Earthshaker

by Robert T. Jeschonek

  "We're going public soon." Solomon smiled and drank more wine.

  Cassandra brushed her fingertips over my arm. "You couldn't have timed your visit any more perfectly."

  "Going public?" Laurel's serene smile shifted to a frown. "You mean Landkind? And the gods and goddesses?"

  "Of course." Cassandra's tone was matter-of-fact.

  "You're going to reveal their presence to the world?" said Laurel. "Our presence?"

  "At long last, yes," said Solomon. "No more hiding in plain sight."

  "Why haven't I heard about this before now?" For the first time since arriving at Parapets, Laurel sounded annoyed.

  "Only the Landkind who are part of our organization needed to know," said Cassandra. "You weren't one of them."

  "You should've at least taken it to the Council," said Laurel.

  "We didn't need to," said Cassandra. "It's not like we're 'outing' every Landkind on the planet."

  "You might as well be," said Laurel. "Once they know some of us are out there, they'll find the rest of us."

  "So what?" Cassandra gestured at Mahoney. "Mr. Wells here just found out about Landkind, and he doesn't seem to be scarred for life."

  "Not that I have a clue what exactly Landkind is yet," muttered Mahoney.

  "What makes you think humanity and Landkind can't coexist in peace?" said Cassandra. "Look around you! It's already happening right here!"

  Laurel stared off into space for a moment. "Separation of church and slate." Her voice sounded distant. "That's the way he said it should be."

  "'He' who?" said Cassandra.

  "Owen." Laurel locked eyes with me. She knew I'd remember what he'd said. "A dear friend of mine."

  "Look at it this way," said Solomon. "The world is about to change. Landkind and the gods and goddesses will be seen as saviors, not enemies. None of us will have any reason to fear."

  "How exactly is the world going to change?" I said.

  "We're going to do many things." Solomon smiled. "Chief among them, we're going to stop the poison."

  Laurel met my gaze again. I knew what she must be thinking. "What kind of poison?" she said.

  "The poison that's attacking the world," said Solomon. "The poison that's killing all of us."

  Laurel's calm expression held steady, but I saw her eyes flash. She had to be wondering, like I was, if Solomon was talking about the same poison that was killing her. And if he was, could he cure her? Cure all the dying Landkind in her mountain range?

  "Look." Solomon leaned forward and took our hands—held one of Laurel's and one of mine in each of his own. "We're doing good work here. Amazing work, as you can see. Why not give us a chance?"

  "Not report you to the Council, you mean?" Laurel sounded ambivalent, though I knew she was anything but.

  "I mean think about joining us." Solomon squeezed our hands. "We'd love to have you."

  Laurel and I didn't have an answer to that one.

  Solomon chuckled. "Why do you think we approved your visit to Parapets? We're recruiting you."

  Laurel cleared her throat. "I don't know what to say."

  "Say you'll stay a while and see what we have to offer," said Solomon. "Say you'll think about it."

  Laurel looked my way, and I shrugged. Solomon was offering us exactly what we wanted—time at Parapets to look for the killer. To look for more than that, maybe.

  "All right." Laurel nodded. "I'll think about it."

  "Me, too," I said.

  "Wonderful!" Solomon let go of our hands and jumped up from the table. "Then let's really get you oriented."

  "Sounds fine." Laurel got up.

  So did I. "Okay then."

  "You're going to love it here." Cassandra hooked her arm around mine and fell in step with Solomon.

  That left Mahoney to trail behind us. "What about me?" He sounded offended. "Feeling like a bear scat sandwich here!"

  *****

  Chapter 43

  After a while, I started to wonder if Solomon and Cassandra's plan was to keep us too busy to hunt for the killer. It was a strong possibility, I thought. They marched us around so much, I couldn't get a moment to myself to search the ley line network for traces of the murderous eyeball or the Presence.

