Code Breakers: Beta (21 page)

It was no real dilemma after all. Crazy or not, Xian was her last hope, and Gabe had sacrificed himself in order for her to get here. She had to trust the plan.

“Okay,” she said. “You’ve got a deal. You repair my server, and I’ll get this bird in the air—once we’ve dug it out of the sand.”

Xian did a weird little jump and pumped his fist. He bent down behind one of the stub wings and pulled out a shovel. He handed it to her. “We work now, yes?”

“Sure. But first, I want to see your diagnostic on the server. I want to be sure you can fix it.”

He tapped his head with his distorted fingers. “Xian can fix. Trust Xian.”

How had it come to this? The one man she would never trust in a million years had her fate in his weird, fishy hands. She smiled politely and nodded. “I trust Xian. I just want to see first.”

Petal followed him back to the boat, where he rummaged around his myriad boxes of server parts, circuit boards, and a slew of electronic flotsam and jetsam. He pulled out a fistful of items, dumping them on his workbench. He hunched over Alpha’s motherboard and switched on a lamp. The desk was worn where his elbows rested against the surface, indicating he had sat for many years in this very position, fixing one thing or another. It gave her confidence now to watch him work like this.

All the madness aside, when he concentrated, it was like watching a god create. His touch was delicate as his fingers manipulated miniature tweezers and screwdrivers, taking out blackened parts and placing them with the utmost care onto an EM-shielded, anti-static mat.

Ten minutes later Xian had all the parts laid out, and his battered old holoscreen connected to the processor. A stream of data flowed down the screen. He glanced up at it, then back to the parts before doing a double take and then standing from his chair, pushing his face just inches from the screen.

“Xian never see this before. Is... majestic. Consciousness.”

He slumped into his chair; his eyes stretched wide like a whale’s with awe, and his mouth hung open. It then stretched to a smile.

“Well?” Petal said. “Can you fix it without ruining the main parts? It has to remain as original as possible because—”

“Because it’s all one thing,” Xian said, cutting her off, clearly understanding what it was. “Is one personality. Xian know this. Xian will fix.”

For the next hour, Petal watched in fascination as Xian slowly, and lovingly, restored the blackened parts, and in some cases replaced single, individual resistors with those from components of a similar era. Confident he could be trusted, Petal left him to it, under advice that he would need another hour to complete his task. She exited the boat and headed for the Jaguar.

Xian so far had held up his end of the bargain, now it was time for her to uphold hers. She heaved the shovel to dig the sand away from the tail of the ’coptor. She had just about cleared it when she heard the H-core whine of an engine coming from inland. A single light bobbed and weaved as it drew nearer.

She approached the bank and lifted her head above the surface. It was the ronin. They’d fixed one of their buggies after all. Four of them were in the vehicle, and each one carried a pistol or a shotgun. They drove over the tents and slowed when they came to the bodies of their colleagues. The driver swore and pointed to Xian’s boats before revving the buggy and speeding to the jetty.

Petal gripped the shovel and sprinted across the beach. She had to get to Xian before they did.

Chapter 29

James groaned as the tunnel became narrower. His skin burned, scraping against the rough surface for the last hour had made his hips and back raw. All those years of eating freeze-dried doughnuts had come back to haunt him in a way he could have never expected.

Enna in front of him had stopped. “We’re here.”

A thick metal grate barred their way. Enna shined her flashlight through and illuminated a wooden door. “Crowbar, please, Ghanus.”

Ghanus was at the very back and passed the bar down the line. Enna hooked it in and pulled, but the grate remained in place. “Want a hand?” James said.

“Please.”

Enna shifted to the side to allow James room to reach forward and grab the end of the bar. Together they eased the bar to the side. James grunted with the exertion and wished he’d spent more time in General Vickers’ gym instead of sitting at computer screens all day. He felt useless in these environments. But still he gritted his teeth and pulled with everything he had.

The grate creaked, something gave way, and with one final pull, it opened. James slammed against the side of the tunnel, bashing his hip and cutting his skin.

Enna crawled through and opened the door, flooding the tunnel with light. She squeezed into the opening before turning and pulling James through the narrow grate. When he finally got through, he found himself standing in an old wood-panelled hallway. It looked like some antique home he’d seen once in some pre-war photos.

