Absolute Knowledge Box Set (Books 1-3)

by Drew Cordell

  I sat alone in my study pretending to read for a few hours while I thought about the events for the evening, trying to play out every possible outcome and plan for the most extreme of contingencies such as Infinitum staging another attack at the same time. However unlikely, I wanted to be prepared. Marwin said we’d need to cut through about a foot of metal plating to reach the drives once they were locked down. Fusion torches burned hot, but it still seemed like we’d be short on time; so short that if anything were to go wrong, we’d be unable to make corrections to the plan.

  Finally, it was time to depart and I boarded my ship, Bracken joining me. I hadn’t actually expected he would be accompanying me, but soon learned all the Head Stewards had their own table and were highly regarded and respected by Adrihel. Bracken didn’t really appreciate flying, but the slow transport ships weren’t as scary as some of the faster models used for pleasure flying in the skies high above Olympus. Mary and I had taken some basic flying lessons in one of the simulators Marwin had as a requirement of our training, and we could both land any standard aircraft—in theory, of course. Our lessons had yet to extend to flying an actual aircraft, but we knew it was coming.

  I gazed out the window and saw other ships landing on the massive landing platform of House Adrihel, the sun already setting in the horizon. This was it. My R78 was strapped to my belt and was latched with a standard automatic system lock maintained by the Omniscience Engine. If the system perceived danger, the lock would unlatch and I’d be able to draw my firearm. Otherwise, I’d have better luck trying to build a weapon from scratch. Fortunately, when the power went offline, the manual safety would disengage, and I’d be free to use the weapon if I needed it.

  My ship landed, and Bracken and I were escorted down the ramp and into the massive building where other royalty began to gather. Bracken stopped abruptly and turned to face me, meeting my eyes.

  “Jake, I just want you to know I’m very proud of what you’re doing tonight,” he said, giving me a look that said he knew what we had planned.

  “Sorry?” I asked, my heart leaping. How could he know? It was impossible.

  “You’ve done quite well adapting to your new style of life, and I’m very proud of all you’ve done and what you will do,” he said.

  “What do you mean what I’m doing tonight?” I asked, trying to conceal the panic.

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about. Know who you can trust,” he said before slipping off and greeting the other stewards with a friendly face and kind words.

  I was left stunned until I felt my right hand grabbed. Marwin stood before me dressed in his formal wear and shook my hand, pulling me out of my frantic thoughts.

  “Baron Ashton,” he said, regarding me.

  “Baron Zaris,” I responded, searching his eyes for answers.

  “I think everything will go very well with the commencement this evening. I hope you have a nice night,” he said before walking off to speak with Baroness Brae and Lady Kasra.

  I stood by myself trying to piece together what was happening. How much did Bracken know? Was he with us? I forced myself forward and met up with Mary. She wore a beautiful green dress with the under layer of Nexweave concealed. She was as pretty as ever and kissed me on the lips when she saw me, placing her hands on my chest before scooping me up into a hug. Some of the other Barons and Baronesses were staring. I turned and saw Baroness Brae give me a wink. My relationship with Mary was the talk of many rumors going around Olympus, but we had never displayed public affection like this before. I didn’t mind at all.

  “I just want you to know that I love you,” she whispered in my ear as she leaned out of the hug.

  “I love you, too.”

  “Is everything all right?” she asked.

  “Yes. Marwin thinks the evening will be wonderful,” I said, trying to act more confident than I felt.

  We were joined by a man and a woman dressed in dark red representing House Carson. Lady Janet Carson approached in high heels, her long hair swinging behind her. “Baron Ashton, Lady Dunn,” she regarded us as Baron Merle Carson joined his wife, wine in hand.

  “Lady Carson, you look stunning,” I commented before kissing her hand. She marveled at my mechanical arm, but didn’t ask to examine it closer.

  “Oh thank you, dear,” she said. “I hear both of you are training to become Inquisitors alongside Baron Zaris. That’s some great ambition and a great responsibility.”

