Page 2 of Dark Awakening: Hidden Currents

Yeah, it was.

Her sense of self-preservation had kicked in, and after what had happened with Alberto, Jasmine had vowed never to ignore or belittle what that sense was telling her.

She could still fix things with Ell-rom, but if she were dead, there would be no fixing that.

Across the table, Margo pouted. "It's a shame that I will never get to see Anumati. It sounds wondrous."

Aru smiled. "Never say never. You are immortal now, and the future has not been written yet."

Margo let out a breath. "Tell me about it. When I was a girl, I thought everything would get better, and that progress, prosperity, and respect for human rights would continue spreading to every part of the globe, eradicating barbarism and savagery forever. Instead, we are seeing the opposite happening. I'm not as hopeful as I was in my youth, and I'm praying to the universe to deliver a miracle."

Frankie snorted. "With what we know about the ruler of the known universe, you probably shouldn't pray for that. The Eternal King is not our savior."

Next to Jasmine, Ell-rom tensed. "Is there something bad happening on Earth that I should be aware of?"

It was curious that he was more worried about what humans were doing to each other than about the threat of the Eternal King. The truth was that Jasmine felt the same, but that was because one threat was imminent while the other was far into the future, and she was still human, thinking in human terms.

Ell-rom was immortal, though, and his perspective on time should have differed greatly from hers.

Gabi waved a dismissive hand. "Let's talk about more pleasant subjects."

Ell-rom shook his head. "If we are in danger, I need to know."

Gabi cast him a reassuring smile. "You don't need to worry about what humans are doing to each other. As an immortal living in the immortals' village, you will be well protected against the barbarians and savages of this world. If you can access your paranormal talents, you can protect yourself against them when you venture outside the village as well."

"I wish all of us could move in there." Margo sighed. "The more I watch the news, the more I want to retreat from this world."

Frankie grimaced. "If we are ever permitted to live in the village, I will have to convince Kian to let my large family move in with us. I can't leave them behind."

Dagor's expression soured. "I wish that, too, but you know why that's not possible. We must continue pretending that we are doing our job on Earth so no one will be sent to replace us. To keep making out like we are searching for the missing pods, we need the trackers to keep broadcasting our location."

Jasmine had heard part of that argument before, and it had struck her as a challenge but not as an unsolvable problem. "Can't you put those trackers inside someone else? For the right amount of money, you will find no shortage of volunteers who will not ask too many questions."

Aru regarded her with a sad smile. "Regrettably, human volunteers wouldn't last long enough."

"Then you will have to move the trackers every so often." The wheels in Jasmine's mind kept spinning. "You could hire three guysand pay them to go to the destinations you are supposed to investigate and report to you. Just hire healthy, young people and move the trackers to a new trio every few years."

2

ELL-ROM

Ell-rom couldn't find fault with Jasmine's reasoning, and given Aru's contemplative expression, neither could he.

The god turned to one of his companions. "What do you think, Dagor?"

"It might work if the transfer is done quickly." Dagor rubbed a hand over his jaw. "Provided that our trackers only transmit locations, not biomarkers. We were not given details about what was implanted in our bodies. The old trackers the Kra-ell had in them were good only for pinpointing coordinates, but ours might be much more advanced."

It made sense that the technology had improved in the time between the deployment of the settler ship and the departure of the interstellar cruiser that had brought the three gods to Earth.

"We can test it," Negal said. "I volunteer to be the first one. We can remove it from me and put it in a human. If the commander contacts us and asks what's happening, we will know that the thing transmits biomarkers."

"How will we explain it?" Dagor asked.

Negal shrugged. "We can tell him that I got seriously injured, and the human doctor attending me removed the tracker, thinking it was a foreign object."

Aru arched a brow. "And the doctor immediately put the tracker in himself for some reason? That's not going to fly."

"What if you put the tracker into Dagor?" Jasmine suggested. "It'll still transmit godly biomarkers, just slightly different, and that can be blamed on the supposed injury."