Hex Read online

  The laboratory’s system was separated from all of the main information networks and she had almost given up hope of getting a message out. The communications lines were sealed against computer data flow, scrambling any signal sent out from the lab’s computers. But there was one angle Kalden had failed to cover. It was a residential facility and the scientists required certain amenities. She had tracked the power grid to the residential area of the lab and discovered the vidcoms in almost every room. The vidcoms, used for recreation by the scientists, were configured to handle the data flow from the channels they picked up and send signals out in return. Raven tapped into that connection and began rigging up a physical circuit in the control room to handle the jerry-rigged communication channel while she concentrated on the message she had to send.

  She had no difficulty in finding convincing evidence of the CPS’s illegal experimentation. From the moment she had destroyed the virus nesting within the system she had been downloading its data files. The duffel bag on the floor beside her was rapidly filling with disks. But in the course of her rape of the system she had located the evidence she would need, records of the experiments performed, complete from original assessments to final autopsy reports, coupled with a small but chilling selection of video recordings of some of the test subjects. She patched the records together with the location of the lab, the identity of Dr. Kalden, and the relevant section of European Law that allowed the extermination of Hexes and imposed the penalties for allowing a known Hex to live. There was no legislation precluding experimentation, but on that subclause alone, the CPS would find themselves with a lot of explaining to do.

  The data package complete, Raven dived into her own connection with the network, and streamed toward the main UK directory. Tendrils of her consciousness snaked through the database, collecting listings of media channels, humanitarian organizations, government ministries, and foreign embassies. She intended that this information dump would be as much of an embarrassment as possible to the government, which must have colluded in it. Her list complete, she added it to her information dump, so that those who received it would know exactly how widespread its release was.

  > send message < Raven commanded and the system complied, sending out a thousand data pulses in every possible direction, arriving simultaneously in systems across the country.

  The Hex’s mouth tightened into a grim smile, but she wasn’t finished yet. This time she was heading for the vidchannels themselves, tracking those streaming paths of data to their source. It was something she’d never tried to do before; the incompatibility of technologies would have made it difficult even when not operating from a separate system, but her use of those channels to send her message into the net gave her the idea of utilizing them more directly. As her consciousness ranged through each of the media vidchannels, leaving a tag on each, she directed the video monitors in the control room to pick up the feed from ten major channels, from news to entertainment. Then with a brief moment of intense concentration she pulled on those tags and released her data package.

  • • •

  Ali gasped as she saw what was happening. Ten of the monitor screens had been showing the images from vidchannels, apparently at Raven’s command. But, just as she was about to inquire whether the other girl thought they were in need of some light entertainment, all the vidchannels blacked out for a microsecond, coming back on line simultaneously to show the same image. Pictures of mutilated children passed across the screen, covered by a continuously scrolling text, comprised of the test results. Test subjects followed each other in rapid succession, each image accompanied by a name, details of the experiments performed and the date of death. Raven was flooding the vidchannels with proof that the world couldn’t ignore.

  As the others stared, Raven detached herself from the computer and turned to challenge Luciel with dark eyes.

  “Satisfied?” she asked.

  “Not entirely,” he replied. “But it’ll do.”

  “My pleasure.” Raven bowed ironically and then turned to Wraith. “I’m going to bring the flitter to the roof of this building; we’ll have to get up there somehow.”

  “Is that safe?” Kez asked, warily.

  “How can you do that?” Ali demanded, their voices overlapping.

  “I left the flitter’s com-channel open. The scanning devices here don’t pick it up as anything more than white noise, but if you know what you’re looking for, and you have the skill, you can hack into its controls.” She shrugged. “With running lights off, no one’ll see it coming. But we can’t afford to cut it much closer.”

  “Right,” Wraith agreed and switched on his wrist com, broadcasting to Finn and Jeeva at once. “Get ready to make a break,” he ordered. “The flitter will be waiting on the roof. We have to make it up there.”

