“I dunno, Thomas. I’m not feeling myself. I’m really groggy.”
“That’s to be expected. I’m going to introduce you to some people, Sue Ann. We’re all going to be working on a top secret project. You’re a vital link in our work.”
“Me? Give it a break, Thomas. I’m no vital link. I just need some coffee, big time.”
“Coming right up,” said a lanky guy she’d just noticed. The man wore a big smile.
“Thanks, but who’re you?”
“I am the ghost of Christmas Past. Wasn’t that a great-” said Jean Pierre as he gave Sue Ann a piping hot espresso.
“I made it strong, but allongé as we say in Montreal.”
“I don’t know what that means, but it’s perfect.”
“Slightly diluted Espresso, it’s a specialty.”
“They wouldn’t let me eat at the hospital earlier. I’m fam-”
“Course you are. We’ll get you fixed up for food in a bit. Right now we have to put our heads together.”
The three of them stepped into Ekaterina’s domain. A bunch of laptops, all facing a glass wall on one side of the room, held the interest of determined young people mostly wearing beige chinos and black tops. None of them looked up from their work as the trio entered.
“In here,” Thomas said.
Ekaterina sat behind an oak desk. Her swivel chair rolled out from around it before she stood up to greet Sue Ann. Another older woman, dressed in loose silk contrasting the first one’s military garb, also stood up. They’re obviously expecting me, but who the hell are they? Sue Ann wondered to herself.
A tall, bearded gentleman in a perfectly cut white linen suit joined then. He winked at Sue Ann while taking her all in with a curious look. Last, Jean Pierre brought some spicy miso soup with butter sautéed scallops. Sue Ann inhaled and couldn’t resist leaning over the aromatic food.
The man in the suit whistled a triplet conveying exactly her feeling at the moment.
“Well?” asked Jean Pierre.
“This is surreal. How’d you know that I love this soup?”
“I told him. We’re buttering you up,” said Thomas. “Butter scallops, get it?” He laughed.
“It’s working. Thanks for the miso.”
Ekaterina cleared her throat, establishing herself as the authority in the room. Even Thomas turned his head in her direction.
“Let the soup cool down,” Ekaterina said. “What I have to say won’t take long, Sue Ann.”
A picture of a Chinese man with chiseled features and warm eyes popped up on a plasma screen. The glass dividers all around them became opaque. Thomas sent Sue Ann a mental touch. A locked portion of her mind eased itself open and Sue Ann’s shoulders relaxed while her eyes closed. She breathed in deeply.
“I know him,” said Sue Ann.
“What about this guy?”
“That’s Chou and the first one’s Lau, his techie number two.”
“While you were out, these two've tightened a noose around the world. You remember Qatar?” asked Ekaterina.
Thomas continued to tweak Chou’s mental implant inside Sue Ann’s head. His skills had improved immeasurably since he first encountered this mental device used by Chou. Sue Ann closed her eyes again and rubbed her temples this time. Thomas squeezed Chou’s hold on her and took over himself. She snapped awake. Funny, Lau reminds me of someone I knew in High School. Thomas grinned despite himself. Sue Ann’s own thoughts, prodded by him, couldn’t have been more appropriate to their purposes.
Ekaterina nodded and Yochana shook her head in the direction of her old friend. A video of the nuclear attack on Armageddon Valley came onto the screen and Sue Ann stopped eating.
“When’d this happen?”
The dust settled on the valley and the suited ‘walkers’ stood up and started mingling around, then they formed up into marching order. Sue Ann dropped her chopsticks.
“Happened while you were out of it.”
“Why’re you people showing me all of this? And why here in this office? This place stinks of Mossad. Thomas, let’s get out of here.”
“Lau wants you to do another story,” said Thomas.
“What do these spooks have to do with it?”
“It’s sort of like a line of dominoes. You know that game?” asked Jean Pierre.
Sue Ann turned to look at the guy who made her coffee and brought her lunch earlier. He’s all legs and eyeballs, but somehow I trust him. Not like the one behind the desk – all business that one. I dunno, something weird about Thomas too. He’s too sure of himself.
