limited post due to injury

i must apologize for the format of this post. i am doing this with one hand. monday, i had an encounter with the critter i described in my last post.

let’s just say that it was a bit of a draw. we wounded each other pretty bad. i ended up crawling out ith a badly damaged leg and one hand missing...i managed to hurt it pretty badly too.

i have lots to post about the encounter, but first i need to repaired, this one handed typing just won’t do.

i am waiting on a team to come up from quantico to fix me up so i can finish that thing off...

i will try to make short posts each day until i am fully operational again.

Big Apple Bound

Before I update you on new events, let me address a couple of issues from my last post and the comments I received from that one.

Thanks to Ravyn and the Professor, I have an answer to that riddle, it does appear that Rasputin is who that asshole was using for the answer to that clue. So I Google’d Rasputin and came up with enough information that I am prepared to try a couple of dates for the password to the next clue.

Second, it appears that surprises go both ways. It caught me off-guard that Drake would bother to read this blog, which of course means that I will have to pay careful attention to what is said here, particularly when I have the chance to take up the trail after him. There was also something the bastard said that I did leave out of my last post, which of course the prick used against me to try to show me as being less than honest. To clear that record, I will now provide the part that I left out of the last post, it was said after the riddle was given. I left it out because it appeared to be a purely personal message that I wsn’t sure I could trust in the first place, but also because it seemed out of place given what has so recently taken place. Anyway, here is that last part of the message:

“Finally, dear Rusty I want to offer you my assurances that our conflict, our contest if you will, will no longer involve your family members unless you or they bring themselves into it. I had specific reasons for involving your children and your ex-wife in our last encounter, which I may choose to reveal to you at a later date, but the need to involve them in our little game has now passed.

“I look forward to seeing if you are up to the challenges ahead. So many others before you have failed to rise to the occasion, but I have a feeling that you my boy, may just be the One I have searched so long to find. How ironic is it that I had to create my own best foe?” His cackling laughter ended the recording.

So there it is. I have one message to my dear ‘creator’: Fuck off. This my damn blog, you want to talk to me, you’ve got my number and I’ve got your damn PDA Puzzles.

OK, back to the business at hand. By the time I did my research on this Rasputin fellow to get the dates I needed, I had to put that issue aside for the moment. Over the secure fax machine in my vehicle, I received a very short message, essentially it was instructions to report to the Manhattan Field Office of the Bureau for a mission briefing on Monday. Apparently the Bureau has decided to put my dead ass back to work. So much for the vacation!

So Saturday I spent the day driving up to the Big Apple, trying to manuever this big honkin’ bus through the narrow streets of that overly congested city before giving up and taking the thing over the bridge and onto Long Island. I was able to find a nice RV park about 30 minutes outside of the city.

Earlier today, I spent the day riding my Ninja around the seashore and then back into the city to get an idea of where I would be going tomorrow. There is quite a lot to see in that city, I had never been there before. As I drove in though, I felt a strange pulling sensation deep inside, it was pulling me towards Ground Zero.

I didn’t try to resist that Call very long. Soon I found myself pulling up near the fenced off perimeter of that yawning maw into otherwise towering landscape of manmade mountains. The Power of that place was overwhelming. I parked the bike and began walking the perimeter. There were hundreds of others who were similrarly drawn to this place, but we were all lost in our own thoughts and feelings at what had happened at this place.

I still felt the strange pulling sensation, so I knew I was being called to do more than just see the place. I found an empty bench across the street from the barricaded area and parked myself there.

Once seated, I openned my Inner Eye to the energies of this place and was immediately taken aback. The image of the Two Towers burned brightly in that world still. Smoke seemed to burn my eye. The current sounds of the busy New York streets were replaced with tinny, almost muted sounds of sirens and screams that I remembered from watching images of this scene on television almost 4 years ago now. The ghostly images of thousands of people fleeing the building while hundreds of other brave souls, the police officers and firefighters who responded to the terrible scene, rushed in to help those still trapped inside.

As I sat there stunned by the raw emotions and the wrenching images of that disaster, I felt so small and insignificant in the face of such enormous loss. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t stop watching, I was transfixed as the scene played out, until I noticed one ghostly figure walking towards me.

He was a firefighter, his turnout coat was grimy with dirt and smoot, his helmet shattered by some fallen object. He had obviously been killed by something that had fallen from the building, but his spirit was standing directly in front of me before I realized it. He looked into my eyes, with his one remaining eye and spoke to me.
“Did you call me here?” I asked him.

He nodded.

“Why?’

He stood silently for a moment, then said, “There is something you must see.”

“But why? This was hard enough to watch on television. I was not ready for this!”

“It is never easy, but it is necessary. You must witness soemthing. Wait, it will happen in a few minutes.” With that, the figure came and sat next to me on the bench.

“Can you give me a hint at what I am watching for?”

“You will know it when you see it. Be patient. Not much longer now.”

I waited, watching the scene play out as it had that long day years ago. It was getting close to the point where the first tower came down. The emotional power of the scene began to build as I watched people fall from the highest floors of the burning towers. More people were escaping the buildings, some being helped by rescuers, others moving in small groups, clutching at each other for support.

Within a minute, the first tower began to collapse in a cloud of smoke. The plume of dust and debris quickly enveloped us as we sat there. I flinched, expecting to be hit by the force of the implosion and the debris as it hurtled towards us. The firefighter sat there motionless.

When the cloud enveloped us, our vision was obscured. I was just about to ask the man how I was I going to see anything in this, when in the sudden stillness and strange silence of the moment, a bizarre form came forth from the dust cloud.

It was a hunched form, slightly shorter than an average sized man as it walked. It was naked, revealing that its skin was more like scales, although with all of the dust covering the thing, it was hard to be sure. The feet of the creature appeared to avian like, while its arms reached almost to the ground as they swung. The hands were huge, claw-like appendages that looked very dangerous. It’s head was clearly reptillian in nature, its open mouth protruding from its skull revealing very large, sharp teeth and flicking split tongue like a snake. It had a pair of small black horns that angled back. A series of small horn like fins seemed to trail down its back towards its short, stubby tail. It appeared for all intents and purposes to be the spitting image of a...demon of sorts.

The creature walked in slinking motion past us, oblivious to us, before it found a spot of pavement just past one ghostly firetruck that showed a man-hole of some sort. It reached down with one massive claw into a hole in the large metal cover and pulled up the heavy cover withg little effort. It cast the cover aside and slunk down into the hole, disappearing from sight.

I looked to the firefighter and asked, “What the Hell was that thing?”

“None of us knows. It came from above in the collapsing tower. It killed every living person who even glimpsed it. We have been Calling for someone to come and find this creature ever since that fateful day.”

“Has anyone else come?”

“Yes.”

“What happened to them?”

“Everyone who has tried to find it has gone and never returned. So far, you are the fifth to respond to the Call.”

Drake's First Message

I entered the password into the PDA using the stylus that came with the device, careful to type out the five letter word that was the name of ‘my’ project--Omega.

When the password took, a single MP3 audio file was revelaed. I clicked on it, activating the file. I steeled myself, suspecting that his voice would be the next thing I heard. I was right.

“Congratulations Rusty. You have shown yourself to be a resourceful and dedicated foe. I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have gotten this far. I know now that I have succeeded beyond my expectations with the Omega Project.” His voice broke into a brief cackle of satisfaction.

He brought his voice back under control, restarting his narrative. “You will want to keep this device after this message concludes because I have taken great pains to detail many of my most valuable secrets within it, secrets that you will not be able to discover anywhere else, but secrets that are vitally important for you to truly discover who I am and why I have done the things I have done.”

At this point, I was ready to terminate the damn message and destroy this tool that he had created, but I gritted my teeth and figured I would let the bastards voice drone on for just a bit longer...

“I know you you will not want to believe me at this point. I know that you are holding a terrible grudge against me for the things that I have done to you and your family. But I also know you too well Rusty, I know that you are too good an investigator to casually throw away the answers that you may find here, to throw away the key to your own revenge.”

Well, he was right on that point. I decided to keep listening for now, if for nothing else than to get a clue to where he might have gone after the battle.

“So, now that you will have decided to keep listening, let me tell you something you may have surmised as a result of our battles to date: I have found my own form of immortality. You may have found a way to defeat me temporarily in our most recent battle, but you will not have slain me. How do I know this? That is a secret that I am not yet ready divulge. Suffice it to say that I cannot be slain by any method that you or your allies will have thought to be prepared for at this point.

“My immortality is not without a price however, a price that to many would be too high to pay, which is why I have been looking for other ways to achieve this goal for others. The process that was used to create you was just one such way that I have tried over the uncounted years of my quest to save humanity from the greatest curse of our existence...the curse of our own mortality.”

Holy shit, I knew this bastard was crazy, but I had no idea he was this unhinged! I couldn’t stop the damn recording now, so I continued to listen to his ramblings.

“Now, I know that you have cast me into the role of a villain, a role that I am very familiar with over the years. I have no illusions that I can persuade you otherwise with any sort of recording. So I have decided to present you with a challenge, a puzzle if you will. I will let you come to your own conclusions about who and what I truly am, but you will receive the pieces to that puzzle one at a time. Consider it my challenge to you. Are you willing and able to meet my challenge, to beat me at my own game? If you do, the rewards of such a victory will be beyond your wildest dreams. If you can’t, or won’t meet this challenge, then I will be free to continue my own quest unhindered for a better foe, for a better pupil, for immortality to any who wish it.”

Son of a bitch. He is certifiably crazy. But what the Hell? If I take up his damn challenge, I am playing right into his damn hands, allowing him to lead me where he wants me to go. If I don’t take up his damn challlenge, he’s gonna continue fucking with people like he did with me and Greg and all the rest of the guys on our team.

“If you decide to take me up on my challenge, here is your first clue. In order to unlock the next piece of my puzzle, you will need to find out the identity of one of my prior students. The next password is the date of his death.

