Emergence (Eden's Root Trilogy Book 3) Read online

  Emergence

  By: Rachel E. Fisher

  Copyright

  Text and image Copyright © 2013 by Rachel E. Fisher. All rights reserved.

  Cover art by Rachel E. Fisher

  Editing by A. Hovey

  Visit my website at: www.rachelefisher.com

  First eBook Edition: April 30, 2013

  Summary: The pieces on the board are in motion and with both sides gathering strength, each move will be critical. When the Truthers make a play for checkmate, the Seeders are forced to respond. Fi and her companions will face greater challenges and higher stakes than ever before, because this time if they fail, it’s for keeps.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the researchers working in the trenches to usher us into the glorious, enlightened future of our dreams. Please keep removing the word “fiction” from “science-fiction” for me…I’m expecting a hovercar soon!

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Checkmate

  Shattered

  A Woman’s Work

  Hidden Treasure

  A Different Species

  On a Mission

  No Rest for the Weary

  Slipping Away

  Countdown

  I is for Icarus

  A Heavy Tithe

  Camp Truth

  The Emergency Signal

  Reprieve

  On the Road Again

  Muster

  Dissonance

  Letting Go

  I’m Coming for You

  A Commander’s Confession

  Superheroes

  Striking Distance

  Not Your Average Bond Girl

  Surprises

  Your Assignment, Should You Choose to Accept It

  You Have to Bleed

  Undercover

  The Grand Tour

  Reckless

  Falling Into Place

  Leveling the Playing Field

  Waiting for War

  Tick, Tick, Tick

  Last Gasp

  The Fog of War

  A Change of Plan

  The Big Gun

  Revelations

  Casualties

  Dragon Fire

  Many Partings

  Epilogue – Five Years Later

  Want More? Other writings by Rachel E. Fisher

  Review Me Please!

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Cities and Thrones and Powers,

  Stand in Time's eye,

  Almost as long as flowers,

  Which daily die:

  But, as new buds put forth

  To glad new men,

  Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,

  The Cities rise again.

  - Rudyard Kipling

  Prologue

  Checkmate

  -------------- Carter --------------

  How had it come to this?

  Dr. Carter Lawson seethed as he paced Nona’s one-room cabin. The only thing he was grateful for was that the man seated at the table was too ashamed to look at him. It had taken Jeron six weeks of wandering in the wilderness to stumble his way back into their settlement, beaten half to death. If he’d been a car he’d have been declared totaled.

  Beneath the bruises and lacerations they’d determined that his most serious injuries included two cracked ribs, a sprained knee and a badly lacerated right thigh. Once they’d used enough precious antibiotics to heal a horse, he had recovered from his fever enough to talk.

  Still, it was impossible to look at the man without feeling sick, especially given the puckered caterpillar of stitches running across his right brow and down his cheek. Though Carter’s back was turned at the moment, he still felt Nona’s disapproving gaze boring into him.

  Nona was the first and the most loyal of his Truthers. An African-American woman of deep and abiding faith, she had no formal title within the settlement, but her devotion made him trust her. That was why he’d selected her cabin rather than the Main Cabin, because this meeting had to be kept secret from rest of the settlement...for now.

  “I don’t know why we let Silas convince us to do this, Father,” she said. “Jeron and Terry may be the only ones left alive from this crazy ‘mission,’” and that’s assuming Terry lives.”

  Jeron choked and Carter whirled.

  “I’m sorry, Jeron,” Nona said, patting the broken man carefully. “I know you and Terry went through a lot out there.” She dropped her head. “Maybe I should go get your meals from the Main Cabin.”

  “Yes, do that,” Carter said, grateful for her departure. This was hard enough without Nona’s flutterings, however well-intentioned. Bringing up Terry, he thought. Like he needed to be reminded that Terry was at death’s door. Jeron’s arrival had been shocking enough, but when he pointed south and choked out “Terry” before losing consciousness, things got infinitely worse.

  They’d found Terry twenty minutes south, face down and feverish with a deep gash on his lower back. The battle with infection wasn’t going so well for Terry. Thank God only Silas and a couple of his most loyal Angels had been there or the whole place would have found out about this…this…mess.

  “Jeron, just…” He stopped, running his hand through his thick white hair in frustration. “Just explain it to me, ok, because I don’t get it. This was supposed to be a simple, non-violent, hostage-taking. That’s why Silas sent fifteen of you. All you had to do was go collect four people wandering around handing out seeds, for goodness sakes! You had the element of surprise. You had numbers. So how the hell did it end up this way, with none of Eden’s Seeders in our grasp and fifteen Angels dead or missing?”

  He slammed his hand on the table and Jeron flinched. Frustrated, Carter dropped into the seat opposite the man, determined to look him in the eye. Jeron looked up and Carter shuddered. It was hard to pick an eye, really, now that they didn’t track together.

  Focus, he thought. It was time to turn on the charm. If he was going to get any information from this fragile man, he was going to have to use honey, not vinegar. He was the “Father,” after all. It took a deft touch to both inspire and control. At one time he thought he’d missed his calling with the Psychology doctorate, but it had taught him a lot about manipulation.

