Leviathan (38 page)

Chapter 30

Connor saw it as purely as he felt it.

Thor was afraid.

Hand tight on the battle-ax, Thor hurled a curse at the Dragon before he bent to effortlessly shove Connor beneath the vault. Barley lifted Connor from the other side, holding him in a strong arm. But Connor was wasted, passing out, his head faint and light. His vision was blurring, dimming, and in an unfocused daze he staggered across the cavern, recognizing vaguely ... Matrix ... they were back in ... the Matrix.

But it meant nothing to him. He was lost in the fatigue and confusion and pain as he stumbled to the opposite door, yes, yet another door where the vault still stood. And as they reached the vault together the Dragon beat a path into the cavern, pursuing, pursuing ...

Staggering, Connor saw Leviathan in the doorway, glaring.

It smoldered with flames.

Blinking sweat, clutching his heart, Connor felt an exhausted groan of deathlike pain escape him and he knew with terrible certainty that it was over. Grimacing painfully, Connor lowered his head and closed his eyes to pray that their deaths would be quick, for Jordan's sake. Then Barley went under the vault with a soldier's skill, carrying the child.

Light-headed, collapsing, Connor fell at the door, too tired, too fatally exhausted from the long run to go another step. And
he felt himself lifted once again, sensed Thor's giant presence beside him as he was carried the last few strides.

Then the floor shook and Connor somehow found himself at the door, rolling out the other side. Faint and shocked, he turned to see Thor glaring coldly at the beast.

Leviathan stood fifty feet away.

Savoring the kill.

Grim and enraged, Thor glared at the Dragon as if he knew further retreat was futile. He turned back to Connor, his ice-green eyes solemn and sad and resigned.

He did not move.

With a shock Connor realized what Thor was about to do.

Connor tried to rise, to leap forward to grab his friend and drag him back beneath the door but Thor had already unslung the grenade launcher from his chest to toss it beneath the fire wall. Connor saw his face darken with fear and regret and love and every other emotion that could cause pain.

Connor gasped, staggering.

“
No ... Thor ... Don't—”

“
Go!” Thor shouted, dropping to a knee. His voice was choked with fear. “I will hold it long enough!”

Barley heard and whirled, shouting.

“Nooooo!” Connor shouted as he gained his feet.

“
GO!” Thor roared. “I will hold it long enough!”

Thor's blazing eyes met Connor's for one flashing, immortal instant as Thor lifted the battle-ax wide to the side, sharing all the pain and memory and love that could be shared by any brother who had chosen to sacrifice his life for the other. Then the battle-ax flashed between them, swung by Thor's massive arm to solidly strike the steel cord that held the vault open.

At the sharp impact the cord was severed.

The vault descended.

* * *

“Five minutes until detonation ...”

Aflame from a violent viral attack, Frank plummeted wildly through a white haze, losing direction for a fantastic, flashing moment. He spun uncontrollably through a wall of fire and saw
another killing light beam slicing through space from his far right, a scintillating blaze that was almost instantly destroyed by a fiber-optic laser.

By an effort of will Frank shed the flames, speeding forward. He didn't have time for relief.

Bending forward, he hurtled deeper into the light tube, arms over his face, regaining control as he moved farther and farther into the heart of the cylinder. Somehow, in the distance, he thought that he could see the Logic Core, a dark red planet-shape suspended by an electromagnetic field in the center of the cylinder. He knew that if he could only make it to the interior of the Core, he would be safe from further viral attacks.

With a violent twist he angled down and away to avoid another sudden light blast from the side. He pitched and rose, leveling with an effort, maintaining as much momentum as he could.

He sped forward ...

Speed, speed ...

It was everything now—speed, speed ...

He saw another white wall of fiber-optic fire rise before him, watched nervously as Beth's laser blast destroyed it. In his frantic, chaotic descent he saw the phosphorescent haze disintegrate, neutralized by the fiber-optic flame hurled from her hand. In a swirling fog it disintegrated and he torpedoed through it.

With a renewed effort Frank rocketed into the heart of the cylinder, watching with painful anticipation as the Logic Core drew nearer, nearer, maddeningly near. He was forced to twist desperately, angling downward to avoid a vicious tentacle that exploded from the side.

