The Coordinate

Chapter 18: A Swallow Captured

        Sunlight. Synthetic sunlight. It glared upon crowds and armed enforcers surrounding a single man. Onlookers craned their heads over a wall of officers, raising their hands over them to take pictures. Silhouttes were cast from building roofs, sneakily clipping the scene for clout, at least, that was what    Jordan thought.

            It wasn’t like Swallow, with his level of thinking and apparent slyness, to try and sneak into the Ytrial City’s underground like this. He walked alongside Finch on the sidewalks, escorted by a squad of weapon carriers.

            “A question for you, Jordan.” Finch started.

            “What is it?”

            “Why do you think someone so deceptively cunning would voluntarily come into their enemy’s trap, especially in broad daylight?”

            Jordan paused for a second, “Perhaps he thought that hiding in plain sight and subverting your expectation that he’ll infiltrate at night would be a good idea?”

            “That’s what you think?”

            “It is.” 

            “Interesting. Well, we’ll find out soon enough.”

            Walking through the crowds, the enforcers created a path for them, their bodies straight and erect as a statue and their hands glued to their chests. Finch’s face was straight, serious, scary. A face Jordan never saw her  wear before. In the midde of the crowd of enforcers, Swallow stood, his hands raised on the air  and his smug smile wrecking the crowd’s nerves.

            However, looking at a familiar woman, his smile disappeared.

            “The Nadir?” Swallow snorted cynically, “Finally got your attention, huh?”

            “Hello, little passerine. You haven’t aged a single year.”

            “I’d say the same to you, Nadir, but I’d praise your augmentations instead. So, to what do I owe the honor? Last time we saw each other, I killed all your entire entourage.”

            Finch’s fingers clenched into a fist. She pulled a g*n from her coat and fired. Swallow sidestepped, leading the bullet into to pierce an enforcer behind him. The weapon carriers aimed their lasers and guns at him again, their fingers itching to pull the trigger.

            “Your fault, not mine.” Swallow said.

            Finch’s face deformed into a wrathful scowl.

            “Mrs. Finch?”

            No response. Finch inhaled, “Keep your guns at him, and do not, in any case, touch him.”

            “What?!” Jordan faced her, “Doesn’t he need to be secured and apprehended?”

            “You’ll see later, Jordan. Also, please toss him this.” Finch said, putting a coin into Jordan’s palm. Jordan did as she said and tossed it to Swallow.

            He evaded and looked at Jordan, confused. “Oh, hey, Jordan Heron. Didn’t see you there. I’m surprised you’re with the Nadir. That traitorous b***h never took care of her colleagues, or her ‘students’. Wait, is she who gave you the visitation pass? Ha! Okay, Finch, perhaps you really did learn from your-”

            Finch quickly turned and drew her g*n, firing another shot.

            Swallow tilted his head, letting the bullet fly to another unfortunate soul behind him.

            “You’re terribly more composed than I remember.” Swallow said, smugly smiling.

            Jordan faced Finch. “Nadir? What’s he talking about?”

            “It’s not important. Don’t listen to him.” She replied, clenching teeth. She took a deep breath, calming herself and cleared her throat, “Keep your sights at him and take him to the Spacer Bay.”

            “The Spacer Bay, huh? Well, I won’t resist. Hope these sheep aren’t too jittery.”

            Like ants holding clamping and taking home their food, the enforcers, weapon carriers and armed personnel, along with Finch and Jordan escorted Swallow to the Spacer Bay. They went through the cramped hallways and large elevators of the Bay, and finally, into the main room, where the black ship sat on the farthest end. They started walking into the main hangar, where Dr. Raven was kindly waiting for them.

            “Huh, so this is a real Spacer Bay?” started Swallow, his eyes full of wonder, taking in every detail of the establishment.

            “Yes. A real Spacer Bay. I take it you’ve already mapped out the place?”

            “Yes, actually. Thanks for the this.” Like fading from existence, Swallow disappeared in front of them. Clamors echoed through the enforcers, turning around everywhere and spewing orders to fan out and search for him. Jordan panicked and looked up to Finch, but the novasapien woman was smiling to herself.

            “Why are you so calm!? We should be looking for him!” Jordan said.

            “Looking for him? Ah, right.” Finch opened her palm, and popped up a projection of a map with a blip moving around squares and circles.

            “What is this?”

            “His location, of course.” Said Finch, “Come on, let’s get out of here. If we’re going to apprehend him, we need to do it sneakily. That means no entourage, no guards, no enforcers. Just the two of us.”

            “What? Why do you have to bring me along?”

            “Didn’t Swallow already tell you?” Finch cupped Jordan’s cheeks, her long-nailed, slender fingers lightly hovering over his chin, “Because you’re my favorite student. But it’s not like I’m forcing you. You can come along if you want, if you don’t, then don’t.”

