Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee (21 page)

THIRTY-ONE

“WHERE IS THAT little beast Takota?” the queen fidgeted with her pseudo-human fingertips. She had full faith in her son. It was that husband who made her nervous.

“Which one?” Davos asked sarcastically.

“Don’t get cute with me,” she eyed him. “Davos, the Eteea machines. We agreed they need to be destroyed. Have you done that yet?”

“I’m working on that now,” he gave her a flash of insolence. “Don’t rush me.”

“Don’t talk back to me!” she raised a hand and her blistering Essinis sphere erupted into existence above her open palm. “You know what I can do to you!”

Davos submitted to her power, hunkering his head.

“Your Highness, I was just thinking. Why should we destroy these machines? If Argus can use them with a witch’s spell, then why can’t we?”

“Fool!” she struck out with a stream of fire, thin and sharp, swishing past his face. “Don’t you know anything? Those machines are more trouble than their worth to us. We have to destroy them while we can.”

“Fine!” Davos peered over his shoulder and wheeled the large crate full of machines out of the Connections Center, giving Argus, his ungrateful progeny, a sneer. Using a service elevator, he traveled under the subterranean base, deep down to the ninety-ninth subfloor. The very bottom. There he traversed a long, dark corridor to the heart of the facility’s energy system, a fusion furnace burning so hot, it could reduce the Eteea machines to liquid.

He opened the door to the furnace and went motionless at the sound of a familiar and unwanted voice.

“Stop right there!”

Davos spun on his heels and saw three Tanakee—one silver, one white, and one orange. The girl Amelia was with them, along with Jack and his father, all bombarding him with dirty looks. First he froze. Then he lunged for the furnace to pour the contents of the box into the molten stew.

“NO!” Takota showed up out of nowhere and pushed Davos away from the heat. At the same time, Ben rushed to snatch the container of machines.

“You were right, Jack,” Takota panted. “They wanted to destroy the Eteea machines.”

“I had a hunch they’d try something like this,” said Jack.

They watched Davos separate into his natural form—dozens of black serpents—and fly out to the passageway. Forcing open the elevator door, he swarmed up the shaft. Ben tossed the Amber Machine. Jack caught it and felt the surge of energy.

“I magnified its power,” Ben told him. “It may not be quite up there with the O/A, but it’s close.”

Then Ben plucked a rose-colored machine from the bin and gave that one to Amelia. She breathed deeply and trembled with power as she held it in her hands.

“Go, kids!” Ben cheered. “Hurry!”

Jack looked at Takota and got a confident nod from his tiny protector. Then he held down on the machine’s interface and felt the power of the multiverse absorb directly through the synapses of his nerve cells. Another glance at Takota yielded another nod.

“Let’s do it,” Takota said.

Jack took Amelia’s hand and envisioned standing in the Connections Center. In a fraction of a second they were there, with Takota next to them, in a thunderous flash. Their sudden appearance startled both the queen and Argus.

“What are YOU doing here!” the queen sneered. Jack picked up on her fear. “And YOU!” she pointed at Takota. “You’re supposed to protect the True Soul, remember?”

“The game is up, your
Highness
!” Takota didn’t move an inch, though by the way he stood, Jack knew he would be able to fly into action at a moment’s notice. “Nice try, but it didn’t work!”

As Takota finished his declaration, his Tanakee friends arrived in bursts of light and sound. The tiny creatures surrounded the two Nagas—Cheyton and Enola on one side, Ayita and Pud on the other. Takota fixed his sights on the queen.

“Like I said. You got close. You almost took over the Eteeans. But now it’s over.”

The queen flexed her fingers and a bright crimson sphere hovered above her hand. It reminded Jack of the technology Davos had used, only this looked more powerful.

“Just try making a move,” Takota warned. “I know when and where you’re going to attack. I see your move even before you do.”

The queen laughed.

“Silly Tanakee. You can’t possibly know everything!”

Jack felt certain Takota was on the verge of blinking out of existence. He read it in his mind, and saw it clear as day. What he didn’t see coming was the swarm of black serpents flooding in from the membranous entryway, a tempest of winged creatures saturating the air. With the courage and fierceness of the warrior he was, Cheyton jumped to fend off the sudden trespassers, Enola and Pud following close behind. Ayita stood in front of Amelia and snapped her sharp jaws at anything that came near.

