Metak Fatigue Part 19

Puzzled, he reset the laptop and ran the program again - with the same result.

The program refused to run.

He tried his implants. General Stedman appeared through them as clear as a bell, standing in the Mayor's chambers again. Whatever had crashed the program, therefore, had nothing to do with the data coming from Mayor's House.

The problem had to be elsewhere.

He reset the laptop a third time and probed the operating system. The first thing he checked for was evidence of deliberate interference, thinking that his intrusion might have been detected - by the RSD security team, the RUSAMC or even Cati's controller. But he found nothing to suggest that any of these was the case. His implants were fine. His surrept.i.tious observation of Mayor's House only came to a halt when he tried to run the image processor program - and then only on General Stedman's image.

Something to do with the program itself, then? Perhaps, he thought. It had run perfectly until tenfifteen. At that time, some aspect of the feed from Mayor's House must have changed to make it crash. But what?

Roads settled back onto his haunches to examine the program in more detail, while at the same time using his implants to keep an eye on the General.

Whatever had happened, it was almost certainly unimportant. A slight baud rate, perhaps, or an unexpected switch to "T iTQ secure machine-code.

t that simple. Both the program and the it wasn' seemed sound. He tried resetting the laptop yet and received the same output: two regions of snow divided by a black bar down the middle sic screen.

at it, Roads was struck by a possible '41F rm. 4*rsu. Th e black bar hadn't been there before. It to be significant. Maybe ... [email protected] Avv, returned to the program itself, reeled through t W4. and subroutines until he found the one he and made a single, tiny change. Then he MMM the computer. This time the program ran perfectly - although its made no sense at all.

-is, the way to the bas.e.m.e.nt, Barney and O'Dell shared t elevat I - or with another RUSAMC officer, a thick-set @Tif rn- w. with close-cropped hair. "To be frank, I'm glad it's over." She directed her [email protected] at O'Dell. "After the last few days, I'll be more @J au happy to get a decent night's sleep." "You have quarters)" Barney asked. The woman nodded, looking at her for the first time. "I'll be leaving for base camp in an hour." More out of politeness than any real curiosity, Barney pursued the conversation: "How many are staying behin&,, "As few as possible. Maybe a couple of dozen." "That's all?" Barney glanced from O'Dell to the woman. The number seemed unreasonably small. "But what about security?"

"Don't worry about the General," O'Dell said. "He'll be okay.""But I thought you said -" "Yes, we think the killer might try tonight. But if he does, he'll fail. I guarantee it."

Barney wished she had his confidence, and said so. "What's all this for, then?" "To make you feel useful." The twinkle in O'Dell's eye told her that he was only half serious. Barney bit back an irritated retort with difficulty.

The doors opened on the ground floor, and the woman indicated that she was getting out. "Have a good night," said the woman to O'Dell. "I'll see you in a couple of days." "That you will."

When the doors had shut and they were alone again, Barney immediately confronted O'Dell. "Let's try that again, Martin: why are you here with me?

And don't give me any bulls.h.i.+t this time. I hate being patronised as much as anyone." "Sorry. I suppose that's fair." O'Dell's smile faded. "It's nothing much. One, the exercise; two, to get away from the bra.s.s; and three, good old curiosity. If the killer does get in, I want to know how he did it. The only c.h.i.n.k in the security of this building appears to be the dead zones. Unlikely though that seems, it's worth checking out. You never know, we might even catch him in the act." "Earning us both medals?" "Or broken necks."

Perversely, that made O'Dell's smile return. "Either way, we'll have done something constructive. "

Barney nodded, accepting the explanation even though the chance of them achieving anything seemed remote: the dead zone on the first floor had consisted of an empty corner in an otherwise secure room; no chance of an illicit entry there. The second zone in the bas.e.m.e.nt would just as likely be similar.

