Beyond Eternity Read online

  "There is no way that's going to happen. I've heard that there's tighter security on the Ambrosia garden than the guard detail for the Patriarch."

  "I wouldn't go that far. Their security is only good if you're trying to get in the front door, but this whole city is full of backdoors and loopholes. I bypass their systems every day. You just need to be a little creative. We could easily bring the Family to their knees."

  "Even if we could get in the Ambrosia garden, there is no way to take out the entire supply. Where would we get enough explosives?" Patrick asked.

  "Come on, think outside the box. Do we really need explosives to destroy them? Those plants all get fed from the same source. If we slip a little something into the water, everything dies. It would take them months to get production back up to speed. By then, the workers won't be as willing to settle for the crumbs that are handed out to them. It wouldn't take much to push everything past the tipping point. This whole society is just waiting for a catalyst to get things started. We don't need an army to make a change. We only have to show people the true nature of the Family."

  The words that came out of Finn's mouth never ceased to amaze me. Was revolution just a game to this kid, or was it something more? There had to be something personal behind it. Maybe it was personal for me, too. If someone had asked me a few days ago, I couldn't have cared how things were run in this world, but they decided to raise the stakes. It's one thing to threaten me, but when you threaten my family and my friends, in addition to everything else in my world, I won't stand for it.

  Finn said to Patrick, "What would it take for the miners to revolt? I don't mean something small; I mean everyone getting involved."

  "Oh, they're ready. You can feel the tension in the stale mine air. If you really can take out the Ambrosia supply, that's all it would take to push the masses over the edge. There were a number of us already starting to organize against the Family, but they were moving too slow for my taste. That's why I blew up the dispensary. If I had been arrested in a more public setting, that alone could have been enough to get things moving. Unfortunately, things had pretty much cleared out by the time the guards snagged me."

  I said, "Patrick, how long would it take to organize your friends and get ready to stir things up?"

  "I know people throughout the mines. If I can even reach a few of them, we could spread the word within a day or two.

  "You need to get to work on that right away while Finn and I prepare to raid the Ambrosia garden."

  Finn looked at me and said, "You know, you don't have to be a part of this, Stone. You can go home anytime you want."

  "This may not be my world, but what happens here still matters. More important, what happens to you, and Hazel, and your parents matters. You all reached out to me when I needed help, and there is no way I'm going to leave you behind."

  Finn looked like he was deep in thought, then finally said, "Patrick, we don't have any time to waste. If you go out that door and down the corridor, you'll recognize where you are. Find your friends and get ready to raise hell."

  Patrick nodded and said, "I'll take care of it. You two stay safe."

  Patrick left the room and hurried down the tunnel beyond the passageway. After the door closed, Finn said, "I bet the Patriarch wishes he had John's holographic memory cube."

  "How did you know about that?"

  "Like I was saying, nothing happens around here without me knowing."

  "What happened to it after John died?"

  "John didn't die, he was murdered."

  "What? Are you sure?"

  "I watched it happen. I knew all along that Katrina was no good, but he acted silly around her. We had a plan to get our whole family out of here, but he refused to leave her behind. I was waiting for him near the opening of Hazel's cave and saw them approaching. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I could see that they were arguing. He turned to walk away, and she pulled something out of her hair and stabbed him in the back. It began glowing and then he just vanished. I didn't know the full story until you showed up here, but it must have been some kind of plasma discharge. It's all her fault. We could have left this place, but she messed it up. I just want my brother back."

  Tears rolled down his cheeks. I slid next to the boy and wrapped my arm around him. Finn caressed something in his hand, and I caught a glint of iridescent glow.

  "Is that what I think it is?"

  He choked back his sobs and said, "John gave it to me right before he went to meet Katrina. This memory cube is the only thing I have left of him. I keep hoping that someday I'll be able to bring him back."

  I couldn't imagine a way to bring someone back from the dead and tried to change the subject. "How do we sabotage the Ambrosia garden? You said there is a backdoor."

  Finn wiped away tears with his sleeve, and he clenched his jaw. "Yeah, this tube will take us right there. They'll never expect us to sneak in from the core of the building. The Family relies too much on their electronic surveillance, but I can go anywhere I want without them tracking me. If we time it right, the guards won't even know we're there. We just slip in, taint the water supply, and slip right out. By the time the plants start dying, we'll be long gone. Then we'll see what kind of rebellion Patrick can stir up. Speaking of electronic surveillance, it's about time I upgrade your DigiCom."

  Finn pulled out the foil bag and opened it just enough to connect a cord from his DigiCom to mine. The boy's thumbs tapped rapidly on the screen of his device as he sideloaded applications into my communicator. A few moments later, he handed it to me. "There you go."

  "What did you do to it?"

  "I added all of the custom software that I have on my DigiCom. Now the Family can't track you unless you want them to. Doors will open while the sensors say they're still closed. Also, one of the apps uses a simple flaw to access their security database and camera feeds. Look."

  Finn showed me how to view the cameras and floor plans in the Ambrosia garden.

  I said, "It looks like nutrient sprayers for all of the plants can be adjusted in a central control room. It's pretty vulnerable, but killing off the plants won't be enough. I'm sure they have storehouses full of harvested Ambrosia."

