by Tony Batton
"What's happening to him?" Lentz asked, twisting to look at Tom. He lay rigid, his eyes staring.
"Neural overload. I'm sending a basic pain signal straight into his nervous system. It'll probably cause no lasting damage at this level of intensity, but it'll definitely prevent him doing anything for a while."
"You've been thinking about this since he beat you last year. Your own son? Again?"
"Morality is a crutch on which the weak blame failure." Bern raised an eyebrow. "If you want to talk I'd be more interested in the new features you've developed for the suit."
"You think I'd share them with you?"
Bern smiled. "Like you have a choice." He pressed a button on his controller then started reviewing data on a screen. "I like the body armour. Very useful. And low-friction mode: intriguing." He scrolled down. "Some of these other things... Well, I doubt you've tested them. You wouldn't have had enough power available." He looked over her shoulder at one of the guards. "I need the Accumulator brought here immediately."
"You've been planning for this since before the government blocked nano development. How long, William?"
"I realised which way the wind was blowing. I took the necessary steps and, once that decision was made, other steps became necessary. A strong leader has to take control. Tantalus, for example, was all about control. But now my work is about the future. At least, controlling it."
"Not money?" Lentz gasped.
"When you have as much as I do, you have to define other goals. And now we've reached a milestone."
"Some chess-players sacrifice a piece to achieve a greater goal. You sacrifice an entire set, because you're always playing more than one game." Lentz paused for breath. "But you can't plan for everything. You can't plan for an irrational move."
"You? Irrational?" Bern laughed.
"I mean the half-crazed superhero you've created."
"Tom?" Bern glanced at Tom's figure. "As soon as I check that the next phase of my plan has worked I won't need him anymore."
The technician cleared her throat. "Mr Bern, I've completed the process. With some duplication, the 13% we retained was enough. Your nanites are ready for upload."
Lentz blinked. "Wait, what now?"
Bern smiled. "What did you think this has all been about? They're for me."
Her eyes narrowed. "But they'll kill you."
"Oh, I'm not putting them directly in me - because you're right they probably would kill me - and if not that, then as Tom's experience has shown, there could be many side effects. No, I'm putting them in the suit. The one you helped perfect."
Lentz gasped. "You've built an Interface suit - just like we originally hypothesised."
Bern nodded. "We have the connectivity. The full body contact means the suit's wearer can control its systems - it detects impulses and signals in the skin, and interprets them. But it's only half of the solution."
"Which is why you need Tom's nanites."
"Quite so. I control the suit, and the suit controls the nanites." His smile broadened. "I've created an Interface 2.0. All those concerns about injections and brains overheating, actual brain surgery, that's all in the past."
"But what about when the suit runs flat in twenty minutes?"
"An excellent point." He placed the controller in one of his pockets as a guard came in carrying a container covered with hazard warning symbols.
The technician popped open the container and removed a black cube-like object with LED displays on each surface. "Ready for insertion," she said.
"No!" Lentz cried. "That's your power supply?"
Bern turned so that the technician could slide the cube into what she'd thought was a backpack, but was clearly a custom housing for the power source. He tapped a touch-screen on his wrist and there was a low-frequency hum as something engaged. His suit shimmered. "You wait until I've calibrated this. Then you'll see what nanites can do," he said.
"I've seen what nanites can do," replied Lentz. "And it rarely ends well."
Bern walked over to her, leaning close. She could feel the hum of power from his suit. "I'm the one who says when it ends."
Lentz tried to lean away, but her own suit held her fast. "You've got what you wanted. Now stop hurting Tom. There's no need for it. Let me help him."
Bern closed his eyes. "I knew you'd solve the problems, but you went so much further. Once his nanites connect with my suit's operating system, I'll have an interface of my own."
Lentz's eyes flickered over his shoulder. "You'll have a chance to test out that suit quite soon I think."
"Oh?"
"When I spoke about Tom as a half-crazed super hero, it turns out I wasn't only talking about your child."
Bern frowned as Lentz pointed at one of the monitors. It showed a view of the deck of the Phoenix Reborn. Several men lay motionless. A woman dressed in a black bodysuit stood over them, looking straight at the camera.
Alex.
Bern growled in anger.
Then he vanished.
One Hundred
KATE MADE A STEADY COUNT in her head, trying to keep the beat. With the suit working its invisibility magic, she couldn't see her watch or her wrist. By her count she had another seven minutes to locate the item of equipment Lentz had sent her to find. The problem was that there was equipment everywhere. Every corridor, every room was full of advanced tech, mostly stamped with the CERUS logo. She could imagine the firm's auditors having a fit about how many assets had somehow walked out the door. But that was not her concern right now. She needed to find an operational nexus, drawing a tremendous amount of power.
There were many personnel, lots of them scientists, moving quietly about their duties. There were also a few guards. None of them seemed to be looking for an invisible infiltrator. She finished searching one corridor. None of these systems were what she was looking for. She could almost feel the battery in her suit drawing its last breaths. There was no way she was going to have long enough. The vessel was simply too large.
