The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series (28 page)

“If I could take it all back, I would. I can’t now. It is too late. I have remarried and have to remain true to her.” He sobbed and sobbed.

The sword slipped from my grasp and hit the ground with a thud. I looked down at the pitiful man wailing in deep sorrow and something shifted inside of me.

My heart melted and the hate vaporized exposing my core. I was surprised that they had been right about me, Tara, Mel. They saw right through me. Love lived at my core. It was the basic element of who I was.

“Daddy?” I ran forward into his arms. “Daddy, I forgive you.” I landed against his chest with a thud and he held me, crying in my hair.

“I forgive you, Daddy. I love you.”

The forest behind him shattered into a million pieces and as he dissipated, we fell into a sea of blue sky. We fell into the sphere and jumped back home.

We landed in
QHR. Mel jumped up and ran to the wall. She slammed down on a red button and a blue force field fell around us. An alarm sounded and a robot voice came over the loud speaker. “Emergency EMQ field generated. Quarantine in effect. All jumps suspended.”

We stood up and looked at her with shock. “What’s up?”

“The Quantum Field is tainted,” Mel said and Donnie nodded.

“What does that mean?” Tara asked rubbing her arms.

“I am not sure, but until we can talk to Mama Ty, nobody else needs to jump.”

A voice came over the speaker in the room. “Identify EMQ emergency.”

Donnie walked over to the squawk box and pressed a button. “Possible infiltration at the origin.”

“What? That’s not possible.”

“Get Mama Ty here now!” Mel instructed. “Validation code alpha, sigma 2.569 beta epsilon 5612 delta.”

“Processing.”

I turned and saw Trip alive and well. “Trip!” I flung myself into his arms. “I thought my protector was dead.” I cried into his jacket.

“Steady there, Katie, girl. I’m good.” He rubbed his hands up and down my arms while I shivered from the rush of adrenalin and exhaustion. He kissed the top of my head and held me tightly. Tara and Corey walked toward us and I relinquished my hold on Trip and fell into Corey’s arms. Tara wrapped her arm around Trip’s waist.

We turned to watch Mel and Donnie with their desperate glances and strange behavior. The alarm was shrieking and the robot voice blared her warning every thirty seconds. This was freaking me out. What was going on?

“You okay?” Corey pushed my hair behind my ear and stroked my cheek. “That was pretty intense back there.”

“Yeah,” I nodded still shaking and panting from the battle and its emotional climax.

“Here,” he reached into my backpack and pulled out a bottle of water, uncapped it and handed it to me. “Drink this.”

He escorted me to the chairs at the table and we sat down. I took sips of the water and Corey stroked my arm until I stopped shaking. Tara and Trip joined us and passed out their remaining water and Dr. Pepper bottles. I was surprised that the Dr. Peppers came back through.

“I wouldn’t drink those.” Donnie pointed to the soft drinks.

“Yeah, let’s keep them for testing, though,” Mel replied.

We stared at them like they were about to explode. I pressed into Corey’s side and felt my brow crease. He wrapped his arm around me.

Finally a familiar voice came over the speaker.

“Mel, Donnie, this is Mama Ty.” Her accent seemed African or Jamaican. I still couldn’t make it out. “What has happened?”

“We would rather talk to you in private, Mama Ty,” Mel stated.

“Very well. Do you think you are contaminated?”

“No. I think we are fine. I cannot say the same for the Quantum Field, though,” Donnie answered.

There was a long period of silence from the squawk box, only the blaring warning sounded. After a few moments, the alarm stopped and the door at the end of the room opened.

Mama Ty stepped into the room. The force field wavered as she stood in front of it. “We have scanned you for microorganisms and you seem to be safe. Follow me.” She pressed a few buttons on a panel and the force field blinked off.

We followed her into the processing rooms where they ran us through the detox showers and put us in fresh jumpsuits, but did not question us. We came out of the “car wash” separately and waited for the rest of the team to be completely detoxed from the jump. Mama Ty waited patiently until we were all cleared.

We passed through the terminal and emerged from a double door to a waiting golf cart. We piled in and she drove us to the large administration building at the center of the circle across from the Staying Well fountain. She pulled right up to the steps and we ascended onto the gray slatted wrap around porch and through the large decorative, oak doors.

The admin building was a mansion. Sweeping stair cases embraced a large foyer with a beautiful chandelier at the center. Mama Ty led us through a door to the left of the hall and we entered into a sumptuous study lined in book shelves ten feet high. Identical couches faced each other on four sides of a square coffee table.

