Sol Searching: Jane Poole Genesis Part Five (A Science Consortium Novel) by Michael Penmore

Author:Michael Penmore [Penmore, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-13T16:00:00+00:00

13

Vyšehrad Cemetery, Prague

The sky above Czech capital was a clear azure, promising a warm summer day in late spring. Peter Koval once again rode at the back of an executive vehicle. At his side was Birgitt, his father’s longtime personal assistant. He used to call her Auntie Birgitt throughout his youth.

She wasn’t the only inherited personnel in the car. Juan Bodrega was at the wheel once more. Peter retained the Latino heavyweight despite being at the receiving end of his knockout right hook a couple days earlier. Juan acted in Miron’s defence. Peter could only wish he’d show the same level of devotion to him.

The man on Juan’s side was an unknown. He wore a government issue suit and sunglasses and remained silent from the start. The Czech Regional Government insisted a state security officer should be present in every car of the black motorcade heading into the cemetery. Peter didn’t object. Czech authorities offered his father a final resting place in the Slavin tomb among the nation’s most revered artists and thinkers. It was an honour not to take lightly.

Besides, it gave Peter an excuse to run back home from the hollow and artificial halls of Newhattan. But as they neared their destination, doubts arose.

“This is wrong,” Peter broke the heavy silence as they stopped once more on the narrow approach to the Cihelná Brána—the Brick Gate.

Lessons were learned from the attack in Newhattan. Every car had to stop for screening. With the assistance of the Science Consortium, the thick walls around Vyšehrad housed powerful forcefield generators. The sky above the entire complex shimmered with a golden hue of the energy shield to hold at bay weapons kinetic, thermal, or energy. Once again in its long history, the fortress was used as a place of safety.

Birgitt powered down her data pad, folded her black-rimmed glasses, and offered Peter undivided attention with a voice that was warm and caring. “Talk to me. Wrong in what way?”

“I don’t know…” Peter shook his head, thinking. The car in front disappeared on the other side of the gate. Juan drove into the long archway guarded by six people and two high-end scanners that bathed the car with light bands and microwaves, looking for every kind of threat imaginable.

A black clad, rifle-bearing officer from the Czech antiterrorist force leaned into the window on the passenger side and exchanged a few words with the security officer. His pale green eyes performed a visual inspection of the passengers and the driver. After a couple of tense seconds, he grunted something to the officer, stepped back and waved the car through.

Peter waited for the ordeal to be over before he continued his thought. “This isn’t a funeral. It’s a goddamn state ceremony.”

“Watch your language, young man. You’ve already amassed ten thousand in fines,” Birgitt reminded him in a serious voice.

Peter managed a grim chuckle. No one told the authorities about his breaches of the Indecent Language Act, and even if they did, he joined an illustrious line of defectors.

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