“Yeah, sorry about that. But your father stole something of ours and he decided not to give it back without a fight.”

  “It’s okay. I doubt the answer I needed was there anyway.”

  “You said you got into biosciences at Stanford as a means to an end. Where does that fit in?”

  David flipped open his laptop again. “I’m glad you asked.” He logged into the machine and navigated to a program titled SigSim. “I’ve been working on this for three years now, pretty much all of my free time. After I got my bachelors in Computer Science with a minor in Biology, I joined the lab because I had questions only people smarter than me could answer.”

  “Smarter than you?” I said. “I doubt that.”

  “It would be arrogant for me to think I’m the smartest student at Stanford just because I was the youngest. Age and experience still count. Anyway, I had some of the math down, but I didn’t really get it, if you know what I mean.”

  “I don’t.”

  “Mathematics are present in a hundred different disciplines. But without knowing specifically which one you’re delving into, it’s hard to model how an equation might be used to create an effect. Addition is pretty basic, but your application of addition will be different when you’re counting change in a supermarket or building a supertall skyscraper. Does that make sense?”

  “You’re talking about context.”

  He smiled in a way that made me feel as if I had earned a place in the not-a-total-idiot club. “Exactly. To do anything with the equations I believed I solved, I needed to create an environment to execute them in. But what environment, and in what discipline? Turns out, there are parts of this that reach into biology. There are other parts that stretch into chaos theory and quantum mechanics. That touch the fabric of the universe itself. Whoa!”

  “And you built a simulator for the universe on your laptop?” I asked tentatively.

  “No, man. I’d need a supercomputer for that. I went a bit simpler. The Bio-x lab already has software to model biological systems. They use it for testing chemicals for potential use against different diseases. They also have a tool to simulate effects of using CRISPR on different parts of DNA. Pretty cool stuff, but also too heavy to run on a laptop, so I spent a year optimizing it down to a level I could use. From there, I looked at how the equations might work based on assumptions I made about their grounding in chaos.”

  He clicked to activate a file browser, selected a file, and opened it in the simulator. A white sigil appeared on a black background.

  I nearly choked on my surprise as I pointed at the screen. “You already knew that one, didn’t you?”

  “No. I built it from the ones I did know, the equations I stole from my father’s personal network. Why?”

  I didn’t answer him yet. “What does it do?”

  “Remember, I’m making a lot of assumptions here. The fact that it does anything at all is mind boggling to me, to the point that until a couple of hours ago I was certain I had messed everything up and would need a lot more years to figure it all out.”

  He moved the mouse cursor to a play button on the top menu bar. The sigil was replaced with an animation of a human body, with vitals on the left showing high blood pressure and an elevated heart rate. The rendering of the body suggested the nervous system was in bad shape, flashing red. The sigil appeared overlaid with the body, a long mathematical equation printed out beneath it, producing a massive amount of logged data, quickly at first but slowing as the laptop struggled to run the simulation. The fan came on, whirring loudly from the back of the machine, the battery indicator in the corner draining quickly. We waited for over a minute before the blood pressure and heart rate dropped rapidly, and the nerve endings returned to normal.

  The simulation reached the end and stopped, but I kept staring at it in disbelief.

  “Well, what do you think?” David asked.

  “I know that sigil,” I replied. “That one’s called calm. And it just did exactly what it’s supposed to do.” I turned my head to look him in the eye. “You did it. You reinvented sigiltech.”

  CHAPTER 12

  David stared back at me, face red, embarrassed by my reaction. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean your simulator works,” I replied while pins and needles of excitement coursed along my arms and legs. “You created a sigil and output the right effect.”

  He smiled widely and pumped his fists. “Wooooooooo! Yes! Yes! Yes!’ He jumped out of the chair, still throwing punches of joy in the air. “Yeeeessss!”

  “Shhh!” the front-desk concierge hissed, rushing over to us. “There are rooms above this floor and people are trying to sleep.”

  David slapped his hand over his mouth, still whooping beneath it.

  “Sorry,” I said. “He just made a pretty incredible scientific discovery, so he’s a little excited.”

  “Try being excited at eight a.m., not three,” the woman suggested before returning to her post.

  David dropped back into his seat. “I can’t believe this. When I ran the simulation I was sure it was all bullshit. But I was right on the money. Oh, I had help, of course. But—”

  “Who else knows about this?” I asked, cutting him off with the forcefulness of my question. Rediscovering how to make sigils was exciting, sure. But it was also extremely dangerous. Enough so that I wasn’t sure whether or not to let Keep in on what David had learned. Would he applaud the intellect or try to murder David to keep the technology lost?

  “About the sigils? Nobody. I never told the people in the lab exactly what I was working on. They just knew I was building a combined simulator that could run on machines affordable to the average student, which was more than good enough to get them to help me out.”

  I exhaled in relief. “So nobody else knows anything about sigiltech from you?”

  “No. Well, my mom does. I told her everything back when I first hacked the EMG servers.”

  “You told your mother?” I growled. “Why?”

  “I thought she would be happy to stick it to the old man. And believe me, she was. Don’t sweat it, broski. She’s not going to turn us in or anything.”

