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Agent Ted Cairns kneaded his forehead, the familiar pain re-surfacing. He could hear the voice in his head as clearly as the first time more than twenty years ago.
It's all coming together - just like we told you it would.
Yes, the prophecy was coming true. Not that he'd ever expected any different. Once he'd matured enough to understand the true nature of - his friend - he'd never doubted their power, or their willingness to sacrifice everything to get their dreams - his nightmares accomplished. There was a flaw in their plan, though. He knew that now, but he mustn't dwell on it, or they might hear him.
His superiors definitely would not be happy with him a few hours from now when they figured everything out, but he couldn't worry about that now. Things were set in motion that he didn't think anyone could control, but he was going to try anyways. What was the Bible passage his uncle used to quote about not serving two masters? Didn't matter, if he remembered correctly, that was referring to money, and his situation was far beyond that. Not to mention, he was effectively trying to serve three masters, and while he had so far been able to keep all of them targeted towards the same goal, they would all be at odds with each other soon enough.
His thoughts turned towards Theresa. The real one, not the pseudo-lover Dr. Flynn had tried to throw at him in containment. He hadn't thought of either of them in years. He wondered what she was doing now, his former flame. She probably went on to get married to some influential doctor or lawyer by now. Maybe become a teacher and settled down in some Midwest town. Even with his current government connections, he had never bothered to look her up. It would frustrate the voices in his head too much, and he couldn't afford that distraction. It was hard enough compartmentalizing what he could. Too much and his resolve would break down again, leaving too many players in this chess game vulnerable to forces they could barely understand.
Actually chess was not the right name for this game. More like Axis & Allies or Monopoly, everyone scrambling for their own control of as many pieces of the pie as they could grab. The one real question that had been plaguing him for some time, made more prevalent by recent events, was how many players were out there, really? There were the three he knew about, but Flynn had often hinted at others and there's no telling what that mad scientist did... after we broke his hold over us.
***********
Teresa sat straight up, suddenly wide awake. Realizing that she was naked, she looked down to see that she had been draped across a similarly naked, rather unattractive man who was quietly snoring. There was a sickly sweet taste in her mouth and she gagged, running to the hotel room sink to spit and get some water to rinse out her mouth. The next step was her clothes. They had to be somewhere.
Fully dressed, Teresa eased her way out of the hotel room into the bright sunny day. Although the last thing she remembered was being tied up in the attic, just before Deanna took over, she could surmise the rest pretty easily, based on where she had just woken up. Men had been hitting on her since she could remember, and she knew she was physically attractive, but she, Teresa, had never used her well-proportioned body to her advantage. The same was not true of Deanna. In fact, Deanna could not even conceive of paying for something if she could trade physical pleasure to get it, as she usually did.
The most disturbing thing about the process was what Devon had said to her once, before he escaped. She wasn't like the others - and it had nothing to do with her Hispanic heritage. Devon claimed that she wasn't possessed like her fellow cellmates - when Deanna took over, Teresa wasn't becoming someone else as much as she was becoming open to what she was really like, without her mental safeguards in place. Devon had stated that Deanna was Teresa's true nature - not some other being taking control. The worst memories were of when Deanna let her watch, helpless, as she stroked some poor schmuck's ego, then ravaged his body for food, shelter or a ride into town. Teresa shook her head, trying to dismiss the images from her mind. She needed her medicine - badly.
The fact that Deanna had so easily overcome her, after years of keeping her at bay was telling enough. Only there was something else. Her mind swam as images and half-memories twisted in her brain. How had she ended up locked in Mark Andrews' home? When she tried to remember it, she kept recalling two distinct paths that led to the Mustang in the fields. In one, she came to Indiana investigating Andrews, and in the other she lived there herself. It was like a dream sequence, where she started on one course of action for a certain reason, then switched to another, from a different point of view. The really scary part was that she couldn't determine which one was really her - really the truth. Making heads or tails of it was going to be next to impossible. Flynn had warned her that this might happen. She definitely needed her medicine if she was suddenly living with three divergent psyches in her mind.
