by James Gough
He looked at Dr. Noctua. “Did you know that awful Liska woman barged in here and demanded that I recreate Josef Grimm’s pheromone amplifier so she could track down those Builders from the Gathering Hall? How did she even know about that? It was top secret.”
“What did you tell her?” asked Dr. Noctua.
“The truth. All of his research was destroyed in the explosion.” Dervis eyed Will. “Liska doesn’t know about the Immune, does she? Anyone else in the government know? The military?”
“We think she might suspect something. But for now, we are the only ones who know.” Kaya prowled forward. “And we’d like to keep it that way until after he is naturalized.”
“Of course, of course. I understand completely.” Dervis looked over his shoulders. “But if the boy is going to be naturalized, he’ll need more than just hearing. I think we’ve proven there isn’t any risk for him. Will, do you feel up to another little experiment?”
“Sure.”
“Good. Let’s only try one new sense at a time. We don’t want to overload your system.”
Dervis was much less jumpy now that he was inside a conspiracy. He reached out and removed the implant from Will’s ear, muting the world. The images in his mind were snuffed out, his confident bravado erased.
Dervis began testing enhancers in rapid succession. One, an artificial tongue, gave Will the ability to taste everything he looked at. Will ended the trial quickly when he accidentally looked Dervis in the face then at Rizz’s feet, filling his mouth with the flavor of squid and ramchant toe jam. After making Dervis promise there would be no more taste tests, Will agreed to try more prosthetics.
The gloves and strange socks were artificial claws that made it possible to sense vibrations anywhere in the room. Each step was like sonar and soon Will had mastered seeing with his feet. There were also a pair of goggles that mimicked the eyesight of a hawk, allowing him to see dust particles floating a hundred yards away.
He tested tails that increased his balance and speed, whiskers that made his nose so sensitive to vibrations that he had sneezing fits anytime anyone moved, and prosthetic antennae that let him focus in on and separate sounds in a cacophony of noise.
Will made excuses not to try out the flippers or artificial gill enhancements. The thought of being underwater terrified him, but he didn’t mention that he couldn’t swim. It was too embarrassing.
By noon, his senses were all raw and tingling. Will was ready to call it quits. His brain throbbed from over-stimulation and lack of sleep.
“Impressive.” Dervis placed antennae on the silver mannequin, along with all of the other enhancers he’d tried. “I’ll tailor the enhancers that you’ll need for naturalization tonight and they’ll be ready for you in the morning. These others, we’ll just keep under wraps until your Immune status is made public. It would look suspicious if a gerbilchant was walking around with antennae.”
Dervis collected the mountain of notes he’d taken. “Oh!” He slapped a tentacle to his forehead. “Smell! I completely forgot about smell. Gerbilchants aren’t bloodhounds, but he will have to complete a smell test during the naturalization exam. Wilhelm, we’re going to have to try one more. I’m sorry. But this one should be quick. Just tell me if you can pick out smells from a distance, alright?”
Will nodded and shrugged.
“Okay. Just hold still.” Dervis picked up a small silver clip and attached it just under Will’s nose.
Will inhaled. “Nothing.”
“Take a deeper breath,” he suggested.
Will breathed again. No luck. Then something happened. The sensation was slower and less crisp than the hearing he had tested earlier, but it was just as powerful. Scents stronger than anything he’d ever experienced rushed into his lungs, flooding his mind with strange images—the smells created ribbons of color painting the air.
After a moment, Will understood. The scents evolved into stories, each wispy band of color telling the history of the room. Rizz, Manning, Noctua, Flores—each had their own distinctive aura of color. The scents of Dr. Bump, Wart, and Cylus were there too—and one other that was blurry and flickered in Will’s head.
Most of the trails had a warm, pinkish hue and smelled like the ocean, the same scent surrounding Dervis. His smell meandered in all directions, the newer trails vibrant and the older ones wilting with age. Will felt a powerful curiosity, an impulse to discover the secrets of the scent paths, to read their history. He wandered through pinkish echoes of the doctor, frozen in suspended motion. Fascinating. Will knew he wasn’t seeing with his eyes, but the images produced by the scents were just as real.
