by Jacob Whaler
“Go deeper,” the voice of Naganuma booms, engulfing him.
The amber liquid turns to fine sand, and then the grains of sand grow to the size of boulders. Matt touches the surface of one. It’s soft and warm, and he feels the humming with his whole body. Making an opening with his hands, he slips inside into a sea of light, with soft fibrous threads running through it, like long strands of a kelp forest growing up from the ocean floor.
Matt hears the voice of Naganuma, no longer as an external sound, but as simple words in his head.
Raw energy.
Waiving his hands in a circular motion, Matt gathers a fistful of the light fibers. They break off easily and form a ball in his hand, like soft snow, and the broken ends immediately join with other threads. He throws the ball and watches it travel away from him at a constant speed until it’s out of sight.
No entropy here, he thinks to himself.
The strands increase in size until they are as large as redwoods. Matt wonders if he should venture inside.
Do not fear, the voice says.
Reaching out with both hands, he parts the brilliant white surface of one of the tubes like a curtain and enters.
There is nothing but blackness pierced with pinpoints of light, like floating in deep space. The points of light draw him closer. He moves to touch them, to pass through them.
It is forbidden. Go no further. You must return.
“How?” The words come out of Matt’s mouth, but there is no sound.
You are in full control. Think of ascending up from the bottom of the ocean to the surface.
Matt visualizes an ascent to the surface, like a diver rising from the floor of the sea, and finds himself sitting next to Naganuma looking down into the rock.
“What do you think?” Naganuma turns to him with a grin and a childlike look of wonder in his eyes.
“Incredible.” Exhaustion flows over Matt, making his body feel heavy. “What did I just see?”
Naganuma looks out across the water and nods. “What you saw is the true nature of matter. Levels within levels. If you have a Stone, it is easy to move through them in this world. Back on earth, it is much more difficult. But with practice, you can learn to do it.”
After a few seconds, the feeling of utter fatigue falls away, and Matt sits up. “You were right. No molecules, no neat arrays of atomic nuclei with protons and neutrons and orbiting electron clouds.” Matt scratched his head. “Why? Isn’t that what matter is made of?”
“With the Stone, you see the true reality of nature.”
“The true reality of nature.” Matt repeats Naganuma’s words to himself, trying to tease out their meaning. “Maybe I’m just stupid, but I’m still not sure I understand.”
“Give it time.” Naganuma sighs, and then begins walking briskly along the shoreline, a few feet from the water’s edge. “There is a river not far from here. Follow me.”
Matt hurries to catch up, and moves to the right of Naganuma, half a pace behind him.
After ten minutes of silence, they reach a large stream at the point where it flows into the sea. Matt stops at the edge of the bank, but Naganuma walks on without hesitation, stepping down the shallow embankment into the river. “Come down and join me in the water. Then you will understand.”
“What are you going to show me?” Matt takes a tentative step into the water.
“There is nothing to fear. Calm yourself. Now look down. See the river, not the water.”
Gripping the Stone in his right hand, Matt feels its weight drain away. There is a blur, and he’s floating above the surface of the river like a microscopic particle of dust.
Another out-of-body experience.
He has the same sensation of falling toward the water like a parachute jumper without a parachute. Just before he penetrates its surface, he remembers what Naganuma said about focusing on the river, not the water. A surge of energy and clarity passes through him, and he becomes the river, aware of every tributary and stream flowing into it as one might be aware of his toes or fingertips. His awareness reaches into the valleys and glens of distant mountains, and he carries the vast flow of water within himself, channeling it all down to the sea’s edge. There is a connection with the ocean, and he recognizes it as a separate entity, but one that might be known in the same way he knows and understands the river right now.
It occurs to Matt that changing the flow of the river would be like flexing his arm muscles or moving his legs. He wills the river to move.
“Very good.” The voice of Naganuma plays in the background, like a distant radio. “Come, see what you have done.”
