A Brief Moment of Insanity Ch. 04

'I love you Willow,' I sent directly to her thoughts as I turned and headed back to the limo.

I heard the change in her breathing as she leapt to her feet, raced to the front door and flung it open. She called out my name but I was already at the corner of the block. I was halfway down the next block when the limo arrived and picked me up. I should have been miserable and shivering but the thirty two degree rain had no impact on me except that I was wet. I called ahead and had a hot bath and dry clothes waiting for me. I stepped inside and the maids went to work on me. I stripped down just inside the front door. They toweled me off and lead me upstairs to the master bath. There were several dishes of hot food waiting as well. I slipped beneath the hot water and let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness I could still enjoy warm water. I picked out a few dishes and ate while I soaked away the memory of the downpour.

I wanted to go in. I stared at that damn door and wanted to go up to it and knock but I couldn't, not yet anyway. I slipped my head beneath the water and felt the inner eyelids slip into place. Man that felt fucking weird but it allowed me to see with little distortion. It was that 'blinking' that Nikki had seen and it had freaked her out. Did she know about the older bloodline, the Althan? That is what Jeanie had called them and that was how it was pronounced but not how they spelled it. It was more like Aelthaen. It was because of the alliance between the Althan and the Atlanteans that Loki had even created the god slayer or what she called Ragnarok. It was the living embodiment of the twilight of the gods or in her case other immortals.

The ancient texts tell grisly tales of the war that struck down the Althan and sank the Atlantean homeland. It is mirrored in other written works like the Hindu Mahabharata. I lifted my head above water and twitched when the membrane retreated back into its hidden recess. That was going to take some getting used to. I guess I should be grateful that I didn't end up as a polydactyl. The thought of growing a second opposable thumb freaked me out. I would've had to learn how to write all over again. I was eager to travel to Nepal and begin training with Ozzie. I wanted to push my body to its new limits. Each day I spent time with one or more senses all the way open. It would be months before I was able to tolerate them all. I finished my evening meal and got out of the bath. I dried myself off and slipped into nice warm and fuzzy pajamas.

Top of the World Ma:

Rongbuk Monastery was my destination once I had landed in Katmandu. The monastery was nestled on the valley floor and to the south was Mount Everest. I spent a week here acclimating to the high altitude before my training even began. It was here that I would push myself and endure whatever Ozzie threw at me. I jogged every morning and the locals watched me. Some of them laughed, others made faces as if I had lost my mind while the children followed me in small packs. The laughter of the kids helped me keep my good mood. After my run I would eat and then volunteer to help rebuild fallen buildings from the earthquake earlier this year. I had heard about it and it was a terrible situation for buildings that had stood for centuries. They had been reduced to piles of rubble.

I had to work in shifts as the thin air forced me to tire much quicker than I was used to. By the end of that first week I was able to work for five hours without a break. That was a huge improvement over the one hour that I had begun at. Ozzie arrived on my day six. He pulled up in a brand new Range Rover and waved me over. I got in and he began to drive. Stairway to Heaven was blasting through the speakers as we headed to what would be our base camp. Ozzie was singing along with a gusto that was seductive and when the next tune came on I sang right along with him. What I expected and what we drove up to were two completely different things. I imagined when he mentioned base camp a series of tents, air mattresses and Coleman lanterns. The reality was the Range Rover barely squeezing through a narrow slice of rock and a hidden retreat at the foot of the mountain.

It was something that if you didn't know it was there you would walk right past it. The door was cut at an angle that kept it from being seen from the valley beyond. Ozzie parked the vehicle and several Sherpas came out to help unload the back. I noticed a case of Jack Daniels never reached the interior and assumed that was part of their payment. Ozzie guided me inside while the men took the Range Rover and drove off. The interior was quite cozy and the sunken hearth would keep us quite warm. The central chamber was large and rounded with a chimney carved cunningly in the ceiling. There were open doorways on opposite sides of the room. The eastern doorway led to the room that functioned as kitchen and dining room. The western door had steps that led upwards and deeper into the living rock. There were five smallish bedrooms carved out of the stone. I suspected there had been tunnels and they had been widened by skilled miners. Despite the powerful earthquake and aftershock earlier this year this complex appeared untouched.

