‘What’s happened? How did they catch you? Where are Pegasus and Alexis? Are they here too?’ Then his eyes fell on the other bed. ‘Agent T!’
Joel sprang up from his bed to get closer to Agent T. ‘Em, can’t you heal him?’
Seeing Joel without his arm and Agent T lying destroyed in the bed, Emily felt herself breaking. ‘No. All I can do is kill.’
She looked at Joel. He was going to hate her for what she had done, but she had to tell him. ‘I killed Pegasus. Alexis and Frankie too.’
‘What?’ Joel cried.
‘My powers got away from me. Now they’re dead – and it’s my fault,’ she whispered as tears rimmed her eyes.
Joel pulled Emily into a tight embrace and clung to her with his one arm. ‘Where’s your handkerchief ?’ he asked softly as tears streamed down her cheeks and landed on her hospital gown.
‘They took it,’ she wept. ‘But I don’t care any more. I hope my tears blow me up!’
Joel held her tighter. ‘If they blow us up, there’s no one I’d rather go to pieces for.’
Emily turned tearful eyes up to him and saw he was smiling gently.
‘It’s not funny, Joel.’
Joel kissed the top of her head. ‘I know it’s not.’ Then his voice because serious. ‘But you listen to me, Emily Jacobs. You did not kill Pegasus. It was an accident. I know for sure Pegasus would not want you blaming yourself.’
‘But it was me,’ she said miserably.
Joel lifted her face to him. ‘No, it was them. The CRU. If they hadn’t created the clones, we’d have never left Olympus.’
Emily was inconsolable as her mind replayed the moment of Pegasus’s death. She could never forgive herself for losing control. As they clung together, the two Nirad soldiers stepped forward.
‘Stay back,’ Joel warned. ‘I may only have one arm, but I can make you sorry you tried anything!’
The closest Nirad raised one of his large grey fingers to his thin lips and made a shushing sound. He looked back to the door and grunted a few times. His companion nodded and went to the door and peered out.
The first Nirads reached out and gently stroked Emily’s head. His eyes were filled with compassion.
‘You can understand us,’ Joel said in shock, ‘can’t you?’
The Nirad nodded.
Emily removed herself from Joel’s embrace. ‘Do you know where Tobin and Tirk are?’
Once again the Nirad nodded. He struggled to form his mouth into words. After a moment, he pointed at his head and in a deep growling voice said, ‘Hear – our – prince.’
Emily and Joel were stunned. This was the first Nirad to ever speak a language they could understand.
‘How is this possible?’ Joel asked.
Emily carefully wiped her eyes on her hospital gown. She looked at Joel. ‘He’s not pure Nirad. They mixed him with Olympian DNA.’
‘Can others here speak?’ Joel asked.
The Nirad nodded.
‘Does the CRU know?’
The Nirad shook his head quickly and put his finger to his lips again. ‘Shhhhhh.’
‘This is amazing,’ Joel continued. ‘Do you have names?’
The Nirad pointed to his chest. ‘A-Two.’ Then he indicated the Nirad by the door. ‘A-Three.’
‘And you can hear Prince Tobin in your head?’ Emily asked.
When the Nirad nodded, she looked at Joel with pain-filled eyes. ‘The plan worked. Prince Tobin can reach the clones. I wish Pegasus could know. He’d have been so happy.’ She turned back to the Nirad guard. ‘Do you understand why he came here?’
The Nirad nodded and again formed two words. ‘Going – home.’
‘Yes,’ Joel said. ‘If you help us, you can go home.’
The large grey Nirad nodded and patted Emily again. ‘We – all – protect – Flame.’
Joel looked at the Nirad in shock. ‘Em, he knows you’re the Flame of Olympus!’
‘Prince Tobin must have told him,’ Emily said softly.
Joel’s face brightened. ‘This is fantastic! If the Nirads help us, we can get out of here and stop Jupiter from destroying the Earth.’
Emily should have felt relieved. But all she could feel was pain. She approached Agent T again and stroked his face. ‘I’m so sorry. I wish I could heal you.’
