Fall of Hades (26 page)

He took a sip. “How are you feeling about things?”

“I have to admit, it's weird having you here.”

“I was thinking the same thing. What Hatch would give to be in my shoes right now.”

“If Hatch were here, I'd electrocute him.”

“So would I. That is, if I could.” He took a bite of a croissant and chased it with more coffee. He looked at me, then said, “I'm worried for you.”

“I'm worried for all of us,” I said.

“Yes, appropriately. But I'm especially worried for you. In Hatch's mind you have become his prime nemesis. He believes that you're the final obstacle between him and his plans. He doesn't just want you dead; he wants you to pay for the humiliation you've caused him and the Elgen.”

“I'll keep that in mind,” I said.

“I wouldn't, if I were you. It might slow you down. The only way you'll ever be safe is to kill him. Keep
that
in mind.”

He went back to his meal as if I wasn't there.

Nice chat
, I thought. I got up and rejoined the others.

*  *  *

After everyone was done eating (except Ostin, who was technically never done eating at an all-you-can-eat buffet), we walked out to the front of the hotel to get taxis to the wildlife refuge. There were nine of us, as Abigail, Ian, and Nichelle had joined us, so we took two cars.

“What's the place called?” Ostin asked.

“Featherdale,” McKenna said. “It sounds cool.” She grabbed his arm. “I get to see a koala!”

Ostin was smiling, not because of the koala but because McKenna was holding his arm.

“Where's Zeus?” I asked Tessa.

Tessa pointed to the sky. “He's staying in. He and Jack are playing video games.”

“And Tanner?”

She shrugged. “Who knows?”

*  *  *

Featherdale Wildlife Park was forty minutes from the hotel and was worth the ride. The park was cool and the crowds were light, probably because of the rain. Australia not only has the most dangerous animals; it has some of the strangest ones. I mean, a platypus? It's like a failed cloning experiment.

At McKenna's insistence, our first stop was the koala sanctuary, where Taylor and McKenna got to hold a koala. Then we went to the crocodile feeding, followed by a visit to the kangaroos, wallabies, potoroos, and pademelons. I had never heard of the last two animals, but they were also marsupials and basically looked like rabbit- or hamster-size kangaroos.

There was also an animal called a quokka, which looked like a rat but walked like a kangaroo. The animal came from the island of Rottnest near Perth, which was so named because a Dutch explorer thought the animals were rats and called the island Rattennest—Dutch for “Rat's Nest”—which was later changed to Rottnest.

Next we went to the echidnas exhibit. I had never heard of them either, but they were pretty awesome. They looked like tiny anteaters with big snouts and spiky quills. They walked funny, sticking their legs straight out like alligators.

“Echidnas and platypuses are the only surviving mammals that still lay eggs,” Ostin said. “Echidna babies are called puggles.”

“I thought a puggle was a mix between a pug and a beagle,” Taylor said.

“That's just a designer dog thing,” Ostin said. “Echidna puggles came first.”

Peculiarly, even though there were at least fifty people at the echidnas exhibit, the animals pretty much ignored everyone but us. At one time I had six of the animals trying to crawl on me.

“Look,” Taylor said. “They like us.”

“That makes sense,” Ostin said. “Echidnas are monotremes, the only land mammals that have evolved electroreception. Platypuses and echidnas can see electric signals. You're drawing them like a moth to light.”

Ostin was most excited about the feeding of the Tasmanian devils. The only thing I knew about the Tasmanian devil was what I saw on the cartoons when I was little, but they truly are vicious little creatures. They not only have the strongest bite for their size of any living mammal, but they can take down animals four times their size. And they eat wombats, cube poop and all.

“I keep seeing this word ‘marsupial,'” Tessa said. “What does it mean?”

“It means they come from Mars,” Ostin said.

Tessa's eyes widened. “Really?”

“No. There is no life on Mars.”

Taylor and I looked at each other in surprise. “I think Ostin just told a joke,” she said.

*  *  *

The park was a nice reprieve from the dread I had been carrying around. The only time I felt jolted back to reality was while we were eating lunch at the café and McKenna said, “I want to take a koala home.”

“We're not going home,” Tessa said.

Everyone went quiet. After a moment Taylor said, “I am.”

*  *  *

Before going back to the hotel, we took the taxis a little farther to see the Blue Mountains—so called because of a peculiar blue haze in the air around them. Ostin told us that the mountains are covered by eucalyptus forests and the eucalyptus oil in the air causes the bluish-gray hue.

We got back to our hotel around seven. We ate dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant called Fortune Village, then headed back to the hotel.

“We girls are going window-shopping,” Taylor said.

“Do you want us to go with you?” I asked.

“Only if you really want to shop.”

I thought about it, then said, “I'd rather cut that little thing under my tongue with rusty scissors.”

“Me too,” Ostin said.

“Me three,” Ian said.

Taylor smiled. “I figured. See you back at the hotel.”

*  *  *

As Ian, Ostin, and I walked back to our rooms, Gervaso stopped us in the hallway.

“How was your day?” he asked. His voice and expression were somber. Something was clearly on his mind.

“It was good,” I said. “We went to the wildlife refuge.”

He slightly nodded. “I just talked to the pilots. The storm in the South Pacific has been downgraded again. We leave for Fiji tomorrow.”

“What time?” Ostin asked.

“Noon. Spread the word.” He turned and walked off.

“Noon it is,” I said.

T
he next morning, Ostin and I went down to breakfast together. Tanner, Jack, Zeus, Tessa, and Abigail were already there. Everyone looked tired.

“Good morning,” I said.

