by D. N. Leo
Sweat trickled down Arik’s forehead, and blood seeped out between the fingers of the hand with which he clutched his wound.
“You’re a fucking scumbag. Liz was innocent, and her death was a tragedy. But now you use your sister’s death for money?”
“Shut the fuck up!” Lindsay thrust the gun muzzle forward but didn’t pull the trigger.
“Your sister is just an excuse. If you wanted to put a bullet in my head, you would have done it by now. What else did they pay you for, apart from getting that jar? Is there something in me? In my head?”
“Scan your wristband against all the other jars. Do it now.”
Arik grabbed at his band, about to yank it off.
“It’s the only thing keeping you alive. Ciaran coded it for you. And you can only operate it when you’re alive. If you take it off, I’ll shoot you with pleasure. Now scan the rest of the lab.”
Arik stood still. “I don't understand the LeBlanc’s secrets. But I know if you sell them, many people will die. They are betting on Earth’s population right now . . .”
“It's not my problem. All I want now is to blow your head off. So scan the fuck out of the lab!”
They heard a low growl, and a shadow darted in, hitting Lindsay hard from behind. Lindsay fell to the floor, almost losing consciousness. Ciaran stood tall, holding the jar in his hand.
Arik had never seen so much rage in Ciaran, and he was sure Ciaran’s supernatural power was activated at the moment.
“Take it off!” Ciaran pointed at Arik’s wristband. Arik yanked off the band and stomped his foot on it without mercy.
On the floor, Lindsay looked up. “I’m sorry, Ciaran. I never meant to betray you.”
“Apology not accepted,” Ciaran said and turned toward Arik.
“Look out!” Arik yelled as he saw Lindsay scramble to his feet and pull something from his sock.
Ciaran whirled around and had Lindsay at gunpoint.
Lindsay held a small round device the size of a coin in his open palm.
“An ordinary gun cannot get past Mon Ciel security. You know that better than anyone else, Ciaran. But this explosive device isn’t any ordinary weapon. I never planned to betray you until you brought that prick who killed my sister back into your life. Now put the gun down and give me back the jar, Ciaran,” Lindsay said to Ciaran while watching Arik’s every movement.
“You really disappoint me, Lindsay.” Ciaran lowered the gun and dropped it to the floor. His left hand still held the jar.
“I’m sorry, Ciaran,” Lindsay said.
“You’re sorry to take a prize on my head?”
Lindsay chuckled bitterly. “I didn’t know you’d come in here for him. Again, you’re choosing him over my lifetime of devotion to the LeBlancs. What has he ever done for your friendship, if there ever was a friendship?”
“I’ve never sold him short, at any price. I top you on that,” Arik said.
“I’m not talking to you!” Lindsay shouted at Arik. Seeing he was distracted, Ciaran seized the opportunity to plant a kick on his abdomen, sending him to the floor. The round device slid out of his hand, rolling on the floor and flashing a red light.
Arik was no expert in weapons, but judging by the look on Lindsay’s face, he knew there was no way anyone in this room was going to get out in one piece. He darted toward the device. He might be able to lessen the damage with his body. He couldn’t think of any other solution.
But Ciaran was right behind him. He could feel Ciaran’s strong hold on his jacket, pulling him back.
“Don’t!” Ciaran shouted.
On the floor, Lindsay rolled over and lay on top of the device. He looked up at Ciaran. “They want the primer, Ciaran. Please protect my family.”
That was all Arik saw and felt. There was a whirl of white particles in front of him, and then the pressure from the blast.
6
Flying was officially her most favorite skill now, Dinah thought while running as fast as she could, following Madeline down the hill toward the creek. Madeline had switched on her supernatural power—one she referred to as the silver blood or the special eudqi. Although Ciaran had not had a chance to master a way to utilize the silver blood, at the moment, it allowed Madeline to accentuate her natural talent. Madeline was running like the wind.
