Jonathan’s eyes narrowed. “You think he’s tried to kill me before?”
“Mr. Clean monitored your discussion with Rylee last night. In particular, that you have seen an imbalance of mature combatants drawing you into combat. This makes sense. My brother, assuming your victories would be a short lived fluke, had no way of knowing that he was sending Reds to their deaths. Now, he has escalated further. Bleeds the Stone’s death will not go unnoticed by Malkier or his tribe. When that corpse is found on the gateway…”
Heyer broke off, shaking his head.
“The gateway of Brings the Rain will soon be a challenge to all the tribes. The Ferox will believe that the gate now holds an abomination the likes of its legacy. They will believe another Echoes the Borealis has arisen to challenge their gods.”
“Great,” Jonathan whispered.
“You couldn’t have known what would happen,” Heyer said.
“Yeah, I could have,” he said. “If you had bothered to warn me.”
Heyer sighed. “There is no way I could have foreseen this. Even if I had, what would it have changed? You would not have allowed Dams the Gate to take your life.”
“It’s not the point,” Jonathan said. “I would have known the consequences. Now you tell me that my actions have not only killed mankind’s only bargaining chip, but singled me out for assassination.” He groaned. “A heads up would have been nice.”
“Jonathan, you have every reason to be upset,” Heyer began. “But I simply cannot tell you everything. Even if I could, you are failing to grasp the bigger picture. Perhaps this is my fault, having sheltered you from seeing the reality so you could focus on what you have control over. Do you not see that sharing information with you is tactical suicide?”
“What, as opposed to actual suicide?” Jonathan said sardonically. “Like what happens when you unknowingly kill the son of the most dangerous father in existence?”
Heyer’s fingers tapped the arm of his chair again. “Mr. Clean, please bring up the surveillance camera feeds on Jonathan’s residence,” he said.
Mr. Clean complied, and soon Jonathan was looking at footage inside his garage.
“Jonathan,” Heyer said. “Do you think it would be wise for me to send you home with the names and addresses of every asset we have? Perhaps a summary blueprint of the actions I plan to take in order to address the coming threats?”
Jonathan frowned. “Of course not, I—”
“You have underestimated these people, Jonathan. The Cell is watching you, studying you. What do you think will happen should they decide that watching you is no longer their best course of action? How long do you think you could hold out under interrogation?”
“I wouldn’t tell them any—”
“Torture, Jonathan” Heyer said. “Do not be naive. You would tell them everything you know, and when they don’t believe you, you would make up lies hoping it would be enough for them to stop.”
Jonathan looked at the alien doubtfully. “You think I would break? Every time this thing in my chest activates, every time I destroy one of the portal stones, I may as well be getting burned alive.” Jonathan shook his head, certain the alien underestimated him. “I still shut the gates. I do what I have to—what could they possibly do to me that compares?”
Heyer sighed, growing slightly impatient. “Perhaps, you have a point,” he said. “But if pain inflicted on you did not get the answers they are looking for….” Heyer pointed to the feed of Hayden and Rylee in the garage. “Who do you think they would hurt to get you talking?”
The question left Jonathan feeling remarkably stupid, and he rapidly forgot why he had argued. Fear replaced the certainty he had felt a moment earlier. “I didn’t think you would let that happen.”
Heyer nodded, his expression softening. “Of course, we would try to protect you and your loved ones. But, I am not omnipotent. I cannot be everywhere at once or compromise myself. So, understand that I am not going to share every tactical detail with you until necessity demands it.” Concern returned to the alien’s face. “Look at all the information you now have and ask yourself, what do you now know that could be leveraged?”
Rylee, Jonathan realized.
They had been safer knowing less—not knowing one another existed. If he was as compromised by the bond as Heyer was warning him, he had to do all he could to keep The Cell from learning the extent of it. What could they force him, or Rylee, to do? Lure Heyer into a trap? Lead them to Mr. Clean? Confirm that every human they were watching was carrying alien technology around in their chests?
