Radiocarbon dating has enabled us to pinpoint the exact time of the high-energy event recorded at the Laotian temple. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Earth experienced an unprecedented glaciation event, commonly termed the ‘Little Ice Age’. The high-energy event at the temple falls smack bang in the middle of the Little Ice Age, and may even have extended the glaciation due to radioactive fallout. Comparative ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic share the same high-energy residue, albeit in lower concentrations. What happened here has never been recorded before. I believe this high-energy event at the Laotian temple site altered the trajectory of the Earth and its inhabitants. Miranda’s anthropological work in the temple itself points to the emergence of a dark spirit, an entity of terrible power that threatens to unbalance our biological equilibrium: Nyx.
Brock Williams, Working Notes.
Inside the chopper was a maelstrom of noise, but Eli still heard his heartbeat over the whirring blades and staccato of the earbud comms. His fingers trembled against the railing, and the band of pressure across his chest made it hard to breathe. Concentrate. You’ve done this plenty of times now. In and out. Simple extraction. He rolled his shoulders and his carbon polymer chest armour adjusted to the movement. His osprey, Una, fluttered on his shoulder as she regained her balance. Sorry girl, Eli projected.
“Landing now.” The pilot’s voice crackled in his ear. Eli surveyed the others, hunched in their seats with their animals. Lucy’s knees jiggled, shaking the vampire bat that hung from her collar. Sara nodded at him, her leopard, Ming, winding through her legs. Chris clutched his polar bear’s flank as the chopper banked through the clouds, heading downwards fast. Eli tried to remember a time when Chris and the other convergers were still strangers but couldn’t. They’d become battle-hardened – a team bonded by blood and pain.
Dust billowed inside as Eli swung the huge cargo door open. Una dug her claws into the padded grip on his shoulder to avoid the updraft from the blades. He leapt from the hovering aircraft onto the grass below, his resistance unit right behind him. Eli braced himself as the helicopter peeled away. The convergers stepped out from the dust like wraiths, dark and menacing in their armour. Eli surveyed their surroundings. They stood in the middle of an athletics field, a row of empty stands on one side.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” Sara said, joining him. “This is a school.”
Eli took in the quadrangle of buildings beyond the field and pointed. “This is the twins’ co-ordinates. Two convergers are supposed to meet us here.”
Sara signalled back ‘okay’ and gestured to the unit to form a wedge behind Eli. The team ran toward the quadrangle, Una and Lucy’s vampire bat flying above them.
There’s no-one outside, Una projected. But the air tastes sour, like cold metal.
When they reached the courtyard, there were faces plastered at every window.
“So much for the element of surprise,” Lucy said.
“It’s like they knew we were coming,” Sara murmured. By her side, Ming’s tail whipped through the air in a nervous arc.
“Kate and Kara double check every distress call. We’re not leaving until we find the convergers. They’re in danger here,” Eli said, motioning for the unit to fan out.
Sara hesitated. “But there’s no cover.”
“Shit,” said Lucy.
Sara pivoted, the words ‘what’s wrong?’ dying on her lips.
Kids spilled into the courtyard, a fluid mass of navy blazers, screaming insults.
“Freaks!”
“Get out of here, you mutants!”
“They’re killers! Terrorists!”
In moments, hundreds of students surrounded the unit. Faces filled with loathing and anger. Eli wanted to yell, We’re not like the convergers you’ve seen on TV. We’re here to help you. But it would make no difference. The MRI had made sure of that. Everyone knew that convergers were being rounded up, tortured, or worse. Execution videos floated around the web, picked up by global media. Teenagers with bags over their heads, trembling where they stood in the firing line, their anonymous bodies falling with blossoming red flowers. If only Robyn was here, he thought for the millionth time. She could fix this.
“I’ve called the chopper in,” Sara urged, touching his arm. “It’s a trap.”
“Look!” Lucy shouted, pointing at a tall boy sprinting toward them. “See? There are convergers here.”
A sickening crack echoed around the quadrangle. The boy sank to his knees, a dog keening by his side.
No! Panic flared low in Eli’s stomach. Sara’s warning echoed through his mind. Trap trap trap.
An explosion. The windows around the courtyard splintering, showering the students in jagged fragments. The air filled with shrieks. Teenagers ran for cover, shielding their faces with bloody arms. Gun muzzles pointing from empty windows. Above the screaming, Eli swore he heard the staggered clicks of dozens of firearms. Time slowed. The shot converger lay immobile, his dog sprawled beside him, surrounded by a crimson halo. Eli spotted the distant speck of a chopper; slow, too slow. The courtyard filled with stampeding students desperate to escape this killing field.
