by Scott Bly
It was up to McCallum. He grabbed his Mark V and leaped onto the garbage bin. Then he climbed up to the fresh hole in the wall.
The boy sat just above him, holding the puppy and a box. His eyes were closed. He continued to simply … vanish. His face and hands were dissolving away as if he’d been doused in acid.
John heaved himself in. Where seconds ago the boy and the puppy had been sitting, now there was only an empty chair.
The boy’s eyes had disappeared last. Just before they vanished, they opened and looked straight at him. John wanted to crawl out of his skin.
“What,” he gasped, “is happening here?”
Charlie didn’t hear the explosion. His ears were gone. The Hum was rearranging him at the molecular level. His consciousness, or spirit, floated upward, while his body, transformed into energy — information — an email attachment.
He felt his spirit float away, vaguely aware that John McCallum was climbing up. By the time McCallum shouted to cut the power to the building, Charlie, his puppy, and Pandora’s Box had no physical form.
* * *
Charlie felt a spinning pressure, as if he had a head cold. His body had transformed into Charlie Email. The puppy and Pandora’s Box had merged into him. He flashed down the building’s InterNext connection as electrons. Then he zoomed to the high-speed routers in downtown LAanges.
Data connections were fast — blindingly fast after the last-minute upgrades. Highly compressed, Charlie Email traversed the InterNext very quickly.
Once Charlie Email was accepted, the email servers waited patiently for the complete attachment to arrive. Standard filters checked the sender, and [email protected] registered through TerraThinc security, bypassing much of the antivirus and antispam measures applied to less trusted sources.
Layers of security to catch unacceptable attachments failed to stop him.
From transmogrification to arrival in Foxx’s mailbox, only twelve seconds passed. Charlie’s consciousness followed his electrical body. Now he could only wait for the email to be opened to release him.
* * *
Inside Foxx’s office, Charlie’s spirit floated fifty feet or so from the vacant desk. Where was Foxx? He could feel Callaya, but only as an enhancer within his altered form.
He explored, visiting the 198th floor. He wasn’t prepared for what he found.
Geneva was alive, strapped to a table. A large electrical harness hooked into each arm. The stripped-back nano-skin below her elbow exposed the underlying robotics. She was in agony.
Lawrence Yates adjusted electrodes and data connectors protruding from her head and chest. Foxx supervised from nearby.
Charlie’s plan had to work, or she would die. He tried to reach out to her, but with no physical body he couldn’t speak. He was a bubble of conscious energy.
Geneva sensed something. She opened her eyes. A presence she couldn’t identify granted her a brief distraction from the pain and blinding dehydration.
But the respite couldn’t last. She closed her eyes and shuddered.
* * *
Today would be the best day in Gramercy Foxx’s life. The Future is upon us! I will launch the greatest coup in the history of the world!
Foxx stopped. It was little more than a blip on the radar, but he felt something there in the room with them, like a ghost. He closed his eyes. He could feel the Hum, but beyond that, he saw nothing, sensed nothing. Whatever it was had gone.
He wondered if today’s pressure was getting to him. Yates waited, zombielike, for his next instruction. Foxx felt distracted, exasperated.
“Run them again. I want the full range of possibilities. How much will the data congestion slow us down? I’ll be at my desk.” He had reports to review. The release of The Future would be perfect. Everything was coming together as planned … with one exception.
* * *
Ambulances were on the way. Blue Bird was flying the badly injured men to the nearest hospital. McCallum had to let Foxx know what had happened.
But what had happened? He couldn’t make sense of it. The boy was surrounded, hooked up to a machine. Somehow he had disrupted the explosives, and in the process, he’d managed to … what? Evaporate?
McCallum remembered the boy’s disappearance in the stairwell. Was this the same thing?
He took a deep breath and hit the button for Foxx’s direct line.
* * *
Charlie had returned to Foxx’s office for fear of being sensed.
Foxx stormed in, shouting into his earpiece. Frustrated with his disembodied deafness, Charlie focused on the vibrating air and discovered he could hear.
