by Jacob Whaler
At the end of the hall, the corridor turns left and runs for a short distance before it terminates in a dead end. He gently places his backpack on the ground and takes out two ultrasound sensors, each the color and shape of hockey pucks. Both of them go on the wall two feet apart. Then he pulls a slate out of the backpack, activates the interface and stares at the screen, hoping against hope that the building plans were correct.
There it is on the slate, a view of what’s hiding behind the wall. The entrance to the original elevator shaft.
The only open space in the building running in an unbroken line from bottom to top.
Back in ‘35, Tibetan monks placed tanks of liquid hydrogen in the elevator shafts of hi-rise buildings in every major capitol, flooding them with ultra flammable gas. At the same instant, as they silently meditated on skyscraper roofs around the world and ignited the explosions, the buildings emptied their guts from the inside out.
The massacre triggered a massive response. New laws, new government regulations. New architecture. Elevator design changed. Shafts no longer ran in straight lines through building cores, but were disconnected, staggered. Old elevators were dismantled, the shafts filled in.
MX Global’s lawyers quietly lobbied and obtained exemptions to avoid the enormous cost of removing the old shaft in its corporate headquarters. Kent had heard the story before.
And the shaft is still there, behind the wall.
Kent repositions the hockey pucks and engages the resonance protocol on the slate. A deep rumble moves out from the pucks and penetrates the wall. He steps back with eyes focused ahead. An oblong area of cinder blocks peels away and crumbles to the floor. When the dust clears, it reveals a decades old elevator door with a seam running down the middle.
With winch separators from his backpack, Kent inserts their tips into the seam and watches as the doors slowly move apart. Stepping through, he balances on the massive steel coils at the bottom of the shaft and gingerly inhales. The air is even more stale and dead than in the corridor. There’s a distinct smell of oil mixed with the odor of decaying rats and ancient dust. He stares up into the stretch of darkness above him and runs his hand along the steel wall of the shaft. It’s surprisingly warm.
Just a foot above his head, he touches the end of a horizontal steel bar, the bottom rung of the access ladder that runs the entire length of the shaft.
He presses a soft motion sensor the size of a marble on the inside wall of the shaft at ankle level. A dot pulses green on its tiny surface. If someone tries to follow him, it will trigger an alarm in his ear.
Then he pulls himself up past the first rung, grabs the second and begins to climb.
CHAPTER 98
“I’ll have the order prepared and sign it immediately. Good to speak with you, Dr. Ryzaard.” The President of the United States leans back in the chair behind his desk.
“The pleasure is all mine. I hope to drop by the next time I’m in Washington,” Ryzaard says.
“I look forward to it.”
The image fades from the wall screen, and Ryzaard walks back to Matt from the other end of the room. “Very good,” he says, patting Matt on the shoulder. “We can accomplish much when we work together.”
Matt can hardly believe it. Ryzaard just convinced the President of the United States to allow MX Global and its affiliates to have Level 5 access to the NSA’s secure Mesh-point.
“Kalani,” Ryzaard says.
A young man with a Polynesian face appears on the bluescreen with his bare feet propped up on the desk. “I’m here. Heard everything. Level 5 access. Don’t know how you did it, but I think we just hit the jackpot.”
“It’s just the first of many jackpots, Kalani,” Ryzaard says. “I want to exploit this to its full potential. Spend some time on the Mesh-point, dig around. Find out how this expands our reach.”
Kalani’s face breaks into a wide smile. With the slate in hand, his fingers fly over it like a concert pianist. “Just got on the Mesh-point. Let’s see, we have confidential dossiers on every member of Congress. Classified access to foreign government surveillance operations. Spy satellite database. Even something on Area 51.”
“See what you can find on the current status of talks between Japan and China. Let’s see if the government knows more than I do.” Ryzaard rubs his hands together and puts fingertips to his lips, closing his eyes in contemplation. “There’s so much to do,” he says. “So much that can be done. It’s difficult to decide where to start.”
“Looks like you already have,” Matt says.
