Aethon Arises (Endless Fire Book 2)

by R E Kearney

  Lying on his side, with his tacky, gloved hands, Robert is struggling to remove his face mask. It is sap glued to his wet suit hood. He cannot unstrap his oxygen tank harness, either. Flopping like a fat flounder on the dinghy’s deck, he is stumped.

  “Hey! I need some help here!” He yells at Guia.

  When Guia ignores him, Robert kicks him on the side of his leg. “Hey! Sorry to bother you, but free me from this strait jacket! Will you?”

  Guia slows the dinghy to a crawl. Then he turns his attention to Robert. “Do you think I’m stupid? I’m not going to touch you. You’re covered in poison.”

  “Sorry, but you can’t just leave me like this.” Robert protests.

  Guia surveys the deck for some gadgets to help Robert. With a clap of his hands, he concocts a plan. He uncovers a length of tow rope from a pile of gear.

  Displaying the rope to Robert, he explains his scheme. “I’m going to tie this end of the rope around this cleat here.” Guia secures the rope around a cleat on the aft end of the dinghy.

  “This other end, I’m going to wrap around your chest.” Carefully, without touching him, he slips the rope around Robert’s chest, just below his armpits.

  Using the rope, he helps Robert stand. “Now, I want you to jump back into the water.”

  “Sorry? What!” Robert objects.

  “You hop back in and I’ll pull you through the water back to the marina. By then, you should be clean enough to touch.” Guia directs with a confident smile.

  “Are you crazy?!” Robert tugs at his rope harness.

  Guia chuckles. “Some people say I’m Locó, but I just think I’m imaginative. Now are you heading back into the water or do you want to wear that hot neoprene the rest of the day? It’s up to you.”

  Robert shakes his head in resignation, walks to the stern and drops off into the shoulder-high water. He watches Guia gradually ease the boat forward. The rope tightens around Robert’s chest and pulls him off his feet. He is soon bobbing and twirling along, up and down, chest-up, chest-down, behind the boat. At first he fights, but soon he relaxes and enjoys the ride. The water flowing through his suit is cooling and flushing the sting off his legs and cooling his fiery crotch.

  Guia slows until the dinghy is dead in the water next to his pier. Refreshed, Robert swims to the side of the dinghy. Guia slides the boarding ladder over the side and he climbs aboard. After he unties Robert, Guia completes mooring.

  Some parts of him remain a little sticky, but now Robert is finally able to shed his facemask, tank, tool belt and wetsuit. The bay breeze flows across his skin and begins calming the flaming blotches puffing out on his legs. But, the gentle, saltwater wind cannot extinguish the smoldering in his midsection.

  Grabbing a two-liter water bottle from the deck, he pulls his boxer shorts away from his belly and douses himself. If one is good, three are better. Desperately, one bottle after another, he drenches his genitals. Only when Rita wolf whistles at him, does he remember that he is wetting himself in public wearing only his clinging, wet undershorts, his diving boots and his scuba gloves.

  “Acho que fiebre (What a fever, dude)!” Rita blows on her fingers like they are hot and she must cool them. “You are looking good, especially the diving boots and gloves. They’re so…oh, I don’t know…you. Yep, it’s a fashion statement only that dapper man, Robert Goodfellow, would or could make.”

  After feigning a smile at the approaching Zhou and Rita, Robert peels off his diving boots. Next, he yanks off his gloves and tosses them onto the deck. Guia hands him his shorts, shirt and shoes and he swiftly dresses with his back turned to the women. His water-soaked boxer shorts are a welcome, wet compress pressing against his enflamed skin. Carefully, he inspects the Aethon badge attached to his shirt. It is still lucky green.

  “Don’t lose those gloves.” Zhou advises. “You’ll need them to transfer my samples to our glider.”

  “And we need to do that now and get out of here.” Rita points toward a man untying the boat she and Zhou just returned. “He told us that the two men we left swimming back there were thugs brought here by two other men. I think the men out in the channel were their muscle.”

  “Well they certainly weren’t their brains.” Robert sneers with swagger, stretching to his full height and puffing out his chest, as he savors his triumph in combat over the two tough guys.

