Antler Plan (A Konrad Loki Thriller Book 1)

by Joonas Huhta

  “Son, don’t assault me.” Theo licked his lips. “Viktor was the one who wanted to be like the Messiah. I don’t want power. I want the power struggles to end.”

  Gideon entered Patrick’s personal space with his chin high to intimidate. “I recognized the voice. It was never my own father speaking when he was dying. It was you! You tried to brainwash me!”

  “None of you understands what it takes to play this game.” Julia stepped between Patrick and Gideon. “Patrick only tried to see if you can resurrect by touch. He improvised the words so that we could study you longer.”

  “All the now-dead agents,” Patrick began explaining, “had their memories erased and identities altered. Their consciousnesses, however, didn’t allow them to evolve like normal human beings. They lived a shadow life. The same happens eventually for the morally enhanced. But for the children and the young, it works. It works if the children are born enhanced.”

  “I don’t understand,” Theo said.

  Konrad spoke. “Are you two planning to end the human race?”

  “Always the anti-climactic, Konrad,” Julia said. “We are going to show everybody the smile of a child. When people see the world as the first smile of the child, it will bind them together. Killing Viktor won’t cause a war between the countries. His twin brother, who was satisfied in the background with women, drugs, gambling, and western entertainment, will become their new leader. And the new generation of babies will affect mothers now differently. Pregnancy won’t make women forgetful or slow-witted. Motherhood won’t be a lonely place. Hormone imbalance and mood swings will be less likely. The world doesn’t need morally enhanced male leaders—the world needs morally enhanced new generations.”

  “A generation of Prophets,” Patrick continued. “One generation during which the wounds are given time to heal. During this period, the world that was originally designed to discourage people will be turned into the Kingdom of Heaven. Spiritual greatness requires humility and humbling oneself to become children of God. Fear will cease to be the chief force governing human race. In the words of Jesus: ‘Unless you change and become a child, you will never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.’”

  “Child soldiers?” Gideon asked. “Is that it?”

  “Teachers,” Patrick crowed. “We are pushing for change while everybody else is busy making other plans that perpetuate the climate of uncertainty. The problems will soon blow up in their faces, but a new generation will come to save us. Every other option dooms us to be mocked up by history.”

  “Where are you planning to fulfill your plan?” Theo said.

  “We have always been fans of Santa Claus. We are going to be his little helpers tonight,” Patrick said. “I have reserved my calendar for this moment. But I haven’t reserved spots for any of you. Father...” Patrick took aim. “You are my hero. You lived a long, honest and upright life, exhibited a good moral character. After you return to dust, your sacrifices will live on. That’s the greatest reason why you were decorated and honored by men who have an infinite appetite for war. For too long too many people have weaved their way into doing something only for it to end up being nothing. Good news being few and far between, you always managed to convince your soldiers of the higher reason for fighting. But just as the First World War was literally stuck in the mud and the wars of this world have grown colder ever since, all great leaders have one fundamental flaw—your greed gets surpassed by your ego.”

  “I’m sorry to spoil all the euphoria,” Konrad interrupted. “The future requires radical maneuvers, yes, but the world isn’t run on instinct. I’m sure humans want to embrace the future on their own terms.”

  “Listen to him, son,” Theo said. “You’re playing with fire.”

  “Julia and I are giving the stolen power back to the people. Our success is inevitable.”

  “Why are you then still waving that gun?” Gideon asked.

  “My dear troubled young soul rebel.” Patrick shook his head. “The world has always been a stage to take full control. And one can only take complete control after going through the hell and torture of drifting in and out of consciousness and utter starvation. The stupidity of man becomes your arch nemesis in captivity. I fight for the future where nobody is allowed to control people. A future without fear. A future where our daughters don’t end up raped or sex slaves. On Christmas Eve we will rise from our trenches and venture into no man’s land to make peace like the war fed-up men in the First World War a hundred years ago. Only this time peace will be everlasting. No more high-ranking commanders to deny it.”

