Overture (Earth Song) (25 page)

“
Do I need to arrest you, son?”

“
That’s up to you. This is your power trip, not mine.”

“
I was perfectly justified, and you know it. They have complete knowledge of what's in there. We have to get that Portal back, right now.”

“
Containment may be a moot point. If these cultists know the truth, then the whole world will in a couple days.”

“
Those couple days are crucial. By this time tomorrow we’ll have the Portal back, then we can talk about it.”

Hipstitch
turned and left Bradley sitting in his chair staring at the pictures of the Portal. One of the images was a picture of the Cairo Portal; it’s once pearly white color now black and dead. He’d only seen this picture an hour before the meeting. With the picture came official news of the war. The US government had yet to comment on the initiation of hostilities between Egypt and Israel. The world news agencies were only just beginning to get reports from Israel. That nation seemed almost unwilling to talk, even though thousands of Egyptian troops had poured across their borders and two deadly tank battles had already been fought. The Israeli owned the skies but the Egyptians were driving toward Jerusalem and Tel Aviv completely unmindful of the losses they were taking. Satellite photos showed Jordanian armor and infantry massing on the border and Iranian jet fighters were flying in aid to both sides. The Democratic State of Iraq was not interfering, they'd seen enough war.

Hipstitch
was going too far and Bradley knew it, but what could he do about it? He was sure if Volant were there he would have known what to do. Containment was all but lost. Why arrest the chief of police and half of his staff?

There
was a beeping coming from his briefcase. Bradley popped it open and pulled out his Blackberry. It wasn’t beeping. There was a second device in his briefcase sounding off. He looked at it in confusion for a second before realizing it was Volant’s Blackberry and it was receiving a message. He flipped it open and acknowledged the message to silence it and was about to put the device back when he saw who the sender was. Dr. George Osgood, who was being held hostage by the terrorists.

Bradley
read the message with growing excitement. Osgood gave a detailed account of the cultists’ defenses and their plan to get their leader in through the perimeter. Once they succeeded they would all pass through the Portal to “Heaven”. There were more than enough of them to turn this Portal black, just like the one in Cairo. He checked his own Blackberry and saw that Volant was in surgery at that moment. There was no time to wait. He had to act.

Mindy wasn’t interested in the coffee sitting in front of her. She was too busy watching the doorway to the restaurant. She was expecting Leo Skinner but found herself hoping it would be Billy Harper. “Get your shit together,” she told herself. Then she looked up and saw him. Not Leo, Billy. “Oh, no,” she groaned while her insides did flip flops.

“
Amazing who you run into,” he said when he spotted her. “Room for one more?”

“
Uhhh…I’m actually waiting for someone,” she said, trying desperately to keep the quivering she felt from reaching her voice.

“
What’s his name? I’ll have him arrested.” He said it with a straight face while his eyes were smiling.

“
Dr. Skinner, remember him? He’s the reason I’m here in New York.”

“
Okay, but mind if I stay and talk for a minute?” She looked from his handsome face to her watch nervously. “It’s alright; I’ll leave if you want.”

“
No!” she barked suddenly, “I mean, uh, well…” He smiled that smile and she giggled at him. She actually caught herself giggling! Without further comment he simply sat down.

“
So, how did you sleep last night?” he asked.

Mindy
stopped giggling and her face turned deep red. She thought about actually telling him what she did to get to sleep.
Why don’t you come up to my room and nail me to the mattress,
is what she wanted to say. To hell with Skinner, SETI, the Followers, the Portal, and everything. “It took me a while to get to sleep; I was too excited,” was what she actually said.

“
About meeting this Skinner character?”

“
Among other things,” she said and reached for her coffee. It was room temperature and tasted like shit. She didn’t care, he had her on the defensive, big time. “How about you?”

“
I kept thinking about you and our conversation. I’m going to tell you the truth, Mindy. You’re just about the most amazing person I’ve ever met, and I’d like to get to know you better.” She looked at him and Billy felt himself get dizzy. “How about dinner later?”

“
I’d like to get to know you better as well. Dinner would be great if everything goes okay with Dr. Skinner.” They smiled at each other, sparks flying. That was the way Leo Skinner found them several minutes later, staring into each other’s eyes, and grinning like idiots.