It missed.

And for a moment, spiraling out of control through space, Frank was genuinely amazed that he was still alive. He turned in the infinite whiteness and realigned his direction, spearing himself through the furnace.

A dark red-black space rose before him, the Logic Core coming up like a planet, and he sped toward it, raising his arms and lowering his head to plummet through the exterior surface of the Core to enter the Synapse System.

Instantly his arm lashed out and connected to a thread, his thought moving from mind to hand to computer at the speed of light and he had already disoriented the logic-math, sending GEO into a self-diagnostic check. Frank sensed Rachel's immediate presence and almost instantly realized that she had been thrown into the self-diagnostic mode as well.

Yes!

He beat her!

Frank kept contact as he spiraled toward the center of the Logic Core. A small center of electric threads loomed beneath him and he slowed, slowing even more to land lightly, no longer concerned about the viral defense system. He was past that now, he knew. With Beth's help he had overcome the frontline defenses.

Deep inside the Core, Frank felt Rachel close to him.

He closed his eyes, concentrating as the synapses shot through the Core, shifting and progressing through algebraic symbols of logic. The thoughts were blindingly fast, quad-dual processed with almost incomprehensible speed, and Frank began changing them, rewriting the formulas. And quickly, far, far too quickly, he knew he was approaching a dangerous void where he was altering the essence of the machine.

Too fast ...

It's moving too fast
…

* * *

“
Get Jordan out of here!” Connor shouted, slinging the M-79 over his shoulder. He was still exhausted and in shock but Thor's dramatic move had galvanized him into a death-instinct strength.

Staggering in fatigue, Barley lifted the four-year-old.

“What are you going to do?” he gasped.

Connor began climbing wire and piping toward the ventilation shaft. He heard a fiendish roar on the other side of the wall and he froze, his skin crawling with terror. He couldn't even imagine what Thor was facing, couldn't even believe this was happening. Then he sensed that Barley was hesitating and he turned, shouting angrily.

“Barley! Get Jordan to the Computer Cavern as fast as you can! Take him to Beth! I'll meet you there!”

“
But what are you—”

“
Just do it!” Connor roared, turning to rip the ventilation shaft cover from the wall. He lifted a leg inside as Barley began shouting, backing up and motioning frantically.

“
Hey, Connor, wait, wait...”

Connor leaned into the shaft.

“Connor!”

Enraged, Connor brought his head out of the shaft.

“What!”

The big man tossed up a grenade belt with three grenades. Connor caught it without thought, immediately looping it over his shoulder.

“Those are phosphorous!” Barley shouted hoarsely. “They're liquid fire! And you'll have to have at least a hundred feet when you shoot one! Everything inside that is going to be on fire!”

Connor stared down, frozen in place. Something had struck him with Barley's words, but he didn't have time to figure it out. With a quick nod he turned, crawling forward as fast as he could, holding the grenade launcher like a cannon.

* * *

Chapter 31

Sweating hand locked like iron on the battle-ax, Thor slowly turned, staring at the Dragon. His face was grim and dark.

“Come, beast,” he growled. “Come! Embrace me! Let this battle end with the two of us.”

Thor stood before it, those he loved at his back.

And Leviathan stood before him, growling, its eyes glowing like coals, its breath smoldering. Thor felt the atmosphere growing hotter by the moment. The air itself seemed to boil at the thin vapors rising from the beast's armor.

Clenching his teeth, Thor laughed.

“Let God decide this battle!” he roared, crouching and raising the battle-ax. “Yes! The God you fear!”

A strange twist of its dragon-head and Leviathan loosed a hideous roar, a grating, snarling, threatening sound that came from deep beneath it, from the rock and stone, not the creature.

Thor laughed, moving to the side.

His smile was savage.

“Will you wait all day!” he roared. “Come to me!”

And Leviathan came
– came so quickly that Thor felt the black claws before he saw them and he twisted before a collision he didn't understand, whirling the battle-ax, the steel sweeping with unbelievable power through the red gloom as he came around and the dragon-head was there with fangs gaping and Thor roared to turn violently through the blow.