At the sound of his voice, Jessica opens her eyes. She’s breathing easy again.
Ryzaard walks back to Matt with his back to the wall screen and looks down, unable to suppress the excitement and exuberance in his face. “I’d like to give you one more chance, to join me. Voluntarily. Let us forget about all these unnecessary restrictions.” He points at Matt’s wrists and the cube in the middle of the room. “You can become part of the inner team. The most important member of the team.”
Matt’s eyes drop to the blue rug. He says nothing.
“What’s he talking about?” Jessica grips Matt’s hand. The firm softness of her fingers causes an instant reaction.
“He wants to take over the world, make everyone his slave. And he wants me to help, to be part of his team.”
Jessica swallows. “What do you mean?”
He turns to look into her eyes, pleading for her understanding. “Listen carefully.” Knowing that she can read his lips, his voice drops down to a bare whisper. “Remember that magic rock of mine? I know this doesn’t make sense, but it gives me power to do things. Incredible things, like stop time, move instantaneously to far away places, see the future, heal myself, see inside atoms, and other stuff I still don’t even know about. He’s got one, too.” Matt glances up at Ryzaard, and then back at Jessica. “If he and I work together, the Stones are even stronger. Unstoppable.”
“You can both have anything you want.” Ryzaard speaks after watching them in silence. His hands spread apart, palms up, like a lawyer making his case to the jury, eyes going first to Matt and then to Jessica. “What it is you want to do? Save all the starving children in Europe? Done. Stop the wars in South America? Done. Find a cure for DNA viruses? Done. With our Stones working together, we can see the future. As we get more Stones and more power, we will control the future, we will make the future, all for the good of humankind.” Ryzaard turns to Jessica. “Isn’t that what you want?”
“Yes, but…” Jessica’s voices falters. “I just saw you kill two men. You’ve hurt Matt. You almost killed me. Why?”
Ryzaard shakes his head. “None of that matters. My only desire is to help Matt focus on the infinite possibilities that lie before him, before both of you. To get you, for just one minute, to really think about what I am offering you, what I am offering the world.”
“And you will force Matt to help you, if he won’t do it on his own?” As Jessica looks at Ryzaard, her eyes seem to go through him.
“Yes, if he leaves me no other choice. But he would be a fool to refuse me.”
Jessica keeps her eyes on Ryzaard for a long time, and then draws them back to Matt as they cloud over with moisture. Her lips begin to move silently, mouthing the words that only Matt can understand.
“Remember the world you wanted to create someday, with the ocean and the beach and the jungle and the mountains covered with snow?”
He silently answers, tears streaking his face. “Yes, Jess, I remember.” From the look in her eyes, he knows what she’s going to say.
“It’s true. It will happen. We will be together. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let him make you afraid. He has no power over us. The most he can do is take away our lives on this Earth. After that, we’ll be together again.”
“I don’t care what happens to me, as long as you are OK.” Matt says. “I just don’t want him to hurt you anymore.”
“He wants to be God.” Glistening lines run down her
cheeks as she speaks the silent words. “He’s a monster. He wants to turn you into a monster too. We’ve both seen what he’s capable of. How he works.” Her eyes drop down to the binders on her wrists. “Imagine what he’ll do if he’s in charge of everything. We can’t let that happen. You can’t let that happen.” She squeezes Matt’s hand hard. “Do what you have to do to stop him. No matter what, remember that I love you. Only you.”
Matt feels a huge lump in his throat. “But what about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Do what you know is right.” Jessica smiles and nods. “I’m ready.”
Ryzaard stands expectantly in front of Matt and Jessica, a look of gentle anticipation on his face.
Turning away from Jessica, Matt looks up at Ryzaard.
“I hope you have finally seen the light with the help of this girl?” Ryzaard says.
“Yes, I have,” Matt flexes his fingers and pulls them into fists. “And I have three words for you.”
Confusion flashes across Ryzaard’s face. “Three words?”
“Go to hell.”
CHAPTER 99
Kent climbs higher on the ladder.
