Benjamin Cantrell

Our path took us past a warehouse that was extremely out-of-place. It was cared for, but it still seemed dark and dingy. "What's with that building?"

Johan sighed. "The building is cursed, the ground it sits on is cursed. I just leave the building as a reminder to myself that ordering death has a price."

"Can you explain?"

"Miranda Olsen decided that she wanted to invade my complex. She sent a short squad of mercenaries to bird-dog an invasion by portal. They started to bring explosives into that building, and I ordered Akira to activate the lethal response system. That system vaporized pretty much everything in the building and at the other end of the portal. Nine people died in there and another twenty in a lab near Tulsa. That was where the attack was launched from, one of the beams from the lethal response system went back through the portal and blew their equipment into smithereens. I killed twenty-nine people with six words."

"This lab, it's one of those places that Revengers can't see?"

"Yes."

"These portals, is this something I need to be worried about?" I asked.

"Let me start off by saying that there are two kinds of portals: Magical and technological. The magic portals are orange-edged and can only exit into public spaces or on warded land with an invitation."

"Sounds fair." I wasn't going to pick about how you knew where you were going.

"Technological portals are blue-edged and can open anywhere. They once got onto Jaci Stone's property and almost killed Natasha and tried kidnapping my daughter Grace. That property is warded on three different levels, the strongest being cast with the blood of a virgin."

"Natasha?" That was scary, considering the stories about her magic power.

"These people have weapons that can disable and kill even the strongest magicians. From electromagnetic pulse weapons to guns that shoot pure lead frangible bullets at a high enough velocity to penetrate dilation waves."

"Lead? Oh, anti-magic."

"Nobody's told you that?" Johan seemed confused.

"I know now. What was Miranda's team trying to steal?"

"The secret is down in that shop," Johan pointed.

'That shop' looked like a warehouse we had passed earlier, Warehouse Thirteen. Johan pointed to a yellow circle painted on the pavement. Please stand there. Akira, I have a guest."

"Hello, Mister Cantrell," Akira said. "I need to do a gait analysis."

"Sure," I shrugged.

"Please step outside the circle." I compiled. "Now put your left foot in."

I got the joke immediately. "Ha-ha."

"Akira just open the damned door," Johan chuckled.

"But this is heaven's door. You have to knock," Akira countered.

"Akira?"

I heard a popping noise, and the door started to open with the sound of rusty hinges. "Your AI has a sense of humor," I noted once we were inside. "The Hokey-Pokey? Knock on Heaven's Door?"

"I like the sass."

"Is this the same AI that you were talking to in my condo?" I asked.

"Yes, Akira follows my voice wherever I go. She may have responded through your monitor, but she heard my voice through my cellphone first."

"That's pretty neat. I want one."

"I don't know, they are pretty rare," Johan hedged.

"So how did Tara Knight and Dave Wallace hack one?" I asked.

There was a flinch. I saw it in his whole body. "What?"

"Too much?" I asked.

"Just enough," Johan nodded. "So that was just a guess?"

"I shouldn't have mentioned Dave."

"Dave wasn't known to me then," Johan admitted. "But Tara did give a good try."

"Johan, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? That wasn't some random guess, you compiled information and presented a valid, if not scary, question."

"You provide technology to the club, but not too much, because you are still trying to track down Miranda Olsen. You don't want that technology used against you."

"Correct," he nodded.

"The club chafes at this...proviso, but they accept it. Cherise gave me that hint, and so did Jamie."

"Go on."

"Tara has problems with you, and it has to deal with the level of trust you afford the club. She doesn't know about your soul."

"No."

"I will take that secret to my grave," I promised.

"Benjamin, if you take your last breath, the grave will be empty. The soul leaving the body at that time discorporates the body. You're intelligent, and I welcome you as an ally."

"Even though I have certain problems with your power, I am glad to be considered an ally," I extended my hand.

"Fair enough." Johan shook my hand, and showed me the little black box with a switch he had in the other. "Electronic equivalent of a time dilation spell. You owe me five thousand dollars."

"Okay."

He thumbed the switch. "My employees have to be reminded to talk down to me if they get into areas I don't understand."

"That sounds decent," I shrugged.

"Excuse me," Johan indicated a woman waving to him. "Feel free to look around."

