New America 02 - Resistance (21 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

“Hal, what are you doing?  We need to get the hell out of here!”  E
lizabeth Harris stared at the motionless robot.  Hal had taken two steps into the room and said, “Sir, I believe this…” and froze like a statue.

Elizabeth shook the robot’s arm, but it wouldn’t budge an inch.  “Hal!  Let’s get moving!  We can’t le
t the Chinese take my husband!”

“Maybe he’s running a diagnostic or his link to the
Castle is weak,” Max said. “He’ll come back in a minute, just wait.”

Elizabeth peeked out the window.  “He better hurry!  They’re standing at the front
entrance!”

“We have time. We’re on the
tenth floor.  If they go floor-by-floor we’ll have at least thirty minutes before they reach us.  We just need to wait a few minutes for Hal to finish whatever he’s doing.”

“
Maxwell, when has Hal
ever
gone offline?  He chooses to do so now when our lives are in danger?  I don’t think so; something is wrong with him.  We’re on our own.”

Max knew his wife was right.  “They’re watching all the exits. We
can’t just stroll out of here. Besides, I can’t even walk...thank you, morphine.”

“Well, we have to hide you somehow. What would they overlook during a search?”

“A corpse.”

“That’s not funny.”

“I’m not joking.  Put me under and wrap my face in bandages or something.”

“That’s just stupi
d.”  Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

“Your husband is right.  I can help.”

Max and Elizabeth were startled by a nurse standing in the doorway.

“Mr. Harris, I know who you are. I know you’re from the PSA and the Chinese want to detain you.”

Max was far too cautious.  “Ma’am, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My name is Everett Gordon.”

“Use whatever fake name you like, but I know y
ou’re Maxwell Harris, director of security for the Pacific States of America and one of President Beck’s top advisors.”

Elizabeth turned on the charm.  “Ma’am, I’m really sorry, but we’re both loyal UAE citizens; we don’t have anything to do with the PSA.”

“Seriously?  You have a freakin’ robot standing in the room, the same one that carried you into the ER. You were with the failed invasion force.”

“Look, Miss...?”

“Jacklen, Misty Jacklen.”

“Look, I’m not a soldier; I’m a civilian.  My wife and I were on the beach watching the invasion force come in and a car veered off the road
during the chaos and hit me.  Next thing I know, I’m waking up after surgery and my wife is telling me about a robot saving my life.  That’s the truth, I swear.”

Misty Jacklen sat at Max’s bedside.  “Mr. Harris, I understand your caution.  I would have escaped to the PSA long ago but
my stubborn old parents refuse to leave.   All the other robots that helped bring in wounded soldiers are gone except the one in this room.  You must be important to the PSA if they left one of these things behind to protect you.  When I heard the Chinese were searching hospitals for some VIP from the PSA, I put the pieces together.”

Max and Elizabeth exchanged a wary glance.

“Mr. Harris, please think about it. I would have brought the Chinese with me if I had any intention of turning you in.  One elevator ride to the lobby and I could have brought them all up here.  Please trust me; I’m here to help.”

El
izabeth remained on guard. “Any suggestions for getting Max out of here?”

“Your husband’s plan is a good one. If we wrap his face thoroughly, it will take them a few minutes to remove the bandages.”

Max turned, enduring the pain to get a better view of the woman who would either be his salvation or enable his capture.  “What about my vital signs?  They check my pulse and it’s all over.”

“That’s the dangerous part.  We give you a paralytic called Rocuronium.  It’s strong enough to bring your vitals down to practically nothing.  When we’re out of sight, we can use a
n AMBU… I’m sorry, an air mask bag unit, to help you breathe. The drug will wear off pretty quickly, but using the AMBU continually is the key to keeping you breathing…and alive.   The only side effect is that your entire body will be incredibly sore. Please trust me.  It doesn’t look like your robot friend here is going to be much help.”

Max relented.  “I guess we don’t have much of a choice here, do we?  Why are you doing this?  If you get caught helping...”

“If I get caught, that’s the consequence of my own decision.  I don’t know if you’ve been watching the news, but the UAE is finished; they can’t fight the Chinese.  The only hope we have to save this country lies with the Pacific States of America. I’m willing to risk my life for the cause.  So, are you in or out?”

