NOVEL: From Diamond to Coal, by Sol Crafter [mm science fiction] – Chapter Two

Title: From Diamond to Coal
Author: Sol Crafter
Genre: science fiction, mm romance
Rating: teen+

Summary: William Neeley is a genius. At the age of 15 he started Cyber Angel Industries and has since completely changed the face of the modern world. From personal shielding technology to enhanced musculature to home electronics, William has a finger in every pie and is quickly becoming the world’s most wealthy individual.

He shares his life with his husband, Alan Trent, and their young son Morgan.

William always strives to maintain his image of “normal life,” though he is diverted at every turn. Whether he’s posing half-naked on billboards, creating massive death rays, or Alan is becoming the President of the United States, or Morgan has grown wings, or he’s accidentally torn a rip in the space time continuum… he will always say that his life is nothing but normal.

Welcome to his world.

---

 CHAPTER TWO
At 27

The worst thing about any kind of state dinner was the awkwardness he felt at people looking at him. Underneath all those eyes, he wanted to run away. Instead he had to smile and remain calm and pretend that everything was perfectly fine.

At least he didn’t have to pose with Alan for very long before he got sent to the head table. Alan had to walk around shaking hands while William was allowed to settle down and get a glass of wine.

If there was one thing he’d decided would take the edge off, it was alcohol.

“How’s it going?”

William gave Moran a wry smile. “It’s going about the way anyone would expect it to. We really just weren’t prepared for any of this to happen. Our lives were pretty good before.”

“He’s doing an excellent job though.” Moran gazed across the room at where Alan was laughing at something a woman in a red dress said. He looked completely natural; not as though he’d had the Presidency thrust upon him unexpectedly.

“He always does his best,” William said, “no one can deny that. By the time he’s out of office, he’s going to have completely changed the world as we know it. Are you ready for that?”

“It’s what I’ve been waiting for since I first started working for the Obama Administration ten years ago.” Moran sighed. “I was getting tired of being disappointed, but I don’t think I will be anymore.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty great.” William turned back around and set his hands in his lap to hide their nervy twitching.

Chief of Staff Seth Moran wasn’t a bad guy or anything, there was just something about him that rubbed William the wrong way. He just seemed plastic; his smile never looked real and there was something nearly vulture-like about his gaze.

William hated state events and he spent most of his time wishing that he could get away from them, but he was pretty much stuck. One of the “perks” of being the First Husband.

Putting on his blandest expression, he gazed at the table setting before him. He tried to appear occupied with his thoughts, which really wasn’t all that hard considering his mind had been spinning for weeks on ideas for how he was supposed to miniaturize the sub-capacitors for the replicator matrix they were working on in the lab. It was a frustrating headache of a problem.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by Alan settling into the chair next to him. It looked like all the hoopla was over and they could get down to the business of pretending they cared about what was going on.

As the table filled up around them, William drew in a deep breath and went about the duty of shmoozing the world leaders around him.

He really hated that this had become their life, but it was one of those things they’d accepted could happen when Alan accepted the role of VP.

No one ever thought he was going to end up as the President. It had completely blindsided everyone. Alan and William most of all.

* * *

When he’d been hired by the CyberAngel Corporation it was as a simple bodyguard, but somehow his duties had been expanded until he became William Neeley’s personal assistant. Because of that he’d been forced to receive additional education and accept the fact that he was never going to be able to say he was “just a dumb guy” ever again.

Byron sat on the chaise lounge in the waiting room. Because there was a state dinner going on, he’d been forced to stay on duty. Not that he really minded. He didn’t really have anything else to do.

Being William’s PA meant that he got the best seat in the place, while the rest of the lackeys were forced to share a table and some folding chairs. He probably should have felt bad for them and how miserable their situation was, but he’d been there himself back in the day.

And sympathy was for losers. At least, that’s what his brother had always told him before punching him in the gut.

He flipped through files on his ePad, skimming through the documents their creators had thought were so very important. There was very little chance that William was ever going to even see them.

Byron was the last line of defense saving William from the vast stupidity of his underlings. It made him feel like a knight of old, guarding the honor of his king.

I’ve been hanging out with Morgan too much, he thought with an internal snerk.