“The student to which I refer is rather famous. He was an adviser to a Court, a healer of no small skill, revered by many, but feared and reviled by a key few. He was widely known to be both a man of the cloth and of the flesh. He started with nothing in this life, but through my teachings reached the highest circles in his society. His death was easy to arrange, but extremely difficult to accomplish. His death was necessary to save the Realm, but in fact hastened it’s demise. He died less than a hundred years ago, yet it is still talked about.”

Great, I hate riddles.

“The sooner you solve this riddle, the sooner you will find the next piece of the puzzle.”

With that the recording stopped. Once it did, a second password screen came up blinking at me, daring me to take up the bastards challenge.

OK readers, help me out, I was a cop, not a damn history major. If anyone knows who the Hell this riddle refers to, it would be very much appreciated.

New Beginnings...

In beginning this new endeavor, I find myself wanting to say something deep, something pithy and worthy of a new beginning. But hope and optimism are concepts that seem so foreign to me, even now, and the best beginnings seem to brim with such things.

I can tell you though, that the events of the Everglades are several weeks behind us now. It took far longer to record those events in blog format than it did for those events to take actually occur. This allows me to be far more current, at least unless (more likely, until) events begin unfolding so quickly again.

So even as I was concluding the tale of how Drake was defeated and Papa Locks was slain, I was helping Katherine to sell her (formerly our) house and to move her and Jasmine to the Chicago area. Kenny was allowed to enroll for the soon to begin summer classes at the small, liberal arts college that the Professor teaches at in western Michigan. So the couple of weeks of free time that I was allowed before returning to work at the Bureau was taken up with packing boxes, moving vans and the other mundane aspects of moving family members across states.

After waking up from her bizarre journey, Katherine took a great deal of convincing for her to accept the idea that she had actually seen her husband’s modified corpse wandering around in the Everglades, coming to her rescue. She didn’t fully believe the truth of any of this until I actually showed up a few days later with Kenny in the car. Once she did come around, it was hard to contain her excitement at seeing all of the very real magick that surrounded her. After recovering from her reality check, she immediately asked to be allowed to study with Ravyn and her students. She also rather eagerly accepted a junior membership in the ORCs and the paid position of House Mother of the co-op where Ravyn taught many of her students.

Jasmine literally threw herself into Ravyn Fyre’s teaching. Her favorite part of the whole thing was getting to take care of the Phoenix. She easily spent more time with that creature than she did in her studies. Because of her duties with the Phoenix, Jasmine lived not in the co-op house, but with Ravyn on the Sanctuary, about ten miles outside of the town where the co-op is in.

Ravyn was just now finding out how difficult it was to keep nosy media folks away from the environs of WyldFyre Sanctuary with all of the rumours of sightings of a giant, flaming eagle flying nearby. She spent far more of her time than she would have liked on the phone with various television stations, denying them permission to film on the large tract of private land that she had acquired over the years and allowed to return to its natural state. Even the small old farm house and its associated barns and sheds seemed to melt into the now dense forests that had sprung up so unnaturally quick over the last decade or two.

After helping to get everyone else settled, I returned to Virginia to collect those few things I wanted to keep from my old apartment there. I had already determined that I would be unable to set up any kind of permanent residence, but I wanted a home of sorts of my own, a place that could be both mobile and very customizable. I settled on a motor home that closely resembled a bus in size. I had the Bureau pitch in to get the best computer and communication gear that I would need in order to be functional from anywhere in the country. They weren’t exactly happy with the costs, but a quick call to Zulu had that matter resolved within a day.

I also had the back end of the thing configured to carry my new local transportation, a supercharged Ninja type motorcycle, all black, of course.

So I now have a home that is as mobile, as transient as I am.

In getting all of this accomplished over the last few weeks, I had completely forgotten about the little present that Drake had left for me until I came across it in packing up my new home. When I found that, a very high-end PDA with the capability of recording and playing back sound and pictures as well as the normal text files, I sat down heavily in my new living room, holding the thing in my glove covered hand.

I knew I couldn’t resist the urge to turn the device one and type in the password for very long, so I didn’t bother to resist...

New Story Begins...

...tomorrow. (sorry)

Epilogue

For the past couple of days, I have been reluctant to write this post. But the time has come when I must overcome this reluctance and finish this story, because even as I write this now, it appears that a new tale is about to begin. So let me bring this tale to a satisfactory conclusion...

After taking the card from Zulu, I put it in my wallet. We rejoined the Elder and the assault team who were beginning to load the prisoners who were more easily moved into a second chopper that had descended for that purpose.

The noise and wind of the choppers pretty much prevented any meaningful conversations, so we just watched the well-coordinated team work. Within 10 minutes, all of the prisoners had been loaded into first one, then the second of the wing choppers that had accompanied Zulu's chopper. Once those two were loaded up, they left with a roar, back towards Miami.

The third chopper remained above, waiting for the unseen signal to be sent to pick up Zulu and the only other remaining member of the initial landing team, the female. Zulu spent a moment to thank the Elder for his support and help during the crisis and promised to seek out additional funding for the reservation in the next appropriations bill.

Without any further comments or conversations with me or the Professor, Zulu waved his arm, calling the circling chopper down to retrieve them.

Within minutes, the Elder, Jim and myself were standing alone on an otherwise deserted island within the River of Grass. As the sounds of the last chopper disappeared, the normal sounds of this peaceful, primordial place began to return. The Elder shuffled off without comment to get the small airboat ready that would be taking us back to our vehicle.

I turned to Jim, "How the heck did you guys get involved with a guy like that?"

Jim shrugged, "He sought us out a few years back. He asked for the utmost privacy when we dealt with him, so that his position and politics wouldn't be impacted, which we respected."

"Why would a famous, conservative, Evangelical Christian seek out a group as off the wall as the ORC's are? Don't you guys represent everything he fights so hard and so well to suppress?"

"He was seeking help, which we provided. You see, according to Ravyn, that man has a natural level of magickal talent that was manifesting itself in ways he didn't understand and couldn't control. His faith didn't provide him with an effective way of dealing with those manifestations, so he found the only group out there that could give him confidential, effective training in how to control and even to use his talent safely. In exchange for that, he has provided us resources and political cover that we would otherwise lack, even if he is unable to publicly declare that he is a Caster."

"So does he have any control over the group?"

"No, he is not even an official member. However, we do work together and cooperate when our interests go in the same direction, much as we have with you, Rusty."

"I see. Well, I'll give him a call, but I am done following the orders of mysterious men."

" I don't blame you."

By now the Elder was waiting for us to board the boat and depart this island. The loudness of the engine and the rushing wind effectively ended our conversation for the moment.

We returned to the place where our vehicle was parked, the Frau and Cerrydwen were waiting for us there. Each of us made our farewells to those warriors and Elders we knew, loaded into the van, and departed for Miami International Airport.

The drive back to the airport was quiet, each of us being lost in our own thoughts. At the airport, Jim and I said our farewells to Cerrydwen and the Frau who each had flights out within a couple of hours. Jim made arrangements to delay his flight until after he visited Herne in the hospital and made arrangements for the payment of the bills. Jim rented his own vehicle, so we parted at that time as well.

As he grabbed his own bags from the van to transfer them into his car, we clasped hands.

He asked, "So, you'll be bringing Kenny up to the school?"

"Yeah, after check with Katherine to make sure she's OK with all of the arrangements. I don't expect any problems with Kenny going to your college. She might put up an argument about selling the house and working for Ravyn, but I think she'll come around when she sees that it wasn't my idea."

Jim laughed, "Ah yes, glad I've never had to worry about that."

"Then you haven't been married or divorced."

"True enough."

"I'll see you in a week or two. Make sure Herne is OK, send him my regards, and let him know I'll make Drake pay for him as well."

With that, we parted. I got back into the van and started the long trip home, back to Michigan. In a little more than 18 hours I would be able to hug my son for real. And if he wanted to play catch with his old man again...well that just might be a little easier now. It was almost like having a second chance at life...almost.

The Omega Project Revealed

The three Blackhawk helicopters appraoched from the east and circled the island once before the middle chopper descended just long enough to disgorge five passengers. Three of those passengers were dressed in the black tactical gear of an assault team, each of them carrying automatic weapons with easy familiarity. The fourth passenger was the only female of the group. She was a tall African American woman dressed in slacks and blazer, with a badge dangling from her neck and a sidearm visible in her beltline.

The fifth passenger however, was the most remarkable. He was someone who was easily recognized from his many appearances on television newsconferences and his quotes in the highest profile newspapers. He was a long serving politician from a deeply conservative state well known for his activism in Evangelical Christian issues. This was not looking good.

Jim and the Elder had come to join me as the copters approached.

The three man tactical team spread out as the chopper lifted back into the air. The woman and the prominent politician approached us.

The Elder was the first to speak after the roar of the helicopter lifting back off had receded. “The Miccosuccee have reclaimed this land that was wrongfully occupied by these outsiders. We turn over custody of the survivors of this illegal group to you for your own action. Our Justice has been satisfied. We also lay claim to the building and its contents as recompense for our losses of life and property at the hands of these criminal intruders.”

The female responded, “On behalf of the Department of Justice, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I would like to thank you and your people for the apprehension of these fugitives. We will take custody of them and remove them from tribal lands, as you have requested. But I need to work out some of the details with you, if you wouldn’t mind?”

The Elder and the female began walking away towards the huddled prisoners, where the assault team had gathered around in anticipation.

That left the politician, Jim and myself alone. Jim nodded towards the opposite end of the island from the gathered prisoners and we began strolling.

Jim said, “Rusty, this is our contact within the government, we always refer to him as Zulu. Zulu, this is Agent Rusty Bones.”

Zulu held out his hand, which I took. “I am pleased to meet you Agent Bones. I have heard a great deal about you, both from Jim and from the man you just faced down, Drake.”

“How did you know Drake?”

“Let’s just say that I had intimate knowledge of the original Omega Project parameters. Unfortunately, Drake pulled the wool over a lot people’s eyese before he went rogue, including mine, I must say. Had I known what he was actually intending to do, and the depths to which he would sink to accomplish his goals, I would have terminated the project long before you were ever...created.”

