Prediction

by Tony Batton

  "Fifteen minutes max."

  "Any further word from your lawyer boss?"

  Michael shook his head. "I expect he won’t risk trying to communicate a second time."

  "Or he’s dead."

  "He’ll have found a way to survive. You have to acknowledge his resourcefulness."

  "For someone of his generation, sure - managing to make an encrypted call without being detected is quite something." Craig looked at his laptop. "I’m detecting traces of Darwin system activity. That means there’s an access point nearby. Anything showing on your glasses?"

  Michael tapped them. "Nothing."

  "Then let’s just hope we don’t need to rely on them."

  Fifteen minutes later, the Evolution came into view on their screens. The massive white craft, almost as large as the HMS Windsor, was making only five knots, not remotely testing its engines.

  "I thought they'd be in more of a hurry." Michael said.

  "To do what?" Craig asked. "If they stop anywhere, they'll be easier to detect."

  "I guess." Michael pointed at a screen. "So we approach under the rear where schematics showed the submarine docking point."

  "Let’s just hope Rose isn’t monitoring it."

  Michael tapped commands into the console; the submarine’s automated systems executed them. External cameras gave a view around the craft.

  "What is that?" Michael asked, pointing at a large black object attached to the underside of the Evolution, next to where they were docking. "Does Rose have her own submersible? It’s bigger than this one."

  "Don’t get distracted," Craig replied.

  The submarine locked onto the underside of the Evolution and the automated hatch confirmed an air-tight seal. Michael pressed a button and it opened.

  Maxwell Errington was waiting on the other side. "Are you guys a sight for sore eyes. You are so brave coming for me."

  "I won’t argue with that." Michael hauled himself into the Evolution.

  "But don't kid yourself that it's about you," said Craig, following up through the hatch.

  Errington's jaw fell open. "Craig Adams? How? I thought you were—?"

  "Dead? Yes, I hear that a lot. Let's just assume that I'm not and we can fill in the blanks later."

  "Well, then I guess we should get out of here."

  "Where is Darwin?"

  Errington raised an eyebrow. "Ah, I see. So I’m a secondary consideration?"

  Craig glared. "I don't know exactly how you ended up here, but I don’t trust you. Regina Rose was your client: I’m not convinced she isn’t still your client. I’m not sure your distress call wasn’t part of some subterfuge."

  "Easy," Michael said. "He called us. He’s on our side."

  "Actually no," said Errington, "I’m not."

  There was a cough from the doorway. All three men turned.

  Kara stood there, pointing an assault rifle. "Well, isn’t this a happy reunion."

  Michael’s eyes took in the dull metal of the barrel, levelled unwaveringly at him. "I figured you weren’t really dead. I guess you aren’t really a lawyer either."

  "I’m lots of things. Right now I’m a lady with a gun. Which means you do what I say."

  "Any chance that you might make a quick phonecall so they can cross one murder charge off my list at least?"

  She gave a smirk. "Who do you think set that situation up?"

  "Oh, right." Michael paused. "So you… Duncan…"

  She shrugged. "I never liked him. Now we need to get moving. We have a submarine to load up with a collection of tech toys, including Project Parallel." Kara smiled and turned her weapon towards Craig. "I'm not a patient woman, so be quick about it."

  Ninety-Eight

  The HMS Windsor approached within one kilometre of the Evolution. As yet there had been no response to their presence: no change of course or speed, no attempt to communicate.

  "The sub is still docked," Eversley said. "It should have departed by now."

  Saxton nodded. "I can’t raise them on the link. Something has gone wrong."

  "Well, there's no possibility that they're not aware of us. Let's hail them." He turned to the communications officer. "Broadcast on all frequencies."

  The reply was immediate. An accented, metallic voice filled the bridge. "This is Regina Rose, Commander of the Evolution. State your intentions, Windsor."

  Eversley stood up straight. "We require you release the hostages on board."

  There was a pause. "Nobody is on this vessel against their will."

