CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Constance sat in the well lit boarding lounge of what a year earlier would have been the home of merchant sailers before starting their Pacific journeys. Now though it was full of military personal. Kevin sat to her left, Brad to her right. And in the rows behind a further sixty-nine people of various ages, all with her same disorder. Their names had already been neatly written in her notebook.

  Kevin urgently moved his pen back and forth, then handed the sketch of a warship to Constance who immediately handed it to Brad. The drawing which looked like it had been produced over days with the level of detail had only taken the young man an hour.

  “Hey that’s—” Constance shook her head at Brad for him addressing Kevin directly. “Oh, yeah right. Tell him, it’s great. I shall frame it one day.” He carefully folded it and put it inside his jacket pocket, while she leaned into Kevin and whispered presumably the same words Brad had just uttered. Kevin smiled then set about his next drawing.

  Constance looked up at the big man seated next to her. “When will Agent Alexis Adams and Travis Wilson be here? They are important to stop the bad machine man.”

  Brad bemused, looked at the young woman. “You know what’s inside Alexis’s mind?”

  “Yes, we saw them on the way to Denver.”

  “Why do you say they are important?”

  The double doors opened bringing with it a gust of icy cold air, and a naval officer appeared with a clipboard and started reading off names. Some of those in uniform got to their feet and followed the officer back out into the night.

  Constance flipped open her notebook and hastily set about writing down the names that she had just heard. “Only good machine man can turn off bad machine man,” she said while writing.

  “Right…” Brad had no idea what that meant.

  The door opened again, but this time Denise appeared and walked over to Brad. “Is everyone ready for a voyage on the ocean?” she said.

  Constance sat up as if it was the night before Christmas and she had been told she could open one of her presents.

  Denise smiled. “We’re on the USS Saxton. It’s quite a large ship and we will be quite safe onboard.”

  Brad stood. “Can I have a quick talk with you?”

  “Sure.” The both walked a few feet away.

  “Where are Alexis and Mike?”

  She looked away, not wanting to meet his gaze. “They’re not coming with us.”

  “What? You said they are going to Alaska. Where are they?”

  “I can’t tell you. It’s classified. Just be assured they are being protected and if all goes to plan… we should see them at the installation.”

  Before he could reply, she walked away with a large smile for the young woman who was almost bouncing up and down with excitement. “Stand up everyone, we’re leaving now.” A number of soldiers that had come in with her shifted uncomfortably as they watched the awkward looking individuals, stagger slowly towards the exit, and led them out into the night and across the concrete path which led to the edge of the docks. A thick layer of fog had rolled into the bay, snuffing out the array of lights which were spread out across the unsettled sea.

  “Everyone keep walking,” said Denise seeing some of the group become fascinated with a piece of machinery sitting under some netting.

  Out of the mist emerged a light gray hull, the bow of large naval vessel. Soldiers carried crates across small bridges to the ship, while others walked up a walkway which ascended to the deck. Brad looked at the wall of swirling fog with a frown. He was happier when he knew what was out there. He was at the back of the shuffling people and got to the bottom of the slope to the deck and stopped. Constance and Kevin were nearby, she talking angrily to the young man.

  “Everything alright?” said Brad to them.

  “No Brad Reynolds. Kevin Riley does not want to go on the ship. He’s scared.”

  “What’s he scared of?”

  “I don’t know. He won’t tell me. Just says he doesn’t want to get on.”

  Brad went to talk to him, but turned to Constance. “Tell him I’m scared too. I hate ships. All that big ocean and you’re just bobbing around! But tell him that if there’s any ship I would get on, it would be a big warship like this one, with lots of weapons, and it’s really hard to sink.” Kevin was looking at Brad but Brad resisted looking at him back.

  She went to replay Brad’s words but realized the young man had been listening intently. “Well?” she said.

  Kevin nodded.

  “Finally! Ooo I’m excited!” she let out a squeak and they both walked up the incline.

