by Jacob Whaler
“You should be pleased. You’re still the same person. Same DNA. No change in memories or sense of self. But I made a few upgrades.” Jhata lets a half smile snake across her perfect lips. “I couldn’t help myself.”
“When can I leave?”
“You’re free to go.”
Swimming in the viscous liquid, Ryzaard moves forward, thrusting his fingers through the soft outer membrane of the tank, making an opening and stepping out onto the floor. After crouching to cough the liquid out of his lungs and throat, he stands up and walks to a mirror.
The image that stares back at him is the same man, with one small change.
He has the body of an ultra-fit thirty-year-old, muscular and chiseled to perfection.
Jhata walks to his side, sliding her fingers across the broad shoulders. “What do you think?”
“Not bad.” He turns to the side and admires his own bulging biceps. “But I’ll need more time to understand what you’ve done to me.”
“The one gift I can’t give you is time.” She walks behind him to the opposite side and gazes in the mirror. “I suggest you get back to work as soon as you can.”
“My Stones?” Ryzaard says.
“Use this.” Jhata reaches up and drapes a platinum chain on his neck. All six of the Stones float weightlessly in the chain on his bare chest. “There’s something else you might enjoy.” She brushes a finger across his sternum and presses.
Blue color flows through his skin from the spot she pressed until it covers his entire body. Even his eyeballs have a transparent blue coating.
“I’ve seen this before,” he says. “Skin armor. On the boy.”
“Forgive me. That was my mistake. But this should rectify it.”
“Can I make a suggestion?”
Jhata turns her head. “What kind of suggestion?”
“Can you make the skin armor transparent?”
Pursing her lips, Jhata walks to Ryzaard and puts her palms on his bare chest. The blue color fades away.
“Done.” She turns and walks away. “Call me when you want to talk.”
“About what?” Ryzaard says.
Jhata has already vanished.
CHAPTER 93
Jessica, where are you?
Matt searches the freedom camp, afraid he might find Jessica’s body among the dead. Gratefully, he doesn’t.
But with no living souls left at the camp and no trace of where the survivors might have gone, Matt is left with no choice but to walk across the bridge to the City of Vancouver and look for Jessica among the hundreds of faces on the sidewalk.
On the way to the city, he tries some quick meditating with the Stone to find Jessica’s location, knowing it’s risky to take the Stone out of the cloaking box. But all he finds is silence. Not a word from the Allehonen.
“I’m still hungry.”
Yarah pulls on Matt’s hand as they walk through the city streets. Unlike Manhattan, young people still venture outside the buildings in the open air.
Masses walk on the sidewalks, eyes on transparent holoscreens floating in front of their eyes. From the look of the dancing text in the holos, most of them are from China, a few from Japan.
Vancouver always was an Asian city. Now that China and Japan have joined forces to control all of Asia, Vancouver is their stomping ground.
Matt remembers hearing that China was purposely flooding major cities in Canada with its own nationals. Part of a strategy to acquire the country and its resources from the inside. Without a war.
That gives Matt an idea.
“Let’s go to Chinatown. That’s where the best food will be. But we need money.” Glancing up, his eyes fall on a large red gate with Chinese characters painted gold. “This must be the place. Let’s have a look.”
As they walk under the gate, the first thing Matt notices is the smell of barbeque pork. It makes his stomach yearn even more for food. The walk from the Stanley Park freedom camp took more than three hours. Now they need food in a bad way.
Time to figure out something fast.
“Can’t we just use the Stones to stop time and grab some food?” Yarah licks her lips.
The thought had crossed his mind.
It’s dangerous. Assuming Ryzaard is still alive, he has a way to track the Stones. If they take them out of the cloaking box, they’ll be exposed. Anything could happen. Soldiers dropping out of heli-transports from the sky. Spies watching from the shadows. Ryzaard himself might suddenly show up.
If he’s still alive.
They left Ryzaard on Matt’s dying world, lying on the sand, covered in red hot magma just seconds before jumping away.