He glanced over a request for purchase of a complete Archon Missile Guidance System and the missiles as well. Since it was coming from a hostile dictator that was probably going to use it to continue subjugating his people, Byron didn’t feel too bad about sending off a form rejection letter.

Why anyone would ever think that CyberAngel would be willing to provide weapons to anyone just because they had a bit of money was completely ridiculous. William had to be one of the most moral people he’d ever met. There was no way he would ever provide WMDs to the highest bidder.

Byron sent the request into the Saved folder, then started reading the next ridiculous message.

It was a relief when his phone rang, until he answered it.

“This is Hughes. Hello?” he said distractedly.

“You need to get William here right now,” RJ sounded panicked. “We’ve got like a Chernobyl situation going on here.”

Considering RJ was the head of R&D, Byron was already on his feet and heading toward the door before he thought to ask what was going on. “What’s happened?” He nudged a Secret Service agent that didn’t move fast enough out of his way.

“We were testing the Krioten Accelerator and something went wrong. We’re approaching a massive overload situation. Can you just get the phone to William? Maybe he can do something,” RJ said with desperate hope.

Jogging down the hallway toward the large banquet hall, Byron had a feeling things weren’t going to get any better. Especially when he heard the echo of alarms blaring in the background of the call and RJ cursed vehemently.

Byron fumbled his ePad into his jacket pocket as he ran and sent off a quick emergency message through his Cymplant to David, William’s head of security, telling him to arrange for the helicopter stat.

Whatever happened, even if RJ somehow got things under control, there was no way William wasn’t going to want to be there. He would want to go over everything with a fine-toothed comb and find out exactly what had gone wrong.

And if things really were going completely wrong… well, from what Byron understood, the Krioten Accelerator had the capacity to blow a large patch of city right off the face of the world.

Which was not something Byron wanted to have happen. Especially when it was on his watch.

* * *

At first it was kind of a relief when Byron showed up with the phone, right up until he figured out what RJ was yelling about. That’s about when everything went to total crap.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said to the room at large, standing up.

He gave Alan a sorry glance and got a shrug in return.

“Go,” Alan said. He was used to William having to run away at the drop of a hat, though it hadn’t happened in a while. Not since Ben had died.

William gave a farewell nod to the rest of the table, then hurriedly stood up. He snatched the phone out of Byron’s hand and strode quickly toward the door.

“How bad is it? I need a no shit assessment, RJ,” he said.

“It looks pretty frickin’ bad, William. For reals, this could go full on Chernobyl on our butts.” RJ sounded stressed and there was a lot of background noise going on — alarms, yells, and a curious thudding sound.

It took William a second to realize that the thudding sound was his heart.

This whole thing could be bad. Like, really really bad.

Even if they managed to get the situation under control, there was a good chance things were still going to be bad. At the very least they were looking to be sanctioned by someone like the EPA or something. Which never looked good on the public records.

“Don’t say the ‘C-word,'” he ordered. “Until I say it’s that bad, it’s not that bad and everything is going to be okay. Okay?”

“I don’t want to be a doubter, man,” RJ said, “but things are bad enough that I kind of have to say I’m doubting. This is pretty bad, right here.”

Byron jogged ahead to push open the double doors for him. William didn’t even break stride as he left the banquet hall and headed at a fast trot toward the utility exit.

There was the clatter of footsteps around him as Secret Service appeared everywhere. Sure, they’d been around before, but now they were in bulk.

Sometimes it got kind of stifling, always having someone around. There were just some times when he would really like just to be alone, and they wouldn’t let that happen.

He was “FHOTUS,” which stood for “First Husband of the United States.”

When he’d first heard the code name, he’d looked at Alan and said, “So you’re POTUS and I’m FHOTUS? What are we, a couple of cartoon characters?”

It had been kind of funny at the time, but really he didn’t appreciate his code name. It just sounded so completely ridiculous.

At least Morgan got to be “Salamander.” It sounded cool enough that he hadn’t objected to it at least, so that was something.

They raced through the back hallways toward where the car should be waiting to take them to the Dragonfly that would carry them to CyberAngel Labs.