  “OK, get ready to run then, friend,” Jeeva’s reply came back. “We won’t be able to hold them here while we’re heading in the opposite direction.”

  “Raven, can you control the lab system once we’ve left here?” Wraith asked sharply.

  Raven reached into her coat and produced a small black control pad, which emitted a piercing sound, traveling quickly through the upper harmonics before disappearing from their hearing range. She held it in her left hand while her right hand traveled quickly over the keypad and then turned back to nod at Wraith.

  “I can keep control for a while, but as soon as the scientists get back in here they can lock me out, and trace me by the signal from this.”

  “They’ll be able to trace us anyway, once they’ve got their system back,” Kez pointed out and Raven grinned at him.

  “Not for long,” she told them. “I’m setting an automatic domino circuit fuser. Once I trigger the right command this system will be irretrievably trashed.”

  “The data from the experiments will be lost?” Luciel asked.

  “Unless they have copies,” Raven replied. “But even if they lose it all, I’ve still got it.”

  “You downloaded the data files?” Luciel asked, wavering between surprise and disgust.

  “The CPS have had access to these files for years,” Raven pointed out. “It’s about time a Hex got the chance.” As she spoke she grabbed the last stack of disks and threw them into her bag. “I’m set,” she told Wraith.

  The ganger immediately switched on his wrist com and alerted Finn and Jeeva.

  “Meet us at the elevator, one minute,” he told them. “We’re getting out of here.” Wraith slung the slumped form of Revenge over his shoulder and handed his gun to Ali. “Cover my back,” he ordered and headed for the door.

  “Wraith!” Ali’s protest was almost a wail, but the ganger wasn’t listening.

  “Here,” said Raven, coming up behind her. “Hold it like this.” She adjusted Ali’s hands on the weapon, placing one of them lightly on the trigger. “You see anything, shoot.”

  “But . . . ,”Ali began.

  “It doesn’t matter if you don’t hit anything,” Kez told her, reloading his own gun. “The guards won’t charge into gunfire, and the important thing is to keep them back.”

  • • •

  The CPS guards charged around the corner of the corridor as the sound of gunfire ceased, just in time to see the elevator doors close. The first man to arrive at the elevator pressed the call panel, but it was already dead.

  “They’re still in control of the system,” he announced.

  “But they’re out of the control room,” his leader responded. “Call Kalden and tell him this floor is secure. Have him get his scientists to release the lock on the elevators. Then get after the intruders.”

  Raven was jammed between Finn and Jeeva in the elevator, one hand gripping her customized gun, the other holding the link to the computer system. Through the transceiver she was aware of the computers still obeying her orders, pumping out the evidence over the vidchannels, locking out the security systems, transmitting all the data they had to Raven. She leaned against the hard white metal wal
l of the elevator, closing her eyes. They were burning with the pain of sensory overload and she could hear a buzz building up in her eardrums. Raven bit her lower lip hard, trying to concentrate on an easily defined pain, rather than the reality of what was happening to her. She had never engaged in so many complex computer operations at once. Now her body was finally feeling the strain and she knew that she was reaching her tolerance levels.

  Slumped against the wall, trying hard not to succumb to the overwhelming flood of exhaustion, Raven didn’t notice when the elevator began to slow. But when it ground to a halt, Wraith grabbed her arm, shaking her roughly awake.

  “Raven!” he demanded. “What’s going on?”

  “Wraith.” Raven opened her eyes with an effort, not wanting to admit the truth. She concentrated and the elevator started again, the effort causing her knees to buckle. Kez caught her before she hit the floor and held her upright.

  “Raven? You OK?” he asked, with concern.

  “I’m fine,” Raven insisted. She glared at him, but didn’t pull away, admitting to herself, if not to her companions, that she lacked the strength to support herself anymore. She had been running on adrenaline and determination; now she had only the determination left. “We’ve got to get out of here soon,” she told Wraith. “I won’t be able to hold control over the computer much longer and I don’t want to trigger the system wipe until we’re safely out of the lab.”

