Rose and Sage swooped into the fire and carried Casey out and over the hill back to where I expected to find a mobile home and Ivan’s trailer.
“That’s right, run back to your boss!” yelled Faith as the trio disappeared over the hilltop.
Jonah diverted irrigation water again, dousing the greenhouse completely.
“Well, they totally botched their ambush,” said Cole.
“Not necessarily,” said Josh.
“How do you figure? We’ve still got access to the tunnel connecting to their compound,” said Ilya.
“There could be something waiting for us in the tunnel,” said Jonah.
“I can’t hear anything. If another one of those scorpion dogs was in there, I’d hear its primal brain,” said Ilya.
“I’ll test it.” Cole walked through the still smoking remains of the greenhouse, back to the steel door into the hillside. He ripped it off like an old paper poster and stepped through the doorway.
Cole took two steps into the tunnel and fell to his knees. He retched violently and the contents of his stomach spilled out onto the ground. He clutched his stomach with one arm, pulling himself along the floor with the other, until he crawled back out through the doorway.
“Anyone else wanna to try?” said Faith.
“This is probably going to suck.” Josh crossed the charred structure and helped Cole to his feet. Josh braced himself for a moment and then stepped into the stairwell.
“It’s not too –,” Josh’s words were cut by the sound of vomit lurching out of his mouth.
“Can you get out?” Jonah took a step forward as if to help and I grabbed his arm. We watched as Josh too crawled back out of the tunnel.
“What the hell was the point of attacking us if they’ve got some kind of hex on their tunnel?” said Faith.
“My father used to refer to ‘curses’ as security measures. I never took him seriously,” said Ilya.
“I’m sure it’s not some form of witchcraft. I worked security for Innoviro and I never heard of anything like that,” said Josh.
“I know what it was. I mean, I know how to stop it,” I said.
I ran back to Josh’s Jeep leaving everyone scratching their heads. I rummaged in my backpack until I found the black leather and stone rune necklace I’d had to wear when I lived in Victoria. I put it on and marched back to the greenhouse.
“Don’t you remember having to wear these at my building in Victoria,” I said to Jonah.
“What is that?” said Cole.
“Irina lived in an old walk-up in Esquimalt. We were supposed to wear these in the building. I figured they used it as a form of identification. I didn’t think it really mattered,” said Jonah.
“But you wore it anyway,” I said to Jonah. To everyone else, I continued my explanation.
“When Rubin moved me in there, he told me to wear it at all times. He didn’t say what would happen if I took it off and I didn’t ask. I figured I’d learn more in time, but that time never came,” I said.
“How does it work, really?” said Josh.
“I have no idea,” I said.
“Are you willing to risk your breakfast to find out?” said Faith.
“It’s not like I’ve never barfed before,” I said. Now Jonah grabbed my arm. “I’m right about this, I know it.” He let go and I walked to the doorway.
I took a moment to size up the bare earth in front of the stone steps. The space ahead seemed empty, harmless. Cool air floated outward. I looked to my right where Cole and Josh–the two strongest men I’d ever known–were sitting up against the rock wall, recovering their composure.
I closed my fist around the small black stone on my chest and I stepped into the tunnel. Nothing happened. I took another step and another until I had descended several steps. I turned and ran back to the greenhouse.
“I can go!” I said excitedly.
“What about the rest of us?” said Josh.
“There’s no way you’re going alone,” said Jonah.
“We can’t use the tunnel, but we might be able to cross over the hill,” said Cole.
“That’ll take all day to go up and over on foot. We should take the Jeep and the car,” said Faith.
“We’ve already lost whatever element of surprise we had going for us,” said Josh. He threw up his hands and walked back to his Jeep. We followed quickly.
“Shit!” yelled Josh. We caught up and I saw why he was upset.
Both back tires on the Jeep and the car were flat. We weren’t going anywhere on wheels.
“Those fuckers!” yelled Cole.
“The attack was a diversion so they could take out our cars?” said Jonah, perplexed.
“I don’t get it either,” said Ilya.
“They could be buying time. If Ivan’s working on something he doesn’t want to walk away from, but he doesn’t want company, he might be stalling,” said Josh.
“They are willing to kill. Casey was still trying to sell us on joining their ‘team’ back in the greenhouse, but I saw Tatiana and Ivan talking with Gemma. They’re flat out ready to murder us before sacrificing The Compendium. There’s no question about it now,” I said.
“If we go over that hillside and find critical research and specimens worth destroying, we will be risking our lives to do it,” said Jonah.
“I’m still in,” said Faith.
“Me too. I still feel responsible for my father,” said Ilya.
“This isn’t our first trip into the lion’s den. We’re all in it until the end,” said Cole.
Josh nodded. “Everybody grab a bag. Take only what you really need for the day. Whatever happens on the other side of this hill, we won’t be going any farther any time soon.”
“What happens if we all get sick? I mean everyone but Irina. That ‘curse’ thingy might extend up into the hill,” said Faith.
