Sirius Academy (Jezebel's Ladder) (26 page)

When the room cleared, with
everyone scrambling to implement a last-minute party from which to steal
brainpower, Red turned to Zeiss. “I need you to tell me the truth. Did you ever
implement your quantum-cryptography scheme?”

He furrowed his brow. “No, I’m a
theorist, not an implementer. A prototype would be grossly expensive—billions.
Why?”

Red sighed. “Someone else built it.
Remember the digital photo code you couldn’t crack? I couldn’t crack it either,
you twisted bastard. It uses the quantum algorithms from your paper.”

His face went pale. “That’s why
you’ve been following me on the cameras and tracing every online action I
made.”

“You knew?”

“I’m a professional, Red. With all
your high-priced help, you still don’t get that.” Zeiss turned to Daniel. “You
investigated me?”

His boss shook his head. “She’s the
one with trust issues. I told her no way. But you do keep running into the
black hats,” admitted Daniel. “Trina agreed that sooner or later you’d trip
over them, and the team would be ready to swoop in and catch the whole lot of
them this time.”

“How do you like it when people
make decisions for
you
?” sneered Red.

Looking into her eyes, Zeiss said, “I’m
sorry. I couldn’t leave Daniel’s room or Trina would’ve shot me. I was afraid
you’d fight me if I asked you to stay safe. I couldn’t risk your life.”

Trina snickered. “I might have, but
she definitely would have.”

Red clenched her fist. “Rrr. If you
weren’t so damn useful . . .”

“And right,” Daniel added.

“Not helping,” Trina sang.

“I’m also sorry about Green,” Zeiss
said softly. “I should’ve sent someone with him. I just thought he’d be safe alone
and knew you’d want everyone possible in the room to power your experiment.”

Red reluctantly admitted, “He had
it for Mori bad. It would’ve been worse if Green had waited longer. It’s not
like you told that skank Kaguya to poach my people.”

Trina and Zeiss locked eyes while Daniel
scoffed, “Of course not. So Conrad is back?”

“Yeah. I’ll find a suitable
punishment later,” Red promised.

“Why is this so secret?” Zeiss
asked.

“The flow models we developed work,
but only if people aren’t aware of them,” Red explained. “When people watch and
piggyback to make money, it becomes an ever-widening spiral that’s harder to
move—kind of like successful retirement funds.”

Daniel snorted. “It’s more like
we’re trying to fight forest fires by controlling the weather. Too many people
pushing the wind button fans the flames, but too much water also destroys the
very thing you’re trying to save.”

Red went on to describe her earlier
failures.

Zeiss nodded. “I think I can help.
Your problem is two-fold. First, you’re looking for a silver bullet. We won’t
find one of those tonight. We just need drag to slow it down. How did your
Parallel Programming instructor describe his class?”

Red raised an eyebrow as everyone
stared at her. “When you can’t find a Tyrannosaurus to plow your field, use a
thousand bunny rabbits instead?”

Daniel smiled. “She does listen.”

“How does that help? Oh,” Red said,
blinking. “We need lots of smaller, quiet engines, just like the island has. Okay.
How?”

Zeiss shrugged. “Not my area. Ask
the team in words instead of stealing their horsepower and driving it yourself.
All of us are smarter than any one of us.”

Reluctantly, Red asked the others
for advice on how to slow Africa’s economic descent. She got several
interesting answers. Trina took notes for the session.

“Schedule the world football
championships there this year. That was a huge boon to South Africa,” said Auckland.

“Find out what they grow there that
the bugs didn’t eat,” suggested Yvette.

Sojiro read lists off the web:
“Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, spices, salt-resistant barley for animal feed,
Egyptian cotton . . .”

Zeiss said, “We find a way to
protect the farmers that have edible food. Start a co-op that pre-buys their
petrol for harvest. Force the futures prices on the rest to increase.”

“You want me to corner the market
on pumpkins?” Red asked.

“Maybe vanilla,” Yvette offered.
“It would hit those soft drink companies where it hurts.”

“Tourism,” Park prompted. “Safaris,
the Canary Islands, Apes, Oprah’s Village, the Mandela Center, . . .”

“Good. We need to draw in more
people and get positive publicity,” Zeiss encouraged.

“I have a friend with a movie
company,” Daniel said cautiously. “She likes elephants.”

Trina nodded. “The UN space
coalition has a lot of grants available for more foods we can grow in space.
The Canary Islands imports most of its food. Maybe we could start some shrimp
farms and desert olive plantations on the mainland nearby.”

Red paced. “And get the architect
who designed this island to build a fancy center of some kind. They did the
City of the Arts in Spain, right?”

“That’s big money,” warned Risa.
“You’d need a big-name sponsor or park to invest while they get the farms up
and running.”

