The Reckoning: Quantum Prophecy Book 3 (13 page)

Renata said, “Stop! For God’s sake! This is crazy!”

Then Landron said, “This isn’t about you, Renata. It never was. It’s about not letting these people take over the world.”

Shoell snorted. “Actually, it’s about not letting
you
continue to act as though you already
have
taken over the world.”

Landron pulled out his cell phone. “One call from me and the Trutopians will be reclassified as a subversive organization.”

Shoell stood up so fast he knocked his chair over. He jabbed at
Landron with his finger. “You try that and we will
bury
you! I’ll have Sakkara wiped off the face of the map! We’ve got enough political power to bring down your entire government.”

“That was a
threat,
” Landron said, his voice cold with anger. “You have just made a direct threat against the U.S. government.”

“You lousy…!”

Renata jumped to her feet and screamed, “Both of you, just shut
up
!”

Renata’s headache pounded so hard it felt like something had exploded inside her skull. A surge of pain ran through her entire body, and she collapsed back into her seat.

Then she heard her father’s voice saying, “Renata? What…What have you
done
?”

Dizzy, nauseous, Renata looked up. “Dad? Sorry, I just…” She realized that he wasn’t looking at her. He was looking at Landron and Shoell.

The two lawyers were still glaring at each other. They were unmoving. Transparent. Crystalline.

I
N THE SMALL COFFEE SHOP ON MOATE’S
main street, Stephanie Cord had finished her latte and was about to leave when she heard someone sitting down directly behind her.

“Don’t turn around, Erica,” Grant Paramjeet’s voice said in a loud whisper. “If people don’t know we know each other it’ll be harder for them to figure out who we really are.”

Stephanie raised her eyes.
Is this guy
ever
going to quit?

She heard Grant open a newspaper, and knew that he was holding it up in front of his face to hide the fact that he was talking to her.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” Grant said. “My grandma’s away for the next two weeks, and I’m supposed to be going over to her place every day to clear out the basement. It’s totally packed with junk, but I figure if I work like crazy today and tomorrow, then I can get it all done and that means we’ll have it all to ourselves. It’s the perfect place for us to train.”

Without making a sound, Stephanie put her book and cell phone into her bag, stood up and left the store.

Outside, she felt a tiny twinge of guilt and looked in through the glass door to see that Grant was still talking to himself.

Idiot.

Grant had been pestering her every chance he could. There had been cryptic notes stuffed through the vents in her locker or tucked into her bag as she passed him in the school hallways,
a dozen brief but intense conversations and more phone calls, e-mails and text messages than she could count, all pleading for her to train him.

Grant had even set up a website called “The Moate Vigilantes,” and it had taken Stephanie threatening to break his arm before he grudgingly agreed that making the website public might not be a good idea.

She was crossing Third Avenue when Grant caught up with her, his rolled-up newspaper in his hand.

But he didn’t seem to be annoyed. “Very smooth! I didn’t even hear you leave. You’re going to have to teach me that one.”

Stephanie glanced at him. Grant was walking alongside her, but trying to look as though it was only a coincidence that they were going in the same direction.

A shabbily dressed man moved out of a doorway to block their path. “Spare change?”

“Sorry, no,” Grant said.

The man hobbled after them. “C’mon, pal! I just need a coupla bucks to make up the bus fare. I got a job interview lined up, see, an’ I need to get to my brother’s place so’s I can borrow his suit.”

“Do I look like I’m dumb enough to believe that?” Grant asked. “Get lost.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks for nothin’.” The man turned away.

“Nice,” Stephanie said. “How do you know he wasn’t telling the truth?”

“He’s been using that same line for as long as I can remember. I told you; I know this town inside out.”

Stephanie considered this. “So…You want to be a hero, but you only want the exciting parts, the whole ‘saving the world’ trick? There are other kinds of heroes, you know. Cops, doctors, nurses.
Especially
nurses.” She pointed across the street to a secondhand clothing store. “See that blue suit in the window? You should buy it, give it to that guy. Looks about his size.”

Grant made a face. “Why?”

