The Dark Shore (Atlanteans) (31 page)

We grabbed fried masa in the plaza and then Seven turned toward the pyramid.

“I thought we were going to the temple?” I asked.

“Mom said to meet at Tactical, first,” said Seven. “Something’s going down.”

“More Nomads?”

“Nope, something new.”

There was a crowd inside Tactical. We found Leech not far inside. Everyone was watching a central screen showing the Northern News Network. It showed grainy, sun-bleached footage of a massive, rotting tangle of city: concrete buildings, many in ruin, sticking up from rippling layers of metal-roofed shanties. On a street in the foreground, people in ragged clothes ran back and forth, most with dark skin, many holding guns. Writing across the bottom identified the location as North Lagos Prefect, Coke-Sahel.

Gunshots rang out. The handheld camera flipped and darted, and now a trio of black helicopters swept across the skyline and hovered over a distant city block.

Ropes dropped down from the copters, and then soldiers in gold visors.

“Bring up the other feed,” Victoria instructed from the center of the room.

The screen flicked. This footage showed angry protestors marching up a narrow, mangled street lined with tin homes. Sewage canals full of brown water ran down either side of the street, crossed by thin wooden bridges. The peoples’ faces were malnourished, skeletal, and yet behind them in the twilight, a giant Coke sign gleamed in proud neon.

They shouted in a myriad of languages, but all took care to point their fingers or weapons accusingly at the sky, jabbing at it as if to make sure the camera understood.

And I heard an English phrase among the chatter: “They will take him to the Ascending Stars!”

“The Ascending Stars!”

This video froze in place.

Victoria turned from her position, and all eyes naturally gravitated toward her.

“That’s all the footage we’ve been able to capture so far. We know that at seven a.m. local time, this EdenCorp team executed a raid in Coke-Sahel. It has been confirmed that one male is missing. Approximately sixteen years old.”

I remembered Paul’s report to the board. Something about a lead in Coke-Sahel that they were looking into. . . . Was it another potential test subject? But why would they need any more, when the Three were right here?

Arlo spoke up from a nearby gamma link console. “We’ve heard more from the Nomads. ACF forces have been mobilizing, and there are reports of fighting over the Atlantic coast near the Philadelphia marshes. Air-to-air combat, maybe the ACF intercepting the Eden team.”

“Well, at least that means the ACF might leave the Nomads alone for the moment,” said Victoria.

“What was Eden after?” I wondered aloud.

“We’re not sure,” said Victoria, “but it sounds like Paul has his hands tied with this. Now’s our chance, while he’s busy fighting the ACF and quelling rumors, to get you safely off on your journey without him knowing.”

“Do you want to move up the time line?” Arlo asked.

Victoria nodded. “Let’s reschedule the departure for dawn after Nueva Luna.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s our celebration of the new moon,” said Victoria. “It would make the most sense to leave at dawn the next morning. The Three should depart with the sun at their backs, marking a new day, a new age.” Victoria smiled. “That makes for the best theater, anyway.”

“I’m not sure we should be basing it on your sense of theater, Mother,” said Seven.

“It also gives us time to monitor Paul’s actions,” Victoria replied with an edge to her voice, “and to reprogram the drones to provide cover for you, lovely daughter.”

“When’s this Nueva Luna thing?” Leech asked quietly.

“Tomorrow night,” said Seven.

“Okay, everyone,” Victoria was saying, “I want as much detail as we can get about this Eden operation.” She started across the room toward us. “Also, I want departure plans drawn up. And we need to get on with our trip to the temple. We’ll meet out front in five minutes.”

OUTSIDE, WE JOINED UP WITH ARLO AND VICTORIA and four armed soldiers. Lilly was there, too.

“What’s she doing here?” Seven asked. She didn’t sound like she really minded, but it made Lilly’s eyes narrow. I wondered if she’d turn that angry gaze at me, but she didn’t look at me at all.

“Lilly has been to the Atlantean temple at EdenWest,” said Victoria. “I’d like every experienced pair of eyes along, to make sure we’ve learned everything there is to learn in there.”

We crossed the plaza and proceeded through the city, bystanders stopping to watch us pass.

I walked beside Seven. Lilly was a little way ahead with Leech. I could tell they were talking, and I wondered what about. Anything about yesterday? Or were they just chatting like friends. It almost seemed like they’d become closer than we were at this point.

Seven was quiet. She had her gold sunglasses on.

“So,” I said, “we’re going to see your skull.”

“Yep.”

“What has it told you?” I asked.

“Well,” said Seven, “I’ve only been down there one time, and it was brief. Mainly about that city in the ash, and about how there was this calamity, right? From the thing . . .”

“The Paintbrush of the Gods,” I said.

“Right. That’s about it so far. This time I figure I’ll get the goods about how to actually be a Medium.” She smiled. “I’d better, right? Before we ship off.”

“All right,” Victoria stopped the group. We’d reached a high gate with guard towers to either side. “I know we live bright here,” she said, producing a metal container from her shoulder bag and twisting off the top, “but this particular group cannot afford to get the panresistant malaria, so please cover yourselves in this.” She passed the jar around. Arlo circulated another.

“The mosquitoes are nasty out there,” said Seven. I watched her rub the slick-looking orange goop onto her neck, face, and ankles. She passed it to me and I did the same. It smelled like citrus and burned rubber, strong enough to make my nose tingle.

“Okay,” said Victoria. “Patrols have swept the area and we should be safe. Tactical has the drones on standby.” She turned to the tower beside the gate. “We’re ready.”

There was a series of metallic clicks, and the heavy metal door began to swing inward. Beyond it, a tire-track road led into thick jungle, all green leaves and blue-black shadows. I’d never seen so much tree life.

