by Jacob Whaler
Ryzaard turns his full attention to Diego. “Tell me.”
Nodding, Diego brings up the image of a man in his mid-fifties, gray hair, haggard face and dark tanned skin stretched over a bony face. Missing his right arm. “Our people just found this guy shouting obscenities about The Finder down in Times Square, and he was happy to talk. Said he’s been to see The Finder somewhere in the Great Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee. Apparently he trekked there to hear precious words of wisdom and wasn’t much impressed. Just some hokey stuff about dreams and visions. Warnings about masses worshipping blindly at shrines across the world. All The Finder really had to say was to stay away from Shinto. Those were his exact words. Avoid Shinto.”
“Sounds harmless.” Kalani uncrosses and crosses his ankles on the edge of the table. “At least he doesn’t have an army.”
“I’m not surprised,” Ryzaard says. “Weakness breeds weakness. When did the man last see The Finder?”
“Ten days ago,” Diego says. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. The Finder moves around a lot, but he may still be there.”
Ryzaard puts out his cigarette on the table and forms his fingers into a steeple, clothes flashing red. “Perhaps.” He turns to Jing-wei. “Send some troops and attack ships to the last known location. Nothing too heavy or obvious. Just enough to apply pressure. It will be a good way to test the new hardware we’ve acquired.”
“Got it.” Jing-wei’s fingers bounce across her slate. “I’m sending two ships from a base near Knoxville. They should get there in the next ten minutes.”
“Does anyone else have anything to share?” Ryzaard’s eyes drift past Jing-wei to Kalani. “Nothing at all?”
“Well,” Kalani says. “I’ve had some ideas about our problem with raising funds to support the spread of Shinto and keep up with our growth and expenses. From what I’ve heard, we need a whole lot more than our current financial arrangements are able to generate.” He leans back in his chair and lets his eyes roll past Elsa, sitting next to him. “Besides, what we just heard about the new betting scenario doesn’t sound very promising, to tell the truth.”
“What do you mean?” Elsa glares at Kalani. “It’s going to work brilliantly.”
“Let’s hope so.” His eyes move back to Jing-wei. “But just in case it doesn’t, we’ve come up with an idea that doesn’t depend on people coming to us.”
Elsa drops her head down to her palms, elbows on the table. “Can’t wait to hear about it.”
“I’ll let you do the honors.” Kalani turns to Jing-wei on his right, followed by all eyes in the room.
She drops her hands to the table. “We asked ourselves a simple question. Where does the money flow? I’m not talking about where the money sits. Static bank accounts and asset values of the rich and powerful aren’t much help to us. I’m more interested in movement.”
Jing-wei’s eyes are met by blank stares around the table.
“I’ll give you a hint,” she says. “Mesh transactions.”
“Are you talking about the IMU Exchange?” Elsa brushes a lock of stray blonde hair out of her eyes. “The IMUX handles all Mesh transactions.” She sounds like she’s reciting lines from rote memory. “It’s administered by the United Nations. The nominal fees they receive go to support poverty eradication projects around the world. World commerce making its contribution.”
Picking up her slate, Jing-wei glances at Kalani. “That’s what we thought too. It’s the standard explanation you’ll get if you search the Mesh. But we wanted to see exactly how it worked, so we hacked the IMUX and got an anonymous look at its actual inner workings.”
As Jing-wei talks, Kalani becomes visibly excited. His fingers drum on the table top, and he twists back and forth in his chair, looking like a caged cat. Finally, he can’t hold back any longer.
“The thing is,” he says. “I discovered the IMUX was already hacked months ago. Remember that splinter group of cardinals excommunicated by the Vatican?”
Jerek speaks from across the table. “The New Communion?”
“Right. When they left the Church, they took more than enough assets to fund their organization. It was all over the Mesh at the time. Looks like they hired some hotshot Meshrunners to do their dirty work.”
Elsa lets out an audible sight. “Is there a point to all of this?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, there is.” Kalani’s fingers drop down to his side and wrap around the handle of his knife.
