The Sixth Extinction

by Bob Blink

  "Can you find them?" Sam asked.

  "Probably, but I don't need to. Our friend here already knows where they are, don't you?" he asked.

  Raobot nodded.

  "Are these devices difficult to use?" Greg asked, switching back to the Memory Mappers.

  "The models that were installed here were specially modified to be multipurpose and simple to operate. I am recalling that instructions were packaged with the units, so Ho could have easily figured out the operation," Raobot added. "I expect she already was familiar with the equipment anyway."

  "I wish we had known that earlier," Jessica cursed. "We could have destroyed the machines and brought an end to Walker's grand plan."

  "We must be careful," Raobot warned. "The builders felt them important enough to include in the system here. I am thinking destroying them outright might not be wise. Disabling or making off with them would be a more wise approach."

  "Getting back into the Cloning Clinic isn't going to be that simple," Rodriquez pointed out. "They will have improved their security after your last little raid."

  "There must be a way," Jessica said, but she had no immediate ideas either.

  "What are your immediate plans?" Sammi asked.

  "We need to see what other useful information our newest member has," Rao explained. "Then we can see how to proceed. At least now we can stay in better contact."

  "It seems this Raobot has a great deal of very important information," Rodriquez said.

  "It is so," Raobot agreed. "It was considered acceptable that I have this information because like you, those parts of my memory were extracted and stored safely elsewhere before I was stored in the Simulation. Also, it was never envisioned that I would be brought into the Facility before man returned to the surface above. It is the most strange bit of luck that Walker chose me when he wished for a programmer. There was nothing that showed I have the familiarity with the system that I do."

  "Whatever qualifications made the builder choose you for the project, must have caught his attentions as well," Sammi suggested.

  "We should go for now," Greg said. "As Rao points out, we have a lot to learn, and it would be good if we could contact Ray and find out what Walker knows and is doing. How about we follow up this time tomorrow?"

  Chapter 39

  Sequoia Facility

  "What's on your mind?" Glenn Walker asked as Zack stepped into his office and closed the door behind him.

  Walker was feeling pretty good. While Mark and Ray hadn't yet had any luck finding the bastards that had been causing him so much grief here in the Facility, despite what Mark reported as a serious effort by Ray Burke and a couple other members of the Security force, they'd had a good day with the payback they'd instituted in the Sim.

  "I think we have a problem," Zack said softly.

  "What kind of problem?" Walker asked, surprised by the somber tone displayed by his most trusted technician.

  "I was checking for reports on the shootings in the various cities where you and the others made your raids today just like you asked, and I came across something unexpected. In New York City, the deaths we expected were reported, but there was another shooting that caught my attention. A man named Steve Miller was shot-gunned a couple hours after your team finished the attacks on Jessica and Greg."

  "Our Steve is from New York, isn't he?" Walker asked.

  Zack nodded.

  "I did some checking. He's the same one. Someone got our guy. That started me thinking, and I checked the others cities where our people live in the Sim."

  "More of them were killed?" Walker asked, suddenly uncomfortable.

  "All of them," Zack replied. "You included. All eight of our team members were killed today. There will no longer be kernels for any of you in the Simulation anywhere."

  He handed over a list to the Director with the names, ages, locations, and how killed.

  "Shit!" Walker exploded.

  "Who did this?" he asked. The clones Ho was growing for Joe Thomas and Pete Coleman would no longer be needed. If the truth were known, he wasn't really concerned about not getting Joe back. They would have had to extract his kernel from the Sim, and that version of Joe Thomas was very different than the one he'd painstakingly groomed over almost a decade. But for the loyalty of his other men, he'd had to authorize the re-cloning. Pete, on the other hand, would have been useful to have back again.

  "If I had to guess, it would be Rossetti," Zack replied. "The cops don't operate this way, and all of the killings were very carefully carried out execution style slayings. Very efficient, and timed to be at nearly the same time. They were waiting the signal, and then simply acted on command. My guess is Rossetti has been watching your people, and waiting for a reason. Somehow he learned about your actions and decided for a little payback."

  "Rao!" Walker exploded. "Somehow that little bastard got the word to him. I knew we should have tried harder to get that bastard Rossetti when he got away the first time."

  "How would Rao have learned about the killings so soon?" Zack asked.

  "I don't know. But it's clear he has people inside working with him. People that are able to contact him. We need to figure out who they are, and we need to figure out how to take care of this Rossetti person. And we need to find Rao and his friends here in the caverns. Eliminate them and most of this can be fixed. Where can the bastards be hiding?"

  "Our people are going to be uncomfortable when they learn about this," Zack warned. "It is one thing to risk being killed, but to know it is the end, that you can't be re-cloned is another matter entirely."

  "Even though we had no evidence, I was certain they were somehow linked to their counterparts in the Sim," Walker complained. "It appears I was wrong. They have some other means of communicating."

  "They aren't using the Resort link," Zack said defensively. "We've locked that down so they can't gain access."

  "What does it matter how they are doing it, whether they go there or simply communicate somehow, they are doing it. That little SOB found a way into the Sim he never told me about, and now is using it against me."

