“We managed to make it here,” Betty said. “Best spot I could find for us to hide. Doesn’t look like much until you get close. We can see out, but they can’t see in, unless they’re right on us.”
Eleanor turned outward and saw she was right. The alcove afforded a view of most of the labyrinth, the docks, and a good length of the shoreline, but she realized the shadows would keep them obscured inside it. For now.
“Tell me what happened,” Eleanor’s mom said.
“I don’t know.” Betty sat down on a rock that jutted out from the wall a little farther from the rest. “After you all went underwater, we waited on the dock. You were gone a long time, and we started to worry. Then Julian spotted some boats, heading right for us. Finn’s dad said we should scatter and hide, to make it harder to catch us all. So he gave me the pack and I headed up here.”
“I went with Betty,” Finn said, “and Julian stayed with my dad.” Eleanor didn’t know how to interpret the flat tone in his voice.
“The G.E.T. caught them pretty quick,” Betty continued. “They tried to hide in the rocks down below. We came up here, and we’ve been holed up since then.” She smiled at Eleanor. “It’s good to see you, though. Where’s Amaru?”
Eleanor looked down at the ground, where the gray funnel of a spiderweb made a dark hole in the cracks between the rocks. At the mention of Amaru’s name, her ears filled with the sound of his groans, and her eyes with the fountain of blood from his chest. Tears were there, right behind those memories, but she didn’t let them out.
Eleanor’s mom looked at her hands. “He was working for Watkins.”
“It was an accident,” Luke said. “I was trying to get the gun away from him.”
“A gun?” Finn said. “So . . . he’s dead? You shot him?”
“Yes,” Eleanor’s mom said. “He betrayed us and held a gun to Eleanor’s head. We had no choice.”
“Watkins promised him protection if he helped the G.E.T.,” Eleanor said. “He was just trying to take care of his family, the only way he thought he could.”
The alcove fell silent after that, save the wind whistling past its opening. As Eleanor considered what Amaru had said, the world she thought she knew became confusing and disordered, as if its borders were changing on her. Amaru would have done anything for his wife and son. Skinner had sincerely believed he was serving a greater good, too, preserving some semblance of human life on the planet, even if he had to let billions of people die in order to do it. Eleanor was sure Watkins had his own reasons, and he probably felt equally justified in his actions. This wasn’t about good versus evil, this was about survival, about the best way to do the most good for the most people. It wasn’t a simple black-and-white question anymore. Perhaps it never had been.
“Did you find what you were looking for, at least?” Betty asked.
Eleanor nodded. “There was a Concentrator. I shut it down.”
Betty turned to Luke with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes,” he said. “I saw it this time. It’s all true, every word.”
“Well, I’ll be darned,” Betty said with a finality that seemed to have settled something for her.
“So, how’re we going to rescue my dad?” Finn asked.
Eleanor’s mom peered outside, down toward the docks. “Do we know where they are?”
“I think they’ve got them on one of the boats,” Betty said.
Eleanor had no idea how they could possibly free Julian and Dr. Powers. G.E.T. agents swarmed the beach and the dock, and though it was hard to count from here, there had to be at least thirty of them. At the moment, their activity centered on the divers in the water, and while that kept Eleanor and the others safe in the labyrinth, it made any plan to get Dr. Powers and Julian off the boat nearly impossible.
“What are we going to do, Mom?” she asked.
“Finn, I . . . ,” her mom started to say. Eleanor could hear the change in her voice and in that moment realized what she was thinking. But it was Luke who said it aloud.
“I don’t think we can get ’em out.”
“What?” Finn said.
“It’s too much of a risk,” Betty added.
“I’m sorry, Finn,” Eleanor’s mom said.
“What are you saying?” Finn asked. Tears had begun to flood his voice. “We’re, what, just going to leave them with the G.E.T.? How can you do this?”
