Mindguard (26 page)

“Are you going
to back away now?” said the demon Sheldon.

“Sheldon?”

This was another
voice. It could be the voice of Sophie, forced to stop when their march ended
so abruptly. Or it could be another figment of his imagination. At this point,
Sheldon didn’t even care.

“Sheldon, why
did we stop?”

“Are you going
to back away now?” the other Sheldon repeated.

Sheldon stared
down his imaginary opponent and advanced forward, slowly, only to defy. The
demon Sheldon backed away and the real Sheldon felt a strange sense of victory.
He thought he heard a faint voice call out his name from behind, but it didn’t
matter. What mattered was that he was advancing and the other Sheldon was
backing away, disappearing behind the trees. Only his voice could still be
heard. 

“You may as well
fear them, as they fear you!”

As the demon’s
last words still hung in the air, Sheldon reached the trees behind which the
hallucination had vanished. In the darkness, he could not see that the forest
ended abruptly, as did the earth beneath his feet. He fell off the precipice so
suddenly he did not even have time to grasp at the air. The last thing he heard
was a distant voice calling out his name.

Whenever he was in
the mood for an argument, my father would always taunt my stepmother saying
‘God invented religion and entertainment for the same purpose: to distract us,
 to make sure mankind doesn’t evolve too quickly. He was afraid we’d catch
up with Him.’

Tamisa Faber,
The
Minds that shaped Me, an Autobiography

He was there one
second and gone the next. Sophie froze in place, not knowing what to do. After
leaving Ross, Sheldon had become very quiet. It was understandable. She didn’t
want to say or do anything that would break his concentration. Surely, he was
trying to figure out a solution to their situation. Their mission now depended
solely on him. So she just walked onward, letting him take the lead, keeping
her gaze firmly fixed on the ground, because everything around her was
terrifying. The woods, the darkness, the ominous murmur of the trees. The
slowly rising fog.

From time to
time, she looked at Sheldon. His fists were balled up and his jaw clenched, as
if preparing for a physical confrontation. Sophie wished she knew what was
going on in his mind, but she had a sneaking suspicion that, even if she could
somehow penetrate his thoughts, she would probably not understand much. Then he
stopped. It wasn’t a sudden, instinctual stop. He stopped as if he had reached
a destination… or a decision.

He turned around
and looked to his left, as if he had seen something. She called out his name
but got no answer. He kept slowly moving in that direction and was about to
disappear into the darkness behind the trees. At the last second, she heard the
sound of gravel sliding underfoot. Then, he abruptly vanished from sight. 

She called out
his name again but to no avail. There was no question about it, he had fallen
off a cliff. She cautiously hurried to the place where Sheldon had been just a
few seconds ago. She reached the cliff and almost fell off herself, but she
hung on to a tree. She could hear the water underneath; a mountain river.

Sheldon had
vanished completely, concealed by the darkness, the water and his black
uniform. She took a step back, trying to collect herself, but there was little
time. If the water flowed rapidly, it could carry Sheldon too far away, out of
her reach forever. Why wasn’t he swimming? Could it be that Sheldon Ayers, the
world’s greatest mindguard and probably the most intelligent man alive, couldn’t
swim? There was no time to waste. She swept the surface of the water with her
flashlight, but there was no sign of him. That meant the water was deep enough
for him to have sunk. Sophie leapt off the edge of the cliff and into a water
that was ice cold.

She sunk to a
considerable depth. It took her a few moments to regain her sense of balance
and swim up. The second she got her head out of the water, she called Sheldon’s
name. Again, she received no answer. An experienced swimmer, Sophie quickly
adjusted to the rhythm of the river. A frightening thought came to mind:
Sheldon - like her - was a prototech. He was also a lot older than she was.
What if his heart had stopped, when his body hit the freezing water? He could
already be dead. That realization sent a chill down Sophie’s spine, to which
neither the cold water nor the fear of plummeting into the unknown had even
come close. 

