Synthetica (25 page)

“
No.”

Anais and Xander turned to Clay. He was staring straight ahead at
the darkness in the atrium.

“
All
the research labs are on levels 55 to -” Xander began, but Clay
waved him away.

“
I
know that, boy. That ain't the lab you want. You want level 94.”

“
Why?”
asked Anais.

“
You
always this much trouble when someone's trying to help you?” Clay
grumbled. “I'm telling you – higher security labs are at the top
of the building. Where else would you expect the SLP designs to be?
I thought even you'd be able to figure that one out, peacock.”

There was a pink tinge to Xander's ears as he turned away from Clay
and said, “Level 94.”

The lift made it's way smoothly up the levels, the only source of
light coming from the bank of glowing buttons by the doors. Outside,
everything was in darkness. Only the occasional beam of moonlight
filtered through the building's glass front, illuminating the empty
floors. At last the lift slowed down and stopped. Their view outside
the lift was now blocked by a metal barrier, with the words LEVEL 94
imprinted on it in black ink. The doors opened without a sound. As
the metal barrier slide back, lights flicked into life, revealing
the stark corridor beyond. Anais shivered.

This corridor was somehow more foreboding than the one Xander had
shown her a few days ago. There were no windows or any decoration on
the stark walls. There was only one other door, set right at the end
of the corridor. It was an impressive circle of heavy steel; it
looked almost like a great metal eye, staring at them distrustfully
and daring them to come any closer. The sight of it made Anais'
tongue go strangely dry. For one brief moment, she considered asking
if they could turn back, but something stopped her. No matter what
happened, she was doing this for Dalla.

The trio made their way down the empty corridor, Anais' heart
beating hard. They stopped short in front of the dull metal door and
Xander turned to Clay.

“
Well,
it's up to you now,” Xander said, pointing to the biometric
scanner on the wall. Even Anais, with her limited knowledge of
high-tech security systems, could tell that this one wouldn't be
fooled by just anyone.

Clay held his head up high and elbowed Xander out of the way. He
examined the small scanner intently and touched the tiniest button
to the right of the scanner. This brought up a small holographic
screen, which showed the scanner's settings. Anais watched him
avidly, fully expecting him to come up with an ingenious plan to
bypass the security system.

“
Hmm,”
he murmured. “Yes...I think...if we do this -”

He pulled out a small revolver, pointed it, and fired at the
scanner. Anais shrieked and ducked as bits of plastic and metal flew
through the air.

“
What
the f-” she began to shout, but Clay had now retrieved a pocket
knife from inside his wax jacket, and had swiftly cut through a
number of wires that were poking out of the hole in the wall.

“
Just
to be on the safe side,” he said, chucking the wires over his
shoulder. He took hold of the edge of the door – it didn't have
any door handles – and pulled, grunting with effort. At first, the
door stayed stubbornly shut. But gradually, inch by inch, it began
to slide backwards. Eventually, Clay had a gap big enough for them
to squeeze through.

“
Come
on,” he growled, sweat beading down his forehead at the effort of
keeping the door open. Anais and Xander squeezed past him into the
dark room beyond. Anais had barely stepped inside before Clay jumped
in behind her, the door slamming shut with an ominous
clang
.
The darkness in front of them was now complete. Anais tried shutting
and then opening her eyes as wide as she could, but it was no use.

“
Nice
job, Clay,” Xander hissed through the darkness. “The idea when
we broke
into
the building was that, ideally, we'd be able to get back
out
too.”

“
Well
I didn't see you coming up with any better ideas,” Clay shot back.
“That ID chip of yours wasn't any bloody use was it? Sometimes the
best way is the simplest way, you ever think about that, peacock?”

“
Not
if you've blown our cover with the amount of noise you made,”
Anais growled.

“
It
had a muffler on it, sweetheart, you would've realised that if you
hadn't been screaming your pretty little head off,” Clay snapped.

Light suddenly flooded through the room, causing Anais to close her
eyes against the glare. When she opened them again, Xander was
standing a few paces away. He pointed towards the corner of the
ceiling.

“
Light
sensors,” he said.

The lab was bigger than Anais had expected. At least a dozen
different workstations were lined up in military precision along the
length of the room. At the moment, with the lab shut down for the
night, their surfaces were clear; but Anais could see boxes of tools
and equipment stacked neatly under each station, ready for the
morning. Underneath one of the benches, she thought she could see
the workings of a HV set and under another one, the edge of a
Virtual Reality console was poking out.

“
Right,”
Clay said briskly, barging past them both. “Let's get this over
with.”

He picked a station at random and swiped his hand over the work
surface. A holographic screen flickered in the air as the station's
computer warmed up. He began typing in commands, a look of pure
concentration on his face. The change in him was almost
instantaneous. As he hacked into Civitas' system, he stood up
straight and the years seemed to fall away, as his fingers flew over
the holographic screen. He pulled a minute computer drive out of his
pocket and jammed it into one of the tiny ports embedded in the top
of the workstation. As she watched him work, there was no doubt that
in Anais' mind that this was where Clay was born to be. His
movements were so deft, like he was so sure of himself, that Anais
feel a twinge of pity. He would never be able to return to work at
this place, or any other tech company for that matter, ever again.

The feeling quickly passed, however, as Clay smoothly shut down a
window he'd been looking at just as Anais approached. But as he did,
Anais could've sworn that the tiny drive had bleeped, indicating a
file had been downloaded. Clay glared at her.

“
Can
I help you?” he asked.

“
What
are you searching for?” Anais asked with interest. “How exactly
do you hack into restricted files anyway? Do you just search for
them, like you would if you were searching on the NIC, or do you -”

“
Look,
why don't you just go and keep a look-out?” Clay said shortly.
“Then I can get some peace and quiet, and do what I came here to
do, alright?”

