Hector turned away from the potent blast of dog breath that greeted his return to consciousness. He scratched Jasmine behind the ear as he considered the next fumbling steps intended to save the world. They had managed to contact Professor Rahman and were going on a bit of a road trip to meet the man. That meant six hours in a car with Evelyn and Jeremy, followed by ambushing an educator who thought they wanted to talk about technology.

Pushing the self doubt from his mind, he set about preparing for the day. First came a quick run around his neighborhood, followed by a quick shower. Hector then began to pack an overnight bag, bumping into Buster and Jasmine with every step. He double-checked he had everything he might need and almost ran into Jen when he turned around.

“Oh, hey. I’ll be gone for a day or two.”

Jen’s arms were folded and she stared off to the side. “I want to keep living here if we divorce.”

Hector paused his escape attempt. “Does that mean you’ve given up on getting back together?”

“You have obviously moved on, so I don’t see any reason to hope.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, Jen, I have a lot going on right now. I don’t have time to find another place to stay. Can we worry about divorce stuff later?”

“You know, Hector, I feel sorry for this girl. She thinks you are going to make her feel a certain way and the truth is all you have to offer is neglect and loneliness.”

Hector forced his eyes away from the clock. As critical as his mission to meet with Rahman might be, he did owe something to the woman before him. “You were the one and only Mrs. Thoreaux. I am too old and jaded to believe I can change my stripes. I have not and will not promise Evelyn a future. I wouldn’t even want that with her.”

“I’m not giving up the house.”

“Then we’ll have to share space for a while.”

Jen nodded. “I don’t want you bringing her around.”

“And I didn’t want dogs in my house, but here we are.” He patted Jasmine on the ribs, causing her tail to begin thumping the wall.

“So what now?”

“I need to go on my trip.”

“I mean with the divorce. Do we need lawyers?”

“Only if you want a third party to get a cut of the marital assets. Despite how things turned out between us, we’re both reasonable people. I think we can split things up fairly on our own. It’s a conversation for later, though.”

“Just like old times. I get two minutes to talk and you’re off to the next thing.”

Hector stepped past her into the hall. “I wish I could have changed for you.”

“Me too.”

A while later, he was on the road with his co-conspirators.

“We can’t just drop ‘the world is ending’ on this guy like you did to me,” Jeremy insisted.

Hector kept both eyes on the road as the debate between his two passengers continued. The youth of Jeremy and Evelyn made him feel like he was the chaperon for two kids. It wasn’t a great feeling, considering he was dating one of them. He’d remained withdrawn for much of the drive due to the weight of his conversation with Jen.

The divorce was actually going to happen. Even though he wanted out of the marriage and had even moved on to the next women already, it still stung. The fact that he would soon be witnessing Volithur’s wedding twisted the emotional knife buried in his heart. He didn’t know what he wanted to see happen to his dream counterpart. A happy marriage would make his own situation more painful in contrast. A broken one would add to his own bitterness.

“Are you the Sage of Foresight?”

“No,” Jeremy countered, “but neither are you.”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Hector glanced at the navigation screen. “Five minutes away.”

“Just let me do the talking,” Evelyn insisted.

“I don’t even know why I came along for the ride,” Jeremy muttered in complaint.

Their destination proved to be a small suburban house next to a large detached garage. Hector parked beside the garage and they lined up in front of the door. It took knocking at least a dozen times before the door opened. The Indian man from the videos squinted at them. “Hey there, you guys said you have plans for a fusion reactor?”

“Aneutronic fusion reactor,” Jeremy clarified.

Professor Rahman glanced pointedly at their empty hands. “Right. So where are the plans?”

“In my head,” Jeremy said.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t put out an episode based on your recollections. I need to see blueprints, equations, and a write-up in plain language. Otherwise, you are wasting my time.”

Jeremy looked towards Evelyn. “You’re up.”

Evelyn squeezed Hector’s hand hard in panic. He sighed. “Jeremy is capable of the fusion thing, but that was just a pretext to start a conversation. Evie has the memories and insights of the Sage of Foresight. She is predicting a massive monster invasion in the near future that could be the end of human life on this planet. Your automated factory idea seems like it has the potential to help the hopeless situation a little. So are you interested in saving the world or did we drive six hours for nothing?”

Professor Rahman squinted at Evelyn. “Sage. That’s an Arahant thing, right?”

“Yeah,” she said.

“Can you actually prove you see the future or is this something I need to take on faith?”

“I glimpse potential futures. It’s not easy to demonstrate.”

“Surely you have some control over the futures you view,” Rahman said.

“I set an intention and see a potential that resonates with that. The visions arrive without any context, though. It will only be really useful if I can get stronger.”

“Can you look into the future and tell me the password?”

Evelyn hunched her shoulders. “I don’t think that’s possible.”

Rahman pulled out his cell phone and tapped on it a few times. “I have decided on a password that will get you into my garage for a longer conversation if you can guess it. I will tell you that phrase in five minutes and ask you to leave. If I’ve understood your ability correctly, there is a future timeline established where I tell you the information I desire. Tell me the password.”

Evelyn let go of Hector’s hand and crouched down to sit on hands and knees in the gravel driveway. Her eyes squinted shut and she remained silent for over a minute. When she opened her eyes, she stood. “Three two seven seven one five.”

Rahman glanced at his phone and held it up. “That is correct. Very impressive. I did not in fact decide on a password. I generated a random password using an app without looking at it – to ensure I could distinguish between mind reading and future vision.”

“That’s smart,” Jeremy said.

“I thought so. Come on in, guys.” Rahman led them into the garage, which was divided into three distinct sections. There was the set for the videos he recorded, which looked exactly as it did online. Then there was a mess of parts and machinery. And finally a couple of dilapidated couches near a fridge, empty beer cans filling a strategically placed recycling bin.

They were led to the couches. “How do these monsters destroy the world?”

For several minutes, Evelyn described her visions. The giant scorpion slicing an aircraft carrier in half, the Minotaur smashing cars, the spiders spearing people with their pointy legs. Rahman listened, enraptured, as the horrifying future was described to him. When Evelyn fell silent, he asked a single question.

“What do you think I can do better than the military?”

Evelyn shrugged. “I mean… build protectors in your automated factory?”

“The automated factory won’t exist for at least two years. But say I could start it up tomorrow. How would any machines I built succeed where an aircraft carrier failed? Those don’t travel alone. It would be part of an entire fleet.”

Hector cleared his throat. “Because you would use Jinn technology?”

“Technology relies upon order to function. It becomes useless around creatures of chaos unless it is tied to a powerful soul. No Jinn on Earth is going to be able to overrule chaotic miasma with a causal imperative. Even if I could churn out a million drones and equip them with state of the art weaponry, they would only delay the inevitable.”

“Fuck me,” Evelyn muttered.

Rahman shrugged. “I am sorry to ruin your hopes, but I think it is always best to work with facts. Your plan is not realistic.” When the mood seemed to be as bad as it could get, the man continued. “We cannot directly fight the monsters. However, that does not mean we shouldn’t take action. My role is that of an educator. I think my next video will be about what to do in case of a monster attack. The subject has certainly garnered enough attention to justify a video. Everyone wants to know if monsters will come to Earth. I will outline a rough plan for normal people to use in case of a monster attack, then challenge my fellow content creators to come up with plans.

“I understand this may not be what you wanted from me, but this is the kind of help I am able to give. I would be happy to accept your collaboration on the video.”