  “Yeah…well anyway…” Smirking, Rita continues. “The two men who left are mean looking fellows according to him. He told us he overheard them telling the two thugs that they were going to meet some associates in Guanica, while they collected the packages here. He expects them to return soon and he’s scared of them, so he’s going out to find the two goons who attacked us.”

  Guia, Rita and Zhou wave at the other boat as it passes. The man distractedly returns their wave. He is concentrating on the bay ahead, searching it for the two men.

  Zhou motions for Robert to hurry, as he pulls on the diving gloves. “He may be looking for a while. We told him we found the boat abandoned off the point near Boquerón Faro, so he won’t look in the channels immediately. But, like he told us, he expects the other two to return at any time. So, we need to leave here, now.”

  Lugging all of Zhou’s Manchineel samples the half-mile from the boat to the auto-auto is a painful, exhausting chore. The sample bag is a heavy burden when it is not floating on water, especially as Robert struggles to keep it away from his body. Each brush of the bag or bough against his skin scalds him. Flinching, wincing and cursing, he wrestles his balky harvest of death apples, leaves and limbs up the pier, through the landing lot, and finally, into the auto-auto’s rear storage.

  Hauling Zhou’s samples from the boat has drained Robert of all of his victorious, gladiator bravado and most of his strength. He struggles to find enough power to pull off the diving gloves. He drops them onto the samples and closes the glider’s hatch. He is drained and dizzy, and leans against the side of the glider for support.

  “Darse prisa (Hurry up)! We must go now, Robert!” Rita shouts from inside the auto-auto.

  The entry panel slides open. Zhou and Rita grab his shirt, yanking him inside onto the floor. The glider bolts ahead with a jolt.

  “We’re taking a different route back. We’re not using major passageways. Rita says it will take a little longer, but only locals know to travel this way. It should be safer.” Zhou explains excitedly. “And she says that we’ll stop at a place in the hills called Maelo Chicken Fever. It’s a roadside restaurant that has spectacular smoked chicken. Since, it’s not in a city, she says they’ll feed us. I hope so. I haven’t eaten at all today. I’m starving!”

  Robert drags himself from the floor onto the glider seat. “Well, Lewis Carroll said that if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. So let’s go look for some chicken to chew. I’m hungry too.”

  CLEAN GREEN

  Perfect plans fail eventually. Bad plans flop immediately. Travelling the lone passageway connecting La Parguera’s piers to the rest of Puerto Rico never enhances your chances of avoiding detection. Bad guys always monitor the main routes.

  “Duck! Get down! Get down!” Rita shoves Zhou out of sight onto the seat. Her safety restraint slapping her across her throat, nearly strangling her. Robert instinctively pops his safety restraint and drops to the floor. Rita plops on top of Robert knocking his breath out of him.

  Robert squirms for breathing space beneath Rita. “Why are we hiding and why are you crushing me?”

  “The other men! Didn’t you see them? Two guys wearing the same ugly, bright shirts.” Pushing on Robert’s back, Rita rises and peeks out the side window. “Ok, I don’t think they noticed us.”

  “Oh, they’d have to be blind to have not noticed us. We’re probably in the only auto-auto glider in Puerto Rico sporting bush scratches. Our rumble with the air-cycles left distinguishing marks, you know.” Robert grumbles.

  Zhou props herself up and p
eers out their back glass. “If that’s their glider that I see, we may not be safe, yet. I think they’re slowing. They may be stopping.”

  Rita and Robert join Zhou at the back glass to spy on the glider that passed them. It hesitates, but does not stop. A few feet farther it accelerates, returning to normal speed. Breathing easier, but not relaxing, the trio continue watching backward. Only when nothing appears for several minutes do they adopt a jittery normal and exchange crouching for sitting.

  Rita exhales and rubs her fingers across her forehead. “Phew! Salió el tiro por la culata (that plan backfired). I thought for a moment that we were trapped. But, I think we’ll be ok now.”

  A distressed expression etching her face, Zhou is not as confident as Rita. “Can this thing go any faster? We need to get far away from here, as fast as possible. I dread what will happen once those men learn that their companions are missing…or worse yet…they find them and see what Robert did to them.”

