The Black Madonna (The Mystique Trilogy) (35 page)

‘As do you, Meridan—you were amazing in the field today.’

This was the first time Killian had used my staff name; he’d always called me Mia up to now. I guessed it was his way of removing any possibility of intimacy from our relationship, and I appreciated it.

‘You did pretty well yourself,’ I replied.

Killian scoffed. ‘I didn’t do anything! It was predicted that some day I’d be of aid to you, but I don’t think today was it. At least, I hope it wasn’t.’ He gave a half-laugh, disappointed. ‘I’ve survived so much, I’d like to think it was for a valid reason. Still, I learned a lot on our journey.’ He turned to look me in the eye at last. ‘Thank you for taking me with you, and trusting me, and mothering me for the past twenty years.’

This was sounding suspiciously like a goodbye.

‘I have some really firm ideas now about what needs to be done,’ he went on, looking back out to sea.

Now I was getting really concerned. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘I’m going to take your advice, Meridan: don’t rebel, excel! And I’ve bought myself an additional fourteen years to do it.’

I took his arm. ‘You must come back to the future with us.’

‘Must I?’

‘Yes,’ I insisted. ‘This isn’t your proper time zone, Killian. Leaving you here could cause all kinds of disasters!’

‘Thanks so very much for the vote of confidence,’ he jested, ‘but the Lord of the Earth wills it.’

‘The Sanat Kumara?’ I didn’t wait for his answer; it didn’t matter. What mattered was talking him out of doing something potentially disastrous. ‘Killian, listen—’

‘No, Meridan, it is you who must listen. I have something of a mystery to share with you before I go.’

Trying to dissuade him was like ramming my head against a brick wall, so I allowed him to sit me down and prepared to listen to what he had to tell me.

‘It concerns the Ring of Power,’ he began.

‘You told me you’d given it to Lamhfada for safekeeping,’ I said. ‘That’s what I asked you to do.’

‘Well, that’s the mystery,’ he said. ‘It turns out that I never had it to give him in the first place. The ring I gave Lamhfada was nothing but a small strip of material.’ He pulled the fabric out from behind his wristwatch and placed it against the leg of the Amenti staff suit he was wearing. ‘An exact match, wouldn’t you say?’ He handed the sliver of material to me.

‘So you don’t know where the true ring is?’ I asked in a panic.

‘No, but one of your staff members surely does.’

‘Damn it! Every time I think that ring is secure, it disappears again!’ I stood up to take a few deep breaths and calm myself.

‘Just thought I owed it to you to let you know.’

‘I appreciate your honesty,’ I said, but found myself alone.

‘Killian!’ I screamed out my frustration over the chasm, but my anger was short-lived.
I am in so much trouble
, I thought.

‘You just let him take off?’ Polaris freaked when he heard about Killian going AWOL in 2003. ‘We’ll have to go and find him.’

‘You won’t find him,’ I said. ‘He’s smarter and faster than us. Castor has the genetic proof of it.’

‘So you think we should just let him loose in the hope that he uses his powers for good and doesn’t fall back in with his old company now that he’s
twice
as powerful as he was before?’ My husband was finding it difficult to understand my reasoning. ‘That’s a big ask!’

‘The risk factor is enormous,’ Dexter agreed.

Castor and Levi remained silent, reserving judgement; and my Dragon sisters held their tongues too.

‘Killian claimed it was the will of the Sanat Kumara that he stay here in the past,’ I told them.

‘To do what?’ Dexter asked.

‘I don’t know!’ I said, exasperated. ‘I’m not Killian’s keeper! He has his own will, his own ideas, and I don’t know what they are any more than you do.’

‘But you spent twenty years in his company,’ my husband pointed out again.

I was tired of hearing it. ‘I often avoided his company during that period, as I didn’t feel comfortable spending a lot of time with him,’ I said, wanting to lay his curiosity to rest once and for all. ‘He spent most of the time with Lamhfada. Ask
him
for a character reference!’

‘I will certainly do that,’ Polaris assured me.

‘Speaking of mysteries and Lugh Lamhfada…’ I pulled the piece of fabric Killian had given me from my pocket and held it up. ‘Which one of you does this belong to?’

‘What is it?’ Solarian asked.

‘It’s supposed to be the Ring of Power,’ I said.

