Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (132 page)

Taking the opportunity, Gerry, Jachz, and Petal sprinted across the open ground and tumbled into the darkness.

Chapter 24

A flash of blue exploded in the small dark server room, illuminating the space like a lightning strike.
 

In that split-second burst, Gerry saw a black figure in the open doorway. A replica of Cemprom’s main server stood in the middle on a plinth, reminding him of the showdown with Jasper.
 

Another explosion bellowed out, bringing back the ringing in his ears. The figure in the doorway flew back and landed on its front. One of the ’borgs had followed them in, but had paid the ultimate price.
 

Something hot and wet covered Gerry’s thigh. At first he thought it was his blood. He reached for his flashlight on his belt and shined it on his leg.
 

Not blood. Oil.
 

The twitching form of Jachz lay beside Gerry, his rifle beside him, the barrel still smoking. Petal was crouched opposite, her face pale and taut with stress.
 

“Jachz,” Gerry said, leaning down and placing his hand on the AI’s chest. “Speak to me.” A gaping wound in his left side was leaking oil, exposing his titanium skeleton and biomechanic musculature system.
 

Jachz’s left eye fluttered open. “I’m experiencing pain,” he said matter-of-factly. “This is not a pleasant feeling.”

“I know, just hold on, we’ll get you fixed up.”

Jachz grabbed Gerry by the wrist and focused his eye on him. “No,” the AI said. “You have to. The missiles will soon be in position. You have to stop them. Leave me. Come back for me later if you must, but go on.”

“He’s right,” Petal said. “We’ll upload his mind to a new body later; we can’t hang around any longer.”

Gerry hesitated for a moment, having seen his group split in half. Holly was out there somewhere, running for her life amid the cacophony of blasts and counterblasts. But as Jachz continued to leak his oil over Gerry, he knew that he did indeed have to continue.

“I’m sorry,” Gerry said. “I’ll be back for you, I promise.”

“Just go,” Jachz said. He pointed his arm out in the direction of the shaft.

Gerry moved his flashlight in the same direction and saw the escape ladder descend down into the depths of the under city.
 

Petal grabbed her rifle and aimed it out of the doorway. “Go, I’ll cover. I’ll be right behind you.”
 

Taking one last look at Jachz, Gerry sprinted to the ladder, half-expecting a shot in the back at any moment. But he reminded himself that Petal was on guard and Holly was distracting the others outside, and he reached the ladder safely.
 

Hooking one arm around the upright, he turned round and pointed his rifle to the entrance, covering Petal as she spun round and sprinted towards the ladder.
 

“Go, Gez, let’s get down there,” she said as she leapt up onto a rung just above him.
 

Before they descended, Gerry saw two figures dash into the opening. He fired off a burst, but missed. His flashlight was on the floor, and through the cone of light, he saw Jachz’s body disappear, two ’borgs dragging him out by his feet. By the time he re-aimed, they were gone.
 

“Damn, they’ve got Jachz,” Gerry said.
 

“We’ll find him, but get your ass down there. We don’t have time now.”

Gerry slung his rifle over his shoulder, wedging it beneath his backpack. He grabbed the flashlight, reattaching it to his belt, and loosened his grip on the sides of the ladder. Gravity did its thing and pulled him quickly down the level until he finally hit the ground, the jolt creating a bloom of sharp pain in his knees when he didn’t react quick enough.
 

Descending at a slower, more controlled pace, Petal joined him.
 

“You okay?” she asked as he hobbled away from the ladder in the darkness.
 

“Just a heavy fall. I’ll walk it off; it’s not bad. You?”

“Yeah, still all in one piece. Let’s see where we are, shall we?” Petal switched on her flashlight. A corridor led off away from the ladder. The overhead OLED strip lights were without power, but toward the very end, Gerry was sure he could see a glowing red light.
 

“Do you see that red glow down there, or is it just an artefact of my vision?” Gerry asked.

