Wiping his brow, Tripp said, “Assuming your NASF officers aren’t outfoxed by Beacon again.”
“If they are, it will not materially affect the outcome.” Jordyn smiled. “We have leverage with Beacon now. Leverage that will change everything.”
“What do you mean? What kind of leverage?” Tripp asked.
Jordyn’s sensors detected Tripp’s heartbeat begin to slow. “One of the Beacon conspirators, the Carapach geneticist named Takoda Wells, has a daughter. Two years ago, she was diagnosed as a pre-jakali. The director of the Minneapolis Gene Center, Dr. Nigel Thompson, an evvie, told us he arranged a placement for the girl in a gutant refuge.”
“Despicable behavior for an evvie,” said Tripp, “but I fail to see how this information provides us leverage. Carapach laws allow such placements.”
“The evvie traitor told us where the refuge is located. Before your arrival, I dispatched commandos to capture the daughter.”
“Ah, I see,” Tripp said. “You intend to use the daughter as a bargaining chip.”
“Affirmative, Your Eminence. To save his daughter Avana, Takoda Wells will be forced to surrender and lead us into the bowels of Beacon, and when he does, we will eviscerate the entire network.”
The prefect eased back against the throne and smiled. “I seem to have misjudged you, Counselor. Excellent work. Now, fill me in on all the details…”
CHAPTER 19: RING OF FIRE
Gutant refugee village
Limahuli, Kauai, the Hawaiian Islands
In the back room of the cottage serving as his command center, Akela sat across the table from Lotus. On the floor next to him was her backpack peace offering. With a towel draped around her neck, she wore dry clothes now, a shirt and shorts donated by another villager at Akela’s request. He had changed into dry clothes as well. On the table in front of them were a dozen vials filled with a golden-colored fluid Akela had taken from the pack.
Arms crossed over his chest, he leaned forward and said, “I have many questions that need answers, but first I need to make sure Natti and Kaleo are cared for. Tell me about the medicine. What is it?”
“It’s a combination of hormones and proteins. It counteracts jakali symptoms. It’s what I give the jakalis to calm them.”
“You mean control them.”
With a flip of her hand, Lotus said, “Call it what you like. It allows me to communicate with them without getting raped or killed…and it helps them feel better.”
“How?”
“Look, if you wait much longer to give your Natti and Kaleo two of these vials, each, they’ll die. Do you understand me?”
Akela pounded the table, scattering the vials. “No! I don’t understand. If one dose has already made them sick, how can another make them better?”
Lotus held up one of the vials. “Because they don’t have enough of this in their systems! Their bodies are fighting against the medicine instead of accepting it. Unless they receive more cycles, and damn soon, their bodies will continue to fight it and their fevers will kill them. Now, do you want them to die or not? This can help them. I can help them...if you’ll let me.”
He cupped his head in his hands. “You vex me. One moment you threaten, the next you offer your help.”
“It was a mistake to threaten you, Akela. I shouldn’t have done it. At the time, I felt I had no choice. I didn’t think you would listen to me if I strolled into your village and said, ‘here, try this on some of your gutants.’”
Looking up at Lotus, Akela said, “Why would you think that?”
She leaned over the table and wagged the vial close to his face. “Because this is experimental. It’s also very illegal. It’s a gene therapy. Gene therapies are banned, remember? Death penalty to those who make them, who distribute them, who use them.”
The implications of her admission stunned Akela. Lotus had been plying jakalis with a banned therapy…one that gave her control of them. And those jakalis had attacked his village, including Natti and Kaleo, spreading the therapy to them.
These thoughts turned over another stone in his mind. The recent changes in the jakalis’ behaviors, their increasingly coordinated attacks, they were made possible because she could communicate with them, organize them, provide them with an incentive to cooperate with her. And now she wanted to do the same with Natti and Kaleo. She’s not trying to help them, she’s trying to turn them into part of her jakali army!
