... That seemed to be the cue for the meeting to break up. People had their marching orders, or not, as the case may be and the square was quickly deserted. Malcom though didn't feel ready to go back to Harvard, to his "normal life" of just a few days ago.

... "Lazarus?"

... "I have no answers for you professor."

... "Excuse me?"

... "You want me to confirm or deny some theory of yours?"

... Malcom could only smile guiltily. "Does everyone ask you that?"

... "At some point, yes, but unlike others I was not blessed, or perhaps it is cursed, with a good memory. I believe their is only so much that one man can hold on to or adjust to. That is why I came here. I no longer felt comfortable in the world."

... Malcom nods, "My mother, she was born before the turn of the last century in a small country in Eastern Europe that no longer exists. And I remembered she could never adjust to telephones. They seemed to be permanently beyond her. I myself was born in a remote town in America and while many of my contemporaries swear by their computers I have never been able to make peace with them.

... "I think you are right, there is only so much adapting a man can do."

... Lazarus nods. "In my time everything revolved around family: parents, children, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins. Your family was your tribe, the limit of your world. When none remained who had been alive when The Christ raised me, when even my grandchildren had passed away, when my lands had been inherited and re-inherited, divided and redivided. None knew what place I should hold in the family. Were my great grandsons never to become patriarchs in their own right? And so I left. But once I left there was no place for me. Any where I settled I eventually came under suspicion as I never had children and I continued to outlive even the oldest of legend.

... "Some suggested I could avoid suspicion among the multitudes of a city. But cities were my limit of adaptation. I never understood them and felt uncomfortable among so many souls. Even here, in what I know is barely a city, I still become lost, and there are no families. But then we are all the same, separated from our homes by deeds and time."

... Malcom nodded and then glanced at Avalon. He had roamed its streets but had found few answers. The men who had seen much typically were reticent to recount what they had seen. And the loquacious individuals seemed to know only the specifics of their own experiences.

... Vakar was the same. Malcom knew that Vakar had traveled through most of Europe over the last millennium but he only seemed competent in the modern world and the specifics of his life before ... something he was reluctant to think about.

... "Come along and witness history."

... Malcom followed Lazarus as he stepped off The Town Center but did not land in Avalon or the third dimension that Malcom knew. The world passed by them in an apparent endless series of passages branching off from the path they took. It was only a few steps they took before Lazarus slowed and gave a familiar shift of his shoulders they all gave when leaving the fourth dimension for the third.

... Malcom stepped out upon a small wind swept bit of rock. Malcom quickly amended that to ocean sprayed and wind swept. At its highest point the rock was perhaps six inches above the water and no more then twenty feet upon its longest axis. A single span separated this bit of rock from the next and the next. In fact as far as he could see these "scabs" upon the ocean stretched. Giving the impression that they were in fact standing on the back of some great behemoth lurking just under the surface.

... The next gust of wind caused Malcom to modify his description again to frozen bits of ocean sprayed rocks. "Where are we?"

... And the wind answered, "Beyond the edge of the world mortal." Atlas stepped out of the fourth standing a mere three spans tall and carrying what looked like an old diving bell. He raised his other arm to point. "Look there. The smoke rises from the sea of fire upon which the world rests."

... Malcom looked and did see rising plumes of smoke and realized that he was indeed upon the edge of the world. The Falklands or South Sandwich Islands, the South Atlantic, just a few miles North of Antarctica.

... "What have you there?" Apparently Lazarus was more interested in the diving bell then the smokes from hell.

... "Your capsule. I remembered some mortals loosing it in the Gulf of the Western Lands. It was still there." Atlas set the bell down and then opened the hatch. "I emptied out the contents."

... Neither Malcom or Lazarus were terribly anxious to look inside a diving bell that had been resting on the ocean bottom for some years. Just then Thor stepped into the third dimension. He ducked his head through the hatch and Malcom saw Thor lower the edge of the camouflage he had put on for Malcom's and Lazarus' sakes. Malcom and Lazarus turned away.

... "Its clean now."

... When they turned back they could see, even from a few feet away, that the inside of the bell now gleamed. Malcom bent his neck to look inside. Even the paint was gone. The bell was as clean as the heat from a blast furnace could make it. At the bottom Malcom noticed a frozen pool of what looked like mercury and he surmised was the melted metal from what ever interior fittings there had been moments before.

