SHIAM Conspiracy- Book 1 Page 4

  “It had to be magic.” The security guard, Jonas, had been silently following them around as Zak checked out the various areas of the building. He now spoke up, excitement in his voice at the chance to participate. “It is the only logical explanation for the lack of evidence.”

  “We’ve already been through this,” Vennhim said. He turned toward Zak, addressing his words to him rather than the SHIAM. “We’ve found no trace of magic when we checked and you found nothing just now.”

  Zak switched on the small RAAID unit he held in his hand and began moving around the room once again as he considered the possibilities. The scientific name for the device he held was Residual Atmospheric Atomic Ionization Detector, RAAID for short. It did exactly what the name implied; it detected residual ionized atomic particles in the atmosphere.

  Magic was about altering the perceived reality, either by creating illusion or by actually changing the physical world in some way. Regardless which method was used, it involved the reorganization of subatomic particles. The energy generated during this process inevitably caused the ionization of the atoms in the surrounding atmosphere.

  “You would expect to find at least some trace of ionization,” Vennhim continued. “I mean, think about the level of magic it would have taken to blow past our security without setting off a single alarm.”

  “A deionization device could have been used in order to cover it up,” Jonas suggested.

  “Those gadgets are restricted and they are mega expensive, not to mention difficult to use.” Vennhim stood in the middle of the room, pivoting with Zak’s movement as he scanned the room.

  Zak couldn’t decide who was more annoying, Vennhim or the SHIAM. “You don’t think this theft was pulled off by a major player?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Vennhim said. “But we’re most likely talking either a foreign government agency or organized crime if they are toting that kind of equipment.”

  “You’re forgetting about the Corporations. There are plenty of organizations out there that would just love to have some of that SHIAM technology.”

  Vennhim ignored the comment. “How many wizards are there who have the level of skill it would have taken to do this?”

  “Well, I still can’t say for sure magic was used. I’m not getting any readings.”

  “You are an Elf, Mr. Harris,” Jonas said as he followed Zak around the room for the second time. “Do you, yourself, detect any traces of magic?”

  “Half-Elf!” Zak said, snapping off the RAAID unit in frustration. His natural ability to detect magic had failed to pick up anything concrete as well. Except he had picked up something...intangible...that he could almost, but not quite sense. Or was it simply his logic drawing unsubstantiated conclusions? Magic had almost certainly been used. Otherwise, how could the thieves possibly have pulled this off?

  They were now standing back in the kitchen area. Out of curiosity, Zak walked over to the food processor sitting on the counter and brought up the menu. Everything for a well-rounded diet was there on the list, which included a variety of meats, vegetables and fruit. There was even a separate menu for deserts and snacks. Opening the refrigerator next to the counter, he found milk, eggs and mayo among the contents. Shaking his head in amazement, he stopped taking inventory. The fridge was better stocked than his own.

  “So, this thing eats regular food and it cooks as well?” He still found it difficult to believe. It made him feel violated as a sentient being somehow. “If it can consume garbage, why cook the food? Why not just eat it raw?”

  “Contrary to what you may think, we do have the ability to taste,” Dr. Rose replied. “We cook to enhance the experience of eating.”

  “Is that right!” Zak turned away from the refrigerator and scanned the loft again. “Why aren’t there any security cameras in the living quarters?”

  “We wanted to allow Derek as much privacy as we could in his home environment.”

  “Wasn’t that thoughtful.”

  “Would you like to be constantly on display, Mr. Harris?” Dr. Rose said angrily.

  “I’m not a machine...a potentially psychotic machine,” Zak said.

  “Derek is not dangerous!” Dr. Rose added more softly, “He is not some sort of monster. This is not his fault!”

  Zak didn’t reply. After a pause, he said, “I can see where Grimrok wanted this kept quiet. The world government would be on him in a heartbeat. Removing the SCE is against the Android Containment Act. Grimrok could lose his business over this.”

  “That’s why you’re here, to see to it that doesn’t happen,” Vennhim said.

