Damali couldn't move as the thoughts replayed in rapidly increasing blurs of knowing. She'd wanted Carlos, just once, to walk a mile in her shoes--wanted Heaven to teach him a lesson; now she was sure that he also wanted the same thing, and also got it.
But when she'd prayed for what she did, all she'd wanted was for him to sense what it felt like when one's lover played with fire, knowing that it burned the other partner more than the one striking the match. Wanted him to see how one's lapse could cause a chain reaction of chaos and emotional fallout that everyone else had to deal with. Wanted him to be a little insecure, to count his blessings that she was his and never again dare stray under any circumstances after he got her back. Let him twist had been at the forefront of her mind all the way home. Damali squeezed her eyes shut tighter.
Then, she viscerally remembered wanting him to see how it felt to be the logical one holding onto the Light while she gave in to whatever sensory indulgence she wanted to, and allowed him to be the one to pull her ass out of the fire--then see how he liked that. She wanted a chance to be the irrational party for a change and to let the chips fall where they may. There was no denying how she had felt that day. Rage had strangled her reason, made her forget how spiritually powerful she was as a grown-up and a seasoned Neteru. She'd consciously wanted to hand Carlos the big broom to sweep up after she did something off the hook, then have him be the one to suck it up and move on.
Damali's hand covered her mouth. "Oh, my God," she whispered, opening her eyes to a team holding its breath. She'd definitely conjured this, called it up, and she got what she asked for. And it came to her tall, fine... "Okay, listen," she said, beginning to pace and rake her hair. "It's not from the dark side, but not exactly from the Light, either. That much I know."
"I have to ask this again, because I feel in my gut that we're missing a crucial element. When it talked to you," Father Patrick finally said, breaking the silence on the phone, "try to remember. Did it leave any clues?"
Damali paused and let out a frustrated breath. The team had hashed and rehashed most of what the entity said and did, her privacy edits notwithstanding. She scoured her mind for anything relevant beyond what had been told, and glared at J.L. again, forbidding him with her eyes to ever replay the recording. That was going in the fireplace as soon as the clerics got off the telephone.
"I asked him his name," she said, letting out an exasperated rush of air with the words. "He said it would make me pick up my blade again," she added, staring at the telephone and then glancing up at Marlene. "We got off the subject," she said, walking away from the speakerphone and giving the group her back, too humiliated to go into further detail. She stopped. Maybe unnecessary shame and guilt had been blotting out portions of the conversation.
Damali began very quietly as the entity's deep melodic voice flowed over her mind. "I asked him where he was from," she murmured, "and he said, 'the Land of Nod.' "
"What!" Father Patrick yelled.
All eyes went to the phone as Damali froze where she stood.
"Where's that, Father P?" Shabazz asked quickly. "A realm of Hell?"
"This is very bad," Rabbi Zeitloff shouted. "Oy!"
"It's a banishment containment center," Father Patrick said. His voice was fading in and out as though the man was moving around the room, possibly pacing away from the telephone and back to it. "It was also rumored to be Atlantis."
"Wait," Marlene said. "Let me get this straight, Father. You mean to say our girl called up something from undersea--like an old Greek or Roman god?"
"It's not underwater," Rabbi Zeitloff corrected. "That is mere rumor. To the people of the time, it may have looked like it was swept away by a tidal wave consuming the whole of it--but in more correct terms, it was like an energy tsunami. According to my late brother's work, it was enveloped and swallowed between dimensions by a significant cosmic force. This is why he was working for the goverhment on interdimensional travel and other beings that might inhabit that dimension, when he instead stumbled upon the portals of the dark realms and vampires... which sadly led to his death. He was following earlier research done by the U.S. Navy. Do you remember, of all things, the Philadelphia Experiment?"
"Krissy, J.L." Damali said quickly, "get on the Internet and search while the rabbi talks." They immediately dashed over to the banks of computers and began firing up the tubes as the elderly rabbi continued.
"Ironically, yes, in the end of days, Philadelphia is spoken of in the old books, and a big team confrontation happened there. But this project was an attempt by the navy during World War II, in nineteen forty-three, to make the battleship U.S.S. Eldridge invisible by using Einstein and Telsa's theories of bending light and matter displacement. The first time they did it, all but the hull of the battleship disappeared. The second time they ran the experiment, the ship totally disappeared in the Delaware Bay and reappeared in Norfolk, Virginia, missing some of the crew who were never found. Those who did come back with the ship claimed some of the crew spontaneously combusted, were frozen in time, vanished, what have you. Of course, the military said everyone was suffering post-battle delusions and discredited them. But my brother knew better, and had top-secret clearance to what was also known as Project Rainbow."
"There's a lot of data out here," Krissy said.
"Yeah, but only from speculative-fiction sites, and alien-watcher or conspiracy-theory sites," J.L. muttered, his eyes fastened to his tube. "Nothing with a government seal of credibility on it."
"This project is held as closely to the vest as all the Area Fifty-one alien research projects," Rabbi Zeitloff said, his tone annoyed. "They lie to the people and keep us in the dark like sheep!"
"Then, let's bust the Pentagon's files," Krissy said, her hands feverishly gliding over her keyboard. "I know I can--"
"Yo, yo, yo!" J.L. said, grabbing her wrists. "D, whatchu wanna do? This is serious shit. You breach their files, and we're gonna have to be on the move again."
"For real," Shabazz said. "You might as well open a Hell portal and not expect bats to fly out."
"Krissy, have you lost your mind?" Berkfield asked. "Sheesh; Marj, talk to your daughter!"
"All right," Damali said, letting her breath out hard again. "Last re- sort. We save that as a silver bullet--but good looking out, Krissy. If you've got mad skills like that, it will definitely come in handy one day."
"But not today. Shit," Rider said, standing and toppling his chair. "You kids are gonna give me a stomach ulcer. Tell her,'Bazz. Draw your weapon, aim steady at the target, but wait until you have a lock on its forehead before squeezing the trigger. You don't go shooting into cyberspace buck wild any more than you would in a tunnel to cause collateral damage."
"She was just trying to help, man," J.L. said defensively. "Stand down."
Rider's eyes got wide. He tilted his head to the side and chuckled. "Cool. Your protege. My bad."
"Okay," Damali said, nervous energy about to make her snap. "Any of you guys on the clerical team know another way into Nod besides breaching Pentagon security to find a dimension breaker?"
"No," Father Patrick said, his tone distracted.