by R. D. Brady
All in all, Laney thought she was doing a pretty good job of keeping her fears at bay—until Jake called. The Chandler jet was having engine trouble and was going to be delayed. So for the time being, it was up to Laney, Jordan, and Jen to track down the landing site for the Katzes’ plane, get there, and stop the ritual.
Laney lowered her phone and stared at the list of possible landing sites. There were dozens of them. How am I going to find them?
She closed her eyes and took deep breaths, forcing herself to focus only on the problem at hand and nothing else. Okay. The last sacrifice for the ritual of the moon and the sun. It has to be important, not just any old place. Not if they’re going to all this trouble. Panic bubbled in her. I really need a Mu expert.
Her eyes flew open and she grabbed for her phone. And I know just the one.
CHAPTER 96
Hurrying down the path, Aaliyah scanned the face of everyone she passed. Where was Noriko? She should have been home an hour ago. It wasn’t like her to just not show up. In fact, Aaliyah couldn’t ever recall her doing that.
“Aaliyah.”
Aaliyah looked up with a frown. Oasu, Kai’s nephew and one of the Guard, hurried toward her.
“Have you seen Noriko?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. But you’re needed in telecommunications. You have a call from the ring bearer.”
“Oh,” Aaliyah said. “I’ll call her—”
“She said it’s urgent. She’s holding.”
Aaliyah hesitated. Something was wrong with Noriko. She knew it in her soul. “I need to find Noriko.”
“I’ll find her.”
Aaliyah searched his face. Finally she nodded. “All right.”
She hurried to the telecommunications room in the administrative building. Vanessa was standing in the hallway outside. Aaliyah inclined her head as she moved to pass her. “Vanessa.”
Vanessa shot out an arm.
Aaliyah stumbled back with a frown. “What are you doing?”
Vanessa smiled. “The priestess wants to make sure that you convey to the ring bearer our desire to help in any way possible.”
“Of course,” Aaliyah said.
“And be sure to let the priestess know all the ring bearer knows. We can’t do our best to help if we don’t have complete information.”
Vanessa stepped aside to allow Aaliyah to pass. Aaliyah did so warily. Help in any way possible? Alarm bells rang through Aaliyah’s mind.
But she didn’t have time to focus on the priestess’s machinations. As soon as Aaliyah stepped into the office, the technician handed her a phone and left the room.
“Laney? It’s Aaliyah.”
Laney’s words burst across the line sounding more frantic than Aaliyah would have thought possible. “Thank God. I have a problem.” Laney hurried on to explain what had occurred over the last few hours. Aaliyah listened in stunned silence. “Now we’re trying to figure out where they might be going,” Laney finished. She paused. “Aaliyah?”
“Sorry. It’s just—wow. That’s a lot to take in. You’ve been through a lot.”
“Would it make you feel better if I told you this has been relatively calm compared to my usual week?”
Aaliyah let out a nervous laugh. “No. I think that would worry me even more.”
“Sorry. But do you have any idea where they’re heading?”
Aaliyah sat back, going through the possibilities. There just seemed to be so many. “The ritual of the moon and the sun always happened at the beginning of the harvest.”
“So we’re looking for something that relates to food or crops?”
“Maybe…” Aaliyah murmured, her mind racing through the sites west of Hawaii. Then she went still and her eyes grew wide. “The Banaue rice terraces,” she blurted out.
“In the Philippines?”
“Yes.” Aaliyah pictured the artificially created plateaus in the mountains of Ifuago. “In the ancient world, the terraces could feed thousands upon thousands of people. They was an unrivaled source of food production. Today they still extend over three thousand feet high, even though a large portion of them has been destroyed. There is nothing in modern times that even comes close to their production capability.”
“Okay.” Both relief and hope tinged Laney’s words. “I’ll see what airfields their planes can land in.”
“Wait. Did you say planes?”
“Yes. There are two planes.”
Aaliyah’s jaw dropped open and dread coursed through her as another possibility entered her mind. “Oh no.”
CHAPTER 97
Aaliyah’s reaction terrified Laney. Seconds ago she had believed that maybe, just maybe, they could do this. Now that hope was being yanked away.
“Aaliyah, what is it?”
“I don’t think they’re going to the rice terraces.”
Laney tried to rein in her impatience and fear. “Why?”
“The Philippines is hit with extreme weather regularly. The wet season from June to November is known for typhoons. It’s probably why the terraces fell into disrepair.”
“Okay,” Laney said, trying not to demand that Aaliyah spit it out.
“But there are legends that in the past, storms were held at bay by two islands and the structures there.”
“Two islands?” Laney closed her eyes. No. “What are they?”
“Pohnpei and Lelu Island at Kosrae.”
Pohnpei—the Venice of the Pacific. Cain had mentioned it. Damn it. “I know Pohnpei. That’s where Nan Madol is.” Laney pictured the ancient ruin.
And she knew Lelu Island was a smaller version of Nan Madol—the same type of artificial island. The only difference was the scale and the addition of two pyramids.
