by Adams, M. L.
Despite the situation, Sarah managed a smile. “You sound pretty confident for a seventeen-year-old kid whose secret agent experience comes from books and movies.”
“Don’t forget video games.”
“Oh great,” she said. “I’m sure that will make all the difference in the world.”
“And don’t forget this,” I said, tapping my forehead with my finger.
“Too bad you don’t know how to use it,” she said with a smirk.
“That’s why I didn’t take you right to the cops. I need your help in figuring this thing out.”
I glanced at the time on my phone. It was four in the afternoon and I wouldn’t be heading west into the mountains for another few hours.
Sarah pulled her laptop out of her bag. “Then we better get started.”
Three hours later, I stopped Sarah’s Honda on the side of the road a block from the police headquarters in downtown Brookwood. “I’ll be okay,” I said. “It will work.”
She still didn’t seem convinced.
“Just tell Frost the truth,” I continued. “Except the hacking part, of course. Just blame that on me. He doesn’t get all this stuff anyway.”
Sarah looked down. A tear formed in her eye.
“And make sure you call your mom before you walk in. Have her meet you there.” I reached over and brushed several strands of hair off her face. “Sarah, I’ll be okay,” I whispered. “Promise.”
She let out a half-sob, half-cry and tried to smile. “You better be. You still owe me five hundred bucks.”
I laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m good for it.”
I kissed her on the top of the head. “When I’m out, I’ll head straight for the police station. If I’m not there by tomorrow morning, tell Frost where the CyberLife research center is. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
She opened the door and climbed out. As she shut it, she said, “Be careful, Ben Raine. And don’t forget what I told you about the security cameras.”
“I will. And I won’t. Now go.”
Sarah shut the door and I watched as she headed down the sidewalk to the police station. A lump formed in my throat. I had been with her almost non-stop for twenty-four hours. As I watched her walk away, I wondered if I would ever be with her again.
When she was out of sight, I pulled her Honda into traffic and turned west.
It was going to be a long, long night.
34
I drove west through the city, careful to obey the speed limit. I doubted the police were looking for Sarah’s Honda yet, but couldn’t risk being pulled over.
The CyberLife research campus was located in a large mountain valley fifteen miles up a canyon. Disguised as a ranch, it lay inside thousands of acres of dense forest and consisted of multiple buildings, testing grounds, and even parks and walking paths for the staff. A ten-foot-tall fence lined with razor wire and dotted with uninviting KEEP OUT signs surrounded it. If a hiker or hunter happened to get through the fence, CyberLife guards, disguised as ranch hands, greeted them.
During the six years I had lived on campus, I explored just about every square inch. I smiled at the memory of how much of a thorn I’d been in the security team’s side.
That was just practice, I thought. Now it’s game time.
I drove to a trailhead several miles from the southeast corner of the campus. I parked and grabbed the shopping bag off the back seat. After changing into the Army surplus uniform, I stuffed the multi-tool, drinks and granola bars into my canvas bag along with my iPad and disabled phone.
I closed and locked Sarah’s car, then jogged to where the dirt trail began. After one last look around the deserted parking lot, I started up the mountain.
Based on previous experience, and the map I pulled up on my iPad before leaving, it was a mile and half up the trail, and then another mile along an old fire access road. That should, assuming I didn’t get lost, put me a short distance from the campus fence line. Thanks to my HUD’s night vision mode, I managed to avoid re-injuring my ankle or putting a hand into a cactus.
After forty-five minutes, I reached the road. I knew CyberLife used it for patrols, but for now it was clear. As I walked, I kept one eye out for guards and the other on the sky above. The stars shone bright so far away from the lights of the city. While on campus, I spent many nights roaming the woods looking for spots to watch the stars. It was a favorite memory from my time at CyberLife.
In particular, the one time Megan joined me.
“Well, Benjamin, you were right,” Megan said. “It is amazing out here.”
I smirked and put my arms behind my head. It had taken me nearly a month of constant pestering to get her to come with me. She had used every excuse in the book: not professional; the guards will freak out; too much work to do. But in the end, my persistence won out.
“Told ya,” I said.
We lay on a blanket atop a rock formation near the back of the campus, where the valley started its long curve up the mountain. It provided a perfect vantage point of the buildings below and the sky above. I figured there couldn’t be more than a handful of employees who even knew about the rocks. Their smooth top was perfect for star gazing.
“So, you must think you’re pretty hot stuff getting the twenty-something blonde chick to go star gazing with you, huh?” Megan said.
My face flushed. It was true of course, but I was not telling her that. With a shrug, I said, “I just thought you’d enjoy it. I know you’ve been pretty stressed about work lately.”
She turned to me and grinned. “Nice redirect. And yeah, it has been a stressful few weeks. Mostly your fault, of course.”
I swallowed hard. I had been in more than the usual amount of trouble lately. There were no other kids to hang out with and definitely no girls to chase (except Megan, who didn’t really count). I had been keeping myself busy, as usual, exploring the campus. The week before I had, well, found a way out.
