Journey Into the Flame (37 page)

Andrea has instructed me to stop working on Project Ryōshin. She told me it will no longer be needed and my efforts in this area are no longer authorized.

“After everything I did for—” Monique stopped herself. But Valerie could see she was trembling, and tears were welling in her eyes.

Valerie knew she had broken her. She shut down the projection and spoke softly. “The doctor was also making a serum for you, wasn’t he?”

“It was for my father. Andrea and Simon promised to help him.” The tears now flowed freely.

Alex gave her a handkerchief from his coat pocket. “What does
ryōshin
mean?” asked Alex, struggling to say the word correctly.

“It means ‘parents,’ ” Monique answered. “They said I only had to do a few things. If I helped them, the doctor was going to create a medicine that would cure my father of Alzheimer’s.” Monique paused, shaking her head in disbelief. “They lied to me. They’ve been lying all along.”

“I’m afraid so, Monique. There is nothing honorable about these people. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.” Valerie paused, giving her words time to sink in. Then she continued in a compassionate tone. “How long have you been working for Simon and Andrea?”

“Two years,” Monique replied. “At first, they just wanted information about what the Council was up to and any information about their activities and plans. They paid for all my father’s medical bills; they paid the hospital in Tokyo directly.”

“Are the five large deposits to your bank account from Simon and Andrea?” Alex asked. She didn’t answer. “Well, are they? Yes or no?” Alex asked. Still she didn’t answer.

“Tell me about the Council murders,” Valerie said. Monique continued to remain silent. “If you want our help and protection, you have to tell us everything.”

“I received a call from Simon a week before the auction,” Monique reluctantly explained. “He told me not to pass on to Cynthia any information about the upcoming sale of the
Chronicles
. I was to make sure she didn’t know the books were being sold. The auction house tried to contact her at the office, but I didn’t relay the messages. Everything was going according to plan, but then—” She stopped.

“But, then what?” Valerie urged her on.

Monique took a deep breath and continued. “Another Council member got wind of the auction and told Cynthia about it. That happened on the same night as the World Federation of Reconstruction banquet. I made Simon aware of the situation, and then he gave me instructions.” Monique wiped away some more tears from her eyes. “I was to take the EMFE and activate it in the basement of the Council building. He told me about a secret tunnel that would get me into the building without anyone knowing.”

“What’s an EMFE?” Alex asked.

“I heard them use the name Electromagnetic Frequency Emitter, EMFE for short. I don’t know much about it,” Monique said. “It’s some kind of advanced weapon that they kept locked up at the plantation house. One of Simon’s men brought the device to me outside the office that night. I used the tunnel to enter the basement while the auction was going on.”

“Why did he ask you to do that?” Alex asked. “Why didn’t he have one of their men plant the device?”

“That’s easy to answer,” Valerie interjected. “Once Monique helped to kill the Council members, she would be in it up to her ears. There would be no way out.”

Monique looked startled, as if she had never thought about it like that. “I set the device on a table, and I had to pass a small coil through a hole that I made in the basement ceiling and the meeting-room floor.”

“How did you drill a hole without the Council members hearing?” Alex asked.

“They gave me a pen laser,” Monique said. “It was easy to use.”

“That explains the tiny hole we found in the ceiling,” Valerie said to Alex. She turned back to Monique. “What’d you do next?”

“Once I passed the coil through the hole, I put on a pair of dark glasses to protect my eyes from the blast of light, and I turned on the device. I was told the device would get really hot, but once a green light flashed, I should turn it off and pack it up and leave the building. Which is what I did.”

“That explains the green flash I saw on the videos and the burn mark on the table in the basement,” Valerie said. “What happened after that?”

“I went back to the WFR banquet and mingled the rest of the night.”

“What happened after I saw you leave the plantation house with Andrea last night?” Valerie asked.

Monique explained how their departure plans suddenly changed after the incident there. She told them about the mysterious men who forged new identification glasses for them, the woman named Gretchen who guided them through airport security, and her escape from the restroom, which led to her eventual capture.

