Chapters (95)
We could let nature take its course. She kisses me. I’m not the kind of high priestess who kisses and tells.
If I was ever tempted, I reply, kissing her back on the forehead and then gritting my teeth and turning away. We better save our strength, Eko. How long do you think the savages will let us visit with them before they eat us?
She registers shock telepathically. You really think they’re savages?
Oh, come on, I respond. They eat grubs, they wear bones in their ears and dance around the campfire waving clubs, they go around butt-naked all day, and they make love in public.
As if to punctuate my thought, the couple in the hammock finish up loudly, and then sink into silence.
I don’t mean to be judgmental, I add, but you have to admit they’re not civilized or technologically advanced.
I’ve seen the end result of civilization, Eko fires back angrily. Before I came back on this mission I smelled it and heard it and even tasted it. I saw what the advanced technologies of the self-described smartest species to ever walk the earth did to this green and beautiful planet. And if I were you, I wouldn’t be so quick to label these tribesmen, who treat the trees and animals around them with such respect, as savages.
Eko trembles and I hold her tighter. Okay, what did you see? I ask. You haven’t told me anything about what happened after you blinked out over the Atlantic. Gisco said he was called back. Is that what happened to you?
Yes, she admits reluctantly. She’s always hated talking about herself or revealing details of a mission.
But I need to know what’s going on. We seem to have reached a dead end, not only to her mission but also to my hopes of saving those I love. P.J. is in hiding and maybe dead. Gisco has had his mind twisted. The Mysterious Kidah is a washout. We’re going to have to improvise our own way out of this mess, and to do that I need to understand what’s going on.
How did the future get so messed up? I demand. How could cutting down trees in this rain forest lead to such a global hell? And, by the way, if we can’t revive Kidah, what’s plan B? Is there some way we can fight the colonel ourselves? Surely, with the whole future at stake, the Danns had a clever backup plan?
Eko’s heart is racing. She presses her body close to me and I can feel her desperation. There was no backup plan, Jack. No one can do this but Kidah. He’s our only hope, the only chance we have. We’ve got to find a way to wake him up.
73
73