Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) (10 page)

The box was indeed
special. Nestled inside it was an ancient spear, a spear believed to have been
carried to protect The Ark of the Covenant.  Ekaterina’s hand went to the
circular medallion around her neck.  It contained a replica of the spear in the
box and represented her connection to the past, present and future protection
of the people of Israel. Mossad’s use of non
-sabra
Israelis as agents
and especially ‘sleepers’ was a stroke of genius known to few in the
intelligence community.  No intelligence service could imagine that Mossad
would permit other than Israelis born in Israel to work in its ranks, let alone
hold the type of command position occupied by Ekaterina and Kefira.

“How did you bring this
here?” Ekaterina asked in amazement.

“That doesn’t matter. It’s
here. That’s what counts,” said Thomas.

Ekaterina reached for
the clasp on the chest that Thomas had effectively teleported into the room. 
She turned it, savoring the cool feel of its ancient beaten metal.  The top of
the coffer opened, exposing a regal-looking purple bed of silk with a hand tooled
short spear sleeping on it.  She breathed in, reverently caressed the weapon
and lifted it out of its place. 
Never fails to change me when I touch it. 
It seems to take on my body heat, become part of me, thought Ekaterina. 
She
placed the tip on the ground and started walking around it.

“Spear, Vanguard. Spear
Vanguard
,"
she chanted softly, but with ever more insistence. 
Yochana next joined her, adding to the sound of the mantra and walking around
it.  The powerful energy drew Yatsick, as yet uninitiated, into its influence. In
a trance, he too followed the women.  Then Thomas touched the top of the spear
and it rose slowly into the air in the center of the group, letting out its primordial
source of power.

For the first time in
Ekaterina’s experience, the spear exerted a centrifugal attraction on the
holders, bringing them into a tight circle around it.  The chant overtook them
until it became loud and built to a crescendo.  When it stopped, they all felt
a sense of anticlimax and looked at each other, with puzzled expressions,
unable to explain what they had experienced.

“I didn’t do it.  At
least, not consciously,” said Thomas.

“Yatsick?” asked
Ekaterina.

“I had the suit on and
I felt Thomas getting absorbed into the wave with us.  He was following, not
controlling.  I’m quite certain of that.”

“The spear always
calmed me, but never filled me with such strength and purpose before,”
Ekaterina faltered.

“I had a message in my
mind.  It said we must open up.  We must listen to new sources if we are to
succeed against the Chinese,” said Yochana positively.

“I had the same
message.  Thomas having the suit was bad enough for the Mossad and the Prime
Minister to accept. But this idea we have, I don’t know how I’ll make them
swallow it.”   Ekaterina sounded doubtful but somehow she wasn’t thrown by the
proposal.

****

If Jean Pierre had initially been unconvinced
about the urgency of Thomas’ summons, the military escort, followed by a
helicopter waiting for him after he had received a call from the Office of the
President of the United States, dispelled any doubts.  Arriving at Joint Base
Anacostia-Boiling and boarding a  B-1B Lancer supersonic bomber, one capable
of  Mach 1.25 at high altitude for the long flight to Israel, he was quite
certain that this was for real.  Very much for real.

Chinese Drone Trainers
 

The world was confused.  Videos of passive and
smiling Chinese invaders advancing across the cold steppes of Central Asia,
taken from the nose-cone cameras of Western spy drones and authorized flights,
presented an unquantifiable threat.  ‘Shock and Awe’ was the only way to
describe the reaction.  Though the Chinese hordes had inexplicably been halted
in their advance at the Armageddon Valley, they appeared to threaten all that
the West held dear.  A surprise reorganization of the Chinese Central Committee
had brought a previously unknown General to the fore.  General Chou bowed to
the world and the gist of his inaugural speech had been simple: change is
coming.

World leaders scrambled to counter
these changes.  Threats of nuclear war filled the news, but traditional war
seemed very inappropriate.   General Chou’s newly formed government referred to
the invaders as ‘Chinese Tourists’ and they were appearing in alarming numbers
in every capital in the world.  They arrived without regard for borders or
documentation and the numbers made traditional controls impossible.

Chou knew that in setting up a
Union of Asian Republics he was deliberately challenging the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization.  Colonel Lau, as his second-in-command, continued with the
plans behind the scenes.  Chou and Lau were smugly confident that no one could 
understand how Chinese ‘walkers’, as the media called them, appeared out of
nowhere in many parts of Asia.  Especially near Israel.  Lau was seeding the
media with a calculated stream of disinformation.

Sue Anne’s editor got a call from
Colonel Lau himself.  Al Jazeera was offered an exclusive in-depth interview
outlining the history of drone training technology called ‘
One Mind
’.  A
specific request was made by the colonel for a certain oriental reporter to
lead the charge; one in whom he had a personal interest. 
Soon she’ll see
what I can do for her.  I’m sure she’ll warm up to me.  How is it possible that
a man with my power is afraid to talk to a woman?
 Lau thought.  Sue Ann’s
editor, Paul, was delighted.   Exclusive dissemination of information about the
Chinese super drones would thrust Al Jazeera into the limelight.