Matt thinks about standing next to Naganuma, and instantly finds himself there. He looks down at his own bare feet, resting in dry sand. The river is gone. The empty riverbed snakes away from him toward the mountains.
“Over there.” Naganuma points off to the right, a smile of satisfaction on his face. “You learn quickly.”
The main channel of the river is ten meters away, flowing strong, moved out of its old course.
“It was indescribable.” Matt looks at Naganuma in astonishment. “Every part of it was in my awareness. I was the river.”
“Yes, to truly know an object is, in some sense, to become it, to see it from the inside out. With time, you will be able to use the Stone to do this in the outside world.” Naganuma turns to walk up out of the empty riverbed back the way they had come. “If you wish to defeat Ryzaard, you must learn to see reality as it truly exists. But beware.”
“Of what?”
“When you know something in this way, you cannot always predict what you will feel. There can be pain, and it can be overwhelming. You must be careful.”
“I’ll try to remember,” Matt says, still in the flush of excitement.
“Now do you understand why you did not see molecules and atoms when you looked into the rock?”
Matt remembers being in his dorm room with the Yakuza gangsters, how he healed his leg after a bullet shattered his kneecap. With the help of the Stone, he saw the entire knee and all of its complex systems as one. There was an intuitive understanding that something was wrong with it, and he made it right by putting it back together in a way that felt right. With the Stone, he had the power to see a complex system as a simple, integrated whole.
“I think I understand,” Matt says.
“Tell me.”
“I’ll try.” He follows Naganuma back in the direction of the cedar grove from which they emerged. “The Stone gives you a view of something in its entirety, not just the separate parts that make it up. Right?”
“Yes, you are getting there.” Naganuma leans forward with hands behind his back. “The Stone shows you reality, not in pieces, but in its wholeness. It is much more than looking through a microscope. You see everything.” Naganuma shakes his head and doesn’t look satisfied with his own attempt at an explanation. “It is too difficult to describe in words.”
“That’s what I was seeing when I looked into the rock.”
“Exactly.”
As Matt savors this new insight, an image crowds its way back into his head. Jessica slumped over in the chair, Ryzaard towering over her. The scraping sound of the dagger sliding into the professor’s chest. Closing his eyes, Matt tries to shake the demons loose, but it doesn’t work. His legs begin to shake.
“You’ve taught me much,” Matt says. “For that I am grateful. But I can’t stay here any longer. I have to leave and find Ryzaard.”
“And when you find him, what will you do?”
Pulling in a deep breath, Matt lets it fill his lungs and clear his mind. “Kill him.”
Naganuma purses his lips and scratches his beard. “You are young. You overestimate your own power, and underestimate his. A classic mistake made by many Stone Holders.”
“I can do it.”
“It would be difficult to kill him, even if you had the power. Which you don’t.”
“Then I will find another way.”
Matt stares down at the Stone in his hand. “But I do have the pow—”
“No more talk of leaving today. For now, we eat.” Naganuma walks back in the direction of the cedar forest past the first massive trunk. “Ready or not, you go back to the real world tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 80
Ryzaard sits back in his chair and blows a long, thin line of smoke to the center of the conference table, studying the chaotic eddies and curls as it breaks up in the air. The team leaders are all seated in their usual seats in the middle of the glass bubble separating them from the surrounding lab. The glass is translucent blue, and Ryzaard can faintly see the movement of people at their work stations on the outside.
“One more thing,” he says, turning to his right in the direction of Jerek Gray, the hotshot physicist. “We’ll need to run cables into the empty office to power up the disruptor cube you have been working on.”
Jerek’s face exudes confidence. “I’ll contact Facilities Management and get them working on it this afternoon. They may ask why we have a sudden need for enough power in that room to run a small city. What should I tell them?”