“Bring me everything, McCallum! I want to see it all!” Foxx commanded.
The desk phone buzzed.
“What, Evelyn?”
“Miss Virtue is in the helicopter on the way here.”
“Tell me when she arrives.” He skimmed his email.
Charlie read over his shoulder. The subject lines all involved The Future.
Except one. A sharp breath told Charlie that Foxx had found it.
Foxx’s hand almost trembled over the touch screen. Was Gramercy Foxx afraid? Then the hesitation was gone. Foxx tapped the touch screen. A message sounded about virus scanning.
Would Charlie be found out now?
The software recognized no virus.
Foxx tapped the email open.
Charlie was safe.
Foxx’s eyes widened as he read the email. He sat back in his chair, reading it a second time. Then the attachment lit up — Foxx selected it, but he didn’t open it. A different antivirus window appeared, scanning with more powerful software.
Charlie prepared himself. He ran over the steps. As soon as Foxx opened the attachment, Charlie would transmogrify and open Pandora’s Box. Foxx would be captured and powerless to launch The Future. The world would be safe.
But Foxx didn’t open the attachment. Why not?
Open it! Charlie wanted to scream.
Foxx abruptly spun in his chair and stood up, staring at Charlie’s presence. Foxx knew! An eternity passed until Charlie realized Foxx wasn’t looking at him, but through him. The man stared out the window of his office, looking down at the city.
How can we be kin? You murdered my mother. Charlie’s physical body would hold Grandfather’s trap. He was fighting back. And he had escaped Foxx every time.
When Foxx turned to sit, Charlie thought the moment had come. Open it, open it, open it. But Foxx hit the intercom instead.
“Yates!”
“Yes, master?” A haunted, broken voice.
“Stop the projections. Scan the code itself. Full parallel processing. Look for any anomaly at all.”
How did Foxx know?
The phone buzzed again.
“What now?” Foxx shouted.
“Mr. Foxx, Jane Virtue has landed on the roof,” Evelyn said. “Shall I send her down?”
“Fine!”
“And Mr. McCallum is here to see you, with some other gentlemen.”
“Then let them in!”
Foxx is on edge, Charlie realized.
The phone buzzed again. It was Yates’s oddly monotonous voice. “Sir, the scan was negative for unauthorized code.”
Charlie was elated. Geneva’s code hasn’t been detected. He wished he could tell her the good news.
McCallum entered with two men from Red Team. They carried boxes.
“This is it, sir,” McCallum said. “Everything from Geneva’s hiding place.”
Foxx opened one. The Code Analyzer. He inspected it with intense curiosity.
Charlie watched closely. In moments, his plan would come to pass.
“Guards,” Foxx said. “Leave us.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jane Virtue stepped into the room, radiant despite having flown halfway around the world on her publicity tour. McCallum held his polite smile, but his stomach flipped unexpectedly. What was it about her?
“Jane! You look ravishing,”
Foxx gushed. Ratings had gone up another 13 percent in the last few days.
“Thank you, Gramercy.” Jane kissed him lightly on both cheeks, her purse over one arm. Perfect LAanges etiquette.
“You’re ready for the big moment?” Foxx asked. “Everything changes tonight, my dear. I was just telling John…. You know John McCallum, don’t you?”
“I believe we spoke on the phone,” she said with a kind smile.
“Yes, ma’am.” John’s nerves didn’t betray him. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“I was about to tell John that I have just received an unexpected surprise,” Foxx said. “A nasty little thing, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Gramercy! What is it?”
“I was about to open an email sent to me by a hacker. It contains some … ransom demands, for lack of a better term. I’ll show you the relevant bits.”
Foxx tapped the attachment. This was what Charlie had been waiting for.
Crack! The air itself ripped apart, flashing as brightly as a lightning strike.
Time stopped for Charlie. One moment he was above them, omnisciently aware. The next moment, he was physically transmogrified back into a boy. Disoriented and breathless, his only thought was of Pandora’s Box.
