Island of the Sun (14 page)

He screwed the top back on his own flashlight, and the three of them searched the chamber for openings.
Before long, in a far corner, they found a second corridor like the one that had brought them there: carved out of the stone by something other than nature. Eleanor's mom was about to lead the way into it when Luke stopped her.

“Hang on,” he said, and jogged back toward the Concentrator.

“What's he doing?” Eleanor's mom asked.

Eleanor shrugged, and a minute or two later Luke returned, jangling some keys in his hand. “We need a way off this island,” he said. “Amaru's boat won't start without these.”

“Good thinking,” Eleanor's mom said, and then she entered the tunnel.

They had not walked far before the corridor curved to the right and slightly upward. It continued along that course, around and around, up and up. That seemed like a good sign to Eleanor. If the Concentrator was located under the island, as it seemed to have been, then they were now climbing up through it.

The air grew warmer as they went, and Eleanor thought about removing at least the outer rubber shell of her dry suit. But her mom said to leave it on, because they might still need it. The physical exertion of the climb sapped Eleanor's air, her gasping made worse by the weakness left by the Concentrator's silence, and
she wondered how long it would take for them to reach the end of wherever this tunnel was leading them.

A short distance on, Eleanor's mom stopped, bringing their climb to a halt. “Turn off your flashlights,” she said, switching off her own. Eleanor and Luke did the same, plunging them all into a moment of total darkness, but then Eleanor's eyes began to adjust, and she saw there was a very faint glow spilling down the walls and floor toward them.

“I think we're almost at the top,” her mom said.

They switched their flashlights back on and hurried up the remaining turns of the tunnel until they reached its end, where they met with a stone wall. Eleanor felt an initial flutter of panic.

“I don't understand,” her mom said. “Why go to all this work carving a path to the surface, and then leave it blocked?”

“Maybe it's not,” Eleanor said. “Turn off your flashlights again.”

They did, and Eleanor saw a thin thread of light outlining the edges of a door in the rock.

“I guess we push?” said Luke.

All three of them leaned against the stone, straining, over and over again, but no matter which direction they tried, it wouldn't budge. Eleanor used her flashlight to study the door and realized the stone sat in
a kind of channel, or track, that had been carved in the rock. On one side, down in the bottom corner of the door, she noticed a smaller rock lodged in a little notch.

“Stand back,” she said, and after her mom and Luke had backed up a couple of steps, she pulled the little rock out.

The door rolled slowly and ponderously along the track with a grating sound that raised chills along Eleanor's back. A spreading crack of light appeared, which grew wider and brighter by inches, until the opening was a few feet wide. Eleanor shielded her eyes against the blinding brightness until the view settled, and she looked out of the doorway toward the stone altar that they'd seen at the top of the island the day before.

“It's . . . the Titikala,” she said. “We're inside it!”

“Makes sense,” Luke said. “I suppose.”

They stepped through the opening, out into the sunlight, and Eleanor took a long, deep breath. Then she turned around and regarded the entrance. It was there under the outcropping she had seen the day before, but hidden. She smiled to herself, proud that her first hunch had proven correct.

“Fascinating,” her mom said. “Apparently, the
people who lived here incorporated the Concentrator into their religion.” Now that she and Eleanor and Luke were out of danger, it seemed her scientific mind had returned. “Perhaps they worshipped it. Maybe they even used it somehow. Von Albrecht has speculated that some ancient people may have made use of telluric energy.”

“Who is this von Albrecht you keep talking about?” Luke asked.

“A fringe scientist,” her mom said, “who until now was not taken seriously.”

“Bet he'd like to get a look at this. Have the last laugh. Where's he at now?”

“I have no idea. It's been years since anyone in the academic community has heard from him.”

“That's all very interesting,” Eleanor said. “But I think we should go find the others and get the heck out of here.”

After a last lingering glance at the Titikala, her mom nodded. “I agree.”

They crossed the plateau at the top of the hill and took the path down to the Chinkana, where they tried to retrace their steps through it as they had done before. At one point, a vista opened up through an archway, and Eleanor looked down over the terraces
of the labyrinth, all the way to the shoreline and pier below.

