by S. A. Beck
She leaped to her left just as they fired. She felt a hot pain lance along her side as she stumbled into the darkness. A faint glimmer of moonlight guided her and she ended up in an adjoining room, one with an old cannon poking out a gun port.
Jaxon rushed to it, heaved the cannon out of the way, and squeezed out the gun port.
She gasped with relief to see a vine clinging to the side of the wall right next to the opening. Grabbing it, she willed it to move upwards, and it pulled her to the top of the wall.
She peeked into the courtyard. No one.
Isadore and Corbin must be just below, searching for her. For sure they heard her move that cannon. But where were the McKay twins?
A movement in the river caught her eye. Two distant figures were swimming for the far shore. Good. Two less enemies.
A sound from below reminded her that she still had two very dangerous ones to face. She scampered along the wall, looking for a place to hide. Even with all her powers, bullets moved faster than plants. She needed to surprise them.
She found a spot between the wall and an old cannon that was wreathed in shadow. Crouching behind the cannon, she looked out over the fort
It had completely transformed. It looked like it had spent a hundred years being reclaimed by a jungle, at least the half closest to her. The walls, one bastion, and much of the courtyard were covered in vines. She could see cleared areas where her captors had cut their way through. The moonlight made it look surreal, like some living carpet.
Her side began to sting. Checking it, she found the bullet had ploughed a furrow right below her ribs, but it hadn’t gone in deep and the blood didn’t flow freely, it only welled up slowly. She’d be all right for the moment.
Despite her situation, Jaxon couldn’t help but smile. She remembered once in sixth grade she had cut her finger with a pair of scissors in art class and nearly fainted at the sight of a few drops of blood. Now she was shrugging off bullet wounds.
Just as she was about to look out across the fort, the moon passed behind a cloud. Glancing up, she saw that great, puffy clouds floated in from the sea, the moonlight shining behind them making them look like spun silver.
That would look beautiful if it wasn’t endangering my life, Jaxon thought.
A soft step brought her attention to her left. Her eyes probed the darkness, desperate to spot her attackers before they found her.
After a moment she saw a shadow shift. The stairway to access this side of the fort’s wall was about fifty yards away. Someone crept up it.
Jaxon waited until the shadow made it to the top of the catwalk and looked around. It started to move in her direction, stepping quietly over the matt of vines that draped over the wall and catwalk, whoever it was still obviously not seeing her but guessing that she hadn’t had time to flee to the opposite side of the fort.
Jaxon focused, and the vines heaved up and engulfed the shadow. She heard a short feminine cry before Isadore’s voice got muffled in a cocoon of greenery.
Silence. The moon still hid behind a large cloud. Corbin would be close and she better shift her position before the light came back. She peered into the shadows and saw no one, heard nothing but the faint rustling of the vines as Isadore tried in vain to break free.
Jaxon stepped out from behind the cannon, headed for the far end of the fort. She had the circlet. If she could get to the boat she could get out of there. Or she could swim. If the McKay twins could reach the shore, so could she.
She only made it three steps before a gun roared from a shadow. She felt a hard punch to her chest, a sudden lightness, and the world spun.
Jaxon ended up on her back. She did not feel much pain, more shock. The moon came out from behind a cloud. It looked beautiful.
A shadow blotted it out. General Corbin.
“I’ll get you out in a minute, Isadore!” he called over his shoulder, then turned to Jaxon.
“It’s called a feint. You pretend to attack in one direction while your real strike comes from another. You just learned that little bit of tactical wisdom the hard way, and it’s the last thing you’ll ever learn.”
Corbin began to blur. A coldness spread out from Jaxon’s chest.
General Corbin bent down and pulled the circlet off her head.
“You won’t be needing this,” he said. “But I most certainly shall.”
Chapter 19
SEPTEMBER 5, ON THE RIVER NEAR BANJUL, THE GAMBIA
1:30 AM
* * *
Jaxon moaned as Corbin yanked the circlet off her head. The sound came out pitiful, hopeless. All this work, all this struggle, and she had lost.
