Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3)

by Christine Hart

  Jonah crept into the tent and grabbed my waist. I tensed at first. We needed to rest and the day’s traumas had me on edge. His lips touched my neck and tension melted out of my body. Desire took over as Jonah’s hands slid under my top. The sensation of his fingers on my bare skin sent sweet fire into my core.

  I turned to meet his eyes. A lock of black hair fell onto his forehead, wild and sexy as hell. He tore off his shirt and I traced the lines of his pecs and his abs.

  He kissed me softly and then again passionately. I tasted the mangoes we’d eaten after dinner, delicious again on his tongue.

  All my worries, all my stress, pain, aches, and nausea dissolved inside me one by one as Jonah’s overwhelming body moved over top of me.

  As Jonah’s kisses moved down my chest onto my stomach, I celebrated the fact that he couldn’t hear my thoughts. That little voice returned, telling me this might be my last night with Jonah. It might be my last night alive. I shoved the voice out of my head and let his lips carry me off into oblivion.

  Chapter 27

  The next morning I woke to the crackling sound of the campfire. Jonah still slept soundly, so I dressed carefully. The cool morning air made me glad I’d remembered to keep my hoodie. I unzipped our tent door as quietly as I could.

  Mr. Mbele and Faith were the only two around the fire.

  “No sign of Josh and Melissa?” I said.

  “Not yet.” Faith glared at the fire.

  I felt a sinking stab of guilt at sharing a night of passion with Jonah while my brother sat captive and his girlfriend worried for his safety. “Why don’t you come with us this morning? You’ll be the first to know what’s happening.”

  “Of course I’m coming with you!”

  “Fire girl, you must be careful. You are hazard here. Kibera burn very easy,” said Mr. Mbele.

  “Don’t worry about me. I can keep it in my pants.” Faith pulled her fabric band from her pocket and tied back her dreadlocks.

  “Let’s go now. I’ve got a bad feeling Josh and Melissa fell asleep at the proverbial wheel.”

  Mr. Mbele needed no further prompting. He rolled up his bedroll, stuffed it back in his bag, and headed out of the trees toward the hedge site.

  “Hey, man, wait for us.” Faith jogged after him. I ran to close the distance as well.

  The early morning sky brightened and the first few rays of sun spilled onto the ground ahead. The shadows of Kibera’s rooftops were still long on our side of the slum, but I could clearly see the couch Cole had mentioned and the freshly dug trench in the ground.

  There was no sign of Josh and Melissa until we got close enough to the couch to see two people slouched in sleep. I walked around to face them. Josh had his arm around Melissa who had her face buried in his shoulder.

  “Good morning!” I couldn’t begrudge them either comfort or rest, not when I had indulged myself the previous night. But I couldn’t help being irritated that they’d let down their guard.

  “What?” Melissa lurched backwards.

  “Huh? Shit! Sorry!” Josh leapt up off the couch, blushing deeply.

  Faith and I scanned the scene for any trace of Ivan, Tatiana, Rose, or Sage. Only a few early morning trash scavengers were digging. I heard the tink-clink of glass on glass as one woman pulled two bottles from a mound of debris.

  “So do we know if that trench is still un-sown?” I asked.

  “It’s unattended. Let’s go check.” Faith closed the distance between us and the tilled ditch, but she didn’t make it close enough to check the ground. She collapsed a few meters from the ditch. She vomited the contents of her stomach in a couple of quick heaves.

  “Come back. Just back away!” I shouted.

  Faith crawled back until the sickness relented. She sat with her head in her knees. I knew what had grabbed her. Ivan’s ‘curse’ on my old apartment building and the Mojave testing grounds had been implemented here. No wonder it was unguarded.

  “Bring me your necklace!” Faith shouted back.

  Fortunately, I still had my protective ruin pendant around my neck. I’d been wearing it for luck on and off—now every day after the Mojave. I gave a startled laugh as I lifted it off and passed it to Faith. She put it around her neck and charged back toward the ditch.

