Doctor Who_ Trading Futures - Lance Parkin [89]
‘Retinal scan. Say something, Mather. Say your name.’
‘I am Felix Mather, President of the United States of America.’
‘Voice pattern match,’ Dee said. ‘It’s scanning to make sure it’s not a recording or a sample.’
The screen flashed green.
Dee turned to Mather. ‘Give me your ULTRA code.’
‘There are safeguards.’
‘Come on.’
He did, and a moment later, the screen showed a map of the world, with arrows of various sizes and colours swirling around the continents.
Mather looked Baskerville in the eye. ‘Is this all this has been? A bank raid?’
Baskerville smiled. ‘The IFEC. The International Financial Exchange Computer.’
‘I know what the IFEC is. I was Vice President when the IFEC Accord was signed.’
‘One protocol, one system that controls every single electronic financial transaction. Everywhere in the world. Everywhere that counts, anyway.’
Dee was tapping away, running programs from those discs of hers.
‘You want to tap into it. Steal some money?’
‘I have plenty of money, and the capacity to make plenty more. There’s a World War brewing, Mr President. Your government has already paid me billions for RealWar hardware, and so have the Eurozone.’
Mather glanced back at the screen.
‘The flow of capital,’ Baskerville said, thumbing back at the screen. ‘That is capitalism. It’s what made America great. Until IFEC, it was pretty difficult to see it spread out quite so boldly.’
‘It’s beautiful,’ Mather said. It sounded silly, but it was. It was like looking at a living organism, and the closer he looked, the more and more details he saw.
‘It is. And who owns it?’
‘No one.’
‘Exactly. And that’s what I’m going to change. Miss Kapoor said it before – I’m going to steal money. All of it.’
Mather laughed out loud. ‘All the money in the world?’
‘Yes.’
‘But that’s mad. The authorities…’
‘– won’t know,’ Dee finished for him.
‘You intend to kill me?’ Mather said, apparently resigned to it.
‘No. I intend to cut you in.’
‘You’re mad.’
‘You really should be careful what names you call your bank manager,’ Dee chuckled.
Mather stood. ‘I don’t understand what I’m being offered here. You’re still going to give the Americans time travel?’
The door exploded, and before the dust had settled, Malady Chang was in the room, an alien ray gun in each hand – both pointing at Baskerville.
‘Don’t move,’ she said quietly. ‘Mr President? You OK?’
‘I’m fine, Malady.’ He stepped behind her, towards the door.
Baskerville and Dee were both pointing guns at her.
‘You won’t make it through that door.’
Malady smiled, backing towards it.
She felt a gun in her back.
‘Who are you?’ Relker asked. ‘What the hell is going on?’
Baskerville beamed. ‘Finally. Relker, I presume? This is a CIA agent, that is the President of the United States, and I am your employer.’
‘You’re Baskerville?’
Baskerville sighed. ‘Yes. Now, step out the way so I can kill these two.’
Malady lowered her guns, until they were pointing at the floor.
Baskerville chuckled. ‘Not going down fighting, Lieutenant Commander Chang? How disappointing.’
Malady fired.
The floor beneath her feet, and the President’s, disintegrated, and they dropped through the hole.
Relker fired, instinctively, almost hitting Baskerville.
Baskerville glared at him, then shot him with the gyrojet pistol. Relker exploded, a little messily.
‘We really should get out of here,’ Dee told him.
‘Is it done?’
‘Let’s get to safety, then find out,’ she suggested.
* * *
Cosgrove watched another sub‐screen go blank as another robot was destroyed by the alien creatures.
There were six aliens in total, each in armour, each with those cutting beams. If he could just have one of his RealWar machines get one of the alien guns, he could even the odds a little.
Every RealWar machine in the factory was now active – he’d pulled them off the assembly lines, he’d pulled a couple from the repair shop.
The class twos could patrol outside, they could operate in the hangar and on the factory floor. But nowhere else. And they were