The Altreian Enigma (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 2) Read online

  Janet inhaled deeply, then forced her thoughts back to the situation at hand. The time for recriminations would come. Now was the time to finish the acts that would make regret inevitable.

  Deep inside the Frankfurt Gateway cavern, the swarms of micro-bots moved with the speed of ants toward their targets, all directed by the power of Heather’s mind. And as they spread out and began converging on the top and rear of the extensive collection of rack-mounted equipment that composed the gateway controller, her view of the system of electronics began to fill in.

  A technician moving along a catwalk on the south side of the cavern caught the toe of his shoe on the steel grating and tumbled outward, barely managing to catch the railing as he flipped over. His feet scrabbled desperately for a foothold, kicking a bundle of cables beneath the walkway, dislodging the hundreds of micro-bots that moved along it, sending them sifting downward like a thin curtain of dust toward the cavern floor forty feet below.

  Heather shifted her focus, issuing the terminate command to all those that fell, causing each of those tiny bots to curl inward and switch itself off so that they were almost indistinguishable from fine sand or dirt. The workers who looked up in horror at the technician who struggled to regain the catwalk blinked and stepped back from the falling dust as they tried to keep their eyes focused on the struggling man above.

  As the technician’s hand began to slip, another worker reached him, grasped his arm and lab coat, and hoisted him back up. A loud cheer went up from those who had seen the nearly fatal fall. The handful who had been almost directly below him wiped away the dust that the faller had sent sifting down onto their heads and shoulders, then patted each other on the backs and went back to their own tasks.

  The small disaster added to Heather’s workload when she was already almost at her maximum, the net effect leaving her dazed and exhausted. She bore down, restoring her focus on getting as many of the micro-bots as possible into the inner workings of the gateway control system. As the machines spread throughout the interior of the equipment, she was relieved to see that, although there were minor variances from the design diagrams, she would not have to make extensive changes to the electrical modifications.

  Distantly she felt her body shake as tremors shook the parking structure in which she sat. But she shunted that aside and went to work, sending the micro-bots scurrying to rewire key circuits within the stasis field generator. They cut through certain electrical traces and then linked together to form new conductive paths, thereby changing the way the circuits functioned. The intention wasn’t to disable the machine, but to make it appear fully functional, capable of passing all diagnostic tests. In the process, she even corrected preexisting errors in the circuitry that would have resulted in test failure and circuit-card replacement.

  As Heather finished with each section of equipment, she sent miscellaneous micro-bots to create new circuits to the floor beneath the racks, where they curled into dust particles and shut themselves down.

  Just as she was finishing the last trace, she felt a powerful hand on her shoulder and heard Mark’s loud voice in her ear.

  “Time’s up. Gotta go now!”

  Although his meaning registered, she shook off his hand and spent an additional thirty-seven seconds finishing up and shutting down the remaining micro-bots.

  The cacophony of nearby explosions, mixed with the screams of dying men and women, finally pulled her from her trance.

  Mark lifted Heather to her feet as her eyes shifted back to their natural deep brown. But when he released her, she staggered and would have fallen had he not reached out.

  “We’ve got to go now!” he yelled over the sound of combat just outside the stairway that led up to ground level.

  When she drew her Glock and ran for the stairwell, Mark breathed a sigh of relief, pulled the safety pin, and set a thermite grenade atop the specialized communications gear. Then he raced after her. Reaching the top of the stairs, he leveled his SCAR-L and followed it around the corner to the covered position beside the parked motorcycles where Aaden, Nikina, and Heather knelt. Behind an adjacent pile of concrete blocks, a group of five of the dog-bots, each with a full load of the crab bombs attached to their bodies, stood waiting to be deployed.

  “Aaden. Status?” Mark yelled.

  “I have three men penned down inside that far corner of the building. We still have a handful of robots fighting out beyond the compound walls, but they won’t be able to hold off the Rangers for much longer. It’s now or never.”

  Heather looked at the dog-bots. “And those?”

  “They’re going to punch a hole for you two to get out. Nikina will accompany you.”

  “What about you?” Nikina asked.

  “I’m going for my men. We’ll be right behind you . . . or we won’t.”

  Mark glanced around the corner and could see the muzzle flashes from a heavy automatic weapon, sending tracers streaking through the dissipating fog.

  “Okay,” he said, motioning toward the cycles. “Let us get mounted up and then let the robots run.”

  Mark, Heather, and Nikina each climbed onto motorcycles and switched them on, the thrum of their idling engines echoing through the concrete shell of the building. The flash of a nearby explosion illuminated the left side of Aaden’s face, which was covered in blood.

  “Who let the dogs out?” The big German grinned. “That would be me.”

  He spoke into a small device, and the five robots burst into action, exiting the building and then spreading out as they raced southeast toward the nearest machine-gun positions. A shoulder-fired rocket streaked toward the middle dog-bot as it released its magnetically attached crab bombs, sending them scuttling forward even as it exploded into chunks of flying shrapnel.

  Then the other dogs reached the forward Ranger positions and loosed their crab bombs to seek and destroy while they raced on toward other targets. Mark’s heart pounded in his chest as adrenaline brought his senses to crystal clarity.

