by Wesley Chu
Enzo nodded. He picked a pear up off the table and bit into it. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast and his finely-tuned body wasn’t happy. He had been neglecting it as of late, something he would have to rectify. He wished he could focus his time on real battles instead of these games. It was his duty as a vessel to maintain it for his Holy One.
One battle won in these halls is worth ten on the field.
Enzo gritted his teeth. That much was true, as much as he detested the fact. Once he established control over the world, he intended to end all political bickering, not that it would happen for much longer. Quasiform was at hand and would usher the end and the beginning of everything.
“All right, then,” he said, “I want a fresh report on my desk by tonight with new trajectories. Put Polanski and Maximov on the list for blackmail or extermination. Verify first. With Tachkin, send him a request to reschedule. If he refuses, put him on the list as well. Let’s get out of this cesspool.”
Enzo left the room with his honor guard in tow. A full twenty of his Hatchery siblings – all vessels – spread out before him as he walked down the hallways of the Federal Assembly building. The usually crowded corridors were deserted. Everyone in the building, from the Chairman to the janitor, knew who he was and stayed out of his way.
As his group turned the corner, they were met by another group coming from the other end of the hall. A group of suited men, Epsilons by the look of them, surrounded an old frail man in a wheelchair. Azumi tensed and jumped in front of him, gun drawn out. The rest of his siblings closed ranks.
Enzo took a quick inventory. Approximately forty Epsilons to his twenty-one Hatchery-trained vessels. He held the advantage. No matter how well-trained Epsilons were, they were no match for vessels from the Hatchery. The narrow hallway would prevent Vinnick from utilizing his superior numbers as well.
He was waiting for you. Do not fight on your opponent’s chosen field.
“Fuck Sun Tzu. I can end this bastard now.”
Vinnick has obviously come to you. He would not accompany an ambush. Also, look at who is standing next to him. This is not a battle worth waging. Show him who is in control.
Enzo put a hand on Azumi’s shoulder and gently nudged her aside. He took two steps forward and spoke in a loud voice. “You wish to talk now, old man? Now is your last chance.”
The Epsilons standing in front of Vinnick parted, and one of the Epsilons – no, Sergii, Vinnick’s adopted son and heir to his fortune – wheeled the man forward. Sergii was an Adonis Vessel from a previous generation and had spent the past twenty years waiting for the old man to die. He wondered about the Adonis’s loyalty. If he was truly a Genjix, he would slit Vinnick’s throat at this very moment. Sergii came to the middle of the hall, dividing the two groups, then he walked back to the group of tense Epsilons alone. Vinnick sat in the middle of the hallway waiting for Enzo to meet him halfway.
Enzo considered forcing the old man to come to him, but decided against it. After all, he could still show that he was the more magnanimous one in this conflict. Enzo walked forward until the two of them were face to face.
“You’ve aged some, boy,” were Vinnick’s first word.
“You’re one to talk, brother,” he replied.
Vinnick cackled. “When you get to be my age, you can say whatever you want.” He motioned to his left.
Enzo looked and saw an open door leading to a courtyard. Obviously, this entire thing had been set up by Vinnick, just like the assassination attempt at the church. First things first, Enzo reached out and touched Vinnick’s hand.
Flua is there.
Enzo drew his pistol, ignoring the tense movements of Vinnick’s men down the hall, and jammed it into the base of the old man’s neck. “Now I’m ready to talk.”
Vinnick chuckled. “Do you think threatening someone my age with death actually means anything? Put the gun away. You’re not going to need it. Why don’t we take a stroll through the courtyard?”
Calculated. He wants you to know that he does not care about his welfare. He wants you to turn down this opportunity to talk. He is playing for sympathies from the rest of the Council.
“He tried to kill me the last time!”
You had set draconian terms previously. I warned you not to push your demands too far. The others on the Council took note.
