The Prophet Box-Set: Books 1-4

by David Beers

  More tears fell from Raylyn’s eyes. She pulled Manor close to her, hard, almost taking him off the bed. She held him for a few seconds, her face buried in his neck.

  “I hate that bitch, too,” she said, laughing as she did.

  The next 24 hours passed without sleep and with an increase in drugs for Raylyn. She thought she should be concerned with how much she was taking, just like she should be concerned about the First Priest thought’s on Manor joining her—but she paid neither any mind.

  She didn’t see much of Manor over the next 24 hours, but he seemed to understand. She checked in on him briefly, but he’d been sleeping each time. She hadn’t really even considered the amount of rest he would need.

  The drugs, plus his agreeing to go with her, were allowing her to focus.

  Corinth’s Shrine was working at full capacity, and now that Raylyn was taking over, the First Priest had moved out of her way. He came and went throughout the day, asking questions and accepting her answers. It took her multiple hours to simply figure out how she could contact the informant. Their nanotech had always been masked, and the path that they took to make contact no longer existed because the compound was empty. Drones showed no signs of life, meaning everyone had abandoned it.

  So following the same nano path where they first met wouldn’t work, because the informant couldn’t connect from the same place.

  Raylyn spent hours pacing back and forth across her room, a large panel floating in front of the door. She didn’t need any large office to run the operation; everything she wanted was at her command within the panel. Even with all of the True Faith’s power, she couldn’t figure it out, though. She knew nothing about the person—absolutely nothing, and it’s not like there were clues that could help out. All avenues had been controlled by the informant, and now they were gone.

  Raylyn kept thinking. Kept pacing.

  Two or three hours in, the answer finally came to her.

  And it’d been simple. Practically staring at her the entire time. She hadn’t seen the idea because she’d never considered something like that possible.

  But it was.

  “We have to break the rules,” she told the First Priest.

  “How?”

  “We sent drones over the compound before we left with the armada. We scanned the place and identified just about 400 people inside it. We’ve got their nano. We know who they are.”

  “Okay,” the First Priest said. “They’re gone now, and it doesn’t really matter where they went. That’s 400 people amongst maybe millions.”

  “We can break their nano. Reverse engineer it. Every person that was in the compound.”

  The First Priest said nothing. He only looked at her, probably trying to understand if she was serious, or had gone insane. Breaking nanotech was perhaps worse than what Raylyn witnessed the Disciple do. To reverse engineer was to play as Corinth. He had created the first nanotechnology, inserting it inside Himself. Taking the first risk. He specifically stated they should never be reverse engineered, not His nor anyone else’s, because to do so would give the breaker complete knowledge of the broken.

  If nanotech was reverse engineered, a person’s entire life would be laid bare. The engineer could look into someone’s entire past, perhaps even their future—understanding how their thoughts would affect almost any situation that arose. Nanotech was unique for each individual, more so than even DNA. It replicated at conception, creating unique parameters for each person, but unlike DNA, it held a person’s history inside it.

  “No,” the First Priest said.

  “It’s the only way,” Raylyn said as if she hadn’t heard him. “We reverse engineer everyone’s nanotech, and we’ll find the informant almost immediately. We can contact them then. Otherwise, I don’t know what to do. Their ID was masked. The path they came down is dead. I know the Priesthood can break it, too. Regardless whether it was legal or not, that Disciple showed me everything I need to know. If he can control people’s nanotech, then you have abilities you shouldn’t. You can do this, and if you want to find the informant, then you’re going to have to do it.”

  The First Priest stared at her, his hairless face almost as pale as the wall behind him.

  “You’re suggesting we break a Proclamation. That by itself is treason.”

  “I’m suggesting we save the True Faith.”

  “It’s never been done.”

  “If we don’t do it now, no one will ever be able to do it again, because the weapon will kill us all. Corinth created it, and now Corinth’s creation can save us,” Raylyn said, meeting the First’s eyes—her own clear.

  “You want to reverse engineer everyone that was at the compound?”

  “Yes. At least until we find the person we’re looking for, then we stop.”

  “There is no other way?” the First Priest asked.

  “I can’t think of one, and I’ve tried. Reverse engineering is the quickest, cleanest way.”

  The First looked down at the floor. He hadn’t denied that they had the ability to do it. If Corinth engineered the first nanotech, then surely reverse engineering was possible too, even if illegal.

  The First Priest looked back up. “Is your faith slipping, Sister?”

  Raylyn’s eyes narrowed at the question. Never in her life had someone asked her such a thing. Raylyn’s faith was unassailable, and had always been so. “No.”

  “I wonder … If you think breaking a Proclamation is the only way to save us, then perhaps you don’t believe Corinth will deliver us another way.”

  “No, your Holiness. Corinth will deliver us, but if He’s working through me, then this is the only way I know how. If there’s someone else, someone smarter or who knows something else, then use them and keep the Proclamation.”

