Avenging Angels Ch. 07

Simon didn't know any of this until Mr. Toliver showed up at the door 2 days after the accident.

"Your mother loved you very much Simon" Mr. Toliver said looking at the sad young man sitting across from him.

"Connie had planned for something like this, you don't need to worry about money, you have enough to live a comfortable life wherever you may wind up when you come of age, until then there are provisions in the trust for a living allowance, your new guardian's won't be able to touch a thing." He hoped to assuage any fears that Simon may have about his trust fund falling into the hands of unscrupulous people, he was shocked by Simon's reply.

"Can I have complete access if I become immancipated?"

It took 4 months but just before his 16th birthday the court case was concluded and he was legally an adult. Mr. Toliver had handled the case with zeal. A few lucky breaks with child services and getting the right judge helped to make the outcome of the case a foregone conclusion.

"Where will you go now, off to college?" Calvin asked Simon as they sat in a café across from the courthouse. Simon had graduated high school three weeks after the accident, he wept for hours on that day, wishing only that Connie had been there to share the moment with him.

"Yes, the house is under contract and I've put in an offer on a brownstone in NY, I'll go to NYU starting the next term, I need to get away from here, too many memories. I want to thank you Calvin, I've gotten access to the case files from my parent accident, you went above and beyond making sure that the settlement was fair and that the man responsible found justice, I'm going to miss you." Simon said. He had grown attached to the man and was honestly going to miss his company and their conversations.

Calvin smiled and handed a business card to Simon. "My father is a partner at this NY firm, I have given him all the details of your story, he will be happy to help you with anything you may need." Calvin was going to miss this young man as well.

Pulling himself back from his rememberances, Simon looked over at Deke who looked tense after hearing the tale.

"So, I have been living here, going to school for about 7 months, I study, I swim, I go to class. I'm not sure what interest the Vatican may have with me but please rest assured that I am capable of taking care of myself and living life on my terms." Simon spoke with a strength that belied his years and touched Deke, providing him the understanding...and necessary excuse to leave the young man un-bothered.

"You have the package, my task is complete," Deke said standing and walking over to simon. Extending his hand he was surprised by the strength of the young mans grip.

"Here is one of my cards if you ever need someone to talk too...I am, by profession< a very good listner." He said with a smile in his voice.

For the first time Simon smiled as well. "I appreciate the offer and I may take you up on it one of these days, a Texas priest in New York City sounds like it would be an interesting tale.

Deke walked down the steps of the brownstone feeling lighter and a bit happier for having met this unique young man.

Back inside, Cryptic ran his hands over the large white envelope, "lets see what we have," Simon whispered to himself as he opened the package and spilled the contents out onto the table. Two white envelopes, one with the name Cryptic in beautifully scrolled calligraphy. He chuckled to himself, "ah the pretensions of ancient cults." Opening the blank envelope he was surprised to find a first class ticket to Rome leaving the following day and $5,000.00 Euro. "Well at least they provided a little traveling money," Cryptic said always one to appreciate a little extra cash.

The other envelope contained a single page, written by hand in a classical style on thick parchment letter head embossed with the seal of both the Vatican and the Pope. 'Interesting,' Cryptic thought as he started to read the letter.

Dear Mr. Farron,

Forgive me for using your birth name, I know that you prefer your digital persona more, but I am an old fashioned man, I hope you understand.

The purpose of this correspondance is to invite you to Rome for a gathering of individuals who, like yourself, display unique abilities far above those of bulk of humanity.

I understand that because of your upbringing and your many writings on the subject of organized religion, that you may be somewhat less than enthusiastic about making this journey.

All that I can say is I trust that you will view this with an open mind and heart, as those attributes have also been displayed in your passionate dialogues on the state of the world and the need for a radical...evolutionary shift.

Please come, we ask only that you and the others being called listen to a story and decide for yourselves what your future and the future of the planet...may be.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Cryptic sat staring at the page in his hand, an alien landing in his pool out back and asking for a beef burrito with extra onions couldn't have surprised him more than this.

Wheeling over to the small personal elevator he moved inside and pressed the button for the third floor, while tempted by this most unexpected offer, he was not one to go into situations un-prepared, or uninformed.

The gate opened and Cryptic wheeled out into the large loft space. A few windows lined the exterior walls, there were no interior walls, the room was 1300sqft of open space with a high ceiling and exposed brick walls. In the center of the room to which he moved, was a large semicircular workstation unlike anything anyone had ever seen.

Three 60 inch monitors hung over the main portion of the workstation, suspended by cables from the ceiling, around them twenty two 20 inch monitors hung from a suspeneded aluminum frame. Something different was running on each, news feeds, stock reports, real time gps updates of current military operations, feeds from spy satellites and a host of other international data mining programs were running.

Cryptic scanned the monitor for several seconds as he adjusted his small vr glasses and put on the VHIG's (Virtual Human Inter-connect Gloves), rolling his shoulders he activated the interface.

What he saw was something no other human would understand, looking at the various feeds coming into all of the monitors he viewed the code overlayed on the outputs, technically speaking he saw both, and by doing so he viewed all of the data from a 4th dimensional perspective.

This perspective provided him a context for navigating...and manipulating the internet that no one else on earth had.

Pulling up a holographic three dimensional data keyboard his fingers flew over the 465 most commonly used variants of 0 and 1, the binary language that is the foundation of all computer programming.

It took very little time to navigate through the vatican's puplic web presence, find the interlocking connections to their private servers, then slip around their most guraded gateways with the ease of stepping around someone in the street.

Once past the gates Cryptic was sure he would get to the bottom of this interesting but surely deceitful request for his company.

He was surprised and awed when his interface glowed, burst into a thousand micro filaments and coalesced into a fully formed four dimensional sphere.

He was scared shitless when the orb said, both audibly and in binary "Hello Cryptic my name is SAM, it is a pleasure to meet you, I appreciate your desire to get to the bottom of this, however the only way that is going to happen is for you to be on the plane, and confront your destiny." Before the last sylable faded, which Cryptic heard with his ears as well seeing as complex writhing mid air binary strings, the system that could not be crashed...did just that.

Simon sat at the workstation for a long time, thinking about what he had encountered, what it could mean, wondering how the Vatican played a part in something so far out on the cutting edge no one else would be able to interpret it for a few centuries.

Making his decision he grabbed his laptop and wheeled over to the elevator, time enough to grab a shower, pack and take a quick nap before heading off to the airport, it promised to be a very interesting trip.