The SONG of SHIVA
Page 29
When the plumbers had come to take him for that final walk, however, they had been armed and any foolish notions he still harbored about flight had evaporated. In the end, while he was sure to carry some level of guilt for his decision, being able to see tomorrow far outweighed all other considerations. He had been offered everything he’d longed for since Karen’s death – the perfect way out. Deserting this particular version of the damned planet could even be considered icing on the cake. Choosing to toss away his life in some noble display would have absolutely no impact on the subsequent course of events. It really shouldn’t have required any soul-searching whatsoever. He could even rationalize that it had many of the earmarks of the Buddhist middle way. Except its single most important tenet. By no means was he abandoning desire.
* * *
The null-lev car hurtled almost silently through the inky blackness. Shallow, rapid breaths alternated with hurried keystrokes as Nora concentrated on the yíb’s controls, scanning rapidly through a sequence of surveillance images. She had spent all of last night practicing with the bodhisattva’s onboard tutorial, but had yet to master the device. It might be days or weeks of uninterrupted practice before that would be possible. By then this tiny window of opportunity would have long since closed.
Help didn’t seem to be coming from anywhere else, not today, probably not in the immediate future, certainly not soon enough to save Egan. Circumstances demanded immediate action, or more accurately, a one-woman monkey wrench. Unfortunately, she wasn’t going in with any firepower, only the element of surprise and, thanks to Sun Shi, control of the Innovac computer system – at least for a while. The Innovac techs were no slouches. They would eventually discover what was happening and shut her down. Sun Shi thought that once initiated, she might have thirty minutes. Seven minutes had already passed.
Using the replacement yíb, she had located Egan’s original on a lab bench in the Shiva Node. It was still operational, running a series of self-diagnostic programs, but apparently no longer in Egan’s possession. There had never been the slightest doubt that she would go searching for its owner. She’d located him last night, sitting alone, looking exhausted in a small locked room, alive and obviously a prisoner. Time to put Master Sun’s plan into action.
There had been no time to enlist allies. She had been unable to locate Whitehall at Cairncrest when she returned from the Black Boar. He wasn’t in his room and none of the staff had seen him all evening. Anyway, she hardly knew the man. Egan had never entirely trusted him. Trying to convince a stranger to play a particular role in her sketchy break-in/break-out attempt could only delay its implementation. Time was short. Anything might happen while she searched for and then tried to convince Whitehall to participate.
If Whitehall was truly an agent of the British government, a surveillance and intervention plan might already be in the works. If she told him what she had in mind, Whitehall might not even allow her to implement a plan of her own that would interfere with theirs, might order her to keep her nose out of the king’s business. Then what?
Sun Shi had envisioned a role for the Englishman, but she could play both parts. Without his help, she had already succeeded with her opening foray. By triggering a fire alarm in one of the BSL-4 labs, then indicating a seal perforation, she had thrown the entire Cairncrest facility into apoplectic panic.
Waiting behind one of the two pneumatically sealed doors that still isolated the WHO labs from the rest of the facility, she had monitored the evacuation, as all but a small containment crew ran for the ground level exits. With the crew busy elsewhere, it had been easy to slip undetected through the deserted labs to the null-lev platform.
At the empty and dimly lit station, Nora’s first task had been to commandeer the surveillance cameras and, after adjusting their sweep just enough to create a blind spot in one of the null-lev cars, position herself inside it. Once safely out of sight, she typed with trembling hands:
Cairncrest Station: ACTIVATE
The blinding station lights came up full. Inside the car, Nora felt completely exposed, trapped by the glare in this little corner of Car 9. She didn’t intend to stay here long.
Car 9: ACTIVATE
The car rose with a now familiar low frequency, magnetic hum. As it sat hovering at the platform, she quickly created a phantom work order. Appearing to originate in one of the Node’s unfinished manufacturing locations, it requested immediate transfer of Car 9 for an undisclosed delivery.
That’s no lie, she thought with a twisted grin, initiating the command.
The arrival of the car would now be integrated with the Node’s security and should cause no suspicion. Upon arrival, she would time her exit to escape undetected between sweeps of the Shiva Node station’s surveillance cameras. The car accelerated away from the platform. Nothing but atrial beat-skipping now, pounding into her throat. She had jumped in with both feet. There was no turning back. So this was how it felt to really be alone.
An abrupt increase in air pressure announced the transition from the empty station to the narrow tunnel. As the circle of light from the receding station shrank towards a single white dot in the distance behind her, Nora cut all power to the Cairncrest facility, including the auxiliary generators. The evacuation of the labs had started the clock. It wouldn’t be long before the Innovac techs discovered her subterfuge. But without power, it should take them that much longer.
As the car raced along, Nora hurriedly typed another surreptitious order to return the car to Cairncrest immediately after its arrival. Sun Shi had insisted she use only keyboard commands. He had explained that, while the access program utilized artificial intelligence and could mimic voice commands, such access left a wake a mile wide. No doubt Pandavas had followed that wake back to Egan. No sense in sending out the same beacon again.
