The Tau Directive

by Tomas Black

  “We go up here,” said Magnús, pointing to the flat top above them with his ice axe. “It’s not a hard climb and we will not need ropes. Just be careful where you put your feet. There are many loose rocks and shale. It is easy to break an ankle on the way up.”

  They each drank a little water, then took up their Bergens and started the trek up the side of the steep slope.

  “Like old times,” said Brock, “although I’m a little out of shape.”

  “We’ve grown soft working in London,” said Drum. He nodded toward Poacher and Hazard who were weaving their way up the slope to the right of them. “Can’t say the same about those two. They look very fit.”

  It took them thirty minutes of climbing to get to the top. It would have been easier if not for the weight of their Bergens. Drum was breathing heavily when he finally reached the grassy plateau and sat down for a rest. Sergei strode up looking as fresh as when he had started. He stood over Drum and smiled.

  “You need to exercise more, I think.”

  “I think you could be right.”

  Mei arrived at the top a few minutes later and slumped down on the soft, mossy grass next to Drum. “I hope that’s all the climbing we have to do.”

  “Five minutes,” said Magnús. “Then we must press on. The ice field is a few hundred metres ahead. Put on your ice grips before setting off.”

  Drum took off his load and drank some water. He looked down the valley to the fjord beyond where the boat was moored. It looked small from up here, floating in a calm sea of emerald and quartz blue. He touched his throat mike. “Comms check.”

  Stevie’s voice sounded loud and clear. “Receiving. We can just see you from here with binoculars. You made good time.”

  “Good to know,” said Drum. “Stay on this channel and give us the heads up for any unusual activity.”

  “Will do, out.”

  “Let’s go,” shouted Magnús.

  Drum took his ice grips from his belt and slipped them over the soles of his boots, securing them at the heel. He untied his climbing helmet, fastened it by its chin strap and put on his sunglasses. He shouldered his load and caught up with the rest of the team as they made their way towards the edge of the glacier.

  They hiked along the top of the ridge, which rose sharply and turned to ice underfoot. All Drum could see up ahead was a white blanket of snow and ice. They had reached the glacier.

  Magnús stopped and waited for the team to catch up. “We have two kilometres to travel to reach the ice tunnel. Much of the ice and snow is relatively safe but there are areas where the ice has become rutted and broken and, in some places, it falls into ice caverns made by rivers of water that run beneath the glacier. I do my best to steer you away from these areas, ya.”

  He held up his ice axe and looked to see that everyone had theirs and then tapped the sole of his boot to show that everyone should be wearing their ice grips. Satisfied, he unhitched his backpack and took a length of rope. “Everyone must be tethered on the glacier, ya.” He tugged at the carabiner on his belt harness. He performed a quick calculation and then measured out arm lengths from the coil of rope, tying a figure-of-eight loop along each length for each team member to tether to, and coiling the excess rope around his shoulder. Drum knew enough from his early days of arctic warfare training that Magnús was making sure there was enough space between each person so that if someone fell into a crevasse the others had enough rope to stop them all being pulled in.

  Magnús moved along the column, tugging at the rope and checking each person was tied on with a locking carabiner. Drum was reminded of the rappel down the Gherkin in London. That seemed like a lifetime ago.

  “Good, we go.”

  They set off onto the glacier, tethered together in a long, snaking line, the snowfield rising in a steep slope, punctuated here and there by toothy, granite boulders. The snow was icy and crunched underfoot with each laboured step. Magnús had been right, thought Drum, this was going to be hard, especially with the load each of them was carrying. He turned to look at Mei, who was tethered behind him. She had her head down and was using the end of her ice axe to steady herself with each step. She showed no signs of flagging. Brock, on the other hand, was already puffing hard.

  They carried on, crunching their way across the frozen landscape for another hour. Drum noticed that the snow had hardened, forming ruts that made it difficult to keep a sure footing. It would have been impossible without the ice grips. Ahead of them, the glacier stretched out in an endless white vista. At least the weather was on their side, he thought. The sun beat down on them from a cloudless, azure-blue sky. Magnús stopped and held up his hand. Everyone stopped, keeping their spacing along the rope. Drum noticed that he had taken out a small, hand-held GPS unit and was studying the readout.

