Fil nodded before smiling. “Dad does like his trees, doesn’t he?”
Sarah gave him a gentle nudge in the ribs.
Adam chuckled. “He does indeed. In any event, they were invisible when they entered the forest from the air. They had no idea that there were people living inside the forest, or that those people had set up barriers to both entry and exit. Before the trio knew what had happened, they came upon a sweet, succulent fruit. Your mother took a bite.”
Fil glanced at Hope. “That was the ambrosia, wasn’t it?”
His mother nodded.
“One of the forest’s residents arrived. She took them to their main living space, where the largest congregation of residents lived. She explained what ambrosia did, told them there was no cure, and informed them that they’d not be allowed to leave. She then told them that they’d basically be treated like the other residents of the village.”
Fil laughed. “I’m sure she got a nasty surprise if she tried to enforce those rules. So what did everyone do?”
“They pretended to consider her offer, but mostly they were in a bit of shock. Will thought the purge he’d undergone in the future had already made him immortal, and realized that history would change dramatically if they’d never happened upon this forest. That meant he had to eat the fruit, even though he’d been told the side effects. In his mind, he had centuries to figure out how to reverse the problem. Your mother was upset because she’d just learned that she needed to live a long time—and like your father, thought that the morange and zirple had conferred immortality on her already—but she’d just been told by that woman that she’d lost the ability to have children and that there was no cure to the condition. It was a far bigger deal for your mother than your father, because for all they knew, the Will Stark born in the future would be the father of his children long before he had any idea what Energy might be.”
“That set everything in motion for the next several centuries,” Fil observed. “They spent all that time trying to figure out the way to reverse the effects of ambrosia.”
“We did,” Will replied. “But we never found it.” He gave Adam a curious look. “We were given the answer at what seemed the last possible moment.”
Adam nodded. “But that’s at the end of this story. You see, as Will and Hope learned about ambrosia and the effects and the supposed permanence of those effects, my mother watched everything unfold with no small sense of irony. You see, she’d been in that forest before. And she encountered someone there she’d not seen since she was a small child, many, many years before.” He glanced at Will, who’d jumped slightly in his seat. “You understand now, don’t you?”
Will nodded. “She met Ambrose, the first to discover the effects of the fruit that bore his name. He was the first to figure out the cure.” He looked at Hope. “And that was critical… because Ambrose was her father.”
XXXVIII
HOPE’S BLUE EYES SHOWED AN internal fire, as if she’d figured out some unspoken puzzle. “So, it was her, then?”
Adam looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how your father got the blood he needed to… well, to create you,” Hope explained. “The only thing that made sense, in my mind, was for Ambrose to be his father. We’d been told Ambrose reversed the effects periodically, and during those times he’d be able to provide clean blood to his children. If Adam went to him during that time and retrieved Ambrose’s blood, then the problem is solved. But then we found out about Eva, which raised the question again.”
Adam nodded. “You didn’t know who my mother was before and probably guessed a human wife for my father who’d not be constrained by ambrosia’s effects, so that makes sense. But now you know they both had to overcome that issue.”
Fil looked at Adam quizzically. “It overcomes the issue for Eva. But what about—?”
“With the blood issue resolved, my parents were able to bring me into the world.” Adam spoke over Fil, which surprised them. Fil’s frown deepened. “I was born exactly three hundred and fifty years before you, Will. Interesting bit of trivia there.”
Hope glanced at Fil before looking at Adam. “You’ve explained how it is that your mother overcame the ambrosia issue, Adam. But I think we’re all interested in understanding how your father did the same.”
Adam hesitated. “He… he said he grew up in a group that believed in preserving their dead in some fashion. When his father died, his blood was saved and preserved.”
Will frowned. Adam was clearly lying… but why? “But he told me that the village he lived in growing up was decimated by invaders. You’re saying after his people were slaughtered, he went back, found his father, and preserved his blood?”