Amaru's boat was there. But there were other boats, too. Three of them. And even from that far away, Eleanor could read the G.E.T. logo painted on their sides.

“T
HEY'RE ALREADY HERE,” SHE WHISPERED.

Luke and Eleanor's mom followed her gaze down through the archway.

“That's not good,” Luke said.

“Where's Simon?” Eleanor's mom asked. “And the boys?”

“And Betty?” Luke said.

They were too far away to discern the identities of the people moving around on the dock and the shore. They could've been G.E.T. agents, or Finn and Julian, or even Watkins. But even at this distance Eleanor could see that some of them were getting into diving suits, and several of them were wading into the lake.
There wasn't any way Eleanor and the others could get to Amaru's boat now.

“What do we do?” she asked.

“We stay here in the labyrinth,” Eleanor's mom said. “We wait and we watch.”

“Let's find someplace more hidden, though,” Luke said. “They could spot us here with binoculars.”

They ducked down and moved deeper into the Chinkana, off the main path into the smaller chambers, but no hiding place they considered seemed secret or safe enough. If the G.E.T. decided to make a thorough search of the ruin, the agents would eventually find them. The G.E.T. had tracked them this far, after all, and Watkins knew they were somewhere on the island. Amaru's locator had made sure of that, and it seemed likely that Amaru had also been reporting back since meeting up with Eleanor and the others in Puno. The agents down on the shore knew this. It was only a matter of time.

“Psst,” someone said behind them.

Eleanor spun around. So did her mom, and Luke had his fists up, like a boxer.

It was Betty. “You're alive,” she whispered. “I was afraid you all had drowned.”

“Almost did,” Luke said.

“What happened?” Eleanor's mom asked. “Where—”

“Not here,” Betty whispered. “Come on.”

She led them back through the labyrinth toward one of its far corners. When they reached it, they found an alcove in the wall of an upper chamber that was much deeper than it first appeared, most of its length choked with shadow. Betty ushered them all in, and they found Finn crouching at the back end of it.

“Eleanor!” he whispered.

“Finn!” Eleanor's mom said. “Where's your father?”

“They have him!” Finn said. He was scared; Finn was never scared. “They caught Julian, too. They— Is that blood on your hands?”

“The G.E.T. has them, you mean?” Eleanor's mom asked, ignoring Finn's question.

“We managed to make it here,” Betty said. “Best spot I could find for us to hide. Doesn't look like much until you get close. We can see out, but they can't see in, unless they're right on us.”

Eleanor turned outward and saw she was right. The alcove afforded a view of most of the labyrinth, the docks, and a good length of the shoreline, but she realized the shadows would keep them obscured inside it. For now.

“Tell me what happened,” Eleanor's mom said.

“I don't know.” Betty sat down on a rock that jutted out from the wall a little farther from the rest. “After you
all went underwater, we waited on the dock. You were gone a long time, and we started to worry. Then Julian spotted some boats, heading right for us. Finn's dad said we should scatter and hide, to make it harder to catch us all. So he gave me the pack and I headed up here.”

“I went with Betty,” Finn said, “and Julian stayed with my dad.” Eleanor didn't know how to interpret the flat tone in his voice.

“The G.E.T. caught them pretty quick,” Betty continued. “They tried to hide in the rocks down below. We came up here, and we've been holed up since then.” She smiled at Eleanor. “It's good to see you, though. Where's Amaru?”

Eleanor looked down at the ground, where the gray funnel of a spiderweb made a dark hole in the cracks between the rocks. At the mention of Amaru's name, her ears filled with the sound of his groans, and her eyes with the fountain of blood from his chest. Tears were there, right behind those memories, but she didn't let them out.

Eleanor's mom looked at her hands. “He was working for Watkins.”

“It was an accident,” Luke said. “I was trying to get the gun away from him.”

“A gun?” Finn said. “So . . . he's dead? You shot him?”

“Yes,” Eleanor's mom said. “He betrayed us and
held a gun to Eleanor's head. We had no choice.”