Eli closed his eyes, calmed his breathing then slipped into the in-between. His arms moved around his body and the familiar flare of his aura bathed his limbs in red light. The red energy formed a sphere around him and his feet left the ground. Eli expanded his energy aura, aware of the bullets pinging against his defence shield. He tuned into the string of minds around him. In a heartbeat, the air filled with birds. He rose into their soaring consciousnesses, flitting between minds filled with outrage.
We will protect you, air walker, they chorused.
In an instant, the sky darkened. The storm of birds descended – a swirling mass of feathers and fury raking the attackers with their claws. A man in dark fatigues fell from a second-storey window with a bone-splintering thud.
Another mind skimmed Eli’s consciousness. We’re coming. Wait for us.
He saw a girl pushing through the knot of students, her expression tight, desperate. Out of the throng, a dark crow swooped and landed on her shoulder. The girl ran at Eli, her dark braids flying. “We’re coming with you,” she screamed above the noise of the approaching chopper.
Eli descended, lessening his connection with the airborne birds as the helicopter loomed above their heads. The birds retreated from its deadly blades. Una flew to him, digging her claws deep into the faded leather shoulder pad as she landed.
Sara grabbed the girl and pulled her to safety behind Eli. Bullets peppered the chopper. Most ricocheted off the reinforced glass but some pierced metal, sending smoke billowing upwards.
“Are they local militia or MRI?” Sara yelled at Eli over the noise. An explosion of bloody feathers billowed over them as a soldier’s bullets found its mark.
Eli shook his head, shuddering as he skimmed the dying bird’s consciousness. From this distance, it was impossible to tell who the soldiers fought for. Whirling his arms, he extended his aura, red energy flaring outwards to form a solid sphere of energy that encased the chopper. Eli strained to maintain the force field, aware of the wave of soldiers descending upon Chris and Lucy. Chris jabbed his finger at something to their left, mouthing words Eli couldn’t discern in the chaos. Eli looked for what Chris was pointing at. He recognised two soldiers. Correction. Mercenaries. A streak of sadism ran through the pair as wide as he was high. Mikey and Daniel. They strode through the chaos straight toward Eli and his team.
Sara pressed the new converger to the ground. “Shit! Looks like it’s time to go!”
Eli funnelled tendrils of red energy toward Chris and Lucy, dividing them from the onslaught. The pair sprinted toward them, leaping over bodies scattered across the ground, through air heavy with the smell of iron. Bullets kicked up flecks of stone among the dead. Birds dived in and out of the fray, talons and beaks stained red, their shrieks bloodcurdling.
Mikey pulled a sleek blaster from his shoulder holster and aimed it straight at Eli. The crackling yellow electricity arced against his energy aura. Eli smelled ozone. Scowling, Mikey primed his weapon and shot again but Eli’s energy barrier held.
“We have to go,” Chris screamed, signalling toward the chopper, which had landed under the protection of Eli’s aura. Maintaining the energy field sapped his strength, but there was no way he could leave yet.
“Go!” he yelled. Chris hesitated, prepared to argue, but Eli repeated his command. Chris shrugged and joined the others sprinting to the chopper. Sara urged the new girl to her feet. She covered her as they ran for the chopper, Ming snarling and slashing as soldiers erupted from around the quadrangle. Flashes of gunfire flickered from the darkness of the broken windows as they hurdled bodies and dived into the cargo bay. Gritting his teeth, Eli pushed his aura out further and ran through the red haze rippling around the chopper. He jumped inside and braced himself against the door. A litany of voices sang in his mind. Thank you, he projected back to the birds who had flown to their aid.
Dropping to the floor, Eli slowly left the in-between, relinquishing his hold on the energy as the chopper gained altitude. His arms trembled with fatigue. He pressed his forehead to the cool metal to quell the nausea washing over him.
“Chris?” Lucy yelled, accidentally elbowing Eli as she scrambled over the tangled limbs of the exhausted convergers.
Eli turned around. Chris lay on the floor, his armour stained crimson. Lucy ripped off her vest and yanked her t-shirt over her head, pressing it against Chris’ shoulder. Wind whipped through the open cargo bay, grasping at her hair, forcing her to brace against the seat. Eli wrenched the door shut and leaned against it, fighting the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm him.
Sara knelt in front of him. “Are you hurt?” she said, her words piercing the veil of fatigue.
Eli shook his head and pointed to the pale girl with the crow huddled in the corner. The unspoken question passed between them.
