Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) (14 page)

Yatsick nodded.

“There’s a small
military hospital attached to the airport.  I’ll take her there.”  He turned
with the limp Sue Ann, handling her tenderly as he lowered her onto the back
seat of his vehicle.

Thomas turned to
Ekaterina.

“Let’s sit in the car,”
he said as he went to the driver’s side of Ekaterina’s vehicle.  Ekaterina
looked at him uncomfortably; she’d intended to control this meeting and she was
losing the initiative already.

When they sat in the
car, Thomas took a deep breath, but didn’t speak.  He elected to communicate
mentally with Ekaterina.  The intensity of his mind probe shocked the Mossad
Special Operations Section Chief as it locked her into her chair.  In seconds,
she had a mind map of all of the events that had happened in Qatar and she
understood all of the implications of each and every one of Thomas’ acts,
though the way the information arrived in her head made her less critical than
she might have been while debriefing him in the usual manner.  Her guard was so
low that she also didn’t question the veracity of Thomas’ selection and
perspective.

“Efficient, no?” said
Thomas as he released Ekaterina from his spell.

“Complete, at any rate,
though I’m not sure I like a method of delivery I can’t question or control,”
she said, getting back some of her independence.

Thomas had tweaked her
brain to accept a gentle, yet persuasive probe that remained in place until he
decided otherwise.  He had to know if she could be trusted not to try to
capture him.  To that end, Thomas decided not to change the destination of their
meeting place, trusting in his own speed and facility to be able to slip from a
trap.
 
She doesn’t show any memory of building an electronic
prison for
 
me
.
That's good. Too bad
I didn’t have a chance to probe
 
Yatsick
 
deeply. Anyway, I can
always
use my new ‘stealth’ sensors to protect myself against
Mossad tricking me into a place I couldn’t escape from,
 
he thought.

“Can’t question?  If
it’ll make you feel better, ask away,” Thomas offered.

Ekaterina used the rest
of the drive to Yano Street in Haifa to quiz Thomas about his mission.  While
on route, she received an urgent message from the Prime Minister’s Office. 
Apparently General Chou had submitted to the Central Committee’s order that he
stop advancing into Israel until the end of the planned peace treaty
negotiations in New York.   That was unexpected progress.  China had given the
world an unspecified but limited amount of time to agree to its terms.

****

In Armageddon Valley, a purplish haze rose
over the ‘walkers’.  The whole world watched with trepidation as media outlets
discussed only the peace process and displayed a continuous montage of the
explosions of the nuclear artillery, spliced with videos of the Chinese Hordes
standing up and carrying on after the carnage.  Israel and surrounding countries
closed their airports to tourist traffic to prevent an influx of ‘nut bars’
from establishing a vigil overlooking the valley.

Macaulay's Ploy

Ekaterina looked at the chest in front of
her.  It lay in its special room on Yona Street.  After her last contact with
the spear, it had taken on an unexpected aspect.  It became an oracle.  Thomas’
inclusion in the Vanguard and the presence of the nanosuits has somehow
enhanced the spear’s aura, instilling in it the ability to offer counsel at
turning points in the plans of the group.  She drew a deep breath.  
I need
its guidance now.

She took the spear out
of the box and as usual felt its calming influence immediately.  But this time
there was something else, an urgency to her mental processes.  Unlike before,
when the spear helped her probe her hunches, it now encouraged her to follow
her intuitions, not just allowed her to have insights.  Just touching the spear
confirmed her hunches about Thomas, Macaulay and the young scientist suggested
by Thomas, Jean Pierre.  She shuffled the ideas in her head and arrived at
several conclusions.  She felt satisfied.

When she had made her
decisions, she asked the others to come into the room.  She started the chant:
“Spear, Vanguard. Spear, Vanguard.”  The others took up their places, one by
one, and joined in the communion.  When Thomas touched the spear, the same
light and centrifugal force exerted itself, drawing them closer and closer as
they walked around the artifact.  In the same manner as the last time, they
popped out of its trance at once, feeling exhausted.  Eerily, Yochana voiced
the collective wisdom of the oracle once again.

“Did you people feel
it, or was it just me?”

They all nodded.

Ekaterina wrung her
hands at the thought of contacting Macaulay. Yochana sighed deeply remembering
his past treachery, but they both balanced their fears against one undeniably
selfless incident.  Two years earlier, perhaps in a moment of weakness,
Macaulay gave Kefira the only diamond-based nanosuit in the world. 
In a sense,
we owe him our trust after that gesture of goodwill, thought Ekaterina. 
Thomas
joined his partners mentally as they went about making the crucial decision to
enlist Macaulay’s support.

“I’ll get to the bottom
of why he gave her the suit when we meet,” said Thomas, while at the same time,
he was gently probing their minds for memories of their conversations with
Kefira after Kefira’s meeting with Macaulay and his sister.

