Souls of the Reaper

by Markie Madden

  “You said that once already.” She scowled as if offended.

  “I didn’t mean to patronize, but to remind.”

  Cherri looked at Lacey. “You’re staying right? You’re not going to sneak out when I go to sleep?”

  “I’ll be here. I won’t sneak out.” The other woman assured the victim. “I’m going to stay out of the way. I’ll stand right over here.” She pointed toward the door.

  “Good.”

  Marcell stood with Lacey in silence. Ten minutes later, Cherri’s eyes began to droop, and Niall sat up a little straighter. Lacey seemed to be holding her breath. The young woman closed her eyes, and eventually her breathing came slow and regular. Niall watched his patient closely until he saw her eyes begin to move under her closed eyelids.

  “I’m going to try now.” Niall’s voice was a whisper. Marcell tensed.

  19

  Society wants to believe it can identify evil people, or bad or harmful people, but it’s not practical. There are no stereotypes. ~~Ted Bundy

  Niall braced himself, and took a deep, cleansing breath. Astral projection wasn’t easy under any circumstances, and he felt a great deal of pressure as he tried to settle himself for the ordeal ahead of him. He counted himself lucky that he was a century old; decades of practice in naturally harvesting souls gave him enough skill to do it in any situation. He took one more deep breath, then pulled his ka free from his physical body.

  The hospital room took on an ethereal feel. He could still clearly see the bed with the young woman sleeping soundly, but the color was different, a deep red. It was as if Niall was looking at the world through a lens filter, the sort filmmakers used to impart an otherworldly sense to the movie. What was real took on a dull, two-dimensional appearance, while things in the astral plane became more than realistic-looking. In this place, Niall could not only see things invisible to him in the physical plane, but he could taste sound, and hear a touch. The red-hued room was no longer square; instead, its corners were rounded, and the furthest points seemed to be miles away.

  Niall saw Marcell and Lacey standing near the door, both of them respectfully quiet and watchful. Then, he turned his attention to Cherri. The young woman was sleeping peacefully, and he could see the glowing shimmer of her astral tether stretching outward from her body. It is true, then, he thought, and his heart sank. Her soul is no longer with her. He stepped closer to the bed, and with his left hand, Niall stroked the woman’s forehead in comfort. I promise I’ll do everything in my power to get you back.

  The thin silver cord emerging from Cherri’s body rose up through the ceiling, and Niall turned to follow it. The umbilical was bright in some places, but almost transparent in others. It was like trying to track a spider web in the dark without a flashlight. He held his left hand out, close to her tether, trying to get a sense of the woman’s energy. He hoped that would make it easier to track her tether to the Reaper who held captive her soul. This was not going to be simple.

  The fact that they were attempting this trace at a busy inner-city hospital didn’t help matters, either. Niall saw several other tendrils of souls, those who were nearing death or awaiting their escort to the Underworld. It was difficult to ignore those seeking souls, but he continued to track Cherri’s spirit energy as it made its way into the night sky. Flickering starlight and the not-quite-right city lights made it even more difficult for Niall to remain near the victim’s tether. It sparkled, bright and dim, bright and dim, almost in perfect rhythm to a human heartbeat at rest. The analytical part of his mind filed that away for future reference; it might make an interesting academic paper, if the same effect could be noted in more than one test subject.

  Already, Niall could feel the pull of his physical body on his astral body. Reapers could, and did, work over long distances. But when they were called by a soul who was assigned to them, the spirit’s pull helped to balance out the pull of their own bodies when they astral projected. This time, he was projecting his astral self without the added help of the spirit he would be harvesting. And, it was becoming obvious, to him, the tether tying Cherri’s soul to her spirit was not taking a straight line to their unsub.

  During the attempted trace of the first victim, Niall discovered it was possible to speak to those in the room with his physical body, though it was draining on his energy. He thought about it for a split second before deciding the situation was serious enough to expend the effort.