“
Who’s your friend, Mindy?” he asked as he pulled up a chair.

“
Leo! Sorry, I didn’t even see you come in.”

“
I should say not. You seem rather enthralled with this young man.” Harper blushed deep red and got up from his seat.

“
I should be going. I’ll call you later, if you have time.”

“
Thanks, that would be great.”

“
Time for what?” Leo asked once Harper had gone.

“
He’s a cop. We’re just talking about everything that’s happening.”

“
A cop?! You didn’t tell him about the Portal, did you?”

“
I didn’t have to; he already knew. Put the pieces together himself. He arrested the man who witnessed the Avatar dropping off the Portal.”

“
You said the Avatar who dropped off the Portal. Why in the hell would you call them Avatars? E.T., sure, Bug Eyed Monsters, why not? Avatar is what those cultist wackos call them. These are extraterrestrial beings who’ve come to aid us in our most dire moments. I think the least we owe is to let them name themselves.”

“
Avatar is as good a name as anything else.” Leo scowled and she went on anyway. “Saviors are how you appear to think of them. And if this is our most dire moment, that would mean LM-245 is going to hit, isn’t it?” Leo looked at her for a long time before letting his eyes lower. “I knew it,” she said with a deep sense of relief. Then the panic hit her. “Oh my God, we need to tell people.”

“
That’s impossible, and you know it.”

“
No, I don’t! Billions of people are going to die, and those Portals are the only way out. I sure as hell would want to know!”

Leo
looked around to be sure no one was close enough to overhear them before proceeding. “There is more to it than you realize. Here are some pictures that you haven’t seen.” Leo took out a file from a briefcase and handed them to her. She had pictured together the images she was now looking at so most of it was nothing new. What was new was the series of lights around the perimeter of the dais. “You noticed the lights right away. So did our head researcher on the scene, Dr. Osgood. They keep track of the number of people who have traveled through the Portal.

“
Each person lights up one light. That person can carry with them an amount that adds up to three hundred kilos, including their weight. One hundred forty-four lights.”

“
What happens after all the lights have been lit up?” She asked. He reached over and pulled a picture from the stack. It was a picture of another Portal dais. This one was jet-black.

“
These pictures are top secret. This Portal is located in Cairo. A couple days ago Israeli commandos raided the location. Lives were lost on both sides, including almost all of the commandos.”

“
You can’t move the Portal; what did they think they were going to accomplish? They’re in the worst conflict Israel has fought since the Six-Day War.”

“
This is going to be much worse. Jordan and Iran are about to get involved. Anyway, they accomplished exactly what they set out to. A hundred or so Israeli soldiers, technicians, and carefully chosen colonists passed through that Portal. After the total reached one-forty-four, it closed.”

“
What happens then? Does it open again?”

“
No, that’s it. The Egyptians tried everything to get it to reopen. Feeding power straight into it, solar collectors; rumor has it they even tried letting it absorb some radioactive materials.”

“
That was crazy.”

“
Maybe, but they were desperate. You only get one hundred forty-four shots, and the game is over. There are ten or so of these scattered around the planet. Fourteen hundred souls get away, the rest die.”

Mindy
’s brow wrinkled as she ran it through her head. The realization of those numbers came to her as an epiphany. “People will go insane,” she said quietly. “Society will collapse, maybe overnight.” He nodded his head as she continued. “If knowledge of these Portals is coupled with the doomsday asteroid, this scene in the park will be replayed a thousand times. Wave upon wave of desperate people driven to the point of insanity for a chance, no matter how tiny, of survival.”

“
You always were a whiz at macro sociology, Mindy. In the end, that is one of the reasons I brought you here.”

“
I don’t quite get it.”

“
We were just beginning to assemble a list of candidates for our own team when these cultists took the Portal. We’re going to resume the planning tomorrow and I want you in on the process.”

“
Does that mean I get to go through?”

“
That’s not up to us, but you would be an excellent choice. Numerous skills, highly intelligent, and of course, of breeding age.” She blushed and he continued. “We are considering sending about twice as many women as men. Problem is we’re meeting resistance to that plan. You’d think, in this day and age, sexism would be a thing of the past.”

