Luca (41 page)

“Name’s Jedd, in case you forgot. From the Fringe. Former employee of Genesis Corporation. A good job while it lasted. And this is my best friend, Ricky. We hitched a ride with you, remember?”

“My security forces will arrive any minute.” Mercer coughs. “You and your friends are going to die.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it’s a tough day for you, Mercer. A pulse bullet is waiting for permission from my trigger finger to shatter your jaw and make a mess of your frontal cortex, not to mention the top of your skull. Just stay nice and quiet, and nobody gets hurt."

Qaara runs past them with the girl behind her. She pulls out her jax. A hologram of schematics pops up. She studies the holo. “Where’s the Mesh-node?”

“Which one?” Mercer asks.

“Outbound.”

“Why do you need it?” Mercer hears approaching footsteps.
Just a few more seconds and the security team will arrive. Keep them talking.
"You don’t have the access code. Besides, Qaara, there’s nothing you can do to stop the process. You know that. There’s nothing any of us can do.”

“He’s stalling.” Jedd jabs the tip of the pulse rifle under Mercer’s chin.

“Found it.” Qaara drops the jax into her pocket and runs to an oak counter at the entrance to Mercer’s sleeping quarters. "Bring him here.”

Jedd drags Mercer to where Qaara stands.

Qaara lifts up the counter, revealing a silver number pad and a small bluescreen. She quickly enters a series of numbers.

The words
Access Denied
appear on the bluescreen.

“What’s the access code?” Qaara balances the memory cube in her palm.

“I see.” Mercer laughs. “You expect me to tell you the code so that you can upload the contents of the cube to the entire Mesh. Or what's left of it.” He shakes his head. “Don’t you understand? That would spoil all the fun."

Qaara bends down to the level of the girl. “Luca. Can you extract it?”

The girl nods and closes her eyes.

There’s a rush of heavy feet on the floor behind them. Men with black armor, helmets and pulse rifles plunge through the smoke at the entrance.

The girl walks from the side of Qaara to the number pad and calmly presses a series of ten numbers. The metal covering pulls away, revealing a semitransparent oval. It’s glowing a light green.

Mercer opens his eyes wide as his body stiffens. “How did you—” He glares at the girl.

Qaara drops the memory cube into a slot next to the oval. “Done.” She nods to Jedd.

The last thing Mercer remembers is the crunch of something hard coming down on his head.

67

REVOLUTION

There’s so many of them. What should I do?

Qaara hears Luca’s words in her mind and thinks a reply:
make them fall asleep, one by one, just like the guards outside.

Got it
, Luca says
.

Eyes on the soldiers, Jedd pulls up Mercer’s limp body with one arm. Qaara presses the tip of her gun into the back of Mercer’s head. After Jedd gives him the sign, Ricky does the same. Luca moves behind Qaara.

Ten men in battle armor stand in Mercer’s front room with fingers curled on the triggers of their pulse rifles.

Jedd clears his throat. “I’d hate to see Mr. Mercer die. Nobody move until we get this figured out.”

Stepping to the side of Jedd, Qaara ignores him and keeps the tip of her rifle pointing at Mercer’s head. She looks at the soldiers.

“Gentlemen, I think we can all agree on one thing. Mr. Mercer isn’t going to like being dead. On the other hand,” Qaara nods to Jedd and Ricky on each side, "none of us really care. We’ve done what we came to do. I just released the details of this whole project onto the Mesh.”

One of the soldiers steps forward from the line. “We have strict orders. Protect Mr. Mercer. Kill all intruders.”

“Then you better decide which is more important.” Qaara presses the tip of her rifle deeper into Mercer’s temple. He twitches. "You can’t have both.”

The soldier lets the point of his gun drift to the floor. “You’re outnumbered. And your pulse rifles can’t penetrate our armor."

Words from Luca float in Qaara’s mind.

They’re all scared.

“Let me give you some food for thought.” Qaara turns to face the men. “You’re here to protect Mercer. And in case you haven’t noticed, he doesn’t put a high value on any human life other than his own. If he dies, you’ve failed. You know what a kill switch is, right? I’m guessing he implanted one in each of you. When he dies, so do you.”

“You’re bluffing,” the soldier says.

