The Colonel was drooling. Everyone in the Ops Centre was huddled around Colosanto's console. Finney took a look at Lauderdale, who was observing with a bland lack of interest. Colosanto's fingers hovered in the air above her keyboard. 'What is today's attack codeword?' Rintoon asked.
Colosanto was still frozen. Finney saw she was crying. She was sobbing quietly. Her hands shook, and fell to her lap. 'The codeword, soldier? Now? Cough up!' Rintoon cuffed the back of Colosanto's head. The lieutenant's hair fell over her free.
'The codeword?'
Colosanto snuffled something.
'What was that? Lauderdale, on the count of three, shoot this officer unless she tells me what I need to know.'
'Yes sir.'
Lauderdale's put his gun to the back of Colosanto's bead.
'One!'
Her face was in her hands, and her shoulders were heaving. The blip was on the bridge.
'Two!'
Jagged, painful sobs escaped from Colosanto's lungs.
'Three!'
An eternal second passed.
'SWORDFIST!' Finney said.
Lauderdale's gun jerked upwards, bumping the back of Colosanto's skull but not discharging.
Rintoon and Lauderdale looked at Finney.
'I know the codes,' she said. 'SWORDFIST is the defence systems keyword today.'
Lauderdale pulled Colosanto's chair away from her console arid spun her across the room. Then he put his gun down, bent over the board and typed. A dull tone sounded. Lauderdale had scored a MISS.
'She lied,' he said, reaching for his gun. 'SWORDFISH doesn't load.'
'Another Maniak unmasked,' crowed Rintoon. 'Well, shoot her dead, my boy. No, perhaps we ought to teach her a lesson first. Get me a whip and some rope.'
'What did you type?' Finney asked.
'SWORDFISH, ratskag! Like you said. It wasn't acknowledged.'
Lauderdale's knuckles went white as he gripped his gun.
'SWORDFIST, Lauderdale. SWORDFIST.'
Lauderdale made a gesture of exasperation, and typed in the correct codeword.
The screen changed colour. The HIT beep sounded, playing the first few notes of 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'.
'Attention, attention,' cooed the seductive, recorded voice on the tannoy (the US Cav had hired Lola Stechkin for the purpose), 'this facility is now under attack. Everyone will report to their battle stations. Thank you for co- operating.'
'What do you want to try first?' Lauderdale asked Rintoon. 'The rockets, the lases, the napalm or the mortars?'
Rintoon was standing to attention. There must be an incredible band playing inside his head. He raised his hand in a slow salute.
'I think we should all take a moment to talk to God, soldiers,' he said. 'I think if Jesus Christ were here today, He'd be urging us on to Victory. We should Love our Enemies, soldiers, for without them we have not the chance for Victory.'
'Colonel?' said Lauderdale 'What about the androids? I have them operational?'
'Everything,' Rintoon said, 'hit the scum with everything.'
Finney helped Colosanto up off the floor. The lieutenant clung desperately to her, shaking with hysteria.
'God forgive me,' Finney said to herself. 'God forgive me.'
Part Eight: Last Stand
I
'We have incoming fire,' said Federico, 'I suggest we take a course of evasive action.'
They were half-way across London Bridge when Fort Apache's lases opened up and burned towards them.
'That's some welcome home,' Stack said.
'Don't worry,' said Chantal. 'The fort isn't feeling itself today.'
Stack wrenched the wheel over hard, but Federico didn't respond. The car slipped into reverse and withdrew at 200 miles per…
'What!'
'Federico has a very strong sense of self-preservation. It's just overridden the driving helmet and is taking evasive action of its own. It can react faster than you. Don't feel humiliated.'
'That's easy to say. Mother Superior!'
Stack thumped the wheel, and tried to damp down his anger. He resented being taught to drive by a fancy foreign car.
Federico's responses, however, were startling. A squirted curtain of burning napalm descended, and the car avoided so much as a splash on the paintwork. Stack thought the car was showing off its virtuoso techniques. Chantal was playing with her laptop console. White darts streaked out of the central turret of Fort Apache. 'Heat- seeking missiles coming in,' said Federico.
“I'm on it,' she replied. 'I can reach and reprogram them with an APOSTLE,' she explained. 'There.'
The missiles converged and exploded harmlessly, puffs of black and red in the air.
A battery of robot guns rose out of the desert like a whale breaking the surface, sand pouring from the casings. The guns swivelled, but Federico disabled the platform with a surgical lase strike, and the battery discharged its shells in frustration. 'That was a silly thing to do,' Chantal said. 'No machine would waste ammunition like that. The fort is possessed.'
'Funnily enough, I believe it.'
Federico did a figure eight to avoid heavy flack. Stack held onto his seatbelt. One corner of the windscreen cracked as a stray bullet struck.
'Took a nick, did'ja, Fed?' Stack sneered, taking something like satisfaction from the car's proven fallibility. Then, as he watched, the white impact patch went pale and transparent. 'It's smart glass. All top-of-the-line Ferraris have it.'
'What…? How…?”
'My field is computers, not cars, but it has something to do with recombinant DNA.'
'You mean this thing is alive?'
'You ever doubted it,
Stack thought he heard a smug tone in Federico's generated voice, as if he were a preening matador showing off in front of a rival suitor to impress a melting young damsel. 'Your car has a crush on you, Sister.' Three drones in formation hovered above the car, locking on. Lights flashed around their rims. Stack knew they were warming up for a particle beam thrust. 'Ciao, dumb boulders!' shouted the car as it exploded them one by one. 'This is too easy. They're only using
Stack was irritated, but he couldn't bring himself to hope that the car would be shown up by good old yankee knowhow.
