He slowed to a halt at a red light and rubbed the back of his neck with both hands. “Aari’s predictions were right, I guess. He said that this would happen.”
“But we’re supposed to be civil and looking out for one another!”
“That was devastating—I still can’t believe it even happened. But we need to stay strong, okay? You’re tough, Mariah. You were abducted by brutes and you handled that.”
“It’s one thing to be captives in the hands of thugs. You expect them to be ruthless. You know who the bad guys are. But what we saw . . . Everyday folk turning into something else, something so inhuman . . . that’s what bothers me.” Mariah could feel her wits leaving her. “Why can’t we go to the police? We have enough evidence about what’s going on. We can go right now and talk to them. I know they’ll listen if we present proof.”
“I get that you’re upset. Believe me, I am too. That was beyond deplorable. But Marshall said—”
“I know what Marshall said,” she snapped.
Jag looked as if he would retort but the car behind them honked; the light had turned green. He accelerated away, clenching and unclenching the steering wheel. Mariah kept looking at him insistently.
His lips tightened. “Tell you what. I’ll see if I can connect with Elder Nageau. I’ll talk to him and find out what the best course of action is.”
“You told us that he said to trust Marshall. That means the authorities are definitely out of the question as far as Dema-Ki is concerned.”
“Let me speak with Nageau, alright? Let’s see what he has to say this time. Now come on, we’ll buy eggs for breakfast then stop by the hospital and give Gramps his dinner.”
There was nothing more that could be said. Mariah rested against her door again and closed her eyes, trying to get the violent images out of her mind, but she knew she wouldn’t be sleeping well that night.
I
t seemed that all the attendees in the boardroom were tense. Adrian Black fidgeted with his tie as he sat at the head of the large mahogany table, facing the screen on the curved wall at the opposite end. With him were Jerry Li and Luigi Dattalo, along with Dr. Albert Bertram. Although Phoenix Corporation’s chief science officer was a rather rotund man whose bearded face could easily qualify him as shopping mall Santa, he was not to be trifled with. Black knew all too well how ruthless the man could be when incensed.
Hanging from ceiling mounts on either side of the room were two big display screens that hid the windows behind them. The screen on Black’s right was split to accommodate images of three women and two men; they were five of the six people who headed the Sanctuary projects in various locations around the world. The left-hand screen showed Tony Cross, Dr. Nate and Vladimir Ajajdif. The three of them were seated in the partially-finished boardroom of the Sanctuary beneath the Quest Mining site in New Mexico. The two screens were muted for the time being.
Black tapped his fingers together and counted twelve present, including him.
The first inner circle meeting in months . . . Boy, has the group ever grown.
“What’s with the surprise meeting?” Dattalo murmured to Black, fixing the collar of his impeccably pressed white shirt.
“No idea,” Black said. “The boss called for it.”
“Any agenda given?”
“None.”
“Must be something urgent.”
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
Li pushed back his chair to look past the screen on the right and out the big windows. “What I’m more curious about at the moment is, what’s up with the weather?”
Black was wondering the same thing. San Francisco had been getting a lot of bad weather as of late. Thunder boomed and lightning cracked blindingly over the cityscape, casting an eerie blanket of gloom over the usually lively metropolis.
Dr. Bertram didn’t seem bothered by the weather and nodded almost imperceptibly at the left screen. “I see Mr. Cross and Dr. Nate are joining us . . . I was under the impression that it would be just Vlad. Those two are seldom in our meetings. Why are they here now?”
“I guess they were invited by the boss,” Black said impassively. His gaze lingered on the young man and the doctor for a while longer, though. He knew what Dr. Nate did and greatly admired him for it. Dr. Nate was the chief advocate for their cause and was unofficially dubbed the organization’s “preacher and enforcer.” Black knew that the diminutive man was ironfisted with his methods, which was how their cause had gotten so far; he could make believers of skeptics.