“That place looks like Tatooine,”
Sojiro noted. “Maybe George Lucas would build a Stars Wars park there.”

Daniel winced. “Far-fetched, but
maybe the rumors would be enough. I’ll give Red access to our press outlets.
Someone who can spell will need to write them for her.”

Trina waved her hand. “I’ll correct
if someone else provides the copy.”

Ideas flew for the next hour.

“Tanzanite,” shouted Risa as Trina
filled the last page on her paper notepad.

Trina looked down and sighed. “I
think we have enough to get started.”

Red looked at the time. “It has to
be.”

They worked through the night.
Zeiss made Red rest more often than she wanted, but every time she slid into
quantum mode, it felt better than ever. She had to crack the computer systems
of several foreign governments and charities to build the mechanism she
envisioned. It took seven dives to construct. The first time she tried to use the
new economic-correction interface, the controls slipped and she fell from the
podium. Zeiss broke the trance to catch her. “Even if I trip the alarms, let me
finish,” she demanded.

On the final dive, she went so deep
she didn’t blink anymore. She put her fingertips on the side of the globe
interface like they were the hands of God. At the proper moment, all she had to
do was twist, and rain watered the parched financial ground. Then she channeled
the runoff back to most of the original containers by different paths. “Money
is neither created nor destroyed, but the flow generates power.”

Markets still dropped an average of
11 percent that week, but the worst-case scenario had been averted.

As Zeiss and Herk carried her to
bed, Red confessed, “Next time, we won’t be able to stop the spiral. We need what’s
on the artifact to form a new economy in time.”

“Red’s birthday’s in May,” Risa whispered when the girl left
the room during their weekly supper. “I wanna surprise her with a party between
semesters. She’s been pushing hard all year and needs a break.”

“What theme?” asked Sojiro.

“The place she was the happiest,
the sky’s the limit,” encouraged Auckland.

“She said Castaway Cay was the last
time she spent with both her mothers,” replied her roommate.

“I’ll find a suitable spot in this
hemisphere,” volunteered Zeiss.

“Red was raised by lesbians?” Toby
burst out. “That is so hot!”

The child in question returned to
the room and complained, “Why does every guy say that?” Suspicious, she asked,
“What’s everybody huddled up for?”

“Party plans,” said Sojiro,
brain-farting.

“For his manga release,” improvised
Zeiss.

“We can all come as our
characters!” cooed Red.

“I’m not wearing that skimpy
barbarian getup,” insisted Herk.

“Yes, you are,” said Risa and
Sojiro at the same time.

“You have to, for the party,”
ribbed Toby.

Herk complained, “You just have to
dress like Crocodile Dundee.”

“G’day,” said Toby.

“You do
not
get to do that
accent,” insisted Auckland. “What do I wear?”

“Rugby jersey and a headband,” said
Toby. “Don’t you read?”

“Not for pleasure,” admitted Auckland.

“What does the mysterious shadow
wear?” asked the TA. “He keeps rescuing the main characters but we never get a
good look at him.”

Red mused about this question.
“We’ve only seen close-ups of his utility belt and sunglasses.”

“Plus the fedora,” added Sojiro.

“What’s the big deal about
costumes?” demanded Auckland. Sojiro flipped open to one of Trina’s action
pages and the man coughed up his drink. “They let you print this stuff?”

“They pay him well for that stuff,”
Red countered.

The doctor couldn’t take his eyes
off the drawing. “Whoa. For someone who doesn’t play for the het team, you sure
know what to draw.”

“I draw what I see,” said the
artist.

“Her legs and hair are dead-on,”
admitted Zeiss. “Almost photographic.”

“So’s the stance,” admired Red.

Auckland asked, “Could I take one
of these home with me?”

“Ew . . . she’s old enough to be
your mother,” said Risa.

“The riding crop subtracts ten
years,” offered Herk.

****

Zeiss found an underbooked resort
on the Tonga archipelago. He made sure it had the same white sand and warm,
blue-green water as the Caribbean. To schedule the event, he had to reserve
half the pool area. For security, he paid for an entire block of ten rooms.

He showed Daniel the hotel flier
advertising spa facilities and excursions. “I checked the whale watchers’
websites, and there should be pods on each side of the island that weekend.”

His boss nodded. “If I take some
meds and don’t exert myself Out of Body like the last time, I should be able to
socialize for six or seven hours. Trina and I could even get a room and enjoy a
mini vacation, as long as I’m back to the island by 2200 Hong Kong time.”

“Do you want two adjoining rooms or
one isolated one?”

“Isolated. But dude, there’s no
way, I’m letting you do this on your dime. I’m paying.”

“I’m the adviser.”

