by Jacob Whaler
Ryzaard swings around to face her.
“It’s the kid,” he says. “I’m certain of it. He’s here to collect a Stone. He may have already gathered one ally. Another Stone Holder.” Ryzaard walks closer to Alexa and punches a hole through the wall less than a foot from her head. He swings around and puts an elbow through the same wall a couple of feet away.
“Probably just a couple of monks with Stones.” Alexa forces a smile. “Nothing to worry about.”
Ryzaard drops down into a chair, breathes in deeply and exhales slowly, trying to slow his heart rate.
“I hope you’re right,” he says. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
CHAPTER 74
“Move!” Matt yells.
He pivots to the left just as the huge monkey slams the tip of a Stone into the wall where his forehead was a split second earlier. Leo has already jumped away. The wood paneling explodes into red splinters. The monkey pushes off the wall and looks around for Matt, clearly surprised that it missed him.
Matt and Leo run to the opposite side of the room.
The monkey explodes into a fit of rage, shrieking loudly and banging its hands on the floor as its mouth opens to the ceiling, fangs exposed to the air.
Then it bounds to Matt, landing once in the middle of the room and leaping high in the air with arms outstretched.
As Matt jumps to the right, the monkey’s free hand shoots out and rakes across his face. Matt stumbles away from the wall, and his hand instinctively reaches up to touch his cheek. It comes away drenched in red.
The monkey doesn’t hesitate this time. It pushes off the wall with powerful legs and slams into Matt’s chest. Using the claws of its hands and feet, it rips at his clothes, tearing off one sleeve and leaving a long gash down his arm. Raising the Stone, the beast brings it down hard in an arc that will intersect with the bridge of Matt’s nose.
Matt twists as the Stone grazes his hairline. Pivoting away, he swings the point of his own Stone squarely into the creature’s hairy back, drawing blood.
The monkey raises its head, bares its fangs and emits a high-pitched scream.
Sensing an opening, Matt lunges forward and thrusts the monkey away with a powerful push. He catches it off balance, and it sprawls backward across the floor. As he gets up to his feet, a sharp pain shoots through his thigh. Half his pant leg has been torn away, and a foot-long gash above his knee pours blood that dribbles to the floor with each heartbeat.
The creature stands three meters away, hunched over, struggling for breath. Its bloodshot eyes stare back at Matt without expression of any kind. It begins to inch forward, preparing for another lunge.
Before Matt can react, it explodes out of a crouched position. The full weight of its body hits him in the chest. Matt loses his balance as his heels come off the ground, and he stumbles backward onto the floor.
For an instant, Matt can’t breathe or move. The creature sits on his chest and lifts the Stone in both hands, aiming the point at the middle of his chest.
It’s over, Matt thinks.
Leo rises up behind the monkey and swings a wooden pole like a baseball bat. It catches the creature on the side of its head and cracks in two.
The monkey turns to see Leo, the broken pole dangling from his hands.
It screams and jumps off Matt.
Leo backs up against wall, arms and legs trembling. The pole slips from his hands and clatters to the floor.
Getting to his feet, Matt clutches the Stone in his right hand. His eyelids close for an instant.
Now or never.
The creature looks back and forth between Matt and Leo, breathing heavily. Then it bares its teeth and lunges at Leo.
Dropping into a crouching position and rolling away, he covers his head with his arms.
The monkey slams into the wall just above Leo, sending shards of wood paneling in every direction. It lands with its feet on the floor. With a quick twist, it reaches out and wraps its fingers around Leo’s arm. Its other hand goes high, poised to finally bring the point of the Stone down on Leo’s head.
“Stop!” Matt shouts.
A buzzing noise starts just a few feet from the monkey’s back. Its ears prick up, and its head slowly turns in the direction of the sound.
Matt stands less than two paces away, holding his Stone with both hands. A beam of white plasma rises from the Stone, broad and curved like the blade of a scythe.
The monkey drops its hands and stares at the blade, following its every movement, the light reflected in its dark pupils.
“Watch this,” Matt says.
He drives the blade into the wooden floor. A hole large enough to swallow a man opens up in an explosion of flame and smoke.
The monkey backs away.
“Good boy.” Matt moves closer to the monkey.
It takes another step back, still transfixed by the light.
“Leo, come stand behind me,” Matt says. “Slowly.”
Still trembling, Leo stands with his back to the wall and slides away from the monkey. His eyes drop down to the Stone. “How did you do that?”
“Remember what I said. See it in your mind.” Matt keeps his attention fixed on the creature.
Leo lets his eyelids drop down and takes in a succession of slow, careful breaths.
A full minute passes as Matt waves the blade back and forth, the monkey tracking his every move.
A beam of energy emerges from Leo’s Stone, shaped like a spear with a point on the end. He aims it squarely at the monkey.
With the additional light coming from another direction, the creature stumbles backward and trips over a wooden bench. Staggering to its feet, eyes wide with fear, it looks back and forth between Matt and Leo.
“Time to end this,” Matt says.
“You’re going to kill it?”
“I should, but something tells me to wait. I’ll probably regret it.” Matt moves forward and pivots his blade to the right.
