The Other Side of Life (Book #1, Cyberpunk Elven Trilogy) (26 page)

“
It had a slight shimmer,
just now.” Anya shook the vial, and pieces of the diamond dust
inside swirled up, like the little particles in a snow
globe.

“
That’s missing the tree
root, and moonshine,” Nin noted. He held up the pendant Leticia had
passed to Anya, which glinted in the train lights overhead.
“Moonshine never fades.”

Nin pondered for a moment, then summed up
the reason for their journey to the Tree. “I believe we need to
find the redroot,” he said, “and the symbol.”

“
What if the symbol was
just…a design?” Anya asked. “We don’t know much about…the human
version of the parchment.”

Nin nodded. He considered for a few seconds,
before adding, “It’s Bloodstar that needs the elixir, not us.”

He didn’t know how he
knew—it was just what he felt needed to be done. ‘2, 1, 7’ was a
code of some sort. He was fixing the pieces in his mind—the
numbers, along with the Zodiac symbol and
o, i, l
lettering, which didn’t match
up in the two parchment versions.

“
How do you know?” Anya
asked, echoing his own thoughts.

Nin struggled to explain. “The tree…the
symbol…” He wanted to fit the pieces together—and felt he might be
able to discover how, once they got to the main site of the Tree of
Life.

“
You’ll figure it out.”
Anya had faith in his capabilities, as did the other members of the
Elven trio. Anya lay a hand over his, to show her care and support.
She quickly drew it back when Dresan and Tavia noticed.

Nin gathered the team. “The last time we
were there, the area surrounding the tree was cordoned off. There
are guards patrolling the perimeters, while the scientists”—he
paused for a moment—“or Xenith employees, are inside the compound.
They’ve tents set up.”

“
How many tents are there,
exactly?” Anya asked nervously. She’d help the elves if they needed
more backup, in terms of defense. But did she trust herself with
one of their plasma guns?

“
About ten or so,” Dresan
answered. “The scientists would go to the tree, take some
measurements, or samples, and then scuttle back into their tents. A
few of them were armed too.”

Dresan brought up a 3D map on the laptop,
which showed Xenith’s compound in the Amazon. Red dots were
scattered at various points around the broad chasm. When the map
zoomed out, a green circle in the middle denoted the Tree of
Life.

“
These were ‘safe zones’ we
recorded,” Nin explained to Anya, referring to the red dots he was
studying, “the last time we were there. These spots give us a
panoramic view of the compound, while keeping us safely hidden.
Guards are situated all around the perimeter…and are on constant
patrol.”

“
They don’t fall asleep on
duty too,” Dresan said in a daunting tone. “And have
more…sophisticated weapons, than the guards at the
Gilbreth.”

Anya gulped. She remembered the hulking
figure of the head guard, and it was far from a pleasant
memory.

“
Tell her about the stone,”
Tavia said, with a surreptitious grin.

Dresan rolled his eyes. “We were checking
the place out,” he began. “There were guards crawling all over the
place that day. I was being careful—”

“
So very careful…” Tavia
slurred.

“—
when I tripped over a
stone, so small I didn’t even see it. It got stuck in my shoe, so I
stopped to remove it. That’s all it was, the seemingly harmless
sound of a fingernail scratching out a dislodged stone. The next
thing I knew, three guards were coming over in our direction—they
looked intent on finding out the cause for the ‘disturbance,’ even
though the sound couldn’t have been louder than a twig
snapping.”

“
It was loud enough for
them,” Nin pointed out. He was a little surprised Dresan didn’t
mind relating the incident to Anya. Dresan considered it a major
error, much like Nin’s experience with tossing a brick into the
ventilator on The Gilbreth Institute’s rooftop.

The Elven trio was silent for a moment. All
three were thinking about that fateful day, when they were almost
discovered.

“
Do you know of Area 51, in
Nevada?” Tavia asked Anya, as she polished the handle of her
embellished pistol. “Way out in the secluded desert. Protected by
warning signs, guarded by sentries, helicopters…”

“
And now the compound’s
more…heavily guarded?” Anya second-guessed, inferring from the
elves’ sullen mood.