  He chose his words carefully. “This is going to be time-consuming. I can see her tether, but dimly. And her path--” He broke off, trying to put into words something which the two watchers in the room couldn’t see. “It zigzags in many different directions. It’s like a maze. I may have to take a lot of time. But for now, the theory is proven. Her soul is missing.” The part of Niall that was still physically aware of his surroundings heard Lacey’s sharp intake of breath, then heard Marcell’s soft, steady voice.

  “We are here monitoring. Everything is okay.”

  “I will try to stay in contact.”

  Niall turned his attention back to the task at hand. Cherri’s umbilical twisted and turned, seemingly following the city streets below. Sometimes, it crossed its own path, and other times it doubled back on itself. A flash of insight hit him, like a match suddenly lit in a pitch black cave. She’s following the physical path of the unsub around the city! Not knowing if this would make finding her soul harder or easier, he strained to soar even higher over Dallas, hoping for a map-like view. But as he went higher, it grew more and more difficult to see the subtle nuances of her trail. It was like trying to track a laser pointer through the darkness. Niall resigned himself to a long and arduous ordeal.

  He stayed as close as he could to the thin filament of Cherri’s tether. He flew down the city streets, past storefronts, bars, and apartments, around corners and past ghostly wisps of people walking down the sidewalks in the physical world. Niall came to a crossroads, and the web-like strand of umbilical split into two different directions. He paused, hands outstretched, trying to see if he could detect any differences in the threads, anything to give him an idea of which path was the fresher one. He strained, but received no revelation. So, he chose one at random, and began following it.

  When Niall came to the fourth such crossing, he stopped. This is proving to be impossible. I must admit defeat. There’s no way I can find the poor girl this way. He was already exhausted, his strength failing him. He spun around, glimpsing the gleaming light of his own umbilical, watching it throb gently. Rather than try to backtrack his own trail, he zoomed skyward, soaring high above all the city buildings, and got his bearing. Using his umbilical as a guide, he swooped back into his body in a rush, feeling his blood pumping in a rush through his veins, hearing the throb of his own heartbeat in his ears. He was panting hard, and felt the sensation of numbness usually associated with the brief moment before awakening, the ‘sleep paralysis’ state, which meant he returned to his body too fast, causing a shock to his system. He tried to steady his breathing.

  ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

  Lacey could barely stand the waiting. Though she never felt the compulsion to pace, as humans did in times of stress, the urge came over her so strongly that it was impossible to resist. But she moved silently. If Marcell noticed, he paid her no mind. His gaze was focused intently on Niall and Cherri. The Reaper sat so still for so long, it startled her when he suddenly opened his eyes and looked in their direction.

  “I have failed yet again.” Niall’s voice was morose.

  “But you have learned useful information.” Marcell corrected him sternly. “We both agreed this would not be an easy process. Nothing like this has ever been attempted before.”

  “Yes, but I don’t know how much time she has left. She already grows weak.”

  Marcell handed the other man a glass of water poured from a pitcher on the counter. “Tell us what happened.”

  Niall took a drink before responding. “First, it doesn’t make me happy to have p
roof of our theory. The young woman’s soul is most definitely missing. One good thing, though, is that we know when the theft occurred.”

  “Yes, last night,” Lacey broke in. “Can we gauge how long we have before we won’t be able to find her?”

  The Reaper shook his head sadly. “Each soul is unique, and so the amount of time they can survive outside their body is also unique. There is no one answer.”

  “What else?” Marcell prompted when Niall fell silent.

  He seemed to analyze his thoughts before responding. “Something interesting, to say the least. Though I’m not sure what to make of it. At first, I thought Cherri’s soul was trying to return to her body, but then I realized the umbilical was tracing a path through the city, a physical path, I think, that will show us where the unsub has physically been.”

  “Why can’t you track him down using that?” Lacey demanded.

