The Gambit with Perfection (The Phantom of the Earth Book 2)

by Zen, Raeden

  Interesting choice for Zorian to halt, Isabelle reflected.

  Atticus seemed to be struggling to speak. Finally, he managed, “You will lead us to them or you will follow your brother into the afterlife.”

  Zorian disengaged. Once again, the Cellar Level materialized. Isabelle silenced her barking hounds.

  “My chancellor,” Zorian said, “I could lead you to the eastern stronghold and help you destroy it with your Janzers and tenehounds, but more just like it will sprout before we’re finished. For all I know, the caverns in Navita are gone. The same is true of the Polemon passageways.”

  Isabelle sighed. Zorian’s candidness surprised her, but she doubted she could trust him. “Blackeye Cavern,” she said, “you know where it is. Tell us.”

  “No.”

  “Without a homeland, the BP would be forced to surrender—”

  “No.”

  “Tell us, now.”

  “I don’t know where it is!”

  She detected no break, no sense of untruth in his voice or mind. If he deceived them, this was indeed a skilled telepath.

  “Then you’re useless to us,” Atticus said. He turned to Isabelle. “Escort this traitor to Farino Prison—”

  “Pardon, Chancellor.” Atticus frowned but let him speak. “I don’t know Blackeye Cavern’s location, but I can help you, if you let me.”

  “What’re you proposing?” Atticus said.

  Zorian took three steps toward the chancellor, his cape swaying behind him. Atticus stepped back, and the Janzers crossed their swords before him.

  Isabelle stepped in front of Zorian. “I might send you to the East, then, and when you make contact with the BP spies, I will follow them to the stronghold.”

  “The East will not do,” Zorian said. “My lady, let me be your eyes and ears in all your territories, and you will know the Front’s movements even before they do.”

  Isabelle’s heels clacked against the floor as she orbited Zorian. She observed his mind. He allowed her to do so. She sensed this thought, along with its implication, that he might stop her if he chose.

  “Unacceptable.”

  She signaled and a Janzer reattached the Converse Collar around Zorian’s neck.

  “Take him away,” she said.

  Zorian blew her a kiss as they dragged him out of sight.

  When they’d departed, Atticus took her by the arm. He escorted her to the Ballroom Level, with its balustrade, terrace, and southern city views. Masimovian Center and the districts formed the city’s bright skyline. The blue bioluminescent waterfalls in the Fountain of Youth hung in the distance.

  Atticus swept his hand toward the horizon. “We can’t let the BP take this from us.”

  Isabelle ran the nail of her index finger down his neck. “Give me the resources I require to destroy the Polemon, and your people shall live forever.”

  “So that was it.” A slight smile broke through his stubble goatee. “You thought the threat presented by Jeremiah’s traitorous son could convince me to let Antosha return to the commonwealth.”

  “Only the timing of his return is in question.”

  “I think not.”

  She pulled away. “We agreed!”

  “Prime Minister Decca will not allow—”

  “The people will blame you, not Carillon Decca, if we lose this war. You must stop the BP, or all this,” Isabelle waved her hand over the balustrade, “will disappear.”

  Atticus ran his hands through his thick hair. “You truly think Antosha can help us?”

  “I’ve never been so sure of something in my life. He’s more advanced with the zeropoint field, the CRISPR system, and synbio than any living scientist.”

  “What will I tell the people if he should kill again?”

  “The only ones among us who should fear Antosha are the traitors we desperately must terminate, for the survival of the commonwealth and the good of your people.”

  Atticus waved his hand and nodded. He lit a cigar from the lighter in the palm of a keeper bot and puffed. “You told me you searched for the whelp, Cornelius Selendia. Did you find him?”

  “Lieutenant Arnao’s pursuit continues, and I’ve been mining Marstone’s Database.” Isabelle twisted one of her bracelets.

  Atticus puffed his cigar again and narrowed his eyes. He was trying to search her mind, but she would not let him see her.

