We walked in relative silence for about five hundred meters. I was comparing our position on my phone mapping to the aerial map I had been given. I was weaving in and out of the others. I stopped at 220m out. Amanda got her phone out and started recording us and her surroundings.

  “Here?” Ngoi said.

  “What can I say? I am a sensitive soul,” I replied.

  Carla snorted.

  “Let's keep going until we can all feel it,” I said.

  About 50m further in, we were all sensing it, and we stopped.

  “It does feel uncomfortable,” I said.

  “A bit like sandpaper,” Soph said, “no, that is not quite right.”

  “Like it is roughly trying to suck essence out of us?” Carla said.

  I nodded.

  “See, it is not like that for me,” Amanda said. “It is not the same as Yagoonya, but it is not trying to fight me.”

  Ngoi, Neke and Kai agreed with Amanda.

  I tried the wave technique, and it helped. The whirlpool didn’t. Combining both was about the same as the waves; I needed the practice, so I did that. Keeping your essence moving was a good general defence against foreign essence, and none of us four had built up immunity to this yet.

  “Perhaps we should wait here for a bit and see if we built immunity,” I said. I moved to a nearby fence to lean against it.

  “Can you turn off your recording for a bit, Amanda,” Soph asked.

  “Sure.” and she put her phone down.

  “What about you, Ngoi?” I asked, indicating his shoulder cam.

  Ngoi shrugged, “OK.” He reached up and pressed a button on the side.

  “Now that is interesting,” I said. “That didn’t turn it off.”

  Ngoi looked at it and said, “The light is off.”

  “But it is still recording,” I said, looking at him.

  “It is?” he acted surprised.

  I saw Soph nod. He was surprised.

  I mused aloud while it was still recording, “I wonder if we will get back and find out the vehicle and rooms are bugged? Who would do that? I'm lucky I bought my bug-finder.”

  “It is either mistrust in the military, or it is foreign players already,” Soph said, “as your equipment is faulty, Ngoi, it would indicate we shouldn’t trust the military,” she said, knowing it was still recording.

  Ngoi finally got frustrated and ripped it off his shoulder, and the electrical field I was sensing died.

  “That seems to have done it,” I said.

  “Who is Captain Griffiths?” Soph asked.

  “According to his record, he has been around a lot of different army units, both here and overseas,” Neke said.

  “I know he wasn’t Lewis’ first choice,” Ngoi said. “We are now permanently assigned to this unit,” he added.

  “He hates enhanced,” Soph said. “When I entered with my fur and Ata with her feathers, his hate spiked.”

  “I didn’t notice,” I said.

  “I am more sensitive than you to the small signs,” she said. “You can’t even recognise a legal officer wearing patches signifying it.”

  “Really?” said Ata. “That's a true story? That is hilarious. I heard a version from the legal section and didn’t believe it.”

  I grumbled as everyone was laughing at me.

  “I hadn't noticed anything particularly hostile from him around our team,” Ngoi said, indicating his fur and Neke’s snakeskin.

  “He doesn’t spend much time around us,” Neke said. “Maybe that is on purpose.”

  “I have overheard him pushing Lewis to close the anomaly quickly,” Ngoi said, “but that is no different to others.”

  “I suggest he is more dedicated to that than he lets on,” I said. I fully believed Soph and wanted the source of things to come back to me. I can be the target of retaliation. “I believe he needs watching. If he takes command, can he destroy the anomaly?”

  “The commander is the man on the ground with the final say,” Ngoi said.

  I didn’t say any more. They were smart.

  I turned to Ata, “How are the rugrats handling this?”

  “They are fine, but I might stay here and build immunity before going deeper. I think building immunity will take longer in this hostile essence.”

  “I think so, too.” I turned to Soph, “What about Rich and Eliza?”

  “They are fine. Eliza has already had eyes on the anomaly, but she can’t get within the last 30m or so.”

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  “I want to get a sense of the power gradient. Waiheke was a lot steeper than Yagoonya, but it was smaller.”

  “Rich will go with you,” Soph said.

  “So will I,” said Ngoi.

  “And I,” said Carla.

  “Well, why not,” said Amanda, “it is why I came.”

  So, the four of us set off after Rich. This was a lot more difficult. We paused to examine the plants and fruit. Some trees were red stickered as they had been tested with detrimental effects. Testing was ongoing.

  I was annoyed that I didn’t test the gradient increase at Waiheke, but I was pretty ignorant back then, as we all were. We still are.

  Carla stopped first to wait and build immunity. Amanda and Ngoi seemed fine. It must be the essence type. I was constantly circling my essence and sending waves through my body. It was harder than Yagoonya. More hostile, but that implies intent. It is more inhospitable or incompatible with the Waiheke Essence.

  It was a steep power gradient. I wonder if that was because it was young and small rather than spread out like Yagoonya. We were more compatible with Yagoonya, and that definitely makes a difference. I am pretty sure Yagoonya grew with power over time as well. The way it expanded back so quickly indicated that as well.

  I picked a nectarine.

  “That tree hasn’t been tested,” said Ngoi.

  I grabbed my knife and cut it open. It looked like a ripe, juicy nectarine. “What sort of variations have been found,” I asked.

  “It is all on the link you have, but some improve the effectiveness of various vitamins and aspects, and some will give a boost to your immune system and speed up healing. Some will give you the runs for days. Some are deadly. You can often tell which ones are dangerous by the dead insects and animals on the ground under them.”