“Jack!” Amelia screamed. “They’re getting the data!”

Jack looked past the fighting Tanakee and saw Argus and the queen clustered around the main computer, a red power sphere hovering and merging with the processor, connected by a pulsating beam of translucent power.

“Let’s get ‘em!” he replied.

Jack and Amelia gripped their machines. Jack concentrated on the sphere’s connection to the Eteean computer, the electrical umbilical uniting the two. He felt Amelia doing the same thing. They both envisioned it broken and, in two mighty strokes, it happened just that fast. The two Nagas fell back at the blinding explosion, dropping to the floor, neither with the time or the wits to transform into flying snakes. Shaken and surprised, Argus stood and massaged his jaw.

“Good, Jack…Amelia,” he smiled, though his eyes told a tale of hatred and secrecy. “Now let’s see how you do against this,” he held up his hand and the O/A materialized out of thin air. Jack heard gasps. The Tanakee stopped fighting and stared. Amelia stood in frightened amazement. Yet the most anguish seemed to come not from his allies, but from Argus’s.

“Son!” the queen got to her feet with supernatural quickness. “You were supposed to give that to your father so he could destroy it, along with the other Eteea machines!”

“How could I destroy
this
?” he held up the gleaming, electric purple and blue device. “The most powerful machine ever invented, by man or by Nagas.”

“Precisely why you must destroy it!” the queen protested. “It was built by a man, who was inspired by Eteea. Nagas aren’t supposed to use those machines. The only reason why you can is because of that spell the witches put on you. But their spell is temporary. And it cannot be repeated. Son, this is too dangerous. Don’t do it!” she lunged at Argus, but he rose above her, supported by the O/A’s luminous sphere, a personal spacecraft.

“Don’t try to stop me, Mother,” he lifted his head and gave Jack a disdainful stare. “I need to teach
him
a lesson.”

Jack held his Eteea machine high, and instantly a semi-transparent shell encompassed him, as if the machine had included him in its own substructure. The merging of boy and machine. It was at that moment when Argus sent a lightning-fast, purplish-blue energy beam, one Jack had become so accustomed to firing. Now it was turned against him. He wasn’t sure if the Amber Machine would endure, but it did. Jack felt the shock, only a little, and stood proud and tall as the dust settled.

Argus squinted and puffed his chest. Out of nowhere, Pud appeared over him, dropping straight down and screaming. Argus had no time to react. He would have been pummeled by the tiny, orangish furry thing if not for the O/A’s automatic shield, which burst with static energy, saving him from certain harm.

Cheyton mimicked Pud’s bravery, issuing a fierce growl as he closed in fast on Argus’s legs. But Argus gained ten feet of altitude in half a second. The cavernous Connections Center offered him plenty of space to outmaneuver the attacking Tanakee easily.

Enola swept her arm like a magician and her ethereal green glow spread toward Argus. His eyes widened and he elevated higher.

“You leave me and my friends alone!” Amelia flung her hand at the queen. From her Eteea machine flashed a fury of pinkish power. The queen, as nimble as she was crafty, twisted away from the danger, rolling twice before landing on her feet again. Quickly, she conjured her fiery power sphere and, with one pinpoint shot, dislodged Amelia’s Eteea machine from her grasp.

Crash!
the machine hit the floor, and as soon as it did, the flying serpents surrounded Amelia, diving toward her with malicious intent.

“Get her!” The queen commanded. Ayita stood in front of the attack, shielding Amelia the best she could. Even her protection wasn’t enough, and Amelia fell to her knees under a swarm of unrelenting Nagas while her friends were forced to retreat, quite reluctantly, from the Connections Center.

Jack ached to protect Amelia, and knew he could with a mere thought. But he had no time to think. Argus sent another burst of energy toward him. The Amber Machine held again. However, the O/A’s force sent Jack reeling. Like a hot knife through butter, his protective sphere sliced through the wall, leaving a perfect circular hole. Then it punched through a second wall, and a third. On and on he flew, through so many partitions he lost count. He slammed against a dense earthen mass and came to an abrupt halt. Inside the machine, it felt soft and feathery, but he could tell the force of the impact was immense. Then he looked up and saw Argus skimming toward him through the hollowed-out trail of destruction.

His Eteea machine flickered, fizzled, then went dark. He patted it gently, trying to get it back. Nothing. He hit it a little harder, then pressed once and let go—the start sequence. Nothing. Argus was getting closer, and Jack only had one thing left he could do.

