I am startled at first by the heat that is produced across my palms and scared it might lead to severe burns. My hands seem to be handling the heat just fine, though, and in an instant of determination I propel the red energy after the drone.
The red ball of destruction seems to pick up speed until it suddenly envelopes the fleeing craft and melts all the drone’s materials into what I can only describe as a liquid mist on fire. As it trickles down to Earth like rain it eventually loses its fiery color and disappears harmlessly into the trees.
“That was unreal,” I hear Theo’s voice beside me.
I sense a bit of terror in the eyes of my friends, terror caused by my horrible abilities. I try to smile to assure them but my knees buckle and I grab on to Theo’s arm instead. Every time the power drains me I lose focus for a moment or two. My recovery time is improving, however.
When we walk back to the cart two emergency vehicles carrying water and flame retardant pumps race past. I climb onto the cart with Zoe to return to Spring Town when I notice Eric staring at me intensely. His face tells Zoe and me everything we need to know. He has seen more than he should have, more than he can understand.
“She’s great at parties,” Zoe says trying to lighten the mood.
A ghost of a grin comes and goes on his lips. I see no fear in his expression. I see an intelligence and a curiosity that I have not seen in him before. He studies me like he would a magnificent animal in a cage.
There is a glimmer of recognition in the way he looks at me. Eric has seen things in this world, more than he lets on. I just hope one day I’ll be able to unravel some of the many mysteries he hides behind his savage eyes.
14
“Could they be testing your powers again?” Dom says.
“Who knows?” I say. “The empress is never that obvious.”
Theo arrives just in time to take over the communication channels that have proved difficult for my shaking hands to control.
“Eyes on the sensors,” Theo tells Zoe. “There could be more coming.”
“On it,” Zoe replies just before the connection is established.
I expect to see the commander on the screen but we get Lainey instead.
“We’ve been trying to contact you,” she says. “There’s something you must know.”
“We have new information as well,” Theo says. “We just blew up two incoming bombers.”
Lainey remains silent. She steps away from the camera and when she returns, Ava is with her.
“Listen to her,” Lainey says.
I jump in front of the screen to make sure Ava can see I’m here.
“Freya,” she says with terrified eyes, “they’re shutting me down.”
“What do you mean, Ava?”
“They don’t need me anymore. They want me dead.”
“Lainey, what is she talking about?” Dom cuts in.
“She’s been having seizures,” Lainey explains. “And losing blood through her ears and nose while she’s having them.”
“When did this start?” I ask.
“Yesterday,” Lainey says.
I look at Ava’s pale face and her frantic eyes. She is just a little girl who feels lost and afraid. “You’ll be fine,” I say not knowing how I can make her believe me.
“They got their host. Their embryos can grow into adulthood very, very fast. Do you hear me, Freya? They don’t need either one of us anymore. You’ll be next.”
Ava’s eyes turn white before she collapses right there. I can’t see her anymore but I hear footsteps and mumbled voices.
The screen is empty for a while before Medical Officer Armand steps into frame. “Ava’s seizures have worsened,” he says. “They’ve rushed her to emergency. I must attend to her.” With that, Armand turns to go.
“Wait,” I urge him.
“What is it?”
“She’s wrong, isn’t she? About me being next? My body isn’t controlled by them like her body.”
Armand seems hesitant. “I haven’t seen anything to indicate that,” he says. “There’s a lot I don’t understand about how their technicians mutate selected genes or accelerate changes within cells but I believe you’re safe.”
The screen goes black. I remain in the same position staring into the void. The Empress recorded my genetic code along with DNA samples when she had me in her clutches. Maybe she’s used that information to create a new host. Ava might be right about that part.
“Do you really think the aliens are trying to kill Ava?” Zoe says.
“She could have been bred with an expiration date,” Theo says.
Finn shakes his head. “It sounded like she knew something. She mentioned the possibility of a new host. What if there’s truth to that?”
“You know what it all means,” Malzod says. His voice startles me. I didn’t even notice him entering the room.
Dom straightens his hair nervously. “It doesn’t matter what it means,” he says. “You want us to go to battle.”
“Nonsense,” Malzod says. “I don’t want anything. Freya knows what I’m talking about.”
Of course I do. With so much happening that we don’t understand, our only option would be to attack first. Like I did with the drones earlier. Ready or not, we need a plan of action and then we need the action to happen.
“I need to eat something,” I say to excuse myself. It’s true. I haven’t eaten anything today. “Let’s give it some thought.”
The door is wide open and as I pass through it, a buzzing sound causes me to look back. Zoe and Finn lean over the desk to respond to the incoming message. When their heads gently collide, Zoe stumbles away awkwardly.
There’s too much happening. I feel too old and too young at the same time. The energy fields I’ve been producing with my bare hands could burden my system to the point of breaking it like a bundle of old sticks. So much is expected of me and I’m not even nineteen yet. Why would anyone trust me with the future of civilization or the survival of humankind?
