by Laurel Dewey
“What in the hell are you doing?” she retorted.
“You getting in?” he gruffly asked.
“Why should I?”
“Because I’m the medicine man.”
Jane felt a shock travel up her spine. “Where are you taking me?”
“Jesus, you have a lot of questions. Come on. Get in. There’s not a lot of time left.”
Jane glanced around the area, checking to see if anyone was watching. Finally, she walked around the long car and got inside. The upholstery was crimson red leather and the interior of the automobile looked as if it had been well taken care of over the many years. He turned around and drove back up the road and onto Highway 17.
“You got a name?” Jane asked.
“Call me Saul.”
She looked at him with his Mediterranean appearance. “You don’t look like a ‘Saul.’”
He smiled and remained silent.
“You know who I am?” Jane asked.
“I know you’re the one I need to talk to.”
“You want my name?”
“I couldn’t care less about your name. All I need from you is your help.” He gunned the Lincoln up to ninety miles an hour.
Jane held onto the door handle as it moved like an ebony bullet across the flat highway.
“Why are you called The Medicine Man? You make potions?”
He smirked. “No potions. The real medicine…the true medicine, is in the mind.”
About five miles later, he slowed and turned right onto an unmarked, one lane road. The Lincoln’s tires spit gravel and dust as Saul zoomed down the path. In the distance, miles of desolation lay wide open. Jane flashed on a somber image of her being led across this uninhabited territory and shot once in the back of the head.
“I have no interest in killing you,” Saul declared. “That’s the last thing I’d do.”
Jane had to check herself. “I never said that—”
“You thought it,” he said off-handedly, “don’t bother denying it.” He bore to the right again and drove up to a tall steel gate. “And I’m telling you that you’ve got nothing to worry about from me.” He stopped the car. “It’s the others you need to be concerned about.” Saul reached under his driver’s seat and removed a small remote. Clicking the red button toward the gate, it lumbered open, sending whining echoes across the open space.
Jane fully expected to see a massive house or structure on the other side. But all that lay there was an enormous spate of raw land surrounded by a twenty foot electrified fence, with concertina wire curling over the top. Saul drove into the property and parked, turning off the engine. The steel gate closed behind them.
Saul turned to Jane. “Ever seen a Kansas dugout?”
“I don’t think so,” Jane replied cautiously.
He smiled. “This is nothing like that.” He punched a green button on the remote and the car began to sink into the ground.
“Jesus!” Jane yelled. “What’s going on—?”
“Relax,” Saul said with a grin. “Enjoy the ride.”
Jane held on as she watched the blue sky above her pull farther away. Inch by inch, the Lincoln sunk deeper into the ground. It was quickly clear to Jane that they were positioned upon some sort of hydraulic elevator that reached deep underground. Gradually, they were swallowed and surrounded by concrete walls on all sides. When they reached about one hundred feet below the surface, the elevator came to a slow stop. Saul pushed a yellow button on the remote and an enormous steel door that stretched three times the width of the Lincoln, opened up like a garage door. On the other side, it looked like the scene from “The Wizard of Oz” when Dorothy emerges into Oz and everything turns to brilliant color. Saul drove forward down a short paved road lined with brilliant lights and what sounded to Jane like a babbling brook.
“What the hell is this?” she asked, her mouth agape.
“I call it home.” Saul rolled the Lincoln to a stop and parked. “Come on. Follow me.” He led Jane to a large wall that appeared to be dirt. He located a brown metal plate that blended into the façade. Opening it, he punched in a series of numbers and stood back. What appeared to be dirt was actually a clandestine door that slid open to the right. Jane followed him through.
She stopped as he turned to close the sliding door and stared at the scene in front of her. Above her head were a million pinpoints of light that illuminated into a blue Colorado skyline. It was so realistic, she had to make sure that it wasn’t actually the sky seeping in from aboveground. In front of her, stood a modest house, complete with a healthy looking lawn, exterior lighting and a small waterfall that cascaded into a koi pond.
“I seriously do not get this, Saul.” She was trying to take it all in while simultaneously wondering if she was dreaming.
“You’re not dreaming,” Saul said, catching her thought.
Jane looked at him, shocked. “Those are the same three words Gabe wrote on a postcard.”
Saul smiled with genuine sincerity. “He and I thought a lot alike. Come on in. And wipe your feet, would you? It’s a bitch to keep this place clean.”
Jane followed Saul into the living room of the one-story house. It was appointed with beautiful mahogany antiques, all polished to perfection. The temperature felt perfect—not too hot or too cold. In the center of the room, attached to the twelve-foot ceiling, were dozens of various sized crystals, illuminated by a large arch of light that hung above them. As they softly rotated against a gentle breeze that issued forth from tiny holes in the ceiling, the spectrum of refracted color bounced across the white walls and filled the entire space with an intense energy.
He offered Jane a seat in a rich leather chair as he sat across from her on a small leather couch with enormous mahogany armrests. A modest coffee table separated them. To his left was a small side table that held a trio of books with the bindings facing out. Watching him stretch out his long legs and push up his black trousers, Jane figured Saul was about sixty, even though there wasn’t a bit of gray in his black locks.
