“I was just informed that we don’t know anything,” Lucy began. “You can’t ask me to sanction something like that without good cause. Half the people wouldn’t even bother to leave their homes without an existential threat.”
“We don’t have to start moving people yet, but we can at least get the bunkers and biomes fired up. Prep the environmental systems and do a full check. Run some operational drills,” the Admiral replied.
“Janette, you agree with this?” Lucy pressed.
The head of FEMA nodded. “I want to get ahead of anything that may come our way. As you said, evacuating fifty percent of our people is no easy task. It must run smoothly—or at least as smoothly as something like this can ever run. It’s been twenty years, Madam President, and they’ve come out of hiding now. We don’t know why. But the last time this organization decided to move, we were caught with our pants down.”
Lucy looked to Jonathan and Joshua. They both nodded solemnly.
“I don’t know,” Lucy said, hesitation pulling at her conscience. “Even prepping these things could cause mass panic. The bunkers we could do, but the biomes... they’re in the open. Too much activity and the public will notice. I’m not sure—”
A knock at the door.
An agent stepped in and whispered to Waltham, who nodded and excused the man.
“A call from Moscow,” Waltham said. “They say it’s urgent. May I?”
Lucy gestured to the phone on the table.
Jim punched the connect key and picked up the receiver. Initially his gaze was fixed on the table as he bobbed his head in understanding, but after a few moments his brow knitted and his stare moved to the President. “And you’re sure it’s related?” he asked the caller. “Okay, thank you.” He stood but kept the receiver in his hand and immediately began dialing.
“Jim?” Lucy asked, her heart in her throat.
“That was Moscow. They unlocked their puzzle box,” he replied, waiting with the phone to his ear. “As soon as they opened it—yes hello? Put me through to the lab. Tell them to stop whatever they’re doing, now! Yes, I’m coming down.” He slammed down the phone and made for the door.
“Jim!” Lucy demanded.
He turned to Lucy. “As soon as they opened it, they lost control of every nuclear power station in Russia. Complete lock out of every system. It must have released a virus or Trojan horse or something onto the internet, their systems—something.” The Director’s words were swallowed by the empty corridor as he sped out.
Lucy leapt to her feet and followed him, everyone else in tow. How was that possible? Something leaked through the Wi-Fi? Didn’t Russia have firewalls? Could it breach the NSA system? A million possibilities rattled through the President’s brain as they rifled through corridors and stairwells to the lab housing the puzzle box.
Inside the lab was another room built from reinforced glass, with a single door in and out. While the possibility of chemical or biological threat had been eliminated the team of two men inside still wore protective suits. One of them wandered up to the transparent wall and pressed the intercom.
“Sir?” said the man, his voice distorted.
“Do not open the box,” the Director replied flatly.
“We haven’t sir. Still figuring this one out... it’s a doozy.”
“Good. Let it be for now, until I tell you otherwise—”
“Frank?” came the voice of the second hazmat-suited man in the sealed lab. “It’s clicking.”
“What?” Frank left the intercom on and padded over to his colleague.
Everyone pushed up to the glass, but the Secret Service agents formed a shield between it and the President forcing her to peer over their shoulders.
The square, wooden puzzle about the size of a shoebox and covered in blue and yellow geometric patterns sat alone on a large plastic table. Through the intercom, faint humming and clicking like a motorized music box could be heard. Then, segments of the box’s surface began to slide back and forth, snapping into place. Although Lucy could not determine a pattern, it seemed purposeful and logical.
“Can you stop it?” the director barked.
“Stop it?” replied Frank, his eyes wide behind the protective plastic of his suit. “I don’t even know what it’s doing.”
The box stopped clicking, and a single side panel popped open.
The two men inside the lab jumped back.
No one dared draw breath.
Finally, a faint “fuck it” could be heard over the intercom and Frank stepped forward. He lowered down to see inside the box, pulling back the side panel which was hinged at one end. His shoulders seemed to relax, and he slipped in a gloved hand. A moment later, he pulled out a small piece of paper no bigger than a matchbox.
Frank stared at it and frowned.
“Well?” asked the Director.
Frank walked up to the glass and slapped the paper against the surface, holding it there with his palm so everyone could read. Scrawled in ink that had spread out on the rough, hand-made paper was a single word: Pachakutiq.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” the Director balked.
A moment of silence then Jonathan spoke up. “It’s Aymara,” he said quietly. “The kids, I mean the Stratum, speak it to each other sometimes. I figured I should learn some, you know because of my boys.”
“What does it mean, Jonathan?” Lucy pressed.
“Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, was a 15th Century Sapa Inca in the Kingdom of Cuzco. His name meant He who remakes the world. Pachakutiq on its own, just means... cataclysm.”
The phone in the corner of the room began to ring. The Director stormed over and grabbed it up. “Yes? What? God dammit!” he slammed it down again and turned to the President. “We just lost our plants. We’re locked out. If someone else has control, they could set every one of them to explode.”
Fear streaked its way through Lucy’s spine and into her stomach, stabbing at her over and over. There were more than sixty nuclear plants in the US alone. Four hundred more spread around the world. If they were rigged to detonate simultaneously... the ensuing radioactive fallout... the cloud... the rain...
