The GODD Chip (The Unity of Four Book 1)

by K Patrick Donoghue

  “Regrettably, she is no longer with us.”

  Yon felt a sharp pain in her stomach. “What about Sarah Hearns? Her daughters?”

  “They were with Cassidy when the gliders struck. I am sorry. If we had learned of the attack earlier, they might have made it out. But we had very little warning.”

  Lowering her head, Yon murmured a prayer to the four gods. When she finished, she provided Hawkeye with the doctor’s update on Takoda and Spiers. Then, she told him about the pack in Takoda’s room.

  “Praise the four gods. Amid all of our losses, I am gratified to know some good has come from our sacrifices.” Hawkeye paused, then said, “I will send a team to provide the three of you, and the bag, with protection until I can make arrangements to transport all of you to a safer location. While I have received information that suggests NASF has been ordered to stand down, I do not wish to risk the New Atlantians changing their minds.”

  “Sounds good.” As she listened to Hawkeye talk about providing protection, Yon thought of Ellie and Akecheta. Now that Sarah Hearns and her daughters were dead, the two androids would no longer be needed to escort them to Flathead. “Sir, Takoda has two androids that are in Flathead. Can you send them here? They are more than capable of providing us protection.”

  “Yes, I know of them, and you are right, they are more than capable. However, they are not in Flathead at the moment. I dispatched them on a mission two days ago. Takoda will be pleased to know they accomplished that mission. They have successfully rescued his daughter Avana from an NASF force sent to kidnap her.”

  “What? Oh, my God. Is Avana all right?”

  “Yes, she is. And the most extraordinary thing happened in the course of the rescue.” Hawkeye provided a short recap of the events on Kauai, including the linkup with a woman bearing another supply of GODD chips.

  “That’s unbelievable,” said Yon. “Who is the woman? Where does she come from? Where did she get the chips?”

  “You ask many of the same questions I posed but, as of yet, I have received no answers. Comms to and from the island are spotty. Hopefully, we will learn more in the coming days. In the meantime, I have directed Ellie and Akecheta to stay on Kauai to provide Avana protection.”

  “Of course. That makes perfect sense. I’m sure Takoda will appreciate that. As soon as he wakes up, I’ll relay what you told me. I know he’ll be anxious to speak with Avana, but until then, if you hear from Ellie, please ask her to let Avana know she is in his thoughts.”

  Shortly thereafter, the call ended and Yon returned to Takoda’s room. Saddened by some of the news, but relieved by other information shared by Hawkeye, she curled up on a chair next to Takoda’s bed and fell asleep.

  The android nurse repeated her command for Damon to remain in bed but he ignored her. Using his hand on the wall to support his wobbly legs, he pushed past the nurse and left the room. As he hobbled down the hall, his mind groggy and body aching, Damon searched for answers. The last he recalled, he had been shot trying to ward off NASF Vipers and then set upon by a jakali.

  How am I still alive? I should have been torn apart by the jakali or fried by another Viper laser blast. Yet, here I am, all in one piece. Did the Vipers retreat? Did they beat back the jakalis? Or was it the other way around? But, if the jakalis knocked out the Vipers, surely they would have finished me off. Did Takoda come to my rescue?

  Now, with the nurse walking beside him, still prodding him to return to his room, Damon looked into the first room he passed.

  “Really, Mr. Spiers, you should be in bed. You’re too unsteady to be moving about. You’re apt to fall and hurt yourself.”

  Moving onto the next room on the ward, Damon asked, “What room is Takoda in?”

  “Mr. Wells is asleep. You should not disturb him.”

  He crossed to the opposite side of the hallway and peeked in a third room. “I won’t wake him up. I just want to look in on him. Now, where is he?”

  The nurse stepped in front of him and blocked him from proceeding to the next room. “There is a visitor who has been checking on the both of you. Return to your room and I will let her know you are here.”

  A female visitor? Must be Cass. “Where is she?”

  “Return to your room and I will bring her to you.”

  “Move out of my way, sister. I’m going in that room.” Damon pointed over the nurse’s shoulder, his voice raised.