“If I have to go alone, I’ll pretend like I’m joining their side. It’s the only chip I’ve got to play. Ivan might not know I’ve inherited his telekinesis, so I could have a surprise to spring if needed,” I said.
“You haven’t learned to use or control your telekinesis very well yet,” said Jonah.
“It’s still better than sending her in armed with visions,” said Cole.
At the word ‘armed’, I felt numbness in my chest. I had never considered myself armed with anything. But Cole was right, an offensive ability, even a clumsy one, made a better weapon in a fight than mental images.
We walked away from our vehicles with a sense of foreboding. Nobody spoke. As we trekked up the hillside, I looked for loose rocks and practiced remotely throwing them at tree trunks we passed. Under other circumstances, I would have been amused. I would have looked for smiles on my friends’ faces. Today, it was all I could do to keep my breakfast in my stomach, even with my protective rune pendant.
Dry grass and dusty clay earth with a sparse growth of little round cacti, sage, and small pine trees covered the hillside. No clear trail presented itself. Several times, someone cried ‘ouch’ and had to carefully dislodge a small prickly ball from a pant leg.
We crested the hillside and looked down into the second half of Innoviro’s Mojave research farm. The mobile home, fifth wheel trailer and two freshly grown carnivorous white spruce were exactly where I’d seen them. Josh knelt to the ground where we still had the cover of a few pines and we all copied him.
“Ilya, can you give us a read on how many people are down there?” whispered Josh.
Ilya frowned, concentrating. He looked back and forth between the mobile and the fifth wheel.
“What is it?” I whispered.
“Seven people. My father, Aunt Tat, four girls and I think Casey,” he whispered.
“Where are they?�
� said Cole.
“In the mobile. Wait, no. What the . . .?” said Ilya.
“What’s happening?” hissed Jonah.
“My father is gone. No, Aunt Tat too. Now the girls. There’s only . . . There’s no one left!” said Ilya at regular volume.
“They’re underground again?” said Josh.
“No, they disappeared out of existence. Their minds, just, blip, gone!” said Ilya, bewildered.
“Could it be some kind of panic room?” said Faith.
“I don’t think so. I’ve never been locked out like this except for a variant like Rubin. Even then, he couldn’t shut me down like this or put up a wall around so many people. They’re . . . gone,” he said confidently.
“We might as well investigate,” I said.
Josh put his finger to his lips and gestured for us to follow him. We all trusted his military expertise more than ever. Every crunch made by one of our missteps sent a dagger of fear through my heart, but we kept walking. I reminded myself over and over that Ilya was probably right. They had escaped somehow.
“Wait,” said Ilya as we arrived down on the plateau. “I can hear someone. It’s one of the girls. She popped out of thin air! She seems familiar but I can’t place her.”
We all stopped short. Ilya took another couple of steps as though listening and suddenly vomited all over himself. Faith ran to pull him back and the sickness hit her too. I ran out in front of both of them and concentrated with all my heart on lifting them up and backward towards the hillside.
Faith and Ilya both rose a few inches of the ground and floated backwards a few feet until I accidentally dropped them. They were still recovering, but the sickness had lost its grip.
“Don’t come any closer, anyone,” I said.
“The girl is in the mobile home. Hurry! While she’s still there,” said Ilya, wiping his face in disgust.
I ran to the front door of the mobile home. I hesitated for a moment before I opened the door.
The building held an office and storage space with several cubicles nearest me. A wall of cabinets stretched along one side of the building and a row of walk-in freezers hummed along the other side. Rows and rows of canisters sat in quiet stasis.
I forced myself to continue inside, remembering that I was supposed to be looking for a live person before trying to make sense of anything behind the doors ahead. And then a rustle of paper inside one of the cubicles sent a shock of panic through me.
Chapter 34
A flash of a brown-haired bun caught my attention at one of the cubicles. The girl stepped out from behind the divider. Melissa had come a long way from her days as a preppy downtown receptionist. She wore a white thermal shirt, still dressed in the stiff vinyl dirt biking pants I had seen in my mind. A stone pendant hung from a leather cord around her neck.
“You bitch!” I snapped at her. Melissa whirled around with a shocked expression. Her features relaxed as she evaluated me.
“Nice to see you too, Irina. Don’t you want to know why I’m here?” she said.
“I should have known you were still with him. Fine, talk,” I said.
“I’m not with him anymore. Not now. That’s why I’m back in this godforsaken desert,” said Melissa.
“And what pray tell made you change your mind at this point?” I said.
“I overheard Ivan and Tatiana talking about releasing a virus,” said Melissa.
“You didn’t know that’s what those fantastic variant bees are for?” I said.
“No, I didn’t. I knew they were working on some kind of variant colony. I could get on board with that. But once I saw what their virus will do to anything not a variant, I came back,” said Melissa.
