by David Archer
“You’re going to sit this one out,” he said. He glanced at Rob. “Rob, I want one of your guys to babysit her here.”
“But, Sam,” Becky began. “I’m going with…”
“No, you’re not,” Sam said. “Joel is going to be waking up soon, and for all we know, you could still be on his hit list. I want you out of the way and safe until this is over.”
Becky turned and looked at Pat, but he only shook his head. “Honey, I agree with Sam. I want you to stay here, out of the way and safe. I’ll come back to you just as fast as I can, I promise.”
She stared at him for a long moment, then slowly sank into her chair. “You better,” she said. “You damn well better.”
*
Daphne carefully placed the chip, laying it directly onto the surface of Joel’s brain so that it straddled the longitudinal fissure. She’d been told that she had to be certain it was perfectly centered across the fissure, and she used a small micrometer to carefully measure from the center line of the chip to the center of the fissure itself. Once she was satisfied with the placement, she began the tedious process of closing the meningeal layers.
First was the thin pia mater. It was closed with delicate sutures, and then the area was flushed again. Next came the arachnoid mater, under which was the subarachnoid space that contained the cerebrospinal fluid. She carefully closed it up, and then the area was flushed once more.
Finally, she closed the dura mater, rinsed it off thoroughly, and held out her hand for the bone flap. The nurse retrieved it from the antibiotic fluid and handed it to her, and she fitted it carefully back into place.
Then it was time to place the new titanium plates that would hold it in position. They were identical to the original ones, and Daphne was able to fit the new screws directly into the original holes. Once they were carefully tightened, with Daphne taking great care not to over-tighten them and stress the bone that had accepted the screw threads, the clamps were removed so that she could close the scalp.
With Daphne’s delicate hand, she placed forty-six stitches, using suture thread that would dissolve on its own over the next two weeks. As soon as she was finished, the nurse rinsed all of the shampoo out of Joel’s hair and used a blow dryer to clear away the excess water, after which Daphne applied a topical ointment to the closed incision. The ointment was gel-like and became rubbery after a few moments, so that it could protect the incision from the risk of contamination or infection.
The procedure was complete. An antibiotic was added to the IV, just as a precaution against the possibility of infection that may have occurred during surgery. It was formulated to be able to cross the blood-brain barrier and attack any bacteria that may have gotten in.
The orderlies carefully transferred Joel to a gurney and moved him to the recovery area. He was placed in the bed as Daphne changed out of her scrubs and sat down to contemplate just what she had done.
A part of her wished she had been strong enough to overcome her oath and eliminate Joel from the world, but it simply wasn’t her. She had dedicated her life to healing, to saving lives, and the thought of ever taking one by her own deliberate actions was abhorrent to her.
Just as abhorrent was the thought of letting all of those children die. Had she failed to complete the surgery, their deaths would also be on her conscience. It simply was not something she could fathom, nor could she have lived with it even if Joel had died of an unforeseen complication.
She got up and went to the recovery area to check on her patient. He was still sleeping, but that wouldn’t last a lot longer. Soon, he would be awake and that’s when the world as Daphne knew it would come to an end.
There was still a little while before he woke, however, so she found herself exploring the expanded interior of the big machine. She saw the small laboratory that was capable of doing quite a lot of what any hospital lab might do, and she noted with interest that the pharmacy was very well-stocked. There was no one in it at the moment, so she stepped inside to consider which antibiotics and pain pills she might give to her patient.
It was really very well-stocked.
*
The convoy of vehicles pulled into the dark parking lot of a large church that was only a few blocks from the warehouse. Lieutenant Merrick and his SWAT team were once again waiting for them, and hurried over to greet Sam as he got out of his car.
“I took the liberty of securing blueprints for the building,” he said as he spread a sheet of paper across the hood of the car. “Unfortunately, it’s essentially just one big room, covering almost 2 acres. There aren’t any windows so we can’t see inside, but a traffic camera on the light at the intersection beside it has been there for a long time, so I had our traffic division scan for anything going in and out of that building. There’s been a lot of traffic entering it over the last six weeks, including semi trucks, a monster size bus that’s marked as a mobile hospital, and lots more stuff. We literally have no idea what we’re going to find inside.”
Sam was holding his phone to his ear. “Indie? Any change?”
“I’m refreshing the view,” Indie said. “No, there’s still no GPS coordinates listed. I’ll check every minute or so.”
“Okay, baby,” Sam said. “We’re about to go in, so I’m going to get off the phone. I’ve got the ringer shut down and set to vibrate, so text me if anything changes.”
“Okay, Sam,” she said. “Please be careful.”
“I will,” he said. “I love you, but I’ve gotta go.” He ended the call and put the phone into his breast pocket. “Right now, it appears that Joel is still asleep from the surgery. As soon as he wakes up, that chip in his head is going to check in with its computer, and from that moment on, he’s the most dangerous man you’ve ever encountered. He can outthink us in ways that can’t be explained, and there’s no telling what kind of weaponry he’s got waiting inside that building. We could literally step inside and face an army of robots.”
Merrick nodded. “We’re loaded with armor-piercing rounds,” he said. “I’m assuming the order to keep him from escaping still stands?”