  “Please,” he said, clearing his throat, “I’m sorry for raising my voice. Just explain what you can. Maybe we can learn something useful from the details that you remember.”

  Jeron stared down at his hands, the knuckles still raw. “Well, Father, as we suspected there were four of them, but it wasn’t four men. It was two girls and two boys.”

  Carter startled and then coughed. Boys and girls?

  “The rumor about the one with the sword is true,” Jeron continued. “I don’t know how old he is, but it doesn’t matter. He’s good. He took out at least five of us in the first couple minutes. He’s young and blond. That’s all I can tell you about him. The girl with him was very small, and had long red hair. She seemed like a little girl, Father. But she had a gun, and she was a good shot. She got three of us before Ganger disarmed her.”

  He stopped, and Carter could swear that he saw Jeron shudder.

  “There was also a tall, skinny, dark-haired boy. He was a good fighter, but he only had a staff. I don’t think he was there to be a fighter. He’s the one that got my knee, though.”

  Jeron hung his head and grew quiet. For at least a minute he said nothing. Carter bit his lip to keep from screaming. One boy had a sword. One girl had a gun. One boy wasn’t a fighter. Really? Fifteen of his Angels of the Lord, most of whom had done impossibl
y disgusting things, had been bested by a bunch of kids? What was this, a TV show? “Is there anything else I should know?”

  “Yes, Father.” Jeron raised his head, wincing as a frown pulled his stitches. “It was really all our fault. Cesar yelled something like ‘It’s them,’ and then everyone just sort of…charged. Of course they panicked. The little redhead started shooting, and…”

  Carter grunted. He could fill in the rest. Once the shooting started, everything fell apart. Still, something was missing. “What about the other girl? You said ‘two boys and two girls.’”

  “The other girl?” Jeron’s eyes fluttered and then fixed, going blank.

  The hair on the back of Carter’s neck stood up. He couldn’t believe it. Jeron – a man who’d survived a lifetime of child abuse, gang warfare, and prison stints - was scared.

  “She’s tall,” he croaked. “With long, dark hair.”

  “Yes,” Carter murmured. “What else?”

  “She’s really pretty. So fast. Strong. She carries daggers. And she’s as deadly as the one with the sword. Just ask Terry.”

  He dropped his head again, and Carter felt a tightening in his chest. Who were these people? He couldn’t help but get lost in the image of boys and girls fighting his Angels to the death in the forest. How could he possibly take down Eden if the Seeders defended their mission this ferociously? Silas burst into the room, interrupting his thoughts.

  “Ah, Silas!” he said, “I’m sorry we weren’t able to wait for you.”

  Silas waved him off. He was flushed and the muscles in his neck rippled, the flames of his tattoo flickering. “That’s ok. None of this matters now anyway.” He gestured toward Jeron. “We don’t need the Seeders.”

  He smiled, and Carter’s heart stopped. Silas never smiled.

  “Luther heard back through the Underground, Father. The scouts have figured out the signal pattern and triangulated the location.” Silas lifted his arms, opening them to the heavens. “We found Eden.”

  Shattered

  -------------- Fi ------------

  Fi watched the flames of their campfire lick the frigid air. The rest of the Seeders, including her husband Asher, her best friend Sean, and his girlfriend Sara huddled around it, their gloved hands reaching for the warmth. It was late November and they’d made camp for the night on their way back to Eden.

  Normally Fi would have snuggled against Asher for warmth, but since she’d entered her third trimester of pregnancy she was like a human space heater. All three of them could probably have gathered around her instead of the fire. As if to make her point, a drop of sweat slid between her shoulder blades, taunting her numb fingertips.

  She was relieved that they were only a week from home. It was getting so hard for her to run that she was becoming a major liability. And to be honest, she was tired. Usually she loathed the idea of spending so much time trapped underground inside the bunker-like colony, but after this summer she had a new appreciation for safety and comfort. Spending her days in the lab with Louis studying abscisic acid feedback loops sounded great…restful, even.

  Maybe then she could ignore the fear still dancing around her edges. No matter what, this was the real reason she was relieved to be so close to home. By any standard, the summer Seed had been successful. They’d set up a slew of new stations, giving hundreds of stranded Famine survivors HAM radios and heirloom seeds so that they could begin anew. They’d discovered Lakeland and formed important new alliances. But they’d also been hunted by a determined and invisible foe: the Truthers.

  At one time Fi had really thought that Dr. Carter Lawson, the Truthers’ leader, believed his own teachings: that science was evil and had led to the Famine, that God was punishing humans for their hubris. His message was nothing new, but his power was unnerving.

  When he urged his followers to attack technology, abandoned server farms, electronics stores, and laboratories across the land were looted and burned. At every attack site, red handprints with the capital “T” in the center served as the Truther calling card. When he urged his followers to attack Eden and its goals specifically, their new radio stations and the families guarding them had been attacked and burned out.

  Lawson had always justified himself and his followers’ actions because they were non-violent. Only that had ended now too. Not that any of them should’ve been shocked. When Louis discovered that Lawson was actually a Diaspora participant who’d been cut from the colony, it became obvious that revenge was his real motive.

