Without preamble, Bryan explained the interaction he’d had with the boy on the ledge, while chasing the wolf, as well as the interaction a few days earlier in the caves. “He approached Louie just before daybreak in the tunnels. He said he has something to show me tonight, when he can sneak out again.”
“What is it?”
“We don’t know, but he obviously thinks it’s important,” Louie said.
“He trusts you,” Gideon asked—a question, disguised in a statement.
“Yes.” Bryan smiled.
“I remember that boy.” Something sparked in Gideon’s eye. “I spoke to Neena about him, when I agreed to let her go. She was worried about him. He was sick, then.”
“He has since recovered,” Bryan said. “But I don’t think he likes his sister very much.”
“How do you know?”
“A few nights ago, we found him wandering in the tunnels with a girl. They snuck away together. When I asked if Neena knew where he was, I heard disdain in his voice,” Bryan said. “Rather than threatening him, or turning him in, I thought it might be better to gain his trust.” Bryan smiled. “I had no idea it would pay off in this way, or this quickly.”
Gideon’s lips curled into a smile. “Where one leads, others will follow.” The spark in his eye brightened. “You were wise to handle it that way. When Raj comes to see you, bring him here. I would like to see what he has to offer.”
“Will do, sir.”
Chapter 44: Raj
“This way,” Louie said, beckoning Raj down the tunnel, under the cover of a new night.
Raj’s heart beat faster as he looked down at the strange, metal object in his hands. Not for the first time, he questioned his decision to reveal his object to Bryan. But it was too late for regrets. He was going to make something of himself.
Finally.
He kept a careful eye on The Watcher he followed. It seemed that ever since he had shown up to meet him, Louie couldn’t stop looking at Raj’s device.
Swallowing through his fear, Raj asked, “Where are we going?”
“Where do you think? To meet Bryan,” Louie grunted.
A thought struck him. If the large man wanted to take the object, what would stop him? Clutching it tighter, he reminded himself that he trusted Bryan—or at least, he thought he did. Still, he needed to be careful. He hung back a few steps—enough that he could run and get away, if things went poorly.
Raj continued down the tunnel, following Louie through several more turns. It felt like they were headed north within the cliffs, but he couldn’t be certain. Neena would never allow him this far, that was for sure.
That thought rekindled his anger.
Forget Neena.
He was going to earn his respect another way.
“Don’t worry. We’re almost there,” Louie said, after a longer while of walking.
Their boot steps echoed through a wide chamber. Looking from side to side, Raj no longer saw the cave walls, or anything but darkness. Something crunched under his feet. He looked down to find small, scattered piles of sand. Boot prints marred some of them. It looked like some other people had been this way recently.
A torch fifty feet away captured his attention.
Bryan.
Raj swallowed as the familiar, dark-haired man approached within a few feet and stopped.
“You made it,” Bryan said, with the same easy smile that had earned Raj’s trust, both inside the caves on that night with Adriana, and outside on the cliffs.
Nervously, Raj asked, “What is this place?”
“We’ve been practicing throwing our spears,” Bryan said. In a pleasant tone, he continued, “With so much time in the caves, we are staying active. And of course, we are staying ready, for the day we kill the monster.”
Raj nodded. Hearing about one of The Watcher’s drills—and their plans for the monster—made his heart nearly leap from his chest. Having gotten farther into the chamber, he could smell the spent torches and the lingering aura of people’s sweat.
Bryan’s eyes riveted on the object in Raj’s hands.
Holding it up so that both Bryan and Louie could see, Raj said, “This is what I wanted to show you.”
Bryan’s eyes widened. Slowly, he moved toward Raj, holding up his torch. “Where did you find that?”
“In one of the caves,” Raj said proudly. “I was hunting a dust beetle, when I saw something gleaming in a passage. I crawled in and dug it out.”
Bryan’s face filled with wonder. He reached out as if to touch the object, before noting the possessiveness on Raj’s face. “Can I see the other side?”