Joel joined her. ‘If we can get out of here and get him some ambrosia, I bet it would help him.’ He looked down on Agent T. ‘I promise we won’t leave you. We’ll bring you back to Olympus with us.’
Agent T slowly blinked his eyes again.
Joel turned back to A-Two. ‘Can you take us to the prince?’
The Nirad shook his head. ‘Not – now,’ he grumbled. ‘Night – sleep.’
‘When everyone is asleep?’ Emily asked softly.
Again the Nirad nodded.
At the door, A-Three growled loudly. He approached A-Two and pointed to Joel and then the bed. The message was clear: They are coming; get back to bed.
Joel hesitated before returning to his bed and focused all his attention on Emily. He lifted his hand gently to her chin and tilted her face up to look at him. ‘It will be all right, Em,’ he said softly. ‘I promise. As long as we’re together, we’ll be fine. I know you don’t see any hope right now, but you must find a way to go on. Pegasus wouldn’t want you to punish yourself. Deep down inside you know that. He loved you and would hate to see you suffering.’
‘How can I go on?’ Emily said miserably.
‘You go on by remembering what you felt for Pegasus. How you two fought together to protect this world. How he would want you to keep fighting.’
‘But I can’t.’
Joel bent down and kissed her tenderly on the lips. ‘Yes you can.’ He held her tight. ‘You’re my Em; you can do anything.’
33
Emily was standing beside Joel’s bed when soldiers and several more CRU agents ran into the room. Joel was lying back and pretending to be asleep.
The two Nirads were standing by the door, looking like loyal military personnel who were keeping their prisoner from escaping.
A younger CRU agent approached her with his hands in the air. ‘Just calm down, Emily. No one is going to hurt you. I’m Agent R. Agent PS is recovering. He will be back shortly.
Emily looked at the CRU agent and felt her anger returning. Joel was right. Pegasus was dead because of them. ‘Why did you take Joel’s arm? You could have killed him.’
‘That wasn’t my decision,’ the agent said, diverting blame away from himself. ‘But I’m sure you must understand. There are things we could learn from that arm. It would be a revolution in prosthetics. It could bring relief to thousands of people.’
‘Soldiers, you mean,’ Emily challenged. ‘Nothing the CRU does is for the good of the people. All you care about is building an army. Look what you’ve done to these poor Nirads. You’ve enslaved them!’
‘These Nirads are not slaves,’ the young agent said indignantly. ‘They are personnel. Just like me and just like all the human soldiers here.’
‘Can they leave if they want?’ Emily demanded.
The young CRU agent looked at Emily with contempt. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. If the public were ever to see these soldiers there would be panic in the streets.’
‘Then why are you creating them?’
‘There is a bigger picture here you are incapable of understanding, a larger goal. With an unstoppable army, we can bring order to the world. We will end human suffering and bring peace to every country on this planet. Wouldn’t you want that?’
Emily stood in stunned silence as she processed the agent’s words. It was too horrible to consider. ‘No,’ she said in a hushed voice. ‘You’re planning to use a Nirad army to take over the world! And if anyone tries to stop you?’
‘There are always casualties in any regime change,’ he said. ‘But soon everyone will see that our way is the only way.’
‘You’re all insane!’ Emily cried. ‘You can’t use these Nirads t
o make war on anyone who opposes you.’
‘It’s not war, Emily, it is change. And the Nirads aren’t the only ones. We have our Olympians and now we have you.’ He paused and stepped closer to her. ‘We’ve taken some of your blood. Before long, you will have many sisters who can do all the things you can do. You won’t be alone any more. And together we can change this world.’
Emily shook her head. ‘I won’t let you clone me.’
The young agent shook his head. ‘Technically, you don’t have any choice. We are holding Joel and we have your friend Earl as well. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want anything to happen to Tornado Warning and the other Pegasus clones we have here. Especially now that you destroyed the original.’
The agent’s words cut Emily to the core. ‘It’s wrong,’ she whispered. ‘What you are doing is wrong. You can’t force other people to think like you do.’