“The north equatorial current divides up right there between Pohnpei and the island of Kosrae,” Aaliyah said. “The miles between are where typhoons are born. And when cold air rushes in, it creates these huge storms. When it comes to storms, these two islands are among the safest places in the Pacific.”
Laney paused. Something was scratching at the back of her mind. Something about the two islands and the rice terraces. She thought of Nikola Tesla, and then it hit her. “You’re saying these two islands disrupted storms and protected the rice terraces.”
“Yes. It’s been theorized that the structures on the two islands formed a weather control system. The structures would send electrical currents into the air and disrupt the effect of hurricanes.”
“Just like Tesla suggested,” Laney murmured. Back in 1900, Tesla made the argument that the earth pulsates with electrical current. This current bounces off the ionosphere and can be used to actually break down storms after they begin. Tesla began creating a tower on the eastern end of Long Island to prove his theory in 1901. He strongly believed that with his electromagnetic tower he could ricochet the earth’s current off the atmosphere and stop hurricanes shortly after they began. But his funding was withdrawn in the middle of the project.
“How sure are you that they went there?” Laney asked.
“Very sure—for two reasons. One, Nan Madol was destroyed by floods. The ones caused when the world leaders gathered to discuss the problems of the large animals.”
Laney closed her eyes. That was the reason for one of Atlantis’s large destructions. “So humans caused its destruction.”
“Yes. But it’s the second reason that confirms it for me.”
Dread filled Laney. “What’s that?”
“The name Pohnpei. It means ‘on an altar.’”
CHAPTER 98
Maura seethed. All she could picture was all her well-laid plans being dismantled. And all because of some stupid Fallen. She paced up and down the fuselage, her anger growing with each minute that passed. Finally her phone beeped, signaling a new text message.You are not being tracked.
Maura closed her eyes and exhaled heavily.
Derek tapped her shoulder. “We’re good?” he asked.
“We’re g
ood.” She placed her hand on his with a smile. But then her gaze fell on the girl. The girl who had nearly ruined everything.
Maura stormed over to the girl and pulled out her knife, but Derek stepped in the way.
“Why waste your anger? She’ll be part of the ritual. Let her death help the world.”
“You’re right.” She smiled. “You always are.”
She stepped around Derek and plunged her knife into the girl’s back.
Derek let out a yell. “What are you doing?”
Maura wiped her knife on the girl’s shirt. “You forget. She’s one of them. It won’t kill her.”
She headed back to the cockpit. But it does make me feel better.
CHAPTER 99
As soon as Laney had finished speaking with Aaliyah, she headed to the cockpit and explained Aaliyah’s reasoning to Jen and Jordan. Jen grabbed her computer and confirmed that everything Aaliyah had said was true.
Laney then dialed Jake. The Chandler jet was finally in the air and on its way as fast as it could manage. That should have made Laney feel better, but as she hung up the phone, she glanced at the horizon and knew he wouldn’t make it to either island before sunset.
“Okay,” she said. “We’ll have to get to both islands.”
Jen looked up from her screen, her face drawn. “The islands are three hundred and forty miles apart.”
“Jordan, is there any way we can get to both the islands before sunset?”
Jordan shook his head. “I’m sorry. No.”
“What about law enforcement? The islands must have somebody we can call.”
“Laney,” Jen said, “these islands are not highly developed. Pohnpei has a total population of thirty-five thousand people, and Kosrae has only six thousand. Most residents exist through subsistence farming. The economy is practically non-existent in some parts. Their law enforcement won’t be up for this.”
“And even if they were,” Jordan added, “these guys already bribed their way through Hawaii. There’s no doubt they’ll have made the same preparations at the two islands.”
“There must be some place that can send help,” Laney said.
“Not in time,” Jordan said quietly.
“So what do we do?” Jen asked.
Laney’s chest felt heavy. She’d known what they’d have to do ever since Aaliyah mentioned the two islands. “We’re going to have to choose.”
CHAPTER 100
“Wake up,” a woman’s voice insisted near Lou’s ear.
Lou grimaced against the fog in her brain. Jen?
A hand slapped her cheek. “Wake up,” the voice ordered.
Gritting her teeth, Lou prepared to wreak damage on whoever had hit her. But she felt so weak. She couldn’t remember having ever felt so weak. She couldn’t even move her arms or legs. But she could open her eyes, and she stared at the straps that held her down. She frowned. Am I in a plane?
A woman in her forties, a woman Lou had never seen before, stood above her. She smiled at Lou, even as Lou’s cheek still stung from her slap.
“What do you want?” Lou had meant to demand an answer, but her words came out as a plea.
“I want the world to be free of your influence.” The woman smiled again. “And your participation in the ritual will help make up for your transgressions.”
“Ritual?” Lou’s mind still felt sluggish. “What ritual? Who are you?” Then it all came flooding back to her: the nursery, the cats, the people with guns. And the man in the truck.
“My name is Maura, but that is unimportant. My job is what’s important.”
Lou waited, but the woman seemed content to leave it at that. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s your job?”
“I am the one who helps fight against the evil of this world. I am the one who will save this world.”
