by Tim Kaiver
Cullen's grip returned and pulled her behind him. He lifted his rifle and studied the rustling branches where the two beasts had disappeared.
Torek had his rifle ready, guarding Ehli from the rear.
"Where's Emmit?" She didn't mean to whisper, but that was all the strength she had.
"We'll find him," Torek said.
The deep greens and closely folded branches made distance scanning impossible. A branch jostled, low enough that the bushes hid the cause of the movement—yet the bushes didn't move.
Huls took long strides back up to their position. "What happened?"
"The boy's wolverine saved us," Torek said. "Took one of those white tigers into the bush."
Growls ripped and snarled, and seemed evenly matched. She hoped her son's wolverine would make it back alive.
"More will come, if they aren't here already," Sara said, already moving forward.
Huls stretched his neck to see before joining her. "Let's go."
Ehli searched the angles cutting into the forest and the rows of tightly cropped trees. No sign of Emmit. Only two or three shakings of leaves on branches—shaking not caused by either her son or Adi, she was sure. "I can't leave him here. We should stay and fight. At least until we know Emmit and Adi are safe."
"Jolnes and Nassib are taking care of that." Huls started his trek back down the gradient of black soil and worn-out grass. Torek followed, and Cullen motioned with his rifle for her to go next.
"How?" Ehli asked.
"By moving," Huls said. "Like we should."
A hollow snapping, like bone through muscle, echoed out of the bushes behind them, along with the dying whimper of one of the beasts.
"Move, now," Ocia said.
His and Huls's pace bumped back up to the kind of sprint nightmares require, and gave her the sense they were losing ground. The ground leveled out and their path cut to the left. Ocia disappeared into the jungle, followed by Torek and Huls. Cullen lifted his rifle sideways to help slow the branches from slapping Ehli as they swung back.
A blue bulb as bright as sunlight blazed past her. Cullen gasped and spun his rifle at the elevated position of their attacker. "Taking fire," he shouted to Torek. He waved Ehli behind him as he took up a position behind a bush and scanned the jungle ahead.
Another blue bulb rose beneath the cover of thick bush branches, lighting the foliage. Ehli stepped out from behind Cullen to get a better view. The shape of a tiger hid like a shadow within its glow. The shimmering blue across its body concentrated in a crackle of angry light at the end of its tail. What is that?
Cullen, Torek, and Huls locked onto the glowing tiger.
You won't hurt us! Ehli thought, but her command felt like a pebble cast into driving rain, falling far short of her target. Four more blue bulbs lit the area with a glow that blinded, hiding their location. She stared in spite of the pain from the light, thinking, I will find you. An idea came to mind, and she stepped away from Cullen's protection.
"I'm right here!" she shouted.
The light sources concentrated to bulbs glowing atop arched tails. Something connected in her mind as she felt the glowing tigers lining up their shots to fire at her. Bring it, she thought. A sensation of pride at her acceptance of the challenge tingled across her scalp. She snapped the power into the tiger's minds like a sprung trap.
Skill learned: Pathing.
+5 XP.
The bulbs whipped forward in a uniform attack. Before they released, she grunted and swept her hands out. The four balls of glowing fire flew toward her.
***
Emmit's stomach leapt and floated as Sprinkles jumped from the train and into the jungle with the snap-quick urgency of a fired bullet. Adi's grip on Emmit's gut squeezed out the remainder of his breath. They were five or six strides into the jungle before Emmit could tap Adi's hand and say, "Can't breathe."
His mom ran behind Torek a few meters to his left, their path carving a narrow passage between trees, just as Sprinkles's path did.
A bush blade smacked his ear. He ducked his face against the musty fur on Sprinkles's neck. The beast's growling rumbled through its head. I'm glad you're on my side.
As they soared through the underbrush, he smelled something musty—like Sprinkles, but lighter, sweeter. It clearly pricked Sprinkles's nerves to alert status and slowed his steps. He stopped beside the cover of an old tree and dipped forward.