“Sheldon,” she
screamed at the top of her lungs. She started swimming forward as fast as she
could, hoping to catch up with him. Her body was tired, weak from the stress
and the fear and the strain of the last few days. But she was a capable swimmer
and a very determined person. She could not let Sheldon die. He was her
guardian, her protector, she had to save him!

She had no way
of knowing in which direction to swim, and yet she knew. From the moment she
had called out his name, a strange feeling had taken hold of her. It was the
feeling that she knew exactly where Sheldon was, as if their bodies were at
opposing ends of an unseen rope. All she had to do was follow that rope. She
swam for a few more minutes and then dove into the water, at a specific
location. She couldn’t see anything underwater and yet she knew that he was
there. She stretched out her arms and found his. His hands grabbed tightly onto
hers. He was alive!

At that moment,
though she was in mortal danger, underneath the surface of an alien river and
surrounded by an alien darkness, Sophie felt a happiness that she had never
known before. She grabbed him from behind, intending to place both her arms
around his torso and pull him to safety, but she couldn’t reach around him. She
had forgotten that he was wearing the heavy backpack which contained the
portable gateway generator; he must have sunk like a rock.

She grabbed the
backpack instead and started swimming upwards. Meanwhile, Sheldon remained
incredibly calm. He started paddling with his legs, helping her guide them both
towards the surface. He knew exactly what to do and didn’t despair. Even in the
face of mortal danger, Sheldon remained true to himself - pragmatic, composed
and calculated. Sophie swam until she reached blissful air and then helped
Sheldon get his head above water. He gasped for air and coughed, but
immediately lost his strength and sunk again. Again, she helped him up.

On her back, she
started paddling towards shore, pulling Sheldon’s body with her. He never
panicked, his movements were intuitive. Their bodies reacted as one. For a
moment, Sophie wondered if she was actually pulling Sheldon to safety or if
Sheldon was the one pushing both their bodies, using her swimming skills, as if
she were only a machine and he the driver. They reached the cliff on the
opposite side from where they had fallen, but it was too high and too steep to
climb up. They both grabbed onto branches and rested for a few moments. 

“Why the hell
did you jump off the cliff? Are you insane?” Sophie snapped, when she finally
caught her breath. Sheldon looked down at the water, as if it were the first
time he even realized that he was in a river.

“Well?” Still no
answer. “You’ were supposed to protect me, damn it! You almost got me killed!”

Instead of
replying, he looked up. He seemed to be trying to evaluate if there was any
chance to climb to safety. They couldn’t see the edge because of the darkness;
both their flashlights had been claimed by the river.

“I can’t tell,
but it’s tall,” Sophie said, predicting his thoughts. “There doesn’t seem to be
any way to climb up.”

Sheldon didn’t
seem to notice that she was even talking to him. He just continued looking up
as she spoke.

“I don’t know
how much longer I can swim with you hanging on to me. I can’t see a damned
thing. Sheldon, are you paying attention? Damn it, Sheldon!”

She felt him
tell her to be quiet. She didn’t hear him speak the words, but she felt their
message. She heard voices coming from above. People were speaking to each other
increasingly louder. They had probably heard her and Sheldon talking and were
coming to see what was going on. This could be their rescue. She wanted to ask
for help but, without speaking , Sheldon was telling her not to.

She heard
someone call out to them, before a flashlight illuminated them both just enough
for her to see the tension on Sheldon’s face. She understood immediately that
these men would not be their saviors.

A rope was
thrown to them, landing exactly between their bodies. Thrown with expert
precision. She hesitated briefly and the voice said something. It sounded
insistent. She looked at Sheldon for guidance but he had a blank expression.
She grabbed on to the rope, there was nothing else to do. If they remained in
the water, there was a good chance they would drown. If these men were indeed
dangerous, then they might just shoot and kill them as they attempted to swim
away. There was no choice in the matter.

