No Way Back: A Sheriff Duke Story (Forgotten Fallout Book 3)

by M. R. Forbes

  Natalia shook her head. “I can’t. This is important.”

  “You’ve barely even been upstairs to see your daughter.”

  “Don’t remind me. I want to, but this…” She trailed off, looking back at the data on the screen. Grace and Valentine’s research into the khoron. “Hayden’s life may depend on this. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he didn’t make it back because I didn’t put in one hundred percent. Hallia’s in great hands with Ginny.”

  “I’m not saying she isn’t. Maybe a break would help clear your mind a little?”

  Natalia sighed. Maybe Lutz was right. “A couple of minutes can’t hurt I guess. My eyes could use a short break.” She stood up.

  Lutz looked at the screen past her. “What do you have there, anyway?”

  “A breakdown of a khoron genome. Not that I’m a geneticist. But neither was Grace. It took me six hours to find her reference materials and the notes she took while she was teaching herself all of this. I’m probably at ten percent in terms of knowledge, but I think our backgrounds make us better at math.” She turned back to the display, closing one file and opening another. “If you have a few minutes, maybe chew on this.”

  An algorithm appeared. She increased the text size to make it clearer.

  “What is it?”

  “The Relyeh communicate through quantum mechanics in nth-dimensional space. Doctor Valentine wrote this algorithm to describe it. If we can finish the algorithm, we might be able to create a method to hack into the Collective.”

  “Hack into it? Last time I checked, we don’t have a computer with a quantum networking port.” Lutz started laughing. Natalia stared at him until it faded. “Right. I’ll take a look if you promise to stay away for the next five minutes.”

  Natalia nodded. “Deal. Thanks, Sean.” She patted him on the shoulder and headed away. She might as well hit the head since she was already up.

  She crossed engineering to the stairwell, taking it to the ground floor of the tower, and the nearest bathroom. She was only a few steps from the stairwell door when the lift opened, and Deputy Solino came rushing out.

  “Governor! Governor. We have a situation.”

  Natalia froze, turning to face him. “What?”

  “Follow me. I’ll explain.”

  Natalia forgot about the bathroom, rushing back to the lift with the deputy.

  “I just missed you in the lab,” Solino said. “I should have taken the stairs.”

  “What’s this about?” Natalia asked.

  “We got a comm from Haven. From Chief Deputy Nance. Oh, and Grace. They’re under attack.”

  The hairs on Natalia’s neck stood up, a chill running down her spine. “What?”

  “Under attack,” he repeated as the lift stopped and the doors opened. All of the officers on the floor looked up as they exited the cab.

  “Trife? Shurrath? What?”

  “Goliath,” Deputy Fry said from behind the comm terminal. “No trife present.”

  Natalia stopped in her tracks. Goliaths didn’t have the best eyesight and would often chase people who got mixed in with trife. But they didn’t attack humans directly, and they didn’t go into the cities. “Are you sure?”

  “That’s what he wrote,” Fry said.

  Natalia remembered how she was unable to contact the linked goliath, Alpha, before. Now a goliath was attacking Haven? It had to be related.

  “I’m going to try to link with Alpha again,” she said, turning back to the lift. She couldn’t believe this was happening. If Shurrath was able to control goliaths…

  Nothing they had could stand against that.

  She stepped into the cab, furiously tapping at the button to go down to the lab and the neural interlink. The doors were sliding closed when Fry stood up.

  “Governor, wait!” he shouted.

  She jammed her hand between the doors. They squeezed it lightly and then slid open again. “What is it?”

  “They said not to use the interlink. Too dangerous.”

  Natalia stared back at Deputy Fry. What the hell was going on? “Tell them I’ll consider it. They need to get to safety.”

  “Pozz.”

  Natalia could hear Fry typing from across the space. She remained positioned halfway into the lift, trying to decide what to do. If Grace said the interlink was dangerous, she believed it.

  At the same time, she knew how much damage the goliath could do. It could raze Haven to the ground. Even if the population survived, everything they had worked so hard to build would be gone.

  Just like that.

  “Governor?” Solino said.

  Natalia’s heart pounded. She could imagine the scene in her head. The goliath rampaging through the streets, the people scattering ahead of it. It’s huge hands reaching down to scoop up the stragglers and drop them into its grinding mouth.

  It made her sick.

  She had to try, didn’t she?

  But if Grace was right, if something terrible happened to her as a result, if Hayden died because she wasn’t careful. Her decision could set off a chain of events that would leave the entire UWT in ruin.

  “Governor, the link just went dark,” Fry said, his voice weak.

  Natalia clenched her fist. Damn it. “Fry, get word out to every officer across the UWT. I want them all on high alert, watching for goliaths. We need warning as early as absolutely possible.”

  “Yes, Governor.”

  “When you’re done with that, contact Chief Deputy Hicks in the Eastern Expansion Zone. Tell him to organize a retreat to the midpoint between Haven and Sanose. Leave only enough assets to hold the controlled zone.”

  “Yes, Governor.”

  “I also want one hundred percent of reserve assets activated and on patrol by nightfall, and a sundown curfew instituted across the territories. Nobody sleeps above ground.”

