Stones: Theory (Stones #4) (27 page)

“We can’t,” Matt says. “That’s exactly the point.”

Yarah looks confused. “Then why take her with us?”

“To keep her from helping Ryzaard.” Matt moves away from the front door of the hotel. “Come on. Let’s go. I prefer the backdoor entrance.”

They walk around the building and down a deserted alley. Dust and garbage litters the ground. There are no service doors. The lowest window is on the second floor. From where they stand, it looks dark inside.

Matt points up. “Looks like one of the rooms that nobody wants. Just the way I like it.” He puts his backpack on the ground and takes out a long, thin tube. Then he finds a roll of fishing line and a small wad of putty. “It’s an old trick my dad taught me.” He ties the fishing line around a ball of putty and puts it in the tube, along with several more yards of line. Bringing the tube up to his mouth, he blows a short, quick breath.

The ball of putty flattens out against the window on the second floor. The fishing line hangs down like a long thread of spider silk. Matt gets the loose end and attaches it to his jax.

“Watch this.” Matt points up at the window. “You don’t always need a Stone to perform magic.”

Holding the jax in one hand, his fingers play along its side. It flashes green. The window shatters above them, raining down fragments of broken glass.

Yarah’s mouth drops open. “How did you do that?”

“Harmonics,” Matt says. “And a little-known jax add-on only available on black-market Mesh-sites.”

He pulls a piece of metal out of his backpack the size of his index finger. When he touches the end, four jagged-toothed prongs snap out in the shape of a grappling hook. Rummaging again in a pocket of the backpack, he takes out a cord and ties one end to the hook. Then he swings it up to the window until it catches on the ledge. He pulls hard to make sure it holds.

“I’ll go up first. Just wait here.”

Matt puts on a pair of gloves, yanks on the rope again, and pulls himself up its length, hand over hand, until he grabs the edge of the window and swings his body inside. He disappears for a few seconds, and then his head reappears.

“Looks good.” He ties a quick loop in the rope and feeds it down to Yarah. “Your turn. Put this under your arms.”

Yarah slips it over her head and arms and looks up. “Ready.”

Matt pulls her up and into the room. It feels good to do some old-fashioned breaking and entering.

“Only five more floors to go,” he says.

They exit the room, walk down the deserted hallway and stand in front of the elevator. It doesn’t take long for the doors to open.

“Identify,” a syn-voice says.

Without speaking, Matt lifts his jax and brushes his finger on the side.

“Welcome Mr. Hansen,” says the voice.

They enter, and the doors close behind them. A low hum vibrates as the elevator begins a gentle climb. It stops, and the doors part to let them out.

“Should be the seventh floor if my stolen ID is correct.” Matt walks into the hall. “Can you find the room?”

Yarah nods. “We’re close.”

“Be careful.”

They walk to the end of the hall where it ends in a T. “This way.” Yarah moves halfway to the end and stops in front of a door. “Right here.”

“Good work,” Matt says. “Now for the tricky part.” Dropping to his knees, he runs his jax along the edge of the wall.

Before he finishes, the door flies open.

Alexa stares down at Matt and Yarah, a half-smile on her face. “I saw you on the security monitor. Come in before the doorman gets suspicious and decides to investigate.” The smell on her breath tells them she’s already half-drunk.

Matt picks up his backpack and follows Yarah inside.

“So why the surprise visit?” Alexa walks back to a sofa, flops down and puts her feet up. A half-empty bottle of champagne stands within easy reach.

Matt holds up his jax and scans the room. “This place is crawling with surveillance beetles.” He walks quickly to a black and white photograph of a farmer and his wife hanging on the wall. Reaching into his pocket, he takes out a small knife and pushes a button on the end. The blade jumps out, and he slips the point under the eye of the man. With a twist, he flips it off and lets it drop into the palm of his hand. “Ryzaard’s keeping his eye on you.” He lets the tiny camera drop to the floor and slams his foot down on it.

“He promised to stay away.” Alexa reaches for the bottle and takes a drink. “I scanned the room myself and didn’t find anything.”

“There’s more.” Matt walks close to Alexa and stands over her. His fingers drop down to her scalp. “Hold still.” He brings the blade up past her face, parts the hair, and gently lifts up a tiny black dot. “Listening tick.” He shows it to Alexa, and then drops it on the glass table next to her. Placing the tip of his knife on it, he pushes. It pops and splits apart.

“I had no idea.” Alexa raises her head and looks around the room, as if speaking directly to Ryzaard. “So you’ve already broken your word. I’m not surprised.”

Matt scans the room and pops another small dot that looks like a speck of dust off the wall. “What did you expect?”

“He’s a bad man.” Yarah walks close and looks down at Alexa with very serious brown eyes. “He’s not going to keep his promises.” She swallows hard. “After he gets what he wants, he’s going to kill you.”

“And how does one so small know so much?” Alexa’s eyebrows rise.

“I’ve been inside his head.”

“Well,” Alexa says. “How can I argue with that? I don’t have the same telepathic ability you’ve been blessed with.” There is more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Matt finds another bug and crushes it between his fingernails. “Come with us. At least you’ll have a fighting chance.”

“Of what?”

“Staying alive,” Matt says. “Let’s go.” He turns and nods at Yarah, and then walks back across the room to Alexa.

“And if I say no?”

Matt picks up his backpack and swings it over one shoulder. His right hand goes into his pocket. “You won’t.” Kneeling down, the fingers of his left hand reach out for Alexa’s shoulder. Yarah joins him and lightly rests her fingers on his back.