  “A saint in our midst,” Konrad jibed.

  “George Orwell once said, ‘Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent,’” Patrick said. “Saints are always corrupted. You are doing the right thing by condemning me. But historians of the future will praise us. Every time you try to say I’m doing a wrong and horrible thing, you lack understanding of what morality is in the grand scheme of humanity. Morality is defined by time remaining before each apocalypse before the old world crumbles under the emerging new moral platform. Morality has its own evolution, progressing from revolution to revolution.”

  Konrad held his elbows wide from his body. “You’re abusing Oona’s teachings.”

  “Oona’s teachings? She was the one who approved this mission all along!” Patrick’s voice echoed in the room that suddenly became even colder. “Don’t you understand? She volunteered to become the subject of study. She helped us break the bounds of science. She has been leading us all to overcome death. Isn’t that your greatest wish as well, Konrad? That you don’t have to die prematurely when there’s so much potential left inside you? And think of all of the splendor she has brought upon us! She guided us all along to meet our loved ones in heaven! Not in the afterlife, but on heaven-like Earth, free from all bonds that make human love impossible. She taught us how to avoid pitfalls so our ever-advancing civilization didn’t turn its technology against itself. We’ll learn what is truly meant by resurrection—bringing humankind into Heaven and continuing to explore the Universe with Quantum Manipulation and Divine Source as ours to tap.”

  “So if we don’t play Gods, no one does?” Konrad asked.

  “Try to understand,” Patrick said, “you and I aim for the same goal. We believe in the potential of men, but we don’t believe in them. We want to alter the course of destiny, knowing exactly how fragile, weak, and self-destructive this human body is—an unfit costume for the future. With outdated biology of our species and democracy as the religion of death, ruins set in a matter of very limited time—when time could be unlimited and space manipulated.”

  Silence ensued.

  Patrick spoke boisterously, mockery and murder in his eyes. “Being human is to stay human. Our destiny is to become the greatest version of ourselves.”

  “You are insane,” Theo accused. “There’s a beast intent on extinguishing all normal way of life, such darkness grew inside you in the battlefields. You are not my son. Come back to your senses and listen to yourself. You’re going to surprise people with their pants down!”

  “You know what,” Patrick said, summoning a strained smile. A voice continued, a voice that didn’t belong in that room. “That’s isn’t far from the TRUTH!”

  A huge explosion followed. Everybody but Patrick ducked and froze still. The truck that had been readied and loaded with equipment was in flames. Destroyed.

  “Oh my God.” Theo was hyperventilating. “Did you just blow…”

  Patrick turned toward Konrad and Gideon, and without a hint of remorse in his eyes, he pointed his weapon at them: “Just a clean-up of loose ends… nothing personal.”

  A shadow fell across Konrad’s peripheral view when the weapon in Patrick’s hand roared.

  Theo had jumped in between.

  Patrick tilted his head. “Who’s the dummy now?”

  Konrad pulled Gideon through a door behind them, closed it, and broke the door handle. Through a bullet
proof window, Gideon saw Theo on all fours on the floor with an exit bullet wound in his back. He found his feet, blood dripping from his fingers.

  Patrick shot again.

  Miraculously, Theo was able to maintain his balance. Even though Konrad couldn’t see his face, he read the disappointment in the body of the father. Patrick gritted his teeth, this time aiming higher.

  The last bullet knew its place, lodging inside Theo’s head, sending a parabola of blood in the air.

  Theo was dead.

  Konrad and Gideon watched Julia and Patrick from behind the bulletproof window. The two shared a kiss and walked past the senseless massacre of elite soldiers and high leaders to the elevator. Once inside, they stared at Konrad and Gideon, hand in hand. Julia produced a remote control from her pocket. As the doors started closing, she pressed the red button. The Cave shook and rumbled. In a pit of fire and doom behind the mirror masses of stone began to crack and fall.

