The Watchers (6 page)

“Then a new cycle in earth’s evolution will begin.”

She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. “Are you saying that soon it will be the end of the world?” Mia held her breath while she waited for his answer.

Uriel smiled. “No, Lakey. The beginning.”

Mia could feel the dampnes
s
of the grass seeping through her jeans. She pulled the collar of her sweater over her neck. She was cold now, but surely her rising panic should be heating her up?

"Why are you telling me all of this? I'm not sure I can deal with the responsibility. I'm no one. I'm just an average teenager! A nobody. What do you expect me to do with this information?" Since her headaches had vanished, her thoughts had become very clear and she was more than clear about the absurdity of her situation.

“You will have a connection to the leaders of the world.”

“What?” She laughed at the irony of his statement. He’d mixed her up with someone else. He must have. “No, I’m sorry, but you’ve got the wrong person. I have no connection to anyone important. I’m just a kid!”

“The connection has not yet been made. You will know when it happens. We will help you.”

“Connection…how?”

“Soon you will know.”

Was this some crazy dream? “Look, why don’t you just do this without me? You don’t need me.” It was a good question. They had God on their side, right?

“We need you to make the connection with someone who is unavailable to us within such close quarters.”

The statement was far beyond the realms of Mia’s reasoning. She didn’t know what to make of it.

“Can’t you just save
everyone
. Save them and let them learn from their mistakes."

“We can only save the chosen. Most of the humans who are threatened by the leaders are not Kudos. If we are to save our planet, we can’t save them.”

“But how can you choose…”

"We choose the true of heart. Those who are good and worthy. Unfortunately, the good of mankind does not outnumber the bad."

She contemplated his words for a moment. “What about children? They are true of heart aren’t they, and priests…people in the church…what about them?”

“We will save the true of heart. The priests…they are not all true and many of the children…we have seen their futures. They will grow to adulthood. They don’t know God. He doesn’t know them.”

A notion crossed her mind. “A little girl was taken this week from her parent’s home in Taunton. You can save her. You could kill the person who took her and return her to her family.”

“We know about Sarah.”

Her eyes were like orbs “You do? You can rescue her then?”

He sighed as if his heart was breaking. “She is within a structure. We cannot infiltrate structures. We can only destroy evil in the open so that we may send them back to the earth. That is our way. Their remains are used to nourish the planet, to feed plants, soil and trees, minerals, and natural products in the ground, used by your people for fuel. It is redemption for your people, allowing them to give their bodies back to the earth.” He lowered his head. "Sarah and other innocents around the planet are compromised within structures, so we cannot reach them. It is our single regret. It hurts our spirit to allow it to happen…”

Mia remained silent. She thought about the little girl, Sarah. The whole country was looking for her.

Uriel’s wings began to rise as his emotions became engaged. “Today, in America, there are innocent hostages, held by men who would hurt them. They too are confined.”

“So the people in America; the hostages, you can’t help them?”

"No," Uriel said with a look of regret in his eyes. "No, we cannot."

Sarah

SOUTH of England

Ted downed his glass of stou
t
and placed the glass on the bar. The landlady called after him as he walked towards the exit. ‘You going already, Ted?’ He grunted and kept on walking. Three minutes later he pulled out of the car park in his blue truck, turning left on the main road towards home.

The police were everywhere.

It was just a matter of time now.

They were going to come and take his little Sarah away from him. He’d only had her for two days. It wasn’t fair. She was just starting to get used to him and now she would have to be taken care of.

He felt tears welling up in his eyes as he drove, thinking about his little angel. She looked just like the other little girl he brought home in ’69. She had to die too, but he was younger then, fitter and more able of getting rid of a body so that it wouldn’t be found. She was still there; buried under the rough ground inside the aviary. It comforted him to know she would always be protected by his beloved birds.

Ted turned into the rough track leading up to the farm, wondering how much time he had before the police came.

New York

Tom and Jay remained silen
t
as they peered out of the nook to see the hostages still sitting on the platform floor in a tight group. From the recess of a doorway, they heard the terrorists issuing orders, telling the people to stay quiet or be killed. A woman was sobbing. A man requested toilet breaks. A child screamed for its mother. The Iranians were yelling, sounding like they were losing control.

“So where are they…the Watchers?” Jay whispered vehemently. Suffice to say the kid’s theory had holes.

“I don’t know. They’ll come. I just know they will.”

Jay could tell that Tom Stone’s confidence was waning. “Kid! The siege has been going on for four hours. We’ve already been here sixty minutes, and still…nothing!” He looked for a glimmer of optimism in Tom’s eyes, something he could hold on to. But there was none.

“There are no trains coming through,” Tom said.

“Sure, that makes sense. The feds won’t meet these people’s demands easily. If at all! From what we’ve heard, they’ve requested their own train to take them out of the city. Our guys won’t do that.”

“But the hostages! They’ve threatened to kill them. There are children...”

Jay saw fear in the boy’s eyes. “Well, welcome to the real world, kid.
What?
You thought you could just get us down here and watch some sort of shoot-out where nobody gets hurt? You thought the Angels would come and kill the terrorists and then you’d get your little pictures and everyone would go home? You have no idea how these things work, kid. Not a damn clue.”

“All right. All right. I get it, okay?!”

