The Chaos Code

by Justin Richards

  And the door was open.

  ‘Let’s put the screen back,’ Matt whispered. ‘Keep them guessing.’

  ‘They’ll guess the truth as soon as they look in your room and see the screen’s out there. It’s a pity we can’t put it back from this side.’

  It was Matt’s turn to be smug now. ‘Then we’ll do it from the other side. The door will open from the corridor, you can hold it open while I put the screen back. In case we need to play the same trick again.’

  ‘They aren’t going to lock me up again,’ Robin said, and Matt could tell that she meant it.

  ‘Got your passport?’ he asked.

  ‘The main exit will be guarded,’ Robin said quietly as they made their way carefully along the corridor towards the stairs. ‘They may not know how I escaped, but they know I’m on the loose.’

  They had both had the same idea. If the main entrance was now guarded, then they should get down into the hidden amphitheatre. Either they could take refuge there, or – with luck – they could get out into the ruined town at the foot of the mountain. Then they could look for some way of escaping from the jungle and getting back to Rio and modern civilisation.

  The narrow, gloomy stairway took them down to a storage area Matt remembered. Fortunately Harper’s guards did not seem to be searching for Robin down here, and Matt guessed they were concentrating on the more obvious escape routes. The two of them heaved aside the old tapestry and made their way warily through to the ancient ruined structure.

  ‘Which way?’ Matt wondered. ‘They’ll be looking for us soon, even down here. Maybe we should find somewhere to hide till the fuss dies down?’

  ‘If it ever does. I don’t think Harper is the forgive-and-forget type who doesn’t bear a grudge or remember an insult.’ Robin was looking round for the best way to go. ‘We could head down to the river and see if we can get out along there, through the tunnel,’ she said. ‘Or while we’re here we can see if there’s a better way out.’

  The place was vast, and there was much of it that they had not explored. Matt had not realised how much of it was in darkness. The lamps only illuminated the area round them, pools of light in a huge cavern of blackness. They made their way slowly down the terraced tiers towards the circular stage and the rushing water far below. There must be fifty of the huge steps down to the tiny-looking area at the bottom. But as they got closer, he could see that the stage was actually as big as any that Matt had seen before. He stared off into the gloom, trying to see the outer limits of the place – the walls he knew must be there.

  He saw only darkness. And then, about two-thirds of the way down to the stage, off to the far side of the theatre, he saw a distant light.

  ‘What’s that?’

  Robin looked where he was pointing. ‘I’m not sure. Looks like another area off to the side. I don’t remember it being lit up before.’

  ‘Let’s take a look.’

  ‘Let’s just get out of here,’ she countered.

  ‘I want to see,’ Matt insisted. ‘It might be a way out.’ He walked towards the light, picking his way carefully through the ruins in the gloom. Robin sighed and followed.

  The light was coming from behind the ruins of a low wall. As they got closer, Matt could see more of the area on the other side of the wall. He could see desks and office furniture. He could hear the hum of computers. The light was coming from several lamps suspended from tall metal poles, but also from desk lamps.

  ‘Talk about open plan,’ he said.

  As they rounded the wall, they found themselves in an open area laid out like a modern office, complete with desks and workstations, filing cabinets and metal cupboards. And there were people working there. They looked up as Matt and Robin approached.

  Two people. Sitting next to each other at a desk, working together at a computer. One of them was Katherine Feather, her platinum hair almost glowing in the light from the computer screen. She looked at Matt in surprise.

  But not as much surprise as the man next to her showed. Not as much surprise as Matt himself was feeling. He felt like he was detached from his body, seeing things from a distance. His feet were like lead, unable to take another step forward, and his own voice sounded like it was filtered through water. He stared at the man at the desk, the man now standing up and staring back at him, and Matt said just one incredulous word:

  ‘Dad?’

  Chapter 13

  The room looked exactly as it had when Venture was taken from it. Now he stood just inside, his arms pinioned by two of the khaki-clad security guards. He watched with amusement as Harper walked slowly all round the room. Beside Venture, Klein was scowling.

