Fortitude, p.13
Fortitude, page 13
He wondered what was happening back in Alaska. They had lost communication with the underground base while on the plane. He looked again at the pillar of light. Were there smaller lights moving amongst it? They were still too far out to make out much detail.
They moved into some woods, their NVG’s giving them just enough detail to make out a trail running through it and were soon coming out to a suburban neighborhood, devoid of vehicles, like the parking lot had been. The AI had repurposed them, Brad was sure of it. Probably did the same to all machinery and electronics across the whole city, hell, maybe multiple cities.
As they hurried along the sidewalk, he scanned the houses which were smart and brick built, for any sign of life, AI or otherwise, but there wasn’t any. He wasn’t sure if that was good or not. Where had the people gone? Had they all decided to take up the AI on its offer of a virtual heaven?
He shuddered, almost walking into Constance who was wavering on her feet. “What’s wrong?”
“The closer we get to the light, the harder it is for us to control the machine creatures. We don’t know how much longer we can do it.”
“What happens if you can’t?” said Cody. “Will the AI know you used them?”
“We don’t know.”
The captain looked away in frustration. “Can you get them to destroy themselves?”
“Err… maybe.”
“You don’t think we should just keep using them to scout for long as possible?” said Baxter.
“Not worth the risk.” He looked at Constance. “If you think you’re going to lose control of them. Do what you need to, to neutralize them. Put them out of commission. Whatever it takes. Okay?”
“We understand.”
“And they still can’t detect anything, ahead of us?”
“No.”
He turned. “Good, because we still got some ways to go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Mike was seated on the single white bed. He looked at the ruffled blankets and impression of the body that had been sleeping there and slid his hand across the material.
“If there had been another way…” said Alexis who was standing near the door. Travis was halfway between them both.
Mike shook his head then turned to face her. “There has to be something he can do?”
She looked at Travis who hadn’t taken his gaze from his father.
Mike continued. “To give you more time, to find a way… Anything!” He stood abruptly, looking around the room. “Where is he?”
“Just a few feet to your left…”
Mike turned and looked at the empty space. “Travis. You can do amazing things. There must be a way of the nanites leaving her body and she still survives? I know you must have been working on something.”
Alexis walked forward taking Mike’s space on the bed. “If there was a way, he would have…” She noticed the virtual young man had looked away from his flesh and blood father, which piqued her curiosity. “You told me there was nothing that could be done!”
Mike flicked his head to her, while her eyes remained locked on the Travis.
“There might be a way…”
“Now you tell me? When I’m almost done?”
Mike looked between the space and the woman behind him, trying to make sense of the one sided conversation. “What’s going on?”
“Yeah, Travis, what’s going on?”
He walked away, as if in conversation with himself, then turned to face them both. “Okay. I didn’t mention it before now because I wasn’t sure if it would work, and I’m still not sure. But… at the moment I access the AI’s network, I will have use of all of it’s processing power, and in that moment, I might be able to work a solution to keep my leaving your body from killing you. I stress ‘might.’ It’s a long shot. It was going to be a surprise if it worked, which is why I didn’t tell you, but seeing my father, and what you mean to him…”
Any anger she had at the artificial intelligence inside her, dissipated. She understood why he hadn’t told her. He didn’t want to get her hopes up. But then some hope was better than nothing.
He nodded to her internal thoughts. “You’re right. I should have told you. Would have made these past few hours easier on you, if you thought there was a—”
Frustration got the better of Mike and words burst from his lips, making his son and Alexis flinch. “Will someone tell me what’s going on!”
She looked up at him and hesitated on saying anything. She was now in the same position Travis was and decided differently. “There might be a way to save me.”
Mike walked a few paces away, and back again, the tension getting the better of him. “Okay, great. What is it? What do we have to do?”
“There’s nothing we can do. In the moment of the, er… handover. When the nanites leave my system, Travis might be able to find a way of keeping me alive by using the power of the AI’s network, to work something out.”
“And how sure is he of that…” It was obvious to Mike from Alexis’s expression that it was far from a sure thing. He let out a tired sigh and sat with her, placing his hand over hers, then smiled. “Either way, I’ll be with you.”
She smiled and as a tear ran from her cheek, leaned in and their lips met. In that moment her aching joints and muscle pain dissolved as did his exhaustion and it was a few seconds before either heard the siren.
*****
Brad and the others moved as quick as the weight on their backs would allow them, across the road, leaving the main route of the highway behind and crouched near a small wall which encircled the parking lot of a restaurant. Cody pointed towards a multistory block, some hundred yards away. Brad understood the intention. Get to the top and they could see all the way to the center of the city and whatever was there. The parking lot to his left was devoid of transport just like the roads and other lots had been on their journey here. The crab-like drones skittered across an intersection and into the block’s parking lot, disappearing beyond the green hues of what the NVG’s could make out.
