Terra Nova (The Variant Conspiracy Book 3) (14 page)

Chapter 19

The Nairobi hotel owned by Tarak’s friend proved a delightful oasis in our dismal journey. Free from the motion of the airporter, my equilibrium returned. The little voice in my head that kept promising me Compendium-free travel experiences told me I could enjoy the bright East African décor.

Open French doors on either side of the lobby allowed an equator-warmed breeze to sail lazily through the space. A giant slow-moving ceiling fan helped circulate the air giving the whole building a fresh atmosphere. Ebony and padded linen armchairs beckoned our weary bodies as we stood at the front desk. Palms rustled in the wind on the patio outside the wall of windows on our right.

Melissa and Josh claimed our six rooms quickly with our passport and disguise combinations still intact. We agreed to drop our bags and meet in the hotel bar at the far end of the building.

“Are you feeling any better?” said Jonah as soon as we entered our room.

I paused to review the now familiar sandy-haired man that stood in my boyfriend’s place. The only signs of concern I read were arched bushy eyebrows. “I’m fine. Now that we’re here, I’ll be okay. I’m more concerned with how we track down Ivan and Tatiana. I’ve been thinking about it, and I’d like to start by finding the plaza from my vision. We can ask for it by name, so I think we should get in a cab and start there.”

I started toward our door and Jonah followed me. I paused again and took in my reflection in the body-length mirror. I had long wavy red hair, gray yoga pants, and a mint-green scoop neck T-shirt. I had to admit it wasn’t a terrible ensemble.

Jonah put his hands on my shoulders and made eye contact with my reflection. “We should all go together. We can’t be sure how much backup Ivan has here in Nairobi. If he’s got a lab with a stash of Terra Nova and whatever gene therapy supplies he’s using on himself, there could be a large variant presence here.”

“You think it’s another Evonatura or Innoviro office?”

“Could be. Or it could be nothing more than a couple fridges and cupboards. What else can you tell me about what they were doing there?”

“All I saw was Ivan getting an injection and checking on a shelf full of steel canisters. There were no other staff and not much there, not that I saw anyway.”

“I’d love to pinpoint how your brain accesses information remotely. Why do you see some events and not others? When your brain goes hunting for a piece of information, it usually makes a connection. Sometimes that connection is a better answer, sometimes it’s not so telling. If we understand why, we could improve your results.”

“Now you sound like Ivan.” I pulled my wallet out of my bag and slipped back into my shoes.

“Don’t think of it that way. One of the reasons Ivan was able to gain so many variant followers is he can make a logical argument for advancing variant science. And in terms of artificially generated variations, who wouldn’t want to be stronger, more adaptable to a post-climate change world? Accelerating climate change is obviously unacceptable, but there are some nuggets of value in Ivan’s work.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that.” I rolled my eyes and left Jonah. He hastily caught up with me, locking our door behind us. I scanned the balcony walkway connecting our room to the stairwell back to the lobby. We were alone as far as I could see, but I felt uneasy.

“All I’m saying is that we should hang on to any and all research and development these corporations concocted. That way it wasn’t all for nothing. And maybe we can fulfill the promise they never intended to, Irina.”

“I’d like some wine. And you’re buying.”

We walked into the bar and I glanced around for our friends.

“Jambo! Karibu! Good Afternoon.” The bartender wiped the bar with a cloth.

“Two glasses of house red. The gentleman will pay.”

“Yes, Madame.” The bartender nodded as he poured our wine. “You are looking for friends?”

“We are. Have they come and gone already?” Jonah placed a few Kenyan Shilling notes on the counter.

“There is a group on the patio now, sir. I believe they’re part of the group you came in with.”

It struck me that the hotel probably saw frequent groups of safari-goers and student travelers. If my friends on the patio hadn’t concocted a cover story already, I knew what we’d say.

Jonah smiled at the bartender and took our drinks. He followed me through the patio doors. Light rain pattered on the tarp overhead making the foliage surrounding the patio even more tropical.

Josh, Melissa, Cole, and Gemma sat around a wicker and glass bistro table with their own glasses of wine.

“One of these days, we’re going to have to take a trip that isn’t about saving the world,” said Jonah.

“Speaking of our trip, I thought we could say we’re here to go on safari. If anyone asks,” I said.

“Sure, sure, sounds good.” Josh waved off my topic of conversation.

