Chapter 23

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On the dais, Laura held out her arms, palms upward, to either side. Her voice came over the Aeon security radio network. "Hold fire. It would mar our religion's launch if we shot fleeing cowards in the back."

In a few more moments, Greg's team had overpowered the two guards that stood between them and the docks and hijacked the two speedboats to take them back to Brooklyn.

"Demon squad reports all friendlies aboard and unharmed," reported Greg. "Exfiltrating via lima zulu bravo. Request pickup in one-five mikes."

Sarah let out a sigh of relief turned her attention back to the island. The commotion was dying down and Laura signaled her guard to once again rap his spear butt on the dais to draw the crowd's attention.

Laura still stood with her arms extended to either side. Suddenly, from her left, a long, gleaming scepter flew across the length of the temple and landed in her hand. From the right came a heavy golden bracelet, which slipped over her outstretched fingers perfectly.

"How did she do that?" exclaimed Sarah. "And how did she stop Bob's knife?"

"I've seen her researching all kinds of electromagnetic technologies," answered Michael. "Diamagnetic levitation has been around for decades; that must be how she stopped the knife. And if you have magnets, making metal fly around is easy. The hardest part of what she just did was to align her wrist perfectly with the trajectory of the bracelet. But if her MindWave is coordinating, it seems possible."

"Well, whatever it is, it's gotten the attention of the crowd," said Sarah.

The crowd on the stairs had settled down and were now attentively looking up at Laura. She did not make them wait long.

"Downtrodden residents of New York," she began, in a deep and confident voice, "welcome to our temple. I come to you today to make a proposition.

"Your world is at a crossroads. A cataclysm is approaching, and it cannot be stopped.

"In the face of this disaster, your leaders, limited in their powers and faculties, have done nothing to protect you.

"So, we Aeons have descended to protect mankind, to carry the torch of life forward. When you are hungry, we will provide food. When you are cold, we will provide warmth. When you are desperate with loss and fear, we will provide love and comfort, until the danger has passed."

She gestured with her head and a number of guards came out from behind pillars and pulled small cardboard boxes out of large sacks they carried. They threw armfuls of boxes out into the crowd. People pushed and shoved each other to seize the boxes that landed near them.

"Must be food," muttered Michael.

Sarah saw Kobus leering with amusement and licking his lips at the sight of the fighting within the audience. Nick was scowling.

This went on for a minute before the sacks were empty. As the pushing and shoving continued, Laura concluded her speech, now in a deep, powerful voice that carried even over the commotion of the spectators below.

"The cataclysm is inevitable. But I also spoke of a crossroads, and a proposition. You can listen to the counsel of the Aeons, serve us at the havens we are building, and support us in our great tasks. In this case, you will prosper and your children and grandchildren will remember your wisdom with gratitude.

"Or you can believe the lies told by the fellow men you appointed to protect you, yet who take every opportunity to steal your livelihoods and smear the names of those who would help you. These are the same men who have accused us of robbing you. The same men who just tried to kill me for daring to offer you gifts of food and fuel. 

"Yes, you can join them. You can vilify us, jeer at us, even take up arms against us. But I warn you, the Aeons cannot protect those who forsake us. If you take this road, the souls of your unborn grandchildren will despair as you doom them to oblivion.

"People of New York, you can denounce the Aeons, and perish in darkness, or you can meekly seek our protection, and inherit the Earth."

With that, Laura stepped backwards out of sight of the throng on the stairs.

***

Nick started his presentation on haven construction. He had resigned himself to working towards Laura's plan for the moment, even though his long-term goal was to undermine it. "As you can see, acolyte recruitment is going ahead of schedule," he said. A 3-dimensional series of green bars sprang up from the table to illustrate the point.

"Boring, tell me something I don't already know," responded Laura. Kobus chuckled. Laura still insisted on holding these weekly meetings, but was always the first to complain about their uselessness.

