The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series

by Cole, LaDonna

  I nodded and leaned into his arm.

  Mama Ty came back in the room with strips of cloth in her hand. “Are you ready?” She asked.

  We slowly stood and moved toward her.

  “I will have to blind fold you.” She turned Trip around and began tying the blindfold over his eyes. “You must not suspect where we are going.”

  She tied all of our eyes and lined us up one in front of the other. “Reach to your side and clasp hands.”

  I held my hand out to my side and waved it around until I struck skin. I grasped the hand tightly. Then I found Corey’s hand on my other side. That hand I would know anywhere.

  “Do not let go of your companions for any reason.”

  Corey’s grasp tightened.

  We were led around in a circle and then through a door that didn’t feel like the foyer door. Up a spiraled stair case, through a corridor and down another set of stairs, we marched hand in hand.

  I knew when we stepped outside. The night air hit my face with a sultry humidity. We crunched across gravel to pavement and were told to bend low as we got into the car. Mama Ty directed us to seats and then climbed in behind us.

  I held Corey’s hand until my knuckles cramped, and then I loosened my grip and whispered “sorry” to him.

  I had the feeling we were on some weird espionage jump. My trust was stretched to a snapping point. I didn’t know this Mama Ty, how was I supposed to judge whether or not she was trustworthy? I had nothing to go on. For all I knew they could be driving us out to a deserted field to shoot us in the head.

  I whimpered at the thought and my grasp tightened on Corey again. Across from me I heard Trip’s voice. “Steady there, Katie girl.”

  “Trip, Kate?” It was Dirk’s voice. “Are you guys here?”

  “Dirk?” Trip asked. “How’d you get roped into this?”

  “Mama Ty put me in the car and blind folded me. She said she had a special assignment for me.”

  I drew a shuddering breath and the hands on both sides of me squeezed in comfort. I leaned away from Corey. “Donnie, is that you?” I whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  “Hang in there, okay?”

  “Do you trust Mama Ty?” I whispered.

  His hand tightened on mine, a beat passed and then he whispered back, “As much as I trust my children to speak well of me to their own.” He squeezed my hand again and I understood. Mama Ty was close and he couldn’t tell me he didn’t trust her. Not out right. His children would never speak of him again. He didn’t exist to them anymore. I wondered if he had kept this little piece of information to himself.

  My heart raced in my chest and I redoubled my grip on Corey. We drove for what seemed an hour and finally the car turned onto a gravel road and bounced a few hundred feet to a stop.

  We filed out of the car. Mama Ty reconnected our hands and we followed her. The sound of a large metal door groaned and we moved forward. As we stepped out of the night air we began to descend on a shaky set of steps. I heard water dripping, scratching sounds and footsteps as we descended down the metal stairs. The heavy door groaned back and gonged into place and still we descended. After 3 or 4 flights of steps—I lost count—we leveled out onto what seemed to be a sticky concrete floor. We passed through two more sets of doors and when the last one had sounded in place, Mama Ty instructed us to remove our blindfolds and put them into our pockets.

  I blinked my eyes to adjust them. We stood in an ultra-modern facility. Computer banks blinked along one wall and a white coat was monitoring several flat screens that had been suspended on scaffolding around him.

  Mama Ty spoke in soft tones to him and he jerked his head around to us in surprise. An argument ensued and the white coat’s face reddened in evident anger, but he finally shrugged and nodded and turned back around to press a series of buttons.

  A door at the end of the computer bank slid open and I felt like I was on the star ship Enterprise. Any minute some alien being would walk through and tell me to live long and prosper, probably.

  Mama Ty walked through the door and gestured for us to follow her. She placed her hand on a panel and it scanned her hand print. A door opened and we passed through. At the end of a long white corridor she placed her eye over another scanner and another door opened.

  HOLY Double 0-7! I thought.

