Stones: Hypothesis (Stones #2)

by Jacob Whaler

  As they speak, a short woman in a tent dress enters from the kitchen off to the side and places a large bowl of steaming soup on the floor in front of Matt and Leo. She drops two smaller eating bowls in front of each of them.

  Leo looks up. “Obrigado.”

  The woman smiles and moves back into the kitchen.

  Matt inhales the aroma of beans and meat. His stomach reminds him how long it’s been since he’s eaten.

  “My favorite,” Leo says. “Feijoada. Black bean soup.” He grabs the white handle sticking out of the pot and drops a ladleful into Matt’s bowl. Then he puts three ladlefuls in his own bowl. “Please try it.”

  “Looks delicious.” Matt digs in a spoon.

  “It is.”

  Matt makes a quick bow with his head and then opens his mouth. “Itadakimasu.” He raises the spoon to his lips.

  Leo reaches out to stop him from eating.

  “Two things before you eat. First, watch out for the hot sauce. This is made for Brazilians, not Americans. Second, let’s thank the Lord before we partake.” He puts his hands together and says a short prayer in mumbled Portuguese.

  The instant he finishes, Leo grabs his bowl and begins savoring a mouthful before Matt can take a breath.

  After an initial frenzy of eating, Leo leans back against the wall and exhales, long and loud. “I love this stuff. Grew up on it in Boston. Never get tired of it. Reminds me of my mom.”

  “I know what you mean,” Matt says. “Japanese food does the same thing for me.”

  Leo’s mouth is full of the black delight. “She must have been a great person.”

  “Who?”

  “Your mom,” Leo says. “I saw her at the beach. In your memories. She seemed like a nice lady. Gentle and kind.”

  “All that and more. Was that the day my dad and I went surfing?”

  “It looked like it. Sunny skies. Endless sand.” Leo takes in another spoonful. “It must have been great, spending time with your parents like that.”

  Matt puts his spoon down in the bowl and leans back. “San Diego. Mission Beach. I remember it like it was yesterday. We took a family vacation every summer, no matter how busy my dad was.”

  “I’m sorry about what happened to her.”

  “You know?”

  “I heard what your dad said. How they ki—” Leo stops, as if he doesn’t want to say the word.

  “Killed her,” Matt says. “Go ahead and say it.” He looks down into his bowl. “Whoever did it is still looking for me and my dad. As luck would have it, it’s the same company that Ryzaard runs.”

  Leo looks up at Matt. “Who is Ryzaard? Why does he want the Stones so badly?”

  “You didn’t see that part?”

  “Just skimmed over it. He looks like a real piece of merda. Pardon my Portuguese.” Leo fills his bowl again.

  “He’s smart and dangerous, driven by a lust for power. Blind to anyone’s opinion but his own. He actually thinks he’s doing all of us a big favor by eliminating all suffering. Says he wants to remake the world, to do away with evil, to bring back Paradise, the Millennium.”

  “A thousand years of peace.” Leo’s voice is low, as if he is talking to the beans in his bowl.

  “More like a thousand years of slavery. Only it won’t be over when the thousand years are up. I think he intends to rule forever as a benevolent dictator. But I’ve seen how he treats people. Kills anyone who gets in his way without remorse or a second thought. Not so benevolent. Life under him would be a living hell.”

  “How can you stop him?”

  “There’s only one way.” Matt selects a large chunk of meat and begins to chew it. “Unite the other Stones against him.”

  Leo stares into his bowl, stirring it occasionally with the spoon. After his feverish eating, he has suddenly stopped. “You’re talking about fighting a war. Maybe even killing people. I don’t think I can do that. I’m a Healer, remember? Maybe it’s better if we just let him win.”

  A subtle glow of anger warms in Matt’s belly. “I’ve seen the kind of world Ryzaard wants to build. He won’t tolerate anything less than perfection and order as he defines it. This slum and the people in it won’t last long. With the power of the other Stones, he’ll wipe this whole area out with a sweep of his arms.”

  “Are you sure?” Leo eyes go to his aunt working in the kitchen. “Maybe we could convince him to spare places like this.”

