An ancient secret, a genetic key, a planet in peril.
After millennia of dormancy, an ancient gene that enables humans to communicate with animals is reactivated. The research facility where the gene was initially discovered, the MRI, is now under the control of Vulcan â a man intent on harnessing this power to seize global control. Everywhere, teenagers and their partner animals are dying and disappearing, governments are falling, and fueled by the escalating chaos, the dark spirit, Nyx, grows ever stronger.
Hope lies with the walkers - Fletcher, Ariana and Eli. Only they can cross the bridge between this world and the spirit world. Scientist Robyn Greene is racing against time to understand the kindred ties that bind the walkers to all living things. Inside the MRI, loyalties are tested. As an impending catastrophic solar storm looms, they form a renegade team. Between them, they must find a way to stop Vulcanâs quest for world domination and Nyxâs determination to destroy humankind altogether. Success means the restoration of the ancient cycle that will return the Earth to balance. Failure means the end of life as we know it.
An ancient secret, a genetic key, a planet in peril.
After millennia of dormancy, an ancient gene that enables humans to communicate with animals is reactivated. The research facility where the gene was initially discovered, the MRI, is now under the control of Vulcan â a man intent on harnessing this power to seize global control. Everywhere, teenagers and their partner animals are dying and disappearing, governments are falling, and fueled by the escalating chaos, the dark spirit, Nyx, grows ever stronger.
Hope lies with the walkers - Fletcher, Ariana and Eli. Only they can cross the bridge between this world and the spirit world. Scientist Robyn Greene is racing against time to understand the kindred ties that bind the walkers to all living things. Inside the MRI, loyalties are tested. As an impending catastrophic solar storm looms, they form a renegade team. Between them, they must find a way to stop Vulcanâs quest for world domination and Nyxâs determination to destroy humankind altogether. Success means the restoration of the ancient cycle that will return the Earth to balance. Failure means the end of life as we know it.
Robyn pressed her hand against the rock face, tracing the veins of glittering crystal revealed by the dancing sunlight. The wooden ruin of the walker temple protruded from the mountainâs highest point, as if reaching for the stars. Uncrossing her legs, Robyn pushed herself onto her knees. Her head spun and she swayed for a moment until she felt the familiar push and pull of energy through her spine, the gentle pressure of the walkersâ tethers. The quartz at her fingertips seemed to ground her, sharpening her awareness.
It shouldnât be possible. In the blink of an eye, sheâd somehow travelled from the farmhouse to Laos through the spirit world. Energy coursed through her body as she stood on shaky legs, taking in the line of canvas tents just below the temple ruins. âLaos,â Robyn rasped. âIâm in Laos?â
âEach solstice feels more powerful than the last.â The strange woman â Miranda â stepped forward.
âHow do you know about the solstice? What are you doing here?â Robyn said in bewilderment.
Miranda removed her sunglasses and slowly wiped each lens with a cloth before placing them in a case in her jacket pocket. âYouâll be pleased to know that   I may be able to provide some answers.â She turned and picked her way up the steep slope toward the encampment where a satellite dish suspended from a long pole swung in the breeze. Desperate for answers, Robyn followed, the stone firm against her bare feet, her mind awash with questions.
âRobyn?â called a familiar voice.
She shielded her eyes and looked to the line of tents. A skinny boy dressed in jeans and a t-shirt waved frantically. Without his robes, it took her a second to recognise him. And he had hair. âLenti?â
As she crested the mountain top, the monk raced toward her and dropped to his knees, bowing to the ground. âIt is an honour to serve you.â
Curious faces peeked out from the tents. Cheeks burning, Robyn crouched and pulled Lenti to his feet. âYou  donât  need  to  serve  me,  youâve  already  done  so much.â Robyn stifled her exasperation. Lenti knew more about the spirit world and the walkersâ abilities than most, but he wasnât her servant, nor did she want him to be. He was just a monk plucked from another era trying to live as a kid in the new. âYou donât need to bow to me.â âOf course.â Lenti bowed his head in deference, and
then quickly straightened. âApologies.â
âBut maybe you could tell me what the hell is going on here?â
Pleased to be given a task, Lenti bowed again and led her toward the largest of the tents where Miranda waited. âWhen you first entered the spirit world,â he said, âI felt something change. Everything started to fade, and I ended up back here at the temple. You are the true guide, finally returned.â Lenti glanced reverently at the temple ruins then ducked inside the tent, beckoning for
Robyn to follow him.
