Free The Bloodlight Chronicles: Reconciliation by Steve Stanton Page A

breakfast. The sophistication of an exploding marketplace demanded outstanding leaps in software development and engineering, and the early programmers who pioneered the Prime-level architecture now held the status of idols in a false religion, exaggerated beyond simple belief, glitzy facades that made mockery of their quest and true accomplishments. Knowledge was power, but business was business.
    Helena Sharp had a personal login meter on Prime Level Three and an attractive escalating discount program with free bonus points for air and space travel. She coalesced precisely on schedule to give her quarterly report to the World Council, an unofficial, unpublicized quorum of twelve international power brokers who jokingly referred to themselves as the dirty disciples. Eight males and four females sat around a long, translucent table that looked like a thick slab of smoke-filled glass.
    Helena nodded in recognition to the four corners and sat down at the end of the table directly opposite Chairman Tao, a broad-shouldered, stony-faced avatar with flowing white hair and the impeccable image of expensive electronics. He was rumoured to be representing a biosystems conglomerate, but his various allegiances were shrouded in secrecy. He was a biochemist and had been a brilliant scholar in his youth.
    Other major financial interests had their places around the table—telecommunications, petroleum multinationals, desalination moguls. Everyone had everything to gain and nothing to lose but money—which was itself merely an illusion, an electronic aberration for which lesser people lived and died.
What will you pay to live forever, my friends?
    â€œAre we under Triple-A encryption?” Helena asked.
    â€œNot yet. We’re accessing the Beast now that you’re here,” the Chairman replied smoothly. He waited a few seconds, grinning like an emoticon. “Fine, we have confirmation now. We may begin, gentlemen and ladies.”
    Problems
, Zak piped up in Helena’s inner ear.
    What?
she probed.
    A massive program has kicked in to crash your party, third from the left. Can’t you feel the harmonics?
    She eyed the image sharply, a small Japanese woman with black bangs cropped high above her eyes, wearing a black satin suit over a plain pink blouse. She could sense nothing amiss.
    How can they crack a Triple-A code from the Beast? It would keep a bank of supercomputers crunching for weeks.
    That they even try suggests resources far beyond imagining
, Zak responded.
Perhaps they access the Beast themselves. In any case we will have a few minutes of grace at least.
    â€œDirector Sharp, I’m sure you don’t need an introduction. I believe you know everyone here intimately. Ostensibly this is a refinancing hearing, but frankly we want a full report on the Eternals. Your mandate has dragged on somewhat.”
    The air bristled with a new severity as all eyes turned to face her. Helena pasted on a politician’s smile. She took a moment to collect her thoughts. “The Eternal communities continue to grow at a slow but steady rate. They live in segregated, somewhat frightened enclaves throughout the civilized world. We monitor several in continental America and have infiltrated a handful. They lack stable organization and have virtually no communication with far-flung outposts. They seem to have little enthusiasm, ambition, or political sophistication. In many areas they are hunted by black-market bloodlords and in less developed countries have been harvested like livestock. As you know, at the Eternal Research Institute we take blood only from willing volunteers, and then only according to established guidelines from the World Health Agency.”
    â€œOh, spare us the public relations,” said one balding young man to Helena’s right, Carruthers, a petroleum magnate. “Any breakthroughs in the transfusion program?”
    Jerk
, Helena thought.
    Careful
, Zakariah replied.
    â€œNo,”