  Just as the nurse threatened to call security, Damon saw the sleepy, disheveled Yon emerge from the room barred by the android. Fujita broke into a smile when she saw him. Stepping around the nurse, she opened her arms and hugged him. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m so happy to see you.”

  Her words echoed the same sentiment coursing through Damon. He hugged her back and said, “Me too. Is Cass here?” Yon pulled back from the embrace and stared up at him. From the somber expression on her face as she shook her head, Damon knew Cass was gone. He lowered his gaze and mumbled, “Damn.”

  Yon stroked his arm. “I’m very sorry. She was valiant to the end.”

  “What happened?”

  “Come with me, I’ll fill you in.” Yon looked at the nurse. “It’s okay. I’ll make sure he doesn’t disturb Takoda.”

  Moments later, they were seated in Takoda’s room. While Yon relayed the details of what happened in Eagle Butte, Damon’s eyes were transfixed on the heavily bandaged Takoda. He leaned forward and squeezed the geneticist’s hand, mentally apologizing for arriving too late to prevent his injuries.

  The hand squeezed back. Damon turned to Yon. “He’s awake, I think. He just squeezed my hand.”

  Yon pushed up from her chair and stood by Takoda, her hand on his shoulder. “Tak? Can you hear me?”

  Damon felt another squeeze. “He says yes. Here, take his hand.”

  Sitting back, Damon watched the teary Yon grip Takoda’s waiting hand. She leaned close to his face, pecked him on the cheek and whispered into his ear. Takoda raised Yon’s hand to his mouth and pressed it against his lips.

  In a croaky voice, the closed-eyed Takoda said, “The bag. Safe?”

  “Bag? What’s he talking about?” Damon said.

  “Yes, it’s here, Tak. I’ve got it.” Yon turned to Damon and then nodded toward the closet. “The bag in there. It’s full of GODD chips and protein vials.”

  Mouth open, Damon stood up. “Well, I’ll be damned. He did it. He found her.” Limping toward the closet, Damon’s emotions soared. He hadn’t thought to ask about the chip. From his memory of the onslaught at the farm, from his injuries and the sight of Takoda’s, Damon assumed NASF had intercepted Takoda before he reached the farmhouse. It was such a long shot for Takoda to go there in the first place.

  Damon grabbed the backpack and returned to his seat, paying no heed to Yon’s conversation with Takoda. All his senses were focused on examining the contents of the pack while his mind cycled through thoughts of Dylan and Alicia, then of the mosaic of events that had led to this moment. Is it possible? Will I be able to save my son?

  Several hours later, Takoda was fully coherent. Propped up in bed with Yon seated beside him, he greeted the returning Damon. “I did not expect to see you again, my friend. I thought I was destined to meet the four gods.”

  “Me, as well. I don’t know how you survived all that laser fire…and the jakalis…but I’m glad you did.”

  “You and me both.”

  At Damon’s request, Takoda shared the details of his visit to the farmhouse, including his truncated conversation with Toni Gilbert, the NASF attack and the bizarre emergence of the jakalis.

  “When the shooting started, Toni shouted something but I didn’t understand her. I thought she was urging me to take cover inside the house but the door was locked. Then, all of a sudden, the storm cellar doors slammed open and jakalis poured out. They looked possessed, maniacal. I thought they would kill me but they ran past me as if I wasn’t there. I didn’t see where they went or what they did. By then, I had already be
en hit a few times. I hid against the stairs and prayed for all of it to end.”

  Takoda finished the tale by describing his encounter with the jakali who had left him the backpack. After repeating the jakali’s parting words, he said, “I can’t explain why he left me the pack or said what he said, but in thinking about it now, it seems to me that he knew why I was there, like he knew I was coming.”

  “Which suggests Toni must have known you were coming too,” Yon said.

  The thought had occurred to Takoda, but Toni had seemed so reluctant to talk. She had appeared afraid of him. In light of what had happened, he wondered now if her fear had been spurred by the foreknowledge of the NASF attack. Had she known they were coming too? He posed these thoughts to Yon and Damon.

  “She probably did,” Damon said. “From what I saw when I surveilled the rowhouse in Thunder Bay, I thought there was a good chance NASF had already found her. They seemed too passive to me. My guess is someone tipped her off to NASF’s visit and she realized they would come looking for her.”

