28
Searching for Em
December 27
Jake was resting with his head on the table in front of him. Since they’d gotten the word about General Puentes going rogue, all was quiet. It was the proverbial calm before the storm.
Jake propped his phone on the table at eye level and turned it on. Em’s photo was his screensaver, and he stared at her.
“Where are you?” he whispered.
If he’d felt an urgency to find her the last few days, it was overwhelming now. If she was here in Aberforth Hills when ELLIS attacked. . .
He shivered, not afraid for himself, but for Em. He had to find her.
The conference room doors flew open and in strode Colonels Lett and Barbena, followed by David and Jillian. They wore dark stretch pants, tennis shoes and dark t-shirts. The shirts had darker areas where they were wet. Likely, they had swim suits underneath, which meant they had just swum in.
Jake jumped up and yelled, “Finally!”
After the Contingency Plan press conference, Mom had asked the Embassy to send them in, quietly, coming underwater to avoid detection. Now, here they were with big grins.
Before he could say anything though, a loud ping resounded through the room. He whirled to look at the corner where the sonar station had been placed.
Another ping. Radar was hitting something. He thought sonar noises were only for the benefit of TV!
The sonar officer’s voice rang out: “Sir, we have contact.”
“What kind?” An officer in royal blue—the Aberforth Hills Militia—answered sharply.
“Lots of contact. Oh, no!”
“Report.” The officer’s voice was harsh, demanding.
“Sorry, sir. I’m counting fourteen targets heading our way. No. Sixteen, seventeen—They keep on coming. I don’t know how many.”
“How far away?”
“20 kilometers and closing fast.”
Invasion!
Everyone started talking at once, and the quiet control room became a scene of chaos. The lights in the recording studio flared up as news crews started reporting live. Other new crews were recording feeds that would go out through the Internet. Still others made calls to check facts. The Risonian bodyguards were already beside the sonar panel where Mom, Dad and a couple men in Aberforth Militia uniforms were jabbing fingers at different targets.
Amid the noise, Jake turned back to his friends and motioned to the doorway. Since everyone was busy now with the impending ELLIS Forces attack, it was a good time to get away.
A moment later, the teens pushed through the doors and into the hallway. Jake clapped Jillian’s back and shook David’s hands. He wanted to crow with happiness. He swallowed hard, choking back emotion, surprised how relieved he felt when they walked into the room a few moments ago. “Wow, I’m glad to see you. About time you got here.”
“We didn’t get the same invitation you got!” David said with a wide grin. He nodded his chin to Jake. “What’s up?”
“Em. I’ve got to find her before ELLIS gets here.” Jake’s fears were shredding his insides. Her illness was his fault, and it was his responsibility to make sure she was safe. She was only here in Aberforth Hills because of the umjaadi released when Dad’s globe broke. She should be back in Seattle, far away from all this trouble. Far away from Puentes and his submarines.
“Where have you looked already?” Jillian asked.
Jake winced. “Too many places to name. But I’ve a couple new ideas. Her biological mother is Bobbie Fleming. Remember, she was the biologist who treated the sick harbor seals? Anyway, her brother is Dr. Max Bari.”
At David’s raised eyebrows, Jake nodded. “I know, it’s weird. You saw him at the hospital? He brought Em here.”
“Kidnapped her?” Jillian asked.
“No, they had a better hospital here for her illness. Anyway, I found his address here in Aberforth Hills. One of us can go there to look. The second place is Commander Bulmer’s home. I understand his son, Shelby, has been giving Em tours.”
Jake frowned at the thought of another guy showing Em around. “If you can each take one place, that would help.” Jake pulled up the Phoke.net and showed them a map of the city and the best tunnel routes to each location.
“Where will you go?” David asked.
“The Phelps Natatorium, of course.”
David and Jillian nodded in unison.
“Good idea,” Jillian said. “If anyplace would appeal to Em, it’s a swimming pool. Even if it’s at the bottom of the ocean.”
“Seriously?” David said. “The Phelps Natatorium. As in Michael?”
Jake shrugged. “Of course.”
They all shook their heads at how obvious it was, once you knew.
“Here, take this. Just in case,” Jillian said. She handed them both one of the flashlights they had used to swim out to Aberforth Hills.
“Good idea,” David said.
No one stopped them as they raced down the hallways toward the lower exit. All doorways were now set to airlock in case the tunnels were compromised, so no water could enter the building. It took a few minutes to go through and find the hover cars.
“For now, our cell phones are still working,” Jake said. “Call me if you find her.”
29
Green Light
December 27
“Sir, we’re 20 kilometers away. They likely know we’re coming now.”
Puentes squinted through the tiny window of his sub, trying to catch a glimpse of the light from Aberforth Hills. Still too far out.
“General Puentes, sir, pull up your radar panel. It’s a metropolis! We thought it would be a dozen structures, not hundreds.”
Puentes checked his panel. The cutting-edge radar system was mapping the ocean floor before him. This far out, it was vague outlines, but with each passing minute, the map was adding details. In this first glimpse of Aberforth Hills, he was amazed at the size of the city. It was like a rabbit warren! How had the Risonians managed to create a community this large? It would take years. Could the Phoke story be real?
