Island of the Sun (23 page)

Watkins led them to a conference room with a long table surrounded by high-backed chairs. “I'll have some breakfast brought in,” he said. “Please wait here.” And then he and Hobbes and the other two guards left.

Everyone was quiet at first, and then one by one
they took seats around the table and stared blankly across it at one another. It didn't matter anymore who was right and who was wrong. They were prisoners now. Prisoners were always wrong.

“What on earth were you thinking?” her mom nearly shouted. “Going off alone! Without me!”

Eleanor had known she would be angry. “I did what I had to do,” she said.

“And you!” Her mom pointed a finger at Luke. “What gives you the right to take my daughter—?”

“No right, ma'am,” Luke said. “But you know how your kid can be when she's made up her mind.”

“It wasn't his idea,” Eleanor said. “It was mine. If you're going to be angry at someone, be angry at me.”

“Oh, I am,” her mom said. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?”

“You don't need to worry. That's what I've been trying to tell you this whole time. But you won't listen to me.”

“Did you guys find it?” Betty whispered. It was the first thing Eleanor could remember her saying since they'd left the Valley of the Kings.

Eleanor assumed they were being listened to but also figured it didn't matter now. Nathifa would probably guess where they had gone, and even without her scanner, it wouldn't be hard for them to find their
way down to the Concentrator now that the only thing blocking the secret entrance was a conspicuous pile of rocks. “Yes,” she said. “I shut it down.”

Betty nodded, and there was a catch in her voice. “That's good.”

“Are you okay?” Eleanor asked her.

“Nope. But there's nothing to be done about it, is there?”

“No,” von Albrecht said. “There is nothing. We tried and we failed. But I, most of all, because it was I who trusted her.”

“So did we,” Eleanor's mom said. “And we, more than anyone else, should have learned our lesson by now.”

The door opened then, and Dr. Powers walked into the room, followed by Julian.

“Dad!” Finn shouted as he leaped to his feet.

“Finn,” Dr. Powers said, pulling his son into a tight hug that lasted for several moments, and when they parted, Julian grabbed Finn and hugged him too, pounding his back.

“I was afraid I'd never see you again, Finn,” he said.

“Me too,” Finn said. “I was so worried.”

“We're fine, son,” Dr. Powers said. “They've treated us fairly, from the moment they took us from the island.”

“I didn't want to leave you.” Finn reached an arm around Julian's shoulder. “But we had to.”

“You did the right thing,” Dr. Powers said. “I'm proud of you.”

There was something about Dr. Powers's tone that Eleanor found disconcerting. He had the measured hesitancy of someone with bad news they're just waiting for the right moment to share. But Finn didn't seem to notice anything amiss and beamed at his father.

The door opened again, and Watkins walked in. “Ah, I missed the reunion. But I trust you're all happy to see one another safe and sound?”

“Very happy,” Dr. Powers said. “Thank you again.”

“Good,” Watkins said. “Breakfast is on its way, but in the meantime, I thought we might resume our talks.”

“Do we have a choice?” Eleanor's mom asked.

“Sam,” Dr. Powers said, “a lot has changed. You need to hear Dr. Watkins out.”

“Dad,” Finn said, stepping away. “What're you—”

Dr. Powers pulled him close again. “Just listen, son.”

“I don't understand,” Eleanor's mom said. “Simon, don't tell me you—”

“Our plan was flawed,” Dr. Powers said. “Based on a false assumption.”

“But we've stopped them,” Eleanor said. “Three of them.”

Watkins bent his ear forward with the tip of his finger. “Excuse me, stopped them?”

Eleanor glowered at him. “The Concentrators.”

“Oh, my dear.” Watkins shook his head. “I'm sorry, but you didn't stop them. Well, not permanently.”

“What do you mean?” her mom asked.

“Your daughter turned them off, certainly. But what has been turned off can be turned back on. The Inca Tree has already resumed operation. We should be ready to harvest energy from it in a matter of weeks. We're still digging the Arctic Tree out from under the ice, but that is only a matter of time and persistence.”