She tied the
rope around her midsection and then handed it over to Sheldon, who did the
same. Very strong arms pulled them up, as easily as if they had been a crate of
illegal merchandise. When she felt ground beneath her feet, she fell to her
knees. Someone helped her up.  Sheldon was next and, when he stood up, the
man who had helped him pulled out a knife from a holster at his belt.

To Sophie’s
horror, he pushed the blade into Sheldon’s gut. The mindguard let out a short
scream and fell to the ground, using his hand to try to stave off the blood
gushing from his wound. There were many men there, over a dozen. Their eyes all
turned to Sophie.

It is no secret
that, towards the end of his life, my husband became completely disillusioned
with the way his work has affected the world. His discovery of the human
brain’s ability for telepathic communication and his subsequent studies in this
field, had been intended as a way to bridge together minds, to create more
empathy between human beings. He wanted to shape a future in which
self-destruction would no longer be humanity’s greatest threat. Whitman Caine
gave the world the greatest gift it has ever received: a tool for eternal
peace. That is his legacy, one that can never be contested. The fact that his
gift was turned into the most dangerous weapon of all, that it lay at the root
of the most horrid crimes and the greatest war there ever existed, is a
terrible tragedy. The responsibility for this and the shame that comes with it,
belong entirely to the rest of the world.

Professor Carly
Caine, at the one year anniversary of the death and integration into the Human
Knowledge Archives of Doctor Whitman Caine, 2065

In the face of
life-threatening danger, some people have the instinctive reaction to flee,
while others stand their ground and welcome the fight. The rest just freeze in
place, unsure of what do to. Sophie was disappointed to discover that she
belonged to the third group and not the second.

Sheldon was
down, perhaps mortally wounded, but he was not dead yet. She could still feel
his mind protecting hers. She looked around and saw a campfire, whose light
revealed a wooden building in the distance. A small shed. The men were clearly
desert dwellers, probably waiting for a shipment of black market merchandise.
The one who stabbed Sheldon looked at her with piercing blue eyes and then said
something in his native language. When she didn’t answer, he came over and
slapped her across the face so hard, it sent her crashing to the ground. He
shouted something to the other men and then pinned her down by placing his boot
on her head. From that position, Sophie saw another man hurrying inside the
small shack, probably to get something. She did not want to find out what that
something was.

This was the
end, they were both going to die. She felt it as clearly as she could feel her
racing heart.  “I’m sorry,” she cried out to Sheldon, as if
she
were the one who should have protected
him
. The man who rested his foot
on her head studied her very carefully, his icy stare absorbing every detail of
her face. She soon understood why. He was trying to read her thoughts. His mind
was seeping inside hers, like sewage down a drain. It felt horrible, like being
infected with a disease. She felt his thoughts, knew his horrible secrets. She
started crying.

Suddenly, the
man’s mind retreated, like storm clouds being cast away by the soothing sun.
She was surrounded by a pleasant numbness, not unlike the feeling of waking
from a deep sleep and wanting to remain in bed for just a little while longer.
She felt safe. Her mind hadn’t been so calm since she had been a child. She
knew that the man could no longer harm her. She wasn’t sure how, but she
knew
.

Then she
understood: the Weixman Cube - Sheldon was protecting her. The feeling of
comfort was Sheldon, the manifestation of his mind surrounding hers, guarding
it from intrusion. Even as he was dying, he was keeping her safe. She felt so
grateful that her thoughts would remain her own, that the horrible men could no
longer lay claim to everything she had ever experienced and everyone she had
ever loved.

She also
realized that, while her mind may be safe, her body was not. They were still
going to kill them, but the thought no longer bothered her. She welcomed it.
Her only hope was that she would die before Sheldon, so that she might die
protected.

As he was
fighting to invade her and failing, the man’s face contorted into the most
unpleasant grimace. He looked at Sheldon and yelled out an order to a member of
his crew, a man who appeared  very young, except for his hair, which was
completely white. They must have figured out that Sheldon was the reason they
couldn’t read her thoughts. The snowy-haired man pulled out a knife of his own
and looked ready to strike the fallen mindguard. Instead, he took the blade to
his own throat and slowly slit it, his blood gushing over Sheldon’s face. As
the other men looked on in shock, the man with the hole in his throat wheezed
his last words and fell to the ground dead.

