Moonless Night – Amazonas, Peru, September 16th,
2007
Cloud Forest, archaeological
working site – 7:00 PM
The clouds parted after an hour. A diamond-filled
sky appeared with a special exhibit of shooting stars. A bright
moon illuminated the forest where blood would once again flow. The
agents, burdened by the knowledge of a traitor’s existence, fought
to keep their morale high. They advanced into the trap, knowing
that it was the only way. Attacks and retaliation from the enemies
were expected in their line of work, and they were well trained to
deal with them. However, the betrayal of a team member was a mortal
stab in their hearts. Every single one had been hand-picked, but
one had a corruptible armor. Now, each was to act according to his
or her moral compass and instinct, watching sideways at those who
were once brothers.
The rest of the
Cherut arrived quietly, their steps camouflaged by the storm. The
ground was muddy and slippery. The scent of earth and roots and wet
moss impregnated the air. Some birds chirped in their nests and
monkeys grunted and squeaked, sensing danger and excitement in the
humans below.
“We are in
position and ready!” Eldad announced with Ifat near him. “Adriel,
do you have another update? We can’t see behind the trees.”
“One of the
Håkansson brothers and Mila are tied up to a tree. She might be
unconscious, her head is hanging low over her chest,” replied
Adriel.
“Do you see
Søren?” Svend asked.
“Negative.
Permission to let me get closer and engage.” Adriel answered.
“Permission
granted.” Svend replied, looking at a long and thick boa slithering
slowly away and disappearing behind a fallen tree trunk.
Adriel advanced
purposefully into the pathless wild forest like an invisible
jaguar, ready to fight. A few hybrid men detected his almost
invisible presence as soon as he stepped inside the camp. His
special ability was cancelled. “Watch out there is something
blocking my ability!” He warned, wrestling with a man. He got to
the tree and realized the fight had been too easy. He examined Mila
quickly while unfastening her from the tree and untying her hands.
“She is unconscious, there is a lot of blood on her. The wound in
her side seems to be deep.” He laid her on the ground to check on
the professor and untie his hands as well.
“That’s it! I’m
walking in. Now!” Eli stormed in, running to Mila. He tried to
exercise his power, but a painful force cooled him off every
time.
“Always so
impulsive, are you?” Yana said, finally spotting where he was. She
ran after him and grabbed his arm to hold him back, but one of the
warriors was already by Eli’s side.
“We cover you,
Eli!” Leo thundered. The four Sachapuyo entered the camp with the
confidence of who had finally made it home.
The rest of the
group slipped like feathers moved by the wind. Sweat ran down their
foreheads underneath their adjustable night goggles. As they
entered the lush forest of the camp, a wall of Masae’s lab-made
creatures greeted them. The men rushed at the arriving group,
giving no other option but to strike.
Bodies crushed
against tree trunks as the Sachapuyo sent the men flying out of
their way. The Cherut agents maintained physical and psychological
momentum; their bullets pierced the hybrids’ bodies, but they got
up again. Yet when struck by the Sachapuyos’ ancient swords the
hybrids’ were sent to the darkness they belonged. The creatures
moaned as they collapsed on the ferns and mossy ground of the
forest.
“Did Mikael know
about the power of these swords?” Amidor shouted to the other
Warriors, briefly admiring his sword. It shone brighter in the
darkness.
As they advanced,
more ravenous unnatural men came out of the woods where they had
been waiting. The Cloud Warriors brandished their swords, and like
lighting, sparks of power lit the camp every time it struck its
target.
“We prove our
trust and loyalty to the Highest in the heat of the fight,
Brothers!” Gadiel answered, piercing another lab creature with his
sword and dark shadows seemed to crawl out their bodies.
As the fight
intensified, the agents realized that their special abilities were
useless. Every time they tried, they felt as if they were sorely
smashed against an impenetrable wall.
“These hybrids are
protected by a nullifying shield similar to David’s ability,” Kei
explained through his headset after testing his theory a few times
on his attackers.
“Then we keep to
the basics: intelligence and agility,” Svend answered, avoiding a
fist on his face and delivering one to his opponent’s jaw.
“Mila is in
terrible condition,” exclaimed Gadiel, “I’ll open the door, even if
it’s what Masae wants. I have to treat her wound soon inside the
healing center.”
