“Aye. Send him ahead, toward the ocean. I wager there are caves down there. That’s probably where the jakalis were headed. Question is, were they chasing the boy and girl from the village or seeking shelter from daylight?”
Seconds later, Elvis reported the nano drone was launched. Caelan gestured for his Makoas to stop. “Let’s see what Devo shows us before we go any further.”
Elvis moved up from the rear and activated a holoband, allowing Caelan and the others to watch Devo’s live feed. The fly-like drone zoomed above the trees and flew toward the ocean. When it reached a point where only the ocean was visible, Devo arced back toward the island, giving Caelan a view of the end of their trail.
It led to a set of caves as he suspected, but the rest of the scene came as a surprise. Between the caves and the ocean was a narrow beach. On it, a blond woman stood with a laser rifle trained on two kneeling figures, a teen boy and girl. They were awaiting the arrival of a hydrofoil boat aboard a wheeled carrier that six jakalis were dragging from inside one of the caves.
“Radio Bora,” Caelan said. “Tell him we’ve found Akela’s missing people. Patch him into Devo’s feed.”
“Affirmative.” Seconds later, Elvis spoke again. “Bora sends a message from Akela, asking us to prevent the boat’s departure. Akela does not want the boat destroyed or anyone harmed, including the jakalis. He asks us to hold all who are on the beach hostage until he arrives.”
“Easier said than done,” Caelan mumbled under his breath. Turning to Elvis, he said, “Acknowledge Akela’s request. Tell him we’ll do our best, but if they resist, we’ll defend ourselves.”
Now, with an accurate picture of what lay ahead, Caelan urged his Makoas to pick up the pace. They had to reach the beach before the jakalis finished sliding the boat into the surf. When they reached the end of the trail, Caelan ordered his Makoas to fan out along the tree line. After wedging his radio transmitter into his ear, he propped his laser rifle against a rock and spoke to his team. “All right, boys, this is the plan. I’m going out there alone. No weapon. I’ll try to talk to the woman, and stall her until Akela arrives. If she shoots at me, stun her. If the jakalis mount an attack, knock them down too. Leave the two kneeling humans alone. Got it?”
Three double blips signaled his instructions were received. Caelan took a deep breath, raised his hands in surrender and stepped out from the cover of the tree line. The only one to spot him immediately was the kneeling girl. She had a panicked look on her face as she glanced up at the woman with the gun, then at the jakalis and back at Caelan. He smiled at her and formed okay signs with the fingers of his raised hands.
He was ten feet onto the beach when he heard the snarl of a jakali. Caelan watched the blond woman look toward the jakali and then toward him. He froze and raised his hands as high as they would go. He shouted above the sound of waves and wind. “I am unarmed. I come on behalf of Akela.”
“Leave or I will kill you,” the woman shouted back.
As she aimed her rifle at him, Caelan said, “I wouldn’t do that, luv. I brought me Makoas. They’re a fright itchy-fingered.”
With her eyes on Caelan, the woman yelled to the jakalis in an indiscernible tongue. Caelan turned his head to see them straining harder to tug the boat carrier. He looked back at the woman and then at the boy and girl. They were shaking. “How are you two? Akela is worried about you. Are you hurt?”
“Shut up,” screamed the woman. “Go away.”
She raked laser fire across the sand in front of Caelan. The sizzle of sand turning to glass pebbles sounded like the hiss of a snake. Oh, you shouldn’t have done that, luv. He closed his eyes as the spit of his team’s lasers zipped through the air. He heard a yelp and opened his eyes to see the woman writhing on the ground. By her feet was a throbbing, molten mass that had been her weapon. Through his earbud, Caelan heard Elvis say, “Jakalis at three o’clock.”
When Caelan turned to look, he expected to find the jakalis streaming toward him, or headed for his Makoas. But the panicked beasts were running toward the fallen woman. In their fervor, they ignored the two teens who jumped up and ran in Caelan’s direction. The girl, hobbled by a gimpy leg, held onto the boy’s hand as he pulled her along. Caelan corralled them in his arms and tried to calm them. “It’s okay, luvs. You’re safe. No one can harm ya now.”
