by Andrew Watts
Pace turned to see Kim and Colt tied up outside the security shack.
Rinaldi met Colt’s eyes. Colt shook his head, disgusted. Rinaldi looked like he was about to say something, but Petrov whispered to him, and he turned and kept walking. Petrov studied the two men, gazed up at the sky, and then checked his watch.
He frowned, then turned to head into the tree line. The group split in two, with half going into one platform research lab, and the second half going into another.
The men entered the labs through the tree trunk-like doorways, which shut behind them.
“He probably wants the fires to kill us. Cleaner that way. He can deny ever being here,” Colt whispered.
“Those forest fires are definitely getting closer.”
“I know,” Colt said. “I’m surprised they aren’t hurrying more.”
The sky was covered in a reddish-brown haze, the sun just barely visible. Kim had begun to cough every so often. And the campfire smell was pervasive.
Kim said, “If they are topside, it won’t take them much longer now. That means Pace has helped them move whatever data they are trying to steal into one of the external lab segmented data servers. It will allow them to transmit via satellite.”
“How long do we have to stop them?”
Kim shrugged. “Depends what they took.”
“Assume the worst.”
“Maybe thirty minutes.”
“They’ll beat the fires, I think,” Colt said, checking his watch. “Not by much, though. Don’t they have your weather-prediction program? Why weren’t they in a bigger hurry? They must know they’re cutting it close.”
Kim shook his head. “I don’t know.”
They sat in silence for a while as the distant sound of the wildfire reverberated throughout the smoky sky. Branches falling. Bark burning. Large tree trunks snapping and bursting amidst raging flames.
Still far away. But getting closer.
Then a new sound.
The nearest guard heard it first, his eyes turning to the ridgeline.
Then Colt heard it too. The faint echo of helicopter rotors beating in the distance.
One of the guards began shouting, pointing toward the direction from which Colt and Kim had been captured.
“I can’t see anything through the smoke,” Colt said.
The security shack door slammed open. Some of the guards began yelling and running to a nearby pickup truck.
The dark silhouette of a Bell helicopter appeared through the smoke.
51
Ava’s heart raced as she craned her neck to look out the right-side helicopter window. Flying just above the treetops, they were circling the Mountain Research Facility, desperately looking through the haze for somewhere to land while avoiding obstacles: mountains, the approaching wildfire, and potentially, hostile gunmen.
“Looks like some vehicles are approaching,” Carl said into his headset microphone.
Ava looked in the direction he was pointing. Two small off-road security vehicles followed a large pickup truck. She recognized the Pax AI logo on the former.
The helicopter lurched left as a stream of yellow tracer rounds shot out from the bed of the pickup truck.
Ava was pressed into her seat as Gs came on the aircraft. They rolled out of the turn and dove low over a hilltop, hugging the trees even closer and speeding away from The Facility.
Ava heard Carl curse over the microphone.
“What’s wrong?”
She looked at the master caution panel in the center of the dashboard. A bunch of lights had illuminated, including one that flashed WARNING. Another said HYDRAULICS in bright red letters.
“Are we okay?”
Carl gripped the cyclic control stick like he was wrestling an alligator. He quickly flipped a metal switch and Ava felt a shudder. His face turned red, his hands jamming the controls.
“Brace for impact,” he said through gritted teeth.
Ava’s eyes went wide. The aircraft was getting lower and slower, headed into the short grass field inside the fence. They sliced through the top of a pine tree and the crash followed in what felt like slow motion.
The skids of the helicopter slid through the grass.
Carl used his body weight to push the left lever downward, his right hand racing to pull the engines off.
And then Ava gripped her seat as she felt them about to roll over.
Carl swore loudly, and just as the helicopter was about to tip, the momentum ceased, and it rolled hard to the other side, flattening out.
Carl said, “We should get away from here.”
Ava looked out the window. The pickup truck was already in sight, racing toward them. “It may be too late.”
Colt heard a crunching sound echo through the mountains from where the tracers had fired. The security men had fired a fifty-caliber machine gun mounted in the back of that pickup truck.
A few minutes later, the truck was barreling back down the mountain road. Colt continued to scrape at his zip tie, feeling the plastic fray, but not enough to make a difference. He looked at the two remaining security men near the shack. This might be his best chance to escape. Now, before the other security men returned. Colt knew he had little chance of succeeding, but he had to try. A wall of smoke and flames loomed in the distance.
The nearest security man stood over him, pointing a rifle at Colt’s chest and saying something in Russian. He repeated it, louder this time, moving the rifle and his head. Turn around. The guard wanted to see Colt’s wrists.
Colt dropped the rock. He got on one knee, making it look like he was going to turn, and then barreled toward the security guard with all his might.
It was a bad choice.
The guard easily side-stepped him, and Colt received a face full of dirt and the guard’s steel-toed boot to the rib cage.
The guard was shouting now, rifle raised. Through the ringing in his ears, Colt heard Kim yelling something unintelligible.
The guard trained his weapon at Colt’s head and lined up his eyes behind the sight, finger over the trigger. Colt tensed his body involuntarily.
