by Jacob Whaler
“Granite? Basalt?” Matt lifts his hands, palms up. “I’m no geologist. Found it up in the mountains yesterday. Thought it was cool. Thought I’d take it with me.”
“Strange. I should get a reading on a rock.” The man with the mustache takes the other official aside.
As they whisper, Matt sees their quick glances coming his way.
One of the men breaks away and walks closer. “Sorry, but We’ll have to keep it for further analysis. Regulations. For all we know, it could be some kind of explosive. Can’t allow an unknown object to pass the portal. We’ll let you go without further questioning. This time.”
Matt steals a glance at his jax. The flight is already boarding. If they pull him into a side room for interrogation, it will all be over. This is no time to argue.
“Sure. Keep it. Take it home and give it to your kids. Like I said, it’s just a rock.” Matt looks at the violet object, feeling a tinge of loss.
The man with the mustache nods. “We’ll have you on your way in a few seconds.” He walks off with the rock, leaving the other official to re-stuff Matt’s backpack.
What a great way to start my trip, Matt thinks.
CHAPTER 23
“Now we come to the final point, a matter of utmost urgency that half of you already know about.” Ryzaard puts two elbows on the mahogany surface. “We’ve found another Stone.”
At the other end of the table, there is general commotion.
Kalani jumps onto his chair, hand on his shark-tooth club. “Which one of us gets it?”
“It’s mine!” Elsa Bergman grabs his long hair and pulls hard, sending him to the floor.
He rolls backward and lands like a cat on his feet. Drawing his club back, he is about to bring it down with a vengeance to crack open Elsa’s porcelain forehead.
“Stop!” A burst of blue light shoots out of the Stone and across the table. The club explodes into gray ash. Ryzaard raises his hand to silence them. “I am the only one who understands the power of the Stones, and I will decide who gets it. Now sit down and shut up.” He holds his own Stone in his hand, pointed in their direction.
They all move back to their seats.
“That’s better,” Ryzaard says.
“How did you find it?” Kalani licks blood off his lips and leans forward. Without moving his head, his eyeballs twist to the side and glance at Elsa.
“Glad you asked.” Ryzaard opens his palm. “When a Stone bonds to new Holder, it signals the other Stones, and they signal back. They all strive to be brought together, as one.” He turns to Alexa on his right and motions for her to complete the explanation.
“Based on instructions from Dr. Ryzaard, Diego devised a tracking algorithm that processes the signal sent by Dr. Ryzaard’s Stone. With our computing power limited to only one XUNIL cluster, it would take a month to pinpoint the location of the new Stone. But now with the additional computing clusters from Scientific, we can do it in a few hours. That’s why it was so urgent that the merger happen last night.”
Ryzaard stands on his feet. “The Stone has already bonded with the Holder who found it. Our first priority is to hunt the Holder down like a lion after its prey and slaughter him before he understands the Stone’s power. There is no other way.” His teeth come together and the muscles of his jaw harden. “All available resources must be focused on the search.”
“How do you know the Holder is a him?” Jing-wei says.
“Just a feeling.” Ryzaard turns to Diego. “Do we have a fix on the general location?”
Diego lays his slate on the table and calmly brings his hands together. “We’ve narrowed its location to somewhere between 105 and 110 degrees longitude in the Rocky Mountains.” He points at a map that appears on the glass wall behind Ryzaard. A fat red line runs from Canada down to Mexico. “As you can see, major cities at that longitude include Billings, Salt Lake City, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix. Keep in mind this is just an approximation. It could be anywhere within a hundred miles east and west of that line right now.”
“We’re incredibly lucky it’s in North America, a data rich environment we’ll be able to exploit to our advantage.” Ryzaard sounds pleased. “How long will it take to pin-point the exact location?”
“With your Stone and the other one as points of reference, we can triangulate and narrow the location down to a dot on the map in about three more hours. My assistants are working on it as we speak.”
“What a minute,” Elsa says. “What do you mean by the other one? There’s another Stone?”
