Wild Fyre

by Ike Hamill

  /*****

  DETECTIVE PLOSS USED THE pedestal of the birdbath to smash the handle from the French doors. They wouldn’t budge. He tried to smash the glass, but the concrete pedestal just bounced, sending a jolt up through his arms. Next, he tried the heavy pedestal on a window. That glass was impervious as well, but the wooden frame around the pane smashed and Ploss got his fingers in enough to pry it away. He ripped the protective glass from the window. Behind it, the real window was normal glass and the pedestal went right through. Ploss reached in carefully to unlock and slide up the window before boosting himself up over the edge.

  He heard a shot from the foyer.

  Ploss slipped on the glass and came down on his bad ankle. He grunted with the pain.

  He shuffled towards the long hall and saw Aster pointing his gun at a gray box on the floor. Aster circled it slowly as Ploss limped up.

  “What is it?” Ploss asked. “Another one of those manufacturing robots?”

  “Something like that, I think,” Aster said. “It gave up pretty easy when I put a bullet through its circuit board.”

  “Good to know,” Ploss said. “You look like hell.”

  Aster dabbed at the blood congealing on his forehead. “Airbag,” he said.

  “Should we find Ed and what’s his name?”

  “Yeah,” Aster said. “I saw them on a monitor. They were in a room with bookcases the last I saw. Let’s try this way.”

  Aster pointed to an arched doorway on the left that led beneath the stairway to an open hall. The floor was rich red tile, laid out in a diagonal pattern. On either side, arches opened up to airy little rooms. The ones on the left featured big windows to let in lots of light. On the right, they had tall ceilings and echoed their footsteps back to the detectives as they limped along.

  Ploss held his gun near his shoulder. Aster’s gun-hand hung at his side.

  They rounded the corner carefully—stealing a glance before committing.

  Ploss opened a door. “Stairs to the basement,” he said.

  “Leave it open,” Aster said. “This place is a maze and we might need to come back to that.”

  Ploss nodded. On this section of hallway, doors blocked off the rooms on either side.

  Aster stayed in the middle of the hall while Ploss opened each door and looked in each room. The hallway snaked left and back right. Ploss found a couple of closets and then the hall doubled back on itself in a tight u-turn.

  Ploss opened the next door and called Aster to look in. They saw a darker room, lined with wooden bookcases. At the far end, a ragged hole in the wall let in daylight. Plaster dust and splinters were tracked in across the wood floor.

  “Did they chew their way in?” Ploss asked.

  “Chainsaw,” Aster said.

  The detectives backed out of the room and continued down the hall.

  “Wait,” Ploss said. “Didn’t we come from back there?” He pointed to the end of the long hall, past the closed doors of rooms they had checked.

  “Yeah,” Aster said. “They built it so it looks like the hall ends. Must be an optical illusion or something.”

  “Weird.”

  “This is taking too long,” Aster said. He put his cast up near his mouth and yelled, “Ed? You here?”

  They stood still and listened for a reply. Aster started moving again when Ploss held up his hand, signaling to stop. Ploss stood near a corner. He poked his head around the edge and pulled back. The next time, Ploss led with his gun. He fired one shot before retreating again. Aster shuffled up and looked with him. Another of the gray boxes had been dispatched.

  “What do those things do, anyway?” Ploss asked.

  “I don’t care to find out,” Aster said.

  From up ahead, they heard a metallic thunk, like a heavy hammer coming down on an anvil. The detectives exchanged a glance and then shuffled forward cautiously. They rounded the next corner.

  CH.19.Staffing ()

  {

  Ed();

  /*****

  “WHAT IS IT? WHY did you stop?” Maco asked.

  “The car is blocking the door,” Ed said. “Can you see anything yet?”

  “I think I’ve got a little vision around the edges, but nothing in front,” Maco said. “There isn’t another door?”