  Faith crossed an unseen threshold and dropped to the ground again, clutching her stomach. She wretched and writhed in the dirt. I ran to her and pulled her back by her armpits. I felt a wave of nausea and let go of Faith as I threw up violently.

  Both of us crawled backward until the crushing urge to get sick faded away.

  “It didn’t work,” said Faith between gasps.

  “Uh huh. I guess Ivan’s got more than one kind of land curse up his sleeve,” I said.

  “I’m going to kill Ivan myself.” Faith wiped her mouth and brushed sick off her shirt.

  “Are we close enough for you to still torch the thing?” I said.

  “I think so. But if she hasn’t planted those seeds yet, what’s the point? Scorched earth? She’ll just pick a new site. Can’t we stick to the plan where we get Ilya out asap?” Faith steadied herself with slow breathing. I followed her lead as we stood recovering from the powerful urge to vomit.

  “You want to find the red-eyed man and the green woman. We do it now,” said Mr. Mbele, standing over Faith and me.

  I stood up and dusted my pants. Faith did the same.

  “How do you usually trigger your visions? I seem to need an item or a person, although sometimes I can manage with concentration alone,” I asked Mr. Mbele.

  “You need practice then. I will guide us.”

  Mr. Mbele took my one hand and brushed my eyes closed with his other. He started to hum. It was distracting. I couldn’t picture Ilya or Ivan.

  The blackness flicked away and Mr. Mbele and I were back in Ilya’s cell. Ilya slept fitfully. Mr. Mbele walked through the room’s only door and I followed. It had never occurred to me to pass through a door or wall in a vision. He was right. I needed practice.

  “Your soldier friend may get in here, but something is wrong. I can’t see your brother’s future once his eyes are red. That demon blocks me,” said Mr. Mbele.

  I followed as he walked down the hall toward the sound of voices. “I have trouble seeing around that alien monster thing too. But clearly my abilities are lacking compared to yours. At this point, I just need enough information to change my brother’s fate. And everyone else’s.”

  “Is very hard to change the future. The gods do not show us what to do to make change. Knowing what will happen does not mean we know why and how a thing comes.”

  “Do you think we have visions for a reason?” I said.

  “I would not be here if I did not think it was my fate to help you.”

  We rounded a corner and passed through another door. Ivan and Tatiana were discussing sources of fruit for their buffet. Mr. Mbele paid them no mind and passed through another door on the other side of the room. In another hallway, he looked both ways. I followed as he poked his astral head through one door and another until he beckoned for me to follow.

  We passed into a stairwell which took us down to a corridor lined with cages. In the cages, hissing giant snake bats took no notice of us. We emerged into the pit where I had seen Ilya’s possession take place.

  “No way to come in here without a fight,” said Mr. Mbele. He released my real world hand and the setting swirled until we stood outside Kibera again between the rotting couch and the freshly tilled ditch we couldn’t touch.

  “Did you see what you needed to see?” said Jonah.

  “You, soldier,” said Mr. Mbele to Josh.

  “I guess that’s me,” said Josh, eyeing Mr. Mbele.

  “You kill green woman and demon man?” said Mr. Mbele.

&nbs
p; “Yes, it’s come to that. Give me a diagram of the place and I’ll get where I need to go. Once they’re dead, I’ll walk out with Ilya,” said Josh.

  “What about Rose and Sage?” said Faith.

  “I’ll go in too. We’ll be better off with a portal exit. Hopefully I can send Rose and Sage safely back to Sombrio Beach. They’ll hate me, but then again, I’m sure they already do.”

  A sense of dread washed over me. I wrung my hands to calm myself. Something was going to go wrong with this revised approach, but I hadn’t seen what. Why? I wanted to reach out to Josh and pray contact would spark another vision. Maybe he needed to plan first for the future to unfold, so I held back.

  “I’ll take the next shift watching the ditch,” said Jonah.

  “Me too. If I can’t help Ilya, I need to do something other than pace around my tent,” said Faith.

