Atlas (The Atlas Series) (30 page)

Linda and Owen gave Kala and Talan one last hug before they popped out of the living room to who-knows-where.

Talan turned to Kala. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Kala said with more confidence than she felt.

Talan touched Kala’s arm and her parents’ house was just a memory.

With a disorientating SLAM! Kala and Talan were in a beautifully decorated living room. The design was of the Victorian era with antique furniture made up of ornate wood and brown velvets. There was a small sitting couch and a large couch, both with rounded individual backs tacked in with intricate studs. To say the fireplace was large would be an understatement, it was almost big enough that Kala could stand in it. For a second, Kala thought Talan had teleported her back in time to some rich person’s mansion, but when Turner and his wife Roberta entered the room, Kala knew she was at their house.

“Kala, this is a surprise,” Turner said with a kind of amusement. “I’m not going to pretend that I’m particularly happy that you didn’t set off at least one alarm breaking in here, but I did hire you for your
talents
after all. I trust my injection worked for you?”

Kala knew he was referring to the anti-tracker, which had worked great until Lali had decided to find her the old-fashioned way by following her. “Lali was a Demon. She tracked me down.”

Turner couldn’t hide his disappointment at the news. “Lali? A Demon? Can you tell me if I’ve employed any other supernatural beings?” Turner seemed disturbed by this news.

“No, but
he
can.” Kala nodded toward Talan and found it hard to not think about the fact that Turner already worked with Talan in a different form.

Roberta apparently had enough small talk and she went up to Kala and hugged her. “I’m so happy to see you safe. Now tell us who he is.”

Kala hadn’t been sure if Talan would show himself to Roberta and Turner in his current form. He had told her before that he came to Roberta as an old black man and to Turner as a scientist; Kala had thought Talan might come to them in either of those forms. The more she thought about it, though, the more Kala realized that Talan wasn’t ready to retire his two disguises. He wasn’t done with the couple yet.

“This is Talan. He’s an Angel.” Kala knew that sounded absurd, but she also knew that at least the couple believed in Demons and Angels. And she didn’t want to get into the whole
Grigori
thing.

Turner’s head jerked back, startled slightly. “Really?”

Kala looked directly at Turner. “I need your help.”

But it was Roberta that answered, “Anything.”

It was then that Kala saw the kind of symbiosis Turner and Roberta shared in their relationship. It was almost like they were one person. Whereas Turner may have been on the verge of objection, by Roberta promising her help Turner was completely on board, no questions asked. Kala wondered what Turner would do if he was in Kala’s position and was asked to kill his wife.

“I need to die,” Kala stated simply.

Turner raised his eyebrow in curiosity. “That can be arranged.”

After Kala explained her plan, Turner and Roberta brought Kala and Talan to the basement of their mansion. Floor after floor of the house made Kala dizzy. She could never live in that much space, she’d get lost for sure. Her one bedroom apartment was plenty. As Kala glanced in each passing room, she realized that Turner and Roberta needed the space. Catching glimpses of electronic equipment and scientific gear, made Kala want to stay out of their business altogether.

Kala glanced over at Talan. She knew he was probably responsible for most of their scientific discoveries, but Turner had obviously taken the research to a whole new level. Talan’s eyes met Kala’s as if he felt her looking at him. He smiled gently. She looked away. Kala couldn’t handle Talan being so supportive and nice right now. It made her annoyed for some reason though she was grateful for his help. The opposing thoughts confused the crap out of her so she figured it was best just to avoid as much contact with Talan as possible.

When they stepped into an elevator, Kala was impressed. An elevator in a house?! It blew her mind. The elevator went down four more floors to reach the basement. Exiting the elevator, Kala stepped into a giant room full of lab tables. It looked like a college chemistry lab, from the size of the room and the beakers, Bunsen burners, and sinks at every seven-foot long table. With all the steam and bubbling, Kala expected to see at least a handful of scientists at work, but she only saw one. He came hurrying up to them.

The man was short-ish with gray hair and brown eyes. His features were overly small, making him almost rodent-like in appearance. Although he had gray hair, his face still looked relatively young, perhaps only in his mid-forties. Turner introduced him to Kala and Talan. “Ms. Hicks, Mr. Talan, this is John Fortski.”

Kala shook his hand and noticed when Talan shook John’s hand that Talan knew him. It was just a small moment, a flash of pride, but it was enough to give Kala a surge of relief. If Talan had trained this guy, then Fortski would be good.

“John is the man who devised the ‘death cocktail’ you took before. John, you can explain it better.” Turner gave the floor to Fortski.

Fortski looked extremely nervous, especially around Roberta, furtively looking at her as if she was likely to scream at him any moment. Then he focused his attention back on Kala. “The drug I gave your team slows the heart rate down so slowly that any EKG will register it as stopped. It has a time release adrenaline shot that jolts you back to the living. I can make the time release up to two hours, but anything after that, you could run the risk of actually dying.”

Kala looked at the clock.

0d 13h 55m 23s.

4:05 P.M.

Time was flying. Kala had less than twelve hours to fail or complete her mission, but she needed enough time with Atlas to either trick him or convince him to take his job back. If Kala ever needed the talent of negotiation it was right now.

“Give me an hour to be safe,” Kala qualified.

“I’ll set the parameters.” Fortski nodded. He went back to the table he had been working at when they arrived.

Turner nodded toward the back of the lab. “We’ll set you up back here. I had a cot brought down.”

The four of them walked to the area, where Kala found a standard issue army cot, which was somewhat comforting. It was familiar and familiar felt good at the moment. Kala lay down on the hard mattress and tried to calm herself for what was about to happen. Talan kneeled down beside her.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Talan asked with concern.

