Nirvana Effect (28 page)

“Hmmm?”

“What did you ask him exactly?”

Edward rubbed his forehead again.  He felt the need for coffee or, better, another trance.  He sent his
dull
mind back to that moment.  “I asked…well, it wasn’t a question, actually.  I said, ‘I do not fault your desire to have the Onge rule the Earth.’  And he said, ‘I have no such desire.’  Of course, we said it all in Onge.”

“Hmmm…”

“Any ideas?” he asked.

“No, not yet.  I don’t know what to tell you about that one
,
”
she said.

“Yeah, seems like he’s being honest.  You know, it’s totally possible that Mahanta’s being honest and so is Nockwe.  Nockwe might just be being cautious, and not really know what Mahanta intends.”

“So what do you do now?” she asked.

He was looking at his hands.  He studied them, looking for an answer written along one of the lines on his palms.  “Well, I…”

He stopped because he’d looked up at her.  She looked hopeful, a bit like a school girl sitting there waiting on the bench for her boyfriend to get to recess.  When he stopped the expression evaporated.

“You’re not going back there, are you?” she asked.

He started to nod.

“Edward, you said it yourself.  You’re playing their game, and you don’t even know what it is.  Nockwe said Mahanta could kill you.”

“I know,” he said.

“And I’m here.  Look at me.  I’m here, Edward, flesh and blood.  You’re here…”  Her voice trailed off.

“It’s the nirvana effect…” he started.

“You’ve got the pills.  We can just go.  We can get off this island.”

“It’s not that…”

“Edward,” she said quietly.  She looked down at the ground.  He waited for her to speak.  She seemed uncomfortable. “I set u
p a clinic here, on this island,” she said, “
because I’d heard from your father…that you specialized in anthropology…and in tribes resistive to adopting the basics of Christianity.  I mean, I wanted to set up a clinic, but I chose here because the Onge are one of the classic examples of such a tribe.  I…”

He didn’t believe his ears.  She wouldn’t look at him.  Her face reddened.  Her eyes watered. 

“I couldn’t forget you,” she whispered.  “I know that sounds stupid, childish, ridiculous.  I…”

He held her.  She still wasn’t looking at him.  “I turned down travel,” he said, “to half a dozen cities I would have otherwise killed to see, just to
get back to
London.  I’ve probably ‘thought I’ve seen you’ a hundred times.  I couldn’t forget you, either.”  She looked back up at him, her lips quivering into a smile.

“I just thought,” she said, “that maybe if I set up here, I might somehow see you again…”

“Good plan,” he said, squeezing her shoulders.

She laughed. 
“Stupid plan.  Took long enough.
”  She laughed again.  “Just stay,” she pleaded.  “Or let’s leave.”

“I’d love to,” said Edward.  “I can’t.  I have to find out what Mahanta is up to.  I’ve got to confront him and ask all the right questions this time.  I’ve got to go spy on him while he doesn’t suspect I’m there.  I can’t leave the drug with him if he’s up to no good.”

“Why not?”

“There could be a lot of people dead on account of him,” said Edward.

“You didn’t ask to get into this,” she pointed out.

“I’m trying to
fix this
.  I just can’t drop it, Cali.  I’ve got to make sure I do it right.”

“Why?” she asked.  But she already knew the answer.  He could see that she’d resigned herself to it.

Instead of responding, Edward just sighed and kissed her forehead.

“Don’t we already know he’s up to no good?  He sent a spy after you.”

“It’s the Onge way,” he explained.  “Trust but verify.”

“I don’t think that’s an Onge quote,” she said.

He shrugged and kissed her hard. 

“You’re going now?” she called
as he walked to the kitchen
. 
S
he sounded disappointed.

“I’ve got to.  I don’t have much time.”  He started pouring the pills into the small bottle she’d pul
led out for the purpose. 
He felt her slender fingers slide around his waist.  She’d quietly slipped up behind him.  “You don’t have to do anything,” she whispered, kissing the nape of his neck.

Even if Edward left in the morning, he could
probably still out-pace the boy.  But there was too much at stake and too much tha
t could be decided by minutes.

Edward
twisted his neck to
kiss her.  He felt her fingers slip
under
his shirt
to
touch his stomach.  He turned around and kissed her more.  Her smooth hands rubbed his back. 

“Callista Knowles, I love you,” he said.

“I thought you were going to say, Callista Knowles, will you marry me?”

“That, too,” he said.

She poked him.  He kissed her again and then he pulled away slightly.

“I have to go,” he said.

She laid
her hands on his chest.  He was still holding h
er to him.  “You have to go now,
” she said.  The pleading left her voice.

“I do,” he said.  “Can I borrow your car?”

“Will I get it back?” she asked.

He just looked at her. 
Good question. 
She
tossed him the
keys off the table. 

“It’s good we go way back,” she said.  He smiled. 

He held up the keys.  “This is my insurance you don’t run around on me while I’m gone.”

“There’s a doctor with a Corvette in the neighborhood.  He could come pick me up.” 