Puentes rubbed his tired eyes and took another sip of his energy drink.
It had to be Risonians. They’d had twenty years to bring people in, and for at least a dozen of the early years, ELLIS had few ways to track the Risonian spaceships. It was that long before Earth’s technology caught up with their cloaking devices.
He tapped the display, and it said the city covered twenty square kilometers. He quickly searched and found that was roughly a fourth the size of the island of Manhattan. It wasn’t just a few structures. Indeed, it was the size of a small city. The fact that they’d managed to keep it secret for decades was a miracle. But it also meant they were likely to have good defenses, something he hadn’t counted on.
He gritted his teeth and considered. He had a fleet of 100 personal submarines, a huge investment of ELLIS Forces budget. And he didn’t have official permission from the Oversight Committee. Karp and Kyle just didn’t realize the danger of doing nothing. The Risonians lived in the water, and ELLIS had to fight in the water. That’s why he’d pushed for the new subs. They were especially designed for underwater battles, with airlock doors so his men could exit to scuba for short time periods. The subs were also capable of acting as a decompression chamber if needed. They’d been training in the Mediterranean and had just brought the fleet to the North Sea for winter maneuvers. The timing couldn’t have been better.
Even with the bigger city than expected, they had to attack. Surprise would be on their side today and never again. They had to quickly take Aberforth Hills out of any future discussion. At the very least, neutralize it.
It was now, or forever regret that you did nothing.
“Tell the fleet: Green light. Green light. I want an advance team out there with shoulder-fired missiles. Look for strategic targets. Power plants, communications. And you’d think they need air pumps from somewhere.”
“Yes, sir.”
&nb
sp; Puentes was satisfied. ELLIS Forces were well trained and knew the limits of their equipment and gear. They wouldn’t need much on-site direction. That left the question: what would he do?
He opened a new channel to Captain Martinez. “When the action starts, you’re with me. We’re going hunting for hostages.”
30
The Lion’s Mane
December 27
Jake’s path to the Natatorium went east for half a mile before he reached a major intersection where he followed signs and turned north. The swimming center was at the north end of Aberforth Hills.
In the distance, he heard explosions. The ELLIS invasion had started.
Suddenly, behind him, an explosion shattered the tunnel and cold water poured in. Jake realized he couldn’t outrun the stream of water, so he jumped off the hover car and let the rush of water carry it away. It only took a second for his water breathing to kick in. At this depth, the water pressure was enough to keep human divers from staying submerged long, but it didn’t bother Jake’s Risonian anatomy. He lifted his arms to allow his gills to breathe deeply and tried to decide what to do. Should he stay in the tunnel, or exit to swim to the natatorium? He’d likely find a moon pool near the natatorium, which would allow him to enter the tunnels if needed. And every building had emergency airlock entrances.
Another explosion sounded near him; the tunnels were being targeted by ELLIS. Then it made sense to get out of them.
But the onslaught of water was pushing him away from the hole in the tunnel. No sense in fighting it if he didn’t have to.
Jake paused, taking advantage of a quiet eddy near a tunnel that was just starting to fill with water. He put on the forehead flashlight and stripped off his sweat pants, leaving him in just swim shorts that he’d worn ever since he got here. Finally ready, he let the tide of rising water carry him along until he came to another intersection, and it had a moon pool. Of course, with the tunnel filling up, water frothed up from the moon pool, too. He dove cleanly through the froth and came up in the cold ocean water at about 90 meters deep. A slight chill swept over him, but his magma-sapiens blood quickly adapted to the temperature.
He took a moment to orient himself.
To the south, he saw regular flashes from underwater missiles. ELLIS was searching for military targets that would cripple the city. If Dr. Mangot was correct, most important systems were embedded below the structures. You’d have to blow up the whole Mangot Hospital before its generator stopped.
Jake could do nothing to help anyone. Except maybe Em.
He zipped his legs into a tail and kicked toward the distant natatorium. It was a silvery white metal and looked like the square chest his grandmother, Easter, used to store her quilts and keepsakes.
Suddenly, he stopped still. He’d been daydreaming, so he was unsure what had startled him. But some instinct told him to stop.
Ahead, it looked like pieces of kelp or other seaweed had been torn free by the storms up top. Lifting his left hand, he brushed away one strand. Reflexively, he jerked back and cradled his left arm with his right. Pain shot up his arm to his elbow and then traveled slowly toward his shoulder.
Panicked, he twisted, trying to figure out what had hurt him.
Another strand of seaweed grazed his neck, and suddenly he was bending double in pain. He forced himself to lift his head enough to try to find the source of the strands.
There.
A jellyfish. Not seaweed, but a jellyfish tentacle. It had stung him and would sting again if he touched another tentacle.
In his dim flashlight, the creature was a golden half-sphere at least five feet across with very long tentacles trailing away, like a massive shrub with thousands of tiny branches coming out of the dome. Tentacles, some perhaps a 100 feet long, floated all around him. The jellyfish’s head was about Jake’s height. Using his leg-tail to make powerful strokes, he backed away quickly. As the jellyfish flexed, it looked like a golden flower with eight lobes. Right under the hood was a mass of hair-like tentacles that resembled a lion’s mane. It was a lion’s mane jellyfish and because its tentacles were so long, it was one of the longest animals on Earth. Rare at this depth, it had likely pushed down to escape the winter storms above.
