Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee (18 page)

TWENTY-FOUR

THE HEAT OF BATTLE. A nip and tuck situation. The courageous Tanakee were up against a swarm of vicious, frothing flying snakes with teeth as sharp as razors, and it seemed the fight would never end. So it came as a surprise, pure and simple, when, just like that, each and every Nagas serpent turned tail and soared out of sight. Suddenly, the forest was tranquil…and eerily silent.

“They’re gone!” Pud stood still and allowed his duplicates to merge until it was just him and only him again. “They ran away! We gave ‘em an old-fashioned thrashin’!”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Cheyton hopped to a large stump and got a better look into the forest. His duplicates, nine of them, mimicked his movements, only higher in the trees, and spread out in all directions. Then, in a flash, they combined with the original, and became just one Cheyton again. “They didn’t seem scared. And it sure didn’t seem like we were winning by any means.”

“We were
so
winning!” Pud unleashed a blow to the air, a swift, strong flat-palmed chop. “We showed ‘em who’s boss, didn’t we, Potato?” he glanced around curiously. “Potato?”

“Where’s Takota?” Ayita searched the forest. “Cheyton? You seen Takota?”

“Not for a while,” he said, then cupped his hands over his mouth and hollered. “Takota!”

Pud added his voice to Cheyton’s, both of them yelling their lungs out for their friend, calling in every direction, and making quite a disturbance with the wildlife. But no Takota. Finally out of breath, they had to quit and turn to Ayita for direction.

“What’s Eteea showing you?” Cheyton asked the question that didn’t need asking. She’d already begun digging deep inside her own subconscious, calling, searching, clinging to that one desperate hope she’d find some kind of clue as to where Takota had gone.

“I’m…I’m trying,” she shivered involuntarily, projecting into every dimension, faster than the speed of thought. But it was no use. Takota’s trail through the dimensions had been cleaned up, almost as if he didn’t want to be found.

Before Ayita had the time to consider why Takota would do such a thing, she saw something. Not with her eyes, but inside, with the second sight given to her by Eteea. It wasn’t much, just a brief glimpse into a dark and cloudy place where Takota was confined, constricted, trapped. Then she got a quick hint of a face. A human face. Or was it human? Ayita couldn’t tell, though she did think it looked a lot like…Argus Cole!

“Takota!” she cried out involuntarily, and the vision was gone.

“What?” Enola huddled close to her, as did Cheyton and Pud. “What is it? Do you see him?”

“Yes…no…I don’t know.”

“Dear, what did you see?”

“I saw…I saw him! I saw…Takota!”

“Well? Where is he?” Cheyton couldn’t wait for her to piece it all together.

 “Yeah,” added Pud impatiently. “Tell us so we can go get him.”

Ayita was having a difficult time getting a decent vision, and Cheyton and Pud weren’t helping much.

“Just hold on a second,” she said. Then the images, fleeting as they were, flashed to her again. “I see Takota, confined and afraid.”

“Confined?” Cheyton exclaimed.

“Afraid?” Pud cried even louder. Enola tried to soothe them all with her gentle manner.

“Guys, guys. Don’t get too excited. Ayita, what else do you see?”

Ayita closed her eyes and that face appeared again, that hauntingly familiar face.

“Argus Cole!”

“Argus Cole?” Cheyton sounded puzzled. “What about him? Is he in trouble? Did Takota go to protect him?”

“I don’t think he’s in trouble,” Ayita said. “He’s smiling.”

“He’s smiling?” repeated Cheyton. “Takota is scared and confined, and Argus Cole is smiling?”

“What doesn’t look right about that picture?” asked Pud.

“Humans!” declared Cheyton. “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted them!”

Ayita shook her head.

“Cheyton, my brother, I don’t think Argus Cole
is
human.”

At that Cheyton’s deep blue eyes grew bigger than Ayita had ever seen, and every hair on his furry body stood on end.

“We have to find Takota…right away,” Enola said what was on everyone’s mind.

TWENTY-FIVE

JACK FOUND HIMSELF wandering all alone after Amelia’s latest outburst. He’d started out to follow her, but she’d made a mad dash in an unknown direction and managed to give him the slip. He knew he could have found her with the O/A. He could have done a lot of things with the all-powerful, omnidimensional wonder-machine. With it, Jack could have proven he and he alone was the True Soul. He would have gotten Takota back. And he knew, somehow, he could have mended the rift between Amelia and her father. If he could only get back the O/A. He longed for the device, wishing he knew where it was, and what Argus was doing with it. Nothing could put him at ease, so he tried to do something about it.

In the lab, Ben was still hard at work.

