Red Queen

by Christopher Pike

  “I know that. What I’m asking is—does our spirit or soul suddenly leave one world and fly to the other?”

  “In a manner of speaking. The transition is impossible to describe with words. It just happens once you’re connected.”

  “What if I choose to stay awake at dawn?”

  “You won’t be able to. Not during that three minutes.”

  “If I’m asleep, do I notice the switch?”

  “No. You go to sleep in one world, you wake up in the other.”

  “That’s so fucking freaky.” I paused. “Pardon my French.”

  “It’s not a shock to me that my daughter cusses.”

  “So we’re good friends in this world?”

  “Yes.”

  I hesitated. Lara was not my only source of sorrow.

  “Why not in the real world?” I asked quietly.

  My father sighed. “I stayed away to protect you.”

  “From who?” I asked.

  “The same people who kidnapped Lara,” he said.

  “How did staying away protect me?”

  “In the real world, they know who I am. But they don’t know who you are. At least, we didn’t think so.”

  His remark did not surprise me as much as it should have. A part of me had always felt he had stayed away on purpose. He had not protested when I had adopted my mother’s last name—Ralle—and written Dr. Major off. Indeed, when I was ten and officially changed my name, my mother had told me that my father had been happy I had disowned him.

  It had made no sense. Until now.

  “Who are they?” I asked.

  “I promise to answer that question in a few minutes. Just as soon as I know you’re no longer confused about how the switch from one world to the other works.”

  “I’m sorry, I must be dense in this world. I’m still struggling with all the new concepts.”

  My father was sympathetic. “I know how you feel. On the surface the situation’s simple. You live the same day over again in a slightly different world. But when you start to examine it from different angles, you get a headache. Trust me, I’ve been there, we all have.”

  “Did you have someone to guide you at the start?”

  “No. You’re lucky. After my hanging, when I woke up the next day, I felt like I had died and gone to hell. I would go to bed Saturday night and wake up Saturday morning and everyone would do the same thing they had done the day before. This went on for months, until I realized that if I suddenly did something drastic in witch world, out of the norm, then I could change events in the real world.”

  “What do you mean by drastic?”

  My father studied me. “Understand, I was born in what you would consider a barbaric society. Back then life was cheap.”

  “Don’t tell me you killed someone.”

  “I killed three men in self-defense, and I used my unique abilities to accomplish the deed. They had been sent by a local magistrate to arrest me for, well, getting one of his daughters pregnant. I met them alone, with a sword, in what seemed from the outside to be a fair fight. But one of my abilities is supernormal strength and speed. They didn’t stand a chance.”

  “What happened the next day?” I asked, thinking I had the same ability.

  “They came for me again. But I knew they were coming so I fled at dawn. I didn’t want to have to kill them again.” My father paused. “It was only later that I discovered they had been hijacked on the road and slaughtered.”

  “By who?”

  “I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that they died anyway, and on the same day.”

  “But not in the same way,” I said.

  “Correct,” my father agreed.

  “Does that mean what happens in this world affects the real world?”

  “Yes. But not always in the way you expect. Also, the reverse can happen. What occurs in the real world can change what happens in witch world. The worlds are interconnected. It’s wrong to say one is more important than the other.”

  For some reason, I didn’t feel what he said was completely accurate. Not that my father was purposely lying to me, but that his understanding was incomplete. The feeling had a sharp edge to it, a certainty, and I wondered if there was an intuition gene and I had been born with it.

  I no sooner thought the question when the word “yes” popped into my mind. I went to tell my father about the experience but something stopped me. Maybe it was my intuition.

  “But the days in witch world come first,” I said.

  “We experience them as occurring first. To someone as old as Cleo, they happen simultaneously.”

  “Who’s Cleo?”

  “The head of our Council. The one with the eight genes.”

  “She must be pretty powerful.”

  “That’s an understatement.”

  “Are you saying her days overlap?”

  “Yes.”

  “How does her brain cope with that?”

  “It’s hard to imagine. Over time, she must have gotten used to it.”

  “How old is Cleo?” I asked.

  “She’s been around since the beginning.”

  “Of witch world?”

  “Of human civilization. She’s never told anyone her exact age but we know she was alive before the pyramids were built. In fact, she helped build them.”

  “So she runs the Council?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t work that way. She’s not the boss. But when Cleo speaks, everyone listens.”

  “Are you a member of the Council?”

  “No. But I work closely with them.”

  “Russell wanted me to meet with certain people tonight. I think he was talking about the Council.”

  My father waved a hand. “He was but it’s too late for that now. Besides, security at this hotel is far from foolproof. There’s a chance you were followed here.”

  “Followed by who?”

  He hesitated. “The Lapras.”

  “Finally. I assume those are the bad guys.”

  “Yes. I’ll tell you all about them after I finish the overview of my life story. It’ll help you understand the two worlds better.”