No one replied to him. Eleanor knew what the adults were thinking. They had only two options. The first was to try to free Dr. Powers and Julian, in which case they would all be caught and their mission would fail. The second was to escape and leave Dr. Powers and Julian behind.
“Kid, believe me,” Luke said. “If there was anything we could do to help them, I’d be the first to do it. But I know one thing. If we got you caught trying to jailbreak your dad, letting them get their hands on you and killing the mission, he’d be angry as a bear. With us.”
“He’s right,” Eleanor’s mom said. She was keeping her expression calm, but Eleanor could tell she was barely holding it together. “I know your dad, and he suspected something like this might happen. That’s why he split you up to begin with when he saw those boats.”
“But we can’t just leave them behind! Tell them, Eleanor!”
“Finn,” Eleanor began, “I . . .” She glanced down at her feet and then at the faces of the adults. The truth was that nearly every part of her wanted to disagree with them. But then she thought about how far they’d come. They’d shut down two Concentrators already. They had a chance to finish this thing, to sever the connection and save the planet. She was certain of it.
But only if they didn’t get caught.
Finn must have seen the change in her, and he fixed her with a glare that was in some ways as frightening as the gun Amaru had pointed at her. “You flew up to the freaking Arctic to find your mom.” Then he started toward the alcove entrance, as if he meant to leave and walk down to the boats. Luke reached for him, but Finn threw him off. “Don’t touch me,” he said. “I can’t believe you. Any of you. We’re here because the G.E.T. doesn’t care about losing most of the people on earth to this rogue planet, and we didn’t want to accept that. But I guess everyone’s got something they’re willing to sacrifice for the mission.”
His words cut into Eleanor and left her speechless. She couldn’t hold his gaze. It was Betty who walked over to Finn and put a hand on his arm, and he let her. “Before we take any big risks,” she said, “I think we should sit tight and wait to see what the G.E.T. does down there. All right?”
Everyone agreed that seemed best for the time being, and even Finn nodded. Eleanor doubted this was over, but she guessed that Finn knew it was pointless to argue anymore.
They settled down in the alcove and kept watch on the activity below. A few hours went by in that way, with little said between them. Divers came up and went down. One of the boats pulled away from the dock and around the bay in wide, lazy circles. They knew where Amaru’s locator was, but they didn’t know how to get down to it. It might be a long while before they found the entrance to the underwater cave. Meanwhile, the sun was descending toward the horizon.
“It’s hard to know what we’re up against,” Eleanor’s mom finally said.
“What do you mean?” Betty asked.
“I’m just putting all the pieces together.” She stood and paced. “Skinner knew nothing about the Concentrator before he saw it. But it seems that Watkins has known about them for some time. He just didn’t tell Skinner. But Watkins did tell Amaru about this one. He called it a Tree of Life.”
“I think Barrow changed the game,” Luke said. “Watkins was able to keep a lid on everything until you went and blew it open. Seems like he’s gone on the offense now.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Eleanor’s mom said. “But how many Concentrators does Watkins know about?”
“How many do we know about?” Betty asked.
“The Sync is here in the pack,” Eleanor’s mom said.
“It has the map.”
But Eleanor remembered the image. “Two more, I think. One in Egypt, and one in the Himalayas.”
“We have to assume Watkins is searching for them too,” her mom said.
“Or maybe he’s found them,” Luke said. “He’s got the resources of the entire G.E.T. at his disposal. He could be searching for them all at the same time.”
If that was true, it would make shutting them down much more difficult.
Luke snapped his fingers. “We’ve got movement down there.”
Eleanor looked and saw the G.E.T. agents loading up their gear. The divers were leaving the water. White patches bloomed behind the boats as they started their motors.
“Are they leaving?” Betty asked.
“That’s what it looks like,” Luke said.
A few moments later, with the shoreline cleared of equipment and agents, a single figure walked along the dock from one of the boats. He held something up before his face, and the squeal of a megaphone reached all the way up to the alcove.