It was also poisonous. How would his Risonian anatomy react? Jake would know soon enough.
He hung immobile, letting the giant jellyfish drift away. Meanwhile the pain from the stings spread up his arm and down from his neck until waves of agony made him almost unaware of his surroundings. Suddenly, Jake felt as if he needed air, needed to breathe. He rubbed a hand across his underarm gills and realized that they were clamped tight with a muscle spasm. He couldn’t water-breathe.
He tried to ignore the spreading pain and tried not to panic. He needed a moon pool and a tunnel with air. Agitated, Jake swept his gaze around, looking for a solution. Nearby tunnels were flooded, and that wouldn’t help.
There, in the distance, he saw the shiny natatorium. And there was the usual red arrow pointing to a moon pool. He had a few minutes before he ran out of air. His body would automatically shut down all non-essential functions to reduce the need for oxygen. Move, he told himself. Move.
With weak tail thrusts and clumsy arm strokes with his numb arm, Jake made for the arrow. He grimaced at the pain, feeling himself grow even clumsier as the numbness spread.
But he swam.
The jellyfish’s sting had left a blister on his left hand, and his awkward strokes made it burst open, sending sharp stabs through that hand.
Still, he swam.
The cold reached into his body until his bones ached. He realized that because he was oxygen-starved, his body’s magma-sapiens warming couldn’t kick in. If he didn’t make the moon pool soon, he didn’t know whether he’d drown or freeze first.
On and on, he swam.
The thing that bothered him was that he might never see Em again. The very idea frightened him, so he thrashed harder through the water. He wanted to watch her taste haggis, and listen to her sing Happy Birthday to him, and swim beside her in a tropical sea.
He wanted to kiss her.
Life was too short to waste by dying in a frigid Northern sea on a planet called Earth.
He s-w-a-m.
It could’ve been five minutes or five hours.
All he knew was that a red arrow was above him.
Why had he fought to get here?
Where was Em?
Down. He obeyed the arrow and dropped down. He hovered a moment.
He needed air.
He gave one last thrust of his tail.
31
Jake and Em
December 27
Jake shivered. His eyes fluttered open. He lay half in and half out of a moon pool.
He groaned and pulled himself out onto the side of the pool. Rolling awkwardly to his back, he stared up at the roof of the tunnel. His lungs expanded, sucking in a deep breath.
Jake held up his hand and stared at the ragged skin around the jellyfish’s blister. This was crucial information that he needed to give to his mother. The sting of a lion’s mane jellyfish had shut down his water breathing. If their enemies learned this, they’d analyze the chemicals in the jellyfish’s sting to use as a weapon against the Risonians. They could use it as a poison dart or simply contaminate a section of water with it. The umjaadi infected Earth’s Phoke, and the lion’s mane jellyfish could drown Risonians. It seemed symmetrical, somehow.
A sudden explosion shook the tunnel. Puentes was still attacking!
Jake struggled to sit up, shoving with his right hand to gain his balance. He had to find Em.
Jake staggered to his feet, got his bearing and realized he was right beside the natatorium. He lurched to the door and leaned against it as he punched the air lock controls. The door slid open with a squeaky rasp. He stepped inside and punched more buttons. A few moment later, he stepped out—more steady now—into the lobby of the natatorium. The smell of chlorine hit him. A shudder of revulsion ra
n up his spine. Em had told him they had to use chemicals because people peed in the water, and there was no way to keep it sanitary without the chemicals. Gross.
He pushed through a door into the pool room and let it slam behind him. There was an Olympic-sized pool, and there, on a lounge chair, was Em. Finally.
A door slammed. Em woke with a start. That would be Shelby returning, she thought sleepily, and opened her eyes.
Instead, right in front of her was Jake Rose.
Her heart suddenly beat frantically, and she tried to catch her breath. Jake!
He wore a long sleeveless t-shirt over swim shorts. He was dripping water onto the floor.
He tapped out a message on his phone, then turned to her. “Em! I’ve been frantic to find you after the note you left me in your bedroom back home. Are you OK?”
Jake’s voice was squeaky from the Tri-Mix air, but it was music to Em’s ears. Involuntarily, she yawned. She was still so tired. But seeing him lit up her heart.
She struggled to sit up. Stretching her arms upward, she shrugged. “Turns out, I didn’t need to be rescued. But why are you here? Do you even know where you are?” Jake looked pale and tired himself. Was he OK?
Jake’s face split into a big grin, and he sank to the floor beside her chair. “Aberforth Hills, home of the Phoke. Or the Mer Folk. Mermaids, Mermen. Or whatever you want to call them. With the big Christmas announcement, everyone on the planet knows about this place.”
She nodded, glad that she didn’t have to spend energy explaining things.
Suddenly, he seemed shy. “I, um, have something I need to discuss. You’ve been sick, right? So did you see any news reports since you were kidnapped?”
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