I shared most of my discoveries with the ladies in the morning. Carla had me touch all her grapes, and I discarded one bunch. I also had a quick look in the international database for anything like this. A Canadian reported this, but it was assumed to be part of his mutation rather than an add-on.

  Soph tried the skin on her to see if she could use touch to sense the essence, but it was blunted with the amount of fur. It worked but was difficult through her hide. Carla, on the other hand, was ecstatic to get a sense of her skin. We surmised it would not work with scales like Soph and her fur, but she could sense her own grapes while she was in her skin. Ata’s skin worked as well, even though she only had partial feathers. In fact, if she were fully feathered, it would not have worked through as her back was insensitive to Essence through the feathers.

  I made sure everybody was wearing their vests and were armed. Not that I expected trouble, but there was no point in not being prepared. Ata and I had compromised, and she now had a feather poncho. This was too big for her, so it would cover babies in front or rear packs as required. She could lay it down as a blanket as well. We were still adding feathers. We had enough to cover the front fully and were working on the back. We could add a hood later.

  About an hour before the meeting, Ngoi, Neke and Kai turned up just to make sure we didn’t get lost. How kind of them. I used my senses on them, and boy, did I get overloaded. Smells were variations on dark turquoise, but Neke was much darker than the others, and she was by far the loudest with her double mutation. She equalled Rich in strength.

  I taught her to taste essence, and she described it as my smell, except we were too strongly blue for her, and it was not a nice taste like too strong a peppermint, and she hated peppermint. Her tastes were darker—particularly darker beers.

  Neke confirmed the touch sense did not really work through her snakeskin, and Ngoi was similar to Soph. Kai did not have mutated skin, so he had no comment to make.

  Ngoi caught on with his hearing, and I almost blew his sense out with my triple mutation. He described me as a strange, airy sound, maybe like flutes, but way too loud. Referees whistle maybe if it was blown through a bull horn.

  Kai managed it with his echolocation, and essence pools shone out at him, which made it easier to locate essence creatures in his sense.

  I squirrelled away a plan to learn to hide from essence senses. There is always something to learn.

  We took the trucks this time. If we had to leave, we would abandon everything else. The important stuff was in the trucks. I was expecting the worst. I could say I was hoping for the best, but that is not really my thing.

  Too many people were coming, so the poor farmhouse was too small. The army had set up a marquee on the lawn, and there were rows of chairs. We grabbed some near the back so Rich could come and go. A platform was set up near the front, and a podium for speakers was on it. This was a big thing. Maybe I should have made notes to read from. Whatever. I am not an academic.

  I see it is being recorded or live-streamed somewhere. Probably both. Maybe I have had the wrong idea about this meeting.

  As people filtered in, my new senses were triggered by various enhanced people. Most of the people were civilian researchers with a smattering of uniforms. I was surprised at the number of enhanced ones there were. Maybe two hundred people, and there were maybe forty enhanced.

  Some were obvious, like the guy with two insect arms coming out of his back. Or were they legs? Most had the smell of Yagoonya about them, and there were various degrees of strengths, although no multi-enhanced apart from Neke, Rich and myself. I could sense Lewis’s calming blue, and there was one other as well. Two were from this anomaly. They either had smooth mutations, or the army had been starting earlier than we saw.

  Amanda came in and sat by us. As the last few filtered in. There were some Australians and Americans and a few British. Two of those were enhanced from unknown anomalies.

  Lewis got up and started proceedings as the last vans drove up, disgorging people. Something unpleasant tickled my sense of smell as they filed in, and an unusual sound resonated in my head.

  I searched for the source and I had a quiet word to Soph. Barb started flitting over the crowd.

  Lewis spent ten minutes with a traditional Maori greeting and challenge by one of the army warriors. He then laid out the order of speakers, and we were well down the list. Dr Goodwin started us off with an enthusiastic but incomprehensible talk on the plants. The gist was they were growing plants outside the zone with watered-down properties. She didn’t say, but I am sure some of the plants she referenced were from the barge in Waiheke. There was no time to bring them to fruit otherwise.

  Then some other dude got up, and I lost interest.

  Soph leaned forward to the person in front of her and asked for a paper and a pen. She then wrote, “Person mutated at North Korean anomaly is a male European wearing a white shirt and a blue tie four rows from the back three seats in.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  She showed me, and I signalled to Neke, who was closest to me. She was standing on the side, so she came over, and I handed the note to her. Carla was texting someone. I am pretty sure it was Lewis.

  Neke moved off with the note and met Ngoi. They identified the person with their senses, and then we waited. Lewis eventually glanced at his phone and then popped out of the tent. He soon returned, and there was another boring academic before lunch. Amanda was due to speak after lunch, and we were scheduled after afternoon tea.

  Just before lunch, Ngoi came and took me out of the tent. “You have the best senses here. Please keep an eye on the perimeter as we are going to take Dr Alan Wishborn for a chat. He has unknown skills, so we are covering our bases.”

