And now Linwood had thrown an unprecedented amount of doubt into what was going on with Department 5 at the TALOS Institute.
It had taken some doing, but he’d managed to acquire a small troop of army personnel to support a monitoring operation. It had taken even more wrangling to have the mission’s commanding officer report to him. He suspected there would be a price to pay down the road for this.
Stepback Farm had become their base of operations. Cut into the side of the hill overlooking the valley containing the TALOS Institute, it had reasonable access and offered a good blind to anyone down below. Kingston had navigated the access road in his BMW, cringing at every pothole and mud ridge along the way, before parking inside the barn at the farm next to a tractor with wheels taller than he was.
As he slammed his car door, a horse from the other side of the yard, poked its head out of its stable and whinnied in annoyance at the newcomer. The smell of manure and diesel from the tractor hit his nostrils, and he tried to ignore them.
A bald captain in combat dress approached. He had birdlike eyes in a weather-beaten face and Kingston wondered whether he’d just come back from overseas.
Kingston showed his identification to the captain who scrutinised it before handing it back.
“Captain Hollers, sir,” he said, crossing his arms as he spoke. “I’ve a dozen men set up along the ridge on the other side of this farm. A track follows up from the base of the valley and the main road leading into TALOS. There’s plenty of cover though and I’m confident we’ve not been observed.”
“Any sign of activity?” Kingston asked as Hollers led him through the yard, over the cobbles and through a large gate. They were standing to the left of the main farm buildings now, and from here, Kingston could see the grey concrete angles of TALOS nestling in the valley below.
“We had our eyes on your target vehicle. Linwood entered the site about ten minutes ago. It looked like they had some problems convincing the gate guard but they found a way around that problem.”
Kingston felt a sense of relief now that he knew Linwood had made it inside. He could order Hollers to send his troops into the facility but they were a small unit, and the last thing he wanted was to go in too heavy handed if Winborn was as much of a threat as Linwood suggested. Better to collate intelligence and make decisive action as soon as they’d performed a risk assessment.
He wondered how long it would take Linwood to cause all hell to break loose down there.
52
5th June 2013
It took them another couple of minutes to reach their destination. Dean held his mobile in front of him, sporadically checking the screen. Payne hoped that there were no more deviations and this time they’d be going after Max. The sooner they extracted their target, the sooner they could withdraw and contact Linwood.
They slowed as they approached the entrance to a lounge area. Dean kicked open the doors and sped inside, twisting and pointing his weapon into every corner. The place was deserted. Lounge chairs and low tables suggested this was a recreation room. Large floor to ceiling windows took up one wall, a pane of which was missing and patched up with hardboard.
“Where is everyone?” Payne asked.
Dean grabbed a bottle of water from a table and took a swig. “They’ll have evacuated. Only the security teams and us now.”
That didn’t make Payne feel any better. It would make them easier to track and allow the security teams to be trigger happy.
There was only one obvious way out from the lounge and Dean led the way, using his blaster to push open the door. The corridor they stepped into was empty. It was eerie. The blood pumping around Payne’s head seemed unnaturally loud.
Afraid that a security team would appear behind, cutting them off, Payne worked fast, inspecting the rooms leading from the corridor. His heart was beating a little too fast and was making him worried and not for the first time, he’d wondered at his own stupidity for agreeing to come along on this mission.
“Check this out,” Dean said, and held a door open. Payne saw a room with what looked like a dentist’s chair surrounded by trolleys with surgical equipment and larger pieces of equipment.
“What the hell is that used for?” he said, but Dean had already crossed the corridor and had vanished into another room.
Payne followed and saw Max staring at them from the other side of an observation window. Relief washed over him at the sight of the man. They’d never got the chance to become friends but through their shared experience, Payne felt a responsibility to Max. Dean unlocked the door and Max hurried out.
“Jesus, what have they been doing to you?”
Dean handed Max his spare weapon. “Save the catching up for later. They’re coming for us.”
Max nodded but took the weapon and smiled wryly. “Whatever you guys are doing here, I’m happy to see you.”
Dean didn’t smile. He didn’t seem to be moved at all by the fact that they’d just retrieved their target. The man was impossible or incredibly focused. Is that what years spent working with the security services did to you?
“Let’s go,” he said and hurried from the room leaving Payne and Max no choice but to follow him.
53
5th June 2013
Payne took one look at Max and felt a thickness at the back of his throat. Max was not the same man he’d known a few weeks ago. Although it looked like they’d taken reasonable care of him, there were scratches on his face and arms and he’d lost weight.
Beyond the physical though, there was the way he carried himself. Not the quiet, unassuming man who’d been dragged into a case beyond either of their experiences, but a tired man who’d been fed through the wringer one too many times.
“We need to get you out,” Payne said, looking at Dean who nodded. “What’ve they been doing to you?”
“Winborn thinks Irulal did something to me and doesn’t believe my version of what happened at Jodrell Bank. There’s something not right with him.” And Max recounted a conversation he’d had with Winborn, about how he was contaminated with the silver and was connected to the Shun communication network, the Harmony.