Emmit tapped Adi's leg. "We need to get off." He had barely placed one foot on the ground before Sprinkles took off and ripped through the roots of thin bushes.
"Where's he going?" Adi asked, crouched behind Emmit, one hand on the tree for balance.
"Hunting."
"Hunting what?"
Emmit shook his head. You don't want to know. A strange connection to Sprinkles tied him to the need to hunt and a desire that he stay put. Something else strange pulled on his thoughts. Something... like a memory—a memory of this exact side of the ravine, this view over the dirty river, and the trees like tent poles that rose up from the muddy darkness of its gentle current.
On the far side of the ravine, just as the hill rose to a steep incline, moss covered a patch of eroded soil, exposing tree roots. The moss hid a hole. And inside that hole was their escape. The prey Sprinkles had left them to chase down was more than he could handle without risk of failure, and he'd be okay if Emmit found a more secure hiding place.
How can I know this? I've never been before, have I?
Emmit had no idea anymore. The foundation of self in his memories was now a shifting illusion he couldn't trust, as though the ground behind him were crumbling into an abyss and if he didn't run, he'd fall with it.
He snapped his fingers and pointed Adi down the hill, then took his first step away from the stealthy pursuit of madness.
Maybe into madness was a better descriptor. Either way, with each step Emmit felt like he had no choice, and was far from the clarity and safety he had longed for so fervently since his father died.
***
Ehli's commitment to shooting her hands up left her in the open as the blue bulbs of light zipped at her. As they neared, they spread out before exploding two meters from her head. She ducked and covered her ears as tufts of dirt and bits of tree sprayed her face.
Cullen and Torek dove for cover. After the shots dispersed, they rose and opened fire. Brush and branches wilted under the blue lasers beaming from their rifles. The tigers scattered, their blue auras fading as they disappeared into the parting, shredding underbrush.
Ehli rose to stand, nerves rippling down her neck and into her chest. Her hands shook as she replayed the second between the blue bulbs firing and not killing her. She remembered feeling the power source as the tigers raised their tails. She had fed off the power, and as they shot the bulbs at her, she'd shouted as though hers was greater. Her survival had required it.
As the shots had flown toward her, they'd veered off-target, disrupted at the point of firing because she'd entered the tigers' minds and distracted them.
Cullen stopped shooting, then Torek too. The jungle reeked of the bitter gas from the levitor rifles.
Victory! – Encounter with mara tigers x4 – 1 kill, 3 dispersed.
+10 XP to Cullen – kill shot.
+5 XP to Ehli – deflected mara shots.
Cullen gained a level! Now Level 2 Bounty Hunter. XP 5/130.
"What were those things?" Ehli asked.
"Maras," Cullen told her. "Native tigers with EMP powers."
"Let's go," Huls said, interrupting Cullen with a hand swipe to their right.
"Crap." Cullen tapped his wristcom. "My wristcom's busted. I hit it—"
"You're kidding," Torek said.
Huls took a flat circle device out of his vest and held it over his own wristcom. "This compass will direct you to Fel Or'an and has markers for the transmitters, but stay close anyway." Huls tossed the compass to Cullen. "Keep that safe. Let's go."
They bolted, forcing Ehli to run. Her heart already th
umped hard from the cross-fire and the energy exerted to affect the mara shots. EMP powers? An ultra skill had diverted them?
She pushed between branches and took sharp turns at a pace meant for soldiers with knowledge of the terrain. She struggled to keep track of their direction.
Her foot slipped on a decline in the ground. She set her hand on the rough bark of a tree to stop herself.
"You did well."
She yanked her hand off the tree and jumped back as if it had spoken.
"I got ya," Cullen said, and wrapped an arm around her waist before pushing her on down a gradient lined by tree roots and black mud. "We have to keep moving."
Ehli wanted to believe he had said she'd done well, but she knew it hadn’t been him. The voice was too intimate to have been spoken out loud. The words moved her as if born from within.
Is this what Ocia meant about using my mind?
They cut a path parallel to the river, close enough to smell the mud and moss—close enough for her to dive in if needed.