“It does,” Sam said. “It’s probably more critical now than it was before. If he were to escape us now, I have my doubts we would ever get another shot at him.” He looked around at his own people and Merrick’s. “Are we ready?”
“Awaiting your orders, sir.”
Sam closed his eyes for a moment and breathed a short, silent prayer before he opened them again.
“Let’s do it.”
40
“There are only three ways into the building,” Merrick said, after everyone had gathered around. “The big overhead door here, the regular entrance door beside it, and another one on the west side of the building. We’re not going to bother with the overhead door, but we’ll block it with the van, so it won’t be easy for anyone to use it to drive out. I think we should split into two groups, with half of us going in through the front door and the other half coming in the west door. It’s likely to be fairly dark in there, so we need to be cautious not to open fire on one another.” He looked at Sam. “You’ve got five paramilitaries with assault rifles, and the rest of you are only carrying handguns. I brought some extra H & K MP7’s, if you want them, and some hands-free comm units.”
“Definitely,” Sam said. “We don’t know how many of his triad soldiers might be in there, so we might need all the firepower we can get.”
Merrick nodded, and sent two of his men to fetch the weapons and communication headsets and pass them out. The Heckler and Koch MP 7 was specially built for the purpose of combating body armor. It became popular with police departments around the world due to the frequency of armor-wearing criminals, especially in street gangs. Its small but powerful 4.6 mm X 30 mm ammunition used a copper jacketed solid steel bullet that, in standardized testing, was shown to penetrate twenty layers of Kevlar with a 1.6 mm titanium backing plate. Each of them was already loaded with a forty round box magazine.
The headset
s were simple, similar to the Bluetooth ear pieces that connected to a cell phone, but they were all on a single frequency. Anything they said would be picked up and transmitted to all of them, but the microphones were designed to suppress any sound that was more than twelve inches away.
Once they were all armed and wearing the headsets, they climbed into the SWAT van for the short drive to the warehouse. They were just pulling out of the parking lot of the church when Sam’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it out quickly.
A text message from Indie read, The chip just registered with the server. It’s at the same location in that warehouse.
Sam, who was standing beside Merrick and holding onto an overhead rail, looked at the lieutenant.
“He’s awake,” Sam said. “This may get ugly.”
*
Joel’s eyes fluttered open and looked around for a moment, then focused on Daphne. She was sitting on a stool beside his bed and staring at him.
“How do you feel?” she asked. “Is there any pain?”
“There is a little,” Joel said. “It’s bearable. Everything went okay?”
“The procedure was a success.” Her tone and the look on her face told him that was the best he was going to get.
Joel closed his eyes and thought of the string of numbers that would activate the chip and connect it via Bluetooth to the new cell phone that was on the bedside table in its charging cradle. The phone’s screen lit up suddenly and Joel smiled.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “Most definitely a success. How long did it take?”
“Just a bit under three hours,” she replied. “Is it functioning properly?”
His eyes still closed, Joel grinned silently for a moment before popping them open. “Very much so,” he said. “I’ve already run it through a complete diagnostic, and it’s working perfectly.”
Daphne leaned toward him, her eyes boring into his.
“Then give the order to release those children. Do it now.”
Joel chuckled. “Feeling a little frisky, are we? And just what would you do if I refuse?”
Daphne’s expression didn’t flicker, and her eyes never left his. “I shall do nothing,” she said. “I only remind you that you assured me that it would be your first act upon awakening.”
Joel’s eyes softened. “Relax, Doctor,” he said. “They were never actually in any danger. This may be hard for you to believe, but my goal is not to harm anyone. I confess that it’s sometimes necessary, but I can assure you that I will not ever take a life unless I feel I have no choice.”
“You are correct,” she said. “I find it very hard to believe. From everything I have heard, you murdered Doctor Williamson after he helped you to steal the chip you wanted. It seems unikely to me that you would have any sort of conscience at all.”
Joel scowled as he adjusted himself on the bed. “Williamson doublecrossed me,” he said. “He was too much of a coward to steal the chip himself, so I had to fiddle with the security computers and do it myself. Then, he was supposed to implant the chip for me right after we got it, but he backed out. He could have been the second most important man in the world, after me, if he only cooperated. Instead, he just demanded money, threatening to destroy the chip if I didn’t give him what he wanted. Well, I did. I told him I arranged to sell it to Fa Ling, and that I’d work with them, instead.” He smiled, smugly. “He got exactly what he deserved. I don’t have time for people who are so selfish, not when I’m trying to save the world.”
Daphne’s eyes went wide and she stared at him, scoffing. “You wish me to believe that you are trying to save the world? You are its greatest danger. In all of history, there has never been a greater monster than that which you are striving to become.”
“Mm, no, not really. You’ll get to know me better than that. I’m actually quite the humanitarian. That’s the entire reason I’m doing what I’m doing, because I don’t want people to suffer anymore. War, famine, all of the problems that come from having so many different governments squabbling amongst themselves, and all of those can be solved by rational thought. And I, thanks to you, will now be the most rational being that has ever lived. When you combine that fact with my ability to control every major weapon of mass destruction, you should be able to see that we are on the verge of worldwide peace. Many nations have populations that are starving, while others produce more food than they can possibly use and some even pay their farmers not to grow food at all. This is some kind of madness, born out of man’s desire to feel superior to his neighbor. It’s now up to me to bring an end to that madness.”
