Quantum Entanglement

by Liesel K. Hill

  Doc shook his head. “It’s not enough, Joan. And so many people flocking to Interchron should tell you something. In the past, there have always been pockets of undecided people or small factions that choose to keep to themselves, but not anymore. They’re coming to us, now. They can feel the lines being drawn in the dust. They know it may be impossible to survive the coming battle on their own. This is fast becoming a conflict between Interchron and the collectives. The world is taking sides. Can’t you feel it coming to a head?” He turned pleading eyes on her and found her looking disturbed.

  Only two massive collectives existed now—roughly half a million strong, each—and stories of forced assimilation and murder had reached gargantuan proportions. The collectives had abandoned all pretenses and forcibly reaped anyone and everyone they could find.

  “Of course I can,” Joan sighed. “Everyone can, but we haven’t found anyone to fill the Deceiver role, yet. Shouldn’t we focus on the team being whole before charging, half-cocked, into the collective ether?” she motioned toward the unconscious Arachniman.

  Doc shook his head. “This conflict is racing toward its climax, Joan. But I do agree the team should be whole. I don’t know what to do about the Deceiver role but we need Maggie and we need her now. I’ve thought about going to get her more than once, but we haven’t heard from Marcus and Karl yet.”

  Joan nodded.

  Marcus and Karl still hadn’t returned and Doc had certainly come no closer to finding a way to protect Maggie, or neutralize Colin. With several new groups of individuals coming into Interchron, more Concealers were found. None had strength enough to fill the role in the prophecy, as Clay had done, but more meant they could Conceal Maggie on a rotating schedule as they’d done after Clay’s death, and they could do it with more efficiency. Still, it wasn’t a long-term solution, and between Colin still being at large and the vacant role on the team, Doc hadn’t thought it a good idea to bring Maggie back, yet. He wanted to hear from Marcus and Karl first.

  When the reconnaissance team brought him the sedated Arachniman, Doc knew what he’d have to do.

  “In the meantime,” he continued, “The only possibility I see for gaining information is through this man. If we can discover information that will help us when the team does come back together....” He sighed again. “I just need to feel like I’m doing something. Humor me a bit longer?”

  “Doc, you’ve been at this for days,” Joan said, getting to her feet. “Why don’t we head back to Interchron so you can get some sleep?”

  Doc considered it before shaking his head. “You don’t have to stay with me, Joan. You go back, get some rest, have dinner with Lila. I want to keep at it.”

  “This isn’t about me missing my daughter’s company, Doc. You need sleep. And food. You’re working yourself into the ground. And I am not leaving you alone here. What if you’re wrong and they do know you’re there? They could attack your mind and there wouldn’t be anyone to help you.”

  “Fair enough, but I heard these thoughts, this conversation, minutes ago. I must go back in and try to find it again, before it ends.”

  “Doc, if they put a barrier up to protect these thoughts, you may not be able to break through it. That may be the whole point.”

  “I have to try.” Doc sat down in his chair again, facing the unconscious Arachniman. “Even if I can’t find the conversation again, or anything vital, we could still glean valuable information about the collectives this way. We won’t have this spider-webbed gentleman at our disposal forever, so we should press our advantage while we can.”

  Joan smirked. “Gentleman?” Then she frowned. “Are you planning on letting him go?”

  “No, but eventually the collectives will notice he’s gone. I don’t know how they monitor such things, but at some point they’ll realize he’s missing. They’ll be able to tell he’s not dead, which will lead them to conclude he’s been captured. They’ll cut him off from the collective conscience, and we’ll lose our stream of information.”

  Joan nodded as he spoke. “So did you hear anything mundane that might help us?”

  “I honestly don’t know. There’s no way to tell how or if what I’ve heard can help us. For now, I’m cataloging information and trying to listen for more sinister things.”

  Joan raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “For example,” he went on, “they talked about honeybees.”

  “Honeybees?”

  “Yes. Apparently they raise hives of bees on some part of their living compound, and a storm came through yesterday and destroyed one branch. They all seemed quite upset about it. I don’t know why. It must be important. Perhaps collective drones have a sweet tooth and lack of honey will prove their ultimate downfall.”