  It didn't help that what Solomon and Cassandra were showing us was so incredible. They led us through one vast wing of the Great Hall, walking us through workshops, labs, and testing facilities. We watched a demonstration of a high tech computerized device that used fields of magic to alter the laws of physics. Another device used magic and quantum mechanics to reverse or fast-forward time in localized zones, sometimes within the same object or person. Another device, still being perfected, would extract lost knowledge from dead souls in the afterlife. We even got to see the inner workings of the kaleidotecture engine that constantly changed the Great Hall's shape—some kind of magical living creature, a jigsaw being with a million disconnected pieces, every one of them hopping or running or flying around at once, inhabiting a space the size of a ballroom. A product of bioengineering, goddess magic, and geomancy, we were told.

  "I stand corrected," said Mahoney as we gazed in amazement at the kaleidotecture creature. "Maybe this is Area 51 up here, after all."

  Along with the wonders in the workshops, labs, and test chambers, we saw an endless parade of enthusiastic true believers. They told us, again and again, how wonderful Parapets was and how fantastic the future was going to be because of the work they were doing. They talked our ears off about how much they loved Parapets and how they'd heard we were thinking about joining and they'd love it if we did. Every last one of their shining faces smiling blissfully.

  "Next stop, Jonestown." That was what Mahoney said at one point, and he was right. The place felt like a cult. The people were too happy and enlightened and welcoming. The sales pitch was too high-pressure.

  But the crazy thing was, it only annoyed me a little. Mostly, I was flattered. I liked having so many people encourage me to join their group. It appealed to my longing to be a part of something bigger, something important. The work they were doing—maybe it could save Laurel's life. And maybe they could even help me discover the full truth about my life. The truth I'd killed myself over in a past life.

  As for Laurel, she seemed to be feeling the same way I did about Parapets. More so, even. During the tour, she watched and listened and asked questions with intense interest. Some of the people we talked to were Landkind, and she really perked up for them. When she came to a Landkind she already knew, she always started with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. In spite of her concerns about Landkind being outed to humanity, I got the impression she was quickly won over by Parapets.

  It worried me a little how much we liked the place. I kept reminding myself the killer could be hiding anywhere, waiting to attack when we were most distracted.

  Then, Solomon and Cassandra would lead us to another spectacular creation or view or performance, and the worries would flutter out of my head like butterflies on a lazy summer breeze.

  *****

  I didn't get a chance to break away for hours...not until Solomon and Cassandra showed us to our quarters for the night. They took us to adjoining rooms in a building on the third terrace, then left for an hour to give us time to get ready for dinner.

  I waited five minutes, then went back outside. Stood at Laurel's door for a moment, thinking about asking her to join me...but I decided not to knock. Felt like I wanted to do this alone.

  The sun had set, and twilight was settling over the mountain. Katydids rasped and crickets buzzed in the trees, tuning up for the night's performance.

  I strolled nonchalantly across the terrace, cutting back toward the exposed mountainside. Nodded at passing Parapets people—Parapeople?—as I picked a concealed spot among some shrubs and rocks on the slope. Meandered in that general direction, then hurried over and hunkered down when no one seemed to be looking.

  Pressing both palms against the ground, I reached out with my mind, sea
rching for the network. Found it quickly this time, pulsing below the surface like a manmade power grid. Now that I knew where and how to look, it was getting easier to find every time I tried.

  The network here was alive and crackling, unlike the dying one in Cousin Canyon. Every ley line tendril glowed and hummed with energy. Every node where ley lines intersected blazed like an underground sun. Were all healthy ley networks like this, I wondered? Or was this one, stimulated and manipulated by the Parapeople, unusually active?

  Reaching in, I let my mind flow through the network, riding the tangled conduits like a roller coaster. Reaching out as I did so, feeling for signature traces of anything familiar.

  And finding nothing. No trace of the eyeball assassin that had tried to kill me and Laurel at Cousin Canyon. No sign of the Presence that had stalked and loomed over me since before I'd found Aggie dead. Just strong, healthy currents of geomantic energy coursing in all directions.

