Chapter 20
Book 2 | Collapsing Earth
Thorne looked out from his jet and marveled at the clouds below him. The billowing whites and the flowing grays, the angelic golden glow of the sun’s rays as they skated across the tops of the clouds, all made him feel like he was in a proper royal space; a space befit for Zachary Thorne. What was his jet, if not a flying throne? The jet itself was a gold colored chrome, the interior equally gaudy and overstuffed with luxury carpets, furniture, and cushioning. A multi-billion credit painting by Leonardo DaVinci sat in his cabin above his desk. His desk chair was fitted with a seatbelt so that Thorne could remain in his cabin, working at his desk or staring out the window without hassle.
The jet hit a patch of turbulence and shook violently for a fraction of a second. Thorne’s stomach churned with the unexpected jolt. The jet had changed orientations now and Thorne’s window was facing the sun. A bright glare shone into his cabin and hurt his eyes.
Breaking his eyes from the window and returning them to his desk, Thorne sloshed his beverage so that the ice clinked noisily against the glass, then took a drink. The extravagant lavishments of Thorne’s personal jet paled when compared to the backdrop of the sky above the clouds. Even Valhalla, the most beautiful city on the planet, lost out against the extraordinary color filling the cones of his corneas. The colors and the majesty up here reminded Thorne that there was always more to climb, always higher to go. The elevated cities of Earth could be improved even further. Global Energy, and more specifically, Zachary Thorne, would be the hero of the 22nd Century - the man who elevated the crowds of Earth even further.
The purpose for this trip was innocuous enough, or at least Thorne took great care to frame it as an innocent business trip. A couple of Terra Harvest subsidiaries were in the middle of a contract dispute with their Parent and Thorne hoped to slide in and pocket a few testing labs, energy auditors, and infrastructure teams in an anonymous hostile takeover. By stopping in to Skyreach personally and visiting some of the negotiating parties, Thorne hoped to sway the negotiations in his favor as a “dis-interested third party” helping to smooth the ripples that inevitably pop up within every commercial industry.
Of course, this would be frowned upon by any other coalition member if he were discovered, so Thorne needed to be careful. Generally speaking, the coalition did not like its members trying to peel capital off of one another, but the coalition was so extensive that it now was damn near impossible to toss an empty cup out of your transport without hitting a business that was coalition-vested in some form or another. Plus, Thorne rationalized to himself, he wasn’t the only coalition member who did this. They all did. Just a month ago, Anya Petrova herself had seen to a reallocation of a banking trust owned by DigitalRealm. Their Executive Officer, Alex Ramirez, had been furious, but had no proof of where his money had gone; it just vanished. Petrova covered her tracks masterfully, so Ramirez could only theorize; any complaint lodged would sound conspiratorial and risk alienating the accusing party. It was easier to eat the losses and find another way to make up the revenue. Usually this came in the form of finding some other companies to steal from another coalition member to close the deficit, thus the cycle continued.
Thorne laughed to himself as he considered the plight of the global elite. It was a delicate dance that the coalition members now found themselves. They’d eaten up all of the loose capital in the world and were stuck playing a game of silent chess with one another, only making moves while the others were looking elsewhere, up to use the toilet or to grab some caff. Somewhat new to this game, Thorne was still learning the rules, but he’d seen enough mistakes made by his predecessor to know the classic pitfalls. He’d registered his controlling interests for this takeover into a dummy account and had transferred personnel to color in his fake transfer company. Upon landing in Skyreach, he would have an assistant initiate and filter all communications through a back channel that Thorne himself was on and would eventually take control of, but it was important that the initial outreach come from someone other than Thorne.