Cradling the object, Raj turned it so the men could see its bottom. Bryan and Louie leaned closer, enrapt. Watching their reaction, Raj felt the same excitement as when he’d found it, and when he’d shown Adriana. Their astonishment reinforced the object’s importance.
“Can I hold it?” Bryan asked.
Raj hesitated. The object was his finding, his discovery.
Seeing the look on Raj’s face, Bryan promised, “You have my word that I will not take it from you.”
Whether it was the admiration in Bryan’s eyes, or the sincerity in his tone, Raj didn’t know, but all at once he was offering up the object. Bryan accepted the object as if it were a newborn baby.
“It’s incredible,” Bryan said, turning the object in his hands, running his hands up and down its metal surface.
“Isn’t it?” Raj beamed.
For a moment, he felt as if he had made the object rather than discovered it.
“What does it do?” Bryan asked.
“I’m not sure.” Feeling inadequate in his answer, Raj said, “I thought that it might be a tool. Or a weapon.” Raj looked back and forth between the two men. “Maybe even something from the First Generation.”
Bryan and Louie’s eyes sparkled. Speaking the words out loud furthered Raj’s excitement.
“Is this a handle?” Bryan asked, gently tapping the metal piece on the bottom.
“I thought it might be, but I’m not sure,” Raj said.
“So, what do you think it does?” Louie asked.
The question was rhetorical.
No one knew.
Turning the object around so that the half-moon faced away from him, Bryan gently shook the object. He turned it left and right. Nothing happened. After studying the device for a while longer, Bryan wondered aloud, “I’m not sure what it does. But I think I might know someone we could ask.”
Raj swallowed.
“Can we show it to another person?”
“Who?” Raj asked.
He looked between Bryan and Louie. Rarely had anyone asked his permission for anything. He knew what his answer would be, even before they said who it was.
Bryan looked between Louie and Raj.
And then they told him.
Chapter 45: Raj
Raj’s stomach roiled with nervousness. Gideon. Hearing the leader’s name instilled a primitive unease. Memories of the man came rushing back to him: watching the tall, authoritative man on the podium, or seeing him walk through the streets, always with an entourage.
And now Raj would be one of Gideon’s important people.
A hunter.
A Watcher.
Maybe even a part of that entourage.
What would Adriana think, when he told her?
Raj could hardly contain his excitement, as he followed Bryan and Louie into another, wider passage. Only his fear kept him in check.
Was this the Center Cave?
It must be.
He recognized the familiar, yet different, tone of the auburn walls. He had only been to the Center Cave a few times, mostly in those beginning days, when he’d helped others situate. Judging by the path they’d followed, he deduced that they’d entered from the back way.
In the distance was a small, dark passage.
A man guarded the entrance.
Bryan and Louie headed toward him.
The smell of medicines, herbs, and sickness reached Raj’s nose. He had never seen Gideon up close. And he certainly never thought he’d speak to him. Raj knew that he was fortunate, and yet his fear encompassed him.
Getting closer, he saw that the person he thought was a guard, was actually a healer.
“Jameson.” Bryan nodded at a balding man, who parted to allow them in.
The man’s eyes lingered on the object, but he made no move toward it, nor did he ask any questions. Inside the small cove, Bryan, Louie, and Raj headed for a single, occupied bedroll.
And then Raj was standing alongside the two Watchers, looking down on the leader to whom he had spent most of his life listening, and fearing.
He shivered.
Gideon’s scarred, disfigured face was fit for nightmares.
Wounds ran in every direction, obscuring the man’s familiar visage. Some of his grey hair hung over his eye, but other parts of his scalp were patchy and bald. One of his legs was missing. His arms were dirty and thin. Worst of all was his empty eye socket, filled with mottled, red skin. Gideon looked like a corpse, waiting for burial, rather than a man. With his one remaining eye, he fixated on Raj and his object.
“Raj.”
Hearing his name, Raj jumped. “You know me?”