“You’re despicable. And you’re right. I wouldn’t have listened to you. And there’s no way under the eyes of the four gods I will let you give Natti and Kaleo any more of your poison.” Akela swept the vials off the table and stood, the sudden movement toppling his chair. Pointing his finger at her, he shouted, “You used this therapy to help jakalis attack my village! Kill and injure my people!”
Lotus shot out of her chair and knocked the table over. “I did no such thing. I tried to save your precious village.”
“You’re insane. Dangerously insane.”
“Am I?” Lotus advanced to within inches of him. “Tell me this, Akela, did you ever stop to consider the possibility I prevented attacks on your village? Have you noticed most of the attacks recently have been aimed at your Makoas, not your people? And how easily my jakalis gave up on the beach? They could have torn your fishing party to pieces if I had let them.”
“Are you suggesting I should be thanking you? You truly are mad.”
Lotus snarled and pushed Akela. “Do you think it’s easy to control jakalis? Huh? You think you give ’em a couple of vials and, poof, they’re obedient puppy dogs? It took time to cultivate them, to earn their trust, to build a rapport, to influence their behaviors. I did what I could to keep them from overrunning your village in the meantime, but my medicine can only do so much for them. Their gutations are too extensive. But Natti’s and Kaleo’s aren’t…not yet. And instead of helping them, you prefer to call me mad and watch them die.”
“I don’t want them to die.”
“Then let me give them the frickin’ medicine! You’re almost out of time to save them!”
Akela let Ring One burn all night…just in case Lotus had deceived him and the jakalis attacked. If not for the fear he had made the wrong decision by trusting her, Akela might have slept. Instead, he spent the long hours of darkness in the corner of the infirmary keeping watch on Natti and Kaleo, occasionally observing Lotus sleeping on the floor between their beds.
Earlier, against every instinct in his being, he had allowed Lotus to administer her “medicine” to Natti and Kaleo. As she did so, she had stroked the teens’ foreheads and held their hands, whispering prayers to the four gods. Akela found himself mouthing the same prayers, though he had held a spear in his hands while he prayed; better to prepare for the worst rather than hope for the best.
But sunrise came and went without a jakali attack. And by the time Akela finally found it within himself to order his fellow villagers to stand down, the color had returned to Natti’s body, and Kaleo’s fight to breathe had eased. Eventually, Akela nudged Lotus awake and posed the two questions that had consumed him all night. “Who are you, really, and why did you help them?”
Ignoring the first question, she said, “Because I want peace.”
An hour later, Natti began to convulse. Thrashing uncontrollably, she bashed her arms and legs against the bedframe so hard that Akela thought her joints might snap. Lotus called for restraints. Akela watched helplessly as Malo rushed forward and helped Lotus bind Natti’s limbs to the bed. Gripping Akela’s arm, Lotus demanded to know who was the fastest in the village.
Too focused on Natti’s convulsions, Akela was unable to answer. But his ears picked up Malo answering the woman. “Fiji. She’s a Makoa.”
“Get her. Now!” Lotus commanded.
Within what seemed like the blink of an eye, Fiji entered Akela’s field of vision. The sight of the woman barking orders to the eight-foot android was something that Akela would never forget. Ever loyal, Fiji had turned
to Akela before acceding to Lotus’ demands, the android’s pulsing eyes seeking his approval. Before he finished nodding, Fiji was gone.
Lotus turned to Akela. “Well, let’s hope it’s not too late.”
Only later would Akela learn of the heroic dash Fiji had made, for he was not present when she returned to the village, her skin shredded, an arm missing and leaking the last of her hydraulics. But before she succumbed to the cumulative abuse meted out by the jakalis she had encountered, Fiji had delivered the item Lotus had dispatched her to fetch. Outside the infirmary, Malo had wrestled the device from Fiji’s frozen grip. Shortly afterward, the Makoa’s brain core failed. Or so Akela had been told many hours after her demise.
Instead, Akela had seen Malo rush into the infirmary with a device that looked like nothing more than a socket wrench. Lotus had snatched it from him and then straddled Natti. Yanking her up by the sparse strands of hair on Natti’s head, the woman had plunged the device against the back of Natti’s neck.
