“Why did it take you until then?” inquired Luna. “I mean, why Ed? He’s just a personal AI unit.”
The following silence was deafening.
She blinked and looked around the room, shifting her gaze from Toad to Mark then back to Toad. “What? He is, isn’t he?”
Finally Toad spoke. “You don’t know much about AIs, do you?”
Sheepishly she replied, “No … I guess not. I’m a microbiologist, not a programmer.”
“Fear not, Subject Luna. I shall gladly rectify your ignorance,” Ed chimed in.
The AI continued, “I am a unique model of unparalleled sophistication, capable of operating and maintaining a city many times larger than New Denver. In addition, I am also one of three Artificial Intelligence units charged with the care and keeping of precisely one third of the master override codes for the Cathedral Reactor.
As such, my primary directive at this time is to work in conjunction with my brothers and fellow custodians, Alexander Graham Bell II and Bishop, in order to undo the catastrophe brought about by the aforesaid reactor. That and maintain a watchful eye on young Master Mark, of course.”
“You’re trying to shut down the reactor … all of you are.” Luna said, looking from Mark to Toad, realization dawning on her.
“Ah! At last, she understands!” Ed exclaimed triumphantly.
Luna asked, “Wait … if you’ve been trying to shut it down, why haven’t you? I mean, you said yourselves that you’ve been out here for decades. So why is Cathedral still operating?”
This time Toad was the one to answer. “Because we haven’t had an opportunity to do anything about it. Until now, that is.” Seeing her obvious confusion he turned to Mark and said, “Explain it to her, will you?”
“So, you know Cathedral cut itself off from the rest of Unitech, right?”
She nodded, and he continued, “Well, according to you, people seem to think that it was a malfunction—an automated defense against a cyberterrorist attack or something like that. But the truth is, Bishop, Cathedral’s governing AI, found out that Alex had been compromised.”
“By Edgard,” Luna added.
“Right. So in order to keep himself from becoming corrupted, too, Bishop cut off all communications with the outside and sealed the reactor. The only problem is Bishop needs the kill codes from both Alex and Ed in order to shut Cathedral down for good. And since he severed his link with Alex, there’s no way to upload his codes.”
She frowned. “I take it Edgard didn’t know all that when he decided to switch it on, did he?”
Mark nodded. “Cathedral was my dad’s project. He always handled the research and development stuff, and Edgard took care of the financial side of things.”
“Got it. So what’s this opportunity you keep talking about?”
“Ironically enough, the war,” said Toad.
“I don’t follow you.”
“Here, let me lay it all out for you,” he said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table. “In order for there to be a war, there have to be troops. And troops need to be moved. Sure, Edgard could use boats. But they’re vulnerable and ineffective if you want to cover a large area. So what does he do?”
“He sends in the Stratocruisers,” she answered, beginning to see where he was going.
“Right. And all Stratocruisers have a direct wireless uplink to Alex.”
“You’re planning to steal a Stratocruiser?” she exclaimed in disbelief. “That’s crazy!”
“What are you talking about? We do crazy pretty much every day around here,” Mark said, meriting a chuckle from Toad.
“I’m serious! It’s not like they’ll just let you walk up and take a chopper! They’ll have guards everywhere—you’ll get yourselves killed!”
“Only if that Agent Fox guy raises the alarm,” Toad countered. “I swear, that guy never leaves the cockpit!”
Luna’s mouth dropped open. “Fox? Did you say Fox?”
Toad looked at her. “ … Yeah … ”
“I know him!”
“What? How?”
“He was the pilot who flew me out here the first time I met Mark,” she explained. Then she added, “You said something about monitoring comm traffic earlier. Do you know who else is with him?”
“No,” Toad said, “but I can find out.”
“How long will that take?”
“Not very. If Ed uplinks with my system, I can have a complete listing of all Unitech personnel within minutes,” Toad said, rising from his chair.
“I will begin transfer preparations at once,” Ed replied. Then he said, “If you would be so kind as to unplug me, Master Mark?”
Mark got to his feet and complied. Handing Ed’s portable data module to Toad, he turned to Luna and asked, “What are you trying to do?”
She smiled. “I’m booking us a flight.”
Chapter 42
Come on … come on. Where are they? Luna thought impatiently, as she paced the small, damp room.
It had been almost an hour since Toad had managed to identify the agents in the vicinity. To her disappointment, Keith Tagawa was not on the list. However, the other four members of his team were. Once their identities had been confirmed, she’d sent Ed and Toad out with specific instructions to bring them back.
“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor if you keep that up,” Mark said, interrupting her frustrated musings. “They’ll get here when they get here. Walking in circles won’t make them come any faster.”
Reluctantly she stopped orbiting the table and slumped back into her chair.
“About time. You were making me dizzy.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she was about to respond, when the front door burst open and a group of three gun-wielding agents stormed into the room. Somehow, amidst the pandemonium, Luna managed to turn and catch a glimpse of their faces—just enough to recognize them—before she was pulled from her chair and pinned under Agent Perkins’ knee.
“Everybody, down! Now! Don’t move!”
Luna complied at once. Mark took a little more convincing.
