The Spell of Rosette - Kim Falconer [172]
‘How much did you give him?’ Rosette asked, her chest rising and falling.
Kreshkali winked. ‘Enough.’
She pushed him up as he leaned into her. He lost his balance, teetering like a drunk.
‘You won’t be setting off any anxiety alarms now, will you, Doctor?’
‘Still no good,’ he said, smiling like a duck. He threw an arm over her shoulder to keep from stumbling again. ‘It’s got automatic tox-screens.’ His head lolled to one side. ‘My idea, actually. Never thought we’d need it. Whoa…’ He slumped to the floor.
‘Demons!’ she cursed under her breath. ‘Rosette, we have to bring the elevator up. It’s on the ground floor. Can you visualise it?’
She closed her eyes, letting her arms relax. ‘I’ve got it.’
‘I’m going to blow the door and you are going to bring that baby up to me.’
‘Nope, nope, nope…’ The scientist was shaking his head, rubbing his face against her leg as he tried to climb up to standing. ‘Explosions shut down the mainframe. That’s what you’re after, isn’t it?’
Kreshkali snapped her head around to him. ‘Shut the fuck up.’ She pushed him back to the floor.
He raised his head off the tiles. ‘I can show you the way…’
‘What’d you give him?’ An’ Lawrence asked.
‘A dopamine and MDMA cocktail.’
‘So he’s telling the truth?’
‘If he says there’s a way, there probably is.’
‘Show us.’ An’ Lawrence pulled the scientist up by his lapels.
‘Sure, but you might want to deal with them first.’ He pointed towards a contingent of guards rounding the corner at high speed. An’ Lawrence dropped the scientist and drew his sword.
‘How’d you do that?’ Grayson asked, staring at Jarrod, transfixed.
The quantum sentient held his arms out, looking at the sleeves of his white coat, the high-security clearance card and the key to the mainframe. ‘Easy. I turned a thought into a form.’
‘Easy for you,’ Grayson said.
‘Anyone can do it. It happens all the time. You say I want something—a sandwich, a new car, a different life—and sooner or later, there it is. The food, the car, the life. I just do it sooner, rather than later.’
‘You’ll have to show me how some day.’
‘My pleasure.’
They punched the access codes into the elevator security panel, submitted to the DNA scan and stepped onto the platform.
‘Going down,’ Grayson yelled over the sound of sirens, marching boots and the distant ring of battle. After a lifetime of imprisonment in the complex, the long-awaited return of JARROD thrilled him. He nearly couldn’t contain his joy.
‘I gotta tell you, Jarrod. I’ve been waiting for this day.’
‘Me too.’
They found the mainframe on the bottom floor. It took up less space than it once had. Jarrod flinched when he saw a portion of his old hardware merged into the newer computer system. He wasn’t expecting that.
‘You won’t need it any more, will you?’ Grayson asked, as they paused in front of the original JARROD casing.
‘Either way, not after this.’
‘Make it quick. The worm…’
‘Believe me, I know.’ Jarrod removed the side panel. The motherboard sat empty, disconnected. No CPU. He smiled softly, closed his eyes and disappeared. He would know in a nanosecond if the access codes were valid, and if the worm sat waiting.
‘Can you hear me?’ his voice boomed from the internal sound system.
Grayson clapped his hands over his ears. ‘They heard you in Australia. Can you dial it down?’
‘Sec.’ He located the internal sound system. ‘Better?’ Jarrod asked a moment later.
‘Much. How’re the codes going?’
‘Easy. I’m in, I’ve shut it down, I’m out.’
‘What about programming the shields to land.’
‘Done.’
‘That fast?’
‘I’m quantum, remember? Where I am, time isn’t.’
Grayson scratched his head, then startled as Jarrod appeared back beside him in the form of a scientist.
‘We’ve got to run!’
They dashed to the elevator.
‘Did you catch the worm’s attention?’
‘Big-time.’
‘What’s next?’ Grayson asked, closing the elevator doors and pressing the sequence.
‘We get out before Kreshkali levels the place.’
‘Who?’
‘Just picture the queen of the underworld and you’ll be close.’