Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1) by Mariana Morgan (essential reading txt) 📕

His fingers flashed, waking up all the scanners and cams in a fifty-metre radius.

‘CamN3, follow,’ Gonzalez ordered. He was puzzled and more than just a little uneasy. Where was Eloise Moretti, and why was Ingram walking away so… clumsily?

Instantly, the pre-designed instructions prompted the nanobots into action. A tiny thruster fired and CamN3 flew quietly, following Ingram a few metres above and behind. Behind the cam, the perimeter sealed itself under Rivas’ careful instructions as the remaining cams rearranged their positions to cover the gap.

‘She is walking’—stumbling would really have been a better choice—‘directly north. Shortest route to the old road.’

‘No,’ Gonzalez said. ‘She is walking north, but not to the road.’

A satellite image popped up on yet another holo-screen and Ingram’s path became apparent. She was curving slightly to the east, towards an abandoned four-hundred-year-old hunting chalet.

‘Shortest walking distance,’ Rivas murmured, activating cams installed around the chalet.

It was indeed the shortest walking distance the exhausted woman could have chosen. By driving deeper into the woods right up to the hunting chalet, she had saved herself some three hundred metres, but at the expense of approaching Roc de Chere via the most obvious route.

There were two reasons why Ingram might have chosen such an approach. First, because she had no other choice, and it really was an emergency, and second, because she wanted to tell them something.

The most obvious approach was heavily covered by security cams, and the chalet had a few of its own, albeit with no BCC scanners. It was tempting to raze the chalet to the ground due to its worrying proximity to Roc de Chere, but it would have been too suspicious.

Long ago, it had been a great place for a blissful few days’ escape into the woods, but now, its condition was pitiful. Despite that, it was possible that someone might stumble upon it and use it for shelter. It was good to have some cams monitoring what was going on, even if the alerts they received were triggered by wildlife.

Right now, a single dilapidated and vanishingly old car was parked near it. In the past, it was probably the pride of some fairly well-off farmer, but those years of splendour were long gone and Rivas was surprised that the vehicle still functioned.

‘No sign of human activity,’ Rivas reported quickly, scanning the feed coming in from the chalet’s cam. ‘If Ms Moretti is there, she must be inside the car.’

‘CamN3, analysis,’ Gonzalez instructed, his eyes focused on the cam following Ingram some hundred metres short of the chalet. He keyed in his personal access code to override standing instructions and the cam approached Ingram. At a range of barely two metres the scanners could access much more than just one’s identity, but the chances of being spotted by a human increased. The cam interfaced with Ingram’s BCC and the disembodied voice of a computer began spitting out her vitals: her heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate—

‘Enough.’ Gonzalez cut the computer off. If uninterrupted it would continue relaying the data in descending order of importance. He didn’t need more. Ingram was hurt and in bad need of help. No wonder she was staggering, using trees for balance and dragging her feet, ruining the vegetation. Even with the nanobots, it would take a couple of hours to restore the greenery back to its original state, but it was clear Ingram was no longer in control of her exhausted body.

‘Scan!’ Gonzalez ordered, directing CamN3 to envelope the chalet and the surrounding areas.

‘Ingram. Sergeant. Moretti, Eloise. Elite,’ the computer replied instantly, and as the second identification registered, an alarm started wailing.

Rivas slapped a button, cutting the audible signal off, while the rest of the pre-programmed security routine sent all the other cams into heightened alert. Then he typed in more directives, giving Eloise temporary exemption and making sure in the process that the security system was free to focus on other potential threats.

For a heartbeat Gonzalez froze, waiting to see if the scanner picked up anything else, and then: ‘Wide angle. Scan.’

The cam obediently raised itself, providing a pre-programmed wide-angle view while it scanned a hundred-metre radius. Even the highly advanced machine needed a moment to process a request covering that large an area.

‘No other BCC detected,’ it reported in a flat tone.

‘Maximum range, scan,’ Gonzalez ordered instantly, his eyes glued to Ingram, who reached the car and froze slumped over the bonnet. Her stillness did not bode well. She must have noticed CamN3 following her but hadn’t wasted energy trying to interact.

Without waiting for an order, Rivas instructed the cams in the perimeter closest to the current location of CamN3 to extend their own ranges, effectively covering the same area between the chalet and the bunker.

‘No other BCCs detected,’ CamN3 reported.

‘No other BCCs detected,’ CamN2, CamN4 and CamN5 reported in unison, and Gonzalez blinked, surprised, and then nodded with a quick smile of approval at Rivas.

Next, Gonzalez turned his attention to the air. Their radar sensors were in permanent scanning mode and showed no threats. Of course, that data was less reliable than short-distance BCC-scanning on the ground. The enemy had their own Stealthies that could sneak up on Roc de Chere and into extreme missile range without betraying their location. On the other hand, at that distance, the Stealthies’ passive sensors couldn’t possibly locate something as small as two people and an old-fashioned car.

Realising there was nothing else to scan for remotely, Gonzalez was halfway up from his seat when a throat cleared itself next to him. He glared at Rivas, but the lieutenant refused to look away.

‘Fine. Go!’ Gonzalez ordered, admitting defeat. Again, this was not the time for him to go out himself, acting like an ancient cowboy.

Lieutenant Rivas didn’t waste any time and was out of the room before Gonzalez settled back down in his chair. He made a quick dash for some gear, grabbing three pairs of night-vision goggles and a stretcher. The stretchers were exceptionally light, with their own set of multiple