Invisible Dawn Page 22

  Jedd motioned the others to him for a quiet warning, “Don’t believe a word that man says. Keep your eyes open and your guard up.”

  The others nodded, each having come to a similar conclusion, or at least trusting Jedd’s instincts. With that, they went their own ways. Roger and Daniel retired to their rooms to rest for the following day, while Jedd and Madelin continued to partake in Alain’s elaborate library.

  After hours of study, they found their way to separate rooms and Jedd left her with a cautionary word of advice, “Block the door with something, a chair, anything. And if you need me, I’m across the hall.”

  “Okay,” she replied before entering her room. “Thanks.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 20: We All Have Secrets

  Before long, the day’s exertions took their toll and Altran fell fast asleep, but a muffled murmur of “No, no, no,” alerted him to the loud silence that followed. He resolved that the words were just in his head, a fleeting dream, when a resounding thud vibrated through the wall above his head. A masculine voice pleaded through the paper thin walls, “No … I can’t … no.” Daniel’s room was next to his, and the cries sent Jedd hurtling out the door and into the adjoining room.

  The veteran lay sprawled across the bed as though flailing in mid fall, exposed to the world like a newborn babe. Sweat coursed over every inch of his scarred hide, reflecting the moons’ rays back at the window on the opposite side of the room. The scarred veteran’s damp sheets had been thrown aside in violent, dream-filled throes. Jedd closed the door and pulled a chair up to his bedside. Daniel’s memories truly tormented the weathered man.

  Jedd reached over and grasped the man’s shoulder. Daniel awoke with a start that left him posed in Roman immortality. His eyelids flared open, but saw nothing. He delved through Jedd and beyond. His eyes were consumed in an endless ocean of tumultuous questions, and dark, cresting waves of regret.

  “Daniel…?” He gave it an instant to sink in before repeating, “Daniel … it’s me, Jedd. Wake up.”

  His eyes soon came into focus. Daniel spied his late night visitor and rasped with concern, “Hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

  “No, no … nothing like that,” Jedd reassured him.

  “Then why are you here?” A cool breeze alerted him to his state of indecency, and he threw a sweaty sheet over his torso, for propriety’s sake.

  “You were having a hell of a dream, bud.”

  Shame entered the man's eyes with the very mention of the memory, disturbing the mask of solidity and strength he wore every waking moment.

  “Was it the same dream you told me about?” prompted Jedd.

  “Yes,” Daniel croaked.

  “Look, I think I can help.”

  “How so?” Daniel asked, his tone giving away his skepticism.

  “Well, there’s a bit more to what I can do than Madelin and I have let on. You know I can project myself elsewhere in the world while I’m asleep, but something we figured out … really by accident … was that I can enter someone’s thoughts and see their dreams. I was even able to talk to Madelin when she was awake, while I was resting in her mind. So, I think I might be able to speak with you while you’re dreaming. It might help.”

  The suggestion was intriguing, but Daniel had never let anyone know about his nightmares until meeting Roger and Jedd. That was a huge step for the well guarded man. What Jedd was proposing violated every rule he had on privacy. But each night was like reliving a hell of his own making. If Jedd was even half right, this could relieve him of the stressful burden he carried every day. With nothing left to hide, Daniel agreed.

  Jedd left the room and reentered his own. Slinking back under his covers, he tried to prepare for a different sleep than he had awoken from minutes before. As he drifted toward unconsciousness he changed the momentum of his dreamlike fall, pushing himself outward in search of Daniel. The familiar tunnel was shorter this time, allowing him to slip into the reality of his personal bedroom.

  Standing at his own bedside and looking at his limp body was unnerving. He watched the uneasiness he felt appear in the expression of his unconscious body. A sarcastic thought came to mind and attempted to break his nervous stare. This gives new meaning to being beside yourself.

