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Jax was nodding. “You were right from the beginning. All along it’s been about the land.”
“But why would they need my mother? Or me? If they suspect the gateway is located there on that land, then why not simply go there? The place is primitive and remote. They could have the gateway to themselves and no one would likely even know that they were there or what they were up to.”
“Maybe they already went there and found it, but they couldn’t use it for some reason. Maybe that was when they became interested in the Rahl line here in this world.”
Alex hadn’t thought of that. He paced to the window and back as he thought about it. He wondered what part the Daggett Trust played in the whole thing.
“If they did go there and couldn’t make the gateway work, what makes them think that I could?”
“A Rahl separated the worlds. If in so doing he also created this gateway between worlds, and it still exists, then maybe it has fail-safes and it takes a Rahl to open it again.”
“But that was him, not me. Even if I am a descendant of this Rahl line from your world, I don’t have those kinds of abilities. How the hell am I supposed to open a gateway between worlds? I never even knew another world existed. I’m the last person on earth to go to for answers about a gateway.”
“Not really,” Jax said as she shrugged. “The Law of Nines names you as central to it all. You would be the very person to go to.”
“The Law of Nines? How can that have anything to do with a gateway?”
“I don’t know, but Radell Cain wants the gateway, and the Law of Nines leads him directly to you as being central to the whole thing. He sent Sedrick Vendis here, his most trusted man, to secure both the gateway and you.”
Alex paced as he thought. “But like you just said, they’re coming to this world. They can already come here and go back. What more is the gateway going to do for them that they can’t already do?”
Alex paused in midstride as the answer to his own question suddenly became clear. “Except that when they come here they can’t take anything back with them.” He met her gaze. “Could they take things back through a gateway?”
She was smiling in an unsettling way. “According to the theory, a lifeline isn’t needed in the gateway, so objects could be taken back through it.”
“What would they want to take back through the gateway?”
“What’s the weapon they’re using to conquer and control people in my world?”
“The ability your world has but this one doesn’t, weapons of magic.”
“Right. And what is it Cain wants to eliminate from our world?”
“Magic.”
“So, what happens if they succeed?”
Alex felt the hair on his arms stand on end. “Dictators always seek to take weapons away from people so that there can be no effective opposition to their rule. If they eliminate magic, they will eliminate the weapon that people could use to resist tyranny.
“But in taking it away from the people who might oppose them, they will also be eliminating it for their own use. So, if they eliminate the weapon everyone on both sides is using now, they will need some other kind of weapon to replace it.”
“That’s right,” she said. “There is a kind of balance of power now. Both sides have access to the same kinds of weapons. If they eliminate magic, that would leave the balance of power static—neither side would have it. So, if they want to seize rule they will need to replace their lost weapons with some other kind of weapon. That would tip the balance their way.”
“Technology,” Alex whispered. “They could use radios to communicate, drugs to control people, and guns to kill anyone who tries to resist them.”
Jax was nodding again. “And who knows what else. For all practical purposes, technology is interchangeable with what we can do with our abilities—they do the same kinds of things. When the tools created with the use of magic are suddenly gone, people will be helpless.”
“Those with technology to replace those lost tools will be able to rule the world.”
“Exactly.” Jax swept an arm out. “There is a whole world of technology here for the taking. Last night you went out and bought that magic glue—”
“Superglue.”
“Right, superglue. We use magic to heal in a similar way, knitting wounds closed much like you did. But if our ability to do that is gone, we will have no way to heal the wounded. Imagine the advantage Cain’s side would have with something that simple. How many people would give in to his side just to be healed with the technology only Cain could provide?
“But there is a great deal more. There is a whole world here full of things we wouldn’t have. They could walk into a store and buy things that would be invaluable in my world, if everyone in my world were stripped of their abilities. They could take that technology back through a gateway. Cain would be the sole source of the things that people needed to live, and only he would have weapons to enforce his rule.”
“But do you think this Gateway Theory is really right? That people could take things back through it to your world?”
“I imagine that Radell Cain must have reason to believe so.”
Alex sat down on the edge of the bed. “What is it I’ve heard you say . . . ? ‘Dear spirits’?”
“Yes, if things are bad enough.”
Alex rested his elbows on his knees and put his head in his hands. “Dear spirits, they want a gateway to run guns to another world.”
“Any ideas?”
“Sure, let’s call in ATF.”
“Who?”
“Nothing,” he said, waving off his flip remark. “That still doesn’t really explain my part in this. I’ve never even heard of a gateway. What would I know? What do they think I can do?”
“You’re a Rahl—a Rahl specifically identified by the Law of Nines. It was a Rahl who created the gateway. I think that if they could simply find the gateway and use it they would have done so ages ago. Since they haven’t, that means they can’t. For some reason they need you.”
“Do you honestly think that they intend for me to open this gateway for them? Do you really think they believe I can?”
Jax let out a long sigh. “I don’t know, Alex. Do you have any better explanation?”
“I guess not,” he said.
“So what now?”
He went to the desk and retrieved one of the phones he’d bought the night before. “I think I had better call Mr. Fenton, the lawyer for the land. I think we need to get ourselves to Boston, take title to the land
, and then go up to Maine and have a look for ourselves.”
“I agree. It’s our only lead now.”
45.
ALEX DIALED THE NUMBER . “I’ll put it on speaker so you can hear,” he told Jax.
“Lancaster, Buckman, Fenton. This is Mr. Fenton.”
“Mr. Fenton, hi. It’s Alexander Rahl.”
“Mr. Rahl, I’m so relieved to hear from you.” The man sounded like he meant it. “I was beginning to worry. Is everything all right? I mean, it’s been over a week since you had said that you were going to call. I was beginning to get concerned.”
Alex hadn’t realized that he’d lost track of that much time drugged up in Mother of Roses. “I apologize. I was distracted by some things for a few days, but I’m free now.”
“That’s good to hear. Say, I’ve been seeing on the news about the big fire you had out your way, at Mother of Roses. Do you know anything about it?”
Alex wasn’t sure what he should say, so he decided to be vague. “Some. Why?”
“Well, the thing is, one of my associates, Mr. Buckman, took ill earlier this year. His doctor thought that he was possibly suffering a breakdown of some sort, and as a result had fallen into a rather severe psychosis. They couldn’t seem to get to the bottom of it, so Mr. Buckman was sent out your way to Mother of Roses Psychiatric Hospital for extended care. I guess they specialize in that sort of thing. It’s a private care facility where he has been receiving specialized evaluation and treatment.”
Alex’s mouth went dry. “Treatment? From who? Do you know his doctor’s name?”
“The specialist in charge is Dr. Hoffmann. I was just wondering if you knew anything more about the fire. You know how unreliable the news can be. I haven’t been able to find out anything about Mr. Buckman. I don’t know if he’s all right or not. The news reports said that a number of patients died in the fire, most of them on the ninth floor. That’s where Mr. Buckman was confined.”
Alex shared a look with Jax. “I’m terribly sorry. My mother died in the fire at Mother of Roses. She was on the ninth floor.”
