Summer's Mermaid (Mermaid series Book 3)

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Summer's Mermaid (Mermaid series Book 3) Page 17

by Dan Glover


  "Come, sweet Lauren, let us make the trip to the Lake. It's been too long since we've been away."

  They were having breakfast on the veranda in the east wing. The kitchen appliances still worked there and they both enjoyed the way the walls of Orchardton Hall sheltered them from any hint of sunshine.

  "You know that is out of the question, Natalia. Why are you taunting me?"

  Lauren felt guilty as soon as the bitter words escaped her lips yet she did nothing in way of apologizing. Instead of becoming angry, Natalia came close to take her into her arms. Lauren shrugged her away, turned, and left without touching her food.

  Now she was hungry but instead of going to the kitchen where she might run into Natalia again she remained hungry while sitting in the garden. Most of her precious roses had died away. Weeds choked the flower gardens and the beautiful green ivy that once adorned the stone walls had withered and died. The fruit trees had gone hoary with neglect and no longer produced but mottled diminutive apples that rotted on the ground where they fell.

  She didn’t care, nor could she summon the will to so much as raise a finger to alleviate the malaise that afflicted both her body and mind. She loved Natalia yet she couldn't stand to be around the girl and her infernal optimism. The world was going straight to hell and all Natalia seemed to do was rejoice about it.

  When Natalia walked into her garden, Lauren had to stifle the rising pangs of anger at the audacity of her friend and lover trespassing in her secret place. She came here to be alone. Natalia knew that. Lauren couldn’t remember a time that her lover had desecrated her sanctuary in such a bold manner.

  Lauren thought she'd be happy when the last human being disappeared off the face of the globe. She despised them all even if she hated Natalia less. She thought how much more enjoyment she would derive from her final days if the girl were to vanish. She even considered how easily she might murder her friend and lover in her sleep. She could almost feel Natalia's slim and dainty throat constricting beneath her iron grasp, her tongue lolling out of her mouth and eyes bulging.

  "Let us take the horses and the old buggy in the barn. What difference does it make how long it the trip is? Come, my lovely Lauren... let us leave now before we change our minds."

  "Don’t be so stupid, Natalia. We can never go so far in a horse-drawn wagon."

  The hurt on the girl's face was palatable yet Natalia seemed far more resilient to Lauren's hatred and villainous words than she ever imagined. Any other human being would have left her long ago. Lauren remembered dozens of husbands wilting under the withering onslaught of her odious and sickening venom yet Natalia simply smiled and took her by the hand.

  "Oh my lovely Lauren... I am a Gypsy. My people traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers by covered wagon. We can take what we need and scavenge the rest along the way. Come... we are wasting the days here. You'll feel so much better once we are swimming in Lake Baikal again."

  Lauren felt like striking Natalia across the face and reiterating what a complete idiot she was. Instead, she found herself following the girl's instructions: gathering clothes and food along with fresh water while Natalia saw to harnessing a team of horses to one of the old wagons lurking in the darkness of Nate's barn.

  A sudden rush of excitement coursed through her veins not unlike the first time she surfaced from deep beneath the waters of Lake Baikal. Her mood switched from one of deep melancholia to a renewed invigoration at seeing this new world from the vantage point of being submerged within it instead of separated by the steel and glass of an automobile.

  She couldn't understand why she didn’t consider this mode of travel before. Even though they could no doubt walk faster than the plodding lopes of the draw horses there was something profoundly enlightening to voyaging in this fashion.

  "How long do you suppose our trip will take us, darling Natalia?"

  "With luck we'll make thirty kilometers a day, sweet Lauren. At that rate we will arrive at Lake Baikal just as the cold weather is setting in. We'll have to spend winter there and return next spring."

  "Have you ever wintered in such a rugged place, my precious Natalia?"

