Convergence (8 page)

He checked his messages on the tablet and noted with concern the lack of communication from Ashley. He wondered if she’d hit a snag causing a delay… or worse. Will frowned. It wasn’t specifically necessary to wait for her to finish her task to unleash the first visible phase of the invasion, but moving on before her confirmation would waste a glorious opportunity to crush the financial empire of the Aliomenti.

He opted to wait a few more minutes to give her a chance. Ashley wouldn’t fail.

Another message popped up as he watched. Will read it and cursed quietly, a sound easily detected by the sensitive microphone he wore.

“Something wrong?” Hope, somewhere on the other side of the Plaza, had detected the deep concern in his tone.

He nodded, a gesture no one could see. “Very much so. Message from the Cavern. They’ve detected a fleet of armed submarines sitting outside the Cavern, poised and ready to attack.”

Ashley felt like all the
air had left her lungs. She had the presence of mind to order her nanoskeleton to lift off the floor and avoid any collisions with the woman behind her, twisting around so she faced down. Ashley held her breath and watched as the woman walked.

She thought the woman paused for a fraction of a second as she moved, just before reaching the spot Ashley had occupied seconds earlier, and she realized that her rapid ascent would stir up a light breeze. But in an environment like this, with cooling fans running at all times, it was easy to explain that sensation away.

The woman walked below Ashley and toward the operations desk. “Bernard? Is that you?”

Ashley exhaled slowly, keeping her breathing inaudible. The woman hadn’t seen or heard Ashley. She’d merely heard her colleague, Bernard, enter the data center room.

“Yes, it’s me, Juliette.” She heard the joy in his voice, and couldn’t stop the bemused smile on her face. A potential romance in the server room?

“That’s good. I thought I heard… something else.” Juliette reached Bernard at the operations desk, and her voice descended to a whisper.

Ashley shuddered. Perhaps she
hadn’t
gone unnoticed after all. She felt a silent vibration in the pack at her waist and ignored it. That would be Will, checking in with her. Ashley dared not respond, not until she better understood what Juliette noticed. The woman claimed she’d “heard something,” and Ashley wondered if the pause and inflection in her tone meant she’d “heard” Ashley’s Energy, despite all the efforts at Shielding. At this point, until the two workers dismissed their concerns, Ashley felt uncomfortable removing anything from the pouch and continuing forward with her task. Important as it was, she couldn’t be caught now, before she’d done her job.

She waited.

Juliette finally left five minutes later. Bernard walked her to the elevator doors. Ashley could hear the giggling as the pair conversed and feel the interest between the two IT workers. She rolled her eyes. They needed to reschedule their flirting for some other time. The invasion was now off schedule.

The elevator doors finally closed behind Juliette. Bernard watched, his face etched with longing for the woman just departed. He sighed, turned, and moved back to the operations desk. Within seconds, he was immersed in his work, and Ashley’s sensitive hearing detected the sounds of keystrokes.

Finally. Time to move.

She checked her hand to ensure she still held the Interceptor and hadn’t crushed it in the excitement just passed. It was there, and a quick check revealed that the device remained operational. She floated back down to the ground behind the equipment rack and attached the device to the network port on the rear of the server. Though it was constructed of clear plastics, the device wasn’t invisible. Human eyes might detect it if they knew what to look for, but she’d be safe if Bernard didn’t decide to perform a hardware check on this specific unit in the next few minutes.

That was a concern, since she was about to make him quite aware of this specific machine.

She nestled on the ground, resting her back against the cabinet, and pulled out her tablet computer. Will’s message was there, but she was so far behind schedule at this point she needed to get her process rolling. She opened the Interceptor app and executed several test commands to ensure the device worked. All status checks were positive.

She pulled another item from her pouch and stood, putting herself in close proximity to the back of the equipment. She felt the hot air pump from the devices contrasting with the cold air pumped at the machines from the blowers above. Data centers and computer technology had advanced in a significant manner. The Aliomenti increased their security, ironically, by using older equipment no self-respecting hacker in the present day even knew existed.

