by Brandt Legg
Even the most intelligent of the guards weren’t sure what Drast was doing. They brought him encrypted messages and smuggled out his responses. They brought him in good food and helped him avoid the mandatory booster shots, but Drast remained a mystery to them. Whenever they discussed him among themselves, words like “complicated” and “confusing” were almost always used to describe the inmate known as Evren.
As Drast was escorted to the visitors’ room, he slipped a thread to a passing guard. A thread, the length of a wooden match and the diameter of angel hair pasta, could contain the equivalent of a terabyte of data. Osc, right beside him, didn’t even notice the exchange. Drast preferred to keep his minions as separate as possible.
Terik sat in an old-fashioned brown folding chair made from plantik. He nodded to Osc as Drast sat down. Osc took the cue and left the room. Knowing time was short, Terik sent a small VM from his INU toward Drast before he even said hello.
A generic female digital voice read the message. “Polis, I never dared imagine you had survived your unfortunate arrest. This is incredible news. I’m sure you understand that I must be certain it is actually you I am communicating with, so I have a question that will need to be answered before we continue.”
Terik spun his AOI pin while they listened. He didn’t know he was doing it, but Drast, a man who missed nothing, did. It could be an annoying habit, or it could be something else, he thought. Either way, the former AOI regional head didn’t like it.
The voice reading Chelle’s message continued, “There was a piece of information I gave to Bull the night before his death. I meant to provide the same data to Runit. Now, in light of all that has happened, with time running out, if you’re in a position to take the necessary action, the secret should be given to you. It is critical, if it is actually you who receives this message, that you respond. And please tell me if you already know that to which I refer.”
Drast smiled broadly, almost giggled. “Good work Ander, absolutely wonderful work.” He slapped the table as if to punctuate his enthusiasm for the message.
Terik was satisfied that Drast was so pleased. “Apparently you know to which she refers?”
“Oh yes,” he said, still smiling. “I most certainly do. Does she know who you are?”
“I gave her my name and AOI credentials.”
“Brave . . . aren’t you concerned she’ll try to blackmail you?”
“I don’t think she’ll risk losing the conduit to you, and I think she’s more worried about how the AOI got into her INU. In fact, I think she’s terrified. That’s one reason I’d like your response as quickly as possible. If she knows it’s really you, I think she’ll relax and not do anything crazy.”
“Chelle never does anything crazy,” he said, laughing again, giddy from her words.
“I’ve done my part. Are you going to give me the rest of what I need?”
“The books?”
“Of course, but I want everything.”
“Everything? You can’t handle everything.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re twenty-something, you’re already in far over your head, and I can’t believe you haven’t been caught.”
“I’m smarter than you think.”
“No, you’re not.” Drast finally stopped smiling. “You think a career in the AOI, rising through the ranks by any means necessary, will somehow bring you the power you crave?”
“It worked for you.”
“Did it?” Drast widened his eyes and looked around. “You’re playing a dangerous game, and my files would only make it more dangerous for you.”
“What if you die?”
“You mean what if they execute me?”
“One of the two is going to happen sooner or later. You’re not getting out of here except in a box.”
“Don’t have much faith in the rebels, do you?”
“Are they going to save you? Bust you out of here?”
“Maybe . . . The thing about being young is you think you know everything, but I’ve been working on this since before you were born, so imagine for a minute that I might have a few more bases covered than you give me credit for.” His scowl slowly formed back into a smile. “I’m the biggest traitor in the history of the Aylantik, yet I’m not dead. I’m not even doing time in the worst AOI prison in the world. They locked me up in my own damned region. They’ve gone to an awful lot of trouble to make sure I’m comfortable, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I outlive you. Why don’t you run those variables in your INU sometime? You might be shocked at the results.”
“What about the books?”
“Deliver my response to Chelle, and I’ll give you that information.”
“I want the books now.”
“I’m sure you do, but that’s not going to happen.”
Terik looked at Drast and realized he really was way out of his league. “Fine. What’s the message?”
“It’s a simple one. Three words. I love you.”
Chapter 40 - Book 2
Blaise sat with his knights around the clear, round table filled with electronics that gave the piece of “furniture” the power of one hundred thousand INUs. Each of his twenty-four lieutenants studied VMs floating in front of them. The mix of CHRUDEs and Imps processed a staggering array of information, including up-to-the-second AOI troop movements, thermal readings of forests around the world, and Mood-monitors.
The latter were massive programs that compiled each communication from every citizen of the world, and combined it with KEL footage which tracked public movements of the population to create a Mood-monitor showing, with alarming accuracy, the exact mood of an individual, segment of the population, or the entire world at any given minute.
Although the coming conflict had been largely hidden from the populace by strict Aylantik control of the media and the entire Field, there were clear indications in the moving wave presented by the Mood-monitor that people were “sensing” trouble. As the brilliant collection of intelligence gathered at the round table continued to grapple with what that revelation might mean to the outcome of the war, Blaise called the meeting to order with ominous words, “If we don’t begin the revolution soon, we will no longer be able to control the outcome.”
