Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3)

by Christine Hart

  “That boy and the woman must die before this time. If they grow these plants, all is lost.”

  “There has to be another way.”

  “You are the only other seer I ever meet. If we do not see another way, there is not one.”

  “When does this happen? How long do we have?”

  “Sun has barely risen. It is morning. Could be tomorrow morning. Could be day after that. We have a person watch this spot.” Mr. Mbele pointed at the hedge in our shared vision. “When green woman and red-eyed boy come, we kill them. Your soldier friend and strong man can do it. Fire girl too.”

  I stood speechless. We needed a new plan, but killing Ilya wasn’t an option. I had to talk to my friends before we took Mr. Mbele’s tactics as our own.

  I pulled my arm away and released the hand I still held in the real world. In a blink, I returned to the trashy woods. I glared at Mr. Mbele. I had mixed feelings about trusting his vision.

  Why hadn’t I seen that far myself? Why had he seen me, but I hadn’t seen him? Jonah’s words puzzling over why I saw what I saw when I saw it came back to me. I made a fist. If only I had more lavender liquid or some other way to boost my abilities.

  “He’s telling the truth. He’s another psychic,” I said to my friends with Mr. Mbele watching quizzically.

  “We must kill the green woman and the red-eyed demon boy. There is no other way,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “What? Back that bus up. Hell, no, we are not killing Ilya!” said Faith, hopping to her feet.

  “If the hedge grows, we’ve lost. I saw it again, with more of what happens. The aftermath is just carnage. We won’t win.” We were interrupted by Melissa’s liquid silver oval portal right next to me. A nylon tent bag came through and I had to jump out of the way. Another tent bag and another and another came through, followed by a large black duffle bag that clinked when it hit the ground. Melissa stepped through the portal and closed it behind her.

  “That’s everything we left in the Mojave, plus some goodies from a pawn shop in St. George,” said Melissa.

  “I thought you weren’t going to tell us where the ‘goodies’ came from,” said Gemma.

  “Eh, why not? What are you going to do, rat me out?” Melissa opened one of the tent bags and pulled out its contents as she noticed Mr. Mbele. “Have we taken on an extra camper?”

  “I am here to help kill the green woman,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Tatiana? Good, we need all the help we can get,” said Melissa.

  Josh and Cole joined Melissa in pulling open tent bags.

  “Mr. Mbele is a psychic, like Irina,” said Gemma, clearly impressed.

  Melissa stared at her with a confused brow.

  “Don’t forget the part where he thinks we’ve got to kill Ilya.” Faith glared at the ring of rocks she was building for our fire pit. “Do I need to say I’m not happy about that?”

  “We’re going to find a way around that, don’t worry,” I said.

  “If we can’t save him, he did leave knowing exactly what he was doing.” Jonah helped Cole spread open a tent.

  “I’m not going to entertain a notion of killing my brother. What I am going to do is work on having a vision about that alien demon inside him. It’s got to have a weakness.”

  “Why don’t you check on Ilya?” said Faith.

  “We must find growth site and have someone start the watch. I will know the place when I see it,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Remember, the fact that this demon thing needs to get out of Ivan and into Ilya in order to pull off its energy blast buys us some time too,” I said.

  “Maybe we should make a move to get Ilya out of there now. I knew this was a stupid plan!” Faith scowled at me and turned away quickly.

  “I’ll try to connect to Ilya and see what our best chance to break him out could be,” I said.

  “In the meantime, we need to destroy the canisters we already have.” Jonah regarded Faith with a mix of urgency and empathy.

  “I’ll go with Mr. Mbele to find the hedge site. Once we know exactly where it is, we’ll take shifts watching it in pairs,” said Cole.

  “We go now then.” Mr. Mbele departed.

  Cole frowned and followed him.

  Faith dumped a handful of loose twigs into her new fire pit. She shot a small fireball into the wood and the fire sprang to life. “Once the sun is fully set, I’ll start burning these canisters.”

