Dark Solar Complete Trilogy: Oleander - Wolfsbane - Maikoa

by D. N. Leo

  “Yes, that’s unreasonable,” Arik said.

  The lights flickered, and a wave of electronic static rushed through the room.

  “Something’s coming. Don’t interact with it. Stand next to me, Michael.”

  “Okay, got it!”

  A hologram-like image of a man and woman flickered several times then solidified. Standing in the middle of the room was the magnificent couple, Jael and Charmine. They looked at Dinah and smiled at her. The light around them dimmed gradually, and the halo softened. Soon they stood among others in the same space.

  “Wow!” Michael gasped and then snapped his mouth shut when he felt Ciaran’s hand squeezing his shoulder.

  “Mother!” Dinah said softly, a tear rolling down her cheek.

  Jael nodded. His angelic eyes softened. “I was taking her back to the House of Gods, but she insisted on seeing you before she entered the magical realm again.”

  “Don’t interact yet, everyone. Wait until everything is settled,” Ciaran said.

  Everyone stayed where they were.

  “How did you find me?” Dinah asked.

  “Your mother is a traveler of the multiverse. She can sense and track things that I still don’t understand,” Jael said.

  “She’s a multiversal gypsy! Is that a word?” Michael gasped and got another stare from Ciaran, so he withdrew.

  Ciaran spoke gently, but Dinah could feel the strain in his voice. “You’re from the past and another mind dimension. I take it you had assistance crossing multiple time and space dimensions to get here.”

  Charmine smiled. “Yes, Sciphil Three of Eudaiz, the one you met at the fight on the hilltop, gave us the bracelets that help us travel.”

  She raised the arm with her bracelet and pointed at Jael’s with her other hand.

  “Why are they flashing red?” Arik asked.

  “They’ve been doing that for a while, making noise and flashing. But nothing has come of it, so we figured that was just how they worked,” Jael said.

  “Are they time bombs?” Michael asked.

  “I don’t know what that is, young man.” Jael smiled again.

  “Can they take the bracelets off?” Arik asked.

  “No, those are dimensional transformation resistance bands. I recognize them. It’s Iilos technology,” Dinah said.

  Ciaran spoke softly, “Once they start using the bracelets, they cannot take them off, or they’ll die.”

  “We’re aware of that,” Charmine said. “I don’t know what a bomb is, but judging by the look on this young man’s face, it must be something lethal.”

  “His name is Michael. And yes, bombs are lethal,” Arik said.

  “Why would Sciphil Three want us dead?” Charmine asked.

  “It might not be a bomb. Could you tilt the screens toward me so I can take a look at the signal?” Ciaran asked.

  Jael and Charmine did as he asked.

  Ciaran studied the screens then turned around, looking at the group. Everyone saw the word REC on both of their screens, meaning their dialogue was being recorded.

  The devices the angels were wearing had been hacked.

  Ciaran signaled everyone to remain silent and said, “That’s quite normal.”

  He turned his unit on and typed in commands. He nodded at Dinah. She did the same. A beam of blue light strobed from Ciaran’s wrist unit to Dinah’s then bounced to Jael’s and Charmine’s.

  Ciaran said, “They’re jammed. We’ve got five seconds. Jael and Charmine, Dinah will take you back to your dimension. I’ll insert an alternative program into your device so it thinks it’s listening but it’s not. Tell Dinah what has happened since the bracelet started beeping. She’ll adjust the program accordingly and keep me posted. Understood?”

  Everyone nodded. Ciaran looked at Dinah, and they both switched off the blue light. Ciaran entered new commands into his unit.

  Dinah turned around as Arik embraced her. He kissed her cheek, then her lips, and then let go.

  Ciaran sent off another set of commands. Then he embraced Dinah, kissed her cheek lightly, and brought her to where Jael and Charmine were standing. Ciaran issued a three-dimensional print of a bracelet from his wrist unit and gave it to Dinah.

