Evolution - The Oasis Project Book 3

Twenty-One - Ira

I frowned and squinted into the night, trying to catch the details of Nita's expression. The four of us had stopped in our tracks, and there was still a fair distance between Nita and Celestia and the farmhouse. I watched Celestia's back heave irregularly and thought I heard coughing as Stuart slowly backed away.

"Ira!" He tugged me with him. "You're not seriously considering this, are you?" Every trace of the soft psychiatrist who wanted to help everyone was gone.

All I could think about was Celestia locked in the dark room with me, spilling a jug of water over her head with trembling, frail hands. The painful gasp for breath that often woke her during the night.

The door opened behind Stuart and me, flooding my peripherals with light. "What the shit?" Thierry demanded to know.

"Please, we don't mean any harm," Nita called out again. "We would just like some water."

"Who the bloody hell are these people?" Australia was starting to rub off on the European Thierry.

"You don't want to know," Stuart grumbled.

"Wait..." Thierry trailed off as pieces started to click. "What do they want-"

"The woman needs water?" a small voice cut Thierry off. Fang appeared in the doorway, a paper cup of water in his shaking hand.

"No, she doesn't." I'd never seen Stuart so evidently displeased with the child. "Get back inside, Fang. Go find Trevor."

I took the cup off Fang before he backed away, scared of Stuart. I made my way back into the darkness on my own, the paper cup in one hand and my new gun in the other.

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There was no way that anyone could cheer Stuart up tonight, even before Nita recognized him, looking happy to see him alive, he was seething. Fang made sure to stay away from him, but Stuart locked himself up anyway seeing as we cuffed Nita and Celestia to the dining table instead of making them spend the night with the cows.

Celestia looked at all of us nervously as Nita apprehended us with her dark blue eyes. Nita looked worse for wear since the last time I saw her, her pale cheeks had hollowed and her eyes were bloodshot. Neither of them looked relieved that Stuart had excused himself; they could see how nobody else considered them welcome. Alessia was on edge and fidgeting loudly in the presence of another doctor, and Trevor was only a little better. Thierry leaned both his lanky arms on the table and stared at the prisoners with a menacing gaze. He'd sent Fang upstairs to Linkin, emphasizing how good the book he picked out was and the need for headphones.

We'd searched Nita and Celestia, scanned them, interrogated them. They had told us a convincing story, whether it was true or not. Doctor Nita had used the chaos of the attack on Alaska as an opportunity to break Celestia out of Oasis. Reprogramming has become harsher with the rise of the deviations and Celestia was hurting and losing her mind. Nita knew that with the Alaska attack, it wouldn't be a matter of if Celestia would break under the new tactics of the Oasis Project, but when. Seeing what Oasis progressively did to Celestia broke Nita's heart and eventually convinced her that not even world peace was worth Celestia's suffering.

The two of them travelled to Egypt, where the missing mutants from Oasis were last seen. To no one's surprise, Nita bribed criminals for information about the deviations. The surprise was that the bribes didn't come from her clever way with words, she offered to participate in crimes herself because Celestia was deemed useless in the Egyptian climate. Each brush with the law brought them closer to the Nasi, who eventually revealed that the one person who was supposed to bring a mutant among them, Asmar, had gone rogue trying to hunt the deviations down and it was a miracle that the Nasi hadn't sent his head rolling yet. The Nasi decided that getting a mutant was far more risky than they were prepared for, but didn't hesitate to give Asmar's details away, thinking Nita was just as delusional as the man.

Everyone in the room looked to me, the only person who knew our two prisoners and the only person qualified to decide whether or not they were bluffing. "So, when was it that you made this deal with Asmar that you'd help him track us down if he brought you along?"

"About a month ago," Nita replied. "We only knew where to look when you gave Asmar a meeting place. We only got you when you went in person to New Zealand, and we traced you back using surveillance footage. I was surprised you actually went there. And, I'm sorry, I didn't expect you and Stuart... I mean you two were close on the island like Celestia and I were, but..."

My cheeks went red.

"It's been quite a while. Stuart is one of the founders of the deviations," Thierry attempted to soften the blow. Celestia shivered as Thierry spoke, obviously remembering the unpleasant time when Thierry and I interrogated her in France.

Nita nodded solemnly. "So many things have changed."