Scarlet Angel (27 page)

The screen next to the door flashed red with white
letters: “Unauthorized.”

“
Um, Dax?”

“
Yeah, I know. Just a
sec.”

The screen flashed again.

“
Da-ax!”

“
Yes, I know, dammit!”

Scarlett walked back down the hall and peeked around
the corner again.

“
Son of a bitch, it’s...
wait.”

She felt the gun along her back. “We’re running out
of time here Dax.”

“
I just need...”

The screen flashed red again, then changed to
green.

“
Got it!”

Wary of other guards, Scarlett stepped backwards and
pulled on the door handle. The door swung open easily. She pulled
the unconscious guard into the room and let it close.

The screen inside changed from green to red.

Dax leaned back and wiped his brow. “That was
close.”

“
Yeah, let’s not do that again.”
She shoved the guard against the wall beside the door and stretched
her back.

“
Right. If that third time hadn’t
worked, there’d be alarms going off all over the place.”

Scarlett looked to her left and right. “Then let’s
really not do that again.” She turned around to look at the rest of
the room.

Inside the door was a room walled in glass. Doors at
either end lead to a cavernous space with thirty-foot high
ceilings. The far wall was more than fifty yards away.

Two rows of three massive columns reached from the
floor to the ceiling. At eight feet thick, each was covered in
reflective metal panels, crosshatched bars of light, and dozens of
cooling vents.

Scarlett whistled.

Dax leaned forward, putting his face close to the
camera.
“Those are the data cores. One of those is your target
and contains the Hermes data.”

“
Excellent. Let’s get to
work.”

Chapter 41
Intruder

Despite the massive arsenals warriors and soldiers
acquire, for all their deadly skills and impenetrable armors, they
can always be felled by a softened heart.

* * *

Goosebumps formed on Scarlett’s arms as she stepped
out of the small glass entry room and into the main data core
chamber. A dozen air processors hung from the ceiling, filling the
room with ice-cold air and a soft roar. The air they produced was
fresh but left a flat taste on her tongue.

Six massive pylons rose from the floor to the
ceiling, their surfaces gleaming with polished steel and
criss-crossed bars of blue light. “How much storage does each one
of these hold?”

Dax leaned forward, his face growing larger in the
small square in Scarlett’s ARD. “Wow.”

She scanned the room for any researchers working
late but the room was clear. “Dax?”

“
Hmm? Oh, sorry. I just never
thought I’d be this close to one of these.”

Scarlett smirked. “You’re not.”

“
Huh? Oh, well... I just mean...”
Dax forced a cough. “Anyway, the actual data storage is somewhere
around a couple exabytes. But these machines are so much more than
giant hard drives. Each one is capable of simulating a virtual city
down to the molecular level.”

“
Ah.”

“
I mean, with just one of these, I
could brute-force attack my way into any security system on the
planet in under ten seconds.”

“
So how do I know which one has
the Hermes data?” She walked down from the small landing onto the
main floor. To her left and right sat two computer terminals linked
to the first two data cores. Her ARD highlighted the individual
pylons and the terminals but provided no helpful
information.

“
That’s the tricky part.” Dax
leaned back and started typing. “There’s no real way except to
check them one by one.”

“
Then let’s get started.” She
stepped up to the console to her left.

“
NO! Wait, don’t.” He reached out
toward the webcam.

Scarlett froze, her hand an inch from the touch
screen interface.

“
Okay. We want to make sure we
don’t trip any alarms that could lock the whole place
down.”

She pulled her hand back slowly. “Alright.”

“
Now, with one finger just touch
the screen to wake the system up, but don’t do anything
else.”

Scarlett held up one finger in front of her face for
Dax to see. With a deliberate motion, she touched the screen’s
surface and pulled her hand away. The display came to life,
displaying a handprint login screen.

“
Good, now use the—”

She held up the nanocloth.

“
Yes, the nanocloth.”