*******
The cell phone ringing drew Agent Cairns out of his reverie. "Yes? Yes, sir, Mr. Nolan. No, no, so far, it's just the three of them, but I have a hunch that there are more out there. We may need to increase the search matrix, but I want to talk to these three first, see if we can find anything that connects them, that we can use to narrow the search at the same time. Yes, sir, of course sir. I'll keep you briefed."
Cairns flipped the phone closed and sighed heavily. He was sure that the memory wipes were starting to wear off, which was good and bad news for his mission. Everything would have to be accelerated, without letting too many into the loop. Still, the department's lack of knowledge and understanding of the information they did have had forced him to conduct business in this fashion. Becoming a covert triple agent, the likes of which had never before been seen.
Despite understanding now what had happened, he still couldn't help regret killing Janus - which made the latest anomaly even more interesting. Mark and Teresa made sense, but this third person was identified as Janus - and judging by what had happened earlier this week, he had picked up right where Janus' life had left off 20 years prior. Someone's guilty conscious perhaps taking over? In his years of experience with the relic and the voices, he had learned that the power was almost limitless, but there was nothing that superseded the finality of death, except in comic books and Bible stories.
Taking a deep draught of his coffee, he opened the files once again. Once things started happening, he would need to work on auto-pilot, not taking time to try and recall obscure details that could mean life or death for himself and his charges. The best way to handle that was to have the information so deeply ingrained that he wouldn't have to think about it - he could just react.
Halfway through the packet, he stopped suddenly, almost spilling coffee on himself. That doesn't make sense. He read and re-read the description. Read it again. He flipped open the cell phone and dialed.
"Mr. Nolan please. Yes, I'll hold... Mr. Nolan, I'm sorry to bother you, but I was just reviewing the data again and I noticed something that I was curious about. The description of David McCorville. Yes, I know he's ancillary to this investigation, but Agent... Fitting did note that he made contact with Andrews, and we believe that he attempted to contact Bloomgarden as well. He might be more of a factor than we thought at first, and it's my job to prepare for those contingencies. Yes, sir. Yes. Well, sir, it indicates that McCorville is a white male. Is that correct? Yes, sir, I know it seems like a stupid question, but I'm just trying to correlate the data... Yes, sir. Understood. Thank you sir."
*******
February 1985
"Teresa isn't like the rest of us, sir, she doesn't below. Let me eliminate her."
"Now, Devon, please tell me this isn't a racist thing."
Please, Doctor. This has nothing to do with the color of her skin. We tolerate McCorville and he's the darkest one.
"Devon, please. I've asked you before to speak to me face to face, not mind to mind. You don't want to have to go to your room, do you?"
Do you really think YOU'RE in charge here, Doctor?
The voice in his head dripped with sarcasm and an unspoken threat.
"It's not my fault. You know I can't control it, Dr. Flynn," Devon whimpered softly.
And it won't be long before these - precautions - you've put in place won't help either. The end is coming Doctor - you'd better prepare.
Believe me, Devon, I'm preparing.
Not enough. Not nearly enough.
*******
Cairns sat dazed by the memory. Although he had no blocks like the others, he hated thinking about those days - and what he had done. A few days later, he had proved true to "his" threat, taking out the nosy reporter who had somehow located the secret base.
He had stayed with Dr. Flynn a little while longer, pretending to obey. Long enough to learn some surprising things about Dr. Flynn's research; things about their true nature that even the voices hadn't completely understood. Things that he often wished he hadn't learned. The prophecy - legend - whatever you chose to call it, for one thing.
If only McManus had actually made it there, taken away the relic as had been planned. If only. Of course, if that had happened... The problem with premonitions and such was that even if you believed they were true - which the voices did, surprisingly - you can't do anything about it, since you don't know what choices will lead you to that particular point in time. If McManus had taken things out of Flynn's hands, things might have turned out the same - or even worse.
Still, the voices tolerated Flynn because they believed that his - abominations - might be necessary. Might. Cairns was determined to prove that they were wrong - one way or another.
The truth could be an elusive beast at times - especially lately. He checked his watch. McCorville - or the person the military thought was McCorville - would be here soon. Then they could get to the bottom of this Janus business and maybe locate Teresa as well. It seemed they were all becoming intertwined without even realizing why. He stood and stretched. It was time for another conversation with Mark.
