The Hazing Tower (17 page)

“Godfried, yes, it’s me. It’s important. Remember my old code machine, the one I received as a gift? Can you please get it; we need to try something.”

“Of course, but sir, something first. I’ve been trying to reach you. The estate, it’s been broken into.”

“What?”

“Yes, and someone shot up the place, the entire kitchen in destroyed. Should I call the police?”

“No, don’t call the police. Let me think about this. First let’s check out this code, or what might be a code.”

He started to write it down from his memory. Paris. She had mentioned Paris twice. It had to mean something. She would never make a mistake like that. It had to be intentional.

Do you remember Paris in the springtime?

Making love under the full moon.

The spring air like dancing flowers.

Everywhere. Paris. Rome. The world.

I was even a teacher for some time.

I suppose you have been here the last 70 years. You waste it you know. This gift.

“I am ready, sir.” Godfried said.

He could hear the old machine working; it was like a manual typewriter but for code. Old codes. Rebecca used to be obsessed with code and secrets; she had modified this specific machine herself. She had given it to him as a gift, such a long time ago, it seemed.

“Sir, this is bizarre. It can’t be.”

“What does it say, Godfried? Please read it to me.”

“
Teacher everything forgive me Nikkiiski.
Does it makes sense to you, sir?”

He spelled it out as he knew she would write it; they played with codes for years.

Teach her everything. Forgive me.

Nikki is the key.

Nikki gasped out loud and stood up.

“Thank you, Godfried, I need to go now. Can you please reset the machine and hide it somewhere safe. And Godfried, one more thing. Take a well-deserved vacation; the estate is not safe anymore. Go be with your family now. And don’t worry, you will still get your full pay. No need to call the police. I will deal with this.”

Alex closed the sat phone and touched Nikki’s arm.

“It’s time for you to know everything. I have been selfish to keep it from you, Nikki.”

She nodded, “I understand.”

Nikki could feel herself start to tremble. Her heart sank. It wasn’t like she hadn’t known he had made love to Rebecca, but seeing him write it down like that, it crushed her. And now, it was clear that Rebecca had a plan the whole time. She wasn’t the bad guy after all; she was trying to help somehow. Did this mean Alex would go back to her? He probably still loved her, she felt sure of that.

She had to hide the emotions; it would be so obvious on her face. She had to push this deep down. Clearly this was important to Alex. It must be something bigger than she could even imagine. The steps that Rebecca must have gone to for this plan to be in place. She tried hard to fake a smile.

“It sounds like we’d better start then,” she encouraged. Her hands were shaking.

He softly touched her face and looked at her. “Nikki, I didn’t mean for you to see that. You have to understand, that was a long time ago. It’s different now. I met you. Everything has changed.”

She nodded.

There really wasn’t anything to say. For the first time, she wasn’t sure if she believed him. She had always trusted him after she remembered he saved her; but this was different, this was love. She knew deep inside he still had feelings for Rebecca. She thought back to her ex-fiancé. For so long she still loved him, even after he had treated her like dirt. She was well aware how love worked; you couldn’t just turn it off like a light switch.

She longed to ask more about Rebecca, she wanted to know everything. It wasn’t the right time. He probably wouldn’t tell her much anyway. She could feel her emotions running wild; she felt jealous and sad at the same time. It felt like she was on fire. She almost lost control and directly asked him if he was still in love with Rebecca. She stopped herself. He most likely was, and, in any case, he wouldn’t tell her.

• • •

“We should get started, right,” she responded, trying not to look directly at him.

He looked away as well. “Yes, right, we should. Let’s go for a drive, somewhere remote.”

The scenery was breathtaking as they drove along the winding roads; for some reason, she didn’t care this time. Usually she would be laughing and pointing out every animal, every new tree.

It was a long drive and they didn’t really talk at all. Was she losing him? If so it was her fault. She was the one acting this way. She knew it, but for some reason couldn’t snap out of it. She knew why actually. It was something he hadn’t said. Had she really become this kind of person? She always considered herself a tomboy, not a romantic. Why did she care if he had not said those words, those seemingly so special words. She had never felt emotions this strong before, not about a man at least.

“Here we are, as remote as possible on the island.”

It was green fields for as far as she could see. Weird actually considering how small the island seemed to be.

“What now?” she asked. She walked around aimlessly, kicking some rocks like a kid would do, her head down.

He pulled out a foam ball. “Let’s start with this, OK?”

She laughed; at least she laughed. “You’re kidding, right? A baby toy?”

He smiled. “Just trust me on this one. You will see why.”

“So I just stand here?” She rolled her eyes.

“I’m going to throw this at you. When I do, try to focus on the ball and calm down, like relax.”

“Oh, wow — so a ball is coming at me and I’m supposed to relax.” She was getting annoyed.

“Ready?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“Ouch!” It didn’t hurt, of course, but, as she expected, the ball hit her right in the face.

“I’m supposed to be some kind of key to all this? Nothing happened.” She could feel herself tearing up. God, why did she cry so much now? She never used to cry, never.
What is wrong with me?
she thought to herself.

“Again, let’s try this. When you see the ball, think about its movement. Watch it get larger as it gets closer. When I say relax, let your mind clear itself of other thoughts.”

She looked down. She was thinking about him, of course. What he hadn’t said to her. Rebecca. All of it.

“You all right?” he asked, walking to where she stood.

Nikki was stronger than this; she knew that. Clearly there were bigger problems here than her love life. Like the fact that she was dead, and she was the key to something extraordinary. She had to do this. She could do this.

“I’m ready now,” she assured Alex. “I just needed a minute.”

He looked confused and walked back to prepare again.

