“It’s a possibility,” he conceded. “I didn’t say the mission was without risk. The resistance, if it exists, could be compromised. But we don’t think that’s happened. Not yet at least.”
In the end, after you find the signal, you have to decide if they’re really resistance, or just a fedora-wearing hipster.”
“How the hell am I supposed to know that?” I asked.
“It was actually a pretty good analogy,” he said, pleased with himself. “It’s an old-timey kind of code they use. Very ironic,” he said, with an amused sigh.
I hated this mission, but didn’t have much choice. “So once I identify them, then what?”
He handed me another film. “Just make sure they get this.”
“What is it?”
“It’s another electrofilm. It’ll help us contact them to coordinate. I can’t really tell you any more about it.”
This was getting worse by the minute. I tucked it in my pocket. “Show me how to use the window device so I can get back.”
“Right,” he said. “Almost forgot.”
Twenty minutes later, I knew everything humanly possible to know about the thing. There was no way I was getting lost in time or coming back in thirty years like Tatiana had done.
“You’re nothing if not thorough,” he said, handing me a twenty to cover the beers. “Good luck. You’ll do fine. I’ll see you again soon.”
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Tati and I flew to St. Louis the next morning. I was nervous, but this was our first chance to put some of our abilities to the test, so I was excited too. The Cahokia Mounds State Park was about ten miles outside of the city, so we stopped off at Home Depot for some shovels, then drove out. We considered waiting until nightfall so we could explore undisturbed, but decided it would be more beneficial to be able to see in daylight.
Tati used Neuroconceal on the lady manning the booth as we drove up to the entrance gate. “Another benefit to Neuroconceal,” Tati said. “Free admission. Do you think we looked like a giant kangaroo to her?”
I smirked, but she was right, the Neuroconceal had worked beautifully. Hopefully, we’d be able to do what we needed to do without even having to talk to anyone. I could feel the portal now. Tashmit had said I’d be able to sense a portal as a distant pulsing that became more intense as I neared it. Her description was accurate—it felt almost like a head rush without any of the discomfort or disorientation. I could have walked straight to the source of the signal blindfolded. We parked the car and walked into the park.
200,000 people had lived here for hundreds of years—they’d built massive temples and broad plazas and row upon row of earthen houses with courtyards and pathways. Their key buildings were set atop enormous earthen mounds that were mostly all that remained. The city had been mysteriously abandoned sometime around 1200 A.D., and no one knew why. Now all that was left were these ruins.
“It’s on the other side of the big mound,” I said, taking our shovels from the trunk.
“Lead the way,” Tati said. “But I’m still not sure why you got two shovels.”
I ignored her comment and started off. We climbed the stone steps and made our way across the mound—not a single other person was around.
“It’s under here,” I said, once we’d crossed the mound and come down the other side. “I can’t tell how far into the earth it is, but it’s definitely here.”
“Okay, you dig and I’ll keep up our disguise,” Tati volunteered.
I started digging. The extra strength and endurance from my Enlil gifts came in handy. It took a couple of hours, but I eventually had gone almost fifteen feet into the side of the mound when I hit stone.
“This is it,” I said. “Help me clear this last bit, I want to make sure I don’t damage anything.”
Tati picked up a spade and looked at it skeptically, but she started digging. Moving more carefully now, it took nearly another hour for the two of us to clear away the packed dirt that was filling what was clearly a stone archway. And as we dug, a purple light began to become apparent. When we were finished, we’d excavated a small stone vestibule, just big enough for the two of us to stand in, with a back wall decorated with a spiral design very similar to the one I’d found in the ruins in Colombia, and two of the glowing mushroom-looking things. I was beyond thrilled. We rested for a while after our digging and got ourselves together.
“If you’re ready…” I said to Tati.
She nodded and I moved toward the glowing stones. I took a deep breath. I felt a similar feeling to what I’d felt before I jumped on my first skydive. Could I really do this? Could I jump through a space-time portal to some alien nation? One at war with the alien nation that had just kept me hostage?
I raised an electric field. “Okay,” I said and took her hand. “On the count of three….”
8
I reached out to the portal controls and channeled a trickle of energy into it. The light intensified like the electric coil of a stove, then flashed up towards us and we seemed to be moving. I didn’t pass out this time and got to experience the sensation of riding an elevator shooting upwards. There was no sensation of wind or of losing balance, but we seemed to be in a tube of the purple light that pulsed and sparkled all around us. Altogether the experience would have been fun if I wasn’t terrified of what we’d find on the other side. Just like going on any trip where you don’t really want to get to the destination, the ride ended too soon.
Abruptly, the light disappeared and we were standing on a dirt street in a dead end alley. The buildings on each side were a couple of stories high and had a conical shape with square bases. I couldn’t see the sun, but it was clearly setting. The shadows were deepening and the sky was a brilliant pink that reminded me of a grapefruit and put to shame any sunset I’d ever seen on Earth.
“Can you conceal us?” I asked Tati.
“Already done,” she said.
