CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
"I'm completely operational and all my circuits are functioning perfectly."
"I'm sorry Dave; I can't let you do that." - HAL 9000 in the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
So far so good, thought Carlos, as he noticed that the factory entrance below was unguarded. He had not had any close encounters with any cyberts on their way here. Either the explosion in the tunnel had helped accomplish this remarkable feat, or someone had got there before them. The grenades he had put down the chute to the tunnel to delay the Cyber had worked better than he had planned. They had set off an even bigger explosion by igniting the natural gas, petroleum waste and inflammable chemicals that were present. Should have thought of that years ago, he thought. Cyber must have cleaned out the tunnels plenty.
I just hope Mother and Harry are all right in the Healing Room.
The escape route that Carlos had in mind went up from one of the farthest points in his underground community, up into a part of the large factory overhead. On any ordinary day, the area was filled with cyberts. Today was not an "ordinary" day. Carlos and his shadows had no idea what to expect topside or in the building above. They would have to take it very slowly, and hope it was still business as usual. Not all cyberts were a threat. Just those armed with death.
He hated blindly moving forward, but there was no other option. If they moved slowly, the factory cyberts might not even detect them if they weren’t equipped to do so. It was the only way to ensure his Nest's safety for as long as possible. If they had tried to reconnoiter the area, they might have attracted attention, but at least they would have had the intelligence they needed. Now, they had no choice but to go in with blind faith.
His Shadows had walled off the stairwell up to the factory earlier, knowing full well that unless the cyberts had business at that exact location, they would never notice the wall. If they had noticed, there would have been enough time to escape through another exit. Now, the Shadows were in the process of cutting through the massive steel door at the top of the stairwell to make an opening large enough for them to slip through—just large enough to squeeze through. No point in making it easy for the Cyber to slip through as well.
When the laser ax had done the job, the men switched the blade to a single thin beam. This would be their main weapon. Their only weapon in here—most likely their last stand.
Anxiously, they listened through the steel perforation for any indications that something awaited their arrival on the other side. No sounds. Carlos signaled for the battering crew to lift up a huge iron pipe that his strongest Shadows had suspended from the tunnel ceiling and crashed it through the opening. There was a loud thunk and a clang as the pipe broke through the perforations and the cut steel hit the metal floor on the other side. The steel wall now had a small hole, large enough for the largest of the Shadows to fit through, but small enough to keep the larger and most dangerous cyberts out.
Once inside, Carlos, with another silent signal, sent his point crew to secure the immediate area. They took up positions where there was a passage or a doorway. Once in position and after a visual assessment, they signaled 'clear.' Carlos expected more of a reception. Next, he sent his four best grenade launchers to cover the others, fanning out as much as necessary to cover the territory and be on the constant lookout for cyberts. They were up two floors before they encountered any cyberts at all.
The first room they secured was full of lifeless or inactive cyberts in what appeared to be a cybert assembly room. Logical. Maybe it was too logical? Too easy an assumption to make. Don't agonize over it, Carlos told himself. Some things can be what they seem.
Parts of machinery lay all over the tables. Eight or nine Cyberts stood frozen in front of them, striking various poses one might have expected to see in a working factory. Carlos noted that these Cyber seemed to have adopted the same kind of hierarchy as their human creators. Carlos saw a Cyber supervisor monitoring lesser-equipped cyberts who were assembling parts into a whole machine, while other cyberts seemed to have been engaged in specific jobs in the plant, reading notes, running stress tests. That's odd, Carlos thought. Almost human-like responses. Wouldn't the multi-layered supervision be inefficient for Cyber? What would be the need for supervision if specific-function-based cyberts were running perfectly? What do the supervisors do to contribute to the plant's efficient operation?
Carlos had trouble believing they had done so well in penetrating the factory without opposition. And, there was something else. Did the massive explosion somehow have the same effect as the wave grenades that had been so useful in disrupting cybert brains? Or was it just the results of the blast reaching outward with disintegrated metal and composite material? A wave blaster operated on the principle that vibration could cause extreme damage by rattling and banging the delicate innards of the braincase against the surrounding hard metal shell, but Cyber hadn't invented the wave blaster.
