by Scott Bly
“I dabble,” Foxx replied, baring his teeth in a smile that seemed far too carnivorous for comfort. Yates turned back to the monitors. Click click.
At a wave of Foxx’s hand, lasers illuminated the water-based screens. Yates’s program disappeared, replaced by new lines of code. On another screen, shapes and objects flowed in and out like moving architectural art. This programming technique was far more intuitive and efficient than reading lines of code.
Yates followed the endless stream of data, amazed. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It could take control of a computer, even networking gear. The artificial intelligence is extraordinary! It’s avoiding detection here, and sabotaging the …”
Yates touched the screen, actually sticking his hands into it, pausing the scroll of code. He inspected programming objects by grabbing and twisting them.
Yates lingered over a complex spiral, struggling to comprehend it. “How did you ever think of this?”
“Beginner’s luck,” Foxx said with false modesty.
“How would you actually use this?”
“It’s a hybrid — part standard computer virus, part biological virus. We have a lot to learn from nature.” Foxx let his words sink in. “Lawrence, I’d like to blend my code with yours. We’ll spread this virus together.”
“I work alone, Mr. Foxx. The biggest software developer in the world tried to hire me three times. I turned him down. But … if we did blend code, what computers do you want to control with this?” He pulled his hands away, and couldn’t resist bragging. “I spread the Nonsense virus to thirty million systems in six hours last fall.”
“I know all about the Nonsense virus, Lawrence. You cost my IT department seven hundred thousand in the first hour alone. No hard feelings, of course.” He flashed his famous smile. “This isn’t just for computers. Have another look, my boy. Don’t tell me you can’t spot it. A coder as advanced as you are can easily identify the fumblings of a novice like me, right?”
Yates was piqued. No one doubted his Kung Fu. His vision filled with the hypnotic surge of moving shapes and code.
Foxx waved his hand again. The AquaFase flashed faster and faster, pulsing in rhythms not yet apparent.
Was Foxx singing? Yates was imagining things. Click click.
“This goes far beyond controlling computers, Lawrence. With this virus, I plan to control more — much more. And you will have the honor of being the first….”
Foxx rose from his chair. He locked his arms in a tense semicircle above Yates. The programmer’s body jolted and stiffened. Foxx’s hands danced in a disjointed rhythm with the patterns flashing on-screen. He was a master puppeteer above his marionette. Yates twitched into unnatural positions, seemingly at Foxx’s command.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. Foxx collapsed in his chair, his face drained. The young man froze at the screen, silent. His body was tense but no longer contorted.
Foxx took a deep, shuddering breath and pulled himself upright. “Who is your master?” he rasped.
No response.
Foxx asked again, more forcefully, “Who is your master?”
“My master’s name … is Callis. He alone … commands me. You are … Callis?”
“Yes, I am Callis,” Foxx said. “Go. Your lab is ready. You know what to do.”
Yates rose with unnatural fluidity. He took a plastic card from Foxx’s hand and did not look back as he left.
Gramercy Foxx slumped down into his chair again. A smile of utter contentment crossed his face. He closed his eyes to rest. What a satisfying first move in his glorious chess game against humanity.
* * *
Across the office, opposite the conference table, the upper leaves of a potted bamboo palm rustled and quietly exhaled. Camouflage rendered the spy nearly invisible. Watching Foxx’s closed eyelids and steady breathing, the intruder carefully descended, clinging gecko-like to the wall.
Padding silently to the door, Geneva looked back over her shoulder at Foxx. She shuddered. His experiments had progressed beyond anything she could have imagined.
Callis. She’d been receiving cryptic messages in the back of her mind for months. There had been signs, but now she’d seen the undeniable truth with her own eyes.
She needed to keep moving. Charlie was expecting her — if he decided to come back with her to LAanges. In three hours, it would be dawn in Eamsford. Three hours minus five hundred years, she corrected herself. She hoped he was brave. He would have to be.
Charles couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t told his grandfather about the girl. Now, restless and irritable, he stared at the cracked ceiling and went over the day’s events.
First Grandfather refused to accept Charles’s hard work, again. “Repeat!” Grandfather snapped with a whack to the hands. Charles would run away soon. This time he meant it. Then Felton had caught him with the frog. And Geneva …
She didn’t act like someone trying to hunt him down, but how could he be sure? His grandfather always warned him: Do not trust anyone — even people you know.
They had been hiding out in these mountains as long as Charles could remember. So much of what he saw and did stayed behind locked doors. How could Geneva know about his grandfather? Did she know about the murders? But if she wanted to hurt him, why had she saved him from the Idiot Brothers?
Geneva spoke of a city named after angels. No, he did not think she would turn him in. Exhausted by unanswered questions, he finally drifted off.
* * *
Suddenly he woke with a start. The sun would be rising soon. The old man thinks that by being nasty to me, he can wash all that blood off his hands. Well, he can’t. Charles would take his chances and go.
He took one last look around the bare room. What made him hesitate? Grandfather? No, Grandfather was impossible to please. Charles had known for a long time that the only way to stop the old man was to leave.
