Surviving the Improbable Quest Page 13

  “That’s right. It has to be an overflow.”

  “But this clay had to come from somewhere. If it’s poison, then it had to be in the water.”

  “Illegal dumping?”

  “Allan can’t go anywhere. Not really. Not fast enough to get this lost. Something’s wrong.” Rubic snaps his fingers. “My brother, Allan’s father, told me about Occam's Razor. It’s a theory on deduction.” Rubic paces as he thinks out loud. Unnatural energy pulses through his veins. “We must shave off as many assumptions as possible. What is left is the simplest solution.”

  “Which is what?” Alice asks.

  “Allan was taken away.”

  “We’re in communication with local authorities. If someone found him, we’d know about it. You thinking he was abducted?”

  “The clay and how it’s poisoning me is connected to Allan’s disappearance. I can feel it. Anything else is too coincidental.” Rubic looks at the dark mountainside. “Someone might want to cover up illegal dumping in the lake, which would be investigated if Allan was found sick from poison.” He rubs his eyes. “Take me to the dam.”

  “The road’s been washed out for years. It’s condemned. Fenced off. No way could anyone get there. Come on. You’re tired. Let’s take a minute to think this through. What you’re saying is impossible.”

  Rubic doesn’t listen to her and stumbles up to the man holding the horse. He’s an Amish man with a long beard and a white shirt. “I need your horse. Please.”

  The Amish man nods quietly and hands Rubic the lead rope. Rubic tries to put his foot in the stirrup, but is seeing double.

  “Where are you going?” Alice yells.

  “Are you coming?” He finds the stirrup and steps up. He flops awkwardly onto the saddle. The horse steps back protesting.

  Alice pushes Rubic’s right foot over the saddle. “Scoot back, now,” Alice orders. She steps up and settles onto the front of the saddle careful not to kick Rubic.

  Rubic, glad for her help, hugs her waist tightly. Her warmth helps him to relax. Alice snaps the reins and they gallop away. He closes his eyes not wanting to see any more hallucinations, but a kaleidoscope of colors teases the insides of his eyelids.

  The two ride hard for over an hour. The forest gets thick again and the temperature drops. Rubic’s butt is numb, and he feels like he’s sitting on cold T-bone steaks. Alice maneuvers the horse as close to the river as possible. The walls of the canyon get closer to the river the higher they ride, and the river gets deeper. As the horse rounds a bend in the canyon, they see the dam. The moonlight illuminates the concrete megastructure. The enormity of the structure makes Rubic suck in his breath. The dam is a monolith in the dark that towers above their heads. It spans the canyon and has support ribs that segment the sloping wall. At the top of the dam is a series of spillways. One of them is open, letting water run out and down the dam wall, feeding the river. The other three are closed, but dripping. On the right side of the dam is an old, concrete control house. It has six small windows along its flat front, is built on a solid concrete foundation next to the river and extends into the cliff side. Further to the right a large, white pipe comes out of the cliff and turns. Water trickles from the pipe and filters through the gravel and back to the river.

  Alice pets the side of the horse’s sweaty neck. “Almost there, girl,” she whispers to the horse. She snaps the reins and rides up the rough side of the embankment where the service road used to be. The horse clambers up the side until it gets to the original road. Rubic shines his light on the pavement. Grasses thrust up from the cracks in every available space, but some are flattened and broken at the stems.

  “Truck tracks,” Alice says pointing to the road. “If someone does have Allan, we need to wait for the authorities. I’ve already called them so they’ll be here shortly.”

  “No. Allan’s in trouble. We go now. You can stay back if you want. Just tell me how to get into the dam.”

  “Fine, I’ll go with you. I’m not supposed to let you out of my sight. Besides, I’m the one with the medical training.”

  Alice slows the horse as she nears the large dripping pipe. Rubic falls off the saddle and barely lands on his feet. He looks at the water exiting the pipe.

  “It smells just like the red clay, only stronger.” He shines the light on the pipe. The red clay has built up on the walls of the pipe. More water starts coming out of the pipe. Rubic backs up so he won’t get wet.

  “Rubic,” Alice says. “Look.” There’s a single light on in one of the windows above them.