  “If that’s true, then why didn’t she leave?” Yon asked. “I mean, if she knew they were onto her, and she had this pack in her home, why didn’t she take off or hide the pack? If it had been me, I wouldn’t have stuck around.”

  Damon shrugged. “Maybe she thought the jakalis would protect her.”

  “I guess that’s possible,” Yon said.

  “Having seen the jakalis in action, I tend to agree.” Takoda turned to Damon. “And your speculation about Toni receiving a tip-off about NASF makes sense too. But who tipped off Toni that I was coming?”

  “That, I don’t know,” said Damon with a headshake. “The tip-off might not have been about you, specifically, but someone from Beacon.”

  Takoda looked up at the ceiling. “You know, I wonder if it was Sarah Hearns. She told us Toni, a.k.a. Mariah Bloom, gave her a holonumber. She told us the number didn’t work anymore, but maybe that wasn’t true. Maybe she called Toni and told her we wanted to meet with her and why.”

  Yon gasped and clutched his arm. “No. That’s not it.” Takoda looked down to see her rise from the bed. As she began to pace, she gazed first at Damon, then at him. “I’ll bet it was Cassidy.”

  She explained that Cassidy had delayed contacting them with the DNA ID on Toni. “She told me Hawkeye had directed her to gather background information on Toni. Remember, it was just a hunch that she might be living with Miriam Heinz. I guess Hawkeye didn’t want to send you guys there until Cassidy checked out other possibilities. Time was precious, and he didn’t want you going on a wild goose chase.

  “Anyway, I remember Cassidy saying she had searched for contact numbers among other information. Maybe one of the numbers she found was Miriam’s home number. Maybe she called and actually spoke with Toni…but, no, that doesn’t make sense. Cassidy would have told me if she’d talked to Toni.” Yon halted pacing and murmured, “Wouldn’t she?”

  “I guess we’ll never know,” said Damon. “But I’m damned glad someone tipped off Toni. Now there’s a legit chance to save my son. Your daughter too, Takoda. Plus, other pre-jakalis.”

  Damon’s reference to Avana caused Takoda to reflect on the news Yon had shared about NASF’s attempt to kidnap her and the subsequent revelation about a second woman with a supply of GODD chips and proteins. Visions of a healed Avana grabbed hold of his psyche and wouldn’t let go. He only half-listened to Yon and Damon go back and forth.

  “And other gutations beyond JS,” Yon said. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do before we start implanting the chip.”

  “What do you mean? We have everything we need to start, don’t we?”

  “In theory, yes. Especially given we now have someone to talk to about the technology. The woman on Kauai. But I saw something in Billy Hearns’ healed gutations that concerns me. Then, there’s what the jakali said to Tak when he gave him the pack.”

  Takoda zoned back into the conversation. “What about it?”

  “Well, you said his parting words were don’t give up. To me, that suggests Toni hadn’t perfected the tech, like the jakali was saying, it’s not all the way there, yet. Don’t give up. Keep working on it.”

  “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you could be right,” said Takoda. “At the time, I thought he was urging me to fight to stay alive. I’m sure he saw how badly I was hurt. By giving me the pack, saying what he said, I thought he was telling me not to give up and die. It doesn’t matter, though. We do need to vet the chip and the proteins. And the place to start is Kauai.”

  EPILOGUE

  Ke'e Cove

  Kauai, the Hawaiian Islands

  During the long hydrofoil ride to Kauai, Takoda spent much of his time thinking of Avana and the decision he had made two years before to send her to a refugee settlement far away from Carapach. She had only been eleven then and Takoda had been under no obligation to place her in a settlement until she turned thirteen, according to Carapach’s gutant management laws.

  At the time, he had rationalized it to himself as a way to protect Avana from repercussions that he feared might arise from his fledgling affiliation with Beacon. And while there was truth to that rationalization, the thought of sending her away somewhere safe had been in his mind for some time before her JS diagnosis.

  He recalled coming upon the despoiled remains of his wife’s body and fearing that one day, another jakali would sneak onto his land and inflict the same indignities on Avana. He had felt the same fear brewing in Avana.