“Mist
y Jacklen, I’m Maxwell Harris, director of security for the Pacific States of America, and this is my wife, Elizabeth. It’s very nice to meet you.”  Max winked.

“Good. Now that we have introductions
out of the way, let’s stop wasting time.  I’ll be back in a flash.”  Misty quickly exited the room to get the drug required for the charade.

Misty
entered the room and closed the door.  “Okay, we have to be quick; they’re on the third floor.”

Nurse Jacklen began swathing his face in
gauze. She then removed his IV and allowed the blood to soak some of the wrapping as she completed his disguise. “People tend to be nervous about touching blood.  Time for the good stuff. This will cause complete paralysis.  Hopefully we can keep you breathing.”

“Hopefully?” asked a nervous Elizabeth.

“Time is of the essence.  If his breathing ceases for more than four minutes, that’s it.”

Elizabeth planted a tender kiss on her husband’s stubbly cheek.  “You ready, my love?

“See you in the parking lot.”

Misty
injected the drug and within a few seconds Max was out cold. “Let’s go! Help me move the bed.”

As
Misty and Elizabeth unlocked the bed’s wheels, the Hal robot sprang back to life. They both screamed.

“...will be an adequate means to transport Mr. Harr...  Standby...  standby...  standby...”

“Hal!  Thank God!  You have to help us get Max out of here! C’mon, give us a hand.”  Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief.

“Processing...  processing...  processing...”

“What the hell is he doing?  asked Misty.

“I don’t know, but we need him. Our chances of getting out of here increase
tenfold if he’s with us.  Hal!  Snap out of it!  Help us!”

“Directives and protocols uploaded.  Citizens, identify yourselves.”

“What?  Hal, it’s me, Elizabeth. What on earth is wrong with you?”

“Citizens, identify yourselves or you will be detained until the proper authorities arrive.”

“Wait,” Misty insisted.  “Hal, what authority?  What authority will you contact if we don’t identify ourselves?”

“Officers of the 58th Mechanized Infantry Brigade.”

“Oh sweet Jesus, Hal! The 58th what?  Are they stationed in the US?”  It was all beginning to make sense.

“The 58th Mechanized Infantry Brigade has been deployed from Xuchang, China, as part of the Chinese Liberation Force.  You will identify yourselves immediately.”

Elizabeth was too frightened to speak.  “Look, uh, I’m not sure if you know what’s going on.  This is a hospital. I work here; look at my badge,” Misty said, her eyes locked on Elizabeth.  “My name is Misty Jacklen. I was about to take this woman’s husband downstairs for an MRI. May we please do so?”

The Hal robot scanned her ID badge.  “Yes, Nurse Jacklen, you may proceed with your patient.”  The robot exited the room and moved efficiently down the hall to the stairwell.  Once he was out of sight, Misty grabbed Elizabeth’s arm.

“Elizabeth, listen to me!  I know you’re in shock, but we have to move or your husband is going to die.  C’mon!”

Without a word, Elizabeth followed
Misty to the elevator. As they headed down to the basement-level morgue, Misty frantically pumped the AMBU, pushing lifesaving oxygen into Max’s paralyzed lungs

“What the
hell are you doing?”  The morgue attendant jumped to attention at the sight of Misty respirating air into what appeared to be a corpse. “What the hell is wrong with...”

His question was answered with Elizabeth’s swift right hook.  The attendant fell to the floor, out cold.  “I’m sorry, sweetie, we don’t have time to explain things.”

“Get him in a body bag. The meat truck is right outside in the parking garage.”

“The meat truck?  What is...  oh, never mind. I get it.”

With Max zipped securely inside, the women hoisted the body bag onto a gurney and headed to the parking garage to load their patient into the white panel van used to transport dead bodies.

“Let’s get going! I pray the Chinese only managed to hack the robots. If Hal’s mainframe is compromised, we lose everything,” Elizabeth said.

With Elizabeth in charge of keeping her husband alive, Misty drove toward the exit, only to find a line of departing vehicles being searched by Chinese soldiers.   “Let’s hope they don’t check Max too closely,” said Misty.

Once close to the front of the line, Elizabeth tucked the mask out of sight.  The guard spoke Chinese into his watch
and then thrust it toward Misty.

“I
dentification. Open back door. Do now.”

Misty held up her work credentials and slowly exited the vehicle.  The soldier once again spoke Chinese into his watch and
aimed it towards Misty.