He had his own small lab in CyberAngel Tower, but he’d made sure all the seriously dangerous stuff was outside of the city. Still, CyberAngel Labs was close enough to New Ibis that there would be some definite fall out if it blew.

“The car is waiting,” Byron said. He’d been arranging things through his Cymplant, which got William thinking.

RJ could have easily sent William an IM through the Wave. The only reason why he wouldn’t was if the Kroniten particles were in such an agitated state that they were actually disrupting the Signal. Which could mean very bad things, because anything powerful enough to do that usually ended in a big case of dead for those involved.

William let the Secret Service agents run up ahead of him to make sure the coast was clear, then he was gestured through the door and hurried out to the waiting black Cyan Arluxe (Cyber Angel Armored Luxury Vehicle).

He didn’t recognize the driver, but things were getting so large in the company that he didn’t recognize half the people that worked for him anymore. He used to know everyone by name.

He could have called up the woman’s complete profile with his Cymplant, but he always felt as though that were cheating. Not having to remember anything himself just because he had a database he could access with his brain.

Byron jerked the door open and William threw himself in the vehicle. “Once everyone’s in, we need to go,” he ordered.

“Yes sir,” the CybSec driver said. Her fingers tapped the steering wheel impatiently as they waited for the Secret Service to get in their own vehicle.

A man William knew as Joel climbed in the front seat, slamming the door behind him. “We should be ready to go in a moment,” he said.

“Just keep me in the loop,” the driver said.

There wasn’t a ton of love lost between CybSec and the Secret Service. Both saw themselves as an organization of elite operatives, and neither liked having amateurs stepping on their toes. There had been some messiness in the past, but for the most part they’d come around to at least the idea that they would have to work together.

It was a very reluctant thing on the parts of both groups.

Trusting that Byron would be able to handle things, William barely waited to buckle his seat belt before he was accessing the Wave. He felt his body going limp as he allowed himself to be fully submerged in his default Matrix.

He appeared in a clearing in the Black Forest. Tendrils of mist flowed over his black leather boots and he could feel the weight of his Sword of Damocles at his hip.

He whistled shrilly and there was the baying of Wolves.

The pack solidified out of the mist to circle him quickly before settling on their haunches in front of him. Five big beasts in darkening shades of gray, their fur bristling with poisoned spikes–a visual warning to Users that they were not a joke and messing with them would be a Very Bad idea.

“One, try to access the Labs mainframe,” he said. “Keep pinging to see if you can reach RJ’s Cymplant.”

One of the Wolves disappeared in a swirl of vapor.

“Two, three, see if we can arrange some kind of containment unit from the Hephaestus Project. Let Riley know we’ve got a Level 4 situation in the Labs that very well could end up going Code Plaid.”

The Wolves barked, then disappeared.

Looking at the other two Dire Wolves, William bit his lip for a second. “Four, run newsfeed checks to see if there’s any mention of anything going on with the company. I want to know if anything’s leaked. And five, start preparations for a Sunnydale Situation. Be prepared in case I send the command to Activate the Potentials. We don’t want anything getting out before we’re ready.”

The last Wolf paused a second before disappearing into the aether. It was probably a sign of just how unsure William was about the whole situation.

The Matrix and the Forest and the Wolves were all representations of his psyche as he manipulated the Wave. Every person saw something different, though interactions between Users enabled Group Matrix settings that caused a shared image state. It was one of the things that made online gaming so exciting–programmers created background Matrices and Dummy characters, but the Users themselves filled in the finer details.

Waving a hand, his desk and chair rose up out of the ground in front of him. They looked like something out of a gothic fairy tale, but they did their jobs well.

Settling in his chair, he reached out to pull a screen up out of the dark surface of the desk. With a gesture, the screen expanded until it comfortably filled the view in front of him.

Working quickly, he called up the project logs that had been auto-loaded to the main server. Time stamps indicated that the last update had taken place nearly forty-five minutes previous. Right before RJ gave the go-ahead for a minor test of the Krioten Accelerator — what should have been just a switch-on, switch-off situation. Except something had gone wrong with the system and the flow of Krioten particles had exceeded the capabilities of the safety utilities and burned out the shut off systems. Basically, the switch got stuck in the “On” position and from what William could see, there wasn’t a whole lot RJ could do about it.

