Warden 4

by Isaac Hooke

  WARDEN 4

  CHRONICLES OF A CYBORG BOOK 4

  Isaac Hooke

  Contents

  Want a Free Book?

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  About the Author

  Want a Free Book?

  For a limited time, Isaac Hooke is giving away Salvage, the prequel novella, here:

  https://bookhip.com/WBMXLC

  1

  Rhea strode beneath the arching hallways of that government office known as Parliament Building. Around her, corridors occasionally branched off into other rooms and hallways.

  Will was with her, along with Horatio and Renaldo. None of them had any weapons—at Aradne’s main gate, they had been forced to give them up. When they later reached the perimeter of the parliamentary area, they’d also been required to surrender any electronic devices other than AR goggles. Their bodies had been scanned for hidden gadgets, and when the searches turned up negative, they were allowed inside.

  Rhea had been a bit worried that the scans would pick up the nano technology that inhabited her body, but apparently while dormant the machines were indistinguishable from the metal of her armor.

  She wore a hooded cloak as usual, but no other clothing underneath—she didn’t need any, since her sleek, lithe robotic body was essentially genderless, with no genitals, and only small bumps in the breast region. It was like she was wearing a suit of polished, skin-tight plate armor.

  Two armed robots provided escort on either side—the machines had made it clear from the very beginning that they weren’t there for her protection, but rather to ensure she didn’t get up to no good.

  Another robot walked ahead of her, leading the group. This machine was entirely unarmed and possessed a video screen attached to its head. On the screen, a woman’s face droned on about the purpose of each room, and any history associated with it.

  Mayor Grandas had arranged this guided tour of the Parliament Building for Rhea. Ordinarily the dome-shaped structure, along with all the surrounding governmental grounds, were off limits to ordinary citizens, but since Rhea was hardly ordinary—she had the digital key to the city, after all, and a direct line to the Mayor—it took only a quick call to set things up.

  The guide robot droned on as it led them into a smaller hallway near the heart of the structure. DragonHunter, a sympathetic hacker from Rust Town, had procured a security camera map of the compound from one of his hacker friends in Aradne. Horatio had integrated the data with their HUDs, so that whenever Rhea glanced at her overhead map, she saw all the camera locations marked off. It was quite useful, because the actual micro cameras embedded in the walls were the size of pinpricks, and very difficult to detect without special equipment. She’d essentially have to operate her vision in zoom mode the whole time, while piping in the video feed from Will or Horatio into a different portion of her HUD so she could view herself from their perspective and still navigate—a rather disorienting way to walk, to say the least.

  In addition to the surveillance cameras, the map also indicated the wireless access points of the local encrypted network, which was inaccessible to her. These wireless nodes weren’t to be confused with the standard access points, similarly scattered throughout the building, that connected the building to the outside Internet.

  The roof was relatively low here, compared to the rest of the compound; according to the map, a local access point awaited ahead at the convergence of two intersections.

  She saw it a moment later: a tiny square-shaped object secured to the ceiling.

  That one looks like a good candidate, Rhea transmitted over the encrypted mental channel she shared with her companions. There’s only one camera nearby. DragonHunter, any luck?

  Nope, DragonHunter replied from where he was safely holed up in his Rust Town residence. He had tried to take control of the cameras as he had done when she’d broken into city hall, but he’d quickly reported that their cybersecurity forces had patched the backdoors. When Rhea departed, he was attempting to find a workaround. Sorry. You’re on your own.

  I’ll take care of the camera, Will sent.

  Rhea nodded.

  Tilting her upper body away from the hidden camera, she focused on her bicep, and the nano machines there curled the armor backward, revealing the hidden compartment within. Her armor had hidden the stack of small disks inside from the sentries who had scanned her at the parliamentary perimeter earlier—to their scans, the devices would have appeared to be part of her integrated circuitry.

  She glanced at Will.

  He was casually walking up to the wall, as if pretending to be fascinated by the hidden camera there.

  “What are you doing?” one of the armed robots asked him.

  “Is this a hidden camera I see?” he said loudly. “I love cameras!” He started waving at it as he continued to approach.

  “Step away from the wall,” the armed robot ordered.

  But Will ignored the command.

  Rhea waited until Will’s face was pressing right up against the pinprick-sized hole in the wall, then she slid three disks from the stack. These were upgraded variants of the CommNixers she had used when she’d infiltrated city hall. DragonHunter had found a flaw in the code of the security robot models known to patrol these grounds; by transmitting a particular sequence of packets directly into their comm nodes over the same robot-to-robot network the machines utilized—which bypassed certain security checks—the upgraded CommNixers would trigger a reboot. She’d have to attach the disks to their heads to do it, but once contact was made, the robots would remain offline for a full minute while they rebooted.

