Emerald Sky (21 page)

Chapter 33

The creatures were, to all practical
intents and purposes, indestructible. Esteban had no hope of defeating them. He
sought only to distract them long enough to buy his friends the time they
needed to make a safe getaway. His own survival was now of little consequence.

Fifteen seconds was how long he expected
to last. Maybe thirty if he was unlucky. Any more was out of the question. They
were too quick and too powerful. All it would take was one landed blow and he
would be finished. That blow could come at any moment and without warning. There
was no way of predicting just what these monsters would do next.

He turned the torch over in his hands. It
was not the most substantial weapon, but it did give him one slight advantage.
The flame seemed to confuse the beasts, allowing him to get close enough to
strike them. Every time he scored a hit, however, it was met with the same
reaction.

Nothing.

These animals (if they could be called
that) did not feel a thing. No pain, no fear, no remorse – just the inescapable
urge to destroy their prey. They were the perfect killing machines and they had
Esteban in their sights.

The creature closest to him lunged
forward. He countered the attack by thrusting out with the torch, but with its
indistinct form and lack of features, he could not determine the best place to
target his strike. He was not even sure if placement mattered at all. As with
his previous attempts to hurt it, there was no apparent effect. All he gained
was another handful of seconds where he was not having his limbs torn apart.
This time, they were likely to be his last. As he stepped backwards, he felt
the cold surface of the stone wall press against his spine. There was nowhere
left to run.

His only remaining desire was the hope
that the others had made it out. To trade his life for theirs was a worthy
exchange. After ducking another potentially fatal swipe from one of the
creatures, he managed to steal a glance past the beasts. The entrance to the
tunnels was clear, but his relief was short lived. Emmy was still in the
chamber.

He could not understand what she was
waiting for. Surely she understood the sacrifice he had to make. She opened her
mouth as if to scream, but before he could hear any sound come out, he was
knocked off his feet, losing his grip on the torch as he hit the floor.

He quickly rolled, in order to retain
mobility and to keep some separation from the beasts.

That was when he saw it.

Unlike the dogs, its entire body was
covered in fur; thick and brown. It was too large to be a bear and it dwarfed
the original monsters. Ignoring him, they had now redirected their attention on
the new threat. They did not stand a chance.

The monster grabbed the first of its foes
and lifted it from the ground like it was composed of nothing but hot air. As
the second dog leapt toward it, the larger creature batted it back down to the
ground using the body of its first victim like a mace. It then proceeded to
smash the beast into submission before tearing its unwitting weapon clean in
two. As the dog’s body ripped, it bled pure energy, which briefly lit up the
chamber with blinding electricity. The fight had lasted just seconds, leaving
the previously thought indestructible destroyed, but the monster was not
finished yet.

Once done with its prey it turned towards
Emmy, who continued to scream mindlessly. Her eyes were closed and she seemed
oblivious to the advancing danger.

‘Emmy, run!’ Esteban shouted.

She could not hear him and it was already
too late. The beast grabbed her by the throat and raised her up three feet
above the ground bringing her face level with its own.

Esteban picked up the now extinguished
torch and leapt at the creature’s back, but it was ready for him. It swung
around and swept the weapon away from him using its free hand with minimal
effort. In doing so, it presented him with an unobstructed view of its face. He
could see deep into its eyes and was confronted with a surprising familiarity.

‘It can’t be,’ he said. Then looking at
Emmy, he added; ‘Emmy, that monster is you.’

The scientist gasped for words, but the
creature strengthened its choke hold on her, preventing her from speaking.

He was losing her.

That was when he finally put the pieces
together. His talks with Jimmy, the inexplicable surveillance footage; now it
all made sense.

 ‘It’s a tulpa – your tulpa. I don’t
think it’s your first either. Your subconscious has been manifesting itself
ever since you left Jackson’s Hill. When you escaped that place on your own.
When you lived for months in the outback – on your own.’

The monster loosened its grip slightly,
but he could see in her eyes that she did not believe. That she did not want to
believe.

