Stones: Experiment (Stones #3) (54 page)

“But.” Yarah lets her eyes drop to the grass. “What about Ryzaard? As long as he’s here, he won’t stop looking for us.”

Matt spits the grass out of his mouth. “How do you know he’s here?” He sits up and turns Yarah’s face toward him. “How do you know he’s not dead?”

“I’m not sure.”

Matt closes his eyes. “Neither am I. If he did make it back, we have to stop him.”

“You mean keep fighting him?” The look in Yarah’s eyes tells Matt that she is seriously starting to question his sanity.

“I mean try to figure out what his plans are and stop him.”

“But how can we stop him? He’s so powerful.”

Matt lets go of Yarah’s head. “I have a secret weapon. I’ve used it against Ryzaard
and
Jhata, even though they both have more Stones that I do. I’m not sure how it works, but it makes you more powerful.”

“A secret weapon?” Yarah’s body tenses. “What is it?”

“Love,” Matt says.

“Oh,” Yarah says. “That’s not a secret. I love you, and you love me. That’s easy.”

“For some people, it’s hard. Almost impossible.”

They slip into their sleeping bags.

Yarah looks up, eyes barely open. “Would you die for me? Just like Leo?”

“Without hesitation,” Matt says. “For you or Jessica.”

“Or someone else? Maybe someone you don’t even know?”

“Why do you ask?”

Yarah’s eyes close. “I don’t know. Just wondering, I guess.” Her lips relax into a smile, and she’s asleep in seconds.

Matt’s hand rests on the cloaking box.

Heal the people.

The words float into his mind again. What people? Sleep pulls on his eyes.

“I’ll save them.” The words come out of Matt’s mouth, as though on their own. “All of them.”

The words bring peace. He pulls in a deep breath and lets it out, counting to ten.

“T
hey’re gaining on us,” Eva says.

Jessica looks back at her. “How can they be tracking us?”

“Not sure.” Eva pants as she runs behind them. “They must have infra-red or something.”

Michiko shakes her head. “That’s only for night vision. I think—”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jessica says. “How can we lose them?”

“I have an idea. Maybe not a good one.” Michiko stops and looks at the forest trees from right to left, as if trying to get her bearings. “I used to play here as a kid. Follow me.” She makes a hard turn to the right.

After ten minutes, they come to a stream and stop. Jessica and Michiko look behind, straining to see Eva in the moonlight. She appears from behind a tree and stumbles toward them.

“Having a hard time keeping up. Not as young as you two.” She bends over and retches on the ground. “I don’t think they’re following us anymore.”

“What?” Jessica says.

“The last hill we climbed up.” Eva speaks between gulps of air. “I turned and didn’t see them. Couldn’t hear anything either. Maybe they gave up.”

“Either that,” Jessica says. “Or they found a different way to track us.”

“Either way, we should stay in the forest until morning. It’s not much farther.” Michiko runs ahead in the darkness.

Jessica takes Eva’s hand. “Come on. I’m not leaving you behind.”

They pass into a clearing in the forest. The moon is bright above their heads in a cloudless sky. Jessica sees the crisp outline of her shadow on the ground.

“Right there.” Michiko points at an old tree in the middle of the clearing.

Its trunk is at least two meters in diameter, making it the largest pine in the forest. A fat
shimenawa
rope of braided rice straw hangs on it like a belt. Broad white zigzag-shaped streamers hang from the middle.

“We call it
Kami no Ki
. The Spirit Tree.” She claps her hands twice and brings the palms together in front of her face as she bows her head. “Now let’s go up.” She jumps up to the lowest branch, swinging her feet up and wrapping them around as she pulls herself onto the branch.

Jessica looks up. The massive tree has evenly spaced branches that go all the way to the top.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Her eyes drift over the full moon. “Hiding right out here in the middle of a clearing?”

Michiko looks between her legs. “It’s the last place they would expect us to be. Come on.”

“You first.” Jessica makes a stirrup with her hands and motions for Eva to insert her shoe.

“I hate trees,” Eva says. “We don’t have any where I’m from.”

Jessica shakes her head. “No time to argue.”

Eva complies, and Jessica boosts her up to the lowest branch. She catches it and pulls herself up, Jessica following close behind.

In a few minutes, they’re all near the top, looking out on the moonlit tops of trees below them.

A silent shadow passes overhead, blocking out the light of the moon for just a second.

“What was that?” Jessica says.

All their eyes go up to the bright disk in the night sky, but it hangs there alone, undisturbed.

“Probably just a—”

Before Michiko can finish her sentence, a ring of fire explodes out of the forest at a distance of a kilometer, placing them roughly in the center.

“I don’t believe it.” Michiko stares. “They’re burning the entire forest.”

Eva looks at Jessica. “That explains why they stopped following us.”

Michiko wraps her arms tightly on a branch. “Good thing we found the Spirit Tree. It’s been here for hundreds of years. It’ll probably be the only thing left standing in the morning.”

Something bothers Jessica about what Michiko just said.

Then it hits her.

“We have to get out of here. Now.”

“Are you kidding?” Michiko looks at Jessica below her. “This is the safest place to be right now.”

“But it won’t be in the morning.” Jessica starts moving down. “They know we’re in the forest. They’ll surround it in the morning. We’ll be trapped. If we don’t get out now, we never will.”

“You can go,” Michiko says. “I’m staying.”

As she speaks, they all hear the
thump thump thump
of heli-transports in the distance, coming closer.

