Stones (Data) (16 page)

“Power.” Ryzaard meets her eyes with a cold stare. “The power to remake the world as it
should
be. The power to make evil impossible. The power to do away with suffering. The power to bring Paradise.” He turns to Jing-wei. “Tell them what we’ve been working on.”

All eyes turn to her.

“Market quotes are just the beginning.” Jing-wei’s voice trembles with hesitation as she breaks the silence. “With Dr. Ryzaard’s, permission, we’ve already tried DNA sequences, baseball statistics, election results, GNP tables, population figures. The list goes on. The Stone appears to work on any phenomena reducible to a sequence of numbers.” She turns her empty palms up to the ceiling, as if to emphasize the enormity of what they have discovered.

“It’s like having a crystal ball,” Diego says.

“No, it’s better than that.” Kalani reaches out to grasp his club, bringing it close and staring at the shark teeth. “It’s like being God.”

M
att jogs through the airport to the security portal, his backpack hanging off one shoulder. When he passes a black dot on the wall, someone’s clumsy attempt at hiding a camera, his hand drops into a side pocket, swipes the jax and engages its cloaking algorithm, a handy piece of rogue-ware his dad snagged off an underworld Mesh-site. It emits a finely calibrated data burst that blurs his image on any security video from the waist up.

Balancing the new jax in his hand, he thinks about tossing it in the garbage. He purposely left it at home, hoping his dad would forget to bring it. For most people, getting a new jax is cause for celebration, but not for Matt. For him, a new jax means a new ID. It means becoming a new person with a new name, a new history. Throwing away your old self.

And it’s the main reason he has so few friends.

With a swipe of his index finger, he activates the jax. His dad has already downloaded the new ID, and it matches the name on a passport card Matt pulled from his drawer. It’s pretty amazing how his dad is able to get new IDs every other month or so. He never says how he does it, but Matt suspects he is getting help from contacts inside the government. It isn’t legal, but it keeps them safe from the boogeyman.

Putting the two jaxes together, he does a quick data transfer and then wipes the old one clean. For good measure, he pops out the memory cube, drops it to the floor and grinds the crystal to fine dust. Then he kicks it with the tip of his shoe and creates a small white cloud. Walking into the nearest bathroom, he waits until it’s empty, and flushes the jax and his former identity into oblivion.

Just like that, he becomes a new person.

As the metallic cylinder is sucked out of sight, a tinge of sadness flashes in his mind. So many identities flushed away. So many pasts jettisoned.

When will he be allowed to hold on to who he is?

There is no time to mourn. He’s late for the flight. Running to the security portal, he needs to let Jessica know his new ID.

Just before he presses the video function, his dad’s face jumps in front of his eyes. He ignores it.

“Hey Jess.” Matt looks directly into the jax. “It’s me. Sorry for the fuzzy face, but I’m in stealth mode right now. I’m at the airport, almost to security. As near as I can tell, Dad’s not following me.” He moves the jax around in a full circle inside the airport. “Finally got away. Can’t wait to get to Japan and really be free.”

Tapping the end, he shoots off the message to give Jess his new contact info. Regret immediately pierces his chest. She hates it when he makes fun of his dad like this. According to her, he’s supposed to show more gratitude.

He jogs a few more steps and gets a video back. Looking down, he sees Jess on the freeway in her red convertible, driving to work, her brown hair blowing wildly in the wind.

“Your dad’s a good man. He raised you. He protected you. He deserves your respect.” She yells over the sound of the wind in her hair.

Matt isn’t going to argue. His hand whispers a meek reply.

Agreed.

And follows it up with a bid for sympathy.

Getting close to the security portal. Pray I’ll make it through.

For someone who has spent most of his life running from the authorities, direct contact with any part of the power structure triggers an instinctive fear. And fear can be detected. At the security portal, there are stress hormone sniffers and chemical sensors constantly pulling samples from the air. As he passes through the portal, he will be vulnerable, like an armadillo slowly uncurling and exposing its soft underbelly.

Matt slips into line.

With his backpack still hanging off one shoulder, he moves toward four white semi-circle arches spaced ten feet apart. Each one of them has a different set of detectors, and he will be required to pass through them all. One by one, people in front stride quickly through. There’s no stopping or hesitation.

Matt is determined to do the same.

With a glance, he sees the hi-res camera mounted just above the first arch and ducks his head slightly as he passes underneath, quietly holding his breath.

Nothing.

He passes through the next two arches in silence.

As he moves under the final one, its white color changes to red, and a security officer in a blue jumpsuit quickly approaches. He has the official seal of the Flight Safety Administration emblazoned on his chest.

“Sir, I’m sorry for any inconvenience, but we’ll have to check your backpack. There was a strange reading when you passed the portal.” He leads Matt over to an area with a table and chairs near the wall.

Matt thinks quickly. Maybe it was the cloaker on his jax. Dad said it was undetectable, but maybe he was wrong. Matt curses him under his breath.

“May I open it, sir?” says the FSA man, pointing to the backpack.

“Sure. Nothing but clothes, climbing equipment and study materials.” Matt wants to turn and make a run for the nearest door, but he slips off the backpack and drops down into a chair. With a white knuckle grip on the arm of the chair and conscious effort, he is just able to control his breathing and slow his racing heart.