Keep them alive. Help me get there in time.
A huge 40 is painted on the wall in front of him. The quick ascent of floors causes momentary lightheadedness. He hooks an elbow through the rungs and looks 420 feet below at the faint light bleeding into the dark from the fifth floor.
That’s where he cut a hole into the main generator room next to the elevator shaft and placed a cache of MEPPs explosives.
Reaching around into an outside pocket of the backpack, his fingers find the small detonator and bring it in front of his eyes where he can see it clearly.
The timer on the device tells him that he’s ten minutes late. With deep breaths of foul air, he fights back the panic that threatens to spread through his chest.
His finger goes onto the red button, and he pauses to think.
What if they’ve already killed Matt and Jessica? What if he gets to the top and finds an army waiting for him? There’ll be no one left to tell the story to the world. No one left to fight the voracious corporate machine that is consuming his whole family.
If he pushes the button, there will be no turning back.
He takes in a deep breath, and his eyes close. He can see himself, Matt and Yoshiko at the beach. Matt is five or six. They’re walking on the sand at sunset, parallel to the surf, Matt between them, holding both their hands. Kent and Yoshiko each take a big step, and then lift Matt up and swing him forward. He laughs and giggles at the fun of being thrown like a catapult.
It’s a moment that’s been burned into his memory, something he can never forget. If only he had known how happy he was. He didn’t find out until later.
And now it’s too late.
Suddenly, his reverie is interrupted by a rhythmic ringing in his ears. His hand goes up to the side of his face and feels the earphone. A confused panic surges through him until he realizes that it’s the motion alarm at the bottom of the shaft.
It’s been triggered. Someone or something is coming up behind him.
More by instinct than by intention, he presses the red button on the detonator. The timer begins counting backward, and Kent forces himself to climb higher.
In a few minutes, he passes the number 80 printed in blue on the wall of the elevator shaft. A little over halfway. Breathing hard from the quick ascent, the stale air is bitter in his throat and feels almost devoid of oxygen.
Kent’s eyes go down to the red numbers counting backward on his wrist. Only ten minutes to make the climb to the top. He hopes to time the explosion to go off just as he is about to reach the 175th floor. When it happens, the MEPPs will send a shockwave rippling up through the building like a freight train heading for the roof.
And hopefully it will all go dark.
CHAPTER 100
Matt closes his eyes and sees himself mentally turning his back to Ryzaard and walking away, his fingers tightly grasping the Stone.
A moment of silence passes.
“Dr. Ryzaard.” The voice of Elsa Bergman penetrates the silence and her face appears on the bluescreen on the wall. “I’ve lost contact with the second Stone. It isn’t responding any more. The trading algorithm has dropped back to a suboptimal level of prediction. We’re losing millions of IMUs every second.”
A shift moves across Ryzaard’s face, and his smile disappears. “So be it.” He glares down at Matt. “I regret your decision. You will too, but you won’t get another chance.” He turns and faces the wall screen. “Jing-wei, the implant is in place, correct?”
“Yes, Dr. Ryzaard, it was inserted yesterday, while she slept. Right behind the ear.”
“Good. Please shift control to my G-chip.” Ryzaard pulls the thin gold card out of his pocket and holds it in front of him, like a rare specimen of butterfly. He turns to Matt. “I know what you are thinking. You think I am going to kill her, and then you, and then it will all be over. You will both make a noble sacrifice. But that would be too easy.” Ryzaard turns back to the bluescreen on the wall. “Elsa, the trading protocol will resume momentarily. Please stand by.”
Ryzaard places his thumb on the gold card and moves it in a slow, circular motion.
Almost immediately, Jessica throws her head back with unblinking eyes, forcing her lips together as a scream fights to get out.
“The implant will not kill her,” Ryzaard says. “In fact, it is designed to do the opposite. Its sole purpose is to cause pain. I am told it is like a laser beam cutting through brain tissue from a point inside the head.” He takes a minute to study Jessica’s face as a line of saliva trails down from each corner of her trembling lips. “Of course, the drugs will keep her from blacking out and intensify the sensations. Eventually, the pain spreads down the spine and follows nerve pathways out to every part of the body.”
