Authors: David Clarkson
‘Nonsense,’ said the colonel. ‘They
couldn’t have known. It isn’t possible.’
‘Trust me, they knew,’ said Esteban.
‘What makes you so sure,’ asked Emmy.
‘We’re still alive, that’s what. If they’d
been caught by surprise they wouldn’t have acted with such restraint. Tonight
was a warning. They wanted us to see what they’re capable of.’
Charlie had never felt such dishonour.
Whilst he accepted that the Americans could not be allowed to carry on Jackson
Fox’s work, using Emmy in the way they had done weighed heavily on his
conscience. She was not only his former partner, but also his best friend. With
hindsight, he wondered if he should have warned her about what his masters had
planned.
The set up could not have been easier.
Satellite images of the complex along with the two decoys had been deliberately
leaked to American spies. It might have taken years for them to be discovered
otherwise. During that time their rivals would have continued to work on their
own technology and with Emmy Rayne on board there was no telling how quickly
they would catch up.
His only consolation was that nobody was
hurt during the confrontation. The energy pulse they emitted was at the exact
frequency of the disembodied consciousness of an astral traveller, but at a
sufficiently low output that would cause said traveller to wake up, rather than
lose their cord and ultimately, therefore, their life. It had also carried a
secondary signal embedded within, which followed the target all the way back to
its source. Once uploaded into the host computer this parasitic piece of code
would get to work rewriting and deleting files upon command.
General Tao continued to hang around the
laboratory after the test, which made Charlie nervous. The scientist was well
aware of the irony in trying to prevent the Americans from militarising the
technology by turning it into a weapon themselves. It was a dangerous tactic
and if it back-fired the consequences did not bear thinking about.
‘Excellent work, Professor,’ the general
said. ‘You bring much honour to the Motherland.’
There was an air of prejudice in the
general’s voice. The emphasis he placed on referring to China as the Motherland
served to remind Charlie that he was an outsider. Born in Australia to mixed
Chinese and Vietnamese parentage, if not for his undoubted brilliance and
experience in the field, the general would never have tolerated him on his
team.
‘It will take them months to rebuild,’
Charlie replied. ‘If we are lucky, Emmy will find a way out during that time.
Without her, their project is dead in the water.’
‘That is not something we need to worry
about.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Is it not obvious? Dr Rayne will come to
us.’
The icy confidence in the general’s voice
filled Charlie with dread. He had not encountered such coldness since
confronting his late mentor, Jackson Fox. The full extent of the trap he had
helped to set was finally setting in. Tao did not want to simply stop Emmy
Rayne, he wanted to capture her.
***
A team worked through the night in an
attempt to combat and assess the damage. They managed to quarantine the virus,
but only after losing nearly sixty percent of the infected files. This rendered
the astral projection units completely unusable and they were expected to
remain out of action for some time. Emmy was relieved to be given a respite
from her contract with the Americans, but another part of her thought that she
should be more concerned than ever.
She often wondered why her grandfather
had spared Charlie’s life when he had not hesitated in trying to take hers. The
old man was not the type to act out of sentimentality. Even in his final days,
when driven crazy by the radiation poisoning, he had to have had a reason. If
her instincts were correct and that reason was what she now suspected, they
were in more danger than ever.
She arranged to meet Esteban in his
quarters as hers were still subject to 24 hour surveillance. His room was
sparse, even more so than her own. He had no personal possessions on display,
not even a photograph of a relative or a loved one. There were a few books, but
none appeared to be for pleasure reading. They mostly consisted of a selection
of works on astrophysics and quantum mechanics. There was one, however, which
caught her eye. It was on Tibetan philosophy.
‘I take it you didn’t come here to
socialise,’ said Esteban.
‘Your powers of deduction are
impressive,’ Emmy replied. ‘Have you ever considered a career in science rather
than the military?’
‘Very funny, Dr Rayne, but I could
probably say the reverse of you. Dozens of soldiers lost their lives in
Jackson’s Hill, yet you survived. Something tells me this was down to more than
just luck.’
Esteban was seated on the end of his bed.