* * *
McCallum saw the flare of light reflected in Jane’s glasses, saving him from the temporary blindness Jane experienced. He spun and dropped, combat-ready, sidearm out.
He couldn’t believe what he saw. Curled in a ball on Gramercy Foxx’s desk lay the boy he’d been pursuing: Charlie.
Foxx jumped clear, stunned by the blast. McCallum thought he would never see fear on the face of Gramercy Foxx, but for a split second, there it was. Then it was gone.
“Get him!” Foxx screamed.
Jane trembled, hands over her ears, her eyes squeezed shut.
The boy raised his head. Tucked in his arms was a puppy. Callaya growled at Foxx. The boy flexed his arms, then looked down at his legs, as if checking to be sure they were still there. He looked at McCallum and then Jane, holding the puppy tight. His eyes searched Foxx’s desk as if he were missing something.
There — a carved wooden box fell to the floor beneath his feet. He reached for it weakly, but Foxx snatched the box away.
“Give me that!” the boy croaked. “It’s mine!”
“Not anymore,” Foxx snarled.
“It doesn’t belong to you! Don’t … don’t open it!”
Callaya began to bark, but the boy did not release her.
“Get him!” Foxx shouted to McCallum.
John hesitated, but then he did as he was told. He grabbed the boy and his puppy. Charlie, held tightly by McCallum, tried to twist away. Foxx placed the box on his desk.
“Gramercy!” Jane cried. “What’s happening here?”
“Calm yourself,” Foxx commanded sharply. “This boy is the hacker.”
“But he’s a child! How did he get here?”
“He’s a liar!” Charlie tried to shout. His voice gave out. “Don’t … listen!”
“Silence!” Foxx lunged at him, striking him across the face.
The dog snapped at Foxx and tried to bite his hand. McCallum pulled Charlie and the dog away.
“Gramercy, stop!” Jane screamed over Callaya’s barking and growling.
“He is trying to destroy everything we have accomplished, Jane!”
Holding the boy with one arm, McCallum kept an eye on Foxx.
“Throw the dog into the cabinet,” Foxx ordered.
Still gripping the boy, McCallum pulled the writhing puppy away. He gently tossed her into the cabinet, securing the latch. The door rattled and thumped as the dog struggled to get out.
“Take the boy to his girlfriend,” Foxx snapped. “They can learn about pain together.”
Charlie looked at Jane. He tried to speak. McCallum bent to listen.
“He’s saying your name, Jane.”
“This meeting is over! Take him downstairs!” Foxx’s voice rose.
“My name? Why my name? Please, Gramercy! Calm down!” She gently raised the boy’s face to hers. “Do you know me? Or did you see me on 3D?”
“I told you,” he whispered. “Foxx is a monster.”
Despite the rasp, Jane recognized the voice. She knew it — he had been telling the truth. Foxx’s actions were confirming it. “John, this is the boy I called you about — Charlie.” She suddenly felt sick. “Gramercy, what is this?”
Foxx had already stopped listening. “Very well,” he spat. “Free will is no longer necessary.”
* * *
Every screen in the room flared to life. A pattern of dancing light and pulsing sound filled the office. McCallum and Virtue were transfixed, unable to avert their eyes, unable to close their ears.
As Foxx conducted, the two fell under the power of The Future, now complete. Their last free thoughts were of surprise — surprise at their betrayal and surprise that they were becoming victims of the very machine they had unwittingly helped to create.
* * *
Charlie’s head hung limply. He knew what was happening. He recognized the lights, the sound — The Future. So he played dead in McCallum’s arms.
Even with his eyes closed, his mind began to drift. Focus. You are an unmovable stone in a river. You are flooded with the Hum. Let the water flow past you. Believe.
Charlie focused with every ounce of mental strength.
Then it all stopped. He felt McCallum’s grip tighten.
“Who is your master?” Foxx demanded.
“My master’s name is Callis,” Jane and McCallum replied in unison. “You are our master.”
Charlie didn’t lift his eyes. He didn’t need to. Jane and McCallum were gone — under Foxx’s control now, soon to be joined by how many others?
