Immortal Ascendant

by Gary Jonas

  I turned to the approaching trio, kicked my heels together, and gave them an exaggerated military salute before nodding to each of them. “Welcome to the Library of Congress, Maria, Curtis, and Carl.”

  “He’s Curtis,” the guy on the left said. “I’m Carl.”

  They each had crew cuts, were clean shaven, and looked pale as vampires. They wore dark sunglasses, and kept their heads moving, looking for trouble.

  I didn’t see the third bodyguard, but I’d missed him the previous night, so maybe he was already inside.

  As for Curtis and Carl, up close, they looked a lot alike, but Curtis had a little white scar on his forehead that disappeared behind his sunglasses, so I suspected it bifurcated his eyebrow. I made a note that Curtis ends in an S and has a scar, so I’d be able to tell them apart.

  “Shall we go inside?” Maria asked.

  “You and I can go inside,” I said. “Carl and Curtis will need to wait out here.”

  “Why?” Maria asked.

  “Because there’s security at the entrance, and your boys are toting some serious hardware. No weapons are allowed inside.”

  The men frowned.

  “Don’t worry, guys, I’ll take good care of her,” I said.

  “You think we’re idiots?” Curtis asked.

  “You want me to answer that?”

  “We know all about the security. We planned to keep watch out here.” He hesitated then added, “Moron.”

  Maria smiled and opened her purse. She removed a small revolver and handed it to Curtis. He tucked it away in his jacket pocket.

  Maria slipped her arm in mine. “Shall we?” she said.

  She was a tall woman, coming in around five foot nine. Her fingers clutched my arm, and I grinned because she was testing me for magic. Her grip eased as we climbed the steps to the entrance.

  There wasn’t a line, so we went through security in no time, then I had to fight myself because the art and architecture were so amazing. There was a case containing an actual Gutenberg Bible. I walked over to gaze upon the open book in the case.

  “We’re not here to sightsee,” Maria said. “Let’s go.”

  Reluctantly, I pulled myself away. There were statues and reliefs and paintings everywhere. We went upstairs, and I wanted to stop at the Thomas Jefferson Library Exhibition.

  “We need to go in here,” I said, gesturing toward the room. “Those are books that were actually owned by Thomas Jefferson.”

  “You can come back another time,” Maria said.

  “But those books belonged to Jefferson,” I said. “They were his personal books. He had those on shelves at his house. He sat in a chair and read those very books.”

  Yeah, I geeked out a bit, but I couldn’t help it.

  “We need to go to the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room,” Maria said.

  My eyes drank in the sights. I could have spent a month in that building and it would have felt like minutes. I looked for Kelly, and while I was sure she watched me, I couldn’t spot her. I gave up and followed Maria to the reading room.

  The room was large with rows of tables, each with a lamp, and chairs. A chandelier hung over the center aisle. There were two teenagers at a back table, a guy and a girl. They gazed into each other’s eyes without paying any attention to a book they had opened on the table between them.

  “You,” Maria said to me, “sit.”

  I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to explore the place. Maria went to see about getting one of Hitler’s books.

  A few minutes later, Esther strolled into the room, and sat on the table in front of me. “I could get lost in here,” she said.

  “Me, too,” I whispered.

  “Here comes Miss Swanky Skirt,” Esther said.

  Maria carried an old book with her. She held it up so I could see the title: Die Toten Sind Lebendig.

  “I don’t believe I’ve read that one,” I said.

  “Can you read German?”

  I shook my head. “Nein.”

  “Ten,” Esther said.

  Maria turned to look at Esther. “Hello, there,” she said.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Not you,” Maria said to me.

  I pretended not to see Esther and she returned the favor. “Then who are you talking to?”

  “A library ghost,” Maria said. “She’s sitting on the table in front of you.”

  “Says you,” Esther said, and stepped through me.

  “You don’t have to leave,” Maria said.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said.

  “Not you,” Maria said. “Her.”

  I turned to look and made sure not to focus on Esther, who now stood by the doorway. I returned my focus to Maria. “If there’s a ghost here and you two want to talk, I can go look at the Jefferson collection.”

  “No, we need to get started.”

  Maria sat down and placed the book on the table. She ran her hands slowly over the leather binding, caressing it like a lover.

  She picked up the book, opened it, brought it to her face, and inhaled deeply.

  “Does it smell good?” I asked.

  “I love the aroma of old books.” She placed the book in her lap, then held out her hands, palms up. “Take my hands and don’t speak.”

  I held her hands.

  She closed her eyes for a moment, drew another deep breath, then opened her eyes. She rolled her pupils back in her head so only the whites of her eyes showed.

  It was a little dramatic, and I seriously doubt she needed to do that.

  She slumped back in her chair. I kept hold of her hands.

  Esther drifted toward the table. “Oh,” Esther said. “There’s a pull in the air.”

  Esther forced herself to stop in the center of the table.

  The lights flickered.

  The air temperature dropped by a good twenty degrees and a chill ran through me.

  Maria threw her body forward, and I worried the book might fall to the floor, but I didn’t hear it drop. She lifted her head, and when she spoke, her voice sounded masculine.