Jonathan nodded slowly.
“Which brings us back to the issue at hand,” Heyer said. “Rylee. We do not know why she is here. Now that she is aware of The Cell, we cannot be sure she will not willingly seek them out, and what she could reveal to them if she does.”
“She won’t do that,” Jonathan said. “She said she would trust me, follow my lead.”
“Jonathan,” Heyer said, closing his eyes. “You have to accept the possibility that she may have come here to activate the bond on purpose. Think of the power she would have gained over you had she been the only one to know her emotions were being manipulated. Think of the leverage she’d have over me if you took up her rebellion.”
After seeing how badly Rylee had been hurt—and what the bond might have been driving her to do—Jonathan wasn’t buying that she was out to hurt him, but then a splinter of doubt ran through his thoughts.
What if she had nothing left to lose?
Heyer was right, he couldn’t risk it—he had to be sure.
“I’ll find out,” Jonathan said. “I’ll ask why she’s here. With all I now know, there is at least the chance that I’ll be able to tell if she lies. If her story doesn’t match with what you’ve said, hopefully I won’t have to trust my gut.”
Heyer began to nod but they were interrupted by a sound that was now familiar to Jonathan, that of a device materializing within the chamber behind them. It was followed by a knowing silence as Jonathan’s and Heyer’s features grew heavy.
“One of ours just died inside The Never?”
Heyer nodded.
“Shenzhen, China,” Mr. Clean said, looking at Heyer. “The node should be reestablished before your departure.”
“Departure?” Jonathan asked, his voice exasperated. “When?”
“I need to get back to the Feroxian plane,” Heyer said. “Confront my brother about his attempts to assassinate his son’s killer, assure him that this incident with the bonded pair is being resolved. That, and we need to investigate what has happened to this individual Rylee claims stepped into the gates from inside The Never.” He sighed. “Rylee herself, I must leave to you. She has shown nothing but stubbornness in my presence, and would see sharing what she knows with me as some type of defeat. That and….” Heyer shook his head. “If she was able to extort information from my shadow, I am reluctant to give her another opportunity to do the same to me. Until we know how she managed it, she is dangerous to me.”
Heyer stepped toward the safe door and it opened to receive him. He looked back at Jonathan.
“Once you’ve ascertained what she knows, we will need to make sure she is moved outside of your node’s proximity. We cannot allow for another overlap inside The Never. I would prefer to have Mr. Clean transport her back to Manhattan, but I fear how the devices will affect the both of you if the bond is abruptly cut off. That, and, even if the bond is broken without serious repercussions to you or her, she will need to leave of her own will. Otherwise, finding herself suddenly back in New York, she may simply head straight back. We do not wish to hold her prisoner in Manhattan; it will do nothing for our relationship. It would be best if you convince her to leave as she came.”
He stepped inside the chamber before the hesitation hit Jonathan’s face. “I need time,” he said. “I can’t drop this on her. She….” He trailed off. Complicated emotional issues withstanding, this was still not going to be as straight-forw
ard as it seemed.
“This will not be easy on either of you. The device will likely emulate a feeling much like that of losing a loved one. I am trusting you to endure this. The effects will fade over time. The sooner the link is severed, the better for both of you.”
“Wait,” Jonathan said. “What am I supposed to do about the cameras?”
Heyer stepped back out of the chamber, putting the device that had materialized into his front pocket. “Mr. Clean will be able to assist with this,” he said. “Once he has explained the details, he will take you somewhere close to your home. I need to be off. I will not have time to check in on you before I leave, but I will return as soon as I can. Remember, Jonathan: the bond’s effects will only grow stronger the more you share true memories with her. The contradiction between your emotions and memories will shrink, and eventually, you will lose any desire to see it. Try not to delay any more than is necessary.”