  Unable to get his way through other means, he’d sent vicious thugs to attack the Seeders and had almost succeeded in kidnapping Sara. No, Fi thought, lifting her hair off the back of her sweaty neck, even if the Seeders made it back to Eden, the Truthers weren’t going to go away. They couldn’t stay hidden underground forever. Somehow, some way, Eden was going to have to defend itself. Whatever that means.

  She shifted, maneuvering around her enormous belly. Frustrated by her busy mind, she settled, laying her head in Asher’s lap.

  He was fiddling with their portable HAM radio. “You ok?” he asked. Loose hair peeked from his fleece hat and hung into his blue eyes.

  She smiled up at him. “Yeah. Just starting to feel a little bit like a planet, you know?”

  He leaned down to kiss her gently and she twitched away from the tickle of his hair on her neck. He pulled away and shook his head. “You’re too tiny to be a planet, love. A moon, maybe?”

  She stuck her tongue out at him and then snuggled into his leg. She might as well have a pillow. Even a sarcastic pillow.

  Asher turned his focus back to the radio. The speaker crackled and fizzed as he spun the dials. “Hey, Sean? I think there’s something wrong with this thing. I can’t seem to pick up Eden’s signal.”

  “What?” Fi sat up.

  Sean turned the dial, going through the progressions like they always did, checking the signals. His eyes widened with each new signal that rang through loud and clear.

  “What is it, Sean?” Sara said.

  “They’re the only ones, Sar. I can get all the others, even the Truthers. But no Eden.”

  “But what does that mean?” Sara frowned, her voice rising. “What does it mean that we can’t hear Eden?”

  There was a rustling in the darkness. The four froze until the animal that had been frightened by Sara’s cry skittered away and left them in silence.

  Sean stared at the radio. “I don’t know. But I don’t see how it could be good.”

  “But how could anything have happened?” Fi protested, her heart beginning to pound. “They have Gary and the security team. They’re so hidden! I mean we barely found Eden and we had direct coordinates. There must be something wrong with the radio room. Maybe with the expansion they had to be offline for a while.”

  “I dunno, Fi,” Asher said. “They would’ve told us if they were going radio silent on us. They wouldn’t leave us out here without the lifeline.” He paused, his face pensive. “Maybe we should try Jean and Luc. If Eden’s gone silent, the Nets will be as worried as we are.”

  Sean turned to Jean and Luc’s signal. The French Canadian father-son team was the first “Net,” or station, that the Seeders had set up with the radio technology and heirloom seeds. If anyone could answer their questions, it was Jean and Luc.

  “Hello, Luc, it’s the Seeders. Are you there?” Sean’s voice wobbled.

  Fi sucked in, desperate to slow her galloping heart. She needed to keep it together. There had to be an explanation.

  “’Allo? Sean?”

  “Yes, it’s me. Is everything ok? We’re trying to reach Eden and we can’t seem to get their signal.”

  “Ach, Sean.”

  Fi put her head in her hands. No, no, no, no…

  “We can’t get Eden either. We’ve been trying for a week, and we haven’t heard a thing. Not since the last broadcast of the Lists. We’re all very worried. Where are you?”

  “We’re still about a week out.” Sean’s voice cr
acked. “Jesus, what do you think happened?” He tugged his hand through his dark hair and Sara squeezed his leg.

  “I don’t know, but you better get home fast. The Nets are all talking about it, but we don’t want to broadcast to the Truthers too much, so we’re mostly using off-station signals. We’ll let you know if we hear anything. Please hurry!” There was a pause. “None of us knew what to do, Sean. They just…vanished.”

  The radio clicked off.

  “No,” Fi said, her jaw setting. “It’s not possible! There has to be a mistake.”

  “What kind of mistake?” Sean’s voice was flat. “It’s a colony of three hundred people. They can’t just vanish, Fi.”

  “Exactly! That’s my point. There has to be an explanation. There has to be!” Her mind wound into circles, spinning tighter and tighter until it circled only one thought. Just one. Kiara.

  She pulled her arms around her knees and squeezed, trying to head off the shakes beginning in her core. Her little sister’s safety had been her only mission for years. Getting Kiara to Eden had nearly cost her everything she had, including her life. She’d left her with Sean’s family in Eden assuming she’d be safe, that there was no safer place remaining in the world. But now…

  Asher settled behind her and folded her into his arms, but Fi felt nothing. No comfort, no warmth. She was numb. He tried to soothe her, but she could barely hear him. It was like he was talking to her from above water while she drowned. What had happened to them all? What had happened to Kiara? Her stomach turned and she choked back a sob.

  “I know, Fi,” Asher murmured. “I’m terrified too. But we can’t panic yet. We have to get back.”

  Fi nodded, her body forcing the motion when her mind could not. He was right. They had to stay focused. The four worked to maintain their composure, though Fi knew that they were just denying the facts. Radio silence from Eden was not just a bad sign; it was devastating. There was no explanation that could calm Fi’s fears. Until she had Kiara back in her arms, she would be trapped inside that circle in her mind. It would bind and taunt her without respite.