*******
Janus rubbed the sleep from the corners of his eyes, unsure of how long he had been asleep on the bus.
The bus? Right. The abduction, the funny little man.
He couldn't recall when he fell asleep, but he had been dreaming and he knew that the woman's identity was on the tip of his mind. Just like him to wake up right before everything was resolved in his mind. Although, he was safe and the woman was... somewhere else.
There's got to be a reason I feel this longing in my soul when I think of her. What does she mean to me?
A moment later, something else occurred to him. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but it didn't look like he was in Fort Wayne anymore. Or Indiana for that matter.
And where is everyone else that was on the bus? I can't be the only one here.
He moved to the front of the bus and tapped the driver on the shoulder.
"Um, excuse me... Mister... Bus Driver, sir?"
"Please move behind the white line, sir."
This wasn't the guy who was driving the bus before... How long had he been asleep?
"Where are you taking me and where is the other bus driver?"
"Behind the white line, please, sir."
The bus driver stood up and turned away from the wheel. The bus swerved and Janus lurched at the seat back to his right.
"What the heck do you think you're doing...?"
The bus swung to the left as the bus driver's hand filled Janus' vision.
Darkness.
*******
The aspirin helped, but Teresa's head was still pounding. She wondered what Deanna ingested prior to or during her amorous escapade. She hoped it was only one this time.
Forcing her mind away from the puerile images, she considered what to do next. In both of her conflicting memories, she had been with a man claiming to be Janus, which probably meant at least that much was true. The name seemed somewhat familiar, but she wasn't quite sure why - or whether she should care. Part of the curse of living with Deanna was the possibility that she had met someone before, during one of her spells or, as was more often the case, ruined friendships and unfortunate affairs when Deanna said or did something that betrayed the other person or led them to believe something about their relationship that wasn't true.
Mark Andrews was a different situation. She couldn't remember if he was good or bad, but she knew he didn't remember who she was, but Janus had appeared to be shocked by the fact he recognized her. In a perfect world, she'd just go home, but without her medicine, she wasn't entirely sure where that was, and in at least one of her memories, her home had been destroyed. Finding Dr. Flynn seemed like the best bet. There was a pay phone down the street by the diner. One phone call and she'd be right as rain - whatever that meant.
Picking up the receiver, she dialed the number she had memorized years before. A series of rings, then the familiar clicks and whirrs that signified she was being transferred through the electronic checkpoint. A long pause - longer than she remembered - and a voice at the other end of the line.
"Be Ge's Pizza, will this be carry out or delivery?"
"I'm sorry. I'm looking for Dr. Joseph Flynn."
"Nope wrong number. You want a pizza or what?"
"Uh, no. No thank you."
She hung up. Now what?
*******
Blinking hard, Cairns focused on the Mark that everyone else saw, forcing his mind to dismiss the elderly face and broad shoulders that he couldn't help but see. A failsafe, Flynn had called it. A way for you to tell each other apart from the uninformed world quickly. He remembered David in particular hated the image.
"How come I gotta see some old white guy when I look in the mirror?"
"It's the price of your power, young man," Flynn had demurred.
"Well it better be worth it."
"Trust me - you don't have much of a choice, and you'll thank me later."
The memories were harder to displace than the superimposed image on his eyes, but now Mark was looking at him strangely, so he had better get to it.
"Mr. Andrews, earlier this week you were contacted by a man who claimed to be suffering from amnesia of some sort. He believed his name might have been David, but he wasn't even sure of that, is that correct?"
"That pretty much covers it, I guess. Although how you know, I've got no idea. You have a bug in my office? Cause the last time I checked, those things were illegal without a warrant."
"No, sir. There are no listening devices in your office or home. We have our sources. Let's just say that Ms. Fitting is not as dull as you might first believe."
That got his attention. He knew that Andrews had never made a move on Wanda, but he saw now that Mark had never considered the possibility that she might have something to offer besides her girlish figure. Although he wanted to wait until he had all four of his subjects together, it was time to throw some information at Andrews, soften him up for the big blow later.
"Do you know why you drink so much, Mr. Andrews?"
