“Yeah,” Tyler said. “All her stuff is there. I’ve never used any of it, though. The pistols were built specifically for her hands, and I don’t even know how to use the sickles. I don’t think London is the place to start learning.”
“We’re not going to London,” Oliver said.
“We’re not?”
“No. We need to make a stop first. It’s in the other direction.”
“Yeah?”
Oliver turned to face him. “You’re taking me to the Island,” he said. Tyler’s eyes widened. “We’re going to pick up Sally, and then we’re going to London. We’re going to save Artemis and put our family back together.” Oliver would have had to admit he was a little surprised to hear the determination in his voice, but he found that he liked it.
For a moment Tyler looked shocked, and then he grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about,” he said.
“But I need to make another stop first,” Oliver said. “There’s one more thing I have to do.”
“What’s that?”
“I have to feed my cat,” Oliver said.
Chapter 13
“Are we there yet?” Jeffrey asked.
They’d been over the South Pacific for three hours and it was the fourth time the cat had asked the same question. Oliver sighed. He’d never intended to bring the cat along, but Jeffrey had made certain threats about what condition Oliver might find his bed in later if he wasn’t allowed to come, and Oliver knew from experience that the cat never made threats idly. He was glad for the company, but it was a bit like taking a small child on a long road trip.
Tyler had been sitting in the cockpit with Daniel Vega for the last hour. The cabin door opened and he emerged, nodding at Oliver as he took a seat. “I finally spotted it,” he said. “I was getting nervous.”
“It’s hard to believe we don’t have a map or something,” Oliver said.
“We have a map. It’s just got a big circle drawn around a few hundred square miles of ocean.”
“Nobody can draw it on a map because it’s invisible,” Jeffrey said. “Try to keep up, boss.”
“It’s not invisible,” Oliver said. Tyler had tried to explain the Island’s unique nature to him again earlier. “It’s just not something you can see unless you already know it’s there.”
“Well, that and also because it doesn’t show up on radar or satellite,” Tyler said. “You can’t use GPS while you’re there. Sometimes I think it vanishes if you’re not thinking about it.”
“It’s got a perception filter,” Oliver said to Jeffrey. “Like on Doctor Who, when people don’t see things that are right in front of them.”
“Everything we do is like Doctor Who,” Jeffrey said. “I’m the Doctor and you’re my companion.” He looked over at Tyler. “You’re some stupid dog we found.”
“Shut up.” Tyler looked away.
“Don’t say that today,” Oliver told the cat. “He’s having a rough time with the dog thing lately.”
Jeffery considered that for a moment. “Well, it’s not that bad,” he said to Tyler. “There are worse things than being a dog. You could be a dog that farts all the time. No, wait. You’re already a dog that farts all the time.”
“I do not fart all the time!”
“You’re not helping,” Oliver said to Jeffrey.
Tyler looked through the window. “Look,” he said. “You can see it now.”
Oliver looked outside as Jeffrey clambered onto his lap so he could take a look, also. Below him, as far as the eye could see, there was only empty blue ocean. He could see that they were closer to the water than they had been before. The jet was descending. “I don’t see anything out there. Are you sure?”
“I see it,” Tyler said. “Just tell yourself it’s there. See the land in your mind. Beaches and rain forests. The trees are thick and there are mountains on one end, although that’s not where we’re going, so I guess that’s not helpful. It looks a lot like Hawaii. Imagine we’re going to Hawaii and look again.”
“Are we going to Hawaii?” Jeffrey asked.
“No.”
Oliver shut his eyes. It’s right below us, he thought. An island. It’s been there this whole time. He opened his eyes. For a moment all he could see was the ocean, and then there was a shimmer. Below them he saw a land mass come into view. It took a few seconds; it reminded him of a camera shot coming into focus, but before long he could see it. An island was right below them. The Island.
“Wow,” Jeffrey said. “It does look like Hawaii.”
“You’ve never been to Hawaii,” Oliver said.
“I watched Lilo & Stitch seven times,” Jeffrey said. “So I know a lot about Hawaii. We should go surfing while we’re there, and listen to Elvis.”
