“Over there.” Clarke pointed to a worn stairwell.
They rushed up stairs made from a patchwork of various wood types. At the top of the stairs a fat balding man held back half-dressed women, who were trying to get downstairs. The moment he saw Josiah’s crew the man reached for a long bowie knife from his belt. Clarke pushed in front of Josiah and withdrew one of the semi-auto handguns and leveled it at the man’s face. The fat man dropped the knife and lifted his hands in surrender.
He pointed toward the myriad of small rooms down the hallway as if to invite them in. “Whatever you want, Hoss.”
“Where’s the door to the roof?” Josiah demanded.
He pointed a pudgy finger toward the end of the hall. Clarke pointed to the half-dozen women. “You can leave if you want.”
“Wait a minute,” the man shouted.
Clarke put the gun to his temple. “I’m sorry, you have a problem with that?”
The man crumpled to the floor and pleaded, “Please don’t shoot me.”
The women ran down the stairwell. One of them kicked the man in the face with a high-heeled shoe before she passed by.
More gunfire erupted across the street. Outside the brothel’s windows, the two drones flew in circles around the apartment building, now at the height of the second floor. Both continued to rain bullets into the crumpling building. On the street, people ran back and forth like leaderless swarms of insects.
“Do the drones have infrared?” Clarke asked.
“Maybe, but they have no DNA signature so they’re locked on the data pad I left behind.”
Faith stared the window. “I hope everyone got out in time from the other floors.”
“Let’s keep moving.”
Josiah pushed the family on toward the new set of stairs. He used the light from his data pad to shine a path. They rushed to the top only to find a door with a hasp and padlock on it.
“Everyone back away,” Clarke said.
A moment later the padlock blew apart with an explosive round from the gun. Clarke ran onto the roof, confirming it was clear before he motioned up the kids, Faith, and Josiah. All of whom hid behind the metal bulkhead that was the roof access.
“What now, Josiah?”
“Stay behind the bulkhead. I have a ride coming.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
New York 2040
Ninety seconds later, the roof started to vibrate, and a loud thumping overpowered everyone’s voices as well as the distant gunfire. Across the street the drones stopped firing into the apartment building and rose up to hover like a pair of wolves looking to attack something new.
The thumping noise increased until it was both heard and felt. Behind them, Josiah’s dual helicopters floated up to hover over the brothel. Both helicopters launched two small items, each the size of a can of soda. The micro-missiles locked on the drones and a second later dispatched their targets with fiery explosions.
One of the helicopters lowered to hover a foot above the roof while the other one rose up to act as a shield. Everyone covered their eyes as pebbles on the tar roof showered them from the wind gusts. Josiah ushered the four of them into the hovering helicopter’s back seat. Once they were secure, he sat up front in the passenger’s seat. The faceless drone next to him stayed facing forward.
Josiah put on a headset and flicked on the intercom for the rear. It was a near-soundproof interior, but there was only a small opening between the cockpit and rear passengers, and sound did not travel well from front to back.
“Everyone buckle up,” Josiah said, plugging the data pad into the control panel in front of him. “There’s an intercom button you can hit to talk to me in an emergency, otherwise I need to focus on reprogramming this drone.”
The helicopter rose up to match the height of its twin sister. The downward velocity from the rotors seemed to be the final push to take down the ravaged brick building. What had once been their home became a pile of stone and wood.
In the distance, sparks came from a government blimp floating nearby as two more drones launched. Josiah typed on the data pad. The other helicopter rose up and launched countermeasures to destroy the new attack drones while his helicopter moved south. It stayed close to rooftops and even dipped below some of the larger skyscrapers. Josiah’s antiquated data pad didn’t have the preset coordinates he needed, so all the drone pilot knew was to get out over the ocean.
A chirp in the headset told Josiah someone in the back seat hit the intercom. Clarke’s voice came on the headset. “Why is a government blimp launching attack drones at us?”
Josiah continued to work on the data pad. “It’s Bradley. We’ve all paid off government officials. Politicians are salespeople, and in government everything’s for sale. Give me a few minutes to finish programming this, and I’ll answer everything you need.”
Josiah typed as fast as he could. Someone back at Sector One headquarters had found his backdoor into the helicopter’s onboard computer and was trying to override his coding. He could barely stay ahead of whoever his opponent was at Sector One due to the data pad’s age and sluggishness. The helicopter could turn from an escape vehicle into a prison if he did not win this coding battle.
The helicopter continued its southern direction. Long moments passed before Josiah’s screen lit up a bright green, signifying he had complete control over the vehicle.
Before he could exhale, the cockpit lights turned a dark red. He touched the dashboard screen. The intercom chirped from the back seat again but Josiah didn’t answer. The dash confirmed his fear. While Sector One could not take over his helicopter, Josiah was unable to maintain control of the sister copter. It was now hunting them and had locked on with weapons. More lights flashed to signify something had been launched.
He activated the countermeasures on the dashboard. The helicopter rose up and lurched, hiccupping as magnesium flares dispensed, along with countermeasures. Josiah activated the infrared jamming device and dispensed a chaff cloud to confuse any infrared missiles. Explosions rocked the helicopter as rockets exploded within a close proximity. He put the copter into a generic emergency evade and escape program. The vehicle pitched right and dove below the buildings, flying as close to the New York skyscrapers as possible.
