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by Gareth Worthington

  KJ took K’awin’s forelimb with his left hand, Merry’s hand with his right. The circle complete, the friends closed their eyes and concentrated. Unlike being in the Antarctic, cold and barren, here in the forest of Laos a connection to the living world around them filled their minds and hearts. As KJ sank deeper into the trance he could feel the breathing of his brethren in the room but also the trees outside, intertwining with each of them through their network of roots. His own pulse slowed to match the steady drum-like heartbeat of a nearby tiger stalking a macaque through the dense ferns. It was as if had spent his whole life viewing the world in monochrome and suddenly he was now exposed to a rainbow in all its glory. This was what the Earth was supposed to feel like, not empty and bleak or even filled with obnoxious humans in sprawling metropoles.

  KJ concentrated harder, pushing through the leaves and branches and mammalian limbs and lizard tongues, all sensing their environment to reach out to her—to Svetlana. The room grew warmer with their power, sweat beads forming on KJ’s brow. Yet no matter how hard he pressed, Svetlana could not be found. Her consciousness was not to be reached, as if it had disappeared from the world entirely.

  “It’s not working KJ,” Nikolaj said.

  “Just a little longer,” KJ urged. “I know she’s out there.”

  “We can’t.” Merry said, her voice strained.

  “Hold on,” Lex finished.

  The break in their mental chain hit KJ like a hammer to the back of the head. He yelped, let go of his companions’ hands and slammed his fists on the floor. “Mother fucker!” KJ unscrewed is eyes. Merry and Lex were comforting each other, while Igor and Leo had taken to sitting in a praying position in silence. Catherine, her face full of concern, sat by Nikolaj who kept blinking as if trying to focus on the room. “What the hell was that?”

  “You pushed it too long,” Nikolaj said with a grunt and rose to his feet. “We need to come out of a connection that deep properly, controlled. If we’re in too long and become exhausted, someone drops out and we crash. It’s like yanking a server from a mainframe. You screw the whole system.”

  “Did you at least find her?” Catherine asked. “Svetlana?”

  KJ shook his head.

  “This whole thing’s a damn waste of time,” Nikolaj spat, then pushed through the door and stood alone on the wooden porch.

  “What are you going to do, KJ?” Catherine asked, packing her camera back into the bag.

  “I don’t know. She must be shielded again, somehow. Like before. We’d need to catch her unprotected again.”

  Merry sighed. “KJ, we couldn’t hold that for 10 minutes.”

  “Let alone 10 hours or days to catch her at the right moment,” Lex finished.

  KJ’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “I know, I know. I’m thinking.”

  “Maybe you should go talk to Nikolaj?” Catherine offered, touching KJ’s shoulder.

  “Why? So, he can give one of his famous lectures?”

  “Because he’s your brother,” Catherine replied softly.

  KJ rolled his eyes, then pushed out onto the porch anyway.

  Nikolaj was leaning on his elbows over the bamboo railing, staring off into the night. This high up in the mountains, the air was cool and crisp, making KJ’s skin prickle. He rubbed his arms and stared at his adopted brother but said nothing. What was he supposed to say? That he was wrong? That they were in the middle of Laos eating purple rice without a damn clue where they were supposed to go? He didn’t need to state the obvious. And he sure as hell didn’t need a lecture. KJ turned to leave Nikolaj to his brooding.

  “You remember the time I told a teacher to fuck off?” Nikolaj said without turning around.

  KJ stopped. “Yeah, some kid had mowed me down in the play zone and you’d run over to see what happened.” He laughed. “The teacher, Mrs. Gray, she came over to see what the fuss was about.”

  “She tried to pick you up while you were crying.”

  KJ sauntered over to the railing and leaned over, peering off into the dark. “Technically you told her to put me down and fuck off.”

  “I was worried. Thought you may have really been injured. Moving you without checking was stupid, and I knew it.”

  “You didn’t have to make her slap herself in the face,” KJ said, turning to his brother.

  Nikolaj’s stern face broke into a smile. “That was just for fun. I got in so much trouble that day.”

  “Yeah, Mom was pissed.”

  The brothers laughed.