  "My parents never had a real home, lovely Lauren. We spent winters in a tent or the back of a wagon. I never thought anything of it until I became a city girl and realized how close we came to freezing to death. One morning when we woke the water in the bucket I had drawn the night before was frozen solid.

  "I don’t remember any of our group becoming ill from the cold, however. It wasn’t until I moved to Moscow and got a job and an apartment that I became sick. I should have stayed with the Gypsies, I suppose. But then I never would have met our sweet Lily."

  Traveling through the Chunnel was an eerie experience... while heretofore safely sequestered inside of a bus or automobile Lauren had never before noticed the noises of the sea above or the steady dripping of water from interminable leaks in the cracked and fractured concrete. The old tracks running parallel to them seemed to suggest a better method of travel until she remembered seeing the iron rails lying twisted and bent beneath the summer sun in central France.

  "Did you see something move in the darkness, sweet Natalia?"

  When Natalia gave a start and stared into the darkness Lauren regretted the words. There was no need to alarm the girl. She probably saw a shadow, nothing more. In another moment, however, a low growl sent tingles shooting up her spine.

  Chapter 39—Tunnels

  He had no idea how fast the craft could travel.

  "We must be going over a thousand kilometers an hour, Mr. Nate."

  He was sure Kirk was off a good deal at his estimation of their speed as they were probably traveling ten times that. The ocean was a blur of blue beneath them as the greenery of old America rushed upon them. They'd only just begun their journey and it was nearly complete.

  "We're too far to the south, Kirk. We took the same route as when we sailed here years ago. We'll have to turn and head north up the coast."

  The machine in which they traveled was incredibly responsive to his touch. A glowing golden globe hung suspended in mid air directly in front of him. By manipulating it on the opposite side to which he wished to go, the craft responded by jetting off in an instant with no resultant force of gravity impinging upon them. Pete offered instructions before they left Toulon Castle but Nate didn’t expect this.

  "When you are inside the field of energy you'll be outside the space-time continuum, Mr. Nate. Any slight pressure on the global directional device will result in an instantaneous and opposite reaction."

  "I'm not sure what you mean, Pete, but I guess I'll find out soon enough."

  It was amazingly simple to get the feel for flying the craft, nothing like learning to pilot an airplane. There were no gauges to check, no fuel to be aware of, and visibility was virtually three hundred and sixty degrees in all directions. The metal surfaces of the machine vanished into a nothingness that made it seem for all intents and purposes that they were flying of their own accord with no mechanical assistance whatsoever.

  "I'd like to take her up into outer space one of these days, Kirk. Want to come along?"

  Nate spoke more to moderate the growing feelings of trepidation arising as they shot up the coast than out of any real intentions of actually leaving the confines of the good Earth. Still, he couldn't help but wonder at the limitations of this machine.

  "I'll have to run that by Luciana, Mr. Nate. If we make it back home, that is."

  "Do you know why I asked you to come with me, Kirk?"

  "Of course I know, Mr. Nate. I owe you my life. I told you a long time ago that I would repay that debt."

  "I asked you because I couldn’t think of anyone I would rather have by my side riding into the unknown. I don’t want you to take any unnecessary risks, Kirk. At the same time though, I know I can trust you not to turn tail and run when danger strikes. I wasn’t so sure about Pete. He's a good man but I haven’t been through the wars with him like I have with you.
"

  "Luciana didn’t want me to go."

  "I know... Ginger and Amanda weren’t happy either when I told them of our plans. The way I see it, either we go and confront this menace now or we wait like trembling children until it comes for us. I'd rather meet Micah's nanobots head on than hide in a cave."

  "That's exactly what I told Luciana. We don’t want to leave our families. We have to do this, though. Lady Lily needs us."

  "Have I ever told you how proud I am to call you my friend, Kirk?"

  "Thank you, Mr. Nate."

  A mottled rendition of the battered skyline of old New York City appeared as though through a fog when Nate eased back on the global directional device to slow their speed. The landscape below was a seething mass of gray mist. The encroaching forests had been replaced by stalagmites of sand which rippled beneath his gaze like sullen waves on an iron sea.