She looked perplexed. ‘But it looks like a strip of fabric from one of our suits.’

Both she and Polaris looked at my husband, who was edging his way towards the door.

‘You’ve had the ring all along!’ Polaris said, incensed.

‘Which meant it never actually fell into Nefilim hands, so you ought to thank me for saving your arse!’ Arcturus said with a grin, then ducked out of the room.

Polaris went after him. ‘I can’t trust you to do something as simple as deliver a ring! Hand it over!’

‘It really doesn’t matter what century you’re in, some things never change,’ Solarian said, rolling her eyes, and I quite agreed.

‘So what do we do about Killian?’ Dexter seemed the only person still concerned.

‘Show of hands for taking Killian at his word and leaving him at liberty?’ Solarian requested.

All bar Dexter raised his hand. Even if Polaris and Arcturus were in the room, the vote would have gone against them.

Solarian made the official announcement. ‘Killian stays! The ring and the rod are both secured, our missing team member has been
found, and all the Signet stations are operational. That would seem to be mission accomplished, people.’

We all applauded.

It was time to go home and face the new future we had created during the past few days. I prayed with all my heart that it would be better than, or at least on a par with, the future we had left behind. Trusting Killian was an enormous leap of faith for the staff of Amenti. In my heart I felt he would accomplish great things; but in my mind there was still a tiny shadow of a doubt that perhaps this boy genius was playing both sides in this war to his own advantage. Left to his own devices, would Killian continue to walk in the light or fall back into shadow? Only time would tell.

Due to the breakdown of the Nefilim HAARP project in 2003 we could not be tracked, and so the captain decided to take the direct route home through time using the
Klieo
’s time-hopping function. Thus, I would soon discover if my instincts about Killian were correct, or whether I had led the entire plan to ruin in the quantum blink of an eye.

M
IA
D
EVERE
—MERIDAN

Upon our return to 2017, Polaris parked the
Klieo
in the cavern of Mamer and our entire crew proceeded to the Hall of Records beneath Giza for the debriefing. As Kali and Mathu were still unconscious, they were transported to a recovery room within the labyrinth incorporated into the Amenti complex of Signet Station Four.

Denera and Zalman awaited us in the Hall of Records chamber. They were both smiling, which I took to be a good sign. Denera’s eyes were focused on me as we assembled before her. ‘Come forth, little sister, I am so proud of you,’ she said, and met me halfway across the floor with a huge hug.

‘What did I do?’ I asked. I was used to being the one who screwed up.

Denera gave me a look that implied I was being too modest. ‘Come now,’ she urged, but I couldn’t guess. ‘Okay, I’ll show you.’

She went to the Hall of Records’ control module, which enclosed her in its telepathically sensitive security tube. ‘Christian Molier, 1 April 2017,’ she commanded aloud, to give us a hint of what we were about to witness.

‘But I dealt with Molier in 2003!’ Arcturus said, confused.

‘Who dealt with Molier?’ Thana placed her hands on her hips.

Arcturus nodded, giving her the credit. ‘The point is, he should be dead!’

The liquid-light walls of the chamber lit up, giving us the sensation of standing on an open platform in the middle of a huge crowd of people in Central Park, New York. There was a lone speaker standing behind a podium, his back to us. Dark-haired, tall and slender, he certainly looked like Molier.

‘Why the hell have all these people gathered to hear Christian Molier speak?’ Polaris asked.

There was something else very odd about this. ‘It used to be hard enough to get Molier to meet with his closest business partners,’ I said, stunned, ‘but to address a crowd of thousands?’

‘Shh,’ urged Denera, ‘listen to what he’s saying.’

‘What we ask is that during the time we’re running this experiment in the Big Apple, YOU, the people of this city, give us more than just your attention. We want some of your greatest, purest, most compassionate and peaceful INTENTION!’

The crowd let loose a roar of support.

‘In cities the world over, the Peace Project has made an astonishing difference to the quality of life. In Washington, one week of intensive positive focus, en masse, reduced crime and sickness in that city by fifty per cent in the following year!’

The crowd applauded.

‘So please, give the people working on the Peace Project down here in the park for the next week your fullest support and let’s see if we can’t all make this city a happier, healthier and safer place to live.’

The speaker waved to the crowd in every direction and to the cameras before he turned to leave the lectern and then we saw his face.

