The Second Renaissance Series Boxset

by Paul Heron

  ‘Still wearing your suits too, I see,’ Mohammad mumbled, sprawled across a rug displaying the Indian flag, carelessly playing on his phone.

  Carolina and Marcel arrived just as Sofia closed the door.

  ‘Something very strange is going on...’ Carolina said, out of breath.

  ‘Strange? How ever do you mean?’ Mohammad said sarcastically. ‘I was under the impression today was just normal. No?’ He pulled the chain and stone out from under his shirt. ‘Totally normal!’ He continued to speak from the floor; now lying on his back with his smartphone raised in the air, the sound of cricket commentary coming from it.

  Carolina laughed off Mohammad’s comment. ‘Just you continue with your game. We noticed a strange looking car following us. It was creepy. Either the guys were lost, or they were spying on the place. One thing I’ve learned from Brazil is that strange cars with well-dressed men in them, are worth worrying about.’

  ‘You didn’t spot any black unicorns? Flying pigs?’ Mohammad mumbled. ‘No ugly giants called Fomorians?’ He almost choked on his own laughter.

  ‘Good one, man!’ Marcel laughed, planting himself down on the rug beside Mohammad. He gestured at the incense. ‘You trying to conjure up the gods or something?’ Both he and Mohammad erupted.

  Michael laughed. ‘You know we could hear you from outside, don’t you? Even above the noise of that radio and TV. Your window’s open.’

  ‘We’re testing something,’ Eduardo said. ‘That’s why the radio and TV are on.’ He shot across the room towards the window. Peeking through the curtains to look for something suspicious, not realising what he was doing was making himself look more suspicious. ‘You said you closed the window! Idiot,’ he hissed at Mohammad, kicking him in the leg. ‘Can you do anything?’

  ‘Sorry.’ Mohammad was paying more attention to his phone than to anything else, as if he was just chilling, waiting for the dream to end. ‘I was looking up the Fomorians. Apparently they’re a bunch of hostile, monstrous things.’

  Sofia and Michael sat down on the black inflatable sofa. Carolina sat beside them.

  ‘Look at this.’ Eduardo tossed Michael a shiny metal object.

  Michael turned it over in his hand. ‘What’s so special about this? It’s just a memory stick.’ He looked closer at it, spotting something engraved on the side. ‘Wait a minute, is this the device you guys made? It has L’amico engraved on the side.’

  ‘Correct,’ Ajit snatched it back from him.

  ‘Why L’amico?’ Sofia asked. ‘Do you speak Italian? You know amico is “friend” in my language, right?’

  ‘I don’t speak Italian,’ Ajit said. ‘An Italian documentary was on the TV, just background noise really when I was drawing up a plan for this. I was amused when I heard a reference to “amico”.’

  ‘It’s the device we’ve built to widen frequency bands for Internet devices,’ Eduardo said.

  ‘Okay...’ Sofia said in a long drawn out way, waiting for the rest of the answer, folding her arms and looking at Carolina as if Carolina had the power to speed them up.

  ‘Three years ago, on the birthday of Wi-Fi, I had an idea to create this,’ Ajit said. ‘Eduardo and I thought it would be fun, and now, this has just gotten out of control.’

  Eduardo grabbed the device from Ajit. ‘And this is what got us our invitation to the university, well we thought it was; but now we know the invitation was because of that creepy lady with the weird horse.’

  ‘That lady is called Elisabetta,’ Ajit said, ‘and it was a unicorn, not a horse.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Eduardo said, barely paying attention to what he was saying. ‘Since we’ve returned from the gallery, it appears to do a lot more. Actually, it can do anything you could want.’

  ‘Explain,’ Marcel said, all of them eager to hear.

  ‘Well, whenever I connect it to the laptop,’ Eduardo began. ‘Actually, wait. I’ll show you.’ He sprinted to Ajit’s desk and dropped into the chair. He took a swig of water, but his trembling hands spilt more water down his face than in his mouth.

  Ajit was jittery too. He sat down on his bed, caressing his temples with his finger tips.

  ‘Look!’ Eduardo continued. ‘See? There’s new software!’

