The Descent into the Maelstrom (The Phantom of the Earth Book 4) by Raeden Zen Page A

that means?”
    “It transmigrated here.”
    “There she is!” Antosha closed a new quantum field around the orb. “Now we can’t risk having the Lorum on Vigna interfere with us on the Earth as we move forward with our plans, can we?”
    “No.”
    “Right, so I’ve fortified the z-wall with my own consciousness, creating a new z-wall that will enable us to adjust the Lorum’s genome and realize our dreams.” Antosha swiped his hands together on what he considered a job well done.
    He shut down the workstations. The room alighted with white phosphorescent light, and a clear cylinder enveloped the Lorum, reducing its radiance. He turned toward his paramour. “The man in stasis nears his awakening, our catspaw flies around the commonwealth, preaching my wisdom to the ministry, and the chancellor approved a new mission, Timescape. Everything is proceeding as I assumed—”
    “The First Aera lives.”
    Antosha flinched. He poured a glass of champagne, but Isabelle grabbed it from him and threw it on the ground. It shattered, spreading glass and yellowed drink and citrus smell. “Did you go deaf when you repaired your fucking eye?”
    Antosha’s left eye had burned out in an accident while crossing the Infernus Sea in the Lower Level. He’d had it replaced only recently, under direct orders from the chancellor, as a condition for his attendance at the board meeting. The regenerative injections and electromagnetic stimulations were easy enough to endure, but Antosha missed the disgusted stares he used to receive from Beimenians who’d never seen such an imperfection.
    “I heard you loud and clear, my lady.” He swiped his brow and sighed. “Is it possible she is another BP illusion?”
    Isabelle had been fooled by the BP before; she’d invaded what she thought was their eastern stronghold, Blackeye Cavern, only to be pressure-shot through a rock shaft into the Archimedes River.
    “No.” Isabelle balled her hand into a fist and shook it toward Antosha. “How else do you think the terrorists could’ve found the center of mass in Permutation Crypt?”
    Antosha laughed. “You can’t believe that the puzzle you constructed could be solved? These aren’t Harpoon candidates.” Isabelle folded her arms and looked away from him. “My lady, I told you as much, I told you the only way to stop Jeremiah Selendia and destroy the BP’s resolve was to kill him. Instead the BP’s morale—”
    Isabelle whipped her face toward Antosha. “The chancellor—”
    “Has gone so far into his own world, he can’t see the one that collapses around him—”
    “—hasn’t forgotten my failure to obtain Aera,” Isabelle finished. “If he learns that she’s the one who’s been stealing synisms from the RDD all this time, I could lose my hold—”
    “You can handle the chancellor, as you have.”
    Isabelle threw up her arms. “He’s still angry with me for defying him on Captain Barão.” Her bracelets jangled as she wrapped her left arm across her stomach and set her chin upon her right fist. “I can push only so far.” She shook her head, and her long lavender hair shook side to side. “He still has control—”
    “Don’t speak to me like one of your neophytes. You had Jeremiah Selendia, the man who built the commonwealth, the man who could destroy us.” Antosha moved closer to her and put his hands on her waist. “My lady, death by age is a thing of the past, but still the end comes to transhumans in many forms.”
    Isabelle broke away from his touch. “Sometimes it comes in the form of a telekinetic attack, though I’ve never seen anything like this before.” She transferred visions to Antosha’s neurochip and he saw the attack on the Crypt in his extended consciousness, the same as she had, apparently, through a Janzer’s mind.
    “It seems the whelp is developing faster following the fever,” Isabelle breathed, “as you feared.”
    She’d told Antosha how Hans had infected Connor with E.