Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten Read online

  The Misbegotten

  Volume One

  Of

  Shadow Seed

  By:

  Richard M. Heredia

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book may not be re-sold. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblances to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2013 Richard M. Heredia

  ISBN-13: 978-1490431352

  ISBN-10: 1490431357

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the express written permission of the author.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Visit the author on Amazon and pen a quick review:

  http://www.amazon.com/Misbegotten-Shadow-Seed-Series-ebook/dp/B00DDTN4ZS/ref=pd_rhf_ee_p_t_1_0P4H

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Cover Art by Amygdala Design.

  http://www.amygdaladesign.net

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Books by Richard M. Heredia

  The Saga of the Twelves:

  ( https://www.facebook.com/TheSnowmanSeries?ref=hl )

  The Unwanted Winter

  Winter’s Fury

  The Shroud of the Lesser (Coming Sept. 2014)

  The Shadow Seed Series:

  (https://www.facebook.com/TheShadowSeedSeries?ref=hl )

  The Misbegotten

  Estefan’s Death (Coming Summer 2015)

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  “It is a love that has never left me. It was a light.”

  For the Girls,

  For my One Girl,

  Together,

  Always – Bound in Memory.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The Misbegotten

  Volume One of Shadow Seed

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Books by Richard M. Heredia

  Dedication

  ~ Chapter 1 ~

  ~ Chapter 2 ~

  ~ Chapter 3 ~

  ~ Chapter 4 ~

  ~ Chapter 5 ~

  ~ Chapter 6 ~

  ~ Chapter 7 ~

  ~ Chapter 8 ~

  ~ Chapter 9 ~

  ~ Chapter 10 ~

  ~ Chapter 11 ~

  ~ Chapter 12 ~

  ~ Chapter 13 ~

  ~ Chapter 14 ~

  ~ Chapter 15 ~

  ~ Chapter 16 ~

  ~ Chapter 17 ~

  ~ Chapter 18 ~

  ~ Chapter 19 ~

  ~ Chapter 20 ~

  ~ Chapter 21 ~

  ~ Chapter 22 ~

  ~ Chapter 23 ~

  ~ Chapter 24 ~

  ~ Chapter 25 ~

  ~ Chapter 26 ~

  ~ Chapter 27 ~

  ~ Chapter 28 ~

  ~ Chapter 29 ~

  ~ Chapter 30 ~

  ~ Chapter 31 ~

  ~ Chapter 32 ~

  ~ Chapter 33 ~

  ~ Chapter 34 ~

  ~ Chapter 35 ~

  ~ Chapter 36 ~

  ~ Chapter 37 ~

  ~ Chapter 38 ~

  ~ Chapter 39 ~

  ~ Chapter 40 ~

  ~ Chapter 41 ~

  ~ Chapter 42 ~

  ~ Chapter 43 ~

  ~ Chapter 44 ~

  ~ Chapter 45 ~

  ~ Chapter 46 ~

  ~ Chapter 47 ~

  ~ Chapter 48 ~

  ~ Chapter 49 ~

  ~ Chapter 50 ~

  ~ Chapter 51 ~

  ~ Chapter 52 ~

  ~ Chapter 53 ~

  ~ Chapter 54 ~

  ~ Chapter 55 ~

  ~ Chapter 56 ~

  ~ Chapter 57 ~

  ~ Chapter 58 ~

  ~ Chapter 59 ~

  ~ Chapter 60 ~

  ~ Chapter 61 ~

  ~ Chapter 62 ~

  ~ Chapter 63 ~

  ~ Chapter 64 ~

  ~ Chapter 65 ~

  ~ Chapter 66 ~

  ~ Chapter 67 ~

  ~ Chapter 68 ~

  ~ Chapter 69 ~

  ~ Chapter 70 ~

  ~ Chapter 71 ~

  About the Author

  ~ Chapter 1 ~

  (Earth Summer – 2385)

  The Meeting

  The Grav-lifts roared with an intense whirl the moment he let his full weight sink into the adaptive seat on the passenger side of the Glide-car. He let the cushions of the seat conform to his body before he moved again; staying still always yielded the highest degree of comfort. He engaged the door seal with an idle flick of a finger over a sensory button. The portal he’d gone through seconds before, shut with a low-level hissing. When the driver of the Glide-car got in and did the same, the two of them were actually vacuum-sealed against the outside air.