However, Cyber used the first wave blasters against human adversaries, turning their soft brain tissue to mush as the vibrations had rattled the skull.
Makr could have shut some cyberts down deliberately to minimize the simple danger of the vibration, rather than risk total malfunctions. Then, at any moment, He could unfreeze those that were still undamaged and cause utter chaos at will.
Carlos knew full well that Makr's reach went as far as any complete or slightly damaged Cyber systems. Some parts of a Cyber system could be as simple and basic as the chip implanted in Bios. Any of these cyberts or cybert parts could be observing and sending data to Makr right now!
Wait! These were all factory cyberts! None of the real dangerous ones were here. Where are the security cyberts—the ones with the weapons? He signaled to the others by pointing to his eye, which meant stay alert. The message was passed on down the chain of command until everyone understood it.
Question now was what to do with the four hundred plus Shadows held up behind his advance team?
Unfortunately, the Cyber security force wasn't all he missed.
Elsewhere, from the lower passageways in the building and unaware that Carlos and his crew were nearby; Lieutenant Kieran O'Shea proceeded with her part of the mission. She found what she was looking for—a way up that hadn't been too damaged much from the explosion. In fact, it may have inadvertently opened it more. She and the others were amazed that the entire factory hadn't gone up, too. But then again, there was plenty of thick welded steel and dense concrete between the tunnels and the factory.
They would encounter resistance topside. How much was a mystery. So what else was new? Assuming that Carlos' Nest had escaped safely, her team's task now was to secure the perimeter of the factory and keep it that way, if possible, to give Mother-General the time she needed to get a team of guerillas to the Makr mainframe. But first they had to get back Outside and that was a major obstacle in itself. She didn’t even have a backup plan. A fall back zone. This was the real deal. A fight to the death. Manufactured metal machines were at war against the people who built them.
The lieutenant moved her people through two floors of empty steel spaces before finding a space that was being used for some purpose; she found exactly the same Cyber assembly room as Carlos had. She was unaware of that point until one of her less graceful men dropped his laser ax with the safety off. She remembered the disaster her accident with the laser ax caused! Maybe now it would be helpful. The laser blade on its highest setting sliced through the room, luckily missing other members of the team. Everyone saw the white hot beam as it sliced through the room without changing a thing. Nothing was damaged. That in itself was puzzling.
Nothing was damaged, but she saw the flutter or flicker of the image. SensaVision here! Illusion. All of it. We'll see what damage we've really done. Or, it’s trap! She didn't know if anyone else had come to the same conclusion, but it was her job to give the alarm and the order.
"We've been had! Grenades! Shields!" Shields went up simultaneously as the grenades were launched, a
nd before they went off, all the team members were lying flat on their back under cover of their shields. Kieran was the first one up followed by Sergeant Gray.
"Good job, Sergeant. Now, let's sift through this mess to see what we have."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Oh, Sergeant, be careful. We usually see our enemy."
He nodded grimly in agreement. He was a veteran. He knew the score. Kieran was glad he and his soldiers knew the drill. Gray also knew Makr constantly changed the rules.
She smiled at the irony that another "malfunctioning" laser ax helped her to see her enemy now.
Sergeant Gray sent a four-person team ahead for recon. Those who remained, set to work clearing away the rubble caused by the blast so that the Bio Cyber experts could get at the disabled but intact hardware. Whether they would be able to figure out from the rubble and melted metal just what had been here before was a toss-up.
Gray was betting they wouldn't and wondered what the new lieutenant would do next. He had to admit she knew her stuff. In fact, she seemed to be more on the ball than any other commander he had seen in action—except Captain Jackson, of course. Jackson didn't use the Cyber experts to figure these things out, he thought. He went himself.
A few minutes later, the experts returned.
"We've never seen anything of this caliber before," said the lead expert, a balding, white-haired Shadow who looked very uncomfortable in his Stealth.