Blowing smoke across the table, Ryzaard clears his throat. “Then I suggest you get to it quickly. We all have multiple projects we’re working on. Time is short.”
Kalani coughs into his hand. “The New Communion found a way through the outer defenses of the IMUX and inserted a sophisticated skimming algorithm. The IMUX thinks it’s getting a full share of transaction fees. If they investigate and run a calculation, the numbers will check out. They never get suspicious, and the New Communion gets rich, very quickly. At least that’s the idea.”
Elsa sighs again. “And so—”
“And so we’re going to cut out the New Communion. Not all at once. We’ll work into their position slowly over the next few days, gently bleeding them. In a month, their trickle will run dry. By that time, I’ll have new encrypted security in place. They’ll never be able to get back in to see what happened.” Kalani relaxes his grip on the knife and puts both white palms up on the table. “With them out of the picture, we’ll increase our take until IMUX itself is completely cut out. A few strategic bribes should make sure no questions are asked. Then we start pulling from every transaction that passes through the Mesh.” He slowly turns to face Elsa. “Any questions?”
“Bravo,” she says.
Ryzaard turns to face Jing-wei. “Have the attack ships arrived at the location in the Smokey Mountains?”
“Just getting there.” Jing-wei glances down at her jax. “We should know in a few minutes if The Finder is still there.”
CHAPTER 7
“We have to leave soon.” Matt walks back up the hill to the campsite, hand in hand with Jessica. “The dreams won’t stop. I’ve seen bits and snatches of images. This camp destroyed. Somehow, I think he knows we’re here.”
“But you said he wouldn’t be able to detect your Stone anymore, even when you’re using it.” Jessica squeezes his hand hard and stops. “We’ve only been here a couple of weeks. It’s so beautiful. And we’re safely away from any nuclear fallout. I’d hate to leave already.”
Matt peels his eyes away from Jessica and bends down. A red twig catches his eye, and he picks it up off the soft forest floor. “Don’t worry. I’m right about the Stone. Once it’s bonded with a Holder, an energy field of microscopic filaments flows out from it. That’s what Ryzaard’s instruments are detecting. I’m not a physicist and can’t explain it, but I can bend the field around the Stone, like a protective shell. Exactly the same way the cloaking box works.” He snaps the twig in half between his fingers and stands. “It’s not easy, but it seals the Stone off from the outside. As long as I concentrate on it, the Stone will be hidden from Ryzaard.”
As he speaks, a column of fire as thick as a tree trunk shoots down out of the sky, breaks through the forest canopy and slams into the ground twenty meters downhill. It strikes a cluster of tents on the hillside. All of them, and the trees around them, instantly burst into flames.
Screams float up from the meeting place further down the mountain.
“It’s Ryzaard.” Matt wraps his arms around Jessica and pulls her down to her knees. “Where’s Yarah?”
“She said she was going to play up on the ridge.” Jessica gets a horrified look in her eyes. “The trees get thin up there. Yarah will be exposed.” She pivots, slinging the pulse rifle off her shoulder and pointing it up to the sky.
They both see them through the leaves. The outlines of two large transports float a hundred feet above the top of the canopy. They have no rotors or any other visible moving parts on the outside and hang in the a
ir as silent as a soaring hawk.
Jessica brings the rifle up to her eyes. “No noise. How’s that possible?” Her thumb clicks off the safety as her finger stretches out and finds the trigger.
“No!” Matt gently pushes the barrel of the rifle to the ground. “Don’t use it. It’ll only give away your position. The EM lasers may be set to auto-target any weapons.”
Another solid pillar of fire drops down on a pile of equipment near the tents. A series of small explosions jump up as generators and batteries burst into flames.
The ground shakes under their feet.
Matt puts his mouth to Jessica’s ear. “Get to the caves as fast as you can. I’ll find Yarah and meet you there.” He jumps to his feet and starts to run uphill.
“Wait,” Jessica says. “I’m coming with you.”
