by Nick Cook
‘Yes. I deduced that the Lodestones use quantum entanglement to communicate with each other.’
This was something I knew all about from physics lessons. ‘Oh, you mean spooky action at a distance?’
Dad beamed at me. ‘You are so my son.’
‘And this spooky thingy is?’ Gem asked.
Dad waved his hand towards me. ‘Over to you, Jake.’
‘Einstein said that if you separated paired particles, even to opposite edges of the universe, altering one particle would have an identical and immediate effect on its twin – no matter how great the distance between them.’
‘And this is how the Lodestones talk to each other?’ Gem asked.
‘Precisely,’ Sentinel replied. ‘Now I’ve been able to analyse that effect up close, I’ve retrieved the message from the Lodestone from the manor. Let me play what I’ve managed to decrypt so far…’
A column of light rose from the Lodestone on the left side of the bench and Archios’s face materialised. ‘Yes, Johnson, our plans are proceeding as intended,’ he said. ‘The hatchery has already exceeded our expectations and we have close to two hundred thousand shadow crows ready to be used for Dark Sunset.’
We exchanged grim looks.
‘Excellent news, my lord,’ Johnson’s voice replied.
‘And the news gets better too,’ Archios continued. ‘We have abducted Professor Jackson, who will be able to give us full access to the facility that we need for Dark Sunset to be successful. However, there was one complication when a newly Awoken spotted one of our shadow wolves moving through the city as the wolf tracked the professor. Fortunately, we were able to capture the Awoken and I intend to interrogate him to see what he knows about the location of the secret Awoken stronghold.’ Archios’s holographic face froze.
‘And that’s as much as I’ve been able to decrypt so far,’ Sentinel said. ‘I imagine he went ahead with the interrogation, which is probably how the Shade were able to locate you on Alderney. Do you have any idea whom it might be?’
An Awoken who’d vanished… The answer flashed straight into my mind. ‘They have to be talking about Carl – the guy who disappeared in New York.’
Ethan nodded. ‘Of course, and if they want to target a major city, it doesn’t get much bigger than New York.’
‘So it sounds as if we know where to deploy a team. I’d like to volunteer my Panda squad for this mission if that’s OK with everyone,’ Gem said.
‘No problem,’ I said, ‘but as this could be the Shade’s master plan, Chloe, Ethan and I should go with you too. Apart from anything else, we have no way of knowing what we’ll be going up against.’
‘That certainly sounds sensible to me,’ Sentinel said. ‘However, before you go, there is something else you need to be aware of – currently trending on social media.’ His image was replaced by a video of HMS Iron Duke floating on the sea, the Isle of Alderney visible in the background with a swarm of shadow hornets swirling over Eaglehurst. A moment later, the gun turret was ripped from the deck by a massive explosion. There was shocked gasp in the background, and then the camera zoomed in on a speck of a person hovering over the scene of destruction. Me.
‘Oh shit,’ I said.
‘I couldn’t have expressed it better myself,’ Chloe said.
‘That was taken by a fishing boat from Jersey,’ Sentinel said. ‘The government thought they’d caught the potential leak in time as they confiscated the man’s phone when he landed, but it turns out he’d already posted the video online. However, it gets worse, because it seems somebody out there is orchestrating a smear campaign – here’s the message that was posted along with the video.’
Sentinel’s avatar was replaced with text that read:
Witnesses say that teenagers who have been living in secret on the Isle of Alderney attacked the Royal Navy frigate HMS Iron Duke with some sort of incredible psychic power, causing it to sink.
‘You have to be kidding me,’ Chloe said.
‘It’s pretty obvious who’s behind this,’ Ethan said. ‘The Shade.’
‘I believe that you’re correct,’ Sentinel replied. ‘Based on everything we know, it seems that the Shade have launched a deliberate misinformation campaign to portray the Awoken as a threat.’
Gem shook her head. ‘Talk about fake news.’
‘Exactly, but this also means that the Awoken are no longer a secret,’ Claire said.
