47 The Blue Man

I walked back down the corridor, making sure that Epicurus wasn’t waiting outside, or anyone else for that matter. I needed solitude and fresh air to clear my head. It wasn’t quiet out; the sound of buzzing insects filled the air. I walked around the dining area. The lights were out. The only lights were the solar lanterns that hung around the outside of the yard.

I walked outside the gated courtyard back to where Taylor and I had been walking before Neech had stopped us. I looked around to see if anyone was watching, knowing full well that they might have been watching me since I left the room.

There wasn’t much to the building I was curious about. It was long and narrow, about fifty yards from the main house. It looked like an old stable, though I couldn’t see any evidence of animals on the property. It didn’t look like it belonged to the rest of the complex or had been built along with it. It looked as if it had been quickly thrown up as an afterthought. It was much cruder and cheaper in design, built from stacked concrete blocks, held together with mortar. It had a tin roof and shuttered windows that shut from the outside.

As I walked to the building, I kept glancing back to see if anyone was following me. When I got close, I saw that there were fresh tracks in the dirt around it.

The door had a padlock, but it was not locked in place. I pushed open the door. The stench of the place was nearly overwhelming, almost enough to change my mind about looking inside, but something pushed me to keep exploring.

It was dark inside. I felt around for a light switch, then caught the glimmer of one reflecting my much-diminished glow. I turned it on. Bare lightbulbs, hanging from a draped power line, illuminated the length of a concrete walkway that ran down the center of the building, with doors on each side. Peculiarly, it had normal, human-sized doors, not large enough for a horse or cow, each with a single vertical slot for a window.

I walked up to the first stall. The door was padlocked, which surprised me, since barn animals aren’t much into opening doors even without locks. I looked inside the window. I almost wretched. What I saw was as grotesque as the smell.

It took me a moment to realize that what I was looking at wasn’t an animal. It was a human. His body and what little clothing he wore, pants torn into shorts, were as filthy as his surroundings. His stringy and matted hair was long, down to his waist, as was his beard. The ground he lay on was mostly straw, some of which had been piled to one side of the cell, I suppose for his bed. There were two galvanized metal buckets. One, on one side of the room, had water; the other was most likely used as a toilet. There was a pie-tin-like bowl that had small bones in it, small enough to be those of a rodent. Oddly, the human’s skin was a dark shade of blue.

My first thought was that they had captured an alien. Ostin had told me that UFO sightings were common in this region, enough to make it a hot spot in South America. Even recently, police had responded to reports of an eight-foot-tall, armored creature attacking locals in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.

Then the creature’s eyes locked on mine. A chill went through my body. What am I looking at?

After a moment I said, “Hello,” wondering if he could speak.

He just looked at me, his eyes as deep as wells. Something about them was more sorrowful than I can convey.

“Do you speak?” I asked.

He continued to look at me, sitting up slightly. He appeared interested in me as well. The more I looked at him, the more convinced I was that he was some kind of human or ape. Then he said in crisp English, “I speak six languages.”

The response shocked me. “You speak good English.”

“So do you.”

“What are you doing in here?”

He ignored my question. “Who are you?”

“I’m Michael. What’s your name?”

“Why does your face glow green?”

“I’m electric. Like the other people in the colony. Only, we’re from somewhere else. So we glow green, not red. Why is your skin blue?”

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from the United States.”

“Be more specific.”

“Idaho.”

“The great state of Idaho,” he said. “Esto perpetua. The Gem State. Land of potatoes and millionaires. Boise?”

“Meridian.”

“You are a long way from Meridian, electric boy. Why are you here?”

“I wanted to see what this building was being used for.”

“I meant why are you here at the colony?”

“Why are you in here?” I asked.

For the first time he answered my question. “Because I was a threat to him.”

“Who is him?”

“Chispa. I was Dr. Sam’s choice to lead the colony, but after the guerillas killed the doctor, Chispa took over the colony by force. We’ve been locked up in here for three years, one month, and eight days.”

“There are others?”

“There is one electric besides me. The rest were killed or banished.”

“If you’re an electric, why don’t you glow?”

“The same reason my skin is blue.”

“Is that some kind of a riddle?”

“Almost everything Chispa does is a riddle, but not why he puts colloidal silver in our water. The overuse of colloidal silver will turn skin blue.”

“Why would he make you drink silver?”

His brow furrowed. “I’m surprised you don’t know. Silver, if ingested, takes away our powers. I assume he’ll be giving it to you. If he hasn’t already.”

I remembered what the old silversmith had said to me. Do not drink the silver. It finally made sense.

“That’s why the water tastes metallic. I asked him about it. He just said there’s a lot of minerals in the water.”

“There are minerals in the water because he puts minerals in the water. Why are you blinking like that? Do you have Tourette’s syndrome?”

“Yes.”

He nodded. “I thought so.”

“Will the color ever go away from your skin?”

“No. It’s permanent, which amuses him. It’s his way of humiliating me. He calls me Papa Smurf. You didn’t answer my question. Why would you come here? Outsiders who come here never return home.”

“We came to rescue a friend.”

“Abigail,” he said.

“You know her?”

“I don’t know her. I know twelve days of her screaming with pain. He was trying to break her. Like a horse. But she wouldn’t break. Not until they caught her boyfriend. It was the leverage Chispa needed to control her.”

“Her boyfriend? You mean Jack?”

He nodded.

“Jack was here?”

“Not was. He still is. He’s in the last stall.”

His words took my breath away. “I’ll be back.”

“I doubt it,” he said.

