The Chaos Code (34 page)

Venture was striding up towards the passageway into the pyramid. Matt and Robin struggled to keep up. Matt's legs felt as if he'd been sitting awkwardly for hours and were only just getting the feeling back.

‘What about Atlantis?' Matt said. ‘What about them – they tried the same thing.'

‘That wasn't right either,' Venture told him. ‘It couldn't be permitted then, and we can't let it happen now.'

‘But they were trying. They built all this.'

‘And remember what happened to them, over 12,000 years ago,' Venture said. ‘We can learn a lot from the past.'

The crack of gunfire from Smith's men and Harper's guards outside was still audible. But it was down to the odd few shots now, rather than the constant thunder of earlier. Venture paused, just inside the passageway, listening to the distant sounds and waiting for Matt and Robin to catch up.

He was looking back at them. So he did not see the floor of the passageway buckle and heave, the flagstones lifting as if forced upwards by an earthquake. Dark earth and rubble spewed up out of the hole in the floor. Matt yelled. Robin was running. Venture turned – to see the huge weight of earth and rock crashing towards him. Without hesitation, he leaped.

Right at the mass of soil and stone and rubble.
Shoulder down, through the crashing wave. Black rain engulfed him, and he disappeared.

Matt and Robin skidded to a halt. The shapeless mass was moving, reforming, coalescing into a huge figure. But the other side of it, they could see Venture – his clothes stained and torn, his face grimy and caked in dirt – running.

‘The computers!' Matt yelled. ‘Shut them down, and you stop Harper's model. We'll try to stop him here.'

Venture glanced back, just once, just quickly. His face was a mask of grim determination. Then the blackness between them moved, heaved itself down the passageway, and blotted out Matt's view.

He turned to run back into the main amphitheatre, grabbing Robin's hand.

But another figure stepped into the opening in front of them.

‘You're too late,' Katherine Feather said. ‘And Mr Harper would like a word.' She had a machine pistol slung over her shoulder and she was aiming it unerringly at Matt and Robin.

A single figure strode purposefully through the mayhem. Smoke drifted from explosions and gunfire. The fighting had almost stopped – only a few of Smith's attackers still able to think and move for themselves. They were chased back through the pyramid – by their
enemies, by their former colleagues, by hideous creatures made from the earth itself …

But through it all, a single figure.

Venture pushed aside one of Klein's guards, ripping his gun from him and tossing it away. The guard slammed into a wall and fell unconscious. Another figure appeared in the hazy corridor, and Venture's elbow smashed into its stomach. His arm swung upwards from the point of impact and his fist cracked into the man's face. Without pausing, Venture started up the steps into the main part of the pyramid.

The steps emerged onto the ground level, and Venture turned immediately to start up the next flight. A rough, earthy paw clamped over Venture's face from behind. He levered it away, turned, kicked. The creature staggered back. Far enough for Venture to take a flying leap. His feet connected with the mass of earth, sent it staggering back still further – to the edge of the stairs leading down. It flailed helplessly for a moment. Venture was on his feet again. Another kick.

The creature fell backwards, crashing down the stairs, earth and stone flying, scattering behind it as it fell.

Already Venture had turned away and was continuing up the stairs, towards the main computer suite.

‘Where is he?' Harper demanded. ‘Where
is
he?!' He was talking to the screen.

Matt and Robin watched too, aware of Katherine standing behind them with the machine pistol. Klein was covering Matt's parents with his gun. Matt could see several hand-grenades hanging from his belt, heavy and brutal like Klein himself. The picture on the screen was changing rapidly, scrolling through the pyramid and the amphitheatre as Harper hunted for what he was looking for.

The image paused. It showed one of the misshapen creatures fashioned from the earth. The creature was flying backwards, towards a stairwell. The image flickered as the software struggled to repaint it quickly enough and the creature plunged downwards.

‘That's him,' Harper said.

‘There's no one there,' Katherine told him. ‘The thing just fell.'

‘No, he's there. We just can't see him.' He slammed his fist down on the table beside the keyboard in frustration. ‘
Why
can't we see him?'