Sara leapt across the cargo bay and grabbed the girl by her shirt. “Did you know this was an ambush?” she demanded, dragging the child to her feet.
“No! You have to believe me. Please,” the girl pleaded, her eyes wide with fear.
Sara stared at her for a long moment. Knowing her desire for retribution was frightening the child, she let her go and turned back to Eli. She pressed her earbud. “Get us back to base. Asap.”
Eli heard the pilot’s reply in his own link. “Roger that.”
The grandfather clock chimed ten times. Kara rubbed her eyes and pushed away from the keyboard. Out the window, the golden fields of wheat shimmered in a light breeze. A pinging noise interrupted the peace. Her sister’s laptop. Kate had almost a dozen open screens. She was working on Hypatia’s latest column about the impending catastrophe and the need for international government co-operation. Another tab was a spreadsheet of confirmed converger sightings and distress calls. Another a box of flickering code – a reminder of how much work they still had left to do. Kara’s headache ratcheted up a notch and she rubbed circles around her temples.
Kate appeared in the doorway carrying two mugs. She handed one to Kara, who sipped the scalding hot coffee, marvelling at the brown fuzz covering Kate’s scalp. The trademark pink mohawk went the day they lost five convergers. Kara had found her sister braced over the bathroom sink, eyes red from crying, a razor in one hand and snakes of pink hair writhing in the sink. Kara still wasn’t used to her sister’s new vulnerability.
“Enjoy that coffee. It might be our last. I had to raid Bry’s emergency stash.”
Kara swallowed past the lump in her throat. Two months ago, Bry and Fletcher had disappeared, leaving only a hastily scrawled note on the kitchen table. I have to do this. “I miss them.”
“Hey – we’ve talked about this. We’ll keep looking. Hack more satellites to send on recon missions between solar flares, check the fragmentary news reports still circulating.” Kate rubbed her sister’s arm then leaned against the doorjamb. “I wish Fletcher had talked to us, about whatever it was he felt he had to do.”
“He would have talked to Robyn,” Kara replied, sinking into Bry’s big old leather executive office chair. She’d claimed it as her own the moment she clapped eyes on its cracked baby vomit yellow leather.
“Maybe. But she’s not here, is she?” Kate snapped, carefully balancing her weight on her sorry excuse for a desk chair with its wonky wheel. She sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m worried about her too. At least Fletcher has Ariana’s father to keep him safe. Bry is a bloody capable adventurer, used to long stints of fieldwork in unforgiving conditions.”
Kara surveyed Bry’s study, her gaze flitting between heavy fossils and chunky quartz crystals. None of them held the answers she sought. Kara turned back to her computer. No point dwelling in the past, they had so much work to do now.
Kate tapped on her keyboard, refreshing screens. “Aster’s going over the rest of the inventory the UN gifted us. We still have a lot of resources, and our renegade hacker is the man for the job.”
After the breakdown of the UN, the Secretary General, Ester Akintola, had smuggled them several military helicopters and a metric shit tonne of communications equipment and weaponry. More importantly, she’d sent them a small contingent of key military personnel – pilots, soldiers, doctors. The twins had wasted no time putting them to good use. Over the last twelve weeks, they’d extracted stranded convergers and smuggled them to safe houses dotted across the globe. The farmhouse and outbuildings hid the comings and goings of soldiers and convergers alike.
It was real now. People relied on Kate and Kara. Before the UN collapsed, it had still felt like a game. Hypatia’s articles, the comment threads pulling in politicians and business leaders, were a simulation compared to this. Offline, in the real world, there were no second chances. In the real world, people died.
Beside her, Kate rubbed her new hair as she hunched over her computer, checking Aster’s spreadsheets. They thought they knew everything, but really they knew nothing. Thank God Aster had arrived on the first UN chopper, goggles pushed up on his head, waving like a madman. The task before them was too much for two people. No, too much power, too much responsibility. Even between the three of them, the workload was barely manageable. She didn’t need a mirror to know she’d lost weight. Kate’s gaunt figure, the dark shadows etched under her eyes told her everything she needed to know. They couldn’t keep this up forever. Damn it, Robyn, where are you?