  “Everything alright, Magnús?” asked Drum.

  Magnús turned to face him. “We travel too far west. This is not a good place. We need to hike north-west for half a kilometre and then we’ll be ok.” He looked down the line, nodded and set off again.

  They hiked for another thirty minutes. Drum was getting tired and the load on his back was rubbing his shoulders. In the distance, he could see two large rock formations, forming a large canyon between them. Magnús stopped and checked his GPS again. This time, everyone slumped down, grateful for the rest. He made his way back to Drum.

  “Captain, we must go through the rocks but …”

  “But what?”

  Magnús looked up into the bright sky overhead. “But it has been very warm all year, and the rocks absorb the heat. The ice may be thinner here. We must tread carefully and keep spaced apart. No bunching.”

  Drum nodded and watched as Magnús went down the line, relaying the instruction. He looked at his watch. They had been hiking for over two hours and he hoped they weren’t too far from their objective. He looked back. Mei was flagging, her heavy load had taken its toll. The rest of the troop looked tired but ok. Only Sergei looked fresh and unperturbed by the hike. The advantages of youth, thought Drum.

  “We go,” said Magnús, and took off at the front once more.

  After what seemed an age to Drum, but in reality was only another fifteen minutes, they arrived at the mouth of the granite canyon. Magnús was now moving cautiously forwards, probing the ice with the end of his axe. They entered the shade of the rocks and slowly traversed a route between them. Drum noticed the change in the ice. It seemed softer and less rutted. He gripped his ice axe and made sure the strap was securely around his wrist. They followed Magnús, snaking along his path. Drum thought he heard a crack. Magnús heard it too. He stopped and listened. Drum raised his hand, bringing the rest of the line to a halt.

  Magnús turned. “We go now, quickly.”

  Drum followed, trying to keep his spacing along the rope. He heard another loud crack and what he thought was rushing water. The ice shuddered beneath him. He looked back and saw a giant fissure racing back along the line. “Move, move!”

  Mei saw it too and staggered forwards as quickly as she could. Drum forced his legs to move, driving himself on, using his axe for leverage. There was another loud crack and then a great grinding noise. He looked back along the line just in time to see Sergei disappearing through the ice.

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  The Array

  Jeremy Burnett stared at the massive array centred in the middle of the cavernous room beneath the upper levels of the ice station complex.

  “Marvellous, isn’t it,” said Professor Kovac. “Bigger than the Cambridge prototype and more powerful.”

  “It’s huge. It must be at least 5 metres in diameter.”

  “Six, actually. Enough to accommodate two thousand and forty-eight TPU modules, each comprising four dedicated processors that have been specifically designed to run the neural net more efficiently than generic CPUs. The spherical design helps with the cooling, which is integrated into the structure.”

  The sphere was supported by a circular pedestal a
nd Jeremy noticed four large pipes entering at its base. Between the pipes were massive steel-shielded cables.

  “What are those?” he asked.

  “Power,” said Kovac. “Enough to supply a small town. One reason we chose this location. There’s an abundant supply of geothermal and hydroelectric power in this area. The four large pipes supply the liquid coolant which must circulate continuously or the array will melt.” He laughed. “That would be embarrassing.”

  Jeremy looked around the huge cavern. The array was bordered on each side by two long benches, each supporting three large computer screens. Two technicians were poring over their consoles on one side of the array. The other set of consoles was empty. At each end of the cavern were large steel doors that opened automatically whenever people entered or left the area. Facial recognition was used to grant access. For extra security, one of Vashchenko’s men stood guard by each door armed with an automatic weapon. No one was coming in or out easily, thought Jeremy.

  “As you can see, Jeremy,” continued Kovac. “We’re shorthanded, so you’ll work with me.” He pointed to the empty console. “Standard stuff. How’s your knowledge of terminal commands?”