Morholt, one of the CHRUDEs, spoke first, as usual. “You can see by the Mood-monitor that in a matter of days, a small percentage of the population will begin to fear war. Within a few more days, that fear will spread into a firestorm until, in less than two weeks from now, preparations will be made with demands upon the government that will make it unstoppable.”
“The AOI doesn’t have enough troops to canvass all the areas where Grandyn has been sighted. They may burn the forests if they don’t find him soon,” Lucan the Butler, a particularly wiry Imp who never smiled, said, displaying a VM showing a simulation of out-of-control forest fires around the globe and the resulting destructive impact. “The damage to the environment would be devastating.”
“We have detected substantial buildups of AOI troops around the Amazon, Russia, and China Areas, and smaller, but still sizable ones, in Canada, India, and Australia Areas,” Galahad, another Imp, added. “They are spreading their forces very thin.”
“They aren’t just looking for Grandyn, but clearly he is their biggest fear. The AOI must know about the prophecies,” Blaise said.
“They could simply wait for PAWN or the Rejectionists to come out for a fight and take them out from the air, but sending in vast amounts of troops or burning forests are desperate measures in order to keep peace.”
“Yes,” Blaise answered.
“Why are they so afraid of war when they are so clearly superior to the rebels in every measure and capability?” Galahad asked.
“Because they know something,” Blaise said. “Lance Miner may not know what the prophecies say, but he knows enough of the Banoff secrets to be worried that they say too much. The population may be unarmed, but give two point nine billion people a reason, and they will
force change. That is what the Aylantik fears. It doesn’t matter how powerful the AOI is. If the masses turn on the government, it’s over.”
“The Aylantik has shown, since its inception, that they are not afraid to exterminate huge numbers of people who do not fit into their world view,” Bors, a CHRUDE, said. “Let’s not forget the power the Health Circle wields. In many ways they are far more powerful than the AOI.”
“Excellent point, Bors,” Blaise said. “And if I were a betting man . . . wait, I am a betting man. Well then, I would bet that it all comes down to the Health Circle and the List Keepers. Any luck Galahad?”
Galahad had been as obsessed as an Imp could be in finding a way to infiltrate the List Keepers shields, or “black holes,” as they were known, which were legendary among the Imp community. Imps had long been in a race to find a way in, and Blaise had offered a large bounty to any Imp who could gain access to the List Keeper’s system. Galahad and Percival, another of Blaise’s Imp knights, had a personal competition, and worked constantly on the project. They didn’t do it for the money, or even for the vast strategic advantage it would give Blaise. They did it because it was labeled impossible, and they believed otherwise.
Galahad shook his head in response to Blaise.
“I’ll find them,” Percival said. He worked on the theory that the List Keepers, who were long thought to be masters of the digital realm, were, in fact, using some other kind of quantum network to do their business – whatever that might be.
Blaise smiled. Percival was his favorite. “I believe you will. Now, I have another matter to deal with.”
He gazed around the room at his brain trust, the knights all linked into the massive INU table. He knew information was power, but that intelligence was supreme power – and he had both. But there were some missing pieces: the List Keepers, the prophecies, and Cope Lipton.
“When we next meet, I need two things. No more blank screens with Cope Lipton. Something must exist on him or Lance couldn’t have discovered him. I believe it came from an Imp. No one else could have cracked a secret like that. Find the Imp, find me Cope, or find enough data on him to make me think I slept with his wife.”
He moved a few fingers and the VMs around the table filled with Grandyn’s face.
“We don’t need to find Grandyn to use him. Eight hours from now, I need to see every contingency, every simulation, and every scenario for how best to use the TreeRunner. Dead or alive, books, prophecies, or not, Grandyn is the key. But as you know, there are many keys and many ways to use them.”
Once the room cleared, Blaise remained, studying the troop buildups around the globe. INU generated estimates for all those involved in the conflict. Unlike the AOI, PAWN, Miner, and Deuce, Blaise had no army. He believed they were an outdated relic of the pre-Banoff world. In reality, the others weren’t traditional armies in the regimented sense.
The AOI was more like a giant SWAT team, Deuce and Miner’s were more in the guerilla warfare class, and PAWN had a combination of the “farmers with muskets” model: high-tech cyber warriors and modern weapons accumulated in all manner of begging, borrowing, and stealing. Deuce had provided the majority of PAWN’s advanced weapons stash, either through funding or direct shipments. It was the reason PAWN believed Blaise would be on their side in a conflict, but Blaise knew better. He was an expert at playing all sides so that even those working for him might not know where his loyalties were, and, in Blaise’s case, did he even have any loyalties?
“Lover,” Blaise said as soon as he saw Chelle’s face projecting from his INU. “I was hoping to catch you in the shower or somewhere interesting, but you seem to be loading equipment into a truck.”
“Yeah, Blaise, some of us work for a living. I, for one, do what ever is necessary for the cause.”
“Do you?” He flashed a devilish grin. “I should try to think of something for your cause that you’d be willing to do anything for.”
