Stones: Experiment (Stones #3)

by Jacob Whaler

  “We can’t get through,” Eva says. “It’s too hot.”

  Dropping her backpack to the ground, Jessica opens it and starts rummaging. It’s full of random things she picked up on her way out of the submarine that either caught her eye or looked useful in some way. Her hand brushes against a hard object the size of an orange.

  Jessica pulls it out and shows it to Eva. “What’s this?”

  Squinting in the dark, Eva looks down. “Where did you get that?” The whites of her eyes jump out with recognition. “It’s a flash grenade. Better throw it away before it blows us both up.”

  Jessica smiles. “Just what I was looking for.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Eyeing the wall of fire, Jessica searches for a spot with open ground. When she finds it, she walks as close to the fire as she can, stopping when she smells her own singed hair, ignoring the screams of Eva behind her.

  Holding the grenade in one hand, she lobs it low, watching it roll into the wall of flames and come to rest on the ground. Then she pulls the pulse rifle off her back and drops to her knees. Releasing the safety and staring down the barrel, Jessica carefully lays the sights on the tiny black dot.

  Her right index finger gropes forward, finding the trigger, applying pressure. Eyelids gently drop.

  “Jessica, don’t—”

  A ball of white flame swells up from the ground in front of her, visible through the thin skin covering her eyes and creating an indelible afterimage. The shockwave throws her back.

  For a time, she loses sense of time and space. A black tunnel looms before her, sucking her in. She flies forward, weightless, arms out, into the darkness. Walls rush past and disappear. The distant din of a tolling bell catches her attention. As she tries to listen, the sound gets louder and louder. Her body is suddenly heavy, as though falling off a high building, rushing to impact with the ground.

  “Jessica, wake up!”

  Hands go under her armpits, lifting her up, dragging her over the soft floor of the forest. Her throat chokes with smoke, causing her eyes to flutter open.

  Eva stands over her.

  “What happened?” Jessica says.

  “We just got through.” Eva puts Jessica down and props up her back. “Look. You’re a genius.”

  The large hole in the wall of fire is starting to close back in.

  Jessica smiles a grimy smile and lets Eva pull her up to her feet.

  “Let’s get out of here before the soldiers come back.” Pulling Jessica, Eva shoulders the pulse rifle and backpack.

  “Right.” Jessica stumbles forward behind her.

  CHAPTER 95

  “I’m back.”

  Everyone freezes when they hear Ryzaard’s voice on the office-com.

  “Gather in the conference room in five minutes. We have urgent business to discuss.”

  Each of the team members drops their work and takes their customary seats at the table, waiting for Ryzaard to walk into the lab. When he finally comes striding through the open door, confusion sweeps through the room.

  The tweed jacket is the same. The bowtie is the same. The long gait is almost the same. There are even six Stones, although these hang from a chain on his neck instead of a leather harness.

  But the face is that of a much younger man.

  “Who are you?” Lips curling into a snarl, Kalani steps forward, spear in hand, arm drawn back, ready to throw.

  Ryzaard reaches into his shirt pocket. “Why is everyone so happy to see me?” He pulls out a black pack of cigarettes and grabs one with his lips. “It’s me. Dr. Mikal Ryzaard.”

  Jing-wei exchanges a bewildered look with Diego.

  Jerek’s eyes drop to his jax. “Voiceprint checks out.” He looks up, eyes narrowing. “Maybe we should take a DNA sample.”

  “By all means.” Ryzaard takes a dagger out of his suit coat pocket and rolls up his sleeve. Bringing the blade onto the skin, he draws a short line up his arm.

  Blood trickles onto the floor.

  Jerek steps forward. Keeping a wary eye on Ryzaard, he takes a white handkerchief out of his pocket and daubs it in the crimson. With his jax in one hand, he brings the blood sample close to one end and brushes his finger against its metallic side. Little green lights come on.

  “Checks out,” Jerek says. “DNA matches. Antibody level is higher. Oxygen reading is off the charts.” He looks up at Ryzaard. “Have you been taking vitamins?”

