Rise of the Elgen

  Zeus just looked at Jack angrily.

  “I’m not offering it again,” Jack said.

  Zeus turned away. “It was an accident.”

  “Whatever you say, bro,” Jack said. “Whatever you say.”

  “You guys have got to solve this. If we’re not together, we’re dead.” I lowered my head, fighting my despair. “We’re probably dead anyway. But if we’re going down in flames, it’s not going to be because we made it happen.” I looked at the man on the ground. “Come on, we need to bring him back with the others.”

  “I got him,” Jack said. He knelt down and lifted the man over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry, and the five of us walked back to the fence in silence.

  As the others came into view, Ostin shouted, “Good work, dudes. You got him.”

  No one answered him.

  “What happened?” he asked McKenna.

  “Don’t ask,” she said.

  “What’s wrong, Michael?” Ostin asked. “You’ll feel better if—”

  I held up my hands. “Just . . . stop. I don’t want to talk about it. And I don’t need you analyzing me right now.”

  Ostin stepped back. “Sorry.” He glanced at McKenna in embarrassment, then walked away.

  Taylor just stared at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Oh yeah, I’m doing great,” I said sarcastically. “My mother’s being held captive by a sociopath, we’re hopelessly outnumbered, and our friends are turning on each other while I lead them to certain death.”

  Taylor looked at me for a moment, then asked softly, “Do you really believe that?”

  I suddenly realized that everyone was looking at me. I swallowed, embarrassed at my outburst. “I don’t know what I believe.”

  Taylor took my hand. “Come here.” She led me deep enough into the jungle that we were away from everyone else. When she looked at me her eyes were filled with tears. “You can’t give up now. We’re all here because we believe in you. If you really believe this is hopeless, we might as well turn ourselves over to Hatch right now.”

  “I didn’t mean to say that,” I said.

  Her expression didn’t change. “Michael, I’m terrified. Six months ago the most frightening thing I had ever done was try out for cheerleading in front of the student body.

  “I need you to believe, Michael. Because I’m holding on by a thread—and you’re that thread. If I don’t have you to hold on to, I don’t have anything. None of us do. I know it’s not fair putting that much pressure on you, but it’s the way it is.”

  “I didn’t ask any of you to come,” I said defensively.

  “I know. But we’re here. And we came because we believe in you. And because we care about you.”

  I looked down for a moment, then rubbed my eyes. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m terrified too.”

  “I know.” She hugged me. After a minute she leaned back and said, “I’ve never told anyone this before, not even my best friend Maddie. I used to get severe panic attacks before I tried out for cheer. My first year, on the morning of the final cut, I pretended to be sick so I didn’t have to go to school. My dad said to me, ‘Are you afraid?’ I said no but he knew I was lying. He said, ‘Let me give you some advice. As long as you remember the whys, the hows will take care of themselves.’” Taylor looked into my eyes. “Your mom is a pretty big why. We believe in you because we believe you’re doing the right thing. So let me ask you again . . . Do you believe that we can do this?”

  “You’re holding my hand,” I said. “You already know.”

  “I want to hear you say it.”

  I straightened up. “I believe in what I have to do. That’s what matters. My mother always said that if you do the right thing, the universe comes to your aid, and look what’s happened so far: we escaped two Elgen traps, we found my mother, we got to Peru, and now we have a truck and a way into Hatch’s stronghold. It’s too big of a coincidence. I don’t believe that whatever brought us this far brought us to fail.”

  Taylor smiled. “That’s what I needed to hear. I’ll follow you wherever you go and slap Hatch in the face if you tell me to. Now you need to let everyone else know.”

  I took her hand. “Come on.”

  We walked back to the group. The ranchers were all awake, lying on their stomachs with their hands bound behind their backs. Sadly, the Electroclan looked about as subdued as the ranchers did, their shoulders slumped in despair. Every eye was on us.

  “I need to say something,” I said, walking in front of the group. I looked at them all, then slowly started. “First, I’m sorry, Ostin. I shouldn’t have gone off on you like that.”

