ORDER OF SEVEN (21 page)

“Morning. To what do I owe the pleasure of such an early call?”

“A new vision. Have you noticed we’re getting information faster?”

I freeze. “What is it?”

“It’s weird is what it is. Mostly letters and numbers. Like a long license plate number...sort of.”

“Have you had a chance to research it yet?”

“No.” He yawns. “Just woke up and wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget it.”

I go to my computer and turn it on, grab a pencil and ask him to tell me.

“Okay, it’s in three rows. The top row has the numbers zero-one-zero-seven-one-one. The second row has this little loopy symbol that I don’t recognize, followed by capital C, capital M, little A. The third row has the number two-zero-zero-four, capital M, capital N and the number four.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I do an Internet search for the first row of numbers and get a slew of random hits. The beginning of an overseas phone number, a gun registration number, a docket number from a legal defense case. None of them seem like sensible connections. I try the second row, but “loopy symbol” means nothing, so it’s another fail. Then I enter the third row,
2004MN4
.

“Oh God, no,” I cry.

“What is it?”

Horror fills me. “No, no, no. This can’t be right. Please don’t tell me this is right.”

“
What?
”

With a shaky voice, I summarize the page. “Near-Earth Asteroid, Apophis, which indicates a possible collision with Earth in two-thousand-nineteen. Its eight-year orbit around Earth travels on an arc that moves closer with each revolution. The next pass is expected in two-thousand-eleven. It’s currently holding the record for the highest level on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale with a Level four. You have to be fucking kidding me.” I have a sudden urge to upchuck all over my bed. “Baron?”

“I’m here,” he says. “I’m here.”

“Tell me we’re not stopping a fucking asteroid, Baron.”

“Hang on. I’m getting my laptop. I should be able to find that symbol in a word document.”

I wait for him to turn on his computer. I hear keys clicking and intermittent sounds, then an audible, “Oh. My. God.”

“What is it?”

“It’s Alpha Canis Majoris.”

“What is that?”

“That would be Sirius. The brightest star in the sky. And guess where it’s located?”

I don’t guess because I’m currently mute, so he just tells me.

“In perfect alignment with Orion. In fact, it’s sometimes called Orion’s dog.” He pauses, reading. “Yeah, okay, this is starting to make sense. Orion’s stars are used as navigational tools. They point to other locations in the sky.”

“Which means what for us?”

“It means we just received our coordinates. This tells us exactly where Apophis will be in the sky. Now we just need to know when.”

I stare at the first set of numbers and my bones go cold. “What if the first numbers are a date? What if it’s January seventh, two thousand eleven?”

He pauses a beat. “The asteroid’s orbit
is
closest to us again in two thousand eleven...”

“Less than two weeks away,” I say, or maybe I just think it because there’s a panic closing around my throat so tight I can’t breathe. I hear a chime indicating another call. I check the number.

“Here we go,” I murmur. “Baron, I’ll call you back. It’s Mapiya.” I switch lines. “Hello?”

“Hello Devi. My father is here. You talk to him.”

“Wait...what?” But it‘s too late. I hear shuffling and movement and then a man’s voice.

“You need to speak to me?” His tone is gruff and impatient.

“Yes sir. I...um...I assume she told you we need her for a short time. It’s very important.”

“She told me, but I don’t understand why she has to leave with you. She’s only eleven. She’s never been out of Kansas.”

“I know, I know. It sounds crazy, but if we could just meet and talk it over I’m sure you’d understand. I’ll come to you. Would you be willing to do that?”

There’s a pause and I’m afraid I’ve lost him when he speaks. “If you can get here, you can say anything you want to me, but I’m not letting my little girl travel with you for any reason.”

I hear a loud metal against metal plunk and then Mapiya is back on the phone.

“Devi?” she whispers.

“Mapiya, we’ll need to leave very soon. Maybe even a few days.”

“I know. You come here, three days. I will be ready.” She rattles off an address which I scribble down. Before I can say anything else the phone goes dead.

One day God made the butterflies
To send a message our way
He sent them to whisper softly
That everything will be okay

Next He made streams, rivers and brooks
To coo comfort in our ears
And with that came affirmation
That He is with us through the years

Then God made the flowers
To send encouragement our way
He sent them to quietly tell us
That He believes in us every day

Using these things in nature
He sends a message to us all
With tiny whispers, subtle hints,
And barely audible calls.

