Ghosts of Infinity: and Nine More Stories of the Supernatural

by Lara Saguisag

  “Barbie!” I called out. She peeped into the room. “Can you check this out?” I held up the diskette as she entered the study. Despite her cautious entry, she still bumped into a chair.

  “But sir,” she said as she rubbed her shin. “Don’t we need a warrant to …?”

  “No we don’t,” I interrupted. “It’s the Prof’s disk and it might help us find him.”

  And those wise words still echo in my mind.

  III

  School Daze

  7:47 A.M.

  Well, I was wrong about one thing. It wasn’t the Prof’s disk but Salvacion’s. After getting through a number of encrypted safeguards, Barbie found a folder named “Crusade” in the disk. What was Dizon’s connection to Salvacion? Was he a believer? A business partner? Or was he some sort of academic contact studying the movement? Salvacion wanted a hush-hush investigation, no doubt, to avoid negative publicity. Not wanting to read them on the spot, I asked Barbie to copy the files. She also found Prof. Dizon’s class schedule in the laptop. It was Saturday and he didn’t have a class. Still, I wanted to cover the bases and so we drove to my old school.

  Within the great green enclave of the University of the Philippines was where I spent many wonderful and inspiring years as a law student. The campus wasn’t so green anymore and the Faculty Center looked grayer than ever. While Barbie went to the Anthropology Department office, I asked one of the security guards if he had seen Prof. Dizon around during the past few days. He said that he wasn’t on the night shift but one of his buddies was. And from the bored guards’ idle talk, I found out that lately Prof. Dizon had been working in his office up to midnight. He guessed that the Prof was working late last night as well. Not really sure of what I was after, I went to the third floor where the Prof’s office was.

  As I walked towards his room, I noticed the beams of sunlight under the door were flickering. Someone was inside. With my .38 Lorcin in hand, I gave the door a hard kick. It always looks easy in the movies. Another kick sent the door crashing open.

  “N.B.I.!” I shouted and pointed the gun at the man rummaging through the desk.

  “You!” he screamed after he had spun around to look at me. “He sent you!”

  It was Prof. Dizon. He wore torn and dirty clothes over his thin form and he had a wild look in his eyes. He actually reminded me of Rasputin for some reason.

  “Just calm down, sir.” I held out my left hand and slowly holstered my gun.

  He looked at me for a second and then suddenly jumped on his desk and hurled himself towards the window behind it. To my surprise, the glass shattered and Prof. Dizon toppled over.

  I quickly leaped on the desk and reached for him but I was too late. He had fallen over the low concrete ledge outside. I rushed out to the ledge and looked down. I could see his twitching and bleeding body sprawled on one of the stone tables below. Then he got up. He got up and ran towards the street. Right then he looked like a springy daddy-long-legs.

  Refusing to be flabbergasted by what I just saw, I looked down. I was three stories up but I figured that if Jet Li could do it… I climbed over the ledge and let myself hang, with my hands firmly clutching the edge. Exhaling nervously and offering a quick prayer, I let go and dropped down. I grunted as I took hold of the second floor ledge. Then I landed on the ground and ran after the weird gangly Professor. He was already rushing towards the administration building when he began to slow down. Was it some hyper form of adrenaline? I wondered as I tried to recapture my NCAA running days and caught up with him. I didn’t take any chances and I tackled him down hard on the asphalt.

  “No! Don’t take me! Ghosts in the mansion! Coming for me! No! I won’t let him!” He was delirious, shouting in English, Filipino and some other language I couldn’t recognize. “I won’t be immortal! Not anymore!”

  Then a black Starex van screeched to a halt just a few feet from us. The side doors slid open and three hefty goons stepped out. It’s amazing how generic goons can look. Mean, muscled, and looking like Jimmy Santos. The clothes weren’t standard goon fashion though. They were dressed in SWAT fatigues without any insignias. They were wearing combat boots and also had pendants around their necks. The pendants didn’t look like dog tags. As soon as I stood up, one of them grabbed me and tossed me aside. He was really strong, and he was going for the Professor. I moved to protect the Prof but another goon charged me from behind. He swung a wild right hand. I stepped back and then grabbed and locked his arm with my left. Then I struck his throat with my right elbow, which rocked him backwards. Then I executed a spinning kick to his head that finally dropped him.