I ran to the far end of the walkway. Visible through the slot in a thick wooden door in the last stall, Jack was hanging from his wrists by a rope. I didn’t recognize him at first because of the mud, blood, and bruising that covered his face and body. He wore only pants that were mud-caked and bloodstained. His head had been shaved and was covered in dirt and mud, mixed with straw. He had obviously been beaten. Likely many times.

“Jack?”

He looked up. His eyes were black and swollen, as was most of his face. He looked at me with a distant gaze, as if he’d been drugged. I tried to open the door, but it was padlocked like the first door I’d come to. Since my emotions were up, I wondered if I could generate enough power to melt it.

I took a deep breath and surged with all my power. There was nothing but a weak trickle of electricity. I tried again but had even less power. I kicked the door with frustration.

“Amazing how quickly the colloidal water kicks in,” someone shouted.

I looked over to see Chispa and three of his men—Neech, Horse, and Sart—walking into the stable.

“It’s the silver’s conductivity, of course. It’s the most conductive metal on the planet. The best we can figure is that once it’s absorbed into the body’s cells, it grounds out the electric’s power.”

I looked at him hatefully. “You lied about everything.”

“Well, you came to kill us, so there’s that.” He walked closer. “You finally found your friend Jack. I wondered how long it would take you. Your buddy Ian saw him early on. That’s why you haven’t seen much of Ian lately. He’s not in his room as you thought. He’s inside our holding jail in the basement of the clinic.”

He stopped about fifteen feet from me. “If you’re wondering how we caught your friend Jack, it’s the same as you. The VRAEM has eyes. We knew the moment your friends entered the jungle. I admit we were surprised that none of them were electric, but it only took us a few minutes to figure out that they were probably the rescue team, and you were the distraction to draw us from our fortress.

“After we subdued them, we took the trackers off their bodies and Neech ran the trackers up north to distract you for a bit while we prepared for your arrival. You might have noticed that Neech moved too quickly a few times. But we guessed you would probably just think it was a satellite delay problem.

“Then we used your own device to track you. Not that we needed it. Rand could have smelled you a mile away, but the tracker gave us such precise timing and location. We just followed you the whole way into us.” His eyes narrowed. “Like a spider watching her web.”

“Where’s the rest of Alpha Team?” I asked.

Chispa’s mouth twisted in amusement. “Yes, well, they were expendable. So, you won’t be seeing them again.”

His words fell onto my chest like a bag of concrete. “You killed them.”

“Of course we did. Outside of lover boy Jack, we had no use for them. And, as you can see, we’re all full here.”

“You are sick.”

“Maybe, but I’m not unreasonable. Alpha Team would have done the same to us. It was a little pathetic how easy it was to dispose of them. But Jack, he’s been useful. He’s been very effective at getting Abigail to do whatever I want.”

“Jack would never tell Abigail to help you.”

“He doesn’t have to tell her to help me. I just connect her actions to Jack’s treatment. If she displeases me, Jack gets a lashing. If she doesn’t smile at me, Jack goes a day or two without water. Simple cause and effect. It’s extremely effective.

“That little trick she tried at dinner, drawing Jack’s tattoo out of salt? That was clever. I never would have caught it if it weren’t for Taylor’s help. Jack paid severely for that. That’s why he’s currently bleeding. I guarantee Abigail won’t ever try anything like that again.”

“You are as sick as you are merciless.”

“Guilty of the latter,” he said, smiling. “And proudly so. Everyone wants mercy when they’re the sinner. But the moment they’re the victim, they’re crying for justice and complaining that life is ‘unfair.’ Justice is order. Mercy is chaos. It’s been a hard lesson for Abi, but she’s learning.”

“And what happens when Jack dies?”

“He’ll last a while. And after he does, she’ll already be broken. She’ll do exactly what she’s told to do.”

“You’re insane.”

“No, I’m not!” he shouted, and his lip curled. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself. “No. I’m not.”

When he was back to his composed self, he said, “Take him.”

Before I could move, Neech had me from behind. Then Sart and Horse grabbed me as well and held me still.

“Let’s see what you’ve got there. Show me what’s on that finger.”

Horse lifted my left hand.

“You have that engagement ring. You won’t be needing that.”

He tried pulling it from my finger, but I closed my hand so he couldn’t take it.

“Or Sartre could just burn your finger off. Your choice.”

I opened my hand.

“Good choice.”

“It’s mine,” I said.

He put the ring onto his own finger. “It fits. Tell you what, you can have it back when you take it from my dead body.”

“It’s a deal,” I said.

He just laughed. “And this medallion. A Saint Jude—patron saint of lost causes. Appropriate, but obviously this one’s not working. And a cross. I’ll be taking those.” He yanked the chain from my neck. Then he reached into my pants pockets. He pulled out the fish. He held it up to examine it. “Isn’t that interesting. Where did you get that?”

I didn’t answer.

“It doesn’t matter. The design and workmanship look ancient. This is a relic, isn’t it?”

I still didn’t answer.

“I’ll keep it for good luck.” He put it into his front pocket. “All right, I’m done here. Men, give Michael the usual welcome. Don’t use your powers. He still might be able to feed off them. Then I’m going to go have a little talk with Taylor.” He held his hand up to show me my ring. “I wonder how long it will take her to notice I’m wearing your ring.”

I threw a punch at Sartre and knocked him down, then lunged for Chispa, but Neech was instantly between us. He began punching me. His fists were moving so fast, I couldn’t see them, but I felt each hit and the blood running down my face. Sartre began wailing on me as well. The two of them beat me unconscious.