Oracle's Hunt

by A. Claire Everward

  She wondered if she would see her family again. And Donna and Patty and baby Greg. They had been on her mind the entire day, but she didn’t call, wouldn’t know what to say. Wondered if she would see Frank again. Would he be all right, would he blame himself for this? Would he remember enough of who she was to know that it was simply something she who had become Oracle all those years ago would do? She wondered what would happen when Oracle was not there the next time alliance soldiers needed her, if they would have a chance of surviving without her, how many would have to go through the same loss she herself carried with her just because Oracle was not there to save their loved ones. Wondered what the future, Oracle’s, hers, could have looked like.

  Wondered what could have been with him.

  That was all she could do now, let these thoughts chase through her mind. She had already made her decision, and all that remained was to carry it out. Bring it to this moment, in this night, to her here, in her car, on this empty road.

  Waiting for Elijahn to attack. Now there was nothing more to think about, except those who mattered. There was nothing else she could do. She was all planned out, thought out. Feared out. Yes, that too.

  She was still deep in thought when the black giant of a car hit her from behind. New fear surged, but she reacted as she’d planned.

  If she was the decoy, had set the trap, someone had to be there to close it. She pressed the emergency button on her phone, ready in her hand. It would bring her directly to an emergency line, and she would be automatically identified. Being Oracle, she figured half of IDSD’s combat forces stationed in the complex she had just left would be on Elijahn before he knew what was happening. Yes, she had planned this carefully.

  Oracle was not about to go down easily.

  She waited, pressed the button again. Nothing. She said Frank’s name, which should have prompted a call to him. Nothing. And suddenly she knew. She activated the media screen in her car, touched the GPS. Nothing.

  All outgoing signals were being jammed. Elijahn was doing to her what he had done to the data center.

  She focused. She needed him stopped. She had to—

  The black car struck her again, and another appeared on her left. She couldn’t let them stop her, had to gain time. If they killed her and disappeared, Elijahn would have what he wanted. The clout, the freedom to do as he pleased. To hurt God knew how many others.

  She accelerated the powerful car and swerved across the road and into the stretch of wild-growing vegetation that flanked it on the other side. It wasn’t the cover of vegetation she was after, it was the clear ground it gave way to, as opposed to the other side, on which the vegetation continued too far toward the woods. Her car wouldn’t make it through it, it wasn’t an all-terrain vehicle. It was built for speed and agility on a paved road, and was nothing like the harsh terrain monsters that were following her, one still immediately behind her, having swerved across the road along with her, and the other taking more time to turn but another one joined them from the same side of the road she was now on and was preparing to push her off it, it seemed. She couldn’t allow that, had to be in control of where she was going, for a while longer at least.

  She reached the downward slope that she knew would be there. That was the thing about being her, she could call up current aerial photos of the area around IDSD without anyone knowing. She knew every stretch of the place, from fields and woods to paths and roads. She knew where to go so that her pursuers would be easy to see, a location where they could be caught but where there would be no one else around who might get in the way, get hurt. But she still had to contact those who could catch them. Otherwise, it would all be for nothing.

  She held her breath, then let it out in relief when her car didn’t flip over as she descended the steep slope. But as she straightened the car, sped forward again, her pursuers were too close. Their vehicles were far most suitable for this than hers.

  She didn’t hear the shots, but she felt them hit the car. The wheels went, she had no idea how many. She skidded, swerved and came to a stop on soft ground.

  Okay. Okay. She breathed in, tried to force her heartbeat to slow, failed. Okay. That was to be expected too. Fear was to be expected. This was her, here, alone, about to face her killers. All she had was her plan, her mind. She was no soldier, had never been in combat, never held a gun.

  Never sat in her car in the dark of night, in an empty field, alone, surrounded by a group of militants sent to kill her.

  Another shot to the car. A shout.

  No more shots. She turned to look. The SUVs had come to a stop some distance behind her, their headlights on her. No one was coming out.

  In the SUV closest to the car, Elijahn sat beside the driver. He sneered. The men were awaiting his order but he didn’t give it yet. He had her now. This had gone better than he expected. She was alone. And she had no way of contacting anyone. No way of moving. An order from him and his men would flow out of the cars and surround her.

  His phone rang. He listened, and the sneer disappeared, replaced by an expression of dark rage. “Meet us,” he snapped, and disconnected. Without taking his eyes off the woman, sitting in her now useless car, he made a call of his own. As he listened to the report, his hand tightened around the phone, knuckles white. He repeated the order, then terminated the call. If the hacker was alive, he would kill him all over again. The stupid man had missed it, and had allowed the two others Elijahn had wanted killed that night to get away. When his men had gotten to their homes, these were empty, they and their families long gone. But that meant that IDSD had somehow discovered someone had been inside its computers and had taken their names, which, under the circumstances he himself had caused, would have led to their being taken away. It really was a pity he had killed that incompetent fool so painlessly.

  Elijahn’s eyes narrowed. No matter.

  He still had her.

  Her phone rang.

  Lara stared at it, laying on the passenger seat beside her. Picked it up slowly. Answered.