William would have to physically turn the Accelerator off. Which meant there was a good chance he was going to end up killing himself.

“Dammit,” he muttered. He’d never been too keen on self-sacrificing situations.

Calling up another program, he began plugging calculations and scenarios in to try and come up with something he could use to counteract the Krioten particles.

If they were taken out of the situation and there was no more interference with the system, he would be able to remotely order the machine off. Otherwise someone would have to do a manual shut-off, and that someone was him because he was the only one that knew enough about the system to possibly survive the situation.

There were times when William really hated being the premier intelligence of his generation. Especially when he realized that the Accelerator really needed to be shut off.

The test RJ had been running was pretty small scale, but the out of control Kriotens had upped the danger levels exponentially. So from small puff of smoke, they were currently looking at an end of the world situation as the Kriotens self-propagated themselves.

It was an unexpected development he never could have foreseen.

Though really, who ever foresaw the end of the world happening? And who ever thought they were going to be the lead author of the destruction?

He cursed the day he’d first discovered Krioten particles and decided to experiment. It was one of those things he wished he could change.

But wishes were for horses or something like that and he had a job to do here.

William began running simulations, trying to figure out a way to stop the impending explosion.

He spared a quick thought for Alan and Morgan, but he didn’t have time for distractions. Not if he wanted to stop this disaster and ever hope of seeing them again.

* * *

There was something vaguely creepy about when someone fully immersed themselves in the Wave. Sure, Byron used the technology, but that didn’t mean he was fully comfortable with it.

It was still too new.

William’s head was turned to one side and his lashes were a dark curve against his cheek. His lips were slightly parted as he breathed in faint puffs. Someone might have mistaken him for being asleep, except his eyeballs twitched beneath his eyelids and there was a bonelessness to his body that was very worrying.

It took all of Byron’s self-control not to reach out and make sure his boss was still alive. His own Cymplant gave him a sidebar view that showed William’s heart rate and a general blurb about his health: Normal body functions, no need for assistance.

Still, just seeing him flopped over like that was very disconcerting. At any moment, Byron expected him to simply stop breathing. It felt strangely inevitable.

Byron turned his head to look out the car window. They were racing across the city with lights flashing and a police escort blazing their sirens up ahead. Everything was blurred, they were moving so fast.

With a thought, he opened a chat screen with his Cymplant. It was a sidebar hanging at the side of his normal vision.

 

[Byron to David Cochrane: Is the Abyssus ready to go?]

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: Ready and waiting.]

[Byron to David Cochrane: We’re moving pretty fast right now. You should get everyone ready for our arrival. We’re still in state dinner gear, so we’re going to need clothes to change into. Also, arrange extra security around the facility. There’s no way we’re going to be able to keep this quiet.]

[Cochrane to B Hughes: We’ll be ready. I already had more CybSec officers put in place. We’ve taken one reporter in custody and we confiscated his camera.]

 

Byron winced. If there was nothing that made more bad press, it was when they locked someone up for snooping around.

Reporters liked to scream about free speech and the subjugation of justice implemented by big business. Byron had actually heard a journalist scream that as he was being hauled away for breaking into Compound B at Hephaestus. The guy hadn’t quite realized just how serious the trouble he’d gotten himself into was, right up until the NSA started talking about national security and Butcher Bay. That’s when things got ugly.

 

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: Hey Byron, you still there?]

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: All contact with CyberAngel Labs has been broken off. Some kind of powerful radiation is keeping the Signal down, but it’s also taken out the phone system.]

[Byron to David Cochrane: You should set up a system of runners or something. We need to know what’s going on.]

[Cochrane to B. Hughes: On it.]

 

Byron shook his head. He doubted he would ever become completely used to the idea of being able to contact anyone at any moment through the Wave. It just felt as though he’d given up all of his personal privacy when he got his Cymplant. But it was much too useful a tool to ever give up.

The worst thing was the inability to ignore a message. Considering they were being delivered right into his brain, he couldn’t pretend that he hadn’t received whatever they sent. No matter how much he wanted to.

The ability to chat with anyone in the world–even while talking to other people or pretending to work–was very cool. Being able to make digital images out of anything he could see with his eyes was great too. The drawbacks were a lack of privacy and a hard time telling what exactly was real or not.

