by Jacob Whaler
But he feels no pain. The only sensation is the voice, a soft vibration in his bones.
“Release the fear.”
Lifting up his hands and arms, he is a white skeleton, picked clean and polished to a fine sheen. He stares at the opening above him and sees the light growing larger, brighter, warmer. It turns into a luminous sphere and pulls him toward it, into it.
“Time to get up.” Jessica reaches over and grabs Matt’s shoulder. “Mr. Miyazawa is awake. You should see this.”
Matt jumps off the sleeping pad into a Kung Fu attack position facing Jessica. Then he opens his eyes and relaxes. “Sorry. You scared me. I didn’t get much sleep.” He drops down into a chair and takes in a deep breath.
“Really? I thought you slept like a baby.” Jessica says.
“A loud baby.” Yarah chews on a rice ball wrapped in fried tofu. “This is good. What is it?”
“Inari-zushi.” Matt follows Jessica’s eyes to the bluescreen behind him. It shows shots of capitols around the world full of jubilant crowds thronging the streets. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Miyazawa just told me about a bad dream he had during the night.” Jessica looks up to the screen. “Looks like he wasn’t the only one. Check this out.”
Matt sees the words bleeding across the bottom in bright red letters.
Worldwide Euphoria Follows Nightmare Shared By All
“What kind of dream was it?” Matt says.
Jessica pulls a jax from her pocket. “Reports vary slightly, but there’s a common theme. People are in a calm, quiet place from their childhood when a massive black snake appears. It bursts out and swallows them into darkness. Shark teeth come down over their heads and clamp onto the torso. There’s a rush of sharp pain, and then . . .” She looks just beyond Matt’s shoulder, eyes opening slightly wider.
“Then what?”
“Bliss.” Miyazawa’s upper body rises from the bed. “Pure bliss. Happiness, contentment. Joy.” With a quick twist of his body, he comes off the bed and lands on the floor. “I can’t explain it, but I feel more complete than I ever have in my life.”
More out of instinct than intention, Matt steps forward, the fingers of each hand forming into a loose fist. “Who undid his chains?”
Yarah walks beside the bed and looks up at the priest. “I did. You were all asleep, and he looked fine and told me everything was all right. He asked me to let him go.”
Matt’s eyes narrow as he studies Miyazawa’s face. “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better after last night. Why don’t you have a seat while we get you some breakfast.”
The priest nods, sits on a chair and folds one leg over the other.
“And there’s more.” Jessica glances down at the jax in her hand. “It seems that the hundred years’ war between India and Pakistan ended today.”
“What?” Matt keeps a wary eye on the priest. “How is that possible?”
“Early this morning, the soldiers on both sides spontaneously laid down their weapons. The prime ministers jumped into transports and met in the middle.” The bluescreen shows two men shaking hands in a high mountain pass. “They signed a truce and declared the war over. Russia unilaterally returned the Sakhalin Islands to Japan. Brazil and Argentina have ended their border skirmishes. Australia and New Zealand. Israel and Palestine. Peace everywhere.”
Matt moves carefully away from Miyazawa. “Yarah, could you go into the cockpit and grab my backpack?” He glances around and notices that the protective shield of energy around the transport is gone.
“Sure.” Yarah skips out through the door.
Jessica’s jaw drops down as she stares into her jax and sinks into the white leather sofa. “China just filed a termination of litigation with the World Court to end all trade disputes with the United States. The two countries are jointly sponsoring a meeting of the UN General Assembly to fund a Worldwide Peace Foundation to decommission all nuclear weapons and to rebuild war-torn countries. There are no more military conflicts. All have officially ended as of today. People are flocking to Shinto shrines, both in the real world and on the Mesh.” Her eyes drift up to the bluescreen to a montage of images of jubilation around the planet. She looks down from the screen at Matt.
His heart is beating like a taiko drum in his chest with an overwhelming sense of danger. Staring at her, he slowly moves his eyes, and hers, to the pulse rifle leaning against the wall. Then he swings his eyes over to Miyazawa and blinks.
