“We’re coming for you, soon. Buck up, girl.”
Recognizing his voice, Kefira drew her blanket back over her body, normalness reasserting itself. Can’t be. Can’t be, she thought.
“Hold on. Hold on just a bit more.”
A strong current emanating from Chou's security system obliterated Thomas holograph. For the first time since her capture a door appeared in a flat wall and two guards came in. One of them leered at Kefira but they did not speak. The older one used a long pole with a rubberized loop on it that he dropped over her head before she could react. The hoop tightened around her neck so that she could barely breathe. The second guard motioned for her to raise her hands. Clasps appearing out of the ordinarily flat metal wall snapped over her wrists clamping her tightly to the cool surface. A similar pair of clasps caught her ankles. When she couldn’t move, the first guard slackened her neck noose. She gasped for air and felt one of the men touching her breast. The indignity of his behavior saddened her and she closed her eyes, expecting the worst.
There was a smack and a gasp; the hand was removed from her breast and when she opened her eyes, the guard who had noosed her neck was dragging his partner out of the cell by his feet. He returned with a swath of heavy cotton. He did not speak, but she sensed the apology for his partner’s behavior in his eyes. He put the sarong around her and gave her a pair of sandals also made from rough cotton, then he placed the noose around her neck a second time, but this time he tightened it much less. When he was at the end of the pole’s distance, and he had the pole firmly in his hands, the clasps on her hands and feet unfastened and slid quietly back into the wall.
They walked along a long hallway heading towards a purplish halo surrounding a shape that looked like a door on the wall.
Chou opened the door to his personal interrogation room. No recording equipment was necessary here. Chou’s suit remembered and sifted every one of his interactions on a regular basis learning how to make decisions based on Chou’s past behavior. Machine learning techniques applied to a nanosuit. What will Lau think of next? Kefira sat in a comfortable chair adjacently opposite Chou. She looked a little to her left to see the general. He gestured with his hands to some light rice cakes and weak white tea.
“I would offer you something more substantial but your stomach wouldn’t take it now and it would only cause you discomfort later. I regret this treatment of you, especially the behavior of your guard just now. I assure you he will be disciplined. In fact, why not watch the process?”
A plasma screen lit up to their right. The guard who had touched her earlier sat with his hands secured onto the table in front of him.
“Which hand did he use?” asked Chou.
Kefira had trouble speaking. Her vocal chords were out of use for normal interaction.
“Not certain,” she managed to say.
Chou nodded.
“He’s right handed. The right hand then.”
The man’s right hand twisted in an impossible way as his bones broke under neurological stimulation. A spasm rolled up his arm breaking the bones as it traveled. An anguishing screech, a screech of a kind Kefira had never heard before in her life, accompanied the crunching sound of the man’s shoulder turning into powder inside his skin.
“Enough. Enough.” Kefira turned away from the spectacle, disgusted.
Chou closed the plasma screen.
“You lasted longer than I expected.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Simple really. The secret to your suit. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“What suit?”
“I’ll humor you for now, but remember I am not a very patient man.”
She’s able to hide part of her brain from me. I can sense there’s more there but I can’t access it. I have to speak to Lau and get him down here to feel it.
“Think about it today, okay?” he continued. “In the meantime, does normal food sound good to you? How about some news about the world? Try these clothes on too,” said Chou as he handed her a pile of brightly colored cotton clothes. “Go on. Everyone loves a little comfort.”
Kefira reached out and her thumb and forefinger squeezed the texture of a heavy cotton ‘hoodie’. Knowing better, she still couldn't help but take the garment into her arms, savoring the warmth when she zipped it up. Shouldn’t let him win like this. I know I shouldn’t. But it’s a small thing and it feels so good just to be warm.
