Chapter 39 - THE SEVERED VEIN
We dropped eight feet down through the ventilation shaft, landing on the grated catwalk of the facility's lower sub-level. The air down here was sterile, chilled to fifty degrees to keep the rows of high-density server racks from overheating. The sound of thousands of cooling fans hummed like a subterranean hive.
"This is the heart of the beast," Sarah murmured, pulling out her interface cable and plugging directly into a secondary diagnostics terminal mounted to the wall. "The Sovereign Directive is processing over eighty million vehicular interdiction commands per minute right now. It's routing through a central keystone node located in the command amphitheater down the main corridor."
"Any guards inside?" I asked, chambering a round into my rifle.
"Thermal scans show at least eight private security operators in the central pit," she replied, studying the data stream. "And Grant... there’s an executive broadcast being prepared. They’re getting ready to push a permanent firmware burn across every car in America in fifteen minutes. Once that burn finishes, the manual override chips will be physically fried. The nation will permanently lose the ability to drive without state approval."
"Then we have fifteen minutes to burn it down first," I said.
We moved silently down the pressurized corridor, our boots rubber-padded against the linoleum floor. At the end of the hall, double-paned reinforced glass looked out over a circular command center. In the center of the room stood a massive, holographic projection of the United States highway system—a glowing web of roads, ninety percent of which were colored in tyrannical violet.
Standing in the center of the pit, directing the automated deployment, was a man in an impeccably tailored tactical suit. It was Deputy Director Vance, the bureaucratic shadow who had signed off on every unlawful warrant against me since the first stop in Fairfax County.
"Push the update to the eastern seaboard first," Vance commanded cold-bloodedly into his headset. "If any civilian vehicles attempt to breach the perimeter checkpoints, activate their autonomous steering and drive them into the median barriers. Treat all non-compliant movement as hostile."
"He's giving the kill order," Sarah whispered, horrified.
"Not today," I said.
May you like
I pulled the second fragmentation grenade from my belt, pulled the pin, kicked the glass door open with a thunderous smash, and hurled the canister straight into the central server rack beneath the hologram projector.
"Down!" I bellowed.
