He brought the walkie-talkie back to his mouth.
“Um, yes, this is Tim…” Price said with his normal voice. “It appears there’s some disturbance in the mainframe room, over.”
“Are you sure, over?”
“Yes, better check, over.”
The man on the other end did not reply. A chill ran all the way down Price’s spine. The same happened to Tara.
“What’s going on?” She asked.
“Shh!”
“Copy” The man finally responded on the other end. “We’re going there.”
Price and Tara both took a very deep breath of relief.
“Over and out” Price said and put the radio down.
In the near distance, they could see silhouettes run under lampposts.
“That’s our cue.” Price spoke.
“I can’t believe it worked!” Tara said.
Price and Tara followed the men, keeping a safe distance between them. The guards stopped by the door of a hangar attached to the main building. One of them approached his badge to the biometric reader to validate his credentials. Only then a numeric keyboard appeared on the screen of the small panel fixed to the doorframe. He typed the password and the light on the panel changed from red to green and the door finally unlocked.
They entered the hangar and spread around, guns in hand. The mainframe room was empty, as it was supposed to be, nothing more than the constant and monotonous blink of equipment lights, the low hiss of cooling fans and the louder blow of the ventilation system. The lead-man grabbed his walkie-talkie.
“Tim, are you there, over?” He spoke and his tone was everything but friendly.
“Yes, over” Price responded outside the hangar, hiding behind a pillar.
“Everything’s quiet here. What the heck is going on, over?”
“I think I saw something, but I guess it was just an animal. It’s a false alarm, sorry about that, over.”
“Yes, you’ll be sorry alright! Many men had to abandon their posts for your little wild goose chase, over!”
“I know. This is just not my day. I feel like I’ve been hit by a baseball bat, over.”
“This will go on report, over and out!”
“Over and out” Price put the radio down. “I’ll give you a report, jerk!”
“Nice touch!” Tara said.
And the two youngsters watched several angry guards leave the mainframe room. After making sure the men were far enough, Tara and Price tiptoed along the building, bodies very close to the wall, not to fall into security cameras coverage area.
They reached the hangar and circulated it until finding the door. Price took a small tablet and an USB cable out of his pocket.
“Alright, let’s try this.” He said. “I hope it works.”
“Put that back” Tara spoke. “I saw the numbers he typed.”
“You rock, girl!”
Price reached into his shirt pocket, but…
“Damn it!” The young man cursed. “When I hit that guy, I forgot to take…”
“This?” Tara flashed the sentry’s badge to his nose.
“Now I know why they call you the Tarantula.”
Price brought the badge close to the biometric reader and Tara typed the password. The magic was done and in the mainframe room they went. Tara grabbed her walkie-talkie.
“Mate boy, are you there, over?” She spoke.
“Yes, I’m here.” Mate responded. “Where are you, over?”
“First part of the mission is accomplished. We found the mainframe room. It’s the shell-like thing that comes out of the shell-like building on the right, over.”
“Yes, I see it. I’m coming, over.”
“Don’t forget to keep your back against the wall all the time. I know you’d love to be in showbiz, but it’s not a good idea to appear before cameras just now, over.”
“Copy, I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll give the secret knock when I get there, over and out.”
In less than a minute, Mate Clarkson was reunited with Price and Tara in the computer room. The teenagers had already connected tablets to the central processing unit.
“What’s this on your faces?” Mate asked. “You guys look like two raccoons.”
“It was his idea.” Tara retorted.
“Just a little camouflage” Price told him.
“Anyway, the teams are in position, waiting for you to do your little tricks.” Mate said. “What happens now?”
“We take control.” Price answered. “As it had been for many years, everything is digital these days. People don’t go pee without a cell phone. The Undertakers control minds, we control their systems.”
“Sounds like fun.” Mate said.
“What is this thing in here?” Tara asked, looking at her tablet screen. “It looks like a floating tripod.”
“It’s the oil-rig.” Mate responded “The one that’s supposed to be abandoned, but it’s actually the place they use to send their Tornado signals.”
“There’s surely a lot of activity there for an abandoned place.” Tara said.
“How did you get these drawings?” Price asked, watching her tablet.
“They appeared on my screen when I was looking for the slave.” She answered.
“The slave?” Mate asked.
“This mainframe centralizes operations of the whole building.” Price explained. “It has to function all the time. In order to do that, it works in active-standby mode, or master-slave.”
“Man, these people have masters and slaves even in their equipment.” Mate said.
“The master system is here, the slave is in the oil-rig.” Tara spoke. “The slave contains the same data as the master. If the master system fails, the slave takes over until the master is repaired. This way, the system never stops.”