With all these secret encouragements
God made to send love our way
Why did he still need to make the trees?
Because He wanted to shout it that day.

•◊
23
ץ

FRIGHT AND FLIGHT

T
wo days after Christmas, the Okie boys are back. Ben drove this time, but he’s going home tomorrow by himself. Baron is staying indefinitely.

“All right,” Ben says, taking a credit card out of his wallet. “I think the best flight is Emirates Airlines on December thirtieth. Only two stops—a plane change in Dallas and a two-hour layover in Dubai—and it lands the next day in Johannesburg. Twenty-seven hours total. After fees and taxes, it’ll be sixteen hundred and forty dollars per person, round trip.”

“Thanks again for loaning us the money,” Nodin says. “We’ll pay you back ASAP.”

“No worries. That’s what an inheritance is for, right?” Ben grins, his eyes flitting up and down at Nodin’s jeans and blue hoodie. “Hey, the Smurfs called. They want Papa back.”

Nodin looks down. “What’s wrong with this?”

Ben strokes a phantom beard on his chin and says, “It’s just a lot of white cranium hair going on with a lot of blue.”

Nodin stomps to his room and returns wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt while the rest of us suppress laughter.

“You’re sure you’re not coming with us?” I ask Ben. “I can’t imagine you not a part of this anymore.”

He shakes his head. “You’re not doing anything without me. I’m still a part of it. I’m just not supposed to go.”

“Book it,” Nodin says,” but on two separate flights. Put Mapiya and Devi on one, Baron and I on the other.”

“What? Why?” I’m terrified of my first plane trip. I’d been counting on having Baron with me as support.

“I’m sorry, but the fact is we can’t put you and Baron on a plane together,” Nodin says. “We don’t know what affect your energy reaction could have on the electrical system or the Doppler radar.”

“He has a point,” Baron agrees.

“Fuck,” I say, putting my head in my hands. “So I’m flying to freakin’
Africa
with an eleven-year-old who’s a stranger to me, who’s probably never flown before either, by myself.” A lump is forming in my throat. “Nodin,” I plead.

“The only alternative is for Baron to fly alone,” Nodin says.

“That’s fine,” Baron says. “I don’t need the company. Nodin can go with you guys.”

Nodin sighs. “Fine. Book it that way. As long as all four of us get there, that’s all that matters.”

My shoulders relax now that I know I’ve got someone with me who knows what they’re doing. I look at Baron, mouthing my thanks.

“Are you guys ready to go through this?” Nodin asks, holding up his notebook. Using what we know about Baron’s symbols, and the wonder that is the Internet, Ben and Baron have narrowed down the locations of the remaining rune tribes.

Ben plops on the couch with his notes and summarizes. “We started with Baron’s thigh tat, the rainbow serpent of Australia. It varies a little throughout the country, but basically the serpent was believed by ancient Aborigines to be enormous. It lived in permanent water holes and created all the land features and protects the land, but also punished if people disrespected the land.”

“That’s a familiar theme,” Nodin says.

We all nod.

Ben continues, “We found one particular clan, the Nhanda Balug, whose totem was a great serpent. I contacted the Australian Historical Society for information about clan ancestors. I’m hoping to hear back soon.” He flips his paper over. “As far as the elephant rune tribe, which we all agree is the Mahtembo, we plan to call the Buddhist temple in hopes they have a way to communicate with them.”

Nodin and I don’t know if our father is still there, or if he’s even in Africa, but the fact there’s a remote possibility of reuniting with him is so surreal and overwhelming, it’s difficult for us to even discuss.

“Good job, Benstein,” I say, smiling.

Ben tips an imaginary hat. “Thank you, Devs.” He gestures to Baron. “Why don’t you take the Brits.”

Baron takes the notes from Ben. “Okay. For the white buck, we have the Drade tribe in Southern England and let me tell you, the Drades have their shit together. There’s evidently a Neo-Dradonion movement among the Celts. They continue to gather for ceremonies and foster education of the tribe’s beliefs, which date back to eleven hundred AD. They even have a website.” He holds out his arm, showing his buck tattoo. “A white stag with enormous antlers is their tribal emblem, thought to link them with the spiritual realm.”

