Rise of the Death Walkers (The Circle of Heritage Saga) (31 page)

“Of course your influence has protected far more than the tribe as a whole. While you have been here in Germany you have managed to protect the majority of the population. Otherwise the rest of the world as we know it is under the influence of the Soul Reapers. Some of them are referred to as Death Walkers” now. Men without souls and incapable of simple feelings such as love and friendship.”

“When did this happen?” Would the shocks of the day never end? I had forgotten that she had spoken to me with her mind earlier and when I felt her touch again me mind was send reeling.

“I am not very good at this but I will attempt to explain this way. Mimi and Moevin have been helping me this past year so it is easier each day.” She began to explain the events in mind-speak.

I found out from Katie that the slow encroachment of the Soul Reapers on the human race had begun hundreds of years ago and that they had been a major influence on starting of the various wars of the past few hundred years. In fact every war in the past five hundred years had been started by one of the Death Walkers. Only the intervention of the True People had been able to stem the tide of violence. She explained that the majority of the population in Germany and the surrounding countries had been shielded by the presence of my mind. Apparently my mind was one of a kind and had capabilities even far beyond what Moevin had first anticipated. The only mind that might be comparable was possibly that of Mimiatie my first born daughter and she was an infant with no training and no expectation of anything beyond mind-speak for the first fifteen years of her life. I stopped Katie at that point because I wanted to meet my daughter.

Katie turned toward the door and called for Mimi. Mimi came in and spoke to me “Grandson may I present you your daughter Mia?” I held out my arms and she placed the bundle in my arms. Mia was sleeping when I opened her bundle. I was shocked by her beauty. She had the face of her mother and a full head of black hair. When I cooed at her, her eyes opened and I saw that she had the piercing blue eyes that I had.

“Such beauty has only been seen once more in this world and that is your mother Mia.” I bent my head and kissed her gently. “She's beautiful Katie, just like you are.”

“She has many of her father's more endearing traits are well as a few of your bad traits too.” Katie smiled when she said this and her eyes wandered to the door with the imprint of my fists in it.

My gaze followed hers and I chuckled. “She has her father's temper?”

“Yours with much more to spare Jason.” She giggled at me.

“But what happens now with you me and Irma? How do I explain all of this too her.” I asked, my head hung low.

“You will marry me as you promised and I will become your second wife.” I whipped my head around and my eyes were wide open as Irma stepped through the door and hugged Katie to her.

“I am so glad you are not dead Katie because I know just how much Jason loves you.”

“But, But?” I stuttered

She turned to smile at Grandpa Sam. “He still does not know does he Sam.” My Grandfather grinned and shook his head. “Jason, Jason you have shamed yourself in front of your teachers that you have not been able to figure out my family are a members of the Second Family.” What she said next was in mind-speak and she was much stronger with her voice than Katie’s was. “It took everything I had to keep you in the front part of my mind when you first probed me. I doubt I would be able to hold you back now since your mind has developed beyond what I am capable of now. Your grief over thinking you had lost Katie weakened your mind more than it should have.”

Over the next few hours I learned the story of the Second Family. Much the same as the First Family many of the people of the Germanic tribes had been taken to Origan and trained. The best minds available during that time were returned to the Earth and a similar breeding program had been followed through the generations. Now the time was there for the two bloodlines to merge and Irma was the best and brightest of the bloodline. It had been her destiny to be the one responsible to merge with our bloodline although they had never dreamed it would be with the Chosen One.

While I was getting this from Irma in mind-speak, Moevin rejoined us and took part in the orientation. I found out also that there was a third and fourth family who had been seeded onto the Earth but the records had been lost and they were not sure where the third was. Since Origan had been lost, Earth was the galaxies only hope to confront the Soul Reapers. Members of Origan had managed to reach Earth and through mental manipulation had managed to convince the humans that they looked like them. I was one of the few on Earth who could see them as they truly were. Irma and Katie assured me that Moevin looks quite human to them although she had mental blocks they could not get past if they tried to probe more than the surface.

