Under Vanishing Skies (21 page)

William rolled his eyes and took another bite of bread.

“
I told you he was smart, didn’t I, Aron?” Helen said. “Well then, what is it? What did you boys figure out?”

I paused before taking another bite and said, “We don’t know yet.”

“
But I thought you said you found some information.”

I nodded and said, “We did. Now we have to figure out what it means. From what I’ve seen so far, it isn’t so much a plan as it is pieces of a plan. I’ve just got to—” William looked up at me. “I mean 
we’ve
 got to figure out what Jin planned to do with this stuff.”

I’ll leave you two at it, then,” she said, turning toward the door. Before leaving, she looked back and added, “Try to get some sleep. You two look like road-kill wallabies that have been lying in the sun too long.” She smiled and closed the door behind her.

“
She’s right,” I said. “We should get some sleep.”

“
But I’m not tired. Let’s keep going?”

I shook my head. “Trust me. I learned a long time ago that brains don’t function very well without sleep. Let’s take a power nap and pick up where we left off.”

“
I’ll lie down,” William said. “But I’m not taking a nap. I told you...I’m not tired.”

“
Suit yourself.”

After finishing the food, I laid down. My mind was still spinning and I was having a hard time slowing it down. What did Jin have in mind? Most of the files didn’t make any sense, at least not on the surface. One of them contained a spreadsheet with the names of Chinese cities with some kind of number sequence next to them. The numbers appeared random, but at the same time they seemed familiar. Other files contained information like communications equipment inventories.

I yawned.  Before I closed my eyes, I turned my head and glanced over at William. I smiled. He was already snoring.

 ***

I slept but my brain kept working on the problem. The number sequences turned into snake-like creatures. They surrounded me and formed themselves into a web-like cocoon, trapping me within the shell. A giant spider was about to plunge its fangs into my neck when my eyes flew open and I found Shannon caressing my cheek with the back of her hand.

“
What are you doing here?” I blinked to make sure this wasn’t just another part of the dream.

“
What do you think I’m doing here? You wouldn’t answer my messages. I came to see if you were alright.” She traced her fingers down my arm and stopped at my wrist. I shook her off and sat up. William mumbled something in his sleep and rolled over.

“
Come on,” I whispered. I got out of bed and motioned for her to follow. We went out onto the front porch, and I quietly closed the door behind me.

Turning to face her, I said, “I’m serious, Shannon. What the hell do you want?”

“
Most men I sleep with wait a few months before they avoid me.” She smiled, but I didn’t.

I didn’t need this and I didn’t need her. My heart knew I was lying, but I ignored it like I ignored the little voice in my head. First she popped into my life after three years without a word. Then she suckered me into joining the Council, convincing me that I could make a difference. And just when we had chance to make that difference, she fucked me over in front of the entire Council. What does she want? Does she think I’m going to forget all about that so we could play kissy face again?

She shrugged and went on, “I wanted to make sure you were okay, that’s all. You took off so fast after the Council meeting that I didn’t have time to talk to you about your crazy stunt.”
 “My crazy stunt? Jesus H. Christ! Are you shitting me? I told you what I was trying to do. I needed time...time to figure out what was going on, but you couldn’t wait, so what is there to talk about?”

“
Come on, Aron. You weren’t making any sense. You sounded like some kind of lunatic conspiracy theorist. What did you expect me to do? Block the vote so you could go off on a snipe hunt while we risk having an outsider decide the list for us?” She took a step toward me and said in a soft voice, “Listen, I know that you’re dealing with a lot right now.” She nodded toward the door. “I get it. It’s a big change for you.”

“
You don’t know anything about what I’m dealing with. Did you have three close friends die over the past month? Huh? Did one of your friends disappear in the middle of the night? Did you wake up one morning to find yourself the parent of a ten-year-old boy? No! So don’t tell me that you know what I’m going through.” I turned to walk away, but she grabbed my sleeve and stopped me.

“
Rick and Jin were my friends too, you know. But you’re wrong.” She let go of my sleeve and turned to face the ocean. “I know what it’s like to be a parent. Saravan and I had a baby. I never told you that, but we did. That’s why I didn’t come to see you after I got back from that walkabout.”

 “
You have a child?”

“
Had,” she said turning her back on me. “We lost her.” Her shoulders slumped and she began to cry.

“
I didn’t know,” I said walking to her and put my hands around.

She stopped crying, pulled herself up straight, and turned to face me. Her face was a mix of embarrassment and anger. “Well screw you, Aron Atherton!” She pushed me away. “You’re not the only one who goes to bed every night and wakes up every morning with a broken heart,. Every person who survived the goddammed storm lives with the same pain you have. Your problem is that you’d rather feel sorry for yourself than enjoy what little time you have left.”

“
Listen, Shannon...I’m sorry about what I said. It’s just—”

“
Save your apology for someone who wants it. I offered you the most precious thing I have left on this planet, my time. Time I wanted to spend with you.  But you would rather spend your time trying to prove that Ahmed is a crook. Well here’s a news flash for you...he is a crook. Everyone knows it, but nobody cares. Don’t you get it? The list is final and nothing you dig up now is going to change that. Why can’t you just let it go?”