“Now that we’re here, where to?” Cole eyed me squarely.

“I’ve thought of that. We should start at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre. I’m sure all the cab drivers know where it is.”

“And if we find the supply of Terra Nova? What then?” Melissa asked.

Faith and Ilya joined us, both disheveled.

“I’ll burn it to ash, that’s what.” Faith decisively placed her glass on the table.

“Can we be sure the canisters here are the sum total of Ivan’s supply?” said Cole. He did not share Josh’s relaxed attitude.

“I’ll use one of the canisters to jog a vision. I’m getting better at pinpointing the information I need when I launch a vision.” I shot Jonah a wide-eyed stare meant to silence him.

“I’ve noticed you’re getting better. I’m sure we’ll get it all,” said Josh.

“What are we waiting for?” Melissa plunked a shilling coin on the table and rose to leave.

Jonah and I quickly finished our wine. The warm rush and my gurgling stomach gave me a moment of pause. I steadied myself and followed at the back of our pack.

“We can’t all fit.” Josh stood alongside a taxi sedan, the only one in the hotel’s parking lot.

“Who can stay behind?” said Cole.

“You don’t need me,” said Melissa.

“What if we need a quick exit? You could land us on the road outside this hotel in seconds,” I said.

“I’ll stay,” said Gemma.

“Me too. I’ll make sure she stays safe.” Jonah ignored Gemma’s offended huff and put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“Josh, we need your know-how. Cole, your strength, Ilya, your ears, Faith, your fire. We’ll have to squish and hope the driver doesn’t care.” I ushered everyone in and got in the front seat. Only I had seen the tower and could describe it if we got lost.

“The Kenyatta International Convention Centre please,” I said to our driver. He regarded me with a glass-eyed inquiry.

“It’s here in the city. Big plaza. Tall tower.” I pointed down for here, made a circle with my hand for plaza, and signed my best approximation of a long cylinder. Our driver held his blank stare for another moment, and then turned to face the road.

“Sawa sawa. Okay.” He put the car into gear and we pulled out of the hotel’s driveway.

The golden afternoon sun made Nairobi’s brick and plaster buildings warm and inviting. The barbed wire and razor wire topping every other fenced home suggested an alternate reality. Was it all necessary? Were criminals and militants around every corner? If they only knew the real danger lurking in this metropolis if we failed.

Our driver must not have been very confused. Only a few twists and turns through the hotel district produced the plaza from my vision. The tower was much taller in person. The courtyard was more expansive. We paid our driver and dismissed him.

“He’s close,” said Ilya shakily.

“Remember, that thing you hear is not actually our father,” I said firmly.

“I never really knew him, did I?”

I couldn’t think of an answer for my twin brother. We stood on the edge of the plaza looking around helplessly.

“So where is he? I mean, where is
it
?” said Josh.

“It’s coming from the tower. They must be there now.” Ilya observed the building with apprehension.

“Any chance they’ll recognize these faces? We don’t know where or how Evonatura got these passports,” said Cole.

“There’s no way to find out now.” Melissa glanced behind her uncertainly.

“Hang on! Nobody move!” I grabbed Josh’s sleeve as I saw the figures of Ivan and Tatiana exit the conference tower ahead.

Ivan carried a large black duffle bag. He and Tatiana cast furtive glances around before slipping into a silver sedan that had been waiting for them at the curb.

“Shit! That was it! They’ve got it!” said Cole.

“We need to follow them!” Melissa took a helpless step toward the car.

“And do what? Attack in broad daylight? We’ll spook them and they’ll release the virus.” Josh grabbed Melissa and pulled her back.

“We still don’t know how the virus is activated,” I said.

“Concentrate, Irina. Where are they going?” Ilya’s expectant face and panicked voice set me on edge.

I glanced around at my friends’ earnest expressions on strangers’ faces. I closed my eyes and willed my viewpoint to follow the silver sedan.

The black behind my eyes melted away and I saw Ivan and Tatiana parking on the edge of a giant slum. A patchwork of rusty tin and sun-bleached fiberglass rooftops stretched to the horizon.

They walked into a shack set apart from the rest. Ivan turned back, looked directly at me with red eyes full of malice and I felt a blast of wind push me backward. The scene went black.

I refused to let go. I kept my eyes closed, concentrating on getting back to the slum, to see what Ivan and Tatiana were trying desperately to hide.

