Light Shaper (41 page)

The Delegate regarded him coolly, and Tanner was suddenly grateful he was outside being driven to the CradleCorp offices, instead of trapped in a room with that man. It was more than the eyes, which were always disturbing in a Prime. Tanner had already spoken with the Delegate twice since his arrival, and he had gotten the unsettling yet distinct impression that the man knew far more than it was possible for him to know.

As if to confirm his worst fears right then, the Delegate spoke.

“Will these repairs you speak of be carried out with or without the help of the artificial intelligence, Tanner?”

The Delegate knew about Atlas.

Tanner swallowed and discreetly hit the scramble button on his mobile control peripheral. It was bad enough for the Mayor to be hearing this. Tanner did not want anyone else snooping in on the unsecured channel.

“I believe you mean our automated coordination system,” he told the Delegate evasively. “While the damage in our main servers was extensive, we had, of course, procured several backups of the most critical subsystems in our mainframe servers, and my technicians and engineers are reintegrating them as we speak.”

The Mayor looked relieved to hear that, but the Delegate remained impassive. He let the silence on the line drag on until it became borderline threatening. Then he addressed Tanner again. “Is that so? In that case, allow me only to reiterate the importance of restoring service to all of Aurora as swiftly and efficiently as possible. I know you are not an economist, Tanner, but as the most influential businessman in your city, you can surely understand the enormous impact that this catastrophe has had on the local business community.”

“Of course, Delegate,” Tanner answered.

“The repercussions are not only local,” the Delegate elaborated. “As a satellite economy of Haven Prime, the well-being of both our cities is intertwined in many and complex ways. There are products and services that cannot be procured in any other place but here. Naturally, my supervisors become extremely concerned when this entire unsustainable desert city threatens to collapse into an economic nightmare. Aurora has long been granted extended autonomy only because of the unique capabilities it has long held in virtual reality rendering, an ancient area of technology with staggering practical implications once it is fully understood. As such, this crisis not only threatens both of our cities’ economies but also the existence of technology that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.”

“I am fully aware of this, Delegate.”

“That is good, because if I do not see significant improvements that point to a full restoration of service at CradleCorp within the time period you have specified, the next step to be taken would be to call for backup. A team of scientists and military personnel is being assembled at Haven Prime at the moment, preparing to travel here should it prove to be necessary.”

“What?” the Mayor exclaimed, speaking at last. “But, Delegate, Aurora has never been occupied in its entire history! Surely this measure would be an overreaction on the part of Lord Lefèbvre, it—”

“You said you have backups, Tanner,” the Delegate said, ignoring the Mayor entirely. “Let me be frank, in that case. Bring them online, if you have not already done so, and reinstall them. Make sure that this time the new system doesn’t have the capability to… defy you. We have monitored your progress for many years, and so far the consensus has been to allow you to continue your current lines of investigation. There are many people keenly interested in the potential results back at Haven Prime. If, however, you do not restore full service capability to the city before the deadline you gave us, then we will take matters into our own hands. Needless to say, this would mean an end to the CradleCorp monopoly, and the repercussions would not end there. Understood?”

“I understand, Delegate,” Tanner managed to say.

“Very well. I will leave you to your work, then. Expect one of my aides to visit your office sometime during this week to receive a full report on the status of your network. Until then.”

The communication was cut. Tanner lay back in the leather softness of his seat and stared straight ahead at his reflection on the tinted glass that separated him from the driver. His heart was racing, every beat another sharp jab that worsened the fully developing migraine centered above his right temple. He darkened all the windows around him with the flick of a switch to keep out the worst of the glaring morning light. He had medicine at the office, but until then he would have to suffer. And think.

They know.

It was the only thought that he could keep in his head. It bounced around inside his tender skull, tormenting him, spawning consequences and revelations that multiplied and fed on one another.

The Primes know about Atlas. But how? Since when?