Then, when the conflicted subsidiaries were willing to talk, Thorne would have his assistant announce an impending takeover of the dummy company and Thorne could swing in to the talks and close the deal. The subsidiaries would be made to sign agreements of non-disclosure and would be legally forbidden from ever discussing Thorne’s involvement in the talks - not that they’d want to; Thorne was going to make it well worth their while - and Petrova would be down a handful of assets and would need to spend some time reorganizing. Thorne knew that this was no finishing blow against Terra Harvest and would only increase his own portfolio by a slight margin, but this trip was never about winning the war. Petrova could not be bested in a single grand move, no; defeating Anya Petrova would require a systematic crumbling of her entire infrastructure so that by the time she realized what was happening, she was toothless to stop it. This trip was simply a gambit to buy some time. Every minute that Petrova spent thinking about something other than the current situation under Cirrus would be more time Thorne had to radicalize and seize the new coalition strike force.
His efforts were already paying off with Bernardo Ervins, the new head of Terra Harvest security. Thanks to the security memorandum that he’d signed with Terra Harvest, he was entitled to dismissal and re authorization of any members of the coalition strike force. His removal of Morehouse, one of Petrova’s inside sources, and the elevation of another Terra Harvest security member worked on several levels for Thorne. First, it got a friendly face out of the room and Petrova would be operating with less reliable information. Second, it pulled another asset from Terra Harvest and devoted them to Thorne’s purposes. Now, Petrova would have to re organize her own security forces AND deal with some lost assets on Skyreach, her own headquarters.
The next step, Thorne schemed to himself, smiling and sipping from his glass as his eyes fixed on a cloud formation that looked an awful lot like a skull, would be to remove any allegiance of the strike force to a coalition member. As it was, a security executive was determined by case, but Thorne wanted unlimited access. He envisioned a ruthless machine capable of extracting any anti-coalition element, anywhere on the world, within hours.
His vision was close to realization, but Thorne worried that he was getting distracted. To seize control of the coalition would take several sustained fronts of effort. First, he needed to finalize his authority over the strike force. He’d ousted Morehouse, installed Ervins, and was in total control for the duration of the crisis with Queenie, but once he closed the issue then he would need a new excuse. He realized that such an excuse would look suspicious, so he needed to get rid of his most immediate threat - Anya Petrova. Thorne began to notice a pattern in his professional life; his primary tool for professional improvement was violence. The better, moral version of himself was disappointed, but the winner inside Thorne was pleased.
Time to play, Thorne thought to himself as he queued up his terminal’s call interface. He entered Anya Petrova’s information and prepared to place the call, but paused briefly to consider the trajectory he hoped for the conversation. Petrova was a tactician, and if he entered this call without considering the various paths it might take, she’d eat him. Two reasons for this call: First, to tell her that Morehouse resigned and we can’t get ahold of him any more - gone AWOL. We’ve also put Bernardo Ervins in that spot, kid’s gonna’ do great. Second, to explain my plans for solidifying the strike force under a single coalition banner. Thorne knew that the second point would not go over well; keeping a security team sources from all of the coalition members was a safeguard against corruption and a way to ensuring the working classes that the coalition was trustworthy. Thorne’s plan would strip the allegiances of the security team from any individual coalition members and shift their directive to general procurement of “coalition” interests. Thus, whoever controls the security team, by virtue, controls the agenda of the coalition.
Thorne knew, though, that the slow-breathing bureaucracy of the coalition would hamstring any efforts to contain his power grab. He could move quickly enough that, by the time Petrova and her coalition cronies had the power to move against him, he’d already be busting down their doors and arresting them for corporate espionage. Thorne, properly organized, pressed the call button on his terminal.
He got Petrova’s call answer service. She hadn’t just let it go to the messaging, she’d rejected his call - he could tell by how quickly he’d been re-routed to leave a memo. He’d teach her to reject his calls. They’d all learn to regret how little they thought of Zachary Thorne.
“Anya, I’ve got a couple of updates that I wanted to share with you, please give me a call back as soon as you can,” he said, clicking the call-interface closed and replacing his hand-terminal on to his desk. What could she have been doing, Thorne wondered. As far as he knew, Petrova was still on Valhalla, but he didn’t trust her to stay out of his affairs while he was gone. He’d enlisted a couple of Global Energy security goons to stand by in case he got nervous while he was on his trip; he picked up his terminal again and messaged them now, giving instructions to locate Petrova and monitor her activities while she was in the city.