This fact surprised me and I sent a probe out from my own mind. I still could see the complexity of her mind but she easily caught me as I tried to probe deeper than she wanted me to. ‘Not yet young Pasche but soon you will be able to examine the entirety of my mind and have the necessary knowledge to understand what you see. Now pay attention to the conversation.’

I withdrew from her mind and concentrated on the conversation. Katie and Irma were fast becoming the closest of friends. Irma's Grandmother Maria was deep in conversation with Mimi. Grandpa Sam waved me aside and we walked out of the room together. “Jason You and I need to discuss the enforcement arm of this new organization you were drafted into.”

“I am still clueless what you are referring to Grandpa.” I waved my hand around. “This is all military around here as far as I know.”

“OPFREE or Operation Freedom is an organization of four races which concentrates on the total extermination of the Soul Reapers. Members of Origan are known as the First Race and Humans are the only ones you will be working with for the next few decades. The Friedors and Arns are the other races involved in the organization but you will probably not meet them any time soon. You will learn more about them as your education with Moevin, who is still and will remain your Mind Mentor, progresses until she has taught you all you can learn from her.” Grandpa slowed his walk and turned to me. “Did Blake mention NATO General Nathan Blackthorn?”

“Yes he said that there was chatter about an assassination attempt in the near future” I replied.

“Yes and you will be the one to assassinate him.” Grandpa Sam returned.

“What? He is the one in charge of the whole European theater. How am I supposed to get to him He has the best security detail available from the private market.” I burst out.

“Yes he does Its provided by Opfree inc. Of which you are currently already known as the head of its security department under the name of Manfred Smidt.” Grandpa began. “Because of recent developments in the local terrorist organizations, he has requested the best of the best be placed in charge of his security detail. He is expecting his new security chief in the middle of next week. You will need that long to learn a new shielding technique that Moevin will be teaching you. Plus you need to spend time with your wife and daughter and the newest addition to our family, your second wife.” Grandpa smiled at me. “The wedding to your second wife will be postponed until you complete this operation. I don’t expect it to take longer than three months to put your plans in place and provide the best loophole free security arrangements around Blackthorn. Once that is done Blackthorn will mysteriously disappear from his inner office.”

“If he has such good security around him how is this supposed to happen?” I asked somewhat confused.

“Quite simple, Jason. By then your second wife will have trained Katie in the necessary technique of Teleportation.” He replied.

“What?” I asked, shocked.

“So you failed to notice during all the time you were with Katie that she is probably the strongest mentally capable human, besides yourself, on the face of this Earth?” Grandpa stated. “It was Katie who kept you anchored to Earth during the time you went through your first training on Origan, with some assistance from your grandmother of course and you failed to notice that she mind spoke with you earlier. Mimi has been pushing her training hard since you left and she is fairly capable now. Moevin will now assist in her training along with Irma. We all have our parts to do in this war but yours will be the most dangerous since you are the strongest of us and best trained.”

“Best trained?” I choked “I have made a mockery of my training Grandfather! I left and ran when I thought Katie was dead I joined the army to end my own life!”

“I know.” Grandfather stated.

“You knew that? How!” I exclaimed.

“Pasche I have trained you long enough to be able to anticipate how you will react to any form of crisis. We did what we had to do to have you in the proper place at the proper time to be able to protect as much of this region as we could. We knew we had lost most of North America before you were born and worked in the shadows to ensure that the region the Second Family was in was well protected. While Katie is important and Mia is crucial to the plan. The son your second wife will bear is the end goal of over a thousand generations of planned breeding.”

“I thought you told me that I was the end result of this planning?” I blurted.

