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Ben looked at Fiona pointedly.  Suddenly
he was learning things about Jake that he did not like.  The man had a dark
side.  The question was why and whether that could weaken his chances in the
other worlds.

‘Go on.’

‘Well, it was shortly after that when I
discovered that I was pregnant.  I didn’t dare tell Jake, I knew how he would
react, so I had an abortion.  It was the only way.’

Fiona stopped, tears forming in her eyes. 
Ben said nothing.  For the moment she needed to be alone with her thoughts.

At last she recovered and made ready to
continue.

‘I’m sorry.  Well, Jake didn’t suspect a
thing but Alex Lapski was right.  I felt so guilty afterwards and I blamed Jake
entirely for it.

‘That was when I met Mitch.  Somehow I
found him easy to talk to and I told him everything.  He showed me affection,
sympathy and I fell for him.  Gradually he told me that he was involved with
Alex Lapski and that he needed my help.’

‘And you did just as he asked; providing
the means to capture Jake.’

‘Yes.  Why not?  I didn’t know about the
creature or what they were after.  I thought it was all harmless fun.’

‘Harmless fun.  You saw what happened.’

‘But I didn’t know.’

‘So what did you think was going on?  Was
it not obvious that they were after the ring?  Mitch had to be using you.’

‘Of course I knew that they wanted the
ring.  Mitch told me that it was only a matter of time before it came into
Jake’s possession and that was why he originally became friendly with me.  It
was after that when we realised that we were attracted to each other.  Our
emotion is genuine.’

‘And you believe that?’

‘Yes.’  She was quite emphatic.

‘All right.  And now?’

‘Now I can see that we are all pawns in
Lapski’s game.  I want to stop him.  You’re the only one who can help.’

‘I see.  All right.  I believe what you
say.  Will you trust me?’

‘Yes.’

‘I may do things that seem strange, evil
even.  You must trust me implicitly.’

‘Yes.’

‘Good.  In that case let me continue my
work.  I have to find a way of contacting them.’

Fiona nodded but she did not leave.

‘Yes?’

‘Professor.  Where have they gone?’

‘You mean that Alex hasn’t even told you
that?’

‘No.’

‘All right.  There are seven Earths. 
Parallel dimensions if you like.  We live in the one called Heled.  Between
this and the next are a barrier of heavenly water, the Tohu and the Vohu and an
abyss.’

‘The Tohu and the Vohu?’

‘Yes, I refer you to Chapter One of
Genesis; “In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth.  And the Earth was
Tohu and Vohu,” which is usually translated as meaning that the Earth was
formless and void.  It has no literal meaning in English.  It is obviously a
state of desolation and emptiness and it lies between each of the seven Earths.

‘They must travel through this void until
they reach the next world called by the Rabbis the Tevel.  It is a beautiful
place, a park-like paradise and it is inhabited by all sorts of mythological
creatures.  It is from this world that many of our legends originate.’

Fiona smiled for the first time.  Ben
could imagine what she was thinking.

‘Are the creatures intelligent?’

‘Of course.  This is a world unsullied by
human arrogance.  Many of the creatures can communicate with each other and
there are people also.’

‘People?’

‘Yes.  They are a race similar to ours but
they do not procreate.  They live forever as mankind was first intended in the
Garden of Eden.  Untainted by our problems they are extremely pious, devoted to
God, but they differ from us in that they have two heads.’

‘You’re joking.’

‘No.  I am telling you what the Midrash
says.  They are very wise and knowledgeable.  I feel certain that if Jake meets
with them they will assist him in his quest.’

‘And Mitch?’

‘Maybe, but I do not know how they will
react to his having a prisoner.’

‘And will they find one of the stones
there?’

‘No.  The remaining five stones are in the
last three worlds, each more treacherous than the last.  After the Tevel they
will reach Yabbasha, full of rivers and springs.  Next they will come to
Ha’aravah, the dry; a place of desert.  Then there is Arka that contains the
place of death.  It is there that evil souls go to be guarded by the Angels of
Destruction.  The equivalent of the Christian Hell.  I think three of the stones
lie in this world.

