Jacob's ladder
Chapter 17: Apotheosis

“Should we bring her back?”

“I don’t know if that’s possible. Ifshe refuses, we may generate a deadlock which could kill her or leave her an invalid.”

“Better wait and see what happens. Wehaven’t reached one half of the critical time.”

“Lydia must have a plan. If we wait,perhaps she’ll solve the problem by herself.”

“Perhaps, though I haven’t thefaintest idea what I would do if I were in her place.”

“Let us trust her, she seems relaxed.Let’s keep watching.”

Blatsov looked ironically at Lydia.

“All those instructions wereunnecessary. When I overpower the world, that boy will fall again in my hands.”

Lydia did not answer. Once Luis wasfree, she seemed to have lost all interest in Blatsov. The man in black made agrimace, decided to pay her in the same coin and looked at the screen,following Luis until he arrived at the exit of the gorge, where two men werewaiting. One of them hugged him, and then they spoke for some time, Luis obviouslytrying to convince Charles that they should follow Lydia’s instructions. Aftera long discussion, he seemed to have made his point, for they started walkingand disappeared from the screen.

Three hours later, Lydia seemed tocome out of her absorption, looked at Blatsov, who by then was wearing thevirtual reality helm and manipulating the controls, coughed to attract hisattention and asked:

“What are you doing now?”

The man in black heard her, but didnot react for some time, retaliating for the long silence of his prisoner.Soon, however, unable to resist the opportunity of bragging and exhibiting hispower, he took the helm off, looked at Lydia in triumph and said:

“I’m sending orders to my armies. Forreasons I won’t explain, Nikomakos has decided that the invasion should startin the realm of the Turkish Empire. It hasn’t been easy to coordinate thousandsof automata at such a distance. Obviously we are using the radio, for the enemycannot intercept our messages, we are decades from its discovery.”

“How did Nikomakos get into ourprogram?”

“Do you think that I’m going to tellyou his secrets?”

Lydia didn’t answer, just keptstaring at him.

“It wasn’t easy,” continued Blatsov.“Your protections are very good. Nikomakos had to cross three well-designedfirewalls, but he did it. He is the king of hackers.”

“Of course, Nikomakos is not his realname.”

“Of course! It’s his war name.”

“Why did he choose it? It looksGreek.”

“It is Greek. Of course you,as everybody else, don’t know the classical languages. Nikomakos means hewho fights for victory. The name is very good, although he’ll have tochange it soon: when he attains victory, he won’t have to fight for it anylonger.”

“What about Blatsov? What does itmean?”

“Nothing. I chose a Russian-lookingname. It reminds me the Russian word blasty, which means power.

“It rather reminds me the scientificname of the cockroach.”

Blatsov fulminated Lydia with a lookof hate, but she ignored it and continued asking:

“Have you read The consolation ofPhilosophy, by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius?

“I see that you aren’t as ignorant asI had thought! You are trying to get good marks, aren’t you? You didn’t have tomention all of Boethius Christian names. No, I haven’t read that book.”

“Your case is very well described.”

“Ah! What’s my case?”

“Boethius classifies men into fourtypes, according to their main temptation: pleasure, money, glory and power.You are a typical power-maniac case. To enjoy power, you are ready to looseeverything else, even the other three temptations.”

“The same as Napoleon, I knew thatlong ago. I’ll get power here, nothing will prevent me. Don’t think that you’regoing to deceive me. I’m cleverer than you are; the proof is: you’ve fallen inmy trap.”

“Perhaps, but you are obsessed. Fixedideas obfuscate intelligence.”

“Don’t try to work against me, if youvalue life and your physical integrity.”

Lydia kept silence for a minute, thenchanged the topic.

“I’m surprised at something youhaven’t done.”

“What?”

“You’ve never been interested inJacob’s ladder. Why? You’ve had it at your reach several times, but did nothingto grasp it.”

“Ah, the amulet! I’m notsuperstitious, that’s my advantage against Napoleon. I know that you gave himthe amulet to make him win the battle of Waterloo, but then Luis took it away again.I don’t know why you did it that way.”

“We wanted to study the effect of an instantaneouschange on the history of the world. Napoleon had to win that battle, but then everythingshould get back to normal. You and your automata have spoiled the experiment.”

“I’m worth a thousand Napoleons! SoonI’ll confront him directly. If so, you’ll see him a puppet in my hands. A fewdays ago, his armies were defeated by mine. He’ll soon fall in my power.”

“Remember that this is not the realNapoleon, just a simulated character. If you defeat him, it doesn’t mean that youwould have defeated the real Napoleon. Our models are not perfect. And as wegive them some freedom to chose, they won’t always act as their prototypes.”

“Your models are the best in theworld. No team can compare with yours, as the true Napoleon cannot compare withNikomakos. We have progressed since his time.”

“I don’t think that you are as cleveras you think. Despising Jacob’s ladder was a big mistake. It is not an amulet.It is rather more than that.”

“Oh, yeah? What is it?”

“It is an antenna through which we cansend energy and information from the real to the simulated world. Through it,when he put his hand on Luis’s shoulder, we suggested Napoleon the convenience oflaunching his attack without awaiting for the ground to dry. You didn’t thinkof that, did you?”