I couldn’t feel any electrical pulses from living creatures nearby, but I could feel pulses from the wall. We moved from the middle of the street and into the shadows. When I touched the wall, I could tell that it was made of some sort of biomaterial similar to our chumahai. The electrical pulses were from the neurons in the wall. We both scanned around for any signs of people, any windows or sensors, but didn’t see anything. The shadows were gathering rapidly, which made me feel a little more secure.
“I think we’re on the outskirts of wherever we are,” Tati said. “The warehouse district or something. Do you sense anything? Sound? Vibration?”
I felt out again, but the answer was still ‘no’. “Let’s move,” I said.
Still holding hands, we rounded the corner and were able to see down the other streets. Tatiana was right. We were on the outskirts of a large settlement of some sort. The buildings around us seemed to be of a simple construction—simple form, anyway—but they still seemed more advanced than anything on Earth. Maybe this was Jedda. The Associate had said it was on the edge of a desert and this was definitely an arid place. I half expected to see a tumbleweed come blowing down the street.
The area we were in seemed deserted, but it was easy to see an aggregation of buildings and civilization in the direction we were facing. We had a bit of a walk ahead of us. At a quick glance from a distance, especially in the dark, we might be mistaken for Tkosi, so Tatiana dropped the Neuroconceal to conserve energy. We still didn’t want to be seen any more than necessary, so we zigzagged between streets to avoid spending too much time walking in one straight line. It helped our concealment but greatly slowed our progress.
During my year of wandering the world—my Walkabout, as my Australian friends referred to it—I’d made it to Timbuktu. This settlement reminded me amazingly of that. The buildings somewhat resembled chimneys—square bases that flowed upward, tapering to a narrower point, and studded with some sort of antennae.
We encountered our first Tkosi after about an hour of this. We were getting closer to the populated
area, so Tatiana brought our disguises back up and I Electrosensed around us every now and again. Despite these precautions, we were taken by surprise.
We came strolling around the corner of one of the liquid metal buildings and almost walked right into a Tkosi child. She was no more than five feet away and all three of us froze. My heart was racing and I could feel the rapid fire electrical bursts that meant Tatiana’s was too. Tati and I were both wondering how good our Neuroconceal was. And then the girl turned and walked by. We watched her go to one of the buildings, trace a pattern, and enter the door that opened. I was able to feel her electrical signal until the door closed behind her. I didn’t realize I’d been holding my breath until I exhaled.
I still didn’t know what she’d seen us as. Did we appear as other Tkosi to her? Some kind of animal? It was truth time now as we were entering a populated area. For a while, we were able to stick to the emptier streets, but that wouldn’t last. Up ahead there were a number of large, official-looking buildings. Some of them seemed to have the same general design philosophy of the smaller buildings we’d passed on the outskirts—very geometric, angular bases and slab sides—but were much larger. Some seemed to be residential, but some were plainly for other purposes.
All of a sudden, the dirt and stone paved road ended and we were facing the beginning of a broad boulevard paved with something resembling the same liquid metal the Tkosi were so fond of. I could sense electrical impulses coming from the road and bent down to study it. I waved my hand over it and got an immediate impression of the layout of the city. Just from the speed and volume of the electron flows, I could point directly to the center of the city, and, I thought, to a seat of some importance in the same direction. It had to be the Ministry Building.
“How you holding up?” I asked Tati.
“I’m a little tired, but I’m fine,” she said. “I can hold up the Neuroconceal. The sooner we can get this over, the sooner we can get out of here.”
We moved into the city. My heart was pounding as we walked past the first adult Enki we’d encountered, but they walked past us. Remembering Tashmit’s warning about tiring out, I dropped the electric field. “I wish I knew what we looked like to everyone,” I whispered to Tati in Spanish.
I’ve been practicing with it a lot. I can’t completely control what people think we look like, not yet at least, but I can strongly suggest it. It takes more energy, but I can do it. The other way, I’m just letting their own mind create what it thinks it sees and softening their emotional response to it. I can project onto them wavelengths for fear, or familiarity, or boredom or excitement. But if I do it that way, in a group of people, each of them may see us as a different thing. If they talk to each other about it, it could get us in trouble. These people are seeing us as Tkosi.”
Her explanation made sense. These people could see us, we just weren’t inspiring any kind of reaction. Now I only had the level of anxiety I’d have if I had been sent to infiltrate some enemy stronghold back on Earth.
Every so often, I stopped to check on our direction and keep us following the electron flow. At this point, it became obvious just from looking which building was likely to be the place we needed to go. In less than an hour, we found ourselves standing on a street populated with a series of small, pyramidal structures and a towering building that took up the entire block. This was it.
“So how do we do this again?” Tati asked.
My anxiety came back. “We gotta use the Bat signal and give him this electrofilm. Easy.”
“Do we have to go in the building?”
I wasn’t sure of the answer. This place had obvious doors, but I had no idea what would happen if we just walked in. We might look like Enki, but did we look like Enki who belonged here? But if we didn’t go in, how would we find a resister? If there were any? I decided to case the joint.
