The Pattern Ship (The Pattern Universe) (22 page)

Pod had detected the look in Zeke’s eyes when he told him about using the contaminated Alacite, but Zeke didn’t know that the contamination had effected Pod in more than just increased power and speed. Something in the mutated alloy had bonded Pod to Zeke. It was why Pod referred to Zeke as its Maker, because to Pod, he was.

If Zeke demanded of Pod to reduce itself back to a ‘three’ it probably would, such was the strength of the bond.

That was why Pod had decided this information should be buried unless specifically requested. It was quickly comprehending one of the first rules of sentience. The need for self preservation.

***

Without the mass of Secret Service agents that used to surround the President the whole effect of arriving anywhere had toned down to an almost non-event in the last few years as the confidence in the shield technology meant that everyone was safe, even from an automatic round fired at point blank range.

There had been some instances where a shield kept too close to the body had, under fire, caused bruising. These instances were extremely rare and most people who incurred them were happy that was all they had suffered.

The Agents no longer had to be prepared to ‘stop a bullet’ for the President, although the possibility still existed in the event of catastrophic shield failure.

So when President Garner arrived in Washington it was a low key event even as he headed for the White House. Garner got to stay there tonight as he feted the outgoing staff and loyal followers. Ginny was alongside him in the limousine, looking beautiful as they stepped out to applause and cheers from the party members, staff and friends.

All of the senators were here, it was a time for celebration. Many of them had ridden in on his ticket and had done well as a result. They had much to thank Garner for so they would be generous this night, if none other. He knew that tomorrow they would be welcoming the new President in and it would all begin again, but without him.

His good friend Jefferson was right there to help him out and led the applause as he stepped up the elegant steps back into the White House. Garner smiled and waved at everyone, pleased to be back if only for a fond farewell. He had missed the power and splendour. He would not miss its intrigue and plotting.

The party was well received and despite the concerns about the next morning Garner managed to appear relaxed and happy. He looked around his friends and wondered which one of them was going to be the one that stabbed him come morning. He thought he knew a little of how Caesar must have felt before Brutus pressed home the blade.

Most, if not all were wearing their personal shields, scaled down to the minimum so that it didn’t cause unnecessary jostling within the confined space. The deluxe versions could pattern the skin so closely that you felt only a slight tension as you went to shake hands. Any threat detected in body chemical changes or unusual pheromone activity would put the shield on alert and ready to protect its wearer. As a result there were very few secret service people in evidence, or indeed, necessary.

Garner thought hard about taking his friend JJ aside and warning him about the threat, but he respected Zeke and held fast to their plan knowing that all contingencies if not taken care of, were at least anticipated. Tomorrow they would know who was, and who wasn’t and hopefully they would manage to deal with the attempted coup bloodlessly.

His Personal Aide from the newly forming Space Council was the last to leave. Thursday, the day after tomorrow, he officially took up his position as interim President of the Representatives of the Global Space Council. He felt the challenge was worthy of his effort. He hoped fervently that he would live through tomorrow so that he could be there.

He had confidence in Zeke and the Artificially Intelligent companion called Pod.

Strange relationship that one! Garner noted absently that Pod seemed attached to Zeke, and the feeling appeared to be reciprocated. He wondered if Zeke was aware of the bond forming there, he doubted it. Garner had come to terms with having a conversation with a computer, but it still made him feel like he was dealing with one of his reptilian Senators such was the intelligence and awareness of these machines.

He thought more about Zeke Callaghan. The man never seemed to be looking out for himself and most of the time was seemingly unaware of the respect he had earned in the halls of power this last five years while gathering nothing for himself. Never seeking fame and popularity; he nevertheless received it everywhere while remaining blissfully ignorant.

Garner had noticed that the Pod was becoming more aware. He hadn’t said anything to Zeke when the A.I. began acting pro-actively the other night, but it had come as a complete surprise to Zeke, he noted. There was definitely something happening. Still, that’s for another day he thought. First there was tomorrow.

***

WEDNESDAY 07:00hrs..

Sergeant Mendez of unit Delta knew his orders.

He was absolutely clear on what his team had to achieve. He led his small four man team down the dark tunnel. As expected, he met no resistance.

They were underground, at a secret location but outside the City’s shield where there was no current threat level. So, whilst the shields were up, they were at the lowest setting. Traffic could enter and exit, provided it was using the correct access sequences codes.

He needed to be on station by 07:45hrs. They had plenty of time.

All around the city of Washington, other small teams were carrying out parallel tasks. They all had one single objective. When the shields failed they were to ensure they could not be reset. Their mandate was to kill as few as necessary. The intention was to remove the senior management, but leave the workforce intact.

He had no ruck with the civilians, or even the small military attachment that would be on hand. If they shot first, he would take them out. He was easy about it. A good soldier followed the orders of his Commanding Officer. His was to take and hold Shield Station No.8. The security teams inside had no idea their personal shields would fail at the same time. They would be unable to reset them and were therefore at risk. Whereas his team’s shields were secure.

After travelling through dimly lit corridors for just over thirty minutes, Mendez judged they were approximately five minutes from objective A, the external shield, when suddenly everything went black. He couldn’t see a thing.

Mendez stopped dead. He was confused because there was nothing he was aware of down here that could detect them. Yet, it was instantly pitch black and it wasn’t just that the lights had gone out, it had just gone deadly black. The absence of any light at all was suddenly terrifying.

He lost his bearings, so assuming his men were in front of him, he called out quietly to them ordering them to a halt.

When he got no answer, he fumbled for his torch. Switching it on he pointed it to where his men should have been waiting for him. Nothing! They weren’t there.

