Thirst No. 3 (38 page)

“I’m still not sure the two are related. The links between the Hydra and the Array are weak.”

“My gut tells me they are connected. In either case, we need to look into Ms. Brutran’s history, and the backgrounds of those close to her. When IIC was originally incorporated, it listed five board members. Brutran’s husband was one of them.”

“When you were in LA, you didn’t follow him. Why?”

“Lisa said the woman ran the company. Besides, I never saw him.”

“You said she had a child in the house?”

“Yes. A daughter.”

“How old?”

“Four or five. Why?” I ask.

“I was wondering what it would be like for a kid to grow up with such a creepy mother.”

“When I first snuck in Brutran’s house and ran into the kid, something about her creeped me out.”

“Interesting.”

“Who is the greater threat? The Telar or IIC?”

Seymour considers. “On the surface, you’d have to say the Telar. They’re old, strong, deeply entrenched in society. But Haru confessed to you he threw hundreds of Telar soldiers at Brutran’s house and none came back.”

“A few came back as zombies.”

“Lovely. My point is that the IIC seems to be gaining strength, while the Telar are stuck in a rut. If the IIC have accumulated trillions in assets, they could for all practical purposes buy governments.”

“What about weapons of mass destruction?” I ask.

“I’ve quizzed Matt about that. He says the Telar have nuclear bombs and the means to deliver them. It might be how they’ll wipe out humanity.”

“But you don’t think so,” I say.

“Nuclear bombs are messy, with all the radiation and fallout they leave behind. The Telar still have to live here. I thought
it was important that Haru bragged about how they started the plague. If I was them and I wanted to reduce the population below a hundred million, I’d develop a supervirus and then vaccinate my people against it. Then I’d release the virus at airports and in planes traveling to all parts of the globe.”

“How hard would it be to create such a virus?” I ask.

“I bet our scientists have already done it. Take Ebola. If the smart guys and girls in white coats just tweaked it a little, so you could catch it through the air, then it could easily kill almost everyone on earth.”

“You scare me. You weren’t alive when the plague swept through Europe. I saw what it did to whole towns. One person would catch it, and you’d go back three or four days later and the corpses would be piled up in the streets. All black and swollen. In a week the village would be dead.”

“I’m glad I missed that. A normal virus is difficult enough to stop from spreading. But if the Telar engineer a supervirus and release it in a few dozen major cities, then it would be virtually impossible to stop.”

“You’re making a stronger case that the Telar are more dangerous.”

“Why is it important to decide which one is worse?”

I don’t answer. There’s no need—he will know in a moment.

Seymour pales. “You’re thinking of joining one side. You’re thinking of helping the IIC.”

“It seems the logical thing to do.”

“Sure, it’s logical. To a sociopath.”

“I know Brutran and her people are evil. But look at us, look at what we’re doing. Nothing! We’re hiding away in the middle of nowhere, praying neither of them finds us. Since Matt and I escaped from the Telar, Haru will be anxious to accelerate his plans. The only reason he told me what he did was because he thought I wasn’t going to leave that hotel alive. But now he’s got to be scared I’m going to run straight to the IIC.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

“It’s true sometimes,” I say.

“It’s bullshit. Hiding and doing nothing might be the smart move. Let them fight it out. They might end up destroying each other.”

“I’d agree if we didn’t have to worry about superviruses.”

We fall into a tense silence just as the sun sinks below the horizon. Normally I find the rise and setting of the sun a peaceful time. Not now. Goldsmith reminds me of Arosa. Its peace is illusionary.

“We’re ignoring the biggest question of them all,” Seymour says.

“Paula and John.”

“Did you try to reach her?”

“Sure. They’ve left Santorini.”

“That’s probably good.”

“Paula didn’t leave a forwarding number.”

“That just means she’ll contact you when she feels it’s safe. I trust her intuition. You should too.”

“It means she doesn’t trust me.”

“Sita. She has to protect John.”

“Have you studied Cosmic Intuitive Illusion more closely?”

“I’ve played it a lot. It has a strong underground following. You can download it for free, which is strange. The game’s high quality. It could easily sell for fifty bucks.”

