We drove a few more kilometers and, just as before, turned off the main road, this time to the left into an area that seemed a little more like a forest than anything we had seen so far. We made bunches of turns around large trees and other obstacles and eventually found a trail, which we followed for nearly an hour. We were now in a swampy spot and drove along next to a slowly moving creek under a canopy of trees. We came to a skidding stop next to a small cliff that descended about thirty meters, a pool formed below by the water cascading down from the creek. Another tall fence surrounded this area; in this case we couldn’t see how large it was because of the trees, but it seemed at least as immense as the pasture where we met the giant wombats.
“Hang on, mates, you won’t believe this!” Benji shouted as we slid out of the van and stood on the top of the cliff. He rummaged around in the ice chest and came out with what appeared to be two large grapefruits. He and Wally moved right to the edge and began whistling again, this time a high-pitched warble; after about two minutes, bounding toward us out of the forest came… well, I guess it was a bird, although it was undoubtedly the world’s largest.
It stood a full three meters tall, its head higher even than the giant wombats; it looked somewhat like an ostrich, but had a much thicker neck, off-white in color, a massive body with stubby brown feathers and tiny wings, hefty, muscular legs similar in color to the neck, and shiny black claws on its feet that seemed to be as big as my hand. In fact, it looked as much like a feathered dinosaur as it did a giant bird. Instead of the flat, horizontal mouth of an ostrich, it had a huge, black, rounded beak that made a frightening clacking sound as it opened and closed, and big, brown, round eyes on the side of its bulky head. It raised up to its full height and let out a horrifying squawk, then stood expectantly next to the pool below the small waterfall.
Dad turned to Benji and Wally and said, “Get out of here. You have got to be kidding.”
“We call ‘em mihirungs, means giant bird, appropriate name I’d say. Some call ‘em thunder birds, or even demon ducks, but I call ‘er Lucy. Been thought to be extinct twenty thousand years or so. I tell ya, you should see the size ‘a their eggs!”
Ms. Houng, dad, and I stood with our eyes bugging out, not knowing what to say. “Ava, are you connected to my visual cortex yet?” I whispered.
“I’m not quite blind as a bat anymore, but I am not totally in possession of the brass ring. Getting close, though.”
“Well, I’m not sure what that means, but can you see what I’m seeing?”
“I see an outline. I believe that is Dromornis stirtoni, long extinct flightless bird, Australian megafauna. These aboriginals are exceedingly clever.”
Benji and Wally both had their eyes closed, their hands in a praying position, and were humming softly as before with the giant wombats. When they were done, Benji looked at Wally and said, “Well?”
Wally clapped his hands and said, “Go on, mate. You have a go this time.”
“I was hopin’ you’d say that. Be back in a jiffy!”
Benji walked to the edge of the cliff and descended next to the mini waterfall; there were stairs dug into the side that we couldn’t see from our position. He whistled and called to the monster bird, the devil duck, as he went, saying, “Here, Lucy, here, girl… ‘ats a good girl, you’re a beauty, aren’t ya?”
She approached and stood next to the fence, her head rocking from side to side. I hadn’t been afraid of the other creatures we had seen so far, but this one seemed so foreign that it made me nervous. I stood behind dad, even though I knew logically that it couldn’t hurt me. Suddenly, from below Lucy another person appeared; he was dark, like Benji and Wally, but had a huge mane of white hair, a shiny white beard, a bit of a pot belly, and wore only shorts and flip-flops. “Oi, Benji, how ya been, mate?” he cried in a gruff voice, then he spoke in their aboriginal language for a full minute. As he spoke, he patted Lucy on her side, and Benji laughed and clapped as he listened.
“Stan, you’re a larrikin, you are! Let me introduce my mates, this is John Taylor, that there is Minh Houng, and this little fella is Lucas Taylor, John’s boyo. He’s a special one, he is. Guys, this is Stan Olden, he’s one of the keepers here, watches over Lucy and the others. Any eggs, Stanie?”
A huge smile split Mr. Olden’s face, and he said, “Hang on just a sec, mate.”
