Chapter 10

Staring at the note did not help me understand it so I finally laid it down on the night stand and fell back on the bed to stare at the ceiling. My mind and body were exhausted after the last two weeks of extensive mental and physical testing. When the technicians at the lab had told me that I was finally done and could go home, I had looked forward to a nice quiet evening of peace and solitude as I contemplated my last evening of mortality.

Of course, it always seems that the night before a big event should have some special significance. I thought back to the night before I got married. I laid awake in my bed thinking that I should be having profound thoughts or fears, but instead I was worried that I just felt sleepy.

And that is probably how this night would have turned out as well except for this damned cryptic note that I had found under my door when I had entered my suite. At first, I simply thought that someone had left me a note to wish me well before the big day and I had tossed it aside and gone to take a nice hot shower. When the steam had cleared and I went to check my computer for any messages from Lyssa, I remembered the note and thought how strange it was that someone would send a note by hand when the whole compound was wired with email.

I went over to get the note and read what it said. I didn’t need to read the note any longer, the words were imprinted in my mind. The note said ... Josh had many friends. Are you one of them? We will soon find out. Await a visitor tonight. Be prepared for a short trip.

At first, I thought about calling Krell, or even one of the Townsends, to see if they would know what was meant by this message. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew that the reason the note had not been sent over the computer network was because, whoever had sent it, did not want the Townsends to discover the note.

I got dressed in some comfortable but warm night outdoor gear and had been waiting since then. Of course, I am not a very patient person when I do not know what it is that I am waiting on. Subsequently, I had been up walking around, pacing the room, and finally, giving up and laying down on the bed to catch a few hours sleep, before whatever was supposed to happen, actually happened.

Eventually, the exhaustion of the day must have caught up with me because I found myself waking up on the bed in a somewhat disoriented state. Everything around me seemed to have a dream like quality, like when you awake in the middle of the night. Lights seemed more subdued and cast a strange shadow over everything. Even the colors seemed more brilliant, more vibrant.

I shook my head to try and wake fully. It was then that I noticed it, the lack of sound in the suite. I had become quite used to the noise of the jungle outside my windows, had even come to appreciate it, just as I had loved to listen to the noises of the woods around my home in the Carolina’s. But now I found it eerily quiet, even though the windows were up and the doors to the balcony were open.

It was only when I stood up and walked over to the balcony that I realized there was someone else in the room there with me. He was sitting in a chair that he had turned so that he could watch me sleep, and he was dressed in all black, with a dark green sash tied around his waist.

When he realized that I had seen him, he smiled, and slowly lifted his finger to his lips, as if warning me to keep silent. His eyes seemed to twinkle there in the light from a nearby lamp, and the grin on his face was that of a young boy who has some great secret that he cannot wait to tell.

Then suddenly, he closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate, and all the lights went off. I panicked momentarily when the room went dark, I ran to the window, only to see that the entire compound was black. From my room I could only see a part of the compound, but usually the forest near the hotel was lit by the lighting all around, but now the only light was that produced by the sliver of a moon that hung over head, just enough to illuminate the fog that had begun to roll down from the mountains.

I turned to find my host, only to realize that he was standing there beside me, laughing softly to himself, “Well, that ought to teach the Townsends a little something about security.” he said softly in the dark. “Now if you’d come with me, David, there are some people who would like to meet you and we have a bit of a time crunch to get you out of here.”

With that he turned, threw me the jacket I had laid out on the sofa, and motioned for me to follow him out onto the patio. There was a rope ladder hanging from the rail, and down it he went, motioning me to follow him. Not knowing what else to do, and interested in who could cause such havoc, I followed him. I was intrigued, especially with someone who found the Townsends as distasteful as I did.

On the ground, there was another person dressed identically in black and green, though I was sure that this was a female. Neither of them had any weapons visible on them, but I was sure that neither of them was defenseless by the way they moved with quiet grace.

The man set off through the jungle, following a path I had not noticed before. The female seemed to wait a few minutes and then I saw her turn and follow us. Within minutes we were deep within the jungle and I noticed that the sounds of the jungle were returning. Still deeper we went, moving quite rapidly, until I started panting with effort to keep up.

We kept that pace for what seemed an eternity, but what was probably about an hour, when we came to a clearing in the forest. We paused for a moment at the edge, and the female behind me disappeared to my right into the underbrush. The man in front motioned for me to crouch down, and we waited there for a few minutes until there was a rustling in the bushes to my right, from which emerged the same female who had disappeared, only now she was leading three beautiful black horses.

We each mounted one and again took off through the night. As we started to ride, the female rode up beside me, “Watch carefully and listen to the jungle. Pay close attention, for if anything unexpected happens tonight, make your way back to that clearing and you will be kept safe there,” she said and then she spurred her horse onward and I sped to catch up and follow.

