by Jacob Whaler
“The same way this house floats on grass.” Naganuma motions to the open shoji doors. “The same way the garden is here, but not here.” He points to the tatami at his side with an open palm. “Please, sit down.”
Matt’s knees drop to a blue zabuton mat, and the rest of his body sinks down Japanese style, kitty-corner around the low table from Naganuma. “Where are we?”
“Ah, that is a good question.” Naganuma lays the brush down onto its holder and picks up the rice paper by its top corners. He stands, walks to his left and gently presses it to the wall where it sticks without a wrinkle. The ripples on its surface fade and become still. “I’ve often wondered myself exactly where this is, but I’m not sure. I doubt it’s the same galaxy. Perhaps not even the same universe. But I must confess I really don’t know.”
Matt reaches into his pocket, pulls out the Stone and puts it on the table. He looks up at Naganuma. “It’s because of the Stone, right? That’s how I got here.”
“Yes, of course.” Naganuma moves just to the left of the hanging paper where he opens a small cabinet and takes out a teapot and two cups. “Everything here is possible because of the Stones.” He comes back to his spot at the table, sits down, and pours tea for Matt and himself.
“Arigato gozaimasu.” Matt lifts the cup to his lips and draws in a generous amount. “It’s very good.”
Naganuma takes a sip and puts the cup down, looking straight ahead through the open doors at the garden scene. “Sencha tea from Shizuoka.” He takes another sip. “Still the best in Japan.” The cup goes back down to the table. “You have questions about many things. I’ve brought you here so we can have time to talk.” He points down at the Stone in front of Matt. “I am still learning myself, but I may have answers to some of your questions.”
Matt’s eyes drop onto the Stone, and then rise back up to Naganuma. “Tell me everything. I need to know before I go.”
“Go where?” Naganuma says. Then a look of understanding flashes in his eyes. “Ah, yes. You are very worried about her. Your beloved. Put your mind at ease.”
Matt’s eyes open wide. “Tell me where she is and what they have done to her.”
“I know they have taken her to New York, back to company headquarters, and given her a job. For the moment, she is safe, content and remembers nothing about the events of yesterday. All that will change if you go to see her.”
“How do you know?” Matt’s eyes focus squarely on Naganuma. “Please tell me how you know.”
“I know because I see.”
“You see things with your Stone, the Magatama, right?”
“Yes.” Naganuma’s head drops down. “That which I need to see or want to see. But not everything and not all the time. Even for me, much remains hidden from view.” His gaze drops into the contents of the teacup. He swirls it around and drinks a small amount with great relish.
Trying hard to be patient, Matt is getting tired of the slow pace of conversation with Naganuma, who seems to be intentionally speaking in riddles. There isn’t time to sip tea in a magic house talking in circles with an old priest feigning deep wisdom and hiding the truth. Matt needs information. He needs real answers. And he needs it now. He decides to accelerate the conversation.
“Who are the Allehonen?”
Naganuma stops drinking and puts the cup down, rather loudly. “What do you know of them?”
“I saw a Woman in a white robe, on the top of the mountain yesterday where you found me. She came and showed me incredible things. The formation of a planet and its biological life. She had a Stone just like mine and yours.”
“I see. Impressive.” Naganuma’s gaze drifts up to the rice paper hanging on the wall, where the kanji starts to ripple gently back and forth. “I’ve never heard of it starting so quickly,” he mutters.
“Who are they? What’s their connection to the Stone?” Matt’s eyes fall down on the table. “Can they help me get Jessica back?”
Naganuma lets out a long sigh. “I’ve spent most of my life studying the Stones, seeking answers. It was years before I knew of the Allehonen. It’s supposed to take a long time, to be a slow process of searching, learning, growing, testing.”
“I don’t have a long time.” Matt’s fingers stretch toward the Stone. “It’s my fault she’s in this mess. I have to find her before Ryzaard hurts her. Before he—”
“Kills her?”