“That means you advise, not pay. I
want you to invite a few more people, friends. These kids need to blow off some
steam. Do the food up right, like a pig roast on the beach. I have the phone number
of a DJ from a singles resort in the Bahamas that can coordinate the co-ed
games.”

“Um, the boy-girl ratio is a little
off in our subculture.”

“That’s geek-speak for
sausage-fest, right? Your sister is a model. Invite some. I’ll let you use the
corporate jet.”

“Wow. You don’t mess around.”

“We only get to be a family on the semester
breaks.”

****

Red invited the pilots, who invited
other mils. Each person on the team invited another few guests. There were so
many people that Zeiss created a website for signing up. A few folks invited
relatives and significant others from off the island, so they had to make the
site externally visible. Sojiro did the design for “The Tonga Release Party”
and convinced his publisher to pay for the site as advertisement. Zeiss’s
sister Claire and friend Vanessa jumped at the chance to visit with rich, hero
astronauts. Unfortunately, Claire used her underwear catalog photo as her
avatar. The hour after she posted her reply, every single male in the program
signed up for the event.

For the next week, Zeiss was
greeted as a hero whenever he walked into a class. The only two exceptions were
in his data-security class. A student he was bringing disciplinary action
against complained, “Z-man, you nail me for visiting a porn site and you post
that hoochie?”

“Let’s get a few things straight,
Mr. Dolan. One: you visited a virus-ridden, X-rated, Asian site on a school
computer, exposing us to 137 different incursions that took me hours to clean.
Two: the actual ticket was for attempting to download a term paper, for which
you will get your day in honor court. Three: that beautiful girl is my sister.
If you find the post offensive, you may file a formal complaint and block
participation by her and her friends.”

He was shouted down by overwhelming
vote of the class. Several men threatened to beat Dolan senseless if he had the
picture removed. If the planeload of models didn’t show, they’d go trolling
with him in the shark cage.

Afterward, Dolan talked with a
friend in nanotech class. “I’ll bet he visits every one of those sites from his
bedroom computer. That’s why he won’t let anyone in. If only we could get a
camera in there before my honor court hearing, I’d have him by the shorthairs.”

“You have to turn in that term paper
still, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We can fit a mini, audio-visual bot
into the angle of those big binder clips. He always carries the papers into his
room to record the grades. He’s so paranoid he won’t log in to the teachers’
website from his office for fear someone will see the password. I know, I’ve
watched.”

“Do it. The microphone can
broadcast to the router when it hears something. How do we focus on his
computer screen?”

“I can put little millipede legs on
the camera like we did in nano class or use an extending flexible eyestalk like
we did for the pool.”

“The eyestalk’s easy to control
with our videogame gear. The millipede’s too expensive and fragile.”

****

Zeiss had just ordered ice cream
cake for 300 when the hotel called back. The sheik who owned the island had canceled
his reservation, giving no reason. Panicked, the adviser went to Trina. By
dinner, she told him, “It might be pressure from the Saudis. But the sheik’s
daughter is head of Kaguya Mori’s fan club. Use that as leverage. Here’s his
phone number.”

He called the sheik and mentioned
that Mori might do a set from her last album by the pool. The island’s owner
eventually yielded under one condition. “No pork.”

“Pardon?”

“You wished to bury a pig in my
soil. This is offensive to my religion.”

“Hamburgers and chicken would be
better, now that you mention it.”

“My daughter will be very excited.
Can she bring a few friends?”

“Sure . . .”

Then, Zeiss had to ask a big favor
of Kaguya. He hated owing students.

****

The day of the party, two of his
most responsible helpers, Yvette and Toby, disappeared on a scuba excursion and
island bike ride together. Yvette hinted to the girls that they’d have a race
near sunset and she might let Toby catch her. The professors delayed their
arrival to give Daniel as much time at the actual party as possible.

By contrast, the pilots arrived
early with their own kegs of alcohol, causing Zeiss no end of grief. He told
Llewellyn, “The manager says you can do this
if
you rent a suite for the
night and keep the alcohol there.”

“No sweat, Z. We’ll keep it low-key.”
The pilot wore shower togs, tight Speedo briefs, designer sunglasses, and
carried a meter-long beer bong. “Bring out the tiki torches so we can party all
night! Wooo.”

“No explosives this time!” the TA shouted.
He wore a fedora, loud Hawaiian jams, and a matching shirt. He was fully
prepared for the event with a canvas explorer belt full of emergency supplies,
and aqua socks that covered the tops of his feet while providing a good grip on
the wet cement surfaces.

“Hey, that was all Red, man. We
have a room over here, check it out.” As they passed the grass-covered grill
hut that sold glowing-green test tubes of booze under the name ‘moonshots,’ Lou
said, “Nice utility belt.”