  Brad went to follow when he spotted one of Kevin’s sketches on the ground. “You dropped...” They were already near the top, so he bent down and went to place it in his pocket, but paused, instead angling it so he could see the rendering from the lights from the ship.

  It was as beautifully drawn as Kevin’s present to him, but this time the image chilled him to the bone. Skeletal faces were in a frothing violent ocean, while what looked like giant crabs clambered over a mess of angular shapes. He wondered what the young man must have imagined to draw such a scene of aquatic destruction and placed the sketch with the previous in his pocket, then quickly walked up the walkway and stepped down onto the deck. A smart looking naval officer looked at him. Brad wasn’t sure to salute or not, so didn’t bother. “Brad Reynolds, former HRT. I’ve been asked to help look after those that just boarded.”

  The man with the three bands on his shoulder motif smiled and held out his hand, which Brad shook. “I am commander Kyle Warner. Welcome aboard the Saxton.”

  Brad looked up. The masts and some of the bridge had already been swallowed by the increasingly thick fog. “With no electronics, this going to be a problem to navigate through? What if there’s an attack?”

  “We still have electronics and we are capable of being quiet self-sufficient, but of course we are not using digital networks to communicate.” The commander smiled and briefly placed his hand on the taller man’s arm. “The nanites don’t like the salt water and none of us have seen any sign of the AI presence in the sea. Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”

  *****

  “Mocking Bird, this is Epsilon. Are you…” Cody grimaced then continued. “There? Over.” Alexis had done the best she could with some quick stitches across his wound. It had been over a decade since she had sewn anyone up and she hoped they would be somewhere soon where a ‘real’ doctor could examine him properly.

  For most of the previous two hours, there had been little talk within the cabin. Each person being glad to be alive and relieved with each passing mile that a giant metal claw hadn’t plucked them off the highway. Mike wondered what exactly Cody saw of how they managed to survive the AI’s onslaught. How the woman next to him stopped the monster machine from crushing them all. If he had seen, he had kept it to himself, and he didn’t exactly strike Mike as the kind of guy to do that. Her head glowing as bright as a thousand watt bulb and the towering robot freezing as if it had been turned to stone, certainly would have been in the captain’s ‘weird’ category.

  Haynes took an exit and the road shrunk in size while motels, gas stations and forecourts bordered by small stores and restaurants passed by on both sides. Their headlights lit up a large beige sign offering a ten percent discount on prime steak. Behind was a paint chipped cowboy figure welcoming those to a boarded up diner.

  Other abandoned single story buildings passed by, covered in shadow until finally they drove onto the forecourt of a store, which sat at the start of a bridge. The humvee stopped outside the double glass doors, covered in ‘Not in stock’ handwritten notes for various goods.

  Cody clicked on his radio. “Mocking Bird, we’re here. Are you at designated meet up point? Over.”

  “There, in the bushes,” said Haynes. A light blinked on and off in the darkness.

  Cody looked at his driver. “Dim the lights two times.” Haynes did as asked and a voice Mike recognized came from the captain’s radio.

  “This is Mocking Bird. We see a vehicle in the parking lot. Just dimmed its lights two times. That you? Over.”

  “Sure is. Over.”

  “Took you long enough. Over.”

  “Had a bit of trouble. Over.”

  “You got crescent? Over.”

  “Yup. Over.”

  “You sure you weren’t followed? Over.”

  “Sure as I can be. We getting on with this or not? Over.”

  Two soldiers with heavy camouflaged fatigues came from the bushes, ran forward a few yards then beckoned the humvee forward.

  “Park around the side of the store, river side. Over.”

  “What is this? Where are we going?” said Mike.

  Haynes drove them ten or so yards until they were bathed in shadow, and parked near another two humvees.

  Cody pushed open his door with some effort. “You’ll soon see.” He got out and scanned the night around them, their headlights being the only source of light.