  The laboratory was completely sealed and destroyed.

  Somewhere above, water surged down through the cracks like a large fire hose let loose, and in a few seconds, the water surface was rising behind the window.

  Above their heads, Konrad and Gideon watched the stone split in a slow motion of black lightning.

  And then the window made its first popping noise.

  56

  KONRAD WEIGHED C4 explosives in his hand. The cave would collapse at any second around them.

  “We can’t blast our way out.” With a sour taste of defeat in his mouth, Konrad desired to be alone. “It’s over.”

  “No! Give me that.” Gideon took the explosives, walked around, fighting uncontrollable tears.

  The water rising in the window was testing the peak endurance of the glass.

  “I’m sorry, Gideon. It’s solid rock above us at least fifty meters, and a pond on top of that…”

  Lights flicked off.

  In the darkness, Gideon repeated the word No. Konrad closed his eyes and expected the glass and water to finish them any second. He took a few deep breaths, knowing that relaxation would give him an extra stretch of time, meaning he would have to witness Gideon’s gruesome death before his own.

  Lights were flickering.

  Gideon crouched next to the wall at the back of the room. His fingers touched a streak of water coursing down from the walls. The water turned lightning blue and sprang up into the chasms above. Inside the bedrock echoed the twisting sound of bent metal.

  Impossible…

  The bedrock shook. The exact same quality on cooling of antimony cracked through his skull.

  “Gideon!” Konrad yelled.

  The glass broke down, and the ocean of water moved in effortlessly. They both swam up with the torrent and hit their heads on the ceiling in the smallest of air pockets.

  The sound of a majestic mountain breaking apart rolled into their ears.

  “Take a breath!” Konrad spoke over the horrible rumble.

  In a few heartbeats water filled the space and the ceiling tore open, letting them both want for fresh air and light.

  Konrad pointed up with his finger, but Gideon had trouble keeping his eyes open. Konrad tried to guide him on the narrow path above, but he knew it would take too long to pull the teenager in the right direction.

  Konrad swam behind, keeping his mind in a meditative state, while Gideon spent too much oxygen with kicking. Far in the distance, a faint source of light glowed that seemed like light years away and unattainable. After about ten seconds of swimming, Gideon grew restless and his knees scratched the walls of stone.

  The last bubbles escaped Gideon’s lungs. He stopped moving. Konrad swam past him and pulled him up to a place that seemed to be the bottom of the pond. Only ten meters separated them from fresh air, but now Konrad’s body ached, his lungs about to explode.

  It was a bright star in the cloudless sky that guided them this far, but Konrad had to make the hard decision and let Gideon go so that he could swim up.

  Cursing inward after letting go, Konrad started his panicky ascent. But just when he was about to gather air into his lungs he hit his head.

  Ice sheet.

  His world twisted. Konrad pressed his lips on the ice, his brain shrieking, overruling commands to stop the urge to breathe. His hand touched the ice, his life rushing in black-and-white images before him.

  The alder tree…

  Gideon’s touch.

  He turned and saw Gideon floating below him. Konrad pulled his hand and placed it against the ice…

  It melted the ice open.

  Konrad put his head out and gasped for air.

  57

  IN THE DARKNESS, wet and snowbound, Konrad gave CPR to Gideon.

  Gideon coughed hard, sat bolt upright, vomiting the water out, gasping.

  Konrad heaved a sigh of relief. “You’re alright.”

  Gideon stare was shocked. “Where am I?”

  “We got out of the Cave.” Konrad pointed his finger at the hole in the ice. “I don’t know what happened, but without your ability to affect forms of water we would be drowned.”

  Gideon’s brow curled, trying to recall something. Or anything.

  Konrad waited for a few seconds and then gave a clumsy punch at Gideon’s shoulder. “Big man, you just bought more time for humanity.”

