Infinity Reborn (The Infinity Trilogy Book 3) (6 page)

“What plan?” I ask. “What are you talking about?”

“Some of us have been discussing the situation,” says Jonah. “And we’ve decided that we’re going to try and regain control of the facility. It’s the only way to ensure a safe escape.”

“Wait a second,” blurts Margaux. “No one told me about this! I thought we were waiting for the police to rescue us?”

“No, I’m afraid not, Miss Pilfrey,” says Professor Francis. “Mr. Brogan has informed us that it could take weeks, or perhaps even months, for a rescue team to reach us. Even if we ration what is left, the fabrication gel for the food printer will run dry in just a few days.”

“No one is coming for weeks?” whimpers Jennifer.

“Months,” a twitchy-looking Brent mutters. “I heard him say months.”

“So we’re on our own?” Margaux whines. “Well that’s just awesome, isn’t it? I’m going to starve to death in a basement with a bunch of old guys, a nerd, and a freak who never needs a Band-Aid.”

“I don’t understand. Why will it take so long for a rescue?” asks Jennifer.

“Because great effort has gone into hiding the location of this facility,” says Dr. Pierce. “There are a handful of people who know where it is, and the ones who do won’t risk revealing it.”

“But what about everyone who was killed today?” asks Brent. “Like that technician guy in the Security Station.”

“George,” says Bit. “His name was George Parsons.”

“Yeah, that’s him,” says Brent. “What happens when he doesn’t come home tonight? His family isn’t just gonna sit around doing nothing.”

“That might be the case if he actually
had
a family to go home to,” says Dr.  Pierce. “Everyone who works here was handpicked. They’re all either ex-military, government intelligence, or highly skilled fugitives with nowhere else to go, few ties to the outside world, and no one who will miss them. In most cases, the families of our employees thought they died a long time ago. For all intents and purposes, they’re ghosts.”

“It’s true,” says Percy. “Percy isn’t even my real name. It’s actually—”

“Now is not the time to confuse the children any more than they already are,” interrupts Dr. Pierce. “Let’s just stick with Percy, shall we?”

“Holy crap! What kind of place are you running here?” yells Brent.

“I told you,” Dr. Pierce says calmly. “A very secretive one.”

“No, I don’t accept that at all,” says Margaux, her already high-pitched voice rising higher with every word. “Someone must have realized that I’m trapped here by now. Daddy is very important; somebody will tell him where I am!”

“I don’t think so, missy,” replies Dr. Pierce.

“My name is Margaux, and why the hell not?” she says, crossing her arms on her chest.

“Because bad things happen if you go up against Richard Blackstone,” I murmur.

Dr. Pierce throws me a narrow-eyed glare. It’s the kind of look that’s asking “what do you know” mixed with a large dose of “shut your mouth before you say something you’ll regret.” I look away and clench my jaw closed. My memory may be little more than a patchy blur right now, but I know the truth when I feel it.

“‘Bad things,’ as Finn so diplomatically put it, have certainly happened,” the Professor says grimly. “But now we must all do our part to ensure our survival.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself, Professor,” says Jonah. “And us
old guys
and that
nerd
have come up with a plan to get all of us out of here.” He turns to Bit. “Is your presentation ready, Bettina?”

She nods.

“Are all the sensors in position along the tunnel?” he asks Percy. Percy also answers with a definitive nod.

“Well done,” says Jonah.

“Sensors? What’s going on?” Margaux asks bewilderedly.

Jonah smiles at her. “All will be explained. Now, I’m going to gather our mission supplies while Bettina sets up.” Jonah turns and strides off toward a big yellow duffel bag and three large gas tanks in the corner as Bit sidles around the metal table and heads for the bench cluttered with computer slates.

“Can someone push a few of those trolleys together in the middle of the room please?” Bit calls over her shoulder. “I need a decent-size flat surface.”

“You heard the girl,” Dr. Pierce barks at my classmates. “Make yourselves useful.” Jennifer and Brody nod and begin pulling trolleys to the center of the room, as an agitated-looking Brent and a sullen Margaux begrudgingly drag their feet to help.

Bit is fumbling with a pile of slates and a tangle of connector cords on the long bench table that’s set against the wall. “I need a hand here,” she says.

