The Breakthrough Effect: A Science-Fiction Thriller by Douglas E. Richards

Author:Douglas E. Richards [Richards, Douglas E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

34

Liam’s conscious mind swam to the surface, but he didn’t pull himself into full wakefulness, luxuriating instead in the groggy realm of semi-sleep and ultimate relaxation. He felt Brianna’s naked body in the bed beside him, her warmth and flawless skin.

It was their first sound sleep since Kim had eliminated his AI and beamed herself into his head. From that time forward they rarely had the chance to even catch their breath, a period that somehow seemed eternal.

Liam had slept well, but remembered a strange period during which he had tossed and turned relentlessly. So much so that he had finally awakened to find himself in a cold sweat, exhausted, and hadn’t been able to nod off again for almost fifteen minutes.

Prior to his awakening, he had been overwhelmed by a series of vivid dreams—perhaps his subconscious mind trying to connect a series of dots—but had no recollection of their content. All he knew was that the dreams must have been intense.

He kept his eyes closed and replayed the events in his mind that had led him from a rental home in San Diego to a mountain retreat in China. It had been a nonstop sprint, and an endurance event, all at the same time.

The exfiltration from San Diego now seemed a distant memory, and he hadn’t done the math to figure out how long ago it had actually been. Given an extended flight, a fifteen-hour time difference between San Diego and Beijing, a helicopter trip to their current location on the Yanshan Mountains, and countless hours presenting their case, the calculation wasn’t as straightforward as it might have been.

The exfil couldn’t have gone more smoothly, and they had made it to the spacious Chinese luxury jet and into the skies without a hitch. It paid to have friends in high places. Or at least an enemy whose goals were temporarily aligned with their own, and who had access to vast resources and diplomatic immunity.

During the flight, Kim finally detailed what Oliver Scott had planned. She had already foreshadowed that his end game would be horrific, and once his descent into madness was also factored in, her audience had thought nothing could surprise them.

They were wrong.

They had correctly predicted Kim would tell them of Oliver Scott’s lust for ever more power, and the carnage he might leave in his wake. But they hadn’t come close to predicting its magnitude.

Her comrades already knew Arcadia’s sped-up geniuses had helped Scott amass a staggering amount of power, which included defensive capabilities that would soon make him nearly invincible. But Kim explained that once his arsenal was complete, he intended to crown himself the undisputed ruler of two worlds.

He already ruled over Arcadia like a god, and now he longed to wield the same divine powers over the flesh-and-blood world as well.

Along the way, he would sate his growing appetite to act like the Old-Testament God he fancied himself to be, unleashing the equivalent of the Great Flood on the Earth to purge it of those he considered unworthy.

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