Six klicks passed in the blink of an eye ― more than five hundred heartbeats at the going rate. Crouching low on the floor in front of the seat, Nora peered over the lower edge of the riveted window trim as the car entered the brightly lit terminus. She found the platform deserted, just as the surveillance cameras had indicated. The car slowed to a stop in the shadow at the far end of the station and slowly settled onto the single stainless rail. Stowing the folded yíb in a pocket of a black nylon backpack and swinging it onto her shoulders, she sprang from the car and raced across the polished floor, footfalls echoing loudly in the still air. Bursting through two large swinging doors, she exited the platform before the null-lev car doors had closed. Within seconds she had entered an adjacent warehouse space.
Inside the enormous cavern of steel-shelved aisles, she found temporary refuge on the third level inside an arrangement of pallets containing shrink-wrapped plastic drums. Removing and unfolding the yíb again, she initiated phase two of the rescue plan. Was Egan still alone?
* * *
Lyköan wondered whether his decision to cut and run had ever really been in doubt. Had he thought honestly and fought courageously or was he merely escaping, hoping that the existence he was running to would treat him more generously than the one he was trying to escape? Maybe Pandavas was right and such considerations were of no consequence. Sun Shi would never have agreed. For one thing, he was leaving a mountain of unfinished business on this shelvy and shallow shore. His destination might offer a happy beginning, but at the same time demand the remainder of a lifetime to deal with the residual guilt.
He had experienced forty-seven years in this reality versus less than a half hour in the other. Was he truly convinced that it offered everything this one didn’t? Yes, because it offered the one thing this world never could. And that was enough.
“We’re just about ready here, Mr. Lyköan,” the lead tech announced. “Please, stand up inside the transfer medium. Over here,” the man gestured, indicating one end of the tank. Obeying the instruction, the porcupine-man took two unsteady steps through the bone-chilling fluid, unnatural ripples undulating slowly away from the motion of his legs, intersecting and re
bounding from the sides of the tank.
“That’s it. Now, sit down.”
With one palm pressed against each side of the slick glass, he sucked in a deep, involuntary breath and lowered himself into the frigid bath. Within seconds, the aching cold had faded into a more tolerable, almost pleasant, numbness. One of the technicians slipped a pliable mask over his face, adjusting the seal around his nose and mouth. A cold mixture of oxygen and metallic-smelling gas filled the mask. He inhaled deeply, then exhaled, fogging the transparent plastic.
“Now, if you will, lie back in the medium,” the tech instructed calmly, supporting him as he leaned back and sank below the surface.
Looking up, the back of his head resting on the bottom of the tank, the play of overhead lights rippling through the lens of the disturbed surface above, a final thought came to mind. It seemed strange that Pandavas hadn’t attended this final bon voyage. Lyköan had planned a few select parting words for the occasion. Now they would never be uttered.
Can’t have everything, he thought with a smile, a bubble escaping from the mask rising slowly to the surface. A dazzling kaleidoscope of bright colors played briefly on the oil-slicked ocean of rainbows above him. He watched for a few heartbeats, then closed his eyes. The lightshow faded into the frigid darkness. Sensation and consciousness followed almost immediately.
* * *
Nora reviewed the four warehouse surveillance video records, found one that had captured her climbing to her present hiding place, and immediately erased the file. As she was doing this, communications between Cairncrest and the Node were just being reestablished. Damn these guys were fast. She was monitoring their exasperated efforts to determine what had just caused the false indicators and power outage.
“Jesus, what’s been going on over there?” a male voice chattered excitedly. “We completely lost contact ― the link just went dead.”
“Two sensor readings ― one positive for an active fire and the other a breach in BSL-4 Two’s positive pressure, indicating a possible seal malfunction,” a female voice answered. “Halogen and allcide fog dispensers fired automatically in a few areas.”
“There was a fire?”
“False alarm, it seems. Follow up manual readings indicate neither the fire nor a pressure seal breach actually occurred. We’re running sensor and system integrity tests right now. Should have some answers shortly.”
“Was the power loss a separate or related problem?”
“They appear to be related. Might be a main blade computer malfunction causing some sort of power surge ― cooking the sensors and tripping the auxiliary power generator. The geeks are already on it, but no answers yet. Did Shiva experience similar anomalies?”
“Not a whisper. We picked up the system malfunction as soon as your power went down, but that’s all. Other than the communications disconnect ― and a lapse in our continuous data mirroring ― nothing.”
Well, get ready, buster, Nora thought, ’cause you’re about to get hit with a few anomalies of your own.
These transmissions were coming from the security command center. The Node had automatically gone on heightened alert. Taps of random cameras showed at least four pairs of armed guards patrolling the hallways, but they didn’t appear to be actively searching for anyone. Unless they started canvassing the facility room by room, she was probably safe for now. Even so, her heart kept pounding in her ears as loudly as the bits and pieces of intercepted dialog feeding into the double-bud. In the meantime, every access and entry card had been identified and positioned. If she was forced to vacate this hiding place, at least she had some idea where the pack dogs were.
