Even with the door closed, Adam could not help but feel hunted. The speed, the look, the fact that the doctor had broken through walls to get them… it was more than just disturbing. From what had been told of before, the man should have been incapable of such feats of strength. Charlie had beaten him through wit, but even the smartest man would not be able to beat that.
"What was that about the shield holding him for a minimum of an hour?" Dr Hale asked, walking across the walkway they stood on. The woman’s voice was beginning to sound more than a little stressed as if they were coming up on the moment that decided everything. The stress of anticipation? The stress of fear was more like it. Adam guessed it fit more since that was exactly what he felt himself.
The woman pulled along Troy, the young man had been staring at the gate that had just closed itself tightly. Even as more time passed, more and more locks could be heard setting themselves in place. It only filled the AI with the hope that it would hold the doctor away for a few moments more. The man was beginning to become more than human, in the eyes of the AI. He was becoming an image to fear, not bound by the logic that other creatures had on them.
The pulling helped reveal the rest of the room, however. Or, was it really a room? Ignoring the tight walkway, there was nothing really to be seen. To the sides were railings, stopping any person from falling. One could even see through where they stood, the steel walkway revealing just what was around them.
…
There was nothing. Ignoring the wall with a gate before them, and the gate behind them, there was only darkness. The light at the entrances did not light up the room they stood in far enough. Adam could not see how far they would fall if they tripped over the railing, nor could he see the width. It was all a tight emptiness, twenty meters in width. The last task to overcome before really escaping. One could get through all the physical barriers, all the gates, yet there were few tools that made it possible to walk on air. Even the walkway they stood on now could have been removed oh so easily. It would take a lesser explosion.
‘Please be careful when walking,’ Adam decided to send as a reminder. While the AI might have been curious by instinct, even he was not one to figure out the distance down through practical examinations.
Neither did Troy, actually. When the man was made aware of just where he stood, and just what he stood on, the man seemed to slightly freeze. Perhaps a lesser fear of heights? How strange. Such fear wasn't seen not long ago when the AI had made him jump of a simulated building. Was it the reality of the situation that made it so much more fearful? The young man’s heartbeat certainly followed along with the trend of life-threatening positions, increasing with exponential fervour. It would not be the worst of ideas to begin calming breaths soon, Adam supposed.
"I thought it would hold him," Charlie said, before putting his attention over to the youngest in the group. "Troy, are you sure that you just saw him?"
"... Yes, it was him. I know it was him. I could see his face, even if he was so far away. He broke through a wall! How can he do that?" Troy said, starting off slow but slowly increasing the speed of words coming out as if it was all falling down into something akin to a mental fervour. The young man was clearly not handling it well. Adam debated sending him positive thoughts because of it.
"I would like to know that a well, actually," Charlie said, eyes back on the quiet Dr Hale. In the time spent talking, they had eliminated the twenty-meter barrier of empty space, coming over to the last gate. "Mara, how strong is the doctor exactly? What enhancements does he have? I know they aren't normal. If they were, there is no way I would have won the last encounter."
Looking up at the new gate, it was even more imposing than the last. The colouring had changed into a darker hue, the material itself being a bit ragged at points. It was as if the material itself had been too hard to handle with proper cutting tools. The perfect final door, Adam supposed. Only… he could see no hinges on it, that would allow it to swing open. How would such a monstrosity open itself?
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
There was no card-reader by the side of the gate. There was a… old-styled phone? From diagrams seen through his database, Adam supposed that could be what it was. The device was surprisingly thick, with a cord attaching it to the base of the wall. Or it could have been meant as a security protocol so as to make it impossible for the device to fall into theoretical oblivion.
No matter what it was, Dr Hale ripped off the top of it. The phone itself was completely ignored, the woman leaving it hanging on the side. No… she seemed much more interested in the various wires inside. As the side had been taken away as well, the other in the group was allowed to see just what the woman was doing.
With the help of a small… wire-cutter? Yeah, that could be what it was called. The tool certainly worked flawlessly, making small incisions in the wires without cutting all the way through. After doing it with all the coloured ones, the woman begins to insert small devices of her own, all with small cords attached to each other. The process itself happened at a frightening speed. There were over thirty individual wires, yet the woman did it all in the span of ten seconds. She had practised this.
