Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (56 page)

Gabe grinned and nodded, made his dreads wobble around his old face. He moved up the aisle to join the others. He patted Gerry on the shoulder as he passed. “On it, man,” he said.

“As for everyone else. Those with military experience or skills please liaise with Cheska over here and form some kind of tactical plan in case we need to fight either Red Widow or The Family. From now on, we’re all one group, one people. We look out for each other. Understand?”

A group chorus of ‘Yes’ went up, enthusiasm and strength coming back to their faces as Gerry’s plans and leadership started to seep in, his tasks focusing their efforts.

“Enna, any issues with you and The Family we should know about before we go into the Dome?” Gerry asked. Although she was his aunt, and had previously looked out for him, the nature of her relationship with The Family as a whole was always vague and undefined. He wanted to be sure of her motivations and alliances.

“I’m not going with them, if that’s what you mean,” Enna said. “My place is down here. All the work I did was only partially for them. It allowed me a freedom to work away from their tyranny in return for certain information. But trust me, Gerry. They don’t know everything that I’ve been doing here. They know almost nothing of the servers and my work with the transcendents. I’m not looking to give up that technology.”

“Probably best you stay out of harm’s way and help Gabe to infiltrate Red Widow’s control over the ‘droids?” Gerry said.

“I can do that.”

“Good.”

“We’ve got clearance, Gerry,” Malik said from further up the aisle. “I’ll send the pilot the info.”

“Thanks, Malik. Okay, everyone. Here’s the plan as far as I see it. We know for a fact that The Family plan to nuke the place. They’re done with us. Look.” Gerry pointed out of the side window of the transporter. “Even now they’re evacuating the supposedly important people and leaving everyone else to survive on their own. They’ve abandoned the human race. Hell, they don’t even think they’re human anymore.”

“Bastards,” Petal said. “Utter bastards.”

“Right,” Gerry said. “The plan is we go in, stay together, and I’ll go meet with this ambassador who’s going to try and convince me and Petal to return with them. But frankly, screw that. We’re not going anywhere. This city was my home, it was the symbol of hope and safety for humankind, and I’m not going to let it go up in smoke. I’ll talk to them. Try to buy some time.

“Petal. While I’m dealing with The Family, I’d like you and the Doc here to piggyback my connection with their station and get into their computers. Let’s see if we can disrupt their weapons systems, perhaps incapacitate their nuke capability.”

“Got it,” Petal said. “Just give me the word and I’ll see what I can do.”

The transporter arced and started its descent approaching the Dome. The city loomed large through the small side windows, glowing with its interior light like some kind of magic orb. The pilot steered the transporter inside, landing it on the runway. When it came to a stop in a designated space, the ramp lowered.

Outside stood a tall, thin man wearing a light grey suit. He waved at Gerry. From the fashion of his suit, Gerry knew it to be The Family’s so-called ambassador, but he also knew this man was no such thing.

Chapter 30

The Family’s representative appeared in his early thirties. His head was entirely bald, and his eyes were small, green, and darting.

Jachz.

“Gerry, it’s my pleasure to—”

“Cut the crap, Jachz” Gerry said as he approached. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Via his AIA Gerry communicated with Petal across their private connection.

— I’m giving you access to my connection to The Family. Can you and Robertson spoof your way in and see if you can get into their systems while I keep this jerk talking?

— Sure thing. We’re on it, Petal said.

Gerry opened a secure port within his direct connection and felt the flow of data immediately. Back in the transporter, Petal and Robertson huddled around the servers. They were using Alpha to crack The Family’s security.

— Good luck, Gerry said.

He turned back to Jachz and waited for his reply. All around him small shuttles and evacuation ships headed up and out of the Dome, on their way to the station. He knew one of the shuttles belonged to the new president, and the executives of Cemprom, which made him wonder who would be running the company now, and more importantly: who was in charge of the D-Lottery and the citywide network.

“Well?” Gerry prompted.

The man’s shoulders dropped. He stepped closer to Gerry, inspecting him. “Are you hurt?”

“These days, Jachz, I’m always hurt.”

