Chapter 18 Chapter Seventeen

Turk was supposed to land at a familiar small airfield a few kilometers from Kubrick's grave, just west of the low hills on the road to the oil fields.If Mike.Alonji had already called first, and if he was going to sue him, his plane would probably be confiscated, although it would inevitably happen in the end. As the plane began its long glide down the western slope of the divide toward the desert, Diane unexpectedly said she was going to a different location.Do you remember that you took Su Lian?Where did Moai go? More or less. Then please take us there. Liz looked back at Diane: Do you know where to find Duvali?

I've heard a few things over the years.These foothills are filled with small settlements of reformed ideals and every religious retreat imaginable.Avran.Duvale disguised his paddock as such. but if you know where he is We didn't know, not at first.But even a settlement like Duvali would have loopholes, some would come and some would leave.In a pinch, before the baby was born, he avoided us. ☆ That meant another half an hour in the air.After a long silence, Turk said: I'm sorry about the phone.what were you doingWant to leave a message for your mother in America or something?

almost.She was glad he apologized, and even if ThomasJin was rescued from custody, and she didn't want to admit that she was calling Brian.Gately, so as not to make the situation worse.Can I ask you a question? please. Why would you steal your own plane? I owe some money to the airport boss.Business is not doing well. You can tell me. Not a good way to impress a rich American divorced lady. I don't have money, Turk. In my opinion yes. So how do you plan to pay off your debt? Actually, I don't have any definite plans.I think the worst case scenario is to sell the plane, pay off the debts, save the money, and get a spot on a research ship heading to the Second Arch.

Beyond the second arch there was nothing but rock and bad air. I wanted to see it for myself.just like that, or or what? Or if something happens between us, I think I'll just stay in Hong Kong and find a job.There is always tubing work out there. She was slightly surprised, but also happy. But it doesn't matter now.He added that once our business here is over, you must go back to America whether you find out about your father or not.You'll be fine there.You come from a respectable family and you are well connected, they will not arrest you and interrogate you. how about you?

I can disappear according to my plan. You can go back with me, back to America. That's not safe, Liz.The trouble we're in now isn't the first I've ever gotten into.There are good reasons why I cannot go back. Tell me, she thought, don't make me ask.Did you know he was a criminal?That's why he fled the United States.Then tell me.She said: Legal question? You don't want to know. I think. He flew low over the desert, the moonlit foothills just below his right flank.He said: "I burned a house down.It's my father's warehouse. You told me your father was in the oil business.

Yeah, it used to be done.But he doesn't like being overseas.After we left Turkey, he joined my uncle's import business, and they brought in cheap stuff from factories in the Middle East, rugs, souvenirs, stuff like that. Why are you burning the warehouse? I was only nineteen years old!Alice.I was so angry that I wanted to fix my old man. She said as softly as possible: Why? There was another silence.He stared at the desert, the instruments on the plane, everywhere but her.I was dating a girl at the time, and we were getting married.It is very serious.But my dad and my uncle don't want us to get married.They're, you know, very old school about race.

Your girlfriend is not white? Is Hispanic. Do you really care what your father thinks? Didn't care at the time.I hate him.Truth be told, he's a brutal badass.In my eyes, he drove my mother to death.I don't care what he thinks.He knew it in his heart, so he didn't say a word to me.He ran to my girlfriend's house and offered to pay for her college tuition for a year if she didn't date me.I guess the deal sounded good and I haven't seen her since.But she felt very disturbed afterwards, and wrote to me, explaining what had happened. So you burned his warehouse? I took a few cans of paint remover from the garage, went to the industrial area, and poured it on the truck garage door.It was past midnight by then.By the time the fire trucks arrived, three quarters of it had been burned.

You will take revenge. What I didn't know was that there was also a night guard in the room at the time.He spent six months in the burns ward because of me. Liz said nothing. To make matters worse, my dad pressed the matter down and made arrangements with the insurance company.He came to me and told me about it and how he spent a lot of money to get me out of the law.He said it's because I'm family, and that's why he did what he did to my girlfriend, because family is the most important thing, whether I understand it or not. He still expects you to thank him? It's hard to believe, but it's true.I think he really thought I would be grateful.

are you grateful No, Turk said, I don't appreciate it. ☆ He landed the Tianwang machine on Su Lian a few months ago.Where Moai landed, it was a small paved runway that seemed to be in the middle of a wasteland.But Diane insisted that it was only about a kilometer from Duvali's paddock, and it was within walking distance. So they walked away with flashlights. Even before seeing the shadow of the settlement, it has already smelled it.It was a faint mineral smell in the desert, mixed with the smell of water vapor and flowers.Just walk down a hill and you're there.What came into view were four buildings and a courtyard with red terracotta tile roofs, as if they had moved farms from Central and South America.A few lights here and there were still on.There is a garden here, and there is a carved cast iron gate in the garden, and Turk sees a person standing behind the gate, who looks like a little boy.As soon as he saw them, he ran inside.When they reached the gate, several lights were on, and there were more than ten people waiting at the gate.