  “Sorry, but auto-autos will not exceed the allowed maximum speed. It’s going as fast as its program permits.” Robert’s explanation does not soothe Zhou’s concerns.

  Beyond her sight, Zhou’s forebodings are transforming into reality at La Parguera’s piers. Arriving at the bay, the two bosses discover Guia calmly tending his empty, moored dinghy. They are perplexed. They expected to find their two men in possession of the trio and their samples awaiting them. They certainly did not expect to discover Guia healthy and alone. According to their plan, he and his dinghy should still be out in the bay.

  Hurrying from pier to pier, they complete a brief search of the port. No luck. They cannot locate their own men or their rented boat. Standing at the water’s edge, scanning the bay and then looking back, the truth smacks them. The two suddenly grasp that they just allowed their quarry to glide by them.

  In less than a minute, they initiate their pursuit sending a speedy surveillance drone shooting skyward to hunt that glider they just passed. One of the men dons a pair of FPV, drone control goggles to view what their drone views. Searching the only passageway exiting this small town proves an easy task. Whizzing through the air on drone wings, his camera eyes swiftly spot the trio’s solitary auto-auto gliding along the single thoroughfare.

  “Got them. They’re traveling north on thoroughfare 304,” announces the goggles wearer. “In a few minutes, I’ll have the drone within audio surveillance range, too. All we have to do is look and listen. They can run, but they cannot hide.”

  Grabbing the drone pilot by his arm, the other man hustles him to their auto-auto and shepherds him inside. Then he scrambles in beside him. After he punches a few buttons synchronizing the FPV drone control goggles signal with the auto-auto’s guidance system, their glider is underway. Robert, Rita and Zhou’s glider has a thirty-five minute lead on them, but with their spy drone leading them they know they will catch them eventually. They can be patient. There is no escape.

  Thirty-five minutes distance ahead, as they climb into the mountains, Zhou is growing impatient. Her mind is racing far ahead of their glider. Questions, questions, questions plague her. Can she transform the Manchineel poison fruit or toxic sap into an Aethon killer? Does a weakness exist in the Aethon RNA that she can exploit?

  Mentally, she inventories her Manchineel samples and contemplates a range of possible genome modification algorithms. But, her mental manipulations provide no solace. She aches to be working in her lab microscopically ripping apart the Manchineel’s genetic structures to reveal its secrets.

  Zhou concedes that examining any of her Manchineel samples inside the glider is too dangerous, but she wonders if she can learn anything by probing Robert’s sap burns. “Robert, do any of the places where you came in contact with the Manchineel still burn?”

  Robert is unprepared for Zhou’s question. He must mentally self-examine himself for a moment. “Uh yes, well my calves…and…uh…my groin. My groin burns the worst.”

  “Ah, tender skin…good. The groin is where your body would most easily absorb Manchineel sap.” Zhou taps her nose in thought and then reaches toward Robert. “Let me see it.”

  “Sorry?” Robert throws Zhou’s exploring hands away. “Whoa! Wait one minute, now. I don’t think so.”

  Giggling, Rita immediately seizes her opportunity to pester Robert. “But, it’s for the sake of science Robert. I say, let’s see some bare bum buddy. You were flashing it on the pier. Why not here?”

  Zhou points at the Aethon badge on Robert’s chest. “I wouldn’t ask, but your badge is glowing green. It’s much greener than mine or Rita’s. So, something special is occurring inside you. Must be because you’re the only one who had Manchineel sap on their body. I just want to analyze…”

  “Look at my calves. Take some of my blood. But, I’m not taking off my shorts.” Robert grabs his short’s waist.

  “I wonder. I’m not as smart about this genetics stuff as you guys but…” Rita reaches toward Robert and lightly touches his Aethon badge. “…couldn’t this be a good sign? Like a positive, positive? Since green is good isn’t glowing green better? Perhaps your badge is telling us what we want to know.”

  To protect himself from being stripped, Robert releases his tight grip on his short’s waste and activates his embedded PCD. “Pion will know. She developed the analytic parameters for it.”

  Robert receives no immediate response from Pion to his initial inquiry. He waits five minutes before he attempts again. Again, she is silent. Five minutes later, he tries his third time. No answer.

