None of your Assembly has given you cause. Trust should be rewarded. Distrust likewise. Wandering down that dark path will only make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Zoras was right. The ones in this room were the only ones he should trust implicitly. No one else. Enzo stood up abruptly, masking his grimace and ignoring the pain shooting through his body. “No meeting with the traitor. Set up my first meetings with the State Duma in four days. By that time, I want the names of those in my pocket, and a list of those I need to buy. Warn Vinnick that the State Duma building is mine while I am there. Wander there at his own risk. Get to work.”
Enzo watched as his Assembly dispersed. These days, it had become almost as dangerous to be part of the Genjix as it was to be an enemy, though he wouldn’t have it any other way. With a world war just on the horizon, and Quasiform nearing its final stages, everyone on the Council was maneuvering for higher standing.
Conflict bred innovation, after all, and that was doubly true of conflict within. In preparation for the upcoming world war, the aggressive Genjix war machine built up over the past five hundred years had turned on itself, especially now, with the Prophus nearly dormant. Of course the two strongest factions within the Genjix went head to head, and now victory was near for Enzo and his Asian stronghold. However, rules still had to be observed and Vinnick had broken them.
“Jacob, a moment,” Enzo ordered as the rest of the Assembly filed out. He watched as Jacob walked up and knelt before him. The grandson of a prominent vessel, he had lost his patronage when his grandfather, Sean Diamont, was murdered by the Prophus. He attended the Hatchery late in his youth and was not chosen to be blessed with a Holy One. Instead, he had joined the ranks of the officers and distinguished himself in the war. Eventually, Sean’s Quasing Chiyva, thought to have been lost to the Eternal Sea during the debacle at the Capulet’s Ski Lodge, found his way back to the Genjix and had chosen to bless Jacob.
The Adonis was a blunt-force instrument, more fanatical than most and possessing a singular devotion rare even among vessels. No one else under Enzo exhibited the same intense will in hunting the Prophus. He blamed the Prophus for Sean’s death and carried a personal vendetta. While that was a useful trait to leverage, the man was often blinded by his hatred. However, give that dog the trail and he would follow it until the ends of the Earth.
“I have another task for you,” Enzo said, beckoning Jacob to follow him out of the room. “Did you find out anything else regarding our lost Quasiform architect?”
“Yes, Father. Vinnick was intent on taking Rin to the loyalty haven in Canada. I dispatched a team to intercept her, but she has evaded capture and disappeared.”
“The Prophus have her.”
“I had guessed as much. How can you be sure?”
“Seems some of Vinnick’s faction is still loyal to the true Genjix after all. I want you to take a team to the United States and retrieve Rin personally.”
That command surprised Jacob. “Father? Have I done anything to displease you?”
“Not at all, my son. Consider it a favor.”
“Why would you task me with such mundane work?”
Enzo pulled up the information in his tablet and showed it to Jacob. The blood drained from his face. “Because it seems Roen Tan is alive, and he has our scientist.”
10 Alex
The entire surface of Quasar is covered by a vast ocean, a primordial soup partially like your ocean and partially like the insides of your bodies. The ocean – I use that term loosely – is thick, almost like quicksand. Quasar is further away from our sun than Earth is from yours, but our sun is nearly twice as large.
I cannot flash an image to you because sight is a foreign concept on our home world. Quasing inherently do not see. We feel. We absorb. We touch. We merge with each other to create a larger, more singular entity, powered by our individual ideas and experiences.
In a way, we are not unlike the cells of your bodies that form your whole.
Tao
Cameron thought mud-walking was stupid. It was the very first Ba Gua Zhang move that Tao had taught him when he was six years old. Deceptively difficult, Cameron had practiced mud-walking counter-clockwise in a circle for two hours a day every day. After three months, Tao felt that his mud-walking was decent enough to move on to the next step, which was having Cameron mud-walk in a clockwise circle for the next three months.
Nine years later, Cameron mud-walked with the best of them, flowing through the eight diagram boxing movements as if they were second nature. By now, he had walked this circle thousands – no, hundreds of thousands of times – feeling the energy move up from his dan-tian to the tips of his fingers and then back down through to the ground. He could run through this form unconsciously, in his sleep in fact. He had to, because right now, Tao was lecturing him on Matroid theory.
If one is invariant, does it have the same or different polynomials?
“Does it matter if it’s chromatic?”
Not at all.
“Tao, I don’t understand why I need to know this.”
Advanced mathematics opens doors to many fields of study. More importantly, it expands the way you think.
“Who cares? It’s hard and I suck at it.”
One day, you might need to draw upon these skills. A good operative must know many things.
“I’m not going to need to do hard math while on a mission. You even said your Prophus job is to be a secret agent and not someone researching in a lab.”
In this case, our natural talents are aligned. I think that will be a large part of our success. However, calculus is still basic knowledge you must master. By the way, that was sloppy footwork on that third palm roll body-back.
“Sorry.”
What is with that left arm movement?
“Sorry!”
Do not apologize, Cameron. Fix it. You are not focused at all. What is wrong with you today?
Cameron glanced over at Alex leaning on the front porch railing studying him. He looked away, his face turning red. He re-ran that part of the form again, this time with even more force. However, the harder he actually concentrated, the worse he got.
Stop. We are done for the day. Is that what is bothering you? Alexandra?
“She keeps looking at me. I don’t know. It makes me nervous.”
You really are like your father.
“What does that mean?”
Never mind. If you want to tell her to stop staring, you should talk to her.
Cameron stopped in the middle of his form and looked up at her. “Is there something you need?”
Alexandra, looking inquisitive, walked across the lawn to the edge of the circle where Cameron was tracing. She swept her foot across the worn-out lines. “What are you doing?”
“I’m training,” he said, suddenly feeling hot and getting the urge to get rid of her as soon as possible. “You’re interrupting me.”
“That doesn’t look like training to me. You look like you’re doing a funny dance.”
“I’m running forms, Genjix,” he snapped, saying the last word as if it was an insult.
That is one way to get her attention, though probably not the kind you wanted.
“Okay, betrayer Prophus,” she shot back.
You will never get her to like you if you act so insolent.
“I don’t like her, Tao!”
Why do you bother trying to lie to yourself, or more importantly, to me? Ask her what her style is.
“How do you fight then?” he asked Alex.