The Dharma Revelation

Chapter 33

After Eric left, Daniel made his way back to the Afriel wing. He thought about all Eric told him—the most important being the safety of everyone at Osiris. With this Chaos Wave gang feeling so threatened by leaps in science or religion, they may very well try something. Especially being the eve of the collective consciousness experiment, the CCE.

Osiris had reserved a block of time on television to broadcast and interact with people as part of the experiment, so their intent was now public knowledge. The odds of Cavanaugh figuring the importance of tomorrow were pretty good.

Natural sunlight illuminated the entire network of corridors as Daniel made his way to the Afriel wing. The light was dispersed in such a way that it almost felt like outdoors.

He frowned when noticed that his friends were absent from Afriel, and it was oddly quiet.

He flipped open his Osiris-supplied mobile phone and dialed Vincent.

"Dualla."

"Hi Vincent, it's Daniel. I'm here in the Afriel wing; where is everybody?"

"We've got a bit of a problem," he answered. "We are all in Metatron. Can you come to the main conference room?"

Daniel headed that way immediately, "I'm on my way."

He clapped his phone shut and made his way quickly across the complex. Daniel didn't want to let his imagination run away with him, so he decided not to speculate too much. Tomorrow was a big day, and undoubtedly there were logistical issues with the grand experiment.

By the time he arrived at the conference room, there was an overflow of people straining to see or hear what was going on inside the room. The door was open, and dozens of people--most of whom Daniel didn't recognize--stood around trying to participate in whatever was happening in the room.

"What's going on?" Daniel asked a woman standing nearby.

"Mr. Drake is missing," she said. "John--John Lassiter, he's in a panic."

Daniel thanked her and made his way into the room. Vincent, Petra, Nasir and John were all present. Kushan and Aaron were not.

When Vincent saw Daniel, he immediately ushered all of the nonessential personnel out and then closed the door.

"Vincent, what's happening?"

"We're not exactly sure. Caleb has been missing since last night. Bridget said he received a call from a reporter who wanted to interview him about the CCE tomorrow. That is our only clue. John has been looking for him all morning. We sent Aaron and some of the security out after the reporter about an hour ago."

"Where did Aaron go to meet him?"

"Well, first he called the reporter back, using the number Bridget had. The reporter denied knowing anything about an interview with Caleb. Aaron thought he should check it out, so he drove out to their office."

"He's in grave danger."

"He suspected something was wrong," Vincent agreed. "That's why he took Banacek with him."

Daniel remembered Banacek. He felt better knowing Aaron had him there.

"What do you mean by grave danger?" Nasir asked.

"I just spoke with my brother," Daniel explained. "He's been investigating the explosion at my sister's house, among other things, and he's discovered some startling facts. Most of which lead him to believe there is a group targeting us. They'd like to stop what we're doing here by whatever means necessary."