Submerged (36 page)

For a moment, Perry thought his father had
fallen asleep.

“We have much to thank God for,” Henry
said.

“Amen,” Jack said.

“I’ve gathered everyone here so they could
see how well you’re doing and so they can know that the efforts
they expended made a difference.” Perry paused. “I also wanted to
share a few things we’ve learned since getting back. Dr. Nishizaki
has some information for us.”

Nishizaki cleared his throat. “I have a team
working on what happened to you, as well as a team at the CDC. The
truth is, we’re not going to get very far. The lab was able to
filter some of the particulate matter from your blood and examine
it. It is extremely small. I think Gleason is onto something with
the biotronics. I just can’t prove it. The material we removed from
Mr. Sachs’s blood before we began the chemo matched that taken by
the coroners from Mr. Grant and Ms. Wagner. All that has been sent
to the CDC and is being analyzed. We won’t know anything for some
time—if they choose to reveal anything.”

Nishizaki took a sip of coffee and continued.
“The material—whatever it turns out to be—began to multiply. As it
spread through the body, it encountered water in the tissue and
blood. You know what the substance does in the presence of water.
Humans have a great deal of water in them. In the case of Ms.
Wagner and Mr. Grant, both of whom are older, the toxic shock
killed them in short order. You, Mr. Sachs, were lucky to get the
attention you did. Dr. Hibbard’s decision to pump you full of
antibiotics saved your life. For still to be determined reasons,
the antibiotics inhibited the growth of the substance.
Unfortunately, it couldn’t undo the damage or drive the infection
out. All it could do was stabilize the situation. The chemo
however, did the job, and it kept this Zeisler you mentioned from
coming down with it at all. His bout with cancer and chemo may have
killed the substance that was residing in the others.”

“It might be something else,” Perry said.
“Somehow these biotronic flakes communicated. It was the only way
they could orchestrate themselves to make changes, take on new
appearances, and all of it in keeping with the goal. It’s possible
that the entity we think of as a base realized it was killing the
very people it was trying to draw to itself.”

“What I don’t understand,” Carl said, “is how
something that happened in Nevada could affect people in Seattle,
San Diego, and Kingman.”

“I’ll take a crack at that,” Gleason said,
“but you’re going to find it all hard to believe.”

“Everything about this is hard to believe,”
Jack remarked.

“I’ve been chewing on this since we left the
mountain, and the answer I can come up with is rooted in quantum
mechanics.”

“Uh-oh,” Janet said. “I think my ignorance is
about to show.”

“Quantum mechanics,” Gleason said, “deals
with physics at a scale smaller than an atom. At such small scales,
the normal laws of physics no longer apply. Weird things happen
that seem impossible and illogical.”

“Such as?” Henry asked.

“Such as being unable to simultaneously
determine a particle’s place and momentum. You can do one, but not
the other.”

“That makes no sense,” Carl said.

“Such is the world of quantum studies.”

“How does that relate to Carl’s questions?”
Perry inquired. “And spare us the math.”

“Okay, here goes,” Gleason said. “There is a
great deal of research being done in what is often called
‘entangled quantum systems.’ Reduced to its most basic level it
says this: Particles that interacted in the past are entangled so
that an action taken on one particle brings about an action on
another particle, even if they are separated by great distance. In
other words, if I have a subatomic particle in my hand and I give
it a good spin, its entangle partner in New York would spin in an
observable way—instantaneously.”

Henry cleared his throat. “So you’re saying
that the material that was in me and the others was tied,
entangled, to the material in the cavern.”

“That’s right,” Gleason said. “Zeisler told
us how you were each covered with dust after the light spread
through the room. Then your ghostly clones appeared. I’m guessing
that some of that material was inhaled or absorbed through the
skin. When the base realized it was dying, it sent out a call for
help. Even though you were hundreds of miles away, the particle in
you heard the cry and became active. Good for them; bad for
you.”