Ryzaard dismisses it with a flick of his hand. “Keep it vague. Tell them we are expanding the lab, working on cold fusion or laser arrays or some other energy-intense experiment. Let me know if you have any trouble.” He looks across the table to Kalani. “Any progress hacking that jax I brought you?
Kalani gazes up between the white soles of his bare feet resting on the table and puts down the wooden club he’s been passing back and forth between his hands.
“It’s unreal,” he says. “A kid like that with military-grade encryption on his device? It’s locked down like a frozen clam. There must be a lot hiding on that thing. Give me more time. I’ll eventually crack it.”
“I need every last bit of data from it.” Ryzaard raises an index finger and points it at Kalani for emphasis. “Right now it is our only direct link to the target.”
“Got it.” Kalani scratches his bare chest. “In the meantime, I’m monitoring all incoming data. Traffic has been light, mostly just his girlfriend checking in.”
“And you are responding to her messages appropriately?” Ryzaard narrows his eyes.
“I’m all over it.” Kalani flashes a white smile. “A girl is much easier to hack than a jax.” He throws his head back and laughs.
The rest of the room remains tensely silent.
Sitting just to the right of Ryzaard, Alexa rolls her eyes and turns to face him. “Don’t worry, I’m screening all her messages and telling him how to reply.” She shoots a sharp glance across the table to Kalani. “We’re keeping it all low-key. We don’t want to tip her off.”
“Very good.” Ryzaard nods his head and looks across the table again to Kalani. “We still need to find the boy’s father. I’m not much worried about him, but it would give us additional leverage to have him under our control. Alert me immediately if you receive any messages from him, no matter how trivial.”
“Will do,” Kalani says.
Ryzaard turns to Diego Lopez sitting on his left. “How’s the tracking algorithm going?”
Diego appears to be studying the floor, avoiding direct eye contact with anyone. “We re-engaged the protocol shortly before your return, but had no signal for several hours. Then we detected a sudden surge in signal strength indicating the Stone was still in the same quadrant. It lasted for less than twenty minutes, not long enough to get a precise reading.”
“What’s the current status?” There’s an edge to Ryzaard’s voice that draws everyone to attention.
“No signal whatsoever. Nothing.” Diego rubs his eyes. Apparently he hasn’t gotten much sleep in the last three days. “The Stone has gone completely dark. I don’t understand.”
Ryzaard looks squarely at him with a laser-like focus. “Have you run diagnostics on the algorithm and checked all the power settings?”
“I’ve checked and rechecked everything. Multiple times. There’s no problem with the algorithm or the equipment.” Diego looks up to face Ryzaard. “It’s like the Stone has gone dark.”
“Stones do not go missing once they are activated,” Ryzaard says. “Only people do that.”
Diego swallows hard. “We’ll find it.”
“Good.” Ryzaard blows another line of smoke out into the middle of the table and shifts his gaze to Elsa Bergman, directly across. “Now there’s a bright spot. Elsa, tell us how our trading program is going.”
She sits squarely at the table with both hands on it, palms down, like a cat ready to pounce. “For the moment, even with all the creative accounting we’ve been doing to spread the profits around the company, we’re still struggling to limit the daily percentage growth of profits to single digits. It’s beginning to draw attention from the authorities. The last thing we want is for the International Securities and Exchange Commission to initiate some sort of inquiry.”
Ryzaard takes the cigarette out of his mouth. “I understand that the chairman of ISEC just found out he is the proud owner of a brand new villa and matching yacht in the Dodecanese Islands.” He stares at the long ash formed on the tip of the black Djarum. “That should take his mind off our little operation here, at least for a while. Let me know if you sense any more trouble.” With a flick of his thumb, the ash collapses and crumbles to the floor.
“That helps.” Elsa flicks her thin wrist as if shooing away a fly. “But not everyone can be bought off.”
“Soon we will not have to buy anyone off.” The end of Ryzaard’s cigarette glows bright red as he inhales deeply. “We will own ISEC and every other regulatory agency outright. In the meantime, please continue. We all admire your work. It makes all that we do possible.” He drops his head back and blows a column of smoke up to the ceiling.
