A Shadow's Light BK 2 (17 page)

Professor Gusyeva grabbed a syringe and filled it with a clear liquid from a vial that had rested on a small stainless steel table next to Test. Without any regard for pain endured, he stabbed the needle into Test’s shoulder and forced the liquid into his body.

“Not too much, damn it! I don’t feel like dying today,” yelled Dawson.

The Professor looked at him out the corner of his eye. His gold rimmed glasses sat crooked on his nose.

Test felt the wave of nausea subside, yet his body continued to lay dormant under an invisible weight. He turned his eyes to the Professor and was surprised at his unkempt appearance. He had thinning white hair and a messy white beard that looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in weeks.

“What do you want with me?” asked Test.

“It’s quite simple really. We want to understand you,” answered the Professor. He straightened his glasses and continued. “Let me ask you something. Are you familiar with the Tunguska event of 1908?”

Test reached back into his mind. The name was familiar, but he couldn’t recall it completely. “Maybe,” he replied.

“In 1908, there was a massive explosion in the heart of the Siberian wilderness. Everything for eight-hundred and thirty square miles was leveled. Mysteriously, there is no impact site.

“It has been speculated that the explosion was caused by a comet fragment that exploded miles above the ground. The destruction was immense, and to this day, there are investigations and studies that are yielding little if any positive explanation.”

Test’s mouth had become dry, and he tried to wet his lips as he spoke. “What does that have to do with me,” he asked.

“Have you ever thought that, perhaps, you’re not the first of your kind, Mr. Davis?”

Test took a cleansing breath. “Of course I’ve thought about it, but there’s no way.” His dry throat cracked his words. Scowling at the Professor, Test continued. “They would have ended up like me; stuck in a lab.”

The Professor let out a grunt. “Why? Just because you suffer from behavioral issues, could it not be possible for someone more level-headed to keep themselves
and
their powers under control?”

Test closed his eyes. Suffering under the weight of the Professor’s words, he replied in a defeated tone. “Up yours.”

Without acknowledging the comment, the Professor continued. “Near the impact site, there is a group of native people known as the Evenks. Some of them claim to have been witness to a brilliant blue light that streaked through the sky minutes before the explosion.

“In the late thirties, I was fortunate enough to have been included on an expedition to investigate the area. Part of our mission was to interview as many surviving witnesses to the event as possible. One of the women that we spoke with was just a young child when the event took place. Her name was Janna, and she told us that she had actually seen the blue streak in the sky. When asked what she thought it was, she replied, “the shadow woman”. Of course it is common for indigenous peoples to grant god-like status to things that they don’t understand, so this didn’t strike us as terribly odd. When asked to explain, she suddenly became withdrawn and silent.

“Over the next few days, we continued to ask others about their accounts and never heard mention of the shadow woman again; until the last day. It was then that we were approached by a young male who identified himself as the son of Janna. He explained that the story of the shadow woman had been a long guarded secret within his family. His mother wouldn’t speak of it for fear of retribution or ridicule.

“In the weeks prior to the event, his mother and her siblings had happened upon a woman in the forest. She was different from them in that her skin was very pale and she had curly brown hair and blue eyes. Protected from her view by the dense growth of forest, they watched as she approached a collection of fallen branches. She stood with her right arm outstretched for a moment. It was then that a blue light began to come from under her skin on the back side of her hand.”

Test listened intently and his heart began to race as he watched the Professor tug at his beard.

“The youngest of the group couldn’t contain her fear and let out a scream. Instantly, the woman turned toward the children and then vanished. Between the children and where the woman had been standing, it appeared, in their words, that the forest had been painted on a piece of cloth that was waving in the wind. The children remained motionless and watched as the waves moved through the trees and away from them until it disappeared.

“The oldest stood to follow, and was instantly lifted from the ground by an unseen force. The other children screamed and ran away; all but Janna. She stayed and pleaded with the invisible hand to let her brother go. Tears streamed from her face as she begged, and within moments her brother was released. The two of them ran back to the village and never looked back.

“Their father was tending to their herd of deer when the children ran towards him, screaming about the woman that they had just seen. He listened to the children’s fantastic story, and quickly dismissed it as an imaginative tale.

“The children pleaded with their father to listen, but there was no shortage of chores to be done, and he quickly reminded them of their own duties. Rejected by their father, the children reluctantly walked away having been sure of what they had seen.

“Weeks passed, and one day the father and his eldest son journeyed into the woods to gather firewood. Night came, and neither of them had returned home. Janna and her mother tried not to worry. Instead, they tended to the younger ones. As they readied them for bed, a scream echoed from outside. Janna’s mother ran to the door. She could see the outline of her son in the moonlit shadows of the tree line. At the sight of his mother, the boy began to run towards her as his screams echoed through the house.”

Test felt like a young boy listening to a scary bed time story; he listened intently to every word the Professor spoke.

“Once in his mother’s arms, the boy stammered as he gasped for air. “The woman…the woman is…,” he said. “She killed Father.” Immediately taken aback by what the boy was saying, Janna and her siblings listened mournfully as their brother spoke of him and his father happening across a tunnel in the ground.

“Every square mile of land that surrounded their home was known by the family. The tunnel had not been there before. Their father entered the tunnel cautiously, and disappeared from the boy’s sight. After several moments, the man returned holding what appeared to be a small bundle of blankets.

