by Terry Brooks
“I suppose Woodrow is going too?” Ash asks in despair.
“No, he stays here. We need someone to chart our course once we’re inside ORACLE using the floor plans I scrounged up. Woodrow will be our offsite control. He’ll have the plans open on a computer connected to me. I’ll be wearing a tracking device that will tell him where in the building we are at any given moment.”
“So he can direct us?”
“That would be the plan. But there are risks. If someone at ORACLE guesses at what we’re doing and the signal is jammed, we’ll be on our own. So why don’t you make use of that fabulous memory of yours and take a look at the plans while you have the chance. Memorize them in case we need them later.”
He does so, going into the back room and using Jenny’s computer to scroll through the documents, memorizing one floor at a time, taking care to do so in order, making sure he understands where Blue Skye is located. It appears from Jenny’s notes, which have been added to copies of the plans she purloined, that it is on the nineteenth floor in a large blank space left empty on the originals, but over which Jenny has written in large block letters BLUE SKYE.
She comes up behind him. “It’s the only place in the building Blue Skye could be, the only space not accounted for. There are dozens of power sources configured in the plans, which suggests the need for multiple feeds. The computers that receive and transmit documents probably don’t require much, but the storage units that house and collate and file all those documents require a lot. This has to be it.”
He doesn’t say anything. He relies on Jenny, who knows far more than he does about such things. Instead, he finishes his memorization and goes back out to sit with the others.
The wait for darkness is endless. Everyone is left to their own devices, and mostly they fiddle with vidviews and coms. They restrict their accessing to public outlets and stay clear of private channels. They eat dinner standing at the counter in the kitchen where a meal of sandwiches and drinks has been provided. Ash does not know by whom and does not ask. He just accepts it and is grateful.
Woodrow sidles up. “Are you all right?” he asks.
Ash grins. “Are you joking? I’m jumping out of my skin. I’m working hard at not falling apart, and we haven’t even left.”
“It’s the waiting,” the bot boy says. “It works on your nerves, leaves you imagining.”
“Will you be okay back here by yourself?”
“I’ll be taking care of you, so I won’t have time to worry about me. But I have an escape plan if I need one.”
“Because they might come for you?”
He makes a face. “It’s possible. If they track my signal to you, they might follow it back to me.”
All day Woodrow has been working on something in his workshop, bits and pieces of things scattered all over the place. Ash can’t resist asking.
“What are you doing back there?”
The boy grins. “You’ll see.”
Ash lays a hand on Woodrow’s computer housing. “You be careful after we leave. Cut us loose if you think you are in any danger.”
“Sure,” Woodrow says, but Ash doesn’t believe for a minute that he means it.
The day drags into dusk, dusk into darkness, and everyone is restless. They have run out of things to occupy their time, Woodrow included, and sit around talking in low voices and staring off into space. Waiting, because there is nothing else left.
Until finally Jenny rises and says, “All right, that’s long enough. Let’s get this done.”
- 28 -
They walk out into the deep shadows at the end of a drive at the back of the house and find the Onyx waiting for them. Holly has brought it over from where it was in storage after Street Freaks was closed down. They climb inside, Cay taking the driver’s seat without asking. Jenny carries the boxy unit Woodrow was working on, a slightly larger version of a laptop computer but differently shaped. Whatever it is, she is careful to protect it.
Woodrow has been left behind, already seated at a powered-up computer to track their movements. All of them have com units, which will allow them to communicate with each other once inside ORACLE.
Cay powers up the Onyx and drives out into the closest residential street and toward the city. Ash leans back in his seat, his gaze directed at the buildings and lights as they come and go in the wake of their passing. Overhead, the sky is clear and a wash of stars is visible in spite of the city lights. Other vehicles pass them by, unaware of their presence. Cay has to drive carefully, easing away from all the eyes that cannot see them. They are invisible predators, hunters in search of an elusive prey. That is how Ash sees their group, and what he believes his father’s hidden file has become.
