Part 23 (2/2)
”So do we. I have to admit, however, that there are a great many more of theirs than ours.” He smiled briefly. ”Which is why we're glad to have some of yours on our side.”
”I take it you've read the Qu'ran. Probably in Arabic.”
”Of course. It always pays to study your opposition in any political process, particularly in a war.” Ari sounded abruptly exhausted. ”And that's what we've got on our hands, these days, a war, whether the rest of the world chooses to see it or not.”
”We? You mean Israel, right?”
”Of course. I always mean Israel.”
Behind us on the street a car horn sounded in staccato bursts. I glanced at the rearview mirror and saw an enormous SUV blocking the lane while it waited for the parking spot.
”Let's get going,” I said, ”before Caleb finishes lapping up his booze and staggers out.”
I turned on the engine and backed out under cover of the SUV, then drove on downhill. As we cruised along the Great Highway, I noticed that the ocean had reached high tide.
”So how was lunch?” Ari said.
”Good food,” I said, ”but a nutcase for company.”
”Caleb, you mean?”
”He believes that spirits are helping him search for Drake's treasure.”
”A total nutter, then.”
”Yeah, for sure. Where were you, anyway?”
”Upstairs in the cheaper restaurant. It was too sodding cold to sit outside, so I had a sandwich while I watched the monitor.”
”Why the jealous boyfriend act?”
”Because of that white thing that showed up on the monitor. I don't know what it was, and I wasn't sure if you knew it was there. So I decided to get you out of that room.”
”You saw it? Brother Belial?”
”Is that what it was?”
”Yeah, but I couldn't see him. I just sensed him.”
Once we got back to the flat, I changed into my flannel-lined jeans and the rust-colored sweater. Although the flat had a decent gas heater, the wind had picked up. It whistled around the building as it drove the fog inland. Before I put my shoulder bag away, I returned the sungla.s.ses to Ari.
”Did you record that video?” I asked.
”I did, and I'm glad now. The sound quality's not very good on these things, though. Here, I'll show you.”
We sat down together on the couch. He took an oblong unit, all s.h.i.+ny black plastic, out of his s.h.i.+rt pocket. It looked something like an old-fas.h.i.+oned PDA, but it had no logo or ID marks on it. He pressed a few b.u.t.tons, then clicked play. On the tiny screen the lunch table appeared in black and white. An image of Caleb followed; he sat down but was partially hidden by his winegla.s.s. I could see about half of the empty chair next to him.
”I need to learn how to aim those things better,” I said.
Our conversation began, though we sounded like mice with sore throats. The waitress came and went as we talked about the coven and Brother Belial. Finally, in the other chair a form appeared.
”Pause it!” I snapped.
Ari already had. ”There,” he said. ”Nola, what is that?”
”I don't know.”
Brother Belial seemed to be made of white smoke, translucent rather than solid, roughly humanoid with a chest, two arms, and a strangely cubical shape for a head, pocked with little depressions and slits. Thanks to the table, we could only see him from the waist up. Ari advanced the recording a few frames at a time, until my mouse voice squeaked, ”Who's your friend? Brother Belial?”
The smoke form rose up from the chair, as I remembered the presence doing. Now, however, I could see his legs, or rather, his single leg. Belial flowed toward the camera with a flip of the leg like a dolphin's tail. The image disintegrated into a drift of ”snow,” like on an old-fas.h.i.+oned TV set, then disappeared. For a moment the screen stayed blank. Another snowstorm filled the little square, then resolved itself into the shape of the smoke-being once again, flying straight up and out of range. I could hear the bubbling fish tank noise more clearly on the recording than I'd done at the table.
”This doesn't make any sense,” I said.
”What a surprise,” Ari said. ”Shocking.”
”I mean, this is a digital recording, not camera film. Aura-based phenomena shouldn't register on it, not if they can't be perceived normally, at any rate. I couldn't see Belial in the moment, though I knew he was there.”
Ari looked at me slack-mouthed. ”I don't have the slightest idea of what you mean by any of that,” he said.
”Okay. Let's start at the beginning. I saw nothing at all in that chair, and I was right there. I did intuit that some kind of presence had joined us. When I said 'Brother Belial,' I felt it leave.”
”Very good, so far.”
”Do you know what an aura is?”
”I know what it's supposed to be, yes. Reb Ezekiel was keen on them. He was always looking at the air next to a person and announcing something about their aura.”
”Okay. Well, some people believe that in certain circ.u.mstances you can capture an image of an aura on a particular kind of film or plate. Whatever Belial is, I'd a.s.sume he's made up of the same substance as an aura. A magnetic field is the closest a.n.a.logy. But the sungla.s.ses don't use film. So that's why I don't know how the image ended up in your recorder's memory. Uh, did you follow that?”
”It's enough to get on with. What's that kind of photography? Krill-no, that's what whales eat.”
”Kirilian, you mean. A person has to be in contact with the photographic plate to get an image out of that.”
”Doesn't apply here, then.”
We stared at each other, baffled.
”The only thing I can think of,” I said, ”is that we're not dealing with a psychic phenomenon, but a technological one.” My mind issued a hazy prompt. ”Or maybe it's both. I know that doesn't make any sense. It's just all I can think of.”
”I thought you said you sensed a presence.”
”I did, yeah, which generally means a consciousness. Huh. I wonder if old Bro here has some kind of gadget that produces a wave or ray or something that can carry his mind.”
”I still don't understand how that would produce an image in a digital memory chip. Or wait! You said something about a magnetic field. Do you know how a digital image recorder works?”
”No.”
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