by Bob Blink
The others looked uncomfortable at his words, but slowly nodded. They had crossed a line, and there was no going back.
"How did they manage it?" Walker roared in frustration. He and Luke were alone in the Director's apartment, the others having been sent home to recover from the trauma of the attacks, and their ultimate failure.
Luke shrugged.
"We know that Greg Harper was involved. There hasn't been time for a formal investigation, but the security folks who spoke with staff on duty indicate a couple recall seeing the former employee moving around the lower level. They didn't know he was terminated and being sought. Maybe we've kept this all too secret. They thought he'd been away on vacation, and being used to seeing him, didn't think about it. The man knows all the secrets of the place, including the best ways in and out without being seen."
"So he just walked in, and went wherever he wanted?"
"Ray Burke was with him," Luke confirmed. "The descriptions of several witnesses confirm as much."
"Where would they have come up with the explosives?" Walker asked. "Is our source compromised?"
"Whatever they used was far superior to what we had made. They also used a trigger device that looks like it was contract made for the military a long time ago. I'm guessing we know why they wanted the Cyborg and why it went topside."
"You believe one of them knows something we don't. Could there be a supply dump up there waiting to be used one day?"
"My guess is that's the case, and they knew about it somehow."
"We need to block that route and make sure they can't get out again, and send some people out to explore," Walker said. "See to it first thing in the morning. There might be all manner of items we'd find useful. At least we can assume they couldn't have brought much inside, probably far less than they had hoped."
"Why do you say that?" Luke asked.
"The logs show that damn Cyborg moved through the airlocks on his return very quickly. The return was compromised, mostly by luck. He couldn't have come through so quickly that while lugging much stuff. Perhaps the explosives and a couple of weapons."
Luke wasn't convinced the Director's reasoning was sound, but knew this wasn't the time to argue. If the Cyborg had brought back items that he wanted to bring inside but had been forced to leave in his haste to get back in after being discovered, why hadn't the security team found something when they looked outside? In Luke's mind, whatever the thing had gone after, he'd brought back with him.
"We have to assume they might be armed with more than the handguns they took from our people," Luke warned. "They have been full of surprises."
Both men were silent for a moment. Finally Luke asked.
"How do you want to proceed?"
"Get a team into the Resort and see what it takes to repair the damage. If needed, bring in someone from the Sim to help. We'll take a lesson from them. Clone whoever we need from the Sim into one of the Cyborgs to speed the repairs up. I don't want those bastards in the Sim to be even more prepared when we go after them again."
"I'll be honest. I don't look forward to doing that again," Luke admitted. "I doubt that Carl will be willing to have another go. I think he was killed five times tonight."
"I'll have Zack keep an eye on them," Walker said, unbothered by Luke's comments. "At least we can still monitor their activities. If it appears this is becoming too difficult, we take the easy way out. These rebels have given us a perfect opportunity to take action and blame it on them. In fact, it might be just the way to turn the residents of the cavern hard against them."
"I don't understand," Luke said.
"Maybe we'll simply take out a couple of nodes. What if we were to blow the power to the Los Angeles and Chicago nodes? We'd get rid of all these pests, including that damn Rossetti who is hidden away in his fortress."
"You'd take out a couple of nodes? Is that safe? You'd kill millions of people that we might need later."
"My experts tell me the planners assumed that a couple might fail over the millennium they'd be required to operate. That's one of the reasons they made ten independent nodes. We've been lucky and everything has run smoothly all this time. Even the data lines are redundant between the nodes, so that any could go down without compromising operations of the rest of the system, although I think we'd want to plan to kill the power, but not demolish the data paths like our friends did in the Resort."
Luke was shocked by what he was hearing. He was careful not to show it as he asked, "What about the group here in the caverns? We haven't found any leads to where they are hiding, and you can bet they won't be idle after this success."
"I have some ideas on that. We have to change our approach. We have to make it impossible for them to continue to operate as they have been. We need to root them out and assume they might be any place, no matter how unlikely."
Chapter 50
Sequoia Facility
"Walker's not sparing any effort," Ray said the next night when they gathered together to discuss options.
"He's got a repair team working on sorting out the damage at the resort," Greg reported, agreeing with Ray's assessment. He had a couple of friends he could still contact for information, so long as he was discrete. "I think he wants to get that fixed for public relation reasons. A lot of people were impacted by the outage there and are looking to him as the Director of this place to make it right."
"I have detected probing around in the Sim suggesting they might be planning on tapping one of the people listed for such repairs," Rao noted. "I think we can expect repairs to move along as quickly as possible in that area."
"I think we have a surprise for him if he tries his insertions again," said Raobot. They could detect the satisfaction even through the artificial overtones of his voice.
"He's also gone public with the fact it was a deliberate act of terror, and guess who he blamed?" Cindy said. "We are now all on the public enemy list. He wants everyone to be looking for us. He's even put Matti and Sarah on his list, even though they've been isolated from us for a long time."