There was another slight hesitation. “It was their tradition. It was his duty.”
Fil leaned toward Adam, frowning. “Adam? Why aren’t you telling us the truth? What are you hiding? Who are you trying to protect?”
Adam’s eyes flashed at the accusation. But he was interrupted by the loud buzzing from Will’s communicator. “Will? It’s Ian. Did you say that there were two dead Hunters on the eastern plaza?”
Will tapped the communicator. “Yes. Athos and Porthos. Why do you ask?”
“I… I think you need to come see this for yourself.”
Will frowned and glanced at the rest of those assembled and seated in the makeshift nano-furniture. “Well, that was… strange.”
“Are you going?” Fil asked.
Will nodded. “We should probably all go.”
They stood and Will recalled his nanos. The group jogged around to the opposite side of the mammoth building where they were able to see the gaping hole in the wall high above. Ian was there with two additional Alliance warriors, huddled and conversing. All were battered, bruised, and bloodied, but their faces showed a fierce determination as they sought to finish their final duties. Ian noted the approach of Will and the others.
Ian gestured behind him. “Look.”
They looked.
Victor, the man they knew best as the Hunter Athos, lay there with his eyes closed in a small crater in the concrete. His face seemed calm and serene, and one might have thought him asleep but for the impossible angles of his legs and arms.
Will winced at the sight. Victor’s death had been anything but pain free. He looked around, frowning. “Um, Ian? Where’s Porthos?”
Ian nodded grimly. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out and it’s the reason I called you. His body’s not here.”
Will felt his breathing still. “But I saw him hit the ground. I saw him lying here, just a few feet from Athos. How…?”
Ian looked grim. “There’s nothing here to indicate that a second body fell from a height similar to that of the Hunter Athos and struck the ground.”
“But…” Will chewed his lip.
A hand descended upon his shoulder, and Will turned to see the concern in his son’s eyes. “I don’t think Porthos ever meant to kill himself, Dad.”
Will replayed the events in his mind. Porthos had tried to escape on several occasions. Eva had finally tipped him and smothered him with the net, preventing further chances of escape. They’d even injected him with the medicine to undo the mental transformation imposed by Arthur. After he saw Athos walk through the hole in the wall, he’d told them he wanted to do the same, to follow the man who’d served as his nominal lead on Hunts for centuries. He’d asked them for the freedom to throw himself out of the building, to know that in the end he’d done it himself. And so they’d removed the net, and…
His pulse raced. Oh, no…
“He moved to the hole very slowly, giving his Energy time to rebuild,” Hope whispered. “He slowed his fall so that it looked to us as if he’d hit the concrete hard, and then he kept still.”
“His Energy sensing skills are so strong that even with a minimal recharge, he’d be able to sense when Dad moved away from the hole in the wall,” Angel added. She’d recovered
enough from her grief for now to recognize the threat; she’d continue her mourning later. “As soon as we backed away, he fled.”
Sarah groaned. “He tricked us. How did we let that happen?”
“But it won’t matter, will it?” Anna asked. “I injected him with the medicine. He’s free, but he shouldn’t be a risk much longer.”
“How long does it take before the medicine takes effect, though?” Will asked. “He can do plenty of damage in a short period of time.” He snapped his fingers. “Adam, you watched a transformation like Athos’ happen in the Cavern. How long…?”
He paused as he looked around.
“Where’s Adam?” Hope asked.
“Didn’t he come with us?”
But they knew he hadn’t. And though he hated to do it, Will couldn’t help but wonder if Adam had something to do with Porthos’ disappearance. His mother—that would take time to get used to—had provided information to the Aliomenti for some unknown length of time. Adam had brought a “transformed” Hunter back, and though Athos’ efforts to end his own life succeeded, it could well be that Athos had failed to break his fall in time.
Had Adam done something to undo Porthos’ reprogramming, and even now sought to set the last living Hunter free?
He turned to Ian. “Did the deprogramming medicine work fairly quickly?”