“Came back . . . from where?” I said slowly. “More to the point, where is everyone else who works at this farm? Where are Rose and Sage and Casey? And my sister!”
“London,” said Melissa flatly.
“England?” I said.
“Of course, England. You think I’d send them to Ontario?” said Melissa.
“Send them? You’ve lost me again,” I said.
Melissa looked me squarely in the eye and turned to face the wall beside her. She traced the outline of an oval about three feet wide and seven feet high. The air shimmered with liquid silver following the outline made by her finger. When she closed the loop, a rippling metallic window hung in the air.
“It’s a portal. Not to where I left them in London, that’s too dangerous at the moment. If you step through here, you’ll be back in our old office in Victoria. If the landlord hasn’t leased the space, it should still be empty,” said Melissa.
My jaw dropped. My eyes widened. Of all the variations I’d seen, this one took the trophy for most bizarre. How had I never seen this before? Why hadn’t anybody told me that Melissa could do this?
“Do the others know?” I said.
“Jonah, Cole and Faith–your buddies? No, they don’t. Ivan asked me to keep it confidential and I did. I did whatever Ivan asked me to do, without question.”
“So if I walk through this . . . thing, I’ll end up back in Victoria?” I said.
“Test it. You’ll be in Ivan’s office. More or less,” she said, not as confidently as I would have liked.
I went closer to the portal and touched the surface. It felt like liquid on my palm, but when I pulled my hand away, the skin was perfectly dry. I ventured larger test, pressing my hand into the liquid, pushing my arm through up to my elbow. I couldn’t see where my arm went, but I felt dry air on the other side.
I took a deep breath and pinched my nose as though I’d be plunging underwater. I glanced at Melissa. She rolled her eyes. I turned back to the liquid portal, closed my eyes, and plunged in until my head submerged.
I opened my eyes and I was in Ivan’s abandoned office, precisely as we’d seen it last. I felt a push from behind and I stumbled the rest of the way through the portal. Melissa followed behind me.
“And here we are. Innoviro Industries, Ivan’s office specifically,” said Melissa.
“Did we travel through time?” I said uncertainly.
“Of course not,” said Melissa.
“No, of course not. Silly me,” I said sarcastically.
“So now you understand me. I already know everything about you, including your newly developed telekinesis. Now you need to decide if you want my help. Do you still want The Compendium Transmuto?”
“What!? You’ve got it?”
“I will have it. Once I complete the file transfer from the Mojave network to the ten gig netbook I left in the mobile,” said Melissa.
“What is The Compendium?” I said.
“It’s what you think it is. Ivan has counterparts at two other variant research firms, Evonatura in Europe and Jinhua in China. They’re rich and powerful variants who are losing patience with the glacial pace of remaking the world for variants alone,” said Melissa.
“And you’ve now decided their mission is unacceptable,” I said.
“All along, talks were about sowing seeds and reaping changes on a generational level. Humans are doing no less. But now, it’s getting darker and more aggressive. It’s gone beyond science. They’re starting a bloody war humanity won’t even recognize for what it is. They don’t stand a chance. It’s not evolution, it’s extinction they’re after now. I could see letting humans do it to themselves, but I can’t be a part of global murder,” said Melissa.
Car engines and the sound of a saxophone street musician drifted up from the street. We were really in Victoria.
“We need to get back to the Mojave,” I said.
Melissa and I both whipped our heads around at the sound of a door opening down the hall.
“The property manager!” whispered Melissa.
�
�Open another portal!” I hissed back.
Melissa created another shimmering oval and we hopped through it.
We were back in the Mojave, only this time we were outside the trailer with my friends looking on from the edge of the property.
“Irina!” called out Jonah.
“Who is that?” yelled Faith.
“It’s me! Melissa,” she shouted back.
“Is there anything worth salvaging in the trailer? After we download The Compendium, of course. Should we bother picking through the specimens and files?” I asked Melissa.
“In terms of files, everything is covered by The Compendium. But specimens are another story. Your crew showing up here rushed his transfer to London. Ivan left material behind I know he wanted to come back for in the near future. He took my loyalty for granted. Without me, he can’t return quickly, but there is work in progress here on creatures and plants he wants to turn loose in the new world.”
“Then we’re better off to wipe it all out, even the species or projects we think are benign. You go finish the download. I’ll see what I can do about the trailer.”
Chapter 35
Melissa turned on her heel and marched into the mobile. I ventured a quick peek inside Ivan’s fifth wheel trailer. The foul odor of decay hung in the air. I flicked the light switch next to the door. Nothing happened. I heard a scratching sound from inside a caged at the far end of the trailer. A shrill SQUAAAAK pierced the air. It sounded like a cry of pain. I backed out of the trailer and closed the door. Faith needed to burn the trailer to the ground.
An idea struck me. I moved to the front of the trailer and the exposed hitch. I pulled on it. Of course nothing happened.
“Irina, what are you doing?” called Jonah from the edge of the site.
The Compendium Page 25