The Faithful (36 page)

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

The next few days were quiet as we waited for Jack to awaken. They were a time of rest, a time of healing, and a time for forming and testing new relationships. It was a perfect pocket of time, one I would later look back on with both gratitude and regret.

They were the last days of
before
, and in my memory they became seared in golden light, the way all good days do once they are gone. It was a perfect moment of stillness, sandwiched between crisis and chaos, and all the more beautiful because of what followed.

We had time to prepare, buying generators, air purifiers, gas masks, and stores of supplies, just in case. We had time to seal the windows and doorframes. We had time to talk, to rehash our experiences and brainstorm about what disaster might be coming. But mainly, we waited. We waited for the boy with the answers to wake from his sleep.

I was grateful, most of all, for the time with my daughter. Over those few days, the ice within her began to thaw, and we started the process of learning about each other. I listened for hours as she told me about her life on The Ranch, and she was equally interested in my life on the Outside. We would never be able to make up for the years we had lost, but a bond was beginning to form nonetheless.

And so, at the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end, I was given this gift. I was given this perfect bubble of time with the flesh of my flesh—a chance to see her perfect beauty and to touch her cinnamon hair, to tuck her between clean blankets and to kiss her sleeping cheek. My heart swelled with the joy of motherhood, even as I feared the coming of tomorrow.

Later, I would be haunted by what-ifs. What if Jack had awoken earlier? What if I had figured out my part in it before Jack had spelled it out for me? What if and what if and what if. What if there had been more time?

Josh found me in the side yard. Ashlyn had gone to Denver with Phoenix to see a movie and buy some clothes at the Walmart. It was her first time going to a movie theater and she was obviously thrilled, not to mention she was going with Phoenix. She would have happily gone dump picking with Phoenix.

I was on the swing bench, rocking gently and watching the clouds roll across the late-fall sky. I was trying not to worry about Ashlyn’s safety, or about the obvious adoration she had for someone who was, well, a
grown
man.

Above the burbling of Soda Creek, I heard the crunch of leaves under his shoes, and turned to watch him approach. We hadn’t had a moment alone since our trip to Safeway. The house was always full, and there was always something to do.

“Come sit,” I invited, patting the cushion next to me.

He sat and we started to swing.

“How are things inside?”

He shrugged. “Sumner is making sloppy joes and singing Springsteen songs at the top of his lungs. He really can’t carry a tune.” I laughed and he continued. “Ora finally convinced Lexy to talk to her, so I thought I’d better give them some privacy.”

“Good. That’s good.”

“How are you doing, Ryanne?”

I shrugged. “Surprisingly well, under the circumstances. Ashlyn is . . .”

“She’s a very smart and lovely girl,” Josh said.

“She is, isn’t she?” I agreed, my heart swelling with a mixture of joy and grief. “It’s strange to go so long not even remembering I have a daughter, and then boom! There she is. And she’s a real person, with her own opinions and desires . . . and everything.” I shook my head. It seemed I was always on the verge of tears.

Josh took my hand, and we spent several minutes swinging in contented silence.

“Is it wrong to feel this . . . peaceful?” he asked. “We have a boy inside the house who is wasting away, a day at a time. I can’t reach his dad. We know something bad is coming down the pike and we’re helpless to stop it unless Jack wakes up.”

“Maybe it’s that whole ‘ignorance is bliss’ thing. Since we don’t know what’s coming, it’s easy to forget that it’s real.”

“Maybe.”

“Did you get ahold of Sheriff Lagrudo?”

“Yesterday. I convinced him to bring my mom here. They should arrive sometime tomorrow.”

“That’s great, Josh.”

“Yeah.” He was watching the sky intently, but I noticed his cheeks were rosy. “But that means I have something I need to take care of. If I don’t want another lecture from her, that is.”

“What is it?”

“And if something happens, well, more than anything I would regret not having this conversation with you.”

“Okay . . .”

“I loved your mom, Ryanne. Not in a romantic way, but I really loved her. She had the ability to eclipse a person. She was somehow larger than life. She was wild and vulnerable. Reckless. But there was something about her that made you want to take care of her, something damaged and . . . weak. Broken.”

He looked at me, his eyes compassionate and sad. “When I first met you, all I could see was Sherry, every time I looked at you. You look so much like her, and your voice is the same, and you have some of her mannerisms, too. Like the way you push your hair back from your forehead. Or that crooked smile when you’re teasing me. Her eyes were brown instead of green, and you’re smaller than she was, but still.

“I promised her I would never stop looking for you. I would keep the investigation alive until I could bring home her baby, one way or another. When she died I vowed that, if I found you, I would take care of you the way she no longer could. But in my mind, you never grew up. I mean, I knew the years had passed. I knew that, if you were alive, you were no longer a child. But I guess I couldn’t picture it. Not until I found you.