Ian nodded. “It seemed to, sir. Most everyone seemed to come around after maybe twenty or thirty minutes.”
“We can’t prove anything here worked,” Hope said. “Arthur’s death means there’s a chance his mental programming terminated at the same time.”
“But he should still be here, then,” Will protested. “Right? He’d been injected and certainly had enough time to see the medicine take effect. Even if he’d tried to escape up until the point he jumped, the medicine surely took effect before he had the chance to leave without us knowing.”
There were head nods.
“Which brings me back to Adam.” Will frowned. “He was acting rather strangely before we left Arthur’s quarters. There’s still something he’s hiding from us. But what? And does that relate to Porthos’ disappearance?”
“He knew about Eva, didn’t he?” Angel asked. “Was that it? He was worried that we’d be upset with him when realized he’d known about her communications for quite some time.” She paused. “Or did you ask him to keep it quiet?”
Will shrugged. “The fewer who knew, the better.”
“I refuse to believe that Adam would betray us.” Hope spoke with greater conviction than she had in some time. “And I don’t think Eva tried to betray us either.” Her eyes flicked at Will, who looked away. “Arthur explained why she did it; anything they got outside of knowing they had to avoid killing people they got by torture. You saw her, didn’t you? All of you. You don’t look like that if you’re providing every answer without hesitation.” She shook her head. “We’re overthinking this. Porthos tricked us. It’s that simple.”
Will frowned. “I agree on all points, Hope, but I can’t figure out how to explain the seeming lack of effect of the medicine. Why would he react differently than the others?”
“The effects do take time,” Ian reminded them. “The timing might well be such that he got away from this space before the full effects happened. Perhaps Hunters are more deeply programmed than others, and what takes twenty or thirty minutes for most might take an hour or longer for them. We may need to find him to know for sure.”
“There’s another scenario that’s not been mentioned yet,” Sarah said. All eyes turned to her. Fil smiled. “It aligns with Hope’s comments about non-betrayals as well, and solves the mystery of the medicine.” She glanced at Anna, who nodded thoughtfully.
“Which is?”
Anna looked around. “The medicine and the Leader’s death haven’t had an effect on Porthos… because Porthos never received the mental programming. He acted the way he did of his own free will. He recognized our beliefs, saw the compassion shown to Athos, and acted in a manner that gave him the greatest chance to escape. And he did. Which means…”
“Which means that he’s still out there and as much a Hunter as ever, and that he won’t rest until he defeats us all,” Will said.
Their faces fell.
It wasn’t over yet.
Not by a long shot.
XXXIX
THEY MIXED THE UNPLEASANT TASK with a practical one.
Ian listened to their concerns about razing the Island rather than dealing with the dead, and he came to agree with them. He spoke to the survivors below and found they were in agreement with the plan as well. Thus, while Ian’s groups would patrol the Island, looking for hidden pockets of Aliomenti resistance, the group who’d been in combat directly with Arthur Lowell would handle moving the dead to the Headquarters lobby.
They started at the top of the building, teleporting to each floor and retrieving each body they found. The Aliomenti produced hundreds of body bags—they didn’t ask why they had so many on hand—and those collecting the dead took the time to carefully label each bag. Hope insisted upon moving Arthur’s body, Anna took care of Abaddon, and Will and Fil worked together on William the Assassin’s dismembered corpse. Adam spent a moment in quiet reflection near Eva’s body before carrying the bag to the elevator.
Angel’s tears finally ran dry as she zipped up the bag with Charlie inside. Will felt his heart break. He’d watched both children lose a spouse, but in Angel’s case, he had no happy surprise waiting for her.
Sarah volunteered to ride down in the elevator with the bodies, and Fil rode with her, unwilling to leave her out of his sight until they’d restrained Porthos and any remaining Aliomenti roaming the Island.