With a thudding impact the gigantic ax split the armor beneath the wicked jaws in a haze of black blood and Thor had no time to contemplate how such a thing could be as the hating fangs struck.

Thor howled, hurled back by the impact but he slashed wildly down, solidly hitting the serpentine head. The battle-ax sliced a narrow plate from green-black brow and Thor smashed his hand against the fanged upper side of the mouth, pushing against the jaws with all his strength.

Rage to rage they surged and Thor staggered, bent back. Then Leviathan swept forward to slam Thor against a wall, the jaws unhinging farther to close on him but Thor pushed with titanic strength, wrestling against the beast's upper jaw as if he were grappling with a crocodile.

Pushing the head to the side, Thor twisted and desperately grabbed the ax with both hands and swung with primal force, coming off his feet to hurl his full four hundred fifty pounds into the blow.

The battle-ax struck the beast solidly in the head, colliding like thunder.

Leviathan turned away from the wounding blow and Thor shouted, leaping forward, pursuing, changing the game. With a volcanic twist he whirled back again and the ax thundered through a murderous backhand slash that tore off a slice of armor. Then Thor lashed a herculean arm around the superheated neck, pulling himself flesh to flesh with the boiling, burning gout of blood that lanced the air from the monster's wound.

Instantly Leviathan reared, roaring, tearing at him with its black claws but Thor never felt the mortal injuries as he locked his knees hard into the neck and raised the ax high again to bring it down upon the neck, tearing a full scale from the plates.

At the impact Leviathan screamed and whirled to sling him off but Thor dug his fingers into a harsh mane of short hair that came from the crest of the head, holding, holding.

Blood, burning ...

Around them the entire cavern burst violently into flames, wooden crates exploding into flames at the beast's superheated armor, disintegrating at its spiraling exothermic presence and Thor heard himself screaming through the flames and the lancing, liquefying black blood that sprayed from the wound in Leviathan's neck as he leaned back, torn and ravaged by the long, long claws that reached up, grappling.

Lost in pain, pain, too much pain, Thor howled, brutally bringing the ax down, slashing, slashing, striking again and again with the full measure of a colossal strength that he had never used and never imagined and chunks of black flesh and black armor sailed through the air,
blood...

Leviathan's evil green eyes glared down at him, hating and enraged, and in a moment of rage and madness, Thor whirled and twisted to swing the battle-ax upward to hurl a vicious blow that struck harder still, slashing beneath a glowing eye.

The battle-ax dug deep ...

It was too much.

Leviathan whirled with a scream and hurled itself into a high stand of steel that scattered at the explosive impact; catapulting girders across the full expanse of the cavern with flame following.

Stunned, Thor was slung aside, finding himself somehow beside green-black scales that seared off his skin at the touch. He whirled back to strike with fantastic strength at whatever he saw, the glowing battle-ax thundering through flame and hate and rage, striking again and again to glow bright black with the blood of the beast.

Enraged, Leviathan whirled. Thor saw a murderous black foreleg drawn back to strike and Thor shouted, raising a thick arm and ax to turn against the blow, to defy it.

Leviathan struck, sending Thor sprawling into a heap of steel, blood cascading over him, and Thor felt himself struck from behind, pain blasting through his back and ribs and chest and he roared in heartfelt pain, struggling to surge back to the fight. But he could not move, was held firm. Frantically Thor glared down to see that he was pierced through and through, a jagged stake of steel protruding redly from the upper right side of his chest.

Thor cursed angrily, groaned. But he knew it made no difference now. No difference at all. Eyes tunneling on the beast, Thor clenched his teeth and surged violently forward, tearing himself in agony from the stake. Roaring, he whirled the battle-ax again, noticing only dimly that he was black-red with blood. But the blow missed wide and Thor fell back, breathless, wounded and waiting. He raised his empty hand, bone-burned fingers spread like talons, preparing to grapple as the Dragon reared, fangs unhinging to spray fire.

Its jaws twisted, neck tightening. But there was no fire.

Thor laughed.

“
Your fire is gone, beast!” he cried through smashed lips. “Now only strength remains! So show me your strength! Show me the strength of Satan! And I will show you the strength of Almighty God!”

Leviathan shrieked and struck.

And Thor met it, force to force.