His three tutors said Charles was a mathematical genius, a prodigy. They said he was a born master — the Hum roared through him. He would become legendary. But every accomplishment brought only one thing — another smack with the cane.
Day after day Grandfather barked at Charles, snapping instructions. “Your mother did that when she was two years old! Attend to your lessons and not on how talented you think you are! You must prepare! Remember the prophecy: A time will come when the Hum will no longer serve us — no one will feel it, or even believe in it. If the law is passed, we’ll all be hanged. Study, boy! You’re the new generation. Study to keep it alive.”
Well, I’m not going to study anymore, Charles thought stubbornly. I don’t care about the prophecy. I don’t have a single friend. I’m not even allowed to have a dog!
On his school slate, he scratched a simple good-bye message:
I HAVE GONE TO SEE THE ANGELS. I WILL PRACTICE EVERY DAY.
There. Let Grandfather figure that out.
Charles made his way down to the river. The sun was beginning to rise. A bird flew overhead, and a blue feather fell to the ground. Charles picked it up and put it in his pocket. Maybe it would be good luck.
Splash! The girl’s laughter rippled out of the water, but she wasn’t there.
“You do want to come,” a voice said.
“I … I do,” he stammered into the air.
“So ask me a question, Charlie!”
“Where are you from?”
“LAanges. I told you that. Ask another!”
“Come out where I can see you.”
“I’m right in front of your face!” The bushes parted. Her camouflage was perfect. “The question to ask is not where am I from, but when. When am I from, Charlie?”
She stepped in front of an oak, and her colors immediately blended to match the tree trunk. “I’m from five hundred years in your future, and halfway around the world.” She cocked her head and waited for his reaction.
“You’re insane!”
“I’m very sane and very serious. I came from the future to ask for you
r help.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I came because you can do things no one else can do — from any place or any time. You have a gift. It’s in your blood.”
A gift. A terrible, frightful gift that makes it impossible to trust anyone. If she’s lying, I’ll end up dead like my father, my mother, my grandmother — who never hurt a living thing, not even a spider.
The thought made him sick. “Go back where you came from!” He started to run.
A sharp, piercing wail shattered the silence of the woods. Its vibration made his teeth ache, and he covered his ears with his hands. Just when he thought his head would explode, the siren stopped.
“I can do that again!” Geneva called after him. “Every person in your village will have heard me, Charlie. If they aren’t already on their way, then I bet Fatwick will lead them straight here. And who are they going to find? Not me. I’ll disappear. Then they’ll remember the rumors about your grandmother.”
“Do not speak of her!” he shouted.
“Then come with me, Charlie. I’m begging you! Please! Help me!”
“Help you what?” he said, fighting to control his anger.
“Stop a terrible man from enslaving the world — everyone! I’m telling the truth. I am from the future. Let me show you the way,” she said. “It’s over here. You’ll see.”
She ran to the riverbank and waded in, knee-deep. Arms in a wide circle, she brought the tips of her pointer fingers close together, her thumbs straight up. She frowned and squeezed her eyes shut, deep in concentration.
“Can you feel it?” she whispered.
He could. His skin tingled. It was the Hum, even more intense than yesterday.
“Come on, atoms,” she said hoarsely. “Smash!” She touched her fingers together.
Flash! A bright light burst from Geneva’s fingertips. “Smasher!” The air popped with a wet hiss. She pinched her fingers together over the light — grabbing it, pulling it. She twisted and spread her arms high and low. The point of light grew into a bright disk.
Then she released it. A shimmering pool of watery blue light hovered a few inches above the surface of the river like a window.
“Do you believe me now?”
“What is it?”
“It’s a void, Charlie. That’s how I got here. And that’s how we’re going to LAanges. It’s a Resonant Gap in the geometry and frequency of the universe. The laws of physics — the rules that hold the world together — they can be … bent a little. Or stretched. I can open a gap and jump in! On the other side, we’re beyond space and time. When we jump back out, we’ll be somewhere else, or some time else.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“Just look at that thing!” she snapped, exasperated. “Have a little faith, Charlie. And you can always come back.”
“You promise I can come back?”
“I promise. Will you go?”
“Yes.”
Without another word, she jumped into the vertical pool with a sideways splash.
“Wait!”
But it was too late. The bottoms of her feet kicked off and disappeared.
Was it water? He poked it. It moved like water, except it hung in midair and rippled sideways. And his finger was dry. Smasher had to be connected to the Hum — everything was.
Where had she gone?
Have a little faith. He wanted to go. He’d said he would go. But now he was paralyzed with fear.
The sound of voices startled him, reminding him of the danger in his own village. People had heard the loud noise and were coming. He looked at the impossible, glowing fluid. They would see this. They would think it was him — the Hum. Their suspicion and fear would whip them into a frenzy.
Smash through time?
Charles peered into the swirling vortex.
And he leaped.
Charles was submerged, but it wasn’t exactly water. Was he under time — or space? He was surrounded by a blue glow.
Countless points of light stretched into the distance. They reminded him of stars.
