Dark Solar Complete Trilogy: Oleander - Wolfsbane - Maikoa

by D. N. Leo

  “You’re as white as a sheet, Cooper. You want to sit down?”

  “No, no time. Keep moving.” He walked ahead. “Are we going straight ahead, Jenny? What does the map’s indicator show?”

  “No, you have to sit down.”

  “Jenny, we don’t have time. You need to learn how to read the map. We’re trying to get as close to the transitional zone as possible. From there, navigate to the Daimon Gate. It’s the multiversal neutral ground, kind of like the police on Earth.”

  “Your nose is bleeding, Cooper.”

  He wiped the blood off and reached for the cell. “It’s close enough. Keep walking, Jenny.”

  “You have to tell me what’s going on, or I’m going nowhere.”

  “Asana put wolfsbane in me, Jenny. It’s a poison targeting native Iilos. It corrupts my blood. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “There is always a solution. Ciaran will know what to do. I’ll send another signal.” She grabbed for the phone.

  “It will be too late, Jenny. Asana was so sure that I wouldn’t dare move to buy time for an antidote. But there is no antidote for this, Jenny. We’ve just run the distance. The poison has already circulated throughout my blood.”

  “This is unfair. You can’t do this to me.”

  “We’re so close. Look!” He pointed at something that looked like a well. “I’ve heard about that well. It marks the entrance of Xiilok, and it borders the Daimon Gate.”

  “All wells look the same, Cooper.”

  “That’s the well of second chances. Drink the water, and you’ll turn into a Xiilok creature.” Then he swayed and dropped the phone.

  Jenny picked it up, supporting him at the same time. She glanced at the map. “The Daimon Gate, is it?” The indicator showed they were actually only about fifty feet from the border. But when she looked up from the screen, she saw nothing.

  She clenched her teeth and supported Cooper, dragging the two of them in the general direction that the map said was the border of the Daimon Gate.

  Asana stepped out of the fog. He smirked and said, “I’m disappointed you left without saying goodbye!”

  24

  Dinah scanned the navigating device across the ground. It took a bit of time to gather sufficient information. She glanced at Arik. He paced back and forth. She knew he was anxious. He had agreed with Ciaran that they should split up their team. Ciaran’s had many resources on Earth, so he and Madeline had gone to New York to help Arik’s parents. Dinah and Arik had gone to Xiilok to find Jenny and Cooper because of Arik’s connection with the Yellow Shield tribe.

  Neither Arik nor Ciaran were comfortable with the solution, but they didn’t have any other options. One thing they hadn’t considered was that Dinah had not only been to Xiilok, she had also lived there until she was five.

  She thought she knew the land.

  She was wrong.

  The little stretch of land she knew as Xiilok was in no way comparable to this side of that universe—what Ciaran referred to as the land of the multiversal outlaws. She couldn’t imagine they were talking about the same universe. She knew about this side of Xiilok but had never set foot here—not even on a job.

  Arik broke the silence. “Why don’t you have wormy eyes?”

  “What?” She looked up from the scanner.

  “Before we left, Ciaran said Xiilok creatures have wormy eyes. You said you lived here until you were five. Why don’t you have wormy eyes?”

  “First, I’m not a creature. I was a citizen, and I lived in a residential area. Only those who gain admission through the second chance gate and drink the water at the well have wormy eyes.”

  “Second chance—it almost sounds noble,” Arik said and rolled his eyes.

  Dinah chuckled. “Tell me about it. They’re mostly shady characters. But as I said, my experience living here is very limited.”

  “So where did you live before migrating to Iilos?”

  “Many places. I was between jobs all the time.”

  “Between jobs? How old were you when you started working?”

  “Arik, never ask a female creature in the multiverse how old she is. She wouldn’t know. Even on Earth, you have different time zones. In the multiverse, we have many different time dimensions and time references.”

  Arik nodded. “Have you found anything yet?”

  She shook her head.