“It’s only sixty dollars. You can afford that, right?”

“Well, yeah, but—”

“Being a hero means helping other people without any direct benefit to yourself. You don’t have to fight criminals. You could do charity work.”

Grant gave a short, sharp laugh. “Right. Like Paragon would have done that.”

“How do you know he didn’t?”

“Way I see it, he was kinda busy fighting people like Slaughter and Dioxin.”

Stephanie stopped and turned to face him. “If you don’t think that helping the needy is worth your time, then you’re never going to make it as a hero.”

He nodded. “Gotcha. This is part of my training, right?”

Steph gritted her teeth and resumed walking. “Grant, I’m not going to train you. Just get over that idea.”

Then she heard running footsteps, and looked back to see that Grant was racing back toward the homeless man.
He’s really going to do it…

She knew that she had to get Grant out of her life. She liked him well enough, and every time he talked about Paragon she
filled with pride for her father, but she was supposed to be Erica van Piet now, not Stephanie Cord. Grant’s presence was a constant reminder of the life she had left behind.

And the people she’d left behind.

Colin woke to find that he was once again sleeping on the floor next to his bed. In the four months since he left Sakkara he’d grown so used to roughing it that the bed just seemed too soft.

Yawning, he stumbled into the bathroom and showered, then stared at himself in the mirror for a few moments. A large red blemish had appeared overnight, just under his left ear.

Colin closed his eyes and concentrated. A ripple of heat and electrical energy ran over his neck and face, zapping the spot and any other bacteria that might be lurking under his skin. He opened his eyes again: already, the spot was beginning to fade.

Colin had just finished getting dressed when Reginald Kinsella phoned. “Mr. Kinsella. What’s up?”

“We have a situation that I think you might be able to help with. Interested?”

“What is it?”

“I’d rather tell you in person. You’re not too busy, I hope?”

“Not at all.”

“Good. I’m already on my way.”

Kinsella arrived ten minutes later, a worry line creasing his forehead. He had a small folder in his hands.

“What’s the matter?”

“We…We found out something…Something disturbing. Have you ever heard of a country called Lieberstan?”

“No, sorry. Should I have?”

“It’s a pretty small place, used to be part of the Soviet Republic, then it was argued over by some of the newly formed states…. That whole area has a convoluted history and I don’t really understand it myself. We’ve got a community there, but the government is putting pressure on us to disband it.” Kinsella walked to the window and looked out. “Lieberstan’s principal export is platinum. You know anything about platinum?”

Colin shook his head.

“It’s one of the rarest elements on the planet, which makes it expensive. What makes it even more expensive is that to get a single ounce of platinum you have to mine and process about ten tons of ore.” Kinsella turned around to face Colin. “There is a platinum mine in Lieberstan that’s said to be one of the deepest and most dangerous in the world.” He removed a photograph from the folder and handed it to Colin. “Satellite image, taken about a week ago.”

Colin turned the photo around in his hands. “Which way up? Ah, got it. What exactly am I looking at?”

Kinsella tapped a large, rectangular area, in the middle of which was a dome surrounded by a series of small squares. “This is the mine, shielded by this dome. To give you an idea of the scale, these little squares are buildings, each about the size of the average house. We need to get someone in there.”

“Why?”

“I can’t tell you, unless you agree to do it.”

“What was all that talk about the Trutopians not having secrets?”

Kinsella smiled. “This one isn’t our secret. It’s theirs.”

“You’re asking a lot, Mr. Kinsella. How much time do I have to think about it?”

“I told him he had a couple of days,” Victor Cross told Yvonne over the phone. He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk, then scratched at his fake beard.

“Will he go for it?”

“Who can say? Right now, he’s checking out Lieberstan on the Internet. All he’ll find is the usual tourist stuff about how beautiful the country is.”

Cross could hear Yvonne drumming her fingers on the table.

“We
need
him to go,” she said. “This is the whole point of finding Colin in the first place.”

“I do know the plan, Yvonne.”

“Let me talk to him. That’s all you have to do. I’ll make him want to go. He won’t even have to remember that he spoke to me.”