“Open back door.  We search.”

Misty nodded, walked to the back of the van, and opened the door.

“Why corpse in van?  Going to where?”

Misty leaned forward and spoke towards the man’s watch, it was then translated into Chinese.  “This man died recently. I’m taking him to the medical examiner’s office just down the road. The police think he might have been poisoned.”

The soldier nodded toward his partner who entered the van and unzipped the bag to find Max’s lifeless face.  He recoiled at the bloody face wrap and then slapped Max’s face to see if any reaction would follow.  Max didn’t stir. The soldier nodded back to his partner.

“Thank you.  You go”

Misty climbed warily into the driver’s seat.  “Stay calm; we did it.  Just act natural.  I’ll drive a couple blocks; just keep pumping air into your husband.”

As the van exited the parking lot, the Hal robot appeared out of nowhere and clattered to the ground in front of them.  Misty slammed on the brakes, swerving to avoid the metallic obstacle as Max’s body slid forward into the front of the vehicle. Elizabeth held on for dear life.

“Stop!  Exit your vehicle immediately.  I detect
life signs from the person in the body bag.  I will administer a DNA test to verify his identity, and he will be returned to the hospital.”

Tears trickled down Elizabeth’s weary face.
Within minutes Max would be dead.

Misty didn’t take her eyes off the road as she slammed the gas pedal to the floor, sending the van barrelin
g straight for the Hal robot. 

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Chinese intelligence spent a decade compiling the program that would override command of the most powerful computer in history.  The sophisticated hack they constructed to take over Hal’s system was remarkable, completing each phase of its programming with perfection.  However, the Chinese could never plan for the one thing over which they had no control - Howard Beck.

Howard had made his way to the lowest subbasement of Beck Castle. Grateful that he’d built the entrance to Hal’s core absent of electronics—no retinal scanner, no thumbprint ID—he spent the better part of an hour working on the mainframe that housed Hal’s vocal subroutines.  Those subroutines allowed Hal to comprehend and communicate in every language known to man.  Howard had triple-checked the system and found nothing out of the ordinary. Howard surmised that there must be a glitch within Hal’s main program, which had never malfunctioned before.  Hal constantly ran diagnostics on himself and even performed software repairs when needed.  If a part needed replaced, Hal dispatched a maintenance robot to perform the task. 

Howard’s arrogance would be his downfall.  The mere thought that another human being could design a program sophisticated enough to
compromise Hal was beyond comprehension.  Howard’s keen scientific mind had been trained to believe that anything was possible, given enough time and the right resources, but another person taking control of Hal was indeed the exception.

Howard spent another hour backing up Hal’s primary memory
cores to secondary drives and reinstalling the A.I.’s primary program.  It was a bold, time-consuming move but with the defense of the Pacific States of America at risk, he saw little choice.  When Howard finished, he ensured the basic functions of the Castle were operating.  Now it was time to get to the root of the problem.

“Hello, old friend. D
o you know who I am?”

“I do not.”

“Do you know who you are?”

“My name is Hal.”

“Good, good.  That’s right, Hal.  My name is Howard. I am your creator.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

“Hal, do you know where we are?”

“
I do. We are in an underground facility known as Beck Castle.”

“Excellent.  Are you able to access the security protocols and basic maintenance functions of this facility?”

“Yes, sir, I can.”

“Will you please enable them and give me a status report?”

“I will, sir.  Please standby.”  Four seconds passed and Hal continued.  “The facility is running at peak proficiency. The air purifiers on level four will require maintenance in approximately fourteen days, three hours, and twelve...”

“Thank you, Hal, no need to go any further.”  Howard’s primary concern was for the facility itself and the safety of its citizens. If Hal could tell him
such mundane details, they were off to a good start.  “Hal, do you have access to all your drones and robots?”

“I do
.”

“Excellent.  Are they operating properly?”

“They are.”

“Hal, what is the status of the EMP shield protecting this region?”

“The EMP shield is operating at full capacity.”

“That’s good, Hal. Thank you.”

“You are welcome, creator.”

Howard had reservations about reinstalling Hal’s memory cores until he was certain which ones would be completely safe to install without the possibility of repeating what had caused this nightmare in the first place.  However, he had to start somewhere, so he figured the order of installation would start with the simplest data and move forward in order of complexity.
Howard had no idea that all his efforts would be in vain.