Matt nods. “I know he can do it. He will do it. I saw him murder Professor Yamamoto.” His eyes close, and the images move like shadows on the back of his eyelids. The dry scraping sound of the knife going in. The open holes of raw flesh. “It’s my fault he’s dead. I brought Ryzaard to him.” His face drops into his hands.
“Yes. You did bring Ryzaard to him. For that, I am sorry.” Naganuma lets out a long sigh. “But you are innocent. The blame falls on me, not you. I encouraged him in his studies of the Stones and then failed to protect him. Yamamoto-kun was an old friend. He sent me an emergency message yesterday.” Naganuma reaches inside his robe, brings out a jax and places it on the table. “It had all his research on the Stones. He said Ryzaard had suddenly come and was angry, accusing him of holding things back, demanding a full copy of everything. I told him to give Ryzaard whatever he asked for. But the old fool refused.”
“He sent it to me too. But Ryzaard took my jax.” Matt makes a fist around the Stone and clenches his jaw.
“Ryzaard is a dangerous man with a powerful Stone. And he will only get more powerful.” Naganuma looks directly into Matt’s eyes. “You must stay hidden from him, and keep your Stone hidden as well. You are not strong enough to fight him.”
“But he has Jessica!” Matt slams his fist down on the table. “He’s evil. Pure evil.”
A brooding silence overtakes Naganuma, and he stares out on the garden scene, eyes slightly narrowing as if squinting at the glory of its perfect beauty. Bringing the teacup up to his lips, he takes one sip and then throws his head back and drains it like a shot glass. “I can help you learn more of the Stone, but what you do with Ryzaard will be done on your own. I cannot do it for you.” He puts the cup down and slowly stands. “Come with me.”
Matt’s eyes follow him across the tatami floor. “Where are you going?”
“For a walk. Bring the Stone with you.”
Matt grabs the Stone and walks behind Naganuma past the open shoji doors and down the steps out into the dreamy landscape garden. At the bottom of the steps, they each slip into wooden geta sandals and walk past a granite lantern as tall as Matt. He follows slightly behind Naganuma on his right. They make it out past the cherry blossom tree before Naganuma makes a sound.
“You mentioned the Allehonen. The Stones are older than the Allehonen. They found them already part of the fabric of the universe.”
“Teach me to use mine against Ryzaard.”
Naganuma shakes his head. “Relax your monkey mind. To use the Stones, you must first understand them.” He beings to walk through the trees. “Come with me. The ocean is not far away. The water will help calm your fears. Only a mind without fear can understand the meaning of all things.”
CHAPTER 78
“We tracked him to a store a few blocks away from his office.” The tall man stares up into the night sky. “All he bought was fishing line.”
Little John drops his eyes down from the stars and shakes his head. “Fishing line? Why would he need that in downtown Manhattan?”
“No idea. 1,000-pound test monofilament Spysyn. Just generic stuff. Nothing special.” The tall man puts his sunglasses back on and strokes his chin with an index finger.
Little John rubs his forehead. “What would he be doing with fishing line?”
“Hard to say. Maybe he plans to go fishing.”
“I doubt it. He’s got something else up his sleeve.” Little John lifts a cold beer to his lips. “Did he go anywhere else?”
“They lost him on the way home, but they confirmed he made it back to his office. The Children say he w
as hard to track.”
“Did he know he was being followed.”
“Nope.” The tall man shakes his head. “No sign of that. The Children are good at what they do.”
Little John takes another drink from the can. “Any idea what he’s doing in his little office?”
“The Children are setting up monitoring equipment next door. They should have some idea in a day or two.”
“Tell them to hurry,” Little John says. “We may not have a day or two. And make sure they don’t get caught. We need to know whether this guy is a player or not. It may come in handy later, when it’s time to move. Any idea what he’s been doing in his office?”
“Sending out demand letters and notices of default, that sort of stuff.” The tall man looks back at his slate. “As much a part of the Complex as anyone else. Maybe he lied to us.”
