Surfacing the Rim (Piercing The Fold) (3 page)

Chapter 4

Sebastian

The only person I can talk to about this is Ezra.

* * *

“As I stirred from sleep, I was startled to see Balthazar’s silhouette sitting on the chair near my bed. The low full moon of Dobria cast a pale light on him. One side of his being was filled with light, and the other was filled with darkness. I quickly sat up and turned on the lamp next to the bed. I asked him why he had come to me.

“He kept mumbling about how they have made him out to be the devil. I didn’t know what he was talking about. His behavior was not typical of Balthazar. His face was sallow. His eyes were dark and heavy. Overall, his appearance looked tortured. Many things had come between us, but he was still my flesh and blood. Yes, he and his fellowship had put our Earth in the predicament it’s in now. But, he was here! He would have never come to me unless something had gone terribly wrong.

“Balthazar told me that he should not have come to the estate that fateful day years ago during his college break. He said that he shouldn’t have been so damned curious. He wished that he had listened to my words instead of walking out the door with the files detailing the Copula and travel beyond our world.

“I was shocked by my son’s words. I wanted to ask him what had happened, but he started to fade, like an apparition. He began to weep. He kept saying that he trusted the fellowship, and they turned against him. They deceived him and everyone else.”

I look at Ezra and see sadness in his eyes. “I don’t know why I woke. Something interrupted the lucid dream, and his astral projection was unclear. I know he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t read him. It felt like we were falling in and out of the dream realm.”

Standing, I walk back to the pond. “I’m telling you this, Ezra, because I think this fight against the Sondians is evolving. I know you’ve heard the chatter among the scientists as well. The Sondian fellowship is increasing the number of Copula implantations because something within the Andromeda galaxy is reacting to them.”

I look out into the distant meadow that is lined with cherry blossom trees. “I know Balthazar was trying to tell me something.”

Something terrible has happened. That is the only explanation for him to come to me after all this time.

“You have to understand, Ezra. He would have never come to me unless he had no other choice.”

I look at Ezra and see worry in his eyes. I assume it reflects his concerns for Balthazar and my well-being.

I shake my head. “I’m sorry.”

Ezra replies, “Don’t be. Just please be guarded, Sebastian.”

I clear my throat and change the subject. “You have been briefed on the additional guardian you need to acquire as well as Sam and Corinna’s whereabouts.”

Ezra is taken aback by the shift in conversation. “Uh, yes, I received the intelligence two days ago. I planned to brief Jesca and Nate about leaving to acquire the guardian this morning.” Ezra pauses, hesitating briefly. “Sebastian, I think we need to focus on bringing Alexander Crest on as a guardian before anyone else. After what went down in Miami with Sam taking Corinna, he fled. I need to find him. Have you any information on where he could be? He needs to understand everything about his family and his life.” Ezra rakes his hand through his hair. “I let him get away once, and then Sam took him and corrupted him.”

Ezra sighs deeply. “So much could have been different for Xander. If I had only gotten to him sooner, Xander would not have been warped by Sam Crest.”

I respond, “Well then, I guess it’s a good thing the fellow guardian you need to retrieve is Alexander—Alexander Sera. He’s in the Appalachian Mountains. He leased a cabin under an alias—Chris Henson. He remains out of sight, only venturing out for groceries. He has no visitors. I’m not sure if he has visions though. It wouldn’t surprise me if Sam has tried to get back in his good graces. The details of his location will be delivered to your doorstep this morning.”

Ezra nods. “I agree. Thank you, Sebastian.”

The atmosphere around us begins to brighten as I end our dream together. I watch as Ezra closes his eyes tightly, shielding them from the light. I stir from the dream and sigh deeply.

Chapter 5

Jesca

Ezra looks at me, and then he glances at Nate. “I received Xander’s exact location this morning before I came to wake you, Jesca. We leave tomorrow.”

Nate stands abruptly, grabs his bowl, and heads to the kitchen sink. He flippantly turns on the water, rinsing out his bowl.

Ezra reads Nate’s frustration loud and clear. “No matter how much you don’t trust him, Nate, Xander chose to protect Jesca the night Corinna was abducted by Sam. He didn’t help Sam. He knew that it was wrong because he isn’t a Sondian, Nate! He is a Dobrian and your cousin!”

Nate shuts off the water and leans on the countertop for support. “I don’t even know him, Ezra! Where has he been? Why have my parents not talked about him, my aunt, or my uncle before? I just found out less than ten minutes ago that a guy that was supposedly working against us is my cousin!”
Nate turns around, rubbing his face in frustration. “I’m sorry if I’m not very open-minded about meeting him again. If you recall, we really didn’t hit it off too well the first time we met.”

He was right. Xander and I followed Sam and Corinna to Club Meridian. We were trying to get to them before Sam could send Corinna through the wormhole to Sonde where she would be implanted with a Sondian Copula. Xander kept me from Sam, but he couldn’t protect Corinna, too. When we got to the club, Ezra and Nate greeted us at the door. Nate immediately became territorial, and he and Xander had words.

