System Seven (36 page)

• • •

Austin fiddled with a
pen at the counter and waited for one of the nurses to get off the phone.

“Please, ah, yes. My
wife, did she say where she was going? Maybe the restroom?”

The nurse said she’d
headed in the direction of the bathroom and the elevators.

“Thank you.” Panic
fell back a few notches. He headed that way. One of Sakuma’s men stood near the
stairwell across from the restrooms. On impulse he asked, “Excuse me. Did you
see an American woman with blonde hair go in there?”

He nodded towards the
stairwell. “She left. With a man.”

“No, she wouldn’t
have. Blonde, about this tall?”

He nodded. “Left in a
big hurry.”

Panic flushed. “What
did he look like, the man? Did they go up or down?”

“Tall man. Blue suit.”

“Up or down?”

“Up.”

He raced up the
stairwell, rejecting terrible thoughts. Kidnapped? Gunpoint? Mind control? Pent
up tension and fear collided with frustration. To
strike out
at the enemy would feel so good. The air in the stairwell
suddenly flooded with potential, responding to his urges.

He stopped at the
fifth floor landing, trying to arrive calmly. Up, or in? The question hammered
the moment.
Energy..
. her energy had
passed by, leaving a trail. He extended out into the stairwell and listened,
feeling for Anki.

Full in the doorway,
empty up the stairs.

Basic, imprecise, but
it was all he had. He pulled open the door. Another of Sakuma’s men looked
over, surprised at the sudden movement.

“A blonde woman with a
man in a blue suit, which way did they go?”

The guard shook his
head. He appeared offended at having been surprised. “Don’t know.”

Frustrated, Austin
extended, feeling for her energy. It was there but spread out. The guard looked
on, ready with his suit unbuttoned. Cover or no, Anki’s life was on the line
and perhaps Sakuma’s as well.

“It is my wife and I
fear for her safety. Please tell me where she went.”

The guard spoke
dismissively. “No clue.”
What are you gonna do about it?

What the guard saw was
a rice cracker staring helplessly at him, pulse throbbing in his temple. What
he didn’t see was him sizing up his 9mm SIG-Sauer and the unlatched holster it
rested in. Meta brushed against the weapon. A round in the chamber, safety on.

He looked around then
said in a low voice, “Mrs. Sakuma wouldn’t approve of you being so rude to a
friend.”

The guard’s suit
flapped open as the pistol broke free and slipped into his waiting palm. He
thumbed the safety off. “Now which way did she go, baka?”

Shock and fear
replaced cockiness. “That way.”

Austin let the clip
drop to the floor, ejected the round, and handed the gun back. “Stay quiet. I’m
on your side, asshole.”

He strode into the
administrative wing with the guard’s confusion and disbelief at his back.
Exhilaration mixed with anxiety and fear. The hall forked. Right or left? To
the right was east, where the big feeling had been. He strode in that
direction. A woman emerged from an office but sank back at the sight of him.
So much for arriving calmly.

Two doors braced the
end of the hallway. He tried one and found it locked. The other was also locked
but was all about Anki – her energy seeped from the door. Down the hall, the
woman peeked from her office and retreated once more.

Things were about to
fall apart. The mission was to keep Sakuma alive but something else was in play
now. Something big
.

• • •

“Sir, anomaly
reported. Sakuma’s guard on the radio talking about a wizard on the fifth
floor.”

Wizard
... “Keep the panels at a distance but ready to move in. No early
warnings. What’s Lilly’s status?”

“Last poll indicated
no changes. Quiet and pulsing the target.”

“Give her a call, make
sure she’s ready for anything.”

The control room
display showed video from a heli night flying over forested countryside. The
occasional light of a home passed by. A sudden banking accompanied radio
traffic.

“Signus 8, Black Jack
Five at apex. Map mark is Epping Forest. Be advised, signaler now being
dampened or blocked. The reader estimates we’re less than a click from target.
Maybe three dozen buildings in the zone. Recommend deploying all available to
cordon and have the pulse pattern varied to throw off their blocking. We need
another thirty to sixty seconds of strong signal.”

“Damn!” Director Tomov
glanced at the incident map still focused over Tokyo. “Tell Lilly to vary the
pulse using deceptive cadence ending in V. Signus 8, join with 6 and 11,
they’ll be there any second. Track it fast! I want the druid location now.”

“Sir, Lilly isn’t
answering her phone,” the Comms officer said. He turned in his chair. “The
guard is saying his gun flew out of its holster and landed in the wizard’s
hand, like magic. They’ve got a bender in there.”

• • •

The metal strike plate
sheered away from the doorjamb with a wrenching report. Austin bumped the door
open to a secretary’s anteroom. He checked his breathing. Perception grew
sharper. Anki’s energy wafted like heat waves. The door ahead shimmered with
immense potential. It felt like he could bust the building wide open with
enough intention.

Another doorjamb
crumbled and he slammed the door open.

Time compressed to the
smallest units imaginable, so granular it seemed to stand still. In that space,
information flowed. A man stood near the door with a long-barreled pistol
trained on two women standing behind a desk. One was Anki, a gun held to her head
by the other, an Asian woman. The woman had begun to pull the trigger at his
entry. In the small gap of the moment, intention flickered and the grid
responded: her pistol broke her index finger as it snapped from her grip. The
weapon discharged silently at an angle, the round missing Anki’s skull before
it slammed through the ceiling tile and lodged in the ductwork. In the next
moment, he wrenched the gun free from the man’s grip and received it midair. It
was the man from the elevator, dressed all in blue.

Anki struck the woman
with her elbow and broke free from her grip. “Shoot her, now! Shoot! She’s
helping track Johan!”

“
What?
” A cell phone rang on the floor in the far corner of the
room.

The woman stared
blankly at him.

