Diamond Sky (Diamond Sky Trilogy Book 1) (35 page)

He walked further and felt aches and pains like he had never
felt before. It was an unmistakable reminder of his own mortality, but if he
was not dead, then where was he? He carried on walking until he came to the
outskirts of a small settlement, which looked vaguely familiar to him. To his
right, about thirty metres in front, he could make out a children’s play area.
Again, everything about the place was eerily familiar. It was as if he had once
slid down the slide and swung on the swing. He cleared his mind and the memory
returned to him.

The house was exactly how he remembered it from his
childhood. It was twenty years since he had last been inside. He always planned
on returning, but something would always come up to prevent him. At least he
had stayed in touch and continued to write. Every New Year he would send a
letter. The garden was overgrown, but this did not surprise him. The
inhabitants of the house were old and did not have the money to pay for a
gardener.

When he got to the front door, he stopped for a moment. A
sudden fear hit him. What if this was a dream? What if he was really lying
dying in a burning army base that nobody even knew about? He knocked on the
door. It opened.

At first he was greeted with astonished silence. The old
lady facing him then began to speak in Cantonese, before remembering to switch
to English.

‘Charles; is that really you?’ she asked.

‘Yes, grandma,’ he replied. ‘It is really me.’

She pulled him into the house and gave him a warm, loving
hug that took away all of his pain and fear, returning him to the innocent
child that he once was.

‘Oh, Charles,’ she said. ‘It is so good to see you again. I
spoke to your father last night, but he did not spoil this wonderful surprise.
Why did you not tell me that you were coming to Hong Kong?’

Charlie shrugged.

‘Believe me,’ he told her. ‘This is much more of a surprise
to me than it is to you.’

Chapter 41

When waking from a deep sleep, there is a brief moment,
lasting just seconds, where the world of dreams spills over into the world of
the everyday. During this time, it can often be impossible to differentiate
between that which is real and that which is not. As
Emmy
lay on her bed, she wondered if she was dreaming or even better; that the
nightmare following her grandfather’s death was the dream and she had finally
woken from the nightmare.

She got up and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her
eyes were a little puffy from sleep, but her face was clean. There were no cuts
or bruises from the car accident, which she now had only a faint recollection
of. Her body felt strong and fresh.

She quickly dressed and left her room. The corridors were
immaculate, just as Pops always insisted they should be. Phantoms of soldiers
taking over her home still lingered in the deeper recesses of her memory, but
she paid them little heed.

When she got to the kitchen, she found a piece of paper
taped onto the door. It was a message from Charlie. He had to leave suddenly.
Something had come up with his family. Without going into too much detail, he
simply explained that it was nothing serious, but that he needed to take a few
days off work. She crumpled up the paper and threw it into the wastepaper
basket before making herself a strong cup of coffee. As she drank, she felt
some obscure thought, just at the back of her mind, struggling to find clarity.
Was there something she was supposed to do on this morning?

Pops was not in his office and she was surprised to find him
in the main laboratory. It was very rare to see him get involved with the
practical side of the research, but with Charlie taking leave at such short
notice this was only to be expected. After all, he could not let everybody have
a holiday. Not when there was so much work to be done.

‘Good morning,
Emmy
,’ her
grandfather said. ‘I took the liberty of starting without you. I hope you do
not mind.’

‘Of course not,’ she replied. ‘You’re the boss.’

He was not normally so jovial, particularly in the morning.
Mornings were normally when he was at his lowest ebb. She wondered what had
brought on his good mood.

‘You’re probably wondering why I am so perky this morning,’
he said, as if having just read her thoughts.

‘It had occurred to me. I thought that with Charlie gone, it
would slow us down. We won’t be able to make another journey until he is back.
Normally such a setback would make you quite grumpy.’

‘Slow us down?’ he asked, puzzled. ‘Why ever would you think
that, my dear? If anything, I intend to make a real push over the coming days.
When Charlie returns, he is going to have a great deal of catching up to do.’

‘I don’t understand; don’t we need Charlie? He is the only
one who can make the transition into an astral state.’

‘He will not be the only one for much longer. Today, you
will take his place.’

‘Me; are you sure? I thought you didn’t want me taking any
unnecessary risks.’

Her grandfather tilted his head around the side of the
control station so that she could see him.

