Edge of Dawn (23 page)

Ron swelled up like an angry lizard. Richard rushed in before scientific mayhem could ensue. “It's pretty clear that the federal government and NASA aren't going to offer delivery services. Especially with the Air Force taking more and more control over NASA. So who else has launch capabilities?”

“The Europeans,” Eddie suggested.

“Yeah, but that means dealing primarily with the French,” Delany said and punctuated it with a shudder.

“The Indians,” Ranjan offered hesitantly.

“And the Chinese,” said Driscoll. “They're farther along with their program than India. No offense,” he hastened to add. Ranjan nodded.

“Word is that the space program is firmly under the control of the Red Army,” said Helman. “I think that's worse than the French.”

Richard could see another squabble starting. He averted it by rolling back his chair and standing up.

Eddie hurried to offer another suggestion. “There are a number of private firms that have real promise. Space X, Blue Origin, Orbital Science. We could talk with them about partnering up.”

“I like that idea better,” Richard said. “Thank you all. This really has been enlightening and exciting, but I need to do some research and talk with my officers”—he indicated Kenzo, Dagmar, and Gold with a nod—“before I can give you a definitive answer.” Richard forced a smile. “Gold, can you check out the airspace issue?” The lawyer nodded.

Richard looked up and found eyes focused on him in total anticipation. He held up a restraining hand. “Just because I'm having legal look into something doesn't mean I'm going to agree to fund this.”

A blizzard of incomprehensible conversation began as Richard and his officers left. Richard picked a route that would take him past the tray with its few remaining donuts, but the scientists were quicker than the cop. The cinnamon crumb Richard had been eyeing was grabbed by Ron.

*   *   *

Kenzo fell into step with Richard. “You're not seriously considering this?”

“Sooner or later it's got to be considered. For the sake of the planet. Maybe we could form a consortium, bring in some other companies as Eddie suggested.”

“Mr. Kenntnis liked to avoid such entanglements. We have subsidiaries, but we own them outright.”

Richard hoped he masked any sort of reaction when Kenzo mentioned the subsidiaries. “This might be too big for a single company to handle. Let's discuss it further.”

“Speaking of Mr. Kenntnis…” Kenzo's voice trailed away significantly.

“We're going to take you there now,” Richard said, and nodded to Eddie.

Eddie had a sheaf of photographs that showed satellite images of Kenntnis when he was in his light form and trapped in spin glass at Grenier's compound. Kenzo gave them a cursory glance. “Yes, yes, you've shown these to us before, but with digital magic this could have been fabricated, and why should we believe that this thing was Kenntnis?”

“Why would we make up a story like that?” Eddie demanded.

Kenzo gave Richard a pointed look. “So he could take over the company.”

“Trust me, if that's what I wanted I would have made up a better story than something that sounds this crazy,” Richard said dryly. It was an effort. Rage was a twisting pain in his chest. “Let's examine the facts. Kenntnis disappeared when he entered Grenier's compound in Virginia to rescue me. He was trying to flee when he was captured. When Kenntnis was freed, he finished the action he was taking, which was to return to New Mexico. But it happened almost instantly, which implies he was still in his light form,” Richard said.

“One hundred eighty-six thousand two hundred and eighty-two miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's the law,” Eddie intoned. The officers looked blank, not recognizing this as a geek's attempt at humor.

“Once he reached Lumina headquarters, he reverted to his human form,” Richard concluded.

“And if he was … is this light creature as you claim … well, how do you capture that?” Gold asked.

Eddie opened his mouth, and Richard hurried to forestall a barrage of science babble. “The scientists”—he nodded toward Eddie—“described it to me as spin glass, which is a way to make light stand still. And there was magic involved. It was a mix of physics and magic,” Richard concluded lamely.

“Both seem to be pretty much the same for laymen like us,” Gold said.

Kenzo broke in, “Assuming for the moment this is true—”

“Look, stupid guy.” Everyone jumped because Cross was suddenly with them. “Could you maybe stop and reflect that almost every name he's taken has some reference to light or knowledge. He was Prometheus to the Greeks, Scientius and Lucifer to the Romans, Loki to the Norse, and by the way, people think Loki means ‘breaker of shit' or ‘trickster,' but the earliest word that gave rise to the name was
white light.
Think Kenntnis was maybe trying to tell us something? You know, sort of literalizing the metaphor.”

