CHIMERA Page 3

  >MINER ONE CONTACTED ME AGAIN> HE WANTS TO MEET WITH U<

  >GET REAL> LIKE I WOULD MEET HIM FACE TO FACE<

  >OMG WHAT A DWEEB<

  >4Sur<

  >?<

  >I WILL HAVE SOMEONE MEET M1. THEY WILL CONTACT YOU WITH DETAILS. U RELAY THEM 2 ME<

  >K<

  RiotousOne sat back and thought about what his cutout had just sent. He would have to send a mule to meet with this guy and find out what he wants. He had it set up so that one mule would meet with the guy and then relay the information to a second mule that would in turn, send it to his cutout. His cutout lived in Australia, three thousand miles away. It would take a little time but the security was worth it to him.

  >EAGER4 I NEED YOU TO MEET WITH A MAN CALLED MINER1. HE HAS SOME BUSINESS THAT WE MAY BE INTERESTED IN. GET DETAILS AND RLAY THEM 2 ME ASAP. MEET PLACE BEST WEST YOUR CITY. TIME 5:00p.m. TOMORROW< RIOTIOUSONE >

  >UNDERSTOOD<

  Now all he could do is wait and see what this was all about.

  **

  “Absolutely not,” Paul answered.

  “You’re not thinking this through. Look at what BARD has done in only six months. Ann said the payback has fallen substantially. She now projects a breakeven point in as little as twenty-three months. Unbelievable. Twenty-three months. Can you imagine what we could be doing with two or even three of those machines?”

  “Barney, I’m not deaf nor am I dumb. I know what Ann is saying and I am ecstatic about how well everything has gone. But, we made a promise to the workers that we would not use any machine to replace them. We gave our word on that.”

  “Word hell. We’re talking about a lot more profit. It’s as simple as that. Hell, with one more machine we could out produce all three mines combined and with a lot less overhead,” Barney replied.

  “I understand. I know all of that to be true but I am not going to go back on my word. We can start looking for another coal vein and if we find a sizable one, we can use another BARD on it.”

  “You know what it costs to do a site survey and get all the permits. We have three mines right now that we could use.”

  “Sorry Barney. We are not going down that road. I will not go back on my word.”

  “That’s a foolish mistake Paul.”

  “It may be but that’s the way it is going to be,” he replied.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  >INTERESTING. MINER1 WANTS TO KNOW IF YOU CAN TAKE CONTROL OF A RC MINING DRILL. HE WANTS IT REDIRECTED FROM ITS PRESENT COURSE. PAYMENT 25K<

  >25K? IS HE KIDDING? MAYBE FOR 75K BUT NOT 25K<

  >COULD BE INTERESTING. GAINING CONTROL AND LOCKING THE OPERATOR OUT. QUITE A CHALLENGE. IF U PASS, I MAY GIVE IT A TRY<

  >LOL FROM WHERE YOU ARE?”<

  >SURE<

  >LET ME THINK ON IT BEFORE U TRY ANYTHING<

  >DON’T WAIT 2 LONG. MINER1 HAS THE CASH NOW<

  RiotousOne hated making quick decisions. He liked to think things through before he accepted a job. It wasn’t the money that really mattered. It was the challenge. Something he had never done before. The more he thought about it the more enthralled he became with the idea.

  Within minutes he started working on a program. He would need more information from Miner1 but if he was really serious he would get what was needed. Twenty-five thousand wasn’t much but he decided to do the job.

  He sat down and typed out a text and instructions with what he would need.

  **

  “Hey Sally.”

  “Oh, you scared the bejeepers out of me Art.”

  “Sorry. I just thought I would drop in and see this fancy machine you've got here.”

  “Sure, no problem. It really is amazing.”

  “So what does this thing really do,” he said looking around at all the monitors, gauges and dials.

  “Here. These are the actual controls. The two joy sticks control forward motion and speed. They also control direction. See that monitor up there,” she said pointing to the one in the center of a cluster of other monitors, “That red line is the GPS projected route to get the maximum amount of coal.”

  “It does it automatically?”

  “For the most part. Sometimes it gets a little off and the operator has to bring it back using this joy stick here,” she told him placing her hand on the left lever.

  “And no one else is in the mine?” Art asked.

  “No. There are four guys outside that line up the conveyor sections and add them on when the light tells them to.”

  “Geez. Who makes this stuff? I mean it’s pretty darned advanced.”

  “A really cool company called Dynamic Engineering. We went there for training.”

  “They wrote the software program as well?”

  “Oh heavens no. They subcontracted that to TechnoSoft. They do a lot of work for the government we were told.”

  “Darned impressive. I still can’t believe it needs no humans.”

  “Hey, I’m a human,” she kidded.

  “Yes you are, and a darn fine one to boot.”

  “You want to sit here and control it. I’ll show you how everything works.”

  “No thanks. Technology and I don’t get along very well. I can’t even get the clock on the DVD player set.”

  “Who can?” she said and laughed.

