Digital Fortress Part 39

Susan did not move.

"Are you worried about David?"

There was a slight quiver in her upper lip.

Strathmore stepped closer. He was going to reach for her, but hehesitated. The sound of David's name had apparently crackedthe dam of grief. Slowly at first-a quiver, a tremble. Andthen a thundering wave of misery seemed to course through herveins.

Barely able to control her shuddering lips, Susan opened hermouth to speak. Nothing came.

Without ever breaking the icy gaze she'd locked onStrathmore, she took her hand from the pocket of his blazer. In herhand was an object. She held it out, shaking.

Strathmore half expected to look down and see the Berettaleveled at his gut. But the gun was still on the floor, proppedsafely in Hale's hand. The object Susan was holding wa.s.smaller. Strathmore stared down at it, and an instant later, heunderstood.

As Strathmore stared, reality warped, and time slowed to acrawl. He could hear the sound of his own heart. The man who hadtriumphed over giants for so many years had been outdone in aninstant. Slain by love-by his own foolishness. In a simple actof chivalry, he had given Susan his jacket. And with it, hisSkyPager.

Now it was Strathmore who went rigid. Susan's hand wa.s.shaking. The pager fell at Hale's feet. With a look ofastonishment and betrayal that Strathmore would never forget, SusanFletcher raced past him out of Node 3.

The commander let her go. In slow motion, he bent and retrievedthe pager. There were no new messages-Susan had read them all.Strathmore scrolled desperately through the list.

SUBJECT: ENSEI TANKADO-TERMINATED SUBJECT: PIERRE CLOUCHARDE-TERMINATED SUBJECT: HANS HUBER-TERMINATED SUBJECT: ROCiO EVA GRANADA-TERMINATED .. .

The list went on. Strathmore felt a wave of horror. I canexplain! She will understand!

Honor! Country! But therewas one message he had not yet seen-one message he could neverexplain. Trembling, he scrolled to the final transmission.

SUBJECT: DAVID BECKER-TERMINATED Strathmore hung his head. His dream was over.

CHAPTER 104

Susan staggered out of Node 3.

SUBJECT: DAVID BECKER-TERMINATED As if in a dream, she moved toward Crypto's main exit. GregHale's voice echoed in her mind: Susan, Strathmore'sgoing to kill me! Susan, the commander's in love withyou!

Susan reached the enormous circular portal and began stabbingdesperately at the keypad. The door did not move. She tried again,but the enormous slab refused to rotate. Susan let out a mutedscream-apparently the power outage had deleted the exit codes.She was still trapped. Without warning, two arms closed around her from behind,grasping her half-numb body. The touch was familiar yet repulsive.It lacked the brute strength of Greg Hale, but there was adesperate roughness to it, an inner determination like steel.

Susan turned. The man restraining her was desolate, frightened.It was a face she had never seen.

"Susan," Strathmore begged, holding her. "I canexplain."

She tried to pull away.

The commander held fast.

Susan tried to scream, but she had no voice. She tried to run,but strong hands restrained her, pulling her backward.

"I love you," the voice was whispering."I've loved you forever."

Susan's stomach turned over and over.

"Stay with me."

Susan's mind whirled with grisly images-David'sbright-green eyes, slowly closing for the last time; GregHale's corpse seeping blood onto the carpet; PhilChartrukian's burned and broken on the generators.

"The pain will pa.s.s," the voice said."You'll love again."

Susan heard nothing.

"Stay with me," the voice pleaded. "I'llheal your wounds."

She struggled, helpless.

"I did it for us. We're made for each other. Susan, Ilove you." The words flowed as if he had waited a decade tospeak them. "I love you! I love you!"

In that instant, thirty yards away, as if reb.u.t.tingStrathmore's vile confession, TRANSLTR let out a savage,pitiless hiss. The sound was an entirely new one-a distant,ominous sizzling that seemed to grow like a serpent in the depthsof the silo.

The freon, it appeared, had not reached its mark intime.