“
You’d think that, wouldn’t you? I have a lot of friends back in Seattle. Many like me, smart and fertile.”

Leo
chuckled and shook his head. “You have to realize the list we are creating is quite long, and your name is not too far up that list at this point. Anyone you bring here will be even farther down the list.”

“
You might be surprised at how resourceful a bunch of astronomers could be.”

“
No I wouldn’t; you’re here after all.” He smiled and patted her hand on the table.

“
You said after tomorrow you’re going to resume planning. That would suggest the Portal is going to be under your control again.”

“
You really are a force of nature, young lady. I’ve already dropped my pants farther down than I would have liked. I’ll call you in a day or so once things have sorted themselves out.” She got up and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then sat back down and finished her cold coffee. It cleared her mind to what she wanted to do. Mindy flagged down the waiter and he brought her a house phone. She dialed a number off a card and waited for an answer.

“
Detective Harper,” came the reply.

“
It's Mindy, Billy. I was wondering if you could come by after your shift? About an hour? That would be great. Room 1019. See you then.”

Mindy
went up to her room and took a hot bath. When the knock on the door came, she answered it wearing only a towel and a smile.

“
I want you to know that this is not the way I usually do things, but I also want you to stay with me tonight.”

“
I don't know how much of a gentleman I can be with you dressed like that,” he said as he stepped inside and closed the door.

“
I'm sure you’re going to be a perfect gentleman,” she said and dropped the towel. She was quivering with fear and anticipation as he stepped forward and took her in his arms.

Victor watched the park from his vantage point almost a half-mile away. Using a pair of binoculars afforded him a good view. It was just past midnight and he should be getting a call soon. Kadru stood just behind him looking somewhat rested after a nap while still showing a deep look of pain on her face. Her expression had a look of bittersweet success. She would not be going with Victor; her life was too close to the end. She’d decided to stay on Earth to the end. A scrambled radio receiver rested nearby, spoils of the recent battles with the government troops. Duke had instructed him on how to set their own codes, thus using the government’s own tools against them.

“
About five minutes,” came Duke’s voice over the radio. Victor picked up the device and acknowledged the transmission. He felt dizzy with anticipation as the moment came closer. In only a few minutes, he would lead the faithful though the Portal the Avatar had left them. He was about to fulfill his destiny. The visage of the Avatar “smiling” at him in the park weeks ago came back to him. “My Lord, has it only been six weeks?” It seemed more than six years in his mind.

Nearby
were dozens of the faithful, with many more dozens hidden around the park. Duke’s plan was detailed and timed to the moment. More lives were to be spent in the coming minutes. But if things worked out as planned the Followers of the Avatar would be face to face with God in a short time. “Maybe Duke and Gabriel were right in what they did,” he said quietly. Beside him, Kadru lowered her head and whispered a prayer to Vishnu that it might be so.

“
Here we go,” Duke said at last. Though Victor could not see, he knew dozens of the faithful were rushing toward the dome where the Portal waited. The group had been instructed to make a straight path and to retreat quickly and visibly when confronted. Sure enough, in moments they could hear echoing shouts from the surrounding military units, then the distant pops of gunfire. They would be retreating now and the next step of the operation would follow.

“
Group two, go,” Duke hissed into the radio. More gunfire erupted over the distance, this time from the opposite side of the compound. Right on cue, huge spotlights around the compound popped on, illuminating the entire park as bright as noon. And just as quickly the lights nearest Victor were shot out. “Be ready,” Duke almost whispered.

The
military presence jumped to life and responded quickly. Concentrated gunfire began to rain down on the faithful, and just as Duke had planned, government forces were pulled from other posts to aid in repelling the threat. “Here we go, start your group in!” Duke told him. Victor turned and nodded to the others behind him and two dozen men raced through the darkness toward the compound.

“
God help us,” Victor said and jumped up to follow.

The
first twenty yards went by quickly, and then a sentry jumped up and challenged them. Victor fumbled for the gun still in its holster at his side. The follower to his right shot the soldier in the head before he could finish raising his weapon. Victor felt the weight of the unfamiliar gun in his hand and swallowed hard. In the darkest days of his criminal years he never used a gun. Now here he was working for the Lord, with a gun.