Mama Ty pointed to the couches and we filed in and sat down. Corey and I took the one opposite from the large oak desk. Mama Ty walked to the desk, pressed a button and ordered sandwiches and tea for us.

Mel and Donnie sat on another sofa and Trip and Tara took a third. Mama Ty settled her frame into the couch directly opposite of Mel and Donnie.

“Now, you may speak freely in my study. We have complete privacy.” She set back and folded her hands in her lap, the picture of perfect ease and confidence.

“The jumps are changing,” Mel started. “We noticed when the first two jumps did not include a team leader and then jumpers coming back scarred or injured at times.”

“And then Trip and Kate jumped with Dirk and Gregory. Mixing teams is unheard of, and I guess we can see why!” Donnie exclaimed.

I glanced at Trip, the loss was still very heavy on our hearts. His eyes mirrored my own deep grief.

Mama Ty nodded her head. “Yes, we have taken note of those issues. We find them disconcerting, too.” She held up her palm for Mel to continue.

“Then of course you know about the third jump. It lasted 212 years. Unbelievable! The psychological repercussions to the team were…” She swallowed.

Donnie wrapped his arm around her shoulder. I remembered them saying that Mel had lost a baby when she came back from that jump.

“Wasn’t that…I mean wasn’t that my fault?” Corey asked, “Because I didn’t acclimate with the culture?”

“No dear, it was not your fault. “ Mama Ty reached over and patted Corey’s knee. “The passing of so much time should have not been discernible to you. It is true each jump takes a different amount of time, but the quantum field disguises the length of time passed so as not to place psychological burden on the jumpers.”

“For you to have experienced two hundred years.” She rubbed her temple. “I simply cannot fathom.”

“Then in this jump,” Mel continued. “Time and space, the laws of nature, were completely suspended. That has never occurred before.”

“And the foggy feeling,” Donnie reminded Mel.

“Yes, Mama Ty, it was as though we were drugged in there. Our thoughts were jumbled and scattered. We spent the first part of the jump just walking without a goal.”

“I just thought it was the green fog,” I muttered.

“Yeah, that is another thing.” Donnie interjected, “The green fog was in the last jump, too.”

“It was in Trip’s jump, too. Just light green, almost white,” Tara added.

I remembered the mist. Lands! That jump seemed eons ago. I couldn’t imagine how it felt to the others who had lived hundreds of years between them. I glanced around the room and realized excluding me, Trip, and Mama Ty there was a representation of over 800 years of life experience. My little brain protested at the incredulous thought.

“This is the first I have heard of green mist.” Mama Ty’s worried expression was fleeting, but I caught it. I looked around at my team mates. They caught it too.

“Gregory’s eyes,” I whispered. “They hazed over in green cloudiness, just before...“ I swallowed the lump in my throat and Corey squeezed my hand.

“Mama Ty, why are the jumps continuing?” Donnie asked. “Isn’t it obvious that something has gone wrong at the origin?”

“That is impossible, Donnie.” Mama Ty shook her head. “The Inner Circle maintains.”

“Uh, excuse me…what is an Inner Circle?” Trip raised his hand.

“I do not think we can discuss it with jumpers,” Mama Ty started.

“Mama Ty, they are jumping without team leaders! They need to know everything they can about this place!” Mel looked around, “Besides, they have all completed their own personal jumps.”

“Have they?” Mama Ty sized each one of us up with a calculating expression. “Very well. This is highly irregular, but I supposed Mel has a point.” A bell rang. “Ah the sandwiches are here. Enjoy your dinner and then I will take you to the Inner Circle.”

Mel and Donnie gaped at each other while a butler passed through the door that Mama Ty held open. She exited, and the butler left a huge serving tray on the table between us and then left too.

“I can’t believe this,” Mel whispered and reached for a sandwich.

“What?” Corey asked filling a plate and passing it to me. I poured juice into the champagne goblets for everyone.

“The Inner Circle,” Donnie whispered. “No one gets into the Inner Circle.”

“I have led here three years, and I have never heard of anyone seeing the Inner Circle.” Mel said.

“Then, why is she taking us?” Corey asked his face a sketch of suspicion.

“Something we said must have gotten through,” Trip mumbled around his mouthful of sandwich.

“Either that, or it is much easier to get in to see the Inner Circle than it used to be.” Corey cut his eyes to me.

“That seems to fit with it being infiltrated,” I whispered and set down my plate. My hand trembled as I lifted my goblet to my lips. I took a sip, set it on the table, then leaned back into the cushion and crossed my arms in front of me.

