Page 140 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

“What makes you think he’ll allow you to keep the AGI?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? He won’t have a choice.” Fierro pointed at an Indian engineer sitting at the satellite console. “Prepare for the uplink.”

“With a program that large, it will take several minutes,” the Indian said.

“Then get after it, man.” Fierro was anxious to put the AGI to work as soon as possible. He turned to the comms tech. “Tell Dr.Bose I need her in the CIC immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

Fierro was worried. With the American ship prowling around therewas no telling how much time he had left before they might seek to capture or kill him. Despite Peng’s impressive show of violence, Fierro wasn’t convinced the Chinese destroyer was equal to theOregonand its incredible power.

Once the uplink was established, Fierro would have Dr.Bose transfer a copy of the AGI program to a server located in a secured compound he had built in New Zealand. After that, he’d unleash AGI on the American vessel and destroy it.

“Are you sure you want the Chinese to have access to it as well?” Stokes asked. The distant beat of helicopter blades signaled Peng was on his way.

“At this juncture, I don’t have much of a choice, do I? Besides, the Chinese hate the Americans as much as I do, and Peng has been a good business partner over the years. It’s not my preferred arrangement, but I can live with it.” He turned back to the comms tech. “Where’s Bose?”

“She hasn’t responded.”

Stokes stepped closer. “A private word with you, in my cabin, if I may?”

Fierro frowned, annoyed. “What? Now?”

“It’s about Bose. It’s urgent.”

?

Aboard theOregon

Murphy had tapped into theOregon’s comms ever since they arrived on station. Like a retired fire horse hearing a clanging alarm bell, everything in him wanted to run up to the weapons station once the fireworks began. Of course, he couldn’t. Cabrillo had locked him in his stall for the duration.

He didn’t care about all of that now. A hardwired compulsion within his brain told him the key to everything was finding and solving Eidolon’s code-within-a-code. Like a paleographer deploying AI-powered X-ray imaging to decipher ancient text from burnt papyrus scrolls, Murphy managed to pull minuscule shreds of data from Eidolon’s code, one bit at a time. After many sleepless hours he finallyextracted the last digital bits—just as Stoney began throwing theOregonaround in a slalom run across the Pacific. By the time theOregonhove to, he’d uploaded the data into a software program originally designed to predict the complex folding patterns of DNA protein structures.

Bleary-eyed and jacked up on energy drinks, he was staring at his monitor as it suddenly began spitting out the decrypted digital chaos: Eidolon’s code-within-a-code.

Murphy shouted like a babysitter in a slasher film.

In a good way.

?

“Chairman, theBaktun’s satellite mast just lit up,” Hali Kasim said.

“What? Why now?” Cabrillo asked. “Is it comms?”

“Not according to the Sniffer. The signal indicates major bandwidth.”

“That means AGI is online,” Eric said. “They need to upload it in order to be able to deploy it properly.”

“But there’s still five minutes to go,” Max said.

“It must have completed early,” Stone said.

“Wepps,” Cabrillo called out. “Deploy the Melara and take out that mast. Fire at will.”

“Aye, sir!”

Linda engaged the auto-targeting program for the Melara 127 auto cannon.Bull’s-eye at twenty-eight miles? No problem,she joked to herself as she painted theBaktun’s distant satellite mast. Juan would have deployed the high-powered laser because of its inherent precision, but it only had an effective range of six miles.