Justin Davis, page 41
“Correct.”
“Justin, that girl is not a witch. She is divine and you know it. You’ve always known it. Look, I’m a proud materialist, and I know she’s divine.”
Astonished at these words, Justin did not speak.
With both hands, Scarlet grabbed his lapels and shook him with surprising strength. “Justin, look at me. Look in my eyes. Do you love that girl?”
He didn’t answer.
She shook him harder. “Justin, answer me. Do…you…love…her? Answer!”
“In a way, I do.”
Seeing Scarlet in command, and Justin nodding and agreeing to all she said, the crowd believed she was resolving the problem.
Scarlet then told Justin, “If you love her, then go and get her. I believe you are meant to do this. If you die in the attempt, I will suffer the rest of my life, but I will also suffer if that beautiful girl dies.”
Justin listened to every word as if it were a revelation. “But you and I…” he stammered.
“Justin, you don’t need me. You and I love each other, but we live in different worlds. I cannot live in your world, and you can’t live in mine. I’ve known that, since we first met and you tried to hide your spiritual book. It bothered me for a while, but now I’m okay with it. Justin, you adore her. I saw it in the forest. I see it now. You are meant to be with Devī. I will help you if you promise me two things.”
“Anything,” he said, “just say it.”
“First, you will tell no one that I helped you to save Devī. Promise me.”
“I promise.”
“Second, you will turn back the instant it becomes a suicide mission. Look in my eyes and promise me.”
He looked in her eyes and said, “Yes, I promise.”
“Good. Whatever god you believe in will punish you if you lie to me. And I will not be responsible if you stupidly get yourself killed. I do care about you, Justin. Don’t forget how other people like me will suffer if you don’t keep your word. We also matter. Now listen. Brad left the key in his beast of a bike. Obviously, you will take it. I will tell everyone you’re okay and keep them distracted, even the police. When I go back to them, count to fifteen and run for the bike. You know the best way to Devī. You know these mountains. But turn back if your life is in danger. Swear on your Avatāra that you will do it.”
“Yes, I swear to the Avatāra I will keep every promise I made to you.”
“Deal. Now, wait fifteen seconds and go!”
Scarlet embraced him, then went back to Tom and the others and shouted with passion and charm that Justin was all right. As he counted to fifteen, Justin carefully checked his knives. At fifteen he grabbed his coat from a rack and burst through the crowd. In paralyzing disbelief, everyone watched Justin fly toward the exit. But they recovered in a moment and rushed after him. He was too fast.
Brad Branley had planted himself firmly in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, hands tightened into fists. Justin saw the false confidence he had created in Brad in their Clay Campus sparring match.
As Justin rushed to the door, Brad shouted, “You’re not leaving.” This time, Justin pulled no punches. He rushed right at and into his opponent. Brad raised his arms to stop him. Justin lowered his shoulder, and drove Brad’s body through the swinging door, and left him on his back, gasping for air, on the raised entrance patio.
Justin raced to Brad’s burly all-terrain cycle, jumped on, and revved the motor. Brad scrambled to his feet, screaming oaths, and sprinted toward Justin, who put the roaring bike in gear, and exploded out of the parking lot. In the rearview mirror, Justin saw Knights and campus security running for their cars and motorcycles.
Determined to get away, Justin skidded through the quadrangle as sirens blared, red lights flashed, and police ordered through blaring speakers that Justin stop. He accelerated.
He careened around buildings and flew over athletic fields. White Hall students poured out of their dormitories to watch the high-speed chase. The police tried to encircle Justin, forming a perimeter around the campus.
At full speed, Justin dashed past the police and forced the bike to leap off the manicured campus onto a steep trail that shot straight up the mountain. No vehicle could follow him, and he left his pursuers behind.
Heading straight north toward the ridge, Justin’s roaring bike chewed up rugged terrain like a voracious beast, ever ascending the slope. It bounced along rocky creek beds, blasted through brush, and flew over logs, clawing its way up the mountain. If I crash, Justin thought, Devī will die, if she’s still alive.
