The Crystal Tower

by Liam Donnelly

  Not only that, despite the makeshift psychic prison in which Zatera had locked Trey’s essence, he could still feel him, rattling around inside his mind, trying to undermine him at every turn. His power fluctuated for a moment at the mere thought of him. As it did, he felt Trey himself reach out from the recesses of that obscure dimension into which he had been flung and try—with great futility—to regain control of his body. The body flinched, and with a surge of anger and defiance, Zatera gripped a hold of Trey’s ethereal prison and launched him farther into that void. In his mind’s eye, he watched with a leering grin as Trey spun away into infinity, a look of terrible despondency on his face. However, as Trey disappeared into the bubbling orange and blue clouds of that infinite space, the smile faded, for Zatera realized he had no permanent way of containing him; something was preventing him from doing so. Was it Trey’s innate strength? Truly, he had never encountered such a powerful mortal in his long existence.

  He took a breath and began concentrating once again. The power and the sound built up in the area once more as he focused. The might of Trey’s struggle had been of greater concern than he could have anticipated. He didn’t dare think about the future and what Trey represented—a species capable of rising to heights of power greater than his own and that of his kind.

  The remainder of his energy was being poured into the beginnings of the tower’s construction. In his mind’s eye, he ran over the circular outline of the perimeter as he pushed it to grow, inch by inch—and it was working. However, at this level of power, it was essentially growing molecule by molecule, which was too slow. This would not work with so much of the structure still to be created. He would continue working, but he would have to wait until the arrival of the others before he could draw on their power and continue building the edifice at a much faster pace.

  As he was musing on that, Zatera detected the thoughts of one more individual he had chosen—the one remaining Ethereal in the vicinity of New York City who could rival Jane or her friends. He knew they had found a way to protect themselves from his influence, and the means by which they had done so surprised him greatly. They had located one of the vast beams of psychic light that held up the universe like tethers. Not only that, one of them—Ciara—had found a way to access its power. As a result, he could no longer reach them telepathically, and so had sought a different method of finding Jane.

  He immediately stopped what he was doing. The ripples of energy disappeared from around his body. His feet dropped the few remaining inches to the ground, the ringing sound disappeared, and the light was sucked back into his eyes as though through a vacuum.

  This Ethereal was younger—only fourteen years of age in human terms—but his power was growing at an astonishing rate. His name was Elliot. He wasn’t as powerful as Daniel or Guang, but Zatera knew that if he gave him enough of his own psychic energy, he could capture Jane, and perhaps learn the secrets of the new strain of power with which she had been imbued. The young teen was two hundred feet away now, and had already walked for well over ten miles—the five miles across the crystal bridge itself and the additional distance from Midtown Manhattan, as well as a crossing on the Staten Island Ferry.

  When Elliot reached the precipice—the slight upward point that separated the bridge from the base of the structure—he glanced down at it for a moment and hesitated. Then, as he looked back up at Trey’s body and gazed directly into his eyes, he stepped over it and walked forward. It took him a few moments to traverse the distance to the halfway mark. He stopped when he reached Trey, standing only five feet away.

  Trey’s head nodded as Zatera beckoned the young teen closer. Slowly, tentatively, as though finally sensing the danger in the hold that this being had over him, he took the remaining few steps. Without warning, Trey’s hands reached out and fell onto Elliot’s shoulders. Elliot made a choking sound as his head jerked backward. Arcs of blue, electric-like energy bled down the length of Trey’s arms and coursed through Elliot’s body; it was being transferred.

  As he stared at the sky, Elliot felt his mind glow with something he had never felt before—the reach of infinity—and he both reveled in it and was terrified by it. For a moment, his thoughts reached out to distant galaxies, other star systems where life—both ancient and new—roamed on planets both primordial and brimming with gleaming civilizations. Then, briefly, before the transference was over, he took a glance at the other dimensions and the various odd species that existed there. For just a second, before the transference was over, he saw one of the beings—which appeared to him as a cluster of glowing light, like an arrangement of sparkling pearls—turn and look at him.

  With another blinding, explosive flash of energy that rapidly spread across the surface and left a veil of thin, glinting fog in its wake, the transference of power was over. Trey’s arms pulled back and fell slowly to his sides.

  Elliot was still staring straight up and taking slow, deep breaths. Turning, he looked around at the world: the sea, the sky, and a quick glance at a flock of seagulls far above in the air.

  Everything looks different now, doesn’t it?

  Elliot jerked his head back to focus on the man as the rasping tone of his telepathic voice radiated in his mind. Then he nodded quickly, knowing immediately in his heart that this was not someone who would tolerate delays of any kind.

  This power is yours only if you do as I say. Zatera paused for a moment and took a step back. Then he placed his hands behind his back, clasping them, and spoke again. And I have one very specific task for you.

  Elliot stared at him in awe.

  Bring me Jane Connor.

