SHIAM Conspiracy- Book 1

by Joseph Heck

  Zak paused, trying to judge the affect his words were having on Megan. The thoughtful expression on her face provided him with encouragement. “I would just as soon prevent a war if at all possible.”

  “Okay, we will wait,” Megan said softly. She seemed calmer now, but the tension around her eyes and forehead and jaw-line were still there. Her mouth puckered with resolve. “So what do you propose we do?”

  “We need to figure out what is going on,” he said. “What were they using the warehouse for - a staging area? Why would they kill the Elves if they were in on all this together? And this whole thing with the portal and whatever it is trapped inside it... None of it makes any sense. What does any of it have to do with steeling SHIAM technology?”

  “They could not have used sorcery to get into the Grimrok building from the warehouse,” Megan said. “Magical teleportation is not only illegal without permits; it is also extremely difficult and would have surely set off Grimrok’s security alarms. It would have also been detected by the city’s sensors.”

  “What about the portal?” Zak wondered. “Could they have created some sort of wormhole into the Grimrok building?”

  “It would have been detected.” Megan frowned and shook her head. “I do not care how good these sorcerers were. Doing something on that scale would be impossible without setting off both Grimrok’s and the city’s alarms.”

  “Then what was the point of it?”

  They sat in silence. Judging by her sad expression, Megan was again thinking of her dead friend. Ke’aira raised herself up and offered her sympathy in the way of several wet licks to Megan’s cheek.

  “It is amazing how she’s taken to you so quickly.” It seemed to bother him on some level, although it was too foolish to admit.

  “Yeah, you said that before.”

  Now he felt foolish anyway. He pulled his thoughts back to the problem at hand. “That thing in the energy field, could they have tried to conjure something to help with the break-in? That could explain the gateway.”

  “If they did, something went wrong before they could use it,” Megan said. “I do not believe that creature was ever inside the Grimrok building. I would have sensed it if it had been.”

  Zak didn’t respond as he continued to watch Megan. He had no further theories that made any sense. Faced with the impasse, his thoughts changed direction. Megan was a beautiful woman. If things were different, he could be attracted to her... Who was he kidding? He already was attracted to her.

  As he watched her, Megan’s expression withered again. “I just cannot stop thinking about Gavril lying in that warehouse...dead.”

  ”I know how much you’re hurting right now.” Zak used that gentle, consoling tone he’d used during his time with ASID, the tone he’d developed for those occasions when it had been up to him to console a family who had lost a loved one. “I wish there was something I could do about Gavril. But I’m sure he’d understand that it must be this way. If he was the kind of man you said he was he’d know that we mean no disrespect to him. We’ll go back in the morning and search the warehouse. Hopefully, we’ll get some answers and then we can take care of your friend.”

  Megan did not answer. Her eyes were again glossy with tears, but she didn’t cry. Ke’aira began lapping at her face again, this time more earnestly as she was determined to comfort the young Elf. Megan hugged the dog to her with a deep shuddering sigh. When she pulled away, she had regained control. Outwardly, at least.

  “It was projection sorcery that I used to look into the office at the warehouse,” she finally said.

  “Like astral projection?” Zak asked.

  Megan nodded. “The whole thing was so strange. It was like a nightmare that made no sense. Everything had a red tinge to it, the same glow that was coming through the window. There was a swirling fog so dense I could see nothing else. For a long time I seemed to just float there, within that blood red fog.”

  “You were only in there for a few minutes.”

  “Really?” She appeared to be too distracted by her thoughts for it to really be a question. “It felt like forever. After a while the fog became less dense. I could see that I was in a forest. The land kept changing somehow. There was a path or a road. And a sign. Tahmore...something. Perhaps a town or some other place. Then the shadow came. And the fear!” Megan shivered at the memory. “Do you have any beer?”

  “Sure.”

  He got up and went to the kitchen area. Ke’aira was noticeably absent during the trip, choosing to stay with Megan rather than follow Zak. He grabbed two Darkstone Ales out of the fridge and headed back to the living area.

  Offering Megan one of the bottles of beer, he said, “Tahmore. That name seems familiar, but I can’t place it. I know I’ve heard of it before somewhere.”

  “I have never heard of it.” Megan took a long drink from the bottle he’d handed her.

  “Well, there’s one way to find out,” Zak said after taking a drink of his own beer. “Computer, search Comm Net for any references to the word Tahmore.”

  “Searching,” the computer answered.

  While the computer searched, Megan used the time to thank Zak for helping her. She seemed to be feeling better now and even attempted a joke. “That was some tackle you made on me,” she smiled and gingerly touched her ribs. “I can still feel it.”

  “Geeze, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” He began to get up. “Can I get you more ice for your side?”

  “No, it is okay! You did what needed to be done.” She turned her smile up a notch. “Besides, it is no worse than when I played football with my cousins back home.”

  “You actually played football?” Zak was dumbfounded. “Tackle football?”

