CHAPTER 7
I know, when it is necessary, how to leave the skin of the lion to take one of the fox.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Northgate University, Pennsylvania, USA
Autonomous Systems Lab
September 3, 2062
11:00 am
The Autonomous Systems Lab was located on the fourth floor of Galen Hall. Galen was one of Northgate's first buildings, anchoring one corner of the original grassy quadrangle. A turreted, neo-Gothic monstrosity, the building had been turned over to the Lab and several non-degree granting departments several years before. Below the fourth floor, freshman English students struggled with term papers on Dante's Divine Comedy. Above them, the maze of tanks and piping of the Lab's Containment Facility rivaled any freshman's nightmare vision of Hell itself.
Lieutenant Johnny Winger took Tech Sergeant Deeno D'Nunzio with him to Northgate. Deeno was a qualified quantum engineer and she'd be able to decipher what Doc Frost was talking about. Frost got animated when engaged in solving problems. Johnny Winger loved the man like the father he had once had but he didn't always understand what the Doc was saying.
The rest of the Detachment had been ordered back to Table Top to debrief Major Kraft and UNSAC. A whole new campaign against the Serengeti menace would have to be planned. And Dana Tallant had a withering battery of tests to face, to determine the real extent of any impairments. Stuart Macalvey was guardedly optimistic about her chances.
Dr. Irwin Frost was mid-sixtyish and balding, with a love for old flannel shirts beneath the dirty smocks he seemed to sleep in. Frost had invented autonomous nanoscale assemblers in the early 50s and was unquestionably the driving force behind ANAD and the growth of the nanomech world. He had a father's love for his infinitesimal creations and an avuncular manner with his latest protégé, Lieutenant Johnny Winger.
For Winger, coming to Northgate was like an old homecoming. Even Frost's associate, Dr. Mary Duncan, a petite Scotswoman, was on hand.
Frost was chief of the Autonomous Systems Lab, birthplace of the original ANAD. He had been following the HNRIV pandemic and the Serengeti antidote and its problems in the news. He had some theories.
Deeno had shipped ahead a mobile TinyTown cylinder with the captured Red Hammer mech in stasis inside. Frost couldn't wait to get the device under the scope, fidgeting anxiously as the quantum flux imager sighted in and the view steadied.
"Fabulous--" he muttered, adjusting the gain. "Just fabulous. You've done wonders, Johnny. Grabbed the kernel, with its processor dot, and a good bit of structure too. Still got the touch, eh?"
Winger watched Frost manipulate the device on his grid, teasing apart carbon chains and phosphor groups with the quantum tweezers like he was preparing a Thanksgiving turkey. "That little bugger cost me an ANAD master, Doc. We got into a swarm fight we couldn't handle and had to get small and get the hell out in a hurry. I was lucky to grab that much."
"Mmmm--" Frost poked and probed with the sticky end of hydrogen radicals that made up the quantum tweezers, carefully teasing apart the inner lattice of the mech. It resisted, more than he expected, then gave way with a puff of spinning atoms. The image jolted with liberated energy. "--ouch! That must hurt--well, well…would you look at that." In the very center of the lattice, now open to view, was a black formless dot, quivering and beating like a tiny heart. "--main processor, I'd say. Brains of the whole outfit, right here."
"I just want to know what makes this thing so hard to grab," Winger said. "The damn things seem able to anticipate every move I make, and react a hundred times faster."
Frost tried probing the processor dot. "Offhand, I'd say most of the answer's right here…in the processor. The lattice itself looks familiar. Pretty much an ANAD clone. I agree with you: this mech's resemblance to Serengeti can't be a coincidence. But this --until I get inside, I can't be sure--but based on the way the dot's configured--all these peptide cages around it…ribosomal architecture, by the way--this mech's got implied capabilities far beyond anything ANAD can do."
"How can Red Hammer have advanced so far?" Winger asked. "Eshaq Islami is dead. Mustafa Gaidar's got the kernel for ANAD 1.0…that became INDRA. But this--"
Frost nodded, remembering the Kurganian War back in '57, and the Balkistani efforts to develop a 'golden' horde of nanomechs.
"--this is so far beyond what we've seen before."
"It's incredible," Frost agreed. To himself, he wondered if it really was a coincidence that the enemy mechs could so easily counter ANAD. He wondered if there might be a saboteur or a spy inside Quantum Corps, feeding developments straight to Red Hammer. He mentioned the possibility to the Lieutenant.
Winger was cautious, but not fully convinced. "I don't know, Doc. We've got pretty tight security. Anything's possible, I suppose. I guess I shouldn't discount the possibility."
