Chapter 9
Having finally given up on finding the bright ones in the manner she has been Maryalyan takes the next step in her journey. Instinct tells her that she is still being monitor by the humans and needing to get “lost”, she orders the Captain to land the helicopter in the South American jungle. Once the chopper is safely on the ground she touches the captain’s forehead and puts him into a deep sleep; a sleep his body does not fight as it has now gone without for a week.
Even though she had not found the bright ones, the time she had spent with the pilot and inside the helicopter had proved beneficial in some aspects. The pilot was very knowledgeable of the various surveillance devices that they could bring into play to seek them and had freely provided that information to Maryalyan, now it is the time to make some adjustments. She moves the air immediately around the body, making the air move faster while at the same time sucking moisture from the plantation around her until the temperature and humidity of her body matches that of the jungle. She heads south for an hour or more until she is sure that the jungle canopy is adequate to hide her. Only then does she turn in the true direction she needs to go.
Having little control over the body there is not much Maryalyan can do to make it move faster, but that does not hold true for the forces that make up the planet. Ironically, enough, every day that the chase continued she remembered more about herself, more about her control of earth’s natural forces and every day she used those forces was a boon for the better she came to understand them. Therefore, it takes her no more than a thought to change the magnetic polarity around the body causing earth’s natural magnetism to push her away from its surface. It is not nearly enough to allow her to fly but enough for the next step of her plan, which she also learned from the pilot and his discussions on what makes the helicopter fly and move. Wrapping the body in more air, she hardens a portion like a sail and then gives the air behind her a push. There are a few awkward moments at first but in short order she gets both the body and the air into sync.
Anyone watching from above sees nothing more than a breeze blowing the treetops though if anyone was to see from the ground they would see gale force winds propelling a body at an incredible speed. But as nobody is witness to this no one is the wiser when she exits the jungle canopy hundreds of miles north of where she started only a few hours past; or so she believes.
Maryalyan enters the airport without incident. She would have preferred to make her way to Europe using the same method she just used to get here but the risk of discovery, not to mention the distance and the uncertainty of the method makes that alternative, no alternative at all. Besides that, doing what she had done to get here had already used up much of her reserves and there was no way she would be able to keep that up across an ocean. She needs time to rebuild, and a nice quiet flight on a plane is just what her essence calls for. Checking the board, she finds a flight with a convoluted round about route that has a stop in Amsterdam. Satisfied she turns to find the gate. It does not take long to find it and when she does, she walks through without anyone being the wiser.
----------
Thompson’s time has almost come. For years he, like The Judge have believed that a central government is what this world needs and firing up the B.E.A.S.T. is the first step towards this. For years, Thompson has been working towards this goal, for years he has been stirring up trouble and stomping it out, for years, his superior had lied to the world leaders and then he himself when he was given that leadership.
The firing up of the B.E.A.S.T. is in progress and it should be fully up and operational within a few hours. This is a delicate procedure for if not done correctly it could wipe out the world’s population. The first step in the procedure is to integrate the B.E.A.S.T.’s programming with electronic devices located around the globe. These devices are as small as those in cell phones to as large as the satellites floating in space. Anything capable of sending or receiving a signal is to be integrated. The task would have been impossible if not for the standardization that world leaders had insisted that companies operating in their countries follow. Standardization that had been carefully laid out and planned by their programmers. With those standards in place, it only becomes a matter of piggybacking and time.
Thompson looks at the large screen that covers the wall of his new domain. The room is round and large, being a full five thousand feet in diameter. A massive screen takes up the full five thousand feet of the wall, which is a feat in itself. Around the room and facing this screen are one hundred and fifty stations, all of which are currently manned. The middle of this space is the center of Thompson’s new world. From here, he has control of every individual that will be showing up on that large screen.
The B.E.A.S.T. program will allow people to do as they please unless an anomaly fires and when one fires one of the one hundred and fifty people in this room will then have control of their fate. For the most part, he and The Judge have already predetermined the fate of those that fire the anomalies. Human intervention, the one concession they had to give the world leaders as the world leaders did not want a computer to be the one making the final decision, will only need to push a button to confirm or override the B.E.A.S.T.’s suggested solution. That said Thompson has already made it very clear that anybody that hits the override better have a dam good reason to override the suggested course of action. Therefore, only new anomalies that were not considered when the programming was written should come to his attention; making the seemingly impossible, possible.
The other use that the B.E.A.S.T. provides is the ability to find any individual regardless of where they are in the world and then control his or her life, or death. This best-case scenario is what they are hoping will occur with the woman. As long as she is one of the ninety some odd implanted, the B.E.A.S.T. will have total control of not only her life but also the body itself. If she happens to be one of the rare individuals not implanted, other procedures have already been put in place. DNA found in her apartment has already been fed to the B.E.A.S.T. and the moment she is located it will commence processing that program to incapacitate her.
