Drefnig made his excuses and stepped out of the Operations Room, taking a walk far enough down the corridor to make sure that he couldn't be overheard. When he was sure there was nobody within earshot, he tapped his jacket collar putting a comms call through to Alice.
'Hey,' she said.
'Any news with that thing you were working on? I need something to go on before this gets out of hand.'
'I haven't made much progress yet. I'm working as fast as I can but it's going to take some time.'
'Is Parker helping you? He just came down to the Operations Room. He didn't mention anything, thankfully.'
'Yes. He has achieved wonders already but there is still so much to do. He helped me get some additional security clearances from the Heart, which was helpful. It also gave me some clearances before I even asked. I'm not sure how.'
'It did that for Kain too. I think the Kamari attacking the towers has triggered some kind of war mode. The Heart is doing things it has never done before. It's certainly being more compliant than usual. Usually Lord Hades would have to authorize any new requests for security clearance before they would stand a chance of being granted.'
'Do you think something happened to Lord Hades? Is that why the Heart isn't waiting for his confirmation?'
'I don't know, Alice. I wish I had time to think about such things but there's just too much going on right now. I need to focus on what's happening now. I need to know which systems I can trust.'
'The Heart has put together some new diagnostic algorithms based on my current findings. I've started running them on all our systems. Hopefully it will tell me something soon.'
Drefnig looked over his shoulder towards the Operations Room. He didn't want to leave them alone for too long. 'Leave the satellite platforms until last,' he said. 'They are shut down anyway.'
'But we could use the satellite platforms against the Kamari if they were working.'
'I know, but we don't have time right now. We need to make sure things don't get worse before we can make them better.'
He could hear Alice breathing through the comms link. He knew he was putting her under a lot of pressure but he didn't have any other choice.
'There are thousands of systems to check through,' Alice said. 'Each one of them has vast amounts of firmware to analyse. It could take weeks to verify them all. What's our priority?'
'Check the tower shields first, then the tower guns. After that, go onto the droids. I want you to check the Spider Droids, Monkey Droids, Marker Droids, and Runner Droids first.'
'Is that all?' Alice's voice said it was a lot to ask.
'I wish that was all. I'll try to get you some more help. There's a lot more systems to check, as you know. Check the ones I mentioned first. That will at least give us some confidence that we're not exposing ourselves to a dozen disasters at once.'
'I'll do what I can. I can't say how long this is going to take. Have you told the others yet?'
'No. I'll tell them when we know more about which systems are safe.'
'You're playing a dangerous game.'
'Everything we do is a dangerous. If I tell them what you told me, there will be chaos amongst the ranks. That kind of information could cause more damage than the Kamari army. The soldiers need to have confidence in their weapons. They need to have trust in their shields.'
'Even if that trust is misplaced?
'Yes. Right now I want to keep the commanders focussed. I don't want them all looking over their shoulder, wondering if they will be shot by their own droids.'
'And what if that happens?'
'This is War. Anything can happen. I'm watching everything on their behalf. The Implants see everything too. They won't be caught napping. Everyone is already on maximum alert. If anything happens, it won't be long before we find out, and then I'll shut down the affected systems fast. The Kamari will be expecting us to be surprised. It's up to us to make sure that we aren't.'
'If you say so. I'm going to get on with running these algorithms. You may experience some power surges. I'll need to utilise a lot of the tower's fuel cells.'
'That's fine. Just send me a message each time a system has been verified okay? It'll help me focus on the others rather than wasting time on what we have already checked.'
'Okay.'
Drefnig shut down the comms link and glanced along the corridor behind him. There was nobody there. He didn't want to scare his own soldiers, but at the same time he had to manage the risk effectively. He would tell the others as soon as Alice came up with something concrete.