  ‘Nervous?’ Venture asked quietly, his voice barely audible above the sound of the television.

  Klein did not answer, but one of his men twisted Venture’s arm viciously.

  On the other side of the room Harper switched off the screen. He stared at it in the ensuing silence. Then he turned to Klein. ‘This is exactly how you found it?’

  ‘It’s exactly as we left it,’ Klein said. ‘He was here.’ He nodded at Venture. ‘The girl was gone. We checked everywhere.’

  ‘You can’t have checked everywhere,’ Harper said. He strode across the room and stood immediately in front of Venture, staring into his blue eyes. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Where was she hiding?’

  ‘Under the bed.’

  Harper turned sharply towards Klein. ‘Did you look under the bed?’

  The man blinked. ‘Yes, sir.’

  He had hesitated only a second, but it was enough. Harper’s arm lashed out and he slapped the man hard across the face. ‘No you didn’t.’

  ‘She wasn’t under the bed,’ Klein insisted.

  ‘I know that, you fool.’ Harper went to the bed and pulled up the covers. The bottom section of the bed below the mattress was solid, with drawers in it. There was less than two inches between the bed and the floor.

  ‘We did look in the drawers, sir’ one of the men holding Venture said.

  ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Harper seemed suddenly bored with the conversation. ‘I really don’t care where she was hiding. That isn’t important.’

  ‘Sir?’ Klein said.

  But Harper was again talking to Venture. ‘Is it?’ he said quietly. ‘But never mind. I can find her again, quite easily.’

  ‘Really?’ Venture said. ‘It seems not everything is as predictable as you think.’

  Harper turned back to Klein. ‘Bring him to my study.’

  ‘Yes sir.’ Klein gestured for the men to take Venture out.

  Harper waited until they were out of the room, but Venture could hear his fury, could hear him shouting at his head of security:

  ‘What matters is that you left the door open!’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Matt. I wanted to tell you. I really did.’

  Matt hardly heard Katherine’s words. All his attention was focused on the wiry figure of his father. The face he knew so well – round and friendly with laughing eyes and thinning brown hair.

  ‘It’s good to see you,’ Dad said. ‘I knew you were here, of course. Harper enjoyed telling me that.’ He turned to Robin and Matt was surprised how pleased Dad seemed to be to see her.

  ‘Hello, Arnie,’ Robin said. ‘It’s been a long time.’ She held out her hand. But to Matt’s astonishment, his Dad pulled Robin into a hug.

  ‘Why are you here?’ Even as he asked the question, Matt knew the answer. ‘He’s had you working on finding the Treasure, hasn’t he? That’s why some of the data was so new. You never left.’

  ‘Oh I left,’ Dad told them. ‘Well, I was working from home, but I told them I quit. Took them by surprise, that did. But they soon came looking for me. I thought that would be the end of it, I could just refuse. Maybe I was a bit naïve.’ He clicked his tongue, as if considering this. ‘Yes, well, I was a bit naïve. They came and got me – brought me here. I tried to refuse to have anything more
to do with Harper’s researches, but they made it very clear what would happen if I didn’t cooperate.’

  ‘He threatened you?’

  ‘No.’ Dad sat down at the computer again, looking suddenly tired. ‘He threatened you. That’s why I couldn’t leave, that’s why I had to help him find the Treasure of St John, though I did my best to point them the wrong way. But now Harper wants me to try to decipher the disc you found on Valdeholm.’ He looked up, and to Matt’s surprise, he was smiling. ‘I’m so proud of you,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t know what you have against Mr Harper,’ Katherine said. ‘I can’t say I approve of his methods, or the way he has treated you. But why refuse to help? He offered you a good salary.’

  ‘And that’s what you think it comes down to, is it?’ Dad asked her. ‘Money? Is that why you stand and watch and do nothing? Afraid of losing your job.’