The creature steps back, keeping the burning light squarely in front of it.
After a couple of minutes working together, Matt and Leo maneuver the monkey out of the large room and into the long hallway it came from.
“Make your beam longer,” Matt says. “Be careful. Just let it grow slowly. No sudden movement.”
Both of the blades extend out to meet the monkey, but it stands its ground. Matt allows his to slowly grow until the tip of it just touches the monkey’s chest.
It shrieks in pain, staggers backward, and turns, running down the dark hall and disappearing down the stairs at the other end. Its screams grew fainter until the only sound remaining is the buzz of the energy blades.
Matt relaxes, and his blade disappears.
Leo does the same.
Matt’s eyeballs roll back into his head as the lids drop down. He slumps to the floor in a pool of blood. The back of his head hits the wood planks with a sickening thud.
He tries to keep his eyes open as nausea explodes in his stomach. The air grows thinner, and the sound of birds and insects returns.
The last thing he remembers is an old monk staring down at him, a horrified look on his face.
CHAPTER 75
Still suspended in the alternate reality of deep space, Little John waits for the next jolt of awareness to wash through him. When it comes, he opens his eyes and turns his palms so they face the burning sun like solar panels.
His entire body is the deep orange color of a Maui sunset.
The huge orb calls out to him, and he yearns to disappear into its fiery interior, but no amount of effort draws it closer.
Focusing inward on the movement of the worm in his belly, he feels it range inside his abdomen from the lower reaches all the way up into his chest. Always, its teeth are sunk deep into his spine, the source of the pain that forces him into a spread eagle posture, back arched, arms and legs splayed out in the shape of an X. Any attempt to change that posture brings unrelenting agony.
And so the agony itself becomes t
he object of his study, his teacher and mentor.
At first, he can only bear a slight change in posture, a bending forward of the neck or an almost imperceptible lowering of the arms, before the pain sweeps all before it and forces him to relax into the X pose.
But this, too, becomes a game.
With each passing cycle of concentration, his ability to separate himself from the pain improves. There is no change in the level of pain. The only change comes in the way he is able to perceive the pain, to see that it is not him.
The pain is separate from him.
With that realization, and with time and practice, he learns to curl himself tightly into a ball, gripping knees to his chest, and hold that position while slowly counting through infinite suffering. Then he releases his grip and feels his body thrown back into the default position. At first, it takes all his effort to make it to ten. In time he knows he can make it to a hundred and beyond.
Pain is his constant companion, and so he makes pain his friend.
When the next wave of clarity hits, he draws upon all his strength, wraps himself into a ball and begins to count. At thirteen, he can no longer hold the pose. His arms and legs uncurl and shoot out, and his body is launched into a backward bend that arches his spine at an unnatural angle.
For a split second, he finds himself staring into the vast blackness of space behind his body.
And there he sees it distinctly.
Numerous brilliant pinpoints of light in the fabric of space.
Little John calls out to them.
CHAPTER 76
As he slips into unconsciousness, Matt floats in a sea of voices.
They are above him, below him, around him, everywhere.
Each one has its own distinct sound and quality. Some are gentle and submissive. Some are violent and demanding. Others are dull and listless, drifting without direction or purpose. He listens to them all, billions of them, without effort or strain.
He begins to search for a particular voice, one that he longs to hear.
He finds it and listens. The words feel good, comfortable, right. They resonate deeply within him. The other voices drop away until this is the only one. Matt opens his eyes and gazes at the voice. Its colors play through the enveloping whiteness and pull him closer. He goes willingly to its source and finds her, floating alone.
He holds her close for a long time in silence, her head on his breast. His fingers caress her long hair and find her hand to close tightly around it.
She lets her head fall back and looks up into his eyes. “I need you.” Tears drop down from large brown eyes onto smiling lips. “So many questions. Where are you? Are you safe? Are you alone?”
“Jessica,” he says. “I’m safe. Another Holder has joined me. A fourteen-year-old boy named Leo. He has a good heart. We are searching for others with Stones. We will become strong. And then we will come after you. Are you safe?”
She smiles, and he feels the warmth exuding from her body.
“Yes, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Ryzaard has me locked up in a penthouse near his office. The windows are blacked out, so I don’t know the address. He won’t hurt me until he finds you. I’m the bait. He wants you to come for me. And then he will kill us both.”
Matt exults in her presence. “I can’t leave you there. You know that.”
“It’s too dangerous. That’s exactly what he wants. It’s a trap. He’ll kill you. Or worse.”
“I know more about the Stones now. I won’t be alone. I’ll have help, and I’ll find a way.” Matt’s hand goes down to her face and runs through her hair behind her ear. “I won’t leave you there.”
Jessica puts her fingers up to Matt’s lips. “Be careful what you say to me. Don’t tell me where you are. Ryzaard has ways to make me talk, to make me tell the truth about you. I try to resist, but I can’t. I don’t want to betray you.” She reaches up and guides her fingers into his thick black hair like a comb. They run down the back of his head and neck, along his shoulder and down his arm. “He’s looking for you. He wants to find you more than anything. You are the only one that can stand up to him. There’s something else you need to know about him.”
