Dreadnought

Chapter Seven: A Chance At Freedom

N'Tek Car

Approaching Del Oro Bay Bridge

Rachel Leeds glanced back from her position in the passenger seat of the vehicle at the two people-sitting silent in the back seat of the car. Jacob and Amanda Costas were holding hands both pale with worry for their son, especially now that the knew what had happened to him, what Vostok and Karland had changed him into. And both still astonished by the truth she had revealed to them - the truth about N'Tek. She hadn't told them the truth about Max - that he was really their sons best friend Josh McGrath - for the simple reason that it was Max's secret to tell not hers. There was no doubt in her mind that Max would tell them the truth about who he really was sooner or later, knowing Max it would probably be sooner rather than later and when he considered it to be the right time.

Amanda Costas noticed her watching them.

"How much longer," Amanda demanded anxious to get to her son's bedside even if he was still cocooned by circuitry and didn't know that she was there. It was just important to her that she was there for her son.

"Not long," Rachel replied with an understanding smile. "We're almost to the bridge across to the island. It's quicker than taking the ferry when you're approaching from this part of the city. Once across we'll be inside N'Tek in a few minutes."

"What about Pete. Any news at all," Jacob asked.

"That last I was told was that they were trying to determine the depth of the mechanical integration with his organic systems so that we could determine the best way of removing the remaining Dreadnought circuitry in the time that we have left," Rachel replied truthfully.

"What do you mean the time we have left," Amanda demanded. Rachel looked uncomfortable.

"Our analysis indicates that the circuit pathways are slowly collapsing one after another after another in a cascade reaction. It appeared that Karland designed the circuitry that way - so that it would be difficult if not impossible to free the host in time."

"In time?" Amanda queried as terror gripped her heart temporarily replacing the worry for her son and the anger at the evil scientist and his terrorist master who had done this to Pete.

"Yes. We have just six hours left to remove the circuitry before it collapses completely. If we fail to remove even a trace of the technology before it fails then Pete will die." Amanda gasped and huddled closer to her husband as Rachel put every parent's greatest nightmare into words. The possibility of loosing their child. And from Rachel had said there was a very real risk here that Pete could die as a result of what Dr Karland had done to him. If Pete did die then Amanda didn't know what she would do, how she would cope with the loss. Or how her husband would cope. Pete was everything to them - especially precious since he was their only child, Amanda had discovered shortly after his birth that she couldn't have any more children - he was the centre of their entire world. Oh god please don't let him die, Amanda pleaded silently with whoever might be listening. Take me or Jacob instead. But please don't let him die. I couldn't bare to live without him.

They sat in silence for the rest of the short journey to N'Tek.

*****

N'Tek Medical Centre

A Couple of Minutes Later

Berto Martinez took his glasses off for a moment, rubbed his eyes and sighed. The computer had just finished processing their latest and deepest scans of Pete's body. The Dreadnought technology was even more integrated with Pete than they had previously believed, their was a lot more of it a lot deeper in that they thought, and it was also very sophisticated and definitely based on nanotechnology. There was no doubt that Joseph Karland was a genius - a very twisted genius - and the level of sophistication to the Dreadnought technology inside Pete was even more proof of his brilliance. It was just such a great shame that Karland used his intelligence to create a weapon like Dreadnought.

"You look like someone with a problem," Laura Chen said from behind him making him jump - he hadn't heard her come up behind him. Putting his glasses back on Berto rotated his chair to look at her. They were the only two in the room besides Pete. Yevshenko had gone to the cafeteria to get some coffee and Max had gone to the top car park level with Jefferson to await the arrival of Pete's parents and Rachel.

"It's this damn Dreadnought technology," Berto admitted turning back to the computer screen. "The level of complexity and physical integration is greater than we expected. It's also spreads deeper into Pete's body than we thought. A complex web work of microfibres and nanotech circuitry woven into almost every single system in his body."

"A bit like the max probes are with Jos…I mean Max," Laura said correcting herself right at the end knowing that she should refer to Josh as Max while he was using his secret agent appearance.

"Exactly though this is very different. In many ways this represents the cruellest possible application of nanotechnology outside of using it as a weapon. For this technology is used to control and sustain the life of the host, prolonging their silent torture just so Dreadnought could continue to function. In the case of Max however the nanoprobes are simply integrated with his systems - they augment him but they don't control him in anyway."

"If this is nanotech then how are you going to get it out of Pete before our time runs out," Laura asked.

"I have no idea," Berto admitted. Then the idea occurred. "Of course why didn't I think of that earlier."

"What!" Laura asked.

"There are only three things in this world that can destroy nanotechnology once its inside a Human," Berto replied. "Repeated electrical shocks from high-tension power lines or from Electrix. The heavy EMP pulse from a thermonuclear blast or another form of nanotechnology."

"So?"

"So all we have to do to get this damned stuff out of Pete is use our own nanotechnology."

"Explain," Laura demanded in a tone that she'd unwittingly picked up from Jefferson. It made Berto jump momentarily startled. Berto turned to face her again.

"Easy. The max probes are designed with the ability to destroy hostile nanotechnology should they detect it. All we have to do is reprogram some of them to use that function to destroy the remaining Dreadnought circuitry and to repair the cell damage it has caused. They're easily capable of doing that - why do you think Max heals so quickly if he cuts himself or gets hurt in the field?"

"That does sound like the best chance that Pete has," Laura agreed as she spoke the door opened.

