April 2, 2016
Taos, New Mexico
New Mexico’s highest mountain, Wheeler Peak, rose majestic and snow-covered under bright blue skies and the Wheeler Peak Wilderness Area spread out before Ramsey like a dark green blanket as he found himself once again at the wheel of Myriam’s car. Much had changed in less than twenty-four hours. In the backseat Pete, no longer energized by his discoveries, was curled up like a baby, snoring away. Periodically, as Ramsey remembered he was prone to do, he let out a strange growl.
Myriam looked at Ramsey questioningly. “Is he really sleeping?”
“Yep. He’s always done that, at least since I’ve known him. He’s like a dog chasing cats in his sleep.”
Ramsey zeroed in on the road ahead. He was satisfied to wait until Myriam was ready to tell him what was going on with Beecher. It gave him time to think about the revelation of Adam’s connection to the healing power of the Milagro Shrine. It raised more questions than it answered. He knew there was a vast literature about energetic healing powers, including techniques like shamanistic healing, chakra balancing, and Reiki. But these were direct hands-on procedures. Although he’d read about some healers who seemed to have an impact on electromagnetic fields, Adam was different. He somehow created a remarkably sustained geo-physical, bioelectrical, and electromagnetic field coherence that could affect many people over a broad area. Ramsey wondered too if the same phenomenon was present at other healing sites. Would the results be the same if Adam’s sister Carlotta had lived along the Oregon coast, even though that region has a completely different geological substrate and processes? Would a healing shrine have emerged?
Pete had showed Ramsey how the field coherence over the Milagro Shrine gradually intensified and expanded. Was that the result of the interaction of the healed people? So that they too were sort of acting like a conduit to . . . Here Ramsey’s thoughts faltered. To what? he wondered.
From the accounts reported on the New Gnostic website, people from all walks of life were affected by the shrine. Then it occurred to him that Adam wasn’t actually mentioned in any of the reported healings.
More questions arose, flying through his mind thick as a hail storm and almost as painful, as he realized he had no answers to them: Have there been people throughout history who have had Adam’s kind of superpower? How many? Christ? Buddha? St. Francis? Were their powers derived from where they physically lived, as he had once theorized? Or were these spiritual leaders doing something different? Something different than the way normal people lived their lives? Or did something unique happen to them that gave them their powers?
Ramsey locked down his thoughts. He had to stop the flood of questions before they overwhelmed him. More than anything he wished he could talk with Adam. For a moment he even imagined the kind of experiments he would like to perform on the healer—a thought he quickly dismissed as unethical. He recalled the strange text message from last night: “Adam awaits you.” At first he thought maybe Pete was playing a joke on him, but his old friend insisted he wasn’t. It was a nuisance and most likely some sick kind of joke, yet he found himself hoping it was somehow true.
He turned to Myriam.
She must have read the frustration and anger on his face because she said, “I didn’t know anything about what Hiram and that bastard Haas were up to, and they were playing me and you. They used me.” Anger turned her fine-boned features into a scary mask. “Hiram used me!” She looked at Ramsey. “They used both of us.”
Understanding passed through Ramsey. “They tricked you into hiring me.”
She nodded. “Hiram is a member of a group of secret Christian fanatics, known as the Brothers of the Lord, led by the televangelist Brother Paul. At first they were excited about the shrine, and then when it was discovered that Adam was the source of the shrine’s healing power, they created a plan to kill him.”
Ramsey was incredulous. “You’re joking!”
“That’s what I thought, but it’s true. You were part of the plan to have Pete locate Adam through the advanced GIS technology of his.”
“It worked; but did he say why they didn’t just go to Pete directly?”
“Hiram didn’t say and I didn’t ask.” She looked at the curled up geophysical genius on the backseat. “Maybe they couldn’t trust him, or they figured they couldn’t make him do it.”
Ramsey started to swear and Myriam cut him off.
“They must’ve found out about your obsession with sacred places and your friendship with Pete.” She looked back at him still curled up. “And the connection between the three of us.”
Ramsey took a deep breath, thinking of the events that occurred since he stepped foot on the grounds of the shrine. “Christ, that means Malcolm Grossinger, Adam’s college friend, and maybe even Professor Orensen were involved in the ruse.” He pounded the car’s steering wheel so hard, Pete snorted and half woke up, then curled into a tighter ball and fell back to sleep. “This is unbelievable,” Ramsey swore. “I stupidly thought my call to investigate the power of the shrine might be some sort of divine providence.”
Myriam reached over and touched Ramsey’s arm. “I’m not so sure it might not be true. We know something very few people know—the miraculous healing power of Adam Gwillt. It’s almost as if the fate of this incredible being has been put in our hands.”
The gentle touch relaxed Ramsey and he throttled back his anger.
She took in a deep breath. “Regarding the shrine. I’m just an administrator and promoter.” Her frown deepened. “And I haven’t been a very good one lately, have I?”
Ramsey frowned too. “You’re better than you think. I always blamed you for not supporting me totally after Peru, but honestly, it was my own shit there. I wasn’t ready for it and . . . I should’ve told you my whole plan.”
In response Myriam smiled wanly. “You were always unstoppable. It’s what made you a good investigator . . . One of the best I had the opportunity to work with.” Her tone shifted, “I’m so sorry I got you involved.”
Ramsey thought for a moment. “Interestingly there’s nothing to be sorry about. It’s not as if anything bad happened to me or is going to.” He shrugged. “So, what are you going to do now?”
“This may sound strange, but after I clean up, then I’m running over to the shrine to pray. And you?”
“I need a car.”
Myriam looked at Pete who was now stretching. “What about Pete’s?”
“There are some things I need to do alone.”
“Hiram keeps a utility truck in my shed. Will that do?”