The Blueshifters (Blueshifter Series Book 1) (3 page)

The
taxi pulled to a stop in front of a pitiful looking bookstore. Dan
paid the driver and pulled his coat up around his head to shield
himself from the rain. It looked dim inside. He tried to push in the
door, hearing the taxi drive away.

“
Come
on, come on!” He said impatiently. The door was locked. He
banged on the door, feeling rain slide down his back. Finally, the
door opened. A short man with thick, wide glasses peered out.

“
Hi.
I'm Dan!” The man opened the door wider to let him in and Dan
pushed his way in from the rain.

“
Nasty
out there,” said the man, closing and locking the door.

“
I
don't usually close up this early. This is cutting into profits you
know, Trillion,” said the little man. Dan looked around. The
smell was musty and very old. Profits, huh? He thought.

“
By
the way, I'm Andrew. I own this palace,” he said dryly. Dan
nodded.

It
appeared he was the last one to arrive. There were four other people
gathered, Trillion among them.

“
Glad
you could make it, Dan,” said Trillion in his usual gentle
voice. Dan now turned around and got a good look at the team. There
was the bookseller Andrew, short, harried looking and a little
disheveled. There was another man dressed in black with jet black
spiky hair, scuffed boots with intense eyes boring into him.

“
Jack,”
he said curtly. He nodded slightly but didn't have much to say beyond
his name. There was also a young woman. She looked she smiled, but
Dan thought it was more out of nervousness than anything else. She
had a jittery aura about her as if she felt she were being chased.
Not surprising given the circumstances. But there seemed to be a
heightened sense of fear in her.

“
I'm
Mary,” she said and reached out her hand to shake his. He shook
it.

“
Good
to meet you,” he said. Of course, there was Trillion, or T.

“
Well,
let's get started. I brought you all here because of your gifts. Also
to bring you out of the wild and into safety,” said Trillion.
“And Andrew here, a trusted friend and one who believes in the
existence of the Others was good enough to lend us his store for our
meetings. You are all here because you can see what others can't. You
see them outlined in red. That is for a reason. Their aura gives off
such a color. Some humans, like yourselves, have been imbued with the
talent to fight the coming takeover. Super powers, you might say.”

“
Super
powers?” Asked Jack with a slight smirk.

“
Superpowers.
You have the ability of a sort yourself and you doubt it?”

“
I
didn't say that.”

“
I
can hear it in your voice,” said Trillion. Jack made a
dismissive noise. Trillion smiled mildly and went on. Dan
interrupted.

“
I
once heard you call these Others redshifters. Why did you call them
that?”

“
Yeah,”
asked Mary. “I'm curious too.”

“
In
physics, redshifting happens electromagnetic radiation or light from
an object moving away from the observer is increased in wavelength,
going toward the red end of the spectrum. Simply put, a redshift
happens when light moves away from an observer. In terms of how this
affects us, it is an ethical, moral one. Those who are redshifters
move away from what is beneficial or good for all living things, save
themselves. They are the enemy. So, we apply a physics  principle
to the moral issue at hand. They move away from the light of goodness
while those in blue turn toward and are supportive of life on this
earth.”

“
So,
can humans too be redshifters?” Asked Jack.

“
Most
certainly,” said Trillion. Then he went on. “This place
is one of the portals that needs to be protected from them. One that
as of now doesn't work. All of the portals we know of are closed and
hidden from the others.”

"How
do you hide them?” Asked Dan.

“
They
have a protective barrier. Each building that houses them has this
invisible barrier over it. It can't be seen. It's a cloak, but it
works to cloak specific things within a space instead of the entire
space. Over time, you will see more of what I mean but I do mean to
let you have a look. This place is our portal. Andrew and I have to
get it working. Come. I'll show you what I mean.” Trillion and
Andrew led them to the back of the store and downstairs. It was
filled with cobwebs and reeked of a dank smell.

“
Can't
be good for books?” Asked Dan glancing at Andrew. Andrew
shrugged.

