The Beam: Season Two (83 page)

Rachel looked at the video wall, feeling a renewed sense of urgency as she listened to Eli talk about Noah, Noah’s foresight, and his own apparent agreement that York was needed. The clock was ticking, and thanks to Carter Vale, it was now chugging along at double time. The notion had been plaguing her since the Prime Statements, insistent like an unscratchable itch. She hadn’t wanted to gather Panel to discuss this, but with Mindbender out of the box and the York situation being what it was, there had really been no other choice.

“We have to bring him in,” she said. “York. We have to find him and bring him to Quark.”
 

“We know how to find him,” said Eli, nodding.

“Now.”
 

Eli looked at Rachel. Several other heads, hearing her tone, turned to do the same.
 

“No problem,” said Eli.

“Where is he?” said Rachel.
 

“He’s moved off-grid.”

“So he can’t access The Beam via a hard line.”
 

“Not unless he goes out to find an access point. Why?”

“Who can we send out with rovers to triangulate on him?”
 

Again, the group met Rachel’s gaze for a moment before responding. Finally, Morgan Marconi said, “What’s the rush, Rachel?”
 

Rachel watched the people around the table, drumming mental fingers and trying to decide what to say. She knew something the others didn’t — something she’d learned long ago. Panel as a whole had decided to firewall York’s mind, but before that decision had been reached, a splinter within the group had set plans into motion that could not be stopped. Firewalling had obscured York’s ID from the system before any damage could be done, but now his ID was back out there. Panel had seen it already, through an obscured, protected connection within the city — but once the rest of The Beam saw York’s ID too, those old plans would once again begin to tick inexorably into motion. And because the plans had been paused midstream, chances were excellent they didn’t have much further to tick before something exploded.

“What is it?” said Clive. “Is there a problem with York?”

Rachel nodded, the weight of years heavy on her shoulders.
 

“There’s an assassin after him,” she said.

The people onscreen began to shuffle. Rachel heard muttered questions, all said with varying degrees of indignation:
Who? What? When? Why?

Iggy was still watching Rachel. “We have access to all the known assassins,” he said. “We can snoop out a job targeting his ID and stop it.”

Rachel was shaking her head. “No, we can’t. The person after York is a mnemonic agent. A sleeper.”

All of the discussion around the table stopped.
 

“I have good reason to believe the first sequence was already triggered,” she rushed on. “If that’s true, the sleeper will already be close to him. Already in position. Already homed in.” She swallowed, her old throat dry. “Already trusted.”
 

Clive looked at Iggy. Iggy looked at Alexa. Alexa looked at Eli.
 

“So why isn’t he dead already?” said Clive.
 

It was Eli who answered. “Because he’s been masked. Now he’s off-grid. He hasn’t, in fact, even logged in from an open connection since he came out from behind the firewall.”

“What does that mean?” said Iggy.

“It means that as soon as he touches the open Beam,” Eli answered, “he’s dead.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Johnny B. Truant
is an author, blogger, and podcaster who, like the Ramones, was long denied induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame despite having a large cult following. He makes his online home at
JohnnyBTruant.com
and is the author of the
Fat Vampire
series and many, many other books.

You can connect with Johnny on Twitter at
@JohnnyBTruant
, and you should totally send him an email at
[email protected]
if the mood strikes you.
 

Sean Platt
is speaker, author, and co-founder of the
Collective Inkwell
, home to breakout indie hits like
Yesterday’s Gone
,
WhiteSpace
, and the traditionally published titles,
 
Z 2134
and
Monstrous
co-authored with David W. Wright. Sean is also co-founder of genre hopping, reader loved Realm & Sands, with the spiritual epic
Unicorn Western
, future history of
The Beam
, and the revenge thriller,
Namaste
.
 

You can find Sean at
SeanMPlatt.Com
, Follow him on Twitter at
@SeanPlatt
, or email him at
[email protected]
.
 

Johnny and Sean, along with David Wright (the guy whose curmudgeony stance on western research inspired the Unicorn Western series) host two podcasts: the horror/comedy show
Better Off Undead
and the
Self Publishing Podcast
. Both podcasts are available on iTunes and the other podcast directories, as well as on Stitcher Radio, and both are for mature audiences only.