Chapter 9 - Twenty Minutes to Disaster
The helicopter landed on the Marlowe Aerospace roof with twenty-one minutes remaining.
Daniel ran down three flights of stairs.
The elevators had been disabled.
Maya waited outside the Sentinel core with Jordan Pike and two police officers.
The reinforced door would not open.
“Harlan changed the biometric controls,” Maya said.
“Can we break through?”
“Not before the countdown ends.”
Daniel placed his hand on the scanner.
The system rejected him.
A speaker above the door activated.
Harlan’s voice filled the corridor.
“You should have stayed in Philadelphia.”
“It is over, Richard.”
“No. It is finally beginning.”
Harlan explained that Sentinel had already connected to hundreds of aircraft systems. At zero, the corrupted guidance update would be distributed worldwide.
Not every aircraft would fail.
That was the point.
Random errors would create confusion, fear, and demand for Vantage Meridian’s “secure” replacement system.
Harlan and his partners would make billions.
“You cannot control what happens,” Daniel said.
“I do not need to control it. I need to profit from it.”
Maya connected Peter Vale’s key to an emergency port outside the door.
The system requested dual authorization.
Daniel placed his hand on the scanner again.
This time, the old code recognized him.
The shutdown command began uploading.
18%
Inside the core, Harlan disconnected a server.
The upload stopped.
Maya cursed under her breath.
“We need physical access.”
Jordan pointed toward a ventilation shaft.
“It leads above the core.”
The opening was barely large enough for one person.
Maya removed her jacket.
“I can fit.”
Daniel shook his head.
“It is dangerous.”
“So is doing nothing.”
She climbed inside.
The countdown reached fourteen minutes.
Maya crawled through darkness while Daniel guided her using building plans.
Beneath her, cooling fans roared.
At the end of the shaft, she found a metal grate above the core.
Harlan stood below.
He held a pistol.
Maya quietly loosened the screws.
The grate fell.
Harlan looked up.
Maya dropped onto a server cabinet.
He fired.
The bullet struck metal.
Daniel heard the shot through Maya’s headset.
“Maya!”
“I’m okay.”
She jumped down and ran toward the central console.
Harlan grabbed her.
They struggled.
Maya drove her elbow into his ribs, but he struck her across the face and threw her to the floor.
The countdown showed eight minutes.
Daniel and Jordan rammed the outer door with a maintenance cart.
The frame bent but held.
Inside, Harlan raised the pistol toward Maya.
“You should have forgotten what you saw.”
Maya looked behind him.
“You should have checked the door.”
The maintenance cart crashed through.
Daniel tackled Harlan.
Jordan kicked the gun away.
Police officers restrained him.
Maya reached the console.
The architecture key was damaged.
Several circuits had cracked when she fell.
“Can you repair it?” Daniel asked.
“Not in six minutes.”
Harlan laughed from the floor.
“You lost.”
Daniel stared at the broken board.
Then he remembered the early artifacts displayed on the Founders’ Wall.
The architecture key had been designed in 1989.
Samuel Marlowe’s original prototype hardware still sat in the company museum.
It was two floors below.
Jordan ran to retrieve it.
Four minutes remained.
Maya connected wires directly to the damaged board.
Daniel read Samuel’s handwritten notes over the phone as Evelyn, from the ambulance, translated old engineering abbreviations.
Jordan returned carrying the prototype.
Two minutes.
Maya joined the old board to the new system.
Sparks jumped.
One minute.
The console requested a final voice authorization from the system’s founder.
Samuel was dead.
The team stared at the screen.
Then Evelyn’s voice came through Daniel’s phone.
“I was a registered co-founder.”
Daniel held the phone near the microphone.
Evelyn spoke clearly.
“Evelyn Marlowe. Founder authorization. Shut down Sentinel.”
The system paused.
Ten seconds.
Nine.
Eight.
Then the countdown disappeared.
DEPLOYMENT CANCELED
Nobody moved.
Maya slowly sat on the floor.
Jordan leaned against the wall.
Daniel closed his eyes.
May you like
Across the phone, Evelyn whispered, “Your father would be proud.”
Harlan stopped laughing.
