Psion Delta (39 page)

Tonight
I will kill them.
The choice, though foolish and dangerous,
became rather simple.

“Okay,”
Sammy said, “I’ll do it.”

“Good
decision. As I said, there is a cruiser on the rooftop waiting for you. You
will have to pilot it, but I will give you auto-nav coordinates and a flight
plan code. All you have to do is get there without being seen and without
contacting anyone. You will leave your com on until takeoff so I can know you
have carried out my orders. I will know if you try to make any calls after our
connection is terminated. If you do make any attempt, our agreement is over,
and I will send you the heads of your mother and father. I think we have a
deal?”

It’s
too dangerous to go alone. You need backup!

Someone
will see my walking by the cafeteria. Someone will follow.

You
don’t know that!

I
HAVE to risk it. I have to finish what I started with Stripe and Katie.

Sammy
watched his mother and father shake their heads at him, pleading with their
eyes that he not accept Mr. Nemosio. “Yes. Deal.”

“Very
well. I will talk you through it. Go upstairs now. Do not be noticed. Remember
that I can see you.”

Sammy
walked up the stairs to the third floor. As he walked by the door to the
cafeteria, he was very tempted to turn his head and look inside to see if
someone spotted him. All he could do, however, was slow his pace ever so
slightly and hope.

At
the door to the fourth floor, he again slowed as he pushed it open. Someone was
behind him. He didn’t know who it was, but he put his hand behind his back and
gestured to whomever it was to follow as he continued up the steps. Somehow the
door from the fifth floor to the rooftop was unlocked. All the way up the
stairs he climbed until he reached the roof. The wind blew hard that night,
causing a lot of hissing in his microphone. Sammy was grateful for that because
about ten steps toward the stealth cruiser, which was indeed waiting for him,
he heard the roof door open a second time. He quickened his pace and got in the
cruiser, wasting no time to start the engines.

“Perfectly
executed. Now takeoff and enter these GPS coordinates into the auto-nav.” Sammy
memorized the number and lifted the cruiser off the ground. “Follow the yellow
brick road and you’ll find more instructions waiting for you upon landing. See
you soon.”

The
transmission ended. Sammy didn’t dare make a call to Byron or anyone else. He
knew it was likely that Mr. Nemosio had been telling the truth about monitoring
his com. Instead, he settled the cruiser back on the roof where every Beta had
gathered to watch Sammy take off in the cruiser.

As
soon as Sammy touched down, Jeffie opened the door. “What in the heck are you
doing?”

“Is
this part of the party?” Kobe asked. “Because I don’t know if I’m brave enough
to fly to Barcelona or something like that.”

“I
can’t explain,” Sammy said. “I don’t have time, but I have to go. I don’t want
to go alone, so whoever wants to come with me, I’m going to Orlando.”

“That’s
a bit farther than Barcelona,” Kaden said.

“I
don’t have time to joke!” Sammy yelled. “Either get in or stay behind, but
something serious is going down, and I could use the help!”

Jeffie
climbed into the copilot’s chair without further discussion. Brickert got in
next, followed by Natalia, Strawberry, and Kawai. Kobe and Kaden were right
behind. Rosa and Miguel got in. Then Li and Levu and Ludwig and Parley. Antonio
took about five seconds to mull the decision over, but he finally got in with
Hefani. When all was said and done, every Beta—with the exception of
Brillianté, Asaki, Gabriel, and the three other new Betas—were inside the
cruiser and ready for departure.

Sammy
wasted no time. He restarted the engines and set the memorized code back into
the computer’s system. By default, stealth cruiser’s computers deleted old GPS
coordinates. Mr. Nemosio must have known this and believed Sammy incapable of
memorizing the numbers. Without the coordinates, Sammy would not have known
where to go.

“Buckle
up, everyone,” he said.

“Are
you kidding?” Kobe asked. “There are not sixteen safety belts in this thing.”

“Double
up with a girl,” Kaden said. “Now, Sammy, tell us what’s going on.”

* * *
* *

“How
long is it going to take us to completely overhaul our networks?” Byron asked
the team of researchers. They were still crammed into Khani’s office which now,
after several hours of tedious work, felt stuffy and smelled of bad body odor.
It was beyond late into the night, and he found it difficult to keep from
yawning every two or three minutes.