“Madam President?” Janette said.
“Start Project Swiss Mountain, now,” Lucy ordered, regaining her composure. “Joshua get me the Press Secretary. And find a way to get control on those damn reactors!”
Everyone darted from the room, sprinting off to their respective duties. Everyone except Jonathan. He was standing in the corner, a cell phone pressed to one ear, a finger in the other. Lucy studied him, the pulse of her own heart throbbing in her hands and feet.
“Who the hell is Koa Brown?” Jonathan barked into the phone. “He found what?”
Location: Alpha Base, Vostok Lake, Antarctica
Biome One was abuzz. The usually serene, almost sterile and utopian, atmosphere was filled with anxiety. News of the assassinations had rippled all the way to Antarctica. Scientists ran through the corridors from lab to lab, instead of walking—as if fearing they’d be picked off by some concealed sniper—while the number of armed military personnel seemed to have multiplied tenfold. KJ was sure that was against the Antarctic Accords. Curiously, not a single member of the Stratum was around.
“Hey!” KJ called after a dark-haired woman in a white lab coat as she barreled past. “Uh ...”
“Hui Yin,” Catherine whispered.
“Yeah, Hui Yin, right?” KJ asked.
The woman span on her heel, eyes filled with worry. “Yes, yes that’s me... who’s... oh, Mr. Graham.”
“KJ, yeah. You okay? What the hell’s going on?”
“You didn’t hear? Every nuclear powerplant on the planet just locked out. Someone else has access now. With the attack earlier, everyone is on high alert, in case something happens here at Alpha Base.”
That was not good. It was surely the Nine Veils behind this, which made it more important to find Svetlana. KJ strolled up to Hui Yin, K’awin at his side, and placed a
hand on the woman’s shoulder. Her body relaxed, muscles no longer taut like a bow string. “Chill, everything’s gonna be fine, okay?”
Hui Yin gazed into KJ’s bright blue eyes. “Sure, fine,” she repeated.
“Tell me, Hui Yin, where can I find the other Stratum?”
“They’re all down at the lake.”
“Great, thanks. You be safe now, ya hear?” He gave her a half smirk.
“Sure, safe.” She ambled off in the direction in which she had been running originally.
KJ shook his head. “Humans. C’mon, girl.”
“You better not be talking about me, mister,” Catherine said, eyes narrowed.
K’awin warbled quietly and followed her symbiote toward the entrance elevator that would take them down to the lake. KJ stepped inside followed by K’awin and Catherine. The glass doors slid closed and KJ watched the surface world disappear—an almost immediate transition, as they quickly passed through the ice and rock, and then into a vast expanse that was the underground lake.
On the surface, Alpha base was protected under a series of gigantic glass domes. Beneath them and below the ice, some four thousand meters, was Lake Vostok. KJ had been fascinated with it as a kid because it was like having another planet right here on Earth. Originally it was an oligotrophic extreme environment, supersaturated with nitrogen and oxygen. More than 160 miles long and 30 miles wide at its widest point, the lake covered nearly five thousand square miles. KJ had longed to be one of the scientists, suited up like astronauts, who helped terraform it for the Huahuqui. Of course, that dream had been the beginning of the feud with Nikolaj.
The terraforming had nearly finished completion; so there would be little opportunity to don a spacesuit and explore the vast icy world that was so fascinating. He may only be nine, but KJ knew the only thing to do was borrow a suit. Actually, build himself a suit. Which is exactly what he had done, spending three months rigging it to his size. Cutting and sewing, stealing components that were necessary to ensure a tight seal. Creating a frame to support the heavy helmet on his skinny neck had been the hardest part. Still, he’d been determined. Today was the payoff.
KJ dodged his mother and Jonathan, slipped out of the apartment and sneaked past the guards to the elevator, using his powers to coerce them, and made it all the way to the lake entrance, locked behind a seemingly impenetrable steel door. Standing in front of the colossal gate, his finger hovered over the keypad. He repeated the code back to himself. The one he’d gleaned from the mind of the scientist, Malcom, who sat in the lunch hall every day and ate the same cheese sandwich. KJ couldn’t take the whole code in one go, Malcom would have noticed. But bit by bit, over several coincidental crossings, KJ had gathered the whole thing. It was fifteen characters long. Punching in the wrong character would likely set off the alarm.
“What are you doing, KJ?” came a voice.
Nikolaj.
KJ spun, and nearly fell over sideways with the weight of the helmet.
“I just wanna see, Nikolaj! It’s like being on another planet. You can go after me? We’ll take turns.”
“It’s not safe, KJ! You can’t go in there. You’re just a kid.”
“I’m not a kid! How’d you know I was here? Did you follow me?” KJ asked.
“I knew what you were up to for months. I just wanted to see if you were stupid enough to try.”
“I’m not stupid. Look! I made it myself.” KJ opened up his arms so that Nikolaj could see the suit in all its glory.
“You may be brain smart, but you’re not street smart.”
“I am too street smart,” KJ said, tears welling up. “Kelly Graham was my dad, and mom says he was the most street-smart guy she ever knew!”
