"He's waking up," I heard Coleman yell.

I felt, before I could see, the others gathered around me. I was now at the rock overhang again, overlooking the guardhouse on the southeastern approach to Sinai. I saw my pack lying beside me. The flap had been opened and the copies of the Tenth Integration had been taken out and were lying around. But no sign of Rachel.

I looked down at the feather still in my hand, and in that moment I knew.

"We found you here," Coleman was saying. "You must have hit your head. You've been unconscious."

"Where is Rachel?" I asked.

He reached over and touched my shoulder. The others looked devastated.

"She didn't make it," he whispered. "She was killed at the Circle of Rocks."

I nodded slowly. I knew I should have known the whole time, but I was still thrown into total shock. I was just with her.

I pleaded with him. "Are you sure? She pulled me out of the Circle during the gunfire. I was with her for a long time. We were able to observe the Afterlife together. We saw the Plan."

"I checked her myself," Coleman said. "And right after, a group of Egyptian soldiers came to investigate the explosions. The Apocalyptics had to back off. So all of us except Rachel were able to get away. You were missing. I saw the soldiers carry her body away. I texted Wil and the others and told them. I'm so sorry."

At this point, I was emotionally swept into one of the most profound feelings of loss I had ever experienced. Rachel's energy had been a part of this entire journey, beginning with our first Connection at the Pub. She was a partner in my clearing to Agape, and now she was gone. My head told me she was still alive in the Afterlife, but I missed her radiant eyes, and the thoughtfulness that had kept me so grounded. Amid tears, I blurted all this out to the others.

Then, right at my darkest moment, I suddenly felt her hug from a distance that I had felt on the other side, and smelled the familiar rose perfume she had always worn.

I knew, then, that she was not only still alive. She was right here with us!

"She helped me through so many things on this trip," Coleman said. "And now she's dead."

"She's not dead!" I protested.

"I know. I know," Coleman said. "I get the Tenth Integration. We were all tuning in to the Plan. But knowing that she still lives isn't the same as having her right here to talk with, or to get one of those famous hugs from."

"No, you don't understand," I shouted confidently. "She's right here with us. Now. She was touching me from a distance in the Afterlife so I would know it was possible here. Tune in! You can still get that hug!"

The others were gathering around closer, listening intently, and they began to sense Rachel as well. For several hours, I carefully relayed to them everything that had occurred in the Afterlife, especially the Plan and goal of history, bringing to Earth the knowledge and consciousness known in Heaven, and Rachel's statements about the coming Universal Consciousness. Tommy smiled at me.

Everyone told me about what had happened here when they had read the Tenth part of the Doc.u.ment they'd found in my bag. As we talked, our energy elevated us together into the Tenth Integration.

"It's about realizing that the Afterlife is right here," Coleman offered. "We can resolve everything with our loved ones and receive what they know. The key is to do what they do: use their Influence and the Law of Connection to uplift everyone into a Connected consciousness. It's another level of Alignment."

"Native peoples," Love of Mountain said, "have never lost this ability to communicate with the other world. Developed cultures have derided this awareness as ancestor worship, but we have held this Connection as important since humans became conscious."

She gave us a particular look, and I knew she was right. We were now in a template discussion. Everyone agreed that the Native traditions had always had the best emphasis on this Integration, although mystical Christianity and certain Jewish writings in the Kabbalistic traditions point to Afterlife contact as well.

"Over here!" Tommy's mother was saying. We had all started to gather our gear, sensing we must move farther up the Mount. We dashed to the overhang and saw Joseph walking through the gate at the guardhouse and heading back in our direction. He eventually stopped and went in another direction for a while, then in another, apparently attempting to hide his true destination from the soldiers. When he was out of sight of the guardhouse, we could see him turning toward us again.

"We have to leave before he gets here," Coleman suddenly shouted. "If he was involved in the attack on us, he might have soldiers heading our way right now."

Many of the others seemed just as fearful, and I felt myself moving into deep anger again. My energy plummeted. What if Joseph had been responsible for Rachel's death? What kind of monster was he? Here he was, walking around free and alive, and she was gone. My emotions were moving from anger to a vengeful urge to get back at him.

I suddenly stopped myself, shaking my head. Unconsciously, I had gone into a Cycle of Revenge, just that fast.

Tommy was looking down at Joseph and spoke up. "Wait a minute. He seems to be alone. And I can see no soldiers. I think we should talk to him."

"He's right," I said. "We have to find out the truth."

We all agreed and waited there until Joseph walked up. He appeared shocked that we were now in this location.

"You're here," he said, walking quickly up to us. "I wasn't able to find my brother. No one had seen him. I am afraid he is with the Apocalyptics now." Joseph's face was sad, as though he thought he'd failed.

None of us responded, so he continued, "One of the soldiers at the gate told me my brother had ordered them not to patrol in certain areas of the mountain any longer."

He looked at Tommy. "I think this soldier knows you."

We were still not saying anything.

"Look." Joseph was pointing to his knapsack. "He also gave me this." He was pulling out a stack of papers. "It's the Eleventh Integration! It tells us how to ..."

