Grayman Book One: Acts of War
Page 17
Grayman:
Your leg is throbbing again when you finally retire, unfolding yourself in the dark on the bed like a corpse on a slab, content to retreat into yourself, into your aching body and away from what little of the world remains to you. It’s well after lights-out, but you no longer bother to watch the clock. It’s just another minimal light-source in the darkness of your cell, along with the indicators on the bed and walls that keep quiet track of your continued functioning. And the ready-lights on the sentry cameras that glow like animal-eyes from the corners of the room.
Which, you notice, are unexpectedly dark. Someone has turned the cameras off.
New light now: the flash-glow of the multimedia system over the bed, as the screen they use to communicate with you from a safe distance comes alive. Bright, bold words begin to scroll across it.
“DO NOT SPEAK. THIS IS A DISCREET INTERFACE. MAINTAIN VOCAL SILENCE. OBSERVE.”
Then a swirling flow of visuals: video snippets, tech diagrams, photo stills, 3D constructs, all with flashes of titles and specifications.
There’s a suit of elaborate armor with claims of head-to-toe protection. The helmet has a full visor that runs a demo of heads-up feed that includes night vision, Terahertz and heat/sound imaging that see through solid walls, along with tactical graphics and data feed that look very much like what flashed on your glasses in Greece. Demos run showing integrated auto-rappel gear and linked weapons with auto-targeting capabilities. Specialized weapons smother bombs (and the bombers who wear them), melt away locks and blast through walls with minimal blowback.
New VTOL gunships fly into simulated urban battlefields to fast-drop teams of the armored suits on their motorized lines, while satellite battle graphics play out war games that easily track, flank and neutralize target enemies.
“FOR YOU:” scrolls bold over the flash feed of images. Mixed into the technical data you catch certain titles and terms: “Project Manticore”, “Datascan”, “Tactical Interface Armor”, “ICW”, “SENTAR Corporation”, “McCain Foundation”…
“FOR YOU:” The minimal message repeats as the highlights of the presentation replay. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the screen blacks. An instant later, just the text message:
“FOR YOU. ACCEPT HENDERSON OFFER. ACCEPT?”
Then nothing but darkness.
Except the indicator lights: the sentry cameras have come back on.
Interesting.
Still lying back on your bed, you raise your voice to the ceiling:
“Tell Henderson: I’ll take Option Two.”
You wonder if the sentry cameras can see you grinning in the dark.