“Okay,” he shouted, leaning out of the doorway. “Go on through.”
The gate opened, and Urvi stepped on the gas.
They pulled in to Brux’s driveway.
“Maybe the rumors of her being a bit loose are true,” Paley continued to talk about Genie.
“Meh.” Van’s anguish had dissipated. “I don’t really care.”
“Care about what?” Brux asked as he hopped into the passenger seat in front of them carrying his backpack.
“Nothing,” Van mumbled.
Brux twisted around to face Van. “Did Uxa tell you it was okay to bring Paley?”
“I’m not going without her.” If Van went on her own, she was sure she would never hear the end of it from Paley, to the point where it would destroy their relationship.
Paley wrapped her arm around Van’s shoulders and gave her a hug. “Aw, thanks pally wally.”
When they arrived at the complex, the trio scooted from the taxi and entered Marble Hall. They strode through the lobby and up the stairs to Uxa’s office, where they got a different story.
“Paley can’t go,” Ambassador Kasey said, red-faced. “The Brotherhood put the Reagan Rule in place for a reason. It clearly states no terrigen transports.”
“But…” Paley trembled, her eyes watering. “I have to find out about my parents.”
Uxa turned to Fynn. “Please take Brux to the equipment room. Make sure the team gets their supplies together. Take Van and Paley’s backpacks.”
Fynn readily complied and escorted Brux out of Uxa’s office.
“It’s too dangerous.” The ambassador’s eyes bulged.
“I survived the mission last year,” Paley said.
“No, no.” The ambassador shook his head, Van swore she witnessed sweat flying from his brow. “Not the mission. It’s too dangerous because of the Twin Gemstones.”
Van didn’t like this man making the decisions for the Grigori. Or for Uxa. Or for her.
“Grigori decide who goes through the portal.” Van knew both she and Paley could survive using the gemstones again. “Uxa can give the okay for Paley’s travel-through.”
Uxa brushed imaginary dust off her desk and said sternly, “The Twin Gemstones are a dangerous and unpredictable way to transport a terrigen through the portal, and you are but children.”
“We’ve already used them once—”
“The gemstones drained your energy and almost killed you,” Uxa said to Van. “We still don’t have enough data to know who can make it through the portal using them and who can’t.”
“Or how many times the same terrigen can travel-through,” the ambassador added. “If you try bringing Paley through the portal again, she could bounce back. It could addle her brain or cause memory loss. Not to mention the energy drain on you, Vanessa. It’s not worth the risk.”
“If I had brain damage, I’d know it.” Paley stomped her foot.
“The damage isn’t always immediate, it can worsen as you age,” Uxa said.
Van twisted her lips in disappointment. Adults always found problems to put in the way of getting stuff done.
The ambassador seemed like he could sense Van’s disbelief.
“Miss Nutting and Paley are both examples of the travel-through going right,” he said.
“What?” Van and Paley exclaimed at the same time.
“Miss Nutting transported?” Van’s jaw felt like it hit the ground. So that’s how she knew about the risks of the Twin Gemstones…from personal experience.
“It’s true,” Uxa said. “Miss Nutting and Paley are called blunts.” Her eyes turned to Paley. “You were both born in the Living World without ichor, both orphaned babies sent here to be raised on the island.”
“I’m familiar with the word,” Paley said.
“We needed to learn if the gemstones worked better with a blunt-vichor transport, as opposed to a terrigen-vichor transport,” Uxa said.
“You used Miss Nutting as an experiment? To see whether she got brain damage?” Van began to get a better idea of the diabolical goings-on supervised by Uxa.
Paley clamped her jaw, her eyes widened, her cheeks flushed.
Van had never seen her friend this angry before.
“You—picked—her—because she’s an orphan?” Paley looked as if she were about to explode. “Disposable?” Her nostrils flared.
Ambassador Kasey took a step back.
Uxa waved her hands. “No, no. All the trial runs were done with volunteers. Strictly volunteers.”
