In many ways, it didn’t surprise Pebbles. Though Anlon and his three Whave engine colleagues became mega-millionaires by selling the patent for their invention, Anlon left Whave Technologies to lead a simple, quiet life. He didn’t talk much about his past, didn’t boast about his accomplishments and rarely entertained visitors. Pebbles had made progress coaxing him out of his reclusive shell, but he still tended to shut himself off from time to time.
As Pebbles turned her attention to the next display, Antonio emerged from his office and strode toward the lounge. With a deep voice, he called, “Pebbles! Thank you for waiting. Sorry my call ran over.”
“No sweat, Antonio. It’s all good. I know you’re very busy.” Pebbles smiled as they embraced. When they separated, she pointed at the Whave engine display and said, “That’s so cool! Anlon’s talked about it a few times, but I’ve never seen it.”
Antonio adjusted his bow tie and ceremoniously bowed. “You’re too kind. I’ll take credit for the ‘cool’ design, but Anlon’s the one who deserves credit for the inspiration.”
Motioning toward his office, he asked, “Speaking of the good Dr. Cully, how’s he coming along?”
“Getting stronger every day,” she replied as she stepped through the door. “Still gets a little cranky now and then, but his rehab’s going well. You shoulda seen him when he got his first taste of real food again. One nibble of a burrito and he almost levitated!”
From behind, Antonio’s booming laugh filled the room. “I can imagine! Sipping soup through wired jaws loses its charm fast.”
As Pebbles followed him into the cavernous office, she said, “No kidding, I don’t know how he did it. It’ll still be a while before he can full-out chow down, but at least he’s finally off a protein-paste diet.”
They arrived at a conference table tucked in the far corner of the room. Pebbles stood by the window and leaned forward to observe the bustling Embarcadero below. She then panned Antonio’s view of the bay. To her right, cars streamed along the upper deck of the Bay Bridge. Dead ahead, a loaded container ship chugged toward the Port of Oakland. On her left, a dozen sailboats floated aimlessly around Alcatraz Island. She said, “Wow, you have quite a view!”
Antonio joined her at the window. “Yeah, it’s pretty sweet. I don’t stop to enjoy it as much as I should, but it’s hard to take my eyes away when I do.”
After several more minutes of chitchat, Antonio cleared his throat and asked, “So, Anlon’s determined to start up again?”
Pebbles nodded. “Oh, he’s been back at it for a few weeks. As soon as you sent over all of Devlin’s papers, he disappeared into his office and locked the door.”
“Honestly, I’m surprised he held off as long as he did,” Antonio said.
“Now he’s barking out orders left and right! Well, more murmuring orders…still can’t open his mouth wide enough to bark yet.” She smiled.
“Really? He’s not the order-barking type.”
“I know, right? Jen and I were pretty shocked. He’s not nasty or anything, just super-intense,” Pebbles clarified. “You should see his office at the house. There’ve been nonstop deliveries the last week. Piles of rocks and all kinds of weird, smelly stuff. Keeps mumbling about crypto-whatnots and kimber-somethings.”
“Kimberlites?” Antonio ventured.
“Yes! Exactly. Kimberlites. What are they?”
“Diamonds. Well, more like a diamond-rock mix.”
“Huh…why not just mumble ‘diamonds’ instead?” she asked idly.
Antonio shrugged and then said, “I have the pieces you wanted.”
From behind his desk, he retrieved a steel case and carried it to the conference table. Pebbles popped out of her seat while Antonio entered the electronic combination and bobbed on her toes. Waving a hand over the open case, he said, “These are the last of them.”
Two objects were nestled in black foam cushioning. One was a black tile with an etched design. The tile’s shape was reminiscent of a smart tablet, although it was three times as thick. Next to the tile was a squat, grayish cylinder the size of a hockey puck.
Pebbles’ heart raced as she laid eyes on the Sinethal for the first time in three months. A hard three months. She absently ran her fingers over the etchings and thought of Malinyah. She ached to visit with her, but she promised Anlon to wait until she returned to Tahoe. She lifted the cylinder, a device Malinyah called a Naetir. It still had Anlon’s Sharpie-drawn “X” on one side.
