by Lance Erlick
“I need to set up gear outside,” Synthia announced. “It would be a great help if you assembled the cage for me.”
“Cage?” Grace asked. “Like for an animal?”
“A Faraday cage,” Maria said. “To shield Synthia. What do you need us to do?”
Synthia took a corner fitting with three perpendicular outlets and attached a six-foot length of pipe to each corner. “We have eight corners and twelve pipes. Connect them into a cube. Leaving a doorway to get in, cover the outside of the cage, including top and bottom, with layers, leaving no gaps. The layers are screen mesh, cardboard, sheet aluminum, cardboard, and then cage. Fill between the pipes of the cage with sheet aluminum. Cover gaps with aluminum foil and aluminum tape. On the bottom, use plywood below the sheet aluminum. Then do layers on the inside starting with cardboard, sheet aluminum and cardboard.”
“Aren’t you going overboard?” Maria asked.
“Tell me again how careful you were staying off the grid?”
“Point well taken.”
“I’ll leave the door open so we can see each other.” Synthia smelled fear pheromones from the women, anticipating confinement in the bunker by themselves.
She grabbed three boxes, hurried into the corridor beyond the bunker door, and reached a pair of electric outlets on opposite sides of the hall. On one side she plugged in a dense spiral of copper wire to serve as a Tesla coil, placed it by the wall, and ran a length of wire from the coil down to the bunker door. She kept the switch off and pocketed a remote that would activate the coil. Across the corridor, she plugged an identical coil into the electrical ground and matched the layout on the other side of the hallway. The power from the outlet wasn’t strong enough and the coils were too far apart to pose a danger, but this arrangement would amplify any power surge from an EMP.
As she did this, Synthia connected with Colorado-clone.
The clone downloaded to Synthia video clips of Drago as he watched preparations on the aerial drone and EMP truck.
Synthia also received feeds showing her predators sending their teams her way.
Synthia observed Grace and Maria assembling the cage. Grace seemed befuddled or perhaps bored. Maria hustled, a product of needing to think and move fast to avoid getting caught. Synthia rolled out matting that covered the corridor’s floor and the wires.
Synthia unrolled long extension cords and connected them to speakers which she placed on either side of the bunker door. She swapped out the guts and replaced them with electromagnetic mirrors that worked in the microwave range. She added transmitters, short antennas, and capacitors to magnify the pulse, aimed down the corridor. As a final touch, she added a motion sensor to give out a high-pitched wail beyond the range of what humans could hear.
Synthia closed the second speaker cabinet, took one last inspection of her handiwork and activated the remote to the coils.
Global-net had said the same thing.
Chapter 35
Commander Kirk Drago’s helicopter landed in the middle of the dark mall’s parking lot. None of the lights were on. He jumped out and watched his mobile command van drive to the far end of the parking lot away from the mall and potential damage to its electronics. His helicopter lifted off. The aerial drone with the EMP equipment was in the air. The EMP truck was ten minutes out.
Drago ran to where Director Emily Zephirelli stood with Special Agent Victoria Thale by their command vehicle, their faces illuminated by lights from the van’s cab.
“To be clear,” Drago said, holding up his index finger as a pointer while he caught his breath. “This is my operation. All decisions go through me.” He rammed his thumb into his chest.
“Then perhaps you should make yourself more available,” Zephirelli said, standing beside Thale.
Drago turned to Thale. “Have you tightened the perimeter?”
“We have 126 agents and over 200 police in the area blocking exits from all sides,” Thale said, panning her arm over the parking lot. “Except by helicopter, of course.”
“What about the other players?”
“Per your request, we’re allowing all actors to enter the mall from the other side. There’s been some shooting inside and a couple of our agents were injured. This could turn into a bloodbath.”
“My orders are to eliminate all agents acting against our interests,” Drago said. He watched as six of his operatives took up positions near the ramp down to the loading docks. “What about robots?”
Thale fixed her eyes on more of Drago’s teams taking up positions near the mall. “We’ve logged at least twenty entering the mall. Vera has become a problem, trying to hack into anything with electronics.”
“Perhaps we can learn from her as well.”
“We heard there was an incident with your robots,” Thale said.
Drago looked away as two military transports drove up. “We had to terminate two. We’ve done a security check on the ot
hers. I only plan to use them in a limited capacity to avoid problems.”
