Stones: Hypothesis (Stones #2) Read online

  “Incredible,” Kent says.

  “What?” Jake leans close and his aviator glasses scan back and forth. “I don’t see anything.”

  “On the bottom of the monkey’s legs. Two decimal numbers. Tiny. Smaller than a grain of rice. No wonder we couldn’t see it.”

  “What do you think it means?” Jake says.

  Kent leans back in the chair, cocks his head to one side and looks up at the ceiling. “Good question. Could be anything. A secret code. Date of manufacture. Size and weight. Who knows?”

  “Wait a minute,” Jake says. “Two separate numbers. What sort of information always comes in the form of two separate numbers?”

  “Coordinates. GPS coordinates.” Kent’s fingers shoot out to the slate. “Let’s check for the fun of it. My guess is somewhere in Southeast Asia.” He puts the numbers into a locator protocol and waits for the results. “Bingo,” he says. “Any guesses?”

  “Thailand?”

  Kent looks up in surprise. “How’d you know?”

  “Little John left and went there once for a few days. After one of his visions. Always said he wanted to go back. He used to talk about the great food. Cobras, frogs, insects. Exotic stuff like that.”

  “And monkeys. Lots of monkeys. I should have known.” Kent plays his fingers over the slate.

  “Where exactly in Thailand is it?”

  “The GPS coordinates, if they are GPS coordinates, are the exact location of the Phra Prang Sam Yod shrine. An old Buddhist temple dedicated to—”

  “Let me take a wild guess,” Jake says. “Monkeys?”

  “What else?” Kent says. “From the looks of it, the place is not only dedicated to monkeys, but overrun by them.” He stares at the bluescreen, chewing slowly on his bottom lip. Then he looks up at Jake with half a smile and an arched eyebrow.

  “No,” Jake says. “No way.”

  “It’ll only take a few minutes to pack.” Kent gets up from the table and runs upstairs.

  Jake yells after him. “I know what you’re thinking. I’m not going to Thailand.”

  CHAPTER 48

  Matt turns to see who is speaking to him in perfect English in the room in the middle of the Brazilian flavela.

  Under the light of the lamp, he sees a boy, fourteen or fifteen years old, sitting on the floor.

  “Please, sit down.” The boy motions to a spot on the floor next to him. He holds a Stone nearly identical to Matt’s in the palm of his hand.

  So this is the Healer. Just a kid.

  With a nod, Matt makes no effort to hide his own Stone and drops down next to the boy. Yarah sits at Matt’s side looking up at him like she’s proud of the rare specimen she brought to the party.

  “I see our little Yarah has safely guided you into the heart of what we call the Forbidden City.” The boy’s dark eyes glisten in the dim light of the room. “I’ve been waiting for you. The Woman said you would come.”

  “The Woman?” Matt says.

  “The Woman in my dreams. Whose voice penetrates all things.”

  Matt studies the boy’s face. “With the golden eyes?”

  “And the white robes.” The boy leans forward. “You’ve seen her too?”

  Something about the tone of the boy’s voice, too sweet and innocent, rubs Matt the wrong way. He works hard to keep a straight face.

  “Perhaps she comes to all the Stone Holders,” Matt says.

  “Maybe so. I’m Leonardo.” The boy extends his hand. “Most people call me Leo.”

  “Good to meet you, Leo. I’m Matt.” He grasps Leo’s hand, squeezes hard and shakes. “Where did you learn to speak English?”

  “Boston,” Leo says. “Born and raised there.”

  “What’s a kid from Boston doing in this slum?” Matt’s eyes drift around the room.

  “My parents were from Brazil. They both died in a car accident a couple of years ago. I came here to live with my aunt Ana. She’s the only family I have left. And the best cook I know.” Leo looks to his right and nods to an older woman sitting there.

  “Isto é minha tia,” he says.

  “This is my aunt,” says the jax, still in Yarah’s hands.

  The old woman smiles and shows a mouthful of missing teeth.

