The Sixth Extinction

by Bob Blink

  Chapter 52

  Sequoia Facility

  The same concerns that had kept Walker from charging in earlier to engage those he had sought for so long caused him to advance with the rest of his men rather than charging ahead with the vehicle he had recently appropriated for his personal use. Despite his concerns as to what might be happening at the main Clinic, he kept his fears under leash determined to arrive with a force capable of dealing with whatever was taking place. The fact he still couldn't reach Dr. Ho only underscored his concern. He couldn't ever recall her not responding to his summons.

  The sharp double crack of a pair of explosions when they were less than two hundred yards from the main Clinic provided proof that his worries weren't misdirected. For a moment he expected to see the building crumple as a result of the explosions, but when nothing happened, he hurried forward, with Luke heading the charge.

  "They've blown up the Clinic," Mark shouted from the middle of the group, although there was no evidence beyond the sound of the twin explosions to suggest anything was amiss.

  Walker could even see a couple of lights shining through side windows, so they hadn't taken down the power as they had at the Resort. His eyes scanned the area around the Clinic, half expecting to see the band of troublemakers fleeing from their handiwork, but he saw nothing. If they'd been here, it seemed they had already completed their plan and gotten away once again. It rankled when he realized that they hadn't found the hideout, and were back to wondering were the group made their camp.

  Upon reaching the front entrance, they found it closed and locked, not surprising for a Sunday. Locks on facilities like the Clinic were not robust with the real intension of keeping one out. They were more a signal or indication to potential visitors that the place was closed at that time, and there would be no staff available to help them with whatever matter had brought them to the doors. As Director, his ID easily overcame the lock, and the security device audibly released when he waved his left hand at the scanner.

  Weapons drawn, Walker's men poured into the Clinic. He followed, not certain what he was expecting to find. The blasts had clearly come from inside the structure, but this far everything looked completely normal.

  "Dr. Ho's office," he directed sharply when the men seemed uncertain how to proceed.

  The acrid chemical smell that became stronger as they approached the office confirmed his worst fears. They had been here, and something inside had been the focus of their attentions.

  "Body," Luke said as he rounded the door jam and scanned the room, his handgun ready in case those responsible were still present. "It looks like Dr. Ho."

  Walker had already seen the body, and knew without checking that this time she wouldn't merely be drugged. He didn't know why he was so certain, but he was. More importantly, at least to him, he saw through the door into her lab, that the Cyborg she had been secretly activating with his memories was surrounded by inert equipment as was the one with the expert they'd extracted to help with repairs at the Resort. The doctor had made a point just the day before how it was important to keep the units fully activated while the inserted memories settled in place. Despite it being a machine, the transition and acceptance of the kernel required this period if the result were to be acceptable. With the power clearly interrupted at the table, he knew that their effort was destroyed and the Cyborgs would not be of any use to him.

  "See if anyone is still here," Walker commanded the others. "Luke, stay with me."

  Luke, who had been checking the inert form on the ground, stood and walked over to the Director.

  "She's been shot. Twice in the chest. She's dead. Whoever shot her knew how to use a weapon."

  "Ray Burke?" Walker guessed.

  "Maybe," Luke agreed.

  With a glance at the lab, Walker turned toward the library, afraid of what he was going to find. This time his expectations were more than realized. The right wall was a mess of ripped beams and heavy wooden panels. The small room behind was totally trashed, and the three, all-important electronic units were clearly beyond recovery. He didn't know how Rao's group had learned of the Mappers, but they had destroyed the only three in existence, and the consequences were crippling. He felt his legs go weak as he realized the implications of the attack.

  Before he could find his voice, Kurt stuck his head into the library. "Wow," he said. "So this is where the bombs went off? We found two employees across the hall, no one else. They are drugged, but unhurt."

  Walker nodded, still numb.

  "Get Jake in here," he directed. "He'll be best able to tell us what else has happened and what they might have come for."