  "What's happened to all the trees, Mr. Nate?"

  "I imagine we're seeing the results of Micah's machines gone wild, Kirk. Since we were last here they've run amok. Look over there... see what's sitting on the top of Cornell University?"

  "It's a flying machine just like ours, Mr. Nate. But who are all those people?"

  "Those aren’t people, Kirk."

  A crowd of shadowy figures surged against a doorway apparently seeking entry into the building while high above Nate saw vast wings spread against a sun blotted out by the dragons circling overhead.

  "We need to get inside Cornell University but we aren’t going to be able to land anywhere close by. Those things are in a fury."

  "I wonder why they're not attacking Ena's machine, Mr. Nate. Look... they're making a shell around it."

  "You're right, Kirk... good observation. Our anti gravity units must put off some sort of electrical field that's harmful to the nanobots. They're attempting to encase it. Either that or they want to trap Ena here. They are preventing her escape, perhaps."

  "They don’t seem to notice us either, Mr. Nate. Maybe that same field makes us invisible to them."

  "That's how Ena was able to land on the roof. They didn’t see her until she shut down. That gave her enough time to get inside before the nanobots attacked. That must be why those things are swarming at the door. They're chasing her. Let's see what happens when we swoop down low over them."

  Nate touches the global directional device again marveling at the sense of control he has over the flying machine. Coming in low over the top of Cornell University he watches as the human figures dissolve into puddles of sand at the approach of the anti gravity unit before reassembling after its passing.

  "I have an idea, Kirk. Instead of landing on the roof, we'll set down in front of the building. Remember how we were able to enter through the basement the last time we were here?"

  "We broke out a window and climbed inside. Do you think we can do the same thing this time too, Mr. Nate?"

  "I doubt it, Kirk. Micah probably reinforced the windows after that. But I seem to recall seeing a cellar door. With a little luck we might be able to gain entry that way."

  "Did I ever tell you about the time I was attacked by a tiger when I went into the village, Mr. Nate?"

  "No... where did that happen?"

  "I was visiting my old home in Kurgan. I used to go there a lot to be by myself, to think and to be alone. A pack of wild dogs chased me up onto the top of an old shack. When they ran off, I thought I was safe. But then a tiger and her two cubs stepped out of the forest. That's why the dogs took off.

  "When the tiger tried to leap up and grab me, the shack collapsed. Lucky for me there was an old tunnel underneath... one of the escape tunnels that run out from the catacombs of Orchardton Hall. I fell into the tunnel so I was able to make my way back to Orchardton Hall."

  "That's an interesting story, Kirk, but I don’t see how it pertains to our situation here."

  "Looking down at it, I'm wondering if Cornell University has tunnels underneath the ground too. I heard that lots of old buildings used tunnels like that for deliveries of food and coal during the dead of winter when it was impossible to make it through the deep snows.

  "Look at the layout of the smaller building around Cornell University, Mr. Nate. They seem to be set in a pattern for some reason, like spokes in a wheel. Do you think it's possible there are tunnels leading into the University basement from the outbuildings?

  "If we land right beside the main building, those things will be on us within seconds. But if we set down behind one of the outer buildings, we might go unnoticed long enough that we can get safely get inside."

  "That is a brilliant plan, Kirk. It's worth a try. Let's shoot for that red building at six o'clock. It looks like a storage facility."

  Nate remembered the fields outside of Cornell University growing green and lush only a couple centuries ago. Now they were dead, devoid of any life, with dust devils dancing where grasses and trees once flourished. He suspected if this scourge wasn’t stopped, the entire earth would become a desolate cesspool of filth.

  The craft landed both silently and without stirring up as much as a grain of dust. The silence was deafening. Wasting no time they both leapt from the flying machine as soon as the rotating pillars came to stop.