“The boy tried to speak to his father, but before the father could answer, the silence of the forest was shattered by a loud scream. The boy turned to see the shadow woman standing twenty meters from him. She was staring straight at him and yelling in an unfamiliar language. She had apparently been unaware of his father standing down in the tunnel, because as he emerged, she reacted by thrusting her glowing red palm toward him. Instantly, an eruption of dirt and debris exploded between the boy and his father, and when the dust settled, he saw his father lying face down on the ground roughly thirty feet from the entrance of the tunnel. He watched as his father struggled to his hands and knees, frantically sifting through the bundle of blankets. It was then that on the ground beneath his father, he saw a baby lying motionless and quiet. The father leaned down and placed his ear to the baby’s chest, and then looked back to the boy as he shook his head.

“In an eruption of light, bright red flashes of light shot from the woman’s torso and down her arms as she burst into the air. She moved so quickly that the boy’s eyes could barely follow, and she suddenly appeared in front of his father. He watched helplessly as she threw his father into the trees, killing him instantly. She picked up the dead baby in her arms, and cried with her eyes to the sky. The boy turned and began to run through the trees, his adrenaline and fear carrying him over fallen limbs and uneven ground with blind ease.

“After running for several minutes he turned to see if the woman was following him, but could see nothing. He turned back to continue his run home and saw a shadow looming before him. Standing some ten feet in front of him was a darkened area of forest. The outline was nearly impossible to discern, but it was as if someone had dimmed the light on this one section of landscape. And then it moved closer. The boy could see waves radiating from the sides of the shadow. He’d seen it before and instantly knew that it was the woman.

“He turned back and began to run once more. Tree trunks snapped and fell behind him as if a giant was pushing its way through the forest. With a glance over his shoulder, his foot caught a limb and he fell haplessly forward. Suddenly, he felt a constriction around his torso, and stopped falling as fast as he had started. He couldn’t breathe; not from the constriction, but because his lungs burned from the run. He looked to the ground and found himself suspended at a forty-five degree angle. Floating in the air, his body began to roll over, and his eyes fell on the shadow that stood motionless behind him. His fear forced him to sob uncontrollably; crying his mother’s name with each breath. As if someone had lowered a curtain, the woman’s face slowly materialized atop the shadow. Her eyes were swollen with tears, and the pain on her face was unmistakable. The remainder of the shadow disappeared, and the woman stood in full form with an electric blue and red light emanating from beneath her skin. She stood with her left arm reaching to him, her face full of sorrow. She walked towards the boy, spoke words that were unknown to him, and touched his cheek with her right hand. Before the boy could react, he was standing on the edge of the forest looking at his home.”

Test could barely speak. He wetted his lips and then asked, “So I’m…”

“Not the first?” interrupted the Professor. “We don’t think so. While we have nothing more than this woman’s story to go from, it is clear that you and the shadow woman’s paths are related. I have waited a lifetime for the chance to meet a Shadow, and here you are.”

“Because, the shadow woman’s death
was
the Tunguska explosion.”

The room fell silent. The hum of the lights began to ring heavily in Test’s ears once more. The Professor walked away from him. From across the room, the sound of heavy fingers punching a keyboard disassembled the white noise.

“The family says the woman, distraught from the death of her child, lost control of her power,” said the Professor. “In that moment she, whether intentionally or accidentally, took her own life, and left the world to wonder in amazement at the only physical clue of her existence.”

“It is not an uncommon condition. There are actually two types: Reciprocal and Robertsonian. With the Reciprocal type, it is estimated that one in every six-hundred human births has a translocation incident. Many of these cases have results that are inconsequential. With the Robertsonian type, it is estimated that less than one in every one thousand births have a translocation incident. With the later type, the result is usually of detriment. It has been linked as the cause to many different types of cancer, as well as Down Syndrome.”

Test swallowed hard. “So are you telling me that I have this translocation thing? What, do I have cancer and it’s giving me these powers?” he asked with a shallow sarcasm.

“The translocation, yes; cancer, no. You see, this is what makes you all the more interesting to me, Mr. Davis. Your translocation incident has made you something different. It has unlocked abilities that have never even been fathomed by modern physicists. Your genetic code is the perfect storm. Had one chromosome, or even a single gamete, been located differently, you probably would not have even been born. You see when we examined the cytogenetics of your cells; they were unlike anything I’d ever seen. You are truly a miracle in that you have multiple translocations and they are all balanced!” The Professor’s enthusiasm grew with his every word. “Are you understanding the enormity of this, young Mr. Davis?”

Test lay on the table feeling like a freak in a side show carnival. He tried to comprehend what he was being told, but all of the big words, combined with his drugged state, were difficult to absorb. The sedatives worked on his mind, making it almost as if he were set in the middle of a science fiction movie. With another wave of nausea nearly taking his breath, he began to speak. “I still…don’t understand how…this all…relates to the shadow woman?”

“Well, without having her here, or having a sample of her genetic material, it is all speculation, but I believe that she was of the same condition. Of course I couldn’t have even theorized that your condition would be as incredible as it is. You have shown me more in two weeks than I could have ever hoped for!”

The words rushed through him and his eyes flared wildly. “Two weeks?”

“Yes. You have been kept unconscious for two weeks. I couldn’t risk you waking up. You are far too powerful and I don’t think that you’ve even reached your full potential.”