‘The last two worlds are the Adamah, where
the Shechinah (God’s spirit, if you like) will be found, and finally Eretz
about which I know little.’

‘The Arka, it contains Hell, you say? 
What chance do they have?’

‘I don’t know.  There are so many dangers
to face.  The Tohu and the Vohu may prove an impassable barrier.  I don’t
know.  Then there are the demons and the Children of Lilith.  All may lie in
wait for the unwary.  I just pray that our friends meet the wise men of Tevel. 
They may provide the guidance they need.’

‘And, if they don’t?’

Ben shook his head.  Until he found a way
to contact Jake it was impossible to know.  All any of them could do was to
pray.

Cherry was terrified and she would not
have minded telling anyone of it if there had been anyone to tell.  The only
trouble was that she was quite alone.  The instant Mitch had pulled her through
the gateway it seemed as if some incredible force had torn them apart and she
found herself in this place.  Of Mitch, there was no sign.

There was nothing to see.

It was as if she was floating in infinity,
yet she was in one place.  All she could feel was disorientation.  Just at the
instant her senses managed to adjust themselves to her environment everything
would shift and she would be back where she started.

Her eyes could see nothing and then there
would be a riot of colours that would just as quickly dissolve into blinding
whiteness only to be replaced by the purest ebony.

Smells would come in abundance and vanish
as if they had wafted in on the breeze.  Sometimes she could almost know what
she was sniffing and then a mixture of sweetness and putrescence would assail
her nostrils.  It was impossible to fix upon any one aroma. 

Then there was the sound, or the absence
of it.  A roaring, rushing, dinging, clashing, and then the silence of the
grave.

Was she alone?  It was as if there was
someone, something else with her, many things, or nothing.

‘No...oo...’

She closed her eyes, shut out the hateful
sounds with hands tight over her ears.  There had to be an end.

And then there was heat, such tremendous
intensity, condensing upon her person, frying her and freezing her in ice that
went beyond cold.

Floating in a swiftly flowing tide.

Cherry was wet.  Her face was under water
and instinctively she waved her arms and pushed herself upwards to the surface
and opened her eyes.

She was in a sea, a warm clear sea that
went on for ever and she looked towards the sky and saw...

...another ocean above her, held in place
by what she did not know.  And in that lofty sea was a speck gazing down upon
her and Cherry knew that it was she.

What was this place?  It could not be
real.

But all she could do was to swim in that
coddling current.  Buoyant, she floated effortlessly but she found that
movement seemed to have no purpose.  There was nothing ahead other than the
endless expanse of turquoise stretching to the distant horizon where the sea
above met that below and mingled in a seamless unity.  It was to that far
distant point she headed.  There was nowhere else.

Above, like a mirror image, the other
Cherry echoed her every motion in a way that was quite disconcerting and she
wondered if that was truly all it was; one immense reflective surface; but
there was nothing to explain away the riddle.

Onwards she continued and it seemed as if
the horizon was coming closer.  That was impossible; it had to be.  Surely it
would always be the same distance away, but no, she was not imagining it.  Each
time she looked up she could see that point of merger as being her goal. 
Frantically, Cherry thrust her arms, pushing the water behind her, pulling
herself ahead into the silent place of meeting.  Wondering what would happen
when she met with her airborne self.  Praying that it would not be dangerous.

And then, an aeon later, the gap between
her and the other Cherry was just a few feet.  Curiosity came the better of
her, she had to do it, and she reached up her arm to touch the other.  The
mirror image did likewise but they were still too far apart.

She tried to shout at her twin but no
sound issued from her lips.

It was all illusion, it had to be.  A
dream, a vision...an image of...who knows what.

Nothing changed and she continued her swim
towards that point where sea met sea until she approached her doppelganger.

There, inches from her, was the other. 
They were so close and there was nothing whatever separating them.  Treading
water she stretched and saw the other arm reach to meet her.  Their fingers
approached; they opened their hands and grabbed...

…and passed through each other.

It was as if neither of them had any
substance.  Just two ghostly images on a sea of film.  Impossible.  Nothing
made sense.

