Evolution - The Oasis Project Book 3

Twenty-Four - Ira

Sometime in the night, Linkin sent me a text saying, They're okay. A success. When I replied asking for more details, especially about Yulian, she didn't respond. Judging by the total silence that surrounded the farm, she had probably fell asleep.

Stuart finally appeared a couple of hours later, slowing down his pace when he saw me talking to our prisoners. He didn't even take one venomous look at them as I told him that they seemed to be telling the truth, just failed to acknowledge their presence altogether. "Are you serious?" he asked, sighing as he reluctantly sat down next to me.

"Have you taken in anything I've said?" Fatigue and frustration at Nita and Celestia had robbed me of any patience I had left.

"Sorry..." Stuart reached for my hand under the table. His voice was low and intended for my ears only. "I spent too long telling Four how to treat a broken arm. Yuli said to not tell you, but he's going to be fine, will just need a bit of time out. They should be in the air now."

"Four is coming?" Nita spoke up, alarmed. I knew that if Yulian was here, he'd be offended that Nita had no regard for asking who he was. "The Four? Bulletproof Four?"

I grinned at her panic, but Stuart was the one who answered. "Rapid regeneration Four, One-Four, yes. She leads the Deviations; haven't you heard? Guess you were too confident that we'd just give you asylum."

"They-" I began.

"We want to help you," Nita said carefully. Her wild eyes told me that she was still concerned about Four not sparing either of them as soon as she got here.

"Linkin verified." I gave Stuart a look.

He swallowed whatever comeback he had and chewed on the inside of his cheek. Out of all of us, Stuart would be the one who knew these two the most, and would be the most suspicious. After some thinking, he asked, "Has she verified Celestia?"

Nita looked horrified by what that implied. We were probably both thinking the same thing, that Celestia may not survive a painful interrogation like that. Stuart figured out from our expressions that Linkin had left Celestia alone, and shook his head.

"Do I look like I want to be with the Oasis Project anymore?" Celestia said hoarsely, straightening up and tossing her head so that her hair fell back, away from the map of scars on her neck. Her breaths were turning shallow again as her eyes glistened.

"They're just words," Stuart muttered.

"Stuart." Nita looked him dead in the eye.

He sighed and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. "So, you want to help us? What happened to most of the Hainan projects?" When I frowned at him, he added, "Why were only Five and Nine there?"

Nita bit her lip. "Liana Atteberry would have taken the others to Russia... There was talk of it before USA was hit. Apparently Russia was 'safer'. I had to get Celestia out before she was transferred."

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The house alarm woke me from my short-lived nap on the couch and I almost fell up the stairs twice trying to get to the camera feed. "Someone turn that shit off," I yelled as the rest of us came out of their rooms, including Fang who was gently restrained by Thierry.

"That's Four," Linkin said, coming out of the office.

"Couldn't even call?" Thierry asked, rubbing his ears.

"She did," Linkin said cryptically as she slid her headset off her head and around her neck. "Ira, what are we doing with—"

Stuart was already marching up the stairs, his expression unreadable. "Trevor, they're in the shed. Keep them occupied?" He gave me a quick glance, Linkin passing him on the stairs. "They know next to nothing about Russia."

"I know," I said. I'd lost track of how many times Nita had used her favourite word, protocol, when explaining why she wasn't allowed access to information about the other sites like Liana was. Celestia's memories were so muddled and patchy, she barely even remembered much about the China compound.

We got to the door before Four could force it open with a crowbar. Yulian jumped out of the car with his arm in a sling and a grin instantly lit up my face. It took a few seconds for us to figure out how to hug tightly and not worsen his injury.

"Souvenir," he said in English, pointing to his arm like the cast was a trophy.

I rolled my eyes, but someone else climbed out of the SUV. I frowned at the familiar Chinese man, trying to remember who he was. "Ira?" He remembered me first.

"Wu." Of course. I recalled that he only went by his number, five, which Stuart said was one of the two projects left in Hainan. I stuck out my hand and he shook it. "Good to see you again."

Four looked back at us impatiently as she held open the door, letting the climbing morning heat into the house. There were dark bags under her eyes. We followed her inside and shut the door behind us.

"Good morning," Four said to everyone who was waiting in the living room. In the same breath, she added, "Robin, I have a question about repressed memories."

I tuned out as Four singled Stuart out to talk to and Yulian started telling me his own story. The question about repressed memories was because of him. Four had been asking him about Russia on the plane, but he couldn't remember anything useful about Oasis. As we spoke, Wu hung around close to Yulian but stayed quiet, not understanding a word of Russian.

"Sorry, Wu," I said in English. "We must be boring you to death."

"You'll never guess what happened, Ira," Yulian said with a grin, which made Wu move away a little.

"What?"

Yulian glanced at Wu and chuckled. "In China, I saved Wu, and he kissed me," he said proudly. "He thought he was dead, and I was an angel." My eyes widened at them both. Wu refused to look at me. "It was great," Yulian continued with a grin plastered on his face. "Very... sloppy, out of it. I helped him up and gave him a wink. I think he liked that. Did you, Wu?"

"What?" I said. Wu didn't answer.

"But I'm a great kisser, so maybe we will go on a date. Who knows?"

"I didn't know you liked guys, Yulian," I tried to say with a straight face. It was impossible not to laugh at the way he was recounting the events.

"Me either!" he admitted excitedly.

"Well, that's fantastic!" I said, trying to catch the shy Wu's attention. "I know Wu's a really nice guy, and-"

"What the fuck?" Four's screech interrupted us. She stomped her way to the front door and I knew that she was just told that Nita and Celestia were still alive.

"Four, wait!" I called out. I waited for her fiery eyes to rest on me before I continued. "Everything checks out about them. We spent the night interrogating them."

"So?" She stood with one hand on the doorknob, the other on her hip.

"So, if anything, they'd be good assets, regardless of who they are." I could only hope that the words were going through to the methodical Four, not the angered Four. "They want to help the Deviations, which they can only do if they're not dead."