The three Aeons' avatars were meeting in a secure conference room in the ether, though all three were physically resident in the half-completed haven at Calvert Cliffs State Park in Maryland. Calvert Cliffs was one of a series of parks on the sliver of land between Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River. The Maryland State government, in dire need of cash to support emergency economic programs, had sold the park to the Aeons in return for a ton of pure gold.

Nick continued his presentation, which was being beamed to other Aeons around the world. "Calvert Cliffs was a compromise - it offers an imperfect mix of the defensibility and self-sufficiency we want for our network of havens. The geography is broken up by tracts of land that carry low level radiation from the uranium plant that once operated here. The radiation levels aren't harmful to people, but can cause signal interference and, over time, might corrupt any data cable laid near it. This fact complicated our hookup to the intercontinental cables that Oceanic Cable, a company owned by Jakobus Van der Merwe and Abril Espinoza, already laid. The best solution to the problem was that we build a backhaul line to meet the main line at a terminal twenty miles north of the haven."

He brought up a three-dimensional map of the peninsula. "The peninsula itself is sparsely populated, in part because of fears about the radiation contamination. However, it has bridges connecting it to more heavily populated areas to the South, West, and East, eliminating much of the safety that comes with isolation. Its location inside Chesapeake Bay and the steep rocky cliffs that rise above the water make it quite safe from storm surges and flooding, though the soil is only passably fertile. The Patuxent River provides fresh water and a current that we can harness to generate electricity."

"I think you'll agree that despite its shortcomings, Calvert Cliffs is good enough to serve as a testing ground to build the first of our planned network of thirty to forty havens around the world. We have decided to name this location Sanctuary, to honor what it represents for Aeons and our followers."

Now he brought up a schematic of the Sanctuary facility. "Sanctuary deserves the name. Its walls are built high, and sophisticated sensors are installed throughout it. A food lab modeled on Langar Foods' facilities is being installed to mitigate the threat that the facility's inhabitants could be starved out. We have also buried the cable connection deeply, armored the cable with steel, and camouflaged the terminal building."

"How much time am I gonna waste every day running this bladdy Sanctuary of yours?" asked Kobus.

"Very little. As you know, our Order of Knowledge has seen its membership skyrocket. Newly recruited acolytes will be trained in every aspect of Sanctuary's upkeep, from running the cable connections to securing its perimeter."

"So what do I do while I'm there, ek se?"

"I'm glad you asked, Kobus. At the center of the facility will be our home, a building called the divine residence." He brought up a close up image of a squat forty foot tall structure, constructed of steel reinforced concrete modeled to look like granite. It had only one entrance, and was built like a military bunker with gun ports instead of windows.

"It may not look charming, but it's totally secure. The concrete used in its construction was mixed with iron and carbon fibers, to make it impervious to radio waves. This will prevent eavesdropping by satellites or attacks by radio frequencies designed to damage computer equipment.

"But the divine residence's most important features lie one hundred feet underground. In the unfinished subterranean chambers, our bodies will slumber in custom designed composite sarcophagi while our minds roam the ether." Nick secretly hoped that he could use his uninterrupted presence in the ether to locate and unlock some of Laura's dirty secrets.

"In addition to the undersea cable connection, a satellite receiver is being installed on the roof, giving the facility a backup way to connect to the ether."

"Do those satellites even work yet, bra?" asked Kobus.

"Not really yet," admitted Nick. "As you must know Kobus, since you're an investor in it, our first satellite is being launched today. It'll be another year or two until we have a full set in orbit."

Laura broke in. "Thank you for the update, Nick. Let's turn off the public feed and move to private Sparkwise matters. My source in the Attorney General's office told me the government's investigation into those energy riots-"

Her voice faded. She stared intently at a corner of the room. Nick followed her gaze, and saw nothing but a shadow.

"Who is that?" she demanded.

"Who?" asked Nick, straining his eyes to see. It was strange, he thought, that there was a shadow in the corner of the well-lit room.

"It was there," insisted Laura, standing up angrily. "I saw it!"

"Bladdy hell, Laura, are you seeing ghosts? I-" Kobus began.

