Page 101 of Dark Island: Rescue
Kian was a busy man, and he probably hated being summoned by his mother on a Sunday, when he wanted to spend time with his wife and daughter. A simple phone call or a brief meeting in Kian's office would have been more appropriate. But Esag wasn't willing to accept no for an answer, and having Annani and Wonder backing him up might tilt the scales in his favor.
It wouldn't be easy to convince Kian to allow him to be part of the mission. The little military training Esag had was five thousand years old, and even then, it hadn't been much. But he needed to be part of this rescue. The vision had made that clear, not through words or explicitinstruction, but through a bone-deep certainty that he was supposed to be there when they extracted Tula.
The problem was convincing everyone else.
Wonder opened the door to Annani's house before he could knock. "He's not going to agree. You know that, right?"
"I have to try." Esag stepped inside, noting that Anandur was there too, lounging on one of Annani's sofas like he owned the place. Kian stood by the window, arms crossed, looking relaxed, or as relaxed as he ever got.
"Hello, Esag." Kian's greeting sounded neutral, but there was an undertone of impatience in there, and Esag had a feeling that Kian would have been much less polite if Annani wasn't there.
"I have a request," he said without preamble, knowing that Kian would want him to get straight to the point. "I need to be part of the rescue team that extracts Tula."
Kian let out a breath and shook his head.
Esag held up a hand to stop the negative answer from coming. "Please, hear me out. I know what you're going to say. That I'm not a Guardian, that I'm not trained for this kind of operation, that I'll be in the way. But I had another vision. A stronger one. This time, experiencing things through Tula's eyes, and I know that the Fates didn't make it happen just to torment me. It was a message that I'm supposed to be there for her."
It had all sounded so perfectly rational in his head, but now that he had spoken the words aloud, he could understand why it might sound like crazy talk to others.Nothing in his vision directly indicated that his involvement in the rescue was critical.
It was just his gut feeling.
"That's the guilt talking," Wonder said. "The same guilt that's been eating at you since you left home. You think that being there will somehow make up for the people you couldn't save, but you have nothing to prove. Not to me, and not to anyone else."
"This isn't about proving anything." Esag put a hand over his stomach. "It's about following what my gut is telling me. Tula needs me to be there for her."
"Was there anything in the vision that showed your direct involvement?" Kian asked. "What are you supposed to do there?"
Esag was afraid of that question. "I wasn't shown anything like that. I was just made to believe strongly that I should be part of the rescue team. The vision didn't just show me Tula's situation. It showed me her connections to Tamira and the others. I saw them through her eyes, understood what she's sacrificing to save her child. That kind of intimate knowledge doesn't come randomly. There's a reason I experienced it that way."
"Playing devil's advocate here," Anandur spoke up from the sofa. "But the extraction plan is pretty specific. Okidu climbs, Yamanu shrouds and carries Tula down, Guardians with scuba gear escort them to the submarine. Where do you fit in?"
"I don't know yet," Esag admitted. "Maybe something goes wrong and my visions help forewarn it or navigate it. Maybe Tula needs someone who understandswhat she's feeling. Maybe—" He broke off, frustrated. "I don't have a tactical answer. I just have certainty."
As Kian studied him for a long moment, Esag felt like he was being dissected under that intense gaze, exposed, all of his shortcomings showing like dirty socks with holes in them.
"The Guardians doing the actual extraction are trained in rock climbing and scuba diving," Kian said. "After Carol's rescue, Onegus added both to the standard training program. Do you have those skills?"
"I've done rock climbing," Esag said quickly. "Not recently, but I know the basics. As for scuba diving, how difficult can it be to learn?"
"Very difficult if you're trying to learn in time for a mission happening within days." Kian's tone was dry. "And even if you could learn the basics, you wouldn't have the experience needed for a covert underwater extraction."
"I'm a fast learner." Esag heard the desperation creeping into his voice and tried to control it. "I can be ready in time."
"No." Kian's voice was firm. "I will not humor your request and put everyone in danger."
Esag felt his hope crumbling. "So, you're saying I can't go at all?"
"I'm saying you can't be part of the extraction team." Kian sat next to his mother, who hadn't said a word yet. "You can join the team on the submarine and wait there for their return with Tula. Julian is accompanying the mission in case anyone gets injured or Tula needs medicalhelp during transport, so you can keep each other company."
It wasn't what Esag wanted, but it was something. "I'll take it. Do we have a submarine, though?"
Kian leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. "Turner found one, which is good, but it's an old, decommissioned Navy vessel and it's big, which is bad."
"Too big to get close to the island?" Esag guessed.
"Exactly. Unlike the drug dealer's speedboat we used for Carol's extraction, which could fly under the radar, so to speak, this vessel can't risk getting as close to the island. It will have to stay at least twelve nautical miles out. Probably closer to fifteen for safety."
"That's a long distance to cover underwater," Esag said.
