The Chaos Code

by Justin Richards

  Behind him, Venture struggled desperately with the two guards holding him. Klein was covering Matt’s parents with his machine pistol. The other guards were standing with him, all of them glancing nervously towards the line of lumpen figures marching slowly through the upper tiers of the amphitheatre.

  ‘Now or never,’ Matt said quietly to Robin. No one seemed to be paying them much attention. Two kids whose parents were already under guard and held hostage.

  ‘The main computers?’ Robin murmured.

  ‘The main computers,’ he agreed almost under his breath.

  Across from them, Venture stopped struggling, just for a moment. He was looking at them and Matt knew that – somehow – he could tell what they were saying. Venture nodded grimly. There was a guard holding each of his arms, and suddenly, with an almighty yell, Venture dragged them together.

  The guards collided – head to head – with a crack. Both slumped to the ground, and Venture leaped at Harper.

  Klein turned quickly, bringing up his gun.

  Matt’s father kicked out at Klein, his foot connecting with the side of the gun and knocking the spray of bullets wild – into a computer and its screen. The screen exploded sending glass fragments flying. The computer popped and sizzled.

  More guards ran to grab Venture, to drag him away from Harper’s keyboard even as he reached out for it.

  Matt and Robin did not stay to watch what happened. They were already running as fast as they could, desperate to reach the passageway to the pyramid before the earthy elemental creatures that were almost there. If they didn’t make it, they’d be trapped in the amphitheatre and then nothing could stop Harper.

  But it was like running through treacle. Like a nightmare where your feet don’t work. Matt was forcing himself onwards, but his body didn’t seem to want to know. Beside him, Robin was slowing too.

  ‘It’s Harper’s code,’ she gasped. ‘The model. It’s affecting us already. He hasn’t …’ She had almost stopped. ‘He hasn’t given us orders to move, so we can’t.’

  ‘We have to …’ Matt gasped. ‘Have to keep going …’ He forced himself onwards.

  Black-clad figures rushed through from the passageway ahead – driving a group of Harper’s khaki-uniformed guards ahead of them. A rattle of gunfire felled one of Harper’s guards, sending him careering backwards into the wall.

  Matt watched in disbelief through muzzy eyes. The figures were slowing – Harper’s guards seemed sluggish. But the attackers, like Matt and Robin, were almost still. Some of them were forcing their way onwards, like they were battling against a hurricane. Others had stopped dead.

  One of the black-clad attackers who had stopped turned slowly around. He was at the front of the group. Matt could see the concentration and fear etched on his face. His gun was coming up. He screamed – a defiant, throaty sound that might have been ‘No!’

  Then he was firing the gun. At his own comrades.

  Others were turning too.

  Some of the attackers at the back seemed to come to their senses, and started to retreat, letting off sluggish bursts of machine-gun fire as they went.

  Bullets smacked into the rock and earth and sand without effect. The rock and earth and sand that had formed into crude figures were walking into the passageway, pursuing the attackers relentlessly back into the pyramid.

  Robin and Matt were frozen, caught in mid-step, almost at the entrance to the passageway. Unable to move.

  Behind them, a tall figure made its way easily up the tiers of the amphitheatre towards them.

  Chapter 20

  Colour and texture poured into the wire-frame model like liquid into a glass container. Harper watched the detail etch into place, watched the figures fill out and gain features. Figures standing motionless, waiting for orders.

  ‘This facility is complete,’ he said quietly. ‘The code is running. The rest of the world can follow soon enough. It’s a start. From here my control ripples out as the code is completed …’

  He paused, realising that no one was listening. Klein stood behind him, staring emptily into space. Harper laughed and clapped his hands together. ‘I think perhaps I can trust a few of you with your own free will,’ he decided, working the mouse and keyboard.

  Klein blinked and took a step backwards. ‘What …? What happened?’

  Around him, his guards were also looking bewildered and confused. Only Matt’s parents still stood motionless and blank-faced, staring unseeing into the distance. Harper watched them, smiling with satisfaction. Then the smile froze on his face.

  ‘Where is Venture?’ he said.

