Brainrush 05 - Everlast 02: Ephemeral
Cover Text
In Amsterdam, a
visionary scientist is laying the groundwork for a cybernetic life-extension
project that will transfer individual consciousness to a personalized avatar.
Halfway around the world, his brilliant grandson is secretly planning to use
the same technology to infiltrate the world’s most secure networks. But the
scientific advances necessary to perfect the brain-to-computer interface are
slow in coming, too slow for the aging founder of the Everlast foundation—who
may die before realizing his dream of immortality—and too slow for his ruthless
grandson, who will stop at nothing to attain the recognition that is his
birthright.
Caught in the
middle are Jake Bronson and his seven-year-old son, Alex, whose combined mental
gifts might provide the key to leapfrogging the impasse.
Jake’s family
and closest friends have been taken by a mysterious organization with access to
every surveillance system on the planet. In this exciting conclusion to the
Everlast
duology, Jake must use every cell in his failing brain to evade capture, rescue
his loved ones, and stop a madman’s plans for global chaos.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are
fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and
not intended by the author.
Text and cover copyright © 2014 Richard Bard
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written
permission of the publisher.
Published by Richard Bard
PO Box 107
Redondo Beach, California 90277
ISBN-13: 978-0692321379
ISBN-10: 0692321373
LCCN: 2014920811
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For my daughter,
Danielle, whose heartfelt words inspire me more than she’ll ever know.
She wrote:
I’m so proud to
call you my dad. You inspire me every day to be the best I can be, and there is
not a day that goes by that I don’t think about you or what you would do in a
situation.
I love you!
Danielle
Hong Kong
10:00 a.m.
J
IAOLONG
RIPPED OFF
his headset and glared at the man displayed on the central
wall screen in the control room. Lin was beside him, gripping his arm. Sister
Min stood directly in front of the screen, eyes fixed on the image, fists
clenched at her sides.
“Enhancing,” lead engineer Pak said, manipulating the image
from his panel. Sister Zhin hovered behind Pak, hands on her hips. Everyone
else in the busy room had quieted. The enhancement software washed away
extraneous pixels and new ones were interpolated into place. The image
clarified, Pak rotated the figure and zoomed in on the face. There was no
mistake. It was Jake Bronson. At the Hong Kong International airport.
A flash of conflicting emotions arose within Jiaolong. On
the one hand, he was determined to bring pain to the man who’d murdered his
parents and crushed his dreams of a new world. But on the other hand, he needed
to keep the man safe until his unique abilities could be used to save his
grandfather.
“What’s the time stamp?” Jiaolong asked.
“Fifteen minutes ago.”
“Dispatch teams to the airport immediately.”
“Already done,” Min said, storming between the rows of
consoles to join Jiaolong and Lin.
“Listen to me!” Jiaolong said. Keyboards quieted and every
person in the room looked his way. “This is priority one. We need to find him
fast. I want eyes from every camera in and around the airport for a radius of
five miles. We found him once, we’ll do so again. Also, tap into every system
at the airport. Pierce every security level. I want to know where he flew in
from, when he landed, who he traveled with, what bathrooms he used—everything!
The order is simple. Locate and apprehend. Now!”
The team jumped into action faster than a cleaved beehive.
Keyboards sang, orders were issued, and search programs streamed thousands of
images across screens. The sight was like a salve for Jiaolong’s nerves.
“How did he know to come to Hong Kong?” Lin asked.
“He’s smart, remember?” Zhin said. “When his attempt to
plant a tracker in Min’s purse didn’t work, he found another way.”
“Someone must be helping him,” Min said.
“Perhaps,” Jiaolong said.
“But who?” Lin asked. “And do you think he knows about this
specific location?”
Jiaolong considered it. “It doesn’t matter. Our course is
set, in any case. We simply have to move up the timetable.”
“You mean... ” Lin’s voice trailed.
Zhin drew her lips into a thin line. “You’re right, of
course.”
“Finally,” Min said.
“With luck, he’ll be in hand soon. So let’s arrange a little
welcome for him.”
All three sisters nodded in unison.
“And set the charges,” he added. “We’ll leave after
tonight’s tournament. It will be our final chance to get the information we
need from TurboHacker the easy way. If it works, he’ll no longer be a threat
and will suffer the same fate as the greens. Otherwise, we’ll take him with us
and allow sister Min to squeeze it out of him.”
