Rise of the Mystics Read online

  There in Karen Willis’s big office late at night, everything was chaos. She was awake and bound to a chair, mouth taped so she couldn’t scream and tell the neighborhood we’d tied her up.

  The Indian maid, Anika, was staring at her daughter, terrified. Steve had taped her mouth shut too. And the little girl’s mouth.

  All three were seated and bound to chairs, and Steve had asked me to tape the girl’s feet together so she couldn’t run away. I did it, whispering apologies all the while because I knew she didn’t deserve to be treated like this. But there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people dying in churches and temples and mosques, and I had to play my role.

  I kept reminding myself that I might be the only one who could save them.

  Steve picked up the big hunting knife and faced Karen while I stood to one side, watching little Gracie, heart in my throat.

  “Satisfied?” he snapped at Karen. “Let me be clear: I need to know why we’re being framed for bombings that have nothing to do with us. And I need to know why anyone would go to such lengths. Someone’s been pulling DARPA’s strings all along, and you’re going to tell me who and why.”

  Karen stared back, defiant.

  “Look, I understand your reticence, but this goes way beyond you. You have to ask yourself why whoever got to you wants Rachelle compromised. Why one girl is worth so many deaths.”

  That was me. And hearing Steve put it so plainly, I wondered who I was too. Karen would know. She was our enemy.

  “I’m going to take the tape off your mouth and you’re going to tell me. If you scream, I’m going to hurt you. Not because I want to, but because you’re now our only hope, do you understand?”

  Nothing.

  Steve stepped up and ripped the gray duct tape from her mouth. She didn’t even wince, though it must have hurt. But she didn’t scream either.

  “Well?” Steve demanded.

  “You have no idea what you’re getting into,” the chief of staff bit off. “Kidnapping and torture are capital crimes.”

  “So is terrorism. You’re justifying killing a few hundred for the good it will ultimately bring to the world, right? Playing God, willing for some to die to save the rest. Consider me your god. You confess or I will punish. It’s that simple.”

  I wondered if that’s how God really was. Maybe he was like a terrorist when he needed to be, which meant that what we were doing was just like him. That gave me some courage as I stared at Karen.

  But she wasn’t persuaded.

  “You’re a fool,” she said in a low voice. “Hurt me all you like. I have nothing to say.”

  Steve frowned, knife at his side, eyes locked on hers. Beads of sweat covered his forehead. “Rachelle?”

  “Yes?”

  “There’s another knife in the bag. Get it out.”

  “What for?”

  “Just get it out. Trust me.”

  I crossed to the bag, knelt on one knee, and dug out a knife nearly as long as my forearm. Stood up. “This one?”

  He didn’t bother looking at me. “That one. Put that blade at the mother’s throat.”

  “You hurt her and I swear the government will send you straight to hell,” Karen growled.

  I stood frozen, horrified by the idea of hurting Anika. I understood what Steve was doing, but I hated it.

  “Do it, Rachelle. Remember what I said, embrace that fear. It’s the only way.”

  Anika was shaking, eyes clenched. Gracie was whimpering.

  “Are you sure?” I asked in a thin voice.

  “Trust me. Embrace your hatred. Remember the power it gives you. That’s the power they want to stop, but you’re not going to let them take it from you. Do it.”

  Torn and confused, I did it. I imagined all those innocent people in churches being slaughtered because this one woman was playing God, justifying her actions for some greater good. If she could do that, I could do the same thing.

  If God did that, I had to as well. I just had to tune in to that radio wave called anger. I had to let my hatred swallow me.

  The moment I surrendered to it, rage swept through me like a rushing wave. But my anger was directed toward Karen, not Anika, and I lost my mind to it. Without thinking, I dropped the knife and flew past Steve, reaching Karen in three long strides.

  Then I was on the chair, knees planted in the cushion on either side of her legs, grabbing her hair with both hands.