Thomas’ abilities continued
to surprise him.  Kefira had related an experience to her mother and he could
see the vivid mental imagery Ekaterina had constructed of the event.  He
allowed it to come back to him in all its detail.

****

It was a warm evening and a gentle breeze
swept through the white stone medieval town of Locorotondo, Italy.  Kefira and
another woman walked with arms linked, at least that was how Ekaterina pictured
it.  The way Ekaterina conjured her memories of Kefira’s description of the
evening excited Thomas. 
It’s as though Ekaterina were present that
evening.  Odd though Kefira told her mother about her inclinations,
thought
Thomas.

The smell of the
distant sea, the amber light cast by the lanterns in the square and the flow of
the two women tangoing together leaped from Ekaterina’s memories then something
shattered the pleasant evening.   The two young women tangoed in front of the
Basilica
di San Martino
on the cool smoothness of the marble flagstones when
confusion and fear took over.  Kefira described breaking loose from her
partner, Macaulay’s sister, believing her lover dead and chasing the culprit’s
footfalls through the streets of the town.  Then, in Ekaterina’s thoughts,
Kefira described a sensation of weightlessness, then she heard a man’s voice
say the word: “release” and felt herself revive in her lover’s arms after
floating in a cocoon.

Later that same day in
a limestone cave, Macaulay gave Kefira the only existing diamond-based nanosuit
without any explanation.  When she pressed him as to why, he said that in the
whole world he only trusted his sister’s judgement.  It was hardly an adequate
response. 
There must be more,
thought Thomas.

“I like it better when
you talk than when you use telepathy,” said Ekaterina.  “I just can’t get used
to you being in my head without my being able to push you out.”

“I’ll second that,”
Yochana added.

“How can we be sure you
didn’t plant this idea in our heads, Thomas?”

“I could have, but why
would I?  There would be no reason.”

“I’m naturally
suspicious,” Ekaterina replied while Yochana nodded her head.

“I asked you outright
about Macaulay, remember?  There’s no trick.”

“Why do we need him
again?  Go through the logic once more,” insisted Ekaterina.

Thomas probed in
Ekaterina’s and Yochana’s minds and started to lay out the logic behind the
idea of contacting Macaulay.

Yochana looked annoyed.

“Not like that.  Talk
to me,” she said.  Ekaterina nodded in agreement as both women recoiled from
Thomas’ efficient but disconcerting use of mind talk.

“Alright, alright.  I
see something in your mind, Ekaterina, that’ll demonstrate my point.”

“Really, what’s that”?

“Remember when you went
to Mensa International?  Remember how you felt?”

“Jesus, you sure raked
the coals to find that one.  I felt overwhelmed by the intensity of their
exchanges, not a feeling I’ve ever felt before or since,” said Ekaterina.

“You have to
acknowledge the results they achieved at that meeting though, don’t you?” asked
Thomas.

“Yes, we used their
results very successfully.  What’s your point?”

“My mind speak is more
efficient.  You have to adapt.”

“You never told me
about the Mensa International,” remarked Yochana.

“Not understanding is
not something I choose to brag about.”

“Why d-?”

“Get on with it,
ladies. Using Macaulay’s Quantum computer and his linked network, we can
disrupt General Chou’s operations.”

“That could buy us some
time after the treaty deadline if it succeeds, but we don’t have time to go all
the way to his lair in Italy,” said Yochana.  She was the more tech-savvy of
the two women.  Thomas nodded.

“I’ll send a
holographic communication.  Get Yatsick in here to locate the source of
Macaulay’s satellite feed.  We’ll break into it and get to him where ever he is
in the world.  Through his own network.  That should get his attention.”

Thomas decided not to
reveal to them that his whole body could now travel electronically just as easily
as his holograph. 
I’m just not sure I can fool Yatsick about my ability to
reconstitute myself after travelling virtually.  Anyway, I need the beefed-up
Quantum to be sure my virtual travel leaves me in one piece at the other end,
he
thought.

Yatsick pulled the
laptop towards him on the table.  Using a secret military version of Google
Maps, he engaged an analyzer of electronic emanations.  He worked swiftly and
efficiently and after a few minutes Yatsick had located Macaulay’s cave near
Locorotondo, Italy.

“Right,” he said with
obvious satisfaction.  “We have the man.  Now we need the technology.  We need
to go to my control center and the Quantum computer.”

The trio accompanied
him to his hive of state-of-the-art technology.  Yatsick was proud of this
environment;  at first, the Israeli government had resisted spending the money
to buy the super cooled, minus 270 degree environment, but Kefira’s limited
demonstrations of the power of the nanosuit convinced them otherwise. 
Unlimited monies arrived through a covert channel of financing and Yatsick’s
dreams came true.