“Watkins promised him protection if he helped the G.E.T.,” Eleanor said. “He was just trying to take care of his family, the only way he thought he could.”

The alcove fell silent after that, save the wind whistling past its opening. As Eleanor considered what Amaru had said, the world she thought she knew became confusing and disordered, as if its borders were changing on her. Amaru would have done anything for his wife and son. Skinner had sincerely believed he was serving a greater good, too, preserving some semblance of human life on the planet, even if he had to let billions of people die in order to do it. Eleanor was sure Watkins had his own reasons, and he probably felt equally justified in his actions. This wasn't about good versus evil, this was about survival, about the best way to do the most good for the most people. It wasn't a simple black-and-white question anymore. Perhaps it never had been.

“Did you find what you were looking for, at least?” Betty asked.

Eleanor nodded. “There was a Concentrator. I shut it down.”

Betty turned to Luke with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes,” he said. “I saw it this time. It's all true, every word.”

“Well, I'll be darned,” Betty said with a finality that seemed to have settled something for her.

“So, how're we going to rescue my dad?” Finn asked.

Eleanor's mom peered outside, down toward the docks. “Do we know where they are?”

“I think they've got them on one of the boats,” Betty said.

Eleanor had no idea how they could possibly free Julian and Dr. Powers. G.E.T. agents swarmed the beach and the dock, and though it was hard to count from here, there had to be at least thirty of them. At the moment, their activity centered on the divers in the water, and while that kept Eleanor and the others safe in the labyrinth, it made any plan to get Dr. Powers and Julian off the boat nearly impossible.

“What are we going to do, Mom?” she asked.

“Finn, I . . . ,” her mom started to say. Eleanor could hear the change in her voice and in that moment realized what she was thinking. But it was Luke who said it aloud.

“I don't think we can get 'em out.”

“What?” Finn said.

“It's too much of a risk,” Betty added.

“I'm sorry, Finn,” Eleanor's mom said.

“What are you saying?” Finn asked. Tears had
begun to flood his voice. “We're, what, just going to leave them with the G.E.T.? How can you do this?”

No one replied to him. Eleanor knew what the adults were thinking. They had only two options. The first was to try to free Dr. Powers and Julian, in which case they would all be caught and their mission would fail. The second was to escape and leave Dr. Powers and Julian behind.

“Kid, believe me,” Luke said. “If there was anything we could do to help them, I'd be the first to do it. But I know one thing. If we got you caught trying to jailbreak your dad, letting them get their hands on you and killing the mission, he'd be angry as a bear. With
us
.”

“He's right,” Eleanor's mom said. She was keeping her expression calm, but Eleanor could tell she was barely holding it together. “I know your dad, and he suspected something like this might happen. That's why he split you up to begin with when he saw those boats.”

“But we can't just leave them behind! Tell them, Eleanor!”

“Finn,” Eleanor began, “I . . .” She glanced down at her feet and then at the faces of the adults. The truth was that nearly every part of her wanted to disagree with them. But then she thought about how far they'd
come. They'd shut down two Concentrators already. They had a chance to finish this thing, to sever the connection and save the planet. She was certain of it.

But only if they didn't get caught.

Finn must have seen the change in her, and he fixed her with a glare that was in some ways as frightening as the gun Amaru had pointed at her. “You flew up to the freaking
Arctic
to find your mom.” Then he started toward the alcove entrance, as if he meant to leave and walk down to the boats. Luke reached for him, but Finn threw him off. “Don't touch me,” he said. “I can't believe you. Any of you. We're here because the G.E.T. doesn't care about losing most of the people on earth to this rogue planet, and we didn't want to accept that. But I guess everyone's got something they're willing to sacrifice for the mission.”

His words cut into Eleanor and left her speechless. She couldn't hold his gaze. It was Betty who walked over to Finn and put a hand on his arm, and he let her. “Before we take any big risks,” she said, “I think we should sit tight and wait to see what the G.E.T. does down there. All right?”

