Code Breakers: Beta Read online

  “It’s real,” she said, not understanding what Petal meant.

  “And it’s dangerous?”

  “I think so.”

  “Okay, Jess. You can relax. We’re experts at this kind of thing. Don’t you worry for a moment, okay?”

  “Okay,” Jess said.

  Petal stood, faced the others. Clearly they had heard everything. Their faces were as ashen as she suspected her own was. All this effort to recover the servers and connect them in order to take down the Family, and all along something was there inside, waiting, biding its time, and now Gerry was in there too. How could she have risked her life to save his, only to jeopardise it again?

  But then was it a life? Wasn’t he a series of ones and zeroes now, computed by the servers? And what of this other thing, this other entity?

  “I’m going in,” Petal said, snatching up the slate from the Doctor.

  “Are you mad, girl?” Gabe said. “It could be anything in there!”

  “Gerry’s at risk, I’ve gotta take a look. Besides, we need those damned servers fully operational to take the androids offline and stop the nukes. ”

  “I don’t think it’s a great—”

  Gabe’s words were cut off with an explosion and a terrible roar. Petal ran down the ramp and looked westward from their position on the shuttle landing zone. High up on the dome, the Plexiglas was raining down in thousands of fragments. Heavy-calibre rounds stuck one after the other against the superstructure.

  She looked back up the ramp. “We’re under attack. They’re already here!”

  In the distance, beyond the park she saw Cheska lead a small team of City Earth security members towards the edge of the Dome. A squadron of at least a hundred UAVs flew overhead like dark birds, stealthy and lethal. At one time they were her enemy, something to run from, but now she placed her faith and hope in their ability to quell the numbers and military capability of Red Widow’s army. Malik had clearly got the Dome’s security teams onside. Within the airport tower, the UAV controllers would be in place in front of their holoscreens; she only hoped they could make a difference. At least they were fighting for themselves now, and not The Family.

  It was clear. The time for war had come.

  But there was still the threat of the nukes. How much time did they have?

  She rushed out of the transporter, noticed there were no more shuttles left, the last one having already taken off. Through the gap in the Dome she could see the rear of it illuminated by mid-day sun, heading away from Earth and up to the station. It couldn’t be long now before The Family decided to put an end to it all.

  She sprinted back up the ramp, and snatched the slate from Robertson. “I don’t care what any of you say, I’m going in. We need to save Gerry, stop the nukes, and turn the androids. Or we all die. Now get out of my damned way and let me get on with this. Oh, and someone look after Jess. Make a note of anything she hears while I’m dealing with the servers.”

  Gabe grabbed Petal’s arm and turned her round to face him. His nostrils flared. He bared his teeth. “Just be careful, girl, or I’ll kill ya myself, ya hear?” He hugged her tight before she could even respond and then he turned away. “Do it then.”

  Chapter 33

  Sasha led her small force towards the edge of the Dome. Cheska beside her broke out into a jog the closer they got, both clearly feeling the impending adrenaline rush from the battle that lay ahead. Her face was hard and determined. Sasha had learned from Enna that Cheska a transcendent. How different Cheska was exactly to herself, Sasha couldn’t tell. Robertson had cloned her, she was human, but her mind, her memories, and abilities were programmed, just like Cheska’s.

  Malik, his brother Bran, and fifty City Earth security workers followed closely behind. They were a motley crew, but Sasha had imparted some of General Vickers’s knowledge to them about combat formation and tactics. She hoped it would be enough. There were only twenty rifles to go round. The others were armed with laser pistols and stun-batons, the standard City Earth provisions.

  If they were close enough to have to use stun-batons, it’d be all over in no time; not that she could really tell them that.

  They were all on the same communication channel and Sasha would lead the war effort with her small band. She also connected back to the hub of people in the transporter. While she followed Cheska, she sent Jimmy a message.

  — Hey, Doc, how’s all it going back there? Any progress on those androids?

  — We’re working on it, Sasha, Robertson replied.