And now he was pushing the old man into the courtyard, an area of his choosing. What would others think of this photo op? It would show Enzo serving Vinnick. Enzo squeezed the handles of the wheelchair tightly; his knuckles drained of blood. Again, outmaneuvered. Well, the trap has been sprung, and now he couldn’t back out. Doing so would paint him afraid and insecure with his position. He had survived one of Vinnick’s traps; he could survive another.
Enzo nodded to Azumi and wheeled Vinnick into the outdoor area. No doubt Vinnick had snipers at some of the windows. By now, Palos was having his people sweep the rooms. They entered a garden that had two cobbled paths intersecting in the middle. At the center of the courtyard was another small round table with one chair. There were settings for two and a steaming pot of tea welcoming them.
Tea; of course there would be tea. Enzo pushed Vinnick to one end and sat down at the opposite end. He reached out and picked up the teapot, first serving Vinnick a cupful and then pouring his own. Then he waited. The two sat in silence, neither moving as their stares became a contest of will. Ten minutes passed with neither taking any initiative.
Finally, Enzo gestured. “Your tea is getting cold, brother.”
Vinnick smirked, picked up his cup with shaking hands, and took a sip. He placed the cup hard on the table, making a loud cracking sound and sloshing some of the liquid out. “There you go. Happy?”
Enzo smiled and took a sip. “I was just respecting my elders.”
“I’ve seen firsthand how you’ve shown respect over the past ten years, boy. If you had only followed the natural order within the Council, things might have ended differently. Instead, you barged in like a bull and tried to run everyone over. So let’s get down to business. What do you really want?”
“You’ve had a long and illustrious reign on the Council. You’ve served the Holy Ones well. Mostly. Why don’t you retire to a nice villa in Nice or Belize? Call it a career.”
“And let you slide right in here, eh?” Vinnick chortled. “Take control of my domain? Put a puppet on the Council who agrees with everything you say?”
“I’m sure the rest of the Council can find someone suitable to replace you,” Enzo said. “I’m willing to offer very generous terms for your graceful exit.”
“All right,” Vinnick sighed. “Let’s hear your shit.”
Enzo placed his cup down on the table. “Let’s begin with your robust estate. Allow me to compliment you on your financial health. I am prepared to offer you five million Euros to settle you into a life of comfort for the rest of your days.”
“Five million?” Vinnick looked incredulous. “You’re offering me five million of my own money out of my four billion net worth?”
“Well, you won’t need it for much longer. The funds would be put to much better use in the service of the Holy Ones and Quasiform.”
“Yes, Quasiform. We barely have enough catalyst facilities for Quasiform. There is still much work to be done before the world is ready. Why not build a few more for redundancy in case a few fail or fall into enemy hands? This world will be ready for Quasiform in a generation or two, but not now.”
Enzo scoffed. “Unacceptable. The critical path is the rods, not the facilities. Redundancy is meaningless if the supply of rods is insufficient. Not to mention the cost of building the facilities. It would be wasted billions. Also, if I may remind you, brother, time is running out. That so-called Interpol Extraterrestrial Task Force has been mostly incompetent until now, but they are getting their act together and getting organized. Every year, they grow stronger and bolder.”
Vinnick waved that off. “The IXTF will end up like the United Nati
ons. Impotent and useless. There is nothing to worry about from those fools.”
“I feel you are wrong about this. It’s only a matter of time before they discover our plans. If we do not start a world war and initiate Quasiform within the next decade, we will be found out and won’t be in a position to protect our interests. We cannot afford to dawdle much longer.”
“Still in such a hurry to blow the world up.” Vinnick shook his head and picked his teacup up again. “Several of the leadership feel more loyalty havens are needed to ease the transition when the transformation begins. Otherwise, there will be dissension in the ranks.”
Enzo sniffed dismissively. “You must know this is a non-starter, but let’s talk this out.”