Looking beyond them, he watched with wonder as the jakalis fell to their knees and tended to the woman, grunting and barking words of dismay. One of them looked toward Caelan and snarled, ready to charge, but then he heard the woman call out, holding up a bloodied hand. The jakali backed away but continued to snarl at Caelan.
“Sir, Akela is here,” Elvis radioed.
“Good. Secure the perimeter and send him out. And his medic too. We have a casualty.”
CHAPTER 26: CLEARING SKIES
Sir Bryce Collins’ residence
Malibu, California, Pacifica
The room seemed to spin as Sir Collins listened to the swirling mix of good news and bad. Tripp was dead, but so was Jordyn. Though Collins’ hand-selected prefect had not stopped Jordyn’s commandos from executing her orders, the commandos had failed in their missions, leaving Avana Wells alive, and her father, Takoda in possession of Antoinette’s stash of GODD chips and smart-proteins. It was a pity Antoinette had been killed but, thanks to her shrewd thinking, she made sure Beacon got what they came for…what Collins wanted them to have.
In a way, thought Collins, it worked out for the best. Now Beacon will have to sort out the technology without Antoinette’s help. By the time they figure out it’s sabotaged, the repaired gutations of Antoinette’s “patient-zeros” will have already broken down…and that will be the end of Mugabe’s cursed invention and Beacon’s pipedream.
Collins stirred from his thoughts as he realized his caller had stopped speaking. “I’m sorry, Hawkeye. I missed the end of your update.”
“No need to apologize, Your Grace. I was just saying the Beacon facilities in Eagle Butte were destroyed by the drones I sent. As far as anyone knows, the drones originated in New Atlantia, so we’re covered there. And everyone and everything inside the buildings, including Hoot’s body and chip, were destroyed. Now they have nothing to compare to Billy Hearns’ DNA.”
“Good. And you’re certain there are no loose ends?”
“Yes, Your Grace. Willow and what was left of the Hearns family were among those who did not survive the gliders.”
“What about Wells’ colleague, Fujita?”
“She is alive and now within a few hours of reaching Thunder Bay. Based on her incessant emergency attempts to contact me, I assume she is unaware of my involvement. The only wildcard that remains is your rogue evvie on Kauai. Dr. Wells will soon learn she has the chip too.”
“Leave Lila to me. You just keep Wells’ attention on Antoinette’s chip.”
“Understood.”
“You have done well, Hawkeye, and you will be rewarded as promised.”
“Thank you, Your Grace.”
“May the unity of the four gods be with you, young man.”
“And with you.”
Unnamed beach
North Shore, Kauai, the Hawaiian Islands
As the sun disappeared behind the towering cliffs surrounding the thin beach, Natti sat down beside Akela, her purple eyes focused on Lotus. The evvie sat against a rock looking down at her hands while Malo finished wrapping them in bandages.
Given everything that had happened in the preceding several hours, Natti felt strangely happy. For the first time in a long time, she could envision a future that didn’t end with a lethal injection or a fatal mauling. If what Lotus had told her was true, there was a good chance she would never become a jakali and some of her gutations might heal.
She looked at the purple splotches on her arms and legs and dared to dream of a day when they might disappear, a day when her hair regrew, a day when she would not fear sunset or the specter of jakali attacks. At that moment, she imagined he
rself one day lying on a beach, soaking in the sun, listening to the ocean and children playing in the surf. A warm feeling swept through Natti as she dreamed of the peaceful scene.
She smiled and looked around at the others gathered on the beach. A few feet away, she saw Kaleo leaning against a rock, talking with Bora. Kaleo was smiling too. On the other side of Akela sat the redheaded man who had introduced himself as Caelan. He was speaking to a female android missing an arm and leg. Her name was Ellie according to Caelan, and Natti found herself captivated by her beauty.
Next to Ellie was another android Natti had never seen before. He called himself Ake and on his lap sat Avana and RJ. Farther away, several Makoas kept watch on the group of jakalis huddled by the boat. The jakalis looked toward Lotus with anxious expressions. To Natti’s astonishment, the docile beasts seemed almost human and she did not fear them, a feeling she never thought possible.
