Bob didn’t respond. It had been a little too easy to swim in undetected.
Jimmy grimaced. “And I know I have weaknesses, things that I do…” He paused. “And yes, I am taking control of this place, but am I any worse? What do you want me to say?”
Bob stared at him. “Explain the crystals.”
“I have no idea.” Jimmy let his hands fall, slapping his thighs. “How about asking your Terra Novan friends? They seem to know a lot about them.”
Bob didn’t have much time. If he rushed, he could make it, grab Nancy and his parents, get them onto the passenger cannon with him. He’d taken control of enough of the Atopian systems to burrow a path through. He could just make it. He lurched forward but stopped himself.
“Go ahead.” Jimmy moved to one side. “Go and get her. I won’t stop you.”
“Bob?” said another voice, one Bob hadn’t heard in a long time.
He turned. It was his father. His image materialized on the beach next to them.
“Your mother and I just got a message to meet you at the passenger cannon. What are you doing?” His dad frowned and looked at the water still dripping off him. “Were you surfing?”
“Go and get them,” Jimmy offered again. He stepped back further, even clearing a path through the digital infrastructure.
“Bob, stop whatever you’re doing.” His dad was angry. “Be responsible for once in your life. Stop this.”
Bob watched a swarm of bots gathering overhead. It wasn’t just Jimmy, but the entire Atopian Defense Forces Command Center was bringing its weight to bear. They’d been surprised, but had quickly regrouped. Bob’s window of opportunity was closing.
“It doesn’t matter,” continued Bob’s dad, his face contorting. “I don’t understand what you’ve been doing, where you’ve been, I don’t care. I’m sorry for anything I did. Please just stop.”
Jimmy stood beside Bob’s father. “You should listen to him.”
“Dad, I’m sorry, I can’t…”
“You can’t blame yourself for what happened to your brother.” Bob’s dad started crying. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” echoed Jimmy.
Bob took a step forward, but then stopped again. In his mind’s eye he could see Nancy rushing along the corridors high in Farm Tower Two. He could still make it. Not your fault. His father’s words reverberated in his brain. Be responsible. Bob stared up at Farm Tower Two, its glass walls shining before him.
He could save his own heart, but he would be breaking a million others.
He stepped backward.
Don’t do it, insisted the voice in Bob’s head. He struggled inside. Get Nancy, get Mom and Dad, get out of here. We can’t do that. There’s a way we can stop Jimmy. But you can’t leave them, you can’t fail again. We won’t fail. This will work. If we stop Jimmy, then we save everyone. But what if you’re wrong?
Jimmy shook his head. “You know this is hopeless.”
“Bob, stop, please,” begged Bob’s father. “Take responsibility, stop this.”
Tears in his eyes, Bob retreated another step toward the water. “I can’t. And I am.”
Bob took one last look at his dad, then up at Farm Tower Two. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, turning to walk and then run back into the water.
Jimmy’s projection smiled. “There’s nowhere to go.”
Already splashing knee-deep, Bob said, “I know,” and dove headfirst into a wave.
18
An orbital view of the southern Atlantic filled the room, centered on the glittering sphere of the Terra Novan perimeter. Alliance battle platforms encircled it, each highlighted in their own red spheres, and each ringed by battleships. A dusting of red dots orbited above it all, drones weaving in and out, testing the defenses. The display pulsed in time, morphing alternate scenarios the Command team analyzed and modified in real time.
The sudden appearance of Robert Baxter, launching a Terra Novan offensive inside their perimeter, had thrown Commander Strong’s Atopian defensive team into disarray, but his staff regained control quickly. It was already contained with minimal system losses. He was proud that they reacted so well. It was their first real test.
The inside attack was a surprise to his team, but the Commander wasn’t surprised. Looking at the main battle display, it was clear Terra Nova wouldn’t be able to withstand them much longer. He couldn’t blame them for fighting back, but it just emphasized the need to neutralize them as quickly as possible.
The attack on Alliance headquarters in Arunchal had been the final straw. Atopia had been petitioning the United Nations Security Council for international backing to legally remove the leadership of Terra Nova through use of force. The petition was finally granted after the Arunchal attack, giving the Alliance legal grounds to assemble and attack Terra Nova.
Due to mutual protection treaties, attacking Terra Nova would be taken as a declaration of war against the African Union. For months the United Nations had been trying to get weapons inspectors into the African Union, to look at the space power grid. The weapons inspectors were also working to understand the extent that Terra Nova had infected systems worldwide, just as they’d almost destroyed and killed hundreds of thousands of people on Atopia with their reality virus. Terra Nova was spreading dangerous lies, tipping the world toward destruction.
It was now Commander Strong’s job to remove this threat.
“Commander, I need to speak to you.”
He blinked, tearing his attention away from his displays. Nancy Killiam stood in front of him.
“I don’t know how you got in here,” said Commander Strong, glancing at her, “but you need to go, right now.” Most of his mind was plugged into the battle in the Southern Atlantic. He stood in the middle of the battle projection that spanned the room. He stared at the image of the Terra Novan platform displayed in the center.
“I’m here in person,” she replied. “I need to talk to you.”
He hadn’t checked her metatags. So she physically breached the Command entrance. Without looking at her, he shook his head. “You know this is not a good time,” he answered, but he could guess why. A thread of his mind was following Bob as he tried to escape on the beaches below. “I know you and Bob are close, Nancy, but there’s nothing I can do.”
Almost right away, Jimmy had taken over the Terra Novan intrusion into their networks. He specifically asked if he could handle Bob himself. The Commander agreed. He understood. Jimmy and Bob were childhood friends. Jimmy had to try to reason with his friend.
His guards had already grabbed Nancy and were pulling her to the door. “It’s about your wife,” she cried out.
Even in the middle of all this, Commander Strong still kept a good chunk of himself with his wife Cindy, her body in stasis in their apartment. Several months ago she committed what the doctors called “reality suicide”—she was one of the first disappeared, people who went into the multiverse of pssi worlds and never returned.
The Commander distilled his attention into the room. He held one hand up to stop the guards, halfway out the door. “What about her?”
“Privately.” Nancy shook the guards off. “And this is about Patricia, too.”
There was no reason he should listen to her, but he had the greatest of respect for her great-aunt, Patricia Killiam, even after what happened. Nancy was many things—stubborn, obsessive—but she also never wasted his time. That commanded his respect. In a snap decision, he opened a private channel. His primary viewpoint shifted into a white room. They sat face to face, opposite each other across a small rectangular table.