Confronting the Fallen (31 page)

The
ground began to rise after an hour or so as they approached the low
hills the judge had mentioned earlier. The path he chose wound and
spiraled through the hills and the ground changed from gravel to a
fine, powdery dust that was less slippery but raised clouds of grit
that stung the eyes and made their throats dry and raspy.

Chris
constantly blinked his eyes to clear them of dirt and finally one of
the security men handed him a clean handkerchief so that he could
wipe them and said he could keep it. Chris thanked him profusely and
the man simply smiled in return.

“
Have
you noticed how edgy our fellow group members are?” Natalie
muttered to Chris some time later. He had been sipping some water
from his canteen at one of their infrequent rest stops and was
sitting on the ground, his back to a large boulder, with his backpack
next to him.

Chris
stared at the others while Natalie squatted down beside him and drank
some of her own water. She took her hat off, shook out her short,
black hair and replaced it again.

She
was right. No one else seemed to be taking a break. While some of the
security team were sipping water, none had sat down. Instead, all of
them had spread out and were looking in all directions. The judge
stood with his back against another boulder and was going through his
notes, frowning slightly.

“
Yeah,
well, it's good they're alert, I suppose,” Chris answered
vaguely. He wet the handkerchief a bit and cleaned the dust off of
his face. It was intensely hot. “How long until sundown, I
wonder? Maybe it will cool off a bit.”

“
I'm
sure the judge hopes we get to wherever we're going before it gets
dark,” Natalie answered, still watching the adults. “We've
all got these light sleeping bags, but I assume he thinks we'll sleep
inside this mysterious temple or whatever.” She sounded oddly
upbeat and Chris looked at her curiously.

“
Are
you having fun, Nat?” he asked. She'd insisted he call her by
her shortened name and he felt more at ease with her since they'd
started the hike.

“
Yeah,
I guess I am. It's good to get out of the Nest. I was cooped up for
so long. And this healed body of mine, well, let's just say it's
doing what it's supposed to be doing, instead of holding me back.”

When
she looked at him, Chris rolled his eyes. “If you thank me one
more time...” he said, shaking his finger at her. Natalie
laughed.

“
Okay,
okay. I get it. So, yes, I'm having fun. But this damned heat is a
bit much, I'll give you that.”

Chris
took off his cap, ran both hands through his hair, tilted his head
back and slipped the hat back on. He noticed Natalie watching him.

“
What?”
he asked shortly.

“
Nothing.
Just wondering why you wear your hair so long. It must be awfully
hot, especially under this sun.”

Chris
shrugged with irritation. It wasn't the first time someone had asked.
“My Mom liked me with long hair, so I have long hair. Good
enough?”

“
Oh,
touchy, touchy.” Natalie grinned to show that she was teasing
and he reluctantly returned it. “Yeah, good enough, Chris.”

“
Would
everyone gather round, please?” Judge Hawkes called out. Chris
struggled to his feet, got his backpack secured across his shoulders
and joined the others as they circled the judge. He was holding a map
of the area. Chris saw a blue line drawn from where he assumed they
had been dropped off to their present location. A red line ran
parallel to the first one and extended on for a few inches.

“
We've
been fairly faithful to the directions left by my ancestor. This area
hasn't changed much in two centuries.” He turned and pointed
ahead to a rise about three miles in the distance. “According
to the notes, just over that hill is a shallow valley and in the
middle is a rock formation. He claims that it is artificial, with
several pictograms etched on one side. Somewhere nearby is the
entrance to the shrine.” The judge looked around at them all
with a look of amusement. “For a man given to writing precise
directions, 'somewhere nearby' is rather vague, but hopefully we
won't have too much trouble finding this entrance. Is everyone ready
for the last push? Excellent. Off we go then.”

And
with that, the judge set off in the lead again and the others took up
their previous positions in line. Now that Natalie had pointed it
out, Chris saw that the security team seemed more on edge the closer
they got to their destination. They were constantly scanning the
horizon and he wondered what exactly they were expecting to see. Who
knows that we're even out here, he wondered. He remembered that the
judge had said the team would get weapons when they landed. He hadn't
seen any exchange hands but Chris was sure that the team was armed.
He just didn't know what they were armed with. And he hoped he
wouldn't have to find out.

“
Hey,
Chris. Why so quiet?” Natalie asked.

“
Dunno.
Just thinking. Is there any way for the bad guys to know where we
are? I mean, the judge is so careful and everything, but these guys
seem to be getting spooked and it's starting to give me the jitters.”

For
a change, Natalie looked serious as she glanced at the others. “I
suppose so. There's no such thing as total secrecy or air-tight
security. I know the judge has done his best to lock this down and
all, but I've been down this road before, where I thought I was safe
on an assignment and it turned out that I wasn't.” At Chris'
questioning look, she said tersely, “The time my team was
killed by Angelica.”

“
Oh
right.” Chris was at a loss as to what he should say, so he
stayed quiet. He wanted to ask about that incident, but it was so
obviously painful to Natalie that he didn't want to intrude on her
sad memories.

As
if reading his thoughts, Natalie said quietly, “Maybe I'll tell
you about it sometime. But not today.”

He
nodded and continued plodding along, trying not to stir up too much
dust. It didn't help much.

By
the time they had trudged up to the top of the rise, the sun was
approaching the horizon. Chris was getting hungry but he was still so
hot and sweaty that the thought of food didn't interest him very
much. He just wanted to get this whole trip over with. He decided
that he wasn't a desert person.

