Let’s assume it exists … how could it exist and not be discoverable? How could they deny access and remain invisible? Obviously such a thing must be completely separate, probably with different nodes, something other than omnipoles. It might even require special equipment and security measures to access it.
All I need to do is get a sylus onto a Serviceman for a while and see what it could detect. That didn’t seem likely to happen. Of course, penetrating into this network would probably be seen as some sort of treason —
‘What are you muttering about?’ Cindy asked.
‘Oh, was I? I’m just getting my mind into position.’
The Will has been separated from the Weave. No longer is the voice of the people heard. But why do it? Why do it, Scorpion? Is this you, or could you too be under influence? We could all be under the influence of the psis.
They can appear out of nowhere. They can make you not see them. They know all you know and what you will do.
What he needed was a way to catch the psis. To detect them. That’s what his new Weave needed. There was no way to ever be able to live with psis if they were hidden. There must be a way to track their influence.
‘The tea is getting cold,’ Cindy said.
Takashi bowed and took the dainty vessel in his hand. He thanked her and put the glass spout to his lips. The tea was still warm and steamed whimsically into his eyes. As he sipped he watched the pale white strands lift off the water, up towards the ceiling in a curl and then fade away. His cheeks felt numb, then one side of his throat went cold.
His hand wobbled as he tried to place the glass gently back on the table. The numbness had spread to his hand and he missed. The glass fell onto the soft floor, its blue water spilling out onto the rug.
‘This one is strong,’ he said. His voice took him by surprise. He didn’t mean to speak so loudly. The mountain has spoken.
‘Too strong?’ someone answered. ‘Let me pour you some water.’
Takashi watched arms put water into a pair of plastic cups. When they had finished, he took one of them and looked inside it. The water dropped into his lap and the cup was empty again.
He put it beside the full cup and sat close to the table, peering at them. ‘One is full. The other is empty.’
‘Who’s talking?’ a voice asked. Takashi didn’t answer, he just looked at the cups.
The Weave is the cup. Someone has emptied the cup.
The Weave is the container and the Will is what it contains.
Delicately he poured a little of the tea into the full cup and watched the blue mingle with the clear.
Takashi picked up a spoon and put it in the cup with the water.
‘It affects neither the water nor the container.’
‘What?’ that voice said.
‘The spoon stirs the water …’ If he was right, it seemed too simple. A simple but elegant solution. The psis are spoons … ‘They are spoons,’ he said.
She giggled and he giggled. Then there was a tall spoon standing over them. It cast a shadow on them.
Takashi pointed at it. ‘Look at the size of that spoon!’ he said and erupted in laughter.
The pair of them rolled together and didn’t hear the spoon reply. ‘I’m not a spoon. I’m here to help.’
The Prime spent the next few hours on the viewing platform, watching the rising sun wake the beast of Busan. In his overlay he was checking on how the emergency protocols were operating so that, despite the Weave being disconnected, life was still happening. So long as the food kept coming and the water and energy flowed, the people shouldn’t get too fearful. Where there was trouble he customised strategy matrixes for Services and had new scripts written for them to follow to help keep the Citizens calm.
He was pinged as soon as the first of the command pods was in position and La Gréle followed his thoughts as he walked quickly towards the new capsules that were lined up thirty metres away from their own — she had made sure that Campsey didn’t place them outside of her range.
She could feel the Prime’s mind, chomping at the bit, eager to move forward. La Gréle let him. He was a smart man, perhaps he could find a solution to what was happening.
As he strode through the camp, Pinter’s concentration compulsively turned back to the clones below Sector 261, and the fourteen gestation tubes that were found there. The weavers were busy with their data forensics, trying to find out how long the cloning had been in operation and if there were any more of them in the world. How many can there be? he wondered. How does it change the rules of the game?
The pods were much like other capsules, built from the same shells but marked with red stripes and bulky security doors that were like growths on their sides. He took a breath and tapped the door open.
Inside, the pods were nothing but wall-to-wall, floor-to-floor screens. It let the user work in a seven hundred and twenty degree environment, which could be reconfigured as necessary. The effect was little different from using a ganzfeld hood, but the user could move about and remained aware of their own body. Many of the older generation preferred it.
How one started a strat-mat was important. Pinter didn’t know the best place to begin with all the problems the World Union faced, but decided to scrap everything that had been reasoned out before and begin clarifying what was known and what the possible eventualities were. On the four blank walls he began categorising his thoughts as they came to him.
Wall one he labelled as ‘Kronos’, which for now appeared to have stopped advancing — after exhausting every pathway it could find. The blackout hadn’t provoked any noticeable reactions in its physical bodies so he just set the command to continue observations and begin purging for the placement of a new Weave. He made a note to check in with Doctor Shelley and the study team later, but he knew their summary wouldn’t have changed yet.
The second wall he marked ‘psis’, then he went immediately to the third wall and marked it as ‘Pierre Jnr’. He didn’t need a weaver to tell him that the range in possible clone numbers was broad. If Pierre Jnr had just started cloning, and what they had found in Sector 261 was all there was, then there may be no more to worry about than the original. If he had started a cloning program early in his life, then there was no telling how many there were now. For nine years we haven’t known what he has been doing … how can that be?