Oliver shook his head. “This from the cat that freaks out every time I suggest he take a bath.”
“It’s not the same thing,” Jeffrey said.
Oliver looked outside again. The Island was large enough that he couldn’t see from end to end at this height. The pristine coastline looked like it would be perfect as a resort destination. “I can’t believe nobody ever just sails into this thing.”
“The whole place is maybe a hundred square miles,” Tyler said. “Keep in mind how big the Pacific Ocean is, and the fact that nobody would ever have a reason to come out here. We’re nowhere near shipping lanes. It would be like finding a needle in a haystack the size of a barn.”
“But you’re telling me in the thousands of years it’s probably been down there, nobody ever happened to run into it?”
“It tends to repel people who get too close,” Tyler said. “Gives them a sense of unease. You can’t put your finger on why, but you just don’t want to go any farther. People have been here, though. It’s just that even the ones that manage to find it never leave again.”
Oliver frowned. “Nobody leaves? Is it dangerous?”
“Yes and no,” Tyler said. “That reminds me. We need to talk about what’s going to happen when we land.”
Oliver looked out the window. He could see a small landing strip with a few buildings scattered around it coming into view. An airport, of sorts, although there was no tower, no other planes, and nobody that appeared to be working there. In addition, as they got closer he could see that the entire complex was surrounded by a high metal barrier of some kind. It appeared to be made of thick grey steel, although he couldn’t be sure from this distance. “What’s going to happen when we land?” he asked.
Tyler opened his mouth to speak, but then he leaned back in his chair and sighed as if he’d just finished a huge meal. “Ah,” he said. “That’s going to happen.”
Jeffrey rolled onto his back and stretched out. “Oh, that’s nice,” he said. “I feel good.”
Oliver looked from one of them to the other. He didn’t feel any differently. “What? What’s going on?”
“Rub my belly,” Jeffrey said. “Come on. Rub it.”
“No.”
“I won’t bite you, boss. I’m never going to bite anything ever again.” The cat sighed contentedly and closed his eyes.
“Are you high?” Oliver asked.
“You don’t feel anything?” Tyler asked. “Maybe it’s because you’re…you know.”
“He’s a demigod,” Jeffrey said. “He comes from beyond the stars.”
“That’s not it at all,” Oliver told the cat. He should have known trying to explain their trip to the other dimension and the meeting with Hemera had been a waste of time. “What’s going on with you two?”
“The Island generates a pacification field,” Tyler said. “It makes you calm. Content. It takes away anger. That’s the reason nobody ever escapes. Nobody tries. Nobody minds being here.”
Oliver considered that. “I guess that’s why Sally’s still here. I never believed there was a prison made that could hold her.”
“I doubt there is.” Tyler nodded. “She hasn’t escaped because it’s never occurred to her to try. She’s at peace with every
thing.”
“I don’t feel anything at all,” Oliver said.
“You’re not of this world,” Jeffrey said. “I bet that’s why. So you’ve got plenty of time to rub my belly.”
Oliver relented, scratching the cat’s belly for him. For the first time in his memory, Jeffrey didn’t bite him after a few seconds of the contact. He just stretched out and purred instead. Whatever pacification field this place was capable of producing, it was very effective.
“It’s going to be okay, guys,” Tyler said. “We’ll get Sally, kick Armitage’s ass, and save Artemis. It’s all going to work out.” He smiled. “We’re good.”
Oliver looked back out the window. Something caught his eye at the edge of the rain forest and for a moment he wasn’t sure what he was looking at. It was large, and moving. “Is that…is that Godzilla down there?”
“What?” Tyler looked out the window and shook his head. “I don’t see it, but no. Godzilla isn’t real.”
“Oh,” Oliver said.
“It could be a T-rex, though. They look kind of similar.”
“Dinosaurs?” Jeffrey asked. “There are dinosaurs down there?”
