d4

by Sherrie Cronin

  “Our efforts help,” Cillian assured his friends. “I’ve seen no way to keep this critter from evolving, but there are ways in which far less people have to die. There are paths that provide a much better world for those who do survive. I’ve seen, I’ve sensed the odds of these improvements inch upwards even in a short time as both Siarnaq and I are now able to better understand what it is we are doing. Yes, of course, I’m looking into new ideas. And yes, of course, I’ll listen to every great approach that each of you has no doubt thought of while I’ve been telling you this. But later. Given that this is a party, and given the unforeseen twist to my personal situation, I’d like to move the focus tonight to enjoying ourselves. Any business that gets discussed should center on the more upbeat topics of how to build the biggest nest egg before common sense dictates that Baldur must be stopped.”

  “Many of us can give updates on that,” Brendan offered. He turned first to Ariel.

  Ariel told those she hadn’t yet spoken with of her quasi-abduction to Iceland, and the lack of harm that had come to her as Baldur proposed a working relationship.

  “His proposal is basically extortion,” she shrugged, and she explained that Baldur was promising to ensure that her boyfriend’s space project didn’t “catch on fire” as long as his girlfriend provided one day a month of “financial consulting” to d4 and as long as she and Mikkel never made more than one percent of what Baldur made from the “consultation.”

  “That is excellent!” Brendan couldn’t contain his enthusiasm.

  “I didn’t think that one percent was nearly enough,” Ariel said.

  “You don’t understand,” Brendan added. “Baldur is hiding his income all over the place, and we are having trouble tracking just how much the man is now worth. He may not tell you about everything he has tucked away, but in order to hold you to one percent, he’s going to have to come clean with you about a good bit of the money he makes so that you can calculate your take. Expect him to cheat of course, but if you pay attention, you may be able to learn more while you’re there.”

  “Wait. That’s the other good news.” With everything else that was going on, Ariel had forgotten that Cillian and Nell didn’t know the best part. “This mind-melding of visions thing seems to only work for Baldur if we’re both conscious and engaged in what is happening. He doesn’t just need me there, he needs me to be mentally involved.”

  “This keeps getting better,” Jake said. “Now he has to treat you reasonably well, and keep you in the know.”

  “Which brings me to the news of exactly what Baldur does have in mind for Ariel sooner or later,” Eoin said. “As some of you know, Baldur is in the habit of viewing me as his pet, and he falls easily into his old behavior. He may not play well with others, but he likes boasting to them. He’s called me three times this past week to brag about how well he is doing.”

  “So that’s why you’re always on the phone when I try to talk to you,” Ronan said.

  “Yeah, well, yesterday I got to listen to a rather embarrassing recitation of Ariel’s’ various charms, physical and mental, and hear how Baldur was considering, just considering mind you, requiring that she break up with her space boyfriend in a few months in order to clear the way for her to realize what a team she and he would make. He did refer to you two as a team, Ariel—that is something.”

  “It’s not like Baldur to take on a partner,” Jake said. “I’m pretty sure that he would never have trained the rest of d4 if he thought he could have done this alone. He needed their cash and their skills to get started, but now that he’s up and going he’s doing his best to move them all into the background. Since he’s found Ariel, he is going to need them less and less. I wonder what his plans are for them? It wouldn’t surprise me if those plans are not what they are expecting.”

  “That is a good point,” Eoin said. “Baldur reminded me that he wouldn’t be needing Ullow or be doing any high frequency trading once this option investing with Ariel was firmly in place, and he told me that I needed to be thinking about my own future. He was feeling quite magnanimous. He said that d4 would dissolve, once he got done cleaning up the regulations. I assume he thinks that he will be able to put laws in place that will ensure that his old colleagues no longer have any kind of advantage.”

  “It does beat killing them all,” Brendan said.

  “It’s less messy for Baldur,” Jake pointed out. “Plus it means he doesn’t have to play whack-a-mole every time someone who can see a few seconds ahead figures out they can use their gift to play the stock market. Regulations are more efficient. He got to bend the rules to make his, and now he closes the door behind him to ensure that no one else can do the same.”

