by Jacob Whaler
“Matt,” Leo says. “I think I know what’s going on.”
“So do I,” Matt says. “You were right. No secrets. Just like the Allehonen said. When we use our Stones together, each of us becomes an open book.”
“Are you OK with that?”
“I guess I’ll have to be. That’s how it works.”
Leo’s voice trembles. “I’m not sure I want you to know everything about me.”
Matt laughs. “Like the time you fed Tepin flakes to the neighbor’s cat? Or poured Jolokia juice into the school bully’s milk during lunch?”
Leo sighs. “That’s bad enough. But there are other things. Darker things.”
“It’s the same for all of us.”
“Did she kiss you?”
“What?”
“The girl with the big dimples,” Leo says. “Did she kiss you?”
“Hey, stop poking around in my personal memories.”
Leo nods. “Then it’s a deal?”
“What deal?”
“We leave each other’s memories alone.”
“Agreed,” Matt says. “Now that we’ve got that worked out, let’s heal this man. I think we found the problem.”
They both stare down at the gray area of the old man’s heart. It looks dead and lifeless.
“Try to make it turn pink, like the rest of the heart,” Matt says. “I’ll do the same.” Matt says.
“Got it.” An intense look of concentration moves across Leo’s face.
A spot of pink appears in the middle of the gray mass. As he gazes at it, Matt wills it to grow and spread. He is surprised how quickly it happens. Within a few seconds, the entire heart muscle is the same color, pink and healthy. No gray tissue.
“Good work,” Matt says. “Let’s move on to the brain. I saw a tumor growing near the core.” Sweeping his vision to the head of the man, Matt’s eyes quickly penetrate through the scalp and skull, finding the disc shaped object with radiating tendrils.
“I see it,” Leo says. “Brain cancer?”
“No idea. But it has to go. Just doesn’t look right.”
Leo nods on the other side of the man’s body. “Agreed.”
As they both stare at it, the mass shrivels to nothing and disappears with a few seconds of effort.
“Wow,” Leo says. “I’ve never seen it happen this fast.” He looks up with a big smile.
“Me either. We make a good team.” Matt drops his eyes back down. “I’m going to do a final body scan and see if there’s anything else.”
He sweeps the old man’s body from end to end, switching at intervals from viewing bones to muscles to nerves. It’s like watching a holo movie in a college anatomy class, except that he controls the images himself.
“There’s a black spot on that funny shape at the bottom of the stomach,” Leo says. “Looks like the bottom of a cowboy boot.”
“Pancreas,” Matt says.
“Let’s zap it.”
The black spot disappears as they look at it.
“Done. Can you see anything else?”
“Nope,” Leo says. “He’s as good as new.”
“Then it’s time to go back.”
“Just wondering.” Leo’s voice is tinged with worry. “How do we go back?”
Matt closes his eyes and breathes deeply. “I think I know. Just think about the room. See it in your mind.” The air shifts around him. He opens his eyes and sees Leo kneeling on the other side of the old man.
A grin passes between them as they lift their hands off the man’s head.
The man looks up, first at Leo and then at Matt. His fingers go up to his chest. A toothless grin flashes on his weather-beaten face. Jumping to his feet, he put his palms together, touches the fingertips to his forehead, and bows at Matt and Leo.
“Obrigado,” he says. Then he walks to the door, stops, turns, bows again and walks out into the moist night air.
A woman moves between Matt and Leo, placing her hands on her abdomen and looking up at them with pleading eyes.
“Here we go again,” Matt puts his hands on the woman’s head. “Should be a lot easier the second time.”
CHAPTER 55
Jake sits down in the air transport seat, his eyebrows rising high above the rims of the aviator glasses, his head slowly turning from right to left. “I still don’t understand how you did it.” His voice drops to a whisper. “No interrogation, no questions. Smooth as silk through the security portal.”
Kent chuckles. “Just have to know how to play the game.”
Jake faces forward. “How many hours until we touch down in Bangkok?” He lifts his hand up and pushes the aviators higher on the bridge of his nose. Kent sees the trembling in his fingers.
“We snagged a direct flight. Six hours at the most.”
Kent shakes his head, muttering to himself. “Six hours. Six hours of hell.”
CHAPTER 56
Ryzaard opens his eyes and tears the oxygen mask from his face. It feels like someone is pounding a 12-penny nail into the back of his head.
“Where am I?” he asks.
“In your office.” Jing-wei looks down at him. “Lying on the sofa.” She turns to her right. “Dr. Small has been taking care of you. Your face and neck—”
“My face and neck will be fine.” He touches the bandages on his face.
Dr. Small pops into view above him.
“With all due respect, Dr. Ryzaard, you should get some rest. I had to use sutures on that nasty gash on your face. How did that—”
In a flash, Ryzaard raises himself from the sofa and holds Dr. Small with both hands by the lapels of his white doctor’s lab coat.
“You dirty little bast—”
Jing-wei puts her hands between the two men, a look of alarm on her face. “Dr. Ryzaard. Please lie back down. You’re hurt.”
He pushes her out of the way with the sweep of an arm.
“What did you give the patient?”
