System Seven (20 page)

“Alright Austin, you
will feel disoriented and that is normal. The pill is fast acting, so be ready.
By that, I mean be relaxed.”

He wasn’t lying. The
room weaved as a drowsy feeling swept in, yet a part of him remained acutely
aware. Layers of consciousness sort of stacked up and faded away, leaving a singular sense of self. A sea of
percolating darkness surrounded him, saturated with potential.

“This is amazing.” His
voice echoed in a strange way. For the first time in his life, he’d watched
himself fall asleep in a lucid state.

“It is only the
beginning, Austin.” Marcel was nearby, unseen. “You need to follow my voice,
come to where I am.”

Crap, this is weird.
He did his best to move in that direction
without a body. “Where? I can’t see you.”

The frothy darkness
exploded in white light, encompassing everything.

“Oh my god.”

The white faded to
reveal an earthy scene: they stood in a room whose walls and floor were of
glass, suspended over a field of molten magma. A vast rock cavern with low
ceilings stretched out in all directions. In the center of the glass room two
lounge chairs and a table caught the light from the superheated rock beneath
them.

Marcel walked to the
wall. “One of nature’s hidden glories, never seen by the eyes of man. Inside
Mount Tambora.”

He stared in awe.

“So you made it. How
do you feel?”

“Like I’m dreaming.
Lucid dreaming.”

“A lucid dream that I
am directing, yes.”

“Yeah, I feel your
control. The white light just now. It was the same light in my first out of
body experience.”

Marcel shrugged. “Not
sure who did you the favor. Another bit of mystery.” He returned to the chairs.
“Have a seat.”

They sat just as a
massive chunk of lava erupted from the molten sea and crashed into the rock
ceiling. It burst into smaller chunks and rained down.

“Now I’m going to give
it to you like it is. Are you ready?”

“I guess so.”
Something was missing for a lucid dream. He lacked some analytical ability and
feeling of choice. Maybe a lot.

“Dreaming is a world
unto itself, a playground of possibility and meaning, a therapy of the highest
caliber. We’ve not only found how to connect to others here, we’ve managed to
cross the bridge to the waking world. Well, into the attic of the waking world,
you might say. Some of our most important work happens here. It is a realm more
complex than the waking one, but dreams are not our focus right now. We start
here only because it is the best place to introduce the truths.”

The walls of the
Sistine Chapel surrounded them, their chairs now suspended by ropes from its
ceiling. Austin stared in awe at the illustrations of saints, prophets, and
scenes from the biblical story of creation meticulously rendered on plaster.

Beyond the artistry,
what captured his breath was the way Michelangelo’s and Bernini’s imagery had
come alive, conveying meaning in a lurid, almost mystical way. Temptation,
evil, courage, redemption, wisdom, faith... all leapt from the scenes,
translated by a shifting of thoughts not his own – all part of the dream via
Marcel’s intention. The effect was enthralling.

“You now know more
about Raon, the grid that is our physical reality. You now also know that you
have a soft side, your meta self, that plugs into it via the fifth element.
It’s time to learn more about meta – what they don’t want everyone knowing
about.”

The Sistine Chapel
faded around them. A field of stars replaced it, twinkling diamonds that nearly
obscured the darkness of space. They sat at the edge of an ocean with sand
dunes at their backs. A warm breeze came off the water and an orb glowed in the
sand between them.

“Raon connects us. It
is that stage upon which we are merely players. Filling the actors is meta, the
soul, the embodiment of creation and the essence of consciousness.”

“Where does it come
from?” Austin asked.

“Saoghal.”

“Which is?”

“The native space of
souls and our dreams. Think of it as a root dimension, a darkness never meant
for waking minds. It is a shared space we all spawn from and where all
metabodies live. It is your true home, the one that receives you when you rest
every night.”

“They’ve broken into
Saoghal, then. You have, too.”

“Some have learned to
cast light there, yes. The light of awareness.”

“How?”

“There is a conduit to
the body through which meta flows. It is the
droichid
, located in your brain. It marries meta to the body.
Should the flow of meta break, the heart stops, the body begins to die. The droichid
is the bridge of life.”

“And you know how to
cross it. Cross into others. With rathad. To read minds.”

Marcel nodded. “And with
practice, introduce ideas and feelings into their flow. Like dropping petals
into a stream.”

“Mind control, then.
You’ve been dropping things into my stream, haven’t you?”

Marcel looked over. The orb in the sand cast
light and shadows across his face. The dream intensified with a clarity that could
only be the Frenchman’s work.

“Some. Only when
essential. And nothing forceful or false, I promise you.”

Austin pulled his gaze
away to the ocean. Suddenly trust was a currency that he needed more of. “This
is the alternate reality stuff you talked about. I’m supposed to learn how to
control my awareness and travel around Raon and Saoghal?”

“Yes. With meta
awareness, you can explore both realms. The focus of your meta, the rathad, is
the essence of your seventh sense – knowing where you are and what you are
experiencing. It defines reality. It is the true awareness.”

“How can meta exist in
both dimensions? And what is it?”

“What is electricity?
Some things just are, Austin. What’s important is what it does. The meta stream
interacts with the brain in a very intimate way, birthing emotion which in turn
ripples your meta outward via the fifth element. Much like a wave of sound.”

“Meta mixes with other
meta.”

“Precisely. We are
meant to feel it and understand it just as we do sound, touch, smell. You should
recognize this concept because you’ve been feeling it all your life. Now, as a
basic introduction, you can begin to imagine the importance of meta awareness
and understanding rathad. If you join us, you will learn to realize your meta
self and what it means to be all the way alive.”

