The Khufu Equation (33 page)

The target had entered the gallery, and Ven knew it. With a grin, he cocked his weapon and crept in below the thin layer of human awareness.

Brett, by changing the vibrations of his body, could bring time to a crawl and scrutinize the motion of a hummingbird's wing. The ability to extend time--to prolong it--is a fundamental step on the path of perfection set forth by the Warrior. Of all such skills, the ability to foresee danger is paramount. Brett sensed it too late. He shot the cards into space, but in the next instant two bullets blasted into his gut.

Pain and hatred, fear and ignorance, pity and damnation invaded the captain's consciousness as a stream of impulses. Hot, flat objects pierced his trachea and his eyes. His brain exploded as a razor-sharp object sliced into it. The captain saw himself from the outside. Mottled with blood-spattered cards, his heavy body sank to the ground. A single thread, as the tenuous connection between the body and the spirit, had been cut. Before disappearing from this world forever, Ven saw the awesome Eagle, which proceeded to shred his consciousness.

Commissioner Li lay on the ground, bleeding heavily as he gasped for air. He struggled to seize the book, which had fallen out from his clothing.

"Ahead, soldier." He had come so far, but it seemed to be too late.

Brett realized the gravity of his situation. He lay near the exit and looked into the night sky. He didn't want to die there, like that. His mission wasn't complete. The humid air embraced his increasingly cool body. Stars, like yellow eyes, blinked goodbye, and from the nearby trees a chorus of cicadas sang a farewell song.

Brett, with great pain and effort, took the white-stone cross from his neck, set his palm on warm ground and died. As he left the physical world he saw a man approach, bend over the body and sadly pronounce: "Brett, your mission is complete. You have performed well."

The state of unconsciousness is among the great secrets of the universe. By anatomizing the events in it, one can discern the roots of many problems. Through a variety of deeds, a person constructs a foundation, from which he either steps into the future or plummets into a spiral of problems.

Thousands of everyday pictures floated through Jeff's memory. A flood of sounds and fragrances returned to inform him of all the recent events. He saw the faces of many people, who lifted words and gestures closer to his awareness. Sometimes it seemed to Jeff that he had found the original events, influenced by the loss of the strength to live, but the Great Warrior's voice reminded him: "Find the events connected with fire."

The first fire; the first cigarette, smoked in secret so his dad wouldn't see; the first experiment with gunpowder; and the first and last flaming pieces of coal, carefully placed on Alan Fisher's chair during a picnic. It all came back, and at last Jeff felt he had found something important.

Intuitively, he altered his perspective. He could now see everything through the eyes of Alan Fisher, the customs officer.

Alan's stream of thought--about sex, of course--was interrupted by a sudden hot, sharp pain. He had sad on some coals, and subsequently the thought of sex brought a painful reaction that induced impotence.

The idea occurred in Jeff's mind. If he hadn't put a piece of coal on a chair, the chain of events would have been different. On that day, the customs officer wouldn't have met Selma, the prostitute, and he wouldn't have phoned Slaiker to talk about finding Jeff. So, Jeff wouldn't have needed to save his dad. The light nod of the Great Warrior told Jeff the search had ended.

"Now," said the Great Warrior, "using got information, you have to sum patience." He fanned the cards in space. "Each card corresponds to a definite sequence of events. It is necessary to lay out the chain of events so that patience wins out. You must not simply lay out the cards and watch what will be; instead you must choose, through whatever means you wish, where some already known chains are registered. As soon as patience is proved to be correct you must begin to realize it, because at that moment the law of intention will be in force. All planned actions are fulfilled in reality. For everyone, it is magic.

"Before summing the patience, I must remove from chain what resulted in the loss of your strength to live . . . ." Jeff gave a sudden cry.

"You are quite a capable student," said the Warrior with a smile. "Now, to your task."

People, events and time flashed in Jeff's fingers. Very often Jeff was mistaken, but he created his own program of objective language. He took away from the chain of events that included the fragment with Alan Fisher, and he gathered the patience again and again till he understood the main point of the algorithm. He realized that the law of the Eagle was impossible to change but that it could be used for one's own purpose, so as to make one's own law. With this understanding the chain began to sum itself without Jeff's participation. He only had to place the cards in their respective realms. When the patience was gathered, Jeff examined the last two cards. In a language created by his father, they said: "Be strong! I am near!"

Jeff felt himself lying on something hard. Through the veil of his eyelids, he saw the arches of a temple. He saw an altar and stars in a window. Absorbing the energy of yellow-eyed heavenly bodies, Jeff sent his mind toward them. He thought of his father. The yellow-eyed stars were generous that night, and they gifted Jeff with a magical force. In their bright scintillation, he heard the ever-so-faint whisper of eternity:

"Unite will and spirit, and strength will come to you. You always have been the first, and you must stay the same. You can rise to your feet! Don't think about the pain, but just stand up! Do it!"

The boy's body found its fight. Each muscle was imbued with force, and thoughts dissolved in the consciousness of the spirit. His entire being was under subordination of will, and slowly the pain was blown into the past.

Thousands of invisible threads extended toward Jeff, giving him life and energy. He was now a warrior storming through the fire of reason to face the source of knowledge. He could reach into the depth of this world, where even stones can speak. He could do so without tearing such a thin biological process as life, and thereby keep the balance. Thus, the boy could at perceive the world not as hard matter but as patterns of energy.