Her guard returned her to her cell. A comfortable chair, a plasma screen and a remote control, a few books, some pencils and paper sat on a table beside the chair. The heavenly odor of rice and fresh vegetable stir-fry with her favorite tamari sauce assaulted her nose. Tears filled her eyes as she sat at a low table, leaned over to let the aroma of fresh-cooked food into her pores. She tore a piece of naan bread, puffy and fragrant, and she rubbed it under her nose. There were chopsticks to eat with but she elected to use her hands. When she finished, all of the utensils vanished. Fog, all made of fog. He doesn’t win. I do by getting stronger, thought Kefira as she let her tongue roll over her lips again and again.
Kefira centered her mind and started her Capoeira exercises. The meditation and exercise carried her into a Zen mental place. With a shine on her skin she relaxed and breathed deeply from her abdominal chi. Then she noticed something new in her mind, a bright spot. She concentrated and sensed Thomas’ energy present in this location. Her heart started to patter, hope filling her being. A ‘stealth’ molecule. He left me a way out. Thomas, I could kiss you. Wait. What am I thinking? It could just be Chou. Chou might have the control over his carbon molecules to make a molecule like that too. Personal feelings for Thomas, fear of Chou and the effects of solitude interfered with her usual way of analyzing reality. Calm down. If this is from Thomas, I have to find a way to identify his signature on it. Concentrate on opening it up. Remember how you felt when the suit opened. Bring that feeling back.
At that instant, the molecule activated, permitting her to communicate with it. It asked her for a short message in mind speak. She signalled. Hurry. I need protection. Torture to-... Out of her control, the communication stopped but she felt it leaving her mind and thought she saw it pass over to the plasma screen in the form of a miniscule bright light. Then the molecule rotated in her mind, showing her how to use its immense storage capacity to shield herself from Chou’s tricks. She understood that she would have limited protection, but that she would indeed be able to block off any life threatening attacks.
Chou’s face appeared in the room on the plasma screen. Anger showed in his eyes despite being surrounded by a completely passive expression.
All of Kefira’s pleasant amenities disappeared at once. Even the good food left her stomach coming from both ends and leaving a mess on her thighs and chest.
“Before your clandestine communication, I couldn’t imagine a superior suit. Now I am sure you have what I need,” said Chou’s bobbing head in the screen.
The head flickered and the video system lost control of itself. Kefira knew intuitively that Thomas was using Chou’s molecules to pass her new energy. A bolt of light left Chou’s head, disintegrating the image before reappearing in front of Kefira.
She blinked. Somehow, she suddenly had a suit, a limited clone of Thomas’ improved recombinant model. She felt the suit cover her. Her confidence grew. For an instant, an underwater sensation blocked her hearing as the suit enveloped her senses, then as it adjusted to her physical attributes she found that she could hear again. She sat facing the door waiting for either Chou or Thomas to appear in front of her. At this point she did not know which it was going to be.
Chou stormed into Lau’s control room screaming, as usual. Lau looked shocked.
“Sir, what kind of security breach? A prisoner escape, you say?”
“You fool. Someone’s inside our computers and that woman now has a superior suit to ours.”
“That’s impossible. No one can penetrate my nano security. Its integrity is assured
right down to the molecular level.”
Chou took a deep breath. Surrounded by incompetence. Foresight. Foresight’s saved us. He struggled not to murder Lau with his bare hands. I need this moron.
“Bring up the streams in her room over the last half hour.”
“Here they are, Sir.”
Lau’s eyes popped open and his head shook as if it would clear his vision. Kefira had a bright light in front of her. Then the amenities in her room disappeared and excrement poured from her while she vomited. Lau turned to look at his commander. Chou’s crimson face stared back.
“Do something.”
“My hands are tied, Sir.”
In a portion of his brain he had shielded from Chou’s interference, the word, ‘Macaulay’ bounced around in Lau’s head. All the hallmarks of that treacherous bastard here, but there’s something different too, thought Lau.
“Do you remember the day we captured the Mossad spy?”
“Answers. I want answers.” Chou wasn’t in the mood to play guessing games.