“Kept ’em safe and sound as promised,” said Antonio.
“I can’t thank you enough. I know it was a big ask,” Pebbles said.
“Nah, not really. We do a lot of military work, so finding a secure spot was a breeze. Honestly, the harder part was resisting the urge to take a peek!” Antonio said. Wagging a finger, he added, “Anlon still owes me an explanation, you know. About these stones. About everything.”
“Hey, I offered to fill you in back in May!” she said.
“Yeah, I should have taken you up on that. I won’t tell you how often I’ve thought about Anlon and the whole fiasco. Two people dead? Two others damn near killed? Fugitives on the loose? There’s gotta be one helluva story behind these stones to cause all that mayhem.”
“Trust me, it’ll blow your mind,” Pebbles confided.
“So you’ve said before.” Antonio pointed at the case and sheepishly asked, “How about a quick preview now? I know I’ll get the full download from Anlon in a few days, but…”
“Are you kidding? After all you’ve done for Anlon? Tell me what you want to know,” said Pebbles.
Just then, Kathleen knocked on the office door and ducked into the room. Closing the door behind her, she politely reminded Antonio that his next meeting was due to start in five minutes. He grimaced and said, “Gonna need more time, Katie. Please tell Dylan I need to reschedule. Same for my eleven a.m.”
“Very well. Dr. Hollingsworth thought you might want to reschedule.” Darting a curious look at the open case, she added, “He asked if he could come in for a moment.”
“Why? Something urgent?”
Kathleen hesitated before answering. “No, I don’t think so. He seemed very interested to meet Miss McCarver.”
Antonio asked Pebbles, “You mind? Dylan’s our chief technology officer. He worked on the Whave team and knows Anlon.”
“No problem. I saw his picture in your hall-of-fame room. We rode up on the elevator together. I feel bad I didn’t know who he was or I would have said hello,” Pebbles said.
Kathleen left and returned with Dylan.
“I’m embarrassed,” said Dylan as he reached to shake Pebbles’ hand. “I didn’t recognize you in the business suit.”
The comment was unexpected, and Pebbles’ reaction must have shown it, because Dylan quickly added, “On Anlon’s Instagram account, he’s got lots of pictures of you.”
“Ohhh, right!” said Pebbles. “It’s nice to meet you, Dylan. I’m Eleanor. Well, most people call me Pebbles.”
As she spoke, Dylan looked past her at the open case. “Are those the infamous stones?”
“Um, yeah, I guess,” she said. Pebbles wasn’t sure she liked the “infamous” characterization, especially about Malinyah’s Stone, but she didn’t make an issue of it.
Dylan headed for the table, but Antonio stepped in front. “Hey, buddy, we’re kinda in the middle of something here. I’ll catch you later, okay?”
“Those are strange symbols on the black one,” said Dylan. “Is it some kind of voodoo spell or something?”
Pebbles frowned. “Uh, no.”
“Seriously, Dylan. I’ll stop by later this afternoon,” said Antonio. He motioned for Kathleen to escort Dylan from the office, but Dylan scooted around the opposite side of the table to get a closer look.
Pointing at the smallish cylinder, Dylan asked, “Is this the one that busted Anlon up?”
“Okay, that’s enough,” said Antonio in a sharp tone. Together with Kathleen, he escorted Dylan
out of the office. When they reached the doorway, Dylan shouted back, “Nice to meet you!”
Antonio closed the door and returned to the table. “Sorry about that,” he said. “He meant no offense, just doesn’t have much of a filter.”
Pebbles was beginning to understand why Anlon never mentioned Dylan. She said, “Don’t sweat it. It’s okay.”
“You still up to talk about the Stones?”
“Yeah, sure. Of course. Where do you want to start?”
He crossed his arms and shrugged. “You tell me. Where should I start?”
Pebbles knew exactly where he should start, but wondered how to describe the Sinethal without sounding touched in the head. She said, “Hmmm…that depends on how much of an open mind you have.”
“Hey, you walked through our little gallery, didn’t you?” he teased. “Thinking outside the box is what I do.”