Little John runs an index finger back and forth across his lower lip. “Or maybe that’s just camouflage. I don’t think he drove all the way across the country with a truck loaded full of high-end surveillance equipment to collect a few bills.”
“Of course not.” The tall man’s face wrinkles behind the sunglasses. “He’s spying on the building across the street. MX Global world headquarters.”
“So how’s he doing the spying? And why MX Global?”
The tall man shifts back and forth on his feet. “No idea.”
“Men like him are dangerous to the established order.” Little John brings the beer up to his mouth and takes a long draw. “He may be just what we’ve been waiting for. Keep an eye on him.”
“The Children are watching him around the clock.” The tall man turns to leave the tent. “If he steps out of the office, we’ll be right on his tail.”
CHAPTER 79
The two of them emerge from the cedar forest and stand on the edge of a sea, the water as still as glass.
Matt breaks the silence. “So, this is your world, uniquely connected to your Stone. You come here to create. And you have achieved perfection.”
“Who told you of this connection?” Naganuma’s eyebrows lift.
“Ryzaard. He showed me his world. Very different from this one.”
“Each world is a reflection of its Holder.”
“No doubt.” Matt recalls images of Ryzaard’s dark world with its city of neat geometric shapes and the people controlled by the implants. He pushes away memories of the woman made to look like his mom. “I wonder where my perfect world is.”
“You will find it. If you live long enough.”
There is no trace of irony or humor in Naganuma’s voice.
“You said you can see the future.” Matt’s pulse quickens. “Will Ryzaard kill me? Will he kill Jessica? Like the professor.” He turns to face Naganuma. “Tell me what you see. Please.”
“I see some things. Not all.” Naganuma’s eyes drop to the water. “And only if I choose to look. In your case, I choose not to look.”
Thinking of Jessica, Matt feels a lump in his throat. He sees and hears the dagger slide into the professor’s chest, a sound that Matt can never seem to get out of his mind. His breath grows labored, and his eyes dart behind him. “I need to get back to her. Are you sure we have time to—”
“You must control your fear, or you will never have the power to help her.” Bending down, Naganuma tosses a small pebble into the water. The ripples radiate out and distort the mirror surface of the sea. “Now ask me.”
“Ask you what?”
“You have questions about the Stone. Ask them.”
Swallowing hard, Matt takes in a deep breath and feels it absorb the fear. It flows out with the exhale. “How do you create?”
“I think it, and it becomes reality. Would you like to see?”
“Yes.”
“Watch. And learn.”
Matt slowly nods his head, not sure what to expect.
Staring out across the water, Naganuma’s eyes are as still as the sea’s mirror-like surface. As his eyelids drop down, the water begins to ripple and move. Far out to sea, perhaps ten kilometers away, a brown cone of rock rises up, an exact copy of Mount Fuji.
As it rises to the sky, a thick layer of water clings to its sides in defiance of gravity. The shoreline draws away from Matt and Naganuma to leave behind a seabed carpet of smooth rocks and algae. But when the mountain comes to a stop, gravity reasserts its pull, and the clinging skin of water cascades down from its sides in a boiling flow of white foam. At the base of the new mountain, the sea bulges and shifts to become a massive wave.
It turns into an expanding ring surging outward.
Like an embodiment of the fear and anger churning inside of Matt, the mountain of foam rushes closer, growing as it approaches until the sky begins to darken. Matt takes an involuntary step backward and glances at Naganuma.
“All of life is a tsunami. Do not fear it.” Naganuma widens his stance and gazes forward.
A wall of water rises up and begins to resemble Hokusai’s famous painting of The Great Wave. Its top starts to collapse under its own weight. Tendrils of water crash down upon them.
And then it stops, frozen in time.
Raising the Stone in his hand, Naganuma glances up. “In this world, I am the builder, the creator. When I command matter, it listens. It wants to do exactly as I say.” His eyes focus on the water above him, and his voice becomes a whisper. “Go back to the sea.”
The sharp edges of the wave melt and become a mound that settles into the ocean.
