Island of the Sun

“Are you aware of the Barrow terrorists? The ones who bombed Polaris Station?”

  “I might have heard something about that, yes.”

  “A plane landed in Fairbanks in the last two hours,” said a different male voice. “We have reason to believe the terrorists were on it.”

  Eleanor looked at Luke. It seemed they’d found Consuelo, and Eleanor had no idea what that would mean for their escape.

  “What does this have to do with me?” Betty asked.

  “You’re familiar with the pilot. Lucius Fournier?”

  Luke silently folded his arms and glowered.

  “I know him,” Betty said. “He brings my shipments on occasion.”

  “Have you seen Mr. Fournier tonight? Has he come here?”

  “No,” Betty said.

  “Would you mind if we look around your workshop?”

  Eleanor swept the tiny room with a panicked glance. They had nowhere to hide if the G.E.T. agents were to come through that door.

  “As a matter of fact,” Betty said, “I do mind.”

  “Why is that?” the first man asked. “Do you have something to hide?”

  “Harboring terrorists is a serious crime,” said the second.

  “The work I do is sensitive,” Betty said. “I don’t think my clients would like the idea of a couple of G.E.T. suits snooping around. Some of them happen to be your competition. Besides, if these are terrorists, as you say, why is it you here looking for them, and not the feds? And just why exactly do you have those guns?”

  A moment of silence followed that question.

  “Whatever you’re thinking about doing right now,” Betty said, “I’ve got plenty of friends in town who owe me. Lots of people go missing up here.”

  “Are you threatening us?”

  “No more than you’re threatening me.”

  Another moment of silence.

  “We can come back with law enforcement,” the second voice said. “And a warrant. If that’s what you want.”

  “You do that,” Betty said.

  “If you see Lucius Fournier,” the first voice said, “call this number.”

  “Uh-huh,” Betty said.

  “We will be back, Ms. Cruz.”

  “Preferably during daylight hours,” Betty said. “Good night, gentlemen.”

  A moment later, Eleanor heard the sound of the hatch shutting, and then Betty’s stomping, coming toward them before she stormed back into the room, pointing a finger at Luke. “All right, you better tell me right now what happened to that research station.”

  “We didn’t bomb it,” Luke said.

  “It was Skinner’s fault,” Eleanor said.

  Betty’s eyes widened. “Aaron Skinner?”

  “Yes,” Eleanor’s mom said. “He came in to take control of the Concentrator. He placed Polaris Station directly over the site, to drill. When Eleanor shut the Concentrator down, the cavern collapsed, taking the station with it.”

  “Is that a fact?” Betty said, her tone not quite one of disbelief, but almost. She turned to Eleanor. “And what was this more you were going to tell me about before those G.E.T. goons showed up?”

  Eleanor paused for a moment to consider how she might say it.

  “Out with it,” Betty said. “I can’t see this getting any more far-fetched.”

  Okay, then. “There’s a planet up there,” Eleanor said, pointing up at the ceiling. “The Concentrator is feeding energy to it.”

  “A planet,” Betty said, her voice flat. “A planet planet.”

  “Yes,” Eleanor said.

  “As in—Mars?”

  “This planet is not from our solar system,” Eleanor said. “It’s a . . . It’s come here to drain the earth.”

  “I was wrong,” Betty said. “This is more far-fetched.”

  “But it’s true,” Eleanor said. “I swear.”

  “Do you?” Betty asked, and with a sarcastic chortle followed up with an equally sarcastic “Have you been there?”

  Eleanor thought back to the vision, the way her mind had somehow connected with the Concentrator and then ridden on the back of a beam of converted dark energy to the impossible surface of the rogue world, which appeared every bit as contorted and unknowable as the Concentrator itself.

  “Yes,” Eleanor said. “I have. Sort of.”

  Betty looked sharply from Eleanor toward her mom, and Eleanor noticed her mom was gazing down at the floor. Dr. Powers wasn’t looking up either, and Finn and Julian were glancing sidelong at each other. This was the part none of them understood. But at least Luke gave Eleanor a gentle, if slightly worried, nod.