Desperate, Justin remembered the Avatāra and began chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra silently in his mind. His lips were too frozen to chant. He tried to surrender to Kṛṣṇa’s higher power, he envisioned the Avatāra lifting the bike over the obstacles, he pleaded for supernatural endurance.
Devī would approve, he thought, as he struggled up the very path that in October led him to his startling reunion with Devī. But as he ascended, the cold grew bitter, just as it did back then. His face now felt numb and a sudden blast of arctic air took his breath away. He shivered violently.
Snow began to pelt him. His tires locked on an ice patch. He spun around twice, nearly plummeting down the slope, before banging to a stop against a tree.
“No problem,” Justin said, unfazed. He dismounted and turned his bike around. He kept fighting his way up the slope. Low branches jabbed his face; snow-veiled holes clutched at his tires. Ignoring gashes and bruises, he pushed on. Wind lashed his eyes and singed his cheeks. Another blast of arctic air shocked him. Justin shivered violently. The higher he went, the darker the sky grew under blinding thick clouds and snow.
Every day, he thought, people are trapped and die in the mountains. He promised Scarlet to turn back if his life was in danger. He knew all about hypothermia. His time was limited. With animal fury he pushed forward till he saw Devī’s house up on the darkened ridge. A few dim lights and a fire flickered on the first floor. The upstairs was dark.
Justin had lost precious time escaping Knight Rite. Hunter must be at Devī’s house by now. Had Devī already left this world? Did the Asura kill her? If the latter, did the Asura lay a deadly trap for a would-be rescuer?
Justin knew that in the still mountain air, Hunter heard the roaring bike come up the mountain. He had several minutes warning. Justin had lost all the tactical advantage of surprise. This troubling fact drove him back to his mantra with increased intensity. It seemed the easiest, most natural way to keep his vow and surrender his being to a greater, wiser power.
Justin stopped about twenty feet below Devī’s house. He laid down his cycle and crawled quietly toward the house till his eyes were even with Devī’s yard. Hunter’s armored jeep stood sentry in the snow-covered front yard. The Asura was here!
A flickering light danced in the main room downstairs where he had conversed with Devī. So, a fire burned in the old fireplace. Devī could be alive! If so, she was in critical danger. To save Devī, and to save himself from fatal hypothermia, he must get into the house. Justin did not have warm clothing, and there was killing cold on the mountaintop.
Justin silently switched on his bodycam and whispered into the mic, “I’m on Devī’s estate. Hunter Clay is here; there’s his jeep. I’m going in, perhaps to die.”
It was clear why Hunter came himself. No one else had the power to oppose Devī. And Hunter wanted revenge, and a clear path to supreme earthly power, unopposed by Devī, or her student.
Suddenly the jeep’s blinding roof lights flashed on. Gunshots blasted the frozen air. Justin darted behind a tree. More shots slashed the bark. He was being targeted. A familiar voice called out, “Who are you? You are trespassing. Leave immediately or under the laws of the state of Virginia, I will shoot you.”
CHAPTER 47
It was Hunter Clay. Devī was probably not alive. But Justin must act, whatever the consequences. Before fighting his way into the house, he would try once to be civil. He would beg Senator Clay to let him enter the house to save his own life from hypothermia. Once in, he could search for Devī.
However, to do that, he must first eliminate the twin blinding lights that gave Hunter a lethal advantage, should Justin’s appeal be denied.
Justin whispered into his mic, “If I don’t make it, all my love to Mom and Joey, to Luke and Sara, Tom, Scarlet, and all my friends.”
Justin grasped two knives. Countless hours, lifetimes, of patient practice empowered him. In a single flowing motion, he flew out from behind the tree, hurled two knives with two hands, and rolled to safety closer to the house, behind a giant old tree. Both knives found their target, shattering the jeep’s twin lights, plunging the land into stormy twilight.
Crouching and waiting, Justin readied two more knives. He saw a few flickering candles inside the house. He listened for the faintest sound of a gun. There was dead silence, then a click, and the car’s headlights went on. That familiar voice called out, the voice of Senator Hunter Clay.