"I'm pretty sure it's my ex-wife."
"Uh, no, Mr. Andrews. While Andrea was not the right woman for you, which you realized in time, she is not the source of your woes. She and your unfortunate marriage and divorce are merely symptoms of what's really bothering you."
"Okay, I'll bite. What is really bothering me?"
"You feel alone."
"Great. Thanks, Dr. Phil. So glad you could kill two people, destroy my home while 'saving' my life, and drag me down here to lock me up and tell me I'm having a mid-life crisis. Can I just pick up my hug on the way out?"
"The difference is, Mr. Andrews, is that you ARE alone. You are unique in this world, and not in a grandmotherly, God created us all and no two snowflakes are the same different, but REALLY different. Mr. Andrews, you feel alone in the world because there are only a handful of people who can actually understand what you're going through and you're separated from them."
*******
McCorville was asleep again. Agent Forrester had no idea what had happened moments earlier. The man had stood up, moved towards the front of the bus, then started having an argument with someone who wasn't there. Then he had thrown himself into the seat and passed out again. The sooner he got the kid to Project Zeitgeist, the better. He had heard strange things about some of the research PRI did and he had no desire to spend any more time with one of their "persons of interest" than necessary. Unfortunately, he needed to use the rest room, so short pit stop would be necessary.
Pulling into the rest area, he noticed with some satisfaction that it seemed rather deserted.
Good, the less attention the better.
He parked the bus, shut the doors and locked them from the outside. No sense taking the chance of losing his charge if he suddenly woke up again. He hurried to the non-descript rest area facilities, not noticing the Hispanic woman in the shadows until she strode right up to him. Caught off guard, the first thing he noticed was that she was wearing a lot less clothing than he would have expected for the weather. His eyes strayed to her half-exposed, well-tanned chest as she rubbed up against him and he suddenly didn't need to go the bathroom quite so badly anymore. She laced her tongue into his mouth and slowly moved around him, wrapping her arms around his chest, whispering in his ear.
"I'm so cold. Would you share your - body heat - with me," she cooed.
He grunted quietly, took her hands in his and turned around, almost dancing with her. She giggled delightedly right before he slipped his cuffs out of his belt and onto her wrists. Although momentarily taken aback, she quickly recovered.
"Oh, are you into pain, big..."
"Sweetheart, save it. You've got the moves, but I've got orders and you just made my job a whole lot easier."
Locking Teresa in the bus with McCorville, Forrester hurried back to the restrooms to relieve himself.
"Two birds with one stone. Gotta like that."
*******
"I understand your frustration, Mr. Andrews, but I have tried to treat you with respect, and I'd appreciate the same from you."
"Sorry, I just,"
Cairns pager went off. He checked the text message then mumbled something under his breath. He turned to Mark.
"Never mind that now. The good news is, I have a couple of the people who can and do understand what you're going through on their way here."
"The other two anomalies you told me about earlier?"
"Well, yes and no. There seems to be some confusion about the identity of one of the men, so there may actually be four anomalies, but that's of little consequence now. I have asked that a room be prepared for you on base. Understand, you can't go wherever you please, because we're concerned for your safety, but we're going to do our best to make you feel as comfortable as possible. I'll see you in the morning."
Cairns stepped out and locked the door behind him. He turned to the guard.
"Please have quarters set up and dinner brought for Mr. Andrews. He'll be our guest tonight."
Opening the cell phone, he hit redial.
"Yes, Mr. Nolan, you were informed? Yes, out other two guests should be here overnight. Yes, I'll meet with all three in the morning and establish how we want to proceed. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."
*******
Teresa woke with a start. This was getting old. She looked around. Judging by the way she was dressed - or barely so - and the fact she was handcuffed? Deanna must have taken control again. She didn't even remember the change, only hanging up the phone and then waking up here.
"Excuse me."
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Are these cuffs really necessary?"
"I'm afraid so, ma'am. Can't have you trying to seduce me again. I gotta drive the bus and your friend over there creates enough trouble as it is, without me having to worry about two of you."
Friend?
She carefully maneuvered herself to a standing position and moved up to where the driver had appeared to be waving. Sleeping in a rather cockeyed position was the person who had called himself Janus. Or was it David? Either way, now she knew where he was - as much as it helped either of them.
