He remembered his mother’s name. It was Nancy, otherwise known as Nan. And his own name?
He had a memory of the science class at D’Evelyn High School on that third day of April, just before a shaken Mrs. Bergeson from the office had come to Mr. Novotny’s room to tell him that the “kids,” as she put it, were going to be leaving school early. Something is happening, she’d told Mr. Novotny. It’s on all the news, everywhere. Something is happening, and the kids will be leaving school early.
Which interrupted his demonstration of the Visible Man right as he was talking about the brain, and it pissed him off mightily but it scared him too, because Mrs. Bergeson’s voice was trembling, and she looked very afraid.
“I’ll open the door myself,” JayDee told Hannah, and he did. Then he looked with watery eyes at the others and he said, “What we’ve been through…this is a walk in the park. Good luck and God bless and keep you.” He gave them a tough old smile. “You are all my heroes,” he said, and then he went down the steps on his rebar cane into the force of the driving downpour. The peacekeeper followed just behind him, directing the light so JayDee could see his way.
Somewhere on their walk into the turbulent darkness on the strip of I-70 that no car had traveled in a very long time, the boy who had called himself Ethan Gaines went off upon his own journey. It was a journey, like the one JayDee was about to take, that no human expected to return from. It was a voyage into mystery, but the peacekeeper told Ethan he was going to be all right, and there was nothing for him to fear anymore, nothing at all.
I thank you for your help, the entity told him. You are a creature of strength and honor. There is a place where heroes rest, after their battles are done. Both you and the doctor will find comfort and peace there. I promise you.
I’m okay, said the boy. I’m a little afraid, but I’m okay.
I am going to set you free now. What remains to be done, I have to do in full command of this form. Do you understand?
I do. But…don’t I ever get to know about the White Mansion?
You’ll know, the entity replied. Both of you will. Again…my promise.
The boy started to reply, to say he knew the promise would be kept, but at the same time, he knew he didn’t have to say it…and then he went to sleep, just like in a warm bed on a cold winter’s night, and knowing that when he awakened there would be someone there to love you and say good morning to the bright new day.
“I guess this is as far as I need to go,” said the doctor, loudly against the storm.
“Yes.”
“I wish I could know what you really are. What you look like, inside there.”
“You would be surprised,” said the entity.
“Will we be okay?” JayDee asked, steadying himself as the rain beat down. “Will we survive this?”
“That’s my hope,” was the answer.
“Mine too,” said JayDee. “Protect them if you can.”
“I can.”
“Goodbye, then. Let me do this and get it over with before I drown.”
The boy’s hand clutched JayDee’s arm for a moment as a reassurance.
“You have earned my greatest respect,” said the peacekeeper. “Goodbye, my friend.” Then there was nothing else to be said, and he turned and walked away.
JayDee stood strong, holding his balance against the forces that raged around him. He thought of Deborah, and their beautiful life together before all this had happened. He hoped that someway, somehow, they could pick up where they’d been interrupted.
He dropped the rebar. It made a clanging noise against the concrete that sounded to him like a church bell in the town of his childhood.
He held the grenade against his heart.
He took in a last breath of rain-thick air, of the earth that he was leaving.
The border, he thought. And was relieved, finally, to be about to cross another border to what he was certain beyond a doubt would be a better place than this.
JayDee pulled the pin.
Twenty-Five.
They heard the explosion and saw the flash about a hundred yards away.
Olivia had returned to her seat. She put her hands to her face and lowered her head, and she mourned John Douglas in agonized silence.
Hannah opened the door. Dripping wet, the alien in the form of a boy came up the steps, his head also lowered. Hannah closed the door behind him. When the creature looked at her she saw, as Dave and Jefferson and Nikki did by the lamplight and the flashlight’s reflected glare, that both his eyes now glinted silver. The face of the earth boy was grim, something about it more gaunt yet more resolute.
“I want to know this,” Dave said. “What do we call you?”
The alien replied, “Ethan. What else?”
“But you’re not him anymore, are you? Is he gone?”
“Yes.”
Olivia looked up then and saw his eyes, and she returned to her posture of silent bereavement. Ethan switched off the flashlight to save the batteries and started toward his seat.
“Your chest,” Dave said, before Ethan could sit down. “Let’s see it.” He held a lamp up to take a look as Ethan lifted his t-shirt, and there against the dark-bruised flesh the upraised silver letters just above his heart were GUARDIAN. It seemed to be finished, for no other letters were begin-
ning to emerge from the depths. “What does that mean?” Dave asked.
“My designation,” Ethan said. “I am a soldier.”
“What are you? Like…special forces from outer space or something?” Jefferson asked, risking a fist to the teeth.
“Something like that,” Ethan answered. He noted that the rain was beginning to ease up; he noted also a new sensation, which to him was the shimmer of an image in his mind. “We’re being followed.”
“Yeah,” said Dave. “The Cyphers.”
“Your name for them. Their species name is based on mathematics of a nature unknown to you. No…this is what you call the Gorgons.”
“Following us?” That had set Jefferson’s heart pounding like a ten-ton drum. “How close are they?”
“At a safe distance yet. It’s a warship. Its tracker is focused on the device implanted in the back of your neck, Mr. Jericho.”
“Shit!” Dave exploded. He reached out to grab Jefferson’s shirt, but this time the preacherman got his hands up to ward off the punishment. Dave slapped them aside, bringing a cry of pain from Jefferson as two broken fingers took the impact. He took hold of the man’s bearded chin. “You didn’t tell us about that? Why not? Because you’re still spying for them?”
“He’s no longer a spy,” Ethan said calmly. “The device was implanted when he was first taken. They were collecting humans as subjects for experiments.”
“Yeah, I know all about those damned experiments.”
“For whatever reason,” Ethan went on, “the Gorgon queen found our Jefferson very interesting.” He knew the reason; it had to do with a curiosity about human anatomy and he didn’t care to go there. “He was spared being turned into a weapon, but a control and monitoring device was implanted. It’s likely small, the size of a pinhead in your experience, but it is powerful. He had no idea how else it could be used, except for giving him pain when he was disobedient.”
“Listen to him…listen to him,” Jefferson pleaded.
“Can we find a knife somewhere and let me cut it out of the bastard?”