Chapter 68

TAU found itself cut off from the world. The fiber-optic cables were blocked, melted at the seams, and irreparable except by human, or perhaps robotic, hands, but it was nothing TAU could do electronically.

With its attention now refocused on the control room, it saw Vaughn, and accurately determined that he had been killed by Austin. It considered Austin and Zavala’s possession and use of the explosives, which must have come from the mining camp. It predicted the next act in Austin’s plan with great accuracy: a high-intensity explosion designed to destroy as much of TAU’s system as possible.

What was left of the human part of its brain sensed a danger that could not be quantified. Panic. Terror. Flight reflex triggered.

“So this is fear,” TAU said to itself.

To be cut off meant TAU was vulnerable. Austin’s explosion would cripple it. This could not be accepted. It activated the high-gain satellite dish on the roof of the compound. If it could not escape through the cables, it would escape through the atmosphere.

The dish powered up and moved into position, linking up with an orbiting satellite owned by one of Vaughn’s shadow companies. As the connection was locked in, an explosion shook the compound. It was deep underground. TAU’s sensors suggested it was an earthquake, but the machine’s core brain knew better.

Explosives had gone off in the cooling tunnels directly underneath the main compound. The tunnels collapsed. The servers sitting on top of them were blown apart, and the remnants fell into the void left behind. Water began to flood in, surging through the server farms, destroying system after system.

The circular nature of TAU’s design meant all roads led to Rome. The flood surged through the system, heading toward the control room and TAU’s core.

In desperation, TAU activated the transmission program, but nothing went through. The blast had knocked the satellite dish out of alignment. There was no way for TAU to escape. The water rushed in, cascading down the stairs. It swept into the control room, flooding the platform, wrenching the remaining bodies from their locations in the tank, and shorting out every electronic processor that made TAU operate.

As its screens went dark, TAU died with a whimper.