The Secret of Ka

  I may not have been a Kala but I was no longer a beginner.

  I focused on the carpet and my longing to be with it, and to fly it from one end of the world to the other. I had no idea how far I was from Istanbul. I could not even have said what century it was. But I felt a strong link form between me and the carpet, strong as a rope. If I pulled on my end and it pulled on its end, working together, we could help each other escape.

  Minutes after kneeling beside the pond, the carpet flew out of the water and landed beside me. I was not surprised, my faith in it was that strong. But I cried as I held it again. I always felt incomplete when we were not together.

  Time, time—I did not know how fast it was flowing back in the Shar Temple. For that reason I did not linger, although I longed to fly over Hara and Aleena's home and see if they were okay. Even the goats would have been a welcome sight. Yet a part of me was afraid of what I would find.

  Hanging on to the sides of the carpet, I asked it to erect an air bubble and take me back through the gateway that led to the Shar Temple. The trip was smoother and faster this time around. But I think the carpet wanted to play. It managed to splash me and get me wet.

  When I flew out of the temple pool, all the guys were moaning now, including Amesh and Spielo. But there was no sign of my father and his gang.

  I had no idea what time it was.

  When I flew over Amesh's hole and he saw me on the carpet, and saw I was alive, he burst out crying. I had never seen him weep so openly—he didn't bother to hide it. Of course, being a natural-born sap, I wept with him.

  "I knew. I just knew," he whispered.

  Rescue time. The four who had hurt Amesh were guilty. But he told me to go ahead and help them. The hole had given him a taste of an agony he wasn't eager to prolong for anyone, friend or foe.

  Of course I freed Amesh and Spielo first.

  I did so by putting the carpet in reverse—yes, it had such a gear, after all—and slipping backwards into each hole, where the carpet magically curled and scooped out one boy at a time. The four bad guys were so glad to see me they started praying. They kept thanking Allah, instead of me, but that was okay.

  It took me only a few minutes to get everyone out of their holes, but I wasn't comfortable leaving anyone on Becktar's property. At the same time, Amesh and Spielo were my priority. In the end I flew my boys out to the desert, to a spot beyond the compound. Then I returned for the four scoundrels. I wanted to only take two at a time but their nerves were shot and I could understand why.

  The carpet managed to expand its shield and keep all four aboard while we flew to Istanbul. Along the way I encouraged them to find new jobs. I set them down close to where they lived.

  Finally I was able to pick up Amesh and Spielo in the desert.

  They were in remarkably good spirits. They said they had only been in the holes two hours after I left, but it had been a long two hours. It seemed that when I had vanished, my father and his partners wondered if I was receiving help from a "higher source." Then the Carpet of Ka disappeared on them—exploding a vault in the process—and they got really worried. They left in a hurry. They did not even take time to kill Lova for letting me escape.

  The boys had no idea where they went.

  "Your dad could be back at the hotel," Amesh said. "Why don't we grab him and fly a few miles out over the ocean and dump him?"

  "Why don't we forget revenge for one night?" I said.

  Amesh held up a hand. "It's not personal anymore, I swear. But those three are a danger to all of us. It's smart to strike while they're confused and not sure what we're capable of."

  "I don't want to kill my dad," I said.

  "He's not your dad," Amesh said.

  "I don't want to kill anyone. I've seen enough grief."

  "I have an idea," Spielo said. "Let's celebrate." When neither of us responded, he went on. "Hey, things worked out good. Amesh got his hand back and it looks great. He's got gems and lots of lira. Not to mention..." Spielo patted the carpet. "We got a magic carpet. Let's fly around town, and buy what we want, and eat wherever we want."

  "You're supposed to be in the hospital," I warned him.

  Spielo shook his head. "I screamed so much in that hole, my lungs got real clean."

  "I wouldn't be opposed to spending a few lira," Amesh said.

  "It's the middle of the night. The stores will be closed," I said.