  “Tell us!” I screamed, jerking her head back and forth. This was all her fault. Her not confessing would force Steve to hurt the mother. “Tell us who’s trying to kill us!” My face was inches from hers as I hurled the words.

  Her lips were quivering and she was clearly frightened, but she wasn’t telling us anything. So I slapped her with an open palm, then again with the other hand.

  “Tell us!” Then, “Tell us who Vlad is!”

  A muffled grunt sounded behind me, followed immediately by a soft chuckle that sent a chill through my spine. I was already twisting back when he spoke.

  “That’s the real question, isn’t it?”

  A man dressed in a black suit and cowboy boots stood behind Steve, one hand over Steve’s mouth, the other with a knife pressed against his throat.

  He drilled me with his stare. “Who is Vlad and why is he manipulating the world to keep all the skulls full of mush swimming in darkness? Isn’t that it, my dear little peach cobbler?”

  Karen’s body had gone rigid under me. Steve’s eyes were round, full of terror. He’d dropped his knife and made a feeble attempt to free himself, but Vlad was much stronger.

  “Even now the shadow reclaims you and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Only I can. And I will if you do as I say. That’s what this is all about, 49th. Me helping you stop all this nonsense before you divide the world with your pitiful truth and bring ruin to us all.”

  I blinked, barely able to breathe, confused.

  “You’re gonna have to get one thing through that pretty little skull of yours. Sometimes you just have to do something ugly to bring about goodness. Even God does it. And now I’m afraid I have to ask you to do it.”

  His jaw flexed.

  “Now be a good girl, pick up the knife, and cut the mother’s throat before I cut Steve’s throat. Fear is the only way to get Karen to confess, darling. Show her you mean business.”

  A dozen thoughts slashed through my mind. The loudest was that he was going to hurt Steve. The next loudest was that I couldn’t cut the mother.

  I couldn’t even move. Or process my thoughts clearly.

  “Get up!” he snapped.

  His demand jolted me and I jumped off the chair, facing him.

  “Pick up the knife!” He jerked Steve’s head back, baring his neck.

  I did it, hand shaking.

  “Now . . .” His eyes were daring me. “Do as Papa says. Kill the heathen, she’s bound for hell anyway. This will only speed her along.”

  If Steve had told me to do it, I might have, I don’t know. But his mouth was covered and my head was spinning and I just stood there, terrified.

  “No?” He softened. “I didn’t think so, not yet anyway.”

  His hand flashed to his side and he threw me a pair of handcuffs. They hit me in the stomach and clattered to the wood floor. “Hands behind your back. Put them on.”

  No one other than he had spoken since he’d come from nowhere. We were all too stunned.

  “I don’t have all night,” he said.

  I picked up the handcuffs and clipped them around my wrists behind by back.

  “Good girl.” He gave Steve a shove from behind.

  Steve’s face was white. As was Karen’s. She’d been unnerved by our threats, but Vlad’s coming had filled her with a far deeper dread.

  Vlad paced, flipping the knife in his hand, eyes still on me, always on me.

  “Now, I’m going to forgive you this once because you’re so new at the game of fear and shadows, still falling from innocence and all that. That’s wh
y I had to wipe your mind, darling, so I could teach you from scratch. The only thing that will save you is fear. You have to protect yourself and your loved ones! You have to fight for what you believe in, just like Steve told you. The only way you can do that is to fear the loss of whatever you’re trying to protect. Embrace it. Even God fears the loss of what is good!”

  How did he know what Steve told me? Had he been in the trunk of the car while we were driving? But he hadn’t been there when we opened it . . .

  “Just to be clear,” he continued, “when I say kill, I really mean kill. And when I say the mother, I mean exactly that. Like this.”

  He threw the blade with a snap of his wrist. It flashed through the air, slammed into the mother’s right eye socket. But it didn’t stop there because suddenly there was no mother and no eye socket. The moment the blade reached her eye, her body turned to wisps of black fog.

  The blade embedded itself in the bookshelf behind the chair she’d been sitting in.

  Behind me, Karen gasped. Steve and I stared at the empty chair, speechless.