  “I did nothing,” Gideon drawled. After a couple beats of silence, his eyes were more focused with a sudden burst of brilliance. “Patrick and Julia are thinking they’re fulfilling a prophecy.”

  “Yes. But that’s their weakness.”

  “What if their plan is just what the world needs? A world without wars.”

  Konrad scratched his forehead. He had lived long trying to understand why the world weaned off God felt empty and wrong. But Gideon was a miracle, a possible proof for an unidentifiable higher force. Like he was destined to do something extraordinary.

  “There has to be another way.”

  “What should we do?” Gideon asked.

  “Locate ourselves first. The attack will happen in Santa Village very soon. I’m sure of it.”

  “After that, they go to Israel.”

  “Following a symbolic path, it seems,” Konrad said. “A ritual as good as any.”

  Color didn’t return on Gideon’s blue lips. “I’m feeling sleepy.”

  “Get up. You need to move to generate heat.”

  “My limbs are too frozen. I can’t stand.”

  Konrad rubbed the back of his head. Turning and searching for firewood, Konrad saw somebody who looked about to succumb to death in a mental institution. All tired and weary, clothed in grab-what-you-can and get-a-move-on, this man was at the very end of his life.

  Lennart Klemetti.

  58

  LENNART MADE A fire with his cigar and shreds of birch bark.

  “How did you find us?” Konrad asked.

  “Don’t look at me like I’m already dead.” Lennart added more bark to the fire. “You expect you can just invite your pals and shoot around my house and get away with it?”

  “Your anger led you here?”

  Lennart cast a long glance at Konrad. “You are the most arrogant bastard ever. Beneath that cocky exterior is an even cockier asshole.”

  “I know. Sorry.”

  “My people have never been in or engaged in war, but you pulled me in,” Lennart said. “I escaped the hospital when I heard odd drumming. My research and claims about the miracles in the Sámi homeland finally came into being. There was once an indescribable evil walking among us, raping us. The Germans caused the greatest havoc to our culture and spiritual legacy; they alienated us from nature, finishing the doom that the priests of Sweden, Norway, and Finland had practiced for centuries by burning the drums and desecrating sacred sites. But the force of Nature has returned.” Lennart pointed a steady finger at Gideon.

  Gideon blinked. “What do you want from me?”

  “You can command natural phenomena,” Lennart said. “That’s what the memb
rane was saying. You can be unbound by time and place, just like the best Noaidis. The Membrane is a Remembrane—a salute to the past knowledge and power. The evil is again among us, but you can prevent another tragedy.”

  “You came all the way here to ramble?” Gideon shook his head. “I thought I was weird…”

  Lennart said, “The only toxic substance in this life is shame. Out of shame my people didn’t stand up to their oppressors. Guilt still makes them fill the hollow in their hearts with alcohol. If you don’t handle your internal conflicts, you’ll pass it on to your children and generations to come.”

  “Gideon has suffered quite a lot, Lennart,” Konrad said. “They tried to hide and keep his potential unfulfilled.”

  “The old man can waste his saliva if he wants,” Gideon said.

  “You found a hand mark, didn’t you? A painted hand mark? Was it on a boulder or a tree? You discovered a sacred site, a spiritual focal point that the Noaidis used to paint with symbols. You touched it and saw into the other side of life.”

  A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of Gideon’s mouth. “Look, oldie. I saw nothing.”

  “But you became someone. Someone important to the deities.” Lennart raised his chin. “There are still stories where the Noaidis could communicate with the divine spirits through power symbols.”

  Gideon turned to Konrad.

  “Could it be possible,” Konrad said, “that he didn’t see anything, but rather recharged the symbol? I touched the hand mark and saw some weird visions.”

  “An out-of-body experience. A Noaidi could charge gateways to spiritual worlds. They got more powerful healing skills from these places, allowing transformation into an animal, for example. Gideon probably roamed in the woods disguised as a reindeer without knowing it.”