So for now it is just a matter of synchronizing the electronics, and then for the next hour after that, almost seven billion people are going to hurt like hell as the microchips that have been implanted come to life.
The B.E.A.S.T. and the use of the microchips are the only two things the leaders of the world have, for the most part, ever agreed to. It was with their agreement and their co-operation that made the distribution of the chips possible. A distribution that commenced twenty years ago; implanted into babies when they were born, implanted into others during transfers of blood; either in the giving or taking, and implanted into even more with every doctor’s appointment.
Ninety plus percent of the population, or so he was told now has the chip implanted into them and when the B.E.A.S.T. fires up this ninety plus percent of the population, including him will hurt like hell. The pain will be brief, not lasting more than an hour or so but that pain will be nothing compared to what those who do not have the chip implanted will be feeling if they are within range of some electronics or when they pass one of the millions of electronic devices now being synchronized.
Thompson grins at the thought of those unlucky six hundred million or so, writhing in pain on the ground as they fry from the inside out simply because they were the “random” few that did not get the chip.
At first, Thompson thought that there would be a greater outcry from the world leaders regarding their method of reducing the world population. For a while, he even thought they did not know about their plans to do so. But he has since discovered that the leaders are all well aware of these “random” few, for all have agreed that a reduction of the world population is a requirement. Granted some countries will be harder hit than others will be. Troubled countries like Africa and the over populated countries like China. The decisions have already been made and put into motion. If a leader does not like the result after the initi
ation, well failure in new technology has to be expected and not even the safeguards put into Alpha are protections against his programmers.
The next step, the central government will be up to his father as unlike demanding a vote on firing up the B.E.A.S.T. only the head of the International Court can demand a vote on the commencement of the single world government.
----------
It was sheer dumb luck and Farley knows it. Initially, the helicopter disappeared from the radar but considering where they were flying the lost of the blimp was easy to explain. Next and a little harder to explain was the disappearance of one of the two heat signatures they had been monitoring but as they knew the general location of where the chopper disappeared, so it was not one of great concern either.
Farley had been put in charge of the monitoring of both and he immediately reported the disappearance of both to his superior. For some reason his superior seemed less concerned than he should but assured Farley that he would dispatch what remained of the squad to capture the woman. Therefore, Farley had no reason to even be monitoring the nets, especially not one hundreds of miles from the woman’s known location.
As it is, Farley only noticed the alarm because he was bored and happened to be flipping through various channels to pass the time. Flipping from channel to channel and bang …Fluke, total fluke and something he will never let his superior know. After adjusting the feed and looking at the woman he initially refused to believe it was her, for she was suppose to be hundreds of miles from there, but when he focused all the other monitoring equipment towards the woman there was no denying the identity.
He makes a call to his superior and once more, the call is far from satisfying though to his surprise it takes much less to convince his superior that the woman is hundreds of miles from where she should.
After only a brief pause, he has his orders to shadow her flight while the squad re-positions. That order does not make Farley very happy, as Farley now has no doubt that the last place he wants to be is within a thousand miles of this woman. But like any good solider, he obeys and commences to arrange for a shadowing flight.
Her flight he discovers is scheduled to stop in a variety of different cities, which actually makes finding a shadowing flight much more difficult. More than once, he considers taking a flight to her flights final destination so that he would be waiting for her when she gets there but the wary soldier in him cautions against such a foolish assumption that she will take the flight to its end.
Where she is going and what she plans to do when she gets there is another big unknown. Farley has long since gotten the impression that his superior knows what she was doing or searching for in South America, enough so that it had scared them. That said when Farley informed him of the woman’s various destinations he sounded as puzzled about them as Farley.
Some of the stops just do not make sense and if she really wanted to get somewhere there are much better flights available. Her flight has a couple of hops across North America, a hop to Europe and then another half dozen short hops before finally ending in southern France.
The soldier in Farley is convinced that the woman has one destination in mind and that destination is not necessarily the one at the end. He knows that when she reaches the destination she wants she will depart the plane and do whatever it is she is trying to do.
Another problem of course is that if he is on a shadowing flight he will never know when she gets off. This problem he easily overcomes when he manages to get in touch with one of the stewardess scheduled to work the woman’s flight and gives her strict instructions to give him a call when the woman gets off the plane.
As it is, he is just hanging up from his conversation with the stewardess when it hits him; his superior seemed very unconcerned. If Farley was in charge, he would all the airports the flight is scheduled to stop at filled to the brink with the armed forces and casualties be dammed, he would take the woman prisoner. But something has changed for his superior seemed rather uncaring that his prey was slipping from between his fingers. The thought of what may have changed has Farley fidgeting with worry as he waits for his flight to board.
