Kefira rapidly adapted to her environment and assimilated all the information Thomas had shared with her by transferring information with his mind. Rapidly, she took control of the situation.
“Thomas and I need a bit of time. I’ll wash. Jean Pierre, rustle up some grub for me, would you? I’m famished, but nothing too hard to digest please. I’ll be back in half an hour,” she said.
Thomas snapped closed the small piece of equipment on his arm. He nodded to Ekaterina. She knew he had just given her control of the next time he used the suit because he had closed the storage piece with her imprint on the opener. A grateful feeling passed over the commander. Somehow she knew the baton had passed to the next generation. She turned to Yatsick, who was looking sorry for himself.
“Yatsick, we all felt the same way. Don’t beat yourself up. Get that other implement, the one with Kefira’s print on the opener. I want you to give it to her when they get back.”
Yochana nodded agreement. Just at that moment Macaulay’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and read the message. His expression changed.
“Chou’s got Sue Ann.”
“Thank God we let Thomas work his magic,” said Ekaterina.
“But Lau won’t get the message, Chou will,” blurted Yochana.
“I took some liberties,” said Jean Pierre, looking pleased with himself.
“What d’ya mean?” asked Thomas as he stepped back into the room.
“Macaulay and I planted some insurance in the molecule Thomas passed on to Sue Ann.”
“What kind of insurance?”
“I never trust anyone,” said Macaulay. “Sorry. There’s always gotta be a back door out for me.”
“What’s the back door?” asked Ekaterina. Her voice showed the depth of her suspicion.
Jean Pierre smiled.
“It’s nothing sinister,” he said. “Remember, Thomas, we designed the message molecule together. At Macaulay’s request I included a code word in it for just this eventuality.”
“Macaulay, you set her up,” shouted Thomas, reaching for his wrist kit. He was now regretting his earlier decision.
Thomas looked at Ekaterina and raised his wrist. Ekaterina slowed him down with an open palmed gesture in his direction.
“Hold yer horses, son. I didn’t set anyone up,” said Macaulay.
Kefira came back into the room sooner than expected. The shower had refreshed her and she glowed with renewed vigor. She looked cleansed both physically and mentally.
“Where’s my lunch, Jean Pierre?” asked Kefira, defusing the situation a little with her interjection.
“In a minute. Sorry. We got caught up here. Anyway, the code word is programmed to eject the message to the sound of Lau’s voice and only Lau’s voice. So only he can use it,” Jean Pierre said, continuing the discussion.
“I’m missing something here,” said Kefira.
“The long and the short of it is this,” said Macaulay. “Even if Sue Ann’s under duress, Lau just has to say the words: ‘Diamond Rain’ and the message molecule’ll be released from Sue Ann and passed to Lau in a bolt of light. Chou won’t be able to do a thing about it.”
“What if Lau’s taken prisoner too?"
“Chou still needs Lau too much. If he didn’t, Lau would be dead by now,” said Macaulay with a satisfied grin.
“What’s in the message molecule?” asked Kefira.
Thomas turned to address her.
“When Sue Ann and I were in Chou’s clutches, I managed to get an almost complete mind map of Chou’s memories and plans. I just sent that mind map to Lau.” he said.
“How can you be so sure Lau’s trustworthy?” asked Kefira.
“I can’t. I’m just hoofing it. The way I see it we’re dead in the water anyway. It’s a stalemate at best unless we pry Chou out of the works.”
Kefira looked unconvinced. Macaulay shrugged, then he decided to take the explanation further for her benefit. No harm in telling her, he thought.
“Lau has the motive,” he said. “We’re just giving him a little nudge. Getting that information directly from us through Sue Ann should tumble him over to our side. Now we just have to wait for a signal from Lau,” he added with a finality which suggested he was convinced it would work.
“It’s a hell of a gamble,” said Ekaterina.
Ekaterina looked Kefira in the eyes. Something from the past was welling up and troubling her.
“I was wrong to leave you hanging out to dry like that. You were so small and so helpless. I left you in good hands, but I-”
“Water under the bridge, Mother. I forgive you,” said Kefira.
Ekaterina took a mechanism from Yatsick’s hand. She opened the knob on it after her thumb print unsecured it. Utility fog hung in the air amongst them because Kefira’s watch had been activated too. The fog swooshed into Kefira’s device and she attached it to her wrist. Thomas felt something leave him; a great weight was off his shoulders. Kefira stood a little taller.
“You are truly the spear, now child,” said Ekaterina. “This fog is the new spear. From my generation to yours-”
“Your counsel will always be important to us,” said Kefira as she took Thomas’ hand. “Yatsick, make a fog holder with a choice of prints to open it.”
“Already done. Just have to scan in another print.”
“No, I mean only two prints possible.”
“Sure,” said Yatsick with a glance at Ekaterina.
The waiting game had begun.
****
Thomas and Kefira returned to her room. Ecstatic energy flowed between them as he closed the door and reached for her. She melted into his arms, savoring every point of contact. His breath tingled in her ear and his tongue played with the nape of her neck. She pushed herself against him and felt him responding to the pressure of her body. His hands circled around her abdomen kneading the supple layer of soft muscle covering the sway of her hips. Her musky odor, made with a homemade scent borrowed from Yochana, intoxicating him.