... "Step in, time is of the essence." Atlas' voice was like the grinding of a wave over stone. If you weren't listening for it you'd never know you'd heard it.

... Thor reduced himself so that his shoulders just slipped through the hatch. Malcom wasn't sure but he thought Thor resumed his size once inside the bell so that when Lazarus entered the bell there was nowhere for him to stand that he didn't rest at least partially on Thor.

... Atlas closed the hatch and spun the lock with a finger. Atlas then gripped the ring around the top of the bell and hefted it into the air. Atlas took a wider stance such that his feet rested on two different "islands" of rock. Not a great feat considering how close together they were but then Malcom noticed that Atlas' feet were too long for just one island. In fact they stretched from one bit of rock across the short span of water to a second island.

... Then Atlas' hand, with the diving bell resting in it, came back down to sea level. (For the first time Malcom saw the initials, NIMR, on the side of the bell.) And then the hand and the bell were accelerating into the sky as Atlas straightened his legs. Malcom heard the first sonic boom when the bell was a mere hundred feet above the water. The bell continued to accelerate, perhaps until it left Earth's atmosphere.

... Malcom continued to watch, even though the bell was now nothing more then a mote of dust against the enveloping dark. He was still watching when he realized it had been a long time since he could actually see even the dust mote. Malcom looked around but Atlas was gone, or perhaps those low mounds that formed the Falklands Islands were his feet. Where would you stand if you had to hold your father, the Sky, apart from your mother, the Earth, so that he can create no more monsters, like you?

... Malcom shrugged. Lazarus was right, Malcom had witnessed perhaps the single most momentous event of the century but somehow he felt empty and the moment was fading quickly from his mind. Malcom crossed his fingers and hoped this trick still worked. He stepped forward and then turned left just between two molecules.

... Malcom stood on the Town Center of Avalon. Arthur was still standing on the dais but he had been joined by Eldorado. The two men rather then talking to each other seemed to be trying not to cringe away from a roiling shadow before them and to ignore a sound like nails on glass. "... and none of the others has felt his presence."

... Eldorado responded, "We understand but still feel bringing him to bear on this situation is too important not to make every effort."

... "Have you ever been in his presence?"

... There was a stillness that clearly meant, no, from both men.

... "I was once, under the protection of someone he feared."

... "Who does The Prince of Shadows fear?"

... "The same one we all fear and who can do nothing for us in this crisis."

... Malcom desperately wanted to know whom Vakar was talking about. Who did Satan and Eldorado, along with Arthur and one of the cursed, fear? The one God? But why would Yahweh extend his protection to Vakar?

... Arthur spoke this time, "Still the trip must be made."

... "Do you know the nature of your soul's final disposition?"

... "Yours will be as a floating ice cube in space as the destroyers of all creation fly by."

... "Preferable to-"

... Eldorado cut Vakar off. "And what of her?"

... The shadow revealed raw pain and black anger. Malcom felt the face turn towards him but could actually see no turning. A moment later the shadow was gone and Vakar had not acknowledged Malcom.

... "I'm sorry you saw that." Arthur seemed contrite but it was Eldorado who had spoken.

... "Who-"

... "It's not our story to tell. If Vakar had wanted you to know he has had ample opportunity to tell you."

... That was certainly true but it did nothing to lesson Malcom's curiosity. "Then who is it you all fear, who extends their protection to one of the cursed?"

... Arthur and Eldorado looked at each other before Eldorado answered. "Malcom you know more about the nature of creation then most mortals. But even if you knew and understood the entire plan there would still be things you would not understand. There have been ... accidents, things that are but are not a part of the plan. That are unaccounted for in any philosophy. One is the mortal we spoke of."

... "A mortal?"

... "With the power of a god, over all gods. She is to be our judge and jury and Vakar was wrong." Arthur looked up and Malcom hung on Eldorado's next words. "She could stop this ... incursion into our realm but ... she feels somethings might be worse then death and we will not present her with this problem?"

... Not present her ...? There was a mortal with enough power to make Gods fear, to judge gods, to prevent the destruction of creation and they weren't even going to inform her of the problem? "What arrogance!"

... Malcom didn't realize he had spoken aloud until he heard Eldorado give an amused grunt. "What do you expect from Gods and heroes?"

Next >>

Leon .... Dr. Falcon .... Mrs. Stewart .... White House Meeting .... JPL .... Voice .... Son