The commander let go of Susan and turned toward the $2 billioncomputer. His eyes went wide with dread. "No!" He grabbedhis head. "No!"

The six-story rocket began to tremble. Strathmore staggered afaltering step toward the thundering hull. Then he fell to hisknees, a sinner before an angry G.o.d. It was no use.

At the base ofthe silo, TRANSLTR's t.i.tanium-strontium processors had justignited.

CHAPTER 105

A fireball racing upward through three million silicon chipsmakes a unique sound.

The crackling of a forest fire, the howlingof a tornado, the steaming gush of a geyser .

. . all trappedwithin a reverberant hull. It was the devil's breath, pouringthrough a sealed cavern, looking for escape. Strathmore knelttransfixed by the horrific noise rising toward them. Theworld's most expensive computer was about to become aneight-story inferno.

In slow motion, Strathmore turned back toward Susan. She stoodparalyzed beside the Crypto door. Strathmore stared at hertear-streaked face. She seemed to s.h.i.+mmer in the fluorescent light.She's an angel, he thought. He searched her eyes forheaven, but all he could see was death. It was the death of trust.Love and honor were gone. The fantasy that had kept him going allthese years was dead. He would never have Susan Fletcher. Never.The sudden emptiness that gripped him was overwhelming.

Susan gazed vaguely toward TRANSLTR. She knew that trappedwithin the ceramic sh.e.l.l, a fireball was racing toward them. Shesensed it rising faster and faster, feeding on the oxygen releasedby the burning chips. In moments the Crypto dome would be a blazinginferno.

Susan's mind told her to run, but David's dead weightpressed down all around her.

She thought she heard his voicecalling to her, telling her to escape, but there was nowhere to go.Crypto was a sealed tomb. It didn't matter; the thought ofdeath did not frighten her. Death would stop the pain. She would bewith David.

The Crypto floor began to tremble, as if below it an angry seamonster were rising out of the depths. David's voice seemed tobe calling. Run, Susan! Run!

Strathmore was moving toward her now, his face a distant memory.His cool gray eyes were lifeless. The patriot who had lived in hermind a hero had died-a murderer. His arms were suddenly aroundher again, clutching desperately. He kissed her cheeks."Forgive me," he begged. Susan tried to pull away, butStrathmore held on.

TRANSLTR began vibrating like a missile preparing to launch. TheCrypto floor began to shake. Strathmore held tighter. "Holdme, Susan. I need you."

A violent surge of fury filled Susan's limbs. David'svoice called out again. I love you!

Escape! In a suddenburst of energy, Susan tore free. The roar from TRANSLTR becamedeafening. The fire was at the silo's peak. TRANSLTR groaned,straining at its seams. David's voice seemed to lift Susan, guide her. She dashedacross the Crypto floor and started up Strathmore's catwalkstairs. Behind her, TRANSLTR let out a deafening roar.

As the last of the silicon chips disintegrated, a tremendousupdraft of heat tore through the upper casing of the silo and sentshards of ceramic thirty feet into the air. Instantly theoxygen-rich air of Crypto rushed in to fill the enormousvacuum.

Susan reached the upper landing and grabbed the banister whenthe tremendous rush of wind ripped at her body. It spun her aroundin time to see the deputy director of operations, far below,staring up at her from beside TRANSLTR. There was a storm ragingall around him, and yet there was peace in his eyes. His lipsparted, and he mouthed his final word. "Susan."

The air rus.h.i.+ng into TRANSLTR ignited on contact. In a brilliantflash of light, Commander Trevor Strathmore pa.s.sed from man, tosilhouette, to legend.

When the blast hit Susan, it blew her back fifteen feet intoStrathmore's office. All she remembered was a searingheat.

CHAPTER 106

In the window of the Director's conference room, high abovethe Crypto dome, three faces appeared, breathless. The explosionhad shaken the entire NSA complex. Leland Fontaine, ChadBrinkerhoff, and Midge Milken all stared out in silent horror.

Seventy feet below, the Crypto dome was blazing. Thepolycarbonate roof was still intact, but beneath the transparentsh.e.l.l, a fire raged. Black smoke swirled like fog inside thedome.

