Isle of Man (The Park Service Trilogy #2) (22 page)

CHAPTER 23
What Have You Done?

“The fools went willingly to the sharks?”

“To appease their gods and protect the island,” I answer.

“Nothing surprises me about people,” the professor says, shaking his head. “I’ve been on this crazy Earth too long.”

“I’m just glad you heard Jimmy’s signal and surfaced.”

“Yes,” he replies. “As luck would have it, I had just woken from a dead sleep.”

“You really had no idea that Radcliffe had a son?”

The professor shakes his head.

“Of course, I didn’t. But he always was a secretive man. I’m not surprised.”

When we leave the Irish Sea and are once again in the deep Atlantic, the professor brings us down to a comfortable depth and sets our course for home. After our week on the island, I feel cramped and claustrophobic on the submarine. I wander around, looking for something to distract me, since I no longer have my reading slate. I open the submarine’s specimen freezer and look at the hand, both fascinated and sickened by what’s inside the plaster mold. I can’t imagine hacking off my own hand. But I’m grateful for Finn’s sacrifice.

“Hungry?” Jimmy asks, appearing in the doorway.

I shut the freezer.

“Sure. Let’s see what odd mix of spices you’ve cooked up this time?”

A strange depression settles over our journey. All three of us make half-hearted attempts at conversation with each other, but nothing seems to stick. The professor focusses on getting us home, constantly monitoring our speed and depth, taking short naps at the controls but never really sleeping. Without Junior around to keep him company, Jimmy spends hours in his bunk bouncing the ball that Finn gave him against the wall. I know he already misses the island and the excitement of the games. And Bree, too. Although, I’m sure he misses Junior the most. I begin to feel bad for having pressured him to come back with me. And I have plenty of time to feel bad because the painful scabs on my chest keep me awake at night.

In the middle of the second night, I stretch the wrong way in my bunk, and the scabs crack and ooze blood. I get up and take a warm shower to loosen them. It helps, although I have to grit my teeth to suffer the stinging pain. After my shower, I stand in front of the tiny bathroom mirror and look at my chest and the permanent reminder of how close I came to death. Not to mention a symbol of how I’m connected to this mess.

I remember when I first met Jimmy’s family, that night around their campfire when he convinced them to take me in. He told me about the Park Service for the first time that night. And I remember when I asked him who the Park Service was, he said that they were me because their crest was on my zipsuit. And now I’ve got that same emblem carved on my chest.

The afternoon of our third day at sea, I ask the professor to surface so I can go topside and breathe some fresh air.

“Better to stay submerged,” he says.

“Come on,” I beg. “Please. Just for a couple of hours.”

He shakes his head.

“I said no.”

I’m not happy with his answer, so I enlist Jimmy’s help to persuade him. We sit in the control room, throwing Jimmy’s ball back and forth over the professor’s head, while loudly talking about how great it would be to go outside. He finally relents and blows the water from the ballasts, bringing us up. We open the hatch and climb out into the fresh air and blue sky of late afternoon.

“This is more like it,” I say.

We sit across from one another on the deck and bounce the ball back and forth, playing catch. A cool breeze tickles my hair; the sun warms my cheeks. A long time passes without a word between us, just the sound of the bouncing ball and the water sliding by. As the sun drops toward the horizon, it looks like an orange halo around Jimmy’s head.

“I can hardly see the ball with that sun in my eyes.”

“Here we jus’ started playin’,” Jimmy says, “and yer makin’ excuses already.”

“Very funny,” I say. “How’s your leg?”

He looks at the bandage on his ankle.

“Gettin’ better.”

“Not the shark bite,” I correct. “I meant your scar there on your thigh. Where I hit you with the ball.”

“It’s all right,” he says. “It still aches a little.”

“I’m really sorry.”

“Sorry? Ya done it to save my life. And I’m glad for it, too. But jus’ so ya know, you never coulda beat me playin’ fair.”

“Oh, you don’t think so?”

“I know so,” he says, laughing. “Plus, you was fresh.”

“If you say so,” I laugh. A few bounces later, I add: “Maybe we can build a court when we get back and have a little re-match.”

“Maybe we will,” Jimmy says, bouncing the ball back.

