Black Water

EELONG

(CONTINUED)

Boon stood on a chairto examine the window of the small room where he and Mark were being held captive. “This room wasn’t built to be a prison,” he declared. “I think I can pry this hinge off with my claw.”

“Do it,” Mark whispered. He was standing guard at the door to make sure the gar outside wouldn’t see them trying to escape. “What do we do once we get out?” Boon asked as he worked. “One problem at a time,” Mark answered.

“Welcome!” exclaimed the gar behind the waterfall when he saw Gunny and the others approach. “You’re home now, you’ve got nothing more to worry about!” The gar froze when he saw that one of the new arrivals was a klee.

“Klee!” he shouted. Instantly ten more gars appeared, all carrying spear guns.

“It’s all right,” Gunny assured him. “You know me, my name is Gunny. We’ve been here before. So has the klee.”

The gar was suspicious, until Gunny held up his handless arm. “Remember now?” Gunny asked.

The gar relaxed a little and waved off the other gars. “I remember,” the gar said. “You were with Aron.”

“That’s right,” Gunny said. “We’re friends. All of us.”

“You realize that the Advent is under way,” the gar guard said. “Soon there will be thousands of gars arriving. If they see a klee, they might not enter.”

Gunny kept eye contact with the gar. He spoke softly, but forcefully. “Everything will be fine, but you must let us enter. We are on an important mission to make sure the Advent succeeds.”

Bobby knew that Gunny was using his Traveler powers of persuasion.

“There’s a problem with the Advent?” the gar asked worriedly.

“Not if you help us,” Gunny continued. “We need to get to the Center. Can you bring us there?”

The gar’s head shook slightly, as if he needed to jiggle the idea around inside until it landed right side up. “Yes,” he finally said. “I can help.” He turned to the other guards and commanded, “Take my post. I will lead our friends to the Center.”

Gunny looked to Bobby and winked.

Bobby said, “You’re really getting the hang of that.”

Gunny said, “It helps that the gars are simple people.”

“Come!” the gar commanded. “Follow me.” He walked quickly into the tunnel that led to Black Water, followed by Gunny, Bobby, Spader, Courtney, and Kasha.

“You have a plan?” Bobby asked Gunny quietly.

Gunny put a finger to his lips to shush Bobby. “I’ll explain once we get there. No sense in causing a ruckus.”

Bobby nodded in understanding. He realized that telling the gar that Black Water was in danger of being wiped out by a poison from the sky might cause enough of a panic to slow them down, and anything that slowed them down wasn’t good. The group walked through the narrow, dark tunnel until they arrived at the entrance to Black Water.

“Hobey!” exclaimed Spader when he got his first view_of the hidden village. “All this for us?”-

He was looking at hundreds of gars gathering on either side of the path that led down to the village. It was like they were getting ready for a parade.

“I think they’re here to greet the gars,” Bobby said.

A little blond girl who looked no more than five, with beautiful blue eyes, ran up to Bobby and handed him a single, white flower. “Welcome to Black Water,” she said sweetly. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

“Thank you,” Bobby said, taking the flower.

Spader chuckled and said, “There you go! Maybe it’s a little bit for us too.”

“We should hurry,” Gunny said to the gar who was leading them.

They traveled quickly down the path, past the assembled gars. It was a festive atmosphere with music playing and gars cooking food on either side of the road. Most of the gars backed away from the path when they saw Kasha, but Spader tried to relax them by smiling and waving, as if he were the grand marshal of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Many gars waved back, others even cheered as if welcoming returning heroes.

“You should be a politician,” Courtney said.

“You’re right!” Spader answered. “What’s a politician?”

Bobby and Kasha were more concerned with the weather. They kept glancing up at the sky as the trailing edge of the dark storm cloud grew closer to the sunbelt.

“Whatever we’re going to do,” Kasha said, “we’d better do it fast.”

The gar escorted the group through the town to the Center. “Here you are,” the gar announced. “Do you need more help from me?”

“No,” Gunny said. “Thank you. You should get back to your post.”

The gar smiled broadly and said, “It’s a very exciting day, isn’t it?”

“You have no idea,” Courtney said sarcastically. The gar didn’t know what she meant, so without a word he jogged off.

Bobby looked up to see the storm was moving quickly. “We don’t have much time,” he said. “When that cloud clears the sunbelt, we’re done. We’d better figure out a way to use this antidote right now.”

“I already know how to use it,” Gunny said. “Really?” Courtney exclaimed.

“I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out yourself, shorty,” Gunny said. “You and Kasha were here. You saw their irrigation system.”

Bobby and Kasha exchanged confused looks. They had no idea what Gunny was talking about.

“Remember when you first got here?” Gunny asked. “When we were walking into the village-“

“The sprinklers!” Bobby exclaimed. “On the light posts.”

