Stones: Experiment (Stones #3) (6 page)

“She’s bright,” Matt says. “Already speaks English like a native. Has this incredible intuitive understanding of the Stones. All within the space of . . .” He stops mid-sentence, eyes floating up to the sky. “How long have we been here? Any idea?”

“I lost track a long time ago. Yarah and Leo are both growing like weeds. He’s half a head taller than when we came. I’d say we’ve been here for months, but I’m not sure. The world we left behind is just a dream now. Not real.”

Matt nods and chews in silence.

He’s been spending a lot of time thinking about the real world lately. Earth.

After Ryzaard killed Matt’s dad, the four of them just walked away and abandoned it, leaving Ryzaard and all his evil machinations behind. First they went to Matt’s world to rest before going to the freedom camp in Stanley Park, just outside of Vancouver. Little John had told Yarah and Leo about the camp. It seemed like the logical place to go.

And then one day Yarah announced she had a world of her own. Right out of the fairy-tale books. They’d come here to her world to take a look and then stayed to live a fairy-tale life, far away from danger, far away from Ryzaard.

Matt never forgot about the freedom camp outside of Vancouver. It was always in the back of his mind. But the longer they stayed on Yarah’s world, the less urgent those plans became.

Until the dreams began.

Sooner or later, we’ll have to go back and clean up Ryzaard’s mess.

Or will we?

Like so many times before, Matt pushes the thought away by changing the conversation. “I wonder what Yarah will be like when she’s a teenager.”

Jessica pats him on the head. “You’re already starting to think like a father. Yarah will be what she’s going to be. Sweet, but ferocious. Do you ever worry about Leo?”

“Worry about Leo?” Matt swallows and reaches for another handful of cake. “Why? He’s doing fine.”

“He’s growing up. No longer a child, but not yet a man. Making the transition isn’t easy. One day he’s romping with Yarah, the next day he’s dark and serious. I know he worries.” Jessica leans back against Matt.

“He’s a sensitive kid. What does he worry about? His aunt back in Brazil?”

“There’s that. He never had a chance to say goodbye to her. But there’s something else. He has a Stone, but doesn’t have his own world like you and Yarah. He’s afraid it will never happen. He feels like he’s a failure.”

“How do you know all this?”

Jessica smiles. “Trust me. I know. I can see it in his eyes when you talk to Yarah about how awesome she is.”

“It’ll happen when it happens. For some, like me and Yarah, it happens right away. For others, it might take years.” Matt lies on the blanket and stares up at the clouds moving against a turquoise sky. “One day he’ll find himself in a dream, standing on a barren landscape. He’ll start painting a picture in his mind. Mountains here. A river over there. Maybe an ocean or forest. Whatever he imagines will just appear before his eyes. Then he’ll realize that he’s awake and not dreaming. No need to rush it. There’s plenty of time for it to happen.”

“Yep,” Jessica says. “Time. That’s one thing we have plenty of.”

A long silence passes between them, broken only by the sound of Matt chewing on the leg of lamb.

The same old thoughts come crowding back. He can’t help thinking about Earth, Ryzaard, the future. And he knows that, truth be told, Jessica can’t help it either. He wonders which one of them will speak of it first.

Jessica provides the answer. “Matt?”

“I know.”

“Know what?”

He pulls himself into a sitting position. “What you’re going to say.” His gaze drops to the blanket. “And you’re right. We should just stay here forever. Forget the real world. Make
this
our real world. Leave Ryzaard and his wicked ways behind. Live out our lives here, in peace and harmony.”

He forces the words out, pushing back the emptiness behind them, wondering how Jessica will react.

She looks at Matt, shaking her head. “Actually, I was thinking the exact opposite.”

“What do you mean?”

She lifts up her hand, admiring the simple gold wedding band on her finger. “We’re going to be parents someday with our own children. We’re already parents to Leo and Yarah. Think of it.” She pulls her legs in so she’s sitting Indian style and straightens her back, a signal to Matt that she’s about to say something important. “What kind of a world do you want your children to grow up in?”