“I see that it’s you, Justin. No one else throws knives like that. I thought you were at Knight Rite, and so I had no idea who had come up here in this storm. I’m sorry I fired that shot, but I had to be careful. I wish you hadn’t damaged my jeep, but you were responding to my shot. Anyway, you must wonder what I’m doing here. So, come on out and we’ll talk.”
Holding his last two daggers in his hands, staying behind the tree, Justin called out, “I came because I received a message that Devī was in danger. I’m sorry about your jeep and yes, it does surprise me to find you here.”
“Justin, you don’t have to hide. Come out now and I will explain why we’re here. You have nothing to fear from me.”
Justin sheathed his knives and came out, trembling with cold. If Hunter reached for his gun, Justin would respond. Justin stepped forward with his hands hovering near his belt knives, prepared to seize them in an instant.
The great Senator Clay nodded to Justin. “You and I both came up here, risking our lives, for the same reason. Devī was indeed in danger. She was dangerously depressed, indeed, suicidal. A mutual friend of ours, Judge Eliot, called the highway patrol to report Devī’s condition and an alert went out on police radio.”
That was all true. Judge Eliot had called the police. Hunter continued, “I have friends in local government and they called me. I told them about the private road up here. I said I would try to save my niece. They urged me not to risk it, or to send someone else, but I could not risk anyone else’s life to save my own family, my dear niece. So, Barbara and I risked our lives to save her. Tragically, we came too late. I’m afraid Devī is gone. I’m sorry, Justin. It looks like suicide. Devī opened her windows, sat in her yoga āsana and froze to death. Barbara is with her now. This terrible event sadly confirms my assessment of Devī’s mental state.”
Was Devī gone? The very idea shocked Justin. He shuddered from cold and despair. But what if Devī was alive?
Had Justin not seen Jack’s scars, had he not learned what the Sanskrit word vyādha meant, he might have believed the senator. Now he was safe from that illusion. Devī might be alive! Justin must get into the house.
“Senator,” Justin said, “I’m freezing. Can we talk inside the house by a fire?”
“It’s best you not go in. Get in my car before you freeze to death. You can sleep tonight at our campus.”
Smart move by Hunter. Justin knew he was stalling for time. Time was on Hunter’s side. Justin grew weaker by the minute. And the Asura might not have the power to kill Devī, and so was simply letting her freeze to death by her own choice.
If all that were true, Hunter would never let Justin into the house. If Devī was alive and saw Justin, she would know he risked his life to help her and might decide to stay in this world. Hunter could not risk that.
Justin felt the approach of extreme hypothermia. He must try to save Devī and he must do it now. To do that, he must fight his way past Hunter, surely a fight to the death. Justin would not sit in Hunter’s car and save himself while Devī might be dying, convinced he had abandoned her.
But what if he died trying to enter the house, and Devī was already dead? He would ruin his family for nothing. He begged the Avatāra for guidance. The answer came in his heart. He could not leave Devī in the hands of the very Asura from whom she had once saved him. He must try to help her. His last hope to avoid a fight to the death was to appeal to Hunter’s apparent fondness for him.
“Please, Senator Clay, I beg you, let me come in the house, just for a minute. Let me see Devī one last time.”
“You are too late to save my niece. I’m sorry; she’s gone. Justin, we have been so kind to you. Why are you doing this?”
“I deeply appreciate all that you and your wife did for me,” Justin called back. “But I have good reason to believe that Jack Cutter, your employee, killed my father. And I fear you want Devī gone from this world. I hope with all my heart I am wrong, and if I am, I will make it up to you for the rest of my life. But I will not gamble with Devī’s life. I’m going in to see her.”
Hunter shouted, “Your father fought for justice. After all I did for you, you owe me justice and a lot more. You have no evidence.”
Yes, Justin thought, because you destroyed the evidence by destroying Jack’s body. Hunter was again stalling for time. Devī, if still alive, would leave this world very soon. Justin grew weaker, basically freezing to death.
