The Beam: Season Three (2 page)

Dom checks his messages. He finds two from Omar saying the latest shipment was a bust and that the backup supply would have to last longer than they expected even though the entire village is already hurting. Dominic also learns that things aren't any better back home: Riots are erupting as Shift approaches. His time in the village needs to be quick.

Dominic checks in with Leo and breaks the news that the Lunis shipment won’t be arriving any time soon. Leo is clearly panicked and snaps at Dominic’s apology. He’s distraught, wondering what will happen when the village runs dry. Dominic suggests that Leo take control of his village. He tosses his former teacher a gun on his way out as a last-ditch effort for Leo to protect himself should things go completely awry.

Dominic meets Omar, Kate, and Jimmy. Dominic and Kate feel each other out; both have plenty to lose and a desire to keep what they have. Omar tells Dominic stories from his time spent as a prisoner in Flat 4 and about the powerful man he met there: Craig Braemon. Omar has a plan involving Craig that will keep them all thriving — if Dominic can help Kate get in front of the Beau Monde. Kate pushes back, saying that she doesn’t want to be the bait in Omar’s scheme. But with no other choice, Dominic agrees.

LEAH

Leah visits a cleaned-up Crumb, who now wants to be known as Steve. His memories are hard to reclaim, but his preternatural grasp of The Beam continues to bloom. She asks him what’s next. Steve says that once he’s regained his strength, he’ll return to Organa. Leah says they’ll protect him if he goes back now, but Steve reminds her that he can’t be hidden and that he’s sure
they
already know where he’s hiding.

Leah is getting multiple pings from fellow Null member Shadow and feels desperate to find a place where she can connect, so on horseback she heads two hours to a place with a definite connection.
 

She reads multiple posts from Shadow, sent to her online persona, n33t. But what Leah reads doesn’t sit well. She can’t trust him enough to meet in person, so Leah sends him a noncommittal ping. He wants to discuss Nicolai Costa, but she has no idea who this man could be. She presses Shadow for more information, and he sends a self-destructing note about Beau Monde and the need to talk
.

She’s willing to consider a deeper conversation but doesn’t want to risk Shadow getting information about her. She worries that it might be a setup and refuses despite her feelings of urgency.
 

Back in her DZ apartment, Leah immerses herself in The Beam. Inside, she finds the residue left by Shadow. His insecurities. His id. His psyche. She sees him as almost noble — very different than what she sees and feels about Integer7. She looks deeper for Costa and eventually finds him. He’s a man more advanced and yet more primitive than any others in the NAU. She sees that he’s closest to Kai and Doc.  But also close to many with Beau Monde Beam identifiers. As she tries to manipulate the AI into revealing exactly who — and what — the Beau Monde is, she sees that Rachel Ryan's ID is different, too. But how,
and why
? 

Leah plays with the sequence and discovers that it’s a Beau Monde ID,
but more
. A circle within a circle within a circle. Somehow, Rachel's ID is enough to be all things to all people. The woman can open anything. Get past anyone. She wonders if there are others like her.
 

Leah continues to hack her way looking for more IDs like Rachel’s. IDs that gain entry into this secret club. Private. Certainly exclusive. But not unique. A single word emerges:
Panel.

LEO BOOKER

Leo discusses his past with Dominic while suffering from withdrawal, eventually admitting to his past with Gaia’s Hammer. Dom wants to know if history will repeat itself, and though Leo tries to quell his friend’s anxiety, it’s clear that Dom doesn’t fully believe him. Leo explains how he was exiled into a teaching life and that he never lied to Dominic, just withheld some critical details.

After Dominic leaves, Leo confesses to Leah. She describes what she believes The Beam’s inner core is becoming. They discuss the impending doom of their Lunis shortage and the disaster awaiting once the village learns of the dead supply.

Leo gathers the Organa and admits to what everyone knew was coming. He announces to the Organa that even though the news is bad, Leo is out to protect the Organa.
 

Leo makes a blunt announcement: Moondust is running low. He asks the crowd to think about who they are and why they are here in the mountains. It can’t be just for the drugs. The crowd demands specifics. Questions snowball. Anxiety boils over into rage. When Leo tries to diffuse their panic and anger, he’s forced to admit that the reserves are down to a few days and that outside the compound, Lunis will be difficult to find.
 

Fighting erupts, and the knowledge that Leo has sole access to the reserve causes them to collectively surge. The crowd pins him, and he resists defending himself further.
 

While Leo is pinned down, NAU Agent Austin Smith arrives and arrests the village.

STEPHEN YORK

York spends more time with SerenityBlue, still perplexed that he sees her differently than both Leo and Leah. He’s unable to explain what he’s seeing in words.

Serenity tells York that they were searching for people like him. She asks him to stay longer, but he insists that he wants to leave. Serenity offers to help and asks Stephen some basic questions to hopefully unlock his ability to describe the half memories that continue to haunt him.

Thinking back to his past, York remembers an exclusive group of people that Noah used to keep hidden. These people were well known, even to an isolated York. He wonders
why
these people would gather together. Politics, sex, industry, and technology aligning motives against the broader society. But he can’t seem to solve the troubling riddle.
 

Leah asks York about Crumb, and York reveals that the crazy old man is still a memory inside his newly restored brain. York seems concerned that eyes and ears are everywhere, but Leah tries to explain that The Beam has grown so large that most of what is on there has grown meaningless by sheer volume — the remnants of a hoarder rather than transcripts from an archivist.
 

Meanwhile, in Panel, Rachel Ryan tells her fellow members that they’re running out of time. York must be found and brought in immediately. A sleeper assassin is after him. Someone he knows — and trusts. Stephen York is only alive because he hasn’t connected to The Beam. He’ll be dead as soon as he does.
And now,
The Beam: The Complete Third Season…

Episode 13

Chapter One

April 18, 2029 — District Zero

“I’m sorry,” said the pleasant British man when Noah stepped off the elevator on the 124
th
floor of the so-called Licorice Spire — the black, braided-looking downtown high-rise. “Who are you, again?”
 