“I see. How the hell did someone like you ever get involved with either the ORC’s or with Drake and his post-mortem projects? And where the Hell does it leave me now? If you had your way I wouldn’t exist.”

“Easy there Agent Bones. Your questions will all be answered in time. But I can tell you that the choice is yours.”

“What choice is that?”

“As of this moment, you are still a Special Agent in the FBI. Drake and his whole crew of miscreants are the individuals who are deemed to have abused the trust of the People of the United States. By helping to bring some of those folks to justice, you have performed admirably. The choice I am referring to is whether or not you wish to continue your employment with the Bureau.”

“Are you serious? After everything that’s happened, you still want me in the Bureau?”

“Absolutely. You have have some very valuable skills and some even more valuable contacts that will allow you to take on missions and assignments that others simply could not take on. However, given what you have gone through, I could not in good conscience, or in good faith with Our Lord and Savior, force you to stay in service to our nation.”

“So I could walk away right now and you and your people would let me?”

“Absolutely.”

I looked to Jim, who had remained silent, but had continued walking with us. He shrugged. Big help there.

“Look,” I started up again. “I have a lot to learn before I can track down Drake, or whatever the Hell his name actually is, and destroy him once and for all. I would like to remain with the Bureau, but I need to be free to follow the clues that bastard has left, wherever they may lead.”

“That is good. Mr. Kampmann has made himself a very wanted man, our records show he has absconded with many millions of taxpayer dollars and assets from the Omega Project and has demonstrated himself to be a security threat of grave concern. I can think of no one I would rather have on his trail than yourself. If you would like, I can see that you are assigned to a secret operational unit dedicated to just the sort of mission that you completed today, finding and neutralizing threats of this nature. Would that interest you?”

I thought that over for a moment before responding, it sounded almost too good to be true. “I could see that working. But there is something here in all of this that I just can’t seem to wrap my mind around.”

“What’s that Agent Bones?”

“You. I mean I recognized you the moment you stepped off that chopper. By all accounts you are a hard-core Evangelical Christian and very conservative in outlook. How the heck did someone like you get involved in any of this business in the first place?”

He smiled at that question and glanced at Jim before answering. “I have gotten similar questions from nearly every Caster I’ve met. Let’s just say that my faith and my politics are genuine. But let me also say that the Lord has blessed me with many things in this life, and I feel that those blessings have been bestowed upon me for a reason.”

I looked at him, stunned. “Are you a Caster as well?”

He looked out over the flowing River of Grass as he answered. “That’s what some would call me, yes.”

“And that isn’t in conflict with your faith?”

He remained silent for a moment before looking back at me. “I use my talents in humble service to God and Country, never for personal gain. It looks like we are needed back with the others.”

With that we started walking back towards the others. As we were doing so, Zulu looked over at me one more time, handed me a business card. “Contact me at this number in two weeks and we will set up a meeting where we can finalize the arrangements for your assignment.”

I took the card, saw that it was just a DC phone number and a Yahoo e-mail address that appeared to be random characters, no name, no address was listed on the card. “I will. I appreciate the time to get ready.”

(To be continued....)

Loose Ends

Ravyn and Jasmine returned to the ground shortly, although neither looked happy about being grounded. Once they were on the ground, they found themselves busy in attending to the Phoenix. Her magnificently flaming plumage had been damaged in a number of places. She preened herself and enjoyed the attention of the two humans immensely. Amazingly, the flames that seemed to emanate from her subsided wherever Ravyn or Jasmine went to touch her, like the Phoenix could actually control where she was flaiming and where she wasn’t.

Meanwhile, the Professor had wandered off into the building, presumably to gather more data on Drake’s group and any other secret projects he was involved with.

Cerrydwen, who was even paler than normal, was sitting near the place where Herne and our other wounded had been placed, keeping a sort of low profile guard over them in case any of Drake’s men decided to get take out any revenge on the helpless.

John Red Bear’s body had been gathered up and wrapped in a ceremonial blanket and had been place respectfully near the dock, waiting transport back to wherever he had asked for his body to be disposed of.

The Frau was busily moving among the now gathered dead and wounded from among the enemy, stabilizing those that she could, easing the pain of others, and making notes on which individuals would need hospitilization.

Many of our Native American allies, both Miccosuccee and Navajo were dealing with minor wounds, but only the worst off were laying near Herne. Most of the walking wounded were up and about, policing up dropped weapons and ammunition and otherwise cleansing the site of signs of the battle. They were remarkably efficient in their tasks, moving about silently as they completed their tasks.

I stood near Katherine’s unconscious body, watching all of this activity before deciding to find some of my own answers. I picked Katherine up, brought her over by Cerrydwen, and put her down as Cerrydwen nodded assent to my unvoiced question.

I then made my way to the entrance to the building and looked in. Inside, three of the younger Native American men and the Professor were busy turning on the various computers in the main chamber. They then hooked up small boxes and appeared to be dumping data from the hard drives of those computers as fast it showed up on the monitors.

The Professor saw me standing in the doorway and waved for me to join him. “It looks like Drake even considered the possibility of losing this battle. He left a present for you.” He was holding out what looked to be a small, expensive looking PDA that had a note attached to it out towards me.

I took the proferred device and glanced at the note. It was written in a beautiful, elegant script that was rarely taught anymore, it read: “Dear Rusty, I continue to be impressed with your resourcefulness and determination. Please accept this device and the information it contains as a token of my appreciation. You will find many answers to your questions inside. The password to access this information is the name of your project. I look forward to our next gathering. --Drake”

The Professor asked, “Do you know that password he is referring to?”

I looked up from the note, “Yeah, I do.”

“Do you want to keep that, or do you want me dump the data and give you a breakdown of what it contains? It might be safer, just in case he has any nasty surprises for you.”

“Nah, I’ll keep it and read it later. Once I’m done, I’ll get it to you for analysis.”

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

“No, but it’s something I need to do. No matter what the bastard has to say in here, I’m not going to rush off into any traps. But I do feel a certain sense of responsibility. I’m going to have to hunt that monster down and destroy him, eventually.”

Jim reached out his hand and clapped me on the shoulder, “Just remember, you’re not alone in this world anymore. You’ve got friends and allies, as well as your family. Don’t forget that.”

I pocketed the device, note and all, and returned the friendly gesture to Jim, “Don’t worry, I’m in no hurry to meet him just yet, I have too much to learn before I can expect to destroy him.”

Jim looked up from the computer he had continued to dump data from, “Oh, that reminds me, Ravyn and I discussed this before we came down for this battle. We’re gonna have to bring your family into the organization, relocate them so we can keep an eye for any danger. Drake knows you’ll respond to them being in danger, so we need to protect them as best as possible.

“I know your son was excited to receive the offer from the University of Miami, but that was set up through Drake. I’ve spoken to the admissions office at my school. They’ll accept him as an incoming freshman. The ORC’s can cover his tuition.”

“Wow, that would be great. I’m sure Kenny would do better at a smaller school like that anyway.”

“Ravyn called me while they were still flying, she wants to take on Jasmine as one of her students, she says Jasmine has the spark of very powerful Caster within her. Your ex-wife could join her and help run that massive house of Ravyn’s.”

“Well, I’m not surprised that Jasmine has that spark of talent. I think I can convince Katherine, once she comes around and gets her wits back.”

“Good.” Jim’s wristband beeped, he looked at it briefly before pushing a couple of buttons, cancelling the alert. “Looks like we’re down to five minutes. Go let the Elders know that they need to get moving. OK boys, leave the rest to me, we need to get you guys out of here.”

I followed the young warriors out of the building, amazed to see how clean the battlefield now was. I walked over to one of the Miccosuccee Elders and gave him Jim’s instructions.

Our wounded, and John’s body, had already been loaded onto airboats, with all of the weapons as well. I noticed the Ravyn and Jasmine were already back on the Phoenix, apparently getting ready to take off again. There was a long bundle laying at the Phoenix’s feet.

I approached and asked them where they were going.

Ravyn grinned at me, obviously eager to get flying again. “Jasmine, Katherine and I are returning to Chicago the fun way!”

I looked around, didn’t see Katherine, “Where is Katherine?”

Jasmine pointed down at the bundle, that I now noticed was wrapped in an extensive set of straps that led to a large metal dowel of some sort from which the bundle could be suspended. “Mom’s down there, that older woman can and put her into a deep sleep. She’ll be alright Dad.”

I looked at Ravyn, curious.

Ravyn grinned that mischievous grin of hers, “Don’t worry, she’ll be safe. This is the quickest way back.”

Without further chance for me to say no, Ravyn said something into the bird’s ear. It hopped a couple of times, flapped its massive wings and launched into the air. It grabbed the dowel on the way up, lifting poor Katherine into the air like a sack of potatoes. If she only realized what was happnening...oh boy, glad I wouldn’t be around to take the blame for all of this.

Within moments, there was a bright flash where the Phoenix had been flying, then nothing.

The Frau and Cerrydwen were also waiting on a nearby airboat, that was now starting up. The only folks left on the island were the dead and wounded of Drake’s forces, Jim (still in the building), one of the Miccosuccee Elders and myself.

Just as the sounds of the last of the airboats faded away, I could make out the distant sounds of helicopters coming this way.

Finale...Part 3

I was extremely relieved to know that Jasmine and Katherine were safe, but the sight of them stumbling out of that building froze me in place. I simply hadn’t thought of what I would say to either of them if they recognized me.

Instead of noticing me however, all eyes were drawn to the blazing shape in the sky that was quickly growing larger than the curious oddity that it was now. The spot grew brighter and brighter, until we could all make out the exhilerated but scared stiff form of the Frau riding Ravyn’s Phoneix. She was clutching the plumage of the strange bird so hard that tendrils of smoke were coming from that part of the giant birds neck.

Just as the true nature of the Phoenix became unmistakable, that it truly was a giant flaming bird hurtling out of the sky towards us, Katherine fainted dead away into the arms of one of her Miccosuccee rescuers. My duaghter however, proved to be a bit more unflappable, as she called out, “That’s so cool!”

Ravyn, even though she was dirty, bruised and obviously tired, stood up striaght now and was bouncing on her tip toes, eager for her lifelong companion to complete its task. “It sure is darling!”

