Leviathan (37 page)

Chapter 28

Fifteen minutes until detonation ...
”

Beth stared, concentrating.
“Is any part of Rachel alive in there, Frank? Can any part of the computer respond to an emotional appeal?”

Hands flying over the controls, Frank fixed on her.
“No,” he said evenly. “Rachel's dead. Whatever is inside the machine is just an electromagnetic copy of her synapse system. It’s like a web of connections on a niobium-titanium chip that make up the Logic Core. It allows for more humanlike thinking.”

Almost mesmerized, Beth continued to stare at the tube.
“Well what does Rachel’s icon look like?’'

“
I programmed the icon to look like Rachel,” Frank said as he leaped off the platform and ran for what appeared to be the Cyberspace Module. Two separate Cyberspace suits were available for use, each hanging in large, glistening spheres.

Beth blinked, stunned. She had never expected that. It was almost horrific; this scientist going into Cyberspace to confront the image of his dead wife to convince her to spare his life.

Speaking quickly, Frank came back onto the control dais. He picked up a thin black visor and handed it to her. “Place this over your eyes and you'll be able to see everything that I’m doing,” he said. “At least you’ll be able to see everything that I’m doing until I reach the Logic Core. After that I'll be off the screen. I'll be in the neural network.”

“
And then?”

“
It’ll just be me and Rachel.”

Beth shook her head.
“All right, Frank, all right. Just tell me, how am I supposed to protect you from viral attacks as you go through the light tube?”

He handed her two synthetic gloves and turned on a laser that began passing over a small mattress on the floor.
“You'll have to stand on this pad wearing the visor and gloves. As you see the viruses attacking me just point your hand at the virus and make a fist. When your hand closes you'll complete a connection in the palm of the glove and something like a laser will go from you. It's an ability you'll have and I won't have because I'll be in Cyberspace. I won't be able to tamper with the defenses of the computer. Only someone outside the computer will be able to do that.” He paused. “But you've got to hit the viruses before they hit me.”

Beth placed the gloves on her hands.
“So I won't be in Cyberspace with you?”

“
No,” Frank shouted as he leaped onto the Cyberspace Module, his face glistening with sweat. “You'll be in something like Virtual Reality-IO or Virtual-X. There's no real difference. And the computer won't be able to harm you because you won't be neurally linked. You can get out at any time just by taking off the visor.”

“
Will I be able to see you?”

Frank began zipping himself into the Cyberspace Suit.
“Yes! You'll have a visual on everything. It will be like you're sitting on my shoulder, flying down with me. But you won't have an icon. And you'll stay with me until I reach the Logic Core. The rest is between me and Rachel.”

Beth nodded and stepped on the knee-high pad, holding the visor in her hand. The pad was bouncy, like a trampoline. The laser screen passed slowly up and down, over her.
“What will the viral attacks look like?” she asked. Sweat dripped from her chin.

“
The attacks might look like anything,” Frank replied, moving frantically. “Lasers, blobs, walls of fire, whatever. There's no way to tell. I've never done this before.”

Beth almost leaped forward.
“What! You've never done this before!”

“
Ten minutes until detonation ...”

“
No!” Frank spun, glaring. “Of course I haven't! Do you think I'd ever go into GEO without GEO's approval? It's suicide! I wouldn't be doing it now if this fail-safe wasn't going to kill us all!”

“
Then how do you know – ” Beth staggered, “ – that this will work?”

Frank shook his head, eyes wider.
“This is how it's supposed to work, Beth! But nobody’s ever done this before!”

Silence for a long split second. And then Beth heard herself whispering,
“Frank ... this is insane. This is really insane. We're never going to make it. Can't you come up with another way to defuse the—”

“
There's not another way,” he stated with conviction. “Just get me to the Logic Core where I can confront Rachel's icon.” He paused, smiling faintly. “Just get me there, Beth. I can do the rest.”

A moment, and Beth's face was grim. She tensed her fist, feeling the contact built into her palm that would ignite the fiber-optic laser. Then she looked up at Frank, feeling herself hyperventilating. She swallowed, closing her eyes, trying to remain calm. When she looked again the scientist had fully enclosed himself in the suit.

“What happens if I miss?” she asked.

“
Eight minutes until detonation.”

Frank executed a comm
and and his body was electromagnetically lifted, suspended in the Cyberspace Module. He replied as he completed commands for full immersion in the computer,

“
If a virus hits me it could kill me instantly or I might survive the impact. This is uncharted territory. But I'll never be able to survive more than two or three hits.” He paused, staring, fear in his eyes. “Are you ready?”

Beth's mouth came together in a tight line. There was no time to think of her fear, her husband, or her son. It had all come down to this
– to this frantic and frightening moment. With a cold movement she slung her long dark hair back from her brow, quickly wiping sweat from her eyes. She lifted the visor and settled it solidly over her head.

Concentrating, she nodded.

“I'm ready.”

