Chapter 15

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

                  

Laura stepped around from behind the apple tree, her long white robes flowing behind her in the breeze and her golden tiara glinting in the sun. She was giving Nick a severe look, as if she were annoyed or concerned by his sudden appearance.

"We need to talk."

"We're talking now."

"About twenty different government organizations are investigating Sparkwise."

Laura smiled and her features relaxed a little. "Oh is that was has you worried? I'm already taking care of it."

"What does that mean?"

"It means you can go back to dating your nat girlfriend."

"Don't change the subject. What is Sparkwise doing that has the government investigating us?"

"Nothing. We're doing nothing at all, Nick. Nothing except fulfilling our destiny. The investigations are politically motivated. The have-nots are in a jealous rage against those more successful than them."

"How can I be sure? There are files I don't have access to."

Now Laura's face hardened. "You would have access to all the files, if you were fully focused on your duties. But you're not. Just now you accused me of changing the subject when I said you can get back to your nat girlfriend. In fact I wasn't changing the subject. That is the subject. Even when you're in Sparkwise strategy sessions, you're only half there. Part of you is always dreaming about your Sarah. So don't blame me if certain details of our operations have escaped your notice."

Nick was off balance from the direction of Laura's anger. He'd expected a confrontation about Sparkwise, not about Sarah. He looked away. "Kobus spends hours in the ether chasing nymphs or whatever turns him on. But you let him in on all of Sparkwise's operations. What's the problem with me dating a real person?"

"I want to know why you're wasting your time on someone so unworthy of you."

Nick's eyes narrowed and he glared back at Laura. "You don't even know her."

"I don't want to."

"Why do you hate her without the slightest clue about who she is?"

Laura's face relaxed into an empathic expression and she placed a reassuring hand on his cheek. "I don't hate her. She is what she is, just another natural human dependent on the Aeons to save her. What bothers me is not Sarah, but you. You're infatuated with her. You're taking advantage of someone inferior to you. And you should know you deserve better."

Nick pulled away, disgusted at her patronizing attitude. "Better? Why do I deserve better?"

"Because you're an Aeon."

"And what is so special about being an Aeon?"

"You know as well as I do, Nick. You have a great destiny. You have infinite knowledge, innate and-"

"Infinite knowledge? Infinite? What is my favorite color, Laura?"

Laura stared at him blankly.

"Do you begin to see that our knowledge is not infinite?"

"That's a trivial example," said Laura shrilly, defensiveness creeping into her normally confident tone. Her hands shook in anger. "I know the things that are important. We know them."

"Yeah, I know the price of crude oil in Latvia and I know the pass through rates of every gas pipeline in the nation. I guess those are important."

Laura smiled faintly, her voice returning to a warm tone. "I knew you were smart enough to see this, Nick, and that is what has allowed us to build Sparkwise Energy into a global energy company in a single year."

"But I don't care. Do you know what's more important than oil prices?"

Laura looked at him, clearly unsure of how to respond.

"All I care about is whether Sarah loves me. Can your MindWave tell you that? Because mine can't."

Laura's features turned bright red but Nick exited her world before she could form her response.

He'd fought with his parents and he'd fought with Laura. He was running out of people to talk to. Thankfully, he still had one more person he could discuss his thoughts with. He keyed up the holophone function of his MindWave.

***

Sarah was strapped into one of the cooling chairs at the ranch, next to Michael. They were about to begin an evening session of mapping out the Aeons' network infrastructure.

Unexpectedly, the holophone integrated into her TacWave began ringing. She saw that the caller was Nick Lal and felt a surge of excitement. "Sorry, Michael, duty calls."

"Another call from your Aeon boyfriend?" Sarah ignored the edge in Michael's voice. He needed to get over the fact that her job was to date Nick Lal.

"Just go in first, Michael, I'll be along in a second."

She switched on the holophone emulator in her TacWave. Though she was standing in a room full of secret government computer equipment, to Nick it would appear that she was sitting on a luxurious leather couch and sipping a glass of wine. "Hey there, how's it going?"

"OK, I guess."

"You look kind of glum, Nick. You sure everything's ok?"

"Just some dumb arguments with my parents."

"Sounds normal."

"I'm really angry this time though. I don't think I'm going to speak to them again."

Sarah felt a stab of sadness that someone who was lucky enough to still have parents would turn away from them, even after the worst of fights. But this wasn't a pain she could share with Nick, not when her undercover persona had parents. "What was the fight about?"

"My company. You've probably seen it on the National News Network by now. It's Sparkwise."

"You're involved in Sparkwise? The news said the names of the owners were being held confidential while the investigation proceeded. I had no idea that was you..."

Sarah's mind was racing while she thought through how this conversation might play out. She would have to play dumb until she was sure of why Nick was discussing Sparkwise with her. If he indicated any willingness to cooperate with the government, she could hint that she could help him. Yet she still couldn't reveal her true identity to him.