Li Jing-wei sits on the left side of the table, directly across from Jerek, her hands clasped together with raised index fingers like the steeple on a church. Her chin rests on the tips of the fingers, and she stares down. After a long silence, she looks up at Ryzaard.
“Something bothers me,” she says.
“Something always bothers you.” Kalani is sitting behind her, staring at the ceiling, bare feet still up on the table.
Ryzaard raises the black cigarette to his lips and leans back, noticing that Jing-wei has a small diamond earring in each ear. “Tell us what’s on your mind.”
Her eyes narrow as they draw a circle around the table. “I’m just thinking about the kid with the Stone. From what you said, he’s learning fast how to use it. Faster than we expected. That makes him dangerous. He knows you have his girlfriend, and that you’re trying to kill him.” Jing-wei’s gaze drifts back to her fingers. “Doesn’t that worry you? What are we going to do if he suddenly pops up here in the lab with his magic rock?”
Ryzaard blows out a long, thin trail of smoke and presses the lit end of his cigarette into an ashtray. “I appreciate your concern, but it is misplaced.”
“What do you mean?” Jing-wei says.
“I have seen it. By this time tomorrow, the boy will be in one of the chairs in our special room.”
CHAPTER 81
When they get back to the house, Matt can smell the food.
On the low table, there is a simple meal of miso soup, ramen, white rice, pickled eggplant, grilled mackerel and two bowls of ice cream topped with chocolate.
They sit at opposite ends of the table.
Bowing his head in a traditional display of gratitude for the food, Naganuma makes a shallow bow. “Itadakimasu,” he says and reaches for the ice cream first.
Matt does the same, consumes the desert, and moves on to the miso soup. Its salty warmth is especially good after the cold sweetness of the ice cream. “The food is excellent. Where did it come from?”
Naganuma is already working his way through the ramen and slurps loud enough
to drown out the birdsong coming through the walls of the house. “I am the creator of this world. My thoughts become reality. Now let me enjoy my food, and I will let you do the same.”
Matt says no more and immerses himself in the flavors of the meal. Near the end, he picks out the last remaining grains of rice in his bowl with the tips of his chopsticks, and puts them in his mouth. When there is nothing more to pick at on his side of the table, he puts the bowl down and stares out the open doors at the Japanese garden.
The silence becomes awkward.
“There’s something I need to ask you,” Matt says.
“You eat too quickly.” Naganuma brings a final piece of roasted mackerel to his mouth without looking up. His empty rice bowl goes down with the chopsticks across the top. “What would you like to know?”
“How did I get from the professor’s office to the mountaintop where you found me?”
“Come with me.” Naganuma stands and walks to the sliding shoji doors open to the garden, hands behind his back. It’s early evening outside. “It is possible to move through space with the Stones, but it requires concentration and practice.”
“Ryzaard called it jumping,” Matt says. “But he injected me with a drug that made it impossible to concentrate.”
“I could see that.”
“You knew?” Matt eyebrows float up. “How?”
“I already told you. I can see things.”
“One Stone Holder can watch another Stone Holder?” Matt’s heart begins to race. “What is Ryzaard doing right now?”
Naganuma shakes his head. “He has cloaked himself in a veil of secrecy that I cannot penetrate. But with you, it was easy. You were so reckless with the Stone after you got to Japan, it attracted my attention. I started watching.”
“I guess I didn’t understand what I had. I didn’t know—”
Naganuma raises his hand to cut Matt off. “Typical of a novice. And very dangerous. That’s why it was so important to get your Stone inside the box. So it couldn’t be tracked.”
“What about now?” Matt slips his Stone out of his pocket and holds it out, palm up. “Can Ryzaard track it now? It’s not in the box.” His voice carries a trace of fear.
