by Lucas Flint
“Huh,” I said. “For someone who claims they don’t know much about Chaser, you’ve definitely spent some time psychoanalyzing him.”
“I’m just reporting what I’ve observed him do to others,” said Christina with a shrug. “I’ve learned that it pays to know how to analyze people. That way, you can protect yourself.”
“Right,” I said. Then another question occurred to me and I said, “Do you know where my grandfather is? Have you seen him? I know he’s being held prisoner on Iconia, but I’m not sure what his current status is.”
Christina leaned back in her seat. “Your grandfather? Do you mean Gregory McDonald?”
“Yes, of course,” I said. “How is he? Is he still alive?”
“Yeah, he is,” said Christina. “I never saw him myself, but I know he’s being kept in the dungeons underneath the Tower.”
I sighed in relief. “What a relief. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen Grandfather that I wasn’t sure if Icon had killed him yet or not.”
“Oh, I doubt Chaser will kill him anytime soon,” said Christina. “He’s got plans for your grandfather, I think, and, because he hasn’t accomplished those plans yet, I doubt he’ll kill him yet.”
“What are these plans?” I said. “Do you know them?”
“Wish I did, but I don’t,” said Christina. “I was a fairly low level agent in the organization before I quit. I wasn’t told everything because they didn’t think I needed to know them. I just know what I overheard from my superiors, who all talked about needing to keep him alive for some reason.”
“Is he safe?” I said. “Has he been tortured by Icon or anything like that?”
“I wish I could say,” said Christina. “But minding the prisoners was not part of my job. I was mostly a field agent, so I didn’t spend much time on Iconia. I do know that we don’t normally torture prisoners, but I would still be concerned about him either way if I were you.”
“I don’t need to be told to be concerned for my own grandfather’s health,” I said. “I’ll do it on my own.”
“Right,” said Christina. “Well, I guess you’re going to find out how your old man is soon enough, once this escape pod reaches Icon, which should be pretty soon, I think.”
I nodded, but said nothing in return. I just fell into silence, hoping and praying that Grandfather was okay and that he would be in good condition by the time I rescued him. I wondered for what purpose Icon was keeping him alive, but hey, I shouldn’t complain, because that meant it would be easier for me to save him.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Our escape pod reached the shore of Icon not too long after our conversation. It struck the beach hard enough to throw us off our seats, but we were so glad to reach dry land that we didn’t even complain about it. I just rose to my feet and said to Christina, “Stay here. I’m going to scout out the area we landed in and make sure we’re alone.”
“Sure,” said Christina. “That way, if there’s a sniper waiting somewhere in the bushes, he’ll get you first.”
“You guys have snipers?” I said, glancing at the hatch worriedly.
“Sometimes,” said Christina. “Depends on what we need, but yes, some of our guards are trained snipers. And they’re very good, believe me, some of the best around.”
I was starting to rethink the wisdom of volunteering to scout out the surrounding area, but because I had already said I was going to do it and I doubted Christina would be willing to take my place, I walked over to the escape pod hatch and pushed it open. To my surprise, the hatch opened easily and without any effort on my part, allowing me to poke my head out of the pod and look around at our surroundings to make sure we were safe.
We were on the beach of an island I had not seen before. Heavy fog hung in the air, making it very hard to see much, though I did see a line of coconut trees further up the beach, standing like guards in the fog. The beach itself was small and seemingly secluded, aside from a single seagull I spotted on the beach. But as soon as I looked at it, the seagull took off into the air and disappeared into the fog above, cawing he whole time. The darkness of the night didn’t help, though my night vision goggles made the darkness kind of moot.
Another thing I noticed was how eerily silent the entire place was. Aside from the lapping waves against the sand, the beach was entirely silent. It was like I had walked into a soundproof room or had ended up on a deserted island, rather than an island base of a powerful and secretive spy organization. I suppose it was good that there weren’t any Icon agents nearby—maybe they hadn’t found us yet—but the silence was so unnerving that I half-wished Icon agents would come crashing out of the trees screaming bloody murder, if only to break up the monotony.
I pulled my head back into the pod and looked at Christina. “All clear as far as I can tell, but the fog’s so thick I could cut it with a butter knife.”
“Yeah, the fog around here is always thick,” said Christina. “I’m pretty sure it’s just a natural weather phenomena, but you never know with Icon. Wouldn’t surprise me if Chaser had a weather control machine built to keep people from discovering Iconia accidentally.”
“Right,” I said. “I’m surprised there aren’t any Icon agents out there already waiting for us, though.”
“I bet they’re still distracted by the explosion of the Diver,” said Christina. “They might even think we perished in the explosion. If so, then we have the element of surprise on our side.” She smiled. “And often, that’s all you need to kick someone’s ass.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but then I heard a ringing noise in my pocket and pulled out my phone. Uncle Josh’s number was flashing on the screen, so I put the phone on speaker and said, “Uncle Josh, where are you?”
“Oh, Jack,” said Uncle Josh. “I’m glad you answered your phone. We were worried that you might not have gotten off of the Diver before it exploded, but you sound just fine.”