----------
By Maryalyan’s estimate, they are well past the halfway mark of the flight when passengers start to scream in pain and the stewardesses double over. Amidst the screams, the plane takes a quick dip to the right then levels again. The screams continue until it overcomes them and Maryalyan frowns at the prevailing silence.
She has little concern for the humans, as there is not a bright one among them so her probe has nothing to do with concern but everything to do with curiosity. The fact that she has little concern for the human body almost results in her missing the importance of that pain, for after checking the spirits and sensing that nothing is directly attacking them she commences to pull away. It is as she is pulling away that her probe touches upon the body and gives her the first hint of the wrongness. Delving deeper inside the body she comes across the pulsating foreign object embedded deep within the heart. The object is inanimate but she cannot keep the shiver from passing through her, as the evil of the thing seems to try to crawl into her.
Her body gives another involuntary shudder as she pulls her awareness back into herself. A feeling of dread lies heavily in the air, it pushes against her, trying to invade, trying to corrupt. It takes some effort but she finally manages to take a full breath giving her the energy to push back against the dread and to keep it at bay.
A horrid scream shatters the silence and Maryalyan watches in horror as the body of the human that is sitting directly in front of her stiffens. His screams are agonizing; the man tears at his clothing as if those are the cause of his torment. Maryalyan extends her senses forward and finds that the human’s body has become much too hot, it was never designed to withstand that kind of heat and yet its temperature continues to rise. With a little more effort, she pushes further into to body to discover the cause and what she finds is not encouraging.
The core of the human’s body is spiking and pulsing erratically. It was never designed to put up with the forces that are attacking it. Every molecule in the body has been tampered with so that they now move at a dizzying pace. The molecules bang into each other and then bounce away only to bang into another and the frenzy in which this is happening is what is creating the heat.
Maryalyan remembers the chip she had seen embedded into the heart of the other human and believing that this is the cause of the human’s problem she probes into the body. She finds the chips but unlike the other this one has broken and now lies dead within the heart.
The man’s screams continue to escalate. The molecules continue to speed up, collisions occur more often, harder, faster, vibrating. Maryalyan’s head begins to pound, her heart rate increases, she feels her temples thumping in time with her speeding heart, sweat beads her forehead.
With a wrenching effort, Maryalyan manages to pull her essence back into herself, only to feel the bombardment she witnessed bombarding the human also attacking her. Taking another deep breath, she focuses her energy. The effort it takes to keep that evil from penetrating her takes all her concentration and will. Now that she has seen what this evil can do to a human body, she dares not give up or lose the fight for if she was to lose this human body and have anther she would lose valuable time, time that the bright ones may not have and certainly time this planet did not have. The human screams once more and then the sight of his body burning to ash is enough to make her re-double her effort…. vast stores of energy comes to her…. somewhere, somehow millions are dying and their energy is rebounding back to her and “the other”.
It is with a mixed feeling that Maryalyan gathers the energy returning to her. She is grateful to have it to help protect her host body against whatever is trying to destroy it but the reason for the returning energy is disturbing. Caught up in her own struggle for survival and the struggles the human in front of her was experiencing, she did not have a chance to reac
h out and feel those millions that died; she hopes feverishly none of them were the bright ones.
Maryalyan loses track of time as she fights whatever is trying to damage her human body, how long it takes, she is unsure though more than once she fears losing the fight. Once more what to expect of the human body is she lost the fight flashes across her mind and knowing that she can ill afford to be on the losing end she continues to gather energy and push back against the evil.
I cannot afford to lose this body. I must fight, I must win.
The manta repeats itself and echoes in her mind. It helps her concentrate, to push back, to become more than the pulses.
A dim memory of her “awakening” comes to her. She enters the human body; she and another delve deeply into the body seeking for impurities and imperfections. They heal the cancer; they stop and then reverse the aging until the body is once again in the prime of its life span. They discover an object that is foreign to the body. The object is dead, it sits heavily within the heart doing nothing; this they expel. The two of them work together as one as they have been doing for eons. As the dead object is expelled, the human body goes into convulsion, the tightening of the muscles break bones; the body threatens to shut down. The two of them work feverously to keep it alive. The battle is long and hard and more than once, they think they are going to lose that body and have to look for another. The brain is swelling; it must be saved for they can ill afford to have the brain function cease. Maryalyan concentrates all her energy into saving the brain; the motor function is the most important for the body must be able to move, to take care of itself. She trusts to “the other” as she always has to keep the rest of human body alive, her job now is the brain, some parts are lost but the most important parts she saves.
The body is stable center of my being.
Thank you, the brain took some damage.
Can you do it?
Yes but it will take some time.
Do you want me to stay until you have it repaired?
That is not necessary my center. I save the most important parts, the rest will take time but I can manage it.
