She smiled, "It's okay. But I heard you scream, is everything alright?"

"I was the one who screamed?"

"Yes," she nodded. "You actually woke a few of the others."

He apologized again and told her he must have had a nightmare as he didn't realize he cried out. The nurse said it was fine, shut the light off, and left.

The air was much colder than he remembered it was earlier. He guessed it was either the air-conditioning or just some sort of added measure to keep the hospital environment sterile. Ryan wasn't sure. It might have been his imagination too.

"You need to rest."

Ryan felt his heart race again. He took a cautious look around his room but found no one. "Who are you?"

"Trust me, rest."

"I don't know you. Tell me who you are first," he told the voice, (even though he wasn't entirely sure he really wanted to know).

"Trust me."

"Show me who you are."

"Trust me."

"No."

Another cry pierced the air. Ryan's eyes shot to the window. It stood open, against the wall, and a crow sat on the windowsill. Ryan called for the nurse who walked in, turned the light back on, and asked him what the matter was.

"Th-There's a bird over there at the window," he started. "Could you get rid of it and close the window?"

The young woman looked at the window again. It was built into the wall as it'd always been and there wasn't any sign of a bird. "Mister Sage, are you alright?"

"Send her away," the voice whispered. "Trust me, send her away and rest."

"Shut up I don't need any sleep!" he barked.

"Mister Sage?"

"Trust me. Sleep."

"Shut up!"

"Mister Sage," the young nurse shouted. "Who are you talking to?"

Ryan looked back at the window as it had righted itself once more and he cursed. "You're doing this aren't you?" he snapped at the voice. "Who are you?"

"Who are you talking to Mister Sage?"

Ryan glared at her, "That voice, who else?"

"What voice?"

"The voice!" he yelled. "The one that says I need sleep! The one that tells me...tells me..." he cautiously looked at the woman and felt his pulse race again. He cracked a smile and asked her to leave. She hesitated but told him she was going to call his doctor. The voice returned, alarmed, "No, this wasn't supposed to happen..."

"What isn't?"

"There isn't any time left; you must believe in me."

The window of his room was abruptly torn out of the building and a swirling flock of black crows flew into the room and attacked him. They tore through the bed sheets and eventually past the bandages at his left knee which revealed the bloodied stump of his leg. The crows proceeded to bite, tear, and claw through his skin and to the bone and hastily merged together to reform his leg. Flesh, bone, nerves, blood, and all were there, and just in time as Doctor Grayson and two large male nurses entered. They found Ryan on the floor with his repaired leg, dozens of crows, and a ma.s.sive hole in the wall of their building.

"Mister Sage," Grayson began, "What happened?"

"Don't say a word," the voice instructed him. "You need to leave."

"What?"

Grayson repeated his question.

"Leave, now."

"How?"

"Who are you talking to Sage?"

"The wall."

"No."

"Mister Sage."

"Trust me."

"No."

"Sage!"

"Trust me!"

The men tried to seize Ryan, but he finally believed in the voice and fled through the hole in the wall. Feathers fell beneath his feet when he stepped on the gla.s.s from the window that lay scattered across the floor. He jumped out of the building and noticed something for the first time since he woke in the hospital. He was completely at peace. He wasn't concerned with the sudden events or the probability of falling to his death. Ryan fell two stories before the crows from the building caught up with him and circled round him. His body burst into a flock of a dozen crows and all of the birds fled into the Baltimore twilight.

Chapter 10.

August 27th, 2029 8:30 AM.

Mumbai, India The three gathered members of Mizuno's group sat on the steps of a large Romanesque building that reminded Nick of some of the monuments he caught glimpses of two days earlier while in Washington DC. In three days he'd left his home in Washington State and traveled to the other end of the world. Before his sudden voyage with Mizuno, the furthest Nick had ever traveled was to Oregon for a camping trip. Beyond that he had never paid any mind to travelling.

Since it was still rather early in the day it was far cooler than Nick remembered it being after he stepped off the plane. He only wore his jeans and his tee-shirt and opted to leave his jacket in the room they stayed at. Nick looked at Mizuno, who sat nearby on the tiled steps; Mizuno wore his usual attire of slacks, a dress shirt, his trench coat, gloves, and none of it seemed to faze him at all.

"Aren't y-you" Nick stopped and remembered the exercise Mizuno plotted out. He took a breath and slowly repeated his question from the beginning, "Aren't you exhausted?"

Mizuno shook his head, "Why would I be? We haven't done anything yet."

"No, I-I mean b" Nick stopped again and repeated the process, "I mean aren't you tired because of the heat and all of the clothes you're wearing?"

