And the World Changes, A M Kirk [best feel good books TXT] 📗

have saved him. I wish to God I could have. But I guess I was too shaken up by what had happened back at the road. You see, one of the men had a rocket launcher or something and he was about to fire it right at us. I kind of reached out with my mind and the next thing I knew it blew right up. It blew him to pieces. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Well it’s no wonder you were shaken up! It’s a miracle you’re not a gibbering wreck!” said Janette.
Carrie, listening intently, took his hand in hers. They hugged. Roberts saw tears appear in Mark’s eyes.
“But when the other man, Henderson, came,” Mark went on, rubbing his eyes, “the one from this morning in the glen, I could have made his gun misfire, or deflected the bullets or something. If only I had known then what I could do now, the General needn’t have died. There doesn’t seem to be much limit to what I can do, but I just didn’t know about all that. Not then.”
“You’re not responsible for that, Mark,” said Roberts.
“Absolutely not!” agreed Carrie.
“What happened after that? How did you get away?” asked Janette.
“That’s the strangest part – “
“As if it could get any stranger!” remarked Carrie.
Mark smiled and shrugged. “It was as if they had never been after me at all. The guy Henderson just walked away, saying something about following orders. Oh – Mister Roberts – I took the General’s gun. I suppose you’d better take it. It’s in the rucksack.”
“Okay, Mark. No problem.”
“What did you do then?” asked Carrie.
“I stumbled around for a bit, I think, then the next thing I remember is coming across an old barn.”
“Choppers were up looking for traces of you. If you were concealed in a barn, that explains why you weren’t picked up,” said Roberts.
“In the barn I passed out, I guess. Then the dreams started again. Mum, they were terrible. I saw – “
Haltingly, with much effort, he related what he now knew of his father’s motives and actions. He unconsciously touched a finger to his birthmark as he told his horrified listeners about the syringe.
“My God!” whispered Janette. “I never knew. I never knew.”
Mark reached over to take her hand and said, ”Mum, don’t blame him. You mustn’t blame dad. He didn’t start any of this. In his way, he was trying to finish it. And what he did… I think he was right.”
“But he could have killed you, or caused brain damage…”
“I know. And he knew. He agonised over it, mum, it tore him apart. But he was right. He was right. That’s what has made me… “
“Made you what, Mark?” asked Carrie. “What are you? Superman?”
Mark grinned. “I don’t know about that…”
“Well, is there anything you can’t do?” Carrie asked. “Hmmm?”
Mark considered the question. “I really don’t know all what I can do, but I don’t have x-ray vision.”
“Anything else?”
“I can’t lick my elbow.”
“Very funny, I don’t think! Be serious.” She hit him with a cushion from the sofa.
“I hardly know where to begin to describe what I feel I can do,” Mark replied simply. “I just stopped an atomic bomb from going off. I mean – what the hell else can I do? I just don’t know, Carrie.”
“Well,” said Roberts. “There are some things to be done. First of all, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll call my wife. She may be worried after the way I left this evening. Then I’ll call in and find out how your parents are, Carrie.” He went into the little lobby to make his calls. The three fell silent for a long moment.
Janette frowned. “What I still don’t understand is where your dreams or visions or whatever they are actually come from. You’ve seen things you couldn’t possibly have know anything about. Where do they come from, Mark? Do you know yet?”
Mark nodded slowly. “I think I do. They come from the Soros. The aliens are ‘sending’ me these dreams.”
“How? Why?” asked Carrie.
“How? Through that organic whatever-it-is at the base of my brain. Why? I don’t know that – yet. But I aim to find out.”
He let the implications of this intention sink in. But before either could ask any more questions Roberts came back in. He held out his mobile to Carrie.
“It’s your mother. I’ve told her a little about what’s happened and that you’re safe. She’s at your father’s bedside in Stirling Royal. He’s okay, he’ll be fine. Here – talk to her yourself.”
Carrie’s face had passed from concern to relief and she took the phone from Roberts’ outstretched hand. Her mother did most of the talking at first, Carrie nodding now and again, then she began her tale, which was not long in the telling. When she had finished the call she turned to the others, handing the Director back his phone.
“I should go to them,” she said.
“I’ll arrange that,” said Roberts. “I have to call in back-up now. CIS has to go over this place with a fine toothcomb. There’s an interface there that might come in very useful and those tools and workbenches by the wall have not just been used for hammering in nails.” He turned to Mark and Janette. “But what am I going to do with you?”
“Don’t you have to take us in for questioning?” asked Janette.
“Well, yes, but in fact we’ve already covered a lot of the ground. And I think you’ve been through enough for one day. Do you have… “ Roberts hesitated. “… is there any place you can go to? Any relatives in the area? I mean, I can put you into protective custody if you want, but…”
Janette raised her brows in surprise as it hit her again, with some force, that she and Mark had no home to go to. “I don’t… well, no. There’s no one.”
“Well, you leave everything to me,” said Roberts reassuringly. “I’ll see to it that you get a place of our own as soon as possible and for the time being I’ll see if there’s a safe house available for you in this area.” He stepped into the lobby to make the arrangements over the phone.
Again a silence fell between them, yet it united instead of separating. They could hear Roberts’ voice from the lobby.
At last Mark asked: “Have you yourselves figured out what the next move is? What my next move has to be?”
Janette and Carrie exchanged a glance and both nodded at the same time. “I have a bad feeling that you’re going to the Museum,” said Carrie. “You’re going back on board their ship.”
Mark nodded. “There’s something I have to see. And I have to speak to the one with the Striped Arm, their so-called leader. That ship is like a magnet to me now, pulling me to it. I have to go back. But it’s not controlling me – at least, I don’t think it is. I have to go back because that is where the truth is, and that’s what I have to find out.
“What happened today – those people hunting us in the glen, General Miller and the rest – I think that’s all part of their plan. Like I said before, they’re playing games with us, very cunning games. I think all that was to get my attention, to get me good and mad, to provoke me into doing something, to use my power. I saw all that when I was asleep, or unconscious, or in shock, or whatever it was. And they tested me tonight. That bomb was a test.”
“And you’ve passed?” asked Carrie.
“Yep, I reckon so.”
“Chris-sake, Mark!” cried Carrie, “you make it sound like you sat a National Vocational Qually in Defusing Nuclear Bombs! What happens now? Do you go on next week to get a diploma?”
Mark smiled weakly. “Well, maybe so. But you see, it seems to me now that there must be something special about humans – something that only we can do. And the Soros know this. I don’t know what this thing is, but it’s something to do with these powers of mine. Passing through walls, bending matter, all this ‘magic’ for want of a better word – somehow this is something that the Soros want, or need, to use. They can’t do it themselves. Their implants only work on human brains. And I somehow know that they’ve carried out a great many implants. The Human Freedom League, for example, have really been governed by the Soros. Those people are being manipulated by implants. That is pretty clear to me now.”
“This is ghastly,” whispered Carrie.
“Yes, I agree,” said Mark.
“When are we doing this thing – this act of complete madness?” asked Janette. There was no mistaking the depth of fear in her question.
“Tomorrow, mum. I’m going tomorrow. And I need you to help me persuade Mr Roberts to take me.”
Janette did not need a mother’s instinct to know that there was no mistaking the fear in Mark’s voice either. Fear shone clearly in all of their faces.