“And then, there you were. So similar to her and yet so different. You don’t need anyone to take care of you; you can take care of yourself just fine. You’re strong and smart and funny. You prefer to eat chemicals instead of real food, and you’re totally addicted to caffeine, and you’re stubborn and you don’t listen if you think you know better, and you’re completely frustrating and beautiful and brave. And you’ve eclipsed me.”

“You think . . . I’m beautiful?”

He laughed. “Is that all you’re getting from this?” He turned to me and hesitantly touched my cheek. His fingers were cold but his eyes were warm. “Ryanne, I don’t think I have the words—”

“Hey! There you guys are!” Sumner shouted from the porch. He was waving excitedly, a dish towel tucked into the waistband of his jeans.

“Sumner, can we have a minute?” Josh asked, the frustration evident in his voice. I don’t think Sumner noticed.

“He’s awake! Jack’s awake! And he wants to talk to you, Ryanne!”

“Oh!” I jumped off the swing, making Josh sway alarmingly. “Are you serious?”

“Come on!” Sumner was vigorously waving me forward.

I turned to Josh, who was still sitting on the swing. His expression was unreadable.

“Go on, I’m right behind you.”

“Are you sure? What about—”

“It can wait,” he said, although I suspect we both knew it was a lie.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

Jack was sitting up in bed, his face pale and thin. Ora was trying to interest him in some soup while Lexy stood in the corner nervously wringing her hands. Both women had been crying; they were sporting equally red, puffy eyes.

Jack’s brown eyes fixed on me as soon as I entered the room. His pale hair was stringy and limp, hanging across his forehead in greasy strands.

“They found you.”

“They did,” I said, pulling up a seat beside the bed. “How do you feel?”

He smiled ruefully, exposing crooked teeth and a gap near the back where a baby tooth had recently come out. “I feel like someone hit me over the head with a shovel.”

“Do you have a headache? Would you like an aspirin?” Ora jumped in.

He shook his head. “It’s just a joke.” He turned back to me. “I don’t know your name.”

“I’m Ryanne. And that’s Ora and Lexy. And this is Sumner, and Agent Metcalf. He’s the FBI agent who was looking for you after you . . . disappeared.”

“Josh,” he said gruffly from behind me.

“And there’s also Phoenix, and my daughter Ashlyn, but they’ve gone to see a movie, so they’ll be back later.” I was starting to sound like a rambling idiot, but I couldn’t help myself. I was eager to delay hearing the bad news.

Jack seemed uninterested in the others. His focus was on me.

“Do you know what the White is, Ryanne?”

“You mean the color?”

He shook his head. “That’s okay. It knows you. What day is it?”

“November first,” Josh answered promptly, for which I was grateful. I’d lost track of the days.

“Oh.” The boy’s response was so faint I almost missed it.

“Is that bad?” I asked.

“Well, it’s definitely not good. I don’t know . . .” His gaze had turned inward, and we all watched him silently. “I guess we have to try. Right?”

“Absolutely,” Sumner agreed. “Try what?”

“I don’t really know. It’s not something they teach in school, you know? That’s why I need you,” he said to me.

“I’m here. I’m listening, Jack. Tell me what you know.”

“They think humans are like cockroaches. Using up resources and killing the earth. Do you think that’s true?”

“I guess there’s some truth to that,” I admitted.

“Right, I guess. But they also think psychics are a sub . . . I forget the word.”

“Subspecies,” Ora said quietly.

‘That’s right,” Jack agreed. “They think that they . . . that
we
, are a new or better species. That we’ve evolved from humans . . .”

“It’s called eugenics,” I told him quietly.

“What’s that?” Jack asked.

“It’s why the Nazis exterminated six million Jews,” Josh said darkly.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” I said to Josh. “It’s a concept that was developed by Francis Galton, who was Darwin’s cousin, by the way, in the late 1800s. Governments around the world practiced some form of eugenics. A lot of people were killed, or sterilized. There were forced pregnancies, and, well, you name it. But it was a recognized field of study at universities,
and
a widely accepted practice. It was the atrocities of Nazi Germany that caused a worldwide movement against eugenics.”

“That’s
terrible
,” Jack said.

“Sure is,” Josh agreed. “So this is what this cult . . . what
I Fidele
believes? That they need to practice eugenics on some kind of a global scale?”

“That’s exactly what they believe,” Sumner said grimly. “And they are so much bigger than any cult ever dreamed itself to be.”

“I guess you’re right. To have infiltrated high levels within the FBI—”

“All levels of government,” Sumner interjected. “And that’s just in this country.”