  She looked at him then turned and looked at Arik. Smiling, she snapped the bracelet on.

  Together, the trio vanished into another dimension.

  Arik flopped down on a chair with his head in his hands.

  Ciaran approached him and handed him another bracelet he had just created.

  “What are my options?” Arik asked.

  “If you love her, you have one option—wear the bracelet. The bracelet locks your profile of time and space with hers, so you’ll be the same regardless of how long it takes for you to see each other again. But as you can see in the case of Jael and Charmine, it’s permanent.”

  Arik took the bracelet, looked at it, and then snapped it on.

  “I’ll take Michael back to his place. Then we need to talk about your family, Arik. It’s not good news.” Ciaran and Arik turned and looked at Michael.

  “He doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere even if you get a bulldozer in here. So whatever you need to tell me, let’s hear it. It can’t be worse than the fact that I lost my sister in Xiilok and Cooper lost his arm in an attack.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a long story. But I saved my Yellow Shield tribe. During the fight, Cooper and Jenny dropped to the side of the mountain. The next thing we knew, Cooper ran back to us, one arm missing, and said that Jenny had been taken by something manmade. Then he left during the night.”

  “So both of them are alive?”

  “In theory. Cooper left a note, and Dinah suspected we would find Jenny and Cooper at the Red Shield camp. But we hadn’t yet gotten there when she got your SOS message. So I don’t know what to tell my parents about Jenny. All right, I’ve said my part. What did you want to tell me?”

  21

  Dinah signaled so that Jael and Charmine stayed behind her. A short distance ahead was a stone cave wrapped by two gigantic stone angel wings.

  “Why would someone want to live in a place like that?” Dinah asked.

  “Asana always wanted to be an angel,” Jael said. “When we jumped the light hundreds of years ago, he pushed me through the light because he thought I had the best chance to become one.”

  “That was his version of the story,” Charmine said. “My version was that he wasn’t good enough to be an angel. Or he wasn’t game enough to jump the light, so he pushed you through.”

  Dinah chuckled and said nothing.

  Jael continued, “He used to be a good man. But he was blinded by power and poisoned by Arete.”

  “I would call that greed, Father.” The sound of the word father rolling off her tongue was strange, but she liked it.

  “If it wasn’t for that greed, I wouldn’t have met your mother.”

  She smiled. “All right, I promise I won’t hurt him for no reason.”

  "He's famous for his medicine and poison, Dinah. Be careful,” Charmine said.

  Dinah frowned. “Does he only handle potions, medicines, magic, and sorcery, or does he deal with technology as well? I mean, things like machinery and computer technology?"

  Jael shook his head. "I know what you mean by technology. No, I don't think Asana is capable, nor does he have access to technology. But Arete does.”

  “So that means it couldn’t be Asana who was spying on us. Arete manipulates the multiversal hologame and challenges every authority in the Cosmos. It has to be him.”

  Jael was worried. “Is he listening now?”

  “No, he’s listening to what we want him to hear. Ciaran planted a program, and I just added an adjustment to it.” Then she turned around, looking at Jael. “Does this have something to do with aperture jumpers?”

  "I'm not sure. But I know it has something to do with the connection of worlds. I was told something significant will happen in multiple worlds soon
. But I don’t know what it is.”

  “Do you know when?” Charmine asked.

  Jael shook his head.

  “If Asana had been an ally of Arete for a long time, do you think he’d know?” Dinah asked.

  Jael nodded.

  “So let’s go and ask him to make our trip worthwhile,” Dinah said.

  Jael kicked in the door and entered, followed by Charmine and Dinah.

  Asana was immersed in his medicine and cooking, paying no attention to the outside of his residence. He almost fell off his chair with surprise when the trio walked in.

  “Jael, what do you want?”

  “Asana, I see you’ve changed,” said Jael.

  “People change.”

  Jael chuckled. “I meant your eyes.”