  Matt reaches out to Yarah and gently brushes his finger along the side of the jax to deactivate the automatic translator.

  “And all these people?” Matt’s scans the room. “Who are they?”

  Leo’s holds up his Stone, glowing light blue. “Ever since I got this, I see what’s wrong inside people. They come to me, and I heal them. At first it was just a few here and there. Mostly children. Like Yarah. She was the first.”

  “Tell me about it,” Matt says.

  Leo runs his fingers through the dark bangs hanging down over his eyes. “She lived with her father. He lost his job at the car factory and came home drunk and beat her. When I found her on one of the walkways between buildings, she was almost dead. So I brought her here and healed her. I’m not sure how. I just saw things that weren’t right and made them right. Now she lives with us. I tried to keep it a secret.” He looks at Yarah with the gentle eyes of a big brother. “But children talk. Word spread. People started coming to our house.”

  Yarah looks from Matt to Leo as if she knows they are talking about her.

  “Where did you find the Stone?” Matt says.

  “I know it sounds crazy.” Leo pulls his knees up under his chin. “My father was a doctor. I always thought I’d grow up to be one too. He told me about a box in his room. He said that if anything happened to him, it was important that I take it. That’s what I did. After I got here, I opened it and found the Stone inside.”

  “And so you heal people?”

  “Every night.”

  Matt looks around the room at the waiting people. “How long does it take?”

  “Most of the night.” Leo leans back against the wall. “I sleep during the day. It’s great to have you here. I could use the help.”

  All eyes are fixed on Leo, as if he’s an angel from heaven. A sense of peace and calm permeates the room. No one is in a hurry.

  Except for Matt.

  Thinking of Jessica, he feels a stab of panic and has a sudden urgency to leave.

  “Look.” Matt wants to scream, but he manages to keep an even voice. “I know you’re busy helping people, and that’s really swell of you. But there’s a madman on the loose with multiple Stones who kidnapped someone that’s important to me. I’ve got to get her back alive. The madman’s trying to take over the world and make us all slaves to his demented vision of Paradise. I need your help. We don’t have time for these people, right now. We have to go.” He leans forward to stand up, expecting Leo to follow his lead.

  But Leo remains sitting and motions to the people waiting. “We can’t just leave. These people have nowhere else to turn. The Woman in my vision told me you’d help me heal them. In a few weeks, if we work together, we can get them all. I thought that was why you came.”

  “A few weeks?” Matt tries to tamp the anger back down, but it pushes its way to the surface where it threatens to explode and turn to rage. He takes a deep breath. “We don’t have a few weeks. Ryzaard is going to destroy everything we love. We have to stop him.” He shakes his head. “There’s no time for this.”

  “Ryzaard?”

  “Yes!” Matt stands and pulls Leo to his feet.

  People around the room begin to chatter nervously.

  “But—”

  “Are you listening? Ryzaard’s going to track down all the Stones and kill the Holders. He already tried to kill me. He’s powerful, evil, smart. Now he has Jessica. We have to find her and kill Ryzaard.” Matt is yelling at the top of his lungs.

  A beam of hot plasma rises out of his Stone. In his mind’s eye, he sees himself striking out, killing Leo and everyone else in one sweep of the room, taking Leo’s Stone, absorbing its power and going after Ryzaard.

  All for Jessica.

  The
room is silent. People are cowering in fear, their eyes on Matt.

  Leo steps back. “Please. I know what you’re thinking. Don’t do it.” His fingers touch Matt’s elbow. “I can help you.”

  “I don’t need your help.” Matt raises the Stone, and its beam swings up into the ceiling. Sparks shower down. Rage bursts from his eyes. “I just want Jessica back.”

  “I’ve seen this before. Your heart is filled with fear and anger.” Leo puts both hands on Matt’s shoulder. “You need to be healed. Relax.”

  Before Matt can react, the blackness flows out of him, like a receding tide.

  He slowly drops to the floor, like a feather, limbs light, the tightness gone from his face.

