Broken sky, p.25
Broken Sky, page 25
“No, she’d have to use a portal again for that to be true. But yeah, I’m sure they’ll be following.”
Jack rode for the Magnolia at top speed. Without phones, he wouldn’t know if Sarah had arrived home safely until he got back to Earth.
The theater where they were supposed to leave her was an easy building to recognize. Broad steps led up to three sets of oversized doors behind Roman-style columns. The steps resembled cut stone and the columns looked like marble, but—as with everything else in the city—they were printed from a blend of concrete, plastic, and steel. A black van was parked at the foot of the stairs.
“I think we made the right choice,” Jack whispered when they stopped for a red light. “CorpSec is here. They could have followed Sarah.”
Ethan tilted his head, gesturing for Jack to look at the man standing on the corner across the intersection. “There’s another officer on this side.”
“They must have been expecting us. How?”
“Priya said that Reynard guy might be a Traveller.”
“So then why follow on the street? Why not wait for us at the apartment?”
“Priya’s plan must be going to work. He can’t wait there because he won’t find out that’s where we are.”
Jack sighed. “I really hate paradoxes.” He was also becoming anxious about the crowds as they rode into the downtown core.
They continued along the crowded street, shadowed by CorpSec officers for the final two blocks. At the Magnolia, he dismounted underneath an awning and fed his bike into a slot in the wall, where a conveyor would transport it to the garage.
Ethan watched the men approach as he waited for his turn. “They’ve stopped.” The officer from the far side of the street had joined his partner and was talking on his phone.
Jack hurried through the lobby doors. No one stopped them at the elevator, but that’s when his phobia kicked in. Three, four, he counted as the elevator filled up. He backed away.
Ethan looked over his shoulder. The CorpSec officers were entering the lobby. “Sorry, buddy. We don’t have time for this.” He shoved Jack into the elevator and jabbed the button to close the door.
Jack stumbled to the rear of the car, leaned his head against the outer glass wall, and closed his eyes. As they went up, he didn’t need to look at the other passengers to know what they were thinking: Rough-housing in public. How rude. I should call CorpSec. In his mind, those imagined thoughts were becoming as real as voices. It was hard not to recall the darkened cave he faced in countless dreams. He began to sweat.
“You okay?” Ethan asked after the door closed on the fifth floor, leaving them alone in the elevator.
The voices in Jack’s mind faded as the elevator resumed its ascent. “Better. Thanks.”
The café on the rooftop terrace was full. Jack waited at the elevator while Ethan pretended to search for someone at the tables.
“There’s a camera covering the elevator,” Ethan said when he returned. “Do you think it’s public?”
“Little Brother is everywhere.” Jack motioned for him to follow to the stairs “Let’s go.”
The zone between the restaurant and the commercial floors was private, with no cameras, but that wouldn’t make a difference if a CorpSec officer was coming up the stairs. They ran down to the fifty-second story as fast as they could. Jack opened the fire door to check that the atrium was clear, then signaled for Ethan to follow.
They sprinted past the garden, through the corridor, to their grandfather’s door. It opened at Jack’s touch. They dove inside and slammed the door shut.
“Safe.” Ethan headed for the kitchen. “I wonder if there’s anything to eat.”
“How can you be hungry again?”
“Welcome home, Jack,” Pieter said as they stepped from the hall. “Please, take a seat.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Jack froze. Pieter Reynard stood in the living room. Behind him waited Danny Kou and a uniformed CorpSec officer. Another man, dressed in a gray suit, lay face down on the rug. Dead or unconscious, Jack couldn’t tell. He guessed this was Priya’s partner, Davis, who should have been downstairs.
Pieter smiled and motioned to the couch, projecting the false persona he wore for countless business meetings. His expression was carefully sculpted to make the other party feel at ease, as if they negotiated as an equal partner. Danny’s face let Jack know he and Ethan had no choice but to cooperate. They sat and waited quietly.
“An interesting man, your grandfather.” Pieter wandered the room, examining the furnishings. “He looks a lot like his half-brother, doesn’t he? And now he has a portal that allows him to travel between Earth and Cirrus without leaving a trace; remarkable.” Jack tried to hide his surprise, but Pieter noticed anyway. “That’s right. We know it’s hidden somewhere in this building. Where is he?”
Ethan lowered his head.
“I only want to talk to him.” Pieter’s voice was compelling, almost hypnotic. “Tell me where he is.”
Though there were only five people in the room—six, including Davis—Jack’s phobia kicked in. His throat tightened and he felt lightheaded.
Pieter kneeled in front of Jack. “You want your family to be safe, don’t you?”
Of course.
“All I want is to learn how he’s shielded that portal. Then you can rejoin your family. You want that too, don’t you?”
Yes.
“No harm will come to him. I promise. Where is he?”
“He’s—” Jack began, but Ethan flicked his finger against his leg and glared at him with his jaw clenched.
Jack realized he’d been about to answer. What am I doing? Chagrined, he followed Ethan’s example, setting his jaw and resolving to say nothing. His anxiety faded.