Eric doesn’t seem surprised to see me at his door. If he has a brain at all, he should have been waiting for me.
“Are you alone?” I ask.
He nods and lets me in. The coat hangs on a chair instead of his shoulders for a change. He’s changed into a pair of jeans and tee shirt, probably courtesy of one of the few Exodus guards that have stayed in Spring Town with Dom.
“You look tired,” he says.
“I could say the same for you.”
“Your Spring Town isn’t exactly what I expected it to be.” He goes to the chair with the coat to take his pipe and those nasty leaves out.
“What did you expect? A huge city?”
“You mentioned soldiers. You didn’t say anything about a bunch of kids.”
“Then you weren’t listening.”
“It’s just not the idea of rebellion I had imagined.”
I study his face to see if he’s mocking me. “Let’s stop wasting time,” I say. “You saw something today. It was not the first time you’d seen such things.”
He lifts the unlit pipe to his lips and readies a match. He changes his mind and quickly sets down both the pipe and the matches.
“What is it that you think I saw?” he says.
“The drones exploding.”
“Oh, yeah, I saw that. Was that you?”
“Fine, if that’s how you want to play it,” I say heading for the door.
“Are you always so determined?” he says blocking my way.
“It’s not a choice, Eric. It’s a necessity.”
He lowers his eyes. “Yet at some point it becomes who you are.”
“Thanks for the psychology lesson.”
He studies me again and raises his brow. “There were stories about experiments in the plantations,” he says. “People talk a lot around fires.”
“I think you were doing the talking,” I say. “Only they were not stories. They were your memories. It’s quite a difference between fireside stories and ho
ver crafts falling from the sky.”
“Or you’ve just been sitting by the wrong fires.” He thinks he’s charming. The fact that he is charming makes him no less annoying.
“You don’t seem surprised at all.”
“I’ve learned not to betray my emotions to anyone.”
“Men,” I say. “Why on Earth would you learn that?”
“None of your business, Freya.”
His stubbornness can only be matched by Damian or maybe a brick wall.
“You win,” I say. “You want to know who built Spring Town? My army of super Sliman Warriors who were designed to end all other armies. Satisfied?”
That finally gets him. For all his reassurances that no emotions cross his face, he cannot hide his astonishment. He stares at me with his lips slightly parted, unable to respond.
“Remember Kroll?” I say. “He comes with a set of ten thousand soldiers that are more powerful than any Sliman that lived before them. Our own Dark Legion. They are camped just miles outside Spring Town.”
“I suspected there were more of his type,” he says. “But a whole army?”
“You see, that surprised you, but what you saw today did not.”
“It did actually,” he says. “But strange things have become common.”
“To you maybe, but not to the ones you travel with.”
He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “Those drones, as you call them, the ones you blew up, they were pumped full of protonic gas.”
“And I suppose you learned that eating squirrel by a fire,” I say, not willing to mention the fact I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“My past is mine,” he says and yawns at my persistence.
“Fine,” I say, immediately feeling childish for saying it.
“You were too busy dealing with the drones to notice the purple halo forming around them when they got blasted. But I saw everything.”
When did Eric become Theo? Who is this guy? I should be worried but I’m not. Something tells me that every cell in this guy is honest and reliable. He reeks of it like Finn.
“Then what does it mean? Why would they carry that proto gas thing?”
“Protonic. It means they’re winning.”
Now I’m worried. “Winning how?”
“You must have an electromagnetic energy shield in place, right?”
He sees the answer written all over my panicked face.
“That’s unfortunate,” he says. “Protonic gas can leak through the shield and erode its stability. It would then flake and fall like ash on your town.”
My head starts spinning. I’ll have to verify Eric’s theories with Theo, of course, but if this is true, those ashes will be more than symbolic.
“It’s a good thing we eliminated the drones quickly,” I say.
“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?”
“Please, Eric. No more games. Speak.”
“When you blew up those drones, you released the protonic gases faster by the explosions than anything else could. My guess is by now it must have penetrated the shield. The deterioration has begun.”
My blood freezes. I’m torn between slapping him across his arrogant face and using my energy on him to interrogate him properly.
“And you tell us now? Why didn’t you say anything back then when you saw the explosions and the purple gas around the drones?”
“I had to walk to the crash site to verify it,” he says. “The gas has a scent that hung heavy around the debris. And besides, there is no stopping the gas.”
I swear I could kill him. “Even as a theory it should not have been withheld from us.”
“You needed time to recover. I know the energy drains you.”
“Of course you do,” I say. “You know everything.”
“You can be mad at me after the war,” he says.
My hands shake. “If the shield drops, I’ll rebuild it even if it kills me.”
“You’re not listening,” he says impatiently. “I said you can’t block the process. But I can.”
He has grabbed my full attention. He must be quite popular around the fire telling his many stories.
“What are you waiting for? What are you doing here? Fix it!”
The grin returns on his face. “I already have.”
