Hack.A.I. (The Hack. series Book 1), page 24
He glanced behind him to see a fifty-foot pine tree less than five feet away get ravaged by the bullets.
Nate wasted no time and ran deeper into the forest, taking advantage of any meagre shelter provided by the thin pine trees, increasing the distance between him and the drone.
Still, the drone shattered large sections of trees and bullets whizzed past behind him.
He was near to the rocks now, some twenty yards.
The trials Nate endured in the past week are catching up with him.
His mind was pleading with him to stop. All self preservation had evaded him.
The burn in his legs felt as though he was running through flames.
He battled and pushed himself to run even faster.
As he neared the rocks a bullet hit him.
forty-three
He collapsed like an overzealous stuntman in Hollywood behind the rocks as the bullets pinged off them.
The bullet's impacts created a chaotic storm of dust and debris that engulfed him.
Nate’s hand rushed to his hip, where he felt the singed burn of a graze wound.
He sat up against the rock, hoping they would protect him for a short while to allow SQAI time to access the drone. Or at least the operator.
Hell, even an EMP in the area would help.
“SQAI, how long left?” Nate shouted, worried the hellfire would drown out his voice.
“Estimated time until decryption is thirty seconds.”
The relentless barrage caused small chunks of rock to break off, showering Nate with debris.
“I really don’t think we have that.”
Nate counted the seconds in his head when the barrage stopped.
The stillness in the air only heightened his sense of unease. Only ten seconds had passed.
He stood, looking over the rocks to see the drone was gone.
“SQAI, where is it?”
Before she answered, Nate heard its engine roar.
He raised his gaze to see it looming directly above him, guns trained on him.
The bullet reels wound up, and Nate closed his eyes and readied himself for his fate.
“Drone access granted.” SQAI announced.
And the gun's winding stopped.
“Oh, my god I love you, SQAI.”
“Thank you. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“How’s the pilot?”
“His vitals have stabilised. Satellite imagery shows him being loaded onto the helicopter. Other emergency services were alerted but subsequently warned off due to a military exercise in the area.”
“What the hell have we stumbled upon, SQAI? Military drones, missiles… whatever it is, they really don’t want anyone to know about it.”
“Nate, there has been an attempt to breach my encryption for the drone.”
“Okay, shut it down. Make it unusable.”
The drone crashed into the ground, causing the propeller to chew up mud and small broken trees until it clanged to a stop. As soon as the electrical system sparked, Nate realised it was done for.
“We need to get out of here. They are going to head out here looking for that thing and me. Lead me to the dam, SQAI.”
“Nate, I cannot advise you to continue. The probability of survival alone is fifty-six percent. With an accomplice, it reduced to twenty-five percent. The accomplice survival rate is fifteen percent from the rescue and sixty-two percent without it.”
“Thank you for your concern, SQAI, but I can’t leave Bic there. Now where do I go?”
He took off the glasses and wiped the camera and the lenses. Shocked, it had survived that ordeal unscathed.
His design included a temple that was more curved, allowing it to fasten to his ears.
Nate placed them back on after their clean, secured the temple around his ears and walked towards the base.
“SQAI, we need to go in quietly, so if there are any secret entrances, I need to know about them.”
“Searching.”
Nate released his final mini drone, and it took off.
During his trek through the partially dismantled forest, the indicators on his lens updated and Nate followed them down the mountain towards the dam.
SQAI estimated the dam was three miles away.
In the distance, Nate could see a winding road snaking through the stunning, curvaceous Welsh hills, leading up to the exquisitely designed dam.
Nate spotted what he thought were vehicles crossing the dam. Three truck-sized vehicles, tailgating one another and with speed.
Aware of their origin and purpose, he took cover off the road and remained near the reservoir below the dam, which led to the secret entrance.
The dam was a mere short trek now, three hundred metres or so away. Being down in the valley below, it towered above him.
He marvelled at the construction for the era they were in.
“Where to now, SQAI?” Nate asked, after he reached a dead end between a mountain of nettles and the reservoir itself.
Observing the arrow on his lens pointing towards the water, Nate questioned whether it was an error or deliberate.
“The entrance is approximately three metres below the surface of the water.”
“What? I’m not going in there, it’s October. It’s bloody freezing.”
“Due to the exhaust emissions from the base, the water temperature is several degrees higher than what would be for this time of year.”
“Oh, that’s alright then.”
As he breathed in the freshwater's aroma, his thirst intensified.
Nate took off his backpack, feeling the weight lift from his shoulders, and carefully retrieved a leather case from inside.
Remembering his experience with delicate electronic devices, he placed the leather case and all other small electronics in a large waterproof Ziploc-like bag before putting it back in his backpack.
Nate was surprised to discover that the water was lukewarm after taking two steps into it and expecting his body to go into shock.
“So what exactly are they dumping in this reservoir?”