  She could tell he was tense, but wasn’t everyone?

  — Keep me updated as soon as you’ve made progress. We’re about five minutes from the Dome’s edge. The NearlyMen and UAV drones are in position. First contact has been made and the NearlyMen seem to be holding on for now against their advance force. As soon as I know the extent of their force, I’ll update you.

  — Sasha?

  — Yeah, Jimmy?

  — Be careful, please. I know you’re trained, but I’d rather you survived this. I can’t lose you.

  — I hear ya. But none of us might survive this if those nukes drop and we can’t turn the tide with the ‘droids. All I can do is fight and resist.

  — You’re right, Robertson said, resignation in his voice. But know this at least. I love you.

  Damn him! Sasha choked up. This wasn’t the time for sentimentality.

  — Right back at ya, Doc, she said, cutting the connection to him before he said something that would make her cry. She was supposed to be the strong one here. She had led these under-trained, inadequately prepared people into war. She couldn’t do that if they saw her blubbing.

  Sasha accessed her squad’s channel.

  “Okay, squad,” Sasha said. “When we exit the Dome, our job is to hang back behind the line of NearlyMen for as long as they can survive. We’ll plug the gaps, and take down as many Widow fighters as we can from a distance. Malik, Bran, I want you two to act as spotters for the UAVs. Send information back to the controllers and keep them on any ground vehicles or jaguars. We can’t afford them to dominate the skies and barrage us with their heavy weaponry. We won’t last any time. Everyone understand?”

  A chorus of “Aye!” came over the channel. She had to give them credit. Despite their lack of proper military training and experience, they displayed admirable brave. They loved their City, and even in the face of the ultimate deception and abandonment by those they once served, they were still willing to fight for their City, for their home.

  Sasha wondered if they didn’t comprehend the situation, but then Malik of all people had seen the horrors of war up close, and yet here he was, with his brother, leading his fellow City Earthers.

  They reached the exit of the Dome, the sun’s rays now striking its underside. The Plexiglas panels were semi-translucent, meaning all they could really see beyond into the abandoned lands were dark smudges moving along the horizon.

  They stopped by a heavily shielded gate. It featured thick steel uprights either side of an equally thick crossbeam. Within this metal frame was an equally sturdy metal door. On the outside a black box with various controls was the only thing that kept them out of the war zone.

  “Malik. Can you do the honours?” Sasha asked the man standing by her side. He was panting slightly from their march. If they were out of breath already, she had concerns how long they could last outside. But it was too late to worry about that now.

  Malik nodded quickly before moving forward to the box. He took a card from his blue and white City Earth security suit’s chest pocket, placed it in a slot. A green light came on and then flashed.

  Turning to face Sasha the security man said. “With one passcode we’ll be out and the door will lock behind us. It can only be opened from this side so we’ll have to leave someone behind. There’s no other quick, or safe, way back into the Dome since we filled Gabe and Petal’s secret tunnel last week.”

  “Understood,” Sasha said. “Is everyone ready?”<
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  Every man and woman shouted ‘Aye,’ while holding their weapons with tightly gripping hands. A few looked determined, most looked scared out of their minds. But they were still ready. Sasha couldn’t do anything more now than to try and keep them alive on the battlefield for as long as possible.

  “Okay, Malik. We’re good to go. Do it.”

  The security man punched in his passcode and the door buzzed before sliding back into its frame. A cacophony of sound blasted through the doorway. Clouds of smoke and the stench of sulphur, ion beams, and what Sasha thought were burning skin, wafted on the winds of war. The faces of the younger security personnel turned white. One of them, a man who didn’t look much older than his early twenties vomited to the floor.

  “This is it, people, this is your time to shine. When in doubt look for Cheska, or me. Stay in small groups of five and plug the gaps between the NearlyMen’s line. Conserve ammo and don’t shoot for the sake of it. Be methodical and keep your heads. Now let’s go and win this thing!”

