Unstable Prototypes Read Online Free PDF Page B

Marx
explained.
    "Cooperating? He depressurized three decks.
Even with emergency procedures, we lost five men. That does not
sound like cooperation!"
    "We are still investigating how he managed to
gain control of the airlocks and override the safety
fail-safes."
    "That is the third security breach since he
was brought to this facility. That is unacceptable," she cried,
hammering the wall beside her with a fist. A moment later her
composure returned. "You say the scale has been increased. Is it
enough for our purposes?"
    "Engineering is just finishing a mockup now,
but they say that several key components necessary for activation
aren't included. They are going to run some tests shortly."
    She fumed silently for a moment.
    "Keep me apprized of the results. I am going
to speak with him."
    "Yes, Commander."
    Commander Purcell marched out of the room and
into the hallway. The cramped, industrial corridor looked as though
it had been designed by the same people who had made the first
submarines. Pipes and vents visibly lined the walls and ceiling,
and a grating covered more along the floor. She made her way down a
long curving hall, through a narrow door, and down a few ladders,
finally arriving at a much larger and more navigable space. This
was good, because there were six guards on duty. The same number in
another hall would have made it impassible. Three stood on each
side of a barred cell door. Inside was Karter Dee. He wasn't
looking particularly threatening at the moment, as it had been
discovered that both his whole left arm and his left leg below the
knee were mechanical prostheses, and had been forcibly removed
after being used rather creatively to wreak havoc. He was now
sitting on a chair that was the only piece of furniture in the
room. Even the lights had been removed.
    "Dee!" the Commander barked.
    "What?" he snapped, as though she were
interrupting something much more interesting.
    "You can't keep doing this forever."
    "I think that I can."
    "You realize that we will kill you if you
don't cooperate."
    "Pff, no. If you could figure this out on
your own you wouldn't have kidnapped me to start with. This is a
lose-lose for you. I'm not going to cooperate, unless I get what I
want, so unless you are going to cave to my demands you can either
keep threatening and get nothing, or kill me and get nothing. I've
got all the power here."
    "We have your latest designs. It is only a
matter of time."
    "Lady, that design is incomplete, and you
don't have the tools to finish it. You don't even have the tools to
MAKE the tools to finish it."
    "You won't stop us from achieving our
goals."
    "What makes you think I want to stop you? I
couldn't care less about your agenda. You think you're the first
group of terrorists I've sold stuff to?"
    "We aren't terrorists. We are
revolutionaries."
    "Tomato, tomahto," he said with a waggle of
his remaining hand. "The point is, I was ready, willing, and able
to fork these things over by the dozen if you were willing to cough
up the money. I still am, but the price has gone way up.
Inconvenience fee, because for some reason you thought it was wise
to kidnap me."
    "We couldn't afford to have you supply them
to anyone but us, and we couldn't afford to have you warning
anyone."
    "Nondisclosure agreements and exclusivity
agreements. Think like a corporation, lady. They've proven much
better at enslaving the masses and pushing home their agenda than
all of the terrorists in the history the human race put together.
But no, you had to do things the hard way. So I had to make a point
or two, in the form of four very destructive escape attempts."
    "Three," she corrected.
    "You sure about that?" he said
doubtfully.
    Purcell stared at him intensely, her mind
racing. Suddenly her eyes widened, she scrambled for her hefty
mil-spec communicator and thumbed the transmit button.
    "Engineering!" she hissed.
    "Engineering here," came the reply a few
moments later, accompanied by video.
    "Do not activate the latest