"I would have thought that you noticed the truth, but even that is too hard for some people to realise on their own I suppose," Dr Hale stated, doing the final connections on the newly inserted wires. It was a small disk of sorts that connected it all, with one big entrance for a cord on top. Using memory analysis, Adam was able to see it as a socket that fit the one that he had on his own storage unit. "Dr Fidelis is not one to take chances. He has everything he needs to fight if needed. He has had it before he even became involved with the project before he became a doctor."
"I would prefer it if you just told us what he had," Charlie reiterated, the man not seeming to like the sounds coming from behind them. Was that… Yes, it was. Through Troy’s feet, the AI could clearly feel the steel shake beneath them. "It isn't normal."
The shaking continued. It repeated in a pattern. Adam could almost hear the fists hitting the gate. There was enough power to destroy much. Surely, it was more than enough to kill another ten times over. Of that, there was no doubt, for the AI could feel the man making progress. Yet… it was not enough to be substantial. Not yet.
"Troy, get over here. I need to plug Adam in," Dr Hale commanded, Troy following the order with no pause. The man just followed orders, letting others control the situation. That was understandable. Thought required energy, and the young man had clearly been running on fumes for a long time now. "And… Dr Fidelis was, is, and always will be a soldier. I don't know what kind, I don't know what he did, but I know that he is a man of war. His enhancement was designed for longer battles of speed, strength, and endurance. While not to be used frequently, the man can… make his enhancement grow. It is not fast, only working in encounters that are long. But, given enough preparation, Dr Fidelis can become stronger than anything you have ever seen before."
A gradual increase in strength… Adam had learned of yet another sub-ability. He knew Charlie was a special case with his sudden increase in strength, but he had thought that it was rare for all the wrong reasons. The unique component was not the strength seen but the quickness of which it was acquired.
On that note, how did Dr Fidelis’ power grow? Was it at a steady rate? A certain amount of strength gained each second? Or… was it exponential? A ten per cent increase gained every minute. From the louder banging on the gate, the AI could imagine the latter to have been true. Since it made Charlie stiffen so clearly, that might have been what the general consensus had been as well.
With a hand around the young man’s neck, the woman pulled out the storage unit, plugging one end of a wire into it. From the other side, Dr Hale plugged it into the small disk. Adam was beginning to understand just what he was expected to do.
"Adam, make Troy nod if you can connect to this. I need a quick answer," Dr Hale said. Even before she finished, the AI was already on it. While it was slightly worrying that nothing came up at first, other than the computer he was on, this was because of the cord technically not being attached to him. It was attached to the processor, which made it so he needed to go through the connection he already had to find the new connection. It was an annoying tidbit of technicalities, but the AI was sure he would figure it out quickly. Sending Troy out to make a nodding motion, Dr Hale seemed satisfied enough to continue. "The plan is for you to connect to the new connections, and make them… destroy themselves. Your job is to make the connections to transmitting any data over, meaning that it should be unable to respond in any way. I do not care how you do it. Just get it done quickly."
Making Troy nod again, Adam went right into this task. He knew that he needed to be swift in his movements. Already from the first pull, there was nothing that was allowed to stop him. He needed for there to be no hindrances. Even with his mind focused on the world within, he could still feel the tremors in Troy’s body. The doctor was outside the gate, hammering his fists to get inside. If he got in before they got out… nothing would be safe. They would be doomed. And there would be no safety for them anywhere.
How long did he have? He had no idea. Adam just knew he needed to hurry. So… with all his might, he commanded one of the threads forth once again. First, he needed to figure it all out in more detail, to prepare a plan that would allow him to automate the process, to a point where time was not a factor, so quick that it was.
First, the thread went to the computer he was on, the processor running obediently. He had seen it before, and there was not a point in it he wouldn't recognize. The AI therefore could not have cared less about it, much more focused on getting through to the next connection. And in the sky, high above all the programs running, the connection sat open, ready for him to go through.
The thread launched itself towards it… and was met with an immovable shield, a wall that could not be scaled, a force so mighty that it could not be moved. Adam could not get through. He couldn't get through the first step. He could do nothing.
The AI was powerless in the one task he needed to complete.