  “So what does he have in mind for me?” Ariel was having trouble sitting calmly through this discussion.

  “I got the idea that he is thinking he’s going to marry you eventually,” Eoin said. “He thinks that his wealth is going to make him irresistible to anyone, including you, and he’ll sort of make you his queen, so to speak, and the two of you will happily run the world. I’m sure he expects you to be no trouble at all, which of course shows how very little he really knows you.” Eoin gave her a friendly wink.

  “Oh for christsakes,” Ariel muttered.

  “Have you seen any futures for yourself with Baldur?” Cillian asked. “It’s okay if you have. All possibilities are out there.”

  Ariel nodded. “I know that. There is always odd stuff on the fringes of probability.” She shrugged to the group. “Don’t get alarmed but I’ve seen flashes of aliens landing in New York and clones of Hitler rising to power when I’ve let myself go far enough. That’s why I generally avoid the edges, they’re disturbing and ridiculously unlikely. However, I do check the less fringy fringe. So while mostly I just see me cooperating with Baldur again in late November, I should tell you that I’ve seen him kill me. I’ve seen me kill him. I’ve seen me lose myself and become just what he wants. None of that’s likely, but it’s all there.”

  Cillian nodded in understanding. “Don’t let Ariel’s honesty disturb you,” he told the group. “What she just described is how real prescience works.” He asked Ariel to call him if she saw any of the more disturbing scenarios increase in likelihood.

  Then he turned to Nell, and asked her to give an update. She spoke in vague terms about her last visit with Hulda, assuring the others that their inside asset remained loyal.

  “She’d figured out more than we expected,” Nell said, adding that Hulda was now a little more informed than Nell had intended. Ariel noticed Nell glancing at Cillian apologetically while she talked, and Ariel guessed that Nell had revealed more to Hulda than Cillian had wanted. Perhaps she had told Hulda far more than she should have.

  “No harm’s been done,” Brendan told the group firmly, defending both of the women. “Hulda can be trusted.”

  “We do owe Hulda a safe exit when this is over, somewhere Baldur’s anger cannot follow,” Cillian said, and Ariel noticed the relief on Nell’s face and hoped, for her friend’s sake, that the safe place would be somewhere near Nell.

  Brendan and Jake updated the group on their various strategies for selecting which and how many of Baldur’s trades to copy. Besides Mikkel’s account, there was now a tiny one that Ariel had opened for herself that Fergus and Ronan would manage. It was expected that Baldur could and would find ways to monitor them, and a lack of activity would be suspicious. They needed to appear to be doing what Baldur expected, no more and no less.

  Brendan and Jake had been hard at work setting up hundreds of additional accounts the world over and funding each inconspicuously. The goal was to grow each quickly and in secret, amassing the tipping point money Mikkel had decided was possible to acquire by early 2013. When it looked like they might still fall short only because they couldn’t create enough places to hide the funds, Ronan and Fergus had received field training and moved into the shadowy world of hiding wealth as well.

  “Once the January 2013
options expire,” Fergus said with confidence, “we will consolidate and legitimatize most of these accounts, and then we’ll give Toby’s group the go-ahead. At that point Mikkel and Cillian should be able to continue to do what they need to do without any connection to Baldur. Some of Toby’s information will be slightly outdated by then, but Baldur’s infractions with HFT should be no less compelling for having happened several months ago. By the time various government agencies also find his options activity suspicious, we hope to have clean, secure places for Mikkel and Cillian to keep their entire purses.”

  “It’s a bit of a dangerous game,” Cillian said. “Ariel, do you get anything helpful?”

  She shook her head. “Not about money, I don’t. I get a flash of Mikkel in maybe a couple of months, feeling happy about how much he has stashed, sort of knowing it’s good enough. Better than even odds it happens, actually, but that’s all I premember about it. I’ll tell you if I can precall more later.”