And ahead, the two oceans were coalescing
into one and she was swimming into that place where water met water with
nothing else between or around it.  How could she breathe?  Cherry dared not
continue, but what else could she do?

And then she felt a current, a force that
gently tugged at her, and she knew that she could not avoid its pull.  She also
knew that she ought to be frightened but there was no fear at all; just a warm
acceptance and calm and the instinct that everything would be all right.  What
was happening to her was the most natural thing in all the world.

She could see her image rushing towards
her and then Cherry was hit by a total and jarring shift in perspective. 
Suddenly she was above looking down on the speeding form of her body and she
had an instinctive understanding of what was happening to her.

It was nothing that she could explain in
words but it had something to do with her soul and her body and the splitting
of the firmament and it all made perfect sense to her.

And then the two of them mingled, flowing
into each other in a graceful etheric ballet until there was no distinction. 
Cherry tingled all over in a beautiful ecstasy as she knew that for the first
time in her life she had become whole.

The dream was real.

Ahead was a golden sandy shore and above a
clear cloudless sky of such intense blue that it appeared to be made from
polarised light like a picture postcard.  Which was when she heard the noise.

It was like nothing she could have
imagined.  The scream of some creature in torment.  A fiend from Hell or
something worse.  It was just one terrible howl that pervaded the air
surrounding her and Cherry desperately swam for the beach ahead driven by the
fear that the sound engendered.

At last she reached the stretch of sand
and lay down upon it.  She did not know whether to move forward or whether to
stay where she was.  It all depended upon from where that noise had come but
there was no way to tell.  Irresolute, she just basked in the warm glow of the
drying sun and tried to understand what had happened to her.

Cherry knew nothing of the seven Earths
but she had seen the golden gateway opened in the synagogue and knew that she
had passed through it.  And then there was Mitch.  What had happened to him?

And what monster had made that noise?

She could not stay there.  Wherever she
was she had to find shelter and fast.  What could she have been thinking of;
lying there oblivious to the possible danger of the unknown?

Cherry stood up and looked about herself. 
In the not too far distance the sand gave way to an abundantly fertile
grass-land and to either side of her were black rocks so reminiscent of the
beaches of Northern France.  Was that where she was?

No, that would be absurd.

Still, climbing on one might give her a
better vantage point.  They were not too high after all.  It reminded her of
summer holidays in years gone by.

Looking down upon the sweep of the bay she
could see something drifting gently like flotsam in the wash.  It could have
been a person.

Mitch?

So, he also had survived though, from
here, he did not appear that well.  Cherry could not help feeling apprehensive. 
When last she had seen the man he was pointing a gun at her.  Still, the
situation was now somewhat different.  Mitch wasn’t moving.  He had to be
unconscious.  He was hardly in a position to cause any harm.  Also he was the
only person she knew who might have some inkling where they were and how to get
back home.

She decided that the risk was worth taking
and headed along the beach to her quarry.

And what of the thing that had howled so
horribly?

But no.  There was no sign of it now. 
Maybe it had not existed at all.  She was disoriented by her journey.  It could
have been a hallucination.

As Cherry approached she could see that
there was something of dark metal a few inches from the body.  Mitch’s gun; it
had to be.

Well, now she could truly take the
advantage.

It was only as she picked up the weapon
that she realised that she had no knowledge of firearms whatever.  Whilst she
guessed that the thing was an automatic pistol containing a magazine in its
grip, she did not know whether there was a safety, the size of the ammunition,
or any of the things that would make the gun useful.  For the moment, however,
she was content to hold the thing and enjoy the sheer power that it gave her. 
The power of life or, and she smiled at the thought of it, death.  She pointed
the barrel at her head and hurriedly turned it away.

Mitch, however, was quite unconscious.  There
seemed nothing wrong with him.  A little bedraggled, maybe, but that was all.

‘Mitch?'

She could not help feeling nervous.

‘Mitch?’

But he remained oblivious to her and
Cherry resorted to nudging him with her foot.  There was no response.

Maybe he was dead.  Serve the bastard
right if he was.

There was only one way to find out.  But
what if it was a trick?  If she bent down he could grab her.  So what?  But
common sense prevailed.  If he was awake then why the charade?  He had no need
to let her find the gun.

