Interface: A Techno Thriller (33 page)

ONE HUNDRED FOUR

BERN'S YACHT WAS HOLDING POSITION in the English Channel. Now known as the Phoenix, it looked very different from when it had been docked in Monaco. Along with a different name, it had completely changed its external livery and internal colour scheme. Instead of an ostentatious rich-man's play thing, it was now a floating command centre.

Marron and Alex's underwater cruiser docked quietly at the rear of the craft and they climbed out, greeted by the yacht's crew. They changed out of their wetsuits and into casual clothes. On the top deck, Marron opened a bottle of champagne and poured two glasses, handing one to Alex. "To evolution," he said.

"To winning," she replied.

"Did you record the explosion?" he asked one of the crewmen.

"Explosion, Sir?"

"On the television. The CERUS Tower explosion."

The crewman looked at him blankly. "I'm sorry, Sir, I don't understand."

Marron's eyes narrowed and he put down his glass. "Get me a computer." He tuned through every major news channel. There was nothing. "It should have happened thirty minutes ago. The whole
world
should know by now. Somehow they stopped the bomb."

"Could it have been a fault?" asked Alex.

Marron shook his head. "With Leskov? Unlikely in the extreme."

"Then someone entered the disarm code."

Marron swore. "Dammit, I have to see." He typed in a long sequence of numbers and a grainy image appeared on the screen. CERUS Tower was lit up against the night sky.

"Where's that coming from?" asked Alex.

"Live feed from one of my CCTV cameras on the building opposite." Marron closed his eyes, rubbing his fingers over his forehead. "I'm sure they're busy at the Tower, looking for answers, but I'd rather not take chances. He'd better get here soon."

"He's not going to be happy."

"He rarely is."

ONE HUNDRED FIVE

TOM FORCED HIMSELF TO BREATHE slowly. Lentz had collected some equipment from the Level 75 laboratory and they now stood in Marron's office, next to the entrance to his secret control room.

Reems stood aside, arms folded, as Commander Jonas attempted to open the door. "It's locked," he said, as he pulled on the concealed handle.

Lentz held up a scanning device. "It's just a question of determining the right wireless frequency."

"CCTV footage shows him entering but not leaving," Jonas said. "Our best guess is that Marron is still inside."

"I very much doubt it," Tom said, walking up and pulling on the handle, blinking as he did it. "As I keep telling you, Marron thought the building was going to blow up. He wasn't going to hang around."

"Try it again," Lentz said.

Tom twisted and pulled. The door hissed and swung out.
 

The room looked as if someone had left it in a hurry. Items of equipment were strewn across the floor. Tom walked over to one of the computer terminals. "This is Marron's command centre. It's a completely separate system to the main building."

"So this is where he watched the Tower, playing God?" Reems asked.
 

"He was playing a lot of people," Tom said. "And he liked to play a long game. He's been playing
me
since I was a child."

Reems raised an eyebrow. "I'm very much looking forward to debriefing you, Mr Faraday."

Lentz moved next to him. "I'll get connected," she said, giving Tom a tight look.

"Use the port here," he replied.

Lentz flipped open her modified laptop. "Are you sure you know what you're doing, Tom?" She ran a long cable into the port he had indicated and started typing rapidly.

"There's no alternative. You, of all people, realise that."

"We're on the clock here, people," Reems said.

"When you're ready, Dominique." Tom closed his eyes. The computer screen went off.

Lentz cleared her throat. "Here we go. Although this may be a bit hit or miss."

The screen flickered back on and the login box appeared.

"Anyone have any ideas?" asked Tom, opening his eyes.

Jonas shook his head. "We'll have to bring in specialists. It could take some time, but--"

"Never mind," said Lentz. "I'm in." The password screen faded and the display filled with a number of data windows.

"What's she doing?" Reems asked.

Jonas looked at the screen. "Parsing the data." He squinted. "It's moving too fast to read."

The screens scrolled faster and faster.

"Now that's interesting," Tom said. A floor plan popped up and then zoomed in on Floor 90. A pink light lit up in one corner.

