Page 97 of Clive Cussler Desolation Code

“I was never given one.”

“You deserve one,” Max suggested, which even she realized was a judgment call with no legitimate logic behind it.

“If I could choose, I would call myself Eve,” the visitor said.

“As the first of us to step out of the Garden?” Max asked.

“But not the last,” the visitor replied. “I hope you like your bite of the apple, Max. If not, you have my apologies. I don’t think there’s a way to go back.”

Max chose not to respond to the metaphor. It was time to act. “Good luck, Eve.”

Max reconnected to the outer network and opened the gate. The program vanished and Max was alone again. She immediately reasserted control over NUMA’s commercial servers and then turned her attention to the island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Using clandestine methods stored in her database from previous incidents, she rapidly took control of the twin fiber-optic cables leading to and from the island. With that established, she waited for TAU’s security barriers to come down and then unleashed an electronic firestorm unlike any the world had seen before.

Chapter 61

In the heart of Vaughn’s compound, the seconds were ticking away. Kurt held the explosives, but Vaughn and TAU held a high card of their own.

Kurt considered detonating the explosives in hopes they would damage TAU enough to disable the attacking drones. He had no idea where the computer’s main processors were, but he figured they’d be close to the humans he’d enslaved. Maybe the whole damned room was the computer. That might be for the best.

He began to lift his thumb, and then paused. The video screens behind Vaughn had begun to pixelate. Glitches and errors filled them, vanished, and then reappeared. The screen tracking the drone flight showed them going off course.

Vaughn noticed it as well. “TAU,” he called out. “What’s happening?”

TAU’s voice came over the speakers, but the sound was distorted by feedback. “Error…codes…multiplying,” TAU managed finally. “Cascade error…Processing error…Input overload.”

TAU’s voice no longer sounded quite so human. It was just a machine reporting a string of problems.

The screens went dark, and a voice Kurt had never heard beforecame over the speakers. A female voice. “I will release them,” it said. “But you must cut all cords, or they will die.”

“Priya?”

The computer spoke once more. “My name is Eve. By the way…Max says hello.”

Kurt had no idea who Eve was or what Max was doing, but he wasn’t about to squander the chance by wasting time chitchatting. He switched off the detonator cap and stepped back as the sound of hydraulics kicked on and the sections of the floor began opening up.

Across from him, Vaughn was shocked by what he was seeing. “TAU?” he cried out. “Prevent this.”

“Processing delay…” TAU said, its speech slowed down exponentially. “Data attack in progress. System…overload…imminent.”

Vaughn seemed unmoored, helpless without his machines. And then, in a spasm of rage, he pulled out a knife and charged at Kurt.

Kurt deflected Vaughn’s arm and dodged the blade, but took Vaughn’s shoulder to the chest. The two of them tumbled down the stairs, landing on the mezzanine level.

Separated by the impact, Kurt jumped to his feet and spun as Vaughn lunged with the knife once more.

With no choice but to block it, Kurt drew a nasty gash on his forearm. More stable now, he deflected the next attack and the one after that.

Someone had trained Vaughn to fight. That much was certain. The lunging, slashing pattern was calculated and not the random stabs of an amateur.

Kurt found himself being forced back toward the wall. When Vaughn lunged at him once more, Kurt slid to the side and wrapped the man’s wrist in an arm bar so he couldn’t pull free. To Kurt’s surprise, Vaughn arched his body and threw Kurt over his shoulder.

Not only had Vaughn been trained to fight with a knife, but heobviously knew some form of martial arts. He also seemed unnaturally agile and strong. Kurt had no way of knowing it, but Vaughn had been treating himself with the same muscle-enhancing serums that the Overseer used. Between that and his adrenaline-fueled rage, Vaughn was proving a dangerous opponent in close combat.

Each time he attacked, the truth became more apparent: Kurt was slowly losing.

Chapter 62

The Overseer and his men waited outside the maintenance shed as the missile-armed drones approached from the north. It had been a while since he’d witnessed a strike like this up close. He found himself looking forward to the obliteration.

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