“My name is Pierce Watkins!” the figure said, his voice amplified, echoing up through the Chinkana. “I am acting CEO of the Global Energy Trust!”
“The old lizard himself,” Luke whispered.
“I don’t know if you can hear me,” Watkins continued. “But if you can, I want to make two things very clear to you. The first is that you will shortly be marooned on this island. Tomorrow, we will return with sufficient numbers to find you, wherever you are hiding. I can assure you I am very good at finding things. The second is that I mean you no harm. We have not mistreated Dr. Powers or his son in any way.”
Eleanor sensed Finn tense up next to her.
“If you turn yourselves in,” Watkins continued, “I promise you will be dealt with fairly.”
“Dealt with?” Luke whispered. “Wonder what he means by that.”
“Now!” Watkins said. “I will wait sixty seconds for you to show yourselves and come down to the boats. If you do not, you have a cold night ahead of you, I’m afraid, and you will only be prolonging the inevitable.”
He lowered the megaphone and stood there, waiting.
Eleanor felt so nervous she lost track of the time. No one in the alcove breathed, it seemed, for what had to be much longer than a minute. After that endless interval had passed, Watkins spun on his heel without another word and boarded one of the boats. Then each G.E.T. craft pulled away from the dock in succession, the last one towing Amaru’s pontoon boat behind it, and together they plowed away across the lake toward Copacabana.
“He’s right about one thing,” Betty said. “It’s going to be a cold night.”
“We should have turned ourselves in,” Finn said.
“You don’t believe that,” Eleanor said. “You could have shouted and given us away. But you didn’t. You know this is the right decision. And you know it’s what your dad would want.”
Finn said nothing.
“Well, we are truly good and marooned here,” Luke said. “They took Amaru’s boat. And last time I checked, none of us can walk on water.”
But that gave Eleanor an idea. It was risky, and possibly even stupid, but she spoke up anyway. “Not on the water. But maybe under it.”
“What are you thinking, kid?” Luke asked.
“The tunnels,” Eleanor said. “We passed some down there after we came out of the water. Amaru mentioned they go for miles and miles.”
“Are you suggesting we go back?” Eleanor’s mom asked.
“Maybe?” Eleanor said, still a bit unsure of the idea, but growing more confident with each moment that she considered it.
“That seems almost as dangerous as turning ourselves in,” Luke said. “We don’t know where those tunnels go. Or if they go anywhere. What if we get trapped? Or lost?”
“If we stay here,” Eleanor said, “we’re iced. They’ll find us tomorrow for sure. This is our one chance.”
“So what are these tunnels you’re talking about?” Betty asked.
“They supposedly ran beneath the entire Inca empire,” Eleanor said. “Amaru said they were a legend. But we saw them. They’re real.”
“You think you saw them,” Luke said. “All we really saw were the openings to a couple of tunnels that might be twenty-foot dead ends.”
“I’ve read about the Inca roads,” Finn said, sounding sullen. “They’re pretty famous. The Inca king could eat fish that was only two days old, if he wanted. He lived in Cuzco, and the coast was three hundred miles away.”
“That’s a hundred and fifty miles a day,” Betty said. “How is that possible?”
“Relay runners,” Finn said. “Lots of relay runners. But I haven’t read about any tunnels.”
“They’re down there,” Eleanor said, and turned to her mom. “You saw them, too.”
Her mom laid her hooked index finger across her lips. “Yes, I saw the entrances to some tunnels,” she said. “I agree with Luke that we don’t know where they lead. But I also don’t think we have any other options. If we’re going to just wait here for Watkins to catch us, we might as well have surrendered and saved ourselves a cold and uncomfortable night.”
“So you agree with Eleanor?” Betty asked.
“Unless someone has another suggestion, I agree it’s worth a shot,” her mom said.