If only she'd been able to borrow Lentz's phone with its scanners and detectors. Instead, all she had was her brain. She stopped and closed her eyes. How could she narrow down the options? How could she use what she knew to help her? She stretched and breathed deeply, as she would before practising karate. She felt the smooth fabric of the Resurface suit teasing over her skin and she imagined for a moment she could feel the tiny particles coating its surface.
She shivered.
Could she feel them? Maybe it was more than her imagination. The sensation was a little like when she had been close to the dark nano, but not as unpleasant. It had a certain character, a certain texture that she couldn't quite define. Wouldn't the Resurface generator for the ship share the same technology? Might it feel the same?
She held her breath and tried to detect it, but there was nothing. She swore and a crew member ten metres away glanced around, puzzled. She quickly closed her mouth and he shrugged and walked on. Her heart beat faster, her blood pounding.
And then she felt it.
She wasn't quite sure what it was: like a touch on her skin that was not a touch. It was below her and ahead somewhere. With a half-smile she made her way to the nearest staircase and descended.
Four minutes later, she found what she was looking for: a room next to one of the two reactors. Two scientists stood monitoring a bank of screens next to a large computer set up. Next to that stood several heavy, metal-coil arrays, plastered with warning symbols and vibrating ominously. Kate stepped aside to let an armed guard walk past her and up the stairs she had just descended. That left her and the two scientists.
How long did she have? In her excitement she had forgotten to count. What should she do? There had been no announcement on the tannoy system. Did that mean Lentz had failed? At the base of her spine, she felt a glow of warmth. Was that the suit's battery? Her heart pounding again, she stepped forward, between the blissfully unaware scientists. Behind a glass panel was a large red switch: EMERGENCY POWER
CUT OFF. Kate shook her head and lifted the glass.
She threw the switch as the battery in her suit died. All around her, alarms shattered the air. The two scientists turned towards her.
The first froze where he stood.
The second tried to grab her, shouting: "What have you done?"
Kate stepped smoothly aside, gripping his arm and twisting it behind his back until he yelped. "I've saved us," she said, gritting her teeth.
"No," he hissed, "you've signed our death warrants." He nodded over at the metal coils. "As soon as those discharge, the system goes offline."
"I know."
He turned to look at her, his expression white. "And then we're all dead."
"We'll see."
"Exactly!" said the scientist. "The fleet out there will see us."
Kate pushed him away. "Doesn't mean they'll try to destroy us. We're worth more alive." She looked at the coils, which were vibrating at a lower frequency. "How long?"
"Five minutes." He rubbed his arm angrily. "Maybe less."
"And you're not going to try and turn it back on?" she said, her eyes narrowing.
"Can't be done: not until the capacitors have discharged and reset, by which time it will be too late." A phone rang on the wall. The first scientist picked it up, listened then, with a look of shock, held it towards Kate.
"Yes?" she said.
"It's for you."
One Hundred One
BERN MOVED LIKE A GHOST through the corridors of the ship. The Resurface nanites bound together to present a shimmering in the air and nothing more. He was, at last, beyond scrutiny, beyond oversight, beyond control. He was free.
The suit was the culmination of all his work. He had made this happen. He had brought the money, people and technology together, fighting off almost incalculable opposition. He wanted to savour the moment.
But first he had something to attend to. Or rather someone.
He had no idea how Alex was here: how she had found her way to the middle of nowhere and onto a vessel that was theoretically invisible. He had no idea how she was even still alive. But it didn't matter: no one could stand in his way now.
With a smile he climbed to the top of the stairs, and stepped onto the deck. A breeze wafted over him. In the suit, he couldn't feel the cold. Instead he felt so much more: the ripple of the webbing, the shimmer of the Resurface coating, and the flow of the nanites. Within its fabric he could tell the interface was forming. But even before it did, he had considerable capabilities at his disposal. And now he would get to test them.
To his surprise, Alex was not hiding. Nor was she standing, ready to fight. Instead she sat, cross-legged, eyes closed as if in meditation. Around her lay the broken bodies of his guards. He could see she had not been merciful. He approached her. Invisible. Silent.
She placed her palms on the deck. "I thought I might have to rescue you. But clearly I should never have doubted your capabilities."
He froze. Held his breath.
"Although you do make more noise than a herd of water buffalo."
Bern controlled his breathing. She had to be guessing.
"I've waited a long time for this moment. For us to finally stop him. I'm sorry I had to leave you for a little while, but you always knew I'd find you again. Once I found my father." She paused. "But something's different." She tipped her head. "You seem... different?"
Bern began moving silently to one side. Something about her was unsettling him.
"Are we no longer friends?" She held her face up. "You can't hide from me. I can smell you."
She must have simply heard a noise and presumed it was him. He stepped quietly around her, standing directly behind, an arm raised to strike.
"You want to fight? I guess you have to learn somehow. But not bowing to me first, that really is rude."
Was she crazy? Or did she really know he was there?
"Where did you get your suit?" she said suddenly. "Did you steal one from your father?"