“No. It’s too much of a risk.”

Yvonne said, “Then just tell him the truth about the platinum mine.”

“Not yet. Colin needs to think that he’s outside the loop. That keeps him off balance.”

“But that wouldn’t matter if I was controlling him.”

“And what if your control doesn’t work? What then?”

“It’ll work. I’m sure of it.”

Cross shook his head. “No. We wait for Colin to make up his own mind.”

“This is as much my plan as it is yours, Victor! I’m the one who thought of you taking over the Trutopians. I’m the one who arranged for you to replace the real Reginald Kinsella.”

“I know that. And I’ve never taken credit away from you. But these things have to happen at their own pace. Suppose you do manage to control Colin’s mind, but later the Sakkarans find a way to break through that? Then he’s our enemy for certain. But if we persuade him correctly, there’s nothing they can do to turn him against us. So we play this
my
way.”

“And what do I do? Just sit here and wait for you to come back? This is worse than when I was in Sakkara! What’s the point of having someone like me on your side when you won’t even let me use my abilities?”

“You have to wait until the time is right.”

“When will that be? When
you’ve
done all the work? We’re supposed to be a team.”

Victor sighed. “I know what you’re going through. But you have to be patient, OK? Just trust me. It’ll all work out fine.”

He said good-bye and hung up the phone.

Cross’s superhuman brain allowed him to think about many different things at the same time: Even as he was arguing with Yvonne, he had been considering the best way of dealing with her, how to best steer Colin’s opinions, the many different ways Evan Laurie might mess up in Zaliv Kalinina and the nature of the situation in Lieberstan.

She’s too dangerous. She’s nowhere near as smart as I am, but her mind-control means that if she wanted to she could turn everyone against me.

Maybe it’s time to step back. Hand over control of the Trutopians to
her. Laurie pretty much has everything set up for the future, and Yvonne’s definitely the one to take over here anyway.

Cross stood up and walked to the window. He stared out at the clouds.

But she can’t go public just yet. Not until the situation with Sakkara is resolved. And we can’t solve the Sakkara problem until we get Colin to Lieberstan.

As long as Yvonne doesn’t go completely power-mad, it could work.

He reached for his phone again and dialed a number. After a couple of minutes, the call was answered.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Laurie. How are you doing?”

“Freezing my butt off in this place, Victor.” Laurie answered.

“I should have phrased that differently.
What
are you doing?”

“I just told you!”

“You know, I was kind of thinking about the work. Remember the work? The whole point of you being there?”

“We’re all set up, ready for you to send us the material.”

“Change of plans. I’ll be bringing it in person.”

“When?”

“Today. Colin will be on his way to Lieberstan within the hour.”

“And Yvonne?”

“She’s planning to betray me, but that’s irrelevant now. I’ll leave her to battle it out with the New Heroes.”

“What if she wins?”

“Just keep watching the news, Laurie. On the unlikely chance
that you ever get married, you’ll want to be able to tell your kids what it was like during the last few days before the war.”

“I’ll do it. I’ll go to Lieberstan,” Colin said to Reginald Kinsella as they stood on the balcony of Colin’s hotel suite. “But I can’t promise that I’ll get involved in whatever is happening there.”

“You’re certain you want to do this?” Kinsella asked.

Colin nodded. “You need someone with superhuman abilities, right? Who else are you going to find?”

Kinsella smiled, and looked down over the balcony, resting his forearms on the railing. “There are rumors of a superhuman in Kenya. A seventeen-year-old girl who can transform into some sort of giant cat.”

“You think that’s true?”

“I wish I knew. We have a few communities there, but none of our people have reported any sightings. I’ve sent Harriet and Byron to investigate, but I’m not holding out much hope.”

Colin was silent for a moment, then said, “Tell me what I need to know about the platinum mine in Lieberstan.”

Kinsella straightened up. “We’re going to have to send you in alone, understood? We won’t even be able to provide much radio support, so you’ll be on your own for most of the time. I know I can trust you to do the right thing, whatever you find there.”