Conniveo

Chapter XXII: Determinant

The alarms scared me. My adrenalin level had not gone down since we entered the High Threat Detention facility, and now it was threatening to give me a heart attack. I released control of the pexes so as to gain full awareness of my environment. This break-in had been difficult, yet easier than I had expected - possibly because it was completely unprecedented. The High Threat Detention Facility was built to keep its prisoners in, not other people out. Now we were going to perform the more difficult task: getting ourselves out.

Footsteps hammered outside the room above me. I crouched lower into the cooling ventilation shaft and shuddered. Despite the bodysuit, I still felt significantly cold. My ears were beginning to sting and I was barely able to stop my teeth from chattering. The men entered the room and busied themselves on the mainframes.

"I've inspected console Z. It is intact. Which of them has the changes?" 

"I'm assessing console C. There is no log of a breach." 

"There's a command error in A. An attempt was made to initiate the back-up protocol, but this logged as an override and that triggered the alarms." 

"The back-up? What happened to the main protocol?" 

"It's...not there. I can't find it, it's like it doesn't exist. The error log should be sent to console B but the original log is inaccessible." 

"That's impossible. This entire system was built on the main protocol. What of the foundations?" 

"The error scan shows them in existence, but they are unconnected to the satellite consoles. We're operating on console B's Emergency mode." 

"But our Solaris plant is still fully functional. How is any of this possible? How do we lose the main protocol without an error log and switch to emergency mode without a power depletion?" 

"Unless...unless the actual connection has been severed. We are not looking at a protocol malfunction. The connection may have been lost within the module. Maybe a wire has burned out." 

"They are tungsten alloy, Oneri. And the room temperature is still...wait, we have an increase. 0.5 degrees above recommended." 

"That's because we're here. Body heat." 

"No, this increase was logged before we came in." 

"Are the cooling units failing? Maybe that's the source of the problem." 

"Is a 0.5 degree change enough to burn out our tungsten wires?"

I backed away from the area as the technicians continued to argue about the source of the problem. I dreaded the return journey, but I needed to make it past the cooling fans to get to the rendezvous point. And at a temperature of four degrees, it was a rigid and uncomfortable crawl. I moved through the tubular system, fighting the frosty draft while trying to remain silent. I wondered how Koli fared with her part of the extraction process. I was right to assume that Lady Diella had other people involved in the process but I did not imagine that the person would be...young. She was about the same age as I was, but seemed a lot more experienced many fields. She held conversations with other Psychokines with ease. I noticed her class badge - she was an Arelon. I had wondered how she was so calm and casual amongst the Psychokines. Maybe she was familiar with their society; Endokines were more exposed to the Psychokines than we Pex modifiers. One thing about Koli that had surprised me more than anything else was the ease with which she said Eugene's name. Like she was used to saying it. Maybe the plan had been discussed with her several times and she became conversant with the pronunciation. Still, considering my own struggles with it, her fluency had taken me by surprise.

I got to an intersection in the crawl space. I was so cold, my teeth were chattering of their own accord. My body from below my neck felt cool too, though I was insulated to a large degree. There was a turning to my left but the shaft continued in front of me. I remembered that I had taken several turns on the way in here, so I was unsure whether this was one of them. The cold, darkness and adrenalin did nothing to assist my indecision. I began to feel a new fear. What if I could not find my way out? I had only made it this far because of Koli's instructions - which I was struggling remember at the moment. Straight forward, crawl up, then forward, then left. Ignore the two turnings to the right and keep going until you hear the fans, crawl past them then turn right and forward and you'll be under the protocol room. I was surprised that I could remember. I had turned right at the end, which meant I had to go left now. I took the turn to the left, afraid for the outcome of my decision. After a few anxious moments of crawling, I heard the fans.