“This place gives me the creeps,” Elorie said, after making a recording pass across the entire room with her smartphone.
“It’s not just me, then?” Georgia said.
Both of their guides had refused to enter the area. They thought this place haunted.
Jack stuck his head through an arched opening into the temple area. “Folks, I’ve found tracks and a body,” he said.
“This is my friend, the one who served as guide for these Ecumenists of yours,” Tayyar said. They had managed to talk Tayyar into entering the area to identify his friend.
The corpse lay within sight of a corridor rock fall, which Dave guessed was the other end of the blocking rock fall. The air smelled faintly of cordite; the rock fall hadn’t been natural. Nor was the death of Tayyar’s friend. The stinky but partly mummified body lay face down, the air in this section of the Burçak underground was quite dry. The years old dried mud around the body was stained brown.
“He appears to have been killed,” Jack said, after they backed away from the mourning Tayyar.
“That makes no sense,” Lisa said. “The Ecumenists were a holy order, extremely peaceful.”
“The Ecumenists might have found what they were looking for here,” Elorie said. “We need to search for their bodies, in that case.” They already knew the Ecumenists were most likely dead.
Tayyar stood. “Friends, I am leaving. I cannot stay in this place any longer today. If you are still alive, I will return tomorrow. Haluk will join me on the way out. We have talked.”
Elorie chewed her lips, and then nodded. “Jack, get Darrel and escort them out,” she said, whispering. “Make sure of our supplies and move the supplies once these two are gone. Come back here when you’re done.”
Jack nodded and the two men headed off, collecting Tayyar along the way. Dave doubted either would have any problems doing the climbs needed to get them back to the entrance.
Elorie herded them back into the temple. “I want all of us together at all times while we’re in this part of Burçak. Until Jack and Darrel get back, we’re stopping our investigation. Sit. Rest.”
Georgia came back from the altar she still dusted and examined. “The body was the lost guide?”
“Yes. Murdered.”
“Then we’re in the right place.” Georgia shook her head. “Something seriously strange is going on here.”
Elorie nodded. “This reminds me of when the Telepaths were rooting around in my mind when I was recruited. Only this is off, not gentle at all. Do the rest of you feel it?”
Mohammed, Lisa, Osham and Georgia raised their hands.
Dave didn’t. “Sorry, but this place is just another place to me.”
“The bad vibes are telepathic, then,” Georgia said. “Your mind shields are protecting you.”
They all turned to him, and Dave blushed, before chuckling. “Why do I have the opinion I’m being sized up like a side of beef?”
“Here,” Jack said. “Here’s the wire.” He traced the wire back to a corner, near the edge of the dust from the fallen area. “The detonator.” A lantern battery lay on top of the dust, shadowed by the rubble of ages.
“We know the tracks don’t double back here,” Lisa said. She crouched another twenty feet further, at the edge of the opening to the temple area. “So the Ecumenists didn’t come back and blow this. There’s a logical conclusion here, then. This guide, Tayyar’s friend, caused the explosion.”
“If the tracks don’t double back, who killed him?” Elorie said.
“Again, there’s only one logical explanation,” Lisa said. “He killed himself.”
“But why?” Dave said. “Could it be due to the telepathic ick?”
“The ick is weakest here, and almost imperceptible back in the corridor,” Lisa said. “I don’t think that’s the cause.” She scrunched up her face. “I hate to say this, but this appears premeditated to me.”
“You’re the private investigator,” Elorie said. “I’ll take your word for it.”
Lisa shook her head. “I’m an international skip tracer, not a homicide detective. Nothing else makes sense, though. He led the Ecumenists down here, blew the corridor behind them, and killed himself.”
“There’s another explanation, one I’m leery to mention,” Jack said. “What if the Ecumenists had some nasty unnatural tricks – telepathic, magic, who knows what – and they made the guide seal the place off and kill himself, after they found what they were looking for?”
“They knew to come down here with explosives?” Georgia said. “That doesn’t fit with them at all.”