Brody immediately jolts into action and strides across the room toward her, as Brent snidely shakes his head with disapproval. In a strangely affectionate manner, Brody picks up Bit’s glasses from the bench and gently slides them onto her nose. She smiles warmly at him and begins stacking computer slates in his arms.

I’m eager to see what everyone’s been working on, and I’m about to go and help set up, too, when Professor Francis takes my arm and gives me a strangely grim and curious look. “It really does boggle the mind,” he says. “A covert operative with an enhanced physiology, sitting in my very own class.”

My brow furrows with confusion and surprise as Professor Francis gives me a sideways glance. “Come now, young lady. I understand that you must be accustomed to maintaining a veil of secrecy, but after what we’ve witnessed, your handler, Mr. Brogan, had no choice but to answer a few of our more pressing queries.”

I glare at him, perplexed. “What exactly did he tell you, Professor?” I stammer.

“Well, he told us the reason you came here today.”

All I can do is stare bewilderedly at Professor Francis, and the only word that comes out of my mouth is a highly confused, “What?”

“You were sent to test the security,” says Percy. “To see if someone could secretly infiltrate the facility.”

Right now my memory has more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese, but I remember enough to know that explanation is a complete lie. Jonah did not send me here to test their security, but apparently he is quick off the mark when it comes to making up a fitting cover story on the spot.

The Professor’s expression darkens even more than before, and he leans in uncomfortably close. “My father was in military intelligence, and it drove him to drink,” he whispers ominously. “Every now and then he would let something slip, tales so horrible that I have no doubt the weight of that knowledge played a part in sending him to an early grave.”

From the corner of my eye I can see Dr. Pierce turn away and begin sorting medical supplies on a nearby trolley. He’s trying his best to look innocuous, but it’s plain to see that he’s listening intently.

I awkwardly lean away from the Professor as he glowers at me over the top of his glasses. “I don’t understand, sir?” I mumble.

“Thanks to my dear father’s stories, I came to accept the fact that there are many powerful and morally devoid people in this world. Training children like you to do their bidding, while shocking, is sadly not surprising. But the fact that they allowed you to hide in a school group of innocent civilians and break into a potentially dangerous place like this goes far beyond the boundaries of ethical responsibility. The tragic loss of life today speaks for itself. You’ve got a lot to answer for.”

I’m completely taken aback by this sudden confrontation. The fog in my brain is unyielding; it’s adding to my confusion, and I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about. Part of me wants to get off this table and just walk away, but strangely, another part deep down inside of me wants to grab the Professor by the scruff of the neck and tell him to shut the hell up, but I decide it’s wiser to take the middle ground, so I just sit still with my mouth shut.

“Those deaths were hardly her fault, Professor,” says Percy. “Finn didn’t know a cyberterrorist would hack the computer and take control of the robots on the same day.”

I stare at the two men with a blank expression on my face.

“Perhaps not,” sighs the Professor as he frowns at me. “You do deserve some credit for attempting to save us, young lady . . . but the fact remains that your actions contributed to our dire situation and now our lives are hanging in the balance.”

I don’t know what to say, so I just sit and look at the floor, avoiding the Professor’s accusatory glare as an unpleasant silence festers.

“Everyone, gather around please,” Jonah calls.

“Let’s go,” Percy says as he takes Professor Francis by the arm and guides him away from the table. The Professor’s expression is still painted with disdain as he and Percy head to the middle of the room to join the others, who are all gathered in a loose circle. I let out a deep, uncomfortable sigh. That conversation was unexpected, confusing, and very painful to hear. Professor Francis has always been a fair and kindhearted man. He’s always been nice to me in the past, but after everything that has happened today, it’s clear that he’s a different man than he was before. I could see the pain in his eyes, the anger, the disappointment, and the fear. He was looking at me as if he didn’t know me. I can’t blame him for that. Lately I’ve been feeling like a stranger to myself.

I slide off the steel table, walk to the center of the lab, and awkwardly take a place between Percy and a sullen-looking Margaux. In the middle of the circle, half a dozen trolleys have been pushed together to form a makeshift desktop. On top of the trolleys Bit has arranged an array of ten or so computer slates. With their scratched-up surfaces and chipped edges, I’m surprised any of them are in any kind of working order. Bit picks up the least decrepit-looking one and begins prodding at it, as Jonah stands tall, puts his hands behind his back, and clears his throat. “Bettina, if you wouldn’t mind displaying the map?”