Suddenly, I just wanted to go home. I had things I needed to say to my dad and my mom. I wanted to set them free from my angst and anger, wrap my arms around them and tell them about the loving voice that can heal pain and heartache.

I felt Corey’s hand on mine and looked into his fathomless gaze. If I did go home, I might never see Corey again. I couldn’t imagine life without him. He was the biggest part of me, he was my heart.

“Hey, Kate of a Thousand Years,” he murmured softly. “You good?” He touched my face and everything was good.

I nodded and leaned into his arm.

Mama Ty came back in the room with strips of cloth in her hand. “Are you ready?” She asked.

We slowly stood and moved toward her.

“I will have to blind fold you.” She turned Trip around and began tying the blindfold over his eyes. “You must not suspect where we are going.”

She tied all of our eyes and lined us up one in front of the other. “Reach to your side and clasp hands.”

I held my hand out to my side and waved it around until I struck skin. I grasped the hand tightly. Then I found Corey’s hand on my other side. That hand I would know anywhere.

“Do not let go of your companions for any reason.”

Corey’s grasp tightened.

We were led around in a circle and then through a door that didn’t feel like the foyer door. Up a spiraled stair case, through a corridor and down another set of stairs, we marched hand in hand.

I knew when we stepped outside. The night air hit my face with a sultry humidity. We crunched across gravel to pavement and were told to bend low as we got into the car. Mama Ty directed us to seats and then climbed in behind us.

I held Corey’s hand until my knuckles cramped, and then I loosened my grip and whispered “sorry” to him.

I had the feeling we were on some weird espionage jump. My trust was stretched to a snapping point. I didn’t know this Mama Ty, how was I supposed to judge whether or not she was trustworthy? I had nothing to go on. For all I knew they could be driving us out to a deserted field to shoot us in the head.

I whimpered at the thought and my grasp tightened on Corey again. Across from me I heard Trip’s voice. “Steady there, Katie girl.”

“Trip, Kate?” It was Dirk’s voice. “Are you guys here?”

“Dirk?” Trip asked. “How’d you get roped into this?”

“Mama Ty put me in the car and blind folded me. She said she had a special assignment for me.”

I drew a shuddering breath and the hands on both sides of me squeezed in comfort. I leaned away from Corey. “Donnie, is that you?” I whispered.

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Hang in there, okay?”

“Do you trust Mama Ty?” I whispered.

His hand tightened on mine, a beat passed and then he whispered back, “As much as I trust my children to speak well of me to their own.” He squeezed my hand again and I understood. Mama Ty was close and he couldn’t tell me he didn’t trust her. Not out right. His children would never speak of him again. He didn’t exist to them anymore. I wondered if he had kept this little piece of information to himself.

My heart raced in my chest and I redoubled my grip on Corey. We drove for what seemed an hour and finally the car turned onto a gravel road and bounced a few hundred feet to a stop.

We filed out of the car. Mama Ty reconnected our hands and we followed her. The sound of a large metal door groaned and we moved forward. As we stepped out of the night air we began to descend on a shaky set of steps. I heard water dripping, scratching sounds and footsteps as we descended down the metal stairs. The heavy door groaned back and gonged into place and still we descended. After 3 or 4 flights of steps—I lost count—we leveled out onto what seemed to be a sticky concrete floor. We passed through two more sets of doors and when the last one had sounded in place, Mama Ty instructed us to remove our blindfolds and put them into our pockets.

I blinked my eyes to adjust them. We stood in an ultra-modern facility. Computer banks blinked along one wall and a white coat was monitoring several flat screens that had been suspended on scaffolding around him.

Mama Ty spoke in soft tones to him and he jerked his head around to us in surprise. An argument ensued and the white coat’s face reddened in evident anger, but he finally shrugged and nodded and turned back around to press a series of buttons.

A door at the end of the computer bank slid open and I felt like I was on the star ship Enterprise. Any minute some alien being would walk through and tell me to live long and prosper, probably.

Mama Ty walked through the door and gestured for us to follow her. She placed her hand on a panel and it scanned her hand print. A door opened and we passed through. At the end of a long white corridor she placed her eye over another scanner and another door opened.

HOLY Double 0-7!
I thought.

We walked onto an observation platform lined with windows overlooking a central chamber. As we moved toward the windows I noted they were opaque. Mama Ty stepped onto a platform, pressed her thumb against a plate, then winced and jerked away. The robot voice said, “DNA scan complete, please register your guests, Tylonica Abernathy.”