Nirvana Effect

67



It was a couple hours before dawn when Edward and Seacrest finally reached the sea. Edward’s trance had long since worn off and his body ached fiercely. He had many more t-pills but decided to wait for action.

At first they didn’t realize they’d found the tribe. The rocky coast was unpopulated. Edward suspected they might be too far north. Half a mile to the south along the shore was a ridge which hid the rest of the coast from view. He never doubted that the tribe would be somewhere near. He was certain.

They ditched the jeep and trekked to the ridge. Just past the high point, the sea cut deeply into the island. Edward spied a dozen skiffs free floating in the harbor. He strained his eyes to catch the tribe. They would be somewhere on the coast.

At the bottom of the harbor’s “U” shape, a single torch appeared. Then more. Edward could make out the shapes. They were marching to the sea. Edward and James had beaten them there.

The skiffs responded to the light, interrupting the silent night with the abrupt roar of their engines. Edward was taken by surprise at the sound. He’d expected the Onge to have oars, not motors.

“What the hell is going on?” Seacrest asked.

“They’re moving. They’re going mainland.”

“The whole tribe?”

“The whole tribe. I don’t think anyone in Sri Lanka will know, though. It’ll look like the whole tribe deserted their village and disappeared.”

“What do you mean? They’re a bunch of primitives. Where will they go?”

Edward left Seacrest’s question unanswered.

I rushed Manassa. I forced his hand. He would have waited for them all to be schooled. It would have taken another two weeks or more. It was a small victory for Edward, but he knew Manassa was adapting to his threat. Manassa would not let such a bump in the road as Edward stop him. Manassa’s reaction, though, told Edward that the god took him seriously.

“What are we going to do?” asked Seacrest. His voice quavered a bit.

“Callista’s with them,” said Edward, as though that answered the question.

“There must be a thousand of ‘em,” said Seacrest.

“Yeah, at least a thousand.”

Seacrest’s silence arrested Edward’s attention. He turned from watching the advancing villagers. “What are you gonna do?” Seacrest asked. “Shoot ‘em all in the bloody head?”

Edward opened his mouth to answer, but stopped as he caught a flash of motion in his periphery. He whipped his head around.

A face hovering over a bush. Wide eyes. A tube in his mouth. A dart.

The dart was practically floating in the air towards Edward. His own body felt sluggish and unresponsive. He was trying to make it drop but it was moving so painfully slow.

The trance. He was trancing without the drug. The danger? He didn’t know why. He didn’t have time to analyze it. He was trying to make his body drop under the path of that dart.

If I just swing around…He rotated. The dart passed. His hit the ground jarringly. He lost his concentration. The world sped fast. He heard the whiz of another dart and Seacrest’s body hit the ground. Edward tried to pull himself up but the next dart hit his neck and he was out.