  “Follow me!” Heather yelled, sliding her SRT headset over her temples.

  As the wheels of her cycle left a smoking trail of rubber on the concrete floor, that’s exactly what Mark did, with Nikina’s bike screeching out behind him. He again placed his faith in the abilities of this exceptional woman to lead him through the chaos of the night.

  Janet stared at the situational-awareness display and activated the virtual chat session, connecting her to Robby, Jamal, and Eileen.

  “Mark and Heather are on the move. Now I need some of that hacker magic you guys brag about to help get them back to our Earth gate.”

  “We can’t give you control of the robots,” Robby said.

  “I don’t care what it is; I need something.”

  Jamal Glover’s voice carried its usual cocky undertone. “How about a self-driving-car demolition derby?”

  The image those words put into Janet’s mind brought a smile to her lips. “Focus on unoccupied vehicles.”

  “Got it,” Jamal said. “Won’t matter if they’re awaiting fares or just parked; Eileen and I can send them anywhere and at whatever speed we want.”

  “Heather is wearing her headset, so you can use that to track her location. I want anybody chasing them intercepted right now.”

  “Okay, Jamal,” Eileen said, “prepare to watch and learn.”

  “Funny,” he replied.

  “Robby,” said Janet, “I need you and Eos to redirect every available satellite feed of the Hanau area to my situation room. Make the satellites go dark for everyone else. Can you do that?”

  “No problem,” he said, sounding happy to have another opportunity to redeem himself.

  As the group moved into their cyber-warfare mode, Janet withdrew from the chat session and returned to the map that provided her real-time situational overview. The graphic included imagery from the few surviving robots and drones, but with any luck, the map would soon come alive with satellite feeds hijacked from the four UFNS member nations.

>   Fortunately, the robots that continued to rampage through the city of Hanau, battling police and the German military, would avoid the Smythe facility there. And since the Earth gate had its own cold-fusion power supply, the widespread power outages would have no impact on its operation. With Heather about ten minutes out from the Hanau Trans-Shipping warehouse where the Earth gate waited, the sooner Janet’s team of elite hackers got their act in gear, the happier she would be.

  As Mark banked hard onto the southbound lane of German Highway 45 headed toward Hanau, he watched in amazement as hundreds of cars and trucks headed directly toward them, filling both the north and southbound lanes.

  But Heather refused to throttle down, and he and Nikina maintained the pace. As they raced toward the wall of death metal approaching from the south, Mark envisioned a giant game of chicken—three birds on one side and five hundred on the other—and felt himself grinning wildly. His savant was a serious badass. When the vehicles headed north parted to allow them passage, it barely surprised him.

  Black magic.

  Alexandr Prokorov stared at the video wall in disbelief.

  “Where did my satellite imagery go?”

  General Zherdev picked up the phone, his square face having acquired the countenance of an angry bear. By the time he ended the conversation and hung up, his apparent mood hadn’t improved.

  “It’s not just these. Hackers have just taken down all satellite feeds of the Frankfurt and Hanau area. And I mean for every satellite that could provide video or still imagery.”

  Prokorov cursed, tempted to kick over a chair. “The Smythes!”

  The phone’s ringtone sounded, and General Zherdev punched a button to put it on speaker.

  “What now?”

  The voice of the military intelligence captain sounded rattled.

  “Sir, we’ve just received a report of hundreds of vehicles charging into the military and police vehicles in pursuit of the three motorcycles that escaped through the Ranger lines.”

  “What do you mean, ‘charging into’?” asked Prokorov.

  “I mean they are intentionally crashing into or blocking the path of the pursuing vehicles. What’s more, these vehicles all appear to be unoccupied.”

  “What about aerial pursuit?”

  “A Black Hawk helicopter with thirteen Rangers aboard followed them to an industrial complex on the north side of Hanau. The three cycles disappeared into one of the warehouses.”

  Prokorov terminated the call and turned to face Zherdev. “General, have the Rangers on that chopper secure that industrial park. I want those three individuals captured alive.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And get some reinforcements headed that way. Now that we’ve got them cornered, I don’t want to lose them again.”

  As the general picked up the phone to issue his orders, Prokorov looked at the blank screens on the situation wall.

  Not this time, Smythes, he thought. Tonight you are mine.

  Heather skidded to a stop inside the warehouse, twelve yards in front of the inactive Earth gate, Mark and Nikina screeching to a halt beside her. The whoop of the circling helicopter lent wings to Heather’s feet as she sprinted toward the switches that would power up the cold-fusion reactor and send a subspace signal to New Zealand, requesting remote gateway activation.

  Janet had already informed her that Robby was standing by in the master control station for the primary Earth gate, ready to initiate its sequence as soon as Heather initialized the one on this end.

  She heard the squeal of metal as Mark triggered the app on his cell phone to close the warehouse door through which they just entered. Reaching the control station, she initiated the power-up sequence to bring the cold-fusion reactor to full power. The process would take just over two minutes. Unfortunately, the helicopter overhead sounded like a Black Hawk, and that meant it was carrying a cargo load of pissed-off Army Rangers who were most likely fast-roping down right now.