"What sounds like the best chance," Yevshenko asked as she came back into the room. Berto explained. "That would work," she agreed.

"I better go and get some nanoprobes then and reprogram them."

"I'll brief Smith when he comes back in," Yevshenko added. Berto got to his feet and started to leave the room.

"Berto," Laura said. Berto stopped and looked back at her questioningly. "Do you mind if I come with you?"

"Sure come on."

Laura followed Berto out of the room and into the virtual labyrinth of corridors and chambers that made up the secret world of the real N'Tek. Laura made sure that she kept Berto in sight since he knew where exactly he was going where as she hadn't been here often enough to know her way around this place. Then their was the fact that many of the agents here didn't know her, she could easily find herself placed in one of the places temporary holding cells, even though she had a security authorisation card encoded with her DNA pattern and signed by both Jefferson Smith and Rachel Leeds.

After a short walk they turned down a corridor that ran past a pair of lift shafts and on the right branched off in the direction of the Main Operations Room. They walked right along the corridor and round the corner at the end to find themselves in front of a two-inch thick shield door made of a tough titanium-carbon alloy. A control panel was built into the wall beside it. Laura watched as Berto punched his security code into the keypad, then take off his glasses to allow a retinal scanner to scan his right eye. Their was a whirring noise from the door followed by a click and the door opened of its own accord.

"Come on," Berto said inclining his head at the door and walking through it. Laura followed him and looked curiously around the room. Their was a central isle with tables covered in equipment of all sorts on the right and on the left side a work area also filled with different pieces of equipment. But it was what was at the end of the central isle that caught her attention. A big circular workstation from which rose a massive thick glass cylinder filled with a thick fluid that gave off a ghostly yellow-green glow of transphasic energy. The cylinder was capped at the top with a complex looking metal apparatus that was connected to several metal cylinders spaced around the cul-de-sac it was in by a series of heavy metal pipes. A set of conduits rose from the top and disappeared into the ceiling. Laura assumed that they had to lead to the transphasic generator. Though she had never been in this room before Laura knew what it was - the MX lab, the place where max probes were created and stored. And also the place where two years ago Josh had confronted Psycho for the first time and been changed forever.

"Impressive," she commented looking at the cylinder.

"I'm glad that you think so," Berto replied as he walked over to a cabinet in the work area and began looking for a small transport container in which to put the nanoprobes when he took them out of the storage tank.

"What are those side cylinders for," Laura asked.

"There manufacturing units," Berto replied as he succeeded in finding the right type of test tube and started over towards the storage cylinder. "It is in those that the nanoprobes are actually created and mixed with suspension fluid before being pumped into this thing," he continued explaining. "Once in the top they are subjected to a brief transphasic blast to charge them up before being allowed to drop into the storage cylinder. The manufacturing units are inactive at the moment as the cylinder is at its maximum storage capacity. They'll only activate again when the amount of stored probes drops to eighty percent capacity."

He reached the cylinder at that time, after removing the test tubes cap he placed it in the specialised slot in the workstation that made up the base of the cylinder then pressed a button. With a whirr a valve opened and thick luminous yellow-green fluid quickly filled the tube. The valve immediately closed again. Laura watched fascinated.

"You know we used to have to do this by hand," Berto said to her as he carefully removed the tube from the valve slot and put the top back on. "The valve had to be turned on and off manually. It was also prone to leaking which is why there's a drain underneath the transfer pipe that leads back into the cylinder. So we replaced the valve with a computer controlled one."

Laura followed him as he walked back over to the work area and slotted the test tube into a specific machine and typed in a series of commands.

"What are you doing now?" she asked curiously.

"Reprogramming these nanoprobes," Berto replied. "I've just told this machine what I want it to do and it will change the sequence of commands stored in the memories of the individual nanoprobes accordingly." The machine bleeped. "There it's done," he finished removing the test tube. "Come on lets get back. The sooner Pete gets these things the more chance he has."

*****

They returned to the medical bay to find Jefferson Smith standing outside waiting for them. Both Berto and Laura guessed that everyone else was inside the bay with Pete - including his parents.

"Yevshenko just told me your plan," Jefferson said to Berto. "Are you sure that there is no other way? You know what the consequences could be of this approach." Both Berto and Laura knew what Smith meant by that. Pete could very well end up with the same kind of superhuman abilities and the dependence of transphasic energy that Max/Josh had as a result of what they were planning on doing.

"There is no other way," Berto replied. "I wish that there was but there is none. Not even if we had more time. The nanotech used in the Dreadnought technology is to sophisticated and spread to deeply into Pete's body to be dealt with in any other way. This is Pete's only chance at freedom." Smith sighed.

"I suspected that you were going to say that," he admitted. "But I just had to be sure." Berto nodded in understanding then Jefferson turned and went back into the medical bay. They followed.

As anticipated everyone was there. Jacob and Amanda Costas were hovering near the motionless circuitry covered form of their son - Yevshenko was busy attaching a small-modified injection device to Pete's body. Max was standing not far away keeping an eye on things but not doing anything except lending silent support.

Berto walked over to Yevshenko and gave her the sealed test tube of reprogrammed nanoprobes. Laura returned to Max's side and gently took his hand in her own. He squeezed it slightly in response. The watched intently as Yevshenko attached the cylinder to the modified injector and pressed a button - with surprising suddeness the green liquid in the test tube shot into the injector unit and vanished.

"Now what," Amanda Costas asked.

"We wait," Jefferson Smith said in answer. "And hope."