Linda nodded, but stood her ground. "I think I'm going to go down in history as a monster either way, Sten," she said, smiling sadly. But then she glanced at Cole's concerned, loving face, and added. "But. Yes. You're right. Start with one lab. One scientist. Find somebody these Middle Children know and trust. Maybe a hybrid scientist who could do the work, if there is one. Get it analyzed. Find a single place to produce it without them knowing what it is." She looked at Stan. "Will you make that happen for me, Stan?" she asked.
Stan nodded.
Linda inhaled deeply, then turned to Cole. "Now we have to talk about Iain," she said.
They talked about Iain. What the kids had done and how they had done it and what had transpired. They spoke about the Murk. Danny explained how the Murk had been installed on the island, how the task had been completed by outside contractors. He knew it guarded the island at the Astral level, just as travelers and protectors had been used for decades by The People, to protect important places and individuals. He knew very little about what a Murk was or how it worked, but thought he knew whom he might ask back at BlackBay Services. Mary related how she'd seen it from a distance, an immense black cloud in the Astral, and how it must block the patterns and signals of anybody trapped inside. Stan reminded Linda of how Alice had promised the help of the hybrids.
It was clearly the most painful item on their agenda, and Linda let her tears flow down her cheeks without wiping them away. Cole sat and watched, silent and sullen, his face a reddened mask of anger. When Linda asked if he had anything to add, all he could say was "I don't know what I was thinking, leaving like I did." Then he shook his head. He had nothing else to say. Iain was gone without a trace, lost in a place Cole could barely begin to comprehend. Cole had not been there to stop him.
Mary offered to head up the party that would travel into the Astral to go look for the boy, but Linda vetoed that. "We need you here, Mary," she said. "The girls need you. I need you. Keeley needs you."
"But doesn't Iain need me?" asked Mary.
"We're going to look for him, Mary," said Linda, nodding her assurance. She gestured toward at Stan. "We're going to get the hybrids' help." She squeezed Cole's hand. "And we're going to confront Alice with demands of our own." She looked at Danny. "We've got Danny to help us from the insider perspective. Somebody at BlackBay must know what a Murk is and how it works and how you defeat it." She turned to Gabrielle. "And we're going to see if we can get in touch with this Zacharael character and demand his help as well." She returned her attention to Mary. "We need you here, Mary. Okay? I know you love Iain. And I suspect that you feel guilty about his being lost. And I know you'd give your life for him. For me. For Cole. For the girls. I know that, my dear. But I need you here. Okay? I need you here to watch over and protect the girls." She looked around the room, settling on Cole and smiling gently, then turning her attention back to Mary. "I need you to watch the girls because I have to leave again." She reached out and took Cole's hand. "And I need Cole to come with me."
Stan sat forward in his chair. "What are you talking about, Mrs. President?" he asked.
Linda met Stan's gaze and nodded. "I need you here as well, Stan," she said. "Because somewhere out there is a man named William, and a group of people who think they can just burn the planet down and then leave." She looked at Cole. "We're going to go find him. We're going to find him and stop him and bring him to justice. And we're going to put a stop to their plans to escape." She caught the eye of everyone in the room. "If we're going down, then they're going to go down with us," she said, her voice low and sharp. "They don't get to run away from the consequences of their choices any more than we do."
The others there sat for a while in stunned, surprised silence, nodding their agreement or shaking their heads full of doubt. It was Marionette, her one eye bright and fierce, who broke the silence. "So how will you find him?" she asked.
Linda turned to Marionette and smiled. "He gave me a clue, I think," she said. "I just have to figure out what it means."
"What was the clue?" asked Marionette.
"Urbem Orsus," said Linda.
"Oh!" said Danny, raising his hand in excitement. "I think I know what that is."
16.24
Doobie and Eddie pushed through the hospital's front doors, escorting Annabelle between them. They'd rescued three other survivors in Boothbay Harbor: a woman and her two children who'd survived in a storm cellar in one of the houses on the hill overlooking the water. They'd also found a dog, a young beagle pup that they'd found standing on top of a taxi, barking at them. The newcomers were cold and wet and in shock, and the hybrids had taken them around to the emergency entrance, the puppy included.
They found Marionette in the visitors' lounge and Doobie greeted her with a hug and another peck of a kiss, this one a bit longer. Annabelle smiled. "Bout time you guys hooked up," she said with a wink. Eddie went off to find Sten, but the three Church members sat together in the lounge's corner and heard each other's stories. The two youngsters caught Annabelle up on everything that had transpired since they'd last seen each other: the fateful last voyage of The Pokey Joker, Cole's tunnel of light, the confrontation and rescue on Squirrel Island. Marionette shook her head at Doobie's updates on the destruction he'd seen in the Boothbay area, and was surprised to hear how quickly the storm had blown itself out. Together they bowed their heads and said a prayer for their compatriots, those who had not yet been found. Annabelle closed her eyes and found some wise words of farewell and peace and Godspeed. They had no idea whether other survivors would be rescued in the hours and days ahead. Federal troops were already moving in to continue the search and rescue, but the three of them held little hope that any of their colleagues would be found.
