Chapter 13
Tamsin and Bo stayed on the ship for couple days, since the tech people were still analyzing the samples and evidences they found. And they needed a plan to do further investigation for the island too.
It was a nice day outside. The ocean was perfect blue, the sunshine was clean and golden. But none of them cared. They stayed in the control room trying to figure out their next move.
Just when they were talking, the phone rang.
" Hey." Dyson picked up, then he put it on speaker, " It's Lauren."
" Hi, everyone. I got some analysis results back on the hot spring sample and the egg." Lauren said, " Nothing really popped out from the spring sample, other than it has more sulfur than average hot springs. However, the egg is very interesting."
" How? Don't tell me you hatched something." Tamsin said.
" No. The embryo was already dead when they brought it to me. I'm guessing that the egg has to stay in a very hot environment to hatch, for example, in the hot spring." Lauren said, " I analyzed the embryo. It was too early to tell what it is, but I took a wild guess, since we already knew they were probably trying to recreate Azuile. I think the egg hatches Azuile."
" Well what do you know. All monsters come from an egg." Bo said, " But there were like hundreds of the eggs, are you telling me that all of them are Azuiles?"
" That I don't know, but it's entirely possible. If you can create a monster, why not just create a group of them?"
" But, if they are Azuiles, who, I mean, what laid the eggs? There has to be a mother there somewhere, right?" Tamsin said.
" That I don't know either. There could be a mother, or it could just be another result of some crazy genetic engineering." Lauren said, " But, I found a very interesting thing in its DNA analysis."
" Meaning...?"
" See, I was trying to figure out how Glenn Rauch proposed to combine the DNA of those three monsters into one monster. I thought it was impossible to do so, because of the genetic characteristic of the ability control gene of faes. Basically, one fae can only have one ability turned on. The ability is usually inherited from one of his family members, mother, father, or grandparents. Some even inherit from great grandparents or beyond. A very rare case is a fae inheriting an altered ability, for example, the Ash's sister Val, her ability is related to voice like her siren mother, but it is not the same as the siren's ability. Only less than 5% of the fae population has this type of mutated ability. But no matter what, one fae can only inherit or alter from one of the family members. This is because every fae embryo produces a special type of enzyme, which binds with only one ability gene and make it as the dominant gene." Lauren paused for a while then asked:" Everyone 's following so far?"
" Yeah, we're ok."
" So, I analyzed the egg embryo. There is a very, very rare mutation in its DNA. It can not produce that enzyme at all. However, there is another similar enzyme in that embryo, which can bind with multiple abilities."
" So you think that's how they recreate the Azuile, by using something to bind more than one ability genes? Hey, maybe that's the thing from the seventh stash of Glenn's."
" Yeah, I think so." Lauren said, " I am still trying to identify its ability genes. If I can confirm they are fire, water, and thunder controlling abilities, I'll be sure it is Azuile. But I think it probably is. Oh and by the way, I analyzed the waste samples too. I think it's some byproduct for manufacturing that enzyme, and few other things crucial to this monster recreation. Considering there are hundreds of the eggs already, I suggest you three figure out a plan, before it's too late."
" How long does it take for those eggs to hatch?"
" I can't say for sure, several weeks maybe. But we don't know how long they've been in the spring already. If they started right after they took Glenn's notebook, we don't have much time left."
" Ok, we'll move fast." Tamsin said.
" What about the bodies they threw off the cliff in the bag?" Dyson asked.
" I am still running test. It takes time. And they told me the egg has higher priority, so..." Lauren said," I'll let you know as soon as I have anything useful. I have to go now."
" Ok." Dyson said, " Talk to you later."
" Well, looks like we have things to do." Bo said, " I suppose we should go back and bomb the lair."
" But even so, they still have the research records." Tamsin said, " I don't think you and I can handle this by ourselves. I think we'll need to report to the intelligence first."
" I agree." Dyson said.
" Why don't you report in." Tamsin said, " I'll go through the stuff we have again."
Actually there was not much stuff to go through. She just didn't want to talk to her mother alone.
Dyson spent a while on the phone. Then he hung up and said:" Just talked to your mother. She has an order. They are going to send out some bomber planes to bomb the whole island tomorrow afternoon."
" What? Is it just me, or you all think it's overreacting?" Tamsin said.
" She said the order was not from her, it's from high above." Dyson said, " Looks like our jobs here is done."
" Yeah, except one thing." Tamsin said, " What about those people on the island. They are probably stupid, or crazy, or both, but do they really deserve to be bombed into pieces?"
" What do you propose?" Dyson said, " I don't think we can change the bombing decision. Unless we can reach out to all five elders and change their mind in less than 48 hours."
" How many people can this ship hold? "
" Probably couple thousand or more. Why? Wait, you are not thinking..."
" Yes I am." Tamsin said, " We can broadcast a message, anyone who does not want to die there can board the ship if they abandon their weapons. You can ask your team to lock them up in the rooms."
" That's too risky. We have to report this first."
" And what? Waiting for all the bureaucrats to make a decision a week later?"
" Ok. What if they don't want to leave?"
" Then they die." Tamsin said, " We can only do this much."
" Ok. You are leading this mission, so I'll do my best." Dyson said, " And one more thing. They wanted us to destroy all the eggs first, just in case one gets sheltered by a rock and doesn't die from the bombing."
" How they hell are we going to do that? Crack every one of them open?"
" Cool down the eggs."
" Ok. That should not be hard. We just destroy the hot spring and use some liquid nitrogen on them." Bo said.
" Then I guess we have a plan." Dyson said, " The bombers will arrive tomorrow afternoon 4pm sharp. You two have to get out of the island before that, despite the results of the broadcasting and eggs freezing."
Tamsin nodded. Then she saw the look on Dyson's face. She had known him long enough that she knew it was Dyson's I-need-to-talk-to-you-alone face. She hesitated for a few seconds, then she said to Bo:" I'm gonna go grab a beer. Do you want one?"
" Nah, I'm fine." Bo shook her head.
" I'll go with you." Dyson said, " I need to find some food."
Bo frowned again when they walked out the room. She didn't know why, but she felt something was not right.