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “Sorry.”
“How’d you get out anyway?” Megan asked.
“You know that stream that runs through the back corner of the campus? The southeast side?”
“Seen it on maps.”
“Well, it runs under the fence there and, over the years I guess, wore away the ground beneath it. Just big enough for me to fit.”
“Nice,” Megan replied. “Guess that explains why you were all wet when I found you.”
“Yeah,” I replied with a laugh.
We lay in silence for a few minutes before Megan’s face turned serious. “Look, Ben, I know you’re having a tough time. It’s been what, almost six years now?”
I nodded.
“But you still have to be careful,” she continued. “You may be the star pupil here, but Dr. Merrick and the security team don’t mess around. There are cameras and motion sensors everywhere. And you’ve seen the guns the guards carry, right?”
Again, I nodded.
“If they mistake you for an intruder, you might get shot.”
“Glad to know you care,” I said, grinning.
Megan smacked me with the back of her hand. “You know I do.”
“Do me one favor though,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes. “Maybe.”
“Don’t tell Merrick about the fence. I may need it again someday. If you ever leave the company, I will need to escape. I couldn’t survive here without you.”
Megan was silent for a moment, then said, “All right. But if you come to an appointment soaking wet, I’m going to make you pay.”
I looked back up at the stars. “Deal,” I said quietly.
An hour later, I hiked off the road and made my way through the forest. It took longer than I thought it would, but my guess about the fire road had been right. I found the fence, crouched behind a rock, and peered through the chain links. The other side was dense forest. The compound part of the campus, where all the buildings were located, was about two miles away. Confident all was quiet and I was
n’t being watched, I turned west and followed the fence line up the mountain.
As I hiked, I ran the plan over and over through my head. Sarah and I had spent several hours sitting in her Honda reviewing the capabilities of my system. Thankfully, since I really didn’t know what I was doing, it was mostly autonomous. If Sarah was correct, it would automatically detect and hack into CyberLife’s wireless cameras and motion sensors. All I had to do was tell it which ones.
After a half-mile, I picked up the sound of trickling water. At the stream, I bent down, inspected the fence, and breathed a sigh of relief. The rocks I used to disguise the hole were right where I had left them. After a brief rest, I shifted them to the side. The irony of breaking into the CyberLife campus weighed heavy on my mind.
After wrapping my bag in the new raincoat to keep it dry, I slid it under the fence. I followed, careful to keep my body above the water. The odds were stacked against me enough without having to deal with hypothermia.
Now on CyberLife property, I slowly made my way farther up the mountain until I spotted the rock outcropping Megan and I had used the year before. I crawled up the rocks, which provided a perfect vantage point. The compound was well lit and I could make out various buildings and guards on patrol. But what interested me the most was a large, windowless building nestled against the side of the mountain.
The Aspen building.
After making sure no guards were in the area, I climbed down off the rocks and crept through the forest. When I was two hundred yards out, my system detected the first set of signals. I knelt behind a tree stump and stared at the list of system alerts displayed on my HUD. Along with the campus wireless network, it had picked up twenty different motion sensors and three cameras protecting the south side of the Aspen building. They were spread out in an overlapping pattern, directly in front of me. Each displayed as a green dot on my tracking sphere.
“Well, this is it,” I whispered to myself. “Sarah, I hope you were right.”
Before I had time to consider turning around and making a run for it, my system identified and plotted each sensor and camera on my tracking sphere. For now, I focused on the motion sensors.
Using a trick Sarah taught me, I focused on the devices closest to me and blinked. My blink, acting like a mouse click, selected a pair of sensors for infiltration. My system did the rest. Almost instantly, the pair crashed and my HUD revealed a path to the building beyond. Not knowing how long it would take security to respond, I hurried through the opening.
Once past the sensor line, I stopped in a group of spruce trees and surveyed the side of the building. The three cameras I detected were evenly spaced along the wall. Taking a deep breath, I selected all three and waited. Less than ten seconds later, my system finished its hack and disabled each camera’s motion detection feature.
Or so I hoped.
If it didn’t, I’ll know soon enough, I thought.
Taking another deep breath, I scanned the area around the building one last time, then quickly ran to the entrance. I pressed my back into the wall and looked down each side. I fully expected to see guards running my way. An alarm. Something.
But all remained quiet.
I turned and quickly found a numeric keypad mounted on the door. Before I could think it, a four-digit PIN popped up on my HUD. I punched in the code. The light turned green. With one final look around, I slipped inside.
The hallway was dark and still. Other than the nearby army of security guards, it reminded me of breaking into my school the night before. I smiled at the thought of Sarah and spent a few seconds sending her positive thoughts. By now, I knew, she was a few hours into her interview with Frost.
Poor guy, I thought. Hope she hasn’t punched him.
I remembered the Aspen building from my one visit the year before. There wasn’t much to it. The front was essentially a long corridor, with offices on each side. Halfway down, through a set of double doors, another corridor led into the mountain and the giant underground archive.