  “So all citizens here have to use a scanning device for direction? I didn’t see any such technology when I was with the Yellow Shield.”

  “No, it’s only on this side that we see nothing.” She looked up and glanced around. A continually changing landscape surrounded her.

  The tracker suggested they were very close to where Jenny and Cooper were. But in front of them was nothingness. Not even a large rock. And she was sure this wasn’t where the Yellow Shield tribe lived. They would be located somewhere in the stretch of land where she used to live.

  She glanced at the device. It detected nothing. Why had the device landed them here when she’d asked it to navigate to the Yellow Shield tribe?

  “Look out!” Arik shouted and pushed her out of the way of a giant ball of dirt rolling down toward them from what seemed like mid-air.

  And then a flash of light exploded on them like a bomb.

  A cool hand brushing over her face woke Dinah. She opened her eyes and saw a face she didn’t ever want to see—possibly for eternity. It was Grace, Arik’s drop-dead-gorgeous ex-girlfriend. While she wasn’t quite sure about the ex-girlfriend part, she did know for sure she had shattered Grace’s pretty head with a laser gun.

  Even though she knew she had only shot a space creature disguised as Grace, the idea she had put a beam to the head of a human had never set well with her.

  Grace smiled.

  Dinah frowned, unsure how to react. Is this the real Grace or another creature in disguise?

  “You have a lot of injuries. What did you do to yourself?”

  Dinah cleared her throat. “Thank you for taking care of me. You don’t know me, and there’s no way you would know about my injuries unless you scanned my body. But I didn’t consent to a scan.”

  Grace arched an eyebrow and said nothing.

  “Did I speak too quickly?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I like your jacket. Where did you get it?”

  Silence.

  “Those shoes are killer. I bet you got them in London.”

  Silence.

  Dinah knew then she was speaking to a robot. It wasn’t programmed to answer random questions and didn’t know how to react to arbitrary statements. She sat up and glanced around the small room, decorated with furniture of stone and wood. The decoration looked ancient, and there was no sign of technology. She didn’t seem to be imprisoned.

  She saw a flickering candle with real fire. Not even powered light! Where is this place?

  The door of the room slid open, and Arik walked in with a man who held a flaming torch. Dinah had never seen a torch like that before, but she’d heard of them. She frowned at Arik. He approached and crouched in front of her bed.

  “How are you feeling? Look at the bruise on your forehead. I told you you’re not fit to take a trip, even if it is a vacation.” He gestured around them. “And you can see the outer ring of Xiilok isn’t exactly a good spot for a honeymoon.”

  All right, so Arik was playing mind games, she thought. They might be in a bad situation here. Dinah smiled. “Is it safe for me to go outside and stretch my legs a bit?” she asked as graciously as she could.

  “Sure,” Arik said and gently took her hands to lead her outside. Arik gestured at the building that looked like a bunker and the endless, rolling black hills beyond. “What a future we have here!” He grinned at Dinah.

  She said nothing but glanced at Grace and the guard standing behind them. If she had Madeline’s psychic ability, she could have channeled into Arik’s mind to communicate. But not only did she and Arik not have that ability
, they also disagreed in every second conversation they had.

  There was no chance for psychic communication with Arik.

  Dinah approached him, and she tiptoed and kissed him.

  He immediately responded. When their faces were close, she asked, “What’s happening?”

  “I think they’re robots. When they captured us, the one that looks like Grace didn’t recognize me.”

  They kissed, and whispered, then kissed again.

  “Who did you tell them we are?”

  Arik glanced at the robots. “I told them we work for Arete. We’re married and on our honeymoon. I couldn’t believe they believed that crap.”

  “What crap? The lie or the pretend marriage?” She bit lightly on his bottom lip.

  He retracted his lip slightly to avoid another encounter with her teeth. “The lie, of course. Why do you always have to take what I said the wrong way, Dinah?”

  “All right, so they’re robots. I recognize their behavior. They’re clones and very low-tech. Between the two of us, we can easily take them out.”

