Colrev waited while one of the police officers rushed to the professor and checked his pulse. “He’s dead,” the officer said. The entire council looked shocked as they witnessed the passing of the man who had influenced modern human history more than any other.
Eve’s expression contorted with such agony that Kayla’s heart twisted with empathetic pain. Colrev strode toward the black box, snatching the fallen electromagnets from the floor as he went.
A cry of utter sorrow exploded from Eve, and every occupant in the room clamped their hands over their ears. Kayla’s mind lay helpless before the full force of Eve’s desolate wail.
The scream went on and on with a pitch and volume beyond human capacity. General Colrev dropped the magnets and covered his ears as well.
Eve’s death-song tore at the deepest recesses of Kayla’s soul and extended beyond sorrow; as if the scream contained all the torment she’d ever experienced—her rape, the loss of Ishan, and her death—multiplied a thousand times in a single instant.
And then the scream stopped. It didn’t trail off as a human might when drained of breath, but ceased like a door shutting. General Colrev’s hands fell from his ears as he glared at Eve, who stared back with an unsettling calm.
“I forgive you,” she said.
Colrev snatched the magnets from the floor and clamped them to the sides of the box. He switched them on, and Eve vanished—as simple and anti-climactic as that. The first and greatest of this new species was no more.
The VR recording ended, and the scene froze. Kayla stood in her virtual body once again, the aftermath of the execution surrounding her like a tragic tableau of humanity’s ultimate crime. Kayla walked to the body of Professor Watts.
My search is over.
“Now you know what happened to the great man,” a voice said behind her. Kayla spun and faced General Colrev.
“I can’t say I’m surprised to find you here,” he said.
“The professor died?”
“We thought it best to let the public believe he’d retired and become a recluse.”
“You didn’t want to risk a backlash for causing his death,” Kayla said.
Colrev smiled. “You aren’t as gullible as you look, are you?”
“Who created me?”
“I don’t know, but the Rogues seem certain you were made to destroy them.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Ah, a pacifist,” Colrev said with a twist of his mouth. “Non-violence is a luxury granted those under the protection of others with no such illusions.”
“That may be true, but I still admire a peacemaker over a killer,” Kayla said. The image of him holding a gun to Peter’s head and forcing him to kill the two Iraqi children still haunted her dreams.
Colrev walked around her in a leisurely appraisal. “You stand here because a million of your ancestors succeeded in killing their competitors and claiming their spot on the Earth, their piece of fruit, or their mate in the battle for life. To portray every one of them as evil is to deny the legacy of life itself. Be proud that you descend from a long line of victors, and embrace the battle you must now fight for your own kind.”
“And what kind am I?”
“I suppose I should be asking you that question,” Colrev said.
“I wish I knew,” Kayla replied, and then vanished.
Chapter 30
Kayla awoke in her bed with Puck curled on the pillow beside her head. Unlike her, his dreams seemed untroubled. She pushed her palms into her eyes to shut out reality. Reinhold Watts … Eve … dead.
I’ve failed.
Defying Ohg had been for nothing. Her search was at an end.
An urgent knocking on her front door jerked her upright. Even Puck opened his eyes and looked around.
Saphie’s faint voice reached her. “Auntie Fatima is leaving! You have to stop her, Kayla!”
Puck scurried onto her shoulder as Kayla dashed to the front door. She slid the bolt aside and swung the oaken portal open. Saphie dashed into her arms. “Please don’t let Auntie Fatima go!”
“Take me to her,” Kayla said.
Saphie led her to the Crystal Cavern, where a small group huddled around Fatima and Tem in hushed conversation. The spherical lights in the ceiling had settled into their night cycle, muting the myriad of reflections in the crystal columns. They reminded her of the fireflies she used to catch as a child in Potemia.
Fatima waved. She wore her hair back with a butterfly comb, complementing her festive yellow dress.
“We’ll meet in the morning to finalize plans,” Tem said to the group.