  Baron Carson moved his wine to his left hand, and I shook his right. Merle Carson looked somewhat cramped in the suit, his stocky and muscled frame stretching the fabric. “Quite the responsibility indeed,” Merle said as he looked at us. He kissed Mary’s hand and complimented her dress and the gun she wore on her waist sash.

  “I see you two are involved romantically,” Lady Janet said with a wide smile. “It’s just wonderful.”

  “The young Baron is quite the lady’s man,” Merle commented. “I used to be quite the lady’s man myself before I started losing my hair.” He pointed at his balding head and laughed.

  “You still are, Baron,” Janet said before leaning in and kissing him on the cheek. We all laughed then separated as we were instructed to go to our respective doors for the commencement ceremony. I gave Mary one last nervous smile and kiss before waiting by my newly installed door. I caught a glimpse of Jared Telson on the way in. His appearance shocked me. He looked to be about twenty, but he was bald. He wore a white suit which wasn’t much paler than his chalky skin. Deep purple circles hung under his tired, dull eyes, and thick lines of scars on the back of his head made him look frightening. He stared at me as I passed, calculating.

  The announcer started calling the houses into the Great Hall. We were minutes away from the explosion that would cut the power and signal our window of opportunity. We had studied the layout of the house and felt confident in my ability to navigate Mary to the study. As far as we knew, Infinitum didn’t know what was going to happen, but we had to assume it was suspicious, and this might not be as easy as it looked on paper.

  The announcer began call the houses from within the dining hall. “House Aera. House Ashton.” I walked inside, staring at the surroundings of the hall. It looked just as it had before. Mary gave me an intent nod as I took my place, Colton Adrihel shook my hand, pleased to see me. “House Brae, House Carson. House Gareth. House Kai. House Kasra. House Orin. House Rylan. House Sylas. House Windhelm. House Zaris. And the soon to be House Telson,” the voice called.

  Jared Telson walked in and the room erupted into applause. My heart pounded in my chest; my body shook and tensed as I awaited what was about to happen. Colton Adrihel moved forward to speak when the massive explosion rippled through the building. A deafening blast wave followed by a harsh after-shock erupted from somewhere below, and the whole building seemed to move. People were screaming, but the sound was muffled by a sharp ringing sound. I felt a firm hand grab my arm and drag me away as the lights blacked out, encasing the room in the blanket of darkness and the panic of the unknown. By the time Mary had pulled me out of the room and into the main hallway, I regained my composure.

  Mary activated her Nexweave and covered her skin in a thin layer of blue, gray, and black cloth that melded with the shadows.

  “Come on,” she hissed.

  I focused and fought back the panic and indecisiveness, willing the Nexweave to conceal me as well. We ran down the dark hallway, Mary following me closely, trusting my memory to guide us to the office. Screams echoed behind us as people tried to figure out what was going on.

  The house robots in the hall all had flashing red lights indicating they were rebooting into local mode. The explosion worked. Marwin said we’d have five minutes, but time was ticking. Once we passed the area where everyone had been congregating, we drew our R78s and flipped on the LED lights which helped guide us down the hall. There were guard robots everywhere, standing like statues, slowly rebooting to defend the household against our attack.

 
Marwin was already at work in the study by the time we got there, trying to cut through the round plate which concealed the physical drives that contained the information we needed. Marwin cursed as the fusion torch started to overheat, liquid metal pooling on the surface of the flame. Mary and I joined him and tried to cut through the strong metal as well, but it was no use.

  “We’re running out of time!” I called in a low whisper.

  Marwin cursed again and started slashing away with a Hellfire Blade. I spotted the console a second later and moved to it. It wasn’t password protected in a traditional sense, it possessed neuro connectors like that used in the Collection Parlors. It was wired to some sort of battery, and still had power.

  “Jake, don’t!” Mary shouted as she grabbed my outstretched hand.

  “I might be able to open it,” I said.

  “It’s probably a trap,” she responded.

  “I can do it.”

  Something in my eyes must have told her to trust me, and she let go and nodded. “Just hurry!”

  I focused my mind and layered away everything I knew before connecting to the system. Electricity surged through my head and pulled me into a deep projection.