“
Because,” I said softly, pointing to the hut. “There’s a boy in there that deserves a chance to grow up and become the man that I know he will be. But he’s not going to get that chance unless I find out what’s going on.”

I placed my hands on her shoulders again. “And you’re right. I did spend too much time feeling sorry for myself, but you’re wrong if you think that’s what I’m doing now. For the first time in a really long time, I care about what’s going to happen to someone besides me. And I’m not just talking about William. I mean everyone. I don’t think I actually understood how big a deal the list was until it was finalized. It’s not about who gets to go and who stays behind. It’s about whether or not the human race survives. I know how grandiose this sounds.  But it’s how I feel. Do you understand?”

Her face softened. “Yes. I get it.” She looked down. “But we'll never get a perfect list of candidates together.  The only thing we can do now is hope that whoever goes up there can make it work.” Then she took my hand and said, “And all we can do down here is enjoy the time we have left. Do you understand 
that,
 Aron? It’s time to let this go and start living again.”

I wanted to let it go. But I couldn't give up.  Not yet. 

I shook my head. “I can’t. I gotta try.”

Rage flashed across her face and she threw my hand back at me. “You’re a fucking idiot, Aron! A goddammed fucking idiot! You have no idea what you just gave up.” She turned and stormed off towards the dock. I just stood there and watched her go.

After a few minutes, I heard, “Aron?”

I turned and saw William looking through the half-opened door.

“
Yeah?” I said.

“
Are you okay?”

“
I don’t know.”

“
She was pretty mad, wasn’t she?”

I nodded.

“
Why?”

I rubbed the back of my neck and shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

He tilted his head and said, “Is it boyfriend-girlfriend stuff?”

I grinned and said, “Sort of, but we don’t have time to worry about boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, do we?”

He shook his head.

“
We have work to do. Right?”

He opened the door the rest of the way and said, “Right.”

“
Then let’s get to it.”

 ***

 
It was painstaking work, but little by little, we pieced together the information we had found. By the time we had finished the food that Helen brought us for dinner, William and I probably knew more about the Chinese military communication infrastructure than anyone else left on the planet.

I found a map of Asia and had William plot the location of the equipment we found on one of the lists. It didn’t take him long to figure out how to do it. He drew lines between the symbols he placed on the map using the information from the spreadsheet. With him doing that, I had time to focus on the big question. What did it all mean? So far, all we had was a pretty map and we were already through most of the files.

I scratched my head and ran my hand through my hair. I felt like we were going down another rabbit hole. It was just a bunch of communications equipment: hubs, routers, laser uplink stations, and radio towers. Maybe Jin thought he could build something out of all this stuff, but there was no way in hell that I could. He had been a Cyber Ace in the Chinese Cyber Force. I had managed communications contracts. Even if he did plan to build something, how did he plan to get the stuff from China to the Maldives? Perhaps he had some other secret up his sleeve, like an SF296 fighter jet hidden in a mango grove somewhere.

“
I’m done.”

I looked over and saw William sitting cross-legged on the bed, leaning back on his elbows. If I sat like that, I’d crack in half like a dry crab shell.

“
Did you plot everything?” I looked over his shoulder and pretended to understand the intricate web of communication pathways laid out on the map.

“
Yup.” He nodded. “So, what does it mean?”

I stood up straight, interlaced my fingers behind my head and said, “I don’t have a clue. Are you sure that’s everything?”

He nodded again. “Everything that you told me to plot. The only thing I didn’t use were the numbers in the hidden column.”

My hands dropped to my side and I grabbed his data mat. “What hidden column?”

“
Right there, between the seventh and eighth column. There's a column of numbers that was minimized. I thought you hid it so I wouldn’t mess up.”

He was right. There was another column. Each cell contained a one or a zero. I selected the column title, hit the translate button and then watched as the Chinese symbols turned into four letters: EMPH.

“
What’s an emph?”

“
It’s not an emph, it’s an acronym. EMPH stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse Hardened. Do you know what that means?”

He shook his head.

I began to get that same excited feeling that I used to get back in school when my brain managed to finally wrap itself around a really tough math problem. “It means that some of this equipment might have survived the storm. These ones.” I pointed at column. “The cells with a number one in them.”

“
I don’t get it.”
 “Do you remember what your dad told you about the storm?”

“
A little.” He shrugged. “He said a big solar flare hit the earth and burned up most of the atmosphere.”

I nodded, “Right. A solar flare burned up most of the atmosphere, but solar flares also do something else.” I began to pace the room. “See, solar flares are huge clouds of charged solar plasma…energy like electricity. Anyway, when the sun shoots out a flare.  The flare flies through space really, really fast.”

William looked at me, his head tilted to the side.

“
Have you ever shocked yourself? You know, touch something and get zapped?”

He nodded.

“
Well, a solar flare has a lot of stored energy and when that energy touches the earth…Pow! It zaps it just like when you get shocked. That energy comes in through the planet’s magnetic poles.”

William said, “That’s what I said. A solar flare burned up the atmosphere.”

“
Yeah, but it did something else. That energy spawned massive geomagnetic storms and those storms fried most of the electronics in the world.”