*******
At about 4am, Lt. Stevens woke him.
"Our guests are here. I thought you might want to debrief them before they meet our other detainee."
"Yes, thank you. Put them in the holding cell with Tombs while I freshen up. We'll see if that helps them remember anything."
*******
Agent Forrester hauled Janus onto his left shoulder, then took a hold of Teresa's still cuffed hands, escorting her off of the bus. She looked around, curious about her surroundings. It appeared to be a military base of some sort.
Good, lots of men who haven't had a woman in a while. At least a woman who looks like me.
She jerked as if she'd been slapped. Forrester looked at her strangely.
"You're not going to try something again, are you?"
"No, no, I just dozed off for a second, I guess."
The lie, thank God, came easier to her than she expected. She was still reeling from hearing Deanna's voice in her head. Except it hadn't been Deanna's voice. The words and thoughts were her own, but she didn't recognize them. She needed her medicine; needed to lock Deanna away somewhere where she couldn't trouble anyone again. But it was becoming harder and harder to separate between her own thoughts and the voice smiling inside her.
Forrester stopped at a plain grey door and released Teresa enough to knock twice. A large, imposing man opened the door, and again Teresa found herself fighting not to notice his stature and poise with lustful thoughts. Forrester handed Janus to Tombs, who, with one hand propelled Janus into the room and to a chair. Janus slumped in the chair, still out of it. Tombs then removed Teresa's handcuffs and directed her to a similar chair on the other side of the table.
"You can go now."
Forrester didn't waste any time climbing back on the bus and leaving Fort Campbell behind - he hoped forever.
*******
Cairns watched Teresa and "Janus" through the glass. Whoever he was, the man was definitely not Janus or David, but someone apparently though he was. Judging from their surveillance, someone, possibly tainted, had greeted the man when he got to work as David and he had accepted it until he made contact with Andrews at which point his mind fractured. Whoever thought he was McCorville obviously didn't have accurate intel, or wasn't very well trained, or they would have known immediately that he wasn't David. No matter how the relic altered you, there's no way it could have turned David's skin white. He clicked the intercom speaker on as Tombs was asking a question.
"...your full name?"
"Janus Robertson. I told you that already."
"And I'm going to keep asking you until you start telling me the truth."
"Look, I don't know why I'm here or what's going on. I woke up this morning with a hangover and things have been going downhill ever since. Look, I don't even know for sure who this woman is - she just jumped in my car, and... Oh crap! My car. Do you know where my Mustang is at? I left it in Fort Wayne, and, and..."
Cairns shook his head. Something was going on here; the real Janus would never have identified himself in that manner. Janus was a role-playing moniker. The real Janus was Randy Robertson's cousin, Peter and would have called himself that in the "real" world. Someone had planted these memories in Peter's mind, without knowing all the facts. That meant someone outside of the original project. Another chess player.
Teresa had her head down, eyes closed, refusing to look at either of the other two people in the room. Judging by Forrester's radioed in report and the vibes he was sensing off her, she was having trouble controlling her MPD again. Probably ran out of medicine and Deanna took over before she could get more. All Flynn had ever done for her was make things worse. Anyone else in her shoes would have spent years in psychotherapy, learning to consolidate her personalities into a whole. Flynn, however, had ignored the symptoms and in fact praised her dissociative behavior as signs that exposure was working, giving her positive reinforcement. What he did when Deanna came out was even more despicable, capitalizing on the trauma of being sexually abused by her father to prove to her time and again that all men only wanted one thing from women.
However, neither of them appeared to recognize their old chaperone/bodyguard. He sighed quietly and clicked the intercom.
"Mr. Tombs, that will be enough."
Tombs looked annoyed, but quickly exited the room.
"I wanted to work on him some more."
"I know, Tombs, but I honestly don't think he knows who he is, and Teresa needs her medicine. I am having quarters prepared. Please escort them to their rooms and get Teresa what she needs. You're the only one who can deal with her in her present state."
"I know, and if I ever find Flynn again, I'll kill him myself, personally. He had no place doing what he did to you children - any of you."