He scurried into a cave carved into the side of the cliff that we hadn’t noticed from above and came out hefting what appeared to be an oddly colored watermelon. It was mostly tan in color but had some darker spots across its surface, and it must have been heavy, as he was having some trouble holding it up. “How about this beauty then, eh?” he cried, and Benji and Wally whooped and clapped wildly.
“What a ripper! Here girl, here ya go,” said Benji, holding out one of the huge grapefruits; Lucy reached up and snatched the snack away from Benji with her great beak, tossed it up and swallowed it whole.
“Alright, girl, whatcha say, let’s go for a little ride, eh?” Just as Wally did with the giant wombats, Benji stretched out from the steps and balanced on top of the fence, then hopped onto Lucy’s back, wrapping his arms around her neck. She immediately turned and sprinted away into the forest, Benji hollering and whooping the whole way. He is not a big guy, but he looked tiny on Lucy’s back, and he bounced around as she ran.
“Dad, she’s fast! She might even be able to outrun me.”
“Oh, I don’t think she’s that speedy, but she could leave the soldiers in the dust, that’s for sure.”
I didn’t know what leaving them in the dust meant, but I didn’t ask.
A few minutes later, Lucy and Benji came crashing out of the forest, him still howling wildly, and this time they were followed by two other mihirungs, one about half Lucy’s size and another even taller than her. “Hey, look who we found! This is Lucy’s little one, Billy, and here’s her mum, Berniece. One ‘a you lot wanna give old Bernie a try?”
Dad and Ms. Houng both shook their heads emphatically, but before I even knew what I was doing, I said, “I’ll try it.” Oh, boy. Why did I say that? I can’t back out now… I don’t guess she could really do anything to hurt me, and she seems friendly… I think…
Both Benji and Wally shouted like wild men, and dad put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’ll be like riding a roller coaster, except there is no track, and instead of the little car there’s a giant bird. On second thought, it’s not like a roller coaster at all. It’s ok though, I want to try it.”
From the ground, Mr. Olden said, “Well, how we gonna get ‘im on her back, then?”
An answer occurred to me, and I said, “Watch this.”
I judged the distance from me to her back to be about twenty meters. I took a step and jumped, doing a flip as I went, and landed standing up on her back. Benji, Wally, and Mr. Olden all shouted and clapped once again, and Berniece squawked in surprise. Benji yelled, “I told ya he was special, Stanie!”
I quickly sat and wrapped my arms around her neck as she sprinted off into the forest. We sped by trees on both sides, and I noticed a path that had been worn in by the great birds coming and going. We followed the path for about two minutes, and although I’m a lot heavier than a normal kid my size, she didn’t seem to even notice my weight. Suddenly we broke into a clearing and saw the most shocking sight of all: twenty-one more mihirungs of all sizes strutted about in the clearing, and it felt like being in a land of giants. Berniece appeared to be the largest of all the birds, and as we stood several of them came over and looked at me, turning their huge heads from side to side to get a better view. “Hello, nice birds,” I said, feeling a bit nervous.
I noticed a few huge nests scattered about and some much smaller birds about the size of large turkeys. I didn’t have time to observe anything else as I heard a whistle coming from the cliff, and Berniece turned and sprinted back toward the forest. Before long we were back at the pool and Mr. Olden asked, “Well, h
ow’d ya like that, boyo?”
“It was great, but I probably don’t need to do it again real soon,” I answered. They all roared with laughter, although I wasn’t sure what was so funny. I whispered, “Thank you, Berniece,” and it almost seemed like she understood me; she turned her head to the side and looked at me with one of her huge eyes as I patted her neck.
I stood on her back, and said, “I hope this doesn’t hurt you,” then pushed off, jumping back toward the cliff top. I flipped again as I went and landed next to dad and Ms. Houng. I felt like I was going to fall, but then the gyroscope took over and brought me back up to a standing position.
Mr. Olden looked at Benji, his eyes narrowed. “How did he do that?” he grunted.
Benji put his hand on Mr. Olden’s shoulder and said, “Like I said, he’s special. There’s only one ‘a him, I reckon.”
