REGENERATION
Dawn of Tomorrow
by
Kevin Douglas
This book is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locals is entirely coincidental.
Farabee Publishing
Chandler, AZ 85244
Copyright 2018 Kevin Douglas
Email is: [email protected]
Web address is: www.kevindbooks.com
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
ISBN: 978-1-64370-888-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947909
Printed in the United States of America
Book Cover designed by: Akivda M
History tells us the only thing we know for certain is yesterday. Today is a gift given unto me, for fate and me to decide. Tomorrow is an uncontrolled mystery unfolding, no matter how certain one is of it, or its existence.
Patrick Krueger
Dedication
In Loving memory of Big Grandpa, amazing cook, awesome storyteller, best friend.
And dedicated to Big T, funny dude, cool guy, heart of gold, my son.
Prologue
Patrick wanted to kill them, but he did not know how. The only way to hurt them was to check out, disappear to a different place… a different time.
Besides, Patrick knew bullets would not kill these foes; they needed to be deleted. Dark corridors snaked underneath the mansion leading to the production areas churning out his inventions.
Fear drove Patrick to help with the projects, and not knowing the assignment’s full implications, they seemed relatively harmless. He was by no means naive and his family’s safety up, until this point, was worth the risk of being wrong. His accumulation of knowledge and their intimate trust of his cooperation led him to know more than he had cared to.
Cold sweat ran down his temples as he contemplated a decision he must now make. His life had been in the digital age, and this seemed like an ideal job, a gift. None of that mattered now, since he had prepared for something he felt compelled to do.
Fate would now be in Patrick’s hands and life would only be possible if he is brave enough to take the next step. Before he befriended his captors, he locked “their” precious resources away with a surprisingly complex key and had assured that anyone, who may come looking for him, would have a hidden set of clues to follow.
There is one place he was not allowed access and knew he would never be given entry, unless he was clever enough to take it for himself.
Thoughts of his son, he felt certain he would never see again, drifted in his mind as he padded his way through the lush grass bordered by walls of a maze. Patrick walked through the neatly trimmed high hedges, more than twice his height, and located a large structure deep within the maze.
Patrick knew something important lay hidden beneath the grass there. He had spied on his employer for months trying to find out what was so important about the maze. He finally knew the truth. He walked tentatively to the 7-foot-high metal cylinder normally hidden beneath the grass. The cylinder’s surface was smooth except for an almost imperceptible recessed door and a round hole on its right-hand side.
A calm breeze against Patrick’s back urged him forward, his heart heavy with the decision he had made. Patrick pressed his hand against the cold gleaming cylinder and took out a metal spike with wires trailing from it, slid the spike into the input terminal and quickly hacked the system.
He knew once the structure rose, alerts would go out to the man that held him prisoner. There is no turning back, his decision to continue was made long before approaching. A piston rose from the ground and a door within the cylinder opened.
He entered the cylinder and turned around. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked down the corridor of shrubs seeing his captor sprinting toward him.
Patrick pressed a button for the door to close just as the woman took out a gun. Patrick tensed as the bullets clanked against the now closed door. The cylinder lowered into the ground, turning his stomach. All that Patrick heard from above were screams of anger.
Not only had he locked up what they needed, he had taken away what was necessary to make their mission successful, himself. This, he realized, was virtually suicide, but for others he must remain strong. His emotional state changed from vulnerable to determined as he wiped away his tears.
The pod lowered to the bottom of the shaft, and then a feeling of weightlessness overcame him, as if the floor had dropped out from under him.
Patrick closed his eyes in fear, not sure of what would happen next. His body felt like it was being stretched apart as it passed through a liquid barrier; then an explosion rang in his ears.
The ringing gave way to the sound of screeching metal. The smell of heated electronics was replaced with a cold swift breeze that greeted him, and bright light gleamed as he opened his eyes to a new day. He vaguely recognized where he was, but it looked so different now… time had changed this place.
Chapter 1
Ten Years Later
It was the first day of the semester and Leo had just taken his seat in his geology course. His focus was not on the class as he stared out the window.
A beautiful view worth paying for. Large cumulus clouds towering as far as the eye could see hung in the orange dusk sky, stationary in the brisk August air. Mountain peaks in the distance, deep blue and purple fading to black silhouettes, parted the clouds as they hovered above dumping an early snow. This view had fetched a price and an audience every day and night for the students that walked this beautiful campus.
His eyes drifted away from the enormous windowpanes, to his nearby surroundings. It was an elective for him; he wanted something different. The professor called out names from the roster as Leo settled into his seat, removed his coat and got comfortable. Leo’s attention stayed in perfunctory mode and waited to hear his own name.