‘Tell her, Jimmy.’

Their friend had climbed back out of the
tunnel when he heard Esteban pleading with Emmy. He too was unsure, but from
fear rather than incomprehension.

‘Tell her about what you found in the
outback, Jimmy. Tell her who she was with.’

‘She was with nobody,’ replied Jimmy.
‘When I found her she was alone.’

The beast loosened its grip further,
allowing her feet to touch the floor.

‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘You know
I wasn’t alone. I was with Lucy. You saw us together.’

‘No,’ replied Jimmy. ‘You were on your
own. You’ve always been on your own.’

‘That’s impossible. She was with me.’

Her eyes darted from one man to the
other, looking for confirmation, but finding none. Esteban stepped forward,
signalling for Jimmy to stand aside and let him take over.

‘Like she was with you that night in your
cell?’

The confusion that had been in her eyes
returned to fear and once more the creature tightened its grip on her throat.

‘Emmy, please,’ said Esteban. ‘You have
to listen to me. You can stop this, but first you have to let go. Let go.’

This time the creature released its grip
entirely before slinking back into the shadows and out of sight. Esteban placed
his arm around the confused scientist and steadied her on her feet.

‘What did you see in the cell?’ she
asked.

‘Enough,’ he replied.

‘But, that was a dream. It wasn’t real.’

‘You made it real. Your imagination
brought it to life. The colonel feared that your grandfather had somehow
transferred some of his power to you and he was right. Just like the monks who
inhabited this temple a thousand years ago, you can project physical beings
with your mind.’

Still, she did not want to believe. How
could she? If Esteban’s hypothesis was correct, it meant her life for the past
three years had been a lie. It was nothing but a delusion. Lucy had never made
it back from her coma. She died in Jackson’s Hill along with everything else
Emmy had ever cared for.

‘It’s not possible,’ she said. ‘I’m not
crazy. Please tell me I’m not crazy.’

‘You’re not crazy,’ replied a female
voice from the shadows where the beast had retreated.

The three of them turned to face the
speaker. Jimmy showed little surprise upon seeing the figure facing them,
whilst Esteban was frozen in rapt awe. It was Emmy’s reaction that was most
telling; she began to cry.

After waiting a moment for her presence
to be fully digested, the being that resembled Lucy Skye stepped into the
light.

***

‘She’s dead.’

The scientist lifted his hand from the
neck of the now lifeless canine. They had used bitches because their
temperaments were more adaptable than that of male dogs. This was largely due
to their maternal instincts. Females tend to have a stronger survival instinct
whatever the species. They are the nest builders. The ones most responsible for
the proliferation of life.

‘And the other?’ asked General Tao.

This one had a pulse, but it was not
strong. Its death followed shortly after that of its sister. The scientist
shook his head.

‘How is this possible? I was assured the
Americans astral capability had been removed. Without it, nothing could have
cut the cords of these animals. They must have a secondary facility. I want
answers now.’ Then turning to Charlie, his posture stiffened, becoming pregnant
with violent intent. ‘Did you know about this, Dr Nguyen?’

Charlie could feel the hypothetical noose
tighten around his neck. He had no answer, but no answer was the wrong answer.
There was very little he could say that would not result in a death sentence. If
he was not careful, he would soon be as dead as the two canines on the
laboratory floor. Their fresh corpses already beginning to harden. Their eyes
forever open.

That was it.

The eyes.

‘There is no other facility,’ he told the
general. ‘These dogs did not have their cords cut. Something else killed them.
We’ll need an autopsy to confirm it, but I think it was shock.’

‘How can you be sure?’ asked the military
scientist.

The general remained silent. He was still
weighing up the factors he would use to decide Charlie’s fate. His prisoner’s next
words would determine whether the young scientist would live or die.

‘They died with their eyes open. That
means they woke from their astral trip. Whatever ended their lives came from
the material world.’

‘Like our EMP defence or the improvised
copy that your friend, Dr Rayne, used earlier?’ asked the general.