A huge desk covered in papers dominated the centre of the tent. Against one wall a hammock hung above a rug. Low cushions filled the remaining space.
Fear filled Robynâs guts. She spun around and confronted Miranda. âYouâre MRI.â
Miranda simply smiled.
Lenti looked at Robyn in confusion. âMiranda is here to help us. She knows all about my order, about the walkers, and Nyx.â
The pieces fell into place. âI know who you are. Youâre the Chief Director. Fangâs supervisor. Youâre supposed to be dead.â Here she stood, face to face with the woman responsible for the Beijing testing facility and the deaths of countless innocent kids. Robyn glanced at the tent entrance. She could run for it, but where would she go? Mirandaâs smile morphed into a laugh. âTherefore, why should you trust me?â She walked around the table and began sorting through a stack of files. âI understand how you might feel about Fang, but I think you underestimate her abilities. I blame myself. She has a brilliant mind but needed a mentor stronger than me to guide her.â Miranda pushed the papers aside. âBut where were we. Ah, yes â reasons you should trust me. For one, I am a scientist like you. Two, I faked my own death when I realised the direction the program was taking.â Miranda glanced up as the tent flap rustled and a figure entered. âAnd right on cue comes reason number three. Iâve been working with a close friend of yours.â
Robyn frowned, turned around and gasped. Brock, the supervisor sheâd once trusted so implicitly, stood in the entryway, eyes locked on hers. He looked older, thinner. A wiry white beard clung to his face. For a ridiculous moment, Robyn wondered who was feeding his cats. âYouâre ⌠youâre dead. I saw Fang shoot you.â
Brock gave Miranda a âtold you soâ look and she rolled her eyes. âI really didnât think sheâd go that far.â
âIt still hurt like a mother,â Brock said, rubbing his chest. Seeing Robynâs confusion, he added, âBulletproof vest.â
He stepped forward with his arms up, as if to hug her. âWeâre on the same side, Robyn.â
In Bulgaria, heâd risked his life to save them. Heâd always been so supportive of her research, academically and emotionally. Robyn had struggled to believe him to be capable of the atrocities perpetrated by the Mitochondrial Research Institute. âI think I need to sit down.â
Lenti led her over to the cushions and crouched on his haunches by her side. Brock and Miranda joined her, sitting on the geometric-patterned rug. They looked at Robyn as if she were the strange one in this equation. She glanced at Lenti. The boy monk seemed completely at ease, gazing at her with his open smile.
Robyn shifted her gaze between Brock and Miranda, searching for answers. In Bulgaria, Brock had taken a bullet for her. Miranda had disappeared right when the MRI was on the brink of a major breakthrough, allowing Vulcan to take control of the organisation. Why had she done that? Surely Miranda, of all people, knew what Vulcan was capable of.
âAre you telling me that youâve been collaborating against Fang? Against Vulcan?â
Brock nodded at Miranda as if to say, you start. Miranda hesitated then reached for a bulky walkie-talkie that looked like it had never left the 1980s. âFirst, I think refreshments are in order.â A burst of static rippled through the air. âTea and sandwiches to my tent, please.â
Robynâs stomach rumbled at the idea of food. She blushed â she hadnât realised how ravenous she was.