  Ngoi had me positioned by the edge of the farmhouse, and I sat on a chair. Eliza, the evil parrot, came and joined me.

  As people filtered out of the tent for lunch, I saw an average-sized man in a blue tie be approached by a corporal and guided to the side. The man looked around but didn’t seem that nervous. He came boldly into an army-controlled area, so he certainly has nerves of steel. They were headed towards me and away from lunch when the Corporal fainted.

  They were in my range because I had enhanced my electroreceptors, and they picked up the skill use. My hearing picked up a variation of the strange sound from earlier. The soldiers reacted to the fainting by drawing their weapons and yelling for him to get on the ground, which he did. Other guests scattered away from the action.

  Two more soldiers approached him, guns pointing, and then they collapsed. The man rolled to one and then rolled again, dragging the soldier on top as a shield. He grabbed the soldier's sidearm.

  I noted he had a range of about three meters to the skill. I had stood up, but this was not my fight. I was fully prepared to duck around the corner of the house to get out of the way. The soldiers were surrounding him and pointing their weapons. I really don’t know how he thought he would get out of this. I hardened the scales in my vest. I knew wearing it was a good idea.

  Then the man started shooting. Ngoi and Neke both moved forward, trying to get a shot and made themselves targets. Ngoi took two bullets before Neke ended the man’s life.

  “Shit, that hurt,” Ngoi said, rubbing his chest under his armoured vest. He pulled open the vest, and the bullet had gone right through, “That tough hide is a good thing, but I am going to be bruised.”

  Neke was checking the dead man and then the first of the three downed soldiers. Medics were coming at a run.

  Neke stepped back, “Just unconscious, I think,” was her verdict. Her verdict was for the soldiers, not the man with a bullet in his brain. I hope.

  I was trying to make sense of my senses. The sound. It was a wind-type sound, not a high-pitched whistle or flute like Ngoi described me, but a low tone, like a trombone or even a tuba. Maybe a didgeridoo would be a better description of the skill. His sound was clearer than the skill sound. Was that the sound of mind or senses type skills? Wind type sounds? Maybe.

  The smell was … I don’t know, chemical? Strong paint or turpentine? Dirty chemicals.

  I was watching his pattern, which meant it was all bluescale. Ata will confirm his colour later. The pattern was interesting, as when he used his skill, certain lines lit up. I am going to have to test that. Soph and Rich will be good test subjects.

  I moved forward to the body. The pattern was still there. I wonder how long it will last after death. I assume it will be there until the cells die, as they are imbued with it. A soldier tried to stop me, but Ngoi let me through. I touched his hand. It felt slimy and toxic.

  I moved back toward the house and out of the way. I thought about the Skill itself. There was no warning. When Buck used his Power Bark, it was like all your muscles spasmed, and you were stunned, or your actions were disrupted. This was different. There was no muscle spasm; they went from normal function to unconsciousness instantly. Two together, so it was an area of effect skill, or he could multi-target it.

  The sound was not that strong, and he was not that strong. Maybe at the level of Soph, not Carla, but definitely only a single enhancement. That probably limited his range, number of targets, or both.

  I could resist Buck’s Power Bark and Rich’s senses by whirlpooling and sending out waves of my essence through my body. Could I have resisted this Skill? It seems pretty instant. I would have to have the resistance already operating. I already do, due to the time spent in this hostile Anomaly.

  That is a lot to take in. I have been standing here for over five minutes working this all out. Kai is next to me. Is he guarding me? My electroreceptors locate Barb and Eliza on the gutter above my head. The bloody evil parrot had better not have pooped on me. Don’t go teaching nice Barb your evil ways either.

  I look at Kai, “Did Echolocation tell you anything more than who is enhanced?”

  He shook his head, “No.”

  “Both Soph and Ata will be able to see the colours of the enhanced if you want to run another check through the crowd.”

  Kai nodded and talked to Ngoi. Neke soon replaced him, and he and Ata were soon working their way through the crowd.

  I reach for my phone to text Ata, but I can’t find it. Maybe I left it in my ute. “Neke, let Kai know that he may want to work through the troops as well. This guy must have had more. He must have had a way out. If the skills he showed were all he had, then he must have expected allies.”

  Neke nodded and spoke to Ngoi.

  Those allies may not have been enhanced, but it was a place to start.

  Carla came up to us with a plate of food for me.

  “Not sure I want to eat, but thanks,” I said. Then I added, “I haven’t seen Captain Grumpy Pants around. I would have thought he would have been here.”

  “You mean Captain Griffiths,” Neke said. “He is coordinating the big chiefs in Wellington as they watch the live stream.”

  “Has someone checked him?” I asked.

  “Soph would have sensed him in our first meeting if he was enhanced,” Carla said.

  Unless he can shield his essence, I thought, but didn’t say. I need to work on a way to conceal our essence.