aSG: Chalandra Harkness: The Bloodchip Matrix #7

[Gary W. Olson]

                         CHALANDRA HARKNESS:
                        THE BLOODCHIP MATRIX
                 (a tale from altiverse 998SUPERGUY)
                              Episode 7
                              "Ascent"
                                 by
                            Gary W. Olson

                                 +++

     The Shodani Towers loomed on three sides around Chalandra,
arching gracefully into the red haze of the night sky.  The two lesser
towers were ten thousand feet tall, flanking the immense central tower
at the southwest and southeast.  Chalandra knew there were two more
towers, at the northwest and northeast, but they were hardly of
consequence.
     The central tower was over eight thousand feet tall, and was the
largest single land-based structure ever created.  Despite the arc-
lights that lit it with golden brilliance, despite the lights inside
that showed through tinted windows, the building had an Olympian
darkness, an aura of impregnability, of danger, of fear.
     In Toyko, it was power.  The decisions made by the Shodani Group
in this building radiated out like a black wave, affecting the fabric
of existence in multitudinous ways.  Even the influence of the Yakuza
was dim, compared to that of Shodani.  That was why the Yakuza was
clandestinely trying to expand the influence of Red Sky in Tokyo - to
erode the power, to create a new balance, in which the Yakuza would
have more say.
     Fekesh, the man Chalandra was going to meet that night, had his
own plans, of course.  He broke off from the Yakuza, creating a
splinter group that he called the Dying Sun, a group that sought the
continued patronage of Shodani.  When he managed to steal the
Bloodchip, which contained Red Sky's completed genetic engineering
program, with the aid of Symonachadra Mataphouri, it had seemed that
the Shodani had trumped Red Sky once and for all.  With the chip, they
would take a permanent lead in genetech, and could at last challenge
Red Sky for dominance in the neurocybertech field.
     But Fekesh would not part with the Chip, for reasons which he
would not elaborate.  That was why Shodani was allowing her to meet
with Fekesh that evening, on the roof of the central Shodani Tower.
They could not force a man like Fekesh to yield the chip - he was too
devious, too brilliant.  Shodani recognized that Fekesh was in
control, and that they would have to play the game his way, toward
whatever end he desired.
     Ordinarily, the courtyard between the buildings was active, even
at night.  Shodani, like the city, never slept.  It merely exchanged
daytime personnel for nighttime.  The complex had a constant organic
rhythm, a smooth synergy of machine and flesh.  It was a microcosm of
Tokyo, and Chalandra wondered which was imitating which.
     Tonight, however, the courtyard was empty.  While she felt
thousands of unofficial eyes upon her, Chalandra knew that her
presence was not being recorded, as she and her companions walked
towards the single shaft of light at the base of the immense central
tower.
     They walked in silence.  Symonachadra walked alongside Chalandra,
looking neither to the left nor to the right.  He seemed to be feeling
something, a finality that Chalandra herself felt.  She wondered if he
felt it for the same reasons she did.
     Akane and Alexei flanked them, both dressed in tight black
fabric, walking like predatory cats.  No one spoke; there was no need.
They were ghosts in the machine, after a fashion, treading silently
across the marble walkway.
     After several minutes, they reached the source of the shaft of
light - an elegant, almost Victorian-styled elevator.  Without a word
or a glance at her companions, Chalandra stepped into the elevator.
Symon, Akane, and Alexei did likewise, and the doors slid noiselessly
shut.  The barest shift in inertia told Chalandra that they were
ascending, to a place where few had ever been.  She wondered if she
would ever see the ground again.