  “It’s not exactly like following a map.” Niall gave her a frustrated look. “Imagine if you were dropped blindfolded into the middle of the city, and told to follow a nearly invisible thread to find your way out of the maze. And imagine if that thread looped around itself, backtracked, and crossed over its path a hundred times. Could you find your way?”

  Marcell stepped between him and Lacey, but he was looking at her. “I know it’s difficult to explain something like this to people who have never experienced it. We’re trying our best to understand.”

  Lacey was contrite. “I didn’t mean to sound so harsh. I’m sorry.”

  If Niall was surprised at her apology, he didn’t mention it. “But, I think this means we do have the ability to track her. I’m just not sure yet how we can do it.”

  “I was thinking about that while you were gone,” Marcell mentioned. “I had a strange thought, but I’m wondering if it’s possible. Can you take anything along when you astral project?”

  “Physical objects, you mean?” Niall continued when Marcell nodded. “The astral spirit has a physical memory, and I’ve often noticed my watch or other jewelry going along with me.”

  “I was reading an interesting academic paper the other day, for one of the classes I teach at the Academy. The young student seemed quite taken with the nanotechnology, as used in fingerprint powder, among other things. I learned quite a bit about how it works. Do you think it would be possible for you to take nanites into the astral plane with you? Assuming we can find some way to track them once they are there?”

  “That’s never occurred to me.” Niall looked a bit more hopeful. “I suppose there’s nothing stopping us from trying.”

  Marcell turned to Lacey then. “Do you have someone over at the lab that you trust? Someone you could ask about this?”

  Lacey thought of Linus. “Of course. What exactly do you need?”

  They talked for several hours as they waited for the sleeping medicine to wear off so Cherri could be informed as to what was going on. Marcell’s plan was slow to form. He wanted Niall to take some type of nanite technology into the astral plane with him. There, the nanites were to be released into Cherri’s umbilical stream.

  “As I understand it, the umbilical is simply spiritual energy, is that right?” He asked of Niall.

  “That’s as good a way to explain it as any,” the Reaper responded.

  “So here’s my proposal: we figure out some way to get nanites to bond to the energy of the soul. Like how they bond to proteins in human fingerprints in the powder. Then we’ll need some way of tracking them once they’re in the astral plane.”

  “I’m not sure, but I don’t think we have GPS satellites in that plane yet.” Lacey was dubious. “But wait just a minute, this is all pure speculation at this point. Let me see what I can do.”

  She turned the TV on, lowered the volume so it wouldn’t disturb the sleeping victim, and pulled out her tablet. In an instant, she made a connection between the two devices, and called the lab.

  “This is Lieutenant Anderson. I need to speak to Linus, please. It’s urgent.” The woman who answered put her on hold. She paced to the music until Linus picked up.

  “Hey, Lacey, what can I do for you?”

  “I’m at Medical City right now, or I’d come see you in person. We have a situation that I need help with, but you’ve got to give me your word that you won’t breathe a word of it to another soul.”

  He must have heard the serious tone in her voice, for he answered immediately, “Of course.”

  She gave him a quick summary of the case, then outlined what they were currently talking about. “Let me put you up on the screen.” She fiddled with the tablet until Linus’ face appeared on the TV. “This is Doctor Matthews, and Doctor Dilorenzo.” She introduced both men, not sure if Linus had met Marcell in the course of their duties.

  “Nice to see you again, Doctor D. And it’s a pleasure meeting you,” he said to Niall.

  Lacey turned to Marcell. “Doc, give him a run-down of what you had in mind.”

  Marcell seemed almost hesitant, as if she had put him on the spot in front of the teacher. “I’m not exactly sure how the nanite fingerprint powder works,” he began, telling the Linus the story of his student’s term paper. “It occurred to me, if we could somehow make something similar, something that can be encouraged to bond to the unique spiritual energy of a person, we could use it to somehow track the location of that energy.”