“No?” Pieter stood and wandered past the bookcases, idly dragging his finger across the books’ spines. “Well, he can’t be far. And if he uses his portal again, we’ll track it by the electricity it uses.”
Did Grandpa think of that? Holden couldn’t have traveled all these years without upsetting the neighbors if it had the same disorienting effects as a dynamic portal. But the power to run it had to come from somewhere. Or was it like smaller portal crystals? Can he charge it from just one side?
“He had us fooled for some time, you know.” Pieter stopped in front of the painting and stared intently at the image as he spoke. “In fact, we only worked it out when we couldn’t find you in the apartment this morning.” He leaned closer to the frame, focusing on the pattern of squares near the charge indicators. He reached out to touch them.
The officer behind Pieter cleared his throat. “Sir.”
Pieter glared at the man. “What?”
The officer had been listening to another conversation on an earpiece. He offered his phone to Pieter, who watched the screen for a few moments before passing it back.
“Your grandfather didn’t make your rendezvous upstairs. Perhaps our friend here …” He poked his toe at the man on the floor. “Was supposed to make a call. Do we know who he is yet?” He directed this last question to Danny.
Danny also wore a hidden earpiece. He shook his head. “He’s got a UN ID. We don’t know what department he’s with or if he’s working with anyone else. I’ll have those answers in a few minutes.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Pieter’s manner changed from charming businessman to something more feral. “We’ve got what we came for. Take them away. And find out who the girl is.”
Jack lowered his head so Pieter wouldn’t see his face. Sarah was right. Terrance had hacked her phone to prevent Pieter from finding out who she was. That meant Niels wanted to keep her safe. What does Niels know?
The CorpSec officer ordered the boys to stand and walk out the door. A second officer, waiting outside, hustled them into the elevator. He advised them not to say or try anything in the lobby. Then the men pushed the cousins into a CorpSec van parked on the street, leaving them alone in the back. A notice painted on the vehicle’s interior wall warned that everything they said was being recorded.
Tiny windows in the rear doors provided the only view of the street, but Jack didn’t know Caerton well enough to recognize where they were going. After a few minutes, they entered a parking lot where the gate closed behind them automatically.
“This must be CorpSec’s headquarters.”
Just when they expected it to stop, the van passed through another gate and turned onto the street.
Ethan leaned to the window closest to him. “What was that all about?”
“Little Brother?” Jack guessed. “Views inside the parking lot are almost certainly blocked. Anyone watching would see us go in and not think to check the other side.”
After a few minutes of winding through Caerton’s streets, they passed through another gate. The van descended a ramp into a vast underground complex, driving past rows of broad metal cylinders rising from the floor to the thirty-foot ceiling.
“We’re at the reservoir,” Jack said. The size and number of cylinders corresponded with the domes he’d seen from the street. “I didn’t realize the tanks were so big. Most of it’s underground.”
The van stopped at the far end of the complex, where the guards ordered them out of the vehicle. Pieter and Danny arrived in another car.
Pieter got out and addressed a guard. “Go back to the Magnolia and search the rest of the building. Dr. Marke will eventually show up wherever that portal is.” To a second man, he said, “Bring Marke’s assistant to his lab and wait for us outside. We’ll be there shortly.”
Danny motioned Jack and his cousin toward the tank in the corner farthest from the center aisle. Set into the metal wall at ground level was a hatch that resembled a ship’s watertight bulkhead door. Danny spun the large wheel mounted on the door and pushed it open. Everyone had to stoop and step over the high rim to enter the tank.
In the center of the space, a cage-style elevator and an adjoining ladder led up to a second level. Ten windowless sliding doors were evenly spaced around the circular room. Each had a keypad fitted next to it.
Prison cells? Jack guessed from Ethan’s glum expression that his cousin was thinking the same thing.
“Where do you want them?” Danny asked.
“I don’t see why they can’t stay together. I’m sure they’ll be comfortable here until tomorrow.”
At least we’ll be together. For now.
Pieter approached one of the closed doors. But instead of waving a card or entering a code, he placed his hand near the door itself. The lock clicked and it slid open, even though Pieter hadn’t moved anything or even touched the keypad.
Does his ring work like an access card? Jack wondered as Pieter waved him and Ethan toward the open door. He resigned himself to being locked up.
“Jack. Ethan,” overlapping voices shouted as they entered.
“Don’t you love family reunions,” Pieter said in his fake charming voice. “Now there’s just one person missing. And he’ll be joining you soon.”
He slid the door shut with a solid thump.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
With protesters moving into the city center, the shortest route to Holden’s lab at Naef Dynamics became an hour-long drive. Self-driving mode was mandatory in this part of Seattle, but there were so many cars that even the traffic control AI couldn’t keep it moving smoothly. Priya could have used her police authority to switch Holden’s vehicle into manual mode, except this wasn’t an emergency. And it wouldn’t have made much difference—most of the protesters were on foot.
She turned the air conditioning to its coldest setting as they crawled across the bridge. “Are you sure you’ve told me everything?”
“I assure you, detective; I’ve told you everything I know. Much more than I should have.”
