Emerald Sky (26 page)

After making short work tearing apart its
foe, the tulpa-yeti jumped down to the base of the compound. The power coils
were already firing up, preparing to create a replenishable army of astral
travellers to do battle with the creature from Emmy’s subconscious. The beast
did not allow any such materialisations to take place. It raised both of its
mighty fists into the air and then slammed them down onto the power coils,
ripping them from their mooring as easily as a lumberjack fells a tree.

Upon hearing the roar of the beast, the
Chinese soldiers abandoned their pursuit of the remaining monks in order to
launch a counter offensive. They formed into three groups of three, surrounding
the tulpa and triangulating their firepower in order to maximise its effect.
Any mortal foe would have been blasted into oblivion.

The tulpa was not a mortal foe. The
Chinese bullets had zero effect. In fact, with each impact, the resulting
transfer of energy only served to strengthen the beast. Not that it needed this
extra boost. It picked up one of the power coils it had earlier ripped from the
compound and threw it into the path of three advancing combatants.

This left it facing just six men. Six
hundred would not have made a difference. It swatted the soldier’s away like
mosquitoes, sending bodies flying in every direction. If Emmy had been more in
control, more aware, she would have exercised a degree of restraint. In the
frenzy of battle all of her preparation had gone to waste. The beast was
operated solely by her subconscious fears.

Seconds were all it took for the tulpa to
see off the last of the danger. Once finished, it turned its attention toward
Jimmy, who lay motionless on the snow. It crouched down and reached out with
one of its huge arms, but when its fingers connected with the fallen man they
had softened considerably. The beast had become human – or at least a projected
manifestation of a human. With the hand of Lucy Skye, it delicately felt for a
pulse.

There was none.

Esteban had now made his way over.
Looking down at Jimmy’s still form, he immediately suspected the worst.

‘Is he...?’

The Lucy-tulpa glanced at him. It was a
look of genuine affection and he could see Emmy in its eyes – buried but not
lost completely.

‘Not yet,’ it replied.

Then placing its palm over the young
man’s heart, it sent forth a pulse of pure energy, using its unnatural form as
a defibrillator.

Jimmy coughed and sputtered his way back
to consciousness.

‘What happened?’ he asked. ‘Is it over?’

‘Not yet, my friend,’ replied Esteban.
‘But I think fortune is now working in our favour. Our work is done. It’s time
for Emmy to take over.’

The tulpa stared at him for a brief
moment, confusion in its eyes.

‘My name is Lucy,’ it told him. ‘Now
forgive me for leaving so abruptly, but I have a job to do.’

And then it vanished.

Chapter 42

‘Lock down the command centre,’ ordered
General Tao. ‘We cannot allow that thing to get in here.’

‘I do not think we can stop it, General,’
replied Major Heng. ‘Surrender may be our only option.’

The general shot his subordinate a look
of disdain.

‘Surrender – when victory is assured? I
think you need to reappraise our situation here, Major. The chosen ones are
making their way to the targets as I speak. It is Dr Rayne and her pathetic
band of misfits who are heading toward irrevocable defeat – not I.’

‘But, General...’

‘Enough, Major Heng. We will make a stand
here. If anything breaches the command centre, we will deal with it. Do you
understand?’

‘Yes, General.’

The major returned to his command console
and activated all of the fail-safes. Every internal door within the compound
was sealed shut and the interlocking corridors flooded with poisonous gas. It
may not be enough to stop a tulpa, but they could at least guarantee nothing
human made it through.

Once sure there was nothing more that
could be done, General Tao sat down at his desk and unlocked the small security
safe hidden behind one of his drawers. From within, he withdrew a metal
cylinder roughly a foot in length with a circumference of just two inches. He
then unscrewed the top and removed a syringe from inside. The toxic substance
it contained was glowing emerald green with the distinctive hue of astral
radiation.

***

‘Where did she go?’ asked Emmy.

‘I don’t know,’ replied Esteban. ‘I was
hoping that you would.’

The scientist shook her head.

‘She’s inside,’ said Jimmy. ‘Don’t worry,
she’ll come for us soon enough.’

They did not have to wait long for
Jimmy’s prophecy to pass. The large outer blast doors opened to reveal the
demure and deceptively innocent looking form of the Lucy-tulpa. Two Chinese
soldiers lay still on the floor behind her.

‘I guess we follow,’ said Emmy.

‘I guess so,’ replied Esteban, and then
whispering in her ear; ‘you better know what you are doing.’

As they entered the compound, Esteban
crouched down to check on the fallen soldiers. Each possessed a healthy pulse,
but none was in any danger of regaining consciousness any time soon. He then
went through their pockets before retrieving their rifles. Both the scientist
and the psychic shook their heads when offered the spare firearm. Esteban slung
one over his shoulder and kept the other in his hands. Jimmy pulled Emmy to one
side.

‘I wanted to thank you for what you did.
Well, what Lucy did, but that’s still you, - right?’

‘I guess so,’ replied Emmy. ‘How are you
feeling now?’

He smiled. Despite the terrible situation
they were in, this was the brightest she had seen him since being apprehended
by the Americans.

‘Better than ever,’ he said. ‘I feel like
I’ve been given a fresh start. All that stuff we discussed back home about why
I had no long term visions. I don’t think that applies anymore.’

‘What makes you say that?’

‘I died. Just now, when I fell from the
building. That was the moment I had feared for so long, but thanks to you it
never really mattered. You changed it. You brought me back. Once we get out of
here, things are going to be different. I can feel it.’

