Antivirus (The Horde Series Book 1) (6 page)

“Apparently not,” Kat said quietly, ignoring Drew’s look. She was clearly agitated. “Can you tell us what happened?”

“It’s not a big secret at this point,” Alder shrugged. “I’m assuming that because the equipment is still attached to Mr. Edwards, our foreign friends do not yet have what they wanted.”

“Unless the deal was for technical specs only,” Kat pointed out, looking around the room at the stacks of papers, much of it company classified and definitely not supposed to be in the personal home office of one of their techs. “My guess is that this was just a demonstration.”

“That’s probably correct,” Alders agreed. “Anyway, we’ve been tracking the movements of this target organization for several years now, particularly since they have shown extreme interest in acquiring new technologies coming out of the States and they seem to have an unlimited bankroll.”

“Who are they?” Drew asked sharply.

“I’m not at liberty to say right now,” he answered. “But it seems your boy made the deal and then died demonstrating it.”

“Or he was killed,” Kat added thoughtfully. They were dealing with an incredibly new technology and she had no doubt that it could be put to dangerous use in the wrong hands.

“We haven’t ruled that out, either,” Alders said. “But I’m going to need to hear a lot more about this technology before we can make any deductions. How much can you tell me?”

“As long as we aren’t giving you technical specifications, we can probably answer most of your questions,” Drew replied after breathing out a long sigh. “The technology isn’t a big secret, at least the general concept. Lots of companies are researching it. FutureTek simply turned out to be the first to make it work.”

“Let’s go outside where we can talk, then,” Alders said.

“How’s Danielle doing?” Kat asked.

Alders offered her a sad smile. “She just found out that her recently-dead husband was engaged in industrial espionage that would have branded him a traitor in the eyes of the United States. My guess is she’s not doing well at all.”

Kat shook her head and looked at her boss. “This is getting out of hand, Drew. We are in way over our heads.”

“I take it there’s more to this story, then?” Alders said, picking up on her inflection. “If you have additional information, I would greatly appreciate you sharing it with me.”

Drew nodded. “Let’s go talk, Agent Alders.”

Chapter 7

FutureTek Headquarters, Helena, Montana:
Kat closed the door to her office and then fell into her chair, nearly numb with fatigue. With Jon still missing and Perry dead after apparently selling them out, exhaustion was quickly beginning to catch up to her. It didn’t help matters that Dan Hyde from Systemtech had smugly let Drew know in no uncertain terms that they would be pursuing a breach of first-rights suit against them because of Perry’s actions. And finally, there was Agent Rick Alders who was now hip-deep into everything FutureTek and its employees had ever done. While she held out hope that Alder’s involvement would help them in the end, it was still another unknown in a sea of question marks.

But at least they had the prototype back, and although Alders indicated that could be used as evidence and thus could be legally seized, he had agreed to let it return to the labs if it would help find Jon Sherrard and maybe shed some light on the whole mystery. Still, it was a small consolation since it was useless unless they knew where to look in the first place. There was also the matter of identifying a new driver; someone willing to separate their consciousness from their physical body in a prototype piece of equipment with no guarantees they would ever be able to return, and with the job of locating the proverbial needle in a haystack that was roughly the size of Canada.

Three days ago, Kat Hale and her colleagues were on the cusp of the biggest technological breakthrough in the last half century when one considered the potential inherent in being able to separate a person’s conscious self from his body. Now, their world had not only fallen apart; it had been thoroughly obliterated.

She leaned forward and laid her head on her arms. She willed the tears not to come, but they wouldn’t be denied, so she lay there, quietly sobbing, wondering just how things had gotten so bad, so quickly.

A tiny chime from her laptop alerted her to an incoming e-mail and she half-heartedly raised her head and glanced at the screen. One e-mail was in her box and she opened her eyes a little wider when she noticed that it had originated from her own PC. Grabbing her mouse, she clicked on it, opened it up, and read the three words on her monitor.