  I looked around this tree. Nothing unusual. I put some fruit into my pack, as well as a small branch. I was doing this to most large plants we walked past.

  “How do they measure the Essence Content in the fruit? What effect does that have?”

  “Mate, you will have to read the data collected for that. I am not that scientifically minded,” Ngoi said.

  He was a soldier, first and foremost. I was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

  Except for civil engineering. I mastered that one.

  I looked around.

  “What are you looking for?” Amanda asked.

  “Insects, ants, things like that.” I saw a couple of small birds.

  I saw a barn in the distance and checked the aerial photo. It was just on the 50m line. Behind the barn were the bee hives. I was not going to get anywhere close to the 50m line. The way I was feeling now, I would be lucky to make 100m.

  “What’s in the barn?” I asked Ngoi.

  “Machinery, sprays, tractor, and other farm equipment like that.”

  “Has the honey been tested?” I asked.

  “I believe so.”

  I stopped well short of how far I could go. I am paranoid, but people underestimating me always helps.

  “What are your thoughts so far?” Amanda was fishing.

  “You are the specialist here,” I countered. I tossed her a nectarine, “Want to go for double or nothing?”

  “No, I think not,” she said. “I will study it, and the personal experience is great, but I am not risking it again.”

  “Wise,” I said, picking a bunch of grapes and putting them in my pack. “It seems like a blend of colours makes you more compatible with more anomalies. We might be restricting ourselves with the florescent blue.” That didn’t feel quite right to me, but it is a logical deduction. There is so much we don’t know. “I am going to head back to the others.”

  I was conscious that everything I said was going to be reported back, so I kept things to myself, not that I had a lot of thoughts. It was harder for us as the essence seemed more incompatible with mine.

  I would need time to read and process.

  We picked up Carla and joined Soph and the others. Soph and Ata were chatting. They could both be pregnant now. I wonder if Soph can sense a baby in her own womb.

  We joined them, and I showed them both the map. “This barn doesn’t have any animals, according to Ngoi, but the bees are alive behind it.”

  Soph nodded. “Eliza is in the area.” She nodded to me slightly. She got the message. Search for animals she might bond to.

  “What is in it?” Ata asked.

  “Farm equipment and chemicals,” I said, “But Eliza is checking.”

  Then I noticed Rich trotting away into the orchard. It was getting late and nearing dinner time.

  “Time to go,” I said. The immunity is vastly slower here. At Yagoonya, we moved and stopped and repeated. This had a steeper strength gradient, but I felt I hadn’t made much progress after three hours here.

  We arrived at the truck, and a Lieutenant met us. “I am sorry we can’t let you take any live samples from the quarantine zone,” he said, indicating my backpack that had a branch sticking out of it.

  “That is fine,” I said, getting Carla's backpack and filling it with the stuff I had emptied from mine. I tossed the keys to Ata and grabbed my shotgun. “See you guys tomorrow,” I said, walking back into the zone and then going off the track to find a spot where I could see things easily. I found a spot on a small rise where I could see the side of the barn and the metalled area in front of it. The hives were just out of sight, but if I climbed the post the vines were growing from, I could see the top of them. I couldn’t see the anomaly. I made a camp. I pulsed Carla, “Watch for bugs.” She acknowledged.

  I watched the sunset as I munched on some fruit. They were the fruit from the trees not marked in red. I had to keep a steady, active resistance going, and it was uncomfortable for me. It would be a long night. Shortly after the sun went down, Rich came and joined me.

  More animals are active at night than during the day. In the early evening, birds were feeding, and insects were out and chirping.

  Rabbits appeared and grazed. Possums started their hunt for food. I hear the call of the More-pork owl. There were mice or rats about, according to my smell and hearing. It was early autumn, so not many crickets were still about.

  I sat and contemplated my navel. I was testing my hearing and my smell, pushing my night sight. I heard a patrol of obviously enhanced soldiers circle the outer 150m mark. An aerial night drone flew over. Once it had gone, I shifted position. I didn’t go far, but not where they saw me.

  All the while, I was tasting, testing the essence. Why was it different? Why did it feel wrong to my essence? I had no answers.

  I rang Soph at 11 pm, “I have put four nectarines in front of Rich from four different trees. Can he tell the difference between them with essence?”

  “No, they are all the same.”

  Then Carla pulsed. “L to R. S to W. 1 3 4 2”

  So definitely, the closer in the fruit, the stronger it is. But what does the essence do? The fruit mutates according to the tree it was on. Does the essence contained in it just make the mutation enhancement stronger, or does it do something else, as well?

  I ate another one, trying to sense what would happen to the essence as I ate. The essence seemed to be rebuffed by mine. That made sense, as the Roo meat we ate in Aussie didn’t do anything either. Maybe it assists in immunising. Maybe. I stored the stone pit from the centre with the other grape seeds, pear seeds and plum pits.

  Rich took off for a while. I assume he was checking something out for Soph.

  Others can work out mutations, genetics, and other stuff. I still feel the key is the essence and essence types. I have worked out some limited crafting with it from Carla’s scales. There has to be more. Patterns are part of the key there. I know it.

  I still can’t use Essence outside my body like Buck could. I am not convinced it is just a mutation. Soph could reproduce it through their bond once she was strong enough. Why? How?

  I moved again. This time, nearer the edge, I didn’t have to repel the essence actively, so I slept for a few hours.