Project Aura

11

Valika had been down in the Aura operations center several times and had witnessed the progression from a rough cavern hewn out of the igneous rock to its present incarnation. The chamber was a quarter mile deep into the side of the volcano and resembled a spacious movie theater for a very elite group of viewers. There were twenty chairs spaced evenly about fifteen feet from each other on a sloping floor. The chairs had high backs and footrests and were made of the finest leather. Behind each chair was a computer with a technician monitoring it.

At the very rear, Souris was seated in her own chair, leads connected to the top of her head in the appropriate places. The members of the Ring were gathered round as she went through the procedures to initiate Aura. A half dozen people in white coats monitored machinery in a balcony above the main floor, controlling the master computer. The dog and pony show was about to begin-Valika had once heard an American officer call a formal presentation that, and she thought it quite appropriate.

“You won’t see or feel the field until the computer shows it to you,” Souris said. “The frequency it’s set on now is perfectly safe.”

The lights dimmed, flickered, then came back at a subdued level.

“The power requirement is one issue we need to resolve,” Souris said. “The field currently requires tremendous input. We use enough energy in one half-hour session here to light a small city for twenty-four hours. When we use the portable Aura transmitter, we only have about three minutes of transmission time before we completely drain the batteries. We have several promising leads in research that we think will pay dividends shortly in that area.”

Valika shifted her feet as Cesar frowned. Souris had no idea how to work people. Valika had known scientists like her before-people who felt their research should be unfettered by such constraints as politics or funding. Valika’s skin tingled very briefly.

“Aura is now all around you,” Souris said, her eyes closed. A slight smile twisted her lips.

“Will we have to put those things on our head to see it?” Naldo asked Cesar.

“No.” Souris ’s voice was almost a whisper. “The connector that allows you to view Aura is built into the headrest of the chair. All we are doing is giving you a window into the virtual plane. You will not travel there as I do. Go to your chairs and you will see what I am seeing.”

Reluctantly the surviving members of the Ring, led by Cesar, each took a chair. Souris indicated a different chair for Valika, one like her own. A technician attached leads to Valika’s head. She had done this before and ranked it about the equivalent of flying in terms of fondness. Valika leaned back, feeling her body sink into the leather. The tingling sensation, stronger this time, passed through her. The American’s voice came out of small speakers built into the headrest.

“The chair is now beginning to transmit a frequency that will orient your mind to the Aura field. Close your eyes and relax.”

Valika was overwhelmed by a sudden weariness as if all energy were being drained from her body. Her eyelids were like sheets of lead, clamped down, darkness encompassing her world. Souris ’s voice was very distant.

“You are now getting in congruence with Aura. We are going to give you a very simple demonstration of what the virtual plane is like.”

Valika blinked as the room grew brighter. But she wasn’t in the room. And her eyes-she could swear her eyes were still closed, but it was difficult to tell. The light took on form. Saba. But she was above it. At the very top of the volcano. She’d been here before, marching up with the island security chief to lay out the sniper positions. But how had she-She turned but there was no sense of movement, just the panorama changing. There was no sense of her body. She looked down and saw a human form, but one without features, with flat white feet on the volcanic rock-no, check that, the feet were floating a couple of inches above the rock.

“I’ve concentrated on programming it for the members of the Ring as dictated by Cesar.” There was a click, then Souris was addressing the members of the Ring. “Now let us show you an example of what Aura can do.”

A white plank appeared in front of Valika, extending about twenty feet into space and ending at nothing. Then a square shape came into being at the end of the plank, coalescing into a building, floating in space. The door swung open.

“Go ahead,” Souris urged.

Valika tentatively took steps out toward the building. She had no sensation of moving but the door grew closer until she was inside. It looked exactly like the courtyard at Cesar’s mansion.

Suddenly other shadowy figures still in their chairs flickered into view.

“You can now see each other in your virtual world,” Souris said.

The avatars shifted form until Valika could recognize each. Cesar was to her right. The other members of the Ring appeared. Their faces were expressionless but identifiable.

