Ngoi wanted a full debrief on my senses. I gave them a relatively full account. I played down my Electroreceptors to be like Kai’s Echolocation. I did tell them about the patterns glowing as the skill was used. Lewis had Enhanced eyes like mine, which meant they would discover it soon anyway.

  Ngoi’s ears confirmed what I was hearing, and Neke’s taste had a similar reaction to my smell. She described it like licking petrol.

  The program's restart was delayed, but not for long, as there were important people watching in Wellington, and they didn’t have a dead body to deal with. They had more important things to do after this.

  Because of Ngoi’s debrief, I missed the first half of Amanda’s presentation on ‘Patient Z.’ She was just starting on ‘Patient A’, who was pregnant with enhanced twins. Ata was part of our presentation, so it was going to be obvious who Patient A was.

  Apparently, the twins were doing well. Yes, I am a bastard for not finding out sooner. It didn’t occur to me. However, I now know lots of stuff about them. I told Ata I wasn’t going to be a good father. I am not good partner material, either.

  Amanda then went on to the mutations, and blah, blah, blah. She was given a double slot and spoke well for the bits I listened to.

  Then there was afternoon tea, which was cut short because some important people had things to do. Then we were up.

  The ladies followed me onto the stage, grabbed some chairs and sat down at the back of the stage, letting me stand there alone. Fuck it. Time to make shit up.

  “Kia ora,” I greeted everyone. “That is the nicest fucking greeting you will ever get out of me, so don’t come hassling me later. I am Bob the Bastard. I am not a fucking fancy-educated person. But you see the three of them sitting there? They are the fucking heroines of Yagoonya. You saw them on TV and shit. Who am I? I am their Bastard. I am not going to give you any fucking science shit. I am going to tell you how to survive in this fucked up world that is only going to get worse.

  “You remember the idiot that had his brains scattered over the lawn out there a few hours ago? We fucking identified him, and I will tell you now, other countries are taking these anomalies and getting their people mutated now to get a head start on the world going to shit. It is only the enhanced that can survive. As of last night, there were over five hundred recorded anomalies and twelve months ago, there were none. The world is going to shit, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. What I can do is tell you how to survive it.

  “Take my advice. As soon as I have finished speaking, if you are not enhanced, walk out there into the zone, eat a piece of fruit and mutate. You will not find a more peaceful and positive anomaly in the entire world. That anomaly out there could be New Zealand and the South Pacific’s salvation. It is for that reason I expect the politicians to blow it up. They always destroy the good things.

  “Yes, the risk is real. Yes, people fucking die. You look at us on stage here. Altogether, we have survived eleven mutations. Yes, the fucking animals count. Rich here has survived two. That is two more than you useless idiots.

  “Open your fucking ears because I am going to tell you how to survive the next decade.”

  And I did. I am surprised Lewis didn’t stop me, but I gave it to them straight. When I had finished, Lewis stood up.

  “Mr Wilkinson has a very blunt way of speaking, but what he said is true. If anyone wishes to attempt Enhancement, there is a sign-up sheet at the back. We do need only to take thirty per day, so we have sufficient medical help available as it is difficult and traumatic. The risk of death is very, very real. Ninety people are either undergoing enhancement here at the Ruakawa Anomaly or have completed it. Twenty-two people have died. If you rush out there without being scheduled, sufficient medical help will not be available for you. All military personnel in this tent are enhanced, including myself. We are available to answer any questions.”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Then he wound up the meeting, and I escaped out the back of the tent with Carla on my heels. We hopped into my truck and escaped back to our camp.

  “Soph and Ata are staying to answer questions,” she said.

  I nodded, “I played right into Lewis’s hand, didn’t I?”

  “Ata will be able to tell us more, but it seemed he wanted you to say bluntly what he could not.”

  I just grunted. It didn’t matter. They can take it or leave it. Ata probably stayed to find out what was happening, especially with our Witch beside her reading emotions.

  I grabbed some gear. “I am going down to the beach for a swim. Do you want to come?”

  “Sure.”

  We jumped into the Ute. I hadn’t forgotten the listening bug or the satellite tracker. There was a nice cafe near the beach, and I left the bud in a flower pot at one of the tables. I attached the tracker to a courier van so they would have plenty of places to check.

  Napier Beach is open ocean. Swim west, and there is nothing but the Pacific Ocean until you reach South America half a world away. It was great to stretch out and just swim. Carla went back in after an hour to get us some supplies as I just kept swimming. Sometimes I was on the surface. Sometimes, I sat on the ocean floor.

  I let my mind settle after the day.

  The man that was shot. He could use his essence and project it beyond his body. This was still bugging me. Buck could do it. This man could do it. If it was due to their mutation, then that was that—nothing I could do. But I was not convinced of that yet. I had the biggest pool of Essence of anybody I had yet encountered. There must be something I could do with it.

  I stretched out with my electroreceptors and my essence filter. I was away from the Ruakawa Anomaly, so my sense of the wider essence that influenced this part of the earth was clearer. Somewhere out in the Pacific between us and South America is at least one blue Anomaly, probably more than one. Blue is the predominant essence colour, but it is darker blue than Waiheke.

  Should we go looking for it? The Navy is more set up for that and uses its enhanced to find ocean anomalies. I really don’t want to be on a crowded Navy ship. I am really not keen on boats. I am not a boat person so we can’t go ourselves in our own boat.

  Why do I want to go? Is the blue essence calling to my blue essence or something? It is a compatible anomaly we can experiment with without access restrictions. Well, not quite. There are still the physical restrictions of actually getting there and staying there.

  Soph knows a lot of rich people. I am sure some of them will have those super yacht things. The crew will have to be enhanced, or it will happen out at sea. I might ask.

  Blue is definitely the predominant colour. The Green/tan of Ruakawa is there, but I think the blue will dwarf it. What happens when they clash? Green/Tan and Blue are not compatible. I guess we will find out in due course.

  Pink. Dark pink. I am assuming there is only one anomaly of that colour in the world so far. That may be a wrong assumption. Mr Dark Pink, whoever he was, reacted strongly to being asked some questions, so it is safe to assume he was up to no good. The army will track down the background. At this point, we know North Koreans have a dark pink anomaly, and they are keen to get their fingers on other people's anomalies, and they don’t like asking for permission. Maybe they did ask and were turned down. Who knows.

  I don’t know why, but they were all over the Aussie anomaly and are now trying to get in on this one. I am assuming Amanda will have new guards following her around. Now that I have taught Ngoi and co about the senses, Neke can taste them out, and I am sure they will bring back people with other senses.

  Maybe Carla should not have gone shopping on her own. I pulsed her, “Watch for Pink.” She pulsed back the OK signal. She has her pistol and a knife and is our best fighter.

  I have a lot of senses. It is my main thing. How do I stop myself from being sensed as I am the loudest and shine the brightest with my essence pool? That is something to work on. I can’t get the essence beyond my body yet, so how do I stop being sensed? The skin is the natural barrier of the body against the world, so I think the skin is the key. All four of us are skin-enhanced, so a barrier at the skin level is what I will try first.

  Here is a better thought. How do I hunt enhanced creatures with these new essence layers to my senses? I am not the hunted but the hunter. Actually, I am both, but never mind that. I need to point my “heroines” in the direction of hunting. Carla is our attack shark, backed up by Rich and Ata. The rest of us are support, although I still think Soph has more potential with her emotions. We will work on that as well. We need to hide our essence because we are the hunters, and we don’t want the prey to be alerted we are closing in.