She opened her eyes to

Cyberspace
.

* * *

Connor desperately raised another vault as Leviathan pounded a path into the passage. Then he rolled beneath the portal with Jordan held tightly in his arms as the beast saw him and unleashed a hellish blast of flame down the dark-red tunnel.

It impacted the vault like a hurricane.

With a roar the beast had charged down the tunnel to instantly strike the portal, but Connor gained his feet on the far side. And as he stood he sensed something... something different in the ravaging attack.

The assault against the titanium fire wall was somehow weaker, slower, than it had been before. And Connor understood suddenly that the beast was finally tiring. Destroying vault after vault and sustaining the wounds inflicted on it had clearly claimed a measure of the Dragon's strength. Now it needed more food – needed it badly. But it had already consumed all that could be consumed in the cavern.

Everything but th
e last of them …

Connor frowned, staggering back.

“Come on,” he whispered. “Wear yourself out ...”

Turning, Connor ran into the middle of a cavern, still holding Jordan solidly in his arms. He didn't know which cavern it was and realized instantly how the encircling walls ascended, red and solidly sloping into a towering dark. He searched left and right, seeking an exit. But he found none. A heightened adrenaline-fear quickened his heartbeat even more. Connor stopped in place, turning, spinning in every direction, searching for an exit door.

Walls, walls ...

“
Oh, no,” he whispered, not looking again at the vault. “There's got to be a way out of here. There's got to be ...”

Leviathan smashed again and again against the last portal but the savage victory was taking three times as long; an indication of its starvation, its weakness. Then Connor noticed from the absence of a thundering heat-blast that it was no longer using flame. Only strength, strength that Connor knew would be exhausted even faster in its singular intent to defeat the titanium wall.

Connor realized that if he could only put two or maybe three more vaults between them, he would be safe. But there was no exit, he realized, as he glared in every direction. He had reached a dead end.

Breathless, clutching Jordan to his chest, Connor turned toward the vault, watching an
d backing up as Leviathan maniacally attacked the portal, roaring and slamming forelegs and its injured form against the wall again and again. But it finally, slowly, overcame the fire door, slamming the portal down and collapsing on top of it in exhaustion. But fueled by the molten core of its heart, the Dragon rose again, glaring and hating.

Connor gently lowered Jordan to the ground, quickly un-sl
ung the M-203. He backed up a step, centering the grenade launcher on the beast as it took a slow step toward him.

Eyes gleaming, Leviathan growl
ed.

Jordan was screamed hysterically, clinging to his leg. Connor felt his sweat-soaked skin freeze at the thunderous cave-growl. His blood congealed, cold with fear as he stiffly backed up
slow step by slow step, unable to catch his breath.

With great, distended fangs, the Dragon came forward.

“God help us,” Connor whispered.

His hand tightened on the rifle.

* * *

C
hapter 29

“Seven minutes until detonation...”

A dazed black moment of spiraling light and Beth almost fell off the platform before she realized she was flying, flying with blinding speed through a verging of machine and white strobe light and she looked down instinctively to see a vaguely human form
.

Frank.

Immersed in Cyberspace, the scientist had already begun flying forward, racing through the computer toward the wide, gaping hallway of light that loomed before them. Utterly, utterly amazed, Beth stared.

This was unreal.

Frank was larger than life, his solid black body glistening in sharply angled sections that held an uncanny resemblance to his human form. But his hands were larger, his shoulders and chest also accented. His head was a polished black mask, a narrow-slitted mouth with no hair or ears. But his rounded eyes were a cosmic bright-blue, glowing like beams and fixed dead ahead as he flew through the computer.

Almost against her will, Beth shouted to him.

Frank didn't turn. His face was fixed before him, staring, and then Beth saw an expression of angry concentration on his glistening countenance and glanced up to see the wide white wall approaching with breathtaking speed as ...

Light
!

Whiteness streamed past them like flowing, glowing fog.

Beth staggered, almost feeling the invisible wind rushing over her and she realized that they had entered the light cylinder, speeding toward the Logic Core.

Like a human torpedo the
scientist streamed forward, narrowly avoiding the slashing, flashing beams that blazed at him from the sides. Beth shouted in alarm at the simultaneous attacks, knowing somehow that Frank could not hear her but shouting anyway as she extended her fists to send a blast of light out from herself toward the flare.

But she was too slow, her blast wide, and Frank somehow defeated the attack himself, twisting violently down and upward again like a jet diving under incoming missiles. Then as he rose he gathered speed, threading a frantic path through
a sea of gathering, spiraling tentacle-flame.

Descending in a bolt of black lightning the scientist flew forward, deeper and deeper into the converging conscious world of man-of-machine where science verged with life. Then from both sides of the cylinder, in a coordinated and simultaneous attack, two streaks of phosphorescence came together, joining in a solid wall of white to block Frank's headlong plunge. The scientist wildly threw out his arms, angling desperately to readjust his descent, but there was no room to escape. He spun out of control, hurtling into an amazing holocaust of artificial fire.