  “Yes, but the tracker led us here for the Yellow Shield tribe. The robots might know something.”

  Dinah nodded. “All right, let me handle this.”

  “Are you sure? I don’t know who their master is. We say one wrong thing to them, and our honeymoon will end in a bloodbath.”

  “Arik, I might not always say the right thing. But I’m sure I can press the right buttons in these robots. They need to be reprogrammed.”

  She kissed him deeper, and her hands roamed his back.

  His voice muffled by her kisses, he said, “If you keep doing this, I can’t be held accountable for how my body reacts.”

  “Well, show me!” She glanced at the robots. They stood watching them. She kissed Arik harder, pushing him back and against the wall of the bunker. She could tell he was a little breathless and was holding back with all the willpower he had.

  She slid her hands under his shirt.

  “Dinah…”

  But she didn’t let him talk. She kissed him again then nibbled lightly at his neck and slid her hands into his pants.

  He threw his head back, and it hit the wall as he let out a moan.

  From the corner of her eye, she could see the two robots turn. Their backs were now facing them. As fast as lightning, she rushed at them. She used both hands to slam at the critical circuit point at the base of their necks.

  The robots stood frozen. Now she could open them up and reprogram them to take Arik and her to the Yellow Shield tribe. Not hearing anything from Arik, she turned around and saw him standing, glaring at her.

  “I manipulated your sexual urges. I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry you’re sentimental about this, but we did more than just kiss before—and you were fine, or appeared to be fine.”

  “My feelings don’t matter to you. You were wrong to do that.”

  “These robots wouldn’t take my commands, and we couldn’t attack them head on without triggering some kind of alarm. I needed them to turn around and expose their weak points to me. Humans emit sex scent signals in the form of pheromones. All robot models can read that signal. They’re programmed with a social etiquette function to respect others’ privacy—”

  “Dinah, I don’t care.” He walked back into the bunker and slammed the door.

  25

  Cooper looked at Asana with disdain.

  “I respect the elderly, Asana. But my patience has a limit.”

  “You’re so patient that you left the house, knowing any movement you make will spread the poison further,” Asana said in English and then chuckled.

  “Oh, so you do speak English. That makes the fact that you pretended to be a harmless old man even more pathetic,” Jenny said.

  “I can’t let you leave, Cooper.”

  “I wouldn’t think so. You want my Iilos wrist unit. I mean, you want a function in it.” He raised his hand as if he was going to press a button on it.

  “No!”

  Cooper smiled. “You’re quite knowledgeable, Asana. You want the UAS, don’t you?” Then he turned toward Jenny. “It’s the Ultimate Asylum Status to the Daimon Gate. It’s designed for Iilos privileged citizens. If you activate it, it will give you unconditional protection by the Daimon Gate.”

  Asana growled, his eyes glued to Cooper’s wrist unit.

  “I don’t know what your plan is. But eyeing the UAS, you must have planned some serious shit at the multiversal level and prepared for the worst.” He had a feeling that if he swung his arm in rhythm, Asana’s would have danced.

  “If you give it to him, he’ll kill you, Cooper.”

  “He’s already killed me, Jenny.”

  “There’s an antidote,” Asana said.

  “Now we’re talking,” Cooper said. “So you want to trade the antidote for the UAS, right?”

  Asana nodded.

  “All right, give me the antidote. If it works, I’ll give you the UAS.”

  From his pocket, Asana pulled out a tube of blue liquid.

  “How do I know you won’t poison me for the second time?”

  “You don’t. You’ll just have to take my word for it.”

  Cooper shrugged. “My chances of surviving the poison are slim, but I still trust those odds over your ability to keep your word. Why don’t you drink half the liquid, and I’ll drink half? That will at least allow me to last a bit longer. Then we’ll go back to your place where you can give me the rest of the antidote. If it is really a cure, it won’t kill you.”