“A couple species that survived the extinctions made it here,” Tyler said. “Not many. Artemis says they’ll die off, eventually. She never had the heart to kill them. They don’t have a reason to leave the Island, so they’re harmless to the outside world.”
Harmless to the outside world was one thing, Oliver thought, but they were going to be landing soon. “Are they also…calm? Like you guys?” That seemed like it would be a good thing to know.
“Oh, yeah,” Tyler said. “You can walk right by them, if you want to. I guess they might eat you if they were hungry, but otherwise they’re very pleasant.”
“Everything is pleasant,” Jeffrey said.
“Maybe we should avoid the dinosaurs,” Oliver said. Being eaten was being eaten, whether the creature doing the eating was pleasant about it or not.
The jet landed twenty minutes later and Daniel Vega set about refueling. “I’m not sure when we’ll be back,” Tyler told him. “It’ll be sundown soon. There’s a cot in the shed over there,” he pointed to one of the outbuildings, “or you can sleep in the jet. There’s a bed in the back we’re not going to be using.”
“Works for me,” Vega said. “I feel like I could stay here forever. This place is beautiful.”
“Get that out of your head,” Oliver said. “We’ll be out of here as soon as we pick up Sally.”
“Well, Sally is a pilot,” Tyler said. “Technically he could stay…”
“No,” said Oliver. “We’re all leaving. Nobody’s staying with the dinosaurs.”
“Dinosaurs?” Vega asked.
“Forget it,” Oliver said.
He and Jeffrey took seats in a nearby jeep. Tyler tucked the duffel bag holding Sally’s clothes and weapons in the cargo area, and then got behind the wheel. They headed for the wall that surrounded the airport. As Oliver had thought, the wall was made of thick steel and stood more than fifty feet high. “It reminds me of Jurassic Park,” he said.
“Well, we keep the airport separate. There are lots of things besides dinosaurs here. Honestly, dinosaurs are probably the least dangerous thing we’d run into.”
“What’s the most dangerous?” Jeffrey asked.
“Sally.”
Jeffrey bared his teeth in a grin. “My dog!” he said. “This guy knows what I’m talking about.” He raised a paw in the air. “Give me five!”
Tyler reached out and gave the cat a fist bump. Oliver shook his head. Today was a red-letter day in werewolf/cat relations.
Tyler hit what looked like a garage door opener and a vertical slit appeared halfway down a section of the wall. It began to slide open and Oliver realized it was a huge door, maybe twenty-five feet in height. He wondered why they’d ever need a door that big. Nothing that tall would have fit on the jet. What else did they bring in here?
Once they were through, the door began to slide shut behind them. Oliver took a look around. They were on a narrow dirt road surrounded by palm trees. It did remind him of Hawaii, although he supposed lots of islands in the South Pacific looked more or less the same. He’d never been anywhere other than Oahu, though.
There wasn’t much but trees to look at as they drove, but Oliver could hear tropical birds calling nearby. Although he couldn’t see them, he imagined them in an assortment of bright colors. A faint smell of flowers wafted through the air, although it wasn’t anything he could identify. He would have had to admit he couldn’t tell a tulip from a carnation. The ambience of the place really was lovely, although he knew it was having a much greater effect on Tyler and Jeffrey. They seemed nearly intoxicated, but with none of the slurred speech or clumsiness that came from overindulging in alcohol. Or catnip, in Jeffrey’s case.
“How long will it take us to get there?” Oliver asked.
“It’s not far,” Tyler said. “And don’t you love how there’s no traffic?”
Oliver wasn’t sure if that had been a joke. “But there are no other cars here to cause traffic, right?”
“Nah,” Tyler said. “I just feel really good about it.”
“Rub my belly,” Jeffrey said.
After an hour they cleared the rain forest and emerged on the side of a grassy hill. The road led directly to its top. On their left Oliver could see a golden beach, with the ocean beckoning invitingly beyond that. He wondered how warm the water was. He didn’t plan to do any swimming while he was here, but he wondered if Sally ever did. He’d imagined her in a prison, which had always bothered him. The Island still may have been a prison, but at least it was a very comfortable one.
