Chapter 7: Seth Soreto Hasmodai: Surrender

Lord Seth stood on a tall rock and stared out to sea. Over the water he could see Ketplaque Island, near enough that the little white squares of houses were visible among the dark green foliage. Some of the researchers working at the Rugen Institute lived there, at least during the week. There were no other islands in sight. The GED group had originally chosen Kuril and Ketplaque for the privacy their isolation would give.

But Seth knew that over the waves and out of sight, there was a tiny, lonely island with a 200-year-old shrine on it. In it, a man and a woman waited for their son to return and take over running the shrine.

Their son would return soon. Thoma's unmarked, dead body would be delivered to his family, the victim of a tragic boating accident which would also have claimed the lives of the respected Doctor Gherta Hawksbee, and the mysterious Damien, wealthy benefactor of the Rugen Institute and influential friend of the royal family, along with a group of bright and promising young scholarship students. This time there would be no agonizing suspense, terror or mystery. The families of the lost children would grieve, bury their dead, and go on with their lives.

Seth leaped from the rock to a higher peak, and from there to a tall tree. Thoma's body was in peak condition, his reflexes well schooled from years of martial arts training, and the Greecian military-issue bodysuit gave him even more speed and let him make the most amazing jumps. Even without activating the energy pack for true anti-gravity, Seth could circle the island without ever touching the ground. Since the Enma had still not appeared, making a game of his patrols was the only thing that kept the boredom and frustration at bay.

After several more leaps, Seth saw Tina standing below on the beach, looking out to sea as usual. He resisted the temptation to join her. He had already argued himself blue in the face without making so much as a dent in her resolve to submit to Damien's plan.

When Tina had refused to listen to him, Seth had turned his rage on Agi—there was still a chance to fix the Zones! They were giving up too easily! They had spent three weeks studying, true, but what was that in Greecian time? One single, solitary, lousy day! What harm could happen in another Grecian day, or two, or even a week? But Agi had stood expressionless, shoulders slumped and eyes cast downward and let Seth's tirade wash over him.

They were whipped, Seth thought. That was the real problem. They had spent five hundred years hunting for Tina, and now the prospect of another long, desperate task and cruel burden was enough to break them. And Dumas had been pressuring them constantly. How could that jerk expect them to get results when he wouldn't leave them alone to do it?

But it was Tina's capitulation that made Seth angriest of all. The Tina he had known on Greecia was not the type to cave in so easily. The Tina he had known would have gone out looking for Saron, not waiting for him like some damsel in distress from a fairy tale. He wondered if that inertia and apathy was something that came from Helga, some physical or genetic problem that weighed her down. Or whether it came from Tina herself, and whether her sufferings on Greecia had permanently wounded her soul. If so, he was responsible for some of that, perhaps the greater part.

At least Helga, a ward of the state, had no family to leave behind in sorrow. And if she felt it was necessary to travel to Greecia via the land of Death…well, Seth had accompanied her down that road once before, and would be there for her again.

And this time, Soran would be with them.

Seth moved on along his patrol route. Finally he leaped to the rooftop of one of the Rugen buildings, and from building to building until he reached the balcony of the main dome. He looked down over the railing. Below was the landing pad where Agi's people had set up their makeshift laboratory. Agi was there, operating one of the sensor stations in a dispirited way. Tarlant sat off to one side, not even pretending to be busy any more, petting that manky old dog of his. That dog, which would be delivered to his parents along with the news of their son's death.

Hasmodai still worked feverishly at his station, the only one who seemed to cling to any shred of hope. Good for him. Even so, he had given instructions that Teo's body was to be mangled in the explosion that sank the Star Princess. He wanted his sister to believe he had died instantly, without fear or suffering.

It had seriously disturbed Seth to know how many minor adjustments Tarlant could make to the engine of the Star Princess to make it catastrophically blow up. After hearing how easily and plausibly it could happen, Seth was beginning to think it was a wonder Thoma hadn't already blown himself to bits accidentally.

He opened the glass door and entered Mel's personal laboratory in the Rugen Institute. It was an enormous room, with glass walls and skylights installed everywhere. Seth had originally thought it ostentatious and a ridiculous luxury, but had learned from Soreto later that the size of the room was a necessary concession to Mel's crippling claustrophobia.

