“Just follow the road,” coached the PM. “It leads straight to the main gate of the facility.”
“How far?” asked Matthew.
“Six and a half miles,” answered the machine. “We could have gone closer, but I didn’t want to risk raising their alert level before we had even entered the base.”
Elaine created an invisibility shield around them, and they took off at a brisk pace. A few miles weren’t much of an obstacle for people who had grown up in a place where walking was the primary method of travel, but the heat and humidity still left them both damp and miserable by the time the chain-link gate and guard station came into view.
As they drew closer, they began to make out more details with their magesight, which was their only means of seeing with the veil around them. A lone occupant was in the guard station; a military android. The gates themselves were closed and the fence was over ten feet tall.
Neither of the two wizards was comfortable with flying, but the distance was short enough that they were able to levitate themselves over and land softly on the other side without taking any serious risk of a fall.
Gary was still maintaining network contact through a small hole in the shield that Elaine had provided him. “No sign of an alert yet,” he told them cautiously.
“There shouldn’t be,” said Elaine confidently.
“Unless one of the ANSIS detectors is located on this base, of which there is a fair chance,” countered the AGI. “I don’t know what they look like or even what principle they operate on to detect aythar.”
Since their super-intelligent guide already had the layout of the base as well as the internal plans for the buildings, they followed his directions. Gary coached them across a wide lawn and past an entrance that he explained led to an underground vehicle park. They could have descended and entered there, but he had planned a more direct route through a pedestrian entrance.
There were multiple buildings, all constructed of steel and the strange stone that Gary had labeled ‘concrete.’ They bypassed those, heading for the largest structure, which dominated the center of the facility.
It wasn’t a particularly impressive construction by Matthew’s standards. It stood barely two stories in height, but Gary had already explained to them that the majority of it lay beneath the ground. The upper levels were easy-access administrative offices, under them lay an immense structure of reinforced concrete that protected the military hardware and secure assets in the levels below.
“It isn’t as secure as Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado,” began the AGI, “but they did the best they could for an area like this without mountains or any significant rock formations. Much of the surrounding area was a swamp long ago.”
Matthew wasn’t sure what the machine meant by that, since he had no way to compare the places, but he didn’t really care. He only wanted in. Leaning close, he whispered in Elaine’s ear, “Remember, if things go badly and we have to fight, use lightning. Fire and other things work, but you’ll get more for your aythar with lightning.”
Gary had advised him on that earlier, and he reinforced the message now, “Military equipment, especially the cybernetics, are hardened and insulated to withstand moderate EMP shocks, but they’re still vulnerable to severe damage from direct electrical current. In this world, no one has ever been able to use lightning as an effective weapon. Just be sure not to hit me with any stray discharges.”
“You are not hardened?” asked Elaine seriously.
Matthew didn’t even consider making the obvious joke, and he was glad his father wasn’t there to make things worse. Gary answered honestly, “No, this unit is not protected in the least. Even a small shock would probably render it inoperable.”
She nodded, “Inoperable—does that mean you would be dead?”
Matthew already knew the answer to that and he cut in, “No, he’s much bigger than that. This PM is almost just a messaging device for him. He’s in most of their electronic systems across the world, except for the military ones.”
“Except for the ANSIS systems,” corrected Gary. “I can access a lot of the military systems, but they are moving to isolate more and more of their equipment each day, probably connecting it to the ANSIS network.”
By now they had reached the entrance that Gary had indicated, a double-wide set of glass and metal doors. Matthew couldn’t help but think it didn’t look terribly secure. “Any fool with a hammer could smash these,” he observed.
“The upper doors aren’t meant to withstand a serious assault,” said Gary. “The real security is below us; this only leads to offices and low-value equipment.”
“Why not protect all of it?” asked Elaine.
“This way, if someone did take it by force, they would have to approach the secure vault doors after entering and descending several levels. It’s much harder to get the kind of heavy weapons and equipment you need to get through super-secure blast doors down there than it is up here.
“Besides, aside from being located next to the Gulf Coast reserve facilities, this is primarily a lab and research station,” added the AGI.
“Do we need to smash the glass?” asked Elaine, anxious to hurry them onward.
“Just step forward,” said Gary.
They did, and nothing happened. “And now?” asked Matt.
The AGI sounded embarrassed, “They’re automatic doors. Motion sensors activate them. I forgot that with Elaine’s invisibility they won’t react to your presence. Do you perhaps have a way to pass through solid objects?”
“I’m a wizard, not an archmage,” he answered, though Gary really didn’t understand the difference. “Can’t you control the doors?”
“These are actually just dumb doors; the mechanism is purely automatic. They aren’t connected to any network. The security screening point is inside the lobby, so they don’t even bother to lock these doors most of the time. We need something visible to trigger them to open.”
Matthew stared at the PM and Gary stared back at him, neither of them immediately coming up with a solution. For all of the AGI’s elaborate plans and Matthew’s powers, it seemed ridiculous that they would be stymied by a pair of automated doors that weren’t even locked.
