Callsign: King - Blackout

34

King grasped Brown by the collar and hauled him erect. The gambler might not have had any clue about Pradesh’s actual agenda, much less any ability to alter its outcome, and dragging him around was probably going to end up being more trouble than it was worth, but he’d gone through too much to take the bastard down. He wasn’t about to simply turn the man loose. A single bullet probably would have resolved the dilemma, but that wasn’t King’s style.

“Chesler! Grab him.” King pointed to Pradesh. As the Alpha Dog mercenary moved into the room, King thrust his captive into the corridor. He kept one hand on Brown’s collar and the other on the grip of the Uzi pressed against the base of the gambler’s spine, pre-empting any displays of resistance on the latter’s part. As he made his way back toward the casino, the noise of the disturbance outside grew more intense, though not quite loud enough to drown out Pradesh’s insane cackle.

A black hole, he thought. A black hole with a brain, no less. God damn it. Why can’t the crazies just stick to weaponized Ebola and suitcase nukes?

Five years ago, he probably would have dismissed Pradesh’s claim out of hand, but he’d seen a lot of impossible things since then-mythological monsters, Neanderthals, golem. He’d survived them all. Hell, he’d found a way to stop them all.

The screams had dwindled by the time he reached the casino, and when he threw open the door to the aft deck, he found it empty. Or rather, almost empty. Three human forms were visible, standing at the railing and seemingly gazing out at the dark water. But they didn’t move. The three appeared frozen in place, as still as statues. King resisted the urge to make a closer inspection; he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what had happened to them.

The distinctive crack of an unsilenced Uzi grabbed his attention and he instinctively drew back against the superstructure, looking for cover. The shots had originated along the port side of the riverboat. As far as he knew-and he had taken a crash course in physics as part of Deep Blue’s new intensive educational program for Chess Team-black holes didn’t use semi-automatic weapons. Something else was going on. He dragged Brown behind him toward the corner and peeked around it.

His first impression was that someone had blocked access to the deck with a black velvet curtain. Ten feet high, with shadowy protrusions spread out behind it, the thing didn’t look like any kind of black hole he’d ever read about.

Pradesh must have gotten bad information. It was impossible to see a black hole because their gravity was so strong that no light could reflect back to reach the human eye. Nor did this apparition appear to be causing any gravitational or relativistic disturbances. This thing, as weird as it was, could not be a black hole.

And if it’s not a black hole, maybe bullets can hurt it. He hefted his own Uzi and started to take aim, but something brushed past him before he could pull the trigger.

Pradesh.

The hacker had broken free from Chesler’s grip and dashed past King toward the dark shape. He spread his arms wide as he ran toward it, shouting: “I’m ready!”

As soon as he touched the thing, Pradesh stopped moving. King didn’t notice any other distinctive physical changes, but something was different. The hacker’s sudden silence and lack of movement was profoundly unnatural.

“Guess that ‘mind of God’ stuff didn’t work out for you,” King muttered. “So much for infinity and beyond.”

Suddenly, Pradesh disappeared. It was as if he were nothing more than a human shaped balloon popped by a needle; one instant he was there, and then nothing. King was still trying to digest this when he realized something had changed. The dark shape was moving. Toward him.

Tentacles snaked out along the deck, pulling the thing along with a smoothness that concealed just how fast it was moving. King barely had time to pull back from the corner before the writhing tendrils reached that spot.

He spun and aimed for the gangplank and the waiting Zodiac, heaving Brown ahead of him. A glance over his shoulder showed the thing creeping relentlessly onward, following him-or so it appeared-like a bloodhound. Then he saw Chesler, riveted in place and staring at the dark mass-not literally turned to stone, but petrified nonetheless. King almost called out to the Alpha Dog contractor, but he knew it was already too late.

He pitched Brown into the Zodiac and followed, shoving the rubber boat away from its mooring as he heaved himself over the inflatable gunwale. The black shape slid past Chesler, missing him by mere inches, and oozed onto the gangplank, just as King fired up the outboard.

The water around the riverboat was crowded with passengers who had sought escape from the dark shape by leaping overboard. Many of them were struggling to stay afloat, the cold water and their sodden clothes conspiring to sap their strength. Several heads turned in King’s direction in the instant that the outboard roared to life; frantic hands grasped the sides of the rubber boat. King felt a pang of guilt as he opened the throttle and pushed through their midst.