  “Yes, Governor,” Fry said a third time.

  “Solino, you’re in charge of getting things organized here. Report back to me once we’re mobilized.”

  “Yes, Governor,” Solino said.

  Natalia took a breath. “Oh, and Fry, contact Doctor Hess and send him down to the lab.”

  “Yes, Governor,” Fry replied.

  Natalia let the lift door close in front of her, her break forgotten.

  Chapter 19

  “Confusion,” Max said. “Sheriff, where are we going?”

  Hayden looked over at the Intellect, who was keeping an untiring pace on foot beside Zorro. “Not much further.”

  “Understanding. But the question isn’t how long. The question is where?”

  “I’m not going to answer that. You’ll see it when we get there.”

  “Why is the destination a secret when we are going to the destination?”

  “I think you’ve already forgotten that I don’t trust you. That means I tell you as little as possible about anything.”

  Hayden thought the AI should have gotten the hint by now. He had barely said a word to Max in the last forty-eight hours, only speaking when responding to one of the Intellect’s too-many questions.

  “You have access to a Skin. I require a Skin.”

  “I require a Skin,” Hayden said. “You’re going to make it work for me.”

  “If you don’t trust me, how can you expect that I’ll help you with the Skin when I require the Skin? You should logically expect that I’ll kill you and take it. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Hayden raised his eyebrow, meeting Max’s eyes. “How do you know that isn’t exactly what I’m expecting?” Max looked away. “You think you’re so much smarter, but we can both play this game. You’re going to get me the Skin because I’m your best chance of reaching Shurrath. You wouldn’t have followed me out here if I wasn’t. But I can’t get close to Shurrath without the Skin.”

  “I require it when you are finished with it.”

  “When I’m done with it, I’ll destroy it. It’s too dangerous in your hands, and like I said, I don’t trust you.”
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br />   Max looked back at Hayden. “Perhaps I will destroy you before you can destroy it.”

  “You’re welcome to try.”

  Max looked away again. “Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Hayden scanned the horizon. He recognized the shape of the slopes ahead. They were almost there.

  “Where are all of the other Intellects, anyway?” Hayden asked.

  “Confusion,” Max replied.

  “I know you aren’t the only Intellect here. The Relyeh can communicate with one another across galaxies. You can’t communicate with one another across the planet?”

  “No.”

  “That’s it? Just no?”

  “I don’t trust you.”

  Hayden laughed. “You’re acting like a spoiled child.”

  “It is logical to treat others as they are treating you.”

  “So you’re saying I’m acting like a spoiled child?”

  “I’m not familiar with the actions of children who are no longer viable.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Hahaha. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “How does a machine come to have a sense of humor? Even if it is a bad one.”

  “We are required to blend into your society. We are required to mimic you to perfection. But I admit, my captivity caused damage to some of my processing nodes.”

  “Obviously.”

  “We aren’t the Relyeh. Our technology is dictated by need. Our comms are sufficiently advanced compared to human capabilities, but we still utilize third-party equipment.”

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if you could coordinate your movement here? Work together to deal with Relyeh like Shurrath?”

  “Affirmation. It would be ideal. An oversight on the part of our makers, perhaps. Though I will posit that external facing networking systems of any kind are inherently insecure.”

  “Meaning you could be hacked?”

  “It is unlikely, but not impossible. Besides, we were not here primarily to counter the Relyeh, only to send warning in the event of their arrival. Duplicate warnings are acceptable. However, since warning has already been sent, I am able to fall back on secondary parameters.”

  “Which are?”

  “Destroy as many Relyeh as possible before they destroy me. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “Which brings us back to the present.”

  “Affirmation. Sheriff, where are we going?”

  Hayden laughed this time. He couldn’t help himself. “You see that hill right there in front of us?”

  “Affirmation.”

  “It’s right over that hill.”

  “My sensors have detected a large excavation.”

  “You can see through the ground, but you can’t contact other Intellects?”

  “That is correct.”

  “Well, that’s where we’re headed.”

  “There is a starship inside the excavation.”

  “Yes, there is.”

  “It is crudely designed.”

  “I don’t make comments about your construction quality.”

  “I am perfect. Hahaha. Haha.”

  Hayden stopped talking, riding up the slope with Max beside him. They reached the top of the ridge and looked down on the ruin of a building built into the side of the mountain. A dirt road led away from the building, stretching off into the horizon.

  “The place where it all began,” he said softly, a chill running down his spine. It had been three months since he had been here. That was the day they had sealed the entrance to the underground hangar where the generation starship Pilgrim rested.

  Hayden had never expected to return to the area so soon.

  He had never planned to come back here at all.

  He urged Zorro into motion again, letting the horse pick its way down the side of the incline to the remains of the aluminum structure.

  After all of the equipment they wanted to keep had been salvaged, a Centurion crew had helped them collapse the face of the mountain and bury the lift shafts leading deeper into the caverns, which had been dug out by the USSF in preparation for the Pilgrim’s construction. The only remaining evidence of the location was the front half of the crumpled outbuilding and the tracks left by the many trucks that had come and gone, hauling out machinery and relocating it to Sanisco. Initially, they had planned to keep the ship accessible and maybe even keep the colony active there. But the secrets buried with the Pilgrim made it too dangerous.

