“After Gray and Murphy were taken down,” Chavez said, resting her back against the closed door, her arms crossed in front of her chest, “Kowalski and his team managed to recover the network credentials from their biochips. For a few minutes they gained access to the larger BCI network.”
“We patched into a video feed,” Kowalski said, unable to hide his enthusiasm. “We only managed to get thirty seconds before we were shut out of the network, but this is what we saw.”
He switched the TV on with a remote.
It appeared that the feed was coming directly from a synthetic as they walked down a nondescript concrete corridor. When the synthetic turned to open a door and enter the room, he saw a face he recognized instantly.
“Steven, oh my God,” Jacob said. “What the hell?”
There he was sitting right there at a desk, a series of computer screens to the side. Behind him was a sign written in Cyrillic script. Steven, Jacob’s best friend, the one who went missing, the one he’d always accused Julian Gray of killing.
The synthetic whose video feed they were watching sat down opposite Steven and started speaking in a foreign tongue. Steven nodded, then leaned forward so he nearly filled the frame. His face became neutral as he stared back as though he knew he was being watched.
A smile stretched slowly across his face before he said, “That’s all you get to see. Say hello to Jacob for me.”
The feed cut off, switching to black.
“Holy…” Jacob said, turning to face Kowalski. “What the hell was that?”
“A feed directly from one of Gray’s synthetics… or whoever is actually making the damn things,” Kowalski said. “You know that guy?”
Jacob stood, clattering the crutches to the floor. “Know the guy? He’s the sole reason I’m involved in all this. He went missing years ago after some issue with Gray. I always suspected Gray of killing him. How’s he there… wherever that is? Is it even him?” Jacob’s heart thudded against his chest as he tried to wrap his head around what he’d seen. It was undeniable. That was his best friend.
The betrayal stung, striking at his heart. All those years, Jacob had thought he was dead. All those years he’d investigated his disappearance. All those years focusing on Julian Gray!
“The sign,” Jacob said suddenly. “It looked like Russian.”
“We’re having that analyzed,” Chavez said. “But that’s not the worst news,” she added. “While on the network we caught a glimpse of the number of interconnected, active BCI nodes.”
“How many?” Emma asked.
“Forty-three thousand. I’ve just run their coordinates; most are in Eastern Europe. We don’t know how many others might not be activated or on subnetworks,” Kowalski said.
Jacob’s jaw dropped as he contemplated the number.
“They’re building an army,” he said, leaning against Emma for support. “Everything that’s happened is just the start of it.” He slumped into a chair, suddenly feeling stunned at the thought of everything they had survived ultimately meaning nothing. If that was the effect of a handful of synthetics, what could forty-three thousand achieve?
Agent Vega entered the room. “Do they know?” she said.
“Just seen it,” Kowalski said.
Vega stood in front of Emma and Jacob. “I know it’s asking a lot of you both considering everything you’ve gone through, and I realize there are certain things that will require your attention in the meantime, but I spoke with President Bruckheimer this morning about you two.”
“Oh?” Jacob said, staring up at her in befuddlement. “Why? What did he say?”
“Once we realized your friend was tied into all this, and we discovered there’s a sea of synthetics out there waiting, there was only one course of action.”
She took two black wallets from her pockets and handed them to Emma and Jacob.
With a shaking hand, Jacob opened the wallet to see an FBI ID card with his face and name printed on it. “Your president needs you. Hell, the U.S.A. and probably the world needs you.”
“I can’t believe this,” Jacob said. He, the conspiracy theorist and antigovernment campaigner, now a fed. It blew his mind. His eyes darted across the ID, trying to find signs that it was fake, that it was all a joke or a dream.
“This is so cool,” Emma said, her face showing a grim determination. “I’m in. If those damned things want a war, we’ll give them a war.”
“What about you, Jacob?” Vega asked. “You want to work with me on this?”
The image of Brian’s death came to him only to be replaced with Steve’s smug face as he stared through the synthetic’s feed, taunting him.
Staggering up to a standing position from his chair, Jacob looked around the room, realizing these were now his colleagues. He looked Vega in the eye. “Count me in. I’ll do whatever’s necessary.”
She clapped him on the shoulder. “Great, we start now. First, we’ve got a briefing with President Bruckheimer and your new boss, Director Connolly.”
“And then?” Jacob asked.
“Then, Agents Miller and Jenkins, you two and the rest of my team will take the war to XNA Industries.”
Click here for the sequel: CONSEQUENCE
OTHER TITLES
Colin F. Barnes:
Code Breakers: Alpha
Code Breakes: Beta
Code Breakers: Gamma
Code Breakers: Delta
SALT: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller
Darren Wearmouth:
First Activation
Second Activation
Sixth Cycle
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Two heads are often better than one. Darren Wearmouth and Colin F. Barnes joined forces in 2013 to write thrilling tales of science and adventure with characters we can all relate to. Exploring the ‘what if’ scenarios of the post-apocalypse and where advanced technology will takes us, Wearmouth & Barnes seek to bring unique experiences to readers.
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Table of Contents
All Rights Reserved
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Other Titles
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About The Authors
Sequence Page 28