by Jacob Whaler
The old man nods without looking up and slides a finger across the bluescreen in front of him. A string of numbers appear below a graph. Above it, there’s a schematic of the inside of the transport aircraft with a slice of the middle section highlighted in red.
The co-tech turns. “What does the Beta Electronic Tertiary System say?” He speaks slowly and deliberately, emphasizing each word as it rolls off his tongue.
“BETSY says it’s an EM disturbance centered in the cabin, somewhere between rows 50 and 65. She can’t identify the type of signal, just the approximate location.” The old man scratches a spot of gray hair. “Whatever it is, its power is off the charts. Definitely bigger than a jax-jammer.”
“Maybe BETSY needs to stick to flying the plane and have her memory crystals cleaned.” The co-tech reaches over and grabs half a donut off a plate and shoves it into his mouth. “It’s probably a kid up there with one of those new m-jackers.” He swallows and then belches. “I heard they can intercept messages within a hundred-meter radius. Not sure how they could get it through the security portal, but I’ve seen stranger things.”
“Better go check it out.” The old man settles comfortably in his chair. “BETSY doesn’t like it, whatever it is.”
The co-tech exhales. “Will do.” He stands up and picks a scanner the size of a shoe off the wall and walks out of the tail section into the darkness of the cabin up ahead. Hundreds of jax holoscreens glow like luminescent jellyfish in a black sea. The scanner automatically activates as he passes seat 50. He slows down, glancing carelessly from side to side as he goes.
He moves past the seat where a young man is sleeping, arm hanging out into the aisle, dark hair down to his shoulders. An overstuffed backpack sticks out between his knees.
Worthless idiot, the co-tech thinks. Get your arm out of the aisle so people can walk by.
A red light pops up on the scanner. The co-tech pauses and begins walking backward. Stopping just to the side of the sleeping young man, he stares into the scanner, eyes large with excitement. Executing a quick turn, he brushes the young man’s arm in the dark.
The arm shoots out, as if animated by a sudden jolt of electricity, startling the co-tech. The young man’s eyes open. He bolts upright and pulls his arm in.
“What the hell?” The co-tech looks up and hears the sound of his own voice in the silence of the cabin. He stands beside the young man, staring down at the scanner, and shakes it. Then he lets out an audible sigh and walks back to the cockpit at the tail of the transport.
“Good job.” says the old man as the co-tech stumbles back into his chair and drops down. “Looks like you found it. The disturbance is gone. Everything’s back to normal.”
“Yeah, it stopped all right.” The co-tech has an uneasy smile on his face. “I never did see who or what it was. The scanner blanked out just before I pinpointed the source.” He picks up a slate and begins to tap on its surface. “I’ll send in a quick report to satisfy IC.”
CHAPTER 28
Matt reaches between his knees and opens the main compartment on his backpack, feeling around for a pack of gum he put on top. His fingers brush against a hard object, freeze and then slowly wrap around it.
In utter disbelief, he brings it out of the backpack and stares at its light blue glow. A tingle creeps down his spine like a beetle.
The rock.
How did this get into my backpack? Impossible.
With a quickened pulse, he feels an urgency to breathe. Inhaling deeply, holding to the count of ten and then slowly exhaling, he closes his eyes and methodically traces his memory of the last few hours, replaying the details in his mind. He sees himself walking through the security portal and getting stopped by the officer. The officer empties out his backpack and finds the rock. They scan it. Ask him what it is. There’s a quick discussion.
The guard says he has to keep it.
Everything goes back into Matt’s backpack, and the officer hands it back as he stares down at the rock in his hand. Matt runs off to the gate.
Without the rock.
“What the hell’s going on?” Matt mutters to himself in the darkness.
He gets a wary look from the woman sitting next to him.
There is a sudden need to talk to Jess, so he pulls out the jax and balances it in his left hand. The rock rests on the palm of his right hand. With eyes jumping back and forth between them, he taps out a message to her.