He turned to the side in which the Essence resides. Fields of energy, woven from fluid non-intersecting filaments, were open to Jeff's inner sight. The Beast was an unearthly creature that had dared to enter this world, but it had been apprehended by Jeff as the fine, white web from an illuminated spindle. Its fibers pulled from head to foot, and the arms and legs were similar to solar flares, irradiating in random directions.

The Essence stood back from Jeff, just three steps from the hole. It lifted its head and put up its hands. The silhouette looked ominous against the fluttering glow of light from the hole. The Beast made three magic passes with the hands, and the space before him lightened. The air filled with an unbearable stench. Jeff lifted his head slightly in surprise. This was no mere illusionist.

The moment to get up had not yet arrived.

Three energetic domes appeared in the illuminated space, each different in size and intersecting the next. The first, a meter-and-a-half across, was above the Essence. It radiated a bright-blue color. The second was larger and had a calm, light-green hue. The third covered both and was blindingly bright, like morning sunbeams.

The intersecting domes poured the gamut of light over the entire scene. There was something exciting, and very strong, in it. Jeff, his mouth open wide, waited for whatever might come next.

He heard a soft, buzzing sound. From somewhere out of unknown worlds, something triumphant was coming. The strange sound grew to a climax, but then it ceased.

The smallest dome filled with a heavy, black foam. It didn't penetrate the walls of the dome but circled within at a furious pace. The dome started to grow, but it immediately retreated once it reached the second dome. The movement of the black foam grew calm.

Jeff watched all this, but he was afraid to breathe. The black foam was gradually dissolving, and from it emerged the ominous shadows of demons. They were so numerous as to be a legion. Fallen angels gathered. They were trying to tear the defending pellicle of the first dome, but it was strong enough. Krepfol Sohn had talked about this: It was the Gates of Set: t he corridor between two worlds--the physical and ephemeral--deprived of any organic form.

The Essence made a circling movement with its hand. Snakes of flame slithered and hissed in the air, and the Black Stone Kaaba--the heart of Mohammed--appeared in space. Immediately, the stone was taken into the outer dome, moving in a wild spiral. The dome's force was decreasing, and as its power ebbed the Stone of Kaaba returned to the Beast.

The unearthly creature made another pass of the hand, whereupon it showed the second stone: the heart of Christ. It looked like a small plate carved from pale-pink marble. It was from the stone of anointment on which, the legend says, the body of Christ, removed from the Cross, was placed for coaxing with fragrance.

The second stone was carried in spirals into the second emerald dome. Jeff, however, could see that the emerald dome was losing its energy under the secret force of the holy stone. At the end, the stone came back and dropped at the feet of the Beast.

The demons, under the last of the domes, were in an agony of suspense as they waited for the stone to open the Gates of Set. The Gates would soon open, and they would at last savor the pleasures of living flesh. The world would be rendered unto them as a great, bloody feast in which they would taste deeply of humankind.

Jeanette engaged the torturous climb to the aperture of the ancient cave. She had almost no strength left, but her resolve was undiminished. She felt the rope jerk violently, and she looked up toward the access. It was the Beast, which seized her by the hand and pulled her out.

"The stone!" The Beast triumphantly held the treasure in its palm, and the awful emerald eyes glittered.

Jeanette stepped back and looked toward Jeff. He was immobile, even half-dead. How she wanted to have such a son; a boy who was determined and resourceful. She, however, had been forced to decide. It was better for them to die than to grovel before the Beast.

"No!" yelled Jeanette in angry defiance. "The stone will stay where it is."

She turned to Jeff to say the most important thing. Without it, life was pointless.

"Forgive me, my sweet little boy. I love you . . . ."

The Beast shook with indignation. It would have incinerated the woman with one gaze, but the fact was that only she could get the stone.

"Well, you b-b-bitch." The Beast looked at Jeanette with utter reproach, then at Jeff. "Until you bring the stone, I'll pull sinews out of this little rat. Jeanette looked at the boy, and her heart wept for him.

"No! Don't you touch that child!" Jeanette rushed toward the boy, but the Essence knocked her aside. She fell down, but instantly she returned and attacked the Essence like a she-wolf in protection of her cub.

She clenched the Beast by the wooden limb and was pulled along by it. The boy saw everything, and he knew that Jeanette was fighting for his life. Roaring with fury, she beat at the Beast, scratching and biting. Jeff didn't move. There were just four more steps to go.

"Early . . . still early . . . . Let him come closer. Now, I'll strike the eyes . . . ." Jeanette tugged mightily at the wooden limb. A cracking sound was heard, but the device sustained her attempt.

The Beast swung to strike the Creole, and a wave of emotion swept over Jeff. He jumped on. Fifty decibels of blood-curdling yell issued forth and inundated the place with piercing noise.

"Noooo! M-o-m-m-y!"

Jeff was "the Intention," who had momentarily stopped time. He was the main point; the center of the universe.

He was simultaneously all and nothing. Jeff was stasis itself, having no length, wave, mass, time or position in space…

"How do you do, Rail!

"How do you do, Jeff!

"Why did you write the book?

"Books are dictated by demons . . . Still I am also responsible.

"Why are just we?

"You are strong and generous

"Why did you think of us?

"To change myself and understand this world.

"And still the most important?

"Your time is up, Jeff. We'll meet again.

…Jeff felt the disposition of coordinates in space. The air became denser, as if water had absorbed a solid. Something else, quick and watchful, intermingled with sound.

It wasn't surprising or frightening to sense the presence of something new, but he became fixed on the transference of an elusive shadow.

Jeff saw a man, too; one whose movements were unpredictable but oh, so familiar. Without any preface or trick of the eye, a blade flashed in his hand. He took it and punctured the heart of the Beast.