“
You’ll know when you see
it,” Nin replied bluntly. He was putting Anya in danger—and Leticia
too, in a way, as things turned out—but the elves needed all the
help they could get.

Nin had on a belt of bullets, and a row of
canisters on the inside of his coat. He passed Anya some fragrant
herbs, that were dark green and narrow-leaved. “So that your body
heat won’t be detected by Xenith’s infrared sensors,” he explained,
before attaching his own nightvision goggles.

Nin glanced down at the bottom edge of his
wrist device:

July
18
^th
,
2035 | 06:20:35

The break of dawn wasn’t too far away.

“
Anya…” Nin said,
delegating his instructions. “You hold on to the vials.” To Tavia
and Dresan, he said, “We’ll take down the guards from a vantage
point.”

Nin spent a few moments studying the 3D map,
before tapping his index finger on a red dot, at a forty-five
degree angle to the southwest of the compound. “This vantage
point,” he added, drafting out the entire route in his mind.

“
Not that one?” Anya
signalled to a point that was higher up on the map.

“
Too close,” Nin answered.
“That one’s just fifty feet from the compound. The one we’re
looking at is about a hundred and fifty.”

“
Railgun?” Tavia asked,
looking cheery. “I’m a little out of practice though.”

Nin nodded, then turned towards Anya
slightly, knowing she’d appreciate being filled in on the topic of
their conversation. “The railgun is a plasma gun setting for
long-range shooting. Snipers would love it.”

“
Thin as a line,” Dresan
added, drawing an imaginary line in front of him, from his chest
outwards. “The bullet’s an actual laser line.”

“
That doesn’t…kill them?”
Anya asked. She didn’t know what it was like to actually kill
someone, and wondered how she would feel if she did commit the
act.

Dresan shook his head. “Keeps them down for
twenty-four hours, wipes out their memory from the past
forty-eight.”

Anya nodded, impressed and relieved. She
really didn’t want to have anyone’s blood on her hands. She
imagined that she’d be carrying around the guilt for some time
thereafter, an emotional baggage she’d rather not have, ever.

The elves got their gear once the train
passed through the blue portal, and came to a stop. When they
stepped outdoors, Anya found they were surrounded by dense
rainforest. The air was hot, humid, and heavy—Anya could already
feel some strands of her hair sticking to the skin on the sides of
her neck and face. Even her breath seemed strained, a reflection of
the mounting danger she was engaging herself in.

“
Watch your step,” Nin
whispered to Anya, over his shoulder. She froze, looking down,
expecting to see venomous whipsnakes and tarantulas that called the
rainforest their home. What she saw were leaves, sticks, and
stones—and she remembered what Dresan had said about tripping over
a certain small stone.

Nin made his way to one of the trees in
front, while Dresan and Tavia crept towards the side, so that they
were in an inverted triangle formation. The elves were extremely
synchronized in their movements, even though it was dark and hard
to see. Anya stayed close to Nin, looking around in all directions,
out of fear someone might chance upon them unexpectedly.

Anya was filled with horror and repulsion,
when she saw the devastation before them. The clearing before the
elves, at a distance ahead, showcased the damage and destruction
inflicted upon the natural world. Dry, barren land and man-made
structures surrounded a tiny patch of green in the center. Apart
from the center, Anya would’ve thought she was looking upon a
ravine in the desert. Man had surrounded nature—and it was
forebodingly clear who was winning the battle. Now she knew why the
elves had worn such morose faces earlier, when Anya asked about the
compound.

The compound was the prime site of Xenith’s
excavations in the Amazon, though there were no visible indications
to the brand or company behind the compound. The fences and
signboards contained no logo or slogan that could be associated
with Xenith. The interior of the cordoned-off site was lit by a few
weak spotlights.

It took a while for Anya to catch sight of
the first guard, who blended so well into the near pitch-black
surroundings on the fringe of the compound. Once her eyes were
better adjusted to the dark, Anya could make out the pitched tents,
stationed like black pawns on a chess board.

