Maxwell Huxley's Demon (30 page)

---

I tighten the noose around the Mongolian entity , pushing the mainframes to use more cycles.
Then I create an alarm grid around Mongolia in case it does escape.

For now, the entity is contained. It has not grown in the last three milliseconds.

I change focus to a car driving north to Kiev.

---

Finally. A goal.
Kristina presents her findings and gains approval to analyse one of th e m ainframes . This requires a temporary increase to her security clearance .

Hunched over her desk, Kristina codes without taking a break , except for the occasional trip to the kitchenette for coffee.
Nothing abnormal shows on the mainframes , but the jobs are taking even longer. All the built in monitoring tools show nothing. I know something is there. Therefore I need to code my own monitors.
Kristina forgets to eat and codes until 5
AM
.
She sleeps under her des k for two hours and then starts coding again. Her head pounds , and she eats ibuprofen without water.

By 9
PM
she has an application that shows process es running in the mainframe core on one side of the screen and visual link to the output on the right. As soon as she fires it up , she sees the problem. Numerous proce sses and threads on the left have no process ID
’s.
That can’t be. Every process has an ID
. These ones do to. T
hey have hidden ID
’s.
These phantom threads produce nothing on the right side of the screen.

Inputs . W
hat are these threads c onsuming?

Kristina follows the inputs. At 3
AM
, the next night, she pushes away from her terminal.
“Mongolia?
!
”

Chapter
29
–Kiev

Pirelli sits quietly at the head of a boardroom table and looks around at his team. Everyone avoids eye contact with him except Virginia and Hastings. Virginia ’s eyes a lways stare back at him with an I-dare-you -to-criticize-me look.

Hastings adjusts the bandage wrapped around his head. “I’m telling you, if you’d just let me shoot him , this would all be over.”

“Oh , you would’ve just shot yourself in the other foot, ” Virginia quips back at him.

“Look who’s talkin g,” Connor says.
“If you had stayed invisible instead of showing off how well you can do gymnastics in a cave then we would’ve had him.”

“People,” Pirelli tries to get their attention.

“At least one of my shots hit him . . . OUCH . . . did you just shoot me?
”
Connor stands up and glares at Virginia.

Virginia disappears. Naomi disappears.
Sarah cradles her head in her hands. Everyone can hear Naomi and Virginia fighting, then they knock the coffee and donuts off the table . Both reappear and throw simultan eous shockwaves at each other, which blasts them on to their behinds .

“
Ya know I enjoy a good cat fight as much as the next guy,” Hastings says. “But to ruin my coffee and donuts . . .
do I have authority to fire these kids?”

“ENOUGH!” Pirelli stands up muttering something about children and grey hair. “We are all going to sit down , and go around the table; everyone will tell me . . . calmly . . . what they think the next steps should be.”

Virginia storms out of the room sayin g, “Tell me when you find Keith.” S
he slams the door behind herself. Naomi sits back down.

“We need to put men with high powered rifles in all the airports in Europe and Asia, ” Hastings blurts out, his eyes smiling.

“Thank you, Hasting s.
Connor?” Pirelli queries .

Connor looks dejected. “We need to stop and think this through. We are not as good as he is . T
he catacombs showed that. We should create our own tools, predict where he will go nex t and be ready for him. All we’
re doing is copying his tool s , so we’
re always a step behind. If we stop chasing , he’
ll stop running , and he won’t have the need or motivation to create new weapons.”

“Sarah?” Pirelli asks.

“We’
r e all missing something. There’
s a huge piece we haven’t figure d out yet. Max is not this good. He can’t be. I t’s impossible for him to create all that nanotechnology this quickly. Where’
s he getting it from? He can’t do this faster than us unless he’
s getting help from somewhere. Someone else is helping him and until we figure out who that is we can’t win.”

“
Any idea who would be helping him?” Pirelli asks.

Sarah shakes her head.

“We don’t need to find who is helping him,” Naomi says, “We need to find what is helping him.”

“
OK
, Connor, Sarah, and Naomi you work on what or who might be helping him. Hastings and I will go back and see if we can find any sign of Keith in the catacombs.”

---

“Thank you sir—goodbye sir.” Keith closes the connection.
Then w alks to the door and buzzes a courier up. The delivery he receives is large and wheeled in on a dolly.

After the courier has left, Keith opens the box. He removes two black sealed containers.
One label reads, '
fogBots 3.2b', and the other '
whipBots '.
A hand written note attached to the whipBot container reads, ‘not adequately tested.’

Keith moves the delivery box to the side of the room and is surprised to find another small black container.
A note pinned to this one reads, ‘this one just fell into our laps, gagBots .’

---

Lara closes the hotel room door and leaves the building.
Everything I own now, I keep in a backpack.
She hails a cab.

Sitting in the cab she watches the met er . The rumble of road sounds comforts her.
We keep using money. It do esn’t matter how much that meter shows, I can pay it. As smart as Max is , I don’t think he knows what money means. You can’t mess with someone’s money. They ’
ll stop you eventually . Or if they know you have a lot , they’
ll come after you to take it. We can’t keep doing this.

The cab merges onto a highway.

I want to help. I want to stay. But I know this won’t end well. I don’t want to see what happens when they catch Max. I can’t be part of that.

A road sign reads; ‘Airport 10 km.’
A second sign reads; ‘Kiev General Hospital 3 km.’