Petal switched off the flashlight and waited for a moment. “Yeah, I see it. Must be coming from the silo control room, right? Was there anything else that this access tunnel led to?”

Gerry checked his HUD image, zooming in for more detail. It appeared there was another room beyond. Perhaps the final control room. It made sense, given the distance. He grabbed the rifle and stepped forward. “We approach in darkness and quietly,” he whispered.
 

They moved on, making slow but cautious progress. Gerry fought the urge to sprint down there, throwing all caution to the wind, but couldn’t risk running right into a trap or a ’borg waiting for him to reach the end of the corridor.

When they got halfway, Petal stopped and grabbed Gerry’s arm. “You hear that?”

“What?”

“Silence, the rumbling’s stopped. The missiles must be in position.”

“Crap.”

A buzzing noise filled the silence. It echoed down the corridor from behind them. Gerry spun round. Petal switched on her flashlight. Flying in formation were three small drones, each the size of a fist. Petal’s light reflected off a camera lens in the one in front.
 

From behind them came the sound of an industrial door sliding open and rushing footsteps. The three drones crackled with electricity until between them a bolt of blue lightning formed and fired out toward Gerry and Petal.
 

***

Jachz was aware of his body being dragged and then tossed down a shaft. It hit the floor with a thud. He’d since managed to turn off his pain receptors. Or maybe it was due to a lack of oil in his system to carry the appropriate neuronal messages.
 

He managed to open one eye. He was in the corner of a bright room some ten metres square. The floor was carpeted with grey fabric, but there were worn patches and areas of mould colonisation.
 

The room smelled musty and old. Disused for many years. A large oak, or at least imitation oak, desk took up a central position in the middle of the room. A mechanical keyboard sat on the surface, now yellow with age, having obviously been built with older, inferior polymers.
 

An early OLED panel hung on the wall in front of the control desk.
 

Jachz saw all this from a sideways position; his head slumped to the floor.
 

He had no motor abilities beyond moving his eye.
 

Shadows of legs and feet extended and shifted around him. He counted at least three distinct people and a shape that might have belonged to a fourth, but he couldn’t shift his neck in order to see.
 

His aural receptors had shorted, so all he could hear was the hiss of internal amplifiers. Something touched his neck. Something metallic.
 

A cable.
 

He saw the back of the viroborg walk away from him, carrying the cable until it reached the wall with the OLED screen. Because of the angle of the desk, Jachz couldn’t see what it had plugged it into, only that it had, as the cable hung in a great loop between his neck port and whatever lay beyond his vision.
 

Some other event beyond the doors to this control room must have occurred, because the viroborg reached for a pistol attached to a holster on its lower back. It crouched behind the desk, its dark figure looking no more solid than a shadow.
 

Another figure dashed briefly into Jachz’s vision, heading for the door.
 

Jachz recognised the uniform first and then the face.
 

It was the security guard who had helped him escape the crashed spacecraft at Libertas. The one who followed Enna around like an eager puppy.

Jachz tried to access his memory, but the connections were damaged, and he couldn’t recall his name. Not that it mattered. He carried a Libertas-issue rifle and a grim expression on his face.
 

A third figure entered the frame. They stood by the desk, leaning over the keyboard and tapping out commands. A red light flashed from further in the room. This other figure turned to face Jachz and smiled at him.
 

And he recognised that smile instantly.
 

***

Gerry screamed at Petal and dodged the ball of lightning, turning his head to follow its trajectory. The bolt lit up Petal’s skin as it shot past by a few centimeters.
 

The bolt struck. A scream filled the corridor, coming from a silhouette by the door.

Gerry squinted against the glare of the blue explosion of energy. “Franklin?” Gerry shouted. The man rocked back on his feet, his eyes wide and mouth twisted. The electricity crawled all over him, his hair smoking. He fell to his knees, dropping the rifle to the ground.
 

His charred body slumped forward with a thud.