  Everyone but Mohammad joined Eduardo at the desk. He’d already seen it.

  ‘It’s a completely different operating system with this device,’ Ajit shouted.

  ‘Look at the desktop background; it’s like the symbol on the gallery’s gate,’ Michael said.

  ‘A unicorn,’ Carolina said.

  ‘Yes, and it reads “La Sirani” in the controls bar. Also, there are only three windows on the screen.’ Eduardo hovered the mouse’s arrow over one window. ‘This window here is called “Sirani Search” there’s no Google.’

  ‘Wow,’ Sofia said, her eyes wide and glued to the screen. ‘But how?’

  ‘And this window here,’ Eduardo went on, ‘is a message from that creepy... sorry, a message from Elisabetta. Do you want to read it?’

  ‘Go for it,’ Marcel said, drawing himself closer to the screen. ‘This has gotta be interesting,’ he looked at the rest.

  ‘I’ve lost faith in my eyes and sense of reality today, so, lets have it,’ Michael said.

  Chapter Eleven

  DEAR MICHAEL, SOFIA, Ajit, Eduardo, Carolina, Marcel, and Mohammad,

  this device is a gift from Oisin, the God of Tecnology. As I told you all, the Mancini Corporation is very powerful, powerful in your world. It has money and influence. That is power in your world today. This won’t be easy, but anything in life worth having requires dedication and sacrifice.

  The god Oisin’s device controls vital parts of your world’s electromagnetic spectrum, giving you control over the earth’s communication systems. In your world today, this is how you win wars. This is power. Gods of old will not help your civilized world. The new gods are gods that are better equipped to save your world. It is the best weapon I can give you. I do not wish to return to your world. The Fomorians and Tuatha de Danann must not allow their war to spill back into your world.

  Use this device to share the truth with the world. You now have the power to control the information that is available. The people leading your world are no longer capable of doing so. They must be removed from power. But you must not be seen. Your world is being led into the darkness. Please be careful, you are all about to embark on a journey that could destroy the world as you know it. You are all under threat. Do not be seen.

  Remember, the world must not know about the cave or the sculpture’s true power. Never allow this to become public knowledge. Mortals are too weak.

  Good luck.

  Elisabetta

  ‘Well, this has just become more interesting,’ Michael said. ‘So, the old gods can’t help us in our world today. But their powers sure could. A God of Technology?’

  ‘That’ll be me.’ Eduardo shot them all a grin. ‘I’ll be Oisin.’

  ‘It must be true.’ Sofia said. ‘Gods are given power, and are created by what people, humans, give their attention to. We, as a civilization have created Oisin, God of Technology, because that is what we rely on. We use technology to make our world a better place.’

  ‘Why does this have to be our fate?’ Carolina said. ‘We shouldn’t be given this responsibility. This is nice, yes, to be thought of like this, but come on, really? Us seven are left to prevent the world from falling to darkness? Am I the only one that’s nervous about this entire idea?’

  ‘Yes, fate, our wonderful responsibility,’ Mohammad mumbled. ‘I’d rather not save the world. I’d rather play the Playstation.’

  ‘You brought it?’ Marcel asked, excitedly. ‘Don’t mind if I do. I’d rather be the God of Football.’

  ‘You’d be no match for me, my Brazilian brother,’ Mohammad said, still playing around on his phone.

  ‘Okay, back to the device!’ Sofia said.

  Eduardo resumed his explanation. ‘This window here gives instr
uctions about how to operate the software. It even gives a detailed description of how it was designed.’

  ‘Isaac Newton?’ Michael said. ‘What the hell has he got to do with it?’

  ‘Yes!’ Eduardo said. ‘According to this, Newton had discovered four laws. It says here that in 1665, a young Isaac Newton became friends with Elisabetta. Before discovering the three laws of motion, with Elisabetta’s help and the powers she intercepted from the Dark One, he first discovered the existence of electromagnetic waves. But before that could be presented to the world, Elisabetta was murdered, and Pietro Mancini removed all the evidence Newton had, leaving him with nothing to refer to. Mancini cast a spell on Newton, wiping his memory. Newton had no bloody idea the advances he’d made all those years back.’