Jack scratched his chin. “If all that’s true,
instantaneous communication could occur over great distance, even
around the world.”

“Or across galaxies,” Gleason said. “While
there has been some experimentation on entanglement theory, it’s
far from being an open-and-shut case. If it is true, however, it
could explain what we’ve experienced. And it would explain how
acres of dormant material could change shape to create jungles,
deserts, and everything else we saw.”

“But who built it?” Janet asked. “If the U.S.
didn’t, then who?”

Henry leaned forward. “We knew very soon
after we entered that no country on earth could build such a
system. Remember, computers were relatively new in 1974. Not
unheard of, but they were nothing like what we see today. The idea
of a self-controlled system was beyond us.”

“You’re not suggesting aliens from some
distant planet built that thing,” Carl said.

Henry shook his head. Perry could see his
father was growing weary. “The truth is stranger than that,” Perry
said. “You remember those terms Zeisler told us about? How the
McDermott thing kept saying that Zeisler’s team did not fit?”

“Yeah,” Janet said. “You had your handheld
computer and a Bible program. You were looking up the words.”

“I’ve been working on that. Here’s what I’ve
come up with.” Perry pulled a file folder from the computer bag.
“The foreign terms used were keroob, kahee, Mishmar, and ophawn. We
established a possible link to Old Testament Hebrew terms. Kahee is
similar to the Hebrew of ‘living one,’ or ‘living being.’ They
appear in the book of Ezekiel, chapters one and ten. In chapter one
they are called ‘living beings,’ in chapter ten they are identified
as ‘cherubim.’ ”

“Baby angels?” Janet said.

Perry shook his head. “That image is from
Renaissance paintings. The biblical description always shows them
as majestic and powerful.”

“And odd,” Jack said. “Four faces, hoofed
feet.”

“But in other passages they appear
different,” Perry said. “It’s as if they change for each vision.
Keroob is similar to the Hebrew word for cherub. You’ll remember
that we learned that ophawn meant ‘wheel,’ and wheels are often
associated with these creatures. The disks we saw might be
considered a wheel. They were round and spun.”

“And Mishmar meant ‘ward or prison,’ right?”
Jack said.

“I’ve looked it up a dozen different ways.
Mishmar can mean a place of confinement or a place to stay.”

“So, when we were told we didn’t fit,” Henry
began, “we were being told that we were the wrong kind of life.
That the place was made for a race of beings unlike us.”

“Yes,” Perry said. “Thirty years ago, Dad,
you were standing in something made for life forms vastly different
than us.”

“Time-out,” Carl said. “I thought angels
lived in heaven.”

“The word angel is a catchall term. Cherubim
are created beings just like humans.”

“And they lived underground?” Dr. Nishizaki
asked.

“No.” Perry was feeling frustrated. “Let me
read something to you. This is from Isaiah 14:12–15.” Perry pulled
a paper from the folder and read, “ ‘How you have fallen from
heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut
down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said
in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne
above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in
the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you
will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.”

“Sheol?” Carl said. “What is a Sheol?”

“It’s another Hebrew term,” Perry explained.
“Sometimes translators render it as ‘the pit,’ or ‘the grave,’ or
it could refer to the place where the souls of dead were held. When
the Hebrew was translated into the Greek, the word Sheol became
Hades.”

Janet leaned over the table. “Are you saying
we were walking through hell?”

“No, I’m not,” Perry said. “Hades and hell
are not the same place. Hell is a place of future punishment.”

“So this Isaiah passage is saying what?” Carl
asked.

“That Satan was cast from heaven and with him
were his followers.” Perry read another passage. “This is from
Revelation 12:9—‘And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent
of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown
down with him.’ Ezekiel 28 refers to Satan as a cherub. That got me
thinking.”

“Thinking what? That we were in the devil’s
own home?” Carl said.

