Jack is dead, and we’re out here in the middle of Africa, alone and hunted…
Beside her, Lily stared into space, blank-eyed. Then she started sobbing—deep, aching, wrenching sobs. Alby put his arm around her.
“We can’t give up,” Wizard said softly but firmly. “Jack wouldn’t want us to give up. We have to stay focused and find the Neetha and the Second Pillar.”
Zoe was silent for a long time, her mind still racing. In one fell swoop, she’d learned the man she loved was dead and a great responsibility had fallen on her shoulders—the Neetha, the Pillars, keeping Lily and Alby safe—and she wasn’t sure she could handle it. She wanted to cry, too, but knew she couldn’t in front of the others.
Then Lily spoke and Zoe blinked back to the present.
“I’m sorry,” Lily said. “I didn’t mean to let them know where we are—”
“Don’t be sorry, honey,” Zoe said kindly. “We all wanted to call him.”
Lily looked at Zoe, tear streaks on her cheeks. Zoe returned her gaze, and then Lily dived into her arms and burst out crying again, clutching Zoe tightly.
As they embraced, Zoe looked out at the road ahead of them.
The jungle-covered mountains of the Congo loomed over the western horizon. The Congo was far more rugged than Rwanda, more densely forested, more impenetrable.
Somewhere in there were the Neetha, a mysterious tribe known for their deformed faces and wanton savagery, the guardians of the Second Pillar.
And now, alone and without Jack, Zoe had to find them.
Around two that afternoon they arrived at the outskirts of Kamembe, where they quickly found the abandoned UN depot they were after.
It looked like a dump. The depot’s ten-foot-high chain-link fence was broken in several places and near an old gate was a battered sign:UNITED NATIONS—DEPOT 409: AIRCRAFT REFIT AND REFUEL.
Through the fence, Zoe saw a few fuel trucks mounted on bricks, their tires and vital parts long gone, and a couple of rusty old Huey helicopters that no longer possessed any landing skids.
A man stepped out from behind the nearest chopper. A very tall black man.
Zoe whipped up her gun—
“Zoe? Is that you?” he said.
Zoe heaved a sigh of relief and for the first time in days, smiled.
There, emerging from behind the rusty old chopper, was Solomon Kol.
Solomon had two porters with him, carrying fuel cans on poles across their shoulders.
“These are my friends,” Solomon said. “They have fuel for your plane. We have been here since early morning and were starting to wonder if you had been waylaid by bandits.”
“Almost,” Wizard said.
“We also have food,” Solomon smiled.
“Oh, Solomon,” Zoe said, “we are so glad to see you.”
They sat and ate inside the fenced UN depot.
“A friend of mine has a Fokker, for dusting crops. He flew us in this morning, dropping us off a few miles to the east of here,” Solomon said. “There were rumors in the villages we passed through of an announcement over the government radio network. It spoke of a vast reward to the person or persons who found a group of white fugitives believed to be in Rwanda. Our enemies have cast a wide net for you and they summon the common people to aid them—”
“Hey! I think I’ve got it…” Alby said suddenly.
He had been sitting apart from the others, still examining the charged First Pillar.
It had become something of an obsession for him, figuring out what the Pillar’s glowing symbols meant. With Wizard’s and Lily’s help, he knew what some of them stood for, but now he’d made another connection.
“What is it, Alby?” Wizard said.
Alby held up the oblong glasslike Pillar with its pyramidal void at one end. He showed its four long sides. All contained the glowing white writing.
“See this side, with the spiderweb-like matrix on it. This matrix is actually a variety ofcarbon matrix—an extremely complex interconnection of carbon atoms, far more complex than anything we have today.”
“Meaning?” Lily asked.
“Carbon forms the basis of diamonds, the strongest substance on Earth. Carbon fiber, too, is superstrong but light—fighter aircraft and race cars use it to reinforce their cockpits. Strong and light. Titanium, steel, they’re strong but they’re heavy. This matrix, however, is something else: a carbon-based alloy that’s unbelievably strong yet incredibly light.”
“Technical knowledge…” Wizard breathed. “It’s technical knowledge.”
“Have you deciphered any of the other sides?” Zoe asked.
“Partially. This one here seems to be a representation of the star Sirius and its two companion stars. The second companion star is shown as a zero-point field, the same stuff that our Dark Star is made of.”