  **

  >FOO? HAVE INITIAL INFORMATION FOR PROJECT<

  >GA READY<

  >FYI DID NOT VERIFY DATA<

  >K<

  RiotousOne watched as the screen fill with the information he would need. The most disturbing part was that the programming came from TechnoSoft. He had managed to crack their computer safeguards only once. They had built in several traps and he would have to be extremely careful. The final message came across his screen.

  >MTFBWY<

  The force had better be with me, RiotousOne said under his breath. His next task would be to find a way into TechnoSoft without leaving any fingerprints. It would take him quite a while to devise a way to accomplish this feat.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “You have the money?”

  “Right here,” Art said holding up a briefcase.

  “Then all I need is to know when you want this to take place. Once you give the final word, there will be no going back,” the man told Art.

  “We have talked it over, we're ready.”

  “Here is a number. Call it when you want the project to proceed. The phone will ring three times followed by a beep. You only need to say one word. GO. After that everything will be set in motion. It will take about a half hour before control is gained,” the mule said.

  Art never suspected that the man he was talking to was just a cutoff. He believed the man was the actual hacker. The mule would then in turn pass the briefcase, less one thousand dollars to the second mule. He would take his cut and repeat two more times until it got to a drop-off point. No one would ever actually see RiotousOne. The mule slid a disposable cell phone across the table.

  “After you call, take the battery out and throw it someplace no one will find it easily. Same for the phone. Get rid of it as quickly as you can.”

  “Got it. Do I call now?”

  “You can call any time after I leave. When is up to you,” the man said, picking up the briefcase.

  “Then we are done?”

  “Absolutely,” he said and headed out the door with the briefcase.

  Art sat there with the phone in his hand. It felt hot to the touch. Man, once he dialed the number there was no way to stop what was about to happen. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and then opened the phone and dialed the number. He heard his own voice say, GO.”

  **

  “It’s all yours Sally. All readings are normal," Tommy said, sliding out of the seat so she could check all of the readings for herself.

  When she was satisfied she said, “You’re relieved. I've got it.”

  “Have a good one. I gotta run. Bowling tonight.”

  “That’s right. You guys are in a big to
urnament.”

  “And we are going to win.”

  “I think I heard that last year,” Sally teased.

  “I got game this year. They don’t stand a chance,” Tommy replied heading out the door to his car.

  She heard him whistling as the door slowly closed.

  Sally checked the gauges one more time before getting out her iPad and hitting the browser icon. She clicked on the Amazon button to check the latest e-Book offerings. Suddenly red lights started flashing across the board and alarms went off. Startled she dropped the iPad and glanced at the board. Most of the readings were off the scale. The BARD was no longer following the GPS route.

  She grabbed the control sticks and began inputting data to stop the machine and to try to get it back on the right path. Nothing was working. No matter what she did the BARD continued to eat into the side of the cavern but a good ten degrees off course and increasing.

  She opened the emergency stop cover and hit the button. She watched as nothing happened. It was the fail safe device to shut down all operations but the BARD wasn’t responding. She stood there with her mouth open watching as the giant machine chewed into the side of the cavern. Coal was no longer coming out but chunks of rock and mud.

  She was frozen in place when Mac rushed in and looked up at the monitors.

  “What the hell?”

  “I…I don’t know. It won’t stop,” she said, stymied.

  “Did you use the emergency shut down?” he said reaching for the button.

  He could see the cover was opened but he slammed his hand down on it several times trying to get the BARD to stop. Nothing happened.

  “What the hell is going on?” he shouted at the monitors.

  Just as suddenly he ran back out of the building and toward the cavern entrance. The four conveyor workers were just standing there looking into the huge hole.

  “What happened? The damn thing just took off. We didn’t even have a chance to connect the last conveyor belt,” one of the men said, thinking they had screwed up somehow.

  “Don’t worry about it. We have some sort of malfunction. Grab your hard hats,” he said looking at them sternly.

  They knew they should have them on at all times but when no one was around they took shortcuts.

  “Follow me. We are going to see if we can stop it. There is a master kill switch on the end of the machine. Then we will see what we need to do next.”

  “You want all of us,” one of the guys said, kind of edging back.

  “Yeah Pete. All of you. Now move your asses. The longer we talk the more damage the BARD will suffer. Let’s move,” Mac said starting off down the long tunnel.

  “Sally, can you hear me?” Mac asked as they slowly jogged along.

  “Got you Mac.”

  “Call Paul and Barney. Tell them what has happened. I know Paul is up in Michigan hunting but this is important. He needs to know about this ASAP.”

  “Will do. You watch yourself in there.”

  “We will,” he said and picked up the pace.

  **

  Is this super cool or what?, RiotousOne said to himself. He was watching through the monitors of the control room as the BARD started off course and began eating into the side of the cavern.

  He pumped his fist, I am the Wizard. The all-powerful. I am the Hacker of Hackers, he gloated. He had total control. The only way they could stop him was to physically close off the power to the hydraulic pumps.

  He opened another Snickers and played with the controls, moving it along even faster. I am such a stud, he muttered. While he was watching something didn’t seem right. The monitor was suddenly black.

  What the..., he thought shaking his head. Just as quickly the camera was tilting straight down pointing into nothingness. Whoa, what just happened? Then the screens went totally blank.

