Do No Evil (Aeon Trilogy Book 2)

Chapter 7

"Lord Vinicius," came the tremulous voice from behind him. "Lady Laura beckons you."

Lord Vinicius. That's what the acolytes called him now. Not Nick, or simply Vinicius. But Lord. He was supposed to be a god in the Order of Knowledge, the religion Laura had contrived. As a god, he had to be addressed appropriately, no matter how silly and awkward it sounded.

Vinicius waved his sinewy hand in the direction of the acolyte who had spoken to him.

A few days before, Laura had explained to him how she'd killed the version of him captured by Sarah. Weeks earlier, apparently anticipating just the sort of situation that Vinicius had fallen into, she had secretly modified all the Aeons' MindWaves so that she could use a satellite signal to make them overheat.

When the acolyte had interrupted him, Vinicius had been scanning the insides of the his new body's MindWave. He'd found a new kill device in it. It was simply a tiny antennae attached to a firmware chip that would override and reverse the cooling algorithms that kept his MindWave from dangerously overheating. The antennae was well hidden among the MindWave's circuitry, and the chip only connected to the MindWave's systems when prompted by Laura. He would never have found the device if he had not known it was already there.

Laura had secreted the device in his original MindWave by tampering with his sarcophagus, no doubt, and surely had done the same to each other Aeon. It would have been even simpler for her to install the device into the new MindWave she had implanted into his reborn body.

She had rescued him using this device. But there was something else. She hadn't explicitly said it, but Vinicius had worked it out for himself. Once she killed someone, she didn't need to bring him or her back.

Vinicius tried to push away his unease. He reminded himself he was lucky to have Laura. He had once believed Sarah was his true love, but she had betrayed him. He had once had a family, but they had died. He had once had other friends, but they had all abandoned him. His suspicions that Laura had been behind the bombing that killed his parents had been proven unfounded by the fact that only Laura had been there to catch him every time he had fallen.

Laura had her faults, of course. He did not agree with many of her decisions, and on occasions, she had punished him for questioning her. But despite her faults - or maybe because of them - she was the only one who seemed to have any hope of leading the Aeons and the rest of the world through the global crises that were unfolding. She might look down on the human race, she might demand to be worshipped as a goddess, but in the end she might be the best hope for a peaceful future.

In the blink of an eye, he switched on his MindWave and entered the ether. Here, Vinicius was not ten feet tall. He didn't have claws for fingernails, or fangs instead of teeth. His face was not misshapen, his hairline did not meet a low, bony brow. No, in the ether he looked like himself. Tall, athletic, his sculpted features framed by long black locks and accented by piercing green eyes.

He found himself in a richly appointed conference room, with dark wooden paneling lining the walls and a beautiful crystal chandelier hanging from the high ceiling. The middle of the room was dominated by a huge, triangular cherry wood table. He instantly recognized the chamber as the location where Laura, Kobus, and he had once formulated their business strategies as they worked to corner and eventually monopolize the energy supplies to North America.

Laura was sitting along one end of the table. She looked at him and smiled. Her long red hair was carefully combed. She wore a closely tailored blue business suit that emphasized her eyes and, Vinicius judged, would accentuate her statuesque figure were she to stand.

"Laura, what did you summon me for?" he asked.

"I wanted you to meet someone."

"Who?"