  “Listen to me.” As gently as possible, Matt moves Leo’s head until they are staring into each other’s eyes. “Ryzaard is not motivated by love. He hates the Allehonen. He thinks that freedom brings chaos and suffering, so he’s going to eliminate freedom. If we don’t join him, he’ll kill us and take our Stones. We’re the only ones that stand between him and her.” Matt turns to look at Leo’s aunt, working in the kitchen, humming a quiet tune to herself.

  Leo’s gaze fixes on his aunt for a long time. His eyes mist over, and a single tear draws a wet line down his cheek. He looks back to his bowl and pushes a bean with his spoon. “It’s hard to just walk away from these people.” He motions outward with the spoon, encompassing the whole of the Forbidden City in one sweep.

  Haven’t you heard a single thing I’ve said? Matt thinks.

  Anger pushes upward, fighting for a release. A dark thought pops into his mind.

  If this kid won’t help me, I have no choice but to kill him and take his Stone.

  Matt shakes his head and lets the thought pass. “I understand.” He exhales, long and slow. “I wish I could go back to my nice, quiet life. But it’s too late for that.” He stirs his soup.

  “The world has abandoned the people here in the flavela. You saw what happened in this room tonight. They have no one to look after them. They need me.” He sets his bowl on the floor and stands up. “Besides, this isn’t my fight. I don’t know Ryzaard. He doesn’t know me. He’s never done anything to hurt me. If I cooperate, he won’t kill me.”

  Matt thinks about it. Leo is right. It’s not his fight. He is needed here in the flavela. He has a good heart. He wants to help people, and it’s clear they love him. Why should he walk away and get involved in someone else’s problems? Besides, he’s just a kid. How can Matt ask him to put his life at risk?

  He swallows, and the truth becomes clear.

  Leo’s life is already at risk. Ryzaard can track the Stones. Eventually, he will find Leo. It’s just a matter of time. If Leo refuses to join Ryzaard, heart and soul, he will be killed. The choices are simple. Fight and risk being killed. Do nothing and risk being killed. Either way, it’s a grim future for both of them.

  Matt stands up and walks to the window. “What else did the Allehonen say to you?”

  Leo stares into his bowl. “Not much. She said you would come.”

  “And?”

  Leo rolls his eyes, as if trying to remember. “She said It is time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “She didn’t say.” Leo looks up. “Do you know what she meant?”

  Matt stands motionless, thinking about the words. Their meaning is clear enough, but he has to approach this carefully, delicately.

  His backpack leans against the wall near the door, right where he dropped when he first entered the room. He walks to it. “I’d like to show you something. It may help you understand.” Reaching down into an outside pocket, he takes out the leather-bound book and hands it to Leo.

  “What’s this?” Leo says.

  “I guess you could say it’s a list. You’re on it.”

  Leo thumbs through it like one might a paperback novel. “It’s all written in Chinese. Where did you get it?”

  “Japanese, actually. I got it from the old man I told you about. He was a Shinto priest and had a Stone. His name was Naganuma. Ryzaard killed him a few days ago. Before he died, he sent me a message. He wanted me to have this.”

  “So, it’s a list of—” Leo’s eyes turned into large brown circles.

  “Yes,” Matt says. “A list of the k
nown Stone Holders in the world. Eleven in all. Names and locations. It’s how I found you.”

  Leo’s voice trembles. “How did the Japanese man get this? How could he know who the Stone Holders are and where they live?”

  Matt takes the book back and looks down at its worn pages. “He was a master of the Stones and dedicated his life to their study. He once told me the Stones are all connected. If you know how to do it, one Stone will lead you to the others.”

  “If your friend knew where the Stones were, why didn’t he come after them, try to gather them himself?”

  Matt smiles. “Think about it. The Allehonen already answered your question.”

  “Because it was not yet the right time?”

  “Exactly,” Matt says. “Now do you understand?”

  It. Is. Time.

  Leo repeats the words, like a mantra, nodding his head with each one. He disappears into a back room and returns moments later with his own backpack.

  “I’m ready. Where are we going?”