"Best to take precautions, Johnny."
Frost went over some of the history of the HNRIV virus and they discussed ways to counter the new mech, based on the architecture and capabilities visible in the imager.
HNRIV stood for Human Neuro-Receptor Inhibiting Virus. The original strain had been an engineered, programmable assembler/virus…part mechanism, part organism. Initially developed in the early '50s by Dr. Eshaq Islami, a molecular biologist/engineer in Balkistan, HNRIV was later employed by direction of Balkistan's megalomaniacal dictator Mustafa Gaidar, who wanted an ultimate weapon to threaten his neighbors in central Asia. It was Gaidar who fancied himself a descendant of Genghis Khan and who sought from Islami's device the beginnings of a new Golden Horde.
HNRIV was first tested out on the water supply of Washington, D.C., in 2054. This became known as the Pine Bend Incident. After some tense moments, HNRIV was defeated in its attempt to infest the water supply by a new counter device known as ANAD, developed by Frost and Mary Duncan and Northgate's Autonomous Systems Lab, under an Army contract.
Several years later, agents of Gaidar in Balkistan stole the program kernel of ANAD from Northgate and spirited it off to Balkistan, where Dr. Islami incorporated it into a new variant of ANAD, known as INDRA. In the Third Kurganian War (also known as the Seven-Minute Plague), an updated and re-engineered ANAD was finally able to defeat INDRA. In this conflict, Dr. Islami was killed and his lab shut down. Mustafa Gaidar was chased from power and escaped the country. He later joined forces with the east Asian criminal cartel known as Red Hammer.
Winger and D'Nunzio peered at the imager screen, studying the quivering mass of the enemy mech's kernel.
"Just what the hell are we dealing with here, Doc?"
Frost licked his lips. "Extremely competent engineering, from what I can see. Fiendishly clever design…married to a quantum-scale nanoprocessor that's orders of magnitude ahead of ANAD. Simply incredible--" he pointed out feature after feature of the lattice-work structure. "Stiffer effectors…a new way of growing diamondoid links. I would never have thought such a design would work…but here it is. Right in front of my eyes. Marry these effectors to such a kernel and you can assemble or disassemble matter at unprecedented speeds, with near perfect accuracy. That's how it can react so much faster than ANAD."
"Surely it can be copied," Deeno said. "If Red Hammer can do it, so can we."
Frost shrugged. "Maybe. There could be some special chemistry here, I don't know about. I'd have to measure the bond forces, the angles, study the thing. It might take days, maybe weeks."
"What makes the damn thing so fast, Doc? That kernel is just a tiny computer. It only controls and directs things."
"True enough, if you consider the nano-arrays of DNA molecules just a computer. But look here--" Frost pointed out cleavage planes among the stacked molecules of the mech's lattice. "New carbon group fold lines. Basically, a whole new architecture that's more easily cleaved and collapsed. Makes for faster folding and unfolding. It's like a tent, quick to setup, quick to tear down. Design's based on ribosomal p
roteins…nature's own assemblers. DNA kernel sending instructions to ribosome-like body parts…what does that sound like to you?"
Deeno shook her head. "The buggers have re-engineered the entire genomic process."
"Exactly. Taken what nature does and improved on it. Now, this little mech can break and form bonds much more rapidly, under quantum-scale control. And see all the fullerene 'hooks' along the edges? He's covered with them, like a porcupine. More secure grasping and attaching, which makes for better accuracy."
Johnny Winger was itching to test drive the thing. "Do we even know the full capabilities of this thing?"
"Not fully, not without testing. The Lab's been experimenting with some of these ideas for ANAD, but nothing like this. It will probably take weeks to puzzle out the details of this little fellow."
"Doc…we don't have weeks. We don't even have hours. HNRIV's not under control yet and this Serengeti menace is spreading fast."
Frost agreed something had to be done, and fast. "Johnny, I've been following developments, with HNRIV, with the antidote, with S Factor malfunctioning. It seems to me there's going to have to be a three-pronged approach."
"Doc, we need every bit of help we can get," Deeno admitted.
"The Lab here can work with WCDC--Macalvey and his group--and with you to develop effective countermeasures for treating HNRIV and Serengeti addicts. Serengeti works on the brain's limbic system. That's where we'll have to do battle. From what you've told me, the first problem is getting in and through its active defenses. But I've got some ideas about that."
"Doc, we've got to get at those airborne superswarms that Macalvey's pretty sure are loose in the atmosphere. We don't have specific evidence they exist, but they must--according to Macalvey, they must--it's the only way to explain the rapid spread of Serengeti addiction, almost independently of HNRIV."
