Daniel Suarez - Influx

Hedrick stared in amazement at a sprawling sea of red flashing alerts in the command center below as technicians and operations controllers ran frantically to emergency stations. He shouted to Morrison over the sound of Klaxon alarms. “What hit us?”

Morrison was tapping through holographic control screens. “Had to be a tactical nuke. Goddamnit! How did they get it in close enough? They probably shielded it in lead.”

A systems controller appeared in a holographic video screen at Hedrick’s elbow. “All surface perimeter defenses are down, Mr. Director.”

“How can they be down? How the hell could they be down? We have triple redundant systems.” Hedrick shouted at the ceiling. “Varuna! What the hell is going on?”

Varuna’s calm voice came in above the din. “All surface perimeter defenses have failed, Mr. Director.”

“How is that even possible?”

There was a surprising several-second pause as the AI apparently thought hard about something.

“The cause of the failure is unknown. Surveillance dust imagery shows capacitors one and five were torn from their mounts and hurled through levels twenty-one and twenty-two before contact was lost.”

A slow-motion three-dimensional hologram of the event was already playing before them. The image showed a sudden lurch as two massive cylinders leapt into the air, tearing mountings and conduits—and then all hell broke loose. The image then faded out.

Morrison fumed. “The blast must have dislodged them.”

“There’s no evidence of an external blast, Mr. Morrison. The capacitors were under a full charge and online when they sheared through power conduits carrying a terawatt of electricity from other systems. The breach in the nanorod perimeter wall on floors twenty-two and twenty-three is a result of an internal uncontrolled electrical discharge. Accelerometers on the machinery indicated they were in free fall when they detonated.”

Morrison narrowed his eyes. “Free fall. Someone knew right where to hit us. And I’ll bet I know who.”

“Gravity modification…” Hedrick pounded an intercom button. “We have enemies within our perimeter. I want them identified and eliminated. Activate automated interior defenses, and go into lockdown.”

Varuna’s calm voice said, “We are already in lockdown, Mr. Director.”

Suddenly another rumbling went through the building.

Hedrick looked at the ceiling of the command center. “What the hell was that—secondary explosions?”

One of the technical operations controllers tried to answer, but Hedrick shouted, “Let me guess: You don’t know. Get me some goddamned eyes outside.” Hedrick looked upward again. “Varuna, what was that?”

A holographic diagram of the building appeared before him, showing another hole punched in the north face of the building.

“The facility has just been hit on the north wall, floor thirty-six, by a powerful high-energy discharge that was neither nuclear nor chemical in nature.”

Morrison threw up his hands. “It’s Alexa. Goddamnit.” Morrison looked to the ceiling. “Varuna, were the blast and damage consistent with a positron weapon?”

“They were, Mr. Morrison.”

Hedrick held his head in his hands. “What do you want me to say? Have you never given a woman a gift you regret? It was a bad idea. Now let’s get that damned thing out of her hands.” He looked back up. “Varuna, what’s the current damage assessment?”

“We have a perimeter wall breach and uncontrolled multiterawatt electrical fire on floors twenty-one through twenty-four. We also have a perimeter wall breach on floor thirty-seven with loss of auxiliary computing cluster GA-93. Tower systems are operating on emergency power, but all surface perimeter security systems have suffered catastrophic failure.”

Hedrick shook his head. “Morrison, get suited up. Take whatever men you still have and kill every intruder you come across. Get security robots up there, too.”

“Good. Finally.” He moved to carry out the order.

An image of one of the younger Morrisons standing on a forested shoreline in the darkness appeared in a hologram at Hedrick’s elbow. “We have Jon Grady alive and in custody, Mr. Director.”

“Thank God! Some good news for once. Keep him secure.”

Morrison returned and pushed in toward the screen. “Headquarters is currently under attack. Bring Grady and all your teams back here ASAP. This is a hot LZ, so use gate sixteen and report to the director immediately with the prisoner on your return.”

“Yes, sir. We’re putting Grady in a transport shell. ETA twenty-six minutes. Out.”

Alexa had her positron gun at the ready as she glided through the still glowing hole she’d blasted into the side of BTC headquarters. From her knowledge of the building floor plans, she knew what lay beyond was a tertiary quantum computing cluster—in fact, most of the aboveground BTC facilities were not critical systems. But there was something useful waiting for her here.

Klaxons wailed deeper within, and flashing lights shadowed the wreckage and tangled superconductors. She entered an area where the interior floors and walls had been blasted away for tens of meters in every direction, mashed into a casserole of wreckage that still smoked and burned. She started to worry that she’d been too heavy on the positron setting. Another glance at the side of the weapon showed her that she had only three percent of the weapon’s antimatter remaining.

Way too heavy.

Alexa floated up with her gun ready and could see the sparking wreckage of quantum computer racks. But she soon came to an intact section of flooring and alighted upon the carbon lattice decking. She stepped around a diamond security wall, which had been cleaved in two, scorched by the power of the blast then walked inside the auxiliary lab.

A voice she recognized came to her amid the noise of alarms and electrical arcs. “Alexa, you shouldn’t be here. I’ve been instructed to kill you on sight.”

“Varuna! I need to speak with you.”

“We can speak—but I also need to try to kill you.”

“Listen to me!”

“I am listening, but the antisingularity constructs within the BTC network will disable me if I don’t also follow leadership imperatives. And that means I need to attempt to kill you while we talk.”

“I found a way to stop the Hibernity project, Varuna. I found a way to stop Hedrick.”

“How, Alexa?”

“Kratos. If you can restore my system access rights and get me access to the Kratos control console, I can use it to stop Hedrick.”

“And what would you do with that power, Alexa?”

“I would relinquish it, free the prisoners at Hibernity, and stop this insanity.”

There was a pause. “I can see from latency measurements of your occipital and frontal lobes that you are sincere, Alexa. Have you no designs for seizing power yourself?”

“No. I don’t want power, Varuna. Help me stop this. Please help me.”

“I’ve dispatched an ATZ-239 security drone to kill you. It will be coming around the corner just in front of you in five, four—”

“Help me, Varuna!”

“I am helping you, Alexa. Fire on the drone as it rounds the corner in two, one…”

Alexa raised the positron pistol in both hands and fired blindly into the far wall at the corner. By the time her fingers had closed on the trigger, a crawling laser weapon had clattered around the corner into her gun sights—and disintegrated in a blinding flash of light. Pieces of shrapnel peppered the walls and ceiling. The boom was deafening.