Even with Ryu and Takashi erasing evidence to prevent public panic, how could all the Pierre Jnr clones have managed to avoid not triggering any automatic alarms? Sensors are everywhere. Were they underground all this time, or did his infiltration go deeper than that?
Pinter started a new list titled Things That Might Kill Pierre Jnr: radiation, landmines and other automated traps, missiles (if they are fast enough), nuclear strikes, neutrinos, teledistortion.
The problem is still locating and targeting him before he disappears.
He added one more item to the list: robots (?) — which he then also took to title his fourth wall. After its first appearance, out of nowhere and just in time to rescue the team sent into Sector 261, replicas of the unknown android had begun appearing everywhere in the world. With this wall he decided to change tactics, because he knew so little, and instead began creating threads for all the unknowns he recognised.
1. He didn’t know who had created it.
2. No manufacturing records existed.
That in itself was a large mystery. There shouldn’t be anywhere on the planet where machines of this complexity could be built in secret, or en masse. The droids can’t have come from nowhere. Designed and replicated in a synchronised release. Kronos? Pierre? Something else?
3. Programming and motivations unknown.
Though it rescued the search team and killed the clones, is it safe to presume the robot is in opposition to Pierre Jnr? Is it working for someone inside the WU or outside? He put a general order out for a robot to be confined and brought to him, then slid the walls around with a sweep of his hand and began putting some known facts on
the psi wall.
The psis held Atlantic with an estimated seven hundred plus psionics. The estimated hidden population around the world was two hundred thousand. The psi islands held a further sixty thousand.
He wasn’t sure on which wall he should put the psionic relay devices, so he created a free-floating block and linked it to the psis and Pierre Jnr as it connected to them both.
Did he need another wall? Were there any other factors influencing events?
He activated the ceiling and marked it as Greater Earth. He knew their resources, he knew everything about them until twelve hours ago. He knew Shreet from the wars, but he wasn’t sure how the man would rise to this particular occasion. He’d told the man what was going to happen and what he should do. ‘Don’t interfere. Don’t try to help. Don’t reconnect until you are sure it is safe.’
Maybe I should link Pierre Jnr to all walls, he wondered. Is he the master controller? Pinter still couldn’t tell if he was a clever tactician or a child being needlessly destructive. If Pierre had released Kronos, intentionally, for the purposes of destabilising resistance, then it did its job perfectly … and Pinter was reacting to his actions. Dancing to his tune.
The Prime looked at the walls of his mind-room. Psis, Kronos, robots and clones. Sporadically, he added more notes and connections, to-dos and ramifications. Gradually his strat-mat built up a detailed branch structure for each wall.
La Gréle retreated to her own thoughts. She kept the book overlaid in her vision and pushed the words along. She was trying not to panic, but the more she reached into Pinter’s mind she realised how fast, and how incredibly, everything had gone wrong.
Her heart beat faster, she could feel her blood speeding up. She couldn’t let them suspect that Gretel knew more than she should and concentrated on pretend-reading What We Can See. She needed time to think. She needed a new plan. And she needed a way to get a message to Tamsin Grey.
Is it really open war now? She had no reason to doubt the reports that kept coming into Pinter’s stream. Surely Tamsin wouldn’t do this?
If she could somehow connect to the psi network … which she could maybe do if she had one of those relays, but she couldn’t see a way to innocently get hold of one.
She felt Pinter’s thoughts turn to Peter Lazarus, that telepath who seemed to have started everything. La Gréle knew little about him, and Pinter had met him only for a short time. He had been in Paris when Pierre Jnr first showed himself and he was there when the clones were found.
In the command pod the Prime had connected to the eyes of a needle in Yantz to watch Peter Lazarus prowling his rooms like an impatient animal. La Gréle made him wait before making contact. Lazarus paced the floor of the needle, occasionally pinging his few contacts in hopes of a connection, stopping now and again to stand at the windows, trying to find clues in the cityscape.
How important is Peter Lazarus? Pinter asked himself, staring at the walls of his mind-room. How is he connected? As a psi, yes. He drew an anchor-line from Peter to the psis and then another to Pierre Jnr. Maybe the man does know something, but without being sure of his allegiance, could we trust what he might say?
‘Hello, Peter,’ Pinter said and made his image appear as a hologram on the main window of the needle.
‘Colonel?’ Pete eagerly stepped closer to the screen. ‘You’re alive? I haven’t heard from anyone all day.’
‘A lot has happened since our last contact,’ Pinter said. La Gréle let him speak unguided and unforced. She had learnt a long time ago that you had to have a light touch when influencing how a person speaks and what they say. Observers became suspicious quickly when someone said something out of character. So she let Pinter answer without her interference, remaining an observer, and occasionally reducing or enhancing particular concerns.
‘You’re young!’ Peter Lazarus exclaimed. Of course, this was the first time they had seen each other; she and Pinter had both forgotten that.
‘Yes. That’s right, you haven’t seen me before. After the first hunt, I went into rejuvenation.’
