“Yes, sir,” Steve sarcastically replied.
The elevator door opened. Straight ahead was the covered parking lot of the technology building. This area had only two vehicles—an armored car and an armored AV. Beyond all of this, several SWAT officers were standing in front of a large blast door. Crouched at the steel door was a welder who was cutting into the control panel on its side.
Neil started walking rapidly in the direction of the growing activity. He then momentarily looked back at Steve. “That guy should cut through at any minute now. Behind that door is a long hallway that leads to a staircase. Once we reach that point, we’ll be able to gain entrance to the lower levels through the utility room. There are no cameras down there either—at least none until we get back into the central hallway.”
“What then?”
Neil’s phone started buzzing.
“Hold on, I really need to get this.” Neil then placed the phone up to his ear. “Yes?”
Steve continued moving across the lot toward the mounting activity by the blast door. He knew that something unexpected was probably about to happen. After all, why would Diamond Jack trap himself down in the basement of a super-secret facility with no way out? Besides, what else could be down there? Finally, they were sending in a dozen SWAT people with him—and they were all in heavy body armor too.
Neil put the phone back into his pocket. “That was Jenny. She is down below in the security vault. With the station on lockdown, everything between here and there is all sealed up.”
“How in the hell do we get her out?”
Neil waved Steve off. “She’s safe. The security vault is a huge room that is enclosed by six inches of solid steel and behind that is three feet of concrete. Even the blast door to the room weighs over a ton and is locked from the inside. Besides, the room has everything in it—swank accommodations and state-of-the-art equipment. We reserve that chamber of VIP in case of a nuclear attack. Also, I don’t even believe that Diamond Jack knows that she’s down there. That chamber is sealed off from the rest of the center. There is no way that he’d know. And even if he did, he couldn’t get through either.”
“I hope that you’re right. Besides—”
The blast door suddenly flew open with such force that three of the SWAT officers standing directly in front of it were hit and hurled twenty feet into the air before crashing hard onto the concrete floor. The welder was slammed into the rear wall as his lit torch crashed into the center of the parking structure and exploded, engulfing a twenty foot space with flames and heat.
The steel-plated security droid suddenly shot from behind the open blast door in a blur, grabbed another SWAT officer by his neck with one of its robotic hands, and threw him across the lot. Then, with blazing speed, it dashed forward and slammed into three other men, knocking them down like bowling pins. In response, the remaining SWAT officers opened fire on the steel giant. Bullets deflected off the metal beast in a shower of sparks.
The iron giant tilted its head, processed the new situation, and quickly moved toward one of the downed SWAT officers. It picked up his machine gun. With incredible ease, it turned and fired. Dozens of bullets ripped into the other officers, cutting them down.
Steve dove to the floor and rolled behind a concrete pillar. He stayed low and rapidly moved toward the armored car parked by the entrance ramp. Maybe, he’d be able to run this thing over. At least it was worth a try.
The four dogs attacked the iron droid. However, the droid moved fast—very fast. It grabbed the first dog by its neck and hurled the beast against the wall so hard that it spattered like an oversized bug. The droid reached down and snapped the second dog’s neck with a simple twist of one of its robotic hands. The metal man then kicked the third dog in the side. The animal’s yelp echoed throughout the parking structure as its body slammed into a concrete pillar more than fifty feet away. The last dog was thrown hard to the floor. Before it could rise, the iron droid’s foot crushed the animal’s skull.
Neil remained crouched behind another concrete pillar. Upon seeing Steve move across the parking lot, he became very uneasy. After all, he needed all of the firepower he could get. The time had come for drastic measures. “Where in the hell are you going? That thing can track your body heat. Get in another elevator before it locks onto you!”
The droid paused and slowly moved about the parking structure, its electronic eyes scanned the dark shadows and empty spaces. Neil’s voice had caught its attention. Slowly it turned in the direction of the sound. Then, it spotted the human target moving toward the rear elevator. It quickly sprinted to intercept the biological infestation.
Neil ran into the elevator and pressed the “close” button as the metal killer rapidly approached. “Oh God, please close faster!” he blurted while withdrawing his gun. He fired again and again as the iron giant closed in. His bullets again bounced off of the thing’s iron skin. “Oh my God!” he screamed as the doors shut just in time. “Thank you, Lord!”
The droid stood by the closed elevator door, trying to access a new plan to get at the human target. It scanned for a fuse box in order to cut the power. However, its internal sensors detected another human. It turned and scanned the rear lot.
On the other side of the parking structure, Steve climbed into the armored car and reached up under the seat for the vehicle’s keys. Keeping keys under the seat was often a common practice in top secret installations in case of unpredicted emergencies. At least, he hoped that keys were under the seat. His fingers touched keys. “Oh yes!”
He thrust a key into the ignition and cranked up the machine. He wheeled the steel vehicle around and aimed it at the hulking droid. “All right, you steel piece of crap, I’m ready to play ball.” He pressed the accelerator to the floor, and the vehicle lurched forward. “Eat this, sucker!”
