Rise of the Elgen (19 page)

“The punishment for disclosing a C10 secret is death by torture.”

“That is correct,” Hatch said. “If you understand, show me the salute.”

They all put their fingers to their temples again.

Hatch looked down for a moment, then removed his glasses, carefully folding them and sliding them into his jacket’s inner pocket. “I’m pleased to hear that you don’t like the board’s plans, because I have no intention of following them.

“Imagine, letting you go. You beautiful, powerful youths. Cast out as pearls among the swine of humanity. You, my eagles, are not to spend your lives pecking among the chickens. The chickens are for your amusement only.

“The board will not decide our fate.
We
, not them, are in charge.
We
, not them, carry the burden of history. Their rejection is not a surprise to me. I knew that the day would come when we would reach this impasse. Why? Because we have different motivations. Their motivation is profit. But our motivation, our cause, is nothing less than a new world.

“Those idiots on the board want to put a new coat of paint on the house. I say burn the house to the ground and rebuild it! No government but
our
government. No religion but
our
religion. No gods but
our
gods. We will tear down the human foundation brick by brick and construct our own.

“These chickens have lost their way. And we are going to lead them into a bright, new coop.” His eyes carefully studied the excited expressions of the youths. He spoke his next words very slowly and deliberately. “Are you with me?”

The youths cheered.

“The war has begun, my eagles. First the Elgen corporation, then the world. I have been preparing. We are going to Peru, not to shut down the compound, but to consolidate our power. Peru will be our headquarters for mounting our overthrow of the misguided corporation. You will be my war council, my generals, and my personal guard. Make no mistake, the stakes are high. If we lose, you are on your own, no money, no privilege, just a life of quiet desperation pecking out an existence with the rest of the chickens.”

Hatch looked around the cabin, judging the effect of his words by the terrified and indignant looks on their faces.

“But we are not going to lose. That is not your destiny. That is not my destiny. And the Elgen are just the first speed bump on our journey. After we have conquered them, we shall, one by one, overthrow nations. I have taught you from your childhoods that you were royalty. You shall soon see how right I am. But you are not just royalty. You will be royalty’s royalty. Kings will be your butlers and queens your maidservants. They will bow in your presence.

“Some of you are likely wondering how we are going to accomplish this. Our plan is perfect and already begun. We will take control of the world’s electricity. Electricity is the mother’s milk of civilization. When we control the electricity we will control communications, health care, and the production and distribution of food.

“If a country tries to take over our plants, we will shut down their businesses. We will shut down their communications. We will cripple their economies, and they will crawl back to us for help. And we will help them—but on our terms and at our price. If they do not surrender to us, we will threaten other countries’ power until they fight for us. And
they will
fight for us. Survival is always the first rule of politics.”

Quentin raised his hand.

“Yes?” Hatch said.

“How do we
make
electricity?”

Hatch smiled. “Except for Torstyn, none of you have been briefed on our Starxource project, even though you were, indirectly, a part of its development. Now is the time for you to know. How do we make electricity? The same way that you do. When we are in Peru you will have a full tour of the facility. Our Starxource plants use a renewable, bioelectric source of power production.

“We are currently opening Starxource plants at the rate of a new facility every two months. Soon we will have that down to one plant a month. Then two plants a months. Then a plant a week.

“Countries are already begging for us to come in with our power. Why wouldn’t they? We offer them clean power at a fraction of the cost. It’s practically free. No pollution, no economic strain. Those
who don’t turn to us will be at an economic disadvantage to those who do.

“Of course, this begs the question, why would we give away our electricity? Because we are like the drug dealer handing out free drugs on the schoolyard playground. Once the world is hooked, we will, of course, raise the prices and increase our demands until we own them.”

“We rule!” Bryan shouted.

Hatch smiled. “Yes, we will.”

Quentin raised his hand again. “Sir, how will we fight the Elgen? They have thousands of guards.”

“Which we will use to our advantage. In fact, we will soon be quadrupling our number of guards, all of whom will be trained by us in Peru. As for our current force, I have summoned all the guards from Elgen facilities around the world. In two days they will be arriving in Peru for a two-week rehabilitation conference. The board believes this conference is to train our forces for their new roles in the Starxource plants, which, ironically, is true—just not in the roles the board expects.

“Our Peruvian force is our largest and is completely loyal to us. Soon
all
the Elgen guards will be loyal to us. We will choose our leaders and purge the rest of the force. When we are done, we will control the security forces within each plant. Anyone who does not follow my orders will be punished. Any questions?”

Suddenly the plane took a huge dip, knocking Hatch to the ground. Several of the teens screamed. An alarm began beeping and oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.

“What’s happening?” Hatch shouted to the pilots. There was no answer. Hatch crawled to the cockpit and pulled open the door. “What’s happening?”

“We don’t know,” the copilot shouted. “We’ve lost power. Everything just went . . .”

Hatch didn’t wait for him to finish. He rushed to the fuselage, shouting to the guard. “Pull the screen!”

The guard, who was still belted in his chair, reached back and
pulled the screen. Tanner was awake, his dark blue eyes looking at them.

“Shoot him!” Hatch shouted to the guard.

The guard didn’t move. He just stared, as if frozen.

“Shoot him before he kills us all. Now!”

The guard still hesitated.

Suddenly Tanner started screaming. “I’ll stop! I’ll stop!”

Hatch looked over to see Torstyn, his lip curled in anger, his hand extended toward Tanner. Then the guard hit Tanner over the head with his pistol, knocking him out.

The jet dropped again, then leveled out. Kylee and Bryan both threw up. It took several minutes for everyone to settle. After the plane was back on course the captain’s voice came over the PA system. “Sorry for the turbulence, everyone. We should be fine now.”

