Chapter 38: The Orca Comes Closer
A boy around eleven or twelve jumped down from somewhere high, took a straw out of his mouth, and moved through the crowd to the jeep, yelling, "I’ll do it."
Tegnell nodded and threw him a small bag of money, "You got it, Muros. Just hop in."
The boy who got the bag of money opened it while his friends watched. He had a big smile on his face. He gave the bag to his little sister, pointed at a rundown shack, saying, "Run back, give this to mom. Tell her I won’t be back tonight."
The little girl held the bag of money tight and ran barefoot in the mud.
The boy quickly got into the back of the jeep.
"We brought him because we need to get something from underwater."
Birdie, who was driving, told Kestrel, "Don’t worry, these kids have been to the Polluted Zone more times than you. After they got psychic powers, they’ve been going into the Polluted Zone. Sometimes they’re lucky and find something valuable, enough to help their families for a year or more."
"Going to the Polluted Zone with us, they get paid first and it’s safer than going alone," Birdie said, "They can’t pay to go to the alpha academy. When they’re fifteen or sixteen, they usually join the army. Some don’t even live to that age."
Soon, a skinny, dark-skinned mom came running out. Kestrel thought she might try to stop her son from going to such a dangerous place.
Instead, the mom gave the boy a dry, cold piece of bread through the jeep’s bars.
She told her teenage son loudly, "We have nothing left at home, you must bring back more."
She seemed desperate.
"See, the parents don’t care either. In our place, most parents don’t really care about their kids."
Birdie held the steering wheel, her short hair and sun-spotted face lit by the light from the dashboard, showing a bit of indifference.
Through the rearview mirror, Kestrel saw the new boy in the car.
Tegnell was messing up his hair, and the boy was smiling, showing all his white teeth. They seemed to know each other well.
"Twenty ashcredits," Kestrel said quietly.
She quickly thought in her head. "Ten apples. For the cost of ten apples, a kid this age was happily risking his life in the Polluted Zone, and everyone here thinks it was normal."
Birdie laughed, "You might think it would be more. For this mission, the SRD gave us money. Five spots, fifty ashcredits each for alphas like us, which is already quite generous. Everyone wanted to join you, there was even a fight this morning. We won, so we got to come."
The vehicle kept moving. At first, there were lots of houses along the road, full of life. Slowly, the lights in the houses and the sounds of people disappeared. What was left were desolate ruins and rundown, quiet buildings scattered by the road, hidden by thick plants.
Many people used to live here. But as the Polluted Zone kept growing, humans had to keep moving back near the outpost.
The jeep stopped in front of a row of red warning signs.
"It’s there." Tegnell got out of the car and pointed to a big red warning sign ahead, saying, "That’s the edge of the Polluted Zone."
"You can’t get too close, sometimes the edge suddenly grows, and you can’t predict it," the alphas warned Kestrel.
They always taught Kestrel about the Polluted Zone. Teaching her everything was the best way to keep her safe.
Raymond was taken by the Polluted Zone when its edge suddenly grew while he was trying to save someone. The alphas remembered this lesson well.
After getting out of the car, the alphas took out a lot of things from the jeep, getting ready to cook.
Muros had even started to toast the bread his mom had given him.
Kestrel stood there, surprised.
She looked at her opticomputer on her wrist, then looked up at the sky, confirming that it wasn’t lunchtime yet.
"Is this your first time going in?" The little boy toasting bread by the fire looked up at her, his eyes smiling, "In the Polluted Zone, there’s also ’day’ and ’night’. It’s not time yet, we can’t go in."
He offered the toasted bread to Kestrel, "Do you want some?"
In his mind, a clean, city-girl like Kestrel would never take his bread.
But he was a clever and street-smart kid. Whether others took his offer or not, he always made sure to be polite.
Kestrel took half of his bread with her fingers, "Then I’ll try some."
Muros was completely shocked.
Kestrel’s naughty tendrils started to yell, "He doesn’t want to share."
"Quick, eat it in front of him."
"He offers it but doesn’t want to share, how odd."
"It doesn’t taste good, I’ve been tricked."
"Why does it smell so good in his feelings?"
"It doesn’t taste good, just like that apple, I’ve been tricked."
"That little sneaky seal."
In the Polluted Zone, there was also a ’day’ and ’night’. Each Polluted Zone had a different ’day’ and ’night’ pattern. During the ’day’, the mutants in the Polluted Zone were mostly still and quiet. It was safer for humans to go into the Polluted Zone at this time.
But when it’s ’night’, the whole Polluted Zone turns into a monstrous parade, with ordinary people barely surviving.
The alphas spread the map, called Kestrel over, and began to discuss the plan for once they got inside.
"We’ll enter at the start of ’day’. Our destination is Shanan Bay," Birdie pointed at the topographic map, explaining, "We must exit before ’night’. The distance isn’t far, we have plenty of time. Everyone be alert and make sure nothing goes wrong."
Kestrel’s target was a sunken ship.
There was plenty of evidence suggesting that this ancient ship, the Mary, loaded with countless treasures, sank in Shanan Bay during humanity’s golden age. For thousands of years, many people had searched for it, but all without success.
But not long ago, during a severe spread event in Polluted Zone Five, someone saw the massive Mary briefly appear above the water, as clean and bright as a ghost ship, before disappearing a few hours later.
Only then did people realize that the Mary was hidden within Polluted Zone Five.
Birdie said the mission given by the Special Research Division this time was quite straightforward.
The location of the sunken ship wasn’t far, and it was completely possible to get there and back within one ’day’.
Since the Mary was discovered, the Tower had sent many search teams.
Most retrievable items had been claimed. Even their small team had been sent several times and were quite familiar with that part of the seabed.
Their main job was probably to ensure Kestrel, the beta’s safety.
In fact, they would have preferred if Kestrel had stayed at the outpost. If she wanted something, she could just tell them, and they would get it.
They thought this would be easier and safer for everyone, rather than bringing a non-combatant and inexperienced person into the Polluted Zone.
The Tower often gave search tasks to the outposts. Most of the time, they directly specified the items to be searched for. Sometimes, they would send a researcher, and they would escort them into the Polluted Zone.
These researchers often looked for secret items they didn’t want to disclose.
They didn’t bother asking. They were only responsible for helping and guarding during the journey.
Most researchers from the capital looked down on the alphas at the outposts. The alphas knew this and also despised those arrogant researchers.
Honestly, if they encountered extreme situations and couldn’t protect themselves, Birdie felt she would decisively abandon the researcher who was holding them back. The priority was to ensure their own and their comrades’’ lives.
But this time was different, no matter what, they wanted to protect the beta coming in with them.
This was the commander’s order before departure, and also each of their wishes.
So this time, the strongest alphas from the outpost were going in. They even brought Muros, who had a seal as his psychic incarnation, to assist and to speed up the completion of the underwater mission and ensure nothing went wrong.