  “It’s okay, buddy,” he said.

  “It’s not, but thank you. Second, I believe with all my heart that we’re going to rescue my mom and get out of here. I’m sorry I was so negative. You’ve put your faith in me, and I should have been stronger.”

  Everyone was quiet for a moment, then Zeus said, “No, it’s not your fault. We’ve been acting like jerks. Especially me.” He looked at Jack, then stood and walked over to him.

  “I’m sorry,” Zeus said. “I really didn’t try to shock you, but I didn’t try not to either. You were right to be angry. I know you said you wouldn’t offer your hand again, so let me do it.” He put his hand out.

  Jack looked at Zeus’s hand for a moment, then he took it. “Forgotten. Semper Fi.”

  Zeus nodded. “Semper Fi.”

  Taylor squeezed my hand.

  I continued. “Third, it’s time to do what we came here for. We’re going to take the trucks right into the compound. Ian, I need you to stay next to me and tell us what you see as we get closer. Look for others dressed like us, and we’ll head for their building. I’m hoping they might have a separate ranch entrance.”

  “Why don’t we just ask them?” Ostin said.

  “They’re not going to tell us the truth,” Zeus said.

  “Maybe not with their mouths, but Taylor can read their thoughts.”

  “Except I don’t speak Spanish,” she said.

  “I’ll ask yes-or-no questions,” Ostin said.

  “Good idea,” I said. “Is everyone ready?”

  “Let’s go, team!” Taylor shouted, sounding a lot like a cheerleader. In spite of the gravity of our situation I had to smile. “Sorry,” she said, blushing. “Habit.”

  We put on the ranchers’ uniforms. There were only six of them, so Abigail, Taylor, and McKenna didn’t wear them. The men weren’t big people, so the uniforms fit us fairly well, except for Jack, whose pants legs fell above his ankles.

  “How do I look?” I asked Taylor.

  “Like an Elgen ranch hand,” she replied.

  “Great. Now let’s get some information.” I looked at the men, on their stomachs. “Who should we talk to?”

  “Hombres,” Ostin said. The men looked up. “Show them a little electricity, Michael.”

  I held my hand up, separated my fingers, and pulsed until electricity arced between my fingers.

  “Let’s talk to that one,” Taylor said, pointing to a young man with fearful eyes. We walked over to him. He didn’t look much older than us, and his back was marked with long, thick scars, as if he’d been severely whipped. The three of us dragged him away from the others, laying him in a small clearing near a termite nest.

  “No!” he pleaded. “Por favor!”

  “He thinks we’re going to hurt him,” I said. “Ostin, tell him we won’t hurt him.”

  “You really want to tell him that?” Taylor said.

  “You’re right, he doesn’t need to know that.” I turned back to Ostin. “Tell him we won’t hurt him if he cooperates.”

  Ostin relayed the message in Spanish.

  While Taylor and Ostin interrogated the man, I sat down with Ian and showed him the photograph I’d taken from our apartment. “That’s my mother.”

  “She’s beautiful,” he said.

  “Can you rememb
er what she looks like? She’s probably not going to look exactly the same after all she’s been through.”

  Ian put his hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. If she’s in there, I’ll find her.”

  A few minutes later Ostin and Taylor returned to the group.

  “Here’s the four-one-one on the Peruvian dude,” Ostin said. “His name is Raúl. His family is from Puerto Maldonado, and he was forced to work for the Elgen after they took his family’s land. He says it’s the same for all the ranchers.”

  Taylor nodded. “It’s true. Those scars on his back are from the guards. The Elgen lost some cattle to a jaguar, so the guards whipped him as an example to the other ranchers. He says the Elgen treat them like dogs.”

  “Sounds like the Elgen,” I said.

  “He says that he can help us,” Ostin said. “The compound has a double electric fence around the entire property, with guard nests on each corner. Close to the compound the fence is narrower, so you can’t crawl through it like you can here. There is one main road with a checkpoint that everyone has to go through, except for the ranchers. The ranchers have their own gate on the southeast side of the compound near the building they call the ‘bowl.’ That’s where they bring the cattle in to be slaughtered.