  Jedd chuckled, then pried his eyes from the sleeping body and looked up at the wall separating the two rooms. He stepped through, bypassing the limitations of mortal reality, and approached Daniel’s bedside. Jedd surveyed his sleeping form. Although he had not been asleep long, his eyes twitched, wincing in agitation. The dreams had already begun their relentless attack. With a thought Jedd delved into his mind, transporting himself into a world he had only heard about. He was unprepared for what he found in Daniel’s nightmarish truths.

  Desert wilderness surrounded him, bordered by a mountainous cliff of escaped boulders and rock. It was as though God had left his footprint in the ground ages ago. After millennia of wind erosion, all that was left was the underlying stone and billions of grains of sand. They stood as mute witnesses to the being’s passing.

  In the crook of the footprint stood a small town composed of mud and thatch houses. An archaic well sat in the center of town, the one obvious water source for the denizens of this small community. On any other day it would have been bustling with people carrying out their daily chores and business. On this day, however, the town was a flurry of activity as the middle-eastern residents ran in terror. Their robes streamed behind them, giving the assaulting soldiers a handle to grasp them by.

  Armed corpses littered the desert streets, their faces masked by cloth wraps. The ends of some facial coverings came undone, fluttering to life in the wind. They revealed dust encrusted eyes and vacant stares cast at the blazing sun overhead. A small contingency of dead Black Force agents were lined at the cliff base, as though awaiting their turn to enter the afterlife. The caustic wind blew, coating the bodies and allowing pockets of sand to build up in every wrinkle and crevice.

  Jedd pulled his eyes from the morbid sight and found a familiar face sticking out above desert fatigues. Daniel was much younger and had not attained the salty grey peppering his crew cut hair. He held a flaming torch aloft, willing himself to light the roof of the small thatch hut. After a moment’s hesitation, he pulled it away and turned to another camouflaged man.

  In the center of the chaos, the older, more confident man barked, “Soldier, you know what they’ve done. I thought you knew better than to question my orders, boy.” The last word was tinged with disappointment and anger. He leapt down from the small rock wall and marched up behind Daniel. He raised his voice, intending for his family in Alabama to hear the tongue lashing he was about to administer. “Did you hear me, boy?”

  “Yes, sir,” Daniel shouted, although his hand was still unwilling to cross the distance.

  “Then why the hell aren’t you doing what you’re told?”

  Daniel’s eardrums throbbed from the verbal onslaught. His training told him to follow his orders, but his body was still reluctant. “Sir, I can’t,” he replied, turning back to the small home as his inner struggle rose to a climax.

  Jedd watched Daniel’s immobilized gaze delve through the cracks in the white-washed walls. The commander was relentless, but Jedd knew from their earlier conversation that his attention was not on the officer hounding him from behind. It was transfixed on the eyes of the victimized children inside.

  Jedd crossed the distance, invisible to both men. Although somewhat shorter than Daniel, the damage to the home allowed them both to peer into the shadowed room. Sun darkened faces streaked with tears peered out at them. They were vague, but visible in the crisscross of shadows under the makeshift roof. Some squatted in the corner, eyes locked on the floor, while others stared at nothing. Still more of the dozen children pled with Daniel over the cries of their mothers and grandparents.

  It was astonishing how many people were huddled within the small home. The house itself could not have covered mo
re than two hundred square feet, yet the Black Force agents had stuffed it full, as though it were a Nazi cattle car awaiting transport of its Holocaust cargo.

  But transport to where? The answer came to him as the torch in Daniel’s clenched hands flared in the abrasive wind. Sheltered in an insubstantial corner of Daniel’s consciousness, Jedd could sense the conflicting emotions flowing through his friend. The ends of the soldier’s fingers dug into the warm wood and rivulets of blood leaked from under his fingernails. Daniel stood entranced, unaware of the splinters embedding themselves deeper. The youthful soldier was caught between morality and ingrained military training. He pitied the young man for the decision he was forced to make, one that would haunt him this day and the next, until his dying breath.

  A firm shove from behind broke his gaze and brought him back to the moment. “You have your orders, Soldier, or do I have to do it my damn self?” the commander snarled, standing inches behind Daniel.