Her train of thought was interrupted by an urgent message from Michael that cut across her holophone feed. "Sarah, I've found a hole in Sparkwise's firewall. Get in here and help me."

***

Nick was working up the courage to admit to Sarah that he thought some of the allegations against Sparkwise might be true and wanted to find a confidential way to cooperate with the government. But now his holophone feed was drowned out by an emergency MindWave message from Laura. "Nick, our firewall is being infiltrated. Get in here and help me defend it."

"By the government?"

"Can't be. They would have to show a warrant. It must be some damn nat hacker."

Nick reluctantly decided he would have to help defend the firewall. If he was going to turn state's witness against Sparkwise, he would need to keep Laura's trust for as long as possible. In fact, he'd have to increase her trust in him, so that she'd give him access to the most secret files.

He switched back to his holophone call with Sarah. "Hey don't go anywhere. I've got another call I have to take."

"It's all right, I have the same problem," Sarah responded. Her voice sounded distracted and strained. "Keep the line open and give me a shout when you're done."

***

Michael's request had come at a terrible time. Sarah thought Nick's tone over the holophone suggested that he was getting ready to confess something to her. Maybe even to ask her advice in how to cooperate with the government. It would be a major intelligence coup for her, and it would have earned Nick immunity.

But duty called.

She appeared in the multinet at Michael's location, a large stone-walled rectangular room, about one hundred feet long, fifty wide, and thirty high. In the center of the space, a four by four array of steel safes floated in the air. Each safe was a three foot cube. The lowest row of safes hovered about an inch off the ground. Each of the three rows above it was suspended two feet above the one below. Likewise, each column was spaced two feet distant from the ones to its left and right. There was a ledge that ran around the room at about the same height as the third row of safes. The only other features in the room were doorways at either end.

Michael was crouched over a prone polar bear near one of the doorways. Sarah saw that he was busy binding the bear with thick ropes. In addition to the martial gear he had worn to the Five Mile Creek server, Michael now wore a ninja-style face mask that hid his identity. Sarah conjured a stretchy leather ski mask and pulled it over her head, leaving only her eyes exposed.

Michael gave a final tug on the ropes and stood up.

"You think you can bind me, jou bliksem?" roared the polar bear.

Michael kicked the bear and said "Meet Jakobus Van der Merwe, also known as Kobus."

"Next time you say my name you'll be on your knees begging for mercy!" The animal turned its head and leered at Sarah. "En jy sal wees op jou rug en bedel vir meer."

Michael ignored Kobus and turned to the floating array of steel safes. "This is the secure Sparkwise server room."

"How did you get in here?"

"The Aeons have expanded their systems so fast I guess they just made a mistake. There was one firewall in the Aeon Avionics email server that wasn't correctly installed, and the email server had connections to a data-pooling system with Sparkwise, and from there I could get to here."

"What should we do now? Report back to base?"

"No, this is a one-time chance." He gestured at Kobus. "They clearly know the vulnerability exists now and will close it."

"OK. Do you really think we can break into the safes?" Sarah didn't want to move aggressively now. If they uncovered proof of Sparkwise's crimes before Nick could confess to them, he would never get a chance to avoid arrest. She just needed a few more minutes of talking to him.

She switched back to her holophone conversation. "Nick, are you there? It really sounded like there was something you wanted to discuss and I don't want to leave you hanging."

"Yeah," Nick answered. "I do have something to talk about. Just as soon as I'm free."

"I might have to go soon, Nick."

"Sorry. I'll hurry."

Sarah resisted the urge to curse at him and switched her consciousness back to the Sparkwise server.

"We don't have the encryption key to unlock the safes," Michael was explaining. "But we can always try a brute force attack."

"I thought the best encryption was unbreakable."

"Well they don't have the quantum encryption systems we have. And even if they did, it would still be vulnerable to brute force. It's just a matter of having enough force." Michael pulled a huge sledgehammer from out of his sash and passed it to Sarah.

"How the hell do you carry all this stuff around in your sash?" Sarah muttered.

"You better hope he has a fokkin tenk in there," growled Kobus.

"And why don't you carry a muzzle, too?" She took a few reluctant steps towards the nearest safe and began lining up a swing.

Before she could strike, a figure ran into the room. He was dressed in baggy white pants held up by an orange belt, and a billowing navy blue top. A high black turban covered his head. In his hand, he carried a curved scimitar-like blade.

It was Nick!

"It's about time you got here, bra! Don't worry, I got your back!" called Kobus.

As Nick brandished his sword and turned towards Michael, Sarah switched back to her holophone. "Nick I need to talk to you now!"

"Almost done," he said breathlessly.

Inside Sparkwise's server, Michael was parrying Nick's sword blows with a long spear with red feathers near its tip. The two whirled around each other in furious circles.

