Evolution - The Oasis Project Book 3

Seventeen - Ira

I'd never celebrated Valentine's Day in my life, and it had to be the one day that I was utterly distracted. If Four picked the date of the attack for the irony, I wouldn't be surprised. This was the place where she'd spent almost half her life, thinking she got the better end of a deal until the doctors started to farm compounds off her dying body. It would be sweet revenge for her tonight.

"Aunt Ira!" Thierry snapped me out of my thoughts. He was putting on a fake Australian accent to get my attention, which was plainly terrible. "Have you weighed the flour?"

"Doing it now." I was positive that Thierry had no idea what he was doing, having opened four recipes for shortbread on his phone. Linkin had put him in charge while she, Stuart and Alessia went away to do some other work, and Thierry was taking his role very seriously. He once wished that Yulian was here to advise him, and it was the only message I didn't relay. I didn't want Yulian to be thinking about baking until after they take China.

"Here." Trevor was already whisking the butter and sugar, and he pushed the ancient scale towards me with his long, monkey-like tail. Fang clinged to me when Trevor's tail came towards us, but not because he was scared of the mutation - he was wary of the man.

"Thanks, Trevor." I opened the bag of flour carefully so as to not let out a cloud of powder that would make me sneeze. "You want to do the flour, Fang?" I caught Thierry raising his eyebrows at me as I reached for my phone again.

"Is that the headless chicken?" Thierry asked instead of telling me to focus on baking.

"Who?" It took me a few seconds to realize that he was talking about Asmar. He'd been running around trying to find us like crazy, it seemed, and coming nowhere close to our hideout. We'd made far better progress on our plans to take down the huge Oasis compound in Russia than on Asmar. "Oh, no, that's Yulian, who's complaining that he doesn't have a valentine but he also doesn't want to talk to any of the bad guys about it."

"That is pretty tragic," Trevor said, laughing quietly. "Did you tell him about the cookies?"

"He might explode," I told him as a clump of flour hit the bottom of the mixing bowl. "Might save some for when they come here, though."

"Not a chance," Thierry said, and when I looked up, he snorted as he snapped a picture of Fang and me struggling with the large pack of flour.

My surprise made a large amount spill onto the counter. "Oh sh...iny bottoms!" I quickly saved myself the trouble from swearing, but it only made the boys double over with laughter.

"How weird is Aunt Ira?" Thierry asked Fang, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Weird is the new cool, eh Fang?" I tried to win him over while getting the flour off the counter. The kid shook his head like an old man and helped me without giving an answer. "Well, Uncle Yulian would agree. You'll like him." I'd told Fang this so many times, and after seeing Yulian's funny pictures, Fang was almost excited to meet him. "Now back to work."

"So how is the headless chicken?" Thierry asked. Linkin had happily given up all the responsibilities of getting rid of Asmar, but Thierry was still understandably concerned.

"I'm starting to think he's faking how stupid he is, and that he's plotting something," I said. "Invited him for a trade in Italy, declined. Got Four to fake a signal in New Zealand, even turned up in person for good measure, no show."

"Is that where you and Stewie went the other day?"

I nodded. "We got coffee and cake instead. Nice scenery. Thanks, Asmar!"

"Our cows missed you so much," Trevor teased.

"Don't be like Thierry," I fired back. When he shrugged and went back to the baking mixture, I added, "Whatever, Trevor."

"He was so eager to get us last month," Thierry continued, ignoring the tangent. "What happened?"

"I don't know." I clipped the flour bag shut and watched Fang shuffle close to Thierry to read the recipe. Dusting the flour off my hands, I opened up Yulian's last text, my thumbs poised to reply. "But our lives could be a hell of a lot worse right now."

󠁌♟♙♟♙

As the day went on, I grew more and more restless against my will. While the cookies were in the oven, I went outside and jogged as much as I could without getting a heatstroke, leaving Thierry to occupy Fang with board games until it was time for decorating.

I miss Australia! My phone buzzed with Yulian's message. He'd said that he was no longer scared about the impending attack, just excited to get it over with.

I was a different story. Although I wasn't treated as horribly as Linkin by the Oasis Project, the thought of the China compound still filled me with dread. The memories of Doctor A, Desmond and Celestia often replayed like a horror movie. Among them was the lingering phantom of Jaysen, who really should have made it with the rest of us.

You sound like a kangaroo, not someone who stopped over for a couple of days, I told Yulian. The sun was stinging at my skin, and the dust that I kicked up was irritating my parched throat. You'll be here soon!

Are you excited???? he asked.

Very!!

Good! Yulian said. Before I could think of a reply, another few messages came in. Four says we must prepare now. See you soon!!

I stopped on the dirt track. The horse that had followed my movement turned its attention back to kicking the grass. A warm breeze dried my face even more.

Good luck, I typed. I love you.