Like right now. Some part of him was hoping that he was actually in an elaborate training Matrix and none of this was real.

He didn’t think he was that lucky.

Byron couldn’t help jumping when William suddenly drew in a gasping breath and sat up straight.

“Well, that totally sucked,” William said.

“What happened?” Byron leaned forward to open the mini-fridge and took out a bottle of water he offered to his boss.

“Nothing good.” William opened the lid with a hard twist. He drained half the bottle in one series of gulping swallows, his head tipped back to show off the line of his throat.

He pressed the bottle against the side of his cheek and gasped for breath a couple seconds before wiping his sleeve across his mouth. He didn’t even care that he was wearing a jacket that cost thousands of dollars. “There’s not a whole lot I can do right now and it looks like the situation could be worse than I thought. If the accelerator blows… well, Chernobyl wouldn’t be too bad compared to what could happen.”

“So, it’s pretty bad, huh?”

William rolled his eyes. “Wow, that’s a super understatement.”

“Are you going to tell Alan what’s going on?” Byron asked.

“When we get there and I can see for myself just how bad things are,” William said after chewing on his lip for a moment. “I don’t want to cause some kind of mass panic only to find out that it’s like a wrong system setting or something.”

Byron had known William long enough to see when he was trying to downplay a situation. “I think you should tell him what’s going on. He’s really not going to like being blindsided by something like this. It’s very serious business.”

“I don’t want him to be mad at me,” William said, “but…” He shook his head. “If this turns out to be something I can fix easily, then I don’t want to cause some kind of national incident. I just want to see exactly how bad things are before I notify him.”

All Byron could do was sigh heavily.

Sometimes he felt more as though he were William’s babysitter than his PA. Genius mad scientist billionaire… it had seemed like a cool title for a boss to have, right up until he realized how not cool it really was. Which was about the time he was drafting his first apology to the nation letter and signing William’s name to it.

For the most part, CyberAngel prided itself on keeping its proverbial nose clean, but there had been a handful of times when things had just kind of gotten away from everybody. Like that whole thing in Kazakhstan with the ambassador and the goat. That had been one for the record books.

Byron figured nearly destroying a large section of the world was another Very Important Situation that he wasn’t going to forget anytime soon.

The car rolled to a stop. “Looks like we’re here,” he said.

There was the slam of a door and the chauffeur opened William’s door, her face implacable.

William still held the quarter-full bottle of water in his hand as he strolled across the tarmac toward the dragonfly-class flitter waiting for them, its engine purring like trapped thunder.

The Abyssus was William’s personal dragonfly. It had extra armaments and had been fitted with the combat-mod version of vehicular shielding. So instead of just being able to survive an accidental crash, the Abyssus would have been able to take the direct impact of a ground-to-air missile and keep on going. It was powerful.

Black and bug-like, the front windshield looked like the compound eyes of a fly. The tail could make minute adjustments that let the dragonfly maneuver through the air with frightening ease and agility. Side-mounted on the flitter were pulsar cannons, and the strange looking nose cap was actually a gravitronic force lance capable of focusing over 3000x Earth gravity on a single target, or 1000x Earth gravity on up to four targets at once.

The Abyssus was probably one of the most dangerous vehicles in the world. And William had designed it from the ground up after he’d had a “dream about flying on a dragonfly.”

Byron hurried after William and climbed into the seat next to him.

Strapping himself in securely, Byron had to close his eyes and go through his usual pre-flight “I’m not going to die” mantra.

He didn’t used to be afraid of flying, not until they’d had that whole deserted island crash landing experience a couple of years ago. William had walked away with a concussion, Alan had a scar on his hip, and Byron was now deathly afraid of flying.

One thing no one had ever said about life around William was that it was boring. Probably because he liked to make his own terrifying entertainment.

Byron leaned his head back and tried to pretend that he was somewhere else. Somewhere on the ground where he didn’t have to worry about splattering into the Earth at eight hundred miles an hour–which was the Abyssus’ cruising speed.

He bit his lower lip and repeated over and over in his head, “We are not going to die. We are not going to die. We are not…”

* * *

They hadn’t even taken off yet and Byron was having a panic attack. It would have been pretty funny if it wasn’t so sad.