  We walked onto an observation platform lined with windows overlooking a central chamber. As we moved toward the windows I noted they were opaque. Mama Ty stepped onto a platform, pressed her thumb against a plate, then winced and jerked away. The robot voice said, “DNA scan complete, please register your guests, Tylonica Abernathy.”

  Mama Ty spoke slowly and clearly. “Jump Commander Dirk Johnson, Jump Commander Melanie Marcus, she swiped a card through a scanner for each name. Assistant Jump Commander Donald Dudgeon, another card swiped, Corey Chastain, Team Leader, Kate Wilson, Team Leader, Trip Carson Chartreuse Team Member, Tara Johnson Chartreuse Team Member.” She swiped cards for each of us. The computer catalogued our visit and spat out name badges with our pictures on them.

  I have to admit it freaked me out a bit. Number one, being called Team Leader with Xena and Hercules standing beside me, really made me want to crawl under a rock; and two, the whole idea of this computer having my tenth grade school picture made me want to puke.

  We lined along the window as indicated by arrows strategically placed on the floor and the opaque window turned transparent. Gazing through the high tech glass, we ogled at something out of a Sci-Fi movie. Twelve hospital type beds held twelve human beings in a circle. They were attached to machines, IV fluids, electrodes and other things I had no name for. White coats circulated through them taking readings, checking pulses, massaging body parts.

  “This is the Inner Circle,” Mama Ty said. “Each of these twelve people has been screened, selected, and pressed into service.”

  I wondered what she meant by “pressed.”

  “They are the finest minds of the human race. Each will serve a year and then be rotated out. As they leave, they are granted Nobel Peace Prizes and set up in labs to study their own fields with unlimited resources.”

  “I don’t understand.” Corey spoke up. “What do you mean serve a year? They don’t leave?”

  “Not for one full year. We keep them in stasis. Their bodies are cared for and tended to, exercised, cleansed. They will leave here in better health than they have ever known.”

  “What do they do, exactly?” Trip asked. He wasn’t able to erase the look of disgust from his face.

  “They power the Quantum Matrix.”

  “They are batteries?”

  “No, dear, that is a movie. This is science.” Mama Ty explained “They generate the jumps through a collective imagination.”

  “They create the jumps?”

  “No, the actual jump is just a worm hole that takes you to a different time, place, planet. The inner circle determines who the jump is targeted for, what obstacles need to be in place and they imagine the scenarios that the jumper is placed into. Molecular Replicators translate the brain waves into space and time. The Inner Circle also acts as a safety device. No one member of the Inner Circle can control any aspect of the jump. It is a collective decision.”

  Worm holes, collective, obstacles! Too much! Too much! My brain couldn’t assimilate all of the information. I began to breathe heavily. Corey reached out and took my hand. Where was the sphere? This had to be a jump. Things like this don’t happen in real life.

  “What gives you the right to manipulate us this way?” Trip was furious.

  I recognized the warrior stance he took. Tara squared off at his shoulder. I gulped down more air. What were they thinking? We were at the mercy of this woman, these people.

  Mama Ty turned a cool eye onto them. “The legal system. Your parents. Whatever agency enlisted you.” She turned back to the window. “It is all completely legal.”

  “Legal? What about ethical?” Tara sp
at.

  “You all have completed your jumps. You understand the value these jumps have brought to you. How can you even question the integrity of this experience?”

  We were silenced. It was true. My life had irrevocably changed, not only by my jump but by experiencing my team mate’s jumps, by the Scriptorium experience alone.

  “Mama Ty,” I cleared my throat and spoke up. “Does the Inner Circle control the Scriptorium experience?”

  “No, dear, that is not a jump. That is a spiritual encounter. We do not control that at all.”

  “Are they conscious?” Mel pointed to the Inner Circle

  “Yes. They are placed in a transcendental state, aware of their surroundings, but in deep prayer and meditation.”

  Prayer? That was weird. Prayer and science working together? Weren’t those two in opposition?

  “Why did you bring us here, Mama Ty?” Donnie asked.

  “You needed to see how impossible it is that the Inner Circle has been infiltrated.”