“I’m sorry. We recognise what you’ve gone through. This is why I’m here.”

“Thought you had some kind of bond with me, huh? Trying to get me to see sense, is that it? Well? I’m listening.”

“As Amma probably explained, we’re leaving Earth for good, Gerry. The directors of The Family have brought forward the plans in light of an attack on our satellite systems and the impending war with those savages.”

“Is that how you see the rest of the citizens that you’re abandoning here?” Gerry said.

Jachz shook his head. “No, of course not, it’s the plan, it’s…” He stopped, seemingly unable to communicate his thoughts, or work out a way of spinning the truth like a politician. “It’s complicated, Gerry. Not every human on this planet are equal, but that’s beside the point.”

“It’s not though, Jachz,” Gerry said. “From where I’m standing, that is the very point. It’s the damned Family who want to force inequality on life, elevate themselves above all others. That’s what’s got us all in this mess.”

Jachz didn’t argue the point. He couldn’t, Gerry thought. He had no idea, being an AI.

“We’ll provide safe evacuation for you and all of your friends if you come with us,” Jachz said. “You can all have a new life, safe from the rogues and fanatics; safe from further struggles. You could all be a part of our next step in evolution. You, Gerry, are already a step further than anyone else here, why not come with us and finish the process?”

“But you see,” Gerry said. “despite what you think about my evolution and my friends here, we are the rogues. And from where I’m standing you lot up there are the fanatics.”

“I can understand how you could come to that conclusion, but what we both have in common is that we are both part of the branch of human development.”

He was getting into his stride now. Gerry wondered if Amma or Nolan wrote this speech. Were they seeing through his eyes right now? Controlling everything he was saying? Intrigued to see where he was going, Gerry remained silent and let him continue, all the time buying more precious seconds for Petal and the Doc.

“When humankind split from the apes, it asserted its domination,” Jachz said. “It colonised the majority of the planet and shaped it in its own image. And for hundreds of thousands of years Homo sapiens ruled the top of the food chain, but if you look back into evolution you’ll see that it’s a continuum. Always changing, always moving forwards, the species adapting to their surroundings and then becoming more efficient.”

“But what The Family are suggesting is the very opposite of adapting to their surroundings. They want to destroy it.”

“Gerry, Earth is dead. Its time is over. There are other surroundings, other frontiers to explore and adapt to. Think on everything you have seen. Is any of that worth saving? There are few animals left in the world. The climate grows ever more brutal. It’s our destiny to leave this place and to start new. We have a chance to do it right this time. And you and I can be part of that. Wouldn’t you want to be pivotal in building a new life, a new race?”

“At the expense of everything else? If you and the others hiding up there want to colonise some other planet and experiment on people you can still do that without destroying everything here. Don’t you realise how mad that is? There’s so few of us left down here, and you’d still want to take all that away?”

Gerry dipped into the traffic stream within his AIA, monitored Petal’s progress. A string of code flowed across his bridged connection from the Alpha server. It was different to what he’d used before. It wasn’t Helix++, C, or any other language, but some kind of machine language, a highly advanced version of assembly code, and it was coming directly from Alpha.

While Jachz continued his speech, Gerry messaged Petal.

— Petal, how are you getting on?

— We’ve found a way in, Petal said. It’s complex as hell though, but Alpha’s doing stuff I’ve never seen before.

— Have you found their weapons control libraries?

— Working on it, Gez.

Jachz pointed to a single large shuttle waiting on the landing zone. “That ship is the last one off, Gerry. Please, come with me. Your perspectives will change once you see where we’re heading.”

“I suggest you go back empty-handed, Jachz, and tell The Family they can go screw themselves. I’m human, and I choose to stay that way. If your species want a war for supremacy then you’ve got one!”

Gerry turned his back and headed back to the transporter, his heart raced and his hands shook with anger and violence. As he approached the ramp he sent a coded message to Amma who he could tell was monitoring the whole conversation via Jachz: “I will not rest until I have neutralised your threat to this planet and its people, no matter how advanced or evolved you think you are.” He blocked the incoming channel, not caring for her response and manipulation. They had already made it clear they didn’t even consider themselves as part of the human race anymore.