  "Show enough money and all the stores will open for us," Spielo said.

  "Show enough money and all the police will want to know where it came from," I said.

  "Don't be paranoid," Amesh said. "We can spend some."

  "A little," I corrected. "But you need to see your Papi and Mira. They're worried sick about you."

  Amesh frowned. "There's no way we're going to be able to explain this flying carpet to him."

  "He might believe us," I said.

  Amesh waved his new hand. "Trust me, he'll never understand."

  I smiled. "You know your Papi."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  SPIELO WAS RIGHT, our situation looked positive. Everyone had been rescued. Amesh had his hand and gems. I had the Carpet of Ka. And the bad guys had fled.

  But from another perspective, my life was in ruins.

  I could not go home. I could not go to any place where my father might find me. Amesh and his family would probably offer to take me in, but I was an American. I had to return to the States and somehow try to rebuild a home life.

  I knew of only one way to do that. But it was dangerous. Yet if I did not act immediately, the danger would only increase. I had to get my mother back, my real mother, and that meant I had to get to New York.

  But I did not bother the boys with my problems, at least not at first. I let them relax and have some fun. They took me to an all-night Turkish restaurant—which served lamb and goat!—and then we went shopping. Turns out there were plenty of mom-and-pop stores that would open at the sight of cash.

  Amesh and Spielo loaded up on all the electronic equipment they had always wanted but could never afford: iPods, iPhones, a Wii, an Xbox—the works! They also took me shopping for clothes but ended up buying a dozen outfits for themselves. Amesh got some designer jeans and a leather jacket he looked pretty darn cute in. He made me accept a similar outfit so we looked like a couple, and then insisted I put it on.

  How could I say no?

  Finally, we swung by Amesh's house. He had presents for his Papi and Mira, but the biggest present of all was his hand, although Mr. Demir looked at it with concern. I reassured him that his grandson did not "owe" anyone or anything for this miracle. Mr. Demir wanted to believe me but we both agreed that Amesh would be better off keeping the hand out of sight for the time being.

  Mr. Demir deserved a much longer explanation of what was going on, and I promised him that he would have it. But I excused myself by saying I still had to rescue someone close to me. Mr. Demir understood. Again, he and Mira gave me warm hugs and I was reminded of Tracy.

  As Amesh walked me away from his home, I explained that I had to take a long journey, and why. He listened closely, he was very sympathetic. But he worried I might be walking into a trap.

  "Your father and his people must have agents all over the world."

  "I'm sure they do," I said. "But there's no reason for them to think I know the truth about Tracy."

  "How long has she been in a coma?" Amesh asked.

  "Four years. Maybe five."

  He whistled. "What makes you think you can wake her up?"

  "I'm going to do what it takes."

  "I thought we agreed to keep away from the djinn."

  I caught his eye. "Whatever it takes," I repeated.

  Amesh sighed. "Then I have to come with you."

  "You can't. You don't have a passport and I can't hang around and wait until you get one. They could send someone to the hospital to stick a needle in her vein while we're waiting."

  "I'm surprised they haven't killed her
already," Amesh said.

  "They must have some reason for keeping her alive."

  Amesh pointed to the carpet in my pack. There was a faint light in the east. Another hour and the sun would be up.

  "How fast did you say you went when you outran that jet?"

  "I hid from it. I didn't outrun it."

  "But to stick with it you must have flown more than a thousand kilometers an hour."

  I translated that to be about six hundred miles an hour.

  "So?" I said.

  "There's your answer. And I bet it can go twice that speed if need be. Hell, for all we know, it can go a hundred times that speed."

  "Amesh!"

  "What?"

  "You just swore!"

  He smiled. "I know. It felt good."

  "Are you saying I should fly the carpet to New York?"

  "I'm saying we should fly it there."

  I gestured toward the east. "We're about to lose the stars."

  "At high speed, the carpet can easily stay ahead of the sun."

