by R. E. Rowe
“We must find a way for biologicals and silica humans to coexist,” I mumble, staring past the elevator wall.
“Carmina?”
I focus on Chien. “Sorry. Yes, I have a plan for Dennis.” Anger swells inside me. Every community is in turmoil. I hold Dennis responsible. The people’s trust in QCC Corp is at an all-time low. “Have Dennis come join us here. I want to speak to him . . . in person.”
“What will you do? Send him back beyond the ether?”
“Perhaps. I’m still working on that part. But I know we need to see him as soon as possible.”
Chien and I exit the elevator and walk down the hallway to my office. Normally there are at least two clones standing by the elevator and another two by the command center’s double door entrance. Today there are no clones at all. Odd.
“Where are my clones?”
Chien looks around with a puzzled stare. “Something is wrong.”
I push through the doors into the control room and walk inside the huge space. “When Dennis arrives—”
“I’ve arrived.” Dennis glares at me with his arms crossed. Curtis is standing by his side.
The theater-sized control room should be full of my workers, but it’s not. Rows of desks are empty. When I see them, my entire body goes rigid.
At the front of the room, Franz, Bree, and the enforcer named Mack sit, chained to chairs with blank faces and cloudy eyes. Behind them, streaming-video from rioting QCC communities play on all the massive video screens.
“Welcome, Carmina. It appears your grand plan has failed.” Dennis points to the video displays behind him. “I’m afraid you lost the war after all.”
“What are you doing?” I ask, struggling to keep my emotions in check.
“Silence!” Dennis shouts, trying to stand taller than his frame will allow.
The jewels on my arm brighten and my face burns.
Chien takes a step forward, but I stop him before he can run at Dennis. No, not yet. I will surprise Dennis so he can’t stop the energy burst I plan to send through his disgraceful chest.
My touch tells Chien all he needs to know. He will blast Curtis. I blast Dennis.
“What have you done, Dennis?” I ask, speaking each word slowly. “I trusted you.”
“It’s not what you think.” Dennis smiles. “You and General have both lost your pathetic war, a draw at best. That makes me the winner. I don’t need either of you now that we have control of Franz and his builderbot technology. Controlling the portable nukes you call liberators are an added bonus. Do you like my new silica body, Carmina? You can’t even tell, can you?” He laughs. “Franz finished perfecting the download. General’s keepers have deserted him and joined me. The transfer into silica is only slightly painful.”
Dennis stretches his arms and cracks his silicon skin and nanotube knuckles. “His results are perfection.”
“Enough,” Chien says, unleashing a blast of energy at Curtis sooner than I’d planned.
I follow his lead and release a blast of energy at Dennis.
Both blasts miss their targets and instead slam into the back wall, sending sparks and flames exploding in the room.
Dennis and the others blink, buzz, wave, and then return to normal.
I pause. “Holograms?” I turn to Bree and the other hostages. “All of you?”
Curtis laughs and nods. “You’re a little slow.”
Dennis lowers his voice. “You didn’t think I’d actually be here in person did you?”
Bree suddenly opens her eyes and forces out a sentence with great effort. “Trap. Get out of there. Now—”
Curtis zaps Bree with a small energy flash from one finger causing her to scream. He blows on his finger as if blowing on a pistol.
“Stop it!” I yell. “You’re better than this, Dennis. I believed in you. I thought you believed in our vision.”
“Your vision,” Dennis says. “Not our vision.”
“Too bad,” says Curtis. “So sad.”
“Enjoy your last moments together as you’ve done so many lifetimes before,” Dennis says. “Only this time when you die, I’ve been told General will be greeting you beyond the ether. Of course he’ll want to know how you hacked his gate, but that won’t matter now that we control it.”
“Dennis, please,” I say.
“Tell her how we control it,” says Curtis with excitement in his eyes. “Tell her.”