Dinah didn’t exactly fly naturally like a bird. She had to use the wings in her weaponry suit. But she considered the ability to leap in the air and surf in the wind at incredible speeds with the artificial wings an important skill. That was good enough, she thought.
Damn, that was good! Dinah thought as she looked to the sky in the direction Madeline was pointing. She would kill for Madeline’s psychic ability.
From the empty sky, an egg-shaped vehicle appeared. It was as if it had just torn through some kind of dimensional curtain and penetrated this dimension. It was in flame. Two objects were ejected from it, and then the capsule exploded into nothingness.
“Hello and goodbye TX25,” Dinah muttered. She knew by now the two flying objects were Ciaran and Arik being ejected out of the burning capsule.
One of their parachutes had been released. The other person had no parachute and free-fell.
“Oh no!” she cried out.
Madeline saw it, too. They had closed the distance a little more, and they could tell who was who was who.
“That’s Arik!” Madeline shouted, pointing at the falling person.
Dinah veered in Arik’s direction.
Arik was free-falling fast.
The wind was strong. It pushed Ciaran’s parachute in another direction. In front of their astonished eyes, Ciaran ripped off his parachute and free-fell toward Arik.
“Arik isn’t conscious!” Madeline shouted.
“Goddammit,” Dinah cursed and spread her wings.
Ciaran closed the distance with Arik, and once he grabbed Arik’s hand, he ejected his second emergency parachute. It took off with the wind, but they still descended rapidly toward the fast-running creek down the hill.
Dinah changed her flight path.
On the ground, Madeline had changed direction so that when Ciaran and Arik landed on the bank of the creek, she would be right there.
The creek dropped down about fifty feet, and a hanging bridge hung precariously from one side to the other. The wind carried Ciaran’s parachute, crashing it into the bridge and tangling it in the bridge’s steel wires. Before Ciaran could do anything, Madeline was on the bridge, charging toward them.
The parachute was tearing with the weight of the two men dangling in the strong wind. Arik was dead weight as he was still unconscious. Ciaran couldn’t climb up with one hand on the tearing parachute and the other hand holding Arik.
Madeline dove over and grabbed Ciaran’s hand before it slid off the parachute. The momentum pushed her over the edge of the bridge. She dangled by one hand with the weight of two men below her.
“Let go of my hand, Madeline!” Ciaran shouted.
“It’s too high to drop to the water,” Madeline said.
“I can take care of both of us, but not if you fall, too. Let go.”
“No. Dinah will come soon.”
“We’re too heavy for her.”
“I can’t let go of you two. It’s too high to fall from here. We need another lifter. Dinah can help.”
Before Madeline could say anything further, the weight caused her to lose her grip on the bridge. The three of them fell but still hung together like a human string, flying in the wind.
Dinah flew over and grabbed Madeline’s hand just before gravity dragged them all down. She flapped her wings rapidly, but the wings designed to carry her tiny body couldn’t lift the weight of three additional people in addition to the force of the strong wind. They descended rapidly downward to the cold water, heading toward a small waterfall a hundred yards in front of them.
“Just slow our falling speed to lessen the impact when we hit. We should be okay to swim when we get to the water,” Cia
ran shouted up.
“That’s the plan,” Dinah responded, cursing the rainwater smashing into her face. She had to use both hands to get a good grip on Madeline’s hand, so she didn’t have a spare hand to wipe the moisture from her eyes. She couldn’t see where they were flying. But she knew it was downward.
“Arik is heating up!” Ciaran called from below her.
“How many times already? You think he’ll travel?” Madeline asked.
“I don’t know how many times. But it doesn’t matter—I think he’ll travel very soon,” Ciaran said.
Dinah knew Ciaran was right. Whenever Arik’s body heated up, he time traveled, carrying whoever was in contact with him through the time travel as well. It had happened before with Madeline. Time traveling would be fun if Arik were in control of it. It was bad enough that he couldn’t control it when he was conscious. Now, being unconscious, Dinah had no idea where this would take them.
