The Independent Worlds (The Sixteen Galaxies Book 2) (14 page)

He was cut off by the sound of several weapons being cocked. “Guns on the ground and hands in the air, gentlemen; nice and slowly, now. Take it real steady with the artillery there, pal.”

Both men did as they were told. They turned round slowly to see five men with automatic rifles trained on them. “Careful with these two,” the younger one at the front told the others. “They’re a lot tougher than they look.”

All five men moved to encircle Jack and Ron. Jack glanced sideways at Ron, and flicked his eyes to a point behind the men. Ron turned to face their captors and Jack calculated an ingress. He went to portal jump, and nothing happened. He stole a glance at Ron again, whose face told the same story; no portal ability.

Out of the corner of his left eye, Jack saw Nuthros appear with a strange device in his hands. He leveled the device at the five men in turn and each was thrown off their feet and a good five yards away from where they were. None of them had time to react. Each of them landed on the ground dead still. Jack heard a sound behind him and whirled around to see Ryan grab the Barrett and swing it up, his face twisted with the pain from his wrist. Nuthros fired the device at Ryan and it threw the big rifle up and into Ryan’s head. He flew sideways and slammed onto the ground, motionless.

Nuthros dropped the device on the road and ran over to Ryan, his face a ghostly white. He knelt next to Ryan and laid a hand on his neck. “Oh no,” he stammered. He backed away from the lifeless body. “I’ve killed him.” He turned to Jack. “I didn’t mean to, Jack, I really didn’t. It’s supposed to stun them, that’s all; it’s not meant to kill someone. Oh my, this is awful!”

Jack grabbed Nuthros by the shoulders. “Stuff happens in combat, Nuthros; the rifle killed him; it was an accident. Come on, let’s just check the others and get the hell out of here.”

Ron was already on his way to check the furthest one, so Nuthros went over to the closest one; the apparent leader. He lay dead still as well, but Jack saw his chest move. “He’s alright, Nuthros, check the next one.”

Nuthros made to move away from the first one when the young man suddenly leapt up and grabbed Nuthros around the legs.

“
NO!
” Jack cried and jumped onto the man’s back. All three instantly disappeared.

Ron spun round at Jack’s cry and saw them just before they vanished. He stood up, his face ashen. “Oh, crap.”

One of the other men groaned and moved slightly. Ron ran over to the device Nuthros had dropped and grabbed it. Then he got a hold of the Barrett. Something strange on the nearest man’s wrist caught his eye. It was a semi-translucent band of some kind. Ron checked the other men and they all wore the same thing. He decided to take one back with him. It slipped off easily and he pocketed it. He pulled out a cell-phone and pressed a speed-dial button. Nothing happened. He went cold as realization set in; these bracelets were some kind of device that interfered with portal jumping.

His mind raced through options. He wanted to take one with him; they would need to examine it and come up with a counter. They must have a range, so… He dropped the bracelet on the ground and smashed his foot down onto it. He heard breakage, and picked it back up. He trotted up the road a bit and hit the speed dial again. This time, he disappeared.

*****

Global News Update

“…Horror in Berlin today after a terrorist attack levelled a shopping mall this morning. Hundreds are missing, and eleven confirmed dead after the Kaufer-Paradies mall in downtown Berlin collapsed following a huge explosion. The blast was so strong it smashed windows nearly two blocks away. A group calling itself ‘The Anti-Integration League’ has claimed responsibility. The German chancellor has already left the G20 summit in Beijing and is expected back in Berlin within hours.

“US President Michael Maitland, speaking on behalf of the other leaders at the G20 summit, said the attack was inhuman and unacceptable. ‘The people of the world will not tolerate being dictated to by extremists. The entire group of world leaders assembled here has resolved to push forward with our discussion on global integration, and the German Chancellor has already agreed to stand firm with us when we say that we will not negotiate with terrorists. Anti-globalization protest groups will do themselves no good by alienating themselves from the general public with cowardly acts like this.”