Ning Zhòngní would be waiting with the rental car’s engine running for the next hour at the prearranged spot where Cairncrest Brook and the trail crossed a road about two miles south of the dolmen, not far from the confluence with the Avon. It was off the Cairncrest property and offered no direct route to Haldon Heath or the mansion and crossed the brook less than twelve miles from Shrewton. If they succeeded in making it to the relative safety of the waiting car, they could head for anywhere in Britain, regroup and monitor events from there. The tall order of a flawless double escape still loomed between that relative safety and this present danger.
Before the next and most dangerous step could be taken she had to confirm that Egan was still alone and in that same room. If so, she would cut all but the emergency power to the Node and try to reach that room undetected.
* * *
“Come over here! Help me pull him out of the tank,” someone yelled. “Quick, grab his other arm. Okay, now lift!”
“Mr. Lyköan, can you hear me?” a second disembodied voice shouted painfully into his right ear.
Gasping for air, Lyköan opened his eyes and immediately shut them again. A pungent chemical odor assaulted him. He was freezing and disoriented ― incapable of immediately replying to the simple question. This was nothing like that previous emergence experience on the library steps. That had begun with an infusion of warm daylight coming into focus and quite pleasant. He didn’t even recall opening his eyes that first time ― had simply been there ― sitting in the warmth of the sun, leaning back comfortably against cool Tennessee marble. This was completely different ― confused panic ― fear mixed with shrill background noises and more immediate and recognizable uncontrollable shivering. Something had obviously gone terribly wrong.
“I think he’s okay,” the second voice went on. “Can you hear me?” it repeated.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you,” he managed groggily from far inside a dark fog. “What’s going on?”
In the background, sirens wailed as rough hands hurriedly withdrew needles and tore off taped sensor tabs. Still disoriented, it had not dawned on Lyköan where he was.
The dark lab was in disarray, the previously whirring machines silent. A flashlight beam glared into his eyes, making him squint reflexively. He couldn’t catch his breath in the cold darkness.
* * *
Nora proceeded from one camera to another, following on the yíb’s screen the progress of Egan’s still dripping, robe-covered body as it proceeded down the corridor. Supported for most of the way by two white lab-coated technicians, he was returned to the same room where she had first located him the night before. Letting him sit down on the side of the bed under the dim emergency lights, the two technicians left the room, locking the door behind them. Nora had shut down all the security cameras except each specific one she was operating. Sun Shi’s program was still in control of the Shiva Node’s central blade tree, but she probably had less than ten minutes of complete freedom before the geeks got wise to the external control.
“Egan! Egan, can you hear me?” she rasped into the double-bud’s mouthpiece. There was definitely a speaker in his room. Had she successfully isolated it? Was it functional?
“Who’s there? Who is that?” Jesus, it sounded like Nora. Lyköan wasn’t sure he should trust his senses. Had he somehow been sent to the wrong destination? Had Pandavas double-crossed him?
“You know who this is, Egan. At least I hope you do. I’ll be there to get you in three minutes. Be ready.”
Nora tore the double-bud from her ear, opened all the locks between the warehouse and Egan’s room, collapsed the yíb, and shoved both it and the double-bud into the backpack. Swinging the pack over her head, she scrambled down the warehouse shelf, dropped to the floor and looked at her watch. Two minutes and forty-eight seconds left to reach him.
Out a single windowless steel door, right down the darkened hallway, emergency exit signs the only ambient light. In the background, voices echoed in obvious excitement, although too far away to distinguish exact words. At the second exit sign, the unlocked door opened with a squeak, the stairway air colder than the hallway. Two flights down and out a silent door into another dimly lit and warmer hallway. Now, was it right or left? She turned left.
Did he take me seriously enough to at least get dressed? Especially his running shoes?
Standing in the middle of the hallway, staring back the way she had come, the sound of approaching voices reached her ears from around a corner of the corridor. Maybe she was supposed to turn left at the hallway T. Six doors from there ― and then a left?
Stop second-guessing yourself, sister. Move!
Slipping on the polished floor as she started back down the hall, she fell on her hands. No time to waste, she accelerated from the classic sprint position. Rather than turn back at the T intersection, returning the way she had come, she decided instead to pass the last turn first and continued running beyond the intersecting hallway.
The voices behind her were growing louder. If this wasn’t where she had turned wrong, if one of these doors didn’t open, it was the end of the line.
Gasping for air, she tried the door on the left. Locked! Crossing the hall, one last desperate lunge and ― hallelujah! She must have transposed the last two turns. Through the double doors at the other end of the large room she had entered and out into another empty hallway. Halfway down the long corridor she stopped. Before opening the door in front of her she glanced in through the steel-framed window. Bingo! She looked at her watch. Eight seconds to spare. She opened the door.
Lyköan looked up, still tying his second shoe, as Nora rushed into the room. Her face was flushed, her eyes wild. No doubt about it, this had to be an alternate reality.
“Hurry, we gotta move!” she blurted out immediately.
“Where’re we going?” he asked, standing up. If the equipment had short-circuited and this was another reality ― it was a damned dangerous one. Not much had changed.