Pandora's Brain

by Calum Chace

  ‘He set up a Gmail account for us both to use. I’m supposed to report back by writing a draft but not sending it.’

  ‘Yes, that’s a sensible idea,’ Norman mused. ‘It was standard procedure in the intelligence community for a while. It’s not foolproof, but for most civilian purposes it’s still a reasonable approach to secure communications. When is he expecting you to communicate by?’

  ‘No deadline. Just as soon as I can. Should I post something now?’

  Norman was thinking fast. ‘No. As you say, he may well have you under surveillance and he would be surprised and suspicious if he received a communication from you if he knows you are still inside this building.’ He turned to Vic. ‘You know, I think we should have security keep an eye out for anybody suspicious-looking, hanging around the Embassy entrance.’

  ‘But won’t he also suspect something is wrong if I just stay here?’ Matt asked. ‘If you’re right that he is having me watched, shouldn’t I go home and come back later?’

  Norman was staring down at the floor. He contemplated Matt’s suggestion for a moment before shaking his head. ‘Ideally, perhaps. . . But no, I don’t think we can afford to let you leave this building until after the raid – for your own safety as much as anything else. I think we’re just going to have to take the risk that he becomes suspicious.’

  Matt tilted his head slightly. ‘You said you can’t let me leave ‘as much for my safety as anything else’. Am I allowed to ask what the ‘something else’ is?’

  Norman looked up and smiled at him. ‘You’re an impressive young man, Matt. You’ve been through hell and back, and yet you’re as sharp as a tack.’

  He exchanged a significant glance with Vic, and continued.

  ‘Truth is, Matt, you can help us. We’re going to have to check your story out, but that won’t take long, although I must warn you that if you’re lying, your world is going to get real unpleasant real fast. But my sense is that you’re telling the truth. Assuming that you are, you may be able to provide us with some information about the ship, or about Ivan’s intentions and capabilities. I know you think you don’t have any information, but you never know what little details might come in handy.

  ‘But there’s another thing. Your father’s predicament makes our reasons for mounting this raid all the more compelling. We do have evidence that Ivan has killed those two scientists, but we’re not sure it would stand up in a court of law. If what you’ve told is true then your father’s kidnapping – and yours – are compelling justification for our action. We need to maintain the support of various politicians for this operation, and the first concern of any politician is always to cover his own rear end. Having you with us – physically as well as metaphorically – is valuable.’

  ‘Fair enough,’ Matt said, nodding thoughtfully. Then he looked up at Norman. ‘Those scientists. I never met them. It was just a cover story that Ivan gave me to explain my reasons for jumping ship.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Norman said. ‘Maybe he suspects that we know about their disappearance, and he wanted your story to hold water. But what arrogance to take the risk of drawing our attention to a couple of murders . . . My god, but he’s a cocky son-of-a-bitch!’

  Matt’s face was grim. ‘If I’m with you, I can be sure that you have done everything humanly possible to keep my father safe. Let’s understand each other. You want Ivan out of the AI business, and you want him brought to book for murder. So do I. But most of all, I want my father back. Alive.’

  NINETEEN

  Norman left the room, saying he was going to get someone to run some checks on Matt’s story. While he was out, Vic did his best to console Matt, while maintaining a certain distance in case the story didn’t stand up.

  ‘Before we head down to the situation room – assuming your story checks out – I think we should arrange for your mother – and your uncle Leo – to be brought here. I’m sure they will feel the same way about being present as you do, and there is also the question of the risk to them. If Ivan has either or both of them under surveillance, there is the possibility that he may order them taken hostage once he becomes aware of the attack. What do you think?’

  Matt couldn’t speak. Feeling overwhelmed, and with tears in his eyes, he nodded agreement. It would be a huge relief to have them join him, and to be able to tell them the truth at last. The situation he found himself in was better than he could have hoped for a few hours ago, but his nerves were frayed, and his father was still in grave danger.

  Matt and Vic sat together in silence for a few minutes, each lost in his own thoughts. They looked up as Norman opened the door and came back into the room. He was smiling grimly.