He was lying. He had to be. The Concentrators weren't just turned off—they were dead. Eleanor had felt them die as she killed them.

“It's true, Sam,” Dr. Powers said. “Our plan was never going to work. Please. Listen to us.”

I
F WHAT
D
R.
P
OWERS AND
W
ATKINS HAD JUST SAID WAS
true, then she had no idea what it meant for her, for her mom, for Uncle Jack, for her friends. For the refugees—in Tucson, in Mexico City, in Cairo. For the entire earth.

“Might I have a word with Eleanor alone?” Watkins asked.

“Not a chance in hell,” Luke said.

“It's okay,” Eleanor said. “Really.” She supposed she should probably be frightened by the request, but she wasn't. Watkins, the man, didn't actually scare her. It was Watkins, the architect of the end of the world, who scared her.

“Why do you want her?” Eleanor's mom asked.

“I think she and I can come to a better understanding if we are able to talk freely.”

“She's a kid,” Betty said. “Why do you need to come to any understanding with her?”

“She knows the answer to that,” Watkins said, turning and eying her meaningfully. “Don't you, Eleanor?”

Eleanor got to her feet. “I'll be fine.”

Watkins opened the door for Eleanor as she came around the conference table. “Shall we, my dear?”

She stepped through, looking back over her shoulder at her mother as Watkins closed the door, and then followed him back through the office tent to the exit. A moment later she found herself outside, once again beneath the pyramids. Watkins looked up at them, shielding his eyes from the sun.

“Let's take a closer look, eh?” he said, and guided her through the tents of the G.E.T. encampment toward the largest of the structures, the Great Pyramid.

As they approached it, Eleanor could see just how enormous the stone blocks were from which it had been built, each of them over four feet tall, and the closer she got to the structure, the more massive and imposing it became.

“They estimate it contains over two million blocks,” Watkins said. “Placed one at a time, twelve stones an
hour, day and night, for twenty years.”

“It's unbelievable,” Eleanor said, and meant it, even when she compared it to Concentrators, and Amorak's tribe, and the mummies. “Can I climb it?”

“The Egyptian government would tell you no,” Watkins said. “But what does their opinion matter anymore? I've wanted to myself, to tell you the truth.”

Together, they mounted the first step and then climbed up onto the next, and the next. There were times when Eleanor couldn't find any foothold and had a very hard time pulling herself up. The angle of the pyramid's slope was quite steep, too, so that the higher she climbed, the more she feared falling. The wind that clawed up and down and back and forth across the stone didn't help. They had just reached a point high enough to look down over the entire camp when Watkins stopped.

“That's about it for this old man,” he said, and sat down. “We've really only just started.”

Eleanor couldn't even see the peak from where she stood. To even think of climbing the entire way utterly exhausted her. She still felt some of the lingering weakness from shutting down the Concentrator.

“I brought you up here for a reason,” Watkins said. “Do you know what that might be?”

“Not a clue,” she said.

He chuckled. “I wanted you to see what man can do. What we can achieve. What we can conquer. There is no limit to human ingenuity, and this pyramid is a monument to that.”

Eleanor shrugged. “Okay.”

“I know you and your mother believe it is dangerous to utilize the Trees. But I have faith in our dominion. We have mastered the air, the sea, the earth. We have mastered the interior of the atom, and the vastness of outer space. We will master this dark energy, too. But I need your help to do it.”

Eleanor couldn't help herself. She laughed. “You think I'm going to help you?”

“I do,” he said, and went reptilian again, cold and unknowable. “Because I know what you are.”

The laughter plummeted from Eleanor's voice, and for a surprised moment, words evaded her. “Wh— I don't— Who I am?”

“Not who,” he said. “
What
.”

Before last night, and her confrontation with the last Concentrator, his statement might have terrified her. But since she had embraced that part of her, whatever it was, she found she no longer needed so badly to understand it. The drive to do so had been motivated by fear, and she was no longer afraid.