  His restraint subsided as his regret grew. Daniel’s hand came down on the dry roof. It ignited as though doused in petrol. Daniel watched the flames engulf the inhabited home. They leapt from his hand to the roof, consuming his soul. The conflagration surged across the dry thatch, roaring as it spread. But even the devouring inferno was no match for the power with which the innocent screams grew.

  The voices flooded his consciousness, fighting to overwhelm him. Jedd could sense invisible arms reaching out and grasping Daniel’s sleeping body. They attempted to submerge him, miring him in deep waters of unconsciousness. He fought for every breath, flinging the invisible attackers away and striving to reach the surface. This was the frightful brawl Daniel battled each night … tearing at the world around him … ripping away linens and anything within reach as he fought for breath. Consciousness was the salvation he sought.

  This isn’t working, thought Jedd. This isn’t the way. Daniel’s won this battle every night for years, but the war is endless. It’ll never end unless he tries something else.

  Jedd spoke to the man standing next to him, thankful of the smooth connection this staticless world provided, “Daniel, listen to me.” His calm, measured tones were soothing, but Daniel’s frantic fight for air allowed just a trickle of his voice to filter through.

  “Daniel, listen, it’s Jedd.” The familiar name was enough to break his struggle, but only for an instant. “Daniel, I’m here with you. Don’t worry, everything’ll be fine. You’ve been fighting for too long. Stop. I have another way.”

  The calm reassurance Jedd offered and the trust they had were enough. Jedd sensed a subconscious change as Daniel’s arms stopped clawing at the bed. Unseen hands grasped his ankles, pulling him down into the recesses of his nightmare. While the younger memory of Daniel stood watching the flames in mute horror, a single tear betrayed the memory and his decision to give in to their wishes.

  “We’re our own harshest critics, Daniel. What you feel are the hands of fate. They don’t want to destroy you. They want to teach you. Hear what they have to say,” Jedd pleaded. The words came to Jedd unbidden and without thought, yet he knew them to be true. Then a tingle of anticipation grew in his gut as he felt the grip of unseen hands take hold of his feet, too.

  The hands held them in the memory, forcing them to watch as the building crumbled and fell inward. Burning masses of brick and roof collapsed upon the waiting victims as their eyes condemned their executioners. One pair of bright eyes and then another were extinguished in the smoke filled darkness as the burning home collapsed. The haunting whites of their eyes disappeared like candles snuffed out in a stiff breeze. More tears flowed down the young soldier’s cheeks as he watched the atrocity, torch in hand.

  Without warning, the world changed. It was as though they were in a slot machine of memories and someone pulled the lever. Hundreds of images spun by at a dizzying pace, racing against time as hands of fate searched for the right one. Jedd caught snippets of some that were familiar. Not from a recent time, but from an earlier period in his life. Images of his son and wife slid past like a jumbled collection of film strips running along the reel.

  Wait … I know these people, thought Jedd as fragments from his past flew by on the wheel. What the hell? I thought this was Danny’s nightmare.

  Daniel glanced over at the man he had just come to trust, knowing the images flashing before him were not his own. Jedd was engrossed, his eyes glued to the rapid flowing filmstrip. The reel began to slow, settling on one likeness of still life.

  The memory it depicted was one Jedd regretted every day, but if given the choice again, his decision would remain the same. A youthful Jedd Altran pulled up to a quaint blue and white lake house one star filled night. Except for the few houses huddled across the lake, the world was devoid of life. Madelin’s family home had stood within sight, but was now reduced to rubble; invisible in the picture. As their eyes searched the slide, it loomed closer, growing as time sped up. A sudden shove sent them hurling toward the picture and cast them into the memory itself.

  They stood in the fresh mown lawn and watched Jedd’s younger self get out of the dark sedan and retreat to the open trunk. Reassured that no one was watching, he pulled a black body bag from the trunk and hefted the six foot object over his shoulder. He carried it across the lawn and under the wooden sign that welcomed all who entered the Altran household.