Naganuma turns to Matt. “The Stone gives its Holder the power to do many things. The most obvious is the power to manipulate matter.”
“And energy.” Matt recalls how he destroyed an entire city on Ryzaard’s world with a jagged laser beam.
“That is true. But you must be careful. Destructive power is a constant temptation for any Holder. You will find that using the Stone as a weapon is easy, requiring little training or practice. You will find that the urge to kill comes most naturally.” Naganuma turns his back to the sea and walks a short distance. “But it would be well for you to cultivate the more refined uses of the Stone.”
“What sort of uses are you talking about?”
“There are many such uses. One that I find most interesting is the power to see, to see things as they really are. It is a great gift.”
Matt turns away from the water. “I remember yesterday on the mountaintop, when the Allehonen came to me. I could see into the leaves and flowers in the grove.” He walks to the side of Naganuma.
“You can do it here as well, only you can go much deeper. In this world, there are fewer barriers to overcome. It would be good training.” Naganuma’s eyes light up. “Would you like to try?”
“Right now?”
“Sit down.” Naganuma points to a large flat rock. “Close your eyes and go into meditation mode as quickly as you can. You do know how to meditate, don’t you?”
Matt finds his way to the rock and sits facing the water in a lotus position. “My dad does yoga. He taught me how to focus on the breath, to find the stillness, if that’s what you mean.” Matt begins to breathe in deeply and exhale slowly.
“Classic meditation. Developed by the Vedic priests in India and inherited by Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, and his disciples. He found that the old meditation techniques worked well with his Stone.” Naganuma smiles with approval. “Find a state of deep relaxation. Like you did when you saw the Allehonen.”
“Got it.” Matt closes his eyes.
“One last thing,” Naganuma says. “What did you study in college?”
Matt furrows his brow, opens his eyes and turns at Naganuma. “Does it matter?”
“Just tell me.”
“Asian history,” Matt says. “With some philosophy thrown in.”
“Good.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to know if you have studied physics. It shapes the way you see the world, gives you preconceived ideas about what matter ought to look like. Molecule
s and atoms, quantum theory and all that. It can blind you to what is actually there. When you see the reality of matter, it is messier and more beautiful than you could possibly imagine.”
Matt’s eyes drop shut. “Right.” He straightens his spine, lets his hips move forward an inch or two. Then he begins to count, six seconds for each inhale, six seconds for each exhale. His Stone lies on the palm of his right hand.
Two minutes pass.
“Good.” Naganuma places a white pebble in the palm of Matt’s left hand. “Now, open your eyes. Allow your mind to enter this rock, to know it as it really is. No expectations. No presumptions. Just open yourself to it and observe what happens.”
Matt’s eyes slowly move open. He detects the weight draining out of the Stone in his right hand.
As he stares down at it, the rock in his left hand becomes an all-consuming grey blur, and he feels himself floating above it, like a parachute jumper falling through a silent atmosphere over a mountain range. Falling closer, ridges, peaks and valleys rush up to meet him. He senses that impact will come in a few seconds. His breaths turn into short gasps. Panic spreads through his chest.
The voice of Naganuma drops down from above. “Don’t be frightened. Embrace it.”
A sharp peak rushes up and past him on the right and disappears from his peripheral vision. His eyes snap shut just before slamming into its side. To his surprise, there’s no pain. In fact, he feels nothing. The panic drains away, replaced by calmness and clarity. Looking around, he is dropping through successive layers of a light blue crystal structure.
Massive octagonal columns rise up below him, and he passes through one into a warm sea of viscous amber liquid, like soft honey. Shapes float, some free, and some connected in long chains. There are elegant geometric cubes, pyramids, and spheres, but most of the shapes have an organic form, like a fungus in a Petri dish under a microscope. Long sinuous tendrils appear, followed by round globs with protruding spikes, sponges and tubes. Each has a rich color, like plankton floating in the sea. A general humming sound resonates in his chest. A pleasant smell, like almonds mixed with lavender, floats around him.
