Super World

by Lawrence Ambrose

  He wriggled back from the prostrate young woman and smiled up at Jamie.

  "What happens now?" Jamie asked.

  "I open the door to His Kingdom."

  "This...gotta see."

  Jamie was surprised to observe Thomas Mayes hauling himself up to a sitting position, his lurching words – and his grimacing smile – rendered nearly unrecognizable by his mangled jaw. She doubted he'd be capable of his command voice any time soon, which had been her intent.

  Brian Loving levitated to his feet, and Denise Rogers levitated with him. He turned to face the nearest wall, which enclosed a broad steel door that Jamie had assumed led to a furnace. The latches sprang and the door cranked open.

  It wasn't a furnace. The door opened on a grassy meadow overlooking a translucent blue mountain lake ringed by fir trees. Snow-capped mountains towered in the distance. Jamie almost could feel the cool alpine breeze stirring the grasses in the image.

  "A holograph?" Terry said.

  Brian Loving smiled and shook his head. With a half-nod he propelled Denise through the air straight into the scene. Jamie was startled when instead of blocking the holographic display or image, she blended into it. She could even see the grass bend under Denise's weight as her body settled on the ground. Everyone one in the room, prisoners and IED agents alike, watched, transfixed, murmuring in wonder.

  The murmurs turned to gasps as Denise Rogers stirred. Her eyes opened, a puzzled frown forming. She sat up, scratching her head.

  And squinted out at her audience.

  "She can see us?" Jake muttered.

  "Yes. For the moment."

  "Baby." Jake moved toward the screen.

  "You can join her," said Loving. "By making the same choice she did."

  Jake stopped in mid-step. Denise raised a hand and offered a small, sad wave and a shrug. But she was smiling. Jake raised his hand.

  The image disappeared in a golden flash. They were now staring at the inside of a wood-burning furnace.

  "What the fuck," said Jake. "It's a trick."

  "Brother," said Brian Loving, "she lives."

  Jake reached him in three swift strides and clamped his large hands around the Last Days leader's throat.

  "What did you do to her?" he snarled in Loving's face. "Tell me now or I will kill you."

  Jamie walked over and placed a hand on Jake's shoulder.

  "I think we'd better ask him a few more questions first," she said.

  Chapter 25

  KAREN CLARKSON HAD MADE quite a name for herself as an interrogator. Her mind-reading and knowledge of psychology made her a superb interrogator. But working with her son, Kevin, they were incomparable. Kevin couldn't read minds, but he seemed to divine the unstated meanings and truth of what someone was saying with unerring insight. Together, they had broken many hostile prisoners without hurting them in any way. After a short time with them, most interrogatees saw no point in either remaining silent or in lying.

  Kevin Clarkson now faced Brian Loving – who still wore manacles and had been injected with a large dose of Gamma Amino Butyric Acid, a nerve-inhibitor that DARE scientists found effective in preventing teleportation. No tables, no props – just a few comfortable chairs. Jamie, Zachary, DARE Secretary Jim Bridger, Interdiction and Enforcement Director Boltman, Mort Anderson, and Kevin Clarkson watched from another room, presumably out of Loving's mind-reading range. Normally, "upper management" wouldn't be present for such an interview, but news of events in the former United Calvary Church had reached the highest levels of government, including President Morgan himself, and the bigwigs had specific questions they wanted answered. Secretary Bridger was there to make sure that happened. Jamie was there because they believed she showed a knack for asking the questions they hadn't thought of.

  No one was sure what Loving would say, if anything, but understanding what was happening with the missing people and the mechanisms of the process promised to require some technical or scientific expertise.

  One minor hitch: Karen couldn't read Brian Loving's mind. Nor, apparently, could he read hers. The scientists weren't sure if that was an individual or general mind-reader effect. Another hitch was that Loving didn't appear to have a clue about the nature of the "gateway" or whatever it was they'd seen, and other than having very clear and specific instructions from "the Father" he evinced no non-theological knowledge of whoever was behind the disappearances and where they might've gone.