  ‘Looks like you’re in the clear, kid. The story about your father checks out, and our agent has reported helicopter take-offs and landings on Ivan’s ship which match the movements you describe. I have people following up a few more details, but I think we can assume you’re on the level.’

  Matt made no attempt to disguise his relief and his excitement. ‘Shall I call my mum and Leo now?’ he asked eagerly.

  ‘Here, use this phone,’ said Vic, smiling at Matt’s relief and enthusiasm. ‘I told him that we should bring his mother and uncle here,’ he added to Norman.

  Norman nodded, but held up a warning finger. ‘But listen. You can’t tell them anything about the operation until they get here. Just tell them there is an emergency and they must get here, to the Embassy, as soon as they can. On second thought, if Leo is in London he will be able to get here quickly enough under his own steam, but let’s send a car to collect your mother: it will be unmarked but will have police sirens so it won’t get held up in traffic when it reaches London. We could send a helicopter, but that would tip Ivan off if he has people watching your house.’

  *

  Matt was taken aback by the size of the situation room. He gazed around in amazement at the space, which must take up almost the whole floor plan of the building. There was a massive table in the middle, but what first drew his attention were the huge screens which covered most of the walls. It was like walking into a wrap-around IMAX cinema. The table too, was a screen – in fact it turned out to be touch-sensitive, and could be used to manipulate images on the walls as well as on its own surface. He looked upwards, and was relieved to see a standard suspended grid ceiling, with nothing projected onto it. Norman was quietly enjoying Matt’s reaction. He followed the young man’s eyes upwards. ‘Yeah,’ he grinned, ‘apparently they thought about it during the last re-fit, but decided it would be a bit over the top.’

  ‘This room is one of the safest places in the whole of London,’ he continued. ‘It’s six floors underground, and it was designed during the Cold War to withstand a direct hit from a nuclear warhead. Through there,’ he gestured towards a pair of heavy metal doors, ‘is a storeroom with enough food and water to keep thirty people alive for six months, so that survivors could wait here until the immediate radiation fallout had dissipated, and also until the threat from less well protected survivors had receded.’

  It took a moment before Matt realised what Norman meant. He stared at the soldier, appalled. ‘You mean . . . you mean until everyone else had finished dying?’

  ‘Exactly,’ Norman said, grimly. ‘In a nuclear war, the people who died instantly in the initial blasts would be the lucky ones.’

  Matt shook his head, feeling suddenly oppressed as the horror of the world the planners of this room were preparing for became a backdrop to the peril of his personal situation. ‘We’re such an inventive species, aren’t we?’ he muttered bitterly.

  Seeing his weariness, Vic put his hand on Matt’s arm. ‘We’re not all bad, Matt. Yes, there is Hiroshima, the Holocaust, the barbarity and the grinding poverty. But there is also love, art, science – and humour. Think of Newton and Einstein, Michelangelo and Mozart. I think Mother Nature should hang on to us for a bit longer; don’t you? At least until we have fashioned our successor.’

  Norman smiled, join
ing Vic in trying to lift Matt’s spirits. ‘Vic is the team philosopher. Anyway, Matt, welcome to the control room for Operation Drunken Sailor.’

  Norman guided him towards a group of a dozen soberly dressed men and women who were conferring in front of a giant screen showing the schematic of a ship. Matt knew immediately that it was Ivan’s.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Matt Metcalfe. Matt is joining us today because his father is being held hostage on that ship.’

  The analysts’ surprise at this news was visible, but professionally muted: just a couple of cocked heads and raised eyebrows. Norman summarised the series of events which had brought Matt here, and one of the analysts stepped forward and offered Matt his hand.