  “You think you’re so great?” another goon growled in Filipino. “I know karate too!”

  With that announcement, he leaped towards me and executed a competent jumping front kick that I avoided by stepping to the side and circling behind him. As he turned to face me I delivered three sidekicks. Knee, stomach, and jaw.

  “Sikaran, pare,” I told the fallen goon. His funky pendant looked like the number eight.

  I turned to the last goon who was holding the now sedate professor. He was pointing a .45 at Prof. Dizon’s head. I should’ve known they were packing. As I raised my hands, I saw Barbie run towards the goon from behind.

  “Hold it!” she shouted as she aimed her .38 revolver at the goon’s head. “Raise your hands!”

  The goon turned to look at her and when he looked at me again, his nose was pressed against the barrel of my pistol.

  “Now, please let the Professor go,” I said.

  “Yes, let him go,” a cold, eerie Ben David-like voice whispered in my ear. I turned to look at its source and saw a man look out from the van. He was smiling and his eyes were all white.

  I recognized him but then everything else went white.

  IV

  Antiquity and Such

  8:35 A.M.

  Things were definitely getting weird. After everything was clear again, the goons, the van and the Prof were gone. Good thing Barbie was there to witness the whiteness. Otherwise, for a second, I’d have thought I was crazy. The bad thing was I didn’t get to do a Fox Moulder and check my watch to see if we had lost time. So I didn’t know if we were hypnotized somehow or if they just vanished. Barbie had found out that Prof. Dizon was researching the legendary civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria. He was recovering his notes when I burst into his office. Barbie heard the commotion and ran up and then out of the Faculty Center in time to see the light show. After quickly informing the Bureau that Dizon was found and lost again minus the weird stuff, I decided to go to a nearby place where we could check the Crusade files out.

  I’ve always been impressed by Barbie’s place. Not that I’ve been there often. She never liked bringing work home or vice versa. But with some reluctance, she made an exception for the Dizon case. She lived with her folks in a big house in Loyola Grand Villas. Her father was in the IT business and her mother was a society person or something. Their daughter choosing to work for the Bureau must be one of their great frustrations. I’ve wondered about that too. Then again, my educator parents weren’t exactly thrilled by my choice of career. But they understood. My decision to stay in the Philippines wasn’t an issue as my father always believed in being in a place where “more work had to be done.” Now they were in East Timor.

  Barbie’s parents weren’t home when we arrived. I waited for a bit in the ornate living room while Barbie went to tidy up her workplace. Some crossword puzzle books were scattered on the couch and I was about to pick one up when Barbie called me. Her workplace was indeed a workplace in more ways than one. One side looked like a workstation with a PC and a bookshelf filled with computer-related books. The other side had a TV, video players in various formats, stereo system, and punching bag. I had thought that she was into Aero Boxing but then I spotted several hard-to-find videos of great fights including Espinosa and Pacquiao. Barbie must be quite the boxing fan and probably acquired the videos from ebay. As I perused her collection, s
he called me over to the workstation.

  “The file from Salvacion’s disk is mostly about the history of the organization,” she said as she clicked the folder open. “It’s nothing unusual but there’s a list of prominent government and military people in one document. There are hyperlinks on the names but I can’t access them yet.”

  “With all the safeguards, Salvacion must be up to no good,” I said softly as I looked at he screen. “And the Prof must have wanted out of it.” I kept the Prof’s strange abilities to myself.

  Then Barbie turned to me. “How did he do that?” she asked with her brow furrowed. “Was that white light a new kind of flash grenade?”

  I just shook my head. “The Prof was ranting about ghosts and immortals. And then there’s his research on Atlantis and Lemuria. Lemuria was supposed to have been in the Pacific, right?”

