The Akasha Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set: The Complete Emily Adams Series

by Natalie Wright

  If anyone else had been in the corridor with Dughall at that moment, they would have seen something truly rare and a bit disturbing. Dughall smiled.

  57. ESCAPE FROM THE TIN CAN

  Fanny had been gone only about half an hour when Jake and Liam heard what sounded like a large clap of thunder.

  “What was that?” asked Jake.

  Liam quickly walked the five steps required to reach the tiny barred window and looked outside. Not a cloud in the sky.

  “There’s no weather out there. It must have been an explosion,” he said.

  They looked at each other in silence for a moment. Both knew that what they had heard was an explosion and they knew who had caused it.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” asked Jake.

  “If you’re thinking that that clump nugget is trying his best to blow this place to smithereens, yes, that’s what I’m thinking.”

  “And are you also thinking that we can’t sit here one more minute?”

  “Yep, I’m right with you. We may have a chance now. With the explosion, they’re probably distracted. Old Dughall might have given us the diversion we’ve been waiting for.”

  “Right. But we’re locked in here.”

  “The only way out is the way Fanny left and there’s no way I’ll be able to fit through there,” said Liam.

  A few minutes later, they heard a scratching and thumping noise from overhead.

  “You’re not locked in anymore,” said Fanny. She jumped down from the air vent.

  “Fan, it’s good to see you and all, but you were supposed to unlock us from the outside.”

  “Don’t get your shorts in a knot, Jakester. I’ve got the keys.” Fanny jingled the keys at Jake. “We can unlock it from the inside. I didn’t want to be seen coming in that way.”

  All three ran to the door. Fanny’s fingers shook as she tried to work the keys to find the right one to unlock the door.

  “Hurry, Fan,” said Jake.

  “I’m going as fast as I can man. There’s like 20 keys on this thing. Hey, did you guys hear that explosion?”

  “Yes,” answered Liam.

  “You guessing it’s that butthead Dughall?” Fanny asked.

  “That’s our guess.”

  “Yeah, so hurry. We gotta’ get to the control room of this thing and make sure they’re shutting down everything before the whole place blows,” Jake implored.

  Fanny found the right key and the door swung open into a deserted hallway. They ran down the corridor and found the door to the outside. They had been holed up in that tiny room plus a bath for days. All three took a moment to breathe in the fresh air and feel the warm sun on their skin as they stepped into the outdoors. But they knew time was not a luxury for them at that moment.

  “This way,” said Fanny. “When I was taking my little trip through the air shaft I think I found out where to go.”

  They ran as fast as they could, following Fanny closely. They weren’t the only ones running. People were coming out of every building at the facility running to exactly the spot Fanny led them.

  “By the looks of it, we’re heading in the right direction,” Liam said.

  They followed the crowds and, like salmon swimming upstream together, soon found themselves in the thick of command central. It would seem that after an explosion in their facility that CERN would go to high alert for terrorists. Instead, the explosion and ensuing alarms and shut down protocols made such a huge distraction, the trio was able to breeze into the main operations room without anyone trying to stop them.

  In the middle of it all was one poor young guy getting his rear chewed out by a whole gang of scientists. Security guards surrounded his chair as gray-hairs fired question after question at him. He looked like he was about to vomit on their shoes.

  The three fought their way through the crowd to get a closer look.

  “You entered these codes, even though you knew that they were likely to cause a problem?”

  “Yes, Sir … I mean Mr. Dughall … well, he ordered it, Sir. And I figured he knew what he was doing as he’s the physicist here, not me.”

  “You figured? Well you figured wrong, young man. Now we have a class A mess down there. The whole of magnet number two is blown to bits and who knows what else is destroyed.”

  “Yeah, it will take weeks for it to warm up enough for anyone to go down and have a look,” offered another scientist.

  “What do you want us to do with this fella?’” asked one of the security guards.

  “Probably ought to take him to a holding room until the police can question him thoroughly about this,” said the man who appeared to be the head of the operation.

  “Wait,” Liam shouted.

  All at once, the grey-hairs turned to see who was interceding in their business.

  “Wait,” he said again as he approached the small crowd around the poor chap in the chair. “We have to stop him,” Liam said.

  “Stop who? And who is this guy? Hey, you don’t have credentials to be here,” said the head scientist.

  “Look, we came here to warn you about Dughall, but your security guards there wouldn’t listen to us. We’ve been here … how long have we been here?”

  Jake looked at his watch. “Two days.”

  “Yeah, like he said, we came here two days ago to warn you about this guy and your fellas there locked us up in one of your ‘hospitality suites.’”

  The head guy swiftly turned his eyes on the security guards and glared even harder at them than he had glared at the poor man in the chair.

  “You knew of a possible breach in our security two days ago, and you did nothing!” he shouted.

  “Well their story Sir, if you heard it, well we thought they were either kooks or terrorists themselves trying to make a diversion.”

  The head guy turned to me. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Liam Adams. I'm a theoretical physicist from the University of Chicago. It’s a long story how I got this information about Mr. Dughall, but you have to believe me, that small explosion was just the start. We have to get down there to stop him, now.”