  Daniel watched in disbelief as the young computer programmer passed the two men. His assumptions were confirmed when he saw a trademark stamped on one end of the bag, Anderson Mortuary. Daniel glanced at the doorway with furrowed brows as Jedd’s younger self disappeared.

  “Was that what I think it was?” asked Daniel with a curious glance.

  “Just watch,” Jedd replied. “I’ll explain later.”

  Jedd nodded at the door and both men entered to find Altran’s memory unzipping the body bag on the floor, revealing a lifeless shell of a man lying naked. He was young, about the same age as Jedd, and possessed the same build. Jedd’s younger half then dressed the stiff in pajamas from a small duffel bag at his feet. For a final touch, he lifted the silver family cross from around his neck and placed it on the lifeless body. Altran struggled with the stiff corpse, but eventually positioned him on the couch as though asleep and away from the windows lining the living room.

  He then rolled the body bag up and inserted it into the duffel bag. Daniel and Jedd watched the youthful Altran turn on the television, check that the windows and doors were locked, retrieve a few items from a small safe, and then reach behind the stove and sever the gas line. With a last look of sadness, the youthful Altran tossed his keys onto the center table and slipped out the back door with the bag in tow. Forever locking himself out of the life he had made.

  The two observers slipped out of the sealed house and followed the man as he stealthed from shadow to shadow. Steering clear of the moonlight, he crawled up the steep forested hill. At the top, he stepped onto a back road where a car sat idling in the night. The driver was its sole occupant; a man of oriental decent. Jedd opened the door, slipped into the backseat, and slouched low. The silent observers walked up to the car and listened next to the open passenger window.

  “Did you take care of everything?” asked the driver.

  “Yep,” whispered Altran from the backseat. “Thanks for helping, Koiyo.”

  “No problem,” the driver replied. “It’s the least I can do. You locked everything up and left the keys in the house right?”

  “Yes,” he replied, irritated by his friend’s insistence on double checking every part of the plan. “I grabbed a body with the same blood type and switched the dental records.”

  “Good,” added Koiyo with a sigh of relief, “so now we just wait for them to take the bait.”

  “Yep. It’s just a waiting game now. You sure your intel is right?”

  “Of course! They’re comin' tonight. They have to make it look like an accident. Did you loosen the gas pipe from the stove?”

  “Yeah,” came Jedd’s
youthful reply, but his answer sounded distant and hollow.

  “I know it’s a little late for this, but are you sure it’s what you want to do? You have a wife and kid that need you, you know?”

  “I know,” Jedd replied with wet eyes, “but if I’m with them, they’re all in danger. With me dead, those government agents will have no reason to pursue my family. Remember the last time they tried? They almost killed Faith and Matthew in that elevator fiasco.”

  “I know, I know … but isn’t this kind of extreme?”

  “I don’t know what else to do, Koiyo. Do you?”

  The driver sat in silence. They had been over his options time and again. When you are on the radar of a covert government agency, it is not as though they are governed by the strictures of normal civilian law. And even with proof of their existence, their government sanctioned activities trump any kind of assistance local law enforcement can provide.

  His friend’s silence was answer in itself, but before he could dwell on the choice, Koiyo spoke up, his eyes alert and observing the lake house far below. “There’s movement. A van just drove halfway up the drive without its lights and a group of armed agents are approaching through the forest.”

  “What do they look like?” Jedd asked from his prone position.

  Koiyo lifted a small pair of night vision binoculars. “They’re all dressed in black and moving pretty stiff. They’re wearing some kind of prototype armor. Man … they look like football players from hell.”

  “That’s them,” Jedd muttered.

  The voice of his memory was somber and detached. His emotions were reflected from outside the car window, in the older Altran’s dejected eyes. Daniel and Koiyo watched the antlike soldiers surround the house. After peering in the windows, the signal was given, and the soldiers took their positions. They poured an accelerant onto the sides of the house and set the charge. The squad finished their job in no time at all and vacated the property. As soon as the charge ignited, flames erupted around the sides of the lake house and in front of the doorways.