Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (27 page)

The AI paused for a moment, considering Gerry’s words. Again, Gerry thought he had switched off such was his deathly stillness. Eventually he inclined his head. “I will finish here and let you be on your way, Gerry. There’s no record of the incident, so I’ll assume it’s a human quirk.”

“Thank you. I appreciate that.”

With hindsight, Gerry would wish Jachz wasn’t so compliant.

***

The rest of the procedure went without incident. Jachz had mentioned a few times how impressed he was with Gerry’s ability to recover and the capacity with which he could deal with complex programming problems. If Jachz had the ability to emote, Gerry was certain there would be an element of jealousy within his comments. But he couldn’t feel and was merely making Gerry feel at ease.
 

When Jachz had finally finished and given Gerry a clean bill of health, he accompanied him to the shuttle bay ready for his return journey back to Earth. Within the dock of the bay, standing in a small group, his parents, Amma and Nolan, and his brother, Tyronius, along with Jachz and a number of engineers waited for Gerry to approach his shuttle.
 

A sleek two-seater craft, in the Family’s colours of white and beige, shaped like a rounded wedge, awaited his boarding. A single gull-wing door hung open, showing him the sparse but comfortable interior. The journey would only take a couple of hours, but it was encouraging he would travel in comfort.
 

As he approached, Nolan stepped forward, his arms out wide as if waiting for a hug. Gerry stopped short. Throughout his stay, he’d only really interacted with Amma and Jachz, and occasionally the cold and distant Tyronius. Nolan had barely spoken with him during his recovery, but the way he acted as if he were saying goodbye to his best friend made Gerry only increase his disdain for his so-called father.

Realising Gerry wasn’t going to reciprocate, Nolan dropped his arms by his sides and coughed to ease the embarrassment. The flashing blue and red docking lights of the shuttle bay created specular reflections on his bald head. His skin, the colour of polished mahogany, had a bright sheen to it. He fiddled with his round, silver-wire-rimmed spectacles, diverting his attention away from Gerry’s gaze.
 

As much as he tried, Gerry could not return the warmth that Amma and Nolan had wished for. They might be his biological parents, and Tyronius, with his dark, slicked-back hair and sharp cruel features, might be his brother, but he looked on them as strangers, enemies even.
 

They had used Gerry, experimented on him and, despite bringing him back from death, only wanted him for what he could do, wanted him to bring Petal to them so they could continue with their experiments and advancements.
 

“Son?” Nolan finally said, stepping towards Gerry, gripping his arms. “I know none of this has been easy on you. I know you don’t feel an emotional connection with us, but I want you to give us time. Try to see things from our perspective. When you come back with Petal, you’ll have time to study us. Research our history, and then you’ll understand why we did what we did, and why we do what we do. You and I are not so different.”

“How’s that?” Gerry asked, genuinely interested, especially as that last remark seemed to elicit a sneer from Tyronius, who stood next to Amma as if his very proximity would claim her as his own. As far as Gerry was concerned he was welcome to them.
 

“I hated my father too,” Nolan said, releasing Gerry. “I hated what our great company had become at the time. Moving from environmental technology to that of an arms power. There’s a blurring of lines when a corporation grows so powerful it becomes a sovereign entity in its own right.”

“And yet you were still influential come the time this ‘company’ decided to end the war, and basically ended the world.”

“Yes, but I was also the driving force, along with your mother, in rebuilding it. We gave humanity a future. Without us, there would be nothing.” He sighed, letting his shoulders drop. “But I know this is an old conversation, and it’ll never end. Such a massive event will always generate questions. But before you go, I want you to know that you will always have a place here with us, and that I hope when you return, you’ll find it in yourself, even if it’s just curiosity, to study with us, get to know us, learn the facts of this family, and then judge us.”

“I will do that,” Gerry said. “I believe that is only fair.”
 

At that, Nolan smiled, and the tension of his body eased. Amma also smiled, her eyes showing it to be natural. Tyronius’ sneer deepened.
 