  The armed machines raised their rifles and pointed them at Will. “Step away—”

  Rhea tossed two of the disks at them in rapid succession, then swiveled her body toward the guide robot and launched the third.

  The magnets activated in midair, so that when the devices clanged into the heads of their respective targets, they held fast.

  The robots instantly slumped.

  Rhea sealed her right bicep armor and rushed forward to the wireless access point.

  She focused on her left bicep as she neared, and the nano machines slit the armor open to reveal another hidden compartment. With two fingers, she tweezed out the dongle within.

  She peered past the left and right sides of the intersection that held the access point, and confirmed no patrols were incoming.

  Horatio joined her and positioned himself beneath the access point. He clasped two polycarbonate hands together, forming a makeshift step. She took it, and the robot hoisted her upward, toward the device hanging from the ceiling.

  She slid the dongle into the matching female connector on the access point. Blue lights began to flash upon the smaller device.

  Rhea had done something similar before in city hall, installing a cyberintrusion payload into a comm node to track down Veil. However, the networks of most buildings in the parliamentary district were isolated from one another, which made sense, considering city hall was technically owned by Aradne, while the United Settlements government claimed Parliament Building. Thus, to get the data she needed it was necessary to install another payload here.

  She nervously glanced down either flank of the intersection. Rhea knew more robots would be sent to investigate—three machines rebooting at the same time in the same area would b
e flagged by the AI for investigation, especially considering Will was blocking the closest camera with his goofy face.

  So far, the intersection remained clear. She gazed at the three robots that accompanied the party: still another twenty seconds before they reactivated.

  She returned her attention to the dongle above her. The lights remained blue.

  Come on, she urged it.

  Ten seconds remaining.

  Five.

  Come on!

  The device turned green and she instantly removed it. She leaped down, slid the dongle back into her arm, and raced back to the other robots with Horatio. The nano machines sealed the compartment in her bicep.

  Will stepped away from the camera as the robots reactivated. The machines glanced around, seeming confused. The two that carried rifles lowered them.

  Renaldo, ordinarily so dark-skinned, appeared extremely pale in that moment.

  The stamp of heavy feet announced the imminent arrival of more machines. Turning toward the access point, Rhea watched as several combat robots rounded the bend.

  The two closest robots must have received orders to scan everyone again, because they ordered the group members against the wall and proceeded to search them once more.

  Meanwhile, the other robots gathered beneath the wireless access point. One stood on the back of another and disconnected the device from the ceiling. Obviously they intended to investigate it for tampering.

  DragonHunter… are we good?

  We are, he replied. The robots won’t find anything. The self-propagating code already deleted itself from the source access point. It’s hiding in a random comm node nearby. The next time Khrusos sends a communication, he’s mine.

  Khrusos never made public appearances anymore, well, not in-person ones, anyway. Holographic appearances were his preferred method these days. Some said he didn’t live in Aradne at all, but some other city or settlement, maybe even a fortified compound somewhere in the Outlands. Either way, the Parliament Building was the hub of the United Settlements, so all meetings, orders and so forth that Khrusos issued would have to be routed through the data center here. DragonHunter claimed he would be able to figure out Khrusos’ ID based on the contents and headers of the data passing through the mail and message servers. Once the hacker had the ID, it wouldn’t take much to suss out the President’s location.

  At least that was the theory.

  “You may step away from the wall,” one of the escorting robots announced.

  Rhea was relieved—the machines hadn’t detected the hidden compartments in her biceps.

  She turned around in time to watch the other patrol march away; one of the robots carried the disconnected access point with it.

  Renaldo was sweating buckets, and he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. “Well that was fun. But can we continue the tour now?”

  The guide robot happily obliged and led the party forward. It began droning on about the history behind some painting hanging in the hallway. Rhea tuned out its monotonous voice.

  They passed the intersection, and the hallway began to widen. The ceiling became arched once more. She passed an interesting room, which was filled with various small curios—statues, bottles, tapestries. The guide robot was saying something about how that room contained all the items given as gifts to the President from other world leaders over the years.

  The sight triggered a memory.

  She stood inside that very room, or one similar to it, surrounded by bottles, gem-encrusted chalices, and other gifts. The familiar hologram of the white-robed man floated before her, the tassel of that red belt dangling from his waist, and the golden medallion hanging from his neck.

  “I have a new task for you, Dagger,” the man said.

  “What must I do?” she asked.

  “The leader of Chile is arriving a day early. Handle him.”

  And then the memory was gone.

  Rhea blinked. She stood in the hallway once more, and continued walking, leaving the room behind.

  Handle him. And there was that name, Dagger, again.

  Rhea wasn’t sure what to make of it. But one thing was certain: when she found Khrusos, she was going to make him tell her everything.