  “Yeah, there’s a back one. Hold on,” Ed said. He left Maco standing in the foyer and he jogged over to the French doors. The handle came off in his hand. The doors remained bolted tight. “Locked,” he said, returning to Maco. “There’s another one of those robots over here, but it looks like… Yeah—it has a bullet hole in it.”

  From deeper in the house they heard a shot.

  “We can probably climb around the car if we’re careful,” Ed said.

  “No,” Maco said. “We can get someone to look at my eyes after we finish this. Are there stairs around here?”

  “Yes. There’s a staircase on the right.”

  “Let’s go up and see what’s there.”

  “No, Maco. She probably has a bunch more of those robots up there. It’s too dangerous.”

  “It’s not going to get any less dangerous if we wait. She’ll build more and more defenses as she gets more manufacturing up and running. We have to stop her today,” Maco said.

  Ed took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He opened them again and looked at Maco. The man was tilting his head, trying to make sense of the world he could no longer see.

  “Okay,” Ed said. “If we see or hear any more of those things, we’re leaving.”

  “Lead on.”

  Ed took Maco’s arm and walked him around the green puddle that surrounded the car. He paused while Maco’s foot found the first step. Maco climbed with the aid of the bannister. At the top of the steps a carpeted hall led left and right. Maco listened carefully and then pointed left. Ed took his arm again and helped him walk down the hall.

  The first few doors they encountered were open, revealing empty rooms. The hallway turned right and they found the balcony that overlooked the hall where they had walked earlier. Down a short hall from the balcony, the high-pitched noise of spinning fans grew louder. Ed led the way and then showed Maco through the door.

  “Servers?” Maco asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Ed said. “I don’t see anything that looks like server racks. I’m mean, there are racks, but it’s just ports and wires, I think.”

  “Network room,” Maco said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Lots of blue cables everywhere?”

  “Yes,” Ed said. “Blue cables plugged into all these ports and then they go into big bundles into the floor.”

  “Let’s find the power supply and shut these off,” Maco said.

  “Will that disable her?”

  “Nope, but it might slow her down a bit.”

  Maco stood in the center of the room and asked questions as Ed poked around and described what he saw. Together, they found the big breaker switches and Ed shut them down. As he flipped the switches, the fans grew quiet and the blinking lights went dark, bank by bank.

  “That’s the last of them,” Ed said.

  “Good, now let’s see where those cables go. Pull up one of the floor panels.”

  Ed dropped down and pulled at one of the square panels that made up the floor. The only place he could get purchase was at a corner of one of the wire holes. Below the false floor, the bundle of cables traveled horizontally to meet up with other bundles and then they all went straight down through the real floor. Ed described everything to Maco.

  “We have to find the room below this, or maybe they go all the way to the basement.”

  “Must be basement, because I think we’re either over the dining room or the kitchen,” Ed said.

  “Then let’s find the basement,” Maco said.

  CH.20.Assault ()

  {

  ServerRoom();

  /*****

  THE DETECTIVES HEARD THREE more metallic thunks, but couldn’t find the source of the n
oise. They discovered and dispatched two more roving robots, and explored a dining room and kitchen. Soon they were back at the foyer where they had started.

  “We haven’t seen this side of the house,” Ploss said, pointing. He spun and aimed his gun towards the top of the steps. Aster shuffled forward to see.

  “It’s us,” a voice called.

  Ed led Maco into view. The two began to descend.

  “What’s with him?” Aster asked.

  “Some little rolling thing shot my eyes out with a laser,” Maco said. “If something rolls up on you, don’t look at it.”

  Aster looked at Ploss.

  “What’s up there?” Ploss asked.

  “Network room,” Ed said. “We shut it down. Looks like the servers are in the basement. We need to find stairs going down.”

  Aster nodded.

  “We’ve seen the stairs,” Ploss said. “They’re this way.”

  The four men moved slowly. Ploss led the way and Aster shuffled in the rear. After winding back down the twisting hallway, they found the door to the stairs.