Marionette told Doobie and Annabelle of the meeting that had just ended. Doobie listened attentively as Marionette spoke of the decisions they'd made and the ones they'd had to table. Annabelle, relishing the cup of coffee Marionette had brought her, asked for more details. She nodded when she heard of The Families' plans to leave Earth, as if she'd known that already. She expressed her sorrow that Cole's boy had been lost. But she was particularly interested in the discussion about the vial and the cure, and listened intently as Marionette recounted their discussion of the prophecy found in The Book of the Stranger, and the difficulty of knowing just how it applied.
The old woman agreed that it was quite a quandary, then added another. "The problem," she said, "is that you were all operating from the assumption that the action the Stranger has to stop his love from taking has to do with that vial." She looked at Doobie, then back and Marionette. "But maybe that's not it at all, my dears," she said. "Maybe he needs to keep her from stopping The Families from leaving."
"But..." said Marionette, shaking her head.
Annabelle raised a hand to stop the younger woman. "I hate to say it, sweetie, but maybe it's their leaving that prevents the complete destruction of the human race."
16.25
Ted picked up a card. His eyes grew wide in disbelief. Once again he had to go down the Rabbit Hole. He looked up at Carl. "So..." he said. "You got any ideas for how we get out of this place?" He gestured with his hands to indicate the room they were in.
Carl shrugged. "Dunno," he said. "I assume we got the rubix technology from the Life. Did they ever tell us where the dang things sent people? Or does a rubix just kill its victims? Did anybody in The People ever know?"
Ted shook his head. "They were just damned useful, dude," he said. "We always figured they were some sort of tamed black hole. Didn't want to look a gift cube in the abyss, if you know what I mean. In the end, I don't think anybody ever cared where the rubix sent people. We just cared that they were gone."
"Well, now that we've gone through one, it looks like we're beginning to care," said Carl.
"Hard to believe the Life would invent a technology that sent people to small rooms with tables and chairs and board games," said Ted.
Carl nodded. "Sure," h
e said. "That makes sense. So likely what a rubix does is just kill the person, and this is where people go when they die."
"If this is where people go when they die," said Ted, looking around the room, "shouldn't it be more crowded?"
Carl grinned. "Maybe we all get our own personal afterlife, Ted," he said. "Maybe you and I created this place together."
Ted chuckled. "Our own personal hell?" he asked.
"Just a den, maybe. A place to hang out for a while before moving on."
"So you think we'll get to move on?" asked Ted.
"I hope so," said Carl, looking down at the game. "Cuz this is one boring-ass game."
Chapter Seventeen
17.1
Zacharael hovered above the surface of the Earth, monitoring events in the physical bands, the Astral, and beyond. The Interdict, put into place by those whom he knew as the Inter-Life, did not inhibit him in any way. It had never been intended to bind his people, and while most of the Elders had honored the suggestion, Zacharael had not. The Inter-Life had long since demonstrated their capacity for making mistakes, and the stakes now were much too high for Zacharael to remain on the sidelines. The spirit of the Interdict did shape his actions, for he knew the utmost necessity of choice. But Zacharael was not above the occasional push or pull, and trusted his ability to balance influence with freedom. He served the Beloved above all else. He would not abandon her now. Not if he could choose otherwise.
Still, he was not the only player in motion, and there would be decisions made by others that could overwhelm any efforts he might make. For that reason, he'd done his best to mark the potential safe zones his forward viewing had revealed. Already the symbols and signals were doing their work, as thousands slowly made their inexplicable journeys around the globe, in search of something for which they had no words or reasons. The markers selected only for sensitivity and openness, but that would have to suffice. More than that would have overstepped the Primary, and as rebellious as his actions might appear to others, Zacharael was unwilling to go that far. Whether that was wise or cowardly he could not say.
It could yet turn out that none of that would matter. The girl, Gabrielle, still had degrees of freedom open to her, and she continued to surprise him. And the American President might yet make the better choice. The Cogency's restraint had proven wise, in Zacharael's opinion. And he suspected that The Sages would abide by the Cogency's wisdom for the time being. Zacharael might still have room in which to advance his vision. The boulder would not fall until it was pushed over the edge.
As a small black ball, Zacharael began to accelerate around the planet, sensing the progress of the human disease vector, watching the small but significant number of human souls now beginning to move toward the beacon of his latest marker, and focusing in on those few key players chosen by fate, luck, and intention to represent the human species at this time of great choice. In the background, the cries of the suffering and dying continued, a tragic music he might ignore for a time but could never tune out entirely. He wondered if there was something broken inside of him that left him so vulnerable to the Beloved's painful song. His Brothers and Sisters seemed much more immune to the experience than he. He decided that it did not matter. Broken or not, he was glad to be as he was, and could imagine no other way. The pain called him to service. The service gave him meaning. Meaning gave him both connection and novelty. It all added up to Life. Zacharael was glad to be alive. After so very long, he was still grateful for it.
