The Bar Code Prophecy Read Online Free PDF Page A

to let her know he had hold of it.
    Grace flashed back to the first time Eric had spotted her. There they were — her on the wall, him on the ground, the rope tight between them. It was such a powerful connection, resting your balance, your height, your safety on another person. Not only did he have to keep her from falling, but he had to read every move she made, react effortlessly to her painstaking climb. It felt awkward at first, but after a while, she didn’t have to think about it anymore. The faith was there. The trust between them was as solid as the wall, the floor, and the rope.
    Now, for a brief moment, she felt him on the other end. The weight of him. The force of him. The certainty that he would be there, no matter what happened, no matter what she needed as she rose.
    Having just completed the wall that afternoon, Grace scurried up without too much difficulty and quickly rappelled down.
    “Final level!” Eric praised her when she was on the ground again. “If I didn’t know better, I would think you’ve been doing the intermediate for years. You look so confident. I’ll make it dimmer now, okay?”
    “I’d like to try it once more,” Grace requested, just to be sure. “I want to really get it into my memory.”
    “If you think you really need to,” Eric agreed.
    When she’d completed the wall a second time, Eric once more suggested making it harder to see. “Think you can handle it?” he challenged playfully, his eyes shining.
    “Sure,” she said, though she wasn’t sure at all.
    Eric went to the front desk and Grace kept her eyes on the wall as it slowly faded. Her eyesight was excellent but now she was squinting in her attempt to keep the wall in focus. It wavered in front of her; sometimes she couldn’t see parts of it at all.
    “Try it now,” Eric said, returning to ground her.
    With a nervous nod, Grace surveyed the wall and saw a darkened square just above her head and thought she remembered it as a handhold. Reaching, she gripped it. From memory, she lifted her knee and found a protrusion she could stand on. Tensing her abdominal muscles, Grace pulled herself up.
    “That’s the way,” Eric encouraged.
    The protrusion she was standing on appeared and disappeared as though waves of invisibility were washing over it.
    Above her head, Grace sighted another protrusion, reached for it — and missed! Waving her arms, she fell away from the wall.
    “I’ve got you,” Eric reassured her as she swung on the rope, her feet kicking. “Focus on the wall. Find your way back.”
    Grace’s stomach seemed to twist and warm liquid bile rose into her mouth. The freakiness of the wall was throwing off her balance and nauseating her. Do not puke , she commanded her body.
    To her tremendous relief, her insides settled after a moment.
    “Okay up there?” Eric checked.
    “Okay,” she confirmed.
    “Go back and find some more holds,” Eric instructed. “Take a second to remember where they were. If you relax your eyes and let your focus go soft, you can see them.”
    Grace discovered that this was true. If she stopped squinting, a pattern of lights emerged. She quickly realized that the lights were protrusions.
    With this new understanding of the wall, she began to climb once more.
    “Last level of invisibility?” Eric asked when she had once more rappelled down to the floor.
    “Oh … I don’t know,” Grace demurred breathlessly. “I don’t think I can.”
    “I know you can,” Eric insisted.
    “Why don’t you do one?” Grace suggested.
    “All right.”
    “I’ll work the belay rope,” Grace offered.
    “Don’t need it,” Eric replied as he unhooked his carabiner from the rope.
    “You’re going to free climb?”
    With a nod, Eric went behind the counter and brought the wall down so that it was completely impossible to see. Returning, he jumped up and appeared to hang in midair. In a minute he was scrambling up, over, and back down.
    Grace was transfixed. Eric on his own was