  “He says there are guards above the wire but they don’t pay much attention to the ranchers, and he knows this because some of the ranchers sneak their wives in. There’s only one guard on the ground, but he’s not always there and he’s sleeping half the time. We can get into the bowl through the ranchers’ entrance or the cattle entrance. From the bowl we can walk right into the compound.”

  “Won’t we be seen?”

  “He said there will be ranchers around and since we’re foreigners they’ll be aware of us, but he doubts they’ll sound an alarm. The Elgen have a lot of foreigners come through their area—especially lately.”

  “Why lately?” I asked.

  “He told us that the one they call el doctor is holding a big conference with all the guards.”

  “El doctor?” I asked.

  “I think he means Hatch,” Ostin said.

  “Just like they warned us in the letter,” I said.

  “They’ve had to work extra hours to bring meat in for the kitchen, so he says the camp is in complete chaos right now. Our timing is perfect.”

  “Perfect or perfectly awful?” Taylor said.

  “We’ll find out soon enough,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  “What about the ranchers?” Taylor asked. “We can’t just leave them here. It’s the jungle. Something will, like, eat them.”

  “If they work for Hatch, they deserve it,” Zeus said.

  “No,” I said. “They might be victims of the Elgen too. But if we let them go, they could alert the Elgen.”

  “I vote that we bring Raúl with us,” Ostin said. “He could help us. Then, when we’re done, he can come back on his own and free them.”

  I thought over the idea. “You trust him that much?”

  Ostin nodded. “I do.”

  I looked at Taylor. “How about you?”

  “Me too,” she said.

  I was doubtful but said, “Let’s talk with him.”

  “He understands a little bit of English,” Ostin said.

  “Can you help us get in?” I asked.

  Raúl nodded.

  “If you help us, we’ll let you come back and free the others. Do you understand?”

  He nodded again.

  I looked at Taylor, and she nodded. “All right.” I pulsed and melted through Raúl’s ropes, which seemed to both intrigue and frighten him. Ostin gave him back his clothes and waited for him to dress. “Let’s go,” I said.

  “Vámonos,” Ostin said.

  The four of us walked back over to the others. They were surprised to see the rancher with us. “Raúl knows the way, so he’s going to drive the first truck. Jack, you follow us.”

  Jack looked at Raúl suspiciously. “You sure you can trust him?”

  “Taylor read his mind. She trusts him.”

  “Ostin,” Jack said. “Translate this.” He pointed at Raúl. “You betray us, I’ll make sure you go down with us. Understand?”

  Ostin translated. Raúl frowned.

  Zeus added to the threat. “Tell him that if he turns us in, I’ll electrocute him first. Make sure he understands that.”

  Ostin nodded and translated that as well.

  Raúl looked as indignant as he was afraid. “Los odio también,” he said.

  “He says he hates the Elgen too,” Ostin said.

  “We’ll see,” Jack said.

  “Raúl will drive the first truck,” I said to Jack. “You, Zeus, Ian, Abi, and McKenna follow us. Stay close.”

  The warning lights on the electric fence still hadn’t come on, so I checked it once more, then we all climbed through and walked to the trucks.

  Raúl said something to Ostin, who seemed to be nodding his head in agreement.

  “What did he say?” I asked.

  “He says we should bring back the bull. Otherwise it will look suspicious.”

  I looked over at the dead animal. “Good idea.”

  Raúl got in the truck and finished hoisting the bull into the truck bed.

  * * *

  The ranch was nearly five miles in diameter and was composed of hilly terrain. We drove for several minutes before we could even see the compound. The sight of it filled us all with dread.

  We drove on, crossing diagonally across the main road to avoid other cars and trucks.

  As Raúl had explained, the compound was surrounded by two large fences with guard towers perched high on the corners, the silver barrels of their mounted machine guns glistening in the sun. The place reminded me of the pictures I’d seen in my history book of World War II German prison camps, though this place was clearly much more high-tech.