William wanted to tell him that everything was going to be okay, but Byron’s fear was not a logical thing and there were no words that would ever completely reassure him.

The Abyssus had fifteen seats and the Secret Service agents didn’t hesitate to find their own. A couple of the newer agents actually looked scared about flying in the new kind of vehicles, but most of them were pretending to be completely blase. It was kind of funny.

William gazed out the window as they rose effortlessly into the air. The pilot had a graceful skill that had them rising straight up and away with real sensation of motion.

If he hadn’t been watching the world blur passed, he never would have thought they were moving at all. The ride had to be one of the smoothest ones he had ever experienced, and it was incredibly brief too.

They traveled for barely twenty minutes before the pilot was announcing their arrival at the CyberAngel landing pad.

“Come on, we’re here and we’re alive,” William said, touching Byron’s arm to try and shock him back to reality.

Byron blinked around. “We’re on the ground already?”

William pointed out the window, then began to remove his harness. “He’s a good pilot. You could barely tell we were moving.”

“That was really fast.” Byron unhooked his flight harness and stood up, brushing imaginary wrinkles out of his usually pristine suit. “Why can’t all flights be short like that?”

“Because most people can’t afford such a good pilot, so flitters would be falling out of the sky left and right.” William hit the door release himself and it slid open.

Wind ruffled his clothes and he couldn’t help shivering in the cold. The sky looked darker here with a lot less stars in the sky. Even the air tasted differently.

To go from one end of the country to the other with no chance to acclimate… if it had been even just a tiny bit humid he probably would have thrown up. It was terrible.

William shook his head and fought through the sensation to stride quickly toward the side door into CyberAngel Labs.

Just to look at the place–a series of almost industrial-type looking buildings surrounded by a tall fence–an outsider wouldn’t have been able to tell that there was an emergency situation going on inside.

The usually cheery yellow spotlights on the roofs of the buildings had changed to radiant orange. It shouldn’t have seemed like such a dangerous color change, but it meant that the facilities were on high alert.

Reaching the door, William pulled his keycard out of his pants pocket and swiped in through the scanner, then punched in his code. There was a pause, then a small panel slid open and he was instructed by a soothing, mechanized voice to “Look into the camera.”

Once he had been sufficiently recognized, the door made a soft bell town and he was able to pull the door open and go through. Byron and the rest clattered after him.

He knew that more than anything the nervous looking Secret Service wanted to push past and go ahead first. But they knew better than to try anything like that in one of his buildings, especially when they didn’t know how serious the security measures were going to be.

Lethal in some cases, he knew. Especially in these Labs, not that he was going to tell any of them.

There had had to be special meetings and everything before a decision had been made about him being able to go ahead of his Secret Service in some situations. The General had been pissed, but after both William and Alan explained just how seriously CyberAngel took its security, he backed off a little.

The Secret Service were around to protect the President and his family from danger. But if the danger came from their assigned charge, well, they shouldn’t have to die for it.

There had been some harsh arguments made, but at the end of it all he was able to go ahead of his Secret Service minders in some situations. Like right now, when they were going through one of his projects.

William hurried through the building, running down seemingly endless corridors, before finally reaching Lab One.

He burst through the double doors to find himself facing a mass of hysterical geniuses running around, just basically freaking out.

“Status update!” he barked, striding across the room. He could see RJ’s head bobbing amongst a mass of other heads. He would always be able to recognize that distinctive red hair — creepy clown hair, he liked to tease. RJ would get so angry, but it was funny.

“Things are getting pretty volatile,” RJ said as he turned. He looked relieved just to see William. He was probably happy to hand off the responsibility of this debacle to someone else.

“I was running simulations in the car the whole way here,” William said, “and things definitely don’t look good.”

“Like, how not good?” RJ asked softly, standing near to his side.

“Code Plaid all the way,” William said.

RJ’s already serious expression went a tad bleak. “So what are we going to do?”

“I think I’ve got a pretty good idea of what needs to be done, but I’m going to have to go in there personally.” William raked a hand through his hair. “Do you have a suit ready for me?”

“You can’t go in there, it could kill you!”