  DARE scientists had torn apart the furnace in the Last Days church and found no hint of projectors (holographic or otherwise) or any other technology. Brian Loving had already assured them that would be the case. "The doorways appear only for those who choose His Kingdom." Of course, neither the scientists nor anyone else accepted that, but Kevin believed Loving was being sincere. "He truly believes what he's telling us," he told them.

  No matter how intense Karen's questioning was, Loving never varied from his theological script. They were about to give up and sequester the former Last Days leader in a ultra-secure prison cell in the bowels of the facility when Zach suggested he be given a chance to talk with him.

  "He's a smart guy," said Zach. "I'd like to try to reason with him. And maybe reading my thoughts wouldn't be such a bad thing – he'd know I'm being honest." His smile wobbled a bit as he thought of repeating his thankfully short experiences with Karen Clarkson. But what did he have to hide?

  No one, including Jamie, gave him any chance, but with some reservation General Jim Bridger allowed it. Brian might learn some "state secrets," he reasoned, but he wouldn't be sharing them with anyone any time soon. Jamie thought that as bright and reasonable as Brian Loving appeared on the surface no one could break through his religious dogma.

  In the room with him, Zach started with a different tack. People had asked him about how he'd received his "calling," but had moved on after he spoke of being visited by an "angel" and hearing heavenly voices in his head. Zach didn't move on. He dug into the details. Jamie and Kevin Clarkson sat in the interrogation room with them, the only ones, Jamie thought, who hadn't quite given up on getting anything useful from Loving.

  "What did this angel look like?" Zach asked.

  "Like a strangely beautiful woman." Brian shrugged.

  "Was she physically present or in your mind?"

  "Physically."

  "When did she first appear? How did she identify herself?"

  "She said he was Gabrielle, God's right-hand angel."

  "And you believed her?"

  "Yes."

  "Why?"

  "She performed miracles."

  "But many of us can now perform what would've been considered miracles. The superpower infection was already underway. Why believe they imply some supernatural authority?"

  For the first time Jamie could recall, Brian Loving hesitated, a hint of a frown on his handsome face.

  "It was something I just knew," he said. He tapped his chest. "Something I felt."

  "But you know that some people have the power to command others to believe or act in certain ways. One of the people we captured, Thomas Mayes, has that ability. How do you know this Gabrielle wasn't simply commanding you to believe?"

  This time Brian took longer to answer. His usual self-assured smile faded. He folded his hands and appeared to meditate – or perhaps seek divine guidance.

  "Thomas Mayes was unable to command me," he said after a full minute of silence.

  "But someone might be able to, right? It's possible in principle, isn't it?"

  "Sometimes you simply have to choose faith."

  "Why - when you know it's possible you're being deceived?"

  "The Father is pure wisdom and benevolence. He could not deceive me."

  "How could you know he's wise and benevolent? Could you give me some examples you found convincing?"

  Jamie would never have believed it possible, but Brian Loving looked uncomfortable, perilously close to squirming. Why hadn't anyone else thought to ask him these questions? Because
they'd just written him off as a garden variety religious nut. No point in arguing with religious nuts or hearing what they had to say. But Brian Loving wasn't a garden variety anything.

  "The examples are in his thoughts," he replied, but now with the thinnest sliver of doubt in his voice.

  "You have a mind-link with 'the Father'?"

  "Yes."

  "What's he thinking now?"

  "I can't read His mind. Only when he shares His thoughts can I see them."

  "Were you religious before these visitations, before becoming an augment?"

  "Nope." He smiled. "I modeled men's underwear. I can't say that I had deep thoughts of any kind, apart from which girl model's underwear I might next be removing."

  Zach shared a smile with Jamie, though her smile was less than amused.

  "What did Gabrielle tell you that convinced you to become a believer?"

  "She said I'd been chosen to be Father's holy servant on Earth. That I had a great mission, should I choose to accept it."