  “From the time Cornelius escaped our city,” Isabelle said, “I’ve caught bits of information, flashing on and off, though the origin remains in the East … in Navita.” She tapped her lips with her forefinger. Zorian knows where they are, he led us to Navita for a reason. But can I trust him? Perhaps she would chat again with him sooner than she thought.

  “I wonder, my lady,” Atticus said, “did you just unravel the enigma?” He activated a Granville sphere that hung above the terrace, creating the illusion of Navita City, its Great Falls crashing around them.

  ZPF Impulse Wave: Broden Barão

  Unknown Time

  Unknown Location

  I can’t fail, Brody thought, not now.

  The one hundred twenty-one years of his life flashed before him; his illegal birth in Portage City; the Janzer invasion of his apartment unit; his father’s suicide; his and Xylia’s arrest; Minister Kaspasparon and Portage Citadel; the Variscans and development; Nero, Verena, and the Harpoons; Vastar Alalia and his teams; Jeremiah Selendia and his obsession with power and Reassortment; the Gemini; and Damy, his eternal partner who kept up his spirits through decades of death; round and round they went, like the Cassiopeia through space.

  Brody sent out a burst of telekinetic energy around the shuttle, shielding it from the influence of the consciousness he felt far stronger here than at CCCCm A57914678.37-1794256.2 before the Cassiopeia barreled into the exotic portal.

  “Captain Barão,” Verena screamed. With not even the red emergency light in the hull, he couldn’t see her. “We’re moving too fast! We have to steady the shuttle!”

  “I’m trying!” he said.

  He sent out another surge of energy into the ZPF, and this time he kept the consciousness at bay. The Cassiopeia’s red emergency lights flickered before full power returned. He requested equilibrium-inducing synisms from his synsuit to steady his middle ear.

  “Take command of the Cassiopeia,” he said to Verena. And to Nero: “Help her steady our positioning.”

  Brody disengaged from the shuttle’s artificial intelligence, focusing solely on the mysterious consciousness still pushing all around the shuttle. Perspiration poured down his face. He lowered his head and the synisms in his helmet did their best to clear the condensing water vapor, and he expelled his quantum field from his mind until finally, mysteriously, the foreign consciousness disappeared.

  Brody lifted his head and gasped for air.

  Verena and Nero settled the shuttle in the void. The Granville syntech revealed the outside view.

  The gargantuan Planet Vigna sat beneath them. Its atmosphere appeared as shades of blue, red, violet, and orange; a singular continent contained beige, charcoal, white, green, blue, red, and brown landmasses; many layers of clouds implied many atmospheric temperature inversions; icy poles; sinuous waterways. The exoplanet’s three stars simmered in the distance. Of its three moons, the one identified as Cerberus, with its three burnt clay mountains and plateaus, hung closest.

  Verena’s mouth gaped open. “It’s … perfect.”

  “Brodes,” Nero said, “what the heck just happened?”

  “I’m not sure,” Brody said.

  “At the last world, you mentioned a consciousness,” Verena said.

  Brody looked down to his hands. His fingers trembled. He felt sweat streak down his face. “I’m not sure what I felt.” He turned to Nero. “We have no time to waste.”

  “Understood,” the striker said. “Requesting permission to discharge the probes.”

  “Permission granted.”

  “Coordinating the launches …”

&
nbsp; Silver light overtook the shuttle. When it cleared, the hull darkened, leaving not even the emergency red lighting active.

  “My gods,” Verena said, “again?”

  Brody felt his gut pulling toward his throat. “We’re caught in Vigna’s gravity,” he said.

  Or he thought it was Vigna’s gravity until he sensed an impulse wave in the ZPF, a consciousness similar to the one he’d felt at CCCCm A57914678.37-1794256.2 and just now when they’d emerged through space-time from the exotic portal, but far more potent.

  “No, not gravity … we’re under attack.”

  “From what?” Nero said.

  “I can feel it, all around us, penetrating the shuttle, and me, adjusting to my methods in the field.”

  Brody connected to the ZPF in a manner he never expected to again—to protect himself from a quantum field of a quality even more powerful than the one Antosha once used. He felt its energy within him, the sensation as if a million needles tickled him from the inside out. This was the universe’s raw power, without interference from Marstone, and Brody sensed a presence, familiar but foreign, close but distant. He screamed, and his blood rushed through his veins. He held his arms at his sides, palms up.