There was
agitation among the men. They ran around left and right, not really knowing
what to do. Even the man who had slapped Sophie, who appeared to be their
leader, took his boot off her face and looked at his fallen comrade, stunned.
Sheldon struggled to his feet, his left hand placed over his bleeding wound,
and began to stare down the man who had stabbed him.

The blue-eyed
man yelled something at Sheldon and the mindguard responded in the man’s own
language. Under his terrified gaze, Sheldon’s wound healed and closed up
entirely. The leader of the desert dwellers started breathing heavily, as if
being choked. His eyes grew wide, and Sophie could not tell if that was because
he was choking, or from the shock of seeing Sheldon instantly heal from a
mortal wound.  She had the strange feeling of finding herself in a bizarre
nightmare. Perhaps she had died in the water and this was the mythical hell
many religions spoke of.

If it was indeed
hell, then Sheldon was its ruler. His eyes started glowing fiery red as the
blue-eyed man fell to his knees holding his throat, strangled by an unseen
hand. His eyes started bulging out and his skin turned purple. Every vein on
his head and his hands was visible, creating a sinister map of his blood
circulation. Sophie had no idea what was happening to him, but it seemed to
come from the satanic creature that had possessed Sheldon Ayers. She screamed
when blood started gushing out of the man’s ears, eyes and nose. When he
finally succumbed to death, Sheldon grinned. His teeth were not those of a man,
but of a beast - as sharp as the knife that had only minutes ago been thrust
through his abdomen.

Sophie backed
away screaming. Yet, even in her sheer terror, she could still feel a remnant
of that pleasant numbness in her mind. Sheldon turned his glowing eyes to the
other men and they each had different reactions: some fell to their knees
yelling something - most likely prayers - in their native language, others
tried to come at Sheldon with knives and torches. One of them, however, turned
around and started attacking his colleagues instead, stabbing them over and
over again. All the while, he looked like he could not believe what he was
doing. Sophie was sure that Sheldon was actually doing it for him. After
killing his friend, the man turned the knife on himself. The other men cursed
and yelled as best they could but Sheldon remained characteristically
emotionless.

Then he did
something completely out of character: he produced a pair of enormous,
leathery, bat-like wings that ripped straight through the black jacket of his
uniform. His skin turned into something that looked like tree bark. He tilted
his head back and produced a thundering roar that had nature herself trembling.
The remaining men started choking and quickly succumbed in the same way as
their blue-eyed leader.

Sophie was
certain that she was going insane. She placed her hands over her eyes and
waited out her fate. She waited for a very long time, until she realized that
there was silence. She opened her eyes and it was like waking from a dream. She
felt different, like a veil had been lifted from in front of her.

The campfire lit
up a gruesome scene: dead bodies everywhere, covered in so much blood. Sheldon
was on the ground again, holding his bleeding wound. Gone was the winged
creature. In its place was the very human, very dying Sheldon. In an instant,
Sophie realized what had happened.

He broke the
Weixman Barrier!

“You… you were
in my head…” she whispered slowly. 

Sheldon tried to
stand. The second he did, he lost his balance and fell on his back. He was
ghostly pale. Sophie felt the Weixman Cube weakening, until she could feel it
no more. Sheldon was dying.

“No,” she
screamed and ran to him. She put his head in her lap and brushed away a few
strands of hair from his face. He was still awake, but quickly fading. Sophie
felt helpless; the feeling was overwhelming.

“Don’t… don’t
leave me alone… Sheldon please…”

“Sophie…” His
voice was faint.

“Sheldon, don’t
die, please! Sheldon…please…”

“Sophie,” he
repeated and looked into her eyes. His gaze was not one of goodbye, but
accusation.

“I know about
the mission. I know about
Opus Caine
.”