Seeing the surprise on Raj’s face, Gideon explained, “Bryan told me you might be coming. He said you had something to show him.”
“He is our leader,” Bryan explained. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
Raj nodded through the lump in his throat. It made sense.
Pointing at Raj, Louie explained, “Raj said he found the object in the caves. He crawled in and pulled it out of a crevice.”
“Let him explain,” Gideon said, quieting his subordinate.
With Gideon’s encouragement, Raj explained the things he’d told Bryan and Louie, adding how he’d chased the dust beetle, and how he’d crawled in and retrieved the object. Gideon listened with a quiet intensity, his eye roaming between Raj and the device.
When Raj was finished, Gideon said, “You are brave.”
Raj’s heart soared.
“It is clear you have found something of worth.”
“I thought it might be,” Raj said, validated.
“Do you have any idea what it is, Gideon?” Bryan asked.
Gideon’s dry, cracked lips opened and closed. He leaned his head forward as far as he could, getting a better view, but weakness made him fall back on the bedroll.
With a quivering hand, he reached out. “Can you bring the object closer?”
Slowly, Raj placed the object on the crippled man’s lap. The smell of unwashed garments and sweat invaded his nose, but he didn’t falter, or back away.
“Do you think it might be from the First Generation?” Raj asked, unable to stop the words from spilling from his mouth.
Gideon didn’t answer. Instead, he scrutinized the object, finding the strength to grasp it. A spark of wonder flashed through his eye as he passed his hand along its surface, caressing the smaller pieces of attached metal, the half-moon at the end, and some thinner, metal bands connecting one end of the half-moon to the other.
Pointing out a few divots and dings, Gideon said, “Obviously, you can see the object’s imperfections. But it is wondrous. And certainly old.” Gideon couldn’t take his eye, or his hands, off of the device.
“Do you have any guesses as to its purpose?” Bryan asked.
Gideon stared at the object a while longer. Slowly, a memory surfaced.
“As you know, my father didn’t believe in wasting time on stories,” Gideon said. “He believed that dreaming led to dying. But my mother told a few.”
Raj, Bryan, and Louie leaned forward, listening.
“Seeing this object reminds me of one of the stories she told me—something that I haven’t recalled in many years.” Gideon’s eye roamed to the ceiling. “Like most of the colonists who spent time on such fictions, my mother was enamored with the idea of Earth’s ships. She was also enamored with Earth’s devices. Often, she spoke of the ways they communicated with other people in the ships. She also spoke of weapons they used to hunt animals.” Gideon paused, an almost-childlike innocence coming over his face. “According to my mother, the people from the ships had a weapon that took no force from the person wielding it—a device that could kill animals with one use, if it was used right. Perhaps this is one of those weapons. It is a guess, of course, but seeing the object reminds me of that story.”
Raj stared at the object with even more wonder.
A weapon. What he heard gave him goosebumps.
He couldn’t imagine how it might work.
“Have you tried using it?” Gideon asked.
Bryan shook his head. “We looked it over in the practice chamber. I shook it a bit, but I did not extensively test it.”
Louie backed instinctively away. “If it is a weapon, for all we know, it is dangerous.”
Caution took over Gideon’s face. “Perhaps we can take it to Lenny, then. He’ll study it and see what he makes of it.”
“The blacksmith?” Bryan’s eyes went to the floor. “He’s dead, sir, killed in the mouth of the monster.”
Louie traded a glance with Bryan. “Most of our tradesmen died when the monster arrived.”
A small frustration crossed Gideon’s face.
“We’ll test it,” Bryan said, looking confidently between Gideon and Raj. “If it does something, we’ll figure it out.”
Gideon nodded, satisfied. He looked from the object to Raj. A smile passed through his face, crinkling the corners of his mouth and bunching some of the scars on his face, as he asked, “Do you mind if we try out your object?”
“No, sir.” Raj still couldn’t believe he was speaking to the leader.