  ‘Welcome aboard, Matt,’ he said, as Norman left to speak to Vic. ‘My name is Jeff, and my job is to obtain as much information about this vessel as possible, and make sure everyone on the team knows exactly what they need to know about it. I’ll let the others explain what they do as we go on. Let’s start with very brief introductions, and then jump right in by debriefing you about your experience on board the ship.’ He stopped himself, and smiled at Matt. ‘Sounds as though you’ve had a rough time, young man, so let us know if we push you too hard. We are liable to get a little task-orientated on these occasions.’

  ‘I’m happy to help however I can,’ Matt replied, ‘I didn’t see much of the ship, because I was unconscious both arriving and leaving. But I’ll do whatever I can to help you guys keep my father safe.’

  One by one, the others came forward to shake his hand. It didn’t take Jeff long to find out what Matt could add to the information they already had about the ship.

  Norman and Vic rejoined the group. ‘As far as we know,’ Norman explained ‘Ivan has no clue about this operation yet. He thinks his location is unknown, and he will probably over-estimate the defensive capabilities of his vessel. That ship has pretty good firepower, but our agent on board will disable that as the strike team arrives on the scene. We know he has at least a couple of highly trained military personnel in his organisation, but we don’t know whether they are on the ship at the moment, and our team outnumbers them comfortably. So we have the advantages of surprise, superior combat skills and superior communications technology. The main unknown and risk we face is that we don’t know what kind of fallback plans Ivan might have.’

  ‘Yes,’ Matt nodded, reflecting on some of Ivan’s comments. ‘He thinks he is competing with the US military. He takes that idea seriously. He will be well prepared.’

  As Norman and Matt were speaking, Jeff took a call. ‘Here we go,’ he said. ‘We’re about to go live with the assault team.’

  They turned back to the screen showing the schematic of the Eleusis. Some of Jeff’s colleagues were tracing the ship’s defence circuits again, re-checking one last time that there were no fallback systems which had not been identified. There were three main circuits that needed to be shut down, and the plan was for the agent on board to cut all three simultaneously.

  ‘Gentlemen, we’re ready to patch in Captain Fitch and his team,’ Jeff said, putting on a pair of headphones. ‘Good afternoon, Captain. This is agent Jeff Webb speaking, from the situation room at the US Embassy in London. I’m going to put you on speaker. And please ask your colleague with the main mission camera to transmit. Over.’

  ‘Copy that,’ came a crackly voice. The sounds of a helicopter boomed into the room, and at the same time a huge, grainy image of a soldier squatting inside a cabin flooded the screen, bumping the schematic onto a neighbouring wall. A couple of other stern faces were just about visible behind Captain Fitch.

  ‘Captain, you’re talking with Colonel Norman Hourihan, and members of my team. Also in the situation room here is the son of the scientist who is being held hostage on the Eleusis. I know you’ve been briefed about this already.’

  ‘Yes sir. We are aware of Dr Metcalfe’s situation, and we will do everything in our power to protect him. As you know, this is a Navy Seals operation, and I’m privileged to be leading some of the most highly -trained forces in the world on this mission. We have good intel, we have the advantage of surprise, and I’m confident this will be a clean and successful mission.’

  Matt was unsure whether he was expected to say something, and looked to Norman for a cue. He felt completely out of his depth. Fortunately Norman seemed not to expect anything from him, and carried on his conversation with Fitch.

  ‘Thank you, Captain. That’s good to hear. What is your current location, and when do you expect to reach the Eleusis?’

  ‘We’re about twenty miles east of the Eleusis, Sir. We should have visual contact in a few minutes. Our forward reconnaissance camera drones should be on location in a couple of minutes, and we’ll relay you the visuals we get from them as soon as we . . .’ He broke off, interrupted by one of his men, and then spoke again. ‘OK, here we go.’

  ‘Put the drone visuals up on the screen to the right, would you, Jeff?’ Norman asked.

  Jeff was controlling the screens with a tablet. He made a couple of sweeping gestures across the device, and an image of open sea appeared to the right of the picture of Captain Fitch.

  ‘The drones are monitoring the ship until the choppers arrive,’ Jeff explained, ‘and making sure the crew isn’t showing any sign of awareness of the operation. They are too small to be picked up by the ship’s radar. When the choppers arrive the drones will move in closer: some of them will take up positions above the ship and some of them will actually move inside it.’