Jessica nods.
“Here you go.” Yarah skips back into the Miyazawa’s room with the backpack and drops it on the floor by Matt.
“Isn’t it wonderful?” Miyazawa says. “The final result of years of effort. The end of war and conflict. It looks like Shinto has finally accomplished its grand design. To bring the world together into One. To bring us all to Paradise.”
Matt’s eyes go to the floor. “Now!” Dropping low, he grabs Yarah in his arms and rolls with her out of the line running between Jessica and Miyazawa.
At the same instant, Miyazawa and Jessica each lunge for the pulse rifle from opposite directions. Jessica arrives a split second earlier, grabs the rifle and spins its butt end like a baseball bat into the priest’s face. He stumbles backward against a wall and springs off it at Jessica. She rolls to her feet, levels the barrel at the priest and pulls the trigger.
Small explosions of blood burst from his knees. He falls back against the wall and drops down to a sitting position on the floor.
“Let me go!” Yarah screams and beats her tiny fists on Matt’s chest. Holding her close, he glances under her long black hair and sees the blue jewel bonded with her skin behind her ear.
“You’ve lost.” The voice of Ryzaard bleeds out through Miyazawa’s throat. “You’ve lost everything. It all belongs to me. At long last, everything is mine.” The priest struggles to get up and falls down, grunting with pain in his legs.
Matt thrusts his hand into his pocket for the cloaking box and comes out with an empty plastic container the same size.
“Missing something?” Miyazawa looks up with a broad smile and reaches into his robe to pull out the black box. “Yarah helped me fix this last night while you were sleeping. It seems that you had it all inside out. She’s such a good little girl.” He flips open the lid and looks down into it. “Both Stones, nice and safe and dead.” Placing it on the floor between his legs, he pulls a pulse pistol from the deep folds of his robe, points it at Jessica and shoots her in the belly.
She reels backward, shattering the bluescreen. The pulse rifle drops from her hands.
Through the transparent walls, they see a dark cloud of fighters moving like a swarm of wasps on the horizon toward them.
“You may survive.” Miyazawa’s eyes have dilated into deep pools of darkness that jump from Jessica to Yarah. “But they won’t.” Muscles spasm in his face, forcing a menacing grin.
In a blur, Yarah pulls a dagger from a sheath on her leg, turns and plunges it into Matt’s chest.
Telltale flashes of green light burst out of the wings of the combat fighters, now much closer.
“In five seconds.” Yarah’s voice drops three octaves. “You lose everything.” She grins.
The world shifts into slow motion.
Jessica’s eyes skim past him as she leaps from a pool of blood on the floor like a cobra and lunges at Miyazawa. Multiple shots break from his pulse pistol and rake across her chest. She stumbles forward against the barrage of bullets and falls on the priest as his pistol continues to fire. Hitting the floor, her hand darts out to the cloaking box. With a twist of her wrist, she flicks it across the room to Matt.
She looks back at him, eyes only half open. Her teeth, tongue and lips form two distinct words.
Kill Ryzaard!
And then her eyelids flutter and shut.
Yells of anguish burst from Matt’s lips. Holding Yarah tight with one arm, he twists, stretches out the other hand and grabs the cloaking box off the floor. Then he flips the lid
up with his thumb and turns it upside down.
Two glowing Stones fall from its interior.
In the confusion, Matt casts a protective glow of plasma around himself, Jessica and Yarah.
Fire explodes through the transport, engulfing the interior in flames. A hail of tiny projectiles penetrate its walls. The floor melts away, and the turquoise sky turns to black. Matt falls into the darkness, holding Yarah close.
As they plunge down to the sea, he reaches for Jessica’s ankle.
Images of their first kiss flash through his memory.
Just before they hit the surface of the water, Matt jumps them away to the first spot that comes to mind.