There were other steps and tunnels that led from the bedrooms as well as the kitchen. It wouldn't be until the next day before I got the full tour. Ozzie built up the fire and told me about his first life as a thief on the streets of that long ago London. He shared with me what made a good cutpurse. Tomorrow I would start my training in climbing, pick pocketing, lock picking and most importantly security systems. I learned later that hidden doors and trip wires fell under security systems. He handed me a worn silver coin and showed me how to juggle it between my fingers. I found I was surprisingly good at it. Ozzie took my hands in his and he examined them. He smiled and told me he would add how to escape hand cuffs and other interesting bindings.

So while we sat by the fire he shared his fondest memories of what he called Eternal London. Some of the stories were so over the top I was sure they were fiction until he went into greater detail and I realized he wasn't stretching the truth. Of course once he robbed Professor Griffin his entire life of crime reached epic levels. Invisibility became a crutch that netted him enough wealth for a hundred lifetimes. He admitted that he had become sloppy and began using it only when absolutely necessary. Of course it had taken him nearly a decade to control the gift. Before that he was at the mercy of it and the loneliest soul on earth. He admitted that he still used it in love play to liven things up.

We had lost track of time and Ozzie got up and began fixing our dinner. Instinct took over and I was helping him out before I realized it. As the two of us maneuvered around each other the Sherpas returned with my personal belongings from the room I had rented at the monastery. The men stayed for dinner and I listened to stories glorious and terrible about their times as guides for climbers upon the roof of the world. Everest wasn't just a mountain but a holy site worthy of respect and honor. I agreed completely. I had read up on the mountain and those that had foolishly thought they could conquer it and perished in its oxygen deprived dead zone. You had to respect something that never lifted a finger and was responsible for so many deaths.

We cleaned up after dinner and I was worn out. The thin air was taking its toll. I left Ozzie and the Sherpas around the hearth and went upstairs. I found my luggage and changed into pajamas and climbed into bed. I had barely closed my eyes when I fell asleep. It was dark when I heard the furtive movement in my room. I opened my eyes and there standing next to my bed was a smiling figure of an old Nepali man. He was short, of slight build and upon his head a bright blue Dhaka Topi, the traditional Nepali hat.

"I am sorry to have disturbed you," the man said. "My name is Patanjali and I wanted to meet Ozzie's new student."

"No harm, I am pleased to meet you Patanjali. My name is Warren." I told him as I sat up. "Love the hat."

"Oh thank you, there is a lovely woman in a nearby village that weaves the cloth just for my hats." He replied.

"That is very kind of her," I said not knowing the significance of the hat and its pattern.

"Ozzie called me and asked for my assistance in training you. I will let you go back to sleep. We will be starting early tomorrow."

"Good night," I said and lay back down.

Still smiling he bowed and left. As bizarre as that encounter had been I chalked it up to the culture. I fell back asleep and awoke at dawn. I passed on my morning run figuring that Ozzie or his friend would have more than enough for me to do today. I was correct. Ozzie began my day with a light meal and taking me out to a climbing course. The course was broken up into walls of increasing difficulty. I began with the easiest one, the bunny slopes if you will. I maneuvered up and down until I was completely worn out. While I rested Patanjali would take over and teach me how to breathe. He told me he was a master of yoga. There was a key part of that discipline that involved different types of breathing. The techniques helped me recover faster and that was just the beginning.

Over the next few weeks I moved further down the climbing course until we reached the end. The day I finally completed that last course Ozzie switched tactics. He took out a box of rubber balls and as I ascended the second time around he would hurl a ball at my head, my hand or hit me square in the middle of my back. This was to simulate distractions and stressful climbs in secure facilities. It worked and I fell nearly every time until I was able to ignore the distractions completely. Of course that took another two days and then he began to throw rocks and it was either take the hit or try and dodge them. I of course began with trying to take the pain but he was wicked accurate and the first stone that clipped my ear sent me tumbling. That's when I decided it was time to cheat. After I had recovered from falling and my ear had quit bleeding I used my telepathy to scan his surface thoughts. I ignored the rocks he threw at my back or legs, those I could tolerate. But when I picked up on a head shot or other painful target I either ducked and dodged or turned and plucked the stone out of the air.