“I’ve had my good friend Franz enhance the encryption of your original hack. He redesigned the keys to incorporate quantum flux.” He points a finger at Franz who sits quietly with a blank expression and a bloody bandage on his arm. His bracelet had obviously been removed.
Dennis continues. “We won’t ever use the old system again. Consider both systems, yours and General’s, phased out.”
“Genuis.” Curtis laughs. “At least you and your mate, Chien, will spend the next eternity together . . . in the dark.”
Dennis nods his head in the direction of a black tarp covering a large object in the corner of the room. “Boom goes the bomb.”
Dennis and Curtis laugh and chant, “Boom goes the bomb.”
“Good bye,” says Dennis.
The holograms of Dennis, Curtis, Bree, Franz, and Mack buzz, flicker, and disappear.
Chien and I run to the tarp and remove it, exposing a four-foot square, gold-framed box with a large electronic digital display and wires on all sides. The center is made of see-through glass revealing red beryl glowing inside and a timer counting down from five seconds.
5...
Chien and I embrace and fall to our knees, generating a force field bubble around us to act as a shield. We combine our energy and grow the shield to be as strong as we can make it.
4...
“I love you, Carmina,” he says.
3...
“I love you forever, Chien.”
2...
We embrace and kiss, intensifying our shield, but we both know it won’t be strong enough to hold back an atomic blast with red beryl.
1...
A brilliant white flash instantly vaporizes our shield and my tears.
chapter twenty-eight
The inside of the hangar is empty except for a ridiculous bomb near me with ten minutes on its timer and counting down. A roaring jet engine and the whirling whistles of helicopter rotors tell me the jerks are leaving with Mack and Bree.
Bouncer makes a throat clearing sound. “So you going to sit around all day, superhero? Get your ass in gear.”
I squirm against the rope until it hurts. I can only move one leg.
“He’s trying. Give him a chance,” Honesti says.
I push and pull, trying to reach the ropes. The chair and I fall over sideways on the floor. “Damn it!”
“Are you sure he has it in him?” Bouncer says.
“Let him work through this,” Honesti says. “You and I both know he can do it.”
“Would you both please shut up so I can concentrate? Jeez.”
“See. Like I said,” Bouncer says. “Superhero is toast.”
“He can. I know he can,” Honesti says.
My arms and legs are on the verge of cramping as I push, pull, and work to get the ropes free. “What makes you so sure ‘I can’?” I shout, still working the ropes.
“Focus on escaping,” Honesti says. “Trust yourself. Believe you can.”
“I’m doing everything I can, but it’s not working.” I squirm against the tight ropes, feeling like a trapped worm.
Then unexpectedly the rope gives a little.
Eight minutes remain.
I stretch with all my strength and manage to reach one of the knots. I pinch the rope, pulling and tugging until my hands burn.
The knot loosens.
I work it harder. I’m finally able to slacken the ropes around my legs, but I’m still stuck and the timer continues to count down.
“Ahh!” I yell. “Try it again,” I mutter to myself. “Ahhhhhhh!”
&nbs
p; “Who’s he talking to?” Bouncer asks.
“Stop being so negative,” Honesti says.
“Don’t tell me nothing,” Bouncer says.
“Shut up!” I yell.
“You don’t have to yell.” Bouncer chuckles. “You’re always yelling at us.”
Honesti sighs.
Suddenly, when I pull again, the tension on the rope completely gives way and the knot opens up. “Almost there!” I squirm and gain leverage by moving the chair against the wall. At last, my arms free. I catch my breath, pick myself up and stumble to the bomb case. I’m running out of time.
Two minutes on the timer.
“Try doing what you did on the jet,” Honesti says.
“Yeah, right. I had a stupid gold bracelet on. They took the thing, remember?”
“Just try it,” Honesti says.
“He ain’t got the cajones,” Bouncer says.
I close my eyes and concentrate.
“Focus. More focus!” shouts Honesti.
“He ain’t gonna do it,” Bouncer says, whistling the song to some game show.