  “Please,” Ryzaard says. “Enough of this silliness.” He motions to the round table in the center of the room. “Everyone take a seat. I’ll explain.”

  Elsa looks up from her desk in the room next door, a horrified expression on her face. Ryzaard smiles and waves for her to join the meeting.

  Each of them sits in their accustomed places.

  “Where’s Alexa?” Ryzaard says.

  “She’s been sick for the past couple of days.” Jing-wei still stares at Ryzaard’s face. “You gave her quite a scare when you showed up a few days ago, all—” She stops, searching for the right word.

  “Burnt to a crisp.” Ryzaard says. “I know; it was a rather gruesome sight. But as you can see, I’m back to my old self.”

  “Old?” Elsa says. “You don’t look much older than any of the rest of us.”

  Striking a match, Ryzaard lights the black Djarum. “I’ve been through a long and thorough healing process, and I must say I feel fine. Full of energy.” He lifts the cigarette up to his mouth and takes a long drag. Its end glows bright red.

  “Where have you been?” Jing-wei leans closer. “I saw you in the lab, almost dead. Then you just disappeared. We had no idea where you were.”

  Ryzaard blows smoke across the table toward Elsa. “I got some help, but it’s a long story. No time to tell it right now.” He casts his glance across the table. “Now, get me caught up on the latest developments. I’m sure you’ve all been busy in my absence.” His gaze goes straight across the table to Elsa.

  She clears her throat. “We suffered a complete breakdown in our trading systems when you suddenly disappeared and took all six Stones with you. Off-planet, I assume.”

  Ryzaard nods. “Yes, well, I apologize for the inconvenience. I was almost dead. It was an emergency.”

  “I estimate the loss of the last three trading days at over 700 billion IMUs.” She lets the number hang in the air. “Now that you’re back and alive, we’ll be able to start it up again. I suppose we’ll get by.”

  “Very good,” Ryzaard says. “We have an ongoing need for vast sums, which we appreciate you generating for us. Please keep it up.”

  Elsa Bergman nods without saying a word.

  Ryzaard’s eyes move to the right, resting on Jerek, the science whiz kid.

  He lays his jax on the table. “I have a bunch of projects up in the air right now. First of all, I’ve been experimenting with a way to boost our computing power.”

  Elsa’s eyebrows rise. “Ten cluster systems isn’t enough?”

  “No, not for our present needs. When fully engaged, the location algorithm alone consumes over half of our resources.” Jerek’s eyes drop to the table in front of him. “It turns out that the Stones themselves are a source of almost inexhaustible computing power. Especially now that we have six of them. Looping the signal through the Stones, all of them, has a cascading effect. It multiplies the power by many magnitudes. It’s going to take a little more work, but I’d say we’re getting close.”

  “To what?” Ryzaard says.

  “Nearly infinite computing power.”

  Ryzaard nods. “Infinite is a big word. I trust you know what you’re doing. By the way, I no longer have the little green sphere you put together for me. It’s been handy, but I’m afraid it got destroyed on my last little adventure.”

  “I wondered what happened when it disappeared from my scanner,” Jerek says. “I’ll build another one. Even better.”

  “You’re skills never cease to amaze me.” Ryzaard’s eyes wander the table,
skipping over Kalani and Jing-wei, and stopping on Diego Lopez to his immediate left. “Anything new?”

  Diego turns to face Ryzaard. “The location algorithm suffered a fate similar to the trading program when the Stones disappeared. But now that you’re back, I’ve had a chance to recalibrate. Other than the Stone in Greece, of which you are aware, it looks like the only remaining Stone is still in the Congo. Safe and sound.”

  As Diego speaks, Ryzaard detects hesitancy in his voice. “What do you mean, it looks like?”

  “Diego’s eyes avoid direct contact. “I ran into a slight glitch in the algorithm.”

  Ryzaard blows smoke across the table. “Explain.”

  “Once you got back, I engaged the location algorithm and got a strange reading.” Diego licks his lips. “Two Stones suddenly appeared in Vancouver, and then disappeared. Over and over.”

  “That is strange.” Slowing turning to Diego, the smile vanishes from Ryzaard’s face. His eyes narrow and smoke curls out of his nose. “Two Stones? What do you make of it?”

