Page 81 of My Tiny Giant
I faced both generals.
“I volunteer.”
Alarm flashed wildly in Agan’s eyes.
“Eleven, no!”
“What are you talking about?” General Hicrai scoffed.
“Volunteer for what?” The other general frowned.
“Whatever mission you’re sending Agan on, I volunteer for it.” I dragged a chair to the table and plopped my butt into it. “Here. I’m part of his assignment, too, and have to be present at this meeting. Now, fill me in.”
“Emma,” Agan said firmly. “You can’t come with me, not this time.”
I threw him a questioning glance. “What’s so different about this time?”
“Lieutenant—” both generals started at once.
It remained unclear whether they were talking to Agan or me. Whether they were about to reprimand me once again or tried to stop Agan from saying what he said next.
“I’m going into the Abyss of Krokkan to eliminate the Central Mind of fescods, Emma.”
* * *
“I T’S...SUICIDE. AND they should know it.” I clenched my fists on the table in front of me, avoiding looking at Agan.
He had insisted on having a few minutes to talk with me one-on-one. Neither of the generals had argued much about allowing that. Even General Hicrai got up and left the room with only a minimal growl.
Their sudden compliance proved my point. They knew Agan was as good as dead. And people didn’t argue with the dead, in any world or on any planet.
I heard him inhale deeply.
“The reason General Trulgadi ruined his good name and colluded with the crook like Voltuds was because he hoped to find a way to eliminate fescods as a threat to our country, once and for all,” Agan explained. “Killing them one by one has allowed us to free some territories deep inside Ravie, but we haven’t made any real gains in years. The more we kill, the more of them keep coming.”
I kept staring at my hands on the table in front of me. My knuckles turned white from strain as I squeezed my fists. “How did your general hope to end them? By shrinking them?”
He nodded.
“He’d heard about Voltuds and his work, and he offered him a safe place to continue his research off Neron.”
“In exchange for some superweapon?”
“Right. Unfortunately, it became clear early on that fescods couldn’t be shrunk, not by the means that Voltuds was developing. Light rays reflect off their skin, including the ones that Voltuds used in his research. Not that it deterred the professor from continuing his research on other species, as you know.” He placed his hand over my fist on the table. “Emma, General Trulgadi never authorized experimenting on me or any other Ravil, but here we are. It’s happened. Both governments now want to use this opportunity—”
I swiftly turned to face him.
“How exactly are they planning to use you?”
“Have you seen the images of the fescods’ Mind in the Abyss of Krokkan?” he asked.
The exact location of the fescods’ Mind had been confirmed about a year and a half ago. However, no one could come up with a way to destroy it. The Mind was housed inside the shell of a giant sea creature that had lived on Tragul during their pre-historic times. The bone of the skeleton, shaped as a porous bubble, was thought to be indestructible by the weapons currently available to either of the species.
I’d seen the latest images taken through the water from a distance.
“Yes, I have. The Mind’s shell looks like a piece of honeycomb or a sponge.”
He nodded.