Min smiled at the prospect.
“One way or another,” he said, “TurboHacker’s secrets will
be ours.”
2
Hong Kong International Airport
J
AKE
WAS AMAZED
at Lacey’s transformation. It wasn’t just the bun wig,
glasses, and sagging synthetic skin added to her face. It was the way she held
herself, with her shoulders slumped as if carrying a hidden burden. Padding
under her slacks and sweater completed the image. The beautiful actress who
turned heads had been replaced by a retired schoolteacher, who sat across from
him in a shadowed alcove of a restaurant at the Hong Kong International
Airport, sipping a cup of tea.
Between weather delays, missing their connecting flight, and
making the arrangements to get everything organized here in Hong Kong, it had
taken them over a day to get here. But everything was set and all they could do
now was sit and wait.
“How’d you do it?” he asked. “It looked so real on the
video. Your entire face was on fire.”
“I was scared to death,” Lacey said. “Pete’s crew modified
the stunt car so that the passenger seat flipped back on a spring hinge. There
was an escape hole cut in the floorboard beneath it. The trick was making sure
that the car stopped directly over the manhole cover. Fortunately, I wasn’t
actually driving. Pete’s guys handled it with remote controls.”
“It looked like the car was hauling butt when it hit the
wall.”
“Yeah, the impact was the worst part. But the specialized
air bags did the trick.” She rubbed her sternum. “For the most part, anyway.
After that, it was all about scrambling through the escape hole into the sewer while
Skylar climbed up to take my place. The car was filled with smoke to hide our
movements. One of Pete’s guys was waiting to help me down the ladder and
replace the manhole cover. In the meantime, Skylar set herself on fire and
tumbled out the driver’s seat.”
“It looked so damn real,” he said. The edge of his false
mustache itched. Jake was wearing the same facial disguise he’d used before,
over cargo slacks and linen sport coat.
“Like Pete said, smoke ’n’ mirrors. I owe him and Sky my
life.”
The four of them had cleared customs forty-five minutes ago.
Pete and Skylar had taken off to hook up with their local contacts who were waiting
at the arrivals curb, while Jake and Lacey had headed for the concourse restaurant
where they were now seated. Since they’d all traveled separately on the plane, this
was the first time he and Lacey had a moment together alone.
“We’re lucky to have them,” Jake said, casually scanning the
restaurant entrance for any sign of the teams that he knew would be searching
for him after the performance he’d staged shortly after they landed.
She nodded, exhaling a slow breath. Her gaze turned out the
window toward the pressing metropolis stretching into the distance, the
surrounding ring of mist-covered mountains forcing the harbor city to grow
upward rather than outward, reminding Jake that Hong Kong was one of the most
densely populated cities in the world, with twenty-five percent more
skyscrapers than New York City.
“Do you really think he’s out there?” she asked.
The question hung for a moment, fueling his own doubts, and
he wondered if he’d led them halfway around the world for nothing. He was still
crafting his reply when he spotted two young Asian men rush into the
restaurant, both wearing all-too-familiar glasses. They moved past the
protesting hostess, splitting up like wolves on the prowl as they wound their
way around either side of the room, scanning the guests.
Jake fought the urge to turn away, instead stuffing a
French fry into his mouth as he eased the tension from his face.
They’re looking for Jake Bronson, not a bespectacled
older man with a bulky nose, mustache, glasses, and baseball cap.
“Stay cool,” he said as he chewed. “We’ve got company.”
Lacey shifted into her role as if a director had shouted, “Action!”
“It’s so wonderful to be here,” she said, beaming. “It’s one
thing to read about it, but to finally get a chance to experience the
excitement firsthand...”
As she continued Jake tuned her out, nodding intermittently
as he savored several more fries, dipping each into the circle of ketchup he’d
poured on the side of his plate. He glanced up as one of the men approached
their table and dismissed Jake as he hurried past. A few moments later, the man
and his partner completed the circuit and were gone. Jake heaved a sigh of
relief.
“It’s happening,” Lacey said, unable to hide her excitement.
“I think so,” he said, the tiny hairs on the back of his
neck bristling. He tapped a quick message into his cell phone.