He thinks you might be right. All of them do.

“Then shoot.”

The soldier swallows. “We don’t want to hurt you. Just drop your weap—”

He collapses into a heap, visor bouncing off the floor.

Qaara smiles. “Who wants to be next?”

The soldiers glance at their fallen comrade and each other.

Another drops to the floor. His pulse rifle goes off, blowing a hole in the ceiling.

“What’s going on?” a soldier asks.

All the rest, Luca,
if you can,
Qaara thinks.

“I warned you.” Qaara scans the row of standing soldiers. “Good night.”

One by one, the soldiers go down. The last one runs for the door and crumples near the entrance.

“Good work, Luca.” Qaara steps forward. “OK, everyone. Let’s go."

“What about Mercer?” Jedd says.

Qaara walks to the door, pulling Luca with her. “Leave him.”

“You’re not going to kill him? Like the soldiers?”

“They’re asleep, thanks to Luca. I’m not killing anyone, and neither are you. Leave Mercer. Come on.”

Jedd drops Mercer hard on the floor, making sure the back of his head makes contact with a satisfying
thud
. “Where are we going to hide?”

“We’re not.”

“Then what
are
we going to do?”

“Start a revolution.” Qaara turns to Ricky. “Help me hack into the intercom system. I’m calling a meeting.”

“With pleasure.”

68

STATE OF EMERGENCY

“How did they all get away?” Mercer sits on the black leather sofa, stroking the back of his head, his hair matted with blood. “They were here. You were here. What happened?"

One of the soldiers steps forward. “We all heard the same words in our head.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was a girl’s voice.” The soldier stares at the floor. “I know it sounds crazy, but she came into our minds. Said
good night
. And then we fell to the floor. Everything went black.”

Mercer thinks of the girl at Qaara’s side. The same one who entered the code on the lock to his Mesh-node, even though he was the sole person in the world who knew it, had never written it down and had changed it only a few hours earlier.

How was she able to extract it from his mind?

Impossible.

The soldiers shift their feet, hands at their sides.

“Why didn’t you kill them on sight?” Mercer bites into a lemon and chews.

“They were holding you hostage.” The soldier takes a step back into line. “One of them had a gun to your head. They said they'd kill you if we tried to get a shot off.”

“That’s exactly the kind of situation I hired you to handle. You’re supposed to have
training
.”

“That’s when we started dropping to the ground, one by one.” The soldier stutters. “We didn’t know what was happening.”

In the hallway, a crowd of people shuffle by.

“Where are they going?” Mercer says.

“To the auditorium.” Another soldier steps forward. “For a meeting.”

“A meeting?” Mercer stands, hand on the sofa for balance. “I didn’t call a meeting.”

“You didn’t.
She
did.”

“Qaara?”

“Yes.” The soldier’s voice drops to a whisper. “She's been on the intercom. Said that you were incapacitated and she was taking over. Word has gotten out to most of the world about these domes and what’s going to happen. People are on their way here.”

Mercer feels the blood drain from his face. “No!”

“She’s called a state of emergency. Thrown the domes open to anyone who can get here before the end comes. Hundreds of transport ships are on their way. Maybe more. Anything that wasn’t destroyed by the ion storms.”

Mercer breathes deeply. “She’s destroying all that I’ve worked to build.”

“People are taking refuge in deep mines, concrete enclosures, submarines, old fallout shelters, high-rise buildings, mountaintops. Anywhere they can get away from the spheres that make the killer molecule.”

“Killer molecule?” Mercer shakes his head. “So everyone knows about that, too?”

The soldier points at the bluescreen on the wall. “It’s on the Mesh, or what’s left of it.” Images from around the world are arranged in a grid.

“So it’s a full-scale rebellion?”

“Looks that way.”

“Then we have no choice.” Mercer stands. “I’ve prepared for every contingency, including this one. How many of the security forces are loyal?”

“About a quarter.”

“That’s enough.”

69

RISING STEAM

Qaara checks her jax. “Yes, I’m sure about this. No doubts. We have to let them in.”

“All of them?” Jedd says.

“All of them.”

“But what about food? Water? Sanitation?” Jedd eyes the swelling crowd. “We’re going to run out of room and resources.”

