“Did you tell them about the box you have buried under the great tree, Milly? Or the tunnels beneath the island? Or the futility of your life? ‘A way of providing purpose and keeping you focused until a time when the world is ready for you again,’” Ingo said.
Tye opened his mouth to reply, but didn’t.
“So I ask you now. Is the world ready for your greatness?” Ingo said.
“What is it you want?” Peter said. He’d become the cut-to-the-chase man.
“To find the turtle.”
“I think he meant, what do you want with us?” Tye said. “And how do you know these things there is no way you could know?”
“They call it RV. I can visualize places. All I need is a little information and everything else falls into place,” Ingo said.
“How old are you?” Milly said.
The skinny boy looked at the floor. To Milly he looked no more than eighteen, and would be ripe to be a fire guard.
“I’m forty-eight years old,” Ingo said. “A reborn. Like Hansa.”
The fellowship said nothing.
“As to what I want you for, I’ve been waiting for you. I can see the turtle in my mind, and three of you are there with me. I just don’t know how to get there. But I have this,” Ingo said. He laid a folded piece of paper on the table.
“Wait, three of us?” Milly said.
“Yes. You, him, and her,” the boy said. He pointed at Tye and Robin.
“That’s Tye, Robin, Peter, and Jerome,” Milly said, pointing to each member of the fellowship in turn. “Jerome and Peter weren’t there? What did you see?”
“We walk through a tunnel of green, and at its end, the giant white turtle awaits with the final clue,” Ingo said.
“The final clue?” Jerome said.
“Instructions that lead to Argartha, the new civilization where people like me gather,” Ingo said. “And him… Tye.”
“Why him?” Peter asked.
“He is an old one. But fear not. All are welcome says the turtle that will rebuild the world,” Ingo said.
“If you don’t know where the turtle is, where the hell does this map lead to?” Tye said.
“I’d been searching for the turtle for a year before I got trapped here. This map leads to a stop on the road to enlightenment. There should be a clue here that tells me where the turtle is,” Ingo said.
“Should be a clue?” Milly said.
“Sometimes the turtle is elusive,” Ingo said.
“And we’re supposed to believe Tester wants to help us?” Tye said.
“He is a man of the turtle. He gave up his people to find Argartha,” Ingo said.
“I don’t trust him,” Tye said.
“Nor me,” Peter said.
“How do you plan to get out without Tester? He can get us to the outside,” Ingo said.
Milly sighed. “And you’re sure he won’t betray us? He seemed tight with Gerall.”
Ingo said nothing.
“As I thought,” Milly said.
“We don’t need Tester. With Ingo’s help I know how we can get out,” Peter said.
Nobody spoke.
“But you’re not gonna like it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Year 2069, Houston, Texas
“This isn’t so bad,” Milly said. Her head ached and her nerves jumped.
“Save that thought,” Peter said.
The tunnels beneath the old arena were poorly lit, dirty, and smelled of shit and vomit. The convention space in the sub-basement one was fairly habitable, but the deeper the fellowship delved the worse the conditions became, and the lower levels had no torchlight. Peter led the group through darkness, the party not wanting to draw unwanted attention. Rats scuttled about, squeaking their protests, and the swoosh of water flowing through pipes echoed in the stillness.
“We can light a torch now. Nobody is in this deep,” Peter said.
Tye was ahead on point, and Jerome watched their backs.
Ingo gasped.
“What is it?” Milly asked.
Ingo collapsed to the floor and shuddered in the flicker of sparks as Peter tried to light a torch.
“I’m all right.”
“What happened?” Milly said.
The torch blazed, and the passageway filled with pale orange light.
“I… Never mind. I’m fine.”
“Bullshit,” Peter said. “What did you see?”
Ingo started walking.
Peter pushed him to the wall and Milly screamed for him to stop. “What did you see?” Peter repeated.
“Respite. At least what’s left of it,” Ingo said.
Peter looked at the ground and Ingo started walking again.
“What does that mean?” Milly said.
“I don’t know,” Ingo said.
“You don’t know? Really? You can see shit you’ve never actually seen from half-way around the world, but you have no clue why you see it or if it’s true? Your image of the turtle could be a crazy delusion,” Peter said.
“What I see is truth. I’ve proven that. When is the problem. I don’t know if what I’ve seen is past or future in this case.”
“But why now? You went down it hit you so hard,” Milly said.
Ingo said nothing.
They came to a staircase that was walled off on the third step. Abandoned utility service chases angled up through the tunnel’s ceiling, and the three large ceramic pipes stacked within the passage disappeared into the concrete wall beside the blocked steps.
Tye waited for them. “Dead end,” he said. “What happened, Peter? We can’t get out here.”
“No,” Ingo said. “No way I’m doing that, Peter.”
“Easy small fry,” Peter said.
“What’s he talking about?” Milly said. “You said there was a way out.”
“There is.” Peter pointed at the large pipes. “Tye gave me the idea when he told us about the broken waste pipe.”
“Piss on me,” Jerome said.
“Literally,” Milly said.
“So your plan is to have us crawl out the waste line?” Robin said.
“A