Kara flicked to the MRI feed. She refused to believe her best friend was dead. Ariana and Eli had searched the spirit world to no avail. Somehow Robyn had disappeared off the face of the earth leaving behind everyone who loved and respected her. It made no sense. Kara pulled up a video feed of a small cell showing a thin figure curled on the mattress. During the attack on the MRI compound in Bulgaria, Kara had hacked into the MRI’s network and could do whatever she liked, go wherever she wanted. Not now. The MRI had an army of tech monitoring every ingoing and outgoing packet of data, leaving Kara floating around the network like a ghost. Kara kissed her fingertips and pressed them against the onscreen image. As if in response to the touch, the girl rolled over and drew her knees to her chest. Catherine was alive, but they were no closer to saving her. Meddling with the network would alert the MRI techs and Kara would lose all access. Instead, she forced herself to witness Catherine’s brutal torture because not witnessing it would be worse. Catherine lifted her gaze to the camera. It felt like she was staring right at Kara. Pleading.
“Aster to Head Command,” vibrated in Kara’s earbud. She jolted upright.
“You’ve got us,” she replied, closing the video feed.
“Last extraction should have returned by now. Can you reach Eli?”
Beside her, Kate pulled up another window of code and began punching away. “Encrypted line is up.”
“Thanks, Aster. We’re on it,” Kara said, clicking the earbud over to the more secure line. “Eli? Report.”
Static crackled in her ear then a girl’s voice said her name.
“Is that you, Sara?”
“They knew … coming. I’ve been trying to … through for the last half hour, but I guess … Another flare.”
Panic rose in Kara’s gut. “Is everyone all right?”
“Chris … not critical. On track … twenty minutes.”
“Roger. We’ll be ready.” Kara turned to her sister. “Sara said the MRI knew they were coming.”
“Shit.” Kate paled. “How the fuck did the MRI find them?”
“I don’t know. We’ve been so damn careful.” Kara switched back to the local comms line. “Aster. They’re coming in hot. One confirmed wounded. Not sure what shape the chopper will be in.”
“Got it. I’ll get a team ready.”
Kate pulled up her records. “Benjamin Sakamoto, age 14. Partnered with a wolfhound. Kat Miller, 15, crow.” Kate’s leg jiggled, her fingers raced across the keyboard, struggling to keep up with her thoughts. “Did they get them out?”
“There’s so many unaccounted for,” Kara replied.
Although the MRI had seized most of the convergers, many had slipped through their net.
Kara reached for her cold mug of coffee and a blister pack of pain relief. “We’ll know soon enough.”
“I miss Robyn and Catherine. We can’t keep this up much longer,” Kate muttered.
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Kara replied, swallowing the bitter pills.
From its perch on the girl’s shoulder, the crow cocked its head and stared right at him. Eli looked into its dark eyes, aware the chopper had begun to spin around him. Nausea rose in his gut. When the floor finally stopped moving, the chopper had gone and Eli was standing in the middle of a dusty playing field. A girl in a bright sari sat cross-legged in the dirt, watching him.
“Clara,” he managed, his throat tight and dry.
Red light rippled around the last air walker’s body. Clara stroked her raven as it nuzzled her face. “Everyone is hunting the convergers. Too few have been saved.”
Eli sank to his knees opposite her. Clara was right. “What else can we do? Convergers are either being rounded up by the MRI or killed by people who don’t understand what they are. I can’t sit back and watch it happen.”
Clara spread her sari around her feet. “Landing in a metal bird in a crowded place is not particularly subtle. You need a new strategy.”
Eli pressed his palms into the red dust with a sigh. “Like what? They keep slipping through our grasp.”
“Rendezvous points hidden deep in the wilderness. Use the underground network to reach as many convergers as possible. That way you can rescue them away from prying eyes.” Clara flickered, the red glow on her skin fading. As if in response, red light flared around Eli’s skin. “And be careful,” she added as she began to disappear. “The world can’t lose you. Not now.”
“No! Don’t go, Clara. I need your help. The MRI, Nyx – it’s too much. Please …”
An eddy of dust swirled around him and Eli was thrown back into the sickening darkness. When he opened his eyes, he was sprawled on the floor of the chopper, cold metal against his cheek.
Sara shook his shoulder. “Eli, are you okay?”
He pushed himself upright. “I’m fine.”
The chopper’s engines started whining as the pilot began the descent. The nausea returned and Eli slumped back down.
Sara poked him in the chest. “You’re going to medical as soon as we land – no arguments.”
Eli leaned back against the chopper door, the sound of bullets puncturing flesh seared into his memory. Clara was right. They had to find a better way.