"I agreed with Macalvey's theory," Frost said. "We have to locate and destroy the control links between Red Hammer and these supercolonies. They have to be detected somehow and eliminated and the control mechanism between the swarms and the control source broken. S Factor's creating thousands of new addicts everyday, all over the world. If we don't break this chain of transmission and soon--"
"I don't even want to think about it," said Deeno. She shuddered at the prospect. "But how would such swarms be controlled? And from where?"
"Ten to one, Vivonex is involved," Winger said. "First, we have to find out where control comes from. Until we can engage Serengeti directly and succeed, we'll have to try coming in through the back door. We need to do a more detailed recon, a covert penetration, of their facilities. Both the one in Switzerland and the one in orbit too."
"What if Vivonex is clean? Maybe Red Hammer's controlling the airborne swarms."
"That would be bad news," Winger said. "No one's ever located their main base. Lion's Rock isn't headquarters, even though it's a big operations hub. The main base is elsewhere. I'm hoping we can scare up some intelligence if we can do a more complete recon of Vivonex."
"Johnny's probably right. The third leg of this strategy is to deal with existing HNRIV victims. The ones who haven't had the Serengeti treatment. We've got to work with WCDC and WHO to help these people, without using Vivonex. That'll take some doing."
Winger was anxious to get going. "I'll set it up with Major Kraft. Doc, how'd you and Dr. Duncan like to make a little field trip with 1st Nano?"
Frost knew what he was getting at. "My soldiering days are over, Johnny. I'd just be excess baggage." He grimaced at some distant memory. "And I don't react too well to these critters when they get mean."
Winger gave that some thought, then decided he'd better dial up Major Kraft. He tapped out the sat code for Table Top Western Command. Seconds later, Kraft's harried face materialized on the screen.
Winger explained the situation. "Major, there's no chance me or Deeno or Gibby can come up to speed on these buggers. We're going to need field assistance, from someone who knows how to deal with them, find vulnerabilities, counter-program. It's a whole new ball game now. It would take me days of sim time just to run our usual scenarios." He thought about Dana Tallant, whose condition hadn't improved. "We don't have that kind of time."
They discussed possibilities. The Major's face hardened.
"Lieutenant, UNSAC just got through with the debrief from Lion's Rock. He's issuing a Code Red alert, mobilizing not just the Corps, but all UNIFORCE worldwide. Your own intel says Red Hammer's operating ANAD-class nano in Hong Kong. That surprised everybody, especially UNSAC. Somehow, they've figured out how to employ them. We're going to have to fight fire with fire."
"Permission to employ civilians in combat operations, sir?"
Reluctantly, Kraft nodded. "I'm sorry, Dr. Frost. I've got no choice. Permission granted. I'll fix the paperwork at this end."
Winger logged off, then decided to beep Lieutenant Caden back at Table Top. He wanted to get the Detachment ready to embark on a covert recon trip back to Switzerland as soon as he and Deeno got back to base.
"Sorry, Doc," he sympathized. "But duty calls. You and Dr. Duncan better start packing your bags. You're drafted into the Quantum Corps as of right now. Temporary nanowarriors. Liftjet leaves at 1500 hours this afternoon. Looks like you're coming with us…ever seen the Alps?"
Drs. Duncan and Frost could only look at each other, swallowing hard.
Table Top Mountain, Idaho, USA
U.N. Quantum Corps Western Command
September 3, 2062
7:45 p.m.
While Winger and D'Nunzio were at Northgate, Caden, Gibby and the rest of the Detachment had returned to Table Top, Quantum Corps' Western Command base. There, Caden debriefed Major Kraft and via satlink, the UN Security Affairs Commissioner - Jiang Hao Bei. When the debriefing was over, Kraft agreed that the Detachment could have twenty-four hours liberty and stand down until Winger returned.
That was before the Lieutenant had ordered 1st Nano to prep for another deploy--this time back to Vivonex.
Nathan Caden was determined to take his liberty. He met with Gibby, Mighty Mite, Buddha Nguyen and the rest in the ready room at the north end of the base (it was part of the Mission Operations complex, right behind the hangars and runways of the airfield) and gave them the word.
"Lieutenant Winger's ordered us to get our gear ready again. We're moving out at 0500 hours tomorrow morning."
Groans filled the room as the nanowarriors had just finished stripping and stowing their equipment, sorting gear for cleaning and maintenance in the shops.
"Where to this time?" Barnes asked. "Someplace quiet and warm, I hope. Like a beach. I hear the Spanish Riviera's nice this time of year."