Let me talk to them first.Diane said Turk jumped at the offer.He and Liz stood a few steps back when Diane approached the fence.He tried to take a closer look at these fourth-year people, but only from behind them, so he could only see hazy figures. Diane put her hands over her eyes to block the light.Mrs. Rebuka?She spoke suddenly. A woman stepped forward from the crowd.Turk saw her as a little chubby, with thin hair and a white halo around her head. Diane.Dupre.said Mrs Rebuka. I'm afraid I have brought some unexpected guests. You too.What brings you here, Diane? Do you have to ask?

Not necessarily. Either refuse, or let us in.I am tired.I thought there would be little time to talk before we were interrupted again. ☆ Isaac wanted to stay and see the visitors (unexpected guests were as rare in his life as falling dust), but he had a fever again and was sent back to bed.I lay in bed for several hours, unable to sleep and sweating. He knew that the tendrils reaching up to touch his hand in the garden were the contraptions of supposed intelligent beings, a biological machine.It is not fully developed and does not adapt to this environment.He felt a thrilling deep feeling as it circled his wrist.In a way, the unfulfilled need in him was instantly satisfied. However, after the brief contact ended, this need was even stronger.He desperately wanted to go to the desert in the west.Of course, he was also afraid.Fear of such a large dry area, fear of what might be found there, fear of the need to occupy him with such compulsive force.However, the demand can be met.He knows now. He watched the dawn drive away the stars, the planet turn like a flower towards the sun. ☆ Two fourth-years accompanied Liz and Turk to a dormitory where several beds were already set up.The sheets were fairly clean, but there was a smell of old cloth that hadn't been touched for a long time. Their fourth-year companions were aloof, but friendly for the circumstances.Both are women, and the younger one said: If you want to use the bathroom, you just go to the end of the corridor. Lise said: I have to speak to Dr. Duvali.Can you tell him that I want to see him? The two fourth-years exchanged glances.Wait until morning.said the younger one. Liz lay down on the nearest bed.Turk lay sprawled on the other bed, and almost immediately his breathing became a long snore. Lise's head was full of jumbled thoughts, each clamoring for her attention.She's a little surprised that she's come this far, that she's part of what amounts to a burglar, and accepted by a group of solitary fourth-years.Avran.Duvaly was only a few rooms away, and that's about as far as solving the mystery that had plagued her family for more than a decade. Either solve the mystery, or fall into a trap.She thought how close her father had come to these dangerous truths. She left the bed and tiptoed across the room and got under Turk's sheets.She bent against him, put one hand on his shoulder and the other under his pillow, hoping that his audacity or anger would seep into her and make her less afraid. ☆ Diane and Mrs. Rebuka (Anna Rebuka, who was only in her fourth year after the death of her husband Joshua) sat together in a room full of tables and chairs, discarded by the residents of.The cup sits on the rough wooden table, soaked in a circle of water stains.The night was deep, and the whirlwind of the desert was shuttling through the room, and her feet were extremely cold. This is the paddock, Diane thought.Austere but comfortable, with a taste of monastic asceticism.A sacramental silence.Uncomfortably familiar (she spent most of her youth with religiously radical people). It is not difficult for her to imagine what will happen here.The paddock was undoubtedly like those religious sanctuaries, except here the child was used as an experiment.Hidden somewhere (perhaps underground) is an ultra-low temperature bioreactor, where Martian chemicals are stored and propagated.She saw them use pottery kilns as a cover, and if anyone came uninvited, they would send away stoneware and pamphlets about an ideal society, and they would go away without knowing it. Diane had either heard of or seen the members of the founding group.Only one of the original founding members was not a fourth year, and that was Mrs. Rebuka.She may have received therapy later. Diane said: What I want to tell you is that the Department of Genetic Safety is now in Port Magellan, and obviously a lot of people have been sent.Will be here soon, because they've been following the Martian woman. Mrs. Rebuka still maintained her grim calm.Haven't they been following the Martian woman? Obviously doing better now. Do they know she's here? Even if you don't know it now, you will soon. You might attract them by coming here.Have you ever thought about this, Diane? They have taken Su Lian.Moai is linked to Kubrick's tomb.Also has Duvaly's name on it.From these sources, how difficult would it be to find here? not difficult.Mrs. Rebuka admitted, keeping her eyes on the table.We're keeping a low profile here, but But?Do you have a plan for emergencies?Diane said coldly. Of course there is.We can leave within hours if necessary. What about that boy? We will keep him safe. How is the experiment going, Anna?Have you come into contact with hypothetical intelligent beings?Did they talk to you? The boy is sick.Mrs. Rebuka looked up, frowning.Please stop being a