Through my night vision, the corridor was tinted green. With my head on a swivel, I moved quietly down the hall. It was the middle of the night on a weekend and I hoped the building was unoccupied. Just in case, I paused every ten feet or so and listened. All remained quiet. At the double doors, I peered through a small square window.
Empty.
I pushed the door open and shivered when the air dropped ten degrees. Slowly, I made my way deeper into the mountain. I remembered the corridor was roughly sixty feet long. My heart raced as I approached what I thought would be the end of the corridor and the start of the archive’s massive cave. That’s when I realized something wasn’t right.
Another few feet and I was certain.
Looming ahead in the dark was a large, metal vault door.
35
“Well this is new,” I muttered.
I stepped to the vault door and a small LED screen embedded in the wall lit up. It was a touch screen with a numbered keypad. On it was the outline of five fingers and instructions on how to activate the biometric scan. I swallowed hard and glanced at the log on my HUD.
No new devices detected.
I brought my face close to the screen, hoping my system would detect a PIN or hack the biometric scanner. After waiting a few seconds, I pulled back and sighed.
Nothing.
From somewhere behind me, a door slammed shut.
I whirled around and fell to one knee. Sixty feet in the distance, I could see a flicker of light through the door’s small square window.
A flashlight beam.
My heart froze.
Somebody, most likely a guard, had entered the archive building.
I turned back around and again inspected the vault door, the keypad, and the touch screen. But no matter how closely I looked or how much I begged my system to hack in, nothing happened. The door remained locked tight.
With a deep sigh, I leaned against the heavy door and slid down to the ground. I was trapped with no route for escape. As soon as the guard sent a flashlight beam down the stark corridor, I was a goner.
My mind pored over the previous three days. Meeting Sarah. Sleeping in her apartment. Hacking CyberLife. Visiting Dr. Carter. Meeting Sarah. Sleeping in her apartment.
Best five hundred bucks I ever spent.
Suddenly, a memory jarred me.
The safe.
After my dad had installed the safe in his office, I just had to see what was in it. I entered every four-digit passcode I could think of. My dad’s birthday. My mom’s birthday. My dad’s ATM code. Eventually, after too many failures, the keypad locked up. My dad was angry because he had to call the manufacturer for the unlock code.
I swung back around and re-scanned the front of the vault door. Just above the keypad, a tiny metal plaque read: MANUFACTURED BY SECURE DOOR TECHNOLOGIES INC.
Hack the website, I thought.
I stared at my log and waited.
Come on. Come on. Do something!
A browser window opened on my HUD and the website for Secure Door Technologies appeared. I thought briefly about why Megan withheld the browser feature from me. Would have been handy in history class, that’s for sure.
I scanned the homepage and found what I was looking for. Near the bottom, in small text, were the words: CLIENT LOGIN
I stared at the text and blinked.
Suddenly, as if an auto-pilot kicked on, my system took over. I tried to keep up as it navigated around and opened and closed various windows. After a few moments, a new text-only screen appeared followed by line after line of programming code. Then, a new message popped up.
Database access granted.
I quickly ran a search for CyberLife Industries. A record appeared, followed by a long string of numbers. I dropped to one knee and started punching them into the keypad. When I finished, the screen flashed twice and displayed:
Administrator account reset. Enter new PIN.
Behind me the footsteps grew louder.
12345678901234567890
Place fingers on the screen.
Damnit!
I put my hand on the touch screen. A white line appeared and began to trace my hand.
Come on! I willed it. Hurry!
Biometric scan complete.
A motor whirred from inside the wall. The door slowly swung open. When it was wide enough, I slipped through.
I counted the seconds as the large, heavy door closed behind me. I wondered whether it was possible for it to go any slower. Finally, it sealed shut and the whirring sound returned. A metal clank rang out as the vault door security bars slid back into place.
Breathing heavily, I turned around and faced the giant cavern. It was silent, other than the sound of my heart beating in my ears.
I took a step forward and triggered the cavern’s automatic lights. I watched as they cascaded on, one at a time, toward the rear of the cavern. It was a much larger space than I remembered. Row after row of shelves extended as far as I could see. The walls and ceiling were polished rock and the cavern felt cold and dry.
I took another tentative step forward and grinned.
36
Feeling exposed under the bright lights, I quickly ran to the first row. I didn’t want to stay in the cavern any longer than I needed to. The shelving was twenty feet high. Each individual shelf was packed full of large, gray, plastic containers. They were labeled. The closest read: ADMINISTRATION RECORDS 1995-1996.
I made my way down to the end of the aisle, scanning labels as I went. I reached the end and groaned. Al, for Alpha, was somewhere above. A ladder on wheels was attached to the shelving, so I rolled it to roughly where I thought Alpha would be, and climbed up. Three quarters of the way up the ladder, I knew I was in trouble. There were no shelves marked with an Al and none of the nearby containers had Alpha scrawled on them. In a moment of panic, I wondered if Merrick kept his top-secret files in a special room somewhere else in the archive.
Or not in the archive at all.
Did he destroy them?