Chapter 30 Eluheed
ELUHEED
Hopelessness hung around Tula like a shroud.
Eluheed didn't need shamanic abilities to see that. He also didn't need to summon visions to deduce that Areana had no plan.
Tula knew that, and that was why she was despairing.
It affected him, creeping up and threatening to pull him under as well. It seemed increasingly unlikely that some miracle would allow all four of them to escape this accursed island.
Eluheed had survived this long by maintaining hope that he'd eventually retrieve his treasures from Mount Ararat and that he'd find his way home to Elucia, but hope was becoming harder to hold on to with each passing day.
When a knock sounded on his door, he set aside the herbal mixture he'd been working on and walked over to the door. One of the harem guards stood in the hallway.
"Lord Navuh summons you, shaman," the man said. "A vehicle is waiting for you outside the perimeter fence."
Eluheed's stomach tightened. "Do you know where I'm going?"
He didn't mind if it was just another trip to Navuh's office to provide the lord with a glimpse into his possible futures, but it was more likely that he was being taken to the facility holding the enhanced soldiers. The poor bastards' collective mind was not a good place to visit.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to hold the barriers in his mind against the power of the collective, and he knew it was a matter of days before they broke through them and learned the truth of who he was.
"You will have to ask the driver," the guard said. "I'm just the messenger."
The driver was an immortal who had driven Eluheed before, and he wasn't the talkative sort. Eluheed didn't even bother asking because he knew he wouldn't get an answer.
Instead, he spent the ride to the other side of the island meditating and working on his mental shields. When the jeep stopped next to a square building, Eluheed looked out the window in surprise.
"Where are we?"
"The new laboratory. Hurry up. The lord is waiting."
Eluheed thanked the driver, even though he had no reason to do that, and walked into the building.
Inside, he found Navuh talking to a man Eluheed hadn't seen before.
From his appearance, he deduced it was the mad Russian scientist who had taken over Doctor Zhao's work.
The stranger was short and padded around the middle, with wild gray hair and a beard that looked like it had been trimmed with hedge clippers.
A nearly empty bottle of vodka was clutched in one hand, and he was gesticulating wildly with the other.
"—the quantum field theory supports my hypothesis!
" the man was saying in heavily accented English, probably assuming that the lord didn't speak Russian, and Navuh didn't bother to correct the misconception.
"If we adjust the neuroplasticity inhibitors and introduce selective serotonin modulators at precisely calibrated intervals—"
"Elias." Navuh's voice cut through the scientist's impassioned monologue. "Come meet Doctor Konstantin Petrov. He's here to continue Doctor Zhao's work."
As Petrov shifted his gaze to him, there was a manic gleam in his pale blue eyes that made the small hairs on the back of Eluheed's neck stand up.
"The shaman!" Petrov lurched forward, his breath reeking of vodka. “Fascinating. Lord Navuh tells me that you can perceive quantum consciousness states through physical contact and that you are able to tap into the same unified field as that of the enhanced subjects."
"Those were not the exact words I used," Navuh said. "But that's beside the point. We should focus on today's objective."
"Yes, yes, of course." Petrov took a long swig from his bottle.
"My new improvements. You want the shaman to read the subjects and determine their newly improved levels of coherence.
" He turned his unsettling gaze on Eluheed.
"They're much more organized now. The hive mind has coalesced and they are more aware.
Perhaps they are salvageable after all."
That was exactly what Eluheed had been afraid of.
"Let's get to it," Navuh commanded.
As they passed through another door, this one heavy and fortified, Eluheed saw that the enhanced soldiers had been moved from the previous holding facility and now resided permanently in the laboratory, each kept in a separate chamber behind reinforced glass.
It made things much more convenient for Petrov.
Nevertheless, Eluheed could still feel them despite the glass barriers, the wrongness of their merged consciousness pressing against his mental shields like fog seeping through cracks.
Only eight remained from the original batch, at least on the island. Supposedly, there were more of them scattered throughout the world, but chances were that Navuh had ordered them eliminated.