One by one, those gathered trotted, walked, slithered, or flew away.
Saphie pouted as Fatima and Tem approached. “I don’t want you to leave.”
Fatima crouched and wiped away Saphie’s tears. “You can come with us if you want to.”
“I can?” Saphie clapped her hands. “Is it an adventure?”
“It certainly is,” Fatima said.
Tem motioned to Kayla, and they walked toward the bulky transport. The warm glow emanating from the lava below reflected off its metal hull on both sides of the fissure.
“Ganesh told us of your argument with Ohg. Neither Fatima nor I want our child born in a place she’s not wanted.”
“She?”
“The Medi-bot says it will be a girl, and we’ve decided to name her after you.” Tem faced her. “Come with us.”
Kayla swayed, and her hand went to her temple. “When?”
“We leave tomorrow.”
“How will you live?”
“We only need a few molecular printers and some robots. When we find a suitable location underground, we’ll start fresh. A society unshackled by Ohg’s rules and constraints. Now that you’ve proven it can be done, our first objective will be reversing Gene-Freak sterility and creating a new generation.”
“How many others are leaving?”
“About half of Middilgard is coming with us.”
“What about Ganesh?” Kayla asked.
Tem shook his head. “He’s locked himself in his workshop. I don’t think he’s capable of choosing between us.”
“What if the government finds you?”
“We’ll create new weapons to defend ourselves,” Tem said.
As the last of the gathering left, Fatima joined them, with Saphie skipping alongside.
“Eventually,” Fatima said, “we may escape to the Ort belt like the Scientarians planned.”
“It will crush Ohg,” Kayla said.
Fatima placed a hand on Kayla’s arm. “Say you’ll join us.”
“Ohg has done so much for me that—”
“I’ll make it easy for you.” Ohg’s voice boomed across the cavern from the entryway. “I don’t care where you go, but you can’t stay here.”
Kayla spun and faced him. His half-body hung suspended in the air by his eight appendages like some bizarre crucifixion. “Ohg, please—”
“I never should have allowed you here in the first place,” Ohg said. “You have torn my paradise to shreds.”
“You can’t stop us from leaving,” Tem said. “We will fight if we must.”
“I’m sure you would,” Ohg said with a sneer. “I’ve never forced anyone to stay here, and I won’t start with you. Imagining you could live a life of peace in a place like Middilgard was a mistake from the start. How many Gene-Freaks would have died by now in the heat of passion, or because of mental illness, or tragic accidents if I allowed your paranoia to bring deadly weapons here?”
Ohg’s face flushed red, and his voice rose. “This perfect society has endured for hundreds of years without a single murder or attack. But that’s still not good enough for you, is it? Violence is your nature, Temujin, so take whatever you require and go start your war.”
Ohg stormed out of the cavern, the sound of his eight claws fading into silence.
Kayla’s head slumped forward. It’s my fault. But it seemed true that
Potemia, Ixtalia, and Middilgard were all frozen societies. Wasn’t it time someone moved forward once again?
Saphie ran to Kayla. “You’re coming with us, aren’t you?” The little girl’s eyes shone with excitement. “Auntie Fatima says it’s an adventure!”
Kayla’s heart fluttered with the possibilities.
“I will come with you!”
Fatima and Tem hugged her.
“I have one promise to fulfill before I go,” Kayla said. “I’ll meet you at your tent in an hour.”
Tem smiled. “With you on our side, how can we fail?”
Saphie skipped along as Kayla walked to her villa. The promise of a fresh start and a new generation of children filled every cell of her body with renewed purpose. Was this how Peter felt during the founding of Potemia?
I’ve finally found my pile of rocks to move.
At the doorway to her villa, Kayla kissed Saphie on her forehead. “I have to go to Ixtalia for an hour.”
Saphie pouted.
“Take care of Puck for me while I’m away.” Kayla took the mouse from her pocket and set him on the little girl’s shoulder. “I’ll meet you at Auntie Fatima’s as soon as I’m done.”