naysayer. Have you guys thought about what to do here? I mean no harm, but if what you say is true, then we don't have time to debate. So Diane took it easy and said: Did things happen as you hoped? Anna.Rebuka stood up, and Diane thought she wouldn't answer.But she paused by the door and looked back. No, she said dryly, not as we hoped. ☆ The sunlight outside the window was like a hot hand, and when it touched Lise's cheek, she woke up. She was alone in the room.Turk was somewhere else, maybe to the bathroom, or to ask about breakfast. She put on the plain shirt and jeans that the fourth-year man had prepared for her, thinking of asking Avran.Duvaly's question.As soon as I finished washing and eating, I had to talk to him.At this time, hurried footsteps came from the corridor outside the door. She looked out the window and saw more than a dozen vehicles loading supplies.She knew immediately that these people were preparing to abandon the paddock.Liz could think of dozens of reasons why they would do this, but she was suddenly afraid that Duvaly would walk away before he could speak to her, so she hurried out into the hallway and saw the first person walking by I went to ask. Probably in the saloon, the fourth year told her to go straight down the corridor and turn left at the courtyard.But he may also be supervising the loading.She found him at last by the garden gate, looking at a written list. Avran.Duvally.She must have seen him at the staff party her parents used to throw in Port Magellan, but she'd seen so many unfamiliar adults at such occasions that her memory confused faces.Does he look familiar?Or because of the relationship that I have seen in the photos, I feel vaguely familiar.Thanks to his fourth year of therapy, he looks much the same as he did twelve years ago: a beard, big eyes on a round face.His eyes were shaded by the shadow of a wide-brimmed desert hat.It's not hard to imagine him walking up and down the Adams family living room, just another middle-aged professor of what, with a drink in one hand and a pretzel bowl in the other. Suppressing her anxiety, she made a beeline for him.He looked up as she approached. Miss Adams.He said. Someone had warned him in advance.She nodded.Please call me Liz.She said it was to reassure him of his suspicions.She didn't want to be intimate with a man who created and imprisoned a child for scientific research. Diane.Dupre said you have something you want to tell me.Unfortunately, at this moment You are busy, she said, what's the matter? We are leaving. Where are you going? Everywhere is fine.It's not safe to stay here, and I think you understand why. I really just need a few minutes and I want to ask about about your father.It's my pleasure to tell you too, Miss Adams, Liz.But do you understand what's going on here?Not only must we leave as soon as possible, but we must destroy most of what we have built.Bioreactors and their contents, documents and cultures, everything that was not wished to fall into the hands of the persecutors had to be destroyed.He looked at the paper in his hand and ticked it as two men hauled a wheelbarrow full of cardboard boxes to a van.When we're ready to go, you and your friends can ride with us for a while.We'll talk about that later.But right now I have things to attend to.He added that your father was a man of courage and principle, Miss Adams.We disagree on some things, but I have a lot of respect for him. At least that means he knows something, Liz thought. ☆ Turk got up early. Hasty footsteps in the hall woke him up.He turned over and got out of bed carefully, not disturbing Lisi.Liz crawled into bed with him at night, half-wrapped in the sheets, snoring softly.How tender, the little creature of this merciful God.He wondered how she'd react to those words on the plane, wasn't that what she'd expected to hear?Maybe that was enough to scare her back home to California. He noticed that everyone was moving stuff, and the fourth-years were clearly about to give up on the place.He went to Diane to see if he could be of help.When he found Diane in the saloon, Diane told him that things were assigned, that the fourth-years were doing it with some meticulous procedure, and he made himself breakfast.After a while he walked toward the door, and it was time to wake Liz (if she hadn't gotten up by herself). He stopped in the hallway, and a boy craned his neck out of the door.This must be the boy who so excited Diane, the half-sentient boy.Turk had expected some sort of misshapen hybrid, but standing in front of him was a baby-faced twelve-year-old boy with a flushed face and eyes parted a little. Hey, hello wow.Turk said cautiously. You are new here.said the boy. Yes, I arrived last night.My name is Turk. I see you from the garden.You and two others.The boy added, I'm Isaac. Hi Isaac.It seems like everyone is busy this morning. I don't.They don't give me things to do. Me too.Turk said. They're going to blow up the bioreactor.the boy told him. Yeah? um, because But the boy froze all of a sudden, his eyes opened wide, and Turk could clearly see the mysterious golden dots around the periphery of the iridescent.hey how are you A terrified whisper: because I remember The boy fell backwards, and Turk took him in a lunge and caught him in his arms.He hurriedly yelled for help. because i remember What?Isaac, what do you remember? I remember too much.The boy burst into tears.