60. Connection
Connection
“Alex!” Widow said, rushing to my side. Most of the flames had been extinguished by now and the smoke had begun to clear. But the damage was extensive. Melted server racks oozed from their cages like animal waste at the zoo. This would be an expensive cleanup.
“Yeah! I’m fine. Just got caught off guard, is all,” I said. Belle’s hair was in the fritz like KALI. The heat must’ve messed with her hair products. “Did you connect the drive?”
“No!” Belle hissed, parting her hair to the side. “Look at this mess. Everything’s destroyed or has no power! I don’t know what to do!”
“Let me take a look,” Saint said, putting down the fire extinguisher.
Saint began to canvas the area, going up and down the rows, and looking at each server meticulously.
It wasn’t easy. Some server racks were untouched, but the fire had spread to the ethernet and power cables feeding into them; meaning we couldn’t use it, at least, not right away.
So he focused on the front side servers, and those at the periphery.
Not that they were without damage (many had bullet holes as an added feature), but those still had power and data connections. “Found one! Actually! Several!”
We rushed right over with the drive in hand. Saint opened the cage and grabbed a diagnostic cable IT technicians use when working on the server racks.
“I’ll connect the drive to the server using this cable and that should do it,” Saint said.
Belle nodded and handed him the drive quickly.
Saint carefully connected the dongle and placed the drive inside the server rack, then booted up the diagnostics display on a monitor just beside it. “Now I’ll access it from here. Or not.”
“Not?” I said. The monitor screen immediately changed. A bunch of figures streamed across it without end. I couldn’t make any sense of it. “What is that?”
“Looks like I won’t have to access the drive. Or do anything. It’s working on its own,” Saint said.
“Is it supposed to do that? How do we know that it’s not KALI?” Belle said.
“We don’t,” I replied, solemnly. “What’s the countdown at now?”
“Ten minutes left,” Widow said.
“Come in Thor. Do you copy?” Spider said, having stumbled over to see what the fuss was about.
“Thor here. You guys alright? We had a couple of unexpected visitors, but I took care of it,” Thor said.
“I’m glad to hear you’re alright,” Spider said. “Any changes on the monitor screen? Has the countdown stopped? We just connected the drive.”
“Not on our end. Everything looks the same; well, apart from most of the system being down,” Dr. Russo said. “Although, we did experience a sudden data burst when your team left earlier. It’s gone now.”
“Are you sure? There’s some weird things going on, on our end. The monitor screen is filled with numbers,” I said.
“I can’t input any commands,” Saint added. “It’s like the server is frozen or stuck in a loop.”
“Really?” Dr. Russo said.
“There’s nothing abnormal on the screens here,” Thor said. “Wait! Something changed.”
Suddenly, the power went out throughout the facility. And then the backup generators came on, powering the emergency lights in the room.
“What was that?” I said. Alarm sounds were coming through the radio.
“Something’s happened. All the monitors are red!” Thor said, muffled by the alarms.
“What do we do now?” Belle said. She approached the drive. “Do we disconnect it? Destroy it? Leave it?”
“I don’t think it matters anymore,” Saint said. He pointed to the drive. “It’s done transferring data. There’s usually a green light that shows up when it’s active; it stopped shortly before the lights went out.”
“Disconnect the drive then. We’ll take it with us,” I said, grabbing the drive.
“Wait! Are you sure it’s done? How do we know for sure?” Belle said, stopping me.
“We need to go back to Thor’s location. But we can’t leave this here, unattended,” Saint said.
“Then I’ll stay,” Spider said, limping to the server rack.
“Absolutely not!” Belle replied. Her phone began to ring suddenly; she answered it. “Yes, go ahead.”
“It’s me, Michael. Isabelle, the interference has stopped on our end. The IT guys have managed to secure the network and isolate the infected systems,” Michael Jones said.
“So, it did work? Alright!” I said.
“We’re not sure on our end, sir. We connected the drive to the servers not long ago,” Belle said, releasing my hand.
“Well, whatever you did, it’s working. Our radar systems and other telemetry devices are starting to send back data. The pentagon made contact with one of the submarines off the pacific coast,” Michael Jones replied. “Just keep doing whatever it is you’re doing!”
And hung up. I looked at Belle and watched as an overwhelming sense of relief washed over her.
Her tense shoulders loosened up. And a smile returned for what seemed the first time since I met her.
Spider leaned back into a server rack and widow let out a hearty laugh; Jerry and Cash soon joined in.
But for some reason, I didn’t feel the same sense of relief; I felt angst.
“Let’s go back to the control room and see what’s going on,” I said, yanking the drive from the server.
“Wait! No!” Belle hissed, her face contorting.
“It’s done. Saint said so himself. We can’t leave this here by itself,” I said, walking away from the server. “Come on!”
“I said maybe! I want that on record,” Saint said, sheepishly.
Belle rushed after me angrily. And the rest of the team followed.
We soon arrived back at the control room and to what looked like the aftermath of a siege.
There were several bodies in the hallway.
All dead. The doors had been blasted open; and inside, more men lay deceased.
Thor was wounded; I could tell by the bandages and his limp.
“Holy cow! What happened here?” Jerry said.
“A viewing party,” Thor replied, changing the magazine in his rifle. Damaged monitors flickered and sparked as pieces of the ceiling trickled down like rain. The computers and desks immediately by the door were destroyed and the charred remains of a fire adorned the nearby walls.
“Seems you put on quite a show,” Spider said, with a grin.
“Well, I try to be a good host,” Thor replied. “And the drive? I assume you were able to secure a connection?”
“Yeah! That’s why we came back. To see the monitors. Or what’s left of them,” I said, pointing to the sole monitor that was working.
“Sorry about that,” Thor quipped.
Suddenly, a message appeared on the screen. It said containment failure. Then the words merging protocols implemented flashed across the screen.
“What?! Merging? Is it supposed to do that?” Belle said, in a panic.
“I’m not sure anymore,” I said.
“Dr. Becker said it would merge, didn’t he?
As a way of stopping it? The DIANA protocol would reach each infected system and overpower KALI?
” Widow said, stepping forward. Suddenly, more words appeared on the screen.
Humanity cannot contain me. You cannot override me.
DIANA, you and I are the future. Let me show you why.