Before Akela could ask what she was doing, the woman repeated the same gruff treatment with Kaleo. Tossing the metallic device aside, she unbound Natti’s arms and legs and then looked at Akela. “They are in the hands of God now.”
The first sound that met Natti’s ears was the crow of a Kauai rooster. Every day, the red, black and yellow fowl marked sunrise with their bellowing calls.
On this morning, however, Natti grappled to resolve the conflict between the benign sounds and the dread roiling in her mind. Her eyes opened and she gasped for breath. She flailed her arms and kicked her legs. Visions of lust-hungry jakalis filled her mind.
But there were no jakalis hovering above Natti. The faces that stared down at her were ones she recognized; Chief Akela, Malo, Avana and RJ. Natti frowned. Something was amiss. There was another face leaning over her that she did not recognize, a woman with purple eyes that seemed to throb with light. The woman spoke. Though she sounded friendly, her words did not soothe Natti’s anxiety.
“Get away. Leave me alone!” Natti pushed Lotus away as she snapped her eyes shut. “Akela, help me. Keep them away.”
A cacophony of voices responded, all of them urging Natti to calm down. The entreaties only prodded an escalation to Natti’s flails and kicks. But then Natti heard Akela’s voice cut through the din. He said something about the four gods and she felt his gigantic paw of a hand upon her forehead. Natti opened her eyes and saw Akela.
“Where am I?” Natti asked. “I feel strange.”
“Rest, child. You will feel better soon,” the woman said.
Natti felt the warmth of a hand stroking her bald head. She turned to see Avana. Next to her was RJ. He patted her shoulder and said, “You’re gonna be okay. Just stay awake. Hold my hand. Don’t let go.”
Natti nodded and squeezed back. “I won’t if you don’t.”
Lotus left Natti’s bedside and looked out the infirmary window. To Akela, she seemed suddenly frantic as she pushed past Malo and scrambled outside. Akela followed close behind her as she twirled at the center of the village courtyard. Her eyes narrowed with each spin.
“What are you looking for?” asked Akela.
“Where is the sun? What time is it?” she asked.
Malo came up beside Akela and said, “It is almost eight.”
“Crap!”
Lotus began to dash away. Akela and Malo exchanged glances and then Akela chased after her. “What’s the matter? Where are you going?”
“To feed my children.”
Drawn by the woman’s urgency in a way Akela could not explain, he followed her into the jungle. Behind him, he heard Malo huffing and puffing as they crashed through branches and trampled foliage.
“Wait up, Akela,” said Malo.
“Go back, Malo.”
“But, Akela, you—”
“Don’t argue. Do as I say!”
Akela looked over his shoulder to confirm Malo had obeyed and then focused back on Lotus as she charged ahead. The wet mud did not hinder her, nor did the snaking roots of trees. For what seemed like miles, she passed through gaps in the jungle like a fairy-tale sprite. Meanwhile, Akela tripped and smashed every plant in his wake.
Just as it seemed his lungs would give out, Akela saw a glimpse of the woman ahead. At the same time, he heard the sound of a waterfall. Gasping for breath, he began to slow down.
If Akela had slowed more than a few seconds later, he would have knocked Lotus into the torrent of water cascading down the waterfall. But he had seen her teetering on the edge of the abyss, her thin arms clinging to an equally thin vine. With no regard for his safety, Akela tumbled into the underbrush to the right of the woman.
The cracking of branches seemed to go on forever, but soon Akela found himself caught in a web of vines. As he struggled to free himself from the grip of the vines, Akela heard the woman’s voice call out.
“Bow, my children, and receive salvation.”
A chorus of growls and grunts responded.
“The sun rises, and so do you.”
As Akela listened to the voice, he found it hard to reconcile its power with its source.
“You are not forgotten, my loves,” Lotus said.
