Chapter 206

Within Range

The private jet climbed through clear skies over the eastern Mediterranean, leaving Athens behind. Alexander settled into his seat and watched the coastline shrink through the window.

Opposite him, Augustus had already produced a tablet and was reviewing the latest and hopefully final draft of the press release materials.

Talia sat across the aisle from Alexander, tablet also in hand, working on something. Probably contingency plans for if things went sideways in Dubai, if he had to guess. Annie was across from her, feet up on the seat, arms folded behind her head.

Behind Alexander, Felix sat in golden retriever form, curled up on the seat with his tail hanging over the edge. Gilly occupied the opposite seat, face pressed against the window, all six eyes tracking the clouds with quiet fascination.

It hadn’t occurred to him, but this was the young alien’s first time seeing the planet from such heights.

Gabriel had taken the seat at the back of the cabin on Annie’s side, facing down the length of the plane. He hadn’t said much since boarding. Just settled in with a blanket over his lap and a cup of tea that he held with both hands, watching the others with an expression that shifted between quiet contentment and something harder to name.

Alexander had made it clear to the others during the second official leadership roundtable that Gabriel was not to be harassed about what he knew or could see. The man was still recovering. But, more importantly, Alexander had decided to place a measure of trust in him. He wasn’t quite sure when he’d arrived at the decision, or even if it made logical sense, but he was going with his gut regardless.

“Do we need our own jet?” Annie asked the cabin at large.

Nobody answered.

“I’m serious. We have a starship. We have a base. We have part of a space station. We have portals. We have a yacht. A bunch of cars. But every time we need to go somewhere legit, we charter a plane like we’re basic tourists.”

“It’s about appearances,” Talia said without looking up.

“It’s about not having a jet.” Annie turned her head toward Alexander. A pause. Then her eyes narrowed. “Maybe you can steal one during your next heist.”

Alexander sighed. “Are you still upset about that?”

“Am I still—” She scoffed. “Yes! Of course I am. Jerk.”

“I promise to bring you on my next heist. Okay?”

She crossed her arms. “You freaking better.”

“I will. And it’s ‘borrow.’”

Annie rolled her eyes.

Augustus glanced up from his tablet, mouth twitching, then wisely returned to his reading.

Alexander let the silence settle for a moment. Then he leaned back and looked at Augustus.

“Something’s been bugging me. Have you noticed any attribute increases that don’t make sense?”

Augustus lowered the tablet. “Define ‘don’t make sense.’”

“Small gains in stats. For me, it’s mostly Strength, Dexterity, and Agility. Nothing dramatic, but consistent. And I haven’t been training those areas enough to justify it.”

Augustus stroked his beard. “Now that you mention it, yes. My Agility has crept up despite doing nothing to warrant it. I assumed it was residual, caused by general physical training.”

Alexander looked across at Talia. “You?”

She’d stopped scrolling. “No. But I’m still making every effort to push my attributes across the board.” She frowned. “I had noticed a slight increase in actual gains when compared to projected gains. Put it down as fluctuations.”

“Annie?”

“Yep. Thought I was just awesome.” She shrugged. “Some of my cognitive stats have been increasing even though I stopped training them.”

Alexander glanced over his shoulder. “Felix? Gilly?”

Felix raised his head. “No. I have not noticed anything unexplained.”

Gilly pulled his face away from the window. “Gilly’s numbers make sense.”

Alexander turned back. That was an interesting divide. The immediate conclusion was that only humans were gaining unexplained attributes. The only alternative was timing.

“It’s Pinnacle.”

Gabriel’s voice came from the back of the cabin. Quiet, but clear.

Everyone turned.

He took a sip of his tea, unbothered by the attention. “The Pinnacle of Man. He’s already Divine, even if he doesn’t know it yet. One of the things his existence does is push humanity toward reaching its potential.”

Alexander leaned slightly to see him better. “You’re saying we’re getting stronger because someone else became a god?”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Something like that.” Gabriel set the cup on his knee. “Pinnacle’s domain is humanity itself. He stands at the peak of what people can be. What they have already achieved. His Divinity nudges every human being toward their limits, subtly and constantly. You’ve been noticing it because your attributes are already high enough that even small gains require real effort. Most people would never notice the difference.”

“Every human?” Augustus asked. “Globally?”

“Yes. It’s passive. He doesn’t choose to do it. He doesn’t even know he’s doing it at this time, I think. And it requires nothing from those receiving it. It’s simply what the Pinnacle of Man is. What he represents.” He shrugged. “If you are human and within range, your soul reaches for more. It is the pursuit of greatness.”

Annie frowned. “So some random dude out there is making everyone on Earth a little bit better at everything, and he doesn’t even know?”

“I wouldn’t call the strongest superhuman on Earth a ‘random dude,’ but yes.”

“That’s…” Annie searched for the right word. “Actually kind of cool. Especially because Pinnacle always seemed like such a weird superhero. Just showing up and vanishing, with nobody ever seeing what his power is.”

“Powers,” Gabriel corrected. “He almost certainly has more than one, though I don’t know what they are.”

Alexander’s mind was already running. Back on the Nexus, Julia had warned him that what made Tier 3s dangerous was their ability to manifest a domain for their powers. But she’d made it sound as if it had limited range. Pinnacle affecting the entire world made it sound the opposite.