“This is the safe mode of Aura,” Souris continued. “With a little bit of experience we can get to the point where your body receives external feedback, so that your senses other than sight function as if you are really there. Which would make this”-the chamber flickered for a second, then a dozen naked women appeared, some lounging about next to the pool, others strolling provocatively-“more than just a show. It would be real to you.”

There was a slight click, then Souris ’s voice came back. “I am sorry, Valika, about this display. Señor Cesar said I must do something his comrades would appreciate.”

“Can I speak to you?” Valika felt herself say the words, but couldn’t hear them.

“Yes. We are on a private link. This show is designed to go for another ten minutes. Quite disgusting.”

Valika could see that two of the women next to the pool were now kissing. The men’s shadows were watching. “Can I leave here?”

“Where would you like to go?” Souris asked.

“What are my options?”

“This Aura field covers a little over a mile in width. You can travel anywhere on Saba inside the field. I can also generate various scenarios from the database-much like this room-for you.”

The courtyard flickered, then was gone. Valika stood in a room she immediately recognized. Her mother and father’s apartment in Moscow. A dingy, two-room affair overlooking the square, across from the university where he was a guest lecturer.

“I designed it from photos Cesar gave me,” Souris said.

Something came into being to Valika’s left and she turned. Souris was there.

“Why this?” Valika asked.

“Cesar said it was the last time you were happy,” Souris said simply.

Valika remembered talking to Cesar late one night, after she had foiled an attempt on his life by a rival gang. They’d both drunk too much and she’d said too much.

“The others are only able to see the display I put on,” Souris said. “They would need the leads on their head, like you have, in order to have an avatar. I did not think them ready for that. The forms you saw in there were just two-dimensional projections.”

The door started to swing open. Valika felt a surge of excitement, anticipating her mother, immediately feeling foolish for such a thought.

“Who are you?” There was surprise and shock in Souris ’s voice as a strange man walked in. “How did you get here?”

The man was tall and thin, his form not quite solid. He looked at both of them and settled into the chair that had been her father’s. “My name is Jonathan Raisor.”

Valika was surprised to see his mouth move as he spoke. She turned to Souris. “What is this?”

The man looked about. “Not bad, but couldn’t you have come up with something a little fancier? Your comrades viewing the women by the pool are enjoying themselves. I did not think it wise to interfere in that presentation. Still, I can’t complain. This is the first chance I’ve had to sit down in quite a while.” He laughed, a manic edge to it. “As a matter of fact, this is the first time I’ve had a body in quite a while.”

“Who are you?” Valika asked, seeing that Souris was at a loss for words.

“I told you my name.”

“That means nothing to me,” Valika said.

“I am-was-part of an American experiment like this.” Raisor waved an arm about. “A bit different though.” He looked at Souris. “I think you know what I am speaking about. What you’re doing here is very interesting. You’re opening a window between the virtual and the real worlds. Straddling it, so to speak.”

“You’re from Bright Gate,” Souris whispered.

“Very good. You get the prize.”

“They have progressed far in the last two years since I left HAARP. I knew Jenkins, who ran Bright Gate while I was running HAARP. He knew so much.”

“He knew much but he was just a pawn,” Raisor said. “He is no longer with us.”

“What happened to him?” Souris asked.

“I killed him.”

Souris did not seem surprised. “Why?”

“He betrayed me.”

“What should we do?” Valika’s voice echoed inside Souris ’s mind on the private link.

The man smiled. “I can hear you. I am far more in the virtual plane than you. And you are far more in the real than I am. I saw what you did to that man in the courtyard. And I know who Cesar is. And I’ve heard of the Ring.”

“How?” Valika demanded.

“I worked for the CIA.”

“Who do you work for now?” Valika asked, noting the tense. She felt naked, with no weapons, no body even to fight with. This was completely unexpected.

“Me. As I said, I was betrayed. I believe we have common enemies now.” Raisor got up and went over to the bureau. He picked up the wedding picture of Valika’s parents. “Interesting. You’ve done a good job. Re-creating-” He paused and closed his eyes.

Valika felt pain in her head and she involuntarily gasped. The man’s right hand was at her head, unnaturally extended. The fingers were in her skull. She jerked back.

