Rising Tomorrow (Roc de Chere Book 1), Mariana Morgan [epub e ink reader .TXT] 📗

He’d had the Roc de Chere safehouse—or bunker, depending on how you looked at it—nano-carved inside a rock a couple of years ago, when he and his team were working a different case. They hadn’t needed it back then, and it had remained safely ensconced underground on the east bank of Lac d’Annecy, in what used to be the French Prealps before the Great Collapse. No one except the core of his MIS team knew about it.

The nanobots had literally dug the tunnels and caverns in a few hours according to the specifications he provided. It was nifty. Exactly the sort of thing nano-tech was invented for. Safe, reliable and toxin-free production. And fast. It had apparently taken humans months, even years to erect buildings or dig tunnels through rock in the past. Nano-tech had changed all that. It had created a new world, and its inhabitants were still learning about all the advantages it provided.

Programming the nanobots remained an expert skill, and monitoring their progress was time-sensitive and exhausting. Big commercial projects required multiple sets of eyes to ensure adequate standards and safety, and any new project had to be re-checked multiple times by a third party before permission was given to implement it. Still, it was blindingly fast compared to what humans had to satisfy themselves with barely three hundred years ago.

In fact, it had taken Gonzalez substantially longer to equip the small underground structure than the nanobots had taken to dig it out. Able to appropriate the most cutting-edge tech, he had used the best security system and specialist gadgets the MIS had at their disposal. A few careful annotations later and no one had even noticed a few million creds’ worth of equipment going missing. Sometimes Gonzalez had no qualms about abusing the power his family name gave him.

The bunker he had designed deep under the rocks was also virtually self-sustaining. Thanks to some smart and innovative nano-programming, the day-to-day maintenance was almost fully automated, starting with the carefully balanced oxygen generators and carbon dioxide scrubbers. The system could rely on stocked-up nano-matter to provide food, water and heating while recycling waste for a month non-stop, assuming there were no more than seven, maybe eight if he removed some safety protocols, inhabitants at any given time.

For a quickly designed, nano-factured safehouse it was pretty damn perfect. Too perfect, in fact, for it gave Gonzalez nothing to occupy his frayed thoughts with while he waited. And waited.

The place wasn’t luxurious by any means. It was strictly functional and purpose-built, and those used to a lavish Elite lifestyle would probably call it spartan and bare. The sleeping compartments were small, offering nothing more than beds and basic washing facilities. The security room was crammed with gear to the point of being claustrophobic. The kitchen was really just a table and a single nano-dispenser programmed to provide fairly nutritious but rather bland food.

One of the sleeping compartments had been converted into a medical bay, where Gonzalez had parked a fully functional, upgraded Medibot. The highly advanced machine could treat all but the most serious injuries, and do so as well as a fully equipped hospital as long as power and meds lasted. In fact, the model Gonzalez had got his hands on was still classified for military use, and civilian hospitals wouldn’t get it for another few years.

The only rooms that were as outlandish as any Elite had ever seen were the VR and nano-tech labs and the VR playroom. They were still rather on the small side, but contained a state-of-the-art collection of n-suits for any VR enviro, ultra-fast computers with big holo-screens, the highest-quality nano-wires and easy access to the Afro-European Alliance’s entire, vast nano-tech and VR database.

The facilities were complemented by an open-plan conference room slash living space that offered sofas and a coffee table, dispensing with the rigid idea of straight-backed chairs. On the whole the place was fully fit for purpose, providing his team with a safe location without limiting their ability to act. If only there was something to act on.

The quick-burst links provided Gonzalez with the worst type of information—vague and sparse. He wasn’t able to dig deep enough to find anything of value without exposing himself. What he could find was useless. He needed Megan; he needed her skills badly. But with the information he could get access to he couldn’t even check if she was alive.

She is alive, you idiot. She is fucking alive, he reprimanded himself. So is Ingram. They are both fucking alive. And I bet they aren’t sitting on their asses whining about having nothing to do.

Gonzalez growled, and his muscles contracted to lift him out of the chair again just as the security system pinged. Then it flashed green as a friendly identity was confirmed.

‘Rivas. Lieutenant,’ announced a disembodied voice through the speakers, and Gonzalez moved quickly towards the security room with its multiple holo-screens. It was the perfect opportunity to run a live check on the new security system.

The room that housed all the security gizmos would seriously impress a paranoid spook from the 20th, or even the 21st, century. It was the dream come true for any intelligence operative, even if it was cramped. At his fingertips Gonzalez had access to over a thousand cams equipped with motion and heat sensors and BCC scanners, forming a tight perimeter as well as stretching out into the most likely approach routes.

The paths leading to the bunker’s entrance were nanobot controlled to keep the vegetation looking suitably random and natural. Technically they weren’t paths in the way someone from the 21st century might understand. The nanobots lived in the vegetation, ready to restore nature to an untouched state within minutes of any human passing by as long as the root systems remained undamaged. There was no actual physical path a human eye could see. It was really just a line of nanobots, billions of them, invisible to the naked eye.

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