Shouting explosively Beth threw out both fists, clenching tight and screaming still as whiteness erupted out from her, smashing through the flame to create a spiraling nova of strobe before...

Endless expanse
...

Arms
pin wheeling wildly, trying to recover from the blast, Frank careened through the obliterated wall like a ship hurled through fog, slowly gathering control. When he had passed through the shattered whiteness he put his arms to his sides once more, leaning forward, gathering speed.

Beth released a tight breath.

That was close, too close.

But she was too frantic with the speed of the attack and her
own speed to be relieved. She crouched as she felt herself flying wildly forward beside the scientist, feeling more a part of the unreal than the real.

Streaming forward, Frank plummeted to the depths of the heart of the artificial mind known as GEO. And, trembling and blinking sweat, Beth kept her hands high to fire again and again, sighting and spinning, lashing out left and right to desperately clear a narrow path through the flaring flame.

* * *

Connor glared left and right and saw no escape.

Jordan cried out, hysterical with a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life. And Connor grimaced, angrily centering the grenade launcher on the chest of the beast. His finger curled around the trigger.

Leviathan lowered its head, jaws unhinging.

Connor's face twisted in rage.

“Eat this!” he shouted, and pulled the trigger.

The explosion struck Leviathan full in the chest, making it stagger. Its neck stretched up, burning with flame and Connor snatched Jordan from the ground, instantly running. He heard a roaring behind him, a bellow
ing and vengeful wrath that conquered the cavern like a thunderclap, shattering stalactites on the far side. Dust cascaded from the roof, dust and dark rain.

Gotta find a way out, a way out
...

Connor breathlessly rounded a full-red corner of limestone searching for anything—a cave, hole, or an overturned stone or whatever would provide some small measure of escape from the beast so that—

A mushrooming white explosion set the entire cavern roof aglow, and Connor instinctively ducked, not even understanding. Then the cave thundered with the howl of a wounded beast and Connor saw Leviathan rolling past him, slamming itself against the ground, shattering stone and stalactites into flaming shards.

It was bathed in white flames.

Connor didn't ask any questions, didn't understand. He picked up Jordan in one arm and ran back toward the exit, carefully avoiding a section of the cavern floor that glowed with unexplainable fire. He took a half-dozen strides before he saw the two images standing angrily in the doorway, one red-bearded figure and holding a smoking M-79.

Thor sighted him almost immediately.

“Connor!” he bellowed, waving excitedly. He quickly broke open his weapon, inserting another grenade before snapping the weapon shut. “Hurry!”

Then Barley cut loose with a grenade, striking an area far to the rear and Connor felt the terrific mushrooming blast that lit the room like a lightning bolt.

Leviathan screamed but Connor didn't turn to see it. With Jordan tight in his arms he ran with all his remaining strength, crossing the two hundred yards with slowing, slowing strides. The entrance seemed infinitely far, so far that his strength could never carry him past the portal. And Connor knew, knew in a hate-filled, staggering fatigue that he would never make it.

And then Thor was running forward, his M-79 slung around a shoulder and his arms spread wide. In seconds he met Connor in the middle of the cavern floor, lifting a protesting Jordan from his arms. Instantly Connor felt lighter, stronger.

He made it to the door.

“
This way!” Barley screamed, running, and Connor followed him through the doorway in the very shadow of the beast. As he went through the portal he realized with a sense of doom that the corridor was easily large enough for Leviathan's continued pursuit.

No good ...

Blindly Connor followed Barley and Thor as they ran down the tunnel, fleeing for the slightly raised vault at the end. Although Connor managed to match them stride for stride, his mind was quickly fading under the overcoming power of infinite fatigue.

So weary ...

The opened exit was almost a quarter mile away and Connor realized with a sense of doom that the chase was almost finished. They could never make it, and even if they did, they couldn't continue. But without thought he hurled himself forward, hearing Leviathan strike the vault behind them with fresh rage, pounding again and again, somehow seeming strengthened even more by its wounds.

Against his will Connor spun in stride, turning to see the Dragon on fire, savagely shattering the exit, coming, always coming. It was covered with white flowing flame, flame that rose almost to the ceiling of the tunnel. But it was still chasing them, ignoring the injury and pain, determined to finish the kill. And Connor knew somehow that it was motivated by far more than food.

Roaring, the beast tore through the vault, landing on its feet as they finally reached the exit. Then Barley slid beneath the titanium portal, dragging Jordan behind him. Connor was last to the vault, slamming himself against the cold niobium-titanium in the throes of ultimate exhaustion. He could not stand, but fell to the ground, sweating and breathless.

“
We can't – ” he gasped, “outrun it.”

Thor seemed to sense the Dragon's approach and turned, glaring angrily. And for a brief, flashing moment Connor caught something in his gigantic friend's face that he never imagined he would see.

Fear.

* * *