Code Breakers: Beta

by Colin F. Barnes

  Liza-Marie rushed over and inspected the Widow. Her robes were covered in blood, but not her own. Liza-Marie looked up at Gerry with the realisation that Pietor was probably no more. Gerry looked away, unable to hold her gaze. They couldn’t go back now. He fought back a tremble in his hand as the anger started to flow through his body, fuelled by the adrenaline.

  Liza-Marie took the laser-pistol from her belt and aimed at the woman. Gerry stopped her.

  “No,” he said. “We need to keep quiet. There could be more of them up there. And when they don’t hear back from this one, they’ll know something’s happened.”

  “What do you suggest then?”

  “Tie her up, hide her out of the way.”

  “Just kill the bitch,” Liza-Marie said.

  Gerry shook his head, placed his hand on her shoulder. “No, we’re not doing that.”

  “Whose side you on?”

  “Mine,” Gerry said. “And if you want to get yourselves and the server out of here alive, you’ll be with me.” A message from Malik came through.

  — Where are you? We’ve turned into the alley. I think a UAV has seen us. We need to go before they realise we’re not one of them.

  — See that pile of wood and paper? We’re in the tower by that. We’re coming out now.

  Before Liza-Marie could say anything else, Gerry grabbed her by the arm. “They’re here. It’s time to leave.”

  “But Pietor!”

  Gerry couldn’t say anything. It was too much of a risk to go back now. Liza-Marie knew it too. She moved towards the rear doors, hesitated for a second, and then moved on.

  When Gerry opened the door a crack he saw the Red Widow truck, driven by Enna, approach the building. He flagged them down. They drove forward so that the back of the truck, now open, aligned with their exit.

  “Come on, we’re leaving right now,” Gerry said to Ghanus and the others.

  Within a few seconds they had lifted the server into the back of the truck. Addressing Malik, Gabe, and the others in the truck, Gerry pointed to the two Upsiders, “They’re coming with us.”

  “Good to have ya aboard,” Gabe said, flashing them a smile.

  Gerry jumped into the back of the truck and was about to close the doors and tell Enna to get them out of there when he looked out and saw the girl kneeling on her board in the tower’s doorway.

  She bit on a loose bit of rag wrapped around her tiny hands, he eyes wide as if she were staring at her first hot meal. The truck was already so cramped what with the two servers inside, but the way she stood there, so young and innocent. No place to go.

  Enna started to move the truck forward.

  “Stop!” Gerry said.

  “Dude, that drone’s probably seen everything. We ain’t got time. We gotta get gone, man,” Gabe said.

  A shadow grew large behind the girl, and in the gloom, Gerry saw a pair of hands reach out for her. He jumped out of the moving truck, landing in a crouch. A pair of hands clasped around the girl’s face and pulled her into the building.

  Gerry dashed forward, got a foot in the way before the doors closed completely.

  The Red Widow fanatic had come around and dragged the girl back into the building. She held a knife at Jess’s throat. “Back off, or girl dies.”

  The girl’s eyes were like dinner plates, and she shook in the Widow’s grasp.

  Gerry took a step forward.

  “Uh, uh!” The Widow grinned a filthy smile, exposing rotten teeth behind the unkempt black hair that draped in front of her face. A thin line of blood beneath the blade contrasted against Jess’s pale white skin. Tears streaked down her face as she closed her eyes against the pain, and the pressure of the blade against her throat.

  “What do you want?” Gerry asked.

  “Give me server, or girl dies.”

  A quiet squeak came from Jess’s mouth before the fanatic clasped a filthy hand around her face to quieten her. Jess bucked under the pressure but the Widow held her firm, blade embedded into the skin on her throat. Gerry shook his head. He couldn’t afford to waste this time. The shotgun wasn’t accurate enough to take her out without severely harming the poor girl, and calling for backup wouldn’t help matters either.

  Before Gerry could act, Jess bit down on the hand covering her mouth, making the Widow yelp and instinctively pull her hand away.