“No, but it won’t be of use to you anylonger. I don’t know who has the antenna now, perhaps the boy, perhapsPhilippe, but they are far from here. Your team won’t be able to use it tohinder my plans.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

“What do you mean?”

“So you think that Jacob’s ladder isfar from here. I know that Luis had it on him when we were in your armory. Hecan have left it there. What would my colleagues do with an antenna giving themfree access to your weapon store? They’ve had almost four hours.”

Blatsov became paler than usual,stood up, hastened out of his headquarters, pushed the watchers away and openedthe door to the armory. Before getting in, he hesitated, as though fearing whathe would replace inside. Then he went in, followed by Lydia.

“There’s nothing wrong here,” he saidafter looking around and sighing in relief.

“Are you sure?” asked Lydia.

Blatsov did not answer, but seemeddoubtful and walked among the rows of weapons looking at right and left. Lydiatook advantage of his distraction to get near the atom bomb. She extended herhand down, opened her fingers, let Jacob’s ladder fall in the groove, andleaned against the wall, pursing her forehead in the deepest concentration. Anominous humming filled the armory. Blatsov stopped and turned towards her.

“Woman, what are you doing?” he askedin a desperate voice.

Lydia did not answer. She had notime. It was three in the afternoon, Tuesday August 22nd, 1815:exactly forty eight hours since she had entered the simulated world.

Just then, Luis and his companionswere many kilometers away, on their way to the Spanish border. Suddenly, theground trembled below their feet with such violent oscillations that they hadto hold one another to remain standing.

“An earthquake!” exclaimed Charles.

“No!” said Pierre pointing back.“Look at that!”

At the other side of the mountain, inspite of the mass of rock in between, they could see, reflected by the clouds, alight brighter than the sun’s. A long deafening thunder rumbled for severalminutes. A jet of thick black smoke rose like a basalt column till the upperlayers of the atmosphere, where it spread aside, as though it had collided withan obstacle, taking the shape of a huge mushroom.

“That was an explosion,” shoutedPierre, “but I’ve never seen any so large!”

“Nor I,” said Charles. “I don’t thinkthere are enough explosives in the world to do that!”

“This must be the big bomb Blatsovspoke about,” explained Luis. “Lydia has made it burst to destroy him and saveus. I imagined that she had a plan, when she insisted on taking my place andasked me for Jacob’s ladder, but I had no idea that the bomb would be sopowerful. The cavern must have been totally destroyed.”

“What? You no longer have Jacob’sladder?”

“No, she asked for it and I gave ither. I think she wanted it to make the bomb burst. Now Jacob’s ladder doesn’texist, but Blatsov isn’t there either. We are safe, we don’t have to flee anymore; we can start again.”

“Shouldn’t we go back and see if somethingcan be saved?”

“Lydia forbade it. Whateverhappens, don’t come back here, she said. She knew what was going to happen:she had thought it out before Blatsov let me go free. It may be dangerous toget back, I don’t know. I’ve explained before, we must go to the Spanish borderby the shortest way and get back to Salamanca.”

“All right,” said Charles, “let’s goon. I cannot understand what this woman, Lydia, has done: she has given herlife for us! Anyone could do that for a friend, for a son, but she scarcelyknew us, it’s incredible!”

“I don’t think Lydia is dead,”whispered Luis.

“Nobody can survive such anexplosion,” protested Pierre.

“For a human being, it’s impossible,but Lydia was an angel and angels can’t die.”

“Why do you think that?”

Luis explained the reasons which had madeidentify Lydia with an angel and Blatsov with an infernal being. Charles andPierre shook their heads incredulous, but found no arguments and decided to letthe boy believe whatever he wanted.

The next day they crossed the border intoSpain. The country had suffered almost no harm from the fights that had ravagedCenter Europe. Fernando the Seventh was still reigning, in spite of Napoleon’sreturn, and he had been able to maintain order. Charles was well provided withmoney, for he had kept most of what he had when they were separated in CiudadRodrigo, so they hired a carriage and traveled comfortably to Salamanca. Consideringthemselves safe, they made easy steps and took their time to see the landscapeand enjoy their freedom.

The news from the North wasreassuring. When Nikomakos’s army of automata exhausted their power supplies,they had stopped working and apparently were all dead, a few days afterdefeating Napoleon’s army. The emperor had retreated to Paris and finallysurrendered to the Englishmen, who sent him to St. Helen Island. Austria hadbeen ravaged, but it was not the first time it had suffered the effects of war.Czar Alexander had been murdered by a fanatic, but another czar occupied thethrone in Russia. When they arrived in Salamanca, things were starting to getback to normal.

Charles took again possession of his old job, asteacher of French in the university. Pierre stayed at his service, while Luis studiedlanguages and literature. His thirst for adventure was satiated and he had decidedto follow what had always been his vocation. One night he saw Lydia, althoughhe never knew whether it had been a dream, his imagination or reality. She toldhim that she was alive in spite of the explosion and was again in the placefrom where she had come. Luis never dared tell his friends, but felt much happierafter this experience.