“They have sprinklers on light posts?” Courtney asked.

“What’s a sprinkler?” Spader asked.

Gunny walked to a tall light post and tapped it, saying, “Black Water thrives on the river water that runs through the village. They built a vast, underground watering system that channels the river water to the entire valley.”

“I remember,” Kasha exclaimed. “The water came from the poles.”

“Exactly,” Gunny said. “There are thousands of outlets like this one. Every square inch of Black Water can be reached and watered by the mist that comes from the irrigation system. It’s like they create their own rain.”

“It’s brilliant!” Spader declared. “Can we send the antidote through this system?”

“I’m counting on it,” Gunny answered. “The trick will be to time it so that Black Water is being sprayed just as the poison is dropped. If this antidote is as powerful as you say, it should act like an umbrella and make the poison harmless.”

“You’re a genius!” Courtney shouted, and threw her arms around Gunny. “We did it!”

Gunny shook his head and said, “We haven’t done anything but get here. Now we’ve got to feed the antidote into the system.”

“You know how to do that?” Bobby asked.

“No,” Gunny answered. “But I know who does.”

Gunny led the group into the Center and back to the large greenhouse room. As they entered, Bobby and Kasha took a quick look up to the glass ceiling to see the hole Saint Dane smashed open when he escaped in the form of a bird.

“I was hoping I had imagined that,” Kasha said soberly.

Gunny led them through the rows of plants growing on virloam, to a distant corner of the room, where one whole wall was taken up by a series of pipes and valves.

“Irrigation control?” Bobby asked.

“Yup,” Gunny answered. “They got somebody manning this all the time. Let’s hope he didn’t take the day off for the Advent.”

Gunny left the group to go in search of the gar who ran the irrigation system. Courtney took the tank off her shoulders and gently placed it on the floor.

“I gotta be honest,” she said. “I didn’t think we’d make it.”

“Markdidn’tmake it,” Bobby said.

Courtney frowned. She had been worried about Mark ever since they split up.

“Neither did Boon,” Kasha added.

“If anything happened to them…” Bobby said, but didn’t finish the thought. The idea of his best friend getting hurt made Bobby’s heart ache.

“First things first, mate,” Spader said to Bobby. “Once we’re done here, we’ll find them. I promise you.”

Bobby nodded, but wasn’t any less worried.

“Everybody, I’d like you to meet Fayne,” Gunny said as he approached them. He was leading a woman who looked no more than twenty years old. But being that the gars of Black Water all looked young, she could have been any age. She was small, with short black hair. She looked to Bobby like someone who was used to hard work. Her rough hands and strong arms were a dead giveaway. “Fayne is on duty today,” Gunny explained. “She’s going to help us.”

“Yeah,” Fayne said, none too happily. “Biggest day in the history of Black Water and I’m stuck in here.” She stood with her hands on her hips and her feet planted. Fayne was full of no-nonsense. But as tough as she was, when she spotted Kasha, she quickly backed off.

“Whoa, klee!”

“It’s okay,” Gunny assured her.” Kasha is a friend of Aron’s. She’s here to help the gars.”

Fayne kept a suspicious eye on Kasha. “Never saw a klee who gave one tick about gars.”

“I’m special,” Kasha said impatiently. “Can we move along here?”

Courtney handed the antidote tank to Gunny. Gunny addressed the group, saying, “I was explaining to Fayne how there’s concern that the new gars might be carrying dangerous bacteria or viruses that would infect Black Water.” Gunny winked at them, asking them to play along.

Fayne said, “I thought about that too! I mean, they live like animals. They could have all sorts of diseases.”

“That’s why we need this tank hooked up to the irrigation system. When the gars arrive, we can send this…this…”

“Disinfectant?” Bobby offered.

“Right, disinfectantthrough the entire system. It’s very mild, but it will kill any germ that might cause trouble.”

Gunny handed the tank to Fayne. Fayne examined it suspiciously and said, “You say Aron wants me to do this?”

“He’s very concerned that the Advent goes smoothly,” Bobby offered. “And he wants everybody to be safe.”

Gunny looked Fayne right in the eye and used his most convincing Traveler voice to say, “It’s very important that you feed it into the system right now. If you don’t hurry, it will be too late. Can you do that?”

They all watched Fayne to see if she would accept the ruse.

“Sure,” she said with a shrug. “Don’t want none of them germs getting us sick or nothing.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Fayne took the tank to the irrigation controls. Spader went with her, just to be sure everything went well.

“We’re almost there,” Courtney said, barely containing her glee.

Bobby stepped away from the group and looked over the vast room full of plants that were growing in air. For the first time since he set foot on Eelong, he felt as if he had a little bit of control back. It was a relief, yet strangely disturbing to him.

“What’s the trouble, shorty?” Gunny asked, walking up to him. “We’re about to save Eelong and knock Saint Dane back down a peg or two. You should be happy.”