“How I’ve longed to have you in my arms,” Thomas breathed softly. Holding Kefira was truly magical, exciting him in a way that surpassed even the delights the suit had brought him.
Kefira turned towards him. Her breasts crushed against his abdomen. He could feel her nipples taut with excitement. His mind started to swirl into her influence. They kissed and caressed each other, holding tighter and tighter, the sexual tension between them growing. He bent to pick her up, but she put her hands on his chest, breaking the flow.
“Not yet Thomas. I’m so grateful to you. I don’t know if I could have lasted another day there, but this, this is too soon.” She smiled softly. “Don’t get me wrong. It feels right, it feels wonderful, but I’m too raw. Just hold me close. I guess I need time to recover.”
Thomas ran his fingers through her hair and smiled at her. He kissed her again, lingeringly, deeply, before relaxing and holding her a little way away from him so he could study her face. He smiled again.
“Whatever it takes, I can wait,” he said. He embraced her once more.
They lay down on Kefira’s twin bed and snuggled close. Thomas felt warm and comfortable and the strain of the previous few hours overtook him. He was snoring before he knew it.
Kefira lay in his embrace, but her mind was racing. She’d just made a connection about the nanosuits. It was something she felt when she was inside Thomas’ partial clone of his suit – her defensive shield in Chou’s prison. That’s it. The suits can be duplicated whole but they require partners to go through the replication process together. It’s a matter of trust between the partners and there’s something more. It’s more than just trust, but what? She thought about it as she drifted off into her first comfortable and secure sleep in a long time.
Her dreams flowed through scenes in the warmth of her father’s love on Paros in her childhood home. She was once again listening to her father’s voice as he read her bedtime stories and she could feel the heat from the fires he ma
de in late autumn. Here she was again, picking grapes in their small vineyard in the searing Greek sun and then dropping gratefully into the cistern behind the house. Her favorite memory of all filled her dream. Small flowers on the leaves above her head as she luxuriated in the cool underground waters of the marble cistern that magically changed into butterflies when disturbed.
She awoke. It had grown dark outside and Thomas was gently nibbling her forehead, cheeks, nose and lips. His hair, grown long since she’d last seen him, dangling on her neck as he moved down. She cooed, then moaned as he reached the space just under her collar bone. His hand cupped the weight of her breast.
“Thomas, oh, how I’ve wanted this. For the first time in my life, I feel complete. Complete just lying in your arms.”
They stopped caressing and looked into each other’s eyes, kissing gently between sentences. No rush in their lovemaking.
“All my life I’ve been following my mother’s lead. Running from this feeling, afraid. Why?”
They kissed more deeply and Thomas felt himself moving in unison with Kefira. She was thrusting up under him and he was gently receiving her momentum, then the tide turned and he was plunging into her warmth. All their thoughts swirled around them in the suits. All the tensions of her captivity and his longing to rescue her released in their intimacy. They climaxed together, both of them squeezing each other, sweat trickling between their breasts. Thomas rolled over. Kefira instinctively covered herself with her arms as she turned towards him and looked up. He felt her eyes drinking him in and his eyes returned the love he felt.
“Tha- ”
Kefira interrupted his voice with a finger on his lips. She moved up and kissed him deeply. Her leg slipped over him and she straddled him. Her arm reached around behind her back and she helped him. He felt her again and watched from underneath as she rocked gently with her eyes closed. Her scent, her breasts settling down with each movement, her love calls, all swallowed him again into a sensuous deeply satisfying slow culmination. When they recovered their composure, Kefira spoke.
“You’re not gonna believe this, but that’s the secret of duplicating the suits.”
Thomas shook his head.
“That what?”
“The connection, the trust, but now I know it’s even more than that.”
“It was something wonderful, special, the tenderness and closeness, Kefira. The best ever. You know that I love you more than anything in the world,” said Thomas.
“You’re not listening, Thomas.”
Thomas lowered his head, taking his eyes from her. He felt slightly hurt because his declaration of love was from the heart, something he had never felt or uttered to any woman with such sincerity before. Kefira didn’t seem to understand that. But she was still speaking.
“I said: it’s the secret to the suit. Did you hear me?”
“I never said that to anyone before,” replied Thomas. “I meant it. The love...”
“Thomas, don’t give me those puppy dog eyes. Of course I love you, but it’s the love, don’t you see? The love is everything.”
“What’re you going on about?”
“Your friend altered the diamond molecule when he singled out the storage function and used a bent helix to build it up.”
“How’d you know that?”
“When we were using the suit together, I was in a cloned part and I sensed it, but something else occurred to me too.”
“What?”
“You communicated to me that the suit resists duplication.”
“Ya, I can only create partials. When I try to recombine the molecules to make a complete suit for someone else, it just fizzles.” Thomas was slightly irritated that Kefira had switched into a more practical mode but the discussion was still interesting to him. He mused that the suit must have affected him in more ways than he felt inclined to admit.