* * *

“
Four minutes until detonation ...”

Frank felt his electrical-will
wrap itself around the key symbols that cemented GEO in pure mathematical analysis and he began deleting the symbols at a reckless rate, unable to keep up with the machine. But despite the rising danger of his action he continued, severely attacked the foundations of the logic, moving quickly from one premise to the next.

In seconds all logic that eliminated metaphysical questions was virtually wiped out. And Frank felt GEO shifting to find another self-regulating Logic Mode. But the computer found nothing and searched again, th
e beginning of a dangerous, dangerous downward spiral to self-destruction.

Immediately Frank thought-programmed a new ruling logic in GEO's mind, implanted Aristotle's final criteria for determining the true value of any created being, an ultimately logical series of questions that could serve as the base for a reformatted Logic Core.

Frank felt a quick fear, feeling the thoughts race out from him and into the network, realizing he stood on the edge of crashing the entire system. But he recklessly continued sending, sending...

Aristotle's Four Causes, the foundation of his Logic, were clear in Frank's mind as he burned them deeply into GEO's neural network.

The Four Causes of Aristotle ...

Material Cause, Formal Cause, Efficient and Final Cause
...

Frank locked the computer there, in their joined mind. He quickly forced the machine to confront the fourth, Final Cause, while he eliminated everything, everything else, dooming the machine to return again and again to that last, greatest question.

What is the final purpose of your life?

Frank tied GEO's synapses tighter and tighter, drawing the lines closer and with ever-increasing angles, making more and more knowledge irrelevant as the machine joined him in the great search, bending all its power
toward answering that one, ultimately logical question.

What is the final purpose of your life?

Frank knew, he knew; the question was the key.

It was a question that had to be logically answered before GEO could continue because GEO could not facilitate any action whatsoever until it knew the logical purpose of the action.

Even now Frank realized that he couldn't just go into the defense system and defuse the fail-safe because GEO had not decided that intervention was a logical move. And without GEO's approval, Frank's interference would be interpreted as an attack. In that situation the computer would subsequently initiate its last accepted criteria for guarding the system.

By triggering the bomb.

“Three minutes, forty-five seconds until detonation ...”

But now there was a new game. Frank knew he had to make GEO question the rightness of detonating the fail-safe, but he also knew that he had to do it logically, because logic was all that GEO understood. With a distinct fear Frank sensed that he was pushing, even violently pushing, the artifici
al life-form to confront a question that only man had dared approach.

What is the final purpose of your life
?

And again ...

What is the final purpose of your life?

And again
!

What is the final purpose of your life
?

Sensing the computer locked in the loop, Frank withdrew his hand from the web, staring, listening. He could almost hear
her mind sailing through the spiraling, searching thoughts, freed from the cold math-logic that had previously prevented her from confronting metaphysical questions.

Again and again with almost light speed,
her thoughts burned through the loop only to return with blinding speed to that ultimate question—
What is the final purpose of your life?
—where it blazed out again, searching, searching the system for an answer and finding none only to race out once more at light speed to end at the beginning, confronting the great question again and again. In the heat of the conflict Frank could almost feel the space around him glowing, growing white and warm. It was almost as if the search was threatening to crash the entire infrastructure of the supercomputer.

Then Frank reached into the threads, becoming one ...

“GEO, this is Dr. Frank.”

The reply was distinctly feminine
– and somehow almost afraid now.

“
Voice identification confirmed.”

“
GEO,” Frank continued, his essence flowing into the system. “Answer this question: What is the final purpose of your life?”

Even the black space of the Logic Core paled as GEO struggled to find an answer. Frank felt the system on the verge of a total breakdown.

The space environment around him trembled.

And then Rachel was before him
.

E
merging from nothing, she took vivid shape with a hard gaze of anger on her scarlet-neon face. But Frank had changed the logic so quickly that even she was forced to answer the question before she could destroy him.

Silently she stared at him
and Frank knew that within that artificial entity lay the power to burn his human nervous system to a crisp. He waited, staring at her enraged neon eyes. And then he spoke.

“
Rachel ... what is the final purpose of life?”

Rachel didn't answer.

“Three minutes until detonation ...”

* * *