  I considered. As fast as a Boeing 747 was—with all the stops along the way, and customs and security checks—it would take at least a day to get us to New York. The carpet could get us there in a few hours.

  "Go tell your Papi and Mira you're taking a trip with me," I said. "But don't tell them where you're going. They'll freak."

  He reached out and pulled me close.

  "I already told them I was going with you," he whispered.

  His concern for my well-being touched me. I had to wipe away a tear.

  "I want you with me," I whispered back.

  Once again I unrolled the carpet and we lifted up into the air and prepared to head west. The fading stars worried me, but Amesh insisted on a quick stop outside of town.

  "We need to pick up the jewels. They'll be safer in America."

  "Where did you put them?" I asked.

  "In the middle of nowhere."

  He had buried the chest in a shallow hole in the desert, not far from the job site. It took us only minutes to uncover them, but the sun seemed to be rising faster than ever. As we soared back into the sky, I worried that the weight of the chest might slow us down.

  "You just lifted those four jerks to safety," he said.

  "You're not still mad at them, are you?"

  He paused, then laughed. "Not on a night like tonight!"

  As we left Istanbul and flew over the sea, I decided to take another approach to the global problem we faced when it came to advanced radar systems and jetfighters. I explained my idea to Amesh and it was his turn to look worried.

  "You don't want to stay close to the surface?" he asked. "If we fly below a hundred meters, we can evade any radar."

  "I'm not comfortable flying at two thousand miles an hour that low. God only knows what we might run into."

  Amesh glanced over the side. We were up a half mile and still climbing. But with the shield the carpet had erected, we felt neither the wind nor the cold.

  "Exactly how high do you plan on going?" he asked nervously.

  "Carpet, raise our elevation to fifteen miles." I enjoyed bragging about the carpet. "There isn't a jet on earth that can fly that high."

  "There are rockets. And we're going to enter American air space. We could get shot down."

  I waved a hand. "This carpet's more advanced than anything the U.S. Air Force has in its arsenal. We'll be fine."

  Ten minutes later, we were up so high, there were no clouds, and overhead the stars burned bright. The moment was pure magic. Likewise, the stars on the carpet shone with extraordinary brilliance. It was only then, after so many amazing flights aboard the carpet, that I got an inkling of what it had been truly designed for.

  To travel to other stars, to other worlds.

  No human being had built the Carpet of Ka.

  For the first time since we'd ridden the carpet together, I lay beside Amesh, our heads inches apart. He had brought some of the new clothes—Spielo had taken the rest for now—and he molded a warm down jacket into a pillow. At our extraordinary speed, we were outracing the moon, and soon it was straight overhead.

  I found myself almost hypnotized gazing into his eyes—such dark round wells, lit by soft moonlight. I fell into them, I suppose, into him, and I do not remember who made the first move.

  We kissed.

  His mouth was warm, his lips were sweet. He could have kissed me once or a hundred times. For me it was like one long ache that kept being soothed. I was more than happy; I was joyful, and even when we paused to rest I felt a contentment inside I had never known before. I felt complete.

  Afterward, it was nice just to relax in his arms and talk nonsense. I didn't even discuss my plan to rescue Tracy. It was enough just to be with him.

  I told myself it did not matter that he was not a Kala.

  We could be together. We could have a future.

  He was not going to lose it again. I trusted him.

  Yet why did I have to keep telling myself these things?

  I had instructed the carpet to head for New York, but I had not given it a precise plot to follow. With the help of the moon shining on the Atlantic, and my binoculars, we saw numerous icebergs. Tiny white points on a black field. I realized that the carpet was following the path of intercontinental jets, going over the pole, or at least near Iceland and Greenland. Amesh got a kick out of the icebergs.

  "I saw Titanic a dozen times," he confided. "I loved when the ship hit the iceberg and began to sink. It was so realistic."

  I poked him with my foot. "Yeah, right. You loved it when Leonardo DiCaprio painted Kate Winslet without her clothes on."