  Everyone else also got out, bringing with them backpacks full of supplies they had grabbed before leaving the ruins of the warehouse. They quickly followed the soldiers back into the bushes, only a single flashlight lighting their way, then down a muddy path. The sound of rushing water told Mike and Alexis they were near a river, and on seeing the light on the deck of a boat and sergeant Wright standing on the bank, they knew what the next leg of their journey would be.

  There were another five soldiers on the boat, all heavily armed and kitted out. As they moved to get on board, Alexis suddenly swung around to the shadows along the bank. “What is it?” she half whispered.

  The soldiers looked at each other, then raised their weapons in the same direction.

  Mike threw his arms up moving closer to her. “No, nothing to be alarmed about. Lower your weapons.”

  “That’s easy for you to say Mike,” said Wright. “She’s responsible for killing the president!”

  Mike went to reply when angry words burst from Alexis. “Stop shouting at me! You’re in my head, you don’t have to shout!”

  Cody looked at her then Mike. “We got a problem?”

  As Mike tried to understand what was happening, Alexis looked at Travis seemingly standing in the river up to his knees. “You must hurry! Or we will be late!” he pleaded.

  “For what?” she said.

  “To save the drowning people!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  The lights of Seattle sparkled with the Space Needle being especially prominent due to its height above the fog that clung to the harbor. The Saxton made good speed weaving around the other naval vessels with a series of light signals and radio communications to signify their presence and after some hours was entering the Salish Sea, with Canada to the north.

  Denise walked straight, or at least she thought she was doing that, for she kept falling to her left as she pushed on along the narrow rivet and cable enthused gray passageway. A constant hum filled the air around her. Suddenly the deck shifted and she fell to the right hitting heavily up against a bulkhead. As with Brad, she disliked being at sea but for different reasons. Her father was a naval officer and served during the first Gulf war. He would tell her stories of life aboard ship, when he was on shore leave, and she would listen enthralled, until one day an accident at sea meant there were no more stories and no more father. From then on she avoided the ocean, and boats of any size.

  She noticed a young man in naval uniform, and did her best to catch his attention. “Hello? There’s a meeting between the commander and the officers, I’m meant to be there. Can you—” She fell to the side again, this time though her stomach complained and she felt nauseous.

  “You okay ma’am?” said the seaman.

  She swallowed the foul taste at the back of her throat. “Yes. Fine. Where is the CIC? I’m having trouble locating it.”

  The young man smiled. “It’s… I’ll show you.” They passed through a few doors and descended two ladders through hatches until they came to an entrance to the command center of the ship.

  “You found us,” said Cary. “I was about to send someone to find you.”

  She gave a wavering smile and moved into the dimly lit room of blue and green hues, with a multitude of small dark screens and panels with rows of buttons and switches, all hovered over by officers and seaman, most wearing headsets. The general was standing near the commander and a female officer she had not seen before. All three were paying close attention to a large brightly lit table, which she quickly recognized as housing a digital display of the sea they were navigating. The compartment tilted slightly, before righting itself.

  “Rough seas,” said commander Warner. He gestured towards the female officer. “This is my XO, lieutenant commander Essie Blanchard.” Denise nodded. He looked at his second in command, then to a large monitor which hung from the ceiling. “Bring us up the latest from Denver.”

  The screen showed video footage filmed from a body cam of a soldier, who was hunkered down with others inside a ruined building. It was night, but fires burned across the city and amongst the smoke and flames angular machines moved, their metal construction reflecting the heat and fire around them.

  “We were sent this before the comms blackout. The intel is that the city has fallen to the AI. Most of the armed forces have left, but a small contingent was left behind to try and record what was happening… for as long as they could.”

  “Other cities?” said Denise.

  “Denver is the furthest from the epicenter of the nuclear blast that has been directly affected by the AI so far,” said Cary. “The problem we have is comms. We relied upon our encrypted networks to relay across out forces, now we don’t have any of that. We’re having to rely upon radio and people witnessing events to keep us informed. It means we have always been two steps behind the AI. But that’s about to change. So far the AI hasn’t had any command of the air, other than to keep us from using it. When we make it to Anchorage we should be getting some surveillance from some ‘Connies’ we have—” He looked at Denise not being sure she knew what he meant. “A ‘Connie’ is—”

  “I know what a ‘Connie’ is general.”