Pebbles massaged her wrists and stared at the Sinethal. Hands shaking, she gently lifted the black tile from the case. The gritty feel of the Stone’s surface was oddly comforting. She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply and slid her hands along the edges. When her fingers slipped into the notched depressions on the Sinethal’s back side, she shivered and opened her eyes. Bowing her head, she said, “Anlon’s going to be angry with me.”
“What? Why?” Antonio frowned.
She delicately placed the Sinethal on the conference table and massaged her wrists again. “Gah! I can’t believe how nervous I am!”
Looking around the room, she spied the sofa in the corner near the office door. She looked at Antonio and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Promise you won’t tell Anlon.”
“Uh, tell Anlon what?”
She lifted the Sinethal and motioned toward the sofa. “Grab the Naetir and follow me.”
“Excuse me? The what?”
Pebbles was already halfway across the room when she turned to say, “Oh, sorry. The stone with the X on it. Bring it over.”
“Okay. Why?”
She perched on the sofa’s edge, placed the Sinethal on the small oval coffee table and waved for him to join her. “Just bring it over.”
He shrugged, grabbed the squat, gray cylinder and traipsed to the sofa. She held out a hand to receive the Naetir. She set it on the table next to the Sinethal, the X side facedown, and then patted the sofa. “Here. Sit right here.”
Once Antonio had settled next to her, she pointed at the black tile and said, “This is a Sinethal. The name means ‘mind keeper.’ The little hockey puck there is known as a Naetir. The rough translation is ‘spark.’ In a minute, you’re going to pick up the Sinethal like this.”
She lifted the tile and gripped it on its sides. She twisted her torso to face Antonio and showed him the backside of the stone. “You’ll eventually put your fingers in these little half-moon cuts on the sides. They’re like handholds. But first, you take the Naetir and move it close to the round slot in the middle.”
Antonio’s brow furrowed. “Are you going to tell me why?”
“In a sec,” she said. “Now, this is important. You hold the Naetir with the X-side pointed toward the slot. When your hand gets close, the Naetir’s going to yank out of your hand and snap into the slot. It’s a little scary the first time you do it. It’s kinda loud and it happens super-fast.”
The furrow on Antonio’s forehead spread into a full-scale frown. “Um, come again?”
She nudged him with her elbow and smiled. “Open mind, remember?”
Lacing his fingers together, Antonio leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He considered her instructions for a moment and then said, “I take it the hockey puck is a magnet.”
With a nod, Pebbles said, “Yep. Actually, they’re both magnets. Want to see something cool?”
Before Antonio could answer, Pebbles placed the Sinethal facedown on the table next to the Naetir. She pushed them close together. Triumphantly, she looked back up at Antonio. “Now watch.”
She pushed the Sinethal about a foot away from the Naetir and then turned the gray cylinder to reveal its X-marked side. The Sinethal rattled on the table and then slowly shimmied in the direction of the Naetir. Pebbles quickly flipped the Naetir back over and the Sinethal silenced its movements. Then, she guided the Sinethal toward the Naetir until they touched sides. The two stones sat inert on the table.
Curiosity aroused, Antonio said, “Okay, I get it. That shouldn’t have happened. If they’re magnets, one side should attract and the other repel. There was a definite attraction when you flipped the puck, a pretty strong one to cause the bigger one to move from that distance. But, they should have repelled with equal force when the puck was turned to the unmarked side.”
“Cool, right?” She smiled.
“Very,” he said, nodding. Picking up the Naetir again, Antonio examined the Stone closely. “Feels almost hollow. Are you sure it’s a stone?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I was just thinking…” he said. “There’s an easy answer why the opposite side didn’t show a magnetic reaction, but it’d only be possible if this wasn’t just a magnetized stone.”
“What do you mean?”
Antonio didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he continued to examine the Naetir. He shook it while holding it close to his ear, then tapped on it. He asked, “You think Anlon would let me scan it? See if there’s anything inside?”
“Inside?”
“Yeah, it feels hollow. I’ll bet you it isn’t a stone. Well, it might have an outer shell of cast stone, but I bet you there’s something inside it. Like a magnet with some kind of backing that deadens the polarity of one side.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s a stone,” Pebbles said.