“Ya, ya. The pieces that fall in a sequence if you knock one down.”
“That’s it. We need you to knock the first piece down, Sue Ann.”
“Me, how?”
“Lau’s the key. You’re gonna bring him a message from us. The trick is to make sure his boss General Chou doesn’t find out about it.”
“You are spooks. I knew it. I think I’ll just go back to my reporter’s job thanks. No dice.”
Thomas opened his hand and a miniscule but blindingly bright light shone from a tiny dot on his palm. He flexed his fingers open and it bounced, never actually touching his hand. The light had a unique luminescent quality like a star on earth.
“That’s a neat toy, Thomas. Where’d you get it?”
“This is the message you’re gonna carry to Lau.”
“So let me get this straight. You bunch of nut bars elected me to help you save the world by delivering a little white light to the new rulers of the planet. Remember these maniacs are enslaving women everywhere. Sounds like a plan to me. My ass it does.”
Ekaterina shook her head.
“Tell her, Thomas. She needs convincing.”
Thomas stood up and disappeared, then reappeared. His hand gestured in Sue Ann’s direction and a dart of light leapt towards her. It disappeared into her body without causing any pain. Thomas looked normal to Sue Ann again, but he was concentrating his gaze. She felt him gently at first nudging his way into her thoughts, then more forcefully. She didn’t remember falling asleep.
“I told you it was better to do it without her knowing,” said Thomas.
“I have issues with using people so blatantly,” said Ekaterina.
“We’ll have to ask Kefira about that when she comes back, won’t we?” Thomas asked with a glib smile on his face.
“You can be a bastard,” said Ekaterina.
“Fairness? You want fairness? In this game it’s winner takes all. You made me tell her what was gonna happen, so now I had to wipe her memory clean. I hated doing it but there was no alternative. We can’t chance Chou probing her.”
As Sue Ann slumped deeper into her chair, Macaulay took his phone out of the phone pouch in his jacket. He tapped a long sequence of numbers into a special application that opened his connection to his clandestine network. Lau got a pop-up on his work station. ‘Paul at Al Jazeera’.
Sue Ann would remember nothing when she woke up. She certainly had no idea that she was carrying an encrypted molecule with information from Chou’s mind map. Thomas had collected the map when he visited Chou as an Al Jazeera cameraman with Sue Ann, but it had taken some time to break down Chou’s carbon-based barriers to allow decoding and reading of his memory.
Thomas reviewed the map of Chou's mind. Most important to Lau would be the way to break into the mental plant Chou had placed in Lau’s mother. The dictator could kill her at will even at a distance. When Lau got the message from the molecule inside Sue Ann, he would be able to block both Chou’s blackmail threats about Lau’s previous illegal behavior under different commanders and save his mother from Chou – an olive branch in exchange for unspecified future cooperation.
Lau knew Macaulay’s message likely contained dangerous spyware or even undetectable worms set to invade and compromise his system. What he didn’t know – and couldn’t ever appreciate – was the level of sophistication of Macaulay’s attack. He had no idea that it didn’t require Lau�
��s participation. He didn’t have to click on the jpeg for his workstation to get the infection. Its arrival guaranteed penetration.
Lau threw caution to the wind and clicked on it anyway. What did I tell Macaulay that night all those years ago? I get the feeling he isn’t using his knowledge against me. What’s that expression? Honor among thieves, that’s it. This system I’m working in is corrupt. The only way to climb is to subvert and kill. I won’t let Chou blackmail me anymore. Lau connected through a safe intermediary with Paul, Sue Ann’s editor at Al Jazeera.
“Yes, Sir,” said Paul, deferring to the high position of the intermediary. “I understand your request, but I’m afraid I am not able to comply with it. Sue Ann Lee is under medical supervision, at least for the near future.”
“Our office has intelligence suggesting she can be reached at this number.”
“That’s her cell phone. I’ll try and get back to you. Thank you, Sir.”
Paul shook his head. He disliked this heavy handedness, but who’d argue with a call from a managing director. Paul wrote down the new managing director’s name and slotted it away for future reference. He touched Sue Ann’s entry in his contacts and the phone rang.
