System Seven (52 page)

“I’m going to need
some help sorting through it. Maria is one hell of a character. Complex doesn’t
begin to describe it. And just so you all know, Anki’s not trained for this.
It’s taking a toll. Don’t think less of her.”

Martin asked what she
could share.

She looked to Johan.
“Maria’s impressed with you. In fact, she was still playing with your god like
a three hundred year old cougar. And there is no doubt she wants Bastion
removed from the picture. You’ve hooked her there. But listen you two... this
woman is a threat. She is made of things stolen, borrowed bits and pieces of
thousands of souls. For her, taking a life is no different than moving a chess
piece. She also harbors love for all of creation, a love that encompasses the
very souls she displaces. If that isn’t a dangerous combination, I don’t know
what is.”

Hers was the world
view that had helped shape humanity for millennia. Knowing death did not mean
the end, all matters of conscience were subject to interpretation. The call for
balancing nearly lifted Johan to his feet.

Austin asked if there
was anything about the Comannda’s base.

“The Core, yes. I
sought access but the lady has ‘access’ to so much that it was hard to filter
without setting off alarms. I found something though. There’s a building in the
Persian Gulf, at the coast. It should be easy to find because it’s round with
scimitar-shaped arms coming off it. Maria held concern about it, a vague ‘weak
link’ feeling. I’m almost sure it’s a transport depot for the base.”

“I see its form, yes.
What about the base itself?”

“It’s big. Radial in
nature, with transport lines running out to distant ports. It’s secure, remote,
like another world. All underground. So much safety yet also a stifling that
she dreads. She loves being topside.”

“Where is it?”

“Distant from the
depot and the coast. Totally landlocked. It felt surrounded by rock.”

“Johan,” Martin said, “I
want you to work with Ginia and help Anki. I don’t want her retreating. She
needs to be with us.”

“What about
separation?” Johan asked.

“I do think it’s
time,” Clare said.

Martin agreed. “I’ll
speak with Cathbad. Meanwhile she should spend time with Johan. Quality time,
focused on normalizing her world as much as possible. How long before Maria
updates via the blogger’s site I don’t know, but be there for Anki now.”

Austin asked about the
blog. “I know we’re all on board with this Maria, but what if it’s a trap? How
are you going to monitor it without Overseer tracing?”

“I said I have an
idea,” Johan said.

“Yeah?” Austin said,
only half smiling. “Why do I still not like it?”

Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the
situation.
- Source unknown

Wind through the open
side door of the barn carried the smell of rain. Austin sat on a chair facing
the ship, forearms resting across his lap. An empty plate on the floor held the
remnants of a spaghetti lunch. Six Korda engineers pored over the ship with
equipment, poking, prodding, recording, and talking amongst themselves. The few
stray words he’d heard referenced beam weaponry, radars, field generation, and
metamaterials.

He’d patiently sought
the small sense of meta that had blossomed in his mind and flooded him with
knowledge of the ship. He entreated contact, paced by Johan and other bràthair.
The danger was in attracting the Comannda or perhaps worse, the Mu. Geo had
acted to give them the ship, so the tendency was to think it was in some way on
their side. The reality could be different and Cathbad made sure they all
considered it. Whether it was truly an alien entity or just made to appear so
also concerned Cathbad. Further contact might provide clues. His own thought was
that Geo was an outsider, more concerned with humanity’s fate than with power
or control. The impression was clear yet could still be a product of
manipulation.

An engineer walked
over. “Got your answer. It’s a closed system complete with air scrubber. You
can take it up and out anywhere you can steer it, as far as we can tell.
Underwater, too, with or without the field.”

“What about power?”

“It’s got nuclear
batteries but we have no idea how it’s generating the fields it is. Best we can
tell it’s got some kind of over unity capability, probably in the sealed
modules of the lower section. When you’re ready I’ll show you what we learned
about the beam emitter and the different radars. You should be able to pull off
your trick no problem.”

“Great, thanks. I appreciate
it.”

“One more thing.” The
engineer offered him a black velvet bag with a string tie. “It’s a stretch
suit. Same metamaterial used on the hull, just different composition. The
pilots must’ve used it for stealth operations outside the craft. Wonder where
it’s been, ya know?”

Reaching into the bag,
he felt something like thin lycra. He pulled it out and immediately tried to
make sense of what he saw. Touch contradicted what his eyes told him. The
outside of the fabric blurred slightly what was beyond it. Only seeing the
inside of the suit calmed his brain. He held it out at arm’s length but saw
nothing.

“Bizarre, isn’t it?”