“Is it?” Tanner replied.

I ignored him.

“How was the park?” Zeus asked.

“Kangaroos and koalas,” I said. “What's not to like?”

“Did you know kangaroos can box?” Jack said. “I'd like to try boxing one. I hear they're pretty good.”

“It's cruel,” Abigail said.

“Boxing
is
cruel,” Jack replied. “That's the point.”

“I didn't know it had one,” Abigail said.

“Sounds like everyone's having grouchy flakes for breakfast,” Ostin said.

“No one's cheerful on death row,” Tanner said.

“I'm out of here,” I said.

Ostin and I walked over to the buffet tables. I got a stack of pancakes and some link sausage. While I was waiting for the chef to make me an omelet, Taylor walked up behind me.

“What's up with the cheer squad?” she asked.

“You talked to them, huh? They could use a cheerleader. Know any?”

“Not anymore. McKenna and I saved a table over there. Far away from the table of gloom.”

“I'll be right over,” I said.

*  *  *

By the time we finished eating, the rest of our group was in the restaurant, including Gervaso and Welch, who sat alone in a corner and spent more time talking than eating. I couldn't hear them, but their facial expressions seemed especially tense. When Gervaso stood, we all got up to leave.

Hardly anyone spoke as we took our bags out to the shuttles and drove to the airport. The weather had cleared up, with just a few scattered clouds, not that you could tell. We had brought our own storm cloud. Only McKenna seemed cheerful. I don't think she had rose-colored glasses; she just preferred being happy. I was grateful for that.

We boarded the plane at a quarter of twelve. Even Scott and Boyd, the pilots, seemed more sullen than usual, taking our luggage from us without the usual greetings. After we were airborne, Gervaso stood up at the front of the plane.

“Let me have your attention. We've had a few days of reprieve and anonymity. Those days are gone. From here on out we are on the battleground. My contact in Fiji informs me that the islands are crawling with Elgen, many of whom are not in uniform.

“Fiji is Tuvalu's front porch, so the Elgen are making a point of knowing who is playing in their yard. They will want to know who you are and what you are doing there. So take no chances and stay invisible. That means no wandering off. No being alone. Talk to no one. Under no circumstances are you to speak, type, or write the word ‘Elgen.' If someone asks you why you are there, you must assume they are informants.

“Our flight is four and a half hours. Tonight at dinner we will be meeting with my friend who will be sailing us into Tuvalu. He's taking a great risk in transporting us, both to his job
and
his life. I do not want him endangered any more than he has to be. His name is J.D. and, as I said back at the ranch, he took a bullet for me. I'd do the same for him. Don't make me.” He looked around the cabin. “All right, then. Captain Welch has asked to say a few words.”

Welch stood. “It's no surprise to any of you that I consider this a highly risky mission. I did not say
suicide
mission, but I do not suspect that we will all return. This is our Normandy beach. The Elgen do not expect us to make such a bold move. If they did, I would call it off immediately. I agree with Gervaso that it is our best chance to deal the Elgen a fatal blow.

“But make no mistake, this is like walking into a rattlesnake den with a machete. No matter how many snakes you kill, someone is still going to get bit.

“So you know, I will not be captured. For me—perhaps for all of us—being captured is the same as death, only one that Hatch can prolong and enjoy. So the only option for me is to fight to the death. I suggest you come to a similar conclusion. I hope it doesn't come to that.” With that, he sat down, leaving us all in a state of despair.

“If that was our pregame inspirational speech,” Jack said, “I can wait for halftime.”

*  *  *

The clouds inside the plane were thicker than those outside it. Then, in the midst of it all, Ostin turned encyclopedia on us again.

“Hey, it's time for facts about Fiji. Did you know”—I don't know why he asked that, as we never did—“Fiji has a population of almost a million people and is made up of 332 islands? About one-third of them are inhabited.

“The international date line runs through the Fiji island of Taveuni, so you can be in two days at the same time. Also, there's a red-and-white flower in Taveuni that blooms nowhere else in the world.”

“If I see it, I'll pick it and you can wear it in your hair,” I said to Taylor.

“It's probably protected,” Taylor said.

“Fijians used to be cannibals,” Ostin said. “People used to call the place the Cannibal Isles. The last guy they ate was a missionary named Thomas Baker. Natives said he was doing okay until he touched the chief on his head. That's a big ‘don't do' in Fiji. So they ate him.”

“The lesson I'm taking from this is don't touch anyone on the head,” Taylor said.

“So you can eat people, but you can't touch them on the head?” Jack said. “That's messed up.”

“
Crazy
messed up,” Tessa said. “So, Michael, they won't arrest you if you pick that flower; they'll eat you.”

“They don't eat people today,” Ostin said. “That was a long time ago. But they still sell cannibal forks.”

“What's a cannibal fork?”

“I think that's pretty self-evident,” Tanner said. “It's a fork for eating people.”

“Can we not talk about eating people?” Abigail said. “It sounds like something Hatch would do.”

“Don't give him ideas,” Nichelle said.

“Hatch doesn't need help coming up with evil ideas,” Tanner said. “He's a freaking evil idea factory.”

Ostin continued. “The cannibal fork, or as it's called in Fijian, the
ai cula ni bokola
, was used during ritual feasts by those considered by the tribe too holy to touch food, such as their chiefs and priests.

“One of the Fijian tribal chief's most important ceremonies was the eating of their tribe's enemy. Since the chief couldn't use their hands for this important ritual, they came up with a special fork. Forks became a way to show the chief's power. The fancier the fork, the more important the owner.”

“That's some freaky kind of status symbol,” Tessa said.