Bad Jack ((Ascension: Book 1)) (21 page)

Chapter 55: Billy’s Past

“Ok.” Jack walked to the desk and pried the lid off the glass as Billy closed the office door. He probably didn’t need to swig from the shot again but Billy didn’t know that. He gestured for him to sit at one of the never used stools. He tilted the full glass of liquid back and felt its effects hit him as Billy looked up at him in childlike wonder.

Yeah, thought Jack, you don’t want me to fail, you hope it works.

Drinking it in the presence of someone tripled the intensity of the experience. He knew things about Billy now that Billy barely knew.

“You grew up
in Kentucky. You’ve worked hard to lose that twang in your accent. You were in foster care from the moment you were born. You find it odd now that no one adopted you sooner since babies usually get taken right away. You got lucky on the third attempt and actually got adopted by a pretty cool couple. They were rich. They pampered you. But when you were thirteen your foster mom got drunk and touched you inappropriately. Her husband caught her in the act and he sent you packing so he didn’t have to confront the elephant in the room; his wife was a drunken deviant. You don’t think about it much these days but it’s still there, deep and raw and eating you from the inside. You know it wasn’t your fault but that doesn’t help. It’s why you don’t trust women.”

Billy
interrupted, “Ok Jack. You’ve said enough,” but Jack barely heard him.

“You joined the Marines at seventeen with written permission from the State. You traveled and met some great people but you couldn’t stop thinking about your real mom and real dad. You did
blame yourself for them abandoning you. Then you started to blame yourself for the failed adoption. You would inevitably always come to the same conclusion; there was something wrong with you that made people want to run away.

You tried suicide at twenty
four when drinking didn’t take away the pain but you got caught in the act. You got mandatory professional help through the military and you pretended you were getting better but you were only bluffing so they’d let you go. You promised yourself that once they let you out you’d make sure the suicide stuck.

But before they cleared you a man named Humboldt came to see you. He offered you the world and promised you’d be part of something big. It was the first time in years you felt
like you had a reason to live. You came here and for two months you waited for something to happen. Then I showed up.”

Billy started to
sob. Jack wondered what was wrong with him. Then he realized he’d gone too far. He put a hand on his shoulder and said, “I don’t judge you. You did nothing wrong.”

By
physically touching Billy, he was able to sluice even more info from him. He knew what his real mom looked like. Billy must have looked into her face with his cloudy newborn eyes at least once before he was sent away and Jack could see the vision of her as newborn Billy had seen her. She was very young, maybe fourteen or fifteen and she was sobbing.

Jack kept this to himself. It wouldn’t do Billy a bit of good to find out that he was forcibly removed from his real mothers care. Was she raped? Did her dad insist on adoption
instead of abortion? Was Billy’s real dad incarcerated for statutory rape? These were all pointless and profoundly negative questions that he could spare Billy just by keeping his mouth shut about it.

Billy s
tood from the stool, choked his sobs down and said with a half hearted smile, “I guess it does work.”

Jack laughed and Billy’s sobs morphed into laughter.

He said wheezy, “You know Jack; I would have told you some of that stuff if not for regulations. I wasn’t just trying to be secretive. We’re forbidden from discussing personal matters with you lab coats. I think it’s to stop guards and their charges from forming friendships, you know, in case we have to shoot you.”

Jack mused, “Maybe that’s why I know so little about Melanie.”

“Probably. Why don’t you just take a glug of that magical firewater and go see her?”

Jack looked at the clock. It was a few minutes to two
; almost time to head downstairs. “You’re a frickin’ genius Billy-boy.” He’d let Billy think it was his idea and that he hadn’t already thought about that very thing hours ago.

It was funny; now Billy was encouraging him to drink the elixir.

He reached for the glass and his heart sank when he saw that only a teaspoonful had reappeared at the bottom. He didn’t know if there was enough in his system to last that long. It might be an hour before he got her alone and by then it would wear off.

Then he
had a countering thought, what kind of a dickhead have I become? I’m no weirdo stalker. This is like going through her mail or her purse to find out her secrets. She’ll tell me everything about her if I just trust her. She hasn’t given me much reason to think I can’t.