The door to the control room slid shut. Gerry just caught sight of someone standing by a large desk, but didn’t quite make out who they were. Certainly not the viroborg.

Crackling, whirring noises soon caught his attention. He spun round, finger on the trigger, ready to blast the drones out of the air.

They fired again, a smaller bolt this time. It struck his weapon, and he threw the rifle to the ground, his hands burning from the electrical charge.
 

The three drones barrel-rolled into a wide formation.
 

Gerry dashed back and picked up Franklin’s rifle, but the thing was dead.
 

“They’re localised EMPs,” Gerry said.
 

Petal nodded and wasted no time in firing in an arc on full-auto, emptying her magazine in a second and a half. She took out two of the drones, sending them spinning and crashing to the ground.
 

Gerry rolled forward as the last remaining drone fired a regular slug. Given the size, he knew it unlikely to have many left, but still, it’d only take one. He reached behind his back for his pistol, but the backpack had got stuck around it.
 

He kneeled up, and the drone flew around in a circle until it was behind Gerry.
 

Damn things were too fast.
 

It fired again, but Gerry was already throwing himself to the ground. The round missed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Petal turn the rifle around, gripping it by the barrel and using it like a baseball bat and swinging high.
 

The butt of the rifle clanked against the chrome exterior of the drone. The impact sent it crashing into the side of the corridor. Glass components inside shattered as it fell to the ground. Picking up his useless rifle, Gerry used the butt to smash it further into the ground, busting the mechanism wide open.
 

“Home motherfucking run,” Petal said, patting her makeshift bat.
 

“Great hitting,” Gerry said.
 

They took turns smashing the crap out of the other two before returning their attentions to Franklin. As Gerry kneeled by his side and pressed two fingers to his neck, a siren sounded and the red light changed from a glow to a swirling flash.
 

“Shit,” Petal said. “That can’t be good news.”

“What the hell is Franklin doing here?” Gerry asked, trying to work it out. Why would he double-cross them? He’d actively helped them discover the viroborg… but then the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
 

“Gez, love, we ought to get into that control room, right now.”

“Yeah, I know, one second, I’m just thinking for a moment…”
 

When Franklin left the server room back in Cemprom to inform the others, that was when Jess got kidnapped. Perhaps he was causing the diversion? He probably didn’t bank on Enna mobilising the team so quickly and Jess having the smarts to set a trail for them to follow.
 

But still, it didn’t quite all add up… there was something missing in this whole situation.

“Gerry, we gotta move.” Petal grabbed him by the arm and lifted him away from Franklin. But Gerry resisted for a moment after spotting something in his pocket: an access card. Grabbing it, he looked up at Petal and smiled. “I think we finally got a lucky break. Let’s go end this bullshit once and for all.”

The pair of them approached the door to the control room.
 

The red light flashed beneath, staining the access tunnel’s surface. Gerry removed his backpack and freed the pistol from his holster.
 

Petal followed and extended her forearm spikes.
 

They stood at opposite sides of the door, preparing for what lay behind it.
 

“Ready?” Gerry asked.
 

“Do it,” Petal said, wearing her best battle-face and grabbing her pistol free of the belt holster.

God, he loved her so much. He hesitated for a moment, the access card hovering above the mechanism. What if he lost now, after all this effort? All this fight and struggle?
 

But this was bigger than his love for her now. It was always bigger.
 

The world needed this.
 

Gerry swiped the card. The mechanism bleeped and the door slid open, exposing the control room and all those who stood inside, waiting for them.

Chapter 25

Both Petal and Gerry ran in screaming as they held their pistols out in front of them, peppering bullets at the viroborg hiding behind the desk. Their assault sent it falling backward in a spray of plastic, wood, and metal.
 

The room swirled with red light, and the siren continued to blare. The OLED screen was counting down, currently on sixty seconds. Gerry dived to his right into a combat roll as the viroborg threw a dagger at him.