“We
have contingency plans in place for this very type of thing, Commander,” Khani
said. “Start to finish, one week. We all agree that this needs to start
tomorrow. Of course—” she stopped speaking as though she’d caught herself.
“Never mind.”

“No,
what does ‘of course’ mean?”

“This
entire operation will be meaningless if there’s another mole with as much
access as Commander Wrobel had. Are you sure you’ve rooted out all the bad
apples?”

“How
can I be?”

Khani
stared at the commander for several seconds with her eyebrows raised and her
lips pursed. Her expression made him feel stupid, something many Tensais had a
tendency to do.

“If
we implement your plans tomorrow,” Byron said, “and I make sure you have all
the resources you need, can we be sure that this tunnel thing is solved?”

“We’ll
be taking major steps forward to ensure that this level of infiltration can’t
happen again.”

Another
member of Khani’s team spoke up. “We’re lucky that damage didn’t spread farther
upward. A few of the areas hit pose a major crisis. But most of the infected
areas are completely inconsequential. I mean,” he grabbed his holo-tablet and
read, “the NWGMC? What was the CAG thinking? There’s a good chance the people
on their side didn’t even know how to fully use their own tools properly.”

“What
did they access at the NWGMC?” Byron asked.

“Practically
. . . almost nothing.”

“That
does not answer my question. What did they access?”

The
man snorted as though the question wasn’t worth his time. “Just one medical
record. That’s it. It’s completely asinine! This was the one that made the news
a few weeks ago. Our cyber detectors even picked up on it. It doesn’t make
sense to go after medical records. Highly protected, but strategically
worthless from a military perspective.”

“Whose
record was it?”

The
guy shrugged. “How should I know?”

“Find
out.”

The
man typed on his tablet for several seconds, occasionally stopping to flip his
greasy red hair out of his eyes. Byron checked his watch. 0200.
I am getting
too old for these late nights.
He couldn’t leave because General Wu had
ordered him to stay at the TRC until the situation was fully resolved.

“Samuel
Berhane, Jr.” The words struck like a gong.

“Are
you serious?”

“Yes,
sir. Take a look.”

“Why
wasn’t Psion Command notified that the medical records of one of its members
had been breached weeks ago?”

This
time Khani answered. “The rootkit hid the specific files accessed. When we
investigated this back when it happened, all we saw was an unauthorized request
into the system. We had no idea any files had been breached.”

The
idea that the CAG had seen Sammy’s full medical records unnerved the commander.
It meant more unanswered questions. Before he had a chance to ask them, an
alarm came from Khani’s desk. All heads turned toward the sound.

“They’re
trying to use the tunnel!” Khani announced in an ecstatic tone. “This will be
our first test to see if our software works correctly.”

Her
team gathered around the computer as if they were watching the last minutes of
a very important chess match. All Byron saw flashing across the screens was
meaningless data and code.

“He’s
in! That’s assuming, of course, that the person or persons we’re dealing with
is male. He’s accessing communications codes. Start the program, Francis!”

Francis,
the same red-haired man who’d been speaking minutes before, began typing
furiously. “Launched.”

A
second alarm sounded.

“Another
tunnel access point found. This one’s also in communication codes. Plug it!”

“I’m
on it.”

“Is
it working?” Byron asked.

“First
tunnel has now breached our database for personnel communicators. He’s looking
up someone’s com number.”

“Whose?”
Byron asked.

Khani
swore. “Second tunnel accessing our stealth tech radar dishes. Where are you,
Francis?”

“I’m
plugging it!”

Three
more alarms went off. Khani shrieked and pointed to three of her techies. “Get to
work!”

Byron
watched them scurry feverishly to their computers.

Five
more alarms rang next. Khani forgot what she was doing as she stared at her
screens. What followed was among the more profound and eloquent streams of
curses Byron had ever heard. “They’re not supposed to have that access!”

“What
is going on, Khani?” Byron demanded.

“They’re
in—they’re in our defense systems. PLUG THE HOLES!”

