Gillian Anderson - The Sound of Seas

Qala was right but she was also wrong. And the galdani had very little time to decide which it was.

Ben was already on his way to the hospital when he phoned Nancy O’Hara. He didn’t know if Caitlin was napping or sedated again, and not wanting to disturb her, he felt it best to communicate through her mother. He told the woman he would be there in minutes and asked her if Caitlin was awake.

“She is,” her mother said. “But she is in her room meeting with Barbara—”

“I see,” Ben said. “When you can, please tell Cai that I just got an emergency notification from NYC on my phone. Tell her that the Group mansion has apparently imploded.”

“The who?”

“Just tell her to check the news. It’ll probably be on local TV,” Ben said.

“All right,” Nancy said. “As long as it won’t upset her.”

“She needs to know,” Ben assured her and hung up. He didn’t want to get into any explanations. It was the reason he was hurrying. This could be sabotage, part of a larger struggle, or it could be something they were monkeying with in the laboratory. Or both. One thing he had learned working at the United Nations is that crises rarely had one underlying cause.

Ben arrived at Lenox Hill within minutes. He went right to Caitlin’s floor where he was met by Dr. Yang.

“Doctor, I hear our patient is up,” Ben said, offering his hand.

“I just saw Mrs. O’Hara who told me you were coming,” the physician said. “Dr. Melchior just left. Why does Dr. O’Hara now require a linguist?”

“No, it’s not that—I’m her closest friend,” Ben replied.

“And that is the capacity in which you’re here?” Dr. Yang asked.

“Yes. Yes, why else?”

“I am not entirely sure,” the doctor confessed.

Dr. Yang wasn’t happy with so many nonfamily visitors turning the room into a convention center. But he respected Caitlin O’Hara and while escorting Ben to her bedside, Caitlin assured him there were larger safety issues than her own in play.

“But you cannot elaborate,” Dr. Yang said. “Confidentiality.”

“Yes.”

“Which does not extend to this young man.”

“It does,” Caitlin said. “I need his support.”

Dr. Yang looked at Nancy O’Hara, who didn’t seem sure whether she should stay or go. Then he regarded her daughter.

“This is a professional courtesy,” he informed Caitlin before giving them a half-hour with Ben. “Please do not take advantage of that, unless you wish to go back to sleep, Dr. O’Hara.”

“I understand,” Caitlin had assured him. “If we run over, though—”

“Half an hour,” he repeated firmly. “I have other patients and no time to monitor this. Are we clear?”

“We are,” Caitlin said. “Thank you.”

The bed had been raised and Caitlin was sitting up. Ben looked over at Nancy, who was standing beside the night table. She seemed to be using her body to block the TV remote.

“Did you watch?” Ben asked.

“She did not,” Nancy said.

“Watch what?” Caitlin asked.

“Wow. This is important,” Ben insisted. “Didn’t you tell her?”

“I did not.”

“Tell me what?” Caitlin said. “What are you both talking about?”

Over Nancy’s harsh stare, Ben took out his phone and read the alert: “Subject: Notify NYC—NYU vicinity explosion. The New York City Departments of Fire and Police have jointly issued an advisory that the quarantined area around Washington Square Park has been expanded three blocks north along Fifth Avenue due to the unexplained collapse of a structure, in its entirety, at the corner of Ninth Street and Fifth Avenue. The area five blocks north between Sixth Avenue and Broadway have also been closed to vehicular traffic to allow emergency vehicles to access the site. Con Edison is also on-site checking for gas leaks. No time has been set for a lifting of these restrictions. For more information or to view this message in American Sign Language… etc.”

“Christ,” Caitlin said.

“Yeah,” Ben replied.

“Nothing about casualties?” Caitlin asked.

Ben shook his head.

“I don’t think we should concern ourselves with this,” Nancy said to Caitlin. “As we were just discussing, you have decisions to make regarding your situation and that of your son.”

“What decisions?” Ben asked as he eased into the empty chair.

“Family decisions,” Nancy said.

“Ben is family,” Caitlin said sharply. “Would you give us a few minutes, please, mother? Please?”

Nancy left without a word, without looking at either her daughter or Ben.

“Jeez, I’m really, really sorry,” Ben said.

“Don’t be. You and I have to talk. I’m… shit, I don’t know what I am! I was starting to doubt myself, but the situation at the Group mansion changes things.”

“You were doubting yourself?” Ben said with genuine surprise.

“It happens, yeah. Especially because people I love and respect are telling me what I’m doing with Jacob is wrong.”

“Back up,” Ben said. “How’d you get to that point?”

“Barbara did a regression, but… it wasn’t like anything else I’ve experienced. I didn’t settle anywhere, not in past life experiences or in Galderkhaan. I felt like a goddamn stone skipping across a pond. When I finally did stop I was in—you ready for it?”

“Big old thing or scary new one?”

“New,” she said, “which is why I’m questioning my perceptions. Being in another body, back then… that’s something I can get my arms around.”

“Yeah, I’m still not there yet, Cai.”

“I know,” she said with a hint of impatience, “and let’s table that. This other journey—was new, different. I was in this golden, talking light. At least, that’s what it seemed to be.”

“Talking… how?”

“Not with words but with—this is going to sound crazy—with silence.”

“You’re right. That’s obviously not possible.”

“True, true. Except that—you know the way that black is the absorption of all color? This seemed to be the absorption of all sound, collected in a place and in a way I couldn’t access it. I felt that something was out there.”

Ben nodded. “I see. Sort of like—” he stopped.

“What?”

“I was going to say it’s the same way you had to ease into communication with ascended and transcended souls,” Ben said. “You had to learn to understand them, change your way of listening. The last ones, they had to reach you through Jacob.”

Inside, Caitlin blessed him for his academic detachment and absence of judgment. He began to restore her faith in herself.

“All that is true, though this was beyond anything I’ve experienced since we started, which is why I need more information—to know I’m not making this up, acting out on a subconscious level.”

“You know, of course, what you’re describing.”

“I do, but people who ‘head toward the light’ in near-death experiences don’t get there by regressing, by missing their train stop—in this case Galderkhaan, where I was trying to go. I saw it, tried to find Jacob, and it was gone before I could stop myself.”

Ben huddled closer to her. “What do you want me to do?” he asked, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Apart from compliment you on your lovely PJs?”

Caitlin didn’t smile. That’s how he knew this was very, very serious. She looked into his eyes.

“More than anyone, except for my son—who I think knew it before any of us, now that I think back on it—you are willing to allow that what’s happening may be real,” Caitlin said. “Or at least, I think, you’re closer to believing it. I need to find a way to get to Jacob. Anita told me about the snake.”