I wandered around the edge of the warehouse. It was huge, looking way bigger on the inside than the outside. A semi truck was being loaded with a big metal tank. The tank was so black, it didn't seem to reflect any light at all. Once it was set in place, a pair of men came out with some black chains and started tying it to the trailer. I was confused at the fact that the chains seemed too small to hold such a large tank in place.

There was a shuffling noise coming up behind me, it was a woman wearing kitten heels, or a really light man. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Benjamin Cantrell. Johan let me in."

"Of course he did. Akira would have already zapped your ass if he hadn't. Are you a scientist?"

"I'm The Observer." That actually sounded kinda neat when I said it.

"Come over here, Benjamin." She walked past me and I followed her to the trailer with the tank on it. "You are probably wondering why the chains are so small."

"Are you a mind reader?"

"I'm talent-negative," she replied. "It's a logical assumption, given your confused look."

"Yes, I am confused. That tank looks too heavy for those chains to hold it at highway speeds."

"The chains are almost unbreakable. I say 'almost' because we haven't found a way to break them yet."

"The tanks are unbreakable as well?" I got the gist of what she was telling me.

"We haven't tried sticking an atomic bomb in one yet. We are, however, building a really big fusion reactor inside one."

That made perfect sense. Tatiana's husband was helping build a fusion reactor on Mars, and they would need a sturdy vessel to maintain the reaction. They would probably use good old-fashioned steam turbines to generate the power and the piping and turbines were probably made from the same unbreakable metal.

"You haven't prototyped it yet?" I asked.

"Our initial models are ten kilowatts," she answered. "The reactor we are building on Mars is two million megawatts."

"Two petawatts?"

She sighed. "It sounds so much smaller when you say it like that."

"Must have been a man writing the specifications then," I offered.

I heard a snort from my left. Four men were there, drawn by our conversation. "Nothing to see here," I said.

Suddenly they found some actual task to do. "So you are a magician," she offered her hand. "Atomane Xem."

"Nice to meet you." I took her hand, and since she didn't pull it back, I held onto it for a tad bit longer than polite society normally allowed and let it go.

A sigh. "Yes it is. You must be some kind of scientist, Benjamin, you asked a relevant question."

"Most people ask: 'Are you leading with that?'"

Atomane laughed. "I get that a lot. Why would you ask about prototypes?"

"Well, I know that a fusion reactor is being built on Mars."

"What?" Atomane asked in surprise.

"A fusion reactor is being built on Mars. Was that something you didn't know?"

"I know, but how do you know?"

"Benjamin knows Nevon Salinas," Johan announced his presence. "Benjamin can know pretty much everything we're doing."

Atomane gave me a long, hard look. "Why you?"

"Good question," I looked at Johan. "Why now?"

"You need to know the language of science, Benjamin. In your position, you will get questions about the Senator's stances on science and technology."

"I don't know all his stances yet," I countered. "And, to be honest, I don't think they should come from you."

"Benjamin, I am only giving you information."

"Information that's secret to you," I looked at Atomane. "Indestructible, or near-indestructible metal? Super-efficient solar technology? practical fuel cells, fusion reactors?"

"Certainly, all of it. We are in Nevada, and incorporated here as such. That means people cannot say that we have any influence over Senator Wallace. As you learn more, you can field those types of questions on behalf of him, because that is part of your job. Yes, most of the time you'll be in the shadows, but you still have to be known by people; Security, police, and agents."

"That way I won't have to be held up by checkpoints whenever I go somewhere," I nodded.

"Let's go have a lunch, and the questions can begin."

Johan and I had lunch in the employee cafeteria, albeit in a corner. My first question was actually a repeat one: Did I have to worry about portals?

Johan explained that they had found ways, both magical and technological, to sense where portals would be opened, but not anything to keep them from opening. I asked how they could sense it, and he said that Gemma would have to explain it to me.

Johan then told me that I would be getting a warning device, about the size of one of the ID cards on my lanyard, to give me a heads-up If my guardians weren't around.

Next I asked him what I could reveal to the public what I had just seen, and he said all of it. Most of the technology was already known among scientists, so the layperson would be awed by it.

"Why now?" I asked.

"Because it's a good opening platform for Dave Wallace and Governor Daschell to announce their run for the White House."

Ahh, politics.

"The press is going to bug the shit out of me, Johan," I complained.

"No, they won't," Senator Wallace was sitting down beside me. "I thought we were going to do this on Monday?"