  Doc hadn’t expected a laugh, but when he glanced at Joan, her brows deeply furrowed.

  “Something wrong?”

  “No, I...” she studied the floor, then their captive Arachniman. “I suppose not. I don’t remember hearing about any storms yesterday.”

  Doc shrugged. “There were none here, but the collective this man is tied to is hundreds of miles away.”

  Joan nodded. “Right.”

  Doc positioned himself in the most comfortable position the chair would allow, then closed his eyes and relaxed his limbs. “I’m going back in.”

  “Be careful, Doc. If you feel anything ominous, aggressive, or out of the ordinary at all, pull yourself back. We’ve lost one team member, others are absentee. The last thing we need is for you to accidentally destroy your mind. And despite what I said earlier, I would like to see my daughter before the week is out. Lila gets suspicious when I’m away from Interchron for days at a time. And since you aren’t allowing me to tell anyone what we’re doing...”

  “Surely you see the necessity of that?” Doc said, opening his eyes.

  “Yes, but I don’t like lying to her. So as soon as you’re too tired to put up a fight, I’m carrying you back to Interchron myself. Roger and Cailin can keep our friend here Concealed and sedated while you and I rest.”

  Ignoring that, Doc shut his eyes. He took a deep breath and found the stillness of mind and body he needed to proceed. With quiet determination, he began the arduous process of burrowing into the Arachniman’s mind.

  Chapter 10: Canyons and Memories

  THE WOODS FELT TENSE, as if waiting for something to happen. Squatting, Marcus rested his hand against a thick-trunked pine tree and cast his mind out. The forest hummed with millions of energies. Organisms of every size and designation pulsed with life around him. It seemed like a normal spring afternoon, but Marcus couldn’t shake the feeling that the energies were apprehensive, poised, wound like rubber bands about to be released.

  He’d long believed the energies making up the ether of the universe could give answers, but he didn’t know what this sensation meant. It would make a certain degree of sense if he were going to clash with Colin here, but Colin was still two miles ahead of them, and would be farther by the time Marcus and Karl caught up. So why did the forest in this area feel like a warning of something?

  Marcus dropped his hand. Still in his squat, he spun slowly on his toe to look back at Karl and Tenessa. They walked fifty yards behind him. Karl brought up the rear, staying close to the collectivist woman to make sure she didn’t try to escape and prodding her to keep pace with Marcus. Even from this distance Marcus could see she breathed deeply, but she’d had no trouble keeping up.

  Straightening his legs, he waited for them to catch up to him. As they neared, Tenessa glared at him, as she did every time he came within ten feet of her.

  “What is it?” Karl asked.

  “We’re only a couple of miles behind Colin. I’d like to quicken our pace. I think we can catch him before we lose the sun.”

  Karl nodded. “What’s the plan?”

  “We’ll have to sedate her—physically, I mean. Not just neurologically. We can’t risk her running off or trying to warn them.”

  Te
nessa glared harder.

  “I’m still Concealing us, and I think we can get close without detection. I’ll use my staff to wipe out all Colin’s henchmen.” He hefted the smooth, knobby, five-foot length of wood.

  “Do you think you can take Colin out that way?”

  “I doubt it,” Marcus admitted. “I’m willing to bet he’s got too much protection around himself for something so simple to work. But if I can get rid of the Arachnimen and Trepids he has with him, we’ll only have him to contend with.”

  Karl nodded, glancing at Tenessa. “Why don’t you give me the sedative? Once we’re close enough to be in ear-shot, I’ll use it. We can leave her under a bush and come back for her.”

  Marcus nodded and slid his pack off his shoulders to pull out a needle for Karl. As he did, he sensed Karl reach out with his mind to scan the area.

  “Hey Marcus. Do you know where we are?”

  “No. Where?” Marcus asked absently, digging through the pack.

  “No,” Karl murmured. “That can’t be right. I must be mistaken.” He turned on his toe, frowning, and stretched his mind out farther.

