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  “I would love to be included in the thinking, Grea. I have a good knowledge of the city and of the society, and many contacts.” He grinned, a naughty grin, Grea thought. “It is not possible to live in this society for years and not get to know what people’s real thoughts and motivations are. It’s not impossible that we could foment an uprising, particularly of the top businesspeople. If we couple that with other actions, such as flooding the markets with the goods from which the government and religious leaders gain most of their wealth, such as the valuable minerals like gold and platinum, we might be able to bring about a change in our society.”

  Cora looked with astonishment at her father. She had known that he was opposed to much of what the government did, but he had never spoken openly about it.

  “Most importantly, I would like to do whatever I can to protect the two most valuable people in my life.” Phelan did not expand on the subject, leaving both Cora and Grea guessing what he meant. Cora thought she knew who those two were. She had seen the signs of Phelan’s attraction to Grea, and of her to him. Now she smiled at him.

  “I’ll do whatever I can to help you in that, dad.” Cora smiled at Grea.

  “If you can spare the time, Phelan, I suggest that we transport to the laboratory, so that we can all meet together to decide what to do. I think that the best time to take action is now, before StateSec can gear up to move against us.”

  In response, Phelan referred to a diary, and then walked across to his office door.

  “Sherin, I'd like you to drive over to the food warehouse and make sure that the order they got in this morning is actioned correctly and quickly. We can’t afford to lose the customer. Take my car. I’m going out to a meeting with one of the metals suppliers, and I’ll get him to pick me up. When you’re done there, take the rest of the afternoon off. You’ve earned it, and I know you can use the time with your family.”

  “Thanks, Phelan. You can rely on me.”

  “I know I can, Sherin.”

  Phelan smiled at his secretary and then closed the door.

  “Sherin has worked for me for the past ten years,” Phelan explained to Grea. “She started as my secretary, but she quickly became invaluable as a personal assistant. She now understudies me throughout the company, but she insists on doing my secretarial work. She’s one of those people you can rely on totally.”

  They waited in the office until Sherin had departed, then they walked across to the warehouse. Grea called in the transporter cabinet and they crowded in for the fraction of a second it took to reach the laboratory.

  The surprise of the others was soon replaced by welcome when they learned Phelan’s identity.

  “We’ve already implemented our decision to feed false background sounds into the listening device, and we’ve disconnected its listening function, so we can talk freely.”

  “Cora and I chatted briefly with Phelan in his office, and he’s offered to help us. Bian. He came up with an interesting suggestion, that we flood the market with the commodities from which the government and religious leaders derive most of their income. That will reduce their income sharply, and divert their attention away from whatever else we’re doing. It may also contribute to reducing their power. I have no doubt that the people they rely on will become much less willing to support them when the flow of money dries up, and with that the influence they can wield.”

  “I like the idea, Grea. Can we get information on what those commodities are?”

  “I’ll work on that with Phelan,” volunteered Grea. “He already has some ideas on that.” Cora was not surprised, but she was pleased. She had developed a strong affection for the older woman, and she knew that she and her father would do a good job.

  “You mentioned that there might be an army convoy heading towards Mount Kina, Cora. I think it might be a good idea to disrupt them, and other military units as well. We can use the particles to cause them all sorts of problems. We can make the roads impassable, disrupt their radio and telephone communications, arrange to issue false orders.”

  “Good idea, Petros. Will you do that with Cora?”

  “No problem, Aria.”

  “Good. The next logical step will be to listen in to their plans. I’ll do it with Savi. Adin and Solon, will you look into the government’s central computer systems? It would be useful to make some alterations to their systems and infrastructure, so that they slow down. The same with their tax and financial computer systems. We can starve them of funds very quickly if we get it right. Tera and Doral, I'd like you to continue working with Bian on the transporter system, particularly the remote probe system. Until we get that operating, it would be useful to map the city with an automated probe so that we can get some transporter coordinates on record. They might be useful in the near future.” Aria looked at her team, smiling. “Are there any questions or problems? … No? Good. Let’s get to work.

  Chapter 15

  Cora and Petros went into the transporter cabinet, and transported to the chamber.

  “Grea set the computer to monitor the trucks that we saw, Petros. Can we access that record?”

  Petros walked with Cora to the desk adjoining the one that Grea had used. He swept his hand over the desktop, opening the computer screen, then typed in a command, explaining his actions to Cora.

  “Everything we need to do on the computer can be selected from a list of actions, Cora. It is quite intuitive. However, if you know the exact function you want to access, you simply type it in, and the computer either displays it, or, if the command you used is not correct, it displays a set of possible commands that you can select from. You can also give instructions by voice with the same results, or request a voice response from the computer.” Petros glanced at the screen and smiled. “I see that the computer has a rudimentary understanding of your language, and can respond to many commands given in that language. That might simplify the matter for you a little, although I must compliment you on your ability to use our version of the language. Listening to you speak makes me wonder whether you are singing. It is very pleasant.”