  “Shoot!” Jess said, imploring Gerry, but he couldn’t do it. She was too young, too innocent. He couldn’t have her death on his conscience.

  When he didn’t act, she squirmed in the fanatic’s grip. The girl slipped sideways, the blade slicing across her skin creating a striking red welt, but the cut was only on the surface, and as she spun clear she pulled down hard on the Red Widow’s robe, unbalancing her, and toppling her over the board on which the girl was sat.

  The fanatic crashed to the floor in a heap, dropping the knife as she fell.

  Gerry rushed forward. He grabbed the girl, and pushed out towards the door before turning around and kicking the Red Widow hard in the back, making her scream and writhe in pain. Gerry led Jess to the truck, lifted her up, and passed her to the others waiting to bring her in. He went back and brought her board, handing that over too. “Make room. We’ve got another passenger,” Gerry said to the others. “Everyone say hi to Jess. Could someone please treat her wound? She’s cut on the neck.”

  Wasting no time, he closed the rear doors and returned to the fanatic. “What happened to the man on the eleventh floor?” Gerry asked.

  The sick grin on her face told him everything. It was obvious now that he knew the blood on her robes belonged to Pietor.

  “He begged. I made it quick.” The woman spat at Gerry’s feet as she sneered up at him. “You will all die.”

  Gerry raised the shotgun and aimed it at her head, but she just laughed and lay back as calmly as anything. A wave of serenity came over her. Her lips moved in a silent mantra, no doubt praising her god, or whatever they worshipped. Gerry placed his finger on the trigger. He could feel the pulse in his finger throb rhythmically against the cold steel of the shotgun’s trigger.

  The Widow looked up at Gerry, smiled sickly. “Do it then.”

  “We’re not all like you,” Gerry said as he brought the butt of the shotgun down against the woman’s head knocking her unconscious. He ran back to the truck and jumped into the front with Enna and Gabe. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  Enna slammed the throttle and sent the truck speeding down the alley. At the end she turned left, headed out to an expanse of wasteland beyond which laid another dried riverbed.

  Liza-Marie spoke from the back of the truck. “Follow the river for ten kilometres until we reach the beginning of the Sludge. From there I can direct you to our old place. We can regroup there.”

  “Where is that?”

  “It’s an old town. Used to be a tourist place with museums and stuff to honour the old Mongolian way of life. But it got trashed during the war, looted. Nothing left. No history there anymore. Just a bunker with some provisions.”

  “It’ll do though,” Gerry said.

  As they sped down the dried-up river, Gerry noticed that on the other side, opposite the city centre was a field of fanatics standing in formation under floodlights. A series of warehouses looked to hold a number of transporter trucks, yet more Jaguars, and their ATVs.

  “That’s more than a bunch of rag-tag mentalists,” Gerry said. “It’s an army. Why didn’t you tell us this, Gabe? I thought you were well undercover with this lot?”

  Gabe shook his head, “I thought I was. I didn’t know they had that many over this side. Most of their forces were still somewhere back in Russia. Man, they must have been prepping this for years.”

  “Whatever the situation is, we need to get out, head for safety, and fast.”

  Enna floored the accelerator, speeding the truck down the smooth surface of the dried river. All the while Gerry kept checking behind him, making sure they weren’t being followed.
r />   Chapter 24

  Sasha couldn’t believe what Jimmy was saying. “You agree with Vickers?” She repeated again, making sure she wasn’t dreaming.

  Robertson nodded slowly. “Yes. I agree. It’s time to test the LEMP. You and Petal have shown me recently that we need to start using some of the tools at our disposal. She explained what happened in the sub, and together we’re going to work on this. It was wrong of me to be so cautious, but given how I’ve felt about things, I’m sure you can understand why I was reluctant.”

  Petal had filled Sasha in on her conversation with Robertson. All three agreed now was the time for action, to fight back. Both Vickers and Robertson had read the information on Petal’s slate regarding the Red Widows, including Gabe and Enna’s infiltration, and learned of the Red Widows intentions.