They repeated the process, floor after floor. They’d lucked out, because most of the fighting and most of the dead were located below ground. As they moved through each floor, they listened for any Energy signals that belonged to anyone but themselves. Nobody had noticed any teleportation-sized bursts of Energy. Fil’s arrival damaged the boats in port and Athos had taken all submarines with him. Adam jogged to the hangar and returned, noting that each aircraft had an identified parking spot, and that all spots were occupied. It didn’t rule out a departure; all evidence suggested that Porthos remained on Headquarters Island.
Ian sent out a communication requesting that in about thirty minutes time all survivors should meet on the Plaza where he would show all of them—including the converted Aliomenti who wished to help—ways to identify likely pockets of remaining Aliomenti. The converted, who’d gradually regained their memories with their free will, helped adjust the target areas away from those places where few Aliomenti worked or congregated. They checked their emails and found no warning communications or summons in their various inboxes. Those not working would be unaware as yet that their leadership, minus a single rogue Hunter, lay dead inside Headquarters, along with hundreds of Aliomenti and Alliance fighters. They’d not been aware of an invasion. Will wondered if Arthur had been bluffing when he made the claim about his people remaining scattered throughout the Island and prepared to take human hostages. He’d never suggest they not confirm the security of the Island, though.
They used the updated information to identify the most likely hiding places for Aliomenti and Porthos. They agreed that the most likely place for Aliomenti to travel to capture human hostages would be the human village. They’d send a group there aboard the monorail, which ran automatically. The arrival and departure of monorail trains wouldn’t suggest anything abnormal to Aliomenti in the village. It was thus the most likely locale for Aliomenti, and the one where they’d find the least initial resistance. But while those Aliomenti who’d made the trip to the human village wouldn’t be suspicious of running trains, they’d be the group most anticipating a fight. Ian would travel with this first group.
They reasoned that the majority of those Aliomenti not traveling to the human village for any reason—those who didn’t receive any transmissions from the Lead
er—would remain in the Aliomenti residential and social areas to the south of Headquarters. They reasoned that those Aliomenti still in the residential areas wouldn’t know about the invasion. The expectation here would be the mass distribution and injection of the medicine without drawing swords. Will and Adam would lead this group, taking with them the vast majority of surviving Aliomenti. The residents of the area would be best able to inject medications without drawing undue suspicion. Will, Adam, and the Alliance would hold back, prepared to fight, but generally act as if they were new recruits touring their new home neighborhood.
Sarah raised her hand. “What if we’re wrong? What if Arthur’s death, and not the medicine, reversed the programming?”
Adam shook his head. “Arthur remained alive until after the medicine took hold back in the Cavern. It’s possible his death would accelerate the process, but the medicine works as well.”
Ian nodded. “If Arthur’s death reverses every mental programming change made, the first two groups will have uneventful trips.”
Adam nodded, and Will watched him. His face showed little expectation that Arthur’s death would have an impact upon those programmed. Will agreed. His memory wasn’t perfect, but he did recall that someone other than Arthur once controlled the mind of Aramis, back when the late Hunter was a boy known as Tacitus. His controller died, but Aramis remained in the throes of the mental programming inflicted on him.
Adam’s eyes flicked at Hope, then back at Will. He shrugged. Adam had rejoined them not long after the transmission of Ian’s meeting request. When asked where he’d been, why he’d not joined them at the site of Athos’ impact on the Plaza, Adam had realized his error. He’d sensed in Ian’s mind during the call with Will that Porthos had faked his suicide, and felt compelled to search for the Hunter alone. He’d felt guilty about Porthos’ escape, since the approach had been supplied by Athos, the Hunter Adam brought back to Headquarters Island. Adam apologized for his aloofness, but not for his decision to chase the Hunter alone, despite the concerns raised by his choice. His eyes flicked toward Hope for just an instant, before he said he’d explain more later, when things truly ended. For now, he’d work with the others and focus on disabling those in the residential area to ease the injection of medication.
Convergence Page 24
