by Gene Curtis
He turned to see who it was and realized that Nick had come with him. They were on top of a building about four stories tall. The blood trail was hard to see against the tar and gravel roof, but it was there. The trail led to a closed door in a small structure that jutted above the rooftop. The blood trail had been stepped in by several shoes, which also tracked blood to the door.
Mark said, “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Nick showed him the flint knife with the locater beacon. “It seemed logical to me. How else were they going to know where you were?”
Mark looked around; they were in a small city. As far as he could see there were no buildings taller than the one they were on top of and there was a large lake across the highway in front of it. He pointed to the lake. “That looks like it might be Lake Iznik. If it is then we’re at or near their headquarters. If they find us here I’m pretty sure we’ll be captured.”
“Captured? Killed more likely.”
“They’re under orders not to kill us; torture is another matter.” Mark sat down and said, “I’ll see if I can locate her. Stand guard.”
His spirit passed through the door, down the steps and peeked into the first hall. The closest door that he could see had a sign written in Middle Eastern letters, Turkish maybe. Below the sign in smaller English letters was written: Emir of Research. About halfway down the hall were two men dressed in black western style suits standing on either side of another door.
Rather than going directly down the hall and taking a chance on being spotted should the guards decide to use Tactical Sight he slipped through the wall into the research office. It was a large, uncluttered room. A man with dark hair and a trimmed beard was sitting behind a desk reading a group of papers bound together at the top corner. He was wearing Arabic garb. There was a large stack of similar papers on his desk.
The next room housed a matrix of cubicles, probably a hundred or more cubbies with as many men and women engaged in what he took to be clerical duties. The next room housed about twenty tables with what looked like an assortment of scientific instruments on them. There were about half a dozen lab coat clad people at a few of the tables working with the equipment. The next room had a couple of dozen computer workstations, each one staffed with a person intent on whatever they were working on. The next room was Ruby’s office.
This room was obviously the office of someone in upper management: highly polished, darkly stained wood shelves stocked with leather-bound books, thick pile carpet with heavy drapes to match. The desk even matched the bookshelves. The room was immaculate with nothing appearing to be out of place, except for the hospital gurney with LeOmi strapped to it. She had been bleeding from several cuts judging by the stains on her clothing, but there wasn’t any blood flowing now.
Ruby looked worn and she was bleeding in several places where her clothes were cut. She smiled, tossed a syringe into the wastebasket and said, “That should keep you asleep while I take a nap.” She took out a vial of healing oil from her jeans pocket, sat at her desk, leaned the chair backwards and placed a drop on her forehead. Her eyes closed and her head slumped to the side.
He knew she’d be unconscious for about an hour and had no idea how long LeOmi would be out but from what Ruby had said he knew it would be at least an hour. He thought things couldn’t have worked out better. He loosened the straps around LeOmi’s wrists, waist and ankles, pulled back the window drape and saw that the window had been shuttered. He couldn’t see the sky; he couldn’t remanifest in to get her.
He thought the window must be hooked up to an alarm system. If it were, he’d never be able to break through the window and get LeOmi out without having to fight the guards. They could delay him long enough for help to arrive. He checked; there was a tiny sensor at the top of the glass.
Is there a way to turn it off? He checked Ruby’s desk. There was no button, keyhole, keypad or anything that looked like it might control the alarm. There was nothing like that on the walls either. He pushed the power button on her computer. When it came up the screen displayed a box for password entry. He didn’t want to risk entering the wrong password and possibly alerting anyone to his presence so he turned it off.
He refastened LeOmi’s restraints making sure to leave her wrist bands loose enough for her to get free and returned to the roof the way he’d come.
He opened his eyes and said to Nick, “She’s there. They’ve got her strapped to a gurney. The window is covered from the outside and hooked up to an alarm; no way to get her out without alerting the guards.”
Nick asked, “Could I create a diversion while you get her out?”
“That could work if we had more people. She’s on the top floor. I could go in through this door. We can’t create a diversion large enough to draw off all the guards though.”
“Maybe you could project your thoughts, make them think the building is on fire or something.”
“The building is too big; most of them would be out of range.” He held out his arm. “Grab on, we need to get help.”
* * *
Back at the mountain, there were still a lot of people outside in animated discussion about recent events. He was making his way to the front steps when he overheard a snippet of conversation. “I heard that someone can kill in the spirit world. They’re supposed to have killed thousands, all at once!”
Another voice said, “And I know a guy that can jump off of the Empire State Building and not get hurt.”
Yet another voice said, “No, really; Bobbi was there and saw it happen.”
Mark and Nick entered the school and went into The Oasis. It was packed with people, which made sense. High-energy situations almost always made people hungry. He sure was hungry but didn’t have time to waste. Mrs. Shadowitz, Mr. Diefenderfer or Mr. Young weren’t anywhere to be seen. Mark hopped up on the stage and whistled, loudly. The din in the restaurant stopped abruptly. “Sorry to interrupt lunch, but I need help. LeOmi is being held in a room on the top floor of a building in Iznik. I need a diversion so we can get her out. I estimate we have less than forty minutes to act. Volunteers meet me out front.”