Miranda raised an eyebrow. âAnd something more substantial, if you would. Thank you.â She put down the walkie-talkie and resettled herself against a bright cushion. âIâve been studying this temple for decades. I never expected to stumble upon something so big or so ancient. It proves the walkers are an irreplaceable component of our shared humanity.â
Robyn saw the fragments of tile in her mindâs eye, glittering shards painting the story of Ariana, Eli and Fletcher. âThe mosaics?â
âExactly. Records of each walker lineage, extending back thousands of years. The temple was in much better condition thirty years ago. But to conduct an in-depth examination required financing beyond my means as  a young anthropologist, and a remote Laotian temple crumbling to dust meant time was not on my side. So  I approached my four most trusted friends and shared my theory.â
The pieces slotted into place. The other supervisors.
Weaving, Deckker, Vulcan and ⌠Brock.
âThey shared a mutual interest. They jumped at the chance to help finance the initial dig. Then, after what we found, we committed to the construction of the institute.â Robyn found it so easy to imagine the four young researchers, high on the thrill of discovery and eager to share their findings with the world. Had she, Catherine, Terence, Derek and Fang been any different? The thought unsettled her â look at how the discovery had changed Derek and Fang. A sudden shiver ran down her spine. âWhat did you find?â
Miranda clasped her hands and brought them to her chin, her eyes sombre. âAround a thousand years ago, there was a massacre. A dark spirit killed hundreds of monks, worshippers and villagers. The temple has remained empty ever since.â
âMy people were killed. The last guide â Liro â saved my life so that our work would not be forgotten, so that I could instruct the next guide.â Lentiâs voice was wrought with emotion. Soft, reverential.
Fragments of Liroâs memory floated through Robynâs consciousness, and for a heartbeat she was back at the temple, powerless to stop the swirling dark force of destruction that rose from the ground to envelop the monks who once lived and meditated there. âNyx,â she whispered.
Brockâs eyes widened. âYou know about Nyx?â
Robyn nodded, forcing her fear aside.
âThen we now share the same fear,â Miranda said. âBut at the time, all we could see was how the evidence of the event was seared into the very foundations of the temple â the ruins are ablaze with radioactivity. Here, on a remote mountain in rural Laos, centuries before Villard discovered gamma radiation, we found the remains of what was essentially an ancient nuclear reactor. Can you imagine the importance of our discovery? An extra-terrestrial, high-energy event akin to the asteroid impact that wiped the dinosaurs from the face of the earth.â
The words echoed in Robynâs mind. Nyx was an ancient cosmic entity, a being beyond humanityâs physical perception. In her spirit world conversation with Liro, the old monk had called Nyx a planet killer. Anger bubbled to the surface. âNot a nuclear reactor,â she said. âNyx is hellbent on wiping out humanity. What happened to the dinosaurs is nothing compared to what Nyx can unleash. Weâd be nothing but a blip on the cosmic radar.â
Mirandaâs eyes bore into her. âAcross the globe, Nyx is depicted as an incorporeal, intergalactic, living organism. A being unconstrained by time or space like we mere humans. Every civilisation in recorded history has feared and revered Nyx in equal measure. Feared by those who understood her power and revered by those who wish to own it.â
Lenti bumped his fists together and began chanting softly, as if weaving a spell of protection against Nyx. Robyn  didnât  blame  him. With  powers  so  far  beyond humanityâs own, Nyx instilled terror. The spirit was the darkness that seeped between worlds, consuming all in her wake. Robyn shivered. The mosaics lining the temple walls ended with three walkers from the land, air and sea â Fletcher, Eli and Ariana. Were they really the last walkers? If Liro hadnât been able to stop Nyx, what chance did she stand?
A young scientist pushed a trolley laden with food through the tent flap. Miranda rose and thanked him and the scientist nodded and disappeared. She took a tray from the trolley and placed it between them on the rug. âTea?â she asked, pouring four steaming mugs. Lenti ignored the plates of scones and sandwiches and passed Robyn a bowl of steaming vegetable soup. She nodded her thanks and inhaled the delicious aroma. It was hard not to simply shove her entire face in the bowl. Miranda passed Brock a mug and sipped her tea.
âI came to realise that the mosaics lining the temple walls illustrated an energy boundary between our world and a world beyond. If we could understand the bonds depicted in the temple, the energy ties binding humans and animals, then we held the future of technology in our hands.â
Robyn slurped another mouthful of broth, feeling its nourishment slowly restore her from within.