  “It’s cool just getting to know you better.”

  My remark made him smile. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said.

  “I mentioned the three men I killed. The deed didn’t trouble me much and it seemed to have no major effect on witch world or the real world. Actually, my life was pretty carefree in those days, especially when I discovered that I could stop my body from aging. Each of my powers manifested slowly but steadily and it didn’t take too many years before I accumulated tremendous wealth. In time I was knighted by Queen Elizabeth herself for my courage and generosity. I was even instrumental in helping my country drive off the Spanish Armada.”

  “I’m surprised you’re not in the history books,” I teased.

  “I was but the Council had my name erased. It was shortly after the failed armada that they became aware of me, and sent someone for me. I remember how frightened I was to meet a group of people with powers like mine, only greater. However, as soon as I was introduced to the Council, I knew I was among friends. They were such a loving group. They told me that I wasn’t alone in the world, but that it was better if I kept a low profile and didn’t call attention to myself.”

  “I can see the reasons for keeping a low profile. But why doesn’t the Council help mankind?”

  “Why do you assume it doesn’t?”

  I shrugged. “I have never read about their good deeds on the Internet.”

  My father smiled. “They do help, from time to time, but they do so quietly—you might even say reluctantly. They don’t like to infringe on people’s free will. It’s impossible for them to use their powers to help society out of a jam without causing some alteration in the natural course of events.”

  “When have they helped?” I asked.

  “A few times when it looked like civilization mi
ght collapse. They were a big help during World War Two, when the Allies defeated the Axis powers. They steered the Nazis away from developing the atomic bomb. For that matter, since those days, they’ve been instrumental at keeping nuclear weapons under control.”

  “You call the others the Lapras. Do you have a name for yourselves?”

  “The Tar.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Cleo chose the word. She says it means ‘the old ones.’ ”

  “Tell me more about your life.”

  “I brought up World War Two. After that conflict the Council became aware of two phenomena. Events in the real world were beginning to diverge more and more from events in witch world. And the Lapras had organized themselves into a potent force.”

  “Had the Tar been aware of the Lapras before then?”

  “Yes. But they hadn’t paid them much attention. They saw them as a bunch of selfish witches who had accidentally stumbled upon their powers. For example, the Lapras almost all held positions of power in society, even though the Council had warned them that it was a mistake to become well known.”

  “Did the Council ever use its power to kill the Lapras?”

  “Only when they acted totally out of control.”

  “Are any Lapras historical figures?” I asked.

  “Yes. But I’m not at liberty to give out names. Let me continue with my tale. As I mentioned, we began to notice that witch world no longer mirrored the real world the way it used to. The Council knew of only one thing that could cause that. Witches who were behaving badly.”

  “Because they were awake in both worlds,” I said.

  “Right. Only people with the extra genes could consciously decide to act in such a way that their behavior in witch world was no longer the same as it was in the real world. Up until World War Two, there had been too few of us to impact society, unless we chose to do so deliberately, which was rare. But suddenly, for seemingly no reason, tons of witches were waking up. And virtually all of them were joining the Lapras.”

  “Were more people being born with the genes?”

  “That was happening. Like I said, their appearance in our race is a natural phenomenon. But that wasn’t the real problem. It was the way these people were being found and awakened. The Lapras were finding them. They were seeking them out. And the way they were activating their powers was brutal. We estimate that eighty percent of the people they put through the death experience didn’t survive to tell the tale.”

  “What kind of numbers are we talking about?”

  “These are only estimates but we believe the Lapras have identified and tried to activate fifty thousand people. That’s worldwide.”

  “And only ten thousand survived?”

  “Yes.”

  “But forty thousand deaths. How could the Lapras hide such a thing?”

  “People disappear all the time. The FBI has thousands of unsolved cases every year. Murder has been epidemic since mankind learned to swing a stick, and in developing countries disease is so rampant, forty thousand deaths is nothing. Hiding their failed experiments has never been a problem for the Lapras.”

  “Yesterday, Russell showed me the scanner. Do the Lapras use a similar device to identify people with witch genes?”

  “They’re the ones who invented the scanner.”

  “I don’t understand. Russell works for their company.”

  My father hesitated. “What I’m going to tell you next is very secret. It’s important you tell no one. Not James or Alexis or any of their counterparts in the real world.”

  “I understand.”

  “Russell’s a double agent. The Lapras believe he’s spying on us, when in reality he works very closely with the Council.”

  “You’re absolutely sure he’s not a triple agent? Is it possible he really works for the Lapras?” I couldn’t help but recall how he had tried to seduce me, when he knew I was with Jimmy. At the same time, I had vague memories of flirting with him in witch world. It was frustrating not being able to remember the details of our relationship. For all I knew, he was a lover.