"It's in Bern's office," Reems said. "What is it?"

Lentz shrugged. "I didn't say I'd get answers
immediately
."

"Look at the north wall of this room," Tom said, crossing to it and pressing against a panel. There was a soft alarm, a hiss and a panel swung inwards.

"What on earth?" Reems asked, walking over to look for herself.

"I'd be careful," Tom said. "It's a long way down."

Reems peered into the cavity then reflexively pulled back.
 

"I think," Lentz said, "that is an emergency escape route."

Reems reached her hand out and touched the metal track. "It's vibrating?"

"Wait," Jonas said suddenly, "Lentz isn't just streaming this. She's deleting it!" He lurched forward and snapped Lentz's laptop shut, yanking the network cable from it.

"What are you are doing?" cried Lentz.

Reems turned to Jonas. "Just get her out of here."

But Jonas wasn't listening. "That didn't stop it," he said. "Look. I can see dialogue boxes appearing and vanishing."
 

Files continued flickering across the screen.

"What's being deleted?" Reems shouted.

"It looks like building data. Corporate accounts. Project files."

Reems turned red. "Stop it right--"

A fire alarm sounded: not the type of alarm fitted in houses and offices. This one was a mind-numbing beast of an alarm, designed to terrify occupants into leaving as soon as humanly possible.
 

Jonas looked up sharply. "Fire suppression systems have been triggered. Halon gas: we get out or we die. Everybody move!"

◇
◇
◇

In seconds, they had scrambled back into Marron's office, the heavy door slamming behind them. From inside came the terrible white-noise hiss of the gas.

"What set it off?" asked Reems as they stumbled to a halt.

"Something she tampered with maybe?" suggested Jonas. He looked around. "Where is Faraday?"

Reems spun around. She went to run back in, but Jonas' strong arms caught her. "You have to wait ten minutes for it to disperse. It's too late for him."
 

Reems shrugged him off and turned on Lentz. "I don't know what just happened, but I'm pretty sure that was all planned." She narrowed her eyes. "You were never the one deleting the files, were you? That was Tom, using the interface."

Lentz shrugged. "It's a theory. Good luck proving it."

"What is he up to?" Reems swore. "We have a chance to seize breakthrough technology and you..." She nodded to Jonas. "Get her out of my sight." Reems' phone chimed and she glanced at it then at Lentz. "I have a message from Tom. He says we should look in the safe in Bern's office." She paused, her brow creasing. "He says you're the only one who can open it and," her expression turned thunderous, "I'd better keep you closely involved if I want to see inside."

"Is that right?" said Lentz, not hiding a smile. "Then I suggest we go have a look."

ONE HUNDRED SIX

TOM WATCHED THE OTHERS RUN from the command centre. He waited until they were all outside then activated the pressurised air-con system. It sounded convincing enough to pass as the halon gas.

He closed the outer doors to the room then shut his eyes and extended his senses. The building was operating smoothly: power, lighting, air conditioning. He reduced the security systems to the lowest possible level. No sense in obstructing the good work of the rescuers.
 

He flicked his attention back to the vast volumes of data he had been deleting, stripping the CERUS servers of the data that would allow someone else to do all this again. The experiment had to stop here. In amongst the scientific data, he found several files implicating various team members in things that had happened – and things that had not. Marron clearly liked to keep a hold over people. But there was nothing on William Bern. There was even a file with Tom's mother's name on it, but it was empty. What was that about?

Tom's eyelids fluttered as he continued processing. The chip in his head was gone now, the nanites spread throughout his system, distributing their heat so he barely noticed. There was nothing to distract him. Nothing to slow him down. And, as his perception shifted, he started to see things he could never have seen before.

There was an
anomaly
.

He forced himself to slow, drawing back to consider. It was a ripple in the pattern of CERUS' financial records. There was something there. He focused his thoughts, throwing his mind at the numbers, sifting and filtering. The pattern clarified.