The man opened his eyes and was looking at Valika. “Your parents. This was their apartment. They are both dead now.”

“How do you know that?” Valika demanded.

“As I said, I have more power here than you do. I can reach”-he put a hand out toward her once more and she took another step back-“places you know nothing of.”

“How did you do that?” Souris asked, indicating the picture in his hand and then Valika. “We’re not on a level to interact with the projection or each other on that level. I’ve been working on getting to that point, but it’s eluded me.”

“You may not be at that level, but I am.”

“Tell me how?” Souris was excited. “How are you being projected? What did Jenkins change in the program?”

“ ‘Projected’?” Raisor mused. “Interesting choice of words.” He tapped his chest. “This is me.”

The room faded for a second. “It’s too soon for the power to be this low,” Souris said.

“I’m drawing quite a bit,” Raisor said. “I assume you don’t mind. What is HAARP?”

“We have to return,” Valika told Souris. She considered what he had just said and realized the only control they had over this man was turning off the Aura transmitter. He may have talents on the virtual plane, but he needed their power to exercise them, it appeared.

Raisor put his hand up, indicating they should wait a moment. “What is HAARP?” he repeated. His arm extended, as if it was made of rubber, toward Souris, reaching for her head.

“A projector like this,” Souris said quickly, stepping back. “Developed by the Americans. I’m surprised you never heard of it. Or saw it, if you were with Bright Gate and operated on the virtual plane.”

Raisor was nodding as if something finally made sense to him. “Now I know what she saw that she wasn’t supposed to.”

“Who are you talking about?” Valika demanded.

Raisor ignored her. “I think we can help each other.” He looked at Valika. “Talk to Cesar. Tell him I can take Aura to another level that you have not considered.”

“In exchange for what?” Valika demanded.

“I will tell you next time we meet. But I assure you that we can be very useful to each other. You’ve seen some of my powers. I have others you haven’t even thought of.” He looked at Souris. “Or perhaps you have thought of but haven’t been able to accomplish yet. I have some things to check on. I will be back here in thirty minutes.”

The room snapped out of existence. Valika felt her body seem to fade, then come back, stronger than before. She felt the seat, could hear the sound of others stirring, smell the faint odor of the leather. She blinked, eyes adjusting to the dim lighting in the room. She ripped the leads off of her skull, not caring about the hair that got torn out with them.

She swung her legs over the side and stood, feeling dizzy for a second. She could hear the members of the Ring exulting over the experience, congratulating Cesar. She walked to the rear of the room where Souris was peeling one of the leads off her skull.

She kept her voice low so the others wouldn’t hear. “Was that man part of your program?”

Souris shook her head. “No.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“Why would I invent something like that?”

“I don’t know, but you need to understand what we’re doing here is very serious.”

“I’ve spent the last twenty years of my life on this,” Souris said. “I know it’s serious. Far more than you could imagine.”

“The man said he was drawing power from Aura. How can that be if he didn’t come from here?”

“I’ll have to check my data,” Souris said.

Valika glanced over her shoulder. The men were still marveling about the women and what they had seen.

“He said he was American,” Valika said. “From this Bright Gate. You never told us of such a thing.”

“It was experimental,” Souris said.

“It doesn’t look experimental anymore,” Valika noted. “If he’s still working for the Americans, it means they’ve penetrated us.”

“He said he wasn’t,” Souris said.

“ ‘Said’?” Valika shook her head. “And because he said this, we should believe him? And even if he has been cut off by the Americans, if they could put him on the virtual plane, couldn’t they put others there too? This is a threat!”

“It is also an opportunity,” Souris said.

Valika was going to ask her what she meant when she was distracted.

“Gentlemen!” Cesar’s voice cut through the excitement. “Gentlemen!” When he had everyone’s attention, he continued. “What you saw today was only level two. There is much more that Aura can do.

“Please enjoy my hospitality. Although I cannot match what you just saw exactly, I assure you that you will find the young women I have waiting above much more real.”

Valika gave a hand signal to Cesar that she needed to speak to him. After the others left, the leader of the Ring came over to the Russian.

“What is it?”