“For goodness sake,” said Elaine in exasperation. “Let the Prathion do it. Neither of you has the brains of a turnip.” So saying, she used her aythar and seconds later a large dog ran around the corner of the building and crossed in front of them. The doors opened as it passed by and continued on to the far corner.
Of course, the dog was an illusion, but it had worked perfectly. All three of them remained silent as they stepped into the lobby. Matthew added a sonic shield beneath Elaine’s invisibility before they spoke again.
The interior was another gleaming and immaculately clean example of the world’s fascinatingly strange architecture. Everything was white tile and stainless steel, punctuated by granite and marble stonework in odd places like countertops. A long, low desk stretched across the far side of the room with two human-sized openings for people to walk through. Two cybernetic guards stood on either side of the room.
“Just walk across and step through the screening machines,” advised Gary. “Make sure to close the hole in your shield; otherwise the machines might register something unusual as we pass.”
The two humans did as he asked, walking single file. Elaine had to adjust the boundaries of her invisibility to get through the machine without causing some parts of it to temporarily ‘disappear’ from view, but that was easy enough for her.
On the other side, they passed several more cybernetic guards who stood in front of a row of strange metallic doorways. Between each set of doors were two buttons with triangles pointing up and down. Following Gary’s directions, they went left and down a short hallway until they reached a door that opened into a stairwell.
There were cameras and another guard stationed on one side of the hall, so they had to be careful opening the door. Fortunately, Elaine was confident in her m
astery of illusion. She cloaked the entire area around the door in a static illusion so their invisibility veil wouldn’t create oddities when they opened the door, and Matthew’s sound barrier prevented the noise of the door closing from reaching the guard.
There were more cameras mounted on the ceiling inside the stairwell. Ignoring them, they began descending the stairs. Four flights of stairs and two landings later, they had reached the level they needed. The stairs ended there, since beneath them began the massive concrete fortifications that protected the deeper levels.
To get farther below, they would have to leave the stairwell and pass through the main entrance on that level. Beyond that there would be more elevators and stairs.
Before that, however, they had to exit the stairwell, and the door was locked. A small plastic box was fastened to the wall beside the door, and it held a small display screen with a red light beneath it. As they stood beside it, the light changed to green and a click indicated that the door had unlocked.
“Was that you?” asked Matthew.
“Yes,” said Gary. “Most of their regular building security is still on the network. This will be a piece of cake as long as we don’t get spotted or arouse suspicion along the way.”
Back in a hallway again, they walked a short distance and made a turn. There before them were the elevators they had seen on the upper levels. Directly across from them was a large round gate flanked by a massive disc of solid steel that was obviously meant to seal the entrance at certain times. A contingent of eight cybernetic guards were in position, two on either side of the gate and two farther away on either side. Matthew’s magesight was limited by distance, but he could detect more guards on the other side of the gate.
“Maybe we should wait until night,” suggested Elaine, “when most of the workers are at home. Or is that giant door closed then?”
“They work in shifts around the clock,” Gary replied. “The blast door is only closed twice a year, to ensure it still functions. Other than that, it’s only meant to be closed during an emergency.”
“We just have to walk through, making sure not to bump into any of the guards or workers coming in or out,” said Matthew. “It couldn’t get any easier.”
Staying close together, they walked out, but before they had gotten within thirty feet of the entrance, red lights on either side of it began to flash. There might have been an alarm siren as well, but Matthew’s sonic shield kept them from hearing it. The giant steel door began rolling toward the opening to seal it off.
“We’ve been disc…,” Gary started to announce, but Matthew was already grunting under the strain as high velocity rounds began slamming into his shield. Every guard on either side of the entrance was firing, their weapons pointed directly at the apparently empty space where the two wizards stood.
Several canisters were launched into the area around them and began issuing a large volume of gas.
Matt was already reinforcing his shield and adding a filter to keep out the external air, but the sheer volume of firepower focused on them made him wonder how long he could keep up his defense. A cybernetic unit with a black metal frame emerged from the other side of the gate and pointed an even heavier weapon at them, a massive gun with multiple barrels that were beginning to spin in place.
“The gas is a type of tear gas,” Gary informed them. “It also serves to help eliminate the possible advantage of your invisibility by rendering us unable to see.”
We can’t see them anyway, thought Matthew. The invisibility blinds us as much as them, but then they don’t necessarily know that. Swiping his hand across in front of him, he burned a blackened line into the floor and erected a stronger shield between them and the entrance. His action was just in time, as a powerful stream of bullets began firing from the new guard’s weapon. “Elaine!” he shouted, “Forget the veil; they can see us somehow. I can barely protect us. You need to go offensive.”
Even as he said the words, he felt the doors open to the elevators, which were filled with yet more robotic guards. Without access to an external source of aythar, his shield would fail in seconds if they came under fire from all sides.