He had yet to get his textbook, and he was eager to dig in and skim on his own. He loved self-discovery, perhaps slightly more than structured curriculum, but also enjoyed attending class. Each course he took was important to him and he admired instructors who presented the material with a passion, where the lecture was like a show, the professor being the performer and the students his audience.
The professor called out, “Krueger,” and Leo raised his hand, the professor nodding and moving on to the next name on his list.
Leo reached in his backpack and took out a pen, scanning over his other textbooks: Art History, Multimedia, Botany, Computer Programming, and Marketing.
He pulled out his orange notebook and scripted out Geology 309, Minerology, writing Professor Marcus Lyndumn next to it. For many of the other students this was a bread and butter course and an early class to check off on their road to a degree in a field of geology or archeology. For Leo, he had signed up late for the semester and so was only able to get a few core courses, the rest being electives
Prof. Lyndumn finished his roll call and went right into the syllabus. Leo began to focus on his professor’s words, but not before he took one last glance outside the French style windows, each square its own piece to the puzzle showing the sun fading into the horizon.
A moonless night was giving way to a spectacular view of bright stars lighting up the eastern sky, a pinprick lattice of sparkling heavenly bodies. He thought to himself, man, this is the best ticket in town; I have to get out for a hike. Leo was looking at the stars more often than the black board.
Class finished and eager to get home, Leo hopped in his 2015 Corvette SS and exited campus. After
a short drive, he reached a rural setting of dense forest, the air streaming in through his partially open window.
He turned off the road and approached a covered bridge, painted white with green accents. The echo of the passing river reverberated as he passed each of the bridge’s open slats, enjoying the scent of damp wood. When he exited the bridge, he veered toward a fork in the road. Now on a dirt road, the dense foliage covered all but a slit in the middle of the road.
Leo steered into a drive marked by stone pillars on either side, meeting in an arch over the road. The chiseled stone nameplate read Halaby in beautiful script with an intricate blue eyeball next to it.
Two grinning fearsome gargoyles crouched on either side, wings partway open, claws gripping the stone and tails hanging below the arch. Leo pulled in and followed another drive to his right around the massive lawn that sat in front of the mansion. He proceeded past it to the old grounds keepers’ residence, dense tree cover hid the large mansion and he could barely make out its outline.
He parked in a single parking spot surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes, closed his car door and followed the path toward a hedge maze standing eight feet high. He briefly entered the maze. The path curled to finally reveal a thatched roof cottage nestled in a clearing, hidden from any prying eyes looking from the mansions upper floors.
He walked up the front steps and entered with a key. This was not any key, but the grounds master skeleton key. Fortunate to have such a generous scholarship, instead of cash, the cottage was provided rent free, his reward for excellent schoolwork and a promising future. Given his major of Software Engineering, he had already proven himself, well nearly anyhow.
He had not had a chance to thank his donor. In fact, he had no personal contact with his donor at all, who presumably lived in the mansion just down the drive. The key was sent via FedEx, the package containing the key and address, directions, and a congratulatory note penned with exquisite calligraphy, welcoming him to Halaby.
The scholarship had come from a “green” company. The criteria, that the applicant be unmarried with no family and submit an essay on the applicant’s outlook for the future and how they would be part of it with “green” in mind.
Truth be told, Leo wasn’t exactly a “green of mind” kind of guy. He did respect the environment, but it was not a big focus, his career was in a virtual world.
He knocked on the front entry of the mansion several times, but never heard anyone and no one answered the door, ever.
Lights glowed in the place, but he suspected they were on a timer due to the exactness of when they came on and went off.
Leo showered as he did most nights and went to bed early, Tuesday was a full day he could hardly wait for his new classes.
Leo woke to face full of fur, and a meow or two with incessant purring. He rarely set his alarm clock as Willy never let him forget it was breakfast time.
He dressed in blue jeans, a blue and white flannel shirt, and pair of light hiking boots. Leo teased back his hair and shot a couple mists of his favorite cologne. As he went downstairs, Willy’s grey and white patches were a blur as he wove in and out of Leo’s legs. Something Willy loved to do that Leo found cute but bothersome. Leo survived the gauntlet and made his way to his classes.
Leo did not have any time to look for his geology textbook before his first class, and now needed to get one as soon as possible.
He took a short cut through a narrow patch of grass between buildings and texted as he walked. He had already tried all the local sources, so he broadened his search. He searched “Find My Text” on his iPhone between classes and found the only source was out of state. He did not know the store’s location exactly, but at least he knew it was within 75 miles and he had to get going. He clicked purchase, bordering the text and checked pickup.
He pushed open the door to the technology building, a giant open structure with one enormous room with 30-foot ceilings. A huge space filled with computers in the center. It was laid out in a grid of desks, all the latest machines shiny and new, looking like they had just been unwrapped.