  Matt was underwater. His vision was misty and blurred, and the voice he could hear was echoing, faint, distorted. He tried to turn his head, but he couldn’t. Tried to move his eyes, but couldn’t.

  The man moved and now Matt could see him – the dark hair and the blue eyes. Julius Venture, speaking urgently to Matt and Robin. He struggled to work out what the man was saying.

  ‘Try to concentrate …’ Venture’s words were faint, but Matt could hear them now. ‘Harper is trying to control your mind using the model. So far he’s only beginning to scratch the surface of what it can do. The effects are localised and he doesn’t yet understand it. It even affected his own guards for a while. It’s difficult, I know. I can feel it too – reaching into my being, my soul.’

  Venture was walking round them, talking to each of them in turn, but his words were meant for them both – Matt and Robin. Matt could see that Robin was moving – turning her head just a fraction. If she could do it, then so could he …

  ‘You can resist it,’ Venture said again. ‘The model is powerful, but it isn’t complete. It can’t be, can it, Matt? He’s modelling the real world on a computer. And we know that can’t work, can’t be perfect, can never be exact. Don’t we? There will be flaws, imperfections, inaccuracies. Enough to invalidate parts of the model.’

  His deep blue eyes were staring into Matt’s. Matt felt himself blink. Remembered his first meeting with Venture, and knew he could do it. Harper hadn’t won – not yet.

  ‘Digital.’ His voice was a rasp, barely more than a whisper. But Matt had managed it. ‘Computer is digital’ he said, stronger and more confident with every word. ‘Ones and zeroes. The real world isn’t like that.’

  ‘You’re right,’ Venture encouraged him. He took Matt by the shoulders, shaking him gently. ‘Think about pi – think about every circle ever drawn, and how no computer can ever understand any of them. How could it?’

  ‘Yes.’ It was Robin speaking. She sounded drained and tired, but she was speaking. Moving – lifting her arm and watching her fingers flex. ‘Get … out… of … my … mind …’ she croaked. She closed her eyes. And when she opened them again, she seemed almost herself once more. ‘That’s better,’ she said. ‘Thank you.’

  Matt struggled to reassert himself within his own mind. He could feel the clouds drifting away – like condensation on a car windscreen slowly clearing to reveal the wintry road beyond. He could see. He could hear. He could move.

  ‘Easy as pi,’ he said.

  ‘Well done.’ Venture was smiling at them. He nodded as if to tell them he’d known all along they could do it. ‘Now, we haven’t much time. And there’s lots to do. We can’t let Harper get control. We can’t allow him to use his world model.’

  Venture was striding up towards the passageway into the pyramid. Matt and Robin struggled to keep up. Matt’s legs felt as if he’d been sitting awkwardly for hours and were only just getting the feeling back.

  ‘What about Atlantis?’ Matt said. ‘What about them – they tried the same thing.’

  ‘That wasn’t right either,’ Venture told him. ‘It couldn’t be permitted then, and we can’t let it happen now.’

  ‘But they were trying. They built all this.’

  ‘And remember what happened to them, over 12,000 years ago,’ Venture said. ‘We can learn a lot from the past.’

  The crack o
f gunfire from Smith’s men and Harper’s guards outside was still audible. But it was down to the odd few shots now, rather than the constant thunder of earlier. Venture paused, just inside the passageway, listening to the distant sounds and waiting for Matt and Robin to catch up.

  He was looking back at them. So he did not see the floor of the passageway buckle and heave, the flagstones lifting as if forced upwards by an earthquake. Dark earth and rubble spewed up out of the hole in the floor. Matt yelled. Robin was running. Venture turned – to see the huge weight of earth and rock crashing towards him. Without hesitation, he leaped.

  Right at the mass of soil and stone and rubble. Shoulder down, through the crashing wave. Black rain engulfed him, and he disappeared.

  Matt and Robin skidded to a halt. The shapeless mass was moving, reforming, coalescing into a huge figure. But the other side of it, they could see Venture – his clothes stained and torn, his face grimy and caked in dirt – running.

  ‘The computers!’ Matt yelled. ‘Shut them down, and you stop Harper’s model. We’ll try to stop him here.’