Hatch stood again, composing himself. “Well done, Torstyn,” he said. “A round of applause for Torstyn, who just saved all of our lives.”

Everyone clapped, even Quentin.

“You will be handsomely rewarded when we arrive in Peru.”

“Thank you, sir,” Torstyn said.

Hatch pointed at the psychiatrist. “You.”

Dr. Jung was pale with fear.

“Sedate the boy until anesthetic flows from his tear ducts.” Hatch’s eyes narrowed. “Do not let him wake again until we’re on the ground. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir. He won’t. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“I should hope not. If he wakes again, I’ll have both of you thrown out of the airplane. Are we clear on this?”

The doctor blanched. “Yes, sir. Very clear.”

“Close the screen,” he said to the guard.

“Yes, sir,” the guard said, pulling the screen around the pair.

“We’ll deal with your insubordination after we land.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hatch looked back at the youths. “Where were we?”

T
he plane landed in Rio de Janeiro to refuel, then quickly took off again, finally touching down at a small airfield near the Elgen’s Peruvian compound, in the town of Puerto Maldonado.

The asphalt runway was surrounded by walls of trees that spilled outward from the burgeoning forest. The jet taxied to a small hangar where a contingency of Elgen guards and a bus were waiting to transport the group to the compound.

The plane stopped and a stairway unfolded from its side. A guard climbed to the top of the stairs and knocked on the door.

Bryan was the first one out, followed by the rest of the youths.

“Whoa,” Bryan said. “It’s hot. Like a furnace hot.”

“And humid,” Tara added. “My hair is going to be frizzy.”

Torstyn rolled his eyes. “This is nothing. Wait until summer.”

A moment later the guard walked out, followed by Hatch. The
six Peruvian guards at the bottom of the stairs saluted Hatch as he emerged from the plane and descended the stairway. Hatch stopped at the bottom and returned the Elgen salute.

“Captain Figueroa,” he said.

“Yes, sir!”

He pointed to the guard from the plane, who was not standing at attention. “This man disobeyed a direct order. His inaction nearly cost us our lives. Put him under arrest.”

“Yes, sir,” the captain snapped. “Guards at attention.”

The Peruvian soldiers pointed their guns at the lone guard, who, in spite of his many years with the Elgen, was still caught off guard. He looked on in horror.

The captain stepped forward with his gun drawn, his other hand out. “Guard 247, surrender your gun. Slowly and by the barrel.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, his voice trembling. He slowly removed his gun from its holster and, holding it by its barrel, handed it to the captain.

“Put your hands behind your back. Now!”

He quickly obeyed.

“Secure this man,” the captain barked.

“Sir, yes, sir.” One of the soldiers ran up behind the guard and handcuffed the man’s hands behind his back, fastening the metal belt through a buckle in the back of the guard’s uniform.

The captain turned to Hatch. “Prisoner is secured. What are your orders, sir?”

Hatch scowled at the handcuffed guard. “Captain Figueroa, detain this man for now in maximum security. For the benefit of the visiting guards we’re going to make an example of him. We’re going to put him in the chute.”

The condemned guard’s face turned pale. “No, please, sir. Not that. I beg you!” He fell to his knees, bowing his head to Hatch’s feet. “Please, sir. Anything but that! Shoot me. Please, shoot me.”

Hatch sneered. “Show some dignity, man.” He kicked the guard away from him. “Captain, keep him alive until I give you further instructions.”

“No!” the man screamed. He tried to get to his feet to run, but he was knocked down before he could stand.

The teens watched the exchange with amusement.

“What a wimp,” Torstyn said.

“What’s the chute?” Tara asked.

“It’s where they feed the rats,” Torstyn said.

“What rats?”

He looked at her with a snide grin. “They really don’t tell you much, do they?”

Several guards carried Tanner’s gurney from the plane, escorted by Dr. Jung.

“Let’s go,” Hatch said to the captain. “Captain Figueroa.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Also detain Tanner and the doctor in maximum security until further notice.”

The doctor turned white. “But, Dr. Hatch—”

“Don’t speak to me,” he said. “Or I’ll send you to the chute as well.”

The doctor froze.

“To the bus, please,” Hatch said to the teens.

Tara said to Torstyn, “They’re going to feed him to rats?”

“Yeah. It’s a cool thing to watch.”

“You’ve seen this before?” Quentin asked.

“Of course. Hundreds of times. Feeding time is better than the movies. I’ve seen the rats strip the meat off a two-thousand-pound bull in less than a minute.”

“Awesome,” Bryan said.

“Yeah, this guy will be a snack for them.”

As Hatch and the kids approached the bus, a man wearing a white jacket and Panama hat, holding a spider monkey, walked up to Torstyn. “Here is your
mono
, Señor Torstyn.”

“Hey, Arana,” Torstyn said, taking his pet. He put the monkey on his shoulder, and it climbed up onto his head.

“Cute,” Tara said, reaching out her hand.

“Yeah, wait until she bites you,” Torstyn said.

Tara quickly pulled her hand back, and Torstyn laughed. Suddenly the monkey began screeching, then jumped off Torstyn’s head and ran off toward the jungle.

“Arana!” he shouted after it. When it had disappeared into the jungle he turned back to Tara. “What did you do?”

Tara just smiled. “Nothing. You think I can get in an animal’s head?”

“Yes,” he said.

Quentin grinned. “Bad news for you, Torstyn. You thought you were safe.”

Torstyn glared at both of them. “That was my pet,” he said, turning away from them.

Quentin laughed. “We’re definitely going to have fun in the jungle.”