  “If not for the prick Cooper and his girl, I wouldn’t have ended up at the bottom of the well to eat worms—and have to live with these eyes.”

  “Cooper who?” Dinah asked.

  “I think his last name is Donovan.”

  Dinah flew over and pounded on the man. “You don’t think. His name is Cooper Donovan. And he’s my best friend. What did you do to him so that he had to kick you down a well?”

  Asana fell to the floor and raised his hand, seeking a truce.

  Dinah wouldn’t stop hitting him, and Jael had to drag her away. “That’s enough, Dinah.”

  “What did you give Cooper that made him weak and allowed him to be captured?” Dinah shouted at him.

  “I didn’t do it. It was Arete.”

  “Arete? He’s strong, but Cooper is a lot stronger. What did you give Cooper?” she roared. “He’s lost an arm. Let me cut out your arm so you can see what that feels like.” She grabbed a knife from a nearby table.

  Asana cried out in fear at Dinah’s tenacity. “I gave him wolfsbane because I wanted an exchange for the Daimon Gate privilege.”

  “You poinsoned him with wolfsbane?” Dinah asked.

  “It’s a hallucinogenic agent.”

  “I know what it is. But you wanted a Daimon Gate privilege. What do you have planned with Arete that’s so big you need an escape hatch?”

  “I…I…”

  She kicked a pot of boiling water over. It poured onto a jar of potion and a basket of powder. Chemicals sizzled and bubbled. “Tell me!” she shouted at Asana.

  “The triple aperture. That’s what it is. Every five hundred years, the triple aperture combines the material world, the magical world, and the amalgam world. Whoever jumps the triple aperture will have ultimate power.”

  “The power of god, of course.”

  “Do you believe in that?” Jael asked.

  “I do. But I don’t trust Arete. The plan is for us to approach from three different worlds and jump together. But I know Arete will prevent us from jumping so he can get it all for himself. That’s why I need a new plan.”

  “So who arranged for the humans to capture Cooper?”

  “Arete, of course. He thinks we’re stupid. He knows exactly where and when it will happen on Earth, but he’ll never tell us. He handles the material world. The other two worlds will never have a chance to get close to the location.”

  “Where on Earth exactly?” Dinah asked.

  “If I knew, I’d be halfway there already.” Dinah nodded, and as Asana turned around, she jabbed a needle into his neck.

  In a dark dungeon covered by rusty computer mainframe, Arete was working on his commands. The spying device he had planted underneath Asana’s medicine table started broadcasting Asana’s voice, saying, “He thinks we’re stupid. He knows exactly where and when it will happen on Earth, but he’ll never tell us. He handles the material world. The other two worlds will never have a chance to get close to the location.”

  Then there was the sound of chaos and struggle. And the sound of Asana drawing in his last breath echoed in the air.

  “My condolences,” Arete talked to himself.

  22

  Jett put the food he had picked up at the nearby market on the table. His apartment was the safest place he could think of for Madeline to stay. But it was a rental he had for only a week. His life was adrift. He was used to it, though, and was quite content with what he did.

  But the sight of her living in his apartment triggered all the memories and the dreams they had shared. He hadn’t revisited those feelings in a long time. His line of work had never given him the luxury. He needed a long-term solution for this.

  Madeline still lay on the sofa, staring at the wall as if he didn’t exist. He offered the bed, but she wouldn’t take it.

  He crouched next to her on the sofa. “You can’t do this to yourself, Madeline. You have to eat. You have to get up. I know it’s hard, but that’s life. If there’s anything I can do to take back what had happened and fix it, I’ll do it.”

  He brushed a strand of stray hair off her forehead. She didn’t even bother pushing his hand away like she had before.

  “Was anything between us real?” she asked.

  “You mean what we had in college?”

  She nodded.

  “I told you that was the only real thing I’ve had in life. We were happy, remember?” He sat down on the carpet and leaned against the coffee table.

  “Yes, indeed, we were very happy.”

  “Freyja,” he said.