“One suit?”

“Only one. I’ll be
needing it back, of course.”

Hell of a toy
, Johan commented.
Bring it with
us.

“Do you mind if I take
it for the ride? We’ll be back in a short while.”

“Fine. Just don’t lose
it.”

Austin smiled. “I see
what you mean.”

• • •

From twenty-two
thousand miles away, Earth basked in light pouring from the star, Sol. Seen
only through the craft’s cameras, the view still held the eyes and hearts of
all three in the cabin. Austin mentioned how funny it was that beyond the
planet, the sun stopped being the ordinary bright thing in the sky and instead
became the star that it was.

“Perspective is
everything,” Johan said and returned to the bunk to check his laptop. Anki sat
in the co-pilot’s chair alongside Austin.

Fine-tuning the radar and
beam emitter to the frequencies used by satellite service providers would
provide the connection needed to browse Samantha Sigler’s blog. They just had
to line up on the beam of a satellite without weakening it too much. To do so
might attract attention.

“Alright, hold it.
Tilt another two degrees. Okay, there. Now ease it forward just a nudge.”

The Hughes HS601HP
they’d researched and selected was an older Astra satellite servicing northern
Europe. They’d found it after an hour’s search in the wide field of
geosynchronous satellites. With Johan’s help Austin worked the controls to
bring the craft closer in. Signal strength rose as they neared the beam.

“That’s good right
there. Hold it,” Johan said. “Okay, I’m in. Need to forge another account if
we’re going do this regularly. Hang on.”

Austin glanced at Anki. “How you doin’?”

She smiled. “I’m fine.
We’re fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Johan cursed.

“And?” Anki asked.

“And nothing.”

“No entry?”

“Not in three days.
Last post is a photo of a leaf.”

“We’ll just have to try
again later. I’m heading back.”

“Wait,” Johan said.

Austin and Anki both
turned. “For what?”

“See, there’s a little
boy who deserves to have his body back and I know exactly where to get it. I
want to do this now before they decide to destroy it.”

“Johan...” Anki’s tone
carried a warning.

“I know what Cathbad
wants but bràthair have monitored him since the clinic. Nothing’s set up at the
hotel where they have him. Sendai City, fifth story royal suite with a patio
garden. Two guards. His dad’s been there only once since he was recovered. He’s on a portable ventilator and gets a
nurse visit three times a day. Physically, he’s available for a grab. It’s
eight o’clock and he just had his diapers changed.”

“So that’s why you
wanted the suit,” Austin said.

“What suit?” Anki
asked. When he showed it to her, she shook her head. “I’m sorry but I don’t get
it. Is defying Cathbad really the way you want to play this? Didn’t you learn
anything the first time?”

Johan bristled. “Look,
I’m thankful for what the Korda’s done for me, but I’m doing my job
and
taking care of my own business.
That’s how I’m always going to play it.” He looked to Austin. “We can have him
back in under fifteen minutes if we go now.”

Again Anki shook her
head though said nothing more.

Austin looked at the
viewer. Memory of Kaiya’s return to a Korda host echoed, mixed with the
knowledge of Cathbad’s orders. They could be back before anyone noticed...

“Alright, but we do
this my way.”

Austin toyed with the
silver ring Kaiya had slipped on his finger. She’d cried when he left;
reassurances only went so far. Ignoring her plea to run away with her had been
difficult. He’d barely rejected the temptation and instead promised to make
things safe enough so they could be together. He wondered now if he’d ever be
able to keep the promise.

Johan laid down in the
bunk while he crouched near the hatch. They would expect them to use the ship,
so going in without it made the most sense. He pulled the hood element over his
head and face, effectively becoming invisible in the dimness of the cabin.

“Cathbad’s going to
shit bricks when he hears about this.”

“He already has,”
Johan said. “Heard about it, that is. Not sure about the bricks.”

Austin smiled despite
his nerves. The ship hovered fifteen thousand feet over Mount Chokai, Japan.
Memory of the AG ramming played over and over.

“You sure you’re okay
with this?” Anki asked him.

“I’ve got it, yeah.
I’ll be fine.”

“And you’re ready?”

“Yep.”

“Okay... here goes.”

The hatch opened to
reveal early evening skies. Austin peered over the edge. Mount Chokai protruded
from the earth as his marker. Returning with Ryota, he need only get to the
mountain and go straight up for the rendezvous.

Johan checked his
watch. “Give me two minutes from my signal. If you don’t see him on the patio
by then, go in and get him.”

Anki looked in his
direction from the command chair. “Make it back, okay? I don’t want Kaiya
hating me forever.”