As soon as the giant bird fluttered to stop and landed, the Frau practically fell off the bird, landing half in the arms of the waiting Ravyn, half on her knees. She grimaced, kissed Ravyn on her unbruised cheek and said, “Honey, next time send a car. As amazing as this friend of yours is, I’ll prefer to stay on the ground, thank you very much!”

The Frau then limped off on her cane to see to the various wounded folk, starting with Herne.

Ravyn was gently straightening the very ruffled feathers of her friends neck and was cooing in her ear in a language only the two of them seemed to understand.

Cerrydwen and Jim had gathered around the landing bird as well. Cerrydwen was looking a little unsteady herself as she stood next Ravyn, almost tuned out of the excitement of having won. Jim was steadying her and trying to talk to someone through his wrist communicator at the same time, the bloody, dented bat lay forgotten near Papa Locks dessicated body.

I approached Cerrydwen, “Are you alright? What happened?”

She turned to look at me slowly, still obviously dazed, “I...uh...had to release the Spirits of those that that foul man had trapped in order to keep himself young and vibrant.” She shuddered at the thought. “I don’t think I would have had that chance if the Professor here hadn’t come along. That foul man was stronger of Will than I had thought. He was on the verge of trapping me when Jim broke his concentration with that bat of his.”

Jim looked up from his wristband when he heard his name, “Yeah well, I couldn’t very well let him have you, you know. He was concentrating so hard on you though, I was able to walk right up behind him and take my best swing to the back of the head.”

I interjected, “You hit him as hard as you could upside the head? I’m surprised he lived through that, you’re pretty damn strong!”

He grinned at the compliment, “To be honest, I was pretty suprised as well, he just kind of stumbled forward, fell to one knee, and then Cerry here planted a big ol’ kiss on his lips and some weird shit started happening.” He held up his hand as Cerrydwen opened her mouth, “I don’t need to know, I’d rather not know what the hell kind of power or spell that was. I’d never be able to kiss a woman again!”

Lost in the banter of the moment, I had lost track that Jasmine was still around. I heard a small, familiar voice right behind me, “Dad, is that you?”

Before I realized what I was doing, I turned around and said, “It’s OK honey, everything will be fine now.”

Her eyes grew wide as saucers as she looked at my face surveyed the rest of me. A host of questions all flooded out at once. “How is this possible?...Why?...What happened to you? I saw your body at the funeral! Everyone said that you were dead! Kenny told me you came to him as a dream, why haven’t you come for me when I needed you?”

I looked into eyes, saw the hurt and the pain that was there. I stepped forward and hugged her to me, whispering into her ear, “Oh Jasmine, I don’t know what to tell you, so much has happened. I love you so very much!”

She was trembling as I held her, but I couldn’t tell if it was with fear or anger, or perhaps a mixture. She whispered back, “You’re so cold.”

I pulled back tolook into her eyes again. I saw a mixture of fear and hope. “Jasmine, things are not really as they seem. This body that you can see and touch is not really who I am. It’s going to take a while to explain, but you have to believe me that I never meant to hurt you or Kenny, or even your mother. I loved you all, and still do. I was involved in something so big and strange that if I had tried to reach out to you before, I was afraid of the danger you would have been in. Everything that’s happened to you just now, is because these bad people wanted to get to me by taking you and your mother captive. I came to Kenny in a dream to stop him from coming here because I knew he was being led into a trap.” I looked down at my feet, shuffled the dirt around a bit. “If I would have tried to save you and your mom sooner, I wouldn’t have had all of these wonderful people to help me out, I probably wouldn’t have been able to help you by myself.”

Jasmine was looking up into my eyes now, “Dad, I am just so glad that you are still here.” She suddenly grew very stern and glared at me, “You better be around a lot more when we get back home.”

I laughed, “I will honey, I promise.” I hugged her again.

We both heard her mother’s voice call out her name and looked to in her direction. Katherine was up and moving towards us tentatively, but looking only Jasmine, eyes blinking and her gait a bit unsteady. “Jasmine, what are you doing? I was so worried about you when I woke up! Why were you hugging that brutish looking man?”

She got closer. Just as Jasmine was about to say something, I said, “Hello Kathy.”

This jolted her, she looked from Jasmine’s face to mine. Her eyes grew wide and then rolled into the back of her head as she fainted again. This time I reached out to catch her as she fell forward, and laid her gently on the ground.

I looked up at Jasmine, “Help me with your mother. I guess she hasn’t changed much, huh?”

Jasmine rolled up her sweater and used it for a pillow, placing it under her mother’s head. “No, you know Mom, she doesn’t deal with change or stress very well. She’ll be alright though once she’s in a more normal environment.”

Once Katherine was seen to, Jasmine looked up at the forms of Ravyn and her Phoenix. Ravyn was now moving around the profile of the bird checking for injuries and missing feathers.

Jasmine looked over at me mischievously, “What do you thnk my chances are of being able to take a ride on that bird?”

“I don’t know honey...” I started before Ravyn’s glance shut me up.

“Pretty darn good sweetey, I was just gonna take her out for a spin around the area, do you want to go?”

“Oh boy, do I? Of course!” Jasmine jumped up and ran over towards Ravyn and the bird, eager for the offered ride.

I stood up and started to say, “I don’t know if that’s such a great id....”

The withering looks I got from both Ravyn and Jasmine shut me up. Ravyn helped Jasmine up onto the birds neck and then bounced up herself in one easy motion. The Phoenix looked back at me, sniffed derisively and then took a bouncing leap into the air. The thrilled shrieks of both riders accompanied the birds own raucous cry.

I stood there shaking my head, wondering what Kathy would think of me for allowing this. Oh well, she shouldn’t have fainted, then she could have told her ‘no’.

Jim ambled up to me, “Hey Rusty, according to the Frau, all of our people survived. We’ve got a couple of wounded folks, including Herne, who will need to be hospitalized. I’m glad your family is OK.”

I looked over at him, “Can you tell me what the heck happened to Drake and to El Diablito?”

“Well, I saw Drake drop Herne and then get on top of you. I was gonna try to get over there to help you, but the wind picked up all of a sudden and we all heard the drums and chants before we saw John Red Bear’s form materialize. When he pointed at Drake, a great big bolt of lightning came down from the clouds and knocked him off of you.”

“Yeah, I heard the chants and music too! I thought that was maybe our allies here.”

“No, our friends here were all too busy fighting to be drumming. That was John Red Bear, I saw him. Anyway, Drake was stunned at least, cause he wasn’t moving much to begin with, but I don’t think he was dead. The little guy who was dueling with Ravyn in that ring of fire and energy that they had erected got all worried. His half of the circle came down real fast and he used some sort of device or magick to move quickly over to Drake’s body. He touched Drake’s smoking chest and then they both disappeared before any of us could react.”

Just as he was finishing his tale, his wristband beeped loudly. He looked down quickly at it, saw some message that must have flashed on it, and looked up at the small number of Miccosuccee and Navajo who had gathered around to hear the story and to watch the flying Phoenix and its passengers. “Hey everyone, we’re going to need to get the scene sanitized as quickly as we can, law enforcement is on its way. We have less than 30 minutes”

He motioned for the others to start their work, and then looked to me. “Zulu will be here shortly as well. He’s going to want to talk to you in private.”

Before I could ask any questions, he looked back down at his wristband, pushed a couple of buttons, and spoke into it, “Hey Ravyn, you’re going to need to cut it short. State and Federal Law Enforcement will be here shortly. We need to send your Phoenix away soon.”

Ravyn cursed then replied that she would be down in a minute.

“So who is this Zulu anyway?” I asked.

Jim looked around uncomfortably, “You’ll know soon enough.”

Finale...Part 2

(Author’s Note: Before I finish this storyline, I need to take a moment to dedicate this post, this blog to the one person who means more to me than anything else in the world. She is my inspiration, the love of this life and beyond, an awesome mom to my daughter, a beautiful bride, a powerful witch, and the best damn writer I know. She is also the inspiration for the character of Cerrydwen. Since I lack the ability to capture her true beauty in words, I chose to showcase her strength of will and character and to find beauty in that. Pat this is dedicated to you, for now and forever. This red rose is my answer forever to that question you asked lo those many years ago. –Doug)

As the boat roared through the River of Grass in the dark of night, I was struck by the beauty of this strange, alien landscape. There was just enough light from the sliver of the moon and from the bright stars to reflect off of the slow moving water and in the red eyes of the nocturnal denizens of this place.

Ravyn was silent in her own thoughts next to me, her arms wrapped around the duffle bag that I now knew contained some sort of egg for her Phoenix to hatch into this world, for however long it could do so.

We had lost sight of the other boat, but we also knew that they were headed to a slightly different jumping off point for the assault.

The pilot of the boat was a skillful as he was quiet. He manuevered through the myriad of channels, canals and around the occasional islands in the dark as if he had a computerized guidance system, which he most assuredly did not.

After about 30 minutes of travel at what must have been close to full speed, the fan slowed perceptibly and then sputtered to a complete stop. We continued to coast along silently, first looking up to the pilot, then following his pointing arm towards a lump of land that seemed to loom up out of the surrounding grass fairly silently.

The air boat coasted up to the island silently, the boat coming to a gentle stop as the front end beached itself on the rushes and slope of the island’s coast. The pilot climbed down from his seat, held his hand to his lips and motioned for us to follow him. We leaped out of the boat and onto the soft soil of the island. He used a rope to quickly tie the boat to a nearby tree to keep it from floating off.

We followed him in the dark as he led the way down a now obvious trail in the othrwise thick foliage of the island. It seemed to be a fairly large island since we followed the trail for nearly ten minutes before he crouched down, motioning us to to do the same.

He turned to whisper to us, “Just beyond those bushes, you will see the island that the interlopers have taken. There is a small canoe for you to use when the time is right to move. I have more to do, so I will leave you now.”

