“You know,” she said, “something doesn’t smell exactly right. Luther is potentially worse for American relations than SPEAR. Yet, we’ve condemned them for the events in Peru that nobody except us knows much about.” She held up her hands, seeing protest coming. “Now I know… I know it’s all about Tempest. I’m not sure what your endgame involves for these weapons of the gods, but I do understand.”
“America, leader of the free world, forever,” Gleeson said with satisfaction.
“Based on what knowledge exactly?” Crowe asked, realizing they were getting side tracked but unable to stop fishing for a little more information.
“The Swords of Babylon,” Gleeson said. “Remember that? Let me refresh your memory. All the power unleased from the tombs on that day came from the weapons of the gods. It destroyed the tombs. But we still have a list of weapons. Weapons that are still out there. The Sword of Mars, for instance. This Doomsday Machine in Egypt. This capstone, we believe, is endowed with the same power as the weapons of the gods. Perhaps it even was one…” he shrugged. “It makes sense, with all these other weapons appearing.”
“Disappearing…” Crowe said drily.
“Well, yes, but we must find them. Find them all and use them for our own purposes. The Sword of Mars has now gone, but the great capstone is close at hand. Several others that were lost, stolen or traded. What can they do?” He gave her a grin of excitement. “I mean—what can they do?”
Crowe was momentarily shocked at his excitement. She also knew all about the old Tesla devices and how the brilliant engineer and inventor had created immense weapons out of seemingly nothing. Remembering more of the other mysteries from the ancient world she began to wonder just how many might be out there.
“We’ve proven that the old gods were once real,” Digby said.
“No,” Crowe said. “SPEAR did that.”
“As you wish. But, if these gods were once men that inspired courage and leadership and did great deeds, elevating them to deities in the eyes of their fellow men, then maybe their weapons were powerful too. That’s Tempest, Madam Secretary, and Luther is its cutting edge.”
Crowe managed a nod. “You mean bludgeon, I assume?”
Digby smiled. “So long as he crushes whomever we tell him to crush, that’s fine with me.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Of course, FrameHub were gods, they all knew that. Not a single person but a collective, they ruled their kingdom with an iron rod, and their kingdom was the World Wide Web.
FrameHub looked out on the world through liquid crystal displays, monitoring in real time, taking anything and everything that they wanted to. This was the only world they cared about, not the ordinary day that existed above their carefully concealed bunker, beyond the hard concrete walls and outside the network of security systems, barriers, firewalls and next-generation tech that protected their environment.
FrameHub Fellow, codename: Piranha, spoke a word to grab the attention of the collective. It was a “hot word”, something to make the group take notice, as normally they would never speak, lost in their data-filled world as they were.
He waited until they all paused in their work. “Today, is the day.” He adjusted his glasses, feeling foolish, unused to social interaction and hating it. “I have your emails and messages.” They all preferred to email, even those sitting beside each other. “Today, two assignments begin at once. The war games and the Egyptian tombs. I mean…” He couldn’t stop a smile. “Isn’t that cool?”
Seven similar-looking geeks grinned back at him: young, enthusiastic, utter geniuses in the computer field and consummate hackers.
Piranha went on: “First the Egyptian tombs game. The hired mercenaries are in place…” Several grins and chuckles at that. “We are hoping for success at the first seal, the first level, and hope to move on to the second. If government chatter is anything to go by this could be huge. So many people heading to the unveiling, so many dangerous people, it’ll be fun. Remember when you played Call of Duty for the first time? This is that, in real life.”
More chortling.
Piranha went sober for a moment. “Hiring these men as we do, online, is at best — chancy, but Vladimir, our man in charge, does appear up to the job. And he likes the money. But, of course, it’s not our main mission.”
“But it is a cool one,” Codename: Manta spoke up. “Knowledge is power. And our ultimate goal is power. This is perfect.”
“Agreed, Manta. We will follow the clues and own the machine. As you say, knowledge is power.”
“We must stay hidden,” Barracuda fretted. “Off the radar. At the moment, nobody knows we even exist.”
“Of course, it’s better that way. Don’t worry, we will. And now for our real life war game.”
They were interested, these vicious, distant gods. In one stroke they could cripple a town or a city, shut down a bank, lose a man’s money, change a woman’s entire life; but here they sat — eager and hopeful about the outcome of a new dream.
“Everything’s in place, but we all play our part. Moray? You have Turkey. Orca and Manta, you have Greece. I’ll take Egypt along with Barracuda and the rest are backup. All right?” He was desperate to get out of the mini-spotlight.
“There is one other,” Moray said slowly. “The approach should be made quickly.”
Piranha hesitated, caught off guard. “Karin Blake? I know we agreed to approach and offer her to be a part of this, but I don’t agree that now is the right time.”
“I do,” Moray said.
The collective spoke up, as they rarely did, and came down on the side of Moray. The approach to Karin Blake would have to be made.
“Encrypt it well,” Piranha said. “We want her because she’s our equal. It will do no good to let her know who and where we are.”
Moray glared as if insulted. Piranha realized what he’d said and shrugged in apology. He rushed ahead to get it finished and hopefully avoid any more physical confrontations.
“Let’s go. Turkey, Greece and Egypt will be ransomed for our pleasure, our war game. Just for fun, because we are FrameHub and we do what the hell we want. Three countries threatened, the first to come up with the ransom wins. Are we ready?”
“Can’t wait to see what happens to the ones that don’t.” Barracuda rubbed his hands together happily.
Piranha stared. “They will be destroyed,” he said carefully. “We all agreed to that, Barracuda.”
“I know, I know.” Barracuda waved it away. “I was speaking metaphorically. Like… I can’t wait to watch!”
“Me too,” Mantra echoed.
As did the entire collective.
“The two losers will suffer total network destruction. Countrywide commotion. Uproar. Riots. Death. It will be war games, for real. Roads blocked, hospitals disrupted. Governments chasing ghosts. And when it’s all done, we will be millionaires several times over.”
He watched for reactions. There were none. This collective didn’t need money. It had everything it needed right here in this room. Because the outside world didn’t exist for them, the actions they perpetrated in it meant very little. Piranha knew this made them the most dangerous collective alive.
“FrameHub is go.” He grinned. “Make ready the ransom demands. Don’t forget, we expect them to ignore the initial communication and wait for something more… persuasive. Moray, you ready that. We’ll need it prepared for short notice.”
“And the Egyptian game?” Moray asked. “Are we fully prepped there?”