Yatsick stood in front
of a black box, twice his height and six feet wide.  Without Yatsick’s
knowledge, for the first time Thomas projected his virtual self into the
holograph of the three of them on its way to Macaulay’s system.  What Thomas
didn’t know – and he was surprised by - was that his body would also make the
trip, leaving Ekaterina, Yochana and Yatsick at a loss to explain Thomas’
whereabouts.

“He’s gone,” said
Ekaterina.

“He is slippery,” added
Yochana.

“He must have moved
virtually with the holograph.  Macaulay’s going to have a surprise visitor,”
said Yatsick.

“What’re you going on
about, Yatsick?” asked Ekaterina.

“Using the suit’s
telepathic mode, I saw some residue of thoughts Thomas believed he’d masked
from my view.  I just didn’t believe he could do it.  Thought it was just
plans.”

“You can’t mean he’s
traveling on the Internet?”

“That’s exactly what I
mean.”

“Sometimes I think we
should kill him, now before it’s too late and he turns on us,” said Yochana.

“He’ll know you want to
destroy him and he’ll stop trusting you,” said Yatsick.  “Believe me, that’s
not a situation you want to be in.”

“What does it mean when
it’s dangerous to even think something bad about him?”

“Ladies, there’s
already a transmission coming in from Italy.”

Thomas stood beside
Macaulay but there was something odd about the Irishman’s facial expression. 
Thomas acknowledged it.

“Yes, he’s in pain, a
lot of pain,” he said.

“Let him go. I had no
choice, Thomas,” said Yatsick.  “It was my fault, not Macaulay’s.”

“What exactly have you
done?” demanded Thomas.

“When I understood you
would be able to move on the Internet and reconstitute yourself in the real
world after, I knew I had to act.  I pushed you.  We just need to set some
ground rules,” said Yatsick.

Macaulay’s face muscles
relaxed as Thomas let them go.  The Irishman staggered to a chair inside the
limestone cavern he used as a hideaway, including all the amenities of a normal
life, from a coffee maker to a cistern full of fresh water, and lamps connected
to solar power on the surface.  Macaulay massaged his neck and took deep
breaths.  Thomas’ anger at Yatsick’s trick subsided.

“It’s an electronic
force field,” said Yatsick as Thomas recoiled, unharmed.  He had stopped in his
tracks after touching the air a few feet from Macaulay’s fully functioning,
Quantum computer.

“Simmer down, please.
We need to be partners Thomas,” said Ekaterina.

Thomas turned towards
the camera Yatsick used to communicate with them.  He’d underestimated Yatsick
and now he was paying for it. “Looks like I have the sickness of the Greek
gods.”

“That’d be ‘hubris’,
wouldn’t it?” asked Ekaterina.

“Seems so.  Touché,
Yatsick.”

“We can only win
against Chou if we work together.  The Chinese’re the problem.  We’re the
solution.  No more deception, Thomas,” said Ekaterina.

“You’ll never beat the
Chinese with me locked up in here with Macaulay.”

“You can both walk out
if you leave the suit behind, Thomas.  The field only works against the energy
in the suit,” said Yatsick.

Macaulay got up, passed
through the field, and walked over to his Quantum computer.

“We’ll contain the suit
in this apparatus that you can wear on your wrist and then we can both make it
back to Israel by more conventional means,” Macaulay offered, showing Thomas a
small piece of equipment.

“Not so fast,” Thomas
said.  As he spoke, Yatsick noticed his suit disintegrating around him. “I put
a time limit on your suit’s lifespan. If I am right, your suit just
disappeared, Yatsick.”

Yatsick nodded
reluctantly as he suddenly felt naked.

Macaulay spoke again.

“We have to study the
powers of the suit together, Thomas.  As a group we’re more likely to succeed. 
What would’ve happened if General Chou had developed this force field - instead
of Yatsick here - while you were in his power with that reporter?”

“Perhaps you’re right.
I guess, I started thinking I was infallible, but not predicting the force
field proves me wrong.”

Macaulay tossed the
watch to Thomas and the young man turned its knob.  His suit vanished into it
and Thomas became a normal man for the first time in weeks.  Ekaterina noticed
he had aged.

“An unmarked Israeli
Gulfstream is waiting for you at Bari International Airport.  You should be
able to get there in about half an hour.  You’re doing the right thing, Thomas.”

Macaulay spoke up.

“The watch won’t open
without Ekaterina’s thumb print.”

 Thomas shook his head

“I’m not happy.  But
maybe it’s for the best.  Let’s get moving.”

“Follow the blue floor
lights.  They lead to a hermetically sealed exit.  Carry those two bags, would
you?  I’ll protect the system at this end and catch up to you in a few
minutes.”

Thomas picked up the
cases and walked into the passageway. Macaulay sat at his computer terminal and
initiated a code burst, using a unique signal.  His satellite system captured
it and logged a special sequence that a surfacing rogue Akula attack submarine
would receive.  After months of planning, it only took him a few seconds to
prepare a catastrophe.