Van wondered if Uxa’s statement contained any truth. She recalled Miss Nutting telling her and Paley that Uxa manipulated people into accepting her proposals, which meant Uxa’s requests weren’t voluntary. In hindsight, Van believed Miss Nutting regretted her decision to transport.
Paley seemed to simmer down hearing the experiments were voluntary. Apparently, she didn’t remember Miss Nutting’s comment about being manipulated into transporting.
“Miss Nutting’s travel-through went fine. So did mine,” Paley said. “I don’t see the harm in sending me again.”
Uxa turned to Paley. “Another failed attempt involved a former U.S. Senator who also happened to be a member of the Brotherhood. His popularity with the terrigens made him a very influential and powerful figure. His unsuccessful travel-through is something we islanders have to re-live every time we see him.”
“Yes, yes. We controlled the situation,” the ambassador said. “Made it look like he died a plane crash.”
“What do you mean by ‘see’ him? We don’t know him.” Paley scowled.
“But you do know him,” Uxa said. “You see him around town all the time.”
Van filtered through her mind everyone she knew on the island and came up blank.
Uxa cleared her throat. “The Senator who supposedly died in a plane crash is Robert B. Miller.”
Van understood. Her eyes darted to Paley, who stared blankly.
“Uxa is saying that we could end up like Bicycle Bob.”
Paley gasped. “I need some air.” She took off down the hallway as if she could out-run this newest revelation.
Van sighed. “I’ll be right back.”
She hurried down the hall in the same direction as Paley. She had trouble finding her friend with all the different branches of corridors with their many doors. She stopped when she stepped around the corner of the hallway and entered a dimly lit expansive room with a handful of desks piled with papers. Multiple jail cells filled the entire far wall.
Van stepped back and hid behind the corner. She peeked around and saw Paley talking to Myles Dinkle through the bars of one of the holding cells. They were both sitting on the floor.
“I don’t think they’ll let me go.” Paley’s eyes were downcast, her cheeks streaked with tears. “Uxa has no problem sending orphans, just not me. She’s keeping me from learning about my parents.”
“Now, now.” Myles sat close to the bars, so he and Paley were mere inches apart. “I’m searching to uncover my family secrets too.”
Paley turned her eyes to look directly at Myles. “Really?” She reached her hand to him.
“My father, his name was Ruben.” Myles extended his hand through the bars and took her hand in his. Their eyes interlocked. “He was born in the Living World, had no ichor in his blood.”
“A blunt,” Paley informed him.
“Is that what you call it?”
Myles’s fascination with anything related to the Living World radiated from his tone.
Van was about to make herself seen when Myles continued.
“My father was swallowed by the Janus monster. Same as you.”
Chapter 12
Van stopped short and ducked back behind the corner of the wall before either Paley or Myles glimpsed her.
“Eaten b-by the what?” Paley gripped the bars of the cell.
Yeah, by the what? thought Van.
“You don’t know? I’m not surprised.” Myles tsked. “My research indica
tes the Elders are tight-lipped regarding the flow of information.” He leaned closer to Paley, speaking through the bars. “Okay, so most of the Living World tribes—”
“Balish, Balish-occupied tribes?” Paley asked.
“Yeah,” Myles said, although by his reaction Van didn’t think Myles had known about the Moors’s monarchy of the Living World before Paley mentioned it. He seemed eager to take mental notes on any information Paley inadvertently gave him.
Myles continued. “They believe in the myth of the Janus monster. A silent, invisible monster that sneaks into babies rooms while they sleep and devours them whole, leaving nothing but an empty crib. Crib death is believed to be the baby refusing to leave and fighting against the Janus so it can stay with his or her parents in the Living World.”
Paley clasped her hands over her mouth, and then said, “That sounds awful!”