The drive is over too quickly, and they are within several blocks of ORACLE Central when Cay abruptly pulls over. Powering down the Onyx, she says to Jenny, “All yours.”
Jenny has unhooded Woodrow’s mysterious device to reveal a map screen and any number of switch pads and digital readouts. Ash leans forward and determines that the screen is showing the ORACLE building. But even as he watches, the image changes, and suddenly he is looking at the same building ribbed with lines. The lines pulse softly with a reddish light, snaking everywhere along the walls and floors and roof of the building through a series of tiny boxes.
“What is that?” he asks her.
She glances at him and smiles. “Woodrow’s magic. He’s built a computer that can pinpoint all of the cameras that ward ORACLE after dark. If anyone enters without wearing the right badge, an alarm will not only sound but the cameras will track the intruder right through the building. There is no getting out if you’re spotted.”
“So how does this help us?”
“Woodrow’s device allows us to shut down any or all of the cameras once we enter the building. Floor by floor, hallway by hallway, room by room. We can pick and choose where we want to go and subvert whatever surveillance might detect and track us. We can open a clear path from our place of entry to Blue Skye and out again. All we have to worry about are the Watchmen.”
Ash shakes his head in admiration. A fourteen-year-old boy able to build something like that in a single afternoon? He wouldn’t have thought anyone capable of such a feat. It demonstrates clearly why the scientists who saved Woodrow’s life so greatly valued him.
“Hush now,” Jenny whispers. “I have to concentrate.”
She accesses the floor plans and scrolls through them until she finds what she wants. Then, one by one, she turns off various cameras, pausing each time as she does so to make sure a pulsating line disappears. She takes her time but finishes quickly anyway. “Done. Take us to the private entry,” she tells Cay.
Cay brings the Onyx alive and pulls back out onto the street. At the first intersection she turns to her left and works her way behind ORACLE to a windowless wall where huge steel panels sit flush within the composite. Jenny reaches into her jacket and pulls out a small device, presses a button, a beep sounds, and the panel closest lifts. Seconds later Cay is driving the Onyx down a ramp and into a small parking area.
They all get out, Jenny still carrying Woodrow’s blackout device, Holly now shouldering a Gronklin and Penny-Bird her chopdown. Cay hauls out a modified Sparz 200 and hands it to Ash, quickly explaining how it works.
“Backup only,” she says, “if things get rough. Don’t use it otherwise. Only if your life is in danger and there’s no other choice.”
Ash notes she takes nothing for herself. She is armed only with the wasp sting.
“How did you manage to get us in here?” he whispers to Jenny as they walk to a set of concrete service stairs.
She shrugs. “I hacked into the signal code for the executive parking. That was the easy part. The rest of the building is a minefield. Let’s hope those security codes your father made you memorize do the job.”
She notices the look on his face. “Well, you asked me.”
He regrets that he did. He hates the implications of knowing
how much is riding on his shoulders. A twinge of fear rockets through him, but he pushes it away. No time for that now.
They ascend the stairs, Holly leading the way and setting the pace, the others following. The lighting is dim but serviceable. They walk on cat’s paws, making no sound in the Forms. No one passes them. No sounds reach them. They feel alone in the near dark, in the silence of the building, in the discomfort of their thoughts.
The climb seems to take forever. Ash loses count of how many floors they pass on their way to Blue Skye. Using an elevator is out of the question. Whatever they do, they want to remain invisible.
Finally, they reach the right landing and the adjoining door that opens onto the nineteenth floor, where the plans Jenny hacked indicate Blue Skye is housed. They stop to rest a moment, and Jenny makes some adjustments with the blackout device to turn off the cameras that service the hallways and rooms on this level. She has already restored all those she had disabled earlier, not wanting to leave them dark long enough for someone to discover there is a problem.