  “Could be just a problem with the algorithm,” Diego says. “It hasn’t happened in the last few hours.”

  “Keep an eye on it.” Ryzaard lays his cigarette on the edge of the table. “Let me know if it happens again.”

  Diego nods.

  Ryzaard’s gaze moves between Jing-wei and Kalani. “How about you two? I recall you were working on an important project.” His eyes stop on Kalani. “What’s new?”

  Kalani pulls his bare feet off the table. His eyes shoot a questioning glance at Jing-wei.

  She looks at Ryzaard. “Perhaps we should discuss this at a different time.” Her eyes sweep the table.

  “Don’t worry,” Ryzaard says. “We no longer need to keep this particular effort secret. Go ahead and share it with the entire group.”

  “We’ve been carefully following the progress of Mr. Miyazawa, the Shinto priest. He’s moving quickly. Almost done with all of Southeast Asia. Soon he’ll be moving to—”

  “I think we all know about his progress. It’s all over the Mesh.” Ryzaard narrows his eyes to a laser focus. “I’m talking about the coming world war. Have you come up with a plan?”

  Around the table, half-shut eyes peel open and lungs fill with air. All eyes fall on Jing-wei.

  Kalani closes his eyes and grips his spear.

  “Jing-wei?” Ryzaard says. “Please provide a quick update for everyone.”

  “Before Dr. Ryzaard left, we downloaded a massive amount of deeply encrypted data. It was all top-secret stuff from European and Asian governments. Documents, video, holos, everything. Most of it was from personal files. With the help of a recently developed de-encryption protocol and some datastream algorithms, we’ve been analyzing documents for the last four days.”

  “What are you looking for?” Jerek says.

  “A crisis,” Ryzaard says.

  “What do you mean?” Jerek says.

  Ryzaard picks up his cigarette. “We’ve hit a bottleneck in the spread of Japanese Shinto. Asia was easy. It’s the footprint of Buddhism. Europe is more of a challenge. We need to generate a crisis that will open doors there, an event that will push all the countries toward Shinto.” He takes a long drag on the cigarette before putting it out and dropping it to the floor. “Did you find anything, Jing-wei? Anything that might assist in generating the crisis we are searching for?”

  “A possibility,” she says.

  Ryzaard leans back in his chair. “Please explain.”

  She casts a glance at Kalani. “We discovered the existence of a secret alliance. A series of them. A delicate balance. Nothing official, but if triggered, it has the potential to cascade into an avalanche.”

  “Intriguing,” Ryzaard says. “Tell us more.”

  “Since the beginning of the century, Europe and the rest of the Western world have feared the rise of China. It’s well understood that in the last thirty years, the Chinese have slowly surpassed the United States in terms of military might. Other than vying for the allegiance of Japan, the two powers have been careful to keep their rivalry in check.” Jing-wei brings out her jax and lays it on the table.

  “World War Five,” Kalani whispers. One of his hands goes up in the air, following the trajectory of an imaginary missile, and crashing into the table.

  “Based on what we found in the top secret files, relations between China and the U.S. are at an all-time low, in spite of the calm that appears on the surface. Threats of total war linger in the shadows. Leaders on all sides have quietly made contingency plans for the unthinkable.” She brushes her finger along the side of the jax and pushes it to the center of the table.

  A holo jumps up. Everyone recognizes the face of the President of the United States. He’s sitting in a small room across from the Prime Minister of Franco-Germany. They both have grave looks on their faces. Only a couple of feet separate them.

  “What is the solution?” the Prime Minister says. “My country is nothing more than a loose confederation. China knows of the delicate situation. They stand ready to pounce at the first sign of civil war. And when they move, the rest of the world will follow.”

  The President leans forward. “You already know what the solution is.”

  “There must be another way.” Wiping the sweat from his brow, the Prime Minister shakes his head.

  “It’s simply a precaution, prudent planning for the worst, but hoping it never happens.” The President sits back in his chair. “We owe it to the mutual survival of our people.”

  A slow breath comes from the Prime Minister’s lips. “Agreed.”

