59. Swift Blade
Swift Blade
Aheavy silence fell across the room as the dust settled. Small fires, started by cut power lines, had spread amongst the towers and the charred black smoke now coalesced near the ceiling. Amir’s men lay dead or dying, with sporadic groans humming like grasshoppers in early spring.
I went in first. Belle came in right after.
And then the rest of the team, save for Spider who had flipped Jerry’s table over and was now sitting on it; licking his wounds and providing some cover.
Widow, Jerry, and Saint went down the right flank while Professor and Cash went down the left.
Belle and I went down the middle. The heat from the nearby flames had melted the black steel enclosure housing the server racks and it was now spreading; suffocating us as we walked by to secure the room.
Every now and then one of Amir’s men would shout and curse in their native tongue (a dialect of Arabic or perhaps a fusion of French with Arabic) before raising their weapon at us; we finished them quickly. We weren’t taking any more chances.
“We need to do something about the fire, before it consumes the entire super computer,” I said.
“The room has to be secured first,” Belle said, moving ahead of me.
The scorching heat was getting to me. It appeared as if almost the entire super computer was aflame.
Each row of servers had damage. And each continued to pop as if popcorn were being made on a stove nearby.
No doubt the expensive hard drives and memory sticks, and graphics cards and processors were being cooked.
It felt endless. There was a break in the rows, which gave me a chance to see the others as we moved ahead, but not much else.
The farther back we went, the lower the visibility, and the hotter the flames.
Honestly, I didn’t even know if we would be able to connect the drive anymore with all the damage done.
And then, of course, was the reality that this KALI could simply head to another super computer site if this one became incapacitated.
And she would get there before us. As would the nukes.
“Do you see any fire extinguishers on the wall? Any nearby on the server racks?” I said, getting closer to the end of the last row of servers.
“Yeah! I passed two on my side,” Jerry said.
“I got one over here,” Professor added.
“Secure the room first, and then we’ll work on extinguishing the flames,” Belle said.
Soon after we had reached the end of the super computer row of servers and could see the walls clearly at the back of the building we noticed that there was a section missing.
It seemed Amir had made his own entrance by blowing a hole in the wall which sent pieces of reinforced concrete and rebar crashing into the supercomputer itself.
But there was no sight of him. At least, not among the dead.
“Grab the fire extinguishers and get to it, before the damage is irreparable,” I shouted. Jerry was the first to act; he quickly grabbed the two fire extinguishers and tossed one to Saint. Jerry squeezed his first; nothing came out.
“What’s this?” Jerry said, frustratingly. “Nothing’s coming out of this junk?”
“Are you doing it right?” I said.
“Of course! I know how to use one,” Jerry said. At that moment, Saint approached Jerry, raised his extinguisher nozzle at Jerry, and pressed the trigger. Jerry flinched and jumped back, but nothing hit him except a soft breeze.
“It’s CO2. Only air comes out of it. See,” Saint said. “I used to work in IT. I’ve been around these things before.”
Jerry shook his head and went to the closest flame to test it; it worked!
In seconds the flames had died out. I watched as the rest of the team worked to tackle the remaining pockets and Belle bounced from one server rack to the next in a desperate search for an undamaged port within the rows.
I turned my attention to the gaping hole in the wall, curious to see how Amir escaped, or if he lay dead on the beautifully landscaped shrubs nearby, when he suddenly rushed through it and came at me.
He was a rabid dog, with bloodshot eyes, and a wounded right arm; Amir clutched a Japanese Tanto knife in his left hand, and as he approached, sliced at me with a ferocity I’d only seen in wild animals.
I hesitated, but for a second, which gave him an edge.
Amir swiped at my rifle, slicing cleanly through the strap, and in my anxiousness, caused me to drop it.
He was too fast. I couldn’t pick it back up.
I retreated several feet, and went for my sidearm, but he quickly closed in on me once more.
I couldn’t risk it, so I went for my old knife. Our blades met suddenly.
“Give me the drive and I’ll let you live,” Amir said, grinding his teeth.
“I can’t do that. Drop the knife and I promise you’ll live long enough to see the inside of a prison cell,” I said.
“I’ve lost it all. There is no going back,” Amir said, looking down to a dead man laying by a server rack. “Nazim, thank you.”
“The world will end if that drive is taken,” I said, quickly pushing him away with a kick.
“Ah! You fiend. I see through your lies,” Amir replied as he rushed towards me.
There was no hesitation on my part this time; no, I acted quickly.
I swiftly rushed forward, and the moment Amir got close enough, thrusted the blade at him; hitting Amir square in the chest. The blade went in deep.
He soon dropped his own knife and collapsed in front of me without saying another word.
But his eyes, they continued talking until his last breath.
I could tell he passed not believing a word I had said.
Angry and resentful and unapologetic for having submerged the world in an apocalyptic hellscape of his own making.