  Marcus found the sedative and looked up at to find Karl frowning. “What is it?”

  Karl’s troubled eyes followed his neurological progress in a circle around them. “I...No, I’m certain, now. How on earth...?”

  Marcus drew the strings of his pack tight and straightened his legs. “Karl, what’s wrong?”

  “We’re close to the route we took from Interchron to get to the island five months ago.”

  Marcus cast his mind out to the immediate area. Karl was right. They’d passed this area on their way to the island. He just hadn’t realized it before. He nodded. “You’re right. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Cast out in that direction, toward the exact path we followed. What do you feel?”

  Marcus obeyed. They’d come out of the flatter part of the forest and now traipsed across the lower slopes of a mountain, though it was still heavily treed. Nothing odd there. Marcus continued scanning outward, looking for what troubled Karl so.

  Then he found it.

  A huge, rocky canyon extended over the exact area the team traveled across five months ago. Marcus frowned, re-focused his mind, and scanned again, but he hadn’t been mistaken. The canyon was there, only a mile or so to the west of them.

  He swiveled toward Karl. “That wasn’t there before.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” They stood staring at one another, wide-eyed, for several moments, while Tenessa frowned, asking no questions.

  “But, how...?” Marcus asked.

  “I don’t know,” Karl said, eyes studying the ground as he focused on what he sensed. “Something must have happened. Something big.”

  “Like what?”

  Karl sighed. “I don’t know. Neurochemical activity, maybe?”

  “It would take a massive amount of energy, Karl. Don’t you think we’d have felt it?”

  Karl shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Marcus sighed. “All right, one problem at a time. Let’s go deal with Colin. We’ll come back and study the canyon when we’re done.” Karl nodded, taking the packaged syringe Marcus held out to him. “Stay close.”

  Marcus turned. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement. Miniscule—the shifting of a shadow among the trees—but he’d seen it. Probably an animal, but Marcus was nothing if not cautious.

  He peered into the foliage, scanning the land for life forms. He was not good at this. Healing and sweeping Offensive energy were his fortes. If Marcus actively searched for life forms, focusing on find their pulsing energy, he usually found them. Doc, on the other hand, could be trapped in a life-and-death duel and he’d still pick up the energy of a moth three miles away. That ability would be extremely helpful right now.

  After a moment, Karl glanced up. His body went rigid when he saw Marcus staring and he grasped Tenessa’s arm above the elbow. Marcus felt him cast his mind out into the forest as well.

  “What is it?”

  “Something moved.”

  After a moment, Karl shook his head. “I don’t sense anything. Could it have been an animal?”

  “Yes,” Marcus said, a prickling sensation running down his spine, “but we should sense that.” The oddity of what he sensed—or rather what he didn’t—struck him. “In fact,” he took a few steps backward, “I don’t sense anything at all.”

  His swept his eyes over the tract of forest on the flank of their route. Marcus turned fully to face it, now. For a stretch of twenty yards or more, he only sensed plant life and what organisms the soil held.

  “You don’t sense the trees or the dirt or the air?” Tenessa’s tone held scorn. It was the first time since they left the clearing where they’d found her that she’d spoken directly to him. Marcus ignored her. Even Karl looked at him quizzically.

  “Follow me, here,” Marcus said to Karl. He turned to look behind him and held out his hand, searching for the four-legged creature he’d sensed when he’d put his hand to the trunk of the tree. When he did, he pointed in its general direction with his outstretched hand. “Fox den.”

  Karl cast his mind out and Marcus felt him zero in on the fox’s location. Karl nodded to show he felt the animal’s presence.

  Marcus swung his arm slowly to the side, stopping to probe a tree behind Karl and Tenessa. High in the tree, bodies much smaller than the fox slept blissfully in small, hollowed-out crevices. “Chipmunks,” Marcus said.

  After a moment, Karl nodded. “Yes.”

  Marcus dropped his arm and turned around to probe the forest behind him, one hundred and eighty degrees from the chipmunk’s home. He couldn’t find anything on the forest floor, but sensed life above and after a moment lifted his arm to point into the dense branches of a fir tree. “Bird’s nest. Eggs nearly read to hatch.”

