“There’s a problem with the Advent?” the gar asked worriedly.
“Not if you help us,” Gunny continued. “We need to get to the Center. Can you bring us there?”
The gar’s head shook slightly, as if he needed to jiggle the idea around inside until it landed right side up. “Yes,” he finally said. “I can help.” He turned to the other guards and commanded, “Take my post. I will lead our friends to the Center.”
Gunny looked to Bobby and winked.
Bobby said, “You’re really getting the hang of that.”
Gunny said, “It helps that the gars are simple people.”
“Come!” the gar commanded. “Follow me.” He walked quickly into the tunnel that led to Black Water, followed by Gunny, Bobby, Spader, Courtney, and Kasha.
“You have a plan?” Bobby asked Gunny quietly.
Gunny put a finger to his lips to shush Bobby. “I’ll explain once we get there. No sense in causing a ruckus.”
Bobby nodded in understanding. He realized that telling the gar that Black Water was in danger of being wiped out by a poison from the sky might cause enough of a panic to slow them down, and anything that slowed them down wasn’t good. The group walked through the narrow, dark tunnel until they arrived at the entrance to Black Water.
“Hobey!” exclaimed Spader when he got his first view_of the hidden village. “All this for us?”-
He was looking at hundreds of gars gathering on either side of the path that led down to the village. It was like they were getting ready for a parade.
“I think they’re here to greet the gars,” Bobby said.
A little blond girl who looked no more than five, with beautiful blue eyes, ran up to Bobby and handed him a single, white flower. “Welcome to Black Water,” she said sweetly. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Thank you,” Bobby said, taking the flower.
Spader chuckled and said, “There you go! Maybe it’s a little bit for us too.”
“We should hurry,” Gunny said to the gar who was leading them.
They traveled quickly down the path, past the assembled gars. It was a festive atmosphere with music playing and gars cooking food on either side of the road. Most of the gars backed away from the path when they saw Kasha, but Spader tried to relax them by smiling and waving, as if he were the grand marshal of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Many gars waved back, others even cheered as if welcoming returning heroes.
“You should be a politician,” Courtney said.
“You’re right!” Spader answered. “What’s a politician?”
Bobby and Kasha were more concerned with the weather. They kept glancing up at the sky as the trailing edge of the dark storm cloud grew closer to the sunbelt.
“Whatever we’re going to do,” Kasha said, “we’d better do it fast.”
The gar escorted the group through the town to the Center. “Here you are,” the gar announced. “Do you need more help from me?”
“No,” Gunny said. “Thank you. You should get back to your post.”
The gar smiled broadly and said, “It’s a very exciting day, isn’t it?”
“You have no idea,” Courtney said sarcastically. The gar didn’t know what she meant, so without a word he jogged off.
Bobby looked up to see the storm was moving quickly. “We don’t have much time,” he said. “When that cloud clears the sunbelt, we’re done. We’d better figure out a way to use this antidote right now.”
“I already know how to use it,” Gunny said. “Really?” Courtney exclaimed.
“I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out yourself, shorty,” Gunny said. “You and Kasha were here. You saw their irrigation system.”
Bobby and Kasha exchanged confused looks. They had no idea what Gunny was talking about.
“Remember when you first got here?” Gunny asked. “When we were walking into the village-“
“The sprinklers!” Bobby exclaimed. “On the light posts.”
“They have sprinklers on light posts?” Courtney asked.
“What’s a sprinkler?” Spader asked.
Gunny walked to a tall light post and tapped it, saying, “Black Water thrives on the river water that runs through the village. They built a vast, underground watering system that channels the river water to the entire valley.”
“I remember,” Kasha exclaimed. “The water came from the poles.”
“Exactly,” Gunny said. “There are thousands of outlets like this one. Every square inch of Black Water can be reached and watered by the mist that comes from the irrigation system. It’s like they create their own rain.”
“It’s brilliant!” Spader declared. “Can we send the antidote through this system?”
“I’m counting on it,” Gunny answered. “The trick will be to time it so that Black Water is being sprayed just as the poison is dropped. If this antidote is as powerful as you say, it should act like an umbrella and make the poison harmless.”
“You’re a genius!” Courtney shouted, and threw her arms around Gunny. “We did it!”
Gunny shook his head and said, “We haven’t done anything but get here. Now we’ve got to feed the antidote into the system.”
“You know how to do that?” Bobby asked.
“No,” Gunny answered. “But I know who does.”
Gunny led the group into the Center and back to the large greenhouse room. As they entered, Bobby and Kasha took a quick look up to the glass ceiling to see the hole Saint Dane smashed open when he escaped in the form of a bird.
“I was hoping I had imagined that,” Kasha said soberly.
Gunny led them through the rows of plants growing on virloam, to a distant corner of the room, where one whole wall was taken up by a series of pipes and valves.
“Irrigation control?” Bobby asked.
“Yup,” Gunny answered. “They got somebody manning this all the time. Let’s hope he didn’t take the day off for the Advent.”
Gunny left the group to go in search of the gar who ran the irrigation system. Courtney took the tank off her shoulders and gently placed it on the floor.
“I gotta be honest,” she said. “I didn’t think we’d make it.”
“Markdidn’tmake it,” Bobby said.
Courtney frowned. She had been worried about Mark ever since they split up.
“Neither did Boon,” Kasha added.
“If anything happened to them…” Bobby said, but didn’t finish the thought. The idea of his best friend getting hurt made Bobby’s heart ache.
“First things first, mate,” Spader said to Bobby. “Once we’re done here, we’ll find them. I promise you.”
Bobby nodded, but wasn’t any less worried.
“Everybody, I’d like you to meet Fayne,” Gunny said as he approached them. He was leading a woman who looked no more than twenty years old. But being that the gars of Black Water all looked young, she could have been any age. She was small, with short black hair. She looked to Bobby like someone who was used to hard work. Her rough hands and strong arms were a dead giveaway. “Fayne is on duty today,” Gunny explained. “She’s going to help us.”
“Yeah,” Fayne said, none too happily. “Biggest day in the history of Black Water and I’m stuck in here.” She stood with her hands on her hips and her feet planted. Fayne was full of no-nonsense. But as tough as she was, when she spotted Kasha, she quickly backed off.
“Whoa, klee!”
“It’s okay,” Gunny assured her.” Kasha is a friend of Aron’s. She’s here to help the gars.”
Fayne kept a suspicious eye on Kasha. “Never saw a klee who gave one tick about gars.”
“I’m special,” Kasha said impatiently. “Can we move along here?”
Courtney handed the antidote tank to Gunny. Gunny addressed the group, saying, “I was explaining to Fayne how there’s concern that the new gars might be carrying dangerous bacteria or viruses that would infect Black
