As I finished speaking, an unexpected gleam appeared in Jack’s eye and an impish look settled on his face.
“Maybe the part about you being king is wrong, but not in the way you imagine,” he suggested. “Maybe it’s not you sitting on that throne.”
And then, looking crafty and exuding smug self-satisfaction, he vanished.
Chapter 75
I teleported home in a somewhat disturbed state. It hadn’t been direct or overt, but Jack had seemingly threatened me. (Or at least threatened to replace me, which didn’t seem to bode well either.)
I popped up in my room, immediately collapsing onto the bed. Telepathically, I picked up on the fact that everyone was safe at home now (which gave me a sense of relief), and they – at least my family – sensed me as well.
I spent a moment rubbing my temples as I stared at the ceiling. Dealing with Jack was incredibly frustrating and left me mentally drained. It wasn’t just that he was clearly a menace; it was also the fact that my options for dealing with him were absurdly limited.
As previously noted, I couldn’t just teleport him, as I could with most bad guys. His own teleportation power prevented that, so there was no taking him into custody, popping him into a nullifier cell, or anything like that.
A true telepath – someone like Esper or my grandparents – could probably incapacitate him, assuming they could get into his head. Jack, however, had incredibly robust mental shields; if he was anything like me (and, as much as I hated to admit it, he was), getting into his mind was highly unlikely. Moreover, anyone making the effort was apt to give themselves away, and if Jack somehow managed to pin down their location (which wasn’t entirely out of the question), all bets were off.
The option of taking him physically, in hand-to-hand combat, was also out of the question. Although I’d had years of martial arts training and didn’t doubt my own skill in that arena, there’s almost nothing you can do to a person who can phase.
At that moment, I suddenly grew pensive as an odd thought occurred to me. But before I could pursue it, I felt my grandfather reaching out mentally.
<You okay, boy?> he asked.
<Yes, sir,> I answered. <Just tired. It’s been a long day.>
<Well, you should eat something.>
<I’m not hungry. I think I’ll just turn in.>
<All right. Good night, then.>
<Good night, Gramps. See you in the morning.>
I broke the telepathic connection and closed my eyes, intending only to rest them for a moment. A few seconds later, I was fast asleep.
Chapter 76
I slept fitfully that night, continually tossing and turning, as well as waking up with a start half a dozen times. When I finally woke up for good, I found myself plagued by vague but disquieting images from half-remembered dreams that left me with a sense of alarm and dread – and at the center of them all was my evil twin, Jack.
It was early and still dark out, but I decided to go ahead and get my day started. After a quick shower, I got dressed and then spent a moment contemplating what to have for breakfast. In all honesty, however – despite missing dinner the night before – I wasn’t really hungry. It might have been the early morning hour, but I just didn’t have much of an appetite.
With the decision to forego breakfast made, I sat down on the edge of the bed and turned my thoughts back to the problem at hand: how to handle Jack. Within minutes, however, I was right back where I’d left off the night before: other than talking to him (which hadn’t paid any dividends that I could see), there didn’t seem to be a reasonable way to deal with him.
I groaned in exasperation, increasingly vexed by my inability to come up with a solution. I was confident that there was an answer somewhere, but for some reason I just couldn’t see it. I really needed to clear my head.
And with that thought, I decided to do the one thing that always seemed to relax me. I phased and then flew straight up, going vertically through the embassy until I found myself in open air. I continued on, flying high up into the sky.
I stopped when I was several hundred feet in the air. Taking a moment to glance down, I took note of how far away everything seemed: buildings, houses, cars…all the signs of humanity’s presence – and its problems. It all seemed so distant now.
I looked above me and saw the stars, twinkling merrily. As always, I found myself fascinated by them – how bright they were, how distant…how boundless and infinite the universe itself was. In the face of all that, it almost made my problems seem trivial.
Now feeling a bit more lighthearted, I zoomed away, smiling slightly as I zipped through the sky.
*****
I spent about an hour soaring through the sky, simply reveling in the majesty of flight. As I had hoped, being aloft relaxed me by allowing me to leave my problems on the ground – at least for a little while. Soon enough, though, it was time to head back. Dawn had broken, and my family was probably awake and wondering where I was. Reluctantly, I decided to hurry back to the embassy before they started to worry. On the bright side, however, we’d all be able to have breakfast toge–
My thoughts were cut off by something akin to an explosion on the metaphysical plane. It was a psychogenic wailing of pain and anguish, but on a scale I’d never seen. On a supersensory level, it was the equivalent of a ten-point-oh-magnitude earthquake;