  “I’ll instruct my national security team to place the charges at the earliest opportunity. Beijing. Shanghai. Moscow. Johannesburg. Bangkok. And all the rest.”

  “London?”

  “Of course.”

  The holo is sucked back into Jing-wei’s jax. She looks up.

  “So the rumors are true.” Jerek sighs. “The U.S. government has pre-positioned thermonuclear explosives in capitols across the world.”

  Jing-wei shakes her head. “Not just the U.S.” Her finger slides along the jax again. Another image pops up, this one of the Chinese President and the Japanese Prime Minister.

  As they watch with open mouths, the Chinese President details plans to insert nuclear weapons into government monuments in Washington, DC, London, Paris, Rome and Berlin.

  “But I thought Japan was an officially neutral state.” Elsa stares with incredulity as the images vanish.

  “It is,” Jing-wei says. “Officially neutral, but unofficially allied with China and part of the Asian hegemony.”

  “Amazing what dirt we can dig up when given the right tools.” Ryzaard’s face is beaming. “Now, tell us about the alliances. I think I understand how this scenario is shaping up.”

  “It’s an interconnected system of dominos,” Kalani says.

  Jing-wei nods. “Secret treaties all over Europe and Asia, Africa, North and South America. Everyone choosing sides. Aligning with perceived friends. When any one of them is attacked, the others have to respond, resulting in a chain reaction. Every country will be at war. Just like during the last century leading up to World War I.”

  “Only this time, it won’t be machine guns and poison gas,” Diego says.

  “Based on the de-encrypted data, nukes are buried or concealed in most major capitols. Add to that all the sea-based and satellite-based weapons, and this is what it looks like.” Jing-wei swivels in her chair and motions at the wall nearest her.

  The glass goes black and an orbiting blue-white globe of the Earth appears. Scores of red dots pop up on every continent. A swarm of red encircles the planet and lurks in the oceans.

  Jing-wei leans back in her chair. The creaking sound reverberates through the silent room.

  Around the table, faces are frozen in fear.

  Elsa clears her throat, her voice uncharacteristically faint. “It’s a complex system. We should be careful about tweaking it.” Her ey
es dart back and forth across the globe. “We all have families close to the red dots. We can’t just—”

  “Stop!” Ryzaard says. “We haven’t come this far to simply walk away when we’re so close to the finish line.”

  “But the potential collateral damage is catastrophic.” Diego’s eyes focus on the globe floating above the table and swallows hard. “You’re talking about loss of life in the millions.”

  “Or worse,” Ryzaard says. “But that is the nature of the beast. We are going to remake the world. People will die. It’s to be expected.”

  “Yes, but not our people.” Jerek presses the palms of his shaking hands into the table. “Our own families.”

  Ryzaard rises from his chair. Slowly and deliberately. “Let me make one thing clear.” He walks a complete circle around the group. “As we approach the end of our work, some sacrifices will have to be made. I expect that each of you will perform at the top of your abilities. Nothing less will be tolerated. Failures will be punished. Is that clear?” He lets the silence hang in the air for emphasis.

  All eyes are focused squarely on the table.

  Ryzaard is the only one smiling.

  “So what’s the plan?” He looks from Kalani to Jing-wei.

  “If we want to start a world conflagration, then it doesn’t really matter where we start.” Jing-wei looks up from the table, lips trembling.

  “But that’s not what we want. We only want to make it appear as if that is the inevitable result.” Ryzaard stands behind his chair. “We want to make everyone believe in their heart and soul with absolute certainty it will happen and can only be avoided by Shinto.”

  Jerek fingers his chin. “Every one of those nuclear devices requires a launch or detonation code. Do you have access to them?”

  “Would we be having this conversation if we didn’t?” Kalani rolls his eyes. “We not only have access to them, we can change them.”

  Jerek nods. “That was my next question.” He leans forward and scans the table. “Then the solution is simple. Start the dominos falling. Get the chain reaction boiling. In areas of the globe where the least numbers of people will die. Then just before it reaches a crescendo and threatens to swallow all of humankind, stop it. Change all the codes. No more nukes.”