Maybe Ryzaard is dead.
The smell of pork is too strong to resist.
“OK,” Matt says. “Let’s stop time and grab some food. Just this once. But we’ll need to be quick.” The fragrance of pork buns and sesame seed rolls is almost overpowering his ability to reason.
“Got it.” With longing on her face, Yarah eyes a man chewing on bun wrapped in paper.
Looking for a bag, Matt finds one that’s had been discarded in the trash nearby. He pulls it out of the garbage can, trying to be as discreet as possible. With a wave of his hand, he beckons for Yarah to come close, positioning them squarely in front of an open door.
He reads the sign.
New Town Bakery.
They both gaze inside, waiting for a fresh stack of steaming buns to make its way to the counter. It doesn’t take long.
“OK. Here’s what we do. You hold the bag, and I’ll dump in the buns. Ten seconds or less. Then we get out.” His eyes move to Yarah, looking up with a big smile on her face. “Ready?”
“Ready,” she says.
Matt reaches into his pocket and pulls out the cloaking box. Leaning up against the side of the entrance, he opens the lid and empties the contents into his hand, keeping his Stone and handing the other one to Yarah. Letting his eyes close, he searches for the present moment and quickly finds it, letting it settle into his grasp.
The air turns sepia yellow.
“Go.”
They both rush past the motionless customers to the counter. Matt picks off the top steamer and plucks off the lid while Yarah holds the plastic bag open. He dumps the contents into the bag, spilling two or three buns on the floor.
The bag is half full.
“One more.” He grabs the next steamer and empties the contents. Then he puts the lids back on and restacks the steamers, one on top of the other.
“Let’s go,” he says.
They rush out the door and run a full block until they find a deserted alley.
“OK, give me your Stone.”
Yarah’s goes into the cloaking box first, and then Matt presses his on top and snaps the lid shut.
As the world comes to life, Matt finds an empty bench, and they sit to enjoy the feast. Yarah hands one of the hot buns to Matt. He poses his nose over its white surface, exhales, and prepares to inhale.
Then he breaks it open.
Steam bursts from its interior, carrying the overpowering aroma of fresh barbeque. He fills his lungs and waits to enjoy the full effect. When he can stand it no longer, he bites through the soft bread into its heart.
Closing his eyes, he lets the flavor spread through his mouth before chewing slowly.
He eats three more before looking at Yarah. “You like?”
“Love.” Yarah smiles with brown sauce spread from cheek to cheek. “I want to stay here forever.”
Of course, they can’t. But it is a good place to get outfitted while Matt tries to figure out their next move.
That’s always the big question. What to do next?
Ryzaard always has a master plan.
Matt has nothing. He rolls with the punches, doing the best he can. Improvising. Running. Always running and hiding. As they eat, three words float into his mind.
Save the people.
Is that the answer? The new plan? What does it even mean?
Later that night, they find rest under the stars in an old homeless camp outside the city. An overstuffed backpack lays beside Matt on the grass, full of supplies and equipment, everything they will need to live off-grid for a while.
Chewing on chocolate, Yarah gazes up the moon. “It’s so peaceful here. Can we stay?”
Matt sighs. “I don’t think she’s here.”
“Jessica?” Yarah reaches a small hand up and wipes a tear from her eye. “I wish I knew where she was.”
Matt traces the lines of a shooting star. “So do I. We’ll just have to find her.” He looks sideways at Yarah. “Any ideas where she might be?”
“Sometimes I know where people are, even when I can’t see them. But only when I have my Stone.”
“Really?” Matt’s eyebrows lift. “Tell me how that works.”
“Minds are all different, like people’s faces.” Yarah sits up.
Matt puts his hands together under his head. “What do you mean? Some happy, some sad?”
Yarah shakes her head. “More like flavors of ice cream. Or the smells of flowers. It doesn’t change whether they’re happy or sad.” She shrugs her shoulders. “It just is.”
