Babylon Lost

Chapter 17

Jiro raced as fast as his bad leg would take him, first out of the reservoir and then into the low laying interlock that led into the Block. Fighter jets and helicopters continued to roar over head. The calamity ahead of him became more apparent the closer he got and soon he could see details of the army movement along the edges of the block as well as the mass exodus of people leaving.

As Jiro approached the river he could see the bridges were gridlocked with traffic. Thousands upon thousands of people evacuating, how many of them were wired into the network, would instantly perish when the virus jumped? Even if it were all of them, they'd be just a small sample of the death that was to come.

More than anything Jiro kept wondering about the woman who'd saved him. Was she like him? Had she also been forced into some synthetic? How much of her was still left in there, how many of her memories had been devoured, had she reached the 'tipping point' as Tamira called it.

Jiro passed into the part of the Block that was being set for reclamation. There they found a full set of industrial construction robots, huge machines used to bring down buildings and other infrastructure, they were not unsimilar to the robots Jiro had run into when all this began.

There was a full compliment at the work site, not just robots but also trucks, trailers, and other machines. Half of them were still running, which told Jiro that the operators had left in a hurry. The evacuation order likely.

It was good news for Jiro, he was able to commandeer a metropolitan service truck which he could take the rest of the way to the bridge. It had wireless capabilities that Pax could use to hop back on to the system.

"What's going on up there?" Jiro said poking his head out the window to eyeball the bridge towering ahead.

"The Evacuation order has been expanded to cover three surrounding blocks, all local police have been ordered to force citizens out."

"Three more Blocks?" Jiro repeated back to him, it didn't make sense, nowhere was safe once the virus went live, what was the point of evacuating other blocks "who ordered it, did it come from the city?"

"I can only trace it as far as the encoded barrier."

"Tamira's people? But why, they're the one's who really know what this thing is capable of, why are they wasting time evacuating surrounding Blocks?"

"Perhaps they anticipate that the fighting will spill over into those areas."

"Tamira made it sound like this would all be over in minutes," Jiro said "they cant possibly think the fighting will last long enough to-" and then mid speech he had it and a terrible, terrible feeling washed over him "Pax they don't plan on fighting, they plan on bombing."

"If true that would be quite a large blast zone."

"Pax can you pick up anything on the security networks not hidden behind the encosion about some sort of high-level bombing raid."

"Negative Jiro, but I just did a quick search of high clearance flight pads surrounding the city and found that one of them holding tactical nukes was just brought under the encosion approximately fifteen minutes ago."

Jiro felt his soul leave his body, his eyes immediately went to the bridge with all those people.

"Holy hell they're going to nuke the Block!"

"Jiro, should we turn back?" The AI was driving and could change directions on Jiro's command but now he was only half listening, the realization of what was about to happen dawning on him.

"Will it work?" Jiro said

"It depends on the size of the blast radius and the speed of the truck, But I believe we can make-"

"No that's not what I mean" Jiro cut him off "will the strike work, can they knock that thing out with the explosion."

"I don't believe so" Pax said and soon a visual image of the Block appeared on Jiro's display showing him the extent of the blast. "Some of the firestorm will reach the target location but the ping I have is also deep beneath the surface, this attack will not be successful in harming the robotic form of this other being."

"We've got to stop them, they're going to evaporate an entire block for nothing. You gotta get behind that encosion."

"it's not possible Jiro. I already told you it's too advanced for me to breach."

"Then put a warning out." Jiro said, his mind a jumble "set up a beacon or something, a call out from Jiro to Tamira, tell them where the thing is, tell them to stop the nuke."

"it's done, beacon established, what next? Shall we turn back or try to wire into the city to attempt the transfer back into your biological body."

"No we keep moving" Jiro knew that the beacon was a long shot, there must be millions of communications signal firing out right now amidst this evacuation, the chances that his was going to get heard in the next little while was slim to none.

He glanced back at the map of the blast radius Pax had put on his display and now used it to estimate how he would get to the virus. Across the bridge and up along the coast to the shipping dock. But there was no way they were going to move across the bridge quickly with the mass exodus of people.

"You need to get us access to one of the maintenance tunnels" Jiro said and in no time the AI had it. Not soon after that they arrived at the foot of the towering bridge, mass hysteria raining down from above.

They had to ditch the truck to take the service elevator and Jiro felt uneasy having do disconnect from the network. Despite being locked out from most channels it was reassuring to have an ear on the system.

One elevator ride up and Jiro found himself once again hobbling along, missing the speed of wheeled transportation. "How much time do you think before we get to the docks?"

But the AI never got the chance to answer, instead a large rumble swept up through the tunnel, knocking Jiro into the wall. The flood lights flickered and then went out, Jiro feared the worst.

"I am detecting disruptions all along this structure" pax said.

"What kind of disruptions? Was it the nuke?"

"Negative, a nuclear detonation in the target area would have destroyed this bridge."

"What was it then?"

"A massive power influx, I'm picking up irregular activity from all detectable devices nearby."

"It's that thing, right? Has it evolved?"

There was a pause "not yet but soon I think. Jiro now would be the time to begin the transfer, I'm detecting hardline connections from within this bridges network, we should be able to do a large data transfer from here."

"We push on" Jiro said moving again, thinking about all those people above and how scared they must be "and no more talks about that transfer either, we don't stop until this is over."

"Understood Jiro" The AI said "but I am wondering, how do you expect to dispose of the robotic form holding the virus should we encounter it?"

"Are you expecting trouble?"

"I don't know but based on the reports available to us we know that this synthetic being was able to infect and control other synthetic beings. Chances are it has protected itself."

Jiro knew what the implications were, he could feel them in his weakened body as he staggered along with a bad leg, completely unarmed.

"We don't really know what it is we're up against, it could just as easily be all by itself." Jiro said, but this assurance was more for own peace of mind than it was for Pax's.