"I know, and you did what you could, my friend." Cairns paused, considering. He hated to put Tombs in this position, but he could use the man's muscle and commitment to their cause. "We're going to need your help more than ever now. Are you up for it?"
"Just say the word. You know I'll always protect you."
"Good. It's good to have someone like you at our backs. We'll debrief all three of them in the morning. Take care of Teresa and get yourself some rest. I have a funny feeling none of us is going to be resting again for some time."
*******
Cairns looked at the three of them standing there, in his mind's eye picturing them as he had last seen them, almost twenty years prior. He was sure none of them recognized him now, with or without the memory block. That was good, because he needed their unequivocal cooperation and if they knew who he had once been, they would never listen to him.
"I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot of time to communicate to you what's going on. Once the powers that be discover what I've done, time will get very short, very quickly. I've already told Mark some of the recent history and he can fill you in while we're moving, but I need to give you some groundwork before we leave the base so you understand exactly what we're up against."
He could see that they were hesitant to accept what he was saying, which would make the next part even more unbearable, but he had to have them on his side, or the whole world would pay the price.
"Are any of you familiar with the Knights Templar?"
"You mean 'The Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon'?" Teresa asked.
Right, Teresa was always the scholar - even before she was tampered with.
"Yes, Miss Bloomgarden; the Knights of Solomon. Back in the 1307, the Knights were arrested and disbanded,"
"Officially."
"Yes, officially, and according to reports the 'poor soldiers' had amassed a large storeroom of wealth and relics from across the Holy Land and Europe. In fact, the legend of the treasure was the basis for a hit movie last year."
He could see Teresa inhaling and calming herself before she launched into a tear on the stupidity of the film and its lack of historical accuracy. Unfortunately, as much as he'd enjoy the discussion, he had no time for either.
"What the history books and the popular fictional theories left out was one particular relic of special interest to me - and you, once you understand its significance. In 1218, a select group of Knights found themselves pinned down by Saladin's forces trying to make their way back to the Temple of Solomon. Searching for a way out, they were forced to seek shelter in what was known as the Sacred Cave - where the Crusaders claimed Christ was buried. Not wishing to dishonor the resurrection place of the Christ, the Knights moved deeper into the cave, discovering, quite accidentally, a hidden passage behind the platform where Christ was laid. In that passage, they discovered the Templar's greatest unknown treasure - an ancient relic they called The Singularity.
"The details are sketchier than usual at this point, but we know that the three men who survived to leave the cave committed to protecting the Singularity from everyone - including their Templar commanders. Shortly thereafter, they began calling themselves the Clerics of Tsion."
"Okay, forgive me, here, but I'm totally lost. What does any of this have to do with us?"
Cairns grimaced. Despite the fact this man looked nothing like the David he had once known, there were obvious similarities. The problem was there was just too much incredible information to explain, and he was spending too much time on the back story and not enough on what mattered most. The problem of having more information that the rest of the world and feeling the desperate need to convince these people of how important it was that they help him - follow him.
"I'm sorry, 'David,' I'm getting to the point, if you'll just bear with me a few more minutes."
"Go ahead."
"Okay, short version... Unlike the story in the movie, most of the Templar treasure was, in fact, captured when armies took the island of Cypress. However, a few select items, including the Singularity, were escorted by the Clerics to the Round Church in London, and then moved with King George's forces to the Americas for safe keeping.
"One thing the history books don't record was that at one time the Sacred Cave was the location of a temple for the worship of the goddess Venus. We believe that, at least in this instance, Venus was a real person."
"Waitaminute, I've seen this movie..."
"Thanks, Mark. The humor is appreciated, but misplaced. The only reason I mention this is because, years later when the Singularity was examined, it was found to have consistent characteristics with being of extra-terrestrial origin."
Cairns paused for a second to let it all sink in, and was rewarded when all three of them began speaking simultaneously. They caught themselves and by unspoken agreement let Teresa act as spokesperson.
"Are you actually telling us that this relic was from another planet?"