He left as silently as he brought us. Ravyn and I were left to our own devices to wait out the remainder of the night. She sat down and started openning up the bag that she had so lovingly brought with her. Once the bag was open, she carefully peeled layer after layer of old towels and other linens from the open end. Soon, I could see the outline of a what would be the largest egg I had ever seen. She reached in and pulled out the large shape.

The surface of the egg gleamed like polished stone, which is what it most resembled. She settled the egg/stone in a nest of the old linens that she had used to protect the thing and caressed it with obvious love.

“What is that thing made out of?”

She looked up at me, beaming with pride, “It started as a small obsidian egg no larger than the palm of my hand. Over the last few years, I have been channeling energy into it, with the help of my companion, and it has grown. It is now ready to hatch, and when it does, Syreena will be here in the flesh, for as long as she is given to act. When her time is up, I will have to find the egg that she lays within her own ashes, and nurture that one until it is ready again.”

“How long do you think she will be around for?”

At this, she looked a little sad. “I’m not sure. But I don’t expect that it will be for long, she will consuming lots of energy just by being alive. But that short time will be wonderful.”

“I’m going to go get into position, it will be light soon.”

“I’ll be right here, let me know when you see anything.”

“OK.”

With that, I started to move towards where the pilot had pointed, brushing back tall reeds and looking around the small trees that seemed to line the island coast. I could hear the water lapping up against the shore and the small canoe that was there waiting for us to use.

I could just make out the shape of the island across the stretch of water and was immediately struck by the perspective of the building…this was the viewpoint that I had seen in the Pool beneath the Tree. The Convergence was going to happen soon!

As the first rays of dawn began to break over the horizon, I began to see some activity stirring on the island across the way. I hunkered down further into the concealing rushes, waiting for my family to brought out. Unfortunately that moment didn’t come for another couple of hours.

Just as I was beginning to lose patience, I heard the sputtering of air boat motors, and the scene I so vividly recalled from the visions of the pool began to play out. I could see Jasmine and Katherine being escorted from the air boat as it docked, and they were escorted off of it and towards the building. Papa Locks and the monster he controlled were there, as was Drake, just like the vision.

“Ravyn,” I called out in a whisper, “it begins.”

In response, I heard her chanting in a soft whisper of her own, I looked back briefly to see her swaying and moving her hands along the surface of the egg before getting up and moving back a bit. I turned my attention back towards the building, just in time to see my daughter and ex escorted into the building by Drake and his henchmen.

Papa Locks and the monster remained outside for a bit, but were just about to go inside, when they heard the rattling hum of another air boat approaching their island. They must not have been expecting this one, because they moved towards to docks to get a better look at the approaching boat.

I heard a crackling voice over my wristwatch/communicator thing, it was John. “I will be leaving my channel open from this point, Jim please terminate it when it is no longer necessary. Farewell my brothers and sisters.”

I could now see him standing at the back of a smaller air boat, one meant for very few passengers. He was alone.

Papa Locks stood laughing as John approached. He called out when John was within hearing range, “What is it that you want Red Man?”

“I have come for Rusty’s family.” John called out. I could hear him both across the water and over the wristband, although it was clearer over the wristband.

Papa Locks threw his head back and laughed again. “You fool, all that you will find here is your doom! I will finish what I started before!”

“I am giving you one last warning Locks, return the women to me and you will be allowed to live, I will merely turn you and your comrades over to the authorities.”

John’s boat drifted up to the dock now. He easily looped a rope over a pole and leaped lightly to the dock.

“You think I fear you Red Man? I showed you before who was the greater Shaman, are you so eager to walk the Worlds Beyond? Where is Rusty now? We are expecting him anytime now. He is so predictable.”

John appraoched Papa Locks, who stood waiting at the base of the dock. The monster moved as if to intercept John, but Papa Locks waved it back, fingering the wicked looking knife at his belt.

“Don’t you think you should ask your master before you make such a choice for everyone concerned?”

Papa Locks snarled at that, “How dare you? I have no master! I make my own choices in this life!” With a single motion, he drew the knife and slashed it across Johh’s throat. John never made a motion to resist.

John staggered with the blow, red blood fountained up in a spray that covered the now smiling Papa Locks. Before he collapsed though, John managed to say one last thing. “Remember, the choice was yours to make. You have brought this upon yourself..”

It was beyond hard to see and hear John be slain like this. Even knowing what would happen in advance, it took every ounce of my newfound reserve of patience to not callout and try stop it from happenning.

The link at my wrist grew silent as Jim followed John’s wishes, then sparked to life again with Jim’s hushed and strained voice. “All marks go. Remember the plan, protect the prisoners.”

As I moved down towards the canoe, I could sense several things happening at once. There was a thunderous crack behind me as I presumed the egg hatched. The roar of flame and Ravyn’s war cry confirmed the hunch. I saw Papa Locks’ head snap up from looking down at John’s now still body as he looked over towards me. The monster seemed to sense the danger, and stepped in front of Papa Locks as several bullets from different hidden locations rang out towards the Haitian. All thudded harmlessly into the monster’s armored body. He used the beast for cover and moved back towards the doors.

The wind seemed to pick up all of a sudden as well. There was a faint sound of drumming and chanting in the rush of the wind. I wasn’t sure if it was the Miccosuccee hidden far away, or if it was some spiritual tribute to John’s passing that I heard.

As I slipped into the canoe, calling out for Ravyn to join me, I looked up to see a very large, very bright bird of almost pure fire diving towards me. Sitting improbably on its enormous back was Ravyn, grinning like a banshee! Its claws were extended, before I knew it, I was scooped up in its giant claws and was being transported towards the island.

The chaos of the moment is difficult to describe. From my now elevated vantage point, I could make out several canoes advancing upon the island, most containing one or two warriors bent on exacting revenge. On Drake’s island, I saw several armed men emerging from doorway, firing shots almost at random.

The space between the place I was picked up at and the island disappeared within three beats of the Phoenix’s mighty wings. But in that time, several things happened. I saw Drake and El Diablito emerge from the doorway to join with Papa Locks and his creature in their own miniature Axis of Evil. I also saw the blue streak of what could only be Cerrydwen racing across the water as if it were dry land! I noticed Herne’s figure emerge from the water off to the left beyond the sight lines of Drake and his group, who all seemed transfixed by the surely improbable sight of a giant flaming bird with a zombie in its claws and the now screeching Ravyn on its back heading straight towards them!

As I bore down on the suddenly worried group of evil men, I noticed that Papa Locks was trying to direct his own pet zombie into some form of action, but it stood there transfixed, as if he could no longer directly control the beast. He was waving frantically at the thing by the time I was being dropped like a bomb towards the creature!

I instantly lost track of everything else going on in the battle, as my vision was focused solely on that brutal monster who had killed so many innocents. I crashed into it and we both went rolling. The collision sent earth flying and would have easily crushed the bones of living beings. Instead we both got up relatively unharmed, but focused on each other. I dropped my baton into my palm and clicked it open as I came up to a crouching position. It did the same.

We faced off against each other. This time, I wasn’t caught by surprise by its strength and speed, having faced it before. Having spent a lifetime fighting against others who were bigger or stronger than myself, I found I could use this creatures’ own strength against it. Unlike it me, it didn’t have much experience in fighting in this form against an equal or nearly equal foe. Its experience could only be measured in months at best, and only against normal people.

The battle seemed to last forever, but it could only have taken a few minutes at best. Using all of my skills at hand to hand combat and my years of experience as a beat cop and as a scrappy street fighter before that, I was able to disarm the beast by first crusing his weapon hand with a well placed series of blows as it attacked recklessly. Then once it was without its own baton, I focused on crushing it’s knee caps with repeated blows as I dodged away when it tried to bull over me. Once the first knee was useless, the second came easier. Circling behind the crippled beast, I used all of my strength to land a two handed blow to the base of its neck, shattering the weakest vertebrae there.

Using my weight to push the beast down, I was able to reach my hand through a shattered rib to reach the Chakra buried deep in its chest, right where my own had been. When I yanked that out, the creature slumped and remained still. I could make out the smoky spirit shapes that had given the beast animation leaking out from its still form to return to whatever world they had come from.

The crushed Chakra still in my hand, I looked up to see what else was happening.

Papa Locks was locked into a pure battle of Wills with Cerrydwen. They were within a couple of feet of each other, Cerrydwen using her dark glare as I had seen her do before, with Papa Locks returning her glare with one of his own. The muscles on each of their faces were contorting with effort, sweat pouring from their pores.

Ravyn and El Diablito appeared to be locked in their own kind of magickal battle. Ravyn was on the ground now, with no immediate sign of where the Phoenix had gone. Instead she and El Diablito were throwing blasts of fire and energy at each other, deflecting some and absorbng or being hit by some. There was a blazing circle that surrounded the two of them, which no one seemed willing or able to break through.

Herne and Drake were involved in a much more physical confrontation, each moving blindingly fast. Herne had his knife out, while Drake seemed to be using only his hands as weapons, to very good effect, as it was clear that Herne was on the defensive in this battle, being the slower of the two.

I grabbed my baton and rushed to Herne’s aid. I came up quickly behind Drake and tried to pummel the bastard, but he was too quick, somehow anticipating my attack and dodging just in the nick of time. Herne took the opportunity to thrust with his knife, plunging it into Drake’s chest. Unfortunately the blow didn’t seem to faze Drake who merely took the opportunity to reach out and snap Herne’s wrist with one hand and land a bruising blow to the temple with the other hand, dropping Herne before he could call out in pain from the broken wrist.

Drake dodged backward, pulling the knife from his chest and smiling at me as we circled each other warily. “I see I underestimate you Rusty. You are proving to be quite the formiddable foe.”

“You had better leave my family alone you bastard!”

“Oh don’t worry, I have much more useful things to do with them than harm them my dear Rusty.”

“I’m not going to let you experiment on them like you did those poor souls in Auschwitz, von Graffen!”

That name brought up Drake short. He stopped smiling at that. “So you know someothing of my past do you. Well, you’ve got more work to do, if you think that was my first name.”

I lunged at him with my baton, hoping to catch him offguard, but he was too fast, sidestepping the thrust and spinning around behind me before I could recover. Before I realized what happened, I face first in the ground, with my arm being twisted behind me. He was so fast and so strong!