The shadow thing was right behind him, pulling itself across the surface of the Seine as if the water were no different from the solid deck of the riverboat. Its tentacle-like protrusions barely left a ripple as it reached out again and again to draw itself forward. The screws of the Zodiac’s motor were gradually propelling the craft faster than the shape appeared capable of moving, but if King stopped to help even a single beleaguered swimmer, the thing would catch him. Moreover, he knew that he wouldn’t be doing anyone a favor by performing a rescue; the creature, whatever it was, was coming after him, and King had a pretty good idea why.

The swimmers he’d already passed thrashed desperately to get out of the thing’s path, and for the most part, none felt its deadly touch. A few unlucky souls however lost the race and vanished in an instant as the tendrils brushed them. Then King saw something that all but confirmed his hypothesis.

A tendril snaked out to the shape’s left and plucked a man from the water. King only caught a glimpse of the man’s horrified face as he was pulled back, still very much alive, into the dark mass, but he nonetheless recognized the victim as one of the ten who had received a quantum phone from Brown earlier in the evening.

He recalled Pradesh’s words. I gave it a brain. The hacker had been only half-right about that. His quantum computer had awakened the black hole, or whatever it was, and evidently imparted some rudimentary degree of awareness to it, but it didn’t literally have its brain — the quantum computer network-and correcting that condition was its only priority. It was hunting down the quantum phone devices, collecting them together and integrating them physically into its being.

King knew less about quantum physics than he did about black holes, but he knew that one of the most difficult concepts for the novice physicist to grasp was the idea of quantum colocation. Experiments had proven that subatomic particles could literally be in two places at the same time. Pradesh’s quantum computer seemed to take advantage of this property; the hacker had said the device didn’t have a physical location, but what he had really meant was that it existed in ten different locations simultaneously; the ten quantum phones. The dark shape was evidently entangled with the quantum computer, linked to and benefiting from the artificial intelligence subroutine, but it needed more. It needed to be in physical contact with the computer. That was the sole reason it had come to the riverboat, where all ten recipients of the devices were clustered together like fish in a barrel. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to believe that with each assimilation, its intelligence multiplied.

How many has it already taken? Am I the last?

The quantum phone in his pocket suddenly felt very heavy. He felt an almost overwhelming urge to hurl it away or crush it out of existence, but what would that accomplish? At best, he would throw it off his scent and damage a tenth of the thing’s “brain” but there was no guarantee of even that. No, until he understood the threat better, hanging onto the device was imperative. Keeping the phone was probably his best chance at figuring out how to beat the dark shape, and as long as he kept it in his possession, he knew where the thing would go next. He’d just have to make sure he kept it at a safe distance.

Safe, he thought disparagingly. This thing can walk on water. Nowhere is safe.

With the outboard throttle wide open, the riverboat and its surrounding crowd of fleeing passengers receded into the distance. King lost sight of the dark mass, but his last glimpse of it had shown it moving only about half as fast as the Zodiac. That at least was something in his favor.

A faint orange glow radiated up from the darkened cityscape-fires resulting from the earthquake, probably fed by ruptured gas lines-but it did little to illuminate the immediate area. King eased off the throttle, searching for some hint of the riverbank. He was uncertain about leaving the river. On solid ground, moving through streets that were probably choked with debris and filled with frightened survivors, his lead on the monster would quickly evaporate. But he couldn’t stay in the Zodiac forever.

He needed to make contact with Deep Blue and Aleman. The latter’s technical expertise would be invaluable in figuring out how the quantum computer worked and how to shut it down. He checked his Chess Team phone again; still no signal. The citywide power outage would have knocked out the local cell phone network, but his phone was satellite capable, designed to provide instant communication almost anywhere in the world. Solar flares and other electromagnetic phenomena could disrupt the signal. Was something like that at work here? Or had the quantum device somehow taken control of Chess Team’s network?

Brown might be able to tell him, but King doubted the sullen gambler would willingly offer him any assistance.