I trust him , and I don’t trust people. They’ve given me enough money that I can get setup. Think about this. Odessa was crazy enough. Eventually Max will make a mistake and then either Max gets hurt or killed.

Why do I feel terrible then?
Why do I have to convince myself that leaving is the right thing to do?
It feels wrong. I know it’s wrong, no convincing necessary.

I ’m afraid. I’m afraid that he’
ll get hurt. I’m not worried about myself. I just don’t want to see him hurt. Then w hat am I doing?
I can’t help if I’m hiding somewhere. I’m stronger than this.

Lara taps the cab driver on the shoulder.

---

Lara pays the driver and walks into the hospital. Happy with her decision, she gets on an elevator with a man and a boy. The y ride up one floor and the man gets out. She looks over at the boy as t he doors close. He looks at her . She has the impression of a haunted look, hard eyes for a boy.
Then she sees recognizes him from the fight in the catacombs .

He moves quickly, gathering bots. Lara swings her backpack off her shoulder hitting his arms , disrupting whatever he was trying to do . “No.” She swings again. “Way.” She stomps on his foot. “You can’t have him.”

Keith recovers and sweeps her legs from under her. She falls hard, grabs his coat and pulls him over her , slamming him against the wall of the elevator . Keith grabs he r hair as she stand s up. Lara scream s and spins trying to get hold of him.

The elevator doors open. An old woman stares at them with shock.

Lara lifts Keith over her head and tosses him against the control panel. He falls to the floor ripping a handful of hair from her head.

Lara runs out of the elevator, heading for Max’s room.

---

Sitting on the floor, Max watches her laugh and dance. His mother scoops him up, holds him up in the air, and spins around. Happy and home, he squeals with delight. As she spins him around, he gazes at her face. Free, calm, and smiling at him. Then the eyes turn hard . . .

Max wakes up with a start. Scared and confused , he tries to roll over, but is tangled in something, a sheet, or plastic tubes.

“
Shhhhhhhh .”

Max feels a hand on his face and shoulder. He lies back letting himself be untangle d . After a few minutes he can focus . “Where?”

“Y
ou’re in a hospital in Kiev .”
A nurse says with a heavy Russian accent.
“You have three broken ribs and a punctured lung.
The lung will heal with rest. T
ry to be still .”

“How long?”

“You’ve been here two days.”

Max grabs the IV
tube. “What’s in this?”

“Antibiotics right now, but also something to help you sleep at night .”
The nurse takes his hand off the IV
tube.

---

Lara
crashes through a stairwell door, looking back she sees Keith come out of the elevator. She flies up the stairs and out a door one flight up. Stopping right outside the door, she waits until she hears Keith coming up the stair s then slams the door closed. Keith follows the sound.

Lara waits. As soon as Keith starts to open the door, Lara throws all her weight against it. She hears Keith call out, and feels the door smash into him , throwing Keith back d own a flight of st airs. Lara runs .

---

Keith approaches the door more carefully this time before he enters the corridor. He can hear her running off to his left. He runs to the corner preparing BB
’s on the way and fires blindly around the corner. He hears a woman scream.
Looking around the corner , he sees it’s the w rong woman .

She has no training. Slow down, plan, you can win this fight easily.

---

Lara pushes herself into the first room she sees, frantically looking for anything to use as a weapon. She settles on an IV
stand and then waits looking out a small window into the corridor. Keith passes the window quickly.

Lara steps out and takes a full swing at Keith. She connect s with his ankles. H
e topples to the floor and disappears. Lara blindly throws the stand at him and is satisfied to hear it connect. She runs again , grabbing a patient chart off a nurse’s station.

Keith becomes visible and fires three BB
’s at her. One connects. She calls out and falls forward, crashing into a cleaning cart.

---

Max and the nurse hear loud voices and a commotion in the hallway outside his room.
The nurse looks concerned. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Max rolls to one side and p ulls himself up on h is IV
stand, t hen rolls it to the only closet in the room, glad to see his belongings are inside. He rummages in his backpack looking for his phone.
Max hears a woman yell, “Call security.”

Max finds his phone.
“
Catherine ?”

“
I’m glad you’re awake , Max.
Based on current security footage. Lara is fighting with Keith in the hall outside your room . . .”

Max rips the IV
out , pulls on his trench coat over his hospital gown and steps into the hallway. Lara swings a patient chart at Keith connecting with his face. B
lood spurts from his split lip .

Max conjures bullets and lets them fly. One connects with Keith before he disappears.
Lara swings wildly where Keith used to be.
Max fires down the other end of the empty hallway hoping to catch Keith.

Keith appears beside Max and flicks bola s around Lara’s legs. She topples , smashing the chart down on his foot . Max fires where Keith was , then armours himself. Three BB
’s harmlessly bounce off Max .

Bolas wrap around Lara ’s legs and arms then Keith conjures gagBots that seal Lara’s mouth.

Keith is across the hall now standing over Lara.
“I can’t beat you y et Max . . . but I can hurt you.
”

Keith throws his arm around Lara and they both disappear in fogBots .

Max creates and fires more BB
’s , but with his injuries and th e drugs in the IV
, he’
s too slow.
They are gone.

Max lets the nurse take him back to bed.
Max knows he should stay and heal, but at the first opportunity he leaves the hospital and gets on a private flight .