Crack.
He shuddered at the sound of the rifle.
And then looked up.
The guard dropped to his knees, falling on his face.
Crack. Crack.
Two more guards fell to the gravel, blood spouting from their bodies.
The pickup truck was twenty-five yards away. Moshe was in the driver’s seat, aiming a rifle in their direction. He got out and jogged over, weapon still held up, scanning the area for more targets. Then he removed a knife from his belt and sliced through Colt’s and Kim’s restraints.
Colt stood slowly, still dizzy and wheezing from the guard’s beating, an odd ringing in his ears.
Kim kept yelling, “It’s yellow! It’s yellow!”
Moshe still held the rifle at the ready, scanning their surroundings. Ava and a man in a pilot’s uniform got out of the truck behind him.
“Colt, are you all right?” Soon she was at his side, crouched over him. Her hand gripped his shoulder.
Colt nodded, finally catching his breath enough to ask, “How are you here?”
“The security clearance wouldn’t transfer because of the fire. I had to bring it myself.”
Colt’s sense of awareness had returned now. He said, “What’s yellow?”
Ava frowned. “I’m sorry?”
Kim pointed toward The Facility door. The LED rectangle above had changed colors to yellow. “It’s yellow!”
“What’s that mean?” Colt asked.
“The safety protocol has been triggered. The fire must have set off enough sensors. They will have a mandatory thirty-minute break from any AI programs. They won’t be able to transmit.”
Moshe said, “Can we go inside?”
Ava held up the security card. “Yes.”
Kim nodded. “But we must hurry. They can manually override the system.”
Colt said, “We need a wa
y out of here; that fire is getting really close.” He could see the flames less than a mile away now, hear the sounds of tree bursts cracking loudly in the air.
Moshe nodded toward the pickup truck. “We will take the truck. But we must ensure they do not transmit the data. Yes?” He picked up the rifle from one of the guards he had shot and tossed it to Colt. “Here. Let’s go.”
Kim used Ava’s security card and his handprint to get them into the first treehouse-looking research lab. They entered through the trunk-like base, with Moshe leading the way, weapon pointing forward. Then they walked up a spiral staircase ending at a closed door.
Colt whispered, “What’s inside?”
“Just a small lab with monitors and communications equipment. We use these labs to transmit and receive research data remotely.”
“Are there any closed rooms inside?” Moshe asked.
“There’s a bathroom, but otherwise it is an open floor plan,” Kim said.
Moshe removed a canister from his vest and pulled the pin, nodding to Colt to open the door as he did. As Colt turned the handle and pulled the door open, Moshe threw the cannister inside the room and then slammed the door.
BOOM.
Moshe immediately opened the door and rushed inside, firing controlled bursts of gunfire from his rifle. Seconds later, smoke clearing, Colt counted three lifeless men on the ground.
“These are the guys we thought killed Kozlov,” Colt said.
“Where are the others? Pace and that FBI guy?” Kim asked quietly, looking unsettled as he scanned the dead bodies.
Moshe’s eyes remained emotionless. “Next building. Let’s go.”
Colt said, “Wait. Jeff, can you use any of the computers in here to stop them from transmitting in the other building?”
Kim made a face. “I can try.”
Colt checked his watch. “That fire’s going to be here soon. We need to be sure.”
Kim said, “I think we should just leave. If the fire comes, they’ll be dead anyway—”
“No,” Moshe said. “We must be sure.”
“If we don’t hurry, we’ll get cooked alive,” Ava said. “Come on.”
They raced down the stairs and were about to exit when Moshe held up his hand, halting them.
“What is it?” Ava asked. For the first time Colt saw she was carrying a pistol, holding it toward the floor as she stood.
Moshe said, “Someone just left the other building.”
“Who?” Ava asked.
Colt narrowed his eyes, looking over Moshe’s shoulder. “Petrov. He’s going for the truck. We have to stop him. That’s the only way out of here.”
Moshe moved out the door and took a knee, aiming his rifle and firing. The shot echoed through the woods, and Colt saw Petrov spin around. He was looking their way, apparently uninjured.
Moshe cursed and fired again, but a hollow click announced his empty magazine. Colt took aim with his rifle as Petrov got in the truck. He fired as the truck drove away, a spiderweb crack in the rear glass forming. He continued firing as the truck sped down the road and disappeared in the smoky haze.
Moshe cursed. “No one took the keys?”
Ava said, “I did.” She reached in her pocket and held out a key fob. “He must have had another set.”
Kim said, “We need to take shelter.”
Colt said, “Can we go in the main building and wait it out? Or will we be cooked alive?”
Kim shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. Our protocol is to evacuate. But the bunker is very sturdy. There is a good chance—”
“Good enough for me,” said Colt. “You go to the bunker and open the door. Stay there and make sure we can get in. We’ll go into the—”
A rattle of gunfire, and then tiny explosions of dirt kicking up around them.
Moshe pulled a pistol from his waist holster and fired two shots in the direction of the gunfire, hitting the shooter center mass and knocking him backward. Then a second man fired and hit Moshe, whipping him around. His gun clattered on the stone floor outside their lab entrance. Moshe was on the ground nearby, writhing in pain, blood spurting from his leg.