“Now!” Anki moved
towards him, ready to take the gun. “Shoot her now, damn it!”

Despite the woman’s
impassive expression, fear coursed from her like thick syrup.

The man spoke. “Do it
or I will. Save the mission.”

The woman stared back.
He couldn’t do it, couldn’t put a bullet into a woman.
Where?
In the head? What if it hit her eye? She’d scream in agony.
He’d have to shoot her over and over again, a bloody mess. He imagined her
crying as he pumped bullets into her. It had to happen, she had to die, for
whatever reason. Suddenly doubt arose; he wanted to know
why
. The first time to kill someone – he needed to know
why!

“Damn it, she’s
fucking with your head! Kill her!” Anki took a step towards him. “She’s
signaling back through the dream! They’re
tracking
him
right now! Do it!”

He trusted Anki, felt
the truth in her words. He would kill the woman but not with the gun. Instead,
he gathered a wad of potential at the base of her throat and punched it against
her spine, severing it. Her head snapped forward and her torso fell to the desk.
He cringed at the spine protruding from a gash in the nape of her neck.
Too
hard
.

“She’s still doing
it!” Anki took a step towards her. “Okay, okay, she’s leaving. Leaving,
leaving... gone. Otani, what now?”

The stranger replied,
“We go back to our loved ones on the fourth floor and pray Johan gets what he
needs soon. My weapon, please?”

“Who the hell are
you?” He pointed at the corpse. “And how’d you know where to find her?” He
turned to Anki. “Why didn’t you warn me?”

Otani answered,
“Later. The mission is still primed.” He took his gun back and headed for the
door. “I’ll smooth the guards. Resume your roles. Go to the elevator. If asked,
you got off on the wrong floor. Move quickly!”

• • •

The newly formed
Signus 16, comprised of four panels, approached the fifth floor at the
director’s command. They halted as a
flock of druids fled the scene.

“Priests, a dozen or
more.”

Their patterns
dissolved, escaping the grid. The lead entered the office to find the body.

“Agent down.”

Control responded.
“Confirmed. We just lost the pulse. There’s a bender operating in the building.
Spread out, locate, and track. Mind the exits. We have units going in now.”

“Control, we have no
visual reference.”

The director cut in.
“Get in there and look around. He’s probably near Sakuma. Use your damn
instinct! I want to keep him on or near the fourth floor
.
”

• • •

Toda and Honda
finished the last of pre-flight checks as their Japan Airlines 747 cargo
freighter turned on to runway 34R. It was Honda’s first flight with a fully
digitized flight deck, which meant no flight engineer. There was more
information to look after despite the automation and myriad of displays.
Training had been very thorough yet he still felt a bit edgy.

Honda keyed the radio.
“Tower, JAL923 requesting clearance for takeoff, runway 34R.”

“JAL923, cleared for
takeoff. Contact Departure on frequency 120.8. Enjoy your flight.”

“Copy that Tower.
JAL923, rolling for takeoff.”

Honda tried to enjoy
the surge and thunder as the craft accelerated down the runway. A clear blue
sky awaited them, a good sign. He squeezed the rubber Totoro figurine in his
pocket. A gift from his daughter for luck.

Transitioning to
flight, all systems were green, as expected. Three kilometers out Toda banked
to a northerly bearing and climbed to six thousand meters. The city stretched
out beneath. Honda imagined his wife taking lunch in the break room at her
work, sitting by the window, watching the planes take off.

“JAL923, change course
to zero four five degrees, maintain ascent to altitude.”

“Copy change course to
zero four five, maintaining ascent to altitude.” Honda relaxed a bit.

“Not so bad, eh?” Toda
said, banking gently to meet the new bearing. “Everything’s right there where
you can see it. The system will tell you when something’s wrong. No need to
worry.”

“Yes, I see. Still
takes getting used to. I feel like I’m missing something.”

As the pilot began to
level the plane out, he suddenly grimaced and grunted, holding his chest.

“Toda! What’s wrong?”

“Take... take controls.”
He struggled to release his harness. Honda took hold of the flight yoke and set
about leveling the plane on bearing. With a pained expression, Toda climbed out
of his seat.

Honda keyed the radio.
“JAL923 declaring flight emergency. Pilot is having a heart attack. Requesting
clearance to land. Please advise!”

The pilot leaned
against the bulkhead and held his chest, muttering with tears forming in his
eyes.

“Toda! What is
happening! Please, tell me!” The tower squawked with new bearings. He radioed
confirmation then glanced back, only to receive a vicious blow to the face, the
first of many as Toda went berserk.

Sixty-five seconds
later, flight JAL923 banked hard and fell into a dive.

• • •

Johan shook his head.
“You would sacrifice thousands in the hopes he is spared. What kind of people
do you think you’re dealing with? Do you imagine them honorable? They took
Ryota as a way to make you cooperate. You refused them, Sakuma. Nothing you do
now will change their mind about Ryota. They tried to kill you and they won’t
rest until you are dead, especially after this time with me. Ryota may be
alive, but it won’t matter if you don’t tell me what they asked you to do.” He
paused, letting it settle in. “You know now what we can do. You don’t help me,
I can’t help you. If he’s alive, we are his best hope to stay alive. And you
know this is your very last chance to make a fair deal, to invest in something
greater than yourself. In something greater than even Ryota.”

Sakuma cringed,
looking away. Nothing was greater than the boy. Still...

He shrank in
resignation. “I am to die. My threads are weak. So much I should have done
differently. Much I did not regard properly.” He sighed. “Ryota must have a
chance to live. For him, I will listen to you. I will believe you are right but
only if you give me your word that you will seek out Ryota and free him.”

“Sakuma, you have my
word. I will fight to find Ryota and bring him to safety. And not just for
you.”