His words trailed off. He could see we were still looking at him intensely.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Everyone surrounded him and we asked Joseph if he knew what had happened at the Circle of Rocks. He said he didn't, and when we informed him of the shooting, he was so genuinely shaken he had to sit down-prompting most of the group to welcome him back with hugs and encouragement.

"Joseph," Coleman asked, "why did you come up to this location now?"

"Because the guards said there are many more people coming into town from everywhere. I headed up here because I wanted to see if I could detect anyone coming up from this side."

Coleman and I looked at each other and then gazed down at the trail coming up the mountain. Dozens of people seemed to be heading our way.

As the rest of the group continued to talk to Joseph, discussing the Tenth with him, I walked farther out on the overhang, needing to think. I was still concerned by how quickly I had slipped into revenge.

How pervasive, I wondered, was this emotion in the world right now? Was it the predominating emotion behind the rash of school shootings, employee outbursts, and-on the international scene-the willingness to blow oneself and others up in order to make the enemy pay? Was this the way human fear and anger, in this time of transition, was playing out: wanting others to suffer the way we were suffering?

Colonel Peterson had said this Cycle of Revenge was growing into a nuclear phase, the urge to deliver the final act of retribution and end everything. I suddenly felt as if humanity was running out of time.

Where was Tommy? I wondered. I needed to speak with Tommy. When I turned around, I saw that he was already walking toward me. I laughed out loud, evoking a puzzled look from the young man.

"I need to talk to you," he said. "It's important."

"About the Universal Consciousness?" I asked.

"Yes, I want to tell you something. My tribe believes it will get much stronger, and sooner than most people think."

"But when is it going to happen?" I asked.

"Most think the Calendar's end date is December 21, 2012, but other scholars are saying the beginning of the last phase of creation will start much earlier, in the spring of 2011."

"What? That's now!"

"Yes. And we aren't going to understand this coming force of creation until we can figure out what the point of Connection we felt on Secret Mountain really is, and how to relate to it. We have to get through the remaining Integrations!"

Suddenly, Coleman was pushing his way through us to see down toward the guardhouse again.

"Look at that," he said with alarm.

Fifty or more troops were deploying all around the area of the guardhouse.

"They don't want any of those new people to come up the trails," Joseph said, "and I also think they know the extremists are around, and they want to stop them."

"The Apocalyptics are already past them," I stressed. "They're holed up near a mound of rock over the next ridge."

"How do you know that?" Coleman asked.

"I saw them when I was up there earlier with Rachel."

They all looked at me in amazement, and then Coleman said, "It's going to be difficult to sneak past all these troops."

"It's okay," I replied. "Rachel showed me another way past. It's almost dark. I think we should go now."

In a matter of minutes we were moving off the overhang and down the slope. I remembered the route clearly. It would take us down the ridge to a point about a hundred yards to the right of the guardhouse. There, the trail ended at a steep drop-off into a wide gorge that seemed clearly impa.s.sable. What no one seemed to know, besides Rachel, was that a ledge wide enough for a person to walk on existed just over the edge of the gorge.

It ran a hundred feet north to a point where there was a small gap in the cliff wall that was scalable. Once through the gap we would be hidden from anyone looking from the guardhouse, and we could then advance directly up the tiers of rock overlooking the Apocalyptics to where Rachel and I had been earlier. The only place that was particularly close to the guardhouse was the point where we dropped down onto the ledge.

As we walked, I could see that Joseph had integrated the Ninth and Tenth steps, and now he, Coleman, and the others were reading the Eleventh. I thought of the old Prophecy and the Eleventh Insight that had grown out of it. It predicted the actualization of the use of intention and prayer, and learning the secrets of using this power.

"Do you believe what this Doc.u.ment is saying?" I suddenly heard Coleman shout.

I turned to see him talking to one of the scientists. Coleman shook has head in amazement and walked up to me, pointing at the Doc.u.ment.

"Listen how specific it is about the Influence," he said. "'Because of the Law of Connection, the whole of what we believe and stand for-the quality of our character-sends out a field of Influence that impacts everyone with whom we interact. It acts to draw them into our level of consciousness and behavior, for good or ill, and either makes it easier or harder for them to stay in Alignment. And, at the same time, our individual Influence also co-mingles with everyone else's Influence globally, and at any one time helps to collectively set an energetic level of consciousness for all of humanity.'"

He was trying to stay beside me as we moved down the rugged terrain.

"Do you believe it?" he went on. "It's like there is a huge balance scale in the sky, weighing the relative strength of two opposing fields of Influence. One side represents those opening to a higher personal spirituality, and thus acting to lift others into that consciousness. The other side of the scale represents those who are still stuck in fear and anger, who are acting to pull people down into a simmering, untruthful fear and rage."

The statement hit me hard. That meant there was a contagion from both sides, and the balance shifted daily depending on how consistently those in Alignment could hold their truth with others.

"Do you see what this is?" Coleman added. "It's confirmation of Kant's categorical imperative: Act and be as though how you are dictates that everyone else will be that same way. His peers thought he was crazy. But his intuition was absolutely correct. Influence works exactly this way!"