Her people had lost.
“You were a good fighter,” General Corbin said, taking a step back and pointing his pistol at her face. “Too bad you were on the wrong side.”
Jaxon looked back at the moon, framed by silvery clouds. After so much ugliness in her life, she wanted to last thing she saw to be something beautiful.
A gunshot. Jaxon jerked …
… but did not die.
General Corbin fell to the ground with a heavy thud. The gold circlet rolled out of his grasp and ended up by Jaxon’s hand.
Grunt stepped out of the shadows, gripping a Kalashnikov.
Elaine rushed over to Jaxon’s side.
“You made it,” Jaxon said, her voice coming out so faint that she herself could barely hear it.
“I hope we’re not too late,” Elaine said, examining her wounds.
Jaxon managed to point at the circlet. “Put this on.”
Elaine did as she was asked, and then placed her hands on Jaxon’s chest.
A soothing warmth spread through her cold body, and the strange sensation of her bullet wounds closing up, her ribs reknitting, and blood filling up her veins and arteries.
“Ah!” Jaxon cried, and sat up. It had been even more powerful than the water.
She looked around her, still in a state of shock. General Corbin lay nearby. Grunt stared down at him with a grim expression. Otto rushed to her side and they kissed. Everyone else was here too.
“How did you find me?” Jaxon asked, clinging tight to Otto.
“A French newspaper published a photo of General Corbin at a bar here in Banjul. We saw it on the Internet. The journalists weren’t sure if it was the missing general who’s been all over the news or not, but we were sure.”
“But you got here so fast. It took us two days from the Mauritanian border.”
Otto laughed. “Nadya and Dimitri got us a Russian army helicopter. We made it in three hours. Now they’re gone. I guess we won’t see them anymore.”
Otto sounded relieved.
“You got here just in the nick of time,” Jaxon said, turning to Elaine, who still had the circlet on her head. “Wait! There’s someone else you need to heal.”
She got to her feet, finding she had as much energy as if she had just awoken from a good night’s sleep, and rushed to the overgrown bastion where she had made her stand. Her blood-drenched clothes left an ugly trail of drops behind her. Her friends followed.
Jaxon stopped at the pile of rubble.
“I buried Orion under there,” she said.
“Good riddance,” Mateo replied. “He was a traitor to our people.”
“He was enslaved with drugs and hypnosis!” Jaxon objected.
Elaine and Winston began to remove the rubble.
“This is a bad idea,” Mateo said.
“I agree,” Grunt added, pointing his gun at the pile.
The two Atlanteans cleared away the stones from Orion’s head and shoulders. Even in the pale moonlight he made a sickening sight—crushed and bloody.
“I’m not sure even with this thing on I can cure him,” Elaine said.
“Keep him pinned under the rocks like that,” Grunt said. “If he tries anything, I’ll shoot him.”
“I’ll heal him a little bit,” Elaine said. “Winston, once I do, you can try to reason with him.”
“All right.”
Elaine touched Orion’s face.
“Still a little life left,” she whispered, and closed her eyes in concentration.
Orion’s face shifted. The broken jaw realigned, the partially crushed skull went back to its proper shape with a sickening crunch. Orion let out a soft moan and his eyes fluttered open.
Elaine stepped back. “Wow. He was so close to death I could have never done that on my own.” She removed the circlet and held it out to Winston. “Take it. You’ll be able to do anything with this.”
Winston took a step back. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Jaxon put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right. I trust you.”
Winston gave the circlet a wary look. “I’m not sure I trust myself.”
“Your power only works on people temporarily. You won’t be able to save Orion without it.”
“Why should we save him at all?” Mateo asked.
“Because he’s one of us!” Jaxon snapped, and turned back to Winston. “Or he will be if you help him. It’s all right.”
Winston sighed, took the circlet, and put it on his head.