  "We're coming aboard to verify. Prepare to receive my inspection delegation."

  "Permission denied, Captain. These are international waters; you have no jurisdiction or authority here."

  "I insist, Ms Rose. As you may have noticed, I have the firepower of a fully-armed cruiser, along with the airborne resources of an aircraft carrier." Eversley turned again to the comms officer. "Initiate the flyby."

  "I repeat: permission denied."

  Over the throbbing of the ship's engines, a thunderous noise exploded in the sky and two F-24 fighters roared towards the Evolution, skimming it by a few hundred metres. The sound waves blasted ripples in the ocean’s surface in all directions.

  "You should reconsider your position," Eversley said. "We'd prefer not to use force."

  "Impressive, Captain. But this vessel is more than capable of defending itself. Do not fly over our position again."

  Eversley rolled his eyes and waved his finger in the air, rotating it. The comms officer relayed the instruction and the F-24s wheeled tightly in the sky, gunning straight back for the super yacht.

  "You were warned," Rose’s voice announced.

  Saxton, watching the Evolution through binoculars, suddenly called out. "A missile launcher just rose out of the deck."

  "Pull up! Abort!" shouted Eversley. "Abort!" But the launcher had already rotated to target the fighter jets. A missile fired. Immediately the two jets split and pulled into vertical climbs, spitting out counter-measures in their wake. The missile closed the gap, but then exploded some distance short.

  "OK, they had their chance. Arm torpedoes," barked Eversley. "Fire on my mark."

  "But my people are on board!" Saxton cried. "You can't just sink it."

  Eversley turned to him. "I have 400 crew on this ship, and there are more than twice as many on the Exeter. I cannot place them in further danger." He pointed to the weapons officer. "Fire both tubes. If we’re fortunate, there will be survivors."

  Saxton shook his head in disbelief as he saw two lines of white water indicating the path of the torpedoes. They tore through the water, closing on the Evolution.

  Then suddenly they turned away from the super yacht, and kept turning.

  "What is going on?" shouted Eversley?

  The weapons officer was swearing at his console. "The guidance systems have been overridden. Something else is controlling them."

  "How?"

  "I don't know. Nothing should be able to do this." He hesitated. "They're coming back to us."

  "It's their computer," Saxton said. "It's predicted your codes and broken into your control systems."

  "That's impossible. Override it!" shouted Eversley. "I'm not about to be hit by my own weapons."

  "I can’t," replied the weapons officers. "My console is unresponsive."

  "Deck guns. Shoot them out of the water."

  "The guns are offline too."

  Eversley turned to Saxton. "What exactly have you led us into?"

  Saxton ran his hand agitatedly through his thinning hair. "Do your torpedoes have a zero-guidance fail-safe?"

  "Yes," said the weapons officer.

  "Then kill the power! Fast!"

  "To what?" asked a junior officer.

  "To everything."

  At Eversley’s nod, the junior officer ran across to a wall of controls and pressed a large button, then pulled a lever down. Every system went dead.

  The two torpedoes exploded well short of the Winds
or.

  "They need a constant command-signal to stay active," said Saxton. "Obviously their computer only took over directional control."

  "How did you know that?" Eversley asked.

  "That design specification was among the data I reviewed when my department audited the UK manufacturer." Saxton sighed. "Using any further tech would appear to be a bad move. We should withdraw and reassess."

  Eversley shook his head. "I can’t do that. But we can use something they can’t hack." He tapped the com link in his ear. "Hailing HMS Exeter. Do not use torpedoes or missiles. Bring your .50 calibre guns to bear, manual aiming only." He looked at the weapons officer. "Do the same. Fire everything we have."

  "Nothing on that ship," Saxton said, "can withstand a .50 calibre round."

  "They made us do this. I have no choice."

  Saxton watched on in horror as the guns opened fire.