Something splashed in the river a ways behind her. She turned to see Emmit wade into the river before setting out to swim across, more than fifty meters upriver. As she watched, Adi jumped in to join him.
Cullen turned to look. He pointed. "Emmit."
"Emmit!" Ehli shouted.
Emmit slowed his stroke and looked around, searching for her.
She waved, ducking so he could see her better under the branch hanging out over the river.
He spotted her and waved back. Then, kicking against the current, he pointed up at the bank on the other side. He drifted down river and returned to his strokes as Adi followed with frantic strokes.
"Ocia, where are you?" Huls said. "Does anyone else have a signal?"
"Where's Nassib?" Ehli turned to see Huls scanning the jungle behind them.
"Nassib?" Huls asked, and she suspected the question was for his mic.
"I'm going for my son." Ehli dove into the water before Cullen could stop her.
12
The river's warm surface broke as Ehli descended into its depths. She squinted into the darkness and cringed against the grains that scratched under her eyelids. She kicked and dragged a hand into the current. A flash of violet, and the blindness vanished. She found herself in a quiet room, seated at a table.
Steam rose from a porcelain mug within reach of her hand. The aroma of cocoa and coffee wafted up from inside. She hadn't smelled something that good in years. Neither had she worn anything so nice, she thought, as her eyes fell to the pearl white blouse she wore. On one wrist she wore a gold comm—like one she'd seen on a commissioner who'd visited the prison on Setuk.
Hers was the only table in the small office. In the hall outside, a man walked by. He wore a white coat that had a spatter of blood near his side pocket. He didn't look up from his tablet as he passed her doorway. Worry and scorn held his gaze to the screen.
Where am I? Her heartbeat raced in panic, but she couldn't trace why.
Ehli slid her thumb and finger over the mug's warm surface. Shouldn't her hands be wet? They were dry as sunbaked sand.
A woman entered, also dressed in an open white coat. This one too had a spatter of blood—worse than the man's. It sprayed up both sides, and darkened her velvet-toned undershirt. She offered a smile when Ehli met her gaze. Tired, yet relieved. "Mrs. Orson. Thank you for waiting."
Mrs.? No one called her that anymore. What is this place? She strained against the absent memory of how she'd arrived. When she'd arrived. "Who are you?"
The woman, pretty and fit, with soft skin undamaged by years exposed to Setuk's sand and wind, sat down in the chair across from Ehli. She pinched her fingers and retracted a glowing red line that she set on the table between them. From its base rose a picture of Schaefer. He was still clean shaved. His glasses were wire thin but styled differently, and his close-cut black hair had a more noticeable hint of gray on the sides.
"He's here," the woman said.
"What?"
"He's been here all along." She snapped the two dots together, erasing the image from between them. "I didn't know about you until about a week ago." She rose and put the tiny image device on her wristcom. "If I had, I would have tried harder not to fall in love with him."
Fall in love? Ehli wondered. What did she mean?
The woman slowly shook her head. A haunting empathy colored her gaze as it rested on Ehli. "Don't let him trick you... or your son. He only cares about himself." She extended her hand, palm up, for Ehli to take.
Ehli did, and as they met, reality spun and she found herself immersed in water and darkness. Her outstretched hand, which a blink before had been dry and about to squeeze the strange woman's hand, gripped the slimy curve of an underwater root. Her lungs burned for air. She tugged on the root and pulled herself closer to the bank. She lifted her head out of the water. The trickle of resettled water and flowing current met her ears. She propped her feet on the bank and turned toward the splashing behind her.
Cullen swam for her position.
Where was I? What was that?
Torek and Huls ran along the river's edge, glancing over now and then to keep an eye on her and Cullen. Not too far down was a fallen tree, half submerged, which they could use to cross.
Ehli wiped her face on her shoulder, then searched for another root above her. She found one, tested its hold, and used it to climb onto the bank. She slid on her stomach and swung her legs up to ground.