Noah stopped to assess the question, unsure if he was being insulted. He used to take any perceived slight personally, but a lot had changed in the last handful of years. Now he could take even the most caustic barbs in stride. The world had risen then ended. During the worst of it, Noah had laid the first bricks of his fledgling empire. It took thick skin to be Noah West these days, but he’d discovered the trick: You just had to remember that when you were doing disruptive things,
everyone
thought you were an asshole. Most of the world was too dumb to have vision. Until vision was seen as genius, it would be seen as foolish. People said Noah was arrogant to believe what he did and do as he’d done while building Quark, but
arrogance
was a word stupid people used to describe confidence — and
modesty
was simply another word for fear.
 

But Clive Spooner, assessing Noah in front of some sort of greenery-filled atrium, smiled cordially. This wasn’t an insult. Spooner seemed to honestly have no idea who Noah was, despite Noah’s proper appointment.
 

Or (and this seemed more likely given the megabillionaire’s reputation for eccentricity) he’d simply spaced out. Spooner had a charming, boyish smile and an affable air that complemented his upper-class English accent. The world had grown used to seeing Spooner as delightfully forgetful in ways that didn’t matter…seeing as he was so brilliant in the ways that mattered most. But that was before the Fall, when Spooner united the globe before nature broke it to pieces. Before the floods and the electrostatic levies. Before hordes gathered in Spooner’s native Wild East, lobbing the first of their spiteful missiles toward his new home.
 

“I made an appointment with your secretary,” Noah said, trying on a smile.
 

The elevator door shut behind Noah, close enough to pinch the back of his blazer. Spooner didn’t move out of his way but wasn’t blocking it either; his stance wasn’t confrontational despite his well-bred surprise at Noah’s presence. He hadn’t moved because he still had a watering can in his hand and clearly wanted to use it on the hydrangeas beside Noah’s head, which he’d been tending when the doors had parted.
 

Noah glanced back when Spooner didn’t respond. The hydrangeas were near a lilac bush, which in turn was near a clutch of hothouse roses. There was a small cactus beside that then something overly green and vibrant that resembled a rain forest plant. If Noah wasn’t mistaken, he thought he could smell oranges somewhere, too. There was probably a full tree here somewhere, inside this strangest of botanical anterooms.

Spooner waved the watering can at Noah and laughed. His teeth were very white.

“Oh, that wasn’t my secretary.”

It wasn’t a relevant clarification to make. Did Spooner really have no idea why Noah was here? And if he didn’t, shouldn’t he be curious enough to ask Noah’s purpose rather than making fine points about staffing? Or did it not matter because he was about to hand Noah pruning shears and gardening gloves and send him to work?

Noah replied the only way he could think to:
“It wasn’t your secretary?”
 

“Doubtful, seeing as I don’t have one. You must have spoken to Larry.”
 

“Larry?” The man had called himself Lawrence. A dignified-sounding name for a dignified-sounding man — unlike
Larry
, in Noah’s opinion. Lawrence had sounded like a note taker. Someone who merely made appointments and passed information up the chain.
Like
a secretary.

“Anyway, dreadfully sorry,” Spooner said, dodging the Larry quandary, “but I still don’t know who you are.”
 

“I’m Noah West.”
 

“Oh, yes! Now I remember. You work with EverCrunch.”
 

That wasn’t quite right. Noah didn’t
work with
EverCrunch; he’d
bought
EverCrunch. He’d done it without any of his own capital — a feat deserving of recognition. He may or may not have technically had control of the voting shares when that takeover happened for a surprisingly low sum, but seeing as he’d made plenty to buy out those shares above market value
after
he’d decupled the old company’s profits, Noah figured that everyone was paid and it had all worked out in the end. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission would have trouble seeing things differently — and given the wild frontier American capitalism had become in the Fall’s aftermath, the SEC had its hands full with behemoths like Ryan Enterprises and its questionable practices. They wouldn’t bother little old Quark over a deal where everyone had ultimately won.
 

Well…except for EverCrunch’s founder, Ben Stone.
 

But still, Noah wasn’t insulted. Spooner was one of the most powerful humans alive. His face was more known than any to ever grace a box of Wheaties — but he had an
aw shucks
manner that made even his worst gaffes seem more like charming befuddlement.
 

“I’m with
Quark
,” Noah corrected.
 

“I’m sorry. You’re right. It’s all coming back to me now. Larry put your appointment on my calendar, and I simply forgot.” He shrugged, again flashing that world-pleasing smile. “I hope you’ll forgive me. Did you see Larry downstairs?”
 

Noah wondered if Spooner was seriously confusing the man who must be his executive assistant with a common doorman. It hadn’t been much easier to reach Lawrence the Assistant than Spooner himself. Noah had needed to clear his way through two pre-assistants before Lawrence. Despite the
yes-sir
way he’d taken Noah’s appointment, “Larry” clearly had more status than opening doors and tipping his cap to incomers.

“No.”
 

“Then how did you know to come here to this floor instead of my office?”

Noah looked around. He was essentially in a greenhouse, albeit a strange one. He could see the sky through tinted glass in the double-tall room, but the sprawling space was subdivided into many smaller enclosures. Some of the greenhouses-within-greenhouses were made of emerald glass, and some were transparent. Some were square and others dome shaped, as if intended to cover a single large plant and nothing more. There were some uncovered plants throughout the intervening area and some that only
seemed
to be uncovered — though on closer inspection, Noah could see the air around them shimmer, as if covered by permeable force fields.