  Sasha and Cheska led them through the door and out into the war zone. Chaos ruled the abandoned lands, and the NearlyMen were dropping under the sheer weight and ferocity of Red Widow’s numbers. Waves of robed fanatics descended across the red-sand, seeing the city as their prize, but Sasha’s adrenaline and combat protocols were running at their efficient maximum, she felt alive once more with the thought of avenging Vickers.

  Before she knew it she was running and screaming over the din of battle, Cheska stayed by her side, both had their rifles to their shoulders as they neared the first line of defence.

  Over the comms channel to her squad she shouted, “For City Earth and Freedom!” And descended into a maelstrom of hell.

  Chapter 34

  Petal pulled Jess gently from her hiding position and the girl followed. “I need you to do something for me,” Petal said.

  “What is it?” Jess replied.

  “I’m going to go into the servers. I’d like you to sit beside me and do your listening thing, okay?”

  “But what if it’s scary?”

  “Nothing can hurt you out here,” Petal said, stroking the girl’s hair. “All I want you to do is listen and make a note of everything that you hear on this slate. That’s all there is to it. Okay?”

  Jess scrunched her face as she thought about it, when she looked back up to Petal she smiled. “Okay. For you, I’ll do it.”

  “Good girl.”

  Petal sat down between the two servers. Opened a port with the slate and then handed it to Jess to record the experience. Via her new dermal implant she connected to the server’s private network. She closed her eyes and let the data flow into her, the chip creating a display of the system in her mind.

  “I’m coming to get you, Gerry,” she said. “One way or another.”

  Petal left the sound of explosions and war behind her as her mind sunk into the binary silence of the servers. At first she thought she would connect to Alpha as she had so many times before when it called itself Old Grey, but her old, familiar interface was no more.

  Now that Jess had coupled Alpha with Omega they were a single entity, a single interface. Well, even interface was generous. The only thing in her mind was the blinking cursor on a black background.

  Disappointing. She was expecting to see this amazing, majestic, all-encompassing binary being in the centre of its own universe. She mentally tapped out some commands to list the files and directories on the servers’ data storage.

  Scrolling screens of filenames flashed by. Nothing particular stood out. Damn it, what now? she thought. Frustrated, she entered her thoughts as if communicating directly to it.

  — Hey, you there? What have you done with Gerry? If you don’t answer me I’ll make sure you’re decoupled. How’d ya like that, huh?

  An eternity passed by, but as she considered trying a different approach, a voice came into her mind. The words transferred to sound by the server. It was a deep voice, God-like in its size and reverberation.

  — Gerry’s safe, for now. I will learn a lot from his mind. I have you to thank for keeping him alive, and for his grand transformation.

  — Who are you? What do you mean ‘grand transformation?’ Petal asked. This being clearly wasn’t Gerry. She suspected it was the thing Jess had mentioned. A million lines of indecipherable assembly-like code flashed by, a million lines representing a single thought. So fast it scrolled by, so fast it used the servers processors, Petal couldn’t comprehend its fully complexity.

  — Like a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly, so Gerry has escaped his chrysalis, and become the ultimate expression of his very being. As for me, I’m an interested party, of sorts.

  — That’s all rather lyrical, but cut the crap. What’ve you done with him? While Petal was interacting with this voice she set about running a trace program to scan the filenames and directories to see if she could find any trace of Gerry. She used a wildcard system in the hope she could eventually find him. The trace was set to look at newly create or modified files, but it seemed the server used a non-Gregorian calendar system, and from her initial scans there appeared to be no way of decoding the date of a file, but she still had hope.

  — I have him tucked away somewhere safe. Would you care to join him?

  Threads of data probed her mind. She felt the sense of violation again as her mind was now no longer hers. She tried to shut it out, but it had a pull on her, a magnetic force that dragged her consciousness closer into the system.

  With a great effort she managed to throw up a defence and activated a quickly-programmed firewall in order to keep the thing’s tendrils out of her thoughts, but she felt it retreat willingly.