Gabe ran down the ramp, his arms waving out from his Red Widow robes. “Watch out!” he shouted before tackling Gerry to the ground. A laser pistol shot crashed into the rear bulkhead of the transporter, the heat searing the air around it.

Turning around onto his back, Gerry saw Jachz aim a pistol at him.

“I’m sorry, Gerry. I truly thought we could have been friends, but I had strict orders.”

He pulled the trigger.

***

The pain never came. Jachz’s body stiffened before falling face-first into the Polymar™ floor with a heavy crack. His laser pistol clattered to his ground.

Standing in a cloud of dust, wearing a long synthetic leather coat over his Black Sabbath t-shirt, Kaden stood with a wide grin on his face. His eyes were wide like dishes and his pupils were almost entirely dilated.

“Kaden, what the hell?” Gerry stood, moved over to the catatonic kid.

“They took her,” he said, his voice monotone and flat.

“Your mother?”

Kaden nodded. “Left me behind.”

“Come with us,” Gerry said. “We could use some extra help.”

The kid looked up at Gerry, his lips twitched at the edges as though he had just been told a joke. For a second he looked like a feral hyena. “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he said while scratching his right wrist with his free left hand.

Gerry noticed he had chipped himself crudely with one of the hot-chips. He remembered Steven then. “Did you deliver the chip to my friend okay?”

Kaden laughed hysterically then. His whole body seemed to twitch and fidget as though his muscles were being electrocuted. “Yeah, I saw him.”

“Was he okay?” Gerry asked, stepping back away from the kid, not liking the vibes that were coming from him.

“He’s dead now.”

For a brief moment, Gerry noticed a rush of data emanate from the kid on the City Earth network. He wasn’t connected by his AIA anymore due to the chip, but the code flowed from him to a server or computer network elsewhere. Gerry tried to track it, but was rebuffed immediately, his AIA almost crashing with the attack.

Before he could respond further, the kid raised the pistol, fired two shots at point blank range.

The first blinded Gerry as it struck him full in the face, snapping his head back with a vicious jolt. The hot laser burned his flesh and nerves instantly. He collapsed to his knees, tried to scream, but nothing worked. No voice, just the terrible burning. The second shot hit him in the chest, searing through his rib cage and vaporising his heart.

His mind reeled from the pain and the shock, and as the darkness came to envelope him, all he could conjure in his mind was the image of a man in shadow, wrapped in moving, swirling code looking at him from across some unexplored network. And then as his brain died from the lack of blood and oxygen, there was nothing.

Chapter 31

Petal recoiled out of the private connection with Gerry as a huge dump of data crashed into her cortex. She removed herself from the Alpha server, leaving its routines to continue to map out The Family’s station system.
 

For a brief second her ears rang with a scream full of anguish and rage. It was Gabe.

Petal jumped from her seat, dashed down the ramp. Gabe leaned over the slumped figure of Gerry. Huddled over his chest, Gabe shook and screamed; his cries made the blood in her veins freeze.

A kid stood over them, his face impassive. He held a pistol in his right hand, steam rising from its barrel. She seemed to take everything in at the smallest possible detail and then she was moving, barely without even realising.

She soon closed the distance to the kid who looked up slowly, a sly expression on his face. She was running too fast, and he stumbled back, tried to raise his arm.

Petal was on him before he could act. Her combat spikes fully extended, and with a single movement, she swung them up in a long arc, piercing through the bottom of his jaw and driving one through his throat, breaking bones and severing tissue as the force carried all the way through his brain and finally out the top of his skull.

It made a squelching sound as she pulled the spike free, and while screaming at the top of her voice, tears obscuring her vision, thrust into him again, up through his chest cavity and out between his shoulders.

His limp body danced and jittered like a puppet as she continued to pierce and splice his body, all the while letting her anger out in a terrible howl like a pained dog.

How long she stabbed at Gerry’s killer she couldn’t tell. Violence and death were the only things she could cope with. Eventually, as fatigue slowed her, a pair of hands gripped her shoulders and pulled her away from the mutilated pile of meat on the ground.