King of the Dark Mountain (21 page)

Kate aimed her shot gun right at his silk encased torso and replied, “Why Mister we’re here to destroy those abominations over there.”

“Why would some inbred hillbilly like yourself dare to attempt such a thing? We are so far above everything a peon like yourself could ever understand …” he roared. All the color was drained from his face and his eyes gleamed with rage.

Kate smiled at him gently, “Well, since I like most people around here bear the genetic makeup of many countries, as well as the interesting mix of Native Americans and African slaves your truly inbred ancestors brought over, I will let that go … for now. What I dare to do is save our species from the warped vision of the likes of you.”

“You have no right, you have no right,” he continued to yell and there were actually tears in his eyes.

Hez stepped forward, “Kate is giving you the courtesy of answering your stupid questions. I’m not nice like her. Here’s what it’s all about.” He turned and opened fire on the glass onions. He fired with more than lightning speed. In a few moments; all of Edsell’s hopes were dissolved into shards. Ted and Richard helped finish off all the last of them. 

“You have doomed humanity to annihilation,” the pajama clad man proclaimed loudly after the noise was over and he was able to speak again. He sank to his knees.

Suddenly, the tent was filled with armor clad, assault weapon bearing men. “Please drop your weapons, gentlemen and lady,” someone said loudly but evenly.

They did so, without worrying too much about it. They managed a look between the four of them that said everything.

The man nodded at the weeping man in the center of the tent. “You know that’s the most powerful man in the world.”

Kate smiled and said, “You don’t say.”

The man said, “We’re going to need you to answer some questions.”

Hez approached him, “We aren’t going to help you concoct some cover for him or his ilk. We know what people like you always do. You harp about needing time to collect the facts or do research and then, before we know it we‘re back in the same old mess. It’s not going down like that this time. This time, we’re going to get things right.”

“And you think you know what that is?” the man asked.

“Well yeah, of course, it’s easy as pie, always has been, but people like you always manage to mess it up.” Hez replied.

The man gave him a grim smile. “People like me have kept things going for a very long time. You think we’re some stupid cowboys with no vision of the larger picture, but you’re wrong. We know what needs to get done, and we get it done, that’s all there is.”

“These looney tunes are the latest versions of all the looney tunes down through the ages who have tried for God knows how long to replace His creation with some tricked out version of their own device. Though in this case, it was a whole new level,” Kate said.

“You don’t have to convince me, I’m completely with you on this,” the man said. “Don’t you think we could’ve have stepped in here and prevented what went down?”

“Then why didn’t you do it yourself and spare us the trouble?” Hez replied.

“We were working on a plan, but then it seemed better to let you people take care of it. We assumed you had been given the go ahead by some higher ups.”

Hez stared at him dumb founded. Ted pulled on his sleeve. “Come on, this thing is more complicated than those things we just blew to smithereens.”

“We’re leaving now. We’re going out that door, for us, this is over,” Kate said She turned and headed for the door. Her friends followed her. When they were outside the tent, she said to them, “I’m proud that we met.” She gave them each a look in turn and headed off for her car.

The three men looked at each other. “Let’s go, maybe we can figure this thing out by the time we get back to New Hampshire,” Hez said.

“I doubt we’ll ever understand it completely. My dear friends,” Ted said and hugged Richard and Hez in a long individual embrace. “I am looking forward to going back and taking care of my wife for a change. She is both the most common clay and the most transcendent beauty of all my life. I have not begun to fathom all that she holds for me. I know you Richard would say the same about Samantha. And Hez keep searching, she’s out there.”

“A woman is one thing, but the universe is another,” Hez said.

“Are you sure about that?” Ted asked.

“Not at all,” laughed Hez.

Chapter Twenty

Spring had come early to Harrow Mountain. It had not come in the usual way of little leaves on acres of trees. All the dogwoods were long bulldozed off and lying as mulch along a waste stream on the southern side. The wild hazelnut trees were likewise compost for the sluggish trail of sludge that coursed where once a stream gurgled and played in the perennial spring rains. Most of the good hard wood trees, the oaks, walnut and hickory had been logged out prior to the removal of the mountain top and now adorned the floors of the newly rich Chinese. In the midst of all this profusion of squalid waste, in sight of the bleached out bones of the continental spine, jutting out in ragged edges, a different herald of renewed life had emerged.

