Dr. Saeed said, “No, no. It’s more than that. But I’m still trying to figure it out. And could you please refer to him as your father? He is your father, after all.”
“Okay, so you’re saying Aaron was in on it?” Harry said, putting emphasis on the name Aaron as he spat out the words.
“No, definitely not. They kept your father in a drug-induced coma. For what reason, I’m not sure.”
He took a deep breath. “The decrypted data Joanna provided had been running through your software program before you left to see Cristal. The data revealed that there was a secret room at GN. I went in search for this room and found that it was guarded. Fortunately, I was able to convince the guards that I had clearance. I found your father in the secret lab.”
Harry pounced on this bit of information. “Secret lab?”
“Yes, yes! GN has a secret lab.”
“Where was it?” he asked with a sneer in his voice.
Dr. Saeed wasn’t admitting he had a secret lab behind the hidden door in the closet of his lab.
“In the South wing basement,” Dr. Saeed continued. “When I found him in a comatose state, I administered Zolpidem into his IV drip. He woke up an hour later, although he was quite incoherent at first. I managed to get him dressed and walk him out of the secret lab back to my lab.”
What a backstabbing, lying sack of sh*t! He played me all along for an idiot, a dumb kid moron. And to think I believed him and put Cristal and all the Truth Seekers in freaking danger.
Son of a b*tch. He’d be damned if Dr. Saeed used him and Cristal as pawns ever again. Harry was about to say something when the car started to shake slightly. His head felt woozy as he turned to face forward—trying to steady himself. Seconds later, a thunderous sound roared in the sky above them.
“Dear God,” Harry muttered.
Dr. Saeed grabbed his shoulder. “Drive, Harry. We must get to the black hole before anything happens!”
The earth shook subtly beneath the car in waves. Harry shifted gears and pressed his foot down on the gas.
Chapter 26
The Wall
WHEN THE FIRST tremors on the ground started, Kerim and Cristal were standing in front of the walls of the old fortress of Akko, which loomed sixty feet high above them. Seconds later, Raffe appeared out of nowhere. Something about this guy unhinged her nerves. However, now was not the time to pinpoint exactly what it was.
Cristal clung to Kerim as the ground gently swayed back and forth—the swaying reminded her of when she was standing in her stepfather’s boat while it was docked in the marina. Not that he knew how to drive the thing. He only used it to throw cocktail parties for his wealthy dental clients and show off his perfect family.
As suddenly as the shaking began, it stopped. Kerim looked down at her, almost the way he looked at Gabriel, right after the earthquake in New York with his “Are you serious?” face.
She released her arms around him and mumbled, “Sorry, not sure what got into me.”
Walid and two of his friends were standing off to the side, a few feet from her. Where were the rest of the Truth Seekers?
“Mizz Cristal,” Walid called out as he ran up to her. “Did you feel the shake of the ground?”
Cristal glanced over at Kerim who had moved over to the van. He was quietly talking with Raffe, a grim expression on his face. She noticed that he was shaking his head, several times in fact. Cristal didn’t want to even surmise what they were saying to each other.
She turned back to Walid who was wide-eyed and nervous, obviously aware of the imminent danger, despite appearing to be calm. He smiled at her in a reassuring way.
“Do not be scared,” he said. “Allah is here and if it is His will, then we must trust Him.”
She knew “Allah” meant “God,” and she didn’t think this was the time or place to suddenly become religious.
“You believe in God, yes?” he asked.
“Of course, I do,” she said. “I’m just not religious. What I mean is, I don’t go to church or anything like that.”
He said, “You need not go to a place to talk to God. He is here. Everywhere.”
He raised his hands up to the sky to emphasize his point.
“Yes, you’re right,” she said, happy to hear he wasn’t going to try to preach to her.
That was one of her biggest pet peeves. Born in a Roman Catholic family, her mother always tried to shove her beliefs down her throat. The more she did this, the more she wanted to run away from her.
Her senses picked up something in the air. The ground under her right foot shifted ever so slightly while her ears were picking up a high-pitched sound, similar to what she had heard before the earthquake in New York.
Oh, no, not again.
Her heart began beating faster, her lungs starting to burn.
“Calm down. You can control this,” her father’s voice whispered in her ear.
She frantically looked over at Kerim, but he was still in a deep discussion with Raffe.
“Mizz Cristal?”
She turned back to Walid whose eyes were deep with concern.
“I’m sorry, Walid,” she finally managed to say. “I’m not feeling very well.”
He turned and said something to his friend who dashed over to the car. Shortly after, he ran back with a bottle of water in his hand, stopping, and holding it out to her.
“For me?” she asked.
He smiled shyly, his eyes looking down at his feet.
Cristal was overwhelmed with Walid and the boy’s sweet kindness. Her heart filled with warmth and gratitude. She took the water bottle gratefully, and smiled back.
“Thank you very much. It is very kind of you,” she said.
The young man looked up at her briefly, his face turning red. Walid patted him on the back, signaling for him to step back.
“Drink. It is good to drink,” Walid said to her, motioning with his hands.