Ashley, however, was no ordinary hacker.

She put the lighter near the back of her identified machine and flicked it on, watching as the flame grew bright. The machines were heat generators, but she’d make Bernard think a problem existed if the internal temperature of the machine rose too quickly. The flame
should
initiate an alarm at any moment.

She heard the beeping sounds from the operations desk a moment later. She extinguished the flame and pulled a silent smoke vacuum from her pouch. She’d leave no evidence of a heat source outside the server generating an alarm Bernard would quickly think a false alarm. Once complete, she pushed the self-destruct buttons on the light and smoke vacuum, and both devices disintegrated instantly. All of her tools had self-destruct options. She could leave nothing behind, leave no clues as to what she’d done or why she’d been there.

In the distance, she heard Bernard curse above the sound of the coolers.

She sat back down against the cabinet, a bit too quickly, and reached for her tablet once more. The app showed Bernard’s keystrokes leaving the massive highway of cables for this specific machine, and she gave a triumphant fist pump as the tablet identified his user identification code and password.

She now had full access to the server and the entire Aliomenti network. Success.

She used the tablet to upload two software programs she’d written after a quick refresher course on a programming language not seen in most technology since the early twenty-first century. The first duplicated software she and Adam wrote two centuries earlier. It would transfer microscopic amounts of money at a time out of the most privately held Aliomenti accounts into a series of accounts owned by fictitious corporations. Those accounts would be swept instantly clean to other accounts. After dozens of such transfers, there’d be such a dizzying trail left behind that even the most resourceful investigators would throw their hands into the air in disgust and walk away. Adam had used the approach to empty the Stark family trust funds. Ashley would now do the same to the private accounts of the members of the Aliomenti.

If effective, it would hit the Aliomenti right where it hurt the most. With their cash reserves destroyed, they’d be forced to sell other assets… or risk exposure in an attempt to regain what they’d lost in non-human fashion. They certainly
could
do that. But the expectation the Alliance had developed in putting this plan in place centered on the idea of destabilizing the lives of the rank and file. Most were, by now, quite accustomed to possessing the type of wealth that never needed to consider costs. What they desired they owned, without fail and without delay. The destruction of those cash accounts, for even a few months, would lead to deep emotional traumas, the psychological equivalent of losing a limb. Or two. Some had argued they ought to stop the invasion with this and let the Aliomenti destroy themselves from the inside. But they’d recognized that Arthur’s brainwashing of all members of the Aliomenti wouldn’t permit true destruction, just a great deal of discomfort and paranoia. They’d need to disable permanently the top leadership, the Elites, or nothing she did today would matter.

The second program served a more immediate and tactical purpose. The virus she uploaded would disable outbound communication from the Island. Those working here would be able to communicate with others present at Headquarters, but efforts to raise the ninety percent of the Aliomenti who worked elsewhere would fail. This effort prevented the successful transmission of a mayday signal to those off Island. Some of the stronger Aliomenti might be able to reach others with telepathic messages, but the isolation inherent in this location would now work against the Aliomenti Elites. They were stuck with whoever remained behind.

She’d worked hard to make the code invisible. They needed to keep Headquarters isolated. Will’s army was all volunteers; he’d not be able to gather additional forces to his side. Arthur, with communication access to the world, could summon the entirety of his brainwashed organization to his side and order the extermination of the Alliance who’d so thoughtfully walked through his front door. The plan was sound, it reflected their values—that’s why they’d not just had Fil teleport in and raze the Island—and they’d identified most contingencies. But the risks remained. She almost sighed aloud. Fil-as-dynamite seemed a better plan and a lesser risk by far. None of them would sleep well for the rest of their lives, though.

She’d also insisted upon taking on this job alone with self-destructing tools and transport. One person had the best chance of succeeding without detection. One person caught here looked like an isolated effort, one that didn’t portend an imminent attack by the Alliance. If she was caught alone, they’d never know why she’d truly come here.