Even with all the pain.
17.2
To be honest, Linda felt relieved by the fact that the Middle Children had refused her request for one of their ships. A wok would have taken them to their destination in an instant, whereas a more conventional travel plan would give her time, and Linda desperately needed some time. She needed to think. She needed to rest. She needed to plan. She needed to rant and sob and scream. And she needed to find her way back into her relationship with Cole. Her husband had been through his own great changes in the time they were apart, his own trauma, his own awakening, and it seemed that he, like Linda, was now something more than he'd been before. Who were they now? And who were they together? And how could they act as a team, as a partnership, to meet the challenges before them? Linda needed time, and she was glad to have it.
The hybrids' reasoning made sense to her. In their quest for autonomy, and their desire to share the Earth with humans as partners, they were glad to help whenever they could. But in this particular endeavor, in Linda's confrontation with the secret cabal, their loyalties and responsibilities felt muddled and mixed. There was too much crossover between the hidden layers of human control and the goals and motivations of the aliens. Too much history. Too much that the hybrids did not completely understand. And the Life were still deeply involved.
As the Middle Children, they were declaring themselves a third party, a new race, and felt bound to their own understanding of the Prime Directive. Linda's fight with William and The Families felt like a fight between their parents, and they were loath to get more directly involved. Linda sensed that she could plead with Alice, and appeal to the girl's connection with her daughters, and that Alice might grudgingly agree to provide more assistance. But Linda did not wish to do that. There was something exceedingly delicate about this new relationship between humans and hybrids, and her gut told her that there was some vast and glorious potential to be found in that alliance, should they manage to create it. She did not want to jeopardize that. Alice had a ferocity to her that Linda was hesitant to provoke.
And there was no real need to do so. There were other ways to travel. She was still the U.S. President. She had plenty of friends and connections. She had an entire military machine at her disposal, should she decide to access it. The refusal of the Middle Children would not stop her. It would only slow her down. And she needed to be slowed down.
The first priority was Emily, Grace, and Iain. Feeling like he was abandoning his children once again for his wife's needs, Cole would not agree to accompany Linda anywhere until he was absolutely convinced that his kids would be safe and well-cared for. But safety was difficult to guarantee in a world in which secret elite forces acted with impunity, in which enigmatic aliens flitted about the sky, and in which psychic spies could attack and control through levels beyond the physical.
In the end, it was agreed that Emily, Grace, and Iain's body would be taken into hiding while Cole and Linda were away. In an undisclosed location somewhere in Augusta, the hybrids constructed, in a matter of hours, a nullspace apartment large enough for the kids, along with Ness and Mary, to live comfortably for a few days. Using wok technology, the apartment would function as a sort of giant Faraday cage, blocking any and all types of psychic or astral interference, as well as providing complete protection in the physical. Nullspaces, which the Middle Children considered to be as "alive" as their woks, could withstand even direct nuclear detonations without taking any damage, and could dock with any wok that had the proper pattern. This latter feature was important, as Mary was frantic at the thought that she might not be able to check in on Keeley, whose condition, though still critical, had improved slightly.
Even with these measures in place, Cole was unwilling to leave without adding his own finishing touch. Before departing, he would use his newfound powers to create and maintain a protective field of light around the kids. He'd thought to imagine it into existence around the nullspace, but the hybrids were adamant that such a field would only draw attention, and agreed to provide him the patterning he would need to imagine the protective field inside the nullspace. That would provide another layer of protection, it would give Cole a sense of connection with his children, and it might serve as an alarm system, should some unforeseen mishap occur.
The search for Iain was also put into motion. Danny would work in the physical bands to see what he could learn about Murks from his employers and colleagues. Alice, certain that the Murk was actually a living creature from a parallel phy
sical reality, would contact something she called the Cogency, to see what else might be learned about them. A contingent of hybrids were organizing an Astral-band search party in jumptime, in order to see if they could get a lead on the boy's whereabouts along the time axis. And then there was Zacharael, whom Gabrielle would attempt to contact, something she had never before initiated. Should these efforts not prove successful, Cole promised that, upon his return, he would find a way to get into the Astral level himself and join the search. Iain would not be left behind, he said flatly. Nobody would argue with him.
With the kids made as safe as they could be, they turned to other matters. Stan would oversee, with great discretion and secrecy, the analysis, formulation, and production of the contents of William's little glass vial. Alice had quickly identified and contacted a high-level hybrid scientist working at the CDC who had the knowledge and equipment necessary for the job, and who could be reassigned without drawing attention. The Middle Children were willing to help with analysis and formulation, but decided that production and distribution, like the loaning of a wok, would involve them too directly in matters they judged to be beyond them. Stan felt confident that he could source the production himself. If all went well, he said, they would have the Greensleeves cure coming off the line before Cole and Linda returned. That was Stan's hope, anyways, and he promised to do everything he could to make it so.
Rumi's Field (None So Blind Book 2) Page 63