He said
aloud, “I don’t need black magic to get to know her. I think I’ll just use the ole noggin to suss her out.”

He
snapped the lid back on the shot glass and, watching Billy the whole time, slipped it into the big square pocket of his lab coat. Billy started to open his mouth in protest but he closed it again.

As he escorted Jack to the elevator he said, “You can’t keep it forever
you know. They’ll notice the missing checkmark sooner or later and come after you.” Then he slowed down so his brain could make use of the energy. “How about I just give them a different one? In the plastic baggy no one will notice the switch.”

“Do you have a spare shot glass? Are you sure you’re ok with this?”

He
was surprised by this reversal.

“
I have a few. I’m only doing this because it’s too cool to give back.”

Jack smiled. Just a
week ago Billy had pointed a gun at him and severed almost all hope for trust between them. Now he was not only risking his job for a parlor trick but his life too. And even though he said he was doing it for other reasons Jack knew he was doing it as a favor to him. He knew he could trust the man. He’d seen into the deepest most hidden recesses of his mind and Billy was one of the good guys despite his secret moods and suicidal tendencies. If performing tricks was all it would take to keep him from eating a bottle of pills or a bullet then Jack would become the great Harry Houdini for him.

Chapter 56:
TMI

Melanie met him outside the elevator doors. Brett was as congenial as he could be. They were under the powerful fans of the clean room within less than a minute.

She
said, “The Doctor had to run an errand so it’ll just be you and me and Oliver. We can finally talk.”

He
didn’t know if this pleased him or made him more mentally exhausted; maybe both.

Once the doors
opened a world weary Oliver escorted them from there. He looked anguished or maybe that was how he looked when he was tired or stressed. Either way, he looked like crap.

They passed the
cages but this time the creatures all turned to watch them in silence as they walked by. It looked as though Jessie had conjured another creature because one of the few open cages left was now closed.

Jack passed by the other monsters without sparing a glance. He wanted to see this new abomination before they went any further.

Inside the cage sat Jessie in his Spongebob pajamas. He looked up when Jack approached but he didn’t speak.

“What the fuck are you doing? Let him out.” Jack ordered Oliver.

“That’s not the real Jessie. He dreamt it. It’s just like those copies of you.”

He
reached inside and touched Jessie’s shoulder to make sure. He felt a surge of warmth and a serene calm emanating from the boy. The boy was not human, that was for sure. He resonated like the artifacts.

Satisfied, he
said to Melanie and Oliver, “Alright then. I watched the tape already so where can we go to talk?”

Oliver led them into the monitoring room
. They took up seats around the break table.

Oliver started.
“Melanie told me everything. You drank some sort of potion from an artifact that allows you to see hidden meanings or something, right? That’s how you figured out what’s really going on here. Well, I tell you, I’m glad you did because I was wondering how to bring you up to speed without you thinking I’m a crazy person.”

Jack huffed, “I’m still not totally convinced.
Now just so we’re clear, we’re actually talking about the Christian belief system as though everything in the bible is true. We’re dealing with this as fact?”

Oliver said, “
The bible is far from accurate. Some believe it’s intentionally misleading to keep us from ever understanding the truth. What we’re trying to deal with is a structured set of principles that were around before mankind. We have learned to follow certain rituals, or rules, in order to make sense out of the chaos.”

“So you’re saying that a ritual isn’t hocus pocus, it’s the equivalent of an equation or a code?”

“That’s almost right. Rituals were put into place to dissuade people from accidentally unlocking the hidden forces. It’s like a password on a computer.”

Jack inhaled deeply and sat back, cueing Oliver to continue.

“I’ll start from the beginning. Now before I start, you need to know that I don’t know everything, just more than anyone else and that’s still not much.”

Jack nodded impatiently for him to get on with it.

“I’ve always been interested in esoteric studies regarding religion and whatnot. I even taught a class at my home with a few promising students. Well, about a year ago I felt a powerful presence beckon for me. No sooner had I felt it than a man named Humbug or something came to offer me a job.”

Jack interjected, “His name’
s Humboldt.”