He moved further into the hall to allow the two Upsiders to come out of the tunnel. As Liza-Marie and Ghanus exited the tunnel, James stretched to ease his joints. His head spun, and he fell against the wall. “Jesus,” he said. “I never thought we’d ever get out of there.”

Enna smiled at him sympathetically. “You’re bleeding,” she said, leaning down and lifting the shirt over his hips. His shirt was sodden with blood and stuck to his raw skin. He winced and shut his eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Enna stopped moving his shirt. “Come through. Gabe and Petal should have medical supplies here. I’ll go let the others know we’re here. I got a message from them earlier.”

“Them?” James said. “Sasha and Malik?”

Enna hesitated before the two Upsiders crawling out of the tunnel took her attention.

Ghanus and Liza-Marie stood behind James, impassive behind their half-masks. They hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“Come on, James. Let’s get you sorted.” Her face seemed more pained than it ought to for his wounds; they were only superficial. Before Enna could lead James to the rest of the safe house, Ghanus dropped to his haunches and looked back into the tunnel.

“Look,” he said, pointing back down into the darkness.

A light shone from far back down the tunnel. “We’ve been tailed,” Liza-Marie said. “We’ll take care of it. You get James seen to.” She patted Ghanus on the back. “You want to take this one?”

The Upsider grunted and kneeled into a firing position while taking the rifle from his back. He aimed the weapon down the tunnel and brought the scope to his eye. “Waiting for clear visual.”

Ghanus waited for a few minutes, remaining still like a rock. James could hear the footsteps now and was about to order Ghanus to fire when Ghanus pulled the trigger. The exiting bullet made a near silent sound as the cartridge suppressor absorbed the gas. There wasn’t even a scream or a noise. The bouncing light stopped. Ghanus checked the scope. “Target down.”

“We need to retrieve the ronin-chip if they’re wearing one,” James said. “Elliot will know one of his nodes is down and will take... measures. We won’t have long.”

“I’m on it.” Ghanus passed his rifle to Liza-Marie and, like a dog, shot down the tunnel before Elliot’s system could know the ronin was dead. James bent down to watch. Ghanus was on the body within seconds, cutting away the arm.

***

While Ghanus was retrieving the chip, James followed Enna through the safe house, up a set of wooden stairs and out into another hallway with a number of doors leading off. He could hear voices now; a low rumbling of many people making plans. He opened the first door to his left and looked in, hoping to find Sasha. A group of five security people huddled around a pot of tea broke off their conversation and stared up at him. “Erm, hi,” James said. “Sasha here?”

They said nothing. The door opposite the hall opened, and a female security officer approached him, touching him gently on the shoulder. “I’m Elaine. I was tasked by Enna to lead this team and recover Sasha and Malik. I think you should come through.”

Her artificial blue eyes analysed him, giving nothing away.

“What is it?” he said, feeling the slow crawl of dread wither his confidence. She didn’t answer, just took him by the elbow and led him into another room. Malik sat in an armchair. At first James didn’t understand why he looked wrong, but then he saw the metal cuff. “Malik, what happened to your leg?”

“Long story, James. We’ve got bad news, I’m afraid.”

Enna joined him in the room, carrying a medical box.

“I think you should sit.” Malik pointed to the sofa opposite him. James walked around it and sat down, leaning forward so as not to get blood on the leather surface. Elaine sat down next to him while Enna remained standing, leaning against the arm of the sofa. She placed the medical box on the coffee table and prepared a shot of ’Stem.

“What happened?” Enna said to Malik. “Are you okay?”

“The ronin happened. Sasha and I, we...” He shook his head.

“Go on,” James urged, realising what was about to come, realising why Sasha wasn’t present.

Through tears, Malik told James everything from the moment they followed the sniper to the warehouse district to Sasha’s death. And that Elliot’s central consciousness was likely being held within a data-centre at Cemprom.

***

James blinked the tears from his eyes and straightened his back. The others were silent with grief. Shocked at the sudden reality of the situation. James was, too, whether from the shock or the desire to strike back, but he refused the ’Stem injection, not wanting to suffer its lethargic effects.