The sound of Akela’s voice drew Natti’s attention. She turned to see him addressing Lotus. As he began to speak the other conversations quieted. “I do not agree with what you have done, threatening my village, injecting Natti and Kaleo with the GODD chip, trying to kidnap them off the island, but I think I understand why you did these things. I understand where your heart lies.
“And now that we have learned from Ellie and Akecheta that the GODD chip also played a role in Avana’s attempted kidnapping, I have come to realize your presence here is the work of the four gods. They brought you to our island for a purpose.”
Natti watched Akela stand and look at each person and android individually, including the jakalis. “They have brought all of you here for a purpose. It is the same purpose that Ellie tells me guides Avana’s father and his allies — to bring hope to the hopeless.
“And so, Lotus, I say to you, I say to all of you, that I honor your purpose and will pledge my village, my people, to help in this cause. It unnerves me to do so, for I fear it will bring wrath upon us, but in my lifetime the four gods have never spoken so clearly to me. It is the right thing to do.”
Through teary eyes, Natti looked toward Lotus, whose eyes also watered. She mouthed a thank you and began to speak, but Akela held up his hand to silence her. “But, if my people are to help you, Lotus, we require your honesty. You must tell us the full tale of the GODD chip, how you came to possess it and your journey thereafter.”
Lotus wiped her eyes on her sleeve and nodded. “It’s hard to know where to start.”
“Begin with your real name. The rest will come easy.”
“Okay,” she said. “My name is Lila Graves…I was the head of an Evvie Guild genetic research group studying Jakali Syndrome.”
“Hold on there, lass,” said Caelan. “Genetic research is banned, even for the Guild.”
“That’s one hundred percent true, but, nonetheless, they have several covert research programs.”
“Several programs?” asked Malo.
“Yes. You see, they believe the evvie caste’s superiority will not last much longer without a recommitment to genetic intervention, although the Guild leadership will never say that — not publicly, not among Guild members, not even to their researchers like me.”
“Why is that?” Akela asked. “Why do they believe intervention is necessary?”
“There are many reasons,” Lila said. “That is to say, the Guild leadership sees many reasons. Evvies breed at too low a rate to grow the caste’s population. There is public resistance to their didgee surrogate program. Jakali Syndrome continues to spread and a new, more frightening permutation of JS is on the horizon, not to mention the certain emergence of new exotic gutations. On top of all that, there is evidence suggesting someone has intentionally introduced a contaminant into evvie DNA.”
“That’s quite a list of threats,” said Caelan. “So how does the GODD chip figure into their research? If I understand what I’ve heard today, you believe it can help heal jakali gutations. How does healing jakalis help the Guild?”
“It doesn’t. Healing jakali gutations hurts the Guild. At least, that’s how they view it. Obviously, I don’t agree. That’s why I left the Guild. It’s why I stole one of their prototypes. It’s why I’ve spent the last few years hiding in jakali dumping grounds all over the hemisphere, refining the technology as best I can, testing my refinements on jakalis.” Lila looked toward Akela. “That’s why I panicked during the Viper attack. I thought the Guild had found me. I thought the androids had been sent to kill me and destroy my work. I couldn’t let that happen.”
Akela nodded. “I see. And you took Natti and Kaleo with you because you didn’t want the Guild to discover their implants. You thought they would be killed.”
“Yes. Or imprisoned.”
“Why didn’t you put the chip in me too?” Avana asked.
“You are too young. In truth, Natti and Kaleo are too old for the chip to cure all of their gutations, but I am confident enough of them will heal to prevent them from turning into jakalis.”
“Too old?” Kaleo said. “What do you mean, too old? I’m only fifteen.”
“Do you remember the story of Goldilocks?” As Kaleo nodded, Lila said, “Well, I’ve found there is a ‘just right’ time of adolescence to introduce the GODD chip. Implant it too early, and a child becomes very sick and dies. Implant it too late, and it cannot overcome jakali symptoms. It is why implanting the chip into jakalis has proven useless. One day, I hope to change that, but for now, there is a narrow band of adolescence when an implanted chip is effective in healing gutations.”