  ‘This is huge,’ Michael said. ‘This re-writes the truth of our history.’

  Eduardo spun around in his chair and looked at Michael, then the rest, grinning. ‘This, my friends, is like Christmas and my birthday rolled into one.’

  Ajit didn’t exactly share in Eduardo’s enthusiasm. ‘I have a sore head!’ he cried from his bed.

  ‘How did you pair of clowns make it do this?’ Marcel laughed. ‘I mean, this is a hefty asset we have here. I mean some seriously badass kit!’

  ‘It was in my pocket when we went to the gallery.’ Ajit said. ‘So, I’m guessing something happened to it when we visited Elisabetta. I mean, it was in my trousers pocket when we returned.’

  ‘You know,’ Eduardo said, ‘there are countless satellites in orbit, and on the ground. And because this baby controls the electromagnetic spectrum, we can control all of them.’ Eduardo’s eyebrows rose, his eyes widened. ‘Let me say that again. ALL OF THEM!’

  Michael was beginning to enjoy what he was hearing. Who wouldn’t? A device so advanced the world could perhaps never create. They all looked at each other, each person knowing in that room now stood seven people with something more powerful than they could ever imagine. Than the world could ever imagine. There was something utterly terrifying and at the same time exciting about it. If it was to be misused, it could send the world back in time. If they used it properly, it may be the thing that saves the world.

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘SO, WHAT CAN WE CONTROL?’ Michael asked. ‘Give us an example.’

  ‘From this device, every single piece of information travelling through electromagnetic energy gets intercepted. If you could all imagine the electromagnetic waves passing through the air, this device is like a remote control that starts and stops the current of these waves. If I activate “secret mode” that will allow us to cause interference, waves carrying information will shut down.’

  ‘That’s what happened when I called you at the shop, Michael.’ Ajit said. ‘I bet the radio in the shop went off, too?’

  Michael laughed. ‘It did. This is something else!’ He tried to contain his excitement.

  ‘Well, it doesn't control all of the spectrum. That would be disastrous,’ Ajit said.

  ‘Why disastrous?’ Mohammad asked, an apparent change in his attention.

  ‘Because,’ Eduardo said, ‘if we were to shut down the entire electromagnetic spectrum, everything our eyes see would become colourless. The world would turn grey.’

  ‘England is already grey,’ Sofia joked, nudging Michael.

  Eduardo sniggered. ‘Yeah, true! So, that’s why Elisabetta has given us this - I guess.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Marcel asked.

  Eduardo seemed to enjoy discussing technology; he certainly knew what he was talking about. His gift, after all. ‘Different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum operate on different wave lengths. There are radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultra violet, x-rays, and gamma rays. Countless waves are around us all the time. We just don’t realise it. Our entire world is a sea full of electronic waves. We can’t see, touch, smell or taste it – but electromagnetic radiation is what our communication systems need. If we didn’t have electromagnetic radiation or waves, we couldn’t transfer information from one device to another.’

  ‘My head hurts,’ Mohammad said.

  ‘Everywhere around us, right now, there are waves carrying information to us.’ Eduardo pointed at the black inflatable sofa. ‘Visible light waves tell our eyes that this sofa is black. Our eyes can see these colours because they are designed to see the energy flowing on that wave length.

  ‘But also,’ he pointed at the radio on Ajit’s desk, ‘radio waves are carrying information to that radio right now.’ He pointed at the TV and said, ‘and the same for the TV. My phone here,’ he pulled his mobile from his pocket, ‘microwaves are travelling to my phone right now. There are waves carrying information from local GPS directing people to their destinations. The text messages we receive, Internet data. Everything.’ Eduardo paused, and then took a breath. ‘We let the visible light waves within the spectrum roam free, so our world keeps it’s beautiful colours. But you guys, from what we can tell, the rest of the spectrum is ours. We can do what we want with it. Screw Thor’s hammer, or Poseidon’s trident. This is our weapon. And this is real power today.’

  He activated “secret mode” from the laptop and every device in the room, except for the laptop that was connected to L’amico, lost signal – including the radio and TV.