‘Who else is there to do this, my dear? Surely you do not
expect me to go in his place. Admittedly, it is something that I have always
wanted to do, but my fragile body could not survive the process. For me, such a
journey would only be one way.’

She felt her stomach flutter. Not from the nerves generated
by the task in front of her, but because her grandfather, the great Jackson
Fox, was placing so much faith in her.

‘When do you want to do this?’ she asked.

‘As soon as you are ready,’ he replied.

She ran to the Acceleration Chamber.

‘I’m ready!’ she exclaimed, with joy.

Things were moving quickly; almost too quickly. This was
definitely not like her grandfather, but the prospect of what faced her more
than outweighed any concern she had. She hurriedly got ready and then sat down
on the slab.

‘How do you want to do this?’ she asked. ‘With Charlie, we
spent the first session with him staying on a short tether and merely trying to
navigate the laboratory by recognising familiar objects in an astral state.’

‘You’re much more brilliant than Charlie,’ her grandfather
replied. ‘There is no need for anything quite so basic. I want you to
project
yourself into the farthest place that you can
imagine. I want you to push back the very boundaries of the universe.’

The flutter in her stomach increased. If this worked, it
would take her far further than any human being or manmade object had ever
travelled before. Before lying down, she glanced over to her grandfather for
reassurance, but he was not there.

‘Pops?’

She got up and quickly looked from side to side, taking in
the full expanse of the laboratory and still she could not see him. Then in the
corner of her eye, she thought she saw somebody else.
Somebody
who should not have been there.

‘Lucas?’

‘
Emmy
, what’s wrong?’ asked her
grandfather.

He was back behind the control desk in the same spot where
she thought she had seen her policeman friend.

‘Nothing,’ she replied. ‘I must have imagined it.’

She turned to go back to the matchbox when a highly
irregular thought popped into her head. Her grandfather was sat in his
wheelchair behind the control desk. Without Charlie to help him up the steps,
he would have needed some sort of ramp in place, but there was none.

‘
Emmy
, what is wrong – why have
you stopped?’

‘Your chair – how did you get it up the steps?’

‘I don’t know what you mean. Everything is fine; you should
get back into position.’

‘No, everything is not fine. I want to know how you got your
chair up those steps.’

‘This is ridiculous,’ protested her grandfather. ‘It is just
nerves; that is all. You are understandably scared and it is causing you to
procrastinate. It is best if you forget about me and concentrate on what you
need to do.’

‘Something is wrong; why are you trying to rush me.’

When she got to the desk, she quickly looked around to see
if anything else was out place. It all seemed as it should be until she glanced
down at the floor. She did not realise how close she had been standing to her
grandfather and could see that the right wheel of his motorized wheelchair was
on top of her left foot, yet she felt no pressure from it whatsoever. She took
a step back and saw her foot pass through the components of the wheel as if it
were made of nothing but air.

‘I don’t understand,’ she said.

Her head was beginning to spin, but not from dizziness. It
was like an invisible force had its hands on her cheeks and was shaking her. As
she moved further away, she glanced down at her arms and saw that they were
scratched and dirty.

‘What’s happening to me?’

She fell back and landed hard on the floor, drawing her
awareness to yet more bruises, running across her behind and down the back of
her legs.

Emmy
, stay calm.
You have to get back in the machine.
Everything is going to be okay.

The voice was her grandfather’s, but rather than issuing
forth from his mouth, it had originated inside of her own head. As the pain in
her body increased, random images began to appear in her mind. The images were
not pleasant and they contained death. She saw the bodies of Bradley, Mike, Sammy
and finally that of her grandfather.

‘You’re dead,’ she told him. ‘I remember now. You died, but
then you came back. Lucas; you killed Lucas.’

Realising what danger she was in, she scrambled to her feet and
made a break for the door. He had hold of her before she was even half way.
Knowing that it was pointless to struggle, she offered little resistance. The
body of the old and crippled man that her grandfather was had been replaced by
that which formerly belonged to Lucas. The spirit lurking behind the eyes was
unquestionably that of her grandfather, though.

‘Why?’ she asked.

‘I’m dying,’ he told her. ‘As it was with Mike, this body is
rejecting me. I can sustain it for brief periods by stealing the energy of
others, but it is only a temporary measure. The body knows when the spirit does
not belong.’

‘Those images that I saw - the things that
were not real.
How did you do that?’

‘There are a great many things I am able to do that I myself
never thought possible before today. Allow me to demonstrate.’