Matt grips Jessica’s hand tightly, trying to give her strength. She shifts her head to look at him, trying to say something, but failing.
In his mind, Matt sees the boulder on top of the hill. He imagines himself and Jessica standing on it, free from Ryzaard’s nightmare. If only he can find an opportunity to make the jump.
“Dr. Ryzaard.” The face of Jing-wei appears on the bluescreen.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Her blood pressure is rising more quickly than projected. There is a danger of irreversible brain damage.” A look of concern spreads across Jing-wei’s face.
“Don’t bother me with such trivialities. Keep her body alive and sensitive to the pain. That is all that matters. I do not care what happens to her brain.” Ryzaard smiles at Matt. “You know how to play this game. As long as you cooperate, she will not be harmed. You have my word. But continue to resist, and everything you love about her will be stripped away, piece by piece, layer by layer, until there is nothing left of the person you once knew. As always, the choice is yours.”
Ryzaard moves his thumb on the gold card, and Jessica’s body seems to relax ever so slightly.
“Matt,” she says.
He stares at her. “Jessica. I’m so sorry.”
She struggles to make sounds come out of her mouth. “Don’t…”
Not waiting for her to finish her sentence, Ryzaard brushes his thumb over the gold card from top to bottom. Jessica’s body slams backward, her belly lifting and spine arching. Matt feels the joints of his fingers cracking as her hand squeezes his like a vise.
“Just a little cooperation. That’s all it will take. Then you can sweep all of her pain away.” Ryzaard reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out a black pack of cigarettes. He looks relaxed and confident as he withdraws one with his lips. The pack goes back into his pocket.
Alexa approaches slowly with a lighter, flicks it and brings the flame under the tip. As it glows bright red, Ryzaard inhales and blows smoke up to the ceiling. An easy smile passes between him and Alexa.
“Naganuma was right about one thing,” Ryzaard s
ays. “You are strong. You have a natural ability with your Stone, as if you were born to have one. But you are either with me or against me. There is no middle ground.” Ryzaard’s thumb wanders back to the gold card in his hand and swipes down its full length.
A split second later, Jessica’s mouth opens wide, and the shriek of a thousand nightmares gushes out to fill the silence in the room. Her hand lets go of Matt’s and flails in the empty air.
The picture of the hilltop fades from Matt’s mind, replaced by the image of Ryzaard looking down upon him from behind. Matt feels a gentle hand on his shoulder, slowly turning Matt around in the chair.
An instant before their eyes meet, a tremor passes through the floor and walls like a ripple or a heartbeat.
The lights in the room flicker and go black. For the first time, Matt becomes aware of a deep humming sound in the room that has suddenly gone silent, leaving an eerie emptiness in its wake. The binders on his hands and ankles open and fall away in the darkness. A sudden energy surges through him, and he fumbles for half a second to find Jessica’s limp hand. Wrapping his fingers tightly around it, he sees again the boulder on the hilltop in his mind and yearns to go there.
The blackness falls away, and he is enveloped in white.
CHAPTER 101
Something hard is digging into Matt’s back. He shifts positions and notices the sun is warm on his face. The sound of songbirds and cicadas fills his ears. The faint smell of cedar bark wafts by under his nose. The air all around is heavy and moist. He slowly becomes aware that he’s holding something warm and soft in his left hand. The fingers on his other hand grasp the Stone.
It must be a dream, he thinks.
A sense of deep relaxation soaks through him.
And then he remembers. Ryzaard. The room. The chair. Jessica. Blackness.
His eyes shoot open and he looks directly into the sun overhead. A sound on his left causes him to glance over and see Jessica, her hand clasped in his. She’s lying on her back beside him, moaning. They’re both on top of the boulder in the clearing where he saw the Allehonen. A gentle breeze blows through the grove, making Jessica’s hair float around her face.