Remember that magic rock the security guys took at the airport? Just found it in my backpack. Glowing a different color. Light blue. Can’t explain it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it’s following me around. Too strange.
He decides not to say anything about the dream he just had and sends the message off. The reply comes in seconds.
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that you’re not joking and you’re in full command of your faculties. Maybe the security guard just stuffed the rock in your backpack at the last minute? Did you watch him the entire time?
Matt thinks for a moment. He can see the guard holding the rock and walking away with it. Did it really happen that way? Is his mind making it up? He isn’t sure now. Maybe his gaze drifted to the other passengers while the officer put the rock back in. Maybe the officer had something else in his hand. Maybe Jess is right. His fingers play a reply.
Not sure.
A haze of confusion hangs around him, whether from finding the rock or just waking up, he can’t tell.
Two possibilities. The guard put the rock back in your backpack, or the rock is alive and following you around. Get a grip and be logical. And get some sleep. You’ll need to be sharp when you get to Japan.
Matt stares down at his jax. Jess is right. He leans back into his chair and stretches out his legs until they extend under the seat in front. His eyes slowly drop down, the rock still in his hand.
He tries to sleep.
CHAPTER 29
“So, what did you think of our first big meeting about the Stones?” Ryzaard relaxes into the chair with his feet on the desk, hands behind his head. “I tried to give out just enough information to keep them motivated. Not too much. Not too little.”
Alexa is sprawled out on the red sofa. “You had them eating out of your hand. Hanging on every word. Now that they have a better idea why they’re working so hard, I’m sure the project will move forward with new life.” She brings the glass of champagne up to her lips.
“Do you think they believed everything I told them?”
“I didn’t see a shred of doubt in their eyes. I especially liked the way you handled your story about how you got the Stone from that holy man, Varanasi. Very convincing.” Alexa closes her eyes and takes a sip. A grin sweeps across her face. “For a moment there, I thought you were actually going to tell them the truth.”
“About how a Stone Holder can be killed to get his Stone?”
“Exactly.”
Picking up the statue of Zeus, Ryzaard brings it close to his eyes. “They are all good kids, but you never know. I did not think it wise for them to get any ideas about eliminating me and taking my Stone.”
“A stroke of genius.” Alexa opens her eyes. “I just never knew you were such a good liar. You’ve gotten better since I met you.”
“It helped that it was only half a lie.” Ryzaard sets the statue down. “It is difficult to kill a Stone Holder.”
“But possible.”
“Under the right circumstances, yes. It helps if the Holder is in a physically weakened condition. Then they can be finished off with a dagger. Just like Varanasi. But one has to know what he is doing.” Ryzaard rises from the chair and looks out the window. “Of course, all of that is our little secret.”
“Don’t worry. It’s safe with me.” Standing from the sofa, Alexa drains the glass and puts it back on the desk. Her eyes drop down to her jax. “Looks like you’ve got visitors coming down the hall, and I’ve got to get back to work. You’re keeping me very busy these days.”
On the wa
y out the door, Alexa passes Diego, Jing-wei and Kalani as they walk into Ryzaard’s office.
Ryzaard stands at the window, following the diving arc of a peregrine falcon. Four hours have passed since their morning meeting. They’re an hour late.
As the falcon drops out of sight, Ryzaard ignores the movement behind him. The smile disappears from his face. He senses trouble.
The three of them stand in the middle of the office, waiting for him to speak, watching the muscles in his bare back twitch and ripple.
“What’s going on?” Ryzaard finally says. “Three of you come to my office. Safety in numbers? No doubt there have been complications in tracking the other Stone.” He turns and drops again into his high-backed chair to face them, feet on the desk.
Diego begins. “GPS numbers generated by the tracking algorithm were coming in as expected until about an hour ago when it abruptly stopped.” Diego traces a line on the wood floor with his eyes. “We had the location of the Stone narrowed down to the middle of the western United States, probably Colorado.”