He was interrupted by an explosion. Nick flinched and covered his face, waiting tensely for debris and shockwaves to tear him apart.

After a moment, Nick raised his fingers from over his eyes. He felt foolish. Of course he could not be hurt by an explosion in the ether. No form of physical harm was possible. At least the other two Aeons had clearly also been shocked by the blast, and were similarly recovering their composure.

Why had there be an explosion in their board room? As Nick regained his senses, he realized that their MindWaves had interrupted the business meeting with real time footage of an unfolding event somewhere in the real world.

Even has he figured that out, he was receiving additional information through his MindWave. The rocket upon which they had been preparing to launch their first communications satellite had just detonated on its launch pad in Florida.

"How the hell did that missile blow up?" cried Nick. He wondered if it was another scheme by Laura to convince the Aeons they were being persecuted. But he didn't dare to voice his suspicion. Not until he had some kind of concrete proof.

More information was already being fed to them by their MindWaves. Video footage from the launch pad showed a man wearing a workman's overalls pull a handgun out of a tool case and shoot two guards. The man then scrambled up an access ladder towards the rocket. He was out of the security camera's frame for a few moments before the image abruptly turned to static.

"A suicide bomber?" asked Kobus, clearly in disbelief. "Who was this fokking guy?"

Already, information to answer his question was becoming available as their MindWaves used face recognition software to cross-reference the video with personnel files, and checked security access records. The bomber was most likely a man named David Fisher, Nick's MindWave was now telling him. Fisher was a low-level technician working at the satellite launch facility. He had been employed by an engineering company owned by Abril for two years and had an unblemished record until now.

While the group sat in stunned silence, they heard Abril knocking on the conference room's doors. Her avatar needed permission to join the secure meeting, which was currently officially only open to members of Sparkwise Energy's board of directors.

"Come in," said Laura without looking to Nick or Kobus for their assent.

Abril slipped into the room without delay, letting the door close slowly behind her.

"You've seen the rocket explosion, right?" Abril asked in an unsteady voice.

"Ja, of course," replied Kobus through bared fangs. "A human technician named David Fisher blew it up."

"God damn it, Fisher's a member of Cruz' National Unity Church." Laura suddenly screamed, slamming her hand on the table. "Those religious nuts have been talking about waging a holy war against us. I have a database of all their members; David Fisher was once an assistant Deacon at a church in Missouri that allied itself with Cruz three months ago. Damn it, Abril, we all have access to this information. Why didn't you check this human bastard's background properly? How could you be so careless!"

Abril looked down in muted acceptance of Laura's rebuke, her lower lip trembling.

Kobus interjected, leaning forward over the table so his bulk obscured Abril from Laura's view. He spoke to Laura. "It's all right. There's no use fighting amongst each other over a simple mistake, ne."

Laura took a deep breath, visibly working to calm herself. Nick suspected that she was also using her MindWave to release serotonin or endorphin into her blood, assuming the attack was truly a surprise to her. It all seemed a little convenient and staged. Since the riots in New York, Nick had watched Reverend Cruz' sermons and seen her advocating non-violence, not the radical messages Laura accused her of spouting. A suicide attack didn't seem to fit with the NUC's message.

Laura spoke. "I hope everyone has learned the lesson to take every precaution. We are under siege, and this is only the first of many attacks we should expect."

Nick could see that Laura was going to use this event to reinforce the Aeons' hatred of humans. He moved to speak before she could. If he could say something to dampen the passion in the room, Laura might again remember her commitment to work with natural humans. "Guys, let's all just keep calm. This was an isolated incident. We don't even know if the NUC was involved. We can't let it destroy our trust in all naturals. We need to-"

"Trust? It was hard enough to trust the nats before. But after this? This is like a declaration of war!" Abril's shrill words cut across Nick's voice.

Nick was stunned. Abril was the most timid of the Aeons. If even she was calling for war, what of the others? If he pressed too hard for a moderate response, he might lose what little influence he had over this group, and his chance of uncovering Laura's plots. Then again, maybe if he pushed hard enough he could provoke Laura into revealing her true intentions. He paused, unsure of how to pursue his cause.

