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

Lieutenant Rivas in view. The scanner that had identified his BCC was a few metres behind and to the west.

Gonzalez nodded with approval. Rivas’ approach was suitably random, not the quickest from the road. He looked like a fisherman on his way back from the lake who had chosen to cut his route short through the woods. Having typed a quick command, Gonzalez identified the scanner that had made a positive read of Rivas’ BCC and nodded with yet more approval.

There were three perimeters: the outer one at two hundred metres to detect any full-scale assault, the middle one at eighty metres sensitive enough to tag a single BCC and the inner one at sixty metres, a back-up should everything else fail. Two different scanners had tagged and pinged Rivas’ location as he crossed the middle perimeter, exactly as they should. Barely twenty-five seconds later the inner perimeter pinged Rivas’ position, suggesting the man was moving confidently and steadily through the rough terrain.

Possibly the sweetest thing about the system was that the approachee had no idea his, or her, BCC had been scanned. Usually scanners required you to stay still for just over a second and their range was artificially truncated. After all, they were mainly used in cities for mundane activities like building security, public transport, house and aircar doors, and similar. No one wanted them to randomly scan the BCCs of everyone in a radius of twenty metres or more.

Standard BCC scanners also beeped to confirm a successful read. It was amazing, and maybe just a tad terrifying, how accustomed people got to the soft-toned sound, and how they would keep their arm still until they heard it. The military routinely adjusted the scanners for different roles, and Gonzalez had used the available options to their fullest.

Nothing short of full military nano-armour could mask a BCC from a scanner. Anyone not covered by the protective shell would be instantly tagged trying to sneak in, their identity pinged back to Roc de Chere’s security system. Of course, the cams would record movement should someone in high-grade armour sneak in, reporting it in just the same way.

While an amazing show of technology, the perimeter did nothing to protect them from an attack; there were no automated guns or missile launchers. The idea was to create a safehouse so deep underground, and masked so well from above, that finding it would pose a challenge in itself. The perimeter was merely a warning system.

Natural protection in the form of four hundred metres of nano-reinforced rock was as solid as it got, but it wouldn’t last forever. Not against modern lasers or earth-penetrating projectiles equipped with their own nanobots ready to eat the rock or reduce it to dust. That’s where the underground tunnels came into action, providing them with an escape route.

Gonzalez watched Rivas disappear between an outcrop of rocks surrounding the entrance to the main tunnel. More security features queried him, reading his BCC and deactivating upon positive identification. Multiple tunnels, lifts, turns. More cams, now offering facial identification as well. The system flashed green each time and Gonzalez allowed himself a grin of satisfaction. Nothing like a real-life exercise after gazillions of simulations to prove the concept.

Roc de Chere was probably the most complex bit of nano-programming Gonzalez had ever done. Not because the programming itself was particularly complicated, but because so many elements had to communicate and co-operate with each other. Gonzalez might have dropped out of university in his final year to join the military, but the hands-on experience in thinking big he had gained since greatly compensated for any missed theoretical studies. In fact, the only thing that could stop him from thinking even bigger when it came to nano-programming was the sheer brain power required to contemplate all the gazillions of possible consequences a nano-project could have after it was completed, but that was what computers and simulations were for, after all.

‘Damn, if only nano-programming could solve this one,’ he growled to himself. Now that the distraction of watching the security system’s performance was over, his grim thoughts were back. Moving out of the security room and back into the living space, he briefly allowed himself to hope for some good information.

Heck, any information would be good information at this point.

He sat down, forcing himself deeper into the sofa, resting comfortably against the nano-assembled cushion.

‘Calm your shit, Gonzalez,’ he scolded himself in a harsh whisper. ‘You can’t expect your people to act competently when you scamper around like a skittish squirrel. Lieutenant Rivas must be bringing news. News is always better than no news,’ he added, no less disappointed at the identity of the visitor.

Only four people could pass the perimeter without triggering an alarm. Lieutenant Rivas was not the one he most needed to see. As desperate as he was to see Megan O’Haress walk in safe and sound, he knew that wasn’t very likely to happen. But what he really hoped to see was the system identifying Ingram, and Eloise Moretti with her. The VRP was lost, burnt to ash in the superheated fire, but the Elite woman knew something and was still their best hope.

Focus, Gonzalez.This clusterfuck isn’t over. If anything, it’s only just begun.

‘Sir!’ Rivas nodded a polite greeting before the door had even closed behind him. He was a wiry, tall man in his early forties, with an ochre, sandy complexion and fiery-red hair that framed his slim face and pale brown eyes.

Gonzalez nodded his own greeting, trying hard to hide his disappointment. Rivas’ face did not imply he was bringing good news.

‘It has spread. The MIS has declared Colonel Larsen rogue and had no choice but to allow the Central Police Inspectorate to verify your identity via a DNA sample. Information has come from the 4th that you jeopardised their investigation, assaulted an officer, killed one of their gendarmes, injured another two and were directly responsible for an XST being shot down, leading to the death of another gendarme and