Chapter 20: Courage to Stand
Doc sat in the conference room after the team adjourned, thinking about all he’d heard. The muffled thud of feet in the doorway announced a visitor. Doc didn’t have to turn to recognize that it was Nathaniel. He hadn’t seen the man in years, but he could still identify him without the other five senses.
“Is your family settling in well, Nathaniel?”
“They are, Johann. Thank you. What are you thinking about, sitting here alone in the dark?” Nathaniel came to sit at the table beside Doc.
“Everything. Marcus’s brother returned from behind enemy lines with valuable information. I didn’t see that coming.”
“No one did. No one could have.”
“The collectives have a Traveler now. Someone whose abilities recently surfaced, do you think? Or someone who’s been hiding up until now?”
Nathaniel spread his hands. “Who can say? Abilities as rare as Traveling are difficult to hide and even harder to repress. The real question is whether this Traveler is helping the collectives voluntarily or being forced.”
Doc rubbed his forehead. “For years we’ve been looking for answers to the prophecy. Sometimes we go so slowly, it feels like we’re moving backward. When Maggie lost her memories, sending her back was the only logical choice, but I was so disappointed. I was sure she would be the one to fulfill the prophecy. Now she’s back with new abilities and unimaginable powers.”
Nathaniel nodded, gazing at the table in front of him.
“And David showing up now? It can’t be a coincidence. What do you think?”
Nathaniel shrugged. “I was surprised you had a connection to Trap, er—David. Did you know him before he went into the collective?”
Doc shook his head. “I came across them once as children, but that was long before David left. Marcus didn’t come to live here until years later when his father was dying. He was lonely, depressed, ready to give up. I found them and brought them to Interchron. He was still young then, and he told me the entire thing. I’m the only one who’s always known the whole story.”
“What did the others know before?”
“Only that something had happened to Marcus’s little brother, something he blamed himself for.”
They were both silent for a moment.
“I would like to have you along,” Doc said. “You’d be a valuable asset. Maggie is still very unsure.”
Nathaniel nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll spend some time with her tomorrow and see what she can do. I’ll have to discuss the journey with my wife, but I don’t think she’ll object. I’ll be glad to help in any way I can.”
Nathaniel looked up at Doc and smiled. “So how have you been these many years, Johann?’
Doc smiled back, spreading his hands. “As you’ve seen. Strange that the first real promise we’ve had toward the fulfillment of the prophecy comes as we are reunited. Unless you’ve had more progress than I?”
Nathaniel smiled in a way that made Doc wonder what he was thinking. “We have much to discuss. I came back to find a safe place for my family, but that was not the only reason. I have things to tell you.”
“You had ways of contacting me without traveling all this way on foot.”
“Yes, but I didn’t want to risk it.”
“I must admit, I never thought you’d settle down.”
Nathaniel laughed out loud. It was a sound Doc hadn’t heard from Nathaniel in more years than he could count, and it made his eyebrows raise.
“Where did that expression come from?” Nathaniel asked. “Settle down? Children bring more excitement than any amount of adventure that came before them.”
“You were right, you know,” Doc said. “If you hadn’t warned me to go get Maggie when you did, they’d have killed her. Marcus barely got there in time to stop the Arachniman.”
Nathaniel nodded. “So I surmised from what Marcus said. Was she all right?”
“They hurt her, but Marcus was there. There were no lasting effects.”
“What did you tell your team about how you knew to go get her?”
“I didn’t entirely. They know I have ways of getting transmissions from the collectives. They also know I’m reluctant to speak about it, so they don’t ask. They trust me. Either that or they assume that we intercepted an actual physical message. I usually don’t specify.”
Nathaniel nodded, lost in his thoughts.
“What do you make of what David said?” he finally asked. “The screaming, the terror? What’s going on in the collectives?”
Doc sighed. “It was a chilling description, wasn’t it? The collectives are forcibly absorbing people. It’s a brutal business, nothing less than neurological rape. We’ve heard stories of parents whose children are being attacked. If the parents are too strong and the collectives can’t absorb them, they are simply killed. Then the children are forced into the collective. Imagine the terror of a child who has just watched loved ones be murdered then had a foreign entity drill into their heads and steal their thoughts. I think everyone in the collective can feel the terror and exploitation of the victims. David’s conscience wouldn’t allow him to stay in the hive any longer. Others may feel the same, but they aren’t strong enough to break away as he did.”
Nathaniel nodded thoughtfully. “He may be the missing link.”
“I agree, but he’s only one of many. He will provide valuable information, but we still don’t have a Deceiver, and the prophecy remains ambiguous. But then you didn’t come here to muse on this. It’s merely something unexpected that crossed your path. So.” Doc leaned forward. “What do you have to tell me?”
Nathaniel turned serious as he began.