The scene switched back on again, having taken a jump into the future. Somewhere on the outskirts of the slum, Tatiana walked along a ditch broadcasting seeds. Ivan followed behind pouring oil from a canister onto the seeds. He acted different somehow. I willed myself to get closer. It wasn’t Ivan helping Tatiana, it was Ilya! How could this be possible? The vision had to be wrong!

I concentrated hard to keep the scene moving in spite of my shock. I watched as my aunt and my brother exhausted their supplies and conferred for a moment. Tatiana gloated with pure satisfaction in her emerald eyes. She plunged her hands into the dirt and a long stream of plants sprouted up in the ditch. Tatiana concentrated as she moved her hands in the earth and the plants grew. Ilya beamed alongside her while he evaluated the blossoming ground. Tatiana retracted her hands and Ilya patted her on the shoulder as they walked away.

I watched as Tatiana’s sprouts shot up into shrubs. I looked up to see the sky flickering. Midday sun warmed and fell away until a deep blue turned to inky black overhead. Twilight broke and a long thick hedge stood where the ditch had been. Ilya shot a pulse of energy from each palm into the ground at the hedge’s roots.

Tiny buds throughout the wall of green suddenly bloomed into pearl flowers in unison, each releasing a single oil-slick rainbow bee. The bees flew up and over the hedge, down into the quilt of shacks where innocent people unknowingly waited to die.

Chapter 20

“I know how they’re going to release the virus! They’re at a slum somewhere outside the city. Tatiana will grow a giant hedge, pre-loaded with Terra Nova oil. Once the hedge is fully grown, they’ll use some kind of energy to force those little pearl flowers to bloom, and when they open, infected bees will swarm the slum.” I took a deep breath. “And you’re going to help them, Ilya.”

“What!”

“It’s what I saw. Check out my head and see for yourself.” Ilya studied me and searched, exploring behind my eyes into my soul. “It’ll never happen. I’d never do it!”

“The future isn’t written in stone, right?” Faith slid her hand into Ilya’s and clamped it tightly.

“Something happens between Ivan and Tatiana getting to the slum and Ilya helping launch the virus. Ivan pushed me out somehow. When I reconnected, it was suddenly Tatiana and Ilya instead. In my vision, Ilya had a variation like Ivan’s. He shot energy from his hands.”

“I can’t do that! It’s not possible!” said Ilya.

“Not yet.” Josh eyed us speculatively. “But, torture can change anyone’s mind.”

“There’s no way to know how much time passed between Ivan and Tatiana getting to their shack outside that slum and Ilya being on their side.”

“Stop saying that! I’d never join them!”

“Whatever happens to Ilya hasn’t happened yet. So we guard him. Between all of us, we can make sure he’s not on his own, not until we’ve got every last canister from Ivan.” Cole pointed to the ground as though our future remained in our hands.

“Melissa and I should get out to the slum.” Nausea swirled inside me again and I swallowed.

“The rest of us will be a human shell around Ilya. I won’t leave his side. Our combined abilities will rain down hell on anyone who comes near him.” Faith’s ferocity matched her brother’s.

“We should focus on getting Terra Nova away from them. If we break an earlier link in the chain, Irina’s vision will be moot,” said Ilya. He put his arm around Faith’s shoulder reassuring her as best he could.

“Once Irina and I find this place, I can bring everyone out through a portal. We’ll have our full fighting strength quickly.” Melissa sounded confident and I believed her.

“I’ll grab us a cab.” I ran to the edge of the plaza where a sky blue car with an unlit “Hire” light on top.

“Sir, hello, are you available,” I rapped on the window.

The driver rolled down the window. “Jambo! Where would you like to go?”

“This is going to sound strange. I’m not a tourist. I’m here with a non-profit. I need to get out to that huge slum outside the city.”

The driver’s smile evaporated. He frowned at me. “You mean Kibera. It is not a place to visit.”

“Yes, I understand that. As I said, I’m not a tourist. I know it’s not safe. I’m not sight-seeing.”

“I will not take you to Kibera. I will not be responsible for you if you go.” The driver rolled up his window and drove away.

I cast a quick glance back at my friends who had anxious expressions on their passport faces. I crossed the street to a white taxi which also waited for a fare. I made the same request and got a less courteous decline. In my peripheral vision, I saw Ilya approach.

“This is bullshit. We’re going to rent a car instead.” Ilya beckoned me back with a brisk wave.