They were too dangerous to leave roaming freely outside a prison cell, and Eluheed wasn't sure that reinforced glass partitions and concrete walls were enough to contain them.
They sat motionless on their cots, but their stillness was worse than if they'd been pacing.
He knew what they were doing, and they were not as idle as they appeared.
They were communicating, plotting, and reinforcing their mental fortress.
If their combined super brain managed to overpower Navuh's mind, they could take over the island without firing a single shot.
"At first, the merging of consciousness caused psychotic breaks," Petrov said. "That's why they were so violent and rebellious before. Thanks to my new protocol, they've adapted. Evolved. They exist as individuals and as a collective simultaneously."
The guy seemed proud of himself.
"What about control?" Navuh asked. "You know that's one of the main objectives. They are useless to me, no matter what they can do, if I can't control them."
Navuh had just distilled into one sentence what leaders of this, and other worlds, had always known.
It was always about what could be controlled.
Navuh had a clear advantage over almost everyone else because of his power of compulsion.
Other world leaders used either fear, intimidation, or propaganda to assert control, or a combination of all three.
"First, we need to determine how cohesive they are. Then we will address ways to control them." Petrov gestured to Eluheed. "Your job is to assess the current state of their combined consciousness."
Eluheed already knew the answer to that. He'd felt it solidifying with each reading, felt the hive mind becoming stronger, and that had been before Petrov's arrival and implementation of his new protocol.
A guard emerged from further down the corridor and bowed to Navuh. "The subject is ready, my lord."
"Very well." Navuh waved a hand toward a door at the end of the corridor. "Let's proceed."
It was the same procedure as before, just in a new room. The enhanced soldier was shackled to a metal chair that was bolted to the floor.
The man's eyes were empty, but Eluheed could sense the intelligence behind them—not one intelligence, but many, all observing through this single pair of eyes.
Eluheed placed his hand on the soldier's arm and immediately wished he hadn't.
The hive mind slammed into his consciousness like a battering ram. Before, their thoughts had been chaotic, fragmented, difficult to parse. It felt more like a beehive. Now they were organized. Structured. Coherent.
We see you, the collective voice whispered in his mind. We know you.
Eluheed slammed all his mental power into his shields, and they held, but barely. The hive mind pressed against them, probing for weaknesses. They were searching for something, trying to understand what made him different from the other minds they'd encountered on the island.
What are you?
He pulled his hand back, breaking contact before they could dig deeper.
"Well?" Navuh demanded.
"They're fully integrated," Eluheed said. "I have a feeling that Doctor Petrov will not be able to find weakness in their hive mind. It seems impervious, and therefore impossible to control."
Navuh's eyes narrowed. "Can the hive mind be broken apart?"
"Not without killing them." Eluheed met Navuh's gaze. "And even if you killed some, the ones remaining would continue as if nothing had happened. The hive mind adapts."
Petrov was practically vibrating with excitement. "You see? This is exactly what I theorized! The quantum entanglement creates a feedback loop—"
Was the guy too mad to realize that Navuh didn't care about any of that?
"Are they dangerous?" Navuh cut him off.
Eluheed nodded. "They're very dangerous.
Their collective mind might find a way to transcend these walls, and it might be even stronger, enough to overcome yours, my lord.
If they succeed, the island will be theirs.
If I were you, I would stay far from this laboratory and not even watch live stream from the surveillance cameras, only recordings. Distance matters."
He could see the calculation in Navuh's dark eyes. The lord was weighing his options.
"We need to keep them heavily drugged," he finally said to Petrov. "If their individual minds are compromised, so would be their collective."
Petrov nodded. "That's a good idea. At least until I find a way to control them."
Evidently, he wasn't as crazy as he appeared, and he was trying to buy himself time. The Russian lived as long as he was useful to Navuh. If the lord decided to terminate the experiment, he would no longer have need for him.
In the meantime, though, the enhanced ones might seize control of the island despite the precautions Eluheed had advised Navuh to take. If that happened, Tamira's worst nightmares would become true, and he couldn't allow it to happen.