  Elliot blinked as an image of the girl walking through the streets of the city flashed in his mind. He got a clear picture of her. He saw her blonde hair flow backward as a gust of wind blew over her. Immediately, he had the impression that there was something different about Jane and the people she was with. Though he kept this thought secreted in the back of his mind, he knew he would have difficulty capturing her. No matter how much new power he had received, and he sensed this deep new well of psychic energy could be beyond exhaustion, he had an odd sense of foreboding telling him he shouldn’t go anywhere near that girl.

  His brow furrowed just a millimeter, but it was unnoticeable. It was true. This girl, Jane, had power. However, it was different and something he could not understand or recognize. After a moment, Elliot composed himself, stood upright, and looked straight into the eyes of the young man who had called him out across the ocean.

  She has been protected by a means I know of, but I have no control over what they are doing. One of them has managed to access one of the vast streams of light that runs throughout this universe, and that is something I cannot break from here. I cannot reach them telepathically. Find her, and find a way to separate her from her friends. You should have little difficulty doing this using the power with which I have imbued you. Zatera paused for a moment and his eyes narrowed. His face bore an expression so filled with obsession and vitriol that it sent chills down Elliot’s spine. Bring her here, he said finally.

  Knowing the conversation was over, Elliot nodded, turned swiftly, and walked back the way he had come. The exhaustion that had crawled up through his legs during his long journey across the bridge had now disappeared; he no longer had to worry about physical strength, for he knew he could carry his body with his mind if he wanted or needed to. This, at least, he could smile about.

  ***

  “Apprehend him?” Genine said with an incredulous expression. To her, clearly, the idea was ridiculous. She looked around in confusion, although the words had come from Marie. Finally, she glanced back at her. “Forgive me, Miss Donaldson, but how could we do such a thing?”

  Marie remained silent for a moment, standing near the front of the control room with her arms crossed. She glanced at the ground. “What about the suppression devices. Could they bring him down?”

  “Uh, maybe a hundred of them,” Genine res
ponded.

  “Or a thousand,” Chris added.

  “Yes, but something’s…occurred to me recently. Something I hadn’t considered before.” Marie had begun pacing the front of the room. After walking away a few feet, she turned back to face them. “He is still human. The data from the biological scans—what was left of them—indicated that.”

  Chris’s lip curled upward with the slightest trace of a smile, and he corrected her. “Uh, superhuman. To an extent that’s never been seen in history.” He glanced at Genine and then back at Marie. “I saw the remaining footage from the ship, and I read the reports. This man is not an Ethereal. He’s definitely…something else.”

  Marie nodded. “I know. But we still need to do this.”

  Chris hesitated. “May I ask why?”

  She paused and then shrugged. “Orders.”

  Chris nodded. “I see.”

  Genine’s shoulders sank and her gaze drifted to the floor with a frown that betrayed a feeling of powerlessness.

  Marie and Chris locked eyes for a moment. In those few seconds, it was as though his rank in the command structure was automatically raised. “You were working on something, weren’t you?” she asked. “A ‘psionic grenade’?”

  He squinted and adjusted his glasses, his hand trembling slightly as he did so. “Yes,” he replied, placing his hands in his pockets. “But we determined that they were too dangerous—that they would harm the Ethereals. The project was shelved.”

  “But you built prototypes, didn’t you?”

  After a moment, he nodded. “Yes. But I wish I hadn’t.”

  “How many do you have?”

  “Chris!” Genine said sternly, glaring at him.

  She was silenced by one stern glance from Marie. Then, after looking between the two of them, she walked back to her computer terminal near the edge of the aisle that ran along the center of the room, rolling her eyes as she did so.

  “Maybe ten,” Chris said, continuing the conversation. Now they were the only two remaining at the front of the room.

  Marie crossed one arm over her chest and cradled her chin with the other. For a moment, she stared at the floor and didn’t speak. “I’m taking one of the prototypes,” she said in a low voice. “Give the rest to Lucas.” She took a breath and glanced up at him. Shaking her head, she said, “Come with me.” After a moment of hesitation, during which Chris saw the trace of a grimace cross her face, she headed for the exit at the back of the room. Chris followed close behind. They went through the heavily reinforced steel doors, then the secondary security door. After a few moments, they were moving through the main system of corridors that stretched throughout the large facility. Marie walked directly to her private office and entered it. Chris followed, and the heavy door slid shut behind him with a loud beep from the locking mechanism.

  Marie walked across her office and turned slowly to face him. “Joshua?” she said, addressing her AI assistant.

  “Yes, Miss Donaldson?”

  Marie had no idea just how much freedom the Committee had given her with the AI assistant with which they had provided for her. Its name was Gerald, and she hadn’t trusted it from the moment she had begun interacting with it. Every time it had spoken, her stomach had churned. Was it sending every word of her commands and conversations back to the Committee? There was no way she would have been able to continue working under that kind of duress. Therefore, she had asked Chris for a special favor—to integrate her own advanced AI into the system. He had done the necessary work, and within the first three weeks, she had been interacting completely with Joshua.

  She had Chris run periodic checks for evidence that any of the information or orders she gave Joshua were being accessed or monitored by the upper hierarchy of the Committee. He assured her that he was running the program from a different system, one the Committee would never think to check. Still, it was just as integrated into the network as everyone else’s AI, though it was much more secure. Apparently, the Committee hadn’t noticed—or decided it wasn’t a big enough concern for them to intervene in the issue.

