Diamond Rain: Adventure Science Fiction Mossad Thriller (The Spy Stories and Tales of Intrigue Series Book 2) (9 page)

“Those things’ll kill
you, Yochana.  You really should-”

“Not you too,” Yochana
replied with some irritation.  “We all have to die somehow.”  She felt even
more irritated when she realized she was answering a holographic image.

Yochana shook her head,
but then she noticed that the image had stopped talking when she interrupted
it.  She stopped in her tracks. 
How is that possible,
she thought. 
It’s
just a talking photo.  It can’t have a conversation.

“Unusual, isn’t it?”
said Thomas with a smile.  “I’ve created something unique with your nanosuit. 
I am here.  This isn’t a holograph. Take my hand.”

Ekaterina reached out
but there was no substance to the ghost in front of them.

“We don’t have time for
games, young man,” said Ekaterina and Yochana nodded in agreement.

Thomas laughed aloud. 
His expression changed briefly as he appeared to concentrate.  For a moment the
holographic image looked unstable, then a gleaming light rolled up and down his
body and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.  The women looked from
Thomas to each other and back again.  The new Thomas looked very real.

 “Now try it,” Thomas
said, offering his hand once again.  Against her better nature Yochana reached
out and felt a slight electrical buzz as they made contact.  This time Thomas’
skin felt warm to the touch and Yochana’s face blanched when she removed her
hand from the contact.  Ekaterina tried next and her eyebrows raised in a quick
involuntary movement.  She sucked in a gulp of air as she lifted her hand away
from Thomas’ outstretched hand.

“Relax. I am not in the
room with you.  I have just learned how to give the holograph some human
qualities:  light, heat and smell.  Some suit you have here, I’m floored by the
capabilities,” he smiled.  “I think it has a lot more possibilities that maybe even
you haven’t considered.”  He settled back into his virtual seat.

Yatsick took off the
headphones and looked from his place behind a canvas blind covered with carbon mesh
invisibility material.  As long as he didn’t move, the naked eye or night
vision goggles could not see him.  The complexity of the image before him had
him shaking his head.

“Come down here, Yatsick,”
said Thomas.  You can explain things when your superiors here don’t believe
me.”

Ekaterina’s phone
rang.  The ring tone was one she reserved for urgent messages.

“I have to get this,”
she said.  She put her phone to her ear, surprised that the call came from the
US, not Israel.

“Yes?”

“Thomas told me to call
this number.  Something about nanosuits. Listen I know this sounds crazy, but-”
The voice belonged to Jean Pierre.

“Who am I speaking to? 
How did you get this number?” Ekaterina demanded.

“I gave it to him,”
said Thomas evenly.

Ekaterina turned to
look at the holograph and heard the voice from her phone ask to speak to Thomas
so she put her phone back to her ear.

“I can hear Thomas.  He
put me up to this.  Put him on, please.” Jean Pierre asked in his most
persuasive voice.

“Thomas?” Ekaterina
asked.  For once she was unsure how she should react.  Thomas nodded in
confirmation.

“His name is Jean
Pierre and his lab at MIT specializes in the movement of inanimate objects in
space,” he said.  “Forgive me, Yatsick, but some of the aspects of this have us
in the dark here.  Jean Pierre can shed some theoretical light on the things we’re
going to try when we-”

Ekaterina was pressing
the red button on the phone but the connection remained stubbornly alive.

“It won’t shut off,”
she said, trying again.  She tried several times.

“I’ve disabled some
aspects of the operating system on your phone, and don’t even consider removing
the battery, there’s enough residual power for me to really screw it up for you.” 
Thomas said.

“I can’t talk with your
MIT colleague, this information requires clearance,” Ekaterina said, shaking
her head.

“Get him the
clearances.  We have a common purpose here.   We need to spring Kefira and
defeat Chou.  That means you and I must get this guy here, as fast as possible.”