“
I'm
near broke. Had an incident here some months ago which caused it.
Tell you later. I'm trying to do something about it. I swear.”
Once they got downstairs Trillion went to the back of the room. It
was lit with a bare, flickering incandescent light bulb. Trillion
pulled back a series of old shower curtains to the back wall. Except
the wall was not there. In place was what looked like an opaque,
web-like or space. Behind it was a soft humming and muted light
seemed to flicker on and off every few seconds.

“
What
the. . .” exclaimed Jack.

“
Can
we touch it?” Asked Dan. Trillion looked at Andrew then at him.
Andrew nodded.

“
Be
careful. It is dangerous. Ethers and gases and things that you don't
want to breath in for too long.” Dan moved forward to the
invisible wall and gingerly touched the opaque mass. It felt like
spiderweb and mist, a strange sensation. It also felt wet. He pushed
his hand farther in and it disappeared.

“
Wow,”
murmured Mary.

“
So,
this place is like a tunnel or like a wormhole?” Asked Jack.

“
Yes.
With these portals, we can monitor the movements of the Others and
hide and escape from them more easily. When we fix it we can fight
them more effectively. We will have an edge.”

”
How
did they get here? The portals?” Asked Dan.

“
A
good friend of mine. My captain. He created them. He died in a
resistance coup against the Others. This was a century ago. He only
told a few of us where these places were and had them hidden first
within old abandoned buildings and then when technology took its
leaps and bounds during the Industrial Revolution through the web
cloaks. He himself was known as an inventor rivaling Tesla.”

“
Dan,
what does it feel like?” Asked Mary.

“
Like
fog or mists. Sort of wet. And weird. Once you put your hand through
it disappears as if it never existed. So, will we meet every week?”
He glanced at the other two.

“
I
don't see why not,” said Mary hopefully. She clutched her
stomach absently.

“
Every
Monday?” Asked Dan.

“
Every
Monday,” said Jack. There was screaming and then the sound of
wailing sirens outside. They stopped talking until the sound died
down.

“
Every
Monday then. So what do we do with all this time between Mondays?”
Asked Dan to Trillion and Andrew.

“
Hunt
the enemy,” said Trillion.

“
Sounds
good to me,” said Jack.

.
. .

The
others were sitting around quietly drinking coffee. Andrew had
brought out his ancient and filthy coffee-maker and a few dingy cups
and offered coffee. Jack and Mary and were quietly speaking with
Trillion. Dan himself wandered through the isles looking at the
books. Andrew's store was a used bookstore and naturally, full of
old, dusty books. Piled high on shelves full of old, old books. He
glanced at his other two team-mates when Andrew suddenly rounded the
isle. He brought him a cup of coffee.

“
Thought
you might want one. Might help you brainstorm. Work things out. I
always work best at night.” He handed the cup to him. Dan took
it and thanked him. He took a sip. It was terrible and weak, but it
was the thought that counted.

“
I
was wondering,” Dan asked, “how did this guy build these
portals here? Who is Trillion? You know him? He must be like the guy
who built this place. Special.”

“
Trillion
calls himself an outsider and sometimes a helper. He has special
abilities too but different than yours. He doesn't go into great
detail about himself, though.” Andrew took a sip of his brown
swill.

“
Is
there any history or information about these “Others”?
Like a book?”

“
Yeah.”

“
Well,
there is something. It's a personal journal. It was written by a guy
who lived over a hundred years ago. He kept a journal of various
things concerning strange events that he saw near his house. The
journal ends abruptly. The problem is the man was mentally ill. Or
mad, as they used to say long ago. However, much of what he writes in
relation to the others is very interesting and informative. Almost
like a road-map to seeing the others if you don't have a special
ability.”

“
And
no one knows what happened to him?”

“
No
one knows. He just vanished.”

“
Nothing
just vanishes.”

“
He
did.”

“
Can
I see this diary?”

“
Follow
me.” Andrew led him to the last aisle of the bookstore but
instead of plucking a book from the shelf he went to a small room
beyond the door, opening it up with an old skeleton key. When he came
out he had an old book in his hands of cloth and brown leather and
yellowed pages. There was no title or writing of any sort on the
front cover.