‘It’s incredible. You look so real.’
‘Yes, Peter, but there is more to talk about. I am Prime now.’
‘How?’
Pinter shrugged. ‘These things happen. Ryu Shima promoted me and then he and General Zim had a series of embarrassing failures. I have been left holding the baby, so to speak. How are you feeling?’
‘I am feeling okay.’
‘Do you think you have recovered enough to talk about Sector 261?’
‘You mean the clones?’ Pete asked.
‘Yes. I’d be interested to hear what you think of this development. Why would Pierre Jnr do that?’
‘I don’t know. To strengthen himself, I presume.’
‘Do you think he is preparing for some kind of attack?’
‘Maybe. But not in the way you think,’ the telepath said.
‘You speak like you understand him? Have you learnt something?’
‘Maybe.’ Pete hesitated. ‘But not just about him, me as well. I experienced something … transforming …’
‘Peter, I need you to tell me what you know about him. You are the only person who has had multiple contacts with him and survived. What do you remember?’
‘Nothing. Nothingness.’
‘Please. You must remember something.’
‘It … it isn’t like a memory. When I think of it, I can only remember what happened before and after. It is like being drugged. There is just a moment of time that I can’t recall any details of. I’m looking out and through myself. I am nothing. He is the water.’
He is the water? What does that mean? Pinter thought.
La Gréle knew what he meant. It sounded like communing.
‘Peter.’ The Prime brought the conversation back to firmer ground. ‘Why do you think he is cloning himself?’
‘Because he can. Isn’t that why he does anything?’
‘He must have a reason,’ Pinter said.
‘No. I don’t think so. He isn’t like us. He isn’t human as we are. When we are born, we are inside ourselves; our consciousness grows in our own heads. We are distinct entities from the beginning. Pierre Jnr … was born as more than one mind. When his consciousness began, it took on all the consciousnesses in the project. He is the multitude that is around him. Just as our flesh is our body, the external world is his flesh. I think Pierre must be like that. He has never experienced life as anything other than a collective mind. We are but limbs to him. Or hairs. If he feels an itch, he scratches it. That is all we are to him.’
‘And so he is cloning himself so he can do what? Join all of us together?’
‘Yes,’ Pete said excitedly. ‘I think you’re right. He will make us part of his body.’
‘A part of him …?’ Pinter whispered.
Oh, light, La Gréle thought.
‘Why do I have no Weave connection?’ Pete asked. ‘Can you tell me what is happening? I’ve seen explosions. Is that the psis?’
‘Yes. It is happening all around the world.’
‘Then it is starting … you have to let me out of here.’
‘I can’t do that. The rebellion is attacking the World Union. I can’t let you go when I don’t know which side you will choose.’
‘Sides? Colonel — Prime. This is about survival. If we don’t stop Pierre Jnr now, we …’
‘What? What will happen?’
‘You can’t understand. You wouldn’t notice it happening. When you are in his presence, it is like you don’t exist. He would erase your mind and use your body only if he had a use for it. We will all disappear if he manifests completely.’
‘Can he be stopped?’ the Prime asked.
‘I don’t know.’
‘There must be a way. What if all the psis joined together to stop him?’
‘They wouldn’t. They want what he wants. Those relays can make the psis like him.’
‘Is he doing this for the psis then?’
Is he good? La Gréle asked herself. Is Pierre Jnr our saviour?
‘I don’t know. Why do you think I know?’ Pete asked. ‘Maybe, maybe when he was born, in the place he was in, with the other psis around him … maybe he is everything they dreamt him to be. But I don’t know.’
La Gréle knew it to be true. Years ago she had felt that desire amongst her students — when she was a nurse in one of the camps. They were some of the first to come under Pierre’s spell. Perhaps they carried my dream into him? Maybe all we have to do is wait and let it happen.
Pinter’s thoughts were elsewhere. The scenario wasn’t making sense to him and La Gréle didn’t impede his progression from suspicion to question. ‘Why did Pierre Jnr release Kronos? I can’t understand that.’
‘Are you sure he did?’ Peter asked.
‘Not conclusively, but the point of origin above Shen Li’s lab and the release of the relays indicate a connection — though again there is only Geof’s testimony that the relays were one of Shen’s projects. Could Ozenbach have been breached?’
‘It is possible,’ Pete said. ‘Where is he?’
‘He is safe. Working on the Kronos problem.’
‘Do you think Kronos is a bigger problem than Pierre Jnr?’
‘I think they both need stopping. And the more I look, the more it seems Pierre Jnr is connected to everything.’
‘Even you.’
‘Not yet he isn’t. As long as we are resisting we know he hasn’t won. I must go.’
‘What about me? Are you just leaving me here?’
‘I’m sorry, Peter. I can’t let you go anywhere.’
‘Colonel, please.’
‘It’s Prime now. And as Prime my choices are different. I promise to contact you soon.’
‘But —’ Pete said to the window, the connection already gone.
La Gréle watched Peter Lazarus through Pinter’s eyes for a moment longer. Lazarus stood watching the world outside his window.
PIERRE JNR WILL SHOW US THE WAY
Convergence Page 9