Archaeological working site – 7:00 AM
“Blood is life.” Gadiel talked to Mila as she fluttered her eyes, trying to regain consciousness. He finished applying a Salvia plaster on the biggest wound she had on her side to reduce the inflammation and chances of infection. He wrapped her torso with a soft gauze.
“I need to get up.” Mila murmured, her voice came out as a hoarse and brittle whisper although she intended it to sound firm. She pressed her elbows down on the bed to sit up. “Please, help me!” She tried to sit up but her head felt heavy and she collapsed on the bed again.
Gadiel caught her and helped her to lay down. “You need to rest until we have to go. Your body isn’t made of iron as your soul might be.”
“I see, I lost a lot of blood…” Mila said, accepting Gadiel’s suggestion. She had to catch her breath. She gazed laboriously around. She had been in that room as a child. It was Tzofia’s bedroom. It was simple, open, and natural. It had white walls with an oil on canvas depicting an Italian countryside, Lombardy. It was in front of the bed, above the dresser. A painting instead of a mirror, thought Mila, to remember your home, your roots every time you opened your eyes and welcome the new day. She gazed at the dark wooden shelves and armoires, and breathed in the maguey scent coming from those few pieces of furniture. Her gaze followed the trail of thick, dark red stains, from the floor to Gadiel’s light blue shirt and to hers.
“Well, yes, but it isn’t all your blood, some is from this old bottle,” Gadiel showed her a slender, glass container, typical of potions shelved in apothecaries in the old world. “It’s commonly known as dragon’s blood.” Gadiel smiled, seeing Mila’s bewilderment. “No, we can’t extract dragon’s blood these days.” He paused as if trying to recall a time when dragons were hunted for their blood. “Come to think about it, I don’t think we ever did. Poor creatures!”
Mila offered a weak smile, understanding Gadiel was trying to uplift her mood with a joke. “Sangre de Grado, no? That’s what it’s called here, right?”
“Yeah. Your great-grandmother also used this tree sap to seal wounds and prevent hemorrhage after surgery as we did in our time.”
“But mostly, I dare to say, it’s his Healer’s blood and the Highest helping you regain your strength,” Kei said, entering the room followed by Ifat who went to stand by her sister’s side.
The fighting had been a steady background noise. Soon they would have to end it once and for all. The virus was spreading. There were almost a thousand cases reported in Europe, five hundred in the US, but it was nothing compared to the twenty eight thousand cases in Africa. They needed the antidote, but Masae would never give up, that much was clear.
A scorching rage agitated Eli. It was building up from the depths of his soul. Too much devastation and pain besieged the jungle and stretched beyond the borders across the world. Wrath lit up his veins like a voracious fire threatening to consume everything on its path.
“Let go of me! Will you?” Masae screamed, trying to free herself from Leo’s arms.
The Sachapuyo warrior ignored her, hardening his grip.
Masae, although constricted, kept a winning smirk on her face. “You want the antidote to stop the virus. But the antidote and its formula were lost in fire. Hand over the treasure I came to get, then I might feel inclined to share my resources.”
Svend examined his men, weighing the situation, profit and loss, imagining the whole picture. Eiji and Adriel needed immediate attention, regardless of whether one of them was the betrayer. Maybe the Sachapuyo could give Masae something to make her believe she got what she wanted, then she would leave… No, she wouldn’t. She would want more, that was her nature. Not to mention what other pharmaceutical companies would do if they knew about the ancient laboratory. Surely they would also want their share. Svend didn’t like the vision: It would be named a World Heritage Site, and, therefore, available for looting by any company and by any means. No, some things had to be kept hidden and sacred.
Hadi entered the mind of the Sachapuyo in their native Healer language. We should take over before the agents agree to give Masae anything.
“Agree. Conversation is over!” Leo roared, pushing Masae out of his way, drawing his ancient sword. The three Warriors hurtled toward the creatures and mercenaries, aiming the tip of their blades to their opponents’ heart.