“This device might help us in ways we can’t fathom.” Gideon watched the device.
Raj couldn’t believe what he heard.
“You have done good work, boy. You should be proud of your discovery.”
Raj beamed, taking a step back and holding his object close.
“I look forward to an update from all of you.”
**
“Hold it this way,” Bryan instructed.
He and Louie shifted the object back and forth, touching some of the grooves on the side. More than once, they stepped back, as if the object might emit some powerful lightning.
Or turn their bodies to ash.
Keeping his distance, Raj shivered.
Gideon’s words had inspired new admiration for the object, but also a heavy dose of fear. Raj couldn’t help thinking about the stories he’d told. Who knew what the device might do? Following Bryan’s instructions, Raj stayed on one end of the cave, holding his torch, keeping a safe buffer from where the other men tested his discovery. A part of him wanted to help, but another part was glad to watch from a distance. Despite his fear, he felt freer than he had in days. Weeks.
Gone was the lonely feeling that had plagued him for too long; instead he had a sense of belonging.
His hands shook with excitement. At any moment, they might expose a secret that would change his life. Maybe even everyone’s lives.
He watched, riveted, as Bryan and Louie carefully turned the object end over end. A few times, they set it down, cleaned it off, or inspected it for something they might’ve missed.
Raj watched for a long while, until the bottoms of his feet ached from standing, shifting, and repositioning. He looked back over his shoulder. How much time had elapsed since he’d arrived with the object? It felt like they’d kept at it for most of the night. A new fear washed over him: what if it was already daybreak, and someone had missed him?
Seeing the worry on his face, Louie looked from the object to the end of the tunnel from which they’d come.
“Maybe we should try again tomorrow,” Louie suggested.
“Can we hold on to the device for you?” Bryan asked.
Raj hesitated. “I’d rather bring it back
with me when I return.”
Bryan watched him a long moment.
“I’ll come back tomorrow,” Raj promised, stepping over and reaching out his hands.
A strange look crossed Bryan’s face as he looked at the device. Bryan cradled it in such a way that he couldn’t take it back easily. Again, Raj wondered if he had made a mistake. What would he do if Bryan refused?
Slowly, Bryan handed it over.
“Tomorrow night, it is,” Bryan said with a smile.
Chapter 46: Bryan
Gideon pursed his chapped lips and appraised Bryan and Louie. “Are you certain the boy will bring it back?”
Bryan looked between Gideon and Louie. “The boy trusts us. We have done nothing to break that trust. He will return it to us.”
“I think he is trying to prove something to us,” Louie said. “I’ve seen the look in his eyes.”
“But you didn’t have any luck in testing it,” Gideon reiterated.
“We aren’t sure what the object does, if anything,” Louie said. “For all we know, the boy is more useful than his metal device.”
Gideon nodded. “You have a point. But even if the object doesn’t function, the boy’s trust can be a great asset. With his help, we can keep a closer watch on the Right Cave.”
“You’re right. The deal with Raj brings us little risk,” Bryan agreed. “With the support of the Center Cave, we have little to fear.”
Gideon nodded decisively. “Do everything in your power to keep the boy in our good graces. Hopefully, he will continue to provide use to us.” Gideon paused. “Who knows? Weapon or not, the boy might be the key to unraveling everything in their cave.”
Chapter 47: Neena
Neena, Kai, and twenty other Right Cavers rubbed their eyes and clutched their buckets. The light of their torches illuminated the winding tunnel, as they headed toward the spring. Despite some normal, lingering tiredness, Neena had slept better than usual the night before. It seemed Kai had gotten some better rest, as well. Gone were the bags under his eyes, and he walked with long, purposeful strides. The few days of relative peace had lifted everyone’s spirits.
Neena looked over her shoulder at the twenty people behind her. A mixture of men and women comprised their group. A few rows back, Samara smiled at her. Unlike the others, Samara carried two buckets instead of her torch, so she could provide extra water for her young ones. The others kept a brisk pace.
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