‘Because your model doesn't show what's really happening. It makes predictions. It's calculating what is happening right now,' Robin said, her voice confident and defiant. ‘And you can't calculate what Dad will do. He doesn't want to be predictable.'

‘Everyone is predictable,' Harper snapped back.

‘Oh you have no idea,' Robin told him.

‘Everyone!' Harper snarled. The image moved again, zooming out and then back in rapidly on a new location –
beneath the pyramid. The amphitheatre. The office area. It showed Harper sitting at the screen, Katherine behind him, Klein and Matt's blank-faced parents. And vague, flickering shadows where Robin and Matt should be.

‘Then predict us,' Robin said. ‘Guess what I'm going to say next, or how Matt feels seeing his mum and dad turned to zombies. You think you're reinventing the power of the ancients?' She laughed. ‘You're not even close.'

‘Your model's rubbish,' Matt told him, his own confidence growing with Robin's defiance. ‘It's digital and the world is analogue. And soon it won't work at all anyway when …' He broke off, realising he had said too much.

‘So that's where he's headed,' Harper said. ‘Klein – the computer suite. Stop Venture. Hurry!'

‘My pleasure,' Klein said. He shouldered his gun and set off at a run.

‘You'll never stop him,' Robin said. But there was a hint of doubt in her voice.

‘Then I'd better take precautions,' Harper said. He turned to look at Matt's parents. And his mum slowly walked over to the nearest keyboard and began to type. ‘It's always wise to keep a backup, I believe,' Harper said. ‘So she can copy the data for the model to the computers down here. If necessary, I can reboot it from that copy of the data. Start all over again.'

Another of the progress ribbons was starting across
the screen where Matt's mum was working. The data was copying down to the computers here. If Venture didn't destroy the servers soon, it would make no difference.

‘But it's still flawed,' Matt insisted.

‘I don't think so,' Harper said dismissively.

‘I know so,' Matt insisted. ‘Your system can only work if it's entirely accurate. And it isn't. You can't model the real world to that level of detail in a mere computer. It's just not possible.'

‘Matt!' Robin warned.

Harper was staring at Matt, frowning. ‘You know, don't you?' He said. ‘You know how this place is supposed to work. Oh I understand the principle, of course I do. But you actually
know
.' He got to his feet, towering over Matt. ‘Show me!'

Matt shook his head. ‘Never.'

‘Don't be stupid,' Katherine said, poking the gun into Matt's back.

‘We'll see who's stupid in a minute,' Robin told her. ‘Once Dad sorts out the main computers. All you can do is look at the present and try to predict the future. OK, yes, you can manipulate the model. But so what? What can you learn from it? Does it tell you about the past, about history, about what really happened?'

‘And you'll never know,' Matt said. Anything to buy them time. ‘I'll never show you. You can kill me first.'

Harper laughed. ‘Oh you'll show me. Or I shall kill
her
.' He pointed at Robin, and he smiled.

‘Don't do it, Matt,' Robin said. ‘Let him kill us, it doesn't matter.'

‘Yes it does,' Matt said. He looked at her, willing her to understand what he was doing. An idea, just a glimmer of a thought at the back of his mind. But it was rapidly becoming a pattern – a plan.

‘I thought you'd see sense,' Harper told him.

‘It's not like we could control the thing anyway,' Matt said. ‘The most we can hope to do is just get it going. But maybe we can show Mr Harper what happened, in the past. What happened to that explorer – Percy Fawcett. See whether it really is him they found. We could even see what really happened to Atlantis.' He held his breath, wondering if he had said too much. Robin's expression was unreadable, but she didn't argue.

Harper's face was equally impassive. Then: ‘You need the disc?' Harper asked.

‘Yes,' Matt said.

‘Just like a computer. Perhaps a little demonstration, then.' He stood staring at Matt. ‘Any hint of a problem, and Katherine here will shoot your girlfriend. Understood?'

‘Understood,' Katherine said. She sounded like she was looking forward to it.