“I got a call to action, Mila. How do you feel now?” Gadiel said, studying her. She was regaining her rosy color. “Let’s see if you are able to walk,”
“I’ll help her up!” Ifat said, pulling Mila up by supposing her waist.
“I think I can make it. Thank you both. Lead the way, Gadiel!” Mila got up and followed the Healer as best as she could with Ifat by her side.
“We need to take all we can from these rooms,” Gadiel instructed them, walking into a chamber resembling an apothecary. He gathered the medicine containers and carefully arranged them in protective leather cases. Tzofia must have prepared for visiting patients most likely.
As they entered the room where Tzofia cared for patients, Mila stepped on a square part of the floor that felt hollow underneath. She pulled the rug covering that area aside. “Gadiel, could I have your sword? It sounds like an underground room.” She lifted the corner of the wooden floor with the sword’s point and it was indeed loose, but heavier than expected.
When Ifat and Gadiel moved the square plank, they saw that they had also lifted a limestone layer sealing the opening. They removed both squares and pointed their flashlights down. There was a set of polished rock stairs designed for one person’s use. Mila took one step and then another, followed by her life sister and the Healer. As they descended, the air filled with energy. They could even breathe it in as well as a crisp fragrance, like earth after a lightning storm.
When they reached the last step, they found that the chamber wasn’t a little one. It was as extensive as the entire upper construction’s floor plan, or even larger. Enormous shelves stood, one after another, like in a colossal library, but instead of only books, these shelves hosted labeled bottles of medicinal potions, ancient tablets, rolled up scrolls, and leader bound books.
“Tzofia was ready to protect the ancient knowledge she had in the house. Cool and dry, what an excellent place to keep the medicine in case of fire or invasion.” Mila marveled, turning to Gadiel who was reading the labels written in their ancient language.
“She understood Hadi’s architectural design of the Laboratory and replicated it here, at her home, our ancient medical center. Brilliant, just brilliant!”
They rushed to store the knowledge of thousands of years found upstairs, aided by Hadi, Amidor, Kei, Ifat and Eldad. No one else was informed of what they were doing. Although this was a tiny fraction of what could be found at the Healers’ lab, two hundred miles away, it would be enough to cause more harm than good if Masae got it.
Once Gadiel and the team finished the task, they sealed the place and joined the others. The entrance was wide open. Masae and thirty of her remaining men were advancing, getting into the foyer. A couple of mercenaries held Adriel and Eiji with a gun to their head. Eiji’s right side of his face, including his eye, was swollen from where a hybrid had sent him flying and landed on a rock.
“Stop! Don’t move any further!” Eli warned, fearing he was unable to control his ability. David Bosco’s last words resounded loudly in his mind: Let it go, Eli! Release the fire burning inside. Not all anger is unjust! Eli understood now what those words meant. He knew his fury could blaze the entire building and everyone inside if he so wished.
“Give us our men and walk away. We have no intention of hurting you!” Svend shouted, shooting at a hybrid, but the man got up again. He glanced at the two Cherut agents who were about to become casualties.
“One of them could be the traitor, my precious informant,” Masae needled, counting her standing fighters. She had thirty operational men, plus one very well placed.
“Their betrayal doesn’t change our commitment to them!” Svend replied, clenching his jaw. “The truth will be revealed and justice will be served in due time. The traitor will suffer the consequences of his actions. Until then…” He didn’t finish… an arrow whistled past him. And Leo, who was fighting behind him, caught it in the air. He sniffed the arrowhead’s sweet odor, it was aconitum napellus, a beautiful blue flower with a potent poison preferred by tribes on hunting day. He nodded with a grin, looking straight out of the doors, past Masae and her men behind her.
Masae and her mercenaries and creatures turned to look, and saw nothing but wild verdure cloaked by the morning cloudy mist. Yet the mercenaries and hybrids collapsed instantly dead as arrows skewered their hearts and throats. The two men holding Adriel and Eiji used them as shields to get Masae and four more of her hybrids into the house. They close the door, locking everyone inside.