  Gathering and focusing my willpower, I expanded my search, moving faster and reaching out further through the network. I was sure I'd come to the right place; the map I'd snatched from the eyeball had been crystal clear, and Duke's computer-generated overlays had matched it perfectly. Not only that, but it couldn't have been a coincidence that the map had led me to a secret compound specializing in experiments with geomantic energy. No way. This had to be the place.

  So where was the killer? There was no trace anywhere. I reached out as far as I could, concentrated as hard as I could, and still came up with nothing. I would have to keep hunting...move to another spot and dive in again.

  At least, that was the plan. That was what I would have done next if someone hadn't been waiting for me when I pulled my mind out of the network.

  "...said, are you all right?" The familiar voice penetrated the lingering haze when I emerged from my trancelike state. "Gaia? Can you hear me, Gaia?"

  Blinking, I looked toward the voice...looked up and up some more, in other words. Looked to the twilight sky above me, where Phaola hovered, surrounded by a sparkling golden aura.

  "Hi, Phaola." I got to my feet and dusted off my hands. "Great show this afternoon."

  Phaola smiled and pushed her long blonde hair with the ice-blue highlights behind her ears. "Thanks, Gaia." She did a slow twirl in midair, then lowered herself down beside me. "Are you sure you're all right? You looked dazed or something."

  "Yeah, I'm fine." I nodded and stepped out from the shrubs and rocks. "Just cramps. Thanks for asking."

  Phaola followed me onto the terrace. Touched my shoulder as she drew up beside me. "It's wonderful to see you here, Gaia. It really is."

  "You, too," I said, but it wasn't true. I still had hard feelings left over from what had happened at Divinities. Phaola hadn't killed Aggie, but she hadn't gone out of her way to help her, either.

  "So what do you think of all this?" Phaola spread her arms wide. "I remember how it was for me the first time. You've got like a million questions, am I right?"

  "Yeah, I do, actually." My mind raced. I'd used Phaola as an informant at Divinities, and I wanted to do the same again here...but I needed to take it slow. Get a feel for her mindset. "How did you end up here at Parapets, Phaola?"

  "I was transferred," said Phaola. "After Divinities shut down, and the cops let me go, Groundswell sent me here."

  "Groundswell?" She'd told me about Groundswell before—the group Divinities was funding. I knew the name, but not the connection. "What does Groundswell have to do with Parapets?"

  "What doesn't Groundswell have to do with it?" said Phaola. "Parapets is Groundswell's pet project."

  I nodded. It made sense now. Back at Secret Valley, she'd told me Groundswell wanted to change the world. As Solomon had said, and I'd seen on my tour, changing the world was what Parapets was all about.

  "So what do you do here exactly?" I clasped my hands behind my back as we strolled toward the edge of the terrace. "You personally."

  "I work with hyper-synchronization, mostly." Phaola tapped her forehead. "Technology that enables us to synch up multiple magic users, Landkind, and normal humans. Like the show we put on today."

  "So how do you do it?" I looked at her sideways. "How does this hyper-synchronization work?"

  "You're really interested in this, aren't you?" Phaola bumped her shoulder into mine. "Maybe you could work on it with me after you join Parapets."

  "Do members get to choose their assignments?" I said.

  "Some do, some don't." Phaola shrugged. "But you're in with Solomon, so you'll have it made."

  "Huh." Suddenly, lights on poles along the rim of the terrace flared to life, punctuating the darkness that had settled out of the twilight. Within seconds, moths and other bugs were flocking to them, swarming the hot bulbs in the cooling mountain air. "So you think Laurel and I should join up, don't you?"

  "Well, I don't know Laurel," said Phaola, "but you would love it, Gaia."

  "Why's that?" She hardly knew me; how could she know what I would love?

  Phaola took a deep breath and released it with a thoughtful smile. "We're one big family here." Her green-flecked honey-gold eyes twinkled. "There's this...unity. I've never felt anything like it before."

  "That's awesome." I wondered how she could be so impressed. She hadn't even been there two weeks yet. "You make it sound pretty wonderful."

