Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) (12 page)

Louis 14 Revisited

The next morning a stretch white Mercedes was
waiting for Sue Ann at the front of the hotel.  At the last minute, Thomas’
transportation had been changed to a Land Rover, ostensibly because he had a
lot of equipment which needed special handling.  Sue Ann’s car made its way to
the Al Udeid Air Base just west of Doha and Thomas followed.  As US forces had
been sent home, the regional  headquarters of US Central Command (CENTCOM),
which dominated the base, lay abandoned.  After passing through a cursory security
check, Sue Ann’s transport swept towards a small hangar near the back of the
complex.

As she left the
checkpoint, she looked over her shoulder just in time to see the entrance
guards pull Thomas out of his Land Rover.  They commenced upon the most comprehensive
security check of his person and his vehicle that could be imagined.  It would
last for an hour. 
I knew it was too good to be true
, she thought.

“Driver, stop right
now. I need my cameraman to make the story complete.”  Sue Ann was shouting.

Watching from a video
display, Lau congratulated himself. 
That pesky cameraman’s out of the
picture now.

Either the partition
between the back and front of the Mercedes was soundproof, or the driver was
ignoring her plea.  Once she realized that her remonstrations were wasted, Sue
Ann sat back and waited to arrive at her destination.

They arrived at a
nondescript airplane hangar and entered it.  The driver pressed a button on a
remote control.  Noisy electric motors closed the large folding doors behind them. 
Sue Ann started to feel uncomfortable.  The cavernous building had a sinister
echo and she wished she had Thomas to back her up.

In the middle of the
large open space, a man was sitting with his hands and feet taped to the legs
and arms of a metal office chair.  As she got closer, Sue Ann noticed that the
chair was attached to the cement floor with a large metal plate.  With her hand
in her pocket, she started a recording app on her Blackberry handset.  As she
did so, a voice burst out from an overhead speaker system.

“I detect an electronic
recording app. Is it in your phone?”

“Yes,” she replied,
annoyed.  This was not going as she expected.

“Get this straight.  I
won’t repeat myself.  You have thirty minutes. You are permitted one audio
recording device and you may take as many still pictures as you wish.”

Sue Ann turned around
and saw her driver standing in a small gate in the hangar doors.  He was
holding a microphone in his right hand.  From experience she recognized the
attitude of a Chinese Special Forces operative.  Best to do as he said.  She
took out her phone to take a series of pictures as she approached the prisoner,
the Special Forces commando she was permitted to interview.  She noted his
Captain’s insignia.  The Chinese agent raised the microphone to his lips again.

“I have a scanner that
will detect video mode being used on your phone.  If you attempt to record any
live action your phone will be destroyed.  Are we clear?”

“Loud and clear,” Sue
Ann acknowledged.  It might be a bluff, but she wasn’t going to put it to the
test.  She turned to the man on the chair. He looked vacantly at the floor and
didn’t even raise his head when Sue Ann walked a full circle around him.   She
spoke slowly and carefully, even respectfully.

“How do you do,
Captain.  My name is Sue Ann Lee.  I represent Al Jazeera and I have been
allowed to give you the chance to share your experiences with the world. You
are free to tell me whatever you wish.”

The captain said
nothing. When Sue Ann looked closer, she noticed his dilated pupils. “He’s been
drugged,” she said aloud, but no one answered.  She repeated her invitation to
the captain.

Suddenly the man lifted
his head. It was as if someone had flicked a switch.  Although his expression
did not change, he started talking.

“I saw everyone I ever
knew in my life floating in front of my eyes. They were all imploring me to,
to, to-” he stalled.

“To what, Captain? The
world needs to know what you experienced.”

“My dead grandfather
appeared to me.” The soldier looked embarrassed. “I loved that man so much, it
was a very emotional moment.  I’ve never disobeyed him in my life.  I’ve never
disobeyed an order either.   But my grandfather told me to drop my weapons and
leave.  I couldn’t ignore him.  I can’t believe I am a traitor but I just
couldn’t refuse.  He spoke directly to my heart.”