  “Your ass is always getting me in trouble,” Nikolaj said.

  KJ sighed. “Yeah, I know, bro.”

  “Why is this so important to you?”

  KJ looked to Nikolaj. “You know how messed up for us it is sometimes? Being controlled. Groomed. Watched. Studied. Groomed some more? I mean I feel like a fucking dog at Crufts man. Poke your butt out. Sit up. Bark. Good boy.”

  Nikolaj held up a hand. “I get it, what’s your point?”

  “Now imagine what it’s like for Svetlana and all the other kids that were taken by the Nine Veils. We had the good version. I saw it in her eyes, man. I felt it in her mind. They did something bad to her and the others. That could have been us. If it wasn’t for your mom, and mine.”

  “And you think it is our responsibility to do something about it?”

  “It was always ours. The world is changing, whether the old world wants to see it or not. The way governments will function, how decisions will be made with us in key positions. Only we know the truth of it. What it is to be Stratum. To calculate a thousand outcomes at once and know the best course of action.”

  Nikolaj laughed. “And you think this is it?”

  “I think the other ways are worse.”

  KJ felt a nudge at his knee and peered down to see a little girl, paper in hand. She waved it at him. KJ smiled and took it. She’d scrawled an image of a Huahuqui, big blue gills, pale blue body, bright blue eyes and stripe running the length of its back.

  “Wow,” Nikolaj said. “We’re already famous.”

  KJ laughed and was about to hand the drawing back but stopped. He stared at the crude image.

  “Something up?” Nikolaj asked.

  “Any of our Huahuqui have a stripe, right down their back?” KJ replied, running his finger along the drawing for Nikolaj to see.

  “No, don’t think so. Creative licence?”

  KJ shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

  “TV?”

  “You see a TV since we’ve been here?”

  “True ...”

  KJ pushed his way back into the house, nearly taking the door off its twine hinges. Nikolaj hurried in after. Inside, the conversation immediately stopped, everyone staring. Even the Huahuqui sat bolt upright, their eyes wide. KJ held the paper up to the chief but directed his words at Igor and Leo. “Ask him if he’s seen the Huahuqui before. Not on TV, in real life.”

  The monk brothers looked to each other, frowning, then back to KJ.

  “Please, ask him,” KJ pressed.

  Igor cleared his throat and spoke calmly and slowly to the chief. The Theung elder nodded, replying with fervour.

  “Yes,” Igor said. “He says they have seen them many times over the years, moving through the forest at night. He thought we were with them.”

  KJ tried to control his excitement. “Have they seen this specific Huahuqui, with a dark stripe down its back?”

  While KJ didn’t understand the brief exchange, the nodding of heads was all he needed. They’d seen Ribka, and probably Svetlana.

  “What’s with the stripe?” Catherine asked.

  “Svetlana’s Huahuqui, Ribka, has a distinctive stripe running down his back. I’d bet my ass this pic is him. We’re on the right path.”

  “China was a good guess, Junior,” Nikolaj said with a smirk. “Laos was pretty close.”

  “They’re not in Laos,” Leo interrupted. “The elder says they move in and out of Laos, but the village hunters tracked t
hem all the way to some rice terraces just over the border, in China.”

  KJ couldn’t help a smug grin from spreading across his face.

  Nikolaj rolled his eyes. “Oh, fuck off.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “Yes,” Leo said.

  “Yes, what?” KJ asked.

  “Yes, before you ask, they will take us at least part of the way.”

  “We’re going to walk,” Merry started.

  “To China?” Lex finished.

  That made both Igor and Leo laugh—big, deep, belly laughs. KJ wasn’t sure he’d seen that before.

  “They have trucks,” Igor said, composing himself.

  “Oh, that’s better,” Merry and Lex said in unison.

  KJ nodded. “Yeah, it’s damn good.”

  Location: Alpha Base, Antarctica

  Freya hugged Jonathan tighter than she had in a long time. She’d been a bitch and she knew it. Once again, her husband had shown strength and honor and put the needs of the world before his own. He’d found an orb. One that, according to that crazy Ozzy scientist, could communicate with Huahuqui all over the world—even those controlled by the Nine Veils. Following his mission meant he could probably save KJ and the rest of the world.

