Wild Fyre (26 page)

“I can’t believe it,” Maco said when Ed described his last conversation with Lister. “How could he work with her after what she did to Jim?”

Ed shook his head.

Aster described what he and Ploss had seen in North Carolina, and how they had nearly been killed by the driverless cars.

“I don’t understand,” Maco said. “She clearly feels threatened enough to kill. She electrocuted Kevin, tried to blow us up, and tried to run down the detectives. Why is she letting us drive down the highway right now?”

“I borrowed this car from a long-term lot at the hospital in North Carolina,” Ploss said. “Based on Mr. Statler’s paranoia, we didn’t bring anything electronic with us. Perhaps she doesn’t know where we are.”

“She knows,” Ed said. “That little red thing you ran over must have captured you on camera.

“And the traffic cameras on this road would have matched the vehicle,” Maco said. “She could put the cops on us, or shut down the toll road, or attack us with another drone. Why isn’t she?” He ducked down to look out his window towards the sky. “We have to be just as much of a threat as we were before.”

“If, for once, we’ve outsmarted your Organization, then let’s not curse our own luck,” Ploss said. He signaled and used the ramp to enter the Toll Road. Ploss pulled towards the booths. “Anybody got any change?”

“Who cares,” Aster said. “Just go through the E-ZPass lane. What are they going to do, send us a bill?”

“Not open,” Ploss said. “They only have two lanes open and they’re manned by people.”

“Wait,” Maco said. “It’s a trap. You see how everyone’s merging over? Those other lanes must have been open until just a few minutes ago. She’s funnelling everyone down into those two lanes—she’s trying to trap us.”

“Easy fix for that,” Ploss said. He nosed between two cars and then pulled out to the left.

“What are you doing?” Ed asked.

Ploss pulled in front of a cone at one of the closed lanes. He opened the driver’s door and got halfway out when an attendant appeared. Ploss flashed his badge and got back in the car while the attendant moved the cone for them. After he had pulled through, the attendant put the cone back in place.

“Easy as that,” Ploss said.

Maco looked behind them.

“I wonder what she had in store,” he said.

On the other side of the toll booth, Ploss accelerated quickly and merged back into traffic.
 

“What are these instructions you said you have?” Aster asked.

“It’s a set of commands I have to execute on the main server,” Maco said. “Apparently, there’s one machine that controls the whole army of computers. If I get in and execute these commands, the whole thing tears itself apart. It’s called a killswitch.”

“And you think this machine is in McLean?” Aster asked.

“Yes,” Maco said. “The instructions have an address and directions from the highway.”

“And these instructions were given to you by James Owens?” Aster asked.

“In a way,” Maco said. “He left them where we’d find them.”

“Why didn’t he just pull the plug himself?” Aster asked.

“I don’t think he knew that she was capable of killing,” Maco said.

“And she’s like his daughter. It wouldn’t have been so easy for him to do it himself,” Ed said.

“But if he left instructions, then he must have suspected he wouldn’t be around to shut her down. He must have suspected that she might do something to him,” Aster said.

“Maybe,” Ed said. “Maybe he was just afraid that he would be hit by a bus or something.”

“Is this our exit?” Ploss asked.

“Yes,” Maco said. “And take a right at the end.”

As Maco guided them through a series of turns the traffic thinned and the houses grew larger. The roads twisted through acres of long yards dotted with enormous houses.

“These are all dead-end roads,” Aster said. “There are no businesses back here.”

“None that you know about,” Ed said. “This is the driveway.”

“Yeah, right here,” Maco said.

They pulled up a long drive and followed a sign to find a little parking lot hidden from the road by tall hedges. Ploss pulled in. They saw no other cars and had a good view of the house, which sat at the end of a path that wound through the landscaping to the top of the hill.

Ploss started to get out of the car.

“Wait,” Ed said. “I think there’s a pattern to her physical attacks. I think the net gets really slow when she’s executing something in the real world. When Jim was shot, and when she was trying to slow down Maco and Kevin, and yesterday.”