It seemed that everyone left The Oasis. On the steps, Mark said to the crowd, “We need to draw off her guards. Go in the front door of the building, create an uproar and demand that she be released. Try not to kill anyone unless you have to. Nick and I will enter through the roof door and go get her.
“Also, this building looks like a place where they do research. Grab any files, computers or information that you can. Grabbing LeOmi shouldn’t take more than ten minutes, fifteen at the most. You shouldn’t stay there any longer than that. Get in, get out and get back.”
He projected his thoughts while he concentrated on the building and held his arm out for Nick. “Let’s go.”
He and Nick watched from the top of the building as hundreds of Magi started appearing below. When they started entering the front door about five minutes later he turned and walked to the roof door. It was locked. He used Spirit Sight to unlock it and said to Nick, “Let’s go get her.”
As soon as he pushed the door open, he saw the two guards that had been guarding the door to Ruby’s office coming up the steps. One was carrying Ruby and the other was carrying LeOmi. They stopped walking for a second and then disappeared, remanifested to some other location. They had obviously planned for this contingency. He had no indication where they went.
* * *
Two days passed and they still had no idea where LeOmi was being held. Teams were searching all over the place and no one had found a clue as to her whereabouts. Two days! Mark had never felt such depression. He’d failed and as a result, a close friend was unquestionably being tortured even to the point of wanting to die. Dream casting hadn’t worked, which meant she was probably still drugged. Had she been able to dream she would have been able to give some indication about where she was, but, so far, nothing, not so much as a hint as to where she might be.
It wasn’t a total failur
e though. They had seized more than a hundred computers and many reams of printouts not to mention the more than a hundred Neo-Phylum now in Mattaraw, the prison at The First Mountain. Everyone that could participated in analyzing the information that they’d acquired and interrogating the prisoners. Nick and Salina along with others were able to make some sense of what had been discovered and they had prepared a preliminary report on their findings, an overview of sorts about Benrah’s plans.
The citadel was still under construction and being renovated but Nick though it appropriate to brief everyone in the large hall there. It was large enough to accommodate several thousand people and there were chairs and electrical power.
Nick began the briefing by turning on the projector and dimming the room lights. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m about to show you a summary of the analysis and findings based on the information we recently acquired and something I stumbled onto a few days ago. Afterwards, I think you will agree with me when I say that his plan is absolutely brilliant.”
The slide showed a list of categories:
GOVERNMENT
RELIGION
EDUCATION
COMMERCE
COMMUNICATION
TRANSPORTATION
ENTERTAINMENT
Primary Needs (food, clothing, shelter, security, health, etc)
Social Interaction (family, friends, colleagues, status, etc)
Spiritual Worth (love, faith, charity, etc)
“Benrah plans to acquire control of these ten kingdoms and he plans to do it in a non-violent way. He’s already started. His people are buying up control of key industries: oil, minerals and metals, manufacturing facilities, large retail locations, major and minor news agencies, major motion picture studios, television and radio networks, major web sites; the list is extensive. For the ones he can’t buy, his people have been and are infiltrating them.”
Salina edged closer to the microphone, “While he can exert direct control over the first seven, we expect him to be very subtle when it comes to controlling the last three. If he can’t control these then he’ll lose control of the others. The relics he has been collecting and the ones he’s still after mostly relate to influencing these last three things.”
Nick spoke into the microphone, “One of the first things he’s planning do is get rid of money and property ownership, establish a way to meet the minimum basic needs of every person on the planet and provide a means for everyone to rise above that situation. For example, anyone that works a minimum of four hours a day at a job could have any material things they want for that day only. I know that idea has a lot of holes in it, but it’s what he’s planning and I’m sure the implementation will avoid many of the drawbacks.”
Salina said, “The point is, he’s going to implement a utopian society: no war, no strife, and no lack of anything. It looks like his idea is to eventually do away with greed by providing for everyone’s every desire. From what we’ve seen it looks like it will probably work... for a while... for a long while.”
Nick added, “But his plan doesn’t end there. His utopian society will morph into a religious autocracy; not right away, but decades or even centuries down the road. He will declare himself or his father to be God. Can you imagine Benrah or Satan as a dictator ruling the entire world with most people having nowhere else to turn?”
Mark walked up on stage and to the microphone. He placed his notes on the podium. “What Nick and Salina have said is important and it goes much deeper than what this brief overview indicates. We expect to see a new nation-state come into existence and be recognized as a new nation by the international community. The form of government will likely be some implementation of a socialist utopia and it will become a very attractive place to live. It will probably expand its borders as more and more people migrate to it. The world as we know it will reach a tipping point; a point where it cannot exist without being a part of this new nation. A new world order will be established with seduction and a smile, not with a sword.”