  5

  The trip from Zak’s Slough Street loft to the cab waiting at the curb left him dryer than his earlier dash to the Grimrok building had. The torrent of rain had slowed to a drizzle, although heavy black clouds still hung over the city. In the early evening the lower edges of the dark mass took on an ugly dirty brown with the reflection of city lights. Strobes of lightning still flashed across the darkness and a steady rumble of thunder promised the foul weather would soon return. A kaleidoscope of color danced across the wet pavement of the street, illuminated from neon signs on the buildings across the street. Zak opened the rear door of the cab and climbed in.

  A blast of what was known as circuit music assailed him when he opened the door to the cab. He was pleased to find a Human driver behind the wheel. The taxi companies had begun replacing their cabbies with SHIAM units. The fact that the androids required no rest breaks and never considered strike action for better pay was just too appealing for these companies to pass up.

  As he settled into the back seat, Zak got a better look at the cabbie in the dome light of the car. His first impression was that this Human driver was not as preferable as he had first thought. If bizarre was the flagship of youth, this kid sailed on it. His dirty brown hair hung in tight curls around the crown of his head, while the sides had been shaved smooth. Peach fuzz took the place of a beard, and he had been pierced and fitted with rings in just about every conceivable area of his face. He wore a bright purple shirt with a lemon yellow scarf loosely wrapped around his neck. Zak didn’t even pretend to understand current subculture fashion trends, but he knew enough to identify the kid as a circuit head. The kid was swaying in his seat to the ear-splitting rhythm of electro music that played on the cab’s comm unit, his head bobbing on his shoulders like some animated figurine. Without missing a head-bob, the kid looked into the rear view mirror and turned the comm down just enough for his shout to be heard.

  “So dude...where to?”

  “South side,” Zak answered. “Underworld.”

  “Oh, hey man.” The kid turned the music down further, shaking his head emphatically. “I don’t go down into the Zone after dark. And I sure don’t go nowhere near Underworld!”

  Everything south of Krune Street was known as the Zone by the locals. It was where the poor and the destitute were forced to settle. It was also where the predators of the city migrated. It was a dangerous place, especially after dark.

  “You are a cab driver, aren’t you?”

  “Hey man, I value my skin and any holes get put in it, I like it to be voluntary. Get somebody else to drive you.”

  The kid turned and looked at Zak. He wore his fear of the Zone openly, but the dilated pupils of his eyes weren’t entirely from being frightened. Recreational drugs.

  “You’re here, somebody else isn’t,” Zak said. He looked at the ID plate on the dashboard. It read Kam Shower and included an exceptionally bad photo of the kid. “Look, Kam, I’m not asking you to cruise the place. In and out...just drop me off. You take me there and I won’t mention to your boss that you’re getting stoned on the job.” He fished in his coat pocket and pulled out a credit voucher. “Here’s an extra fifty for the trouble.”

  Kam reached for the voucher and Zak pulled it back. “Underworld?”

  “Aw, man...I told ya I don’t want to go there.” He looked at the credit voucher Zak was holding out, h
is face twisted in indecision. Finally, the cash won out. He reached back and swiped the voucher out of Zak’s hand, clicked the meter on and the dome light went out as they pulled away from the curb. “What the frag. Ya only live once, right? But dude, anything happens and you pay my med expenses!”

  “Take the high way,” Zak said. “I’m in a hurry. And keep the comm down to a gentle roar!”

  “Whatever you say, man.”

  With the pause in the storm, the ban against multi-level driving had been lifted for the time being. Kam pulled away from the curb, shifted the anti-grav into a higher setting and the cab made a smooth ascent to a height of two hundred meters above the street and levelled off. He turned south on River Side Drive. This was the main north-south artery of Sol Kappur, running parallel to the Serpent River. With the break in the weather and lift in the upper level ban, traffic was a steady stream of headlights on all levels. Residents, most likely attempting to shrug off claustrophobic anxiety from the bad weather, were heading out on the town tonight.

