To Be A Champion

Chapter 16: It's Oh So Quiet

Janine's cold eyes narrow as she eyes the thin line of rising smoke from the north of Niomh Island, the island near Dearg where we think Jones is hiding. "Yes, I see it, Tom. You were quite right. All the Far Hebrideans say Niomh was abandoned early in the apocalypse. There's a few good chances it's Jones."

The pudgy woman beside me, with dark hair and even darker eyes and a mole just under her nose, nods in favor. "Good. The boy needs bringing to heel."

Tom gives Morag an unsure look. "I'm still not entirely convinced you should be accompanying us on this mission, Miss Brown. Jones is a dangerous man."

She gives him a dry look. "Ach, don't be daft. I used to change Lachlan's nappies when he was a wee bairn. I'll not be afraid of a man whose backside I used to wipe. Besides, I'm the only person on Mor who spent time on Niomh. Worked in a bakery there before I set up my own. Could tell you some tales about the local folk that would make your hair curl."

Tom still looks unsure, but Paula laughs, seeming to rather enjoy the older woman's presence. "Yes. Maybe later." Her face shifts to concern as she looks over at Janine. "How are you feeling?"

"Stable. Thank you, Dr. Cohen. I slept well last night for the first time in a while."

"I'm still investigating what that medicine in the bottle you picked up on Dearg Island is, Five. I can observe with a microscope that it slows down nanite movement, but I don't know why."

Morag frowns. "Aye. They're a tight-lipped lot over on Dearg."

"Still, if it's working, that trip wasn't a waste of time," Tom says, and I nod, ignoring the gnawing in my gut as I remember my mental visit with Catherine last night.

She is on Dearg, locked up after trying to escape. I haven't told Sam about it, obviously. I think he'd have a heart attack if he knew Catherine was in the same place as Frances. He knows how dangerous she makes herself appear, and what she would do just to hurt me. But Catherine being there, if she wasn't lying when she said her injuries were from trying to escape, means that Sam's hunch is right. The people there really are trapped. Frances and Catherine may very well be in the same situation.

But Dearg is the place of my creation as a clone. Those labs are where the Feive Project took place. I haven't forgotten that my mind as well as Catherine's are deteriorating from the project failing. We have maybe five years, with very few options on how to fix it. Catherine's imprisonment is why she can't work on creating new bodies for us to do a transfer somewhat like what Veronica did with A.N.N.I.E. and what Moonchild tried to do to me.

I shudder at the thought. It's either that or trying to kill each other, but we have no idea if one of us dying will actually fix the problem.

While that problem is a long way away in comparison to other ones, it does tell me one thing that I wish wasn't true: I'm going to have to get Catherine out of there so we can find a way to save ourselves, which means I'm going to have to go back to Dearg at some point.

"By my calculations, it should buy Janine an extra couple of weeks at least," Paula reports, and Janine nods, her face twisting.

"So, I might yet live to see Jones become King of the Rocks. That'll be a jolly time."

"How I do love your enthusiasm, Janine," I sigh, to which she gives me a raised brow.

"You'll live to see him captured and tried for his crimes," Tom tells her, and she nods.

"That's certainly the aim."

Morag snaps her fingers to get our attention. "Bring the boat into the harbor here on the east of the island. With Lachlan's camp on the other side, he won't see us coming in."