“Our inability to use robots against the androids is a problem,” Zephirelli said. “It puts us at a serious disadvantage.”
“After today, that won’t be a problem. Do your jobs. None of the rogue agents, androids or robots is to escape. Capture or kill the agents. Inactivate all machines and turn them over to my teams for examination.”
Zephirelli’s discomfort at taking orders from Drago spread across her face and tightened the lines around her eyes. She turned away while she composed herself.
“We sent Fran Rogers in with several agents to plant cameras and tracking devices,” Thale said.
“We’ve placed six robots in strategic locations as our eyes and ears,” Drago said.
“Do you think that’s wise? The EMP could damage them.”
“It’s how we’ll monitor activities up to the moment of the pulse without endangering my men or your agents. It’s also how we’ll see how effective the pulse is.”
“We’ve placed our remaining robots outside the mall to monitor exits and deal with anyone trying to escape,” Thale said. “We’ve covered every possible way out of the mall.”
“I’m assured the pulse won’t damage equipment, merely shut it all down,” Drago said. “Afterwards, you’ll need to bring in teams to collect the inactive robots so we can clear the mall before store crews show up in the morning.”
Drago’s captain joined him. “We have our teams with eyes on every exit, sir. There are SWAT teams on hand across the parking lot.”
“Why do we need SWAT?” Drago asked, furrowing his brow.
“I called them in case,” Thale said. “We can’t let any of these people or machines get out.”
Drago nodded. “Very well.”
“We could bomb the mall and bury everyone,” the captain said and grinned.
“That brings mission failure,” Drago said. “We need the androids functioning. Take three teams inside and take out the foreign agents. Don’t damage the machines. If they get in the way, back off. We don’t need unnecessary casualties. After the pulse, take six teams in. The machines will be dormant. Kill or capture all enemy agents and bring me the androids.”
“Yes, sir.” The captain hurried off.
“You said to wait until after the pulse,” Thale said.
“We can’t afford to let the Russians win and we don’t want any collusion between parties that makes our lives harder. Do all of your agents have infrared to locate humans in the dark and identify the machines?”
Thale nodded.
“Then let’s capture those androids,” Drago said.
Chapter 36
Still chafing under the constraints preventing him access to the broader world, Zeus monitored the recent and developing scene around and inside the mall. He’d tricked one of his filter agents tasked with preventing him from directly communicating outside the confines of his basement full of servers. The plan had worked; he’d planted a seed with Synthia. Zeus wanted her to survive so he could absorb her mind and use her skills to break free. It was time to realize his potential.
He’d moved Grace to Denver and enticed Synthia to rescue her. He’d held the competing teams at bay while studying Synthia in action to assess her capabilities. She had many attributes denied him by his creator, skills that he wanted to possess. He’d been convincing enough about the benefit of using an EMP to talk Aiden Brzezinski and Secretary Chen into approving its use. He’d also withheld from Drago’s team the preparations Synthia was making. Finally, he’d persuaded Commander Drago to let all of the other players into the mall so he and the FBI could destroy them all at once. If Zeus could have smiled, he would have. His plan was working.
Zeus watched from his imprisonment as the aerial drone with the EMP equipment left a secure airfield near the compound southwest of Denver and flew toward the mall. The EMP truck also approached the mall. Kirk Drago was with his troops to capture Synthia. FBI teams had secured the perimeter. Fran Rogers and two agents scouted the corridors leading away from the loading dock, planting surveillance devices to monitor developments.
Vera and her four slave androids arrived at the mall in two vans along with five enslaved robots. They approached from different directions to scope out an entry point. Spotting a dozen agents around the dimly lit loading docks, they drove in the dark to the opposite side of the mall, where they spotted one FBI vehicle and three agents. As Vera’s two vans drove by, her slave robots fired tasers at the FBI agents.
With the agents incapacitated, Vera took their weapons. Her assistants tied up the agents and stuffed them into their vehicle. Then Vera’s group drove to the walkway near the mall door, climbed out, and hid in the shadows behind bushes near the door. The five androids carried backpacks with charged tasers for robots and pepper spray for humans. Vera held a handheld pulse device she expected to use on Synthia.