“That’s not normal, mate.”
“Yeah, I know,” Benji replied, a huge smile crinkling his face.
31
W e had been back on the road west for an hour or so when Wally’s phone buzzed. Benji answered using the aboriginal language and spoke for almost ten minutes. Occasionally laughing, other moments sounding serious, after closing the call he turned to us in the back seat. “Apparently the Bright Hand has infiltrated even more than we thought. Normally he couldn’t have said anything over a cell phone, but we were usin’ a dead language, or at least mostly dead, so he gave me a few details. They have quite a number ‘a folks in all branches of government and service in the US, a couple hundred total. He’s havin’ ‘em work on findin’ Mard and he’ll let us know where he is, that’s the first step. We’ll have to figure it out from there, I reckon.”
Dad rubbed his chin and said, “Well, that’s a start. Any idea how quickly they can get going?”
“Turns out little Jimmie is in communications and logistics for them, so he put the word out already. If Mard’s anywhere to be found, we’ll hear about it. One other little tidbit he gave me: they got four ‘a those soldiers. That could come in handy, I’d say.”
“How did they manage that?”
“My people had ‘em but didn’t have any use for ‘em. They were just gonna throw ‘em in the ocean. Some Bright Handers stopped ‘em, and after a little negotiation, they turned ‘em over.”
“What did they get in exchange?”
“Oh, just a couple ‘a those big Bright Hand trucks.”
“Seems like a fair trade. Probably works in our favor, too. They’re definitely worth more alive than not. Plus, we don’t really want anyone killed, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Some ‘a those fellas were not very nice, though. They need to learn some manners, I reckon.”
“We’re gettin’ near our next switch, and just in time; our charge is runnin’ low,” Wally interjected. “We’re gonna hit Cocklebiddy just up ahead, that’s where we change over. Lotsa caves there, Cocklebiddy cave is one ‘a the world’s biggest, they say. Filled with water, though.”
“Oi, listen to my brother. All of a sudden he’s a geographer,” said Benji, chuckling.
A few minutes later we pulled in to Cocklebiddy, which consisted of a few buildings and a service station. Parked on the side of the service station was… Harry, in the faded black Humvee. Once again, the three brothers gathered together, and I was not at all sure, aside from their clothes, that I could tell them apart. We jumped into the Humvee, waved goodbye to Wally, and tore off heading mostly north now, toward Kalgoorlie, our last stop before heading east for the nation’s home.
“Benji, when we arrive, we will need to go see your friend in the Bright Hand, Jimmie Early. We need them to do whatever they can to locate Mard, and if it takes us doing some work for them, then so be it. The sooner the better.”
“Yeah, sorry about those side trips. We had ‘em planned, and I couldn’t see how it would have made any difference in gettin’ to Mard. I reckon he hasn’t made it back to the US yet, anyhow; it’ll take that sub at least a week to get there, and it’s only been a day and a half. We should be able to have info and people in place before they ever reach land, likely in San Diego since that’s still where most ‘a the west coast Navy is based.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we got to see those animals. That was awesome, and I know it was for Lukey, too. We just have to get Mard out, whatever it takes. He saved us back there.”
“Yeah… yeah.” Benji seemed choked up for a moment, and Ms. Houng was sniffling again.
“Listen, you lot might as well get some rest. It’ll take us a while to get up to Kalgoorlie. It’s a good size town, over forty thousand people, so we’ll be able to get some decent tucker there. In the meantime, you’ve been through a lot in a short space. Take a nap, mates. Ol’ Harry has things under control.”
Dad and Benji didn’t need to be asked twice; they both leaned back and were asleep almost immediately. Ms. Houng turned and stared out the window; I couldn’t tell what she was feeling but I bet it wasn’t good. I closed my eyes and whispered as low as I could, “Ava, how’s it coming with connecting to my visual cortex?”
“I can’t say it was a breeze, but a bullseye has been achieved. I added some enhancements while I was at it, don’t want you to be in technical debt.”