Eli and Bastian lunged at the men keeping Eiji and Adriel who were barely aware of what was happening. In the shock of the moment, Cherut recovered the two agents and brought them behind the agents and Warriors forming a wall.
Gadiel immediately examined them with Mila and Kei’s help.
“Eiji’s brain concussion is quite serious.” Kei confirmed, Gadiel’s suspicions.
“We have to keep him awake. Eiji, don’t close your eyes. Stay with us. Look what I got,” Gadiel kept talking to the youngest of the agents, the Japanese artist. “These plants will reduce the swelling of the tissue and decrease the pressure inside the skull.” He didn’t tell him that they had to insert a probe through the skull to monitor this pressure. That would have been too much information for a person in the shock of the trauma.
“Look at your daughter, Kei, playing doctor with her friends. Do you know that she also carries my blood?” scoffed Masae, regaining her imperial tone. She was inside the house and that was another victory for her. “It must be my blood that gives her an edge! The angel has a very vicious side as you are aware: the Super Bowl, the extraction of Yasir Fariah from Gitmo. It was all her work for which I can’t take much credit.” She strolled around the roomy foyer, observing the simple chairs and tables, much like a waiting room, she thought, glaring at Leo who was too close for her comfort. “Let’s talk business then. This forest forms the habitat of most of the planet’s biodiversity of flora, and millions of species of plants and microorganisms have yet to be discovered. And, you, Sachapuyo, know so much more! That’s why this laboratory exists right here. Although I should tell you I’m a bit disappointed. The design, I expected it to be… a bit more grandiose.” Masae sneered and pinned the Cloud Warriors with her eyes. She couldn’t enter their minds with her ability. “This rainforest is the largest pharmacy in the world, and that’s my business. Yes, I want your secrets, Sachapuyo, as much as I want you to create the antidote. What is having a virus without offering the antibody?” Masae hissed, eyeing Yana standing by Eli who in turn was keeping an eye on Mila and Gadiel. “I will explain to you what is going to happen: you will develop the cure as fast as you can and you will give it to me along with the formula.”
“And why would they do that?” Svend interjected, standing with Leo. It would be easy to apprehend her and deliver her to the authorities in the UK or USA. Maybe there was a cell in Gitmo with her name.
“Because you don’t have a choice!” She laughed. “Here is your incentive!”
Yana charged at Mila and plunged a syringe filled with the virus into the woman’s spine.
Mila stumbled backwards. As she crashed against an armoire, she remembered her trip in Time to the Garden, to the dimension where her loved ones were. They told her to help Gadiel produce the cure. Mila locked eyes with the Healer who understood. They could test the antidote on her before producing it for the world. They had what they needed, including a testing subject.
“Yana! Why?” Eli roared, diving towards the defector and pushing her with all his might away from Mila.
Yana crashed against the wall, looking hurt and angry.
Kei helped Mila get back on her feet, watching inside Mila’s body. The virus was flowing in her blood. Just as he and Gadiel had seen in the infected man on the plane. So they knew what would happen and the stages that would follow.
Eli felt fire fueling his heart and mind. Fury rose to new levels, a greater heat threatened to consume him and everything, a force he had never felt possible before.
“Ay, querido, there’s nothing sadder than unrequited love” Yana croaked, wincing. It was hard to breathe. The smash against the wall had been too powerful, but the hardest blow was seeing his eyes filled up with disgust.
Eli didn’t say anything. He focused his strength on leveling his ability. If he let go of it, everything would combust, flames would engulf the place in seconds.
“You still don’t understand!” Yana scolded him, shaking her head morosely while rubbing her chest, unaware of the danger. His anger was becoming a burning fury. “I’ve loved you since we met, and as the years passed, my love for you only grew like a tumor inside my heart.”
“How long have you been betraying us?” asked Svend, approaching her.
Yana shook her head and stretched her palm up to keep him away.
“It hasn’t been too long,” informed Eldad as he arrived with Ifat. They had been patrolling the area, now they stood guarding the entrance to the house. Eldad recalling the brief moments when he’d felt the confused changes in Yana’s moods. “She camouflaged her intentions well, knowing that everyone was too distracted with Mila’s rescue to notice her feelings,” explained Eldad grimly.