Tears began streaming
down the soldiers face.  The dichotomy he’d faced was too much for him.  He was
a broken man.  He sagged forward in his chair again, the invisible switch had
been thrown and it was clear that he was going to say nothing more.  Ironically
it seemed that unburdening himself of the story had somehow calmed him and he
fell fast asleep.

Sue Ann turned to
leave, unaware that Thomas had snooped on her meeting by planting a molecule of
his suit on her.  He had learned how to manipulate his suit’s molecules much
more effectively now, and his knowledge was paying dividends.

Thomas reviewed what
he’d heard from Sue Ann’s implant. 
The fog got into the mind of each
soldier and used his personal memories to convince him to surrender. Amazing,
thought Thomas.  He was preparing to put the next step of his plot into action.

Meanwhile Sue Ann
returned to her limo.  A plan of her own percolated to the surface of her
thoughts.  She was unaware that in planting the suit molecule on her, Thomas
had exposed her to the risk that Lau would detect it and react unpredictably. 

When nothing happened,
Thomas felt sure Lau could not detect his newly recombined suit molecule.  He
was growing in confidence;  he felt aspects of Sue Ann’s mind and through the
molecule he could detect her plans for her professional advancement.  Thomas probed
and watched.  He relaxed, it was clear she couldn’t detect his mind reaching
into her.  Although it had been a risk, some risks were necessary.
 They can’t
detect the new molecule.  I never understood what was meant by ‘the end
justifies the means’ before, but I do now.  I used her, but she survived.  My
Rubicon, I’ve just crossed my Rubicon.  There’s no going back now,
he
thought.

****

When the limo dropped Sue Ann back at The
Torch, she went straight to Thomas’ room where she laid out her plan for Thomas
to paste together a video montage of the photos she took of the captain and
present the result as subtitled video to the world.  Thomas said he found it
strange that the captain had spoken in English, but they resolved the dilemma
by assuming Lau had found an English speaking officer for his own reasons. 
He
used a nanofog to control the whole interview,
thought Thomas.

Thomas, confident that
his newly manipulated suit remained undetectable, turned the knob at his wrist
and nanofog swelled into the air between himself and Sue Ann.

“Thomas, what the-!” exclaimed
Sue Ann as Thomas touched her mind gently.  This time she was fully aware of
the intrusion, unlike the single molecular test that he’d carried out in the
hangar.  She was shocked.  Was this the Thomas she knew?  But even as she
experienced the effects of the fog she felt a thrill of pleasure which she
couldn’t quite explain.

Thomas communicated
quickly; he wanted to get this particular operation over rapidly.  Sue Ann
resisted at first, but she quickly understood the futility of her instinctive
reaction.  She acquiesced and allowed Thomas to enter her deepest thoughts. 

Thomas put his plan
into place.  He needed to understand every nuance of Sue Ann’s personality to
be able to build a flawless impersonation.  The strength of his connection to
Sue Ann in some ways depended on her willing submission.  Thomas massaged her
mind, convincing her to trust him.  He had not yet crossed the threshold of
using his power to completely control her against her will, though somehow he
acknowledged the possibility that day would come, not just with Sue Ann, but
with everyone he contacted. Their friendship, their sibling-like relationship,
gave him the level of trust he needed; she wasn’t fighting him.

Thomas gently put Sue
Ann’s consciousness to sleep.  He needed to be certain that she would not
spring to life during his talks with General Lau while he impersonated Sue Ann
inside an undetectable nanofog of his own creation.  He became Sue Ann, her
urges submitted to his control, and he constructed an impenetrable mental
firewall around her personal sentimental reaction to the world out of respect
for her privacy.  That respect extended even to Thomas’ own probing; he did not
search the private areas of her mind or memories that he recognized as
sensitive.