26 The Soros #1

Mark and Janette passed a restless night in a CIS safe house – a small former farmhouse to the east of Stirling. The house was most commonly used for witness protection, and although it was comfortable enough, with its cheap Ikea furniture, neither Janette nor Mark could settle. Separately, they paced, they flicked through television channels, they wandered outside from time to time to look across at the steep looming slopes of the Ochil Hills, and as they looked they were aware that over to the right, not far away, the Soros craft waited in its field.
They had, however, managed to snatch a few hours sleep. Janette had woken up feeling better, the drug’s after-effects having dissipated, and Mark’s sleep had been untroubled by dreams so he had recovered a little after the trauma and exertions of the past two days.
Roberts had stayed with them. They had reunited Carrie with her parents at Stirling Royal. Mark had dearly wished she could have stayed with him, but her place just now, he had to admit, was with her parents. Roberts then ferried them straight to the safe house. He had also arranged for the motorbike Mark had stolen to be returned to the rightful owner and the stolen bank money and other goods would be returned or paid for in due course.
Over mugs of hot chocolate (and a stiff brandy for Roberts and Janette) Mark had outlined his plan, such as it was, for the Director. He had agreed without much discussion, and gave his reasons for his acquiescence.
“There is something utterly remarkable about you, Mark. I don’t think you’re truly aware of it yourself, but you are… you are, quite simply, probably the most important human being on the planet. But you’re such a nice, unassuming guy you