  “Poison treats poison. That’s the way wolfsbane works. I don’t have the poison in me. Taking the antidote will kill me.”

  Cooper chuckled. “Well, then there’ appears to be no solution. I’ll die with the UAS then.”

  Asana’s face turned red as he tried to control his temper. Before he could say anything, as fast as lightning, Jenny pulled out the knife from Cooper’s pocket. Asana was distracted by the unfinished deal and didn’t react fast enough. Jenny slashed the knife across his chest. Asana jerked back, but the knife had cut into his flesh.

  Asana lost his balance. Jenny gave him a hard kick. He reeled backward and fell over the lip of the well. Jenny dove over to grab the antidote tube, but she was too slow.

  Asana gripped the tube in one hand and the edge of the well with the other.

  “Give me the tube. If Cooper takes it and is fine, I’ll pull you up.” She stabbed the knife into the hand that gripped the mouth of the well.

  Asana roared and let go. Jenny grabbed his hand.

  Asana dangled over the maw of the well, held up only by Jenny’s hand. “Give me the tube, and I’ll pull you up.”

  He smirked at her. He held up the tube. “Poor judgment, Cooper. This is the real antidote. You’ve lost your chance.” He yanked his hand out of Jenny’s and fell to the bottom of the well.

  Cooper slumped to the ground. Jenny rushed over. “Don’t you die on me, Cooper. We’re so close to the border. If you use your UAS, would they save you? Give you medical assistance or something like that?”

  “No, you take the pass and go, Jenny. It’s transferable…”

  “Open your eyes. Look at me!”

  He could feel her dragging him across the ground. Then his world went black.

  26

  Arik followed the robot that looked like Grace and the guard into a dark tunnel. Dinah was right beside him, but it seemed like there were mountains between them. She had reprogrammed the robots, and now they were leading them to where they could find the Yellow Shield tribe. If technology came to Dinah so easily, why was she having trouble understanding that human emotion and sexuality were not robotic functions that she could manipulate at will?

  Arik pointed at the robots. “Can we talk while they’re here?”

  She nodded. “I disabled all their programs. They only have one mission left, and that is to take us to your people.”

  “The Y
ellow Shield tribe aren’t my people. I owe them.”

  She shrugged and said nothing.

  A small group of humanlike creatures exited from a side of the corridor as they approached. Grace and the guard pulled their weapons, some sort of powered swords. Before other the creatures could react, their bodies copped slashes. Turned into piles of scrap metal, they convulsed on the floor, melted, and evaporated into thin air.

  “I forgot to tell you, I entered a new command so they will protect us.” She walked on before Arik had a chance to respond.

  They reached the end of the corridor and approached a solid, black wooden door. Grace tapped it. A small window opened from the inside, and a pair of eyes stared out. Before any conversation could begin, the guard pierced the head of the creature inside with his sword.

  “Did you turn them into mercenaries?” Arik asked in astonishment.

  “No, their command is to protect us. They’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish the task.”

  “It was just a rhetorical question.”

  She turned and looked at him. “And that was a rhetorical answer.”

  They turned to another connected room. The creatures in that room weren’t expecting visitors. As they had before, the two robots charged at those in the room. The creatures dropped to the ground, wriggling in pain before they died, and their bodies severed metal bodies soon evaporated into thin air.

  Next, they stopped in front of a giant steel door. Grace flipped opened a rusty box and punched in a code. The door lock clicked open.

  Grace and the guard turned around, looking at Dinah. “Mission accomplished,” they chorused. Then their heads exploded, and their bodies melted and evaporated.

  Arik, startled, jumped aside. Dinah cast him a glance then proceeded to the door and pushed it open.

  Inside, the bunker was silent. It was as eerie as the atmosphere of a tomb.

  There must have been more than two hundred people in that cold, square bunker. Dim, flickering lighting. Poor ventilation. They stood up, watching as Arik and Dinah stepped inside. Hundreds of pairs of eyes. Sad, hollow eyes.