"I told you he was gifted," Patanjali said.

"Gifted is one thing, telepathy is another thing entirely," Ozzie growled. "Why didn't you tell me about that?"

"What is your Golden Rule? Keep things to yourself they might just save your life someday." I replied as I climbed down.

"Okay, if I am going to train you to your fullest I need to know what you are capable of." Ozzie said calmer now. "So spill it. What are your limits?"

"As far as my passive telepathy goes, the furthest I was able to read a particular target's mind is around fifty kilometers."

"Wow, that is impressive, so what else can you do?" He asked and I listed off the abilities I had discovered but not put to a rigorous test. "Let's get a gauge of your physical skills shall we."

With some difficulty he was able to find a tape measure and he had me perform a static high jump, a static long jump, a broad jump and a running broad jump. Each test put me at nearly twice the current world's record holders. He checked my reaction time and it was blistering fast. Due to his experience he considered himself pretty damn quick but I was a hair faster and all without training. Ozzie had Patanjali check my flexibility and coordination and they too were what he considered quite advanced for a beginner. He altered his training regimen and focused on misdirection, picking pockets, escape artist skills and lock picking. It was very easy for me to brush someone's consciousness and force their attention away from my target and remove even Ozzie's watch from his wrist without him noticing. After a few days I could walk through a crowded marketplace naked and no one even notice my passing.

During the day I worked on the more physical aspects of my training and at night practiced defeating locks and security systems. There were regular interruptions of course since I still had to deal with Family business but with the neural interface I was able to handle that while climbing or performing downward facing dog. It had been nearly three months now and the infighting between powerful factions had grown more intense. My manipulations, largely in part to Jeanie's guiding hand, had netted me quite a few new technologies that threatened to bankrupt the older patents held by my cousins. The tide was turning. In another month I would have my hands on the god slayer and Loki would be a thing of the past.

After the first three months I was left to my own devices. I spent hours climbing at different times of the day and night. I learned that not only was the range of distance vision improved drastically but my night vision was vastly more sensitive to any and all available light. Day and night became a blur to me. But after a while I got used to it as another normal thing. For all of my newfound abilities I still had limitations and I was acutely aware of that. I wasn't bullet proof and a knife could kill me just like any other person. I didn't have the luxury of being cocky. I had to keep below the radar and work in the shadows. I figured another two months and I would be ready to assault the three sites and take back the Family from Loki's control.

I took a break from climbing one day to try and push my telepathic abilities. As I had with everything else I wanted to see its limits and take a single step beyond. I used the breathing techniques that I had learned and calmed my heart. That's when I noticed it, a subtle murmur where none should exist. There is a kind of echo that cannot be denied.

'Sir,' Jeanie whispered without my beckoning her.

'What is it Jeanie?' I asked never taking my attention from my heart.

'There is something you should know,' Jeanie continued with an audible grimace and paused.

'Oh just say it,' I told her.

'You have two hearts now,' she said. 'I needed to burn off nanites and that damn biological. 'It was targeted towards your heart anyway so I took a page from popular fiction.'

'Is there anything I should know that you've been keeping from me?' I asked as calmly as I could.

'Well...' she said dragging out the L sound for a few seconds. 'Your telepathy may not be your only psychic or mental gift. You are still percolating so to speak.'

'You based my changes off the Althan. What do the archives say they could do?'

'So far you have manifested most of the skills they reportedly possessed. The only one I haven't seen you use is what the ancients called a memory trance. The texts describe the individual taking in a large quantity of written material and once they enter the trance they are able to not just speed read but memorize all of the information viewed at that time. It sounds like eidetic memory to me.'

