Stones (Data) (19 page)

“Probably?” Ryzaard narrows his focus on Diego as his voice rises in volume. “Probabilities won’t help us.” The crescendo becomes an angry yell. “We need to know
exactly
where the Stone is. Anything less is useless information.” Spit bursts from his lips.

“The signal started to cut out. GPS numbers came in that didn’t make sense. Then nothing. We lost the signal.” Diego lifts his gaze up to Ryzaard, holds for a half second, and then drops it down at the floor. “The algorithm assumes the Stone is staying still at a point on the map. If the Stone suddenly jumps outside of that point, a circle roughly a kilometer across, the algorithm has to recalibrate and start over.”

“Whoever has the Stone got on a high-speed transport. A plane or a train.” Jing-wei jumps into the conversation. “They’re moving too fast to track. We have to wait until they stop and allow the algorithm to stabilize and restart.” She stares back at Ryzaard with no sign of fear or hesitation.

“What about a car?” Ryzaard says. “Perhaps they went for a morning drive.”

“Not likely. If they were moving that slowly, we’d still get faint readings on the direction of travel.” The puffiness under Diego’s eyes is clearly visible. “We have nothing right now.”

Ryzaard swivels in his chair to face the Brooklyn Bridge through the window. He needs to think. “Any suggestions?”

Kalani shifts from one leg to another and scans the room from the grandfather clock to the Chinese wall-hanging. Then he clears his throat.

“If they took a plane, that means they passed through an airport within the last couple of hours. With the high-security link I found this morning, we have access to data streams at every airport in the country. Surveillance cams, jax traffic, security portals, everything.” Kalani licks his lips, his white teeth gleaming. “All we have to do is pick a few airports and start funneling all the unencrypted stuff from the last few hours through our cluster systems. It shouldn’t be that hard. If we look for key words, maybe we’ll get lucky and find him.”

“There’s no such thing as luck. But do it anyway.” Ryzaard strokes his mustache with a stray finger. “Pick the three busiest transport hubs within five hundred miles of the last known signal. Analyze all data streams from a point starting four hours ago. Define a search for anything related to rocks or stones. Words, pictures, everything. Get as many clusters as you can on the job, but keep one of them working full-time on the tracking algorithm. Report back in two hours.”

The three young people turn and leave the room without a word.

As Ryzaard strokes his mustache, a memory comes to mind. He sees himself sitting on a tatami floor in a small wooden building. The sound of cicadas floats in the air just outside. A cherry blossom tree is visible through the window. A cup of exquisite green tea rests on a low table near his hand. On the other side of the table sits a man who is wearing the flowing white robes of a Shinto priest. They are talking about the Stones.

Ryzaard recalls the priest’s words.

There is another way to find a new Stone. But it is an old way, and you must be careful. It opens your heart, your true intentions, to the new Holder you are searching for. If there is evil in your heart, you will not be able to hide it. The new Holder will sense it. It will warn him. You must not try this unless your heart is purged of darkness.

He recalls the rest of the conversation and moves to the meditation platform where he begins to focus on his breath. Belly rising, belly falling. His eyes close.

My heart is now purged of darkness,
Ryzaard thinks.

Images emerge in the black vacuum of his mind.

He sits in a lotus position on top of a stone column high above the canopy of a dark jungle. The tops of trees flow back and forth in the wind, like a huge expanse of rolling ocean below him. In the distance, the jungle ends. Beyond its edge is an open field of golden grain, ready for harvest. He stares through the thick leaves searching for any evidence of movement on the ground below.

And then he sees it.

A light blue dot, clearly visible against the black background. It’s moving below the tree canopy.

Adrenaline surges through Ryzaard’s body. Squinting his eyes, he focuses all his energy on the point of light. It resolves into a human form. He can see it gripping a Stone in its hands. An insatiable hunger rises in Ryzaard’s belly.

He must capture and kill the Holder. He must possess the Stone.

With arms outstretched, he lunges off the stone column and drops down. As he falls, intense longing for the new Stone consumes his thoughts. He thinks of running and catching the Holder, crushing his skull with powerful limbs, tearing out his throat with sharp fangs. His body morphs into a massive anthropoid ape. Crashing through the canopy, he lands on two legs not far behind. His eyes have X-ray vision. Through the trees, he can see a young man’s arms and legs pumping as he runs away in desperation.