Halfway down the second row of tables, a new trail veered off to the right. Will couldn’t help but follow. The divergent path was much smaller with an earthy, black licorice odor that left a deep crimson wake. Bending low and inhaling, Will flashed to a ghostly vision of a diminutive man with four legs and an insect’s thorax inspecting the seams and rivets of the steel floors. A Builder!
The small enchant had obviously been scurrying quickly; his scent was streaked and blurry except where he had stopped to inspect something or to run his segmented fingers over a wall joint. Will stepped closer to a spot where the smell was so strong that the whole area glowed a vibrant red. Between the floor and the wall, a rivet was bent and the wall plate dented. The damaged area was covered in a pulsating blanket of scent.
Will sniffed deeply and a three-dimensional schematic unfolded in front of his brain. He could see exactly how the repair should be made, and had an overwhelming need to do it himself.
“Tools. I need tools.” Will began to search for a ratchet and wrench. Desperation engulfed him as his hands rummaged across a nearby table. He was vaguely aware of Dr. Noctua, Dervis, and the agents speaking. Their words simply washed past, holding no interest. A tentacle wrapped around his waist, lifting him off the floor. He was still grasping for tools when a second tentacle pulled the silver clip from his nose. In a heartbeat, the desire to fix the bolt was gone. He panted, exhausted.
“Will! Will, are you okay?” Rizz’s face floated into view as Dervis lowered him into a chair.
“What happened?” Will rubbed his temple with his knuckles.
“You started running around and crawling under the tables, sniffing the ground. It was like a trance. Then you stopped in that corner and went crazy. You were trashing tables and yelling about tools. What did that nose thing do to you?”
All six enchants were staring, their faces full of worry.
“I saw smells.” Will scratched his head. “I could tell what happened in the past, smell who had been there and what they did. It was like I had to follow the trails. Then there was something stronger than the other smells.”
“What was it?” Dervis leaned closer.
“A Builder.”
The team tensed.
“I could smell that he had been inspecting stuff. He marked something—a broken bolt. The scent showed me how to fix it, but it also made me need to fix it. I couldn’t help myself.”
“He tracked a Builder.” Dervis’ mouth gaped open. “Xavier, this proves Einstein’s theory.”
“Einstein’s theory?” asked Will.
“Yes, Einstein was an Immune,” explained Dr. Noctua. “Many famous scientists were. But Einstein hypothesized that Immunes may be capable of much more than just seeing through Cloak. You see, Immunes have always had unique abilities. Some had an instinctual understanding of enchant culture, like Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. Other Immunes were able to gain enchant-like physical abilities over periods of time. Some understood flight, architecture, science, or music in ways far beyond the Neps of their day.”
Dr. Noctua removed his spectacles and cleaned the lenses with his pinkie feather. “Einstein’s theory is that Immunes are somehow born with enchant instincts, or the ability to connect to the animal side, without having an animal side. It is as though they are wired to be an enchant, but come with none of the hardware. We’ve never been ab
le to prove the theory because the technology wasn’t advanced enough. But your reactions to the enhancers, especially hearing and smell, seem to prove that Einstein was correct.
“What you, Wilhelm, were able to do in seconds would be impossible for a normal Nep and would take the most talented enchant a lifetime. While you obviously are able to instantly master animal traits, the enhancers also appear to magnify your personality traits, like confidence and curiosity. But, as we just saw, you are very susceptible to binding instincts as well.”
“Binding instincts? Is that why I was out of control?”
Dr. Noctua nodded. “Undoubtedly. The scent enhancer allowed you to follow a Builder—absolutely unheard of.”
“But what was one doing here?”
“Just because they’ve been banned from social contact does not mean Builders are not an essential part of enchant life,” said Dr. Noctua. “They are still responsible for the engineering at St. Grimm’s. They do it unseen.”