  “Yeah, it has always been one of my favorite sports. I told you that.”

  “I thought you were just trying to get on my good side.”

  “Search complete,” the computer interrupted. “There are no references to the word Tahmore on Comm Net.”

  “There’s got to be,” Zak insisted. “Try searching all available data sources in all languages for any reference to the word Tahmore.”

  “The current search included all data sources in all languages. There is no reference to...”

  “Well, do it again!”

  “Very well, searching!”

  “It has to exist,” Megan said. “I saw the sign. I am not mistaken.”

  “If that energy stream is some sort of a gateway to another world... What if Tahmore is from whatever place the gateway leads to?”

  “It is possible.” Megan admitted.

  While they waited, Zak steered the conversation in a direction that he hoped would help Megan to relax and take her focus off her dead friend for a while. “So, you really played football when you were a kid?”

  Megan laughed at his question and told him the story of how she came to enjoy the sport. As she recounted her experiences as a rebellious tomboy during her youth, preferring the activities of her boy cousins over those that were more traditionally accepted for a refined young Elf girl, Zak became even more mesmerized by her. It didn’t take him long to determine that she was a uniquely determined and courageous young woman. Each time her father had insisted that she behave as a proper Elvish lady, it had led to an argument as Megan would defend her right to be herself. Megan’s mother would then patiently act as arbitrator and work out a peace between father and daughter, which would require some compromise on both their parts. Unfortunately, the peace was always short-lived as Megan would inevitably slip back into her old comfortable habits and the cycle would begin again.

  “I guess there came a point where my father gave up,” Megan concluded with a sad smile. “While he still does not always approve, he has come to accept me more for who I am.”

  “You sound like you were quite a handful.” Zak recognized that her rebellion went much deeper than simply being a spoiled child. Her individuality did not spring from selfish desires, but from a deep sense of
who she was and what she believed in. He found himself admiring her. But he still could not overlook who she was. If only things had been different...

  “Search complete,” the computer interrupted once more. “No data relating to Tahmore found on any available data source!”

  18

  “Oh, crap!” Zak strained to get a better look through the sheets of rain rolling down the windshield in spite of the wipers.

  Megan had slowed down as they approached Tanner’s Warehouse. The parking lot of the warehouse was a swarm of activity. Emergency lights refracted in a prism of color through the cascading water on the windshield. Men and women in yellow rain coats and red emergency vests hustled in and out of the same small door Zak and Megan had gone through the previous night. Camera crews from at least three separate news stations were also there in spite of the heavy rain, trying to press as close to the action as possible, kept back by the uniformed officers that had been assigned to secure the perimeter of the building.

  “Keep driving,” Zak said. “How the frag did the cops find out!”

  “Do not look at me, I did not tell them!” Megan said, her forehead crinkling.

  “I didn’t accuse you of anything.”

  “Yeah, right.” She slowly drove on down the street. “Now what do we do?”

  “I’m not sure,” He swiveled his head as they passed the warehouse, watching the unexpected scene in the parking lot. “Drive down to the end of the street and stop at the river. We need to figure out our next move. Crap!”

  Venmuroo Road ended abruptly a few hundred meters past the warehouse. A small concrete wall marked the end of the road. Just beyond the land dropped off, giving way to the Serpent River. A weather worn diamond shaped sign was attached to the center of the wall, with a rather obvious warning of ‘DEAD END’ slowly corroding away with time. The storm-laden water beyond the barricade flowed in choppy waves toward the Dragon Sea. The weather hid any hint of Sol Kappur West on the far shore, creating the illusion that the dismal water stretched indefinitely into the bleak horizon. Tanner’s Warehouse, only a short distance behind them, had nearly disappeared from view as well, now only a dark outline in the greyness that surrounded them.

  Megan stopped the Pegasus without bothering to pull over to the side of the road. There was no sign of anyone in the immediate area. Not even one ship could be seen on the water. It felt like they were suddenly the last two people left on the planet. Even the grey-white gulls that normally glided lazily upon the air currents above the river were now missing.

  Zak and Megan sat in silence for a time. Megan had, at Zak’s insistence, spent the night at his loft so they could get an early start. He had given her his bed for the night and Ke’aira had insisted on staying with her new-found friend rather than sharing the couch with him. They woke to another dark and gloomy morning that did nothing to lift their spirits, but they had forced themselves into the day. Megan had logged into the Institute’s database before they left for Tanner’s Warehouse, hoping to find some additional information on the sorcery she had detected the previous night. Unfortunately what little she had been able to detect at the warehouse failed to turn up any significant information. She was able to verify that the mysterious flow of energy they’d found was, in fact, most likely some sort of portal.

  As he now stared bleakly out at the rain, Zak asked, “Are you sure you didn’t mention anything about last night to anyone when you contacted the Institute?”

  He felt awkward asking her, especially after her reaction a few minutes ago. But he needed to know.

  “I told you I did not!” Her resentment toward the question was obvious.