Antonio asked, “Where did this supposedly come from?”
“You mean, originally? Or where Anlon’s uncle found it?”
“Both.”
“Hmmm…we don’t know where Devlin found it. But, I do know who made it. The Munuorians.”
“The who?”
“The Moon-war-E-uns,” she enunciated. “The civilization that made all of the Stones Devlin was researching.”
“Well, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I don’t think an ancient civilization made this. This looks modern to me. Too bad we shooed Dylan out of the room. He could tell us if it’s a hoax pretty quickly. He may be socially awkward, but the dude is brilliant.”
“The Naetir? A hoax? No way. I’ll prove it to you,” said a defiant Pebbles.
Antonio asked, “How do you know the names of the Stones?”
Pebbles held up a hand and said, “We’ll talk about that later.” Pointing back at the Sinethal, she said, “Go ahead and pick it up and do what I told you.”
“Why? What’s going to happen?”
“Just pick it up and snap the Naetir on.”
“Um, Pebbles. No offense, but I’m not touching two magnets with unstable properties together without knowing more.”
“Oh, please. Quit being such a baby.”
Pebbles tugged the Sinethal off the table. Resting it facedown in her lap, she grabbed the Naetir and lowered it toward the carved, circular depression in the center of the Sinethal’s back side. When the Naetir was within two inches, it flew from Pebbles’ grip and locked into the depression with a sharp clap that reverberated through the office.
Antonio flinched and called out, “Whoa!”
The clap was loud enough to prompt a knock on the door. Kathleen edged it open and asked, “Is everything okay? What was that sound?”
Tilting his head in her direction, Antonio waved her off. “It’s okay, Katie. Just a little experiment.”
“Little? It sounded like a gun went off!” huffed the shaken assistant.
Shifting the two Stones to the far side of the sofa to shield them from Kathleen’s view, Pebbles said, “Sorry, it’s my fault. Didn’t mean to scare you.”
Fanning her face, Kathleen said, “Whew! I’m just glad no one’s hurt.”
After Kathleen dep
arted, Pebbles replaced the joined Stones on her lap and teased, “See? Nothing happened. A hole didn’t open in the universe. I didn’t explode.”
“Uh, I wouldn’t call that nothing. I’ve seen a lot of magnets react, but that right there was a first,” said Antonio.
Pebbles reached for his hand and circled her fingers around his left wrist. Guiding his hand to the Sinethal, she instructed, “Now put your hand right here. That’s right, your fingers need to go in the slot on the back. Good. That’s perfect. Now, when you’re ready, do the same thing on the other side.”
With his right hand, Antonio adjusted his glasses and asked, “For real, Pebbles. What’s going to happen?”
“Your mind’s still open, right?”
He laughed. “Right now, there’s a little voice in my head shouting ‘Abort! Abort!’ and a bunch of red lights flashing.”
How much to say? Pebbles pondered. If she said too little, he’d likely freak out when the tingling commenced. If she said too much, it would ruin the wonder of meeting Malinyah. She stared down at the huddled angel tattoo on the inside of her left wrist, felt the wisp of Malinyah’s hand on her cheek and inhaled the aroma from the field of Alynioria flowers. Closing her eyes, Pebbles hovered at the edge of the soothing memory.
Eyes still shut, she squeezed Antonio’s wrist and said, “You’re going to feel tingling in your fingers. Then you’re going to see things. Like, right in front of you. It’ll seem like you’re in some kind of virtual-reality simulation. You’ll see things. Hear things. Feel things. It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced.
“Then, she’ll appear. Her name is Malinyah. You probably won’t understand what she says. The Munuorians had their own language. Don’t be afraid of her, she’s really sweet. She calls me Alynioria.”
Pebbles opened her eyes and beheld the stupefied expression on Antonio’s face. His mouth hung open as if poised to say something, but he uttered no words. He looked at the two Stones fused together. With his left hand holding the Sinethal as Pebbles instructed, he hovered the fingers of his right within reach of the other concave notch. He mumbled, “The mind keeper…”
Race for the Flash Stone (The Anlon Cully Chronicles Book 2) Page 12
