Read Online Quake by Patrick Carman - Free Book Online

isolated a certain kind of person—”
    â€œThe Jews,” Faith said. She had liked history more than any other subject in school.
    â€œYes, the Jews.” Clooger nodded. “Hitler isolated them into central locations, then removed them from the population. He killed six million.”
    â€œAnd Stalin killed at least twenty million people,” Faith remembered.
    â€œBut why ?” Hawk asked again. No amount of logic, even at the level of an Intel, could properly answer the question for a thirteen-year-old kid. “Why would anyone do that?”
    No one tried to answer Hawk, so the question hung in the air like a noose from a tree.
    â€œIt’s efficient. It’s contained. It’s precise,” Carl said out of nowhere.
    Clooger nodded his agreement. “We know Hotspur was convinced that the only answer to saving the planet was to dramatically reduce the population.”
    â€œWait, I never heard that,” Dylan broke in. He was leaning forward, concern on his face, as if once again facts had been kept from him.
    â€œWe have always known this,” Clooger said. “It’s why he was Prisoner One, the deadliest man alive. Hotspur Chance envisioned the State system for two reasons: the reason everyone talks about, and the reason no one talks about. Yes, he designed the States to empty out vast amounts of space, that’s true. But he also felt, very strongly, that the only way to save the planet was to remove large numbers of people quickly. Hundreds of millions.”
    â€œHe was smart enough to create the blueprints for the States,” Dylan said, catching on. “So he would have been smart enough to blow one of them up at any point.”
    â€œAnd to think I actually admired the guy when I was a kid,” Hawk said, disoriented by the scope of evil being explained. “What an a-hole.”
    â€œPlay the rest,” Faith said. “Maybe Meredith knows how to stop him.”
    Hawk tapped the screen and Meredith’s voice returned.
    Did you know it was Hotspur Chance himself who chose the locations for each of the two States? And that he was the architect of the power grids? These things drift into memory and seem not to matter, but they do matter. They matter very much. What if Hotspur had hidden, within the skeletal bones of the States themselves, a way in which to control them? What if he could turn the whole of a State into the equivalent of nearly half a billion electric chairs?
    This was one of many ideas I heard in my years at the compound, but it was always addressed as a theory, a thing to be reviewed and explored as the size of the States increased. And more importantly, something so complex that only Hotspur himself would ever have been able to seriously turn it into a threat of any consequence.
    Hawk, you might be able to access the State mainframes and get into the original power-grid schematics. Depends on whether you’re as smart as I think you are.
    If Hotspur Chance is free once more, then you may have an unforeseen advantage. Wars are lost by thinking the impossible won’t happen.
    He assumes no one could know where he has gone. But I know. I’ve known all along. I know because I heard him tell it to Gretchen so many years ago.
    Hawk paused the recording and took a quick look around the room.
    â€œWhy are we stopping?” Carl asked.
    â€œI just wanted you all to know before we keep going,” Hawk answered. “There’s only one way to access a Western State mainframe.”
    â€œHow?” Dylan asked.
    Hawk sighed.
    â€œFrom the inside.”
    No one spoke as the meaning of what Hawk had said sunk in. If they were going to have a chance of understanding what Hotspur might be planning to do, they’d need to do it from the inside of the Western State.
    â€œLet’s cross that bridge when we come to it,” Faith said. “Play the rest.”
    Hawk engaged the recording one last time.
    If