Death Angel

Chapter 35: Kill Switch

I stood in front of Daniel dumbfounded. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

Daniel shook his head and stared right into my eyes. “Look Vanessa…  I know this sounds completely crazy, but I swear I’m telling the truth.”

I nodded. “It’s not that I don’t believe, you, I really want to, but you’ll have to take me through this. Why now?”

“It’s a long story,” said Daniel, who then stopped abruptly. “Look, we haven’t got much time. I can see you've been trying to lead this thing to water. But that idea is a terrible one.”

“How so?”

“I guess we’d better start from the beginning, Van.”

“Ok, Daniel, I’m all ears. You seem to be the only one with a plan so far, so let’s hear it.”

“Remember who your father’s first big investor was?”

“That’s right, your father, Donald Ashcroft.”

Daniel nodded and raised his index finger. “In order to earn my father’s trust completely, and have both men go in as equal partners, your father had to give my father the ‘secret sauce’ so to speak.”

“You mean Donovan Hunter had to turn over the secrets to his technology? Why would he do that just to secure funding?”

Daniel pointed toward the Robotic Knight. “We’re running out of time quickly. Here, we can talk while we reach that thing. Would you mind flying me to it?”

I smiled. “You betcha.”

I moved behind Daniel, and put my hands on his shoulders. “I’m going to hold on to your shoulders while we go into the air. Are you ready for this?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” said Daniel with a smile, as he looked nervously back at me.

I grinned back at him as I launched myself into the air, taking great care to gently hoist Daniel below me so he could fly comfortably in position.

I exerted a light Nether Void around us both, to shield Daniel from the pressure and the air pockets. I really needed him in one piece if he was going to help out.

“I must admit, this is pretty exhilarating," called Daniel from below me. The Nether Void allowed us to hear each other as we flew through the air. I saw Daniel looking down at the ground, surveying the vampires in the city below us: a moving, almost hypnotic sea of the disgustingly pale and emaciated creatures. The stench in the city below must be horrifying at this point. “What the hell are those things?” he asked.

“Trust me, you’re better off not knowing,” I laughed. “Ok, now that we’re airborne, would you mind completing your story?”

“Donovan didn’t simply turn over the key to his technology,” said Daniel. “He would never have been so foolish.” Daniel looked up at me with a strange look on his face. “So instead, he gave my father insurance.”

I smiled. “Donovan turned over the kill-switch.”

“Exactly right - always the smart one, Vanessa,” said Daniel as he grinned at me.

“But if there was an override all along, why did you wait until now to use it?”

“We’re going to get to that part later. You’re still missing a big part of this story,” said Daniel. “My father underestimated the brilliance of Donovan Hunter. Imagine if you will, the nanomachines working with, and communicating with each other.”

“Okay, we knew that.”

“Yes, but do you know by what mechanism this is accomplished?”

“Radio frequencies?” I asked.