“I am, but I’m worried about Mark,” Bobby answered.

“Try not to,” Gunny said. “I’ll bet Boon is watching out for him right this very minute.”

Bobby nodded. “And I’m worried about the future.”

“Why’s that?”

Bobby looked up to the hole in the glass ceiling. “Have the rules really changed, Gunny? I can’t stop thinking about what Uncle Press said. We weren’t supposed to mix the territories.”

“I thought we went through this,” Gunny said. “If Saint Dane can do it, why not us?”

“I know, but what if that’s the whole point? We’re the good guys. We’re supposed to do things the right way. I mean, when is it okay to break the rules? When it’s important enough? But who’s to say what’s important?”

“I think saving a territory is pretty important,” Gunny said. “I hate to bring up a sore subject, but you remember theHindenburg. If we had saved that ship, it would have been doomsday for Earth.”

“This is different,” Bobby said quickly. “TheHindenburgwassupposedto crash. Who knows? Maybe Black Water is supposed to be poisoned?”

Gunny didn’t have a reply to that.

Bobby continued, “What I’m saying is that if we start playing on Saint Dane’s level, I meanreallyplaying on his level, where will it end? What else will we have to do in the name of stopping him? If we have to keep doing things that aren’t right, does that make us as bad as he is? Is that the way things were meant to be?”

A dark, worried look crossed Gunny’s face. Bobby’s words had struck a frightening note of truth.

“She’s ready!” Spader announced. “Let’s put Saint Dane out of business.” He led them all over to the irrigation controls.

“We’re gonna beat him with seconds left on the clock!” Courtney said to Bobby.

Bobby didn’t react.

All eyes went to Fayne, who was adjusting the antidote tank. The tank itself was lying on its side, underneath a panel that had a series of valves and gauges. Fayne had attached a heavy, metallic tube to the nozzle.

“Is this going to work?” Bobby asked abruptly.

“Sure,” Fayne answered confidently. “I’ve never seen a valve like this, but I made a few adjustments. The seal is solid. Are you sure there’s enough juice in there to do the job? I mean, the tank is pretty small.”

“No worries, the antidote is very powerful,” Spader said.

“Antidote?” Fayne asked.

“Disinfectant,” Gunny said quickly. “Fayne, can you release a small amount to make sure it’s all hooked up properly?”

“It is,” Fayne said.

“Humor me,” Gunny said more forcefully.

Fayne shrugged and said, “Whatever you want. I just do what I’m told.” She stood up to the control panel and twisted a few heavy levers.

“What’re you doing?” Courtney asked.

“Opening up the valves so the entire system is activated. That’s what you want, right?”

“It has to reach all of Black Water,” Gunny said.

“And that’s what it’ll do,” Fayne assured him. “Here we go.” Fayne took hold of a large, black lever and turned it from left to right.

Nothing happened.

Fayne stared at her gauges with a frown. She reached forward and flicked her finger on one gauge to unstick it. The needle didn’t budge.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Fayne said. She flipped a few more levers and tapped a few more gauges. Her frown deepened.

“What’s the trouble?” Gunny asked.

“Hang on,” Fayne snapped. She left the control panel and pulled the tank out from underneath. She lifted it up on end and unscrewed the metallic hose. The others exchanged nervous looks. Fayne removed the connector and examined the tank’s nozzle.

“Ah! Here’s your problem,” she announced. “There’s a crack at the base of the nozzle.”

“A crack?” Courtney shouted in dismay.

“It was fine when we left Cloral,” Spader said. “Nothing happened to it since.”

“But it did!” Courtney said” nervously. “It got hit with an arrow on the wippen field. And, and, I landed on the tank when I fell off the zenzen during the rockslide. I got hammered! It could have damaged the nozzle!”

“Can you fix it?” Gunny asked.

“Sure,” Fayne answered.

“See?” Spader said. “No worries.”

“But it won’t do no good,” Fayne added.

“Why not?” Courtney asked.

Fayne answered by unscrewing the nozzle and throwing it to Courtney. “Because your tank’s empty. The juice inside leaked out through that crack. I hope you got another one because there ain’t nothing in here.”

They all exchanged stunned, helpless looks.

Something caught Bobby’s eye. It was on Kasha’s face. Something was happening that didn’t make sense. Kasha’s black fur had suddenly changed color. He stared at her for a moment, not comprehending what he was seeing, until Kasha lifted her head and looked to the ceiling.

“Oh, no,” Kasha whispered.

The truth hit Bobby hard. Kasha’s face hadn’t changed color. The change happened because she was suddenly bathed in light. Light from the sunbelt. The greenhouse was soon aglow with bright light that shone down through the crystal ceiling. Everybody raised their eyes to the sky, all thinking the same thought:

The gigs had power.