‘We can and we will,’ he said. ‘One world order isn’t bad thing, Emily. There will be no more borders, no more wars. Isn’t that what it’s like on Olympus? One language, one people and one country? It will be the same here. The CRU are going to create Olympus on Earth.’
‘But Jupiter doesn’t kill people who oppose him.’
‘Of course he does. The myths are filled with all the tales of death and destruction caused by Jupiter.’
Emily felt her temper flaring. ‘They’re just myths! Stories! They aren’t all true! Jupiter is a caring man. He would do anything for his people. And the myths said that the Sphinx was a cold-blooded killer. But Alexis wasn’t that way at all. She was a caring person who loved Agent T!’
The beeping heart monitor at Agent T’s bed increased as he listened to Emily’s words. She stepped over to him. ‘It’s true,’ she said softly. ‘Alexis loved you.’
‘Now, isn’t this a lovely scene!’ Agent PS said as he returned to the room. He approached Emily, rubbing the back of his head. ‘That’s some punch you’ve got there.’ He regarded the other agent. ‘Agent R, did you tell her our plans and her part in it?’
The younger agent nodded. ‘But she’s not convinced.’
Agent PS smiled, but it chilled Emily to the bone. ‘Well then, we’re just going to have to convince her.’
‘And this,’ Agent PS said proudly as they stood in front of a large picture window, ‘is where we create our new world fighters. It is here that we first spliced Nirad DNA with Olympian DNA. As you know, it’s been a resounding success.’
Emily was being given a full tour of the CRU facility. She was in a wheelchair that was being pushed by A-Two. Emily had quietly counted almost a hundred different Nirad soldiers. As she was pushed past, they all looked at her with the secret expression in their eyes. They knew who she was and were waiting for the right moment to move against the CRU.
But the expression on the human faces she encountered was different. The soldiers and scientists all looked delusional with their glazed eyes, as if they were all drugged.
Emily looked through the window down into the lab. The scientists were all dressed in white spacesuits with breathing tubes coming out of their backs. She couldn’t tell the men from the women as they worked at their large microscopes, collections of test tubes and huge freezers that lined the walls. There were countless other large machines inside and Emily had no idea what they did. But whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
Emily was horror-struck at the sight. This was where it all started. That white, sterile laboratory was truly the place of nightmares. Somewhere down there, they were playing with her DNA, trying to create Emily clones.
Further away from the main lab, they entered another laboratory. This one contained tall, upright, tubes. The tubes were filled with thick, pale-green liquid. Emily was shocked to see that each tube held either a Nirad or Olympian clone in the process of development.
‘This is where we mature our clones,’ Agent PS explained proudly. ‘They grow exceptionally fast. It only takes a few months to reach maturity. It takes a normal human soldier a heck of a lot longer.’
Emily said nothing as she was pushed past the long line of occupied growing tubes. When they stopped, she looked up at Agent PS. ‘This is so wrong, can’t you see that? Please, listen to me. You must shut this down before it’s too late. If Jupiter were to see this—’
‘Don’t you worry about Jupiter,’ Agent R said. ‘We are prepared and waiting for him. Can you imagine what we could create with his DNA? An army of Jupiter clones would be unstoppable.’
Emily watched the scientists around her playing with Nirad and Olympian DNA as if it were some kind of game. She suddenly realized Joel was right. Despite her crippling grief over the loss of Pegasus, she had to continue the fight. The CRU had to be stopped.
Emily felt the Flame inside her rumbling and begging to be released to melt the clone factory. But this wasn’t the time. She had to wait until she understood everything about the place. More than anything, she needed to find Prince Tobin and Tirk. Once they were safe, Emily promised herself she would free the Flame and turn the lab into ash.
Emily was next taken to another level of the facility. The entire floor was made up of large gymnasiums, training areas and sleeping dormitories. This was where the real nightmare began. This was where they kept the New Olympians.
Diana after Diana was training at the machines. Lifting weights no human could ever hope to even move and running faster than the wind. Along with the Dianas, Emily’s eyes landed on several Paelens. Some were practising manipulating and stretching their bodies the way the real Paelen could, while others trained with equipment and fought each other in mock battles.