  • • •

  Dr. Kalden glanced angrily around the control room as he entered, and suddenly stopped dead. Behind him he heard a shocked gasp, but his consuming emotion was anger. Splashed across the row of security monitors were transmissions from vidchannels, their logos identifying them to be a broad section of the media. All of them were showing information so classified that only senior CPS officials had access to it.

  “Our security has been compromised,” he said in an icy voice.

  “We’ll be crucified,” one of the scientists moaned and Kalden shot him a steely glare.

  “This experimentation was authorized at the highest level,” he stated. “If those gutter rats intend to accomplish anything by this, they are gravely mistaken.” He studied the computer monitor for a few moments, then gestured to one of his operatives. “Shut down this transmission and get this system back under control. I want the lab’s defenses back online now.”

  The operative seated himself at the terminal and his fingers sped rapidly over the keypad. After a few moments he began to frown.

  “The system’s acting up,” he informed Kalden. “It’s not letting me back in.”

  “She’ll have put a block up,” Kalden said impatiently. “Break it.”

  The operative returned to the keypad, watched intently by Kalden, and after a few minutes the images on the monitors winked out.

  “I’ve shut down the transmission, sir,” the man said with relief. “And I’m trying to regain control of the security system.”

  “Can you find out where the intruders are?” one of the guards asked. “If we know that we won’t need the defenses—we can go and get them personally.”

  It was a while before the operative could persuade the computer system to provide him with an answer. Eventually he stated:

  “They’re on the roof.”

  “Get after them,” Kalden ordered fiercely. “Don’t let them leave this complex! That girl’s been in this system—if she’s allowed to escape she could do untold amounts of damage to our research.”

  As the security people raced after the gangers, one of the scientists turned to speak to Kalden:

  “What if they escape, sir?” he asked nervously. “The media exposure alone . . .”

  “There are ways to minimize this damage,” Kalden said, cutting him off. “The media won’t find anything here to use against us. I’ve taken precautions against that.”

  • • •

  Wraith raced across the flat roof of the laboratory, still carrying the unconscious form of Revenge and closely followed by Ali and Luciel. Raven and Kez were a little behind them, Raven grudgingly accepting Kez’s aid. Jeeva and Finn brought up the rear, guns ready for any sign of pursuit. The flitter was waiting for them, and as they approached, the doors hissed open at Raven’s command. Only Kez noticed her stagger as they did so.

  Jeeva and Finn covered the area while Wraith placed Revenge as gently as he could in the back of the vehicle. He hurried Ali and Lucil in after her, retrieving his gun, and turned back to the others just as a shout rang out from across the roof.

  “Guards!” warned Jeeva, and Finn spoke simultaneously:

  “They’ve found us.”

  “I’m losing control of the system,” Raven warned and the gangers ducked as the guards fired at them.

  “Into the flitter!” Wraith ordered and Finn and Jeeva piled into the back as Raven took the driver’s seat and Kez slid in beside her. Wraith fired one last volley at the guards, who were much closer now, before hurling himself inside, beside Finn. The doors hissed shut and the flitter took off into the air. Raven was using manual controls instead of her link with the machine, but even so the flitter climbed swiftly, out of the range of the guns and rifles.

  “We’re out of range,” Finn stated and Ali breathed a sigh of relief. Two seconds later there was a flash of light and searchlights came to life all over the facility. There was the boom of an automatic gun and the flitter banked to avoid the fire.

  “The CPS is in control of the computer system again,” Wraith deduced. “Raven, kill it.”

  Kez turned to look at Raven as her eyes defocused, glazing over as she renewed her link with the lab’s computer system. The searchlights went dead and the gun was silenced. Raven’s eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped forward over the control panel, as the flitter went into a screaming dive.

  “Raven!” Wraith yelled and Ali screamed piercingly. Kez lunged at the controls over Raven’s body and forced the flitter back on course. He was shaking with tension as he wrestled with the controls and climbed over Raven to pilot the flitter from the driver’s seat.

