Shadow Tyrants

FIFTY-NINE

Colossus is being damaged. Master must protect Colossus.

Carlton looked up from his phone at Bondarev and said, “Make sure he finishes disabling the self-destruct mechanism.” He pointed at the other guards. “You two, come with me.”

Chen finally showed some emotion and sneered at Carlton. Carlton didn’t care. Once this was done and Colossus was safe, Chen would get over it.

Carlton led the guards across the hold carrying Bondarev’s assault rifle. Although he didn’t collect guns, he had always been fascinated by them and was an avid pheasant hunter. He was eager to try his hand at a human target.

Using the vats as cover, they dashed from one to the next until they had a better angle on the intruder shooting at the server bays.

“Kill him,” Carlton said, and they opened fire.

The intruder stopped shooting and took cover behind a water pipe.

“Evacuate to lifeboats immediately,” the infuriating computer voice placidly advised. “Ninety seconds to detonation.”

To get a clear shot, Carlton climbed onto the service walkway connecting the tops of the vats to each other and took up a position behind the nutrient feed pipe.

His assault rifle was equipped with a red dot sight. He put his eye to the scope and waited for the target to reemerge.

“When he comes back out,” Carlton called down to the guards, “he’s mine.”

“We’re about to come up on deck,” Eddie said, his voice coming through the op center’s speakers.

“Hold where you are,” said Max, who was watching the Oregon’s lidar feed on the screen. “There are hostiles on deck waiting for you.” He counted ten figures with weapons approaching the hatch where Eddie’s caravan of prisoners was going to come out.

“We don’t have much time before this ship starts going down.”

“Understood.” Max looked at Eric. “Use the deck machine guns. Target anything that moves on the Colossus 1.”

“Aye, sir,” Eric replied, and pushed the button for the automated .30 caliber machine guns to rise from their hiding places in the rusty barrels on deck.

Eric identified the targets and fired.

The guards on board the Colossus 1 never saw the weapons that mowed them down in the raging storm. They toppled like bowling pins.

When they were all down, Max radioed Eddie. “You’re clear. Get out of there.”

“On our way.”

The hatch flew open, and people started pouring out. They held hands to keep the group together as they headed to the gangway and made it quickly over to the Oregon.

“That’s all of us,” Eddie said.

“Eric, raise the gangway and move us away from Colossus 1.” Even with the Oregon’s armored hull, an explosion large enough to tear a hole in the Colossus ship could cause significant damage.

“Backing off,” Eric said.

They would know in less than thirty seconds whether Juan had succeeded.

Linc was the Oregon’s best sniper. Even though his submachine gun wasn’t suited to that purpose, Juan knew that if he gave him the right moment Linc would make the shot.

Juan shouted to Linc, “Now!”

Juan slid out from behind the pipe and emptied his magazine at the men who were stalking him below. But he never raised his head above the floor of the catwalk. His fusillade was merely a diversion.

Linc fired, but his target wasn’t either of the men by the red box encasing the explosives. It was the display Chen had been using to reprogram the self-destruct mechanism.

The ghostly woman’s voice started counting down. “Ten… nine… eight… seven…”

Juan peeked over the edge and saw that Linc’s aim had been true. The display was destroyed, as was any chance of Chen’s completing his task.

“…six… five… four…”

Seeing that their attempt to stop the explosion had been ended, Chen and the man watching him raced for cover.

“…three… two… one—”

They didn’t make it.

Enormous twin blasts reverberated through the hold, tearing huge gaps in the hull. Chen and the guard disappeared in the fireball, which was instantly doused by the water flooding into the ship.

Shrapnel flew through the hold, but Juan was protected by the water pipe. However, the catwalk was severed by a piece of flying metal. The section Juan was lying on tilted suddenly, and he slid down toward the churning mass of water below.

Max watched as geysers of water erupted next to the Colossus 1. It immediately began to settle in the water. With the sandstorm still raging, he could only assume the same had occurred with the other ships.

“Damage report?” he said to Eric.

“No hull breaches reported,” Eric replied. They were already three hundred yards away from the sinking ships and accelerating.

The captains of the Colossus ships began issuing SOS signals and declaring that they were abandoning ship.

“Eric, we certainly want to do our duty,” Max said. “Let’s throw out a couple of life rafts and then get out of here.”

“Aye, sir.”

While he took care of that, Max called Linda to find out what happened to Juan.

Juan dug his fingers into the grating at the bottom of the catwalk and caught himself before he tumbled into the roiling water.

The dangling end of the catwalk was near the vat-topped walkway. He couldn’t climb back up, so Juan swung himself over and landed on the metal walkway.

He looked up and saw Linc and Murph still up on the catwalk.

“Are you all right?” Linc called down over the rushing water’s roar.

“Bumps and bruises! You?”

“We’re okay. We’ll be down in a minute to get you.”

“No!” Juan yelled. “Get off the ship now. That’s an order!”

“Aye, Chairman. See you on the Gator.” He pushed Murph forward, and they ran toward the bow.

That way was blocked for Juan, the explosion taking out most of the vat he’d have to cross. The water level was already three-quarters of the way up the sides of the vats.

He raced for the stern. About halfway there, his path was blocked by a huge pipe knocked off its base by a flying girder.

Xavier Carlton was trapped underneath it, his legs pinned by the enormous metal cylinder. He was still conscious, his face contorted in agony. Juan tried lifting the pipe, but it was no use. It had to weigh more than half a ton.

When he saw Juan, he gritted his teeth and said, “Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“I’ve kept you from unleashing a deadly force that you couldn’t possibly hope to control.”

Carlton shook his head. “You fool. You’ve killed us all. Colossus was the only thing that could stop Romir Mallik and the Vajra satellites.”

“We already know about the Vajra electromagnetic pulse weapon. Mallik is planning to use it for the Indian military. He already used it on Diego Garcia. His newest satellite is going up any day now.”

The water continued to rise. Juan had to leave soon if he was going to get out of the hold alive.

Carlton shook his head even more violently and grabbed Juan’s arm.

“You don’t understand anything! Vajra wasn’t designed as a weapon. He’s going to shut down everything.”

“What do you mean, everything?”

“Once he has all twenty satellites in orbit, Mallik will activate them all simultaneously. It will set up a resonant wave that will multiply the effect of the individual satellites and wipe out all computers across the world.”

“Are you sure?”

Carlton nodded, and grimaced as he spoke. “I had a mole in his organization. He showed me the calculations.”

“How long will the effect last?”

“For as long as the satellites are in orbit and have power. Fifty years. Maybe a hundred. Nobody knows. But for all that time, no computer on the face of the planet will work again, not unless it’s deep underground or under the water.”

The water had risen to the top of the vat. It began to cover Carlton’s body.

Juan needed to hear more. He tried again to move the pipe, but it was futile.

“Get Mallik!” Carlton screeched in a terrified wail as he attempted to keep his head above the water. “Don’t let him stop the world! Don’t let him—”

The water covered Carlton’s face, and his arms thrashed for a few more moments before sinking out of sight.

Juan splashed through the water toward the emergency exit. By the time he climbed up to the door, the Colossus 5 was already beginning to list as it sank toward the bottom of the Suez Canal. During his entire journey back to the Gator, Carlton’s chilling last words echoed in his mind.

Don’t let him stop the world.