Then I will leave you. Call me if you have the need.
He departs, leaving Maryalyan lost, for only once before has she ever been separated from him. In her concern, she loses control of a part of the brain. More damage occurs and she puts all her will to repairing it. Yes, that is it…. the part of the brain that has been lost is the part responsible for memories but saving the host body memories is unimportant. Little does she know that letting that go results in the problem she has been having for the last six months for not only has the host body’s memories been lost but also the ability for it to keep its short-term memory. For the last six months she has been repairing the brain. The brain is such a fragile thing, cell by cell; nerve by nerve, it must be repaired. It reminds her of when they first designed the body. It was a tedious process requiring much thought. There were failures and successes a plenty. Their first attempt was little better than what the humans now call apes. Maryalyan remembers that even though there were many problems with them she was fond of that race. They were so simple, so easy to please…
It was in only the last couple of weeks or so that she finally got most of this human’s brain pieced back together, hence the reason for her sudden “awakening”. Further repairs followed, so automatic now that she did not realize she is doing it and everyday became clearer until now…it has all come back to her.
The pounding continues and Maryalyan continues to shield the body, to push back the evil, to deny it entrance. She cannot, will not allow the brain to be damaged again. Pulsating, it pulsates with every push; she feels the beat, the timing. Thump… thump…. thump…Mary times her pushes to those thumps. Push, hold, breath in, push. The pressure decreases, thump, push, breath in, thump.
She finally reaches the point where she can think clearly again. Frightened of what this may mean she reaches out for the bright ones. Nothing, not one bright one close by, she reaches to the general area for those gathered in South America. She spreads her essence over a large area, she listens…. She is much relieved when she finally feels their pulse, and then gathers her essence back into herself.
How long this all took, how long she fights she has no idea for she has no real conception of time and it is the stewardess that finally brings her back to the here and now. Looking around she sees that whatever had afflicted the stewardess and the other passengers seems to have passed and except for the passenger burnt to ash and ignored by all, they all act as if nothing untoward has occurred.
The stewardess asks Maryalyan if she is feeling well and Maryalyan assures her that she is. Thus reassured and as if a little while ago that very same stewardess was not writhing in pain or that there is at least one ash laden seat on the plane, the stewardess informs her that they are coming in for a landing and asks her to fasten her seatbelt. Maryalyan fastens her seatbelt and it is as she is fastening this that she comes to realize how long it had taken her to fight the evil that had been trying to invade her and how much of her energy it had taken. Much of the excess energy that had redoubled into her upon the deaths has already been used up in her efforts so that she now only has a minuscule more energy than before. Looking at the burnt body of the human before her clearly shows what would have happened to her host body if she had failed so she has no regrets of the effort and energy she expended.
The evil still hangs there, it still tries to invade, to penetrate but now she knows the pulse and is able to keep it at bay by matching her pushes to the evil’s pluses.
When Maryalyan disembarks the airplane at Amsterdam there is an immediate relief of the constant attack on her body but that relief is short lived for the moment she enters the terminal it comes back tenfold. The pulse is so much stronger that it catches her unaware making her stagger so that she has to hold onto the wall until she has the pulse back under control. She realizes that the pulse in the terminal is the same yet different. It beats to a different rhythm and it changes as it seeks. By the time she accomplishes the task of settling the body to the pulse, the human body is shaking almost uncontrollably.
Using what little energy she has left she nudges the custom officers and passes them unnoticed. Head pounding, throat dry she makes her way out of the terminal and down to the train station. She is lucky enough to get there just before the train going to The Hague is preparing to depart. Maryalyan finds herself a seat and sits down exhausted.
When the train exits the airport proper there is an immediate reduction in the pulse. Breathing a great sigh of relief, she closes her eyes and works on getting her frayed essence back in order.
The further the train pulls away from the airport the less the pulse pushes allowing Maryalyan a half hour to gather strength and calm…. then they enter the city proper. She feels the difference immediately, though much to her surprise the attack on her body only increases to a slight irritant and nothing more.
Not having to put all her attention into protecting the body gives her time to watch the city and its citizens as the train speeds its way to the train station. She sees the occasional human exit their car writhing in pain and then turn to ash much like the human on the plane. The worst part is that those who past the writhing bodies ignore them and continue as if nothing is amiss.
The train stops at the station and like the rest of the humans on the train she exits. As she exits the train car the bombardment against her body resumes and she instantly realizes that the inside of the car had been providing some shielding from the pulse for it is immediately upon her exit of the car that is increase to an almost unbearable level again.
Maryalyan hurries to the first taxi she sees and entering gives the driver the address of her destination. As the taxi makes its way she sits back to contemplate the meaning of the pulse, the change. Something on earth has changed something that would be a historic moment for these humans Maryalyan is sure. Her mind flashes back to the tingle she felt
in the U.S. President.