Everyone agreed that seemed best for the time being, and even Finn nodded. Eleanor doubted this was over, but she guessed that Finn knew it was pointless to argue anymore.

They settled down in the alcove and kept watch on the activity below. A few hours went by in that way, with little said between them. Divers came up and went down. One of the boats pulled away from the dock and around the bay in wide, lazy circles. They knew where Amaru's locator was, but they didn't know how to get down to it. It might be a long while before they found the entrance to the underwater cave. Meanwhile, the sun was descending toward the horizon.

“It's hard to know what we're up against,” Eleanor's mom finally said.

“What do you mean?” Betty asked.

“I'm just putting all the pieces together.” She stood and paced. “Skinner knew nothing about the Concentrator before he saw it. But it seems that Watkins has known about them for some time. He just didn't tell Skinner. But Watkins did tell Amaru about this one. He called it a Tree of Life.”

“I think Barrow changed the game,” Luke said. “Watkins was able to keep a lid on everything until you went and blew it open. Seems like he's gone on the offense now.”

“Maybe you're right,” Eleanor's mom said. “But how many Concentrators does Watkins know about?”

“How many do
we
know about?” Betty asked.

“The Sync is here in the pack,” Eleanor's mom said. “It has the map.”

But Eleanor remembered the image. “Two more, I think. One in Egypt, and one in the Himalayas.”

“We have to assume Watkins is searching for them too,” her mom said.

“Or maybe he's found them,” Luke said. “He's got the resources of the entire G.E.T. at his disposal. He could be searching for them all at the same time.”

If that was true, it would make shutting them down much more difficult.

Luke snapped his fingers. “We've got movement down there.”

Eleanor looked and saw the G.E.T. agents loading up their gear. The divers were leaving the water. White patches bloomed behind the boats as they started their motors.

“Are they leaving?” Betty asked.

“That's what it looks like,” Luke said.

A few moments later, with the shoreline cleared of equipment and agents, a single figure walked along the dock from one of the boats. He held something up before his face, and the squeal of a megaphone reached all the way up to the alcove.

“My name is Pierce Watkins!” the figure said, his voice amplified, echoing up through the Chinkana. “I
am acting CEO of the Global Energy Trust!”

“The old lizard himself,” Luke whispered.

“I don't know if you can hear me,” Watkins continued. “But if you can, I want to make two things very clear to you. The first is that you will shortly be marooned on this island. Tomorrow, we will return with sufficient numbers to find you, wherever you are hiding. I can assure you I am very good at finding things. The second is that I mean you no harm. We have not mistreated Dr. Powers or his son in any way.”

Eleanor sensed Finn tense up next to her.

“If you turn yourselves in,” Watkins continued, “I promise you will be dealt with fairly.”

“Dealt with?” Luke whispered. “Wonder what he means by that.”

“Now!” Watkins said. “I will wait sixty seconds for you to show yourselves and come down to the boats. If you do not, you have a cold night ahead of you, I'm afraid, and you will only be prolonging the inevitable.”

He lowered the megaphone and stood there, waiting.

Eleanor felt so nervous she lost track of the time. No one in the alcove breathed, it seemed, for what had to be much longer than a minute. After that endless interval had passed, Watkins spun on his heel without another word and boarded one of the boats. Then each G.E.T. craft pulled away from the dock in succession,
the last one towing Amaru's pontoon boat behind it, and together they plowed away across the lake toward Copacabana.

“He's right about one thing,” Betty said. “It's going to be a cold night.”

“We should have turned ourselves in,” Finn said.

“You don't believe that,” Eleanor said. “You could have shouted and given us away. But you didn't. You know this is the right decision. And you know it's what your dad would want.”

Finn said nothing.

“Well, we are truly good and marooned here,” Luke said. “They took Amaru's boat. And last time I checked, none of us can walk on water.”

But that gave Eleanor an idea. It was risky, and possibly even stupid, but she spoke up anyway. “Not
on
the water. But maybe under it.”

“What are you thinking, kid?” Luke asked.

“The tunnels,” Eleanor said. “We passed some down there after we came out of the water. Amaru mentioned they go for miles and miles.”