“We were contacted on the virtual plane,” Valika said.

Cesar frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Someone met us on the virtual plane.” “Who?”

“Someone named Raisor,” Valika said. “He said he could help us. I believe he’s an American.”

Cesar’s face tightened. “Come to my office.”

Raisor jumped from the Aura control center north. Then twice more, until he was above the glass-walled building that housed the headquarters of the National Security Agency. It was shielded on the virtual plane. He knew he could wait until the bitch got off work-if she ever did, as he had seen her spend the night quite often-but then what could he do? He was in the virtual plane, without the power or programming of Sybyl to enter the real. He could watch, but that was all. And watching was not enough.

He felt rejuvenated, full of energy. Aura had recharged him, but he knew that the effect would not last. He would have to get back to Aura soon.

Raisor jumped west, to a spot he knew well.

He was above the Mount of the Holy Cross, where Bright Gate was headquartered. He could sense the psychic shield that surrounded the place and knew he could not enter. But someone was out. Raisor knew it, from the line of virtual power that came out of the mountain and arced southward, a connection from Sybyl to wherever the Psychic Warriors were.

And HAARP? Wherever it was, the information had been compartmentalized from him. He had no doubt, though, that his sister had discovered the existence of HAARP or something about HAARP and because of that she and the rest of her team had been cut off. But why had McFairn done that if HAARP was just another program like Bright Gate? Wheels turning within wheels, Raisor thought.

Raisor jumped, following the line south. Until he arrived above the villa in Colombia.

The bodies were in the walk-in freezer in the basement of the villa. Separated from the meat by a thick plastic sheet hung across the middle of the freezer, the three dead Special Forces men were hung on hooks. Dalton didn’t recognize any of them immediately. One’s head was half missing; another was lacking the lower half of his body-which Dalton had seen back at the ambush site. The other had taken several rounds, including many which Dalton knew from the lack of blood were inflicted postmortem, especially to his face. What remained of their uniforms had no markings-Dalton knew they had gone in “sterile” with no ID tags or insignia that could be traced back to the States.

“ Jackson,” he relayed through Sybyl.

“Yes?”

“I’ve found three bodies.”

“Damn.”

“You find anything?”

“Not yet.”

“Continue searching.”

Dalton came out of the virtual plane, into the real, assuming the form of his avatar.

“What are you doing?” Kirtley’s voice echoed inside his head.

Dalton ignored him. He went up to the first body and lifted it off the hook, laying it down on the ground. He took a long strip of brown paper and covered the dead man. He did the same with the other two.

Then he knelt next to them silently for a minute. He was startled when Jackson contacted him.

“I’ve found the others. Alive.”

Dalton went back on the virtual plane and moved toward her essence until he arrived in a dark room. Several men lay about in the dark, some of them wounded. Jackson was a glowing form in the corner.

“Should we show ourselves?” Jackson asked.

Dalton considered that. He knew what it was like to be held prisoner. Hope could be a good thing, but disclosing themselves could also compromise the rescue mission. He’d done what he had with the bodies to cause confusion among the ranks of the guards. No, check that, he realized, he had done it out of respect for the men who had died.

“Sergeant Major!” Kirtley’s voice was on a power setting unnecessarily loud and brought him out of his thoughts. “You will return immediately. You will not disclose yourself to those men.”

“A little hope wouldn’t hurt them,” Dalton argued, more for the sake of disagreeing with Kirtley than anything else. “To let them know they aren’t abandoned.”

“You’ve done what you were tasked to do,” Kirtley said. “I’m ordering you to return immediately.”

Dalton reached out to Jackson directly, touching her avatar on the shoulder. “Let’s go back. We’d have to explain who we are, and then we really couldn’t do anything to help them right now.”

Jackson turned toward him in surprise. Dalton put a finger over his lip, indicating for her to be silent. He counted-seven men. “Straight jump to the rally point.” He let the real world fade from view until he was completely in the virtual and prepared to jump.

Jackson reached out and grabbed his arm. “Jim.”

Dalton caught himself just as he was ready to jump. “What?”

“Someone’s here-in the virtual plane. Watching us.”