Kefira opened the knob on the fog container on her arm after she pressed her thumb onto the security check. Fog drifted up in an unusually wavering way.
“Love me, Thomas. Feel it with all your heart.”
“What? I do. I just said so.”
“Don’t just think about it,” she said. “Feel it. You know you feel it. Allow those feelings to flow. Allow the love you feel for me to spread, to wash over us both. You have to show the molecule your feelings for me and it will split just like a single cell. As corny as it sounds, it needs a man and a woman to be whole, to procreate.”
Thomas’ intellectual side resisted Kefira’s ideas, but she helped him along by touching herself and then passing her fingers under Thomas’ nose. Scenes of making love filled his head again and the suit responded immediately, forming into two separate complete units. The male suit gave off a ruby-colored brightness while Kefira’s suit kept its diamond glimmer. An umbilical cord of mixed aura connected them. Instantaneous, unbridled communication consumed the two of them. For the first time, Thomas truly understood.
“Like Yin and Yang. Your analytical fears about absolute power-”
“What fears?”
“You know, all that stuff about controlling Sue Ann’s future and falling off a slippery slope towards some kind of dictatorship because of your power,” Kefira said. “Yes, I know about that. Nothing is hidden from me now. Or from you. But now things will resolve themselves.”
“I feel you’re right, but my head can’t get around it.” Thomas wasn’t quite in the same place as Kefira yet.
“Now making decisions requires give and take; before, you had no checks and balances. We are more than we were, the sum is greater than the whole, you must see that now?”
Thomas nodded slowly. They had shared each other’s bodies; now they shared a suit split perfectly into male and female parts. He started to understand the magnitude of their power and the responsibilities they shared. Kefira looked at him; she had no need to speak but she did anyway.
“We have to agree on all actions from now on.”
“We do.”
They willed garments to form on them for the others to see. They chose clothing which emulated the shades the suits had taken on. Together they walked out of Kefira’s room.
Yatsick noticed the colors and he also saw the feeling between Kefira and Thomas. It was absolutely unmistakeable. I don’t stand a chance now, he thought. Jean Pierre turned to look at them.
“How’d you manage that?” he asked.
“Manage what?” both Kefira and Thomas sounded puzzled, although they had a good idea what he meant.
“I know you’re choosing to show us, but the suits’re different somehow, the color shows the change,” said Jean Pierre.
Ekaterina looked up at the exchange and remarked the same transformation. She looked at Yochana. I hope this means he hasn't taken back total control of the suit, Ekaterina thought.
Yochana lifted her shoulders and her eyebrows up, expressing the shared feelings of old friends.
“Don’t keep us in suspense like this,” she said with a soft smile.
“It’s two suits now. We duplicated it completely,” Thomas explained.
Kefira turned to Jean Pierre.
“Thanks are really due to you, Jean Pierre.”
“I didn’t do anything at that level.”
“Remember the alteration you made on the molecule?”
“The helix?”
“The helix. You got it,” Kefira nodded in encouragement.
“But surely, that just increased the storage possibilities?”
“It seems to have altered the molecule too. Made it like a haploid cell.”
“You mean like that aspect of reproduction which needs a cell from the opposite gender to complete it?” asked Jean Pierre.
“I felt it when Thomas came to me in Chou’s prison.”
“I’m a scientist. You felt?”
“Understanding it requires an intuitive leap not just a mental one,” said Kefira.
“The logical extension of your gibberish is that you have two suits now that h
ave some kind of intuitive connection like a couple and that the suits were born of your union, your love,” said Jean Pierre, skeptically.
“It’s the only way to make two suits. They have to be balanced by communication between a man and a woman.”
Jean Pierre was processing the conversation. Suddenly he got it.
“Blow me away. The hunter’s instincts are softened by the nurturing side? I mean, well, I suppose it’s obvious now.”
Macaulay came into the room with his phone in his hand.
“It’s show time. Lau just reached out.”
Kefira looked around.
“Anyone see Yatsick today?”
Yatsick’s Treachery
Yatsick had escaped with all of his knowledge just before Kefira made the connection about creating doubles with the diamond-based suits. He melted into obscurity amongst the stalled ‘walkers’ on Armageddon Valley. Chou ordered transport by helicopter for Yatsick to a freighter in the Mediterranean. From the freighter, he got a fast boat to Cyprus. A Gulfstream was waiting for him on the tarmac of Paphos International Airport. As an extra precaution, he used a false passport provided by the boat captain on the Chinese fast boat.
Yatsick flew straight to Harbin China near Lake Khanka where another of Chou’s helicopters picked him up. I’ll teach them to ignore me, he thought, as he boarded the helicopter for the last leg of his journey to Chou’s underground headquarters. Strange, this war. It’s a war almost without weapons, run from an underground cavern by a handful of people, and yet the whole world falls.
Yatsick tapped the device on his wrist. It contained enough diamond molecules to make a suit, but he still couldn’t get the molecules to work together. By dint of mental effort he could assign tasks to single molecules if he was standing inside the fog but he couldn’t make the fog yield to his commands other than for small tasks. He was confident he would master it in time. Chou will listen to me. He won’t ignore me like they did.
Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) Page 19