  Matt’s eyes float up. “How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know, really.” Leo withdraws his hands and kneels on the floor. “There was a pool of darkness inside you. I just drained it, like a blister.”

  Slipping the Stone into his pocket, Matt brings a hand up to his forehead as if taking his own temperature. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” For the first time since seeing the Woman, he is bathed in a sea of total peace. No worries. No fear. His eyes go up to Leo. “Now I know why they call you the Healer.”

  A shy smile flits across Leo’s face. “The Woman in my dreams said I had a gift. And she said something else. It must have been important. She said it three times in a row.”

  “What was it?”

  Leo begins slowly. “Don’t seek for power. Be united in love and trust. Or one of us will die.” His eyes remain on the floor.

  “Good advice.” Matt takes in a deep breath. “OK. I’m ready. Show me how you do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “Heal.” Matt’s gaze goes around the room. “I think they’re waiting.”

  Visibly relaxing, Leo drops into a sitting position. “I’ve never done it with another person, so I’m not sure what will happen.” Leo looks at an old man sitting at the head of the line. “Por favor venha,” he says to the man, motioning to a space in front of them.

  The man scoots forward and turns with his back to Leo. His frail frame shakes with a violent cough.

  Leo turns to Matt. “I put my hands on his head. The same way they did in the Bible.” He stretches out trembling fingers.

  “You’re a believer?” Matt says.

  “I am now,” Leo says. “I’ve seen it work. When my hands are on their head, somehow it pulls my mind inside their body. I can see what’s looks wrong, what is out of balance. And then I just think about the way it should look, and it changes. When it looks right, I know they’ve been healed.”

  “Sounds simple enough,” Matt says.

  “Can you put your hands on his head, too? I think it will go faster if we do it together.”

  Matt sits in a lotus position. Leo sits Japanese style, legs neatly folded under his body. They both drop their hands on opposite sides of the old man’s head, a chaotic mass of matted hair. The scalp is covered in moist sores and scabs.

  Matt raises his hands slightly at the thought of what lies beneath his fingers.

  “One more thing,” Leo says.

  Matt smiles. “There always is.”

  Leo clears his throat. “The Woman in my dreams said that when Stone Holders join together, nothing is hidden, nothing is secret.” A whisper of fear crosses Leo’s face. “What do you think she meant?”

  Matt has a twinge of jealousy and tries to push it out of his mind.

  The Woman told this boy so much. What about me?

  “No idea,” Matt says. “Let’s find out.”

  A hush falls over the people in the room. Matt and Leo both close their eyes. No words pass between them.

  Matt doesn’t know what to expect. Like always, he slows his breathing and observes it like a movie on a big screen, becoming both the watcher and the watched.

  And then he opens his eyes to find himself awash in a vast space. He has a sense of expectation, a feeling that something or someone will emerge from the emptiness. Waves of relaxation move through him.

  A pinprick of light pierces the darkness and draws Matt to it. Within seconds, two burning suns hover in front of him like a dual star system. Reaching out to one of them, power flows into his hand and through his body, raw and intense.

  Not quite omnipotence, but close.

  As the power fills his body, the sun shrinks until, having absorbed all it has to offer, he takes it into his palm and hides it in his fist.

  The other star remains its former size and intensity. Its latent power calls out to him, mocking and daring.

  Matt hungers to absorb it.

  As he stretches out his hand to drink in the star, a movement catches his eye.

  Someone stands only meters away. Matt turns to see that it is a vague humanoid form with head, arms and legs. But its outlines are fuzzy, as if his eyes can’t quite focus on it.

  It also reaches out to the star.

  Matt knows what it is trying to do. It will draw away all the energy of the star, leaving none for him. Without thinking, his arm moves. He can stop the creature, whatever it is, from absorbing the power, and then he can take it for himself. With the additional power, he can defeat Ryzaard, get Jessica back and restore the world to balance. He vows to do only good with the new power. He can be trusted with it.

  But first, he must eliminate the creature.

  Both of his hands find the creature’s soft, frail neck and wrap fingers tightly around it. Its face turns to look at him with blurred eyes, helpless as a baby.