  Jonah and Josh fed assembled poles into collapsed tents. Gemma took a seat in front of the fire. She started unpacking a cooler pulling out bags of flatbread and cans of food.

  “When our tent’s done, I’ll need some time alone,” I said to Jonah. To everyone, I announced, “Once I reconnect to Ilya, it’s going to be hard to conceal that we want to break him out. He’ll fight me. He’s ready to let the proverbial bus flatten him.”

  “Then it’s just too damn bad that we love him enough to fight for him,” said Faith. I could tell she meant ‘I’ love him, but was too proud to single herself out.

  “Here you go.” Jonah unzipped the door to our tent.

  I kissed him on the cheek, picked up my sleeping bag and crawled into the tent. I unrolled the bag and unzipped the entire thing. I laid it out like a large blanket covering the base of the tent.

  I looked back through the open tent door to see Faith toss the first canister on the fire. The metal cylinder blackened for a moment and then Faith shot a bolt at it. The canister exploded in flame and a handful of bees rushed out into the night on fire. My entire body tensed, and in a heartbeat, the bees shriveled and fell back down, hitting the dirt as flaming blobs.

  I zipped the tent door closed so I could concentrate. I positioned myself cross-legged in the center of the tent. I took a firm hold of the medal around my neck, rubbing the small coin between my thumb and forefinger. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

  I sat cross-legged in the dark tent, trying to picture my brother’s face so I could reconnect to him. I prayed that his mind remained his own, able to talk to me.

  Are you there? Are you still yourself?

  Silence.

  Chapter 26

  The blackness behind my eyes slowly brightened to reveal Ilya handcuffed to a cot in an otherwise empty room. The space was a bare drywall cube with a cement floor. A single bare light bulb hung from a cord above him.

  Are you there? Ilya?

  Chill, Irina. I can hear you.

  What happened? Why are you locked up?

  They’re not taking any chances. That demon isn’t ready to change bodies yet. It drained both of them when I got to meet the real Ivan.

  What’s he like? Our real dad? Can you show me?

  He’s a good man. I wish you’d been with us. I think I can show you. Ilya closed his eyes and lay back on the cot.

  Ilya’s room disappeared and I sat in a small one-room log cabin with Ilya and a shaggy old man. Ivan’s face was covered in deep lines. Gray and white streaked his ginger hair and overgrown beard.

  My brother and father sat at a picnic table covered in books, papers, used plates, stacked used cups, and an overflowing ashtray.

  Ivan lit a cigarette and drew in a long breath. He exhaled a cloud of white smoke. Ilya waved it away.

  “I vish to be meeting you whan you vere born, the vay a man should meet his son. I have had to settle for vat glimpses dis ting has given me of you over the years.”

  “Where is this place? Where are we?” said Ilya.

  “Dis is my cabin outside McBride. Is in British Columbia, south of vere your mother moved vit your sister,” said Ivan.

  “We’re in BC? How did that happen?” said Ilya.

  “You of all people should know ve are not really in BC. You are in my mind. Dis place is my memory of my cabin.
Is vere I am trapped for two decades now. Demon cannot get rid of me completely, although many times he tries.”

  The window outside was full of fresh green trees, just as it would have been in rural BC. A flash of black and red filled the window and a single red eye stopped moving behind the glass. The eye blinked and I knew whose eye it was. It peered in me and its pupil widened. Pure malevolence flowed out of the ruby red iris.

  Fear swept through me and I let go of Ilya’s medallion. Back in my dark tent, I heard Gemma’s voice asking Faith about the rules of roller derby. I heard Jonah and Josh talking too, but I couldn’t make out their words.

  I closed my eyes and picked up the medallion again. Sorry, sorry, are you still there?

  Where else would I be? Why did you bail?

  I got scared and I had to take a break.

  You can’t get scared, Irina. Suck it up. You need to stare this thing down!