  “I can see multiple points of infiltration possibilities,” Corey stated.

  Mama Ty pinned him with a stare. “Please elaborate, Mr. Chastain.”

  “The medics. Who are they? What kind of back ground checks are there? The maintenance team, the medications and IV’s where do they come from? What kind of controls are on them? You and whatever other guests you have brought in here with you…it would take one syringe in the neck while your back is turned and I have complete access to the facility. Do you want me to go on?”

  Mama Ty frowned considering his words. “I can assure you that all…that every contingency…” She paused unable or unwilling to say more.

  I understood that the more she sang the praises of the security system, the more the finger pointed to her. Her face ran through a series of emotions, and finally she stepped away from the window and sat down in one of the station monitoring chairs and placed her head into her hand.

  “We have no way of knowing who or what has infiltrated the Inner Circle,” she admitted. “We cannot monitor the jumps from out here.”

  “So, the only way to gain access to the minds of the Inner Circle is by going back into the jumps,” Corey surmised.

  Mama Ty nodded.

  We all looked at each other. “So we go back in,” Trip said.

  Tara nodded.

  “It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Mama Ty said.

  “Right,” Donnie agreed. “We have to be able to control whose jump it is, we have to find a way for them to choose us each time…”

  “And once we are in, we have to be able to test them. We have to be able to separate the hive mind and give the infiltrator a chance to step forward and reveal him or herself,” Mel added, staring at the circle below.

  “That will be dangerous,” I guessed.

  “Very,” Mama Ty interjected and pursed her lips.

  “I just don’t see how it can be done. I can’t imagine it. How would we even start…”

  “We need to know everything you have on each of the twelve from the Inner Circle,” Corey said.

  “We will have to know them better than we know our own families,” Tara strategized.

  “Okay, listen.” I held up my hand. “I understand what Trip and Tara have to offer, I get that Dirk, Mel and Donnie have the experience, Corey has the brains, but me?” I shook my head. “I will just be a liability. Everyone will be so distracted by protecting me that they won’t be able to do the job.”

  “You are wrong, Kate,” Mama Ty said softly. “You will be the most important member of the team.”

  “Hah?” I huffed an incredulous breath.

  “You will sense the evil before it is ever manifested. You will have to follow your heart to find the infiltrator. You were chosen as Team Leader for that very purpose. You will be a most valued member of the team. So much so that I would not send the others in without you.”

  I didn’t know what to do with that. I glanced at the others, embarrassed. They all nodded in agreement with her.

  “I won’t go in without you,” Tara said.

  “Tara,” I whispered, flummoxed.

  I scanned the room and landed on Corey’s eyes. Deep sadness dwelt there. He didn’t want me to go in. He was worried for me, but he nodded to me. “It’s true, Kate. Your heart will lead us.”

  “I will make arrangements for you to stay here. All files will be available to you. We will put you all through core safety and combat courses and you will have Jump Commander training. We should also release to you all video and data on the Inner Circle that we have.” Mama Ty typed in a few strokes on the keyboard. “Preparation is going to take several weeks. I think we should keep this between us. The staff here will think you are the control group for a new program we are starting. I will place all jumpers on sick leave and run the Heartwork Village Curriculum until you are ready to jump.”

  “We have living quarters here; I will assign two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. You won’t be able to come and go while you are in training.” Mama Ty hit enter. “I will make arrangements for RA’s to cover your cabins.”

  “Are we really gonna do this?” Mel asked us.

  Our eyes scanned each other, taking in the hesitancies, the challenge.

  “Wait,” Corey held up a hand. “We need to talk about this in private.”

  Mama Ty pressed her lips together, stood and walked from the room.

  “Can we talk?” Corey asked, looking at the electronic equipment.

  “I think so.” Donnie scanned the room.

  “This feels weird,” I stated.

  “Agreed. She isn’t telling us everything,” Tara added.

  “So, basically, she wants us to go in as spies?” Trip said.