“Relax,” Myles rested back against the cell wall. “What really happens is a tear in the membrane between the worlds opens around the blunt baby. Large enough to drop them into Earth World, usually at about one to six months old, but sometimes older. Once the baby lands in Earth World, the tear closes but not before it’s detected by the Grigori. They use their multi-tracs to locate and then pick up the baby.”
Myles knows his stuff about the Living World thought Van. No wonder he’s a security threat.
“And the babies?” Paley chewed on her cuticles. “What happens after the Grigori pick them up?”
“Sometimes a terrigen finds the baby first.” Myles shrugged. “We hear it on the news. Babies found in dumpsters. More often than not, they’re blunts. Discovered before a Grigori can get to them. Babies retrieved by the Grigori are brought here to Providence Island.”
“And raised in the Gables.” Paley’s hand dropped from her mouth.
Van hoped Paley found some comfort in finally discovering her history. At the same time, learning about another duty of the Grigori intrigued Van.
“That whole thing is…is…terrible,” Paley said with glassy eyes.
Myles shook his head, so fiercely he practically hit the bars of the cell. “Listen, the Janus is a natural protective device created by the Universe to help the babies who are born without ichor in their blood survive by being expelled into the Earth World.” He rested his forehead against the bars. “It’s a good thing.”
“Then why call it being eaten by the Janus monster?”
“Lodians know the truth.” Myles leaned back again.
Paley grasped one of the bars. “So that’s another reason why the Balish don’t allow them outside Salus Valde.”
Myles face lit up, thrilled at this newest bit of information. He seemed ready to rattle off about a hundred questions. He didn’t get a chance.
Before he could respond, Paley scrunched her face and asked, “Is the Janus monster the same thing as getting the call?”
Myles shrugged. “When a terrigen gets the call, they vibrate at a higher level than the standard terrigen. This increase in vibration creates a doorway, a pathway from the Earth World into the Living World. They’re going in the opposite direction as the babies swallowed by the Janus. But, yeah, kinda the same thing.”
“Ah.” Paley nodded. “I get it. Both happen because of a change in vibrational frequencies.”
“My father was taken to the Gables at the late age of four.” Myles shifted his eyes and stared above Paley’s head as if recalling a painful memory. “He arrived on Providence Island with nothing but the clothes on his back, his baby bracelet, and vague memories of the Living World. After he graduated from Canterbury Bells, he made a choice to leave the island. He settled down in Seattle, married, and had a family—moi.” Myles patted his chest.
“Wow,” Paley said, wide-eyed. She furrowed her brows. “What bracelet?”
“Some tribes in the Living World put their family crest bracelet on newborns, in case they get eaten by the Janus, is what they say. But the people in these tribes know the Janus isn’t real and that their children get transported to the Earth World. The children are given the bracelet so they can identify their tribe as an adult, it enables them to find their way home in case they ever make it back to the Living World.”
Paley leaned forward. “So they know where they come from.”
Van could tell that her friend’s mind filled with ways to find her own bracelet. But Van already knew there weren’t many tribes other than Lodians who would put a bracelet on their baby. Other than a few radicals, most people in the Living World probably followed the Balish custom of the Janus monster and simply thought their baby had been taken back to the Creator. If Paley didn’t have a bracelet, then it meant she wasn’t Lodian. Myles having a bracelet meant he was.
Myles’ expression grew even more solemn, his eyes stared into the distance again. “When I was eight, my father changed. He became disgruntled with life on the mainland and wanted back on the island.”
“No one is allowed to return.”
Paley sounded like a child reciting rules laid out by the adults.
Myles snapped out of his trance and wrapped his fingers around the bars of the cell. “Despite knowing the island’s exact location, my father could never find it. As a result, he became obsessed with doorways and eventually lost his job as an insurance agent.”
“I’m sorry.” Paley placed her hand over his, in a gesture of comfort.
Myles smiled weakly. “My mother was a psychiatric nurse. She couldn’t understand why my father wasn’t able to find the island where he grew up. She began to realize his obsession with it was unhealthy and thought he had gone mad. She was used to handling mental breakdowns from her job, so she dealt with his crazy theories and absences as best she could, all while continuing to work long hours to support the family—my father, me, and my sister.”