Scarlett draped the cloth over the touch screen and
stepped back. Her gaze darted from shadow to shadow. Logic told her
the room was safe and secure. It was the calm and quiet that
unnerved her. She walked around the pylon Dax worked on but found
nothing.

“
Dax, what’s the
situation?”

“
I, uh... It’ll take a second.
Almost got this one.”

Her eyes darted back and forth. “No, I mean are
there any alarms or anything? Any alerts that I can’t hear in this
room?”

“
Nope, all’s clear. Why? Something
wrong?”

Scarlett shook her head. “Just a feeling. We need to
move on.”

“
Alright then. I’m in, and... no.
It’s not at this station. Let’s move to the next one.”

At the next station she repeated the process and
waited. She stood next to the pylon and tapped her foot to whatever
music Dax was listening to.

Motion near the entrance caught her attention. She
looked up just in time to see three data core engineers in white
clean-room suits file into the entry chamber, oblivious to the
unconscious guard she left propped up next to the door.

Six armed guards followed right behind the
engineers. The second guard looked down and saw the body. His head
snapped up. He shouted something and the other guards raised their
weapons.

Scarlett stepped back into the shadow. “Shit! Dax,
gotta move. Now. I’ve got company.”

“
What!?” Dax’s eyes snapped to the
webcam. “But... I have no record of Derrick coming planetside.
Maybe they’re here for something else.”

“
Doesn’t matter. Just focus and
get the data.” She pulled her plasma pistol and readied herself to
take out the last guard.

“
Okay, just a second.”

The guards secured the entrance to the data room
while the engineers backed out. After the last engineer left,
another man in a dark grey suit walked in. Scarlett’s breath caught
in her chest; she felt as if someone had punched her in the
gut.

The suited man was like a lion stalking its prey;
every step was calculated and intentional. In spite of his
corporate appearance, he was as deadly as ever. “Neil,” she
whispered.

“
Scar, go to the next one.” Dax
stared directly into his webcam.

Her eyes locked on Neil’s face. She didn’t hear Dax.
She didn’t see the one of the guards point and draw his weapon.
Neil was all that mattered.

Neil reacted when she couldn’t. His gaze followed
the guard’s finger right to her. He shoved the guard’s gun down,
his mouth opened in a wordless scream.

A shot pierced the hum of the fans. The guards
turned to Neil, their faces twisted in anger and confusion. Neil
pointed to the data core pylons and screamed something else. The
guard yanked his arms free and holstered his gun.

“
Fuck!” Scarlett grabbed the
nanocloth and fired three shots. The bolts of charged plasma shot
out from the end of her weapon, slammed into the glass wall and
exploded. She bolted to the next data core.

Shouts of panic and screams of pain echoed in the
core chamber. Neil’s voice rang out above the others. “Find her! I
want her alive.”

“
You have to get outta there,” Dax
yelled.

She edged her way around the pylon and draped the
nanocloth over the touchscreen. “Not without the data.”

Scarlett leaned out from behind the pylon and fired
two shots as cover fire. “Besides, there’s only one exit.” Two of
the guards were missing.

She stepped back and pressed herself against the
cool metal. A boot scuffed the floor to her right. She turned and
ducked just as a guard’s steel baton struck where her head had
been. Scarlett rose up and punched the guard in the stomach with
her gun, squeezing off a round.

The guard’s back exploded. He fell to the floor,
already dead.

“
It’s here. Downloading
now.”

Behind her, two more guards with batons sprinted
toward her. She spun around and dropped the first one. The second
guard ducked to the side.

“
Just a few more
seconds.”

An engineer tried to sneak up from the side. He
reached for the nanocloth and Scarlett blew his hand away. He
stumbled back, screaming.

Another guard appeared behind her, already swinging
his weapon. Scarlett stepped inside his attack and caught his wrist
in her armpit. She slammed her forehead into the bridge of his nose
and kicked him away.