  "What do you want me to do?" Zack asked.

  "Find this Rossetti character. I should have gone after him a long time ago. I want to know exactly where he hides out and how we can get at him. Also, find out who our friend Rao and his buddy Nesbitt were close to in Washington. There has to be a reason that is where they ended up. Probably tied into the cop who was involved in that original action when we killed that Senator."

  "It would have been easier to do that when they were alive," Zack reminded Walker.

  "I know that, but it's one of the only links we might have. Figure out a way."

  "Yes sir," Zack replied, knowing it was time to get out.

  He turned to go, but Walker called him back.

  "Oh, and Zack. Get everyone in here," Walker directed.

  "Ray too?"

  "No, just our people. We need to think this out carefully."

  As Zack hurried from the room Walker couldn't help returning to another problem that he'd been unable to come to any conclusion on. Why did they want that Cyborg? Who did they put into it?

  Chapter 40

  Sequoia Facility - Abandoned Bunker

  Ray's late arrival that night was a complete, but welcome surprise. They had heard nothing from him since they had gone their separate ways after the events at the Clinic. He had walked in from the Security Center after getting off late from work. All of his days since the theft had been long and stressful.

  "Thank heavens you're okay," Jessica said, wrapping the man in a tight embrace. She'd been in the kitchen area fixing a snack, which was closest to the back entrance.

  "I've been worried about you guys too, although at least I was pretty sure that Walker hadn't located you as yet, at least up until a little while ago" Ray replied to her comments. "Something happened this afternoon and I decided I needed to take the risk to check with you," he explained.

  "Come, let's go me
et the rest of the crew, including our newest member who you haven't formally been introduced to."

  "Who?"

  "We call him Raobot," Jessica replied with a grin.

  "The transfer worked," Ray guessed.

  "Far better than we could have hoped. He likes his body, at least for now. He might get tired of it later. But he also has memories that our Rao lacked, and they have already come in useful."

  They walked down the wide hallway toward the area where the group had set up the link into the system. They had makeshift bedrooms in the offices that lined the main area.

  "Heads up, people. We have company."

  By the time they stepped into the room, four sets of eyes were looking in their direction. Ray was most intrigued by the non-human ones.

  "Ray," Greg said happily, and ran over to shake his hand. "We have been wondering about you."

  The others greeted him with equal enthusiasm, and the large Cyborg marched over to join the gathering.

  "I am pleased to see you Ray Burke," the mechanical voice stated.

  "And you are Rao," Ray replied.

  "Actually, we have decided that he is Rao," the Cyborg said, indicating his human counterpart. "He had the name first. I am related, but have some additional memories, yet lack detail of the recent months here in the caverns. I am to be called Raobot."

  "My pleasure," Ray replied awkwardly. Despite the intelligence behind the voice, he felt he was talking to a machine.

  He turned to the others.

  "I'm glad to see everyone is okay," he said.

  "Why would you have doubts?" Greg asked. "You were with Walker's people. Wouldn't you have known if we'd been discovered?"

  "I was telling Jessica that something happened today that made me wonder. Mark got a call from Walker. He wouldn't tell me what it was about, but that he was to report back to the Director's office ASAP. I wasn't invited along, which hadn't been the way we had been operating. This was something different. At first I thought they were on to me, but then I realized they wouldn't handle it in such way if that were the case. They'd simply send us somewhere I could be easily taken prisoner. Then I wondered if they had spotted some of you, but it was odd they wouldn't alert me, unless they planned something they didn't think I would go along with. I stewed about it until I was able to call it a day and sneak away to get here."

  Ray realized the others were nodding.

  "You know what happened, don't you?"

  "It has been an eventful day," Greg admitted.

  "Walker has been back at his killing in the Sim," Jessica added.

  "I wouldn't have thought he had time and that his attention would be here in the caverns," Ray replied. "Who did he go after this time?"

  "All of us," Sam said, still uncomfortable with the idea. "He killed off our Simselves, eliminating us from the Simulation entirely. We can't be recloned."

  "All of us?" Ray asked, astonished.

  "All but you. He still doesn't know you are working with us."

  "But Rossetti, you remember who he is don't you, got revenge. He had men watching all of Walker's people in the Sim, not the killers but their Simselves, and had his shooters eliminate all of them."

  Shocked, Ray found a seat. "No wonder Mark was called back to meet with Walker and they didn't want me involved. He must have found out."

  "Good!" Jessica said, obviously pleased they had struck a soft point with her former lover.

  "He's got to be furious," Ray guessed. "Even though they are apparently cloning off themselves and not regenerating from the Sim, striking him in such a way is going to have him wanting blood."

  "Who can he go after that he isn't already targeting?" Greg asked.

  "He'll make a renewed effort to go after Rossetti if he realizes it was him, and he might do enough poking around in there to discover our friends. They could be at risk. Not to mention, he's going to redouble his efforts to find you guys."

  "How is that going, by the way?" Greg asked.