  He turned to find Karl nodding. Tenessa’s eyes searched the tree he’d pointed to. Because of the neurological sedative, she wouldn’t have been able to sense what he indicated. Marcus turned back to the stretch of forest on their right. “But in this stretch, there’s nothing. Only plant life.”

  “Does the separatist find it so strange?” Tenessa asked. For the first time she sounded genuinely curious, rather than angry. “Perhaps these trees are simply unsuitable. Animals are fastidious about where they make their homes.”

  Karl turned to stare at Tenessa, eyebrow raised and eyes calculating. Perhaps Tenessa knowing such a thing was odd. Marcus didn’t know. He remained focused on the forest in front of him to care.

  Tenessa saw Karl’s look and her expression grew chilly. “What?”

  “Nothing,” Karl muttered after a moment. “Marcus is right. I don’t sense anything toxic or manmade that would drive the animals away. The trees, as you say, may be unsuitable for a single species that simply didn’t prefer them, but not every type of animal in the forest. It’s odd.”

  “And I saw something move,” Marcus put in. “I know I—”

  The energy came at them so fast, out of clear blue sky, Marcus didn’t have time to react. It was directed at him, but Karl must have seen it coming. He threw Marcus to one side and he landed in a bush. A good thing, too, or Marcus would have been vaporized. The weaponized energy hit exactly where Marcus had been standing, sending dirt, tiny rocks, and other debris catapulting into the air.

  By shoving Marcus out of the way, Karl put himself close to the point of impact and the backlash knocked him off his feet.

  Marcus vaulted into action even before his weight fully rested in the bush. He lunged toward Tenessa, grabbed her arm and dragged her along behind him. Karl had nearly regained his feet. Marcus hauled him the rest of the way and together they dove behind a hollow, fallen log.

  “You all right?” he asked Karl.

  “Great,” Karl’s voice dripped sarcasm.

  “You fell hard.”

  “It’s okay. That jagged rock broke my fall. Who are they?” Wooden shrapnel, dirt, and pulv
erized plants sprayed the air around them as more energy soared in their direction.

  “They’re whoever was hiding in that stretch of woods, I imagine.”

  “But,” Karl sputtered, “why couldn’t we sense them?”

  “They were probably Concealed.”

  “We are Concealed. How did they find us?”

  “We think the real question is who found the separatists,” Tenessa muttered through gritted teeth.

  Marcus glanced at her, then exchanged glances with Karl. A well-aimed ball of energy hit the log they hid behind. The front half of it was pulverized. Marcus could taste the wood dust on his tongue. The back side remained, but large cracks appeared in it, inches from Marcus’s nose.

  “We have to move.”

  Karl took Tenessa’s elbow this time and they retreated deeper into the forest. Explosions of energy followed them, pock-marking the ground where their feet had just touched down. They took refuge behind two huge pine trees, standing so the trunks hid the length of their bodies.

  Karl kept Tenessa in front of him. Side by side they would have been partially visible to their attackers. He anchored her firmly against him with an arm around her waist. The other held both her wrists. She twisted and flailed, trying to break away from his grasp. Karl held her easily, as he would a squirming child.

  “What do you want to do?” he asked Marcus.

  “I don’t want to lash out at them. We don’t know if they’re actually our enemies.”

  Tenessa stopped struggling to stare at Marcus, looking both curious and appalled.

  “They’re attacking us, Marcus,” Karl said.

  “Stating the obvious, but thank you.”

  Karl glared at him.

  “You asked how these people found us, Karl. What if they didn’t? What if we stumbled on them?”

  Karl glanced in the direction the energy came from and Marcus could see the wheels turning in his head. “You think this is a group of individuals?”

  “I don’t know. It’s possible. We’re Concealed, so they wouldn’t have sensed us any more than we did them. Maybe they had to scurry to hide in that thicket, but I saw them. They don’t know us, don’t trust us. They’re terrified, trying to protect themselves. If they were standing right there the whole time, they heard us talking and knew we’d discovered their Concealment. They lashed out.”