Near panic, Justin struggled to fix his mind on Kṛṣṇa, clinging to the mantra. In a moment, Kṛṣṇa’s power began to course through his mind, and flow into his body. Fear vanished. Then something most astonishing took place. Justin could read Hunter’s mind! The senator planned that Devī die in the house, and that Justin submit or die outside in the cold. He knew too much. He was too clever.
If Justin rushed the house, Hunter planned to shoot him and then claim self-defense. Everyone knew about Justin’s martial power. The senator had a right to defend himself.
But as Justin’s power increased, Hunter sensed it and grew visibly concerned. He had always feared that Justin connect to the Avatāra. Justin smiled with frozen lips. He read Hunter’s thoughts clearly. The senator decided to kill Justin now, before his power grew too strong.
Barbara Clay rushed out to the porch and shouted, “You are too late to save your so-called Devī. She is no longer in this world. Hunter, I’ve been listening to this absurd conversation. Finish him now!”
Justin readied for battle. Even if he died, all that Hunter said had been transmitted to Luke.
Senator Clay said, “Justin, this is your last chance. And I imagine you came with a transmitting device, say a body camera with audio. Sorry, but the electronic gear in my jeep has disabled it. So, actually, you neither recorded nor transmitted anything. The world will believe my version. You attacked us. Your knife is in my headlights with your prints. I just defended myself. Tragically, in the blizzard, I couldn’t recognize you. You trespassed. We have a legal right to be there. Devī is under our custody. And the law will compel your friend Luke to testify under oath that you believed us to be evil, mythic Asuras. The world will of course conclude that Justin Davis went crazy. And died.”
Hunter pulled out a gun. “I’m truly disappointed, Justin. You are just like your father—you can’t take no for an answer.”
“You killed him!” Justin shouted. He hurled a knife at Hunter’s gun arm. The knife bounced off his arm with a clang and fell to the ground.
Hunter smiled. “I heard in detail about your fight with the bikers. Most impressive. I knew you might find your way up here, and so I thought it prudent to put on body armor. Very last chance—surrender to me or die.”
Barbara then said, “Justin, we don’t want to hurt you, really. We want to work with you. We could not let you join Devī and oppose us. There is too much at stake.”
Hunter nodded. “Rule the world with us. I offer you that. Only Devī stood in the way. And so, we did what we had to do.”
“What have you done to her?”
“Nothing, really,” Barbara said. “We simply allowed her to carry out her own plan to leave this world. I wish I could feel more sympathy for Devī, but she did kill my husband in a past life. And Devī will be happier on another planet. This planet is ours. She never liked it anyway.”
Justin had to act. Hunter Clay was not Billy Skinner, nor the bad bikers. A voice inside him whispered, Don’t fight with your own power. Let my strength flow through you. Just be my instrument!
Justin smiled. Now he would finally do what Devī urged him to do thousands of years ago. Whatever the outcome, he was keeping his vow!
Fixing his mind on the Avatāra, opening his heart fully to the source of his existence, devoting his soul, Justin felt immense power flow into his mind, his arms, his entire body. Obeying that inner voice, he walked straight toward the house, hands at his sides, tapping the last knife, hidden in his belt.
Startled and enraged by Justin’s audacity, Hunter Clay pulled out his gun, pointed it at Justin, and ordered him to get back. But with his new, enhanced awareness, Justin studied Hunter’s eye movements, his finger on the trigger, and his breath rate. Justin knew precisely when his enemy would pull the trigger.
A moment before Hunter fired, Justin, still walking, dove to the ground, and did a front roll, grasping his knife on the way down as the bullet flew over his head. On the way up, Justin hurled his last knife. The blade plunged deep into Hunter’s exposed gun hand. He screamed and dropped his gun. Justin had not stopped his forward movement. As the gun dropped, Justin was there to grab it. Barbara cursed him, trying with a shaking hand to point her gun at him.
“Don’t shoot,” Hunter shouted. “You’ll kill me.”
Justin was frantic to enter the house. Devī might still be alive. Part of him wanted to kill both Clays, an easy task since Hunter had a knife stuck deep in his hand, and a gun pointed at his head. Barbara, for all her gun-waving, was in panic.
Should he kill them? What did Kṛṣṇa want?