“This isn’t a bad place. At least we’re safe here.”

“Do you really want our children to be born into a fairy-tale world like this?”

Matt lets his gaze drift. “We have everything we need and the time to enjoy it. Not a bad place to grow up if you ask me.”

“That’s just the point.” Jessica runs her fingers through Matt’s hair. “We
don’t
have everything we need.”

“What are we missing?”

Jessica spies a butterfly on the edge of the blanket. She stretches out her hand and it jumps onto the tip of her finger. As it stays in place, flexing its wings, she lifts it close to her eyes. Like all the other wildlife in this world, it has no hint of fear.

“Do you remember the Ripleys?” she says.

“The family in the big house up the hill from yours?”

“Yep,” Jessica says. “The house that looks like a castle. I went to school with their son, Jack. Remember him?”

Matt nods. “How could I not? Wrecking sports cars. Drug parties. Starting fires. Always in trouble with the police. Finally ended up in prison.”

“That’s right. Murdered his own father.” Jessica sips from a cup of pink lemonade and inhales the tart smell. “Once in high school, before I met you, I walked home from school with him. The first and last time. He told me he wanted to die.”

“Why?”

“He said everything was too easy. Always bored. Nothing to fight for. Nothing to live for.”

“OK. Typical wealth issues.” Matt takes another bite of lamb. “So you’re saying that the same thing will happen to our children if they grow up here?”

“Matt, humans
need
to struggle. They need work. They need to suffer now and then. Without it, there’s no happiness. Permanent vacations just make you soft, unhappy, maybe even
evil
.”

“Evil? Let me make sure I understand.” Matt slips his arms around Jessica and holds her close, running his lips across her forehead and down the bridge of her nose. “You want to leave this Paradise of ours. Go back to the real world. So you can suffer?”

Jessica pushes Matt away and pulls a long blade of grass from near the side of the blanket. Bringing it close to her eye, she studies its perfect shape and color. Then she pulls another and compares it with the first. They are identical in every way, like every blade of grass on the planet.

“Earth needs us,” she says. “And we need Earth. We’ve had a nice vacation, and I hope we can come back a lot. But if we stay here much longer, I’m afraid that we won’t be able to leave.”

“What do you mean?”

Jessica stares at the two blades of grass. “We’ll become dependent on this artificial perfection, afraid to leave, afraid to face reality. Slaves to something that’s not real. And then there’s you and Yarah.”

“What do you mean?”

“Both of you have Stones and your own worlds. I doubt you can even die when you’re living on your own world. Maybe you and Yarah will live forever, while Leo and I just get old and eventually pass on.”

“Don’t worry, Jess. I won’t let you die.”

“I’m not sure I would even want to live forever. Not like this.” She drops the two blades of grass.

Matt stands up and looks across the river. “What about Ryzaard? He’s had months to regroup and get stronger. He won’t be happy to see us.”

“I know.”

“The moment we leave the safety of this world, we have to assume the worst. He’ll be waiting for us. He’ll come after us.”

“I know.”

“He’ll try to kill us.”

Jessica yawns. “Yep.”

“I should leave you here, where it’s safe.” Matt looks tentatively at Jessica for any indication of approval.

“No way.” She balls up her hand and punches him hard in the shoulder. Her little finger flips up. “You pinky promised. Said you’d never leave me. Ever again. Remember?”

“What about Leo and Yarah?” Matt rubs his shoulder and looks at the river.

Massive open jaws shoot straight up out of the river, engulfing the children from below and carrying them high above the canopy of the forest. Yarah’s screams of delight and the laughter of Leo play through the air like the soundtrack of a movie Matt had long ago forgotten. When the dragon reaches its apex, it pauses, hanging motionless in the air. The children climb out of the jaws and up to the top of its head.

“We can’t risk them,” Jessica says. “We should leave them here, at least until we know Earth is safe.”