  Cora looked sharply at Petros. He was a young man, only a year or two older than she was, and good looking, as were all the newcomers. Even Grea and Bian, who were obviously a little older than the others, were physically and mentally attractive people. Cora thought that Bian and Aria, who were clearly of different generations, made an attractive couple. She could understand the obvious love between them. The intelligence shone from the eyes of both of them, as it did with Grea. And with Petros, she thought. Cora brought her thoughts sternly under control, and looked at the desktop display. It showed a remarkably clear aerial view of the trucks, now nearing the place where the camp had stood. They would have to pass by that position to reach the point where she and Savi had started their climb. The snow was coming down more heavily, visible in the picture, although it did not interfere with the clarity of it.

  “We’ll need to stop them soon, Petros, if we want to prevent them coming up here. It will be much harder to do when they leave the trucks and start the climb.”

  “We can fix that fairly easily. I’ll undermine the road just ahead of the lead truck, to behind the last truck. That should slow them down.”

  Petros shifted over to Grea’s desk and issued a few quick commands.

  “I’ll show you how to do it when we have more time, Cora. I used Grea’s desk so that we don’t interrupt the show. We can shrink the window and do whatever we wish on this one computer, but there’s no need for that at the moment. Ah, the road is collapsing under the lead truck.”

  The event was not spectacular, with fireworks and sound effects. It was a simple subsiding of the road under the weight of the lead truck. It sank down to its axles slowly, bringing the forward motion of the truck to a stop, and then the road subsided further, until only the top of the canopy was visible. By then, the second truck was halfway down, and the third and fourth trucks were up to their axles in the road surface. The stunned soldiers
in the trucks did not comprehend what was happening until it was too late. One by one, they cut their way clear through the canopies and leapt over to the side of the road, only to find that the ground there was like quicksand, dragging them down until their legs were trapped.

  “That worked like a charm, Petros!” Cora laughed gaily. The impending life-threatening situation had developed into a comedy.

  “I believe that you can always have fun if you work at it,” responded Petros, smiling broadly. “What is next on the list?”

  “Could we do something to inconvenience the people who were watching Savi’s house? I object strongly to that sort of behavior.”

  “That’s easy. We already know the coordinates of the laboratory, so it will be a snap to find the coordinates of their car.” Petros reduced the size of the window with the soldiers, and opened another window, a map of the city. Certain spots were marked on it. Cora deduced from their location that the spots represented known locations, with the coordinates registered by the computer. Cora looked around and saw with surprise that the other members of the team had all transported in and were working at their desks. She had not noticed their arrival. She switched her attention back to what Petros was doing, learning how to control the computer’s actions. Petros was using a joystick to control the movement of a red point until it was settled against the tire of the car outside Savi’s home, then he selected a list, scrolled down it to ‘Heat’, and then touched the ‘Activate’ button. The tire became visibly red, then burst in a messy display of molten rubber. Startled by the explosion, the men inside the car leaped out, looking around wildly for the cause of the sound. The front end of the car was already sagging, and the men quickly identified the cause. Cursing, one of them extracted a jack from under the rear seat while the other walked around to the trunk. He lifted the spare tire from its recess and put it on the road, then stopped in dismay when he saw that it, too, was flat. There was a quick discussion and then one of the men pulled a radio from his pocket, clearly intending to call in assistance. He thumbed the radio angrily then listened, then thumbed it again, growing visibly more angry as his efforts failed to produce any results. Finally, he threw the radio on the seat of the car, slammed the door shut, and stalked off. The first man completed his work in lifting the flat tire clear of the ground, then looked around. Surprised to see that his companion was gone, he opened the car door and sat down, only to jump up sharply, as he realized that he had sat on the radio. He turned and picked the unit up, its antenna dangling limply. His discomfiture was increased when two teenage boys standing nearby, whose attention had been captured by the sound of the tire exploding, laughed at him as he stood, the damaged radio in his hand.

  “That’s the way to go,” laughed Petros. “Let’s cap it off with some soft road.” He moved over to the mining computer and suggested to Grea what should be done. She responded by issuing a command, referring the area to be mined of silica as that outlined by the car to a depth of three feet, instructing that the material that was mined be delivered to the trunk of the car. The jack was the first to sag into the road, followed by the wheels as they sank to half their depth into the tar.

  Laughing, Petros turned to Cora.

  “It’s hard to be authoritative if people are laughing at you. Let’s find their central computer system. That should be easy to fix.”

  “I know where it is, Petros.” Cora took the joystick and moved the cursor over the plan of the city to the central government offices. Petros motioned to Adin and Solon to come over as Cora navigated to the central computer area.

  “I suggest that we allow Cora to neutralize the computers in the central area, and then you can do what you want with their equipment. Is that acceptable.