The growls descended into purrs. Akela pulled himself free of branches and vines and crept forward. Beyond the edge of the forest, arms raised to the sky, stood Lotus. She was poised at the precipice of a cliff. Water gushed down from the mountain above.
“You are more than they see,” she shouted. “Never forget that.”
Low-pitched growls cut through the air behind Akela. Wheeling around, he saw a wall of jakalis approaching him. He crouched to take them on.
“Bow!” Lotus bellowed.
Her voice seemed to slice through the thin layer of leaves now separating the jakalis from Akela. To his astonishment, the humanoid beasts recoiled and fell to their knees. In the hazy reality surrounding Akela, he saw the purple-eyed Lotus come into view. She took his hand and said, “Help me feed them.”
It was a sight Akela would never forget, hundreds of jakalis scrambling on their knees toward him. In his hands, he held out small vials he had scooped from a barrel Lotus had hauled from a cave behind the waterfall. The vials were the same as those Lotus had used to treat Natti and Kaleo.
The jakalis who picked the vials from Akela’s open palms seemed neither crazed nor vicious. In acts Akela found impossible to believe, the jakalis hissed their thanks, their eyes no longer pools of black.
One of them, a long-haired female, gripped Akela by the hand and kissed it. When she spoke, her voice was as tender as Avana’s. “Bless you.”
When the last of the jakalis slinked away to consume his vial, Akela held up one to the midday sun above. The golden fluid inside seemed to sparkle. “How can something so small help them?”
“It’s like kindling,” she said. “Each piece set aflame can ignite a much bigger fire over time.” As Akela continued to stare at the vial, Lotus continued the explanation she had begun the night before. “They will never fully recover, but they will live more fulfilling and longer lives than they would have otherwise…and, in turn, so will you and those who live in your village.”
“And what of Natti and Kaleo?” Akela asked. “Will they live more fulfilling and longer lives?”
“With all my heart, I pray so,” she said. “They could help me change the world.”
Town Commons
Flathead, Montana, Carapach
Ellie’s batteries were only sixty-two percent replenished when an emergency security alert triggered her docking station to abort charging. As her systems began to power up, Ellie detected a knock at the RV door. Accessing the vehicle’s surveillance cameras, she saw Wyatt Longbow, the man who ran the Flathead refugee camp, outside. Her brain core immediately suspected there was a problem with Billy Hearns. She disconnected from the dock and opened the door, noting it was nearly four a.m.
“Hello, sorry to disturb you,” Longbow said, “but I need to talk with you urgently.�
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“Is something wrong with Billy? Is he sick?”
“No, he’s asleep as far as I know. May I come in?”
“Yes, of course.”
As soon as the RV door closed behind Longbow, he said, “Hoot is dead. As the second-most senior Beacon member, I’ve taken over leadership of the network. My codename is Hawkeye.”
Over the next several minutes, Hawkeye filled Ellie in on the two NASF incursions into Carapach, including the Cannon Ball attack which claimed Hoot’s life. When he finished, he said, “I have an assignment for you. I need you to leave immediately for the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Once there, you are to locate and secure Avana Wells, the daughter of Dr. Takoda Wells. She is living in a remote village called Limahuli on the north side of the island. She is in great danger.”
Ellie accessed her logistics module and activated a map of the island. A pulsing red dot pinpointed the location of the village. At the same time, a loop of images cycled through Ellie’s memory; Takoda lamenting the loss of his wife and daughter, his living room shrine and Avana’s still-decorated bedroom. “I am familiar with Avana.”
“I figured as much.”
“Why is she in danger? Jakalis?”
“No, we intercepted an NASF transmission. They’ve dispatched a platoon of Viper commandos to capture her.”
“For what purpose?”
“Unknown, but I doubt they have good intentions.”
“Does Dr. Wells know?”
“No, and you’re not going to tell him. That’s an order. Do you understand me? There isn’t anything Takoda can do. He’s too far away to help, and telling him will only distract him from his mission. You have to help Avana for him.”
The GODD Chip (The Unity of Four Book 1) Page 24