Surfacing the Rim (Piercing The Fold) (9 page)

My vision started to blur, and my eyes became heavy. I finally gave in to their intense weight, letting my eyes close.

I could still hear their voices. Suddenly, I heard the sounds of the scalpel dropping into a metal pan and a respirator starting up.

Is Corinna on life support?

I heard Michael curse, “Damn it!”

Something was going wrong. I tried to open my eyes. They opened enough to catch brief blurry images of surgeons working closely on her. Clarity and focus came to my vision all of a sudden. I saw an archaic-looking instrument propping open the nape of Corinna’s neck.

Michael’s hands were working slow and meticulously within the opening. “The scar tissue is too thick. I need to cut deeper in order to embed and attach the Copula. Gabriel?”

Gabriel passed Michael another scalpel. The heart rate monitor began beeping rapidly. Michael continued to work.

Gabriel turned to the monitor. “Michael, she is becoming hypertensive. You are cutting too deep. Stop!”

Michael pulled away, running his forearm across his sweating upper lip. He put the scalpel down and grabbed for the set of surgical pliers.

Gabriel grabbed hold of his arm. “Michael! You can’t remove it without killing her! Stop!”

I couldn’t hold his eyes open any longer. I continued to listen to the voices until they became muffled and then silent.

I woke with a metallic taste in his mouth. It was blood. My eyes opened slightly, revealing only a small sliver of light. I quickly closed my eyes as a sharp surge of pain shot through my eyes into my skull. I heard a familiar voice.

“He is waking up, Michael.”

I saw Gabriel hovering over me, then the room became dark again.

I slowly opened my eyes to see only the light of a small lamp on the other side of the room. Everything was blurry. I continued to blink to bring objects into better focus. I saw silhouettes of two people in the room with me.

I tried to move my arms to right myself, but I couldn’t. They were cuffed to a gurney. When I lifted my head to look at the figures again, a sharp pain shot up the back of my neck, spreading over my entire head.

I thought, What have they done to me?

I slowly lowered my head to the pillow. Then, Corinna popped into my mind. I wondered what they had done with her and if she had survived. I slowly shifted my eyes to the other side of the room. The other gurney was vacant.

I tried to move my mouth to speak, but all that came out was a puff of air being released from my dry lips. I tried to moisten them with my tongue.

Sensing my thoughts, Gabriel spoke to me. “She is alive. We deactivated the Dobrian implant since we could not remove it without killing her. We implanted the live Sondian Copula below it.”

My head lolled toward Gabriel’s voice. Once again, the sharp pain made me wince and slow my movement.

Gabriel visibly reacted to my painful look. “Careful. Here, let me get you some medicine for the pain.” Gabriel moved out of my sight.

I heard a man clear his throat. Then he came into my line of sight. It was Michael.

He condescendingly looked at me and said with pity, “Balthazar.”

I groaned angrily, acknowledging Michael’s presence and tone.

Michael put his hands in his pant pockets. He spoke matter-of-factly. “Your Copula has been removed. You are a threat to the fellowship and its future. The board has decided that you are a liability and can no longer be trusted. But, I’m sure you read all about it before you came to save young Corinna.”

My voice cracked as I tried to speak. It came out as a whisper. “Trust? How can you talk to me about trust? You and the others have conspired behind my back and turned our fellowship against everything we have believed in.”

Michael snickered and rocked on his heels. He raised his index finger to me, gesturing to make a point. “No! It was never what we believed in. It was always what you wanted—what you believed in.”

Michael waved his hand back and forth in an attempt to clear the air. “None of that matters now, Balthazar. You will be accompanied back to London where you will be watched. You will have a small medical staff on hand for the first seventy-two hours to monitor your healing.”

Gabriel came back into the room, interrupting Michael briefly. Gabriel had a bottle in hand, and two nurses followed behind him.