  “You see?” Vlad said. “All for the good, if you’ll just learn to trust me.” To Steve, pointing at the now-vacant chair: “Sit down.”

  Steve balked. “There?”

  “It looks empty to me. Sit!”

  He stumbled over and dropped to his backside. Vlad worked quickly, snatching up the roll of duct tape, wrapping Steve’s torso to the back of the chair, speaking calmly as he made quick work of it.

  “I’m going to let you stew for a few hours. If you try to leave this office, I’ll kill you.” He finished securing Steve, walked over to me, shoved me down, and fixed one of the cuffs to the desk leg.

  He stepped to the door and faced his handiwork. Winked at Karen.

  “Not to worry, my dear. Silence wasn’t part of my deal. Tell them what you like.”

  The strong-willed chief of staff had been reduced to a limp noodle.

  “When I return, we’ll try again, this time with the girl. Either you will kill the little scab or I will cut Steve’s throat. This time, there will be no second chances. Capisce?”

  I stared up at him from where I was seated on the floor.

  Vlad started to turn. “Oh, and for the record, she isn’t one of my Leedhan. You wasted that chance. But she is heathen. God’s gonna kill her anyway.”

  And then he was gone, closing the door behind him.

  “YOU’RE SURE?” Steve demanded. “He said it would end at the World Security Summit in two days? It wasn’t just another ploy?”

  Karen nodded, eyes red, still in shock. “That’s what he said.”

  “That he would activate StetNox then, after you’d delivered on your end.”

  “Yes.” She swallowed deep, shifting her eyes to stare at the drawn drapes. “That’s what he said.”

  Steve was stunned. “Heaven help us . . .”

  For the first few minutes following Vlad’s departure, not much was said. My mind was on Steve and Gracie, trying to identify the right thing to do. Doing nothing wasn’t an option. Vlad would only kill them both. I couldn’t see my way past such an impossible situation.

  Karen was the first to break the silence, collapsing into tears. Vlad had given her permission to speak freely, so she had. It all came out in long, broken sentences, a tormented soul seeking comfort in her confession.

  She told us how the president, Calvin Johnson, had come into power using Vlad’s wealth and reach. Johnson had always been a devout citizen, focused on social justice motivated by deeply held religious beliefs. As a senator he had access to verified models that predicted the economic collapse of the United States with devastating consequences unless drastic changes were made.

  Vlad had approached him years earlier, laying out a plan that would accomplish precisely those controls required to save the country. It would mean tearing some things down before rebuilding, and a spoiled populace would never go for hard corrective steps. The country could be saved only by strong leadership willing to take those hard steps.

  The activation of StetNox, which already resided undetected on most of the country’s computing devices, would give the administration untraceable control of every bank account in the country and many abroad. In the dead of one night, they could empty every account without a trace if they so desired, and blame it on terrorists. Martial law would follow in the chaos. Then a rebuilding from those ashes, making the president the country’s savior.

  The church bombings were a distraction, Vlad’s idea: prime the country with fear focused on terrorism. Whip them into a frenzy, then pull the rug out from under them.

  In return, Vlad only wanted access to Project Eden and, in particular, a girl—me—who evidently played a significant role in his own religious beliefs. My most recent MEP had been facilitated by a vial of fluid supplied by him. All of this was Vlad’s doing.

  President Johnson was now at his mercy. So was I.

  There were three more bombs scheduled to go off in the next two days. All would be pinned on me.

  Some of this was way over my head, but Steve listened with rapt attention, momentarily distracted from the looming threat: either I killed Gracie or he would die.

  “You’re saying that this is all about some cult?” I asked.

  Karen sniffed. “I’m saying that’s what he claims. He’s convinced there’s something special about you and he’s obsessed with bringing you down. Some 49th Mystic business. A great darkness that will make all our own concerns look like child’s play. Typical radical ideology.”

  That’s who I was, I thought. I was the 49th Mystic. But I didn’t know what that meant.