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Nolan said. “In the meantime, your new transceiver software will give you a direct connection to our communication satellite while on Earth. And your new eye will deliver us an audio and video feed, along with an augmented overlay to give you data during your mission. If there’s anything you need while you’re down there, or if you need to talk with any of us, we’ll be here.”

Gerry was already at work in deciphering the code that created that connection. When he got to the planet’s surface, he had no intention of allowing that direct connection to continue. And he had no intentions of ever coming back and researching them.
 

He saw enough during his recovery. Saw the number of AI-controlled bodies being experimented on; saw how their coders were trying to come up with new types of intelligences, even devices in order to upload one’s mind completely, which he had learned was Amma and Nolan’s main line of interest. Immortality was their aim, one that was entirely posthuman and without the need for a body.
 

That was too far for him. Humanity was more than just a mind on a computer chip. Still, he continued the subterfuge, played the game, and made his way to the shuttle.
 

As he settled inside and the engineers got him set up, he turned to face the onlooking group. “I’ll be sure to keep you updated on the status of my task.”

“Safe journey, my love,” Amma said. “And thank you. We look forward to welcoming you, and Petal, back to the station soon.”

Gerry nodded and turned to the engineer. “I’m ready to go.” The young woman in the grey coveralls radioed to the dock controllers and stood back from the shuttle as the door closed.
 

A voice came directly into Gerry’s mind via his transceiver. “I’ll be your liaison during the flight, Gerry,” Jachz said. “Just relax and listen to my instructions, and you will be on the surface within a few hours. Are you ready?”
 

“Let’s get this bird in the air, Jachz. I got a woman to find.”

Chapter 23

The shuttle left the station with the grace of a swan. It pitched away in an arc towards Earth, leaving that great, long metal structure of the Family’s home behind.
 

For a moment, Gerry held his breath at the majesty of space before him. Unlike being on the planet’s surface, where pollution and clouds obscured the stars, here everything was sharp and clear and infinite. For the past couple of weeks he’d stared out of the porthole and watched the stars, but having this wider vista through the shuttle’s holoscreen, he felt like he was right in the middle of a great void.

Jachz’s instructions had finished. Gerry was told he would be flying silent for the next hour, unless he required anything. But he didn’t. All he wanted was the quiet to enjoy the awe-inspiring views. It also brought into perspective the significance, or lack of it, of his life.
 

Out there on an endless number of worlds there must be other life, other people, creatures, types of life forms, all thinking they matter. But individually, they, including himself, those on the station, and those on Earth, amounted to so little. And yet that smallness mattered so much. A tiny blip of life on a dust fragment spinning through space had all the meaning in the universe.

It was during that journey towards the planet that he realised just how much he missed Petal. She’d sacrificed so much for him and kept him alive in numerous situations. There was no way he could betray that loyalty, or his feelings for her, by returning to the Family.
 

His mind was still at work unpicking the code that made up the connection to the Family’s communication satellite. They had a whole collection of them in a low-earth orbit, providing various functions. It was the largest network he’d ever seen.
 

Despite his skills and his recovery, he couldn’t get into the code, but he could at least program a roadblock to prevent them spying on him from within. As he sent his mind more fully into the communications satellite, he discovered a flow of data from a specific node. He guessed that was the satellite. It appeared to him as a massive data store, with other stores connected to it.
 

Unable to resist looking closer, he dove further in and analysed the data.
 

Within a split-second he knew it was a mistake.
 

His entire body tensed, and a deathly chill shrouded his soul. A force gripped his mind and dragged him further in.
 

The tendrils, he thought. A flash of code came to him, paralysing, probing. He tried to leave the data stream, bring his mind back to his body, but it was too late. The entity he’d briefly seen during his diagnostic approached. A massive, dark intelligence reached out to him.
 