Before long, Oliver could see a small Mission-style house coming into view at the top of the hill. With its white sides and tan roof, it looked almost as if it had been plucked out of a residential neighborhood in San Diego and dropped here. Oliver wondered if that was the case, or if it had simply been built by conventional means. If he were being honest, neither answer would have surprised him that much.
“That’s the place,” Tyler said.
“I kind of figured,” Oliver said. “It’s the only house we’ve seen so far.”
“It’s not the only one here,” Tyler said. “It’s the only one that’s occupied right now, though.”
“Let’s live here forever,” Jeffrey said.
Oliver scratched the cat’s neck. “We’re going to pick up Sally and leave,” he said. “You’ll like that, won’t you?”
“I will,” Jeffrey said. “I really missed her, and I was angry when she got sent away. I said mean things to you because I was mad.”
Oliver blinked in surprise. The cat had never been that frank about his feelings before. The Island was really doing a number on him. “Well, we made a mistake,” he said, “and now we’re going to fix it. Okay?”
“Got it, boss.”
Tyler stopped the jeep a dozen yards from the house’s front door. They got out, Oliver holding Jeffrey in his arms. The view from up here was amazing, with the ocean stretching into the distance as far as the eye could see. Everything looked peaceful. Oliver wondered if he might be able to retire here someday. Or at least take a long vacation.
He took a look at the front door. “Do you think we just go up and ring the bell or something?”
“It’s Sally,” Tyler said. “Do you really think she doesn’t already know we’re here?”
“No,” Oliver said. “She probably made us the minute we came out of the forest.” Or maybe she’d spotted the plane on the way in. The pacification field may have kept her from wanting to escape, but he doubted it had done much to dull her senses.
“You can go ring the bell if you want,” a familiar voice said from behind him. “Or you could just turn around.” Oliver nearly jumped. He turned around, Jeffrey still in his arms. Sally Rain stood a few feet away, her red hair and emerald eyes just as he remembered them. She wore blue sweat pants and a white t-
shirt, which were clothes he’d never imagined her in. She looked like someone on a permanent vacation, or maybe a patient in a mental hospital. He supposed that in a way, both of those things were true.
“Crazytimes!” Jeffrey squealed. He wriggled his way out of Oliver’s arms and leapt into Sally’s, purring enthusiastically.
“Hey, dogmeat.” Sally scratched the cat behind the ears as he preened. She nodded at Oliver. “Don’t tell me we’re going to be roommates? What did you do to piss Artemis off?”
“A lot,” Oliver admitted. “But that’s not why we’re here.”
Sally put Jeffrey down on the grass and the cat proceeded to rub his way around her legs in a figure-eight loop. “Do I get visiting hours now?” she asked. “It’s a long way to come.” She looked at Tyler. “Hey, big guy.”
Tyler was trembling. He stepped forward, seeming unsure of what to do, and then he wrapped his arms around Sally. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Sally patted him on the back. “It’s okay. I had it coming.”
Tyler stepped back. “I didn’t agree with Artemis about sending you here. I…”
“Yeah, you did,” Sally interrupted. “You came a long way, so don’t lie to me.” Tyler looked at the ground and didn’t say anything. “It’s okay, T. She was right. I would have…” She shrugged. “I don’t know what I would have done. I was in a rage and there was going to be a body count, whatever it was.” She patted Tyler’s arm. “It’s okay,” she repeated.
Tyler nodded. “I’m still sorry.”
Sally gave him a smile and stepped toward Oliver. “What about you, though? You didn’t want to lock me up, did you?”
“No,” Oliver said. “I was pissed.”
“You’re sentimental,” Sally said. “It’s your weakness.” Then she shrugged. “Well, it’s one of your many weaknesses. I could make a list, but I’m not sure I have enough paper to write them all down. They only give me so much… She caught Oliver’s eye. “I’m just messing with you, Oliver. It’s good to see you.”
“You, too.” Oliver spread his arms awkwardly. “Should we…”
Interesting People (Interesting Times #3) Page 12