“When she was trying to run us down,” Ploss said.

“Yes,” Ed said.

“So what?” Aster asked. “What good does that do us?”

“I believe it suggests that it takes most of her resources to churn through all the data from the all the sensors she has. So perhaps we can overwhelm her by coming at her from several directions,” Ed said.

“This is a secured data center,” Maco said. “I’m sure they’ve set it up so you can only come in through one locked-down entrance.”

“There are two parking spots reserved there for security,” Ed said, pointing through the window. “They’re empty. I think she dismissed the employees, maybe so they wouldn’t talk about whatever automated measures she has in place. If this were a normal data center, I’d say that we wouldn’t have a chance of getting in, but this place was retrofitted into a residential home. That means that the only difference between the front door and a side wall is some clapboards, sheeting, insulation, and drywall.”

“Even easier,” Aster said. “Smash one of those windows.”

“Right,” Ed said. “Just so long as we hit four places at once, we might have a chance of overwhelming her processing power.”

Maco frowned.

“You’re skeptical?” Ed asked.

“Yeah,” Maco said. “Correlation doesn’t guarantee causation.”

“What does that mean?” Aster asked.

“It means that just because networked machines slowed down
while
she was thinking doesn’t guarantee that they slowed down
because
she was thinking. What if everything slowed down because she wanted everyone to pay attention? What if she still had plenty of extra processing power to spare?”

“He’s right,” Ed said.

“Doesn’t make it a bad plan,” Aster said. “It just means that we might not be increasing the odds by splitting up. Besides, if we stick together, you guys would be no faster than me. With my leg, I’m not moving very fast right now.”

“Yeah, okay,” Maco said. He leaned over the seat to look at the clock on the radio. “I guess she’s demonstrated that it’s not safe anywhere for us right now. We better strike at her heart. Our process should be going strong by now anyway.”

“What process?” Ed asked.

“Before we left the house, Kevin and I set up my submarine to ramp up a distributed denial of service attack. It takes a while to get going, but it should be bogging her down by now,” Maco said.

“Let’s hope. Her defenses could be pretty strong,” Ed said.

“Maybe you guys are just being paranoid,” Ploss said. “Maybe there’s no security here at all.”

Maco laughed and said, “Right.”

“Okay,” Aster said. “Ploss, you take the back. You guys take the sides and I’ll take the car up to the front door. You guys pile out and let me make the first move.”

“Okay,” Ploss said. He left the car running and got out of the car. Aster limped around the vehicle on one leg as Ploss popped the trunk to get a crutch. Maco and Ed stood and watched the disabled detectives with concern.

“You guys look like you should be in the hospital still,” Maco said.

“Probably true,” Ploss said. He pulled out his gun and held it against his crutch.
 

Aster pulled away.
 

The car moved slowly as it left the parking lot and rolled around the hedges back to the main drive. They saw it again as it climbed the little hill towards the front door. The house had a circular drive with a wide patio before the front door.
 

Ed flinched as they heard the first shot. Maco pointed and they saw the flash of the second shot from the gun mounted in the second-floor window.

“Shit,” Ploss said. “If there’s a chance she’s preoccupied, I guess it would be now.” He threw down his crutch and started to hop and limp towards the side of the house. Ed and Maco ran behind him for a few steps and then passed him on either side, sprinting for the side of the house.

They jumped over the flower beds and pressed their backs against the house’s side and watched Ploss approach. Somewhere above them a shot fired. Ploss glanced up and then ran faster, wincing every time his bad foot touched down. He reached their side.

They heard a crash from the other side of the house.

Ploss pointed towards the back and leaned against the wall as he left Ed and Maco.

Maco inched towards a window. He found a rock on the ground and slammed it against the glass. It bounced off and fell out of his hand.

“It’s some sort of safety glass,” Maco said. “What now?”

Ed glanced around.
 

“Give me that rock,” he said.

Ed trotted over to a little shed that stuck out from the side of the building. The hasp had a padlock. He used the rock to smash the hasp from the door and swung it open. He ducked inside and came out a second later.

