by Terry Persun
“Holy shit.” Mercer stood down the hall. “That was awesome.”
“Secure them,” Dan said as he continued down the hall. He got to a staircase and stepped inside the well. He had two choices: go up and look for Jason or stay there and journey for his next move.
Mercer came through the door while Dan was still deciding. “Now what?”
“I’m going to find out where they’re holding Jason.” Dan walked behind the staircase and sat on the floor, out of sight. “They’ll never look here.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Sit completely quiet and out of view or leave. It’s up to you.”
Dan shoved his back into the corner, set the wine bottle down, and reached his fingers to his neck to tap out a rhythm on his vein.
Chapter 26
The first thing Dan did was check for signatures of anyone else, like Mindy or Richard. He didn’t know Koko’s signature, but believed that Richard had taken care of her.
He stood in a gulley of some kind, then realized it was a sand pit, unable to see very far around him. Dunes rose at all sides, one particularly was not as steep as the others so he headed in that direction on all fours, slipping and sinking into the sand, slowing him down. His arms ached. He called on Dragonfly while swinging around to sit on the sand. Why Dragonfly, he wondered, but in a short time it came fluttering over to him. Dan pulled his cockroach journey up in his mind and felt how it was to shrink down, went through the same experience, then climbed onto Dragonfly’s back.
It had been a long time since he’d explored his journeys so freely. After years of helping people with domestic- and work-related problems, it felt good to be back in the strangeness of a deep journey.
As Dragonfly rose above the sand dunes, Dan saw for miles in all directions except one, the direction they were traveling, toward what looked like a rich and fertile bayou. As they approached the swamp, the weather became cold and bitter. Dragonfly dropped him off near a milkweed plant. “Here we go again,” he said. He addressed Dragonfly. “Wait for me?”
Its wings folded and it stopped moving except for motion due to occasional breezes. Dan climbed onto the milkweed pod and, handhold by handhold, down its stalk. He grew back to his normal size and walked toward the marsh when he saw Moose. Fear ran through his body as he anticipated Whale, the ocean, Jason’s body. He ran toward Moose just as it thrust its head into the marsh. Dan kneeled and did the same, desperately glancing around for his son, but Jason wasn’t there. “Where’s Jason?” His voice sounded thick and bubbly.
“Trapped,” Moose said.
“Where? I’ve come for him.”
“You’re trapped, too,” Moose said.
“No I’m not…” Dan stopped there. He knew what happened even before he rushed back to Dragonfly, back to the sand pit, and opened his eyes.
A large, bald man stood over Agent Mercer with a gun aimed at him. He looked at Dan. “Taking a little nap, are we?”
Dan blinked.
“We were expecting you,” the man said. His shoulders were broad and his torso thick. Maybe a bodybuilder, maybe just big.
“Obviously,” Dan said.
“We didn’t expect you to do so much damage on your way here, though.”
“Glad to oblige,” Dan said.
The man waved his gun, kept his distance, and ushered them out of the stairwell and up the stairs.
“Where are you taking us?”
“We have your own room waiting for you.”
Mercer said, “I’m a federal agent. Do you have any idea what this might mean for you when you’re caught?”
The man smiled. “Been in worse situations. And that’s when I didn’t have legal advice. I always get through these things just fine.” The man’s voice wasn’t as gruff as his physique might have suggested. He spoke smoothly, almost like a singer.
“Not this time, buster,” Mercer countered.
The man laughed.
“At the top of the stairs, go into the hall and turn right,” the bald guard said.
Dan let Jim Mercer go first and the guard followed them both. He could feel their presence, which would keep him on track. He closed his eyes and began to breath calmly. In no time he entered an altered state, while still walking down the hallway. He created a noise, then a shadow to project into the physical world, another thing he hadn’t done for years. Once the sound and shadow were completed and he could fully sense them, he could project them.
“What was that?” Mercer asked.
Dan knew that pushing into the physical world always comes with a slightly disconcerting feeling. It would bother whoever noticed. Next, he worked on the guard.
“Whoa?” the guard said when Dan projected a clacking sound at their side.
As soon as he sensed that they were turning a corner, Dan projected the shadow and, this time, he heard the guard shift his feet quickly as though scared. Only for a moment. Then he felt the gun barrel against his back.
“Stop whatever you’re doing.”
Dan said nothing. He kept his eyes closed and tried to hold to his creations. He projected the noise again, but this time the guard shoved harder, and Dan tripped forward, opened his eyes, and let go of the apparitions. How did the guard know?
“In here,” the guard said. “To your left, federal agent guy.”
Mercer opened the door and walked in, Dan behind him, then the guard. The room was the size of a large office, and had two military-style half-bunks shoved, foot-to-foot, against one wall. There was one desk with a lamp and one chair, no windows, no artwork, nothing more.
“You’re staying here until told otherwise,” the bald man said. “The operation won’t last much longer.” When he left, he locked the door behind him.
“We can break the door down,” Mercer said, walking toward it.
“Don’t. They’ll just shoot you. Or worse, get rid of everyone else, the girls, Jason, Koko.”