He made no effort to accommodate his visitor. There was one chair in the room,
but she did not take it, she preferred instead to lean against the doorframe.
‘It’s fitting you’ve brought this up,’
she said. ‘It’s actually what I wanted to talk with you about.’
‘Why you survived the massacre?’
‘Not exactly. I want to try and figure
out why my grandfather spared Charlie but tried to kill me.’
‘I am assuming you already have a theory
on this?’
She nodded.
‘In that case, I fail to see what I can
possibly add. You’re the genius, not I.’
‘Pops might have succumbed to insanity,
but he was once a great man. Even in the end, I think there was at least some
good in him. He knew the danger of the astral technology being under the
control of one government. I think he wanted Charlie to switch sides. It’s just
like the cold war. If one side has nukes, they’re a weapon, but if both sides
have them...’
‘...they become a deterrent,’ Esteban finished
for her. ‘And now you’re worried the astral technology will become a weapon now
it’s held by only one side again. Knowing you as I do, I’m guessing you don’t
think rebuilding is the solution to this problem.’
‘You saw what the Chinese are capable of.
It wouldn’t take much fine tuning to adapt their weapon into being able to zap
the life right out of a living body. With that kind of power, you don’t need
nukes.’
Esteban was quick to figure out what Emmy
was thinking.
‘You want to go back, don’t you?’ He
shook his head to indicate his disagreement, but his smile revealed his true
thoughts on the matter. He liked her tenacity. ‘To do so would be madness,’ he
carried on. ‘Even if we get the machine up and running, their defences make our
ability to astral travel completely redundant.’
‘I’m not suggesting we go back as astral
travellers.’
‘You want to launch a physical assault on
that place? What happened to zapping the life right out of our bodies?’
‘I doubt they’re that advanced yet, but
it doesn’t matter either way. We’ll have the advantage this time.’
‘What makes you think that?’
‘We have Jimmy.’
***
The radioactive by-product of each astral
jump was channelled directly into a containment facility buried almost a mile
underground. Nobody knew what the half life of the radiation was or if it was
possible to create a cure. General Tao had enlisted a small group of elite scientists
to probe its properties, but a cure was far from the top of his agenda.
Not even Professor Nguyen had access to
this level of research. The young scientist was not even aware it was going on.
If he had been, he would not have been nearly as accommodating to the general’s
requests.
‘How close are we?’ the general asked his
chief scientist in charge of the project.
‘It will not be long,’ the scientist
replied. ‘We have managed to distil a liquid infused with the radioactive
by-product. We are now working on diluting the dosage to a safe level.’
‘Excellent. And when do you expect to
begin the trials?’
The scientist paused, fearing how what he
was about to say would be taken.
‘General, I do not wish to speak out of
turn, but the timeframes you have set may not be achievable.’
‘What exactly do you mean, Doctor?’
As was usual, no emotion could be
detected behind the general’s words. One could be staring at a possible
commendation or facing an execution. It was impossible to tell.
‘We have already begun testing on
rodents, General. There have been...complications.’
‘What sort of complications?’
‘At first, the subjects acted as
predicted. I have never seen an animal clear the maze in such a short time.
They definitely show evidence of a higher awareness, which is in keeping with
your predictions.’
‘So what is the problem, Doctor?’
The scientist directed his eyes to the
floor. There was no honour in the words he was about to utter.
‘General, they...devoured...one another.’
Tao paused whilst weighing up the options.
It did not take long for him to come to a conclusion. Sentimentality had no
part to play in his line of work. Neither did morality.
‘This changes nothing. In fact, you have
made excellent progress, Doctor. The program is to proceed as planned. Am I
understood?’
The scientist bowed before his superior.
‘Yes, General. We will commence human
testing immediately.’
When Emmy caught up with him, Jimmy was
standing by the viewing window looking into the medical bay. Since the incident
where he had turned off his mother’s life support, he was reluctant to enter
the room.
‘We will find a way, you know,’ Emmy told
him. ‘I have a friend who may be able to help us. Governments hold grudges, but
scientists don’t. Who knows what advancements they’ll have made? They may even
be close to a cure.’