Tony was someone Black knew very little about. The young man did the boss’s bidding and the scope of his work was outside the operations of the company. He was the one who would get his hands dirty with the boss’s personal errands. Although he was well aware of the company’s business, he exhibited very little interest in it. In fact, he didn’t seem at all keen to take part in the meeting.
A woman’s voice came over the intercom. “Mr. Black, the boss is ready. Projecting through in ten.”
“Thanks, Linda.” Black unmuted the conference call. “Stand by, the boss has dialed in. Connecting in five seconds.”
Every man and woman present, even Tony, sat upright as though simultaneously experiencing a sudden chill. A buzzing reached their ears. Black watched as an image at the other end of the table flickered into existence. The image steadied after a few short seconds, revealing a tall figure that appeared to be seated in the room with them.
Black let a small breath escape slightly from his lips. Seeing the boss’s hologram appear was something he could never get used to even though the figure was always in the same garb; a long, dark coat with the hood pulled up so that the shadows blocked out the facial features.
He noticed that the boss was holding a violet sphere the size of a golf ball and thought,
Without fail, there it is.
Black had never seen the boss without that sphere at any inner circle meeting, and though he was curious, never ventured to ask about it.
In a deep voice modulated by a digital voice changer, the boss spoke in an almost inhuman, metallic tone. “Good day, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here on such short notice. I know you’re all busy with your projects as there is much to be done, so I will keep this meeting brief.”
The figure paused, as though studying their individual responses.
“I have called you here, first, to express my appreciation for your hard work and dedication to the cause, and second, to impress upon you that we cannot afford any slipups, especially as we move into this critical phase of our mission. It is imperative that we become extra vigilant now. The greatest risk we face when things are going well is that we lose our focus. Again, let me make this clear: No mistakes. No excuses.”
Black dared a quick look at the left-hand screen. None of the three men there blinked, but Tony’s face turned a light shade of red.
“I am disturbed by the events at the New Mexico site,” the boss continued, the metallic voice turning frosty. “I will not tolerate any more of such incompetence. I do not need to remind any of you about the importance of what we’re doing here.”
Black watched silently, taking note of how the holographic image seemed to look directly at each member of the inner circle. It was as if the boss had a hand on the pulse of the organization and could extrapolate whatever was needed to be known just by observing the body language.
Shaking his pen between his fingers, Black thought,
Maybe that’s the real purpose of this meeting; to sense the group
. . .
Here’s hoping no one present gets caught in something they can’t fix.
“The crucial role we are all playing in the future of humankind, the future of the planet . . . the vital purpose of our cause . . . ” The boss lifted the small sphere and gazed at it. “You are here because you are believers, so I don’t intend to preach to the choir.”
A flash of lightning illuminated the boardroom, followed closely by the crack of thunder. The office lights blinked several times and the boss’s hologram flickered. Black and the others watched, transfixed, as the distorted image took on the semblance of something otherworldly. The boss was speaking again but what came out of the speakers was a long, high-pitched crackle and screech that made those present flinch.
Then the lights stopped blinking and the boss’s hologram came back into perfect focus. Black realized he’d been gripping his pen tightly and dropped it.
The boss regarded them all from under the golden hood. “As promised, I’ve kept the meeting short. I will now open to the floor. Questions?”
That’s it?
Black cleared his throat quietly. “Thank you for impressing upon us the importance of vigilance as we move forward with our plans, Boss. For the benefit of everyone here, could we perhaps ask you to share some insights on the big-picture status of our projects?”
“I was planning on updating all of you at a later time, but since you asked . . . ” The sphere rolled between the boss’s fingers. “The Sanctuaries are coming along well, save for that ignominy I mentioned earlier.”
Black didn’t have to look at Ajajdif or Tony to know that each of the men had probably shrunk in his chair.
If the boss took notice, it didn’t show. “Except for some minor tweaking and requests for additional resources, I think Mr. Dattalo’s team has done a great job with the REAPR project. The incursion is going according to plan. The global distribution of the REAPR units is coming along as scheduled and is showing great results. We expect to pass the midway point of our expected worldwide target in about two weeks. If things continue at this pace, the mobilization of forces we’ve seen in China and now, according to the news, India, will move to the next phase as chaos within their borders gets worse.