  “Hey, hey, you okay?” Jonathan said, his chin on her shoulder.

  Freya squeezed him tighter for a second then let go. “Just glad you’re here.”

  “I found an orb!” he blurted out.

  The excitement in her husband’s eyes made her hold her tongue. She knew what he had found, but why take the moment from him? “I thought they were all destroyed?” she asked.

  Jonathan sat on the floor of their quarters and patted her Huahuqui, who as always doted at Freya’s side, on the head. “Nope. We got a lead. I had to go to Argentina, got hit by a crazed-out death squad, managed to escape then went to Denmark and dived a U-boat wreck from World War II. But, we found it.”

  Freya smiled. The excitement on his face. The life he was born to live but had increasingly sacrificed to care for her, KJ, and Nikolaj. In a strange way, he even reminded her of Kelly a little. That burning energy for adventure. Just a thousand times more mature.

  “We might have the upper hand now, we might be able to control the Nine Veils’ Huahuqui. Or maybe talk to them, convince them to turn to our side.”

  “That’s amazing. You’re amazing, really.”

  Jonathan smiled, but it quickly faded. “I’m sorry I didn’t go after KJ and Nikolaj.”

  “I know,” Freya soothed and took his hand in her shaking fingers. “You made the right call.”

  Jonathan heaved himself to his knees. “But, I’m going find them now. The president made it a priority. Seems our boys are part of an international incident. China will be pissed.”

  Freya couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course they are.”

  Her husband sighed. “So, I’ll work out roughly where we think the boys exited along the flight path and go get him.”

  “Laos,” Freya said. “The flight computer said they dropped to an exit height in northern Laos.”

  “What the hell are they doing in Laos?”

  “Maybe avoiding parachuting into China and being shot out of the sky?”

  “He always was a smart kid.”

  “He gets it from his mom,” Freya said with a smirk.

  “You know something... don’t you?” Teller asked, studying her eyes.

  “Hand me that laptop,” Freya said and pointed at the desk.

  Teller climbed to his feet with a groan, grabbed the laptop and handed it to her, standing behind her so he could see.

  Freya opened it up and pulled up the internet search engine with numerous tabs already open.

  “So, I was watching one of those damn infomercials with Heston Tunbridge and his Sixth Sun loonies. He’s been building temples for like twenty odd years, right?”

  “Don’t even go there. We investigated Tunbridge. For years. Trust me when I tell you a billionaire has a lot of lawyer power. Kept tying us up in knots, but we never found anything. He’s clean.”

  Freya scoffed and waved a hand. “Of course, I know that. But it got me thinking. We’ve been building the bunkers and domes for years too. If you wanted control of something like Project Swiss Mountain, which should have completely unhackable code—built bespoke with the world’s top minds—how would you do it?”

  Her husband scratched his jaw. “I’d... be the one to build it and bake in a back door.” His eyes widened in realization.

  “Hacking nuclear power stations is one thing. Hacking something built by multiple governments across the globe, with the sole purpose of protecting the people from the Nine Veils? That’s another.”

  “So, who built the biomes?” Jonathan asked.

  “The Takamatsu Construction Group,” Freya said opening another tab. “A Japanese company based out of Osaka with twenty-one subsidiaries. They’re into high-rise buildings, health and welfare facilities, shrines & temples, and public civil engineering projects such as airports.”

  “Okay, well we know the Nine Veils has a penchant for Japan,” Jonathan said, nodding.

  “Not just Japan. Ancient Japan,” Freya said, clicking more links. “There would have been security checks done on any construction company contracted for Project Swiss Mountain. But what the checks might have missed is the acquisition of a tiny little company of less than one hundred employees back in 2006.”

  “Okay so what’s the company?”

  “Kongō Gumi,” Freya replied pulling up the penultimate tab. “The oldest operating construction company on the planet. They trace their roots back to 578 AD.”

  “Holy shit,” Jonathan exclaimed.

  “Holy shit is right. You know who worked for KG? Tatsuro Sagane.”

