Phobos

by Steve Alten

  She sets herself, her muscles quivering. Screw Mick Gabriel. If this lunatic crosses into my personal space, I’ ll snap his knee like kindling.

  Sam closes his eyes, his nostrils flaring. “Two bloodlines. Kukulcan … and Quetzalcoatl.” His eyes reopen. “Your blood flows through my veins. How can this be?”

  Her mind races. Indulge him. Keep him talking. “Good question. I’m going to tell you, but before I do I need to ask you a few questions … like, what is your name?”

  “I am Chilam Balam.”

  “Do you know why you are here?”

  “I was sent back to save the Earth.”

  Christ, he’s the poster child for schizophrenia.

  “What is schizophrenia?”

  A chill jolts her spine, her flesh breaking out in goose bumps. “How did you—”

  Careful, we are being watched. Seven Macaw has vassals everywhere.

  Dominique grabs her head, the flow of thought energy buzzing her brain like a tuning fork.

  He moves closer, the fluorescent bulbs performing a moonlight dance in his eyes. We need to work quickly. The equinox is coming, another strike is imminent. How soon can you free me? I cannot keep the voices at bay much longer.

  The walls spin, the blood draining from her face.

  The door swings open.

  Shoving Paul Jones aside, she flees the seclusion room, the inmate’s voice gradually fading from her head.

  Dominique exits the treatment facility’s lobby six hours later, the late afternoon heat blasting her in the face. A distant bolt of lightning streaks across an ominous afternoon sky as she presses her thumb to the keyless entry, unlocking the driver’s-side door of the brand-new, black Pronto Spyder convertible, an early graduation gift from her foster parents.

  Rain splatters heavy across her windshield as she exits the parking lot, her nerves still jumpy from the morning session with her new patient.

  Thirty minutes later, she turns into the parking garage of the Hollywood Beach high-rise. Exiting the car, she takes the antiquated elevator up to the fifth floor, holding the door open so Mrs. Jenkins and her white miniature poodle can enter.

  The one-bedroom apartment is the last door on the right. She keys in, greeted by the pungent aroma of fresh vegetables, garlic, and teriyaki sauce—Michael Gabriel mixing the stir-fry ingredients in a wok.

  “What are you doing here? How did you get in? This is a high-security building!”

  “I told them you were my fiancée. They practically gave me the key.”

  “You just can’t break into my apartment whenever you want and … and start cooking. What are you cooking?”

  “Stir fry.”

  “Yeah? Well, serve it up, then you can leave.”

  “I was right about Foletta, wasn’t I?”

  “You didn’t tell me Agler was such a wack-job.”

  “He’s been locked up in solitary confinement for eleven years. Imagine how you’d be after eleven years of hearing your own inner voice speaking at you.”

  “No no no, this is way beyond sensory deprivation. He practically sniffed me like a dog, somehow distinguishing my two bloodlines. Then he spoke to me telepathically! Who is this guy? A vampire?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. What did he say?”

  “He wanted to know how I was going to free him, presumably so he could save the Earth.”

  “The Earth? Not humanity? You’re sure?”

  “Don’t be more annoying than you already are. Yes, the Earth. The whole thing sounded like bad dialogue from a B movie. He also said something about another strike coming on the equinox. Oh yeah, when I asked him his name, he called himself Chilam Balam.”

  Mick pauses. Turning off the stove’s burner, he moves to a worn leather sofa and lies down, closing his eyes.

  Dominique stares at him, growing agitated. “Well, sure—go on and make yourself comfortable. Can I get you anything?”

  “I’m thinking.”

  “I’m eating.” Grabbing a ladle, she scoops some of the simmering chicken and vegetables into a bowl, then grabs a beer from the refrigerator and sits down at the kitchen table to eat. “This is actually edible. Do you clean bathrooms as well?”

  “Shh.”

  “You know, you’d make a nice catch if you weren’t so weird. Why don’t you forget about this whole Mayan calendar thing and get a real job?”