“Dr. Ryzaard, I assure you that—”
“Answer the question!” Ryzaard’s voice rises to a yell. “What did you give him?” He lifts the lapels of Dr. Small’s lab coat high enough to rip the cloth.
Dr. Small involuntarily rises up on his toes.
“Zolpidren. It’s a standard—”
“How much?” Ryzaard’s voice booms inches from Small’s face.
“Twenty ccs, no more.”
“You’re lying.” Ryzaard lets go of Dr. Small and drops him to the floor. Then he straightens his tweed jacket and walks through the open door into the round room.
Dr. Small picks himself up off the floor and runs behind Ryzaard. “He’s resting right now. I’ve got him on a light sedation. He’s still in unstable condition and will need some time to rest. Please don’t disturb—”
Little John lies on the bed. A tube runs between his wrist and a machine, its green lights pulsing in rhythm to his heartbeat. A look of restful contentment plays across his face.
Rushing to the side of the bed, Ryzaard picks up the machine and rips it away. The tube trails behind it, dripping crimson. He takes a step and throws it against the wall, shattering the bluescreen and sending a shower of sparks to the floor.
“Dr. Ryzaard, please don’t engage the implant.” Dr. Small stands a body length away, out of reach. “I know you’re upset, but the patient is in a delicate state.”
Ryzaard’s eyes scour the floor, looking for the green controller. He lunges at the stainless steel cart, searching its instruments, sweeping his hand across its surface and scattering the contents in every direction.
He swings around and faces Dr. Small. “Where is it?”
“Where is what?” Dr. Small begins backing up in the direction of the door. His hand slips into a pocket.
Ryzaard surges forward and tackles Dr. Small to the ground in a mad frenzy. “Give it to me.” The long fingers of his hands wrap around Dr. Small’s narrow neck and begin to squeeze.
As Dr. Small’s face glows bright red, he pulls h
is hand out of the pocket and raises it up, holding the controller between his fingers.
Without a word, Ryzaard snatches it away and runs back in the direction of Little John.
“I beg you. Don’t re-engage the implant.” Small’s hands go up to his neck. The deep red color drains out of his face. “It will kill him. At least allow me to increase the sedation.”
Ryzaard runs to a cluttered side table and clears its surface with a single sweep of his arm. “I don’t want him to be sedated.” He picks a medical supply box up and empties its contents onto the table. “I want him to be wide awake, hyper-alert, profoundly sensitive.”
Small’s eyes widen. “No, you can’t.”
Ryzaard grabs a silver tube with a needle on the tip. “Watch me.” He rushes back to Little John and towers over him. Then he raises his arm.
A voice behind Ryzaard rises to a high pitch.
“No. Not the adrezol. It’ll be too much of a shock.”
Ryzaard brings the point of the tube down and stabs it into Little John’s exposed thigh.
As if from some internal explosion, Little John’s body rises against the restraining straps, hands hardening into fists, eyes shooting open. He starts to hyperventilate.
“Good,” Ryzaard says. “Very good. Are you awake Little John? Really awake? Nothing like a shot of pure adrenaline to clear one’s mind.” In his other hand, he holds the green controller. “Time to get back to work.” Without another word, he brushes his finger along the entire length of its surface.
The implant under Little John’s ear glows a light shade of green. Veins of dark color streak through its interior.
The sound that erupts from his mouth can be heard all the way to the science lab.
CHAPTER 57
Ryzaard calmly sits down in his chair. He looks in the direction of a jax on the desk.
“How is the trading protocol, Elsa?”
“Working well, Dr. Ryzaard. Better than ever. What did you do?”
“I made a few adjustments to the way we handle the new Stone. It is great to hear that it’s working so well.” He reaches out and brushes a finger against the jax, turning it off.
“I’ve heard about your adjustments to the program for the new Stone.” Alexa stirs on the sofa. “Adrenaline injections every hour on the hour around the clock to induce unrelenting jolts of clarity. No letting up. No sleep time. How long do you think Little John will last? Dr. Small doesn’t sound optimistic.”
Ryzaard stands up and gazes out the window, hands clasped behind his back. “Small will no longer be an obstacle to our work. Arrangements have been made. We will keep Little John hyper-alert and alive for the foreseeable future.”
“What sort of arrangements?”
“We have a new doctor on duty,” Ryzaard says. “One with less compassion and more intelligence.”
“I see. But what if—”
Waiving his hand in front of his face, Ryzaard signals that the current topic of conversation is closed.
“So,” he says. “Bring me up to date on developments with the freedom camp raid. I’ve been too busy to read any of the reports.”
Alexa clears her throat. She has good news, and she knows it. “As you know, we did a thorough sweep of the camp.”
“Yes, as I instructed. But you found no evidence of a Stone.”
“Correct,” Alexa says. “No Stone. But perhaps something almost as good. Take a look.” She stands up from the sofa and walks to the window, holding her jax out to Ryzaard.
He twists around and stares down at her hand. A blue holo screen plays in the air above it.
“Do you recognize him?” she says.
Ryzaard squints slightly. “Hard to say. There is something familiar about the face.”
“Of course there is. It’s Matt’s father.”