Oliver
shrugged that he didn’t care and went on, “When I arrived and saw the boy imprisoned in his room and the couple of weird creatures he’d conjured, I was confused. I admit I’d expected more. I didn’t understand any of it. I needed to find out more because the child wasn’t telling me a damn thing, he still doesn’t. So I start to dig through some of the boxes of belongings that were brought here from his home and I stumble upon the recording. I watched it and I recognized most of the symbols that I could make out on the film and it occurred to me that it was a very specific ritual that was taking place. The woman on the tapes name was Maria, do you remember that?”

Jack shrugged and put on his
innocent face. He wasn’t sure she’d actually mentioned her name at the time.

“It doesn’t matter. During the ritual she embraced the burden of bringing the messiah into the world.
I think she didn’t know what she was getting herself into as is evident from her abandoning him later on when things got strange. But the symbols are all there on the tape and the proper bible became a part of the sex act which is a must. I’m guessing she didn’t let you in on what she was up to because the seeder must be without foreknowledge in order for it to work; it’s essential. These are all parts of the ritual. This much I know. I just don’t know how she did it. The ritual has been attempted and it always fails. It was considered incomplete or partially lost to the ages until now. I don’t know where she got her knowledge from but it far surpasses my own. It all started to make sense. The little boy was the messiah. And when I started to see some of the miraculous things he could do I just knew it was true. I felt the child compel me to bring in Melanie. By then this facility had changed its rules to only allow people with no real ties onboard so Melanie turned out to be a perfect fit. Unfortunately, being an Airman doesn’t get you access into this particular warehouse so I got her as close as I could until you came along. Then I was able to insist she got access in order to guard you.”

Melanie said, “They only let jarheads back here as guar
ds,” and then she realized she’d temporarily stalled Oliver’s story with trivialities so she folded her arms and sat back.

“I hadn’t seen Melanie since her college days. I was her theology professor
at UW Madison and she showed up for some of the extracurricular classes I taught at my home. She’s been like a daughter to me. When she enlisted I thought my heart might break. Now it all makes sense. It’s what got her in here. She was destined from the start as you were. Me too it turns out. You see, Maria was supposed to help Jessie become the messiah. She was supposed to embody the lord when his powers allowed it. When she left him and he was quarantined, a new set of conditions took effect. Because you are his blood too, you can also embody the Lord, if you so choose. I had worried we’d never find Maria because no father is listed on Jessie’s birth certificate, but it appears all is right with the world once more.” Jack chuckled against his control which caused Oliver to stall. He quickly continued, “I can’t tell if Jessie’s conscious of what’s happening or if he knows he’s the messiah. I’ve tried to talk to him about it but I just get blank stares. Whatever is compelling us to help him is very strategic though.”

Jack
asked, “If this is true, if you’re getting orders from Jessie or from some other source, why haven’t I received the same messages? It sure would make some of this easier to swallow.”

“I’m puzzled by it to
o. So far I’m the only one to be given specific instructions. Others have felt the presence and even gleaned some meaning from it. When he called out for you I know others must have heard it too just because of the strength of the yearning but you are far more important to the success of the mission than any of us so why isn’t he communing with you? Maybe you just aren’t listening hard enough.”

Jack thought about it for a second.
He was playing devils advocate. “Maybe I don’t need to. Maybe he’s not sending me messages because he doesn’t need to. He spoke to me in person this morning and it wasn’t just about video games or food. He said that tomorrow I would become a killer.” Jack said it by way of answering a question, not to help further Oliver’s delusions.

Oliver jumped up. “Shit, tomorrow? It’s happening already? Jack we need to get you debriefed right fucking now.”

He looked part madman part excitable teenager, neither of which suited him.

“Melanie, take over
, I need to make sure Collins doesn’t stumble upon us.”

She
was about to protest when Oliver rushed out the door.

Jack sat back in his seat, waiting
for her to pick up where Oliver had left off.

She cleared her throat.
“It’s pretty cool that Jessie spoke to you in person about this.”

