The Secret of Excalibur (25 page)

The Major has tears in his eyes as he stares at me in grief. “Any reading of radiation, Captain?”

“Yes, sir, but only five rads above normal background.”

“Recover all bodies, Captain. Remove the three ships from the rocks, stow the bodies aboard, and tow them into the lake bay over here. We have to reclaim each body for proper identification.”

“Aye, aye. Will do, sir.”

The Major taps. –More than three hundred dead at sea, another hundred dead in the trees, forty dead here, and only two survivors, the ones you sent to the Lodge. Of course, there are you three from MI6, alive, deaf and telepathic. Hell, we even have a dead Admiral. I'm sorry to say this, but whatever happened here is starting to sound like a bad movie.-

I focus. *I'm sorry too, Paber. But right now, we have to get the Commander to the PM. Do you have his transportation arranged yet?*

He's thinking, “What a cold-blooded bastard.” Either he doesn't realize I'm reading him, or he doesn't care. TAP –Yes, we'll fly him to the Lodge, then his people will take him to the House pad. He should be there in about an hour. Will that do, Merlin?- He doesn't salute, just wipes his eyes on his sleeve, turns and stalks off to help load the last of the bodies. I can't even get upset.

I kneel to ask Dobie. *How you doing, Cecil?*

-Not good, Arthur. Pain in my head like a vise, loud humming, and now, hot chest pains. I think I'm going to join Reggie. My tickers giving out.- No panic in his thoughts, or eyes, just a calm resolve.

*RUTH,* I mentally shout, looking around for her.

Ruth clutches her head, grimacing in pain. -Ahhh! Easy Arthur, easy-

*Dobie's having a heart attack. Get the medics.*

Focusing on Dobie, uncertain what I can do to help him, I notice Ruth putting two fingers in her mouth, then making a puckered face.
Of course, a loud whistle.
I don't hear it, but the medics do, and two begin sprinting in the soft sand with their bags, as she points at Dobie. I'm telling Dobie to hold on when she jerks on me to face her.

-Tell them coronary so they don't waste time. Tell them!-

The medics are trying to run in that loose sand, when I tell them, *He's having a heart attack. Hurry.*

They flounder and falter a few steps, but begin running again, staring at me intently. They kneel by Dobie, and in seconds have his shirt ripped open, a needle inserted in his chest, and one medic's doing something with a bag. Then out of the chair, and down on the sand. One medic pounding on his chest, the other adding a shot here, or there, as needed, and squeezing a bag over Dobie's mouth. The air bag, CPR and shots go on for a few minutes, then the medics stop. I refocus on them.

“Gone, Mick. Must've been massive, but he ain't young either. Did all we could.”

The other one nods as he collects the equipment they used, putting them into the bag. They look up at us and shrug. One of the medics places a jacket over Dobie's face, then they slowly stride off.

Ruth latches onto me, spinning me around to her. TAP –Arthur, you can restart his heart.-

*WHAT?* I stare down at her.
What the hell is she talking about?

-AHHH. Easy, Arthur, please take it easy.- She's making the DOWN sign. –You can restart his heart, like you make me have orgasms. I know you can. You have to try. Please?-

There's that “look” again I can't seem to refuse. With a sign, I reluctantly kneel on one side of Dobie, Ruth on the other. Ruth removes the jacket, rolls it, placing it under Dobie's head. He has a calm, peaceful look on his face.

I probe his mind; it's just as Ferguson's mind. No. There's something there. But it's faint. Disjointed, but he has a few thought processes left. His mind is overshadowed by a gray/brown color, quickly fading to black around the edges.

*Cecil, listen to me, you aren't dead yet. We need you, man. Concentrate on my voice, Cecil. Concentrate on my voice.*

I'm pushing at him hard now. He latches onto my thoughts like string to Velcro, but he's fading fast. I concentrate on his heart, seeing it lying there, quivering.

*Come on, Cecil, force yourself to breathe.*

Nothing. Nothing at all. He's so far gone; even my mental pushes are failing.

Ruth jerks me face-to-face with her. –Arthur, go into him, switch bodies with him. I know you can do it. Nuclear Expansion, remember? Go into him and bring him back to life. Do it.-

Now I know she's crazy.
Teleport into a dead man? What if I can't get back out? He'll be alive in me; I'll be dead in him. No fucking way.
My mind recoils at the thought of it.