With his surveillance team on the move, Thorne felt a little more confidence in his security. They would report back on any questionable moves that Petrova made, so now he could turn his attention to the larger plays. He navigated his hand-terminal to Ervins’s contact card and placed a video call to his new coalition security chief. After his ceremonious dismissal of Morehouse, Thorne sent Ervins back to Skyreach to dig into Queenie’s location in earnest. Ervins answered between the first and second call placing tones.
“Mr. Thorne?” As the picture came into view, Thorne could see that Ervins was against a sterile looking white tile wall, the room he occupied flooded with bright white light.
“Bernardo, I’m hoping you can provide an update on our fugitive. Where are you? You look like you’re in a damn operating room.”
“In Alicia Mosely’s bathroom, sir. Our friends at the Jurisdiction are being less than forthcoming with their findings, so I’m following up on some leads on my own.” Ervins’s image shook as he navigated to some notes he’d taken on his terminal, creating an audible tapping noise on Thorne’s end of the call. Thorne cringed with each loud thud of Ervins’s meaty fingers impacting the screen of his terminal.
“The residence tower retained security footage of the gunfight in which one of Morehouse’s officers were killed. Looking through it, you can see all three of them, Mosely, Queenie, and some third person, appears male. I was able to identify Mosely by watching some of the before-the-fight footage - she’d been hanging around Queenie’s apartment door and then went in with the other two later, never came out. Presumably, she’s on the run with them.”
Thorne was pleased. The analysis felt amateur, but Ervins would get better at that with time. Ervins was proving that he could be trusted to follow orders. As an added plus, he’d taken 100% more initiative than Morehouse ever did and had sourced an additional name to chase. There was more, though; Ervins continued his report.
“Additionally, I’ve spoken with Detective Gatska to request the name of the additional suspect and to make an additional request for the tracking permissions on Queenie’s terminal. Gatska is no help, but I’ve scheduled a call with his Captain, Eliel, to discuss the Jurisdiction’s willingness to cooperate.”
“That’s good work, Bernardo,” Thorne praised, happy with the lesson that his positive tone imparted onto Ervins. “Don’t worry about Eliel - I’ll pay the jurisdiction a visit to smooth the way for you. Find something useful at Mosely’s place, get in touch when you’re finished.”
“Yes, sir,” Ervins said, saluting the camera. Thorne ended the call.
He’d planned to stop at his Skyreach office first and settle in to wait for the signal to initiate his takeover, but this would give him something to do in the meantime. He confirmed the address of the precinct offices and coordinated a transport with his security detail. Thorne glanced out the window through the glare of the sun and noticed that his jet was now through the clouds and approaching Skyreach. Far in the distance, he could see the towering structures. From here, the city resembled a child’s playblock set, but Thorne knew the scale - Skyreach spread its hundreds of levels across an ever-expanding central base of about 100 square kilometers. It was a sprawling complex, floating in the sky like a mirage. They were almost to Skyreach.
Thorne took another sip from his glass and queried his assistant for a dossier of information on the jurisdiction captain. Within a few minutes, she was sending file after file of personal, financial, and political information about the man that Thorne planned to squeeze into yet another asset for his ambitions.
Eliel was 48 years old, married, 6 kids. He’d worked for the Skyreach Jurisdictional Enforcement for Sector A40 for almost 20 years, starting as a beat enforcer and slowly working his way to commanding officer of an entire precinct. He now chaired the entirety of A Block, which entailed managing hundreds of detectives across the equally numerous sectors. Meh, enough about work, Thorne thought to himself. I need to know what this fucker has done that I can use against him. He directed his assistant as such. His assistant, Janice, replied that she’d refine her request with their intel team, but that it would take some time. Thorne read the message but did not respond. That was fine, he could still make some plans based on this initial foray into Eliel’s life. To really make his point, though, he’d have to know what kind of secrets Eliel kept.