Fortunately, there were shops and street vendors in the area. I didn’t know what the Enki used for money and I didn’t have any in any case, but we could fake browse to pass the time. We walked around, browsing the vendors wares with no intention of buying anything, just like we’d do on Earth. Some of the items were amazing. If I had to do this again, I was definitely making sure to get some money from Tashmit and learning how to bargain.
After a while, I thought of something else.
“Can you limit the Neuroconceal so that our chumahai are showing, but our faces look Tkosi?” I asked. “We can make them look silvery like the important Enki. Maybe that’ll help.”
“We don’t even know what the colors mean,” Tati said. “What if silver means that we’re—” she paused trying to think of something. “I don’t know, something we can’t pull off?”
It was a definite risk. But what choice did we have? As I was considering, a pair of men came out of the Grand Ministry building. Their gaze lingered over us longer than made me comfortable, but they moved on. I sent a weak electrical pulse and the electrofilm on my arm tightened. That had to be the signal! The guy glanced back quickly, but kept walking. I didn’t think he noticed me.
“Tati, it’s that guy,” I said. “He reflected the signal. We gotta follow him. Get him away from the other one.”
We didn’t want to be seen following, but they were moving fast, which meant we had to as well. This guy was either gonna take this film from us or get us inside. We followed them down one block, but didn’t want to look like we were tailing them, so when they turned, we kept going straight. I could vaguely sense that they might be on to us, and I needed to play it cool. I hoped we could loop around and find them that way. I didn’t know which way they’d gone after they turned, but I hoped they’d stayed on the same street. The street I’d chosen to turn on was narrow and dark—more of an alley, considering the wide streets in the part of town we were in—and we rushed to get out of it and back to a main street. Our haste may have been damaging.
I turned the corner and the guy that had reflected the signal and his friend were right there. The friend attacked me faster than I could react, hitting me with some kind of baton, then grabbing me.
Bad move for him. Out of sheer reflex, I jolted him. He flew back and slumped against the wall. Whether he was dead or unconscious I wasn’t sure, but there was still another to deal with. I turned to the reflector and braced for his attack.
“Wait, wait!” he said.
I paused. I could feel the pulse of electricity at the ready, waiting to flow from my hands.
“You can have my money,” he said.
I must’ve looked confused because his countenance immediately changed. He glanced down at his unconscious counterpart. We were still the only ones in the alley.
“I felt the scan.” He looked at me expectantly, then I felt the electrofilm on my own arm squeeze and release.
Relieved, I nodded. “I have something for you,” I said, reaching for the electrofilm.
“Not here.” He bent down to check on his companion. “He’ll live. Hopefully he won’t remember what happened, but we gotta go. Come with me.”
He walked back out into the street he’d just come from with me and Tati in tow. “Stay close and act casual,” he said. “We’re just old friends meeting up for a drink.”
I kept a close eye on him, but followed him down the street and around another corner.
“Thought you were thieves,” he said. “Probably should’ve taken something just to make it look like a mugging. Too late to go back though.”
He was walking fast, but not enough to attract suspicion and he turned down another street before leading us past a raucous bar filled with other patrons wearing chumahai. He took us around the corner then stopped.
“Go back to that bar we just passed. I’d take you in myself, but my story is going to be that Kenji and I were attacked, so I can’t be seen hanging out in there right after the mugging. Go to the end of the bar and order chocolatl. When she brings it to you, taste it, then apologize for the trouble and say you wanted something more bitter. If she asks how b
itter do you want it, change your order to Axolotl. When she brings the axolotl, the napkin will be an electrofilm. Take it. Press it against the wall in the last stall in the lavatory. Do you got it?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Order chocolatl. When I get it tell her I wanted something more bitter.”
“No,” he said. “When you get it, taste it. Then apologize and say you wanted something more bitter. You have to let her see you taste it, and you have to apologize. Each of those elements is important.”
“Ok. Get the chocolatl. Taste it. Apologize and say I wanted something more bitter.”
He nodded.
“When she asks how bitter I want it, change my order to axolotl. Get the napkin from the axolotl and put it on the wall in the last stall in the lavatory.”
“Right,” he nodded.
“What if she doesn’t ask how bitter I want it?”
“Then you get the hell out of there,” he said, walking off.
I was anxious. I wasn’t prepared to go into a whole den full of Enki. Who knew how they acted when they were drinking? I didn’t want to have to talk to them and risk our disguise.
Tatiana seemed much less concerned.
“I’ll do the talking,” she said. “Just try not to look so anxious. Think about how much you wanna fuck me when we get back.”
Her ass looked spectacular in the chumahai, I had to admit. Tati plunged in and I followed her. We swam our way through the crowd to the end of the bar and I saw the one we were supposed to be looking for. She was stunning too. She looked quite a bit like Tashmit, but paler. Light bluish skin, tilted black eyes.
“What do you need?” she asked.
“Two chocolatl,” Tati said.
The bartended nodded and moved off to get the drinks. I leaned forward a little to get a glimpse of her ass and it was beyond impressive.
“You like that, huh?” Tati asked.
“Yep, not bad at all.”
“I can’t disagree,” she said. “She’s badder than any chick I’ve seen on Earth.”
Children of the Sky (The Talari Subversion Book 1) Page 8