The
alarm started again, beeping more times in rapid succession than Byron could
count. Khani reached around the back of her giant computer and ripped out the
connection to her speakers. Francis typed so quickly it was almost comical,
stopping only to wipe sweat off his forehead or flip his red hair. “They’ve
punched ten . . . twenty. . . . ” He swore, too, now. “I don’t know how many
holes!”

“Keep
shutting them down,” Khani urged.

“I
can’t keep up! Every time I plug a hole, five more show up.”

“What
are they targeting?” Byron asked.

“EVERYTHING!”
Francis yelled. “Jamming all our signals, blinding our radars. They’ve disabled
our land to air missiles. And they’ve disguised everything with the rootkit. To
anyone else, it looks like our systems are perfectly normal.”

“Call
General Wu on all emergency channels,” Byron ordered his com. Nothing happened.
He repeated the order. Again, nothing. “Call Albert on all emergency channels.”

The
response was the same.

He
turned to Khani and grabbed her shoulders. “Reboot the system. The whole
thing.”

Khani
stared at the commander blankly. “I—I—I don’t know how this could happen.”

“Now
is not the time to wonder! Reboot it!”

She
turned to Francis and gave the order. She and Byron leaned over his shoulders
to watch. Francis’ fingers flew with practiced precision over his keyboard.
“It’s—it’s not—I can’t get in.”

“Try
the back door.”

Byron
willed the computer to work for Francis.

“No
access!” he answered.

Khani
ripped the holo-tablet from his hands and tried it herself. She swore at the
screen. “How can they do this? I helped design that!”

“Keep
working on it!” Byron told Khani and her team as he stood and headed for the
door. “Do not give up!”

“Where
are you going?” Khani asked.

“To
sound the alarms the old-fashioned way.”

23.
Flight

Sunday
September 1, 2086

Because
of the
time zone changes between Reykjavik and Orlando, it was
Sunday again. The clock on the cruiser’s console read 2345.The auto-nav told
Sammy they were over halfway to their destination. As far as he could tell,
everyone in the cruiser had fallen asleep except he and Jeffie.

The
group of friends had spent the first hour of the flight talking about what to
do. Their options were limited. No one’s com worked now, not even Sammy’s. The
communication systems on the ship were dead. Sammy couldn’t understand how all
this was possible. Everything still seemed like a bad dream come to life. His
mom and dad possibly alive? Katie Carpenter holding them hostage with Stripe?
He refused to let himself get too worked up over the possibilities. When Sammy
had told his friends about what he’d seen, no one seemed to know what to say.
The consensus, however, was that if there was any chance his parents might be
alive, Sammy had to check it out. Their agreement did not alleviate him of his
guilt because he hadn’t told them his true suspicions or motivations.

“You
all right?” Jeffie now asked him.

“Not
sure. You?”

“Yeah.
I’m a little scared.”

“Only
a few of you have combat experience,” Sammy said. “If this turns into a fight—”

“It’ll
be okay,” Jeffie told him. “We’ll figure it out.”

“No.
No. It might not be okay. The Rio mission was a lot safer than what we’re doing
now, and it nearly killed me.”

“This
is different.”

“How
is it different? I don’t want to be responsible for the deaths of my friends!”
He remembered that everyone else was sleeping and lowered his voice. “Jeffie,
you have to remember that I’m not some god. I can’t do everything. I may not be
able to keep an eye out for you while I’m doing whatever I need to do.”

Jeffie
raised an eyebrow. “Who says I need you to keep an eye on me?”

Sammy
tried to smile for her, but couldn’t. “Sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy.
On my mission last month, there was this little girl. She was ten. I thought
the Thirteens had already killed her when they announced they had hostages. I guessed
wrong and I watched her die right in front of me. A Thirteen killed her. He
shot her in the head. And with everything else I’ve seen, sometimes I feel like
I might go nuts. If you or Brickert dies, I don’t see how I could stop it. I’d
lose it. I’d lose it all.”

“I
know I might die, Sammy, but I’d rather die than let you go there alone. You
don’t deserve to be alone anymore.”

Sammy’s
eyes locked on hers. Something powerful stirred inside him. The thought of
losing Jeffie without ever letting her know how he felt seemed too terrible a
tragedy to face. He swallowed hard and slowly let out a trembling breath.
Jeffie swallowed, too.

