Entoverse

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

“Generator complexes three and five are now up to full power and can be switched into the system,” an aide reported from another part of Uttan. “Seven is being brought up to standby as a backup. Everything is on schedule.”

From behind the supervisor’s chair in the real JEVEX primary control center, Eubeleus returned a curt nod. “How does it look at this end?” he asked Iduane, who was standing a short distance away, checking reports and status indicators.

“Matching positive. We can initiate reintegration at any time.”

Eubeleus leaned back and surveyed the other consoles and operator positions around the floor. Everything was under control and orderly. Across the planet, the Thurien fools who thought they were in control of the Uttan system because JEVEX was shut down and isolated far away on Jevlen didn’t even know they were standing right on top of it. They would very soon find out.

“And how are events inside?”

“The last time I contacted our Prophet, they were progressing well,” Iduane answered. “They’re rounding up all the heretics for the great auto-da-fé. They should be all fired up to do a fine job on Jevlen for us when they start coming out.”

Eubeleus nodded again, distantly. None of it was real, of course. It was simply an elaborate software simulation that JEVEX had created to train and orient the software identities that it had devised to extend itself into the outside universe. But those identities became real when they overwrote the personalities of physical users coupled into the system. Such was JEVEX’s method for externalizing its dimensions of existence-a solution which Eubeleus had no hesitation in acclaiming as a feat of genius. After all, wasn’t he a manifestation of it?

“When the time comes for the Prophet to announce the Great Awakening, I would like to be in control of him myself,” Eubeleus said. “It would be gratifying to participate in the culmination of the project-personally, as it were.”

“As you wish,” Iduane agreed.

Eubeleus stared at the console with a distant look, slipping into one of his rare reflective moods. “It’s difficult to believe that we, ourselves, originated like that. I look for any hint of nostalgia every time I connect into one of them, but there really isn’t any. I don’t recall anything of what I was down there before my emergence. There must be-” His words were interrupted by a priority tone from the console. He nodded toward the video pickup. “Yes?”

One of the screens came to life to show the face of another of his aides, elsewhere in the complex. “My apologies. We have a grade one coming in from Shiban PAC, on Jevlen.”

“Very well.” The image changed to show the face of Langerif. He looked worried. “What?” Eubeleus demanded.

“News has just come in here that Grevetz has been assassinated,” Langerif said.

Eubeleus came around the chair and sat down, glaring at the screen. “When did it happen? Do you know who did it?”

“At his villa in the Cerberan, just over an hour ago. His man who runs the north side did it: the one they call Scirio.”

“How?”

“They came down in a flier and wiped out him and a bunch of his people on the pad. Then they demolished virtually the entire place. There was no provocation or warning. It was a massacre.”

“I always thought Scirio was reliable. What was it, another of their family squabbles?”

“We’re not sure. There’s more. The hooker from the city, the one who was here at PAC-she was with them. We have the video record from the house surveillance system.”

“She’s the one who’s been helping the Terrans,” Iduane murmured. He had moved across from where he had been standing and was watching from beside Eubeleus’s chair.

Langerif nodded from the screen. “There has to be some kind of connection, but right at this moment we don’t know what.” Eubeleus’s frown deepened with suspicion. “What kind of operations does this Scirio specialize in?” he asked.

“Protection and retaliation for a price. Since the Ganymeans took over, he’s been getting big in the luxury black market, especially for high-paying headworlders. He runs a number of clubs as fronts in the city.”

“Headworlders?” Eubeleus stared back at the screen fixedly. Then his expression slowly changed to one of alarm. “That means he has access to an i-channel to Uttan. Into JEVEX.”

Langerif talked to somebody offscreen, then looked back. “Yes. Several of them, apparently.”

Eubeleus went through the sequence of events in his head. The Terran scientists from UNSA, Hunt and Danchekker both of whom had played key roles in thwarting the Federation, had come to Jevlen ostensibly as part of a scientific mission, which had turned out to be an undercover assignment to investigate what was afflicting the Jevlenese. After a lot of secret work in PAC that Eubeleus’s people had not been able to penetrate, the scientists had taken up with, of all people, an khena hoodlum. What could they be interested in? But Scirio had access into JEVEX. And-merely by coincidence?-no sooner had they talked to Scirio than he exterminated an awakener, who, it just so happened, had been due to liquidate all of the Ichena’s outsider management as soon as the takeover was completed.

Euebeleus jerked his head around sharply toward Iduane. “Commence reintegration of JEVEX.”

“Right now?”

“At once. As soon as you reach the requisite level, I want a complete check of all core functions. Scan for active i-space links from Jevlen and deactivate all of them.” Eubeleus looked back at Langerif, on the screen. “Get a list of all of the establishments of Scirio’s that have functioning couplers. Get men out to each of them and shut them down. All of them, do you understand? You’ll find the girl and the missing Terrans at one of them. When you do, take them back to PAC. Under no circumstances are they to have any means of accessing JEVEX. And I expect no blundering from anyone there this time.”