What he saw was empty space, lots of empty space and rocks, there were all types of rock.

Switching the torch from one angle to another changing the from left to right all he could see were a lot of those things you read about in Geographic magazines; stalagmites and stalactites were literally everywhere.

Just out of reach from his torch beam he detected a roof above him, perhaps several hundred feet up.

He pressed his mike against his throat, “Delta One to Delta Team, come in.”

Nothing, no answer not even static. He repeated his command across the airwaves, but got no reply.

He was now totally lost.

He decided to Swing back the way he had come he wondering how he had turned off the wrong way while his team had obviously continued onward.

He was still walking back when he heard a shot. It echoed around the cave.

He couldn’t detect the direction of origin.

Al he could tell was it was coming from a long way from him and it sounded like a rifle.

He switched off his torch and waited for some directional indication.

When he heard no more shots he felt disinclined to try shooting himself. Instead, he decided he was totally lost so sat down to wait for further noises to direct him to the rest of his Unit.

He was baffled, there were no access points to caves on his plans....

***

WEDNESDAY 07:55hrs

The Supervisor at Shield Station No. 8 detected the moment when the shields went down.

They just dropped leaving the generators humming excitedly with power with no outlet to expend it on.

He called out to the Engineers that were even now running to their stations.

“We have Shields down!” he shouted excitedly.

He pressed the alarm next to the control panel he maintained. The haunting klaxon reverberated through the underground tunnel network bringing the guard detail to full alert, their personal shields switched to full on and glowed in the dark, reflecting the red flashing light of the Alarm. Then suddenly they went off too and the soldiers instead of forming their guard positions stood around taking their shield emitters out trying to turn them off and on again to reset. They must have worked, for within another few minutes, they all resumed their previous activities.

Taking station at both entrance and exit to the tunnel, they fanned out and prepared for intruders. No other reason could be given for a shield drop like that. It only occurred on over-ride or fail and the power generators were still on-line, so somebody had hit the over-ride codes. They had no warning of any tests or exercises so could only surmise it was not a drill, and so the Squad leader acted accordingly.

The supervisor was on the phone talking to Central Command.

“No, there was no warning!”

“Yes, the power is still running.”

“No, there had been no blips in output.”

“What? All other stations are having the same issues?”

“Yes, we will power down and reset all shields.”

“Time to completion approximately fifteen minutes.”

He frantically waved to the engineers giving them the signal to reboot the shield generators. As they carried out his orders so the generators, one by one, whined down in pitch until eventually with a deep groan they stopped. The silence after many hours of their pitched whine was thunderous. His ears rang.

The additional crew of support Engineers arrived. Running passed the armed guard, they put themselves onto the free stations taking command of their respective modules and within thirty seconds all the checks were done and the command was given to restart the generators.

One by one, they burst back into life and began building up speed to enable them to generate the power needed.

It would take a while to emit sufficient force to create the fields necessary to enable the shield to expand over the city once more. They prayed that in the meantime no calamity had beset the city from whatever had forced the shields to disarm. They would know soon enough, they decided.

The Supervisor was on the phone again.

“Yes, they are coming back up on-line.”

“Another five minutes before shields could activate.”

“No, there had been no enemy contact.”

“Yes, all defence forces were deployed.”

“No, its understood this is not a drill.”

“Yessir, seal the entrances.”

He gestured to the guards to close the doors.

“No we cannot hear any fighting.”

“What! There are aircraft and helicopters over the White House?”

“I understand, do not let the shields fail again.”

“No, I have no idea what codes were used.”

“They could use them again? Bloody Norah!”

“Yessir! we will continue to repeat as required.”

The Supervisor put down the phone, gestured to the Sergeant in charge of the guards.

“Nobody in, nobody out! Its a hostile environment out there. Shoot to Kill, that’s the order.”

“Aye aye, Mr Clegg. No worries we have all exits sealed and locked down.” He smiled reassuringly as the klaxon finally got switched off.

The silence suddenly creating an absence of panic and Engineers looked around warily startled at the sudden quiet.

As the shield became active the Supervisor waited anxiously for the other stations to come on-line. If just one failed they could plug the hole, if two failed they would have holes, more than that they might as well go home.

‘Eight’, ‘Nine’, ‘Eleven’, ‘Twelve’, ‘Fourteen’...

There was a loud cheer when the last one came on-line and the shield went to full strength causing the generators to heave as they felt the strain, then drop back as the load balanced out between the fourteen sets of generators.

Washington was safe again.

It was up to topside to deal with any threat that had already entered the city.

***

WEDNESDAY 08:00hrs..

The President stood looking out the window when the thunder of jets overflying the White House made the windows rattle. It was followed up immediately with helicopters and gunships in attendance. All of them faced inwards towards the White House lawn.

Garner sighed. So, they had failed. The coup was under way. He prepared himself for what was to come.

Knowing now that he wouldn’t get to see his dreams fulfilled he wished only that the Space Council could have had a chance to come into being. He stood by his desk awaiting his fate. He had no idea who was going to be walking into his office. He just knew the first person through the door would be the one who had betrayed him.

As the noise in the outer offices grew, so the outside seemed to become active and he turned to watch as black suited armed figures rappelled down ropes hanging out from the sides of the choppers.

He watched them as they gathered briefly in groups conversing giving and receiving last minute orders for deployment and then spread out around the grounds. Facing outwards weapons raised, shields full on.

Something about it all dimly shouted to him deep within his brain, but it wasn’t quite getting through yet. He turned around and looked towards the door just as Jeffreys walked in.