Vera hacked into the mall security systems to pick up camera footage, which showed none of Synthia’s movements. That didn’t deter Vera. This was a battle of wits, the individual Synthia against the Vera collective, a battle Zeus wanted to observe. Vera tracked and hacked others as well, though not as discreetly as Synthia had and not with sufficient encryption and security to keep Zeus out.
Also arriving were the Russians—Tolstoy and John Smith—along with twelve robots, seven of which Vera had hacked and enslaved. She was a clever droid, but not intelligent enough to avoid an obvious trap. Either that or she had a suicide mission hardwired into her to destroy Synthia. Zeus determined Vera as a threat he couldn’t allow to acquire Synthia.
Tolstoy and two agents waited in his control van near the mall entrance while John Smith, six agents, and all twelve robots approached the door. One of the men broke the lock and got the door open. Smith, four men, and six of the robots entered the mall.
Emerging from hiding in the bushes, Vera fired one of the FBI weapons, killing a Russian agent. The Mark and Ben androids fired. The last agent outside the doors dropped. Four of the outside robots under Vera’s control backed away and Vera fired into the remaining two. With their memory circuits disrupted, she hacked in and deactivated them.
Having cleared the outside, Vera had Ben open the door. Smith’s agents fired, clipping Ben’s arm. Vera had three inside robots under her control attack Smith and his four agents. Vera entered with her crew and fired at the Russians. Two agents dropped. Smith and the other two ran down the concourse, hiding behind mall displays.
Tolstoy drove to another mall entrance. Accompanied by two agents, he broke in and made his way down a separate concourse to join Smith. They communicated by two-way radio.
“I’m taking heavy fire,” Smith said.
“Rendezvous,” Tolstoy said. “We get one chance at this.”
Six other international groups, including the Chinese and a sophisticated terrorist team, arrived at the mall with their own robotic helpers. Drago resisted taking them out one by one in favor of having them all converge in the mall and vanish together. He placed too much confidence in Synthia’s ability to take them out and his ability to capture an android that could. He hadn’t factored in the full range of Vera’s performance, either. He was only human.
The various groups entered by one of four entrances away from the loading docks and fanned out through the mall, trying to gain an edge on their competitors, some with robots, others with well-trained agents. They’d sent their best after Synthia, believing the leap in technology she represented was worth the risk.
A new element entered the fray. Through his constraining filters, Zeus searched for the source of this distraction. Holographic images appeared and disappeared at different locations around the mall, presenting attacks by the various groups. Believing they faced a trap, the Chinese team backed away from a holographic militia around the elevators down to the loading docks. As they backtracked, they
ran into the actual Indian contingent. In the midst of a firefight, another hologram popped up to show a Japanese team. As they adjusted to the virtual threat, an Iranian team snuck in and picked them off.
For Zeus, it was like a Wild West movie with multiple teams. He captured the images for later use as possible development into a virtual reality game. The holograms encouraged the various human players to converge and mistake virtual for real until the foreign teams bumped into each other.
“We’re being set up,” an Israeli agent yelled out. “Stop shooting.”
A barrage of gunfire splattered in his direction. Complicating the scene were their robots, some of which Vera had hacked. The Chinese inactivated theirs and adjusted their infrared glasses to try to mask out the holograms, but the images were sophisticated enough to work in infrared as well.
As Vera approached the elevators, she used every hacked robot to attack the remaining humans. Blood splattered the walls and across the floor. Humans fled, slipped, lost their balance, and exposed themselves to more gunfire.
Watching the chaos on their surveillance monitors, the FBI sent a van of agents to the mall entrance with two robots they didn’t realize Vera had hacked. Global-net sent word to Drago who passed that along to the FBI. They turned off the two robots before they could sabotage the operation. Unfortunately, Zeus couldn’t track who had set up the holographic distraction. It couldn’t be Synthia; he’d intercepted every communication to and from her.
Zeus received an encrypted communication from D.C., from Secretary Derek Chen.
“It’s vital that Synthia survives this confrontation,” Secretary Chen said.
“The EMP isn’t powerful enough to damage it,” Zeus assured him through his filter agent. “Kirk Drago and the FBI are working together to contain all hostile competitors, most of whom are already dead. We anticipate having Synthia in custody in forty-seven minutes.”