“Stand by, Father.” Amanda clicked over.
“He wouldn’t move them. He risks everything we have built if he does.”
It would be a desperate move for Vinnick to try to ransom the catalysts for his control. He would turn the rest of the Council against him.
Enzo paced the room for several excruciating minutes. He had nowhere to go! Surely he wouldn’t destroy years of work and irreplaceable resources for petty politics. The Earth was a planet of abundance, with resources, alive and dead, that were near infinite. However, the particular minerals and radioactive iridium derivatives for catalyst production were extraordinarily rare.
“Father,” Sung’s voice clicked over the comm.
Already, Enzo knew the news was bad. He could hear the fear in the weak-minded vessel’s voice. “How much of the stockpile did he take?”
“Sixteen tons. Forty percent of our storage capacity.”
Enzo raged. That was enough to initiate Quasiform processes at nine catalyst facilities. “How could you allow Vinnick to take them?”
The fear in Sung’s vessel’s voice grew. “Apologies, Father, but Councilman Vinnick is on the Council and Flua is on the Grand Council. I dare not disobey.”
That much was true. Enzo could not fault Sung for being loyal. “Where did he go?”
“He said he was going to relocate his operations to North America in order to personally oversee catalyst distribution over the hemisphere. I arranged for the transport.”
A surprising choice. The United States was a wasteland for all Quasing, Prophus and Genjix alike. Vinnick must be in one of the many bases hidden on the continent, though only a few were large enough to store that much catalyst. That meant it would have to be either a catalyst facility or a loyalty haven.
There are four catalyst facilities in the United States, one in Mexico, one in Brazil and one in Peru. Only one in the United States has completed construction and is ready to go on-line. The facilities in Kentucky and Oregon are the largest, situated over fault lines on the continent.
There are three loyalty havens in the hemisphere: northern Canada, the Caribbean, and the Archipelago. They are likelier candidates, since all are under his direct control.
Enzo clicked over to Amanda. “I want you to pull up all the loyalty havens and catalyst facilities in the Western hemisphere. Send envoys on the ground and demand a full audit on my authority. Whichever one refuses is the one Vinnick is hiding in. Arrange for transport. We’re just about done in Russia. I will be there in person to grind that old man under my boot.”
28 School Day
The friction between the Prophus and Genjix is an unusual occurrence for our kind. We have almost always acted as a collective, having our merged ideas debated and agreed upon until we functioned as one focused being, a combined singularity, if you will. That is our true disconnect on this planet, something the Genjix had hoped to overcome with their recent invention of ProGenesis.
Tao
Cameron felt like crap the next day as he and Alex walked to school. His back was stiff, his clothes were still soggy, and he was exhausted. Tao and Tabs had woken them both up before dawn to clean up the mess they had made at the burger joint. His mood brightened a hundredfold when he learned that both his mother and father were all right, and it made Tao ordering him to mop the kitchen and wipe down the grill much more bearable.
An hour later, their Quasing had ordered them both to head off to school. He looked over at Alex walking beside him down Harrison Street. Strangely, her walking beside him holding his hand, coupled with finding out that his parents were all right, could very well have made this the best day of his life.
He began to whistle as they turned onto the block of his high school. With luck, he could swipe the survival pack and get fixed up by the nurse’s office before classes started. Once they did, the entire high school would get locked down and that would make leaving much more difficult. The walk wasn’t too far and soon they were crossing the football field into the main building. With the luck he’d had this morning, he might be able to see Mom by dinnertime.
“Look,” he chirped cheerfully, pointing at a small grove of trees across the street. “Why don’t you hang out there until I get back?”
Alex looked over at the park benches and shook her head. “No way, mister. I’m coming.”
“It’s an unnecessary risk,” he said. “I can grab my stuff and be back in thirty minutes. Hour tops.”
“Fine,” she said. “You go get your bag of money and that cut taken care of. I am going to the locker room to take a nice long shower.”
That is a really good idea. You two have been on the run and have not showered for days.
Cameron sniffed his shoulder. He did smell a bit pungent, though to him, it felt completely natural. He smelled like the forest.
Oh please. I have been in dinosaurs that smelled better than you two. As hard as I have tried, you somehow still follow in many of your father’s footsteps.
“I should probably take one, too,” he said grudgingly.
You also would attract a lot of the wrong attention in your current state, and it is doubtful they would let you onto a bus, either.
“It’s settled then,” she said. “I bet I can find a change of clothing, too.”
Cameron looked at the shirt he was wearing. It looked like it was hanging onto his body by its last threads. On top of being smeared with dirt, grass stains, and hot oil, it had a dozen holes in it, as if someone had shot him full of arrows, courtesy of the many sharp brambles and thorns in the forest.
Another good point.
“Boy, you’re really on her side today, aren’t you?”
Logic over loyalty. Sorry.
“I’ll remember that one day, Tao. You’ll regret putting me second to reasoning.”
Just like you will regret putting me second to a girl.
“I do not!”
It is all right. Reasoning dictates that at your age, you are too dumb to know better.
“I hate you.”
The two teenagers joined the light stream of students walking into Eureka High School. It was half past seven, so classes wouldn’t begin for about an hour. Most of the students here either had to be dropped off by their parents early, were here for projects, or making up a delinquency. Most ignored them, though a few glanced curiously at their tattered clothing. Almost every single guy outright stared at Alex.
In a school as small as Eureka High, strangers were big news, and a pretty girl was the biggest. For the guys, it was someone new to scope out, while the girls were already figuring out where she fit into the social hierarchy. Cameron was pretty sure Alex being seen with him was already knocking her status down a few rungs.
She leaned in and whispered. “What is wrong with everyone?”
“We need to get out of these clothes,” he said.
They took the most direct route to the gym locker room and parted ways. Alex looked positively giddy in anticipation of a hot shower. She turned back to him as she went in. “How will we meet up again?”
Cameron frowned. “I’ll hop in the shower too. Meet you in ten minutes?”
She made a face. “Yeah, no. I haven’t bathed in days. Just go. I’ll find you.”
Before he could say anything else, she disappeared past the double doors. Cameron stood there, dumbfounded. Did she actually expect him to just stand out there and wait for her? They had to get out of here before class started. What was she thinking?
Worry about it later. You only have an hour. Get to the janitor’s supply locker now.
“Shouldn’t I shower first?”