Deep Black Road: The Head of the Snake

Chapter 50

"'Black Scourge'?" Philip said to Ricky when Ricky returned from Columbus where he'd been tapping into the Network. "Why call yourself that?"

"I figured it'd get way more attention than 'Ricky Sheppard' or 'Robot Boy'."

"That's true enough. About the retraining centres-I checked on the Network; and of course there's nothing useful there; so Leila and I are heading down to the one where Amber's located to check it out."

"Okay. I'll be interested in hearing about what you turn up. And Bill's got a whole lot more message ideas for me to send out."

"Great. They've certainly got people talking, judging by the activity on the chat channels."

"Hopefully it gets them thinking, too, and appealing to God."

"Yeah, but that's God's problem," Philip said. "By the way, when you rescued me and Suzanne from the Prophet, you took out a whole company of his men somehow."

"It was an accident," Ricky said. "I was trying to block their bullets with my hands; and a bunch of sparks from my glow went and knocked them out."

"An accident, eh?"

"Yeah. It happened without me even trying. You thinking of something?"

"Definitely. That could be a really useful weapon in our arsenal."

"I never thought of that; and we do need all the help we can get. Now, I've got to get those message ideas from Bill, and get back to town to get them onto the Network."

#

"Progress report, lieutenant?" said Colonel Avery into his link.

"I'm sorry, sir, but whoever's putting out these accursed messages is able to get around everything we can throw at them. It's uncanny. And they're fast. I mean, we put up a new process to lock out their message, and in seconds they've created a different coding. It's like they're not even human."

"'Not even human,' eh? Well, keep at it; and maybe you'll get lucky."

"Yes, sir."

Colonel Avery linked to General Corran. "I think we've found your robots, sir, in a manner of speaking."

"What do you mean, 'in a manner of speaking'?"

"They have to be the ones responsible for those 'Black Scourge' messages all over the Network."

"Your evidence, colonel?"

"For one thing, they're able to get around our blocks faster than we can create them."

"I see. Have you been able to isolate them at all?"

"No; and that's the other thing. Every time we think we've narrowed them down to a certain Network zone, they disappear, and pop up somewhere else."

"That does sound like our robots," said General Corran, and sighed. "Just stick with it, for the emperor."

"May he live forever. Yes, sir."

#

"How's it look?" Ricky asked Philip, after Philip and Leila had returned from scoping out the camp.

"Pretty easy," said Philip as he showed Ricky the video he'd made from their scouting trip. "We located all the guards through Sentinel, no problem; and we should be able to take them out with that sparks thing of yours. The prisoners are held in this single large building here; so they'll be out of our way."