She smiled, removed the cap from the bottle, and tilted it to her lips. The cold water spilled into her mouth, quenching her thirst, relaxing her breathing, and decreasing her pulse rate.
When she looked up, she gave Walid a warm smile. “You were right. The water has made me feel ten times better already.”
Now it was his turn to blush. “Very happy to help you, Mizz Cristal.”
She was about to respond when his smile quickly left his face, his eyebrows furrowed into a knot; he stared at the bottle in her hand.
She glanced down, too, wondering what he was looking at. The water was bubbling out of the bottle, like someone opening a bottle of pop after shaking it.
“Cristal?”
She looked up and saw Gabriel standing in front of her, a worried look crossing his face. Rinaldo and Serena were behind him, with similar stunned expressions on their faces.
“Drop the bottle, Cristal! It might have been poisoned!” Serena cried out. She ran up to Walid and twisted his arm behind his back.
Cristal dropped the bottle to the ground, spilling the water, or whatever it was, onto the street.
“That is a lie!” Walid yelled. “Let me go!”
She was certain Walid was not trying to kill her. Although she had no way to prove this, her sixth sense assured her that he had nothing but respect for her.
Her confidence in herself began to waver, when suddenly everything around her started fading in and out.
Had someone really put poison in the bottle?
She saw Kerim running towards her and Raffe was grabbing his arm, trying to hold him back.
Several flashes of bright white light streaked across the sky, followed by cracks of thunder. The thunder clapped in back-to-back succession as if someone up there was massively pissed off and lighting gargantuan firecrackers.
To celebrate the impending storm?
Did she really think that? She shook her head wondering why her mind wasn’t making much sense. Another boom from the sky. And another and another. The sounds were so deafening, and they trig
gered car alarms to go off in the street.
“Kerim!” she cried out, or tried to.
She couldn’t hear herself above the thunderous roar.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small silver car drive up onto the sidewalk. It was gunning towards Kerim before skidding to a stop beside him. A young man jumped out of the car and ran toward her.
Harry?
“Cristal!” Harry screamed, but his voice was covered by the roaring thunder.
When he opened his mouth, she could only hear the thunder as if it were rumbling out from his lips.
She felt the ground swaying beneath her feet.
Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick, she thought to herself. She could not stop herself from falling over. Help me, she thought, while trying to form the words to speak, but couldn’t.
A strong arm grabbed her by the waist, keeping her steady. Then she felt someone else hold onto her other arm. Cristal glanced down and saw Kerim holding onto her waist. Dr. Saeed was on the other side of her, holding her arm.
How did Dr. Saeed get here? Did he ride here with Harry?
Harry was running towards her, his eyes wide with fright, his mouth open, screaming words that she could not understand over the thunderous booming sound above them.
“Just relax, Cristal,” Dr. Saeed said in his usual reassuring tone, his voice cutting through the noise like a sharp knife slicing a stick of butter. “Let me take you to the car.”
No, no, no!
She pushed Dr. Saeed away from her, and leaned her full weight on Kerim. The ground churned violently beneath her feet.
“I’m here, Cristal. Don’t be scared,” Kerim said into her ear. He lifted her into his arms, carrying her away.
She knew he would do whatever it took to get her to a safe place. She saw a flash of light and then heard more claps of thunder. She noticed the ground was rippling in small waves. Another lurch of the ground sent Kerim forward releasing her from his arms.
In her delirium, Cristal felt herself flying into the air, in slow motion, in a free-fall upward.
Free-fall upward?
It sounded ridiculous, but it was true. Higher and higher she felt herself ascending. Over her shoulder, the fortress wall behind her was whipping down the higher she rose.
She glanced down and saw Harry, frantic, screaming. He was waving his hands above his head. Gabriel and Rinaldo seemed to be holding onto Kerim for dear life. And little Serena, she seemed so lost standing there by herself, staring up at her.
Cristal blinked her eyes, still not fully comprehending what was happening. She realized she was floating ten feet, now twenty feet above all of them.
How is this happening?
Glancing down, she watched a grey cloud-like shape rise up from the ground, almost like a mini tornado, twisting and growing. It was rising off the ground and forming into a shape. Before she could blink her eyes, the grey cloud transformed into an eagle, and its wings spanned the length of the van. The eagle flapped its glorious wings and flew up into the sky, circling and soaring between the lightning strikes and swirling black clouds. It gracefully ascended higher, until it hovered in front of her.
She stared in amazement when the eagle transformed once again. Everything, except for the wings, metamorphosed into the shape of a man—his body was like a translucent silvery glow. She squinted at his face, which was taking shape now with a nose, eyes, and mouth.
I recognize this face, she thought to herself.
Gasping, she realized that this being that was levitating in front of her, seemingly oblivious to the demented storm around them, was none other than Kerim’s strange friend, Raffe.
Raffe’s lips twitched into a smile, as if acknowledging her findings.
“Who are you?” she tried to ask, but the wind swallowed her words.
No time for that! Take my hand! His voice bellowed out in her head, and the pain cut through her like sharp knives.