“Takota!” he called. “Help me!”

TAKOTA FIXED HIS thoughts on Jack. Searching…searching…when he felt like he got a read on the boy’s location, he slipped through the dimensions, on an instant journey to his friend. Before he went anywhere, though, something took hold of his arm and yanked him, unceremoniously, back into his original reality.

“Where do you think you’re going!” it was his dimensional double. With a swift kick, he forced Takota to the floor on his knees. Then another blow, this one to the side of the head, took him down completely. Dazed, Takota only had time to roll out of the way before his evil twin came down with a wicked body slam, a move meant to inflict severe damage.

“You tried to kill me!” Takota accused.

“Duh!” his duplicate ridiculed. The more Takota studied his so-called twin, the more differences he began to notice between them. The double had less fur. And he was thinner and dirty, as if there was no such thing as personal hygiene among Tanakee in his dimension. Also, Takota’s cheekmarks, the greenish patches of bare skin under each eye (a trait of all Tanakee) were much more vibrant than this guy’s. All in all, the Takota duplicate seemed shabbier, dirtier, smellier. But was he stronger? Takota had to believe he wasn’t, yet, so far, he had his doubts.

In his head, all he heard was Jack. So he concentrated, and let his mind wander to the boy. Before he could go anywhere, his evil double was on top of him once more, dragging him feet-first out of the dimensional field.

“You can’t get away from me. I know you,” he circled Takota. “I
am
you, so I know everything you want to do.”

“You are NOT me!” Takota moved in a circle as well, sizing up his foe, measuring him for vulnerabilities.

“Sure I am,” his twin smiled. “I know exactly what you’re thinking right now. You think you can find a weakness. Well, it won’t work!”

The evil twin dove at the same time as Takota dove. They slammed heads full force, both spinning in place, dipping and swaying like boxers about to go down for the count. Takota felt sick to his stomach, but remained on his feet, until his evil twin blindsided him, sending him flat on his back. Then the demented double stood over him and raised his furry fist.

“You’re too easy to beat. Almost makes me ashamed to be you.”

THIRTY-TWO

AMELIA SAW STARS, though she was deep underground, inside the vast inner structure of the Black Pyramid. She was unable to move, and heard the Nagas queen standing over her, mumbling something incoherent. Then Amelia sensed Davos
,
and the queen went wild with rage.

“Incompetent fool!” the queen’s exclamation nearly ripped Amelia from her trance. Nearly. “What have you done!”

“Relax,” Davos said. “Everything’s under control. We shall prevail. It’s only a matter of time.”

“Don’t tell me to relax! Your foolish behavior has almost brought us to the brink of ruin! Right now, Argus is fighting that…that child, and we have no guarantees he’ll win.”

“He has the O/A,” Davos sounded confident. “How can he be defeated?”

“Your cavalier attitude was your undoing the first time you met these children, and it will be again if you aren’t careful.”

“You worry too much, my queen. We are this close to discovering the identities and locations of the Children. What more do you want?”

She turned to Amelia.

“I want this girl to connect with her true powers and rediscover what she really is here to do,” she reached for her own neck and pulled out a chain. Amelia’s heart stopped when she saw what the queen had revealed. Dangling at the end of a beaded necklace was her eagle feather.

Amelia fought against the spell holding her immobile. It didn’t work. The binds, both physically and mentally, were too much. She was face-to-face with the queen. The slender, angular Nagas in woman’s form had a certain allure Amelia found impossible to deny. Even with the thin, wavy locks of what looked like eels with wings jutting from her head, even with her freakishly elongated arms and disproportionate torso, she had a beauty Amelia found mysterious and enthralling. She knew the thing wasn’t a woman, though the deep-seated feeling from before came through loud and clear. Something linked her and the queen. Something was there, something she couldn’t put her finger on.

“Search inside, young one,” the queen lowered her stare and smiled, even letting a little warmth show through. She held up the eagle feather. “You remember what this means…what it really means.”

Amelia felt a rush of heat, then cold, then heat again. The residual energy of a premonition, a vision, or some other mysterious event. The feeling became stronger. The affiliation with the queen was coming out of the shadows. What event in the past did they both have in common? Where had they crossed paths before? In a former life?