  She looked away, avoiding his stare. ‘Yes,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m not proud of it, but I have parents who depend on me to keep them. And, all right, I enjoy what I do. I like having a good job with travel and a big salary. You didn’t answer my question,’ she added. ‘Why refuse to help?’

  It was Robin who answered: ‘Because of what Harper is trying to discover.’

  ‘The truth about the past?’ Katherine said. ‘He wants to discover the secrets of lost civilisations, that’s all.’

  ‘That’s all?’ Dad echoed. ‘That’s everything. The secrets he is after could change the world, could make him even more powerful than he is already.’

  ‘You’re exaggerating.’

  Matt was inclined to agree with Katherine. ‘I don’t like being locked up or used as a hostage,’ he said. ‘But Harper can’t change the world just by deciphering some old disc, can he?’

  ‘This disc is just –’ Dad started to say.

  But Robin interrupted him. ‘It’s a means to an end. He wants knowledge, and knowledge is power. Literally so in this case. He had a good start even without the disc from what we’ve seen. But now, once he understands it all, he will have it all. Literally. No one should have that power. The secrets of the ancients remain secret for good reason. They knew things we can only guess at; they knew things that would fundamentally change the world. They knew things that destroyed them.’

  ‘Like what?’ Matt countered. ‘No, don’t tell me – it’s secret. So you can’t know that, not for sure.’

  ‘No?’ Robin said. ‘Think about it.’

  ‘Harper’s power is growing,’ Dad said. ‘He’s able to predict behaviour to a degree. And I think he’s gaining control over the elements. Just a start, but the more knowledge he gets, the better he understands, the more power he will have.’

  Katherine was incredulous. ‘What are you talking about? He’s a businessman. A very shrewd businessman. He knows how people will react, he can predict what the markets will do as much as anyone who’s successful in his line of work.’

  ‘And what’s this about the elements? What do you mean?’ Matt asked.

  ‘Earth, air, fire and water. The basic stuff of the world. Remember the candles,’ Robin told him. ‘And the hand that felt like sandpaper over your mouth.’

  ‘Yes but –’

  ‘And the rats.’

  Matt hesitated. The rats. Or whatever they were. He could remember them attacking him so clearly he could almost feel them pressing in on him like the earth itself. ‘You can’t control the elements,’ he said. ‘Not like that. That’d be … magic.’

  ‘That’s undoubtedly how the ancients saw it,’ Dad said. ‘But it isn’t. It’s perfectly feasible. We just don’t know how to do it. Or rather we didn’t, until now.’

  ‘You really think Harper can manipulate fire and earth in some way?’

  ‘The basic elements of the world. Earth, air, fire and water,’ Robin said. ‘It isn’t coincidence that they were seen as gods, or the gods were given control of them.’

  ‘But it’s ridiculous,’ Katherine said.

  Matt nodded in agreement. ‘I can light a fire, just as anyone can. I can control it, to an extent, feed it stuff to burn. But that isn’t what you mean, is it?’

  ‘No,’ Robin said. ‘It isn’t. We’re talking about fashioning the elements into forms we determine, organising them to do what we will.’

  ‘Like remote control?’ Matt said.

  ‘If you like,’ Dad told him. ‘That was how the ancient world worked in many ways. Everything was a proxy for something else, a representation. The Nazca Lines not so far away from here are an ancient map of the stars, a grid. The locations of the lines on the earth are dependent upon the positions of the stars above. The pyramids were a copy of the stars the Egyptians saw in the heavens.’

  ‘But they didn’t change and manipulate the stars in the heavens,’ Matt pointed out.

  ‘They believed they could,’ Dad said. ‘Everything on earth had a heavenly counterpart and vice versa. The Maya, who lived here, reckoned the very end of the world was predicted in the skies. Their Feathered Serpent was a beast made of the air itself. OK, so maybe they couldn’t influence the stars, but think of Egyptian ushabti figures – little dolls that represented real people and went on the journey to the afterlife for them. People in other cultures had worry dolls that they could transfer their problems to.’