“
Come on sir, we have to hurry!” It was the man who had killed that soldier. Victor looked at him with a mixture of fear and dread.

“
I don't think I can use this,” he said and held out the gun.

“
You don't have to,” the man said and pushed it back toward Victor, “but you need to hurry.” Victor nodded his head and holstered the weapon.

“
Lead on.” The small group ran through the center of the maelstrom. Other Followers near him hit the already weakened military lines like a hammer, shattering their resolve and opening a huge hole. While they fought to widen that breach Victor and his group poured through and into the compound. As soon as he was inside the perimeter every other person outside not involved in the attack rushed in as well.

When
the helicopter gunship came swooping in it was too late. They strafed the no man’s land between the compound and the forested park, hitting mostly dirt and grass. Those inside the perimeter yelled and cheered at their success. Victor ignored it all and made a beeline for the big dome in the center.

As
he moved through his followers, he was ruder than he would have wished, simply shoving them out of the way and moving with single-minded determination. Suddenly, he was there again, back where it all started. The shining white, pearly dais was standing just as he remembered it. Only instead of surrounded by that strange disappearing wall, now it was a concrete dome with perforated plate steel on the ground.

Victor
just stared. “Our time has come,” he said in a hushed voice. Duke ran up with an outstretched hand. Victor took it involuntarily, his thoughts elsewhere. “Our time has come at last,” he said again to his friend and disciple. “Gather the flock.”

Duke
smiled even brighter. “I told you, brother. It was the right thing to do!”

Victor
nodded and smiled back as Duke moved off to begin gathering the followers. Over to one side was a group of tired looking people in white lab coats. He knew they must be the hostages and felt he needed to say something. “I am Victor, Prophet of the Followers of the Avatar,” he said to the sullen group.

“
Are you going to let us go now?” asked one of them.

“
Very soon you will be free to go. We are sorry for how this happened, but you have to understand that this was not intended for you,” he said, pointing at the Portal dais. “The Avatar of God brought that so His faithful would be able to leave before the world was destroyed.”

“
Do you really think any of us want to hear this crap again?” asked one of the older hostages. “We’ve been studying this device for weeks. It’s an incredible piece of radically advanced technology. I can see how some people would think it’s godlike in its abilities. The truth is it’s really just a machine. Those that sent it to save us are just highly advanced beings.”

“
We seem to have a difference of opinion.”

“
I’m a scientist, and it’s not an opinion, it’s a fact. What are you going to do now?”

“
In a few minutes, once the faithful are assembled, we will go through to Heaven.”

“
How many are there?”

“
Oh, several hundred at least.”

“
You’re about to be sorely disappointed. Only a hundred thirty-seven more can go through.”

“
Don’t be ludicrous! God would not do such a thing to His faithful children.”

“
Once again, you are working under the impression that this is somehow supernatural, and not a high-tech machine.”

Victor
looked at the man then at the Portal. His eyebrows scrunched together in thought. “You’re just expressing your opinion.”

“
See those white lights on the side? There are seven of them lit up. One scientist went through by accident a few weeks ago and was subsequently eaten by a giant lizard. We’ve since sent through six more men, thus seven lights lit. If you send through a hundred or so of your fellow fanatics you’ll arrive at an alien world with no equipment, no shelter, no tools, no weapons, and no chance of surviving. You’re about to make the biggest mistake any religious leader has made since Pope Gregory IX started the Inquisition.”

Victor
listened to the man talk then shook his head. “I was once as you are, only believing in what I can see and what can be described rationally. Maybe if you had been there to watch this miraculous machine delivered you might feel differently.”

“
You called it a machine. Starting to think it over, are you?” Victor scratched his head and looked around at the room full of confusing scientific apparatus. “It creates a quantum distortion in the space/time continuum. We think it utilizes a sort of dimensional door, temporarily creating a shortcut through a universe where the rules of space and time aren’t the same as here. It can take you a hundred feet, or a hundred light years, instantly.”

