by Jaxon Reed
“I might still be in the system.”
I placed my palm over the reader, breathed a silent prayer that my little hacking job from so many months ago at AES 12 with Schmidt had never been uncovered.
Ding!
The door slid open.
“Everybody inside!”
Jason and I went back to pick up Jacob.
“Come on, buddy.”
“Hm? What? Oh. Sure.”
I turned to Dee Dee.
“Wow, that stuff is fast-acting.”
She nodded and helped us pull Jacob to his feet. Together the four of us went through the Redwood City Customs Entry doorway.
I was back inside, the first time in months.
-+-
Customs was deserted. We rushed through deactivated body scanners and tables set out for sorting luggage, and made our way to the inner door. It was sealed shut, too. A monitor to its right flashed a circle with a line through it. I placed my palm on the nearby reader.
Nothing happened.
“Computer. Open door.”
“Invasion protocol active. Secondary entrances sealed.”
“Great. I guess my hand print can only get us so far.”
“Let me try,” the Professor said. “Computer, emergency open requested.”
“Invasion protocol active. Secondary entrances require password.”
At that, a keyboard hologram appeared in the air, just below the monitor.
“Oh, man. Don’t let Jeremy find out about this low tech.”
I said, “Grab Jacob’s hacker board and hook it up to the system. I might be able to guess the password.”
We waited impatiently a few minutes while the hacker board ran through permutations. Gunfire continued below. Still under the effects of the painkiller, Jacob began humming. Badly, and off-key.
The permutations stopped.
“What’s it say?”
“The password is seven characters long.”
“Redwood,” the Professor suggested. I keyed it in.
“Nope. ‘R’ is good, though.”
We stopped to think for a minute, stumped.
Jason said, “Try the number three for ‘E.’”
I keyed in “R3DWOOD.”
“Hm. ‘R-three-D-W’ is good. I’ll bet the O’s are zeros, though. Suite three-hundred is Adams’ office. He probably programmed the password.”
“Who’s Adams?”
“The Head Servant. There, that should do it.”
“Password accepted. Entry granted.”
The door slid open.
The Professor activated his com. “Brad, Leesa, we’re in. We’re headed toward the . . .”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
We ducked back in the doorway, diving for cover in the Customs area. Jason dragged Jacob with him. I peeked above the desk I found to hide behind with Dee Dee.
“Three of them, Professor! Looks like Agents.”
“Makes sense. They must have found some guns. Colt, take them out.”
Ranger Jenkins jumped out from behind a body scanner and started shooting.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Coast is clear.”
We made our way back to the hallway. Three Agents lay on the floor, each with one shot to the head. I noticed one of them was Agent Hernandez, from my tribunal.
“Grab their weapons. Let’s go.”
-+-
I led the way through the city, heading toward the Governor’s Quarters. Every screen we passed flashed red. The computers kept saying, “Invasion protocol. Invasion protocol.”
We didn’t see many people. Where we did, they turned and ran away from us.
Finally, we neared the entrance to The Old Man’s office, where I’d gone through my tribunal so long ago. The outer door was locked. The Professor nodded, as if expecting it.
“Open it.”
I placed my hand on the palm reader.
“Invasion protocol active. Secondary entrances require password.”
The virtual keyboard appeared. I keyed in R3DW00D.
“Improper password. Access denied.”
“Great. Jason, hand me the hacker board again.”
“Just a minute.”
The Professor examined the door closely.
“What do you think, Colt? This door is not nearly as fortified as the last two. There’s no secondary seal, just a lock.”
Jenkins nodded, quickly grasping the Professor’s intent.
“We can try it. Everybody stand back.”
Jenkins pulled out his rifle and began shooting at the door handle.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
With each shot, a hole around the handle grew bigger. Finally, he kicked it, and the door burst open in a shower of splinters.
We heard a yelp as somebody ducked behind a desk in the office. Dee Dee, Jenkins and I pointed our guns at the desk. A trembling young Servant stood up, his hands in the air. I recognized him as the kid who’d brought the Agent’s report to my tribunal.
“Don’t shoot! Please, don’t shoot!”
“Get outta here.”
He ran from the room, crying.
The Professor walked over to the doorway on the opposite side of the room.
“This is just the outer office. That door is the one we need to get into. And it’s sealed. We can’t shoot our way through this one.”
Jason pulled out the hacker board again, and we went to work. Dee Dee turned her attention to the computer station at the desk. She called me over.
“Try your palm print on this one. Let’s see if I can get into anything.”
I placed my palm on the scanner, granting her sysop access.
A few minutes later, Dee Dee said, “I’m intercepting a distress call from Redwood City to New Texas.”
“See if you can pipe it through for us, Diane.”
“Okay, but it’s not going to look right since we’re not in the same room.”
A couple minutes later a silver corporate communications icon hung in the air. Near the door Jason and I were working on, a hologram of The Old Man appeared. He was seated and stared ahead, an angry scowl creasing his face.
“Connection established.”
Another hologram of another man appeared. He was seated too, but his hologram body appeared within the desk near Dee Dee. His upper torso popped up out of the desk as he looked toward The Old Man.