I;. lift shuddered to a halt. Barney held the door while O'Dell exited the cab. The bas.e.m.e.nt lw [email protected] of a series of storerooms and wine cellars by a single corridor running along its entire 4. From the distance came the smooth chugging of -- aLq=*L pumping fresh air throughout the Ancient fluorescent lights behind wire grills kthree metres illuminated the hallway.

Zic guards down here?" asked O'Dell, noting the of life. Nc need," said Barney. "The lift's the only way in, it's guarded from the lobby. And besides . . She MIMI s the cameras at each end of the corridor.

s1% way, then?" O'Dell asked.

1,P4481a. nted to their left. "Second to last poi #V401081 On the right." '"Okay. Let's get it over with." Together they walked along the hallway to the door. V @P, VrM shut, but not locked.

Barney turned the handle swung it open. The storeroom was unoccupie , wit rough plaster 1K and a concrete floor. A metal rack full of boxes one wall, opposite which had been stacked three

61.

q.- crates. Dust filmed every horizontal surface de'spite a.- gentle breeze issuing from an air vent high on one "Cosy," said O'Dell, crossing the room to examine fit dead camera. "This seems fine," he said. "Must be Is electrical fault." "I'll have a technician look at it tomorrow." Barney st;@ a mental note to tell Goss when they returned to su. command centre.

O'Dell seemed in no hurry to leave, however. He browsed through the contents of the rack, turning over items and putting them back. "Spare parts," he mused."Your reclamation facilities are quite impressive, you know." "They have to be, to keep us going," Barney said, fighting an impatience to return to the upper flOOTS. "Without them, the city would have ground to a halt years ago. "

"Yes. We're far behind you in that respect." O'Dell glanced at her, then returned to his inspection of the room. "That's one lesson we've never had to learn." "Half your luck." Barney noted his words with interest. "You don't sound surprised that we might have something to teach you." "Should I be?"

"No, of course not - but that's not the impression I get from a lot of your people. Sometimes I feel as though you're letting us into the States purely out of charity."

O'Dell squatted on his haunches by a stack of crates. "Don't let those impressions tarnish our intentions, Barney. I'm sure they're real, but they're not representative. We have differences of opinions, just like you do." "Under Stedman?" "Of course. Under Christ himself we'd still have dissent. That's what democracy is all about." O'Dell ran a hand across the middle crate of the stack of three he was leaning against, and nodded at recent wheel-marks and footprints on the dusty floor. "These look like some of ours," he said, pointedly changing the subject. "G.o.d only knows what they're doing down here, though." "I can check with R&R, If you like." "No, that's not necessary. As likely as not the Mayor decided to keep them for himself. Must contain something interesting, I guess." He rapped his knuckles on the wood. "Either way," said Barney, "there's nothing for us here.

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it," said O'Dell. He knocked on the box again, this time. A third time, then a fourth, and Barney 4he pitch of each rap change.

was about to ask what he was doing when he d on the bottom crate. His knuckles provoked a thud. glanced up at Barney. "This one sounds empty. me a hand."

gether they lifted off the top two crates and sed the lid of the one on the bottom. The seal ed intact until Barney worried at the edge of the lid. a slight groan, the top lifted smoothly off. Well I'll be -d.a.m.ned," said O'Dell.

he crate was empty - and obviously placed at the in of the stack to hide that fact. .'What are you thinking?" asked O'Dell.

F."I'm wondering why anyone would bother to store empty crate down here." Barney stepped back to examine the dust on the floor.

e mess of footprints surrounding the crates was fficult to interpret. One faint trail, however, led from stack to the wall opposite the door. The prints ren't of shoes, but what seemed to be bare feet. O'Dell rose, dusting his hands on his uniform pants.

How does this sound?" he said. "Someone arranges to lave the crates diverted in transit, replaces the contents If this one, and has them delivered here.

The dead zone ,allows whoever's inside to get out, rearrange the crates ,to cover their method of entry, and . . "And what? They can't leave the room without being ,seen." Barney's eyes followed the footprints to the far wall, then rose upward. The air vent stared back at her.

A tremor - half excitement, half fear - stirred in her stomach.

