41 Diminishing Powers and Pig Farms

I woke several times in the night. Twice I heard strange sounds coming from outside—an eerie wailing noise. Of course, strange noises weren’t unusual in the jungle. It could have been a bird or a monkey. I’d heard stranger.

There was one subtle but peculiar thing I noticed; my glow wasn’t as bright as it usually was. It wasn’t much, but still discernible. Taylor’s glow seemed even more dimmed. It’s something that I had only experienced with a RESAT.

We slept in the next morning and woke snuggled up against each other.

“Want to get some breakfast?” Taylor asked.

“Can’t you read my mind?”

She looked at me with a peculiar expression. “That’s odd, I couldn’t. Let me try again.” After a moment she smiled. “Keep your mind on breakfast.”

“No trouble reading my mind that time,” I said.

We got dressed, then went down to the dining area, where the colony staff had laid out popovers with jams and jellies, oatmeal, and beverages—coffee, tea, and the juice concoctions we’d had the night before. After eating, we wandered around the grounds. We ran into McKenna, Ostin, and Tara.

“Hey, people,” Ostin said. “How’d you sleep?”

“Fair,” Taylor said. “Have you seen Abigail yet?”

“Not yet,” McKenna said.

“How about the rest of our group?”

“I saw Ian at breakfast,” Tara said. “He said he wasn’t feeling well. He went back to his room.”

“Did he say what was wrong?” I asked.

“Yeah, he said he was having trouble seeing. He bumped into the pastry table.”

“Ian’s having trouble seeing?” Taylor said. “That’s ironic.”

Just then a young woman walked up to me. She said in clear English, “Excuse me, Master Vey, but Señor Chispa and Señorita Abigail wished me to remind you that we will be eating lunch at noon.”

“Thank you.”

After she left, Taylor said, “I guess we’ll see Abi soon.”

McKenna frowned. “It’s not like Abi. Nothing would keep her from seeing us.”

“Chispa said she wasn’t feeling well,” Taylor said.

“Do you believe him?” McKenna asked.

“I don’t know what I believe.”

“I believe I will have another popover,” Ostin said.

“You’re obsessed with food,” Tara said.

“It’s my drug of choice. And you’ve got to admit, the food here is excellent.”

“They’ve got a good kitchen,” Tara said.

“We’ll see you guys at lunch,” Taylor said.

After we parted, Taylor and I continued to walk around more of the grounds and garden. I figured they had more than twenty acres. I wasn’t surprised at the food being grown, but there was much more than that—beautiful flower and cactus gardens.

“Everything is so well kept,” Taylor said. “They must do a lot of yard work.”

“I think it’s how they remain civilized in the jungle.”

To the southeast of the compound was an elongated building with a tin roof. “I wonder what they use that for,” I said.

“It smells like the hog farm,” Taylor said.

“Let’s go see.”

“Why would I want to see a hog farm?”

“I want to see how they run this place.” I grinned. “And I like pigs.”

We’d started walking toward the building when suddenly the lightning-fast electric, the one they called Neech, was standing in front of us. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This is a restricted area.”

“Oh,” Taylor said. “We didn’t know. Sorry about that.”

“No worries. You won’t want to go over there anyway. It’s just the pig farm. It smells awful.”

“I thought that’s what it was,” I said. “Sorry.” We turned and walked back to the house.

“That was strange how quickly they were on us,” Taylor said.

“Now we know we’re being watched,” I said. “Why would a pig farm be a restricted area?”

Taylor shrugged. “This place just keeps getting weirder.”