Ryzaard’s hand jumps out and brings the jax closer. He stares at the holo screen with new interest. “You’re certain?”
“No question. We put a tracking bug on him at the camp before he was released. It’s been interesting to listen to him and his travelling companion for the last few hours. I’ll forward the transcripts to you. One thing is clear. They know about the Stones. That’s all they’re talking about. We’ve learned quite a bit, actually.”
“Really,” Ryzaard says. “I’m impressed. What have you learned?”
“For starters, we know where they’re going. Little John left instructions in case he disappeared. They’re executing on those plans and taking a trip. They just boarded an airplane in Denver. They seem to think it will lead them to Matt.”
Ryzaard turns back to the window. “Where are they off to?”
“Thailand.”
“The land of smiles,” Ryzaard says. “When do they arrive?”
“In less than three hours.” Alexa looks up at him, focusing on the bandages on his neck and face.
“Have my transport ready in ten minutes.”
“Where are you going?” Alexa has a confused look on her face.
“To Thailand, of course.”
Alexa stands up from the sofa. “You may want to heal those wounds before you go.”
“I’ll meet you in the transport in five.” Ryzaard pulls a new tweed jacket off the back of his chair. “Have Jerek load the spare Null Box, and send a full briefing to my jax. I’ll read it on the way.”
CHAPTER 58
Little John closes his eyes. The lids drop down, but the view doesn’t change.
He knows the confrontation with Ryzaard has sealed his fate. As expected, he’s been thrown back into the alternate reality hell from which he had been pulled a short hour before.
The same hideous monster rises up out of the depths below and swallows his head and shoulders. Out of its throat, the same worm with rough dry scales emerges to fill his mouth and slither down his throat. The same surges of pain roll up and down his spinal column, radiating outward, causing arms and legs to splay out in a rigid spread eagle fashion.
But one thing is different now. It takes time before he notices it. The drunken stupor he had felt before is gone, replaced with a strange alertness that is both refreshing and alarming.
It makes the pain so intense and constant that it becomes concrete, something he can touch, an object that can be viewed from different angles, like an exquisite sculpture in a museum. The clarity of his senses has opened a new path, a way for him to analyze his own suffering. That means he can compartmentalize it and separate himself from it.
He discovers that he no longer wishes for death.
With the pain under control and an overabundance of concentration, he has the resources to devote his energy to a careful study of this new world into which he has been thrust.
The most obvious fact pressing on him is the worm filling his mouth and extending down his throat into the warm depths of his belly. It is from there that the pain radiates out in long arcs up and down his spine. It’s clear that, in this alternate reality, the worm plays a key role.
And then it dawns on him.
The worm is the connection between him and Ryzaard’s Stone.
When he focuses intense concentration on it, the worm moves. He can’t get it to disengage completely from its nest in his belly, but he can get it to slide in and out, a little in each direction.
At first, it’s a game. The worm moves in. The worm moves out. Dry scales slowly sliding over one’s tongue is not a pleasant sensation. But it’s another diversion from the pain, another reality on which to focus his attention.
And then the worm begins to change. The scales become smoother, less painful on his tongue and throat. At some point, they entirely disappear, leaving a glassy smooth body that shrinks in size. The vile taste of burnt sulfur fades away.
But the biggest change of all comes when the entire worm slips past his tongue and disappears into his belly.
To his utter surprise, the monster teeth embedded in his shoulder blades and chest release their grip, and the hideous creature with shark teeth
pulls away, leaving Little John staring out into the depths of space.
A bright object in the distance catches his attention.
CHAPTER 59
Just before dawn, the last of the visitors is healed and walks out the door.
Matt sits on the floor with his back to the wall, exhausted from the work of the night. Yarah lies with her head on his lap, sleeping peacefully.
In the silence, his thoughts are pulled to Jessica.
Ryzaard won’t kill her, but what if he harms her? Would he dare? The power Matt felt while joined to Leo’s Stone was incredible. Together, they might have a chance to stop Ryzaard. How can Matt convince Leo, this young peacemaker who only wants to heal people, to join him in a fight that may bring death?
“Word travels quickly here in the Forbidden City,” Leo says. “Many more will come tomorrow. Now that another Healer has arrived, they will fill the house from morning to evening. For weeks on end.” His eyes float up to Matt’s face. “I know you’re in a hurry. Do you have time to eat?”
“There’s no sense leaving on an empty stomach.” Matt exhales a long breath, but doesn’t ask whether Leo will be coming with him.
“I can smell my aunt making food. It should be ready soon.”
Matt leans his back against the wall. He must approach Leo slowly and carefully.
“Each time we healed together, I felt the power increase in intensity. The Stones are much stronger when used together. I’m glad I came here first.” Matt pats Leo on the back. “You and I make a good team.”
Leo’s eyes drop to the floor. “How did you know how to do it?”
“Do what?”
“Join the Stones together,” Leo says. “I had no idea how it would work, but you just understood.”
Matt gazes out the dirty window at the dim light on the other side of the narrow pathway between buildings. “It was your words,” he says. “The words the Allehonen gave you. Love and trust. Do not seek for power. I came close to killing you and taking your Stone before I realized what I was doing.”
