Diamond Rain
Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Part Two – Adventure Science Fiction Techno Thriller
By
Mike Gallagher
All rights reserved, without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Copyright © 2014 Michael James Gallagher
All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-0-9917776-1-7
Cover by Lorena Laurenti
Dedication
For my amazing daughters, Iga and Ania. Thank you for opening up your hearts to me all those years ago.
Acknowledgements
Chris Roper, Literary Contributing Editor, used his years of successful short story writing for popular magazines to soften and enhance Diamond Rain's prose while respecting the author's pace and style. Thank you Chris Roper. I look forward to collaborating with you again soon. Chris Roper's recently published novel, The Gyrfalcon File, drew on his extensive travel and occupational experience to bring a strong authenticity to his work.
Chapter One
Armageddon Valley
Thomas stood on a ridge and peered through the viewfinder of his camera as he hustled for space with journalists and dignitaries. He was transfixed by the mass of humanity in front of him, a mass so big and eerie that just looking at all these people resulted in an involuntary shudder. Something stirred deep within Thomas. He suddenly heard his mentor’s voice in his head: “You’ve got it all, man. So you have to give some back too. Don’t ever forget it.” It was ironic that his life would come to this. All he ever wanted was to be a wildlife photographer, and all he wanted for company was solitude. Something told him that life was about to change, life as he knew it, that he would have to play a role in stopping these humanoids and if he just stood by and watched then they would take civilization back to the stone ages.
Hastily organized international peace negotiations kept the overlook busy with visitors curious to see the invading throng as it waited in Armageddon valley. Sue Ann Lee, Thomas’ professional partner and Al Jazeera reporter, readied herself for a live broadcast. Thomas occupied himself by working through his mental checklist as he tested his camera equipment and laptop connections to be sure they would relay without a hitch.
A short distance away from Thomas and Sue Ann, Kefira was standing looking around critically at the mass before her. She was focusing her telekinetic powers on all the visitors, particularly the reporters and dignitaries in the crowd. Her Mossad special training kicked in. As this group approached the lookout, the atypical, sudden, collective intake of breath seemed deeper than usual. Kefira mustered her psionic ability to scan the group. She halted as she encountered Thomas; she was puzzled, something about him stood out and she found herself going back over that part of the crowd to work out what was causing her powers to stumble. She refocused her energies on Thomas and tried again. Odd, she thought, I can’t read him. With her interest piqued she sauntered closer until she stopped just a few feet away from him. At first she thought Thomas was a Chinese agent cloaked within a nanosuit, but her own unique diamond-molecule suit would have triggered a warning. She was puzzled. It could be one of two things, she thought, either he’s gifted or he’s undergone special training and has exceptional mental strength. Only once in the past two years had Kefira encountered someone she couldn’t read.
Thomas noticed Kefira’s scent before he turned to face her. Although she was smiling engagingly, he noticed that the smile stopped at her eyes. Interesting. His journalistic antennae went to full alert; it was a warning to him that she may be military or at the very least a threat. But what sort of threat he couldn’t determine; the one clear signal was that she certainly had a unique perfume. It was disarming. He smiled back and they both spoke at once. They both paused and laughed. Thomas decided to let her speak first. He acknowledged her with an open right hand and a tilt of his head while his left hand remained on his camera.
“Impressive dust storm, isn’t it?” said Kefira.
“I’ll say. Where’d an Israeli guide get such a great American accent?”
For an instant, Thomas thought a cloud had passed over the sun, but when he looked up at the sky he saw no clouds. Strange, he thought. His professional instinct had him reaching for his light meter to validate his observation. Nothing. That was odd, he thought. Kefira’s nanofog now engulfed both of them. She probed deeper. Thomas felt peculiar, and he found himself rubbing one of his temples as though he was about to get a headache. His neck gave him the same signal. The last thing I need right now is a migraine. At least there’s no halo of light.
High above the masses of Chinese nanosuited invaders, an invisible drone darted over Armageddon Valley. General Chou’s drones provided eyes and ears as well as nanofog seed. Millions of miniscule foglets tumbled in a controlled, directed manner towards the aura of the heat signature raised by Kefira’s suit.
The general’s second-in-command, Colonel Lau, studied the information provided by a high definition nose camera in the drone. His brilliance at coordinating such an attack was widely acknowledged in the military hierarchy and his actions were closely coordinated with several Chinese asynchronous military satellites. ‘stealth’ technology kept his machinations invisible to even high powered Israeli radar. The focus of his interest was apparently a rogue Chinese agent wearing a nanosuit and doubtless providing intelligence to the enemy. Lau was mistaken. The signature was that of Kefira herself. Lau had already made up his mind: The scoundrel had to be stopped and contained immediately. We’ll have that traitor back and be gone before they know what hit them, he thought.