Ryzaard must not let the Holder escape. Like a Japanese fan opening, his body duplicates itself into a massed group of identical apes. He is in each one. He sees with their eyes and breathes with their lungs. He presses his tongue against row upon row of sharp teeth set in their jaws.

He
has become
them
.

They spread out and rush forward through the jungle in pursuit. Bloodlust rises in their throats. He can taste the Holder’s quivering flesh in his mouth as they close in.

Just ahead, the Holder bursts out of the jungle into the open field of grain. Seconds later, Ryzaard and his dark shapes follow. They see the Holder run toward a lone tree on the other side of the field, stark against the horizon. The Holder, still bathed in blue light, reaches the tree, stops, turns and presses his back against it.

Ryzaard’s neck muscles strain with effort in each of the apes as they sprint on all four limbs.

Five more meters.

He lunges forward, fangs bared, arms reaching. Only a few feet away, there is a moment of recognition. The young man stares back at him, the terror on his face clearly visible. Asian eyes.

Thunder sounds in the distance. The blue light fades into nothing. The Holder is gone.

Silence.

Ryzaard’s eyes float open as he sits on the meditation platform. Once again he hears thunder in the distance. The sound slowly resolves into a knock on his door.

“Come in,” Ryzaard says.

The door slides open to reveal the slight figure of Jing-wei.

“Dr. Ryzaard.” Her breathing is heavy from a sprint down the corridor. “Please come to the lab. It’s urgent.”

He stands up, grabs a shirt and buttons it as he follows her down the hall.

When they enter the bubble in the middle of the lab, the glass bluescreen wall around the room has transformed into a 360-degree view of a golden beach with top-heavy palm trees leaning to the ocean. Here and there a surfer rides a white line of perfectly curling waves. An orange sun is just plunging below the horizon.

“Home.” Kalani is relaxing with his feet on the table, staring at the waves, following the surfers. “Just miss it sometimes.”

Ryzaard drops into his chair. “Well?” He is waiting to hear the good news that the Holder has been found.

Jing-wei and Diego stay standing.

“We followed your instructions.” Diego drops his hands behind his back. “Focusing on the three largest airports in the area last tagged by the tracking algorithm, we started an inventory of the datasphere, looking for references to stones.”

“Stop,” Ryzaard says. “Don’t tell me what you did.” He doesn’t have the patience to listen to the whole self-serving introduction Diego is winding up to give. “I know you guys are the best. Show me what you
found
.”

Jing-wei jumps in. “Even with three dedicated super-clusters churning through the datasphere, we were getting too many hits.” She stops to take a breath. “It turns out the World Rockhound and Lapidary Society is having its annual convention in Denver this week. Half the city is talking about rocks and stones.”

“No more talk. Show me. Now.” Ryzaard has a steely edge to his voice.

Kalani points his jax at the spot on the bluescreen marked with an orange-red glow where the sun has just disappeared below the horizon of the ocean. The wall flashes white, except for an area in front of Ryzaard. They all hear the faint gasp that escapes his lips as he peers at a close-up photo of a blue stone shaped like a comma, large at one end and curving around to a blunt point.

Ryzaard jumps to his feet and stands in silence, focusing intently on the picture on the wall.

“You found it.” Ryzaard whispers. “A Stone.” He takes his own Stone from his pocket and holds it up. They are not identical, but no one can miss the similar design. “Where is it?”

“We gave up monitoring jax traffic,” Kalani says. “I just began hijacking data feeds at the airport, including all the security portals.” He pulls himself to a standing position with a spear that’s leaning against the table. “The picture of the rock—”

“It’s a
Stone
, not a rock.” Ryzaard is still staring straight ahead.

“Right,” Kalani says. “The picture of the Stone was taken by Federal Airport Safety at the Denver Airport four hours ago. They confiscated it from a male passenger. His photo, some video and an onsite analysis of the Stone were all uploaded onto the FAS Mesh-point.”

“And what were the results of the analysis?” Ryzaard already knows what they will tell him.

Kalani plays his jax again. A page of black text appears to the right of the Stone on the screen. A few words are highlighted in red.