52
The remaining shooter was Petrov’s SVR subordinate, the man Ava had stuck in the neck in Italy. The Russian had opened the door of the second external lab and seen them firing at Petrov’s escaping truck. He had opened fire from behind a pine tree, hitting Moshe in the leg and wounding Carl.
Ava was now firing back with her pistol, pinning him down. Colt raced to the left, using the thick pines for cover while trying to flank him.
More rifle fire, and then silence. Colt was breathing heavily, sweating from the run and also from the increase in air temperature as the fire drew near. He looked back toward Ava. She was in the prone position, aiming her pistol, waiting.
Colt decided to move, braving a peek around the tree, searching.
Nothing there. The door was shut. The Russian man had either gone back inside or disappeared into the woods. The fire crackled and howled in the distance, and Colt felt the intense survival instinct grow inside him.
Shit.
He rose and began walking toward the second external lab, slowly at first, and then at a trot. In his peripheral vision, he saw Ava doing the same, Jeff Kim in tow, looking unhappy.
“He went inside,” Ava said as they met at the doorway of the second lab.
Kim placed his hand on the biometric scanner and Ava held up the security card. The light went green, and she opened the door, pistol forward.
Ava fired without hesitation.
Then fired twice more at a moving target. Soon she was through the door, Colt behind her. Ava had just dropped the Russian on the spiral staircase, and he was now draped over the lower rung.
They looked up the staircase to see an open door. Pace’s head was poking through the doorway, with a 9mm Beretta at his temple.
“He made me do it,” Pace said. “The transmission is about to start. I didn’t know.”
Rinaldi called from behind the wall, “Where’s Petrov?”
Colt and Ava crouched as they crept up the staircase, aiming their weapons at the doorway.
Colt fought his disgust and answered, “He’s gone, Rinaldi.”
“Bullshit, this was almost done. Why would he leave now? How are you even here?”
“Rinaldi, we can discuss that later. There’s a forest fire about to burn us alive.”
“It’s still hours away . . .”
“It’s minutes away. We need to get out of here and get to safety. Petrov took the only vehicle. Now can you please put the gun down and . . .”
The gun lowered from Pace’s head, and Colt saw Rinaldi’s hand push the scientist forward. Pace, stunned, turned to look back and then began walking down the stairway.
Colt kept his weapon trained on the door. When Pace reached them, he whispered to Colt without looking at him, “I didn’t really start the transmission. He just thinks I did.”
Colt nodded and turned to Ava. “Can you take Pace back? Make sure Kim and the others are in the bunker. I’ll be there soon.”
Ava hesitated, but then nodded and escorted Pace down the stairs and out the door.
“Rinaldi, it’s just us now,” Colt said.
Rinaldi stepped into the doorway. He was looking at something in his hand. A phone. “I don’t believe you about the fire.”
“Believe me. I saw it with my own eyes. We need to get back to the main building. It’s underground. We think it will protect us.”
“We used their weather-prediction algorithm. It’s live-updating based on where the fire is.” He looked down at the phone. “It says the fire is still more than two hours away. We—”
“Rinaldi. Come with me.” Colt held out his hand from fifteen feet down the steps. He didn’t know why Rinaldi’s phone said that, but it was wrong.
“I had good intentions,” Rinaldi said. “A lot of what I did was good . . .”
Colt thought about Heather Weng and J
ennifer Sims. “Okay.”
“You’re lying about the fire, aren’t you?” Rinaldi suddenly looked like a completely different man. “Trying to make me leave before this data transmits?”
“It’s not going to transmit.”
Rinaldi narrowed his eyes. “Sure it is.”
“Last chance. We need to go. I’m telling you the truth, Rinaldi.”
“Hard to know anymore,” Rinaldi said, sounding defeated. Then he stepped back and shut the door.
Colt took a breath and then looked at his watch. He was out of time.
Once they were inside the Mountain Research Facility’s underground building, Colt and the others could hardly tell the fire was blazing outside. Air quality was controlled by an internal system that could last days if necessary. The fire only lasted an hour or so.
Kim monitored the external security cameras until the lenses melted. The last ones to go were the cameras mounted on the water tower.
Those cameras showed the forest fire in all its horrific glory. Melting the external research buildings to liquid metal and stone and ash. Decimating the forest, the off-road vehicles, and the security shack.
The electricity went out and The Facility shifted to backup power. When that happened, the water tower spewed steam as the internal tanks drained into the coolant chamber of the underground server farms. The water was used up within seconds. Shortly after, without a main power source available, the servers overheated, and years of research and AI technology were wiped out.
Kim seemed like he was in shock when they exited The Facility hours later to an otherworldly landscape. Charred earth and wisps of smoke were all that remained.
53
One week later
Colt sat in Wilcox’s office in the Vancouver CIA station. The couch was worn and the room dark. Through the blinds Colt could make out some of the city’s taller buildings and the water beyond.
“You feeling better?” Colt asked. Wilcox had just returned from a few days of convalescent leave.