  Chapter 21

  The Bait Always Gets Eaten

  Asantia grabs Allan’s hand and drags him back down the steps to the dock. The beetles scramble in circles as Jibbawk slides down the steps as if it were floating. Allan holds Asantia’s hand with a vice-like grip. His mind races. The doorway to home is right behind that creature. He’s so close, but not close enough. Frustration burns hot inside Allan, and if only he could channel the energy, he’d have a lethal flamethrower at his disposal.

  Jibbawk aims a long pointy finger, which looks like a solid, black claw, at Allan. Red fluid drips from the point like a leaky hypodermic needle. The beetles skittle and move, making wet clicking sounds.

  “Sss, I want the key and I will tear through your body to get it.” Jibbawk’s red eyes widen, showing off glowing pupils.

  “I, I don’t have it. I gave it away,” Allan squeaks.

  “I can sssmell it on you. It’sss in your pocket.”

  Allan pats his back pocket. The key is in there. But he gave it to Mizzi. Allan’s mind races. “I . . . gave it away. There’s nothing in my pocket,” Allan says defiantly, though his voice quivers.

  “You’re a terrible liar.” Jibbawk’s dagger-shaped finger gets closer to Allan.

  “Back off, Jibbawk, and take your dung beetles with you. Otherwise, I’ll slice you into six pieces,” Asantia snaps. Her fingers on her free hand reach up to the handle of her long knife strapped to her back.

  Jibbawk lunges for Allan’s throat. Asantia whips out her blade and hacks at Jibbawk.

  The blade moves through the beetles causing zero damage. In retaliation, the beetles leap onto the blade and bite at Asantia’s hand, forcing her to let go. Jibbawk slashes at Asantia with his claws. They tear her leather shirt and slice her skin. She cries out, loses her balance and falls off the dock and into the water. Allan pulls the key from his back pocket and holds it up. “Take it. Just leave us alone!”

  Jibbawk snatches the key from Allan. It grabs him by the throat and hauls him up and off the dock. Choking. Can’t breathe. Pain. Beetles swarm all over Allan and bite his skin, and it feels like lightning envelops him. A scream bursts from his throat. Allan grabs at Jibbawk, his hand seizing beetles. They bite him and draw blood, but Allan doesn’t care. He wants to rip Jibbawk apart. His fists close around the beetles and he crushes them, but it only makes Jibbawk laugh.

  Wind comes suddenly. Over the top of the golden house comes a small helicopter. It looks like a copper teacup: the handle supports the black, belching motor and swishing blades. Under the helicopter dangles a metal shape. It’s cylindrical with a glass door on top. Inside is the prostrate body of Jibbawk. It’s similar to his beetle shape, but not made of beetles. Its body is completely covered in spines. The exposed skin around its eyes, beak and legs are pale and bluish. Its leathery hands lay clasped across its chest. Jibbawk looks at the helicopter and then looks at his body encased in the cylinder. It marvels at its former flesh and blood.

  Mizzi grips the controls tightly. He speaks into a crooked metal pipe with a flange on the end that projects his voice over the whirr of the blades.

  “I have something you need.” The helicopter lowers the cylinder to the steps carefully. “Just don’t hurt the boy or the girl and you can have it.”

  Jibbawk tosses Allan into the water like he’s a doll. The beetles fall off Jibbawk and skitter up the steps in a stream of a thousand shining shells. They leap onto t
he cylinder. The glass cracks under the weight until the pressure is so great that it shatters. The beetles cover the dead body of Jibbawk. They melt away like frost when it meets the sun. It only takes a moment more before Jibbawk sits up, looks at its body, and stands. Its claws are gone, replaced by articulate fingers with sharp nails and has quills. Long quills adorn its neck like a collar and short quills cover every other part of its body.

  “YYYYEEESSSSSS!” Jibbawk screams. “I’m back! I’m flesh. I can feel my bonesss, I have quillsss again and a tongue in my beak. I am more powerful than I ever wasss.” Its quills spread out like a chicken fluffing its feathers. It plucked one from its forearm and licked the end. “I have enough poison in these quillsss to kill a thousand Hetaphantsss.”

  The gateway at the top of the stairs opens. A wind, a powerful vacuum, is sucked into the doorway. A dusty darkness containing the spores of the Hubbu plant lies beyond the threshold. Jibbawk isn’t holding on to anything. Its feet are yanked out from under it, and in one slippery movement Jibbawk is sucked into the doorway. Lyllia of Meduna quickly closes the door with a pull of a lever.