“Hello,” said a familiar voice on the other end.
“Thomas, is that you? Paul here.”
“Paul, it’s good to hear from you. Sue Ann’s just stepped out for a few minutes. Can she get back to you in five?”
“You’re not gonna like this much, Thomas.”
“What is it, Paul?”
“I have a request for Sue Ann to update her story on the ‘walkers’ with another visit to Chou’s lair.”
“Actually that’s good news, Paul. Sue Ann’ll be ecstatic.”
“Hmm. Well, you can’t go with her. The request comes direct from up on high here, I just got off the phone with a new managing director.”
“That’s not such good news. What do they want her alone for?”
“Beats me, but her contract’s clear. If the doctor’ll let her go, she’s going.”
Thomas hung up and went to awaken Sue Ann. She was still slumped in the armchair in Ekaterina’s office. Looking at her lax face, Thomas questioned his strategy for the first time. I’m playing God here. We have to find a way to spread this power out. He squatted beside Sue Ann and gently nudged her mind awake before touching her knee, then her shoulder. She turned and sort of smiled at him before adopting a puzzled expression.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You kind of passed out, Sue Ann.”
“I feel weird, but I had even stranger dreams. How long this time?”
“About half an hour. Paul called.”
“A story?”
“You guessed it.”
Sue Ann sensed everyone in the room breathing a little easier, but she had no idea why.
“Is that my phone?”
“Ya, here,” said Thomas.
“I’ll get back to him in the hall.”
“I got the message.”
“You know me. Only from the horse’s mouth.”
Sue Ann left the room, calling as she walked out. Thomas looked at Ekaterina and then around the room. Yochana spoke first.
“There’s a Gulfstream waiting back at the airbase.”
“I’ve changed her life forever. There’s no turning around from here for her and she doesn’t even know about it,” said Thomas. His guilt was weighing on him.
“You changed my life too forever, Thomas. I don’t see you fretting about that,” said Jean Pierre.
“Maybe you’re right, Lanky. It just feels different somehow cause I planted the interest in Lau in her.”
“I thought you said it was there and you just highlighted it a bit.”
“Ya, ya.”
“Lau’s cooperation is essential to our plan. You had no choice, Thomas,” said Ekaterina in a comforting tone.
“I’m alive ’cause I’ve only been wrong about people one time,” said Macaulay. “Just the once,” he added.
“When was the one?” asked Ekaterina.
“Kefira read me and trapped me.”
“About the suits?”
“No, I really only ever trusted my sister in my life. She used that against me.”
“And the suit,” added Ekaterina.
“She got it because my sister trusted her.”
“You could’ve had whatever you wanted,” said Yochana.
“Maybe the years made me wiser. I dunno, but I didn’t trust myself with it.”
“Age mellows us all,” said Ekaterina.
Macaulay winked but said nothing.
Thomas probed Macaulay and to his surprise there was truth to the terrorist’s confession. The same look into Ekaterina found regret for her decisions, her past, her truncated relationship to Kefira.
Sue Ann came back into the room looking as if she’d been supercharged.
“Back to Qatar for me.”
“I’ll get my stuff,” said Thomas.
“Paul told me he told you. You’re not going.”
“I was hoping you’d change his mind. You sure you want to go there alone?”
“Gotta do what’cha gotta do. Besides, it’s an amazing opportunity.”
Yochana nodded at her.
“We thought you’d say something like that. There’s transport waiting for you at the Haifa Military Airbase. You’d better get going,” she said.
They all stood and wished her well, none more so than Thomas.
The flight to Qatar passed pleasantly. Sue Ann prepped for her upcoming interview with Lau and possibly Chou. I’ll be the most sought after ‘talking head’ in the world after this. Lau’s personal jet was waiting on the tarmac in Qatar. The trip to central China started on a military transport arranged by Lau and the first leg went without a hitch. Wonder why the butterflies? I should be scared but I feel like a school girl. I can’t believe it. I’m actually looking forward to seeing Lau again. Sue Ann surprised herself with her blasé attitude about riding second seat on a supersonic fighter. Even landing on the Liaoning didn’t faze her.