“How about this, then?” Dave said. “Their guide blew the corridor, a bit of nasty blackmail, and in retribution, the Ecumenists used their unnatural tricks on him and got him to kill himself.”
“That might work,” Lisa said.
“It doesn’t have to be the Ecumenists who made him kill himself,” Elorie said. “Whatever’s behind the ick that imbues this place might have done the killing. The fact the ick isn’t here now doesn’t mean the ick couldn’t have been here when the guide killed himself.”
“Oh, I don’t like that. I don’t like that at all,” Jack said.
“Neither do I,” Elorie said. “Let’s continue investigating – and, humor me on this – none of you harm anything in this place. Perhaps Tayyar is right and this place is haunted.”
“They didn’t stay here long, and their path isn’t easy to follow,” Jack said. “They went here, one way, and they didn’t come back.” He led them out of the temple area into one of the corridors, gently sloping up, marked by one domed roof after another. Why would anyone bother?
“How’d they know where they were going?” Elorie said.
“I think they were following a map they made from the ceiling symbols,” Georgia said.
“Makes sense,” Elorie said.
They rounded a corner and entered another, larger room, about thirty feet across and forty tall. The room was cylindrical and ended in a flat roof, in better shape than the temple area, its floor mud free. Through the dust Dave saw a mosaic-tiled floor, the design non-representational. Geometric. Carvings and inlays covered the walls around them – marble and other rock, not tufa, in many cases. He didn’t recognize any of the symbols in the carving.
“The footprints lead across to this opening, which leads to a ramp,” Jack said, sticking his head through the opening and shining a light to the right. “The ramp is helical, following the edge of this room, and going up. The ick is stronger where I’m standing.”
“Back off, then,” Elorie said. “Let’s take a look at this room. Where are we? What is this place?”
“This place makes me itch,” Dave said. The miasma of the cylindrical room reminded him of the ‘off’ sensation when Lorenzi’s trainee magicians grabbed him.
“Huh? You’re reacting to this room?”
He nodded. “First thing here I’ve reacted to. I’d swear the room wants me to go away.”
Georgia nodded. “I agree.”
“This feels the same as the corridor and the temple area to me,” Elorie said.
“I wonder if we’ve blundered into some old decayed magic,” Dave said.
“Where’d that comment come from?” Jack asked. “One of your Twilight Zone style pieces of logic?”
“Not really. Elorie?”
Elorie shrugged. “I’m an Immune as well, Jack, only I’m immune to magic. Remember when Mr. Lorenzi gave me the amulet and it fell apart in my hands? The amulet fell apart because I unmade it.” Jack and Georgia opened their mouths to speak, but Elorie continued on, interrupting their response. “I didn’t know I was an Immune until I read about it on the Internet, trying to find out why the amulet fell apart in my hands.”
Georgia nodded. “Another Recruiter trick, picking you, then. No wonder this Persona God of yours is having a hard time keeping you healthy.”
“Wait. They can’t be the same, can they?” Mohammed asked. “Mr. Lorenzi’s m
agic was ancient and the miracles of the 99 Gods are new and very different.”
“Turns out they’re related,” Elorie said. “I’m only partially immune to 99 Gods style miracles. There’s a guy in England who’s investigating this, and he’s even found people who are fully immune to both.”
Jack whistled. “Well, that explains the comments some of the 99 Gods made about normal mortals being more dangerous to them than anyone or anything else. Somewhere out there are mortals who can walk through the worst of what the 99 Gods and their Supported can dish out and harm or kill Gods. I wonder why they haven’t shown up in the inter-God conflicts? Or why the Recruiter hasn’t recruited any of them.”
“Good question,” Elorie said. “Don’t look at me that way, Jack. I’m not that sort of person.”
“No self-defense or weapons training?” Jack asked.
Elorie took a slow deep breath and shook her head. “Unless you count paintball, no.”
“Or violin,” Darrel said.