"Cindy and I have been monitoring Walker's secure network," Jessica reported. "They are restructuring their search teams, and planning a systematic search of all regions of the caverns. That includes this area, so we have to worry they might discover this place. We'll have to make a check and ensure no telltale footprints are outside. They also are instituting teams to go topside and search for any facilities that might be there. Obviously, they've decided we got the explosives from somewhere, and that's the only feasible location."
"That blast may have caused more trouble than we expected," Greg admitted. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea."
"It saved lives," Ray said. "That makes it worth it."
Rao agreed.
"We would have lost our friends in the Sim if you hadn't acted. But now we need to do something about Walker. We can't sit back. Our best results have come by being proactive."
"I think we should go hunting," Ray suggested. "We have the weapons, and they wouldn't be expecting it. I'm certain we could nail a couple of them before they realized what was happening. If we could get Walker that might end it."
Cindy shook her head. It wasn't often that she disagreed with Ray.
"I think that would work for him. He has us as terrorists. We start shooting people without justifying why, and it'll turn the people even more against us."
"Besides, the rest of us don't know how to shoot well enough for such a task," Sam added.
"We can't just wait until they find us," Ray grumbled. "Walker is expanding his deputies to the point we'd be overwhelmed. Besides, I wouldn't want to shoot many of them. The new people he's adding don't understand what they are aligning themselves with."
"We need allies," Jessica said. "And that means people that know how to fight and deal with someone like Walker."
They were silent as they digested this, all of them very much aware how precarious their situation had become.
"I have an idea," Sam
said. "But I doubt you're going to like it."
"Go ahead," Rao pushed. "No one else has thought of a way out of this." The loss of his counterpart in the LA Sim had reminded him what the stakes here were.
Sam hesitated long enough that they thought he was going to reconsider. Then he spoke. "We have friends experienced in this kind of thing that would love a chance at payback. Up to now they've been at the mercy of Walker and his goons with no way to effectively fight back."
"You're talking about the cops that Walker tried to kill," Ray said.
"We can't build clones to bring them here," Jessica objected. "We don't have the facility, and frankly, we don't have the time."
Sam pointed to Raobot. "We bring them here as Cyborgs. They would be essentially immune to the handguns Walker's people carry, and would be strong and able to counter the kinds of force Walker will try to use against us. If we lose, then it doesn't matter, but if we win, and eventually control the clinic and everything else, they could be transferred out of the Cyborgs into bodies here in the caverns."
"That means another raid on the clinic," Greg said, shaking his head. They aren't going to be as careless as they were in the past. And the time and manpower it would take to transfer the kernels of all those people would take far too long."
"We don't need to do the transfer there," Sam explained. "I haven't told you some of what I learned about the Memory Mapper that Raobot brought back from topside. It didn't seem important like everything else that was going on. The unit not only maps human mind in normal bodies, and it was designed to implant into the Cyborgs, but it allows copying and transferring those memories out as well."
"You're sure about this?" Rao asked.
Sam nodded. "I've looked over the instructions and the unit very carefully. I know exactly how it is done."
"That still means a raid on the clinic," Ray pointed out. "We'd need to somehow carry out half a dozen of the Cyborgs. It was hard enough the first time."
"I agree it won't be easy, but I think we can come up with a plan. It will mean a diversion of some kind, but with Raobot to help carry, and the floating sled, we have some tools we didn't have before."
"You'd grab some of the Cyborgs, bring them here, perform the transfer taking kernels from the Sim, and then watch over them until they have settled into the bodies?" Rao asked.
Sam nodded. "I'd need Greg to help me make up some power units and a few other pieces of gear, but it can be done, I know it."
"You know what I like best about going back to the clinic?" Jessica said. "We'd get a chance at the Memory Mappers that Walker has hidden there. Take those out and their plan is doomed no matter what happens to us."
Ray nodded. "We still have about a third of the explosives Raobot brought back left. That would be more than enough."
"You must not destroy them," Rao warned.
"It does not matter," Raobot disagreed. "There are a goodly number of the units waiting topside. I saw them. The three that Walker apparently has can be sacrificed."
"Walker will find the ones topside eventually," Jessica warned.
"He will have trouble accessing them," Raobot said. "I have changed the code, and he lacks the kind of equipment needed to get in otherwise, especially when his people will have limited time they can remain topside."
Pleased with how the discussion was going when he expected outright refusal to consider his idea, Sam added. "We might also want to destroy the equipment in the Cyborg lab. It is all replaceable, but it would take Walker and Ho considerable time to set everything up again. They could do what we are doing, but without the Memory Mappers even that is different than they are set up for and would delay any use they might want to make of the Cyborgs."
"I want to be a Cyborg," Jessica said abruptly. "There aren't that many of our friends left, and we could augment their numbers and use our knowledge of this place to help them, without the risk to ourselves."
They were all surprised by her outburst, but upon consideration, the benefits were clear.
