by Mary Eicher
A handful of people were strolling the aisles. Artemis wandered to the wine aisle and inspected the offerings. Lucy was distracted by an employee who was mopping the floor at the end of the aisle. He was heavyset and slow moving, completely absorbed with his task. Catching a glimpse of the man’s face, Lucy noted the distinctive features of Down’s syndrome. Artemis handed her a bottle of brut and asked if that would suffice. The young man suddenly dropped his mop and sank to the floor. He was holding his head and moaning.
Artemis raced to the man’s aid. There was no question in her mind what had happened. It was like watching a movie of Cab in Lake Isabella. She helped him stand and asked if the pain had stopped. He peered at her with frightened eyes. Lucy picked up the mop and set it in the bucket.
In spite of all her research, Lucy had never seen a person experience the Harbinger. She felt numb and at a loss for what to say. But it was what happened next that truly shocked her. The security guard approached and told the man to follow him. The guard ignored Artemis and Lucy as he took the man’s arm and practically pushed him toward the back of the store.
As they were paying for the wine, they noted a police car pull up in front of the store. Two officers got out and went to the back of the store where the security guard had taken the man. Artemis tensed as she watched the poor employee being half carried to the police car. He was weeping and dragging his feet. Lucy started to intervene, but Artemis held her back.
“They are taking Bill to a detention center,” the checker said with disgust in her voice. “Happened to a neighbor of mine last month.” She glanced at the office where the manager was. “There was no reason to have called them right away. Bill lives with his mother and younger sister. They’d take care of him.”
Artemis handed the wine to Lucy and raced out of the door. She intercepted one of the cops as he finished settling Bill in the back of the car.
“He has a family,” she said. “He needs to go home.”
The police officer took off his cap and wiped his forehead. “We will notify them.”
Artemis pulled herself to her formidable height and put her hands on her hips. “I’ll take him home. You’ve got his name and address. The law says he has a choice.”
“Not anymore,” the cop said as his buddy joined them. “The mayor says we’ve got to take custody and wait for the camp authorities.”
“No, you don’t!” Lucy disagreed as she approached. “That may be the mayor’s idea, but the law says he has a choice.”
Artemis opened the car door and helped the confused man climb out. The two officers stared at each other, wondering what to do. One put his hand on his baton, ready to use force if necessary but obviously uncomfortable with the possibility.
Artemis folded her arms and grinned. “You’re kidding, right?”
The officer released his grip on the club. “We could arrest you,” he threatened.
Lucy set her hands on her hips. “And she could kick both your asses.”
“Aw, hell,” the first officer said. “I hate doing this anyway. Go ahead and take him home. Make sure his family knows what’s happened. I’m just going to say the guy fell while he was working.”
Artemis helped the man into Lucy’s car. He thanked them although apparently not understanding quite what had happened. He looked to be in shock and kept picking at his ears. He seemed confused; no doubt more worried about losing his job than the probability his life was about to end. Lucy gave Artemis a concerned look.
“I had no idea this was happening,” she said.
“You’ve been focused on Angie,” Artemis noted. “Things have changed.”
*
The Archbishop of Canterbury was found at the bottom of the stairway. He had not made his visit from the Harbinger public. He couldn’t. He’d been a vocal critic of the existence of it. But he’d consulted a doctor about the suspicious headache, and the doctor had no moral qualms about making the information public once the archbishop was dead.
Artemis turned off the radio. She’d heard enough. She picked up her phone, anticipating a call from Lucy. Three seconds later it chirped.
“I knew you’d call,” she said to Lucy.
“Riots have started in England. Are you watching on cable?”
“No. But I’m not surprised. People don’t like being lied to. I already knew that. I’ve just been updating my theory board.” She pinned several new photos as she spoke.
“It’s called precognition,” Lucy said. “I’ve been doing my own investigation.”
Artemis frowned. “You’re writing that article, aren’t you?”
“Not that one. You won that argument.” Lucy cleared her throat as the memory of just how burned through her. “I’m not violating your confidence. I don’t even mention the World Health report.”
“Lucy, I don’t see how you can get around it.”
“Your friend is not my source, Temmie. Angie is. She told me to write it this morning. Her angel said I have to help people see what they hear. I swear that’s an exact quote.”
Ending the call, Artemis went back to her theory board and saw it afresh. Things were beginning to make sense. Strang focused on what he could see in the Great Rift. The rest of the world was focused on what it heard.
“What happens if we put those together?” she wondered aloud. She sat at the piano and played the notes Strang had sent her. She had toyed with them before on the guitar and sensed nothing significant. The notes made a string of sounds that moved up and down but was not harmonious.
She tried combining the notes into chords only to find them impractical to play on a guitar. She searched for the keyboard she had found in Cab’s belongings and played the chords. Even on the piano they made no appreciable melody. She toyed with the different instrumental sounds available on the keyboard. Feeling a sudden inspiration, she selected “bells” and moved to a lower range. There it was. If played on the right instrument, the chords sounded rich and deep like the tolling of church bells. Then her phone chirped, and she put the matter away. Willa had died.