  The ever-present gray mist coagulated into menacing shapes shifting between that of grotesque human beings to enormous lumbering dogs to thick-maned lions the size of houses. Kicking through the still unformed visages Nate led the way to a nearby doorway. Before he can put a hand upon the doorknob it opened.

  A man was standing inside.

  For just an instant, Nate stopped short. He wasn’t sure if it is a real human being or another shape-shifter. In another second he'd been pushed from behind as Kirk mumbled something unintelligible. Tumbling into the stranger and bowling him over, Nate landed on top of him as he heard a scuffling sound behind him. Looking back, he saw Kirk under some sort of attack.

  Millions of sand crystals danced over his body from head to foot encasing him in a kind of metallic sheen. Jumping to his feet he pulled Kirk inside and slammed the door before his friend was swallowed up all together.

  "We have to get him to Lady Lily."

  As the stranger spoke Nate recognized him as Micah. Though he only saw him as a monstrosity a century ago, the man's features shined through the deformities in ways which were now clear as glass.

  "What are you doing here, Micah?"

  "You know my name... good. I'm here to save your life. I apologize but you have me at a disadvantage. Though I should I do not know your name."

  "Nate... and this is Kirk. He pushed me inside and took the brunt of the attack. We have to move quickly. Tell me... is there a tunnel to the main University as we suspected?"

  "Yes there is... how did you know that?"

  "Kirk thought of it... looking at the layout of the buildings from the air gave him the idea that the outbuildings were connected by way of underground tunnels like our castle back in old Scotland."

  "Come with me... I'll show you the way."

  Chapter 40—Feeling Electric

  Micah hadn’t been outside of the Cornell University building in three centuries or better.

  Now that Lily's entourage had begun to arrive he felt a need to warn them. His nanobots were out of control. With his newly found rejuvenation his memory of the old days returned more clearly than that which happened yesterday.

  Kāne frightened him. The aura he put off stultified the very air around him. As he walked the corridors of Cornell University Kāne left puddles of dust in his wake, piles of dead nanobots both inside and out.

  He reminded Micah of the electric eels he had studied as a young boy... in fact, he had won the science fair when he was just eight years old by performing meticulous research showing electric eels had evolved independently in six different species of the fish. He remembered being so proud he could burst but having no one to share his accomplishment with.

  Even at that tender age he was too weird to have friends and his parent
s shunned him as if they were ashamed of the ugly little thing they had produced between them. Micah had silently withdrawn from the world while simultaneously creating his own idealized reality... one in which he was not ugly and stupid but magnificently wise and beautiful.

  Micah had managed to acquire a fresh water specimen of an electric fish from South America that was capable of generating a field of some six hundred volts, enough to kill a human adult. By working with state of the art equipment he had either pilfered from the chemistry lab at the community college where he took weekend courses—no one would ever suspect a precocious eight year old of stealing—or modifying tools he built himself he had been able to produce a genetic blueprint.

  It told him that his fish from South America built electric generating organs from skeletal tissue, apparently in response to a predator that threatened the species. Since water was a natural conductor of electricity and air was not, it only stood to reason that fish could evolve such a novel way of protecting themselves.

  The aura that Kāne put off was definitely electric in nature. The few times Micah got close to the man all the hairs on his body stood on end as if he was receiving a static charge from Kāne's presence.

  Perhaps it was a mode of communication under the water of the Lake where Kāne and the Ladies had originated. It made sense. Water was too dense a medium to conduct sound waves, at least those able to allow understanding of language. He had read that dolphins communicated by way of clicks and chatters which were perfectly suited to travel under water but so far as he knew, the people of the Lake hadn’t any language similar to that.

  The little he did know of the Ladies and Kāne suggested that men were at a premium in that culture... that women outnumbered them a hundred to one. It was possible that the men developed electrical organs as a means of drawing females to them, like fire flies with their lights blinking at specific intervals.

 

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