Cole had already ducked into a strip mall on the other side of the plaza. Ilya and I returned to the group, but Cole was already on his way back. The stranger’s face he wore exuded rage.

“They won’t rent the car to me. I’ve got a passport that doesn’t match my driver’s license and credit card,” said Cole.

“I’ll try another cab,” I said.

“We could be at this all day. Let’s ask at the hotel. If Tarak’s friend isn’t a variant, he’s at least in the loop.” Melissa ducked behind a large orchid-covered shrubbery, opened a portal, and disappeared.

I followed her knowing that I would come out into Melissa’s hotel room. “So what exactly can we say to the manager, when we get him, that’ll convince him to take us out to Kibera? That’s what that skittish driver said the largest slum is called.”

Cole and Faith popped out of the portal behind me. Her arched eyebrows framed fretful eyes.

“There’s more than one?” Melissa cocked her head to the side with a blink of disbelief.

“More than one what?” Faith spat the words like an addict on the edge.

Ilya and Josh came through the portal and Melissa promptly closed it.

“More than one slum. The one in my vision was huge. It has to be Kibera, the one the cabbie mentioned.”

“We have to tell the hotel owner what’s at stake. He’ll help if he knows,” said Melissa.

“What if he doesn’t believe us? If he wants evidence, that’ll take time we don’t have,” said Cole.

“So we convince him we need to borrow his car for another reason.” Josh rubbed his cheek thoughtfully.

“And what reason would that be?” Ilya glared impatiently.

“I hate to say this, but maybe we need to steal a car,” I said.

“How do you suggest we quickly and quietly steal a car in the middle of Nairobi?” Cole’s tone bordered on sarcasm and I suppressed a snarky quip as a new idea hit me.

I ran out of Melissa’s door and whipped my head around to get my bearings. She was on the third floor. I ran to the stairwell, bounded down one floor and sped to mine and Jonah’s door.

My boyfriend and my sister were sitting out on the balcony playing cards. They looked at me with curious expressions.

I plunged my hand into my backpack and felt for the plastic bag Monsieur Bonne Nuit had given us. I flipped it out. Success! We had a handful of turbo melatonin-spiked Egyptian crackers ready and waiting to help us scoop a car.

I ran back up to Melissa’s room with Jonah and Gemma on my heels. I burst through Melissa’s door and flung my hand out gripping the plastic baggie.

“We’ve got the sleep crackers!” I exclaimed.

“Fat lot of good that’ll do. It takes too long for those to kick in,” said Faith.

“We’ll hire a tour van and say we want to go to the Rift Valley. I’ve seen a few posters for that in the lobby.” I gestured our route through the air, digging deep for convincing enthusiasm.

Faith picked up her tablet and started tapping away.

“This is a bad plan. In a stolen vehicle we could end up arrested,” said Jonah.

“Actually it’s not likely. Nairobi’s crime rate combined with the resources of their urban police force make it unlikely they would find us quickly, if at all,” said Josh.

“I found it!” said Faith. “Kibera is actually en-route to the Rift Valley. We could get a tour guide. Anybody with a van can take us out there. We’ll go out to a lookout or some kind of roadside stop, get him to eat the crackers and stall until he falls asleep. We’ll make sure it’s something like a food stand or a trinket trap so the guy’s not totally stranded. Then we’ll double back to the slum. From there Ilya can listen for Tatiana and Ivan.” Faith’s features finally relaxed with the start of a solution in sight.

“What if he doesn’t want to eat the crackers?” said Ilya.

“Then we’re screwed.” Faith rolled her eyes with a toss of her dreadlocks.

I pulled my backpack back on and marched out the door. I hopped down the stairwell and bounded into the lobby, nervous and afraid. I hoped the combination would come across as excitement in the eyes of the people at the front desk.

“Jambo!” said a young male clerk behind the counter.

“Can you recommend a tour operator to take my friends and me to the Rift Valley? We need someone to take us to a viewpoint.”

“Ah, yes, Rift Valley is very nice for pictures,” said the clerk.

“Yes, we’d really love to take some pictures.”

“You take Karibu Kab Tours?” said the clerk as he pointed at one of the posters I’d seen earlier.

“That would be perfect. Can I borrow your phone? Or can you send them?” I said.

“You sign up here. He takes groups of eight to ten. If you are not enough people in your group, you wait until more sign up,” said the clerk.

