THE SLIDE

Chapter 26 | Who Was Killed?

Part 2: Mystery-Thriller, Fantasy, Crimes

Orca, Sofia, and the Berber Shaman

“Ra is lost.” It was the soft, low, sad voice of Orca whose sound was everywhere within the lavender space. “He got too close to the block they put on him. In fashioning it into a shield he absorbed it and became lost to his own light.”

I miss him, Sofia thought and two tears streaked her cheeks.

“If you are very quiet and stand between worlds you can hear how he suffers. Perhaps he will break free,” Orca’s voice exuded from the space.

But you don’t think he will break free, do you, Orca? Sofia put the thought to her.

“No, I do not,” she said in response to Ra’s fate.

“You will go to the Dreamtime of Hrez Azyuy and his five companions and assist them in the mission.”

Yes. Stay focused on the mission.

The Courtroom Testimony — Day 3

“What happened next?” the Magistrate asked.

“The worm tubes came again but could not take my light because of the shaping of the copper around my head and body around my thighs and above. After some long torturing minutes, the tube clouds evaporated into nothingness.

“On the fourth time, the dark worm tube black clouds did not appear. I asked Ivanovich if I could go exploring near and around the shelter. He said,

This is a very dangerous move. The Slide is unpredictable and filled with contradiction, paradox, chaos and fates worse than death. Yes, we have patrols that keep us relatively safe from the crazed ones that roam out there. The most fearsome element is what is called ‘the Churn’. I’ve seen it consume men, women and children and I’ve heard their horrific screams. It is unpredictable where and when it appears. There is legend I have heard, before I arrived here, about a young man that could see into the Churn. The legend says that the young man reported that the Churn is a revolving door that leads to many worlds beyond the Slide but takes a certain refined ability he was reported to have said — to enter and go to one of the many places safely without dying or being maimed.

“He also told me: I see that you will press me on this. [Meaning me.] So, I will make a bargain with you. Agree and I will give you a short leash. Otherwise my word is no. When you do this the Slide will make you a target and because you are with us, your actions put all of us in mortal danger. The orders I give you will minimize you and all of us as targets. Disobeying them will mean your death by the Slide or by me.

DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?

“Of course, I agreed and I gave my word. After that, while preparations were being made for me to go beyond the shelter in a mobile copper suit we talked about the Slide. He suspected that the Slide itself was a conscious being capable of making choices.

“But the choices are fragmented and chaotic because the Slide has empathy — or at least it absorbs the feelings of those around and in it. And the feelings have conflict at best and have deliberate terror in them from the military who want complete control of the Slide, I told him.”

That is an audacious observation that may have already placed you in danger in the past. Now, especially when you return, if you can escape from the Slide, he said. That danger will lead to torture and death. But…

“But what? I asked him. He implied that I was lucky and that the luck was almost used up.”

Zed asked for a ten-minute recess to speak with the Magistrate. After the break Zed took up the mantle of investigation and began probing for weakness.

“Admit that you know this disguised man currently known as Ivanovich!” Zed drilled into her.

“No.”

“But you suspected he is someone you once knew. ADMIT IT!”

“I did suspect, but I came to see, and now know he is what the People of Mystery call an Immortal.”

Zed’s face flashed red for a nanosecond that only Farha could see. She felt his violent rage as if he were a tentacle of some unseen monster. Then he locked himself down with complete control. No one else in the courtroom noticed this opening except Farha. She knew that he knew that she knew of his nanosecond of weakness.

She buried the feeling of her eminent approaching demise.

There was no time for additional shielding from this evil cretin. “What happened when you were on the so-called ‘short-leash’ from Ivanovich?”

“I saw the Churn. That’s not right. First, I felt the Churn a minute or so before it appeared and my impulse was to run, but I remained in control. I asked Louie if he could feel it. But he didn’t. He asked what? I told him — The Churn. And as soon as I said it, it appeared, and began digging into the desert beneath it as if it was sucking the ground. Louie and the two others fell flat to the ground. I followed their lead per previous orders from Ivanovich.

““Seven crazed people rushed the Churn. It pulled them off the ground and sucked them inside. The screams were hideous. I wanted to cry, but I bit my tongue. Then, the Churn was gone, as if it never existed. After what seemed like forever we rose and went back to the shelter.”

“What happened to your Uncle Tem? Why did he not return with you?” Zed’s force pushed her up against a metaphorical wall that felt real. Zed’s sinister nature bled through with sexual rapacious intent.

“I don’t remember returning,” Farha said.

“What happened to Tem?”

“He was killed,” Farha blurted out.

“Did you kill him?”

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