Read The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella Page 47

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  Louis Santino and the box drone were at a standstill. The whirring sound had been brief. From the moment Santino had expressed alarm and stopped moving, the noise had halted. Staring at the drone, the human literally felt the drone staring back. The air around him had ceased to be cold, instead Santino felt the heat permeating from his body as he sweated from head to toe. His fingers were gripped to the tower frame, not attached by frostbite, but by his own terror of not knowing if movement would trigger a drone action he was not prepared to manage. As he considered the position of his hand, the simulated sunlight he had nonchalantly requested minutes before, began to fade.

  "No, no, don't!" Santino proclaimed aloud as the sky encircling him transformed from the comforting soft white glow to the background of a seamless black night. If a human had sensitive eyes, The Network would have the drone slowly adjust the light. But Santino did not have sensitive eyes, this drone should have instantly switched the light off only on his command. With growing awareness, Santino determined he would not be providing any more instructions to a box acting on its own. He desperately wanted to look at his com, to see if updated information had appeared, but the slowly setting simulated sun told him an action would probably come too late for official or unofficial word to reach him. As the light faded completely out, a red laser beam flashed on and aimed its pointer directly at the spot where Santino's hand grasped the frame at marker 56.

  "No, no, Santa Maria, no!" Santino shouted. He had seen the work of red laser beams on news programs. "No, no, no, off, off!" he cried as the drone once more increased the volume of its whirring sound. "No, please no!" Santino begged the box. With his screams reverberating in the empty dark forest where bears, wolves and deer had long ago been frightened away, and chased deep into the trees by the construction of the hydroelectricity complex, Santino expected no response. Launching reflexive actions to prevent capitulation to the waiting darkness, he moved to lift his hand off the frame, and direct his feet down the ladder. But the drone stopped prepping. Before the human could make his retreat, the machine revved up the force and intensity of the beam, and the whirring sound mimicked the extraction of a firing mechanism. The red laser reconfigured as a singular heat source directing its trajectory towards Santino's hand, through to a green-lit sensor on the tower, and at impact, set off an explosion bringing down the transmission tower in Sector 2G.

  Alert signals lit up monitoring stations all over the world.