Nodding his head, Matt spies a red dot in the sky. “And you can tell who it is and where they are just by the flavor?”
“Yep. You and Jessica are easy. And—” She stops and drops her gaze to the grass.
“Leo?”
Her little chest goes in and out. “I miss him so much.” She sniffs and wipes her nose with the back of her hand.
“So do I.” Matt puts his hand on the small back. “If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here. But I promise you, he’s just moved on to a different world. Like my mom and dad. We’ll see him again.” After a long silence, Matt looks back up at Mars in the night sky. “How far away can you sense people’s minds?”
“I don’t know.” Yarah cocks her head to the side. “I don’t think it really matters how far away someone is. Back when we were all on my world, I knew when you were in the castle or outside, even when I was far away.”
“So.” Matt’s pulse makes a sudden jump. “You could find Jessica with your Stone?”
“Maybe,” Yarah says. “But it might take a while. When I have my Stone, tons of minds float near me. It’s like walking into a kitchen full of smells and trying to find just the right one.”
“It’s risky to have the Stones out of the cloaking box for more than a few seconds. But I’ll take that risk if you can find Jessica.”
Yarah suddenly looks at Matt. “If we found her, then we could leave together and just be a happy family, right?”
“Leave? You mean like leave the Earth?”
“Yeah, just like before. Go somewhere far, far away.”
Matt smiles. “Where would we go? Your world is gone. So is mine.” He pulls a long blade of grass and slips it between his lips, running his tongue over the rough texture. Biting on the white root at the bottom, a hint of sweet juice touches his tongue. “Then there’s Jhata’s world. If we go there, she’ll come after us for sure. We don’t have much choice. We have to stay here.”
“But.” Yarah lets her eyes drop to the grass. “What about Ryzaard? As long as he’s here, he won’t stop looking for us.”
Matt spits the grass out of his mouth. “How do you know he’s here?” He sits up and turns Yarah’s face toward him. “How do you know he’s not dead?”
“I’m not sure.”
Matt closes his eyes. “Neither am I. If he did make it back, we have to stop him.”
“You mean keep fighting him?” The look in Yarah’s eyes tells Matt that she is seriously starting to question his sanity.
“I mean try to figure out what his plans are and stop him.”
“But how can we stop him? He’s so powerful.”
Matt lets go of Yarah’s head. “I have a secret weapon. I’ve used it against Ryzaard and Jhata, even though they both have more Stones that I do. I’m not sure how it works, but it makes you more powerful.”
“A secret weapon?” Yarah’s body tenses. “What is it?”
“Love,” Matt says.
“Oh,” Yarah says. “That’s not a secret. I love you, and you love me. That’s easy.”
“For some people, it’s hard. Almost impossible.”
They slip into their sleeping bags.
Yarah looks up, eyes barely open. “Would you die for me? Just like Leo?”
“Without hesitation,” Matt says. “For you or Jessica.”
“Or someone else? Maybe someone you don’t even know?”
“Why do you ask?”
Yarah’s eyes close. “I don’t know. Just wondering, I guess.” Her lips relax into a smile, and she’s asleep in seconds.
Matt’s hand rests on the cloaking box.
Heal the people.
The words float into his mind again. What people? Sleep pulls on his eyes.
“I’ll save them.” The words come out of Matt’s mouth, as though on their own. “All of them.”
The words bring peace. He pulls in a deep breath and lets it out, counting to ten.
CHAPTER 94
“They’re gaining on us,” Eva says.
Jessica looks back at her. “How can they be tracking us?”
“Not sure.” Eva pants as she runs behind them. “They must have infra-red or something.”
Michiko shakes her head. “That’s only for night vision. I think—”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jessica says. “How can we lose them?”
“I have an idea. Maybe not a good one.” Michiko stops and looks at the forest trees from right to left, as if trying to get her bearings. “I used to play here as a kid. Follow me.” She makes a hard turn to the right.