“Let’s go through the video at the airport and see if we can get an ID on this Gretchen woman,” Valerie said to Alex. Then, to Monique, “What does the EMFE device look like? Where’s that device now?”

“It is about the size of a small dinner plate and about four centimeters thick. It’s not very heavy, about one kilogram. They keep it somewhere in the house at the plantation. You should be able to find it there.”

“That’s going to be tough since the house was blown up,” Valerie said. “But you know that.”

“We’re still combing through the rubble,” Alex said. “Where in the house did they keep it?”

“I want protection, and I want a deal,” Monique said vehemently.
“If I tell you where the device is, you need to ensure my safety and help me get back to Japan.”

The clock was ticking. Freedom Day was now less than forty-seven hours away.

“Fine,” Valerie snapped. “First, you tell us where the device is and sign an agreement to testify against Simon and Andrea when we apprehend them. After that, we’ll see about sending you back to Japan.” When Monique remained silent, Valerie looked directly into her eyes. “Monique, this is the best deal you’re gonna get.”

Monique nodded. “But I want signed paperwork now.”

“Signed paperwork?” Valerie said, annoyed, as she turned to Alex. He looked ready to throttle Monique. “All right, we’ll take you to the plantation, and you show us exactly where the device was stored. I’ll have the paperwork brought there.” She stood and gave Alex instructions. “Get a team together, and take her to the car. I’ll meet you outside in ten, and we’ll head to the plantation. First, I need to run upstairs and clear things with Burke.”

“There’s one more thing,” Monique said. Valerie stopped in the doorway and turned around. “Andrea and Simon gave me green pills to take before I activated the device in the basement.”

Valerie exchanged a glance with Alex and left the interrogation room.

•  •  •

A shot rang out just as Valerie exited the WCF offices. Instinctively, she hit the ground and took cover behind one of the structural columns at the front of the building. She peered around the column and saw Alex and two agents drag Monique behind the unmarked armored WCF vehicle they were taking to the plantation, while the other agents provided cover. Valerie drew her weapon and rushed over to assist Alex, who was kneeling beside Monique, attempting to stop the blood that was flowing from her chest as she struggled to breathe.

“Stay with us,” Valerie said. “Help is on the way.”

Monique shook her head. “Fireplace,” she said between strained breaths. “Fireplace.” They were the last words she ever uttered.

Valerie’s hands and shirt were covered in blood. Helmeted WCF agents with rifles and automatic weapons were fanning out around the building, cordoning off the street, and running into the surrounding buildings. The sound of an ambulance siren grew louder by the second, but it was too late.

Valerie stood up and called an agent over. “Get down to the plantation, and search all the locations where a fireplace could have been.”

“What are we looking for?” he asked.

“Anything that doesn’t look like it belongs in a fireplace,” Valerie said in a sarcastic, frustrated voice.

•  •  •

A man hopped into the backseat of a black van that was parked around the corner from the WCF offices.

“Is it done?” Randolph Fenquist asked.

“Yes,” the man said, running his fingers along the scar on his face. He set the high-powered rifle between them.

Fenquist lit a cigarette. “You know, Jimmy,” he said, “we saved everybody from a lot of hassles today. That girl was causing nothing but problems.”

“Well, she’s at heaven’s gate now,” Jimmy said. “I hope her sins don’t keep her from gettin’ in.”

Both he and Randolph smiled as the van screeched away.

45

Enlightenment is not what you think it is; but you have to be enlightened to know that.

Such is the dilemma of all master teachers.

—THE CHRONICLES OF SATRAYA

WASHINGTON, D.C., 10:00 P.M. LOCAL TIME,

44 HOURS UNTIL LIBERTY MOMENT

Logan now knew the piece of information that his father had used all those years ago to force Fendral and Andrea to disassociate themselves from the Satraya movement and return to Europe. He took his father’s handwritten pages and the cigar case and put them into the tin box. He wondered if Simon, who had only been thirteen at the time, knew of his own father’s despicable deed and, more important, if this information could somehow help to derail the mysterious attack he and Andrea were planning to launch on Freedom Day. Perhaps, as happened years ago, if Simon were threatened with this story going public, he would be inclined to back down. But so much time had passed. Would anyone even care anymore that Fendral Hitchlords had been an impostor? That Giovanni Rast had found the set of the
Chronicles
known as the Train Set and in all likelihood had been robbed and murdered by Fendral?