‘No, that would disorientate, but I don’t
think it could kill. If it could, I would never have approved it for use. This
is something else. Look into the eyes of the animals, General. Tell me what you
see.’

The general instantly recognised the
emotion captured like a Polaroid in the eyes of the dead dogs. It was an
emotion more familiar to him than any other, though he usually experienced it
from afar as a detached observer, despite being its cause in so many men. The
emotion was fear. Whatever the dogs had encountered had scared them to death.

‘What could have done this?’ he asked.

‘You mean; what could be so terrifying
that it scared two indestructible killing machines the size of bears to death?’

‘Yes, Dr Nguyen, that is exactly what I
am asking. Now, are you going to tell me or do we have to take the question to
a less civilised arena?’

‘Are you threatening to torture me?’

‘Think of it as a warning. Whether it is
necessary is entirely up to you, Dr Nguyen. Now answer the question. What could
have instilled such a sense of fear into these dogs that their hearts stopped
beating?’

Charlie thought for a moment. There was
only one answer he could think to give.

‘A bigger dog,’ he replied.

Chapter 34

‘Do you want some privacy?’ asked Esteban.

‘I don’t know,’ replied Emmy. ‘Do you?
Maybe I could give you a box of tissues and just leave you to it. I mean,
that’s basically what you’re suggesting.’

‘Slow down, sister. I just thought that
maybe, you know...’

She closed her eyes and exhaled to clear
her mind. It did not take her long to regain clarity of thought. He was
terrified. She could see that now. A seasoned war veteran trained to deal with
any hostile threat had been rendered completely petrified by a figment of her
imagination. Okay, it was a most unusual figment, which was able to touch and
talk, but it was still a figment nonetheless.

‘This is making you really uncomfortable,
isn’t it?’ she asked.

Esteban looked to Jimmy, but the boy was
not interested in the conversation or the incredible apparition standing in the
corner of the room. He was miles away, staring at a wall as if counting the
bricks in order to keep his mind occupied.

‘I’ve been uncomfortable since I was
first assigned to this mission,’ he replied. ‘First our psychic friend over
there, then those seemingly indestructible Hell hounds and now...this. I defy
anyone to dare lay claim to this as part of their comfort zone.’

‘So what’s your plan? You’re a tactician.
I know you have to be planning something.’

He looked again at the figure in the
corner. Unlike him and Emmy, it did not seem troubled. It stood almost
serenely, with arms by its sides and an even, patient look on its face.

‘I’ve got nothing,’ he said. ‘We have to
contain it, but I have no idea how. Can’t you just shut it off?’

‘Don’t you think I’ve been trying that
for the past ten minutes?’

Her voice was calm and even. A mixture of
fear and scientific intrigue had temporarily stayed her initial emotional
response to the truth, or rather the lie, of her recent life.

‘We have to do something. It may not be
safe to just leave it,’ said Esteban.

‘Excuse me!’ said the manifestation of
Lucy. ‘I have a name.’

He looked to Emmy. She shook her head,
emotion starting to re-stake its claim on her face.

‘What’s going on?’ asked Lucy. ‘Why are
you acting so weird and what happened to Charlie?’

‘Charlie?’ asked Emmy.

‘I was with him. I helped him to escape. He
did escape, didn’t he?’

A haze descended over Emmy. A buried
memory started to echo in the deepest recesses of her mind like a partially
remembered dream. It involved Charlie. He was being held prisoner. She was with
him and yet she was not. It was Lucy who was really there. Except that, she was
Lucy. In a sense. The confusion was dizzying. She felt as if she could pass out
at any moment.

‘Esteban, I can feel it. You were right.
She is me. I don’t know how I’m doing it, but I am. She’s a part of my subconscious.’
She paused for a moment as more snatches of memory were revealed to her. ‘I’ve
been projecting without realising it. I’ve seen Charlie. He was betrayed by the
military just like I was in Jackson’s Hill.’

‘We have to help him,’ said Lucy.