“Yes, positive.” Kala had no doubts. This was her one shot to save Jack: she was going to take it no matter what.

Fortski walked over with a metal plate and syringe resting on top. “Here we are.”

Kala knew the procedure, having experienced it before, but it still gave her a bout of butterflies.

Fortski knelt down next to Kala on the opposite side of where Talan was. Kala figured Fortski thought that Talan was her support system and didn’t want to deprive her of him.

“Should I invoke a protection spell?” Roberta asked Talan.

“Yes, I’ll help. We need to keep Demons and Malaks out, Malaks especially, since they’ll want to kill Kala directly. Demons will just want to take her,” Talan qualified. “I shifted her DNA, but once she’s in a mortal state, she may be trackable.”

Roberta seemed to light up at this new knowledge being presented to her. She obviously knew about Demons and Angels already, since she had learned to harness their powers, but to be working directly with one was definitely making her happy. Little did she realize, she’d been working with Talan for years and just didn’t know it.

Talan squeezed Kala’s hand before she could scold him for it. “We’ll keep you safe, just do your thing and don’t worry.”

Kala reluctantly squeezed Talan’s hand back and grudgingly mumbled, “Thanks.”

Talan stood up and went to Roberta’s side.

Kala heard them start to chant in a language she didn’t recognize. In seconds Kala physically felt some kind of invisible force laying on top of her like a blanket. It was a strange sensation, like waving your hands over goose-pimpled hairs. She didn’t know if it would protect her or not, but she figured it couldn’t hurt.

Looking up at Turner, he seemed fascinated by the whole
magic
thing. Kala could tell that this was new to him as well. She guessed that Turner hadn’t taken it as seriously as he should have and now, witnessing it in action, he was seeing some of its uses.

Talan’s observations about the Turners suddenly rang true for Kala, thinking that the combination of their magic and science would make them unstoppable. Kala was just relieved she was on their good side. She’d hate to think of the poor sap that got on their bad side.

Fortski gave Kala a nervous smile as he readied the syringe. “You should only feel a slight prick.”

“Yeah, yeah, just do it.” Kala wanted it over and done with.

Not having to be told twice, Fortski injected Kala with the serum.

It felt the same as before: cold liquid entering her blood stream. It was almost soothing in a way, like an I.V. drip after being dehydrated. Then the fun began. Kala felt the sweat beading on her forehead as her heart physically started to slow down. The drug was forcing her to relax, which instinctively made Kala a prisoner in her own body. Slower and slower her heart pounded, loud in her ears. The last thing Kala saw was Talan’s face as she entered into darkness…

“Well, well, isn’t this interesting.” Kala heard her own voice talking — to herself.

She opened her eyes. Kala was standing on a white sand beach with bright turquoise waters lapping gently on the shore. Sitting on a beach chair was
herself
drinking some kind of fruity tropical drink. A large umbrella dug into the sand providing generous shade for the other Kala. An empty identical beach chair lay under the umbrella set out for the real Kala.

“Atlas?” Kala asked her doppelganger.

“In the flesh, or in
your
flesh I should say. How on earth did you pull this one off? I give you kudos, this is definitely new. I’ve never talked to an Atlas in their own form before.” Atlas looked genuinely amazed.

It was strange talking to a mirror image of oneself, but Kala knew better than to dwell on it for long. She didn’t have much time and didn’t want to waste any of it. She sat down next to Atlas and an identical fruity drink appeared in Kala’s hand.

“Drink up. Enjoy yourself while you can because when you wake up, it’s back to business.” Atlas toasted Kala, then took a drink herself.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Kala started, “I tried to tell you before, this was a huge mistake. I wasn’t meant to do your job. In fact, I’m
not
going to do your job. The world will end. You don’t want that, do you?” Kala said in a rush.

“You think you’re the first to shirk their duty?” Atlas laughed as she took another drink. “The longest an Atlas went without completing their mission was two years. You
do
remember the Black Death, don’t you? That Atlas hid in a hole until the next Chosen One tracked him down and killed him. It took the world almost 150 years to recover from that little mishap.”

“But this is different, it’s not just going to be a horrible event that humanity can recover from. A Grigori Angel showed me the future, he showed me that I was something called the
Fated One
and Jack is a
potential
or something. We can’t exist together. It’s written in some kind of scroll thingy.” Kala sarcastically commended herself on her eloquence.

Atlas stared at Kala without saying a word. Watching the image of herself looking at her made Kala’s skin crawl. Still there was one advantage to Atlas taking on her form: Kala could read Atlas’s facial expression because it was an expression Kala had felt many times before: doubt.

“We’re running out of time. You have to stop this,” Kala pleaded. Kala had figured if Atlas knew what was at stake, he (or she at the moment) would be willing to switch back.

“How dare you,” Atlas seethed.

When Atlas didn’t elaborate, Kala stood up. “How dare I? How dare you! You’re going to let this planet die all because you’re too lazy to do your own freaking job!”

Atlas stood to face her, eyes full of fury. “No,
you’re
going to let this planet die for not doing your job!”

Everything that had happened to Kala finally reached its peak, and her fury matched Atlas’s. “You’re weak and pathetic! You’re supposed to be a god!”

“I didn’t want to be a god!” Atlas shouted back. “I still don’t want to! And do you think I care what a measly
human
thinks of me? You’re the one who’s weak and pathetic, crawling to me, begging for me to let you out of your responsibility. One task. One simple task and you save the whole world. That’s a
gift
not a curse! You ungrateful peon!”