  Venture glanced back, just once, just quickly. His face was a mask of grim determination. Then the blackness between them moved, heaved itself down the passageway, and blotted out Matt’s view.

  He turned to run back into the main amphitheatre, grabbing Robin’s hand.

  But another figure stepped into the opening in front of them.

  ‘You’re too late,’ Katherine Feather said. ‘And Mr Harper would like a word.’ She had a machine pistol slung over her shoulder and she was aiming it unerringly at Matt and Robin.

  A single figure strode purposefully through the mayhem. Smoke drifted from explosions and gunfire. The fighting had almost stopped – only a few of Smith’s attackers still able to think and move for themselves. They were chased back through the pyramid – by their enemies, by their former colleagues, by hideous creatures made from the earth itself …

  But through it all, a single figure.

  Venture pushed aside one of Klein’s guards, ripping his gun from him and tossing it away. The guard slammed into a wall and fell unconscious. Another figure appeared in the hazy corridor, and Venture’s elbow smashed into its stomach. His arm swung upwards from the point of impact and his fist cracked into the man’s face. Without pausing, Venture started up the steps into the main part of the pyramid.

  The steps emerged onto the ground level, and Venture turned immediately to start up the next flight. A rough, earthy paw clamped over Venture’s face from behind. He levered it away, turned, kicked. The creature staggered back. Far enough for Venture to take a flying leap. His feet connected with the mass of earth, sent it staggering back still further – to the edge of the stairs leading down. It flailed helplessly for a moment. Venture was on his feet again. Another kick.

  The creature fell backwards, crashing down the stairs, earth and stone flying, scattering behind it as it fell.

  Already Venture had turned away and was continuing up the stairs, towards the main computer suite.

  ‘Where is he?’ Harper demanded. ‘Where is he?!’ He was talking to the screen.

  Matt and Robin watched too, aware of Katherine standing behind them with the machine pistol. Klein was covering Matt’s parents with his gun. Matt could see several hand-grenades hanging from his belt, heavy and brutal like Klein himself. The picture on the screen was changing rapidly, scrolling through the pyramid and the amphitheatre as Harper hunted for what he was looking for.

  The image paused. It showed one of the misshapen creatures fashioned from the earth. The creature was flying backwards, towards a stairwell. The image flickered as the software struggled to repaint it quickly enough and the creature plunged downwards.

  ‘That’s him,’ Harper said.

  ‘There’s no one there,’ Katherine told him. ‘The thing just fell.’

  ‘No, he’s there. We just can’t see him.’ He slammed his fist down on the table beside the keyboard in frustration. ‘Why can’t we see him?’

  ‘Because your model doesn’t show what’s really happening. It makes predictions. It’s calculating what is happening right now,’ Robin said, her voice confident and defiant. ‘And you can’t calculate what Dad will do. He doesn’t want to be predictable.’

  ‘Everyone is predictable,’ Harper snapped back.

  ‘Oh you have no idea,’ Robin told him.

  ‘Everyone!’ Harper snarled. The image moved again, zooming out and then back in rapidly on a new location – beneath the pyramid. The amphitheatre. The office area. It showed Harper sitting at the screen, Katherine behind him, Klein and Matt’s blank-faced parents. And vague, flickering shadows where Robin and Matt should be.

  ‘Then predict us,’ Robin said. ‘Guess what I’m going to say next, or how Matt feels seeing his mum and dad turned to zombies. You think you’re reinventing the power of the ancients?’ She laughed. ‘You’re not even close.’

  ‘Your model’s rubbish,’ Matt told him, his own confidence growing with Robin’s defiance. ‘It’s digital and the world is analogue. And soon it won’t work at all anyway when …’ He broke off, realising he had said too much.

  ‘So that’s where he’s headed,’ Harper said. ‘Klein – the computer suite. Stop Venture. Hurry!’

  ‘My pleasure,’ Klein said. He shouldered his gun and set off at a run.

  ‘You’ll never stop him,’ Robin said. But there was a hint of doubt in her voice.