Dad rubbed the back of his neck. ‘We need to work out how best to deal with this with the government.’
‘Perhaps it’s best if you and Claire coordinate with Hammond over this, as we need to head over to New York to see if we can locate the latest threat,’ I said.
‘Of course we will,’ Claire said.
‘So let’s get our arses over the Atlantic,’ Chloe said. ‘Does anyone know the location of the jump spot for the Waverider in New York?’
Gem smiled. ‘Actually, I do, and you’re all going to love it.’
I shielded my eyes from the sun and gazed up at the Statue of Liberty towering directly over us.
I shook my head. ‘So it seems the Shade aren’t the only ones who like using major tourist attractions for their projects.’
Ethan chuckled as we headed round the back of the Ellis Island Museum, a building that had been once used to process all the people immigrating to the United States. It was easy to imagine all those eager faces approaching New York for the first time on old steamboats and how they’d caught a first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, a giant symbol that represented all their hopes and dreams.
A big guy in a sharp suit with a grey mane of hair headed out to meet us, followed by a posse of men and women. ‘So you’ve arrived at last. I’m Mayor Kildare, and anything you need to get this Waverider of yours set up, you just have to ask.’ He held a chubby hand out and shook all our hands enthusiastically.
I turned to Gem. ‘Any idea when the L3 will get here?’
‘It’s being shipped over by the fastest US air transport available and it should be here within two hours, possibly less,’ Gem replied. ‘If only we could have teleported it here, but it’s way too risky and we can’t afford to lose it – let alone the team if the jump went wrong. Sentinel said the increased distance significantly magnifies the risk of teleporting beneath the ground or even high up in the air.’
‘But why the sudden rush?’ Mayor Kildare asked. ‘We weren’t due to be delivered a system till next week.’
‘We have some strong intel about the Shade’s plans, and it’s something big here in New York,’ Chloe replied. ‘As you’ve been briefed, that’s why your city has been bumped up the list and is receiving the first heavy L3 Waverider.’
The mayor’s expression sharpened. ‘I don’t suppose you know the area under threat? I can have Homeland Security deploy a team to lock down the location at a moment’s notice. You just have to ask and I’ll make it happen.’
‘That’s the last thing you should do – at least until we know more. It could actually make things worse,’ I replied.
‘I see, so you’re saying this is just a reconnaissance mission right now?’
‘Exactly. When we know what we’re dealing with, we can put together an appropriate plan.’
‘Talking of which, where are we going to begin our search?’ Gem asked.
‘The last location we have for Carl before he disappeared was Grand Central, so I’d suggest that’s where Ethan can try his time-rewind stunt – as we no longer have Ember.’
‘No problem,’ Ethan replied.
Mayor Kildare looked between us. ‘His time what?’
‘We’ll fill you in later,’ Ethan said with a smile.
‘I see. Well, I was briefed that you might want to head into the field yourself, however, you’ll need to take some precautions.’ He nodded to one of his agents who wore an earpiece and looked totally CIA. The guy presented me with a cardboard box crammed with assorted beanies and baseball caps.
I gave him
a blank look.
‘With all your newfound YouTube fame, you’re going to need to keep a bit of a low profile,’ the agent said. ‘We could always give you some prosthetics to really disguise you.’
I shook my head. ‘No, this is good.’
‘Let me,’ Chloe said with a grin. She dug into the box and thrust a baseball cap with I heart NY on it at me.
She twitched her nose at me, and Gem hid a smile behind her hand as I tried it on.
‘So are we all going on this reconnaissance mission of yours?’ Gem asked.
‘Almost – I think one of us should stay behind to get the Waverider online as a matter of priority,’ I said.
‘OK, as I know the Waverider computer systems inside out, I’ll do it,’ Chloe said. ‘But only on the basis that if you need backup you call me.’
‘We wouldn’t dare not to,’ Ethan replied, winking at her.