“He told you this?” Payne asked.
“Yes. But he made sure to disable the cameras so no one else would know.”
“Linwood’s here,” Payne said. “She’s going after Winborn. We know he’s up to something terrible, but we have no idea what that is.”
A frown appeared on Max’s face. “How many men have you got in here?”
“Just the two of us,” Dean replied. “Plus Linwood.”
Max stared at Payne, seeking confirmation.
“We needed to get a small team in, find out what was happening here.”
Dean led the way from the suite. Farther along the corridor was another set of doors. Dean used his phone to unlock them. They were in a similar if smaller suite to the one they’d found Max in. The room beyond the outer observation room was half the size of Max’s but again looked more like a hotel room than a cell.
A figure was laying down on the bed, its head turned away from the glass.
Payne hurried to the observation window and banged on the glass with his fist. Slowly the figure on the bed turned, then sat up. It was Jacqueline Petro.
Dean ran to the internal door, opened it then rushed inside the room. The others followed him and as Payne reached the side of her bed, saw that something was wrong with Jaq.
“What’s going on?” she said, staring at each of them in turn but seeing none of them. A silver film had formed over her eyes. It was obvious she was blind.
“What happened to you?” Payne asked.
“Is that you DI Payne?” she responded.
“Yes. I’m with Dean Sharman and Max Harding. We will get you out of here.”
She sat up and regarded her guests. “I shouldn’t be leaving. Winborn contaminated me with silver. It did this to me.”
“It’s not safe here,” Dean insisted. “The army will come down hard on
this place if we’re not out in the next thirty minutes.”
“Have things escalated so quickly?”
Payne nodded, then realising that she couldn’t see him, said, “We got some information that TALOS was not working for our best interests. And when Linwood couldn’t get hold of you, we knew we had to act.”
“She's here too?”
“We split up. She went to find Winborn.”
Jaq stood and started moving awkwardly towards the door. “We need to help her.”
54
5th June 2013
Linwood hated splitting the group up. She was fine being on her own and preferred it to having other people to be responsible for, but Payne and Dean was a combination that shouldn’t be left together. If Payne worked out who Dean was, the whole operation could come grinding to a halt. Instead, she did what she always did and gritted her teeth, said a silent prayer, and pushed through the discomfort. The mission was everything. Erik’s warnings on top of what she already knew about what Winborn was doing here, clarified that something terrible was happening at TALOS.
She’d had to knock out three security guards with her ion blaster on her way through to Winborn’s office. The weapon’s battery would be good for a while yet but she didn’t relish confronting many more guards. It had been worth splitting away from Payne just so there were now two targets.
Linwood hurried but didn’t make it look like she was hurrying, and within a couple of minutes, she’d reached the same lobby as she’d been in on her first visit and called for the lift. Appreciating that she was cornering herself by taking the direct route, she tried to ease her fear by reminding herself that Winborn would be curious as to her arrival and wouldn’t kill her on sight.
The lift doors opened and she stepped inside. Her mobile overrode the lift controls, and she rode it to Winborn’s office at the top of the building.
As the doors opened she saw that Winborn was waiting for her. He was looking at a series of monitors fixed to the wall, streaming video footage of several locations around the facility straight to his office. On one, she saw her friends leaving what looked like a prison block. Another feed showed her exiting the lift into Winborn’s office.
He smiled as she approached, and she tried to keep her calm as she addressed him. “I’m taking you into MI18 custody. I’d appreciate your cooperation. I don’t want to hurt you.” She raised the ion blaster to amplify her point, but he didn’t appear fazed by the intimidation.
“You didn’t have to break your way in here. You’re always welcome,” he replied. There was something different about him. He was more assured. “It was an ingenious way to get past my security team. How you must have had fun making your little masks.” He chuckled and Linwood wanted to smack him.
“You tried to kill Spencer Payne. You’ve collected over a hundred Faceless. You’ve imprisoned a man here for the best part of a month. What are you playing at? Where is Jaq Petro? I want to see her immediately.”
“That’s a lot of questions.”
“I’ve got more.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t try to kill Spencer Payne. He was obstructing a cleanup operation which had been authorised by the Director General. Those Faceless, you’re so concerned about, are being held in containment until we can cure them. If we hadn’t taken them off the streets, they would still be out there, a dangerous risk for the public.”
“And Jaq Petro? Where is she?”
“Jaq Petro is no longer a concern for you or for TALOS. Tell me, what made you come here today.”
“You’re a lunatic.”
“That’s as may be. But why today? What made you take action?”
Linwood thought about Erik. If she told Winborn what she’d been told herself, would that remove what little advantage she had over him?
“I know you’re trying to re-program the Shun nanites inside us.” She gauged his reaction and wasn’t disappointed. Creases appeared on his forehead and he tapped his fingers on the edge of his desk.
“Who gave you that information?”