  Mizzi lands the helicopter on the dock. He helps Allan out of the water and then they help Asantia.

  “You did well, Allan.”

  “Yeah, yeah, so what was hiding the key on Allan all about?” Asantia demands.

  “I had to use you to lure Jibbawk here. It was the only way to get it close to the gateway.”

  “You lied to me. I thought you needed the key,” Allan huffed.

  “The key gave Jibbawk something to follow. I needed it to think the key was its only hope.”

  “I was bait!”

  “You saved a lot of people in this world, Allan. You’re a hero,” Mizzi says trying to lighten Allan’s mood.

  “Two minutes later and Jibbawk would have popped off Allan’s head like it was a dead flower bud.” Water drips off Asantia’s hair and body.

  “Did you mean all that stuff you said?” Allan asks Mizzi. “Are we friends or did you just need me and now I’m useless?”

  “Sometimes good people use each other. They’ll do it to protect people, to spare feelings, or for the greater good. I’m sorry, I truly am. But I am still your friend and am in great debt to you. Jibbawk is ten thousand light years away on a moon called Plethiomia. It’s a very dangerous place with many large beasts, much larger and stronger than Jibbawk. We won’t see Jibbawk on this, or any other world, ever again. When you couldn’t walk anymore you thought you were useless. A burden. But you know that isn’t the case. You can still do great things.”

  Allan rubs his sore neck. “I get it. I’m not helpless. I’ve still got my hands, my eyes and my brain.”

  Mizzi gives Allan a high five. “You just passed your Testing. You’re free now.”

  Lyllia starts clapping. “Thank you, Allan. Soon, everyone will hear what you’ve done. You’ll never have to fear walking the streets of Dantia ever again.”

  “I guess I like being a bait-hero. It’s nice.” Allan blushes. Asantia helps Allan to the top of the stairs, seats him in front of the door like a package and then looks at Lyllia still sitting in her chair like a queen.

  “Can we go, Your Royal Highness? Even though we got the riddle wrong?”

  Lyllia smiles and pulls a different lever. “You didn’t get that wrong. It was Balance. There is balance to all. How you rise or how you fall. From the life you live, to the money you give. You did marvelously. When I let Jibbawk hide in my balcony, I knew of Mizzi’s alchemy. Oh, I could not let you be right because I had filled the gateway with pollen that went to Plethiomia. Trust me, you don’t want to go there.”

  Asantia grips a gold handle next to the doorway, bracing herself. The doorway opens with a swoosh of air. Wind sucks into the room.

  “Your Royal Highness, are you sure you’re not sending me to where Jibbawk just went?” Allan yells over the noise of rushing air.

  Lyllia scowls from her high perch. “I do not simply open doors, young boy. This gate is not a toy. It will take you home.”

  Asantia bends down and kisses Allan on his cheek. “Anyone else would have left me to fall into the crack during that earthquake. You didn’t. Thanks for saving me.” Her yellow eyes seem electric, her smile soft and her lips full and red.

  “You, too,” Allan replies, holding on to the top step of the stairs. “See you soon? You promised to take me somewhere cool.”

  “Yeah I did. When you’re eighteen, I’ll come see you.” Asantia’s hair dances in the rushing wind.

  “Deal!”

  Allan lets go of the step and slides through the doorway into the dark room. A dozen glass doors line walls on either side, and behind the doors are rows after rows of flowers. The door in front of the blue flowers opens, exposing the pollen to the sucking air. The pollen swirls into the room, sparking like static electricity, and surrounds him. His body jerks to the left, then the right. Something pulls on Allan’s skin. Even his teeth feel tugged. His body jerks up then down, then everything goes dark.

  Chapter 22

  Waterslide at a Zoo

  Rubic and Alice crouch down and run as light-footed as possible to the door of the dam’s control house. Rubic gets to the door first. It’s locked. He turns to the rocky cliff side and grabs a stone the size of a football. He brings the rock down on the door handle until it breaks. The door opens into a long hallway. Moonlight spills into the building illuminating the greenish stained walls. There are three closed doors on the interior sidewall and one door at the back. Rubic turns to Alice, looking at her belt. “I suddenly feel like I should have a gun.” She did not have one.