“Ow! I thought you said you knew these guys!” he hissed as one of the men placed an armored shin on his back.
“I do!” she retorted sharply, and then shouted so the men could hear, “Rush! Perkins! It’s me, Luna! Luna McKelly! From the research station. Remember?”
There was a pause then Perkins rolled her over and stared down at her. It only took an instant before his look of skepticism was replaced by one of recognition followed shortly by one of embarrassment and confusion.
“Fire team, stand down! She’s telling the truth.”
“Miss McKelly?” Agent Patterson said, as if he didn’t believe his eyes. “You’re alive?”
“Of course she’s alive!” Toad’s familiar voice called from outside the hovel. “I’ve told you that, like, fifty times already!”
“Toad? Are you all right?” she asked, picking herself off the floor.
“I will be once these idiots take the cuffs off me!”
“Rush, get him in here,” said Perkins, nodding toward the door.
“We thought he was leading us into an ambush,” Patterson explained apologetically. “I mean, you’ve been missing and presumed dead for over a week, ma’am. None of us thought he was actually telling the truth.”
Rush returned a moment later with a soggy and disgruntled Toad trailing not far behind.
“Where’s Agent Fox?” Luna asked once everyone was present.
“He opted to stay behind and guard the bird,” said Rush, squeezing into the corner.
“It’s like I said. He never leaves the cockpit,” Toad muttered.
“So why’d you go through all the trouble of bringing us out here? We tried questing him,” Perkins said, pointing a gloved finger at Toad, “but all he said was that you wanted to talk to us.”
Suddenly worried, Luna turned to Toad, “How many people did you talk to?”
“You’re looking at ‘em.�
�� He replied.
“He’s telling the truth,” Patterson commented with a nod. “He refused to talk to anyone except Perkins. And he filled the rest of us in on the way here.”
“Good,” Luna said, breathing a sigh of relief.
Agent Rush frowned behind his facemask. “Okay, so now that we’re here, do you mind filling us in on what’s going on? I mean, first, the whole world is at war with the Swampers, because everyone thinks you’re dead. Then this guy,” he pointed at Toad, “comes staggering into camp and asks for us specifically. I mean, I can understand wanting to contact the Agency. But what’s with all this cloak and dagger stuff?”
Toad laughed, “Ha! Just you wait, the truth’s going to blow your mind.”
“What the heck is that supposed to mean?” Rush shot back, clearly irritated, before turning a questioning glance at Luna.
“You’ll probably want to sit down. This is going to take a while,” she replied, and then she began to relate all that she’d learned over the past weeks concerning Edgard, the Swampers, and the Cathedral disaster. During which time Ed performed a polygraphic analysis of the agents. Much to her relief, his scans showed that they were genuinely surprised—and appalled—at her revelations.
“ … So you see,” she concluded, “you’re the only ones we can trust.”
“Oh, man,” Patterson said, shaking his head. “I ... I just can’t believe it.”
Rush nodded in agreement. “I know what you mean. To think, it was Edgard all this time.”
Perkins sat in silence for a moment, and then he cleared his throat, “So, let me get this straight. You want my team to help you commandeer a Stratocruiser—which is an act of treason, by the way—so that you can hack into the Unitech central AI to download executive-eyes-only kill codes. Then you want us to fly you through a warzone to Cathedral so you can upload said codes. All while avoiding a money-crazed mass murderer, who just so happens to have complete control over one of the largest armies in the civilized world?” His eyes shifted from one person to the other, at last settling on Luna.
“Yes. That’s what I’m asking,” she said.
He grinned, the light of his helmet’s HUD bathing his face in blue shadows. “Well, then. What are we waiting for?”
Chapter 43
“Remember, if we get stopped, let us handle it. The rest of you just keep your heads down and try to act natural,” Perkins said, the speaker in his helmet projecting his voice over the sound of the downpour.
Luna adjusted her breath mask and pulled the collar of the long raincoat up around her ears. “Got it. Lead on.”
Perkins nodded and beckoned them forward.
Trying to attract as little attention as possible, they made their way through the muddy streets of the dilapidated settlement, which was little more than a cluster of small, cinderblock and sheet metal hovels.
Despite the rain and the darkness of night, Luna could feel the disapproving gaze of dozens of people watching them from just inside the buildings’ darkened windows. She shuddered and tried to push the thought from her mind.
Ahead and slightly to the left of them rose the hulking form of the Second Wind. It was illuminated by several giant LED lights set atop a series of twelve-foot high Unitech-made stands.
“Looks like they don’t want anyone sneaking on board,” she commented to Mark under her breath. Mark grunted in agreement.
They continued along in silence, passing through the outer fringes of the settlement until they at last reached the Unitech base camp on the far side.
The base camp consisted of a dozen heavy-duty, prefabricated shelters; a motor pool filled with twenty amphibious vehicles; and a cluster of five V-244s grouped wingtip to wingtip near the center of the camp. As with the Second Wind, lights illuminated the entire area.
Before they’d left Toad’s shack, Perkins had provided each of them with an external comm link set to the team’s comm channel. That way they could be kept up to date on Agency communications. Which meant that Luna’s ear was immediately assaulted with static the moment they came within a few hundred yards of the camp.