  “I want to have a secured conversation with my colleague. Can you please deactivate any and all recording devices in this room?”

  “Yes, Miss Donaldson. Task complete—you may continue.”

  “Thank you.”

  Chris nervously glanced up at the corner of the room, then looked back at her.

  “This is going to fail,” she said with a hint of frustration creeping into her voice.

  “What is it exactly they want you to do?”

  “They want to send in Lucas, using your grenades and a new highly trained contingent, to capture either Max or, failing that, Jane.”

  “Jane? Still?” Chris thought about this for a moment. Then his eyes widened as he realized the implication. “They want to use her as bait.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Marie, they already know this will fail. I can tell by their instructions—if they had any confidence at all in their ability to capture this…man, they wouldn’t have given you the secondary command to recapture Connor. This project is dead. The Atlantic Object is gone.” He paused for a moment, seeming perturbed about what he wanted to say next. “There’s something else going here, isn’t there?”

  “Yes, presumably. But whatever it is, they’re not telling us.” Marie paused for a moment, then nodded. “And you’re completely right about everything else.” She walked to the window which overlooked the lot filled with automated vehicles below and placed her hands on the edge. “That’s why I suggest we have a contingency plan.” Turning around, she leaned her back against the window frame and folded her arms. “I like you, Chris. I’d hate to see you get caught up in…well, I can’t say exactly what’s going to happen, but if I were forced to guess…” She trailed off and her gaze drifted to the other side of the room.

  “This isn’t going to end well.”

  “No. It’s not,” she said after a moment. She squinted as though she had spotted something on the far side of the room. “Give Lucas the grenades when he gets here. Work with him. Pretend this conversation never happened.” She glanced at him again. “Do you have a contingency plan?”

  Chris shook his head nervously.

  Marie gave him a half smile. “It’s all right.” Pursing her lips, she turned back around to the window and looked out. “You can use mine.”

  Chris sighed deeply, as though mountains of pressure had lifted off his shoulders. “I can’t express how grateful I am, Miss Donaldson.”

  “It’s all right. You’re a genius anyway. It will be good to have you in my pocket when the flash hits.”

  “OK. So, what do we do now?”

  “Go back to the control room. Joshua?”

  “Yes, Miss Donaldson?”

  “When is Lucas scheduled to arrive?”

  “He is already in the facility, Miss Donaldson. He is presently in the armory. Several dozen men and women with highly weaponized vehicles are parked outside the facility, just outside your field of view.”

  Chris had been thinking, gazing at the ground, but upon hearing this, he looked back up at Marie just as she turned back to face him. His hands twitched as though his whole body was about to spasm.

  Marie gazed at him with a cool expression and a trace of a smile as she walked toward him. “Relax. I’ll handle this. Lucas is a thug, but he’s no threat to you or me. I’ll see to that. The Committee thinks it knows what it’s doing, but it’s obvious to me now that it has no clue. We’re in charge of making sure things don’t spin out of control.” She glanced to her side ruefully. “And damn it. I never had anything particular against Connor. I don’t want her or her friends harmed. However, I’m not sure I can do anything about it.”

  “Maybe we can think of something,” Chris said, his eyes darting as his mind went to work.

  “Good. If we can warn them—give them the upper hand.” She paused and looked into his eyes. “Lucas
is crazed. I really do think his mind is spinning off its hinges. I don’t know if he was ever stable to begin with.”

  “But the psychological evaluations—”

  “Are shoddy at best. A person with an IQ over 120 can race through them. And a high IQ isn’t always enough to ensure empathy, unfortunately—and as I’m sure you can tell by now, that was never high on the Committee’s agenda.”

  “Miss Donaldson?”

  “Go ahead, Joshua.”

  “Lucas has left the armory and appears to be heading for the control room. He should be there within five minutes.”

  With one more defiant look at Chris, they left the room together.

  ***

  Marie and Chris arrived in the control room just one minute before Lucas did. To ensure they arrived first, Marie had Joshua guide them via her earpiece to the room through a separate series of corridors. They walked straight to the center of the room and stood there, facing the monitor. Just before Lucas entered, Marie instructed Chris to change the image on the main screen. While they were gone, Genine had reverted it to the satellite feed, and the large, circular, crystalline structure had still been displayed on it. Marie didn’t want Lucas getting involved in anything to do with that. No doubt, mainstream news reports would be covering it soon, but for the moment, and at least for the duration of the mission on which he was about to embark, she had the ability to keep it off his radar.

  Marie heard the heavy door open just as the image reverted to the standard terminal interface, which displayed information about facilities’ functions. She didn’t turn around when she heard him approach from behind.

  “Marie,” he practically yelled.

  Detecting the new, gruffer tone in his voice, she slowly turned to face him. She knew immediately that this new, brusque presence he was projecting was an unconscious defense. Secretly, she knew that on some level he felt ashamed about the way he had acted on the ship. She also knew he would never admit that to himself—or anyone else.