  "What is convincing about that?"

  "I thought it was a great honor. It was good to be given such a noble purpose."

  "But it comes down to someone telling you it's a great honor and noble purpose, doesn't it?"

  "Why would anyone lie to me about that? What would be the point?"

  "I don't know. The point seems to be remove people from society. If we knew where they were going –"

  "But I do know." His self-confident smile returned. "Heaven. Eternal paradise."

  "You've been there?" Zachary's smile was pointed. "Seen it with your own eyes."

  "Yes, I have."

  Jamie thought she shouldn't be surprised – after all, why place a limit on someone's self-delusions? – but she was. Zach's slim frown suggested he was, too.

  "How did you get there?" he asked. "What was it like?"

  "Gabrielle wanted me to see it, so I would know, so I could truly believe. I walked through a gateway like the one you saw, Jamie. Heaven is a lot like Earth. You get tired, you feel pain, nothing is just handed to you. Not everything is beautiful. But there's one little difference: you don't die. You have forever to work out your issues, to achieve your dreams, to change your dreams. You can even have children, in exactly the normal way, which was good news to me!" He flashed them both a grin. "I met people I had known personally on Earth, and they were happy. Having the burden of death removed from you is the true blessing of heaven."

  "How do you know you or anyone would live forever there?"

  "That's the promise, the bond, God has made with us."

  "So you don't know, do you? Any more than you know you're not being deceived, that you are truly dealing with a divine being."

  "How do we know anything? How do we know everything isn't an illusion?"

  "Do you agree with the saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof? It seems pretty extraordinary that the divine creator of the universe chose you and then took you to heaven, doesn't it?"

  "Gabrielle told me I have a pure soul."

  Zach slumped in his chair. Jamie had the sense that Brian Loving was circling the wagons and shoring up his defenses, and that Zachary's chance of breaking through had passed.

  Then Zach turned to Kevin Clarkson, who'd been listening with a rapt expression. "You've been listening to this. Is Brian still being truthful?"

  "No. Not entirely."

  "How isn't he?"

  "He's aware that he has reasonable grounds for doubting his experience but is pretending that he doesn't."

  "That's not true!" Loving protested. "I believe what I've said. How can you know that? You can't read my mind, can you?"

  Jamie took some satisfaction in hearing the defensiveness in Loving's voice.

  "No, but he can do something just as good, if not better," said Zach. "He can tell when someone's lying or not being completely truthful. You could say that's his superpower. And until now, he says you have been honest."

  "I am still being honest." Brian Loving faced Kevin earnestly. "I believe I was truly in heaven, that I was speaking to a servant of God."

  "You did. Now you see there is a chance you were wrong."

  "No, I don't."

  "Could we visit heaven, too?" Kevin asked.

  That drew a startled glance from the Last Days founder. He gave them all a rueful smile.

  "No one's ever asked for a trial visit," he chuckled. "But no, only the pure of heart – those who honestly choose to take the leap of faith and accept this blessing – are permitted to walk through that gate."

  "Who decides that?".

  "God, ultimately. But I'm a gatekeeper – one of many in this world - tasked to choose those who may go through the door into heaven. All of us who've been selected have the ability to read minds to certify who is sincere in their choice."

  "You don't just take someone's word?"

  Loving shook his head. "We must find the petitioner to be sincere."

  "So you're 'the decider', You don't need to discuss your decision with anyone else."

  "No. But of course Gabrielle and the Father are aware of all things and could overrule me."

  "Has that ever happened?"

  "Not that I know of."

  "Then there really isn't an 'of course,' is there? You have no evidence that your decision would be overturned?"

  "I take that on faith. My faith in God."

  "But you do understand," Kevin broke in, "that this isn't about your faith in God? It's about your faith in this person or thing who's claiming to be God."

  "That does seem like a pretty useful distinction," said Zach.

  Brian Loving was back to frowning.