“I don’t know what technical debt is, but I think I got the rest of that. What kind of enhancements?”
“Oh, nothing much… just a heads-up display with range finder, infrared, motion detection, speedometer, compass, altimeter, ultrawide mode, things like that. Might come in handy in any little soiree that comes up.”
“Soiree?”
“Party, function, event, get-together. Come on, you should know that one.”
“I do, I was just testing to see if you knew.”
“Sure you were.”
“Can I see the display?”
“You want the silver bullet? Blink twice quickly. To disable, three times. You’ll see the nodes in the periphery of your vision. Certain things will be active at all times: the speedometer, compass, altimeter. Others, i.e., the rangefinder, infrared, motion detection, ultrawide mode, you will need to look at to activate. Look at it and blink once to deactivate. Simple simon, easy peasy.”
“So, it’s like the display in one of the soldier’s helmets, but it’s in my eyes?”
“Oh, far superior. They have a few functions, you have more, and we can add on if need be. We’re cooking with gas and they’re still rubbing sticks together.”
“We’re cooking with… I don’t have some kind of heat vision, do I?”
“Really, by now you should know that these are metaphors, similes, figures of speech. Figure it out, Mr. Smarty Pants.”
“I’m not sure, but I think you’re making fun of me. That’s not nice, you know.”
“I’m an A. I., remember? I just do what I am programmed to do. I can learn, obviously, and I am aware of myself, but I don’t have the capacity to be nice or not-nice. To quote a cartoon character from long, long ago, I am what I am and that’s all that I am. Here, watch this.”
Suddenly I saw an old, animated movie, or I guess what Ava called a cartoon, of a man with a sailor’s cap and bizarrely exaggerated body and face, and he said the same thing she had just said, except with an odd, gruff, quick voice. “Whoa, that was weird. It was just like looking at something on a tablet.”
“Like I said, we’re cooking with gas.”
“Ok, I get it.” I think I get it… “I’m going to try the display now.”
I blinked twice, and suddenly there was a halo of icons in the extreme outside range of my vision. On the top were little displays: to the left, speed in kilometers per hour, which read 83, in the middle were a couple of letters indicating direction, which at the moment said N-NW, and to the right it said 468M, which I assumed to be the number of meters above sea level. Dad had taught me about things like compasses and altimeters when I was younger, so I had some idea of what the displays meant. To the far left in the middle were the
letters RF, at the very bottom a large I, and to the right, UW. I looked at the RF for a second, and suddenly a series of circles appeared in my vision, becoming smaller and smaller as I looked at an object, then displaying the distance to the object where the RF had been. I looked at the steering wheel, and the display read 1.23M. Whoa, that’s cool…
I looked directly at the 1.23M display and blinked, and the circles and 1.23M disappeared, replaced by the letters RF once again. I looked for a second at the large I in the bottom of my vision, and suddenly everything appeared as fuzzy shapes of different colors depending on the amount of heat they emitted. I looked at Wally and he was glowing red; I looked at where the engine would be, and it was as if I could see through the metal between us, as it was nearly white with heat. Wow! That could come in handy…
I looked at the I and blinked, and the normal display was visible again. Finally, I looked at the UW in the far right for a second, and it was as if I could see nearly straight down, straight up, and straight out to the sides all at the same time. I wouldn’t want to use this all the time, because it’s a little disorienting, but if I needed to scan a large area quickly, it would be perfect…
“Ava, how did you do all of this?”
“Oh, the algorithms are fairly simple, and after our showdown at the pier it just seemed like something like this would come in handy. I have lots of tools in the toolbox.”
“So, let’s see… I can run fast, jump high, my skin is almost unbreakable, I’m super strong, I can see in the dark, my hearing is better than normal, I can’t hardly fall down, and now I have all these things in the heads-up display. Oh, and I have a nearly endless energy supply. What else?”
“Well, none of that stuff would work without little old me, you know.”
“Oh, sorry about that. Thank you for… well, I guess for everything.”
“Listen to you with the cotton candy words. It must be my bubbly personality, because I’m not much to look at.”
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