“Did you have a test today?” Tyler said.
“It wasn’t on the schedule. I imagine Professor Stevens wanted to do some fine-tuning.”
“How does it work?”
“The truck can be driven normally, but once the robotic system is activated, the driving functions are totally autonomous. We have a chase van used for control and monitoring. The truck uses sensors, GPS navigation, and computer-controlled servomechanisms to stay on the road, and the person monitoring in the van gives it commands to start, stop, and turn. Eventually you’ll be able to plug in a destination with no further input. While we’re testing, you usually need three people to operate it: one in CAPEK, one to drive the van, and one in the back of the van monitoring.”
Hyland frowned.
“What’s the matter?” Tyler asked.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that I was surprised they took it out without me. It being winter break, the only other student around is Milo Beech.”
“So it’s just the three of you? Isn’t it odd for you not to go with them?”
“I suppose it’s not that unusual. The professor must have had his reasons. And it’s easy enough for two people to do. They find a stretch of road, park the van, and drive the truck up and down to collect data.”
“Can you call the professor?” Tyler asked. “We’d like to talk to him.”
Hyland shook his head again. “When he left me the message that they’d be taking it out this morning, he told me he’d be turning off his phone so he wouldn’t be distracted during the testing. But he should be back after lunch.”
“What time?”
“Two o’clock should do it.”
“You sure we can’t contact him sooner?”
Hyland looked to each of them in turn as if he were making up his mind about something, then nodded.
“I suppose it’d be all right to tell you where you can find him.”
“You just said he’s not answering his phone,” Fay said. “How can you find out where he is?”
“I’ll show you.” He beckoned for them to follow him into the garage.
Hyland sat at a computer terminal and everyone gathered around him. He talked while he clicked through the screens. “Of course, when there’s a fleet of robotic trucks in operation, we’ll need to know where they are at all times, so we have a system to track their GPS signals.”
The map on screen was scaled to one inch per hundred miles, so the blinking dot representing the truck didn’t tell them much. Hyland blew up the map by a factor of ten.
“That’s weird,” he said.
“What’s weird?” Tyler asked.
“Well, I expected them to be out the back of beyond, but they’re in Alice Springs. The truck’s not moving. Wonder what he’s doing there.”
“Can you overlay a satellite map on that?”
“No worries.”
A few clicks later, an overhead view of Alice Springs appeared.
If the satellite map was up to date, the truck was currently parked next to a warehouse, right in the middle of town.
SIXTEEN
While the C-17 taxied to a remote area of the Alice Springs airport’s tarmac, Morgan called Dr. Kessler. Vince was already standing; Josephson was busy checking the moorings to make sure none of the equipment had come loose during the flight.
“Yes?” Kessler answered.
“Are you ready?” she said.
“I saw you land as we were driving in. We’ll be there in a minute.”
She hung up.
“I hate flying on planes with no windows,” Vince said. “I wanted to see Ayer’s Rock.”
“That’s over a hundred miles west of here,” Morgan said. “You wouldn’t have seen it anyway.”
“Still. Where’s Kessler?”
“On his way.”
The cargo plane lurched to a halt. The loadmaster scrambled down the stairs from the upper deck and opened the side door. Per procedure, he wouldn’t open the rear doors until the cargo was ready to be unloaded.
Morgan followed him out to see two local police cars guarding the street entrance. They’d stop anyone who tried to get within a hundred yards of the plane.
Vince stretched his arms and put on sunglasses as he peered at the sparse trees dotting the red landscape.
“That is a whole lot of nothing,” he said.
“You’re from West Texas.”
“So I know what I’m talking about.”
So did Morgan. She grew up in Ohio, but her pilot training had been at Laughlin Air Force Base in Nevada. The terrain here looked familiar to her, except there were no tall mountain ranges surrounding the airport like they did in Vegas — just a few ridges in the distance.
The sound of a truck’s engine made her turn. A nondescript white two-axle truck was stopped by the police, and the driver flashed his identification. The policeman waved him through. Morgan walked toward the back of the plane to meet the truck at the cargo door.
Kessler got out of the passenger side, and three men emerged from the rear of the truck.
“Welcome to Australia, Agent Bell,” Kessler said. “Agent Cameron. Have a good flight?”
“Peachy,” Vince said.
“Have there been any new developments while we were in the air?” Morgan asked.
Kessler shook his head. “We’re all settled in and ready to get prepped for the weapon test.”
“I’ll need to see your IDs,” she said to the men with Kessler. All of them were carrying pistols. She peered in the back of the truck and spotted three automatic rifles.
They looked at the scientist as if to ask if she were for real. Kessler nodded that she was, and they showed her their IDs. All of them were NSA agents on the Pine Gap security team.
“All right,” she said to the loadmaster. “Let’s go.”
He lowered the ramp and released the clamps on the crate carrying the Killswitch. The four security men kept watch as Josephson and the loadmaster used a hand truck to move the crate off the plane. It took only a few minutes to lash it securely to the truck’s floor.
Once Kessler was satisfied that it was in place, two of the security men and Josephson climbed inside with it.
“Are you staying here or going with it?” Morgan asked Kessler.
“Josephson can take care of it. I’ll stay here to supervise unloading the most delicate equipment. You may ride back with me.”
“How long will you be?”
“No more than ten minutes.”
Morgan nodded as she watched a semi pull into the airport entrance, where the police allowed it to enter. It stopped next to the C-17. At the same time a forklift motored over to the plane.
“Are we cleared to go, Dr. Kessler?” one of the security men said.
“Yes,” Kessler said. “Close it up. Collins will meet you at the base to unload. Make sure you stay with the crate until it reaches the lab.”
“Yes, sir.”
The rear door of the smaller truck was shut, and the two other security team members climbed into the front seats. Morgan watched them drive off.
While she waited for Kessler’s men to load the semi rig with the rest of the equipment, she called back to the office to see if they’d made any progress tracking down the origin of the Internet videogame forum message.
Tyler parked the Jeep down the street from the unmarked warehouse where the CAPEK truck was located. He’d driven slowly past it and they had seen the robotic semi and chase van next to a dozen white trailers, four of which were backed up to the warehouse loading bays. Cars and trucks passed them periodically, so the Jeep’s presence wouldn’t be noticeable.
“Hyland thought this was an odd place to bring the truck,” Tyler said. “I agree.”
“What do you think it’s doing here?” Grant asked.