The sun finally gives up the sky and drops into the ocean. Jimmy sits silhouetted against it, reminding me of the first time I saw him crouched on that coral rock. We’ve been through a lot together. More than a lot. We’ve seen our parents die. We’ve nearly died ourselves. We’ve burned Eden, overthrown Dr. Radcliffe, and travelled across the sea to solve a mystery. All we have left to do now is get back and stop the drones and free my people. Then it’s nothing but peaceful days ahead.

Jimmy must be thinking the same thing, because he asks: “What are ya gonna do when we get back?”

“Get that encryption key and stop the drones.”

“I meant after that,” he says.

“Well, I haven’t thought about it much, really. I guess once my people are free, they can figure out what to do.”

“But are you gonna stay on, at the lake or wherever?”

“What are you going to do?” I ask, answering his question with a question.

“I’d like to go find somewhere peaceful in the woods,” he says. “Some place quiet to make a home, ya know? There’s lots of land out there, and a man could make an easy livin’ if there ain’t no drones to worry about no more.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah,” he says. “I jus’ wish I had Junior to share it with. But I think he finally found his home on the island.”

“He sure did think he was a deerhound, didn’t he?”

Jimmy laughs.

“It was somethin’, him keepin’ up with ’em on that hunt. I ain’t too manly to say I miss him already. It was nice always havin’ him around for company.”

“Maybe I’ll come keep you company instead?”

“Come where?” he asks.

“Your home in the woods,” I say. “If I’m invited—?”

“What about Hannah?”

“I don’t know,” I sigh, bouncing the ball back. “I’ve sure got some things to sort out with her.”

“Maybe cut her a slack,” he suggests.

“Yeah, maybe. As long as she has that serum for you.”

Jimmy nods, but doesn’t say anything. We bounce the ball for a while without talking. The last crescent of orange sun slips beneath the waves, and the cloudless western sky holds little of its light. Jimmy and the ball fade to just shadows.

“We better quit before your ball goes overboard.”

“Okay,” Jimmy says. “but let’s not go in jus’ yet. It’s nice out here. I feel good for the first time in a long time.”

“Me too,” I say. “I feel happy.”

We lie on our backs and watch the stars appear as the sky fades from blue toward black. I guess they’re always there, the stars, burning in timeless space. It’s just that you can’t see them when something brighter gets in the way. It’s peaceful lying next to Jimmy—the smell of cool saltwater air, the splash of the submarine cutting through the gentle waves. I think about how lucky I am to have met Jimmy and to have him as my friend. I’ll never know how, of all the places in this world I might have ended up, I ended up with him. It reminds me of something the professor said about a cosmic destiny playing out again and again. If that means I get to lie here like this for all time, looking up at the stars with my best friend, then count me in. Then. Now. Forever.

A burst of white light flashes in the sky.

Light so bright that I shut my eyes to protect them and can see the red blood vessels in my eyelids.

When the initial flash fades, we both bolt upright and look toward the northeast, where a fireball glows on the horizon. I’d almost think it was the sunrise if the sun hadn’t just set in the west. The fireball slowly burns out, as if being extinguished by the waves, but the eastern sky glows with an aurora of orange light that spreads its wavering fingers like an electric dome over the dark ocean behind us.

“It’s beautiful,” Jimmy says. “What is it?”

“I have no idea.”

But the second I say it, I do have an idea. A terrible idea. An idea that makes me leap to my feet and race for the hatch. I rush down the ladder, run along the passageway, and throw open the torpedo room door—

It’s gone. The antimatter is gone.

Before I know what I’m even doing, I’ve got ahold of the professor’s hair with both hands and I’m slamming his head against the submarine controls as Jimmy tries to pull me away.

“What have you done!” I shout, slamming his head again. “What have you done, you sick bastard! Tell me!”

Jimmy successfully tears me away from the professor and pushes me against the wall and holds me there.

“Hey, now,” he says. “Settle down. What’s goin’ on here?”

“The antimatter’s gone.”

“The what?”

“Ask him,” I say, pointing.

Jimmy turns to the professor.

“What’s he talkin’ ‘bout?”

“I should never have let you go up,” the professor says, almost mumbling to himself. “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”

“Tell him what you did, you bastard. Tell him!”