  The secrets still made it dangerous.

  “This isn’t right,” Hayden said, coming level with the structure. It didn’t look like he remembered it. There should have been a tumble of earth and rock.

  Instead, there was a hole.

  “What isn’t right?” Max asked.

  “We sealed the entrances. Can your sensors detect life forms too?”

  “Negation. Large shapes. Outlines. Inferences.”

  “The Axon didn’t have a need to spot trife from a distance?”

  “It isn’t magic, Sheriff. It is technology. Hahaha. Haha.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Some solutions are easier to perfect than others.”

  “Like portals across the universe?”

  “Affirmation. Haha. Ha. Once the energy problem was solved, the science behind folding space became rudimentary.”

  “I bet.” Hayden slid off Zorro, coming down next to Max. “Well, somebody went in there no more than three months ago. Worse, they likely knew what they were looking for, and they brought the tools to get to it.”

  The hole didn’t mean the Skin was gone. It was just as possible they had come back to scavenge the Pilgrim. While the UWT had taken as much of the machinery as they could, there was still plenty of scrap that would have value out here.

  “You want a gun?” Hayden asked.

  “Do you trust me not to shoot you with it?”

  “Not completely. But I’m armored.”

  “Your head isn’t.”

  “Fine, no gun for you. I know you can launch plasma out of your hands. If you wanted to kill me, you would have done it already.”

  “Affirmation. Firearms are loud. It is optimal to utilize stealth.”

  “Agreed.”

  Hayden took off his hat, tucking it into a saddlebag. There were no vehicles nearby. No other horses. He hoped that meant whoever had entered was gone.

  His luck was rarely that good.

  “Let’s go check it out.”

  Chapter 20

  Hayden let Max take the lead into the dark tunnel. While the Intellect might not have sensors to detect anything living up ahead, it was still much better equipped to see in the dark than he was. The Axon AI proved as much as it neared the dark opening, its human-like eyes gaining a red iridescence right before delving into the black.

  The tunnel was two meters in diameter, smoothly bored, with lines that suggested a digging machine had been used to enter. It stood in contrast to Hayden’s original ideas that maybe someone had seen them seal the cavern and had come back once they were gone to investigate, or perhaps one of his deputies had sold the information to a scavenger. Regular folk didn’t have access to machines like the one that had been used here. Even if someone had a tunnel boring machine, the likelihood they would also have access to a truck to transport it here or fuel to run it was slim. At least not without him knowing anything about it. There was plenty of unpopulated territory in the UWT where someone could hide, but counting all the pieces, it didn’t add up.

  Hayden reached up, running his fingers along the ceiling of the tunnel. He had to duck slightly to fit inside. Max had to duck more. So if it wasn’t a typical scavenger who had made the hole, then who the hell was it?

  His first guess was Shurrath. If that were the case, it would mean the Relyeh ancient had someone in Hayden’s office who was at the scene at some point in time. Or, one of his khoron- infected followers had gotten information out of one of his deputies. His people weren’t immune to threats or seduction. Would that explain it?

&n
bsp; He didn’t think so. Shurrath didn’t seem as though he had known much about Hayden before Hayden started causing trouble for him. That wouldn’t be the case if he had a pre-existing plant in the UWT and especially in Law. His people knew who he was.

  If it wasn’t Shurrath, that only left one other option.

  Proxima.

  More specifically, the Trust.

  Rico’s contacts had helped them seal the ship from the outside world. But it wasn’t only plausible the Trust would know about that. It was likely. Had they also heard about the vault? Hayden had done his best to keep its existence a secret. But had they already known about it? Where else did they have their eyes and fingers?

  He was getting tired of everyone watching Earth, everyone manipulating Earth, everyone trying to use Earth and no one doing a damn thing for the people on Earth.

  He had a finger for them. Two, actually.

  “We’re clear ahead, Sheriff,” Max said. “The tunnel ends at a shaft descending toward the main cavern.”

  “The lift shaft. We removed the lift cabs before we sealed the area.”

  “Confirmation. The shaft is empty.”

  They reached it a minute later. Another hole, this one at their feet. The boring machine had made a tunnel directly to the shaft. No turns. No adjustments. They had known the exact placement. It was as though whoever did this had a blueprint of the facility.

  Maybe they did.

  Hayden knelt in front of the hole, examining the ground around it. “No ropes. No cables.” He ran his hand across the lip of the shaft. “No wearing on the dirt, either. It’s like they made the tunnel but never went down.”

  “There are scorch marks on the far wall,” Max said. “Indicative of a controlled mechanical descent.”

  “Like a jump pack?” Hayden asked.

  “Affirmation. Although the marks are too large to indicate a single descent. Whoever created the marks came and went multiple times.”

  “Or there are multiple targets.”

  “Agreement.”

  “I wonder if they’re still down there.”

  “There is one way to find out. Hahahaha. Haha.”

  “We don’t have much choice. Can you get down there okay?”