  I was standing on a grid of light, and there was a large swirling sphere in front of me. It looked like the node of a Paragon Thought. I walked across the plane and raised my hand to the sphere, touching the surface and feeling a jolt of energy course through my arm. I was pulled into a deeper projection, one without a physical essence. I had no sensation of feeling, but there were twisting shapes and flickering light surrounding me. Concentrating, I felt something in my head shift, and the circling fragments of light vanished. Walking forward, I approached a handle on the wall. I pulled it and felt my mind release from the projection. I opened my eyes and returned to the physical world; the vault was unlocked.

  “What did you do?” Mary asked.

  “I don’t know, but it worked.”

  Marwin was plugging cables into the exposed drives containing the source code and project details of the Absolute Knowledge project. They were large, armored boxes, designed to preserve the project from electromagnetic pulses or physical harm.

  “Shit!” Marwin yelled. “I didn’t even think about the power issue; these drives are too large to run on the power from my datapad.”

  I flipped up the panel of my arm and attached the USB cable to an empty port. The drives hummed to life, and Marwin began the data transfer, a staggering twenty-five petabytes worth of information.

  “Nice thinking, Jake.”

  There was a heavy thud on the door as something tried to get into the office.

  “Don’t move, Jake,” Marwin whispered as he rushed to the door, placing his blade between the heavy metal handles of the door before activating the blade. Thin billows of smoke dissipated from the handles as the brass paint melted and the blade welded itself to the metal frame. “That should hold them for a while.” Marwin returned to my side and checked the status of the download: 25%.

  Mary had her weapon ready, prepared to shoot who or whatever was trying to get in. The pounding on the door continued as the data continued to transfer at a painfully slow rate.

  “Hurry up!” Mary hissed, pacing back and forth but keeping her weapon trained. There were flashes of light outside of the window as Enforcer Dropships circled the premises. “Enforcers are already here!”

  “Mary, just be ready to leave quickly. We’re changing the plan.”

  I could hear screaming from outside the door followed by the distinct sound of shooting. Enforcers were inside and shooting at the study’s door, trying to break it down. More ships were circling the outside of the building, shining blinding spotlights to find intruders.

  The door to the study somehow managed to hold until the download finished, and Marwin moved the datapad into his jacket pocket. Marwin activated the edge of his blade and jabbed the weapon into the plaster wall. Instantly the wall ignited, and the fire began to spread. He took another one of Infinitum’s blades and ignited it on the floor on top of all the equipment we had used including our Nexweave. “Let’s go!” he shouted, leading us to the back of the study.

  Marwin raised a badge and scanned it on a small, hidden sensor along one of the back bookshelves, and the shelf slid open, revealing a passage of stairs leading down into darkness. Holding his weapon, Marwin led us down the stairs into the cramped tunnel and sealed the door behind us. He flipped on the light on his weapon, and we began sprinting through the narrow passageway, trying to get as far away from the study as possible. We emerged from the passage in the main hall where swarms of Enforcers paced around, weapons raised.

  We started moving forward when they approached, their weapons trained on us. I started to turn to run, but Marwin grabbed my arm with a firm grip, rooting me in place. “Everything is under control,” he whispered. “All part of the plan. Stay calm.” Marwin raised his voice so Mary could hear as well. “Holster your weapons. We don’t want any trouble.”

  The Enforcers surrounded us, their rifles remaining on us. The leader moved forward. “We have reason to suspect you three for the attack and theft of confidential information,” it said objectively.

  “That’s absurd. My deputies and I moved to intercept the terrorists when the attack happened, as is our duty,” Marwin said.

  Colton Adrihel rushed through the dining hall doors, escorted by two Enforcers. “Marwin? What’s the meaning of this? I’m told you’re suspected for this attack,” he fumed.

  “Nonsense, sir. We were trying to catch the intruders.”

  “Supreme Leader, we should search them,” the Enforcer said to Colton Adrihel.