“Sh!” William waved a hand toward the Secret Service agents lurking near the door. “If you say it too loud, those guys are totally going to freak out.”

“And well they should,” RJ said. “Are you dumb? There’s no way I’m going to let you go in there.”

William crossed his arms. “And who else would you be willing to send in my place? I am the most qualified person to handle the situation. Everyone else around here wouldn’t know what to do once they got in there.”

RJ looked at him for a long moment, then suddenly lunged forward to wrap him up in a too-tight hug. “I want to tell you ‘No,’ but you have to be the one to go in there. But… I don’t know what I’m gonna do if you die.”

William gave him a grin. “Then I’ll just have to make sure that I don’t die, amiright?”

“You’re right.” RJ stepped back, reaching out to tug William’s jacket straight. “I forbid you to die, so you better come back out all right.”

“I’ll try my best,” William said, “so where are those suits?”

“They’re over here.” RJ led him across the room.

After almost dropping the suit RJ held out to him, William realized that his hands had somehow gone a bit numb with nerves. He drew in a deep breath and stepped into the curtained off area to change into the rather awkward suit.

He made himself change his clothes with forced care. He needed to find out whether he would be able to hold his hands steady when things were serious and one mistake would spell out not only his death, but the death of a whole lot of people.

After he was dressed, he carried his folded tuxedo out in his arms and passed it to Byron who would put it someplace for later. “This suit is so uncomfortable,” he said, unobtrusively tugging at his crotch. “Remind me to talk to the design team later and get something done about it.”

“Noted,” Byron said. “Are you doing something dangerous? Should I be concerned?”

William flashed him a bright grin. “You should totally be worried. Stuff is about to get stupid.”

Byron snorted. “How old are you again?”

“Old enough to know better.” William gave Byron a nod and walked over to where RJ was setting things up. He could feel his heart thudding in his chest and there was a pressure against his bladder that had him just a little worried.

RJ looked up at him. “You look like you’re going to throw up.”

William laughed. “That’s exactly how I feel.” He sat down next to RJ and started readying things for what he was going to have to do. “You’ll tell Alan that I love him if things don’t go right, won’t you?”

“I will.” RJ swallowed audibly. “Try your best not to end up dead, okay?”

“Of course,” William said. “I always plan on not being dead. It’s just one of those things.”

RJ laughed and they both pretended it didn’t sound like a sob.

They worked soundlessly side-by-side, trying to create a scenario where William would be able to come out of it alive. Things didn’t look that good, though.

 

After nearly twenty-five minutes, with the danger levels mounting, William was finally able to sit back with a sigh. “Looks like we’re good.” He drew in a deep breath. “So, I’m going to finish suiting up while you get things ready. Then I guess I’ll be headed in there.”

“I don’t want to let you go,” RJ said, swiping the back of his hand across his eyes. “You’re my best friend. I don’t want you to die.”

“I don’t particularly want to die.” William stood up, tugging his suit straight. “Give me one more hug before I put the helmet on, then let’s just get this done.”

“Okay,” RJ said tremulously. He hurriedly pushed his chair back and stood up to give William a hard hug, burying his face against William’s next for a moment. “Please be careful.”

“I promise,” William said. He stepped back and they bumped knuckles once before going about what needed to be done.

William put on his helmet, then fumbled his gloves on. He felt like he was about to leave the spacecraft or something. It might have been cooler in another time and place.

“Here you go,” RJ came trotting over with a toolbox. “It’s got everything you need inside it.”

William took the toolbox, then patted RJ twice on the shoulder. “See you around, all right?”

“I’ll be here,” RJ said. His eyes looked red and his freckles stood out sharply against his ashen skin. He kept swallowing and swallowing and William figured it was only luck keeping him from crying.

“Coolios,” William said, walking toward the door into the laboratory containing the Krioten Accelerator.

The cylindrical machine pulsated with bluish-green energy that had the air rippling with waves of heat. Just walking into the room, he could feel himself beginning to sweat even inside his protective suit.

“Great, not only am I going to die, but I’m going to die while soaking in my own sweat,” he muttered.

“You know we can hear you, don’t you?”