  I stared at him, heart pounding, nerves tensing.

  “David, I don’t think you understand,” I said. “And I don’t blame you because three months ago what I’m about to say would have gone completely over my head too. But like you mentioned, experience counts, and the experiences I’ve had in the last few months tell me this isn’t what it seems. My spidey-sense is tingling. Bigtime.”

  His excitement faded. “You mean because of the goons that jumped us at my house?”

  “That’s a pretty big clue. They were staking you out. Waiting for something. Exotic Mining Group is defunct. Your father and unfortunately your sister are both dead. So who put them there?”

  “You think my mother sicced them on me?” David said, shaking his head. “That’s crazy.”

  “What if your seeing the bank account credentials wasn’t an accident?” I asked. “Your mother knows how smart you are. She probably knew you needed a challenge, too. What if she set you on this path toward sigiltech? What if your father wanted you to break into the company servers? To hack into his personal network? What if the goal was to get you to dedicate your intelligence to the problem because he knew you could solve it?”

  David’s head kept shaking. “That’s nutty conspiracy theory stuff. My mother hates my father. There’s no way she helped him enlist me in his research project. I can’t believe that.”

  A new chill ran down my spine as my mind expanded on my original theory. “Okay. What if it wasn’t your father’s idea to set you up? What if there’s someone else who wanted to get you involved? Someone who was over both your parent’s heads?”

  “You mean like a board of directors?”

  “A singular, powerful entity.”

  “Elon Musk?” he guessed.

  “His name is Sucaath, and he’s bad news. He wants to use sigiltech to rule the galaxy. And he could have convinced your mother to set you up. Especially if he promised her you wouldn’t get hurt.”

  “Wouldn’t get hurt? They were shooting at me.”

  “Probably because they saw you talking to me and they know who I am. But someone had to give them the order, and there aren’t a lot of people left to blame.”

  “My mom wouldn’t do that to me. No way.” He slammed his laptop closed and stuffed it into his backpack. “Look Ben, about thirty percent of this has been fun, but I don’t think we’re on the same page here. It’s probably best if I just call a cab and hitch a ride to my mom’s place. Because there’s no way in hell I’m choosing you over her.” He turned and started toward the front desk.

  “David, if you leave, you’ll be turning everything you worked so hard for over to the bad guys. You’ll be playing right into their hands.”

  “Better their hands than yours,” he replied.

  I growled under my breath and walked quickly toward him, catching up before he was halfway to the desk. I grabbed him from behind, turning him and throwing him to the ground, surprised by my own strength. “David, you still don’t understand.”

  “Hey!” the concierge said. “What are you doing? No fighting on hotel grounds.”

  “Oh, I do understand. I thought you were the normal one and that other guy, Druck, was the psycho. But you’re all psycho, aren’t you? Starships and aliens and evil overlords who want to take over the universe. Because nobody can ever invent something powerful like this and use it to help people, right? Because that kind of existence can’t be possible.” He got back to his feet and set himself in an aikido pose. “Come at me, man. Come on.”

  “That’s it,” the concierge said. “I’m calling the police.”

  “Ben!” Alter shouted through the comms, loud enough to hurt. “Where are you?”

  “Restaurant near the front,” I replied, still staring at David. “Why?”

  “We’ve got incoming. We need to get out of here.”

  “The cops found us already?”

  “It’s not the police.”

  The sliding glass doors into the hotel slid open. A squad of black-clad goons entered in diamond formation, their guns aimed at David’s back.

  “Alter,” I whispered. “You’re too late. They’re already here. In the lobby.”

  “I’m coming,” she replied.

  David slowly turned around, raising his hands when he saw the guns. The lead bad guy moved ahead of the others, lowering their weapon and reaching up to remove their helmet, revealing the attacker’s face.

  “Mom?” She was an older Asian woman, with a sliver of gray in her short black hair, sharp eyes and a smile that would have looked kind in any other situation. “What the hell is going on?”

  “David,” she said. “Step away from him. He’s nothing but trouble.”

  David looked back at me over his shoulder. I did my best to make an I-told-you-so-face. My whole deduction had been an educated guess, and I couldn’t deny I was pretty impressed with myself for getting it right.

  “What are you doing here, Mom?” he said, looking back at her. “Why are you dressed like part of a SWAT team? And who are these people?”

  “I’m sorry, David,” she replied. “I should have come to you sooner, but I thought we would have more time.” She pointed at me. “This one is supposed to be back in the Spiral, not here on Earth. These people work for me, and I also work for someone very powerful. Someone who will give you everything you ever wanted for completing the puzzle set before you.”

  “You mean Sucaath?” David asked.

  “Yes. He may have told you the name, but I doubt he told you the truth. Sucaath only wants to rediscover the secrets of sigiltech so he can use it to bring balance and security to the galaxy, including Earth.”

  “Bullshit,” I coughed behind David.

  “You don’t speak, Ben.” David’s mother said as the other goons all aimed their rifles at me. “David, I want you to go outside. Wait for me there. Once I’ve finished with Ben and his companions, I’ll answer all of your questions.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about all of this before? If you and Dad worked for the same person, why did he reject us when I was a kid? And why did you trick me into helping you instead of just coming to me? Instead of just asking?”