  The two looked at each other for upward of a minute without speaking. The First Priest seemed to be testing the truth of her words, as if her face was a mirror of her soul. Was she lying? Was another way possible?

  “I’ll have it done,” he finally said. “The sin will lay on my shoulders and not yours. Your faith in Corinth will ensure your silence on this. No one is to know. Not your lover. Not anyone. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, your Holiness.”

  “If this doesn’t work, there will be consequences. For both of us. I’m tying my fate to yours here, Sister. Do you understand that as well?”

  “I do,” Raylyn whispered.

  Raylyn didn’t soften toward the First Priest, but perhaps she understood the seriousness for her offense a bit better. The man looked … if not scared, then something close to it. He didn’t want to take part in what she was suggesting, but saw no other choice. Still, to Raylyn the situation’s gravity was clearer now, because the First Priest sounded like he might be talking about their death.

  His word had been true, though. The reverse engineering began an hour after their conversation. The Shrine must have used every bit of processing power it possessed, because Raylyn started getting information almost immediately.

  She waited in her room, staring at the panel and watching as names came and went. The parameters around the engineering were specific. They were looking for anyone that had made contact with the Prevention Division in the last month.

  At just about the end of the 24 hour period, a name came back. A single person, and Raylyn’s mouth fell open as she read it.

  Rebecca Hollowborne.

  The informant was the weapon’s sister.

  Rebecca listened to her brother sleeping beside her. He was on his side and snoring lightly. She lay on her back, her head turned slightly to the right and looking at the moon. It was descending and Rebecca had a tough time keeping her eyes off it.

  Spending a life underground, she hadn’t realized everything she’d missed. She hadn’t left to convert people like Rhett and Christine, but remained close to David.

  Always.

  It’s coming to an end, she thought, and the knowledge weighed on her with such force that
she thought it might crush her very soul. He won’t make it out of this, and you won’t either for that matter.

  She had no one in this world she could share such a thing with, not anymore.

  Rebecca knew it had to end, though. For years she’d been plotting how to bring David down, a traitor long before he had any idea. This woman they were going to find, Rebecca didn’t know what role she might play, but she seemed opposed to David’s rise, and Rebecca had to count that as a good thing.

  In the beginning, when she first understood that David had to be stopped, she’d almost walked up to him and slit his throat with a knife. Thought about simply sneaking up on him and running a knife across his Adam’s apple, because the other options seemed far too hard. Sitting next to her brother, following his orders, being in his confidence—and all while working against him. Not just against his goals, but against his very life … because David had to die.

  She didn’t try killing him, though, because she would have failed.

  Rebecca felt his death so necessary, that she gave up her soul to accomplish it.

  She slept next to him, broke bread with him, and advised him. She smiled with him, cried in front of him, and relived their past through conversation in ways only they could. She’d done it all, and then she’d brought the Prevention Division to his compound.

  All those lives, gone, she thought in the transport’s stillness.

  Would they be added to her soul’s tab when judgment came down? Rebecca thought so. Deaths would need to be paid for, and Rebecca believed she was the one holding the bill.

  She wasn’t worried about David discovering it was her, at least not yet. Ten years ago, Rebecca realized that David had to die, and she’d spent the next half decade tooling with her nanotech so that it could help mask much of what his blood could see. It took a long time to perfect it, and she knew the magic was fading now. The nanotech took almost daily fine tuning to ensure it kept working, and she hadn’t done anything with it in days. Even with the fine tuning, David would eventually break through—she had no doubt about that.

  This woman they were chasing may be powerful, but Rebecca knew her brother better than anyone in this world. If he wanted her dead, then she would die. If the Unformed wanted her dead, then David would make it so.

  Yet, this presented an opportunity (and how Rebecca hated that word) to kill him. From everything Rebecca could tell, opportunities of that nature were growing fewer and fewer. This woman though, and whatever powers she possessed, Rebecca could use them.

  She sighed gently.

  What would their parents think, if they could see into her head? Rebecca couldn’t sit with that question, though. It was too painful. They’d think the same thing she did: Rebecca was evil. She was cold and calculating and perhaps even wrong.

  Rebecca wouldn’t stay with the question, because the answers that came back brought only pain.

  And her course wasn’t going to change, no matter the pain—so it was best to ignore such things.

  Rebecca rolled over on her side. She wanted to try and sleep, but didn’t know if she should. Sleep meant she wouldn’t have to consider what was coming—the end. She wouldn’t have to think about killing her brother.

  Message received.

  Rebecca opened her eyes, seeing darkness still hanging from the outside sky. She blinked a few times, trying to remember when she’d fallen asleep.

  Urgent.

  Her nanotech knew she was sleeping, but had still delivered the notification.

  Rebecca looked over her shoulder and saw only David’s back. He was lying on his side, his body moving up and down slowly with his breath.

  The message was Rhett, had to be. Maybe Christine, but no one besides those two would send her something right now.

  Show me, she told her nanotech. No visual.

  Rebecca Hollowborne?