  “Of course it is, Petros. Cora knows the city better than we do, and she could use some practice with the system. We’ll watch as she works.” Adin smiled broadly as she pulled up a seat to watch. She sat, throwing her long dark hair over her shoulders in a gesture that Cora had found to be characteristic of her. Cora envied her that beautiful hair, not realizing the Adin loved Cora’s own bright blonde hair.

  Petros turned again to Cora.

  “That’s good, Cora. Now select ‘View’ and use the joystick to navigate the pointer to what you want to see. You don’t need to find openings to go through walls. The system chooses a group of particles and then reads what they’re seeing. If you move the cursor, it swaps to the next set of particles, and carries on until you are seeing what you’re looking for. Since the particles are so tiny, there is no problem in navigating through solid objects. The best is that the subject has no idea he is being observed.”

  Following Petros’ guidance, Cora navigated through the walls of the building until she came to a corridor, where she backed off a fraction to read the signs on the doors, then she continued her search into the bowels of the building. She came to a stop when she reached a large room filled with computer equipment.

  “This is the main server room, Petros. What do we do now?”

  “If this equipment is similar to what I’m familiar with, the data and programs are all stored on spinning disks of magnetic material. Is that the case?”

  “I believe so, Petros, although I’m not a computer scientist.”

  “Let’s assume it is. We can instruct the particles to emit a strong magnetic field that will wipe the data from the disks. Let’s do that. It will take a lot of work to do each disk, but it will be very difficult for them to recover from that, and they won’t know what is happening until it is too late. The magnetic field should have the effect of rendering the disk unusable, so they will have to replace every one we work on. We’ll start with the dormant disks. That’s probably where they have backed up their data.”

  Cora navigated to a set of disks that were not in operation, and then selected under ‘Field effects’ the item ‘Magnetism’, moving the slider from ‘0%’ to ‘80%’. She touched ‘Proceed’. There was no visible effect, but she had not expected one. She moved the joystick to the next set of stationary disks and repeated the process. She continued doing that for the next ten minutes, gaining experience with the system as she worked. When she had completed the job, she turned to Petros.

  “That’s done. What now?”

  “While you were working on the disks, I explored a little, and found their central radio room. We could simply close down their radio communications, but I think it might be more useful to confuse them, so I’ve reprogramed some of their channel shortcuts, so that a message intended for A goes to B. They use a lot of text messages, so that will help the confusion. What do you think?”

  “I like it, Petros. Let’s get to work.”

  The afternoon went quickly. By the end of three hours of work, each team had completed the jobs assigned to them, and they could sit back and view the results on their screens. It soon became clear that the State, and particularly the dreaded StateSec had been paralyzed. Members of StateSec were making frantic phone calls, attempting to get information or clarity on the orders that they were receiving, and each attempt simply worsened the situation. It seemed unlikely that they would be able to recover from the confusion for several days. The unfortunate soldiers near Mount Kina had extricated themselves from the sinking road, but they had been unable to get any assistance, and they pitched camp near the road in a snowy field. They had their bedding and some food, but it was clear that they would have to walk back to the nearest farm to get any help, and that would take them at least two days in the deteriorating conditions.

  Night was descending when Phelan suggested that they go to his favorite restaurant for dinner.

  “The food is good, and the owner and his staff are trustworthy people. I frequently take business guests there for dinner, so the size of our party will not raise any suspicions.”

  “I think it’s a great idea, Phelan, and I thank you for suggesting it. I would like all of you to go. You deserve it. Savi and I will remain here and keep watch for StateSec people who
might be in your vicinity, but you can order some food for us and send it back here by transporter. We can change over next time we go.”

  The people were reluctant to leave the two behind, but they acquiesced after some discussion, and they went off, looking forward to their night out.

  “This will be the first time in ten thousand years that a man has taken me to dinner,” quipped Grea as Phelan escorted her into the restaurant. “I’m really looking forward to it.”

  “I am too, Grea, and it won’t be the last time.”

  Back in the chamber, Aria set the computer to monitor the dinner party and the area around it, and to report any person who lurked in one place for more than a half minute. She and Savi watched the display as they talked, sitting side by side on the chair to have the clearest view. The work was not onerous, and it was relieved after half an hour, when Bian transported a series of dishes wrapped in insulating foil. The meal was delicious.

  “It seems that the government organs are more than a little confused at the moment, Savi. They don’t seem to have any coherent plans for a disaster such as the present one.”

  “I understand that. In the past, whenever they had a problem, they reacted by rounding up those they considered most likely to be involved. There have been waves of arrests, up to forty or fifty people in a day, and most of those people are not tried or released. If they are tried, it is before a tame judge, who listens to the charge and makes his decision, regardless of any defense the accused may offer.”

  “What happens to those people who are not released?”

  “I believe that they wind up either in one of the prisons or in one of the prison camps that the government has established to house all the new prisoners. I know where two of them are, but I believe that there are others. The government arrests have created a significant gap in the ranks of academics and businesspeople, so there must be many thousands of prisoners being held somewhere.”