"I'm sure there is plenty more to see," I offered. "Gravelton is a good place, I hear."

"Gravelton is definitely a place to see," Senator Wallace agreed. "Let's pick up my wife and your companion and head on out there."

Moira. I had completely forgotten about her. She had vanished around the building where the model-four solar panels were being assembled. I apologized to her outside our ride, and she waved me off. She had gotten a call from CJ, hinting that I was going to be really focused on what Johan was showing me. I hated being predictable like that, hated not noticing that she wasn't by my side.

Our little convoy didn't stop at Gravelton, we turned onto what looked like a little dirt trail, but before we completed the turn, it morphed into a multi-laned newly paved road. But it wasn't paved with asphalt, it looked different, primarily because it was light green.

"Stop the truck," I ordered.

Pat chuckled and pulled to a stop along the side of the road. In front of and behind us, the two other Suburbans did the same.

Despite the fact that the road should have been hot, baking in the Nevada sunshine, the road was cool to the touch. I couldn't believe it.

"Recycled material, all of it," Johan offered. "A little asphalt here, a little concrete and gravel there, and voila!"

"This is amazing!" I put my palm flat on the pavement. "It's even a bit cool!"

"Needless to say, this isn't a material that we can use on public roadways," Johan sighed.

I stood up. 'Why?"

"The material is still being 'evaluated' in the name of public safety. We can use it on parking lots, private properties, and even market it to others, but it will not be used on public roadways under the current administration."

"That fucking sucks," I muttered.

"Every surface at Quarry Airfield is recycled asphalt," Johan said. "Despite the fact that the density of the material is twice that of regular paved runways, Quarry is the only airfield where it will be used for the near future."

I sighed. "I didn't even notice the airfield."

"That was our first generation of recycled material," Johan admitted. "More amazing stuff ahead."

"Oh, yeah."

***

I couldn't believe my eyes when we first pulled up to what Moira told me someone had dubbed 'Ares City.' There were geodesic domes of various sizes as far as the eye could see. This was their Mars proving ground. "Amazing."

Johan and Senator Wallace appeared on either side of me. "We've been working on this for over a decade," Johan said.

"This predates you then, Senator."

"Yep. I was just happily working in my woodworking shop back then. Then Tara came waltzing in there, and the rest...is a story for later."

"Let's go take a look," Johan said.

The first dome was decent-sized, about the size of a split-level home. The light coming through the windows was red. Oh, and they had cameras in the common areas and the gym. "Pretty neat," I admitted.

"When some blogger or reporter gets curious and persistent, we show them around the 'model homes," Johan chuckled. "We have ten homes here, one hundred eighty on Mars."

"One hundred eighty?"

"The bigwigs get the houses, the regular folks get the apartments," Johan said.

"Let's see those."

Johan showed us through the living quarters, there were actual occupants there, doing actual work. There were working laboratories, and a well-appointed workout area.

"Johan, what about the gravity?" I asked. "How do you deal with that?"

"That was actually one of the easiest problems to solve. Every place but the labs are equipped with what Gemma calls an 'augmented-gravity mesh.' It can be in the floors or walls, and it keeps people at about eighty-five percent Earth gravity."

"So I should ask her about how she does it?"

"You don't need to. It's based on the electromagnetic field a wizard emits when they fly," Johan smiled. "You can fly too, Benjamin."

"Guess I need lessons?"

"One of the most basic things to start. Put your foot up like you are climbing a stair."

"Let me step back first," Dave said.

After Dave took a dozen steps back, I did what Johan said. "Okay."

"Concentrate on a step, feel it under your foot."

I could almost feel it. Then I did. "Wow."

"Now, step up with your other foot," Johan said.

I followed his command, and then my feet were side by side. In the air. The realization that I wasn't on the ground anymore startled me and I went down to the ground. "Shit."

"Try walking before you fly," Johan warned.

"Okay. So how does that relate to gravity?"

"Gemma took measurements of that field, and designed the counter to it. Call it anti-anti-gravity."

"Neat," I nodded. "Any other magic things in use on Mars?"

"Benjamin, you have to ask the right questions, remember?"

"Why do you want to put such a big reactor on Mars? Don't the fuel cells and solar panels do the job?"

Johan smiled. "Come with me."