Even though he hadn’t interrupted Oliver’s speech he was mad at Melanie. He said sarcastically, “I guess it was pretty cool Melanie. You know what’s not so cool is the fact that you’ve been using me like a fucking puppet.”

She stammered, “It’s not like that Jack. Honestly. We thought we had more time to ease you into your role. It was hard enough for Oliver and me to believe any of this and we know a thing or two about religious rites. You’re a professed atheist. Your walls are thicker and higher. We assumed it would take awhile for you to get your head around it.”

“Well I’m ready to listen now. You called me The Embodiment and I’m pretty sure I heard someone call Jessie The Catalyst, so what does that make you? The Manipulator? Is Oliver the
Fat Old Fuck? Do we all get cool codenames?”

Melanie breathed in deeply through her nose. “I called you the Embodiment because
Oliver gave you that title. It’s the only way he could wrap his head around your role in all of this. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone call Jessie a catalyst. And I most certainly did not manipulate you. There are important things to get to so stop trying to pick a fight with me.”

Jack smirked bu
t he knew she was right. “So I’m supposed to embody God then? What if I refuse?”

“
Jack, it’s completely acceptable for you to refuse to allow the lord into your heart. But only you can do so. We have to at least give you the opportunity to say no and we can’t do that in here. We need to get Jessie somewhere safe.”

“I told you we wouldn’t make it ten feet and I still think that’s true.”

“And I told you that we have people in place to help us. We have Oliver down here, you upstairs and now I can go between both
levels. We have at least four people waiting for us to make our move. We can make it.”

“And then what, we wait for Jessie to summon God or for him to make a phone call
to heaven? What then?”

“
We don’t know exactly when he’ll open the door for the Lord but it looks like it’s happening sooner rather than later.”

Jack furrowed his eyebrows. “Why the fuck do you keep correcting me when I say God? You
keep following it up with ‘the Lord’. What’s the fucking difference?”

Melanie
gulped and then teared up. “Jack, we don’t want God to come to earth. Hasn’t he done enough damage? Hasn’t he hurt us all enough? I would do anything to stop that bastard from interfering. We’re trying to bring a caring God to earth. The current one doesn’t give a shit but our replacement God is compassionate. He cares about you and me as individuals.”

She looked deep into
his eyes to see how he was taking it.

He said
angrily, “So you mean the devil then? Great, just fucking great. I finally fall for someone and she wants to turn my soul over to the devil. Why didn’t I see this coming?” He felt foolish for saying the last part but that was how he felt.

“It’s not the devil, there’s no such thing
. It’s an angel; the grandest of them all. He’s the bringer of light. He’ll turn earth back into the Garden of Eden. His name is Lucifer.”

Jack s
norted. “What’s the difference? Lucifer’s just another name for the devil.”

“No. Lucifer was thrust into hell f
or questioning God’s will. He’s suffered the agonies of torture for an eternity just for disagreeing with his boss. He does not rule hell, God rules hell. And God rules this hell on earth too. Don’t you think it’s time to let someone else have a shot at running things? And if you had to chose someone wouldn’t you want it to be the greatest angel there ever was?”

Jack laughed out loud.
“Listen, God, the devil, Lucifer, angels, I don’t give a shit, I still don’t buy it.” But he did. He knew in his heart that she was telling him the truth. For the second time today he wished he knew more about the bible. He also felt sickened that he was taking this so well. He’d missed about a dozen cues to just stand up and walk away from this madness but here he sat, waiting for more.

“You’
ll see. It’s all true. I haven’t told a single lie to you. If you don’t want to go through with it that will be your choice. Just know that I will love you no matter what you do.”

The word
‘love’ brought him back. “So when my consciousness is completely gone and Lucifer’s behind the wheel, you’ll love him not me, right? Because Jack Mayberry will be gone if what you’re saying is true.”

“That’s not how
it works. Lucifer just sort of tags along. You’ll be his mortal link to this world. He’ll dwell inside you. He can perform miracles and act on his own so long as you two have the connection but you’ll still be you.”

Jack didn’t want to talk about this anymore.
“What happens to Jessie if this works?”

“I suppose his dreams will stop manifesting themselves.”