False Idols - Published Version

Chapter 22

                  

Sarah and Michael were concealed in an old boarded up warehouse near Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side of the Upper Bay where the Hudson and East Rivers met the Atlantic Ocean. From here they had a perfect view of the temple. The augmented vision that had been implanted at the same time as their TacWaves allowed them to see the unfolding scene in detail. Sarah and Michael also had enhanced hearing, but the wind was unfavorable and made overhearing conversations difficult at their present distance. Instead, an array of carefully calibrated laser microphones detected and broadcast conversations within the temple.

Their position was hidden by a holographic projector that emitted a façade of normalcy over their location.

In addition to their surveillance equipment, they were also equipped with two tripod-mounted laser rifles with sights that interfaced directly with their TacWaves for precise targeting. They were to use these weapons only in an emergency.

The business of arranging the four boats that now approached the island had been carried out by Greg Silverstein's team of Demon commandos. Greg had rented the boats with cash, and then offered free passage to the Aeons' island temple. It was well known that the Aeons had offered free food and fuel to all comers. The boats had been filled to capacity with eager passengers within two hours, as news of the free ride spread by word of mouth through the dilapidated neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Some of the pilgrims crammed into each of the leaky craft were actually Greg's commandos, ready to take advantage of the Aeons' rare public appearance by arresting them while they were exposed in the temple.

This raid was possible because their spying on the Aeons had started to bear fruit. Michael was extremely adept at breaking into and navigating encrypted networks. His superiority to Sarah in this respect mirrored her advantage over him in using the TacWave for more physical tasks like hand-to-hand combat.

The Aeons, for all their care, could not protect every foot of the thousands of miles of cables they needed to communicate with each other. Michael had found a number of weak points to hack into.

Michael had not found any evidence of the terrorist attacks that they all suspected Laura had masterminded. But he had found strong evidence for insider trading on the public equity and commodity markets by Laura as an individual, and on behalf of Sparkwise.

Colonel Jaeger had decided to jump on the first concrete incriminating evidence his team had found. Moreover, he had insisted the strike proceed in secret, without even first obtaining a court warrant. Rather than risk the information leaking, he would have his commando team arrest the Aeons and then explain his actions later.

It had been almost a month since Sarah and Michael had started talking again, and by now the damage to their relationship that Sarah's affair with Nick had caused was mostly healed.

Michael turned to Sarah. "Are you ready?"

Sarah didn't pull her eyes away from the scene unfolding in the temple. "It's really up to Greg now." She was still heartbroken at losing her chance to convert Nick, yet also ashamed of her obviously unprofessional feelings for him. She wanted to crush her emotions and focus on proving she deserved to be a member of the team. "Let's see if the Aeons react the way we predicted from their psyche profiles."

As Michael had indicated from his first days tracking her, Laura Mayer was clearly the leader, holding influence over the other three Aeons through her strangely charismatic personality and an unwavering self-assuredness. Her preeminence was evident in the way the other Aeons unconsciously arranged themselves around her and, ever so slightly, dipped their heads when conversing with her. Sarah was sure Laura's dominance was just as strong with the more than fifty other Aeons who weren't present today. They might not be as intimately involved in her plans, yet they all looked to Laura for inspiration and direction.