“Yes. That’s right! You’ve all missed it. Our training fails us when dealing with issues of the heart.” Yana answered, regaining her composure.
Eli couldn’t contain the fire any longer. “Everyone out of here immediately!” He shouted as the wooden furniture began to crackle and orange flames climbed to the ceiling. Eli trapped Masae in his arms. “I know you don’t value life, but you’d love keeping yours,”
Soon hellish fiery tongues swept everything wildly. All combustible surfaces went up on fire.
“What are you doing, Eli?” Svend tried to traverse the atrium to reach him.
“I can’t hold it back! Please, go!” Eli cried, pushing Yana further into the burning house, and reaching for Masae. She fought his strong arms, but the smoke debilitated her.
“We are not leaving you behind! We are a team, a family, we fight together!” Svend pleaded with the agent, but a crackling wooden plank fell in front of him, blocking him.
“Time is ticking by for the many infected around the world. There is no other way, Svend! This was my mission all along, and somehow, David knew it!” Eli coughed and gazed around, the whole structure was on fire. “You must go! I’ll contain the fire inside these walls.” Eli strengthened his hold on Masae as she struggled, trying to break free from inside his strong arms. “Now please, do as I say!” Eli yelled.
“Jesper, can you walk?” Svend asked the Swedish professor, leading him out of the burning place.
Hadi carried Eiji, and Amidor took Adriel, both agents were unconscious. Gadiel lifted Mila and stepped over the consuming wooden furniture.
The ancient care center and Tzofia Bosco’s home was now a deathly trap for Masae. She struggled to break free from Eli’s arms unsuccessfully. A soft wind intensified the fire inside. Yana ran across the atrium stepping on the scorching coal that was the floor, but a large burning beam supporting the roof fell on her.
Masae gasped, watching in horror her near future.
The Warriors made sure everyone was out. Leo ran to snatch Eli out of the place, but the colossal columns snapped, sealing Eli inside the fire.
Masae tried to find her way out in the narrow space closing on her. The most visionary and powerful woman saw her end in a flash. Not just her death, but her legacy, the multinational company’s future. It would pass on to her legal live relative. The public face of her empire, Mila, and for sure to her first born, Kei. It was a turn of events she hadn’t foreseen. Masae was fainting and tried to lean against something, but every inch of the place was truly an inferno narrowing on her.
“Eli, stop it! Stop it! I’ll give you what you want! Even your precious Mila on a silver plate if you so wish!” The woman hissed languidly in a last desperate attempt to negotiate.
“I was right. You cling to your life by tooth and nail. You’ve taken so much from this world already. You’ve caused so much pain to so many people, and for what… look where you are… at the end.” Eli said, as Masae fell like a dry leaf on the ground.
Eli listened to the constant crackling of the timber, a peaceful rhythm in its right. He didn’t feel the heat, he was one with the fire for it had burst out of him. He gazed at the only exit and attempted to remove the stones blocking his way. But, although his flesh didn’t burn, he didn’t have any strength left. He sat again encircled by dancing flames. His arms hung as he sighed. It was over. “Love is also consuming fire.” Eli whispered with a tired smile on his lips. He closed his eyes and welcomed Death’s freezing arms.
Leo used his sword as a lever to wrench off the mountain of scorching hot rocks. Bastian, Amidor and Hadi followed. Sometimes they also used their bare hands, disregarding the pain until Leo was able to reach Eli. He picked him in his arms and walked out with the flames licking his back.
The clouds gathered and a great storm was unleashed as it had been for weeks. Heavenly water poured down the jungle, subduing the curiously centralized fire.
Leo placed Eli’s body on the damp earth and those that could stand gathered around. The agent’s body was unaffected by the fire and he still held a childlike smile on his lips. Gadiel examined him, hoping he was still alive, but Kei informed that Eli’s heart had given up.
“Impulsive to the end, my son.” Svend cried, holding the agent he loved as his own child as tears escaped his stoic eyes.