  “Let’s go back to camp. Mbele can draw me the compound layout. And I’ll have peace and quiet for planning,” said Josh.

  Faith lay down on the grubby couch, still recovering while Jonah kept a stricter vigil on the tilled ditch. I hugged him quickly. Then, I bolted after Mr. Mbele, Josh and Melissa who were already well on their way back to camp.

  When we arrived, Mr. Mbele took paper and pen from Melissa and drew a basic layout of both levels of Ivan’s Kibera compound. Josh nodded and took both pages into his tent.

  Gemma and Melissa revised their inventory of our food. I didn’t have the patience to participate. I had to try to reach Ilya one more time. If he knew about Josh’s rescue attempt, it might stand a higher chance of success. I crept into my tent, sat cross-legged and gripped Ilya’s medallion.

  Ilya, can you hear me? Are you awake?

  The dark of the tent melted into Ivan’s one room cabin. Ivan and Ilya were in deep conversation.

  “I am only telepath. And it vas dormant in me ven dis creature found me. It calls itself Ulu from somevhere called Kad ’aath. Is probably wrong vay to say.”

  “If the creature survived here when it first landed, like Irina showed me, why is it so set to transform the world?”

  “Survived, but barely. Had to vear its armor vit life support. Is hard for me to know, but I think it vas frail here and dat’s why it vas killed the first time. Much stronger if he makes this vurld like his. I think it will bring others if it can. Its vurld is gone, but it talks of others like him,” said Ivan.

  “Wait, I think Irina’s here.” Ilya whipped his head to the side. “Sis, you there? Did you call for me?”

  Yes, I’m here. I wanted to warn you that Josh and Melissa are coming to rescue you.

  “No, I need more time,” said Ilya.

  Ivan stared at him curiously since only Ilya could hear me.

  The other psychic, Mr. Mbele, he helped us to see inside that compound. It’s not as big as we’d thought, but there are some nasty animals down in the basement. Ivan’s got some kind of force-field-curse-thing on the hedge site, so nobody’s getting near it. If they had to wait for your body because Ivan isn’t a strong enough vessel, maybe they can’t do it at all without you.

  “I doubt they’ll wait. Tatiana will just put Ivan on a bed and hunt for Gemma or Camille or some other healer. I think they’d rather have a fresh body, but they’ll make it happen without me. I can take control, I know I can.”

  “Irina, is that you? Can you hear me?” said Ivan.

  Tell him yes, I can see and hear both of you.

  “She says she can hear and see us,” said Ilya.

  “I am so glad you see the real me, evan if is just dis dried up old man I am now.”

  Tell him I understand. Tell him I’m sorry. I wish we could save him. If there is any way, we’ll do it, but we can’t let this transfer happen. We were so stupid to try playing that monster’s game.

  “She’s trying to talk me out of letting the creature take my body. I want to negotiate. If you’ll survive this thing’s exit, I can make a deal for it to let you live, maybe even get Gemma to heal you. You can get your life back, or at least what’s left of it!”

  “Your sister is right. All the power you see in me is from dis thing. Telekinesis, energy blasts, all is da creature. Those things vill be stronger still in new body. If you can get avay from here, go, and don look back. There is no savink me now. Vatever happens to me after this body dies vill be better than the last tventy years of my life. I am ready.”

  Ilya’s broken heart was written in the arches of his eyebrows and his speechless open mouth. My heart ached for both of them.

  “This body is veak now. If you and your friends come together, you may defeat him. But if you kill my body, creature will be dormant again. To kill forever, you must—” Ivan was cut off by a blast of air that shattered the cabin’s windows and knocked us all backward.

  A deafening roar turned my blood to ice. I dropped Ilya’s medallion and lurched back to the tent. Both hands clamped fistfuls of sleeping bag as I gasped and gulped, shaking with terror.

  The notion of trying again flitted through my mind. I jerked my head to this side and that, listening to the air. I couldn’t do it. Ilya knew help was coming. I just had to hope and wait.