                                 +++

     Even here, towering miles above the city, Tokyo seemed immense.
The buildings rose out of a furnace of yellow, blue and red, light
boiling from the streets like steam, stretching up and out in all
directions.  Tokyo took up over a fifth of the main island of Honshu
now, a dense technosprawl that radiated omnidirectionally from the
Shodani Towers.
     They had emerged from the elevator to find themselves alone on
the roof.  That is, no one else was in sight.  Chalandra could sense
the presences around her, however.  If Symon had taught his other
pupils anything, they could as well, she knew.
     "Fekesh," Symon's voice called, breaking the stillness.  "We are
here."
     "Yes, Fekesh, why don't you come out?" Chalandra asked.  "We're
all friends here.  Aren't we?"
     "Chalandra, please..." Symon started.  Chalandra waved him off.
     "Or would you perhaps like me to call you a different name?" she
asked.  "Your deception is done... Percy McFae."
     The sound of tempered laughter reached their ears.  Their eyes
followed the sound, their heads turning to regard a man in a white
suit, who had stepped out from behind a transmitter array.  As the man
stepped forward, the others who were present made themselves visible
as well.  Twelve kyuuketsuki ninjas emerged from the shadowy
machinery, surrounding Chalandra and her companions.
     "Fekesh...what is the meaning of this?" Symon asked.
     "I suggest," he said, a look of practiced blandness on his face,
"you ask Ms. Harkness.  She has already identified me properly.
Though I must admit, I am curious as to how she knew."  Symon looked
at Chalandra, sharply.
     "I had my first inkling in San Francisco, at the airport,"
Chalandra answered.  "We were attacked by a pack of vampboys, and
easily repelled them.  Too easily, in fact.  It had the earmarkings of
a setup, and who better to set it up than the legendary Fekesh
himself?"
     "Hardly sufficient to convict me," McFae/Fekesh said, prompting.
     "No," Chalandra agreed.  "That was just the beginning.  There
were more hints...your cryptic comments on changing the application of
something by changing the item it is applied to.  The electric blue
roses in Temekhan's greenhouse, roses that matched the visions I've
been having perfectly.  The way you tried to get me to return to see
Temekhan the following night."
     "Mere conjecture," McFae told her.
     "There was one thing that clinched it, though," Chalandra went
on.  "You told me how Fekesh's forces attacked your lab, moments after
Symon laid in his final programming into the Bloodchip.  You said that
he left Percy McFae alive, as a way of thumbing his nose at Red Sky
and the Yakuza.  But when Symon told me the same story, he told me
that everyone present was killed, save for himself.  The only way
McFae could have survived the encounter was if he was also Fekesh, as
well."
     "That's why he never gave the chip to Shodani," Akane said,
realizing.  "Red Sky never lost the chip at all."
     "You did this...just to capture me?" Symon asked, anger breaking
his placid exterior.
     "Hardly," McFae said, making no effort to conceal the contempt in
his voice.  "You were just a bonus."
     "Their real goal was me," Chalandra said.  "All along.  Had I
returned to Temekhan's garden, that second night, they would have
taken me then."
     "Why didn't he take you the first night?" Alexei asked.
     "It was close to dawn when we had arrived," Chalandra told him.
"The Red Fortress had already passed by for the night.  He had to wait
for the next evening, to transport me up there."
     "I can see that your detective skills are formidable, Ms.
Harkness," McFae said, the cold smile on his face broadening slightly.
"But if you knew, why did you come tonight?  You could have stayed
hidden, below the city.  We would have caught you, eventually, of
course, but..."
     "I ran away once," Chalandra said.  "I thought I could outrun the
terror that was building inside of me.  Now I know that's not
possible.  So I will enter the lair of the beast, to learn the truth."
     "You've betrayed us, Chalandra," Symon told her, turning angrily.
"How could you?  Why?"
     "Don't talk to me about betrayal, Symon," Chalandra told him, a
steel chill in her voice.  "Unless you'd like to talk about your own."
     Symon looked at her, sadly, silently.  Chalandra ignored him,
instead looking up at the sky.  There was a small, metallic object
descending from the red haze, approaching the central tower.
     "Temekhan, I'll bet," Akane said.
     "Correct," McFae answered.  "I imagine he will be somewhat
disappointed, at not being able to gloat so much at your capture.  But
I'm certain he will get over it."
     Silently, they watched, as the ship descended.

                                 +++

     "My dear Chalandra," Vedrik Temekhan's gravelish voice spoke,
"you have caused me no end of trouble."
     "It's been a pleasure," Chalandra answered him, as she gazed into
his predatory, now victorious, eyes.
     "Quickly, now, into the craft," Temekhan instructed.  "McFae's
influence, as Fekesh, has gotten Shodani to lower their defenses, but
that cannot last."  The kyuuketsuki ninjas closed in, forcing
Chalandra, Symon, Akane, and Symon into the hovercar.  Their seats
were sealed apart from the pilot's seat, which Temekhan took.  McFae
sat across from Temekhan, and looked at the scopes.
     There was a strong feeling of inertia, as the car lifted hard
into the night sky, moving considerably faster than it had on its way
down.  Chalandra watched, out the window, as the roof of the central
Shodani Tower receded below, gradually disappearing into the swirling
chaotic light of the city.  They were heading straight up, Chalandra
realized.
     As if on cue, the roof of the vehicle became transparent, and the
red haze of the sky leapt at them.  She could see it.  They all could.
     The Red Fortress.
     God *damn,* it was big, Chalandra thought.
     "We are approaching the headquarters of Red Sky Systems,"
Temekhan's voice crackled at them.  "By the time we reach its
elevation, it will be directly above us."
     They watched, silently, as the huge, black metal mountain grew
larger.  Portions of its underside glowed a bright red.  Chalandra
wondered how something that size could stay aloft.
     "I will give you a tour, when we arrive," Temekhan told her, as
though he had read her mind.  "It will be your home for a long, long
time, so I wish for you to be comfortable with it."
     "That..." Chalandra whispered.  "...is something I will never
be."
     "Do not be certain," Temekhan countered.  "It orbits the Earth
once every twenty four hours.  What does this tell you?"
     "It stays on the dark side of the Earth, perpetually," Alexei
answered.
     "A city perpetually shrouded in darkness," Chalandra said.  "The
perfect home for a vampire."
     "Technology is making the old magic obsolete," Temekhan told
them.  "What was once a barrier, the rise and fall of the sun god Ra,
is no more."
     "It is nothing more than an evasion," Chalandra said.  "The old
magic is changing, I acknowledge, but some barriers are still as
potent now as they were six centuries ago."
     "Are they?" Temekhan asked, softly.
     Chalandra didn't answer, instead watching silently, along with
her companions, as the Red Fortress loomed almost directly overhead.
They were getting close to it, close enough to see the details, the
landing bays out of which personnel from Red Sky locations around the
world were shuffled and redistributed.  They could see the guns that
guarded against possible attack, not that anyone feared Red Sky so
little as to try.
     There was an opening, above, that the hovercar was ascending
towards.  A slit in the metal underbelly of the mountainous fortress.
     A terrible sense of deja vu washed over Chalandra, as the slit
grew in size and definition.  This was where her vision began.  Inside
the belly of the metallic beast.
     The car entered the Fortress, through the slit in the surface.
The slit closed behind the hovercar, sealing it in.  The Red Fortress
continued westward, staying in the eternal shadow of night.

(to be continued...)
--
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by Gary W. Olson.  All Rights Reserved.
--
Gary W. Olson
swede at novitious dot com
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