Piercing The Fold (12 page)

I use the little bit of energy I have to push him away. Ezra barely shifts under my hand. He sits back on one foot and one knee. He looks like he might explode with anger.

“Look, Jesca, this is real! This is not summer camp. You are going to be put in death’s grip with situations way worse than this!”

Ezra lifts a portion of the tubing and throws it down with a thud. “This! This is nothing compared to what you will see, experience, fight for, save, and protect. In under four weeks, you will be out in the open. No safety net. You are the only defense for yourself! You will be ready! If I have to almost kill you myself, damn it, you will be ready!”

Ezra gets up and paces. He is obviously frustrated with his momentary loss of control. After a few minutes, his sarcasm comes back with a vengeance. “Pardon me for thinking your endurance and strength was impressive for a green pea.”

Ahh! He pulled the guilt card.

It is true. I am being an ungrateful green pea. I am being the jerk now. And this is not a game.

This is happening. It is not a game. No game over, please insert another coin. This is the only practice I will have before I’m out there. In here, I’m safe. Out there, I’m vulnerable.

I look up at Ezra with thought-filled eyes. “Thank you, Ezra.”

Ezra’s wrinkled forehead relaxes a bit. He shakes his head back and forth. “Well, there it is. It’s hitting you now.”

We both welcome the silence to digest what is happening at this very moment. I am submitting to my purpose.

Ezra claps his hands loudly and breaks the moment. “Good! Now get your ass back in the pool, and let’s go again!”

Lunch is moments away. But the shower first is what my body needs more than anything. The water down here is piping hot…perfect for exhausted muscles. After another ten times in the pool with the artificial anaconda, standing in a steaming, hot shower of relief is all I want. I feel my body melt a little. I lean my body against the shower’s wall and let the water wash over me. I think I might have dozed for a minute. Ezra’s infamous pounding knock snaps me out of my brief Zen.

I answer him with a mumble. “Be right out!” I lean my head back against the wall again. The water hits my face now.

Ezra speaks again in a singsong voice. “I will come in there.”

More obsessive pounding.

“All right! Fine!”

Lunch is superior to any other I have had in months! Chicken picatta with angel hair pasta in a creamy lemon sauce and capers. I am the last to arrive at the cafeteria. I must look exhausted from this morning’s training session.

Angela smiles a little. “Are you all right? You look like you have been through hell!” Her smile quickly fades as she realizes her fate of pool training in this afternoon’s session. She begins to shred her dinner roll nervously.

I muster a smile and shrug. “Nah. I’m all right. Just starving.” I start to eat quietly.

Nick snickers. “Yo! Look at Jesca! She can really pack it in. It is an awesome sight to see a woman with an appetite!”

Nate smiles in my direction and puts his head down as he continues to eat. I roll my eyes and laugh, grateful for the little bit of humor I have brought to the table.

Lunch hour is not enough. As soon as I shovel in the last bite of my carbohydrate-loaded lunch, Siobhan is giving us our afternoon training locations.

The rest of the day is just as rigorous as this morning. The remainder of my day requires less physical work and more mental work. Ezra took inventory of my abilities while I was showering and eating lunch. The telepathy, mind reading. The humming and vibrations I am feeling, Qi. The Telekinesis, the Ushering, and the visions. Ezra looks down at his notes now and blows out his lower lip. “I have a lot to work with here.”

“Thanks, Ezra. I’m glad I could oblige.”

Ezra scoffs, “You haven’t obliged me yet, Jes. I can’t wait to watch you develop your gifts. To watch you realize who you are and what you are capable of. How you can change the path of anything and everything.”

The rest of the first week is filled with sore, achy limbs and a tired body. I am drained by 7 p.m. every night, and not ready to rise daily at 5:45 a.m.

The second week is much easier since our bodies are becoming more accustomed to the physical and mental training. Nate, Angela, Nick and I are able to hang out a bit in the rec room after dinner now that our bodies aren’t so exhausted. A couple of hours of normal conversation with people that we could relate to is exactly what we needed.