  “Can you handle it, kid?” Jeeva asked, and he nodded.

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “What’s wrong with Raven?” Ali demanded, an edge of hysteria in her voice.

  “She’s still breathing,” Kez assured her. “She must have knocked herself out shorting out that system.”

  “No sign of pursuit,” Finn reported, from his vantage point at the back of the flitter.

  “I think we’re clear,” Wraith responded. “Kez, what are you doing?”

  “I can’t pilot this thing without lights!” the boy replied angrily. “I’m not Raven. And if the Seccies caught us without lights on the road we’d be pulled over for sure.”

  “Stay chill,” Jeeva told him. “Keep to the speed limit, follow the road. No one knows we were the ones who broke into that lab. There’s no alert out yet.”

  “This place will be swarming with reporters in under an hour,” Ali said authoritatively, losing a little of her tension. “We should worry about them as much as the Seccies, if we don’t want to be caught on camera.”

  “When the media gets here Kalden will have a lot of explaining to do,” Luciel said with satisfaction.

  “I hope so,” Wraith was beginning, when Finn gave a yell.

  “Pursuit!” he warned. “Get off the road!”

  Kez pulled the flitter aside, bringing it to a halt with a jerk and turning off the lights. It hovered there as the cause of Finn’s warning became visible to the rest of them. A group of flitters with CPS symbols emblazoned on their side sped past them, not halting at all. In moments they were out of sight, but Ali pointed downward at more vehicles. Skimmers were on the road below them, heading away from the lab at high speed.

  “The scientists,” Luciel said softly.

  “Rats deserting a sinking ship,” Ali added.

  “I don’t like this.” Wraith’s voice was grim as he watched the lights fade into the distance.

/>   “I guess they don’t want to be here when the media arrive either,” Kez said, craning back to look in the direction of the laboratory.

  It was out of sight, no lights left to show them its location. But all six watched apprehensively, infected by Wraith’s foreboding.

  And then they saw it. The light of the fireball reached them before the sonic boom of the explosion. Clouds of smoke and fire boiled into the sky, throwing flaming debris high into the air. Then the shockwave hit them and the flitter rocked with the air disturbance as the ground far below shook. Wraith clenched his fists and Ali hid her head in Luciel’s shoulder but no one spoke as Kez guided the flitter back over the road, heading back to London while the fireball lit the sky behind them.

  12

  LIES LIKE TRUTH

  The vidscreen was on. It had been on constantly for the past three days since their escape from the lab. Ali sat on the floor of the squat, in front of the battered unit, not looking at any of the others. Barely a word had been spoken since they had arrived back in London, after the long, weary night, and negotiated with the Countess for the use of one of her properties. It was down in the depths of London, in precisely the setting that would in other circumstances have frightened Ali and annoyed Raven. But no one was complaining.

  Raven hadn’t stayed with them. Wraith had told her about the destruction of the lab but she hadn’t said much in response, white and tired from overstraining herself, except to ask if Kalden had escaped. No one knew the answer and when Kez suggested she link up to the net Raven had just shook her head. Once they reached London she had stated her intention of seeking sanctuary with the Countess and no one had had the energy to argue with her.

  The others had been isolated in the three rooms that comprised the squat. Jeeva and Finn had returned once for their payment and to tell Wraith that their gang would not be exacting retribution for Melek’s death. Luciel had remained, tinkering with the electronic equipment that Raven had abandoned when she’d disappeared into the Countess’s fortresslike building. He didn’t speak much, burdened by the weight of his guilt for the lives that had been lost when the lab was destroyed. Wraith was also silent. He spent long hours caring for Revenge, trying to coax a resemblance to the child he had known out of the shattered body of the test subject. Ali already knew that the effort was wasted. But Wraith was trying to salve his own conscience by caring for the child he had managed to save. Kez was still with them, but he disappeared for long hours at a time, wandering the streets of the urban catacombs.