“What’s the name of the company that puts it out?”

“Ascension.”

“Sounds New Age. Tell me why John’s obsessed with it?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure. I told you the game starts on earth. You have to battle your way to a departing spacecraft. That’s hard to reach. I haven’t gotten that far. After that, you’re supposed to fight your way through higher and higher worlds until you reach the galactic core.”

“Why would it appeal to John?”

“The game’s unusual in lots of ways. First off, it has nothing to do with how good your mind-body coordination is. It’s not a shooting contest. To succeed at the game, you have to walk a moralistic tightrope where you make wise and compassionate decisions. In each situation you encounter, you have to decide whether to follow your head or your heart. For example, your character might get married and have a child. But three years later you meet someone else and you fall in love. Then you’re forced to decide: Do I do the noble thing and stay with
my wife and make sure my kid has a father? Or do I run away with my true love?”

“This is a computer game for teenagers?”

“I never said it was for teens. I just said John plays it all the time.”

“I assume you’d advance faster if you sacrificed for your family.”

“Sometimes that’s true. But in other cases, depending on the previous decisions you’ve made, that can be a bad choice. Being with the wrong partner can ruin your life. You see, on one hand it’s a game about making real-life decisions. But there are aliens and angels and demons in it too. They can help you or hurt you depending on how you relate to them. But here the game really fools with your head. Unless your character grows to a certain level, he’s not even aware that angels and demons are whispering in his mind. The less awareness you have, the greater the chance is that you’ll die before you reach the mothership.”

“The mothership?”

“That’s what takes you to the galactic core.”

“It sounds incredibly complex.”

“It’s staggering. It must have cost a fortune to develop.”

“Any sign Ascension is connected to IIC?”

“Just the coincidence with the game initials.” Seymour shakes his head in admiration. “You have to hand it to John. When I was at his house, I had no idea how skilled he was at
weaving his way through such a maze. If he isn’t a divine incarnation, he at least has a high IQ.”

The explanation leaves me feeling dissatisfied. I dislike searching for profound portents in everyday events. Maybe John is like any other kid who likes to waste time on computer games, and he plays Cosmic Intuitive Illusion because he likes it. End of story.

“I wonder why Haru is anxious to find him,” I say.

“That’s the biggest question of them all.”

“Is it? I don’t know.”

“He swore he’d let you go if you’d tell him where they were.”

“He was lying. He was never going to let me go.”

“It still shows how desperate he is to find the kid.”

“What are you getting at?” I ask.

“You can’t understand your enemy without putting yourself in their shoes. What are they thinking? What do they want? We know the answer to the second question. Haru wants John.”

As is so often the case with Seymour, he stimulates a fresh set of ideas inside me. He forces me to speculate. “Haru was bitter that Krishna gave Yaksha information that could help destroy the Telar. At the same time, he seemed impressed with Krishna’s knowledge.”

“Haru might be worried John is another Krishna,” Seymour says.

“As you’re fond of saying, that’s a big leap.”

“I disagree. The Telar are not atheists. The first one you killed, he died praying to the Goddess Isis. Numbria worshipped Isis too. Some of them believe in the supernatural. Look at their interest in Suzama. I think Haru gave you a big hint to his motivation when he brought her up.”

“Explain,” I say.

“Could they be lost? Could they be seeking guidance?”

“Seymour! They’re preparing to wipe out humanity. They’re as far from humbly seeking the truth as Hitler was when he invaded Poland.”

Seymour is thoughtful. “It makes me wonder.”

“What?”

“How it would feel to live so long.”

“Ask me. I have lived that long.”

“You’re different. You’re a vampire. No offense, Sita, but the Telar are more like human beings than vampires. I wonder what it’s done to them to live all these years. And to know that they might live thousands of more years.”

I think he’s mistaken. I have far more humanity than Haru. Still, his words, his insights, have a powerful effect on me. “What do you mean?”

He flashes a sad smile. “The price of immortality might be higher than we know.”

I hear a noise behind us. To my sensitive ears, everyone has their own unique gait, their own special way of breathing. I know it’s Shanti running up the dirt path that leads from the
back of our house. Seymour and I stand as she bursts into view. The flesh on her reconstructed face is rich with blood. Her eyes shine with fear, and her voice cracks.

