By the time we reach the southwestern corner, though, I’ve pulled ahead. I lean into the second turn, pumping my arms, and steadily build up my lead as we race past the Humvee garage. I’m running faster than Zia because of the wireless sensors I installed in my legs. The sensors at the bottom of my footpads are measuring the firmness of the ground, allowing me to maximize my speed. I can safely pick up the pace whenever I hit a dry patch. I’m almost twenty feet ahead of Zia when I reach the southeastern corner.
I feel a surge of exhilaration as I make the third turn and sprint north alongside the fence. Now I realize why I didn’t give up on the obstacle course, why I worked so hard to win. I want to be the leader of the Pioneers. For some reason it’s important to me. Maybe because I think I can do a better job than Hawke. Or maybe because I simply want to impress the others. It sounds a little conceited, I guess, but that’s the way I feel.
I’m more than thirty feet ahead by the time I reach the northeastern corner. The headquarters comes back into view, and I can see Hawke and the other Pioneers standing by the finish line. But just as I make the final turn, I feel horrific pain in both of my legs. My knee joints feel like they’ve caught fire, and my footpads sting as if I’ve just stomped on a bed of nails. The pain is so fierce I lose control of my motors. My legs lock up and my momentum tips me over. My Pioneer careens into the mud.
The pain keeps tormenting me as Zia turns the corner and rushes toward the finish line. For a moment I suspect she used her welding torch on me, but when I run a diagnostic check on my systems I see that everything’s normal. There’s nothing wrong with my footpads or the motors in my leg joints. Then I realize that I’m feeling pain only in the places where I installed the wireless sensors. When I turn off the antenna that’s receiving the signals from the sensors, the pain disappears.
I get back on my footpads and start running again, but Zia has already won the race. What she did was very clever. She must’ve intercepted my sensors’ signals, figured out their frequency, and then transmitted a barrage of radio noise on the same channel. Basically, she hijacked my wireless nervous system to deliver a burst of pain to my circuits.
By the time I cross the finish line, Hawke is already congratulating Zia. For a moment I consider complaining to the general, but I know it won’t do any good. I can’t prove that Zia cheated. And besides, it’s as much my own fault as hers. Shannon had warned me, back in the gym, about the dangers of leaving myself vulnerable. But I didn’t listen.
“We have a winner,” Hawke says. “I’m promoting Zia Allawi to lieutenant. She’s now in charge of the Pioneers, at least when I’m not around. And I’m promoting Adam Armstrong to sergeant. He’ll be the second-in-command.” He gives me a magnanimous look, as if he’s doing me a great favor. Then he looks at his watch. “All right, in thirty minutes one of Sigma’s spy satellites is going to pass over Colorado, so we better get back inside the base. We’ll regroup in the briefing room at sixteen hundred hours.”
He nods at Zia, then marches toward his men. Zia salutes him as he walks away. Then she turns her turret and aims her camera at me. “You heard the general, Armstrong! Get the others in line!”
I have no choice. I have to obey her.
From: The National Security Adviser
The White House, Washington, DC
To: General Calvin Hawke
Commander, Pioneer Base
Cal, I have more information on the firefight at Tatishchevo Missile Base, so I’ve ordered Colonel Peterson to fly to Colorado and deliver this message to you. The news isn’t good.
The incident began last night just outside Tatishchevo’s eastern gate. The Russian soldiers assigned to that area came under heavy fire from the base. At least sixty of Sigma’s driverless tanks emerged from the gate and advanced east along the highway that leads to the city of Saratov. The attack caught the Russians by surprise. When the unmanned tanks roared out of the base with their guns blazing, the troops panicked and retreated into the woods.
Before the Russian commanders could organize a counterattack, a convoy of three trucks sped down the highway from Saratov, heading for the base. The trucks entered Tatishchevo, and then the tanks immediately pulled back behind the eastern gate and reassumed their defensive positions. The attack was apparently a diversion. Sigma launched it just to clear the highway so the trucks could get into the missile base.
Unfortunately, it gets worse. Russian investigators have figured out who was driving the trucks and what was inside them. Twelve hours before the firefight there was an incident at the Russian army’s bioweapons laboratory, five hundred miles northeast of Tatishchevo. A group of terrorists, most likely from Chechnya, broke into the lab and captured a large supply of highly lethal anthrax bacteria.
The Chechens also stole equipment that mixes the bacteria into an aerosol spray, making it easy to spread the germs over a large area. Witnesses at the bioweapons lab said the terrorists escaped in three Ural tractor-trailer trucks. That matches the description of the vehicles that entered Tatishchevo.
So it looks like you were right when you said Sigma’s preferred strategy is to kill off the human race without destroying our machines. Spreading anthrax over our cities would accomplish that goal quite efficiently. The Russian army is pushing hard to attack Tatishchevo before Sigma can release the germs. We’ve given them the results of our analyses, all the studies showing that Sigma could easily launch its nuclear missiles long before our own missiles could hit the computer lab, but the Russians are growing impatient. If we want to pursue the Pioneer option, you’ll need to get your team ready soon. Even two weeks may be too long. We may have to load the Pioneers on a flight to Russia in just a few days.
In the meantime, we need to be very careful. The attack on the bioweapons lab shows that Sigma can persuade people to carry out tasks that the AI can’t do by itself. It looks like Sigma made contact with the terrorists through its communications satellites, which give the AI access to the Internet and the telephone networks.
And there’s evidence that Sigma has used this access to hack into the computer systems of several major banks. The AI has apparently stolen millions of dollars from the banks, electronically transferring the money to its own hidden accounts, and now it can offer these funds to terrorists and mercenaries in exchange for their cooperation. The terrorists have no idea they’re dealing with an AI because it can mimic human speech so well.
Worst of all, I’m worried that Sigma may be using human allies to help it find Pioneer Base. Just a few minutes ago I got a report from the FBI field office in New York. The parents of Ryan Boyd, the student at Yorktown High School who was once Adam Armstrong’s best friend, have reported the boy missing. Ryan disappeared last night while he was socializing with his friends behind Yorktown High School. His friends say he stepped into the woods to relieve himself, but he never returned. The FBI has assigned a task force to search for Ryan, but they have no good leads.
I think we have to assume the worst: that someone allied with Sigma kidnapped the boy to find out where Armstrong is. I strongly recommend that you question Adam about this right away. If he told Ryan the location of Pioneer Base, you may have to evacuate the facility.