Kat...Hub...Jon

For a long moment, she could only stare and then suddenly it dawned on her. She nearly screamed as she jumped up, slamming her chair back against the wall. “David!” she yelled, running through her door and nearly colliding with Drew as she did so.

“Kat,” he said, grabbing her by the shoulders. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s Jon!” she shouted. “Get to the hospital, Drew! Get Jon over here immediately!”

“What are you talking about?”

“He’s back, Drew,” she said. “He’s here!”

“Who’s here?”

“Jon!”

“Jon?” Drew repeated in shocked surprise. “Come on, Kat. We’re all having a hard time here. Take a deep breath and settle…”

“Just do it!” she practically screamed and then turned as David Rivers came running down the hall. “We need to get the hub back online, David!”

“Online?” he asked incredulously. “Kat, I have that whole thing broken down! It would take weeks to get it back together and calibrated correctly! Why?”

“It’s Jon,” she answered. “He’s made contact!”

“How the hell is that possible?” Drew asked, his brow furrowed.

“I don’t know,” she panted. “But he just left a message on my e-mail.”

Jackson and Rivers both stared at her skeptically and she practically shoved Rivers against the wall in anger. “Look, this might be our only chance to get him back! Now do it!”

“But how?” Rivers asked helplessly, nearly cowering at her rage. “I can’t get it back together unless I have some time.”

Kat shook her head. “We may not have the time,” she growled, before brightening suddenly and turning to Drew. “What about the prototype?”

The CEO started to reply, but stopped and looked at Rivers questioningly. “Can we?”

“Hard to say, really,” Rivers said with a shrug. “Theoretically, I suppose it’s possible. He went in through the hub, but I don’t imagine it would be a problem having him come back out through the wireless prototype. The technology is the same. The prototype just isn’t attuned to him. However, we can clear Perry’s data easily enough and, with no one else in its memory matrix, it might be possible to overlay his settings onto it.”

“Then let’s do it,” Kat exclaimed.

“Hold on a sec, Kat,” Drew put in. “There are still a lot of variables to consider. We haven’t worked out the bugs and we don’t even know why Perry is dead. Weren’t you telling me just yesterday that you thought it was too dangerous to try to use it to rescue Jon?”

“Sending someone in, yes,” she snapped. “Bringing Jon out on his own is different. It’s the only way.”

“He’s been gone for three days, Kat. How do you even know he’s back?”

“I told you, he just sent me an email,” she said quickly.

“But where did it come from? Can someone be screwing with you?”

“It was from my own account,” she answered. “And it came in while I was sitting there.”

“I don’t know, Kat,” Drew said doubtfully, shaking his head.

“We have to try, Drew! If it’s him and this is our chance to get him back, we have to take that chance!”

Drew was silent for a minute before replying. Turning to Rivers, he finally said, “All right, David, get the prototype ready. Is it still routed through our network?”

“Yeah,” Rivers answered. “Perry never changed any of the settings.”

“That’s fortunate. Get it together and get out to my car with it.”

“Why?” Rivers asked.

“It’s wireless, David,” Drew said, tapping his temple with his finger to accentuate the obvious point. “The hospital might not let us check him out, so we’ll simply take it to him.”

“Oh, right,” he answered sheepishly. “Okay, I’m on it. Give me five minutes.”

“You really think he’s back, Kat?” Drew asked plainly as David raced back into his lab, leaving them alone.

She nodded again. “I do.”

“Well, see if you can communicate with him and tell him what we’re doing. We’re in new territory here.”

“Will do,” she said and swung back and headed into her office. She threw herself into her chair and quickly rattled out a reply to the e-mail, hoping that somehow, he would get her message.

Hub down, using prototype. Can you get there?

30 agonizing seconds later, she had a two-word reply.

Yes. Hurry.