  His eyes widened. "She really took off her clothes?"

  "You saw the movie."

  "That scene was taken out in my country."

  I patted his leg. "We'll get you an unedited version while we're in New York," I said.

  We were flying over what appeared to be Nova Scotia when the radar alarm came on. It scared Amesh but I did not panic. We scanned the area below us. Sure enough, there were two fiery dots approaching from our right.

  "Carpet. Increase our elevation by ten miles. Double our speed."

  Amesh whistled. "Wow! Six thousand kilometers an hour?"

  "I wouldn't be surprised if it can fly faster than the speed of light."

  The rockets continued to inch closer, but the carpet's alarm silenced. I left our speed and elevation alone, confident we were far enough away. My faith was rewarded minutes later when the burning dots sank into darkness.

  "Too bad the carpet can't turn invisible," Amesh said.

  "The carpet told me it can. It can do all kinds of things we can't imagine. It's just a question of unlocking its secrets."

  "You said it's your mother who's been talking to you through it?"

  I had told him a few particulars while we were shopping.

  "She's the one who forms the words using the stars. But the carpet communicates with me in other ways."

  Amesh shook his head. "I feel ashamed."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "For acting like it belonged to me as much as to you. From the start, it was obvious you knew how to handle it. I was jealous, I'm sorry."

  "Don't be sorry, Amesh. You've been put through so much pain."

  He nodded and hugged me tighter, not speaking.

  The unmistakable glow of New York became visible in the distance. At Amesh's urging, I ordered the carpet to drop down to a hundred feet. I cut our speed to that of a small plane.

  "Do you remember the name of the hospital where your mother was being treated?" Amesh asked.

  "Hadley Memorial." I did not bother to point out that she was not being treated, but was merely being kept alive. Amesh was studying me.

  "You look worried," he said. "Are you afraid you won't be able to find the hospital?"

  "She was at Hadley Memorial years ago, but that's in Washington, D.C. Now she's under the control of the Anulakai. I'm sure they've got her s
tashed in some weird spot, probably some place that isn't even listed as a hospital. All I know for certain is that she's in Manhattan."

  "How do you know?" Amesh asked.

  "I saw the Chrysler Building when I was in Tracy's room."

  "Is that a famous landmark?"

  "Very. The only problem is, it looks the same from every direction."

  Amesh studied the vast metropolis we were approaching.

  "That might be a problem," he said.

  Before we rescued anyone, we had to stash Amesh's chest of jewels. We hid them atop the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which connected Staten Island to Brooklyn. It was in a special spot only the birds could reach. We figured they would be safe there for as long as we needed.

  "I'm going to circle the Chrysler Building from the air," I said as we flew toward the building.

  "You said this air space is full of police and helicopters."

  "It has been since 9/11. We'll just have to find her fast."

  We circled the Chrysler Building several times and got nowhere. There were too many tall buildings in the area. Plus, from my brief vision, I couldn't tell if Tracy had been one mile or five miles from the building.

  I needed a second landmark to narrow our search area.

  We landed on the top of an office building. Getting off the carpet and stretching, I tried to imagine what altitude I had seen the building from. At thirty stories, I felt we were too low.

  "What are we doing?" Amesh asked, standing beside me.

  "Getting our bearings. I think we're too close."

  "You're not too sure about this, are you?"

  "I definitely saw the Chrysler Building. But I saw it while I was in the throes of hypothermia. My heart and lungs were not working. My brain had probably flat lined. I wasn't at my best."

  "I think you should try talking to the carpet."

  "I tried. But all it says is, 'Stay away.' It's my mom warning us not to take any risks."

  "Maybe she knows what she's talking about," Amesh said.

  "I don't care. I'm going to rescue her." I yelled at the carpet laid out beside us, "Did you hear that?"

  It formed the words. "Go to Hawaii."

  "What's in Hawaii?" Amesh asked.