Robert Browne - The Paradise Prophecy

LaLaurie moved to the center of the room and squatted next to the symbol on the floor. “Give your hand.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it.”

Callahan hesitated, not sure what he was up to, but finally reached out and took his hand. “Don’t get any ideas. I saw the way you were looking at me tonight.”

He ignored the remark. “When I was young,” he said, “before I fully came into my own, my mother would do this so that I could see what she saw. To prepare me for what was to come.”

“Meaning what?”

“Let me show you.”

He looked at the symbol, then paused a moment as if to brace himself. Then, lowering his free hand, he pressed his palm against the floor and closed his eyes.

Callahan sighed. “This again? If I wanted to see the Amazing Kresk-”

She flinched as heat radiated up through her arm and tunneled straight through to her brain-a simmering bolt of energy that came at her so fast and furiously she didn’t have time to react.

Her nostrils filled with an almost overwhelming smell of sulfur, as the floor tilted sideways and she felt herself falling. She yelped and tried to reach out, but realized she had no hands, no body. She was merely a presence in free fall, tumbling into a deep, dark nowhere.

Then light assaulted her, blinding light, sweeping past her, through her, all around her, and she felt as if she were spinning out of control. In the middle of it all she saw Koray Ozan, blurry but unmistakable, tears streaming down his face as he begged some unseen entity for mercy.

Then she was inside Ozan’s head, the hiss of a thousand voices skittering through her brain, speaking in a tongue she didn’t understand, uttering what she sensed were hideous, vile things. All she knew for sure was that they were unwanted voices, invading Ozan’s mind- her mind-like an army of angry locusts.

Then the room around her burst into flames and Ozan screamed.

Callahan cried out, too, ripping her hand away from LaLaurie’s as she collapsed to the floor, the flames gone, the voices fading.

Shaking uncontrollably, she stared at LaLaurie in horror and confusion. “What the hell did you just do to me, you son of a bitch?”

But LaLaurie didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. He had collapsed himself, looking as if all the blood had drained from his body, his eyes closed, his face deathly pale.

Was he alive?

Somewhere in the distance, beyond the stone walls of the tunnels and the muffled braying of the fire alarm-

– was the sound of approaching sirens.

We need to get out of here, Callahan thought. Right now .

Once the fire department got here and realized there was no fire readily apparent, they’d start searching the building, looking for whatever had tripped the alarm. And when they found that guard on the stairs . . .

Still trying to shake off the effects of LaLaurie’s mind meld-or whatever the hell it was-Callahan checked to make sure he still had a pulse and shook him awake.

“Come on, Professor, we’re about to have company.”

He moaned and opened his eyes, barely able to speak. “Stronger than I expected . . . Did you see it? Did you see Ozan?”

“At this point it doesn’t much matter what I saw. We need to get moving.”

She helped him to his feet, threw an arm around him, and urged him through the doorway. LaLaurie could barely walk and had to lean into her for balance.

Working her way through the tunnel, she found the steps to the next floor, but with LaLaurie in his current condition, getting to the top would be problematic. Callahan had always taken pride in her athletic ability, but LaLaurie weighed a ton. And from the feel of his body, much of that weight was pure muscle. No way they’d get up these stairs on her strength alone.

As if reading her mind-which might not have been all that much of a stretch-LaLaurie muttered something, then shifted around, gathering his strength and started up the steps.

They moved at the pace of a newborn snail, Callahan trying to figure out what the hell had happened back there. Ozan’s tortured face filled her mind’s eye and she shut it quickly, not wanting to relive his horror.

When they reached the top of the stairs, the alarm stopped and she heard muffled shouts above them.

The fire department was here.

Steering LaLaurie to the right, she crashed through a doorway into the nearest office then sat him in a chair and closed and locked the door behind them.

The room was dark, except for the incandescent light that filtered in through the pebbled glass. She could see the outlines of a cluttered desk, an old CRT computer monitor sitting atop it.

A search of the building would likely start upstairs, but it wouldn’t take them long to get down this way and the sight of the guard on the stairs would stir up a whole different kind of trouble.

LaLaurie looked at her. “This is Ozan’s office, isn’t it?”

“I think so, yeah.”

He gestured to the computer on the desk. “Can you hack into that thing?”

“ Now? Why?”

“I want to see his records. He sent that figurine of Michael to Gabriela, so he may have sent something to the other guardians, too. Maybe we can figure out who they all are.”

“We don’t really have time to be playing around with this.”

“We’ll never get a better chance.”

Callahan didn’t know how much good it would do them if they were sitting in a Turkish prison cell, but she took a seat behind the desk and tapped the keyboard, bringing the screen to life. To her relief, Ozan’s computer wasn’t password protected. No hacking necessary. She called up the file system, quickly clicked through the menus, and found Ozan’s client database.

“No time for a thorough search,” she said. “I’ll just download the whole damn thing.”

Taking a memory chip from her handbag, she stuck it into the computer, hit a key, and seconds later, the database was on disc. As she ejected the chip, she heard a shout down the hall.

They’d discovered the guard.

“You ever been to jail?” she said. “It isn’t fun. Especially here.” LaLaurie got to his feet. “We need to hide.”

“Maybe if we turn sideways, they won’t notice us.”

He gestured to a closet against the left wall. A narrow, rectangular wooden wardrobe. “In there,” he said.

“Both of us? There’s barely room enough for-”

“We don’t have a choice.” He crossed to it and threw it open. There were a couple thick coats inside, but at least it wasn’t stuffed full.

Callahan heard running footsteps in the hall, urgent voices.

She eyed LaLaurie with reluctance, then switched off the computer monitor and joined him at the closet. It took them a moment to squeeze in, chest to chest, a smashing of body parts that turned two medium frames into one large one. But they managed to make it work and get the door closed.

Then a two-way radio squawked and someone jiggled the office doorknob, barking a command in Turkish. “Open it.”

A key chain rattled, a lock was turned and the door flew open.

Callahan sucked in a deep breath as a flashlight beam swept through the office, passing the crack in the closet door like a lighthouse beacon, once again reminding her of LaLaurie’s mind meld.

A switch was flipped and the overhead light went on.

Through the crack, Callahan saw three uniforms in the doorway. One fire, two security. One of the security men stepped inside and crossed to Ozan’s desk, checking behind and under it.

With sudden horror, Callahan spotted something-

– Her purse. She’d left it next to the computer monitor.

How fucking careless could she be?

Her heart started thumping. So hard she was convinced it would burst a hole straight through LaLaurie’s chest. And just as she was sure the guard was about to find the thing-it was right there in plain view , for God’s sakes-someone in the hallway shouted, “Hakki! Come quick!”