William couldn’t help twitching at the sound of Byron’s voice in his ears. He had to fight the urge to turn around to see if Byron was right behind him. “Crap, I didn’t realize the speaker was on.”

“It’s always automatically on,” Byron said. “And I would just like to say that I don’t really like the negativity you’re currently expressing. I thought you told me you were going to come out of this alive?”

“I am,” William said. “I am totally coming out of this whole deal alive. You just wait and see.”

He carried the toolbox over to the accelerator and set it down on the small rolling table that had been positioned close by. The side panel on the accelerator was open and there were obvious signs that someone had been in the midst of working on it before everything went bad.

I am totally going to die, he thought, and couldn’t help laughing a little at the absurdity.

There had been plenty of times in his life when he’d practically believed a hundred perfect that he was about to die, but he’d always come out of them all right. So a big part of him wanted to believe that he was going to be okay this time too.

Except the accelerator was putting out massive amounts of kriotens and it was only the suit keeping him from melting into a pile of goo.

“Well, here goes nothing,” he said, opening the toolbox and pulling out a thumb drive and a pair of pliers.

He set to work, rewiring with quick efficiency while plugging the thumb drive with its auto-execute program into the USB port.

While he worked — sweat dripping down the sides of his face — he could only hope that he managed to shut the accelerator down before things went full-on Chernobyl.

* * *

As usual, Byron couldn’t help admiring William’s graceful speed as he as he broke the laws of nature.

William Neeley truly was a genius, able to do the impossible with an almost frightening ease. He had a way about him, a personal charm and presence that had him loom large in anyone’s imagination. He was just this larger than life figure.

Byron was always proud to admit that he directly worked for William Neeley. He was, in fact, William’s go-to guy. Because no matter the situation, William was always the one that took center stage.

He just stood out of the crowd and ended up in command of any situation he came across. It was almost a kind of magic, beloved William Neeley that would always do the right thing.

Byron drew in a deep breath. He wasn’t about to cry–not yet, maybe after a few drinks–but there was no way he was going to be able to watch William Neeley die and not feel a thing.

It was with dread that he watched William working at the paneling, waiting for that moment when sound and light would burst around William like halo and whip around to suck him down whole.

Maybe there would be a burst of ash as William was completely consumed by strange radiation Byron didn’t really understand.

Krioten was just some strange word he’d heard in passing. He’d never done any research on it and never read up on what it was, so he didn’t know how dangerous it was.

But from the way the scientists were acting and the pain on RJ’s face, he knew kriotens were deadly. And William was in there working around them, being exposed to them in massive amounts.

How long could he be in there before the exposure reached such levels that he died anyway?

It was a question Byron simply couldn’t get up the strength of will to ask. He would rather be ignorant than to know for sure. He would rather the grieving process start as far in the future as possible.

His knuckles went white on the back of the chair he was holding onto. The woman sitting in the chair hadn’t dared say anything to him, not once she got a look at his face.

He didn’t know what he would do if William died. One of the greatest men he had ever know… snuffed out in a moment. All the possibilities that lay before him would go undiscovered and the world would be a much lesser place without him in it.

Byron watched as William worked with care and precision as well as an effortless speed. He should have been terrified of a mistake, but still moved with speed.

So it was with relief that he watched all the lights go off and the machine go dormant. He saw William take a step back. The sound of William’s voice was a warmth in his ears: “It’s all good. I’ve got the situation all good. No problems at all.”

He couldn’t help smiling at the thought that everything was going to be all right.

He watched William put all the tools away, then pick up the toolbox and start walking with it toward the door.

Everything was calm and peaceful and he was finally relaxing into the idea that everything was going to be all right.

Which is when the giant, swirling green vortex opened behind William’s back and sucked him right in before disappearing without a trace. There were screams and panic and RJ frantically typed things into his computer, but all Byron could think was:

I can’t believe this is how it’s ending. After all these years, it’s going out like this? It’s so strange and surreal, like some kind of crazy dream gone awry.

William… there’s no way he could really be dead. No way.

Except something inside him hollowed out. He wanted to deny it loudly, but he couldn’t dismiss what he had seen. There was a more than good chance that William truly was dead. That he was never going to come back, no matter what one lonely man wished.

/ CHAPTER

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