  Rose’s submarine was larger, faster and better equipped than the model Michael and Craig had arrived on, with advanced stealth features. Carrying Michael, Craig, Errington and Kara, it powered smoothly away from the Evolution at more than double the speed the other submarine had been capable of. In the back were the micro-drones and Parallel’s components.

  After tying Michael and Craig to suitable anchor points, Errington had been conducting the conversation with Captain Eversley on the HMS Windsor, modifying his voice using the same gadget that produced Marcia's soft tones. They watched a live feed from the Evolution across multiple screens as the .50 calibre guns opened fire. Errington smiled, counted to ten out loud, then pressed a button. Flames filled the screens simultaneously, then the signal ceased.

  "Adios, Evolution," said Errington.

  "Didn't take them long to work out an approach," Kara said.

  "The Royal Navy won’t take chances when fired upon. So easy to provoke."

  "What on earth are you doing this all for?" Craig asked.

  "You always were a small-picture kind of guy, Craig. If you hadn’t been, you never would have tried to destroy what you created."

  "I did it to stop someone like you."

  "Except you didn’t. Pandora’s box was already open. There will be no closing it."

  "But all these people you’re killing, all these lives you’re ruining..."

  "Everything is part of the plan. You just can’t see it—"

  "I know why," Michael said suddenly. "This is no moment of opportunism. Your plan all along was to blame somebody else. Everybody will think it was Regina Rose, who presumably you had already killed. You've watched Rose all the way through her formulation of this initiative, waiting for your time to take over, feeding her ideas so quietly she had no reason to suspect what was happening."

  "Partly right," said Errington. "But I never had to take over, because I was always in charge. I set up Kinek when I acquired Darwin all those years ago."

  Craig swore. "You said you didn't know anything about technology."

  "One doesn't need to understand how things work to understand their value."

  "So this whole thing is driven off of your theft of somebody else's idea."

  "Pssh, Gregory Jenson has made a career out of stealing and re-packaging other people's ideas. And he is far from the only one to do it. I merely did the same to him." Errington turned to Kara. "How long to our destination?"

  "At our present speed, twenty-two hours."

  "Where are we going?" Michael asked.

  Errington smiled. "Somewhere delightfully fitting. We’ll have come full circle, so to speak."

  Michael adjusted his glasses, which continued to remain inactive. But as his fingertips brushed the metal, he felt the faintest vibration. "I can hardly wait."

  Ninety-Nine

  The .50 calibre guns spat fury at the luxury yacht. Saxton shouted at them to stop, but it was too late. The Evolution exploded in a massive fireball. On the deck of the HMS Windsor, everyone ducked involuntarily and covered their eyes as white light flared. Saxton failed to strangle a scream.

  "What on earth?" said Eversley. "What did we hit?"

  "A gas cylinder?" offered the weapons officer. "Or a large amount of raw explosives. Perhaps they were carrying ordnance?"

  Debris began raining down in a large radius. The skeleton of the vessel started to crumble and sink beneath the waters.

  "Nobody survived that," Saxton said, his face fixed. "They didn’t have a chance."

  Eversley shook his head. "They gave us no choice."

  Saxton stared at the carnage. Amid the horror, a thought was nagging him. Surely Rose would have known what to expect, would have known that the warships could fight back in a number of ways. It just didn't seem smart enough, given that Rose had access to the smartest system in the world. If she had been sophisticated enough to steal Parallel, and take over the navy’s electronic weaponry, why hadn't she fought more on her own terms? Was Rose brilliant enough to have engineered the whole heist, then stupid enough to start a fight she couldn't possibly win?

  Of course the warship had been all too ready to fire. That was clear now. Jenson had been right about their own interests. "You," he said to the Captain, "were just looking for an opportunity to destroy that craft."

  Eversley didn't blink.

  "You persuaded the Vice Admiral that the computer system was a huge risk."

  Eversley’s expression darkened. "You may be the Director of the Security Service and the Deputy Commissioner’s friend, but I serve to protect my country and this ship above all else. We’d heard the rumours about this Kinek organization and their Darwin system: they had to be destroyed."