A short time later, they were at the hospital and Kat’s fingers worked feverishly, attaching the electrodes to Jon Sherrard’s left arm and left temple, while David Rivers did the same on the other side of the bed. The prototype equipment lay across his chest and Alex Jordan, the other lab tech, was quickly checking and rechecking the connections.

“We’re good here,” Alex said.

“Is this going to work?” Jen Sherrard asked doubtfully, looking at Drew as they worked.

The CEO stood beside her, his arms folded tightly as he watched. “I hope so,” he answered quietly.

“Done on this side,” Kat said, standing up.

“Here, too,” Rivers added. Reaching down, he positioned Jon’s fingers on the gateway pad and then pressed in the code. Looking up, he said hopefully. “Gate is open.”

“So what happens now?” Jen asked.

Kat shook her head. “We wait, Jen,” she said softly. “It’s a long shot, but we think it can work. All we have to do is wait for Jon to make the transition.”

“How long will it take?” Jen started to ask, but stopped suddenly as her husband’s eyes snapped open.

For a moment, no one spoke

And then it was Jon who broke the silence, his voice little more than a dry croak. “Lord, do I have a headache,” he whispered with a wince and the whole room erupted into cheers. Jen threw herself on her husband, alternating between crying into his neck and kissing his face. Kat couldn’t help but cry, too, and she threw her own arms around Drew’s neck and hugged him close. Rivers sat back in stunned amazement and just smiled, while Alex patted him on the shoulder and beamed.

The nightmare was over.

Or so they thought.

After a few minutes, Kat leaned down and kissed her friend on the forehead. He still had his arms wrapped tightly about his wife and was refusing to let the startled nursed pull her away so they could check his vitals and try and figure out what had just happened. “You be good now, you hear me, Jon?” she asked, wiping away a tear.

“Where’s the fun in that?” he whispered, but managed a weak smile.

“Get yourself better,” she added. “We’ll talk when you feel like it. I’m sure you have a lot to tell us.”

A dark shadow crossed Jon’s face and he looked momentarily confused, before refocusing and smiling up at her. “Yeah,” he finally whispered hoarsely. “A lot.”

Kat straightened up and took Drew by the elbow and looked at the two lab techs. “Come on, guys,” she said happily, her relief nearly overwhelming. It was over. Jon was back. And all she wanted to do now was go home and sleep. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Sure thing, Kat,” Rivers said and paused to give Jon a quick pat on the shoulder. “Good to have you back, boss.” Sherrard smiled at him and Rivers turned back to Kat. “I don’t know about you guys, but I could use a drink.”

“I’m buying” Drew said, casting a knowing smile at Jon, who was again busy kissing and hugging his wife. “And when he gets his lazy ass out of bed, I’ll buy one for him, too.”

Kat returned the smile as she watched her two friends and figured her bed could wait a little longer. A drink beforehand sounded perfect. With that, she hooked arms with Drew and the four FutureTek people walked out of the hospital room, leaving Jon and Jen to do their best to fight off the nurses and reacquaint themselves.

“All’s well that ends well, right?” Drew said as they walked down the antiseptic-looking hallway.

Kat thought back to Jon’s brief look of…what? Horror? Desperation? As glad as she was that he was back, she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to hear what he had to say. “Yeah,” she said thoughtfully in answer to Drew’s question. “Let’s hope it does.”

Intermission

The worm continued its work, day and night, as it traveled through the endless channels and pathways as part of the system’s electrical current. Here and there, its programming kicked in and it would break down and reconfigure key components, reworking hardware and rewriting software in order to reconfigure the system to better accept its own programming and meet its ultimate goal.

Normally, the Horde could reconfigure a system in time measured in nanoseconds. But two things had happened to drastically change that. In the first place, this wasn’t just any system. It was one of the most complex creations on the face of the earth and it would take days to reach a satisfactory level of assimilation and reconfiguration. More importantly, the Horde had moved beyond simple artificial intelligence and had achieved consciousness. It was thinking.

And it had a plan.