She closed her eyes.

“OK. Ready, set, go!”

As she opened her eyes, she locked in on the foam ball. Something bizarre happened — she knew at that instant she would never be the same. The ball slowed to almost a complete stop in mid air. Colors radiated out of the ball like a rainbow. It was magical, incredibly beautiful. She had never seen colors so vivid. She relaxed herself even more and noticed the ball slowed even more. Could she move? She slowly walked toward the ball; colors flashed as she walked. The grass caught her eye; it was red instead of green. She looked at Alex; he looked frozen, his arm still in the throwing position.

She walked up to the side of the ball and touched it. It felt electric, like nothing she had ever experienced before. She pushed back on it and could feel the electricity was even stronger. It moved! It moved in the other direction, like she was pushing it through water.

She heard herself laughing, giggling actually. It was like hearing herself on a video; it was the most bizarre feeling she had ever had.

Nikki watched the ball now moving backwards toward Alex. She spun around and looked at everything. The sky, the grass, the trees — everything was alive with color and energy.

She wasn’t afraid for some reason. She felt relaxed and happy. It was like she was in her own private world, where all the normal rules did not apply.

Nikki closed her eyes and felt a rush of air.

“Nikki! Are you OK? Nikki, can you hear me?”

He looked so scared. He was almost on top of her. She guessed she had fallen down.

“I am fine, that was fun! Let’s do it again!”

He looked terrified.

“What’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”

“No, you didn’t hurt me. Do you know how much time passed?”

“You mean playing with the ball? It was like one minute,” she guessed.

“It was almost 10 minutes for me, more like 15,” Alex replied.

“What?” Nikki said, dumbfoundedly.

“I have never seen anyone that could do that,” Alex said. “I can’t, Rebecca can’t. You actually reversed the direction of the ball, Nikki. And also, the amount of time you spent in there. It was fascinating.”

She felt a bit scared now. “So that means I really am like you?”

He nodded his head. He looked shaken. She had never seen him look like this.

“Rebecca was right. You are the key,” Alex said, trying to fathom the moment.

Nikki felt the jealousy again. “A key, huh —”

“I didn’t mean it that way. You are much more than that. It’s just — I didn’t expect this. I thought maybe Rebecca was wrong.

“Nikki, I think we should try something. And I totally understand if you say no, OK? Don’t feel bad if you don’t want to do this.”

She had never felt so energized, so alive again. She was different now. It didn’t matter anymore if she was dead; she didn’t care.

“Try what?”

She watched as Alex pulled out a handgun from his leather jacket.

“You’re going to shoot me?” I am, or was, a cop, you know!”

“No, no, of course not. I would never shoot you. I’m going to shoot away from you, toward the ocean out there, way in the distance. I don’t think anything will happen, but I think after what you just did, we should try.”

She nodded her head.

“OK, let me close my eyes like last time. Can I count down this time?”

“Of course,” Alex agreed.

She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind. “Three, two, one...”

CRACK!

Her eyes opened to a world of bright red. She saw it! The bullet! She could see it, moving fast. She took off running as fast as she could. The ground felt more like ice than grass but she still picked up speed. She was gaining on it! It was still moving too fast. She closed her eyes again and calmed herself.

When she opened them she felt her heart stop for a second. She saw it. The bullet. It had stopped completely. She ran up to it and stood there staring. It radiated a glowing light of pure red. It looked like it was shaking. She reached out and touched it.

“Ow!” It was burning hot. She had to try; this was beyond cool. She found the closest rock and picked it up.

Moving right up to the bullet she pushed on it hard with the rock. She knew right away something was wrong. The bullet faced downward, but at the same time the earth felt like it was shaking, like an earthquake. The colors everywhere changed and started to become even a darker red. She started to feel scared this time.

“Stop it, Nikki — stop it.” She closed her eyes and talked to herself. She opened her eyes, nothing changed. The vibrations under her feet were increasing.

She closed her eyes again and tried to calm herself as much as she could, which was getting real hard as her fear increased. “Nikki, slow down, just slow down.”

Everything was white. She was on her back staring up at the sky.

“Alex!” she screamed out. She looked in every direction. No one. Alex was gone. Just green grass.

“Oh, my God,” she said out loud. She realized she was feet from the cliff dropping off to the ocean. She had been at least two miles from the ocean when he shot the gun.

She tried to run in the other direction to find Alex, but tripped and fell flat on her face.

Suddenly, he was there. She felt his warm hand. “Nikki! Get down. Stay under me!”

“What? Why?”

“I’ve seen this before. Please, stay down.”

He was on top of her, totally covering her now. She had no idea what was going on, but it must be bad, she figured.

Suddenly she felt the vibrations again, increasing, shaking.
BOOM!
She felt air rush past her like a hurricane. She couldn’t see much, but she saw a tree in the distance bend down from the force of the wind, or whatever it was.

Slowly the vibrations diminished.

“Alex, I can’t breath.”

“Oh, sorry,” he seemed, realizing he was still on top of her. He seemed to be stunned, another first for the day.

“Nikki, did you see the bullet?” he asked.

“See it? I stopped it.”

“You what?”

“It stopped moving. I pushed it down facing the ground.”

His face turned white; all the blood seemed to drain from him in an instant.

“Is that bad?”

“It’s great, Nikki. Let’s go home. We need to talk. I need to explain what I know about all this. You need to know now. You are special, Nikki. Very special.

“Are you hurt? In pain?” he asked her.

“No, I feel fine. Why?”

“Usually, when we do this kind of thing, we can get sick, like when you saw my nose bleeding that day in the car. It doesn’t seem to happen to you.”