“No, child,” the queen spoke as if to answer her thoughts. Amelia’s blood rushed. She realized the queen was reading her mind. “Not in a former life. But it seems like another life, doesn’t it?”

Amelia’s pulse pounded stronger and stronger, her insides boiling, ready to overflow. The queen’s eyelids widened into a menacing glare.

“Deep inside, you know the truth, Amelia,” the queen’s voice filled her even more with the strange sensation. “Pity you haven’t truly learned it yet.”

Amelia’s eyes filled with tears. She now knew why she’d been so lost lately, why her powers of perception had been so diminished. With possession of the feather, it seemed the queen had some sort of control over her.

“You’re starting to remember, aren’t you?” The queen continued. “Look closer. Remember,” she leaned nearer and her fabricated face filled Amelia’s vision. It also filled her thoughts. She’d seen that face a thousand times. All those visits in the night. It haunted her in the dark.

“You have a higher purpose, young one,” the queen said. “Even higher than what you’ve learned from that foolish Teresa Tree. She might have told you about your abilities. She might have shown you a path. But it’s not the path you were meant to walk. You belong to us, Amelia. Always have, and always will.”

“What are you filling this girl’s mind with?” Davos approached. “She’s not going to help us. Why can’t you see that? I say we stop wasting time and dispose of her now!”

“Silence!” she commanded. “You’ve been jealous of this child since the very beginning. And that has clouded your judgment all along,” she raised the feather and let it tickle her artificial cheeks, much too perfect to be human. “With this, I can make sure she is ours forever. And then we’ll judge if it’s a waste of time.”

“I’m telling you, this is a mistake. We can’t trust her. The humans are dirty, vile, creatures, and you should have never associated with them!”

“I’ll do what I want, when I want!” the queen’s venom was palpable, even to Amelia in her state of semi-consciousness. “There’s nothing you can do to stop me. I am the queen of this world. I make the rules, and my decisions are final. This has been part of my plan all along, and now it’s all coming to fruition!”

“Not if we can help it!” a familiar voice forced both the queen and Davos to stand on guard. Amelia knew right away it was Pud, and he had the rest of the Tanakee with him. She also sensed her human friends were there too, regrouped after the earlier surprise attack. The dreary clouds of her inner desperation faded at the prospect of her rescue.

“Looks like your reign is at an end, Your Majesty!” Cheyton added triumphantly.

“Let Amelia go!” Ayita shouted, and before she could finish shouting, the Tanakee had Davos and the queen surrounded. For the first time, Amelia saw fear in the queen’s eyes.

“Fools! You won’t stop us!” the queen conjured her fiery sphere. With a flicker of her finger she shot a bolt of red lightning. The tiny creatures were too quick, each pouncing at the same time. The queen fell to the ground, writhing, kicking, trying to fight. All in vain. Davos, expressing utter shock with wide pale eyes, divided into dozens of slimy, black serpents and sought refuge from the attacking little beasts. The queen tried to separate into her true form, as Davos had done, but the tiny protectors were able to contain the transformation, keeping her in her false human appearance.

Then a sudden and jarring exclamation from Ayita.

“ENOLA!”

All eyes snapped to the fluffy, white creature, flat on her back, chest heaving, breath labored.

“Enola! What’s wrong!” carefully, Ayita lifted her off the floor, helping her to a standing position. “What happened?”

“I just…I…” she seemed out of strength. Her head listed side to side, and her eyes rolled back in their sockets. “I feel terrible.”

The queen, taking advantage of the letup, stood tall and proud.

“Weak creatures! It was only a matter of time until your humiliating defeat!”

Davos, a horde of black, snapping, frothing monsters in flight, circled ever closer to the Tanakee. Reluctantly, Cheyton diverted his attention from Enola and confronted the black serpents as they flitted and fluttered just out of his reach. He slashed and grabbed and swished his fists, with Pud assisting him, letting Ayita tend to Enola. Liz and Lily and Teresa tried anxiously to make sure Enola was comfortable. Ben huddled over them all, fretting and frowning and fussing.

Cheyton and Pud exchanged determined looks as they both divided into two. Then two became four, and so on, until they made a defensive ring around their frightened friends.

At that moment, above the fray, a holographic projection screen lit up with activity. Numbers flowing like a stock market ticker, only denser, packed with more information. An alarm accompanied the graphic display, alerting all within earshot that the sequence of decoding had come to an end.