A voice from a thousand miles away floated to his ears.
Charlie. It was Geneva. Charlie! Focus!
Suddenly she appeared. Her lips didn’t move, but Charles could hear her. Focus! Right here! She yanked his arm so hard it hurt. Then she pulled him. The speed was almost incomprehensible.
One of the points of light grew larger. It expanded to the size of a window. Geneva pushed it with all her strength, and then — clank — she sailed through, hauling Charles behind her.
* * *
“Oof!” He slammed down onto solid ground. Another yank. Geneva pushed him against a stone wall.
“Where are we?”
“LAanges. More than five hundred years in the future!”
He squinted into blaring sunlight. The sights, smells, and sensations of traveling to a huge city in the future were too overwhelming. He felt dizzy.
“Snap out of it,” Geneva said. “We have to go see Gramercy Foxx.”
“Who is that?”
“He’s the reason you came here.” She reached behind a Dumpster where she’d stashed a tattered blue jacket. “Put this on. You need to fit in. Come on.”
As she led him down the alley, her black one-piece outfit shimmered, shuddered, and shook itself out. The fabric shrank, stretched, and rewove itself into a loose lavender shirt and baggy white pants.
Charles blinked. “How do you do that?”
“It’s advanced nano-web fabric, mostly made of carbon nanotubes and self-assembling magnetic relays.”
“What?”
“I’ll explain it later.”
“No shoes?”
“Too confining. Can’t feel the ground. Come on, this way.”
They were walking fast through crowds of strange people in even stranger clothes. Charles didn’t feel a glimmer of the Hum. Is this the future Grandfather described? Where people can’t sense it?
“How did you connect to the Hum through that Smasher thing you did?” Charles asked.
“What do you mean? I didn’t connect to anyone.”
“Yes you did. You used the Hum to travel through time. How did you do it?”
“The Hum? Is that what you call it? Cool! I want to hear about it — everything you know. We don’t have it here. At least nobody does but Gramercy Foxx … and now you.”
“Why not?”
Geneva didn’t answer. She was almost running.
“Where are we going?”
“To see Gramercy Foxx. We’re almost there. You need to keep up, Charlie. I’ll explain it later.”
Charlie, he thought. Something you’d call a good friend. He was starting to like it.
Now she stopped and pointed up. They stood in front of the tallest skyscraper in the city.
“This is the TerraThinc Building,” Geneva said. “Follow me, and keep your head down. If they catch us, it’ll be bad.”
“Catch us?”
Whoosh! Geneva had already rotated out of view behind revolving doors.
Charles followed. Every aspect of LAanges — and the future — was astonishing and mesmerizing. The lobby of TerraThinc was jammed with people talking, but not to each other. “Geneva,” he asked, “what are they doing?”
“Notice they’re all wearing glasses? Those are displays. They’re having HoloChats.”
“Hollow-what?”
“Hologram Chats. They’re talking to their friends.”
She pulled him to a set of doors marked “Observation Deck Elevators” that slid open, and Geneva pushed him in with a mob of tourists. She squeezed his hand, and the elevator took off.
Charlie. It is a good name for a friend.
Up. They were going up and up and up. His ears popped. Seconds later, they stepped out onto a viewing platform. The sharp wind and staggering size of the sprawling city left him breathless.
He was weak in the knees when Geneva pulled him away to a small door. She punched a
few buttons, and a second door clicked open. Then she led him up a flight of stairs.
“Where are we going?”
“To the very top.”
He peered down over the stairwell railing. The sight of the bottomless spiral made him queasy. Seven flights up, they reached a sign that read “Roof Access — Authorized Personnel Only.” Geneva stopped at the security panel and pressed more numbers. The door clicked open. Charles looked at her in amazement.
“Technology, Charlie. Pretty soon you’ll know all about it. No different than the wheel or the horseshoe.” She held the door open for him. “After you.”
* * *
A huge rush of wind almost knocked Charles off his feet.
“Hey! Come over here, to the edge. Look at my ladder.”
“I don’t see any ladder. Is this one of your Smasher things?”
“No.” She made him feel along the edge of the roof with his fingertips. “Can you feel it? Look again. Right … there!”
A black ladder suddenly became visible to Charles. It descended down, down, down. When he moved an inch, it vanished. “Wow!”
“Negative refraction,” Geneva explained. “I call it Cloaking. It’s one of the ways I spy on him.”
“Who?”
“Gramercy Foxx! The terrible man! The reason you’re here. This is his building. That ladder hangs right outside his office.”
“You want me to spy on him? Why?”
She pointed at the ladder. “You climb down that, and then you look at him through his office window. I’m pretty sure what he’s doing is connected to your gift. I think he has it, too. If I’m right, you’ll sense it.”
The Hum again. Had Grandfather been right?
“Aren’t there any people like me anymore?” he asked softly.
“No, Charlie. Except maybe Foxx, and if he has your power …” She let out a deep sigh. “Well, you need to find out.”
Slowly Charles climbed over the ledge and onto the ladder. Step by step, he descended. Do not look down.