FIRMAMENT

What begins as a murder investigation by Scotland Yard escalates to something more frightening; a power from the darkest depths of eternity with the ability to control susceptible minds. FIRMAMENT.

The daughters and son of Timothy Chambers and Hamad Osolo had been murdered and interred in the Winter mud. For six weeks, the men sat through the agonies of the trial but psychotic murderer and Billionaire, Ormond Fallon, via his lawyer, managed to bribe his way to a hung jury outcome and was freed on bail. The stress of the ‘no verdict’, combined with the loss of her daughter, saw Chambers’ wife leave the marriage.

Chambers and Osolo, a widower, have taken to sharing a drink together every Thursday night where they pass the time feeling useless and railing against a justice system that has failed them.

Out of nowhere, seemingly, and into their miserable lives comes a stranger; an old man suffering a terminal illness, with eyes which appear to look into their minds, offering a way to lighten the weight on their heavy hearts. His name is Mr Raine and he sets about explaining and showing them the reality of their situation and what they can do to even the score, so to speak.

The old man guides them through the executions of Fallon and his lawyer, Lyall Newton, showing them how to deal with conscience along the way. Under his guidance and tutelage, they end up executing all who accepted large bribes and had a direct hand in covering up the children’s murders; and he teaches the two men how to leave no evidence behind.

At each crime scene, Mr Raine leaves an almost hidden, engraved message for the investigating officer, Inspector Jennifer Bullin, and a single clear thumb print. In different guises, he has watched her across the years, and feels she is one of the few detectives he admires.

Assisting Chambers and Osolo is not the old man’s prime objective. He is seeking what is known, in the runes of eternity, as an anti-positile. In fact, it is not Mr Raine who searches but what occupies a deep part of his brain. A positile. Both entities are hampered in that they can only use the limited powers of the evolving human brains they choose to employ. The positile, existing on the positive side of the dark, heavenly barrier between matter and anti-matter, selects old, infirm but pure of spirit carriers, while the anti chooses younger, stronger humans who carry a goodly amount of incumbent evil. It matters little when the two will ultimately come together in a struggle for survival, fought beyond time and actuality. The loser will be banished for eons into the dark void. If the anti is victorious, the puny Earth will be led down a path towards eventual annihilation. If it is the positile who wins, the World will go on to its pre-ordained end.

Throughout this search for each other, there are other by-plays. Bullin meets with Raine and the truth is explained. When she calls him mad, he touches her hand, and she is given a glimpse of eternity. She, Chambers and Osolo are caught up in the approaches to the coming battle. Her mother-in-law and her children are also affected when the anti decides to use them to draw the positile into the open.

All along, the anti-positile has known that its adversary will become involved with Bullin and so it finds a police officer with the credentials which make him an ideal carrier. His name is Detective Constable Lupescu and he is right at Bullin’s side.

At any given time, when spiritual and actual conditions are favourable, the two species of positile can leave the brain they occupy and enter another by using the laying on of mouths. They can hypnotise by the simple touching of hands. Their limits are such that the anti cannot influence a good person’s thoughts and the positile cannot exist inside a brain carrying evil. If it has to move, a positile or an anti must be sure of its intended new ‘home’.

While the battle draws near, life goes on in south-east England but the climax sees Bullin, Chambers and Osolo drawn into the heavenly fight. When it is over, two return to their lives and one is committed to a mental institution. And Chambers is left with a power to see something beyond what is seen by normal human beings.

The battle between good and evil, light and dark, matter and anti-matter, positile and anti-positile is an eternal one and, indeed, on Earth, Chambers discovers there are, at any one time, 100 of each. It is pre-ordained that the same pairs will hunt and fight each other forever in what Mr Raine describes as the balance of eternity. Chambers discovers that at any one time, many of these beings occupy great Earthly seats of power; the positiles being peacemakers and the anti-positiles, warmongers.