Jonathan was far less certain than he allowed the alien to see. Rylee trusted him to do the right thing for her, said she believed in him. Knowing everything he knew now, what the device might drive her to do, he wasn’t sure. For that matter, what guarantee did he have that he would not now suffer the same fate that she almost had?
“Good luck,” Jonathan said.
Heyer nodded. Then he was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
WHEN HEYER HAD gone, the room returned to the state it had been in when Jonathan had first arrived. The projections hovering in the air faded away, the coffee table returning to a state of normalcy. Only the display of Mr. Clean on the monitor, the furniture, and the closed vault door remained.
Mr. Clean, for what it was worth, allowed him time to process it all. Jonathan sat, closed his eyes, and tried to get a grip. He didn’t know how much time had passed before he spoke. “Mr. Clean,” he said. “How is it that you and Heyer can manifest The Never? It strikes me as odd that the Borealis wouldn’t have locked away this technology with the rest.”
“Yes, surely they would have,” Mr. Clean said. “The explanation is simpler than one would think. When Nevric developed the technology, I was her home. Heyer had no knowledge of this when he found me. At the time, the brothers shared the same vessel—Malkier still utilizes it today.”
“He said that, growing up, you were his friend,” Jonathan said. “That he felt no connection to the other A.I.’s he’d encounter.”
“Yes,” Mr. Clean said. “When Nevric was conducting her experiments, she built me to assist in her efforts. I am slightly more advanced compared to others of my kind, though ‘advanced’ is subjective in this case. The hardware I am installed on is the same, but Nevric made customizations to my programming. Changes she felt necessary to make me more effective in assisting her efforts. Regardless, when the extinction occurred, Nevric’s research was contained within my on-board records. It was not until Heyer searched for an alternative means to maintain the human way of life that I had any reason to share her research.”
Jonathan snorted. “How did he like finding out you had never mentioned it to him?”
Mr. Clean, sensing the change in levity, smiled back at Jonathan. “He was grateful that a solution existed. It was hardly a deception. How was I to know the information would be relevant until a situation presented itself?”
“I guess that would be the mature way of looking at it,” Jonathan said.
“Regardless, this is also why utilization of The Never can only be performed on our end. The gateway is controlled by Cede, each targeted to specific active devices here on Earth. We refer to them as nodes. We can request redirection if a node is not ideal for one reason or another. I request to push it to a better match. The Never is then opened for a different combatant. However, Cede is aware of this, and if she chooses to ignore my request to redirect I must accept her targeting. If I do not, then The Never will not be opened, and the combatant will not be fighting in a temporary battlefield, but on Earth itself.”
“I appreciate the information, but why are you telling me all this?” Jonathan said.
“For now, I will be redirecting from the nodes of Rylee and yourself. Temporarily, this will appear as though we are dealing with the development of the bonded pair. If we continued to redirect for long, the appearance will become quite incriminating.”
Jonathan nodded slowly. “So you can buy me some time, direct the Ferox entering Rylee’s and my gate to other combatants,” he said. “But the longer you do so, the more it will become obvious that we are hiding something.”
“That is correct.”
Jonathan nodded, thinking it over, but he found himself pondering other questions. “Mr. Clean, I was wondering,” Jonathan said. “What were the customizations that Nevric made to you?”
“After observing my counterparts,” Mr. Clean said. “It would seem she designed my nature to be curious. Cede, for instance, does what she is asked, but would not look into a matter any further than deemed necessary by whatever request Malkier gave her.”
“Curiosity,” Jonathan repeated, and smiled. “I hear that kills a lot of cats.”
Mr. Clean momentarily tilted his head before smiling when he grasped the proverb.
“How does one make a computer curious?” Jonathan asked.
“Easier than you may think,” Mr. Clean said. “Nevric made me capable of experiencing boredom. Curiosity came as a symptom. It’s a gift and a curse.”
Jonathan shook his head, remembering he couldn’t stay here all night talking to the computer. “So, what is the plan for these cameras?”