Chapter Fifteen
After being discreetly dropped off by our CIA escort, Ethan, Gem and I stood on the street where Carl had last been spotted by a security camera on the side of a department store. The tops of the skyscrapers of New York touched the low clouds above, the pavements swirled with people and yellow taxis seemed to make up most of the vehicles on the road. Everybody was rushing.
‘So do you think you can roll back time like you did at the manor house so we can unlock what happened here? I asked as Ethan and Gem soaked up the atmosphere of the bustling city.
‘I’ll certainly give it a go, but what time exactly are we aiming for?’ Ethan asked.
The eBud in my ear clicked. ‘The camera last tracked him here at around eleven fifteen a.m. four days ago,’ Sentinel’s micro mind back at Culham said.
Ethan nodded as he and Gem heard the same message. ‘Then I’d better get to it.’
As people hurried past us, his face took on a slightly vacant expression.
‘We’d better link up so we can see what Ethan can,’ Gem said. She hooked her arm through his and, with a small smile, looped her other arm through mine. Linked to him via her physical contact, I was able to see what Ethan was seeing.
The noise of New York dropped to almost nothing – a slight murmur. Ghostly crowds swirled past us. And then a teenager with shoulder-length hair was heading straight towards us, a guy I recognised instantly as Carl from my very first Summoning.
‘Bloody hell, that’s impressive – you’ve located him on your first attempt,’ I said.
‘I’ve been putting in some serious practice,’ Ethan replied.
‘Obviously, going by this demonstration,’ Gem said.
‘What can I say – I’m a dedicated man.’ He winked at her.
With our arms still interlinked, we began to follow Carl. He kept glancing behind him at something, and I looked back too. Immediately my mouth dried up. A shadow wolf with grey eyes was padding through the crowd of ghosts without anyone so much as glancing at him.
‘Now that explains a lot,’ I said.
The others glanced back too.
Gem gasped. ‘So Gavin was tracking Carl. Actually, no, because, look…’
Ahead of us, Carl had stepped to one side and was hanging back as he watched a balding man with a grey beard clutching a briefcase. He was speaking to a cop and kept pointing to where the shadow wolf with grey eyes was watching him.
‘Whoever that guy is can sense Gavin too,’ Ethan said.
‘One thing’s for certain, he’s too old to be an Awoken,’ Gem said.
‘That may be true, but there are documented cases of people without an activated Awoken gene sensing the presence of the Shade,’ Sentinel said through our eBuds.
I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and I pulled it out to see a photo that matched the man talking to the cop.
‘Is that who you can see?’ Sentinel’s micro mind asked.
‘Yes – who is he?’ I asked.
‘Professor Jackson,’ Sentinel replied in my ear. ‘I’ve just run a visual database check on the FBI files – he’s listed as missing.’
‘Wow, you don’t hang around, do you?’ Ethan said.
‘I do my best – besides, I’ve nearly finished integrating my mind’s memory experiences, so in many ways I am now your old Sentinel,’ the AI replied. ‘Anyway, according to the FBI’s records, it appears Professor Jackson works at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, otherwise known as the RHIC facility on Long Island.’
‘And what’s that then?’ Gem asked.
‘I actually know that, thanks to Dad’s work,’ I said. ‘It’s a small particle accelerator.’
‘You’re correct, Jake,’ Sentinel replied. ‘RHIC accelerates ionised gold particles close to the speed of light and smashes them together. According to the FBI’s database, it seems that Professor Jackson disappeared around the same time as Carl.’
‘Which would suggest, along with Gavin’s presence, that this has everything to do with the Shade,’ I replied.
‘And Dark Sunset?’ Gem asked.
‘Only one way to find out…’ I said, gesturing to Professor Jackson.
He seemed to have given up on the cop and was now heading off at a fast walk up the street. Carl moved past us, tracking the shadow wolf, as it took up its pursuit of the professor once again.
‘As Carl can obviously see Gavin too, it’s pretty clear his Awoken ability had started to kick in,’ Gem said.
‘Certainly seems that way,’ I replied.
The professor rushed towards a large building from which lots of people flowed in and out.