“Actually you were not fully expected at this time but when you were born, I knew that you were a leap forward that we never expected. You will begin the battle that your son will win and what follows will be thousands of years of peace for the galaxy.” Grandpa Sam opened a door and motioned me inside. “This will be the center of your operation for the next few months. We will be returning with the Second Family to where you have been living with Irma. Katie and Mia will also be there. Mimi and I will be in a small place in the forest in back of where you live. Moevin will stay with Katie, Irma and Mia. You are forbidden to have contact with your family.”

“Why?” I wailed in pain. “I just got Katie back!”

“Because the target you will be assassinating is a Death Walker who has taken the form of General Blackthorn. And he cannot even suspect that you have any close ties or he will search out and destroy them.”

I stood stock still. “Blackthorn is a Death Walker? We are sure of this?”

“Absolutely. He was instrumental in designing the phase of their attack which wiped out Origan and he cannot be allowed to do the same here on Earth. During the time you build up his security force you will be gathering your own strength because it will be up to you to extract the information Op-free needs for the next stage of our offensive. Additionally you are probably the only one on Earth besides Moevin who has the capability of Mind-burning him.” Grandpa sat down on an easy chair and motioned for me to sit next to him.

“Mind-burn? Do you know what you are asking of me?” I asked.

“I am only vaguely aware of what it is and know I am not capable of doing it. If I tried I would probably burn myself out before I reached Blackthorn’s outer defenses. Moevin tried to explain it to me but it goes beyond what I can comprehend.” he replied.

This statement stopped me cold. As far as I knew my grandfather and grandmother’s minds were the most powerful I had encountered besides Moevin. For him to admit he could not comprehend something that I already knew showed me just how far Moevin had taken me in my training. I was not sure I had the jets to do what he was asking me to do.

‘You have more than enough for the task at hand,’ Moevin's mind-speak assured me from a distance.

‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ I replied. I studied my grandfather and made note that he apparently had not noticed the exchange.

‘We communicate on a level that far exceeds the capabilities of your grandfather or any other mind on this world currently.’ Moevin's cool and calm method of speaking soothed me.

I cleared my throat as Grandpa peered at me. “Moevin was assuring me that I could do what was needed.”

“I suspected that you two could communicated without me being able to hear it. Her mind and yours are closer together in capabilities than my mind will ever be.” He smiled back at me. “So you know what is expected of you and over the next few days you will be getting all the information you need. Now I believe there are three ladies who require your presence.”

Chapter 25 - Opfree

The next few days were crammed full of preparation for the operation during the daytime. In the evenings, I spent time with my family. Katie and Irma were fast becoming very close friends. This was an important development for me because I wanted them to get along. I learned more about the Second Family during this time. The disappearance of the third family nagged me but every time I tried to question my grandfather about them he would change the subject. I put down the report I was studying when I heard a knock on the door to the office I was using. “Come in.” I called.

A small man stepped through the door and walked to the front of the desk I sat behind. He came to attention and said. “Sergeant Bradford reporting for duty Major Smidt.”

I had been given the rank of Major in the new organization. I returned the salute and waved to a chair he was standing beside. “At ease and take a seat Sergeant.” I waited for him to sit, then stood up and walked to the coffee service that had been rolled in earlier. “How much have you been briefed on the operation? Coffee?”

“Yes thank you sir. I have been fully briefed by the General sir.” He took the cup of coffee, sipped it and waited for me to sit down again. “The full briefing without covers”

So he knew Smidt was a cover name. “Very well Sergeant. You are to be in charge of the extraction team and will remain outside the complex until you receive the signal from me. Additionally, you will guard the talent sent to you with your own life. She is more important to this operation than anyone in the platoon you will be in charge of.”

“Talent sir? Why is this person so important?” Bradford asked.

“Because she is my future wife Sergeant. While the men in your platoon and yourself are important, you have to insure she makes it out of any trouble that may arise alive. Failure is not an option. The fate of the human race hinges on this operation.” I sipped my coffee and peered at him over the edge of the cup watching his reaction at what I had just said.