Michael acknowledged Gabriel and the nurses, and then he turned back to me. “Gabriel and these two nurses will be with you the entire seventy-two hours. They are armed and will take you down in a heartbeat, so don’t do anything stupid.”

I knew Michael was referring to an attempt at escape or a call for help.

Michael walked to the door of the operating room. He turned to look at me one more time before leaving. “You will be watched, Balthazar. Someone is always watching.”

* * *

I leaned against the back of my chair and looked up at the ceiling, reflecting on what I had just told my father.

I sighed. “I don’t know if it was the first day back on earth or the day after, but I awoke in the middle of the night in a hotel room. I assume Gabriel and the nurses traversed through the wormhole with me to get me here.

My arms were tied down to the bed. I peered through the darkness to find the staff or Gabriel. Gabriel was half-reclined in two chairs that he had pulled together into a makeshift bed. I could hear two female voices outside of the hotel room door. It was the nurse staff.”

I looked down to my father. “You were the first thing that came into my mind. I had to see you, Father. I felt a burning need to ask you for forgiveness. I don’t expect it. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness from you, considering what I have done to humanity. My ignorance and misguided trust has put our fellow man in corrupt hands.”

I tightened his fists on the chair. My face was full of determination. “I won’t let it continue, Father. I would rather die fighting to save humanity than live another day with this guilt hanging over my head.”

Sebastian stood and walked to my side. “I want nothing more than to have you fight at my side.”

The first thing Sebastian and I needed to do was get my physical body back to Onoch Estate and out of London. It would take some crafty maneuvering, but with inside help, it could be done quickly and discreetly.

Within days, I was back at Onoch Estate. I underwent the implantation of the Dobrian Copula. Sebastian was hesitant at first due to how close this procedure was to the removal of my Sondian Copula. It could be life threatening to put my body through too much too soon. Knowing the risk, I insisted that if I weren’t implanted, then I would be a liability.

Sebastian needed to get me up to speed on the events that had culminated over the past few months. A whirlwind of Dobrian medical staff, military staff, physicists, biologists, and government officials briefed Balthazar with intelligence in two days with minimal breaks.

I had Sondian information to disclose to Sebastian as well. I was willing to tell Sebastian anything I knew or had discovered through the Sondian executive files.

In the lab, Sebastian and I scanned and reviewed all the documents, blueprints, and files that covered every available space on the large
worktable. Exhausted, I rubbed my neck. The sutures had been removed, but I could feel the groove of the scar tissue rising off the nape. It was still tender to the touch.

Sebastian stopped sifting through the data for a moment, sensing my exhaustion. “You alright, son?”

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back to stretch a little. “Yes. I can’t believe how much I have let slip through my fingers. It’s like I was living in another reality—the reality that I wanted to believe.”

Sebastian thought for a minute. “It’s very easy to slip away into a personal reality. I did that when your mother passed.” Sebastian leaned forward a bit. “I left you and your brother out of my personal reality, too.”

His last words stopped me in my tracks. I looked at Sebastian, his eyes were sorrowful.

I wanted to take that sorrow away. I said, “Dad, you can’t be perfect.”

Sebastian replied, “No, Balthazar, you can’t be perfect, but you can be present. And, I wasn’t. For that, I am so very sorry. Please forgive me.”

I leaned forward, grabbing my father’s hand in a comforting hold. “I forgive you.”

I sat back slowly and yawned. As I sifted through a few more documents, I questioned Sebastian. “I see the last name Gershon mentioned a few times throughout the recent months. Why does that name sound so familiar to me?”

“Do you remember your Aunt Elisabeth and Uncle Gabriel?”

I thought for a moment. “Vaguely. Did they live with us in Georgia for a little while?”

Sebastian said, “No, they lived with us here at the estate for a short while. Do you remember your cousin Anna?”

I concentrated on the name for a moment, then it came to me. “Anna. Yes, I think so. She was close in age to me and Caleb, right?”