“What?” Matt says.
“He has three Stones now,” Jessica says. “He wears them on his chest in a leather harness. And he’s doing an experiment. I don’t know what it is, but it makes his Stones more powerful. He’s much stronger than before. He’s using all his power and technology to find you. I think he has a faster way to track the Stones. It’s not safe to stay in one place for long. You have to keep moving.”
“How do you know all this?”
Jessica stares into Matt’s eyes. “He has an assistant, a woman name Alexa. She’s in charge of me and visits often. She likes to talk and brag. She tries not to give away details, but they slip out.”
“Good,” Matt says. “Keep talking to her.”
“She’s gone for a few days. Ryzaard left on a trip and took her. I think they located another Stone.”
Matt holds Jessica firmly by her upper arms, his gaze concentrated on her. “Do you know where they went?”
“No. I told him about Colorado. He may have gone there. I don’t know.” Jessica looks away from Matt. “He forced it out of me. That’s why you can’t tell me where you are.”
“Don’t worry,” Matt says. “I’m not in Colorado. But I’ll give you a hint.”
She grips his arm. “Stop. No hints. Just stay safe and away from here.”
“I’m coming for you Jess. Be ready.”
Her eyes plead with him. “Matt. Don’t. It’s not safe.”
“I don’t care. Nothing is safe anymore.”
Matt stares into her eyes and presses his lips to hers, holding her in silence. In time, her lips brush across his cheek and stop at his ear.
“I love you, always,” she says.
And then she is gone.
Matt feels himself pulled back into the sea of voices. It is pleasant to listen to them, to be surrounded by them.
A thought enters his mind.
Dad, where are you?
With no effort, he sorts through the voices and finds the one he is looking for. It’s comforting to hear it. The other voices drop away. The colors of the one remaining voice weave through the white ocean, finding him, pulling him closer.
Matt hesitates. Does he really want to find this voice?
Before he can answer the question, his dad is only a few feet away.
“Matt, are you OK?”
“Everything’s fine, Dad.” Matt senses his dad’s hand on his shoulder.
“I know about the Stones,” his dad says. “And Ryzaard. He came and took away Little John?”
“Little John?”
His dad moves closer. “A friend. Someone I met on the way to New York. He has a Stone. Ryzaard captured him and killed dozens of people in the process. I don’t know where he was taken, but it’s probably MX Global headquarters in New York. Ryzaard’s looking for you, scouring the world.”
“I’ll be careful. I have a plan.”
“A plan?” his dad says.
“There are others that have Stones. I’m gathering them. I know where they are. Together we can defeat Ryzaard.”
“He’s ruthless, Matt.”
“I know. He has Jessica.”
Matt’s dad looks into Matt’s eyes. “It’s a trap. Don’t go back to him.”
“I have to,” Matt says. “I’ll find a way.”
His dad’s eyes glisten with tears.
“I can’t stop you. I won’t try.” His dad takes a step closer. “But maybe I can help you get another Stone.”
“How?”
“Leave that to me.” Matt’s dad pulls him in close for a tight hug. “The less you know about it, the better.”
“But Dad—”
“I love you, son. Always remember that.”
“I love you, Dad. What are you—”
Before Matt can say any more, the sea of voices,
along with his dad, are sucked away by an icy silence.
CHAPTER 77
A pair of large hands grabs Kent and shakes him awake. His eyelids try to open, but snap shut.
The hands shake him again.
“Kent, wake up. You got to see this.”
In a flash, it dawns on Kent that he’s been having a dream and Jake is trying to wake him. It must be some kind of emergency. His heart nearly explodes out of his chest, and he shoots out of bed, almost knocking Jake over in the process.
“What’s going on?” Kent says.
“Over here, by the window. Quick. Come look at this.”
With his feet on the floor, Kent finally gets his eyes open and stumbles to the window. The sky is just beginning to change from black to gray. He looks down on the open grass that separates the hotel from the surrounding jungle.
“Do you see it?” Jake says.
“See what?”
Jake puts his face closer to the window and points. “All those dark shapes dropping down from the trees, moving across the grass.”
Kent finds his glasses and slips them on. It takes a minute for the shapes to register.
“Monkeys,” Kent says. “Just a bunch of monkeys. Coming back into town from a night out in the jungle.” He sits down on the bed and lets his head fall onto the pillow. “In case you forgot, that’s why we came here.”
Jake turns from the window. “I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to like it.”
“I still have that feeling. Like something terrible is about to happen.” Jake flops on his bed opposite Kent. “The same feeling I had the night they came for Little John.”
“I just have one question for you.”
“What?”
“Do you ever sleep? You’re going to need all your wits about you today. Don’t you think you should get some rest?” Kent puts his hands up behind his head and let his eyes drop shut again.
Jake lets out a long sigh. “I guess I didn’t tell you about that, did I?”
Kent’s eyes flip open. “About what?”
“Ever since the Allehonen healed me, I don’t sleep much. Don’t need to. I guess it’s a gift, or maybe a curse. Like my eyes.”