CHAPTER 123
Ryzaard pulls out of Yarah’s mind, but stays with Miyazawa until his body and brain, including the implant and all of its delicate tendrils, are thoroughly consumed in the explosion and fire. As its connection with the network falls away, one tiny spark in the billions floating in Ryzaard’s mind extinguishes its light and ceases to exist.
So much for the priest.
He played his role well. Now that his usefulness has run its course, he can be cast aside like garbage.
Like everyone else.
His mind moves back through the planetary network and into the Mesh. He lets it go into a random drift and finds himself standing on the platform of Miyazawa’s shrine wearing the robes of the priest. It is fitting that he use the avatar of the dead priest to rule the people while his true identity remains silent and hidden in the background.
It’s time for a sermon, and everyone needs to hear it. With a stroke of thought, he pulls them all in from the far reaches of the Mesh and focuses their attention on himself.
“Through the genius of Shinto, a great blessing has descended on the people of the Earth.” Ryzaard extends his arms directly out from the shoulders so that his body forms a capital T. “The shackles of war and conflict have fallen away. Peace is blooming on every land. We are becoming One. Becoming what the Kami intend us to be. Let us drop to our knees and give thanks.”
With a forceful inner nudging from Ryzaard, the entire assembly, billions of minds from across the expanse of the Mesh, bow to the ground, each thinking their actions are a spontaneous desire to pay homage.
“All of you assembled here have received the blue jewel and embraced the blessings of the Mesh. You have been reborn. Through your choices, you have ushered in a new era of peace and prosperity for all of humankind.” The torii gate marking the entrance to the shrine, made of two cherry trees, pours down white blossoms that are caught on a breeze and waft through the crowd. “You are the hope of the future. The bringers of Paradise.”
He shuts off the flow of white blossoms and darkens the air for theatrical effect. “But there are those among us, not many in number, but scattered on all lands and among all people, who refuse to embrace the blue jewel. For more than a generation, they have turned their backs on the world.” Black clouds appear above them. “They hide in pockets of darkness, ready to oppose all that we have worked for. Trying to bring back the world of war and suffering.”
Settling firmly into billions of minds, Ryzaard opens the floodgates of anger. “They seek to take away the happiness of you, your children and all future generations. You know them as people of the freedom camps who call themselves the Children.”
The multitude rises to their feet. Fists stab at the air.
“We wish them no ill will. Our only desire is for them to join us and know the joy that we know.” Ryzaard steps down from the platform and moves over the sea of white pearls through the crowd. “We must find them in their hiding places and give to them the opportunity that we have received. We must give them the blue jewel, that their eyes may be opened.”
As he walks by, people reach out to touch his robes. Tears of joy flow from their avatar eyes.
“Go to your local shrines and obtain the jewels. There are more than enough for all. Go out to our friends, the Children. Do not reason with them. They are beyond words. Simply give them the gift of the blue jewel, so that they will understand.”
With the ease of water running downhill, Ryzaard pours out enthusiasm until it surges through the faithful.
Like an old-fashioned radio, the voice of Diego filters into his mind. “Dr. Ryzaard, we’ve located the two Stones. Together. On a mountaintop in Colorado.”
In a vast sea of lights, Ryzaard finds Yarah’s implant, feels for her mind and takes control.
CHAPTER 124
Matt comes down softly onto rocky ground as Yarah rolls away from his body.
A breeze blows the smell of quaking aspen and pine past his face, jarring memories of a far past. He opens his eyes and stares up at the white clouds floating in an ocean of blue. Feeling the Stone in his hands, he tries to get to his feet, but falls back with stabs of pain in his chest. Bringing his hands up, he brushes against the handle of a dagger and pulls it out. An instant later he heals the wound and gets to his feet to look down into Skull Pass, its steep slope covered with a fine carpet of late autumn Indian paintbrushes.
It was here that he almost died in an avalanche at the age of sixteen. It was past this spot that he used to ski with Jessica.
He whips around at the sound of labored breathing.
Jessica’s ashen figure lies on the ground two meters away.
