The bulb broke and the filament was immersed in the electrolyte. It started to sputter and spark. Blue-white plasma encircled the sphere in the tank as the short circuit instantly released the electrochemical energy stored in the entire core. The resulting heat from the electric current overwhelmed the delicate micropower-sensitive brain and the core melted. It took years of genius to create her, but only seconds to send her into oblivion.
ALISON was gone.
For nearly a minute, the room was absolutely silent. Then the Admiral snarled, “Who wants to live forever?”
The words broke Parnes’s stupor. He grabbed an MP’s pistol and pointed it at Parks. “You killed my creation!”
Hiccock pulled the major’s gun right from his holster and fired at Parnes, hitting him in the shoulder. The gun in the professor’s good hand flew as he cried out from the stinging impact of the bullet and crumpled, sobbing. Hiccock stood with the smoking gun still pointed where Parnes had been.
The major slid the gun gingerly out of Hiccock’s hand, “Nice shot!”
“I thought I was aiming for his chest.”
Tyler ran to him. A shrill noise brought everyone’s attention to the tank as the core broke apart. Tyler and Hiccock watched it in each other’s arms, the gray liquid coating turning to black as it bubbled.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
A blue-white shaft of light knifed its way through the inky black, dust-filled air. Two reddish-white beams from helmet-mounted flashlights spearheaded the path of the Army Corps of Engineers as they pushed aside the last chunks of rock and earth. Hiccock, Tyler, and the others were drawn to the increasingly louder buffeting sound of the pneumatic hammers chewing away at the final layer of Cummings Peak separating them from rescue.
They emerged into a crisp, sun-drenched day. Hiccock took the deepest breath of his life as he stepped from a makeshift elevator consisting of a lashed-up platform that was raised by a derrick through the emergency access hole. They waited for Parks and Kronos to join them before approaching the president, who was standing twenty feet in front of Marine One accompanied by an honor guard. Before anything was said, the honor guard saluted them.
“Bill, you and your team have achieved a brave and admirable feat,” the president said, reaching out his hand. “You have the thanks of a grateful nation as well as my personal gratitude and congratulations.”
“Thank you, Mr. President. Did our UDT guy make it out of there?”
“You mean Petty Officer Harold Wills, Navy UDT, Retired?”
Hiccock glanced at Parks for confirmation. She nodded.
“He’s fine and recuperating. You know, I’m going to have to ask Congress for more funding. Our medal budget is going through the roof on this mission.”
Reynolds stepped forward. “I have to confess, Bill, I thought you were crazy when you first came to me with this idea. How in the hell you got to this place is remarkable.”
Tyler locked her arm in Bill’s as she patted his hand. “He’s brilliant!”
“It was a team effort, Sir.”
“Speaking of which, Mr. President,” Kronos said, stepping in, “there’s the little matter of my occupancy at the Elmira federal facility. It’s costing those tax-paying voters a ton of money to keep me locked up.”
“Done.” The president waved his hand, “Presidential pardon.”
“Cool!”
“Mr. President, what about my house?” Parks asked.
“I think you have about thirty-seven years of back-pension coming, since I have recommissioned you as of today. With interest, you’ll be able to buy a hundred houses and a small aircraft carrier to ski behind.”
“It wasn’t you with the bug in the computer?” Hiccock said to the now oldest officer in the Navy, shaking his head.
“You had to be wrong about something or you wouldn’t be human.”
“Well, the medical people want to have a look at you,” the president said to the group. “Then I’m sure you’ll want to take a few days off.”
“Sir, I have had a lot of time to think down there in that hole and I …” Hiccock glanced over at Tyler, “… we, are going to de-emphasize work and put some emphasis on enjoying our lives together.”
“You really are a smart guy.” The president turned to Reynolds. “Ray, before I resign, see if there’s some way the federal government can help this couple just starting out … again.”
“Will do, Mr. President.”
The purple mountains, lying majestically off in the distance of the New Mexico countryside, stood silent witness to the day when the first great battle between man and machine ended … in man’s favor.
EPILOGUE
“Sir, may I have a word?” Hiccock asked the president. “Sure.” They walked out of earshot of the others. “Sir, my computer guy, Kronos, says that right before we destroyed the computer, it flung out across the Internet its … ‘digital DNA,’ if you will.”
“Are you telling me this isn’t over?” Hiccock called out for Kronos and the Admiral and they joined the two men. “How do we end this?” the president said sternly. “Sir, Kronos and I feel that we can write a code that will attract the distributed intelligence.”
“Yes, but we will need a big pipe, fast-capacity platform, light-speed quick.”
“Slow down, here. Speak English. What are you asking for?”
“There’s an Aegis cruiser docked in San Diego,” Hiccock said. “I’ll call the Secretary of the Navy right now.”
“You may not want to do that, Mr. President.”
“Why not?” As Hiccock explained, the president’s eyes widened. He signaled to Reynolds. The chopper pilot revved the engines on Marine One and Hiccock, the Admiral, Kronos, Tyler, the president, and Reynolds piled in.
“San Diego Naval Base, on the double,” the Commander in Chief said.
“We’ll have to refuel.”
“You’ve got an extendable refuel probe on this bird, so call for a tanker, Barney. Time is tight.”
“Sorry, Sir, that’s against my orders, Sir. An air-to-air fill-up is a high-risk maneuver that I am not permitted to execute when you are onboard, Sir.”
“Barney, I am changing your orders and ordering you to get airborne right now, refuel en route, and get us to the base in the straightest most direct route. Is that clear?”
The pilot looked to his copilot and shrugged his shoulders. “Yes, Sir. Clear as day, Sir.”
As the giant helicopter began its assent, the pilot jumped on the radio. “HMX-1, this is Marine One. Request immediate vector heading and flight path clearance to San Diego Naval Base.”
“Are you declaring an emergency, Marine One?”
“No, Sir, just direct point-to-point, air priority routing.”
“That’s a roger, Marine One …”
“We will need midair refuel.”
“Affirmative. Scrambling tanker from El Toro. That’ll put it thirty minutes out, can you make that?”
“It’ll be close, but we can do it.”
In the sound-muffled cabin, Kronos explained the idea. “Ya see, ALISON squirted out all her memory and programs into millions of computers. Each little bit contains a replication code. Every piece of this code is out there waiting.”
“Waiting for what?” the president asked.
“A signal, Sir,” the Admiral said. “Whenever a bit of code finds itself in a big enough place to accumulate the other strings of data it needs in order to become ALISON again, it will send out an attractor. As the code assembles, ALISON comes back from her distributed, suspended animation.”