The Harbinger Read Online Free PDF Page A

here in the first place?” he asked
    “I didn’t.”
    “So you won’t know again, and yet you’ll be there.”
    And then he was gone.

Chapter 4
    The First Harbinger: The Breach

    B UT YOU DID see the prophet after that?”
    “Yes.”
    “And you didn’t have any contact with him before you saw him again?”
    “That’s right.”
    “I don’t understand,” she said. “How did you know where to meet him or when…if he never told you?
    “I didn’t know where or when,” he replied. “We just met.”
    “I still don’t get it.”
    “It would just happen. Sometimes I’d be led by the clues, and sometimes I’d be led in spite of them. Even when I got them wrong I’d still end up in the right place, eventually. And sometimes, even with no clues, when I wasn’t even searching…it would still happen. We just ended up in the same place. Call it predestination . I don’t know. It just happened.”
    “Why do you think the prophet gave you clues to put together instead of just telling you from the start?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe because it was the process of trying to put it all together that led to the next encounter. I think it was also so that each Harbinger would be burned into my consciousness.”
    “So you met him again. And what happened? No, wait a minute.” She got up from the table, walked over to her desk, and pressed one of the buttons on her phone set. “Hold off any incoming calls,” she said. “Don’t allow any interruptions.”
    “Even the calls that are scheduled?” replied a woman’s voice on the speaker phone.
    “Yes. Tell them something came up and that I’ll get back as soon as possible. Apologize for me…warmly.”
    “For how long?”
    “I don’t know,” she said, “for the rest of the day.” She returned to the table and refocused her attention. “OK, so you met him again,” she said. “When and where?”
    “It was weeks after our last encounter. During that time I studied the seal looking for clues to the mystery of the First Harbinger.”
    “And what was on it?”
    “Markings and shapes, but one that was clearly the central image and the largest. It was…how can I describe it? There was a horizontal line as if it was the top border of some object or structure. The line dipped down in the middle of the seal, then back up again, then continued as a horizontal line to the other side. So it formed something like a V in the middle. I couldn’t make anything out of it.”
    “So?”
    “So I went back to the bench by the water. But he wasn’t there. I went back several more times after that, but nothing. More weeks went by, and then months. I wondered if I’d ever see him again. And the whole thing still didn’t seem real. I would have almost doubted my memory if it wasn’t for the seal. One day…it was a Tuesday morning, I was in Lower Manhattan, the very bottom of the island, in Battery Park, pondering the words of the prophet, and looking across the waters at the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

    At first I didn’t notice it, a dark figure standing about fifty feet in front of me and to the right. It was him. He was also facing the water, so I could only see his back. Whether he was looking at the statue or at some other object or just at the water, I don’t know. He turned to the side, just for a moment. That’s when I recognized him. I made my way over to him as fast as I could, not wanting to risk missing the moment. While I was still in back of him, he spoke…again, without breaking his gaze, at least at first.
    “Nouriel,” he said.
    “Present,” I replied.
    “And just on time.”
    “Did you arrange that too?” I asked.
    “No. Have you studied the seal?”
    “I have.”
    “And what did you find?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Did you bring your recorder?”
    “It’s always with me.”
    “Then let’s begin,” he said, turning to gaze toward me for the first time in the exchange. A warm breeze ruffled his hair as he spoke above the sound of