  Therefore, he found it bitterly ironic the “safe” settlement Neville had arranged for Avana on Takoda’s behalf turned out to be a jakali-infested island. Perhaps it hadn’t been as infested at the time, or perhaps Neville hadn’t known, but the knowledge now made Takoda question why he’d ever asked for the evvie’s help.

  However, back then, Takoda felt so much regret about the decision to commit her earlier than required; he worried the regret would tempt him to rescind her placement and bring her home, only to be forced to recommit her a year or two later when the law demanded. By seeking Neville’s help for a “blind” placement, Takoda had removed the temptation, and in his mind, prevented making the gut-wrenching separation all the worse.

  In his most recent holomessage to Avana, Takoda had explained all of that, and now that the hydrofoil was within view of the beach, he prayed Avana would forgive him. He could not spot her yet amid the large party awaiting the boat’s arrival, but he hoped their reunion would be joyful. Turning to Yon, he let go of his crutch and took hold of her hand. Kissing it, he said. “Thank you for coming with me.”

  She smiled, raised on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. “There was never any doubt, Tak.”

  The sound of her voice and the look in her eyes eased his anxiety. Moments later, the sight of the teenaged Avana dashing into the surf to greet him melted his heart.

  Caelan looked at Ellie as Avana reunited with Takoda. The Athena, fully repaired by Natti in the Makoa garage, had a great big smile on her face. Androids may not feel emotions, he thought, but this one sure knows how to recognize them.

  “Go to them, luv. Be part of the celebration.”

  “I will…later. Right now, it is father-daughter time.”

  “Aye. I suppose so.”

  Ellie turned and kissed Caelan on the cheek. “You made this possible. Thank you.”

  He could feel himself blushing as he leaned to touch his forehead against hers. Smiling, he said, “I believe I wasn’t given much of a bloody choice, now, was I?”

  “Aye. I suppose not.”

  Caelan laughed at her mimic of his accent. “God, I’m going to miss you, luv. You’re one special lady.”

  She kissed him again. “Then, don’t go. Stay here with us. With me.”

  “It’s an awful tempting thought, luv, but you don’t belong to me, and I can’t see a reason why any man would let you go.”

  Ellie kissed him a third time and then pointed toward Takoda. The bandaged man was
held up on one side by Avana and on the other by a Japanese woman Caelan didn’t know. “My nurturing module tells me Takoda no longer needs me. The same module tells me you do.”

  For a brief moment, Caelan thought of his beloved Ertha and how he had once believed he’d never meet another android like her, then he smiled again at Ellie. “Aye. That I do, luv. More than you know.”

  Damon stayed on the hydrofoil with Dylan as they watched the Takoda-Avana reunion. His own reuniting with Dylan at the Flathead lodge three days earlier had been just as joyful, though in Dylan’s case, it had come as a complete surprise.

  The man who ran the ranch where Dylan had lived the last two years, a man who introduced himself to Damon as Longbow, had told him he kept Damon’s impending visit a secret, so as not to upset the other children at the ranch who would never experience such a reunion. In particular, Longbow expressed sensitivity toward Billy Hearns, who had lost all of his family in the torrent of NASF’s quest to stop Beacon.

  “What do you think, son? Should we go ashore now and join in the fun?”

  “Yeah, let’s go, Pop. I want to meet the lady with the chips. Which one is she?”

  “If I’m not mistaken, she’s the one standing with the jakalis and the big Hawaiian. He’s the village chief, I think. I’m told his name is Akela.”

  “Oh…um…maybe I can meet her later…when the jakalis aren’t around.”

  “Son, if we’re gonna live here, if she’s gonna help you, you’re gonna have to get used to being around jakalis sooner or later. Might as well start right now. Besides, Billy’s already on the beach talking with that girl. He doesn’t look scared to me. Why should we be?”

  Turning around in a circle, Akela took in the odd mix of sights: Strangers happily coming ashore the island, Lila standing beside a dozen docile jakalis, a mini-army of Makoas playing with children from the village, Caelan nuzzled up to Ellie, Natti gabbing with the purple-eyed blond boy from the boat.

  It was as surreal a scene as Akela could have imagined. Lila must have thought the same, for she said, “Can you believe this?”