"I'm not sure your friends would want to make this kind of transition," Cindy said.
"We can ask them," Rao argued. "I am thinking they will be eager for the chance to go after Walker in his home for a change."
"Slow down," Ray complained. "This is a very risky operation. Unless we can come up with a plan that we believe offers a reasonable chance of success, we can't even attempt this kind of thing."
"I don't think we have much choice," Jessica disagreed.
"Let's go over this again," Ray said later that day after hours of argument and discussion. "We all agree that we'll need a distraction if we hope to pull this raid off. It will require something to draw off the majority if not all of Walker's key resources. The one thing that might do that is if he was to believe they have found where we are hiding."
"We have a number of candidates for a possible location to feed them, but all have problems of one sort or another," Greg summarized. "There are numerous good locations in the storage facility area, but that zone has been the subject of a lot of checking, and as a result wouldn't be very believable."
"It's also too far away, and would expose us to too much chance of detection during the setup," Jessica added.
"We could set up in one or more of the empty locations in the residential area, but again with the publicity Walker has given us, there is too much chance of detection, and it would put innocent people at risk," Cindy said.
"The unused equipment areas associated with the power plants is appealing, except none of us know the facilities and they are manned constantly because of their very nature and the importance of the smooth and uninterrupted operation," Rao said. "I think that Sam's idea has the most merit."
"It's so close, both to where we are actually located, and where we would be operating," Ray argued. "Otherwise it would be perfect."
"I can see it being believed once they 'discover' the hideout," Sam argued. "The fact it is close to the main Clinic would help explain how we managed to get away so easily last time. They'll wonder why they hadn't considered it before."
Sam wanted to set up a fake location in one of the three cloning labs that were part of the Clinic facility. Under current operations, only the main building was used for much. The cloning demands were limited. But when the return to topside was begun, a great increase in the number of clones required would be necessary and three additional buildings, all dedicated to the growing and populating of clones had been built. They were fully equipped, and kept in a ready state, but locked and only marginally monitored. All within a mile and a quarter of the main building, with Ray's knowledge of the security protocols, it would be relatively easy to break in and relocate some of the equipment to produce a makeshift lab, at least one that would appear to be real for the length of time required. It would be that much more believable because all the buildings had links back into the main computers, necessitated by the need to extract kernels from the Sim for the clones. The power plants were completely isolated from the Sim, and for that reason might be immediately questioned by Walker's people. They would have to come up with a method of luring Walker's forces to the area in such a way they would bring in their forces, but not immediately come charging in, waiting and hoping to ensure the whole group was present before attempting to take them into custody.
"How would we do this without being seen?" Ray asked, sensing the group had moved in Sam's direction. "The main Clinic is only half a mile from Security, and the other buildings are within a mile or so of that. We would be trying to make this raid while all of Walker's men were nearby."
"The locations are unfortunate," Greg agreed. "I don't think a nighttime raid would be advisable. Walker has gotten used to us operating at that time of day, and I suspect he will have Security on alert during those hours."
Daytime is bad because of all the people," Rao warned. "I am thinking we'd risk being seen."
"We also want to minimize the number of people we might have to deal with," Sam warne
d. "Even though they would turn us in, most aren't really our enemy. They have simply been misled as to what is actually happening. I think we need to plan on a Sunday. It's still the one day each week where everyone kicks back a bit. Fewer people would be in the areas we are interested in, and the staffing at the Cloning Clinic is minimal on those days."
"Let me walk through this," Ray said.
"We steal one of the farm trucks to carry the Cyborgs we hope to appropriate. Even if it is seen on the road, people won't think much of it. They are frequently making deliveries to the kitchens, and its presence will be dismissed as just another routine run. Jessica and Rao would be the drivers, and they will be in contact with us via the secure communicators, so would know when to drive up to the Clinic. Cindy would be our communications monitor, listening in to what Walker's people are saying over the nets, and keeping us all informed of status. The rest of us would hit the clinic, stun anyone that spots us, then quickly bring up the required number of Cyborgs and place them close to where Jessica and Rao will bring the truck for loading. One of us, probably me, will place explosives to take out Walker's equipment a short time after we leave. The blast should help distract anyone from looking for us immediately, and by the time they start, we have hopefully gotten everything hidden away back here."
"What about some of those who are on Walker's team?" Greg asked.
"We need to make up a list of certain people. Anyone on the list that we encounter, we should take the opportunity to eliminate. No quarter there. It will make our ultimate push against his people easier."
Everyone was silent for a moment as they considered his words, knowing what they were proposing.
"Do I have it right?" Ray asked.
"Without some of the details we need to flesh out, that sounds like what we've been building up to," Greg agreed. "Except, we drive the truck with the Cyborgs the long way around, heading from the Clinic, around the north side of the Ring, and then down the west perimeter. That puts us on a route that also immediately takes us away from the buildings where the people we need to be concerned about are located. Once we've unloaded, Jessica ditches the truck near one of the parks and hurries back here."