O'Dell followed her gaze. "The ducts?""It's the only possible way." Barney crossed the room in two steps, reached up to tug at the grill. It came away cleanly, with no shower of dust - obviously moved recently. Peering inside, she saw a dark metal tube barely a metre across and forty centimetres high.

O'Dell looked uncertain. "I don't know. Could someone squeeze through there?"

"If they had to, they could." She leaned the grill against the wall and stepped away. "If they were more flexible than most people." "Biomodified,"

O'Dell finished the thought.

As though he had confirmed her guess rather than simply agreed with her, her uncertainty suddenly vanished. "Cati could be anywhere in here!" "Maybe."

O'Dell raised a hand to pacify her. "We don't know for certain it was him, or if anything has happened at all." "But it's worth checking, surely?" "Of course. Hang on a second, and I'll let someone know." O'Dell stepped out of the storeroom, and put a finger to his ear. Speaking rapidly under his breath, he outlined the situation by intercom to one of his fellow officers.

Barney prowled the room while she waited. Swinging a box off the rack and into position below the vent, she climbed onto it and peered along the duct.

Without a light, she couldn't see very far, barely enough to ascertain that the first two metres were empty. "They're querying the delivery with the command centre," O'Dell said, stepping back into the room. "That shouldn't take long." "I hope not." Barney stepped down from the box. "When ... hang on." Again O'Dell's hand went to his ear. This time Barney made out the flesh-coloured throat-mike taped above the hollow of his neck.

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ay," he said when the brief conversation had d. "It looks like a false alarm.

The crate was d when it was delivered this evening; apparently ayor wanted to inspect some of the goods nally, before the speeches. The duct was cleaned ay morning as part of an overall air-conditioning The dead zone must be a coincidence." e absorbed this in silence. "Who told them that?" omeone in security." guess they'd know better than we do." Barney ed down at the footprints in the dust: now more ever they resembled marks left by bare feet.

"Still, I @t like it. It seems entirely too plausible for my 9- 11.

I agree. So I suggest we get upstairs to keep a closer on things." O'Dell waved her through the door d of him. '"Seconded," she said. "It gives me the creeps down e." As they waited for the elevator to descend to the s.e.m.e.nt, Roads' voice intruded loudly into the silence the cellar. "Barney? Are you there?" She jumped. "G.o.d, I hate it when you do that.,, "Sorry. Listen, I think I've found something portant." "You have?" The cage doors opened, and they -Stepped inside. With a )erk, they began to ascend. !"Don5t tell me it's in the air-conditioning system, please. @.'@Ve already thought of that." "No. It's on the second floor, now." Roads spoke quickly, urgently: "I ran an IP through the security system to keep tabs on the General. Just after the meeting in the Mayor's office, the program crashed. When I tried to find out why, I worked out that the IPwasn't equipped to handle multiple recognitions: it could only track a single image, and failed the moment it came across two or more. If Stedman looked into a mirror, for instance." "Why should that make a difference?"

was tip "I didn't guess at first, not until the program and running again. And even then, I had to check manually before I could believe it." "Believe what?

That Stedman has been brus.h.i.+ng his hair for the last hour?" "No." Roads hesitated for a moment, as though he himself didn't accept what he had found.

"At 10:1S the IP program picked up two images. Both were in the ground floor toilet, as thought Stedman had looked into a mirror. But then one of them left and the other stayed behind. While the first retired to one of the staterooms to freshen up, the other snuck out a side entrance with a couple of guards and returned to the control van outside. Since then, the IP program has run perfectly. "That's why Martin isn't worried about Cati: there are two General Stedmans, and one of them is a fake.'

CHAPTER TWENTY.

036 Roads could finish what he was saying, the doors opened on the second floor and the Of animated voices cut him off.

gaped at the crowd of uniformed people past. Her first thought was that Cati had e command centre - that she and O'Dell had arrived at the right place too late. But then realiscd that the noise was more indicative of dis- than urgency. Confusion, not panic. 'This conclusion was supported by O'Dell's annoyed Talk about bad timing," he said. "We'll never @@l 4- through this lot." ,I m sorry, Phil," she subvocalised over Roads'

voice.