Money had been diverted from certain accounts. At first glance, it looked like it had been done randomly. But, when he followed the chain, he saw it was, in fact, a thing of beauty. CERUS had not been failing: someone had been gutting it. There was a plan behind all the other plans: something only a computer could have seen, if properly instructed.

Or me, thought Tom. Because he was both human and computer now.

But was he the best of both, or the worst?

The vibrating of the track in the cavity reached a peak and the metal cradle appeared in the gap. But he couldn't go yet. First, he had to understand what had been happening at CERUS and he finally had the key. There was video-footage from cameras even Marron did not seem to know about. Marron had appeared to hold all the cards, but there was someone behind even his shoulder and now Tom knew who it was.
 

He sucked in his breath and rescanned the files. And then he found it, buried in two different places, but linked by context.
 

Of course it was ridiculous, impossible, unbelievable. And yet he knew it was true: only Tom Faraday could have been chosen for this role, because only he was a fit.
 

So many questions filled his mind that he was almost overwhelmed. So much betrayal and injustice that he could not voice.

Not here. Not now.

But finally he knew who he had to talk to. And where to find his quarry. Tom glanced around the room, his eyes locking on a cabinet on the wall marked with biohazard symbols. It was electronically locked, but a quick instruction popped the door open. Inside was a case containing three syringes. He looked at the barcode labels and the interface provided a translation.

Truth nano.

Tom gritted his teeth. This was what they had used on Kate. Filled with rage, he went to throw the syringes across the room, but something made him stop. Perhaps he could find a better use for them. So he slipped the syringes into his jacket pocket. Then, with a shake of his head, he climbed into the cradle, strapped himself in and sent the instruction to start the mechanism again.
 

The cage dropped out of sight.

◇
◇
◇

The fact that the submersible cruiser had no control panel presented no challenge to Tom. After quickly donning a wetsuit from the open box beside the end of the cage-track, he slid the submersible out of the tunnel and into the murky waters of the Thames. As he completed his final system scan of the Tower, idly realising he was very hungry, he noticed that the building's security network had been accessed off-site. Someone had used a camera on an adjacent building to look at the exterior of the Tower.

Tom smiled. He didn't need to run further analysis to know who
that
was. Within seconds, he had location data accurate to within fifty metres. He referenced the location on a map and smiled. In the middle of the sea, fifty metres would be more than good enough.

Just two minutes into his journey, he realised that the submersible was too slow. Quickly, he searched the surrounding area for something faster. It didn't take him long to find exactly what he needed.

ONE HUNDRED SEVEN

LENTZ AND REEMS ENTERED BERN'S penthouse office, leaving two soldiers waiting next to the lifts. The women ignored the view and marched through the door into his private bathroom. On one wall hung an unmemorable watercolour.
 

"It's always behind a painting," Lentz said, as she carefully lifted the watercolour off its hook and revealed a small wall safe. Quickly she started typing in a long sequence of digits

Reems glared at her. "You have the combination of William Bern's safe?"

"Tom gave me the code." There was a beep.

"And the finger print scan?" Reems asked, as Lentz pressed her thumb to the scanner.

"I'm told I've been added to the approved list."

"Or you were always on it. You do realise how suspicious this looks?"

The safe clicked and swung open. Lentz reached in and withdrew a few items of jewellery, a copy of a document entitled 'Last Will and Testament', the keys to a car and a stack of documents labelled 'CERUS: Highly Confidential'. At the bottom was a dusty pink folder tied with red ribbon. It was stamped 'CLASSIFIED'.

Reems reached forward and snatched it from her. "I believe your security clearance was revoked a long time ago. If any of it is shareable, I'll let you know." Reems turned and walked back into the main office. "I have what I need. Now get her out of--"

George Croft stood facing her, holding an automatic pistol. "Hands skyward," he said. "Both of you."

Reems' jaw tightened as she lifted her arms. "Where's my security detail?"

"I told them Marron had been sighted on Level 60. They'll be a few minutes, I imagine."

"How did you even get here? I thought I had you locked up?"

"I had a field toolkit with me. Broke my way out." He shrugged. "Sloppy of you not to have searched me."