Mark backed off the mic. and Nick leaned in. “We’ve put together an information packet on what we know and how we know it. Copies are on the table in the back of the room. I want to thank all the people that worked diligently over the last two days compiling this information.”
Mark spoke again, “If you have any ideas on how we should proceed or if you want to help you can report to Nick for cyberspace, Chenoa for military and government, Cap’n Ben for entertainment and communications, Jamal for religion and education, James for transportation, Salina for primary needs and social interaction. I’ll be covering spiritual worth. I’ve made it a priority to get offices completed here so we can better coordinate our efforts.”
* * *
LeOmi opened her eyes; she was strapped to a regular hospital bed, not a gurney. She wondered how long she’d been unconscious. She looked to the side and saw that there was an IV attached to her wrist. There was a bundle of wires coming from the area of her head and leading to a machine that displayed an ever changing, multi-line graph. Another machine under it was obviously a heart monitor.
She looked down and saw she was wearing a hospital gown, white with tiny pale blue paisley dots all over it. Her feet were bandaged. Why were her feet bandaged? They hadn’t been injured. She noticed that she couldn’t feel her legs and she couldn’t move them either.
The door opened and Ruby followed a man in. He was wearing green surgical scrubs and had a stethoscope draped around his neck. His face was wrinkled worse than any face she’d ever seen, his nose was large and hook-shaped. He had something else around his neck. It looked odd. She looked closer; it was a necklace of ten small bones.
Ruby said, “Hey little sister. I’d like you to meet Dr. Hussein. He’s the one that’s been treating you. You should feel honored to have such a famous doctor.”
LeOmi found it difficult to speak and only managed to get out a feeble question, “Famous?”
Ruby smiled, “Probably the most famous doctor in the world; well, until he had to change his name. Maybe you’ve heard of Dr. Aribert Heim?”
LeOmi shook her head and felt dizzy. She knew she must still be under the effects of drugs.
Ruby’s smile widened, “Early 1940s, concentration camps, medical experiments; surely that must ring a bell.”
LeOmi’s heart sank and she put two and ten and one together: two bandaged feet, ten bones on a necklace worn by one Nazi war-criminal doctor. She voiced another question, “Feet?”
The doctor answered and his accent sounded Arabic, not German. “Miss Jones could not have you running away, yes? So I removed the metatarsals from your feet.” He thumbed the necklace out. “They are such lovely bones, don’t you think?”
Ruby walked over, reached down under the bed and stood back up with a softball-size stone in her hand. “It’s a dream stone, in case you were wondering. It’s a rather curious thing; as long as it is under your head, you can only dream of things that it wants to show you. If it’s over your head you can’t use Spirit Sight or remanifest.” She put it back under the bed and said “Having it here means no Dream Casting.” She pointed at the walls. “No windows since we’re twenty stories underground so no remanifesting. Spirit Sight is not possible either. Have you noticed that you feel a little woozy?”
LeOmi nodded reluctantly.
“That’s not from drugs. It’s because we’re using a transmitter that interferes with your brainwaves, ours too. No one on this level can concentrate. I just wanted to let you know so you won’t waste your time, or mine, trying to escape. We’ve got the bases covered.”
* * *
After the meeting it was easy to see that Salina was efficient; she’d already set up a group of volunteers to register those wishing to assist. She had seven tables set up in the lobby, each staffed with three people. There were already lines of people at each table signing up.
Mark said, “Great job Salina. Where are we going to meet?”
“The situation room isn’t us
able yet so we’ll be using the conference room in the engineering building.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go.” He led his captains outside and remanifested them to the engineering building. Inside, the Council of Elders was waiting on them. High Elder Habeas Grob was there too from The First Mountain. Mark took the vacant chair at the head of the table and everyone became silent.
“Priority one: finding and rescuing LeOmi. Does anyone have any new information?”
Mrs. Shadowitz opened her eyes and stood, “I got this just a few moments ago. LeOmi is reportedly being held in an underground medical research facility in Egypt. I’ll have more details momentarily.” She sat back down amid murmurs of surprise.
Mark smiled, “That is good news. Let us know new information on this as soon as possible.” He looked at Nick. “Priority two: how can we immediately throw a monkey wrench into their plans?”
Nick flipped up the computer monitor in front of him. “Everyone should please look at the screens in front of you.” When the screens were up, he continued. “We found information on three hundred and seventeen artifacts that they are searching for.” He touched his screen and a small picture expanded to fill the view on all the monitors. It was a shiny black staff with a gold headpiece that had a clear stone inset. “This is a picture of the most interesting one and probably the most significant one on the list: Zoroaster’s staff. It’s capped with a scrying stone.”
James asked, “What’s a scrying stone?”
High Elder Grob answered, “Crystal ball.”
Nick touched the screen again and another image expanded on everyone’s monitor. “The second most important artifact is the Aesh Evan or Fire Stone. It causes spontaneous combustion of flammable objects near it. Their speculation is that it would work the same way on explosive objects. Double tap the image to see their notes on it.”
