Genesis Pact (Genesis Book 4)

by Eliza Green

  Olsen sighed. ‘Well, it seems as if this mission just got a lot more complicated. We now need to protect ourselves as well as Waverley. Any suggestions on how we get in there?’

  ‘I might be able to help.’

  They all turned to look at Ben. ‘When my mother and I were forced to come to Earth, they took us here. But we didn’t go through the main entrance.’

  ‘Where then?’

  ‘Through some kind of tunnel. We wore hoods, but I heard running water.’

  ‘What did they want with you?’ said Olsen.

  ‘To tell them everything I knew about Stephen, an Indigene I’d met. I’d already told them everything I knew on Exilon 5, but I guess other people had questions.’

  ‘Running water,’ said Isobel. ‘A service tunnel, perhaps?’

  Jenny clicked her fingers. ‘They built service tunnels beneath the World Government and Earth Security Centre offices, and probably for the ITF offices, too. When they didn’t want someone coming through the main door, they would usher them through the service tunnels. The entrance has to be around here somewhere.’

  ‘Or not at all,’ said a smiling Olsen. ‘There’s a good chance it’s part of the city’s old sewers.’

  They fanned out and checked the streets for service grates closest to the World Government offices, keeping their activity away from the military guards.

  Olsen spotted one first, but it was too open, in sight of the guards. ‘There must be another one, further away somewhere. Either way, we should be able to reach the building from below.’

  They worked their way across the streets and found the next service grate, on a different side street several blocks over, well hidden from view.

  ‘Do they know these grates lead underground?’ said Isobel.

  ‘The World Government did,’ said Jenny. She crouched down and examined the grate. ‘They used an electrical current to protect these. If you stepped on one of these accidentally, you’d get a nasty shock.’

  ‘And now?’ Isobel came down to her level.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  They both examined the grate. Jenny ran through the list of tools they’d brought with them. ‘What can we use to test the force field?’

  Isobel extended her hand. ‘Me.’

  Jenny stopped her with a firm hand to her wrist. ‘I didn’t mean to imply that you should touch it.’

  ‘Electricity slows me down, but it takes more than a shock to render me unconscious or kill me.’

  Jenny let go and the others stepped well back from the grate. Isobel’s fingers grazed the metal structure. There was no spark. She touched it again; this time more confidently. ‘There’s no electricity flowing here anymore.’ She tugged at the grate. ‘But it’s welded shut.’

  ‘Can you see if there are any weak spots?’ said Hayes, removing the laser cutting tool from her bag.

  Isobel studied the grate. ‘It’s welded tight. Your best bet is to start here.’ She pointed at a slightly rougher spot in the welding marks that ran the circumference of the grate.

  Hayes knelt down and got to work. ‘Give me some cover.’

  Olsen and Jenny stood with their backs to her, brandishing their Buzz Guns. Ben stayed by the corner, keeping watch. Jenny glanced over at Isobel and Hayes. The laser beam in Hayes’ hand shone bright red against the welded joint as it cut through.

  ‘How’s it coming?’ said Olsen.

  ‘Give me a few more minutes.’

  Isobel knelt beside Hayes. ‘Cut that part next. You don’t need to do all of it. Just enough so I can pry it loose.’

  Hayes turned off the laser and removed the small crowbar from her bag. She hooked it underneath the area where she had melted a section of the welding and pulled upwards.

  Isobel slipped her fingers under the rungs of the grate and pulled hard. Jenny heard a loud pop as the structure loosened. They placed the grate carefully on the ground.

  ‘We’re in.’

  A steep ladder led down to tunnels that had served the city for well over a hundred years. They had been part of the old underground sewer system but had been redesigned when the World Government offices were built. If Ben and his mother had been brought through the tunnels, the government had probably used them for privacy, security, and above all, ease of movement.

  Jenny was last down the ladder. She pulled the grate back into position. Halfway down, she felt a familiar pressure on her legs from the environmental force field still operational in the tunnel. She wondered if the force field had receded over the years and that once it had protected the grate to make the entire area watertight.