  He gasped.

  The Granville syntech reignited, and the outside view returned.

  Shuttle captain to Cassiopeia, Brody sent, steady our positioning above Vigna. The shuttle engines ignited, and Brody felt the lift in his body. He breathed deeply and rapidly.

  Verena said, “Captain, let it go, we’re all right … just let it go.”

  Brody shook so violently that the plating on his column vibrated.

  “Captain?” Nero said.

  “It’s here,” Brody said.

  “What’s here?” Verena said.

  “The Lorum.”

  Nero gritted his teeth. “But I thought—”

  “Launch the probes,” Brody said, “you have no idea how difficult this is—”

  “We should abort,” Verena said.

  “Absolutely not,” Brody said. His capillaries surfaced around his eyes and forehead, then disappeared beneath his skin.

  Nero telepathically coordinated the launches with the Cassiopeia.

  The shuttle activated the probes, cylindrical robotics painted with doves that spiraled down over the Vignan surface with their wings extended, reflecting starlight.

  Brody threw his head back. Sweat poured down his face. Water vapor built in his helmet, condensing against the edges, forming quicker than the synisms could absorb.

  Nero reviewed their position as compared to Vigna and the portal. “Love,” he said, “have you conducted a planetary diagnostic?”

  “We should abort—”

  “Just do it, Verena!” Brody said.

  “Launching mapping probes, now,” Nero said.

  Brody gasped, and the hull darkened. The shuttle descended into Vigna’s thermosphere.

  “This is foolish,” Verena said, “we should return to Earth while we still can.”

  “We can’t,” Brody said. He stabilized the shuttle, and the Vigna system again reappeared. “I have the coordinates.”

  He thought about the colorful, liquid alloy. Was it an energy source, a natural feature, or some other technology used by the Lorum? Could the Lorum aid transhumans with Reassortment as Antosha believed? Might the cure be this close?

  Prepare for the drop, Brody sent to Nero. Be quick and we’ll circle with the retrieval hook.

  Nero nodded, activated the magnets in his boots, and unlatched.

  “My gods,” Verena said to Nero, “you can’t—”

  “Love, I’m going.”

  Cassiopeia, Brody transmitted. His eyes were bloodshot. Capillaries bulged on his cheeks and forehead. Activate view from Capricorn probe.

  The Capricorn transmitted to the Cassiopeia. Holograms formed in the center of the hull, a vast area of shaggy weeds and mossy stone near a river with what appeared to be electric sparks, cliffs, broken clouds, geothermal vents, waterfalls, and colorful stones. There were trees as tall as Masimovian Tower, their trunks as wide as transports. Plants sprouted in different directions, reaching for light from different stars, their stems as large as weeping willow trunks, their leaves green, orange and yellow, translucent white, red or pink.

  To Verena, Brody sent, Send me the results of your planetary diagnostic.

  She obeyed his order, and Brody studied the data. He told Nero, Oxygen levels near the surface at forty percent, magnetic field ten times more powerful than Earth’s, temperature inversions detected, surface temperature fifty degrees Celsius, weather patterns normal, northwestern winds at twelve kilometers per Earth hour, barometric pressure low but DO NOT risk exposure. Get in, find the metallic liquid, retrieve the sample, and get out.

  Copy, Nero answered.

  All systems ready for departure, Verena sent.

  Nero knelt and held the handles on the hatch.

  The Cassiopeia plunged through Vigna’s thermosphere and into its mesosphere. Flames engulfed the shuttle’s walls.

  Entering the Vignan stratosphere, Verena sent, seventy thousand meters to the drop point.

  The fires cleared, and they saw the Vignan sky: white star upon the horizon, orange star directly above, and its companion, the distant, gigantic blue star.

  We’re entering the troposphere! Twenty-five thousand meters to the drop point!