  They were travelling well above the four and five story buildings that dominated the neighborhood. As the cab travelled south, it provided Zak with a panoramic view of what many people called the city with a split personality. Sol Kappur proper glittered in stylized patterns of light, which gave no hint of the neglect that actually existed on the east side of the Serpent River. The skyline on this side of the river was low level, no buildings over ten stories, and by day its dingy depressed personality was exposed for all to see. Sol Kappur West, as the inhabitants who lived on the west side of the Serpent River so quaintly named their section of the city, was a dramatically different story. Downtown not only reached up to the sky in rich luster, but many of the buildings disappeared into the haze of cloud, ranging over six-hundred meters tall. This is where the mega-corporations chose to build their lavish offices, Grimrok among them. These huge giants of the metropolitan area were surrounded by lavish estates in the outer areas. Even though Sol Kappur and Sol Kappur West were technically two segments of the same city, they had come to exist pretty much independently of each other.

  Lights from the far side of the river seemed a thousand times more dazzling in the darkness. Gazing off into what seemed like a spectacular wall of luminance, Zak’s mind drifted back to the Grimrok theft. Whoever pulled it off had to have had a good deal of clout behind them. It wasn’t only the level of sorcery that almost certainly had been involved or the skill that was needed in disguising the entire operation. In order to learn about the SHIAM prototype in the first place, and then to plan the break-in and execute the operation without a hitch would have needed top notch intel and shrewd planning. Vennhim’s suggestion of a foreign government agency or organized crime being involved was certainly plausible.

  But Zak couldn’t rule out the possibility of corporate espionage. There were several corporations attempting to develop android technology in order to compete with Grimrok for the market. And none of them had even come close to developing anything as sophisticated as the SHIAM. And it wasn’t only Aragne corporations who wanted a piece of the pie. Grimrok refused to export to foreign markets, not even to the Dwarven nations. In spite of being Dwarf, Grimrok knew where the butter for his bread came from. The fact that the SHIAM were exclusively Aragne technology didn’t sit well with many of the other countries around the world of Amaco Loch.

  Zak had never been involved in a case this completely sealed up and lacking of clues, even during his time with ASID. There was always at least some small hint of a clue. He had found no physical evidence. A virtual tour of Grimrok’s internal network had turned up nothing in cyberspace as well. The only single solitary thing Zak had come up with so far was one transient hint of magic he had sensed. But it had been neither sufficiently tangible nor distinctive enough for him to even be certain that he’d actually sensed it.

  The comm continued to blast away from the front dash.

  “Yes sir, folks, that was Purple Dragon with their new release ‘On The Far Side Of The Second Moon’. We’ll continue with our night of electro explosions, but first the newest news brief for the hour.”

  The loud sing-song voice of the DJ was replaced by a deeper, more somber voice of the newsman.

  “It’s day two of the big storm!” Dramatic pause. “Two nights ago our twin cities were hit by a freakish storm and it refuses to leave! Meteorologists are puzzled over the strange phenomena as it seems that the electrical storm has become stationary over the metropolitan area in spite of prevailing winds and air currents. While the weather experts remain puzzled, several occult scholars have come forward with concerns that this bizarre weather is due to some sort of disturbance within the ethereal layer surrounding our city. We’ve spoken with Dr. Galen Raghnall, Master Wizard of the Institute of Occult and Paranormal Sciences. He confirmed that a disturbance does, indeed, seem to exist in the ethereal layer. This is what he had to say.”

  “Two days ago,” Dr. Raghnall began. The deep resonance of the wizard’s voice seemed to immediately reach out to Zak, pulling his attention toward the words being spoken. “Our Dimensional Reality Department noted a strong disturbance within the ethereal layer of our world. The source of this disturbance seems to be centered somewhere within the greater Sol Kappur area, but we are unable at this time to discover the exact location or cause for this disturbance. We are doing everything...”