Ciaran called again, “I can’t let go of Arik. If he drops to the water now, he’ll drown. Let go of my hand, Madeline.”
“If he travels, I’ll have to go with you. I can mind navigate. You can’t,” Madeline said.
Dinah flapped her wings harder, but it didn’t help the situation. If they landed faster, as soon as they were on safe ground, Ciaran could let go of Arik’s hand. Dinah folded her wings and stopped flying.
They fell faster.
But it was too late.
She saw a flash of white light coming from beneath them. And then everything turned white.
7
Helpless. Cooper cursed himself, letting out a stream of profanity he didn’t know he was capable of while running toward the creek. He couldn’t compare himself to Ciaran or Madeline. They had supernatural power—he didn’t. Dinah had no magical power, but she could fly with her artificial wings. She was very helpful and could do amazing things he couldn’t.
“Damn it.”
He cursed again at the fact that he was forced to run on the ground like an ordinary human being. Jenny almost beat him in the race to the creek. He could see Ciaran in the distance, and Arik and Dinah flew through the air in scattered flying paths that made no sense to him. He ran in the general direction of the creek and darted over to the edge. Jenny flopped down next to him.
About twenty feet below, Arik, Ciaran, Madeline, and Dinah vanished into thin air.
“Shit! They’ve time traveled,” he muttered.
“What?” Jenny asked incredulously.
“Calm down. They’ve done it before. Arik has done it countless times and returned safely. Last time, he brought Madeline with him, and they both came back just fine. So you don’t have to worry. Your brother will return safely.”
“Cooper?”
“Yes, Jenny.”
“You’re the one who needs to calm down.”
“Oh, right. Okay, we’ll just stay here and wait.”
Cooper knew if he went into his normal brooding mode right now, number one, it wouldn’t help the situation, and number two, it worried him how it would affect Jenny’s thoughts of him. There was no room for worries now. He had to do what he always did best to save his friends—investigate. “I have to Toogle,” he said.
“You have to what?”
“I have to search a multiversal open data portal. I have a theory about what’s happening.”
“So it’s like Googling. I mean . . . searching for an Internet data portal on Earth.”
Cooper shrugged and switched on his wrist unit.
“What’s your theory? Is there anything I can do to help?” Jenny asked.
“Well, Arete challenged Ciaran, Eudaiz, and Arik to the hologame, betting on the Earth’s population to make them sweat. I originally thought he was taking advantage of Ciaran’s and Arik’s connection to humans. But now I think Arete himself has connections to both humans and the multiverse. Also, he was looking for something very specific inside Mon Ciel. Something that might connect to the past. That’s why he manipulated Arik’s brainwaves and made him time travel.”
“My brother must have found whatever Arete was looking for inside Mon Ciel, and that thing triggered his travel.”
Cooper nodded. “Yes, it’s a possibility. But their manipulation of Arik’s wristband was done in Eudaiz, right in Ciaran’s backyard. Infiltrating the Eudaizian system is almost impossible, so I’m thinking this is quite an elaborate scheme, much larger than the hologame challenge. And Arete might not be the key player.”
“So the multiversal hologame might be just a decoy?”
“Precisely.” Cooper sighed. “I think Arete’s endgame crosses multiple worlds.”
Jenny frowned. “I thought the multiverse crossed multiple worlds already . . . ”
“Not necessarily. I’m not an expert on metaphysical matters. We’re better off discussing this with Ciaran . . . if we can find him.”
“It looks like we’re not the only ones wanting to find him.” Jenny tilted her chin toward a stretch of land on the middle of the hillside halfway down to the creek.
Cooper squinted. “Indeed,” he said.
A space creature in human shape was searching the area where their friends had just vanished into another time dimension. As they spoke, the creature’s head jerked up, and its striking yellow eyes stared straight at them.