  “Okay, I just had to make sure,” he said defensively. “This is just too weird. How did they find out?”

  “A very good question.” The attitude in her voice fell away. She sounded as puzzled as he was about the police being at the warehouse. “It is a pretty strange coincidence, the police coming onto the scene the very next day after we found it. It is almost like we were being followed.”

  Zak turned sharply in his seat and looked over at her. “Followed,” he considered. With the technology currently available, if someone wanted to keep tabs on them, they would not necessarily need to physically follow them in order to track them.

  “I did not mean it, really,” she said. “I mean, our involvement in the Grimrok theft is supposed to be secret, right. Who would be following us and why?”

  “That’s also a very good question,” Zak said. He didn’t have an answer, but he was definitely getting the feeling that someone was playing him. The question was, who and why? He didn’t have anywhere near enough information to even begin to guess. Instead, he turned his attention toward avenues he could explore. “Those traces of magic you detected in the Grimrok network...”

  “Yes?”

  “If the thieves were using the warehouse as some sort of staging area, I wonder if they used the building’s comm system to tap into the Grimrok network.”

  Megan gave him a puzzled look. “Would the system in the warehouse not be disconnected? I mean, the building looks like it has been empty for a very long time.”

  “Doesn’t mean Comm Net was necessarily disconnected,” Zak said. “A lot of times Star Comm and the other providers leave the connections turned on when these old buildings go empty. They figure it is cheaper than trying to keep up with all the vacancies and the high rollover of occupancy, so they just leave them connected. Besides, if these bad guys are as good as they seem to be, tapping into the city grid wouldn’t be a problem as long as the building was still hard wired. Let’s go back to Grimrok. If the warehouse network is still connected, we may be able to tap into it from there.”

  “What about the police?”

  “They have six dead bodies and an unexplained tower of power leaking into the sky to deal with.” Zak gave her a half-hearted smile. “I don’t think they’ll get to the computer system any time soon.”

  Megan put the Pegasus in gear and began turning around when her comm rang. She answered it, paused while listening, said ‘yes’ into the headset. She looked over at Zak, a perplexed look on her face as she lowered the device from her ear.

  “It is Dr. Raghnall,” she said. “He asked if you were with me. He wants me to put the call on the external speakers.”

  She worked the keyboard on her comm and sat it on the dash between the two of them. “Ok, Dr. Raghnall, we can both hear you.”

  “Good, I was hoping that you two were together.” Dr. Raghnall’s calm voice came over the car speakers. “There has been a development I think you should know about. It seems that the police have discovered the bodies of five Elves and an Orkensha...”

  “Yeah, at Tanner’s Warehouse,” Zak interrupted.

  There was a brief silence before Dr. Raghnall responded, “So you were there.”

  “You know?” Zak asked, unable to mask his surprise.

  Dr. Raghnall continued without answering his question. “Since you were already there, you are aware of the anomaly located within the warehouse.”

  “Yeah, we know.” He glanced over to Megan. “How did you find out we’ve already been there? Better yet, how the hell did the cops find out about the warehouse?”

  “According to the police, Star Comm called them in,” Dr. Raghnall answered. “It seems they received a complaint about interference within the communications grid for the area and had a maintenance unit investigate. It was the maintenance crew who found it”

  “Okay, and how do you know all this?” Zak questioned. “You have a tap on the local police frequencies?”

  Dr. Raghnall chuckled. “Not quite. Since the city decided to cut back on the budget for law enforcement, they have eliminated the full time positions for paranormal investigation personnel. They have been using our services at the Institute since then. So, you see, when they discovered the anomaly, they requested our assistance. I sent Harry Mathers to look into the matter. He’s just reported back to me. It was Harry wh
o told me you two had been inside the warehouse. He is quite good at picking up residual auras.”

  “Dr. Raghnall, we believe that this anomaly is somehow related to the foretelling...”

  “Now wait a minute, I never said I thought this had anything to do with any vision,” Zak objected.

  Megan glared at him for interrupting, her voice tight with tension. “I am sorry I did not report what we found to you, Dr. Raghnall.”

  “That is quite all right.” The doctor’s voice crackled with sudden static interference as a particularly violent flash of lighting cut across the sky. “From what I have learned of the situation, you are correct in believing that this is somehow connected to the prophecy and I understand your decision to keep it quiet. I assure you, my dear, there is no need for you to feel obligated to report your every move to me. I will certainly help in any way that I can, but I believe this task has been appointed to the two of you to resolve. You must do as you see fit. I place my trust in those powers that guide us.”

  “We need to get back inside that warehouse, Doc,” Zak said, doing his best to ignore the references to the foretelling. “We need to find out what’s going on in there.”

  “Yes. Yes of course,” Dr. Raghnall said. “In fact, I have already anticipated that you would. I have instructed Harry to advise the police that he requires additional assistance. How soon can you get to the warehouse?”

  “We’re there now.”

  “Good,” Dr. Raghnall said. “May the Power of Light guide you.”