  “Bit rusty, I’m afraid. But I’ll pick it up.”

  “Good man.”

  Jeremy pointed to a long window inserted into the wall of the cavern. There was one on each side. “What are those for?”

  “We thought it would be nice for people working in the data collection areas to have a view of the array. It seemed like a good idea at the time.” He smiled. “C’mon, let’s put you to work and prove to Vashchenko you’re worth your salt.”

  They went over to one of the free consoles and Jeremy took a seat. He tapped the keyboard and the computer screen brightened and displayed a dashboard of small graphs and digital readouts.

  Kovac sat down beside him. “That’s the environmental dashboard. We can monitor power consumption displayed as that horizontal gauge, the temperature of the various modules is beneath that, the estimated number of teraFLOPS of the combined array is in that display, and memory consumption is represented by that digital dial.”

  Jeremy cast an eye over the dashboard. It all looked well laid out and easy to read. “You want me to monitor this?”

  “Yes, but to keep Tau running efficiently, we must juggle the speed of the processing modules within the limits of our cooling capacity and power limitations. The faster the modules run, the more power they draw, generating more heat which must be dissipated by the cooling system. It’s a balance. The trick is to keep all parameters out of the red. Unfortunately, it’s one of the control systems I have yet to automate.”

  “So I can change these parameters using this console.”

  “Yes, within limits. There are fail-safes.” He looked at Jeremy. “Do your job here and you’ll be well rewarded, Jeremy. Remember what I said. I can only protect you if you prove yourself useful. Vashchenko won’t hesitate to get rid of you otherwise.”

  Jeremy nodded. “I understand.”

  Kovac was about to explain something when one of the steel doors at the far end of the cavern swung open and Vashchenko walked in, followed by Baz. Kovac walked over and met them halfway. Vashchenko nodded in Jeremy’s direction and a conversation ensued. Kovac was selling the idea that they needed him. Much to his dismay, Baz came over.

  “How’s it going, frat boy?”

  “Not bad, Baz. Making myself useful.”

  “Yeah, well, if I had my way we would have left you in Cambridge, but the professor insisted. You had better make yourself indispensable.”

  “I’ll try.” Jeremy pointed to the phone Baz was carrying. “Enjoying my phone?”

  Baz looked at the phone in his hand. “It’s crap. Keeps rebooting. Here—” He threw it on the table. “—you can keep it.”

  Vashchenko spoke harshly to Baz from across the room. Baz blanched. “Next time, frat boy.”

  Jeremy watched as the lanky Ukrainian skulked back to his master. Kovac glanced in his direction and gestured to him to get back to work. He returned to his console and studied the screen. All the array parameters were in the green. That was to be expected, Tau had yet to be transferred and brought online. The device was merely ticking over.

  Jeremy glanced at his phone. He was tempted to pick it up but didn’t want to draw attention to it. He willed Vashchenko and Baz to leave. He looked over in their direction. They were arguing with Kovac about something. He reached for the phone and quickly slipped it in his pocket. The meeting broke up and Kovac walked back.

  “What is it with you and that man?” said Kovac, clearly aggravated by the exchange.

  “Oh, you know, just Baz playing the hard man in front of his boss—trying to be the next super-criminal.”

  Kovac gave him a sceptical look. “Try to cool it between you two—for both our sakes.”

  “Yes, Professor.”

  “It seems you have the hang of it. I hope I can trust you with this task, Jeremy. I need to check on the power situation. There has been a fluctuation in our supply. After that, you’ll help me transfer Tau and bring it online.”

  Jeremy noticed that Kovac’s face brightened at the mention of Tau. His life’s work was coming to fruition. He wondered how delusional the man really was. Jeremy simply nodded and Kovac left him to his work, exiting via one of the steel doors.

  Jeremy noticed the two technicians watching him. He walked over. “Hi, guys.”

  “You’re working with Professor Kovac?” said one of the technicians, a woman about his age. She had a sharp angular face and dark brown eyes.