The droid dashed forward toward the racing armored car. Its speed increased as it got closer to the vehicle. They’d collide in seconds. Suddenly, the droid leaped ten feet off the ground, turned a complete flip in mid-air over the speeding vehicle, and landed behind it.
Steve slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the front wall. Frantically, he looked back to see the metal beast fast approaching from behind. Frowning, he put his vehicle in reverse and pressed the accelerator to the floor again. The van’s back wheels spun around and kicked up white smoke. Maybe he could back over this thing.
The droid leaped into the air again, but landed on top of the armored car this time. Its steel fists started beating down on the roof, cracking the windshield. Steve slammed on the brakes, throwing the mechanical hitchhiker off. With effortless ease, the metal man climbed up off of the floor and charged again. It slammed into the AV so hard that the impact knocked Steve sideways in his seat. In fact, it was like being hit by another car.
The droid reached down, grabbed the vehicle from beneath, and slowly began turning it on its side. The hydraulic lifts in the thing’s arms and legs acted like jacks, giving the mechanical beast super strength.
Steve frantically tried to climb back into the driver’s seat to pull off; however, the entire armored car rolled onto its side before he could achieve his goal. “Hell!” he muttered, but the battle was not over. This vehicle had a two-inch steel frame around it. There was no way that this droid was going to punch through. Even the windshield was bulletproof. At least he’d be safe until help arrived. “What are you going to do now?” Steve yelled in anger. “What now!”
The droid stepped back and tabulated the situation again. It reached down, picked up the machine gun again, and fired into the AV’s gas tank. The tank exploded and fire engulfed the exterior of the vehicle. The droid quickly walked over to the corner by the elevator and withdrew a fire axe from above an extinguisher. It then walked back over to the AV and waited.
Steve frantically climbed up to peer out of the windshield beyond the flames. He quickly assessed the situation. The i
nterior was already getting very hot. He could stay inside the AV and be roasted alive, or he could climb out and be chopped to death by that thing. What a choice. This did not seem possible. The mechanical terror was acting like a thinking being. He started coughing because the smoke was getting thick inside this deathtrap. He looked out again and saw the steel demon standing just a few feet away, holding the axe high. He nervously looked around in the glove compartment for anything to fight with. There was nothing but a flashlight. “Oh God, please help me!”
The heat was now unbearable, and the smoke was so thick that he could no longer breath. Each cough choked more life out of his lungs. And if things were not bad enough, the metal giant was now using the fire axe to smash into the windshield. This thing was exhibiting the human behavior of impatience. Whatever the case, each new swing splintered more glass. Soon it would be inside the vehicle, maybe even before the flames drove him out.
Suddenly, the droid turned around and headed toward the other side of the parking structure. It lifted the axe high above its metal head and charged forward. There was a blinding flash and then an explosion. The droid flew backwards past the overturned AV and slammed into the rear concrete wall before hitting the floor. It sparked, but was motionless.
Using the final reserves of his energy, Steve climbed out of the side window and jumped down on the floor. As he crawled away from the vehicle, he tore the smoking jacket from his body and looked up.
Standing about a hundred feet away, Neil was holding a grenade launcher. “Well, buddy, I know you didn’t think that I’d leave you hanging. I just had to get this special gun from the armory below.”
While still gasping for breath, Steve slowly stood up and said, “Don’t cut it so close next time.”
***
Diamond Jack gazed into the monitor. His little plan had not worked. Although the assault force personnel had been eliminated by the defense droid, Steve Miller and Neil Stone were both still alive. This was unacceptable. Besides, more soldiers would probably be arriving soon. In fact, he could already clearly see Neil talking on his cell phone. The plan was in trouble. It was time to get serious. Oh yes, it was time to set his little seeds of destruction loose upon the world. Those things from Signus IV would roam this world too.
He leaned over the console and spoke into the mic. “Computer.”
“YES!”
“Open all the ventilation vents on the lower floors—all of them.” He also decided to make this environment more like that of the creature’s home planet. “Increase the temperature by twelve degrees on every floor below the eighth level. Also, raise the temperature twenty degress in the bio-lab.”
“OPENING VENTS AND INCREASING THE TEMPERATURE.”
Jack leaned closer to the monitor. “Let’s see how they handle this new problem,” he whispered to himself. “Oh yes, I can hardly wait to see.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Steve stood over the smoldering droid. It was on its back and had a deep dent in the chest plate. The glowing eyes were now dark and lifeless. However, the damage that thing had done was evident. Several men were on the ground, none of them were moving. An armored vehicle was on its side and on fire. The entire K-9 unit had been wiped out too. Steve would have to explain all of this to the approaching emergency workers who were rapidly moving closer. In fact, he could already hear the sirens of distant ambulances. But now he had questions of his own. “What is that thing?” he asked Neil, who was standing about six feet away. “I mean, I’ve never seen a robot move like that. Hell, it’s faster than a man. No android designed by humans can do the things that thing did.”
