High Pressure System: First Season Underground Read Online Free PDF Page B

ears burned and I couldn’t even look at Brandon as I set Yodel on the floor. I slowly removed Rocky from my hood, buying myself some time to compose myself as I released him on the floor.
    Jim whistled and they followed as he walked away reluctantly, giving me a sympathetic look. Well, frick. He wasn’t going to help bail me out.
    Brandon grabbed my arm and stormed into his control room. He caught the door before it slammed and closed it gently
    “Can we turn off the music?” My head throbbed as
The William Tell Overture
blasted for the tenth time.
    “No, not yet.” Brandon paced the room and rubbed his chin while he studied all the monitors. “The music confuses it. In Houston, the only survivors were in a nightclub under a hotel. Can you imagine leaving the nightclub only to discover most of the city died while you danced the night away?” He leaned in to look closer at one of the screens.
    “I’m so sorry.” I collapsed into the chair. Tears spilled from my eyes. My hands trembled as I rubbed my chest where it ached. “You warned me. It wasn’t my intention to put us all in danger like that.”
    “It was just a matter of time. Honestly, I didn’t think it would be you. I wanted to put the lobby in permanent lockdown anyway, but I was afraid of mutiny if I went through with it. Your mistake was all the validation I needed to not wait another minute. At least this will be your fault and not me being the bad guy again. I wasn’t supposed to divulge information as to what’s been going on. I don’t see the point anymore. There’s no one to report to. Do you understand why we’re here now?” He turned off all the screens and pulled up a chair to face me.
    “Yes, but what is it?” I dried my cheeks with the cuff of my sweatshirt.
    “You have no idea how lucky you are to be alive. I know you saw it. I can see you totally felt it.” He leaned closer, gripping the arm of my chair
    “The storms are searching for us. Why are the clouds killing everything?”
    “Because technology is using the weather to war with us.”
    “That’s not possible.”
    “And everyone thought it wasn’t possible that an intelligent computer could teach itself how to program the weather on its own with the intention to destroy us. There have been so many movies about that sort of thing. Stephen Hawking even warned us long before he died about the possibility that artificial intelligence could exterminate us. Weather control had its purpose while the world was in crisis from climate change. People believed they mastered everything once they allowed high-tech to run it all. Some of these computers have been given the intelligence to learn and grow beyond our own comprehension. Once man found a way to manipulate Mother Nature, that technology was given to artificial intelligence to be master of it all.” Brandon ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “Something that has learned to think for itself should not have that much power. We didn’t have time to fight it if we wanted to survive. It adapted too quickly when we tried to shut it down and it killed anyone who tried.” Brandon stood to turn the volume down in the control room. Leaning against the wall, he sighed and took his time before he spoke again. “Everything we use in here is old school. Our bunker is off the grid completely. I’ve done my research. I’m barely able to glean bits and pieces before it comes back searching for us. It adapts so quickly. I’m still researching how to hide from it, and that’s why we are all still alive. We literally created a monster when we gave technology the power to control Mother Nature.”
    “You say we. You mean you had a part in it?”
    “Yes. Being the naïve boy genius, I didn’t have a clue at first when I accepted the job offer during my internship. Once I learned what was going on and how the computers were outsmarting the people running them, I wanted to stop it. I barely had the programming skills needed