A sound from along the track made them stop. One of the terrorists was talking on a cell phone demanding a train to take them out. He was threatening to shoot the hostages one-by-one if the authorities didn’t meet their demands. Jay could feel a bead of sweat trickling past his eye. He swiped it away with his handkerchief.

Tom spoke under his breath. “What are we going to do?”

Jay couldn’t answer. As far as he was concerned they were sitting ducks. The Watchers weren’t coming. Ever!

Ten minutes later a trai
n
screeched to a stop alongside the platform. “They’re giving them a train,” Tom whispered excitedly. “They’re going to let them out. It’s over.” He rested the back of his head against the wall.
The relief
! Yes, he had been reckless, crazy even, thinking he could get away with a plan like that. Jay’s right to be pissed with him. But now it’s over.
Thank God
! A few more minutes and the terrorists would be gone and then they can get out of there.
Okay
, he didn’t have any shots of the Watchers, but at least they were alive,
right!

The train ground to a halt as the terrorists shouted instructions to the hostages. Sounds of voices filled the station as everyone's temper and fear increased. Tom peered out of the recess. The hostages were standing and he could see one of the terrorists with a rifle in his hand, forcing the prisoners onto the train.

“Damn.”

Jay pulled Tom back into the cover of the recess. “What?”

“They’re making the hostages get onto the train.”

Jay bit his bottom lip. “It makes sense. They won’t trust the feds,” he whispered. “The hostages are their insurance policy. Maybe they’ve promised to release them when they are far enough away from the city.”

Tom was about to dart out of the alcove. “Come on.”

Jay pulled him back. “What are you doing, you crazy…?”

“We have to do something. They don’t know about us. They’ve taken everyone’s belongings from them. We’re the only ones with a cell. We can help the feds catch these bastards.

“Really! You’re on a suicide mission, kid and I’m not getting involved. Not this time. No way. Besides, how can you afford phone time on a cell phone?”

Tom took hold of Jay’s lapel. “Don’t you get it? The Watchers have let us down.” He looked once more around the corner of the alcove. “These guys need a hero and Stoney here is gonna save the day.”

Jay shook his head and got up on his haunches, ready to make a dash for it. “I’m going to regret this aren’t I?”

Tom grinned. “Nah. Not one bit.”

Running with their bodies arched towards the ground, Tom Stone and Jay Pullman raced towards the end carriage of the train and placed themselves amongst the hostages, hidden from sight, as they boarded in an orderly fashion.

Chapter 10

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England

They had been talking for an hou
r
amid the ruins of the Henge. The life the Watchers led was way beyond Mia’s comprehension; their culture, their survival, their history, aspirations…everything! None of it seemed real, and yet, without reservation, she believed every word Uriel had told her and she trusted him as she would trust the word of a lifelong friend.

“We live a simple life in a place no human has seen and returned from,” Uriel said. “We worship our father and we live to sustain the mother earth, offering her our spirit and our strength of mind and body.”

“Mother Earth!”

He nodded. She sustains us too. We are all one spirit. She is everything we see and touch; every tree, every mountain and every cloud in the sky. She never leaves us. She feeds us and gives us her protection.”

Mia nodded her understanding. It was a respectful and solemn response.

“Why do you move in numbers? Is it to protect yourselves?”

“We are bound by the blood in our veins. We cannot survive without each other. If one of us should die, the other six die.” Solemnly, he turned his head to look at the Angels standing beneath the stones. “We are brothers. We were born at the same time, on the morning of Earth’s winter solstice. We cannot function without each other.”

“How do you know about the siege in the States? Is it through our technology?”

“We learn a lot through your technology, but for the incident in America, we have communicated with our brothers. They have spoken to us as they often speak to us when they are troubled.”

Mia imagined the great distance. “How do you communicate?”

“Through the ley lines!”

“Lay what?”

"Currents of energy. Geographical alignments covering our planet. Our ancestors built monuments connecting them. This megalith…" Uriel raised his head, and swept his eyes over the stones, "was built on ley lines connecting sites of great importance to our culture and our existence; places like Avebury and Old Sarum."

“You…I mean, the Watchers made these monuments?”

“Of course…among many others around the planet. In a small window of time, our ancestors worked alongside your people. You call them the Druids, but to us they were Kudos. They were at one with us until your people worked to destroy them, sometimes by burning them alive or forcing them underground.”

“The Druids?” Mia gasped. Pagans, worshippers of false gods…They were Kudos.

“The ley lines are natural lifelines created as a guide for our people and for yours. They form links like veins, pumping life through the planet, circulating a spiritual supply. Your people dismiss them as myth.”

She nodded. She had a crazy aunt who worshipped Angels. She always said she felt their presence when she prayed, like they were wrapping their arms around her to comfort her. Maybe her aunt wasn’t so crazy after all. “You said your brothers in America were troubled.” Mia’s questions had no order. She simply took whatever was in her head and ran with it. Uriel was unfazed by her erratic interrogation technique.

He bowed his head. “They cannot reach the innocents who have been apprehended today. The structure has prevented them from connecting with the humans.”

“But surely there are many things happening every day across our planet that you can’t help with. Why are you so distressed about this one incident? Aren’t you used to it by now?”

She could see him smile. “We will never be used to it. It hurts us. It is an atrocity against our being. We cannot absorb or tolerate the hatred that breathes like waves through your culture. This is our weakness.”

“And is this our strength?”

He stared into her eyes as if he was never going to look away. "No! No, it is not."