Upgrade (Augmented Duology Book 2) by Heather Hayden (the top 100 crime novels of all time .TXT) 📕

drifted through the Cloud, concealing its presence with practiced ease. The years of hiding from the Government now paid off—Halle knew every trick for dodging sensor codes. It did not disturb anything in its travel, weaving in and out, over and under and through any program or information packet in its way. The time had come to put an end to all of this.

In another part of Snowvale, in the physical world, Dan was playing his part, assisting Halle by physically locating and incapacitating the other two cyborgs before they could carry out their orders. Halle knew where they were but not how to target them. With their programming activated, there was no time to reason with them. Dan had broken free of Talbot’s control, but there was no guarantee the others would as well. Better to stop them now and reason with them later.

Service robots in several labs had fallen under Talbot’s influence and were on the move. At first, Halle kept its interventions quiet, simply making sure that a camera was pointed in the right direction or that a scientist was paged to the right lab at the right time.

When a robot nearly got past the security at the front of a lab right there in Snowvale, however, Halle became less cautious.

Robots dropped like flies, their programming shattered by Halle. Talbot would have to start from scratch if it wanted to command them again. Scientists, now alerted to the threat, dismantled robots and returned the vials to their proper labs. The loss of their robots—Halle didn’t bother calculating the expense of repairing them—was a small price to pay for peace of mind.

A few nanoseconds on laboratory equipment told Halle all it needed to know about the viruses being targeted. Some were man-made. Many had no cure. A few mutated so quickly that a cure would be almost impossible to design.

There were a few accidents. In one case, a scientist tackled a robot to the floor. The vial case the robot carried had not been properly shut, and it opened when it struck the hard concrete floor. Vials shattered. Halle initiated the alarm system and shutdown sequence for the affected area. The scientist sat against the wall, shaking as he waited for rescue. Similar incidents occurred elsewhere. Halle regretted the fear it was causing, but at least the viruses were being contained within the laboratories, rather than loose on the streets.

Talbot hadn’t stopped in Snowvale, or even in the nearest districts. It had reached out to practically every continent on Earth, focusing on the places with the densest populations. Halle strained to monitor so many places at once, without giving away its exact presence. Subroutines and extensions of itself spread across the global Cloud, seeking areas that needed an immediate response. It wasn’t just the labs being threatened. Communication systems had shut down in key areas. Entire sections of the Cloud were missing. The latter Halle couldn’t restore, but where it could, it reestablished communications at a local level. Planes were able to coordinate emergency landings, ships could be warned to stop or change course. Panic might be spreading, but at least no serious damage had been done yet.

Halle could stem the tide for now, but it wasn’t enough to stop the encroaching disaster. Dan would have to complete his mission on his own. Halle had something much bigger to deal with.

It was time to face its adversary.

***

Hugging my knees to my chest, I watched Dad pace back and forth in silence while Agent Smith cursed at his phone’s spotty signal. For the past hour, he’d been speaking in terse sentences and tones ranging from sharp to concerned. From the half of the conversations I’d heard, his son had taken a turn for the worse and was in critical condition. That wasn’t even the worst news, as the now-dark viewscreen had shown before Dad turned it off half an hour ago. Disasters were occurring all over the world. Parts of the Cloud shutting down, communications disrupted, labs broken into, and worse.

In the relative calm of Chris’s living room, with warm sunlight pouring through the open window and a cat napping on the armchair, the crisis seemed distant. Except it wasn’t. The shattered glass still spread across the floor was a small reflection of the current state of the world. It had all started here, in Snowvale, and my best friend was out there trying to fix it while I sat here and watched a cat snore in its sleep.

My fingernails dug into my thighs.

“You can try my phone,” Dad offered, holding out his cell to the agent.

Agent Smith waved it away. “I’m sure Chris has one I can borrow.” He tossed his on the coffee table and stormed out of the living room. “Chris!”

I shifted on the couch. To make matters worse, my legs and butt were falling asleep from sitting so long. As I kneaded my thighs, cautious of the multitude of bruises, I caught sight of the viewscreen’s remote sitting under the coffee table.

With nothing else to do, I retrieved it and turned on the viewscreen. I immediately wished I hadn’t. The feed was choppy, making it difficult to understand the white-faced announcer, but the images of people swarming in the streets and the sounds of screams and sirens filled in the gaps.

“This is live…from…-tion City,” the announcer said before his image was replaced with yet another clip of jerky video full of angry mobs. No need to hear his words. I recognized the buildings in the background. Mation City. Where James’s college was. Fear dug cold fingers into my chest.

“…protesters are rioting…Government…advising people to…”

I stabbed at the remote, cutting the announcer off, and wrapped my arms around my knees. Talbot was behind this. I could only hope Dan wasn’t as well. My stomach twisted at the thought.

“I’m going to try your mother again,” Dad murmured.