The Impossible Future: Complete set Frank Kennedy (freenovel24 .TXT) 📖

He never looked at her throughout the exchange, instead examining the closest obelisk. Celia admired his audacity, but she laughed it off.

“A god? You are a delusional hybrid. A charlatan who broke a flawed genetic design. Oh, yes, James Bouchet. I saw the vids of you before you became this … thing. I saw the duel with your brother in the Great Plains Metroplex. Everyone did. It was a public spectacle during the SkyTower inquest. You were made into this by Chancellors. A freak. An abomination.”

He rubbed a hand over her father’s ashes.

“I am an abomination, Celia. So are my children. So are all the immortals under my watch. Everyone else is an enemy, unless I say different. In two years, I have gone from being a waste of space to the most powerful being in the universe.” He turned to Celia. “I can kill every last Chancellor. One billion. And I will never shed a tear, just like you never cried when you murdered your father. Take some advice: Back off the arrogant, condescending Chancellor bullshit. You have no leverage here. Understand?”

“Ah. Leverage, is it? And who is the one in hiding?”

“The one you sought out. Oh, yes, Celia. I know you spread agents across the Collectorate, but their orders weren’t to kill me. You wanted them to make contact. You need me alive to fulfill your plans. I have all the secrets you want to possess. All the secrets that got away when I brought down SkyTower.”

No, Celia thought. He can’t know about the connection.

“We lost a tremendous body of research that day.”

“Research? That’s what you call it, Celia? Research? And who is this we? According to my intelligence, you and my parents were enemies. In fact, they made every effort to keep you away from their so-called research. Yes?”

She sighed. “It is true. Emil and Frances Bouchet did not invite me into their circle of confidence. Your parents were selfish, even by Chancellor standards. We are fighting for our collective lives.”

“Says the woman who murdered the eighteen relatives in this room. Go ahead, Celia. Admit everything now. If you want to make a deal with me, I need to hear it. Otherwise, I’ll make sure you’re dead within a week.”

“You bastard. You filth. You …” She took hold of her wits. He was winning. “Fair enough. Yes, I was competing with your parents. My descendancy should have had a role in the hybrid and immortal programs. So, I formed an alliance with a man who believed as I did, and who had been wronged by the Bouchets.”

Brother James smiled. “Say his name.”

“Rear Admiral Augustus Perrone. He was mine. He was perfectly positioned as number two in the Admiralty. We devised an exquisite plan for destroying your parents and taking it for ourselves.”

“Sounds about right. What went wrong?”

“You distracted Augustus. He was reckless, brought Valentin into the equation, and was blind to the treachery of his own right-hand, Sexton Marshall. But you already knew this. How?”

“I didn’t, at the time. But one of my many strengths as a Jewel is an eidetic memory. I can sit for hours and ponder any time in my life, second for second. I can re-observe all the details I missed the first time. Perrone was too confident. I knew someone else was backing him. A few months ago, one of your agents almost uncovered our location. We captured and tortured him. After we got all we could, I incinerated him and focused all my efforts on you. It wasn’t hard to put those pieces together.”

Her verbal tactics a miserable failure, Celia gave in. This creature before her was more dangerous than reports suggested. Yet what choice did she have? Brother James was right. She held no leverage.

“Your point has been made,” she said. “But if you would be so kind before we strike a deal, please answer two simple questions.” He stared without objection. “How is this conversation possible? You must be light-years away, yet we speak in real time.”

“Simple, Celia.” He pointed to the glowing egg. “The device is a binary communicator. It’s a miraculous tool designed to link two people – and only two – no matter how far they’re separated across space. The genetic code of its users is programmed into each device. They send signals that burrow through the substrata of dark matter, where time and distance can be defied. They intercept in seconds.”

“How? Did you invent this?”

“No. I found it in my memory, which is also the Jewel’s. My memory goes back a million years. This device was the last great achievement of those who created the Jewels. They were dying and searching the galaxy for solutions. They created this device to stay close to the ones they loved. Imagine that, Celia. Creatures who loved each other.”

“Yes. Interesting. But I don’t understand. How did you acquire my genetic code? Do you have agents on Earth?”

“I didn’t need them for this.” He looked away from her. “If we ever see each other after today, I’ll explain. Some truths are too difficult to handle, even for someone like you. I believe you had two questions. What’s the other?”

“How do I know you’ll uphold your end of our deal?”

“Because I’m sure you won’t betray me. You are staking your entire reputation on this bargain. You plan to reset the future of the Chancellory or die trying. Betray me, and you die. Follow through, and you will honor Johannes Ericsson. That is your greatest desire? Yes?”

A chill curdled her blood. How could he know?

“What will you give me if I see this through?”

“Everything. The recipe for immortality. A replacement for brontinium extract. The schematics for the binary communicator. Other technology secrets from the Jewels’ creators.”

“Quite a list. What are your terms?”

“Events will happen in the coming months