  The low laugh on the other end of the line made her blood freeze. “Interesting, I think, that you are all that remains.” His tone of voice was mild, the accent clear, the foreign trace almost imperceptible.

  “That’s the way it should be.” She struggled to keep her voice calm even as her heart beat fast. She thought hard. He must have released the signal interference. She pressed the emergency dial again, tried to open another call in parallel.

  “No. No, that will not work.”

  She froze.

  “Yes, I can see all your dialing attempts. I have blocked all signals to anyone who might help you. There is no one coming. No help. You are mine.”

  Blocked all signals to anyone who might help me, Oracle thought. That’s what you think.

  She terminated the call and quickly pressed a button on the small device she had laying on her knees. The signal jammer activated a pulse, a brief, powerful one, canceling his interference and clearing the single frequency she had selected in advance for the fraction of a second it took Elijahn’s signal jammer to recalibrate and jam that frequency again. Which was exactly what she had assumed it would do. She had known if he would decide to use one, it would be so much more sophisticated than what she could obtain in the limited time she’d had and without alerting anyone to what she was doing, certainly not when she was being watched as she had been.

  But that one frequency, that split second, was all she needed. Her analysis of his possible courses of action had shown he would jam all her outgoing signals, and likely take special care to block certain call destinations he would think she would attempt to reach. So when she jammed him back, she also sent out a preset message to the one person he would never think of. Herself.

  The code she sent activated her home system and, unbeknownst to Elijahn and far enough from his reach, it now made a secure call. When the call was answered, and it was answered immediately, the system automatically initiated a call back to her. An incoming c
all.

  She barely managed to speak when it was cut off again. Her phone went dead, and then the signal returned. It rang. She answered.

  “Well. You are a feisty one, aren’t you? Nice try. But now your phone is entirely controlled by me. You will either speak to me, or to no one.”

  “No one sounds rather nice right now.” She was breathing more easily. She’d gotten through. Elijahn could kill her, would, she knew. But what she had just done would be enough for the right people to locate her. They would get him.

  “And yet, I would like to continue this little chat.”

  He was enjoying himself, she could hear it in his voice. Still, it suited her. As long as his arrogance drove him to speak he would remain here, increasing the odds that he would be caught by those she knew would come. And it wasn’t as if she had any other choice.

  “So tell me, what is that title of yours, critical mission expert? And why do you have all that clearance? Why are you so important? Yet, here you are, of all my targets, left behind while the others are gone, disappeared.”

  “Safe from you.”

  “You think so?” His laugh was harsh. Cruel. “No, I will still get them. Oracle will be destroyed no matter how many I have to kill to get to it.”

  Her eyes went cold. She calmed, the fear forgotten. No, you won’t, she thought. You won’t go after them. She had known she might have to do this, had known it was the most likely outcome, and yet now that the time came it was more difficult than she had thought it would be. But there was, simply, no other choice.

  “There is no need for that. You have who you are looking for.” Her eyes closed as she gave herself up. “There is no Oracle without me.” The words, their true meaning, reverberated throughout her, throughout all that she was.

  In the SUV, Elijahn leaned forward in surprise. “What? That machine, that artificial intelligence? You are the one behind it?”

  So that really is what he thinks, she thought. An AI. But then it had made the most sense from the start. It was what those who didn’t know the truth usually thought. Even Donovan had.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “You are the one who created it, or the one who uses it?”

  “Both.”

  “No. That cannot be. The others have the background.”

  “You checked theirs, so you checked mine.” Her voice was calm. She was focused. “Yet what have you found about me?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You are smart enough to put two and two together, Elijahn.”

  As she said his name it was his turn to start. “So you know who I am.”

  “Who else would want Oracle destroyed as much as you do? After all, we destroyed you, Oracle and I.” She had to convince him, and letting him know what she knew was her best bet. “I know who you are, and I know about the data center and about the names you took from IDSD. I’ve known about it all for a while now.”

  “Well.” He leaned back. So she knew. Which meant that blasted IDSD knew.

  He didn’t care. It didn’t matter to him anymore. He had the person behind Oracle. She had to be, it explained so much. The mystery woman with the high clearance and the impenetrable secrecy surrounding her.

  “Why don’t you just kill me?” This was getting to be a bit odd. This conversation, his people doing nothing. His behavior. The risk he was taking by not getting this over with and running.

  “If I was going to kill you, I would have done it by now. Do you really think I need all these people to do that?”

  She threw a look back at the black SUVs. Men were pouring out.

  “No, I think I am going to take you. We will spend some time together, you and I. See what you know. See what you can give me. Perhaps you and I can create another Oracle together. And perhaps . . . who knows.” He let out a low laugh, not bothering to hide its meaning. “You will, I believe, like my headquarters. Perhaps you might even learn to like my home. You look better than your photo, by the way.”

  Oh, God. Oh my God. He wasn’t going to kill her. The implications, all of them, were too unbearable for her to wrap her mind around.

  She snapped out of it. Reached slowly under the steering wheel. Opened a small, hidden touch panel. Pressed it with the tip of a finger, heard the biometric identifier beep once.