Light flooded in as Elaine released her invisibility veil and lifted her twin wands, one in each hand. They were pointed in opposite directions, one on either side, and a split second later actinic blue light filled their vision as lightning arced through the open spaces around them.
Unlike normal lightning, which seeks the most direct route to the ground, this lightning flashed through the air and sought out their enemies, like a hungry spirit searching for vengeance. It arced from one soldier to the next, creating a brilliant web as it connected between the soldiers in front of them and on either side of the gate. It also lasted longer, burning the air for a full two seconds before winking out. The soldiers collapsed, smoke rising from their metallic frames. Then, just as the soldiers behind began to fire, she turned and repeated her attack, destroying the newly arrived defenders.
As the last echoes of gunfire died away, Elaine holstered her wands and glanced at Matthew. “They don’t seem so bad.”
“Very funny,” Matthew replied dryly. “I’d like to see you shield us from what they were throwing at us just now.” His voice was calm, but he could feel an almost imperceptible tremor in his legs. He had used almost half of his available aythar in a span of seconds. It hadn’t been flashy, like Elaine’s lightning, but both of them knew she wouldn’t have been able to channel enough power to have sustained the shield that had kept them alive.
Gary spoke up before she could retort, “Take a look at the unit with the Gatling gun.”
Gatling? Matthew assumed he meant the black android that had carried the heavy weapon. Now that they could see with normal vision, he could make out a series of letters marked in silver across its chest: ANSIS.
“It was linked up with the other soldiers, providing them with your location for coordinated firing,” said the AGI, “or so I would guess. It probably was also what triggered the alarm.”
Matthew moved closer, examining the robot with his magesight. Unlike the others, there was something different about it. Within the central torso was something that wasn’t metal or electronic but organic. Focusing his senses, he discovered a soft spongy tissue encased there. “I think it has some sort of small brain inside,” he announced.
“We need to figure out how we’re getting through the door.” Elaine was looking at the massive piece of solid metal blocking their way.
“Your attack shorted out the electronics controlling both the elevator system and the blast door,” noted the AGI. “They will have to send reinforcements down via the stairwells, which will give us a few minutes.”
“So, you can’t open the door,” said Matthew, eyeing it dubiously.
“I couldn’t have done so even if the electronics were working. It was isolated from the main network. I believe our mission has failed.” The machine didn’t sound particularly happy about his pronouncement.
“We aren’t giving up yet.” Matt reached into his pouch and drew out two small iron balls.
Elaine frowned. “You think those can blow it open?”
“The door is impervious to any but the largest of explosions,” cautioned Gary.
Matthew handed Elaine one of the iron spheres. “Draw the aythar out of it slowly. Use it to replenish your reserves.”
“There’s an extra set of runes on this,” she observed.
He nodded. “I added a layer to the enchantment to help slow the release. The first time I tried it, I had to absorb it so fast it burned me. That should make it easier.”
“What are we doing?” asked Gary. “You don’t have the power to open that door. I’ve made a lot of rough estimations based on what you’ve done before, so unless you have a hidden ability there’s no…”
The young man cut him off. “A wizard’s true power is in the limit of his imagination, not how much energy he commands.” Stepping forward, he put his hand on the outer surf
ace of the door and directed his magesight into it.
Two feet of solid steel lay under his palm, but behind that was a hollow space containing a variety of gears. One large gear in the center connected to smaller ones that lay around the outside; those smaller gears were attached to a straight ratchet type mechanism that drove heavy steel pins, each several inches in diameter, from within the door into the frame, locking the door in place.
Reversing the direction that the central gear had moved should cause the smaller gears to retract the bolts, allowing the door to be rolled back. He attempted to do just that, but found that the central gear wouldn’t turn; it was locked in place. Searching farther, he found another lock, this one facing the inside of the door. A key could be inserted there to free the central gear.
As he studied it, he realized it must have been designed that way to allow someone inside to manually open the door if necessary, for near the lock was a large wheel that would allow a strong man to release the bolts by turning the same central gear Matthew had tried to turn.
The smaller key lock was easy enough; it had a series of pins that had to be held back so he could turn it, and once that was done, the central gear was free to move. As he began to turn the main gear, metal hands gripped the interior wheel, fighting to keep him from turning it.
“There are guards inside trying to keep me from opening the door,” he told the others. “Step back for a second, and make sure you aren’t in contact with the metal.” He handed the PM to Elaine for safekeeping, and then added, “Once I get it open, be ready to repeat your lightning, since they’ll probably be firing at us.”
Then he sent a powerful electric discharge through the metal. After a second, the hands left the manual crank on the other side as the guard collapsed. Working at speed, he turned the central gear and the locking bolts withdrew, but the massive door still needed to be moved.
The entire thing was mounted on a notched rail, and there was a second mechanical system responsible for rolling the door into position. Another crank inside was there to allow someone to manually roll the door back if necessary, which would likely be the case since the electric motor attached to it was now smoking from his latest attack.