When she stepped out onto the wing and the pilot helped her, Sue Ann’s radar caught something off in the air, but it was too late. The Taser knocked her flat. Chou’s man picked up her shoulders and dragged her to the edge of the wing. He passed her down to two more men waiting to move her to Chou’s white helicopter. They dropped a sack cloth over her head and attached her to her seat with tie wraps. When the helicopter landed on top of Chou’s underground headquarters, the general made sure Lau was top side to witness his men manhandling a struggling Sue Ann into the elevator entrance. Though he could not see her face, Lau knew Chou had just secured a new insurance policy. There’s a traitor in my group, otherwise Chou never would have known about her arrival. Macaulay gave me a code word to release the molecule. This’s the final straw. My enemies are helping me and my friends are blackmailing me again.
Chou signalled to Lau to follow him down to level five – the prison level. Lau sent a message to his workstation by willing a stream of his suit to enter the system. His carbon molecules sought out Macaulay’s jpeg on his desktop. By a prearranged set of keystrokes, Lau communicated the dire situation back to Yona Street via Macaulay’s underground network. The words, ‘Diamond Rain’ bounced around in his head as he tried to look nonchalant on the elevator ride down. On level five, they went straight to Chou’s personal interrogation room.
Chapter Seven
Kefira’s Edge
Thomas sped over the Internet thanks to the bent triple helix molecular transformation suggested by Jean Pierre. In his heart, he thanked Jean Pierre. He never would’ve shouted if the technology couldn’t be breached. My feeling about doubts must’ve chimed something in his head. I’m going in there and I’m going to do it. I know I can do it. When she’s back, I’ll be able to focus. The path into Lau’s computer system controlled by the worm he had inserted into Macaulay’s message would still be open. Lau’s tracing analysis
software couldn’t detect diamond molecules in any form let alone in ‘stealth’ mode. Before he knew it, Thomas had entered the Chinese command complex. The path to Kefira’s cell stood out with markers left by trace elements from his first visit. He materialized in Kefira’s cell without any interference from Chou’s high powered force field. His hunch paid off.
Light glimmered from every pore of Thomas’s existence. Kefira held her position, each foot crossed over the other knee. She doubted that it was Thomas, felt sure it was another of Lau’s ploys. Then beams of diamond refracted light contained in streams of connections between them swirled around her. She felt Thomas’ mind. His telepathy repeated: ‘Leave doubt behind.’ She did and Thomas’ love cocooned her while his suit spun creating a dirt devil of molecules in the room. The two of them vanished into thin air and instantaneously materialized in Haifa at Ekaterina’s Mossad head quarters. Ekaterina blinked and rubbed her eyes. Thomas fell exhausted into a seat. Kefira could not believe her eyes. Yatsick ran to her and hugged her before he realized what he was doing. Jean Pierre took off his shirt and wrapped it over her naked shoulders. They all rushed to hug an apparition before it disappeared. It did not disappear.
Kefira extricated herself from Yatsick’s grasp and left him to manage his embarrassment. She ignored everyone else in the room but Thomas. Their eyes seemed to be connected by an invisible thread, winding itself tighter and tighter. Her whole being shook as his arms folded around her. He dropped the suit. Just Thomas took her into his arms and tenderly touched her matted hair, his breath in her ear producing uncontrollable sobs in her.
The others looked on a little dumbstruck. Everyone had sensed the relationship between the two of them, but no one realized the depth of the emotional connection between Thomas and Kefira. He dropped the suit, thought Ekaterina. She’s the key to keeping him under wraps. We haven’t lost the weapon. Yochana nodded her understanding and raised her eyebrows. She too had noticed that Thomas had dropped his suit to have a real bond with Kefira. As the woman who raised Kefira, a blush of joy passed over Yochana’s cheeks to see the happiness in Kefira’s posture and eyes. Jean Pierre looked at Macaulay and raised his palms outward, a Gallic shrug looking for clarification. Macaulay mouthed the word Kefira to him and winked. He also whistled his trademark triplet.
Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) Page 18