Jane let out a low breath. “Quite a place you got here. Ever miss having neighbors?”
“No time for chit-chat. We don’t have a lot of time left—”
“You said that already,” Jane replied, still trying to rectify the last twenty minutes of her life.
He leaned back in the sofa, draping his left hand over the armrest. “Can you imagine having everything you’ve ever feared or been conditioned to fear being conquered?”
Jane shook her head. “No. I can’t.”
“Well, that’s what I did. And I taught Gabe how to do it. When the student is ready, the teacher will come.”
“I don’t understand.”
Saul edged forward and turned in his seat so that she could see the back of his neck. “You see that?” he asked, pointing to a tiny dot on the right side of his neck. “I dug it out long before Gabe dug his out.”
Jane felt her mouth go dry. “Oh, shit. You’re one of them?”
“No. I used to be one of them.” He sat back again. “I got out, I stayed out and I’m still alive,” he declared with a sense of pride.
“Living underground…”
“I like it. I’ve always been fond of the earth and now I’m part of it.”
“I don’t mean to get in your business, Saul, but this place must have set you back a few bucks.”
“I was in their game for a long time. Did a lot of big jobs. It built my bank account but it broke me. I’ve spent every second since then making amends.”
“Was one of those amends helping Gabe when he got out?”
Saul nodded. “He found me.”
“How?”
“On another wave of reality.”
“Right,” Jane said with a nod. She was beginning to accept that while some actions cannot be rationally explained, it didn’t change the fact that the results of the unseen feat still materialized.
“I finally met him
in the flesh just over three years ago. He stayed down here with me for a while after getting wind that the company was closing in. He said he’d uncovered information during his last hit and he wasn’t sure how to handle it.”
“Hang on. Why wouldn’t he know how to handle it? I thought Gabe was an all-seeing prophet!”
“Gabriel was a human being and he’d be the first person to tell you that! He lived in this world just like the rest of us. He knew what childhood innocence felt like. He understood anger and aggression. He knew what it felt like to plot a man’s death and follow it through. He felt lust but he also experienced great love for a woman. He regaled in triumph and carried the burden of massive defeat. Regret, deep depression, questioning life’s purpose, walking around in an empty shell…he lived all of it. And when it was the right time…when he knew he couldn’t continue the life he’d led any longer, he committed his soul to the unknown…to the death of everything he thought he knew. And he walked into it with his eyes and heart wide open. When he emerged after three years, he knew what he had to do. He also knew the price he would pay. But by that point, he’d already died a thousand deaths. As long as his death was pure and final, he had no quarrels.”
“So, Romulus really didn’t know who they were getting when they recruited him.”
“They knew who he was and what he could do. Gabriel was a god to Romulus. And Romulus loves their gods. He was their rising sun. They put him through the most intense training and testing and he never broke. They shot him full of LSD, cocaine and heroin, fed him Psilocybin mushrooms and he was still able to function and not give away company secrets. That’s unheard of! He was extremely comfortable worming through heightened realities of consciousness. He was measured as a “P7”—that’s known as a Psychic Conduit. And he could do that without artificially altering his consciousness. He could easily feel other people’s emotions and hear their thoughts just like you and I listen to the radio. He saw auras around people so he always knew what type of person he was up against. But after he left Romulus, he took all of those talents to a different level.” He eyed Jane carefully. “He went through his own death. He experienced it as if it was frighteningly real. He felt every stab of pain and when his life force was snuffed out, he went through the light and he was told his destiny. When he came back into his physical body, he was committed to following what he had been told to the letter.”
“Told by whom?”
“By the pool of infinite wisdom and compassion. Call it God, the Universe, the Source, whatever works for you. The point is, everything he saw regarding his death came to pass. I was with him the whole way. He told me what he saw but he also left some things out because he still needed to confirm a few key points first in the physical reality. He was mired in that process right up to the end. The last week of his life, he traveled all over this state, building more connections and putting as much as he could in place before they found him. He knew he was running out of time. It was coming up on the 22nd of September. The Autumnal Equinox. The beginning of the season that marks the souls’ harvest. Gabriel had taken out enough people on that date so he knew what it meant. It’s a powerful time to die in their world.” He looked off to the side. “They always get off on that kind of symbology. With them, it’s all about symbols, numbers, dates and places of power on this earth. With them, a profane act done at a sacred location magnifies the destruction, lifting it into another stratosphere.” He became strangely sad. “If people only knew the things we did and what is still being done…Jesus, I’m telling you, I think the shock alone would destroy people’s belief that good ever existed.” He looked up at her, his eyes clear and focused. “But good does exist. They want to convince you otherwise. But I’m telling you, there is still light in this world. And as someone who has seen and been part of so much darkness, that should tell you a lot.”
Jane’s head whirred with too many questions. “I don’t get why I got pulled into this chaos. He was talking to you on a regular basis about what he found. Why didn’t he choose you?”