Having determined that no ORACLE personnel are present on their floor before disabling the cameras, Jenny gives Ash a nod. “Your turn.”
Ash moves over to the digital keypad that sits next to the door leading out of the stairwell and keys in the security code. To his relief, he hears the locks release. He opens the door for the others. The hallway lights are on, as the lights are kept on in most office and public buildings at night. He glances at Holly as she passes him. She is noticeably limping but has not complained once. She holds the Gronklin at the ready, its big barrel pointing ahead. Penny-Bird is right beside her, chopdown cradled in her slender arms.
The others file in after them, eyes searching everywhere, breathing strained. Jenny points them down a hallway, and they ease ahead.
At the end of the corridor, heavy metal doors are sealed to prevent entry. Red lights blink above the locks and to either side of the doorframe. A warning that entry is restricted. Once again, Ash steps up to the digital keypad and enters a code, this one dedicated to the room where Blue Skye can be found. He takes his time, touching each key firmly, hoping that his father is right, praying he hasn’t made a mistake.
To his relief, the door opens. Amazing, Ash thinks, that it should be this easy.
Now they are inside the chamber, and it is immediately apparent that they are in the right place. Blue Skye is everywhere. Banks of storage units are lined up in endless ranks, allowing access between their uniform columns. Dozens more line the walls. Jenny looks around and then proceeds to the right, picking her way carefully, eyes drifting down to the device and then up again. Ash notices that Holly and Penny-Bird are no longer with them, remaining at the doors to act as a rearguard while the other three search out the information Ash believes Blue Skye hides.
It takes only minutes for Jenny to locate the computer that services the storage units—a desk-mounted device with a screen and keyboard set off to one side and locked within a steel cabinet. Ash releases these security locks as well, and Jenny quickly powers up the computer to access the storage units. Ash and Cay look over her shoulder, watching as she roams through tables of contents, files and indexes, apps and nibs, hunting.
Long minutes pass, and she backs away. “I can’t find it. I don’t know exactly what it is I am looking for and don’t see anything that suggests the source of the file. I need something more, Ash. Your father must have used a key under which he hid the information. There are millions of keys in these units. What words or symbols would he have used that he knew you would recognize?”
Ash stares blankly at the information on the screen. A twinge of memory tells him he should know the answer, but he cannot seem to find it. Columns run up and down in a dizzying array of markings, most of it signifying nothing. He has the locking codes. Why isn’t that enough? Why hadn’t his father told him about a key that would access the right files? Or told him something he would know to look for?
But then he had, hadn’t he? Ash experiences an epiphany. Hadn’t his father told him after all? “Jenny,” he says. “Enter ‘heart promise.’”
She does so, and the columns and figures begin scrolling in parallel lines all across the screen, the computer searching for whatever Ash has summoned. They wait as the search goes on, everything on the screen moving so fast but the answer seemingly no closer.
Until there it is. Two words appear in the center of a heart.
HEART PROMISE.
“Use the locking codes, Ash,” Jenny says quietly.
She gets up from her seat, and he takes her place. Using only his memory, he enters the twin codes. The heart blossoms like a flower in front of him, opening its petals, and the files within reveal themselves.
Ash looks at Jenny, and she motions for him to move. She sits once more. From her pocket she produces a tiny storage device and triggers a wireless relay. Instantly, the files begin to download through AirTrans, and an instantaneous wireless transmittal siphons off the material while leaving no trace of tampering. In moments, they have everything they need.
They look at one another and then at Cay. A special, secretive moment is shared. No words are necessary. Success after so much and so long; victory where once there seemed no possibility of it. Jenny tucks the device into her clothing, and they start back down the corridors that run between the storage banks, returning to where they came in.
They find Holly and Penny-Bird waiting. Jenny gives them a nod, and they both break into broad smiles. Ash is elated. What they have found could bring down his uncle and clear his father’s name. All they need to do is get back down to the Onyx and out of the garage and go somewhere they can view the material in private.