I scream it so loud the professor startles and looks up at us again. He’s never seemed more pathetic than now, with his hair a mess and a bruise already purpling on his forehead.

Jimmy releases me and turns to the professor, his curiosity overcoming his desire to restrain me.

“What’d ya do?”

“It doesn’t even matter now,” the professor says, turning to face the controls again. “Let’s just get back.”

“I’ll tell you what he did,” I say. “He left that antimatter back there in the water. Just offshore. At the Isle of Man. Then he set it to detonate when we were safe away.”

“Detonate?” Jimmy asks. “Like a bomb?”

“Like much more than a bomb. The energy released by that much antimatter? I can’t—I mean—poof! I’m guessing the island isn’t even there any longer. Is it, Professor?”

Jimmy looks confused.

“Not even there?”

“Tell him, Professor.”

“We thought it was an intelligent thing to do,” he answers, finally. “The containment device was failing. It couldn’t be kept any longer at the Foundation. So why not use it?”

He flinches as I step toward him.

“You said we.”

“Excuse me?”

“Just a second ago,” I say. “You said: ‘We thought it was an intelligent thing to do.’”

“Yes,” he says. “We did.”

“Who’s we?”

“Myself and Hannah, of course.”

“You mean you and Hannah planned this?”

He laughs nervously, shifting in his chair.

“I’m just an old man. I don’t make those kinds of decisions.”

“But there was people there,” Jimmy says. “Lots of ’em.”

“I know,” the professor replies. “That’s why the island had to be destroyed. Don’t you see?”

“You bastard!”

I grab him by the neck and lift him off his chair and squeeze with everything I have. I’m going to kill him, and it’s surprisingly easy. His face turns red, then blue. His eyes bulge, panic in his stare, his quivering lips turning pale.

Jimmy lays a hand on my shoulder.

“That’s enough now,” he says. “We ain’t like him.”

I drop the professor, and he falls to the floor, clutching his neck and gasping for air.

When he’s recovered enough to speak, he looks up at me with tears in his eyes and says: “You didn’t really think we would abandon the cause just because a couple of teenagers decided that they like humans after all, did you?”

I shake my head, disgusted.

“You knew before we even left what we’d find on that island, didn’t you?”

The professor smirks, showing a side of himself I haven’t seen before. Something evil.

“Of course I did. Every one of us knew what a philandering fool Radcliffe was. And his guilty conscience put the entire mission at risk. Protect the island. Ha! Love made Robert soft. He never should have let those people live. And to breed like they did? You saw yourself how they’d multiplied already. Imagine what they’d do if they made it to the mainland. Ever seen a goldfish get a bigger bowl? Well, of course you haven’t, but you get the idea. We had no choice. They were far too numerous already to take out with drones.” When he finishes his speech, he stares up at us from the floor.

“So why even bring Jimmy and me along if you planned to blow the island up anyway?” I demand.

“To get the encryption key,” he says. “And you did it. Just like we knew you would.”

“How do you even know the key’s in there?”

“David’s hand is in there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. So?”

“The key is sequenced from his DNA. Silly old Radcliffe was even sentimental in his safeguards.”

“You knew it was him, and you didn’t tell us?”

The professor shrugs a shoulder. “We didn’t know he’d be calling himself Finn. Or that the David was there to confuse things. But Hannah said you’d get it. And she was right.”

“And Hannah knew all this then?” I ask.

“I think I’ve said enough.”

“If she knew, she’s just as evil as you are.”

“I’m proud of Hannah,” he says.

“For what?” I ask. “Sending us in blind to nearly get killed? For murdering her own brother?”

“That’s one way to put it,” he says. “But I’d say for having the courage to rise above sentimentality and do what’s right.”

“Right for who?”

“For the planet, of course.”

“You make me sick.”

“Believe me,” he says, half sitting up, “I make me sick too. I am human after all, you know?”

The entire time we’re talking, Jimmy stands looking down at the professor with his head cocked to the side and a strange look in his eyes. As if he’s still trying to process something said a long time ago. I can almost see the questions running through his mind. When he finally speaks, he asks the professor:

“What about Bree? What about Junior?”