“Heat management for servers. I’m detecting several hundred servers below the dam.”
“Will my glasses still work in the water?”
“There may be a short blackout during the deepest part of the dive. It will reconnect as you emerge from the water.”
“How deep am I going?”
“3.32 metres. May I recommend several deep breathing exercises? The travel time is approximately 90 seconds at five miles per hour.”
“No thanks. Did I ever tell you I won a diving competition in primary school?”
"Congratulations," SQAI said, her voice betraying a subtle amusement.
“Remind me to take that sarcasm coding out of your script, won’t you?”
“Of course, Nate.”
Two or three deep breaths later and Nate dived under the surface.
forty-four
A metal blast door stood beyond the tunnel.
Nate pulled out the leather case and attached an adapter to the door lock.
A little prod and the door unlocked.
“SQAI, scan the inside.”
“Scanning.”
The sonar lens lit up on Nate’s screen, showing everything within a thirty metre distance.
Two guards walking next to one another down a long corridor. A box room with several servers inside. Long corridors and many doors. The rooms are mostly empty.
“SQAI, can we access the security cameras?”“No, they are on a closed circuit to the security room. You need to access the servers manually.”
“Great.”
As Nate observed through his lens, he could see the two guards making their way towards him, their footsteps echoing in the corridor. He closed the door slightly, eavesdropping on their conversation, waiting for them to move along.
“Why are we patrolling this area at this time of day?” he heard one guard ask, their voices coming into earshot.
“Because there may have been a security breach. Something happened with a helicopter accident above ground and our CO seemed to think it was suspicious,” the other replied, both walking clean past the old rusted blast door and out of earshot once again.
“That was no fucking accident. They shot a god damn missile at us.” Nate said aloud to no one.
SQAI brought up a news report on Nate’s lens.
“A helicopter has crash landed in the Brecon Beacons today, believed to be due to inclement weather. The pilot is alive and stable in the hospital, but they have reported the passenger missing. Police have set up a search in the local area.”
“Bad weather? Well, that sounds like a coverup.”
Nate discreetly bided his time until the guards disappeared out of his sonar range, then confidently made his way through the blast doors, searching for the server room entrance.
They fitted the door with the latest NFID scanner. He brought out his leather case and opened the scanner casing with a universal key. Slotted in his USB-c cable to connect to his glasses, and waited for SQAI to break the encryption.
A couple of voices came back into earshot, and Nate panicked. His glasses being connected to the door left him blind.
“Where the hell are they coming from?” he whispered to himself.
He stayed quiet and listened.
“... I said to him, this country makes British soldiers the best in the world. The weather, the terrain, it makes a soldier. That’s why the S.A.S. train in Wales.”
“Yeah, mate, I agree. I quite enjoy the post, but hate shitty patrols like this.”
They retraced their steps along the corridor.
A short patrol route, Nate noted.
Nate bounced on his toes in angst.
He quietly approached the wall corner, avoiding being seen.
He heard one silence the other with a “Shh.”
With each step they took, he held his breath, feeling the tension rise as they came within a few feet of him.
Nate's heart raced as he strained to listen to the faint breaths around him.
They were quiet. Motionless and silent.
Worried about the worst-case scenario, he hesitated to scan the wall, fearing the opposing side with their weapons would do the same.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit.”
The door scanner beeped to declare it open, and he heard them both jump.
“What was that?” one of them said, walking over to the wall corner hiding Nate from view.
Nate scuttled across the corridor, his footsteps echoing against the floor, and quickly snatched his glasses and cable from the lock, before making his way inside. He closed the door with a satisfying click, narrowly avoiding the guard’s gaze.
Inside the box server room, Nate hurried over and hid low behind a refrigerator-size server. Hoping the dim lighting provided cover.
The door scanner buzzed, and a guard popped his head inside.
Not satisfied with his glance, he stepped in, finger on the machine gun trigger strapped to his chest.
The subtle creak of his neck accompanied the movement as his head turned from side to side.
Pressing his cheek up against the cold server wall sent a shiver down Nate’s spine.
In the vent above them, the sound of a mouse scuttling broke the intense silence.
“Sarge?”
The guard in the room glanced up, rolling his eyes at the vent.
“Clear. A mouse or something, fucking with the electrics probably.”
He turned, then left through the door.
Sweat dripped from Nate’s forehead and dropped onto his top and he slumped to the floor as the adrenaline drained from him.
Doing all he could to stop his heavy eyes from closing.
Sporting his glasses, he leaned his head on the server.
“SQAI, I’m gonna have a heart attack one of these days.”
“There is a spare Smart Ring in your pack, Nate.”
“Not really, SQAI, don’t panic.”
Nate pulled out the leather pack and searched for the ring, and slipped it on his finger, just in case.
After a minute, SQAI announced, "Nate, I see a slight elevation in the vitals, but they do not indicate a heart attack."