Dervis shivered. “Don’t remind me.”
Will remembered how the construction noises had stopped in the Great Hall the second the door had opened. It must have been Builders, maybe the same ones that approached him.
“Builders communicate through scent far beyond the ability of most enchants to detect. As Agent Rizzuto mentioned, few enchants have ever communicated with them. Builders can also produce powerful chemical pheromones that trigger instincts in other Builders, forcing them to follow orders. I believe the instinct that seized control of you was simply a to-do note left behind by a Builder.”
Will shook his head. “It seems silly now, but when I was there, it was the most important thing in the world. I felt like I was going to die if I couldn’t find a wrench.”
“Binding instincts are powerful things, especially those that govern insect enchants. They can unite the will of a hive or increase the efficiency of a colony of Builders. But binding instincts also take control of the individual will. Not ideal if you like making your own decisions.” Dr. Noctua smiled without humor.
“So Builders are like slaves?” Will was appalled by the idea of anyone feeling as helpless as he had after sniffing the binding scent.
“It is a way that has served them well for a long time, and it is not our place to judge. But you, Wilhelm, must promise only to use the smell enhancer while under supervision until we can help you overcome binding instincts. I would hate to discover you trying to hang from the ceiling of the atrium to change a light bulb. Builders get such orders all the time, but then they can walk on walls. I’m afraid the results of you receiving that binding task would not end well.”
“I promise I won’t.” Will didn’t want to try the clip again. The hearing enhancer was way cooler anyway, although when he looked at the testing course where he’d done the flip, his legs turned into spaghetti. It was nice to have that sort of confidence, but he promised himself that he’d learn to temper it.
“These two need no adjustment. They seem a perfect fit.” Dervis gave Will instructions for care of the hearing and scent enhancers, placed them in protective cases and handed them over.
After five more minutes of warnings and discussion, Kaya, Manning, Rizz, and Flores made Will say goodbye, and left the doctors chattering excitedly about Will’s newly discovered abilities.
As the door to R&D slid shut, Rizz cleared his throat. “I’m sorry if you felt like a lab rat in there. We shouldn’t have let them do that scent thing. I don’t care if they are doctors. That wasn’t right. You okay, kid?”
“Agreed,” said Kaya. Flores and Manning nodded.
“I’m fine.” Will didn’t understand why everyone was so upset about what had happened. “Really. I’m totally good. It was a little freaky, but it was kind of cool too, ya know? Well, until the end.”
“Yeah. It’s just that—” Rizz looked Will in the eye. “Remember your promise? You swore you’d never go near Builders.”
“Yeah? And I haven’t.” He looked around at the rest of the team who was staring at him intently. “What? You think that now that I can track a Builder I’m going to go try to hang out with them or something? I’m not stupid.”
“We’re just concerned,” said Kaya.
“Well, don’t be,” snapped Will. “If you thought it was scary for you in there, imagine how I felt.”
“The kid’s got a point,” said Rizz.
“I’m not so sure that enhanced confidence is such a good thing for you,” Kaya smirked. “Now, why don’t we get you fed? I hope that’s just the hunger talking.”
Will wasn’t sure if it was just an aftereffect of the enhancers, but he did feel more confident. And he liked it. Strutting just a bit, he followed the team up the tunnel, tucking the enhancers into his bag. The round smell enhancer case fell to the floor and rolled into a hollow nook in the wall, behind a stalagmite.
“Oops. Hold on.” Will turned back to retrieve the case. The nook was deeper than it looked. He bent down and stretched his arm, but the case was still out of reach. Suddenly, the case slid forward, pushed by segmented fingers.
A chill enveloped Will. Something moved in the dark recesses behind the stalagmite. A Builder, smaller than those he’d seen in the Gathering Hall. The blackish-red face studied him from the shadows. Its exoskeleton made its human features a hard, unchangeable mask. A red stripe covered the Builder’s mouth between its mandibles that jutted from its jaws, just below its tiny ears. Its large expressive eyes were fixed on Will with penetrating intensity while its antennae flicked the air.