Ryzaard shakes his head. “Yes, but it’s none of your concern for the moment.” He turns to Diego. “Good work. I’ll expect to hear from you in three hours. In the meantime, how large is a dot on the map?” Ryzaard says.
“A circle with a one kilometer diameter,” Diego replies.
Ryzaard’s eyes shift to Jing-wei and momentarily focus on the faint outline of a dragon’s head between her jaw and left collar bone. The body of the dragon disappears below her white blouse, but its tail can be seen running down her right thigh below her bright red skirt.
“Jing-wei,” he says. “You are our data stream expert. Tell us how we’ll find the exact location of the Stone once we have a dot on the map?” Ryzaard sits into a relaxed position with his hands behind his head.
She points at the projection on the wall. “Once we have a target, Diego will hand off the two cluster systems to me, and I’ll begin real-time analysis of all unencrypted data streams within the target area, including any jax messages sent in the last twenty-four hours. If the finder has jax’d a message about a stone or rock, we’ll quickly track them down.”
“What about encrypted data?” Ryzaard’s eyes shoot like darts back at her. “Is there a way to analyze it?”
She shakes her head. “You’re talking about decryption of a massive number of messages. Millions, if we end up in the middle of a city. We don’t have the resources to deal with it.”
Kalani bangs his club on the table. “Wait a minute. That’s not right.” He grins his lips at Jing-wei.
“Explain,” Ryzaard says.
“When we got access to the Scientific data files this morning, I started fishing around.” Kalani gets an apologetic look on his face. “You won’t believe what I found. Decryption protocols developed for US military intelligence. Powerful stuff. No commercial encryption can stand up to it.” He looks back at Jing-wei and nods. “Encrypted messages won’t be a problem.”
“Excellent work, Kalani. I knew once we got you on the inside, you’d put your tracking skills to good use. Any other data streams available from Scientific to help us hunt down the new Stone?” Ryzaard’s eyes drift in the direction of Jing-Wei, but are quickly drawn back to Kalani. He’s visibly squirming, looking like he’s about to explode. “What’s on your mind, young man?”
Kalani breathes in slowly. “There’s more,” he begins, and then breaks off.
“More what?” Ryzaard probes gently.
“More data.”
“Go on. We’re listening.”
Kalani’s eyes sweep the table. All faces turn to him.
“Once I got into the Scientific system and started looking around, I found a link to high value government Mesh-points and data vaults.”
“In other words?” Ryzaard says.
Kalani swallows. “I can access government databases, networks and communications, hospitals, airports, courts, surveillance, Pentagon files, law enforcement, finance, satellite comms, foreign relations, anything with an electronic footprint. It’s all there. Unlimited access.” Kalani looks up sheepishly at all the eyes on him.
“In other words.” Jing-wei’s head bobs up and down with sudden understanding. “Once we get the location of the new Stone, we’ll be able to plug into government data streams of all kinds and track the Holder down in minutes. If they use a jax or pass by a security camera, they won’t have any place to hide.”
Ryzaard leans back and surveys his team like a father beamin
g with pride at his children. The resources in this room make it a virtual certainty that they will get the Stone before its Holder has any idea what it is.
“What are you going to do to the poor guy walking around with the rock in his pocket?” Elsa says. “Ask him politely to hand it over?”
“Don’t worry.” Ryzaard lights another Djarum and takes a deep drag on the black cigarette. “When you hold all the cards, you do not have to ask. He will give it to us. Just like Varanasi.”
CHAPTER 24
Matt dodges in and out of passengers as he sprints to the boarding gate, his backpack still slung over one shoulder.
As he runs, he taps off a message to Jess on the fly.
Made it through security. That stupid rock I found up at Powder Puff triggered the alarm. I left it at home, but Dad must have put it in my pack. And it’s gotten lighter in color. Sort of violet now. Weird. Maybe it’s UV radiation from the security portal itself. Anyway, they took the rock. You’d think the security guys would have more to do than steal passenger property.
Jess comes back.