‘I know,’ replied Emmy and then to
Esteban, ‘I can get us into the base. I’ve done it before – she’s the proof. I
just need time to figure out how to merge my conscious mind with my
subconscious.’

‘How long will that take?’

She smiled; the extremes of emotion having
softened her toughened exterior. During the brief time that Esteban had known
her, he had often thought that a piece was missing. That she had shut down an important
part of her heart. He had witnessed similar many times in the field. Serving
soldiers take on a detachment whereby the mundane, everyday things seem hollow
and empty next to the hyper-real experience of battle. It is not because they
choose not to feel, but because they have become so hardened to pain that
nothing can get through. With Lucy, or whatever it was, in the room, it was
like Emmy was whole again.

‘It won’t take long at all,’ she said.
‘After all, I am a genius.’

***

General Tao had just received the
diagnostics from the failed canine mission on his personal tablet. It confirmed
Dr Nguyen’s hypothesis that the animals were not killed by a problem with the
astral process, but by acute myocardial infarction incurred through extreme
stress. They had literally been scared to death. The enemy had deployed
something that he had not anticipated. He had been bested. Outmanoeuvred.

Failure was not acceptable. The screen of
his device cracked as his grip on it tightened with impotent frustration. He
could not be defeated. He would not be defeated. This was merely a setback. A
glitch. The most important thing was that the formula worked. The dogs had
remained stable up until their death.

It was time to reinstate the human
trials. The foreigners would be coming for him and when they did, he would make
sure he was the one who landed the deciding blow. He would claim victory before
his enemies even knew the war had begun. And he would start by taking care of
Emmy Rayne once and for all.

***

She could not look the tulpa in the eyes.
Not because they were the eyes of her former lover, but because of what lay
behind them. It was a piece of her soul. The better piece. She feared what that
left her with.

It was six hours since this manifestation
of subconscious mind had made its presence known and she was no closer to
making a breakthrough. Her conscious thoughts did not seem to influence it in
any way. She had even tried giving it verbal commands, but each time it
responded in the same way. It responded as if it really was Lucy. Yet this was
impossible.

To remove any doubt they decided to
interrogate it.

Emmy was too close to lead the questions
so she assigned that task to Esteban. He insisted that she stay with him,
however. He needed confirmation as to whether the tulpa was answering
truthfully or not. It had also occurred to him that it may act adversely should
Emmy not be in the room.

‘State your name,’ the soldier said.

‘Lucinda Skye,’ answered the tulpa.

‘That is your full name?’

‘Yes, but you can call me Lucy.’

He glanced to Emmy for confirmation. She
blushed. During their brief time together the question of middle names had never
come up. She did not know if Lucy had one or not. Esteban resumed with the
questions.

‘How old are you?’

‘25.’

‘That’s your age,’ Esteban said, turning
back to Emmy.

‘It’s also the age Lucy was when I knew
her,’ she replied. ‘She looks exactly the same. She hasn’t aged a day.’

‘That’s because it’s not really her.’

Emmy nodded, but a part of her still
hoped her lover was with her once more. To accept the truth without question
would be beyond any pain she had ever felt.

‘Where were you born?’

‘Adelaide.’

‘Do you have any siblings?’

‘No.’

‘What do you do for a living?’

‘I’m a school teacher.’

‘What do you teach?’

‘Kids.’

Esteban broke off the questioning to
stare at Emmy with a look of utter disbelief.

‘Don’t look at me like that,’ she told
him. ‘When we got together neither of us knew if we’d live another day. If you’d
seen what my grandfather was capable of, you would understand that we couldn’t
be sure if there would even be another day. There wasn’t exactly time for
learning every little detail about one another’s past. What we felt at that
moment was what was important, not anything that went before or the mess that
followed.’

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise. I’ll try
and keep the questions more relevant. We’ve established that your subconscious
is sticking to this façade, but we may be able learn something that could help
our current situation. Isn’t it said that we only use ten per cent of our
brains. Let’s find out what your other ninety per cent is thinking.’

