The Twelfth Insight - James Redfield [28]
Wil nodded, his face turning serious. “They said the Fourth Integration is perhaps the most important part of ‘the foundation,’ because it will show us what is fully at stake. Once we’re able to stay in Alignment, in truth, we will see how pervasive some systems of untruth are in the world.
“We can’t go forward until we understand these growing ideologies and see how dangerously they are polarizing. Only then will we know how to separate ourselves from this untruth … and break through to a place where we can stand up to it.”
RECOGNIZING IDEOLOGY
We stayed in the rocks, watching everything that was happening down at the trail. Our plan was to hide there until dark and then figure out where to go next. From Wil’s description, it sounded as though the Fourth Integration might be challenging and more dangerous. Maybe it was the effect of the canyon, but the prospect of danger didn’t disturb me as before. I was fully into the journey now. I put out the expectation for more Synchronicity and held the context that we were discovering the reality of human spirituality, vowing to stay in Alignment.
Suddenly, Wil sat up, straining to look up the slope toward the canyon wall. A group of people were walking about a hundred yards away, heading farther northeast. As they moved through a grove of small pines, we saw it was the group that included Rachel. She was next to last in line.
As I watched her, she immediately stopped and looked down the hill in our direction. Although unable to see us, she seemed to be sensing we were observing her. A tall man with a beard, walking behind her, said something and pushed her forward pointedly.
I looked over at Wil. “Did you see that? She’s being held against her will.”
“Looks that way,” Wil responded.
I could tell he knew there was some link between Rachel and myself.
“Listen,” he said, “I think I should go up there alone and see if I can get close enough to hear their conversations. They’ll see us if we both go.”
I knew Wil had been trained in surveillance, so I nodded in agreement.
Wil was lightening his pack, handing me some of the food.
“If I don’t come back by nightfall,” he said, “I’ll find you later. Okay?”
He slipped over the rocks and headed up the slope. For a long while I just gazed in that direction, catching sight of him a few times as he crept between the outcroppings and trees. Then he was gone.
After a few minutes, someone talking down by the trail attracted my attention. Four rangers were walking in my direction. I grabbed my pack and slipped around the rocks in the opposite direction, hoping to make my way back toward the cliff face where the climbers had been.
Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and jerked me to a standstill, sending my pack flying ahead of me and causing me to lose my footing. A large man with sunglasses and trekking pants stared down at me. Another man walked up from behind him and leaned forward, then politely lifted me to my feet.
“Remember me?” the man said in a British accent. “Where’s your friend, Wilson James?”
I immediately remembered him as the blond man who had been observing me at the Pub.
“Wil left,” I replied.
The rangers came up, and the man gave them a look. They nodded and headed back down the hill again.
“No matter,” the man continued. “You two are pretty slippery, but I want you to know we wish you no harm. We’re trying to help you.”
He pulled me over about five feet to where the others couldn’t hear. “We don’t have much time. But I’m going to tell you something. You must listen very carefully. We know about the release of this Document, and we know you’re looking for the rest of it. We’re very interested in what it has to say, and we want you to keep searching and tell us everything that you find out.”
He gave me a look that was only slightly menacing.
“Who are you?” I asked. “Who are you working for?”
He smiled. “Let’s just say I’m speaking for a group that exists at the highest levels of every Western government.”
I was struggling to hold on to my