  CHAPTER 60

  Tomoyuki Miyazawa waits until the rotors of the heli-transport stop whipping the air and come to a gentle stop. He steps out of the metallic interior on to a sea of white pebbles, each the size of a pearl. Straightening himself up to his full height of 6 feet 3 inches, his wide sleeves droop down from his hands and glide just centimeters off the ground. A starched tunic the color of neon snow runs down his chest past his knees. Matching pants billow out around his legs. A black cap shaped like a sailboat rises to a high point on the top of his head.

  Dressed in full Shinto ceremonial regalia, he walks across the grounds, crunching white pebbles underfoot with every step. He has come to Beijing to officiate at the groundbreaking of a pristine Shinto shrine in the heart of the city. As he moves forward to the freshly painted torii gate, his image is broadcast on glass screens thirty meters high in eight hundred and eighty-eight other locations throughout China where this ceremony commemorates the groundbreaking of an equal number of identical shrines.

  The work is moving much faster than Miyazawa could possibly have imagined. Cities vie for the honor of hosting a new Shinto shrine. Chinese officials fall all over themselves to welcome this new cultural exchange with their Asian brothers.

  Of course, it doesn’t hurt that each shrine comes with the promise of enough Japanese IMUs to insure a lifetime of comfort for any civic leader that decides to support it.

  Within the first week, he burned completely through the initial installment of 500 billion IMUs from MX Global. Money was the universal language, and it was spoken fluently throughout China. Each time money flowed out of the account, it was replenished within hours from some unseen source. No questions.

  He pauses under the crimson torii gate. It arrived hours before and stands freshly installed where there were only unsightly apartment buildings before. The former inhabitants have been severed from their ancestral lands and relocated to a far corner of the city. A two-meter layer of white pebbles has been spread on the filthy ground to purify it and prepare it to receive the pre-fabricated Shinto shrine, already under construction in Japan and set to arrive within hours.

  Miyazawa thinks of Naganuma, his teacher and mentor. He wonders why Naganuma resisted Ryzaard’s generous offer to greatly accelerate the expansion of Shinto across the world. On numerous occasions, the old Japanese priest had reminded Miyazawa that Ryzaard was a dangerous ally, one that required careful watching and constant suspicion.

  In the end, the kami spirits that lived in every mountain, tree and rock had turned against Naganuma, withdrawing their protection and allowing him to die.

  What further proof does Miyazawa need that Naganuma was wrong to resist Ryzaard? He lived as a fool, and he met a fool’s end.

  Miyazawa does not intend to make the same mistake. Ryzaard’s proposal was a gift from the kami, the beginning of a new golden age of worldwide Shinto, presided over by Miyazawa. There is no doubt in his mind as he walks across the sea of white to the ceremonial platform, constructed of freshly cut Japanese cedar, that he will be remembered by future generations as the one that rescued Shinto from obscurity.

  Someday, shrines will be raised to his name.

  Only one doubt pulls on his mind on this glorious morning, marring its perfection. Naganuma’s little leather book. What secrets were concealed within it? Why had Naganuma kept it so close, even sleeping with it tucked deep inside his robes? Of all the personal possessions of Naganuma, of which there were only a few, this was the one item that Miyazawa hoped to retrieve.

  The thought will not let go, even as he ascends the wooden steps of the platform and receives a deep bow from the mayor of Beijing.

  CHAPTER 61

  A second wave of hunger hits Matt for the black bean soup that Leo calls feijoada. Now that Matt has tried it, there is something slightly addicting about it. Like gyoza.

  In the space of a few minutes, Matt has witnessed a miracle. Leo has changed his mind. The kid is not only ready to go with Matt, but is excited about it.

  “Come. Sit down,” Matt says. “I’m still hungry. And we need to talk.”

  “In private?” Leo says.

  “Absolutely.”

  Leo walks to the front door of the house, makes sure it is shut, and secures it by pushing a bar on the wall across the door. He pulls the grimy drapes over the small window looking out on the narrow path separating this apartment building from the one next door.

  Matt’s eye goes to the pudgy woman working in the kitchen. “What about your aunt?”