  "That's not enough?" Luke asked, pointing at the damaged wall and equipment. Walker knew that Luke didn't understand what the units represented.

  "They wanted something else," Walker said. "That was meant as an attack directed toward me. Go with the others and see what else you can find. Check down below, the room below the lab."

  Walker dropped into one of the library chairs, undamaged if a bit dusty. He knew Rao's group was gone, and he needed time to think.

  By the time Jake had arrived and a careful check had been made, the two attendants were coming around, and were able to verify the people responsible were who Walker had known it had to be. Sam and Greg were both identified, and he had no doubt the others were involved as well.

  Walker also knew the bad news about the area below. More damage below, and according to Jake, eight more of the Cyborgs had been taken. Still no indication where they had gone, and why they wanted the Cyborgs was also a mystery. According to Jake they hadn't had the time required to load memories into the units they had taken, so what good could they possibly be? But in the back of his mind Walker knew they weren't done. They wouldn't have risked so much if they didn't have a plan.

  "Those miserable bastards!" Walker swore as he considered again what the rebels had managed to do. In the space of a few days they had cut him off from the Sim, they had destroyed the Cyborg with his recently mapped kernel, they had killed Susan Ho who was critical to his plans, and had destroyed the only machines in existence that could map his mind. He was a dead man. Not now maybe, but once this body aged and died, he was gone. Even his Sim presence had been eliminated. There was no way to save his mind to be transferred into a new body. The body could still be grown, but there'd be nothing to put into it.

  He was fortunate the others didn't understand the extent of their loss. None of them knew that the machines that Rao and his friends had destroyed were the only ones capable of delivering on his promise to take their existing personalities and transfer them into a new body when they had to be cloned. Once they understood that, how many would stick by him? What would they gain by doing so? The whole plan was dead. It would be far more than a normal lifetime before it would be time to return to the surface, and by then he'd be dead and forgotten. All he had left now was revenge.

  "What do you want us to do?" Luke asked, sensing that Walker was more strongly affected by events than seemed warranted.

  "Who cares," Walker wanted to say, but instead he said, "Get the word out. Make sure everyone in the caverns knows that Rao and his group have launched another attack. This one on another important facility to everyone here, the Cloning Clinic. That'll get their interest. Tell them that Dr. Susan Ho was murdered by them. Everyone has experience with her since she saw each and everyone of them cloned. Maybe we can generate enough animosity that someone will tell us where they are hiding."

  "Done," Luke replied.

  "What about the rest of us?"

  "Find that damn hideout," Walker snarled and turned away.

  As he started toward the entrance Walker had a thought. What if Rao had a way to plant memories in the Cyborgs outside of the Clinic. Could he have found something topside that allowed him to do so? Maybe there was still a way. Maybe there was a chance for him yet, if he could just find out what Rao knew.

  He turned and stepped back into the office.

>   "Luke," he said. "Make sure that Security locks that tunnel to the surface tightly. I think the rebels might have plans to get topside again. Oh, and make sure you take Rao alive. I think he's knows something important. The others too, if possible."

  Chapter 53

  Los Angeles

  Sammi cursed as the phone rang. Her communicator was in the hallway, not that she was at all motivated to answer the electronic summons at the moment. It was Sunday afternoon, and she could think of no one she wished to speak with at this particular time. She was otherwise engaged.

  She glanced down at John Morrison, who indicated with his expression that he'd also heard the ring, and that he also didn't want to deal with the intruder at the moment. His chest, naked except for the taped bandages was covered with a light sheen of sweat, testifying to the effort he'd been expending.

  "Ignore it," he hissed.

  "Absolutely," Sammi agreed, focusing on the growing core of pleasure that was building inside her. Despite his wounds, which she knew could be quite painful in the wrong positions, John had proven himself to be an outstanding lover, something she never would have suspected given the clumsy approach he'd tried on her back when they first met. He had stamina and staying power that was astounding.