“I’ve seen the schematics of the domes. Mercer built them to comfortably house 3,000 people for months or years. Most of them have a room to themselves. If we fill in all the empty spaces, apartments, hallways, everything, we can fit 200,000. Maybe more." Qaara pushes through the chaotic sea of bodies in the auditorium to a stage set up against the wall, never letting go of Luca’s hand. “I’m not going to lock anyone out. The doors are open for anyone who can make it here.”

A wave of confidence swells in Qaara. She’s never been more sure of anything.

“Keep the bluescreens with the outside feeds going as long as you can.” Qaara looks in the direction of Ricky. “I want everyone here to see and understand what the world is facing. No more secrets.”

Ricky follows, working on a slate. “Doing my best to access any cams still connected to the Mesh. I’ll keep the video going until we lose the last one.”

“Where will the destruction begin?” Jedd says.

“The ash started falling on the East Coast.” Qaara gazes at the thousands of people milling around. “That’s where the acid will probably hit first.”

“The City?” Ricky points at the bluescreen, showing a shot of the Genesis Building close to the Wall.

“Afraid so.” Qaara mounts the steps to the stage. The others follow her.

“What about Moses and his army?” Jedd says.

Qaara scans the bluescreen. “Look for yourself. The streets are empty. The globules are as big as basketballs. Sidewalks and buildings are covered. We gave Moses fair warning. They know what’s coming. My guess is they’re doing their best to get away, to hide, to do whatever they can. Like everyone else.”

How can we help them? Lots of people won’t make it here.

Luca’s voice plays in Qaara’s mind. The girl’s concern is evident in her eyes. Bending low, Qaara brings Luca's face closer to hers. “I wish we could save them all, but there’s a limit to what we can do. We’ll help as many as we can."

If only the Cloud knew what it was doing. If only I could find a way to tell it to stop.

“I think it
does
know.” Qaara feels a small wave of anger rising. “And it doesn’t care.”

Luca furrows her brow and looks away.

They look out on a sea of heads.

“Look,” Jedd points at the bluescreen. “The Wall.”

The globule spheres are stuck to its surface in neat rows, now much larger than when Qaara last saw them a few hours ago.

Qaara recalls night after night pouring over data, looking at the killer molecule from every possible angle. Taking it apart and putting it back together in innumerable computer simulations, all to better know how to stop it. Along the way, she studied its ability to dissolve anything, especially organic matter.

She still remembers when she found out its secret.

Carbon atoms stick to just about anything, including other carbon atoms, forming long chains that are the backbone of massive molecules and polymers. They can mold oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen into the complex shapes that are the basis of all life. Proteins. Nucleic acids. Carbohydrates. Lipids.

The killer molecule severs the carbon links. The glue holding organic molecules together disappears.

Simple, elegant and deadly.

But her understanding of the process is useless. There’s nothing she can do, no way to stop the inevitable.

She peers at the image of the Wall on the bluescreen. Made of Graff, it’s nothing more than layer upon layer of pure carbon. Like sugar for the killer molecule.

How much longer can it last?

As if in answer, the spheres on the Wall’s surface burst in unison. Green liquid covers its surface. For an instant, it’s as if the Wall, the symbol of her life, cries out for help.

A hush falls over the crowd staring at the bluescreen as the Wall bulges outward.

And liquefies.

In an instant, it’s
gone
. A smooth block of seawater a hundred meters high pushes into the City, engulfing the first row of towers that now, more than ever, remind Qaara of tombstones. Breaking into a maelstrom of green foam, the water explodes through the streets.

As similar walls of Graff disintegrate across the planet, the same scene plays out in city after city.

The rich and affluent on the coasts are the first to feel the wrath of the Cloud.

Inside the dome, the crowd is silent except for scattered moans and cries.

Ricky taps Qaara on the shoulder.

“Looks like the first wave of guests just arrived.” Ricky looks down at his slate. “I’ll divert the visual to the outside.”

An insectoid shape with eight rotors touches down in the middle of the ring of domes. Oval balls the size of cabbage heads litter the ground in long rows, but none stick to the domes. Side hatches open, and masses of people rush from the transport to an open door, forming a neat line as they file inside the dome facility.