  The idea may not have taken shape had it not been for the allure of Dr. Raghnall’s voice just as Zak wrestled with the mystery of the Grimrok theft. The storm began two days ago. The Grimrok break-in happened sometime on the evening before. Was it more than a coincidence? It was a crazy thought. Zak wasn’t even certain why it had come to him.

  The timing of the two events kept pushing into his thoughts. Logically he kept rejecting the idea that one had anything to do with the other. What possible connection could there be between the weather and the theft of an android?

  It was too farfetched to even consider.

  Never the less, the words of Dr. Raghnall continue to pull at him. “...a strong disturbance within the ethereal layer...”

  Or was it too farfetched?

  He had detected something at the Grimrok building. Well, he was fairly certain he had detected it anyway. It had been so weak that it was little more than a suggestion. Or maybe it was only his imagination. He remained unsure. The RAAID unit hadn’t picked anything up. But then, Zak’s Elvish blood had managed to outperform the unit before. Sometimes you had to rely on your own abilities rather than machines. That being said, he was still too uncertain of what it was he’d felt.

  Zak had never met Dr. Raghnall, but he regularly used the services of the Institute of Occult and Paranormal Sciences. The use of integrated magic had become an indispensable part of a well-planned network security system. Since Zak refused to have anything to do with magic beyond his own sporadic ability to detect it, he regularly subcontracted the magical aspects of his network configurations to the Institute. Maybe he should call in the Institute on this one. Their trained sorcerers could perhaps detect more than his untrained, and often limited, abilities could.

  He decided to contact the Institute when he got back to his loft and request a sorcerer. Their services guaranteed confidentiality, so it should not be an issue with Grimrok. He leaned back in his seat and shifted his attention to the rest of the newscast.

  “Tension mounted once again today between Orkensha Nations and the Aragne Commonwealth over land claims concerning the Akkasson Mountain Range. Stretching from the Gwainroch Sea in the north to the Kusanar Ocean in the south, the Akkasson Mountains have been the subject of ongoing dispute between our country and the Orkensha for thousands of years.

  “The Akkasson Mountains make up the entire eastern border of the Aragne Commonwealth, while also falling within the borders of the Orkensha provinces of Orkkanta, Dhann Khi and Bh’ag Mur. The rich ore deposits located within the Akkasson range have always been an essential resource for both nations. The content
ion of ownership of the mountain range only intensified when large deposits of arganite ore were discovered.

  “While Prime Minister Sarte has been working diligently to find a peaceful resolution to the land dispute with the Orkensha, many of Aragne’s energy corporations are criticizing the Prime Minister for his willingness to compromise. Sol Corp and Mega Thrust, Aragne’s two leading corporations in the energy field, have been particularly critical of the Prime Minister’s efforts. Representatives from both corporations have come forward to state that it is vital to both our domestic well-being and to the continued expansion of our interstellar commerce for us to take our rightful possession of the Akkasson Mountain Range.

  “In a related story, Aragne Minister of Defense, Gerold Hakkim, released a statement early today accusing the Orkensha Nations of escalating tensions between our two nations by continuing its build-up of military strength inside the Kelthar Pass. He went on to say that the Orkensha Nations have no right of claim along the western edge of the Mountain Range. Minister Hakkim concluded his statement by saying that the Aragne military is fully prepared to defend our borders against any threat...”

  Zak’s pulse quickened as he listened. The bastard Orks were going to keep pushing until things went too far. His hatred for them was automatic and had been a part of him for a lot of years. That part of him would welcome war against the Orkensha. He’d be more than willing to re-enlist and do another stint in the military if it came to that.

  “Yeah, right on!” Kam’s entire body was as animated as some spastic cartoon character. “We’re gonna kick some Ork ass, hoohoo!”

  The kid’s comment snapped things back into perspective for Zak. In spite of the open wound he’d lived with all these years, which sustained his hatred of the Orks, he understood that war was not a preferred choice. He’d been there and done that and there had been nothing glorious or heroic about it. War was brutal and barbaric. And more death would not bring back those who died before.