Josiah clicked on the intercom and picked up on the children crying. “I’ve put the copter into evasive maneuvers. Sector One took control of the other copter and is chasing us.” He stared through the small window into the back. “We’re going to get out of this. It’s just going to be a bumpy ride. Joy and Agape, I know what I’m doing.”
Faith chimed in, “Do you?”
He had never felt so confident that he was going to live. God was not going to let them die this day. Josiah had been saved for an important reason. He picked up the tailing helicopter from the rear camera. It was above the skyscrapers tracking them, but unable to shoot. He had to take it out, either by hacking it or shooting it down.
Josiah looked to the robotic pilot next to him and wished it were a human who could give him feedback and ideas. In the back seat, Clarke and Faith each held onto a fearful child, their mouths moving in prayer. Josiah hated to see the children afraid. He had never thought of having children. Never cared for them, but these two he would protect until his last breath.
They reached the edge of the city and a moment later were out over open water. The tailing helicopter fell into a position directly behind them. Lights on the dashboard lit up a blood red. Again, Josiah launched countermeasures. The helicopter vibrated as the missiles exploded on the chaff he released. He tried again to hack into the other helicopter, but they had found the backdoor into the controls and locked it down. Because his helicopter had done evasive maneuvers within the city while the other one hovered, they would run out of fuel first. He had to take it out of commission.
“God, I need a miracle,” Josiah pleaded.
As if in answer to his prayer, a voice said, “If you can’t hack into the copter what about taking its we
apons offline?”
Josiah gazed out the windshield as if the words came from Heaven. A moment later he realized the voice came from the back seat.
Of course the chase helicopter flight component had been hardened, but were there other backdoors? He tried to take the weapons offline but was met with an inaccessible picture. Next, he tried to jam up the weapons systems or cause them to fire without launching, which would destroy the helicopter.
Another inaccessible picture appeared. The entire weapons system backdoor had been discovered and disabled. What else could he deploy? His mind went through a litany of checklists. Then he remembered the safety gear that was installed a few months before his last trip to Bermuda. A few more strokes and the data pad read the beautiful word, access.
On the screen of the dashboard rear camera, the buoyancy bags inflated on the skids of the trailing helicopter. They were installed in case of an emergency landing while flying over open water. The bags would keep the copter afloat. The trailing helicopter was forced to slow down to a hover. Someone on the other end would be trying to find a way into the system to release the buoyancy bags, but every second it remained in hover mode allowed them to flee farther out to sea.
Josiah continued to type. On the camera screen he could see the buoyancy bags starting to deflate. Someone at Sector One was countering his programming. He typed one final command and saw the word access again. The top of the trailing copter’s rotor blew off and the rotor itself flew up into the sky. The helicopter started to free fall before a parachute deployed. The limp vehicle drifted down toward the sea.
“Thank you, God,” Josiah said. He spoke to the passengers. “You guys see that on the vid screen?”
Clarke gave the thumbs up. “Good job, Josiah.”
“Whose idea was it to attack the weapons systems?” he asked. “That’s what gave me the idea to deploy the chute.”
Agape raised his hand like he was in class.
“Out of the mouth of babes. Good job, son. Now all of you relax. We have a long ride ahead of us.”
“Where are we going?” Faith asked.
“I have an offsite oil rig where we’ll be safe.”
“For how long?”
“Long enough. You guys don’t need to worry anymore. You’ve done enough. It’s time for me to start doing the heavy lifting for a change.”
For the next hour Josiah built firewalls into the helicopter’s software to give secondary and tertiary safety defenses against the programmers he knew were working like crazy at Sector One to take him down. The angular design of the copter and anti-radar and satellite jamming devices were a near guarantee he couldn’t be tracked, but just in case he kept the copter just above the waterline to keep its signature to a minimum. He instructed Clarke, Faith, and Agape to open the emergency compartment in the back for water, food, and blankets.
Another hour passed, and a chirp came from the data pad. A few minutes later, a white cylindrical drone appeared above the copter. Josiah activated the refueling module on the dashboard. The jet drone pulled a quarter mile ahead and released a long hose, which the automated pilot connected with on the first try. The wonderful sound of gurgling under Josiah’s feet told him the gas tanks were being topped off. Enough to get them to the oil rig. The drone had launched from a shady company in Florida that Josiah was part owner of. It was different from the other mainline refueling drones he’d used in the past for business travel. He, along with other nefarious types, used these low-profile refueling drones whenever they wanted to travel under the radar.
Were the drone ever discovered, its flight log could be hacked, so he programmed the drone to splash down in the Atlantic when it was done fueling. Josiah laughed at the loss of a multimillion dollar piece of equipment. In the past he would have obsessed on the dollars lost and felt miserable for days, but money no longer held him captive. Whatever funds he could recover had to be used for a singular purpose when he reached the oil rig.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
New Sacramento 2077
Soldiers rushed passed Kyle and Maria in the hallways. This time none of them gave way for the two medical staff. It was clear word had spread that Charles and Huxley were both dead. Kyle knew the white jumpsuits would no longer protect them. If anything, they could now be targets for retribution in the chaos.