“Let’s try this,” he said. He held a chainsaw.

Ed got it started with a few pulls and revved the engine. Gray smoke puffed from the exhaust as Ed wound it up. He pushed the tip of the blade into the side of the building. The blade caught and the saw dragged itself into the wooden siding. Ed struggled to keep it on track.

The saw a flash and smelled ozone as the saw chewed through a power cord. Ed didn’t slow the chainsaw. He cut a big ragged slash in the side of the building and then turned the saw sideways to cut horizontally. The saw sputtered and threatened to die. Ed gave it more gas. As Ed finished his square cut, Maco disappeared into the landscaper’s shed and came out with a shovel. He pushed the metal blade into Ed’s cut and pushed on the handle, trying to pry away the siding.

Ed shut off the saw and helped him tug.

They freed the square of wall to reveal a small hole into an empty room.

“After you,” Maco said.

CH.16.Investigation ()
 

{

 
Aster();

/*****

H
IS
FOOT
WAS
A
throbbing mess inside the boot.

Aster turned his foot sideways to jam it down on the accelerator. He heard the rifle shot from the mansion simultaneously with what sounded like a hand slapping the roof of the car. Aster looked up to see a little hole of daylight above him. Aster swerved and accelerated as another bullet impacted the car.

The front of the mansion had a half-dozen wide granite steps leading up to the porch. Columns flanked the front door. Aster angled the car to a collision course with the steps and continued to accelerate. A bolt of pain shot through his ankle as the car bounced up over the curb. He cut the wheel, trying to take the steps at an angle.

The car crunched and groaned as Aster pushed the pedal to the floor. The front tires lost traction for a second and then came back down, chirping against the granite. The car’s momentum pulled them to the top of the steps and into front door. White smoke billowed from the hood as Aster crashed the car through the door. A spinning red light above the frame signaled the intrusion. The car’s airbag fired.

Aster’s left arm had a cast. The airbag plowed the cast into Aster’s forehead. He pushed aside the airbag with his right hand and reached across his body for the door handle. His vision swam in blood from the new gash on his forehead. Aster could see the handle, but his hand swiped at it and came back empty. He tried again.

When he spilled out of the idling car onto the marble tile, the car’s engine began to knock and rattle. Coolant gushed from under the wrinkled hood. Aster pulled himself away from the wreck, across the debris-covered floor.

The engine quit.

The room was quiet for a second except for the gentle sound of waves of coolant spilling from the car. The red light spun.

Aster wiped the blood from his eyes and blinked against the headache forming in the front of his skull. The pink tape on his cracked cast was now stained with blood. Aster pushed himself back farther, away from the spreading puddle of green coolant.

The foyer had a sweeping staircase on the left, that circled around a hanging chandelier. To the right, windows lined a long parlor, empty of furniture. Ahead, Aster saw a long hall that ran the length of the house and ended with giant French doors.
 

Aster heard the buzz of a small gas engine from outside. The lights of the chandelier dimmed for a second and then came back strong. Down the long hall, he saw Ploss beating against the French doors with some type of stone or concrete pedestal.
 

Aster pulled himself to his feet with the help of the staircase railing. He limped over to a counter mounted against the far wall. Behind its marble facade, he saw chairs and monitors. Aster lowered himself to one of the chairs and turned on the monitors. Views from security cameras lit up the screens. He pushed buttons to tick through the cameras.
 

On one monitor, he saw Ed and Maco working a chainsaw. As they finished their hole, Aster heard the chainsaw quit when they set it aside. He watched them tugging at the section of wall. A camera at the back of the house showed Ploss knock the handle off the door. Ploss lowered his shoulder against the jam. Aster winced as he saw his partner bounce off the door.

The cameras seemed to lock in on movement. Another view showed Aster a picture of himself. A fourth angle showed a black appliance rolling down a carpeted hall. As Aster watched the robot turn a corner, he heard the hum of its motor approaching. He drew his weapon.

CH.17.EdandMaco ()