  Barbie nodded. “Some believe that the Philippines was once part of it. Some say the ancient inhabitants were supposed to be so advanced that they had special powers. Do you think Salvacion’s a Lemurian with hypnotic powers?” Barbie looked at me with a smile.

  I shrugged. Barbie looked at the computer screen and spoke again. “Lemuria’s also a term used for an ancient Roman ritual to drive away ghosts. Lemures is the term for ghosts.” She paused, smiled to herself and continued. “That’s where lemurs got their name. They were viewed as ghostly creatures.”

  So her talent for amassing obscure knowledge was kicking in. I wondered if she thought that she had a captive listener. “This ritual,” I said. “Does it involve beans?”

  Barbie was quiet for a minute. She seemed a bit surprised by my question or maybe she was surprised that I didn’t dismiss her little spiel.

  “Let me check it out.” She typed on the keyboard and then nodded. “Yes, in the ritual, black beans were used to appease malignant spirits. It was performed at midnight by the father of the family on the 9th, 11th, and 13th of May.”

  “Interesting,” I said and leaned against the desk. “Even though he’s supposed to be single, Dizon was performing the ritual on Friday the 13th when the attempted kidnapping happened. Only the ghosts who tried to take him were actually goons of the Infinite Dream Crusade.” Barbie looked at me quizzically as I continued. “I finally figured out that the 8’s weren’t 8’s but infinity symbols. Now whatever’s there in those links must be pretty incriminating for Salvacion to send his goons. Dizon escaped and Salvacion asked the Bureau to find him. Now either Salvacion’s teachings about dreams messed up the Prof’s mind or Salvacion is an immortal Lemurian involved in some big scam.”

  “This Professor Dizon seems to be out of it. I mean, ancient rituals, immortals, ghosts …”

  “Ghosts in the mansion,” I whispered. “Is there any mention of mansions in that file?”

  “Hold on,” Barbie checked the files again. “The group would sometimes meet in an old mansion in Bulacan.”

  “Give me the address. Stay here and try to access those links.”

  V

  Master of the Sublime

  11:50 A.M.

  I finally got to the place and hoped I wasn’t too late. Too late for what, I didn’t know. I figured that if the Roman ritual occurred at midnight, then something could happen at noon. I parked my Altis about a block away from the house and proceeded on foot. I didn’t really think something literally out of this world would happen but this Salvacion was something else. Was he immortal? Doubtful, but something about him just didn’t feel right. And one thing I’ve learned in my life is when things go beyond known science, then other forces had to be at work.

  The house was of the Old Spanish design and was in a very remote place. Perfect for clandestine meetings. It was standing on a virtually barren area with no other buildings nearby. So much for the stealthy approach. Whoever was coming could be seen by anyone inside. Since I was in plain sight anyway, I casually walked to the front door. The Starex was parked nearby and I prepared myself for goon fight round two.

  To my surprise and relief, one of the goons, the one I poked a gun at, opened the door and ushered me in. He didn’t smile but if he had, I would have felt worse. A smiling goon is never a good sign. Without frisking me, he led me to the living room. I looked around and saw old portraits of what must have been Salvacion’s ancestors. They all looked pretty somber. I didn’t get to read the dates below the portraits as the goon led me quickly to the grand staircase. When we reached the second floor, I saw huge double doors. The goon gestured towards it and then left. I looked at the door and suddenly the whole place seemed to darken and grow colder. The chill wasn’t just up my spine but throughout my whole body. Right then I really started to think beyond the visible world. Taking one deep breath, I pushed the doors open.

  “You’ve come,” Salvacion said with his winning TV smile. He was taller and whiter in person but he still wore his kimono. He was standing in the middle of an octagonal room right on the infinity symbol at the center of the narra floor. It looked temporary as though it had to be moved from place to place like the presidential seal. A zoned out Prof. Dizon was kneeling in front of him.

  “You seem to want an audience,” I said and slowly stepped forward.