  I looked at Steve. “From my dreams. Right?”

  “What dreams?” Karen asked.

  He shook his head. “Too much to explain. Dreams Rachelle used to have in Project Eden.”

  “Dreams of another world,” I said. “That’s where Vlad and his Leedhan come from. Supposedly. But you saw it yourself.”

  “You’re suggesting that Vlad is like whatever that thing was that just vanished?”

  Steve answered for me. “That’s the theory we’re going off of, yes. But we’re groping in darkness here. Suffice it to say Vlad isn’t just human. He’s an energy being of some kind, one that breaks most conventions of the standard model. Science-speak for our understanding of physics.”

  “But I break those conventions of science too, right?” I said, pulse surging. “I mean . . . maybe I’m the only one who can stop him.”

  “What do you mean?” Karen asked.

  “Rachelle has some gifts most humans don’t. The ability to access higher forms of consciousness. Like I said, we’re groping here. We need to study these things properly in a lab instead of shutting her down.” He glared at Karen.

  “I had no idea,” she said. She looked at Gracie, who was staring at us with blank eyes. “Gracie, listen to me, honey. I know this is hard, but do you know where your mother is? Did you see anyone come and take her from your quarters?”

  The little girl hesitated, then shook her head.

  “No? So you didn’t see anyone else?”

  Another shake.

  “Okay. I want you to be brave, okay? Your mother’s safe, but we have to get out of here. No one’s going to hurt you. I promise.”

  If a Leedhan had taken the form of Anika, was Gracie one as well? Was her mother still alive somewhere?

  We sat in silence for a few seconds, afraid to talk about Vlad’s ultimatum. One thing I knew: I couldn’t kill Gracie. Vlad had to be lying when he said God protected his own at the expense of others like that little girl.

  “What should I do?” I asked.

  Steve was staring at the door, jaw fixed, lost in thought.

  “You’re going to dig every ounce of hatred you can find out of your gut and direct it at Vlad,” he said. “Then you’re going to kill him.”

  The thought filled me with terrible anxiety. “What if I can’t? He might kill both of you. I can’t
live without . . . I need you.”

  “And I need you too, Rachelle,” he said, facing me with watery eyes. “That’s why you have to find your power. More power than you know you have. To do that, you have to go as deep and as dark as you can. Wrath. Find your wrath. It’s the only way to protect us all.”

  25

  CAUGHT BETWEEN two worlds, each now independent of the other, my mind was filled with thoughts of innocent children as I slowly awakened in Other Earth.

  After leaving the Circle in utter defeat, I’d retreated into a guarded emptiness that quieted even Maya.

  Talya hadn’t even asked me how it had gone—I guess he knew. He’d taken Maya back to Soromi, who received her daughter with a gentle smile before exchanging a few whispered words with Talya and wishing us well on our journey.

  “Journey to where?” I found the courage to ask.

  “To the sea,” he said.

  “Sea? What sea? I didn’t know there was a sea here.”

  “Few do,” he said. “Most see only another wasteland, like they see the Realm of Mystics. But the upper sea has always been.” And that was all he said about our destination.

  Little Maya had hugged me and offered me her own blessing. “Talya says you can be a water walker like me. Would that make you happy?”

  I’d given her a smile and kissed her forehead. “You make me happy,” I’d said.

  My eyes fluttered open as I awakened now, and I squinted at a bright blue sky.

  What is seeing beyond what you think should be?

  “That’s the question, isn’t it, my dear?” Talya’s voice was warm and gentle.

  I pushed up my pain-riddled Scab body and looked around. The day was already half gone. Talya had kept a small fire burning. We were on the sandy shore of a vast sea with a boat tied off to some shrubs. I didn’t even know there were boats in Other Earth.

  After a long, silent journey well into the night, we’d arrived here, at the sea with the boat. When I asked Talya why we’d come and what the boat was for, he gave me the same tiresome answer he often gave. “When the student is ready, the teaching will appear. You’ll see.”