“It should be easy to get in contact with them, yes?” Nodin says.

Baron nods, setting the notes on the coffee table. “There’s an email and contact name on the website. Some guy named Aren. I sent an email this morning. We’ll see what comes of it.”

He heads for the kitchen and returns with a glass of water, standing behind me for a moment and resting his hand on my shoulder.

I arc and, as I’ve made a habit of doing, I take the opportunity to spy on the others, careful to keep my eyes averted from Ben.

A barrage of images and feelings reveal themselves, but what I see in Ben’s mind startles me: a shadowy figure is watching me. I can’t see facial features, but the person feels distinctly male. Ben senses him and is trying to find out who he is. The image is so unsettling, I disconnect with Baron and walk into the kitchen.

I want to ask Ben about it, but I assume he has a reason for not telling us. Maybe it’s as simple as not wanting to alarm us.

Or maybe there’s more.

My gut says to trust his judgment, so I keep my mouth shut. I try to imagine who could be watching me, think of the Tabari, and shudder.

•◊
24
ץ

OWLS SEE ALL

I
t’s December twenty-ninth. The plan is to meet Mapiya and her father at the address she gave me, which turns out to be an Exxon station not far from her home in Kansas.

It’s early when Baron, Nodin and I leave for the long drive to pick her up. I’m nervous. I’ve never been responsible for a child before, never even babysat, and now I’m in charge of one throughout an epic undertaking. And yet, on some level, I know she will be equally in charge of me.

Through several phone conversations the past few days, we’ve learned how much she’s aware of, which is a hell of a lot more than us. She knows the other runes also shared the dream of following the bear on the mountain, as well as another one that occurred two nights ago, when we dreamed of Africa. The seven runes walk up a hill, flanked by elephants, grit from the dusty air crunching in our teeth and the sun hot on our shoulders. At the top we saw two gargantuan boulders. The elephants trumpeted, trunks high in the air.

When Nodin, Baron and I researched the Wonderboom preserve, we learned of the Twin Altas, two ancient boulders believed to align with Sirius during certain times of the year.

I awoke from the latest dream just a couple hours ago. We dreamed of the skies. Low on the southern horizon, Orion and Sirius glowed bright against the dark backdrop of night. The moon was full and high, slightly to our left, its light pouring from above in a glowy haze. We know, up there, a terrible threat looms. And we know we’re the ones who will stop it.

Once we’re together in the car, we discuss the shared dream. Baron uses his cell phone to look up astronomical positions expected in the skies above Africa on January seventh. It doesn’t surprise us to learn Orion and Sirius will be low in the south, and the moon will be full and high in the west. These last two dreams conveyed the where and when to all seven runes.

We arrive at the Exxon station around one in the afternoon. Mapiya and her father are already there, waiting in a bronze, four-door Buick LeSabre under the shade of a large tree, where they said they’d be.

We park next to them and get out of the Bronco. Her father gets out of the car and comes directly to me. He’s wearing jeans, cowboy boots and a long-sleeve button-up shirt that’s untucked. He has long, straight black hair that frames his tan, leathery face. He is not smiling.

“Devi?” he asks, his black, steely eyes boring into mine.

I swallow hard. “Yes.” I shoot a nervous glance at Nodin that screams
hurry
.

“You have three minutes.” He crosses his arms over his chest, mouth clamped shut.

I glance at Nodin again. His eyes are closed in deep concentration.

“I appreciate you meeting with me, sir,” I say. “What I need to tell you is that this is of utmost importance. Mapiya is very special and we need her for an important job.” I notice his features relax and eyes soften. “Her safety will be our top concern.”

Before I can say anything else, his entire demeanor shifts from aggressive to friendly. He reaches over and puts a hand on my shoulder. “Her mother and I have known for a long time this is bigger than us. We can only trust what the gods have in store for her.” He pauses, his voice cracking with emotion. “We know you will watch over her.”

He seems like a completely different person. All the fear for his daughter, the protective aggression, the stiffness...gone.