REVELATION: Book One of THE RECARN CHRONICLES (6 page)

Finally there was only one
number left to select. Tom looked at Aaron.

“Do you want to do
it?”

Aaron shook his head and
gestured that he was perfectly happy for Tom to
continue.

“No thanks. You’ve done a
good job so far. I don’t want to be the one who blows us up –
you’ve earned it.”

Tom turned the third dial
seven places to the left. The safe door flew open just as quickly
as it had done twenty-five years earlier. Tom grinned at his
accomplice.

“Stage one complete. No
casualties. Okay. Now, I’m not going to touch anything from now on.
That’s your job. That way nobody – that means you – can accuse me
of any sleight of hand. This will only add to the integrity of the
proof that you’ll see. Put your hand in and pull out what’s inside.
There should be a plastic document wallet. Remember?”

Aaron pulled out the wallet
that had been tossed into the safe in 1990.

“Open it. There should be a
document verifying your signature, with the car registration number
that you had at the time. Correct?”

“Correct.”

“Is there a photo inside the
safe?”

“Yes. It’s an old
Polaroid.”

“Yes Aaron. What they call
now a ‘selfie’ of you and me. Well, you and Jake.”

“Yes it’s here.”

“Now, there’s another piece
of paper in the document wallet. I want you to read it – not aloud
– as I tell you what’s written on it.”

“Okay.”

“Make sure you read it
carefully. There are punctuation marks and numbers inserted
randomly to prevent coincidence.”

“Will do.”

“A squat grey building of
only thirty-four storeys – full stop – Mister one – comma – two –
ninety-five - Foster – open parenthesis that’s – decimal point -
abbreviated to Mr. – close parenthesis – was left in the Decanting
– dollar sign - Room – full stop – Outside – comma – in the –
asterisk – question mark - garden – comma – it was playtime – full
stop - the lift was crowded with men from the Alpha Changing Rooms
– comma – and Lenina’s entry was greeted – per cent sign - by many
friendly nods and smiles – full stop – by eight o’clock the –
ampersand - light was failing – full stop”

Aaron was having trouble
following. If it had been a straight piece of text it would have
been alright but Tom was also reciting punctuation – punctuation
that had no right to be there.

“Can you repeat that please?
I got a little lost. I recognise it as being from Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World but you put in some strange punctuation”

Tom repeated what he had
just said. Unbelievably it was exactly what was on the piece of
paper that Aaron was holding in his hand.

“So…. Do you believe
me?”

“I’m getting there. I’ll
acknowledge that I have no other explanation for what’s happening.
If it’s a trick it’s a bloody good one. I think even Penn and
Teller would have difficulty in debunking what I’ve just witnessed.
First, you knew where the safe was. Second, you knew the very
intricate combination to the safe – including what order to select
the numbers, and third you knew what was in the safe and what was
written on the papers that were inside…including the misplaced
punctuation. I have to admit, short of experiencing reincarnation
myself, it’s very convincing.”

“Well, you have experienced
reincarnation Aaron, we all do. It’s just that you’re not one of
us. You’re not a Recarn. You don’t remember your past
lives.”

“I wish I did.”

“A mixed blessing, Aaron. A
mixed blessing. Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ll just
deactivate the Semtex first – don’t want it to blow up and spoil
things do we?”

Tom disabled the bomb and
put the explosives into a holdall that he had brought with him,
specifically for that purpose. Aaron suddenly remembered the
dice.

“Tom. What about the
dice?”

“What dice?”

“The dice that you – if you
really are Jake reincarnated – tossed into the safe.”

“Oh…THOSE dice. I’m just
messing with you Aaron. I hadn’t forgotten. Do you remember the
colour and number combinations?”

“Yes.”

Tom took a blank piece of
paper and a ball point pen from his pocket.

“I’m going to write down the
numbers and colours of the dice. Then I’ll fold the paper so that
you can’t see what I’ve written and I’ll also give you the pen.
Assuming that you remember the colour of each dice, the numbers
that were thrown, and the order that they were thrown in 1990,
we’ll be good to go.”

Once Tom had written down
the details, folded the paper, and handed Aaron the pen, Aaron
recited how the dice had fallen twenty-five years
earlier.

“Red, five. Blue, three.
Yellow, six. Green, five. Black, one. White, four.”

“Good memory my man. Open
the paper, Aaron. Does that agree with what I wrote down just
now?”

Aaron read what Tom had
written. Everything was correct.

“Right then, Aaron. Time to
go. There are more surprises in store… but not today.”

Back at the car park, the
two men shook hands.

“I’ll be in touch very soon,
Aaron. Very soon. This is only the beginning.”

With that, they went their
separate ways.

Aaron’s phone
rang.

“Aaron speaking.”

“Aaron, its Tom. Tom McCall.
Have you been thinking about what happened at our recent
rendezvous?”

“To be honest, I’ve thought
of little else. It’s not every day that someone comes back from the
dead, as it were.”

“
Not ‘come back from the
dead’, Aaron. ‘Is reborn into another body’ is more accurate. Plus…
it
is
every day that that happens. You’ve
already lived many previous lives. You just don’t remember
them.”

“Why can’t I remember them?
Why do you get to remember yours?”

“I honestly don’t know,
mate. Nobody does. And when you do remember it’s not plain sailing
anyway. Remember, I told you I went off the rails for a while. It
can freak you out.”

“So what happens
now?”

“Well, to be completely
honest with you, you weren’t the only person we showed the truth.
It was important for us to come out, if I may use that expression,
to science but we needed to go a bit further than that. We needed
to involve the media.”