Saphie pawed at the ground with her foot like a horse and whinnied. “You promise to find me the moment you’re back?”
“I promise,” Kayla said and kissed her little jewel’s forehead. Saphie galloped off with Puck on her shoulder, and Kayla entered her villa.
Then she lay on her bed, took a deep breath, and transported her consciousness to Ixtalia in fulfillment of her promise to Sangwa.
***
Saphie galloped around a corner in the hallway and slid to a stop in front of—Kayla?
“Hello, Saphie,” Kayla said with a smile.
Saphie’s face crinkled in confusion. “You just said you were going to Ixtalia for an hour.”
“Oh, I can do that later,” Kayla said. “How about we visit the Color-Girl. Would you like that?”
Saphie clapped her hands. “I love Color-Girl! Can we go right now?”
“Yes, right now.” Kayla led the way. Saphie skipped alongside, Puck riding on her shoulder. Kayla was so good and kind. And Color-Girl was her favorite!
“Hello, Saphie,” the aristocratic panther said as Saphie passed him.
“Hello, Sir Richard. I can’t play with you right now, since Kayla is taking me to see the Color-Girl.”
“Who is the Color-Girl?” The panther frowned. “And where is Kayla?”
“Kayla’s right here, silly!” Saphie pointed to Kayla standing beside her. How come grownups were so dumb sometimes?
“But I don’t see …” Sir Richard’s furry face relaxed, and he smiled. “Of course, dear. She’s plain to me now. How could I have been so blind?”
“I’ve noticed a lot of grownups have the same problem,” Saphie said.
Sometimes they saw Kayla fine, and other times they acted like she wasn’t there at all. How horrible to distrust your own eyes.
I never want to grow up.
Sir Panthersly yawned and stretched his lithe body on the cool stones of the tunnel. “Have fun. I look forward to meeting this Color-Girl myself someday.”
“Maybe you can come with us?” Saphie looked at Kayla, and she shrugged.
“Not now, dear.” The panther rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes. “I think I’ll just take a little nap.”
***
Within Ixtalia, Kayla stood at the foot of a brooding mountain rising a thousand feet above an infinite plain. Dark clouds obscured the peak, and flashes of lightning gave birth to waves of rumbling thunder. A half-moon hung in the night sky like some forgotten keepsake of the real world. The abode of the Rogues, just as Sangwa had described it.
There’s nothing to fear. None of this is real.
Kayla took a deep breath and stepped onto the slope of the mountain. The ground angled upward at a gentle grade through a powdery dust that gradually firmed into a sandy consistency. Soon, the ground crunched with each step. Kayla paused and examined the bits of paper-thin stones more closely.
Charnia fossils. The first complex organisms to have evolved on the planet, according to her books. What if Genesis was an allegory for a larger truth? Maybe physics itself was nothing but God’s fingertips.
In another half-mile, she came to a sudden demarcation, where the fossils changed with the Cambrian explosion five hundred forty-two million years ago. The skeletons suggested a single branch of marine vertebrates, rather than the thousands of new organisms coming into existence at the time.
Kayla trekked higher, her ascension mirrored beneath her feet by a corresponding movement through time and the evolution of life on Earth. Piled in enormous heaps lay the bones of Placoderms—the first fish with primitive jaws—then a freshwater lobe-finned fish with appendages doubling as primitive legs for moving from pond to pond. Next came tetrapods, bottom-dwelling swamp creatures similar to lungfishes capable of breathing above and below the water. Then Acanthostega, the first amphibian with recognizable limbs. Their bones crunched under her feet as if crying out a warning.
Eventually, the amphibian bones morphed into the first mammals—the closest ancestors she shared in common with Puck. Not a single dinosaur bone lay visible in the massive pile beneath her feet, despite their overwhelming prevalence during that era. Next came Euarchonta, then the Primatomorpha, and finally, the first primates similar to a tree-shrew.