We wasted no time finding an activity, foosball. Nick, being the uber sporty that he is, suggested this downtime activity.

Nick lies across the pool table, rolling the eight ball between his hands. “Ugh! We need to unwind a bit, guys. Between the physical and mental demands, we need a mindless release.”

He holds the eight ball in one hand. “I got it! Foosball! It’s perfect. Ang, c’mon. You and I, babe!”

Angela’s eyes widen. Her cheeks turn bright red. “Ang! It’s Angela. And it’s on, BABE!”

So begins our foosball tournament.

Week three, the body aches and sore muscles stop altogether. The abilities that each of us possess are getting so much stronger. Now well into our training routine, our delusions of being kingpins in the facility become too reckless for our mentors to accept.

One morning we enter the main gym after breakfast, pushing each other’s buttons about the resulting win from last night’s foosball game. All the mentors make it obvious that they have been waiting on us.

Jake is sitting on the bleachers and looks up. “You guys are late!

Ezra looks at me with his arms crossed. Disappointment is on his face.

We all stop laughing.

Jake, anticipating Nick’s quick wit, walks up to Nick. “Don’t you start now!”

“Start what? All I was going to say was that Jesca schooled Nate last night in the tournament.”

Nick reaches over and elbows Nate’s arm playfully. Nate smiles and punches Nick on his arm less playfully. They both look at each other. Their smiles turn to mischief. Nate and Nick begin wrestling to the ground. Angela and I cover our mouths to hold back our laughter.

Ezra yells, “Enough!”

This gets Nate’s and Nick’s attention. They both stop wrestling immediately.

Nate sighs. “C’mon, Ezra. We have been working so hard. Being ten minutes late isn’t the end of the world.”

“On the contrary, Nate, that is the very thing on the line here. And you are going to be on THAT front line in under two weeks!”

Siobhan starts in. “You really don’t comprehend this, do you?” She slowly walks over to Nate, then me, looking each of us up and down with her steel blue eyes. She stops at Angela and stares at her with anger.

Angela looks at me, then Ezra; fear is in her eyes. I can hear her thinking about Siobhan.

What?

Why are you looking at me like that?

She looks like she is going to attack me.

Siobhan steps closer to Angela; they’re nose and nose. I can’t read Siobhan’s thoughts. She has blocked me. Angela knows that I am reading her.

Angela thinks,
No, I won’t. I’m not. That is absurd. Stop. I do take this seriously. I will prove it in two weeks. The hell you will!

I can’t help Angela without being able to hear both sides of the conversation. I can feel the tension between the two of them, though. I think we all can feel the tension by the looks I see around the room. All of a sudden, I feel a small vibration within me. It feels strange at first since I haven’t experienced it in weeks. The hair on my arms stands on end as a result.

Why am I feeling this here, in the facility?

I look at Nate. Then at Ezra. Siobhan pulls out a dagger from her belt. Angela pushes past Siobhan and is in a combat stance quicker than I can blink.

What the hell is going on?

Ezra? Luke? Jake?

They hear me. They look at me with stoic faces.

They’ve blocked me. They’re testing us.

Nate takes my arm.
Back up, Jes. Don’t get involved.

I have my wall up.
How did you get into my head?

It wasn’t easy, Jesca.

Nate pulls me close to him a second before Siobhan swings her blade at Angela.

Angela flips backwards, landing in a hunched stance ready to attack. Her movements look like a quick dance; it is crazy fast.

Siobhan shifts her body to stand normally. She places her dagger back in her belt and begins to stretch her arms. Angela doesn’t let her guard down. Siobhan fastens her belt.

“Ezra, Jake, Luke, and I think it is about time for us to put all of the training to practice.”

Luke starts in. “Siobhan, if I didn’t know you better, I would say that this is your favorite part of the training.”

Siobhan finishes her stretch. “Well, yeah! This is the closest to real these green peas will get. Then they will be plummeted into their territory and scared to death.”