We rode for another hour, mostly up a steep trail, until we emerged from the jungle. I noticed that I was significantly cooler here, and the stars and moon were brilliant and sharp. I figured that we must be quite high here, above the tree line, and the altitude and cold were both contributing to making me quite short of breath.

We paused for a moment, as my two escorts both seemed to look around and listen quite intently, then we set off across the plain towards a large rocky outcropping in the distance.

One of the things I had forgotten about the mountains is that things always look closer than they are, because with all those huge peaks around, the size of things become distorted, as does your sense of distance. When I had first seen the outcropping, I thought it was just a few boulders a short distance away, but when we had ridden several minutes and it seemed to get no closer, only bigger, I realized that it was another mountain, and quite large at that.

We continued to ride and as we finally neared, I noticed that there were some flickering lights coming from near the top of the peak. The light grew stronger as we neared the peak, and then I noticed an archway that appeared to be carved into the very heart of the rock, and a set of stairs leading up.

We slowed as we neared and two more people, dressed in their black and green attire appeared at this entrance. My two escorts dismounted and motioned for me to follow them up the stairs while the horses were taken by the guards.

I paused at the arch to look at the intricate carvings that covered the arch. They were pictures of various plants and vines, interspersed with strange symbols that reminded me of the leather pouch I had first found on Josh when he had appeared on the doorstep to my clinic.

A couple of recessed areas on either side of the arch emanated with a cool white light that lit the stairway, and every few feet along the way, there would be another pair of these recessed areas, lighting the entire length of the stairway.

I wondered where they got the energy to run what appeared to be florescent lighting, but I was never to find out. For it was then that we emerged into a large open cavern, in the middle of which had gathered a small group of people, all sitting in a semicircle and facing one female who was talking to them.

We stopped just inside the entrance to this vast cavern, and just as we did, I saw her turn towards us and motion for us to come closer. As we approached, the people who had been sitting in front of her dispersed and exited through other doorways that had been carved all around the cavern.

I took a moment to study the woman as we approached. Even from a distance I had noticed that she held herself with the natural ease that a leader acquires from always being around groups of people. I noticed that she had a certain elegance about her as well, perhaps because she was the oldest looking person, I had seen in the last several weeks, but perhaps the thing that I noticed was nothing that I saw, but instead a sense of power I felt emanating from her and the respect all those people had shown her.

It wasn’t until we were but a few feet away that I realized that she had also been studying me. Suddenly, I felt quite uncomfortable, realizing that I was completely at this person’s mercy, and what had started out as an exciting adventure, could suddenly end in tragedy if I weren’t cautious.

She must have sensed my sudden discomfort, for she broke into a warm smile and extended her hand to me, “Welcome David, I am so glad that you came. I apologize for the abruptness of the invitation and the length of your journey, but you must trust me that it was necessary for yours, and my, safety. Now please follow me and we will find something for you to drink after your journey.”

And with that, she motioned away the two who had escorted me, and led me through a doorway and out of the cavern. We entered another, much smaller, chamber that was furnished simply with a table, a few chairs, and a bed over in the far corner. She motioned me to the table and brought a pitcher of water, and some bread and cheese, from a counter.

I had been so intrigued with the events of the evening that it wasn’t until I saw the water that I realized how thirsty I was. I gulped down the first glass of water that she poured and I heard her laugh the friendliest laugh I have ever heard. She poured me another glass of water as she sat down at the table with me and began.

“I know you are wondering why you are here, but I want to thank you for coming to visit with me, even though you have no idea who I am. I am going out on a limb bringing you here, there may be many repercussions for this for years or even decades to come, for my people do not forget, nor easily forgive.”

“Well, I figure anyone who can outsmart the Townsends deserves very special attention and should not be trifled with. But why did you bring me here at such effort?”

“You never knew Josh, did you? I mean other than that brief moment of time when you cared for him in his death. Josh was a very special person, one of the eldest members, one of the most respected, and powerful, but certainly not the most powerful.”

“But Josh knew you. He felt you the day that you were born and followed your life closely. The day that your son was born, he threw a great party and we all celebrated here. He would often come and share what you had recently done, who you had saved and the joys in your life.”

“I have known many elders, I have worked closely with most of the eldest of our members, cared for them in their final days, for even we eventually die. They always say that they know their time is fast approaching when they feel their successor born into the world. The day that Josh came and told me that you had been born, I cried, but Josh would have none of that. He told me never to cry over him. He said that he had already accomplished so much, that his life was so rich, and there was nothing left for him here, that he eagerly awaited new and different challenges.”

“And he told me that day, the day that you were born, October 30th, 1967, that you and I would share many adventures, that you would raise our conscience to a new level and make discoveries that none of us ever thought would be possible.”

“Then, just before he left to find you, he came to me one night and asked me to watch after you, to care for you during the rough times you have ahead. I promised him that I would do this, for him, and that is why you are here.”