*****
Doctor Joseph Flynn checked his pager for the fourth time that morning. Someone - almost certainly one of the children - had tried to contact him through the old channels. The first such contact he'd had in almost a decade. That could mean one of two things. Either one of his enhanced children had been accidentally reset, or time was counting down to the fulfillment of the prophecy. Or both, he mused silently. Either way, things were about to get very interesting.
Probably too interesting for a man in my condition.
Despite the fact that he did not have the correct genetic markers for the Singularity to alter him like the children, it had provided him with some interesting side-effects. He was pretty sure now he knew what Bilbo Baggins had felt at the end of The Lord of the Rings - stretched too thin, physically and mentally. Still, if the prophecy was about to come true than it had all been worth it. The only problem now was, how to ensure that "his" children were the ones who provided the fulfillment and not the outsiders.
He picked up the cell phone and dialed a number he hadn't used for years.
*****
"I know what you're all thinking. It's not as far-fetched as it seems, believe it or not. There is a lot of rock and debris that fall to the earth all the time. You just aren't aware of it. This was an exception. It is believed that the Singularity was derived from the same matter as Excalibur and the Spear of Longinus."
Cairns held up his hands to stop the onslaught before it began.
"This will take even longer than it already has if you keep interrupting me. I'm going to ask that you trust for the moment that everything I am telling you is true. Believe me, there is detailed proof of all of this in our files, but I really am short on time. Which is why I'll move to the bottom line. You, along with a select group of others, were exposed to the Singularity - one way or the other - without your knowledge years ago. This exposure... changed you. It's the reason you are different from everyone else around you. It's one of the reasons you don't recall your childhood. At least, not as well as you should. Unfortunately, the mental blocks are peeling away from your memories and you're starting to remember each other - which is why you started to seek each other out - and why you caught the attention of my agency."
He paused again. This was going to be the hardest part. Once he went down this road, he could not turn back. They looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish.
"The problem is, most of what I just told you, PRI is unaware of. For reasons which will soon become obvious, I have kept them in the dark as to the true nature of your being, as well as my own."
Teresa was the first to catch the implication of his words.
"Wait, are you saying that you've been, what, altered like us?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying. The part I haven't explained fully yet has to do with a legend, prophecy, whatever you want to call it. Regardless, it speaks of a time like now when two worlds would collide and the human race as we know it ends. I intend to stop that, by any means possible - and I need your help to do it."
"Wait - are you drafting us into your 'army'? What if we don't want to fight this war for you?"
"I'm afraid, David, that you don't have a choice at this point. It's not whether you fight, it's which side you're on. The human race will go on. If we're going to do this, we have to move now, while we're still somewhat veiled in secrecy. I've worked very hard to try and prevent this day from coming, but fate is a funny thing. I don't have the right to ask you, but... Will you stand with me?"
*****
The phone rang once before it was picked up.
"Martin Phelps here."
"Lucius."
"Doctor Flynn, I've told you not to use that name anymore."
"Relax, Marty. If it wasn't for me and my friends, you'd still be the pimply-faced kid in the back of the class, dreaming of being a real wizard so you could win the hearts of girls you'd seen in magazines. You should be offering me respect, not disdain."
Why did you call me Doctor?
Flynn shuddered involuntarily. How powerful had Phelps become if he could reach out and speak into a mind thousands of miles away? Even the original children had only been able to reach across a few hundred feet, and usually they had to be able to see the person they were talking to. Of course, none of them had immersed themselves into studying the Singularity the way Phelps had, nor had their minds been quite so - malleable.
He realized that he hadn't answered yet.
"Yes, Martin. The reason for my call is, well, it appears that events are finally falling into place so that the prophecy can finally come true. It is time to move towards our destiny. You are the strongest of my charges, so I wanted to contact you first."
"The fact is, Doctor, that it was never your destiny. It is mine to claim and I will have it, along with anyone else I want along the way. Besides, you don't even know where the rest of your 'children' are. I can and will find each and every one of them. They can join me or join you."
"Join me? What do you mean by...?"
Doctor, you know EXACTLY what I mean.
Flynn heard a noise quite like rushing water, then felt a ripping sensation that seemed to come from inside his head. His face paled, taking on a waxy sheen right before he toppled to the ground. The last thing he remembered was the sound of laughter in his mind.
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