He released her from his grip and took a step backwards. She
had no interest in witnessing more of his parlour tricks and made another break
for the door. As soon as she turned, she saw him again. Except, this time he
was standing the other side of her, blocking the way ahead.

‘How did you do that?’

He shrugged.

‘I’m not sure myself. The first time was a fluke; a reflex
action to get me away from your bastard father. It almost killed me, but my
survival instincts are stronger than most. Just seconds from dying, I found
that I could absorb the energy from other living creatures. I used this power
to emancipate the town from its military occupation. I have fed on the spirits
of a hundred men, but still it is not enough.’

Emmy
had no love for the soldiers
or even the residents of Jackson’s Hill, but she could never condone murder.

‘Did you leave any alive?’

‘There are always some that get away. Surely you cannot
judge me after what you did to the town. They are all nothing but vegetables
strapped to hospital beds. That sort of a life is worse than death – believe
me, I know.’

‘So you did not harm them?’

‘It matters little. Like I said, their lives have become
worthless.’

She forced herself to ask the question that she most feared
the answer to.

‘What about Charlie?’

‘Charlie is just fine. In fact, he is better than fine. I
took him home. He’s with his family now.’

‘Melbourne?’

Fox laughed.

‘Hong Kong.
Teleportation is not
easy and with a passenger too - that little trip took a lot out of me.
Which is why we need to work quickly.

‘You’re crazy.’

‘Maybe, but is it not better to be crazy than nothing at
all?’

‘You don’t have to be either. Don’t you see what we have
found here? Death is not the end. You do not have to be afraid of letting go.’

‘To do what?’ he bit back. ‘Spend an eternity floating in
the void of space? I have spent the last twenty years of my life in a useless
body, with only my thoughts to sustain me. Do you really expect me to view
spending eternity as a disembodied conscience a reward for my suffering?’

‘Neither of us knows what is out there. On my travels, I
have seen people cross over. They do not go alone. Spirits come for them and
take them to the other side. Once they get there, anything could happen. You
just have to take the chance.’

‘Don’t play me for a fool. Anyway, if what you say is true –
why did nobody come for me? Can’t you see? I have to stay here. This town needs
me.’

For a second,
Emmy
could see not
her grandfather, but Lucas talking. The policeman had gone, but his memories
remained, inscribed forever in the archives of his mind.

‘You are not thinking straight,’ she told him. ‘Your mind
and body are not melded. Being in that body is inducing a state of psychosis.
You have to give it up.’

‘I intend to,’ he replied. ‘Like I already told you; it is
rejecting me. My spirit can only stay tethered to this world if it is bound to
its own flesh and blood.’

Emmy
saw only cold determination
in his eyes.

‘In that case, there is no way for you to return. Your body
is long beyond habitation. Besides, even if you could go back, you would still
be confined to a wheelchair.’

‘That is not what I had in mind. I will say it again; I need
only my own flesh and blood to make the transition permanent.’

Emmy
looked at her bruised and cut
arms. They were smeared with blood. They were smeared with the blood composed
of DNA passed down from her parents and her parents’ parents before them. It
was the same blood that had once flowed through the veins of Jackson Fox.

‘You manipulated my thoughts,’ she said. ‘You put images in
my mind to make me climb into the matchbox so that you could steal my body.’

‘This time, I will just have to use plain old brute force.’

Before she could attempt to run, her grandfather had second guessed
her. In an instant, his position changed from standing by the doorway, to being
directly upon her. He had teleported again.

He dragged her by her hair across the cold floor of the
laboratory and towards the machine. When he got there, he lifted her up and
threw her down onto the slab.

‘Please,’ she said, but was unable to find the strength for
any more words.

‘The more you resist, the more painful this will be. Just
follow your own advice,
Emmy
, and let go.’

‘
Nooo
!’ she screamed.

Using every iota of energy at her disposal, she hit him hard
across his face and jumped down from the slab. He grabbed onto her shoulder and
began pulling her back, but stopped when an explosion echoed out from elsewhere
in the compound. The blast was followed by a loud rumbling making its way along
the corridor towards the laboratory. They both looked to the door; she with
hope and he with anger.

The khaki fatigues that she was expecting did not emerge.
Instead, she saw only fur burst forth from the door. It was a mob of kangaroos.
Probably the same ones that Lucas had wanted her to see. Was Mother Nature
fighting back?