“Oh,” he whispered. “I can feel the power.”
He stepped closer to Orion and looked down at him. Unlike all the other times Jaxon had seen him move minds, Winston did not soothe him with kind words, did not try to persuade him with nice phases like you would a child.
In fact, he didn’t say anything at all.
Winston just looked at him.
Jaxon did not need to be told that it had worked. It was obvious. Orion’s features completely changed. His face took on an awareness and intelligence she had never seen before. He looked around him, shock and relief mingling in his eyes.
Then he burst into tears.
“The things I’ve done!”
Jaxon knelt beside him. “Were not your fault. You’re free now.”
Orion nodded, but Jaxon could tell he would carry the burden of all those murders for the rest of his life. Jaxon patted him on the shoulder. At least she wouldn’t carry the burden of his murder.
“Let’s get these rocks off him so I can finish healing him,” Elaine said. “Winston, help me … Winston?”
Winston had taken a step away from the others. He stared at them with an intensity that frightened Jaxon. His face twisted, and she could see him forcing himself to be calm. He snatched the circlet off his head and tossed it to Jaxon.
“Suddenly I saw myself as the king of my own kingdom,” Winston said through labored breaths. “Just like Mars Sans Pitié. Everyone would have bent to my will. I could have had anything—devoted followers, women, anything. That thing should only be used by a Keeper of the Texts. Only they have the wisdom to use it right.”
“Wisdom? I don’t have any wisdom,” Jaxon said.
“You had enough wisdom to save a fellow Atlantean who tried to kill us all,” Elaine said, kneeling next to Orion again. “Winston’s right. That thing is too much of a temptation. I can heal him with my own power.”
And she did, nearly knocking herself out from the effort. As a grateful Orion laid her down to rest and began asking her all about their heritage, Grunt and Vivian checked the fort for anyone else who needed healing. Sadly, the two Gambian soldiers guarding the place were dead. Isadore was still trapped in a cocoon of plants.
“What should we do with her?” Vivian asked. “We need to get out of here. Someone is bound to have heard those shots. The police will be on their way.”
Grunt laughed. “Let’s leave her. I already reached through the vines and disarmed her.” He cupped his hands and faced the section of wall where she was trapped. “Sorry, honey, but you’re going to have to wait in there a bit. Good luck explaining to the Gambian police about all the bodies and plants and everything. I’m sure the jails here are very luxurious. Just the kind of place you always wanted to live in. Bye bye, now!”
Snickering, he led the others to a couple of cayucos beached on the shore next to the one Corbin stole.
“There’s a gold tablet with Atlantean script we found in the desert,” Jaxon suddenly remembered. “It’s in our hotel.”
“We’ll get it,” Grunt nodded as everyone got into the boats. Suddenly he looked up the river. “Oh, damn.”
A couple of motorboats were swiftly approaching, police lights spinning on top of them.
They pushed off and paddled like made for the nearest shore.
“Why is it that every time we’re trying to save the world, we end up getting chased by the cops?” Jaxon asked.
“Welcome to the life, my friend,” Grunt laughed.
No, Jaxon realized. This isn’t my life anymore. We’ve won.
The realization came with a mixture of triumph and sadness. The Atlantis Allegiance had formed to help her and to defeat the secret plot within the U.S. government. Now that they’d achieved that, there was no more reason for it to exist. She suddenly knew that these people who had become so dear to her in the past few months would soon go their separate ways.
She paddled for shore, the line of trees and huts blurring with her tears.
Two days later, the inevitable came. Jaxon stood in front of Banjul’s small airport as the members of the Atlantis Allegiance got ready to depart. The Atlantis Guard would stay with her, and with the items they had they could reunite their people. Perhaps they could even find a translation for the tablet they had retrieved.