He whispered in my ear as I struggled to regain a position to resist from, “I think it is well past time to end my experiment with you, dear Rusty. Enough of this foolishness.”

I couldn’t tell what he was doing, but there was a sudden blast of wind, with the slightest hint of drums and chanting, then a second blast, this time much more powerful as a bolt of lightning struck Drake full on the chest and blew him off of me. More drums and chanting wafted by in the sudden silence of the moment, then faded.

It me a moment to recover from the energy of the blast, but when I did, all of the action had come to a stop.

I looked up to see Drake gone. I looked back to the others, and couldn’t believe my eyes. Cerrydwen was locked into what appeared to be a kissing embrace with Papa Locks, however Papa Locks’ body was now shriveled and decayed looking, Jim was standing next to her, trying to pry her from Papa Locks’ now dead body, his bat dented and bloody from his many victims.

Ravyn stood, barely, in the burned out circle where her battle had been taking place. Her face and her costume were battered and bloodied. There was no sign of El Diablito.

I could see that all thugs were down, either dead or severely wounded, many of them by nasty burns. Several of the Miccosuccee were coming out of the building, trailed by the dazed looking faces of Jasmine and Katherine.

(Author’s note: Wrap-up on this storyline will come next weekend. Many questions to be answered then.)

Finale...Part 1

It wasn’t long after we left the hustle and bustle of the airport that the roads became dark and deserted. Part of it was the time of night, which was late for most folks, so traffic was light. But part of it was also that we were literally in the boondocks of far western Dade County, where civilization ended and the Everglades began.

Soon there were no streetlights at all, no other vehicles on the road. We were driving in an alien landscape on a small, elevated road surrounded on both sides by trees, tall reeds and stretches of open water illuminated only by the headlights of the van. The only sounds now were the hum of the engine and the thwack and splat sounds that the droves of large bugs made as they hit the windshield. Even Ravyn had grown silent as we drove, her normal chatter seemingly forgotten as we pushed further into the vast swamp.

A half hour after entering the Everglades, the van slowed. John was watching the left side of the road carefully. Finally, after seeing an unlit, hand painted sign and the small driveway that followed it, he turned down off the main road and onto the rough, rutted dirt road that seemed to swerve back and forth through the canals and open pools.

Another fifteen minutes found us parking in an unlit dirt lot filled with about a dozen old battered pickups and junker vans. The lot was surrounded by several ramshackle mobile home trailers that had definitely seen better days, each home sported a tin sided shack or two as attachments.

As we exited from the van we were met by a group of rough faced men who were obviously of native american descent. They were, in general, taller than the students and men I had met on John’s reservation, but the demeanor was very much the same. All of the men were armed, most with rifles, but some had large knives sheathed on their belts as well.

John stepped forward immediately and began speaking a language I didn’t recognize to one of the older men. Their conversation seemed formal at first, then turned friendly within a couple of exchanges. John turned to the rest of us and said, “We have been welcomed by Leonard Davis, an Elder of the Miccosuccee Indians. He has offered us the hospitality of his hearth. He also has told me that Herne and the others have already moved into their positions for the morning. He has a pair of air boats waiting to take us to our positions. We should make ourselves ready, we need to leave within the hour.”

That set off a flurry of activity. Ravyn and Cerrydwen grabbed their bags and were shown to one of the mobile homes to get changed in private. Jim plopped back down inside the van, popped open his computer case and began pulling out pieces of strange looking equipment and checking them for functionality.

Not having much else to do, I took a little walk around the compound. It wasn’t long before I found the edge of the dry land, I was amazed at how quickly it came. Looking around, I saw the a wooden dock jutting out into the water with two large, flat bottomed boat bobbing next to it. Each boat had several rows of metallic seats in front, but was dominated by the towering, lifeguard-like seat that sat just in front of the equally dominating fans that comprised the back end of each boat.

John came up behind me, I heard his approach when he scuffed his boots on some pebbles, more than likely because he didn’t want to surprise me. “Soon my Brother, your family will be safe.”

“Are you sure about this whole thing John? Do you really need to die to accomplish this?”

He reached down and picked up some of the pebbles and stood back up. “I am as sure of the plan as I am that these stones will sink if I throw them into the water.” He picked one out and tossed it towards the water. It landed with a splash, which must have surprised some nearby creature, as a second, louder splash followed. The water rippled outwards.

“But I still don’t understand what purpose will be served by your death.”

“Death is a vital part of life. My death will allow me pass beyond the veil of this world and to access powers and skills I cannot yet wield because I am tied to this earthly shell. Once those ties are severed, particularly by the one who will do it, I will be free to act in ways that he cannot counter. I will be able to summon allies and call upon aid that is not available to the living.

“Do not trouble yourself over me, over what must take place. Concern yourself with stopping that monster that has been created in your image. Only you have the strength and the knowledge of how to stop that thing. I have seen the wards that have been placed on that creature, no magick any of us possesses can harm that beast.”

“I don’t know about that John, I’ve Ravyn do some pretty amazing things with that fire of hers. Can’t she destroy that thing?”

John looked back from the open water to me, “No. Even Mistress Fyre cannot truly harm that beast. The energy which fuels the fire she wields would only strengthen it, that was the work of the one you call the Little Devil.”

“What about Drake, why do I get the strangest feelings around him that lead me to believe he is more than he appears to be? I’ve never seen him do anything like what I’ve seen El Diablito and Papa Locks do, or even Ravyn, Herne and Cerrydwen for that matter.”

“The Professor has done some extensive research on this Drake, he was able to find some information and photos of him from the 50’s, when looked pretty much the same as he does now. There were references to him being a war refugee from WWII. However Jim’s research into the archives on the Third Reich lead him to believe that Drake went by another name in Germany, and appears to be very similar in appearance to a little regarded scientist who was a very active member of the early Nazi party in the 30’s called Klaus von Graffen. This von Graffen was accused of some very serious crimes in the Nuremburg Trials, mostly involving experimentation he did on captured Allied soldiers and on prisoners in the death camps. He was tried and convicted in absentia, and was never confirmed to have been captured or killed in the war.”

“Wait a minute, if that’s true, he would have to be pretty damn close to hundred years old by now. If this is the same guy you are saying he is, anyway.”

“Yes. I have looked at the Professor’s files, or as much as he would show me anyway, and I can say that I believe the two to be one and the same. It appears that he has found a way to at the very least extend his life beyond that which is considered normal. I can tell you this also, I have searched the Three Worlds to the best of my abilities, and I can find no trace of him anywhere within the Realms of Spirit. I have been unable to locate him on this world while in Spirit Form as well.”

I told John of my own experiences seeing Drake while in Spirit Form and how Drake always seems to be able to see me when I am there.

“In all of these incidents you describe though, you did not go looking for this man, but he came to where you already were in Spirit Form, so I still think he has found a way to block any Spirit from locating him or affecting him in some way.”

“I have also felt how he is much stronger than he appears physically,” I said as I looked back out into the darkness. “He has a number of secrets that he refuses to yield.”

We heard the footsteps of a number of individuals approqaching behind, so we turned to face the newcomers. Ravyn, Cerrydwen and Jim joined us, another half dozen of the Miccosuccee hung back, just out of easy earshot.

Ravyn was dressed from head to toe in a close fitting outfit that was most distinctive for it’s vivid colors of red and orange. It was a combination of a wetsuit and costume of some sort. The only skin that was showing was her hands and her neck and head. Her hair was pulled back into a very business like pony tail. Amazingly, in one hand she was easily carrying that strange duffle bag that I had strained to carry with two. It was still packed to near bursting, but must have magickally lost all of its weight! Her Phoenix was glaring, brighter than usual, and for once, shifting and moving about almost impatiently.

Cerrydwen was a vision in dark leather and some sort of blue dye or paint on all of her exposed skin, which was more than her usual style. She was wearing large, clunky leather boots, tight fitting pants that appeared to be either leather or some sort of plastic, and sleeveless leather vest that showed more than a little blue cleavage and some of her midriff as well. Her hair was pinned back by an assortment of bone-colored pins and combs. At her belt hung two sets of weighted balls connected by thin cords, bolos, I think they are called.

Jim stood there in the same clothes he had come from the airport in: jeans, sneakers, t-shirt and a well worn baseball cap. He did, however, have several devices hanging from his belt and a handful of gizmos in one hand, an aluminum baseball in the other. He held out the gizmos to the rest of us, each taking the one he directed us to.

“These watches are the latest in communication technology. They have built in tracking high-frequency radios, they’re all set on the same frequencies. They also have chips that will allow me to track where you are in case we get separated, and most important, these puppies are waterproof to a level deeper than you’ll find in these swamps. Put it on and I’ll show you how to use them.”

We did so. As he finished his spiel and demonstration, John pulled out necklaces for each of us, made from multi-colored beads and animal-like charms made of various stones or bones. He said, “These have been given to me by the Miccosuccee elders. They have been charged to give you the protection they can provide against the creatures of this wet world we are now in. Wear them with thanks to the people and the Spirits of this place.”

We each put on the necklace given to us and then were led to the airboats.

Cerrydwen, John and Jim were shown to one boat and were joined by three of the Miccosuccee, one of who climbed up into the pilots seat and fired up the giant fan.

I climbed into the other boat, and turned to help Ravyn in by reaching for her bag. Her Phoenix positively glared at me, so I drew back my hand. Ravyn laughed, “It’s alright dear, I can take her. She doesn’t like all of this water one bit!”

With that she leaped lightly down into the boat, bag cradled in both hands. I reached out to steady her, she gained her balance quickly and settled into one of the middle seats. We were joined by only one man, a tall, older man who only carried a knife at his belt, how climbed into the pilots seat without a word and fired up the engine.

The fans were quite loud as they were fired up, the boats were freed from the moorings, and we were off, roaring into the vivid living darkness of the Evergloades, without so much as a flashlight to guide our path.

Riding these boats was unlike any other boat I had been on. They glided over the water and grass effortlessly, almost sliding with each turn before the speed of the fans managed to push the boat forward again.

