Acheron Highway: A Jonathan Shade Novel by Gary Jonas Read Free Book Online

what the number is, but go with four digits so we don’t repeat one we’ve used before.”
    “One one two two ,” I said, thinking Boogie Boogie Avenue.
    “Write it down.”
    I wrote 1122 BBA on the paper.
    “Big Bad Apple?” Cynthia asked.
    “Bionic Boy Asshole,” Fred said.
    “Ben Beats Aardvarks,” I said.   “It was a comic strip a friend of mine drew in high school.”
    “I trust your friend is in the psychiatric ward,” Fred said.
    I didn’t have a friend named Ben who drew comics, but I didn’t want them to know I was making light of their team with a children’s rhyme, so I just smiled.
    Cynthia and Fred went over to their seats and pulled up microphones.   They spoke the numbers, and I watched as both Lou and Walter nodded.
    Then it just looked to me like they went to sleep.
    After fifteen minutes, I suspected that was exactly what they’d done.
    A few minutes later, I was sitting down, nearly asleep myself.
    At twenty-two minutes and twelve seconds, Walter sat up and said, “I’m at the target.”
    Cynthia leaned toward her microphone.   “Pull back and view it from above.”
    “It looks like a building, but I don’t think that’s the actual target.”
    I looked over at Fred, but he just shrugged.   “Sometimes Lou doesn’t talk during his sessions, so being a monitor isn’t as important as with Walter.”
    I looked through the window at Lou and shook my head.   If they turned on the sound in his room, we’d hear snoring.
    “I’m going to push forward,” Walter said.
    “Go slowly.   Keep your focus.   Are you in the present day?”
    “It feels like it.   I didn’t feel any time displacement when I entered the ether.   OK, I’m entering a room.   Dark.   Something’s sweeping past me...whoa...I think it’s made of wood, and it keeps whipping past.   Let my eyes adjust to the darkness.   Hold on.   OK, things are coming into focus a bit.   I’m in a room.   I think it’s a some kind of attic or storage room, but I could be mistaken.   Shelves on the wall.”
    “What’s on the shelf nearest you?” Cynthia asked.
    “A row of lighthouses.”
    That surprised me.   Kelly had been replacing her collection of lighthouses gradually over the past few months.   Brand didn’t understand the symbolism, so she kept them in the room above the dojo.   That wasn’t something Walter could have known.
    “This isn’t the target, but the target is near.   I sense that I should go lower.”
    “Follow your instincts,” Cynthia said.
    “Going to the lower level.   Whoa!   Bright light!”
    “Readjust.”
    I looked at Walter through the window.   He covered his eyes with his hands.   “That was intense!   Let me reset my focus.”   He lowered his hands.   “I can’t see right now, but I hear clanging.   Sounds like a scraping, then a clang of metal on metal, and grunting.   OK, things are swimming into view again.   My head is throbbing.   I can’t stay here much longer.   Get some Advil ready for me when I come back.”
    “I have some in my purse.   Look around.   What do you see?”
    “Mirrors.   Reflections of movement.   Swords.   Let me spin around.   I’m at a martial arts studio, I think.   There’s a gorgeous Chinese woman sword fighting with a big, heavyset white guy.   My head is killing me.   The light change was too much.”
    I pulled out my cell, scrolled down to Kelly’s name, and called her.
    “I’m coming back now.   What’s that noise?   I hear music.   OK, coming back.”
    Kelly answered the phone on the fourth ring.   “Is there someone I can kill for you yet?”
    “Not yet,” I said.   “What are you doing?”
    “Sparring with Brand.”
    “Swords?”
    “Yes.   Just about ready for some hand-to-hand.   Why?”
    “No reason.   Talk to you soon.”   I ended the call.   Walter was a little too specific for me to have reason to doubt him.
    Fred knocked on the window to Lou’s room.   Lou jerked awake,