“Then what do we do?” His face lit up. “You know Cora won’t let this go on. She knows we’re in here, can get a warrant, and come and get us. We could wrap this whole thing up just like that.” He snapped his fingers.
“She can’t do anything. And won’t,” Dan said. “Legal strings will tie her up for years, besides…”
“Besides what?”
“Orders. Remember, I’m in charge. She has to leave me alone to do my job.”
“It’s her job.”
“I’m not arguing with you. I have to think.”
Mercer shook his head. “You have no plan do you? You just bust through and do whatever comes to mind next. You make so many false starts and side turns that something has to work every once in a while. Is that the idea? It’s never planned, never thought through.” He walked over and sat on one of the bunks. “You’re insane. And now you’re going to get people hurt from your haphazard methods. And this time, it just might be your own son’s life you lose.” His voice rose progressively. “Have you thought of that?”
Dan stared at him for a long time.
“What?”
“This is the only way I know how to work. I have to follow. If I lead, there’s an even greater chance someone will get hurt.”
“Cora plans all the time and seldom does anyone get hurt.” He looked defiant.
Dan took a breath. He felt a wave of doubt run through his system. It felt like a small bug rushing around in his chest, through his veins. Mercer may have been right, but there was nothing Dan could do about how he worked, not anymore. He wandered over and sat on the other bunk, looked over at Jim Mercer and nodded. “I’m sorry about the way you feel, but I’ll need you to be quiet now. I have some serious business to take care of.”
“By closing your eyes and falling asleep?”
The rudeness and inaccuracy was not called for, but Dan didn’t have time, and didn’t want to take the energy to try to change the man’s mind or get him to be more respectful. There was only one thing to do and that was enter an altered state and follow
. “Yeah, I’m going to close my eyes, you’re going to stay quiet, and I’m going to do some damage where I can.”
“Good luck,” Mercer said with a scoff. Then he folded his pillow and leaned back on the bed.
Dan, on the other hand, set his pillow on the floor and sat on it. He wrapped his shoulders in the blanket to keep his body warm. Then he closed his eyes. He didn’t use his pulse, his finger against the floor, or anything else to create a heart-rhythm drumbeat. He brought it up from his mind, imagining a jungle with natives around a fire and large hollow-sounding, deeply moving and emotional, drums beating. All sound in the room dissipated except what he created. Dan thought to resume the journey with Dragonfly and Moose but was thrown back into the lab with Dr. Dunst. The place was empty except for eggs and the milkweed pods. As counter intuitive as it appeared at first blush, Dan loaded the eggs into the baskets on the seed pods, just as the good doctor had done. He let the wind take the seed pods away but noticed that the window wasn’t leading to the same place it once had.
Even though he couldn’t recall where the window opened to before, he knew this new place was different. It opened into light, the light of some sort of strange baby heaven. Where did that come from? He wasn’t sure of anything at the moment but kept doing what he needed to do until all the eggs were boarded and gone out the window.
He swung around and rushed out of the lab, wanting to find the den of the legal antelope, knowing what it meant—speed and adaptability of the mind. The lawyers were sharp. Antelopes, at least the pronghorn, which is what Dan expected, could live almost anywhere, they had thick skin, and tubular hairs with large air cells. That’s exactly what a lawyer needed as a totem.
He had to come up with something fast.
Dan knew that he couldn’t think and journey at the same time, knew that too much analysis would take him from his journey, but he also felt—just this once—that he needed to plan. Was it what Mercer had said? It didn’t matter. Everything in the known universe was subject to leading him. How did he truly feel? Stay or leave?
“Leave,” he said aloud.
“I can’t,” he heard Mercer say.
Then Dan, sped up his return, dropped the drumming and opened his eyes. “Fuckety, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he said while popping to a standing position. He paced quickly in front of the two bunks.
“What the hell? Did something happen in there?”
Dan had to laugh. “In there?”
“Well, where do you go?” Mercer asked.
“That’s as good a way of putting it as any,” Dan said.
Mercer sat up again, more attentive. “What happened?”
“I got the idea of legal pronghorns.” He held up his hand to stop Mercer from asking any more questions. “Give me some time.” He reached back and removed his notebook, held it up for Mercer to see, then headed for the desk and sat down. He opened to a clean page, yanked the pen from the spiral, and wrote down what had happened in the journey. Then he took notes on what he knew about pronghorns: they are fast, represent fast thinking, mental agility. They don’t shed their horns like other deer-like animals, which means to Dan that they never let their guard down. They have a strong sense of smell and release a musky scent when they’re frightened or notice danger, which alerts other pronghorns to run. Pronghorns are known to give birth to twins, only in two different places, meaning that they often have divided energies—in this case medical and legal.
Dan tapped the tabletop with the end of his pen as he thought.
“You done?” Mercer asked.
“Just trying to think of more things. Something hasn’t hit me yet.”
Mercer got up and walked over to stand near Dan. “What do you have.”
“Really?”
“Look, we’re here together, we’d might as well talk. So, what do you have? What do you need?”
“You won’t be able to help,” Dan said. “Just sit down and stay quiet.”