“No, she didn’t. Mom said, he could handle himself. But he also got himself in trouble. You don’t know everything KJ.”
KJ sniffed back tears that threatened to tumble down his cheeks. “I know he’s dead, and I wish he wasn’t.”
“Well Mom says wishing doesn’t make things so.”
“Stop calling her mom. She’s not your mom. Your mom is dead just like my dad, remember?”
Nikolaj’s eyes glassed over, and he swallowed, but he said nothing.
KJ knew that had been a step too far. A wound that never healed, and he had just slashed it open again.
“I’m sorry,” KJ began. “She’s my mom and—”
“I’m a mom to both of you,” came Freya’s voice from the tunnel as she stepped up behind Nikolaj. Her angry face appeared even harsher in the shadows. “And you are in deep trouble, mister.”
“You told her?” KJ sobbed.
“For your own good,” Nikolaj replied, wiping his face of a tear that must have escaped.
“Come on KJ, time to go,” his mom said.
Defeated, KJ dragged his feet and moved as slowly as he could behind her. “Mom?” he said.
She turned and pressed the call button for the elevator and turned to him. “Yes?”
“Do you at least like my suit? I made it myself.”
She sighed heavily and dropped down to his level. “I do indeed.”
“Dad would have liked it too, huh? He was good at adventures, like me.”
His mom didn’t say anything but smiled softly and hugged him tight.
“Guys and gals, been a while,” KJ announced loudly as he entered the underground lake, K’awin and Catherine at his side.
Carved through nearly four thousand meters of meteoric and accretion ice above him, the manufactured cave allowed access to the shallow end of Lake Vostok. Huge girders rose from the shoreline to the icy ceiling above and supported a network of lattices—all preventing millions of tons of frozen water suddenly crushing everyone below. Still, to KJ the metal work was somehow graceful and together with the rigged lighting and shimmering ice, it felt as if he were inside a giant Fabergé egg.
Though many scientists had protested the creation of this cave, given their desire to study the microbial life living in what was previously an extreme environment, politics had won out and a haven from attacks on Alpha Base above was needed. A complex purification system had been installed to sterilize the lake water and the constant stream of meltwater. At the far end of the cave, where the lake deepened and disappeared under the ice toward a hydrothermal vent, a barrier was installed to prevent anyone from venturing too far, becoming trapped and drowning.
The shore was lined with his Stratum family, hundreds of humans and Huahuqui. A few looked up, waved, and smiled. KJ’s mind was awash with a warm sense of kin and friendship.
“KJ!” The unified voice of twins Merry and Lex called out. They ran up to greet him, their Huahuqui in tow.
The twins threw their arms around him.
“Where the hell,” Merry began.
“Have you been?” Lex finished, giving a mock pout.
The twins’ bond was so strong they almost never completed a sentence alone. It made much more sense when communicating telepathically, like they were one person. Clumsy, vocalized language only made them seem like teenage best friends.
The twins’ Huahuqui companions rubbed snouts with K’awin, gills ruffling.
KJ laughed and did a little twirl. “Hey no bullet holes, see? I’m all good.”
“Word was,” Merry said.
“You went after the shooter,” Lex interjected.
“By yourself,” they finished in unison.
“Someone had to. And it’s a good job I did. You’re not gonna believe this—”
Believe what? Echoed a voice in KJ’s head.
Nikolaj. Too lazy to open that superior mouth of yours? KJ projected from his mind.
Use it or lose it. You do not practice it enough.
Well, I leave Alpha Base occasionally and interact with other humans more, so— “I like to use my tongue.” KJ threw the girls a smirk.
The twins giggled.
Nikolaj shook his head. “There’s something big going down. The attacks, and now the nuclear power
stations. So, if you know something, Kelly Junior, you should tell me.”
KJ shrugged. “I gave them the gun I found. It’s not my fault if they can’t do anything with it.”
“But that’s not the whole story,” Nikolaj pressed. Tell me, he projected.
“I don’t have to tell you shit. You’ll only go running to mom.”
“We’re not kids anymore, Junior. Time to grow up.” Nikolaj’s eyes held that look of contempt KJ knew all too well.
“Oh, fuck you, you pompous prick. And stop calling me Junior, Jesus.” KJ turned, stormed past Catherine and through the doors of the underground lake toward the elevator to the surface. K’awin trotted after him.
Merry and Lex caught up, their Huahuqui alongside.
The doors to the elevator closed and they began to ascend.
KJ studied the young women. About his age, they had straight dark hair and the bright blue eyes associated with the Stratum. Both were Nenets from Siberia and part of the group of children rescued by his mother so long ago. Merry and Lex weren’t their given names, but the twins had chosen them to distinguish themselves from the others. Siberian names were hard for many to pronounce. They might seem giggly and immature, yet they were both sharp as tacks, holding multiple degrees in important things that frankly sounded made up to KJ. And then of course there was their little parlor trick—something even KJ had never managed to achieve. It would come in handy.
Catherine ambled up, calm and collected. She said nothing, but KJ knew she didn’t need to. She was already versed in his plan.
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