  Matt tightens his grip. It won’t take long to finish the job and move on.

  CHAPTER 49

  Leo floats in the vacuum of space. A massive star hangs in front of him, drawing him closer by the sheer force of its gravitational pull. Calling out to him, it offers itself to him, wanting to become one with him.

  As he reaches for it, from off to the side, a massive pair of claws grabs him by the neck, closing their grip until it’s impossible to breathe.

  His sees the monster.

  Before Leo can react and get away, he is choking and wheezing. His hands come up to his face to fend off the attack. But it’s no use. The monster towers over him, an enormous shape, all body and arms, with an exoskeleton of sharp metal. As his breath fails and his vision fades, he sees thorns growing out of its chest and a gaping mouth full of snake fangs. The monster balloons in size until it holds him in its hand like a toy.

  Please, stop.

  CHAPTER 50

  Matt smiles.

  The thin neck closes like a hollow tube of soft clay, and the tiny creature goes limp. It has all been so easy. The poor little thing shrinks until it’s not much larger than his palm, a mere bug for him to crush. Matt closes his fingers around it and takes another breath before smashing it and flinging the little nuisance far away.

  The voice of a child floats through his mind like a memory from the far past.

  Don’t seek for power. Be united in love and trust. Or one of us will die.

  Matt hesitates. The voice sounds familiar, as are the words. Where do they come from? Closing his eyes, he tries to remember.

  Then he opens his hand and looks down, seeing the creature lying helpless in his palm.

  One of us will die.

  Leo’s face flashes before his eyes. He looks again at the creature in his hand, lifeless and limp.

  Don’t seek for power.

  Could it be?

  He brings the creature close to his eyes and directs all his attention to it, willing it to come back to life, to breathe, to live. Warmth flows out of his body and mind into the tiny life.

  He begins counting, slowly.

  When he reaches five, the creature moves. It is alive and growing. As the intensity of Matt’s focus increases, the creature returns to its original size. A wave of affection moves through Matt and connects him to it. Its features begin to resolve into sharp details, eyes, mouth, hair.

  United in love and trust.


  He watches as the creature becomes Leo.

  CHAPTER 51

  Opening his eyes in the darkness of space, Leo pulls in a deep breath. From some source outside him, strength flows back into his body. He looks up. The monster is still there, brooding over him. But the thorns recede into the tough exoskeleton, disappearing into the chest, and the skin changes from cold metal to soft human flesh. The snake fangs are gone, replaced by a gentle smile.

  And then Leo realizes that the monster has become Matt.

  A loose robe of white forms on Matt’s body. His entire being, from his eyes to his fingertips to his toes, shines with light.

  They stand together not far from a single burning star.

  “Leo,” Matt says. “Are you OK?” He extends his hand and grasps Leo’s.

  An energy pulse surges through Leo. He is awash in clarity and affection. “Your eyes,” he says, staring at Matt. “They’re gold. What happened? Just a minute ago you were—”

  “Trying to kill you,” Matt says. “I know, and I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was you. The Woman was right. United in love and trust. That’s the only possible way to use the Stones together. Complete trust for each other. No thought of personal power.” He turns his face to the remaining star. “I’ve got mine. That one is yours. Take it.”

  Leo lifts his hands. The immense power of the star runs into him and through his palms like a vast river. When the star is gone, Leo’s body displays a luminosity that causes Matt to catch his breath. “Look at you,” Matt says, raising a finger and pointing. “You’re an angel.”

  Leo recognizes the white robe he is wearing. He holds up his bare hands, turning them over in front of his eyes, looking in wonder at the change that has taken place. “Where are we?”

  “Not sure. Somewhere in an alternate space, I’d guess. A different dimension. A place where we can see a different kind of reality.”

  “How did we get this way?” Leo scans his body.

  Matt smiles. “I think the Stones magnify our emotions. If we act like monsters, we become monsters. But if our goal is love and trust, the Stones turn us into—”

  “The Allehonen,” Leo says.