“I can’t let you take that chance.” Matt drops to his knees in front of her, his eyes traveling up to meet her face. “I’ll be careful. Please, Jess, just get to the caves.”
She rests her hands on top of his, and turns, looking downhill at the destroyed camp, now completely engulfed in flames. Then she turns back and slings the rifle onto her shoulder. As Matt stands, she grabs his neck and pulls him close so their foreheads are touching.
Her eyes stare into his.
“Five minutes, Matt,” Jessica says. “If you aren’t at the caves in five minutes, I’m coming after you.” She bolts on a horizontal line that takes her straight across the hill away from the camp.
Matt watches until he sees her duck and disappear into the mountain.
Screams come up the hill from the meeting area where the Children were gathered.
Slipping the Stone from his pocket, Matt lets his eyes close and drops into the darkness behind his lids.
Yarah, where are you?
He hears the reply in his mind, like an echo inside a closed room. “Up on the ridge. I see them. Two ships shooting out fire.”
Come down as fast as you can and get to the caves with Jessica.
“But what about the Children?”
I’m heading to them now. Get to the caves!
Matt opens his eyes and sprints downhill past moss-covered trunks, glancing up through openings in the trees at the ships above. On the way, he presses the spot on his sternum that activates the skin armor. In a few seconds, it flows over his body, turning him blue.
Bolts of lightning sizzle through the air, raining down around him onto random pieces of camp equipment scattered around the forest.
Yarah, I need your help, Matt thinks.
“I’m here.” The little girl’s voice is just a whisper in Matt’s brain. “Almost to the caves.”
Are there any crew members in the ships? Can you tell?
“It’s hard without my Stone. Just a minute. Let me try to find their minds.”
A sudden burst of heat spreads out above him. Looking up, he is squarely under the belly of a transport. The trees almost open up as a long tube of fire descends. Engulfed in the flames, he drops to the ground as the pain spreads evenly over his skin, momentarily crippling him.
A scream rips through his mind.
Yarah?
“Sorry.” Her voice breaks into a sob. “I felt it too. Are you OK?”
It’s just a sensation. No damage.
As the pain recedes, Matt stands. His clothes hang in shreds on his body. Reaching down, he picks the Stone up off the forest floor.
“I can sense thinking in the ships,” Yarah says. “I heard what they’re doing. Something about switching from targeting metal to bio-sensors.” Her voice grows frantic. “They’re moving over the Children.”
“OK,” Matt says. “So the ships have a human crew. I’m not going to blow them up and commit murder. There has to be another way.”
He stops ten meters from the group of old and young, milling around in the trees, overtaken by utter confusion and bewilderment. The shadow of a transport hangs in the sky directly above. The other transport begins to slip into position alongside it, like two whales swimming together.
A young man breaks from the crowd and runs downhill past a fallen log and between two upright tree trunks. As he stumbles, an arc of blue lightning shoots down from the sky and pierces his back. His arms fly above his head, and he twists to one side. A red line streaks the front of his T-shirt before it rips open in a crimson explosion.
“They’ve already counted the bodies, all two hundred of them. They’re going to kill them all.” Yarah screams into Matt’s mind. “You have to do something. Now!”
Gripping the Stone in his hand, Matt looks up at the ships floating above the trees. Nothing about their outward appearance has changed, but in the space of a few seconds they’ve taken on the aspect of ravenous sharks, hovering over their prey, pausing just before the kill.
Damn you, Ryzaard.
Raising his Stone, Matt points it skyward. As it glows white as the sun, a jagged beam of blue energy leaps out and up. Just before it reaches the ships, it forks into two and makes contact with each transport. Radiating out from the points of impact, organic veins of blue energy crawl across the surface of each ship, like a sudden growth of kudzu vines. The stench of ozone pierces the air, accompanied by the sizzle-pop of dancing arcs of energy between the ships.
The outer hulls of the transports glow light purple. A quiet hum emanates from deep inside their metal skins.
And then it stops.
The Children stare up in expectation.
