Ryan fixed Doc with a steely gaze from his icy blue eyes. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Doc?”
The old man nodded. “I believe so, my friend. Welcome, indeed, to what is left of the constitutional government of the United States of America. And believe me, you really are welcome to it…” he added bitterly.
AS THE NIGHT DREW in, Gloria gathered her people before the campfire. Only the guards outside the encampment were out of sight and hearing.
The Gate queen sat with her back to the fire, no more than a backlit shadow as she spoke, the light from the fire illuminating the halo of her red mane, making it glow like the fire from her soul as she began to breathe slowly, steadily and deeply, trancing herself to begin another retelling from the legends of her people. A retelling that was to be saved especially for a moment such as this, a moment when the great aim of the tribe was to finally be within their grasp.
Her voice was huskier, deeper and more sonorous as she began to recite from her trance.
“When the time came for the world as we knew it to end and for the people to begin over, it was said that the only way to preserve the past and begin the future was to preserve that which had made the past great, that which had helped to keep the power within.
“And so they made the place of hiding in the shape of power. Five-sided and like a pentagram but yet not, it was built in secret to mirror the power as perceived. Within and below, the power would now be centered within the shadow and like unto a mirror. It would be magnified and increased through the years until it was ready to be reclaimed…reclaimed at a point where the future was ready for the next rising.
“Those who would be a part of this reclamation of power were the chosen ones, the warriors who had been trained through the ages to use that power wisely and well. They would have to search, and on that search they would learn, so that when they arrived it would be the right time. Not before, and not after…”
The incantation continued, but Ryan glanced across and noticed Doc deep in thought. So it was that, after Gloria had finished and the Gate were dispersing for the long watches of the night, Ryan called his people together and sat them before the fire.
“So, Doc,” the one-eyed warrior began, “tell me what you think.”
“About what?” he replied, adding, “Unless you mean what I think you mean…”
“I do, Doc. She’s talking about the Pentagon, right? I read about it when I was growing up in Front Royal. It all points to that, and it all ties in with what you were saying before. My guess is that the Gate were some kind of offshoot of the Illuminated Ones, mebbe a breakaway group of some kind. I knew there was a lot of dissension before skydark, a lot of strange cults and religions that thought the world would end with the coming of a new millennium. And my guess is that each of these groups would have supporters and believers who had some kind of power somewhere, or some kind of it to that power.”
Doc smiled wryly. “Ah, now that I would not know much about, my friend. Remember, I was not around in that time for too long. Come to that, most of the time I was there they were too busy trying to keep me quiet and out of the way. I only know the rumors—”
“Yeah, well, I lived through it, Doc, and it sure as shit sounds that way to me,” Mildred said, shaking her head bitterly so that her plaits shook around her head. “The funny thing is that most of us didn’t believe that there would be anything in it.”
“Yeah, but that’s all history now,” Dean cut in. “It doesn’t really matter where the Gate came from, does it? It only matters that this place is what they’ve been looking for, and it’s what we’re looking for—”