Elorie glared at Darrel and he raised his hands in surrender.
“That violin of yours is a deadly weapon,” Jack said, “But I doubt it’s going to stop a magician, God or Supported.”
Dave pointedly cleared his throat. “In any event, what do we do now?”
“Any ideas about this room?” Elorie said.
“I think this was a meeting room,” Georgia said. “The table’s long gone, if there ever was one, but those?” She pointed. “Stone benches.”
To Dave, they looked like rubble.
“Temple, meeting room, then what?” Elorie said. Georgia shrugged.
“Well, the footprints lead up the ramp, let’s follow,” Elorie said. “Do you mind taking the lead, Dave?”
“I’d have a hard time tracking a train,” Dave said. “I haven’t seen any of these so-called footprints yet.”
“No worry,” Jack said. “The ramp’s narrow enough that their tracks are all on top of each other. Just stop if you get to any place where the ramp opens up. We’ll be right behind you.”
Dave nodded, unclipped himself from the rope and re-clipped himself at the front. They set up so if any of them stumbled into anything and fell, they wouldn’t fall far enough to hurt themselves.
The ramp smelled dusty, and as Jack had said, the ramp twisted as it rose, following the edge of the circular room.
The ramp rose a long way, once around the room, if Dave guessed right. The ramp ended in a medium sized open area with a stone doorway – the kind that rolled – to Dave’s right. He described what he found to the rest.
“Let me,” Jack said. He came up, past Dave, and crouched. “The tracks of the Ecumenists lead to this stone door. I think the stone door has been opened and closed at least once. No tracks leading away.”
Dave turned to Elorie, who had reached the top of the ramp. “The telepathic ick is worse here,” she said. “We need to examine the room.”
“You want me to open the door?” Dave said.
“Give it a try,” Elorie said. “Jack, get back here.”
“With pleasure,” Jack said.
Dave pushed the door and it rolled easily, surprising him. The opening revealed another room, a mirror of the cylindrical room below save for a lower ceiling. He examined the room with his light.
“There’s a lot of crap in here,” Dave said. “Including some backpacks and modern equipment. No visible bodies. The room has the same itchy feel as the meeting room below.” The large room held stone tables, carved out of the walls, along the entire edge of the room, a table-high ledge. Objects littered the tables, nonsense objects. A carved horse on wheels, an ivory toy, caught Dave’s eye. Otherwise, the room was just big and empty. “You need to see this.”
“Don’t go in,” Elorie said. “Let’s take a look, one at a time.” She came up to Dave and nestled under his arm. “The ick originates here.”
“How can you tell?”
“I just know,” Elorie said. She moved Dave back from the opening so the others could look. “No visible dead bodies either.”
“No dead bodies and no way out, folks,” Lisa said. “Think about that. Man, that room is foul!”
Just what Dave didn’t want to find, a closed door mystery. What had the Ecumenists found, a room full of invisibility rings?
“Now what?” Jack said. “I think going into a room that’s playing with our minds this much would be stupid.”
“Take pictures and movies,” Elorie said. “Then close the doorway. I’m feeling a bit weak. We’ve missed dinner, haven’t we?” Nods all around. “We need to eat. Let’s go back, set up camp, and discuss what we’ve found. Save this room for tomorrow, for when we’re rested and have full stomachs.”
35. (War)
War meditated and entered the Place of Time.
“Hello, Future,” War said.
“War, things change,” Future said. “Many unseen avenues have recently appeared. We should examine them.”
“I’m cool with that,” War said.
She wondered what the other Gods would think of her insight about the usefulness of personifying the Place of Time. She also wondered whether this was a true insight, worried about mental contamination from too many furtive glimpses into her own mind by Nessa Binglehauser. War hoped with all her heart Future would gain enough mental reality to stop speaking in clichés.
“But you are not here, you are Now,” Future said. “We can discuss this if you like, as well.”
Commentary like this led War to suspect Future was an unconscious creation of Nessa. Someday War needed to sit down Nessa and try to talk her out of her mental snooping.