“Several anti-globalization groups have been quick to deny the President’s suggestion the attack had anything to do with them. One activist went so far as to call the Berlin attack a ‘Classic false-flag tactic’.”

Kestil’s base

The leader of their captors released Nuthros and struggled with Jack on the floor, each man desperate to get a hold on the other, and oblivious to the change of scene. The two guards in the room where they appeared took a moment to comprehend what was going on. Jack bodily flung the young man across the room and his leg smashed into a storage locker. He let out a cry of pain. Jack leapt to his feet. The two guards moved in on him. He drove a lightning kick into one’s side, which flung the guard into his partner. Jack went for the assault rifle one guard dropped.

“Enough!” Jack stopped and turned, his hand nearly on the weapon. The young man still lay on the floor, but he had a pistol aimed at Nuthros’ head. “Face down on the floor,
now
!”

Jack complied with a scowl on his face. One of the guards strode up to Jack and viciously clubbed him unconscious with a rifle butt.

Nuthros blinked in the harsh white light of the bare room he found himself in. The young man who had captured him stood up and dusted himself off. “Stay there, please Nuthros.” He coughed and rubbed his leg. “Your friend there fights like a tiger, doesn’t he?”

Nuthros frowned. “Do I know you?”

The young man smiled casually. “Sort of.”

He limped out of the room and met Kestil just outside. The two spoke for a few minutes, and then Kestil came in through the doorway. “Well, well, how lucky can I be? I aim to catch one or two of these agents of yours, and I get you as a bonus. How are you, brother?”

Nuthros stared at the floor in silence.

“Yes,” Kestil said, “got blood on your hands for once, I hear. Not very nice when you can’t leave your lackeys with all the dirty work, is it?”

Nuthros watched a tear fall from his face and splash on the floor.

Kestil groaned. “Oh, for goodness sake, Nuthros, it was only a contractor. The man was a nobody, a wastrel. Handy enough, in his way, but there’s plenty more humans like him. Too many, if you ask me. Still, he served a purpose. Once your two agents started interfering with things, I figured you’d try to get what you could out of Ryan. What was the plan, hmm?” Nuthros held his silence and Kestil shrugged. “Well, it makes little difference, now. He brought you to me, and I didn’t have to pay him a cent for the result.”

Nuthros raised his eyes to his brother. “When did you stop feeling anything, Kestil? When did your heart completely turn to stone?”

Kestil walked right up to Nuthros. “The day your damned AI and your oh so precious council tried to kill me the first time, Nuthros.” He waved a dismissive hand. “We’ve discussed all this before, I’ll not waste time on it again. It’s very interesting to hear about a Sixteen Galaxies councilor wielding an offensive weapon, though. Kinetic field projector, but a hand-held version. The council has decided to join the party after all, have they?”

“What do you want from me, Kestil? I will tell you nothing, you know that.”

Kestil smiled. “Oh, I don’t really want anything from you, Nuthros. All I need is for you to stay here until the inevitable happens. Then the fun
really
begins. Now, you must excuse me, I have bigger fish to fry. If you need anything, just give the guards a shout.”

He turned to the two guards. “Take that agent and lock him down tight. Make sure you keep a portal jammer in the room with him at all times. It is evident he is enhanced, so make allowances for that. Once you’ve done that, go back to where this happened, and get the others back here. Clean up the scene and make it look like a simple car accident.” He flipped a mock salute to Nuthros and walked out.

Five minutes later, Kestil walked into a big room three levels down, at the bottom of the complex. “I hear we are done, gentlemen, is that so?”

A number of technicians were busy with final adjustments. One looked up and gave him a quick thumbs-up. John walked in behind Kestil and whistled. “That’s a damned big computer, Kestil.”

“Yes,” Kestil replied. “It’s way bigger than it needs to be, really. But we had to limit how much hardware we brought in, so we had to make do with some of Earth’s antiquated equipment. Nevertheless, it will get the job done, and that’s all that really matters. How’s the leg?”

“Not a problem,” John replied. “He just bruised it a bit.”

