Legend of the Book Keeper (17 page)

The blaring alarm jerked Cody out of a trance. He groggily reoriented himself as if waking up from a sleep walk. Then he remembered—and groaned. The sign had been too much for him:
EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL/UFO/ ROSWELL EVIDENCE.
He had urged himself to continue running, but curiosity had mutinied his common sense and he found himself approaching the door as though pulled magnetically. One quick, harmless little peek was all he had wanted.

He felt himself being thrown to the floor. Jade collapsed on top of him, her explosive green eyes burning a hole through his head. Despite the situation, he couldn’t help thinking how beautiful she looked. Her un-kept black bangs swaying across his face and her thin pencil lips gave her a dainty quality that he had never realized in her before. He smiled—and immediately regretted doing so.

SLAP!
His cheek stung under the force of her hand. “You idiot! What are you doing! Are you out of your . . .” Her voice was cut off by the sound of gunfire. Sparks flew off the wall beside them. Cody wrapped his arms around Jade and rolled her to the ground. Another gunshot echoed down the hall. This time there were no sparks.

“Ahhh!” Cody screamed out. He felt his left pant leg grow wet. It burned like fire. Jade was on her feet, waving her arms wildly above her head. “Stop shooting! For heaven sakes, we surrender! Please!” Her voice was desperate. Cody rolled his head toward their attackers. His every movement sent violent jolts of pain to his leg. Two security guards were app
roaching vigilantly, both with guns raised.

Where are you Randilin!
Cody frantically searched for the dwarf as the two guards approached. Their fingers rested tightly on the trigger of their AK47s. Cody knew that Area 51 was no haven for forgiveness. The guards exchanged a few muffled words to each other. Cody understood what the outcome would be. He and Jade were about to be eliminated.
Randilin! Now would be a nice time for a rescue!
He was nowhere to be seen. The guards concluded their huddle and turned back to their captives. Their guns rose to their shoulders. Cody winced.

Thud. Thud.
Cody grabbed his chest. He was untouched. He glanced up to Jade, who was standing with an equally confused look on her face. There was a faint, wet, gurgling sound. He looked back to the guards; two glimmering metallic objects were protruding out of the wall behind them—they looked like some kind of circular blades. The hallway was deathly silent except for the gurgling. The two guards swayed back and forth for a moment—then a dark scarlet gash appeared across their jugulars and they crumbled lifelessly to the floor.

Cody retched at the disgusting sight and fought to keep vomit down his throat, “Randilin! You sick, twisted, barbaric, disgus . . .” Cody shut his mouth. The man emerging around the corner into the hallway was not Randilin. He was a tall man cloaked in a black robe. In his hands were two circular, throwing blades. On the front of his robe was one word: CROSS.

Down the Rabbit Hole

R
un. That was the only thought occupying Cody’s mind as he stared at the hooded man fifty paces from his position on the floor. The searing pain in his leg reminded him that this option had been eradicated from his sparse repertoire. Jade’s shadow was unmoving on the floor behind him. She too had gauged that the price of running was the loss of her head.
Where are you, Randilin?
Biting back the pain rearing from his leg, Cody called out.

“Who are you? What do you want with us? We’re not scared of you!” He had intended the last part to come out brave and valiant. Instead it had flopped out of his mouth with the ferocity of a crippled mouse. He felt a nudge in his back and heard Jade’s voice, “Just tell us what you need and we can work something out. What do you want?”

The hooded man stood completely unmoving. Only the steady breath exhaling from under the hood gave signs of life. At last the hooded man spoke with a soft, youthful voice that surprised Cody. “What I want to give you, both of you, is a life of a meaning. A life of grandeur and importance. But to do so, I’m going to need that Book.”

“How do we know you aren’t lying? And what if we don’t
want
a life of meaning, grandeur, and importance? What then?” Cody r
esponded cautiously, trying to buy time until he came up with an escape plan.

The man chuckled softly, “Oh, but you
do.
You always have. It’s in your blood. . . .” The last words collided with Cody hard, knocking his wind out. The man noticed and spoke again, “Isn’t that why your father abandoned you and your mother? Tired of his mundane life of being a nobody? Just another face in the crowd?”

Cody wanted to respond. He wanted to tell the man to stop talking, but the words in his head kept spinning away out of reach.

The man continued, “Isn’t that why you’ve always felt that you don’t stand out at school? You share your father’s fate. But most of all, you want to prove to yourself that your father was wrong, and that you aren’t worthless.”

It was Jade who finally came to Cody’s rescue. “Shut up! You think you know us, but you don’t! You don’t know anything about us! You think you can aim some blades at us and we’ll just hand over the Book? Do you think we’re that simple?” There was a blur of motion and a light thud. Jade felt a burn on her cheek. She immediately knew it was bleeding. She looked behind her; one of the man’s blades was sticking into the wall. It had grazed her face. She didn’t need any convincing that the man hadn’t missed.

“My boss is not a man known to give second chances, so I’m going to ask you one more time, Cody, hand over that Book and I promise you a life that surpasses even your wildest imagination. The life . . . your father always wanted.”

Cody pushed himself up onto his feet and steadied himself with Jade’s help. His leg felt numb and staggered under the pressure of his body. He felt dizzy and his vision blurred. For the first time he looked down to his wound; blood soaked the floor. He unzipped his backpack and pulled out the Book. A tingling sensation ran up his arm. “Okay, here’s the Book. Just leave us alone and it’s yours.” Cody held it out in his hand. The man took several long strides and reached out for it. Cody smiled—and tossed the Book into the air.