  The tunnels were tall enough for them to stand upright in. The bone-dry concrete was old, but still intact, and no longer carried water.

  Olsen removed his mask. ‘There’s air down here.’

  The rest did the same. Jenny tested the air, then pocketed her own mask.

  ‘Does this place seem familiar to you?’ she said to Ben.

  ‘Not really. I remember running water. This place is different.’

  ‘Maybe that’s a bit further on,’ she said. ‘Possibly the government’s own private supply of water.’

  They walked on until they reached a split. Hayes pulled up the incomplete map of the World Government building on her DPad that she had downloaded from the digital library. Over her shoulder, Jenny checked the schematics of the entire building, floor by floor.

  ‘The tunnels aren’t on the map. Which way do we go?’ said Hayes.

  ‘Let’s try left,’ said Jenny. They kept moving until they hit a dead end that turned them around. They doubled back and took the right-hand tunnel.

  ‘This is all too easy,’ said Olsen. ‘Where’s the sophisticated camera system to keep us out? This is the government’s design after all.’

  ‘Maybe the water ran back then,’ said Olsen. ‘Couple that with an electrified tunnel and one wrong step means you’re toast.’

  ‘Come on, we should keep moving,’ said Jenny. ‘I don’t want to be down here longer than necessary.’

  The serpentine tunnel forced them to walk for longer than Jenny had expected. A large smooth metal door with no handle came into view.

  ‘Well, that’s more like it,’ said Olsen.

  Hayes removed the cutting tool from her bag. ‘Isobel, can you tell what it’s made of?’

  Isobel ran her hand over the surface of the door. ‘A high grade titanium alloy. There’s 4 percent aluminium, 2.5 percent vanadium and 1.5 percent iron mixed in, too.’

  ‘Metal is metal.’ Hayes activated the laser cutting tool. ‘But will take a little longer to get through. Any weak spots before I start?’

  Isobel’s eyes scanned the door’s facade. ‘I see a thinner section of titanium near the screw mechanism that should be easier to cut through.’ She studied the door up close. ‘There’s no handle on the other side. If something serves as a handle, then it’s part of the door itself. This could be an automatic door, a type that slides back. I’m not sure. There’s a mechanism but it’s buried inside the concrete.’ She pointed to various spots for Hayes to cut.

  Jenny glanced at Ben who sat on the floor with his back against the wall, his arms wrapped around his knees.

  ☼

  Twenty minutes passed, and the pair had made progress. The metal that Hayes had cut out close to the possible screw mechanism dropped to the floor on the other side, with a loud clanging noise. Jenny hoped the concrete masked the sounds between the floors. Isobel stuck her hand in and used her Indigene strength to slide the door back. It took a few strong pulls, but eventually it moved enough for them to squeeze through the gap. They followed the corridor until they reached a set of stairs going up and down.

  ‘We need to go down,’ said Jenny.

  Isobel stopped with her hand out in front. ‘There’s a different kind of force field here, a security one. Can you feel it?’

  The others copied her action. ‘Yes, it’s faint. Is it in front of us?’

  ‘It�
��s weak here. You must go through it, but brace yourself. You’ll feel a strong pinch as you do.’

  ‘Is it safe?’ said Olsen.

  ‘Should be. It’s weak enough to pass through.’

  Jenny pushed into the force field. She felt resistance at first, followed by an irritating static build-up that coated her skin with unwanted energy. She waded through the barrier, her legs heavy, and hauled herself out the other side. The unpleasant sensation on her skin lingered, and she shuddered. The others followed, rubbing their arms and legs as they passed through.

  Buzz Gun in hand, Jenny led the way, nudging open with her foot a door at the bottom of the stairs.

  Hayes checked the map. ‘Level two. Underground.’

  Jenny peeked around the corner to find the corridor empty. She motioned them out of the stairwell and onto the second floor below street level. She led the way with her gun raised.

  Olsen followed with the second gun. Hayes carried the laser cutting tool like a weapon.