“And I appreciate your trust. I won’t mention your portal in my report.”
“Thank you. If anyone knew of its existence, or even that such a thing was possible, it would only take a few years to reproduce my work.”
Priya wasn’t sure what she could have reported, anyway; the technology soared way over her head. She only understood that the device was as large as a dynamic portal, as difficult to trace as the smaller static ones, and that it could pass useful quantities of radioactive material without collapsing the wormhole. If Holden hadn’t convinced her he’d spent decades guiding other researchers away from rediscovering his techniques, she’d have informed her superiors at once.
“And you’re positive that’s not where their research is going?”
“The principles of portal merging were in a paper I actually published. Simon could have built a working apparatus from only that, although it still would have taken many years. The theories behind the ultra-stable portal are completely different. There are precursors that must be developed first, and there’s been no work in that area for decades. The latest production methods are so efficient that returning to the essential process is no longer an option.”
“Simon seemed very focused on efficiency.”
“It takes at least six months to grow a crystal. If he can reduce waste by half, that’s potentially billions of dollars saved for Armenau. But that’s what’s confusing about the report you photographed. If those numbers are correct, they’re using fifty percent more raw materials than anyone else.”
“Does that have anything to do with merging?”
“Not at all. Merging is something he could do with any crystal. The most curious thing about these numbers is that they’re exactly fifty percent higher than they should be.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea. But from what you’ve told me, Simon is doing something new that involves merging. The document suggests Armenau is currently growing at least ten million crystals.”
“And the destruction of the portals?”
“It may have been an unintended consequence. Perhaps they have a commercial use for merged wormholes. If not, then they’ve come up with a way to cripple modern industry.”
“There’s nothing to suggest Reynard has a motive for that. He might not even be aware of Danny’s past. Also, we don’t know who sent the arson tip. It may have been Simon himself. Just because he designed Pieter’s equipment, that doesn’t mean he agrees with how it’s being used. I got the feeling he wanted to tell me something the other night but was too scared.”
“In science, it can be easy to lose sight of ethics. Sometimes we do things only to see what’s possible. My own early research is a perfect example of that. I’m as much to blame for this situation as Simon.”
Priya shook her head. “No. This is all on Pieter. And even if Simon didn’t send the letter, it’s most likely the tipster is working with Reynard.”
“Most likely, yes. But not the only possibility.”
“You’re not suggesting there’s another Traveller involved, are you?”
“Perhaps. But maybe they’re not involved. Maybe they’re what you call a Good Samaritan.”
“They might also be what we call a pain-in-the …” She broke off before completing her thought, but Holden was smiling and not offended.
Eventually they cleared the bottleneck and made it to the city’s industrial section. Holden’s building was modern yet plain-looking—mostly bare concrete and glass, no different from its neighbors.
“Good afternoon, Doctor Marke,” the receptionist said as he entered the lobby. “I didn’t know you would be in today. Everyone’s already left—the attack in the Sea of Japan, you know. They were all upset and just wanted to get home. I was about to leave too. Is there anything you need?”
“No, no. That’s quite all right. Go home to your family. We’ll be fine.”
“Thank you. Oh, by the way, your intern didn’t show up today. Nobody knows where he is.”
Holden wasn’t surprised. What with the parties and protests already starting, and himself having been away for the entire week, there hadn’t been much work for the younger man anyway. Many of the regular staff, including his two technicians, were away on summer vacation. Most people didn’t believe in the Newton prophecy, but weren’t keen to hang around if the revelers got out of hand.
Priya followed him up the stairs. His lab occupied the entire third floor, which—from the outside of the building—appeared to have mirrored windows, but the walls, ceiling, and floor were actually several feet thick with solid shielding. The lights were already on when he opened the door.
“Is something wrong?” she asked when she noticed his expression.
“I’m not sure.” Lights were also shining in the Archive, on the far side of the workshop. Steel doors flanked the room’s sides: six on the left, and five on the right. All were closed except for the first one on the left. “What have they been up to?”
Priya peered through the open door. “What are these rooms for?” A table with a two-inch diameter portal frame occupied the center of the room. A variety of monitors, cables, pipes, and other apparatus hung from the walls.
“Isolation booths. We use them for testing portal crystals. They’re shielded so they don’t interfere with the other portals or test equipment.”
Holden seemed satisfied the room was in order and pulled the door closed. The keypad flashed to indicate the lock had engaged. He drew his identity card from his pocket and moved to the next booth.
“Who has access to your lab?” Priya asked.
“Any of the technical staff. We use chipped cards to record who has been in what room. I’m the only one who knows the codes.”
He traversed the workshop’s perimeter, pushing open each booth’s door and glancing inside before moving on to the next. Each room was slightly different. The second one past the Archive contained a round portal that spanned three feet. The stainless-steel ring—bolted to the floor near the back of the room—had a ramp positioned next to it so a wheeled cart could pass through without having to be lifted over the edge.
The frame’s ring was nearly four inches thick, reminding Priya of the one in her department’s headquarters in Olympia. “Is that human-rated?”