As the wind was rushing by, I leaned over and asked Ravyn about the bag, “So what’s in that thing anyway?”

She leaned over to me, almost laughing with joy, “It’s an egg!”

“A what?!?”

“An egg for my Phoenix to hatch from!”

“I didn’t think there was any such thing as a real Phoenix!”

“Well, it’s a little something I came up with, with Her help of course.” She nodded her head back towards the spiritual Phoenix that was her constant companion and guardian.

It glared at me, almost smug in its satisfaction, if such a mythical being can look smug.

“You meant that thing, I mean, she…will be able to manifest in this world?”

Ravyn giggled in glee and nodded, “Isn’t that just too cool?”

I nodded and sat back in my seat…this ws going to be a strange day ahead of us.

End Game...part 2

We arrived in Miami late that night. We stopped at Miami International Airport as soon as we got there in order to pick up the next group of our colleagues, John Red Bear and the Professor, each coming from different parts of the country. As with the ladies, both John and Jim were travelling light, only a carry-on bag each, and Jim with a second bag packed with his powerful laptop and its various accessories.

John’s face was calm and peaceful, you would hardly know that he was planning on sacrificing his own life, unless you knew him as well as I had come to over the last few months. He walked with an easy, seemingly carefree and assured gait, his cowboy boots clicking loudly on the tiled floor of the airport.

Jim was a bit more nervous. His large, looming presence automatically intimidated people out of his way in the crowded hallways of the airport, but I could tell he as sweating more with nerves and excess energy than the South Florida heat. He brought us up to date with the current plans, using carefully worded sentences and code words to convey the information.

He started with, “Herne is already here, with a small cadre of John’s students. They have made contact with some valuable allies who are very familiar with the terrain.”

As we made our way out into the parking lot, he continued, “I have also been in direct contact with Zulu, he has greenlighted the mission.”

That last had me curious, since I had never heard of any of the ORC’s I had met referred to by that name, “Who’s this Zulu?”

The Professor looked to John, John looked to Cerrydwen, Cerrydwen looked to Ravyn.

Ravyn smiled, grabbed my arm as if to lead me back to the van faster, “Zulu is someone we don’t talk about much, and never out in public. Let’s just leave it at this, you will definitely be meeting Zulu at the end of this mission, if we manage to pull it off. Don’t even bother to try guessing at who he is, because you won’t get it, and even if you did, I won’t be able to tell you.”

“Wait a minute, this is my daughter and my ex-wife that are in danger here, and you are telling me there is someone out there who could say ‘no’ and you guys wouldn’t be able to help?”

Ravyn patted my arm reassuringly and whispered into my ear, “No silly, we helped you before didn’t we? No, Zulu’s approval just makes things so much simpler in certain ways. Let’s just say that we won’t have to worry about interference from any law enforcement agencies, either local or federal, and they might even be available to help clean up the mess. He’s got some serious drag.”

“Oh.”

We got into the van, with John taking the driver’s seat. I climbed into the backw ith Jim. He looked down as he climbed over Ravyn’s big duffle bag, stubbing a toe as he did.

He called out after a few curse words, “Ravyn, this isn’t what I think it is, is it?”

Ravyn looked back from the shotgun seat, beaming her brightest smile, “I’m afraid so Jim, thought we might need her on this one.”

I looked down at the overstuffed duffel bag, “Hey you didn’t say there was anyone stuffed in that thing!”

Ravyn laughed, “Something’s in there alright, but don’t you go poking your nose about in my business now, you’ll see her at work soon enough!”

I shook my head, trying figure out what the heck she was talking about. I happened to look up just as the van was started and we began to pull out of the parking spot, I thought for a moment that I caught a glimpse of Ravyn’s protective, fiery Phoenix looking back at me, or was it the bag that it was staring at so intently? In any event, I sat back and got lost in my own thoughts.

Editor's Note

It is expected that the conclusion of this storyline will be posted in the next couple of days, depending on technical issues related to travel and web access at my destination. If all doesn't go as planned, the next post might be made no sooner than May 27, 2005. Hopefully this will not be the case.

Thank you for your feedback, your patience, and your readership, it means the world to me.

-Doug Pierce, Editor/author

End Game...part 1

This first journey of self-discovery and redemption began back on January 6, 2005 with my first post on this blog. I started this journey as a monster, the strange creation of circumstance, desperation and of an evil genius. I am ending this first journey more alive than I had been in a dozen years, and simply more...human.

It has taken the nearly unlimited compassion of a powerful group of strangers, the deaths of innocent bystanders, the manipulation of my deepest fears by the men who created me, the recovery of boundless love for family that I had thought had been lost to me, the exploration of a small part of the previously unknown worlds of Spirit, and the most surprising discovery of all-the discovery of my own Soul, to bring this first journey to near completion.

As the plans fell into place over the next several days for what I hoped to be the final confrontation with Drake Kampmann and his followers, I thought only of the possibility of seeing and saving Jasmine and Katherine, my daughter and my ex-wife. As I followed the arcane instructions given to me by the Professor on which accounts to use in which location as I spent oodles of money from the various secret accounts that Drake had apparently stashed awayover the years, I fervently hoped that the Tree had been right about the Convergence of seeing my daughter and her mother safely in the Everglades.

Doubts kept nagging at me, but I continued to make my way slowly towards Florida, stopping at almost every major city and a few minor ones along the way to donate large chunks of Drake’s money to desperately needy charities like soup kitchens, shelters for battered women, and orphanages.

Each of the donations was pretty similar, I would call Jim to let him know which town or city I was in, and he would tell me which bank branch to go to. I would go into the bank lobby and show the teller my credentials. After a number of deeply suspicious looks and some phone calls (usually to Ravyn Fyre, Cerrydwen, or Jim himself since the contact info for the accounts was changed by the Professor as needed) to verify the strange requests, I would take the cashier’s check that the teller prepared for me, already made out to the charity of choice, and go play benefactor to the charity. Almost always, the directors of the charities had been called in advance and were awaiting my arrival with teary eyes and grateful hugs as I presented them with certified checks of over ten thousand dollars each.

The size of the donations was very important, since any amount over $10,000 triggered all sorts of reporting procedures that the banks had to follow on those transactions, meaning that it would be all that much easier for the Bureau to track them down later and freeze or seize them.

By the time I had reached northern Florida over a week later, Drake must have figured out the patterns and moved or closed the remaining accounts, but by then we had donated over a million of his ill-gotten dollars, and flagged many millions more in accounts he wasn’t able to move or drain in time.

Luckily, this eventuality had been planned for, so I moved on to phase two of the plan, picking up speed and heading directly to the airport in Orlando to pick up some of my comrades-in-charitable-crime. It was with great gladness that I saw the Sisters of Shadow and Light as I waited for them in the baggage claim area.

Ravyn Fyre was radiant as ever, smiling as she spotted me, but that smile didn’t extend to her eyes, which had a hard, determined look to them that was more reminiscent of Cerrydwen. Her inner fires burned as bright and strong as ever, her Phoenix vigilant.

Cerrydwen looked relieved to be off of the plane, her dark glare and hard, angular jaw set in that perpetual frown that was so familiar to me now. Shadows seemed to gather around her as she walked, other passengers seemed to shiver as they slid out of her way without even realizing it.

We would meet with the others later at a different airport, after they completed their tasks.

Both Ravyn and Cerrydwen were travelling very light, one small carry-on bag for each, but there was a large military style duffel bag that needed to be collected and transported to the vehicle. My questions as to the contents were met with a smirk and a wink from Ravyn and a shrug from Cerrydwen. I grabbed the bag, actually feeling the weight contained inside, the straps were straining to stay intact as I hefted it to my shoulder.

We left for Miami in that same evening, with me driving the rental van that I had been using since New Orleans.

En Passant...Part 3

I left the Underworld by following my usual path. I emerged in my cheap motel room comforted to see my body sitting as it was last posed. It was dark outside, so time had obviously passed since I had left, although I had no idea if it was just the day, or more than one day.

I slipped back into my body and felt things snap back into place. I got up and set up my lap top in order to check the latest news and to update the blog. I also downloaded the information packet from e-mail that John had indicated would be waiting for me, including the account number and information I was to use in my next purchase.

I also took the time to draft and send some messages of my own. I had a directory of the Bureau’s e-mail addresses, so I took the time to locate the individuals that the Professor had indicated I should contact with specially worded messages that contained the information we needed that particular person to know.

These messages were part of the carefully orchestrated plan of attack that the Professor and Herne had come up with when they had analyzed the data they had captured in our encounter with Dr. Geek and his team in Vegas. I knew that at the same time, similar messages were being forwarded to certain men and women with influence in Congress, the White House and the media. Apparently, the ORC’s were going for the throat in this confrontation.

The more pieces I saw begin to fall into place, the more impressed I became with these folks who had thrown their lot in with me.

As I finished the assigned tasks that I could complete via my computer, I turned the thing off and sat there trying to comprehend everything that happened with my last journey. I was still amazed at the serenity that John possessed, with the sure knowledge that he would soon die.

As a cop, I had often left home for work feeling that I could very well be killed in the line of duty and felt that I was prepared for that event if it happened. I don’t think my ex ever really accepted that possibility so that had caused more than one fight before our divorce, especially as I got more and more involved with the project that brought me into contact with Drake in the first place.

But the sacrifice of himself that John was fully willing to undertake was beyond my comprehension, and I was already dead!

I was a pretty good at chess when I was younger, in my teens I had even played in several tournaments and had shown the potential to eventually become a master if I had kept up with it. It was becoming obvious to me now that the game being played between Drake and myself has been like a chess match for quite a while, but it was only now that I was recognizing the patterns and moves being made.

Luckily for me, I had some very smart allies who had raised a defense of our own, and were now planning our own series of attacks. Would Drake be ready for our moves?

The coup de grace of our strategy involved a fairly rare move in competitive chess that involves the taking of one pawn by another called ‘en passant’ which I believe is French for ‘in passing’, but don’t quote me on that!