Thomas used the two
hours before Sue Ann’s appointment with General Lau to perfect his
impersonation.  He quickly realized that success depended on freeing up some of
Sue Ann’s involuntary and reflex reactions.  Learning how to walk in her Prada
pumps would take too much time.  The end result was a physical Sue Ann and a
mental Thomas.

Still feeling unusual
in Sue Ann’s skin, Thomas made his way to the elevator and the waiting Mercedes
limo. 
Odd,
thought Thomas,
the guard/driver looks remarkably like
the captured captain.
  Then Thomas reached out tentatively into the guard’s
mind.  Thomas pierced the guard’s nanosuit easily, his technology now far
superior thanks to his own manipulations.  The physical Sue Ann looked out the
window as they passed Villagio Gondolina Theme Park, a kitsch replica of Venice
in the desert.  The short drive to the Emiri Diwan Palace passed uneventfully. 
Thomas inside Sue Ann melded into one effective unit.

Instead of arriving by
the front entrance, the limo passed around back and the driver opened a high
security entrance using a retinal scan.  Thomas’ heart skipped a beat when they
entered an elevator, which rapidly swooshed downward. Only two lights decorated
the button panel.  When the doors opened, a hallway lit by florescent lights
without any apparent doors in it lay ahead.  The driver nodded and returned to
the elevator.  As the elevator door closed, Thomas heard a hydraulic seal
uncoupling somewhere off to the right.  A tall patrician Chinese man stepped
out of the opening created by the hydraulic suction.  Thomas stared through Sue
Ann’s eyes with incredulity.  The newcomer was the spitting image of a young
Mao of the posters of Sue Ann’s mother’s scrapbook.  Thomas could not believe
his luck. 
It’s Chou himself. I knew I had the right instinct to takeover
this interview. 
The man was speaking.

“I am General Chou. 
General Lau arranged for us to meet.  Please follow me.  May I call you Sue
Ann?” he said.  His softly spoken tones seemed appropriate for a man in a blue
silk pajama.

Thomas probed while his
Sue Ann side kept up a conversation. General Chou’s motivations, plans,
everything in his mind lay bare for Thomas to consume.  He initiated a memory
copy while they walked, saturating Thomas’ abilities with the suit.  Just as he
was completing the assimilation of General Chou’s thoughts, Thomas’ suit became
aware of an approaching force field and signalled for him to drop into ‘stealth’
mode. 
Damn, I didn’t finish the mind copy,
he thought.  A bluish aura
filled the hallway in front of them as they turned a corner.  Chou led the way
towards it.

“What’s that light?”
Sue Ann asked.

“Nothing, really.  It
just prevents electronic spying on my inner sanctum,” answered the General.

The haze dropped for an
instant at the wave of Chou’s hand and started again after they passed through
it.  Thomas felt a brief destabilising shock but his ‘stealth’ mode protected
his identity.  The mortal risk of coming within Chou’s grasp was beginning to
pay off. 
My new molecule fools them.

“I must admit, General,
I am surprised by the simple surroundings,” Thomas said through Sue Ann.  The
general smiled engagingly.

“I am a simple man
thrust into the limelight by the machinations of history, young lady.  By the
way, I admired the relative objectivity of your reporting of recent events. 
Please keep the same tone in the future.”

As he spoke, Chou
probed into Sue Ann’s mind and attempted to place a control on her ability to
say anything negative about Chou’s plans in the future.  His mental attack
lasted only milliseconds but Thomas had to use all of his power to resist
setting up a barrier. 
He still doesn’t suspect,
thought Thomas,
breathing a sigh of relief.  He was pleased with his mastery of the new suit’s
dynamics.  But he wanted to press Chou.

“You used the past
tense when you referred to my work – you ‘admired’ – and then you talk about
the future?  Are you expecting my work, or my reports to change?  Or maybe
both?”

“We live in
unpredictable times.  I am sure your wisdom will now permit you to write ever
more supportive reports in exchange for continued access and professional
success,” the general replied smugly.

“Objectivity is the
hallmark of my profession, General.”