  After the shooting, during which he'd clearly risked his life to protect her, they'd found themselves more compatible than either would have expected. She'd been by his side through the first days in the hospital, and when he could be released, had insisted that he take advantage of her spare room until he was able to consider returning to Chicago. One thing had led to another, and now the spare room was sitting vacant once again.

  It was more than fifteen minutes before things had cooled down enough that Sammi was willing to go and check who had been responsible for interrupting their afternoon.

  "It was Rodriquez," she said coming back into the room. "He left a message. Our friends pulled it off."

  After the nearly fatal encounter with Walker's group of killers, they had expected the hunt for them to continue. But less than a hour after the shooters had mysteriously vanished from the summer house, they had been contacted from their friends in the caverns and learned that the Resort power had been bombed and was completely disabled and would be for the foreseeable future. That meant they could return home and get proper medical care for those who needed it.

  Sgt Mike Lee had taken the night Tube back to Washington, at least until word came that Walker was up to something once again. Lt. Rodriguez, Sgt John Morrison, and Don Russell had all returned to the city and checked into the UCLA medical center in various states of distress. Rodriquez had faired better than the other two, and was back at work the next day. He had broken his strong stance against Rossetti, and called to inform him what had taken place. John and the Don Russell would require more time for recuperation. Those killed had been brought back to the city and funerals were scheduled during the coming week. In the meantime, Sammi and John were on official leave, waiting to see what developed.

  "They got away with it?" John asked. He'd had serious doubts whether the plan outlined to them the day before could be achieved.

  "They hurt Walker bad. They damaged his equipment, and made it impossible for him to copy himself into anything. He must be realizing he is well and truly screwed about now."

  "When are they planning the transfers?"

  "Tonight, if not before," Sammi replied with a hint of a grin. "No turning back now."

  They had apparently all jumped at the chance when the two Raos had contacted them. The contact had been individual, except in Sammi and John's case because they were together. The rest of the team were spread across the county. And why not go for it? The Raos were offering them a chance for payback. Up to now they'd been forced to fight at Walker's whim in an environment where ultimately they couldn't hope to emerge the victor. But going into the caverns they were being given a chance to engage him on his own turf. Even more important, they had a slim chance of winning, and thereby protecting their own lives. And the risk. Really nothing. Their Simselves would see nothing different. A copy of themselves would be inserted into the Cyborgs they had heard about, and that version alone would face the danger.

  Sammi admitted to a touch of curiosity about this cavern they had heard so much about, and wanted to actually see the node where they supposedly 'lived'. She'd been surprised that Don wanted to go. He wasn't a fighter, and what after had just happened to him, why would he venture back into danger? But she'd been told he felt he could be a representative of the Sims to the people of the Facility, and bear witness against Walker. He also wanted to go topside, and see what the world really looked like. He wanted to write about it, and admitting he couldn't publish it as a true account of the situation, he wished to create a novel of the whole situation, knowing that someday people would see his work for what it was.

  "Today?" John asked. The idea of being transferred into the machines left him a bit uneasy.

  Sammi grinned. She knew there wasn't much that John was afraid of.

  "They may have started already. We won't even know it has happened. Remember, those of us still in the Sim will be independent of what happens in the Caverns. I almost wish that wasn't true. I'd like to be able to watch what happens."

  "Those of us loaded into the Cyborgs will know," John argued. "I wonder what it will be like?"

  "Well, if we're still here, then we won't be the version of us that knows," she said. "I don't care, just so long as we get Walker. And I want him to see it coming."

  "How are they going to work this with the Cyborgs?" John asked. He'd been pretty drugged up when some of this had been explained.

  "They have eight of the units that they can load memories into," Sammi reminded him. "There are five of us when you count Don. Three of their people want to be duplicated into Cyborgs as well, so they can both participate in the chase after Walker, and to help orientate us in the caverns. I was told you and I would team up with Jessica. Mike and Rodriguez would team with Ray Burke, their Security guy, and Don would be teamed up with Greg Harper, the guy that was mostly responsible for targeting the power lines that ended Walker's visits into the Sim for now. There is also Raobot, but I'm not sure how they plan to use him."

