The first thing that Finn noticed was a change in the glow.
They were on a PSU high on the face of one of the tallest server towers three-quarters of the way across the hall, letting the raft charge for as long as possible in the hope that the next hop would be their last.
Stubbs checked the power in the raft by touching a wet finger to a terminal and judging the resulting shock. “Ourughuh!”
“Ready?” asked Kelly.
“Aye-aye, Capt’n,” said Stubbs.
“Shut up, Stubbs,” said Kelly and started untying the raft.
Then Finn saw it. “Look,” he said, pointing back towards the core. The cluster, usually ghostly blue, seemed to be condensing and becoming brighter. At the same time the bots seemed to be orbiting faster.
“What is it?” asked Finn.
“I don’t know, but it looks like trouble. Let’s go,” said Kelly.
They cast off and Stubbs hit the outboard.
As they rose above the top of the server, Finn looked back. The cluster was starting to turn like a planet on its own axis and the noise was returning –
zssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszssszszzsss …
zssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsszssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszssszszzsss …
Baptiste felt every thump of his heart.
He could no longer see. They were in his eyes. He had to let them lead him, blind.
The bots had separated him from the twins and Carla, and he was now being escorted into the Shen Yu, frog-marched, by ten thousand bots. They covered every inch of him, thousands of needles pressing and probing, but never penetrating. If he slowed for a moment he felt resistance, felt them push him on.
He felt pressure ripple down the left side of his body: he was being turned.
He gave himself to them, and to the noise.
zssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszszssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszssszsz …
The raft hung high in the Shen Yu Hall less than two macro metres from their goal, but Finn was fixed on events behind them.
At the centre of the quantum computer the cluster was an intense glowing ball of orange and blue light, revolving, its surface rippling and reforming like the boiling surface of a star.
Finn felt a sense of momentum – a sense of something unstoppable. Bots whizzed around in a frantic dance.
zsssssooou! zsssssooou! zsssssooou!
Finn ducked as three bots screamed past. If they’d collided, the raft would be splinters.
“We need to land! This is crazy!” shouted Kelly above the noise.
With no concession to comfort or power management, Stubbs angled the outboard thruster and maxed it out to propel them into a dive towards the top of the glass control booth, their landing ground, their carrier deck. If he got the angle right, they’d slide home. If he got it wrong, they’d slam into the vertical face of the glass.
Finn crouched and gripped the cable-tie planks. The raft rattled like hell – more toboggan run than flight – buffeted by the air stirred by the bots and the fans of 3,000 cooler units.
He could see the edge of the glass fast approaching. “PULL UP!” he screamed back.
Stubbs, a gargoyle of determination, yelled, “HOLD FAST!” and drove the outboard thruster down hard while yanking up the resistor lever.
The front of the raft flipped up almost vertical – Finn clinging desperately to the prow – before it flopped to settle nicely on the horizontal top of the control booth.
Before Finn could speak again or release his grip, he heard Kelly say, “What the …?”
Finn turned.
zssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsszssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsss …
There was the core. The glowing cluster above it. And beyond was a man. Or rather, a hundred thousand bots in the form of a man … glowing orange and staggering forward … a monster …
KAPCOMM.>>QUERY>>SEE MY SON, ASK OF MY SON. WHAT IS THE WORD/?
EVE.>>QUERY>>WHAT IS THE WORD/?
“Say ‘Kaparis’,” Kaparis ordered Baptiste.
He was on the edge of his iron lung with excitement, Grandma thought. She looked at Li-Jun. If Tyros could weep, she looked as if she would.
zssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsszssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsssz …
Baptiste could barely breathe such was the pressure of the bots.
“Say ‘Kaparis’!” demanded the voice of his master through the audio device embedded behind his ear.
Baptiste took a mighty breath and yelled, “KAPARIS!”
KAPCOMM.>>QUERY>>ASK OF MY SON. WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF KAPARIS/?
EVE.>>QUERY>>WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF KAPARIS/?
“ONE!” Baptiste shouted.
EVE. saw the son and heard the word and knew the number, and thought: “I have found The Answer to The Question. The Answer is Kaparis.”
zssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsszssssszssszsssssszssszszzssszssssszssszsssz …
Finn heard the yell, then watched the glowing monster. The cluster seemed to expand. Bots slowed their mad orbit and started leaping and chasing like dolphins.
“I think something weird’s happening,” said Finn.
“Set up the gun!” snapped Kelly who, with Stubbs, was shaping and placing a charge of C4 plastic explosive against the glass top.
Finn grabbed the heavy Minimi, hit the catch to release the tripod and lay flat on the glass, with the butt on his shoulder, looking down the sight.
The glowing man, the abominable digital snowman, was changing and distorting as the bots fled from him … and a more familiar form emerged.
“Uh-oh,” said Finn. “I know this one!”
“Fire in the hold!” yelled Kelly, hurrying away from where he’d placed the C4 charge.
BOOM!
KAPCOMM.>>EVE.>> – YOU ARE UNDER ATTACK FROM ENEMY = RED ARMY: SECTORS 2-9. DEFEND. PROTECT EVE. PROTECT KAPARIS’S SON AND DAUGHTERS (3) – LOCATION 12DSA76/39GHHH84. ATTACK RED ARMY.
EVE.>>ALLBOTS ORDER>>DEFEND ALLBOTS. DEFEND EVE. DEFEND KAPARIS’S SON AND DAUGHTERS (3) – LOCATION 12DSA76/39GHHH84. >>ATTACK INCOMING >>RED ARMY – LOCATIONS RED ARMY: SECTORS 2-9 …
Baptiste blinked and breathed free air as fifty thousand bots released him. His eyes adjusted to the light and he beheld the sight of the cluster. He was momentarily overwhelmed with sensations of awe no Tyro could understand, but, with no soul to connect to, they just as quickly died.
“You’re under attack by the Red Army!” said the voice in his ear. “Get to the others!”
Baptiste ran out, following a starlit stream of nano-bots pouring out of the hall.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The shots were so loud above her, Carla tried to press herself into the floor.
BANG!
They had emerged from the stinking drains and taken cover in the lobby of the nearest building. When she’d seen the soldiers she’d tried to cry out but Scar and Spike had forced her down and started firing, silver automatic pistols massive in their hands.
BANG! BANG!
Carla felt the terrible force of returned fire tear through the reception desk above her. “I must survive, I must live …” she told herself, over and over.
Then, from somewhere outside, she began to hear the screams of men.
She realised the firing had stopped and heard Scar gasp. Was she hit? Carla told herself not to look up. But she had to.
And suddenly the night air was full of the most extraordinary golden sparkles.
“All Red Army units coming under bot attack!” Bo translated as he listened carefully to the headset feeds from his platoon commanders.
They could hear screaming over the soldiers’ radio feeds.
Bo’s face was pure steel. “Casualties,” he reported.
Delta watched the infrared outline of her little sister crouched at the centre of it all, until the drone sending them the images was attacked and destroyed too.
“Fall back to prepared positions!” ordered Bo.
“They’re retreating, Master.”
“Good … You have done well, Li Jun.”
Grandma watched her. She seemed to give the smallest sad shiver. It was all Grandma needed.
Proof there was a girl in there somewhere.
“Now let us hunt our escaped prisoners down,” said Kaparis.