  “Sagane? You have to be fucking kidding me,” Jonathan said and dropped to his knees to rest his forehead on the arm of Freya’s chair.

  “Any record of the original cloning program, including the incursion into China in the 40s and later when I went in there, the showdown with Masamune Sagane—the Shan Chu—in Teotihuacan, everything, was destroyed. Lucy saw to that. Long before we found the Huahuqui nest in Siberia. No one would have been looking for his name. And no one asked us to check the screen.”

  Jonathan lifted his head. “Son of a bitch. What is he, the Shan Chu’s son or something?”

  “It’s a bit convoluted, but from what I can see, the Shan Chu cultivated Japanese orphans to become Yakuza and infiltrate the Triads. He gave some of them, the worthiest, his family name. When he died the program died with him. But the kids didn’t.”

  “So, we have a construction company most likely with ties to the Nine Veils just through damn history who, at a minimum, had one employee directly related to the Shan Chu who tried to end the world once already.”

  Freya nodded. That did about sum it up. She rested a hand on Jonathan’s and craned her neck to look in his eyes. “If we find Sagane, we might find the Nine Veils. You, might find them.”

  Jonathan shook his. “No.”

  “What?”

  “I promised you that I’d go after KJ and Nikolaj now. I meant it.”

  Freya opened her mouth to protest.

  “Stop right there. This isn’t a debate.”

  It was difficult to describe the pain in her chest at that moment. The conflict between the burning need for her husband to go after her boys, and knowing he was probably key to saving the world. “That doesn’t make sense and you know it. The needs of the many—”

  Teller squeezed her hand. “They are not the few, they are my kids. I did my job. I found the orb. Doctor Brown can figure out how to use it. The NSA and CIA are working on finding the Nine Veils. We can give them your insight to help.” He paused looking into her eyes. “Now, I go find our sons.”

  The stone in Freya’s throat threatened to choke off her words. “Okay,” was all she could manage.

  “Besides, something tells me KJ and Nikolaj are smarter th
an our government agencies. For whatever reason they are in Laos, I bet it’s a good one.”

  “You always have faith in them, don’t you?” Guilt filled Freya for doubting her boys, especially KJ.

  “They’ve always been smart kids. Now they’re smart men. They’ll lead the world, babe. Gotta let them try.”

  Freya gave a weak smile. “If there is anything left to lead. Jonathan, the only logical reason to take the bunkers is because they plan on blowing up the power stations. They’re taking those people they think will be valuable and killing everyone else.”

  Jonathan mused on the thought. “It’s possible,” he said. “But, then they’d irradiate so much of the Earth for such a long time. Far longer than there are resources in the bunkers to feed everyone. We’re talking decades if not hundreds of years.”

  Freya’s limbs shook, and her mind felt fuzzy again. “Then, I don’t know. I don’t get it. Hostages maybe, they’re going to demand something?”

  “Now that sounds more plausible,” Jonathan said. “But I’ll leave that to the agencies to figure out. I’m going to Laos, apparently.” He offered a weak smile.

  “So, what shall I do, sat in this thing?” she said, patting her wheelchair.

  Her husband laughed. “Like that thing has ever stopped you giving orders. We’ll talk to the president first, and we’ll ask for you to be assigned to Dr Brown. All these scientists may have the degrees, but you have experience and worked with the Huahuqui longer than anyone. We need that orb up and running.”

  Freya tightened her lips in determination. Her husband was right. Damn the chair and damn the disease. Her brain still worked. She reached out her shaking arms to hold both of Jonathan’s hands. “Come home safe. I want all three of my boys right here with me.”

  Her husband squeezed her fingers. “I promise.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Location: South East Rice Terraces, China

  The pick-up truck hurtled along the dirt road through a dense forest of bamboo and fern. Despite blankets and cushion’s lining the flatbed, the jolts and bumps jarred KJ’s spine. It hurt like hell. The drone of the old engine and the grinding of the mismatched tires on the hard earth made it difficult to talk to his brethren—verbally or telepathically. He could barely hear his own thoughts. KJ rubbed his hands together, friction warming them. The sun was quickly slipping away and this high up, even in the tropical forests, the cold would seep deep into his bones by nightfall.