A blast of music hit Seth's ears as he entered. Mel was playing Handel's Halleluiah Chorus at high volume. It had been like this for days, one piece of dramatic opera or classical music after the other. Seth realized it was Mel's way of saying goodbye to Earth. She was packing a few treasured belongings to send along to Greecia, too, Soreto beside her. In some ways, Mel was better off than the rest of them. Nobody would find it bizarre that fifty-seven year old Gherta Hawksbee should write her will, even if it was coincidentally done days before her death. Her family and friends were not so close that they would notice the absence of sentimental treasures from her home and office, or make a fuss if they did. Still, she seemed as disheartened as the rest, if not more so.

"Still no sign of the Enma," Seth reported. "Do you think maybe they…it…realizes we're trying to fix things?"

"It's possible," Soreto said. "Or maybe…" She shook her head and turned away.

"What?" Seth demanded.

"Never mind, I'm just…a little tired," Soreto said. "Come on, Mel, let's get this done and see if Hasmodai has discovered anything new." Seth could tell that she was holding something back. There was a tension in her voice that she couldn't quite disguise.

"I'm sure the Enma just has much bigger problems on its hands now than us," Seth assured her. "Hey, we're just fleas in the universe, right?"

She smiled at him, but the strained expression in her eyes didn't relax. Nearby, Mel stopped in her packing. She was holding a framed picture of Conrad Rugen, gazing at it.

"Mel?" Soreto said.

"Do you think Palza's soul is still trapped in Earth's Zone?" Mel asked.

Soreto took her hand. "I think that you and Palza will find each other, whatever world you're on."

Seth looked away from Mel's grief, out the window. Tina was walking back from the beach. Soran had still not found his way to her. But now, they were going out to find Soran.

By nightfall, the team of scientists had completed the adjustments to the sensor array. Now Agi set the transmitters to project an image of the Earth at the center of the array.

"Oh, cool!" Belle enthused. Of course, if anyone else had done it, she'd most likely have yawned, or whined about how boring it all was again. She was leaning on Dumas again, as if she couldn't be bothered to stand up on her own.

Soreto had lived many lives, or partial lives, now. She didn't care to calculate the exact number, but knew she had lived through over a hundred years. She was far too old and experienced to be upset by anyone so fresh and raw as Agi's doting little sister.

But she had tried to be friendly, then she had tried to be kind, then she had tried to be patient. Her efforts had been met only with hostility and rudeness. Maybe Belle's possessiveness of her brother had come from losing Agi at an impressionable age. In any case, Agi seemed completely oblivious to the situation, either because he was so focused on his work, or simply because he was in the habit of humoring Belle in everything.

Soreto found that giving in to her irritation was a welcome relief from her own fears. The girl was not one of them, and she ought to have been sent home in blissful ignorance, not exposed to research she couldn't possibly understand about problems she could do nothing to solve.

If the girl had an active brain cell in her head, she must realize by now that there was something odd about them all, something unearthly about their supertechnology, and some dire emergency they were struggling to combat.

Why did Dumas insist on keeping her around like a pet puppy? Did he actually have feelings for her? And if he did, why didn't he send her away, where she'd be safe from forming a doomed attachment to him?

As much as Soreto tried to concentrate on disliking Belle, her thoughts returned to the growing suspicion that made her heart turn to lead. Maybe, when they were alone, she could ask Hasmodai about the Enma. If anyone could find a way to pinpoint and study something as pervasive and undetectable, it was Hasmodai.

But that was pointless. If she was wrong, she would have laid a terrible burden on Hasmodai for nothing. And if she was right, she would have robbed him of whatever pleasure he might find in their last days. There was nothing they could do about it, after all, but regret and despair.

"Looking for Sauron? What is this, the Lord of the Rings, now?" Dumas smirked at Belle's sarcastic remark, and Soreto felt a welcome flicker of aggravation and humor cut through her anxiety.

Soreto would keep her fears to herself. It would be selfish to ease her own mind by sharing them.

Hasmodai turned a knob as slowly as he could. Lights flickered over the projected globe, flickered out, flashed again. He entered a new setting.

"Well?" Dumas demanded.

"It's a very delicate measurement," Hasmodai said. "It's not easy to—ah! There we are. And, uh…there we are."

On the globe, a faint blue light had appeared in the South East Islands.