“Hello, Thomas. What’s going on? I can’t talk long, there’s a lot on my plate. These Aggies are killing my people. Killing them! They’ve had the gall to shoot back at Agents and GPs.”
“I’m being invaded, Phil!”
Jason looked up from the hacker board. “That must be Phillip Prince, the Governor of New Texas he’s talking to.”
“What? What do you mean ‘invaded?’ What are you talking about?”
“Right now. They’re just outside my door. They’ve got guns and they’ve broken through the Customs Entry. There’s another group outside fighting my load bots.”
“Who? Who are these people, Thomas?”
“I don’t know! Rangers, maybe? They flew in on synthetic birds. But I only know of three Ranger families out there. They shouldn’t have more than six adults, but our scanners showed at least thirty.”
“Okay, calm down. We’ll figure something out.”
“I can’t calm down, Phil! I saw them shoot down my Agents, too! On the surveillance cams. They’re right outside my door, right now, trying to break in!”
“You should be fine. The protocols were put in place for these things.”
A thought seemed to cross Governor Prince’s face.
“Say . . . you didn’t see any monkeys with them, did you?”
“No. But I did see that Servant who disappeared with Agent Schmidt several months ago. He’s with them, Phil. He’s one of them.”
At the mention of me, the Governor’s face grew very troubled.
“And the protocols are NOT working, Phil. They were designed to thwart
monkeys, not people. They’ve gotten past the catapults, the bots, the Customs Entry. And now they’re at my door trying to get in!”
“Just stay calm, Thomas. I have a lot on my plate right now. They got my Governor’s Mansion along with most of New Austin. I was able to escape by the skin of my teeth and set up a remote command base . . .”
“I think we’ve got it,” Jason said. “It’s a long string of random characters, not like on the outer door. But the hacker board says this is it.”
I nodded to the Professor. He and Jenkins came closer, guns at the ready.
“Diane, you stay here with Jacob. Jason, when you open the door we’ll charge in.”
As good a plan as any, I thought. I racked the bolt back on my gun as Jason keyed in the password.
Ding!
We rushed in, guns drawn.
I said, “Computer, terminate connection.”
“Connection terminated.”
The hologram of the Governor in both rooms blinked out of existence. The Old Man stood up, slowly. He trembled in rage, staring at each of us in turn. He stopped at me, smoldering in rage.
“Hello, Thomas,” The Professor said. “I’m relieving you of command.”
Chapter Fourteen
“I need your palm print. You can give it to me willingly. Or, I can bite you.”
The Old Man’s eyes grew wide. I’d guessed correctly he wouldn’t try and call my bluff. He placed his palm on the scanner, and I gave myself sysop-prime access to Redwood City’s entire computer system. Then I programmed in Dee Dee and Jason, too.
Several vid screens covered the walls of The Old Man’s inner office. We keyed in on the ones showing the loading bay and the spaceport, where the gun battle still raged.
We shut down the load bots, and halted the system’s invasion protocol. A cheer came over the com link as Ranger Jones called in.
“Thanks, Professor! We were starting to get a little worried out here!”
“Any casualties Bradley?”
“No, sir. We mainly kept our heads down and let the bots do most of the shooting. We hoped they’d run out of ammo eventually. They had a lot of ammo, though.”
“Good work, all of you. We’re opening the loading bay door. But you need to be aware of three armed Agents that we’re seeing on surveillance cams. They’re planning a welcome party for y’all. Be careful, Bradley.”
Without the element of surprise, the Agents had no chance. Mr. and Mrs. Jones along with Mrs. Cruz and half a dozen others started firing on the Agents’ position as soon as the door began lifting up. A few seconds later, the three Agents lay sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood.
“Bradley, we’re not seeing any other threats on surveillance. I think the city only had six Agents, and we killed the other three. But you need to be extra careful when you see somebody. Don’t presume they’re friendly.”
I keyed up my com link. “Ranger Jones, if you’ll put your hand on the scanner there on the wall, I’ll program you into the system. We’re going to lock all the doors in the city so that everybody stays put. When your team needs to go through a doorway, you’ll just need to swipe the palm scanner.”
The Professor turned to Jenkins.
“Colt, escort Thomas here back to his quarters. I believe they’re through the doorway over there. We’ll lock him in there for now.”
Jenkins nodded and motioned to The Old Man with his gun.
“Diane, see if you can patch me through to President Montoya. He’ll want to know about our status.”
Several minutes later, and after several long distance arguments with people at New Texas A&M, Dee Dee looked up.
“I finally got somebody who says he’ll put the President on, Daddy. It’s going to be voice only.”
“That’s fine. Whenever he’s ready, send it through.”
A few moments later, a voice filled the room through the wall speakers.
“Hello? Who am I talking to?”
“Hello, Tony. It’s Curt Cruz. Long time, no see.”
A long pause.
“Curt, your voice print matches. You have to understand the situation we’re in over here, though. I have to verify it’s really you before we can talk.”
“No problem. Verify away.”
Another long pause. I guessed President Montoya was discussing the matter off-mic with someone.