Mizuno grinned. He retrieved his notepad and a pen from his coat, flipped to the page he left off on, took some notes, flipped it closed, stashed both items in his coat again, and answered, "I spent a few years in this area of the world and in this same general getup, so I'm accustomed to this kind of heat. Besides, it's not even that warm out at the moment."

Melanie sat on Mizuno's right and spent her time watching the cars, motorcycles, buses, mopeds, and people pa.s.s by. They waited for someone to arrive, someone Nick didn't know, and Melanie seemed eager to get out of the open city before the heat truly hit them. She wore shorts, a short sleeved shirt, open toed sandals, and sungla.s.ses.

"Did you have to wear that when you were here last?" she asked Mizuno.

"No," he laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on his knees. He looked at the people as they pa.s.sed as well, though not in the same method; Melanie searched for someone and from what Nick knew about Mizuno (however little it was) he doubted Mizuno scanned the few people who pa.s.sed by simply to see if any one of them was their comrade. Mizuno continued, "I chose to."

Nick frowned, "Why?"

"Because I knew I would inevitably be in places and situations where the temperature would be a factor and if it was a drastic heat I would need to be able to adapt in order to better accomplish my goals." He sighed slightly, "Even with my abilities I'm still human and as such I still felt the effects of hot and cold and each of those varying degrees was enough to sway me in whatever endeavor I took."

"It 'was' enough?" Nick echoed.

Mizuno nodded, "I got over it."

"How do you l-learn...How do you learn to ignore something like heat?"

He continued to look out at anyone who pa.s.sed by the building but spoke directly to Nick, "The mind is an extremely powerful tool and if one is able to utilize it properly they can learn to ignore whatever they want, be it temperature, hunger, thirst, pain, pleasure, desire, hatred, sorrow..." his eyes flashed, "You get the idea."

"So where is Mithra?" Melanie asked to change the subject to something she felt was far more relevant.

"He had some family matter to attend to before he could join us here, but from my estimation he'll be here shortly," Mizuno told her.

Nick glanced back at the building behind him and tried to read the words on the wall near the top of the roof.

"It says, 'The Asiatic Society, Mumbai, eighteen-oh-four, State Central Library, Town Hall,'" Mizuno told him.

"So it's a library?"

He nodded, "Among other things. At the moment it's a meeting place for the three of us and Mithra. It does however house the sole remaining original copy of Dante's Divine Comedy, as the last other original was destroyed in a terrorist attack seven years ago."

"Why did you have us meet here though?" Melanie asked. "Mithra could have just met us at our hotel, or better yet we could have called him and told him to meet us in America."

Mizuno shook his head, "He's not the only reason we're here."

"What?" she scowled, "Then why are we here?"

He ignored her.

A pudgy man in khakis, a short sleeved shirt with a collar and tie, and gla.s.ses walked up to them. He had short, curly black hair, a duffel bag slung over his left shoulder, and a perplexed look once he saw Nick.

"Who is this boy?" he asked Melanie.

"Nick Jacobs," Mizuno answered for her. "Nick, this is Mithra Mehra."

Mithra gave a slight wave to the young man and asked, "So what's his power Melanie?"

She shrugged, "I have no idea. Mizuno hasn't told me anything as usual."

Mithra then asked Nick the same question but Nick only shook his head, "I-I don't...I don't know yet."

"What? How can you not know?"

"We haven't gone over it yet, but we will soon," Mizuno explained.

Mithra took a breath and nodded. "Was it you who stopped the Dafu attack in America?"

"Yes. It's odd though, their attacks have ceased entirely."

"What do you think that means?" Melanie asked.

"I a.s.sume they're shocked that someone was able to counter them at all," he started, "Yet at the same time I fear they might be plotting some other attack to try to reestablish themselves as a dominant terrorist faction."

"Did you learn anything from the man in Washington DC?" Mithra asked, "Anything that could lead us to figuring out who is behind the group?" Mithra asked that because the Dafu hierarchy was unknown then. Their leader, or possibly leaders, were unknown, even to its members.

"No. Nothing. Whatever method of communication they use...Well no one can interfere or trace it. They've got someone good on their side," Mizuno answered.

"A-Any...Anyway, shouldn't we be going?" Nick asked.

"No, we have one more stop."

"Really?" Mithra asked, "Why didn't you just take care of it before I arrived?"

"I needed to buy him time to set everything up rather than have us wait for him to get ready," Mizuno told him.

Mithra c.o.c.ked an eye brown and asked, "Who are you talking about?"

"You'll see once we arrive."

"Then where are we heading?"

"The main branch of the State Bank of India."

Mithra scowled, "My work?" Mizuno nodded. "Why are we meeting someone there?"