  The detectives switched positions and Aster descended first. Ed followed and Maco stepped carefully down the stairs leaning heavily on the railing to make his way. Ploss followed. The stairs ended at a little landing opposite a heavy steel door. It looked like a vault door. To the left and right, a new wall with fresh drywall stretched.

  “Great,” Aster said.

  “What is it?” Maco asked.

  “It’s all walled up,” Ed said. He left Maco and walked down the length of new wall. He ran his hand over the drywall joint as he walked. It was still fresh with dust. “Maybe we can just break through?”

  From the other part of the basement, he saw that this was once a giant open space. The floor was concrete and the first floor above them was supported by pillars every few feet in a grid.

  Aster banged on the drywall. “This is solid,” he said.

  Maco walked forward, arms outstretched, until he reached the door. He felt across the surface of the metal and found a keypad and a handle. He tugged on the handle.

  Ed walked back to the others holding a screwdriver he had found in the unfinished part of the basement. He jabbed the screwdriver into the drywall and it stopped after less than an inch. He used the screwdriver to pry away drywall and they saw that it was mounted to strapping that rested directly on a concrete wall.

  “You’re right,” Ed said. “It’s solid.”

  “She couldn’t keep us from activating the killswitch, so she’s just keeping us from getting close enough to use it,” Maco said.

  “Can’t you guys just override that keypad or something?” Ploss asked.

  “Not likely,” Maco said.

  “What if we just cut the power to the building?” Ploss asked.

  “Won’t do any good,” Maco said. “This program doesn’t exist at just this location. It’s everywhere. You cut off the head of this snake and it will just grow four more heads. We have to poison it—that’s what the killswitch does—but the only mouth is behind this wall.”

  “How do the network cables get in?” Ed asked. “Or the climate control?”

  “Network,” Maco said. “That’s a good idea. Let’s get back to the kitchen. Do you remember where that is?”

  “Definitely,” Ploss said.

  It took longer to climb the stairs than it had to go down. Ploss looked up and down the hall nervously while he waited for Aster to make the climb. Ed led Maco in the direction of the kitchen. They all collected again at the doors to the dining room.

  “The thing that zapped Maco’s eyes was in there,” Ed said.

  “Close this door behind us and wait for us to call you in,” Ploss said.

  The detectives limped through the doorway. A minute later, they called to Ed. He opened the door.

  “No rollers in this room or the kitchen,” Aster said. “We closed the doors. What are we looking for?”

  “A panel or access through a cabinet,” Maco said. “Look for a column between the wall of the kitchen and dining room.”

  Ed joined the detectives in the search. The wall between the kitchen and dining room was extra thick, and Ploss found the cabinet that hid the access to the column of space. A thick bunch of blue wires took up a lot of the passage, flowing from upstairs and down into the basement.

  “Can you see anything down there?” Maco asked.

  “Yeah, looks like light is coming from down there somewhere,” Ploss said.

  “That’s encouraging,” Maco said.

  “Let me see,” Ed said.

  Ploss moved aside and Ed slipped into the cabinet. The space was tight and the blue wires took up a lot of it.

  “I don’t know,” Ed said. “I might be able to fit through there.”

  “I’ll go first,” Aster said.

  “You can’t,” Ploss said. “You’ll never make it down with one hand, and I can’t get down there with one good foot. We have to find another way in.”

  “I’ll go,” Ed said. “Maco gave me Jim’s instructions and if I have any questions I can yell them up. You guys don’t know what you’re doing anyway.”

  “And you do?” Maco asked.

  “I can find my way around a server,” Ed said.

  “If you see anything unexpected down there, you yell and we’ll find a way down,” Ploss said.

  Ed nodded.

  “I’ll stay right here,” Maco said, “if you have a question.”

  “Actually,” Aster said. “I suggest that Ploss stays here while I take Maco down to the door. Ed, if you find a way to open that door from the inside, then you do it. We’ll wait five minutes. If the door doesn’t open, we’ll come back up.”