Emmit and Adi were gone, hidden by the trees and underbrush skirting the riverbank. She'd wait until Cullen reached her side, then run after them.
But what was with the dream she'd had in the water? Hello?
Is this from you, Ocia? she thought, wondering if he was watching her from the woods, if this was something left in her neurostorage from her treatments. If so, why? "Your arrival is the climax of our treatments," Ocia had said.
Had the tigers turned tail or were they watching too, observing the strange woman who'd deflected their shots with a concerted thought? Was the dream, or hallucination, part of being an ultra?
Cullen stroked forward to grab hold of a root, then pulled himself out of the river. Water sluiced over his suit and rifle and back into the river. His eyes were all business, and locked to a pinprick on possible threats around them. He wiped water from his face. "You okay?"
Ehli didn't know which thought to tie to his question. Physically... maybe. Mentally? Syk's no. She decided on, "Help me get my son."
"Of course." He reached out to help her up. "I'm here to help you too, when you ask."
She took just enough of his help to stand, then let go and jogged onto the first path she found between the trees. His offer of help threatened to invade past the wall she had built over the years. She left him in the murmur of their steps swishing through plants and snapping tiny branches in their way.
By the time they arrived at where she thought Emmit had been—the tree-stacked terrain and its full skirt of lively greens all looked the same—he was gone without a trace. It was just the two of them. No sound of brushing leaves or footsteps to indicate anyone was behind Cullen, or nearby, even. Only insects and birds. And more insects and birds.
Cullen had his rifle back out and searched the trees around them. His stare hung on details that made her question if his mind was elsewhere.
She wanted to say, you don't know the half of it. In their brief time together, he had not shown this side. He'd seemed vulnerable. Sure, the maras had almost killed them, and who knew where they were now, but this seemed rooted in something more. "Are you okay?" she asked him.
He glanced back at her, seemed to think for a second, then looked her in the eyes again, searching. "Have you met Willo yet?"
"Willo? Who's that?" Her mind flashed back to the hallucination she'd had in the water. Was that Willo?
"You have, haven't you?" Cullen glanced behind her and around, then back. "What did she tell you?"
Ehli didn't answer. She just looked
off into the jungle.
"She spoke to me too." Cullen swatted a bug from his ear. "In the train."
***
Ehli was still enough for him to question if she was breathing. She didn't ask how Willo had spoken to him. What did Willo say to her? he thought. "Ocia hinted about what's going on here, but she seems willing to tell the whole truth," he continued.
"About what?"
"His experiments." He was tempted to say who was really behind them, but held it in. "On more than just you and your son. Willo is like you."
"Like an ultra?"
"Maybe. But she… her power seems to be telepathy." He thought back to how she'd just stood there when the maras had charged and shot their tail bulbs at her, how the shots had twisted wide and she'd been unharmed.
"Telepathy?" Ehli shook her head and looked away. "I… in the water. But that." She shook her head again. "It's different to what I did with the maras. The Cipher said I learned a skill called pathing. It was like connecting with the maras' minds and disrupting them enough to miss me."
Can you read my mind too? he thought.
She stared back at him. "Are you trying to tell me something?"
He shrugged. "I was. I don't know. She spoke to me. My earpiece was in, but it was clearer than that. Clearer than if she were right here." He pointed a finger between his eyes. "She said the man we're going to see at Fel Or'an...." Cullen paused, remembering Ocia's request that Schaefer tell her. He's her husband. He deserves to be the one to tell her, but what if she needs to know now?
"He doesn't deserve the right to tell her," Willo 'pathed.
"What?" Ehli asked. "What man?"
Cullen took a breath. "Willo is almost certainly not lying about being a telepath. But I don't know if that's the only truth she told me. And I don't know if spreading potential lies will do you and I more harm than good."
"Cullen." She gripped his wrist. "I'm tired of all the secrets. The last six years in prison, I've been told nothing except what Ocia told me, which, considering our circumstance, feels like very little. Share what you know and let's work together to figure out what is truth from lie. We're the only ones who know about the Cipher. We have to work together."