“Sir, that day she gave her suit to that cameraman. A stroke of genius really. We never anticipated either her suit or that she might give it to a stranger to keep it safe.”
Chou stamped angrily. He took a deep breath and calmed slightly. He rounded on Lau.
“There is a better technology out there and she knows about it. Lau, come with me. I will need your superior mastery of the nano to get information out of her now.”
Realizing the gravity of the situation, Chou directed his frustrations at finding solutions in his nano stimulated mind. The pace of his reflection raced ahead of that which any normal human could manage. Lau left his assistant to monitor the system after placing a breached system alert on the dashboard of every technician in his command. All of them searched for Macaulay’s and Thomas’ computer worms but to no avail. They couldn’t know the diamond molecule’s ‘stealth’ ability. The technology surpassed their knowledge and experience.
The two men chose to walk down to the level holding Kefira. Each of them had noticed that crisis management in the suits appeared to operate more smoothly when normal activity occurred at the same time as hyper mind activity resolved problems.
Kefira felt their suits approaching in the way a nano house would sense the arrival of its owner and manifest itself. She remained in a relaxed position levitated over the cold cement in her cell. She smiled to herself; the suit permitted her to ignore Chou’s removal of all of the amenities in her room. Even the damp cold didn’t penetrate. The door slid into the ceiling and Chou entered with Lau.
Kefira prepared herself for the battle of wills, the battle of suits. She felt Lau’s power first. She turned to him acknowledging his mastery of his nano environment, infuriating Chou by her choice to focus on Lau. She raised her hand palm outward and placed a force field in front of them. It shone diamond bright. Lau was ready. He gestured with both his hands in a martial arts combat system opening thrust. His upturned palm wrenched backwards, pulling the energy in Kefira’s field into his hand. He thrust it back at her.
Unaccustomed to her new suit, Kefira was briefly caught by surprise and she almost let the energy through, but she dodged showing impressive agility, Capoeira drills responding before she thought. The suit had ‘wired’ her for war. Having parried Lau’s thrust, she reached out for Chou’s neck, distracting the more powerful of the two and forcing Lau to defend his commander.
Lau put himself into the energy stream between Kefira and Chou deflecting and absorbing it easily. Odd, it’s not lethal. Ah. It’s only a protective suit, a mere shadow of the one it’s copied from. Kefira and he both recognized the standoff. Chou sat up on the floor and refused Lau’s outstretched hand. He got up and looked disgusted as he had rolled in Kefira’s ejected waste. She lifted her left eyebrow at him and his vanity. Lau and Chou busily negotiated in mind speak. She could sense some force field just outside the door that her suit could not penetrate. Chou congratulated himself for listening to his paranoia and building a secure force field into this level without Lau’s knowledge. He mind pressed an alert in his system and the wall slid around them containing Kefira and shielding them from her suit.
“At least this witch’ll remain here. We can figure out a way to defeat her suit,” said Chou.
“We may be able to penetrate her protection. She doesn’t have lethal power levels, just defensive,” added Lau.
Lau showed Chou something bright contained in a nano security ball in his hand. A diamond molecule shone in the small prison. Lau smiled at Chou.
“How’d you manage that?” asked an astonished Chou.
“There’re many things you don’t know about your suit, Sir. We’ve been too busy to spend the time to train you fully.”
“Can you study the properties of that molecule and duplicate it?”
“We will analyze it. Duplication should be possible, Sir. Only time will tell for certain.”
Kefira returned to the floor exhausted. At least she could keep her body temperature up and use the environment to provide water with the suit. How’d Lau manage to steal that molecule from my thrust? Thomas, please don’t take too long. They can’t get the secret of the suit.
****
In Haifa, Ekaterina, Jean Pierre, Macaulay, Yatsick, Yochana and Thomas watched the struggle taking place underground in China between Chou, Lau and Kefira by altering one of Thomas’ molecules and using it as an eye connected through the electronic and electric systems in the underground cell.