Is it possible that they have implemented what I saw…
They are searing the court when Maryalyan feels a pull. She is not sure from where it comes but the feeling of “her other” is strong. It tells her the one she is seeking is not in the court building but in another not far away. Such is the trust in “the other” that she has no hesitation about giving the driver new instructions, telling him to turn left here and right there until the pull has stopped.
She looks out the cab at the building they have stopped at. She is certain the building must be quite imposing to the humans for it stands tall and shines brightly in the afternoon sun. Giving the driver’s spirit a touch she exits without paying. The driver drives away happy for he believes she has left him a significant tip.
Once more, the pulses bombard her and once more, she finds herself on the defensive. For five minutes she fights back, the human body is so fragile that it wants to bend under the pressure and she needs to give all of her strength to support it.
Finally and hoping to get some shelter from the pulse she pushes open the door to the building and makes her way inside.
----------
The pain had hit Farley when he was on the airplane and he remembers clearly wishing to die. So intense was the pain that it was impossible to keep from screaming and he was not the only one letting those screams free. It was through the haze of pain that he saw the elderly lady stumble down the aisle. She fell and released a death scream then burned to ash. Oh, how he wished he could burn like the old lady; how he wished the pain would go away.
The pain had started at the heart, and then it felt as if his blood was being boiled and that “boiled blood” was being pumped throughout the rest of the body. And if having heated blood pumped throughout is not enough the feel of a thousand needles piercing the skin and embedding themselves into every organ and nerve was enough to drive him mad. The brain wants to explode, the eyes bleed, the chest pounds…and then… blissful nothingness.
He remembers coming back slowly, as if from deep within a fog. The pain is nothing more than a distant memory and he would have been willing to dismiss it as a dream, a very bad dream at that, if not for the dull throb he felt deep within his bones and the dried blood on his face.
Licking his bleeding lips and wiping dried blood off his cheeks, he looks to his watch and realizes that he has lost two hours of time. Taking a deep breath to settle his queasy stomach he looks around and just like him, others are slowly recovering from the ordeal. He looks to the aisle and then wishes he had not for he knows what that pile of ash once was.
----------
Farley’s plane lands only minutes after Maryalyan’s flight and she had disboarded. This he knows as he has just taken a call from the stewardess he set to watching her. He is quick to exit his plane and runs through the terminal. Just as he gets to customs, he sees her in the flesh for the first time.
She is just exiting customs but that should be impossible for there is a world bulletin for her arrest. As he moves to intercept her he cannot help but think how normal and fragile this woman looks; nothing like the monster he had come to think of over the last week. He watches her stumble out of the custom area and is about to do the same when large and very powerful hands grip his shoulders.
Farley turns around quickly to give a sharp reprimand to the fool who has the nerve to impede his mission; only then does he realize that it is not one but five that impede him and more seem to be on the move.
She did this. This is that bitch’s doing!
Farley is not a stupid man and as such, he holds up his hands in surrender.
“Take it easy, I’m ICC.” Farley states in as calm of voice as possible, effectively hiding the frustration he feels.
Those around him look at him blankly and it becomes clear that ICC means nothing to them.
“I have identification. I am going to reach inside my inner pocket and take it out.” Farley states just as calmly.
When the one fellow nods, Farley reaches inside his pocket with exaggerated slowness for the last thing he wants is any of these pistol-pointing idiots to take his move the wrong way.
----------
Thompson has just recently recovered and is standing in the middle of his new world. The screens have come to life; the computers are talking to the electronics, the satellites, the cell phones, anything and everything electronic belong to these computers. They take in the inputs and give the outputs. Dots are flashing across the screens, lights are flashing waiting for the human interaction that will allow them to continue running their programming.
“Come on people get up, it’s time we get to work.”
Thompson goes around kicking a few awake and then leaves the job to be finished to those few he woke. Going but to the center of his world he looks around.
His world, the power over life and death, the power over who goes where and who can buy what is all in his hands.
“Sir!”
“Why aren’t you at your station Max?”
“Sir, the computer wants to terminate a new born?”
“So.”
“Well Sir the program has only been running for an hour, I don’t think…”
“Think, are we paying you to think? Have there been more births than deaths in the area?”
“Yes Sir but..”
“Peters, please find Max’s chip.”
“Yes Sir….found it.”
“No please Sir. I’ll get right on it.” Max knows what is coming and runs back to his desk in fear.
Thompson scans his computer screen. “Peters please terminate 666 1987652.”
“Yes Sir. 666 1987652 termination commenced.”
“Sir no! See I pushed the button. The baby is dead.”
Max screams in pain as the program runs its course.
“So do we have anybody else here who thinks they know better or want to question their orders?” Thompson looks around. “No good, so let’s get to work people.”