  "We'll take a break," said Zach, rising. "Please think about it, Brian."

  Outside the room, after a brief conference, the DARE executives departed, but Kevin lingered behind with Jamie and Zach, saying he thought they might want to talk to someone.

  "One of the prisoners," said Kevin. "His name is Steven Jackson. He's been working as one of Thomas Mayes' chief advisors. He may be an intelligence augment – or he's just naturally exceptionally intelligent. I had an interesting conversation with him."

  "What's he saying?" Jamie asked.

  "I think you should hear what he has to say yourself. If you think it's worthwhile, you could share it with General Bridger or Director Boltman. I didn't mention it to them because I thought they might dismiss him."

  They walked down the corridor toward a branch of rooms that had been converted into a minimum security prison wing. The truly powerful augments were kept in Level 10, the facility's bottom floor, in titanium-alloy cages - formerly high-explosive containment chambers.

  "If he's been working with Thomas Mayes, I'm not sure he'd have our best interests at heart," said Zach.

  "He says he's seeing the bigger picture. I believe him."

  A guard let them into a steel-walled cell where a slim young dude Jamie vaguely remembered from the church and as the studious-looking black guy from the Capitol Building. He seemed to be wherever Thomas Mayes was. He closed the magazine he was reading – Men's Health, with a cover that read: Fitness for the Super-Powered – and blinked at her with what Jamie thought was apprehension.

  "Hello, Steven," said Kevin. "I believe you know Jamie Shepherd, commander of Team One, Interdiction and Enforcement. And this is Zach Walters, head of DARE's Biological Division. I think you should tell them what you told me."

  Steven sat up straighter on the edge of his cot. "I believe the image we witnessed in the Last Days church was produced by a portable teleportation device. The place pictured was likely an illusion, but the teleportation was real. In Star Trek parlance, she was beamed up somewhere."

  "Not heaven, I'm guessing," said Jamie.

  The young man cracked the faintest of smiles. "Improbable. No, it's simply an advanced technology. I speculate that it may be connected to the civilization which produced the Object. In any case, it seems logical to suppose that your agent and the th
ousands of people who've disappeared were teleported to a remote location under control by an alien civilization. Perhaps even to the alien civilization itself."

  Jamie opened her mouth, about to tell him about the giant alien craft by Mars and the warning symbols in the Object, but caught herself. Her superiors wouldn't be happy about her revealing highly classified material to a most-wanted criminal's top advisor.

  "For what purpose?" Zach asked.

  "The only clue is in the Last Days message. The aliens wish people to believe they are entering paradise in order to insure their voluntary cooperation. That would be unnecessary if the aliens simply wished to abduct people; the logical implication is that they wish their cooperation to continue after the teleportation."

  "They are always harping about choosing to enter this heavenly kingdom," said Jamie, the gears of comprehension clacking slowly in her head but not quite clicking into place. The only thing she was sure of was that Steven Jackson was right about the alien involvement. The moment those words left his mouth it was like one of those revelations that seemed shockingly obvious once stated.

  "They could be taking them aboard that huge ship," Zach said to Jamie.

  "What ship?" asked Steven.

  Jamie could see Zach mentally slapping himself as he gave her a pained smile. Kevin regarded them with a half-raised brow.

  "You have been in contact with an alien ship," Steven stated. "Under what circumstances?"

  Jamie and Zach exchanged resigned smiles. What the hell, Jamie thought. She couldn't see how this prisoner knowing the truth could damage national security, and if what he was saying was true, they had bigger things to worry about. Much bigger things.

  "NASA got a photo of what looked like a large black space craft near Mars," said Jamie. "I was sent out to investigate."

  "You are capable of spaceflight?" Steven half-leaned off his bed, his voice rising in amazement. "Did you make contact?"

  "Sort of." An image of the ship lighting up and then its scouts materializing at her side invaded her head. "It sent out a pair of smaller craft to check me out, maybe capture me. I destroyed one of them and then flew home."