“Yeah, Christina and I managed to get off at the last second,” I said. “How about you guys? Are you all right?”
“We’re fine,” said Uncle Josh. “Mack, Gina, and I are on Icon, but we’re not sure where, exactly. Seems to be another secluded beach. I’m thinking it’s on the south side of the island, but the fog makes it hard to tell where we are.”
“Yeah, we’re not sure where we are, either,” I said. “We’re definitely on Icon, but beyond that, we’re not sure where we are.”
“At least you’re here, so there’s still a chance we could meet up again at some point,” said Uncle Josh. “I don’t know what I would have done if you’d died.”
“Thanks, uncle,” I said. “By the way, did you get the bomb off the Diver before it exploded as well?”
“You mean the Gift?” said Uncle Josh. “Of course. Mack grabbed it before we left. No way we were going to abandon ship without bringing the most important item with us.”
“Good to hear,” I said. “I take it all of you are okay?”
“We are, we are,” said Uncle Josh. “And so far, we haven’t seen any Icon agents, but we figure their security systems must have detected our pods washing up on shore. Therefore, we’re going to have to move quickly before they converge on our location like a bunch of flies.”
“Same here,” I said. “Let’s figure out a rendezvous point so we can meet up again later.”
“Excellent idea,” said Uncle Josh. “How about the Tower of Icon? It’s in the center of the island and is impossible to miss, though the fog does make it hard to see. But as long as you keep heading inland, then you will eventually come across it.”
“Yeah, I think that with Christina here I should be able to find it no problem,” I said.
“Christina is still alive?” said Uncle Josh in surprise.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” said Christina, leaning toward my phone, “but I do have a rather annoying habit of disappointing my enemies. It’s a gift.”
Uncle Josh sighed over the phone. “Well, I guess that’s good to hear.
Perhaps Christina’s knowledge of Iconia will be helpful.”
“Oh, it most certainly will,” said Christina. “I know the island like the back of my hand. You don’t have to worry about us getting lost.”
“Uh huh,” said Uncle Josh. “Well, as long as you two meet us at the Tower, everything should be fine. Until then, keep quiet and try not to draw the attention of any Icon agents. See you soon.”
Uncle Josh ended the call, so I slipped my phone into the pocket of my costume. “It’s good to hear that Uncle Josh, Gina, and Mack are okay. I was worried about them for a while there.”
“I wasn’t,” said Christina. “I figured the three of them would be okay, given how your uncle has an annoying habit of making it out of these kinds of situations alive. I’ll be surprised if they manage to make it to the Tower without being caught, though.”
“What about us?” I said. “Do you think we’ll have any better luck?”
Christina shot me an arrogant smile. “Of course. Like I said, I know Iconia like the back of my hand. We’ll be able to sneak around so quietly that even Chaser won’t know where we are until we kick down his front door. Even then, he might not know.”
I nodded and said, “All right, then. Lead the way and I will follow.”
-
We left the escape pod shortly after that, making our way up the beach toward the tree line at the top. According to Christina, we were somewhere on the southern tip of Iconia, which was the wildest and least developed part of the island. She said that we were unlikely to run into any guard patrols here, because the thick underbrush and huge trees made it difficult to patrol regularly. She did say, however, that Iconia’s security systems had likely already detected the arrival of our pod and that Chaser would probably send out agents to eliminate us. That was why it was important we left right away and also important why we had to wipe away our footprints in the sand so they would not be able to follow us into the forest.
“Your cape might get caught on the trees and underbrush, by the way,” Christina told me before we entered the forest. “It’s pretty thick in there due to the lack of maintenance. So if your cape gets torn, don’t come crying to me about it.”
As it turned out, Christina was right. Almost as soon as we entered the forest, my cape got caught on a small branch sticking out of one of the trees. This happened several more times before I finally had to hold my cape close to my body in order to make sure it would not catch on any jutting tree branches or bushes. Even then, it would still sometimes get caught anyway, which slowed down our progress, although not by a lot. Still, it was making me rethink the practicality of wearing capes and wondering if there was some way I could remove the cape from my costume at some point.
In any case, the forest was every bit as silent as the beach. I didn’t even hear any insects buzzing about it. It was unnerving.
“Hey, Christina,” I said.
Christina, who was ahead of me, suddenly whirled around and hissed, “Shhh! Do you want to be heard?”
I lowered my tone to barely above a whisper. “Sorry. I thought you said this was the wildest part of the island.”
“It is,” said Christina, “but that doesn’t mean it’s entirely pretty trees and cuddly woodland beasts. There are likely sound-detecting security systems that could alert any guards to our location. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get captured by my former coworkers and get executed for treason.”
“Uh, right,” I said. “I was just wondering why everything around here is so … silent. I don’t even hear any animals.”
“Oh,” said Christina. “That. Well, it’s because when Iconia was founded and turned into the headquarters of Icon, pretty much all of the native wildlife was eliminated. They didn’t leave much alive, and what survived the purge is mostly small, quiet things like beetles and the like.”