“Probably?” Ryzaard narrows his focus on Diego as his voice rises in volume. “Probabilities won’t help us.” The crescendo becomes an angry yell. “We need to know exactly where the Stone is. Anything less is useless information.” Spit bursts from his lips.
“The signal started to cut out. GPS numbers came in that didn’t make sense. Then nothing. We lost the signal.” Diego lifts his gaze up to Ryzaard, holds for a half second, and then drops it down at the floor. “The algorithm assumes the Stone is staying still at a point on the map. If the Stone suddenly jumps outside of that point, a circle roughly a kilometer across, the algorithm has to recalibrate and start over.”
“Whoever has the Stone got on a high-speed transport. A plane or a train.” Jing-wei jumps into the conversation. “They’re moving too fast to track. We have to wait until they stop and allow the algorithm to stabilize and restart.” She stares back at Ryzaard with no sign of fear or hesitation.
“What about a car?” Ryzaard says. “Perhaps they went for a morning drive.”
“Not likely. If they were moving that slowly, we’d still get faint readings on the direction of travel.” The puffiness under Diego’s eyes is clearly visible. “We have nothing right now.”
Ryzaard swivels in his chair to face the Brooklyn Bridge through the window. He needs to think. “Any suggestions?”
Kalani shifts from one leg to another and scans the room from the grandfather clock to the Chinese wall-hanging. Then he clears his throat.
“If they took a plane, that means they passed through an airport within the last couple of hours. With the high-security link I found this morning, we have access to data streams at every airport in the country. Surveillance cams, jax traffic, security portals, everything.” Kalani licks his lips, his white teeth gleaming. “All we have to do is pick a few airports and start funneling all the unencrypted stuff from the last few hours through our cluster systems. It shouldn’t be that hard. If we look for key words, maybe we’ll get lucky and find him.”
“There’s no such thing as luck. But do it anyway.” Ryzaard strokes his mustache with a stray finger. “Pick the three busiest transport hubs within five hundred miles of the last known signal. Analyze all data streams from a point starting four hours ago. Define a search for anything related to rocks or stones. Words, pictures, everything. Get as many clusters as you can on the job, but keep one of them working full-time on the tracking algorithm. Report back in two hours.”
The three young people turn and leave the room without a word.
As Ryzaard strokes his mustache, a memory comes to mind. He sees himself sitting on a tatami floor in a small wooden building. The sound of cicadas floats in the air just outside. A cherry blossom tree is visible through the window. A cup of exquisite green tea rests on a low table near his hand. On the other side of the table sits a man who is wearing the flowing white robes of a Shinto priest. They are talking about the Stones.
Ryzaard recalls the priest’s words.
There is another way to find a new Stone. But it is an old way, and you must be careful. It opens your heart, your true intentions, to the new Holder you are searching for. If there is evil in your heart, you will not be able to hide it. The new Holder will sense it. It will warn him. You must not try this unless your heart is purged of darkness.
He recalls the rest of the conversation and moves to the meditation platform where he begins to focus on his breath. Belly rising, belly falling. His eyes close.
My heart is now purged of darkness, Ryzaard thinks.
Images emerge in the black vacuum of his mind.
He sits in a lotus position on top of a stone column high above the canopy of a dark jungle. The tops of trees flow back and forth in the wind, like a huge expanse of rolling ocean below him. In the distance, the jungle ends. Beyond its edge is an open field of golden grain, ready for harvest. He stares through the thick leaves searching for any evidence of movement on the ground below.
And then he sees it.
A light blue dot, clearly visible against the black background. It’s moving below the tree canopy.
Adrenaline surges through Ryzaard’s body. Squinting his eyes, he focuses all his energy on the point of light. It resolves into a human form. He can see it gripping a Stone in its hands. An insatiable hunger rises in Ryzaard’s belly.
He must capture and kill the Holder. He must possess the Stone.