Gerry screamed, squeezed his eyes shut, and spun a set of defensive code patterns. The entity swatted them away as if they were harmless flies. To Gerry’s horror, he was aware of a change in the trajectory of the shuttle. Snapping his eyes open, still half in that data-state, he saw the Earth spinning away from him, to be replaced with the darkness of deep space.
 

The arcing stars caused a blurring flash before the shuttle stopped its change of direction. The thrusters engaged and sent him hurtling away from Earth, away from the Family’s station. And worse: his communications were down.
 

The shuttles controls wouldn’t respond. Even his desire to scream had been covered in an all-encompassing blanket of darkness as the great entity wrapped its digital will around Gerry’s mind.
 

The station and Earth shrank behind him as he continued to hurtle into deep space. He let out a silent scream and battled to free his mind. A new enemy had found him.
 

Reborn, but under threat, Gerry once more faced a fight for survival.

Code Breakers: Beta

Chapter 1

Petal paced the eight steps back and forth within her cell: a grey-walled block, with a shelf for a bed and a hole for a toilet. A thick steel door with only a small window and a secure flap for passing things through gave it any detail.

For two long weeks she’d ambled and shuffled to the left, to the right, all the time wondering what happened to Gerry back in City Earth. Jasper and his cronies had shot her and Len, but she’d no idea of Gerry’s fate.

She thought she would have sensed something, somehow, if they had killed him off. Only a crushing Gerry-shaped void remained inside. She took some comfort in not knowing for sure. There was always hope, but still, the sickly rage crawled through her mind, constructed images of terrible vengeance. A series of circular questions ran through her mind on a constant loop: Was Gerry dead? Had the AI breached City Earth’s systems? What was happening if it had? Was everyone a gibbering AI-controlled zombie? Was Gabe still a double-crossing douche?

The only thing she knew right now was that she was some distance from the Dome. After Jasper’s people had shot her and taken her out of the City, she was transported away in Enna’s Jaguar copter.

During the evacuation, however, a group of robed fanatics attacked the transport and killed Jasper’s people. They had the glint of religious fanatics in their eyes: the fervent staring of the unhinged. For the most part they spoke Russian, or one of its sub-dialects. The group wore red scarves around their faces, and was made up entirely of women.

While Petal was bagged and thrown into the back of a truck during her recapture she heard them wail then mumble, groan and exalt, all praising their leader ‘Natalya’.

Petal didn’t know what to be more surprised by: that there were still fanatics of this sort, or that there were that many survivors in Russia. Enna had suggested there was an old military installation beyond the mountains that separated Mongolia and Russia. It was where she recovered and rebuilt the Jaguar from. However, the installation had faced some of the worst fighting during the Cataclysm. Clearly there were more things out there than Petal could ever know; like why the hell was she being held in a prison cell?

Each day they would come, pass a pot of barely edible swill through the door. She gagged and choked with each mouthful, but would never give them the satisfaction of beating her, despite how they laughed at her through the small glass window. They would point at her goggles, pink mohican-hair, now growing out at the sides, or her tattooed lips, and gabble in their filthy language. Occasionally a more senior robe-wearer would stand at the window and stare at her while uttering some ugly sermon. Every one of them had a plain look like the desert, she thought. Not a one of them had their own style. They were nothing but a bunch of brainwashed drones.

She would’ve been able to translate if the rude swines hadn’t ripped out her dermal implant. The wound on her wrist still throbbed. The poorly stitched cuts scarred into brutal reminders of the ‘procedure’. Without her implant she couldn’t use her concealed spikes within her forearms: none of her internal modifications worked. She was lesser now, a mere human.

Those deadly retractable killing tools were of much fascination to their surgeons. Through a translator they asked how they worked, what she was, who made her. None of which she could answer. For the past five years she hadn’t known anything that came before. Her mind erased like an old, unwanted hard drive. Ever since Gabe had found her wandering the desert, she’d always wanted to know where she came from. Neither Gabe nor Enna could recover her memory.