The Enlightened (Mind Dimensions #3)(13)

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” he says, still floating in the air. “I see you already know, on some level, that I am a manifestation of the combined intellects of all of you, but you are going through the motions reminiscent of denial, which we have no time for.”

“You’re like a hive mind composed of all of us?” I ask incredulously. “Including me?”

“Yes. Though without the negative connotation the term ‘hive’ carries.”

“Wow.” I blink. “I’m not sure what to say to you.”

“We’re not here for you to say anything to me,” he says calmly. “That would be pointless, since I know everything you know, as well some things you know but don’t realize you know. I am here because I have an important message for you.”

“Isn’t this a lot like talking to myself?” I ask, and for the first time, a disturbing thought occurs to me. Did the Joining make me go insane?

“You’re not crazy,” he says. “But I don’t have time to convince you of your sanity. We’ve already used up too much time as is.”

Wouldn’t an imaginary friend say something along those lines? I think at him, testing the theory that he can read my thoughts.

“Perhaps,” he admits out loud, confirming my suspicions. “If it helps, you can think of me as a creative way your mind processes the information that’s already there, like clues in your memories that are crunched after accessing some extra brain hardware.”

“You sound like Liz, my shrink.” A smile tugs at my lips. “And a little bit like Bert, my best friend.”

“That’s intentional,” he says patiently. “I want to make sure you don’t think of me as a trick the others are trying to play on you.”

“Oh,” I say, realizing he just voiced a fear that had been lurking around the edges of my awareness—a feat that is extremely creepy.

“My message will be counterproductive to the plans your Joining companions have for you, which should convince you that they have nothing to gain from this,” he says, floating a bit closer.

“What plans?” I ask warily.

“That will be made clear to you after we’re done here. I really should get to the point. We have but moments left.”

“Wait. What will happen to you after the Joining?” I don’t know why this matters to me, but it does. “Will you die?”

“Great question, and I wish we had time to discuss it,” he says. “I am touched that you even care enough to ask about my fate. The short version is: I will, as you say, phase into the Quiet.”

“What? What do you mean? How does that work?”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to get on this topic. In a nutshell, I will be in a different dimension. My Depth is unlimited, meaning that in a fraction of a millisecond, before the Joining ends, I can live forever.”

“What do I call you?” I ask, my mind reeling from what he’s just told me. The idea of a god-like being like him, originating from some old farts and me and living forever isn’t easy to digest.

“We have no time, Darren. Call me Mimir, if you must. This whole conversation is so that I can tell you something, and you must forgive my rudeness, but I have to come out and say it.” He seems to take a deep breath. “You need to go back to New York. Lucy is in danger. Big danger.”

“What?” My insides twist with fear. “My mom’s in danger? How do you know that?”

“The question is: how do you know that?” Mimir says. “And the answer is, as I said, clues. You know more than you realize, but you haven’t properly processed the information. You lack focus. You lack the experience in deductive reasoning.”

“What will happen to her? What can I do?” For some reason, I believe him. I have complete and utter conviction that Lucy is in trouble.

“Go to her. Tell her not to investigate anything until you get there. When you see her, tell her everything about what you can do and what happened. Don’t leave anything out,” he says urgently.

“But who is she in danger from?”

“It’s your—”

And before he finishes the sentence, I’m in my body, staring dumbly at my finger that’s touching the Abbot’s bald head. The Enlightened in the circle look more animated.

The Joining is over.





Chapter 6





Dazed, I overhear bits and pieces of conversation as the old people murmur to one another.

“So it’s true,” someone says.

“Unbelievable,” someone else whispers.

Their discussions would’ve riveted me had I not been overcome by dread.

Mom is in trouble. I can’t think of anything but that. Lucy’s tough, but she does have a dangerous job. Could the threat be coming from some scumbag she put away during her long career as a detective? From someone who just got out of jail and is hell-bent on revenge? Mimir mentioned clues. Could one of them be some case she told me about at some point?

The idea that it’s a case she investigated sticks in my mind. Even if I’ve consciously forgotten about it, Mimir was able to access the information and use it to warn me. But for the life of me, I can’t recall Lucy ever saying anything about a dangerous case or a criminal getting released. Sure, she worked in Organized Crime for years, but she never told Sara or me anything about it. No ‘such and such crime boss went to jail thanks to me,’ and no ‘I shot such and such mobster.’ She’s too professional to gossip. Besides, for the past few years, she’s been in White-Collar Crime, a department that doesn’t deal with violent criminals.