Chapter 21

The following weeks were extremely agitated in America. The entire nation – the whole planet, in fact – was horrified by the magnitude of the catastrophe in California. The news had been fully exploited by the media. The Americans were experts in sucking everything there was to get out of such novelty. They had started a war with the Muslims – two, according to some – only so that they could broadcast it live on TV, or to get their hands on some gas.

This time, the catastrophe far exceeded the wildest imagination.

The death toll figures varied greatly and were only based on estimates; no one believed an exact count could ever be made. Millions of people were killed. Millions of other people were missing, which, given the situation, meant they could be put down on the death list as well.

Bolden took advantage of the general confusion and took refuge in a place he had secretly bought, in Colorado, far away from the sea and in an area with no seismic activity. He retrieved one of the fake identities he had stashed there as a contingency. Ironically, the shoot-out in Paris had convince him of that value. He had learned to open secret bank accounts and had obtained the necessary documents to live and travel clandestinely.

Bolden was hoping that perhaps the new identity would give him a new life as well, that it could shield him from death. But, just as birds and animals disregarded the boundaries set up by men on earth, so his documents, no matter how well forged, couldn’t protect him from the inexorable.

His fortune was growing exponentially and he was still able to access it. No one had registered his death and no one had made inheritance claims. The Guardian Angel was waiting for things to calm down. His stockbrokers had made brilliant investments, and when the stock market opened again, after a one week break to mourn the passing of Southern California, the price for his stocks simply exploded. He took over the management of his transactions through the internet and multiplied his fortune even more. It seemed like everything he touched suddenly turned to gold. He skillfully sold more of his companies and started buying massive shares of the Space Elevator; the American state had put them on sale because it was desperately looking for liquidities to help what was left of California.

Two months had passed since he had escaped from the desert.

One morning, as he was about to access the New York Stock Exchange through his computer, Folder’s face appeared.

“You are a very special case, Mr. Bolden,” his former protector said.

“Hello, Folder,” Bolden replied. “What do you want?”

The colonel smiled sadly.

“I want you to choose death.”

“I’ve told you, I am not a killer. The Guardian Angel deals with saving lives…”

“You know what I think?” Bolden replied. “You are infected. You are infected by me. We’ve synchronized our existences. That is why you were the only one left around me. That’s why you didn’t kill me in the desert. If I die, you die too. Something called conscience tells you to kill me and at the same time it tells you to let me live. So what is that you want?”

Folder looked disconcerted. He brought his face closer to the video camera. The smile disappeared from his face.

“You endangering everyone, you know. The whole species. You’re thinking about your own survival, but we’re talking about human extinction. And there isn’t much time left.”

Bolden suddenly fell silent; he understood what Folder was after. He shut down his computer violently and then destroyed the internet connection. It was only a matter of time before they arrived at his door.

He ran to the garage and grabbed a gasoline canister. He doused his safe house and, on his way out the door, lit it on fire. By the time he’d backed the Buick he kept at the place down the driveway, the flames were fully engaged in the structure.

He was long gone before the fire-trucks – and two unmarked black helicopters – arrived.

So began a complicated game of hide-and-seek that ranged around the world. The Guardian Angel, once his protector, was now his assassin.

But Bolden was not helpless. He quickly turned his immense fortune into a weapon and a cloak. Wealth hid him, but it also let him strike out at his enemy.

The best defense is a good offense, he father always said. So Bolden set out to destroy their headquarters both known and suspected. He used his business contacts to start a whisper campaign to discredit the organization, and since Folder had been so scrupulous in acquiring media outlets, Bolden used that network of properties to produce stories that held the company up to breathless scrutiny.

Of course, The Guardian Angel fought back, following him and repeatedly discovering his whereabouts. No matter how well he wiped his trail, it was only a matter of time. The company had become even more powerful than he’d imagined. Its agents and their Devices were spread around the world, and no matter how rudimentary those devices were, the destructive potential he had acquired had grown so large that it was impossible to hide.

What he needed was a way to scramble that signal.