Don’t worry about the rock. Very strange, but good riddance.
Gate A-5 comes into sight. The last few passengers are just stepping onto the auto walk to the transport. There’s two or three minutes before the flight takes off. He remembers his dad put some snacks in his backpack, but Matt has a better idea. He sprints through the open doors of Sushi-To-Go, breathing heavily.
“I’ll take the Express Bento.” Matt looks over to the gate and then back to the woman behind the counter. “Make it fast. I’ve got a flight to catch.”
She grabs a box from below and slaps it on the glass in front. “Five point nine seven IMUs. No tax. Here’s the pay slot.” She points to a hole just large enough for a jax.
“Sorry, but I’ll do this the old fashioned way.” Matt reaches into his pocket and pulls out a single piece of rainbow colored paper. “Six even. Keep the change.”
The woman stares at the currency. “We only accept j-pay here, not this old stuff. Just use your jax like everyone else.”
“It’s still legal tender until December.” Matt takes the bento box and runs to the gate.
“You must be hiding from the government.” The woman yells loud enough for anyone within fifty feet to hear. “Only criminals and runaways use paper money.”
Matt doesn’t even look back as he quietly steps onto the auto walk and exhales slowly. His hand instinctively goes for his jax.
Made it. With sushi in tow.
He knows Jessica is smiling right now.
CHAPTER 25
The pinging sound goes off again.
Kent leaves the crushed garlic and olive oil in the frying pan, turns off the heat and picks up the slate, eyes on the thin blue glass. A few hours ago he sent an encrypted inquiry to a trusted contact on the inside at MX Global. The reply has come back sooner than he expected.
He begins to read.
The official corporate biography states that Mikal Ryzaard was born in Poland in 1993 and that he became a professor of archeology at Oxford in 2040, enjoying a distinguished career spanning several decades, at which point he retired and, a few years later, joined MX Financial as a consultant. Within a year of joining the corporation, he developed a highly confidential algorithm for use in MX Financial’s futures trading program. It proved to be spectacularly profitable, and he began his meteoric rise through the ranks of the corporation from staff employee to Senior VP of Financial within a short three year period, culminating in the merger of Financial and Scientific into MX SciFin with him serving as CEO, as announced today.
Curiously, there is no original record of a Mikal Ryzaard born in Poland in 1993. The original birth certificate is said to have been lost in a fire. The one that does exist was created a year prior to his entry into Oxford based on affidavits of relatives and friends in Poland. Of course, if you pay people enough, they will say anything.
Even more curious, consider this. I found a record of a Mikal Ryzaard born much earlier, in the late 1920s. He received a PhD in archeology from the University of Warsaw around 1955 and became a professor at the same institution. This Dr. Ryzaard disappeared around 1972, apparently perishing from disease while on an archeological dig in Northern India. The body was immediately cremated according to Indian records. An official death certificate was filed with the Polish government in 1973.
I have attached a picture of this earlier Dr. Ryzaard from the University of Warsaw yearbook for 1972. I have also attached a photo of our Dr. Ryzaard taken at Oxford in 2045. As you can see, the pictures bear a strong and inexplicable resemblance. Image recon protocols conclude there is a 97 percent probability that the photos are the same person at approximately the same age. Very curious indeed.
I discovered one last interesting pattern. At both Oxford and MX Global, Dr. Ryzaard’s career left a series of officially unrelated deaths and possible murders in its wake. Dr. Ryzaard has never been accused of any connection, but low-level unofficial rumors persist. Whatever the truth of the rumors, his meteoric rise was not hurt by the sudden and unfortunate passing of several colleagues that would be considered rivals.
Kent stops reading. His fingers reach out to the slate, engage the encryption and type out a reply.
So Ryzaard may or may not be who he claims to be. What’s really going on at SciFin? Why the merger? What is Ryzaard trying to do?
It doesn’t take long for a response to come back.