  ‘You’re joking,’ Michael said, looking at his phone with no signal.

  ‘But isn’t this dangerous? For every electronic device to shut down? GPS for planes in the sky, ships at sea for example?’ Sofia said.

  ‘Yes - that’s why we can’t use the device for too long. But Ajit and I have an idea. We might be able to alter the device to make it better.’

  ‘This is hard to believe,’ Michael said. His first day at Little Camberly was intensifying by the second, and he had a feeling there was more to come.

  The second Eduardo deactivated the device, the radio came back on. The TV followed. All their phone’s found a signal. The DJ for Good Evening Little Camberly radio show told the listeners that they had just experienced a freak power cut.

  They exchanged glances while listening to the report. Their expressions were those of shock, as if gasping for air. It was exciting to hold so much power. The seven were about to go to war with the world and the world would never know who or what did what they were about to do.

  ‘And the good news is, nobody can track us down,’ Eduardo said.

  ‘Right, okay.’ Michael took a deep breath. This device was the key. Somehow, that device was vital for them to achieve what they had to do to get their lives back to normal again, whatever that was. If it ever could. Knowing what they now knew. Their lives would never be the same. But it was perhaps a little too early for any of them to come to terms with that yet. ‘Before we do anything else, do you have any idea how to protect this device? It would be disastrous if the wrong people got their hands on it.’

  ‘Yes, we both know how this has been built and what it will take to build other devices to work with it, which is what we plan to do.’ Eduardo grinned. ‘We’ll synchronise all our phones to this device.’

  ‘How do you know all this?’ Carolina asked.

  ‘To be honest,’ Ajit said, ‘we have no bloody idea. How can you kick ass so well? How can Sofia remember things? How can Mohammad make birds crap on people? How the hell did today just happen? How in the gods green earth are we seven chosen to fix the mess our world leaders have gotten themselves into?’

  ‘Got a point.’ Sofia said.

  ‘We need to go to the university lab and figure out how to synchronise our phones. We’re going to build SIM cards that connect to this Sirani network,’ Eduardo looked at Ajit when he spoke.

  ‘I’m sweating like a racehorse again,’ Ajit said, wiping his forehead with his shirt’s sleeve. ‘We have discovered something else.’ He and Eduardo looked at eachother sheepishly. ‘While we played around with this earlier today,’ he cleared his throat, ‘we heard an interesting conversation. A secret conversation
involving some very powerful people. World leaders. And perhaps the truth about what we all heard about this Dark guy and his team of Fomorian monsters.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  ‘IT WAS A CONVERSATION between some dude, Matthew Cole, who’s apparently the British Minster of Defence, and British Prime Minister Helen Cope. I don’t know much about politics, it bores me, at least until our recent trip to Tuscany. And-’ Eduardo turned and looked at the group.

  ‘And?’ Sofia asked.

  ‘...and a Mr Alejandro Garcia, a representative for a company known as Mancini Corporation.’ Ajit added.

  ‘Mancini Corporation is the mortal representative of The Fomorians. Or the earthly remains of those monsters. Peitro Mancini murdered Elisabetta, became The God of Greed and sits at the right hand of The God of The Dead, who wants my ancestor’s blood, simply because she’s just as powerful.’ Sofia spoke with a hint of venom in her voice.

  ‘I’m sure that discussion is top secret,’ Marcel said, grinning. ‘That’s an awesome device. Love it.’

  ‘To test this out, I typed British Minster of Defence into our new search engine, and the government’s website came up. As did his personal details, including telephone, personal mobile and his Skype information with an invitation to join his conversation.

  ‘Sirani search engine has every single piece of data, both encrypted and not. All you do is type a word, and we have information linked to that word. It also brings up related words. One related word was: The Ministry of Mythology.’ Eduardo said. ‘The existence of this ministry has clearly been kept from the world.’

  ‘What about the conversation you heard?’ Carolina said.

  ‘They talked about a recent United Nations meeting in Vienna, about how so many leaders got sick after the event. They said after the meeting, international trust has been destroyed. The UN was hoping to find a resolution to this, so they say.’