  “Okay then.” Cillian gave a sad smile. “Brandy in front of the fire. Peat of course. Toasts are in order.”

  Once they were seated, Eoin raised his glass first. “This is one of my favorites: ‘May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.’ Looking around, Cillian, I have to say that I don’t think the problem here is that you need any more friends.”

  Their host laughed in appreciation. “I agree. Seven good true friends are more than any man has a right to ask for. Thank you Eoin. I get your toast and it is wise. I do need a smaller house.”

  With that, the liquor went down smoothly and the toasts flowed freely into the wee hours of the night.

  “I have unfinished business,” Ariel told Eoin as she marched into his office the next morning. “I need to go to Nuuk.”

  “Really?” Eoin said. “There is some reason why Mikkel can’t come here?”

  “This isn’t about Mikkel. This is about Siarnaq, Mikkel’s cousin, the other man who sees the future like Cillian does. He needs to talk to me.”

  “You?” Eoin rolled his eyes. “Could you please close the door?” Ariel complied and Eoin gestured for her to have a seat.

  “How do you come to know Siarnaq, Cillian’s other seer, and why in the world does he need to visit with you?”

  “He needs to touch me, Eoin, not visit with me. We’ve, uh, touched before. You could do me a favor and keep that in this room but the fact is that Siarnaq and I can do some variation of what Siarnaq and Cillian did. In fact, I’m the reason that Cillian thought of trying it. Touch is different for us—I can’t explain why—but it’s a way to learn, a way to see beyond our normal frequencies.”

  “God bless us all, I must have gone totally crazy,” Eoin said. “You’re not only making sense to me, I even believe you. So, you want me to send you off to Nuuk in the dead of winter so you can hug an Eskimo and learn more about what’s in store for us?”

  “No one says Eskimo any more,” Ariel pointed out gently.

  “Whatever. Can you write me up any sort of plausible business reason?”

  “Of course I can,” Ariel said cheerfully. “We all know that the shit is going to hit the fan in this office soon. Your signing off on a trip like this is going to be the least of anybody’s problems.”

  “I believe that too,” Eoin said. “So go, do whatever it is you need to do. Don’t give me details. Then I won’t have to worry about not passing them along to others. Hurry back. Even I can see the shit storm coming.”

  The only way to get from Dublin to Nuuk once summer was over was to first fly to Oslo, then on to Reykjavik, the last city on Earth that Ariel wanted to visit. Worse yet, her flight landed on time at both of her first two destinations, only to strand her in Iceland due to weather.

  She fretted and dozed at the Reykjavik airport for more than five hours before her small plane finally took off into a cloud-filled night, with pockets of slightly warmer air causing it to bounce around mercilessly. Ariel turned on her trusty music, only to find herself listening to the old indie song “Love like Winter” by the San Francisco group AFI. It was good music, but it made her shiver in her seat as she held on tight to her armrest. She forced herself to search for a happy future premory, anything that would assure her that she would be alive in a week or two and need not worry.

  Some of the far fringes returned nothing but blackness, and Ariel realized with a sinking feeling that those were futures in which she had ceased to exist. Very faint, unlikely, but planes did go down in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, and if you considered everything, then that future without her was there.

  She quickly sought out the far more likely. She saw herself helping Baldur in a few weeks, feeding him what he needed to put his own plans in place. Odds were that it would go as expected and that was good. Wait. There was a whole family of futures in which Baldur and she were arguing as he tried to work. She felt her own anger that he knew. Knew what? Indignation. She would never. Never what?

  The plane gave a particularly strong lurch and Ariel seriously thought about trying to locate an airsickness bag. Did they still make those?

  She saw a smaller subset of futures branch off from the unknown argument, and in those Cillian came charging into Baldur’s workroom. Cillian? He never went anywhere. What was he doing in Iceland? The plane lurched again and Ariel rose several inches out of her seat and concentrated on reciting multiplication tables in her head instead. If she got to Nuuk the next minute it wouldn’t be soon enough. By the time the plane hit the runway the premories she had been considering had faded like the memory of a bad dream, leaving her with a vague befuddled feeling.