  He grumbled as he tapped a knuckle on his left hand, activating his personal Neuro-Nanoswarm. It gave him access to the millions of processing units he used to order to oversee the daily comings and goings of the Aegis Synod. It was an organization spanning the entire length and breadth of the Sixteen Worlds of Sol and, he alone, was its’ Overlord.

  He was called the Keeper, which could be construed he was a collector, a discoverer, a finder and holder of all things desirable and undesirable, but in a real sense – it meant something else. He was the Keeper of the Peace, a title designating him as the Solar System’s greatest outlaw and its’ most upstanding citizen. He was its’ greatest cheat and its’ largest philanthropist. He was worshipped by many and hated all the same. He was a killer, torturer and a great teacher and lover. He was everything. He was nothing. He was, simply, the Keeper of the Peace.

  Tiny units, some as big as houseflies, others as small as motes of dust, came to life all about the vehicle, buzzed and twirled about the air above his head, moving in what seemed haphazard patterns. They were, in fact, doing much more than about flying randomly. Before him appeared a sim-screen - a display that looked as real as the screen of any monitor - only it was floating in the air, about a foot and a half before his eyes. Only he could see it. It’s resolution so clear, so real, it was as though he was peering through the window like the one at his side, showing the vastness of Angel Free Town – the megalopolis that had once been his to rule…

  …Ah, Angel Free Town. Those were murderous memories of such sweet succulence.

  Angel Free Town was an entity stretching from the southernmost tip of Orange County to the outskirts of Moreno Valley to the edges of Oxnard – all cities he remembered from his youth. Cities, to a one, vanished under the sprawl of this modern behemoth. The people he had known in his youth would’ve been captivated, enthralled, by the sheer magnitude of this human construct. Some might’ve fainted, for Angel Free Town wasn’t just a city if immense width and breadth. It possessed a third, even more, impressive dimension.

  It vaulted upward as well.

  There were fifteen levels now, supported upon an earthquake-proof monolith that reached nearly forty-five thousand feet into the atmosphere, skin upon skin of urban landscape, each with its own projected sky, each only casually aware the others existed.

  Don’t be mistaken, the populace wasn’t segregated or restricted in any way. This was, after all, Angel Free Town, the “free” being the operative word. Nothing was off-limits here. No, this wasn’t due to some hideous plot or a diabolic control of
information. This was mainly due to the sheer magnitude of the megalopolis itself – no one cared to know the full extent of it. This was quite the norm for those living in the gigantic human fabrications called cities. Angel Free Town was one of many such feats of humanity built across the expanse of Earth in this day and age. In his youth, this same piece of land had been home to a mere thirty million. Now, it was a man-made jungle of more six hundred million souls.

  He shrugged ruefully; it had been many years since he had walked its’ layered streets like a king, worshipped by men and women alike. Its loyal citizens would’ve done anything for him back in those days of war and famine, racial bigotry and plain, old fashion genocide. They would’ve given him their daughters to screw and their boys to help fight his battles. They would’ve rejoiced at the prospect of pleasing him.

  Yes, it had been a long time ago. Before he had defeated the multi-national armies sent to eradicate him and his kind. Back when “Muto’s”, like him, were seen as the scourge of the Human Race, creatures to be killed on sight. Years before he and the Aegis Synod brought peace and he was named its’ Keeper. Long ago…

  If he had been a king then, well, he was more like an Emperor now. He had outgrown Angel Free Town. It had become too small with time and his ascension. He had needed more space, so he had moved – to space itself, where he could spread his influence across the entire Solar System.