As soon as the chopper touched down and its blades had slowed, Ariana sprinted over and wrenched open the door. A group of medics in faded khaki ducked inside ahead of her. Strong hands took the stretcher, jolting Chris across the field, carving a path through the wildflowers. Ariana ran alongside, his polar bear, Iki, roaring in distress as she loped next to the stretcher. Skirting the farmhouse, they entered the barn. Ariana slowed to a stop, letting the medics do their job. She rested her hand on Iki’s snow-white flank to reassure her as the medics lifted Chris onto a bed and began removing his armour and clothes. Iki’s tension churned through Ariana’s stomach. The polar bear had left bloody prints on the floor. She stared at the sticky trail and swallowed against the horror of all this carnage. Once the family barn was filled with straw bales, her mother’s gardening supplies, and her brother Terence’s potato vodka distillation setup. Now the new concrete floor supported a line of bunks. Stainless-steel benches held an array of medical supplies and deconstructed weapons. Two more helicopters concealed a camouflage jeep parked on the other side. Peace had given way to war.
Her salamander, Jericho, climbed her neck and perched behind her ear. A war we must fight and win, he projected.
The sound of familiar voices arguing drew Ariana’s attention.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Sara said, pushing Eli down onto a spare bed.
“Says who?” he snapped and while he glowered at Sara, he stayed put. A medic raced over and strapped a blood pressure cuff to his arm.
Ariana joined them at the medical bay. “What happened?”
“Ambush. The MRI knew about the extraction.” Sara grabbed a protein bar and a bottle of water from a passing medic who was taking supplies out to the rest of the resistance unit. “It wouldn’t take a genius to figure out we’re picking up stranded convergers. We’ve been doing this for months.”
“I’ve been worried about the possibility,” Eli said, ignoring the medic taking a blood sample. “Clara says we have to change tactics.”
Sara twisted the cap off the bottle of water and passed it to Eli. “Meaning?”
“Rendezvous points away from major cities,” Eli said. He swigged water and reached for Sara’s half-eaten protein bar. “Getting the convergers to meet us instead of the other way around.”
Chris hissed in pain and Iki knocked over an IV trolley trying to reach him. The bear wailed in apology as Ariana and a medic attempted to untangle her, the frightened medic trembling at the closeness of an enormous, bloodied polar bear.
“Get that chopper under cover asap – let’s move, people!” Kara’s voice thundered through the barn. Several soldiers organising materials rushed out to the field.
Having freed Iki, Ariana returned to Eli’s suggestion. “On the surface it sounds like a good idea, but we’d better run it past the twins to be sure.” Ariana examined Eli’s bullet-pocked, blood-streaked armour and recalled the gentle boy he once was. In his place sat a warrior. “I wish I could have been there with you.”
“You know that’s not possible,” Kara said, sipping an energy drink. “We can’t afford for both of you to get captured. One walker per mission. Like the damn royal family.”
Especially now there’s only two of us, Ariana thought. She missed Fletcher; his stupid smile, how neatly his fingers entwined with hers, the way his stupid lips tasted. Hated his stupid plan that risked his life, her father’s life, doing who knows what. When Fletcher came back to training and started laughing and contributing ideas again, she’d thought he was getting better. But in reality, he’d been planning this ridiculous adventure. I’m fine, Fletcher had kept telling her. Thanks to you. Only it wasn’t true.
Kara rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Sorry. I didn’t mean …”
“I’m fine,” Ariana snapped, swiping away the tears. She ignored the pain around her heart. Fletcher had betrayed her trust.
Cursing her insensitivity, Kara turned her attention to the air walker. “Eli – you okay?”
“Yeah, but the extraction didn’t go to plan.”
Sara nodded and tapped Ariana’s arm. “You need to talk to her,” she said, pointing to a girl with a crow who sat wrapped in a blanket on the other side of the barn. “She’s the only surviving extraction target. Maybe she can tell you what went wrong.”
Kara drained the can and crushed it beneath her boot. “If we’d known the MRI had got wind of our plans, we’d never have sent you in there.”
Eli removed the blood pressure cuff and passed it to the medic. “The question is, how do they keep finding us?” Una flew through the barn door and landed on his shoulder, buffeting them all with air. Eli’s skin rippled with red light.
At the momentary flare of energy, the entire base went quiet. “They just – they have the resources, the reach.” Kara stretched out her arms. “All of this? It’s nothing compared to the MRI. We’re doing our best.”
Sara rubbed her leopard Ming’s ears, trying to stay calm. “What I want to know is why is everyone out to kill us convergers? We’re not the terrorists.”
Ariana surveyed the barn. Chris sedated in the hospital bed, Iki slumped by his side. Convergers straggled in, looking for something to eat, somewhere to sleep, or both. Others sat with their arms around their partner animals, trying to find solace in their shared bond. How had it come to this? The ever-present knot of fear expanded in her stomach. “Because the convergers scare them,” Ariana murmured. In the corner of the barn, the crow on the girl’s shoulder cawed.