“What happened? Did he ever find us—the island?”
“He moved us to Woods Hole, Massachusetts and became a realtor. The perfect job that allowed him to continue with his obsession.”
“How so?”
“Doorways. My father constantly searched the houses and buildings on his listings looking for his big break—finding one that held a portal back to the island, or to the other world.” Myles shifted his body toward Paley creating greater intimacy as she continued to hold his hand. “I would sit with him for hours and listen to his stories of the mysterious Providence Island and of a strange faraway world. Whereas my sister and mother dismissed his stories as silly conspiracy theories.”
“Where is he now?”
“He died years ago from what the doctor’s called ‘failure to thrive.’” Myles eyes misted. “But he really died from a broken heart.” He turned away from Paley. “From not being allowed back to his home on Providence Island.”
“I’m so sorry.” Paley’s eyes filled with tears.
Myles took a moment then continued. “Before he died, he created a website. Posted everything he knew about the island, searching for others with similar experiences. I took it upon myself to carry on my father’s quest.”
He released his hands from Paley’s so he could change his grip and pushed his face between the bars. “I, too, became obsessed with finding this island.” His knuckles turned white from the strength of his grasp. “But unlike my father, instead of wanting to live here, I vowed on his grave to expose whatever secrets it holds. After all, it was the secrets of this island that killed him.”
Paley leaned back, looking a bit frightened.
“Do you keep in touch with your mom and sister?” she asked.
Good question thought Van. Hopefully, talking about his family will temper Myles’ rage.
His knuckles gained some color as he bobbed his head. “Oh yeah. My sister lives in South Tampa, Florida with her husband who works on MacDill Air Force Base.” His tone had become softer. “My mother’s retired and lives in St. Petersburg. It’s a town near my sister. I talk to them daily.” He looked at the ceiling and shouted, “They’ll want to know where I am!
”
Paley ignored his outburst. “You’ve inspired me,” she said, looking cheery. “Now I have to go through the portal. I need to get to the Living World and search for my parents. They might be alive—and sad that I got eaten by the Janus monster. I have to find them and let them know I’m okay. So we can be together.” Paley brushed off her bottom as she stood. “I’ll try to get information about your relatives while I’m there, too.”
“Wait,” Myles cried. “If you bring me with you, I can tell you more—I can help you find your parents.”
“Um.” Paley hesitated.
Sure the conversation had ended and not wanting to get caught snooping, Van scooted back to Uxa’s office.
“How’s Paley doing?” Uxa asked as Van came through the door.
“Fine, just pouting,” Van said. “She’ll be back in a sec.”
The only people in the room were Uxa and Fynn. The ambassador had gone.
“Come,” Uxa said.
She led Van to a nearby conference room. Fynn followed, of course.
They entered, and Van saw Brux and Ambassador Kasey standing by a buffet table chatting. Their hands clasped plates full of food.
“Help yourself to some breakfast,” Uxa said to Van. “Fynn, stay here and make sure everyone eats and drinks. I’ll wait for Paley in my office.”
The door to the conference room snapped shut behind Uxa.
“Drink.” Fynn waved his hand at the end of the buffet to several pitchers filled with water that shimmered with sparkles of silver.
Van grabbed a glass and noticed two sets of women’s gear and clothes were laid out on a nearby table.
Brux must’ve noticed her curious glance.
“We’re going undercover as marketeer’s scouts again.” He held a heaping plate of fruit, oatmeal, and toast.
“Excuse me, teammate,” said a condescending voice coming from behind Van.
Her skin crawled. She knew that voice.
“Pernilla.” Van stepped aside so her nemesis could grab a pitcher. Van hadn’t even noticed Pernilla in the room. But of course, she would be there. She was part of the team. The other woman’s gear had been laid out for her, not Paley.
Plague of Death Page 10