Ezra interjects, “Alexander cannot be out there in the world, thinking he is part of a fellowship that promoted the abductions in Miami. Sam used Alexander. We cannot turn our backs on one of our own. He is a part of our fellowship.” Ezra looks to Nate. “We all need to support him and let him be a part of our team.”

I move my hand to the base of my neck to relieve the tension building within me, remembering how things ended between Xander and me. I hoped that we would cross paths again because the feelings Xander stirred in me could not be for nothing. Now, we are about to cross paths again—as allies. Then, I think about my link with Nate. Nate is his cousin. I absentmindedly feel for anything superficial under the skin, running my fingers over what I think is a small lump below my hairline.

Ezra senses my movement to my neck and mumbles, “The second-generation Copula is so slender that it’s unlikely for you to feel anything from the surface of your skin.”

My voice is filled with determination. “Was my link with Nate predetermined through our Copulas?”

Ezra quirks his head to one side and fiddles with the edge of the newspaper, avoiding our eyes. “Yes and no.”

Nate and I both warn Ezra with his vague answer. “Ezra!”

Nate comes back to the table and sits down next to me, ready to pounce on Ezra if he avoids another direct question.

Ezra waves at us to calm down. “Hold on, hold on. Yes, it was determined that you would be linked to another, but the specific person wasn’t determined. That’s left to fate. The link is determined by the combination of metaphysical abilities you each possess. Like I told you before, your abilities needed to complement each other in order for the link to occur.”

Nate crosses his arms over his chest, and his eyes have turned a deep blue as he stares deeply and intently at Ezra.

I grit my teeth. “Explain, Ezra. Now!”

Ezra says, “In the beginning, the fellowship focused on guardians combining abilities the old-fashioned way. A level of trust between the guardians needs to be achieved before two guardians can combine abilities. As both the Dobrian and Sondian fellowship grew and expanded globally, the level of Sondian spies and traitors intensified. Our fellowship discovered that trust was a commodity that was waning. The uncertainty of our safety, along with our children’s, was too much to contend with. Our fellowship—all of us—decided that the logical step would be to reconfigure, alter, and code the Copula to connect the vessels with similar and complementary abilities to increase their probability of survival upon attack. You three were the third wave of guardians to be implanted with the reconfigured and coded Copula.”

Ezra must see the anger building within Nate and me. He leans in toward us. “You have to understand. As our world changed with the expansion of the Sondian fellowship, we needed protection. We needed to protect your future and your existence so that you could carry on. As parents, we only wanted to see that you were safe and protected. This was the definitive way of ensuring we did everything possible to aid in your survival.”

Ezra’s eyes search mine. “When your child’s safety is in danger, you do what you have to do to protect them. This is what your mother and I chose to do for you, Jesca.”

I feel the purity of Ezra’s thoughts flow from him to me. That is all they wanted for us. There were no ulterior motives, just protection.

Nate doesn’t see it that way though. Nate pushes his chair back roughly, too roughly. It flies backward, hitting the floor hard. He growls with a breathless and shaky voice. “And my parents agreed to this? They decided to implant me with this…this device? Then, they partner me with someone to ensure my safety?”

I’ve never seen Nate this angry. Ezra and I stand simultaneously. I move in front of Nate and put both of my hands in his. I grab them tightly, so he can’t pull away. I feel his anger surge through me. I breathe deeply, trying to push all of my calm energy into him.

I whisper to him, “Nate, you need to calm down.”

He eyes me, and then he glares at Ezra. Nate tries to pull his hands away, but I hold on tighter.
He looks at me and thinks I can’t believe my parents agreed to this!

I lean closer to him. Our chests are almost touching. My body instantly shivers from our close proximity. I concentrate on the sound of his racing heart and his fast breathing. I keep my breathing slow, continuing to send my calm energy to him.

I think, Nate, fighting this now will not change anything. You need to calm down and hear your parents out. Please, Nate, calm down.

Nate stops resisting me, and I feel the tension leave his hands. I listen to his slowing heart as it pumps in his chest. His breathing sounds like the soft waves of the ocean now. Our eyes are locked on each other as we stand there, not moving.

Ezra approaches us and puts a hand on both of our shoulders, pulling us back from the place we got lost in.

He looks at Nate. “I’m sorry your parents aren’t here right now to explain, but I know that they’ll want to. Just give them a chance, Nate.”

Nate breathes in deeply, and his broad chest expands. He sighs audibly, nods his head, and closes his eyes.

As Ezra moves back to sit at the table, I pull Nate by the hand, leading him back to our chairs.
This conversation is far from over. I still have unanswered questions, and I’m not about to let them go.

Nate rakes his hand through his hair, looking at Ezra. “Okay, so we’ve been altered. What does that make us?”

Ezra answers, “Yes, your DNA has been altered because of the copper in the Copula. You are still a human though. You’re just a superior model of human.”

I add, “So, we are alien in a way.”

Both Ezra and Nate look at me.

I continue, “We are altered, evolved, and different. That is pretty much alien to me.”

Nate looks at Ezra and scoffs. He sits back and crosses his arms. “She has a point, Ezra.”

Ezra sits back, looking from Nate to me. “With the events that have surrounded your life, you would not have survived the past six months if you didn’t have the defense from the implanted Copula along with a greater purpose in this universe ahead of you.”