Miranda continued. âEven a fraction of the energy the walkers wield could provide clean energy to the entire planet. If we could figure out how to control it, we could steer the world in a new direction and re-create humanityâs respect and care for the environment.â
Robyn lowered her bowl and glared at the woman who had faked her own death, who left the MRI at the mercy of Vulcan and Fang. Under Vulcanâs directorship, the MRI was only interested in one thing â controlling the convergence gene and forcing convergent teenagers and animals to fight. âSince when has the MRI had any interest in the environment?â
âWe did, in the beginning. Our first objective was to find the current incarnation of the three walkers. When we found Eli, we were over the moon. We thought weâd found the answer to everything.â Miranda set her mug down and rubbed the bridge of her nose. âOnce we figured out how to unlock the convergence sequence in two other subjects, we thought weâd found the key.â Robyn stared at Miranda in disbelief. Her anger spilled over. âSara and Jacob are real people, not test subjects. They are the only survivors of the initial testing program in Beijing. You, the MRI, held those two convergers against their will, pumped them full of a cocktail of dangerous drugs in an attempt to activate their convergence genes. How can you call them subjects?â Brock opened his mouth as if to say something, but Miranda glared at him before turning back to Robyn. âReal breakthroughs arenât made within the realms of ethics approval. You have to push the barriers of what we know to get the kind of results we did. Fang understood.â Robyn swallowed thickly. âPush the barriers? How dare you justify what you did in the name of scientific research. People have died.â
âIncluding by your own hand. Nothing happens in a vacuum, Robyn. Your research far surpassed our own. We didnât find the key â it was you.â She smiled at Robyn and held out the plate of sandwiches, as if they were enjoying nothing more than a spot of afternoon tea rather than discussing the painful death of so many innocent people.
Robyn waved away the plate. Miranda was right. Her research had led to the creation of the activation dose, which was now in the hands of the MRI. Their application of that research â the teenagers recruited  to fight tooth and claw, the countless dead around the world, and the scars on Arianaâs back. The warm, comforting soup turned to acid in her throat. She pushed away her half-empty bowl.
Brock  sprang  to  Mirandaâs  defence. âWe  didnât  set out to cause such chaos. We only wanted to understand the convergence genetic sequence.â His voice wavered with emotion as he paced the narrow confines of the tent. âWe went too far in Beijing. We thought we understood what we were working with, but we didnât.â âI was a fool,â Miranda confessed. She ran her finger around the rim of her mug. âI wanted results. I didnât  think  about  where  those  results  might  take  us in the wrong hands, but Vulcan did. He immediately saw the potential for a military-grade application. Vulcan swayed Deckker and Weaving. I realised I had lost control of the program. I wasnât the mentor Fang needed. I failed her too â Iâd crafted her in my own image. She was even hungrier, more driven than me.â
Brock stopped beside Robyn. For a moment, his hand hovered near her shoulder then dropped. âI always knew youâd crack it.â
Robyn turned away. None of them were innocent. Each had contributed to the monster the MRI had become, whether willingly or not. Tears pricked her eyelids. She had cracked it, together with Terence, Catherine and Derek. Theyâd been caught up in the excitement of learning the secrets of the convergence sequence, of helping the walkers and convergers in their care. Had any of them been less hungry or driven? âYouâre right. Nothing happens in a vacuum.â
Miranda joined Brock and squeezed his hand. âNone of us hold the moral high ground,â she said. âI thought I could control Vulcan, but I was wrong. Once heâd convinced Weaving and Deckker to join him, I knew there was nothing more I could achieve on the inside. The attack in Beijing presented the perfect opportunity to disappear before Vulcan arranged a less pleasant alternative for me.â
âAnd now we are running out of time.â Brock turned to Robyn, his voice filled with sorrow. âThe world has been out of balance for nearly a thousand years. Weâve surpassed the environmental tipping point. The human population has skyrocketed, as has our dependency on natural resources. The planet has never been stretched so thin. Loss of ice cover, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, carbon dioxide thresholds.â Something of his old energy returned. Robyn remembered how he could once walk into a lecture theatre filled with students and hold their attention in the palm of his hand. âWhen the two worlds diverged, we lost the ability to communicate with animals and with it, access to a vast amount of energy. For centuries, an ancient part of ourselves has been dormant. Now that power is reawakening.â
Liroâs words came back to Robyn. Humankind woke up as if from a long slumber, the gifts of the spirit world stripped from their grasp.