  A small light started blinking, one only the driver, she, would know was there.

  Come on. Come on already.

  “You know what, I will be gracious. You have one minute. One. To think about it. Come to me, before I come for you myself.”

  The call disconnected.

  She turned around in her seat. Behind her and to the left, Elijahn’s men stood, scattered. The passenger side door of one of the SUVs opened and a man came out. He walked several steps toward her, then stopped, clearly illuminated by the vehicles’ headlights. She could see Elijahn clearly now. His face. Those eyes, on her.

  She took a good look at him. Then turned away. Strangely calm now that she’d made her final move, that it was her move, that it was she who initiated the sequence that would blow up her car in thirty seconds. She closed her eyes. This would work. Even Elijahn’s technological ploys couldn’t stop this. And he had no idea what she’d done. Even if he and his men tried to get close, get her out of the car, there would be no time, the self-destruct device installed in the car’s main power supply could not be stopped, and it would go off no matter what, taking them with her.

  It wasn’t as if she hadn’t known she would likely die here today. So what if it was like this? Hadn’t she thought this through, weighed all the costs? And what did it matter, hadn’t she stopped caring about living all those years ago, hadn’t she given up hope that the pain could ever be healed? How easy it would be to stay here, she thought, let this happen. The memories would stop. The pain would go with it. So simple. Easy. Except . . .

  The light blinked. And blinked. She didn’t need to look at it, or at the small numbers moving on the tiny panel beside it. In her head, the count was reaching its end.

  She wondered what had changed to make it less easy to do this. It would have been easier just a few short weeks earlier, so much easier.

  No, she knew what had changed. This is crazy, I must be out of my mind, she thought. I can’t believe I’m about to do this.

  And she jumped out of the passenger side of the car.

  “Trying to run, are you?” Elijahn called out. “If you think—”

  Lara’s beautiful, elegant, custom-made convertible blew up.

  Elijahn lay on the ground, stunned. So did most of his men, he saw, looking dazed around him. Some were injured. One of the others pulled him away as a burning piece of the woman’s car fell too close.

  “Get her,” Elijahn snarled. “I want her. Alive.”

  “Donovan!”

  The urgency in her voice made Donovan brake so hard that the car skidded several feet.

  “Donovan, he’s here. Send—”

  “Hold on, I’m on my way. You hear me? I’m coming for you.” But the line was already dead and Donovan cursed, fear for Lara surging through him. The locator he had working for her in his phone had automatically activated as soon as it registered her incoming call—tracing her first to her home, which had him frowning, then to her actual location, which had him shaking his head in wonder—and he now had her approximate whereabouts. Just miles away from IDSD, a few miles from where Ericsson had her last position. He was pushing the car to its limit as he made the call and gave her coordinates to those who were waiting for them.

  He approached the area with the headlights off, the car sliding into a sparse spot in the vegetation that separated the road from the open fields in places. It would be hidden here. Black in the dark of night, it had little chance of being seen. He took out a silencer from a hidden box inside the glove compartment and attached it to his gun. He then got out of the car, ripped off the bulletproof vest he was still wearing and threw it in, not wanting it to limit his movement, tucked the gun into his belt, and
, looking up to judge where the moon was sending its light and might expose him, set out at a smooth run to the last coordinates he had for her.

  In the distance, an explosion pierced the night and a pillar of smoke rising into the sky prodded him to increase his pace.

  Lara, was his only thought.

  He came, low, to a rise beyond which the ground dropped at an uncomfortable slope to mostly barren soil that gave way to vast woods a distance away. His heart missed a beat. Three massive SUVs stood at the bottom of the slope. To their right, what used to be a smaller car burnt, angry flames reaching for black skies. Grief flared as the burning car filled his vision, searing the new beginnings that had only recently began filling his heart, and he let it, as he prepared to destroy those who destroyed him.

  Movement caught his eye, stopped him from taking his gun out. There were men there, standing not far from the SUVs, some moved slowly toward the burning car. But beyond them, closer to the woods, he saw others, running.

  Chasing.

  His eyes lost their rage, turned to ice as training took over. His body braced, his entire being focused, as his mission changed from revenge to defense, his grief to fueling hope. He moved quickly to his right, judging from the men’s movements where he should go and staying out of sight. He knew they were trained killers, but then so was he.

  He entered the woods downhill from them and moved stealthily deeper in. The foliage of the trees was thick enough here not to let in the light of the moon above, and the night around him darkened. He stood still and listened, let his eyes get used to the dark. To his left, in the distance, he heard a single shout, a clipped order by the tone of it. He moved toward it, concealing himself among the trees.

  A rustle on his one o’clock, another farther away. By the sounds, the way they moved, they were trying to flank her. He dropped to one knee, still, waiting.

  When the first man was close enough, Donovan pounced, moving with practiced agility to place an arm around his neck. Iron muscles tightened and the man’s handgun fell. He lowered the dead man to the ground, then crouched beside him. He took his Glock out and waited. When the other appeared, he judged, aimed, pulled the trigger twice. The man fell with barely a groan.