“And I bet they don’t even pay the slave.” Mate observed.
“Nuts!” Price cursed.
“What’s wrong?” Mate asked.
“They are only a few minutes away from launching the Tornado signal.” Price revealed. “They already transferred all its energy to output buffers.”
“Can you stop it from here?”
“No. The buffers are in a different location, therefore run by a separate system.”
“They probably did it like this exactly to avoid what we’re trying to do here.” Tara said.
“Well, what can you do?” Mate queried.
“I can install a virus that will give me access to the slave mainframe, the one in the oil-rig.” Tara replied.
“But we need the system to reboot so the virus can kick in.” Price pointed out. “And this only happens when the mainframe recovers from a power outage.”
“Yes, some friends of ours are working on a power shutdown.” Mate said. “We just don’t know when it’s going to happen. This can also stop the Tornado signal, but only for fifteen minutes, because of the generators.”
“They got to have no-breaks in case of a power failure.” Tara said. “They are enough to reboot the system even when the power is down. Then, my virus will be copied from the master to the slave, giving me access to the oil-rig mainframe. If I can cause the slave to malfunction, I might be able to stop the Tornado signal.”
“Sweet!” Mate jumped.
“Time for the Tarantula to show her poison!” Tara said, wiggling her fingers.
“In the meantime, let’s rock the boat around here.” Price spoke.
“Meaning?” Mate asked.
“We take control of this building.” Price replied.
He started to touch the screen of his tablet like mad.
“Hey, be careful with that!” Tara warned. “Don’t trigger any firewalls. The slightest mistake and all alarms will…”
“Done!” Price interrupted her. “All surveillance cameras will show only empty areas in a loop. Panels and biometric readers are open to any kind of suggestions. You just connect your tablet and get a password fresh from the oven, pretty much plug and play.”<
br />
“Are you sure?” Mate queried.
“Positive.” Price answered. “I didn’t get this far in the hacking world for being an amateur.”
Mate Clarkson took his walkie-talkie.
“Armadillo, do you copy?”
“I’m here, over.”
“It’s a go, over.”
“Copy.”
Armadillo and another young man came to the mail building door. One of them approached a dummy badge to the reader and connected a tablet to the panel. In a few seconds, a sequence of numbers appeared on the tablet screen. Armadillo tried the numbers on the virtual keyboard and the system accepted the password.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s party time.” He talked on his radio. “All teams converge to the main building. Let’s do this, over.”
Several adolescents came from every direction. They opened the door, went into the entrance hall and spread around.
“Hey!” Melinda, the secretary, screamed.
She was about to hit the silent alarm button.
“Don’t even think about it, babe.” A teenage boy with a pocket knife said.
The secretary pulled her finger back.
“The elevators are blocked.” Melinda spoke. “And there’s nothing I can do about it.”
“Perhaps there’s something I can do about it.” The young man responded and typed on the keyboard of her computer.
The elevators sprang to life.
“Easy does it.” He winked at the gorgeous secretary.
In the mainframe room, an anxious Mate Clarkson bit his fingernails.
“I’ve just spoken with the guys.” Tara said from behind a rack. “They got into the building, ready to occupy all sections. One of them surrendered the secretary with a Swiss pocket knife.” She finished between laughter.
“There were no guards in the main hall?” Mate asked.
“Probably not” Tara replied.
“Why would there be?” Price said. “They figure the place is impenetrable since the door is password sealed and people need a badge to get in.”
“What about sentries around the complex perimeter?” Mate questioned.
“I guess not.” Tara answered. “The guys just went right in. Nobody stopped them.”
“I don’t like it.” Mate said. “It’s been too easy.”
“But it’s supposed to be easy.” Price responded. “Nobody here is expecting any action from us. They got sloppy, that’s all. Relax, man.”
“I’ll try.” Mate sighed. “Did you install the virus?”
“Yes.” Tara answered. “The venom is about to contaminate the body.”
“Better tell the guys to go to the war room.” Mate said. “That’s the place to capture somebody important.”
“I don’t think there’ll be anybody important in there.” Price replied. “The big shots must be someplace protected against the signal.”
“Good thinking.” Mate spoke. “Can you find out where this place is?”
“No.” Price answered. “It’s not in the system.”
In the electromagnetically shielded dome, the concerning teams were ready. Engineers, doctors and Allison waited for another crucial moment in history.
“The Tornado signal is ready.” Bonnie announced.
Giant screens descended from the ceiling and automatically turned on. Everybody in the room could see Amy and the other children, duly connected to each other and strapped to chairs, needles perforating their napes. They were probably as bored as they looked.