"More'n likely, it'll be some dirtpile in the middle of nowhere," said Nguyen. "Like Balkistan…armpit of the planet."
"Hey, I liked that place," said Joe McReady. Mac was one the CECs, handling ANAD containerization. "What's not to like? It had everything a tourist could want: flies, sandstorms, oppressive heat, fine cuisine. Just like a friggin' brochure. I think we should go there every year. Take the kids too."
Caden was the only one not helping out with their gear. He had already changed into civilian dress. "Sorry, guys. It's Switzerland. Vivonex, again. Lieutenant wants a covert penetration. We'll have to set up a reconswarm."
"Covert, huh?" Sheila Reaves sniffed. She was stripping a coilgun bot on the setup table. "Covert like Lion's Rock…everybody in the place knew we were there."
"So where are you going…all dressed up like a preacher?" asked Mighty Mite.
Caden was acutely aware the Detachment figured a CC's place was with his unit. But it couldn't be helped--he had to be on time.
"Haleyville, if you must know. Got an appointment." He winked and headed for the door.
"He's getting drunk and then getting laid…that's the real story," Gibby figured. They ribbed him some more until he
waved and ducked out into the cool late summer night. If they want to think that, so much the better.
Nathan Caden had another mission altogether.
The small town of Haleyville was a short ride from Table Top Mountain and Caden would have enjoyed the nighttime jaunt on the turboscooter--the air was fresh with pine and birch and a steady breeze was flowing through the high mountain passes of Idaho's Sawtooth Range--but the truth was he was nervous, even anxious about the meeting.
He hadn't done exactly as the agreement called for and he knew there would be questions. He just hoped the inquiry stopped with questions. He figured he'd use the ride down to the town to come up with some answers.
Haleyville was a thirty-minute ride, out the main gate at Drexler Field--Table Top's parade ground and drill field--down the winding road through Buffalo Valley to Highway 7. Haleyville Road itself ran a serpentine course, switching back and forth along the crest of the ridge overlooking Hunt Valley to the north, a narrow two-lane blacktop dark as a black bear, until it peeled off south toward the town itself. The north fork went up Hunt Valley Road, through a valley and tunnel complex the nogs had long ago called The Notch, to the Test and Wargaming Range several miles away, atop a bare mesa lost in wispy wreaths of cloud and mist.
Caden enjoyed the nighttime cruise as best he could, cranking the scooter up to nearly a hundred and twenty, leaning left and right as he steered on through the cool night air toward the outskirts of town, and the rustic hotel known as Custer Inn, where his appointment was undoubtedly waiting impatiently. He was already late and it was dark, save for the bowl of stars overhead, and the faint halo glow of Table Top base behind him. He was glad the road was mostly deserted.
He didn't want to answer any more questions than necessary.
Custer Inn was a faintly shabby, log and shingle mountain lodge of a hotel, nestled in the piney brow of a small turnout valley off the main road, a mile or so before Highway 7 broadened into Main Street, which was lined with gift shops, bait and tackle joints and hiking suppliers. The pale blue glow of a parasailing shop, closed for the evening, threw enough light across the road, so he found the turnoff readily enough. He tried not to let the hologram windsailers circling over the intersection distract him.
He sped down the decline toward the parking lot, and parked the scooter in the shadows, somehow feeling comfort in a cloak of anonymity. Through the windows, the bar and restaurant shone with boozy conviviality, laughter and saloon music spilling out through the front doors.
He went in.
As instructed, as he had several times before, he went to Registration and secured a room for the night. Number 127, the Geronimo wing and would he be needing any help with his luggage, sir, we do have bellhop service--
Caden ignored the offer and went looking for the room. He turned up and down several corridors, crossed a breezeway to another building and eventually stumbled upon Room 127. He unlocked it and went inside.
He waited, uneasily, for about half an hour.
As before, the knock, when it came, was soft, almost inaudible.
"Housekeeping--" purred an accented voice.
Caden let the woman in, shutting the door quickly behind him. The lights were low in the room, only a single lamp over the bed lit. The staff woman was Oriental. Chinese, perhaps, from the look of her.
Caden hadn't seen her before. She was short, petite, straight black hair tied in a severe bun. Her maid's outfit was impeccable: white skirt and apron, white shoes, black and white blouse and latex gloves.
She glared coldly at Caden. "You're late."
The Lieutenant attempted a shrug, but realized it wasn't visible in the shadows. "Couldn't be helped…I had a briefing, with the Major. UNSAC too. There's a new mission. Switzerland. We're going back to Vivonex."