Ryzaard scans the page, moving his lips to read the highlighted section aloud.

“No response to sensors. No matches in database. Unknown object. Possible crystalline structure. Could be Laotian explosives.” He lets a long breath slip out. “Nothing new there. Of course they can’t identify the internal structure or makeup of the Stone. We have the latest scientific instruments here, and we can’t do any better.”

“That’s must be why they confiscated it.” The voice belongs to Jerek, who has just entered the room and is standing behind Ryzaard.

“And the Stone? Where is it now?” Ryzaard says.

Jing-wei nods. “That’s the strange part of the tale. FAS no longer has it. It mysteriously disappeared from their lab a couple of hours after it was taken from the passenger.” She walks around the table closer to the screen.

“Of course.” Ryzaard sounds as if he’s talking to himself. “The Stone has bonded with the Holder, and it’s gone back to him. It always will as long as he’s alive. You can’t just
take
a Stone from its Holder. It’s not that easy.” Ryzaard looks at the white screen. “We just need to find the Holder. Show me his name and photograph. I’ll recognize him. He’s Asian.”

There is an extended silence. Jing-wei, Kalani and Diego all exchange nervous looks with each other.

“You
do
know who the passenger is, don’t you?” Ryzaard narrows his eyes. “You’ve got access to the security portal database and records.” His voice is quickly rising in volume. “You’ve already ID’d the passenger, right?”

“He’s male, but you already know that.” Jing-wei begins to back up. “And that’s about all we know.” She waves her jax in the direction of the blue Stone on the wall. Several pictures pop up in succession. Each shows the torso and legs of a lean young man, tall, muscular thighs and back, athletic build, taken from three different angles. Facing forward, from the side, from the rear.

Each picture is blurry beyond recognition from the shoulders up.

“He downloaded a cloaking protocol to his jax and engaged it as he moved through the security portal.” Jing-wei’s hands go up to her hips. “They’re illegal, but available in the nether regions of the Mesh if you know where to look. Makes it impossible for surveillance cams to capture video or stills of the target area.”

“What about his passport? They must have recorded it in the incident report. Can’t we just access that?” Ryzaard is starting to get red in the face, the muscles in his jaw flexing.

“His passport didn’t trigger any alerts in the system.” Kalani slides back into a chair and folds his arms behind his head. “But all record of it disappeared from the FAS datasite. Quietly deleted ten minutes after he passed the portal.” Kalani looks back at Ryzaard and shrugged his shoulders.

“How is that possible?” Ryzaard glares, first at Kalani, and then at Jing-wei. “You’re the best. You have unlimited resources. Find the passport!”

Kalani shakes his head, unmoved. “We can’t find what’s not there.”

They all see it. It begins with small breaths. Ryzaard clenches his jaw and begins to hyperventilate, staring down at the Stone in his hand. He turns from the bluescreen, twists and brings its tip down on the mahogany surface.

The entire table glows for less than a second and then collapses into dust at their feet. Ryzaard’s eyes draw a line across the floor to Kalani.

His spear tumbles to the floor out of his hand, and he swallows hard. “I can try to dig a little to see if there’s a trail that leads deeper into the system.”

“Don’t try. Do it. Now.” There’s a sharp edge to Ryzaard’s voice. He stares at the blurry pictures of the young man on the screen. “What other options do we have?” His eyes move to Diego and Jing-wei.

“Notice the backpack?” Jing-wei walks closer to the wall screen. “The yellow logo on the side is a Japanese symbol. It’s a
mitsudomoe
, three comma shapes arranged in a ying-yang fashion. We can scan any unencrypted video messages sent at the airport for that image marker. We can plug into the airport camera network as well. Every boarding gate has a security cam recording all passengers. We may get lucky and find the flight he boarded.”

“Do it.” Ryzaard turns and walks out of the room without another word.

Within an hour, he is back in the bubble room with Jing-wei, Diego and Jerek. And a new mahogany table.

“We found him.” Diego speaks in clipped sentences, glancing nervously at Ryzaard, cutting quickly to the most essential information. “His flight touches down in Tokyo in less than two hours.” He waits for Ryzaard to ask the inevitable question.