"Technically, there's almost no difference between a soul that originated in Greecia's Zone and one from Earth," Hasmodai said. "Just the barest disparity in Orsel waveforms. But it's enough for these new sensors to pick out Greecian people on Earth."

Tarlant said what they all must have been thinking. "If only we'd had something like this five hundred years ago."

All around the globe they stood, faces lit by the glow of the projection. Tina looked pale and strained, Seth standing protectively at her side.

Dumas took his arm from around Belle, frowning, and stepped forward. "So, where is Saron?" He touched the holographic globe, and it turned with the movement of his fingers.

He stopped at a glowing blue spot. "That can't be right," Dumas said. The spot was enormous, covering a huge chunk of the coastline and sea of Antarctica.

"If that's Saron, he's put on a lot of weight," said Tarlant.

"Can you tighten the focus?" Agi asked. Hasmodai enlarged the globe and adjusted the sensor settings for maximum sensitivity. The blue light winked out. When Hasmodai managed to bring it back again, it was as large as ever.

"Let me see Kuril Island again," Dumas said suspiciously. A change of setting brought the enlarged archipelago into view. "As I thought," said Dumas. "Look, the entire island is lit up."

"Still, it's not nearly as large an indication as the Antarctic one, and there are eight of us here," said Soreto. That can't be a single person."

Hasmodai wondered whether to speak, or to wait and talk to Agi privately, when Dumas was not there. But Agi sensed his hesitation, and said, "What is it, Hasmodai?"

"Well, it seems to me that any anomaly like this needs to be investigated, under the circumstances," Hasmodai said. "Maybe it has something to do with the Orsel fluctuations in the Zone."

"Agreed," said Agi. "We should all go." The original plan had been for Dumas, Seth and Tina to fetch Soran while the scientists prepared the Autozone…or rather, while they stole a little more research time. "And we should bring as much of the sensor equipment as we can."

"If you must," said Dumas. "We'll take my ship, then. The Homonculoids can disassemble and load everything by morning."

"We'll meet here in the morning, then," said Agi. Everyone get a good night's sleep and bring any personal equipment you'll need."

As they went their separate ways, Hasmodai readjusted the sensors to zero in on the Zone again. Another hour or so of data gathering couldn't hurt. The robots could stow other equipment while he worked.

It was a while before he noticed Belle was leaning on the databank beside him.

"Oh, uh…hello, Belle," Hasmodai said. Though she had completely ignored him until now, he had overheard the child being embarrassingly rude to Soreto and Tarlant, and he wondered if it was now his turn.

Belle smiled at him. "Hi, Teo. Oh, sorry, I mean Hasmodai." She hiked herself up to sit on the databank. "I know somebody who LIKES you," she said teasingly.

Hasmodai stared blankly. In spite of all the years he had lived, he was only on his second time as a teenager, and he had never really got the hang of it.

"So-ret-o," said Belle. "I think she secretly likes you. You ought to ask her out sometime."

Hasmodai felt his face going hot. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, and finally managed to get out, "Uh, I don't think so."

"Why not? You'd be so CUTE together!"

"I just…I don't think of Soreto that way," Hasmodai stuttered.

They had been together for decades, but had been under the age of twelve the entire time, not to mention on a desperate quest. Romance had hardly come into the question. Even if Hasmodai had been interested, even if Soreto had not been so intimidatingly confident and competent, he had no clue how he would even begin to suggest a romantic relationship.

"I heard her talking to Mel about you," Belle said. "She said you were hot."

From the other side of one of the sensor arrays, Soreto said, "You know, I can hear everything you're saying."

Belle turned as red as Hasmodai himself, jumped off the databank and ran. Soreto came around the corner, as did Tarlant, carrying a toolkit. Hasmodai leaned over the viewscreen, pretending to examine the data, not daring to look at either of them.

"What was all that about?" Tarlant demanded.

"Well, my best guess is that Belle is trying to break up the relationship between me and Agi." Soreto sounded amused.

"I didn't know there was anything to break up."

"Neither did I. Neither does Agi, I'm sure. He really needs to do something about that girl." Soreto leaned over to see what Hasmodai was examining so intently on the screen. It was blank.

She patted him on the shoulder, said, "Don't worry, Hasmodai, I don't think of you that way either," and left.

Hasmodai felt immensely relieved, and ever so slightly disappointed.