2041 Sanctuary (Dark Descent) (19 page)

But the GMRC are able to control Deepnet?

They like to think they can and to an extent they can delve very deep indeed. Anything that enters from the Surface Web is trackable for a time and with the vast resources the GMRC has at its disposal it can send in armies of operators and intelligent spyware, what we hackers call Hounds, to comb the digital verse. Only the very gifted can evade their reach. _

And you are one of these?

No. I only operate in the upper levels of Deepnet. I skim the data and messages left by those who dare to resist the GMRC and global governments; and yet if you know how, and I do, this is enough to find out information otherwise completely hidden from the general populace. The system we are on now is totally independent of the web; nevertheless it is still patrolled by subversive GMRC spyware programmes, three in fact. Fortunately I have been able to trick them into leaving me alone. _

So what are these trends you have noticed?
Jessica typed, unhappy that this hacker seemed to be backing out of their promise to enlighten her with the truth of why journalists were being targeted and murdered.

Movement of resources. Not just your run of the mill government logistics, but relocation on an industrial scale of epic proportions. Foodstuffs, water reserves, oil, gas, you name it, it is being taken from stockpiles allocated for the general populace. The same stockpiles that are needed to see out the after effects from the impact of the asteroid AG5. _

Taken where?

I don’t know, that is the problem. It simply disappears from the records, records that have been very carefully monitored and suppressed. The only reason I noticed it is that I plugged masses of data into a sophisticated programme that hunts out different types of numerical patterns. If I’d looked on a local, or even a national scale, I wouldn’t have seen anything out of the ordinary, but I was looking on a global scale and the patterns are there and they are as stark as the daytime sky is dark. There is no mistake; the world’s resources are being siphoned off at an exponential rate. Within six months half of the stockpiles will be empty; within the next two years, if the speed of the removal continues, they will be completely barren. _

What does that mean?

It means before the world starves to death, it will die of dehydration first. _

‘Dear God,’ Jessica murmured out loud.
But why would the GMRC do such a thing?
she typed, hitting the Enter key with trepidation.

I’m not sure, that is what terrifies me the most, that and the fact that at least some of the largest governments are in on it. They have to be. WAIT! _

Jessica looked at the last word, her tension increasing. For over a minute no further message appeared and she looked around, feeling more than a little disconcerted by this lapse in the conversation.
What’s wrong?
she asked the hacker. No reply was forthcoming for another minute and then the screen came to life once more.

I was afraid this might happen. Ms. Klein, you must trust me now. You will find a small transmitter taped to the underside of the desk. Pull it off and place it on your ear. _

Jessica felt underneath the table and found a small object held to the surface with a piece of tape. Peeling it away, she withdrew a small earpiece which she eyed warily before brushing it off and placing it in her right ear.

‘Ms. Klein,’ said a man’s voice in perfect English but with a heavy German accent, ‘my name is Eric. The system we were just conversing on has been compromised. You will need to leave right away. The GMRC will have despatched a team.’

Her voice wavered. ‘A team?’

‘A team of operatives. You must leave now, hurry!’

Jessica sprang up and ran to the staircase. Clattering down the steps, she shouldered her bag, its large googly eyes swaying on her back.

‘I thought the system was secure!’ she said as she rushed out the front of the library.

‘Take a left though the University complex,’ Eric told her. ‘The earpiece has a tracker so I can guide your movements.’

Jessica veered to one side, following his instructions.

‘Apparently there was a fourth GMRC programme embedded within one of the components,’ he continued. ‘Like a sleeper agent, it activated once a set number of key words were strung together. Very clever, it was held within a component I assumed was redundant, but the GMRC must have introduced it to the manufacturer at least fifteen years ago when these computers were manufactured. They have great foresight.’

Jessica jogged down a long corridor, her breathing stretched. ‘You sound like you respect them.’

‘Of course, a healthy admiration of an adversary avoids complacency and aids in identifying their weaknesses and strengths.’