“What?” Josh asked.

Ora answered, “
I Fidele
is a worldwide organization, Josh. We’re . . .
they’re
all over Europe, Asia, Africa. Everywhere.”

“It was founded in Rome in 1958. You met one of the Founding Fathers in the Underground,” Lexy added, and I noticed she avoided saying his name.

Josh leaned back against the doorframe, clearly stunned.

After a pause, I turned back to the boy on the bed. “Jack, do you know what they have planned?”

“Does it have to do with The Command?” Sumner jumped in.

Jack nodded. “The Telekinetics. Yes.”

“Do you know where they are?” Sumner asked.

Jack motioned to the bookcase in the corner of the room. “Pass me that globe,” he said, and Lexy pulled it off the top shelf, dusted it off, and brought it to him. He spun it slowly, and I watched the blues and greens and browns blur together. Finally, he slapped a hand down, stopping its motion.

“Right there,” he pointed. We all moved closer.

“Victoria Island?” Sumner asked. Jack had placed his finger over a large island in the Canadian Arctic. It sat perched above the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. “You can’t be serious.”

Jack nodded. “See right here?” He ran his finger along the northwest coast of the island.

“That’s Fort Collinson. It’s an abandoned trading post that was used by the Hudson’s Bay Company. That’s where they are. They fly them in from Yellowknife. They fly in and they never leave,” he said with certainty.

“Well, shit,” Sumner said. “I guess I always pictured it in Arkansas or Nevada or something.”

“What are they doing there, Jack?” Josh asked.

Jack looked at me, and my breath caught in my throat. Was that pity I saw in his eyes?

“They’re doing what telekinetics do best. They’re moving things.
Big things.
”

“What do you mean?” I could barely find my voice.

“What is the greatest danger to life on Earth?” he asked me, his voice barely more than a hoarse whisper. “What can bring about fires and floods, tsunamis and firestorms? What can kill all plant life and block out the sun’s rays long enough to throw the planet into another ice age?”

“No . . .” I shook my head. But the edges of my vision were growing dark.

“Are you talking about a meteorite?” Sumner asked. “Like the one that killed the dinosaurs?”

“That’s not possible,” I argued. “We’ve been cataloging Near Earth Objects of that size for years now; we know most of them. We watch their trajectories for a long time. We would have a lot of warning if a meteorite of that size was coming in.”

“You said ‘most’ of them,” Sumner pointed out.

“We know of about ninety percent of NEOs bigger than a kilometer in diameter. And that’s the size you’re talking about for a global disaster.”

“And the other ten percent?” Ora asked.

“No.” I was still shaking my head. “No.”

“What about the meteorite that hit Russia? No one saw that coming,” Sumner said.

“That was less than twenty meters in diameter, too small to have a global impact. And it exploded above the earth’s surface.”

“What would happen if a smaller one
did
impact the earth?” Jack asked.

They were all watching me.

“It would be like dropping an atomic bomb. There would be a lot of local damage. If it hit in a populated area, like a city, you’d be looking at a death toll in the thousands or maybe millions. It would cause firestorms that would spew ash and smoke into the upper troposphere, or even into the stratosphere. That would temporarily block the sun, leading to local climate changes. But it would be too small to have much of an impact worldwide.”

“And these smaller—what did you call them—NEOs? How many do you guys know about?” Sumner asked.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

“How many, Ryanne?” Sumner persisted.

“Not many,” I admitted. “Our focus has been on NEOs large enough to be a global danger.”

Jack sat up and reached for me. His hands were icy, and trembling almost as much as mine. “Ryanne. What if a
whole bunch
of these smaller ones, these atomic-bomb-sized meteorites, hit different parts of the earth . . . all within hours or days of each other? What would happen then?”

“That’s not possible,” I said. “Statistically—”

“What would happen?”

“I . . . don’t know.”

“Firestorms?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Tsunamis?”

“If any impacted in an ocean.”

“Massive loss of human life?”

“That’s possible,” I said weakly.

“Changes to the atmosphere?
Global
changes?”

“Yes,” I admitted. “If there were enough of them, it could have the same effect as one big one. It could cause an ‘impact winter.’ Another ice age.”

“Oh my God,” Josh said.

“That’s what they’ve been up to at The Command.” Jack leaned back on the pillow, closing his eyes. “All of the Telekinetics. For decades. They’ve been busy, busy bees. Such busy little bees.”

“And no one noticed all of these meteorites just cruising on in?” Sumner asked.

Jack opened his eyes. He looked straight at me.

“What?” I asked. “Do you think I saw them?”

“Ryanne.” He shook his head sadly. “You didn’t just see them.
You hid them.
”