Holly eases open the door to the Blue Skye chamber, checks up and down the hall, and they all file out and retrace their steps toward the stairs.
And then their luck runs out.
There were all sorts of possible ways this incursion could go wrong, and Ash had believed he knew everyone single one and was prepared for it. He had believed that he would be ready when the worst happened, but he finds out now how mistaken he was.
Just as they pass the elevator, the doors open, and they are face-to-face with a pair of Watchmen. There is a scramble of surprise and a levering of charges into weapons, but only Holly is quick enough. Two charges from the Gronklin blow the Watchmen back into the elevator and leave them in ruins.
Instantly, alarms sound. The elevator shuts down. The locks on the doors up and down the hallway click into place, one after the other like links on a chain closing them in. Lights go out and a suffocating darkness wraps about them.
“Night vision!” Jenny snaps.
They activate the lenses that allow them to see in total blackness, and in their earpieces they hear Jenny calling Woodrow. “We’re in lockdown! Get us out of here!”
“Go to the stairs you took coming up,” his voice instructs, the boy surprisingly calm and steady.
They move down the corridor to the door they came through earlier and find it locked. Holly fastens her hands on the handle and tears it off. In seconds they are through and descending the stairs as quickly as they can. But they are moving through a thick, almost total darkness, so they have to be cautious and not trip and fall.
“I’m trying to find you an open path,” Woodrow says in their ears.
Silence then. They continue down. They can hear doors opening and closing below them. ORACLE is hunting them. They slow automatically. “Woodrow!” Jenny pleads.
“Get out of there. Next landing. Through the door and turn left. Hurry!”
Again, Holly breaks the lock off with a sharp twist of her titanium wrist. They rush into the corridor beyond and find themselves in a warren of offices. Everything is still dark; the alarms shrill relentlessly, punctuating their rushed movements and increasingly heavy breathing.
Ash feels his heart pounding. His fears wrap about him like sharp wire.
We’re trapped! We can’t get out!
/> “Stairs at the far end,” Woodrow says. “Go down.”
Ash is confused. How can Woodrow know where they are or what they are doing? Then he remembers the tracking device Jenny wears. He must be able to see it on his screen. But how does he know where the Watchmen are? Or is he just guessing?
“Everything’s blocked off.” Woodrow still sounds unruffled. “You can’t reach the Onyx. You have to get off two landings down and exit into the main lobby. Go out the front doors. Find your way from there.”
Find your way. Out in the open. A death sentence.
But no one says anything. They just do what Woodrow tells them, descending the stairs, exiting two landings down and charging out into the lobby.
The Watchmen are waiting.
Laser charges explode all around them as they rush to find cover in alcoves and behind pillars and furniture. Holly fronts them all, an easy target for their would-be captors. She is hit twice right away. Sparks fly as the projectiles find their target, but the body armor absorbs the blows. The Watchmen are using light weaponry, the sort they would normally carry making their rounds, and it isn’t enough. Holly takes down five of them right away, and the heavy ka-chug of Penny-Bird’s chopdown signals the fate of two more.
Jenny crouches low behind an information desk while Cay and Ash go the opposite way toward the front doors. Jenny has no weapons, and Cay has only the wasp sting. Ash realizes he has to do more than stay under cover. It is impossible to be sure how many Watchmen are out there, but he is sure there are too many. He is sure they have no chance.
Doesn’t matter. He powers up the Sparz and attacks.
It is suicidal and done without thinking. It is a reaction that in a saner moment he would not have even considered. But they are trapped and must break the trap’s jaws. Weaving and dodging, he reaches the main reception counter. He fires repeatedly at those seeking to bring him down, and two of them drop and lie motionless. Holly is hit again, and this time, she sinks to one knee, head lowered. Penny steps in front of her protectively, the chopdown firing blindly and repeatedly as fresh shells are chambered in and discharged.
