“What does this cuneiform have to do with Smith?”

“Nothing directly. But it sets a context. A precedent for what you found. How one thing can open a door to another.”

“Do you understand the symbols in the stone?” she asked.

“Yes. The markings refer to an ancient myth from Sumer, a land once called Babylon that’s now Iraq.”

“Is there anything you don’t know?”

“A lot.”

“That whole myth is inscribed on that little stone?”

“No. But early language did need to speak volumes in a limited space.”

“The first Twitter?”

“You might say that. These markings refer to an inner elevation in consciousness that leads to a place in the world where that level of transcendence exists in physical form. A portal. A split in the veil of reality. But access to it is denied to most.”

“Are you saying we experienced a split in that veil in the warehouse?”

“A tremendous force exists where you found this stone. Isn’t that what you’ve accused the government of? That maybe oil isn’t all of what attracts them there?”

“I wasn’t thinking of mysterious portals.”

“The Sumer myth also speaks of the Lady of the Roses.”

Dominique had never experienced the phenomenon of time being stopped. Time never stopped. It either moved too fast or slow, but never stopped.

But. Time. Had. Stopped.

Her eyes blinked and things moved again.

The ticking of the clock entered her hearing.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“I’m someone who understands what you went through.”

“Because you’ve been through it?”

“Let’s leave that for now. This is about you. And you’re not crazy. Okay?”

She’d always trusted Kurt, but now sensed he possessed a soul much closer to her own than she ever could’ve imagined. And, she told him about the sound that came into the warehouse and penetrated her.

“It makes no sense, I know, but…”

“It makes all the sense in the world,” he answered. “It’s the sound love makes traveling through time.”

She stared at him, not clear she heard correctly. “Did you say—”

“Yes. It’s the sound love makes traveling through time. Most choose never to hear it.”

She wanted to pursue her journalist’s drive and get answers to all the questions she had, but wasn’t sure she’d be able to comprehend what else he might say, as who he was seemed to lie deeper in the direction she was being led, and at the moment she had all she could handle.

“You’ll have your answers in time,” he said.

23

23

Julian made his way through the labyrinth of Walter Reed Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland. He knew Brian Halloway was there.

Four days without sleep and full-out mania had gotten Halloway sent home handcuffed to a stretcher.