  “Mr. Adams, I don’t know how you know something that our so-called intelligence here didn’t pick up on, but if you’re a physicist, then you must know that we can’t just pop down there. The temperature will kill anyone who tries to enter the corridor. And your Mr. Dughall tried to go down there, he’d die instantly. So I don’t think we have to worry about him any longer.”

  “Well, on that you’d be wrong,” chimed in Fanny.

  “Who is this girl and why is she here?” asked the scientist.

  “She’s with me. Look, I know this is hard to believe. I didn’t believe any of this at first either. But this guy Dughall, he’s not exactly … human.”

  There was a silence in the room so thick you could cut it. Then the small group started with furtive looks at one another. The security guards said, ‘See, we told you he's a kook’, with just their eyes.

  “He was human, like a thousand years ago, but now … well he’s been brought back from the near dead so I guess you’d call him a mummy.” said Jake.

  “Or a zombie,” offered Fanny.

  “Okay, I’ve had enough of this. I don’t need any more distractions. Security, take Mr. Schaeffer here and these American guests back to holding for questioning by the police.”

  Just as they were about to be hauled off again for another stint of detention, there came a loud shout above the noise of the crowd.

  “Sir, Sir. You gotta’ see this. You’re not going to believe it,” said one of the security guards at a monitor on the other side of the room. The whole crowd shifted to the other side of the room where the guard was watching a security tape.

  “What have you got?” asked the lead scientist.

  “Here is the tape from the camera focused on magnet housing number two, the one that exploded. Look here at two minutes, ten seconds before the explosion.”

  All eyes stare
d at the screen as it clearly showed a tall, dark haired man walking toward the magnet. The camera was trained on the magnet housing so it showed the man only from behind. But clearly there was a man walking toward it.

  Within seconds, a more extraordinary thing showed on the screen. There, in the magnet itself, a small hole was forming. It wasn’t a hole from an explosion, but was instead like a window opening that appeared to look into another world entirely. As each second passed, the opening grew larger and larger as what appeared to be fog billowed out.

  And then, clear as day, Dughall ran into the center of that opening and disappeared. He was there one instant, gone the next.

  Within seconds of Dughall’s disappearing act, the portal that he had created exploded. The camera picked up the fire and shrapnel coming toward it, then nothing. The explosion knocked out the camera too.

  For a second time in less than ten minutes, you could hear a pin drop in a crowd of no less than twenty-five people. And then all eyes turned to Liam, Fanny and Jake. There was an awkward, stunned silence until the lead scientist spoke in a hushed voice.

  “I don’t know how you knew these things, Mr. Adams, but all that you stated appears to be true. I’ve seen the evidence for it, but I still can’t believe it. But somehow this man … or thing … was able to breach our security, obtain a willing partner to enter his malicious code, and enter a facility cooled to minus 271° without freezing to death.

  “And to top it off, he created an anomaly that somehow created what appears to be a wormhole or transportation device of some kind. The perpetrator of this horrendous crime has fled from justice.”

  “Sir, I don’t mean to stop you, but the other truth is that what he created down there is extremely unstable. I’ve done some calculations while in your holding tank and we need to act fast to get this thing under control. We’re wasting precious time here.”

  “You’ve already started calculations?” he asked.

  “Yes, well, as I said, I had a pretty fair idea what he was up to. I started working out calculations for what would likely happen if he succeeded and, well, it’s not a pretty sight.”

  “Mr. Adams, I sincerely apologize for all that you and your kids have been through. I need to impose on you again though and ask if you can please work with my team here. Share with them all that you know. Bring them up to speed so that we can nip this thing in the bud before it causes more damage.”

  It was the invitation Liam had waited for. Liam was in his element when working on a problem or solving equations. He had felt so helpless and incompetent at helping Emily. Now I can be of use to her and hopefully bring her back safely.

  “I’m happy to help however I can.”

  “Okay then, let’s get going,” said the lead scientist. He immediately created teams and divvied up work.

  Liam dove in and got to work with his team. But after a few minutes, he remembered Fanny and Jake. Liam went over to the corner of the room where Jake and Fanny stood, their eyes tired and their faces pale with lack of sleep.

  "You guys are dead on your feet. Why don't I see if there’s an expendable intern or someone here to take you to town, get a hotel room with a comfy bed and some warm food?"

  “I'm not going anywhere,” said Jake firmly.

  “But Jake, there’s no reason for you kids to stay here. You’ve done everything you can. Besides, it’s safer back in town.”

  “I'm not leaving,” said Jake.

  “Yeah, we’ve come this far. We want to be here if Emily comes,” said Fanny.

  “She’ll be here, Fanny,” Jake said testily.

  “Okay, okay Jake. Don't knot up your panties again. I’m just sayin’, I thought she’d make it here in time to stop him. I’m worried about her.”

  “I know you want to do everything you can to help Emily. We all do. But right now, there’s nothing you can do here. This is work for an old fart scientist like me,” Liam said with a wink. “The best thing for you to do right now is to get some well deserved rest and food.”

  “Mr. Adams, don’t you get it? I’m not leaving without Emily,” Jake said.