“Seriously?”
she asked as she stared back at him. “You want to do this now? Here?”

He
nodded and licked his lips nervously. She saw this and licked hers in response.
Sammy watched her, mesmerized.

“I
haven’t kissed a lot of girls.”

Jeffie
let out a breathy laugh at his words. “Yeah, zero isn’t very many, is it?”

He
swallowed again. His eyes still hadn’t left her lips. With his eyes, he traced
and memorized every wrinkle in them. “What if I suck at it? I mean, you’ve
kissed a bunch of guys, right? I’m probably terrible.”

“Are
you trying to offend me?” She raised one eyebrow, but her lips twisted into a
smirk. “Trust me. Close your eyes. Pucker up and move in. Let me do the rest.”

“Okay.
Pucker. Close—no, wait. Close, pucker, move in.” Sammy took a deep breath. His
heart hadn’t pounded this hard in a while. An earthquake seemed to be going on
in his hands. He glanced briefly at her face, then returned his gaze to her
lips. That was the goal.

Focus
on the goal.

Jeffie
closed her eyes. He followed suit.

I’m
going to suck at this!

He
thought an invisible hand had snuck under his skin and was now bending his
spine forward. He leaned, leaned, leaned. . . .

Heat
blew across his face: Jeffie’s breath, hot and minty. Sammy peeked. Her face
was right in front of his, her eyes closed, lips slightly puckered, waiting. It
was beautiful. A thrill chased down his arms, spreading up and down his back,
filling him with giddy energy. He closed the rest of the distance and pressed
his lips against hers.

Too
fast.
He swore at himself.
Am I doing this right?
What
do I do with my hands?

“Relax,”
she hissed at him.

He
tried to do what she said. As he succeeded, he gave more of himself to the
kiss. It was soft and wonderful, everything he’d imagined it to be . . . right
until his lungs ran out of air.
What do I do? What do I do?
He breathed
deeply through his nose, letting the oxygen relax him once more. Jeffie’s hands
encircled his head, her fingers trapping his hair. Sammy’s arms went around her
body, pulling her closer as their kiss deepened.

Wow,
she tastes good. What took me so long to do this?

Finally,
the kiss ended. Sammy noticed the hairs on his arms standing straight. Jeffie
opened her eyes and grinned.

“Not
bad, Sammy.” A dancing light filled her eyes. “Not bad.”

“Thanks,”
he began. “I was—”

Jeffie
grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back to her. As she kissed him the
second time, fireworks went off all over his body. It was the best feeling in
the world. The kiss went on for a while until the sound of someone softly
clearing of his or her throat separated them like two bandits caught in a
searchlight. Sammy looked back to see Brickert grinning at him. Natalia,
blurry-eyed and sleepy, gave Jeffie a thumbs-up.

“Okay,”
Sammy said, his face hot and his whole body quaking, “now I want to die.”

Jeffie
put her hands on the sides of Sammy’s face and drew him close. Just before
their lips touched, she diverted her head to his left ear. “Don’t make me wait
that long for the next time.”

“Deal.”

Slowly
the other Betas woke up. It was far too little sleep for any of them, another
thing that worried Sammy. They’d crossed into another time zone. The clock read
2257. As they drew near to Orlando, discussions grew heated about how to
proceed once they landed. Sammy demanded the final say in the matter and
refused to let anyone besides himself go near Katie Carpenter. A very basic
plan was hashed out right as Sammy landed the ship. He ordered everyone to
remain low and out of sight.

The
cruiser set down near a large lake. It was too dark outside to distinguish much
more than water and a few houses in the distance. Sammy flipped on the
cruiser’s floodlights to blind whoever might be around. He jumped out and
landed on wobbly legs, tired from both lack of sleep and sitting for three
hours straight.

A
man stepped into the light about ten meters from Sammy. He wore a dark suit
with a light blue shirt and a red tie. The hat on his head cast a dark shadow
over his face. This man was not Mr. Nemosio, Sammy knew that for sure. He
pointed a silenced pistol at Sammy. “I’m going to fire twice.”

A
flash of light exploded from the end of the gun accompanied by two small puffs
of air. Sammy shielded both bullets.