“No, but Satan wasn’t the only one cast from
heaven. Where did they all go? In the first chapter of Job, God
asks Satan—” Perry consulted the paper again. “ ‘From where do you
come?’ Then Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From roaming about
on the earth and walking around on it.’ ”

He looked up. “I’ve always been puzzled by
Bible verses that had the phrase ‘under the earth’ in them. There
are five of them in the Bible. For example, Moses wrote in
Deuteronomy 5:8, You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any
likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in
the water under the earth. Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi,
‘Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ I might as well
include what John wrote in Revelations 5:3, ‘And no one in heaven,
or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or
to look into it.’ There’s a similar passage ten verses later.”

“If you’re right,” Gleason asked, “where are
these captive angels now?”

Perry looked back down at the paper.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I may be all wet, but it’s the only
conclusion I can draw from the information we have. Maybe they were
there, but we couldn’t interact with them. Everything changed at
the cross and the resurrection; maybe something changed for them.
Second Peter and Jude speak of a place called Tartarus, usually
translated as ‘hell,’ but it is clearly a different place.”

He folded the paper and put it back in the
folder.

“Thirty years ago,” Henry said, “I asked the
same questions. I asked them after we were escorted out of the
chamber. I asked them when the government decided the base was too
dangerous to leave unattended and chose to cover it with a
lake-size reservoir created by a dam I helped design. I put in
another access, hoping that someday I could return.” He lowered his
head and rubbed his scalp at the hairline. Sitting up was wearing
him out. A few days ago, he had hovered near death, and that
struggle had left him frail.

“What conclusion did you draw, Dad?” Perry
asked.

“The same as you, but I couldn’t get the
pieces to fit. Now the place is destroyed, and lives have been
lost.” Henry Sachs sighed. “Over the years I’ve comforted myself
with the words, ‘ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.’ ”

“Isaiah 55:8, isn’t it?” Perry said.

“Yes. God isn’t required to reveal everything
to us.”

“I hate to bring this up,” Carl said, “but
just to complete the picture, I think I should let you know that
five bodies have been recovered from the sight. The military has
closed off the area and is stating that the area is part of Nellis
Air Force Base, even though the base is a good ways south of
there.”

“How did you find out about the bodies?” Jack
asked. “I mean, since your . . . since . . .”

“Since I was fired.”

“We
were fired,”
Janet said.

“Right,” Carl said. “I still have a few
friends on the force. Five bodies were checked into the local
morgue. One was identified as Matthew Barrett of Las Vegas, another
as Victor Zeisler of Carson City. The other three were never
identified, although we know who they were.”

“Well, we know the names they gave. All of
that may have been lies.” Janet frowned.

“Rumor has it that a giant sinkhole opened
and lowered the level of the reservoir. It was a lot more than a
little lower.”

“I’m tired,” Henry said.

“I’ll take you back to your room, Dad.” Perry
stood and took his place behind the wheelchair. Anna joined them.
As he pulled the wheelchair back from the table, his father stopped
him.

“Wait,” Henry said. He looked at Carl and
Janet. “We always have need for additional security at our
buildings and work sites. I could use a couple of good supervisors.
The jobs are yours if you want them. It may involve some
travel.”

“After the honeymoon?” Janet said.

Henry nodded. “My son will take care of
things. Give him a call when you get back.”

Perry delivered his father to his hospital
bed and sat with him until he fell asleep. His mother dozed in the
hospital chair. Perry walked to the window and stared into a bright
Seattle sky.

It was hard having more questions than
answers.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

The novelist is an
explorer by nature
, but whereas other explorers travel by
boat, plane, or foot, novelists travel by imagination. In every
work of fiction, the writer sets out with a what-if question, and
then follows it through its twists and turns, often surprised where
the destination ends. That is true with the Perry Sachs series.
Over the last three books, I have attempted to wonder as much as
wander. Through Perry, Jack, and Gleason, I set out to see what
might happen if the unexpected and inexplicable invades a life.