  The compound’s checkpoint was a hive of activity, with trucks, cars, and buses backed up for more than a hundred yards and dozens of guards, many with leashed dogs, checking the vehicles that awaited entry. The dogs were large and muscular, and I wondered what breed they were.

  “Rottweilers,” Ostin said, as if reading my mind.

  “What?”

  “That’s what type of dogs those are. Very powerful. I wonder if they’re electric.”

  The guards were wearing the same Elgen uniforms as the guards who had attacked our safe house.

  As we got closer to the compound my tics increased and I began to gulp, something I didn’t notice until Taylor started gently rubbing my back. The compound was bigger than I expected and reminded me a little of the Boise State University campus, without the football stadium.

  The Starxource plant, at the east end of the compound, was by far the largest of the buildings. I guessed it had to be nearly a hundred yards in diameter. Above it were three large exhaust pipes from which white smoke billowed into the air.

  “Look at all that pollution,” Taylor said. “I thought this was supposed to be clean energy.”

  “It is,” Ostin said. “Those are cooling towers. That’s steam emission. I’d bet my frontal lobe that’s where the rats are.”

  Raúl pointed to a small gate near the plant and said, “There.”

  “There’s the entrance,” I said. “Be alert.”

  “Todo el tiempo esta allá,” Raúl said.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “He said the guard’s there,” Ostin said.

  “Should we turn back?” I asked.

  Ostin asked Raúl, then said, “He says no. That would be too suspicious looking.”

  “I’ll take care of him,” Zeus said.

  “No,” Taylor said. “Let me try first.”

  Raúl pulled the truck slowly up to the gate. The man at the gate, a stocky Peruvian man nearly as wide as he was tall, looked at us sternly. He said to Raúl, “Quiénes son estos gringos? Dónde están Cesar y Alvaro?”

  Suddenly the man bent over, grimacing and
holding his head.

  Taylor said to Ostin, “Tell him that he’s been expecting us, and we’ve just brought the bull back that was causing the problems.”

  Ostin translated.

  The man blinked a few times, then waved us on. “Sí. Adelante.”

  I turned to Taylor. “That was cool.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  Raúl pulled through the gate. I motioned to Jack to follow us.

  “Whoa,” Ian said. “You won’t believe what I’m seeing.”

  “The bowl?” Ostin said.

  “Yeah, it’s full of rats. Millions of them. And they’re glowing like us. Only brighter and sort of an orange-red.”

  Raúl drove the truck up to the first of three metal doors. Even though we couldn’t see anyone, the door slowly began to rise. Raúl said something to Ostin.

  “This is where they take the meat to be processed,” Ostin said. “We have to pull in here. It’s their procedure, and it would look suspicious not to.”

  I looked into the dark entrance. Five men in ranchers’ uniforms were waiting on the side of the concrete slip. Raúl slowly backed up into the space until a light came on. Jack pulled the second truck up to the side of the door.

  “No,” Raúl said. He began saying something very quickly to Ostin.

  “He can’t park there,” Ostin said. “He needs to pull up next to the other trucks.”

  I hopped out of the truck, squeezing between the concrete wall and the vehicle until I was outside the building and close to Jack. “Raúl says to park there,” I said, pointing. “But back in, just in case we need to make a run for it. Then meet us inside the building.”

  “Got it,” Jack said.

  When I returned, everyone was out of the truck and Raúl was talking to some of the ranchers who were inspecting the bull.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “They’re trying to decide whether to use the bull to feed the guards or the rats. If it’s the guards they’ll send it to the butcher. If it’s the rats it goes to the grid.”

  “What’s the grid?”

  Ostin pointed up. Half of the room’s ceiling looked like the underside of a steel bowl. “The grid is where they make electricity from rats,” he said.

  The men appeared to have made a decision because an electric forklift drove up to the back of the truck and lifted the bull, then carried it over to a metallic cage connected to a hydraulic lift. The bull was carefully lowered onto the platform.