  Liam knew he’d lost the battle. “Okay, okay. You can stay. But just hang out back here, out of the way. And promise me if there are more explosions that you’ll run, okay? Run as fast as you can out of here and don’t wait for me or for Emily. Do you promise?”

  Both Fanny and Jake nodded.

  Liam wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do to let them stay. Maybe I should have fought harder to get them to safety. Not only did he feel responsible for them, but after all they’d been through together, he had begun to think of Jake and Fanny as part of his own family. He just wanted them to be safe. But if he didn’t get back to work and find out how to stop the anomaly, they wouldn’t be safe even at a hotel in town. No one would be safe.

  58. DUGHALL AND THE PORTAL

  Dughall expected pain or at least some discomfort from passing through the portal like he had felt going to the Umbra Nihili. Instead, it was painless. It was like walking through a door. One moment he was running through the collider corridor toward the large magnet. The next he was running in a land made entirely of silvery mist and fog.

  The entities of the Netherworld, thinking they can send a mere child to stop me. What fools they are. And where is she? The whelp did not even make it to the collider.

  Dughall briefly considered that he should look for her, but he quickly dismissed it. He didn’t need to worry about her or anyone. No one knew where he was going. All that was left to do was to still his mind and focus on the time and place he longed to be. He knew he would end up there instantly so long as he could focus his mind. He had no worry that he would not be able to accomplish the proper concentration. He’d had over a thousand years in the Umbra Nihili to practice focusing his mind.

  Dughall remembered the time and place he wanted to be. He had obsessed about it for so many years that it was easy to put himself there in his mind. All he had to do was close his eyes and picture the scene.

  It was a bright, sunny day in a small village in the south of Italy. He was a fourteen-year-old boy walking home from his morning duties for his master, ready to enjoy his midday meal with his beloved mother. He smelled the scent of the cedar trees mixed with the smell of olives and honeysuckle climbing the walls of the cottages he passed. He was jubilant because it was the day he planned to take his mother and escape their slavery.

  Dughall knew exactly where to jump into the stream of time. He had dreamt of it for years. Dughall longed to see the eyes of his mother’s attacker and take the man’s life. Dughall looked forward to boundless joy when he finally did what he’d wanted to do for countless years. He would plunge a knife deep into the man’s chest and twist it. He looked forward to watching the man suffer as the man had Dughall’s mother to suffer.

  Dughall took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Before him was the familiar room of the confinement of his youth. There was a small hearth but there was no midday meal cooking. He did not waste a second lingering in the small outer room. He knew the action was in the next room.

  Just as he had done so many years before, Dughall walked as quietly as a leopard, taking care not to show himself. But he heard no whimper from his broken mother. Excellent. I am here in time.

  His knife was at the ready. Dughall could have brought with him a very sharp, excellent hunting knife from the future time. He chose, instead, to use the same type of dull work knife of his youth. Anything too sharp and precise would hasten the jackal’s death.

  He turned the corner knife in hand, ready to take the man by surprise. But as he entered the room, he did not see the man who he intended to kill. What he saw instead was a surprise to him, and a most unfortunate complication.

  59. HIS DEEPEST DESIRE

  I don’t think Dughall could have looked more surprised. His dark hair and heavy eyebrows rested over a gaunt face that looked like it had been chiseled out of stone. His eyes landed first on me. His look of surpr
ise quickly gave way to a look of pure rage. I think he would have leapt upon me and killed me on the spot if his mother hadn’t spoken.

  “Is this my son?” she asked incredulously.

  Dughall’s eyes immediately shifted to the woman standing across from me. At over six feet tall, his frame towered over her mere five-foot body. Her jet-black hair was matted to her face by sweat and she looked care worn. But beneath the wear was a woman of incomparable beauty in any time.

  “Mother, oh dearest mother,” Dughall said at last. He had a softness in his voice that seemed impossible from such a hard and brooding face. He went to her and knelt down. Dughall rested his head against her stomach and embraced her. I watched as she gently caressed his hair.

  “My son, look how you have grown. I do not understand what magick brings you or this angel who has slain my attacker to me, but of both, I am most glad,” she said.

  It was at that moment that Dughall looked down beside him and finally saw the dead body of the man that had been his mother’s night ‘companion’. Instead of being pleased that I had taken the jerk out for him, Dughall looked on me with fury.

  “How dare you come here and defile my childhood home? You witch!”

  “Dughall, mind your tongue,” his mother said. “This angel of the future came just in time. That man was set on doing me great harm. I do not think I would be alive if she had not come when she did.”

  “I know he was going to do you harm, dearest mother. That is why I came back to this time. I came to stop the brute from slaying you mother.

  “Oh mother, you have no idea what I have been through. You do not know of my suffering, my death, the countless years of horrific ennui as I waited. I had to bide my time. All that I have done I did so that I could come back to this time and prevent this jackal from taking your life. But this Brighid’s whelp witch from the future has ruined it all. She has ruined my moment, mother!”

  “Dughall my sweet, nothing is ruined. Be glad for the help dear son. I am well and unharmed. You can go peacefully back to your time knowing that I am safe.”