  Colton paced back and forth, looking conflicted. “Lower your damn weapons,” he said to the Enforcers that complied with the order. “I can’t take risks. I’m told my study was broken into, that someone accessed the Omniscience Engine backup directives. Since the intruders have yet to be caught, I’m going to have you searched, just to be thorough.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Marwin asked.

  “It is. I don’t care who you are. I don’t understand why you’d automatically rush to my study leaving us unprotected in the Great Hall.”

  Enforcers stepped forward and patted us down, pulling the datapad from Marwin’s jacket and attempting to access it. My heart pounded in my chest as it accessed the device.

  “No encryption,” it said as it plugged a cable into USB slot on the bottom, accessing the drives directly. “It’s clean, sir,” the robot said to Colton.

  “As I said, this isn’t necessary. My deputies and I need to plan our next steps as we look for the terrorists. The bomb was a deliberate diversion to stage this theft. There’s no telling what danger they will pose to the Absolute Knowledge project with those directives.”

  “Stand down,” Colton said to the Enforcers. “Inquisitor Zaris, Baron Ashton, and Lady Dunn are cleared as suspects.”

  The robots broke up their surrounding circle and moved away from us.

  “We’ll find who did this,” Marwin said. “In the meantime, don’t let anyone leave while the Enforcers work.” Marwin led Mary and me to the landing platform where his ship was waiting.

  We boarded the ship and strapped ourselves into the seats while the engines ignited. “Fly us to House Zaris!” Marwin shouted to the pilot robot over the roar of the engines.

  As the ship took off, there was a flash of red light followed by the howl of emergency sirens from within the cockpit.

  8 CRASH

  “Something has engaged a missile lock on us, sir,” the pilot robot said. The ship revved up and took off from the platform much too fast, causing me to sink back into my seat and brace against the force.

  “Get us out of here!” Marwin yelled, grabbing the seat in front of him and pulling himself closer to the pilot.

  The lights on the pilot’s head turned off, and the robot’s head sunk down—lifeless. In the heat of the moment, none of us had thought to manually
fly the transport ship; it was a mistake that could kill us.

  “Shit. Hold on!” Marwin said as he unbuckled himself from the chair. The power to the engines cut, and the ship lurched backward before beginning a freefall. The lights and sirens still alerted us of the missile lock, and I saw a small burning ball of light in the distance, illuminating the night sky and zooming closer. Marwin pulled himself through the small gap in the window and scrambled to unlatch the robot’s harness. Finally, he threw the robot out of the way and strapped himself in before kicking on the thrusters and pulling the ship out of the dive only several feet away from the landing platform of House Adrihel. My vision blurred as Marwin executed the maneuver, and the breath was sucked from my lungs.

  The engines whined in protest as he pushed them to the limit, accelerating away from House Adrihel and toward the center of Olympus. The glowing ball in the distance was getting closer, and the sirens continued to blare. Marwin pulled into a vertical climb and the ship stalled out, cutting the power to the engines and letting the ship’s natural weight pull it back down into a nosedive. We were diving straight toward the tunneling that led away from Olympus and into the Mids. As we fell, Marwin punched the engines, and I was pushed back into my seat, screaming as we hurtled downward.

  We passed through the narrow tunnel that separated the two layers, shattering through the energy barriers that kept the air from below out of Olympus. The ship jolted and sent pain through my body, but Marwin remained in control of the aircraft. Black spots seared my vision as we continued to accelerate, plummeting toward the Mids. Something was wrong. None of the lights in the Mids were on; it was all dark. Marwin flipped on the powerful floodlights, but they had little effect on the drowning darkness.

  Just as Marwin started to level out the ship to avoid the tallest of buildings, the missile struck. My ears popped as the cabin depressurized, and fragments of the ship were torn off from the explosion. The emergency sirens were drowned out by the howl of wind flooding the ship’s cabin. Mary was screaming something, but I couldn’t make out her words. The ship staggered forward and struck the edge of a building, sending more debris cratering toward the ground. The ship dove forward again, and the cabin started filling with smoke. I tried to catch my breath, but instead took in a mouthful of burning, acrid smoke. Choking, I focused on trying to stay alive.