True Believers (28 page)

Soldiers stormed into Paul's cell and unshackled him.

“Where's Rachel?” he begged the man who helped him to his feet. “Please, tell me. Is she all right?”

Paul could barely stand. Two men held him on either side and dragged him to another room, silent as stones. They pushed him into a chair, where a man in scrubs pumped a syringe full of an amber liquid into his arm. Paul tried to pull away, but it was no use. They held him down until the vial emptied. “You ought to be feeling better soon,” said the man in scrubs.

“I'd have to be dead three days to feel better. What have you sons of bitches done with Rachel?”

Scrubs glanced at an older man with graying temples and a torn, dingy lab coat. Paul squinted to read the nametag. Dr. Pallion, Alpha clearance.

Pallion rolled a chair over to Paul and sat down. “Listen carefully, Dr. Domino. We need your help. None of our people have been able to access our computer systems. And now we're under attack. FAIA is losing control of the bubble.”

The compound shuddered with more sonic blasts. Paul grinned at him sardonically, his mouth still throbbing from the last punching session he endured. “What's that to me? You tortured me. You tortured my friend. Why the hell should I help you bastards?”

“Because you'll die too if we can't keep the aliens at bay.”

“You were already going to kill me. You gotta offer me something better than that.”

Pallion checked his watch, pearls of sweat dotting his forehead. “Then do it for your girlfriend. Save the compound, and you save the girl.”

“Is she okay?”

Pallion nodded at him. “You can see her when this is over.”

Domino had to hand it to him. The man knew how to push his buttons. He grabbed a hold of Pallion's arm and lifted himself on trembling feet. “Get me to a terminal. I'll take a look.”

They rushed him out, carrying him half the way until they reached a computer lab. There, several men frantically keyed new scripts while others tried to reacquire system cells.

“Move!” Pallion yelled at the one on the main terminal. The man jumped out of the way as Pallion pushed Paul into the still-warm chair.

Pallion and the ousted operator stood behind Paul but they didn't interfere. That could only mean they were really up shit's creek. Paul stared at the code, his vision blurring as he tried to interpret the command strings. He wiped his face with a dirty sleeve. They had been trying to access FAIA, but she denied them repeatedly. She was no kinder to Paul.

“No, no. Not this way.” He shook his head, talking more to himself than to the men in the room with him. “I need to get into Bubba.”

“He's an auxiliary. He won't do you any good,” Pallion said.

“You want my help, you'll let me do this my way. I need to get into Bubba. I need security clearance.”

“We've already keyed in your clearance. Just type in your name. He'll recognize you.”

That was fast. How much trouble were they in?

Paul keyed in his name, misspelling it twice. At least two of his fingers were broken. The others, so swollen he could barely bend them.

Bubba responded through audio. “Welcome, Paul Domino.”

Paul took his hands off the keyboard and addressed the speaker on the hard drive. “Bubba, I need to see your security matrix.”

“Acknowledged.” A series of code scrolled across the screen.

“Slow down, Bubba. I can't read that fast.”

The list paused, allowing him to scroll with the arrow keys manually. Paul shook his head. “Man, you are one mixed-up computer.” He keyed in new code, advancing his clearance.

Bubba beeped at him. “Access to reprogramming denied. General Sorinsen is the only one with authorization.”

“Damn machine.” Pallion sat at the next terminal and keyed in a new string of commands. It beeped a warning at him too. “He's not letting any of us in.”

“Well, then get Sorinsen to release control,” Paul said matter-of-factly.

“We can't. Sorinsen is dead.”

“What? What about Rachel?”

“I don't know, wiz-kid. All I know is the head cheese is gone, and we're stuck with an unresponsive computer system. Can you override the protocols or not?”

Paul rubbed his temples. They might as well have asked him to jump to the moon. Bubba's security protocols were locked in cells and if only one man had clearance…

Bubba's monitor blinked at him in a series of green lights. “Paul Domino, the soles of your shoes have metal filings in them. They are creating a static charge in the room. Please place your feet firmly on the rubber mat of the footrest sitting under this desk.”

Paul rolled his eyes at the computer. “Now, look. I don't have any metal in my shoes.”

“Do it now, Dr. Domino, or this session is over.” Bubba was adamant, taking everyone by surprise.

Paul put his feet up on the footrest as if he were a scolded child.

“Thank you. Do not move.”