“You’re exceeding your
authority, Thomas.  Even though I personally want Kefira freed I’m not sure I
have the say-so to involve your friend.”

“It’s not a
negotiation.  Get him on a priority military flight as soon as possible.  You
know what I can do if I choose to make things difficult for you.”

Ekaterina looked at
Yochana and they exchanged knowing glances.  After a moment or two Yochana
nodded and left the room.  Ekaterina turned her attention back to Thomas.

“Done,” she said
slowly.  “But let me hang up as soon as I’ve explained who to contact in the
embassy in Washington.”  All the while Jean Pierre’s muffled voice came out
through the hand Ekaterina was using to cover her phone.    She raised it to
her ear again.

“Jean Pierre.  This is
going to sound melodramatic, but your presence here could actually change the
future of the world.  I guess we have to trust you.   Contact this number at
the Israeli Embassy in Washington.”  Ekaterina reeled off a number from memory.

Jean Pierre mumbled
something as he found a scrap of paper and wrote it down.

“This is all a bit
farfetched and hard to believe.  If Thomas hadn’t appeared as a holograph in my
apartment I never would even consider-” Jean Pierre was interrupted by Thomas,
who could obviously sit in on the phone conversation as easily as if he was in
the room with them.

“Lanky.  Just do it. 
Get on that military flight as soon as possible. Now let us get back to our
problems here,” he said.

“I’ll do my best.  I
have to fix it with the guys at the office,” Jean Pierre replied thoughtfully. 
“Might not be easy.”

“You can manage it. 
This is important.”

At that moment Yochana
came back in the room and interrupted the conversation with her own urgent
communication.

“Tell him a helicopter
will collect him just across the river at Mass. General Hospital.  There’s a
helipad on the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  They’ll be waiting for
him.”

“Is it routed through
military channels?” asked Ekaterina.

“Yes it is. Someone
will pick him up at his office and wait until he’s ready.  To give him a sense
of the urgency involved, the Office of the President of the United States will
be in touch with him shortly.”  Yochana looked satisfied with her work.

“The President? 
Excellent.  We’re looking forward to meeting you, Jean Pierre,” Ekaterina said,
although her voice wasn’t convincing.

“Likewise, I guess.” 
He sounded equally unconvinced.

“Wait.  When you arrive
at the military airport, someone’ll give you a tablet with some reading on the
suits so maybe you can come up with something to boost the storage power of our
molecules,” said Yochana.

“Okay, it’ll give me
something to do on the flight.”

Yatsick had taken advantage of the
conversation with Jean Pierre to leave his ‘blind’ without turning off the
video and voice recording machines.  He was shocked to discover that Thomas
somehow controlled his movement.  He walked over to the two couches and took a
seat beside Thomas opposite Ekaterina and Yochana.  It wasn’t a voluntary
decision.  When he sat down, he realized he could no longer move.

“What have you done to
us?”  asked Ekaterina as she too discovered the temporary paralysis which was
impeding her movement.

A flesh and blood
Thomas appeared on the rooftop.  He stood near the espresso machine at the
kitchen facilities near the entrance to the sunroom. “Don’t mind if I indulge,
do you?”

The sound of coffee
grinding followed by the potent aroma which accompanied a fresh brew shocked the
Mossad agents, but they didn't move a muscle.  All three people sat staring at
Thomas as he took an appreciative sip.

“Surely you knew I
could become invisible and pass through your security systems while wearing the
suit?”

Ekaterina responded
first.  She was relieved to discover that she still had the power of speech.

“How did you manage to
go off the grid?”

“Yatsick was right
about that part,” said Thomas, having touched the Israeli technician’s mind to
get the gist of his recent conversations about him. “I reprogrammed the suit to
make it self-replicating.  No more dependence on your power source. Invisible,
even to you people.”

The three Mossad
operatives almost spoke at once, offering different takes on the same question.

“You mean it’s alive?”
Ekaterina asked in shock.