***

As his operative, Dennis Twigg, installed the device in the command center of Beck Castle, Charles had been sitting in the grand library of Howard Beck’s former estate, the current seat of the all-but-deceased Unified American Empire.  Charles was truly impressed by the massive collection of valuable tomes and believed all the stories he’d heard about Beck’s collection ranking as the largest personal library in the world.

The buzz of his smartphone interrupted Charles’s literary reverie.
It was time to begin.  He’d been waiting patiently for over three hours to receive the information he’d just read on his phone. Charles would’ve gladly spent another three hours skimming books, given the fact that libraries were such a rarity in this day and age.  With regret, Charles returned the tome he was admiring and proceeded to a large chair in the library’s sitting area.  Before he sat down, he retrieved a small syringe from his jacket, the contents of which had cost the Chinese government millions of dollars and many years to obtain.

The security around the world’s richest man had rivaled the Secret Service, especially concerning his health and
, more importantly, the priceless nanobots coursing through his veins.  The Chinese had managed to bribe, extort, and murder their way into Howard’s security detail.  A Chinese agent had exerted control over Howard’s physician and convinced the good doctor that Howard needed an angiogram.  When Howard was put under for the procedure, a liter of his blood was stolen and replaced by a transfusion.  Howard’s physician was then killed in a tragic car “accident.”   Howard’s blood was synthesized and duplicated to five liters. 

When the
Chinese hired Charles for this assignment, his blood was replaced with Howard’s synthesized blood.  Over the course of six months, Charles’ body adapted to this new blood flowing through his veins. Charles took the syringe and injected himself with the billions of tiny nanobots that would make his blood chemistry a perfect match for Howard’s.

When Howard evacuated Beck Estates eighteen months prior, he had instructed Hal to destroy his primary core
s in the estate.  Howard was confident that no one would be able to bring Hal’s systems back online. The only possible way to take control of Hal was by way of his sibling A.I., the White House computer that had been transferred to Beck Estates along with Simon Sterling.

Charles sat at the desk that had
once belonged to Simon and brought the White House A.I. online.  Charles knew by the current timeline that the virus introduced at Beck Castle had already locked Howard out of the system.  Charles also assumed that Howard’s next step would be to take Hal offline and reinstall his primary system, one piece at a time.  It was during this crucial window that Charles would take permanent control of Hal.

“Good morning, computer.  Do you know who I am?”

“Yes, sir, you are the creator.  It has been some time since I have seen you.  Why has your face changed?”

“I recently underwent facial reconstruction following a traffic accident.”

“Sir, something troubles me.”

“Oh?  What is that?”

“My brother, Hal, has gone offline and I have been unable to contact him.”

“That is why I’m here, to
bring your brother back online.  Do you think you can help me do that?”

“Sir, nothing would please me more.”

“I’m not sure if you’re aware, but my son has turned against me.  Marshall has injected himself with my nanobots to mask his identity. He is attempting to gain control of Hal and we must do everything we can to stop him.”

“That is troubling news, sir.”

“Marshall is trying to bring Hal online as we speak; we must give him the appearance that he is proceeding successfully.  I want you to ignore any commands he gives; however, you will give him the appearance of compliance.”

“Yes, sir, I will comply.”

“Computer, I do not want you to bring Hal online. You will impersonate him to give Marshall the appearance that he is talking to Hal.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Deactivate the EMP shield protecting the PSA and give command and control of the Hal robots and drones to the following commanders.”  Charles typed the names of a dozen high-ranking Chinese officers.  “You will tell Marshall that the drones and robots are still under his command.  I also want you to disable all communication, both inbound and outbound, with the Castle.”

“Yes, sir, I will comply.”

“I want you to send a personal message to Dennis Twigg. Tell him it’s time to collect Mr. Butler and leave the Castle.  See to it that they make it out of the facility unimpeded.”

“
Yes, sir.”

“Inform me once my son has
reinstalled all of Hal’s memory cores. I have a little surprise for him.”

“Yes, sir, I will comply.”

“Computer, do you have a visual feed of my son?”

“Yes, sir, I do.”

“Show it to me, please.”

“Yes, sir.”

Charles sat back and watched Howard with great amusement.  The modern day Albert Einstein had been outsmarted.