  Saxton ran an agitated hand through his hair. "Have you scanned the area?"

  "The process is under way," said Eversley, "but from that explosion there won’t be anything left. I'm sorry for your people, but we did the right thing." He paused. "Of course I suppose this is a big setback on the development of your own new computer system?"

  Saxton shook his head. "The supercomputer on the yacht was something separate: something old and failing that I was told could never be recreated. We may never know now."

  "From what I understand, we’re better off."

  "I doubt our two rescuers or the hostages would agree." He blinked, then a thought occurred to him. "Did the Admiral get a grey file?"

  Eversley answered just a little too quickly. "A what file?"

  Saxton’s eyes narrowed. "And what about you? What did they have on you? Did you give up the codes to the torpedoes? Maybe they didn’t even need to calculate them."

  Eversley shook his head. "Mr Saxton, you seem to be in shock. I think it would be best all round if you leave this ship. I’ll have the helicopter fly you to the nearest port."

  Saxton shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, but I already have a ride."

  Saxton stood with Jenson, Millie and Kelly, watching the HMS Windsor recede behind them as Jenson’s own yacht, the Samantha, powered away.

  "I said you shouldn’t trust them," said Jenson. "Or rather that you could trust them to do exactly what Rose manipulated them into doing."

  "You really think anyone got out of that explosion?" Saxton asked.

  "I’m certain of it," Millie replied.

  "But the trackers stopped sending – they told me on the Windsor. Wouldn’t that be consistent with being blown up?"

  "No. There would have been a spike in the signal at the moment of the explosion. Instead it was cut off instantly."

  "So what’s your theory?" Saxton asked.

  "Some type of submarine," Millie replied. "Bigger than the one we used."

  Jenson folded his arms. "Then why wasn’t it detected?"

  "Actually," Saxton replied, "modern subs, with signal-ablating hulls, are very hard to detect. And it may have been some way off by the time of the explosion. There’s no reason to think whoever was communicating on behalf of the Evolution was actually still on it. Everything it did could have been controlled remotely."

  "You know," Millie said, "someth
ing’s been bothering me. Regina Rose would never design a plan where her yacht was sunk. It was her pride and joy. Is it possible Rose was also a pawn?" She shook her head. "Who else was there from the start? Who else knew everything about Darwin apart from him and the two of you?"

  "There was nobody else," Jenson replied. "Until us, Craig only discussed it with his wife."

  Saxton interlaced his fingers. "No, that’s not accurate. Errington was there. In the first meeting you insisted he be present. And we assumed Errington called us here to rescue him because that was what he told us."

  "Which," Millie continued, "was what we needed to hear."

  Saxton nodded. "What if we were in fact invited to bear witness to his death? It would be a spectacular misdirection."

  "He’s made a career out of using information to his advantage. We thought he might have links to Kinek. Maybe he was Kinek."

  "Morton dealt with someone called Marcia," said Saxton.

  "Did he ever meet her?" Millie asked. "Did he even know it was a her?"

  "Does it really matter?" Jenson asked. "What does it mean for us now if they’re escaping on a sub we can’t detect?"

  "Let’s look at the data, but assume it is Max we’re looking for. Where would he go?" Millie put her hands on her hips. "We’ll need some serious computing power even to have a hope of finding something useful quickly enough to do anything about it."

  Jenson smiled. "Just like in the basement, I have a lot of toys onboard. Follow me."

  An hour later they sat around a table, staring at the same computer screen. It displayed a location on a satellite map.

  "If they’ve gone anywhere, this is it. It’s the only place that adds up," Millie said.

  Jenson nodded. "Then let’s go there too."

  Kelly gripped his shoulder. "I think we all have some unfinished business."

  Saxton frowned. "Since they have this omniscient computer system, isn’t it possible that they would calculate we would work it out? More than that, might they even want it?"

  "I don’t care," Jenson replied. "We’re going anyway. But let’s see if there’s something we can do that it won’t predict."