  They entered a wide, columned atrium whose glass walls exposed the right side to the buildings beyond. Benches set between the pillars allowed visitors to take a seat and admire the well-manicured lawn of the park just outside. Rhea wondered who would actually use these benches, considering the public wasn’t allowed anywhere near the building or the park. Probably visiting dignitaries and their retinue.

  The guide crossed the room, leading the group across an aisle that led between the pillars. Rhea checked her overhead map: the tour was almost over, judging from the proximity to the exit. That was good, because she was eager to get out of here and go home, before the security forces decided to arrest her after all.

  A robot was tending to a potted flowering plant that hung from a pillar beside her. The machine accidentally snipped away one of the flowers, a beautiful, purple tulip, and Rhea paused as she walked by, bending over to scoop it up.

  She heard a loud thwack, and the robot clattered to the floor beside her an instant later. The head had melted away entirely, leaving behind a smoking, jagged neck.

  “Sniper!” Will barreled into her and threw her to the ground behind the pillar. “That was meant for you!”

  Horatio also took cover behind another pillar nearby, while Renaldo and the guide robot dove behind different benches.

  The escorting sentries switched to defensive postures and raised their rifles to scan the buildings beyond the atrium.

  Will’s dreadlocks had wrapped around her face, so she swatted them aside and peered past her cover. She spotted the hole punched into the floor-to-ceiling glass. She risked only a moment’s glance, and pulled back again just in time, because a plasma bolt whizzed by next to her head, cutting a small chunk away from the side of the pillar.

  “Stay down!” Will said.

  “This is why I don’t go out in public,” she told him.

  “Hey, you’re preaching to the choir, Dude,” he replied.

  She heard two more THWACKS in rapid succession, and the combat robots toppled to the floor. Big, smoldering holes had been shot through their chests, right where their AI cores resided.

  “How cruel,” Horatio commented.

  She checked her overhead map and noted a security camera on the ceiling. She leaned forward to shield her lower body with her torso, and then activated the nano machines in her legs; the armor in her thighs peeled back, revealing the final hidden compartments where she’d stowed her Ban’Shar knuckles.

  “Let Aradne security deal with this,” Will told her.

  Three more bolts came in, cutting into the pillar, and forcing Rhea to retreat even further from the edge. The blast hole was quickly expanding… soon she and Will would be forced to leave cover entirely.

  “We don’t have time to let security deal with it!” She retrieved the knuckles and the openings sealed.

  Securing the knuckles over each hand, she stood up. Then she stepped away from Will and into the open.

  She spotted the glow of three plasma bolts coming from beyond the glass.

  Noting the source, she activated her Ban’Shar.

  The bolts punched through the glass, collided with her plasma disks, and bounced harmlessly away. She tried to angle the Ban’Shar to reflect the energy back toward its source, but she hadn’t had time to properly line them up, and instead the bolts crashed into one of the nearby benches—thankfully not one of those harboring Renaldo or the guide.

  She dashed forward, racing between the pillars. She reached the floor-to-ceiling window and leaped. She held the Ban’Shar in front of her so that the plasma melted through the glass upon contact. As she passed through, she tucked in her legs to avoid having her feet catch on the bottom edge of the gaping hole she’d created and lowered them again before landing.

  She
hit the ground at a run and continued toward the source of the blast: a small administrative building of some kind. Four stories tall.

  More bolts came in, and she deflected them. This time she managed to send one of the attacks back into the building, and it plowed into one of the walls.

  As she sprinted toward her target, she zoomed in on the upper floors. She saw the rifle barrel protruding from one of the fourth-floor windows.

  Her peripheral vision remained at normal zoom, which allowed her to detect movement straight ahead.

  She reverted her eyesight in time to watch turrets finish erupting from hidden recesses in the grassy ground before her. At first, she thought the three turrets were going to target the sniper, but to her surprise they swiveled toward her. She was forced to defend against the larger bolts they launched.

  “I’m on your side, idiots!” she shouted, angrily using her Ban’Shar to deflect the attacks.

  But they continued to fire. She swerved toward them, and as she weaved between the three platforms, she cut off their turrets with her Ban’Shar and disabled them.

  She swung the plasma disks back toward the building in time to defend against the latest round of attacks from that quarter.

  Police and security drones converged on the building as she grew near. The octocopter drones targeted the fourth-floor window with their wicked laser turrets: at least some of the security forces were getting it right.

  The attacks from that window ceased as her assassin no doubt retreated.

  She reached the building’s main doorway and rushed inside before the octocopters could change their minds and start attacking her as well.

  There was a security robot standing at the bottom of the stairs, and it tried to stop her, but she cut away its rifle and gave it a good kick, sending the robot flying behind the counter.