  “I need a witness, yes.” He clasped his hands on the Professor’s head. “To punishment and glory!” He seemed to think that I knew what he was talking about. Flattering.

  “So you’re punishing Prof. Dizon for not wanting to go along with your sick plans!” Of course, I didn’t know what the sick plans were but I pretended to know just in case he wanted to brag. I didn’t tell him about the info in the disk.

  “There is nothing sick about attaining your birthright! He was part of a sublime line and yet he rejected it. Instead he depended on inferior knowledge of an inferior people and thought it could thwart me.” I had to admit, the beans weren’t very effective. Then again, Salvacion must have been messing with Dizon’s mind for a long time. Salvacion’s own mind had been messed up long ago.

  “I saw the portraits of your ancestors, they didn’t look sublime to me.” My plan was to rile him up into telling me more. Beyond that I had no clue.

  “Oh, you mean my sons.” I wasn’t expecting that one. “It’s a shame that my gift cannot be passed on. That makes this traitor’s crime even greater. He will be punished and I will expand my legacy. You’ve seen a portion of that, Agent Ganigan.” For a moment I was astonished at his knowledge of my name but then I remembered that he contacted the Bureau and must have had the agents involved checked out and staked out.

  “So you’re a Lemurian and so is the Professor.” I thought that I might as well bring that up.

  He stifled a chuckle. “Lemuria is a myth. We are much more. We come from beyond this world. This world has had only a glimpse of our power. Your seers, psychic healers, and visionaries have merely tapped into a miniscule part of our legacy.”

  “What about the woman who gave birth to a milkfish? Was that part of your legacy too?”

  That one got to him. He raised his hands and I was instantly slammed off my feet by some sort of psychic force. It felt like a sledgehammer hitting my chest. I gasped for air and struggled to stand up.

  “You have no idea of what you are dealing with! You and the rest of your foolish, ignorant, gullible people always looking for your next savior! Looking to your saints and your idols!”

  “Sorry. I’m Presbyterian.” I got slammed down again but that didn’t shut me up. Cotton Mather may be a bit extreme but I reckoned that the invisible world was involved. I stood up. “You’re the ignorant one! You’re the one being controlled by forces you don’t understand!”

  He suddenly clasped the Professor’s head again and both of them began to glow. I was afraid they were going to combust. “Since this traitor does not want his life, I will take it from him! If that is not enough even an impure soul will suffice!” So he was supposed to be a psychic vampire and I was dessert. Maybe the ghosts in the mansion were Salvacion’s past victims. Was I actually buying what he
was raving about? He did make some valid points. Psychic blasts and all.

  I wasn’t sure if I actually saw what I saw but a bright circle of light slowly expanded behind them. Salvacion closed his eyes and started to chant in some strange language. The Professor was beginning to convulse violently. The circle was about to engulf them.

  Not wanting to find out what the heck was about to happen, I ran towards the Professor just as the chanting was reaching its peak. I grabbed him by the shoulders and felt a surge of burning heat rush through my arms. I ignored the pain and tried to pull him away from the sublime one.

  Then Salvacion opened his eyes and let out an inhuman roar. I felt the psychic force hit me again but I held on. It hit me again and I was pushed backward together with the Prof. We were both pushed out of the circle.

  Salvacion screamed as the circle covered him completely.

  Then everything went white.

  VI

  The Infinity Crusade

  MAY 15, SUNDAY, 6:32 p.m.

  “How is Professor Dizon?” Barbie asked.

  “He’s still undergoing therapy,” I said as I ran my hand across my forehead. “I get the feeling that Salvacion messed with his head. It’s hard to tell which is real and what is imagined.” Those green eyes were probably night vision goggles that were part of the stolen military equipment. Something I totally ignored.

  “Well,” Barbie said with a sigh. “I found out that Salvacion was making illegal contributions to politicians, military officers, and even some judges.”

  I was quiet for a while. “That information was from Salvacion’s disk,” I finally said. “His lawyers are screaming right to privacy and that we didn’t have a warrant to check it out. It’s my fault.”