Above them flew countless Cupids near the roof of the tall gym. Some carried weapons as they performed mid-air acrobatics while shooting guns at targets.
‘How?’ she asked in horror. ‘Cupid was never your prisoner.’
‘Sadly, no. But he was wounded,’ Agent PS said. ‘We found a large pool of his blood in the snow outside Tuxedo, New York. It was frozen enough for it to still be viable. As you can see, the cloning worked perfectly.’
‘These are all soldiers?’ Emily said.
‘Not all,’ Agent PS responded. ‘As you can see, some make perfect athletes. We are going to test some of the clones at the next Olympic Games. For the first time ever, the Olympics will have real Olympians competing. It will be the perfect arena to introduce the clones to the world. And when the world sees what our athletes can do, they will realize there is no opposing us.’
While they were speaking they hadn’t noticed the change in the large training area. One by one the clones stopped their training, put down the weights and weapons, and started to approach Emily.
‘What’s going on?’ Agent PS demanded, looking around. ‘All of you, get back to work!’
‘Back to work!’ Agent R repeated, clapping his hands. ‘Now!’
The New Olympians ignored the order and pressed forward. The Cupids glided down from the roof, and landed on the ground near Emily’s wheelchair.
Emily studied them closely and saw they were identical to the real Cupid. Their wings had the same pheasant-like colours and their faces and bodies were just as stunningly beautiful. But the expressions in their eyes were different. There was none of Cupid’s arrogance or intelligence. These Cupids were like very young, innocent children. They cocked their heads to the side and smiled brilliantly at her.
Emily leaned forward in her chair and rose on her one good leg. She hopped over to the first Cupid.
‘What’s going on here?’ Agent PS said in alarm. ‘What are you doing?’
Emily looked back and shot him a cold expression. ‘I’m going to meet my people!’
Every clone reached out to touch her, to stroke her head and to hold her. Soon Emily was swallowed up in the large group of New Olympians. She was embraced by all the Cupids and Paelens.
As Emily looked from face to face, she was shocked by the overwhelming silence. Some grunted and made strange soft mewing sounds but no words ca
me out of their mouths.
She recalled what Alexis had told her in the barn about how all the Olympians were drawn to her. They could feel her power and knew it was the source of their strength. Looking around, she realized it was the same for these New Olympians. They instinctively knew who she was.
A tall Diana came forward and offered Emily her spear. Like the Cupid clones, this Diana was like a beautiful, hopeful child.
‘Thank you,’ Emily said.
The clone grinned broadly.
‘Can you talk?’ Emily asked. When the clone shook her head, Emily continued. ‘But you can understand me?’
The Diana clone nodded. So did all the others in the gym. Emily looked back and saw several scientists and the CRU agents watching her intently. Finally Agent PS pushed his way through the group.
‘All right, the excitement is over. Everyone get back to your training. Emily will be remaining here with us. You can see her again later.’
The New Olympians did as they were told. The Cupids bowed, opened their wings and returned to the air.
‘Why aren’t they wild?’ Emily asked as she was helped back to her wheelchair. ‘Tornado Warning and the Paelen clone were wild.’
‘They were early experiments. It was before we perfected the mix of Olympian to Nirad to alien DNA.’
‘Alien?’ Emily cried.
The CRU agent nodded. ‘We’ve had alien bodies here for years. But we’ve never been able to successfully clone them. Until now. Their DNA combined perfectly with Olympian and Nirad.’
Emily didn’t think it was possible to be shocked by anything any more. But with each new revelation, she found herself stunned to the core.
But Agent PS had saved the best for last. Emily was taken down to one of the lower levels of the deep facility. When the elevator doors opened, she immediately smelled straw and heard the sounds of horses’ whinnies.
‘It seems they know you are here,’ Agent PS said curiously.
At the end of the hall, the doors were pushed open and Emily nearly passed out. There were over fifty large stalls. Each stall contained a Pegasus clone.
‘You see, Emily,’ Agent PS said, spreading his hand out before her. ‘You have no need to grieve over the loss of your Pegasus because if you join us, all of these are yours.’