  ‘There should be a turbo lift around here somewhere,’ said Jenny. ‘What level is the supercomputer on?’

  Hayes checked her DPad. ‘Six levels below this one.’

  ‘Over there.’

  Inside the lift, Jenny produced an access card procured by Greyson, embedded with a World Government security chip. She pressed it to the panel and barked a voice command.

  The lift moved and a moment later, the doors opened on Level Eight. Jenny emerged first, her Buzz Gun raised to eye level.

  ‘I’m picking up data transmissions on the DPad.’ Hayes pointed down a corridor. ‘That way.’

  The room containing the supercomputer was unlocked. There wasn’t a single guard in sight.

  Jenny frowned. ‘Is it really going to be this easy? Why aren’t there guards down here?’

  ‘We’re here now,’ said Hayes. ‘Let’s get on with this, then get the hell out.’

  Their footsteps echoed around the massive cooled space that housed hundreds of servers in tall black units.

  ‘Is this the supercomputer?’ said Ben, looking around the room.

  A giddy Hayes smiled. ‘Impressive, isn’t it? Each server runs the controls for a separate location where everything’s still integrated. Environment, heat, light. I need to locate the administrator server among all this. If I can access the system that should give me the control I need.’

  ‘Hayes, you’re up,’ said Olsen. ‘Go find the virus.’ Jenny and Olsen protected the entrance as Hayes searched the room. She pointed at a server, three down from the door.

  ‘This is it.’

  Isobel and Ben stayed close to Hayes and watched her work. She opened up the front panel and activated a console attached to the unit, then magnetically mounted the DPad to the front of one server and projected a holographic keyboard from the DPad. She typed something.

  ‘The old AI system relied on a combination of UUID codes in the security chip and biometric scanning to activate the terminals. I have a bunch of old UUID codes I want to try. I’ll see if I can barge my way into the system by using one of the codes.’

  Jenny checked on Hayes who inserted the USB key into the console and typed on the keyboard. She cursed. ‘I’m running a program to iterate through a list of known UUIDs. But so far it’s coming up with nothing.’

  Olsen moved to her side. ‘What about searching for exploitable areas in the system?’

  ‘Yep, that’s my next thing to try.’

  Hayes typed another command and a stream of data scrolled onto the screen. ‘Okay. The exploit worked. I’ve found a way in. Not all the way, but enough to see the servers. There are three hundred and ten servers in this room and they are all operational and controlling something. I just need to isolate which one, or ones, control the life support for the New York area. Then drill down and find Waverley.’

  ‘How will you do that?’ said Isobel.

  ‘Each server controls a country. For each country the control is divided down into areas. When this place was operational, the sentient programs were part of the servers and controlled different things. Heating, light, energy, life support. When someone disabled the AI system, they put a generic operating system in place. It should be easier to hack.’

  ‘What about the official buildings?’ said Olsen. ‘The ones the criminals use?’

  ‘They’re run off a separate server. I’m not sure which one that is. I’ll need more time to work through them.’

  ‘Well, our priority is locating the virus,’ said Jenny.

  Hayes continued to examine the console. ‘The virus could have been uploaded remotely and the supercomputer acted as a conduit to leak it across the grid.’

  ‘Let’s consider everything,’ said Jenny.

  ‘I want to start with the main terminal.’ Jenny studied the holographic image of a map that Hayes pulled out from the console showing bright lines and junctions. It resembled the layout for an old underground train system. ‘The sentient programs used this information highway to navigate the systems. It’s embedded with code.’

  Hayes ran her finger along several tracks. ‘Part of the old sentient program. They liked to play games with the administrator. I’ll need to check if there’s a backdoor to the system. There usually is.’

  ‘Backdoor?’ said Jenny.

  ‘Yeah, a failsafe code that will give me access to the operating system. Drake most likely created it when he built the sentient programs. It won’t be easy to find but we’ll need it to stop the virus. Drake will most likely have hidden the virus below the failsafe code. He wouldn’t have wanted just anyone to find it. It was meant for someone with my skills. I’ll run another program, see if we can hack our way past the normal authentication process.’