Her real name was Wei Ming, but Caden didn't know this. Nor did he ask. It was understood that identities weren't important. Only results were important. That much was understood quite well.
Wei Ming pursed her lips, paced deeper into the black of the room. She drew the shades aside, scanned outside, satisfied, she came back, partially into the light. Her face was a half moon, pale and unblemished as a ceramic figurine. "Why?"
Caden watched her, hoping to detect something, some inkling of where he stood with them. Maybe a twitch, a clench of her fist, but there was nothing. "It's a recon mission, this time. Fully covert. We form a reconswarm, infiltrate and do all-wavelength scans. EM, infrared, acoustic, mag. Grab stuff right off the computers. They're still looking."
"Mmm." A question or a statement? He wasn't sure.
Caden found the silences uncomfortable. "They don't have a firm connection yet. Just suspicions."
"That is enough." Wei Ming's face hardened. "What happened at Lion's Rock? You were supposed to have stopped them--"
Caden knew that was coming. He'd spent hours, trying out different answers, none of them any good. Quietly, resigned, he explained the mission above Kowloon City, what had happened at the Four Winds Clinic, how Johnny Winger--damnable Winger--had managed somehow to grab a Red Hammer mech before they'd been driven out. He tried to put a spin on the story, a certain inevitability, factors beyond my control, I wasn't prepared for--but she brushed him off and went pacing again, this time more abruptly.
When she came back into the light, her face was no longer a half moon. It had morphed into a hard, impassive mask, a carnival mask, an angry clown. Was it the light…maybe nanoderm patches changing with her mood? He'd heard of the trick--
"This is no good," she told him. The undulations on her cheeks and forehead seemed to settle down, take on a firmness. "If Quantum Corps' got one of our mechs, that's no good at all." She frowned. It was almost a relief to see a normal gesture, something he understood. "With one of our mechs, they'll surely develop countermeasures."
"It will take some time--"
Now she was visibly angry. The skin kneaded itself into a hard fist, making her cheeks bulge slightly like a lioness with fresh kill in her mouth. "They're not stupid, Caden. Don't make that mistake. You've made enough already." She was thinking, her cheeks returning to normal planes, sleek and alabaster. "Serengeti must be allowed to develop and expand globally. The Project depends on it."
Caden had heard of The Project before. He wanted to ask, but he decided against it. But he was curious.
"Maybe if I knew more about--"
But Wei Ming wasn't listening. She had new instructions from Red Hammer. "You're being paid well for your services, Lieutenant. Yet you continue to fail us."
"I can't work miracles."
"Leave the miracles to us. Just do your part." There was an unmistakable menace--had her voice changed timbre? An echo, a frequency shift, multiple tones superimposed. He shook his head. Had Red Hammer mastered that too?
She went on. "You must sabotage any more efforts to develop countermeasures. ANAD must not be allowed to interfere with the Project. This is a critical time now."
Caden's throat constricted. No…it was a normal reflex. He told himself that, reassured himself he still controlled his own throat muscles. "That's not the agreement. I agreed only to provide intelligence, not perform sabotage. It's too dangerous."
Wei Ming was stern. Nanoderm rolled across her face, an earthquake of skin, reflecting her emotions. "Your mission is changed. You'll be paid well for your work…if it is successful. We've always paid well, have we not?"
Caden nodded glumly.
She reached into her apron, withdrew a small disk. She placed it in Caden's hand. He willed his palm to remain still.
"It is a small bug. Load it into ANAD's kernel. It will weaken ANAD, subtly, a little at a time. This will make it harder for Quantum Corps to counter Serengeti. Install this at the right time--you will be signaled when. And keep sending intelligence back…the usual way."
She vanished from the room almost before Caden realized she was go
ne, blending into the shadows. He stayed a few minutes more, breathing rhythmically, testing arms, legs, facial muscles. Making sure he still had control of himself. Red Hammer did that to people.
Then he left the Custer Inn and sped back to Table Top Mountain.
It was near midnight when he parked the turbo outside Missions Ops. He walked through stiff breezes across the quadrangle to the Barracks, right in the center of the base. Outside his quarters, he ran into Mighty Mite Barnes and Sheila Reaves, having a smoke, huddled together to shield themselves from the wind, beneath the overhang.
Barnes was contemptuous. "What happened, Lieutenant? Bitch wouldn't put out for you?"
The hard drive along Highway 7 had helped Caden clear his mind. He snorted. "I left her panting…for more. She couldn't get enough of what I have."
"Right," said Barnes. Whatever the hell that is.
Johnny Winger and the Serengeti Factor Page 9