“I’ll take my chances,” said Edward.  He kissed her once more and let her go.  He had to get moving.  He
pocketed the bottle of “t-
pills
.”
  “Can you do me a favor?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“I’m going to ask you a few questions and give you a few directions before I go.  You are in no way in danger personally, but I don’t want you to take any chances.  You don’t need to worry, but you need to be careful.  Does that make sense?”

She nodded.  “Do you think that boy saw me?” she asked.

“Yes, I think it’s possible. 
Like I said,
I don’t want to take any chances.  I’d like for you to lay low until I get back.”

“That makes sense,” she said.

“Is there anyone you feel you can trust here?” he asked.

“James.”  She cleared her throat.  “Dr. Seacrest.”

“Corvette?” he asked.  She laughed.  “I see.”  She laughed again.  “Is he in town?” he asked. 

“Yes.”

“Could you shut the clinic down and stay with him for a few days until I get back?”

“Is
that
really necessary?” she asked.

“Please?” he asked.

“Will you not go if I don’t do it?” she asked.  He narrowed her eyes at her playfully.  “All right.  I’m sure that will be fine.”

“Start this morning first thing.  And if you see any
Onge or suspicious-looking natives
in the neighborhood, promise me you’ll go into town and hole up at Seacrest’s office?  He has an office?”

“Yes and yes.”

“It’s just precaution,” he said, more for his own benefit than for hers.

“I know,” she said.

“I love you, Callista.”

“I love you, Edward.”  She kissed him again.

He stepped out the back door.  “Goodbye.”

“Goodbye,” she said. 

He turned around to look at her once more.  She was beautiful, leaning on the countertop.  She still wore her black outfit.  Her blonde hair casually framed her face.  Her blouse hung loose with a couple of
the
top buttons undone.  He knew that under any other circumstance, he would
n’t
be leaving
until
the morning. 

Under any other circumstance, I wouldn’t be leaving at all.

Callista’s
town
car drove much faster than any other mode of transportation
Edward had
used in the past
months.  It was an older model; h
e
was taxing
it to its limits on the roughshod road. 

Rain began to splatter
and then pour onto
the windshield
.  The only lights he had on the road were the moon and the headlights.
  Still, he took his chances and kept up the pace.

The
highway
would only take him to the edge of Onge territory.  From there
he’d have to
hike through the jungle.  The most direct route to the village was straight through the thic
k of the wild.  Otherwise he’d be forced
to make a long trek on the winding cart path of the traders. 

Edward
slowed as the rain intensified.  He couldn’t keep track of everything - watching the road, the potholes, the curves, riding the hydroplaning, focusing through the beating of the water against the car top, and all between the wipe of a windshield.  160 kilometers per hour had been quite easy to manage twenty minutes ago before the rain.  Now 60 k
ph
was quite taxing. 

The dull ache in his body had lessened even further. 
It worked.  It worked it worked it worked! 
He smiled, thrilled, and pounded the steering wheel with his hand.  He hadn’t had time to celebrate.  The revelation had been smothered in the other, equally momentous revelation:
She loved me.  It had been real.  She loves me… 

His mind turned to the
trance substance
once more. 
There was no sense in getting giddy. 
If he did not solve his problems with the nirvana effect and
Mahanta
,
there was nothing to celebrate
. 

Part of the problem was solv
ed.  He had in his pocket the t-
pill, the answer to the after-pain and the key to keeping a step ahead of the Onge.  Edward’s trance
was longer and barely hurt.  He wondered how many times he could take it in a day.

Three times in less than two days had been unbearable.  It was quite likely that he could trance four or more times each day with the t-pill and still not get the same after-pain as one injection.

He quelled his excitement.  He needed to concentrate on the road.
 
The rain eased, an
d he accelerated.  The road dipped downward.

Edward saw a pair of lights ahead.  He squinted past his windshield wipers.  At the bottom of the hill, he spotted an old purple car parked on the side of the road.  Its headlights were still on, illuminating the rain, and it was parked cock-eyed on the shoulder.  Edward could not slow down.  He couldn’t waste any time.  As he zoomed by, he could make out two figu
res.  They seemed to be natives.
The adult figure was
changing a tire.  The other was a boy, pacing in the rain, as though supervising.  The boy jerked his head up to Edward’s passing car as soon as he heard it.  Edward could see the face distinctly. 
Tomy.

Onge in a car?
  It was one of the most bizarre things he’d ever seen.

His spine chilled.  If he had stayed the night, it could have been much more complicated.  Cars turned the
“sun and moon”
trek to
Lisbaad
into
just a few hours
. 
How did they get cars?  Why?

The
why
was obvious.  Mahanta had more secrets.

Edward watched them in his rear view mirror.  He saw just the headlights for a moment, then the silhouette of Tomy
jumping
up and down in excitement.  As Edward reached the top of the next hill, he saw
Tomy’s
car swerve back onto the road. 
The boy
must have somehow recognized him.

Edward accelerated further.  Still, the headlights in his rear view mirror were getting closer.  It wasn’t until he hit close to 150
kph
that he began to gain
some distance
.  He hoped that the road didn’t swerve.  He was relying on blind chance. 
T
he
windshield
was smothered
with water mere moments after the wiper passed.  He could only see a good twenty meters in front of him, and at that speed on that
road
, he may as well
have
be
en
blindfolded.