  “Okay,” Ed said.

  Maco nodded and turned towards Aster, who took his arm and led him back towards the dining room.

  “You want me to lower you down?” Ploss asked.

  “No,” Ed said. He tugged on a bunch of the blue cables. “I think these will hold me.”

  Ed slipped a foot through the panel and found a lip of floor. He tested it with his weight before putting the other foot through. Ed positioned himself above the hole and parted the river of cables.

  “Wait,” Ploss said. “What if there’s no good way out down there? What if there’s a grate and the cables just go through it?”

  “Then I’ll have to find a way to climb back up,” Ed said. He took a big bunch of wires in each hand and put his foot over the hole. When he looped his other leg around the bundle of cables, his foot became entangled in a zip tie. His arms were beginning to burn by the time he freed his foot and lowered himself down the first few inches.

  Ploss’s forehead wrinkled. He couldn’t keep the concern from his face. Ed’s body jerked as he slipped down several more inches. The ragged end of a zip tie caught the palm of his hand and scooped a chunk of flesh. Ed’s blood flowed fast down the cables and made his grip slip even more. He was only halfway through the hole.

  Ed tried to keep his arms tucked to his sides so they would fit through the hole. His muscles were giving out. A deep ache set into his shoulders. Blood from his hand dripped on the top of Ed’s head.

  Ed’s hands slipped. Friction burned his fingers. He stuck his legs out, trying to brace against the walls. He managed to stop his descent with one leg braced against some vertical support and a toe just touching the floor. His hands were tangled in the blue cables. He pushed up with all his energy to free himself.

  His arms ached and pain flared in his sliced palm. Ed was looking at the back of racks of servers. The blue cables ran like an orderly flood, branching off in big blue streams to the backs of the machines. Ed stepped over cords and squeezed through the racks to the center of the room.

  It was well-built and orderly. Lights hung in a regular grid overhead. The floor and ceiling had air conditioning and fire-suppression vents. Each wall had thermal sensors, thermostats, and control panels. The far wall contained the big metal door that Ed had already s
een from the other side. He traced its perimeter, looking for a button that would open the door, but the he saw no controls.

  His eyes returned to the center of the room, where they had been constantly drawn as he conducted his inventory. A small round table sat in the center of the room. The table had three chairs. Two of the chairs were filled with Ed’s friends—Lister and Dale.

  They looked at Ed.

  “Hi, Ed,” Lister said. “Have a seat.”

  Ed took a step closer to the table.

  “Shit, Ed, you’re bleeding,” Dale said, getting up. He walked over to a white box attached to the wall and lowered the lid. He came back to the table with bandages and antiseptic spray.

  “I’m fine,” Ed said. “Is there a terminal around here?” He glanced behind himself at the racks of servers. They all looked like headless machines—no keyboards or monitors in sight—but there was usually one tucked away in a pop out drawer. Ed didn’t see any.

  “We’ll point you in that direction in a second. We want to have a conversation first. Why don’t you sit down for a second?” Lister asked.

  “I will,” Ed said. “I just want to do something first.”

  Ed walked to the rack and conducted a more thorough search for the keyboard and monitor he knew must be present. He was tempted to just start pulling power cords, but he remembered that it wouldn’t do any good. Fyre lived everywhere. These machines were just a doorway to get to her, not the main brain.

  “You won’t find it,” Dale said. “But there is a terminal here.”

  “You just need to talk to us first,” Lister said.

  Ed took a deep breath and turned back to the men. They weren’t physically imposing or threatening in any way. Lister and Dale were two of the nicest people Ed knew. They were also intractable. You wouldn’t expect them to fight you, but they were tough. Ed suspected logic would have a better chance of changing their minds than a gun to their heads. He walked to the table.

  “So you’re in on this too?” Ed asked Dale.

  Dale motioned for Ed’s hand. As Ed sat down, Dale took his hand and placed it on the table. He dabbed at Ed’s scrape with a gauze pad.