Cody got up and started jogging, the others following best they could and they were soon inside a rear entrance on the ten story building’s ground floor.
Brad let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
“Goggles up,” said Cody. Everyone flipped them to the top of their heads while the captain turned on a flashlight.
It was then they all realized how quiet it was. At any other time there would have been the distant rumbling of a generator or air con in a building such as they were inside of, but there was nothing to indicate life had ever existed in the structure.
In that moment the finality of the AI’s world hit Brad. Whatever the AI was offering humanity, there was nothing human about it. The world created by the AI would be cold, dark and mechanical. He had wondered why he hadn’t seen any sign of AI machines, robots or other creatures, such as there were rumors of when he was in the Alaskan base, but as he ascended with the others, floor after floor he couldn’t help but feel he and the other four individuals in the stairwell did not matter to the AI. That was why they were being allowed to enter its city. They were flies walking on a cows hide and if needed the AI could swat them anytime it liked.
It made him even more determined to succeed.
They walked out onto the roof and instantly the scene ten miles to the south made them all gasp. From their vantage point, they could see down to the highways, streets and lots which ran all the way to the center, all of which were alive with pulses of light from a huge network of cables which spanned the city. But city wasn’t the word Brad would use to describe what Dallas had become, for the urban and business districts had been transformed into something else. As his mind searched for the correct noun, Baxter beat him to it.
“It’s a machine… the whole city is one big fucking machine…”
“I… er… I…” Constance’s head twitched as Kevin started to shake.
“What’s happening?” said Brad to her.
“I… can’t…”
Cody stepped to her. “Cut them loose! Kill the machines!”
“We… we… trying… but…”
Brad spun around. The crab like things were arranged in a few rows across the roof, equally shuddering on their needle-like appendages.
Baxter raised her weapon at the closest. “Just tell me and I start shooting!”
The two-youngest amongst them joined hands and a trickle of blood ran from both their noses. One of the AI drones started to shake more than the rest, its legs flicking in and out and then suddenly it slumped to the frost covered concrete. Baxter and Cody immediately aimed their weapon at the next machine, but it did the same and the next, until they all laid flat, their legs sprawled around their silver shell-like bodies.
“Shit…” said Baxter, lowering her rifle. “Glad that didn’t go a different way.”
Cody looked back to Constance. “Hey, you did—”
She collapsed, almost making it to the hard floor before Brad caught her. Kevin almost did the same, but Baxter moved forward and wrapped her arm beneath his shoulders. He started to complain, so she lowered him slowly to the ground and let go. Brad doing the same to Constance.
“I’m feeling… a little weak… I need some time, Brad Reynolds. And same for Kevin Riley.”
Cody nodded. “It’s okay. We’ll rest here for a few minutes. It will give us a chance to work out how the hell we are going to destroy…” He looked at the column of light splitting the heavens. “That thing…”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Only heavy breathing could be heard across the officers, politicians and a few civilians crowded into the CIC. The remnants of the country’s leadership. Most were watching the large screens at the front of the room which showed night vision and infrared views of damaged wooden buildings and the absolute darkness of the southern forests beyond. Other cameras views were from tanks and APC’s carefully situated within the ruins, further fortified with sandbags and hastily positioned broken vehicles. Closer, amongst the trees and snow covered banks that ran up above the town were rows of armored military hardware, with a few thousand soldiers that were a mixture of what were left from the various platoons that had survived until now.
A young officer in the main room leaned forward, studying his screen. “Picking up movement. Six miles out. Changing the drone’s altitude vector to give us a better view.”
The stealth propeller device rose above the nearby hills, its camera pointing down at the moonlit, glistening frosted branches of a dense forest.
“Bring up that drone feed on the main screen,” said Cary.
The view from the drone drew in more scenery, until points of light were visible amongst the dark. A few at first, bobbing and swaying and then more as the drone flew closer, a thousand feet above, the lights becoming so many they merged into a sparkling mass.
“Got a lock,” said a nearby officer to the first. He turned to Major General behind him. “Requesting permission for bombardment to begin?” Rowney nodded and the officer spoke into his mike.
“Here we go,” said Cary under his breath, standing on the gantry above, but Denise caught it anyway.
Almost instantly the screens across the room flared with flashes of light and explosions ignited the forest for miles in all directions.
“Movement to the east!” said another officer.
Cary moved down the steps to the main room, Denise following. “Do we know what’s out there?” he said. They looked at the console’s screen, which showed an infrared view of more forest from a slightly elevated position. Suddenly lighter shapes, almost the same height as the trees came marauding towards the camera, trunks and branches being split and felled as huge mechanical contrivances smashed their way forward.