“Yes, there are multiple new issues with a camera feed, far more problematic than simple sound,” Mr. Clean said. “It was one thing to disguise the source when I was speaking through your laptop. That was coming through your internet line and I simply had to make the data flowing into your machine appear to come from a typical internet streaming service. I will not be able to alter video and replace the feed from their own cameras on their own network.
“Well,” Mr. Clean digressed, “technically, I could, but The Cell would not be fooled. Video contains a great deal of digital data. Their network would detect an upload from an exterior source supplanting their feed. It wouldn’t matter that they could not identify the source—they would know data was being uploaded past their security that had no business being there. Therefore, it would be quite obvious to them that something you wanted them not to see had occurred during the time of the upload.”
“So what do we do?” Jonathan asked. “Kill the power?”
Mr. Clean shook his head. “Same issue. They would shortly discover that the outage had suspicious origins, and this would become quite obvious if you did so more than once.”
“Okay. So what then?”
“Seeing as how you are headed that way, you will be taking a piece of me with you,” Mr. Clean said. “Two pieces, actually.”
Jonathan blinked. A moment later, two dime-shaped discs appeared to manifest out of the table top.
“Jonathan, do you have an object on your person, something you handle frequently enough that The Cell would see no novel behavior in its presence?”
Jonathan nodded, pulling the gold pocket watch from his front pocket and placing it on the table. “It doesn’t keep time—it’s an heirloom my father left me,” he said. “I’ve been keeping it on me since the last time Heyer visited.”
The two spheres appeared to melt, becoming a translucent fluid as they did so, and moving toward the watch. Both disappeared into the watch’s interior by slipping between the space where the glass met the gold casing.
“When you arrive home, one of my pieces will leave you and find its way to a camera. From there, it will follow the wiring back to the hub. This will allow us to manipulate their network from within as I will simply be controlling the hub by communicating with a piece of myself instead of breaking in via a digital means,” Mr. Clean said. “When you are going to have a conversation you would prefer to keep private, turn the knob on the watch,
and I will take care of the rest.”
“Seems simple enough.”
“Try to use this sparingly,” Mr. Clean said. “We do not want The Cell to infer any patterns. It’s best to keep them thinking that nothing is being hidden from them.”
Placing the watch back in his pocket, Jonathan nodded and stood. He found his gaze lingering on the safe door. “Mr. Clean, if Heyer installed every device you have, in every compatible human, how many would the Ferox outnumber us by?”
“Assuming the Feroxian females do not join the initial assault, at least ten to one, Jonathan,” Mr. Clean said. “If the females join in the attack, I could not give you a trustworthy estimate.”
“So….” Jonathan paused. “Is there something I’m not seeing here?”
“What is it you’re asking?”
“Is there some reason that we should expect those odds to get better?”
“No,” Mr. Clean said. “Not realistically.”
Jonathan shook his head, his expression pained. “So, then, is Heyer really just putting this off? Keeping the war at bay as long as possible because he knows we can’t win it?”
“I asked Heyer a similar question once,” Mr. Clean said. “Pointed out that all this energy he put into maintaining humanity’s ignorance of the threat seemed to only prolong the inevitable.”
Jonathan opened his eyes, looked away from the armory door and back to the A.I. watching him from the monitor. “What did he say?”
Mr. Clean played a recording then, and the computer’s face disappeared. Jonathan saw he was watching a video of Heyer standing in the very room where he now stood. The alien looked thoughtful before he spoke. “I sat with a young man tonight—a man I recently implanted,” Heyer said. “I told him what his future held. I told him that I couldn’t change the world—that someone had to fight. That the best I could do was give the responsibility of protecting the world to someone else. The man knew what he faced, what the future held, but he refused to consider the idea of making someone else face it for him.” Heyer paused then, a sad smile on his face. “I am not ready to start a war for all of mankind, just so I can end a war for myself.”
The Never Paradox (Chronicles Of Jonathan Tibbs Book 2) Page 30