  She stared at him, hesitant. I knew it was either because she didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t sound suspicious or because she couldn’t answer at all. David was a smart guy. Would he see it too? “David, I told you, I’ll explain everything. Just wait outside. I’ll be right there.”

  He glanced back at me, our eyes meeting. He looked pained. Conflicted. If I hadn’t already told him his mother was involved before she showed up, he probably would have left the hotel without a second thought. But I had planted the seeds of doubt, and his mother was doing a pretty good job watering them for me.

  “David,” she pressed.

  “Did Dad know I would hack into his personal computer network?” he asked, returning his attention to his mother. “Was that all part of a setup? And don’t lie to me.”

  Her face tensed. She had to make a quick decision. She nodded. “Yes. His researchers reached a dead end. We needed someone with the intellect and drive to push through the wall. And you did, David. What you’ve created is incredible, and you need to finish it. By keeping our distance, you had all the space you needed to work unencumbered.”

  “Your people shot at me.”

  “It was an error. If they weren’t already dead, I would kill them myself. Please, David. You don’t know who Ben and his companions are, and every second we waste is another second they have to regroup. Go outside.”

  David still didn’t move. He shook his head. “You used me, Mom. Took advantage of me. Instead of helping me reconcile with Dad, you kept us apart so I would hate him enough to try to ruin him. And he went along with it. This is so freaking twisted I don’t even know how to react to any of it.”

  “I know you’re confused. Once we get away from here, I can—”

  “No,” David said. “I’m not going anywhere with you. You want me to trust you, but you just gave me every reason not to. My whole life, I never knew you were working for someone like Sucaath. I never knew you were still in contact with Dad.”

  “David, enough,” his mother snapped, trying a different tactic. “Stop being an ungrateful child and go outside.”

  “I’m not eight years old anymore, Mom,” David replied. “You can’t boss me around. You have a choice to make.” He unslung his backpack and held it over his head. “Either I walk out of here with Ben and his friends or I smash all of my work on the floor. Or you can shoot me before I do.”

  “David, don’t,” his mother said.

  “Make your choice, Mom,” David growled.

  Two of the guns on me reaffixed themselves on David. “David, I’m warning you,” she said.

  He laughed painfully. “I don’t believe this. You would really shoot me to keep me from destroying my work, wouldn’t you?”

  “I have no choice,” she answered. “Sucaath—”

  “I don’t see him holding a gun to your head. You do have a choice. Don’t use him as an excuse because you’re ready to make the wrong one.”

  “We can talk about this later. Go wait outside. You have five seconds. Five.”

  David glanced back at me again. He looked like he wanted to cry. I couldn’t blame him. His mother wasn’t who he had always thought she was. The whole idea of it hurt me too.

  “Four. Three. Two.”

  “One,” David said, swinging his backpack down.

  I threw my hand out, pushing him and the backpack out of the way as Sucaath’s soldiers opened fire, bullets passing through empty space where he had been a moment before. David slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, the backpack taking only a minor hit when the other goons would have turned us into swiss cheese. Their heads suddenly snapped sideways as upgraded blaster rounds punched through their helmets from the kitchen side of the restaurant. The hotel’s entry doors slid open and Clown Alter bounced in, batons burning as she launched herself at the other two soldiers.

  I grabbed at my suddenly numb arm, wiggling my fingers to make sure I could still move. Then I was airborne as an invisible force threw me backward, sending me smashing into the front desk. Pain radiated through my body as wood splintered and cracked behind me. I flopped onto my stomach, stunned by the sigil-powered blow, my eyes shifting to the doors, searching for backup that was late coming through them.

  David’s mother turned away from me, spinning around as Alter went for her. She barely had time to push Alter away before pivoting toward Druck, his massive form approaching from the restaurant. She raised her hand to block his blaster fire, diffusing it, his blasts washing over her like a rainshower, too weak to do any damage. Alter threw both her batons at her. The Archon—or perhaps she was a Gilded—pushed Alter a second time, sending her hurtling back through the glass doors, the glass shattering around her.

  David’s mother had only reacted to Alter, not the batons. They whirled through the air toward her, one of them catching her shoulder as she ducked aside. It burned through her uniform and she cried out in pain, clutching the wound.

  “Don’t move,” Matt ordered, closing in from the hallway behind me where I remained on the floor. Druck continued his advance as well, forcing her to choose a target or surrender.

  “Don’t hurt her,” David said, rushing over to his mother and getting between her and Matt. “Mom, you don’t need to do this. We can work something out.”

  “There’s nothing to work out, David,” she replied. “I can’t leave without your work. Without you. He’ll have me killed.”

  “We can kill you right here,” Matt said, pausing to look down at me. “Are you okay?”

  “I don’t think anything’s broken,” I replied.

  “Mom—"

  She cut him off as she jumped to her feet, wrapping her arm around his neck and pulling him in front of herself, her body turned halfway between Matt and Druck. Gun in hand, she put the muzzle to David’s temple. “I said, I can’t leave without you,” she seethed. “You’re coming with me.”