His eyes closed briefly as his head fell back.
“I’m just so tired. Jesus.”
“Due to the high pressure environment, and your recent injuries, the adrenaline surges and painkillers are wearing off at a faster rate.”
“How long has it been since I took co-codamol?”
“Approximately two hours.”
“Can I take it any sooner?”
“It is not recommended, especially in the circumstances. Likelihood of passing out increases dramatically.”
“Come on, Nate, fight through it. Bic needs you.”
Nate forced himself to his feet and walked over to the main server and opened the drawer with the server terminal.
He inserted a USB into the major terminal, and SQAI worked on breaking the encryption.
“Nate, they are transferring the prisoner.”
“What?”
The flight plan displayed on Nate’s lens.
“Where is he?”
Camera footage popped up of Bic with chains around his wrists and ankles, arm in arm with soldiers on either side.
“At the west side of the base, near the runway.”
“There’s a runway here? How big is this place?”
A blueprint map made digital by SQAI showed Nate where he was in correlation to the runway.
“According to the building plan, approximately four square miles.”
“Jesus christ. That’s not on any map.”
“They built the base in 1942 as a secondary command centre, in case Germany claimed Bletchley Park and the cabinet war rooms. The maps provided are likely not accurate.”
“Okay, we need to get him before he gets on that plane. Quietly, though. Show me where everyone is and take me to him.”
In an AR layer above the real world, Nate could see everyone on the entire base.
“Estimated time of departure is twenty minutes. The route best for stealth will take approximately eighteen minutes.”
“Great, two minutes to spare.”
Nate took a deep breath and walked out with his gear already packed.
SQAI directed him to a door that led down to the maintenance tunnel that took him underneath the base’s main floor.
The clouds of dust and damp smell conveyed to Nate that they had never been used.
He reached a grate that opened up onto a large football pitch-sized room that looked like the inside of a hangar with a tall, tin, curved roof.
The atmosphere buzzed with noise and commotion. SQAI's count showed almost 36 people inside.
Nate was certain that nobody would spot him since he was so far below them.
Until a group of them loomed above him. Then his nerves kicked in.
“... the site was searched extensively. There was no one found, sir.”
“Keep searching. He’s out there somewhere. Get his picture released to all guards. This man is a terrorist.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Nate could guess who they were referring to.
He persisted, trudging forward.
A can, discarded on the floor, clanged near Nate, prompting a guard above to look down at him.
The darkness offered him a sliver of cover, but the guard set his torch on him.
Nate thought he was done for. He stopped moving. And internally prayed.
“Nate,” SQAI announced in his ear, scaring him half to death. “You have three minutes to take off.”
He stayed quiet. Hope that loud base drowned the noise of her talking.
The cone of light from the torch illuminated his feet.
Nate closed his eyes, shutting out the world around him.
With a concentrated expression, the guard leaned in, his eyes squinting as he meticulously inspected the details.
A rat, the size of a toy poodle, scuttled from behind Nate's feet and the light tracked it. He heard the guard scoff some remark about how decrepit this base was, tuck his torch away and walk off.
Nate breathed a sigh of relief.
“Nate, two minutes to take off.”
“Shit, I can hear the engines. How far away am I?”
“Two hundred yards.”
His walk turned into a light jog down the tunnel and he ended up in a sizeable maintenance room.
Beside him, laying flat on the floor, was the rusted ladder that led up a shaft, out directly onto the runway. The rust had worn it away from the wall and left holes in several places.
The shaft had to be a twenty foot climb and without the ladder, impossible for most.
A rumble from a large jet engine roared in the background.
SQAI assessed the situation and showed Nate a simulation of how he would make the climb.
“Okay, a vertical wall run. I can do that.”
Nate glanced up at the vertical shaft. There were barely six feet separating the two adjacent walls.
He stepped back, took a small run up, planted his foot on the right wall and used the natural spring of his body to launch him into the opposite wall.
Gravity tugged at him relentlessly, as if anchoring him to the earth.
A clatter into the second wall gave him enough purchase to push off back toward the original wall.
Each push off the wall echoed up the shaft, along with Nate’s grunts.
A burst of determination and he thrust himself over to the next wall.
The searing pain in his legs felt as if he was walking through a blazing fire.
With one last surge of power, Nate launched himself off the wall, with outstretched arms ready to grasp the top ledge.
His hand slipped as his sweaty fingers met the metal ledge. But gripped tighter and recovered. He pulled himself over the threshold and rolled onto his back, gasping for air, his legs throbbing with burning lactic acid.
“Nate, the cave door is opening. Ready for takeoff.” SQAI announced.
“Close it, SQAI, do everything to slow them down.” He said, flat on his back.
“Working.”
Despite the excruciating pain, Nate pushed himself up and quickly opened the vent door. He covered a short distance to find cover behind a stack of crates.