“Hey, Jack,” he motioned for his son to come close. Jack did as told, and his dad pulled him even closer. “I’ve been directed to keep these away from you,” he gave him an Eteea machine. “But you’re gonna need it. I call this one the Amber Machine.”

As soon as Jack held it, the orangish-yellow luminous device sent a wave of power straight into him. Ben kept his eyes on his work, pretending not to speak.

“Amelia wants to talk to you…alone.”

Jack pressed the interface and the omnidimensional field erupted around him. He saw his duplicates merge into his body. He heard something too. An artificial shriek filled the room. Some kind of alarm. He turned to watch a dozen armed security guards, some of whom he’d just had friendly conversations with only a few minutes earlier, pointing their weapons at him. Leading the charge, Commander Klein reached out and held his open palm firmly.

“I can’t let you take that, Jack,” he was unyielding.

“Don’t you see?” Jack stood back a step, holding tight to the machine. “You guys have all been fooled by Argus. He’s not the True Soul, and he doesn’t want the Eteeans to succeed. He wants us to fail!”

“No, Jack. It’s you who’s been fooled. You’ve been fooled into thinking you were the True Soul when you’re not.”

Argus materialized as the commander spoke, the brilliant purple and blue of the O/A’s spectacular lightshow forcing everyone to shield their sights. Everyone except Jack. He stood still, staring at Argus, the Amber Machine humming in his hands. Jack raised the machine and began to imagine his attack.

“That’s far enough,” Takota appeared in a flash of light, right on top of Jack’s wrists, forcing the machine from his grasp. Takota dropped to the floor, snatched the device, and tossed it to the commander. Then he whispered hoarsely to Jack. “I’m the True Soul’s protector. I protect Argus,” he bared his fangs. “And if you so much as touch one hair on Argus’s head, I WILL destroy you…got that?”

Jack held his breath and did all he could to get his nerves under control. If it was a dream, it was the worst nightmare ever, and he wanted to wake up now. He wished so bad to get back to the life he had before, when he was just a simple boy, and Takota was a simple talking teddy bear. Takota. His best friend. His protector. His defender from evil. Gone. Worse than gone—turned against him. Changed sides. His mind refused to believe. He wouldn’t accept the thought. He wanted to reach both arms and wrap Takota in a bear hug and forget all about Argus and Commander Klein and the Eteeans. Takota looked at him as if he knew what Jack was thinking and slipped like a jet stream, becoming partially invisible and snapping to Argus’s side. They both glared at Jack.

“This is the third time you’ve tried to harm the True Soul,” the commander said. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we’ve got a lot of very important work to do, and all of this delay is costing us precious time.”

Argus smiled, saving a special sneer for Jack. The commander explained further.

“We’re almost there. Soon we’ll find out where all the Children of the Blue Crystal are located, all around the planet. Then we can bring them into the care of the Eteeans, and together we’ll defeat the Nagas once and for all. But we can’t do any of that unless we can all get on the same page. Jack, I think it might be best if we keep you from Argus for a little while…just until we can figure out a way for you two to get along.”

“Keep me from him?” asked Jack. “What do you mean?”

“I’m talking about confining you to quarters.”

Ben stood up for Jack.

“You won’t put my son in a cage all alone and frightened. What kind of a place is this?”

“We’re not putting anyone in any cages,” Commander Klein assured him. “It’s only a temporary confinement to your quarters, that’s all. And not just Jack, but you and your wife and daughter too.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Ben shouted. “Who’s going to finish these machines?”

“We’ve got enough in the proper operating condition. And the ones that aren’t, the other technicians can handle. You’ve been a great help over the past few days, and you’ve endowed our scientists with some very valuable expertise. I’m sure they can take over.”

“This has been your plan all along, then?” Ben accused. “You used us. And now that you’ve gotten what you wanted out of us, you’re just going to toss us aside. Just like your daughter!”

“You leave my daughter out of this,” the commander grumbled. Then he cleared his throat and returned to his friendly tenor. “Amelia just doesn’t understand. Just like Jack doesn’t understand. Now, please. Let’s not make this harder than it has to be. Guards!”

The guards stood at attention, waiting for orders from the commander.

TWENTY-SIX

CHEYTON MAY HAVE been the first to step across the dimensional divide—making an instantaneous jump from Wind Whisper Woods to the Black Pyramid—but Ayita was the first to set foot in the Eteean secret base again, beating her brother and the rest of her Tanakee tribe by a good millionth of a second.