  ‘Captain Fitch will issue an ultimatum to the ship’s captain,’ Norman picked up, ‘telling him to accept a boarding party or be fired upon. We’re not going to give Ivan a whole lot of time to think about that: our agent on board will cut the defence circuits at the same time as we hail the ship, and if Ivan doesn’t surrender immediately, the first helicopter will make a rapid landing, and the boarding party will assume control of the vessel using whatever means necessary.’ He turned to speak to the Captain. ‘Captain, will it be your helicopter that makes the initial landing?’

  ‘Negative sir, that will be Bravo chopper. Captain Graveney is responsible for the initial set-down.’

  ‘Copy that, captain.’

  ‘I’m going off-line now, colonel: we’re just a couple of minutes out. I’ll come back on-line when the operation is complete. Meanwhile you can listen in on general comms. Out.’

  ‘Understood. Good luck, captain. Bring your men back safely. Out.’

  ‘And my dad!’ added Matt – to himself, but audibly.

  ‘Amen to that, son,’ replied Norman, turning towards him. ‘Captain Fitch is a very good man. If anyone can pull this off, he can. He was selected in part for his experience in pacifying hostiles in hostage situations. Don’t forget we also have an agent on board the Eleusis, and we fully intend to bring him home safely too. This is not the most challenging mission Captain Fitch has ever led, I can assure you of that!’

  On the main screen, Captain Fitch was addressing his men, using a different channel from the one audible in the situation room. His speech was accompanied by a series of fast, sharp hand movements, and as he spoke and gave his final orders he was also checking his equipment. The other men were mostly in shadows, also making final equipment checks. When they looked towards the camera, Matt could see a calm determination in their eyes that allowed him to hope that this would work out well.

  On the second screen, the image of the ship was clearer now. It looked peaceful, unsuspecting, making gentle headway in calm waters. The drone whose camera was on-screen seemed to be no more than fifty feet above the sea, but so far it was evidently inaudible and invisible from the Eleusis.

  This was the first time Matt had seen the whole ship, apart from the schematics, which had not given him such a good idea of its size. It was huge, almost like a cruise ship: as big as any billionaire’s yacht that he had seen pictures of. At least, he thought, there is plenty of room to land helico
pters on the thing.

  TWENTY

  As the helicopters approached the Eleusis, the screen with the feed from the leading drone showed the sea bristling with the downdraught of the choppers’ blades. The sea was calm, but the afternoon light was fading, which added to the sense of urgency in the situation room.

  Other screens came online in the situation room as new feeds became available, some from drones, some from soldiers’ head cams. As the drones closed in on the ship, Matt could see people running around on her decks. Soon some of the screens began to show individual crew members. The choppers kept their distance for the time being, circling the vessel, hunters stalking a big beast. They knew they would bring their prey down if they were skillful, but they also knew it could inflict grievous damage on them in the process.

  The ultimatum issued to the Captain of the Eleusis rang round the situation room. Jeff was admitting just one audio feed to accompany the numerous visual feeds.

  ‘This is the US Navy to the Captain of the Eleusis. We have a warrant to search your vessel under international Admiralty law. Prepare to be boarded. Do not resist, or you will be fired upon. Signal your compliance immediately.’

  The choppers held back, waiting for a reply. There was intense activity on board the Eleusis, crewmen running in all directions, some carrying small arms. But there was no reply to the ultimatum. Two of the drones converged on the bridge, and screens showed the images they captured. Ivan was having a furious argument with someone.

  ‘That’s the Captain,’ said Norman. ‘Looks like he’s telling Ivan they have no choice but to surrender, but Ivan’s not having it.’

  ‘Will Captain Fitch be seeing this too?’ Matt asked.

  ‘You bet,’ replied Norman. ‘Of course he’s got a hundred other things to worry about at the same time, but my guess is this is the feed he’s paying closest attention to right now.’