It took two minutes before his phone finally vibrated with
Pete’s confirmation that the rest of team was in place. He pocketed the phone
then laid several bills on the table. “That’s our cue,” he said. “You first.
I’ll follow.”
Lacey rose, extended the handle of her roller bag, and made
her way out of the restaurant with a shuffle that matched her elderly disguise.
He hoisted his backpack and followed from a distance. It was late morning, the
airport was packed with travelers, and he took care to maintain a clear sight line.
He trailed her down the escalator to the baggage claim area, remaining inside
as she strode through the exit and approached the row of cars lining the curb.
That’s when he spotted them, a pair of men standing outside observing the
crowds through stylish eyewear. They had the same look and feel as the two
who’d searched the restaurant, and for the first time since they’d landed, Jake
felt a spark of hope that their plan might work.
Lacey brushed past the men and they never gave her a second
glance. She waved toward the parked vehicles and Pete stepped out of a Honda
minivan to greet her with a hug and usher her into the backseat. As Pete popped
the rear hatch to stow her bag, Jake caught the casual nod he exchanged with a
trio of helmeted motorcyclists parked on the island across the street.
Time to go to work.
Jake turned around and headed for the nearest restroom, his
brain cataloging and dissecting the walls and ceilings of the return course
he’d be making in the next few minutes. He marked two CCTV cameras at the exit
and three more covering the corridor leading to the restroom.
Plenty.
Once inside, he locked himself in the nearest stall and hung
his backpack on the wall hook. Like the rest of airport, the bathroom was clean,
with modern facilities that included a noisemaking cyclone feature on the
toilet, allowing users to create a cone of sound privacy when they did their
business. He didn’t need privacy now as he removed his cap, peeled off his
disguise, and stuffed it all into his pack.
He unrolled a blue windbreaker and slipped it on over his
linen jacket, just as he’d done earlier after they cleared customs. That’s when
he’d first jiggled the bait that he hoped would lure Geppetto’s team to the
airport. He’d removed his disguise then and made a point of walking past an
array of CCTV cameras, hoping like hell his assumptions would hold true: If
Geppetto had access to Interpol and counterterrorist agencies in Europe—not to
mention triad groups in Los Angeles—then he certainly had access here in Hong
Kong. So Jake had exposed his features, feeling naked as he imagined facial
recognition software capturing every plane and angle on his face, worrying about
being jumped by airport security. But every machine needed time to warm up, even
one with its claws dug into agencies around the globe, so when he’d ducked into
a bathroom after ten nerve-wracking minutes to replace his disguise, no one had
appeared the wiser.
That is, until a short while ago when the two scouts had
shown up in the restaurant. The fact that law enforcement personnel hadn’t
accompanied them was a good sign. It suggested that Geppetto had his own
operators close at hand, which was further confirmation that Jake and his team were
on the right track. By now Geppetto’s people likely had their eyes glued to the
CCTV feeds, desperate to reacquire his position, so it shouldn’t take long to
set the hook.
He activated an application on his phone and stuffed it into
the pocket of his cargo pants. Then he inserted a two-way communication bug in
his ear. “How do you read?”
“Five by five,” Pete said.
“Ready at the curb?” Jake asked.
“Let ’er rip,” Skylar said.
Jake slung the backpack over his shoulders, exited the
restroom, and walked tall as he merged with the gaggle of travelers making its way
toward the exit.
Smile, you’re on
Candid Camera
.
He was five paces from the street exit when he spotted the
two men from the restaurant scrambling down the crowded escalator. One of them
pointed in his direction, and for Jake it was like the gunshot at a track meet.
He sprinted out the exit just as the two scouts outside
swiveled in his direction, reaching under their jackets. Jake lowered his
shoulder and barreled through them, glancing off the larger of the two and
sending the other man sprawling backward, his pistol clattering to the
pavement. A woman screamed, a man shouted, and a police whistle sounded behind Jake.
He barely missed a step as he hot-footed to the curb and dived into the open
rear passenger door of a red taxi.
It lurched forward even before Jake slammed the door closed.
“You are one popular guy,” Skylar snickered as she raced the
car into the traffic lane.
He looked back to see all four of Geppetto’s men jump into
two separate sedans and start after them. The helmeted motorcyclists he’d seen
earlier pulled into traffic behind them.
Hook, line, and sinker.