Bit swipes the screen in her hands, the slates in the array suddenly light up at all once, and a large and surprisingly detailed glowing 3-D model of Blackstone Technologies shimmers into the air. The whole thing is rendered in thin blue lines, Domes One, Two, and Three are represented by overturned holographic baskets of decreasing sizes, and surrounding them is a series of angled blocks representing the landscape and some of the buildings. “I’m sorry it’s so crude,” says Bit. “It’s a far cry from the detailed model Percy showed us when we arrived, but it’s the best I could do at short notice.”

“You did a very good job, Bettina,” Jonah says with a smile. He looks up at the diagram, and his expression becomes more serious. “As you can all see, this is a diagram of Blackstone Technologies. The artificially intelligent computer that controls this facility is malfunctioning and currently sees us as a threat. It will do anything it can to eliminate us, so if we want to stand a decent chance of getting out of here alive, we need to regain control of it. To do that, our first objective is to retrieve Bettina’s computer slate from the wreckage of the fallen transport inside Dome Two.”

Bit taps the slate. The second wire-frame basket turns red, and inside the red wires a little green spot representing her lost computer lights up and begins blinking.

“Why exactly?” asks Jennifer.

“Well,” says Jonah, “Bettina believes that she can use her slate to access the main computer and reset it. Once that is achieved the mechanoids and any remaining Drones up there will shut down, and we can search for survivors, tend to the wounded, and get to the school bus safely.”

“What?” Margaux blurts as she glares at Bit. “Why the hell didn’t you do that before?”

“I couldn’t,” Bit snaps back at her. “The main computer was blocking the Hypernet signal, so I couldn’t access it wirelessly. My slate contains all the source code I need to repair the mainframe, but the only way to do that now is to plug directly into the neural core.”

“And we’re going to give her the opportunity to do exactly that,” says Jonah.

“How?” asks Jennifer.

“Bettina?” says Jonah. “Would you like to fill them in?”

Bit gives Jonah a serious nod and jabs at the slate in her hand. A small green circle appears on the diagram. “This is the hatch we all entered to get down here,” she explains. “I’m going to exit through that hatch and make my way up the hill to a maintenance door that leads beneath Dome Two. From there I’ll climb up inside the dome and get my computer slate from the transport wreckage. After that I’ll take it to the main computer’s neural core and plug in.”

“All by yourself?” I ask Bit.

“No, Finn, she won’t be alone,” says Jonah. “The computer’s neural core has a level-twelve-security-access door with a DNA-coded lock. The only one here who can open it is Dr. Pierce, so he’s going with her.”

“And so am I,” Brody says, beaming at Bit. She returns his smile, and her cheeks flush a telling shade of pink.

Brent and Margaux both turn to Brody and glower at him. “You’re part of this plan and you didn’t tell us?” growls Brent.

“Bit told me about it, and I wasn’t going to let her do it without me,” he says defiantly. “And how was I supposed to tell you guys anything when you’ve been shut in the bunk room sleeping the whole time we’ve been down here?”

“We weren’t exactly sleeping,” murmurs Brent.

Margaux frowns and backhands him on the arm. “Shut up,” she seethes at him.

“Ugh. Gross,” whispers Bit.

Jonah ignores them all as he studies the holographic map. “Bettina makes the plan sound simple, and it would be if it weren’t for three tall green problems.”

“You mean the Remote Articulated Mechanoids, don’t you?” Jennifer murmurs with a quiver in her voice.

“The R.A.M.s,” Brent whispers ominously.

“Yes,” says Jonah. “Dr. Pierce, Brody, and Bettina can’t exit the hatch without setting off the facility’s motion sensors. As soon as that happens the mechanoids will come running. So, first we need a diversion to draw those robots away from the hatch.”

“How?” asks Margaux.

“By giving them another target,” Jonah replies. “The Professor, Percy, and I will exit through a second hatch farther along Sector B. It’s the hatch that I initially came through to get down here.”

Bit taps the slate again, and a second green circle appears much farther along the map. Little red dashes blink on one after another, forming a line connecting the first hatch with the second.