Scarlett swung around to pistol-whip her next
opponent when her wrist stopped in midair. She looked up to see
Neil’s hand gripping her arm.

His eyes locked onto hers. The world around them
froze. Memories of the care and affection those eyes held floated
to the surface of her mind.

“
Hello Scarlett.” Neil’s voice was
as flat and emotionless as his gaze.

Scarlett’s heart broke. From the corner of her eye,
she saw the fist coming at her. She knew she could have dodged it;
she could have fought back. But something inside her refused to
move.

Stars exploded across her vision. Her glasses flew
from her face and skittered across the floor. Scarlett collapsed.
She pushed herself up onto one elbow and fought to stay
conscious.

It was a losing battle. Darkness crept in at the
edges of everything. The voices of Neil and his remaining guards
began to echo and fall away.

She held on to Neil’s voice as she slipped into
blackness. “Yes, Mr. Martins. We had an intruder in the data core
but it’s taken care of. In fact, I have an interesting present for
you. Yessir. We’ll see you shortly.”

Chapter 42
Trouble

Sometimes our best intentions cause more harm than
good.

* * *

Scarlett was in trouble, and Dax knew it. One second
he was guiding her through the Universal Dynamics data core, and
the next her audio and video feeds were gone. Now that she was
facing off against Neil, she needed Dax’s help more than ever.
First, he had to deal with his own situation.

Dax sat for a long moment, staring at the lifeless
array of computer screens. The only light illuminating his saferoom
were the stark-white emergency fixtures on the wall behind him.
Only a few minutes had passed since the room locked down, but the
air was already starting to taste stale.

The attack was unexpected. Dax had opened a complete
access port through Scarlett’s nanocloth so he could hack the
individual data core systems. He’d never imagined that gateway
would be used to hack his own system.

Now everything was dead, including him, if he didn’t
find a way out. The problem was, there wasn’t one. The door was
sealed airtight, the air processors were dead and there was no
electricity. He was trapped.

Dax shoved his chair back and stood. “I’m smart, I
can figure this out.” He stormed over to the door and examined the
cracks and seams.

He scanned the room, looking for something he could
use for leverage. “I mean, I built this place, right? I should be
able to break out.” Only silence answered him.

From the shelf nearby, he grabbed a circuit board
from an old computer. He wedged it into the tiny space between the
door and the wall and pushed. The door refused to move.

Dax leaned against the board. He squeezed his eyes
shut and pushed harder. Something shifted and he felt movement. Bit
by bit he inched until... the board snapped.

He fell forward, his head bouncing off the wall.
Above, half of the circuit board was still wedged in the crack. The
door had not moved.

He rubbed his forehead.
Of course the door didn’t
move. I specifically chose a door that could not be pried
open.

He thought about taking the shelf apart and using
one of the support pieces. They were flat and made of metal. But he
knew it wouldn’t matter. There was no way to open the door without
power, and he had no power.

For the first time, Dax found himself in a situation
he could not talk or hack his way out of.

“
This is it.” he stared at his
Fortress of Solitude. The shelf to his right held enough food and
water to last for several days. But without air, he would suffocate
in less than a day. He’d designed his saferoom to be impenetrable.
No way in. No way out.

He picked up the shard of broken circuit board and
stared at it. His frustration flashed into rage. He threw the board
across the room.

Dax leaned back against the cold, metal wall and
cried.

* * *

Jules’s heart raced. She felt like she was watching
the summer’s top blockbuster movie and stopped right at the climax.
The problem was, this was real.

Panic started to build in the back of her mind. She
popped the plastic back off her commpad and took out the battery.
She turned it over a few times in her hand. It was still warm. She
was pretty sure it was not the problem. “C’mon, c’mon…”

The rooftop gravel crunched under her feet. She
looked up at the starless expanse of black. A breeze sent a chill
through her and she pulled her coat on tighter.