  Mark and Nikina took up covering positions behind a nearby forklift. Heather focused her attention on the gradually rising power levels. If the Rangers came a-knocking before the gateway activated, her team’s only chance would be the trapdoor covering the bolt-hole leading down to the half-mile-long escape tunnel. But then the Rangers would be right behind. Even if the Smythes and Nikina managed to reach the far end of the tunnel, by that time, choppers would be swarming the skies, watching for them to reemerge.

  Not a scenario Heather wanted to try out.

  “Screw it,” Janet said, sliding into the cursed SRT headset and the mind trip it generated.

  She had only tried using the headset on one previous occasion, and it had scared her more than an acid trip. Having vivid, waking dreams pumped into her head threatened to produce an addiction. The effect was enhanced by her thoughts dictating the scenario: one second she could be standing at the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, and the next she could be in a running gun battle through the streets of Cairo. Even though she didn’t really move while using the headset, the link between the computer and sensation centers in her brain were superb, with almost no discernible difference between the virtual world and reality. For God’s sake, she could be with Jack again anytime she wanted. Delving into her memories, the computer would fill in the details of whatever scenario she desired.

  The loss of Jack had robbed Janet of the self-discipline she had spent a lifetime honing. Right now she really needed it back.

  So she focused on the enhanced satellite feed of the ongoing activity within the Hanau Trans-Shipping industrial park. As a door gunner provided cover, a dozen U.S. Army Rangers fast-lined to the ground and then raced to surround the vast central warehouse.

  That was good news since it meant their orders were to secure the perimeter and prevent the three warehouse occupants from escaping, without immediately moving in for an assault. But that also meant more help was inbound.

  She shifted her focus, mentally scanning all the satellite video feeds. Sure enough, three more Black Hawks were rapidly closing on the compound. And these guys would be the assault team. Worse, they were less than a minute out.

  “Eileen,” Janet said, having to focus on speaking mentally.

  “Yes?”

  “I need you to buy Heather some time. We still have three trucks in the Hanau Trans-Shipping compound. Get them moving, and throw in any other distraction you two can come up with.”

  “We’re on it.”

  Janet turned her attention to the power readout being transmitted from the remote Earth gate. Fifty-seven percent.

  “Come on, Mr. Fusion,” she breathed. “Get your ass in gear.”

  Ranger lieutenant Kurt Landow prepared to lead his platoon’s assault on the warehouse, watching through NVGs as Staff Sergeant Vasquez placed the explosive charge on the locked office door. As soon as Vasquez backed off and blew the door, Kurt would lead second squad in an assault through the opening while first and third squads provided cover.

  But as Vasquez ran to a covered position, Kurt heard a big diesel engine rumble to life.

  “What the hell?”

  As if in answer, an eighteen-wheeler squealed around the corner of a distant warehouse and accelerated directly toward the troops.

  Kurt spoke two words into his jawbone mike: “Kill it.”

  From his left, he heard the whoosh from the recoilless rifle as a high explosive, dual-purpose round left the barrel of the antitank weapon. The shot streaked seventy yards and impacted the truck’s grill, obliterating the engine and cab and sending the trailer careening into the wall of an adjacent building. Smoke from the explosion chased spinning chunks of metal into the firelit sky.

  Suddenly every light in the industrial park turned on, erasing the predawn darkness and washing out Kurt’s view through the NVGs. As he tried to come to grips with how this was happening despite the citywide power outage, fire alarms blared from every building in the park. The racket augmented the sensory storm that assaulted his Ranger platoon, mas
king the sound of the semi that crashed through the remnants of the destroyed rig and hurtled directly toward his position.

  “Shit!”

  As gunfire crackled through the night, his men scrambled to get clear of this new truck’s path. Lieutenant Landow grabbed the arm of the corporal to his left and pulled him into a run, just as the truck swerved so hard that it rolled over onto its side, plowing through the place where, only seconds before, second squad had been set for assault.

  With the roar of another truck sounding in the distance, Kurt muttered, “Screw this,” and issued the order he came here to give.

  “Vasquez, blow the door. We’re going in.”

  The rumble of explosions, gunfire, and crashing trucks was almost drowned out by the blaring horn of the warehouse alarm.

  Mark yelled at Heather. “Power level?”

  “Ninety-three percent.”

  “Close enough.”

  “No,” she said. “Any less than ninety-seven and the gate could fail and kill us all. We’re twenty seconds out.”

  An explosion from within the office put him in motion. He climbed onto the forklift and started driving it toward the office door.

  “Nikina, cover me.”

  The operative dropped to a knee and began riddling the inner door with bullets, pausing only to swap magazines. Mark raised the forklift’s twin prongs, bringing the vehicle to a halt with the prongs up against the door, holding it closed.

  Then he leaped off and sprinted back toward Heather as the Earth gate activated.

  “Let’s go!” yelled Heather, who began firing her Glock at the closed office door.

  The trio sprinted out of Hanau and into the New Zealand Earth-gate laboratory.

  Sliding to a stop beside Janet, Mark yelled at Robby. “Blow the far gate!”