The AI had deployed an armed counter-insurgency team before the officers even had a chance to recognize that something was wrong.
Four miles further to the north, in a concealed and sensor-shielded airfield, the blades of a specialized chopper were already beginning to turn, and a team of special operations officers in full gear ran for the aircraft, ready for the task. The helicopter itself was pitch black and oddly fibrous, its hull completely invisible to sonar, radar, and mass detector. No military markings or civilian call letters were visible; they couldn’t be, they would jeopardize the secrecy of the safe house.
It would take them less then twelve minutes to reach the facility.
NORTH OXFORD, ENGLAND
Spector Safe House, 12:29 PM
Hayden turned on his heels and ran.
Teah was still at the security console, pounding it to bits with every ounce of her cybernetic strength. Hayden knew with absolute certainty that the entire plan was blown.
The Spector he had worked so hard to make, the vehicle he was this close to taking for his own was lost to him forever.
He knew all about the Counterforce protocols. Hell, he’d helped to write them years earlier. They were an armed response to attempted sabotage or invasion, and that was exactly what he was doing. He knew where the Special Forces detachment that would respond was stationed, and he knew exactly when they’d arrive.
I have to get the hell out of here, he thought…and at the same time, he was formulating a Plan B-the image of the completed Spector flashed before his eyes, and he saw himself hijacking the vessel bound for Antarctic continent. A last, desperate stratagem that he and Simon and the team just might be able to pull off…
If I can get what I need out of here before they arrive, he told himself.
And he already knew the timing: he had twelve minutes.
* * *
The chopper hovered over the surface of the Thames so low that it churned the water into a gray froth. Seven members of the Counterforce team dressed in black SWAT uniforms and night vision goggles jumped out of the cargo hold and hit the water with barely a splash.
They would gain access to the safe house through a special escape hatch in the double-hulled dome, even if it meant cutting through the metal with a laser. It wouldn’t take them more than a few minutes.
* * *
Hayden started scrambling through the various components scattered on his work desk. He looked over his shoulder at his insane robot as he slapped a small device onto the holo-display and started downloading files he knew he would need.
She had finished her destruction. Now she was just standing there, motionless, over the smoking wreckage of the console. As he glanced at her he saw her head twitch in an almost human way, as if she was listening to a voice only she could hear.
How could it have happened? he asked himself. How could Teah have been seized by Remote Access Intervention? Somebody had the ability to seize control of the AI from a distance-probably a very long distance, through the satellite net itself-and make it do whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted.
To hell with that, he thought, and turned away from his traitorous creation for the last time. Two can play that game.
Nine and a half minutes and counting.
Stay focused, he told himself. Don’t miss anything. There were several key modules that he needed to disconnect and take with him as he fled the facility, or no future plan of any kind would work. He knew that the completed Spector would need to be rigged differently, so he had one chance to grab what he needed.
There was no going back now.
Nine minutes.
His fingers started shaking as he raced through hundreds of security codes that allowed him to access the deepest, most classified files. He was manipulating the entire system through a sequence of passwords that he had created himself to keep others out and protect his work-and now he was the one doing the damage.
There was a faint clang above him-the noise of metal on metal, coming from outside, from beyond the dome itself. Are those footsteps? he asked himself. Or something landing…rolling? He could feel a wild panic rising inside him as the rumbling grew louder.
Six minutes.
He snatched the little memory device off its docking pad. Time to make a run for it, he thought as he fumbled for the last bits of equipment and started sprinting toward the back door. I can’t risk being captured, he thought as he ran. I can’t.
He had never felt such fear before. His body trembled uncontrollably as he filled his arms with a bulky tangle of hardware and ran.
Four min-
He was fifteen feet from the escape hatch when the lights went out.
Damn it, he thought in the middle of the darkness. They were even faster than I thought.
There was a hum and a clank as the emergency lights switched themselves on. Suddenly the ghostly shapes of the Spectors were illuminated by harsh white beams that sliced up from the floor. The outer skin of the vessels, which automatically mimicked the environment, made the vehicles almost invisible. Hayden, short of breath, skidded to a stop and shoved what he had collected into a small duffel bag. He forced himself to keep going, moving very slowly and, in absolute silence, toward the secret escape route.
He was starting to panic.
There were footsteps coming from above. He could hear them. He looked up to see a ceiling hatch directly above Spector I slowly unlock and open. The black ops team lowered themselves through the opening, like spiders dropping in on their prey, holding laser-guided weapons mounted with lethal-looking canisters.
Hayden recognized the attachments to the weapons. Immobilization gas, he told himself. No intruder would have a chance once the gas had reached their system. And this time, I’m the intruder.
He had only one chance, and he decided to take it. He crouched down close to the floor and kept going. Just a few steps, he told himself. Just get out this door; they don’t even know it exists. It’s not on any of the schematics. I made sure of that. Just slip outside, into the tunnel, get to Simon and the others and-
He heard the hissing when he was less than ten feet from the exit.
* * *
The surveillance team released the immobilization gas as they carefully scanned the entire facility for intruders. There was no reason to wait; the facility was supposed to be empty. If anyone was there, they deserved to be gassed; if no one was there, the only cost was a few ounces of antipersonnel aerosol. Either way the Counterforce Team members were already masked. That was standard operating procedure.
It took only seconds for the scanning AI to locate the intruder. It spoke to the team members through the earpieces in their helmets, describing him in detail, feeding them his location as seen through the security cameras.
They spread out into a wide crescent and moved slowly across the bay, following directions, using the equipment as cover, staying quiet. They were in no hurry. Their intruder had nowhere to go.
He was trapped.
Hayden barely made it to the door, duffel bag in hand, before his body started reacting to the gas. His vision distorted as he watched his own hand reaching for the doorknob. He felt his knees weaken as if his joints had suddenly turned to rubber.
He heard a sound behind him, the clack-clack of a weapon being cocked. He didn’t want to turn around-his turn had come, he told himself irrationally-but his body was beyond his control. He spun slowly, like a disoriented swimmer underwater, and saw a man with a gas mask and goggles, dressed in black, pointing a large rifle toward him.