One of the technicians walked up and handed across a checklist. “All systems checked and double checked, Kestil. She’s ready to roll.”

“Very good work, Simon, thank you. Very well, let’s turn it on.”

Simon nodded to another technician, and he flipped the power switch. A huge bank of blue LED indicators came to life. Simon walked up the row of machinery, and peered at various readouts as he went. “Right, all systems good, let’s get the server online.” More switches were flicked; more readouts were checked. Finally, Simon came back to the two men. “Congratulations, Kestil. The world’s first quantum computer is fully operational.”

Kestil smiled and nodded his thanks.
‘You may connect.’

There was a slight silence. Then the AI spoke.
‘Connection established, transfer of data initiated.’

John stood and waited patiently. Kestil paced up and down. The transfer took three minutes.
‘Transfer complete. Re-boot initiated, switch to quantum format in progress.’

Whole rows of other LEDs flickered into life; reds, greens, oranges and more blues. The lights dimmed for a second, and Kestil frowned. “It will take a minute for the power supply to stabilize,” Simon called from across the room. “The superconductors on the PCUs require heavy loads on start-up.”

The lights steadied.
‘It is done. Reboot complete; I am made new.’

Kestil patted John on the shoulder. “All systems go, John. Just in time, too; I have to go. Please keep an eye out for our visitor; he shouldn’t be too long. Also, make sure they have that agent secured properly, he is incredibly dangerous.”

John peered at his boss. “Where are you off to?”

“Ah, that is an excellent question. I am off to get things moving on another front. It’s all coming together now, my friend.”

*****

G20 summit, Beijing

Special Officer Michael Woodford glanced at his watch. It was 10am, and there was a long day ahead. The meeting had been in progress for over an hour. Michael struggled with fatigue; the coordination of such an event taxed the president’s protection detail to the limit. Like all the other world leaders present, President Maitland’s security detail was huge compared to the last G20 summit. The assembled presidents, prime ministers, and one king all sat in varied poses of feigned or genuine interest. The German president had arrived this morning, to replace the chancellor. One great difference for the secret service this year was the lack of protestors. Hardly a surprise, given the host country. Quite a few of Michael’s fellow agents had commented on the irony of the situation. He tried to focus on a sweep of the room, but it was hard when he already knew the place was locked down tight as a drum.

The British prime minister had the floor, but Michael’s concentration on the speech was minimal. The prime minister had an amiable personality, but his voice was a monotone drone. Michael’s focus snapped back to the podium as the prime minister was cut off mid-sentence. He barely had a second to notice the British prime minister was gone before the lights went out. He grabbed his torch out of his jacket pocket with one hand and pulled his Sig Sauer P228 with the other. There was pandemonium all around him; torches flickered everywhere. Shouts and challenges flew amid the chaos, but Michael ignored it all. He shone his torch onto the president’s seat. It was empty.

Someone grabbed his shoulder. He spun round and shone his torch into the face of the detail’s leader, Daniel Mitchelton. Michael shook his head. “The president’s gone, sir.”

The lights came back on. Mitchelton swept his gaze around the room. “He’s not the only one, Mick.”

A brief lull in the pandemonium followed. Security agents and political aides all stared at one another in perplexity. Twenty of the world’s leaders had vanished into thin air.

Michael and his boss exchanged a look. Mitchelton nodded. “The alien.”

*****

Easter Island

Kestil smiled at the bemused faces of the assembled world leaders before him. He went to a lot of trouble to get the seating around the table perfectly matched to the room he portaled them in from. Thus, from their viewpoint, they hadn’t moved. However, instead of a climate controlled conference room, they were now seated around a table out in the open, with a windswept vista of the Pacific Ocean not far away.

He held up both hands to the alarmed group of VIPs. “Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated and calm. You are in no danger. I would ask you all to be quiet, but I don’t need to. I have removed your ability to speak, for now, as I know each and every one of you is fond of doing exactly that.” He saw President Maitland’s baleful glare and smiled at him. “Please,
all
of you, hear me out patiently. I promise you will find it very enlightening.”