It surprises me when Ezra does something completely out of character. He puts his hands out to both Nate and me. We both hesitate, and then we look at each other, kind of taken aback by Ezra’s action. Slowly, we place our hands in Ezra’s.

He squeezes our hands in his and says, “The Copula is the device that will help us adapt, evolve, and survive in our changing world now.”

I think of Corinna and how she was a casualty because of this world we live in now. Since that night, I have tried to block her from my thoughts. Because of my dreams, it has been impossible to do that. In them, she convulses and pulls on my legs, begging me to save her.

Now, finding out from Ezra that she is a Dobrian, I wonder what was going through her mind the night she went with me to the club. Did she know about Sam Crest and the abduction? Was she planning her own mission all along by befriending me? Was she putting herself in harm’s way to protect me? Was she playing Little Miss Vulnerable for Sam so that he would take her and not me?

I ask Ezra, “Corinna is a Dobrian. You said that she is from a family of guardians that were sent to protect other guardians. She was sent to protect me, wasn’t she?”

Ezra responds, “Yes, she was, but we weren’t expecting her to risk her life to protect both you and Xander.”

I stop him. “Wait, she knew that Xander’s a Dobrian, too?”

Ezra says nothing and just nods. His eyes are bloodshot. He pinches the bridge of his nose. All of a sudden, I see how tired he
looks; clearly showing that he hasn’t been sleeping well.

It becomes clear now. Corinna knew what she was doing the entire time. She befriended me to keep me close to protect me. She made sure I went to the club with her—the club she was invited to by Xander. She took a chance that Xander would protect me. All this time, I thought I was protecting her. Corinna laid her life on the line for both Xander and me.

Now, she is gone. Sam sent her through a wormhole to Sonde where she would have been implanted like the others. But, it wouldn’t be like the others at all because she has a Dobrian Copula.

I say, “She already possesses a Dobrian Copula. What do they intend to do with her?”

Ezra taps his hand on the table. “We think the Sondian fellowship wants to alter her, shut down her Dobrian Copula, and implant her with a Sondian Copula. They want her abilities and strength on their side.”

Looking away, I mumble, “That isn’t the answer I was hoping for.”

The images of Corinna’s distorting face from my dreams flood my mind.

Ezra puts his hand on mine to draw my attention. “If there is anything that can be done to reverse the effects of the Sondian Copula, our medical staff and scientists will do it to save her.”

Ezra leans forward in his chair, resting his elbows on the table. “Dobrian scientists working deep undercover at MIT say that the Sondian scientists have been talking about the purpose of the Copula. They think the Copula is acting as a cosmic thread between the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies. The implanted people are like a huge beacon to the source, pulling the Andromeda galaxy to ours. The more they implant, the more drawn this force is to our world—to us. It wants us.”

Ezra moves his hand over the stubble that has formed on his jaw and cheeks.

Nate puts his head in his hands and talks through gritted teeth. “What do they want? Our world or us?”

The ocean waves are the only sounds in the kitchen as we take in what Nate just asked. We have no clue what they want. It could be an invasion. Will the beings coming be predatory or passive? We won’t know until the intersection happens and the invasion is underway.

Ezra leans his head back and covers his face with his hands. He growls under his hands. “Now that Balthazar has reached out to Sebastian about the Sondian fellowship’s mutiny against him, this battle is definitely changing. If Sebastian is right, we might have an invaluable ally on our side.”

My eyes focus on Ezra’s. “Sebastian said that Sam is in Tokyo, Japan. Why Japan?”

Ezra answers, “Remember when we were in the facility, I told you about the high levels of magnetic fields in specific areas of the world? The Bermuda Triangle near Florida and the Dragon’s Triangle near Japan?”

I remember him telling us about this when they discovered that a Dobrian mission had been compromised. Sondians opened a wormhole to Earth, and the Dobrian guardians were trying to close it to prevent a mass invasion. Joan Leal, a Dobrian guardian, was the one who finally closed it
, but not without killing herself.

I whisper, “Yeah, I remember.”

Ezra sighs. “Well, the Dragon’s Triangle is just one of the multiple sites of high-magnetic fields in Japan. The Aokigahara Forest, also known as the Sea of Trees, is located at the base of Mt. Fuji. This area has extremely strong levels of magnetism, which creates the perfect conditions for opening a wormhole. That will be the first glimpse of a Sondian invasion during the intersection.”

Ezra looks down at his hands. “Sebastian hasn’t said anything yet, but all the information I’ve been receiving from intelligence is indicating that Japan is our next mission.” Ezra runs his hands through his hair.

Nate is quiet all of a sudden. His hands are folded and tense on the table. The muscles in his forearms are contracting beneath his skin. I don’t invade his mind. His body language is telling me that he needs to be alone right now.

Ezra stands, picking up his paper and glasses. He walks over to Nate and quietly speaks to him. “I suggest you call your parents. I spoke with them this morning, and they wanted you to call as soon as I told you two about the implants. I know that they are nervous about your reaction. They want to explain to you in their own words why they allowed you to be implanted. Please call them.”