  “Scan for intrusions,” he said gruffly, knowing the various sensors within the sim-screen would’ve already analyzed his retinas, verified all ten of his fingers tips, took his vitals, scanned his body for tampering devices – both mechanized and biological – as well as tasted his breath, in order to sample his DNA. It was an automated process; done within the first few micro-seconds he’d activated the Neuro-Nanoswarm.

  He put it all out of his mind and waited.

  “Why are you pouting, Estefan?” asked the driver of the Glide-car.

  He rolled his eyes. Fucking bitch!

  She was tall with long, athletic legs, somewhat thin, medium breasted and flaring hips. She was beautiful, but the sharp angles of her narrow face, long thin nose and pointed chin had the prospect of menace about them. She had dark skin, its’ natural hue, despite many methods capable of altering it nowadays. She preferred the complexion of her birth. It made her look exotic. She knew this, often using it to her advantage. She wore the same black colored, bio-spandex jumpsuit she always wore in the field, covering her lithe form from neck to ankle to wrist. True to habit, she wore the typical, pat and leather surfaced Accelerator Heels as well– spiked and four inches tall, they gave her the ability to run twice as fast as she could barefoot.

  She wore no weapon, because she was the weapon. She was his bodyguard, sworn to protect him at all costs as she had for many years, having saved him countless times from countless different plots and schemes and ploys. He trusted no one more than he trusted her, and he had reason. Her name was Flavia, Flavia Ernando, and at one time, more than three hundred and fifty years in the past, she had been his sister.

  Step-sister! he corrected himself. And that was indeed a long time ago!

  “Are you giving me the silent treatment?” she asked playfully, knowing he was irritated, knowing precisely which of his buttons to push.

  “I see no intrusions into any of the one million, seven hundred forty-eight thousand, three hundred sixty-nine sectors, Effy,” announced a voice, coming from unseen sim-screen speakers.

  “Good. Sentry mode in 10 seconds, please,” he replied.

  “As you command,” came the voice a second time.

  The Keeper half-smiled, all was safe within his Empire for now. “Thank you, Reyna.” He spoke before Neuro-Nanoswarm went from active mode.

  “You’re welcome, my dear,” said the voice. Then the sim-screen dissolved before his eyes and, once more, swirled away to various, out-of-the-way areas within the Glide-car, breaking into thousands of tiny, individual pieces.

  “I think it’s not only cruel you naming your Neuro-Nanoswarm after an ex-girlfriend, but giving it her voice and mannerisms… well, it may be a little creepy, Eff.” His one-time step-sister was trying her best to get a rise out of him.

  He harrumphed, but stayed otherwise quiet.

  She activated the start-up, sub-routines of the Glide-car by waving her hand over the command display to the right of the steering mechanism. Within seconds, the vehicle thrummed to life.

  The conveyance itself was brand new… well, almost. It was one of the latest models to come off the assembly lines in old Detroit, the very city that had thrived under the advent of the automobile, though it had since vanished under massive assembly plants of the present day. When purchased, it had come to them as your standard model Merc-Ford 5500 SLT sedan with two thousand horsepower generated by a sub-atomic core. After his technicians and engineers had finished with it, it was something much more lethal, twice as powerful and four times as fast with so many gadgets and devices hidden within its ebon shell, he hadn’t taken the time to learn them all.

  “She was a bitch, Flavia. She used me for the pleasure of my cock and then tossed me aside like a used tampon,” he replied, sullenly, harkening back to feminine products of a bygone time. “Therefore, it is my contention; she deserves no less than evisceration through electronics.”

  Flavia chortled, content to let the silence stretch between them as she pulled from their parking location and began to maneuver the vehicle through the humongous parking complex. It served the guests of the Disneyscapes Amusement District, built upon the second level of Angel Free Town. The very district they had walked from minutes ago.