91 have to call you back. There's something going on here." She counted heads quickly as the crowd ,TM M-1 past: roughly twenty cl.u.s.tered around a central Q=t half of them RUSAMC officers, the rest RSD and all of them rubbing shoulders awkwardly, not yet to working so close to each other. As she counted, he group bundled to a halt just past the elevator. "At least they're heading in the right direction," she said. "More or less."

Barney stepped out of the elevator and into the crowd, b.u.mping into a RUSAMC private as she did so.The young man scowled, then immediately adopted a more friendly approach when he noticed O'Dell behind her. . Sorry, ma'am," he said. "Didn't see you there." "Forget it," she responded. "What's the hold-up? We need to get through."

The private nodded ahead, at the heart of the group. Barney could just make out the white-haired head of General Stedman listening to something one of his guides said in his ear. His voice carried through the buzz of the entourage, but not clearly enough to make out his words. judging by the direction of his gaze, he seemed to be studying a painting on the wall in front of him. "A guided tour," explained O'Dell. "Unscheduled from your end, but planned from ours, if you know what I mean."

Barney thought she did. Another test of the city's flexibility - and its patience. "We could be here forever," she hissed. "There has to be another way around -"

"No, wait. He's moving." O'Dell put a calming hand on her shoulder. "We'll get there, don't worry."

The crowd shuffled forward again. Barney, fuming to herself, noticed O'Dell gesture to one of his colleagues, who instantly moved to join him. The two RUSAMC officers exchanged a brief, whispered conversation, then separated.

O'Dell returned to Barney's side with something like his usual smile across his lips. "Everything's under control," he said. "The General's just taking his time." "Unfortunately for us." And for security, she added to herself. In the confines of the building's corridors, a planned march was difficult, an unplanned one doubly so.

But there was no use pointing this out to her companion. O'Dell would only reiterate his stubborn belief that an before e Stedin 1f, was safe - perhaps because th nothing but a stand-in. And maybe that was the fit, behind the unscheduled tour: not to test the s patience, but to flush Cat, from wherever he A it made sense - although Barney wouldn't have [email protected] Stand-in's job for all the money in the world. sc;@- huddle around Stedman moved slowly along the Iffl. Only when it reached another painting and roT-18'

paused for a closer took did she realise that is) Packard himself was accompanying the General. [email protected] mingled bodyguards attempted to settle into 11H, cordons around their respective leaders, she what would happen to bystanders if Cati 7-7. during the tour. The General might well be safe what about those with him?

rvousness returning, she craned her neck or a 111r;i ne i<4 view="" of="" the="" hallway.="" the="" focus="" of="" stedman's="" m-s="" *40w="" was="" a="" portrait="" of="" the="" city's="" first="" mayor="" in="" i="" ,="" framed="" by="" recycle="" wood.="" the="" flattened="" bodyguards="" reached="" from="" one="" side="" of="" the="" n="" 0="" to="" the="" other="" and="" for="" several="" metres="" along="" it.="" ftwil="" light-fittings="" hung="" from="" the="" walls="" every="" three="" f="" casting="" an="" un.o.btrusive="" yellow="" glow="">[email protected] the T.

n metres further up the hallway was the e to the Reagan Suite. So near, thought Barney. Yet it might as well have on the other side of the city ... As her eyes wandered, she noticed something she had 1 earlier: an air-conditioning vent in the wall above the painting. Similar vents lined the walls every five metres, roughly the same size as the one in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

She stiffened. The Mayor quietly explained the significance of the woman in the painting, but Barney Mheard none of it. Instead she studied every inch of the grill, the screws holding it fast to the wall, the gaps between each slat, the darkness within - searching for anything out of the ordinary.

But she saw nothing. Paranoid, she told herself. What had she expected?

Pointed fingertips protruding through the grill? Fetid breath misting the air?

