Steve Alten - The Mayan Resurrection

‘The nexus?’

‘That’s what I call it.’

‘Teach me how to do it.’

‘Come on.’

Manny follows Jacob outside to the fifty-meter pool.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Teaching you the way I learned, by holding my breath. Happens best when you’re frightened, when the adrenaline really kicks in.’ Jacob strips down to his shorts. ‘Swim down to the bottom and hold on to the ladder. Then close your eyes and look for a white pinpoint of light. When you see it, focus on it but don’t go in. The light will grow bigger, and then everything will just slow down. You’ll be able to tell ’cause your lungs won’t hurt anymore from holding your breath. Just remember, see the white light but don’t slip inside its warmth.’

‘Why can’t I go inside?’

‘Just don’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘I think it might be a higher dimension.’

‘Have you done it yet?’

‘Not yet, but I will one day.’

‘Are you afraid to do it?’

‘I’ll do it when I’m ready. You just focus on getting in the nexus.’

‘If I make it inside, how do I get out?’

‘Just say to yourself, I want out, and you’re out.’

‘What if I forget and drown?’

‘You won’t drown. Once you begin running out of air, your hands will let go of the ladder, and you’ll float to the surface. That’s what always happens to me. Every time I try to stay under, my body lets go and the nexus tosses me out.’

The dark-haired twin stares at the bottom of the pool. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Come on, Manny, stop being such a baby.’

Immanuel strips to his underwear and climbs down the aluminum ladder into the pool, the cool water giving him the shakes. ‘It’s cold.’

‘It’s warmer in the nexus. Now take a deep breath and go under.’

Immanuel takes a gulp of air and ducks underwater, working his way below using the ladder. Gripping the bottom rung, he closes his eyes.

Blackness.

His heart pounds in his ears.

His lungs burn.

Immanuel releases the rung and kicks to the surface, exhaling as his head breaks water. ‘You are such a goddam liar. I swear, I don’t know why I let you talk me into these things.’

‘I wasn’t lying-’

‘Shut up!’ Immanuel climbs out of the pool, shivering. ‘I’m going inside.’

Jacob grabs his arm, then points to the digital clock on the pool house wall. ‘It’s 2:04, right? Watch and learn.’ Without waiting for a reply, he dives in, kicking to the bottom.

Immanuel sees his brother wrap the crook of his left arm around the lowest ladder rung. Crazy freak.

Jacob steadies himself. Closes his eyes. Loses his thoughts in the blackness behind his eyelids.

In his mind’s eye, he is sliding down his larynx, racing through a bronchial tube into his right lung. He follows a bronchi branch into one of the smaller bronchioles until his mind dead-ends at a harvest of grapelike alveoli clusters, each tiny sac containing molecules of air. Like a honeybee he taps into each one, drawing minuscule breaths, which he redirects into his oxygen-starving brain.

The constriction in his chest eases. The pinpoint of light appears, its warmth increasing as it expands.

Okay, I can do this… I can do this…

Jacob Gabriel’s mind slips inside the bright hole, his soul bathing in its warmth.

Then he sees the shadow.

Immanuel looks up at the clock. Almost three minutes… A tingling as his bladder tightens. What do I do? What if he drowns? He focuses on his brother’s face. Sees the melancholy smile. Geez… he’s really doing it.

Beyond the haze is a lithe figure, floating along the periphery. Jacob’s mind reaches out to communicate: Hello?

Who’s out there? A girl’s voice. Frightened.

Don’t be scared. My name’s Jacob. Who are you?

Lilith. Where are we?

It’s a special place I call the nexus. How did you find it?

Brandy taught me. She told me to hide in here.

Why are you hiding?

I… I can’t tell. Quenton will get angry.

Who’s Quenton?

My grandpa. He says I’m a heathen. Says my soul needs to be cleansed.

Lilith, I have to go.

Wait! Please don’t go, I get so… lonely.

I have to go, but we can talk again.

Really? Will you be my friend, Jacob?

Of course, but now I have to go.

The digital display advances-2:11.

Immanuel Gabriel is on the verge of panic. He is about to leap into the pool when he sees Jacob’s fingers loosen their grip on the ladder rung.

The white-haired twin floats to the surface, then suddenly snaps awake. His head breaks the water, his azure-blue eyes searching for the digital clock. ‘Seven minutes. Convinced now?’

Immanuel shakes his head. ‘I can’t do that. I’m not like you.’

‘Yes you are.’ Jacob climbs out of the pool, his eyes catching sight of a passenger jet as it streaks north across the afternoon sky.

ZAP!

White light… presidential seal… the interior cabin of a private plane… Ennis Chaney at his desk… the open cockpit door… a man in uniform at the controls… an identification badge… a glint of steel… blood splatters the control panel… nosedive… a sickening descent… bursting into flames…

ZAP!

‘Jake… hey Jake, wake up!’

Jacob opens his eyes. He is on his back, lying on the pool deck. He sits up, confused. Looks at his brother. ‘What happened?’

‘You fainted, dickhead. Serves you right for staying under so long.’

‘No… it wasn’t that. I had a vision.’

‘What kind of vision?’

‘A plane crash. I think it was Air Force One.’

‘You’re such a freak.’ Immanuel heads back toward the house.

‘Manny, wait-’ Jacob hurries after his brother. ‘That never happened to me before. It must have something to do with the light. I entered the light for the first time. The vision just latched on to me!’

‘Leave me alone!’ The thermoimager above the rear security door tracks the dark-haired twin as he approaches. Positively identifying Immanuel, the system opens the sliding bulletproof doors.

Immanuel enters the kitchen, Jacob right behind him.

‘You can’t ignore this, Manny, you’re my twin. At some point, these things will happen to you, too.’

‘Shut up-’

‘We have to be ready. Years from now you and me are going to leave this world and-’

‘I said, shut up!’ Immanuel races through the hallway and into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

‘It’s our destiny, Manny!’ Jacob presses his face to the closed door. ‘If you’re too much of a wuss to go, maybe I’ll go with Lilith!’

‘Jacob Gabriel!’ Dominique grabs her son by the arm, dragging him away from his brother’s door. ‘What did I tell you about teasing Manny?’

‘I wasn’t teasing.’

‘Go to your room.’

‘No.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘I have to call Uncle Ennis. I have to warn him-’

‘Young man, you’re grounded!’ She drags him into his bedroom. ‘You stay in there until I say you can come out.’ Dominique slams his door shut, then knocks on Immanuel’s door. ‘Manny? Manny, sweetheart, you okay?’

Hearing the sobs, she enters.

In a corner of his bedroom, Immanuel Gabriel sits on the floor, pulling out clumps of his dark black hair.

Belle Glade, Florida

‘… Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil-’

Lilith Robinson opens her azure-blue eyes. She is no longer in the nexus. She is lying on the cot, naked, her slender wrists and ankles bound by plastic cords.

Quenton stands over her, Bible in one hand, cross in the other, his white minister’s outfit lathered in sweat as he verbally assaults the girl with more fire and brimstone.