Sergeant Gray was sure this Shadow had never been out of the Nest until now, but listened dutifully as the old man continued, "It's more advanced than any hardware we've ever taken in a fight or scavenged."
"Thank you. I appreciate your efforts." The lieutenant didn't seem too concerned as she spoke to the team. "I thought as much. Here's what I want you to do now. Identify networks, banks, circuits, connectors—anything that might be communicating with Makr’s central server information. This is the server we are after. We’ve always known it was in located in this city, but we didn’t have the force to take it out and all the Cyber protectors guarding it. Now we have no choice."
Couldn’t this be sub-station or conduit to other servers around the world?" someone asked.
"Sure. It’s highly possible this is only a cybert repair facility. It is highly unlikely we stumbled upon Makr’s main server; however… If we destroy this place, maybe it will affect the whole in some way. Maybe we can wipe out SensaVision or other communication in the area."
Sergeant Gray leaned against a piece of machinery and mulled it over. "Sounds reasonable to me,” he said as he was up and moving, "Everyone listen to me. Blast everything that looks pristine! When it turns into something else, we’ve cut Makr’s eyes! For once we’ll see our real enemy is just a piece of equipment."
He wasn’t sure of that himself that his orders would make any difference, but his men were depressed, scared and frustrated and needed something. So, he made it up, taking the lieutenant’s lead.
"Good enough. Then let's disrupt Makr's chief means of communication and sever those damn connections." As the Cyber experts set out to carry out her orders, she saw Sergeant Gray watching, obviously still evaluating her. "Got me figured out yet, Sergeant?"
"Ma'am?"
"Enough with the 'ma'am' crap. Call me Lieutenant or Kieran. Either one is fine with me. Look, Greg—Captain Jackson is—or was—my friend, a close friend. I miss him, too. I hope that he's managed to survive all of this. My job, my responsibility and yours, Sergeant Gray, is to help make sure the human race survives. I know that's a monumental task—maybe even impossible, but have you got anything better to do? I know it takes time to establish a soldier's kind of trust. I wish we had the time. Don't hesitate when I give an order because it doesn't make sense to you. It could get you killed. Clear?"
"Yes, ma'am...er...Lieutenant."
"Good." She said smiling. "Get a couple of laser axes to those Cyber experts and help them sever the connections permanently."
Sergeant Gray had a new opinion of the lieutenant. Maybe it was not so much time as it was experience with a new commander... He decided he would not be thinking much along these lines again. The lieutenant was right. There was no time.
.
Carlos didn't hear the grenade blast but he saw a flicker, instead, and suddenly there seemed to be a clear passageway opening to the outside, but was it a real exist—or another trap? He sent all but about twenty volunteer Shadows on ahead. If this is a Makr trap, we're the target, not the others, he figured. Once outside, they'll be all right if they stick to the Shadows and follow orders. Better yet, the four hundred Shadows could create enough chaos and confusion even if all they did was just split up and randomly walk anywhere at all. Unfortunately, most would be too scared to do that. I'm such a pessimist, he thought.
"Drop charges. Ten minute timer," he announced. "Everyone out, now!"
The Shadows raced down separate hallways away from the blast. But it was really a ten second timer, not a 10 minute one. Not enough time to adapt and disarm these charges—especially if the cyberts thought they had ten minutes.
Makr had to be hiding something of interest, thought Carlos. We'll see about that. Around the steel-reinforced corner down the hallway Carlos and half of his volunteers waited, ears covered and eyes shielded. The other half had gone the other way. The explosion rocked them a little less than hundred yards away—even with the steel and lead shielding in the walls surrounding the assembly room.
Now, we'll see what it really is, Carlos thought. He signaled for the leads to check the area and to look for anything that looked like it didn't belong here—like cyberts that moved.
"Think that was enough explosives, Carlos?" asked his lead Cyber expert, an attractive, red-headed female in her early twenties.
"Going all the way aren't we? We don't need the analysis. Not time enough to do anything about it anyway."