The Delegate had been clever. He had spoken so vaguely that the mayor was unlikely to have understood the true severity of what was being discussed, the true extent of the knowledge of Haven Prime. The conversation, and in particular the warning, had been meant for Tanner alone. If he did not succeed in restoring Atlas, then he would live to see his entire empire collapse around him.

Tanner rubbed his temple gingerly. He had been careful. He had hired only the best scientists, the most trustworthy individuals in the entire city. He had erased every digital footprint he could think of that would betray him to the monitoring systems of Haven Prime. He had kept the entire Atlas project, its intention and scope, a complete secret from almost every person that had ever worked for him. And still, they knew. They were aware that Otherlife was not an ordinary reality simulator. They knew CradleCorp controlled a true instance of artificial intelligence that had its own volition. They probably even knew about Tanner’s Project Linker, his dream of modifying the technology that was currently wasted on escapist fantasies to instead extract information directly from the minds of other people. They had known all these years, and the Primes had approved of his efforts, no doubt waiting for his team of scientists to begin showing signs of success before swooping in and stealing everything.

It was a crushing realization. And the worst part of it was that there was nothing Tanner could do.

Tanner sighed, but it came out more like a moan. He tried to calm himself, to think things through and be rational. It wasn’t easy to do with a pounding headache, but he started a shallow-level meditation exercise that he always found helpful, focusing only on one thing. In this case, the feeling of air passing over his nostrils as he breathed. Little by little he was able to relax, however slightly. He felt the motion of the car as it drove through the streets of Aurora and carried him closer to the one place where he had always felt in control.

Perhaps it would not be so bad. True, the most he could hope for was to end up becoming a willing pawn in whatever games the Primes were playing. He would be someone obeying orders, a puppet for whomever decided to hold the strings. Nevertheless, that was essentially what he had been since he had assumed control of CradleCorp all those years ago. He just had not known it then. He had not known that he had always been monitored and given the implicit authorization of Haven Prime to continue working on his projects. Now that he knew it, perhaps little would change. He would end up just as he was now, director of CradleCorp in a position of authority that would be local but no less significant for that. He could even hope to forge closer business alliances with Prime corporations, maybe even receive ancient technology in exchange for his team’s findings….

Assuming, of course, that he could bring Atlas back online.

His phone rang. It was Herrera. Tanner lost the tiny bit of inner peace he had managed to find through the meditation. He braced himself for the worst… and was not disappointed.

“This is Tanner.”

“Richard,” she said. She sounded tired. “They got away.”

Tanner gritted his teeth until it was painful, then relaxed the pressure in his jaw very gradually. When he spoke he managed to give the impression of calmness. “How did this happen, Diana?”

“We were ambushed. There were armed people at the extraction point, mercenaries probably. We exchanged gunfire, the targets got lost, then the entire place went up in flames. All of my Trackers died, and I only made it out alive because I was stationed beside a window, and the explosion threw me out of the building. I don’t know where Blake went. He could be anywhere by now.”

Tanner was silent. Aaron Blake and the quantum drive he carried were his one hope at reactivating the Atlas backup. The spark of the AI resided there because it had chosen to copy itself to that location. Tanner had his own backups, but they were only worthless data without that key.

And now, if Blake decided to go into hiding again, it could be weeks before he was found. By then the Delegate would have lost his patience, and Tanner could lose everything.

“Diana…,” he began, but something interrupted him. There was a beep coming from a specially dedicated monitoring terminal that fed its output directly to Tanner’s account. He flicked on the display and saw something wonderful.

Good luck at last.

“I know where they are, Diana,” he said instead.

“What? How?”

“I have had people stationed all around the perimeter of the ancient Haven III military compound for almost a week now,” Tanner explained. “I had them jailbreak a proximity sensor web around the area. Something has just entered it, an unauthorized vehicle moving in. It’s them. Blake is going to try to reactivate Atlas after all.”

“Why didn’t I know about all this perimeter setup? How many people do you have up there?”