“The media?”

“Yes, the media. If we’re
going to let the world in on our little secret, we need the media
to help us do so.”

“Isn’t that dangerous? It
could cause panic.”

“I doubt it, Aaron. And – if
you’d been able to prove reincarnation as a fact using your
methodology – would you have kept it to yourself?”

“Probably not.”

“We needed scientific
confidence to convince the world, and the media is our conduit.
Don’t worry, we’ll give you the credit.”

“I’m not worried about that,
Tom. I’m just worried about the reaction.”

“Surely it’ll be a relief to
many people. Instead of wondering what happens when we die, instead
of fearing death, people can enjoy their lives, safe in the
knowledge that they’ll be reborn - only this time they won’t have
ancient books telling then they’ll go to a special place. They’ll
have modern day proof.”

“I don’t know. It’ll change
so much. It’ll change the way that people think. You tell people
that Heaven doesn’t exist and you could have a riot on your
hands.”

“But isn’t that the role of
a scientist, Aaron? To change the way people think? Imagine if
people still believed the world was flat or that the sun revolved
around the earth. Imagine if people still thought that illness and
disease were caused by an imbalance of the humours? Imagine if your
approach to proving reincarnation had been successful. Would you
have kept it to yourself? The world has a right to know,
Aaron.”
“I suppose so… but it’s a big step to take.”

“We’re on the cusp of
something big here Aaron, something world-changing. And you have a
chance to be part of it. No, actually you’re already part of
it.”

“So what now?”

“We chose a media presenter,
a highly respected media journalist in his own right and offered
him the same opportunity that we offered you. We weren’t as certain
that curiosity alone would prevent him from letting the cat out of
the bag early, but that’s what the threat of danger to loved ones
was designed to deal with. We didn’t enjoy holding this sword of
Damocles over people’s heads but it was a necessary evil,
especially as we had much less confidence in his ability to wait
for the big reward than yours. The main difference between you and
the journalist is that his experience is all on film. We’re going
to show the world the truth. We will allow, nay request, that
authorities verify the films’ authenticity, that no editing or
trick photography has been used. We will offer ourselves to the
highest scrutiny by lie-detector or whatever the FBI, MI5, or
whatever the security agencies are using now, on the written
understanding that if they find nothing untoward, criminally
negligent, or dangerous to the state or nation where we are, they
allow us to leave their premises unhindered and as free men or
women”

“What then?”

“Then the world can keep on
turning, people will continue to be born and to die, but this time
with a new scientific fact to consider when living their lives. The
world didn’t end because Christopher Columbus didn’t sail off the
edge of the world. We want you to appear on a TV show with us, to
lend a sense of gravitas as it were. You do believe what we’ve
shown you don’t you?”

“I tried not to believe it –
I am a scientist after all – but, I have to admit that the evidence
is pretty compelling.”

“So… get your best clothes
together, have a haircut if you feel the need and I’ll see you at
the TV studios tomorrow evening. I’ll email you the details. And
don’t worry… just tell the truth. We’re not trying to hide
anything.”

“Um…OK. I
suppose.”

“See you tomorrow
then.”

The line went dead. Aaron felt
strange. For decades he had been researching reincarnation and at
last he had been shown pretty compelling proof of its existence. He
should have felt elated. His belief that we don’t just die and
disappear into nothingness was being vindicated. But his pleasure
was diminished by the disappointment that
he
hadn’t found the proof; an outsider had provided the
evidence. All the hours that he had put into his research, all his
effort had come to nothing. He could only take refuge in the fact
that he was at least involved in this revelation. He decided to
take the rest of the day off; he needed time to breathe.

Aaron’s car pulled up at the
black and yellow striped barrier that guarded the entrance to the
television studios. He handed the security guard a copy of the
email of invitation that had been sent to him. The guard opened it,
read it, and handed it back to the scientist.

“Thank you sir. Please park
over in area H. You’ll see the entrance to the main studio building
a little to the right. It’s all well-signposted. Good day,
sir.”

Aaron thanked him and drove
slowly over to where the security official had indicated. He got
out of the car, straightened his tie, and closed the car door. The
car chirruped at him as he pressed the lock button on his
key-fob.

Pushing the smoked glass
door, he entered the building and saw the reception desk on the
right, at which was seated an attractive young woman with long red
hair, and designer spectacles perched on her nose.

“May I help you
sir?”

Her nose twitched almost
unperceivably as she smiled at the visitor.

“Erm, yes, thank
you…”

Aaron peered at the name
badge that was attached to her dark green jacket.

“Yes, Annabel. My name is
Aaron – Aaron Hunt. I’m here to meet with Thomas McCall. We’re
being interviewed by Brendan Ford for his Friday night
show.”

“Just one minute
please.”

Annabel checked the schedule
on the computer monitor.

“Certainly, sir. Just attach
this lapel-badge to your jacket and enter lift number two. You need
floor 6, room 602. There you’ll meet Mr. Ford for a few minutes
before going to make-up and then the green room. You don’t need to
knock. They’re expecting you.”

Aaron found the idea of
having to wear make-up unusual but knew that it was necessary to
reduce glare under the studio lights. He went up to the sixth
floor, found the room and knocked on the door, not so much
expecting a response but just as an act of politeness. Opening the
door he saw Tom McCall sitting on a two-seater leather sofa
opposite Brendan Ford, who was also sitting on a similar sofa.
Brendan stood up and held out his hands to greet Aaron.