“How’d you know I said
that?”  Yatsick was no less surprised.

“You’re keeping us
prisoner,” interrupted Yochana.

“I still can’t move,”
Ekaterina complained, switching the topic.

“Me neither,” said
Yochana.

“Let go of us,”
insisted Ekaterina.

“I am sorry, but I need
to demonstrate my abilities.  I’ve simply cast a cloud of molecules around you
to pin you down.  Trust me, I won’t harm you, just limit your movement.”

“Do you know where
Kefira is?” asked Ekaterina.  She was determined to get the most out of this
encounter, and Kefira was on her mind right now.

“Yes,” Thomas replied. 
“I’ve visited her cell in an audio form by penetrating General Chou’s computer
system and travelling along the internet connection that keeps him in touch
with his home base.  The problem is that the man is smarter than I thought and
when he got wind of my infiltration he erected a complex barrier that I have as
yet been unable to break through.”

“But Kefira knows we’re
trying to help her?" asked Ekaterina.

"Kefira knows we’re
coming.  The when and the how of moving people, real flesh and blood and not
just holograms, efficiently over the Net eludes me.  For now.  That’s why we
need Jean Pierre.  So you see we require each other and I propose a spirit of
cooperation.  Mutually satisfactory, no?”

“How can we trust you
if you can control us like this anytime you want?”

“I’ll give a slightly
watered down version of the molecules in this suit to Yatsick.  He’s the only
person capable of using this suit now as I’ve manipulated it.”

Yatsick’s eyes lit up. 
His head moved up and down.  “I’d be able to restrain your control of us?”

“Hold on.  I’m not
stupid.  You would have control but I’m going to retain a backdoor entrance
into your suit in case you try to betray me.  I give you my word that I’ll do
that only as a last resort.”

Yatsick nodded.  It
seemed a good deal.  The best he’d get, anyway.

Thomas relaxed.  He
removed the restraining nanocloud from around the three Mossad agents.  They
all flexed their hands and twisted their necks.  Thomas reached towards Yatsick
and handed him a familiar contrivance to wear around his wrist.

“I’m sure you already
know how to use this,” Thomas said with an amused expression.

"What?" 
Yatsick tried to look surprised.

“Don’t play with me. 
Remember, I can see your past thoughts and there’s a clear record of the
clandestine use of Kefira’s suit by you.  It’s all recorded in your head.”

Ekaterina looked at
Yatsick, who dodged her glare and continued.

“I couldn’t resist, but
I never left the lab.”

Ekaterina shook her
head.  “I suppose it was to be expected.  It doesn’t matter.  Now, tell me if
you can control him with the suit on?”

The brilliant young
technician looked grateful for being able to move and he turned the knob near
his hand.  A grayish cloud emerged and surrounded his body.  When the mist had
covered him completely, he could see the purple hue of Thomas’s suit and was
aware of Thomas’ peripheral thoughts.  Deeper probing was impossible.

“I can’t control him
but I think I can keep tabs on him,” Yatsick said.

“Fair enough,” said
Ekaterina.  She looked happier.  “Now, at the risk of sounding trite, we need a
plan to defeat General Chou and get my baby back before Chou swallows up the
whole world.”

In the part of his
brain that Yatsick couldn’t access, Thomas mulled over Ekaterina’s statement. 
Our
priorities differ but the ends are the same.  I’ll have to be careful to cover
my thoughts.  It’s Kefira that’s first on my list, not Chou.  Together we’ll
have more chance of using the suit to defeat him and my efforts won’t be
distracted by worrying about her safety.  Odd, though, for a mother not to
think first of her daughter. 

Thomas acknowledged her
statement.  With a sudden wave he materialized a box on the table amongst
them.  Ekaterina recognized the box and its arrival startled her. If she needed
a further demonstration of Thomas’ capabilities this was certainly it. It
showed her just how much Thomas was privy to in her world. She picked it up.