The new Chinese technology was
creating a buzz with arms manufacturers and governments alike.  Most military
options, even cruise missiles, were fast becoming obsolete.  Large sums of
money were being offered for any information.  Al Jazeera’s advertising revenue
and research support funds started to swell.  Western technicians installed
monitoring equipment in Thomas’ cameras and audio systems.  After negotiation,
even Sue Ann and Thomas submitted to having undetectable listening mechanisms
implanted, on the understanding that they had control over their function.  
However, only Mossad had the true ace in the form of Thomas’ diamond-based nanosuit.

Al Jazeera recalled Thomas from
Israel.  Sue Ann insisted on working only with Thomas, much to the colonel’s
disappointment. 
She only sees that bloody photographer, never me.  I’ll
have to change that,
thought Lau.
 
As a team they had been so
successful in Samarkand that she got her way.

****

In an ordinary looking, but heavily modified
apartment block on Yona Street in Haifa, four people gathered to discuss
strategy.  Ekaterina, Yochana, Yatsick and Thomas sat around the table and made
final plans.

 “Yatsick,” Ekaterina
said, “I don’t understand. Why are those hordes milling around in Armageddon
Valley as though their batteries need charging?  Those bastards are on our
doorstep, yet they haven’t acted.”

“Quantum computers can
come unglued,” Yatsick replied.  Stabilizing the annealing process is a fine
balance.”

“The ‘
what
’
process?” asked Ekaterina. She glanced at Yochana to see if she felt equally
lost.

Thomas answered for
Yatsick.

“The Chinese ‘walkers’
exist in a nanofog that needs replenishing all the time.  The drones seed the
guys on the ground with fresh molecules to replace their constantly expiring
carbon-based particles and the quantum computers recharge the whole system,
using satellite connections.”

“But your suit no
longer needs replenishment.  Why don’t the Chinese do the same?” asked Yochana.

“Carbon constantly
sheds particles at the atomic level, while I exploited the diamond-based
structure of my suit.  Diamond molecules resist degradation, but at the level
of their DNA are receptive to recombination and-”

“Whoa, give it to me in
English,” said Ekaterina.

“I tweaked the suit’s
batteries at the cellular level.”

Yatsick was shaking his
head and he pursed his lips before Ekaterina raised her hand to stop his
interjection.  “No time now, Yatsick.  You have the same suit.  Maybe you can
learn the ins and outs and better Thomas’ effort.”

“If you breathe carbon
saturated air, it becomes toxic. Maybe the Chinese suits are noxious to wear,”
Thomas offered.

“You mean this apparent
inactivity is just a resupply operation for an overextended army?” Yochana
asked as she started to comprehend.

“Might be.  As if we’re
in the eye of the hurricane.”

“All the more reason
for you to find out their weaknesses and report back to us, Thomas, before the
real attack starts.  The free world is depending on you, son,” added Ekaterina.

“One more thing,” added
Thomas.  The problematic nature of their carbon-based suits actually protects
Kefira.  General Chou won’t risk hurting her because she is his only link to an
improved technology.”

“Let’s pray you’re
right.  Godspeed.”

****

Thomas boarded Colonel Lau’s personal
Gulfstream jet on his way to Doha’s Hamad International Airport.  He had
switched his suit to ‘‘stealth’’ mode.  This made it less likely that it would
be detected, but apart from internal operations the other functions of the suit
were temporarily inoperable.  Thomas appeared as quite ordinary to the casual
observer and even a more determined attacker would have difficulty determining
his extra capabilities.

As soon as he sat down,
Thomas’s quiescent suit passed a telepathic message to him about the intensity
of electronic eavesdropping washing over him.  The suit’s telepathic
communication, though technically electrical in form, was tuned to Thomas’
brain so tightly that it could not be detected by conventional means.  Thomas
relaxed.  The two hour flight time passed uneventfully.

Sue Ann waited on the
tarmac inside one of the many private jet hangers at Hamad International
Airport.  The pilot taxied into the privacy of the hanger before he lowered the
aircraft steps.  There would be no customs declarations today.  Thomas remained
in the aisle as Sue Ann approached.  She kissed him on both cheeks.

“The least you could do
is thank me for insisting on you, you deserter.”  She grinned at him.  “My
editor wanted me to take on that new oriental guy instead, but I dug my heels
in.  Consider yourself honored.   So, what you been up to?”

Thomas shook his head
and took her two arms in his hands. “You’d never believe me if I told you,” he
said as he scratched his ear and rolled his eyes around in a previously agreed
signal to let Sue Ann know about bugs on the plane.

“Duh,” replied Sue Ann.