“It’s better this way.” Yarah takes a small box out of her pocket and holds it with the lid open.

“What do you mean?” She looks from Yarah to Matt. A realization suddenly dawns on her. “Where are you suggesting we go? Back to the mountains?”

They all hear the heavy sound of footsteps running down the hall, reaching the end of the corner and turning toward them. Steel rifles bang on carbonized plastic armor. Something heavy drops to the floor just outside the door.

Matt shakes his head. “Of course not.”

“Then where?”

Yarah snaps the lid of the box shut and closes her eyes. As the air around them flashes white, Matt keeps his eyes focused on the door. A large circle opens up in its center and explodes orange fire toward them.

They never feel its touch.

J
hata stares down at the crystal cube a little bigger than her head. Thin mechanical arms with a hundred delicate fingers like the bristles on a brush pull back from the white mist that fills the cube. She gently breathes on it, and the mist clears.

A single jewel, shaped like a tiny animal claw, floats in an ion field. Sky-blue and shot through with white veins, it slowly rotates like a miniature planet and is no bigger than a pearl.

An object of exquisite beauty.

This one is the master control unit. With few modifications, a similar, though inferior, device can be quickly manufactured for the masses, grown like a crystal from a chemical soup inside one of Jhata’s cubes. All that is needed to run the process is seawater. The protons, neutrons and electrons of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms, along with a few other trace minerals, are broken down into more fundamental particles and reassembled into a tough metal alloy. The result is an inert substance not appearing on any periodic chart. The technology does not yet exist among the fledgling human race to detect, let alone analyze, this new type of matter.

And that is as it should be.

Jhata picks up the tiny implant between her thumb and index finger. Holding it to the light, the delicate white veins give it a mystical quality.

Using the jax device left by Ryzaard, Jhata has designed the implant to automatically connect to the Earth’s primitive Mesh network. The connection opens a direct link to the recipient’s mind. To anyone who has not experienced such a link, it will be like a new drug, explosive and mind-blowing.

Once implanted and activated, no one will be able to resist it. No one will want to resist it.

Of course, even a technologically backward civilization like Earth has already developed Mesh implants with limited functionality, allowing humans to access sound data that plays on a direct connection to the auditory nerve. A favorite song might play inside a person’s brain just by thinking about it. They might call a friend on their jax and talk from inside their head by merely thinking the words. Based on what Jhata has seen of Earth’s history, these narrow applications have been hailed as groundbreaking paradigm shifts in human-machine interaction.

For years, there has been an outcry for a device that takes the mind-Mesh connection to a new level.

The introduction of this implant will be the long-awaited answer to that call. That and so much more.

What it offers is nothing short of revolutionary: a full spectrum sensory connection without barriers or intermediates. Complete integration. Complete community. Complete immersion in the world of the Mesh.

Of course, the implant will come with various levels of access, filters and privacy settings, all subject to individual control. It will allow a person to lie on their bed and swim through the Mesh as an anonymous entity, sampling data streams that pass specific criteria and not allowing any outside access to their own mind. It will also be possible to go into complete public mode, taking on everything unfiltered and raw, becoming fully open to the Mesh. It’s all subject to individual customization.

Open access to other minds connected to the Mesh will be possible. But not
control
of other minds.

At least not for the masses.

The one who holds the master control unit will, of course, have unfettered access to the minds of all who receive the implant regardless of any privacy settings. At a time of his or her choosing, that unfettered access will become unfettered control of all other minds with the implant.

The implications are staggering.

Jhata is sure that Ryzaard will be duly impressed.

He will receive the master control unit. Trusted lieutenants will receive limited control units to operate under Ryzaard’s supervision. For her part, Jhata will retain a super control unit for herself that sits above all others in the hierarchy, including Ryzaard.

As the developer of the implant and the real owner of the planetary network, that is only fair.

Now to test the control unit.

Jhata presses it against the skin just behind her right ear. A slight prick tells her that tiny nano-threads have found and forged a link with cellular nerve endings below the skin. It can be attached anywhere on the body, as long as there is access to nerve tissue. A toe or an armpit will work just fine.

But an object this beautiful is meant to be displayed like jewelry.

Feeling the linkage with the network, she takes a Stone from her belt. As soon as her eyelids seal shut, she is floating over the planetary network with its outer fringe of snake-tails and shark-heads. A glossy sphere bobs beneath her, a reconstructed control node made of the same material from which the implants are to be constructed.

It will bar access to the Lethonen. They might hover around it and stew and pine, but they will find it impossible to connect.

She imagines their rage. It brings a smile to her face.

As an added layer of protection from their meddling, Jhata takes an extraordinary next step. Floating above the dark planet, with a Stone in one hand and dozens of other Stones rising weightlessly above her waist, she reaches out to the sphere and lays her palm flat against its surface. An image of the entire network inside the planet core jumps into her mind like a high-resolution schematic.

Effortlessly, she opens up a map inside her brain of the star systems forming her domain. Far away, near the center of her empire, there is empty space. The star and planet that previously occupied the spot were wiped away a few hours before. They now exist only as a dissipating cloud of gas.

Letting her eyelids flutter closed, Jhata goes into her mind. There’s a brilliant flash, like a supernova, but no explosion follows. Jhata and the entire planetary network reappear in the chosen spot millions of light years from its previous location.

When the Lethonen return to gaze upon their treasure, they will discover it has gone missing.

That is the power of the Stones.

Now she’s ready for the test. Her mind slips into the network through the new control node. With accustomed ease and speed, she travels its entire expanse.

Then her mind makes the jump to Earth’s Mesh.