  “Yeah, but there’s more going on here,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” Mel asked me.

  “I don’t know, I can’t put my finger on it, but it seems odd. They knew the jumps were going poorly. They knew there was a problem, yet they kept sending us in? There is just a flaw in that line of reasoning.”

  “Something sinister.”

  “Yeah, and this is supposed to be some kind of faith based program?” Dirk muttered.

  “Is it?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Donnie and Mel answered in unison.

  “Then they shouldn’t object to sending us to the Scriptorium one more time,” Corey added. “The only One we can trust is there. We’ve got to get back in there and find some direction.”

  “I think we can make that happen,” Mel said.

  We stood in silence, our faces grim.

  “Let’s do it!” Trip clapped his hands together.

  “By our own rules,” Corey added, “in our own time.”

  “Okay, let’s do it, but can we at least come up with a cooler name than Chartreuse Team?” Tara grumbled.

  It felt good to laugh.

  I sat down at the console and rested my head in my hands with my palms around my eyes. I didn’t want anyone to see the struggle I was in. I knew my eyes were welling with tears and I didn’t want them to know.

  They broke up into smaller groups and began making plans for our subterfuge. I didn’t have anything to offer anyway. A large salt splat fell onto the stainless steel counter top that I was hovering over. I wiped it away quickly before anyone could see.

  My head pounded and my heart felt like it was trying to beat its way up my throat. How could a place like this exist right here in the Catoctin Mountains? Weren’t there laws that protected children from strange and experimental sciences? Why was Mama Ty putting all of her trust in a handful of teenagers? Nothing made sense anymore: Greg’s death, my attraction to Trip, my eternal connection to Corey. Only one thing remained steadfast inside of me.

  The Voice in the Scriptorium.

  The Voice didn’t stay in the Scriptorium, he came out of that cave with me. He became a part of me just as surely as Corey was the other side of my soul, the Voice was the fusing material. The t
hing that held all things together—held me together—was the knowledge that this loving eternal being adored me. His kiss enfolds the tender soul, my soul, and the bliss he created out of the ashes of my heartsick condition was worship.

  I glanced at the two boys in the corner who were head to head in serious conversation. Trip looked up at me and smiled and Corey nodded to me as he continued his in depth discussion. Trip cut his eyes from Corey to me, then back to Corey.

  I knew they were talking about me. Nothing would stop them both from protecting me, I wasn’t afraid to go back into the quantum field for my own safety. I was terrified for Mel, Donnie, Tara, Trip, Dirk, and especially Corey. I couldn’t lose any of them. They all had become a part of me. These huge personalities; the steady leader, Mel; the ever present and loyal, Donnie; the indomitable (and great dancer), Dirk; the stately and glorious, Tara; the courageous and physically stunning, Trip; and the perfect and pure love of a thousand years, Corey. I wrapped them around my heart and bound them there with silent promises to keep them safe and do my small part to bring them securely to the end of this insane quest.

  Corey and Trip walked over to me smiling. Corey kissed my cheek and Trip took my hand. My eyes darted back and forth between them, suspiciously.

  “Kate, my love,” Corey started. “We’ve been talking and we think it’s best, at least until this whole thing blows over…”

  “Corey Chastain,” I frowned and interrupted him. “If you break up with me after all that we have been through…” He touched my lips with his and wrapped his arms around me.

  “Never, do you hear me? That will never happen. We can’t be separated. It isn’t possible.”

  Trip squeezed my hand. “Hear him out, Katie girl. We’re starting to realize that your part in all of this is huge.”

  “My part?”

  “Yes, through every jump, you have had a particular intuition, heart knowledge of the way things were.” Corey added, “We think we should all follow your lead when we are in the quantum jumps. We want you to begin to trust your instincts and speak them out no matter how trivial…”

  “Or silly or crazy…” Trip interjected.

  “…they may seem,” Corey finished. “In order to help you do that, we are going to be keeping a close eye on you.”