Her body began convulsing; her head felt like it was going to explode.
Raffe reached his hand out and touched her forehead. As soon as she felt his hand on her, the pain was replaced with a sweet relief.
His voice entered her mind again.
Sorry, I haven’t taken this form for many years. I have forgotten how sensitive you humans are. I will decrease the volume of my thoughts so as not to mutate your brain cells.
“Are you serious?” she asked, half hoping that she had passed out and this was just some preposterous hallucination. A thought came to her mind. How come when she first met him, he didn’t speak any English?
He opened his mouth to speak, and said, “The English language is so rudimentary. I prefer not to speak it unless necessary. I shall speak to you with my mouth instead of my thoughts, as this requires less energy. Best to conserve my energy for later.”
He sounded like a foreign exchange student learning English. His words came out in a staccato-like fashion. He spoke with proper grammar, but he lacked the idioms and slang terms that most native speakers use.
He continued, “As I said earlier, there is no time. Give me your hand, now. You must do this willingly.”
Despite the terrifying situation she was in, the fact that she was suspended fifty feet up in the air didn’t prevent her natural stubbornness from surfacing.
Glowering at him with defiance in her eyes, she asked “Or what?”
His nostrils flared slightly before he said, “Or the demon that is pinning you to the wall will drop you to your death below. But the frightening part will not be the fall. That part is fairly quick and simple. Really, the ghastly part would be the way “it” would manipulate you to release your soul willingly before you crash to the ground.”
Oh, my God.
The fear that would wake her up in her sleep, the dreams, visions, voices in her head, all started flooding back to her.
“Ah, yes. Calling out to our Lord our God, Father to all, is a good start,” Raffe said in his monotone voice.
He reached out his hand. “Do you believe in God?” he asked bluntly.
“Yes, of course I do. I have always had a strong faith in God. But I definitely don’t believe in religion.”
Now, why did she have to admit that?
Raffe shrugged.
“Religion is a manmade institution. Not made by the Almighty One. So, no worries. You have passed the test.”
He motioned to her with his hand to come towards him.
“That’s it?” she asked.
Suddenly, she felt as if something released her, causing her to free-fall again, but this time, it was downward and much, much faster—dizzyingly faster. She reached out her hand, or tried to.
“Dear God, help me! I don’t want to die!” she screamed in her head.
When she realized that her body was about to go “splat” onto the ground below, she felt arms underneath her swooping her up, and holding her tight. Her body felt like it was drifting down like a feather falling from the sky. She realized Raffe had caught her and was flying her down into the arms of Kerim.
The bile was rising in her throat against her will. The disorientation in her head and general chaos around her was overwhelming. The many faces looking down at her revealed their mouths moving, but their words were unintelligible. The storm still blustered above. All this made her want to crawl up into a fetal position and retreat.
She watched Raffe transform from a winged angel back into his human form. Then she noticed that the storm seemed to have lost its anger, and the thunder was now a dull roar.
“Cristal, are you okay?”
She turned and saw Kerim’s face looking down on her. His look of sincere concern comforted her. But, before she could enjoy the moment, another voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Cristal, oh, my God!”
She turned and saw Harry. His eyes were as wide as saucers, and terror was written all over his face.
“Please, be okay. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Tea
rs were streaking down his cheeks.
Harry Doubt, crying for me? I must be tripping out.
Kerim pulled her closer to himself and away from Harry. She let her head lean against his chest, and felt calmed when listening to his heartbeat.
“Let’s lie you down in the van,” he said, as he carried her away from the gawkers.
A loud sound like a firecracker blasting in her ear made him freeze in his tracks. She saw Kerim staring at something in front of him. With the little bit of energy she had left, she turned to see what it was.
Oh, freak. This can’t be happening!
Chapter 27
Not So Lucky
STANDING A FEW FEET AWAY, Yaffa Bauer had her 9mm semiautomatic pistol pointed at Kerim’s chest. Cristal saw several other agents in black suits surrounding her, and they had their weapons drawn.
“Kerim Ilgaz,” she said, “I am Yaffa Bauer, National Security Agent, informing you that you are suspected of terrorist activity against the State of Israel and the world. You do not have to say anything. Whatever you say might be used as evidence against you. Refraining from answering questions might strengthen the evidence against you. Place the woman down and come with us without resistance.”
Kerim stood as still as a statue.
Yaffa said something to the other agents and they instantly came swarming around them. She saw Raffe, in human form, walking up to Yaffa, who waved her gun at him, yelling and screaming that she was about to shoot.
He spoke to her in Hebrew, saying something that caused her to stop. She motioned to the other agents to stand down.
Turning to Kerim, she said, “Okay, your friend here is going to prove that you are not behind these terrorist activities. I’ve asked my men to stand down. I will be going with you. But if you try anything, I will have my men shoot you on the spot.”
Kerim stared at Raffe, unsure of his plans.
Kerim, did you know that Raffe was this weird bird man? She spoke to Kerim in her thoughts.
He frowned, his jawline tensing. That meant no.
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