Ashley activated both programs after completing the code transfers. She logged into one of the shell bank accounts and watched, satisfied, as the balance grew at a slow but steady pace. The code worked. The longer it worked, the better.

She logged out and activated the self-destruct on the tablet. As she began to remove the network interceptor, her shoe caught on the slight indentation between the large tiles supporting the cabinet housing the server she’d just hacked. She stumbled lightly into the cabinet. The cabinet shifted, ever so slightly, and Ashley froze. Had Bernard heard the noise? She held her breath for several long seconds. Bernard hadn’t said a word. After several seconds, she decided she was safe. She pulled the Interceptor from the network port and activated the self-destruct mechanism, watching as the device evaporated.

Then she turned and floated into the air, gliding toward the elevator doors.

She needed to wait until someone—Bernard, perhaps, or the woman named Juliette he’d doted on—opened the elevator doors. Once they did, she’d float in the car and ride back to the main level and to freedom. If chaos erupted and news of the Alliance invasion reached his room, she’d teleport away, with no reason to mask her Energy against detection.

For now, though, she waited.

She watched Bernard work.

He pulled out a small binder, one with yellowed pages covered with pictures and words she couldn’t identify from her perch high above. His eyes and head moved as he read the words. Ashley noticed that his hands shook, as if the words disturbed him deeply. When he finished reading, he closed the binder slowly, silently. His movements were stiff and slow, almost as if he feared being noticed or heard. He rose from his chair and moved toward the elevator

Ashley felt excitement rising inside her. He was leaving the room early. She’d not need to wait here for hours until his replacement arrived.

Bernard moved to a small glass panel near the elevator. Ashley changed her positioning to check the wording.

In case of ghosts, break glass.

Ghosts?

Warning bells sounded in her head. Something was wrong.

She’d nearly made the decision to teleport away when Bernard smashed the glass and pressed the red button now exposed.

With a terrifying suddenness, Ashley found herself hurtling toward the ceiling of the data center. She screamed in pain as her body smashed into the ceiling, even as she realized she was now perfectly visible to the human man standing slack-jawed below.

They’d eliminated the stealth advantage
the Alliance had so long enjoyed. They now needed to exploit the newfound discovery before the Alliance had the chance to adapt and respond.

With the cheering a fading echo, Athos and Scott commandeered the comm station aboard the
Chameleon
, establishing an underwater conference call with the remaining ten captains. The discovery of the base entrance represented a great victory against the Alliance, the first in a series of many. They’d long masked their numbers and strength, slinking about beneath the oceans, inflicting subtle but effective blows against the Aliomenti.

They would soon pay for each affront to the greatness of the Aliomenti and their Leader.

“There’s a hidden genius to the location.” Athos drummed his fingers as he spoke. “They cannot absorb a direct attack. I suspect that most of their people remain here at all times, with only a few daring to venture out into the world.”

“And we capture them, thanks to the Hunters,” Jude noted.

Athos felt his lip curl up in a smile. “The location has a certain genius to it, as I noted. The water and landmass have provided a form of Energy insulation for centuries, thwarting even Porthos’ talents. They’re able to live there in safety, and major transportation occurs in submarines beneath the water. They generate no massive Energy bursts through teleportation, no flying machines drawing the attention of human or Hunter. They’ve developed an impressive system.” He smirked at Scott. “But that system will prove their downfall. They’ve spent so much time trying to avoid detection that they’ve never bothered to figure out what they’d do when we inevitably cracked their code and discovered their secrets.” He pounded his fist on the comm station. “Checkmate, Will Stark.”

The captains roared with laughter.

Scott, still grinning, glanced at Athos. “So… how do we get inside?”

Athos gave him a quizzical look. “What do you mean?”

Scott pointed at the viewscreen, where they’d displayed a sensor driven green-and-black view of the tunnel. “One of those spheres came close to my ship. I’d say it’s about one-tenth the size of my sub. Yet if you watch the spheres, they’re only able to get two of them into that tunnel.”