We stepped out beyond the threshold, and I caught a metallic smell and heard a buzzing din. There was a body hanging from the top of the door, the air around it thick with bugs. A multicolored bird was perched on its shoulder, pulling intently at a string of leathery flesh.

“I get that the bodies are warnings,” I said to Seven, “but to who?”

“There are some tribes of people out in the jungle,” said Seven, “some little settlements—and Mother would tell you that there’s always the danger that some larger force might come after our food supplies—but I think they’re mainly for the people inside. They make everybody feel safe, like it’s a reminder of our power.”

“Some of the followers believe it’s an honor,” said Victoria, overhearing us. “To have your flesh adorn a wall is to help keep your family safe after you’re gone.”

We walked in a close group. Unseen birds questioned and wondered in the trees, these beautiful looping notes with tiny chirps in between, like long queries and short answers. There was flapping in the wide leaves, shadows darting. A long-tailed bird, black with a jewel-blue belly, dropped down onto a broad leaf near me. It made me think of Eden, and I wondered if it had cameras in it, or mechanical wings, but then it left a splat of white droppings on the leaf and flew off.

Everybody was quiet. The air was stuffy, dense, daring us to speak. My sneakers were caked in the red soil. We began to climb a rise. The jeep track got steep, the ruts getting rocky. Blue sky appeared ahead, like we were about to reach a high point. We did. . . .

And there it was.

EdenSouth. Or what was left of it.

It sat on a wide flat expanse. The massive dome was streaked with soil red and burn black. Jungle crept up its sides, some vines reaching all the way to the top, where a giant hole gaped. The entire top of the dome, where the Eye would have been, was gone, and huge jagged fissures extended down one side.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” said Victoria. I didn’t know if she meant the size of the structure or the damage that she had apparently done to it. I remembered when I first saw EdenWest, how huge and fortresslike it had seemed. But EdenSouth was a ruin. It looked ancient, forgotten.

We followed the road down a long slope and onto the flats. The jungle was as thick as ever, but I began to notice geometric shapes in the shadows that glinted in the sun. Solar panels, like I’d seen in brilliant rings around EdenWest.

Victoria pointed to them. “We have to cut back the jungle almost weekly to keep them in operation. We only need about a third of the panels to power Desenna. Life is a lot simpler without a TruSky. Those things use tons of watts.”

We came to the wall of the dome. The road ended at what had once been a heavy set of double doors, but they were blown apart, lying twisted and tangled in jungle to either side. A simple gate made of metal bars had been placed over this entrance. It was locked with enormous chains and thick padlocks.

Arlo unlocked them. The gates creaked open and we entered. As we were passing through, Victoria stopped by the wall. “I wanted to show you this,” she said, calling us over.

We gathered as she pointed into the exposed cross section of the ten-meter-thick wall. “See here?” She pointed to a dark, solid-looking layer between what looked like some kind of foam insulation. “This inner layer is a lead composite.”

“For keeping out solar radiation,” said Leech.

“You would think. This has been on my mind since the news of the Eden raids on Cheyenne Depot. I always understood it to be for Rad protection, but after yesterday’s news, I have begun to wonder if it has a different purpose. This is the same material that is often used in fallout shelters and nuclear laboratories in the Northern Federation.”

“You think the uranium Eden stole is for weapons,” I said.

“I do.”

“But then what are they going to do . . .” said Seven, “nuke us?”

“Nuke everyone who’s outside the domes and who wouldn’t agree with their plan to set off the Paintbrush of the Gods.”

“Yeah, but then what?” I asked.

“Then wait it out. The domes will fail under the sun’s rays, but they are perfectly suited to survive a period of nuclear fallout, and the kind of cooling spike that the Paintbrush may cause. According to the geologic record, when the Atlanteans set off the Paintbrush, they caused catastrophic volcanic activity, followed by a miniature ice age. The domes would be the safest place to be for all of those scenarios. And when it was over, they would emerge as the lone rulers of the planet.”

“But the domes use solar energy for power,” said Leech.

“Actually,” said Victoria, “they have significant battery backups and natural gas generators. If power were rationed enough, it could last years.”

“That’s . . .” I started to say, but then I met Leech’s gaze. I looked to Lilly, but she wasn’t even with the group. She was a few paces away, staring off into EdenSouth. “That’s so very like Paul,” I said. “I mean, it’s crazy, but . . . he could do it.”

“But what about the selectees?” asked Leech. “We heard that Eden has an exodus plan for leaving the domes. To go to EdenHome.”

“I don’t know,” said Victoria, “EdenHome is a new development since I . . . resigned from their employment. Maybe it’s a back up plan, in case they don’t find the Paintbrush.”

I wondered about that. Paul’s report had made it sound like EdenHome was a definite part of the plan.

“So, if when we find the Paintbrush first, then what?” asked Leech. “Don’t activate it? Destroy it? Isn’t it still a chance for humanity to recover?”

“I don’t know that answer either,” said Victoria. “The teachings of Heliad-Seven would say that it would be wrong to set it off. It’s humans that need to change, not the earth.”

“Paul thinks we are the earth, or we’re all nature,” said Leech. “And so activating the Paintbrush is the ‘natural’ thing to do.”

“Yes, Paul would say that,” said Victoria. “Ultimately, all of this is older than my religion, and I am not one of the Three. The more I get to know you, the more I feel that you can be trusted to make that choice. It’s why you were chosen.” Then she glanced at Seven. “Well, I’m not sure I can trust you.”

Seven glared at her. “Thanks.”

We walked down a short tunnel and emerged into the dome. I expected something that looked like Camp Eden or the Preserve, but around us were the remains of the EdenSouth city. The buildings were largely intact, a crumbled wall here and there. Most were in gray shadows, but some glinted in the hazy white beams of sun that shone through the hole in the dome ceiling.