With a grim determination he addressed the group. “We have to forget about our grief right now. It’s tragic beyond words, and I’m sure once this is over—if we survive—I will fall apart. But we have to focus on the task at hand. Finish what Sasha started.

“If you want to honour her properly, pay her your respects, you will do it by taking down Elliot and ending Fuentes’ reign. It’s down to us, no one else. I, for one, haven’t lost as many as I have to simply collapse in a mire of sadness.

“Enna, I want you and Jess to use Omega to crack into Cemprom’s systems. We need the schematics of the city’s layout in order to find the data-centre.”

“We can do that,” Enna said. “But at least let me tend to your wounds.”

“A bandage and I’ll be good to go.”

“We’ll come with you,” Liza-Marie said to James, indicating herself and Ghanus as they entered the room. Ghanus held a severed wrist and hand with the chip still on.

James took it and checked that the chip was in good order. “Good man,” he said. “This will be perfect.”

“What are you going to do with that?” Malik gestured to the severed wrist.

James’ lips curled, and his eyes narrowed. “We’re going to use it to go fishing. We’ll hook it up to Omega and piggyback the connection since the citywide network isn’t an option anymore.”

“But won’t that tip off Elliot, and thus the others, about our whereabouts?” Enna said.

“That’s the point. We’ll set up an ambush, take out as many of the bastards as possible.”

“I... can...” Enna stumbled as she thought about the plan.

James grabbed Enna by the shoulder. “Best form of defence is attack, and I’m sick of hiding and crawling around in tunnels. While we bring the fight here, it’ll cause a diversion while some of us head to Cemprom—using the schematics—and take down Elliot for good.”

Enna’s face took on a pained expression. “You think we can do it without Alpha’s help?”

“Without hearing from Petal and Gabe, we have no option but to try.”

He turned to Elaine. “Do you understand the plan? What needs to happen here?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, saluting him.

“Right, then, everyone get to it. We don’t have time to sit around feeling sorry for ourselves. Think of the loved ones we’ve lost recently. Use that grief to motivate and focus on the task at hand. We have a common enemy, and they must be stopped; otherwise our entire struggle and loss has been for nothing. Do you understand me?”

A chorus of, “Aye,” went up, and they set about their plans.

James took the chip and climbed with Enna up a set of creaking, wooden stairs and entered a room devoid of any furniture. The windows were shuttered and the walls undecorated. Jess sat on the bare floorboards next to Omega, her face a picture of concentration.

“How’s he doing?” James asked, feeling a bit odd referring to Omega as a he, but knowing there was a real, albeit incomplete, mind in there.

“He’s sad about Sakura,” she said.

“Well, it’s time for Omega to learn to stand on his own. We’ve got a job for him.”

James filled her in on the plan, and she helped connect Omega and the ronin-chip, successfully bridging the connection. Enna handed him a slate, and together they traversed Elliot’s network, spoofed as the man Ghanus had killed, tracing the source of information back through various routers and nodes. Each jump brought them closer to Cemprom, until after five minutes of navigating through the computer system, James saw it.

“It’s huge,” Enna said, leaning over his shoulder and looking at the size of the data-centre. “There’s petabytes of information in there.”

“And the worrying thing is,” James added, “his complete consciousness is probably not in there. Given what Malik said about when Sasha connected with him earlier and Petal’s previous experience, I would say that only part of him is contained there. His mind would have spread out, probably using some of the satellites and other nodes and data-centres that we don’t know about.”

“So this is all futile, then?” Enna said.

“No, not at all. It’s like an octopus. If you take out the bit in the middle, you kill off the individual tentacles. Think of his mind in that context. If you look at the data streams, they all feed back to that central location. Even if his full mind isn’t in there as one complete unit, by destroying it, we’ll take out the main processing unit, the brain of the entity, if you will.”

“How do we get there?”

“I’m working on that,” James said. “I’m running a program that’s tracing the route and transposing it onto the public transport map. Cemprom have schematics of the various tunnels and access ports. With luck we should be able to plot a route underground, meaning we should get there unseen. Once that’s complete, we—”

The sound of gunfire from outside of the safe house cut off his words. Elaine shouted up the stairs. “They’ve found us!”