“Hush,” Richard said. Cross looked rebellious, but he pressed his lips together and made the zipper motion.

“When did he become Kenntnis?” Pamela asked.

Cross tried to answer while keeping his lips tightly shut. A series of grunts and
mmm
's emerged. Mosi giggled. Richard cast his eyes heavenward in a plea for patience. “You can answer. Just don't be rude.”

“Around 1780.” Cross looked down at Mosi. “You're going to meet Coyote, little one.”

Gold was looking puzzled. “Why Kenntnis?”

“Because, moron, Mr. Lumina, or Mr. Light, or Mr. Fire sounds stupid,” Cross said. Richard cleared his throat. “Was that rude?”

“Yes.”

“Sorry,” Cross tossed offhandedly to Gold.

Dagmar intervened. “Kenntnis means ‘knowledge' in German.” Her German accent was very much in evidence.

“Oh,” Gold said.

“I'm sorry, Kenzo, you were saying?” Richard prompted.

“I wanted to know how did Mr. Kenntnis get free.”

“I removed the magical part of the equation,” Richard said.

“That tells me nothing.”

“There was a girl—a human–Old One hybrid—trained in physics, but also a powerful sorceress. She was powering the spin glass trap. I used the sword on her. Stripped away her ability to do magic. She's a vegetable now in a long-term care facility in California.” Richard delivered the recitation in a flat, emotionless tone. Inwardly, guilt and doubt churned into acid in his gut because he had promised he would never harm Rhiana. The best he could do to alleviate that guilt was have Lumina pay for her care. He didn't mention that to Kenzo. He wasn't sure how it would be received.

“So you were his rescuer. Convenient.”

Richard again let the sneer pass. “I didn't know it would have that effect. I did it because Rhiana was a threat.” He didn't add that he feared he had done it because Rhiana's actions had led directly to a dear friend's murder. Had it been vengeance or justice? Perhaps it had been a bit of both.

Eddie led them down several flights of stairs to a basement apartment. Gold reacted to the layers of security from cameras, motion detectors, infrared, and guards with guns.

“What? Is he dangerous now?” Gold asked.

“No, this is to protect him,” Richard said. “I don't know if the Old Ones could actually kill Kenntnis, but I never want him to fall into their hands again. While he was trapped, the world went crazy. I don't want to risk that happening again.” He paused, not sure whether to go on with his deeper analysis of Kenntnis, but decided candor was the best policy. “I think he's like an ur-creature, an avatar of rationality, if you will. When he's not present, bad things happen.” They reached the door to Kenntnis's quarters. “I know you all knew him as a man, but he is an alien. Somehow he can manipulate matter and build himself a physical form.”

Cross jerked a thumb at his chest. “Like me. Only he's got control over how he looks. Me, not so much. My form gets warped by all the good little Christians. Hell, you don't think I'd willingly look like this, do you? The wimpy Jesus thing is a real drag.”

Richard turned to the door's control panel and underwent fingerprint and retinal scans. The big door swung open, and they entered the apartment. Richard had sent some of the furniture and objets d'art from Kenntnis's penthouse atop the Lumina building here. He had hoped that the familiar items might help restore Kenntnis's mind.

The room smelled of sandalwood incense, and Bach played in the background. Kenntnis sat in a large armchair. The more you studied the man, the greater was the sense that his form encompassed all races and all types. His age was indeterminate. He could have been anywhere between thirty and sixty. He looked up as they entered the room, but there was no other reaction. In the past year plus, he had regained most of his bulk and was again six foot six and more than three hundred pounds. His skin was a rich ebony, which made the swirling silver and gold lights in his eye sockets all the more startling. It was the one place where he no longer matched the human norm.

“When
we
come in,” Eddie said, “he doesn't react at all. It's only when you're here,” he said to Richard.