  She switched to her normal voice and spoke a question, but the words were German.

  The other voice answered, and it sounded familiar like something I’d heard many years ago, and a tightness pulled at the muscles of my lower back. I wanted to let go.

  Maria talked in that odd voice, her face aimed at the ceiling. Her hands clutched mine so hard I winced.

  She asked another question in her own voice.

  I couldn’t understand a word she said.

  Again, she answered in the masculine German voice.

  Was she faking it? If a ghost showed up here, I’d see it.

  Finally, her head bobbed forward and her fingers loosened their grip on my hands. Maria drew another deep breath. The lights dimmed, then brightened.

  She raised her head. Her eyes were still white. Then her pupils rolled down, but her gaze was glassy. She blinked three times, gave her head a shake, and rolled her shoulders.

  “Oh, that didn’t feel good.”

  “What did you feel?” I asked.

  She released my hands and held up a finger. She blew out a breath, rubbed her arms, trying to warm up, then leaned back and closed her eyes.

  “It’s all berries now,” Esther said, resting a translucent hand on Maria’s shoulder. “The evil is gone.”

  “Evil?” I asked.

  Maria opened her eyes. “You heard that?”

  “You spoke in German. I heard it, but I didn’t understand it.”

  “The ghost girl said the evil is gone. You heard her, didn’t you?”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I said.

  She looked at Esther, then at me. “You two know each other. You’re friends, and your history goes way back, but what I’m getting is impossible.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My impression is that she loves you, and has for more than a century, but it’s fractured.”

 
Esther stared at me. “She’s the bee’s knees.” Esther moved through the table to stand directly in front of Maria. “I’ve carried a torch for Jonathan for more years than I can say.”

  Maria stared through Esther at me. “You could see her the whole time.”

  No sense denying it any longer. I spread my hands. “Guilty,” I said.

  “Did you see him?”

  “Him?”

  “Hitler.”

  “Uh, no.”

  Maria focused on Esther. “How about you?”

  “No.”

  “I felt him,” Maria said. “Cold and evil.” She shivered, and took the book from her lap. She placed it on the table right in the middle of Esther’s transparent body.

  Esther moved to the side. “I don’t want to stand in that thing.”

  “Do you know this book?” Maria asked.

  “I told you, I can’t read German.”

  “It translates as The Dead Are Alive.”

  “Okay.”

  “It was one of Hitler’s books from his extensive occult library. He read this volume. But others have handled it, too. I shouldn’t be sure the spirit who visited was Hitler, but I have zero doubt about it.” She opened the book, and showed me handwritten notes in the margins. “That’s Hitler’s actual handwriting. And he was just here.”

  “I didn’t see a spirit,” I said.

  “Neither did I,” Esther said.

  “But you heard him.”

  “I heard you speaking, but if you were faking the voice, you should move to Hollywood. You could have a career voicing cartoons.”

  “I’m sure it was him. He wouldn’t speak his name, but he did admit he took the ratlines to South America to Bariloche, then went up to Córdoba. I think he’s buried in Argentina.”

  “Then I guess we’re going to Argentina,” I said.

  CHAPTER SIX

  I made a call to Class’s personal number. “This is Richard,” he said when he answered.

  I stood on the second floor of the Library of Congress looking down into the main reading room. “This is Jonathan with your first update.”

  “Give me a moment.”

  I waited.

  And I waited.

  I looked at the phone. The seconds ticked by on the duration of call display, so we were still connected.

  Finally, his voice came through again. “My apologies, Mr. Shade,” he said. “I was in a meeting.”

  “I can call you back.”

  “Oh God no. Those meetings are dreadfully boring. What can you tell me?”

  “We need to go to Argentina.”

  “So one of the Hitlers we killed there was the real one?”

  “I’m just relaying what Maria said. If I run into a bunch of Hitler clones, I’ll assume you hired Ira Levin back in the seventies.”

  “The Boys from Brazil tells you in the title it’s not set in Argentina,” Class said.

  “Maybe some clones went across the border. I confess that I haven’t read it. I did read Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, though.”

  “You wish to discuss novels?”

  “Well, you said the meeting was boring. Books are cool. I’m in a library right now.”

  “Then perhaps you should keep your voice down.”

  I laughed. “The reason I’m calling is to see if you can hook us up with a wizard who can open a rift to Argentina. Save us the hassle of taking a plane.”

  “Do you have any idea how much DGI would charge to open a rift across an ocean?”

  “No.”

  “It’s a lot cheaper to fly.”

  “I thought we were pressed for time.”

  “We are. But that would not be a reasonable expense. If you get the skull and time is an issue, I’ll have a rift opened so I can step through to retrieve the artifact.”

  “I suppose a private plane is asking too much?”

  “Fly commercial, Mr. Shade.”

  “All right.”

  “Text me your itinerary and I’ll have a wizard meet you at the airport with a special permit for your handgun.”

  “Cool.”

  “And keep me posted.”

  “Enjoy your meeting,” I said and hung up.

  So much for the easy way.

  We purchased airline tickets right from our phones.