  ‘That’s like voodoo,’ Matt said. ‘You can’t tell me it really works.’

  ‘All right, think about voodoo if you like,’ Dad said. ‘You make a representation of a person, a real person.

  A voodoo doll, and what you do to the representation happens to the real person even if they’re miles away.’

  ‘Which is obviously impossible,’ Katherine said.

  ‘You think so?’ Matt’s dad replied quietly. ‘I know you’ve got some scientific training. Have you ever heard of quantum entanglement?’

  ‘Of course. Einstein called it “spooky action over a distance.” But I don’t see that …’ Katherine’s voice trailed off and the colour seemed to drain from her face so that it was almost as pale as her hair. ‘You can’t be serious,’ she whispered.

  A click on a control added people to the model. The wire-frame representation of the pyramid was suddenly speckled with dots – each one of them a person in the real world. They moved and interacted and went about their business.

  Harper was typing into a search field at the bottom of the screen. ‘You can’t escape, my friends,’ he murmured.

  Venture, still held by two guards, watched impassively. Klein was standing close by, waiting for orders.

  The image spun and changed – zooming in as the system found what Harper had asked for. It panned down beneath the pyramid, into the amphitheatre, across the terraces and towards an open area off to one side.

  Four dots became vague shapes, became outlines of people. Two male, two female. Two sitting, two standing …

  ‘Got you!’ Harper said. His hand reached again for the mouse.

  ‘I’ll go and fetch them,’ Klein said, turning to leave.

  ‘Oh I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ Harper told him with satisfaction. ‘I think it’s time our young friends had a practical demonstration of my abilities.’ He glanced up at Venture. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Matt demanded. He looked at Robin, and saw that she seemed as grave as his father.

  ‘Basically,’ Dad said, ‘quantum entanglement is a process that allows scientists to tie together molecules, so that what happens to one molecule happens to the others linked to it. They say the molecules are entangled.’

  ‘And they can be many miles apart, it still works,’ Robin said. ‘You think that’s how Harper is working things? How he has managed to get control?’ she asked Matt’s Dad.

  ‘Possibly, I’m not an expert. I’m not sure how it works, just that it does. He creates models on his laptop – computer models, representations of the things in the real world. Those things are made from earth, air, fire or water. Or a combination of them. And Harp
er has somehow “entangled” his computer models with the real world. He manipulates the model and the real things respond.’

  Matt’s mouth dropped open. ‘Computer models,’ he said. ‘We’ve seen them.’

  ‘And you probably understand them rather better than I do,’ Dad told him. ‘But there has to be some grounding in the real world. In voodoo it’s a lock of hair or a bit of fingernail that provides the link, the entanglement, between the doll and the real person.’

  ‘Like DNA matching,’ Robin said quietly. ‘You’d need a unique pattern to identify the target – to be able to link the right model to the specific person. Harper’s models do the same, but by being exactly to scale in every dimension. So accurate they are unique and specific with no ambiguity. So far Harper’s able to manipulate relatively small things, like grains of sand and candle flames. But what he really wants to do is to create a model to control the whole world. The universe, run like program code on a computer.’

  Matt held his hands up. ‘OK, OK. Never mind how he does it, I’ll accept that he does something. I’ve been attacked by rats that crumble to powder.’

  ‘Back to earth,’ Robin said. ‘Dust to dust.’

  ‘Whatever. Never mind that, the thing is now we have to get out of here. Then we can worry about how to stop him, assuming he needs stopping.’

  ‘He needs stopping,’ Dad said. ‘What you’ve experienced is just the beginning of what he’s hoping to do.’

  ‘Fine, then let’s get moving.’

  ‘Why not just go to Harper and tell him to stop?’ Katherine said. ‘Tell him what he’s doing is dangerous. He’d listen.’

  ‘No, he wouldn’t,’ Robin told her. ‘Matt’s right, it’s time we were going.’

  Harper sat back, swinging gently in his chair as he watched the screen. ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ He leaned forward again and moved the screen slightly so that Venture could see better.