I have no idea why I’m letting him live. “How?”
“Come, I’ll show you.”
He walks me to the window and points at the clear sky outside. “Can you spot the seam where the energy field comes together?”
“No,” I say impatiently but then I see it. It resembles a rippling column of pinkish light that acts like a connective point for the shield.
“When gas particles find energy fields, they seek a point of entry.”
“The seam,” I say quietly.
“Yes. All you’d have to do is wait for the moment they reach the seam and move it left or right. By the time the particles locate its new position, they’ve drifted above the shield and disperse losing most of their power.”
“And how were you able to do that?” I say suspiciously.
“I visited the panel that controls your generators. The navigation was quite easy.”
Huh? I’m beginning to question my judgment to bring Eric to Spring Town without knowing who he really was. If he was a spy, we’d already have lost the war. Our fate was in his hands since I invited him to Spring Town.
“Who are you?” I say. “I mean, really.”
He shrugs. “Just a man with acute senses and a unique ability for observation. I learn fast. I’ve been around brilliant people.”
“Right,” I say. “There are a whole bunch of people out there in the cold more brilliant than you?”
“Not now,” he says. “Once upon a time.”
“Are you telling a story now or the truth?”
“Does it matter?” he says. “As long as it works.”
My instinct tells me to stop. When Eric talks all things are possible. I suspect he could enchant any man or woman on Earth. His secrets are whispered all over his face and deep in his gaze.
“I guess not,” I say. “Your past is yours.”
15
Marisa looks out of place among the Saviors. Eric fits right in. He shows a keen interest in Biscuit’s olfactory skills and Tilly’s super hearing and vision. He wants to know how it affects their everyday life. He marvels at the technological intuition of Theo and Zoe and wants to learn everything.
I watch him from a distance, trying to determine whether he’s an ally or a threat. Theo and Zoe were able to corroborate his story about the protonic gas which concerns me. It could be a mistake that we allow him to live with us. Ava once lived freely among us as did Torik. Something doesn’t add up about him. I decide to have Kroll keep an eye on him.
Nya is the only one in the room who resists Eric’s charms. She doesn’t even bother to give him an answer when he asks her what makes her special.
“He’s weird,” she whispers in my ear. “His questions bother me.”
I’m trying not to laugh. “You’re one to talk,” I whisper back.
“That Marisa chick is even weirder,” Nya adds rolling her eyes.
Marisa has been sitting quietly in a corner the whole time. She has refused to change clothes. She still wears her wool sweater and army green pants. She has an oval face with big, clear eyes and full lips. She’s cute in her own vacant way despite the premature age spots and fine lines on her skin. Her life may have been free but no less rough than ours.
“She needs some encouragement,” I say. “This is all new for her.”
When Finn steps into the room, I steal a glance at Zoe. She seems to be composed and in perfect control of herself. Nice bluff. Zoe has always been the most conscientious person in the group when it comes to business. She’d never let personal emotions show up at a meeting.
When Malzod and Dom join us, we take our seats to discuss what has been on everyone’s mind. We’re under siege. An elaborat
e, sophisticated, carefully woven siege that’s meant to keep us guessing until it’s too late.
Malzod glances at Eric and then at me. I know what his eyes are trying to tell me but I don’t acknowledge it. Instead, I look away. I don’t want to start a conversation about whether Eric and Marisa should be present in the meeting. I took a chance when I brought them here and now I need to test their trustworthiness by any means possible.
“As the evidence suggests, and thanks to our new friend Eric, it is obvious the aliens are on a war path,” Theo starts things off in a very telling manner.
“Excuse me,” Malzod says with his eyes fixed on Eric, “what exactly is new about that?”
“We are running out of time,” I say. “Isn’t it obvious?”
“It’s not even about that,” Finn cuts in. “The crucial part is what Ava said. If they shut her down, Freya could be next.”
“Freya is not a machine like Ava,” Theo says. “They’re different.”
“In the end, it won’t matter,” I say. “If Ava is right and they have a new host, they’ll multiple. We have to destroy them before they destroy us.”
“How much time do we have?” Biscuit says.
Theo shakes his head. “According to Ava, not much. The process of turning embryos into adult subjects can be accelerated. Doctor Armand and I agree that their technology makes that possible and more.”
“So what you’re saying is that we need to attack,” Dom says and by the look on his face, I can tell he still doesn’t like that possibility.
“What do you suggest?” Tilly says looking at me.
I’m about to tell her that the time has come and we need to figure it all out together when Eric cuts in. “Take over the villages,” he says. “It has to be done in one night. Start from a point they won’t expect. Then, as they react and counter, attack the plantations.”
He talks with such conviction, I’m tempted to agree with him without a second thought. But the logistics are hard to ignore.
“That will require a lot of manpower,” Finn says. “More than you can imagine.”
“You have the manpower. You have ten thousand warriors. And I can be of some assistance. There’s nothing I don’t know about the villages. We’ve been watching them closely for over a year.”
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