“My
apologies, but I was asked to shoot at you. Had to be certain.”

“You’re
supposed to give me instructions?”

“You
came alone?”

Sammy
spread out his hands widely. “Do you see anyone else?”

“I’ve
been asked to look inside your cruiser. Move aside.”

It
took Sammy about ten seconds to subdue the man and jam the gun up under his
jawbone. “Give me the information I need right now, or this bullet is going to
pierce your nose through your jaw!”

Sammy
pulled the trigger as he covered the man’s mouth, muffling his hollers. Only a
trained ear would have known that he had not fired the gun into the man’s head
but into the ground. He waited several seconds with the gun pointed back into
the captor’s head, listening for the sounds of someone approaching. When he was
satisfied they were alone, he reached into the man’s coat and found a com.
Sammy threw it into the lake. In the other coat pocket was a set of keys. Sammy
took these, too. Then he pushed the barrel harder into the man’s head.

“Tell
me where I am and how to get where I need to be.”

“Lake
Holden is right behind you.” The man spoke quickly and calmly, but Sammy caught
every word. “Take the car. It’s parked not more than a hundred meters away.”

“Which
way?”

“That
way,” the man said, jerking his head backward. Go west on Thirty-Seventh. Get
on the Four-Forty-One going north. Get on the northbound freeway. It’ll take
you all the way to Church Street. There’s a building on Church. It’s huge.
That’s where you want to go. Church. It’s got a big purple—”

“N.”

The
man surveyed Sammy with renewed interest before continuing. “Yes. That’s right.
Park on the street and go in through the street level entrance. You’re supposed
to take the northwest
elevator up to the top floor, elevator number one.
It’s the only one that goes all the way to the top floor. You go in through the
garage, they kill the hostages.”

“You
mean my parents?”

“All
I know is that there are hostages.”

Sammy
pulled the man’s face uncomfortably close to his own and gave him a cold stare.
“Is there anything else I need to know?”

The
man wasn’t scared, and Sammy didn’t like that. “I’ve told you everything I was
supposed to say. I was sent here to pick you up and take you.”

Sammy
waved his hand at the cruiser. The doors opened and all the Betas came out. “I
need restraints,” he told them. Kaden brought out two pairs of cuffs. Sammy
used them on the man’s hands and ankles. It disturbed Sammy to see the man’s
lack of surprise that the other Betas were with him. He left the stranger bound
in the dirt and joined his group by the cruiser.

“We’re
heading to the heart of the city,” Sammy said. “Church Street. N building. Top
floor. Li, lead your team into the garage after I’ve been inside fifteen
minutes. If you can, use stealth, but I wouldn’t count on it. Find my parents
and subdue whoever’s guarding them. It could be a trick, so if there’s no one
down there, don’t waste time. Get out as fast as you can. Ludwig, you’re going
to have to stay cool and patient. If you get restless, none of us have an
escape route. Let me and Li’s team do our thing. I’ll look for your signal.”

“No
worries, man,” Ludwig said. “I know what to do. You just be watching for me.”

Sammy
took a deep breath. “Everyone with Ludwig, follow his orders as if you were in
the Arena. Same thing for everyone on Li’s team going with me. Trust each other
and follow your honcho.”

They
split into two groups. Ludwig went back to the cruiser and opened up the floor
compartment. Inside were two pairs of binoculars, food rations, four submachine
guns, and a dozen ammo magazines. He gave one gun to Li, Jeffie, Kobe, and
Kaden. “There are two grenades in here. You want ‘em?”

Sammy
and Li looked at each other.

“You
bet I do.” Li stowed one in each pocket.

Sammy
gave his handgun to Brickert.

“You
need a gun,” Jeffie told Sammy.

“No,
I don’t. You really think they’ll let me in there with a gun?”

Jeffie
didn’t argue. Brickert tried to talk Natalia into being part of Ludwig’s team,
but she flatly refused to leave him. The Betas said goodbye to Ludwig,
Strawberry, and Hefani and watched them take off into the twilight sky. Sammy
and Li’s team found the car in under five minutes. It was an old, white SUV,
but still quite a squeeze for eleven people to fit inside. They managed with
lots of people sitting on laps or hunkering down in the very back.