  “We now have enough to give us twenty-four seven surveillance of the ground across most of the country.”

  Coughing came from at the back of the room. Denise hadn’t even noticed Meyer back there. “You can expect the AI to create a solution to that particular problem,” the German scientist said.

  “We have counter measures if it does,” replied Cary.

  “The AI used… what happened at Norad as the trigger to launch the attack on Denver,” said Warner. “And it worked. We were caught with our pants down.”

  Denise couldn’t help a flash of guilt start to build inside her, but she pushed it away. This was no time to let her emotions cloud her thinking. “Before… Corolla was killed he told me of the ‘Halstead’ intuitive. I presume that’s over now? The United Nations will pursue all out war against the AI?”

  Cary and the commander glanced at each other but remained silent.

  “Seriously?” said Denise. “After how it’s acted? Surely it’s shown its only intent is to kill humans. Or at the very least to enslave them!”

  Cary looked at the doctor with sympathy. “Denise. They want to keep all options open. All wars end one day—”

  Denise went to explode in anger but Meyer emerged from the shadows. “If I may doctor Reed.” The old man looked at the officers nearby. “The AI will never give up on its goals, and so far it would seem those are the complete annihilation of human civilisation on this planet. There will never be reasoning with it even if it pretends to want to negotiate a peace. It will just be a ploy to further its plans.”

  Cary let out a breath. “Well, the newly appointed president along with the other leaders think otherwise.”

  “Ah… I don’t believe this,” said Denise.

  “They see the AI as a new species. Whether it be made of iron or whatever it is, and there are voices saying that we should keep it alive and not go all out to destroy it,” said the general.

  She looked at him with a seriousness that he found hard to look at. “And you think they’re right?”

  He sighed again, looking away. “No I do not. We should use every tool we can get our hands on to destroy it.”

  Warner silently nodded.

  *****

  Behind the river boat the sky was a sea of pinks and mauves, as it pushed onwards sending gentle ripples to the bank. In the reeds and frost covered grass, birds hopped and skipped, while a flock silently glided overhead. Beyond the river’s edge, homes were starting to appear nestled amongst trees, but none were lit, their windows reflecting the rising sun the only indication they existed. Despite that though, on this part of the Columbia river, Mike almost felt as if the world was normal again. Nature unplundered, not infected by a man made intelligent virus, intent on destroying its maker. He had never read Mary Shelley’s book, but had seen the adaptations to the big screen and it always seemed a dumb idea. A monster made by a mad scientist which eventually kills its maker.

  Yeah… crazy idea that one…

  Alexis had relayed to all of them on boarding the boat that they needed to push the engine to its max to be able to meet up with the others that had already left Seattle. She didn’t know what Cody’s and the others plan for her was, but Travis told her what he thought, and their small boat was going to ferry them to a much larger vessel and then take them to Anchorage, following the main ship which should had arrived in Alaska a day earlier. One small problem. Travis said there was at least an eighty percent chance that the AI would be taking action to stop that first vessel from reaching its destination. Cody’s reply was that even if he believed what she was telling him, there was nothing he could do about it, as they were out of comms range until the ship got to Alaska.

  Sergeant wright had kept his distance from Mike and Alexis since they boarded, as did the other soldiers. The only recognition they got was the occasional cold stare in their direction, no doubt to make sure the female special agent wasn’t about to freak out and kill everyone. Mike understood but hated their judgement on someone who was completely innocent. He wanted to grab them and make each one realize that she had no conscious part in what happened. The blood was not on her hands. But he knew it would be pointless to try. She had a nanite infected brain… and she killed most of the high command. Was no coming back from that in their eyes.