The position of Thomas’
head made it impossible for the Chinese ‘listener’ to see Thomas’s eyeball
signal and he quickly forgot the passage as the two journalists started talking
shop about the upcoming interview.  He did make an unconscious note of the word
‘duh’, for later verification on a legal pad in front of him.  Intuitive
scribbles covered the pad when Sue Ann and Thomas arrived on China’s aircraft
carrier
Liaoning
, stationed in the North Pacific off the disputed
Senkaku Islands.  On the aircraft carrier, Sue Ann and Thomas boarded a white
unmarked, sound baffled and converted attack helicopter with extra tanks to
help it make the journey to an isolated area of mainland China near the Russian
border.  A short time after they got underway, they both recognized Lake Khanka
from a recent flyover during their historic breaking news story that had
brought the world the first visual record of the magnitude of the incursion of
Chinese ‘walkers’ into Russia at Lake Khanka.

The helicopter
continued over the Chinese border.  Thomas used his camera GPS to get his
bearings.  The journey followed Chinese Motorway G10; North American visitors
on the ground would have been surprised to see how much the terrain and
infrastructure resembled Northern Vermont near the Canadian border.  As they
crossed the border, the pilot remarked on the intercom:

“The large body of
water below us is Lake Khanka and the urban center you can just see on your
left is Pogranichy, Russia.  We will be landing shortly.  Please fasten your
seat belts.”

The helicopter landed
almost silently near a typical mud brick building that sat adjacent to a
corrugated steel structure large enough to house the refueling and maintenance
equipment for Colonel Lau’s recently acquired rotary wing aircraft.  Although
this place was as empty as the Arctic, surprisingly good roads headed south
towards Dongning and the rest of the world.  Sue Ann noted the considerable
size of the electric pylons nearby before she saw Colonel Lau himself.  He was
standing in an entranceway leading down into the earth. 
He was smiling, no,
leering at her
, she thought.  A sudden thought dawned on her. 
Jesus, is
that why I’m getting these stories?

After walking down one
steep flight of stairs, the musty space opened onto a landing.  Two elevators
stood in front of them.  One was obviously for freight while the other one was
for passengers.  Lau opened the door to this with a retina and hand scan.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”
he asked.

Thomas nodded absently,
but he was already reaching into Lau’s mind with his suit’s telepathic probes. 
Not surprisingly, the main thrust of Lau’s thoughts were revolving around lust
for Sue Ann, but there was an underlying current in Chou's plans for world
domination. 
Odd, he thinks of them as Chou’s plans, not his.
 As Thomas
probed deeper, he came across a barrier established by Lau’s activation of his
own nanosuit.  Thomas quietly switched into ‘stealth’ mode.  He needed to be
sure Lau couldn’t detect his suit before he explored further.
All comes to
he who waits,
he thought.  The elevator dropped imperceptibly, yet both Sue
Ann and Thomas felt the seconds it took to stabilize at the bottom of its
trajectory. 
We’re deep,
thought Sue Ann.  Thomas’ suit was reporting
exactly how deep and also that the cement was hardened against nuclear attack. 
They arrived at the conference room.

A freshly opened bottle
of
Baijiu
white liquor and three sturdy glasses sat on a plain wooden
table in front of them.  On the walls all around them plasma screens showed all
of the places in the world where Chinese ‘walkers’ waited to move to the next
stage of their invasion.

“Why are you showing us
all of this, Colonel?” Sue Ann asked as she started her recording app.

Lau chose not to
answer.  He commenced his prepared speech.  “Our New World Order started here.
What you are seeing are the historical videos that record our march into the
next century.  Please notice the screen dates.  You should recognize yourself
in screen three.  Look.  I must say, Miss Sue Ann, that you were very wise to
tie yourselves onto the tree.”   Lau smiled as he pointed a remote control
device at a screen.

A clear replica
appeared of the day in Samarkand, when Thomas and Sue Ann had perched in a
tree.  They were once again overlooking the first and only violence so far in
General Chou’s campaign to take over the globe.  Sue Ann sucked in her breath.

“Is it true that you
sent these men walking so they could find women?” she demanded, trying to
control the agenda of the interview.

“That’s a gross simplification. 
Please take note of both the video and audio in this grand historical event. 
It happened just days before you landed at Lake Khanka.”  He pressed the
control again.

Darkness fell on the
monitors until two men, clad in black military uniforms from balaclava to
boots, came into focus.  Each soldier carried a large but manageable drone,
which he proceeded to launch from the top of a mud hut much like the one that
was above Lau's bunker.  The screen darkened again and then infrared pictures
taken from the nose of one of the drones replaced the previous images.  Lau
stopped the video and interjected.

“All over mainland
China, and especially near the Russian border, phase one of the ‘New Long
March’ started on that day.  UAV’s containing the final instructions of decades
of indoctrination programs searched out their targets and delivered the message
to move.”

Lau clicked and the
video started up again.  This time the focus was on two young men as they stood
outside their simple homes.  The invisible drones were relaying words in their
dialect, words which had a haunting, insistent quality.  The message said
“woman” backwards.  The preprogrammed response was obvious.