The three stared down without a word. The spectacle had an eeriegrandeur to it.

Fontaine stood a long moment. He finally spoke, his voice faintbut unwavering.

"Midge, get a crew down there ...now."

Across the suite, Fontaine's phone began to ring.

It was Jabba.

CHAPTER 107

Susan had no idea how much time had pa.s.sed. A burning in herthroat pulled her to her senses. Disoriented, she studied hersurroundings. She was on a carpet behind a desk.

The only light inthe room was a strange orange flickering. The air smelled ofburning plastic. The room she was standing in was not really a roomat all; it was a devastated sh.e.l.l. The curtains were on fire, andthe Plexiglas walls were smoldering.

Then she remembered it all.

David.

In a rising panic, she pulled herself to her feet. The air feltcaustic in her windpipe. She stumbled to the doorway looking for away out. As she crossed the threshold, her leg swung out over anabyss; she grabbed the door frame just in time. The catwalk haddisappeared. Fifty feet below was a twisted collapse of steamingmetal. Susan scanned the Crypto floor in horror. It was a sea offire. The melted remains of three million silicon chips had eruptedfrom TRANSLTR like lava. Thick, acrid smoke billowed upward. Susanknew the smell. Silicon smoke. Deadly poison.

Retreating into the remains of Strathmore's office, shebegan to feel faint. Her throat burned. The entire place was filledwith a fiery light. Crypto was dying. So will I, shethought.

For a moment, she considered the only possibleexit-Strathmore's elevator. But she knew it was useless;the electronics never would have survived the blast.

But as Susan made her way through the thickening smoke, sherecalled Hale's words.

The elevator runs on power from themain building! I've seen the schematics! Susan knew thatwas true. She also knew the entire shaft was encased in reinforcedconcrete.

The fumes swirled all around her. She stumbled through the smoketoward the elevator door. But when she got there, she saw that theelevator's call b.u.t.ton was dark. Susan jabbed fruitlessly atthe darkened panel, then she fell to her knees and pounded on thedoor.

She stopped almost instantly. Something was whirring behind thedoors. Startled, she looked up. It sounded like the carriage wasright there! Susan stabbed at the b.u.t.ton again. Again, a whirringbehind the doors.

Suddenly she saw it. The call b.u.t.ton was not dead-it had just been covered withblack soot. It now glowed faintly beneath her smudgedfingerprints.

There's power!

With a surge of hope, she punched at the b.u.t.ton. Over and over,something behind the doors engaged. She could hear the ventilationfan in the elevator car. The carriage is here! Why won'tthe d.a.m.n doors open?

Through the smoke she spied the tiny secondarykeypad-lettered b.u.t.tons, A through Z. In a wave of despair,Susan remembered. The pa.s.sword.

The smoke was starting to curl in through the melted windowframes. Again she banged on the elevator doors. They refused toopen. The pa.s.sword! she thought.

Strathmore never told methe pa.s.sword! Silicon smoke was now filling the office.Choking, Susan fell against the elevator in defeat. The ventilationfan was running just a few feet away. She lay there, dazed, gulpingfor air.

She closed her eyes, but again David's voice woke her. Escape, Susan! Open the door! Escape! She opened her eyes.e.xpecting to see his face, those wild green eyes, that playfulsmile. But the letters AZ came into focus. The pa.s.sword .. . Susan stared at the letters on the keypad. She could barelykeep them in focus. On the LED below the keypad, five empty spotsawaited entry. A five-character pa.s.sword, she thought.

Sheinstantly knew the odds: twenty-six to the fifth power; 11,881,376possible choices. At one guess every second, it would take nineteenweeks ...

As Susan Fletcher lay choking on the floor beneath the keypad,the commander's pathetic voice came to her. He was calling toher again. I love you Susan! I've always loved you! Susan!Susan! Susan ...

She knew he was dead, and yet his voice was relentless. Sheheard her name over and over.

Susan ... Susan ...