The house looked bare. The possessions of a lifetime, piled into two vehicles, awaiting the arrival of a Traveler. Hopefully, the portal would open soon.
That didn’t stop everyone from being on edge. There was no guarantee a portal couldn’t open up anytime and unload a strike force of attackers.
Which was why I was in Boar Armour and lugging a HEPAR around. The Greyhound - needed work. A lot of work.
Anne and the rest were in nanofibre weave - with one exception.
“Please put on a suit, Paul,” I groaned.
“It’s perfectly safe at the moment,” the subject of my current irritation replied. “Besides, wearing a suit right now doesn’t send the right message, PR-wise.”
“That won’t matter if a squad of terrorists portals in. We’ll have less than a second to react.”
“I have faith that your reputation will keep them at bay for a bit. Well… your reputation and the difficulty of actually hiring a Traveler. They’re usually booked solid for months.”
“They could blackmail someone to get them here.”
“You assume that a major terrorist organization - one willing to kill you - will have the willingness to put together a strike force capable of fighting you, the Phoenixes, and any other security we may have, as well as somehow blackmail a Traveler into creating a portal leading to our house.”
“It’s possible.”
“And you expect them to find volunteers for this strike force … with less than twelve hours notice.”
“... Some people work fast.”
A snort from Donna, standing in the corner. “Belessar, you beat five ultras today in your underwear.”
“You’re not helping,” I grumbled.
“Not even mentioning that you promised to kill anyone else who tries to ambush you. And that you’re number one on the leaderboards.”
“I like the way she thinks,” chuckled Paul.
I sighed. “At least you’re staying indoors…”
“I am aware that we have fullersteel reinforced walls, Andrew. Anything that gets through those isn’t going to be stopped by a nanofibre weave coat. Might as well be comfortable while we’re waiting for the Traveler.”
Anne strolled in, her suit immaculate. “The Evening Show is talking about us, guys.”
“Again?” I groaned. “The news never gets anything right.”
“But we should know what they’re saying,” Paul commented. “Alexa, play the Evening Show on television, please.”
I resigned myself to the inevitable.
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“Good evening, everyone, and welcome to a special episode of the Evening Show. I’m Constance Alderman.”
“And I’m Marcus Bunting,” the other anchor said. “The top story of this hour, of course, is the surprising rejection of Belessar by the Sled. Having the number one candidate on the leaderboards passed over in favour of number two is a rare event, but it does happen. However, no candidate has ever been passed over by the Sled thrice - much less six times.”
“To provide a more in-depth look into this phenomenon, we’ve invited a special guest today,” said Constance. “Dr. Frederick Haas is the director of the Stockholm Institute of Ultrahuman Research, a leading authority in the field of ultrahuman measurements, and one of the originators of the Leaderboard Algorithm - which, as you may be aware, is the program used to rank ultrahumans. Dr. Haas, welcome to the show.”
The screen cut to a bespectacled, white-haired scientist wearing a pullover and bow tie. The elderly Dr. Haas fiddled with the tie - which appeared to have a none-too-inconspicious microphone on it - and cleared his throat. “Ermm, hmm, hejsan everyone and god dag.”
“Good day to you too, Doctor. What do you make of the Sled rejecting Belessar?”
“Ermm, rejecting is the wrong word for this event.” Dr. Haas’ tone shifted, a tad more confident than before. “The Sled picked up the people it was supposed to pick up - in the correct order. The Leaderboard Algorithm is merely an attempt by humans to copy the logic used by the Sled, so we can better identify who is likely to be called.”
“I’m sorry, Doctor,” the male anchor - Bunting - said. “Do you mean that the Sled doesn’t follow the Algorithm?”
“Actually, the Algorithm is supposed to follow the Sled,” Haas replied. “The Algorithm is based on our research of several hundred ultrahumans, and captures seventeen different parameters to provide its rankings. However, we must remember that we only know of these seventeen; there may be more parameters, which have not been considered because no use cases have emerged for them. It is not that the Sled chose wrong - the Sled’s order of pickup would remain what it always was. Only, there is some factor the Sled considers that the Leaderboard Algorithm does not, and that is the reason Belessar’s ranking by the Algorithm is not accurate.”
“Has this ever happened before?”
“Certainly. In the early years, the algorithm kept giving us misleading rankings. However, every such ranking was taken and used to correct the model. This resulted in accuracy improving significantly, and 2068 the Leaderboard Algorithm has demonstrated consistently high reliability.
“However, every time an ultrahuman ranked number two by the Algorithm is picked up by the Sled, we compare number two and number one, and identify what factors are different between them. This has allowed us to expand the number of factors from the original fifteen in 2068 to seventeen today, and to fix accurate weightages for all the factors as well.”
“So, is it normal for a Leaderboard ranking to be off by at least six places?”
“Oh no, it is very abnormal.” Dr. Haas seemed more excited than worried. “This is an indicator that there may be an entirely new factor - one that has never appeared in any ultrahuman’s assessment before - for Belessar. Perhaps there is some uniqueness to his journey that we have never seen before!”
The two anchors exchanged glances. “Doctor,” Constance asked, “are you saying that Belessar is unique? So unique the Sled can’t figure out how to rank him?”
“Oh no, the Sled has certainly ranked him. What matters, however, is that it has considered some unique action he has taken and reduced his priority for pickup - significantly. As you know, number of aliens killed is a major factor in pushing up one’s rank. And in this area, Belessar is hundreds - if not thousands - ahead of every other ultra, even those who were picked up in his place.” Haas brightened. “Whatever the factor, its weightage in the Sled’s processes must be immense! Immense enough to push him far, far behind others with much lesser numbers in every other parameter!”
“Doctor,” Constance began, “Belessar is one of very few ultrahumans who has killed multiple heroes on their own side on the day they were to be called by the Sled. In fact, he has one of the highest human body counts amongst non-villainous ultras. Could either of these be factors affecting his ranking?”
“I wouldn’t dismiss either hypothesis,” Haas replied. “We need more evidence, of course, and our teams will be combing through the records of all six ultrahumans who were selected before Belessar. I am sure the results will be exciting!”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Constance smiled. “Well, there you heard it, folks - the Stockholm Institute warns that Belessar’s actions today - and his body count - could potentially be the reason behind his being passed over by Skyguard. Stay tuned for more updates!”
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I’m starting to think that nothing good comes from television news.
“Utter nonsense,” Donna scoffed. “If anything, killing Grumman should have gotten you a higher rank.”
Daisy Cullen rubbed her forehead in frustration. “Donna, how many times have I told you to not throw out wild guesses?”
“You mean like Doctor Stockholm just did?”
“Be that as it may,” Paul interjected. “Whatever the reason Belessar got passed over this time - it doesn’t matter. We are going to London. And from there…” He shrugged. “We’ll figure it out as we go along.”