            Finch said, walking amid the sea of panicking soldiers. In the very center, she took a deep breath, “All of you, stand down! You two are to circle the Spacer Bay and remain stationary. Understand?!” She declared with a domineering voice.

            “Yes, Nadir!” the crowd said in unison, straightening their bodies and gluing their hands to their chests. Finch then climbed the stairs to the top.

            Nadir?

            Jordan immediately ran, catching up to her.

            “W-wait!”

            Finch turned around, bearing an cynical smile.

            “What just happened? How did you manage to track him?” Jordan asked, gasping for breath.

            “You want to know?”

            “Obviously. That’s why I’m asking.”

            Finch continued walking to the hallways while Jordan followed her until, eventually, they reached the streets of the underground city, where the soldier stood tall and hardy over every corner of every building. They soon reached the surface city, where Finch rested by a bench on one of the ramp gates.

            “Why are we stopping? Shouldn’t we hurry!?”

            “Relax, Jordan. He’s not going anywhere. There’s no need to rush.”

            Joradn sighed and sat beside her. He shot his eyes to the greenish clouds in the sky. Lightning was running through his legs, urging him to hurry, but one look at Finch drained the restlessness in his limbs. She was as calm as a snow-kissed forest.

            “So are you going to answer what I asked earlier?” Jordan blurted.

            Finch took a small box from her coat pocket and opened it. Inside, were neatly organized white sticks. She grabbed one by her mouth and lit the tip with a lighter. She then exhaled smoke, “You know, something that I liked about human inventions that novasapiens never thought of making are these cigarettes. They’re quite… soothing. Then again, if we made such an invention back in Novaien, everyone who uses them would die in under a month.”

            Jordan stayed silent, just letting her ramble.

            Finch took another inhale and exhaled out another puff of smoke.

            “Swallow was never there.” She breathed

            “What?”

            “Swallow was never there.”

            “What do you mean she wasn’t there?” Jordan’s brows raised.

            Finch took the cigar from her lips between her fingers, “It was a hologram, Jordan. He probably got the idea from when the Zionous ‘visited’ him.”

            “What does the Zionous have to do with any of this?”

            “The Zionous never really leaves his chamber, Jordan. When he visits, he’s never really there. He only sends a projection of himself to fool the masses that they’re being graced with his presence. When the Zionous was attacked by those fanatics, Swallow must have realized that and adopted the strategy.”

            Jordan put his hands beneath his chin, “That’s actually genius. But how did you find out?”

            “I had a hunch when we arrived and nobody was pinning him down to the ground or putting him in clamping restrainers. That could only mean that he was putting on a show where he was untouchable. My suspicions were confirmed when I had you toss that coin to him and he dodged it like it was a bullet. After that, I had to let him think that we hadn’t found out yet, thus, I ordered everyone not to touch him and let him into the Spacer Bay.”

            “Why would you let him into the Spacer Bay? If he knows the layout of the building, won’t he have an advantage?”

            “True, but that also means we would have the means to bypass his camouflage and track him.”

            Jordan scratched his scalp, “How?”

            Finch inhaled deeply again as rod of the cigarette crumbled into dust, “When someone uses a projection, their motions are also being captured in real time and there needs to be a device casting it. This would force him to implant the visitation pass into the device casting the projection, thus making him enter the underground without ringing the alarm. Do you understand that?”

            “Yes, I can see the logic behind that, but how were you able to track him?”

            “You probably didn’t notice but that coin I made you toss wasn’t a normal coin. It was a presence captor. Body shapes produce a certain wavelength and disturbance in the air that can be recorded and stored. Think of it as like, the power level of characters in your video games or shows or whatever. A presence captor identifies their powerlevel and records it. I then upload it to the multiple surveillance servers to find anyone who matches that powerlevel, and lo and behold, we found it.”

            Jordan remained silent. Just what kind of psychological war was Mrs. Finch playing at?

            “But why did you lead him to the Spacer Bay?”

            Finch froze suddenly. She tossed the spent cigar into a bin and sighed. She was smiling as she looked at the sky, as if recalling beautiful memories. “I don’t know. Maybe I just wanted to show him the Bay? That guy was a big Spacer enthusiast similar to Winter, and he hasn’t seen a proper one back in Novaien, so…”

            “That’s contradictory to how you two exchanged words earlier.” Jordan replied.

            “Well, he was my former student, and my former favorite too. I understand how he’d feel when I… turned against them. Then again, he also killed my colleagues so the feeling is mutual.”

            Jordan’s eyes widened. Too much information to process. Too much things happening in a single week. He wanted to ask more questions, but his head scrambled for the right one, and it never came.                               

            “Well, the details aren’t necessary. Maybe I’ll tell you more about your beloved advisor in the future.” Finch stood up and walked west, “Come on, we have a novasapien to catch.”

            “Wait!” called Jordan.

            Finch turned back, looking at him inquisitively.

            “Who are you really, Mrs. Finch?”

            Finch smiled, “That will be your homework for when we get back.”