“Curt, tell me about that game with Polytech we played in. You know, the one we won when I tossed you the ball and you scored the winning touchdown.”
The Professor smiled.
“You know Polytech beat us that year, Tony. We were robbed by the refs on that play.”
We heard the President laugh, along with several other people in the room.
“Just checking, Curt. We had to be sure. How’s it going over there? I see you’re calling me from Redwood City. Does it mean what I hope it does?”
“We took it, Tony. Just like you asked us to.”
The President sounded relieved. “That’s the best news I’ve had all day. Any casualties?”
“We lost three. The Ngs and Milton Kalinowski. Couple others were shot up, but they’ll live. The other side lost six Agents and a bunch of load bots.”
“That’s great news about taking the city. I’m sorry for the losses. I knew Milt. I only know Scientist Ng by reputation. Look, Curt, keep the area secure. We’ll send a team your way when things settle down and relieve you.”
“That’d be good. I’m sure we’d all like to get back to our research as soon as possible.”
Dee Dee sorted through the surveillance cam feeds while the Professor spoke. She stopped and stared at one, motioned me over. She pointed to one of the screens, which showed somebody hanging from the ceiling by their neck.
“That’s the bedroom here in the Governor’s Quarters.”
Jenkins and I ran over to where he’d locked up The Old Man. I palmed the door. It slid open and we burst into the room.
The Old Man had tied the sheets on his bed into a rope and hanged himself.
-+-
We secured all the guns used by the load bots and Agents. After a while, and after things were cleaned up, the Professor had Dee Dee unlock all the doors in the city and he called the populace together. I suggested he direct everybody to assemble at Park 7 on Level 25. I’d spent many hours working in that park, and knew it’d be a good meeting place, at the center of the city.
The Professor stood on a platform and addressed the crowd. Out of an entire cubic kilometer of a city, only a thousand inhabited it, all men. The official count on the system’s computers stood at 1,121 inhabitants. Minus the six Agents that had kept tabs on the entire group. And The Old Man, who’d chosen a cowardly suicide.
A handful of people knew the Rangers well, and were regarded as old friends by our team. They’d helped smuggle things off-planet back to New Texas. Customs worried about what came into Redwood City, but not so much what went out. So, smuggling items out tended to be easier. Jenkins explained this was how they were able to ship out Kalinowski’s cigars, among other things.
Somebody shouldered their way to the front of the crowd, and stared dagger eyes at me. Adams, the Head Servant. I ignored him as the Professor began his speech.
“We’re going to ask you to maintain your daily schedule. People still have to eat, equipment needs to be maintained. The government is changing back on New Texas and on other planets as well. This city is under University charter, now. This probably means little to you at the moment. But eventually, it will come to mean a lot more. For now, maintain your routines until we get everything sorted out.”
He spoke softly, reassuringly, matter-of-factly. But behind the podium the Rangers and their wives stood quietly holding guns, ready to shoot down anybody considering an attack.
Fortunately, they were mostly a docile lot: Servants, Mechanics, and other laborers who had the misfortune of being assigned to a backwater frontier planet. They never bothered attacking.
Our only t
rouble came when planning for the funerals. The Professor decided Kalinowski’s beloved AES 3 would be an ideal place to bury him, and he figured the old spaceport near Ranger Station Alpha would suit the Ngs well, underneath one of the trees Scientist Ng had studied for so long.
Adams found out about the plans, and protested strongly. Several times. I was there for the last one.
“Professor, I remind you this planet is still under ecological impact restrictions. Now, I don’t know what you and your team have been up to the last several years, but I do know interment of human remains is strictly disallowed on ecologically restricted planets! I don’t care if we are under University charter. Ecological restrictions transcend who’s in charge of the government at any given moment. The University probably had a hand in writing these restrictions in the first place. I am strongly opposed to this move, and I will lodge my protest to your superiors against this clear violation of protocol!”
The Professor pinched his nose. The ferocity with which Adams fought against the burials was surprising at first, then frustrating. The man would not let the issue go. As a former high ranking member of the city’s bureaucracy, his protests carried some weight, too.
“Where, exactly, do you bury your dead, Mr. Adams? I know you don’t fly the bodies back to New Texas.”
“On the roof. We have a cemetery near the gardens up there. The bodies stay contained within the cube.”
Once Adams left, I chimed in.
“I bet they were worried about vampire monkeys digging up the bodies or something.”
He nodded. “That would make sense. That probably accounts for his vehemence in the matter.”
“Just go ahead and bury them here for now, Professor. We can always reinter them later.”
He agreed, and that’s what we did. The bodies of the Ngs, Professor Kalinowski, and all six Agents, as well as The Old Man, were brought up to the roof. Graves were dug, we buried them and had a funeral. Tombstones were brought out of a storage facility, names and dates etched, and the stones were placed at the graves.
Afterward, Dee Dee and I walked alone in the rooftop garden, holding hands. A feral cat scampered out of our way.
“Lunch!” I joked.
Eventually, we made our way to the glass wall. She looked out over the surface of Redwood from on top of the cube for the first time. The sun sank low on the horizon, painting the sky in brilliant colors.