He banged his hands together. “So, for starters, where are we?” He swept a hand to indicate the view before them. “Easter Island, former home of the Rapanui. A very fitting site for this little discussion of ours.” The assembled politicians exchanged puzzled looks as Kestil continued.

“This island is the most isolated inhabited place on the planet, did you know that?” He turned full circle, as if to consider the view. “It’s not much to look at, though, is it? Lots of grass, some hideous stone statues, and a few palm groves. However, it wasn’t always like this. At one time, it was a literal paradise. It was covered in beautiful forests of sub-tropical trees. Until the Rapanui arrived.”

He glanced at his prestigious audience. The entire group sat and eyed him warily. None of them tried to get to their feet; they just sat there and watched him. He smiled and continued; “It’s worthy of note that the local Polynesian word for tree actually means ‘wealth’, or ‘riches’. It’s no surprise they would consider trees to be wealth, really. They used every part of the trees in their daily lives; the fruit, the leaves, the bark, the wood, all of it.” He held up a finger. “Guess what happened next.”

Everyone knew the answer to that question. “Yes,” Kestil continued, “they consumed and they consumed. Year after year, tree upon tree, hectare upon hectare, they destroyed it; every last bit of it. Inevitably, they fell to civil war; a petty squabble over the last remnants of what was once an abundant supply of wealth. When the Europeans arrived, the disease they brought with them finished off an already decimated population.”

Kestil sighed. “Of course, the Rapanui were simple natives, not like the modern and sophisticated people before me here today.” He held out a hand towards them. “Such an advanced civilization would never over-exploit the resources of their land and seas without a plan to replenish their supply, now would they?”

The group of world leaders all stared down at the table in front of them. The aim of Kestil’s lecture was lost on no one. He gave them a minute to ponder his words before he continued. “The trouble with you people is that you’re stuck on a treadmill you can’t get off. If you stop the pillage and distribution of the world’s resources, you lose the fealty of those you purport to lead, don’t you? Then again, preservation of this planet isn’t really on
everyone’s
agenda, is it?”

Several of those assembled exchanged a furtive glance. President Maitland frowned at Kestil and shook his head. His face clearly indicated he did not consider this to be a good time. Kestil nodded slowly. “Yes, some of you know exactly what I’m on about, don’t you? Not all of you, though.” He laughed at the expressions on their faces. Some puzzled, some angry, but most of them frightened.

Kestil gave the Chinese president a nasty smile. “I like the name; Project Exodus. Very symbolic indeed.” The man’s face reddened.

“I must admit,” Kestil continued, “I consider myself a being who looks at the bigger picture; able to sacrifice the few to save the many. But you people; you’re something else. Each and every one of you involved in Project Exodus is comfortable with the sacrifice of nearly all of your people, just to save your own miserable hides. Now, that right there is pure evil.”

He frowned at the group. “Something puzzles me, though. With the advent of Nuthros’ intervention, and my own, for that matter, you didn’t stop work on that project. Instead, you actually
intensified
your efforts. So, let me ask you this; did you really think either one of our advanced societies would let a bunch of primitives, who can’t even manage one planet without terminally corrupting it, loose in the universe to destroy even more of them?”

He waved a hand and a hologram appeared in the center of the table. A group of spaceships bore down on an unfamiliar planet. Kestil gave a low laugh at the quizzical expressions on their faces. He waved a hand and nodded to them. “You may speak.”

He waited, but no one said anything. “Very well, keep your silence, then. I must say, for a primitive race, you did marvelously well in the location of a suitable planet. You also worked wonders in keeping it a total secret. Rare international cooperation indeed. I thought the elimination of the unfortunate astronomer who discovered it was a bit harsh, but he doubtless wanted credit for his achievement. Close to Earth in size, bearable climate. Yes, I think this planet is perfectly suitable for colonization.” He paused for dramatic effect. “Or is it? Now, enjoy the first live-fire test of our brand-new mainline weapon systems; mass drivers.”