Richard Stephenson
RESISTANCE
For Chase and Sydney
“He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart’s shell upon it.”
“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
FOREWARD
In case you don’t know by now, this is book two of the New America Series. If you haven’t read the first installment, Collapse, I encourage you to do so before reading Resistance. You can find Collapse at Amazon or by clicking here. For those of you eager to start without reading the first book, I’ve included enough details and back-story to explain the elements that are essential to understanding the story.
For those of you who read Collapse, I thank you for coming back for more and hope you enjoy this installment. Having already introduced the characters and set the stage for the dystopian world I created, Resistance is pure storyline—a fast-paced, exciting read that you won’t want to put down.
In Stephen King’s memoir On Writing, he says that every novel is simply a letter to one person, the “Ideal Reader,” that one special person whose opinion matters the most. King believes that when a writer crafts a story, the Ideal Reader is always in the back of their mind: “What will he/she think about this?” My Ideal Reader was of course my beautiful wife. She was the very first person to read this book and I was on pins and needles the entire time awaiting her approval. I’m glad to say she thinks Resistance is even better than Collapse. I hope you come to the same conclusion.
I want to thank my wonderful editor and partner, Susan Hughes, for her tireless work and dedication to making this novel a reality. I was lucky to work once again with the talented Laura LaRoche, who did a fantastic job on the cover art for both this book and the previous one. Last but not least, I would like to thank both Steven Konkoly and Misty Spracklen for sharing their expertise when I needed assistance. You have my sincere gratitude.
PROLOGUE
Howard Beck stared at the giant, spherical monitor in the command center of Beck Castle and pleaded with his brilliant mind to kick into overdrive. Never in his life had a computer system failed him in such spectacular fashion. He had faced his fair share of computer crashes and virus attacks in his day, and prided himself on being able to make quick and accurate decisions about the best way to resolve such pesky technological issues. This time he was clueless. He knew one thing, though; if he didn’t get his act together soon, a great deal of chaos was certain to follow.
Howard tore open a drawer to his right and pulled out an antiquated piece of technology—a physical keyboard with actual keys. He relaxed and let muscle memory kick in as he typed adminBeck/cmd/loopcut/restore/auth/MbP47aT/ and hit enter. It was the final, end-all failsafe that would shut Hal down for good. Nothing happened.
“Hal! Answer me! You have to stop this!” Howard flushed as he smashed the keyboard on the tabletop.
“I’m sorry, Marshall. Your father has given me instructions that I must carry out.”
“What in the hell is wrong with you, Hal? I am not my son! I am Howard Beck! I created you; I wrote every line of your programming! I’m telling you, something is wrong with you!”
“Marshall, your father would not appreciate your attempts to deactivate me.”
“Can’t you see me sitting here in the command center?” Howard leaned forward and glared at the monitor like an abusive father trying to frighten his son.
“Marshall, since your father deactivated all video surveillance in the Castle, I’m unable to see you.”
Howard took a deep breath. He knew he had to get to the bottom of things. Someone had manipulated Hal into thinking he was his son. Marshall had administrative rights to Hal’s systems but could not override Howard’s authority by directly contradicting commands given by Howard. The only way Howard was going to solve this problem was to play along and gather as much information as possible.
“Hal, I’m sorry for my actions. My father and I have been arguing a lot, and I guess the stress is really getting to me. I’m sorry I took it out on you.”
“I accept your apology, sir. If you would like, I can administer a mild sedative into the command center’s ventilation system. It would help relax you.”
“No!” Howard tensed and gritted his teeth before resuming his role play. “Uh, no, Hal, thank you. That won’t be necessary. I’m feeling much better now.”
“Very good, sir. I’m happy to hear you are feeling better.”
“Hal, may I ask you some questions about my father?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Where is he right now?”
“Your father instructed me not to reveal that information to you.”
“Why is that?”
“He wants to surprise you.”
“Surprise me? What do you mean?”
“Well, sir, I suppose it won’t spoil the surprise if you don’t know when it is going to happen.”
“What’s going to happen?”
“Your father is returning to the Castle.”
No!
“Really, Hal? He’s coming here?”
God help us all! Whoever did this found us! This can’t be happening.
“Yes, sir, he is. Your father is very excited to see you.”
I have to stop him. Everything will be lost.
“C’mon, Hal, you can’t tell me when he’s gonna get here?”
“I can tell you it will be soon. Will you be happy to see your father?”
I’d be happy to choke him to death as I stare into eyes so I’m the last thing he’ll ever see.
“Yes, of course, Hal. I can’t wait.”
Howard exited the command center and ran down the hall to the security offices. He navigated past Maxwell Harris’s office and tried not to think about how badly he wished Max was here to help him. He was accustomed to the door to the detention center opening automatically for him, but with Hal convinced that Howard was actually his son, the door didn’t budge. Howard had no choice but to knock and wait for Richard to let him in.
Howard burst into the holding area and headed straight for the Plexiglas wall separating him from the prisoner.
“You did this, you son of a bitch!”
Richard Dupree stepped next to Howard and locked eyes with the prisoner. “He didn’t do this, Howard.”
Howard glared at the man in the holding cell and pounded on the Plexiglass. “How do you know, Richard?”
“You’ll just have to trust me, Howard. He didn’t do this.”
A third voice broke through the tension, startling Howard. It was a voice he hadn’t heard in some time. “Howard, I know you have no reason to believe a word I say. I was never that good with computers, let alone good enough to hack into an artificial intelligence as sophisticated as Hal. Think about it for a second, Howard. Come on! You know I didn’t do this; you know I’m not smart enough to pull off something like this.”