  “Chilam Balam was a seer—the most revered prophet among the Maya. Maybe Sam really is channeling a past life?”

  “You’re easy on the eyes, and you seem pretty smart. Ever think about applying to medical school?”

  “Assuming Balam also shares Sam’s knowledge, then whatever happens on the equinox might also clue us in about how we can prevent Earth’s demise on the winter solstice. When’s your next session with Sam?”

  “Not for two weeks. I have to go through their staff orientation program.”

  “Learn all you can about this equinox strike. I’ll get back when I can.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Chichen Itza. Somewhere in the ancient city may be Chilam Balam’s starship. If it’s there, I need to find it.”

  Huge $10 Billion Collider Resumes Hunt for “God Particle”

  Is the Large Hadron Collider being sabotaged from the Future? Or merely by birds?

  The LHC, the world’s largest particle accelerator, has been under repair for more than a year because of an electrical failure in September 2008.

  Now, excitement and mysticism are building again around the $10 billion machine as the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) gears up to circulate a high-energy proton beam around the collider’s 17-mile tunnel. The event should take place this month, said Steve Myers, CERN’s Director for Accelerators and Technology.

  The collider made headlines last week when a bird apparently dropped a “bit of baguette” into the accelerator, making the machine shut down. The incident was similar in effect to a standard power cut, said spokeswoman Katie Yurkewicz. Had the machine been going, there would have been no damage, but beams would have been stopped until the machine could be cooled back down to operating temperatures, she said.

  —CNN, November 11, 2009

  28

  SOUTH FLORIDA EVALUATION AND

  TREATMENT CENTER

  MIAMI, FLORIDA

  SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

  Dominique parks her roadster in the staff lot, exhausted from having barely slept. After two weeks of orientation she is finally scheduled to begin her first session with Samuel Agler, and the thought of confronting the patient the staff refers to as “the Man from Mars” is giving her much trepidation. At least it’s Friday; you have the entire weekend to recover.

  She enters the facility, heading for the first-floor security checkpoint, wincing as she is greeted by Raymond Hughes.

  “Good morning, Sunshine.” The barrel-chested weightlifter with the short-cropped red hair and matching goatee flashes a yellowed smile from the other side of the steel security gate. “Guess what you’re doing this weekend?”

  “I don’t have to guess. I’m spending the weekend in Sanibel Island.”

  “Skip it. I’m competing this weekend at the South Beach strongman contest, and you’re my special guest.”

  “Yeah, that is tempting, Ray, but—”

  “What’s wrong? I’m not good enough for you?”

  “Ray, I have plans, I’m seeing my parents this weekend. Maybe another time, okay?”

  “I’m gonna hold you to that.” He buzzes her in, the gate unbolting. “I saw on the docket you’re working with the Man from Mars. If he gets out of hand, you just say the word, and your old pal Raymond here will arrange a midnight run.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Just a little after-hours lesson in civility.”

  “Thanks, but I don’t believe in that sort of thing. Neither does Director Foletta.”

  The yellowed teeth reappear. “Sure he doesn’t.”

  The elevator dep
osits her on the seventh floor. Paul Jones escorts her through security and down the main corridor to the patients’ quarters.

  “Remember, Dominique, this time you’re entering his turf. Don’t touch anything, don’t become distracted. I’ll be watching everything from my monitor, but if you feel threatened in any way you just double-click this device.” He hands her the transponder. “You want the whip, it’s yours. One double-click and you’ll light him up with fifty thousand volts.”

  “He’s a pretty big guy. Are you sure that will be enough to stop him?”

  “Put it this way, if it doesn’t, there won’t be much left in him to accost you.”

  “Not quite the answer I was hoping for, Mr. Jones.” Transponder in hand, she follows the guard through a short hall, entering the middle pod of three located in the northern wing. The lounge area is empty.

  Jones stops at room 714 and speaks into the hall intercom. “Resident, your new intern is here to see you. Remain seated on the floor where I can see you.” Using a magnetic key, he unlocks the door.

  “Any last words of advice?”