  “Sort of?” Betty asked.

  “Not physically,” Eleanor said. “It was . . . a kind of dream. But it felt real.”

  “So this is all based on a dream you had?” Betty asked.

  “No, there is a planet-sized object out there,” Dr. Powers said. “A rogue world, one of countless drifting through the cold vacuum of space between solar systems. But this one has entered our solar system. It’s why the earth’s orbit has shifted, and why this new ice age has occurred. Why it’s there . . . we’re not entirely sure. But the invading planet’s gravity is pulling us away from the sun. The mathematics prove it, without a doubt.”

  Despite what he said, Eleanor did know why it was there.

  Next to their father, Finn and Julian kept mostly quiet but nodded along with him, appearing very accustomed to hearing him lecture, but also appearing more comfortable with this explanation than Eleanor’s.

  “Then why can’t we see this planet?” Betty asked.

  “It doesn’t fully appear in the visible spectrum,” Eleanor’s mother said. “It may be that it’s beyond our perception.”

  “Beyond our perception?” Betty asked. “What, like a dog whistle or something?”

  “Something like that,” Dr. Powers said. “Or infrared light. It seems we didn’t evolve with the necessary biology to grasp the rogue planet.”

  “I see,” Betty said. “And somehow you’re the only ones who’ve figured this out.”

  “No,” Eleanor’s mom said. “The UN knows everything, the G.E.T. knows everything, and they’re working very hard to hide it. That’s the conspiracy.”

  “They know why the Freeze happened,” Betty began, “and they’re keeping it secret? Why the hell would they want to hide it?”

  “We don’t know the answer to that, but Skinner spoke of the Preservation Protocol.”

  “More conspiracy theory,” Betty said. “And where is Skinner now?”

  “He . . .” Eleanor took a breath and cringed as she continued. “He got trampled by a woolly mammoth.”

  “You know”—Betty tipped her head to one side—“considering everything you’ve been telling me, that sounds about right.”

  “He refused to see reason,” Eleanor’s mom said. “He was a brilliant man, but he got so much wrong. He thought we should use the Concentrator, tap its energy somehow. He didn’t understand that it was connecting us to the rogue world. He believed he was doing what was best for the earth and the human race; it never occurred to him that we might not be able to control it.”

  “Hey,” Julian said. “Now that he’s gone, who’s in charge of the G.E.T.?”

  “That would be the chairman,” Dr. Powers said. “Pierce Watkins.”

  “I’ve met him,” Luke said. “That old lizard had the nerve to come on my plane.”

  “He’s even more arrogant than Skinner,” Eleanor’s mom said. “And more ruthless.”

  Eleanor remembered Dr. Watkins, though from her stowaway hiding place, she hadn’t seen him. She had only overheard the conversation in Consuelo’s cargo hold, back in Phoenix before she’d taken off for the Arctic in the first place. That seemed like a very, very long time ago.

  “If what you’re saying is true . . . ,” Betty said, but didn’t finish the thought.

  “Come on, Cruz,” Luke said. “You know me. I don’t sign on for nothing unless it pays, and God knows the
re ain’t any money in this. And I ain’t a terrorist. So if I didn’t do what they’re saying I did, then why else would the G.E.T. be sending armed agents to your door to threaten you in the middle of the night?”

  “Well,” Betty said, “you must have done something.” But she didn’t sound convinced of it herself. “Speaking of which, those agents will be back, and probably with a warrant. They knew I was lying.”

  “Then we’ve gotta get out of here,” Julian said.

  “Agreed,” Dr. Powers said.

  “They’re probably watching my place.” Betty slumped down on the couch and leaned back into the cushions, arms folded, staring ahead as she pinched her lips a little with her thumb and index finger. “And they’ve got Consuelo. You’re not going anywhere without a major distraction.”

  “Got any ideas?” Luke asked her.

  “Maybe,” Betty said.

  “So you believe us?” Eleanor asked. “You’ll help us?”

  “I didn’t say I believed you,” Betty said. “At least, I don’t know what to believe right now. But I know Luke, and if he vouches for the rest of you, then I believe him.”

  “So what’s your idea?” Luke asked.