Dave and I followed him back outside. The bright yellow sun shocked our systems until we realized that we had sunglasses. We boarded a waiting electric cart, the woman driver smiling at Johan like they had a big secret between them.

We drove past dome after dome, the sizes increasing as we went. Just when I thought I had seen the biggest one, we went into a tunnel and we exited into a big fucking place, huge.

"Three kilometers across," Johan bragged. "I had the best engineers in both worlds design this thing."

There were supports every fifty meters or so, but they were gradually being built into buildings. "This must be costing billions!" I exclaimed.

Johan turned around to face me and Dave. "We have all the iron we need, in both places. We have all the silicate we need as well. What we don't have..."

"Is a smelter," I finished. "Those power requirements must be enormous."

"The forge and smelter will have long-duration heavy-power draws. The solar and fuel cells and even the baby reactors can handle everything else."

"I am amazed," I admitted. "You'll have to construct the extruder first, pressing the steel into I-beams."

"How do you know that?" Johan asked.

"Oh, that's right, you don't watch too much TV. There's a show called..."

"'How it's Made,'" Dave finished. "Since you're talking about silicate, the panels are going to be made of glass. Is that safe?"

"Sure is," Johan nodded. "We have a wizard trick for that too."

"Two million megawatts," I sighed. "Wow. You could power the entirety of LA county with that."

"We could if we were allowed," Johan sighed. With the temperatures we generate, we could even vaporize nuclear waste. If we didn't have to fight Arnold at every turn, we could power America with clean energy within a decade."

"And the rest of the world?" I asked.

"Five to six years," Dave answered. "Other countries are jumping at the chance to revamp their electrical systems."

"That is what you want me to do. You want me to leak the basic information and let the public decide. 'Unofficial sources,' as it were."

"Keep in mind that I am not doing this for huge profits," Johan informed me. "I am supplying the parts and the very expensive deuterium and tritium at a loss."

"I believe you," I nodded. "Tritium runs at what, a million dollars a kilogram?"

"Try thirty million," Johan chuckled. "But we will get it done."

"What will you call it?" I asked. "This dome must have a name."

"The finished city, on Mars, we will call it 'Bradbury City,'" Johan answered.

"Fitting," Dave and I said together.

***

Silica was all around us, Johan explained. What he needed for the prototype city was iron. While Mars had iron oxide in abundance, he had to bring his in. The steel from the SMR site was separated into its component metals, it was nowhere near enough to build the dome. The bright side was that he could get iron from recently opened 'clean mines.' The iron and its brother metals could be brought in by trains powered by biodiesel. Johan admitted that while it wasn't totally clean, the emissions were forty percent of diesel engines.

The clean engines also invited rectal exams courtesy of the EPA. While the railroad companies were all too happy to lease their unused tracking to Birch America, those tracks were actually under protection of the Federal Government. Railroad laws, passed over a century before, gave certain rights to railroad companies, as well as the government. Lawsuits had been filed on both sides, and subsequently dropped when the court of public opinion weighed in. Most people couldn't comprehend the fact that the EPA was actually fighting clean energy that originated from the fat that came from the hamburgers they ate from their local restaurants.

Johan's cart dropped us off at the place where we had begun our tour and he begged off the rest of the tour for company business. Dave didn't really know Gravelton all that well, so we agreed to fly back to LA. His wife, Tara, and Moira would fly back in their helicopter, and we would fly back in mine.

Dave told me that from that moment on, his office would be leasing any aircraft or ground vehicle that I travelled in. Most of the time me, him, and Kylie or a combination of his staff would ride together, but if I needed to go anywhere, I could call a car, helicopter, or jet to take me there.

Before I could object, he raised his hand to stay me. Any vehicle that was sent to me would be all Birch and all efficient. Between the helicopter and vehicle rides of that day, we had used maybe one hundred liters of hydrocarbon fuel total. And, he added, that all that fuel had been recovered from the massive vats of used oil that LA mechanics needed to dispose of. They broke it down and re-refined it to aircraft grade fuel with a process he couldn't really explain. The distillery was out in another part of the desert outside Las Vegas, where other industrial buildings hid it well. It would be sure to get a rectal examination if the EPA found out about it, but the refinery didn't emit any more carbon than Grandpa Smith's fireplace. And, as a bonus, they were retrofitting companies around theirs with the same technology with the same or better results. Win.