Victor
shook his head and smiled. “The time for a change in beliefs has come and gone.” He turned away and Duke came to him.

“
They are ready,” Duke told him and turned to open his arms as if to embrace all those crowding into the dome, “Your children are ready to go home!”

The
cheer was deafening in the confines of the dome. Those outside took up the cheer and the sound rose to the point that the walls shook. The noise was so loud that the first sounds of renewed fighting went completely unnoticed.

Outside,
a hundred CIA and NSA agents had quietly crept to within yards of the raucous celebration. With deadly accuracy snipers killed several dozen of the followers deemed to be high-risk targets. Once they were no longer a threat, a volley of grenades was lobbed in.

These
grenades didn’t explode, instead they began hissing forth billowing clouds of gas. Those closest to the gas who tried to yell only inhaled more gas and succumbed that much quicker. People began gasping and collapsing all around the Portal dome.

The
gas was a powerful neurotoxin, nearly one hundred percent effective against an unprotected target. A few of the followers actually had gas masks taken from downed SWAT teams, but none of them realized what was happening in time. Government agents swept in like the tide, shooting where needed, acknowledging downed targets before moving on. The neurotoxin was not fatal, but its victims would not regain consciousness without an antidote. Left unattended long enough, the effects would become permanently debilitating. Most of the revelers outside were either down or under attack before anyone inside knew what was happening.

Victor
walked up the few steps to the dais top. The Portal jumped into startling brilliance and he tentatively put out a hand out to touch it. Of course his hand passed through the ethereal projection. There was the writing again, its image ingrained in his mind forever. He looked up at the opening and closed his eyes for a moment. “Here we come,” he whispered to the Avatar.

Osgood
glanced down at the borrowed Blackberry hidden in his hands. There was a simple message displayed there. “Stall, here we come.” He’d gotten that message five minutes ago, just as Victor had made his triumphant appearance. What’s taking them so long? “Don’t make this mistake, Victor,” he called to the man’s back an instant before he was to step through. Victor paused without turning around. “Think about what I’ve said. You don’t have to agree with the premise that this is a machine, but you do have to realize it has limits. If you are the only ones who will be saved from the Earth’s destruction then at least pick your best people! Take the time to get some gear together. We have a warehouse a short distance from here with tons of stuff we were going to take. Go and get some of it! Why are you in such a hurry? You won, you’re in charge, just think!”

Victor
turned and looked at him with a confident smile. Then he cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. “You’re trying awful hard to stop me. If you were that desperate you’d at least come over here to reason with me, instead of staying up against that wall with the others.” Osgood clenched his teeth and hissed under his breath, afraid that his game was up. The reply message from Volant late yesterday had been explicit in its instructions to stay in this one part of the dome and not move among the cultists. A commotion was beginning by the open doorway and, now that the celebration was winding down, gunshots could be heard through the concrete dome. “You’ve been stalling me,” Victor growled. “Duke, we’re going to be attacked!”

“
We’re ready for whatever they throw at us,” the big man said confidently. A second later Gabriel plowed through the disorganized crowd around the open doorway. He had a bloody wound on his head and a wild look in his eyes.

“
Gas!” he gasped, “they’re using gas!” Fear spread through the dome like a shockwave. Some people screamed in fear, others in anger. One group raised weapons and pushed their way through the door. Moments later the weapons fire from outside increased in intensity, then fell off entirely.

“
We got them!” someone yelled near the door. A split second later blood blossomed from the side of his neck and he fell to the floor gasping and gurgling. A wave of ten close-assault-trained CIA agents burst through the opening, moving in a squat with weapons held up to their shoulders. They began methodically shooting everyone in sight.

“
Kill them!” Duke screamed and pulled a pair of huge revolvers from his belt. One man turned toward him with his silenced MP-5 machine gun raised, its red dot laser sight sweeping up toward its target. Duke fired twice from each gun, sending the man spinning to the floor in a fountain of blood.

The
fighting was close and deadly. The Followers inside were all blooded veterans and fought savagely. Half the first squad of agents had been felled, and Victor was thinking they might win again when an explosion blew the second garage door inward. Another dozen black clad agents, this time NSA specialists, burst in with guns blazing.