Sulphur smoke issuing from the perverted flesh of the very devil himself?

No. Security had told them that the dead zone in the bas.e.m.e.nt was a false lead. Yet she couldn't let go of the idea. But how could Cati possibly know where the General would choose to stop, and when the opportunity to attack would arise?

Forcing herself to relax, she shuffled forward a step as the General indicated that he would like to move on.

And at that moment, when the mingled cordons were at their most disorganised, the vent exploded.

Roads caught it perfectly through his implants.

The grill flew out of the wall with enough force to tear its screws completely from the plaster. Warped out of shape by the force of the blow that had struck it, it shot across the hallway and into the light fixture opposite. The globes shattered, and shadow shrouded the area below the opening in the wall where the grill had once been.

Into the shadow - and the confusion - a red-skinned figure slid smoothly out of the hole in the wall. Roads stared at it in impotent horror: it was the same face he had glimpsed the night of Blindeye, the same eyes, the same hairless scalp, the same powerful body with whiplash reflexes and incomprehensible reserves of strength.

Cati gained his footing in one fluid movement and reached forward with a single giant hand to grasp General Stedman about the neck.

3.34.

-ati s fingers closed, the first shot was fired. More luck ihan any genuine aim, the bullet struck Cati 1;1- shoulder. Blood spattered bystanders, but the [email protected] giant hardly ft inched. With a vicious flexing his fingers closed, twisted, pulled ... came away em pry. tenths of a second had elapsed, long enough for irs]IR- to be unholstered but not sufficient time for to take effect. The mess of officers and soldiers in confusion, unsure exactly what had happened. Is., saw Barney lunge forward, and Martin O'Dell, [email protected] Still on her shoulder, attempt to pull her back. ' second shot missed.

Cati struck again, this time on one leg to kick General Stedman in the On an ordinary man, the blow would have MITI, through bone and flesh, but General Stedman recoiled intact, as though Cati's foot had struck i tre stone.

Roads' fists clenched as Cati backed off and reconsidI the situation.

the bodyguards remembered their orders and into action. RSD officers armed with pistols Mayor Packard away from General Stedman buried him under their bodies, while others aimed ii4i weapons at Cati. The latter group found them- kll;;@ in direct conflict with the RUSAMC soldiers, who placed themselves between the Mayor's bodyguards and the, two men in the middle of the circle.

Barney struggled helplessly in O'Dell's grip, screaming her frustration into the chaos around her. O'Dell h Id her back with his jaw clenched.

e In the centre of the circle, alone but for each other, stood General Stedman and his a.s.sa.s.sin.

Deep black eyes regarded the turmoil around him as Cati tensed for a third attempt. Blood streamed downhis right arm and dripped onto the carpet - a rich, electric red, much brighter than normal blood; hyperoxygenated to feed the energy demands of such a ma.s.sive frame. He took one wary step to his left, as though considering his options.

Attack or flee? Obey orders or put survival first? Roads knew which would win in the end. He wasn't surprised when Cati suddenly sprang to enfold the General in a killing embrace.

Before the two men met, General Stedman vanished Cati twisted in mid-air and landed facing the way he had come. Shock spread across his inhuman features as his wide eyes searched the air, tried to find either the General or an explanation for his sudden disappearance.

Roads did the same, with difficulty. The signal from Mayor's House flickered peculiarly through his implants. It was as though a bubble of gla.s.s had pa.s.sed between the camera and the scene below - exactly the same phenomenon Roads had witnessed moments before Danny Chong died.

Then five such bubble's converged on a point opposite Cati, stabilised in a rough pentagon, and s.h.i.+mmered strangely.

General Stedman reappeared an instant later, as solid as ever - but only for a second. Barely had he reappeared when he began to change. His skin colour darkened; his form filled out, became taller. His clothes melted into his body like wax, and he became someone else entirely: Another CATI. The two giants stared at each other, black eyes reflecting to infinity, surrounded by confusion as the officers around them milled in panic.