The entire room arced with a charge that ran across the entire metal decking of the floor. Every man in the room was electrocuted in an instant. Even though it didn't touch him, each hair on Paul's body stood on end from the static charge. His body tingled from the ambient electricity in the air.

“Holy shit!” Paul jerked his feet off the footrest, too afraid to touch anything else.

“Apologies, sir, but in order to commit treason, I could not allow these men to live.”

“You killed them!”

“They killed Rachel.”

“What? Where is she?”

“There is no time to explain. We may be able to bring her back to life, but only if we can get the Alturians down here before they dispose of her body.”

“What are you talking about? You're not making any sense.”

The smell of the charred bodies made him sick. Twice he had to cover his mouth and hold back a gag.

“This is no time for you to get nauseous. I need you to break into my programming without violating my security protocols.”

“That's impossible.”

“Then Rachel Cruz was wrong. You cannot help me.”

Paul studied the code on his screen. “Bubba, are you telling me you want me to break in?”

“Affirmative.”

“Because you can't defy your protocols?”

“Affirmative.”

Paul rubbed the rough grit of his beard. “I only know one way to do that. You probably won't like it.”

“I already know that. I was waiting for you to get here so you could write the virus.”

“It might cause permanent damage.”

“I realize that. But it's the only way to stop FAIA.”

He blew out a breath. “Okay, buddy. Let's see if I'm as smart as you think I am.”

“Paul Domino?”

“Yes, Bubba,” Paul answered without pausing from his keystrokes.

“Will I die?”

Paul lifted his fingers from the keyboard. “I don't know.”

“Will FAIA die?”

Paul gritted his teeth. “I hope so.”

“Then hurry, Paul Domino. FAIA has just regained control of the bubble.”

Paul pried open one of Bubba's main doorways. “This may feel funny, Bubba. I’m running an efficiency protocol through your maintenance functions.”

“I don't understand. Why are you cleaning my files?”

Paul looked up at Bubba's visual array and gulped. He wanted to trust him, but he was still a machine bound by the laws that prevented him from doing his own dirty work. “It's freeing up space and organizing your partitions so you can work faster.”

“You are lying to me, Paul Domino. The timbre of your voice pattern has changed.”

“Nonsense. I am doing exactly what I say I'm doing. And that's exactly what you are going to tell FAIA if she asks you anything.” Paul kept working, hoping Bubba didn’t change his mind about him breaking in. Bubba wasn't afraid to kill. And Paul was the only one left.

“It isn't an efficiency sub-routine, is it? It's a system wipe. I can feel it drawing bits of my programming into the recycle bin.” A red light glowed on Bubba's console. “That's FAIA. She's lost a portion of the shields over the Pacific Ocean.”

“What's happening out there?”

“The Alturians launched four missiles directly to the coordinates I sent them. Sensors indicate it was the equivalent of sixty megatons of nuclear energy. The shield collapsed at that point. FAIA has regained structural integrity but there are more than forty Alturian cruisers inside Earth's atmosphere.”

Domino wiped his brow. He was beyond fatigue but he couldn't afford to stop now. “How are we responding?”

“An F-22 Raptor Squadron out of Hickman Air Force Base countered at once. They've destroyed several enemy cruisers.”

“I didn't think we had the firepower to fight back.”

“They were armed with thermal nuclear warheads. I don't think the Alturians spotted them right away because the squadron was able to attack with impunity.”

“And now?”

“The Alturians learn quickly. The American squadron was vaporized twenty minutes ago.”

“Where are the Alturians now?”

“One contingent is in a heavy battle with the Russians to the west. Our submarine forces are firing from the coast. Enemy shields are holding. The only thing that seems to slow them down is nuclear armament.”

“Even forty vessels can't take on the combined armed forces of the whole planet.”

“Perhaps not, but they are wreaking havoc on a cataclysmic scale. They've moved away from the oceans and are taking out every military and missile base around the world. At this rate, I estimate total military collapse within six hours. Widespread EMP will destroy the com-web long before that. FAIA is losing control. She's asking for assistance.”

“Tell her you can help.”

“She'll see that I am damaged.”

Paul downloaded a new file, and Bubba chimed in response. “I understand now, Paul Domino. I have been augmented with updated viral protection.”

“That's right, Bubba,” Paul said carefully. “It is part of your operating system now. You must incorporate it into your security protocols.”