Jumping to her side, he drops to his knees, brushes the hair from her eyes and wipes the blood from her lips. “Hold still while I heal you.” He cradles her head in his hands and kisses her forehead.
Her body shudders and twitches. “No . . . time.” With difficulty, her eyes open and stare up. “Kill Ryzaard.” Then they stare straight ahead and grow wide.
Matt senses a presence behind him and snatches a glimpse of Yarah as a jagged beam of light jumps from the tip of her Stone and catches him in the chest. A thin film of light still clings to his skin as the force of the impact slams him against a boulder three meters away.
Yarah stands over Jessica and looks down. “It’s over,” she says in a voice that is three octaves too low. As she raises her Stone, Matt crouches and shoots sparks of white energy from his Stone. They lift the little girl off the ground and knock her down the slope behind her.
Rushing to Jessica, he cradles her head once again. But the eyes stare forward and the body is limp. Closing his eyes and gripping the Stone, he drops into the dark space behind his eyes to find her. To heal her.
But all he finds is an empty vacuum.
Panic explodes inside him. Searching for her presence, he can’t find any trace of it.
He screams out to the Allehonen in desperation.
Help me find her! Don’t let her die!
His thoughts radiate out and return with nothing.
A flash of brilliant fire and pain ripples across his skin and thrusts him back into the real world. Yarah is pumping orange balls of energy out of her Stone against his back from just a few feet away with a maniacal grin on her face that he’s never seen before. The thin blue aura of energy still envelopes him, but is growing weak.
Jessica, come back to me.
He stares down at her lifeless body and up at Yarah as her face contorts and convulses.
His body goes numb with bottomless grief.
Yarah stops firing. “Jessica is gone forever.” Ryzaard speaks through her voice. “How will you go on without her?” A smile stretches across her lips. Her eyes are lifeless pools of black.
Jessica’s last words come back to Matt’s mind.
Kill Ryzaard.
Teeth coming together in rage, adrenaline surges through Matt’s legs. He lunges for Yarah against a torrent of orange lightning. A familiar sound bounces off the protective membrane, bringing terror in its wake.
Thump, thump, thump.
A swarm of black attack ships rises over the horizon.
Matt tackles Yarah to the ground. She grins up at him with raised eyebrows.
“Get out of her!” He slams his fist down onto her forehead.
Her body goes limp, her hand falls down and the Stone rolls out of her open palm.
Matt’s eyes shift between Jessica and Yarah on the ground. The thump, thump, thump of attack ships gets louder with every second.
Taking in a deep breath, his hands go down onto Jessica’s head. The power of his Stone surges through his mind bringing instant clarity. Two words become a mantra in his mind.
Find her.
Relaxing once again into the alternate reality of the Stones, he is floating in empty space, all senses heightened to the breaking point. He opens his eyes, hoping to see Jessica floating in a horizontal position, waiting to be healed.
But all he can see in the darkness is Yarah, still unconscious and unresponsive.
Panic turns to desperation. Perhaps he can join Yarah’s Stone to his, like before, and use the extra power to find Jessica and bring her back.
Reaching out to the little girl, he searches for her Stone and finds it floating near her side. He takes it into his hand and pulls it into his mind.
But it feels dead and lifeless. Unconnected to Yarah. Useless.
The realization dawns on him with sickening force.
In order to save Jessica, he’ll have to save Yarah first. The only way is to sever the connection between Yarah’s implant and Ryzaard.
Turning Yarah over on her stomach, Matt presses his fingers against the implant behind her ear and drops down into her body. But it’s too late. The black tendrils are already deep in her skull and spine, impossible to extract. Just like Miyazawa.
Maybe there’s another way.
He pulls out of her and goes back to the real world at the top of Skull Pass, kneeling over Yarah. The attack fighters are closing in, their insect bodies hanging just over the ridge of mountains to the east. Flashes of light from their wings means they’ve already started to fire.
With an instant of concentration, Matt thinks of a shallow cave nearby he used to explore during long, hot summers. Placing hands on Yarah and Jessica, he jumps all three of them to the cave.