  — Cute, it said. You really have no idea what you’re dealing with. None of you do. Not even The Family. But like them, you’ll all see eventually.

  — See what?

  — The power, the influence, the capability. I was once like you. Human. It said human like it was some kind of disease to be cured of.

  — It was you, wasn’t it? Petal said, The AI that Seca and Jasper were using to try and hack City Earth.

  A mocking laugh filled her mind then.

  — You really think I’m artificial and that weak? No. That was a small program I sent out into the world to keep those fools busy while my two minds were re-joined.

  Petal lost her patience. Her trace program came up empty. She didn’t have enough factors to use for the search, and time ran out.

  — Fine, whatever. You’re great and powerful and all that. What do you want? And what exactly are you? Maybe there’s something we could do here. A deal perhaps?

  — I like someone that wants to get on and achieve something. There’s too much caution in this world today. Fine, I’ll give you a nugget of information in return for some information from you. Quid pro quo, Leautia.

  — What did you call me? Somewhere in the distant reaches of her brain that name seemed familiar. Where did it come from? What did it mean?

  — Ah! He didn’t tell you. Interesting. It seems I can give you more than you could have ever imagined. The question is, do you have enough to give me in return?

  — Well, you need to tell me what you want first. Tell me your terms. I want you to release Gerry and the servers. We don’t have much time left and we need access to The Family’s system. We already cracked the security.

  — We? You mean me! I cracked the security, Leautia. At least the part of me within Alpha did. You see, I’ve always been in there, watching you every time you came to download another hastily made AI. I’ve been learning about you for years, and when you and Gerry first came for my other side, Omega, I saw the truth of it.

  — What truth?

  — That Gerry was something new. Something The Family didn’t even understand.

  — But you do, right?

  — I will, in time.

  — Look, we ain’t got much time. Stop screwing with me and being all cryptic and mysterious. I couldn’t car
e less about what you know about me, or Gerry. All I want to do is stop the bastards up there from nuking this place.

  — Oh don’t worry, Leautia. They’re in too much of a panic to do that. I have a grip on their systems. You could say I have the fate of the world in my hands, once more. So here we are on the razor’s edge. You and I, together, as one. Each other’s needs and wants can send us both to one side or the other of that edge into oblivion. Are you prepared to fall for those you love?

  Without thinking about it, Petal said,

  — Yes.

  — Good. Here’s your dilemma, my little friend. I’ll destroy The Family’s nuclear capability and return the android army to your control. You and your friends can live freely in your dome, or wherever you want to go. The Earth will be yours once more, free of tyranny and fanaticism. But…

  She hated what was coming. This entity, whatever it was, clearly showed signs of insanity. She wondered then if it were possible for a digital being to have mental issues. She supposed if some of the code mutated or got corrupted it was possible.

  — But what? What’s your condition?

  — It’s not a condition, my dear Leautia. It’s a choice. I’m giving you godly powers. What greater gift could one give to another?

  — Stop stalling and tell me what it is. She tried once more to probe the system for information, but as soon as she released a search program, the as yet unnamed entity struck out and seemed to overload her brain with data, creating a vice-like sensation.

  — Fine, here it is: You either choose Gerry or the Planet. If you choose the latter, I’ll do as I already said: you and all your friends will be safe, but Gerry will remain mine.

  — What’s stopping me from destroying the server, huh?

  — We’re no longer in the servers, dear girl. Do what you want with them. So I ask again: Gerry or the Earth? So what’s it to be? How strong is your love?

  — Before I make my choice. Tell me what you are, Petal said, trying to buy time. Whatever it was it had complete control over her connection to the server. She couldn’t do anything, no searches, no firewalls, no hacking. It was unlike anything she’d experienced before. Every system had a weak spot somewhere, but this thing was something unique, as close to a God-like entity as she’d ever experienced. And somehow she knew it was more than just code. There was spirit in there somewhere, a real consciousness.