After ten minutes, they come to a stream and stop. Jessica and Michiko look behind, straining to see Eva in the moonlight. She appears from behind a tree and stumbles toward them.
“Having a hard time keeping up. Not as young as you two.” She bends over and retches on the ground. “I don’t think they’re following us anymore.”
“What?” Jessica says.
“The last hill we climbed up.” Eva speaks between gulps of air. “I turned and didn’t see them. Couldn’t hear anything either. Maybe they gave up.”
“Either that,” Jessica says. “Or they found a different way to track us.”
“Either way, we should stay in the forest until morning. It’s not much farther.” Michiko runs ahead in the darkness.
Jessica takes Eva’s hand. “Come on. I’m not leaving you behind.”
They pass into a clearing in the forest. The moon is bright above their heads in a cloudless sky. Jessica sees the crisp outline of her shadow on the ground.
“Right there.” Michiko points at an old tree in the middle of the clearing.
Its trunk is at least two meters in diameter, making it the largest pine in the forest. A fat shimenawa rope of braided rice straw hangs on it like a belt. Broad white zigzag-shaped streamers hang from the middle.
“We call it Kami no Ki. The Spirit Tree.” She claps her hands twice and brings the palms together in front of her face as she bows her head. “Now let’s go up.” She jumps up to the lowest branch, swinging her feet up and wrapping them around as she pulls herself onto the branch.
Jessica looks up. The massive tree has evenly spaced branches that go all the way to the top.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Her eyes drift over the full moon. “Hiding right out here in the middle of a clearing?”
Michiko looks between her legs. “It’s the last place they would expect us to be. Come on.”
“You first.” Jessica makes a stirrup with her hands and motions for Eva to insert her shoe.
“I hate trees,” Eva says. “We don’t have any where I’m from.”
Jessica shakes her head. “No time to argue.”
Eva complies, and Jessica boosts her up to the lowest branch. She catches it and pulls herself up, Jessic
a following close behind.
In a few minutes, they’re all near the top, looking out on the moonlit tops of trees below them.
A silent shadow passes overhead, blocking out the light of the moon for just a second.
“What was that?” Jessica says.
All their eyes go up to the bright disk in the night sky, but it hangs there alone, undisturbed.
“Probably just a—”
Before Michiko can finish her sentence, a ring of fire explodes out of the forest at a distance of a kilometer, placing them roughly in the center.
“I don’t believe it.” Michiko stares. “They’re burning the entire forest.”
Eva looks at Jessica. “That explains why they stopped following us.”
Michiko wraps her arms tightly on a branch. “Good thing we found the Spirit Tree. It’s been here for hundreds of years. It’ll probably be the only thing left standing in the morning.”
Something bothers Jessica about what Michiko just said.
Then it hits her.
“We have to get out of here. Now.”
“Are you kidding?” Michiko looks at Jessica below her. “This is the safest place to be right now.”
“But it won’t be in the morning.” Jessica starts moving down. “They know we’re in the forest. They’ll surround it in the morning. We’ll be trapped. If we don’t get out now, we never will.”
“You can go,” Michiko says. “I’m staying.”
As she speaks, they all hear the thump thump thump of heli-transports in the distance, coming closer.
Eva looks back and forth from Jessica below her to Michiko above her. “Good luck, Michiko.” Eva starts down after Jessica. They both hit the ground together, pausing just long enough to see Michiko sitting in the top of the tree.
“Which way?” Jessica stares at Eva. “You have a better sense of direction than I do.”
“Where are we going?”
Jessica adjusts the pulse rifle on her shoulder. “Back to the sub.”
Eva casts her eyes in a circle. “This way.” She sprints across the clearing, under the moon light, back in the direction they came from.
The heat of the fire registers on their skin before they see it. When they get to the fire line, it’s a solid wall of orange extending in an arc on either side. Pine trees, rich in sap, explode every few seconds, blowing flames out onto the rich moss of the forest floor.