Lentiâs chanting rose and fell, weaving a soft blanket of sound around them, drawing the circle closer. Miranda knelt, hands clasped in her lap. Brock wore   a path around the inner confines of the tent. âWeâve been asleep at the wheel. No longer able to understand and care for the planet, or each other. And in the intervening centuries, our weakness has allowed Nyx to grow stronger.â
Maybe it was the meditative power of Lentiâs chant, Brockâs passion or Mirandaâs reflection, but the threads were drawing together. âAnd now the solar storm is coming, Nyx will have the energy she needs to escape.â Robyn scrambled to her feet, desperate to act before it was too late. She crossed to the tent entrance, parting the flaps to gaze up at the temple ruins. âIâve dreamt about this place for so long,â she murmured. âVisited it in the spirit world. I never thought Iâd see it in our world.â
âIf we are to have any chance of stopping Nyx, we need to work together. Weâve already lost too much time,â Brock said.
Robyn turned around. Lentiâs chanting stopped. Miranda studied her upturned palms. Only Brock would meet her eye. âWhat do you mean?â
Brock and Miranda shared an awkward glance but neither seemed prepared to answer her question.
âTime passes differently in the spirit world,â said Lenti.
Robyn looked at the young monk. His hair. Last time she had seen him, his head had been shaved, as was the tradition. Now it curled and wisped around the bony knobs of his spine. âHow long was I there?â
âThree months,â Brock said.
âBut that means âŚâ
âThatâs right. We only have three months before the solar storm.â In one fluid movement, Miranda was on her feet. In two steps, she was standing by the desk. âThereâs an enormous amount still to do.â
Robyn reeled and clutched the tent flap to steady herself.  Iâve  been  missing  for  three  months?  How  was that possible? She turned to the one person who could answer her. âLenti?â
The boy monk nodded. âIt is true. You have been gone three moons.â
Gripping the canvas for dear life, Robyn blinked rapidly to focus her vision. âI need to contact my friends,â Robyn choked out. âThey need to know âŚâ
âThat youâre alive and safe. I understand.â Miranda searched under the stack of papers for her mobile phone. âIn your absence, your friends have spearheaded a resistance operation.â
âWeâve been keeping a close eye on them,â Brock added, joining Robyn at the tent entrance. âSince you left, the situation has deteriorated.â
âDefine deteriorated.â
Brock squeezed  her  shoulder.  âDonât  worry.  The walkers are safe. Your friends are based at Arianaâs farm in Wales.â
Robyn remembered sitting in the field of wildflowers on the day of the solstice when she slipped into the spirit world. Three whole months ago. Sheâd left her friends Kate and Kara protecting the carriers of the ancient convergence gene sequence â the walkers, the bridge between the physical and spirit worlds, and the rescued convergers. God, it felt like it was only hours ago that she sat beside the twins plotting how to stay one step ahead of the MRI.