‘It’s Killian!’ I gasped, relieved and excited.

Now Arcturus was getting a clearer picture. ‘We disposed of Molier and Killian stole his identity.’

‘Not to mention Molier’s business holdings and huge fortune,’ Denera added, ‘which he has channelled into this Peace Project.’

I was flabbergasted. ‘I know Killian looks a lot like Molier, but he’s very obviously not him. How—’

‘—did he do this?’ Denera cut in, and stepped down from her control platform. ‘As you said just now, Molier wasn’t a very social
creature…hardly anyone in this century knew what he looked like. As to the few who did, Killian has psychically persuaded them that he is Molier. He’s very powerful, your student, and we have extremely high hopes for him. So what did you do, my dear Meridan? You managed to identify and train the Chosen One, who in turn has spent the last fourteen years establishing an elite following of psychics and scientists, and, using quantum physics as his doctrine, has managed to clear many of the primary blockages in the Earth grid!’

Dexter had a chuckle as his greatest concern about the opening of Amenti was washed away. ‘It seems he worked out how to be of assistance, after all. You just have to love the little SOB.’

‘He’s been promoting the science of photo-sonics,’ Denera explained—which was Dexter’s and Vespera’s area of expertise—‘and he’s raised scientific awareness of the possibility of twelve-strand DNA.’ Castor’s and Talori’s field. ‘He’s also put forward a thesis on how HAARP and other such ionospheric modification facilities might use their climate-control capabilities to refreeze the Antarctic and the North Pole.’

‘Cheeky,’ Dexter said with a grin. ‘The Nefilim have been working a long time to get their mother ship out of the deep freeze.’

‘Is he being hailed as the next Messiah?’ Solarian asked, concerned this might end up being a repeat of the Jesus episode.

Denera waved off her concern. ‘Well, of course he is. But Killian, or Chris as he’s now known, has stuck firmly to the science angle and so far it’s served him well. The lad is as charismatic as he ever was, but instead of playing the rebel, he’s reinvented himself as an innovative, proactive instigator of all things positive for the future of the planet, in both a scientific and a spiritual sense. He leads by example and, due to the influence of the activated Signet stations, people the world over have been open to his theories and discoveries. Chris Molier has inspired millions to create peace, love and beauty with the power of their intent.’

My heart welled with pride that a little bit of understanding, faith and compassion could have such long-reaching positive repercussions.

‘But surely the Nefilim have figured out who Chris really is?’ Levi was amazed he was still alive.

‘He’s too powerful, psychically and socially, for the Nefilim to take him out. As you see, he leaves himself completely vulnerable to attack.’ Denera motioned back to the screen where Killian was moving freely through the crowd, meeting people and chatting, with no bodyguards, no security, no weapons. ‘He wears his fearlessness like a shield and people adore and admire him for it. There have been a few assassination attempts, but Chris never flinches and is never hit. His reputation for dodging death has reached superhero status, but he insists that his only defence is his
intention
to live.’

‘So the boy did good.’ Polaris sounded a little surprised. ‘Sorry, Meridan, I should have trusted your instinct.’

Solarian gave my husband a nudge, as he also owed me an apology.

‘Okay, so you were right about him,’ Arcturus admitted. ‘But he didn’t turn out to be Mathu,’ he was quick to add. ‘We were right about Emmett.’

‘But your wonderful work with Killian isn’t the only reason I’m so proud of you,’ Denera said, looking at me again. ‘You managed to deliver Ishtar via non-violent means. Your daughter could still learn a thing or two from you.’

‘Were there any repercussions from Ishtar’s premature disappearance from history?’ I asked, recalling Ereshkigal’s concern.

‘Nothing too drastic, we suspect.’

‘You sound unsure,’ I prompted; which was very unlike Denera.

‘The Anu have heard nothing from Ereshkigal since that time, and I can’t see into Irkalla through this device.’ She indicated the control desk. ‘But she’s stayed out of contact for long periods in the past, so it’s probably nothing to worry about.’

‘I’ll go and retrieve her.’ Dexter was halfway to the door.

‘She’s Lamhfada’s concern at present, not ours,’ Denera said firmly, bringing Dexter to a standstill. ‘You have other work to do. Not everything you did in the past has come up roses.’ Her gaze turned to Levi.