“We’ll cover you!”
Eli answered, shooting in the chest one of the guards lunging at
him with a knife.
Mila opened her
eyes. “Gadiel!” she whispered. “Please, take me inside my great
grandmother’s home…” She lost consciousness again.
“Adriel was right.
Her wound seems to be very deep, and she’s lost a lot of blood,”
Gadiel informed, lifting her in his arms. Svend held Jesper by the
waist with his arm around his neck because his legs faltered. The
other warriors formed an impenetrable shield, blocking the entrance
to the exposed section of Tzofia Bosco’s house, and what originally
was, the ancient healing center.
Once the Cherut
agents stood their ground preventing Masae’s guards, Amidor and
Hadi pressed the combination code: 
Uvacharta Bachayyim–choose life, and the gate
that had remained closed, opened. Walls slid with a rumbling sound,
the earth trembled in protest, until they interlocked in position.
They shed their green veneers as the ground shook revealing, for
everyone’s amazement, the complete house. Like a precious jewel, it
had been protected and kept out of sight in the most beautiful
living chest. Tzofia had built her home where ancient Sachapuyo had
once attended to the medical needs of those who came in search of
healing. Although Masae and the mole thought they had found the
Sacred Garden, the Laboratory would remain hidden.
“Agents, get
inside, we’re closing the door!” Leo commanded his ancient sword at
the ready against Masae’s rabid creatures. Gadiel and Svend moved
into the house fast.
Bastian and Kei,
joined by Leo and Hadi, fought the mercenaries who were also trying
to sneak in. Yana’s horrified screams came from Masae’s tent. The
guards muffled and dragged Yana, Eiji, and Adriel to the front
lines, each writhing to break free.
“We can’t leave
them there!” Eli said, stepping to the door.
“One of them is a
traitor!” shouted Bastian, forming a barrier together with Leo and
Hadi.
“Two aren’t!” Eli
yelled.
“We are still
playing by Masae’s rules,” Kei declared. Yet he stepped next to Eli
to liberate the agents.
Gadiel inspected the
rooms aided by flashlights. The care center was different from what
he knew from hundreds of years prior to that adjustment to the
structure. But he knew Tzofia wouldn’t change the main
construction, so he found the lamps and the oil.
“If you could,
Svend, help me pour the oil in these lamps and light them up as we
go.” Gadiel led Svend to the lamps mounted on the ancient and new
walls.
Svend followed in
awe and did as Gadiel requested. A gentle glow illuminated the
rooms and hallways.
“This must be
Tzofia’s bedroom,” Gadiel said, entering a chamber. He placed Mila
on the bed. Then he roamed around the home looking for blood
transfusion equipment. He was certain that the old Healer, the
Bosco matriarch, had everything there as Mila also knew.
“I’m fine. Just
need to catch my breath,” whispered Jesper to Svend sitting on a
divan close to the bed. He stared at his clothes stained with his
brother’s blood. He gazed at Mila’s bruised face and her side
drenched in blood. He shook his head in disbelief. Things were so
wrong.
Svend went back to
the groups guarding the entrance in the house’s atrium.
“How many more are
there?” Eli shouted, aware of his body heat rising to unnatural
levels with every punch and kick.
“Es ist total
irre! Crazy! I estimate it to be an impressive fifty…” answered
Bastian, sending another fighter thumping against a hybrid. “…lab
creatures and more than fifteen mercenaries are already down.”
“I wouldn’t be
surprised if another fifty fall on us now.” Kei added evading a
hybrid’s fist in his face with the mastery of a lifetime of
training. “But beware, this is exactly what she wants!”
Leo locked the
door, keeping their attackers out. “This will provide us a break
and buy us some time to plan the exit.”
They heard Yana’s
piercing screams through their earpiece, pleading and fighting off
the hybrids.
In a moment of
distraction, Eiji, still with his hands fastened, removed the
bandana muffling Adriel’s mouth. “Don’t open the door! It’s a trap!
The spy is—” Adriel was warning the team when he got a fist on the
back of his neck. He collapsed.
“Adriel!” Eli
dashed to the door to open it, but was stopped by Leo. “I knew my
friend was not a traitor!” roared Eli, readying his bleeding fists.