‘I don’t see it.’ Jimmy replied.
‘You’re talking about your extra sense?’
He offered her a half hearted shrug.
‘What’s the furthest in advance you’ve
ever seen?’ she asked him.
‘Never more than a few hours at best, but
it’s mostly just minutes or even seconds. Sometimes it’s so close it feels like
there’s hardly any separation at all. That’s when I sort of let it guide my
actions as if I’m just a puppet. It’s like I can react to the visions before I
can even know what’s going on with them when this happens. Do you remember the
first time I found you?’
‘Of course I remember. You caught
everything I threw at you; even the snake. And you’ve honed your abilities so
much since then.’
Jimmy turned away from her, trying to
hide his emotions.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked Emmy. ‘What are you
not telling me?’
He kept his eyes averted from hers.
‘I sometimes wonder why I can’t see into
the far off future. Do you know why I think that is?’
Emmy did not answer, waiting instead for
him to tell her.
‘It’s because I have no long term
future,’ he added. ‘One day I’m going to see my own death and there won’t be a
thing I can do to stop it.’
‘And you think this will happen soon?’
‘I don’t know. I mean, this mission we’ve
been asked to go on. There’s a good chance we won’t make it back, isn’t there?’
Emmy smiled
‘I’m actually counting on that,’ she
replied. ‘Of course, that doesn’t mean we all have to die.’
‘It doesn’t?’
‘If you can’t see the future, it means
the future isn’t set. Nothing more. Anything is possible. You just have to have
faith.’
He frowned, through mental effort rather
than disapproval.
‘Do you have faith?’ he asked.
She reached out and placed her right hand
on his left shoulder in a reassuring, almost maternal way.
‘I have faith in you, Jimmy. Trust me –
that’ll be enough.’
***
After experiencing a partial insight into
Emmy’s memories on their shared trip, Esteban was troubled. Rather than
confront her about it directly, he decided he needed to gather more information
first. When questioned, the colonel had confirmed the soldier’s suspicions, and
now he wanted to know what his superior’s plan was. Their meeting was not going
well, although only one of them knew this. So far as the colonel was aware, Esteban
was completely onboard with the mission.
‘How long have you known this?’ asked
Esteban.
‘We figured it out the day you brought
her in,’ replied the colonel. ‘She failed the psyche test, but we weren’t able
to move forward without her. Is this going to be a problem for you?’
‘She’s not crazy?’
‘Our experts say otherwise. As does the
body in the private medical bay. If you have an alternative explanation, I’ll
be glad to hear it.’
Esteban looked to the floor. He thought
back to what he had witnessed in the cell that night. It defied all logic, but
he had witnessed it with his own eyes. Unlikely as it seemed, Emmy was telling
the truth about her time in hiding.
‘I didn’t think so,’ said the colonel,
taking the other man’s silence to be a response in itself. ‘This may be the
only leverage we hold. It’s the one thing that can keep Emmy Rayne in line, but
if she discovers what we’re hiding before she’s ready, it could break her. You
do understand the importance of keeping this between us, don’t you?’
He did not, but he did see the importance
in staying on the colonel’s good side.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Excellent. Should she at any time look
like she’s going to betray us, you know what to do.’
‘And what about Jimmy?’
The colonel softened his demeanour and
leaned back in his chair, adopting a more relaxed position. Esteban had come to
think of this as the colonel’s politician’s stance. He knew instantly that he
was about to be told a lie.
‘You’ve grown quite fond of our gifted
guest, haven’t you?’ replied the colonel.
Esteban shrugged.
‘Don’t worry, we’ll look after him,’ the
colonel added. ‘Once the mission is over, he’ll be released. Under certain
conditions, naturally.’
‘Naturally,’ repeated Esteban.
The soldier returned to his quarters. He
now had all the information he needed. It was obvious that the conditions the
colonel spoke of for Jimmy’s release would include a wooden box. There was no
way he could continue to serve on this program. He suspected that Emmy would
also be looking for a way out sooner rather than later. When the time came, he
intended to help her take it.