  The Siarnaq who met her plane seemed older. He gave her a long hug through his parka and hers, with all the insulation between them sufficient to buffer any exchange they might have had on a summer day. She had learned that his home was in Ilulissat, but he had relatives in Nuuk and normally stayed with them when he was in town. Not this time though, and he preferred not to go to the hotel. A friend of a friend had offered them his small apartment on the edge of town for the night, and that would have to do.

  As they drove away from the town’s lights, the aurora borealis began to put on a show. Often an undulating green curtain, tonight the northern lights reached high into the sky with the greens fading into blues, purples, pinks and reds and the curtain movements slowly giving way to what looked like multicolored feathered wings filling the sky. Siarnaq smiled as Ariel stared out the car window with her mouth open, and he reached across the front seat and put his gloved hand over hers.

  Once they found the friend’s place, they stood together in the cold and watched the show until Ariel began to shiver. Inside the apartment, the scenery quickly deteriorated. Unfortunately, the friend of a friend did not excel at cleanliness, and as the two of them eyed each other awkwardly in the filthy little apartment, Siarnaq had to laugh.

  “All the times I imagined a reunion with you, sunset hair, it never involved somebody so incapable of using a broom and dustpan.”

  “It’s okay. You couldn’t have known.” Ariel shrugged. “I’ve missed you. I wish things had gone differently between us.”

  “Me too,” he said honestly, meaning it with all of his heart. “Maybe we can close our eyes and pretend we are still outside,” he offered.

  She nodded, and they sat together on the couch, just holding each other and remembering nature’s incredible show.

  The premories did not come for a while, maybe because her own emotions of the day were too strong, leaving her unwilling to give her consciousness over to those who would not be born for many generations. Finally, her thoughts stilled, and she began to see the world through the eyes of the others that made up Siarnaq’s premories of things to come.

  She watched their lives, felt their loves, cried their tears. Many lived before 2352 and some after. For those whose lives came after, there did seem to be more happiness involved this time around, she thought. She didn’t have Cillian’s knack for putting a number on it, but surely
that was a sign that things continued to go in the right direction.

  He seemed lost in her world, and several times he stroked her hair and mumbled things to her in a language she did not understand. They fell asleep that way, half-dressed and holding each other, lost in other lives.

  When she woke up he was gone, and there was a pot of fresh coffee and a note.

  “A bigger storm is coming. I’ve arranged a cab for you and moved your flights. You need to go. Fly safe, sunset hair, and stay safe in the winds ahead.”

  Oh. So this was all that was going to pass between them? Ariel was surprised at how disappointed she felt, but she had no desire to be stranded here or, worse yet, stuck in transit trying to get home. How like Siarnaq to help her out like this.

  As she made her way to the airport, she worked to recall the scenes she had witnessed the night before in his arms. Was there anything in there that could be of any use at all? She didn’t think so. Unless Siarnaq had seen something helpful as he moved into her wavelengths, this trip had been nothing but a chance to see an incredible light show, and a slightly pleasant waste of time.

  24. Autumn in London

  Hulda had been so careful at first, and yet when she started to help Murna, she had not been scared. Nervous maybe. It was true that if Baldur had caught her looking at documents she had no business handling or checking his schedule with no need, he could have become annoyed or even suspicious. At worst he would have fired her, and that would have been unpleasant but no worse. For the first year or so, no one could prove that she was guilty of more than being a nosy employee who talked too much to her new friend.

  Then Murna had started to teach her about using the tiny cameras and recording devices. They would be so much more help to the men who were trying to bring Baldur down. Hulda had been more nervous when she first hid them, turned them on, and passed their contents along. This might be illegal, and even if not, certainly no company in Reykjavik would hire a woman accused of using such against her employer. Murna had insisted this was important, begged Hulda to help, and after a while Hulda had given it a tentative try.