A shock of icy fear gripped Robyn. The last time she had seen Catherine, Fang had a gun pressed into her girlfriendâs back. Was she okay? Had she been rescued? If not, that meant the MRI had held Catherine prisoner for three long months. âCatherine?â
Miranda clutched the mobile phone to her chest. âThat I donât know. Iâve lost my inside man.â
Before Catherine, Fang had kidnapped and tortured Ariana. Even though the teen was the sea walker, sheâd barely survived. Compared to Ariana, Catherine was defenceless. Tears blurred Robynâs view of the temple. âI wasnât there for her. For any of them.â
So many innocent children dead. So many animals slaughtered. Evaâs final ragged breath, the bearâs heart still beneath her bloodstained fur. When he lost Eva, Fletcher, the earth walker, had lost his link with the spirit world. Liroâs words came back to Robyn. About the threat the earth spirit posed. How, over her long imprisonment, Nyx had slowly infected the gentle earth spirit. How she had made Fletcher a vessel through which she could unleash her terrible power. âNyx has Fletcher.â
Brock cleared his throat. âUnfortunately, yes. Without his bear, Eva, the earth walker is vulnerable.â
It took a few seconds before the full meaning of Brockâs words sank in. âThe earth spirit, Gaia. The sea spirit, Atlantis. The air spirit, Notos,â Robyn said, the realisation dawning.
âSince Nyx has infected Gaia, she has twisted the relationship between the earth walker and his earth spirit.â
It all made sense. When the walkers trained, Eli and Ariana had instantly felt the pull of the air and sea spirits. Had easily reached the walker state, that delicate space between the physical and spirit worlds where they became awash with energy. Yet for Fletcher, it had been a constant struggle to connect to the earth spirit. Heâd never been able to reach the walker state. Now they knew why. Nyx.
Miranda straightened a stack of papers, then moved them to the other side of her desk. âThereâs a complication.â
Robyn pivoted to face Miranda. âYou said the walkers were all safe.â Every time she got an answer, it seemed to raise more questions. âDidnât you say the walkers were all in Wales?â
âNot quite.â Miranda abandoned the papers but only to wring her hands. âWe have absolutely no idea where Fletcher is.â
Humans and animals have been separated for millennia, throwing off the balance of the world. Humans used to have a special connection with animals, able to communicate with them which enabled us to be in balance with nature. All of that changed when the evil entity Nyx infiltrated the three spirits of Earth, Air and Sea. Nyx was trapped by the Earth Spirit, but the connection between the corporeal plain and the Spirit plain was disrupted, meaning that humans lost the ability to communicate with their animal brethren. Now, Nyx is growing stronger as Solar Storms ravage the Earth's atmosphere, and only three teenagers, known as the Walkers, their animal counterparts and their guide can stop the end of the world.
Fletcher and his bear Eva, are the Earth Walkers - but have been corrupted by Nyx. Eli and his osprey Una, are the Air Walkers and Arianna and her salamander Jericho are the Sea Walkers. Robyn, a former PhD student at MRI is their guide, and can straddle the corporeal and spirit plains. Eli and Arianna are trying to rescue Convergers - teens who can communicate with their paired animal - from their base in Wales, while Fletcher has fled to Iceland in an attempt to rid himself of Nyx's influence. Meanwhile, the shadowy MRI organisation is based at the ultra-secretive HAARP site in Alaska. The CEO, Vulcan, is determined to control the Convergers and has managed to do so using an unholy mix of torture and mind-control. He wants the Walkers, their powers and connection to the Spirit world means that he would be able to clear the way for Nyx, and control the entire world.
So, as usual, that's an over-simplified synopsis of what is an extraordinary book. Resilience is a masterpiece of a dystopian world, mixed in with science-fiction. Although, in places, I found it somewhat difficult to follow, with the myriad of already established characters, that's easily enough remedied if you read the first two books in the series, Convergence and Emergence. However, even as a newcomer to the series, and starting partway through, I still found the story line easy enough to follow and soon understood the lore of the world Smith had built.
Smith's use of HAARP in itself was a genius move; the site already has an ominous mythology surrounding it - steeped as it is in conspiracy theories. Whenever the action in Resilience takes place here, the tension is palpable. Similarly, whenever the plot takes us to the farm in Wales, a feeling of warmth and safety is evident in the writing. If I were to criticise this book at all, it would be the unrealistic travelling by Helicopter. Somehow, these choppers seem to be able to traverse half way around the world in almost no time, with the characters feeling no jet-lag. But that's a small criticism in an otherwise brilliant book.
S. A.