The Rising Sea (NUMA Files 15)

“Then they’ll play right into our hands. In a few hours, the operation in Nagasaki will be complete; the Prime Minister and some of his Cabinet ministers will be dead and Austin, Zavala and Nagano will be wanted men. At that point, they’ll have nowhere to escape to. The whole world will be looking for them.”

* * *

• • •

KURT WENT from one corner of the building to the next. Warbots were guarding each intersection in his view; others were marching past, setting up positions beyond.

Joe came back from the far side of the building. “Another one on the far side.”

“Coming this way?”

Joe shook his head. “Just sitting at the intersection.”

“They’re establishing area control,” Nagano said. “Cutting off every avenue of escape before they begin the search. We would do the same—we call it a double box.”

Kurt remembered Han saying the warbots could replace the police. “That means we’re surrounded,” he said. “Probably several blocks deep. Even if we could get past these warbots, we’d run into others.”

He took a breath and sat back trying to visualize exactly where they were on the island. As he recalled photos and the map he’d studied, an idea came to him. “Find the stairs,” he said finally. “We have to go up.”

“And then?”

“If this is the building I think it is, there’s a structural brace on the roof connecting it to the next building. Not a real bridge. But if we’re careful, we can crawl across it.”

“That’ll get us past this group, but what about the next layer?” Joe asked.

“I

have an idea that should take care of that,” Kurt said.

Joe grimaced. “If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, I wish you’d stop thinking it.”

“It’s all we’ve got,” Kurt said.

Nagano interrupted politely. “Would you two mind cluing an old detective in? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“We have to lure those warbots in here,” Kurt said. “As many as possible.”

“And then?”

“There’s a bridge on the roof. If most of the warbots are converging on this building to search for us and the rest are cordoning off the exits, we should be able to crawl across to the next building and make our escape.”

“Won’t the machines follow us?” Nagano asked.

“I don’t think so,” Kurt said. “Han’s race car was only capable of following known pathways. It stayed on the track while I cheated and cut across the infield. If these warbots have a similar program, they won’t consider the rusted-out structural brace to be a pathway. They won’t attempt to cross it.”

Nagano nodded. “And by the time they get back down to the bottom, we’ll be several buildings over and taking flight.”

“Sound plan,” Nagano said. “All you have to do is get their attention.”

“You two start climbing,” Kurt said. “I’ll let them know we’re here.”

As Joe and Nagano found a stairway, Kurt made his way to the main entrance and studied the position of the two robots. The one to the left was the nearest. Knowing they had cameras on board, he decided to make it look good. He eased his way outside and stopped—pretending to freeze in his tracks as the warbot turned toward him.

He dove to the side as a red laser dot locked onto him and the first gunshots rang out. The bullets whistled past, inches from his head.

Kurt crawled into the building and stayed low as the machine began moving his way. It fired again as it approached.

“That’s it,” he said. “You’ve found us. Now come and get us.”