Michael jabbed with his spear at Nick's head six times in rapid succession. Nick diverted the first five strikes with his sword and on the sixth dodged down and forward, aiming a vicious swing at Michael's knees. Michael leaped over Nick's sword while spinning backwards. As he landed, he brought his spear point down in a wide arc as if it were a hammer. Nick saw the attack coming and spun away to the left, aiming a backhand blow back at Michael as he completed his turn. Luckily Michael moved behind the shaft of his spear, which he used to block the blade.

The two warriors parted for a moment and circled each other, looking for weaknesses.

As Sarah watched the combat, she felt herself filling with fury. Just when she'd thought Nick was ready to confess to her about Sparkwise, he was actually acting to defend the company. When she had defended Nick to Willy and Colonel Jaeger, when she had believed in him, she had been proving herself a fool.

She realized now that she'd fallen in love with Nick. All the times she'd rushed to his defense, she'd been deceiving herself about her reasons. She wasn't just protecting him because he was a potential intelligence source. She was trying to protect him because of how she felt about him. And the excitement she'd felt in his presence wasn't simply the innocent thrill of the hunt. It was the tension of being in his presence at all. 

The depth of her feelings just made her realization that she'd been wrong about him all the more painful. Indignation, shame, and rage all boiled up within her. She was going to get revenge.

When Nick's back was to her, she flung her hammer at him. It twisted slowly as it flew through the air, and then impacted him right between the shoulder blades. He let out a gasp and fell to the ground.

"Jammer! I guess I didn't really have your back, bra," exclaimed Kobus from the ground.

She switched back to her holophone. She spoke as sweetly as she could. "How are things going over there, Nick? Are you done yet?"

"Um, I hit a bit of a snag, Sarah."

She let the sweetness drain out of her voice. "I bet you did."

She switched back to Sparkwise, and drove her knee into Nick's back to hold him down on the floor. She grinned as she heard him cursing over the holophone audio link, and then cut the holophone connection.

While she held down Nick, Michael retrieved the sledgehammer and strode up to the nearest of the floating safes. "Like I said, it's just a matter of having enough force." He wound up and let loose a swing so powerful he nearly lost his balance. The hammer head impacted the safe's lock with a resounding clang, leaving a deep dent. Michael recovered his footing and took another wild swing, and then another. "Just a matter of force" he repeated between his grunts.

Finally, the safe burst open and an avalanche of paper documents burst out of it and fell scattered on the floor. "Score!" said Michael happily.

"Jy bliksem, dit is my goed!" cried a visibly upset Kobus. "Ek gaan rip jou skrotum af en gebruik dit vir 'n sleutelhanger."

"Get out of my server!" the woman's voice was deep and powerful. Sarah turned her head just in time to see the same red-haired warrior that had overpowered her at the Five Mile Creek server striding towards them, sword and shield at the ready. This time, Sarah knew the woman was Laura Mayer. Laura was flanked by two enormous lionesses.

"Sarah, hold them off while I collect some of this data!"

Sarah got off of Nick's back. She had a sword and dagger in her belt, but she knew Michael's spear would be a better weapon to hold off the cats. She quickly retrieved it from where Michael had set it on the ground.

The two lionesses roared and pounced towards her simultaneously. One came right at her throat. Sarah held the spear firmly and gored it through its mouth. The cat's momentum was so great that it travelled all the way up the shaft of the spear, killing itself yet still slamming into Sarah with enough speed to knock her on her back. Sarah hit the ground hard and struggled to push the dead weight of the feline off of her.

Before she could budge it, the other cat bounded up and leaned over her face, its maws gaping open to reveal a row of jagged teeth. She struggled and got a hand free, pulled the knife from the sheath on her belt, and stabbed the beast in the side. The cat roared in fury and backed off of her. She turned to Michael to ask for help.

Michael was engaged in one-on-one combat with Laura. Unable to swing fast enough with his unwieldy sledgehammer to parry her furious sword blows, he was backing up steadily, looking for an opening to strike. He was circling as he backed up, so that he wouldn't be forced into a corner. But his circling was taking him right towards-

"Michael watch out!" she screamed.

It was too late. Nick had crawled to his knees and Michael had backed right into him. Nick seized Michael's legs, holding him immobile. Michael pulled away and used the flat of his hammer to knock Nick in the ribs, sending him sprawling onto the pile of papers that had spilled out of the broken safe.

But now Michael's back was turned on Laura, who unleashed a brutal diagonal sword stroke that sent Michael's head rolling away down the length of the room.

Kobus roared "She got your head, maar jou skrotum is myne!"

Laura turned towards Sarah to finish her off. Sarah was still trapped under the dead lioness. She weakly flung her knife at the approaching Aeon. The weapon fell short and skittered across the stone floor, until Laura used her sandal-clad foot to stop it. "I've seen you before," said Laura as she approached. "You escaped me at Five Mile Creek. This time I'm going to find out who you really are."

Just before Laura reached her, Sarah's connection to the multinet was cut off.

Please don't hesitate to leave comments or vote! I always appreciate reader feedback.

False Idols (and its sequel Do No Evil) are available for sale elsewhere but this novel is free on Wattpad.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net