The FSA man lays the backpack on the table and opens the flap to empty it. Matt knows all of the contents have already been quietly catalogued as he passed under the scanner. Another official with a shaved head and handlebar mustache comes over to help. He holds a portable scanning device in his hand. It takes them less than a minute to sort all the contents on the table.

Matt taps out a message to Jessica as they are finishing.

Got stopped by FSA. I think dad loaded some code on my jax that triggered the security portal. I’m dead. My only shot at getting away is gone. Forever.

Jessica answers in a few seconds.

Remember that Singapore Air jet that disintegrated over the Pacific last year. It caused them to tighten security. You’re young and have an Asian face, so you fit the profile. Just stay calm. You’ll get through.

“Sir, what’s this?”

Matt looks up from his jax. The man with the big mustache holds up a large claw the color of violet.

It’s the rock Matt left at home.

Dumbfounded, he squints his eyes and stares. How did it get here? In his mind, he clearly sees himself tossing the rock on his futon in his bedroom and turning to leave. The feel of it leaving his fingers is stuck in his memory.

Dad must have slipped it in my backpack.

Matt curses silently. It’s just like something dad would do. Always meddling. But why? And how did the rock change color?

He takes in a long, slow breath. “It’s just a rock.”

“Looks more like a crystal to me.” The man turns it over in his hand. “But there’s just one problem. It doesn’t register on my scanner. Any idea what it’s made of?”

“Granite? Basalt?” Matt lifts his hands, palms up. “I’m no geologist. Found it up in the mountains yesterday. Thought it was cool. Thought I’d take it with me.”

“Strange. I should get a reading on a rock.” The man with the mustache takes the other official aside.

As they whisper, Matt sees their quick glances coming his way.

One of the men breaks away and walks closer. “Sorry, but We’ll have to keep it for further analysis. Regulations. For all we know, it could be some kind of explosive. Can’t allow an unknown object to pass the portal. We’ll let you go without further questioning. This time.”

Matt steals a glance at his jax. The flight is already boarding. If they pull him into a side room for interrogation, it will all be over. This is no time to argue.

“Sure. Keep it. Take it home and give it to your kids. Like I said, it’s just a rock.” Matt looks at the violet object, feeling a tinge of loss.

The man with the mustache nods. “We’ll have you on your way in a few seconds.” He walks off with the rock, leaving the other official to re-stuff Matt’s backpack.

What a great way to start my trip
, Matt thinks.

“N
ow we come to the final point, a matter of utmost urgency that half of you already know about.” Ryzaard puts two elbows on the mahogany surface. “We’ve found another Stone.”

At the other end of the table, there is general commotion.

Kalani jumps onto his chair, hand on his shark-tooth club. “Which one of us gets it?”

“It’s mine!” Elsa Bergman grabs his long hair and pulls hard, sending him to the floor.

He rolls backward and lands like a cat on his feet. Drawing his club back, he is about to bring it down with a vengeance to crack open Elsa’s porcelain forehead.

“Stop!” A burst of blue light shoots out of the Stone and across the table. The club explodes into gray ash. Ryzaard raises his hand to silence them. “I am the only one who understands the power of the Stones, and I will decide who gets it. Now sit down and shut up.” He holds his own Stone in his hand, pointed in their direction.

They all move back to their seats.

“That’s better,” Ryzaard says.

“How did you find it?” Kalani licks blood off his lips and leans forward. Without moving his head, his eyeballs twist to the side and glance at Elsa.

“Glad you asked.” Ryzaard opens his palm. “When a Stone bonds to new Holder, it signals the other Stones, and they signal back. They all strive to be brought together, as one.” He turns to Alexa on his right and motions for her to complete the explanation.

“Based on instructions from Dr. Ryzaard, Diego devised a tracking algorithm that processes the signal sent by Dr. Ryzaard’s Stone. With our computing power limited to only one XUNIL cluster, it would take a month to pinpoint the location of the new Stone. But now with the additional computing clusters from Scientific, we can do it in a few hours. That’s why it was so urgent that the merger happen last night.”

Ryzaard stands on his feet. “The Stone has already bonded with the Holder who found it. Our first priority is to hunt the Holder down like a lion after its prey and slaughter him before he understands the Stone’s power. There is no other way.” His teeth come together and the muscles of his jaw harden. “All available resources must be focused on the search.”

“How do you know the Holder is a
him
?” Jing-wei says.

“Just a feeling.” Ryzaard turns to Diego. “Do we have a fix on the general location?”

Diego lays his slate on the table and calmly brings his hands together. “We’ve narrowed its location to somewhere between 105 and 110 degrees longitude in the Rocky Mountains.” He points at a map that appears on the glass wall behind Ryzaard. A fat red line runs from Canada down to Mexico. “As you can see, major cities at that longitude include Billings, Salt Lake City, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix. Keep in mind this is just an approximation. It could be anywhere within a hundred miles east and west of that line right now.”

“We’re incredibly lucky it’s in North America, a data rich environment we’ll be able to exploit to our advantage.” Ryzaard sounds pleased. “How long will it take to pin-point the exact location?”

“With your Stone and the
other one
as points of reference, we can triangulate and narrow the location down to a dot on the map in about three more hours. My assistants are working on it as we speak.”