With arms outstretched, he lunges off the stone column and drops down. As he falls, intense longing for the new Stone consumes his thoughts. He thinks of running and catching the Holder, crushing his skull with powerful limbs, tearing out his throat with sharp fangs. His body morphs into a massive anthropoid ape. Crashing through the canopy, he lands on two legs not far behind. His eyes have X-ray vision. Through the trees, he can see a young man’s arms and legs pumping as he runs away in desperation.
Ryzaard must not let the Holder escape. Like a Japanese fan opening, his body duplicates itself into a massed group of identical apes. He is in each one. He sees with their eyes and breathes with their lungs. He presses his tongue against row upon row of sharp teeth set in their jaws.
He has become them.
They spread out and rush forward through the jungle in pursuit. Bloodlust rises in their throats. He can taste the Holder’s quivering flesh in his mouth as they close in.
Just ahead, the Holder bursts out of the jungle into the open field of grain. Seconds later, Ryzaard and his dark shapes follow. They see the Holder run toward a lone tree on the other side of the field, stark against the horizon. The Holder, still bathed in blue light, reaches the tree, stops, turns and presses his back against it.
Ryzaard’s neck muscles strain with effort in each of the apes as they sprint on all four limbs.
Five more meters.
He lunges forward, fangs bared, arms reaching. Only a few feet away, there is a moment of recognition. The young man stares back at him, the terror on his face clearly visible. Asian eyes.
Thunder sounds in the distance. The blue light fades into nothing. The Holder is gone.
Silence.
Ryzaard’s eyes float open as he sits on the meditation platform. Once again he hears thunder in the distance. The sound slowly resolves into a knock on his door.
“Come in,” Ryzaard says.
The door slides open to reveal the slight figure of Jing-wei.
“Dr. Ryzaard.” Her breathing is heavy from a sprint down the corridor. “Please come to the lab. It’s urgent.”
He stands up, grabs a shirt and buttons it as he follows her down the hall.
When they enter the bubble in the middle of the lab, the glass bluescreen wall around the room has transformed into a 360-degree view of a golden beach with top-heavy palm trees leaning to the ocean. Here and there a surfer rides a white line of perfectly curling waves. An orange sun is just plunging below the horizon.
“Home.” Kalani is relaxing with his feet
on the table, staring at the waves, following the surfers. “Just miss it sometimes.”
Ryzaard drops into his chair. “Well?” He is waiting to hear the good news that the Holder has been found.
Jing-wei and Diego stay standing.
“We followed your instructions.” Diego drops his hands behind his back. “Focusing on the three largest airports in the area last tagged by the tracking algorithm, we started an inventory of the datasphere, looking for references to stones.”
“Stop,” Ryzaard says. “Don’t tell me what you did.” He doesn’t have the patience to listen to the whole self-serving introduction Diego is winding up to give. “I know you guys are the best. Show me what you found.”
Jing-wei jumps in. “Even with three dedicated super-clusters churning through the datasphere, we were getting too many hits.” She stops to take a breath. “It turns out the World Rockhound and Lapidary Society is having its annual convention in Denver this week. Half the city is talking about rocks and stones.”
“No more talk. Show me. Now.” Ryzaard has a steely edge to his voice.
Kalani points his jax at the spot on the bluescreen marked with an orange-red glow where the sun has just disappeared below the horizon of the ocean. The wall flashes white, except for an area in front of Ryzaard. They all hear the faint gasp that escapes his lips as he peers at a close-up photo of a blue stone shaped like a comma, large at one end and curving around to a blunt point.
Ryzaard jumps to his feet and stands in silence, focusing intently on the picture on the wall.
“You found it.” Ryzaard whispers. “A Stone.” He takes his own Stone from his pocket and holds it up. They are not identical, but no one can miss the similar design. “Where is it?”
“We gave up monitoring jax traffic,” Kalani says. “I just began hijacking data feeds at the airport, including all the security portals.” He pulls himself to a standing position with a spear that’s leaning against the table. “The picture of the rock—”