room.
Now, while we waited for their answer, we had other matters to discuss.
“How are we ever going to generate enough of this antidote?” I asked, directing my question at Dr. Finnegan, who sat with her young son at the other end of the table.
“Good question,” Dr. Finnegan said. “One thing we do have on our side is that only a very small amount of each ingredient is required. You’ve seen the liquids up close, haven’t you? They are all but transparent. Even the vial containing the blood—it wasn’t even tinged red… now, I don’t know how much blood those boys are able or willing to give up, and it’s a stretch of the imagination to believe that we’ll be able to cure every single Bloodless out there… all we can do is try to make the ingredients stretch as far as possible. It occurred to me that perhaps we could attempt to mix in some full Hawk blood, while still retaining the same effect. I don’t know. I have to experiment. Full Hawk blood on its own doesn’t work—that much we know.”
“Okay,” I said.
“So assuming that we manage to create a mass amount of antidote,” Ben said, carrying forward my train of thought, “then what?”
I glanced at my son. I was sure that he already knew what would follow.
“Then we need to expose the IBSI,” I said.
There was a span of silence as we all glanced at each other. There were a number of ways that we could go about this, and I had many ideas buzzing around in my head, but everything had to line up right, with the right timing, or we could find our actions backfiring on ourselves.
We began to discuss our options and potential strategies, along with all the things that could go wrong with each. It could be hard to come to a conclusion about anything when surrounded by so many—oftentimes conflicting—opinions. But after five hours, we managed to arrive at a plan we all agreed on. There were still potential holes in it—a number of potential holes—but those would always be there, no matter which route we chose…
Because dealing with the IBSI was never easy. And to combat what we had planned, I feared that Atticus Conway was going to put up the fight of his life.
Ben
M y father , Xavier and I headed to the port to clear our heads and wait for the Hawks to return. In the meantime, Dr. Finnegan took Field and his brothers to the lab to begin experimenting with how to make their blood stretch as far as possible.
We strolled to the edge of the jetty and gazed out at the horizon. I remembered how, for so many months, IBSI ships had loomed outside our borders, floating in our waters and watching us.
Hopefully, soon a new dawn would break… a dawn without the IBSI.
They had been in power for so long, it was hard to even remember what the world had been like without their presence. But I could imagine how it would be… if everything went according to plan.
The three of us were tense as we waited. We had so much to get started on, but we couldn’t do anything until the Hawks had returned and confirmed that they were able to find the ingredients. If they couldn’t find them, all those hours of discussing and planning we had just been through would be for naught. Everything rested on us being able to manufacture the antidote on a meaningful scale.
When we caught sight of Ibrahim and a group of at least a hundred Hawks arriving further down the beach, I dared to get my hopes up. Especially as each of them was carrying large, bulging sacks. Yes. Yes! My father, Xavier and I raced toward them, hardly able to contain our relief.
“Did you discover all of them?” my father was the first to blurt out.
“We believe so,” Ibrahim said, raising his own sack. “The Hawks located the three plants in a completely different part of Aviary—closer to where they had set up their residences.”
Perfect .
We hurried to the Sanctuary and dumped the sacks in the courtyard. Ibrahim hurried to fetch Corrine and Dr. Finnegan and brought them outside.
Now, while we waited for their answer, we had other matters to discuss.
“How are we ever going to generate enough of this antidote?” I asked, directing my question at Dr. Finnegan, who sat with her young son at the other end of the table.
“Good question,” Dr. Finnegan said. “One thing we do have on our side is that only a very small amount of each ingredient is required. You’ve seen the liquids up close, haven’t you? They are all but transparent. Even the vial containing the blood—it wasn’t even tinged red… now, I don’t know how much blood those boys are able or willing to give up, and it’s a stretch of the imagination to believe that we’ll be able to cure every single Bloodless out there… all we can do is try to make the ingredients stretch as far as possible. It occurred to me that perhaps we could attempt to mix in some full Hawk blood, while still retaining the same effect. I don’t know. I have to experiment. Full Hawk blood on its own doesn’t work—that much we know.”
“Okay,” I said.
“So assuming that we manage to create a mass amount of antidote,” Ben said, carrying forward my train of thought, “then what?”
I glanced at my son. I was sure that he already knew what would follow.
“Then we need to expose the IBSI,” I said.
There was a span of silence as we all glanced at each other. There were a number of ways that we could go about this, and I had many ideas buzzing around in my head, but everything had to line up right, with the right timing, or we could find our actions backfiring on ourselves.
We began to discuss our options and potential strategies, along with all the things that could go wrong with each. It could be hard to come to a conclusion about anything when surrounded by so many—oftentimes conflicting—opinions. But after five hours, we managed to arrive at a plan we all agreed on. There were still potential holes in it—a number of potential holes—but those would always be there, no matter which route we chose…
Because dealing with the IBSI was never easy. And to combat what we had planned, I feared that Atticus Conway was going to put up the fight of his life.
Ben
M y father , Xavier and I headed to the port to clear our heads and wait for the Hawks to return. In the meantime, Dr. Finnegan took Field and his brothers to the lab to begin experimenting with how to make their blood stretch as far as possible.
We strolled to the edge of the jetty and gazed out at the horizon. I remembered how, for so many months, IBSI ships had loomed outside our borders, floating in our waters and watching us.
Hopefully, soon a new dawn would break… a dawn without the IBSI.
They had been in power for so long, it was hard to even remember what the world had been like without their presence. But I could imagine how it would be… if everything went according to plan.
The three of us were tense as we waited. We had so much to get started on, but we couldn’t do anything until the Hawks had returned and confirmed that they were able to find the ingredients. If they couldn’t find them, all those hours of discussing and planning we had just been through would be for naught. Everything rested on us being able to manufacture the antidote on a meaningful scale.
When we caught sight of Ibrahim and a group of at least a hundred Hawks arriving further down the beach, I dared to get my hopes up. Especially as each of them was carrying large, bulging sacks. Yes. Yes! My father, Xavier and I raced toward them, hardly able to contain our relief.
“Did you discover all of them?” my father was the first to blurt out.
“We believe so,” Ibrahim said, raising his own sack. “The Hawks located the three plants in a completely different part of Aviary—closer to where they had set up their residences.”
Perfect .
We hurried to the Sanctuary and dumped the sacks in the courtyard. Ibrahim hurried to fetch Corrine and Dr. Finnegan and brought them outside.
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