  “When you meet Cleo, you’ll realize there’s no way he would be able to fool her,” my father said. “She has total confidence in Russell.”

  “Does he work with the scanner company to keep tabs on them?”

  “Yes. We have it now but the Lapras had it first and it gave them a tremendous advantage over us. They could get to people with extra genes before we could. And once the Lapras activated someone, they would invariably tell them their way of life was the only way.”

  “What is the Lapras’ way of life?” I asked.

  “They see themselves as superior beings, the natural rulers of mankind. Their people inevitably seek out positions of power—in the government, the military, industry. There’s hardly a senator or congressman in DC who doesn’t have their support, or who’s not one themselves.”

  “Dad, I’m sorry, you’re beginning to lose me.”

  “You don’t believe in power-hungry witches?”

  “I would expect that. The wrong people always seem to make the most money and get elected to the highest offices. I’m not naive, I know mankind is selfish. It’s just hard to imagine a huge conspiracy that’s secretly working to take over the world.”

  My father gestured to the bright lights of the Strip. “You had a chance to stroll around witch world before coming here. What did you think of our alternate dimension?”

  “Frankly, what I saw gave me the creeps.”

  “Why?”

  “The people seemed afraid of their own shadows. They were all worried if I was connected or not.”

  “Did they know what you were connected to?”

  “I don’t know, I’m not sure.”

  My father nodded. “Let’s take a lesson from history. In Italy, in the years following World War Two, after Mussolini was killed, the criminals gathered together and formed what became known as the Mafia. It existed before the war, of course, but from the mid-forties on, it grew so swiftly it became more powerful than the official government. Think about that for a moment. Italy had a constitution, it was a democratic nation. It had elected officials and laws everyone had voted on. Yet the average man had no faith in these laws. The police and officials who were supposed to enforce them were corrupt. If a person wanted justice, he had to go to the Mafia. But in those days, they didn’t even say the word Mafia aloud. They feared to, it was so powerful. But if they needed help in business, or if someone in their family had been harmed, they ran to the Mafia and the Mafia delivered.”

  “Dad. I’ve seen The Godfather.”

  “That dealt with the American Mafia, which was only a shadow of its predecessor across the sea. What you felt tonight while walking around witch world was how it felt to live in Italy after the war. Tell me, while you were out tonight, were you accosted?”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I sensed it. What happened?”

  “Three guys tried to mug me. They might have tried to rape me, had I given them the chance.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I fought them off.”

  “Did that surprise you? That you were able to fight them off?”

  “Sure.”

  “I bet it surprised them as well. Before these guys attacked, did they first try to find out if you were connected?”

  “Yes.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “I didn’t know what to say. It happened so fast. But after I beat them to a pulp, I went from being called pretty sister to being addressed as Mother.”

  “ ‘Mother’ refers to a woman who’s connected. They would have called me ‘Father.’ They’re Lapra expressions but the public can’t tell us apart.”

  “But they know you exist?” I asked.

  “The general population has become sensitive to people with power, and they’ve learned to fear them. That’s the work of the Lapras. In this world, on the surface, our nation has th
e same constitution as the U.S. government. The identical number of senators and congressmen and Supreme Court justices. Yet something similar to the Mafia has taken over and the average person knows it’s more powerful than the government. Few talk about it, they’re too afraid. Especially here in Las Vegas.”

  “What’s special about Vegas?”

  “The Lapras have a lot of their people here.”

  I shivered. “I wish I didn’t have to spend so much time here.”

  “Witch world has advantages over the real world. Your powers will develop here much more quickly and they’ll help you get around.”

  “By scaring people?” I asked.

  “You won’t have to do that. But it must be obvious to you by now that the Lapras have focused on first taking over witch world. That’s why this world’s become a gloomy place. Yet what they do here also damages the real world.”

  “Give me an example,” I said.

  “Let’s take my job in the real world as a medical doctor. Did you know that sixty years ago I treated cancer in three ways—with chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation? Now, more than half a century later, if I use anything other than those three methods to cure a patient, I’ll lose my license and probably go to jail.”

  “Really?”

  “Frightening, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. But what does that have to do with the Lapras?”

  “They see normal human beings as inferior. They plan to be the next dominant life form on this planet. They don’t want mankind to live long and healthy lives.”

  “So they’re messing with our health-care system?”

  “They have complete control of the American Medical Association and the Food and Drug Administration.”

  “Do they plan on wiping out normal people?” I asked.

  “Perhaps. At the very least they want humanity under their control. That’s why they’ve taken over witch world. It gives them a head start when it comes to taking over the real world.” My father paused. “That’s why they have to be stopped.”

  “Surely you don’t blame the Lapras for all of our problems?”

  “Not at all. But they’re preventing men and women of goodwill from solving the problems facing both worlds. They’re poisoning all levels of society.”

  I shook my head. “I wish you hadn’t told me all these things.”