“Think about that for a second. I got out of the company years ago. You think I might be a pretty big fish to reel in? Besides, I don’t have the freedom of movement you have.”
“If you can talk to people at a distance, mind-to-mind, you have a lot more freedom of movement than most people!”
“You are correct. But the footwork still has to be done. And you and Harlan were the foot soldiers that Gabriel chose.”
Jane was taken back. “How do you know about Harlan?”
“Are you serious?” Saul asked.
“Point taken.”
“Gabriel chose you. He also chose Harlan.” He looked at her sternly. “But they did not choose Harlan.”
Jane shifted in her seat. “Right. Somebody else was scheduled to get Gabe’s heart but the doctor on call said they weren’t as seriously ill as Harlan.”
“The operative word in your sentence is ‘scheduled.’”
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”
“Gabriel’s heart was scheduled for transplant on September 22nd, the same day he would be killed.”
Jane stared at Saul in total disbelief. “No. I don’t buy it.”
He sat back and observed Jane. “Do me a favor. Go over to that bureau and open the top drawer.”
Jane turned to her right where an ornate bureau stood. She crossed to it and opened the drawer. “Holy shit.”
“Holy shit, indeed. Go on. Bring it over here.”
Jane was still unable to fathom how this was possible. Staring back at her was the infamous white binder and those bold red letters, IEB.
“Come on!” Saul said with urgency.
Jane removed the binder from the drawer and moved back to the chair. She placed it on her lap, still staring at the three letters.
“The Project went through different names,” Saul explained. “First it was called Project Bennu. That’s the Ancient Egyptian bird that’s similar to our Phoenix. It was the sacred bird of Heliopolis. It’s also a symbol of the rising and setting sun. Next, they changed the name to Project IEB.”
“What does IEB stand for?” Jane asked.
“It’s not an acronym. IEB means ‘heart.’ That’s another reference to ancient Egypt. They believed our heart was the center of all consciousness. Upon death, instead of saying someone ‘passed away,’ they’d say his ‘heart departed.’”
Jane carefully threaded the pieces together. “So, if the heart is truly the center of consciousness and if your heart doesn’t die with you, but is transplanted instead…”
He waited. “Go on…”
“Then you can live on in someone else’s body.”
“No. Your consciousness lives on.”
Jane nodded. “Well, I can’t argue with that. But why is that such a bad thing? From what I’ve seen, it can be life changing for the recipient. And Gabe’s heart? Well, who in the hell wouldn’t want his heart?”
He nodded. “Yes. Who in hell would want it?” He leaned forward, clasping his hands in front of him. “Open the binder. You’ll find the third and final name for their Project.”
Jane’s stomach churned as she turned the front cover over and read the black typed lettering on the front page. “PROJECT GABRIEL.” She looked up at Saul.
“He was their project,” Saul stated. “From the moment they recruited him, Gabriel was always their project. To them, he was perfection. A god among men. They put a lot of time and money into this one. And they always got whatever they wanted. Except for this time. This time, Harlan got what they desired the most.”
Jane stared at Saul, suddenly understanding. “And now they want it back.”
Saul nodded.
Jane felt dizzy and wondered if she would pass out.
“You’ll be fine,” Saul interjected. “Let it pass.” He regarded her with a stern eye. “You’ve got work to do. Use your mind to get over your matter.” Saul leaned forward. “D
id you hear me?”
Jane came back into herself and steadied her nerves. God, if she ever needed a cigarette, it was now.
“Hold off on the nicotine for the time being,” Saul offered, prying once more into her head.
Jane looked down at the binder. “There were two distinct things Gabe found. The second one was this binder. What was the first thing?”
Saul sat back. “That’s what Gabriel was working on when he was killed. He was very close to delivering it but there were still pieces he couldn’t pull together. That’s where you come in. You must follow through with everything you’ve been given, in the exact order in which it was given to you.”
“Wait, wait, you said he was very close to ‘delivering it.’ What does that mean?”
“You’ll figure it out.”
“Jesus Christ! You gotta help me! This is not a fucking joke to me!”
“It’s not a joke to me either!” he yelled. “But Gabriel chose you and Harlan to play this out to its conclusion.”
Irritation rose up. “You know, when I hear that Gabe delegated all of this in some cosmic court, I feel like I’ve lost complete control of my life!”
He shrugged. “So what? Deal with it. If he didn’t think you were capable of what you have to do, he never would have given you the job. Situations will unfold and everything will become evident to you as it occurs.”
She bored into his eyes. “You know everything that is going to happen, don’t you?”
“Not everything.”
“Tell me what you know.”
He jabbed his finger at Jane. “It’s yours to do, not mine!”
Jane ran her fingers through her dyed hair. A thousand images and words crashed inside her head, all competing for her attention. Then, one comment came to the fore. It was Monroe’s odd statement about “the medicine man next to Haas.” She looked at Saul and then turned her attention to the table next to him on his left side. Three books stood upright. The one closest to Saul was authored by Werner Haas.
“It’s about damn time,” Saul stated, turning to his left and handing the book to Jane.