Eleanor was grateful to have her mom’s support, mostly because it felt good to agree with her about something. Finn looked pale and scared, but Eleanor understood why. She didn’t know what she would do if someone told her she had to leave her mom behind. And it was true that she’d hopped a plane for the Arctic to go find her. But this was different. The situation and the stakes were different now, and she hoped that under the same circumstances, she would have the courage to do what needed to be done.
Luke scratched his head. “If we’re going to do this, we better move quick.”
“Will I get to see the Concentrator?” Betty asked.
“Yes,” Eleanor said. “And then you’ll understand why we’re doing all this.”
Eleanor, her mom, and Luke decided to remove the outer rubber shells of their dry suits and proceed wearing the thermal suits underneath. Betty removed three pairs of shoes from the pack and handed them to Luke, Eleanor, and her mom, for which they were grateful. Then they all left the safety of the alcove and made their way back up to the Titikala and its secret stone door. Eleanor turned on her flashlight, as did the others, and they entered the tunnel. Once everyone was inside, Eleanor turned to see if there was any way to close the door behind them. If there wasn’t, Watkins would find the opening when he searched the island the next day, and that would take him directly down to the Concentrator. Eleanor didn’t want to make it easy for him, but she couldn’t see any mechanism for rolling the giant stone back into place.
“All the more reason to hurry,” her mom said.
They descended the spiraling pathway down through the mountain. The corridor was familiar to Eleanor, and she moved quickly, but Betty and Finn took it more slowly, unsure of their footing.
When they reached the bottom and entered the Concentrator chamber, Betty stopped and stared in an almost comical way, complete with the gaping mouth. Finn had seen the Arctic Concentrator, so he merely nodded in recognition as he came in and trudged off to look at the ring of statues.
“Believe it now?” Luke asked Betty.
“I do,” she said.
“And what do you think?” he asked.
“I . . . all I can think is what my aunt Celia would say.”
“And what’s that?” Eleanor asked.
“I feel like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.” Then Betty shook a little, as if a chill had just taken her by the shoulders. “Is that thing safe?”
“I turned it off,” Eleanor said.
“That doesn’t answer my question,” Betty said. “On or off, that thing doesn’t look very safe to me. And it makes me want to get as far away from this place as I can.”
“Then le
t’s not waste any more time,” Eleanor’s mom said.
They crossed the chamber, and Betty hugged the wall, maintaining the maximum possible distance from the Concentrator. When they reached the far side, with the corridor that led to the sea, Eleanor called to Finn, who was still studying the statues.
“What were you doing?” Eleanor asked as he caught up to them.
“Just curious,” he said, head bowed. “I was trying to decide if those statues were supposed to be the aliens.”
“Maybe they helped build this place.” Luke grunt-laughed. “Maybe the pyramids, too?”
“No,” Finn said. “Not like that. We know the Concentrators predated Amarok’s people, so that puts them on earth long before the pyramids were constructed. But if some early human ancestors saw the aliens, maybe that got passed on in legends and myths.”
That was same idea that had led Eleanor to study the Titikala. She didn’t think the Inca actually knew about the aliens, but rather, perhaps they simply knew that this site was somehow connected to some mysterious power.
“That’s an interesting idea, Finn,” Eleanor’s mom said. “But we’d best keep moving.”
They entered the corridor and followed it back until they reached the intersection with the two tunnels they’d seen racing away into darkness, before they’d found the Concentrator. Eleanor looked in both directions, and both passages appeared identical as far as her flashlight could reach.
“Looks like we have a choice to make,” Luke said.
CHAPTER
15
“WHICH WAY DO WE GO?” BETTY ASKED. “I’M COMPLETELY turned around down here.”
“I think we want to go north or northwest,” Eleanor’s mom said. “That would take us in the opposite direction from Copacabana, back toward Puno.”
“Any idea which way is north?” Eleanor asked.
“That way.” Luke pointed back toward the Concentrator chamber.
Eleanor’s mom sent her light down one tunnel, then the other. “How can you be sure?”
“Call it a pilot’s intuition,” Luke said.
“I’ll go with that,” Betty said.