“This is what I normally wear to
the beach. It has spare everything: first aid kit, weather service radio, aloe .
. . Is that a roll of condoms hanging from the ceiling fan?”

“Dude, safety for our soldiers is
the number-one rule of the Academy,” Lou explained. Calling out to his posse,
he shouted, “If it’s gonna salute?”

“It wears a suit,” finished his
crew.

“Wonderful,” Zeiss said, rubbing
his forehead. “No lawsuits, please.”

“Here, I brought some bock beer for
you—the good stuff. Relax. The semester’s over and you’re off duty. When’s the
last time you had a date?”

“Too long,” the TA laughed, opening
the gift bottle.

“There is all kinds of high-class
strange out there, bro. Get your game on and get you some!”

Zeiss smiled at Lou’s enthusiasm.
“I’ll go find a seat by the pool.”

He ran into the Sorensons on the
way there. When the TA saw the riding crop on Daniel’s lap, he had to go tease
them. “I’m surprised you showed, Professor Horvath. Wow. You went all out on
the costume, too. Half the guys here are going to ask you to sign their
magazine. The other half—” Having said too much, he covered his blunder by
taking a swig of the beer.

In German, the woman dressed as a
dominatrix said, “Will want me to spank them for their math secrets? Which half
are you in? I don’t see a book.”

Zeiss sprayed beer off to the side.

Daniel high-fived her. “She still
has it.”

“Sorry. What induced you to wear .
. . whoa?” Zeiss couldn’t look below her chin. Lou was right; it’d been too
long.

“Well, I begged a lot,” said
Daniel.

“And Mira wanted it. She only turns
eighteen once,” said Trina.

The DJ posted a schedule of co-ed
activities and cranked the rock music.

Daniel told them, “I had my man put
the cake cutting after the banana-cream-pie eating contest, and the girl-on-top
chicken fight.”

“That’s almost an hour from now. This
sun is brutal. I’d spend a lot of time under the umbrellas if I were you,”
Zeiss said, nodding to the patio that overlooked the pool and beach. “Where’s
the birthday girl?”

Trina shrugged. “She said something
about not having anything to wear. Risa’s helping her.”

“Plan on at least another hour,”
suggested Daniel.

“Is that a complaint?” she asked.

“No, mistress,” he grinned.

“Get a room,” Zeiss quipped as he
left them.

Sitting in a reclining chair by the
pool, he adjusted his fedora to block the sun and enjoyed the view. He bobbed
his head to the heavy beat of music playing poolside. He snapped to high alert
when he spotted a particularly well-shaped pair of legs walking away from him.
A blonde in heels and a black throng strutted to the grinding guitar of “Shine”
by Collective Soul. She wobbled, making it clear she was new at the stilettos,
probably a novice model. Zeiss hopped up to help, but the woman stopped a foot
in front of him to bend over and adjust the strap on her shoe.

The moment stretched out for Zeiss,
and he didn’t want it to end. His body felt like the first time his father
forced him down the expert ski slope—stark terror, weightless stomach, and an
incredible rush of adrenaline. He instinctively grabbed her elbow as she
wavered again. With a voice deeper and smoother than he thought possible, he
asked, “Do you need an arm to lean on?”

The young woman seized the arm
gratefully and a smile played on her brightly painted lips. “Z,” she began.
Hearing his name with affection thrilled him even more. His mind raced. Was
this one of his sister’s friends? Did she know him? If so, today was going to
be the best date ever. When she turned her flawless face and spotlighted him
with her blue eyes, he was lost. “Ever the gentleman.”

He processed the voice and hit the
metaphorical tree on his ski run. “Red?” he said shakily.

Risa’s voice came from behind him.
“We did a good job, right?”

Zeiss could only pant like his leg
had been hyper-extended again.

The blonde said, “We’re going to
nail that copilot chair today. He won’t know what hit him.”

“Maybe you should avoid that term
around the mils . . . Back me up on this, Herk,” Zeiss said to the
bomb-disposal tech hauling two coolers of food and drink.

“I am smart like tractor, strong
like bull,” the Polish group member said.

The TA whipped off his shirt.
“You’re going to burn, Red. Put this on.”

The young woman blocked his efforts
to wrap her. “Don’t smudge the makeup or the hair. I put too much effort into
baiting this line.”

“Dental floss is more like it,”
Zeiss complained.

Risa cooed at his fit abdominal
muscles. “Damn, Z, you’re hiding a six-pack.”

Zeiss waved his hand. “Only one
bottle, but it’s the real deal, not this weak American stuff.”

Herk laughed. “I hear that.”

Just then, Zeiss heard the
synthetic shutter click of a digital camera. He spotted the photographer with a
zoom lens on the other side of the pool. “Herk, get that camera or our team is
compromised.”