“Why can’t you pass through that electric firewall with your suit if your suit’s molecules can?” asked Ekaterina.
“Maybe that’s the answer. Maybe I can. Maybe simple doubt is the problem. I couldn’t pass through because I was afraid of losing the suit to Chou and- ”
“You mean your emotional belief structure can influence your power?” interjected Yochana.
“Looks like.”
“Look at this part of their struggle,” Yatsick said.
Thomas shook his head.
“Put it on thermal. Let’s see the heat signatures,” he said.
“What’s that heat signature in Lau’s hand?” asked Ekaterina.
Macaulay laughed.
“Everyone’s always underestimated Lau.”
“Is that what I think it is, Thomas?” asked Yatsick.
“Lau’s captured a molecule. If he’s a smart as Macaulay suggests he is, he may be able to reverse engineer it.”
“Do they have that kind of lab there?” asked Ekaterina.
“Go now, Thomas. Go now – it’s now or never,” shouted Jean Pierre.
“They have whatever money can buy,” Yatsick was saying.
As Yatsick spoke, Thomas’ suit lit up brightly and he disappeared. The words: ‘Can’t take the chance’, filled all of their ears.
“Yatsick, stop him,” Ekaterina said in alarm.
Yatsick reached for a switch on his table. Normally it would activate the force field surrounding this office and contain Thomas’ abilities, but it failed to work. He pressed it several times with growing annoyance, then he concluded that someone had damaged the mechanism. There was nothing he could do. Thomas had escaped.
“He’s gone, Ma’am. I’m sorry. He must’ve sabotaged the switch in anticipation of this moment.”
“I’m Kefira’s mother and I’m controlling myself. There’s so much more that Kefira at stake here. Damn you Thomas,” Ekaterina said with a tremor in her voice and tears streaming down her face.
Yochana put her arm around her old friend.
“It’s their time now, Ekaterina. We’re the old guard. They understand this technology more than we ever will. Maybe he had no choice.”
I’ve failed them again, thought Yatsick. They’ll never trust me after this. How I wanted to be the one to rescue Kefira.
Sue Ann’s Return
Rising like Lazarus from her bed at the secret military hospital at Haifa Military Airport, Sue Ann rubbed her temples. She felt g
roggy. How long've I been asleep? Feels like days. Thomas had left Sue Ann in a timed stasis. Her experience in Qatar had scarred her deeply. Chou’s clumsy mental implant had damaged her mind, but Thomas judged that an extended period of relaxation would heal her. He’d left her at the private military hospital in a deep sleep.
Thomas had been in a quandary over the best course of action. He was afraid that either removing Chou’s implant or waking her up would damage her mind. Besides, he wanted to be able to activate Sue Ann at will. His tactics already made her a vital link in Chou’s demise. He, no, the world, thought Thomas, could not take the chance that she might have an accident and spoil his plans for her.
Sue Ann was led to the vehicle by a friendly driver. Still in the daze that follows a long, drugged sleep, Sue Ann watched the scenery in Israel passing by the windows of the military jeep.
“Where’re we going?”
“Yona Street.”
“That means nothing to me. What’s there and why won’t anyone tell me how long I’ve been asleep?”
“Sorry, I'm just a driver. You can ask at the other end.”
When they stopped, a young woman took Sue Ann’s elbow and directed her towards the entrance of a hair dressing salon.
“I don’t need my hair done. What’s going on here?”
The grip on her elbow brooked no changes in plan. An uncharacteristic reaction – a petulant expression puckered Sue Ann’s lips – until she saw a familiar shape in a doorway at the back of the salon.
“Thomas, is that you?”
“I’m so happy you’re okay. You gave us all a scare, girl.”
“What’s going on Thomas?”
“We’ll talk inside. C’mon.”
The door closed with a hydraulic swoosh.
“What the fuck is this place?”
“That sounds more like the Sue Ann we all know and love.”
Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) Page 17