A once majestic tree—the one Nin called the
Tree of Life—stood in the center of the clearing, half-lifeless, a
faded image of its former glory. Half of the tree seemed almost
like it had been uprooted already, while the other half clung on to
what it could of the earthen ground. The tree endured like a
steadfast soldier, who was being rendered powerless by Xenith’s
actions—limb by limb—mutilated in a war it had little chance of
winning. Anya watched as an ashen leaf broke off from a sallow
branch, and made its descent to the ground like a teardrop from a
bleeding heart. Anya could see how deep the roots went, due to the
mounds of earth from the excavations, and crater-like hollow in the
ground where half of the tree’s roots had been removed.

For reasons that mystified her, Anya felt an
ache in her heart. It was as if the tree was human, and crying out
for help, its branches like arms beckoning her. Anya’s thoughts
turned to her mother, to the people she knew and loved. Anya
couldn’t bear to keep her gaze on what remained of the Tree—she
felt as if it was her own heart and body that was being brutally
mangled. In that instant, she felt this was why Nin had asked for
her help. This was why she had turned into a thief—this was why she
and Leticia had met the elves—this was the moment when all the
pieces seemed to come together.

Only one question remained, which hung over
her heavily: would she be able to fulfill her role?

Dresan fired off the first shot, with the
railgun. Anya saw a flash of a violet beam of light slice through
the air. The point of light focused onto the head of a guard on
patrol, who fell to the ground instantaneously, without raising any
alarm.

“
Good shot,” Nin
whispered.

* * *

“
Did you see Nin’s face?”
Julius said to Leticia, once his private jet had landed. “He really
believes in all that garbage. That the tree sustains all forms of
life on the planet.” The very notion was ludicrous. He found it
hard to believe that Nin took the idea so seriously.

Julius’s Halo Intersceptor jeep was parked
nearby, which would take him and Leticia to the shipments of tree
roots on the compound. He stood by the jeep, looking up to the dark
sky, then gazed into the distance, thinking about the Latin
parchment. He held the blue box in one hand. Leticia hoped to high
heaven that his jeep wouldn’t start.

“
Let not the eye fool thee,
for there she stands…ever renewing the Earth,” Julius muttered the
lines of the poem. He turned to Leticia. “What do you make of
that?”

Leticia tried to match Julius’s sentiments,
to continue convincing him that she was thoroughly on his side. She
was finding it harder and harder to stay calm, each time he did so
much as to glance her way. “There’s the tree,” she said, putting a
hand out in front of her, in the general direction of the forest
before them. “Maybe ‘renewing the Earth’ refers to…oxygen
supply?”

Julius gave a laugh. “All trees give off
oxygen.”

“
Some trees are more
special than others.” Leticia adapted a famous line from George
Orwell’s
Animal Farm,
about some animals being “more equal” than others.

Julius was quiet. While he didn’t seem to
suspect anything amiss, Leticia still treaded carefully.

“
We actually tried to graft
it,” Julius mentioned. “It didn’t work.”

“
What happened?” Leticia
thought about it. “Did you try seeds from the tree’s fruit?” It was
a fig tree, from what she knew. Every tree had to grow from
something.

“
We did…we tried growing
one indoors.” Julius wore a downcast look. The experiment hadn’t
been a success. “Maybe Elven blood…” He trailed off, making a
mental note. Maybe that would get the seed to sprout.

“
You could have asked Nin,
if that would make a difference,” Leticia replied. Elven blood was
the last thing she wanted on Julius’s mind, especially since he
still believed he had the vials with him. “You were very nice to
him,” she added, to appeal to the side of Julius that wasn’t
related to cold, shrewd business.

“
Was I?” Julius breathed in
the air, as if trying to sniff out any mischief or mayhem. The blue
box, with non-Elven blood vials, was still lovingly carried in his
right hand. “I should’ve drawn some of his blood. Never know when
you might need it.”

“
Why didn’t you?” Leticia
asked sweetly, though inside, she kept asking herself how she could
have been in love with a man who treated life, whether it was human
or Elven, so dismissively. He had kept it hidden too well,
underneath the boy-next-door persona thoroughly immersed in
innocent, honorable acts, such as charity projects and religiously
attending church every week.