  "And they have enough weapons for that many Cyborgs?"

  "Apparently so. Raobot brought back a bunch of stuff from the topside depot. But what hasn't been explained is how we flush out Walker. I have a feeling they are hoping that's the kind of expertise we bring with us. That and familiarity with weapons. I think only Ray Burke, and to a lesser degree Greg Harper have much real experience in that regard."

  "Well, I'm glad we are going to be there," John said. "Us, or our duplicates, that is. I don't think these people are up to dealing with someone like Walker without people like us, and if he isn't stopped, it's only a matter of time before he'll be coming back after us."

  "I just hope they keep us informed of how things are going," Sammi added. "It's almost worse being on the sidelines than in the middle of the fray."

  Chapter 54

  Sequoia Facility

  In the day and a half since the attack on the Cloning Clinic, Rao and his friends had not left the bunker at all. They had been busy both with the immediate tasks anticipating the activation of the Cyborgs, and monitoring and preparing for any reactions by Walker and his men. Walker had been busy, and had taken the matter to the people through the media services provided by Cindy's former co-worker at Facilities, presenting a very modified version of the facts designed to make them hard core criminals who needed to be found and stopped.

  While the theft and destruction of Walker's equipment had gone well enough, the arrival of Dr. Susan Ho had accelerated the timeline in an unfortunate manner. The initial plan had called for Jessica and Raobot hauling off the stolen Cyborgs to a drop point on the western side of the Ring. There the Cyborgs would have been unloaded, and while Raobot was hauling them to the bunker, Jessica would have driven the borrowed truck to o
ne of the food processing facilities in the Residential Zone, where she would have abandoned it, and then hoofed it back to the bunker. About the time she was abandoning the vehicle, the charges would have been detonated at the Clinic, which would have focused all of Walker's attention in that area long enough that everyone would have been safely inside their hideout.

  When Ray had been forced to shoot Dr. Ho to prevent her contacting Walker, the time scale had been accelerated. By the time the truck with the Cyborgs had been unloaded, too much attention had already been focused on the Cloning Clinic, and Jessica would have been at considerable risk attempting to take the vehicle into the populated area to the north. The backup option was therefore adopted, and the truck was driven to the same emergency exit tunnel where they had ditched the two cars some time before. The problem was the size of the vehicle. While they could drive the cars well back into the side tunnel where they were pushed over a steep drop to be lost in the dark depths below, the truck was too wide to be maneuvered to the same area. As a result, the vehicle was hidden deep in the tunnel, but could be found by anyone looking carefully, which would provide Walker unfortunate clues as to the general area they were hiding. They had to hope the vehicle would go undetected until the Cyborgs were fully functional, at which time they would have a force more than capable of resisting any efforts that Walker could raise against them. They hoped.

  The memory implantations had all been completed in the late hours of Sunday night. In addition to the five volunteers from the Sim, Ray, Greg, and Jessica now had mechanical versions of themselves waiting to be activated. All three of them wondered what it would be like to be face to face with copies of themselves, something Rao had been living with for some time.

  In order to generate Cyborgs with the cavern version of the three, Sam had needed to scan their minds using the Memory Mapper to create the appropriate kernels. Those kernels were inserted into the selected Cyborgs, and also into the Seattle node under covert IDs. Sam also mapped Rao and Cindy, and inserted those kernels into the Sim as well. If things went very badly, there would be a core of individuals inside the Sim, hidden from Walker that would retain awareness of all that had happened for the day in the future when individuals were extracted for repopulation. The only person that was now operating without any form of backup was Sam. No one other than Sam was able to operate the unit to create the kernels, so there was no way to make of copy of his. Given time, available if they were successful in their opposition to Walker, he'd be able to train someone in the use of the Mapper and have a copy of himself generated, but until then he was at risk. Given his situation, and his importance to the task at hand, he was directed to stay well out of danger during any confrontations that might develop.