  “Those two are probably the only G.E.T. agents left in town,” Betty said. “If there were more, they would have brought them just now as a show of force. Most of the others got called up to Barrow several days ago, I guess for this Concentrator thing you found. That means your plane won’t be too heavily guarded.”

  “But won’t they just pay some of the locals to help?” Eleanor’s mom asked.

  “Oh, definitely,” Betty said. “That’s why we need a gush.”

  “A what?” Eleanor asked.

  Her mom, Luke, and Dr. Powers all nodded along with one another, obviously aware of something that eluded not only Eleanor but, it seemed, Finn and Julian as well.

  “What’s a gush?” Finn asked.

  Betty rose from the sofa and left the room, and everyone else followed after her, ignoring Finn’s question. In her workroom, Betty walked to a crate and pulled out a long, rolled-up piece of paper, which she brought to her desk and spread out beneath the light of the lamp. It was a map, as near as Eleanor could tell, with both concentric and crossing lines.

  “Right here.” Betty pointed to a spot that made no sense to Eleanor, because the map made no sense to her. “People have been poking around out here.”

  “They find anything?” Luke asked.

  “Nah,” Betty said. “There’s nothing there. But it’s believable, and it’s pretty far out there.” She reached into a drawer in her desk and pulled out a paper form, which she laid on top of the map and started filling in.

  “What’s a gush?” Finn asked again.

  “Is it like a gold rush?” Eleanor asked. “For oil?”

  “Yes,” her mom whispered.

  Luke leaned in closer to Betty. “Are you sure about this? It’ll ruin you.”

  “It’s the only way you’re getting out of here,” she said. “Besides, I was ruined the minute I let you all through that door. Even if you’re gone when those G.E.T. agents come back, they’ll make sure I’m blacklisted. They might even try to have me arrested. Whatever’s going on, they know I know something. I’m an accomplice now.”

  “I’m sorry,” Luke said. “We shouldn’t have come.”

  “No,” Betty said. “I should’ve turned you away.” And then they both chuckled. A moment later, Betty finished the form and held it up in front of her at arm’s length. “There,” she said. “This ought to get everyone’s attention.”

  “What is it?” Julian asked.

  “It’s an analysis report,” Betty said, “for a very rich oil deposit that doesn’t exist.”

  “I see.” Julian nodded. “So the goal is to make everyone think there’s oil out there.”

  “Exactly,” Dr. Powers said.

  “There will be a huge rush to stake claims,” Luke said. “No one’ll want to be left behind. There won’t be anyone left in town for the G.E.T. to hire, and in the chaos and confusion, we’ll fly out of here.”

  “Wait,” Eleanor said, looking at Betty. “Won’t they all be mad at you when they find out there’s no oil?”

  “Oh, they’ll be more than mad.” Betty sighed. “There goes my reputation.” Luke turned to Betty and stared hard at her. Her shrug in response had the appearance of someone trying not to care but failing. “But then, I’m finished in Fairbanks, either way.”

  “Well,” Luke said, “you’re welcome to come with us.”

  “Oh, Lucius, you adorable thing.” Mockery lilted her voice, even as anger swelled beneath it. “I don’t need your invitation. You owe me big-time.”

  Luke’s shoulders fell to a sheepish angle, and he frowned. “Fair enough.”

  “In fact,” Betty said, “I may just take your plane as payment.” He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could say anything, she continued. “Now, you all stay put here while I go plant this.”

  “Where?” Eleanor’s mom asked.

  “There’s a bar still open a few streets over,” Betty said. “I’ll accidentally leave it somewhere in plain sight. Shouldn’t take long for word to spread after that. We just need to be ready to move in a few hours when all hell breaks loose.”

  “We’ll be ready,” Dr. Powers said.

  Betty slipped into her polar gear, a nano-tech heated suit like those Eleanor and the others wore, and pulled on her mask. “Lock up behind me,” she said, and left through the front hatch.

  Luke locked the door, then turned back toward the others. “You didn’t make it easy on her, did you? You couldn’t have eased her into the part with the aliens?”