  "It really is." Phaola put her arm around my shoulders. "It's turned my life around. I'm not kidding, Gaia. Totally turned it around."

  "Good for you." I looked over at her in the light at the terrace rim. Thought I saw a tiny bump between her eyebrows—a high-tech implant, maybe?—but it might've been a trick of light and shadow. "You know, I'd better get going. I'm supposed to meet some people for dinner."

  Just then, what sounded like a fire siren cut through the night, wailing from the direction of the Great Hall. I craned my neck, trying to get a look at what was happening at the Great Hall on the upper terrace. "What is it?" I said. "What's going on?"

  "Emergency all-hands meeting." Phaola jabbed a finger at my chest. "That includes you." She winked and grabbed my elbow. "So much for dinner."

  *****

  Chapter 44

  Phaola and I gathered up Laurel and Mahoney from their rooms and raced to the top terrace. By the time we got there, a massive crowd had formed, all facing the Great Hall.

  Everyone talked in hushed, excited tones as they watched and waited for whatever was coming next. We packed in with the rest of them...except Phaola, who hovered overhead with the other nymphs. Mahoney couldn't keep his eyes off them.

  "Nymphs, huh?" He shook his head slowly. "What the hell's a nymph?"

  "A kind of goddess," I told him. "Often linked to some natural landmark or phenomenon, with powers derived from it."

  "So she's a goddess?" He nodded at Phaola. "With a capital 'G'?"

  "Depends on your belief system," I said. "But yes, she's a goddess."

  "I hope you know," said Mahoney, still staring up at Phaola, "I'm having a little trouble getting my head around this shit."

  Suddenly, Laurel shushed us. "It's Solomon and Cassandra!"

  The whole crowd got quiet and still all at once. Everyone gazed at the top floor balcony on the back of the Great Hall, where Solomon and Cassandra had just emerged.

  "People of Parapets." Solomon's voice was amplified over the crowd (without benefit of speakers, as far as I could see). "We have a rescue mission."

  There was a brief burst of cheers and applause. Laurel and I clapped, too—for what, we didn't really know.

  "Our early warning system has detected a disaster in the making," said Solomon. "A long dormant volcano on the West Coast is about to erupt."

  The crowd murmured and rustled at the news.

  "Thousands will die, unless someone does something about it. But who could do anything to stop a volcano?" Solomon spread his arms to take in the vast crowd.

  Everyone shouted at once, "Groundswell!"

  Solomon raised his hands
overhead. "We can do what no one else in the world can do! We can work miracles with the trinity of powers!"

  "Technology! Magic! Landkind! United!" shouted the crowd.

  "So let's do it!" said Solomon. "Let's join together now and reach out and do what we do best. Work miracles."

  With that, Solomon and Cassandra wrapped their arms around each other. Everyone on the terrace did the same, embracing neighbors two and three at a time. Forming knots that pressed up tight against each other. Everyone melting together in a vast chain reaction, closing up the spaces between them.

  At first, Laurel, Mahoney, and I resisted, turning our backs to the merging crowd around us. Then, Phaola slid down in the middle of our group and reached for us. Draped her arms around Laurel and me, drawing us to her, then turned to Mahoney. I noticed a spark of arousal in his eyes as he spread his muscular arms wide and embraced the three of us.

  "Now concentrate." Phaola pressed her forehead against mine and closed her eyes. "Feel the bodies around you. The minds."

  I was nervous. Suspicious and scared of what was happening and where it might lead. I did as she said, tentatively; how could I not feel the crush of the bodies around me? But still I held back.

  "Relax, Gaia." Phaola's voice fell to a whisper. Her fingertips skated circles between my shoulder blades. "Let yourself go. We need you."

  Still skittish, I pulled back and looked up. Saw Mahoney looking back at me, smiling, going with it. Laurel's face craned skyward, eyes closed, swaying gently.

  Phaola's hand caught the back of my neck and pulled me to her. Without a word, she touched our foreheads together. I felt her breath on my face, the heat of her body.