Chelle moved away from the crated weapons she’d been readying for shipment to a potential battle zone and took off a pair of gloves. “Did you zoom to harass me, or as you call it ‘flirting’, or do you have something worth talking about?”
“Cranky today? Too bad, and I’m afraid my news might not improve your mood. It seems that I’m not the wizard I claimed to be. I’m unable to get a zoom arranged with Drast, but it would not have done much to allay your concerns since you would not have recognized him.”
“Did they hurt him?”
“No. Nothing like that. But his appearance has been completely altered. They are serious about wanting people to believe he is dead. They even altered his retina and facial patterns.”
“I would know his voice,” Chelle said, trying to imagine what he would look like now.
“Not possible. They did a procedure there as well. Seems they were concerned someone might recognize his voice from all his speeches in the media.”
“Then I’ll have to wait for his response. I was hoping to have some sort of verification without having to wait for this AOI agent, but now I’m not sure if I trust you or the AOI less.”
“Really? You might want to give that some thought, lover. When the war starts, the eight sides will quickly merge into two sides and, at least while the fighting rages, there will be only one person who can help you. The man standing in the middle of it all . . . and then you will trust Blaise Cortez whether you like it or not. The question is, will I trust you?”
Chapter 41 - Book 2
Another Grandyn sighting. This time, by AOI agents on a routine patrol in the endless Russian forests. It had been a brazen attempt to steal food from an AOI vehicle, left while the agents went on a four-hour sweep of the area on foot. “It was almost as if he wanted to get spotted,” they told their commander in the initial report. “How he’s avoided capture all these years is baffling.” But they had verifiable data, including the clearest images taken since his disappearance.
The face went through the FRIDG system and matched every point with the computer scans, down to the millimeter. The chain of command sent the news flying to the top, and within half an hour of the sighting the AOI Chief had been pulled out of a meeting. By then the Ruskan region head had alerted all area units and hundreds of agents were arriving.
Within hours, at the orders of the Chief, thousands were streaming in. She was now convinced that the TreeRunners had been more sophisticated than previously imagined and most of the earlier sightings had been look-alikes. “But this one is no decoy. We finally starved him out,” the Chief said triumphantly to her gathered top advisers. It had been her idea to beef up patrols in those northern forests of the Russia Area. “He has to be somewhere so remote that we can’t see him,” she’d said. “It’s the only way. He’s been playing the odds for three years, hiding where the forest is largest and our presence is smallest.” But even she had been stunned by his mistake. “He must be hungry. There’s probably almost no support for him up there. Perhaps they missed his last supply drop. Never mind. He has nowhere to hide now.” But even as she said the words, the Chief worried that this might be another Shasta, where a Grandyn sighting they’d been all over – whether it had been him or not didn’t matter – came up empty.
AOI had specifically trained on Grandyn drills for more than two years. They all knew forest procedures, where technology was limited. No eyes in the sky, no trackers, tracers, or grid sweeps. But they did have Collins-HG3s, the autonomous flying weapon, and thirty-four were deployed. Agents fanned out and released thousands of swarm drones. Suddenly, a unit of grunges hit Alert-99. It meant they had a visual on the target.
“This is team leader eight-eight. Target has just dropped into a manmade hole.”
“Confirm. Target is Grandyn?” the on-sight commander answered.
“Affirmative. Target is Grandyn!” A strange static interrupted the transmission for a moment. “We have light in the hole.” The team leader set a relay, trying to get images out, but the static returned. “There’s
a ladder. It appears to be an entrance to a tunnel.”
“Pursue! Pursue!”
The Chief, monitoring the live feed, was more than tempted to take over, but her agents were far better trained than she. The commander directed ground-penetrating scanners to the sight of team eight-eight and also ordered explosives, which could crater the earth to a depth of thirty meters. At that point, the Chief contacted the commander.
“Do not use explosives. I need a body. Not only do I want his brain scan, but I have to be damned sure this is Grandyn.”
“But he could escape.”
“I’d rather that than to mistakenly think we got him. If we lose him, which you won’t, we can catch him another day. The intel he holds is too valuable. Am I clear?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The commander didn’t agree, his mission was to stop a dangerous revolutionary, but he knew he could not argue.
“This is team leader eight-eight. We’re inside the tunnel. Are you getting visuals?”
The Chief and the commander both watched live images on their respective VMs. The Chief sat in a darkened room halfway around the planet. Her VM, fifteen meters across and ten tall, showed the dimensions of the tunnel as everything was instantly analyzed. Height: two-point-two meters. Width: one-point-two meters. Depth: four-point-three meters. The tunnel shocked her in its sophisticated construction. Located in an extremely remote location, the floor and walls were smoothed concrete, the ceiling tiled and lit with some kind of illuminating bricks, plus ventilation.
Lance Miner received a zoom, and an AOI agent secretly linked the feed to him. He manipulated several VMs while watching the images come in and out. Within minutes a P-Force team was en route, ETA – one hundred and ten minutes. They would be outnumbered and might be too late but Miner had to try. He needed Grandyn.