Linwood shrugged. “Just something I heard. Thanks for confirming it.”
He grinned. “What would be the point in denying it?” he said nodding. “There is a fantastic opportunity here to learn about the Shun technology and the nanites are at the core of it all. The Shun’s whole existence is based on them. They couldn’t exist without them.”
“You’re Irulal,” she replied. “I knew you weren’t destroyed by a shotgun. It took our best scientist to develop a new weapon to disable her last time.”
He was shaking his head. “I’m not Irulal,” he said. “Irulal was a gestalt of the girl’s body she stole, the Shun nanites that had infected her, and the information—her consciousness if you like. Max Harding destroyed her body, but it was already weak after fighting and being close to the dimensional schism made her vulnerable. In those circumstances, a shotgun blast did enough damage to end her. But, that was the body. The information still existed. It forms part of the Shun network. We call it the Harmony.”
Linwood paused before she spoke again. Her brain raced through possibilities, disregarding as many as she considered, until settling on the incontrovertible truth.
“You may not be Irulal but you are Shun. You’ve occupied this body, used the nanites already present, and taken control with a consciousness from this network, this Harmony.”
He nodded. “You’re as sharp as your reputation suggests.”
“If it were so straightforward to take control of another body from this Harmony, why haven’t you taken over everyone?’
“Simple. The Harmony is splintered and there aren’t enough in this splinter to do so. We need the dimensional schism open to reconnect.”
“If all Irulal needed was a new body, why didn’t she take yours?”
He scoffed. “She had her chance to fulfil her objective. Preparing the human race for the Shun arrival should have been straightforward. But she overcomplicated things, preferring to hide in the shadows behind a human to get things done. I wasn’t prepared to give her the opportunity to mess up again. Trust me, Irulal is gone. You won’t be seeing her again. From now on, you’ve only me to concern yourself with.”
“Why here? Why us?” Linwood asked.
Winborn tipped his head to the side. “We have a right to survive. This is where we’ve been led to.”
“Led to? Who’s led you here?”
Winborn didn’t answer. From his expression, this was a topic he wasn’t comfortable talking about.
“And you’re prepared to kill the entire human race to survive?”
“Look at yourself. As an outsider that’s hilarious. You’re a destructive race. You would do the same.”
“We would find another solution.”
He brushed aside her comment with a wave of his hand then stood to look out of the window. “All of your history has been conflict after conflict. You can’t even agree how to survive on your own planet. I will make it easy for you. The human race will survive in a form. Your bodies will be the Heralds of the Shun and then you will become Shun.”
“And everything we have will be lost. That doesn’t sound too great.”
“We’ll take you to the stars. Show you existences you could only imagine. There are worlds ready to hear the voice of the Shun. Think of what our races can accomplish together.”
“But it wouldn’t be together. With no free will, we’re as good as dead.”
“It’s a shame you can’t see past your mortal existence.”
“You don’t have a way to transmit a signal to switch on the embedded nanites in the population. You can’t create Heralds. I’ve disabled the phone networks. There’s no way to use that to send your signal and convert people.”
“Yes. That was annoying. Irulal’s idea of using the phone networks to transmit to the embedded nanites was ingenious. I could have made good use of that. But, you’ve given me an even better idea.”
“I won’t help you.”
He was pointing at one display in particular. A presentation that Linwood recognised all too well. It had come from a storage drive that had been taken from the Tombs strongroom. “That isn’t yours,” she said.
“You were wrong to keep this secret. It is a superb application of the Shun nanites.”
“You can’t proceed with that idea.”
“The work has been completed. I’ve already succeeded in creating a swarm.”
Linwood swallowed, and she felt like the room might spin around her.
Winborn continued. “That’s what you called it in your report.”
Linwood knew the report well. She’d written it the week after she’d learnt that Irulal was a composite creature. A warning, more than anything, about how the nanorobots inside her could be extracted and reprogrammed to perform new tasks. Amongst the possibilities, Linwood had speculated on the use of nanites in surveillance operations, disabling foreign powers’ technology and infrastructure. Peace could be achieved without a shot being fired.
She wrote the report for the then Director General but she never sent it. Fear of where those ideas might end up.
“The swarm,” Winborn said, leaning in to read from the report. “With the correct command instructions, it would be desirable to create an autonomous colony of nanites with flight capability. These swarms could prove a devastating method of delivering billions of nanites into a conflict zone to disable the enemy.”
Linwood frowned. “I was speculating. I wasn’t suggesting that it was something we should ever attempt to construct. I hid the reports so no one would find them.”
“You could have destroyed them.”
Ever since she’d discovered the empty strongroom that thought had never been far from her mind. Why hadn’t she destroyed them? Was she preparing herself, ready for the possibility that someone else might one day develop nanites to the level required to construct weapons like this? Or was it merely a matter of pride? She couldn’t bear to part with the months of research notes she’d accumulated during her time with Irulal. Was that more like it?
The Faceless Stratagem Page 24