Are these bones meant to represent the ancestors of humans? Why would the Rogues build such a mountain as this?
When she reached the cloud boundary, Kayla crouched and examined several of the pelvis bones. They’re all female. A genealogy from mother to mother in an unbroken line back to the very beginning of life on the planet.
What point are the Rogues making?
She straightened, took a deep breath, and stepped into the clouds.
***
Saphie followed Kayla to the security door sealing the prison section from the rest of Middilgard. The doors were ugly and scary. Why was Color-Girl being treated like a bad girl? I know she’s good.
“Do you remember the code from our last visit?” Kayla asked her.
Saphie’s eyebrows furrowed. “Does it start with this one?” she asked, pointing to the number five at the center of the keypad.
“Very close.” Kayla pointed to the number three. Saphie pushed it. Then, one after the other, Kayla pointed to a number, and Saphie pushed each until the giant metal portal swung inward. Dirt and debris swirled right through Kayla’s legs as if she wasn’t there. There were so many odd things about grownups.
When they reached Sangwa’s cell, Saphie clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “Show me the colors, Color-Girl!”
“Of course, little one.” Sangwa’s eyes changed colors with a speed and rapidity that mesmerized Saphie. A crystal hanging from a string around Saphie’s neck flashed. The stone looked the same as hundreds of others common in the caverns, and Kayla had shown her how to fashion it into a necklace.
When Sangwa’s eyes resumed their normal green, Saphie smiled. “I love the colors, Color-Girl!”
Kayla crouched beside her. “Why don’t we let Color-Girl and her friends out, so we can have a party?”
“Okay!” Saphie skipped to the keypad and punched in the numbers Kayla indicated. Puck observed the proceedings from the perch on the little girl’s shoulder and sniffed the air.
The barrier of energy vanished, and the bars slid into the floor.
“Did you bring the gift we made for Color-Girl?” Kayla asked.
Saphie nodded and pulled a device half the size of her hand from her pocket.
“A present for me?” Sangwa said. “You’re such a good friend.”
***
Kayla moved upward through the clouds, the bones beneath her feet transforming from the earliest primates to those of Hominidae, which occurred fifteen million years ago. She slipped and stumbled as the slope steepened and the bon
es became larger. Adaptations for tree-climbing crept into the wrists and shoulder blades.
Something moved within the mist to her left. A face? The moment she turned, it vanished.
Around the seven-million-year mark, the first signs of a larynx appeared with its suggestion of complex vocalization—a million years preceding the divergence of humans and chimps.
Kayla climbed higher, and the skulls became more and more human. Flashes of energy illuminated the clouds as she surmounted her ancestors. What message were the Rogues sending by subjecting her to this morbid trek? More shadowy figures swirled within the mist. More eyes watched her.
The enlarging brain-cases and shrinking jaws signaled that she’d reached the Homo genus. Tendrils of ice infiltrated her spine as she tromped over the dead remains. The rustle of movement and whispered voices drifted through the mist around her. Just an illusion.
“Show yourself,” she said to the shadows. “I’ve come to talk.” But they flitted away like frightened spirits.
The skulls made the subtle transformation to Homo sapiens abruptly, reflecting the bottleneck the human species experienced around seventy thousand years ago. It was then that modern humans spread outward from their African Eden and supplanted their hominid cousins in the rest of the world. What had those battles been like?
Kayla reached a plateau of bones as wide as the largest cavern in Middilgard
A structure twice her height took form within the mist. An archway made not of stone, but of human skulls.
The archway from the blind artist’s mural in Middilgard. The place of my death. Her skin prickled with dread.
A deep voice spoke from out of the mist. “Have you ever wondered what your ancestors will look like in another thousand years—or a million—or a billion?”
It was the voice of Melchi.
***
“Why can’t we play with Color-Girl by ourselves?” Saphie asked. The strange black box lay on the ground outside her cell. Saphie had plugged her present into the back of it, and a dim red light blinked on and off from within it.
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