Cooper immediately pulled Jenny back from the edge of the cliff, just before the creature leaped into the air and landed right in front of them. It stood tall, upright. Its shape flickered several times then settled as an eight-foot-tall man with an ancient face, long gray hair, and dark, evil eyes.
Sensing Jenny wanted to step forward, Cooper shoved her back behind him. He would face her wrath later, but this creature wasn’t ordinary. There was no way he’d let her fight it, even with her earthly martial arts skills.
“So you can fly without wings. Any other tricks?” he asked.
“Where did they go?” the man croaked out in a strange voice.
“Why do you look like you’re from Lord of the Rings but speak like you’re from Planet of the Apes?” Jenny asked.
“What does that even mean?” Cooper asked.
The man growled. “I am not an ape.”
Jenny spoke between clenched teeth to Cooper, “I’m just buying time. How fast can you run?”
“I’m not going to run!”
“Where did they go, Cooper Donovan?”
Cooper turned and looked at the creature. It knew his name. He’d better be careful. The creature in an old man’s form might be able to read minds. He refrained from any further thoughts.
“Well, I know where they’ve gone. But if I tell you, I’m sure you’ll kill us, Arete.”
The old man smirked, and his face seemed to grow even more ancient. Cooper could tell Arete was impressed.
Cooper continued, “You’ve done your homework, so there’s no point in me beating around the bush. I don’t care at all what you want with the hologame. I’m on a job and got tangled up in this mess. If you compensate me for my loss of income and agree to let my business partner return to Iilos safely, I’ll tell you where they’ve gone.”
“Agreed,” Arete said.
“Well, I can’t take you on your word. I need it in writing. And I need the money wired immediately. Now. I take multiversal currency.”
“How much do you want?”
“A hundred thousand.”
Arete smirked again. “No problem.”
Cooper nodded and grinned. He pulled out an electronic notepad. “All right, sign here. My account number is there. I need proof of a successful transaction before I’ll give you any information.”
Arete nodded. Cooper gave him the pad. As soon as they were within arm’s reach, Cooper pulled his gun and shot Arete in the face. The laser cut a hole in Arete’s head, from the front to the back. Cooper fired again, and this time, the beam sliced off half his head.
Arete’s body sparked with electric current. Then he crumbled to the ground, and his body disintegrated.
“You’ve killed—”
Before Jenny could finish her sentence, Cooper grabbed her hand and charged toward an inland field.
“What are you doing?” Jenny asked while following him.
“I don’t have the money for an express or exclusive vessel. We’ll have to catch the public multiversal transport. You have to come with me to Iilos. Once we’re inside the border, we’ll be protected. Those shots destroyed Arete’s body for now, but he’ll return again very soon.”
“You’re saying he’s invincible?”
“Not invincible . . . I just don’t know how to kill him.”
“How do we get to the transport?”
Cooper stopped running. He turned around and held Jenny’s hands. “Do you trust me?”
She looked into his eyes. “Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll take you the way I came. It won’t be glamorous. But it’s relatively safe. Ready?”
She nodded.
“Close your eyes.”
She followed his instructions.
He kissed her cheek quickly then teleported to the transitional zone of the multiverse, grinning foolishly on the way.
8
Madeline opened her eyes, immediately registering the unfamiliar surroundings and the time-traveling experience. Unlike the previous trip with Arik where they had been transported to the past in an instant without losing consciousness, this time was different. It seemed as if they had traveled through a passage of emptiness. There had been no sound, no sense of anything—and certainly there were no memories.
She sat right up and saw a small bushland on the right and a hillside sloping slightly toward the left. She couldn’t tell where they were, but she was sure they were no longer in England.
Then she felt the pain. It wasn’t from the travel. It was from loss—the emptiness of losing something very important in her life. She couldn’t figure out what the exact feeling was, but she knew she had experienced it before—and had no desire to feel it again. There were both perks and curses when you were a psychic. And her current experience was the latter.