Laura rose and leaned over the table, staring right at Abril. Abril shrank back under Laura's gaze, but Laura had apparently already forgotten her anger at her fellow Aeon. She smiled as if to reassure the other woman. "Yes, Abril. This is a war, yet it's one we've foreseen," she turned her gaze towards Nick and her smile faded. "And anyone who thinks this attack was planned by one or two isolated individuals is being naïve, or disloyal."

Nick felt a fiery anger burning in his gut at Laura's words. But instead of challenging her, he decided to play into her desire to explain her vision. Maybe she would finally reveal some violent, illegal plan. "What do you propose we do to fight this war, Laura?"

Laura turned back to Abril. "The cost of that satellite... My God, the impudence! We will strike back. But first we need to get our defenses in order. Abril, I need you to speed up the construction of the havens. And I have some improvements I want you to add. And all of you, there's training you need to start. Combat training."

"You mean..." Abril asked in a small voice. "You mean, we might have to be involved in the fighting ourselves?"

"We can't rule it out," said Laura sternly. Then she softened her tone into the reassuring voice of a mother. "But don't worry, Abril, our MindWaves, coupled with the right equipment, will make even the weakest of us into a powerful warrior."

***

"These guys have good protection," said Sarah, in a respectful voice. Despite Michael's exceptional skill at penetrating secured networks, even he had nearly been caught.

Michael piped in. "They've set up a sophisticated avatar-only virtual world. We can't eavesdrop without actually being there. I was able to sneak in when they were broadcasting to the other Aeons without being noticed. But once they moved to a private meeting, Laura switched on some kind of passive scanning ability that can see right through our cloaking procedures in a matter of minutes. If that satellite rocket hadn't exploded when it did, I would have been trapped. She might have traced me all the way back here to the ranch."

"How'd you get out of the secure room?" asked Colonel Jaeger, his brow scrunched up. As the campaign to spy on and disrupt the Aeons had stepped up in its intensity, he was attending the briefings and debriefings more and more frequently. Sarah wished he did not; his cold manner put her on edge.

"In all the confusion, they turned their attention to the explosion, Sir. When Laura opened the door for Abril, it gave me a chance to sneak out through the temporary opening in the security systems."

"If you can't track them in person, why don't you go back to the Sparkwise servers you almost broke into a few months ago?"

"Sir, we haven't been able to find a way back to those servers."

"How the hell-" Jaeger grimaced and recomposed his sentence. "You guys have spent months and months following Laura Mayer. You have the same equipment as her, and much better training. Why are you struggling just not to get caught?"

Michael looked down at his hands, his face a mask. Sarah didn't know what to say to defend him.

Willy stepped in, "Sir, I think-"

Jaeger brushed him away. "I am not blaming you or your agents, Johnson. Let's figure out where we're getting beaten so we can fix the problem and start winning."

Despite Jaeger's words, Sarah could tell that he did, in fact, blame Willy, Michael and her. She took the initiative to explain the challenges they faced to the Colonel.  "Sir, they have a lot more time and resources to throw at this problem than we ever did. Laura's spent years building up layer after layer of overlapping security systems."

Jaeger rubbed his hands together pensively. "Is it possible they've broken into our networks and are spying on us?"

Michael responded. "I don't think so, sir."

"You don't think so?" Jaeger demanded. "Three months ago they somehow foresaw our raid on their damn temple and had it aborted at the last minute."

"We port all our sensitive communications through the NSA's photon entanglement encryption system, sir. I don't think even Laura Mayer has found a way to outsmart quantum physics. So the leak didn't come from our side." Michael didn't ask Jaeger who had aborted the raid. If Jaeger knew the answer to that question, he had not shared it with the rest of the team yet.

"Good. Keep investigating. I know Laura is up to something. For all we know, she blew up her own satellite to get her people pissed off at the National Unity Church." He rose and walked to the door, where he turned back and rubbed his hands

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