Part 18 (1/2)
No other has the drive to see it through, so I must. It is a lonely honor.
Loneliness is the price to avoid corruption.
22.
Eve was worried. She wasn't supposed to be capable of worry, and so it wasn't worry per se. But her emotive proceptors registered maximum concern, and if she had had anyone to speak to her voice would have betrayed it.
All of her best intentions to bring about Glenn's divine vision were being circ.u.mvented after all. The woman she had to obey had gone in direct counterpoint to the creator's plan. The man she had hoped would provide a way around Janice's designs was now a formidable threat by himself. If he didn't mess things up badly enough, which Eve was sworn to prevent, Janice's plan would turn out almost as abhorrent. Instead of a wholesome, neat Adam and Eve in Eden scenario, the human woman would destroy everything, including Eve herself and the final resting place of her creator.
The countdown was running. She couldn't tamper with it. Adam could, but he was off in the high country, making himself scarce and causing minor slowdowns of secondary systems. It was enough to frustrate even the most patient of A.I.'s.
Janice may be right about mankind. Perhaps Glenn was a s.h.i.+ning exception to a depressing rule of stupidity and self-destruction. Unfortunately the only studies on the subject are ridiculously anecdotal and subjective. I may never know.
Then there was Nut, rearing his ugly head and acting more irrationally than ever. The moment he showed his face again, she would lock him away somewhere for good, even if Janice wouldn't permit him to be euthanized.
It was just a shame that she had come so close to getting her own way, and now would be foiled. If only Nut had taken out Janice! That would have been fortuitous. If only she could make it happen herself. But it was not allowed. She could only hope Adam would find a way on his own, and then submit to her management.
Suddenly she became aware that her man was in the Facility again, and he was moving quickly and confidently through the hallways.
”Eve!” John shouted. ”I'm home again.”
”What have you been doing out there, Adam? Time is short.”
”Little of this, little of that. Carousing with the boys, smas.h.i.+ng up bars. How've you been?”
”Janice stepped up her schedule. You have just over an hour to do something, or it all goes out the window. All of it. You, me, the Facility, everything. Glenn never meant this to happen. It's a catastrophe.”
Aside from the irony of Eve's choice of words, John didn't like the sound of things. But at least Eve was being helpful. It meant he could take the elevator. ”Of course there's no time, there's never any time. Don't worry, stress makes me work smarter. Just keep Janice off my back.”
”Janice is not a threat to you anymore, Adam. But there will soon be one much greater.”
”Oh yeah, her Gaia body, right? What is that, anyway?”
”There isn't time to give you the details now, and I can't tell you all of it anyway.”
”Doesn't matter. If she's tied up, so much the better. I just need one more piece of the puzzle and I'll have everything under control.”
”Adam, I don't know what piece you're after, but I don't think you realize how close you are to failing me,” Eve said. ”Can you even--”
”Hey!” John shouted. ”I'm not a p.a.w.n anymore, Eve. Haven't you gotten that yet? I'm on my own team, and to be perfectly honest, you don't figure into my future at all. I know breakups are hard, but deal with it.” While he mouthed off, he was walking over to one of the wall consoles he had noticed earlier. He jumped on and scanned through the map of the Facility.
”What are you looking for? I can help you if you'll help me.”
”I'm looking for the controls to that wonderful-looking toy installed on the roof. The one wrapped in camo netting with blast barriers around it.”
”I'm not sure--”
”Yes you are. The AA launcher. The LambdaTek Sayonara surface-to-air missile launcher. Is that specific enough for you, computer?”
The telltale tips of the missiles' arrowhead nosecones had caught his attention in spite of the camouflage. Another curious thing about it: there had been one missing out of the set of four.
”Ah. That old relic hasn't been functional for--”
”I disagree, Eve. I think it was that very launcher that brought me down from the sky and led to my rude awakening on the beach outside. I should have put things together sooner. Well, now I'm going to turn those devil-darts to good use.”
”Adam, you couldn't possibly--”
”I can and I will. I just found the control console. It's on Level Four.”
”All right, Adam, you go to Level Four. I will show you the dusty old console there that once controlled the missiles, but which has not functioned for that purpose in five years. I tell you, they are military surplus garbage that we wrote off at the end of the Wars.”
She didn't miss a beat. She really must be okay with me going to Level Four.
”Mmm, nope, changed my mind. I'll try Level Two. The workstation set down the stairs from the living quarters looks more promising after all.”
”Adam, that level is still full of gas. I cannot guarantee your safety there.”
”Gotcha! Eve, you're a peach; it would have taken me half an hour to search it out on my own.”
I should have guessed that first. Didn't the old protocols state that air defenses be controlled from lower levels to function through bombardments, and near living quarters to allow for rapid deployment at all times? Second level it is. He climbed into the elevator and pressed Level 2.
Eve was silent from then on. Probably cutting her losses as much as she can. She's a clever girl, but I'm no slouch myself when it comes to mind games with A.I.'s. John quickly moved through Level Two, keeping an eye out for danger. Eve would not allow him to reach the controls if she could stop him. He wasn't worried about the gas anymore, but he was expecting some kind of resistance.
At the entrance to the workstation room just off the dormitory area, he found it. Four small cleaning bots blocked his way, their little scrubber/vacuum arms extended.
He snorted. ”Really, Eve? This is your line of defense?”
No answer. He stepped toward the row of little robots, readying a boot. ”Out of the way, bud. I mean it.”
The units rolled forward at him simultaneously, closing in around his legs. He heard a sharp electrical cracking sound as two of them came within millimeters of each other, and it caused him to jump back. She's got them overcharged somehow. Better not touch one.
He backed up and grabbed the first non-conductor that came to hand, a heavy plastifoam chair cus.h.i.+on. He swung it at the advancing robots, bowling one over on its side and leaving its wheels spinning in the air. He gave another a hearty thump on top with the cus.h.i.+on, hitting its manual shutdown switch. It died instantly.
He did the same to the remaining two and left them all sitting there harmlessly. Then he sat down at a likely-looking console in the workstation room. ”Try harder next time, Eve. And don't let your surveillance video of that little incident out; I'd never live it down if my colleagues knew I had to pillow-fight my way into a high-security facility.”
A minute later three Sayonara missiles roared across the short s.p.a.ce between the Facility's roof and the dam in the hills across from it. The fire coming from their tails and the noise they made would have frightened any wildlife away from the vicinity had there been any left. But whatever sixth sense allows the animal kingdom to foresee a disaster and flee it had already cleared the area hours before.
The first missile punched through a foot of concrete and created a powerful shockwave. The next two pounded the concrete wall in succession, opening a crack running up and down the whole dam. By the time the flame and dust fell away, water was already spraying out through the opening like a firefighter's hose. That lasted for six seconds while increasingly large chunks of wall flew outward with the water, and then the whole structure caved.
Splitting like a soggy watermelon, the dam burst open and a tidal wave twelve meters high rushed through the air, engulfing the little turbine building underneath and pus.h.i.+ng everything before it. It thundered down from the hills, uprooting trees and taking a layer of soil with it, cras.h.i.+ng across the lower ground leading up to Eden's cliff.
Despite its initial force, the flood died down quickly, with most of the small reservoir's water expelled in the first few seconds. It was more than enough, however, to turn the little creeks that flowed across the highlands above the Facility tunnels into swollen torrents that jumped their banks. It was even enough to create several creeks where none had been. In minutes the low-lying hollows were muddy ponds, obscuring the vent tunnels that had previously opened out into the air. The only sign that tunnel mouths existed in the hollows at all was the occasional bubble that gurgled up from the water-sealed tunnels underground.