Enzo detested the concept of loyalty havens. It was a recent concept that had sprung up from many of the lesser believers, if they could even be called believers at all. Self-serving bastards, more like it. They should be embracing Quasiform and the new Holy Ones home world. Instead, these petty Genjix, who had probably only joined the cause for selfish reasons, weren’t prepared to face the destiny the Holy Ones had always intended.
These havens were proposed ten years ago by several on the Council, when the inevitability of Quasiform within the next half-century became clear. The proposal had quickly gained popularity among the unblessed ranks, as well as a large percentage of the vessels. After all, why wouldn’t they? It would give loyal humans and vessels the ability to survive through the Quasiforming of Earth into the new Quasing homeland. From a practical standpoint, it made sense, except for those who did not embrace the change.
Enzo was vehemently against building havens. He considered them outright sacrilege. What sort of true believer would beg to delay Heaven in order for human bodies to survive longer? It would be like Christians refusing the Rapture, or the ancient Vikings refusing to enter the halls of Valhalla. All true Genjix should embrace their bodily deaths as Quasiform takes over the planet and ushers in a new beautiful world where the souls of the blessed and the Holy Ones stand side by side in harmony and peace. Because at his core, Enzo was a man of peace and pursued this vision of paradise for the good of all.
Your devotion is to be commended, but I would not go that far.
“When there is no one else left to fight, then there will be nothing left but peace.”
In the end, Enzo suffered a rare defeat on the Council, and the Genjix began Operation Gardens of Eden, a hundred-billion-dollar waste of time and resources. Since then, twenty-seven of these havens had sprung up, with the total capacity of safekeeping forty percent of all the existing Genjix. And because Vinnick himself put much of his fortune on it, the entire project fell directly under his control.
There was a political consequence to the project that Enzo had not foreseen. Since Vinnick was in control of all the havens, he was the one who determined which haven was allocated to which Council member. This had greatly raised his standing with all of the Genjix.
The political fallout from that battle had heavily hurt Enzo. It was a direct slap in the face that he, the councilman with the largest faction, currently had only one haven under his control, while all the others had several. Vinnick himself had ten. Many had rushed to curry the Russian’s favor, which made the Council Power Struggle even more difficult for Enzo than it had to be. In fact, he attributed Vinnick holding on to power for this long to that one crushing defeat. If it hadn’t been for the loyalty haven project, the old man would have been finished five years ago.
It didn’t bother Enzo that he was only allocated one haven. In fact, he had no intention of using it, nor would he allow any of his faction to delay their ascension. It was for their own good. One positive that came out of all of this was that now he knew who the true believers were and who was just riding the coat-tails of the Holy Ones for personal profit and gain. He reminded himself that once the Quasiform cycle began and could not be stopped, he would turn his attention inward and root out all the weak-willed and non-believers. In the end, only the pure would witness the final ascension.
Moving the conversation to these havens set the tone for the rest of their negotiations. Enzo knew why people who were in no position to negotiate still tried, but he never understood why they almost inevitably felt insulted when he didn’t budge. Whoever said a good agreement was a compromise neither side was completely happy with just had poor negotiators. For Enzo, the only time to bargain was when there was only one resolution. Everything else was details.
Unfortunately, Vinnick didn’t see things the right way. After an hour, the old man broke it off. “As expected, you’ve wasted my time, boy,” he said as he motioned for Sergii to come retrieve him. As Sergii wheeled Vinnick backward out of the courtyard, the old man stopped and looked back. “I gave you one chance to talk sense, and you blew it. You want Russia, you little prick. You come fucking take it from me.”
13
Teenage Life
Quasar is a living being. The planet itself is not alive, but the entire surface is interconnected as if it is a giant organism, with shared memories and experiences from billions of voices and minds mingling at all times.
It is that whole, that collective, those trillions upon trillions of Quasing merged together that allows us to evolve and advance, and eventually seek destiny beyond the boundaries of our planet and our solar system.
Tao
* * *
Cameron, wake up.
