Oz scoffed. “You think I’m scared? That just makes me desire it more.”
Javier was taken aback at his cavalier response after what had just happened.
“Explain this to me more,” Oz demanded. “What specifically went wrong? And if I’m not satisfied with your answers, I will kill one of your friends.”
Javier studied his face. He knew Oz was serious.
He complied. “This metal library must never be mishandled. The power running through it, within this cavern is something we do not yet have a full grasp of. After your first man collided with the wall of tablets, the other one was standing too close to it, and was holding a weapon. But it’s even more than that.”
“More?” Oz asked. “What do you mean?”
“What we do know is that ill-intent, what you bring to this library in this space, can be reflected back to you. But so can good intent.” He paused, gazing at the wall reverentially. “It reacts differently to different people. Whether only by their actions or their thoughts, or a combination, we don’t fully know.”
“Their thoughts?” Oz asked in a voice laced with skepticism, gazing along the wall of shining golden tablets.
“Si,” Javier answered. “Thoughts have energy. They can have an effect. However, most of the symbols on these tablets we do not yet understand. This is one of the many reasons why we restrict access to them. Why we are still studying them.”
“So, such things have happened before?” Oz asked.
“Bad things, yes. People have died. We don’t have all the answers. Sometimes, the symbols speak to people, in a way. They can respond to the energy that person is giving off.” Javier paused. His expression was solemn. “It is not to be trifled with.”
Oz nodded. As crazy as that all sounded, it matched up with what he’d seen Alpha-2 doing before he died. “He was acting like he was trying to hear what someone... or something was saying to him before he went... crazy.”
Oz looked over at Alpha-1 lying dead on the ground. “And him?”
Javier shrugged his shoulders. “When the other man collided with the wall, I believe it must have sent a bolt of energy coursing through the rest of the tablets. He was standing close enough that I think the energy leapt out and arced with his gun. If he had not had the gun, he may have lived.”
“Really?” Oz said, his voice laced with suspicion.
“We have not had people slam into the wall before,” Javier said defensively. He then made quick eye contact with Rick.
Rick gave a slight nod of his head, giving Javier a knowing glance. “Guess I was lucky I only bumped it.
“Mucho,” Javier answered.
In spite of the danger they were in, Sofia’s journalistic curiosity was firing away. However, she chose to remain silent, letting the situation unfold. It was too dangerous to otherwise at the moment.
Oz looked at the wall of gleaming metal. He realized he was going to have to take Javier and his group as permanent prisoners. He would need their help. But he was going to keep that detail to himself for the moment.
“Show me exactly what symbol he made contact with,” Oz ordered.
Rick looked to Javier. “I don’t even know what I touched when I hit it. It happened so fast.”
“I think I know, based on what you’ve described.” Javier pointed out the symbol. It had several vertical lines over top of wavy lines. “The wavy lines represent the boundary between this life and others. The vertical lines above represent other possibilities for a person’s life. By touching it, you may see different paths your life might’ve taken.”
“How is that possible?” Oz asked.
“We do not fully know,” Javier admitted.
Oz then looked at Rick, accepting Javier’s answer for now. “You said your experience was better in many ways. Explain.”
Rick complied. He didn’t want to share such highly personal information with so many, but he realized he had no choice. “I saw my father. We’d never gotten along. He’d never been happy with any of my choices in life. Always criticized me. He died too young due to his own crappy life choices and we never reconciled before his death, which is something that I’ve never really gotten over.”
“Doesn’t sound too good to me,” Oz snapped.
Rick held up his hand. “What I saw when I touched that tablet was a life where he was my biggest supporter. This time we were close, something I’d always wanted. He also lived a long life, so we had a lot more years together. Happy ones.”
As he spoke the emotion in his voice and on his face was coming through loud and clear. He’d been deeply moved by his experience.
Oz listened and waited for him to continue.
“I don’t know what else to say other than it didn’t feel like a dream. I feel like I have those memories now. I know it sounds crazy.”
Oz was thunderstruck by what he heard. Rick’s recounting sounded authentic, like he meant it. Oz thought of his own father, a man he’d never met. His mind raced. The inner child he’d always beaten down into silence and submission to his stronger, adult self, was crying out with longing. He clenched his jaw to keep from showing his emotions and how deeply what Rick just said was affecting him. He couldn’t let his men see this was personal. But he desperately wanted a chance to experience this. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. Something far beyond his worldly desires and beyond any reason or possibility or dream he’d ever considered.
Sofia’s heart went out to Rick. She could well imagine how intensely meaningful and profound that experience had been. She thought of her mother. Was this really possible? she wondered.
No matter what, Oz was not going to let this opportunity escape him. He didn’t know if he’d ever have this chance again. If he was forced to hand this discovery