Thompson is not upset one bit about having to terminate Max. He knew that what they had to do would become an issue for some at some point in time and that he was going to have to take action at that time. Therefore, he is actually very pleased that it had happened so quickly and that Max had provided him the opportunity to give a pointed lesson so quickly. A lesson he is sure he will not have to give again, at least not for a very long time by the looks of those that witnessed Max’s death.
“Now people find me the world’s top one hundred wanted and run the termination program on them.”
----------
For a half hour, Farley has been trying to get past customs. For the last half hour, they have been grilling him and he finally manages to talk the goons into letting him use his cell phone.
“Sir.”
“What is it Sean?” Thompson replies.
“There’s a call from Farley I think you should listen to.”
“Farley? Isn’t that our man in the U.S.?” Thompson questions.
“Yes Sir. He has been following the woman.”
“Did he apprehend her?” Thompson becomes excited.
“No sir apparently he had some trouble with Customs.”
“Trouble.” Thompson frowns. “Put him on the speaker.”
“Farley, what seems to be the problem and why is that woman not in your custody?” Sean asks when he has turned the phone to speakerphone.
“Customs won’t let me past. I think it was something that woman did.” Farley replies.
Thompson gives Sean an impatient look. “Farley put whoever is leading this escapade on the phone.”
----------
Farley is not sure what Sean said to “top goon” as he is only talking to the “top goon” for a couple of seconds when the goon hands the phone over to another. That second’s goon’s face looks serious for a few seconds, then in horror as he watches “top goon” fall down and burn to ash. Like a light switch attitudes change and giving Far
ley back his phone he is allowed to leave.
Farley takes back his phone and makes his way out of the airport as he talking to a strange voice on the phone.
“Is the woman still in the airport?” The voice asks.
“No Sir she left the airport.” Farley replies.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I’m sure she exited the airport. I was right behind her until those idiots stopped me.” Farley replies angrily.
“But you are in Amsterdam. Why Amsterdam? I have your reading but I have no reading of her and as such, she should have become comatose. Did she look like she was in any discomfort?” The voice is obviously troubled.
Come on people we have to get better at this. Now find me that woman and find out why the program is failing.
“So, was she in any discomfort Farley?”
“Discomfort? Hell if I know. I didn’t manage to get close enough. She did seem weak though. Have you seen this woman?” Farley stops another goon patrolling the area and shows him a picture of a woman.
“Yes Sir. She took the train out of here about a half-hour ago?”
“Dam it!”
“Sorry Sir. I just…”
“I heard…. you say she looked weak?”
“Yes, like she had no energy. Sir, looking at the train schedule I would have to guess that she took a train to The Hague.” Farley replies.
“Well that’s better than nothing I guess and the fact that she was able proves our theory that she is something more than she seems. So why The Hague, what is she doing there?” The voice sounds puzzled.
“I have no clue. According to her ticket she was suppose to carry on but I never believed she would stay until the end of the flight.”
Inspiration hits Thompson. “Hold on Farley.”
Thompson pulls the cell phone from his pocket and pushes the button. The phone rings and rings and rings again. Ten rings and still no answer. Thompson starts to sweat. This is not right The Judge would never willingly allow this number to go unanswered.
“Find me the location of The Judge…Now people, do it now!”
----------
The voice on the other end of the phone is quiet for some time before Farley hears a fear-ridden reply.
“I just tired to get in touch with The Judge in ICC headquarters. The building electronics are going crazy and he is not answering his phone. I want you over there on the double. I will mobilize Zebra team to meet you there. If my guess is correct, you will find your wayward lady inside. And oh Farley, nothing better happen to The Judge or your life is forfeited.”
The cell phone goes dead and Farley looks at it in disgust for some time.
----------
The Judge is a little puzzled over the phone call he received a half hour ago. One of the astrometry experts he has on his payroll has just told him that the planets are well on their way to aligning in the manner they all expected and as this is nothing different from what they expected, he is not quite sure why the fellow thought it was so important for him to call.
“So they are aligning. Have you discovered something about their alignment that should give us cause for worry?” The Judge’s voice is brittle with anger.
“No sir, they are aligning as we have always predicted they would and it still does not give us any cause for worry.”
“Then why this call man!” The Judge can no longer keep his anger to himself.
“Well sir I have spotted an anomaly.” The voice on the other end replies.
“Anomaly, what kind of anomaly?”
“We are not sure Judge. The instruments we have can just barely make it out but there is something out there and it only showed up recently.”
“You have the best technology in the world available to you man and I expect results not speculations.”
“The anomaly is small yet sir, barely even there. It was a fluke that we seen it at all.”
“Don’t give me excuses give me answers. Now get back to work and find out what this anomaly is and what it means to us.” The Judge is now annoyed.