  “Just like before, don’t allow him to get too close.”

  “The cell’s ten feet long. What’s your definition of close? His hands wrapped around my neck?”

  She enters the cell, its dimensions matching her master bath. Daylight streams in from a three-inch sliver of plastic running vertically along one wall. The bed is iron, bolted to the floor. A desk and set of cubbies are fastened next to it. A sink and steel toilet are anchored by the wall to her right, angled to give its occupant some privacy from the steel door’s peephole.

  The bed has been stripped. Samuel Agler is seated on the floor on a magazine-thin mattress and pile of bedclothes. His head is tilted down, as if he is sleeping.

  Wary, Dominique remains close to the door. “Good morning, Mr. Balam. It’s nice to see you again. Am I disturbing you?”

  No response, either verbally or telepathically.

  She gazes at the wall above his head, dominated by a hand-drawn map of the world. Dime-size colored dots appear seemingly randomly across the globe. Framing the map are mathematical equations that continue along the other three walls like Einsteinian graffiti.

  Inscribed above the bed is a second drawing—a trident, the strange icon resembling a three-pronged pitchfork.

  “In case you forgot, my name is Dominique Vazquez. I’m pleased to tell you that I’ll be working with you over the next six months—”

  Thought energy flows from Samuel Agler’s mind like a rippling creek, carrying with it a sorrow so deep its emptiness brings tears to her eyes. Why do you make me suffer? Free me so I may again feel the warmth of Kinich Ahau on my face. Let me breathe with the galaxy … to feel my soul mate’s touch one last time before the fifth sunlit Kinich Ahau ends and I am vanquished to Hell.

  She hesitates, then focuses her response inward. Where is your soul mate?

  Imprisoned somewhere in the darkness. Anchored by my transgressions in the eleventh dimension. First Mother, please—you have the power to bring us back into the light. Free me before evil stains our divided soul for all eternity. Reopen my vessel so that I may die fulfilling my destiny and not in this cage. Please, First Mother, I beg of you—

  “Enough!” Her head snaps back, severing the voice. “I mean, enough silence. I’m here to help you. I can only do that if you communicate with me … you know, by talking. Out loud.”

  He looks up at her with hollowed sunken eyes—black pools drowning in eleven years of sensory deprivation and a loneliness that shakes her being. And in that single moment of clarity a higher instinct welled deep within her DNA gushes to the surface, its warmth cleansing all prejudices and fears. Moving to him, she kneels by his side and wraps her arms around his head and neck, hugging him tightly to her chest.

  The touch of flesh to flesh elicits a jolt of electricity as sudden and as startling as connecting a positively charged battery cable to a negatively charged pole, causing Sam’s neural synapses to snap open at the speed of light. So powerful is the electrical discharge that it momentarily short-circuits the cell’s video feed and causes Dominique’s hair to stand on end.

  Like a starving child given sustenance, Samuel Agler embraces the woman from whose womb he was birthed fifty years ago—though he has yet to be conceived. Dominique’s flame reignites his psyche’s internal wick, the light emitted doubled between them. They remain locked together for several minutes, their connection flowing with energy until the generated body heat becomes too much to handle.

  Samuel pulls away. For the briefest of moments his eyes radiate a turquoise hue.

  Dominique never notices, her thoughts lost in the chaos of the severed connection. Who are you?

  I don’t know anymore. So many voices … so many memories from past lives I cannot remember, but whose losses I feel every waking moment.

  Who am I to you?

  Again, I don’t know. But I’ve been anticipating your arrival, I felt your aura during the arrival of the spring equinox. Whoever you are, somehow you’ve managed to pull me up from the depths of the underworld.

  It wasn’t my doing. Michael Gabriel sent me.

  Michael? Eyes widening in recognition, he backs away on all fours, his mind racing to catch up with this abrupt new clue of his ever-changing reality.