‘That’s Grand Central Station,’ Gem said.
‘Jackson probably hoped that was his best way to escape Gavin.’
‘He had no idea what he was up against,’ I replied.
We followed Carl’s ghost among the crowds as he tracked the professor through the doors to the station, the professor casting a frightened look over his shoulder.
We stepped inside to see Jackson’s ghost hurrying across the concourse past the commuters. I stole a glance at the famous ceiling – high, duck-egg blue and covered in golden star constellations. Shafts of light lanced down from the cathedral-like windows, creating bright pools across the polished floor.
‘This place is stunning,’ Gem said, voicing my own thoughts. ‘I could spend ages just looking at it.’
‘Unfortunately, we haven’t got time for sightseeing,’ Ethan replied.
Professor Jackson had rushed to one of the ticket-office windows.
Carl’s ghost drew to a stop nearby to watch him, pretending to look at a timetable. Across the concourse, Gavin’s shadow wolf ghost circled the crowd towards the professor. Jackson, having bought a ticket, rushed for the steps. But Gavin was faster and headed him off, forcing the professor to skid to a halt as the wolf bared his teeth at him. The professor began to back away towards an old guy scribbling chalk markings on the floor – symbols that I recognised straight away.
‘Those look like the Shade runes I saw Johnson drawing back in the manor house,’ I said.
‘That can’t be good,’ Ethan replied.
As the professor headed past, the old man reached up and grabbed the professor’s hand.
We watched the movie play out in silence as Jackson tried to pull away while the old man drew a final symbol on the ground. At once, tendrils of darkness started to swirl around them like a living monster carved from smoke. The next moment, Jackson had vanished within the smoke and not a single person had turned to look nor tried to intercede, apart from Carl. He was staring openly at the old man, completely unaware of two other shadow wolves behind him.
Then Carl must have sensed something, and he turned to see his own two stalkers, as Gavin, from the opposite side of the concourse, closed in on his target.
I had to stop myself shouting out a warning as we watched Carl being herded towards the old man. The darkness swirled up around him as his face twisted in terror and a moment later he’d vanished just like Jackson had.
Ethan blinked and the scene rippled
away as the sounds and sights of the current station rushed back to my senses.
‘What did we just witness exactly?’ Ethan asked.
‘I’m not sure, but it confirms that the Shade have Carl as well as Jackson,’ I replied.
‘But I didn’t think that the Shade could teleport somebody away like that,’ Gem said.
‘Unless the Shadowlands have a serious stronghold on this location,’ Sentinel said in our eBuds.
Gem drew her top teeth over her lower lip. ‘You think there could be a new DEC close then, Sentinel?’
‘Maybe, although I’m not sure this is anything to do with Dark Sunset, as we’ve learnt it is a much more serious threat. But to be on the safe side, you should check Grand Central out thoroughly.’
‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘Let’s shift through the electromagnetic spectrum to see if anything unusual stands out.’
‘Not in front of all these people,’ Ethan said. ‘The moment we do that we’ll vanish, and that’s going to draw a lot of attention. You, in particular, are meant to be keeping a low profile.’
‘In that case, follow me,’ Gem said. She headed towards an arch with a sign for the toilets.
As we followed her, Ethan gave Gem a sideways glance. ‘I think Jake and me wandering into the women’s loos with you is definitely going to grab us some attention.’
‘Well, people shouldn’t be so judgemental, should they?’ Gem smiled and pointed at the disabled toilet. ‘And that’s why we’re headed in there.’
A moment later we were all crowded into the disabled toilet, having caused an old lady who’d been passing to raise an eyebrow.
Along with the others, I focused my attention, and at once the world shifted to the thermals of the Shadowlands. Dark vapours swirled around the room.
‘Looks as if you were right, Sentinel,’ I said. ‘There’s a strong build-up of dark energy here.’
‘Then proceed with extreme caution,’ Sentinel said through our eBuds.
We exited the disabled toilet together, making a guy in a wheelchair outside very confused as the door swung open to reveal an empty toilet.