“Yes sir!”
The Judge is deep in thought as he hangs up the phone and then alarms begin to sound.
----------
Upon entering the building, Maryalyan made her way to the building directory and it was as she is reviewing this that the trouble starts.
Her plan for making her goal was to nudge the spirits like she had so many times before but it becomes quickly apparent that is not going to work in this building as the electronic pulses are the worst she has encountered yet, though she does not realize the impact of this until she comes under attack.
Scanning the building directory she finds the office she is looking for when they come after her. The attack catches her unprepared and her response to this attack is to push the spirits; she stands flat-footed and in shock when it does not work. That is when she becomes aware of the restrictions that the electronic pulses inside the building are putting on her abilities. Her initial failure is almost her undoing but she has always been quick to come to conclusions, too quick “the other” often complained, therefore before the humans can take advantage of her surprise she turns to the one thing that is hers and hers alone.
The humans have many myths, tall tales, and sayings. Most of them are purely imagination and many so far from the truth that if the truth were ever known the two would not be recognizable as the same. That said, the one that they come close to having right is the wrath of Mother Nature; little do they know that it is that very wrath that stands before them. Therefore, when the nudging fails and the humans continue approaching, “Mother Nature” releases her wrath.
The weather outside changes from a sunny lazy afternoon to a day of death and destruction. Dark clouds scuttle across the sky and lightening flashes; the resulting thunder shakes building in their footings, bursts eardrums of humans as far away as a mile, and windows shatter throughout The Hague. Rain, hail, sleet and snow fall to the streets resulting in a mess that brings the city to a stand still. The wind howls and lesser buildings fly free from their footings. The land changes from pleasantly warm to freezing and back again causing cracks, fissures and explosions as gas lines break and fiery balls shoot forth to explode upon the populace.
Just as the humans in North and South America had come to believe those caught in the storm’s path die thinking that Armageddon had finally arrived and those that survive wish that they had died. There is no safety to be found, no building is safe, and no tunnels are adequate. The earth shakes, the skies scream in rage and people die.
The humans in the building with Maryalyan fare no better for the wind makes its way into the building and with Maryalyan standing in it’s vortex it flings those that opposed her around like rag dolls. Furniture and bodies fly through plate glass windows; further opening the way for the weather outside to join the chaos inside but worst to come was the balls of molten earth. Keeping a tight rein on the wind she guides these molten balls around her, and then flings them to the ceiling to open a pathway.
Those that do not die or flee from the fiery inferno die shortly after when they try to halt the progress of the lady who floats upon the winds behind the balls of death. Death to the fiery balls is the preferred death as this death is quick and relatively painless, while the death from her hands takes time, for time it takes for weather to strip the flesh from bones.
As soon as she finishes with one floor, she commands the wind to raise her human shell to the next floor only to find more humans trying to stop her progression. Once more the wind responds to her wishes. Once more, she calls the hail, the sleet, the rain and snow. The interior of the building quickly becomes coated with elements that properly belong outside. Humans fall, they shiver, and they freeze but worst of all is the wind; oh that wind, how it becomes hated. The winds whips around, picks up desks, chairs, and office supplies and these go crashing into the mob waiting to do her harm. The lucky fly out the window with the furnishing, the unlucky
have the wind strip their skin to the bone.
Maryalyan is merciless. She meets each attack without glee or concern. Not a floor goes unscathed as floor after floor the foolish humans try to stop the on coming death instead of fleeing like even the dumbest of animals. The higher she gets the easier the weather comes to call and the further the humans have to fall before they hit the frozen ground outside the building.
Long before she gets to her goal the fighting becomes tiresome and she supposes the humans would say brutal, though little do the humans know that they are not her only fight. Floor after floor the bombardment against her human body increases in intensity. Floor after floor the type of bombardment changes in type and pulse, and that constant change takes much more of her energy and concentration than the killing of humans, so much so that that dealing with the humans is nothing more than a distraction to the real threat.
Maryalyan finally makes it to the threshold of the man she came here to see, the man with the answers to her questions. The building smells of death, the structure, now a skeleton of what is was groans and creaks with stress.
Maryalyan steps out of the vortex and checks the life source of the last obstacle that stood between her and her goal. She cares little for the human lying at her feet for even the electronics did nothing to hide the blackness of his spirit. Therefore, her only reason for checking the life force is to make sure that he is no longer an obstacle to her progression.
Releasing a sigh of relief at finally obtaining her goal, she pushes on the doors that stand in her way. The doors creak and fall to the floor and she steps inside. The office she steps into is magnificent, opulent with grander. An older human sits behind the desk and it is obvious that he is not use to being thwarted in any way.
“Well my dear. It seems like you have gone through a lot of trouble to see me. Now what may I do for you?” The old human states seemingly unconcerned.