  **

  “Mac, something weird is going on.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “We lost all vision. The screens just went blank.”

  “Great,” he said.

  He no sooner let up on the mic button than a tremendous roar rolled through the tunnel. It was so loud that bits of coal rained down on the men.

  “What the hell was that?” Pete asked.

  “I don’t know but it sounded expensive,” Mac replied.

  “I don’t hear the BART any longer,” Alex, one of the other workers, said.

  “I guess it stopped. Maybe it blew up,” Pete said.

  “Well, something sure happened,” Mac said, “Let’s get going. We need to assess the damage and then get the hell out of here.”

  “I'm with you on getting out of here,” Pete said, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “What happened?” Paul asked when he got back to his hotel and found six urgent messages waiting for him.

  “We don’t know yet. Something caused the BARD to quit responding to control input. It just did its own thing and wouldn’t even shut down with the emergency override.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “No. Everyone is just fine. Mac is down in the tunnel trying to figure out what happened.”

  “You’re sure it is safe for him to go in there?”

  “He took the conveyor guys with him. All five of then went down to see if they could determine what happened.”

  “Alright. I’ll get a flight out first thing tomorrow. I need to you call Dynamic Engineering and have them send someone to help figure this out.”

  “I’ll take care of everything. Let me know your flight information so someone can pick you up. See you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks Ann. Keep everyone calmed down. It’s just a machine. At least no one was hurt.”

  “Just our cash flow.”

  “Right.”

  **

  “Where is the fog coming from?” Pete asked as they walked along.

  “Beats me. Maybe the thing blew up,” Mac said.

  The fog was getting thicker the deeper they went into the tunnel.

  “I don’t like this much,” Rodney said.

  “Yeah, it’s getting thicker. Maybe we should go back and get some ventilation going,” Alex offered.

  “Maybe you should act like miners and just do the job,” Mac said sarcastically.

  They all trudged along in silence. The fog closed in around them to the point where they could hardly see each other. All they could do was make out the other person's general shape.

  “Mac.”

  “Yeah. Yeah. I know. We might as well go back, we can’t see anything in this...whatever it is. We’ll get some ventilation going to suck it out and then come back.”

  They all let out a sigh. It was a good thing there were no off shoots. All they had to do was stay in the middle of the tunnel.

  “What went wrong?” Barney asked as they emerged from the tunnel.

  “Don’t know yet. It’s really strange. A really dense fog is filling the tunnel about a mile back.”

  “Fog? What’s that mean?” he demanded.

  “You know. Thick stuff you can’t see through. We couldn’t even see each other it got so thick,” Mac told him.

  “So you just turned around and came back?”

  “Hey Barney, here is my hard hat. You are more than welcome to go look for yourself. We are going to get some exhaust fans and try to suck it out of there.”

  “Fog,” he snorted and walked off.

  “Guess he didn’t want to go,” Pete said at the retreating Executive Vice President.

  **

  “Doesn’t it seem a little strange to you that we have the fans on for four hours and only a wisp of fog or whatever that stuff is has actually come out,” Pete said.

  “What did you expect? You think a big cloud was going to rolling out of there? Some of it has probably already dissipated,” Rodney said.

  “I don’t know. That was some thick stuff. I’ll bet London couldn’t top that shit.”

  “You ever been to London? Hell no.
You don’t know squat man,” Alex said jumping into the conversation.

  “Whatever.”

  “How much longer?”

  “Man, buy yourself a watch. You ask that ten times a night,” Pete said to Brian, the fourth man on the conveyor team.

  “Just tell me what time it is,” he replied.

  “We have ten more minutes to shift change.”

  “Man I hope they are on time. I’ve had enough creepiness for one night.”

  “Wuss,” Pete muttered.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Paul stood talking to Ann and Barney when Mac pulled into the parking lot. He ambled over to them.

  “Welcome home. Sorry you had to cut your vacation short.”

  “No big deal. Once we figure out a plan of action I’ll just pick it back up,” Paul said placing his hand on Mac’s shoulder, “Look, I know what you’re thinking but you are wrong. No one is blaming you for this. Something just went wrong. We'll get to the bottom of this and then do what we have to do. Mac, it’s okay, honest.”

  “I know boss but this was my baby. I feel like I let everyone down.”

  “Well you didn’t so get over it and let's see what the damage is,” Paul said, putting his hard hat on.

  “You sure you want to go down there?”

  “Yeah. I need to be able to assess this for myself. Hopefully our insurance covers something like this. If it was something in the programming then it will be a problem for Dynamic Engineering,” Paul told him

  Mac was beginning to feel a little better. He had been dreading coming in. He was sure he would be fired on the spot. Maybe everything was going to be okay after all, he thought.

  Barney begged off saying that he needed to return some important calls. Mac wondered what was more important than discovering what had happened to the BARD.

  Paul had Mac go over the events once more as they walked along.

  "It sounds like it had some kind of glitch in the program or it developed a mind of its own."

  "The master switch didn't do a darned thing. I about beat it to death trying to get it to shut down."

  "There has to be some logical explanation. It's been functioning even better than we hoped for," Paul replied.