  "We have systematically been going through every old warehouse and building that exists in the storage area. It won't take much longer and we'll have to start poking somewhere else. Walker has more help than just the group we have come to worry about. He has maybe twenty-five people working this. I hadn't realized he had that many he could count on for quiet, off the record searches. I hate to say it, but eventually they are going to search this area, foot by foot. I can't see you being able to hide out forever."

  "Maybe we can relocate into areas he has checked," Jessica suggested.

  "He is having sensors installed as we complete an area. Disturb them, and he will know about it."

  "So we need to stop him before he finds us," Jessica said.

  "Since he doesn't know about me, I can go back and continue to be in a position to warn you if something changes, but Jessica is right. We need to stop Walker before that happens. I don't see how we can do that."

  Raobot says there are guns," Rao said, speaking up after a long silence.

  "I know that Walker has a small cache of weapons," Ray agreed. "Mark told me he has some military grade long guns in addition to the handguns they have been making."

  "There are others," Raobot spoke slowly in his deep resonant voice.

  "Here in the caverns?" Ray asked, doubtfully.

  "Not here, but nearby."

  "Outside?"

  Raobot nodded his head.

  "We can't go out there," Ray pointed out. "Not only is it too cold, but the air is still probably poisonous. Security has not been informed that that has changed as yet. There are indications that the concentrations are dropping, and that temperatures have been rising the past decade, but there's a long way to go. Estimates show maybe a hundred years before we should consider breaking out into the open. It's too bad we don't have satellites any more to give us better data on the cloud."

  "You can't go out there, but I can," Raobot said. "The cold and poison will not affect me. I have been built to operate in just such an environment. One of the uses for my kind was patch repair in the freezing toxic environment should there be a major leak. And, I know the way. I visited there on one of my two field trips to this place during construction."

  "There is another place like this?" Jessica asked.

  "Not like this," Raobot corrected her. "It is a sealed storage area with equipment and supplies that were deemed useful after leaving the caverns."

  "How would you move that equipment from there to here?" Sam asked.

  "I am remembering that there are vehicles stored there as well. It is only about eight miles, and unless conditions are really bad with deep snow and ice, it shouldn't be a problem."

  "Do you think anything would work after more than a thousand years?"

  "We will see how well they planned," Raobot said philosophically.

  "We'd have to break through the sealed air locks to allow you access to the outside. Those are alarmed and monitored in the Security area. Word would get to Walker that someone had gone outside. Even if he couldn't follow, he could be waiting for your return."

  "That is a detail that we must work," Raobot agreed. "It is fortunate that you are part of our team."

  Ray was shaking his head. "Even if we get the weapons, who is going to use them? None of you are trained for this kind of fighting."

  "It's better we have them and do our best rather than simply wait to be rounded up. We all know that Walker won't let us stay alive to talk with others about his activities both here and in the Sim."

  "If we are armed, maybe with a little additional help, perhaps we can make that assault on the Clinic," Sam suggested.

  "The Cloning Clinic?" Ray asked. "Why would you want to go there again? That's one place I'll bet Walker is keeping a close eye on. It's vital to his long term plans."

  "There is so much that Raobot knows, we've been having trouble knowing where to start and what might be important," Rao said. "But he has told us that is where the Memory Mapping devices are stored."

&nb
sp; "We didn't see anything when we were there. You guys checked the lab and the basement area just for such equipment," Ray reminded them.

  "That's because they are hidden in a special area off Dr. Ho's library," Raobot explained.

  "It's logical," Sam agreed. "The Cloning Clinic is where they'd been needed, but for reasons we don't know, the builders didn't want them discovered until the return to the surface was being planned."

  "Dr. Ho was supposed to be re-cloned with additional memories as that time approached," Raobot explained. "At that time she would have learned of their existence. Somehow, they were located prematurely. I think some feared exactly what the Director is attempting if their existence were known."

  "What if Dr. Ho wasn't around for some reason? Would their existence go unrevealed?"

  "There was another who has the experience with such equipment who was to be given the appropriate memories," Raobot said.

  "Who?" Ray asked.

  "Sam," the Cyborg added, glancing at the technician.

  "So, we raid the Clinic, destroy these units, and thereby ruin Walker's grand scheme. I agree that's a worthwhile endeavor, but it's very risky, and it won't help you guys in the near term, maybe at all. He probably will find you and see you all eliminated long before his inability to re-clone himself becomes an issue. Going after that equipment is likely to get some of you killed sooner rather than later, and you no longer even have a backup in the Sim."

  "That's another reason we need to do this," Jessica said. "If we had the Memory Mapper, Sam could make a copy of our current selves, and either Rao or Raobot could reinsert those into the Simulation, just as he did for himself to create the Rao in Los Angeles. He could also do it with an altered ID, so Walker wouldn't even know. We would be different than before, but that wouldn't necessarily be bad, and the worries the builders had about Sim people knowing the real situation has already been violated. With the end of this anomaly not so far in the future, it is unlikely we'd have any major issues with it."

  "So now you don't just want to destroy the units, but you want to make off with one of them?" Ray asked. "Does anyone have any idea how large they are?"