Neil frowned and turned back around to face Steve again. “What’s your point?”
Steve took a deep breath. “That robot, or whatever you call it, was built from the alien blueprints on one of those freaking orbs. Am I right, or what?”
Neil looked away in disgust. “That is classified information.”
“My God, that thing is already being mass produced as a weapon, isn’t it? How many of them are there?”
“This was a prototype, the only one.”
“They are going to pull the plug on this little project too. I’ll see to it personally. Those things are dangerous.” Steve moved toward Neil. “Your little project is history.”
“Why?” Neil questioned. “This unit proved almost unstoppable. If I’d not hit this thing with a specially designed pulse grenade, we’d all be dead now. This droid could think faster than any man, move faster, and had ten times the strength. Not to mention, it was almost indestructible under ordinary battle conditions. An army of these units could defeat any enemy on the battlefield without risking any American lives. They are the perfect field weapon. Tactical units like this can take war to a new level.”
Steve angrily slammed his foot against the ground. “I just watched your tactical unit butcher twelve men. Those things were not designed by the aliens to be used as weapons in the first place. Now, we’re building a mechanical army that could one day be copied and used on our own troops. I knew that people would eventually use this technology for evil purposes.”
“I’m just one cog in a very big machine. If we don’t take the first step, someone else will. We’re doing what is necessary. Look, this alien technology is far superior to ours. Once we realized that other advanced civilizations existed out in the universe, things got serious really fast. What if Earth is one day attacked by hostile alien beings from another world? We’d better be ready.”
Steve frowned in anger. “Spoken like a true soldier. Not realistic, but still predictable.”
“Why can’t it be real?”
“Because the world has never been invaded by aliens in all of recorded history. I don’t think they’d be interested in a world as corrupt and primitive as ours. If they are so advanced, what do they need with the Earth?”
“Everything has its first time happening. Besides, we have enough to worry about without having to deal with extraterrestrials. If gangsters, terrorists, or rogue governments get any of these advanced weapons, we’re all still screwed. That is precisely what Diamond Jack intends to do. And it’s only a matter of time before some foreign government accidentally runs across or is sold some of these advanced weapons. What then? We’d still better be ready!”
The sound of ambulances was very loud now. These emergency vehicles were turning into the outside parking lot and heading their way. They both knew that time was running out.
“Come on, Steve, we have to get down into the lower chambers. The ambulance workers can handle it from here. Several of our people will be here soon as well to explain this whole mess. Besides, we don’t know what Diamond Jack is up to in the lower chambers.”
“With no reinforcements?” Steve questioned.
“The SWAT team members were our reinforcements. No one else is cleared to go into the lower levels. We can make it. I know where all of the booby traps are. Come on, we don’t have much time. Diamond Jack could be working on anything, including launching nuclear warheads. All he needs is time to get ahold of the right computer security codes. Besides, we already have a SWAT unit on the lower levels. Once we get to them, we’ll have all of the backup we’ll need.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Eddie Wexler sat at the massive obsidian desk, deep in thought, tapping away at the keyboard. The flat monitor in front of him reflected this man’s great effort. Columns of numbers and symbols scrolled down the screen, neatly arranged in different-sized dialogue boxes. Gradually, he was retaking control of this complex’s massive computer system. However, it would take considerable time to fully regain command of everything.
He wiped beads of sweat from his forehead and leaned in closer to the screen. The present challenge was getting past this last firewall. It would be tough. The rogue program that controlled this e-bomb was contained inside of a digital lock which changed combinations e
very four seconds. The ten-digit code was also written with encrypted symbols between each number. And if all of this was not bad enough, it appeared that a secondary program had locked him out of the security system’s database all together.
In frustration, he leaned back in his chair. He’d tried every trick in the book in order to get back in control of the system—nothing had seemed to work. He then reached into his pocket and retrieved a flash drive that contained a special program that tested for patterns and combinations. Perhaps, he’d overlooked something.
After uploading this program into the primary database, he sat back as it replicated itself. Even if this action did not work, at least the program would eventually eat up enough memory to slow down the e-bomb. Then, he’d be able to break apart the virus infecting the whole network.
He then looked up at the screen on the side wall. After witnessing the slaughter in the upstairs parking lot, he immediately became aware of the urgency of this mission. If only he could fully gain control of this system, it would be possible to shut everything down before more harm could be done. But first, he’d have to see where Neil and the others were.
The screen’s image was divided into twelve parts. Each part reflected the full hallway of a different floor. However, he did not see any of the men from above in any of the hallways. Where in the hell were they?
Eddie picked up the walkie-talkie and switched to the private frequency. “Neil, where are you? I don’t see you on any screen.”
“We’re in the hallway behind the main compressors. There are no cameras. Eddie, how are you doing with shutting down everything? We could really use your help.”
“I’ve managed to deactivate some of the internal defenses. I also have control of a few of the time locks. I’m still working on that firewall. If I can get past the e-bomb, I’ll be able to take control of the entire system. That’s going to take time, though.”
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