A wide array of networked hardware was at the end of each row for scanning and printing. A group in one quadrant was set up with drawing pads and large monitors for complex applications demanding more than one view to operate effectively.
Light shone in through the skylights and windows, giving the nerds within beautiful natural lighting for their technological cathedral. Leo paused in awe of the inspiring architecture.
He threaded his way through the hodge-podge assortment of techies, CAD ultra-realists, W.O.W. addicted tech support, C++ scripters, mad scientists, chemists and physicists, mole people with sunglasses and, finally the artist section. These longhaired, goatee touting, tattooed and pierced students shared his second passion, art.
One section he did not think deserved a spot in this shrine was the newbies learning how to navigate a computer, operate email and organize their albums, their training wheels still newly installed. This section was situated appropriately, right next to the help desk on the floor.
Leo was far from a newbie and blended perfectly with the students in this building. Leo stopped a classmate from his last semester, an electrical engineer student named Tyler, working on a PLC touch screen program.
“Hey bro good to see you,” Leo said.
“Yo Krug, catch ya later,” Tyler said.
Leo saw another friend across the lab, but he was in a hurry and would have to say hi to Annabelle another time. He finished the gauntlet like labyrinth and arrived at an area of sectioned classrooms, every side a wall of glass. Shiny reflective glass doors defined each opening and he found his classroom CE-10.
He entered the room before any of his classmates. He hated being late, promptness was respect in his eyes, and he respected his professors. He sat at a workstation, logged in, and checked his student mail.
Quickly he saw a confirmation receipt for his Geology textbook with the location of the store in Amish country Pennsylvania.
“What in the world?”
He laughed to himself thinking, this should be an interesting adventure.
Chapter 2
Leo’s mind swarmed with his day’s teachings of convergent and divergent boundaries, plate tectonics and fault lines, rocks, minerals, computer workings and coding, peripheral systems and automated processes.
He relaxed as he drove away from a full day of classes. Leo headed to the arboretum. He had some new ideas for a project he was working on. Most students treated the first day as a freebie, but he immersed himself in it. He loved working on the edge of what is possible.
His favorite slogan was from Rob Siltanen, “Those crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do,” inspired Leo’s conquer what you can dream attitude.
In the past, he always worked on a new line of code he thought could be useful, but which did not have a practical application yet. It was the latter that drove him to try to create something new and bold, a set of instructions to set him apart from the rest, an invisible code to the visible.
He started out small with automatic color spectrum sorting, C.S.S. He dovetailed it with another code he had laying around from a different project, a physical attribute comparison, P.A.C. model. Both were teachable input codes; C.S.S. being a fixed light spectrum, had fewer variables, while the P.A.C. required a much more sophisticated sample of data.
Leo wrote the program his senior year of high school and had patented and copyright protected the details. The code had been turned into a pen-sized device with an HD camera and laser at the tip for both applications.
He was certain when his invention hit the market for industrial and logistics applications worldwide, it would fetch handsome revenues and be known as PACS or as Leo liked to call it Flash Matches.
This was his baby and he knew quality control all over the world would use this tool. Flash Matches was his own from start to finish. He aspired for more products, though he felt confident thi
s would undoubtedly make life easier for him in the near future. However, he felt he had to reinvent himself or be overrun. He was working on new codes. Nature can be a very good teacher and nature replication was his current focus.
He parked at the arboretum and got out to look for inspiration. A small idea often snowballs and that is what he was hoping to find. He had a love of plants, symmetrical or sprawling, dangerous, spiky, thorny, beautiful, carnivorous, or odiferous; they all had a place in his heart and, hopefully, at least one would give him an idea for his notebook.
He took out his Sony DSLR camera and popped on his macro lens. He framed his shots, moving in close and taking snapshots of the micro world. It always astonished him with all the details you could not see until a macro lens brought them into focus. Some of the photos were for his goal of finding ideas, others just for pleasure. He took interest in the palm fronds and their origins. Some of the fronds resembled swords, and at the same time, an accordion waiting to unfold.
The arboretum had a tropical section and he took photos of some of the various pitcher plants, sticky dewdrops, and of course the Venus fly trap. Leo read that plants and insects have been the creators of many modern technologies.
Some of them have led to adaptations to physical attributes and other algorithms for their behaviors and patterns. He enjoyed getting lost in nature’s patterns, eager to see what the plants would teach him next.
He sat down on a nearby bench and relaxed in the tropical garden. The damp air held the scent of gardenias. Several hummingbirds buzzed by, one right by his head and he switched lenses and snapped a couple of burst mode pictures, capturing the hovering bird.
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