  “You couldn’t shoot straight in your condition anyway.”

  Rubic finds a branch. It’s not as thick as he wanted, but it will have to do. Holding the stick up like a baseball bat, Rubic tiptoes into the building.

  Rubic knows Allan is in here; he can feel it. Small pebbles and dried mud crunch under Rubic’s feet. He tries the first door handle. It’s locked. He considers busting it open, but when he removes his hand from the knob, he notices his fingers have wiped a thick layer of dust from the handle. No one has been in this room in quite a while. He checks the other two doors. Same dust. He moves to the last door. This handle is clean.

  “Are you sure you should go in there?” whispers Alice.

  “I’m as sure as the sun will rise.” Rubic pulls open the door. A swoosh of wind makes a ‘suuuca’ sound. Rubic feels cool air on his cheeks and sees a dim light. The room is an office with a desk, a bookshelf and a wall full of filing cabinets. There is no dust on any of the surfaces, yet the room doesn’t look used. The desk is absent of a computer, papers, pens and other typical office decor. There isn’t even a chair.

  Rubic leads Alice through the office to a far door. The dim light shines from under the door and looks wavy in Rubic’s altered vision. He rubs his eyes and turns the handle slowly then bashes the door open with his shoulder, trying to catch anyone inside by surprise. The door whips open and bangs against the wall.

  The room is huge, warehouse huge. A metal stairway off to the left leads to a catwalk. Three huge metal pipes protrude from the back wall and then bend ninety degrees to the floor. They must be turbines, one of which is on and generating power. Huge black cables run from the generator to an air conditioning unit that sits on top of a large metal box, which is almost as large as a shipping container. It must be a walk-in freezer. Along the exterior wall are tables clustered with beakers, books, jugs of chemicals, centrifuge machines, computers, note pads and shelves full of stuff.

  “Allan!” Rubic yells as he steps into the room ready to swing his stick. “Allan!”

  Dogs bark, and banging echoes throughout the laboratory from somewhere farther inside the building. Rubic turns around to see Alice. His eyes widen. She’s still in the doorway, her face tight and angry, her hand holding the handle tight.

  Her lips are pressed together. “I’m sorry Rubic. But neither you, nor anyone else,
can stop me. My work is too important. I’m on the brink of discovery here. People have polluted entire ecosystems for less.”

  Rubic shakes his head in disbelief. “Your work?”

  “I lost a daughter. Seventeen years ago. She vanished into thin air. We were in a field of the most beautiful flowers you’ve ever seen. She was in her vintage bassinet. It was white with a green vine painted along the side. I turned my back for a second, Rubic. A second.” she spat. “It was the flowers. They took her somewhere. It took me years, but I’ve found a flower. Just one and I isolated the compound and have been testing the chemical reaction for years. I’m so close, you know.” She huffed. “I believe the flowers have taken Allan, too.”

  “Flowers? Take a person? What are you talking about?” Rubic questions whether he’s hearing Alice right or hallucinating her speaking to him. “This is crazy. What you’re saying is so impossible.”

  “I know. No one will believe me. That’s why I have to succeed first. I have to find out how the flowers work. Soon, you will understand me. When Allan is never found, when they scour this mountain and find nothing, you will understand my pain.” Alice takes off her hat and tosses it at Rubic’s feet. “Never fit me anyway. Good-bye, Rubic. There is a way out, deeper in the dam. I hope you get to it before it is too late. I just need a head start.” She slams the door shut then uses her key to engage a deadbolt.

  Rubic runs to the door. “What did you do to Allan? Hey! You psycho.” He slams on the door with his fists. Anger forces his jaw shut. He feels like he’s going to explode.

  Alice doesn’t answer. Rubic spins around and presses his back to the door. He’s confused. So all this laboratory stuff is hers. What is she doing that is so important she had to dump tons of chemicals in the lake? What does it have to do with her missing daughter? What flowers is she talking about? Allan has to be in here. There is no other place for him to go.

  A red light catches Rubic’s eye. It’s from a square object sitting by the wall. Rubic leans close to the object, which looks like a pile of clay the size of a deck of cards. The clay is wrapped in cellophane with a timer secured to it with duct tape. It’s a bomb. His eyes follow wires down the wall. There’s another explosive fifty feet away, then another. This whole place is rigged to explode.