“You know what I am?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Then what am I?”

“I will only tell you if you help me.”

“That's what this is about?” Eleanor said. “A bribe? That's all you got?”

“You—you do not want to know?”

“Of course I want to know,” Eleanor said. “But I don't
need
to know.” And she wasn't about to let Watkins think he had any kind of power over her.

He licked his lips and frowned. “I underestimated you. That is not a mistake I often make.”

Eleanor shrugged. “Guess you don't know me as well as you think you do.”

“But I don't think I've underestimated how much you love your uncle Jack.”

The quietly menacing way Watkins said it robbed Eleanor of what strength she still had, as if a wind could have stripped her from the pyramid's face. Was he threatening to hurt Uncle Jack? Had he already done so?

“What we won't do for the people we love, eh?” Watkins said.

“H-have you done something to him?”

“I've brought him here, to Egypt.”

Eleanor looked down at the encampment. “Uncle Jack is here?”

“Safe and sound.”

She felt a sudden elation but quickly suppressed it, angry that Watkins had found a way to get to her, and worried this was some kind of trap. He could easily be lying. “I want to see him.”

“You will. He is like you, you know.”

“What do you mean?”

“He shares your ability. Though it would seem yours is phenomenally strong.”

What was Watkins saying? That Uncle Jack could also connect with the Concentrators? “He can—?”

“Yes. It would seem the trait is most common in males. A recessive, X-linked gene, like color blindness. But every so often, a female does manifest it.”

Eleanor had always assumed, without really questioning it, that the ability had come from the Donor, her unknown father. But Watkins seemed to be suggesting it had come from her mom's side. If Uncle Jack had it, maybe that explained why she had always felt closer to him than she had to her own mom.

“I sensed it, you know.” Watkins took a deep breath through his nose, nostrils flaring. “All three times, I sensed it when you shut them down. A sudden weakness. With the last, I could barely move. I thought I might be dying. I'm sure your uncle Jack felt it as well, along with everyone else on the planet who has the trait.”

“How—?”

“We are connected to them. And I'm sure you've noticed, the weakness gets worse each time. What do you think will happen to you and the rest of us when you shut down the last one? What will happen to your uncle?”

Eleanor tried to speak, but her mouth had gone dry. She hadn't even considered that she might be affecting others, let alone Uncle Jack. And Watkins was right—the weakness was getting worse each time, and he seemed to be suggesting that she could be doing real harm to other people. But how many people, and what kind of harm? She wondered what would happen when she shut down the last Concentrator. How bad would the weakness get? Could people die? And how much of what Watkins was saying could she even trust?

“How do you know all this?” Eleanor asked.

“I already told you. I know what you are. And if you want to know more, you will assist me.” He got to his feet. “But now, it is time to return. I wouldn't want to concern your mother, and I'm sure you would both like to see your uncle Jack.”

He said nothing else as they scrambled back down, and by the time Eleanor's feet touched the sandy ground, her hands were scraped raw by the stone, and
her emotions had been scraped raw by what Watkins had just revealed. They returned to the same tent from which they had left, and Eleanor found that breakfast had arrived while she was gone. There was a big bowl of fruit, cheese, and a platter of breads, some of them sweet. Tension wound those at the table into a knot, and Eleanor could tell they'd just been arguing about something. But whatever it was didn't matter to her.

“Mom,” she said, “they have Uncle Jack here.”

Her mom tilted her head, as if she didn't believe she'd heard correctly. “What?”

“It is true,” Watkins said. “He should be here momentarily.”

Eleanor turned toward the door, putting aside her fear and uncertainty for the moment, focusing only on the joy. She bobbed a little, anticipating as the moments ticked by. He was here. Her uncle Jack, who'd always taken care of her, who cooked the best food on earth, who understood her better than anyone. And then she saw him through the Plexiglass, walking toward them, escorted by a guard.