Maryalyan staggers over the threshold. Her essence is almost drained, for it has taken much of her stored energy to get her this far, so much so, that even the large scale death of the human population during the storm was not enough to replenish it.
Just a little longer and then you can rest Maryalyan; just a little further.
“Where are you hiding them?” Maryalyan barely manages to get it out.
“Hiding them? Who…”
The old man’s lie dies on his lips when Maryalyan lifts her hand and the raging tempest outside comes to rest in her outstretched palm.
“Where?”
The old man swallows and for the first time in a very long time he fears for his life; a feeling he quickly comes to hate though not nearly as much as the person that is making him feel that fear.
“So you are the one that caused all that havoc in the Americas. Neither North or South America will be the same again.”
“Stop your prattling, where are they?” Maryalyan states vehemently and the building storm in the palm of her hand spits and crackles.
“You will find out soon enough.” The old human smiles.
Maryalyan feels a sudden vacuum. Her already faltering energy dims to almost nothing. She stands shocked as half of her is ripped away; the half that promised never to leave her; to always be there…. then the on who claimed that she was his center traps that which is hers. Her storm falters, and then disappears.
----------
The Judge, the most powerful man in the world, the very man that intends to become the ultimate ruler of earth and very soon at that, knows that the only reason he is still alive is because the woman was tired from fighting her way up fifty floors. From the very start, the alarms rang and warned those within of a non-complying intruder. From the very start, the electronics bombarded her in an attempt to disable her and when that failed, came the order for human intervention.
Then hell on earth became a reality. Balls of molten lava that she commanded opened floor after floor for her and she followed riding the winds. And much like dogs whipped into a frenzy the men and woman under his command attacked, only to have this slip of a woman beat them back, rip the very flesh from their bodies or fling them and furniture out windows that should never have broken in the first place.
For fifty floors, she had succeeded, for fifty floors she thwarted everything he had to throw at her and her exhaustion is the only reason the man behind her had managed to stun gun the back of her neck. The Judge frowns when she commences to stir.
“Hit her again and keep hitting her every time she even so much as moves; I’ll be right back…. but whatever you do don’t kill her!” the most powerful man who had recently thought his life was forfeited orders Farley.
“No problem sir. I’ll shock the bitch senseless and if that stops working I’m sure I can think of an alternative or two that will not kill her but make her wish she was dead.” Farley gives a wicked smile.
The Judge leaves the room through a back door that has somehow managed to survive the tempest. Farley hears the man fumbling around and gives the woman lying unconscious on the floor another shot with his stun gun. A short time later, The Judge returns and in his hand, he holds a needle filled with a syrupy looking blue fluid.
“What is that Sir?” Curiosity gets the best of Farley.
“That is none of your business young man. Just make sure she doesn’t wake up while I inject her and for at least twenty minutes after!”
Being a good solider Farley replies as expected. “Yes Sir.”
The Judge bends and almost carelessly injects the substance into the woman. He leaves the needle inside her for a couple of seconds, nods in satisfaction then pulls it free. Throwing the needle carelessly aside, he goes to his desk and picks up his cell phone.
“Thompson.”
“Sir, you’re alive! I have been trying to phone you for almost an hour. Hold tight sir I have Zebra team on their way.”
“It’s over Thompson and no thanks to them I am still alive, besides if Zebra got caught outside they are probably already dead. I have the woman so get me another team up here immediately.”
“But Zebra team was dispatched almost an hour ago. They should be there with you.”
“Well they are not and that woman, she was about ready to fry me when your man” The Judge motions to Farley to get his name, to which Farley supplies, “Farley showed up and put her out of commission. I injected her with B.E.A.S.T. “A”, which will keep the electronic from turning her to ash but not from causing the body insufferable pain. I hate having to do your job Thompson so get me a dam team up here and I mean now.” The Judge finishes.
“Yes sir, I’ll get someone there right away. If not Zebra then another team” Thompson replies.
“You have no idea what happened here Thompson. If Zebra was caught outside when the tempest hit I expect they are dead. Check the system, after all that is one of the reasons we designed it the way we did.”
The Judge waits patiently for a couple of minutes.
“You’re right Judge they are all dead.” Thompson replies.
The Judge nods expecting no less. “I know the system is new to you Thompson but I shouldn’t have to be telling you what to do. Anyways, make sure the team you send has the electronics to hook this woman up directly to the B.E.A.S.T. for after what I have seen I am sure that is going to be the only way any of us are going to keep our heads. Also prepare a ride for her to the hole and make note that I wanted her there yesterday.”
“Yes Sir!”
“And Thompson.”
“Yes Sir.”
The most powerful man on earth looks around at what is left of this once magnificence building.
“Prepare my France office, this building is going to be under renovations for quite some time.”
“Yes Sir.”