  Brody extended his consciousness and viewed Nero’s coordinates rotating around Vigna’s metallic liquid river, which met the aqua river’s waterfalls near mossy cliffs and a temperature inversion.

  Ten thousand meters!

  In the control room’s center, the hologram shifted to the bulbous trees with their geometric leaves and the aqua river whose tributaries rumbled across and over the edge of the cliff formation.

  Five thousand meters to drop point.

  Vigna’s features, the plateaus and mountains and streams and plant life, seemed close enough to touch in Brody’s enhanced vision. He felt the Lorum presence in the ZPF backing off, and he exhaled deeply. His eyes and mind felt heavy with relief.

  The Cassiopeia filled with midnight-blue light, and the team heard, Prepare for departure and the clack, clack, clack of the hatch mechanism adjusting for the drop.

  Three thousand meters!

  The clouds thickened within the temperature inversions, and the Cassiopeia burst through layer after layer of cloud cover.

  Prepare for departure.

  Two thousand meters.

  Prepare for departure.

  One thousand meters.

  Brody sensed another change in the ZPF and was about to request an abort, about to lift the shuttle back to the portal, back to Earth where he’d force Chancellor Masimovian to let his team keep the Reassortment project, when the blue lighting cleared.

  Opening departure hatch, the Cassiopeia sent.

  The hatch opened and closed, and Nero swooped into the Vignan troposphere.

  The Cassiopeia veered and hovered like a hawk.

  Nero was rendered in holographic form before them.

  The Capricorn probe provided a ground–up visual, but the newly swarming clouds in the inversions obscured the top–down visual from the shuttle.

  Adjust ten degrees west, Verena sent to Nero, target should be appearing— A flash of silver light that filled the Vignan sky obscured the view inside the shuttle. Brody and Verena covered their eyes.

  “Captain,” Verena said, “what’s happening?”

  Cassiopeia, Brody sent, clear the panels.

  Panels clear, Captain. Disturbance originated from Planet Vigna.

  “Look,” Verena said, “there!” The rendition from the Capricorn probe focused. “He’s lost control!”

  Nero spun and flailed as if unconscious. Brody and Verena tried to connect with him through the ZPF. When that failed, they tried Cassiopeia.

  Striker Nero is unresponsive, the shuttle replied.

  Verena slung her fist toward Brody. “I t
old you!” She manipulated the data stream to determine Nero’s position. “Take us to him!” She reconnected to the shuttle. Take us to him, now!

  The Cassiopeia tipped to its side and rocketed down, exploding through the layers of cloud cover until the massive trees materialized, and beneath them the aqua river, steam drifting up from the springs that pocked its sides.

  Nero was about to plunge into the water.

  We can’t get to him, Brody sent, but I won’t leave him here.

  Cassiopeia, Verena sent, eject retrieval hook!

  Striker Nero is out of range, the Cassiopeia replied.

  The Lorum’s telepathic energy overwhelmed Brody, and the planetary view faded. The shuttle spun slowly toward a jungle. Verena twisted her head back and forth in her egg-shaped helmet. Sweaty strands of hair were pasted to her chin.

  Brody swiveled his head weakly, his face pale.

  Their last view of Vigna beyond the trees was of Nero crashing into the sinuous river. Verena screamed.

  Brody’s world darkened.

  Part III:

  Inversions

  On the Surface: Summer

  In Beimeni: Second Trimester

  Days 173 – 176

  Year 368

  After Reassortment (AR)

  ZPF Impulse Wave: Damosel Rhea

  Beimeni City

  Phanes, Underground Central

  2,500 meters deep

  Spring had turned to summer upon the surface, while the Great Commonwealth entered its second trimester in the time since the Barão Strike Team had launched its Mission to Vigna. Progress on Project Silkscape was slower than Damy would have preferred, with not enough prehistoric fauna or flora yet produced, giving her less confidence her team could meet the 370 AR deadline for opening day. More than once she thought about the latest Harpoon Champion; in the end, Damy pressured the Placement Committee to add Gwendolyn Horvearth to Brody’s team, and her understanding was that upon his return, should he return, Gwen would be assigned as his shadow apprentice.