“Matt says they’re coming!”

“Who?” Seymour demands.

“The Telar.”

“How many?” I ask.

“Too many!” Shanti cries.

Matt insists Seymour take Shanti and Teri and hide in the mine, in a place Matt prepared. Seymour has spent the last few days learning to fire an M16 rifle and feels babysitting—his word—is too cowardly a role for him to play.

“You won’t feel that way if you take a bullet in the gut,” Matt says, helping Teri into a bulletproof vest. I do likewise with Shanti. “Besides, it won’t be long before Sita and I are forced to follow you guys.”

“Seymour will probably shoot you guys on your way in,” Teri says. She sounds more alive than in a long time. She’s scared, but I think the idea of battle has stirred her naturally competitive spirit.

Seymour is unhappy. “Let me at least guard that sniper hole you dug into the ridge. The one that looks down on the road.”

“That’s Sita’s spot,” Matt says. He snaps grenades onto his belt. These are not ordinary shrapnel balls. They have Telar explosives inside that make them especially deadly. Because they’re perfect spheres and are able detonate every milligram of their explosive at the same instant, they can send out a shock wave equal to a case of dynamite. Most humans would not be able to throw one far enough away to avoid getting killed.

We have a mix of Telar and conventional weapons. Unfortunately, we have only four laser rifles. Matt insists that we hold on to them. That’s just common sense. He knows he and I are going to do the real damage. That’s why Seymour, Teri, and Shanti are all heading to the mine with M16s.

But I’m not knocking human weapons. I’m looking forward to turning the Gatling gun that Claudious used on me on his associates. I spent a small fortune having it shipped from Truman to Goldsmith.

“I was just teasing you,” Teri tells Seymour. “I’d feel a lot better with you guarding us,”

“Me too,” Shanti says.

Seymour isn’t suckered in by a few kind words from pretty girls, but he knows when to accept his fate. He speaks to Matt. “What’s the source of your info on this attack? Hiking back to the house, I didn’t see a soul.”

“A dozen vans and trucks just rolled into Goldsmith,” Matt explains. “I’ve got people there—men I’ve bought—who
called and confirmed the visitors are asking about us. The caravan will be here in ten minutes.”

“I’m surprised they didn’t swoop in with helicopters and bomb us back to the Stone Age,” Seymour says.

“They want to take us alive,” Matt says. “But believe me when I say you don’t want to be taken prisoner.”

Seymour tells the girls that he agrees with Matt. Of course, he knows about the Pulse. Teri and Shanti don’t. They have no idea how preferable death is to sitting with that device.

“If heavy shooting starts, won’t the police be alerted?” Seymour asks.

“The Telar have already taken care of the police,” Matt says.

“How?” Teri asks.

“Bribes. Big ones,” Matt says.

“We should have opted for a heavily populated area,” Seymour says.

Matt shakes his head. “That wouldn’t have stopped the Telar. More people would just have died.”

“At least tell us we stand a chance,” Seymour complains.

Matt pats him on the back. “Actually, I think we’re going to kick butt. A small team dug in deep with plenty of ammo can hold off a platoon. I’ve spent years arming this house. I’ve mined the entire area. But if we have to escape, I’ve got a helicopter hidden on the far side of the mine. So we have options.”

Seymour seems satisfied with Matt’s answers and prepares
to leave. But at the last second Shanti corners me. “I need to stay with you,” she says.

“The Telar are attacking, not the IIC,” I say.

“The IIC knew when you were with Numbria.”

“That might have been a coincidence. Besides, you heard Matt, we’re going to make a brief stand, then fall back. I’ll see you soon enough.”

Shanti hugs me. “Whatever happens, I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Jesus, Shanti. I’ve put you in terrible danger.”

“You’ve kept me alive. You’ve fixed me.”

I squeeze her tight. “Don’t let them get their hands on you.”

She hears the edge in my voice. “I understand.”

Seymour hurries off with Teri and Shanti. Matt and I continue to load our weapons while he explains the pattern to the mines he’s laid out.