  “Ana? Don’t worry. She doesn’t hear well and knows about as much English as our little Yarah.” He glances at the girl asleep on a blanket in the corner. “Anyway, she’s a great cook. We might get hungry again.”

  Leo sits next to the warm pot of beans and helps himself to another bowl. Matt does the same.

  They eat together, silently savoring the last of the soup. Matt lays down his bowl and takes his Stone out of his pocket, balancing it on his palm.

  “You’re good with the Stone,” Matt says. “You’ve actually had yours longer than I’ve had mine. But I’ve seen Ryzaard. He tried to kill me. This won’t be easy. We have to be prepared to face him.”

  Leo laughs, and some black juice leaks out of the corner of his mouth. “But the Allehonen said it’s time. They’re on our side. They’ll help us. Why should we worry?”

  It takes a massive amount of willpower for Matt to resist the temptation to roll his eyes. He manages to just smile at this youthful display of optimism.

  In his mind’s eye, he sees his dad standing in the kitchen back home, trying to talk a sixteen-year-old Matt out of shredding the Chute on the backside of Fool’s Peak in early April.

  He breathes in slowly, thinks about his own twenty-two years of life and looks into the kid’s young eyes, repeating the same seven words that his dad said to him so many years ago.

  “Listen carefully. I want you to understand.”

  “Understand what?” Leo says. There’s no trace of annoyance about an impending lecture.

  Matt puts his hands together and steeples his fingers, just like his dad. “Did the Woman that visited you in your dreams show you anything about her home world?”

  “Her home world?” Leo says. “What do you mean?”

  “A few days ago, she came to me and showed me her death.”

  “I don’t understand. She’s not dead.”

  “It must have happened far in her past. The way it happened was . . . unsettling. I’ve been thinking about it ever since, trying to understand. I think I do now.” Matt leans back against the wall and finds a comfortable position.

  “Was it a vision?”

  “Yes, you might say that. I could tell you about it, but I think it’s better if you see it for yourself. Are you willing to try?”

  Leo’s voice jumps up an octave with excitement. “Can you bring the Allehonen here?”

  Matt shakes his head. “No, but maybe I can do the next best thing. P
ick up your Stone.”

  Leo pulls it out of a side pocket of his cargo pants. “Got it. What do I do now?”

  “Remember when we were healing the people, how we were able to see into each other’s memories?”

  “Yes,” Leo says. “No secrets.”

  “Did you see any of my visions of the Allehonen?”

  “Now that you mention it, no.”

  “I don’t remember seeing any of your visions either, even though they’re obviously some of the most incredible experiences and memories you’ve ever had.”

  Leo nods. “So you think the visions are protected?”

  “Perhaps,” Matt says. “And I think I know why, but let’s save that for later. For now, I want to test my theory.” Matt moves so that he is sitting on the floor exactly opposite Leo. “Close your eyes, just like before when we were healing the people. I’ll do the same. Open yourself to me. I’ll be waiting. I’ll try to find the vision and show it to you.”

  Matt closes his eyes and enters meditation mode, focusing his inner awareness on the gentle rise and fall of his belly with the breath.

  The changes happen faster this time.

  Within seconds, they are floating together in a vast expanse of dark space, each of them a luminous being.

  Matt speaks without moving his lips. He simply thinks the words.

  Can you hear me? Are you ready?

  Leo smiles, looking even more angelic than before.

  Yes, I am ready.

  Matt isn’t sure exactly what to do next, so he stares at Leo, who’s like an open book. His thoughts and feelings, memories and experiences, all radiate out to Matt. All he has to do is open his mind, making room for the stream of information to flow into him. For a while, he stands in the stillness of space, soaking it all up like a sponge.

  He sees Leo as a small child living in a colonial-style mansion in Boston, the only child of immigrants from Brazil. A long series of nannies and helpers float through his mind, some kind and warm, others stern and distant. He adores and idolizes his parents and longs to be with them. They have many tearful goodbyes. Young Leo stretches his arms out and is pulled back as his parents travel abroad for long stretches. His father is a well-known doctor with an international clientele. His mother is a fashion designer, always beautiful in her flowing gowns and long hair.