mailed it to Bodey.

  “Got it yet?” asked Jake.

  “No, not yet. It should—oh wait—here it is.” He paused for a minute or so as he looked at the analysis and then said, “They are definitely different. Each one has its own pattern of tones and elements. Have you guys considered that they are different for a reason?”

  “What do you mean?” Jake asked.

  “What if this musical chord is like a signature or something? Each individual person has their own signature or fingerprint if you will. A key that fits only that unique human being.”

  When Bodey said the work ‘key,’ a light bulb went on in Jake’s head and he yelled, “Bodey, you’re a genius! It’s a key. The music must be a key which unlocks each person’s essence. This is what made these people different. The chord triggered the release of energy in their body and because the energy had to be called back, the trigger must not be able to be reset. It must stay open until they move on for good.”

  “That’s an interesting theory,” Bodey said, “but if the trigger stays open, how is their energy being contained? What keeps the energy from leaving their body?”

  “I don’t know,” Jake said, perplexed now. “I’ll have to think about it some more.” He paused, thinking. “I still think the music has got to be some kind of trigger or key. Maybe, it toggles on and off as needed. I have an idea, but I won’t be able to test it until Monday when our next test subject comes in. Thanks, Bodey. Once again you’re a life saver. I’ll call you on Monday and let you know what happens.”

  “All right, dude,” Bodey said, “talk to you then.” And he hung up.

  Jake had a huge grin on his face and was doing his pacing thing.

  “This is big,” he said. “This has got to be what we’ve been looking for, I can feel it.”

  “What’s the idea you have, Jake?” Maddy asked.

  “Remember the other day with Rachael?”

  “Yes.”

  “When we played back the segment of her NDE with the distorted musical chord, we affected her ability to read minds, remember?”

  Teri and Maddy both nodded.

  “After we record Frank Lucas’s NDE, I want to play back his musical chord while he’s hooked up to Andee. Now that we will have the complete chord instead of static and distortion, I think we’ll see something amazing.”

  32

  January 15, 2010 3:00 p.m.

  Orange Park, Florida

  The rest of the afternoon was spent building a database for each recorded NDE.

  The life review segments were very long for most of them and the CRAY took an hour to catalogue about fifteen years worth of someone’s life. Jake thought it kind of pathetic when you put it like that. Someone’s life reduced to a computer database crunched into numbers in a fraction of the time it took to actually live it. He felt like an intruder.

  Teri and Maddy were civil the rest of the day. At least Jake hadn’t noticed any conflicts between them. The truth was they hardly said two words to each other.

  At six thirty, they powered everything down and locked up. Teri left by herself, waving out her window as she drove out of the parking lot. Jake and Maddy decided to have dinner together and he said he would pick her up at her parents’ in an hour.

  “Bring something warm,” Jake said.

  The temperature had already dipped into the low thirties. It was going to be cold.

  At Maddy’s parents’ house, Mike welcomed Jake with a beer and they sat and talked while Maddy finished getting ready. The house was warm with a roaring fire going in the family room. Mike said he couldn’t remember the last time it had been so cold.

  “Sir, may I ask you something about Vietnam?” Jake said.

  Mike said, “Shoot.”

  “Did you ever know anyone who had a Near Death Experience during the war? Someone who had been seriously wounded and talked about seeing a tunnel or a bright light?”

  Mike thought for a moment and then shook his head. “Nope, I can’t recall anything like that. Most of the seriously wounded got a ticket home or died before I ever talked to them again. We had a few who had rotated stateside, recovered and shipped back, but they never talked about seeing anything like that. What’s bothering ya’ Jake?”

  “When my wife died, she slipped away right there in my arms. She was talking nonsense, or so I thought, about white lights and her long dead mother being with her. I thought at first it was her brain malfunctioning from lack of oxygen, or she was confused from being knocked unconscious. Now I believe she was having a Near Death Experience, only she never came back from it to tell me about it.”

  “That must have been pretty hard on you. I don’t know how I would have handled it myself.”

  Jake paused. “Have you ever felt like there was something you didn’t get to tell one of your buddies who didn’t make it over there? Or ask them something important you needed to know? What if you had that chance? Would you take it?”

  Mike nodded, as if understanding where Jake was coming from.

  “I have many unanswered questions and many things that were left unsaid, but I get through it because I know one day I will get my answers and I will get to tell my tales. I just have to be patient.”

  “But what if there had been something you needed to know, right then? Something that couldn’t wait?”

  “I’ll answer that with a question. If you never get to find that answer, will your life be any different than it is now? Will it change the way you look at the world?”

  “I don’t know, sir.”

  “I know you don’t. Live your life. Your answers will come one way or the other.”

  Jake nodded and swallowed the rest of his beer.

  Mike clapped him hard on the back and said, “Want another one?”

  “No, sir, thank you. I need to drive.”

  Maddy walked in looking beautiful. Her hair was pulled back behind her ears and held with a simple pale yellow ribbon. As she moved across the room toward him, the firelight reflected off the gold necklace she wore. Jake’s smile must have betrayed his appreciation of her ap
pearance because she blushed and smiled coyly.

  Mike said, “I don’t know if I should let you out like that,” but smiled at his daughter as she came and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Daddy, stop,” was all she said.

  Maddy went to Jake and clasped his hand in hers.

  They went to leave and Mike said, “Be good to my daughter, now. She’s my baby.”

  “Sir,” Jake said, “I couldn’t imagine being anything other than good to her. She’s too beautiful for anything else.”

  Maddy squeezed his hand and smiled so big, the dimple at the corner of her mouth smiled too. Mike nodded and waved goodbye.

  They went to a local Japanese steak house in Fleming Island and sat at a large hibachi table with eight other people.

  The food was good, the wine better and Maddy, beautiful. Jake found himself staring and smiling, watching Maddy laugh at some joke or antic performed by the chef, and when she caught him, she would smile and blush. He would laugh at her then, her eyes sparkling in the candlelight, and she would grab his arm, laying her head on his shoulder.

  They tried feeding each other with chopsticks, but Jake missed, sticking a piece of shrimp up Maddy’s nose. She threw it at him, laughing.

  When the meal was finished one of the other diners said to everyone at the table, “Hey, I’m DJing at this club down the street starting at ten. Come hang with me and I can get everyone in free.”

  Maddy thought it would be fun, but Jake wasn’t so sure.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a club,” Jake said. “I don’t know if I can dance.”

  “C’mon old man,” Maddy said. “What are you afraid of? I’ll protect you.”

  He laughed and said, “Hey! Thirty six isn’t old.”

  Outside, the temperature had plummeted and Jake held Maddy close to keep her warm. She didn’t seem to mind the cold.