  “It looks like it.” He held out his hand. “I’m Jeremy.”

  The young woman hesitated, then lightly took his hand. “I’m Sarah. This is Wolfgang.”

  Wolfgang was a little older, shorter and heavy set with shoulder-length brown hair. Both were wearing white lab coats over plaid shirts and jeans. Jeremy got the impression they weren’t here by choice.

  “When did you arrive?” said Sarah in a hushed voice. She looked up at the cavern’s ceiling. Jeremy followed her gaze and noticed the camera. They were being monitored.

  “Yesterday. But not by choice. What about you?”

  Wolfgang glanced at Sarah. “Same here. I was supposed to return to Germany a week ago.”

  “You’re both students of the professor?” said Jeremy.

  Wolfgang nodded. “His third-year students. We were only supposed to be helping set up the array but it now looks like we might be stuck here.”

  “Show me what you are doing,” said Sarah, walking him back to his console.

  Jeremy sat down and brought up the screen. “I’m supposed to be monitoring the environmental controls.”

  Sarah leaned over his shoulder and nodded. She pointed to the screen, her head moving close to his ear. “You have a phone!”

  Jeremy pretended to tap the screen. “Yes, people are on their way. Stay cool. Don’t arouse suspicion.”

  A tear welled up in Sarah’s eye. “Thank God.”

  Jeremy surreptitiously put his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone, keeping it hidden beneath the console. “Jane, if you can hear me, reply in a quiet voice. We are being monitored.”

  There was a pause. Then Jane replied in a hushed tone. “Where are you, Jeremy?”

  Sarah leaned closer. “Who’s that?” she whispered.

  Jeremy shook his head. “I’m in the control room. I’m monitoring the environmental controls for the array.”

  There was a long pause. Eventually, Jane said, “open up the firewall on that segment of the network. I’ll do the rest.”

  Jeremy looked at Sarah. “I’ve no idea how to do that.”

  “Wolfgang has access.” She walked back to her console and sat down. A heated discussion took place between the two technicians.

  “Er, we are trying to comply,” said Jeremy, but felt silly saying it.

  “I can help you,” whispered Jane. “Do you have access to a terminal?”
>
  “Only the one monitoring environmental controls.”

  “Is there another?”

  “Er, working on it. Give me a moment.”

  Jeremy looked over at Sarah. She smiled weakly back at him. Wolfgang had moved to another console and was tapping away at the keyboard. Sarah came over.

  “He's working on it but isn’t happy. He thinks we’ll all be shot.”

  He’s probably not wrong, thought Jeremy. Wolfgang looked up and nodded.

  “I’ve detected the array,” whispered Jane. “Give me access to your terminal.”

  “I can do that,” said Sarah. She leaned over his keyboard and brought up a terminal window and deftly typed in a string of commands and hit Enter.

  “Thank you. I now have full access to the array’s environmental controls. I need to become dormant now to avoid detection. Ping this address when Tau is being transferred and I’ll do the rest.”

  An IP address appeared on the screen. Jeremy memorised the four sets of numbers. The terminal window disappeared.

  He looked at Sarah. “I guess we wait.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  Insertion

  Drum watched as Mei was tugged off her feet by the weight of Sergei’s fall and dragged towards the lip of the crevasse. Drum threw himself forward, landing flat on the hard ice, and slammed the end of his axe into the snow, bringing Mei to a hard stop. He looked over his shoulder and watched as she recovered from her fall and scrambled back onto her front, burying her axe into the ice to prevent her sliding back any further. The three men at the back of the line had been better prepared for Sergei’s fall and had safely dug in, preventing themselves from being pulled over.

  Magnús’ preparation and safety training had paid off. He stood and walked calmly back down the line to Mei. He took off his pack and retrieved a long, metal angular stake which he drove deep into the compacted ice using the flat of his axe. He then used a friction hitch to tie a piece of rope around the taut line of the tether and secured it to the end of the stake. He did this again using another stake and undid himself from the tether, securing his line to the new stake.