  The flight to kick off our trip to Córdoba, Argentina left Dulles at 6:55 that night, and was scheduled to land in Miami at 9:51. There was an hour long wait for the next plane to Buenos Aires, which left at 10:50 and landed at 10:02 the next morning. Six hours and eight minutes later, at 4:10, the final flight took off for Córdoba. Landing was scheduled for 5:40 pm, so travel time was twenty hours and forty-five minutes. The price for the tickets in coach was just over $2000 apiece. Spending a day in coach didn’t make any sense to me, so I upgraded us to first class. That more than tripled the price.

  Class wasn’t going to like his expense report.

  Maria bought four tickets, and I bought two. I bought Kelly’s separately to ensure we wouldn’t be sitting together. As Maria wasn’t looking over my shoulder when I made the purchase, I decided it was best to not let her know about Kelly. I’d been betrayed by too many people in the last few years, and trust is a bottle that doesn’t fill quickly.

  As we left the Library of Congress, I told Maria that Esther and I would meet her at the airport, and that I had some errands to run.

  “This is my greatest nightmare,” Maria said, tugging her jacket tighter as the wind whipped around us. “I have to pack for an international trip in a matter of hours, and I don’t even know how long we’ll be there.”

  “Or if we’ll be going anywhere else,” I said. I waved to her bodyguards. They did not wave back.

  “Thank you so much for the reminder,” Maria said. “That makes things much easier.”

  I waved off her sarcasm. “We can buy clothes and such in Argentina if we need them.”

  “Assuming we have time to shop. Enough talk. I have to go pack now.”

  “Won’t take me long,” I said with a mischievous grin.

  She glared at me. “It’s so much easier for men. Some trousers and some shirts. I have to determine whether we’ll be going through jungle in the afternoon and whether I need a nice dress for dinner and drinks in the evening. I need makeup and hair products, and jewelry to match my choices, and proper shoes, and—”

  “Yeah, I get the point.”

  “There are days I wish I’d been born with a penis,” she said, and walked away.

  I laughed and watched her go down the steps to her waiting bodyguards. Two of them, anyway. They walked off toward the Capitol and I kept my eyes on them until they rounded the corner.

  “Third bodyguard across the street,” Kelly said walking past me. “Pea coat, collar turned up. Stay at least five paces behind me until he’s done watching you.”

  I let Kelly go down the stairs. I shoved my hands into my coat pockets, looked at the cloudy sky for a moment, then began my descent.

  There was no need to look at the guy in the pea coat. He wasn’t interested in following me. Instead, he crossed the street and went after Maria and her C and C boys.

  When I caught up to Kelly I said, “I didn’t see you in there.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “For all I know, you went off to take a nap.”

  “Perhaps I did, but either way, you’re still alive. What time is our flight?”

  “How’d you know about the flight?” I asked.

  She narrowed her gaze. “I see everything.”

  “Then you should have seen the departure time.”

  “6:55,” Esther said.

  “Thank you, Esther.” Kelly looked around. “Where did you go?”

  “I’m beside you,” Esther said.

  “I still don’t see you.”

  “You’re getting better at engaging with people at the level of your choice,” I said.

  “And how,” Esther said. “If I want them to see me
, I’m here.”

  She popped into sight.

  I looked around to see if anyone was paying any attention. There weren’t many people on the sidewalk, and none of them were looking at us.

  “If I only want to be heard,” Esther said, and vanished. “I can do that, too. Isn’t that the cat’s meow?”

  “It’s good to have you back regardless,” Kelly said.

  She’d been back for a while now, but Kelly still liked to make a point of saying something. And each time, she looked at me as she said it. Granted, it was my fault Esther left, and I had nothing to do with her coming back.

  Kelly felt I didn’t deserve Esther, and she was probably right. But I learned long ago to let people decide whether or not they want to spend time with me. If I went with what I felt I deserved, I’d be alone right now.

  “Do you need extra packing time?” I asked Kelly.

  She looked at me like I’d spoken in Swahili. “What?”

  “Never mind,” I said. Kelly wore one color by choice. Black. She might accent it occasionally, but when it came to packing, she didn’t have to worry about matching outfits. They all matched. Black on black never went out of fashion.

  We could have caught a cab, but our hotel was only a mile away. The wind calmed a bit, and I wanted to enjoy a nice brisk walk with my friends.

  I made a note of how I felt right then. We were going to step into some deep doo-doo so this was going to be my last chance to just enjoy a simple walk with some fun banter.

  All felt right with the world.

  I always tried to note those moments, because they were so few and far between.

  “Well,” I said, “I might need some extra time to do a bit of shopping before I pack. Maria mentioned she was going to bring along some nice dresses, so I want to make sure I have a nicer suit.”

  “She’s very attractive,” Kelly said.

  “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “You always go for the very attractive women. Rayna, Brenda, Naomi, shall I go on?”

  “For all we know, Maria is after the skull for herself.”

  “We can back out, you know. You’re doing this for money, but even if they find your other accounts, you have enough cash stashed that you’ll be fine.”

  “I’m doing this because I get to be like Indiana Jones.”