The hooded man froze in surprise. For a split second he raised his eyes to follow the path of the soaring Book. It was all Cody needed. He hurled his body toward the man. His head smashed into the man’s chin, causing the assassin to stagger back. Jade jumped up and caught the falling Book, “Let’s get out of here!”

Cody’s head butt had stunned the man only momentarily. He shook his head and raised his remaining blade. However, the cavalry had arrived at last.

Appearing from nowhere, Randilin came flying through the air and landed a solid blow against the man’s cheek. The man staggered again before collapsing under the power of Randilin’s uppercut. Randilin screamed toward Cody and Jade, “To the end of the tunnel! Now!” They took off after him down the tunnel. Cody hobbled as fast as his gimped leg would take him, wincing with each step.

As they neared the end, he saw Sally’s head sticking out from around the corner shouting for them to hurry. At last they reached her. She quickly led them down another corridor until they were standing in front of a door. Above the door was a simple sign:
WISHING WELL.

As they entered through the door Cody was startled to find that it did not lead to another room. He felt the rays of the morning’s rising sun spray down on his forehead. They were now standing in a large, open-roofed courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard was a water well. Of all the mysteries in Area 51, this one perplexed Cody the most. As if reading his mind, Sally leaned her head toward his, “We are standing at the center of Area 51. In fact, the base itself was
built
around this well. Employees here are not allowed to leave, so this is their source of fresh air.”

The tone in her voice suggested that the story was much more complex than she revealed, but for the moment, Cody didn’t care. He was too focused on the ancient structure. It was massive. A circle of stacked stones made up the base with the perimeter the size of a paddling swimming pool. The water was dark and still. It was impossible to guess how deep it stretched into the ground. Cody cupped a handful of liquid. It had an almost gooey, silk-like texture as it drained through his figures.

Jade was less interested in the ancient well. “Okay, so what now?” she questioned. “We need to get to this passageway before
somebody
” her gaze zeroed in on Cody, “does something stupid and gets us all killed. What are we waiting for, Randilin? We’re wasting valuable time. Cody needs medical help!” Once again Jade had spoken the voice of reason. Cody knew she was right as he felt his eyes blur and his leg go completely numb. He looked to Randilin and Sally who stared reverently toward the well; Randilin smiled toward Jade. “Once again, buttercup, you have used your wonderfully rational brain to jump to wrong conclusions. We are exactly where we want to be,” he rubbed his hand along the smooth stones of the well. “Ladies and gents . . . welcome to the passageway.” All eyes moved back to the ancient well.

“The well? I don’t understand, I . . .” Jade stammered. Sally wrapped her arm around her back. “Just wait and see.”

Randilin jumped up onto the ledge of the well and began muttering a chant of unrecognizable words. When he finished, everything was still. Cody stared hard at the dark water unsure of what to expect—was that a bubble? Sure enough, a bubble had risen to the top of the water. Then, another and another. Cody stepped away from the well, propping himself up on Jade’s shoulder. The bubbles were coming rapidly now, larger and larger. Soon the well looked like a boiling pot of water. Vapor began rising into the air—and the water began to swirl.

Slowly at first, the water began circling the perimeter of the well as though somebody had pulled the plug in the bathtub. The water tornado was picking up speed, forming a violent whirlpool. Randilin jumped off the ledge, “Well, kids. Who’s gonna be the first one to dive in?”

“What!? Surely you must be kidding?” Jade uttered in horror.

Cody was no less enthused, “If anyone is going first, it’s you, Randilin!” Cody had expected the comment to set off the fuse on another one of Randilin’s cuss-littered rants. Instead, his eyes went momentarily heavy. The voice Cody heard next was not the firey, snappy one he was accustomed to, but a broken one full of heartache. “Unfortunately, this is the end of the road for me. This is where we part. I will be . . . unable to accompany you any farther. But you can trust Sally, she knows the way, I’m sorry.”

Sally reached behind him and grabbed his hand, “Randy, perhaps it’s time to move on. You can’t live this life forever.” Cody fought back his desire to question. Even Jade’s held in check her impatient need for answers. They both realized the conversation taking place before them ran much deeper than they were welcome to know. Sally was now looking Randilin straight in the eyes and speaking softly, “Randy, what happened back then, that was a different lifetime ago. We all have regrets. . . .”

“Not like I do!” exploded Randilin angrily. “You have no idea what it’s like to live with what I’ve done. Or spend every single second of restless sleep reliving my mistakes and wishing so hard that my blood vessels pop for just one chance to go back and undo what I’ve done. Don’t pretend you understand.” His cheeks were burning red. Cody understood that Sally was not the target of Randilin’s selfinflicted anger.

Sally grabbed hold of Randilin’s other hand, “I’m not pretending to. But you can’t live forever in regret. You need to face your demons. And I’ll be right beside you.”

Randilin was perplexed. The weight of the decision was evident in his slouched shoulders. “I . . . I. . . .” Randilin’s answer never came; Jade’s voice interrupted his thoughts, “Look out!” With unhesitant obedience, Randilin dropped to the ground, pulling Sally down with him. Sparks flew as a circular blade skimmed off the stones of the well where Randilin’s neck had been moments before.