Bern shook his head. She was crazy. And she needed to die. He swung a blow at her head. She could not possibly see it coming. As he moved, her words echoed in his skull. "Did you steal one from your father?"
Alex moved like a flower opening, but so fast his eyes could not track it. Her legs slid out in a rotating motion and she swept him from his feet. He hit the deck hard, landing on something in his pocket; pain shot up his leg. The effect was shocking, disorienting. He was supposed to be in charge.
She stood and bowed formally to him, then eased into a stance. Balanced. Poised.
Ready.
He rolled quietly away to regain his breath. She seemed totally at ease. He wasn't sure whether to be more shocked that she knew he was there or that she wasn't surprised that he was invisible. Then something rippled through his suit. An unpleasant sensation. Something was wrong with his left arm. Frowning, he looked at it. He could see it. Even as he realised the suit must be damaged, he saw the rest of the Resurface field falter and he shimmered into view. He looked back at Alex and saw shock on her face. Of course an invisible person had just materialised in front of her. But as he looked at her expression he realised it wasn't that she was seeing someone materialise. It was that she was seeing him materialise.
"You?" Her expression was one of overwhelming confusion, like the moon had risen in place of the sun. Her voice was like boiling mercury. "Where is Tom? What have you done with him?"
Bern hesitated. "You thought I was Tom? Why?"
Her eyes hardened.
Bern knew he had been right to be unsettled, but wrong to ignore the feeling. He had made a mistake. He resolved not to make another.
One Hundred Two
IN THE LABORATORY, LENTZ HAD been half-watching Tom, half-watching a live feed of Bern confronting Alex on deck, when her suit had unfrozen. Managing not to cry out, she had stretched cautiously, assessing the situation - the guards and technicians' attention still fixed on the fight playing out on the screen.
The two guards realised too late that something was wrong, turning just as Lentz fired her second pair of tasers, knocking them out. The scientists exchanged looks and ran from the room. With a quick motion, Lentz shut the door and started doing what she did best: taking control.
An alarm was sounding somewhere in the ship. Using the nearest computer terminal she quickly traced the problem to a room next to one of the nuclear reactors. She had no doubts who had set it off and quickly placed a call to the room.
Three minutes later, Kate hurried into the lab. Together, they pulled heavy equipment across the door, then turned to look at Tom. He was lying on the bed, his face a terrible shade of grey.
Kate rushed over. He was shivering. "What's happening to him? Is it what he was injected with in South America?"
"That was only a partial dose. Bern boosted it, then filtered it."
"Is it... contagious?"
"If it were, then we'd already be infected. This is personal: special nano designed to attack Tom, and Tom alone. And with a specific purpose."
"What purpose?"
"To capture the output of Project Tantalus so Bern could copy his abilities in a way that he could use for himself."
"I thought the nanites would simply kill a normal person, like all the original test subjects. Why would he risk that?"
"Because he's found a new way." She patted the fabric of her suit. "He's put the nanites in one of these. Once it starts working, he will control the suit, and the suit will control the nanites."
"Someone needs to give that man a permanent smacking. For all the awful stuff he's done." Kate placed her hand on Tom's forehead. "Why is he ill?"
"I think the leftover dark nano is poisoning him, but that's just a guess. Or it could be from when Bern jacked a burst of power into Tom's nervous system. That may well have changed the nano again."
"So, basically, you have no idea."
"I'm sorry."
Tom's eyes flickered open. "Kate?" A smile fluttered across his face before a gr
imace overtook it. "Dominique? How did you both get here?"
"Long story," Lentz said. "How do you feel?"
Tom screwed up his face. "Wrong, on so many levels."
"Let me see if I can help." Lentz held out her phone and started making adjustments to a calibration tool.
"Is it the nanites you stopped them removing from me?"
"I thought I was helping you." She frowned as she read the display. "This can't be right. You're definitely still in pain?"
"Are you kidding?" Tom said, through gritted teeth. "It's like there's acid in my veins. Acid that's on fire."
Kate gripped his shoulder, shivering as she did so.
"I need it to stop," he hissed.
"I don't know why it hasn't," Lentz replied. "According to my scan, there's no dark nano in your system. It's just your own nano, 100%."
"Then what's causing the pain?" Kate asked.
"It's different than before," Tom said. "Then I couldn't feel my abilities. Now I wish I couldn't."
Lentz shook her head. "The dark nano might be gone, but the nanites left behind have changed. They're malfunctioning, mutating randomly. If I could study them properly I might--"
Kate glared at her. "Spare us the theorising. Can you do anything about it?"
"Given more time, I might be able to find a way to get new code to propagate, maybe to shut them down. Of course that would--"
"What is going on there?" Tom sat up suddenly, staring at the display monitor. "Alex is here too?"
On the screen, Bern and Alex were warily circling each other.
"I don't know how she got here," Lentz replied, "but she's bought us some time."
Tom shook his head. "She always knows where I am. She can sense my nanites."
Lentz looked suddenly interested. "Bern used them in his suit."
Tom shook himself, rising up onto his elbows, gasping. "I don't care how much it hurts. I've got to stop him."