Ruth's shaking me like a ragdoll again. –Hurry, before it's too late to help him.-

My subconscious is screaming at me that I'm crazy for even thinking about what Ruth is suggesting.
Why bother? It's only Dobie; he's been a pain in the ass since we met.
Ruth is looking at me with her gorgeous jade eyes, biting her lower lip, and I know I can't refuse her.
Besides, how else are we going to discover what other secrets might be hiding in the cavern?
If Dobie dies, we'll be shuffled out of here like unwanted relatives.

So, against my better judgment, I probe Dobie's subconscious. Deep … slimy … blackness … cold. There, a hint of warmth, but not much and disappearing fast. The warmth is the last spark of Cecil Dobie, his EGO. I pull his EGO towards me, and it comes readily. It's not ready to let go of life yet. I push my conscious into the darkness.

Cold. So cold. Can't feel anything. Cold. So cold.

* * *

Ruth is still shaking Arthur's body, when it slumps like a bag of wet laundry. The eyes flicker open, and Dobie is there peering out at her. Neither of them can talk with each other, but she knows its Dobie in Arthur's body. Arthur is trapped inside the body that's quickly growing cold on the warm sand.

The two medics who tried to resuscitate Dobie stopped walking, watching, wondering what the only survivors of this holocaust were doing with the body of their former Commander. Ruth and Arthur begin to wail. Grief they understand. It's still strange to see so much grief for an old warhorse like Dobie.
Hell, they heard he didn't have a friend in the whole world. Wonder whether he knew how much these two felt about him?

They start feeling uncomfortable, watching two people grieve. It's not polite. Besides, they've already seen too much death today. As they turn away, they notice Dobie's body twitch, cough, jerk, then lie still. Muscle spasms. One arm shoots up, making a fist, wavering around, followed by a powerful psionic blast.

Each medic drops to their knees, one crossing himself repeatedly, the other one drooling. Ruth falls backwards, clutching her head. Dobie, in Arthur's body, falls the other way, also gripping his head. The blast of psionic power almost split their brains apart. Unfortunately, the blast did for one of the medics. The other one's discovering his long, lost religion.

Far down the beach, by the still rotating choppers, Major Paber feels the blast. Out in the woods, the Captain removing Colonel Ferguson's dog tag feels it. Out in the ocean, the men recovering the floating bodies feel it. Everyone freezes in place.

* * *

Cold, so damn cold. As cold as Hell would feel, if it ever froze over. Dark and cold. A soul numbing darkness that's sucking away at my essence, slowly drawing me into nothingness. My mind, inside Dobie's body, recoils in abject terror.
Why did I do this?
I realize I'm suffocating, no air, lungs burning. Terrifying cold, soul numbing darkness, and burning lungs.

I have to pull myself together, remember who I am. Have to concentrate. Push. Focus and Push! Have to move. Move something.
The Hell-frozen coldness creeps up at me again.
Focus, damn you, focus. Now PUSH.
A blast of searing, white-hot pain. Then, back to numbing darkness and frozen Hell.

Again, PUSH.
PAIN. HOT PAIN. Racing through my limbs. Something moves.
Was that my arm? What's going on
?
No air. Have to breathe.
My lungs are burning with fire while my body is being assaulted with frozen Hell. PAIN.
Have to breathe, don't smother, make myself breathe, damnit.
Lungs suddenly expand, gulping n air. Coughing. Choking. Air gulped again.

No heartbeat.
BEAT, DAMN YOU HEART.
Kaboompa boompa boomp.
Don't stop, damn you. I'm not ready to die. BEAT.
PUSH.
Kaboompaboompaboompaboompaboompa.
A machine gun in my chest.
Can't hear it, but feel it, and with it comes the hot searing pain. Boompaboompaboompa.
Too fast. Way too fast, can't separate the beats. AHH
. Pain, hot, liquid pain flowing all over my body.

What the hell am I doing? I don't need this body. Just let go, go on, let it go.
I feel a blast like hot wind, then I'm soaring way up over the beach. I'm alive with breathless joy. I don't need the body.
Hey. There's Ruth, and Dobie, and, and ME.
I remember now.
I'm in Dobie's body. He's in mine. I'm free now. No feelings or pain. Free.
W
hy is Ruth crying?

AHA. Now I see you.
Alive, Metal, Not moving.
Yes, I see you clearly now. How beautiful you are. Yes. Yes. I must go back. I need my body. Yes, go back.

Pain. Hot searing pain. Heart still beating, slower now. Lungs inhaling, exhaling, sporadically.
Why did I come back to this? I was free. Why?
Pain.
Inhale damn you, now exhale, inhale, exhale,
cough, choke, cough, gulp.
Move blood. MOVE.
Pain.
Something else, down low, throbs, lower stomach? Never mind, let it go for now. Did I wet myself, or shit? Damn. Maybe both.