“So you have implanted others with the chip. Tell me, the ones who were just right, are they still alive?” Caelan asked.
“Yes.” Lila once again looked to Natti and Kaleo. “They live now on an island in the Aleutian chain, in a lodge where my lab is located. That’s where I would have taken you in my boat to escape the Guild, though I would have preferred to ask you.”
“Lila, there is something that confuses me,” said Akela. “You say you took a GODD chip prototype from the Guild. How did they recreate it? History tells us Dyan Mugabe and all her research were destroyed.”
“Mugabe’s research might have been destroyed but not her test subjects, her patient-zeros.” Lila lowered her head and stared at the sand. “It sickens me to know what the Guild did to those poor Zeros.” Raising her gaze, she studied the faces of those in the semi-circle around her. “The Guild captured several of them. Some they killed and extracted their chips. Others they imprisoned to study their chips and smart-proteins in action. Later, they experimented on them, introducing new gutations into their DNA, testing new smart-proteins on them. Ultimately, the Guild used what they learned to develop prototypes.”
Natti joined the conversation with a question for Lila. “You said the Guild believes healing jakalis will hurt evvies. If that’s true, then why have they recreated the GODD chip?”
“They have several applications in mind. None of which are to help anyone other than evvies,” Lila said. “I’m not proud of it, but I was accepting of that, at first. But, later, when I learned about Mugabe’s Zeros, when I learned how they’d been treated, the brutality shocked me. It caused me to step back and question the goals of my program, the goals of all the Guild’s research programs.”
Kaleo crouched down next to Lila. “What was the goal of your program? You said you studied JS for them. For what purpose?”
“To observe how the condition is changing, to anticipate new gutations that might arise, to speculate on the outcome of jakali inter-breeding.”
“So, the GODD chip was not part of your work,” said Kaleo.
“No, but I wanted it to be. I saw it as a way to prevent new gutations, to blunt JS from morphing into something more gruesome. But I was prevented from access to the technology… until…one day, the head of all of the Guild research programs came to see me. She indicated a willingness to let me in on the chip tech provided I limited my focus to a solitary objective — how the tech could be used to kill jakalis.”
CHAPTER 27: RECOVERY
Local hospital
Thunder Bay, The Northlands
For several hours after she arrived at the hospital in Thunder Bay, Yon shuttled between the rooms assigned to Takoda and Spiers, waiting for them to awaken. According to the attending physician, they would both survive, but Takoda would face an extended recovery period. His laser beam and bullet wounds had been extensive. The prognosis for Spiers was better. Though he had been shot too, his solitary wound was easily treated. And while the major had also suffered a concussion, the doctor said it was mild.
At an earlier point in her anxious wait, Yon had noticed a backpack on the floor of the open closet in Takoda’s room. Thinking it was the one Takoda and Spiers had brought to Thunder Bay, she opened it, hoping to find the secure holophone Cassidy had given them.
That was when she discovered the pack’s stunning contents. In one compartment, she found three injectors and a supply of syringes. In another, there was a book-sized case full of gelatin-encased nanochips. The last compartment was chocked full of vials containing a golden fluid. Takoda had succeeded!
The discovery led Yon to search Spiers’ closet for the Beacon pack, but she found the closet empty. Determined to apprise Cassidy or Hawkeye of her find, Yon probed the android manning the nurse’s station about Spiers’ missing pack. She was told he had arrived with no belongings.
Frustrated, Yon returned to the cruiser and once again attempted to reach the Beacon contacts. This time, her plea was authorized. Moments later, she heard the voice of Hawkeye address her through the holonode.
“Hello, Dr. Fujita, my apologies. The comms blackout was unavoidable. We faced NASF attacks on many fronts today. I did not want to risk any further casualties.”
“I understand,” said Yon. “I’m just glad to finally get through to someone. I am in Thunder Bay with Takoda and Damon Spiers, but neither are awake. Have you heard from Cassidy?”
The GODD Chip (The Unity of Four Book 1) Page 32