IT’S A CRAZY WORLD OUT THERE BE CURIOUS Stephen Hawking 1942 2018 1 7167 N 110 4667 E
1 PHILIPPINES Celebes Sea KINABATANGAN RIVER BASIN MALAYSIA VIETNAM THAILAND South China Sea BRUNEI MALAYSIA Borneo SINGAPORE INDONESIA Java Sea PACIFIC OCEAN SWEAT DRIBBLED down the back of a sticky neck Hot feet swelled inside boots that got tighter with each step Even breathing was hard like trying to inhale with a wet towel covering your face If this was immortality thought Cruz it was way overrated Cruz Coronado may have been trekking through a steamy rainforest in northern Borneo with the explorers and faculty of Explorer Academy but his mind was thousands of miles away More than two weeks had passed since he’d been inside the Society’s top secret Archive for a glimpse of his mother’s scientific logbook A single page the one his PANDA unit had partially revealed was all the Synthesis had allowed him to see Even so it was enough for Cruz to finally read his mom’s full entry In it she explained that she’d handled her cell-regeneration serum without gloves A scratch on her hand had exposed her unborn child Cruz to the liquid The mishap had likely altered his developing DNA In short it was possible he would live Forever It was a stunning discovery And yet somehow it wasn’t Looking back Cruz realized he’d hardly been sick a day in his life Bumps bruises sprains and other minor injuries had always been quick to heal Cruz had figured he’d simply been lucky but now he knew it was more than that So much more 5
In her notes his mother had predicted the full power of the serum would kick in when Cruz turned 13 Apparently it had and just in time for him to do battle with Nebula too The gash Cruz had gotten on his leg when Prescott nearly drowned him in Hawaii the burn on his arm from Mr Rook’s laser blast and his broken toe and concussion from the fall into the cavern in Turkey had all mended within a day or two faster than ever Not that Cruz had given any of these injuries much thought when they’d occurred Now they were all he could think about Damaged cells need time to regenerate right Cruz figured he was as human as anyone else when it came to things that would cause a quick death which Nebula must have known too Is that why his mother had not survived the fire in her lab Her cells couldn’t repair her injuries fast enough Or as an adult had the serum affected her differently Cruz had millions of questions but how was he supposed to get any of them answered when the Synthesis wouldn’t let him see the rest of the logbook Emmett was the only one who knew Cruz had been inside the Archive though he had no idea what Cruz had learned there and he could never know No one could not even Dad or Aunt Marisol Ow yelped Lani Cruz had bumped her calf Sorry Lani was stopped on the trail her head tipped back Cruz followed her gaze his eyes roving up the tangle of thick branches that wove the canopy in layers too numerous to count Here and there the leaves parted allowing thin beams of sunlight to slip through Fruits and flowers punctuated the greenery like red yellow and white exclamation points Squinting Cruz searched the limbs Lani what are you There Among the leaves still glossy from an overnight rain Cruz spotted a patch of reddish gray A monkey Its back to them the animal was crouched on the fork of a twisted tree trunk about 20 feet up The bright orange-red fur on its head neck and shoulders turned a soft gray as it extended down its arms legs and tail The monkey’s thin tail was nearly as long as its body A gray hand with long fingers lazily 6
plucked unripened figs from a tree By now Professor Ishikawa had seen the animal too He was pointing up trying to quietly alert everyone everyone to what was above Crack Someone behind Cruz stepped on a twig Turning its shoulders the monkey glanced down and the explorers began to chuckle The monkey had the biggest nose Cruz had ever seen Long and droopy the appendage appendage hung past its mouth like a giant orange pendulum That’s a proboscis monkey whispered their teacher hushing them That nose might seem funny to you but I can assure you that lady monkeys find it quite attractive That got even more giggles 7