C'mon, we got it now. Steady, smooth breaths, heart beating on its own, ahh, good.
Hot searing pain shooting from my left side. The heart attack is trying to restart. No. It can't happen if I don't let it, and I won't let it.
AHH.
PAIN. Ahh. Better.
Like a muscle cramp, all over my chest. I think I'm going to laugh.
Damn. Charley horse of the chest. Hahaha.
Cough.

Pounding all over, pain, hot, flowing in my head. I feel something down lower again, hot and throbbing. I can feel. ohh, leg cramp, no, foot.
Foot cramp, left foot. Ahh.
Can't do anything about it, shoes are too tight.
Stop damn you. NO, NOT YOU HEART. Move legs. Get the shoe off. Ahh, better, now blood, flow.
Pain. In my head. Air. I can feel the humidity on my cold skin, taste the saltiness on my dry tongue. Hot throbbing down low.
What the hell is that?

Blood flowing, steady breathing, hot pain in my head and behind my eyes.
Focus. Yes, there. Broken blood vessels. Focus. One at a time, you know how. Do it! There, yes.
One broken vessel in the brain, one on the optic nerve
.
Brain first. Too much pain there.
Focus. Mend, c'mon, damn you. That's it, slowly, round and round, yes, like that. Ahh.
Now the eyes.
C'mon, it's smaller. Should be easy. Yes, yes, there, yes. Ahh, uh, what is that? Hot throbbing spasms in the lower stomach. Ulcers?

Heart, lungs, blood, all working together.
Good.
Almost no pain.
Now, flex muscles. Move. Move something
. Breathing faster.
That's okay I think I'm exerting myself.

Light behind my eyes.
What is that, daylight?
I'm okay now.
Gonna be okay. Have to tell Ruth I'm okay. Have to get my eyes open and tell her. Yes.
Blurry.
C'mon, focus, damn you.
There, I can see her
. Why, she's crying. Have to tell her I'm okay.
Reach out, there, now pat her. Yes, there, pat her hand. Yes. She sees me.
She's smiling. She looks terrible.
Who's that with her? Uh, it looks like ME. Of course, Dobie in me.

Involuntarily, my mind reaches out in revulsion and throws Dobie out of my body, pulling me back in. Suddenly, I'm kneeling, watching Ruth hold Dobie's hand. Dobie blinks a few times, a flash of pain crossing his face, then he glares up at me with clenched jaws. If looks could kill, he would've killed me fifteen times over in those few seconds.

I plop my arm on Ruth's shoulder, barely able to raise it that high.
Damn, I'm weak.
Ruth stares at me, then Dobie, then me again. She leans over, hugging me so tightly she almost breaks ribs. Dobie wearily raises his hands to our shoulders, weakly squeezing.

Ruth sits back on her heels, and taps. –Arthur? Is that you?-

I smile, happy to be back. *Of course, kid, who you expecting?*

TAP –Oh God, I thought I lost you, your eyes were staring, unseeing. Dobie's body kept flapping around, then jumped and jerked several times. I was so afraid.-

I smile again. *Relax, kid. I'm okay, you're okay, and he's okay. Although, I'm not sure about you sometimes.*

She smiles, patting my arm. TAP –Should the medics check him out?-

*Sure, kid, if you want, but he's fine. In fact, he just had another heart attack, and beat it. He's tough.*

Dobie places his hand on my arm, so I carefully focus on him. I've already spent too much time in his mind, and don't really want back in. His lips move, and there are tears in his eyes. -Arthur, I hate you.-

I know what he means. He's not a martyr, not wanting to go through the process of dying again.

-I was almost there, in the hands of my maker. You jerked me back, and stuck me in that disgusting thing you call a body. Then, you proceeded to do the most revolting things with my body. You've given me the most humiliation I've ever suffered. I hate you. I'll pay you back, Arthur. I swear I will.-

I focus on him. *Sleep, Cecil.* I gently push, and he begins to softly snore.

Ruth taps. –Is he alright? Was he thanking you?-

I think to her, *Yes, he's fine, just sleeping. And in his own way, I guess he was thanking me, kid.*

I glance around. The two medics are still kneeling where they fell, one crossing himself repeatedly, the other one drooling away. He's mentally gone. Down the beach, everyone else is standing, staring at me, not moving, looking shell-shocked.