Chapter 23
Viktor Garris replayed the video again for Roman Voss to see. The scientist had placed his hand on the back of Viktor’s chair, leaning over his shoulder.
“I can move,” Viktor said wryly.
“I’m fine here,” Roman replied.
Viktor wasn’t fine; he was annoyed. He’d offered to send a copy of the video to Roman’s office, but the scientist came down here to bug Viktor because he evidently had too much time on his hands.
The video displayed various camera feeds from data center G2.
Most feeds looked like nothing was happening, though there would be a stutter every now and then in certain hallways.
It was easy enough to piece together the stutters into a map of the criminal: Callum Bennett.
Viktor knew that because precisely three hours and thirty-one minutes later, all the cameras and drones came online, though all were riddled with stutters.
The prototype had more capabilities than he expected. No wonder Roman wanted it so bad.
“What did they take?” Roman asked.
“We don’t know yet. We know they accessed the system and where they accessed it, but the search history was erased. I thought you’d be more curious that they found one of your labs.” Viktor pointed to where the sub-center hallway video stuttered.
Roman considered for a moment. “That lab’s been shut down. The systems were removed, so there wouldn’t be anything there for them to learn.”
“You mean, besides corpses?” Viktor said bluntly.
“Sure, but what are they going to do with that information? If the resistance tries to broadcast it, we’ll block it and then say it was a terror group putting out some computer-generated horror story. No one’s going to believe it.”
“You’d be surprised what people believe. They’ll believe anything they see. They’re cattle. Convince one, and the rest of the herd follows.”
Roman took a step back. “Why do you think the resistance sent him in there?”
“Because he has an amp that can obviously hack our drones,” Viktor replied.
“No, I mean, what were they after?”
“It’s the resistance. They’re always after anything they can get their hands on. Data is data. There’s nothing special about G2 or any of the data centers for that matter. It’s just backups.” Viktor turned to Roman. “Right?”
Roman nodded. “Yes, of course. We wouldn’t be dumb enough to store executive-priority data outside the tower.” He squinted at the screen. “But seeing what that amp can do… I’m intrigued. If we produced a full line of those, we’d monopolize the market.”
“And if the resistance knew what they had and dropped the design on the open net, it’d destroy Softbiotics,” Viktor pointed out.
Roman shook his head. “No, because it’s all about who can patent the design first, and we have a boilerplate ready to submit—we just have to dump in the design.”
“So does every other corporation out there,” Viktor said.
The scientist scowled. “Why are you always like this?”
“Because I’m head of security. You pay me to always plan for the worst-case scenario.”
“And what’s the current worst-case scenario you’re working on?” Roman asked.
“The resistance,” Viktor said without hesitation.
Roman belted out a laugh. “They’re a sliver in our finger, nothing more.”
“Even slivers can cause infection. Better to remove them before they fester everything around them.” Viktor eyed Roman.
The scientist could never see the resistance as a threat.
He was too far removed from the real world, sitting in his cozy, protected office.
“The resistance has control of your prototype amp—they could make copies and install it in every one of their members, or worse, destroy it before we can get it back.”
Roman sobered quickly. “Get it back.”
Viktor sneered. “That’s exactly what I was about to do when you dropped by. The board recently approved my plan.”
Roman stiffened. “You didn’t mention the prototype in the plan, did you?”
“I did not, just as you asked,” he said. “But if you told Tekita about it, she could send more resources…”
Roman snorted. “If Mother knew about that prototype, she’d swoop in and take control of the operation and then take credit for it.
Any chance for promotions would be lost.” He then wagged his finger at Viktor.
“But you have to make sure the plan works. It’s costing me a lot of money, money that shows up on quarterly reports.
If you fail, you’re going to be out of a job. ”
“If it doesn’t work, the resistance will win, and we’ll both be out of jobs.”
Roman eyed Viktor. “You get someone within arm’s reach of that amp, and I’ll shut it down.
That prototype shows unique skills, but everything it’s done so far is rudimentary.
That means its firewalls can be easily breached.
So do your job. Have fun with your plan, but get me the prototype.
Taking out the resistance isn’t going to get either of us promoted.
A new prototype will.” With that, the weasel finally left Viktor alone.
Viktor locked the office door, so Roman couldn’t reenter.
He despised Roman Voss and the entitled adult-children like him.
At least he didn’t have to put up with Roman much—only when Roman needed something from the lower levels.
He didn’t realize that without Viktor and his enforcers, Roman would be crippled, unable to deliver any results to the board.
Roman was wrong. Taking out the resistance would get them promotions with far more certainty than any amp prototype, though he admitted the ability to implant an amp into an adult’s mind without any obvious scars or hardware would alone be enough for a big promotion.
In the meantime, Viktor wasted his free time collecting test subjects for Roman, which was sometimes challenging based on whatever Roman’s criteria was for a specific project—sometimes a certain blood type, other times a particular age group.
Once it was even to pull someone with green eyes.
Do you know how many people have green eyes?
Well, he couldn’t find a single one in Dreswick—he had to pull a cook from the back of a restaurant in Aberdeen for that.
And that one required a cover story—a poor lad distraught at losing his first love decided to take his own life by jumping in the river.
His body was never recovered. It was one of the finer suicide notes Viktor had written in his career.
And now Roman wanted Viktor to clean up a mess that Roman had created.
Ana Katz never should’ve been allowed to leave the Softbiotics building that day, but Roman hadn’t called Viktor until the following day.
Viktor and his enforcers had been one day behind ever since.
But the amp proved to be beneficial. The idea of Ana Katz’s penultimate prototype was enough for the board to approve the plan that would cross off most of the problems that caused Viktor headaches.
He really didn’t give a crap about a single amp, but he was very much looking forward to taking down the resistance and its leader, Kynan Kade—if that was even his real name—once and for all.
He placed a call through the computer screen.
Mallon’s face appeared a second later. “Sir.”
“We have approval. Operation Sewer Rats has a green light. You may proceed without delay. Have the first pass completed by dawn. We want to have all the able-bodied criminals on the news the entire day. Then, you will be able to clear out the rest on the second pass while everyone’s glued to their screens. ”
Mallon inclined his head. “There won’t be a rat left in the sewers when the squads are done, sir.”