It started in the very spot where Edsell and his cohorts had set their camouflage tents. No sign of those remained. After the destruction of the glass onions, Edsell had ordered a rapid retreat, but first a cleanup operation removed every sign of what had once so proudly stood under those tents. On the mountain, Project Cripton was as completely removed as all the other signs of life had been, except for a twinkling something in the center.

It was a little glow of light at first, then it became two. As the day and night wore on the sparks expanded in an ever widening spiral until they completely enclosed the ruin of the mountain. People began to come to see this amazing event and wonder at the little sparks of light, laid out in such a lovely pattern. A young girl named Noelle bravely approached one of the lights and held out her hand to touch it.

Her mother rushed to stop her, but before she got to her child the light had come to rest on top of her head. It fluttered there like a butterfly. When it rested upon her brown curls, the child was illuminated from head to toe. She stood out in fine detail, while people gathered round. Her expression was so ecstatic, that others began to approach the lights.

Slowly each person received a light of his or her own, the point migrating to the very center of the tops of their heads, if they were children. Adults found the center of their foreheads pierced by the light. It hovered a moment and then settled in to create the illuminated effect. When all the people gathered there were illuminated, they began to hold hands and move up the mountain side. As they walked, they watched in wonderment as light shot up from their heads and foreheads and merged together so that a river of scintillating light moved over them and to a spot above the center of the former mountain.

When Noelle reached the spot where the center once had stood she stopped. “We have to make it new,” she said. As the others gathered in a tighter ring around Noelle, the rock beneath her feet began to move. There was a groaning from the ground, and it began to shake. They all remained calm in the midst of all of this as Noelle rose in the center of them all. No one spoke or made any individual sign as they also began to move and rise, each spiral band of them a little later than the spiral band in front.

When the shaking and groaning of the earth was over, four levels of granite were raised. Noelle stood at the center on the narrowest and tallest band of granite. When there was no more sound from below, she directed her palms to the ground and the rock began to glow. The others followed suit on their respective levels, so that the dull granite looked nearly translucent. A cascade of light fell away from Noelle to the rock near her feet and it carved a stair way that continued all the way down to the ground. Others helped her in this task, although it was done so quickly there was very little for anyone to do but watch the stairway appear and get out of the way.

Without looking down, Noelle turned south and the people turned and looked with her in that direction. “We have to remove the pollution, let’s send it into the darkest pit we can think of,” she said to them with her mind’s voice. All the people heard her perfectly as though she had spoken out loud, for the little glimmering lights had given them this ability. They turned their minds to the task of destroying the muck pit on the south face of the mountain.

This took the better portion of an hour. They had to direct all their will to the image of causing it to move into a dark pit somewhere outside of their world. Noelle knew where this was, and they followed her lead. The child they had always considered a mite peculiar now showed herself to them in her true form as a wonderfully wise person. Her mother understood now that all her child’s singular habits were in preparation for this moment. Her heart was filled with the great combination of humility and pride peculiar to mothers. The glimmering light enhanced this to the point of almost unendurable beauty. She managed to stand near her daughter on the platform below and help her guide the crowd’s mind to cleaning up the horror on the south side of Harrow.

In the days and weeks that followed, groups of people met together at the site of the former mountain. They were able to lift great boulders and shape them into forms that were like giant petals. After a time these numbered in the hundreds and wrapped around the four levels to create what someone called “a lotus with a thousand petals.” Others thought it was more like a giant rose. Once the boulders were in place, they began to shimmer with a light that made the site visible from a great distance. It was particularly lovely at night. People started to come from miles around to see this thing that the people of Harrow Mountain had made.

