In a rage, Vanessa tore the letter into hundreds of tinyshreds and threw them into the air, before watching them scatter along thebeach in the cool breeze that was blowing all around her feet.
“If I ever get out of here, the pair of you will wish youhad never been born!” she screamed, beating her fists against the nearest palmtree as tears of anger and frustration poured down her face.
She was beaten and she knew it. Other than the birdscirculating overhead, there would be no one here to hear her for a very longtime.
Chapter Twenty-Two
July 2058
“What now?” said Josh.
He and Henry were back at the villa, standing in front ofthe keypad that led to Vanessa’s secret office.
“We get inside and disable all her equipment,” repliedHenry. “We don’t know what she might still have running.”
“I don’t know the code,” said Josh. “Vanessa would neverallow me in here.”
“This is a lot more than just an office,” said Henry. “I wasinvolved in the design of this place.”
“Vanessa said it was just an expensive holiday home.”
“It was until we bought it, but then we made a fewalterations. Do you remember the bunker I mentioned before? It’s all hollowedout beneath the island and absolutely huge. It cost billions to build and it’sdesigned to be completely self-sufficient. We built it after the asteroidstrike in 2029 as an insurance policy in case anything like that ever happenedagain.”
“Great, so how do we get in?” asked Josh.
“Fortunately, I planned ahead on that one,” replied Henry.“I transported in here a couple of days ago whilst I was cloaked and hooked upa tiny, virtually undetectable camera just above the keypad to see whichbuttons she pressed.”
“I’m surprised you’re using such old-fashioned technology,”said Josh. “If it was activated by her retina scan then we’d never get in.”
“That was part of the design,” said Henry. “We thought thata lot of people might need to get down here in a hurry and probably wouldn’twant to queue up waiting to have their eyes scanned with some huge rockhurtling towards Earth at 50,000 miles an hour.”
He tapped in the four numbers and the white, metal door slidsmoothly to one side.
Josh’s first impression was one of disappointment. The roomjust looked like a standard office with a desk, screens and a few bits ofstationery dotted about.
“Looks unimpressive, doesn’t it?” said Henry. “That wasdeliberate – we didn’t want to draw attention to this. Stand back a bit.”
Josh complied as Henry reached under the desk and activateda hidden switch that caused the smooth, wooden floorboards to slide outwards,revealing a circle in the centre of the floor. Beneath the circle, a set ofstone steps led downwards.
“Wow!” said Josh. “This is serious adventure movie stuff.Are there flaming torches lighting the way down, too?”
“No, just LED lighting,” said Henry. “Flaming torches are abit impractical. It takes hours lighting them all every day.”
“Right, let’s go,” said Josh, marching eagerly towards thesteps.
“One thing before we go any further,” said Henry, grabbingJosh’s arm to hold him back. “Knowing how Vanessa operates, we need to be onour guard. She won’t have left this place wide open for anyone to just wanderin. She could have set booby traps or anything, so tread carefully.”
“In that case, you’d better lead the way,” suggested Josh.“You have been down here before, after all.”
“A long time ago,” said Henry, as he led the way down thecircular stone staircase. Josh looked down and couldn’t see the end. After theyhad done three loops it seemed like it would go on forever.
“It’s a hell of a long way down here,” said Josh.
“It needs to be,” replied Henry. “The thinking was that thedeeper we went, the better the protection would be against catastrophe on thesurface – even something as catastrophic as nuclear warfare.”
Eventually, after a few hundred steps they reached a set ofheavy, metal bulkhead doors which had to be opened manually. Thankfully theydidn’t require a code. Beyond that was a long corridor with white, metal wallswhich eventually led into a vast, open cavern.
It was full of screens on every wall and computers and othertechnical equipment on every surface. Josh recognised some of the equipmentfrom both his own lab and the lab in Canberra. Most of the screens were activeand Josh recognised many places on the island, including his own room. Henrywas right: she did have everything under surveillance.
“This place is huge,” said Josh. “It’s like something out ofa Bond movie.”
“And this is just the working area,” said Henry. “There’sliving space for up to a thousand people further below here.”
“We need to find out what she’s been doing down here,” saidJosh.
“That looks like a good place to start,” said Henry,gesturing towards a large, elevated chair right in the centre of the room.
“We call that the captain’s chair,” said Henry. It wasinspired by Star Trek.
The chair had a large workstation and screen in front of itwith various buttons built into the arms.
“You can pretty much control the whole island from thatstation,” said Henry. “Even the climate.”
They began to walk towards it, but before they reached it,they saw a familiar figure approaching them from the other side of the room.
It was another version of Josh.
“Can I help you?” asked the other Josh, politely.
“Not another version of me!” exclaimed Josh. “They’re alwayspopping up. Which universe have you come from?”
“I don’t think he has,” said Henry. “That’s an android – anextremely sophisticated one compared to Dani, but still an android. I can tell.”
“You are unauthorised personnel. You should not be here,”said the android Josh. It raised its arm and, to his horror, Josh saw what itwas holding.
“It’s got a gun!” exclaimed Josh. “But it can’t use that,right? Androids can’t harm humans, it’s the first law of robotics.”
“As established by the great Asimov himself, over a centuryago,” added Henry.
“I am unaware of such a law,” said the android Josh.
“I was afraid you might say that,” said Henry. “It’s meantto be the first thing built into any robot’s
