Rogue Read Online Free PDF Page B

to the skeletons they’d seen there but displayed here with the variety of size, shape, and coloring you’d expect to find on the streets of any human city. Some were elderly, others clearly children, playing in the streets. No signs of the disorder, violence, or butchery that the vast sacrificial boneyard they’d found beneath the cathedral seemed to suggest was central to their character.
    This looked orderly. Socially organized. Prosperous. And the most unexpected word to describe it:
    Civilized
.
    “What is it showing you, Will?” asked Franklin.
    “Something I didn’t expect,” said Will.
    The moment he spoke, the images faded from his mind, and he found himself eye to eye with the serpent again. But now he could detect a glimmer of life, or intelligence, in its cold bejeweled eye. It was assessing him, trying to penetrate his mind.
    Will took the glasses off. He didn’t want to think or feel what this thing seemed to be trying to tell him.
    We were a people.
    He heard Franklin laugh at something again and looked back to see him leaning in toward Abelson, listening.
    “Yes, he has a great deal to learn about our friends,” said Franklin. “As did we all once.”
    Will closed his mind to that troubling doubt, and the trailing questions it raised, and turned back to his purpose with renewed resolve.
    “So this thing is what you found down there,” said Will.
    “That’s right,” said Franklin. “Hidden in the ruins, concealed from casual eyes. A living artifact that contains the essence of who they are, for whoever might find it. Once we made contact with it, mentally, the emanations slowly led us to its location.”
    “So most of what you know about them, you learned from this thing?”
    “It’s the heart of their gift,” said Franklin, holding the device in a mesmerized gaze. “Once we learned to align ourselves to it. This requires strict mental discipline; you have to sit with it, spend time in its presence. Express your willingness to bond with it and it will slowly make itself known to you. You’ll learn all this for yourself, Will, soon enough.”
    Will knew exactly what he meant already. Looking at the device, he felt its power even now, reaching out to him, seductive and warm, a pleasant, flattering feeling, like the sight of an old friend’s familiar face after a long separation.
    “This enabled the Others, with whom we were about to make direct contact, a way to show us who they were and what they had to offer. Dr. Abelson broke through first. He proved particularly adept at amplifying that connection and so he subsequently learned more from them than any of us.”
    Abelson nodded a few times, or it might have been a tremor, and the right side of his face twitched slightly. Will realized he might be trying to smile. He even raised his arm a quarter of an inch off the chair and gave Will a halfhearted thumbs-up.
    “Why was that?” asked Will.
    “Technologically, to this day, the Others remain worlds ahead of us, but they could plainly see that Dr. Joe was the leading scientist in our ranks. So our friends graced him with a series of concepts and ideas so advanced none of the rest of us could even comprehend them. But not Dr. Joe. He alone recognized them as world-changing inspirations. And utilizing the tools of the advanced labs we put together for him, the good doctor began to realize and transform these gifts into the wonders we’ve enjoyed ever since.”
    “Aphotic technology,” said Will.
    “Exactly right, Will.”
    Will summoned up a dose of innocent, boyish enthusiasm. “I’d really like to see them. Could you show some of these things to me?”
    A knowing look passed between Franklin and Dr. Abelson.
    “I think we might be able to arrange that,” said Franklin, hiding a smile. “Come with me, son.”
    Franklin patted Abelson on the arm and headed for the door. Will followed, stealing a glance back at the ancient basilisk of a man, still as a rock, watching him with that