“Uncle Jack!” Eleanor cried as he came into the room. She rushed him and threw her arms as far around his large frame as they would reach, which wasn't very far. His long arms completely enveloped her, and he smelled the same, like aftershave and a
hint of something baked, and she was crying.

“Ell Bell!” he said, kissing the top of her head.

“Jack!” Eleanor felt her mom's arms come around them both.

“Samantha,” Uncle Jack said. “I've been so worried about you both!”

Watkins cleared his throat. “I'll leave you to have your reunion. I'm sure there is much to discuss.” Then he turned and left the room.

Uncle Jack pulled away so he could look Eleanor in the eye. “Do you have any idea what you put me through, young lady? Running away like that?”

The last he'd known, Eleanor's mom was missing in the Arctic and Eleanor had gone to find her. “I know, I'm so sorry,” she said. “But I found her and . . . there is so much to tell you!”

“That's what I gather,” Uncle Jack said. “But that Watkins fellow hasn't told me much. The G.E.T. basically said you were both here and put me on a plane. What are you doing in Egypt? Who are these people?”

Eleanor looked at her mom, and then together they introduced everyone and gave a brief account of all that had happened, including the Concentrators and the rogue planet. Uncle Jack listened without reacting in any way, and when they were finished, he sat there for a long time without saying a word.

Finally he spoke, staring at the conference table. “What you're telling me sounds too incredible to—”

“But you believe us, don't you?” Eleanor said.

He looked over at her. “Of course I believe you. But more than that, I'm proud of you.”

That was exactly what Eleanor wanted and needed to hear, and she wanted to hug him all over again. That was what she had been missing. Someone who understood her.

“So what happens now?” he asked.

“Now?” Dr. Powers said. “Now we have a decision to make.”

“A decision you appear to have already made,” Eleanor's mom said, which seemed to be a reference to whatever she and the others had been arguing about before Eleanor came back from the pyramid.

“What are you talking about?” Eleanor asked.

“Well, let's see,” Finn said. “My dad has apparently signed on to the Preservation Protocol since I last saw him, and now he's trying to talk the rest of us into it.”

“What?” Eleanor said. “I can't believe this.”

“What did you think would happen when they caught us?” Julian said. “Look around. You think we have a choice?”

“I have a choice,” Luke said. “So do you. But I guess it's easier to pretend you don't.”

“What choice would that be?” Dr. Powers asked. “I have placed my sons in harm's way, and for what? All our efforts haven't changed a thing. Do you know of another way to stop the Concentrators? In addition to being a pilot, have you become an expert in telluric currents since I last saw you?”

Von Albrecht knew more about telluric currents than anyone there, but he had been silent for a long time. “What do you think about all this?” Eleanor asked him.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “I think I will not be a part of this Preservation Protocol. This is not the mark I want to make. It is wrong, and I would rather freeze out there than send someone else to die.”

“Amen,” Luke said.

“But we can change it,” Dr. Powers said. “From the inside. We can make it better—”

“Oh, come on,” Luke said. “Do you hear yourself? Do you know how naive that sounds?”

“Naive?” Dr. Powers said, raising his voice. “You think I'm naive?”

“Either that or you're not as smart as I thought you were,” Luke said, raising his.

“You better watch your tone!” Dr. Powers said.

“Or what?” Luke said.

Eleanor wanted to cover her ears to shut out the conflict. This was not how things were supposed to be. They had started out as a team, with a common purpose, and now they were fragmenting, and Eleanor straddled the fault lines. She understood what Luke and von Albrecht were saying, because that was how she felt, too. She had made a promise to Amaru to save his son, and she intended to keep it. But she didn't know how. She didn't know how to stop the Concentrators anymore, and she didn't know what effect that might have on others. She wasn't even worried about herself. But Uncle Jack was sitting there, and Eleanor didn't know how to tell anyone else about this. Her mom would see it as a confirmation of everything she'd feared.

Dr. Powers was still shouting. “I will not be threatened by some ignorant bush pilot!”

“Ignorant?” Luke yelled back.

“Shut up!” Finn shouted. “Just stop it, all of you!”