'I wonder if Ozzie has any books available,' I said when Jeanie giggled. 'Oh right, can you download some material for me to test this memory trick?'

'What sort of subject would you like to explore?'

I decided to try and learn how to read Sanskrit. Since most of the material that Patanjali was teaching from was written in that language. He called them sutras and I was curious to be able to read them myself. Jeanie pulled down what I needed and using what the old man had taught me I sat up and began meditating as Jeanie projected the material via the optical link. Each blink was the turn of a page. I was surprised at how easily my mind absorbed the material. Maybe there was something to this eidetic memory thing. I finished the material and Jeanie flashed me a sign to show that I was done. I ended the meditation and got to my feet. To test out the results of the experiment I went to the main room and looked at the artwork decorating the upper corners. The design possessed Sanskrit passages from what Patanjali called the diamond sutra.

"Oh my god I can read it," I said aloud. "It works, it really works! He has great wisdom. His great wisdom is evident in his resolve to realize Bohdi."

"A very accurate translation Warren," Patanjali said from behind me. "I must admit I am greatly surprised. I was unaware that you could read Sanskrit."

I explained to him what had happened. I told him all about my experiment. I watched his reaction and he just rewarded me with a sublime smile. Did he doubt me or was there a deeper meaning here that I was missing? I was too damn thrilled to stay focused on the old man and his esoteric thinking. I went around the various rooms and read everything that I could. For me it was a personal miracle. I had learned an entire language in a matter of minutes. I decided I wanted to devour everything I could that was written in Sanskrit. I had Jeanie pull down everything she could find. I spent hours meditating and absorbing everything I could. I was aware that reading something in English compromised the soul of the material. By reading such texts as the Mahabharata in the original language brought about subtle meanings lost in translation.

I took a break and let what I had read filter through my conscious mind now. While I didn't necessarily believe what these ancient scholars had written I did respect their beliefs. There were lessons I could take away for myself to honor them in my own way. I was surprised to learn that several sutras had been penned by authors using the name Patanjali over several centuries. I wondered if the man I knew was related to those men now long dead. I would ask him when I got the chance. I thought about Loki just then and it sparked a memory of a being named Hanuman. Each were named after trickster gods and I began to wonder if they weren't in fact one in the same being. Was there a connection between cultural icons such as the All Father, the Great Hero, the Earth Mother and of course the Trickster? Could Zeus and Odin be the same entity? Were Loki, Raven and Hanuman one being with many names? It would make sense.

Ozzie appeared and he seemed excited about my new development as he called it. We drove to the monastery to pick up our last set of supplies. I explained to Ozzie everything that I had learned and he seemed impressed with my latest gift. He told me that there was little he could teach me and we agreed upon a fee to cover his instruction. I wired the funds to his account and I was a little sad. I hated to admit it but I had grown quite fond of him and his enigmatic friend Patanjali. I would be leaving in two weeks to take on the first of the three sites that held the Sicarius Deus. It was highly likely that I would perish in the attempt but that didn't change my decision.

If I didn't try my Family both direct and distant would be in the thrall of Loki for the foreseeable future. It seemed like my thoughts became circular when it came to family and Loki. Of course they have, all I could think about was returning home and being with Willow. She was the light at the end of this dark and fucked up tunnel I found myself in.

"So as far as a student, how do you think I turned out?" I asked.

"To be honest you are the first student that ever exceeded my expectations. Of course all of my other students had been normal humans. You have to admit, you are anything but normal."

"I won't disappoint you," I told him and he smiled.

We picked up our supplies and returned to what I looked at as a home away from home. The next two weeks was spent looking over old satellite images of the first location. I didn't want to use current photos in case Loki was somehow monitoring them. The archived images gave me a clear layout of the island, the volcanic caldera and ways I might approach unseen. I memorized the maps and planned out my purchases carefully. Weight was going to be an issue and I planned on slipping in and out unseen. If I was spotted and a fight occurred, the entire overall mission was a bust. I needed to acquire the pieces covertly or not at all. Loki could not know that I possessed the god slayer if I had any chance of ambushing her.