  Okay, but in the meantime, we need to find a way to get you out. I’ve met another psychic. He had a vision of you and Tatiana at the hedge. Our plan isn’t going to work. We have to abort. If that thing takes you, the hedge will come to life. Abort? Now? You’ve got a lot of nerve trying to convince me to make a break for it when I’m trying to summon up the nerve to get through this possession transfer thing.

  You don’t have to go through it. We’ll get you out somehow. Tell me about your room. Tell me everything you saw in that building after Cole and I left. Better yet, show me.

  Maybe I should go through with it. Ivan deserves to get his body back. I could try to negotiate with the creature, see if he’ll let Ivan live. I don’t have anything to bargain with any more, but I’ll come up with something.

  I saw him left for dead. I saw the creature kicking Ivan’s corpse once he’s in your body. It’s a terrible tragedy, but the real Ivan can’t be saved.

  It’s so easy for you to let him go. You didn’t grow up with him. Or who you thought was him. I’ve been combing my memory, trying to think if I ever saw the real Ivan. It seems like that never happened, not until earlier today. That’s not enough time. That creature owes all of us a lifetime as a family.

  It’s not easy! But we can’t think of Ivan and Tatiana as family. We need to get you out now. The hedge grows early in the morning. Maybe tomorrow!

  The creature wants to rest before making the transfer. At least that’s what it said to me before I was allowed to see my father—our father. I don’t think he’ll do it until tomorrow night.

  So are you going to help us rescue you?

  Not right now. Not yet.

  Fine. We’re coming anyway.

  I dropped the medallion a second time and unzipped the tent door. Jonah, Josh, and Melissa huddled around the fire. Faith demonstrated some kind of roller derby stance for Gemma.

  I took a seat next to Jonah on an overturned potato crate and slipped my arm around his. I rested my head on his shoulder. “Ilya got to meet our father, the real Ivan. He showed me.” “What was he like?” said Jonah.

  “Russian. A bit of a curmudgeon, but he seemed like a nice guy. You can’t get to know someone in one sitting though. Ilya’s pretty messed up about it. He’s not going to help us break him out. He won’t try to escape. He’s convinced himself that he can save Ivan, or at least get to know him better before the change. I don’t trust the creature. Ilya is underestimating it, I know he is.”

  “Ivan’s weak, we know that. Did you see much in the way of security inside that compound?” Under the cover of night, Josh removed both of his guns from his vest. He began cleaning his handgun with a rag.

  “Now that we know our plan won’t work, it does seem better to prevent the creature from changing hosts,” said Jonah.

  “Maybe we can’t prevent anything anyway,” I said, fixating on the roaring fire.

  “Don’t get all lost and despondent like that. It doesn’t suit you,” said Melissa.

  “Can you open a portal inside the compound?” Josh asked Melissa.

  “I think so,” she answered.

  “Ilya’s pretty sure the change won’t happen until tomorrow night. The creature told him he needs to rest before the transfer. In my vision, the possession happened under bright sunlight. It could be tomorrow during the day. Or the next day.”

  “So when should we go?” said Jonah.

  “It’s best done at night, but I’d like to have a better idea of what’s inside that compound before we go in,” said Josh.

  “When this Mbele guy gets back, why don’t you two put your heads together and try to see exactly where they’re keeping Ilya,” said Melissa.

  Faith and Gemma sat down with us.

  “If we’re really busting Ilya out, I’m going with you,” said Faith.

  “No chance, Faith. I know that’s hard to hear, but I should do this on my own. I’m trained, you’re not. I’ll act calm, you won’t.” Josh stared Faith down, waiting for the explosion. She grimaced, but stayed silent.

  “I want to help too,” said Gemma.

  “You can help by staying here and being safe so we’ve still got a healer after it’s over,” I said.

  Cole’s figure caught my eye through the trees. Even in the dark combination of urban ambient light and Faith’s campfire, his stocky physique was unmistakable. Mr. Mbele walked next to him.