The whole SciFin merger has a tight lid on it, even within the organization. The party line is that it’s just business as usual. Only a few of the inner circle around Ryzaard have some idea what’s going on. And they aren’t talking. It’s rumored that Ryzaard has blackmailed Rudyard Van Pelt, the CEO of MX Global, and is calling the shots for the entire corporate enterprise. Whatever the truth is, SciFin has essentially been lifted out of the rest of the company network. It has its own dedicated cluster systems, and all access from the outside is strictly controlled, or impossible. The general feeling on the inside is that something big is about to happen. If nothing else, it’s been great for company morale.
Due to increased security concerns and the likelihood that SciFin will soon begin monitoring company correspondence, this will be my last communication. Good luck.
Kent forgets about the garlic and olive oil in the fry pan. He sits back and starts to think.
CHAPTER 26
Matt settles into his seat for the six-hour flight to Tokyo. With his heart still pounding hard, he closes his eyes, inhales and exhales slowly, counting each breath backwards from ten until he gets to zero. The old Zen meditation tricks really work. The tension of rushing to catch the flight flows out through his fingertips and toes.
His thoughts drift to Jessica.
In his mind’s eye, he sees himself coming home to her after a long day of teaching and research at some university in the Western United States. Snow-capped peaks rise up just past their living room window. They live simply in a small home. Skis, bikes and climbing equipment are neatly stacked and waiting for action in the garage. They laugh and live without fear.
To laugh and live without fear.
He realizes now that it’s all he’s ever really wanted.
In the dim light of the cabin, his eyes feel heavy. He falls into a half-dream state. Images from the past filter up through his mind.
A girl breaks away from the rich kids clumped together in the middle of the University gymnasium and walks to him. Hello, my name is Jessica, she says. Are you new, she asks. She’s wearing a blue dress with a frilly white apron. College Halloween Dance. Why does this Alice-in-Wonderland have any interest in him? Her arm slides up on his shoulder. Fingers meet and intertwine. Bodies move to the music together. His hand fits comfortably in the small of her back. The smell of fresh daisies in her hair. Time washes over him.
She is a blur of color and then gone.
The colors come together to form a dark jungle.
He trudges
through it, sensing black shapes just out of sight. The smell of burnt sulfur burns his throat. He starts to run, and the shapes pick up his scent. Low growls and hisses get closer. They’re hunting him. He’s running, stumbling, tearing through vines, breaking branches, splashing puddles of dark slime underfoot. A spider web catches on his face. He lifts his hand to wipe it away. The shapes are just behind him. At the edge of the jungle, he breaks free from the dark leaves into an open field of golden grain. A lone oak tree stands in the distance, and he bends his line toward it, running for his life. Ten yards behind, a dozen dark forms burst out from the jungle wall, trailing broken branches, torn vines and leaves. He glances back at them as he runs. The dark hulks are getting closer. They appear as large anthropoid apes, covered in dark hair, running on hind feet and knuckles brushing against the ground. His heart is bursting out of his chest with every breath. Lungs on fire. It can’t last. He’ll drop from exhaustion. The oak tree is just ahead. With all the bark stripped off, it’s white and dead, like a candelabra with arms reaching to the sky. When he gets to it, he stops to catch his breath and presses his back against its smooth surface, facing the dark shapes. There are too many to count. The one in front lunges through the air toward him, white fangs bared. He looks into its eyes and, for an instant, it morphs into the face of a withered old man. Then his hands fly up as he prepares for the moment of contact and death.
Something brushes against his arm.
CHAPTER 27
“What the hell is going on?” The middle-aged co-tech shakes his head and mumbles under his breath.
Lines of laser sharp lights outline instrument panels, knobs, gauges, levers, graphs and bluescreens inside the dark cockpit of the transport.
The co-tech looks up. “Jack, I’m getting those crazy readings again. Altimeter says we’re flying high enough to orbit the moon. Any idea what’s going on?” He yawns and looks at the old man to his left. “Second time it’s happened tonight. Maybe we have a faulty battery. InterCommand says we better check it out before we get slapped with another fine. You know how the company hates those.” The co-tech shakes his head with a lazy smile.