*
Angie took an instant liking to the funny man in the flowery shirt. She followed him everywhere and liked the excited way he talked. She giggled when he told her silly jokes and took his hand when she saw him looking sad. The urn with Willa’s ashes sat on the middle shelf of the bookcase in his study. He would talk to it whenever he walked by and then look upward as if waiting for an answer.
“Have you seen the whales?” he asked Lucy. “Angie will love seeing them fly.”
Lucy stared at Artemis. “Whales fly?”
“They breach. They leap out of the water,” Artemis explained. “I guess you could say they try to fly.”
“They fly!” Strang said with finality. “They fly all through the ocean.”
After a few minutes of heavy lobbying by both Artemis and Strang, Lucy gave in and headed off with Angie to watch the whales fly. Strang took Artemis to examine the latest images of the Great Rift. She, too, could see the slight turn in the anomaly at the rift’s edge. He told her it could mean the anomaly was closing or that it was in motion. There was no way of knowing yet.
She asked him an unexpected question. “Did you play the notes on a piano?”
He scratched his forehead and made a humming sound. “Willa did. She was an accomplished musician. You never had a chance to hear her play. Ours was a union of mathematics and music, a perfect marriage. She played the flute and ukulele as well. But she only played the notes on the piano. We were fascinated by the string of notes even though they didn’t resemble music. That was when I called you and asked you to see what you could make of it.” He gave Artemis a sad smile. “We needed a new pair of ears. What better help could there be than the ears of a goddess.”
Artemis sat down at the piano and played the five chords she had fashioned from the notes. Strang stared at her, his face pale with astonishment.
“That sounds remarkably similar to the tolling of a bell.”
/> “You should hear them played on an organ.”
“How did you accomplish this?” Strang asked.
“I combined the notes into chords.” Artemis played them again. “It does sound like bells especially when I played them on an electric keyboard.” She made a weak smile. “Cab had one. The keyboard was among the things he left. Do you think the chords link the anomaly directly to the Harbinger?”
Strang began to pace. “I know where you are going here, my darling girl. People experience the Harbinger as sound. My research of the anomaly has been exclusively visual. Both sensory receptors respond to waves.”
He paced as he thought. He stopped in front of her and grinned. “The universe is awash with waves, and we can only perceive a fraction of them.”
He pulled her to her feet, took her by the waist, and spun her around. “My darling, darling goddess. You have been thinking, haven’t you?”
“Of course.” Artemis regained her balance. “And while I am intrigued by your theories, Wolf, I keep wondering if the Harbinger could be a simple evolutionary change.”
“But what is evolution?” he countered. “What would cause it to occur so suddenly? Even that rascal Darwin thought it was a torturously slow process. The Harbinger is a sudden, freakish change.” He threw an arm in the air. “I have to say Darwin has left the building, Temmie.”
“I agree with that.”
She sat back down and told him about the World Health report. He listened intently; his gaze centered on her face as she spoke. There was no denying her beauty, but the beauty of her mind charmed him the most. He wondered how many people bothered to look beyond the extraordinary face to the true beauty within. When she was finished, he rose from his chair.
“What an unfortunate anachronism—the WHO. One’s almost forced to wonder what manner of person is behind the curtain of the WHO. Who?” He flashed an amused grin and then turned serious. “So, you believe this WHO has found the receptor in the brain and that I have found the sender in the Great Rift, yes?”
“I have considered that and want to know what you think.”
“I think not,” he said after a few moments’ pondering. “What you suggest is logical, very logical, but it does not embrace the magnitude of what I believe has happened. What is continually happening even if we pitiful creatures have not the wherewithal to comprehend it.”
He was distressed when he realized she was crestfallen.
“But you are on the right path, Temmie. I have been at this for decades. It is all so very new to you.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “I am proud of you, victorious goddess. Prouder of you than I have ever been of anyone except my dear Willa.”
They went into the kitchen where Artemis insisted on preparing dinner. They made small talk waiting for Lucy and Angie to return. They sat on the lanai and enjoyed the smell of the ocean riding up on the breeze.
Angie came into the house at a run, her legs having nearly regained their full strength. She hopped unto Artemis’s lap and told her about the whales she had seen. Most had been far away from the boat, but one had jumped up and fallen back into the water, sending a splash all over everyone. Lucy confirmed the story with a rueful smile.
“So, why do you think the whales jump?” Strang asked the child. “Do you think they want to fly?”
Angie slid from Artemis’s lap and stepped over to answer.
“My angel says they fly under the water.”
Strang’s mouth opened, and he turned to Artemis with widened eyes. He felt a sense of wonder as Angie skipped off to help her mother serve the waiting dinner.
“The child can hear the universe!” he said enchanted. He smiled at Artemis. “Perchance the answers we seek are not so far after all.”
*
“The wind’s coming up. We should head back to the marina.”
The captain spun the wheel, and the boat surged into the waves. His crew took down the sails. There wasn’t time to tack. The captain wanted to beat the weather, so he brought up the engine and told the sightseeing passengers to hang on.
“Hey, stop that damn noise,” one of the passengers yelled.