Logan rose from the sofa and started pacing the room; it helped keep him from falling asleep. He wanted to stay awake until Valerie returned from her interrogation of Monique. His thoughts went to Mr. Perrot,
who was halfway around the world, working to thwart Simon’s quest, and to his parents, who had risked everything to confront Fendral with his lie. He continued to pace. He needed to do something, anything, that would help stop Simon and Andrea. He remembered something that his mother told him when he was young: “Evil is not stopped by good intentions; it is stopped by fearless action.” He stopped pacing. It was time to be fearless. Time to take action. He knew what he should do. He took the blue candle out of the tin box and put it in the candle holder. Then he placed it on the coffee table and sat down on the floor half a meter away. He refused to think about his failed attempt at the plantation.

The room was dark except for the flame of the candle. He struggled to stay awake and focus on the flame. His eyes wanted to close, his body wanted to fall asleep, and he had to shake his head whenever he felt himself drifting off. But just as at the plantation, he still could not hear the ringing sound. His apprehension intensified, and doubt overtook him. Disappointed, he closed his eyes for a moment.

•  •  •

How it happened, he didn’t know, but Logan found himself back in the old study. The desk stood before him, and the written notes were all stacked in neat piles as they had been during his last sojourn.
How is this possible?
He hadn’t even been able to keep his eyes open, let alone focus on the flame.

“You are here because you had no expectation of arriving,” an echoing male voice said.

He turned around and saw the dark silhouette of a man sitting in a chair. He was wearing a long, flowing robe and seemed to be in a faint vortex of bluish energy which distorted his face.

“Your failure at the plantation was a result of your arrogance,” the man said, raising his right hand and pointing his finger at Logan. There was a golden ring on his finger. “That is the downfall of all men on this journey. You cannot come to this place or any other in this realm
if you presuppose your entitlement to be here. This is a place of sincerity, of humbleness. This realm is not subject to the conditions of right and wrong or good and bad. Did not a great master once say you must humble yourself as a child?”

“I understand,” Logan responded sheepishly. He took a seat in a chair that suddenly appeared, facing the shadowed figure. “Who are you? Are you my father’s friend Baté?” The shadow did not answer. Logan thought for a moment about his next question. “Is everything that I see in the candle true?”

“Whatever you see here is a possibility in your reality,” the shadow replied.

“So what determines if it will happen?”

“What are revealed to you are your potentials. Some are based on your desires; others are rooted in your fears. Whatever you see that frightens you is not certain to come to pass, just as it is with what you see that brings you comfort. All is subject to change. Your fears, your uncertainties, your doubts—all are intermingled with those of everyone around you. If a single person changes his or her mind, the destiny of all will change. Everyone’s thoughts are like great waves upon the ocean interfering with one another. Change the waves, and you will change how they crash upon the shores of your reality.”

Logan pondered the shadow’s cryptic words. Even after some moments, they still didn’t make sense to him. “We need your help,” Logan said. “The world is facing a great threat.”

“Change the waves in your life, and you can change how they crash.” The shadow stood and gave Logan a bow. “It is time for you to leave this place. Your life is beckoning you. But remember this: when the finger of the unknown presents itself, be greater than Adam, and grasp its opportunity.”

Logan did not want to leave. There was something eerie yet empowering about the place. With the gesture of the shadow’s hand, Logan’s chair suddenly disappeared. He was about to hit the floor when he suddenly found himself in a dimly lit room filled with large floral
arrangements. People were talking in hushed tones, and no one seemed to notice that he had arrived. He saw Mr. Perrot, Sylvia, Luke, and many others he had recently met, sitting in rows of chairs. On a platform, he saw an open casket. Near it, he saw Charlie. He was looking down into the casket, tears running down his burned and charred face.