“There’s more, behind
your words. There’s danger. I feel it.”

“Additional points are
yours. I will never let you forget the danger. It is far too great.”

“Who are the others?
The other group?”

“They started as
scientists a very long time ago, in an age before the common elements of
civilization. They kept their meta discoveries to themselves. With it, they
forged control at the expense of others. They became powerful beyond what
anyone could imagine, then or now.” There was pain in the telling, conveyed in
the weave of the dream. “They caused needless suffering in return for their
place as kings of the world.”

A break in the
continuum of Marcel’s presence signaled a problem.

“My attention is
required. I’ll release you to sleep and see you when you wake.”

The sense of Marcel
faded, leaving Austin alone with thoughts of power on that scale. The drive to
preserve such status would be immense. Selfishness on a grand and inhumane
scale.

The beach began to
fade until blackness consumed all. The emptiness offered no traction and no
boundaries, nothing to keep him in or others out. He hadn’t felt afraid of the
dark since he was a boy...

A shimmer of light
formed, revealing a playground scene he recognized. Fourth grade, the day his
friend Cory kicked him in the chest while karate sparring. The perfect
footprint it left on his white shirt made everybody laugh, himself included.
Such a warm memory reminded him of Kaiya. If only they could join up, things
would be far better. As if in response, the scene shifted to something
unfamiliar and less appealing.

Night’s darkness split
to reveal a circus wagon rolling down a dirt road, rattling and creaking.
Nothing was pulling it. Behind the bars meant for a lion were two clowns in
colored garb lying face down in straw. At first detached, he found himself
gripping the bars, riding the outside of the wagon.

He called out, “Hey!
Hey you! Wake up!”

One of the figures
shifted. He repeated his calls. The clown pushed up from the wagon floor and turned
to face him.

It was Mac Payant, the
CIA agent. He was unmistakably upset behind the garish face paint.

“Austin? Where have
you
been?
Kaiya’s worried sick.”

“I couldn’t help it,
they took me. Where is– is that Kaiya? Kaiya!”

“Shhh! Don’t wake
her... not until you can get us out of here. As soon as this wagon gets to town
they’re going to have their way with both of us. You gotta get us out.”

“This, this is just a
dream, Mac. Where are you really?”

“The hell this is a
dream! You need to get us out, now! Go around back and try the window. Now,
son! We don’t have much time!”

Frustrated, Austin
could only go with it. He climbed towards the rear, thinking about how dreams
mixed with real world facts. He asked Mac, “Do you know the name of the next
town?”

“We’re headed towards
Janesville.”

“Janesville? In
California?”

“Yeah. We’re on the
way to the cabin but I’m sure they’ll be coming soon. We don’t have a chance
without help. Did you reach the window?”

There was no window,
no door, and no handle. He had to shout over the wagon’s racket. “I’m working
on it! Mac, where is the cabin? Tell me exactly!”

“Smith Falls, near the
Idaho Canada border. But if you don’t get us out of here, we’ll never see it!”

“What are you two
driving in?”

“This thing!”

“Describe it, Mac.
What are you driving in?”

“Are you trippin’?
This RV! You’re climbing all over it!”

The wagon was gone,
replaced by a large camper. He clung to the rear ladder.

There wasn’t anything
else he could think to ask. “Mac, I’m gonna try to help you. I’ll try to reach
you. Hang on and be careful!”

With that, he leapt
from the ladder, hit the dirt, and rolled several times before stopping. The
taillights of the RV lurched down the bumpy road and receded into the night.

• • •

“Sir, Austin’s email
account was accessed. Oscar has a match against the target’s laptop.”

“Any other traffic?”
The supervisor stood and walked over.

“No sir, just the
email server.”

“Point of origin and
our proximity?”

“Outside of Portola,
California. Connection’s registered to an RV park. We have two units in a half
hour bubble.”

“Move them in and put
local authorities on standby. Possible sighting near the park. I want them
ready for the takedown but no one spooks them. Bring up any SAT feed you can
get and put in a panel request while we’re at it. Priority one.”

He clapped twice.
“Java, please!”

• • •

Austin blinked awake
and propped himself up. “Where’s Marcel? I need to talk to him.”

Meng still stood in
the doorway of the bedroom, hands together in front of him. “Relax. He’s doing business.
You want something to drink? Those pills can cause headaches.”

He got up and brushed
past Meng into the hall. “I need to talk to him right now. Seriously, Meng,
it’s about Kaiya.”

Marcel emerged from a
room down the hall. “What about her, Austin?”

“She’s about to be
caught. You’ve got to do something.”

Marcel guided him
towards the family room. “And how did you learn this?”

“The dream, how else?
They’re traveling towards Janesville in an RV and if we don’t do something,
they’ll be caught.” Not seeing the urgency he wanted, he added, “Look,
these
are the people I need to protect,
like I told Edward. You need to help them.”

“Sit, please. Relax.”
Marcel sat on the edge of the sofa. “Why do you think they are going to be
caught?”

“Mac said so. He’s right,
I just feel it.”

“Okay. We’re aware of
the situation. They used your laptop and the Comannda are moving in to find
them. I can’t promise anything at this point, but we’re setting something up.
We have to wait and see how it goes.”

“The Comannda?”

“The other group. The
ones most in control.”

“Where’s Kaiya?”

“Austin, listen to me:
you cannot do anything. Leaving–”

“Bullshit. They want
me, not her. Me and the laptop.”