Play dead, play dead. Charlie needed more time.
Then it hit him. Where was Pandora’s Box?
He didn’t have long. Foxx would take his mind, too. Or torture him.
A shadow fell across his feet. It was Foxx, inches away. Play dead, play dead. McCallum continued to hold him tight. Charlie would need every bit of his strength to get the job done.
Sharp fingers grabbed his cheeks and yanked his face up. He opened his eyes weakly, trying not to focus. Foxx had to believe Charlie was incapable of resistance.
Charlie could smell Foxx’s stale breath.
“You have made a foolish mistake, boy,” Foxx said with pitiless disgust. “Tell me how you know what you know, and I may let you live. What is your full name?”
Charlie allowed his eyes to focus. Then he made the only move he had.
“My box,” he croaked. “In my box …”
“Who is your master?”
“Callis is my master,” Charlie whispered weakly.
Would his little bit of acting work? Get the box, Foxx! Get the box!
McCallum didn’t flinch. Foxx walked over to his desk.
He returned with the box and jerked Charlie’s face upright again.
“Where did you get this box?” Foxx hissed.
Charlie moaned. “In … an old shop. In the Highlands. Near Eamsford.”
“What’s in it?” Foxx looked at it closely. The box was light.
“Old papers. A drawing of you. And notes,” Charlie added. “From … Callaya.”
“Impossible,” Foxx spat, but he believed it. Or at least he was curious. “Who is your master?” he asked again.
“Callis is my master,” Charlie said.
“What do the notes say?”
“They’re about the Hum, master. That’s how I learned to connect to it.” Charlie feigned unconsciousness again.
Please, please underestimate me.
* * *
Foxx lightly gripped the ornately carved black lid. A box from a shop in the Highlands? It was possible — there was so much he didn’t remember. But brought by a boy who then ended up in LAanges? That would be quite a coincidence. Foxx had stopped believing in coincidences years ago.<
br />
Yet the boy had used the Hum. And Callaya’s notes about the Hum! Today was such an important day. But there might be something he could learn.
There was only one way to find out what was in the box. Foxx had to know. If the boy was lying, he would suffer for it.
Foxx knew something was wrong the moment he released the wooden catch. He nearly dropped the box. A swirling darkness leaped out, blocking all light. A bizarre suction pulled at his face and head. And there was the unmistakable vibration of the Hum, the very old Hum….
Gramercy Foxx had been deceived.
The room spun, a field of stationary stars beyond dark, swirling streaks. Pandora’s Box pulled the skin of Charlie’s face — it liked him, too. He wasn’t prepared for its incredible strength. Luckily McCallum held him in an iron grip.
Foxx’s hair streaked forward. Even his face stretched toward the box as he struggled against its power.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the tugging force waned. The spinning darkness lightened. And it all ended.
Foxx snapped the lid of the box closed.
Charlie’s face no longer ached from the box’s pull. Grandfather’s trap had failed.
Gramercy Foxx turned his furious gaze on Charlie. His hair uncharacteristically disheveled, Foxx’s face was twisted by rage. He bared his teeth in a vicious snarl. He dropped the box and struck Charlie sadistically across the face. Once. Twice. Three times. Blood flew.
McCallum and Jane Virtue did nothing.
Foxx gripped Charlie’s hair. His eyes darkened. “Do you think yourself clever, boy? I will devour your mind and consume your very soul. How dare you interfere with The Future! My masterpiece!”
This was the end. So be it, thought Charlie. He had done what he could. Foxx had won. First he steals hope. The sadness was overwhelming.
* * *
“Just enough time to go see your girlfriend,” Foxx hissed. “You’ll find her much changed.”
Crack! The dog broke through the cabinet door.
Callaya’s teeth sank deep into Foxx’s ankle. She refused to let go.
Foxx roared, kicking at the heavy wooden desk. A sickening thud sounded as the puppy struck the desk. She dropped limply to the ground with a whimper.
“Callaya!”