  Robert completes some mental time travel. “If my calculations are correct, she is eighteen hours ahead of us here, so it should be six thirty-seven in the morning there. Actually, I guess you could say tomorrow morning. Perhaps, she’s eating. If she is, then interrupting her structured schedule will upset her. Better not to bother her, again. When she’s prepared, she’ll respond.”

  Pion appears on Robert’s PCD fifteen minutes later. She is not the woman he expects to see. Her room is dark. Her face is haggard. She is gently rocking to and fro with her eyes closed, mumbling. Robert recognizes that she is stimming.

  Seeking not to agitate Pion and worsen her condition, Robert approaches her cautiously. First, he ensures that she cannot see Rita, who upsets her, or Zhou, who is a stranger. He places his finger across his lips motioning for them to be silent. Without speaking, he watches and waits for her to indicate that she is prepared and willing to receive him.

  His patience pays. Her rocking gradually slows to a stop. As if awakening from a deep sleep, she opens her eyes. Still repeatedly mumbling something that sounds to Robert like “Shengwu” and “babies”. She stares ahead.

  Believing that she is attempting to tell him something, Robert nods his head and gently, calmly agrees in his most reassuring, soothing voice. “Yes, I understand. Are you ok? Can I ask you a question? I need your help.”

  Eventually, her mumbles become whispers and then stop. She closes her eyes. Droops her head. Silence. Robert waits. Slowly, she raises her head and nods.

  Robert ventures his question in a voice just above a whisper. “Some Manchineel sap absorbed into my skin and now my Aethon badge is glowing green. What could cause it to glow green? Is that good or bad?”

  “Glowing green? Please show me.” Pion requests.

  Robert displays his badge to her. She waves her hand in front of her face to energize her Artificial Intelligence interface. Soft light bathes her face from this type of heads-up display. In Pion’s own voice, the AI greets her. “Good morning Pion.”

  “Access Aethon badge parameters.” She directs.

  Shadows and colors prance across Pion’s face. She moves her eyes to the side and one shadow pattern dissolves into another. She leans a millimeter forward and the shadow patterns enlarge. After minutes of study, she nods and the shadows disappear and the light melts away.

  Pion focuses on Robert. “When we created your badge, we combined dynamic DNA nanotechnology wit
h high resolution electronic sensing and integrated wireless electronic devices to detect the presence in the wearer’s blood of the genetic mutation Aethon, as a single nucleotide polymorphism. Our graphene-based Aethon detector operates by directly incorporating DNA itself into the graphene sensor. So…”

  Robert’s eyes widen. A small smile dances onto his face. He jumps into the conversation. “So, for the Aethon badge to accurately detect the presence of Aethon, it must be able to establish a flawless match between Aethon DNA in my body with an Aethon DNA strand in the detector. Is that correct?”

  “Correct, to ensure the detection badges are able to recognize Aethon DNA in the wearer’s blood, a strand of Aethon DNA is required for matching. Therefore, an Aethon DNA strand is required in all of the badges. The Aethon DNA strand is 3D printed within the graphene of the badge.” Pion explains without emotion.

  Robert’s smile widens. “Is it possible that my Aethon badge is glowing green, because the Manchineel sap that I absorbed, killed it? Do you suppose chemicals in the sap made my blood poison to the Aethon DNA strand in my badge?”

  “It is possible. But, I never suppose anything.” Pion declares, “More genome analysis is required to prove it. I will await a sample of Manchineel sap for examination.”

  Without further comment, Pion abruptly ends their communication. Blip, she is gone. Her behavior is no surprise. Although, Robert does wonder why she was stimming in the beginning. She does not resort to stimming unless she is distressed.

  Zhou waves her hand and whispers, “Is she gone?”

  Robert nods and explodes with joy. “Manchineel! The tree of death is our tree of life!”

  “Can it be? Do you think it’s true?” Zhou hesitantly probes.

  “Yes!” Robert taps his badge. “Jeff Bezos was so correct when he said that there'll always be serendipity involved in discovery. I inadvertently absorbed some Manchineel sap diluted in water and you witnessed what it did. It killed the Aethon in my detection badge, but it didn’t kill me. Manchineel eradicates Aethon!”