The captain saw several of the people holding their heads; at least six of them, including the man who had yelled. Atmospheric pressure affects some people that way, he thought. A storm was approaching. He shook his head and looked to the west where a ridge of dark clouds was forming.
A half hour later, he maneuvered the catamaran into its berth and helped the passengers ashore. The six people who had shared the experience with the loud bell sound were from a single family. Parents in their sixties had accompanied their two sons and their wives.
“You’ve got a hell of a bell on this thing,” the older gentlemen said as he stepped onto the dock. “Where do you hide it? A bell that size, I mean.”
The captain smiled and went along with the passenger’s delusion. “It’s electronic. I must have had the sound up too loud. Sorry about that,” he lied. “Hope you enjoyed your afternoon with us.”
His first mate gave him a quizzical look.
“Yeah, it was good,” the man’s wife said. “It’s our second day here. We’re headed for Kauai in a few days and then home.”
The old man helped her gather their bags. “No more boats for me. Damn things are too noisy.”
One of his sons laughed. “Wait until you take your helicopter ride, Dad. Now that will be noisy.”
The captain watched them walk off and shook his head. The weird things people say never ceased to amaze him. At least this group didn’t insist on talking to the whales or prattle on about mystical mumbo jumbo like some of his passengers. Still, hearing imaginary bells was a new one.
“Think that was the Harbinger?” his first mate asked while they stowed the equipment.
“I don’t put much stock in that mainland stuff,” the captain answered.
But he didn’t like the possibility. He was headed to Kauai in a few days himself. He should have asked them where they were staying in Kauai. Just to make sure he didn’t run into them again.
Three days later when a sightseeing helicopter went down on Kauai killing everyone on board, the captain realized the Harbinger had come to Hawaii.
Chapter Nineteen
They stayed at Strang’s bungalow for nearly a week cooking and cleaning and making sure he didn’t feel abandoned. Willa’s request was foremost in Artemis’s mind. She helped him pack her things in boxes that sat as Cab’s had in a corner waiting to be processed. Strang spent most of his time poring over photographs of the Great Rift and pondering dark matter.
He had a spare bedroom and they set up a makeshift bed in the living room for Angie. The light from Strang’s tank of tropical fish seemed to help her sleep. Hawaii was peaceful compared to the mainland. The Harbinger had made an appearance shortly after Artemis had first come to speak with Strang, but there were no demonstrations like those frothing the mainland. Since the time of the missionaries, the Polynesian people had never invested much faith in haole religions. They were content with their old gods and the rhythms of their tropical paradise.
“I don’t want to go home,” Lucy said as she cuddled next to Artemis and glimpsed the clock. “It’s only five. I love the time difference. It feels like we’re sleeping in.”
Artemis enfolded her and began placing little kisses on her face and neck.
“Temmie.” Lucy squirmed as Artemis moved the kisses close to her mouth. “Temmie. Your phone is chirping.”
“Umm. They’ll call back.” Artemis continued to pet her.
Lucy halted the hand headed to her breasts. “What if it’s my mother?”
Artemis laid back and sighed. “Why would your mother call on my phone?”
“I don’t know.” Lucy sat up and reached for the phone. She answered it before Artemis could snatch it away.
“Hello.” She listened to the voice a moment and then handed it to Artemis. “He says he’s Governor Hemsley. He wants to talk with you.”
> Lucy left to wake Angie and make the arrangements for a flight home while Artemis had a final conversation with Strang. He told her to stay the course. She would find her answers, and she would know what to do at the governor’s meeting. He had done all he could to direct her. It was his purpose, his only purpose now Willa was gone. He helped them load the car, and then they said their goodbyes.
“My angel says I’ll see you soon,” Angie said, hugging him about the legs.
“That’s wonderful.” He reached down and tousled Angie’s curly hair. “What else does your angel tell you, little oracle?”
Angie smiled at him. “My angel says to tell you Willa feels much better now.”
*
After a thousand autopsies, five thousand brain scans, and research that explored every known pathogen and genetic abnormality, the World Health Organization published its official top-secret report regarding the Harbinger. No cause was identified. The WHO had monitored twenty thousand individuals worldwide. Subjects who experienced the phenomenon died within three days. But the Harbinger was not universal. Plenty of people continued to die without having experienced it. The most curious finding was the death rate did not change. Statistically the Harbinger had no effect. They summed up the only conclusion they could: The Harbinger is not a threat to public health.
Armed with the WHO document, Representative Stone convened her committee meeting and took aim at the Right Reverend Jamil Uberdorf. The room was void of an audience and reporters. Stone did not want to cause a public outcry by attacking the popular televangelist. Nor did she want to feed the Harbinger hysteria. Once she completed her investigation, she would let the Department of Justice handle the prosecution and the hoopla certain to accompany it.
Uberdorf stood before the committee, raised his right hand, and took an oath to tell the truth. Then he sat and read his prepared statement. He was a man of God. The Constitution gave him the right to preach and express his beliefs. The committee and the government in general had no authority over him or his cult. When he finished, he sat back and gave the chairman a smug grin.