Lou thought about Laney as she replied, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s someone else’s job.”
“You are mistaken. I am the one chosen to push back the evil. I am the usher of the new age. The progenitor of redemption.”
Right, crazy pants. “Okay, good to know. Now, how about you let me go?”
Maura narrowed her eyes. “Arrogant to the end. That will be your kind’s downfall. And still, I give you this chance at salvation—a chance you don’t even deserve.”
“That’s okay. I don’t need salvation. I’m doing just fine—”
Maura’s eyes grew large. “Oh, but you do. Without it, you are doomed for eternity. This is a gift for you, and for mankind.”
“Mankind?”
The woman nodded. “At the setting of the sun, we offer a cleansing and sacrifice to show our devotion to the old ways, a reminder that we are truly the repentant ones. And that is how we will avoid the calamity to come.”
“Yeah, well, if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll pass.”
Maura only smiled.
CHAPTER 101
Laney sat in the dark, staring out the window of the plane. They’d decided on Pohnpei. It was larger, and its name had the word “altar” in it—but honestly, it was a coin flip.
She’d been studying the history and layout of both islands. Pohnpei was only 129 square miles and was surrounded by a barrier reef and small islets and swamps. Kosrae was only 42 square miles. Neither had a strong transportation or road infrastructure. Moreover, once they got there, they’d have to contend with searching the aging towers of Nan Madol, separated by canals.
Laney glanced behind her to where Jen sat. Laney had thought she was asleep, but now she too stared out the window.
Laney dropped her head onto her hand, picturing Cleo running with her at the estate or standing guard over the teenagers. It wasn’t right. She hadn’t lived enough yet. And half of her life had been horrific.
She felt tears burning the backs of her eyes. Lou hadn’t had it much better. She had been through so much and still she had held onto her goodness. She’d gone into that nursery to save people, people Laney knew she did not think of highly of. And yet she had risked her life for them.
And now she might lose it.
As much of a logistical nightmare as finding them on Pohnpei was, Laney had to praty that they were on that island. Because if they weren’t…
A tear dropped onto her cheek. Oh God, please let us have chosen correctly.
CHAPTER 102
Federation of Micronesia
Structures made from tall black rocks surrounded her. Lou blinked her eyes and realized she was no longer on the stretcher or in the plane. After their little chat, Maura had sedated her again.
Now, she was on something much higher and harder. She turned her head and saw six leopards on rock slabs. She couldn’t tell if any were Cleo, and none them were moving. At least another dozen people in white robes stood around them in a circle. This is not good.
Maura stepped forward. “Oh good, you’re awake.” She pointed toward the setting sun. “We’re about to begin.”
Lou’s tongue felt swollen. She tried to speak, but nothing came out.
Maura held up a pitcher. “We are the true Naacal—the followers of the old ways. We offer this lasting sacrifice to refresh the world, here at our homeland that we were chased from so long ago.”
Lou struggled against the restraints holding her down, but she still had no strength. It was terrifying. She eyed the IV in her arm. If she could just tug that out, she would have a chance.
One of the men stepped up and placed a hand on either side of Lou’s head. Lou struggled to turn her face away, but in her current condition, she was no match for his strength. Another man stepped up to her side, grabbed her jaw, and forced her mouth open.
“Be cleansed and be fulfilled,” the priestess intoned. Then she poured the water into Lou’s mouth.
Lou choked and struggled to breathe. Her lungs felt like they were on fire. Pain lanced through them and up her throat.
Pinpricks of light exploded in front of her. Darkness began to seep in at the edges. It felt like a lead weight
had been placed on her chest, refusing to let her breathe. Lou struggled against the hands that held her head but even her feeble strength was growing weaker.
I’m going to die.
CHAPTER 103
Laney stared out the window of the helicopter at the approaching island. Henry had a friend who was running a rocket company out of the Marshall Islands ,and he had loaned them the helicopter. It had been a gamble making the stop, but they reasoned that the Katzes would have to land at the airport on Pohnpei and then traverse the island, which would take time; whereas the chopper would allow Laney and company to go right to Nan Madol.
It had been a frustrating and nerve-wracking trip. For hours, all Laney had had to do to pass the time was second-guess their decision. Now she was desperate to see if they had chosen correctly.
Jordan looked back at Laney and Jen from the pilot’s seat. “We’re coming up on Pohnpei. How do you want to handle this?”
Laney looked at Jen, who nodded back to her. “Get us over the water as close as you can, and then go find a place to land.”
“I take it I will be alone in the chopper at that time,” Jordan said dryly.
“You take it correctly,” Jen said.
“Now I know why Yoni’s bald,” Jordan muttered.
“He was bald before he met us,” Jen said.
“Just don’t get yourselves killed, all right?” Jordan said.
Laney unbuckled her seat belt and removed her headphones. “Why does everybody keep saying that to us?”
Jen already had her hand on the door. Jordan flew around the island and Laney got her first glimpse of Nan Madol. It was a rectangular series of islands contained by a rock wall. Even from the air, it was obviously not a natural formation.