  “Samuel Agler. Lauren and Sam. Laura and Sam, but not Sam. Not Sam. Who am I?” Anxiety washes over his sudden awareness like a breaking dam. “Sam and Laura … and Sophie! They have my family!” He rushes to the narrow slit of plastic and smashes his fist through the tinted shield, screaming at the daylight. “Laura! Sophie! I’m coming!” Like a crazed bull he charges the door, ramming the steel barrier over and over with his 240-pound frame until the hinges begin to buckle—

  Zap!

  The electrical shock courses through his body, stunning him rigid.

  He shakes it off and is struck again.

  Sam sways. His muscles abandon him. Saliva drips from his jabbering mouth.

  Like a falling timber his knees buckle and he collapses upon the wafer-thin mattress in a twisted heap of twitching limbs and sweat-laced flesh.

  29

  If nature is kind to us and the lightest supersymmetric particle, or the Higgs boson, is within reach of the LHC’s current energy, the data we expect to collect by the end of 2012 will put them within our grasp.

  —SERGIO BERTOLUCCI,

  RESEARCH DIRECTOR, CERN

  CERN PRESS RELEASE, JANUARY 31, 2011

  SANIBEL ISLAND, FLORIDA

  SEPTEMBER 22, 2012 (FALL EQUINOX)

  Dominique slows the black Pronto Spyder convertible, keeping the roadster just under fifty as she passes over the causeway to Sanibel, a residential and resort area nestled on a small island on the Gulf Coast of Florida. She drives along East Gulf Drive, winding her way west past several large hotels before entering a residential neighborhood.

  Edith and Isadore Axler live in a two-story beach home situated on a half-acre corner lot facing the Gulf of Mexico. At first glance the exterior redwood slats enclosing the home give it the look of an enormous party lantern, especially at night. This layer of scrim protects the structure from hurricanes, creating, in effect, a house within a house.

  The south wing of the Axler home has been renovated to accommodate a sophisticated acoustics lab, one of only three on the Gulf Coast interfaced with SOSUS, the United States Navy’s underwater Sound Surveillance System. The sixteen-billion-dollar network of undersea microphones, originally built by the federal government during the Cold War to spy on enemy submarines, is now a tool used by marine biologists to track sea life in the Gulf, especially in the wake of the BP oil rig disaster that left large segments of the waterway a dead zone.

  Dominique turns left down the cul-de-sac, then right into the last driveway, comforted by the familiar sound of pebbles crunching beneath the weight of her roadster.

  Edith Axler greets her as the convertible top snaps shut into pl
ace. Dominique’s foster mother is an astute, gray-haired woman in her early seventies, with brown eyes that exude a teacher’s wisdom and a warm smile that projects a parent’s unconditional love.

  “Hi, doll. How was your drive?”

  “Fine.” Dominique hugs the elder woman, squeezing her tight.

  “Something’s wrong?” Edith pulls back, noticing the tears. “What is it?”

  “Nothing. I’m just glad to be home.”

  “Don’t play me for senile. It’s that patient of yours, isn’t it? What’s his name … Sam? Come on, we’ll talk before Iz knows you’re here.”

  Dominique follows her to a wooden park bench facing the beach, the Gulf as serene as a lake. “I remember when I was young—whenever I had a bad day, you always used to sit with me on this bench and we’d watch the sea. You used to say, ‘How bad can things be, if you can still enjoy such a beautiful view?’”

  Edie squeezes her daughter’s hand. “Tell me why you’re so upset.”

  Dominique wipes away a tear. “You remember when Chicahua showed up at our door, how Iz questioned her motives?”

  “I did, too. What kind of mother sends her only child to another country—convincing her she’s an orphan, only to attempt to reconnect twenty years later? This woman has a screw loose, if you ask me.”

  “Or maybe she really is a seer. Edie, she knew Mick Gabriel was coming to find me, just like she knew there’d be a connection with Sam.”

  “What sort of connection?”

  “It’s hard to explain. It’s like we know each other from a past life.”

  “Okay, so there’s a connection. Use it to help your patient get better, then move on.”

  “That’s just it: the only way to help him get better is to free him.”