‘Where now?’ she asked, finding herself emerging from the far wing of the main building and out into the night.

‘Cross the road ahead of you and then head diagonally right across the park.’

Jessica angled in the direction he wanted.

‘It would be a good idea to run faster,’ he said.

Not for the first time, Jessica cursed her shoes as she turned a trot into an awkward running lope through the thick snow that blanketed the pitch-black park.

A deep pulsating hum approached from the air off to her right. ‘I think I can hear a helicopter!’

‘That will be the GMRC response team. Don’t worry, you’re almost there.’

‘Almost where?!’ she said, the blackness still all-encompassing in front of her. As she uttered the words, lights blazed out ahead, highlighting the edge of the snow covered park she had just traversed. A door slid open in the side of a beaten up old van and Jessica saw that a young man stood inside it, holding out a hand for her to take. Grabbing it, she was hauled inside before the door closed behind her with a swish and a bang, which vibrated through the floor pan. The youth, for he was barely an adult, jumped into the driver’s seat. Starting the old petrol engine, he shifted the vehicle into gear and floored the accelerator, sending the rear wheels spinning in the snow. The tyres gained traction and they shot forwards, forcing Jessica to brace herself as they did so.

After they reached a steady speed, Jessica squeezed through into the front passenger seat, falling down into it with a great exhalation of breath. The adolescent looked over at her, a broad grin on his young features.

‘Nice run,’ he said, his voice higher pitched and less manly than the one she had been speaking to over the communication device.

She frowned. ‘That was you I was just speaking to?’

‘Yes, I disguised my voice just in case. You can never be too careful when you’re dealing with the GMRC.’

‘You’re just a kid.’ She felt foolish to have been led up the garden path by a person only just out of diapers.

‘I’m nineteen,’ he said, without any hint of taking offence at her comment. ‘We were lucky,’ he continued as he drove past the slow moving traffic which had ventured out in the treacherous conditions. ‘Any longer and they would have caught your heat trail. As it is, they will only find your physical passage and we’ll have been long gone by then.
Dummkopfs
!’ He gave a whoop of joy.

Jessica blinked in disbelief at his lack of fear at their situation. ‘You do realise we would have been in serious trouble had we been caught?’

Seeing that she was less than impressed by his attitude, Eric became subdued in a belated attempt at mature gravitas. ‘Of course,’ he said, glancing over to her, ‘but I had it under control. I always have redundancies in place. I’m not called
das Gespenst
for nothing, you know.’

‘The Ghost. Who calls you that?’

‘Well – I do,’ he admitted, ‘but if people knew who I was they would know me as
das Gespenst
.’ He sat up higher in his chair at the mere mention of the handle he had bestowed upon himself.

Seeing that he set great store by it and deciding not to comment further, Jessica took in his appearance. He wore an old, worn-out, leather biker jacket, black jeans, grubby white trainers that had seen better days and a T-shirt with some obscure words and images adorning it. His short blonde hair stuck up at odd angles and an almost effeminate profile matched his less than masculine voice.
Dear God
, she thought,
what am I doing here? This kid is young enough to be my son, how can he possibly help me against the might of the GMRC?

‘So, where are we heading, Eric?’

He shot her another broad smile. ‘
Hauptsitz
.’

Headquarters. She groaned inwardly, praying it wasn’t located in his mother’s basement. This definitely wasn’t going as she’d hoped, although what she’d been expecting she wasn’t quite sure. But not this, that was for certain, not a thrill-seeking youth.

‘I like your hair,’ he said, trying to start a conversation as she sat looking out of the window wondering what her next move should be. ‘You look very different from how you do on the television.’

‘It’s a disguise.’

‘Ah.’ He tapped his nose and nodded. ‘It is a good one, Jessica; may I call you Jessica?’