Unless that was just an indicator of how powerful he was.

Then again, Gabriel had made it clear that it was an effect of being Divine, rather than a simple expression of the man’s superpowers.

That made him wonder.

If each Divine had a domain effect that reflected their core power somehow, then the implications were staggering. Pinnacle uplifted all of humanity passively. Including other superhumans.

But he was only one of the Eight.

How would Alexander’s own divinity affect the world? Would he simply uplift machines? That didn’t sound very promising. And what about Maximilian? His effect on the world would be underwhelming at best if he only improved dragons.

Clearly their own expression of Divinity would need to be fundamentally different to Pinnacle’s to have any value.

He glanced at Gabriel. The precog met his gaze, read the question there, and gave a small shake of his head.

Not yet.

Alexander nodded and looked away, turning back to the window. The sea stretched out below, sunlight catching the surface in scattered diamonds. It was difficult. Knowing someone had the answers to questions and not demanding them. Trusting that there was a time and place for knowledge to be conveyed.

It didn’t feel good.

Still. There was a lot to focus on, a lot to achieve, and only four more months to do it in, if Gabriel was to be believed.

A press conference tomorrow. Date night with Julia. A fight in Houston in less than a month. A small bit of cultivator genocide. Take Annie on a heist. A space station that needed improvements, now something of a priority given his new knowledge about things falling out of the sky.

And somewhere out there, a man who didn’t know he was something akin to a god was quietly making humanity a little better.

He could think of worse starts to the end of the world.

He could also think of way better starts too, though.

***

The jet touched down on the same private runway they’d used weeks ago. Dubai’s dry heat hit them the moment the door opened.

Two black SUVs waited in formation on the tarmac, their drivers standing at attention. Khalid stood at the base of the steps, tablet in hand.

“It is good to see you all again,” he said as they descended.

Alexander nodded. “Thanks for picking us up, Khalid.”

Annie squinted at him. “I totally forgot about you, but your name is almost the same as the Sheikha’s.”

Khalid’s expression remained professionally neutral. “Khalid is a very common name in the Arab world. It is the masculine form. The Sheikha’s name is the feminine. It is like someone named Alexander working for someone named Alexandra.”

Annie nodded. “Ooh.”

“If you’re ready, I will need to verify identities before we depart.” He raised the tablet. “Mostly a formality this time.”

He moved through the group efficiently. Each confirmed with a quick glance between face and screen. Gabriel required a moment longer, cross-referenced against what was likely a recently added entry.

Then Felix trotted down the stairs, tail wagging.

Khalid looked at the golden retriever. Looked at his tablet. Looked back at the golden retriever. His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly, but he tapped the screen and moved on.

Alexander wondered if that was because they’d slipped the disguised alien past them last time, or if he was just surprised at having to verify a dog.

Gilly came last.

The ESA agent’s gaze lifted from the tablet to the blue, six-eyed alien descending the jet stairs in cargo shorts and a t-shirt that read “I’m With Stupid” with an arrow pointing upward.

To his credit, only his left eyelid twitched.

Alexander’s understanding was that Gilly had lost a bet of some kind with Annie.

“Welcome to Dubai,” Khalid said evenly. “If you’ll follow me, I will deliver you to the Sheikha’s palace.”

The drive through Dubai was quiet. Alexander sat in the lead SUV with Augustus and Talia, watching the city pass through tinted windows. Nobody spoke. Talia reviewed something on her tablet. Augustus stared out the opposite window, taking a rare moment to relax.

The palace compound opened before them after passing through three separate security checkpoints, each more thorough than the last. The SUVs pulled into a private courtyard shielded from public view by high walls and carefully maintained trees.

Staff met them at the entrance. Annie, Felix, Gabriel, and Gilly were led toward their rooms with quiet efficiency. Annie waved over her shoulder. Gilly’s shirt drew a few looks from the palace staff when he immediately requested cold water. The dry heat disagreed with him.

Alexander, Talia, and Augustus were escorted deeper into the palace by a guard who moved with the kind of purposeful stride that suggested they were expected.

The room they were led to was nothing like the formal arbitration chambers from their previous visit. Plush couches arranged around a low table. Warm lighting. A spread of refreshments that looked untouched. No wall-to-wall security detail. No arbitrators.

Jasmine sat in an armchair, legs crossed, tablet on her knee. She looked up as they entered and gave Alexander a nod. The glance she shared with Talia carried more weight than a simple greeting. Then she turned and nodded to Augustus before returning to her tablet.

She’d been here for days, handling the coordination between all three parties. The slight tension around her eyes told him it hadn’t been easy.

Khalida Al-Hashara occupied one of the couches, dressed simply by her standards. Maximilian stood by the window, arms folded. He turned as they entered but didn’t speak.

Hyperawareness picked up the details before conscious thought could process them. The tightness in Maximilian’s shoulders. Khalida’s hands, still in her lap but not relaxed. The untouched refreshments.

Something was wrong.

“So,” Alexander said, settling across from the Sheikha. “What’s the emergency?”

Maximilian glanced at Khalida.

She met Alexander’s gaze directly. “We have credible intelligence that there will be an attack during the press release tomorrow.”

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