Emmy nodded in a detached, non-committal
way. She hoped he was right, but something told her to be cautious. Jimmy had
always possessed a positive disposition, but this was through naivety rather
than genuine optimism. His ability to intuit the future was a tremendous asset
to the team. Perhaps an even greater asset than her tulpa. Anything that could
change how Jimmy received and reacted to his visions introduced an element of
uncertainty. This was something she could definitely do without.

Up ahead she could see that Esteban and
the tulpa had reached an internal door.

‘Why the hold up?’ she asked. ‘Surely my
girl can just break this thing down.’

‘Or we could use the key card,’ said
Esteban.

He held up the security pass that he had
taken from one of the fallen guards.

‘And I suppose you know the code,’ said
Emmy.

‘No, but he does.’

The soldier pointed at Jimmy. The young
psychic stepped forward and keyed in a nine digit security code whilst Esteban
inserted the card in the reader. The doors slid open revealing a corridor
filled with toxic gas.

‘Get back!’ shouted Esteban.

The others did as instructed and Esteban
hit the button to close the door again.

‘What now?’ asked Emmy.

‘The tulpa,’ said Esteban, receiving a
scolding look in return. ‘I mean, Lucy,’ he corrected. ‘She will have to go it
alone. She can take the key cards.’ Then turning to Emmy he added: ‘Do you
think you can crack the codes?’

‘You mean subconsciously?’

‘Yes.’

She shrugged.

‘I don’t see why not. I mean, technically
she’s just as smart as I am. Even if she can’t, she can probably just teleport
or smash her way through. It’s better for us if she doesn’t use up too much
energy though. I have no idea what her limits actually are.’

‘We’ll find out soon enough.’

‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’ She then
glanced up and down the corridor. There did not appear to be anywhere else for
them to go. ‘What do we do in the meantime?’ she asked.

‘There’s a ventilation shaft,’ replied
Jimmy. ‘It’s clear of the gas.’

‘You have to be kidding me,’

‘I just call it as I see it,’ replied
Jimmy. ‘And right now, I see us climbing into the ventilation shaft.’

***

Charlie was unaware of the battle taking
place on the upper levels of the compound. The general no longer saw fit to
fill him in on his nefarious schemes and had banished him back to the detention
level. The scientist suspected that the next time he left his cell it would be
to face a firing squad. There was no other possible outcome. He was simply too
dangerous to be kept alive.

Maximum security dictated that guards be
posted inside and outside of the cell. The only way to open the door was for
both of these men to activate their key cards together and then input a code
that each had one half of. Charlie was unable to overpower either man
physically and bribery was out of the question. Both were dedicated servants of
their general and beyond corruption.

A light came on above the door,
signalling to the guard inside that his partner wanted to open it.

No visit or changeover was scheduled.
This made the guard inside nervous. On the access panel there was a screen
where he could bring up a live feed from outside of the cell. Everything
appeared normal. He pressed the intercom button.

‘Is something wrong?’ he asked.

‘There has been a breach,’ the outer
guard replied. ‘The security of the compound has been compromised.’

‘What has Major Heng instructed?’

‘Lockdown protocol has been initiated.
You know what that means.’

Both guards inserted their key cards and
entered the code. Their orders as to how they should react in the event of an
attack were clear. Once a hostile force infiltrated the base their prisoner
would become a dangerous liability and had to be dealt with accordingly.

The outer guard entered the cell. Charlie
suspected that something was up, but he had no idea what his captors were actually
planning. Only when the guards produced a blindfold did he realise what they
were about to do.

‘Stop,’ he called out. ‘This is crazy.
This is murder.’

He struggled with his cuffs, but he was
ultimately powerless. One of the guards pulled the blindfold down over the
scientist’s face and the other stuffed a rag into his mouth, which he then
covered with a binding.

The first then reached into his belt and
took out two bullets. One of these projectiles was a live round and the other
was a dummy cartridge composed of wax. The latter would, of course, be
harmless, but by using a wax bullet instead of a blank round it would produce a
realistic recoil, masking whether it was the real bullet or not. Neither
soldier had any idea which round was which. By retaining the anonymity of which
guard delivered the kill shot, neither man would have to live with the
dishonour of murdering a defenceless man.

The bullets were distributed and the
rifles loaded. The guards then took aim.

‘After the count of three,’ said the
first soldier.

His compatriot nodded.

‘One.’

Both men tensed.

‘Two.’

They placed their fingers on their
respective triggers.

‘Th...’

***

‘I’ve found a way out,’ said Jimmy.

‘Let me through,’ replied Esteban. ‘It’s
best if I take point.’

The Australian stared back at him,
blankly.

‘I’ll go first,’ added Esteban.

He peered through a gap in the grille and
could see that it led onto an empty corridor. As they had hoped, there was no
gas being dispersed in this part of the compound.

He grasped one of his rifles with both
hands and smashed the butt against the inside of the grille, knocking it clear
of its setting. It clattered onto the floor.

Not wanting to be left exposed and vulnerable
for long, he rolled into the corridor and sprung back to his feet with his
rifle cocked and pressed against his shoulder. He was immediately confronted by
two armed guards.

They yelled instructions at him in
Mandarin. He did not need to be fluent in the language to know what they wanted
him to do. If he put the gun down, they would almost certainly shoot him. If he
shot one of them, the other would return fire before he had a chance to
readjust his aim. It was a stalemate and they definitely had the advantage.
Esteban had something else though. Esteban had Jimmy.

‘Tell me what to do,’ he called out.

‘You go for the guy on the left,’ replied
Jimmy, still crouched in the ventilation shaft.

 Esteban knew the second hostile would
return fire as soon as he shot the first. It was a suicidal move. With Jimmy
calling it, he guessed he did not really have a choice either way. He squeezed
the trigger.