‘Ten per cent at once,’ interrupted the
tulpa.

‘Excuse me,’ said Esteban.

‘We only use ten per cent at once,’ the
tulpa repeated. ‘That is at any given time. We do, in fact, utilize all of the
regions, just not simultaneously. That simply would not be plausible. You see,
the human brain is the most complex system in the known universe. The exchange
of information dwarfs that of even the most advanced supercomputer.

‘As with any exchange or transfer of
energy the laws of thermodynamics state that there will be heat lost in the
transfer. Of course, when I say lost, I actually mean that it is generated out
of the exchange. That is why as a species we had to shed most of our body hair
when brain function increased during our evolutionary development. It was to
keep us cool. If we used all of our brains at once they would literally cook
inside of our skulls.’

The scientist and the soldier turned towards
one another.

‘Do they teach that in schools?’ Esteban
asked.

‘No, but if I ever return to teaching, I’ll
make sure it gets added to the curriculum. I never realised I came across as
such a know-it-all.’

Esteban did not reply. Instead, he had
more questions for the tulpa.

‘Can you explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity?’

‘Special or General?’

‘How long does the sun’s heat take to
reach the Earth?’

‘From the centre or the surface?’

‘Okay, this time I want a straight
answer. How is it possible to travel vast distances outside of one’s body?’

‘You wouldn’t understand. But since you’re
so insistent, I’ll try explaining it in as simple terms as possible. The machine
that we built basically separates human consciousness from the body and
transfers it to a surrogate energy field housed within the central chamber. We
then give it a boost via an electric current, which allows the participant to
teleport their thoughts to any location they so desire. It’s basically a way of
cheating the light barrier. We don’t surpass the speed of light, we simply
bypass it altogether.’

He did not need clarification from Emmy
this time. The deeper and further from the façade his questions delved, the
more the parent personality of the tulpa showed.

‘What about Charlie – why’s he now being
held prisoner?’

‘He has a conscience. They must have
pushed him too far.’

‘I could have told you that,’ interrupted
Emmy.

‘You just did,’ replied Esteban. ‘Now
stay quiet. I think I’m finally getting somewhere. Lucy, do you know what the
Chinese want?’

‘Yes.’

‘For goodness sake,’ interrupted Emmy,
again. ‘You may as well just ask me the questions directly. Or yourself for
that matter. We both know the Chinese want to keep control of the astral technology
for themselves.’

‘No, you’re wrong,’ said the tulpa. ‘This
isn’t about astral travel anymore. Once they revealed the EMP they nullified
its usefulness as a weapon. If both sides possess the same capability it
creates a stalemate. That was what kept the cold war cold.’

‘So what do they want?’ asked Emmy. This
time she really was talking to herself.

‘They must be taking their experiments
into different areas. There’s no way a dog could be trained to navigate an
astral journey. Not unless its senses and brain function were increased
exponentially.’

‘The psychic radiation?’

‘When Jimmy came to us in the desert, you
convinced him to use his power for good. You had a crazy idea that he could
become some sort of superhero. It follows that they would think along the same
lines. Of course, their behaviour so far suggests they’re more likely to create
the antithesis of a superhero.’

Emmy went cold. If a military power
learnt how to contain and control the effects of the radiation they would
become unstoppable. Even her grandfather, the smartest human being she had ever
known, could not keep such power from corrupting him. In the end, he had used
it not only to prolong his own unnatural survival, but to end the lives of many
innocent people in the process. It did not bear thinking about what would
happen to that power in the hands of lesser minds.

‘This changes everything,’ Emmy said to
Esteban. ‘We no longer have any choice. We have to shut the Chinese down before
they destroy everything.’

‘What do you have in mind?’

‘I was actually hoping for your help with
that. You’re the military strategist, after all. Whatever happens next, we can’t
just sit back and do nothing. It’s time we took the fight to them.’

‘Agreed,’ replied Esteban. And then
looking at Lucy, he added: ‘Now we have the means, we should strike as soon as
possible.’