Dalton felt foolish as he craned his head and looked about. He saw nothing but featureless gray. “Who? This Droza?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Go. Now.” Jackson jumped.

Raisor caught their virtual essence as they snapped by, like a bird looking in the window of a supersonic jet as it flew past, catching just the tiniest of glimpses. He was pretty certain they hadn’t seen him, because he had no avatar, just a presence. He headed back to Saba.

He arrived over the island, looking down from the virtual plane. Then he descended, through the building to the underground chamber. Souris was waiting for him. Along with the Russian. And there was someone else with her. They had Aura turned on. Raisor tapped into the power.

Sergeant Lambier started. He rolled to his side, half expecting guards to come through the door firing. But there was only the sound of the others sleeping. His eyes darted about the room, searching for what had awakened him. Whatever had penetrated his sleeping brain was gone.

Barnes found the site of the battle without much trouble. He hovered over the rail line, noting that it had already been repaired, the derailed cars gone.

There was nothing on the virtual plane that he could pick up. No sign of the men of his team who had been “killed” by the Russian avatar.

Barnes jumped several times, in an ever widening circle, searching, but in vain. It was as if the men had never existed.

Hammond had one eye on the screen that showed the status of the three deployed Psychic Warriors and one eye on the lines of programming code and data files for Sybyl that she was slowly scrolling through. Her right index finger rested on the “up” key, tapping to reveal the lines one by one. She was working her way backward, trying to find the source of the virus and the exact nature of it.

Her finger paused in midair as something caught her attention.

“What happened to your predecessor?”

Dr. Hammond spun about in surprise at the unexpected question. Kirtley was right behind her and she had not heard him enter the control room. She had been alone with the three bodies in the isolation tanks, monitoring the data. She could read the numbers that Sybyl was displaying on the monitor and translate them into information. What they were telling her was that one of the Psychic Warriors-Barnes-was not with the other two. Indeed, he was a long way from them. And she knew that wasn’t what the mission called for.

“My what?” Hammond stammered.

“The person who ran Bright Gate before you,” Kirtley said. “What happened to him?”

“You mean Dr. Jenkins. He was killed in an accident.”

“Really?” Kirtley glanced at the computer monitor that showed Sybyl’s data files, then back at her. “Something wrong?”

“No. No. Everything’s going fine.”

“And the first team? What happened to them?”

“The first team?”

“The CIA team,” Kirtley amplified.

“I wasn’t here then,” Hammond said.

Kirtley sat down, steepling his fingers. “You’re not very inquisitive, are you, Doctor?”

“I do my job.”

“I’ve put safeguards in place,” Kirtley said, “to guarantee that if you do to my team what happened to the first one, you’ll be killed. I’m very serious about this. Do you understand?”

Hammond swallowed, then nodded.

Barnes was back at the battle site, his search fruitless. He was just above a high, craggy peak overlooking the rail line and the site of the battle against Chyort. He was ready to make the first jump to head back to Bright Gate when he picked something up, the slightest of presences on the virtual plane. Not an avatar, nothing he could see. But there was something, someone, nearby. He could feel it. He waited, hoping the presence would get stronger, that it would be one of his teammates, but it was gone, just as quickly as it had appeared. He wondered if what he had felt was real-as real as anything could be on the virtual plane. For all he knew, it could have been a disturbance in Sybyl’s programming.

He prepared to jump when he sensed the presence again. He turned, scanning. Out of the east came two forms, pure white, the shapes shifting faster than he could follow, but roughly man-sized.

The only thing he was certain of was that they were not his teammates.

Barnes willed his right arm into the firing tube. He fired at the form to the right. The bolt of power hit. The white glowed red, absorbing the strike, then returned to its original color and continued coming.

Barnes fired once again at the form to the left with the same negligible effect. He didn’t wait to try a third shot. He jumped to the point his team had used as the emergency rally point. Arriving, he prepared to jump once more when the forms appeared above him.

He paused, mesmerized as the two merged into one, becoming a white parachute that floated down on top of his avatar, enveloping it.

Belatedly, Barnes tried to jump, but nothing happened.