“We need to ensure that the remaining Russian crops are unscathed. Also, even as this project moves along, we mustn’t lose sight of the other endeavors we have in the pipeline. They will need to be rolled out in the proper sequence.
“That said, I am pleased to inform you that two major undertakings in that area are coming along well. As you know, Dr. Bertram, is heading one of them. I trust the specimens are replicating as anticipated, Albert?”
“Yes,” Dr. Bertram said, daring a quick smile. “They’re actually progressing better than expected.”
One of the women on the five-way split screen coughed politely. The blonde woman, who looked to be in her early forties and whom Black found to be very attractive, noted that those present were waiting for her to speak, and said, “This is all good and fine, but we know this is just one half of the equation. The other is our strategy on a key resource for the cause—the future stewards of the planet. How are we doing on that front?”
Black was certain the boss was smiling under that hood. The metallic voice reached out from the speakers once again. “Why don’t I let Dr. Nate bring us up to date on this? This is, after all, his area of expertise.”
The small man took off his glasses and gave them a good wipe before placing them back on his nose. He made sure his greasy black hair was still sticking flat to his scalp, then addressed the group. “Thank you, Boss. I will try to be brief. The program for selecting the stewards is coming along remarkably well. Across the globe, I might add.” He seemed to puff out in pride at this. “The reprogramming methods of these young minds ’ave proven rather effective. ’owever, for reasons unknown till recently, several candidates rejected assimilation, thus making them unviable for our purpose. I ’ave made some improvements to our methods and they will be implemented soon. The new approach will drastically improve the yield we are seeing from the procedure. We expect to attain close to an ’undred percent success rate from this point on.”
“Thank you, Dr. Nate,” the boss said. “Good job with the work you’ve done so far. Any more questions? No? Very well, then. We shall adjourn.”
As Black reached to terminate the conference call, the boss raised a hand. “Dr. Nate, please remain seated. And Tony . . . ”
Black glanced at the left screen. Tony, who was halfway out of his chair, paused uncertainly.
Despite the electronic distortion, disdain was clearly evident in the boss’s voice. “I will speak with you tomorrow.”
* * *
Dr. Nate sat alone in the New Mexico boardroom, facing the hologram of the boss that was also projected there. Tony had left quickly after Ajajdif and Dr. Nate couldn’t blame him. At the same time, he was also thankful that he wasn’t the one on the boss’s bad side.
“Good progress on the reprogramming method—please keep me informed as the results come in,” the boss said, then stood. “Moving on to something that’s been a thorn on my side. Dema-Ki. I need to find out what the Elders are plotting. The only way to obtain that information is to extract it from the two girls—whom you
lost
.”
Dr. Nate shrugged helplessly. It wasn’t his fault the pair had escaped, but he supposed the boss’s anger toward Tony would have to spill over to him eventually. He watched as the boss tucked the violet sphere away into a pocket.
“We cannot afford to have the Elders interfering with our plans,” the distorted voice growled.
Running his thumbs over where his eyebrows should have been, Dr. Nate said, “You yourself ’ave said they’re isolated. ’ow much damage can they cause?”
“You have no idea!” the boss snapped. “We must be at least two steps ahead of them.”
“If they’re that much of a threat, why don’t we simply go in and take them out? We ’ave the resources for that. All three Ospreys are back stateside, aren’t they? I’m sure we can be in and out of that village within an hour. By the time they realize what’s ’it them, it will be too late.”
“If only it were so. You’re forgetting what they’re capable of, Doctor. More importantly, there are certain individuals there whom we will need alive to complete the final phases of our plan. But most of all, there is an object of great importance which is under the protection and safekeeping of one of the Elders. Without this relic, our final solution cannot be fulfilled. Even if we go in, it would be prudent to do so knowing what they’re up to. A shock and awe operation from the air will not work. It’ll have to be boots on the ground. And even
then
I wouldn’t authorize the mission without knowing what the Elders have planned.”