He pushed open the front door of the building, only to be forced back inside by fire and smoke. The entire block around the building appeared as if God had unleashed his wrath on it with fire and condemnation.
“We’re stuck,” he said, pulling Maria back from the doorway. “Are there any other tunnels or exits?”
“There are escape pods on the roof that have inflatable balloons. They’re nothing more than life rafts for the sky, but they will get us beyond the city.”
Kyle picked up the pillowcase full of supplies and motioned to Rafael. “I’m sorry, I can’t lift him with my arm.” She nodded and picked the boy up from the wheelchair with a grunt.
Thoughts of his wife and son floated into his consciousness, but Kyle forced them out. He couldn’t afford the distractions. They made it up several flights of stairs before gunfire forced them off the stairwell and into the hallway of an empty floor. Soldiers were fighting with each other somewhere above them. The veneer of order was falling away. Soon anarchy would fill the vacuum left by Charles and Huxley.
There was a rumble, then an explosion down the hall, forcing them back into the stairwell that was now empty. They took one step at a time. On the next floor three soldiers lay dead from gunshot wounds. Maria stopped and put Rafael down. The boy grunted for his mother. Kyle struggled just to carry the bag of supplies. He waited for her to nod that she was ready before she picked up the boy and they continued.
He pointed to the blood-soaked steps. “Be careful not to slip.”
It took ten minutes to reach the roof. Maria placed Rafael down and rushed to small turrets of concrete blocks around the center of the roof, while Kyle walked over to the roof edge to look out upon the city. Three blocks around the building were covered in fire and ash. This building had been reinforced to withstand this type of attack, but it could not hold up for long. Behind him, Maria screamed.
“What’s wrong?”
“All the pods are gone.” She pointed to the sky.
Through the smoke Kyle could see dark balloons with small circular objects under them big enough for a few grown men to sit in. There was nowhere for them to go. The building rumbled, but held. He prayed between coughing fits. The structure rumbled again. Nearby more explosions erupted. Throughout the city, fire had fallen away into what appeared to be sinkholes in the ground. Moments later, massive warheads rose up from silos, the nukes almost as big as his father’s ship.
The rumbling turned into explosions as the rockets started to lift off. The pieces of ancient technology rose into the sky slowly at first, then picked up speed until they were out of sight. The nukes would be met by a vast amount of counter-nukes that would land all around them. Kyle was at ground zero for the end of the world. How he wished he could hold his son one last time.
Maria was at her son’s side, wailing. “Kyle, do something. Pray to your God. Tell me there’s a way out of this!”
No scripture came to mind, just raw pleas for God to rescue them. The building shook again, and Maria wailed as she held on to her son. Another explosion on the ground drew Kyle’s attention. A flaming ball rose up from the street level.
“Maria, get down!”
The ball of fire shot overhead, but then hovered like some angel of fire. The flames surrounding it fell away. A moment later his father’s sled was left hovering a few feet above the roof. It lowered down without a sound. It seemed like eternity before the crystal casing opened up and a six-foot-tall mechanical angel stepped out.
“Pop!”
Landon dropped his goggles and the front of his mask. The neural helmet crawled into the back of the armor, allowing him to remove the remaining portion of his
mask. Kyle rushed into his father’s arms like a boy who had waited years for his dad to return home from military deployment. The poised warrior standing in front of him held its heroic form for a moment before it collapsed into a puddle of tears and open sobbing.
“Oh, my boy. I thought I’d never see you again,” he said, running his hand through his son’s blond hair. His crying stopped and he stared at Kyle’s arm.
“It’s fine,” Kyle said. “Bullet took some meat but didn’t stay lodged in. You have a med kit?”
“I brought half a surgical suite,” Landon said, pulling a suitcase from the sled’s rear storage and laying it on the roof.
While Kyle rummaged through the kit, Landon pointed to Maria and Rafael. “These two coming with us, I take it?”
“Yeah, they’re with me,” Kyle said.
“Roger that.”
Jane’s voice shouted over Landon’s data pad. Landon walked over to Kyle and put on the speaker. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
Kyle finished injecting a shot into his arm. Tears welled in his eyes. He grasped onto the data pad with both hands like the piece of equipment was his wife. “I’m fine, honey. I miss you. I love you.”
“We’re on our way.”
Kyle turned to his father, confusion written on his face. Landon shrugged his shoulders. “Your wife was a stowaway. Long story.”
Kyle finished placing a spandex compression patch over his wound and went over to check on Rafael. Maria hovered over him as he worked on the child with the Atoll’s advanced medicine and equipment. After two injections, Rafael perked up and moved his head. A moment later he smiled.
She gasped. “I’ve never seen him do that! That’s impossible.”
“If my father can get us home,” Kyle said, “there’s a lot more I can do.”
She fell to her knees crying tears of happiness. “I just can’t believe what I’m seeing.”
Landon’s data pad pinged. He responded, “What’s your ETA, Nova?”
Mission Trip_Genesis and Exodus Page 17