Ezra has his arms crossed the whole time, watching the interaction. Jake pulls off his sweatshirt. “Well, I’ve been ready for about a week now!”

Jake walks over to Nick. Nick pulls off his wind pants, leaving shorts in their place.

Nick says, “Hell yeah, baby! I’m ready! This is awesome! Mock combat.”

Luke and Jake give each other a sideways glance and mouth, “Mock combat?”

Ezra pipes in, “All right, take it down a notch. We are going to wait ’til mid-week to begin that phase of the training. However…” Ezra pauses.

He is obviously trying to ease us into the back-story.

Luke doesn’t hesitate. “…something catastrophic has happened in Japan that is very relevant to our purpose as guardians.”

Nate releases my arms, but is still standing close behind me. Nate asks Luke, “What is it?”

All of us become very serious. Angela stands next to Nate, Nick and I now.

Ezra says, “Many years ago, it was theorized that wormholes could occur in close proximity to areas of high electromagnetic fields, EMFs. The EMF made the opening of the wormhole much easier to maintain since strong electric energy was naturally in the atmosphere. There is said to be a handful of locations that emit such EMFs. Two locations on two different continents have been publicized more than the others in recent years.”

Angela breaks in. “I read about this. The Bermuda Triangle and the Dragon’s Triangle.”

Ezra nods. “Yes, those are the two areas: the Devil’s Sea near western Japan, north of Tokyo, and the Bermuda Triangle near Florida. Einstein spent some time in Bermuda back in the 1930’s. It was said that Einstein lived there in order to qualify for US citizenship. Albert was then employed by the US government to investigate the Bermuda Triangle, and its justification involved his infamous Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory.”

I ask, “The government paid him to try to find the other end of the wormhole?”

Ezra replies, “It was only a theory with very little justification. Einstein spent over 15 years being commissioned by the government to make the wormhole theory plausible and true. His research continued until his death. He never finished resolving the theory.”

Nate asks, “Do you think he knew? Do you think he discovered that it was real and didn’t publically disclose the results, like Sebastian and Balthazar?”

Ezra shakes his finger and smiles. “Ahh, Nate. I believe that Einstein’s purpose was very significant. I believe he chose to protect the world until his death. Unfortunately, others were not so insightful and cautious.”

I realize what Ezra is saying. “So you think he knew, but kept it to himself to protect us from ourselves.”

Ezra says, “Potential misuse of the discovery. To be tempted by the power and control this truth could produce. To reveal a treasure that should be protected and regulated, not exploited and abused.”

Nick brings us back to the pressing issue. “So what happened? What catastrophic event has increased our need to be ready sooner than later?”

Ezra replies, “Three days ago Japan suffered the worst earthquake in its history. The quake’s initial destruction was significant and horrific. Aftershocks are still being felt in Japan as strong as 7.7 on the Richter scale.”

Angela says, “That is terrible. But I fail to see how this links to us, though.” Angela’s face changes. “Unless you think the quake had something to do with the Dragon’s Triangle. Did a wormhole opening cause this?”

The four mentors look at each other.

Luke begins, “The guardians we have in Japan were sabotaged last night. We sent five guardians in to shut down the unit of Sondians that were opening the wormhole there. The wormhole had been open for more than thirty minutes from what our surveillance showed. That type of length could create a gravitational instability in our world, like a quake of great magnitude.

“Unknown to us, three of our five guardians were deep cover Sondian guardians. Once our guardians were in the warehouse, the three deep covers eliminated Jonathan Hatton, one of our two true guardians. Joan Leal, the other guardian, was the one that single-handedly wired the explosives, then terminated the Sondian unit’s warehouse, closing the wormhole.”

I ask, “Where is she now?” I was intrigued by her strength and selflessness.

Luke says, “In order to shut down the unit, she had to choose: try to escape, surrender, or save humanity by destroying everything including herself.” Luke pauses and looks down. “She saved humanity for one more day.”

Everyone is silent. Partly for such a brave and selfless act. Also, partly because of what we have become—guardians. We can feel the fear shoot through each of us. Soon, one of us may be expected to make that same choice.

