Read Online Code Breakers: Alpha by Colin F. Barnes - Free Book Online

by a concentric ring. Along this ring, there were at least fifty, maybe more, small squares. Gerry guessed these were the towers. The circle, he assumed, was probably City Earth.
    There were no obvious ways of manipulating or connecting to the console.
    One of the squares began to flash, and outside, a siren began to tear through the atmosphere.
    “I can’t stop it!” Gerry searched the console and all round the small room. It was empty: just a chair and the damned projection of the map.
    He stuck his head outside, looking at Petal and Gabriel, who were helping each other up. Then Gerry caught on: the wire coming from Gabe’s neck into the box.
    “Gabe, how do I connect? With that box?”
    Gabriel smiled and shook his head. “You gotta go in deeper. Like the guard here…” Gabriel kicked at the man’s head until it rolled over, facing Gerry. His goggles were ripped to shreds from the gun blast. Inside one eye socket something glinted—something metallic.
    “Ever hacked a dead man?” Gabe said.

Chapter 7
     
    G erry helped Gabriel to his feet and looked away as the older man removed the jack plug from his neck. Despite his own newly fitted ports, he still couldn’t get used to the idea of plugging hardware into one’s self. It wasn’t natural.
    “You’ll get used to it eventually, man,” Gabriel said as he let the cable drop to the dusty ground.
    “It’s part of you now, part of your job,” Petal said.
    “Job? I didn’t ask for this.” Gerry slumped against the tower and eased the pain in his neck. His whole body felt like taut rope. “What do you need me to do?”
    Gabriel twisted his neck and stretched his arms. He looked rough: heavy bags under his eyes and a network of bloodshot veins infiltrating his corneas. Gabe kicked at the massive corpse. “This guard right ’ere is usually accommodating, but he got greedy, wanted more than we could afford. That box over there that I was connected to—that’s a donation box. It took all my bins and refused to let us through. Something’s changed. I need you to get inside his head, crack his AIA, switch off the alarm, and see what’s going on. And you’ve probably got about five minutes to do it before we’re executed by his pals.”
    “He’s dead. See—no brains left. What do you expect me to find?”
    Petal’s face lit up with a wicked grin.
    “What?” Gerry asked as Gabe joined Petal in their secret glee. It felt like he was back at first school. A green, know-nothing kid.
    “You really don’t know? Oh, that’s real precious. The Family have you lot completely duped.”
    Gerry was losing his patience and irritation started to prickle at his skin. It was that or the heat. Now that he was out of the protection of City Earth’s dome and subsequent controlled microclimate, the natural rays of the sun were beginning to burn a little on his skin. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, but it wasn’t helping him keep his cool.
    Petal’s smile dropped, and she looked to the ground. “Sorry, Gez. Let me explain.” She bent down next to the corpse. She took a leather glove from a pocket on her combat trousers and put it on before reaching into the cavity of what was left of the guard’s head. The brain mulch squelched as she searched for something.
    “See this here? You can plug directly into it and get into his AIA. It’s how he operated the terminal.”
    “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. If you know all this, why are you asking me to do it? And that’s disgusting, not to mention disrespectful.”
    “He tried to kill us. What d’ya expect? A perfect burial?” Gabe said.
    “You’re a priest. Shouldn’t you be like, you know…”
    “I believe in no god, Gez. I’m a different kind of priest, and you’ll learn all this soon enough. Look, Petal’s storage is full to bursting. If she tries anything, all hell will break loose. And I’m not talking biblical hell here, not that you’d know about any of that. The Family have seen to that,