  “We can’t allow them to take too much land and resources,” Robertson said. “If there’s going to be a war, we need to make sure we aren’t left out in the cold and cut off. It’s time for Criborg to stretch its muscles. It’s time we took our place on the surface.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Sasha said, leaping up from the bed and hugging Robertson. “I was so scared about all this. I kinda agreed with Vickers, but I didn’t want to have to—”

  “It’s fine,” Robertson said. “It’s about time we all pulled together in the right direction. Now, can you do me a favour?”

  “Sure, what’s that?” Sasha asked.

  “Go to the lab and boot up the computers. I’ll speak with Vickers and arrange a meeting. But first I need to help Petal with something.”

  Before he could say anything else, Sasha patted him on the shoulder, flashed Petal a smile, and ran from the room.

  “She’s an enthusiastic one,” Petal said.

  “It’s partly her programming. It’s a trait that benefits a combat persona.”

  “Is it not environmental also?” Petal asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Our personalities? How much is programmed, and how much is a product of our environment?”

  “I’d say fifty-fifty. You’re closer to how my daughter was than Sasha, but your lives were similar, in some ways. Just because you share the same DNA as her, doesn’t mean you’re the same person. You are your own real person. You’re as unique as anyone else.”

  “What happened to her?” Petal asked. “Your real daughter?”

  “You are my real daughter.”

  “Okay, I mean your first, the original.”

  Robertson took a deep breath in, “Can we cover that another time? I’m an emotional wreck at the moment, and I’m not sure I can go back there yet.”

  “Sure thing, Da—” She turned from him then, realising she almost called him ‘Dad.’ But was that necessarily a bad thing? She’d always wanted a family, and here in the space of a few days she found she had a kind of father, and a sister. An unconventional family for sure, but then she’d always considered Gabe family and he wasn’t even related to her. Hell, he was another mystery when it came to it, and as for Gerry, all she wanted to do was talk to him right now. Needed him as a calming influence in the middle of all the madness.

  She made a point of making that her first task once she got off the damned island. Make contact, find Gerry, and gather all her screwed-up family together in one place. That was a nice thought, but she didn’t have too long to dwell on it before Robertson came back in the room carrying a tray with a single needle.

  “Erm, what’s that?” Petal asked.

  “The last procedure to fully connect you with your new chip.”

  “Will it hurt?”

  “No, not at all. It’ll speed up the integration. You’ll feel a little euphoric for a few minutes, but that’s it. Afterwards, you’ll be stronger and more capable than ever before.”

  “That sounds good.” She thought back to when they faced Jasper at Cemprom and she felt like she had let Gerry down, and how easily Red Widow had captured her. For a while she’d felt like a shadow of herself. She was looking forward to going back to that kick-ass bitch she was before. All the better if she were heading into battle.

  “Stick me, Doc. Let’s get this over and done with. I’ve got someone I need to find, and I’m already sick of these grey corridors.”

  “That’s my girl,” Robertson said as he injected the yellow solution into her arm.

  Petal bent over at the waist, threw up instantly, splashing a thick black and green liquid to the floor, and catching the corner of Robertson’s lab coat. “I’m sorry.” She tried to stand upright but fell back on the bed. The room spun and her stomach muscles tightened with cramp.

  “It’s fine,” Robertson said. “I wondered if that might happen. It’s the recombine solution ejecting the remaining NanoStems. I’ll get you a bucket.”

  Petal slumped forward on the edge of the bed, trying to hold back the shivers that racked her body as she continued to heave up the thick sludge. But despite it all, she could feel her head lighten, the haze burning away, leaving everything clear behind. Her thoughts sped up, became sharper.

  Robertson returned with a bucket and a hand-held vacuum device. He cleaned up the place and sat with Petal until she stopped heaving. “While you were sleeping,” Robertson said. “You kept asking for Gerry. Is that your friend who found you in the desert?”

  Petal shook her head, wiped the viscous liquid from her lips.

  “No. How do I explain Gerry? He’s one of the good guys. He saved City Earth from Seca and this crazy AI. It was a mad ride.”