“I don't think it's me. I think it's the sword. I think that's what he senses.” Then Kenntnis promptly blew that theory out of the water by switching his focus from Richard to Mosi. The little girl met his gaze without any sign of discomfort.

“No,” Cross said. “It's paladins. Maybe it's because you're more akin to him than you are to other humans.”

Richard found that conclusion faintly disturbing. He also hated talking about Kenntnis as if he weren't present, so he walked over to him and took his hand. “Hello, sir. How are you? The officers have come to see you.”

Kenzo moved forward. “Mr. Kenntnis, it's Kenzo Fujasaki.” There was no reaction. Kenzo might have been invisible.

Gold pushed forward. “Mr. Kenntnis, your instructions were to turn Lumina over to Richard if you failed to check in once every twenty-four hours. You're back now, but you haven't checked in, so does that directive still apply?” Nothing.

They really do want me out bad,
Richard thought, but he kept silent. From the corner of his eye he saw Mosi investigating the bookcases. She took down an illustrated copy of
Peter Pan
and began looking at the pictures.

“Does he ever speak?” Dagmar asked.

“No,” Eddie said.

Kenzo snapped at Eddie, “What is wrong with him?”

“Best guess, the time he spent in the spin glass damaged his cognitive abilities. Light degrades when it's in the glass. He probably suffered dispersion,” Eddie said. “It would help if we could get him to turn back into the light-dust thingy. Maybe then we could figure out what part of him was his brain and figure out how it was damaged. We're stumped because we don't know whether to treat this as a medical problem or a physics problem.”

“I can think of a simpler explanation,” Gold said.

“Yeah, what's that?”

“He's been drugged.”

Richard stiffened, and his inchoate anger now focused. “If you're accusing me of stealing this company, George, then fucking do it. Let's have it out.”

Pamela cast an agonized glance at Mosi, who had looked up from her book. “But maybe not right now … and not right here.” She turned on Gold and in an undertone hissed, “And frankly, how
dare
you accuse my brother? I've never seen anybody who wanted a job less!” Pamela's face twisted into that sudden
uh-oh
look.

Kenzo, quick as a shark, leaped in. “Then perhaps he should step aside.”

All of Richard's fantasies of walking away from the burden burned off in the possessive white-hot rage that swept through him. “Not a chance!”

He strode over to Mosi. “Would you mind staying here and reading? Or maybe read aloud to Mr. Kenntnis? He'd probably like that.” She studied the big, silent figure for a long moment. “Are you afraid of him? You don't have to be.”

“His eyes are all funny.”

“That's because he's an alien.”

Pamela and Dagmar both reacted. Pamela's mouth became an O of surprise, and Dagmar took a step toward him, but Richard was undeterred. He raised a hand to hold them back.

“A good alien?” Mosi asked.

“Yes, a very good alien. He came here to help humans.”

“Like Superman.”

Richard found it interesting that she thought first of Superman as an alien rather than a superhero. Was that because she felt like an alien in the white culture? Which was ironic—her people had been on the North American continent first. Or maybe it was being with him in a new life. He just hoped he could be as wise as Pa Kent.

Richard nodded. “Yes, like that, but he didn't have superpowers. He was just really smart.”

Mosi twisted her mouth around for a few moments, then nodded.

Richard turned to go and was surprised when she caught the hem of his jacket as he turned away. She motioned to him to come close. He leaned down and she put her lips to his ear. “Everybody's really mad,” she whispered.

“Yes, but it's going to be all right,” he whispered back and touched her hair lightly.

 

Chapter

THIRTEEN

T
HEY
returned to ground level. “We need a conference room,” Richard said to Eddie.

“Um, we're all set up for the sword experiment.”

“It can wait,” Kenzo said.

“Mr. Oort. Mr. Oort!” A voice calling, loudly. Richard turned to see a tall Chinese man rushing toward them. Richard drew back reflexively and his hand slipped to the Browning. The years he'd spent as a cop made him wary of people getting too close too fast.

Eddie hurried into speech, “Richard, this is Dr. Chen. He's the guy we brought in on the sword project after the crystallography test didn't give us much. We realized we needed to step up to Big Hammer Tech, and Chen man is the best for that.”