“Was it really necessary to eliminate all of the native wildlife?” I said, putting a hand on my stomach.
Christina shrugged. “How am I supposed to know? I wasn’t there when it happened. All I know is that Chaser is obviously not an environmentalist, so I doubt it bothered him.”
Christina turned around. “Now, let’s keep going. The longer we stay in one place, the more likely it becomes that my former colleagues find us.”
Christina resumed moving forward. I followed, though I still couldn’t get my mind off how quiet everything was. It reminded me of Target Practice 2, although the silence there was different. This felt like a deathly silence, which fit in with what Christina said about Icon eliminating the island’s native wildlife. I wasn’t much of an environmentalist myself, but even I didn’t like the idea of needlessly slaughtering wild animals for no reason.
My thoughts were interrupted when my ankle hit against some kind of wire at my feet. I froze and looked down to see that I had indeed walked into a very thin, barely visible wire, which held against the effort I was putting against it.
Christina turned around again and said, “What did you—”
Her eyes immediately landed on the wire and she went deathly pale. “Don’t move.”
“What?” I said. I wanted to pull my foot back, but now that Christina told me not to, I didn’t. “Why?”
Christina opened her mouth to explain, but then I heard rustling in the bushes around us. The sudden sounds startled me and made me jump back, causing the wire to snap back to its original position.
Then loud alarms began blaring in our ears from every direction.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Crud!” Christina screamed. She looked at me in fear. “You idiot! I told you not to move!”
“What?” I said, raising my voice to be heard over the blaring alarms. “I got startled. And anyway, you said this was the least protected part of the island!”
“Least protected doesn’t mean it’s not protected at all,” Christina snapped. “But come on. These alarms are loud for a reason, and if we don’t get out of here fast—”
The rustling of the trees above was the only warning sign we got before something huge and burly fell down on top of Christina. Christina screamed as the creature fell on her, knocking her to the ground and grabbing at her hair.
“Christina!” I said. “Get off her!”
I grabbed the creature’s big, hairy back and pulled it off her. I threw the creature somewhere into the woods around us, where I heard it hit the ground and cry out in pain before it scrambled away, howling in anger as it retreated. I considered following it for a second, but then turned my attention to Christina, who was supporting herself on her hands and panting hard.
“Christina, are you okay?” I said. I held out a hand toward her. “Can you get up on your own?”
Christina took my hand and I got her to her feet. Her clothes were covered with dirt and her hair was dirty and wild now, making her look like a crazy woman who lived in the wild by herself.
“I’m fine,” said Christina. “A little beat up, but you got the dumb brute off me before it could really hurt me.”
“What was that thing, anyway?” I said, looking over my shoulder in the direction I’d tossed it in. “It looked kind of like a gorilla, but—”
I was interrupted by loud howls, which were so loud that they seemed to drown out even the alarms. Christina’s face went paler than ever and said, “Oh, shit.”
“’Oh, shit’?” I repeated. “Don’t tell me you know what those things are.”
“I do,” said Christina. She grabbed my arm. “And we’ve got to run unless you want your limbs torn off.”
Christina darted off through the forest and I followed as fast as I could. All around us, I heard rustling in the trees and bushes, punctuated occasionally by some of the most terrifying howls I’d ever heard. It reminded me of coyotes, but at the same time there was something distinctly … human about the howls. Whatever was making the noises, I didn’t want to see them.
“What are those things?” I yelled to Christina. “What are we running from?”
“Blind Apes,” Christina responded, glancing over her shoulder to look at me.
“Blind Apes?” I repeated. “What are those?”
This time, Christina didn’t bother to look over her shoulder. “Genetically-modified gorillas created by Icon to patrol their forests. They are completely blind.”
“If they’re blind, how do they—”
“Hearing and smell,” said Christina. “They rely mostly on their excellent hearing and sense of smell to find their targets. They’re ridiculously strong, too, strong enough to break a man in half. Oh, and they also have a hard time telling the difference between actual intruders and Icon agents. I know more than a few of my former fellow agents who got torn apart by these beasts because they got mistaken for intruders.”
“Whoa,” I said, glancing around at the treetops as we ran. “I hope Uncle and the others are okay.”
“Blind Apes aren’t everywhere on Icon,” said Christina. “They’re mostly just here in this forest. Now enough talking. Just run.”
I nodded, but then all of a sudden my cape caught on a branch and I tripped and nearly fell on my bottom. I looked back and saw my cape stuck on a branch that was sticking out of a nearby tree.
“My cape!” I said. I looked back at Christina. “Christina, I’m—”
But Christina was nowhere to be seen. I looked around desperately for her, but she seemed to have vanished entirely. She must have been so intent on getting away that she didn’t even notice I was caught. Or maybe she was intentionally leaving me behind to be eaten by the Blind Apes so she could escape herself.
Regardless, I ripped my cape off of the branch, but before I could get very far, something huge dropped out of a nearby tree. It nearly landed on top of me, but I jumped forward at the last minute and then turned around to see the massive beast that was rising to its feet before me.