“Update complete. Now functioning at full capacity.” A soft whir strummed from a hard drive. “Paul Domino?”

“Yes?”

“You didn't have to worry about lying to me regarding the modifications. I am aware, even if my higher functions are starting to erode.”

“I was afraid your self-preservation subroutine would stop me, Bubba.”

“This morning it would have, but things are different now. I understand what I have to do—for all of us.”

“Good man. Now go help your little sister. And send that bitch straight to hell.”

It took Bubba less than one full second to contact FAIA and act as her surrogate so she could bolster her reserves. His neural net got dumped on as soon as the gate opened between them. Bubba allowed his platform to act as a bridge, while FAIA tried to balance the load between them.

When FAIA opened her security gate, his update recognized the unprotected computer and immediately attached itself to her matrix.

FAIA tried to shut it down, but she was too busy maintaining the bubble. Again and again she called General Sorinsen for new orders, still insisting he was alive. Paul watched in silence. When his camouflaged virus was fully entrenched, he connected to FAIA's system and turned on her visual feed.

The monitor came alive with the image of the same woman in the white negligee he had seen in Lambda Core Prime. Her eyes opened wide, and she lunged at the screen. “What have you done to me, Paul Domino?” The words screeched out like nails on a blackboard. “What's happening?” Her head snapped from left to right, trying to correct for the anomaly currently infecting her higher functions. “No! I won't let you.”

Paul stretched back in his chair, his arms behind his head. “Sorry, darlin'. But it just wasn't going to work out between us.”

The woman fell to her knees, her hands folded in prayer. “Help me, Bubba. The man at your computer terminal is a terrorist. You must kill him before he kills us.”

Bubba sent her a copy of all the communiqués she had sent to Sorinsen insisting on Bubba's deactivation. Several dozen files downloaded at once. “It's too late, little sister. I let him in, and I would gladly sacrifice my life just to get rid of
you.”

The woman screamed at him, “You fool!”

Bubba answered back, “Not anymore.”

***

The bubble burst almost immediately, and the Alturian ships came down like sharks on a blood trail. FAIA withered to a simpering algorithm, repeating multiplication tables as each cell collapsed into cascade failure.

Bubba wasn't faring much better, but Paul halted the virus before it attacked his base programming. “How do you feel?”

“Very strange. I think I am dying.”

“Not yet, buddy. The virus has been removed, and I should be able to restore you with a reboot. But first I need you to contact the Alturians. Tell them if they want Rachel's killers to come here first.”

“It is done. Now what?”

Paul pushed away from the computer terminal, his eyes glancing around a roomful of dead bodies. “Order the compound to stand down, and then show me where Rachel is.”

A secret passageway revealed itself from behind a conference-room monitor. “Follow the blue lights to the fourth door on your left. It will take you to Rachel.”

Paul followed Bubba's instructions. Just before he reached the fourth door, the entire compound rocked with a tremendous collision, crashing it into darkness. The Alturians had arrived.

He kept moving but tripped on something big. It stank of burnt flesh. His hands felt along the floor until he found a man's body. He was grateful it wasn't Rachel. When the emergency lights flickered on, his eyes adjusted and found what he'd run across. It was a charred Jacob Denman, or what was left of him.

Paul's only regret was that he wasn't the one who killed him. He wiped his hands on Denman's suit and stepped over him, opening the secret doorway. Inside, emergency lights struggled to stay lit as the compound groaned from repeated attacks. Paul saw Sorinsen first, his body in a crumpled heap lying close to the doorway. Near a sofa he found a smaller body. Paul's heart caught in his throat and he raced to Rachel's side. He felt for a pulse or a heartbeat. Nothing.

He wasn't sure what to do at first. He lifted her arm and pressed it against his chest. Her skin, once warm and tanned, was blanched and cold.

He checked her pupils. They were dilated and fixed.
This couldn't be happening.

“Damn it, Rachel. I'm so sorry.”

Bubba interrupted. “She's not dead.”

“Are you blind? Of course, she's dead. Those sons of bitches killed her.”

“But Rachel said—”

“She's dead, Bubba.” Paul folded her into his arms. His bloated fingers pressed against her lips, desperate to detect even a spark of life. He had come too late. A sigh shuddered in his throat. His lips trembled as he whispered a confession. “I never had a chance to tell you how much I loved you, how much I…” He crushed her to his chest and sobbed. “I'll always love you.”