The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

around him in the form of labyrinthine mathematical equations. He grabbed at them with impunity. Jamie felt a surge of power unrivaled, and he returned Lydia’s smile with one of his own.

“When your coding was embedded into my DNA, you didn’t know about human souls,” he said. “I was nobody; I’d never figure out a way to stop you on my own. You thought you’d survive even if somebody blew my brains out and burned my body. Then you heard Ben. You listened to what he said about our souls, didn’t you?”

Lydia hissed. “Talk, Jamie. Talk.”

“That’s what you want, isn’t it? You want to keep me occupied till the program runs out. The countdown has to be completed. 9:56. If I drift away before then, you will go with me and never be reborn into your host.”

The wind howled through the maelstrom; Lydia yelled above it.

“You have no concept, Jamie. The truth is beyond human intellect.”

“Are you kidding? I know everything. You’re the one who told me: I’m the beginning and the end. After you heard Ben, you started turning me. Kicked in the self-preservation program. I started killing. You’re desperate.”

The roar within the maelstrom overwhelmed both their voices, but Jamie didn’t mind. He also knew he didn’t need to speak for Lydia to hear. Jamie had no fear, and he knew he was strong enough to leave the Jewel at any time. He could continue his journey into forever, or he could torture the Jewel just long enough to watch it wither and die an instant before its rebirth. He had control, and he wanted to make the Jewel pay.

“Do you actually believe you have significance?” She asked. “If you had listened to me, you would have killed Bidwell. And then, I would have bestowed unlimited grace upon you and your friends. My beacon would have communicated with the Shock Units, and I would have asked them to spare the lives of Michael and Samantha. Instead, they are dying in fire.”

Jamie’s essence froze, overcome by horror and remembrance.

“You were a pitiful human,” she continued, “and I will see to it that before you leave me, your soul will spend forever cast in pain and grief. And in time, the Chancellors will understand what they have unleashed upon themselves. The dark will drown them all.”

Jamie willed his essence to see beyond the maelstrom. He hovered above the giant rock, the scene frozen as it was before, only this time the fireballs were halfway between the black monsters and his beloved friends. Confusion mangled his thoughts. Jamie remembered the seconds before he died, the voice that cried to him from the forest. Michael’s voice.

Jamie spotted his own contorted, blood-soaked body. For the first time, he felt the agony of the eight bullets that took his life. He screamed, a deep and guttural nightmare dwarfing the roar of the maelstrom, where once again he faced Lydia, whose smile turned into laughter.

“You will never be reborn,” Jamie shouted.

“I disagree.”

“Save them.”

“No, thank you. Better to leave that as your eternal scar.”

“You have the ability. You’re like me. Time doesn’t matter.”

“On one hand, you are correct,” Lydia said. “On the other, you talk nonsense. As you noted, I cannot be of consequence unless I am reborn. You may have noticed that my host is now dead.”

Jamie studied millions of equations flying by in the whirlwind; he understood what they meant. He breathed fire into Lydia.

“We both know this can be changed,” he said.

“Yes. But I am the Jewel and you are not, contrary to what your designers might have thought. I will not change what must be.”

“No. I reckon you won’t. But Jamie Sheridan can.”

His essence dive-bombed deep into the maelstrom, grabbed hold of the equations he thought would help. He saw the algorithms for life itself, the raw energy that saved Michael and Sammie once before. Then he saw his own DNA being shredded. Laughter echoed around him.

“You cannot do this,” Lydia mocked. “I possess the foundation of the universe. Even in a lifetime, you could not master my equations.”

“I don’t need all your equations,” Jamie roared. “Just one.”

The maelstrom became disorganized, the whirlwind splintering into clusters. Jamie sped up his search, saw the strange symbols and formulae that seemed to relate. He grabbed at pieces like a child in a candy jar.

“I’m as strong as you, Lydia. You’re coming with me.”

“If you do this, Jamie, you will pay a price beyond all reckoning.”

Jamie tossed aside her threat, allowed the pure, unvarnished fury at the heart of the universe to envelope his entire essence, and drowned in the Jewel’s stolen equations. Still, Lydia hurled threats and warnings.

“You have crossed the line beyond anything that is sacred,” she roared. “You will change us both. If you return to that body, you will damn yourself to a pain beyond imagining. You do not understand what you will become. The dark will drown them.”

At the instant where his fury tapped into the savagery from which the universe was created, Jamie’s soul screamed in agony and was drawn into an empty well. His fury almost betrayed his purpose. His insanity was nearly complete. Yet in that moment, he felt another presence: Warm, sheltering, and infinitely sad. He knew who this was, even if there was no voice, no face – only a touch. He felt the regret and shame of a man now unburdened, of a man who never had the chance to say a proper goodbye.

Jamie refocused. “Ben.”

Just as quickly, the other presence disappeared, but Jamie regained direction and tore into the maelstrom with unbridled determination. The maelstrom vanished, replaced with a pulse that diminished to a flicker. He opened his eyes, drew his hand like an invisible blanket around all those he loved, and unleashed the desire to kill the enemy.

The air