Mercer turned around and took a few steps, then turned back around. “You know what? I liked you when you first arrived, but you’re becoming an asshole. If you treat your son this way, no wonder he doesn’t want to listen to you.”
“He listens,” Dan said.
Mercer’s voice quieted. “He does.” He nodded. “But you don’t have to treat him so badly. He looks up to you. He respects you. And you undermine him, just like you’re doing to me.” He walked back to where he was before. “Well, I’m not Jason, and I’m not going away. So, what have you got?”
Dan closed his eyes. Maybe he had been too tough on Jason all along, but… He stopped himself. He couldn’t be thinking of two things at once. He had a job to do, and it had to be done in order to save his son. He glanced up at Mercer, then read through his notes, pointing at each line as he told the story.
“And what do you have on this legal antelope?” He pointed to the word, pronghorn. “Why’d you write that down in place of antelope?”
“They’re the only known antelope in North America.”
“You know too much. No wonder you can’t think straight.”
“I think straight—”
“Got it. Sorry,” Mercer said. “What do you have on this pronghorn?”
Dan showed him, then stopped at the end.
“What about eyesight?” Mercer asked. “You have down skin and hair and smell, but nothing about their eyesight.”
Dan cocked his head. “You did come in handy.” He began to write and talk at the same time. “Pronghorns have somewhere around eight times the vision as humans do. They can see at distance.” He turned his head and stopped writing. “They have wide angle vision and see long distances, and use their white tales to alert others of danger.”
“At which time they can speed away.”
“But if we blind them…” Dan said.
“How? Do you mean physically?”
“I’m suspecting that they don’t really believe in shamanism but are trying to cover all bases. Like your group. Anyway, they should have run already, but didn’t, which shows doubt. Maybe they’re greedy a little, too.”
“Maybe they’re following the doctor’s lead instead of paying attention themselves,” Mercer said.
Dan looked up at him. “I can work with that.”
Chapter 27
Dan remained at the desk for another hour. He backtracked in his notes to about three months prior to getting the call to fly to Seattle. He could have gone back even further, since he knew that warnings about particular situations could literally arrive years prior to anything manifesting. But he had to start somewhere. He noticed that while walking through Central Park he had seen what he thought was an antelope but was only some trees and shadows. In his notes, he wrote, Is that a pronghorn? Was that the first time? He marked murders of crows, which he often saw, so they didn’t carry the same weight as other images and signatures. Could he count the time he dreamed of a moose or a whale? His life was so overflowing with rapt images it was difficult to tell which were important. He calmed, knowing that his best path was through how he sensed to go. But then again, accumulating, rewriting, and calculating, were not to be dismissed. They were all part of who he was, and all parts of a person are relevant.
“You’ve been quiet a long time,” Mercer said.
“Slowly walking through any signatures, I may have received along the way that could help us today.”
“Is this what you always do? Sit at a desk and go through notes?”
“I journey. I dream. I notice.”
“You ever get physical? I mean, I saw how you dealt with those first two guards. And I can see by how your clothes fit that you work out. Is that just to stay healthy so you can sit and drum the rest of the day?”
“You’d think so, wouldn’t you, but, no. I’m quite physical. Most jobs don’t take this much journeying.” He stopped for a moment and gave Mercer a serious look.
“You’ve got something?”
“Do you know anything about electricity?”
“Could we somehow shut down the power, the lights, from in here?”
Mercer looked into the corner of the room, thinking about the question. “Maybe, depending on where their offices are and if they’re on the same circuit as we are. I suppose I could short out a few things in here and hope that it throws a breaker that affects a wide area.”
“And if they throw the breaker back on?”
“A permanent short will just knock it back out again.”
Dan smiled. “I like this idea.”
“You know we’re still going to be guarded.”
“I can take care of some of that.”
“How?”
Dan explained about the sound and shadow that he projected into the hallway.
“No way.”
Dan nodded. “I haven’t played with some of these things in a while, but I’m feeling pretty confident. You saw it, right?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Then it works.”
“So, you’re going to scare them into stopping whatever they’re doing here? That doesn’t sound so effective.”
“We’ll have to do more than that if we want the girls and Jason to be safe.”
“And us,” Mercer said. “I would like to be safe, too.”
“That’s the least on my mind,” Dan said.
“You really love your son, don’t you?”
Dan tried not to show his embarrassment at the question. He closed his notebook and exhaled loudly before answering, as though Mercer were asking the dumbest question he’d ever heard. “Of course I do, now let me think. There’s got to be more to this than just a popped breaker, and I’ve got to come up with it fast.”
Outwardly ignoring Dan’s dismissal of his comment, Mercer said, “Cora would have a plan.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Dan said. “Something will come to me.”
Mercer shook his head in disbelief, but Dan ignored him. He flipped back and forth in his notebook again, wrote down what he sensed were bread on the trail of where they were at that moment. He understood about the moose and whale, about the cockroach and antelope, the pronghorn. The crows, the gremlin, the mirroring effect, all had meanings, but were mostly blocks, decoys so that Mindy and Koko could settle in. Dan swung around and glared at Mercer.