  She cursed again. ‘The system is blocking me, so I’ll have to try something else.’ She typed another code. More data scrolled up the console. Jenny heard Hayes draw in a quick breath. ‘Shit. Scratch that idea.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’ said Olsen.

  ‘I just set off an alarm. I’m not sure who else might be monitoring this. It’s either the criminals, which I highly doubt, or the Indigenes with tech skills who are working for them.’

  ‘So, send them a message,’ said Isobel.

  ‘What should I say? I’m only guessing that they see the alarm.’

  ‘Tell them help is coming,’ said Isobel without missing a beat.

  Hayes lifted her brows at Olsen. Jenny smiled at Isobel. It was a good idea.

  Olsen shrugged. ‘It can’t hurt. The alarm has been triggered. Assuming the Indigenes are the ones watching and alerting the criminals, we need to stall them long enough to get the hell out of here.’

  ‘Do it quickly,’ said Jenny.

  Hayes typed a message on the console. ‘This will broadcast to any monitoring devices that might be listening.’

  ‘Keep going,’ said Jenny. ‘We can’t find the virus without full access.’

  Hayes turned her attention back to the console. Ben watched over her shoulder.

  ‘Oh, this is interesting. I’ve found an open port that shouldn’t be there. I’m in!’

  Olsen nodded. ‘Can you disable the virus?’

  ‘Searching, searching. Yes, I see it. I’ll need time to run algorithms to crack it. How long do we have?’

  Jenny lowered her Buzz Gun to hip level. ‘I don’t know, depends if the Indigenes report the alarm.’

  Hayes nodded. ‘I’ll make it work.’

  Ben sat on the floor and leaned against the wall. Had it been a mistake to allow the boy to come? Maybe Jenny should have insisted they turn around. But then she saw how Isobel kept glancing over at him. Maybe having Ben there would make things run smoother.

  Hayes tucked her hair behind her ear. Olsen moved to her side, keeping the Buzz Gun trained on the door.

  ‘The virus is just another program and I need to kill it. It’s running on multiple servers. If we kill just one server, another one will respawn it. I have to kill them all simultaneously. I�
�ve got an algorithm that should do the trick.’

  She tapped on the console.

  ‘Is that it?’ said Olsen, pointing at the screen.

  A holographic representation of all the servers displayed in red. ‘If this works, they’ll all turn green simultaneously. Now we wait.’

  The lights changed. Hayes gave out a little whoop as the last red light turned green.

  ‘Yes! It’s given me the access I need to the life support. So it’s a start.’ Hayes looked at Ben. ‘You say North, West and South Compounds were the worst affected in your neighbourhood?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ben, jumping to his feet.

  ‘Well, I’ve rerouted life support control for the general population to the medical facilities. That covers more than just Waverley. Any US-based neighbourhood under the servers’ control will be under ours now. We can make sure the problem never happens again. The criminal factions don’t even have to know about it.’

  ‘What about the neighbourhoods in other countries?’ asked Jenny.

  Hayes shook her head. ‘The computers in the local International Task Force offices control those. I can see them, but all we can do is get word out to the other facilities, to gain access to the ITF in their countries. The Earth Security Centre in Sydney controls the life support for the Australian people.’

  ‘So that’s it? We have power over the factions now? We can start to get the word out?’ said Jenny.

  ‘Not quite. The buildings owned by the World Government run on an isolated system,’ said Hayes.

  ‘We know the criminal factions occupy most of the buildings the World Government previously owned,’ said Jenny. ‘Let’s take control of their life support, too.’ They’d come too far not to try.

  ‘To get to the virus, we’ll need to hack that system. I’ll try, but I don’t know if it’s possible.’

  Hayes typed something on the holographic keyboard.

  ‘As I thought. It has a level eight UUID code on it, like the virus. I doubt the factions even know how to hack it. That’s probably why there are so many guards here, to stop others from doing the same.’