Blue Spell by John Harvey

Author:John Harvey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: On-site Creative
Published: 2021-10-07T16:29:01+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

James, Pieter typed, please come see me when you have a moment. He sent the text, then watched for James’ reaction on Camera Two.

The message was unnecessary. Pieter’s sway over his business partner was so great that he only had to imagine meeting and the man would respond. But he had to be careful how much direct control he exerted; he needed James to retain enough free will to make his own decisions.

The image on the monitor shifted and went dark as James reached into his suit jacket, then brightened and focused on the hardwood floor of his office.

As James read the text, Pieter sensed uncertainty, suspicion, and fading patience. He’d been staying at James’ place for a week and refused every request to explain how he’d returned to Cirrus. He waited almost a minute before overriding the negative emotions with a more powerful one: curiosity.

James yielded and crossed the elegant foyer that separated the two halves of his mansion. The screen flashed marble and mahogany, leather and lead crystal, then a close-up of the polished door handle. Pieter blanked the wall of monitors.

“Are you all right?” James asked. “You look ill.”

“Fine, thanks,” Pieter said, although he hadn’t fully recovered from the effects of Ethan’s shield. “I’ve just received unpleasant news, that’s all.” He pushed an emotion through the portal: ‘Sympathy.’

“We’ve both had too much of that.” James strolled to the window and gazed at his manicured gardens. “I’m always glad to help you, you know that.” Then he faced Pieter. “Will you let me use your portal?”

Pieter suppressed a grin. He’d known where James was headed without the aid of the ring. James Gutierrez had always been the wealthier of the two, and therefore in the stronger bargaining position. Now, Pieter had something James wanted dearly.

Pieter pushed regret. “You don’t want to go to Earth. I’ve only got a single working connection to my factory in Everett. Apparently, it’s being raided as we speak.” He sent, ‘Newton.’

James’ suspicion flared. “What’s going on? Does this have to do with Newton?”

“There’s something I haven’t told you.” He projected a memory of that night: a machine wired to thousands of crystals.

“The destruction of the portals. You know what happened.”

‘Caught.’ He allowed James to savor the minor victory before confirming. “That’s right. And it might happen again.” ‘Fear. Loss.’

“How?”

“Danny Kou.”

“Your head of security?”

“A North Korean extremist, actually.”

James leaned on Pieter’s desk. “You’re not making sense. How could a terrorist group have destroyed virtually every portal in a single night?”

Pieter pushed a stack of papers across the desk and tapped the name in the header.

James spun the stack to face him. “Holden Marke? What’s he got to do with it?”

“This is a paper he wrote thirty years ago. It suggests a method for combining multiple wormholes, to create a single input with many outputs. It relies on the principle that portal crystals are identical.”

“I’m familiar with his work, but he abandoned that study. He thought it would never be stable. What does that have to do with terrorists?”

“Marke was working with Danny.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.