Sebastian nodded. “I never told you why they lived with us.”

I listened eagerly as Sebastian told me about Anna and her abilities, how Sebastian had implanted her, and how it had saved her small body. He explained how Anna’s abilities had surpassed anything he had ever seen. He continued describing her dedication as a guardian. He told me that she had married Ezra Kahn, had a child, and that the child, Jesca Gershon-Sera, had inherited Anna’s abilities and more. Then, Sebastian gave me the data he had collected from Ezra Kahn while Ezra had observed Jesca in the facility.

I sifted through each page carefully. “My God. Telepathy, Lucid Dreaming, Ushering, Premonitions, Astral Projections. This girl must be able to pack a punch. Where’s Anna? Is she helping Ezra train Jesca?”

My head jerked up as I picked up on Sebastian’s sudden silence. “What is it?”

Sebastian hesitated a little. “Anna was close to bringing down the Sondian fellowship. Samson Crest discovered that she was a Dobrian. Balthazar, Sam murdered Anna. I thought you knew. I’m sorry for assuming.”

My jaw dropped a little, then I closed it into a thin line. I shook my head and closed my eyes before I buried my face in my hands. “Michael Sanderson. Of course! This just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn’t it?”

I grabbed the closest stack of files and threw them across the room. “Michael used Transfiguration to shift and pretend to be me. Sam Crest thought he was following my command and killed my cousin!” I shoved back from the table, toppling the chair over behind me.

I paced the floor and looked at Sebastian. He nodded at me, obviously realizing who was pulling the strings in the Sondian fellowship. It was never me. It was Michael Sanderson.

Jesca and Ezra came into my mind. I stopped pacing and asked Sebastian. “Is Jesca with Ezra? Is she safe?”

Sebastian replied, “There was a close call in Miami with Sam Crest, but there has been word that Sam has turned up in Tokyo, Japan. For now, she is safe under Ezra’s guidance and Nathaniel Sera’s protection. Her abilities are powerful, Balthazar. They cross all borders of metaphysical and physical properties. The Sondians, Michael, knows this and will try to kill her before the intersection.”

I crossed his arms and nodded with understanding. “We need to take down Michael and the board. That is the only way we are going to eliminate their threat after the intersection.”

I quickly sat in front of Sebastian. “This unknown force within the Andromeda galaxy that is increasing the pull toward our galaxy— the Sondians caused that.” I hit my chest with my closed fist. “I did that.”

Sebastian raised his voice briefly. “No, Balthazar, you didn’t!”

I yelled back, “But, I am responsible! It was my duty to keep humanity protected, and I went and dropped the ball!”

I ran my hand through my hair. “I left it in someone else’s hands when it should have remained in my own. Under my leadership, Earth and our salvation would not have been jeopardized like this!”

I looked up at Sebastian more determined now. “Michael and the rest of the board demanded the increase of implanted humans to attract these beings from within Andromeda. They were only concerned about the discovery and advances they were commandeering, not the residual effects the beings could have on the human race after they arrive.”

Sebastian nodded. “We are doing all we can to find out more about this force that is drawing us to Andromeda and the beings that are behind it. We cannot do anything about it until then. Right now, we need to focus on keeping the Sondians from enslaving any other humans with their Copula. Then, during the height of the intersection, we need to stop them from opening a wormhole that could unleash a multitude of beings into our world.”

Sebastian stood and began to pace. “Samson Crest is in Tokyo, Japan. We have Siobhan Cronin, Angela Turner, and Isabel Cain tracking him. Siobhan has been listening to the rumors among the Sondians in Japan. The Aokigahara Forest, the Sea of Trees near Mt. Fuji, has been pegged as the site for the wormhole during the intersection.”

I remember details of this location near Mt. Fuji. “The high levels of magnetic iron in Mt. Fuji’s lava overflow give the forest the magnetic interference necessary to make it ideal for a highly charged and volatile wormhole.”