“Screw you, Bouncer!” I yell, and then roar like a lion.
Jam all the electronics, turn off now, and disconnect power!
My face burns, and an electric toothbrush sound echoes inside my head, but it doesn’t work. The timer continues to count down.
Forty-five seconds...
I take another deep breath, my heart racing faster. “I need to relax.” I groan. “Must relax.”
Fifteen seconds...
I try again, concentrating harder this time. Shutdown now, turn power off, disconnect! I scream to myself.
Still nothing.
I let out a frustrated burst of air and yell again, but this time at the top of my lungs. “Turn off!” I let out another yell as I press against the front of bomb case's gold-framed glass.
Nothing. It’s not working.
I fall backwards, completely dejected. I’m done for. It’s no use.
Strangely, a feeling of calm takes over and my heart stops racing. Somehow, some way, I relax and come to terms with my failure. I take in a long, deep breath, accepting defeat, watching the timer continue to count down.
Ten seconds...
“See?” Bouncer says.
“Don’t give up,” Honesti says. “Please, Reizo.”
“Sorry, I tried.” I rub my hand along the glass, visualizing myself touching the glowing red beryl inside the bomb. “It seems so close.”
Five seconds...
I put my cheek on the glass, close my eyes, and let out a sigh. “Sorry, Aimee. I wish it would have turned off.”
The bomb’s display suddenly flashes, the electronics hum, and a loud clunk sounds. The device’s display goes dark. Two gold-framed glass doors open, exposing the shimmering ball of red beryl. The bomb deactivates.
“Huh? How’d that happen?” I mutter, talking to the chunk of red rock like it was somehow alive. I study it closer. “So I have to be calm?”
I look around realizing I’m still alive. I just pulled off the biggest miracle ever. “I need to get to my backpack.”
“You should call Richard,” Honesti says.
“I doubt the Englishman will help him,” Bouncer says.
I ignore Bouncer. Honesti makes a good point. “Maybe Richard can do something.” I bolt out of the hangar.
The runway is vacant, the jet and helicopters gone.
I run to where we left our backpacks and retrieve the handheld device from my bag. “Crap. What was that number sequence Bree pressed?”
Honesti tells me the number.
I press it on the display. The numbers beep, and then I hear dialing followed by a ringing sound. It worked!
An image of Richard appears on the small display. “Hello? Rush?” Richard asks from a hospital bed. “Where is Bree?”
Honesti and Bouncer talk inside my head while I try to explain to Richard what happened. Everything comes out all at once in a jumbled up mess, making it impossible for Richard to understand me.
“Reizo!” Richard shouts. “Slow down. Get yourself together, man, and tell me what happened.”
“Take a breath,” Honesti says.
“Yeah, it might help if you speak in English, boy wonder,” Bouncer says.
“Okay, okay,” I speak slower. “I found your mole. It’s that steel-jawed Lieutenant Webb jerk. He was with some other guy named Dennis. It was all a trap. They took Bree and Mack and left me here to blow up with some kind of nuke, but I managed to turn it off.”
“You shut a nuclear bomb down?” he asks.
“Yeah. Long story. But I disarmed it.”
“Do you have any idea where they are taking them?” asks Richard.
“That’s a stupid question,” Bouncer says. “How could Reiz know?”
“Shush. Just listen for once, would you?” Honesti asks. “They could have said something we didn’t hear.”
“We both know they didn’t,” Bouncer says.
“Please, just listen,” Honesti says.
“Nope, they didn’t say.” I pause, trying to remember every detail. “I’m sure they think I’m blown to bits by now. Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I understand you’re upset. Remember this line is likely compromised—”
“You think?” Bouncer says.
I interrupt. “No shit! Did you hear me? This was a trap. Mack is pretty beat up, but he’s alive. They took Bree.”
I realize I’m repeating the same stuff. I stop talking.