I caught his eye. "Rachel said that we would integrate how to amplify our positive influence together. Does the Doc.u.ment say how?"

Coleman was looking intently at the pages in his hand. "It says the first thing we must do is keep the balance scale fully in mind at all times, and to remember that every thought and every action reverberates far beyond ourselves.

"It also says if enough of us fail to hold the energy of Alignment, the world could slip into even more fear and anger. In politics that would mean the far Left and Right will continue their dehumanization of the other until one side does something extreme, usually an act of despotism to take over and control, out of a need to save the world. In the area of religious ideology, the polarization goes more negative as well. It says that in prior cases in history, the antagonism has always gone as far as the current technology could take it."

We looked at each other, knowing that for this time period that meant an escalation to the nuclear level.

Suddenly, I realized we were nearing the guardhouse, where we had to be very careful. We could see individual soldiers patrolling in the area just below us, so I suggested to the others that they stay hidden while I moved back up the slope to take a better look.

As I climbed, I saw a movement above me and froze. As I strained to see who it was, the figure moved into plain view. It was one of Peterson's operatives, motioning for me to come up. When I arrived, he pulled me out of sight and whispered something into a microphone mounted near his mouth. In five minutes, Peterson was standing in front of me.

"What are you doing here?" he said. "We've been following your movements. And we can't make any sense of them."

"It's all intuitive," I said. "The Doc.u.ment says that in order to keep rising in Influence, we have to return to the Mount. Something's going to happen up there."

He shook his head skeptically. "What else is this Doc.u.ment saying about Influence?"

"We're finally understanding the power of intention and prayer. We're going to learn how to amplify our Influence."

"That's it?" he said. "All you have left is prayer?!"

"It's more than ordinary prayer," I protested. "You have to be seeking a higher level of experience. Otherwise, you may add to the energy of those Apocalyptics up there." I was looking at the next ridge ahead of us.

"Whoa!" he said, clearly shaken. "Are you telling me the Apocalyptics are up in these mountains somewhere?"

"Yeah, they're up ahead about five hundred yards. We think someone in the Egyptian army is keeping the soldiers from going anywhere near them."

He looked away, thinking, then said, "This is another piece of the puzzle. We know they have something planned in Jerusalem and in Saudi Arabia on the mountain where there's a missile base. Now they're here. They're planning a whole chain of events that they think will bring the world to war. I told you, the charges are already placed under the Dome of the Rock."

I looked at him, puzzled.

"Don't you see?" he said. "They think they have to do everything according to scriptural Prophecy, which means Armageddon can't come until David's temple in Jerusalem is rebuilt. The Muslim mosque, the Dome of the Rock, is in the way. It has to be removed, so they're going to blow it up.

"The Judeo-Christian faction in the Apocalyptic group is pushing for this, because they already have the capstone from the original temple. They think if the capstone is quickly placed on the foundation, then it counts as if the rebuilding is underway. So the biblical Prophecy can be said to be fulfilled. After that, all they have to do is get the fighting started."

"But all those prophecies can happen in a different way!" I said, intuiting it fully now.

"Look," he replied, "we have to get real. We're right on the edge here. Do you hear me? We're right on the edge. Sooner or later this Apocalyptic plot is going to start, and it's going to create complete chaos in the Western countries.

"Iran already has missiles that can completely close the Suez Ca.n.a.l and the Strait of Hormuz. That's where most of the oil for the West originates. When this war gets started, gasoline will rise to thirty dollars a gallon. That alone could cause food shortages and h.o.a.rding. If China gets involved, there could be a simultaneous cyber attack on us. Then the lights could go out. What do you think would happen then? No gas, no food in the stores. Hundreds of thousands in the streets, rioting."

He paused and looked at me. "If anyone, us or otherwise, goes in and tries to stop these extremists piecemeal, the charges go off and the whole thing escalates. The wild card is Saudi Arabia. We don't know how that plays out exactly, because your government should be able to control whether those missiles are fired or not. And I don't know what they are planning here at Sinai, either, but you can bet it isn't good. That's why we're going forward with our plan to intervene. We can't wait."

"No, listen," I said. "Your actions are as extreme as those of the Apocalyptics. You're planning to take over tyrannically because you think it's the only way to save Western culture!"

I could hear the others looking for me down below, calling my name.

"Listen," I said, "I have to go, but you must understand: the Doc.u.ment says if enough people get consciously involved in using their Influence, we can stop this war another way."

He was shaking his head. "It can't be stopped. It will erupt in the Middle East, and only if my group acts quickly can we counter the Chinese and contain the war. A lot of people will protest, but we can deal with that, too. And besides, you're not going anywhere. You're getting an escort out of here right now. You've had your chance."

He raised his radio to his lips.

"Wait a minute," I said. "You gave me five days, remember? That gives us through tomorrow."

I held the Agape, merging with his higher self. His expression softened ever so slightly, and he looked at me with a kind of longing, wishing the situation wasn't so bad.

After a long moment, he said, "Okay, you have one more day. We run the risk of you stumbling around up here and starting a war. But you know, I guess that's okay. We have everything in place to do what we have to do. We're ready."