“You did not know about it because you have been out in the field looking for Blake. I also do not like to share all my plans with a single person. It would have been stupid not to send the team out to the site as soon as Atlas self-destructed. Don’t you agree? I sent a group of trustworthy mercenaries and my best scientists there to try and open the cradle room before Blake could get there.”

“That was smart,” Herrera said.

“Of course. Smart but useless. The compound has somehow sealed itself against my people, and all my brilliant scientists have been able to tell me is that some kind of a key is needed to enter. I can bulldoze my way in, but this is an ancient bunker, built to withstand the Cataclysm; it would take weeks to break inside unless I were to fly there wearing battle armor. That’s why I need Blake so badly. I’m certain he carries this key with him.”

“Why?” she asked.

Because Atlas self-destructed only after giving final instructions to Blake to go to that very place
, Tanner thought, but, of course, he did not share this with Diana. Instead he just said, “It’s not important why, just what we’re going to do about it. I want you to head over there as quickly as possible. I have a good security grid set up, but you are the best at what you do. I need you there as my ace in the hole.”

“Always the flatterer.”

Tanner was too high-strung to pretend to humor her. “Herrera, listen to me. If Blake somehow manages to get past the armed mercs and CradleCorp men I posted there, I want you to prevent him from doing whatever it is he’s going to do. Get that quantum drive from off his corpse if you need to, but make sure you get it. I cannot stress enough how important this is. Understood?”

There was a long pause on the line, and when Diana spoke again, her voice was full of barely suppressed rage. Tanner was surprised. He had never known her to lose control. “I have lost my entire fucking team working on this mission, Richard. I saw one of them get shot and the other one burned alive. I’m going to see this through. In fact, I think I….”

“What?”

“Richard, I want you to send me the XR Suit.”

Tanner blinked, surprised at the request. Surprised she even knew about that experimental battle armor.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Diana. The suit is still in testing, and there is no way I can take it out of the laboratory without those damn news crews noticing.”

“Fine. I’ll do it on my own, but when I get back to that big office of yours with the quantum drive in my hand, I expect the trouble to have been worth it.”

“If you get back and give me that key, Diana, you can name whatever price you want.”

“Very well, I’ll hold you to that. I’m heading out.”

Tanner hung up and sat a little bit straighter in his seat. His headache had lessened somewhat, and he even allowed himself to feel cautiously hopeful. What had previously been an almost hopeless situation had suddenly turned around now that Blake was willingly heading over to where Tanner had set his trap. The plan to catch him was good, and it even had redundancies now in case something went wrong.

Tanner stopped frowning and allowed some more of the tension to drain off of him. He would get that quantum drive and make sure the Atlas backup awoke to obey only him. A single crippled artist standing in his way was barely an obstacle. And who knew? Perhaps when Tanner had shackled the new AI, he would find ways to turn it into a weapon. Something to give him an edge, even over the Primes….

BARROW DROVE
slowly up a pathway that had been cut into the rock to allow vehicles to climb up to the Haven III mesa. The sun was already high in the sky. He had slept for longer than he had intended, and the dry heat of the day was quickly becoming unbearable. He was sweating freely behind the wheel, partly because he was hot, but also because he was nervous. He felt horribly exposed as he drove, and although Rigel had been confident that there wouldn’t be anyone waiting for them at the old military compound, Barrow was not so sure.

He checked the console displays on the vehicle dashboard, but there was no useful information there. He would be driving blindly onto the top of the mesa, and there was no way to help it. At the moment the steep sides of rocks on either side blocked visibility completely, and he could only see straight ahead up the narrow and steep incline. It didn’t feel right to him. They would be trusting too much on luck, and from the little Barrow had seen of Richard Tanner, it appeared to him that he was not the kind of man to take chances. It would be common sense to station a team in a bunker somewhere to keep a lookout in case Rigel showed up following Atlas’s instructions. After all, Tanner had already sent assassins to hunt for them, and they had almost caught them—twice.