  Chapter 28

  Josh wanted to wait for dark before approaching Ivan’s Kibera stronghold. I insisted they go sooner and Melissa reluctantly agreed. After lunch, Josh relented and they left.

  The rest of us stayed back at the campsite. Cole, Gemma, Mr. Mbele and me all sat around the fire, alternately pacing and subtly practicing our talents. Big displays were out of the question in the middle of the day, but I could hover-shuffle my cards and remotely snap twigs while Cole crushed rocks and Gemma watched us alternately like a tennis spectator.

  “They’ve been gone too long. Mr. Mbele, we should try to see what’s happening.”

  “There is nothing we can do. Seeing is not going to help now,” said Mr. Mbele.

  I clenched both fists as my stubborn companion stared into the campfire. I watched at Kibera helplessly. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Ilya’s face. Nothing happened, but I wasn’t surprised. I felt a frenzy of adrenaline coursing through me in all directions.

  As I watched the patchwork of rooftops ahead, the regular murmur of voices and shuffling changed. A few cries rang out. Then shouts of anger. Pops of broken glass tinkle-cracked in the distance.

  Suddenly a stream of people of all ages started pouring out of the nearest street at Kibera’s outer border. People were running from something. Had Terra Nova just been released? It couldn’t be!

  “Guys! Something’s wrong! People are running!” I shouted.

  I bolted toward the slum even though I sensed Cole on my heels. If Terra Nova had been released, his protection would be moot, so I ran hard until I saw Josh and Melissa in amongst the crowds fleeing. I searched the faces around them for Ilya’s skinny frame and shaggy mop of hair. Nothing. No faces but Josh’s and Melissa’s were recognizable in the stampede.

  Cole scooped me up and heaved me onto his shoulder as though I was a child. As he ran with me, I watched flames shoot up through the roof of a nearby shack. Smoke rose from other parts of the slum. I scanned the crowd again for sickness and blood. Confusion escalated as people continued pouring out of the slum, but there were no telltale signs of Terra Nova.

  Jonah and Faith cut through the crowd, meeting us at our campsite as Cole dropped me next to Gemma.

  “What’s happening?” asked Gemma, terrified.

  “I have no idea, but Josh and Melissa are on their way back,” I said.

  “Why didn’t she use a portal?” said Cole.

  “It’s some kind of riot,” said Jonah.

  “We were watching the ditch, as directed. There was no change. Whatever this is, it’s not Terra Nova,” said Faith.

  “Can we look now?” I
said to Mr. Mbele.

  He nodded and crossed the campsite to take my hand. The din of residents swirling around the outskirts of the slum disappeared and we were back in Ilya’s cell. The room was empty.

  Mr. Mbele led me back toward the courtyard where Cole and I had left Ilya. I heard Tatiana’s shouting in the hallway before we entered.

  “You started a riot, you morons!” yelled Tatiana.

  “Boy was begging! He sees your friends come and go, he thinks we have money and should give him!” shouted one of the locals who had been guarding the Krylov’s gate.

  “And you couldn’t have just given him money?” screamed Tatiana.

  “You don’t give money! They want more and more! No giving away!” said the guard.

  “We say no. He gets angry, his friends come and it goes from there,” said the other guard who watched the corridor to the entrance. Animated voices behind the smashes and crashes of intentional destruction rose and fell outside.

  Mr. Mbele and I entered the courtyard to find Ivan reclined in his cabana chair, drained. Tatiana held her stomach where blood seeped into her shirt. Ilya was bound, gagged, and propped up against the wall.

  Another familiar man stood over my brother. I knew I’d seen the stranger before, but I couldn’t place him. It was like recognizing someone in a television show, but not being able to place where you’d seen them.

  “Stop yelling! You need doctor! I bring you doctor!” shouted the second guard.

  “I need that little brat, Gemma. We need to find the whole lot of them. You said they’re camped in the woods. Go get them!” yelled Tatiana.

  Mr. Mbele nodded at me and let go of my hand. We were back at the campfire. My friends stood around us, dazed and confused by the mob.