Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller (62 page)

The new moon on September
7,
2021,
and the blows of the
shofar,
would
inaugurate
the new Jewish year of
5782. Hebrew sages also taught that the God created the world on
this day and that Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac, were it not
for an intervening angel.

Muslims
too,
traced
their
lineage to Abraham. Abraham
rebuilt
the Kaaba. They also
believed that the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures regarding the
identity of the son to be sacrificed
were corrupted
. The Koran indicated
that Ishmael was the child nearly sacrificed, not Isaac.

*

General Shields and POTUS met at noon
in the Oval Office.

Shields’ brief
highlighted the latest quantum-resistant
encryption breakthroughs
. He also wanted
to get the President’s approval to deploy the updated 5Gen
Swarmbots to track Rahmati. Their comms would be encrypted using
the new quantum-resistant keys. They’d also include the first
version of eM. Swarmbots could still
be manually controlled
from the SWARM
Op Center.

“
Mr. President,
thank
you for
meeting with me on such short notice. I wanted to detail to
you a TOP SECRET project we’ve been working from our new startup
accelerator. Then, I want to inform you as to the updates we’ve
made to our encryption algorithms.”

“
Alright Bernie,” said
President Goodson. “I’ve always—”

General Shields felt a
surge. It was like nothing he’d ever experienced. It seemed
electrical. But, it also
felt like
a strong wind. It blew in an instant
. His
vision blurred in
a
phosphorescent
hue. It
seemed
like an
hour, but was closer to 180
seconds. Shields lost all sense of
time.

Secret Service agents
rushed
through
the door.

“
Where’s the
President?”

The still blinded Shields
struggled to make his mouth
form
sentences. “He’s right here. I’m
talking to him.”

*

Josh readied the table
setting at Fiola Mare in Georgetown, the site of his first date
with Becca. He adjusted the dozen red roses he laid on Becca’s
chair, one more time. He wanted everything to be perfect. It
was
a beautiful,
nearly fall afternoon in Georgetown. Orange and
red leaves blew into the Potomac.

Josh paid
photographers
and VR videographers
to
strategically film the scene
. He didn’t
want to miss a moment. Or an angle. Or one second of the
experience. The couple both enjoyed reliving important moments with
VR. They could return to the memory whenever they
wished.

And this
was
an instant that Josh wanted to
remember forever.

Becca should’ve been here
a while ago.
Josh didn’t know why she was
taking so long.
Maybe she knew?

From his breast
pocket of his sports coat,
he pulled out a
seven-carat,
emerald cut, diamond ring.
He reached for his polishing cloth. Josh
prepared
the ring, one last
time.

*

The
100
^th
blast of the shofar bellowed in Jerusalem.

When she recognized her
mom, Becca ran as fast as she could. The cancer was gone.
The disease was
conquered
.
In
the moment it takes a star to
twinkle, Elisha Roberts grabbed Becca’s
hand.
Together they dashed
forward. Becca squeezed her mom, as
tightly as she did when
she was a
little girl. Elisha wrapped his arms around both his daughter and
his wife.

Out of the corner of her
eye, Becca saw Professor McMillan. “
Ello
Luv
.”