Eva looks back and forth from Jessica below her to Michiko above her. “Good luck, Michiko.” Eva starts down after Jessica. They both hit the ground together, pausing just long enough to see Michiko sitting in the top of the tree.

“Which way?” Jessica stares at Eva. “You have a better sense of direction than I do.”

“Where are we going?”

Jessica adjusts the pulse rifle on her shoulder. “Back to the sub.”

Eva casts her eyes in a circle. “This way.” She sprints across the clearing, under the moon light, back in the direction they came from.

The heat of the fire registers on their skin before they see it. When they get to the fire line, it’s a solid wall of orange extending in an arc on either side. Pine trees, rich in sap, explode every few seconds, blowing flames out onto the rich moss of the forest floor.

“We can’t get through,” Eva says. “It’s too hot.”

Dropping her backpack to the ground, Jessica opens it and starts rummaging. It’s full of random things she picked up on her way out of the submarine that either caught her eye or looked useful in some way. Her hand brushes against a hard object the size of an orange.

Jessica pulls it out and shows it to Eva. “What’s this?”

Squinting in the dark, Eva looks down. “Where did you get that?” The whites of her eyes jump out with recognition. “It’s a flash grenade. Better throw it away before it blows us both up.”

Jessica smiles. “Just what I was looking for.”

“What are you going to do?”

Eyeing the wall of fire, Jessica searches for a spot with open ground. When she finds it, she walks as close to the fire as she can, stopping when she smells her own singed hair, ignoring the screams of Eva behind her.

Holding the grenade in one hand, she lobs it low, watching it roll into the wall of flames and come to rest on the ground. Then she pulls the pulse rifle off her back and drops to her knees. Releasing the safety and staring down the barrel, Jessica carefully lays the sights on the tiny black dot.

Her right index finger gropes forward, finding the trigger, applying pressure. Eyelids gently drop.

“Jessica, don’t—”

A ball of white flame swells up from the ground in front of her, visible through the thin skin covering her eyes and creating an indelible afterimage. The shockwave throws her back.

For a time, she loses sense of time and space. A black tunnel looms before her, sucking her in. She flies forward, weightless, arms out, into the darkness. Walls rush past and disappear. The distant din of a tolling bell catches her attention. As she tries to listen, the sound gets louder and louder. Her body is suddenly heavy, as though falling off a high building, rushing to impact with the ground.

“Jessica, wake up!”

Hands go under her armpits, lifting her up, dragging her over the soft floor of the forest. Her throat chokes with smoke, causing her eyes to flutter open.

Eva stands over her.

“What happened?” Jessica says.

“We just got through.” Eva puts Jessica down and props up her back. “Look. You’re a genius.”

The large hole in the wall of fire is starting to close back in.

Jessica smiles a grimy smile and lets Eva pull her up to her feet.

“Let’s get out of here before the soldiers come back.” Pulling Jessica, Eva shoulders the pulse rifle and backpack.

“Right.” Jessica stumbles forward behind her.

“I
’m back.”

Everyone freezes when they hear Ryzaard’s voice on the office-com.

“Gather in the conference room in five minutes. We have urgent business to discuss.”

Each of the team members drops their work and takes their customary seats at the table, waiting for Ryzaard to walk into the lab. When he finally comes striding through the open door, confusion sweeps through the room.

The tweed jacket is the same. The bowtie is the same. The long gait is almost the same. There are even six Stones, although these hang from a chain on his neck instead of a leather harness.

But the face is that of a much younger man.

“Who are you?” Lips curling into a snarl, Kalani steps forward, spear in hand, arm drawn back, ready to throw.

Ryzaard reaches into his shirt pocket. “Why is everyone so happy to see me?” He pulls out a black pack of cigarettes and grabs one with his lips. “It’s me. Dr. Mikal Ryzaard.”

Jing-wei exchanges a bewildered look with Diego.

Jerek’s eyes drop to his jax. “Voiceprint checks out.” He looks up, eyes narrowing. “Maybe we should take a DNA sample.”

“By all means.” Ryzaard takes a dagger out of his suit coat pocket and rolls up his sleeve. Bringing the blade onto the skin, he draws a short line up his arm.

Blood trickles onto the floor.

Jerek steps forward. Keeping a wary eye on Ryzaard, he takes a white handkerchief out of his pocket and daubs it in the crimson. With his jax in one hand, he brings the blood sample close to one end and brushes his finger against its metallic side. Little green lights come on.

“Checks out,” Jerek says. “DNA matches. Antibody level is higher. Oxygen reading is off the charts.” He looks up at Ryzaard. “Have you been taking vitamins?”

“Please,” Ryzaard says. “Enough of this silliness.” He motions to the round table in the center of the room. “Everyone take a seat. I’ll explain.”

Elsa looks up from her desk in the room next door, a horrified expression on her face. Ryzaard smiles and waves for her to join the meeting.

Each of them sits in their accustomed places.

“Where’s Alexa?” Ryzaard says.

“She’s been sick for the past couple of days.” Jing-wei still stares at Ryzaard’s face. “You gave her quite a scare when you showed up a few days ago, all—” She stops, searching for the right word.

“Burnt to a crisp.” Ryzaard says. “I know; it was a rather gruesome sight. But as you can see, I’m back to my old self.”

“Old?” Elsa says. “You don’t look much older than any of the rest of us.”

Striking a match, Ryzaard lights the black Djarum. “I’ve been through a long and thorough healing process, and I must say I feel fine. Full of energy.” He lifts the cigarette up to his mouth and takes a long drag. Its end glows bright red.