The brillliance of this plan though was not that we planned to take one of Drake’s pawns in passing, but that we would put one of our pawns in such a position that he wouldnt be able to resist taking that pawn ‘en passant’ as he went for an even greater prize. Hopefully, he would take the bait, and in so doing, leave himself open to our counterattack.

The fact that John was willing to put himself out there as that sacrifical pawn, knowing that it would mean his death was simply amazing. I have known other cops for whom I would have taken a bullet, and they would have done so for me, but I can’t say that I would have done it knowing that for certain that I would die in the process and for someone I hardly knew.

I shook my head to clear the cobwebs and packed away the computer and its components. There were other tasks that needed doing and a relatively short period of time to complete them.

En Passant...Part 2

“You’ve certainly gone about making yourself at home here, haven’t you my friend?”

I couldn’t believe my ears, I looked up in surprise to see John Red Bear standing just outside the tangled roots of the Tree. I looked back from him to the image on the leaf that I was holding in my hands, and back up to him again, dumbfounded. “But...”

He snickered, glanced at his own image on the leaf and then looked back into my eyes, “Nice likeness, eh?”

“But I thought a fallen leaf meant that you had died!” I managed to stammer out.

“It does.” He had an impish look to his face, like he was holding back some humorous secret. “But in this case, it is foretelling my demise. I gave my permission for the leaf to be released while you were here.”

“What? You’re going to die soon? And you’re laughing about it?”

He laughed, a deep hearty laugh. “Consider it an occupational hazard of being a Shaman. I’ve known for quite a while that my time was growing very short. Indeed, when I met your former comrade, the Haitian, I thought my time was over at that point, since I had seen that face in a Dream since I was a youth. His face was always associated with my death. But when you and Herne rescued me, and the Frau healed me, I realized that I had just a little while longer. I must thank you very much for that, because this additional time has allowed me to set my earthly affairs in order and be better prepared for what is to come.”

“But how can you be so casual about this, about dying?”

He walked into the circle of roots, came up and put his arm around my shoulders. “Look, when much of your life is spent in exploring the majesty and the mysteries of the Three Worlds, you find that there is very little to fear in the passing from the One into the Three. Death is not only the end of one journey, but also the beginning of many others.”

We were now walking among the roots, his arm over my shoulders. We came to the trunk of the Tree and he took his arm off, reached out a tentative hand and touched the bark with his fingertips.

“I must say that I very impressed. I have never seen another Tree like this one. What happened here?”

In halting words, unsure of the reality of any of this, I explained what I could remember of my encounter with El Diablito and my fears at the time when I could not get into contact with anyone. I then told him about driving the baton into the ground and the emotion and energy that I had charged it with, hoping that it would serve as a beacon and warning to any who answered my impassioned Calls.

As I told the story, he had kept his fingers in contact with the metallic bark, had closed his eyes, and seemed to be only half listening to what I was saying. My voice kind of trailed off as I watched him and ended my story.

He remained there for a moment longer, then openned his eyes and pushed back from the Tree. “You have created something here that is both strange and wonderful. In all of my journeys throughout the Three Worlds, I have heard many tales of such Beings existing, but this is the first such one I have actually encountered. This is a very rare and special event.

“You have here a treasure beyond all measure, a resource that will help you to do much good with your remaining time in the One World. I am glad that you will have a true guide in the coming time when I will be unable to be here for you.” A tear trickled down his cheek.

It was hard to hear, to see this emotion from the man who had shown me how to take control of my own existence again, the one person who had reached out and prevented me from becoming the monster I was heading towards turning into. I looked down at my shoes, scuffed some dirt from a nearby root. “John, I can’t thank you enough for helping me when you did. If you hadn’t been there for me, I don’t know what I would have turned into.”

He reached out with both hands, gripped my shoulders with his talon-hard fingers, “Rusty, you are on a special kind of journey, a journey of redemption and salvation, for yourself and for others you have yet to meet. There are challenges coming to the One World that may change it forever. There are dangers that must be met and overcome if Balance is to be restored and maintained. You are not alone in facing these challenges, these dangers, but you are vitally important. Learn from the Tree, master your strengths, overcome your weaknesses, and you will have repaid my efforts a hundredfold.

“It was my role to find you and prepare you for the first steps on your Journey. The existence of this Tree here and now, tells me more than anything else, that you are now ready to begin that Journey.”

I couldn’t hold back anymore, “But what about the image I have seen of my daughter and ex? They are in danger, I can’t be worrying about saving the world when they are in such danger!”

“I understand your concern, and that is another reason I am here to see you now. The Professor has been able to locate where your former Director has established his headquarters, it is a place in the Everglades near Miami. Ravyn Fyre has asked me to seek you out and let you know this information, and that we have as an organization have found it to be a good time to prepare a strike against this enemy.

“Our plans are just now shaping up, but we wanted to get you involved as well, since we know how important it is to you.”

“I saw the image of that bastard taking my daughter and ex into a building in the a swamp, that was probably the place. It is pretty inaccessible from what I saw, he was gathering his own strength, I think he is expecting at least me!”

“Yes, but we will have some surprises of our own for him and his followers. I think he will have taken your family as bait and likely as insurance as well. But here is what we would like to do...”

En Passant...Part 1

The journey back to my body went by a different route. After disengaging from Kenny I found an openning down into the Spirit World and followed the path down to my usual entrance point. I quickly found myself on that now familiar path to the clearing where the Tree waited for me.

It was with more than a little smugness that I stepped into the clearing to face my....my what? Could I really call a tree a mentor?

In any event, I was a little cocky when I stepped into that clearing, intent on proving the Tree that it had been all wrong about me and what I could do.

“Hey Tree, I did it, I saved my son from that bastard Drake!”

Silence.

“What, you can’t handle it when you are wrong? Cat got your tongue Tree?”

More silence.

“You know, you could be more helpful here. I was hoping to get an idea of what to do next, now that Kenny is safe.”

This was getting to be silly.

I walked up to the trunk of the Tree and touched it with my now fleshy fingertips. Nothing seemed any different than before. Still cool and metallic to the touch. The branches were shifting in the breeze as they had in the past, but there was no sense to the sounds. The damn thing was ignoring me.

I walked around the trunk towards the back, where the cave openning was. I was feeling drawn to the pool again.

Uh oh.

I entered the cave, bending down to fit inside it, following the stairwell down into the lightly illuminated chamber. The only sounds around me were the gentle breathing of the Tree and the drip drop of the water into the pool that filled the back half of the small chamber.

A cold pit formed in my stomach as I approached the pool and bent down to look into the water.

The ripples from the last drop were just fading away when the image of a large building surrounded by a lot of palm trees and an expanse of swampy marches. There was no visible road leading up to the building, but a couple of odd looking, flat bottomed boats were pulled up to a dock that stuck out into the water. Another such boat was pulling up, propelled by a huge fan on the back. Several people were in this rather large air boat, as I believe they are called.

I could make out the image of Drake’s smallish figure, as well as Papa Locks and the monster that he had made out of Greg. A few other men in suits were with them, as well as the ‘driver’ of the boat, a raffish looking man dressed more like Crocodile Dundee than anything else. Two other figures caught my attention though, my daughter Jasmine and my ex-wife.

Jasmine was looking scared and wide-eyed, especially as the Greg-monster got close to her, but Papa Locks seemed to be keeping a tight leash on the monster. It seemed to lick its lips in anticipation.

I sat there stunned as I saw this, knowing somehow that this was the end of the vision that I had interrupted in my haste to save Kenny. This time, I was unable to move as the vision played out.

The men in suits escorted my daughter and ex towards a set of double doors into the building. Someone openned the doors from the inside, I could see additional figures inside the well lit interior. The place was a veritable fortress.

I desperately wanted the vision to take me inside the building, but the image seemed to be withdrawing slightly, and falling closer to the level of the water, just as the water of the vision began to obscure the building itself, a fresh set of ripples caused by new drops from ceiling broke the vision up.

I sat there for a moment, determined not to interrupt any new images it wanted to show me, but nothing new materialized.

“Damn you Tree! How did this happen?!?”

The gentle breathing stopped, the familiar whispery voice of the Tree became audible again. “You are not the only resourceful, determined person. Just as you make plans and exert your Will, others of strength exert theirs as well.”

“Why didn’t you show me this before?”

“Had you but exercised patience, you would have seen these images.”

I knew in my heart that the Tree was telling the truth. I had been so determined to save Kenny from Drake that I didn’t stop to think what else might happen. “Can I possibly stop this from happening?”

“These events have already been set in motion, just as they were with your son.”

“But I saved him! Maybe I can save Jasmine and Katherine too?”

“Did you change what happened with your son? Did not the images happen as you saw them take place?”

“Yeah, but the result was different! I convinced him not to go!”

“Did the images show your son actually go anywhere?”

“No, but...”

“The images shown to you by the pool will occur as you have seen them. These events are already in motion. These images are previews of what you will experience at some point in the near future. With that foresight, you can more wisely plan for these events.”

“You mean what I have seen will happen no matter what, but that I can affect how prepared I am for that event?”

“Impressive, a first lesson learned. There are intersections in time. Places where multiple strands of possible futures intersect. If you know where the intersection-or Convergence- occurs, you may choose the path that is most advantageous to your cause, whatever that cause may be.”

“How do I know when this will take place though?”

“The ‘when’ of this event is dictated in part by the path that you and others who may know of the event choose.”

“Does Drake have access to this kind of knowledge?”

“I am your Yggsdrasil, not his. It is quite possible though that he may have access to such knowledge and use it accordingly.”

“Damn. Then how do I know which path to take, or even what paths there are to take?”

“The paths to a Convergence are numerous, both for you and for any others involved in the event.”

“Can you give me anything less cryptic to work with here? This is my family again!”

“Wisdom is earned, not given.” With that the damn Tree resumed it’s breathing, the branches sighing in the winds of the Spirit World.

I went up the stairs, stooping low to exit the cave through the bunch of roots that framed the entrance. As I stood up and stretched, I noticed a leaf that was falling.

I reached up and caught the leaf before it hit the ground. I turned it over and saw the image it revealed. I looked up at the Tree and cried out. “NOOO!!!”