Austin smiled. “No
worries. I’ll be right back.”

He stood at the very
edge, hands on the ship’s hull. The earth shone below in high resolution. For a
moment he was fifteen again, feeling resentment at his mother’s objection to
him skydiving. His dad had okay’d it, but she wouldn’t allow it.

“You can change your
mind, Austin,” Anki said once more.

“It’s alright. I’ve
got this.”

With that, he tipped
forward and fell into the gravity of the planet – his first real skydive.

He split the blue sky
at terminal velocity, falling towards the mountain without effort. For one long
minute he fell – time enough to imagine nothing had happened the way it had and
that this was just another fun activity while on vacation in Hawaii; that four
cities hadn’t been destroyed by nukes he’d failed to stop and that his mind was
as isolated as he remembered growing up. Best of all was imagining Kaiya
waiting for him below.

As the earth loomed
closer, he envisioned a sunny afternoon swimming by her side, lunch on the
veranda, making love before dinnertime... until the vision shifted to a fiery
mass swallowing the island – a nuclear bomb flown in a light plane and
detonated over the southern end of Oahu. The Comannda would never stop until
their ship was in their control or destroyed–

What the fuck – pull up PULL UP!

Individual trees and
boulders on the mountain’s peaks came into sudden focus. Intention engaged like
steel gears and he arced down the side of the mountain in a powered curve that
brought him up again to level flight.

Zone out again and you’ll get yourself killed.

Shaken and
embarrassed, he corrected altitude and barreled on towards Sendai City.

He passed over the
industrial districts following a rail line until he spotted the sprawling hub
of Sendai Station in the downtown district. The Hotel Metropolitan Sendai
towered over the rail depot, gleaming white-gray in the gathering dusk. From
two thousand feet, he stared down over the patio gardens of Ryota’s fifth floor
suite.

Johan signaled.
I’m going in.

Austin dropped lower
and cued intention. The patio’s oversized fronds and fanned-out ferns created
natural cover. In the far corner, he made out two people sitting in lawn
chairs. If the boy rushed out, he had seconds only to manage those two and
anyone else who came from the suite.

Time passed. Half a minute.
He squinted to keep the sliding door to the suite in focus. A train pulled away
from the station on its way south. One of the men on the veranda stood and
stretched. The lights on the patio flickered on.

A minute. The yellow
duck feeling returned.

“C’mon...”

He hovered, willing
the boy to emerge. Coming up on two minutes... too long. On the verge of
action, a bump from Johan:
I’m outside in
the service parking lot. Grab me.

A small figure dressed
in blue ran around a truck to hide between it and a concrete wall. Austin swept
down in a rush, touching the ground to scoop him up. The little guy wore
pajamas and slippers and looked like he should be watching cartoons at home,
not running for his life, controlled by another human being.

He unzipped the suit
and allowed the boy to wrap around his torso like a monkey. He stretched the
fabric to zip it closed again.

“Hang on.”

They boosted up and
outward then, lining up on the distant form of Mount Chokai. Its summit glowed
in the last rays of the sun. Relief and excitement mingled at the thought of
reuniting Ryota with his old self. A sense of accomplishment made the flight
that much sweeter.

The feeling lasted
exactly eight seconds.

Trap after all. Anki’s on the move. AG’s
swarming. Get us down, now.

He dove, scanning as
he went. Panic led the hunt for a safe path. Dusk contrasted with the lights of
the city to make it harder to see what lay below. To his left, the unmistakable
patterns of a golf course stood out. He closed the gap in a burst, passing over
a hotel and eyeing the farthest edges of the course.

He set down near a
stand of trees and burrowed a hole in the grass big enough to slip into. “In we
go.” He dropped in then pressed the earth to form a small cave. They slid
further down into its darkness.

Austin couldn’t help
his anger. “If we get out of this one, I swear to God I’ll never follow your
half-assed plans again. By the Lord of the Wood, the Lady of the Stars, and
Humpty Dumpty’s broken ass, I swear it.”

Ryota’s voice was
small in the darkness. “Anki’s taken them for a chase but there are still ships
searching the city. I’m giving Ryota his body now. Keep him calm. I’ll send
someone for you.”

“Poor kid’s going to
be scarred for life. Probably doesn’t know dreams from reality at this point.”

“At least he’ll have a
lifetime to figure it out. Hang on. I’m going for it.”

“Tell him it’s going
to be pitch black.”

“Right.”

Austin unzipped the
suit and found the little boy’s hand. Moments later it went slack, then jerked
and the boy cried out.