The entry code was easy to work out. The room was deserted. The lights flickered on, as motion detectors sensed that someone had walked into the main computer
suite. Row after row of servers and disc drives and storage and networking. Julius Venture walked down the first aisle. He didn't pause, he didn't look to right or left. But as he went he ripped out every cable and connector. He pushed over stacks of equipment and sent monitors hurtling into the wall.

A wave of destruction, rippling along the aisle. Like an elemental force, destroying everything it touched.

Then back up the next aisle. A screen exploded as it hit the floor, sparking and spitting glass. Cables snagged and ripped free. Computer storage discs shattered. He walked slowly, deliberately, the length of the aisle.

Right up to the man waiting for him at the main doors. The man with the face like a grinning skull, grenades hanging from his belt and a gun pointing at Venture's face.

‘Stop right there,' Klein said. ‘One more step, and you're history.'

And for the first time since leaving the amphitheatre, since leaving his daughter, Venture's face betrayed some emotion.

He smiled.

Matt checked the wooden box, and found the disc from Venture's house was inside. ‘We still need the other disc,' he said.

‘That was a fake,' Katherine told him. ‘Didn't take us
long to work that out. You still thought it was real? You really are so stupid.'

‘There is no real disc,' Harper said.

‘Yes there is,' Matt said. ‘It's in Dad's pocket.' He turned to stare at Katherine. ‘You really are so stupid.'

Her eyes widened dangerously, and he thought she was going to hit him. Or shoot him. But she settled for prodding him sharply with her gun, pushing him towards his father. ‘Get it,' she snarled.

Matt walked slowly over and made a play of fumbling in his dad's jacket pockets. ‘Dad!' he hissed. ‘Dad, can you hear me?'

His father stared ahead, blankly.

‘If you can hear me, try to help Mum. Try to break Harper's control. You –
we
– have to get out of here. And she has to stop him copying his program code. Dad?!'

But there was still no reaction, and Harper was shouting at Matt to hurry up. He sighed, and took the disc from his dad's pocket over to Robin. It was made of metal, like the disc in the wooden box, and the patterns on it spiralled into the centre.

‘You know the location,' Matt said, handing the disc to Robin. ‘You know what to do?'

She nodded. With her dark blue eyes and black hair, she looked very pale. ‘And you?'

‘Of course.' He tried to smile, to make light of it. ‘We're going to get the old technology working. For the
first time in thousands of years we'll make it work for Mr Harper. And we'll show him the past.'

They had to hunt round at the edge of the stage for the slots in the stone floor where the discs fitted. Sand had blown into them, hiding the ancient mechanism. But Matt and Robin brushed and blew it away. A single slot on either side of the stage. Each slot the same size as one of the discs.

Robin took the final disc and pushed it into place in the slot. Katherine Feather was watching her closely. Behind her, further up the tiered steps, Harper watched with interest.

‘Come on,' he shouted. ‘Prove to me that the ancients really knew what they were doing.'

On the other side of the stage, Matt took the disc from the box and pushed it into its slot in the stone slab. He hoped that the way the disc fitted would set the time to a baseline – to a specific time. He knew when it would be – 10,500 BC. ‘The First Time' as the Egyptians had apparently called it. The era of Atlantis as their starting point. The disc slid smoothly into place and clicked into position.

The sand across the huge stage area trembled and danced. It was moving, slowly shifting, rippling. Like a time-lapsed movie of someone building sandcastles on the beach, the grains were coming together to create a landscape.

‘Oh, it's beautiful,' someone said, and Matt realised with surprise that it was Harper. The big man stepped down towards the stage. ‘Is that …?' he left the question hanging in the air as he gazed awestruck at the stage.

Sand built up into a mountain. In its shadow, buildings rose, intricate structures that might have been made of stone. Water splashed in from the river behind, creating moats round the buildings – circles within circles within circles, islands connected by intricate bridges and walkways. People – tiny, perfectly formed figures of sand – walked across the bridges and between the buildings.
Lived
in them. An entire world in little.

‘Atlantis,' Robin said. ‘Nearly 11,000 years before Christ.' She looked across at Matt. ‘Go forward,' Robin said. ‘Turn the disc towards you. Five hundred years …'