  Known as Disneyland back in the 21st Century, the amusement park had grown congruent with the growth of its parent company, which proved to be one of the most voracious corporate consumers of innovative companies of its era. By the dawn of the 22nd Century, it had expanded, with some assistance from the Synod, to nearly four times its former size and had never looked back. Now, it covered all of what she recalled as the city of Anaheim, yet another town ground to dust with the passage of time. The Park itself no longer catered to merely children now, but to an older crowd as well, with square mile after square mile of sectors devoted to every sort of depravity known to humankind. It had long since surpassed the desert failure that had once been Las Vegas as the playground for adults.

  Still though, if Flavia had asked herself, what’s the least likely thing she would’ve wanted to do this day, she’d have said – visiting Disneyscapes. On the other hand, if she’d asked herself what it would’ve taken to motivate her to make the very same trip; she would’ve replied succinctly - something huge. That was precisely what had happened. Something huge had fallen on their proverbial doorstep, and it was the very sort of something that made Estefan brood like an eight-year-old boy.

  It had come to the Keeper via Optic-mail, a technology so old only the very old still knew how to access and use its’ dying and decrepit networks. Since her and Eff were among some of the oldest surviving Human Celestes, well… they had the knowledge and an account – their last still in service to be exact. The message itself had been direct and to the point, but the significance of it wasn’t how it was written. It was the content, and it screamed like nothing had ever screamed before:

  “Shadow Seed manipulation device in danger; Security of the highest level required; Compensation Package, if level of security proven adequate, upward of $2.3Q.”

  At first, they and their closest associates had thought the message was bullshit, detritus of an aging network trying to save itself from oblivion. It was the rest of the message and the auto-sig at the end of the transmission that stopped them all cold:

  “Meet at the entrance of They Are Small Worlds, Disneyscapes, Angel Free Town on July 1st, 2385 at 3pm PDT. Will be a pleasure to reacquaint our families after so many years, hopefully,

  “Dr. Ahmed Carlos Ball.”

  Dr. Ahmed Carlos Ball was the descendant of one of their oldest contacts,
a contact that had made them rich beyond belief. This was before Human Celestes were termed as such, reaching way back, when all those altered by the Shadow Seed were seen as Mutos. They had been deemed a threat to the very existence of Human Beings. And, as a group, they’d been hunted down and slaughtered wholesale before the Alter of anti-terrorism and righteous prejudice…

  This was also a contact predating all of their influence, all of their prestige and all of their power and money. This was someone who was willing to offer 2.3 quadrillion exchange units for the services only Estefan and his system-wide Aegis Synod could provide. 2.3Q, a lot of money indeed! Even for the Synod. It was the equivalent of five years profit, so how could they turn it down?

  “You know, we have no choice, Estefan,” she pointed out, attempting to explain it as an absolute truth, and therefore, inescapable.

  He groaned at the childish proposition. “Don’t be so dramatic, Flavia, there are always choices.”

  She wheeled on him just as she wheeled through the traffic and people congesting the parking spire they were exiting. “Oh, tell me, you’re not acting flippant, dear brother.”

  “Don’t call me that, god dammit! We haven’t been related for as long time itself can remember, so do me the courtesy and try not to be cute!” he recoiled in his glove-like seat as she pulled into a vein of traffic she hoped would lead them from the parking complex and onto a swifter modicum of transportation.

  Her eyes flashed. “Oh and who’s being coy! Come on, Effy, we have to do this. Are you really gonna trust the Walach Group or the Milandry Sisters or those Russian idiots to provide the level of security needed for a job of this magnitude? They’d botch it from the outset!”

  He grunted in acquiescence. She wasn’t exaggerating in the least – only the Aegis Synod could make something as delicate as the Shadow Spark disappear into thin air. Only they had the technology to make it so. He knew this, though he loathed admitting it. This wasn’t out of pride or stubbornness; he simply didn’t like being bullied into a tenuous position, regardless of the payout. He abhorred the cornering affect, because it narrowed his options, and that was something he could ill-afford. He hadn’t survived this long, because he’d been an idiot.