  "They have cameras at the entrance to the storage room, but I don't see any inside. We'll have to figure that out once we're there."

  "Sounds like a plan. So, how do we get up? The Ambrosia garden must be over a hundred levels above us."

  "There's a ladder over there...." Finn pointed to some simple metal rungs on the far side of the platform. "But I'm planning on taking the elevator."

  Finn grinned. There was no hiding my sour expression when he hinted that we were going to climb up. I was relieved to know there was an easier way. If not, there wouldn't be much fight left in me by the time I got to the top.

  The boy keyed his DigiCom, and I let out a sigh when a small open-sided elevator zoomed down a smooth metal pole to greet us. Before we climbed aboard, Finn tossed me a small rectangular bar in a foil wrapper. I said, "What's this?"

  "It's a meal bar. The ration doesn't taste much better than moistened sawdust, but it has everything your body needs. I can't have you wasting away on me."

  I took a bite and said, "Thanks."

  This week felt like one long day, but maybe things were finally about to turn around.

  Chapter 12

  The wind currents only intensified when we reached the landing for the Ambrosia garden, high up in the building's core. I felt unsteady on the narrow platform and clung to the hatch to the maintenance room while checking the video feed a final time. Finn was unfazed and seemed delighted by the way his wild red hair was tossed around in the breeze.

  I said, "It looks like most of the workers are busy harvesting a crop. If we skirt the edge of the facility, we should be able to make it to the control room without being seen. Are you ready?"

  "I'm just waiting on you, old man." The boy wore a fiendish smile that betrayed the maturity within him.


  I cracked open the door to the maintenance room and we slid inside. After sealing the hatch, I was grateful to escape the howling winds blowing through the core. Finn opened the inner door and my nostrils were immediately assaulted by the sweet fragrance of the Ambrosia flowers.

  "Alright. Let's get in and out fast, before this smell gets me too giddy to care about sabotage."

  Finn said, "Too easy." I just grimaced.

  We entered a vast room with countless rows of juvenile plants. I crept along, and the still air was periodically interrupted by the sound of sprayers misting the roots with water and nutrients.

  Only a few workers ventured near us, and we simply waited for them to pass by before continuing on. Finn set individual cameras along our path to replay old footage as we moved under them. He navigated around clusters of workers until the control room was in sight. I glanced at my DigiCom and said, "It looks like the control room is empty, but I still can't locate the storage room."

  "It's actually a level below us, next to the processing facility. The cameras inside must be on a closed circuit. There isn't any access from the building core, but I think I found another way to get there unseen. Let's hurry and make our adjustments to the sprayers while we can."

  I followed the boy inside the room, and kept a lookout so he could go to work on the control panel. It didn't take him long to make his changes. He said, "I disabled the plant monitor alarms and manually adjusted the nutrient values of the water to make it so rich with fertilizer that the roots are going to burn away. If anyone comes back in here, everything will read normal until the plants turn brown and die."

  We slipped out of the room and ducked behind a row of plants just before a pair of workers passed by. They pushed along a large rolling tub filled with harvested Ambrosia plants. The men were completely oblivious to the fact that the entire crop of Ambrosia was doomed to die. This was all going surprisingly easy.

  "So, how do we get to the processing facility?"

  Finn said, "You saw the metal tub they were pushing? They use them to gather Ambrosia and dump harvested plants down a chute to the processing level. We just need to slide down the chute."

  "Just slide down the chute? If the workers are in the middle of a harvest, that chute is bound to be swarming with people. How are we supposed to even get close to it?"

  "Why don't we hide inside a tub of plants?"

  I considered his idea and said, "That could work."

  We caught up to the workers pushing the tub of Ambrosia plants and followed a safe distance behind them. They reached the end of a growing rack and shoved the tub into a long line of full bins. Then they took an empty tub from the workers operating the feed chute and went to get another load.

  The men running the chute were completely focused on the task at hand. Two workers retrieved a tub of plants from the line and brought it to another who operated a pair of metal claws connected to the wall. The claw operator snatched tubs of Ambrosia, lifted them in the air, and dumped the plants down a large rectangular chute.

  After watching the men dump a few loads of Ambrosia, I noticed a brief opportunity. The repetitive nature of their jobs permitted a 15 second window when all three workers were facing away from the line of tubs. That was more than enough time to cover the short distance between the last growing rack and the closest tub. We just needed to time it right. The men were halfway through dumping a load when a pair of workers turned the corner to bring another bin down our row. This would cut it close, but we had to go now.

  I grabbed Finn under my arm and sprinted for the closest tub. Using my free hand to shove some plants away from the sidewall of the metal bin, I tossed Finn inside. Just before the workers turned back this way, I jumped in and pulled some plants over the top of us. Finn released a muffled yelp. "You're crushing me."

  "Sorry," I whispered as I did my best to keep my weight off the boy. I fought against sharp thorns to hollow out a small void in the container and was able to clear enough room for the two of us. We would find out real quick if anyone saw us.