“Are the children securely tied up?” Allison asked.
“Yes.” Bonnie replied.
“Let me see it.”
Bonnie remotely took control of the surveillance camera in the Awakening room and zoomed in the children, child by child. Through the giant ceiling screens, Allison carefully verified all straps. The camera was brought to its original position, filming Amy.
“Overzealous, aren’t we?” Bonnie commented.
“This time, there’ll be no room for surprises.” Allison replied.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” The head doctor said.
“I always know what I’m doing.” Allison retorted.
She turned to the lead engineer.
“Punch it!” Allison gave the order.
All lights in the room died, the big screens went blank, as well as the workstations.
“What’s going on?” Allison asked.
“Power failure” Bonnie replied.
“That wasn’t in the program.”
“Nice timing, too. Better call the electric center.”
“Don’t bother.” Allison whispered. “I can tell you, this didn’t happen by chance.”
“What do you mean?”
“I guess our dear rebels are getting creative.”
Weaker lights came to life and the workstations began to work again. Ceiling screens, brain and heart monitors remained off, not essential enough.
“What is this?” Allison asked.
“Emergency lights and no-breaks” Bonnie answered.
“Are they sufficient to launch the Tornado?”
“No, not enough power. We need to wait for the generators to start.”
“How long is that?”
“No more than a few minutes.”
“Do we have to start everything from scratch?”
“Not at all, the Tornado energy is already in the buffers. As soon as the generators kick in, the signal will be released.”
“Good.”
The Awakening room was immersed in semi obscurity. Emergency lights in there were no better than candles. The no-breaks appeared to be working fine, though. LEDs kept blinking all over the place.
“Jenny…” Amy called.
“Yes.”
“Do you remember our little game?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do it?”
“Yes.”
“Great! Now it’s time for the hide-and-seek.”
“Okay.”
Jenny was actually kneeling on the chair, arms held close to her body and hands hidden under her thighs. The wrists and ankles strapped to her chair actually belonged to a doll whose body was bent on the girl’s thighs, therefore hidden from view.
“They arrested Sally!” Jenny giggled.
“They sure did.” Amy smiled. “Now listen to me good, honey. Very slowly, move your body forward, so you can get rid of the needles.”
“Ouch!” The girl complained.
“Are you free from the needles?”
“Yes. My head hurts.”
“It will pass. Now, see the tube in your arm?”
“Yes.”
“Take it off.”
Jenny did as told.
“I’m bleeding.” She said.
“I’ll make it stop.” Amy replied. “But you need to go to that yellow panel over there. Can you see it?”
“Yes.”
Jenny walked to the panel, covering the wound in her arm with a hand.
“Push the red button, honey.” Amy said.
“This one?”
“Yes.”
“Is it going to work?”
“It’s in the no-break scope.”
“What?”
“Just push the button, love.”
Jenny did it, and all other children, including Amy, were disconnected from needles, tubes and released from the straps.
“Good girl!” Amy said. “How’s your arm?”
“The bleeding stopped.” Jenny replied.
“The hole was too small.
Jenny giggled again.
“Now, come with me all of you.” Amy commanded.
She walked to the room exit and pressed the button to open the door from the inside. Jenny took Sally and all children gathered around Amy.
“Alright,” Amy said. “Now, we’re going to play hide-and-seek, okay?”
“Okay.” The children sounded like a choir.
“Are you sure they’re not going to find us?�
� A twelve years old boy named Oswald asked.
“The power is down.” Amy answered. “The surveillance camera is not in the no-break scope. They can’t see us.”
“How come the power is down?” Oswald queried.
“I don’t know.” Amy replied. “I guess somebody out there is lending a hand.”
“Are we going to see our moms and dads soon?” Another little boy asked.
“Yes, Ivan.” Amy answered. “But you have to do as I say. Ready?”
“Ready!” Another choir echoed.
“You go to the docking bay and wait for me there.” Amy said. “Got it?”
“Why are you not coming with us?” Jenny asked.
“I got some things to do here first.” Amy replied.
“Are you going to hurt yourself?” Oswald queried.
“Me? No!” Amy answered. “Where did you get this idea? Now go all of you. Go!”
The children did as she said.
After making sure everybody was gone, Amy closed the door. She disconnected several cables from routers, switches and some others equipments responsible for remote communication.
Amy then grabbed all tubes that were once connecting the children to one another. She pierced several parts of her body with the many tubes, making faces of pain as she did. Amy looked like an octopus when she finished the operation.
She came back to her chair and connected her nape to the needles, allowing them to once again reach her brain.
Apocalily Series (Book 2): The Almighty Lady of Tomorrow Page 25