“It’ll never be completely safe, as long as Ryzaard is alive and any of us have a Stone.” Matt watches the dragon fly away over the forest with the children screaming on its head, holding on to the fleshy tendrils flowing from its mouth. “But as long as Ryzaard doesn’t know where in the universe this planet is, he won’t be able to come here.”

“Just like he wasn’t able to find your ski planet?” Jessica looks at Matt with a skeptical eye.

Matt stands up and stretches. “I was sloppy and did a lot of traveling back and forth back then. I’ll be more careful now. Besides, if Ryzaard knew where this planet was, he wouldn’t let us frolic in the sun for so many months. We’d have heard from him by now.”

Jessica nods. “So we leave Leo and Yarah here until we know more. You and I make a quick trip back to Earth and have a look.”

“Right.” Matt glances at the children and the dragon again, now just a faint smudge on the horizon. “They won’t like it. Someone’s going to have to tell them.” Matt runs his fingers through Jessica’s long brown hair, his eyes reaching out to her.

“Forget it, buster.” She puts her hand on the back of Matt’s neck and pulls him beside her on the blanket. “We’ll tell them together.”

R
yzaard walks into the laboratory at exactly 9:59 AM and finds the round table in the center of the conference room dark and empty.

Except for Jing-wei.

Her forehead rests on her folded arms.

“Lights,” Ryzaard says.

The round sphere floating over the table fills with a warm glow.

Jing-wei stirs and lifts her head. Her eyes squint up at ceiling.

Ryzaard drops into his chair. “Where are the others?” He takes out a pack of the black Djarums and tosses it on the table.

“Sleeping,” Jing-wei says. “Most of us have been pulling all-nighters for the last couple of weeks to be ready for the meeting today. You’ve been pushing us hard lately.”

A bubble of dark blue glass separates the conference room from the rest of the laboratory.

“Clear,” Ryzaard says.

The color drains from the glass, leaving it transparent. Lights flick on in each of the rooms fanning out from the central area.

Kalani Maaki lies curled up on a table in his room, his fingers clinging to a wooden club with imbedded shark teeth like it’s a teddy bear. An ocean wave curls and breaks above his head on one of the bluescreens on his desk. Jerek Grey is sitting on the floor, eyes closed with his head propped up on a piece of equipment that looks like an oversized glass cube with veins of gold running through it. Elsa Bergman is stretched out on the floor of her office in a position suggesting she has slipped from her chair and fallen asleep. Diego Lopez is still in his chair with arms dropping straight at his side. His head is thrown back, mouth open.

Other than Kalani’s streaming video of the Tongan beach and scrolling data on a few bluescreens, it all has the look of a science lab set in a wax museum. Nothing moves.

“Transmit sound.” Ryzaard pauses.

Jing-wei yawns.

“And amplify.” A childish grin crawls across Ryzaard’s lips.

Jing-wei shakes her head and looks down. “Not a good idea. They won’t like it.” Hands go up over her ears.

“Everyone up. Let’s get started.” Ryzaard’s voice booms in the conference room, picking up volume as it passes through the glass barriers into each of the individual offices.

Four heads jolt up.

Kalani rolls and falls off the table, moving his club in time to avoid impaling his face on the shark teeth. Jerek’s body goes stiff and his arms flash out, sending the glass cube crashing into the wall. Elsa bolts upright and hits her head on the underside of a desk. Diego falls backward out of his chair.

Jing-wei looks up. “Told you.”

At the same instant, the sliding door opens and Alexa walks in wearing a bright red spring dress, something she might have pulled from her old high school wardrobe. She finds her usual place, to the right of Ryzaard, and drops into the chair with the usual plastic smile on her face.

The glass wall opens, and Elsa stumbles into the central room, rubbing a red mark on her forehead.

“A bit early to call a meeting, don’t you think?” Her hands find the back of a chair and pull it out. She flops into it and lays her head on the table, eyes closing shut.