General Meade had been ditched in Banjul. Despite some reservations, in the end they had decided not to cure him. In this state he would no longer be a threat to anyone, and to lose some of his mental faculties was a small punishment for all the people he had hurt. Dr. Yamazaki had made a call back to the Poseidon Project and warned them of the danger that was headed their way. Dr. Jones had promised to destroy all the evidence. They hadn’t done this to let Dr. Jones off the hook, but to get rid of any information that could hurt the descendants of Atlantis. Sadly, like the McKay twins, Dr. Jones was one of the many guilty people who would go free. Jaxon had learned the sad lesson that justice wasn’t always served out to those who deserved it. It was just another sad fact of life.
Like the fact that many of her friends were leaving. They had all made plans for their future, and judging from how quickly they had announced them, she got the impression that they’d been planning for this end for some time now.
Dr. Yuhle shook her hand. “Good luck to you. And if you ever need any help on the scientific front, get in touch.”
“That goes for me too,” Dr. Yamazaki said, giving her a peck on the cheek. “We’re both going back to the States to look for work. You can look us up easily enough.”
“Thank you for everything,” Jaxon said. She had never been terribly close to either of them, but now it pained her to think they would no longer be around.
“Take care of yourself, honey,” Vivian said.
“You sure you want to go back there?” Jaxon said. The mercenary was the only one not flying to the United States. Instead, she was heading back to Mauritania.
Vivian shrugged. “The Tuaregs could use my help.” Then she smiled. “Plus, Agerzam and I have a bit of a history I’d like to repeat.”
Jaxon laughed. “Yeah, I noticed that!” She grew serious. “Try to see my people there, and try to explain to them that I never meant to cause so much trouble.”
“I will,” Vivian said.
She gave her a big hug. As they separated, they both had to wipe away tears.
“Don’t be too sad, kid,” Grunt said, giving her a bear hug that nearly snapped her spine. “You’re going on a whirlwind tour of the world, and this time you’re not going to have to keep looking behind your back.”
“I wish you guys were coming with us,” Jaxon said.
“This is your job now. You’ve found your place and you’ve found your family. But don’t be a stranger, eh?”
“I’ll see you guys again,” Jaxon said, and she knew it was true. But it didn’t make her miss them any less. They
were going on different paths, moving on to different phases of their lives.
She turned to Otto, who stood uncertainly nearby. Her first boyfriend. Now he was becoming her first breakup.
“I’m going to miss you,” Otto said.
“You can always come,” Jaxon said, not really sure if she wanted him to or not.
Otto gave her his winning grin, the one that so attracted her to him back in that group home. He elbowed Grunt. “Nah, I have to keep this big lunk out of trouble. He says he wants to give up the mercenary life. I’ll have to stick around to make sure he does.”
“Good luck to you both,” Jaxon said.
Jaxon couldn’t quite sort out her feelings. She would miss him terribly and at the same time felt a bit relieved. She had dated him because he was the first guy to show any interest, and while she respected and liked him, she had something more to focus on right now. Even as recently as a few weeks ago she would have been too insecure to let him go. Now she could say goodbye knowing he wasn’t the one, and wouldn’t be the last.
Jaxon noticed that they were alone. Everyone had discreetly moved into the airport. She took the opportunity to give him a proper kiss goodbye.
After they finished, she pushed him gently on the chest.
“Now get out of here before I start blubbering like a baby,” Jaxon said.
Or you do, Jaxon thought when he saw the look on his face.
She returned to the Land Rover, where the Atlantis Guard waited for her. Mateo was at the wheel, the passenger’s seat empty for her. In the back sat Winston and Elaine. Her new family. The first three of many.
As she got in, Mateo looked past her at the airport terminal.
“You know, they weren’t bad for humans.”
“They were the best,” Jaxon said, wiping her eyes.
Mateo looked at her. “You ready?”
“Yes. Where to?”
“You’re the Keeper of the Texts. You’re in charge.”
Jaxon laughed. “I’ve dodged responsibility all my life and now it looks like I’ve inherited it.”
“You can manage it,” Winston said.