Kefira’s Israeli masters were confident that her top secret nanosuit would be invisible to advanced monitoring technology. They would find out a little too late that it wasn’t, at least not at this time. Soon, though, the situation would change with the next owner of the nanosuit.
General Chou stood behind Colonel Lau at his cubicle. Chinese cunning pleased the general. During a thaw in Sino-American relations in 2008, joint manoeuvres made technology exchanges common. Chou laughed aloud. Startled, Lau turned to see his commander muttering under his breath. Such weakness. Giving us this technology in the name of fair play. Fools! Lau had grown accustomed to Chou’s outbursts and, as had become his habit, he parroted the last word he heard. “Fools, Sir. Fools.” From their perch in central China, Lau coordinated the first nano intrusion into Israeli airspace.
At the overlook, and totally unaware of the nano storm approaching from above, Kefira sidled up to Thomas. She interrupted his train of thought. Thomas inhaled deeply, savoring the unique, feminine scent. Shame if it’s her perfume sparking my headache.
Kefira spun a layer of nanofog around Thomas. Can’t understand this, she thought. She still couldn’t read him, even when he was
completely inside her suit’s nanofog.
“Your perfume’s subtle,” said Thomas.
Thomas’ headache disappeared and, relieved of the pressure, he did a double take of the green-eyed, amber-skinned woman dressed in olive green silk beside him. She looked at him but did not speak immediately.
“That’s a neat trick, whatever it is,” Thomas continued slowly, sensing that all was not as it seemed.
“More than meets the eye.” Kefira gave an enigmatic smile.
“Mysterious too.”
“Do you have some kind of special training?” Kefira asked. She was more than curious now.
“Years of practice. I’m a photographer.”
“No, I mean psychological preparation?”
“Well, you could say that. My adopted grandfather helped toughen me up mentally when I had trouble with some bullies in school, but that was long ago.”
This guy’s one tough nut to crack. He’s not giving an inch, but he seems unaware of his ability. She stopped, suddenly annoyed at allowing herself to be sidetracked. Trying to figure Thomas’ ability to resist her probing was diverting her resources when she needed to be getting as much information from this crowd as possible. A routine procedure was turning into a frustrating activity.
Sue Ann’s voice interrupted them both.
“Thomas, we’re about to go live.”
Thomas nodded. Sue Ann held up a hand, fingers extended.
“Live in five, four, three, two, one.”
Thomas went into action. The seasoned professional in him took over. Sue Ann panned the dramatic sight before them with her right hand. She turned to show her audience a panorama of an enormous dust cloud, hundreds of feet high and kilometers wide that would have been familiar to anyone in Oklahoma in the 1930s. Her narrative related the story of the thousands upon thousands of nanosuited Chinese invaders who were stirring up this dust in Armageddon Valley and all along Israel’s frontier. Just how they got there and why they had chosen to stop where they did remained a mystery. They hung there like deadweight making everyone’s blood curdle; everybody knew – or at least suspected beyond reasonable doubt - that they were just waiting for orders to strike. Just before Sue Ann finished speaking, a flash of light arrested her broadcast.
Kefira’s subconscious noticed an unusual darkness in the sky and a gray line of nanofog heading her way. An oppressive sense of doom overcame her. Not knowing why, but trusting her gut instinct, she twisted the knob on her wrist device and it sucked her nanosuit into its receptacle. Just before she removed her special watch and thrust it into Thomas’ hand, Kefira penetrated Thomas’ psychic shield with a barrage of instructions. The force of the assault caught Thomas completely off guard. He stumbled over and dropped his camera before rolling over to protect himself from a massive onslaught of noise and light. His hand tightened around Kefira’s apparatus as a childhood memory of a nightmarish kidnapping repeated itself, leaving him stunned and speechless. Won’t the world ever leave me be? Not this again.
On the visual plane everything had changed. No longer was anything certain or dependable from Thomas’ perspective. A vortex of deafening sounds and flashing lights was incapacitating everyone on the ridge. Thomas pulled his head into his shoulders and covered his ears with his arms while he tightly closed his eyes. Before he passed out, a woman’s voice communicated a long series of instructions directly into his head and then all went black. One command - ‘to hold the watch tight in his hand’ was repeated continuously.
Hazy ninja fighters surrounded the dignitaries and reporters on the Mount Carmel lookout. Percussion grenades sensation created by the nano concussed all nearby. One of the landing figments scanned for suit residue and stopped at an unconscious Kefira. The fog swallowed her and dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, leaving witnesses stunned and groggy but otherwise unhurt.
Thomas was confused but his instinct told him to follow the set of instructions by rote. In the split second before he rolled over, he had wrapped the watch around his wrist and attached its secure clasp as the instructions to flee and get to safety reverberated in his mind. I should stay, fight. I can’t always run like mother always ran.