  The voice was neither Rhett’s nor Christine’s. It was someone Rebecca had never met, and a cold fear grew deep inside Rebecca’s chest.

  My name is Raylyn Brinson. I’m the Director that you brought to the compound. I’m with the Prevention Division, or I was. I’m not really sure if it exists anymore, given everything that’s happened.

  How? How could this woman possibly know who Rebecca was? David didn’t even know. Rebecca had masked everything, diligently spending hours each day ensuring the coding was correct.

  No. It wasn’t possible. It wasn’t real.

  The words continued, though, the message rolling on.

  You’re alive and I have to assume that your thoughts haven’t changed. I was shocked to find out the weapon is your brother, but I guess it doesn’t really matter. The world is dying and you’re our best hope, I think. We have to stop him, and I promise, this time I will listen to you.

  There was a brief pause.

  You have my nanoID now. When you get this, make contact. Please. The world needs you, Rebecca, and not just the True Faith. Humanity needs you.

  The message ended and Rebecca lay on her side with wide open eyes. She didn’t move an inch, terrified that David might already know. Perhaps he’d heard it at the exact same time she did, his power fully returned.

  Her ears strained as she listened for any sign that he might be awake. She didn’t dare look over her shoulder again, fearing that he would already be looking at her, his eyes burning gray.

  She heard nothing but the muffled wind moving over the transport’s exterior.

  The same question kept rolling through her mind. How is it possible?

  Rebecca thought quickly, fiercely, and the only thing she could come to was they’d broken their own rules. They had somehow gotten everyone’s nanoID at the compound, used that to find their nanotech code, then reverse engineered it.

  For anyone living in the True Faith, including a nonbeliever like Rebecca, it was unthinkable.

  But isn’t it just as unthinkable that the Prophet’s sister would be committed to killing him?

  The answer was swift and its judgment severe. Rebecca had sold her soul to kill her brother; would the True Faith not do the same?

  She supposed it didn’t matter how they accomplished it. The message had been received and Rebecca couldn’t deny anything. Not a word of it.

  The only question she had to answer now was, did she speak with this woman, or did she ignore it?

  If you ignore it, she’ll return. She’ll send another message, and another, and another. She’ll keep coming until you do answer her, because if not, she knows David is going to kill her. And next time she messages, will David be asleep? Or will he be standing next to you, the Unformed telling him exactly what is happening inside your head?

  Rebecca either answered now, right this instant while David slept on the other side of the transport, or she risked dying the next time the woman tried connecting.

  The world needs you, Rebecca, not just the True Faith.

  That’s what the message said.

  That was true, only the world was just now recognizing it—and perhaps too late.

  “We know where he's going,” the First Priest said.

  The High Priest was alone, as he always was. He looked at the wall in front of him, though green pixels were recreating the First Priest on his right. The First could see the High’s profile, though the High didn't care about his appearance.

  “That is great news, my friend. Where is he going?”

  “He’s chasing the woman; we think to the One Path.”

  “And now, my First Priest, you know my location as well. The woman is coming to me.”

  “Yes, your Holiness,” the First said.

  The High said nothing, only stared forward, letting the silence between the two of them stretch out without really recognizing it.

  Finally, as if the High Priest remembered someone was waiting on him, he said, “What do you plan to do?”

  “That is why I’m here, Most Holy. What would you have me do?”

  “It’s important that we kill this weapon, isn�
�t it?”

  “Yes,” the First said.

  “Then I think you should do that. How did you come about this information?”

  “The informant,” the First Priest said.

  The High heard something in his second in command’s voice. He didn’t move, not so much as a single muscle fiber twitched, but something was beneath those two words that the First didn’t want anyone to know.

  “My friend, have we always been honest with each other?”

  “Yes, Most Holy.”

  “Then this is the first time you’ve been dishonest?”

  Seconds passed in silence, the High completely ignoring the green pixels next to him.

  “I haven’t lied to you, your Holiness.”

  “Then withheld information?”

  “Yes,” the First said.

  “Then are you ready to give me all of the information?”

  Another moment of silence, though it was all the same to the High.

  “We reverse engineered the nanotech of those that were inside the weapon’s compound.”

  “And that is how you found out the informant’s identity?”

  “Yes, Most Holy,” the First said.

  The High Priest stared forward. Perhaps for only a minute, perhaps for an hour.

  “What do you plan to do with the knowledge of his destination? You seem very capable of making decisions on your own, regardless of whether my input—or even Corinth’s—would be valuable.”

  “The blame is mine and mine alone,” the First said.

  “I know where blame lies,” the High responded without a moment’s pause. “Tell me what you plan to do with Corinth’s shattered Proclamation.”

  “The informant suggested an ambush. That we let him find the girl. Her power is growing according to the informant. When they meet, we kill them both.”

  “No,” the High said. “Only kill the weapon. I would like to see the girl.”

  The first paused for a moment, then said. “Of course, your Holiness. Is there anything else you think should be done differently? Any details you would like to add?”