  “We found the site. He’s sure.” Cole pointed his thumb back at Mr. Mbele.

  “No one comes for hours, but it is the right place,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Then what are you doing back here?” said Josh.

  “We were starting to fall asleep. We found an abandoned couch to sit on that’s got a perfect view of the ditch,” said Cole.

  “Okay, I’ll take the next shift. Tell me where it is.” Josh reached into our cooler and cracked one of those horrible energy drinks.

  I suppressed my disgust and tried to replace it with gratitude.

  “It’s actually just around the corner. Make your way to where this little forest ends. You’ll see a long trench in the ground in front of the slum. It stands out ‘cause it’s the only patch in the ground not filled with trash. It’s freshly dug. You can’t miss it,” said Cole.

  “Strong man is right. The ground is ready. Seeds may not be there yet, but they prepare the earth,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “I’ll go with you Josh. We’ll return faster with a portal if we suddenly need back up,” said Melissa.

  “Thanks.” Josh smiled at Melissa. It was refreshing to see a smile on Josh’s face. Our meandering quest had been taking its toll on his demeanor, as it had done for all of us. The two of them walked off into the night.

  Cole sat down next to Jonah, but Mr. Mbele stood firm and stared into our fire.

  “Mr. Mbele, I want you to help me remotely explore Ivan and Tatiana’s compound. We have to rescue my brother Ilya before that creature inside my father has a chance to move over to its new body.” The more I thought about Ilya, the more I realized what a stupid move it had been to let him exchange himself for Terra Nova.

  “Okay. We look in the morning. Now is time for sleep.” Mr. Mbele took off his backpack and produced a bedroll. He found a bare patch of earth and promptly laid down with his back to us.

  Cole flexed his hand and his face filled with a grimace of pain. He opened his palm and revealed a long bloody gash.

  “How did you do that?” said Jonah.

  “Man that’s nasty,” said Faith.

  “I found a broken bottle inside that abandoned couch. I’ve been trying to keep my fist closed. Probably got infected already.”

  Gemma sprang up and leapt to Cole’s side. “Give me your hand.” She extended her own hand, palm up, with a stern wide-eyed stare that demanded compliance.

  “It’s not all that bad.”

  “I’ll be the
judge of that.” Gemma leaned over and took Cole’s thick meaty hand with both of hers. She drew his palm up to her face. She cradled Cole’s hand with her left and with her right, she hovered gently above until a golden light shot from her hand into the wound. The gash slowly closed and Gemma released his hand. He made a thick fist and smiled.

  “If you guys have this under control, I’m going to bed. I seriously doubt I’ll sleep tonight, but I have to try.” Faith slipped into her tent.

  “We should all get some sleep. Gemma, you should bunk with Faith. Don’t worry, she won’t bite your head off.” Cole unzipped the door on the largest tent he shared with Josh.

  I wondered where Melissa would sleep when she got back. We had two extra bodies that hadn’t been with us when we outfitted ourselves for camping back in Oregon.

  “We’ve still got our tent.” Jonah leered at me suggestively with the electric eyes that always made my heart flutter.

  Every time Jonah and I had a chance to be alone, I wondered if it would be our last. The closer we got to the fight of our lives, the more I had to resist imagining my life without Jonah. Or his life without me. If I started experiencing the tragedy prematurely, I knew I’d fall to pieces.

  Not all of us would survive this final confrontation with Ivan and Tatiana. Ever since our plan shifted from thwarting them to ending their lives, I spent a great deal of time measuring our powers against theirs. Even in his weakened state, Ivan still terrified me. “I could use a little distraction tonight.”

  Jonah pulled moisture from the air and rained it down on the fire while I crawled back into our tent. I arranged our pillows and brushed out the blanket. I wanted the space to look nice. We deserved better. We deserved something comfortable if not plush and romantic. This dusty little tent would have to do.