Richard clears his throat. “For now, you’re on your own. Is the device still working?”
“I told you he’d be useless,” Bouncer says.
Honesti groans.
I look at the display on the device. The green dot is gone. “No, it’s not working.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” he says. “I can’t say more at the moment.”
“Oh, brother. He can’t or won’t?” Bouncer asks.
I feel like throwing the device as far as I can, but I don't. “You might want to come to this island and pick up the freaking bomb.”
“Excellent work, Rush. We’ll take care of it. A cleanup crew I trust will be there in thirty. I need you to go find Bree and Mack or they’ll both be dead very soon.”
“How am I going to do that?”
“Good question,” Honesti says.
“Well,” Richard says. “Just keep i-tracking, i-seeing.”
“What the hell does that mean?” I ask.
“You’ll figure it out. Keep the device with you. I’m not sure who else to trust at the moment.”
“Can’t you come get me—?”
“Unfortunately, no. Someone may still be listening for all we know. We may have other moles,” Richard says. “You must leave before the cleanup crew arrives.”
“Like I said. He’s useless,” Bouncer says.
“Be nice. He’s trying to keep Reizo safe,” Honesti says.
“You’re on your own for now,” Richard says. “Good luck, Reizo.”
The line goes dead.
“You’re so screwed,” Bouncer says.
“Don’t tell him that,” Honesti says.
“Ah, hell!” I yell, punching the sky. “This is just great.”
I reluctantly grab both backpacks and make my way back to the beached jet ski while Bouncer and Honesti debate what I should do. I force myself to ignore them.
After some intense straining, I free the jet ski from the sandy beach and get it gliding across the blue Aegean.
When I reach the yacht, I climb aboard and don’t bother putting the jet ski back on top of the yacht. Inside the captain’s wheelhouse, I study the control panel. A fuel gauge reads three-fourths of a tank, but I have no idea where to go.
I need time to figure out my next move.
I study the map, and then point the yacht towards a wide-open area of ocean and push a button marked “autopilot.” I gaze off in the distance and whisper to myself. �
��Talk to me, Ames, please. I really need you.”
She doesn’t answer.
chapter twenty-nine
With the yacht slowly moving along on autopilot, I watch ripples dance across the water. The sea glistens and my mind wanders.
“What now, superhero?” Bouncer asks.
“Let him be,” Honesti says. “He’s thinking.”
“I’ve had enough of this bull. Why am I trying to rescue people I don’t even know?”
“Easy, Reiz. Give yourself time to work this out,” Honesti says. “Bree and Mack need your help. You know that, right?”
“They need you now more than you know,” Bouncer adds.
“I came on this wild goose chase because Aimee asked me to help. But where is she? Huh? Where the hell has she been?”
“We’ve tried to get to Aimee, but General has her isolated from us,” Honesti says.
“I hate to agree. But, well, I agree,” Bouncer says.
“Look, you two need to figure out a way because I’m not moving anywhere until I talk to her. Right now! You feel me?”
The two voices whisper to each other.
“I need to talk with her! If you really need my help so bad, you’ll figure out a way. Got it?”
More whispers, back and forth.
“We might have a way,” Honesti says. “Take out the device and press all four corners at once. Then you enter the code.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Just do it, brother man,” Bouncer says. “It uses part of Carmina’s hack.”
“What hack?” I’m not playing games anymore. “What will it do if I press the corners? Blow me up? Forget about it. I’m not moving until Aimee talks to me. I’m serious.”
“He means it,” Honesti says.
“Damn right he does,” Bouncer says. “Just press the damned display.”
“And trust us,” Honesti says.
Why should I trust two voices in my head? “This is all just a big game for you.”
“I assure you, Reiz. This is anything but a game,” Honesti says.
“For once, believe us. Everything you’ve ever known depends on it. Including your mother’s life.” Bouncer’s voice is serious and clear.
What? Wait, he mentioned Mom. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is my mom in danger?”