  “You remember that?” A tear rolled down her face.

  “Of course I do. If we had a daughter, we’d call her Freyja.”

  She laughed a little as another tear rolled down her face.

  “What are your children’s names?”

  “Caedmon and Lyla.”

  He nodded. “They must be beautiful.”

  “Yes, they are. And way too smart for my liking.”

  “Ciaran will change his mind. You’ll see them again. It’s your right, Madeline.”

  She shook her head and wiped away another tear.

  Jett grabbed his pack from the table, pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and took a drag.

  “We haven’t been married for long, but we know each other well. There have been countless times I pulled things off, but I don’t think I can do it this time. I made a mistake.” She started to cry.

  “It’s my fault. Come on.” He squashed out his cigarette and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

  She shook her head, and the tears continued to fall. He didn’t know what to do, so he just held her in his arms and rocked her. She cried for a while then fell asleep.

  He tucked a blanket around her and went outside. He called his contact. “I want out.”

  A staticky filtered robotic voice answered him, “You have to at least finish the first part of our agreement.”

  “I’ll give you back the money.”

  “It’s too late for that. I can’t find a replacement quickly enough. We can’t afford a mistake.”

  “You can’t afford a mistake, but I can. I’ll return the money.”

  “How about I send another job toward the bitch sleeping at your place right now.”

  “Don’t you dare.”

  “Now you get my point. Obviously, you can’t easily replace her with another. So get on and finish the job.”

  “I need more time.”

  “Your target is on the move now. The location has just been sent to you. The faster you get this done, the sooner you’ll be free.”

  Jett mumbled some profanity and returned to the apartment. Madeline was still asleep. He grabbed his jacket and left.

  Madeline woke on the sofa. The clock on the wall stared at her. She was unbelievably tired. She sat up and saw the food Jett had left for her on the table.

  The apartment was plain and in need of decoration. Obviously a rental. Or maybe Jett just lived a simple life. He had always been like that. Madeline shook her head, trying to clear the cloud in her mind.

  He psychic ability was still not working.

  She got up from the sofa and put her jacket on. She flipped her wrist unit ov
er and saw a tiny red button she had never before thought to press.

  She pressed it.

  A round beam of light appeared. She was scared at first, but then she realized it was just the holocast technology—an exclusive teleport means to which she had access.

  She wrote a note to Jett. “I’m going home to my children.”

  She stood, glanced around the apartment one more time, and stepped into the holocast.

  23

  Ciaran slammed his foot down on the accelerator and glanced at Arik in the passenger seat. No reaction. When he had first met Arik, they’d gotten into a car chase. Arik had spent the entire time yelling at him and asking him to slow down. But now, he just stared out the window.

  He figured speed was Arik’s friend right now. It helped calm his emotions, although Ciaran thought Arik had handled things quite well.

  They had just left the morgue. He had given Arik the news about his parents’ death, not anticipating he would want to see their bodies.

  But he was within his rights to ask, so he went to the police to identify his parents.

  Since then, Arik had said nothing.

  “Where are we, Michael?” Ciaran asked.

  From the back seat, Michael said, “Very close. If we stay at this speed, we’ll get to the target very soon.” Michael was holding the tracking screen for the bug Ciaran had planted on the white van. The signal had been triggered right after they left the morgue.

  “Great!” Ciaran said and drove even faster. “When we get there, I want you to stay in the car. Got that, Michael?”

  “Sure.”

  They soon approached an industrial area and entered an abandoned multilevel parking garage. Ciaran drove up the ramp slowly, keeping an eye out for the white van.

  On the third level, there it was, parked on the platform, out in the open. Next to the van stood the elegant woman Ciaran had met previously. She appeared to be by herself, but he couldn’t be too careful.

  He stopped the car at a distance. “Stay inside the car and duck down, Michael.”

  Michael was about to protest, but seeing the look on Ciaran’s face, he decided to remain silent and slid to the floor of the car.