"There's nothing but molten slag here now."
"Just use your ax and probe where it looks the most harmless. I have a feeling things are not what they seem—not even now."
"How do we fight an enemy we can't see?"
"Well, you don't stand around and announce you haven't a clue. Do it! Now!"
"Yessir. Yes, Captain." She hurried off to do the appointed task.
How could we have been so stupid not to think Makr would hide behind SensaVision? Carlos chided himself. A ten minute talk with Harry or Marlene could have told us what Makr is capable of. I should've been listening. No excuses. I should have been listening all along.
"Everything is as it appears, Carlos. We did as you ordered. We probed and probed. We melted one very big piece of hardware, but it doesn’t look like it’s used for communication."
"No, you’re wrong. Everything in Makr’s shadow is about connections. Even that destroyed hardware could still be His doing. How big a piece of hardware?"
"It's just a guess, but it looks like over half the room, but in reality, a city block, maybe more. A single chip in the brain is a computer. That huge slab of molten metal you see is part of the illusion to make us see what we wanted to see: a safe way out."
Of course, Carlos was guessing. He wasn’t sure of anything, but he wanted to keep his people strong. Recon had been a total disaster. Outside, the whole world flickered changing millions of images. His men returned disappointed.
"Any flickers at all?"
"I don't know what you mean?"
"Image flickers. Does this rubble look exactly as it did ten minutes ago? Still look the same? Exactly the same?"
The reconnaissance team looked around, shrugged and shook their heads as he expected. Nothing.
Look harder, Carlos. Look harder. That explosion had to make a difference. It had to!
"We don't see any change, Carlos. Sorry."
How does Harry do it? How does he see through the illusion? Carlos wondered. For a minute he tried to imagine himself as Harry. Try to think like Harry. Nothing! He paused to take a breath, quickly shifted his eyes. He saw somet
hing—actually, a lack of something; but whatever it was he did not see, he did see the end or the beginning of an image with a hint of reality coming through. The illusion has to be personal to each man somehow. That's what Makr does, that's how SensaVision works. It works on individuals! It moves when they do. Does this mean that Makr is weakening? Or is that just how the illusions transpire? There was only one way to find out. He had to get Harry.
"Captain Montoya! Carlos! Where are you? Help us please! If you can hear me, please help us!" It was Kieran. It was her voice, anyway. She was pleading for help.
She was either in big trouble or this was an illusion, too.
Carlos was quick to poll the others. "Anyone else hear Lieutenant O'Shea?"
A couple voices chimed in.
"Yeah, sure. We're hearing it. I can take some men..." It was Carlos' top sergeant.
"Yes, of course. Where is she?" said one of the Cyber experts he didn't know very well. So he turned to his top sergeant.
"Tell me what she said exactly," Carlos ordered, raising his voice so he could be heard by all.
"Why..." the sergeant started to question the captain. As the top sergeant, he often got away with a little insubordination—up to a point.
"Just tell me exactly," Carlos demanded.
"All right. She said, 'Captain Montoya, Sergeant Johnson help us. Where are you? We need you.' I think that's pretty accurate."
He looked over at the Cyber expert who shrugged.
"I heard something a little different," he said. "Then again, I didn't know the lieutenant very well. I was just re-assigned here last week."
"It's not what I heard either," Carlos said. "One last question, Johnson: Ever hear Lieutenant O'Shea ask for anyone's help at any time?"
"Can't say as I have."
"Sergeant, get the word out to everyone here. 'Ignore the voices; it's a trap. If you see Lieutenant O'Shea, ask her to surrender.' If it's Kieran, she will." I hope. "If she believes you're who you say you are."
"What if she thinks the same as us...that we're a trick, too?"
"Got a better idea, Sergeant?" I know this was lame, he thought, but surely they could see he was helpless here.
"No, Sir, I don't."
"Good. Then do as I...I ask, okay?"
The sergeant nodded and went to pass the word: Lady, don't even show your face here, he thought to himself. I may not know what to do. Damn, I have my orders, and I still don't know.