Usually the visitors were gifted with the sparks of light which would well up from the center where Noelle had stood to bring forth the wonders. This in turn caused them to extend the miracle of rebirth to their own communities. Even where there was no egregious environmental affliction such as had been perpetrated upon Harrow, other secret wounds were healed. These were sometimes natural, but more often some hidden sickness afflicting the hearts of human beings and they were made better by the creative flow coming out of the center of Harrow.

This worked its way over time all the way up and down the whole chain of mountains to which Harrow belonged. Though lighted already by the initial burst of energy brought down, this second anointing of the light created a particularly potent and protective force. All the ravaged mountains in the range were made into memorials for healing, though none were as potent as the original. This was due to the fact that Harrow had been the anchor for the initial flowing forth of the light,

Some of the people from Harrow journeyed across the land and lighted the Rockies, and others went south to the Andes. It was discovered that any ordinary pebble left in the proximity of the site would become imbued after several days with the power of the creation light. It was more difficult to carry the energy across the oceans, but it was a task taken on by some. It was learned that specially designed containers were needed to protect the energy, if it was taken over large bodies of water. These were made by a local craftsperson who said she had been led to the spot where pure white clay could be found to make them.

The general consensus was that it would take many years to light all the mountains on the planet, though some thought this might not be the case due to reports that some sites seemed to have the ability to expand the energy farther and with more force than anything seen in the New World. As the mountains of the earth were lit, they radiated out to the surrounding countryside and beyond, so that a significant shift in energy began to be felt everywhere. It was scarcely spoken of or written about directly, partly because it was experienced in such a personal way.

The single exception to this transformation of the Earth’s mountains was the spur off the Ural Mountains which remained immune to the process. Those mountains were mainly kept off limits to the public and rumors spread that some malignant organization was still at work there in an underground facility. Those mountains began to be shrouded in heavy dark clouds and the surrounding countryside began to be abandoned. Because of this, they began to be called the dark mountains by everyone.

There were rumors of strange creatures carrying off farm animals and crops would no longer grow. As the de-population continued, an oozing swamp began to extend out over the landscape. Different groups of people tried to bring the creation light into the area, but to no avail. A different light, oily and sullen began to illuminate the mountains which had once been intended for the initial calling down of the energy. At night, they shone in a putrid greenish way, their light reflected in the polluted wetlands for miles around. 

*

Hezekiah tried to give Ted as much information about the Kadistan site as he could, in the few days he remained in New Hampshire after their return from Harrow Mountain. Ellie was getting stronger, but he still wanted to give her a few days to recover before the long drive home. He had found his truck where he had left it parked, the rosemary plant wilted but not beyond recovery. Richard and Samantha had left quickly after Richard’s return, to be with their kids. “I may have to pay them a visit so I can get Richard’s take on the time he spent in the Kadistan facility,” Ted said to Hez after he had completed their last interview.

“You ought to come down and visit us on the farm sometime,” Hez replied.

“Perhaps I shall, when Irena gets better. It will depend on if she wants to come along. I mean to make that my main priority for all future projects.”

Sounds like a good plan to me,” Hez replied. “I guess we all have learned some lessons about priorities. Which reminds me, I need to go check on Ellie.” He went upstairs and found her sitting up in bed with pages spread out over the covers.

“I’m just finishing up some notes for Ted. He’s always the one keen to document everything,” she said.

“Good thing someone is writing it all down for posterity. After all, it’s only ten thousand years before the power from Orion rains down again,” he laughed.

“Wonder what the world will be like by then,” she said thoughtfully. Her color was still a little off and the thoughtful expression which accompanied this remark made her seem ethereal

“I’ll be glad when we get home,” Hez said, feeling uneasy about her appearance. “I might be able to salvage some of the tomatoes and all of the corn, if we get going soon.”

“I say we leave early tomorrow,” she replied. He nodded and the next morning they got up very early. There was an emotional farewell with Ted, and then Hez drove all the way home, scarcely stopping along the way. They got back near dawn and Hez took it as a good sign that the sun was rising over the eastern pasture just as they pulled into their home driveway. When they stepped out of the truck, a large elk emerged into the clearing from the patch of woods beyond. Ellie slipped her arm around her brother’s waist and they stood and gazed at it until it disappeared into the woods again.