Xander and Anais stepped away as Clay began muttering to himself
and bringing up a multitude of files on the computer. Xander pulled
a face at Clay's back and walked off back towards the door. Anais
smiled and turned in the opposite direction.

Anais couldn't help wandering up and down the lab, marvelling at
how clean everything was. It was nothing like the picochip factory.
Here, the air was so crisp that she had a suspicion it was being
filtered into the lab to stop any possible contaminants getting in.
She ran a hand gently over one of the metal surfaces, it's face was
so shiny that she could see her reflection in it. She prodded the VR
console that was languishing under another desk, it's wires spilling
out of the hatch on the side of the sleek metal box. She jumped as
it crackled and sparked. She hurried away, back towards where Clay
was working. Xander was back to hovering over Clay's shoulder which,
judging from the stiffness of Clay's back, Clay wasn't too happy
with.

Clay swore loudly as she drew closer.

“
What?”
she asked. “What is it?”

But even from where she was standing, she could see the error
message flashing on the screen: ACCESS DENIED.

Clay's fingers flew over the holograph as he tried to hack into
whatever part of the system it was that he wanted. But the message
stayed the same.

“
What's
wrong?” Anais repeated, even though she could probably guess by
the message on the screen hovering in the air in front of them.

“
I
can't access any of the R&D files,” he said, still resolutely
trying to hack into the system. “There's a whole section of the
system that's completely blocked.”

Anais'
heart sank.
There
has to be something we can do,
she
thought desperately, but there was nothing she could do but watch.
The hologram stayed the same no matter what Clay did. She couldn't
bear the thought that there were no SLP program files. If they
couldn't access the system, they couldn't see whether Civitas had
changed the coding in the program deliberately, or whether it had
been hacked.

Xander began swiping at the images of the files that were hanging
in the air. His fingers and Clay's hands were almost a blur as they
worked together, occasionally muttering at each other. Anais watched
them both anxiously, wishing for the first time that she'd paid more
attention in Computer Sciences at the Academy.

“
Maybe
they're saved somewhere else?” Xander suggested as he closed down
one window and opened another. “Or they could be on one specific
computer in here. Or in a different lab...”

“
They're
not.”

Anais' blood ran cold as a familiar, smooth woman's voice rang out.
She looked up through the holographic screen, past Xander's head.
Clay did the same, and his mouth dropped open. Xander whipped round
and Anais heard him swear under his breath.

There, standing by the now open door, was Skye.

He waited in the shadows for the blue haired woman to move out of
sight.

The Civitas building rose up to sky, the vast expanse of glass
mirroring the silver light that shone down from the full moon above.
He was hidden in the small street next to the gigantic monstrosity
of a building, positioned by a recycling bin. He'd been watching and
waiting for the best part of half an hour, just to make sure there
was no one around.

He watched as the woman entered the building, her high heels
clicking on the pavement as she walked. He was about to step out
from the shadows when a solitary auto-cab pulled up outside the
building. He gritted his teeth. The building was supposed to be
deserted tonight. The message he'd sent around informing night
security personnel that essential maintenance was being carried out,
which required a minimal presence at the building, had seen to that.
They were so sure of their remotely controlled security systems,
they had believed the memo without batting an eye. The only guard
who had had the unfortunate job of being on-duty was currently lying
unconscious at his feet.

He narrowed his eyes as three people stepped out of the
auto-cab. With a hiss, he realised they were heading straight for
him. He kicked the unconscious guard further back behind the
recycling bin, before crouching down and pressing himself as hard as
he could against the wall. He was so close to the ground, he could
hear the guard's breathing. For a long moment he stayed frozen until
he heard their footsteps bypass his hiding place and carry on down
the alley. He raised his head slightly and peered around the side of
the bin. The tallest of the three scanned his ID chip and the group
stepped through the door.

As soon as they were out of sight, he stood up and turned to the
body at his feet. Grabbing a fistful of the man's hair, he yanked
the guard upright and began dragging him towards the door. Once they
were beside the scanner, he hefted the security guard up, turning
the man's head so the scanner could read the ID chip.

The light flashed green. He opened the door, dragging the man's
body with him. Once they were both inside and the door had shut
behind them, his eyes flicked around the small corridor. He made his
way to the nearest supply closet, hauling the unconscious man with
him. He pushed open the door and dumped the body inside behind a
pile of disused crates. He knelt down and drew out a small jackknife
from his pocket. Roughly, he turned the guard's face to the left and
made a small incision in the man's neck. Using the tip of the blade,
he popped the bloody ID chip out into his palm. He released the
man's head and stood up, leaving the body convulsing on the floor.
After checking the corridor was still clear, he stepped out of the
closet, leaving the dying man behind him.

The ID chip opened the door at the end of the corridor, and he
entered the dark atrium. He could see the faint light of one of the
lift pods as it moved upwards. As soon as it had disappeared out of
sight, he moved swiftly across the floor to the other bank of lift
pods. He held out the ID chip to the nearest lift and it's doors
slid open.

The voice recognition program was slightly harder to fool,
especially with his condition. But it took mere seconds to override
the system and manually key in the floor number he desired. As the
lift began its ascent, he unzipped his canvas bag and felt through
the items inside, mentally checking off each one. His main concern
was that his rope wouldn't be long enough, but he wouldn't know
until he got there. He gritted his teeth. He hated not knowing.

The doors slid open to reveal the dark floor beyond. He slipped
the bloody ID chip into his pocket as he checked his wristwatch. He
estimated he'd need about an hour to complete his job.

He had a lot of work to do. There was no time to waste.