She decided to take the risk and placed
her hand on his chest.

Mitch was breathing normally.  There was
nothing wrong there.

Cherry started shaking him by the
shoulder, gently first and then ever more furiously until she was rewarded by a
rough guttural groan.

‘Mitch?’ she called as she pulled away.

He began to move, shaking his head and
stretching his limbs.  His eyes opened and he looked at Cherry without
comprehension.

‘Cherry Linford?’ he murmured.

She nodded.

Mitch slowly came to his feet and surveyed
the area.  He took in the gun instantly.

‘Where the fuck are we?’ he demanded in an
alarmingly speedy show of recovery.

‘You don’t know?’

‘For Christ’s sake, I wouldn’t be asking
if I did.  Give me that thing, will you.’

‘I’d rather keep it.’

‘Suit yourself.  So, where are we?’

‘You brought me here.’

‘For fuck’s sake this is getting us
nowhere.  All I know is we’re standing on a golden beach in a warm sunshine. 
This could be anywhere.  The last thing I recall was going through the
gateway.  So you tell me what happened next.’

And, when Cherry tried to relate her
experiences she found that they had already become disjointed like a dream.  In
fact the more she tried to remember, the harder it came to focus on the
journey.

She shook her head.

‘I’m sorry, I don’t remember.’

‘So, we’re trapped here.  Wherever here
is.  I suggest that we start looking for some sign of life.  You’d better give
me the gun.’

‘No.’

‘Look.  We don’t know where we are.  We
don’t know what we might find.  This gun may be our only means of protection. 
Whoever has it needs to know what he is doing.  Have you used one before?’

‘Of course,’ Cherry replied all too
quickly and she knew that she had given herself away.

‘Oh, don’t be such a stupid cow.  Hand it
over.’

‘No!’

And, as Mitch moved towards her, Cherry
backed away.  Suddenly he lunged forward and grabbed and Cherry was disarmed. 
She was quite unprepared for the vicious and stinging slap that Mitch
administered across her cheek.

‘Bitch.’

She staggered and raised her hand to ward
off the second blow.  Instead Mitch grabbed Cherry’s wrist and twisted her arm
behind her.

‘Bastard.’

But that had only aggravated the situation
and he applied even greater pressure until Cherry could only scream out in
agony.

‘That’s better,’ he said letting go,
‘Don’t threaten me again or..., comprendi?’

Cherry nodded.

‘Good.  We understand each other.  Let’s
go,’ he gestured with the pistol.

Scowling and concocting in her mind every
torture possible to inflict upon the bastard Cherry complied and led the way
across the sand to the lush grasslands ahead.  If only she knew where they
were.  Surely Mitch had to know something.  He had brought them there after
all.

But he said nothing and they continued
their journey in silence.

…………………………………………

When Jake passed through the gateway his
experience was quite different to Cherry’s.  He was travelling down a long
golden tunnel with the crystal of his ring glowing in a steady beacon that
seemed to act like a direction finder.  As he moved forward the light increased
and, if he stopped, so did the glow.  It was most comforting.

An age seemed to pass before Jake saw the
blue light of day ahead and he rushed towards the opening.

Ahead was the lushness of a paradise
landscape.  Rich foliage, like nothing that he had seen before, and verdant
grasses under a warm, comforting, sun.  Jake knew that he had arrived in the
next of the seven Earths of which Ben had told.  If only he knew some details
of the place but Ben had not the time to provide any real information.  He just
had to hope that the crystal would help him to find his way and then he would
have to locate Cherry and that bastard Mitch.  That was not all, however. 
Somewhere there were five more of the crystals and he knew that they had to be
found.

Already Lapski had six of the things.  If
Professor Tiferet was to have any hope of defeating his enemy he had to possess
the remainder.  But how could he locate them?  Where precisely were they?’

First thing, however, was to find Cherry. 
That had to be the priority.  Only then could he worry about the quest that had
been chosen for him.  He wondered if his stone could help.  According to Ben
the twelve stones together constituted some form of divine communicator to
God.  Could one alone channel his requests to the Almighty?