Thomas looked around and saw Sue Ann sprawled on the desert floor. He walked over and gently flipped her around, and her eyes began opening slowly. She was conscious but shaken.
“Are you ok, Sue Ann?” His tone was one of concern.
“What the hell happened?” she replied, brushing herself down.
“Everyone is asking the same question.”
Thomas helped her to her feet and she staggered slightly as she regained her balance.
“How about you?” she said, noting his distant expression.
“Oh, I’m fine,” he replied as he snapped back to the present.
Thomas cursed when he noticed his broken camera. As he looked out at the valley the mind implant engaged and he understood his role for the first time. He knew he had to find Kefira and stop the Chinese or nothing would ever be the same. All my life I have been running away, he thought as he turned back towards the stairwell. His hand touched the gadget Kefira had given him just before she disappeared. Her sensuous voice echoed in his mind, a voice that fired up his soul and strummed his heart strings. He had to find Kefira, he couldn’t run away anymore.
Narrow Escape
“Sue Ann, I have to leave you here. You’ll be fine,” Thomas said, looking into Sue Ann’s eyes and holding her arms protectively.
“What? Have you totally lost it? You can’t walk out on me now.”
“I’m not walking out on you, but I have something to do,” he replied.
Before he could continue, sirens and helicopter noise filled the air. IDF Special Forces rappelled onto the lookout and secured a perimeter. Their coordinated movements were efficient and swift. Thomas and Sue Ann crouched down among the frightened dignitaries and journalists. Departing military transport buffeted them. Thomas’ arm reached around Sue Ann instinctively as they both squinted. A stroke of luck that I didn’t leave the scene, Thomas thought. It would have made me a fugitive. Now, I can juggle finding Kefira, learning about the suit and using Al Jazeera resources. His wildest speculations couldn’t prepare him for the shock of opening the knob on the watch Kefira gave him. I won’t let it happen again. It won’t be like my mother and my sister. I’ll get her back.
Kefira’s instructions not to touch the watch’s knob until he arrived in a secure location repeated softly but insistently over the staccato voices of the military personnel. Thomas stifled his urge to flee while his subconscious mind plotted a strategy. The set of instructions Kefira had left with him before the Chinese abducted her were so subtle, so understated, that Thomas believed they were his own.
“Who’s the officer in charge here?” asked Sue Ann, her press badge extended out in front of her towards an intense young woman in uniform who was making the rounds of people mostly still lying prone and in shock.
“The one over there by the stairs, talking into the radio, but hold off for now-” the soldier said.
“Hold off, my ass. The world needs to know what happened here – now!” Sue Ann snapped.
Sue Ann grabbed Thomas’s shoulder and pointed towards the officer in charge. She nodded in the man’s direction, indicating that Thomas should pan the area and zoom on the officer. She was rehearsing her questions when Thomas took her elbow.
“The lens broke in the attack. My camera’s useless. Wait, maybe the audio’s still on. Yes. We have audio,” said Thomas, professional reactions charging him up.
“Use your-” Sue Ann started, until she noticed Thomas already busy snapping stills with his phone.
They threaded their way through the people waking from a nightmare. Before Sue Ann could address the officer using the radio, two other soldiers stepped between them, passive but immoveable.
“Who were those men? How did they arrive and leave without transport? Where’ve they taken the Israeli guide?” shouted Sue Ann.
Thomas pointed his camera and directional microphone at the officer. Sue Ann’s last question had piqued his interest. He turned to her and waved the two sentries away. Thomas and Sue Ann walked closer.
“Turn that off. Off, I said.”
“Leave it on, Thomas. This is world-shattering news. A group of dignitaries came under attack today,” replied Sue Ann.
“Cooperate with me and I’ll see what I can do about getting you a story later. Now turn that camera off before I take it away.”
The officer reached for the camera and snapped it out of Thomas’ grasp as the two sentries returned to separate the journalists and the officer. The officer waved the soldiers off again.
“Take these two to the transport that’s arriving and keep ’em nearby so I can talk to ’em after,” he said to the two soldiers.
“You can’t do that,” shouted Sue Ann over her shoulder as the soldiers ushered both her and Thomas down the stairs.
The officer pocketed Thomas’ camera and looked over the area. The situation had calmed down, but his actions suggested that he felt uneasy. There were no apparent injuries and the people now in his charge seemed unhurt, just confused. Where’d the ‘perps’ get to? he thought.
The soldiers helped dignitaries into waiting helicopters and the other victims into military ground transport. The executive officer fiddled with Thomas’ camera as he walked to the armored black Escalade holding Thomas and Sue Ann. They were locked in the back bucket seats and a metal screen separated them from the front.
“What’s this about an IDF officer disappearing?” the officer asked as the driver pulled out in convoy, taking some of the Special Forces team.
“What about my camera?” Thomas asked.
Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) Page 1