The
group stopped in a line, side by side, and looked down into what
could technically be called a valley, although the edges around the
depression were no more that one hundred feet high. The valley
extended for about a mile from where they stood and was perhaps half
that distance in width. Against the reflecting light gray dust, Chris
could just see what looked like a formation for rocks in the middle
of the open space. They looked natural, just one more lump of stone
in this barren landscape. He hoped the judge's directions were right.

While the judge and the other adults
were checking the ground in front of the group for the best path down
the slippery slope, Chris suddenly felt a breath of cool wind flow
past his face. He sighed with bliss for a moment; the momentary
relief from the oppressive heat was intense. Then he looked around,
puzzled. Cool air? Out here? How was that possible?

Another gust of wind, colder than the
first, actually made Chris shiver. What the hell? The others had now
felt the same thing. Judge Hawkes looked puzzled and the security
team were looking in all directions.

“Okay, what the heck is that?”
Natalie asked in confusion. She pointed toward the setting sun and
everyone turned to follow her gaze.

The bright light became muted as Chris
saw a line of darkness come racing over the horizon, It looked solid
and the sun was quickly obscured by this mysterious band that
stretched across the sky.

“Clouds?” one of the team
wondered aloud.

“If that's what they are, they're
moving damned fast,” Natalie said, sounding nervous.

Chris watched in disbelief as what were
now obvious clouds raced towards them, a blast of cold air being
pushed ahead of the unnatural formation.

“Let's move, everyone,” the
judge barked at them. “I don't think we have much time to find
the shrine.”

He led the way downward, no longer
bothering to find the easiest path. As a result, they all slipped and
slid on the fine dust and tried to keep their feet under them.

I knew it, Chris thought frantically. I
just knew we wouldn't fool those evil bastards. He tried to watch his
feet and look around for any movement at the same time. As a result,
halfway down the slope, Chris slipped and skidded down several feet
before one of the team members caught him and held on until he got
his feet back under him.

“Thanks a lot,” he said
gratefully. The man nodded, looking down at the valley intensely.

They made the bottom of the valley very
quickly, dust rising in clouds around them. Everyone collected
themselves, shook off the grit and followed Judge Hawkes as he
hurried toward the distant rock formation. The air was actually cold
now and Chris removed his hat, slipped it clumsily into his pack and
shook out his hair. The cold air was clammy but his soaked head felt
better as it flowed through his hair. Natalie caught up with him,
gave him a small smile and looked forward at their goal. She had also
removed her hat and her hair was still plastered to her skull with
sweat.

Chris blinked his eyes to clear them of
dirt. Then he wiped them off with his handkerchief. But it didn't
help. The air still looked hazy and the distant pile of rocks was not
so easily identified in the gathering gloom. There seemed to be a
mist rising from the ground and Chris couldn't understand how the
sear, bone-dry ground could have any moisture in it.

Within a few seconds the team was
surrounded by a thick fog and the sky above them was black with heavy
clouds. Chris could barely see the judge ahead and almost missed it
as the man raised his hand to call for a halt.

“Everyone, stop where you are,”
he said tersely. The mist carried his voice and made the shuffling
footsteps of everyone sound much louder.

The team ground to a halt and gathered
near the judge. “We're getting close to the rocks,” he
said quietly. “Stay close. I'd rather put that formation at our
backs in case we're attacked.”

“I'd say when we're attacked,
your honor,” Natalie said. She was turning her head in all
directions. “This isn't natural. Something is coming.”

“I think you're right, Natalie.
Let's keep moving.”

They now moved slowly as a group toward
where the judge seemed to think the stone formation was. The echoes
from the surrounding fog increased the sound of their movement and
Chris began to think he could hear other footsteps walking just out
of sight in the mist. He assumed his ears were playing tricks on him,
but he wasn't sure. He looked for any movement, squinting to try to
sharpen his vision, but the wall of fog was now too thick to see
further than a few feet in any direction.

A large white shape, towering over
their heads, suddenly loomed up out of the mist and Chris jumped back
with his heart pounding in his ears.

“Ah, here we are,” the
judge said with some relief and Chris realized that the shape was the
jumble of rocks that was their destination. He swallowed loudly and
looked around to see if anyone had noticed his panicked move.

The only one that was watching him was
Natalie and she gave him an understanding grin.

“Don't sweat it, Chris,”
she said quietly. “I'm as skittish as you are. This is way
creepy.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” he
responded. “So how are we going to find the entrance in this
soup?”

His voice had carried and the judge
caught his eye and nodded.

“A very good question,
Christopher. If there is something coming, and we'd be fools to
assume otherwise, I have no intention of waiting here to meet it. But
groping around blindly is just asking for trouble.” He looked
at the security team. “Ramona, Stevens, please come with me.
You others, stay near the rock and keep a sharp eye out.” He
looked at Chris and Natalie. “And please, you two, no heroics.
If something happens, let the team do their jobs. They are the
professionals.”

Natalie rolled her eyes but before she
could make a comment, the judge and his two companions had vanished
into the mist.

“Sheesh, he acts like I'm new at
this,” she complained to Chris. “I've been in bad
situations before.”

Chris shrugged. “Not for a while,
Nat. Maybe he just thinks you're rusty or something.”

Natalie looked off in the direction the
judge had taken. “Yeah, fair enough.” Then she leaned
back against the pile of rocks, adjusting her pack to cushion her
back. “Okay, I guess all we can do is wait. And I hate
waiting.”

“Same here,” Chris agreed.
While they had this moment of relative calm, he decided to see what
Sariel thought of all of this.

'You in there?' he asked silently. For
a long moment, there was only silence. And then, echoing as if from
the bottom of a well, came the reply.

'I am, my other self. What would you
have of me?'

Chris was curious about something. 'You
always sound like you're a long way away, Sariel. But how can you be
when you're sitting somewhere inside of me?'