“I have eight people ready to go now. When will he let us know?”

“I call right now and he comes immediately.”

“Okay, that’s perfect.”

In fifteen minutes, I sensed a presence behind me and I turned around.

“Good afternoon, miss! You go to Rift Valley?” said a beaming man with a wide straw hat.

“Are you our driver?” I said optimistically. I sized him up in more detail. He was tallish and strong, but not so giant that we couldn’t affect his physiology. He signified comfortable professionalism in a linen shirt and crisp khaki shorts. I prayed he wasn’t so nicely dressed as to attract thieves or worse once we left him stranded overlooking the Valley.

“I have Karibu Kab Tours. You have group to go for a drive?” said the driver happily.

“You bet! I have eight people. When can we leave?” I said.

“You pay by credit card before we go?” The driver tilted his head hopefully.

“I can probably give you cash.”

The driver’s face brightened and he grinned broadly. “In that case, we go now if you like.”

I rounded everyone up and got us back down in the lobby in less than ten minutes. I wasn’t taking any chances on the Karibu Kab driver changing his mind.

He waited for us outside the lobby in a small white passenger van with a huge custom sunroof. It was exactly the sort of thing one would picture rumbling across a grassy African plain in pursuit of zebra and lion photos.

I counted out twenty-five thousand Kenyan Shillings while my friends climbed into the van. I didn’t have the heart to tell them we were almost at the end of our financial resources. We had bigger problems on our hands anyway. I took the front passenger seat next to our driver.

Once he re-counted his fee, we were off and bouncing our way through Nairobi traffic. The van’s suspension was designed for off-road driving. On the urban pavement which had seen better days, each crack and bump hit our tailbones. No one seemed to mind though. We were all preoccupied.

Then we rounded a corner and a sea of aluminum and fiberglass slabs stretched unevenly into the horizon. I let out an involuntary gasp.

“This is the Kibera slum,” said the driver with disgust in his voice.

“How many people live here?” I asked.

“Some say as many as a million. It is definitely in the hundreds of thousands. The area is large. It is a very bad place.”

Words left me as we drove on, letting the slum pass by. I felt overwhelmed by the images combining from my mind’s eye and the landscape in front of me. A city within a city packed full of people who lived in squalor and disease already. They probably thought life had already delivered the worst it had to offer. Little did they know what Ivan and Tatiana had planned for them—for everyone. I had to concentrate to keep breathing evenly and calmly.

We left Kibera behind and the road stretched into more dusty golden rolling hills. Outside the city, dry grass and shrubbery stretched around us. The air was warm, but not muggy. The sun was bright, but not too hot. In many ways, we could easily have been driving along a highway, back in California or Utah.

But then we would pass a small strip of huts and shacks selling produce and clothes alongside automotive service and it would be utterly different. Hand-painted signs in English and Swahili over stained cement storefronts were paired with fragile straw-capped wood huts.

While some facades were painted bright red, green, or yellow, some were dingy plain stucco or bare brick. European vans and pick-up trucks shared the road with donkey-powered carts and scooters. Many people were on foot, carrying plastic bags or baskets. We were far enough from the city that I could only guess where they had come from or where they were going.

Small trails headed off into the wild here and there. Everything on those dry red clay side roads kicked up a cloud of fine dust like smoke signals hinting at more civilization hidden on the plains.

After passing fits and starts of housing developments, a huge gulf of green yawned in front of us. Fluffy white clouds cast shadows over the lush grassy plain. The sky above was a perfect cerulean blue.

Tiny structures dotted the landscape connected by faint trails. Farm fields locked together like a patchwork quilt along the center, bordered by dense forest. It was all a stark contrast to the semi-arid desert territory we had driven through to get there.

“Welcome, my friends, to Kenya’s Rift Valley. You take many pictures. I will take you to buy souvenirs and food and art. You will have much fun.” Our driver clearly had a plan of attack when it came to making the most profit from his tour drives in the area.

I smiled at the change of pace he’d experience with his current passengers. Worry quickened my pulse. Our driver risked a glance at me as though he sensed my condition. I smiled uncomfortably.

“Are you feeling well, my friend?” The man’s features remained concerned as he returned his attention to the road.

“I’m well. Enough.”

“Good, good. This will be your favorite part of your trip, I promise. Relax. You are safe out here with Karibu Kab.”