“We must open the door and fight!” Adriel had been recruited by
Svend a few months before and ever since they fought together in
many other missions.
“I know. But as
Kei said, Masae has all of us where she wants us to be, at the
other side of the door,” Leo said, looking at Hadi who understood
what to do.
What Leo means
is that we must not let the mole and Masae know that this isn’t the
Sacred Garden. Hadi used his special ability to pass on the
message only into the minds of the trusted group agents inside the
house. We must lead her to believe that she is ready to have
what she wants.
They nodded their
agreement—all except for Eldad and Ifat, who were out on their own.
They would be the last men standing if things went terribly wrong
for the team or the Sachapuyo.
“Alright, we’ll
open the door. Gadiel and Hadi will stay behind,” commanded
Leo, still using his ancient language, gazing at the group as Hadi
passed on the message to everyone’s mind in the language they
understood. “Hadi, if you see that we are losing! You know what to
do!”
Hadi, the
architect, nodded.
As they opened the
immense wooden gate, they saw Masae and the rest of her entourage,
still about twenty creatures and another ten special guards in
total. She stood grinning, with victory on her lips.
Adriel lay on the
ground. Kei used his ability and saw that he was alive. They held
the youngest Cherut muzzled so he wouldn’t talk. Eiji squirmed
inside a hybrid’s gripping arms. Yana, in an easy maneuver, escaped
the hybrid holding her by the arms and slipped inside the
building.
“Thank you. I
appreciate it!” Yana said, standing with the other agents.
““I know there
aren’t many left,” Masae observed, glancing at her men. “But given
the enhancements of the majority, they make for another forty or
fifty. And looking at your wounded, I’m sure you don’t want to
prolong this fight. So, let’s get to business, shall we?”
“Masae, how much
more devastation would be enough?” Kei said to his mother with
supplication in his voice, stepping out into the light of dawn to
stand before her. “Why follow the same old destructive paths. They
will only lead you to lose everything… even your life, and for
what?”
“My Kei, my first
son, can you see how good I was leaving you with your father? That
was the only act of charity I ever allowed myself, you know.
Surely, you’ve thought about it, haven’t you?” Masae stepped
closer, studying her son. He took after his father; he was tall and
handsome, and above all, he was strongly set in his moral
convictions just as Hiromasa had been. “That’s why I know you
understand that it’s not about money. I have plenty of it for the
rest of my slowly aging life.”
“It is the power
and control of destiny you long for, right?” Kei answered to her,
recalling the woman he last saw as a child. “Yet, that’s not for
you or any of us to control!”
“My intentions are
more altruistic, actually. I’m willing to do what it takes to rid
this world from all the misery, all the pain, all the garbage and
dirt with which it is infested! Someone must press the reset button
and voilà, survival of the fittest, once again.”
“We are giving you
the chance to do the right thing. The virus you created is claiming
many lives across the globe. Give us the antidote; we’ll use it in
your name, giving Pharma-NorTech the credit for saving the world,”
Kei pleaded, trying to approach her.
“What is
humankind, if not a destructive and fast reproducing species? What
if resetting the world at ground level is the best thing for the
planet? I’m just aiding mother nature instead of preventing her
work to keep a balanced environment. The virus will allow a new
beginning.”
Kei sent a heart
broken glance at Svend, he had to take over. He had once faced his
brother on a battlefield, but facing his mother was the highest
level of sorrow.
“Was that the
purpose for the virus? To unleash a bioterror attack to decimate
the world?” Svend reproached her, shaking his head as he called to
mind grim images of the infected in the African continent. He
conjured visions of hospital wards filled with the dying. He saw
people beyond the statistics. Such a designer virus, once released,
would be unstoppable. They needed the antidote. “We are offering
you the opportunity to make history by saving lives, Masae. You’ve
lost some of your labs, but you still have Pharma-NorTech, you
could produce the antidote for global distribution and we would
assist you!”
“You are not in a
position for striking deals. Besides, what we both want awaits
inside this construction: the ancient treasure, the power of
plants. If I understand well, and I surely do, you have what you
need for the antidote in there. Now, I’m not a generous person as
you already know…”