Cameron was out of bed before Tao finished the sentence, moving confidently in the dark. The sun had not risen yet, and the woods outside looked as pitch dark as they had when he had gone to bed just a few short hours ago. His window shutters rattled from a light breeze, but other than that, the entire house was still. Those signals told Cameron all he needed to know about what to wear this morning. He brushed his teeth, slipped on a long-sleeve shirt and running pants, and was out the door within two minutes.
To his surprise, his mother was still in bed. He tapped the door twice and walked in.
Give her one nudge and then let her sleep. She has had a lot on her plate lately; she deserves the rest.
“Mom,” he whispered.
She reached under her pillow. He knew she kept a pistol stuck to the wall behind the mattress. She had one in the drawer of the nightstand too, and a knife wrapped inside the pillow as well. Dad, on the other hand, was armed to the teeth. Cameron and Mom used to joke that he could accidentally discharge a shotgun if he just rolled in his sleep.
Both parents had worried about having so many guns around him when he was young and considered removing them entirely from the house. It took Tao, controlling a four year-old child, giving them an hour-long lecture exhibiting how much influence he had over Cameron before they acquiesced. They were in the middle of a war, after all.
His mother yawned. “Oh, yeah, I promised, didn’t I?”
“If you need rest…”
“No, no.” She sat up. “I could use the workout.”
A few minutes later, they were stretching against the wooden fence leading down to the main road. She wore several layers of clothing that covered every part of her body except for her face. She looked disapprovingly at his thin long-sleeve shirt and running pants.
“You’ll catch a cold.”
“You’ll overheat,” he responded.
She chuckled. “I don’t know how hard you think I’m actually going to go. I’m just here to instruct.”
You have two hours. Make the most of them.
They started jogging down the dirt road leading into the forest. Once they reached the wooded area, Jill tapped Cameron on the shoulder. “Tag, you’re it.”
She took off, barreling through the thickets and hurdling over logs, weaving in and out of tree trunks. He gave chase, following her not at a direct angle, but just a bit off to the side. The truth was, he was much faster than she was these days and could catch her within thirty paces. However, this was an old game and easily one of his favorite pastimes. It wouldn’t be right if he spoi
led it too quickly.
Adjust to the elevation.
Cameron watched the dip as his mother jumped feet first into a ditch, only looking at the ground while she was in the air. She bounded to the side right as she landed, turning sharply away from him. He switched angles to follow. She grabbed a tree branch overhead and flipped herself smoothly onto it, then disappeared behind the trunk. He followed her up, but by the time he got onto the branch and looked around, he had somehow lost her. It took him a second to locate her again, but, by that time, she was already several meters away, running in another direction.
Seems Jill still has tricks up her sleeves. Careful with the soft mud on the right.
Cameron leaped off the high branch and rolled out of his landing. Within seconds, he had split the distance between them. One moment, he was twenty meters behind her. The next, she had disappeared again. Cameron maintained his trajectory for another fifteen meters before he came to a stop and listened. Nothing.
Watch out!
It was too late. Jill, lying in wait on the ground, tapped him on the foot with her hand imitating the shape of a pistol. “Bang.” Grinning, she tousled his hair as he helped her up. She held up one finger and then took off again.
Cameron gave her the requisite five seconds before going after her. This time, she headed toward Melon Hill, a series of mossy boulders and rises that looked like a giant watermelon patch. She scaled a boulder twice her height in two bounds and disappeared over the top. Cameron followed, taking a few more tries to claw up before he was able to get a solid handhold on the ledge.
“Use angles, dear,” she called to him. “You went a little too vertical that time.” Then she jumped off another boulder and was gone.
Use your core muscles more when you lift your feet.
Cameron leaped from boulder to boulder and ran parallel to her as she dove around the side of an old collapsed stone wall. He took three big jumps across two rocks and a hill, and landed on the wall. Again, she had disappeared.