  “It’s an interesting theory,” Linus seemed to be busy at his computer station. “I can see where you’re going with this. Give me a second, let me look up a few things here. Go on.”

  “Not only that, but if we can get the nanites into the astral plane, we’ll have to have some way of tracking them.” Lacey took up the thread of the conversation.

  “Oh, that’s easy. We can track nanites using the same sort of telemetry they use between space craft or satellites and Earth. That’s not the part I’m worried about. What I’m looking for now is what specific type of energy the human soul emits. Doctor Matthews, any thoughts on that?”

  “I’m not an expert, simply because I’m a Reaper. I’m not sure if there’s ever been any testing done on this.”

  Lacey turned to Marcell. “What about Doctor Ingold? He, more than anyone else, might know the answer to that.”

  “Indeed.” Marcell pulled out his own tablet and stepped to one side, dialing a number.

  Niall swayed minutely, drawing Lacey’s attention. “Are you okay, Doctor?”

  “I’m tired. Trying to find a soul this way is draining.” He smiled at her. “And please, call me Niall.”

  She’d forgotten. “Please, sit down. There’s no need for you to stand.”

  “Thank you.” He pulled the chair closer to the foot of the bed, apparently so he could see the screen better, and sat. Marcell spoke in low tones on the other side of the room. Linus continued to tap his computer keys.

  “Here’s something interesting,” Linus commented, drawing Lacey’s attention back to the screen. “The human body emits electricity in the ELF range.” Lacey must have looked confused, because he coughed and continued. “That’s Extremely Low Frequency. They used to measure it with the same type of round antenna used in early radio signal transmission.” Those Lacey was familiar with, so she nodded. “So, if that’s the case with the soul as well, I can program the nanites to follow that type of frequency.”

  “Doctor Ingold believes it is true,” Marcell interjected, placing his tablet back in his pocket. “He will be landing in about an hour.” He looked to Linus on the screen. “He’s offered his help, if needed.”

  “I wouldn’t turn it down.” The lab technician smiled as he said it. “This is going to take us in a direction I don’t think anyone’s gone before, so the more heads we have in it, the better off we’ll be.”

  “The commander has approved it.” Lacey addressed Linus on the screen. “And it seems obvious that the doctor wants in, so it seems like a done deal.”

  “I’ll help as much as I am able.” Niall interrupted. “I feel a hea
vy responsibility here.”

  “You’re doing enough.” Lacey said.

  Marcell agreed. “What we need is for you to get some rest, so you’ll be ready when we need to try this again. And you’re not the one responsible for this.”

  “But one of my kind is.” Niall insisted. “I doubt the humans will care one way or another that I’m trying to help, all they’ll see is another Reaper, another monster.”

  Lacey, who knew all too well the bigotry of humans, privately agreed, but she changed the subject by asking a question that was nagging at her. “Niall, I didn’t know you could communicate while you’re in astral projection. Can all Reapers do that?”

  “I didn’t know it was possible, either. At least, not until the other day in Marcell’s office. Reapers can communicate with one another, it’s necessary for our training. But we do our work alone, any other time. So that’s something new to me as well.”

  “It takes an extreme amount of energy for him to speak while projecting.” Marcell mentioned it before she could speak again.

  She turned to the screen. “Linus, do you think you could devise some way to make it easier for him to communicate with us?”

  “That might be a little harder,” the tech answered. “Since the doctor is leaving his physical body behind, his astral body won’t have lungs or a larynx to produce speech.”

  “How about using electrodes that measure brain waves?” Niall pointed out. “Thoughts are nothing more than electrical signals.”

  “You’re right. We might be able to rig something up. I take it this is a time sensitive issue?”

  “Yes.” Lacey began to pace again. “Your ears alone, Linus. We have reason to believe the unsub is not just stealing souls from people in Dallas.” She went on to explain what Chantay told her about the way people were behaving in Cairo, as Chantay mentioned in her email.