  ‘Then I’d better take precautions,’ Harper said. He turned to look at Matt’s parents. And his mum slowly walked over to the nearest keyboard and began to type. ‘It’s always wise to keep a backup, I believe,’ Harper said. ‘So she can copy the data for the model to the computers down here. If necessary, I can reboot it from that copy of the data. Start all over again.’

  Another of the progress ribbons was starting across the screen where Matt’s mum was working. The data was copying down to the computers here. If Venture didn’t destroy the servers soon, it would make no difference.

  ‘But it’s still flawed,’ Matt insisted.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Harper said dismissively.

  ‘I know so,’ Matt insisted. ‘Your system can only work if it’s entirely accurate. And it isn’t. You can’t model the real world to that level of detail in a mere computer. It’s just not possible.’

  ‘Matt!’ Robin warned.

  Harper was staring at Matt, frowning. ‘You know, don’t you?’ He said. ‘You know how this place is supposed to work. Oh I understand the principle, of course I do. But you actually know.’ He got to his feet, towering over Matt. ‘Show me!’

  Matt shook his head. ‘Never.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid,’ Katherine said, poking the gun into Matt’s back.

  ‘We’ll see who’s stupid in a minute,’ Robin told her. ‘Once Dad sorts out the main computers. All you can do is look at the present and try to predict the future. OK, yes, you can manipulate the model. But so what? What can you learn from it? Does it tell you about the past, about history, about what really happened?’

  ‘And you’ll never know,’ Matt said. Anything to buy them time. ‘I’ll never show you. You can kill me first.’

  Harper laughed. ‘Oh you’ll show me. Or I shall kill her.’ He pointed at Robin, and he smiled.

  ‘Don’t do it, Matt,’ Robin said. ‘Let him kill us, it doesn’t matter.’

  ‘Yes it does,’ Matt said. He looked at her, willing her to understand what he was doing. An idea, just a glimmer of a thought at the back of his mind. But it was rapidly becoming a pattern – a plan.

  ‘I thought you’d see sense,’ Harper told him.

  ‘It’s not like we could control the thing anyway,’ Matt said. ‘The most we can hope to do is just get it going. But maybe we can show Mr Harper what happened, in the past. What happened to that explorer – Percy Fawcett. See whether it really is him they found. We could even see what really happened to Atlantis.’ He held his breath, wondering if he
had said too much. Robin’s expression was unreadable, but she didn’t argue.

  Harper’s face was equally impassive. Then: ‘You need the disc?’ Harper asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Matt said.

  ‘Just like a computer. Perhaps a little demonstration, then.’ He stood staring at Matt. ‘Any hint of a problem, and Katherine here will shoot your girlfriend. Understood?’

  ‘Understood,’ Katherine said. She sounded like she was looking forward to it.

  The entry code was easy to work out. The room was deserted. The lights flickered on, as motion detectors sensed that someone had walked into the main computer suite. Row after row of servers and disc drives and storage and networking. Julius Venture walked down the first aisle. He didn’t pause, he didn’t look to right or left. But as he went he ripped out every cable and connector. He pushed over stacks of equipment and sent monitors hurtling into the wall.

  A wave of destruction, rippling along the aisle. Like an elemental force, destroying everything it touched.

  Then back up the next aisle. A screen exploded as it hit the floor, sparking and spitting glass. Cables snagged and ripped free. Computer storage discs shattered. He walked slowly, deliberately, the length of the aisle.

  Right up to the man waiting for him at the main doors. The man with the face like a grinning skull, grenades hanging from his belt and a gun pointing at Venture’s face.

  ‘Stop right there,’ Klein said. ‘One more step, and you’re history.’

  And for the first time since leaving the amphitheatre, since leaving his daughter, Venture’s face betrayed some emotion.

  He smiled.

  Matt checked the wooden box, and found the disc from Venture’s house was inside. ‘We still need the other disc,’ he said.

  ‘That was a fake,’ Katherine told him. ‘Didn’t take us long to work that out. You still thought it was real? You really are so stupid.’

  ‘There is no real disc,’ Harper said.

  ‘Yes there is,’ Matt said. ‘It’s in Dad’s pocket.’ He turned to stare at Katherine. ‘You really are so stupid.’