“Their trying to flank us on the left,” said Rowney to his superiors behind him. “Get command of the main route to this facility. The southern HZ was a distraction.” He looked at the nearby officer. “Use the C-Rams on the eastern slopes facing the town, to back up the third battalion.” The commands were passed into the mike, while others were sent to the soldiers in the field within a flurry of activity across the room.
Denise’s eyes were large. Most of the screens were just flashes and explosions intermingled with streams of neon bursts. She couldn’t tell from which side the attacks were coming from or who was winning, just that people were dying amongst the chaos.
They don’t die…
It was a strange thought that popped into her mind and one that brought with it a wave of depression, for how can you defeat an enemy that could not die? She looked over her shoulder to Meyer who was leaning against the guardrail above, a few soldiers from the President. The old man’s face appeared solemn, almost stoic. He had always been pessimistic and as the battle raged across the multiple screens, she couldn’t help but feel he had been right in that assessment.
“Brad… Constance…” The words fell from her lips. She had forgotten about their mission to stop what the AI was constructing in Dallas. If they didn’t succeed then the outcome of what was happening just a few miles away wouldn’t make any difference.
*****
Brad followed the others across the sodden grass covered by silver neon puddles, each pool reflecting light pulses flowing along truck-thick cables which covered every road leading to the center of the city, and the thousands of feet of new construction there. From their earlier vantage point they could see the city’s park was relatively intact, free of AI intrusion and with Constance’s help they plotted a route across it.
They moved back onto the concrete path. Brad looked to the southeast and the pyramid type structure which rose higher than the skyscrapers. Its sloped walls seemed impossibly black, as if it absorbed the light around it and the top was flat, from where the white-blue beam emerged, disappearing amongst the clouds. At this distance of a few miles he could see the florescent column contained thousands of ascending tiny specks of light, and he was sure the tiny glows were rising faster than before.
Constance stopped, placing a gloved hand to her temple. “Some… something’s coming.” She looked to the grassy bank to their right, some twenty yards away and the roads and warehouses beyond.
The soldiers’ heads darted left and right, desperate for cover, but what trees there were lay on the ground, black charcoal versions of their former selves.
“How long?” said Brad, but then the cone of light which eclipsed the highway barrier gave him the answer and without pause they all started running forward without any particular destination.
“There!” said Baxter, pointing ahead where the road became a bridge over the path. They moved as fast as their heavy packs would allow and just ran into the shadow of the overpass as a swathe of light slid across the ground, across pot-marked grass and concrete alike. They huddled close together expecting the beam to continue on, but instead it froze just outside their hiding place. Then came a whooshing sound and the air seemed to vibrate. Cody and Brad looked at each other, then to a fence which bordered a parking lot tens of yards away. They started to move out from the other side of the bridge when Constance grabbed hold of Brad’s jacket.
“No! It will see you. Wait… We will stop it.”
Before Brad could react, the two youngsters stepped out of the shadows and into the blinding light, looking upwards as a strong gust of wind fanned their pathway, scattering dirt and pieces of rubbish. He and Cody peeked upwards but all they could see was blinding light. They switched their attention back to the teens who had held hands, both standing together not even paying attention to what was hovering just above the bridge. Just as Brad was about to give up and lunge to pull them back in, the light turned off as did the blast of air and everyone under the bridge watched as a rectangular dark block slid silently across the park, then zipped out of sight.
Brad blew out his cheeks. “Quick, get in here!” he said to Constance. She wavered a little as did Kevin, and Brad ran forward giving support to both with Baxter’s help. “Are you okay?” said Brad. Constance nodded then pointed to the nearby fence. “We have to keep going. We don’t have long before it will take all of our minds to the other place. It’s already begun…” She looked to the monolithic building at the center of the city and spheres of light rushing skyward.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“Pull back. Pull back!” A soldier’s panicked voice came through one of the speakers at the front of the room. The clatter of gunfire, intermingled with the booms of explosions eclipsed his next words, but the large screen in the center of the displays allowed everyone in the CIC to see the troops falling back towards the main road which ran to the entrance of the underground facility. A fleeing M1 Abrams tank, its turret facing behind itself, fired into the smoke and flames as silver things, the size of cars with multiple limbs clambered over the wreckage towards it. It swerved to avoid the wreckage of a truck, but instead abruptly came to a halt, its track getting caught and the AI controlled mechanical spiders descended upon it, immediately warping the barrel while others dug into the hull. Another tank burst through the haze, its M2 browning opening up on the marauders tearing into the other tank but after a few quick bursts a searing beam of light sliced through the turret ending the short-lived counterattack.
Alexis leaned back on the metal paneled wall, the effort to freely stand being too much. Most of her vision had become a blur and the activity below the gantry was a kinetic dance of light and movement. Travis’s appearance was clear though and he stood to her left as Mike stood to her right. The younger man turned from the chaos and gave her a brief forlorn smile, which she tried but failed to return. She smacked her lips a little trying to swallow away a metallic taste.