A subtle change in the texture of the surrounding darkness alerted King to the nearness of the riverbank and he hastily reversed the screws just as the nose of the Zodiac crunched into a sloping concrete abutment, sliding several feet up its angled face before coming to rest. The sudden stop pitched King forward, but he quickly regained his equilibrium and cautiously extended a foot out into the darkness. He felt solid ground beneath the sole of his shoe.

He grasped Brown’s biceps and hauled the gambler to his feet. “Let’s go.”

Though he was no match for King in terms of physical strength, Brown tried to pull free. “I’m not going anywhere with you. And I don’t think you’re going to sucker punch me again and drag my ass all over Paris. Not with that thing chasing you.”

King resisted the urge to cajole the gambler, instead saying: “What makes you think it’s after me?”

“Isn’t it obvious? It’s after the quantum computer, which is synched to your phone.” Brown’s voice took on an air of triumph. “You could throw it away of course. Funny thing about the quantum computer, though. Do you know why I didn’t just turn it on and set it loose? Why I had to go to the trouble of finding ten different carriers for the synchronization?”

King was grateful that the darkness hid his anxious expression. He wanted to hear Brown’s explanation, but time was short and odds were good that the gambler was simply stalling. He feigned disinterest. “I’m sure you just did it because that kook Pradesh told you to. He was the expert on quantum mechanics, not you.”

“Give me some credit, Sigler.” Brown’s voice was tight, and King knew the barb had stuck. “It was my plan from the beginning, and I learned everything I could about the subject before I gave Pradesh one red cent.”

“You’re a regular super-genius,” King goaded. “You clearly had a grasp on scientific principles when you tried to engineer a virus that would turn everyone into mindless drones. And when you almost set the atmosphere on fire with Bluelight.”

Brown ignored the taunt, which is exactly what King had hoped he would do. “The quantum devices aren’t just synched to cell phones; they’re synched with the person who uses that phone.”

“You’re the one activated it. Maybe that thing is chasing you, not me.”

“It doesn’t work like that. That was Pradesh’s breakthrough. You see, when you use a computer, or even an Internet capable cell phone, a quantum connection is made. A computer, on a level we can barely comprehend, gets used to its user. The quantum computer exploits that connectivity. It knows you. So you see King, there’s nothing you can do. It’s going to catch you and it’s going to kill you, and there’s not a thing you can do to stop it.” Brown allowed himself a satisfied pause before continuing. “I have no intention of going with you. I suppose you could knock me out again, but is it really worth it for you to drag me along? That thing is coming for you.”

“Maybe I should just shoot you.”

Brown gave an indifferent shrug. “Suit yourself. You’ve had plenty of chances to do that before, and yet here I am. Maybe you don’t have the stones for cold blooded murder.”

King didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure he believed in Brown’s crazy theory about the quantum network being linked to him personally, but the gambler was right about everything else. He couldn’t take Brown with him, and he knew he couldn’t simply gun him down.

Before he could resolve the dilemma, a new voice reached out of the darkness from somewhere above. “King? Is that you?”

The familiar voice startled King, but he quickly recovered his wits and put a name to the speaker. “Chesler? How in the hell did you get up there?”

“I found a shortcut,” the mercenary said with just a hint of mischief in his voice. A flashlight beam stabbed out of the darkness from the top of the concrete wall and searched him out. “That thing is following you. It will be here any second. You’ve got to get moving.”

King turned to his captive. “I think I can drag your ass around a little while longer. Do I need to give you another concussion, or will you come along willingly?”

Brown glowered, but nodded and climbed out of the Zodiac. King kept his Uzi trained on Brown as they scrambled up the embankment to where Chesler stood with the flashlight, just beyond a low stone wall that separated the river bank from a paved roadway. As he clambered over the barrier, he repeated his earlier question to the security contractor. “Seriously. How did you get here ahead of us?”

Chesler waggled the flashlight. “I could see where I was going. Took a straight line and came ashore just a ways from here. And…I had some help.”

Two more lights flashed on, transfixing King with their beams. King shaded his eyes from the sudden glare, and he could just make out a trio of men standing alongside Chesler, wearing dark clothes and holding guns identical to the one he now carried. He didn’t recognize their faces, which were no longer concealed behind black balaclavas, but he knew immediately who they were.

King shook his head and gave a defeated sigh. “Chesler, you’re fired.”