  For the next thirty minutes while Petal waited for her stomach to settle she brought Robertson up to speed with her various exploits over the years and ultimately what had happened at Cemprom. She told him about Gabe and Enna and how Gabe had set her free from the Red Widows.

  “We need to make contact with them,” Robertson said. “If we’re going into battle we could use allies, and given what they’ve done for you, I feel we owe them some backup and support. I’d hate for them to get caught in the middle of all this.”

  “Knowing them like I do, they’re already in the middle and up to their chest in trouble.” She laughed, but underneath she worried about them. Wondered if the Red Widows had realised it was Gabe who had set her free. Had his cover been blown? And what of Enna and Gerry?

  “Right then, we’ve got no time to lose. Let’s go meet with the others and see if we can’t take out that damned satellite,” Robertson said.

  “I could get to like you.” Petal smiled, liking his affirmative attitude. “But know that all my friends kind of end up a bit bloody and mentally damaged.”

  “Hmm, I think it’ll be worth it.”

  Jimmy Robertson hopped off the bed, led Petal out of the medical room. “Once the satellite is down, we can get our systems online. If there’s a network out there, we’ll be able to pick it up,” Robertson said as they walked down the myriad grey corridors. “Maybe you’ll be able to find your friends soon.”

  “You know the Meshwork is run by one of the servers, right?” Petal said.

  “It’s how we initially found Elliot, but since we lost contact with you, we’ve been unable to find our way out of our domain. The satellite doesn’t just control the drones. It also dampens data traffic. It’s why we have to be careful with what we do.”

  “Can’t you blast it out of orbit with a rocket?” Petal said.

  Robertson scrunched his face. “That would indeed be easier, but they have a whole bunch of countermeasures, early-warning systems. And we’d betray our location before the missile could even reach it. And let’s face it, if we had that kind of capability, I would have used it myself to blast their station into outer-space.”

  “But this laser doohickey will work, right?”

  “I hope so, but the software isn’t quite right. Like the stealth software wasn’t right on the sub. But then I saw what you did with the code. It’s quite incredible really.”

  Petal shrugged, blushed a little. “I had some good teachers.�
��

  “Let’s hope they taught you about EM pulse waves and laser-plasma fields.”

  “Don’t worry Doc. If it’s a computer problem, I’m sure we’ll fix it.”

  He gave her arm a little squeeze, increased his pace, clearly eager to get going. He had a lot of time to make up it seemed.

  When they arrived at the double glass doors to the LEMP lab, she saw Vickers in his fatigues standing at a metal rail looking down into a deep, wide shaft. Sasha and two other military types were standing next to him on his right. To his left stood a group of five lab-coat-wearing scientists.

  As soon as they caught sight of her and Robertson everyone turned to greet them. Vickers marched forward and opened the doors to let them in. His face had softened since Petal had last seen him dragging Sasha away from the sub.

  “Are you sure about this, Doc?” Vickers said to Robertson.

  “You don’t have to worry about me, General. Now let’s do this. It’s time The Family had something to worry about.”

  Vickers smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.

  “That’s more like it, old man.”

  ***

  Petal entered the commands into the LEMP’s targeting computer as requested by Robertson. She could feel the tension in the air. The silence was heavy with it.

  She worked next to Sasha and the Doc. All three, in sync, checked, and double-checked the coding was correct, that the trajectory and firing routines were bug free.

  The laser system was actually made from ten small laser generators feeding into a single super-laser generating a beam of over three-hundred-petawatts of power. One direct hit on the satellite should, in theory, knock it out of action. And it’d be so quick, a matter of nano seconds, that it would hit them before they even knew it, bypassing their countermeasures.

  “I’m done,” Petal said. She ran her code through the compiler, error-free. “We ought to simulate it, though.”

  “Agreed. Running a simulation now,” Sasha said who remained busy at her holoscreen. Robertson likewise continued to check through the various routines and sub-routines, making sure that the power capacitors were synchronised and regulated to each individual generator.