Daphne just looked at him. “And so, you make yourself a tyrant? You believe that by imposing your own values on all of the world, you will make it a better place for everyone? That was the folly of every horrible dictator in history. Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Hitler—they all claimed their actions were for the greater good, and some people even believed them. There are those in our world who still revere Hitler, despite the atrocities he committed. There will be those who will willingly worship at the altar you bring them, but the vast majority of men, women, and children will suffer at your hands. It is in the nature of humans to resist absolute authority, and to rebel. I foresee that millions will die trying to resist, as you crush their rebellions.”
“Some will resist,” Joel agreed. “But rebellions won’t last long, so loss of life can be minimized. I don’t think…”
He suddenly froze, and closed his eyes. After a couple of seconds, he shook his head and grinned.
“You are correct, Doctor,” he said. “There will be those who will resist, and some may even come close to being able to stop me. Our friend Sam Prichard has done the impossible, because he’s here. He’s brought a small army along with him, by the way, but don’t worry. Even though every simulation I ran said this is not possible, I believe in being prepared for any conceivable eventuality.” He raised his hand and pointed at a large flatscreen TV on the wall, and it suddenly came to life.
The screen was split into eight different displays. In the upper left corner, Daphne saw a large van parked just outside the big overhead door, and a number of people were streaming out of it. She saw Sam Prichard and several others in the second screen, gathered at another door. Another group ran around the side of the building, and the fourth screen showed them at the door on that side. At what must’ve been a prearranged moment, someone in both groups attacked the doors with large pry bars, and they burst open.
The views changed as Joel focused on other cameras inside the building. His own eyes were still closed, and Daphne remembered that with this new chip, all of the video was streaming right into his brain. She wondered how it must feel to him, to suddenly have dozens of eyes and see so much more than he ever could before.
Motion in the upper views caught her eye, and those little cars she had seen were suddenly moving around. The tops opened up and she saw something protrude from them, and a second later she realized that she was looking at machine guns. The little vehicles were zipping around the inside of the building, and she saw the men falling as the guns fired.
Tears began to stream down her face as she watched her would-be rescuers dropping to the concrete floor, their lives given in the futile attempt to save her own.
*
Sam, with Merrick, Albertson, Darren, Pat, and several of the local officers, went to the main door beside the overhead, while Rob and his men took Summer, Jade, Denny, and the rest of the SWAT team to the side door. They counted off thirty seconds from the moment they left the SWAT van, and then one of the officers on each team used a special crowbar to pop those doors open.
Both teams flooded inside, and Sam was struck at first by the immensity of the space, but then he got a look around. In the center of the building was what looked almost like another building until he realized that it was on wheels. On one end was the cab and driver compartment of a bus, but from there back it was three times as wide as a bus should be, and noticeably taller. A set of steps led down to
the floor from a door on one side.
“Mobile surgical unit,” Sam said into the comm unit, and Merrick nodded. “He’ll be in there.”
“Got it,” Rob replied. “We’re moving in on it.”
Sam and his group started forward at the same time, but sudden motion caught everyone’s attention. Around the sides of the building, what looked like small cars suddenly displayed red lights as they started rolling forward. The tops opened and Sam’s eyes went wide as he saw the belt-fed machine guns rise out of them.
“Take cover!” Sam yelled, but some of the machine guns were already firing. Sam aimed his gun at the nearest car and squeezed the trigger, but the bullets seemed to just bounce off. “They’re robots,” he shouted, forgetting that everyone could hear him perfectly. He raised his gun to fire again, but someone grabbed him by the arm and yanked him aside as another machine gun opened fire on the spot where he’d been.
One of Merrick’s men was laying prone on the floor and firing toward the bots, and Sam looked on in amazement as one of them suddenly stopped and began smoking.
“Aim low,” the SWAT sniper called out. “Batteries are in the bottom, like ballast. If you can hit the batteries, it kills the whole thing.”
Everyone dropped instantly to the floor and begin firing rapid three-round bursts. Sam saw his target shooting sparks, and the muzzle of its machine gun drooped toward the floor, no longer firing.
One of the bots came racing around some other machinery, aiming directly at the second team, but it was suddenly thrown off track as someone landed on top of it. Sam glanced that direction and saw that it was Denny Cortlandt, who had leapt onto its back and wrenched the machine gun free of its mount. It was still firing constantly, but Denny was pointing it at the other robots, and the heavier fifty-caliber slugs were doing far more damage than even the armor-piercing rounds the attackers were using.
“Bloody buggers!” Denny screamed. “Artificial intelligence can kiss my ass!”
The bots seemed confused for a couple of seconds, but then four of them turned and aimed their guns at Denny. Sam started to shout, but all four of them were suddenly hit by continuous streams of the smaller bullets, and it was less than a second before all of them were disabled.
