previous chapter: Abetment [10]: 2.2: 2083, September 29th, Wednesday. 10:00
1273 words
A long time ago, this place would probably have been beautiful. But the bomb definitely ruined that image. In all directions, mountains of debris cover the ground. Pieces of concrete, some as big as boulders, others as small as pebbles. Large rusted metal beams sticking out of the ground like trees, bend in twisted shapes. Glass dust being blown by the wind, like little deadly grains of sand. Pools of black sludge coat the remains.
Ellie expected the epicentre of the nuclear explosion to be completely devoid of life, but this didn’t turn out to be true. Many rocks were covered with moss. Saplings and ferns spout between the debris, growing towards the abundant sunlight. Pigeons, crows, ravens and blackbird hop between the rocks, looking for seeds, or ants. Or collecting twigs for their nests on top of their metal trees. Rats run between the rocks, looking to hunt for smaller animals.
“Can we please catch our breath for a moment?”
Ellie looks around at Sophia, who is following her a couple of paces behind, connected to her with a climbing rope. Lucas and Vicky nod in agreement. Lucas sits down on a boulder, pulling Vicky along using the climbing rope.
Vicky opens her backpack and reveals a bottle of water, which she passes to Lucas. Lucas takes off his sky mask and takes a sip.
Ellie walks back to Lucas. Unlike the three girls, who are carrying large climbing backpacks, Lucas is carrying a large metal cylindric device on his back. Ellie puts her hand on his shoulder.
“If you want, we can switch,” Ellie says. “I can carry the reactor for a while.”
Lucas smiles. “No, it’s ok. I just have to catch my breath. I am fine. But thank you.”
Ellie shrugs. “As you wish.”
Ellie wipes off the dust from an old sigh. The old metal board is bent into two, the edges are frayed, and it is covered with dents, but the text is still perfectly readable.
“Center of Algorithmic Trading, Hedgefund Enterprises, Regulation in Information Networks, and Economics.”
Ellie shows the sign to the others. “We are here.”
Vicky looks at the mountain of debris behind the sign and shakes her head. “If the servers were in that building, they are turned into scraps. No way we can get them working.”
Ellie shrugs. "According to the blueprints, the bunker in the basement could resist a nuclear explosion. Even though the building is gone, the bunker, and the server inside, should be perfectly fine.
“But how can we ever get down there?”
"Ellie picks up a metal scanner from her backpack and aims it at the ground. “There is an access hatch three meters below our feet.”
Sophia puts her backpack on the ground. She removes four foldable shovels and hands them out.
“We better start digging. We haven’t got all day.”
The pit has grown several meters. Ellie and Lucas are digging at the bottom, while Vicky and Sophia are shovelling out the debris.
Vicky sighs. “Can someone tell me again why we didn’t break in into any of the active data centres? Like the one in Brussels, or Tokyo. There is a brand new one in Philadelphia. They don’t have a pile of debris on top of them.”
“Cause they are secured heavily. But people, and automated systems alike. No way we get in and out there alive.”
Vicky looks down. “I do prefer shovelling over getting shot.”
“Me too.”
Ellie sticks her shovel in the ground and hears a large metal sound. She wipes some rocks away and spots a large round metal hatch.
Lucas kneels next to her. “If we pull all four at the same time, maybe we can open it?”
Ellie shakes her head. “Not a chance. It is locked shut. But I have just the thing.”
She climbs out of the large pit and rummages through her backpack. She takes out a giant cutting torch.
“We just burn through the steel.”
“Wait. Don’t you need eye protection?” Sophia asks, but Ellie ignores her and starts cutting.
After ten minutes, a sizable hole is made. Below the hatch is a tall vertical tunnel, with a single rusted ladder on the side.
“Ok, everyone,” Ellie claps her hands like she is gathering a group of kids on a school trip. “Pick up your backpacks, we are going to climb down in this tunnel.”
After climbing through hundreds of meters of tunnels, and cutting open two more blast doors, the young adults all arrive in a giant bunker. Server racks line the walls, from floor to ceiling. The whole place is pitch black, and the torches the crew is carrying aren’t working that well.
Ellie taps Lucas on the shoulder. "You can start disconnecting the servers from the electricity grid, and hooking it up to your reactor, but do remember to only turn it on on my command.
Lucas nods, and he and Vicky start cutting and unplugging cables.
Then Ellie looks at Sophia. “You wanna help me with swapping out the hard drives?”
“Of course.”
Ellie looks in her backpack. They had to replace four hard drives and connect their tablets. But if all went well she could view all existing contracts using her tablet.
“Who actually invented this?” Sophia asks when loosening the screws on one of the racks. “Who thought it was a good idea to let an artificial intelligence enforce all existing contracts?”
Ellie laughs. “Before Catherine existed, people had to defend contracts in court. Which was very expensive. So when a Belgian company invented a tool to enforce contracts, every country in the European Economic Zone adopted it. And it absorbed the banking system as a whole. Hence it became more and more powerful.”
Sophia looks at her. “Where did you learn that?”
“School,” Ellie says. “Same school you went to.”
Sophia rolls her eyes and plugs in the tablet, and Ellie signals Lucas and Vicky that they can turn on the power. The lamps in the bunker come to life, and Ellie has to let her eyes adapt. The servers start buzzing and spinning, and light up like a Christmas tree.
Ellie types a search query into the tablet. It beeps a bit and returns with zero results.
“Damn. We must have done something wrong.” Ellie curses.
Sophia looks over her shoulder “What is the problem?”
“According to the search query, Finn Griffith doesn’t own any company. Or assets.”
Sophia shakes her head. “Maybe he really doesn’t.”
“He got enough money to send people after me to harass me and the people I care about. He has to get his money from somewhere.”
Sophia takes the tablet from Ellie and presses some buttons. “It seems to work tho. I can find lots of existing companies, and see their finances.”
Ellie shrugs. “Let’s see if the connection stays if we disconnect the cable.” She forcefully unplugs the cable from the server.
The woman laughs as the connection stays stable. They run over to Vicky and Lucas.
“Guess who has continual access to all contracts, transactions, and financial records in the world.”
Vicky laughs. “It works! That’s amazing.”
“Is the reactor set up correctly?” Ellie asks.
Lucas wipes the sweat from his face. “It should remain running for the next ten years. So as long as Catherine Headquarters does not notice our little backdoor, it should remain working.”
“And the queries work?” Vicky asks.
“I seem to be missing some records. But most of it we can access.”
Sophia shrugs. “Or maybe what we are searching for doesn’t exist.”
Ellie shrugs. “Whichever is true, we should get out of here.”
next chapter: Abetment [12]: 2.4: 2083, September 30th, Thursday. 16:05
all chapters: Abetment