Jessica nodded and an uncomfortable silence ensued with Jessica lost in thought until they eventually slowed and came to a stop outside an old warehouse complex. Eric hit a button on his dashboard and a rickety metal shutter wound up from the ground and disappeared above. The van edged inside and came to a halt. Eric whacked on the handbrake, cut the engine and hit the button once more on the dash. Exiting the vehicle, he led Jessica through a cold, empty garage as the external door sank back down behind them. A dim, flickering fluorescent light hung on a wall above an old door that was filled with dents and covered in flaking green paint to reveal a rotting, blackened wood surface beneath. The whole place smelled of damp timber and engine oil. So far Eric’s head office left a lot to be desired.

Taking out a set of jangling keys, the young hacker opened the door and stepped through, with Jessica close behind. Inside, a small elevator took them up three storeys to the top floor. As they emerged from the lift, Jessica was taken aback by the room in front of her. Having expected some filthy damp pit, the spacious, clean open-plan apartment that Eric moved into was a welcome relief. The subdued lighting highlighted a pristine white kitchen off to one side, which was complemented by a luxurious living-cum-dining area in the centre. Over to the right of the high ceilinged room, a ladder led up to a second level, which looked like a bedroom. Underneath, gathering little dust, was a bank of computers and screens, and a mass of cabling and wires which led off in all directions. Setting off the whole scene, a sweeping glass wall provided a spectacular view of the Berlin skyline.

Jessica walked over to take in the vista and their surroundings outside. As she looked, Eric came to stand beside her.

‘It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it?’ he said.

‘It is, very beautiful.’ The image of the brightly lit city hunkering beneath its snowy blanket looked picture-perfect in all respects.

‘The glass is covered in one way film so the outside looks like part of the metal façade,’ Eric told her, as if she had inquired about it. ‘This whole place was left to me by a friend; well, dead relative, to be more precise. My uncle was in the car manufacturing business, made specialist parts for some of the top companies until he went bust. Luckily before he died he left all of this to me in his will. I say “luckily” as he wasn’t really my uncle, he and his wife used to look after me when I was little and not having children of their own they decided to leave everything to me.’

‘You don’t have any other family?’

‘No, I’m an orphan.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, suddenly feeling for this young man.

Eric looked out across the city for a moment without saying anything. ‘Don’t be. I’m doing pretty well for an orphan, don’t you think?’ He waved a hand around his impressive home, lightening the mood.

‘You are, this is a lovely place; but aren’t you worried about being discovered by the GMRC or German authorities?’

‘Why?’ he said with genuine surprise. ‘I haven’t done anything wrong and I operate below the radar. I am
das Gespenst
, they don’t even know I exist.’

‘Until today,’ Jessica pointed out.

Eric made a face to show his doubt about that observation. ‘They won’t find any trace of me.’

‘Not of you, but what about me? We both know the manpower the GMRC has behind it. It won’t be long until they pin me down, or at least to someone matching my description. And I will lead them to you.’

‘Then we will have to change your appearance again,’ he told her. ‘Not a problem. Look – relax – we are safe here, I guarantee it.’

And there it is
, Jessica thought to herself,
the folly of youth … or is it arrogance?
Either way Eric didn’t instil her with the confidence he obviously felt in abundance.

She pointed to his grotto of high-tech equipment. ‘So, is this how you hacked into my computer at my home?’

Eric gave her an odd look, a look of incomprehension.

‘When you showed me the photo of Martin’s body on-screen and then told me to get out of the house,’ she said.

He looked bewildered. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

Jessica, getting concerned now, struggled with her wallet and pulled out the sheet of paper with the library’s address on it; she handed it to him. ‘You printed this out for me, that’s why I’m here. You told me to come here twenty-four hours ago!’

‘I’m sorry, Jessica, I did not contact you at your home. Yes, I did expect your arrival, but only from speaking to Martin. Whoever hacked your home computer, it was not me.’

Jessica’s head spun at the implication. ‘Someone else knows I am here. Someone else knows about you, Martin, everything!’

‘That’s impossible. No one else knows.’