It was so easily done. I can see why he was hooked.
But I’d never let myself go as far as Gesh. That was his weakness.
Not mine.
“At least some good comes out of all this,” I say. “AIDA truly is saving the world. They’ve saved countless people. Audrey’s still alive because of AIDA. They’ve paid for all of her treatments. And Mom and Dad have always had all the money they need for their research.”
“No thanks to Gesh,” Porter says. “AIDA’s a non-profit. It’s one of his most brilliant schemes. All that funding your parents get? It comes from donations, not from Gesh. But you’re right. There are plenty of people who work for AIDA who still care. Your parents are a perfect example. Most of the employees have no idea what goes on at the top of the corporate ladder. In the smoke-filled back rooms.”
Porter was right. Mom and Dad had no idea who they truly worked for.
“It’s unethical for Gesh to use other people’s bodies for his own gain,” Porter says. “Especially when they can’t remember what he makes them do or how he uses them. That’s partly why Flemming started doing research on reincarnating souls. A reincarnated soul descending over and over via its own soulmarks wouldn’t have to violate a stranger’s body. And Gesh was on board with the idea at first. Not because he cared about ethics, but because your soulmarks would be reusable. No more burning up soulmarks never to be used again. And he hoped you’d be able to remember your past lives. That way, when you descended, you’d fit into those lives seamlessly. You’d remember your mission and have all the memories of your host body. You could go back to any time period and find any lost document or artifact with ease. No years of research required. You’d know right where to look. But it didn’t turn out the way he hoped. You didn’t remember your past lives. You remembered the mission and your Base Life, but nothing else. Just like when you were in 1927 – you didn’t know who you were, who your family was, or what the money in your pocket was for. Gesh considered it a defect in your memory. You had other defects too, ones neither Gesh nor Flemming anticipated. Gesh thought a reincarnated Descender would make things easier, but your defects only presented more obstacles for him and the Descension Project. That’s why Gesh experimented on you. He tortured you for years, using all sorts of indecent methods, trying to get you to remember your past lives, fix your defects, turn you into the ultimate Descender. The ultimate Transcender. But something backfired. I don’t know what happened exactly, but you turned on him. Became his enemy.”
“And then I escaped?”
Porter nods. “I’m not sure how. I remember hearing gunshots, and then the facility alarms went off. You disappeared and went into hiding. I tracked you down a few months later, but you were dying. You made me promise to reincarnate you. To help you continue AIDA’s original mission and stop Gesh. I hid your soulmarks so Gesh couldn’t find them. I made sure you were reincarnated into a good family. I chose your mom and dad, even though they work at AIDA, because I figured Gesh would assume I’d take you as far away from him as possible. He’d never suspect I’d hide you right under his nose. Then I changed my name and went underground until you were grown and ready to travel again.”
I stare at my hands like they aren’t really my own. Like I don’t recognize them anymore. “You did all of that for me? Because I asked you to?”
Porter sips his tea, and a small smile reaches his eyes. “I would’ve done it for you anyway.”
SABOTAGE
“So how do we stop Gesh?” I ask. “Can’t we go to the police?”
Porter chuckles. “And tell them what?” He carries his empty mug and saucer to the kitchen and sets it in the sink.
“That he’s laundering all that money,” I say. “That it’s all tied to AIDA. It’s fraud, isn’t it?”
“We don’t have proof. And even if we did, he’d never be convicted. Not someone who’s had every president in his pocket since Nixon.”
I sit up and almost spill my tea in my lap. “He has the government on his side?”
Porter lifts an eyebrow. “Where do you think the United States gets most of its funds? Taxes?”
Something inside me stirs as I sink back in the armchair cushions. I can’t tell if it’s shock and disbelief that our country is basically run by Gesh, or if it’s knowing the most powerful man in the world thinks I’m a threat. “There’s nothing we can do?”
“Not in Base Life. But in Limbo,” Porter wags a finger at me, “on our turf, we have a few advantages.”
“Like what?”
Porter scrubs his mug with a soapy dishrag. “Before I left, I stole a copy of Gesh’s itinerary.” He smiles across the counter at me. “I know when he’s going to send Descenders, where he’ll send them, and what treasure he’s sending them to look for. My plan is to send you back in time to derail his plans.”
“How?”
“If Gesh is looking for a certain treasure, you’ll find it first. If he sends a Descender to find the whereabouts of a lost relic, you’ll get to it before he does.”
“You want me to sabotage his treasure hunts?”
“Precisely. He’s obsessed with them. That obsession is his one true weakness.”
“But why do you need me for that? Why can’t you do it? You’re a Descender, too, aren’t you?”
“Yes, but your past lives were reincarnated with all of Gesh’s treasure hunts in mind. The years in which you were born were never coincidences. Each time and place, and each family you were born into, had a specific purpose.”
I wrinkle my nose, not really getting it, but he shakes his head. “Don’t worry. You’ll see what I mean when you go on your first mission.”
“But isn’t sabotage too convoluted? Couldn’t we just go for the more straightforward, obvious solution?”
“What’s that?”
I fist my hand into the shape of a gun. “Take him out.”
The edge of Porter’s mouth tugs into a smile. “Tell you what, if you can find him, I’ll let you have the first shot.”
“He’s in hiding, too?”
“The day you left, he packed up everything. Lit a torch to the research facilities and disappeared. Remember, he has unlimited resources. We’ll never find him in Base Life.”
I frown down into my mug. “So this is the only way to beat him? By slashing his tires? It seems juvenile.”
“It is juvenile. All weaknesses are. But it’s the only thing that will work, the only thing that will smoke him out of his hole. You have to understand how Gesh works. I’ve known him long enough to know that nothing comes between him and the hunt. And you and I are about to do just that. Every time he shoots, he’s going to miss. It’ll make him crazy. He’ll start getting sloppy. Making mistakes. If all goes to plan, he may crash and burn all on his own, and we’ll never have to lay a finger on him. Never even see him face-to-face. He’ll never find out who you are, and your family will remain safe, free to devote all their time to finding a cure for Audrey, just like they are now. Things can remain the same on the surface, and no one will know we’re involved.”
I raise my brow at him. “That’s a pretty good plan, Porter.”
He bowed his head. “Thank you. I’ve had a few years to perfect it.”
A pang of guilt for setting Porter on this course pricks me in the gut. That coupled with the hatred I remember feeling for Gesh, and the fierce, instinctive need to protect my family from him at all costs, tingles and sparks beneath my skin. I down the rest of my tea, join Porter at the counter, and hand him my empty mug.