The Dictator

Chapter Sixteen

Alina and Flynn stood in a part of the passages that they had never seen before. The walls were covered with dirty wires, and the only light in the room came from the rows of screens before them. Data scrolled on a large screen at the head of the room. And at every computer, sat a person typing code into the machines at a crazy lighting-fast pace. In light, they would have taken on individual personalities, but to Flynn and Alina, seeing them silhouetted against the glowling monitors, they may as well have been robots.

At the head of the room, Miles smiled evilly then spoke.
"Today is the day we start on our plans. Today is the day we begin to take down our first target." he stopped and paused for dramatic effect. "America".

The dead silence unnerved Alina to the core. She would have preferred the people at the computers to cheer and raise their arms in excitement. But they just sat. Quietly. Like robots. Suddenly the code on the great screen behind Miles disappeared from the screen. Then, an image of space appeared. The International Space Station swung into view. Alina heared Flynn let out a small gasp. The picture of the giant satalite zoomed in, until Alina saw a strange mechanical white thing attached to the side of it. It was a giant machine with two great pale white arms attached to an equally white cylinder.

"Dextre" Flynn muttered under his breath as Alina frowned at it. "NASA's massive repair robot. In operation since 2010. I think I know what he's planning..."
Flynn quickly shut up as Miles began to speak again.
"As many of you know, this is Dextre, the repair robot attached to the ISS. It is controlled by NASA from ground control through a computer system. We can hack into that system and take control of it. Now, before we can attack America, we must take out her primary defence organisations. That means the SAS. The CIA. The FBI. But first, we must destroy the Pentagon. You heard me. America's cyber defences.

Our aim is to take control of Dextre and bring him back to Earth. He will not, however land safely. He will crash into the Pentagon. The impact will so strong that the whole area will become radioactive and everyone will have to leave. Those from the Pentagon however, won't leave. They will die. Now, all these computers have been connected up to NASA's systems. All we needed is for somebody to get in, whether through hacking, viruses, or just getting lucky and gussing the passwords."

Unnerving silence ruled again, leaving Alina and Flynn stood awkwardly at the back of the room, watching as the unidentified people tapped away at their keyboards. Suddenly, the quietness was brought to an end as Flynn's phone began to ring, breaking out into the notes of Taylor Swift's 22. He glanced round nervously, then meet Mile's glaring brown eyes. "Answer it then." he told him in an icy tone.

Flynn thrust his hand into his pocket and brought out his eyephone, accepted the call and brought the phone to his ear. At once, his expression deepend into a disturbed frown.
"Hello?" he called, a blade of worried sadness cutting into his voice. Alina looked at Miles for a moment. He was staring at a screen beside him, grinning. Alina guessed correctly that he must have intercepted the call and could see what was being said. After a while of standing listening with the phone at his ear, Flynn pressed a button then slowly lowered the device and stuffed it into his pocket. Alina looked at him quizically, but he just shook his head and turned away. Unnoticed by all but himself, a small tear rolled down his cheek and was quicky brushed away.

One of the people at the keyboards stood up and, away from the cold light of the screen, took on an identity. She was revealed to be a teenage girl. Her hair was shadowed in the semi-darkness and despite squinting at her, Alina couldn't make out any of the colours found in the face of a human. Never the less, she could see the wide likeable grinning face of the girl, and the air of proud excitement that surrounded her.
"Sir." she said, referring to Miles. "I'm in." Miles turned purposely towards her, looking extremely pleased about being called "Sir".

The girl sat down at the computer again, and was dehumanized once more by the glaring light. Miles pressed a button his own computer screen, and Alina saw as Dextre began to move. He disconnected himself from the International Space Station and began to move slowly away from the module. A small countdown clock appeared in the screen corner. With wide eyes, she realised that there were five minutes until the impact. The robot seemed to move with agonising slowness, but she realised that in reality it must be charging through the cosmos at more than the speed of sound. Dextre was really on his way.