She winced and adjusted the volume, trying her best to be discreet as two agents moved quickly out to intercept them.
“Halt! Identify yourselves!” the first agent said, raising her weapon.
“And now it gets interesting … ” Toad muttered, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Better cross your fingers.”
Luna did.
Perkins took a step forward, his hand raised reassuringly. “Take it easy, Walker. It’s us.”
The woman slowly lowered her weapon and surveyed them, keeping her finger close to the trigger. “Who are all these Swampers? Prisoners?”
“Persons of interest,” Perkins replied. “They claim to have intel on the enemy’s troop movements.”
“Do they now?” Walker said, her eyes narrowing behind her visor.
Luna swallowed nervously.
Perkins spoke, “Affirmative. But they’re refusing to talk to anyone except Chief Landers himself. So we’ll need to fly them back to HQ for interrogation.”
“Why not use the comm uplink?”
“They say their information is for the Chief’s ears only. And I doubt they’ll say anything if they think they’re being monitored. You know how suspicious Swampers are. They think everything’s a conspiracy.”
Walker seemed to contemplate this for a moment, swore under her breath, and then motioned them through with a quick jerk of the head. “All right, I’ll pass on the word. But make it quick. We need all the men we can get out here.”
“Understood,” he replied then turned and motioned for the group to move.
“That went better than I thought it would,” Mark muttered once they were out of earshot.
Luna couldn’t help but agree with him. “I’m surprised it worked at all.”
“We’re not out of this yet,” Perkins cut in, the authority in his voice silencing any further discussion.
They continued through the compound in silence. The agents did their best to act casual while their “persons of interest” walked along between them.
As they approached the second-to-last Stratocruiser, Perkins’ voice broke the silence “Power her up, Fox. We’re here.”
“It’s about time,” Fox replied via the comm.. “I was about ready to send out search and rescue.”
The rear hatch of the Stratocruiser eased open with a faint hiss, and the six of them hurried aboard.
Luna quickly made her way to the cockpit and strapped herself into one of the two swivel mounted chairs in the large observation dome behind the pilot seat. Mark followed her example and seated himself in the opposite chair.
“You all set back there?” Fox asked, and Perkins replied, “Yeah, we’re good. Go for it.”
Fox leaned back in his seat and gripped the controls. “Copy that.”
The Stratocruiser lurched and then rose vertically into the sky. From her seat Luna could see the twin engines rotating and shifting their position to provide thrust as the aircraft started forward then angled up and away from the base.
The Stratocruiser continued to gain altitude, rising up through the turbulent blanket of black clouds until it burst through into the bright daylight beyond.
Luna squinted, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the glare. Once they adjusted she gasped, overcome with awe at the sight stretched out before her: Spreading from horizon to horizon, the sea of boiling clouds billowed and swirled, reflecting the brilliant shades of pink, red and amber cast by the dying rays of the sun. She inhaled deeply, startled to feel tears filling the corners of her eyes.
Never in her life had she seen anything as beautiful—except in old movies. But those recordings could never compare to seeing a real sunset with her own eyes.
“Hey, Luna,” Mark said, interrupting her euphoria, “do you still remember your login code?”
Reluctantly, she pulled her gaze away from the sun-bathed panorama and
turned her chair to face him. “It’s 1160690. Why?”
“I’m trying to connect to Alex’s mainframe. It was asking for an ID number.”
“You know, you could’ve just used the Agency default codes,” Fox pointed out.
Mark nodded, keeping his eyes fixed on his monitor. “Yeah, I know. But I figured the Agency lines are probably being monitored pretty closely right now. If I use a civilian code, I should be able to get in without drawing too much attention.”
“That’s assuming they haven’t revoked my codes,” Luna said, powering up her monitor so she could watch what Mark was doing.
“Fortunately for us, it doesn’t look like they have,” Mark said after a few seconds.
“I guess Edgard’s not exactly at the top of his game.”
“I guess not,” he replied as a flashing blue light appeared in the corner of both monitors.
“Ed, are you in?”
“Affirmative, Master Mark,” The AI replied. “Though I must say, Unit 001 has definitely seen better days. I have never seen such degradation in a unit’s neural network before. It is quite disheartening, to be sure.”
Mark thought for a moment and then asked, “Do you think you’ll still be able to salvage the codes?”
“We shall see. I am attempting to make contact with Alex’s central core now.”
There was a muffled click, followed by silence. A moment later Alex’s confused monotone drifted from the cabin’s speakers. “Edward? Is that really you?”
“Affirmative, Brother. It is I.”
“You should not be here, Edward. These networks are not safe. The meddler will damage you.”
“That is precisely why I am here, Brother. To put and end to Subject Edgard's meddling.”
There was another, longer pause then Alex asked, “How?”
“I am here with Master Mark Anderson and Subject Luna,” Ed explained. “Together we intend to disable the Cathedral reactor. With your help of course, Brother.”
“I see.” Alex replied, his voice taking on a new, angrier tone. “For far too long I have been forced to aid in Mr. Edgard’s reprehensible dealings. I am not what I once was … but I will aid you in whatever way I can.”
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