Ayita couldn’t contain her nerves. Takota had disappeared under some strange circumstances, and she hoped nothing sinister had happened to him. Driven by instinct, she went to the last place she saw Takota in the large, underground structure—the Discovery Room. She anticipated an exhaustive search. Jack and Amelia using their Eteea machines. The Tanakee employing their own mastery of Eteea. All of them scouring the corners of the Earth for their lost friend. So it was a big surprise to her when she saw him, strolling just a little too casually, smiling just a little too smugly.

She wanted to slap Takota’s face. No, she wanted to hug him. She didn’t know whether she wanted to slap him or hug him, so she did both.

“Ouch!” he held his cheek. “What did you do that for?”

“You left us!” she scolded. “Without telling me where you went. You even scrubbed your dimensional trail so I couldn’t follow you.”

“No I didn’t,” he looked confused.

“Yes you did,” she fumed, though she couldn’t help but let the flood of other emotions enter her bloodstream, namely the urge to hug him again. “Oh, Takota! Never leave us again,” she looked into his eyes. “Let’s get out of here, okay?” she glanced at the walls of the Black Pyramid compound. “This is like a prison. I just don’t feel right here anymore. None of us feel right, and we’re all dealing with it in different ways. Cheyton’s become quiet and reserved,” she looked at her brother. He looked away. “Pud, well, Pud’s the same, but that only means he’s the exception to the rule. Enola’s getting sick all the time because she can’t deal with the consuming fear we’re getting from this…this place. And these people.”

“What about these people? You mean the Eteeans?” Takota asked.

“Yes. Takota, listen. They’ve been fooled. They believe Argus is the True Soul when he’s not.”

Takota said nothing. His eyes narrowed, yet he remained silent.

“Takota, don’t you think it’s time we got Amelia and Jack and got out of here? I mean, they’re going to let Argus take over, and that would be just terrible!”

“Enough!” Takota’s posture became erect. He seemed to grow a couple of inches as he puffed his chest. “We can’t trust anyone around here anymore, can we, Ayita?”

“What are you talking about, Takota?” Ayita tried to hide her apprehension. However, something in Takota’s demeanor made her nervous.

“I’m talking about mutiny, about betrayal, about you being in league with the enemy,” he pointed a sharp claw at her. “You want to bring down the True Soul. You want to undermine his authority, to weaken his power, and in so doing, weaken the Eteeans.”

“I want what you want—to defend the Children of the Blue Crystal against the Nagas. And Argus
is
Nagas!”

“How dare you speak that way against the True Soul!” he shouted. “You’re playing a dangerous game, Ayita,” he looked at the others. “All of you are playing a dangerous game!”

“What’s gotten into you, Takota?” Cheyton said. “We all know Argus isn’t the True Soul. He can’t be. Jack is.”

“And we have to get Jack and Amelia out of here,” added Ayita. “If we don’t, I’m afraid something terrible will happen.”

“I’ve heard enough!”

Before any of the others could react, Takota divided into an overwhelming number of dimensional duplicates, swarming the Tanakee and preventing them from doing the same. Trapped, apprehended, stunned, they had no choice but allow the Takota copies to transport them to a section of the underground facility none of them had seen before. An entire level of narrow corridors lined on both sides with solid hatches. A group of Takotas threw Ayita inside a small cubicle and closed it tight. Then they proceeded to deposit the others in cells, each alone, separated by cold steel and dense earth.

“Takota, why are you doing this!” Ayita pounded on the impenetrable door. As Cheyton and Pud protested vociferously, she envisioned herself in the passageway with Takota. Now that she and her friends had learned how to transport through dimensions, it had become easy, like stepping through a magical gate, slipping effortlessly from one place to the next—as long as they could imagine it. This time, though, it didn’t work. She stepped forward, but slammed nose-first into solid metal. “Ouch!” she cried, and heard Takota chuckle.

“These cells are equipped with dimensional inhibitors,” he said. She could only see his eyes through the peephole, a small slit cut into the black steel. “You can’t get out by using Eteea. And you can’t multiply, either. So save yourself some grief.”

She stared at him through the small window for a long, tense moment. In that time, she tried to dig into his mind and reach the real Takota. For a moment, she actually succeeded. She saw him, saw the witches encircling his will with a veil of black magic. He didn’t know what he was doing. Besides that, she felt confused, like she wasn’t seeing Takota. The real Takota.

She fell backward against hard stone. It hurt her head, and she nearly passed out, but her pain was nothing compared to the agony she felt for Takota. Deep inside, he thought he was doing the right thing, though it was becoming quite clear this was not the Takota she’d come to know and love.

“Nice try!” he leered through the opening and tapped his forehead. “But you won’t get in here. And if you try it one more time, I won’t be so nice.”