Will froze.
Slowly the Builder looked down, lifted the case, and placed it in Will’s shaking hand. It looked up and cocked its head to the side, almost like it was curious.
“Kid,” Rizz called down the tunnel. “You okay?”
At the sound of the voice, the Builder skittered backward and disappeared into the dark.
“Kid?”
“Yeah.” Will remembered his promise. “I’m fine. It was just hard to reach.”
Will stared into the dark and tried to shake off his insatiable curiosity. Forcing himself to stand, he followed the agents up the hall. Before they rounded the bend, he glanced at the case in his hand, then back over his shoulder at the nook behind the stalagmite. The smell of earthy black licorice still lingered in his mind.
22
Training
St. Grimm’s was swarming with Deputy Liska’s team of steely-eyed ISPA agents. Liska herself kept appearing unexpectedly, attempting to interrogate Will about being in league with the Builder menace.
To counter Liska’s interference, and to keep ISPA from stopping the naturalization, Agent Val Manning made it her personal mission to schedule Will’s every waking moment. She rotated his schedule erratically to keep the snooping ISPA agents confused. Unfortunately, the random schedule had the same effect on Will. Anytime, anywhere Will had to be ready to train for the naturalization test, which seemed like a cross between a cut-throat extreme-fighting match, a grueling college placement test, and the enchant version of basic training.
Twice he’d been dragged out of bed at one a.m. for two hours of “enchant arts training” in the physical therapy room with Agent Manning. Enchant arts was kind of like martial arts, only with claws and horns instead of weapons. After four brutal lessons, all Will had been able to master was how to get beaten up and say “yield” when he didn’t want to get hit any more.
The physical therapy room had a rack of boxing gloves. Most surfaces in the room showed signs of past battles—deep claw grooves along the walls and gouges in the rock pillars that were stained with what looked like blood. Several of the punching bags had bite marks and a four-inch tooth was stuck in one of the chains suspending them from the ceiling.
Will wanted to use his hearing enhancer during the sparring matches, but Manning refused to allow it until he was properly trained in the arts. In the last session, Will managed to land a kick to Manning’s ribs. He was pretty happy about the accomplishment until she c
elebrated by flipping him on his head and smearing his face across the mat.
When Agent Manning wasn’t using him as a punching bag, Will was either working a shift in the maternity ward, eating, sleeping, or being shuffled from one kind of secret naturalization training to another.
In the Amazon habitat chamber, he practiced stealth and survival techniques with Agent Flores.
“You will be asked to demonstrate how a gerbilchant stealthfully hides from enemies,” stated Flores, snapping a dragonfly out of the air with his tongue.
“And how do I do that?”
“You will find a hole and curl up inside.”
“That’s it?”
“Well, we can’t all be chameleonchants, can we?” Flores smirked into his mirror. He made Will practice crawling under muddy logs for an hour.
Will’s favorite training was tagging enchants with Rizz. The hearing enhancer made tagging a snap.
Will could close his eyes and visualize the front, back, top, and bottom of every enchant that walked by as he and Rizz sat in the lobby, pretending to read newspapers. Will managed to tag a pair of huge jackal enchants before Rizz could—he used the enhancers to peek at their snarling faces under their hoods.
A large portion of the naturalization test would be a written exam. Will spent hours studying enchant history with Dr. Noctua in a secluded section of the library that smelled old and bitter. The scent was distracting at first, until Will realized that the moth enchant librarian avoided the area.
“Mothballs?” asked Will, sniffing the air.
Noctua winked, opened a book and began to explain how a polar bear enchant’s practical joke created the legend of the Yeti.
Will expected his lessons in instinct suppression techniques to be easy since he wasn’t an enchant. However, Kaya had gotten hold of three Builder scent-command samples and kept forcing Will to sniff them while wearing his smell enhancer. The commands were to dance, to bark like a dog, and to swim. It was awful.