  Dim light penetrated the Ambrosia plants and cast a pale red hue on Finn's face. The boy looked calm and comfortable, and didn't need to be reminded to keep quiet. Turning my attention inward, I realized that I was breathing at a hurried pace. I held in a deep breath, then let out a slow exhale, trying to calm myself down.

  Then someone rammed another metal tub into ours and we rolled a short distance before bumping into the tub ahead of us. So far, so good. I listened to the sound of the claws dumping plants into the chute, and tried to guess how many more containers were left before it was our turn.

  It didn't take long for the workers to clear out the line. Finally, two men took hold of our tub and wheeled it next to the metal claws protruding from the wall. The giant claws clamped down on the sides of our container and raised us into the air. We hit the top and the tub bounced several times. Then the operator swung the tub upside down and dumped us into the chute.

  I tumbled through the darkness in free fall, immediately regretting my decision to let myself get tossed down this hole. Then one of the walls sloped underneath us. I built up speed as I slid along, then shot out into an elevated basin full of Ambrosia plants. My legs sunk into the tangle of vines beneath me, while my head and arms remained above the surface. I looked up and Finn landed on top of me, along with the rest of the plants from our tub.

  Finn had an ear to ear smile. "Let's do that again."

  "Maybe another time. Let's figure out where we are."

  I carefully freed myself from the thorns that clung to my clothes and crawled to the edge of the basin. We were in an expansive room with high ceilings and a catwalk running the whole way around. Giant pressure cookers were mounted to one wall. The opposite wall had a conveyor belt that slowly moved plants along from the bottom of the holding basin. Workers removed the Ambrosia flowers while the roots and stems continued traveling down the belt through a hole in the wall. The gathered flowers were then loaded into one of the pressure cookers. No one had noticed our arrival over the gentle hum of machinery.

  Finn said, "Looks like they're about to start another batch. They boil the flowers to extract chemicals from the Ambrosia."

  "I wonder if there is a way we can blow up those cookers without killing ourselves."

  "If I crank up the burners and disable the pressure relief valves, we should have a few minutes before they burst."

  "Finn, you've already taken too many risks for me. How about I rig these to blow while you keep hidden?"

  "Do you really think you know how to do that?"

  The blank look on my face told Finn everything he needed. The boy continued, "No offense Stone, but we don't have time to waste while you fat-finger a control panel. Just keep the workers away from me and I'll take care of it."

  "Okay."

  I had no idea how I was going to clear the workers out long enough for Finn to sabotage the cookers. Then I noticed a fire alarm positioned half way down the catwalk. I pointed at it, and the boy knew exactly what I was thinking.

  I pulled myself out of the basin and onto the catwalk. Although I was completely exposed, I figured no one would notice me as long as I moved slowly. Who really ever pays attention to the ceiling in a room?

  After reaching the fire alarm, I scanned the room one more time. All of the workers were still fully immersed in their jobs. I yanked down on the lever and the alarm bells were deafening. The workmen below clasped their hands to their ears and ran for the exit. As soon as they were gone, Finn dropped down and went to work on the control panel for the pressure cookers. I ran along the catwalk and slid down a ladder to the floor.

  When I got to him, I said, "How's it going?"

  "Shhh." His fingers were a blur, modifying menus that were gibberish to me. Finally, he said, "Done. Let's get out of here before these things blow."

  "I don't think we're getting out the way we came in."

  "No kidding."

  We ran to the large door that the
workers went out, but it wouldn't budge.

  I said, "Can you open this?"

  "It looks like they mechanically sealed it from the other side to help prevent fire from spreading to other areas. There's nothing I can do."

  The pressure cookers that Finn sabotaged emitted high-pitch squeaks as the bloated metal containers tried to balloon out from excessive pressure. We didn't have much time before they would blow. I looked over and saw that the conveyor belt was still carrying plants through an opening in the wall. "This way."

  We rushed over and I pushed some plants aside to make room on the moving belt. Then I lifted Finn up and climbed on after him. I ducked my head as we passed through the opening, and on the other side, workers were continuing to clear out of the processing facility through an exit.

  After sliding off of the conveyor belt, I said, "Let's try to mingle in with the rest of them and slip out the door."

  As we approached the departing workers, something disrupted the flow out of the exit. A squad of Harmony Guards shoved their way through the crowd. I pulled Finn behind some equipment, but they had already seen us. One of the guards yelled, "Get them!" and they ran straight for us with batons in hand.

  I grabbed Finn and turned to run, but there was nowhere to go. I looked back and the guards were already on us. One of them hit me in the shoulder with his baton and sent a surge of electricity through my arm. Another shoved Finn to the floor. I dove on top of Finn's tiny body and did my best to shield him from their blows. The guards kicked me repeatedly in the ribs and head, but I refused to let them have the boy.

  A loud explosion shook the room, and the door to the pressure cookers bowed outward. Moments later, several more cookers detonated and the hunk of steel blew off its frame, wrapped in tendrils of fire. The shockwave knocked some of the Harmony Guards off of us, and I tried to stand. I was barely on my hands and feet when I caught a boot to the face. A guard snatched Finn from me and threw him over his shoulder. Dizzy, I closed my eyes and slumped to the floor. The flames lashed at me as I passed out.