  “Better she know it all now,” Eleanor’s mom said. “Better the whole world knows.”

  “The world won’t believe us,” Dr. Powers said. “Not without more evidence.”

  Julian yawned. “If it’s going to be a few hours, can I go sleep?”

  Finn turned to his older brother. “How can you possibly sleep?”

  “How can you possibly stay awake?” Julian asked. “We’ve been up for . . . I don’t know . . . forever.”

  “Go on,” Dr. Powers said. “It’s probably a good idea. Use the sofa in the other room. You too, Finn.”

  “Fine,” Finn said, and he trudged after his brother.

  A few moments later, Eleanor’s mom said, “Why don’t you go, too, sweetie?”

  “I don’t think I can sleep,” Eleanor said. Not when she thought about the G.E.T. agents outside, probably watching this place. What if they tried to break in while Betty was gone?

  “We’ll be awake,” her mom said. “Dr. Powers and Luke and I.”

  Luke cocked his head at the mention of his name. “What if I wanted to sleep, too?”

  Eleanor’s mom closed her eyes slowly. “Very well. Dr. Powers and I will be awake. We’ll be right here, okay?”

  “Are you sure?” Eleanor asked.

  “I’m sure,” her mom said. “Go now.”

  Eleanor nodded and returned to Betty’s living space, where the scent of coffee still hung in the air. Julian had skipped the sofa and claimed the bed, and somehow he was already asleep. Finn, still awake, had taken one side of the couch with his head resting on the arm. Eleanor took the opposite end, so their legs stretched side by side but not touching. They lay there in silence for some time, long enough that Eleanor thought he might have fallen asleep, but then he murmured something.

  “What?” Eleanor asked.

  “I said, what’re you thinking about?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “What’re you thinking about?”

  “My mom,” he said.

  Eleanor hadn’t really expected a serious or sincere answer, so it took her a moment to find a response, even a lame one. “You miss her?”

  “Of course,” he said. “I’ve lived with her a lot more than I’ve lived with my dad.”

  “How come?”

  “After the divorce, he ju
st got busy with his work. Traveling and everything.”

  Eleanor didn’t know what to say, because she didn’t know Finn very well at all and knew his dad even less. So much had happened in the past several days, they didn’t really feel like days at all. But it wasn’t that they felt like weeks or months, either. They weren’t longer; they were just weighed down by everything Eleanor had been through, so she could almost forget that she hadn’t known Finn that long.

  “What’s she like?”

  “Kind of a hippie,” he said. “Frizzy red hair. Freckles. Nothing like my dad. They met in grad school.” He was silent a moment. “I don’t think Julian misses her like I do. Sometimes I think he’d rather live with my dad.”

  “I would’ve guessed it was the other way around,” Eleanor said.

  “Yeah,” Finn said. “People think I’m more like my dad. Julian thinks so, too. But I don’t.”

  “How come?”

  Finn shrugged against the arm of the sofa. “I don’t know.”

  He didn’t say anything else, and Eleanor didn’t ask him anything else, and a few moments later she was close to falling asleep. Her thoughts roamed freely in that way they do as they leave memory behind and approach the edge of a dream. She was back at home, heading to meet Jenna and Claire before school like she did every day, but just as she reached them, a blizzard hit with an unnatural suddenness and a ferocity that tore up the streets, and Eleanor realized she was imagining it, and woke herself back up. She did this a couple of times before she finally crossed the border into sleep, and it didn’t feel as if any time had passed before her mom gave her shoulder a gentle nudge.

  “It’s time to go,” she said. “It’s early morning.”

  Eleanor sat up. Finn rubbed his eyes near her, while Dr. Powers struggled to shake Julian awake.

  “What is it about teenagers?” he said. “He could sleep through a whiteout siren.”

  “I’ll show you what works,” Luke said, crossing to the bed. He leaned toward Julian and said, in a low and even voice, “Time for dinner, kid.”

  Julian opened his eyes. “What?”

  “See?” Luke said, and walked away grinning.

  Dr. Powers shook his head as Julian sat up. “It’s time to go, son.”

  “Oh.” Julian got to his feet. “Right.”