Siobhan says, “She sacrificed herself. Needless to say, somewhere along the chain of command, someone let their guard down. The momentary lapse could have been a temptation, or pride, anything. And now we have to replace the guardians we lost.”

Jake breaks in, “And no, Nick. You are not going to Tokyo.”

Nick looks slightly disappointed.

Jake continues, “We have mentors and guardians scattered throughout the world. The hot spots for now are in the US and Japan, for obvious reasons.”

Ezra says, “There are guardians already in position to take over in Japan along with their mentors. And the sleeper cell has cleaned up the aftermath and covered up any reason for police investigation.”

This is a well-oiled machine. Systems are in place to replace those that perish without missing a beat.

Luke regains his frustration. “So when you guys strolled in ten minutes late, like you owned the place, it was hard for us to handle.”

We all feel the pangs of guilt.

I speak up. “We are very sorry. It was irresponsible of us.”

Siobhan says, “This is why we are changing training a bit today.” She looks at Ezra for confirmation.

Ezra adds, “The remainder of your time in the facility will focus on three core activities: abilities training, mission combat, and intelligence training. You all need to know the back-story and most recent accounts of enemy attacks on our guardians. The more you know about Dobrian and Sondian guardian warfare in the past, the better guardian you will become for the future.”

“How is the combat going to work?” Nate asks.

Siobhan walks up to Angela. “First, we will combat mentor against trainee for a solid two days. Then you will team up together and combat the mentors. You need to have team experience as well. Using your abilities together makes you stronger than using your abilities individually. Energy attracts energy. The buildup of the energy infuses with your abilities and can be exchanged through you both like magnets drawn together. Your abilities will work in unison.”

Siobhan walks over to stand in front of Jake. Siobhan closes her eyes and clasps one of Jake’s hands. Jake closes his eyes and smiles. At first, I thought the ground was lifting under them. Then the slow rise becomes sudden and they are about twelve feet off the ground.

Nick whispers excitedly, “Aw, sweet!”

Siobhan and Jake open their eyes.

Jake speaks to Siobhan. “You ready?”

Siobhan looks over and smiles at him. Jake opens the palm of his other hand. A vapor stirs from it. Then fire from his palm turns orange, then blue. They both simultaneously turn their bodies toward each other. Siobhan voluntarily raises her open palm to Jake’s palm. The blue flame dances from Jake’s palm to Siobhan’s.

Ezra explains, “Siobhan and Jake are able to share their abilities, like Siobhan was describing to you. What you don’t see is the metaphysical aspect. The mind of one being evolved and permitted these abilities to infuse and manifest in another’s open mind. It’s harder than it looks, kids.”

Siobhan and Jake return to the ground, and the flame dissipates. Siobhan leans against the wall for a minute. Concerned, Angela walks over to Siobhan.

Angela asks, “Are you all right, Siobhan?”

Siobhan tilts her head upward and then pushes off the wall. “Yeah. Yeah. We haven’t teamed up in a while. It’s been about a month, month and half now. Right, Jake?”

Jake is squatting on the floor, taking a few long gulps of Gatorade. He ruffles his hair a bit and looks up at Siobhan and winks. “Yeah, it’s been a while. But it’s like riding a bike. You don’t forget.”

Seeing the way they are looking at each other makes me a little embarrassed for having spied such a personal exchange between them. I block my thoughts for a moment.

Are they romantically involved?

I shift my eyes to Nate. He must have seen it too since he looks away from them then at me also.

I wonder how they became more than just friends, if that is what is going on. My mind starts to create its own story for them.

Nate elbows me and whispers, “Oh, this is so sweet it’s giving me a toothache.”

I elbow him back and feel my cheeks turn red.
How did he get through my mental block, again?
I growl, “Will you stop that, damn it.”

I retaliate by listening in on him as he rolls his eyes at me and thinks,
What?! It was sweet though, right?

We both are looking at each other now, fire in my eyes and Nate with his boyish playfulness.