“Your conversation won’t work,” Future said, reading War’s mind. “Nessa’s connection to humanity, what keeps her from evil, requires her to telepathically snoop on others. Without her snooping, she would go the way of Willie. Cutting her off won’t work, because to become a stable adult Telepath requires such a connection; she would resist you with her entire being if you suggested otherwise.”
“Fo sho. That explains how Telepaths can gain so much power and avoid evil. This also means that Telepaths who have blocked off telepathy are at risk of corruption. By logic, then, Blind Tom…”
“Correct.”
“Satan?”
“Category error. She currently possesses a different branch of power. Do not equate her to the telepathy-based Telepaths. She has other equally important limits.”
“Enough. Let’s figure out how we can get to this strange victory state I saw.”
“You found only a hope of victory. Let us look. To succeed will require multiple acts, perhaps on your part.”
War looked at the event stream that Future pointed out to her. She backed off in disgust at what she found.
“The chances anyone else would act in this way are millions to one against. Only I can do this.”
“Have you seen the cost?”
War nodded. “Yes, and it’s a fucking horror show. I’m really hoping it’s not necessary.” She would end up betraying everyone she knew and respected, starting with the Indigo leadership.
“Even if you follow this path, a few will know the truth,” Future said. “A mystery cult will likely arise, centered on your potential actions.”
Big thrill. “Is this absolutely necessary?” War said. “There has to be a better way.” She looked around that place within the future, the large nest of possibilities that sprang from the day’s open proclamation of the Divine Compact. “If Dubuque does what’s in his own best interest and ignores the Divine Compact, this game of mine won’t work. This initial hope vanishes, but vaguer and more distant hopes remain.”
“Also true. Based on Alt’s most recent information gathering, though, Dubuque is no longer acting alone. Even as we speak, his worshippers are learning about the Divine Compact, thinking, emoting, and each individually making their own free willed decisions. Their group reaction, because of the number of free willed decisions involved, is beyond prediction. The only p
rediction possible is, as worshippers of Dubuque, they are self-selected to feel and intuit more than intellectualize on the subject. Dubuque’s decision will be based on their faith-based reaction, not just his own. Of course, to Dubuque, this will appear to be his own fully free-willed decision.”
War already knew this. This facet of how the Place of Time worked was so counter-intuitive she wanted to scream. By definition, the mob was ‘the mob’, no thinking involved of any variety. Her old prejudices from when she wore a uniform fueled her understanding.
Her understanding was wrong.
Instead, mass decisions fell into the non-linear, into the chaos mathematics where minuscule shifts in the starting conditions, too small for anyone to discern, carried a disproportionate influence. Not magic, but chance.
“You are experiencing the edges of the mind of God,” Future said. “This is why God is as God is. Mass free willed behavior by thinking beings lies beyond omniscience and involves aspects of time beyond our current understanding.”
“Belay that,” War said. She wasn’t interested. “Let’s look at the details. If I decide to pull this nasty shit on everyone, I’m going to need to know exactly what to do. Here, for instance…”
War and Future discussed.
Poke. Poke prod, a tire iron to War’s mind. A Telepath. In particular, Nicole. War shifted her focus to the projection she kept with Alt’s group, now back at Lorenzi’s cabins in the Cascades.
“Yes?” War asked. “What’s the emergency?”
Alt paced the room. He turned to War.
“What do you idiot Gods think you’re doing? We weren’t ready for this Divine Compact shit. Take a gander at what Dubuque’s gone and done in response.”
He motioned to the television. Dubuque was on the cable news again. “…across the Americas and Europe the Living Saints of the City of God pledge to bring this heinous so-called Divine Compact alliance under our just control. Because the so-called Divine Compact is purely secular, the Compact lies outside of the City of God, and we will not allow such heresy to stand. A billion true worshippers of God now oppose this secular blasphemy. We will act. We must, we are called, and we will.”
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