A single halo of light engulfs the ships. It closes in on them, and then bursts out in a blinding ring.
Only Matt is able to keep his eyes open. As he looks up, the ships dissolve away. Steel, glass and silicon, anything without DNA in its chemical makeup, disintegrates into black sand and drops through the forest canopy to the ground.
Twenty soldiers plummet into the trees below, without weapons and naked except for a few rags of cotton fiber still clinging to their bodies.
The Children stare in amazement at the men lying on the ground among them, or hanging from trees, most of them dazed and confused, many moaning from broken bones.
Some of the young men among the Children reach for clubs or knives.
“Do not harm them.” Matt walks down the hill. “They’re only instruments in the hands of another. Their comrades will soon follow and minister to their needs. All of us must leave this place now. Gather what’s left of your gear and follow me.”
CHAPTER 8
Diego’s slate glows blue. At the same time, a 3D holo of a Stone appears above it directly in front of his face. The next instant, a globe of the earth materializes in the air, floating just above the table.
“Location algorithm confirms a positive hit.” The synthetic female voice speaks warmly. A single red dot stands out on the eastern half of the United States. The globe morphs into a map showing the outline of states. It zooms in on the area around the red dot.
Diego grabs his slate. “We found him. Eastern Tennessee.” He turns to Jing-wei. “Two troopships are already there and engaging the target.”
A small red holo of a rotating skull and crossbones jumps above Jing-wei’s slate. Her eyes close.
“Can’t be.”
“What happened?” Kalani is the first to react. He lunges at her slate, almost falling from his chair.
Jing-wei looks up. “I don’t understand. It says the two transports are gone. Vanished from our tracking algorithm. All attempts at communication are negative.” Her gaze sweeps the table, stopping at Ryzaard.
“Location algorithm failed.” The syn-voice expresses no emotion as the map holo fades away.
“Sounds like we found him, if only for a moment.” Ryzaard leans forward. “He must have shot down the ships. Let’s have a visual of the area. I’d like to see the wreckage.”
Diego grabs his slate. “No problem.” With a few swipes and taps of his fingers, a holo image of a pristine mountainside pops into view above the crystal table. Green treetops flutter in a slight breeze.
Ryzaard’s eyes narrow. “Are you sure this is the exact location of the transports?”
“Positive.” Diego brushes his fingers across the slate. “There’s something moving under the trees. Switching to heat sensor mode.”
As the view changes, the red outline of twenty human bodies, unclothed and squirming, fills the holo. It makes Ryzaard think of chromosomes wriggling in a cell under a microscope.
“Where’s all the wreckage?” Ryzaard says. “And their weapons?”
Elsa laughs loudly. “Where are their clothes?”
“I’m getting no readings for anything made of metal.” Diego stares down at his slate. “Other than local rocks and scattered camping equipment, there’s nothing but organic material for a hundred meters around them. How is that possible?”
Ryzaard stands. “Don’t be alarmed. It’s clear he used his Stone to disintegrate anything metallic. Simple, if you know how to do it. You see his great weakness, don’t you? He’s afraid to kill. Send more troops. Comb the area and gather all the intel you can.” He walks back to his office, letting his eyes once more scan through all the glass layers of the building. “Meeting adjourned. Everyone back to work.”
CHAPTER 9
“That’s the last one,” Jessica says.
Matt watches as a woman in her mid-forties shoulders a small backpack and slips out of the opening. She descends in darkness down the mountainside and into the trees. A wide valley opens up under a brilliant canopy of stars.
“Hopefully, spacing them out does the trick.” Matt leans his back against a rock and stretches his arms. “Before she left, Alexa said Ryzaard probably wouldn’t waste any effort on pursuing individual hikers. He wants more high-value targets.”
Jessica drops her head onto Matt’s shoulder. “Like you and me?”
“Or large groups of the Children.” Matt looks at the sleeping form of Yarah curled up in a blanket between them. “Imagine what he would give to get his hands on her. But don’t worry. I won’t make the same mistake again. I’m not going to lose Yarah like . . .”